ed-deer's undressed hide
Their hairy buskins well supplied."

304. Steepy. For the word (see also iv. 374 below) and the line, cf.
Shakespeare, T. of A. i. 1. 75:

"Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness."

309. Questing. Seeking its game. Bacon (Adv. of Learning, v. 5) speaks
of "the questing of memory."

310. Scaur. Cliff, precipice; the same word as scar. Cf. Tennyson's
Bugle Song: "O sweet and far, from cliff and scar;" and in the Idyls of
the King: "shingly scaur."

314. Herald of battle, etc. The MS. reads:

"Dread messenger of fate and fear,
Herald of danger, fate and fear,
Stretch onward in thy fleet career!
Thou track'st not now the stricken doe,
Nor maiden coy through greenwood bough."

322. Fast as the fatal symbol flies, etc. "The description of the
starting of the Fiery Cross bears more marks of labor than most of Mr.
Scott's poetry, and borders, perhaps, on straining and exaggeration; yet
it shows great power" (Jeffrey).

332. Cheer. In its original sense of countenance, or look. Cf.
Shakespeare, M. N. D. iii. 2. 96: "pale of cheer;" Spenser, F. Q. i.
1. 2: "But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;" Dryden, Hind and
Panther, iii. 437: "Till frowning skies began to change their cheer,"
etc.

333. His scythe. The reading of the 1st and other early eds.; "the
scythe" in more recent ones.

342. Alas, thou lovely lake! etc. "Observe Scott's habit of looking at
nature, neither as dead, nor merely material, nor as altered by his
own feelings; but as having an animation and pathos of its own, wholly
irrespective of human passion--an animation which Scott loves and
sympathizes with, as he would with a fellow creature, forgetting himself
altogether, and subduing his own humanity before what seems to him the
power of the landscape.... Instead of making Nature anywise subordinate
to himself, he makes himself subordinate to HER--follows her lead
simply--does not venture to bring his own cares and thoughts into her
pure and quiet presence--paints her in her simple and universal truth,
adding no result of momentary passion or fancy, and appears, therefore,
at first shallower than other poets, being in reality wider and
healthier" (Ruskin).

344. Bosky. Bushy, woody. Cf. Milton, Comus, 313: "And every bosky bourn
from side to side;" Shakespeare, Temp. iv. i. 81: "My bosky acres and my
unshrubb'd down," etc.

347. Seem