ballad which he places in the mouths of the Protes tant revellers in the Abbot : "From haunted spring and grassy ring, Troop Goblin, Elf, and Fairy; And the Kelpie must flit from the black bog-pit, Under the greenwood tree."l In remote places the Fairy creed survived even the Reformation, and only received its death-blow from the Revolution. "In the days of Charles II.," says the historian of Murray, " almost every large common was said to have a circle of Fairies belonging to it. Apparitions were every where talked of and believed. Particular families were said to be haunted by certain Demons, the good or bad Geniuses of these families; such as, on Speyside, the family of Rothiemurchus, by Bodach-an-Dun, i. e. the Ghost of the Dune; the Baron of Kinchardine's family, by Red 1 1 Poetry of the Waverley Novels, p. 249. Edinburgh, 1822. The original of the ballad will be found in the singular collection called " Ane Compendious Booke of Godly and Spiritvall Songs," printed at Edinburgh in 1590, reprinted in 1600 and in 1621, and more lately in Dalyell's Scotish Poems of the Sixteenth Century. Edinburgh, 1801. C Hand, or a ghost, one of whose hands was blood-red; Gartinbeg by Bodach-Gartin; Glenlochie by Brownie; Tullochgorm by Maag Moulach, i. e. one with the left hand all over hairy. I find in the Synod records of Moray frequent orders to the Presbyteries of Aberlaure and Abernethie to inquire into the truth of Maag Moulach's appearing; but they could make no discovery, only that one or two men declared they once saw in the evening a Young Girl, whose left hand was all hairy, and who instantly, disappeared. . . . But after the Revolution, the most distant corners being planted with ministers, schools erected in almost every parish, and natural philosophy much improved, ignorance was gradually removed, and superstition lost credit. Apparitions, Fairies, Witches, Tarans, have disappeared; and few regard the stories concerning them except stupid old people, who cannot shake off their prejudices." "Oracles," says Selden, " ceased presently after Christ, as soon as nobody believed them; just as we have no fortune-tellers nor wise men, when nobody cares for them."2 And thus, in the beautiful lan guage of Coleridge,— "The intelligible forms of ancient poets, The fair humanities of old religion, 1 Shaw's History of Moray, p. 306. Edinburgh, 1775. 2 Seldeniana, p. 94, edit. Lond. 1821. The Power, the Beauty, and the Majesty, That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountain, Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasms and watʼry depths; all these have vanish'd. They live no longer in the faith of reason!”1 X. MORALITY OF PARIS AND GLASGOW. "Sous Charles VII.," writes a Frenchman, " on comptoit à Paris cinq à six mille filles de joie. Il y en avoit cinquante mille avant le Révolution. Aujourd'hui [1837], l'on n'en trouveroit pas six mille d'enregistrées." In 1829, Paris, with the Department of the Seine, had a population of 1,013,000 souls.3 In 1831, Glasgow, with a population of 202,426 souls, contained more than 3000 females living in houses of evil fame, or haunting them.4 XI. NAMING A MEMBER. THE learned Hatsell has somewhat disturbed the 1 Coleridge's Translation of The Piccolomini, act ii. sc. iv. 2 Oeuvres de F. Rabelais, p. 589. Paris, 1837. 3 Population Returns of Great Britain, vol. i. pref. p. xxiv. Lond. 1833. Parl. Pap. Sess. 1833, No. 149. 4 Dr Cleland's Statistics of Glasgow, p. 127. Glasg. 1832, fol. gravity of his profound work on Parliament by a story that he says "used to be told of Mr Speaker Onslow, and which those who ridiculed his strict observance of forms were fond of repeating,—that as he often upon a member's not attending to him, but persisting in any disorder, threatened to name him,- Sir, sir, I must name you,'-on being asked what would be the consequence of putting that threat into execution and naming a member, he answered, The Lord in heaven knows!'”1 XII. ORIGIN OF THE FAMLY OF BRUCE. OUR genealogists rarely seek to stretch their pedigrees beyond the Norman invasion: they seem content if they can say with Christophero Sly, "The Slies are no rogues; look in the chronicles; we came in with Richard Conqueror." M. de Gerville, a learned Norman, not long ago turned his attention to this neglected field, and by his laborious investigations has brought to light much interesting matter regarding our Anglo-Norman families. He justly regards as among the most curious of 1 Hatsell's Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons, vol. ii. p. 237, edit. Lond. 1818. 2 Recherche sur les Anciens Chateaux du Département de la Manche. Caen, 1825, his discoveries that which relates to the family of Bruce. Scotish antiquaries have suggested that this illustrious name is of Norwegian origin ; but M. de Gerville shows that it is derived from a domain in the arrondissement de Valognes, on the road from Cherbourg to Paris. The place is now called Brix, but was named Bruce or Bruis long before the conquest of England, or even before the cession of Neustria to Rollo the Ganger. The chronicle of the abbey of Fontenelle under the year 727 speaks of a parish termed Brucius, which is certainly known to be the modern Brix. Some remains of the ancient castle of the Bruces still exist on the eastern extremity of the ridge which is crowned by the church of Brix. They are situated a short distance to the eastward of that building on a rising ground which has been artificially scarped on two sides. On the other quarters the fortress was strengthened by intrenchments and a deep and wide ditch. Though little now remains but the foundations, detached masses of masonry, and a few half-buried vaults, it is evident that the hold was one of the largest in the province, and suitable to the high dignity of its lords, who ranked with the first barons of Normandy. It was dismantled in the thirteenth century, but its ruins were remarkable for their extent even in the * Dr Jamieson's Wallace and Bruce, vol. i. p. 11. |