Pushed her light shallop from the shore."

and just below:

"So o'er the lake the swan would spring,
Then turn to prune its ruffled wing."

404. Prune. Pick out damaged feathers and arrange the plumage with the
bill. Cf. Shakespeare, Cymb. v. 4. 118:

"his royal bird
Prunes the immortal wing," etc.

408. Wont. Are wont, or accustomed; now used only in the participle. The
form here is the past tense of the obsolete won, or wone, to dwell. The
present is found in Milton, P. L. vii. 457:

"As from his lair the wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den."

Cf. Spenser, Virgil's Gnat:

"Of Poets Prince, whether we woon beside
Faire Xanthus sprincled with Chimaeras blood,
Or in the woods of Astery abide;"

and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe:

"I weened sure he was out God alone,
And only woond in fields and forests here."

See also iv. 278 and 298 below.

409. Middle age. As James died at the age of thirty (in 1542), this is
not strictly true, but the portrait in other respects is quite accurate.
He was fond of going about disguised, and some of his freaks of this
kind are pleasantly related in Scott's Tales of a Grandfather. See on
vi. 740 below.

425. Slighting, etc. "Treating lightly his need of food and shelter."

432. At length. The 1st ed. has "at last."

433. That Highland halls were, etc. The MS. has "Her father's hall was,"
etc.

434. Wildered. See on 274 above.

438. A couch. That is, the heather for it. Cf. 666 below.

441. Mere. Lake; as in Windermere, etc.

443. Rood. Cross, or crucifix. By the rood was a common oath; so by the
holy rood, as in Shakespeare, Rich. III. iii. 2. 77, iv. 4. 165. Cf. the
name of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. See ii. 221 below.

451. Romantic. The MS. has "enchanting."

457. Yesternight. We have lost this word, though we retain yesterday.
Cf. yester-morn in v. 104 below. As far = as far back as.

460. Was on, etc. The MS. reads: "Is often on the future bent." If
force of evidence could authorize us to believe facts inconsistent with
the general laws of nature, enough might be produced in favor of the
existence of the second-sight. It is called in Gaelic Taishitaraugh,
from Taish, an unreal or shadowy appearance; and those possessed of
the faculty are called Taishatrin, which may be aptly translated
visionaries. Martin, a steady believer in t