.REVIEWS — BOTHWELL. 545 



monologue, coherently running on from canto to canto ; prologued 

 and epilogued with these measured ravings of despair. The diction 

 is perfect, the verse sweet, and only too smoothly written, and the 

 imagery such as a " Firmilian " critic must pronounce unexceptiona- 

 ble. "We are anxious to exhibit the poet at his best ; and here ac- 

 cordingly are a couple of scenes painted from the landscape around 

 the Scottish capital. They can scarcely fail to provoke a comparison 

 with passages hi " Marmion," where Scott has drawn a richer inspira- 

 tion from the same magnificent panorama : 



Hethinks I can recall the scene, 

 That bright and sunny day ; 

 The Pentlands in their early green 



Like giant warders lay. 

 Upon the bursting Avoods below 

 The pleasant sunbeams fell ; 

 Far off, one streak of lazy snow 



Yet lingered in a dell. 

 The westlin' winds blew soft and sweet, 



The meads were fair to see ; 

 Yet went I not the spring to greet 



Beneath the trystiug tree. 

 For blades were glistening in the light, 



And morions flashing clear : 

 A thousand men in armour bright 



Were there with jack and spear. 

 A thousand men as brave and stout 



As ever faced a foe, 

 Or stemmed the roaring battle-tide 

 When fiercest in its flow. 



This is unexceptionable, yet what does it amount to ? The ideas 

 are old as the Pentland hills, and even some of the lines seem scarce- 

 ly new. The other passage deals with a scene almost unrivaled in its 

 luxurious combinations of all that is grand and beautiful and pictur- 

 esque in art and nature. The rugged crags, and vales, and grassy 

 peaks of Arthur's Seat, looking out, on the one hand, on the castle- 

 crowned city, on the other, on the hill-engirdled sea; the ruined cha- 

 pel and holy-well of St. Anthony ; the Abbey and palace of Holyrood 

 rich with the memories of seven centuries ; and, add to all, the Poet's 

 eye, repeopling them with the most romantic of all their old historic 

 dramas : — all these, and this as the result : 



The troopers in procession wound, 



Alonu' the slant and broken ground, 



Beneath old Arthur's lion-hill. 



The Queen went onward with her train; 



I rode not by her palfrey's rein, 



