1845 the Barony of Montagu
expired.
[247] Henry Scott, afterwards Lord Polwarth.
[248] Slightly altered from Pope's _Eloisa to Abelard_.
[249] The Catalogue of Criminals brought before the Circuit Courts at
one time was termed in Scotland the Portuous Roll. The name appears to
have been derived from the practice in early times of delivering to the
judges lists of Criminals for Trials _in Portu_, or in the gateway as
they entered the various towns on their circuit ayres.--Chambers's _Book
of Scotland_, p. 310.
Jamieson suggests that the word may have come from "Porteous" as
originally applied to a Breviary, or portable book of prayers, which
might easily be transferred to a portable roll of indictments.
[250] _Quarterly Review_, No. 66, Pepys' _Diary_.
[251] _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc. 3.
[252] See Froissart's account of the Battle of Crecy, Bk. i. cap. 129.
[253] _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act iv. Sc. 1.
[254] See Goldsmith's Comedy, Act III.
[255] _King Lear_, Act III. Sc. 2.
[256] James Pringle, Convener of Selkirkshire for more than half a
century. For an account of the Pringles of Torwoodlee, see Mr. Craig
Brown's _History of Selkirkshire_, vol. i. pp. 459-470.
[257] "_The Insurrection of the Papers--a Dream_." _The Twopenny
Post-Bag_, 12mo, London, 1812.
[258] The well-known ballads on these two North-country legends were
published by M.G. Lewis and Mr. Lambe, of Norham. "Sir Guy," in the
_Tales of Wonder_, and "The Worm," in Ritson's _Northumberland
Garland_.--See Child's _English and Scottish Ballads_, 8 vols. 12mo,
Boston, 1857, vol. i. p. 386.
[259] _Fyn Segellak wel brand en vast houd_: old brand used by
sealing-wax makers.
[260] _Balaam_ is the cant name in a Newspaper Office for asinine
paragraphs, about monstrous productions of Nature and the like, kept
standing in type to be used whenever the real news of the day leaves an
awkward space that must be filled up somehow.--J.G.L.
[261] _Henry VIII._ Act III. Sc. 2.
[262] Ritson, _Scottish Songs_, xvi.
MAY.
_May_ 1.--I walked to-day to the western corner of the Chiefswood
plantation, and marked out a large additional plantation to be drawn
along the face of the hill. It cost me some trouble to carry the
boundaries out of the eye, for nothing is so paltry as a plantation of
almost any extent if its whole extent lies defined to the eye. By
availing myself of the undulations of the ground I think I have avoided
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