lso The Lord of the Isles, i. 8: "The shepherd
lights his belane-fire;" and Glenfinlas:

"But o'er his hills, in festal day,
How blazed Lord Ronald's beltane-tree!"

323. But hark! etc. "The moving picture--the effect of the sounds--and
the wild character and strong peculiar nationality of the whole
procession, are given with inimitable spirit and power of expression"
(Jeffrey).

327. The canna's hoary beard. The down of the canna, or cotton-grass.

335. Glengyle. A valley at the northern end of Lock Katrine.

337. Brianchoil. A promontory on the northern shore of the lake.

342. Spears, pikes, and axes. The 1st ed. and that of 1821 have Spears,
but all the recent ones misprint "Spear." The "Globe" ed. has "Spear,
spikes," etc.

343. Tartans. The checkered woollen cloth so much worn in Scotland.
Curiously enough, the name is not Gaelic but French. See Jamieson or Wb.

Brave. Fine, beautiful; the same word as the Scottish braw. Cf.
Shakespeare, Sonn. 12. 2: "And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;"
Ham. ii. 2. 312: "This brave o'erhanging firmament," etc. It is often
used of dress, as also is bravery (= finery); as in T. of S. iv. 3. 57:
"With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery." See also Spenser,
Mother Hubberds Tale, 858: "Which oft maintain'd his masters braverie"
(that is, dressed as well as his master).

351. Chanters. The pipes of the bagpipes, to which long ribbons were
attached.

357. The sounds. Misprinted "the sound" in the ed. of 1821, and all the
more recent eds. that we have seen. Cf. 363 below.

363. Those thrilling sounds, etc. Scott says here: "The connoisseurs in
pipe-music affect to discover in a well-composed pibroch, the imitative
sounds of march, conflict, flight, pursuit, and all the 'current of a
heady fight.' To this opinion Dr. Beattie has given his suffrage,
in that following elegant passage:--'A pibroch is a species of tune,
peculiar, I think, to the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. It
is performed on a bagpipe, and differs totally from all other music. Its
rhythm is so irregular, and its notes, especially in the quick movement,
so mixed and huddled together, that a stranger finds it impossible to
reconcile his ear to it, so as to perceive its modulation. Some of
these pibrochs, being intended to represent a battle, begin with a grave
motion, resembling a march; then gradually quicken into the onset;
run off with noisy confusion, an