214.  Loch Lomond.  This beautiful lake, “the pride of Scottish lakes,” is about 23 miles in length and 5 miles in its greatest breadth.  At the southern end are many islands, one of which, Inch-Cailliach (the Island of Women, so called from a nunnery that was once upon it), was the burial-place of Clan-Alpine.  See iii. 191 below.

216.  A Lennox foray.  That is, a raid in the lands of the Lennox family, bordering on the southern end of Loch Lomond.  On the island of Inch-Murrin, the ruins of Lennox Castle, formerly a residence of the Earls of Lennox, are still to be seen.  There was another of their strongholds on the shore of the lake near Balloch, where the modern Balloch Castle now stands.

217.  Her glee.  The 1st ed. misprints “his glee;” not noted in the Errata.

220.  Black Sir Roderick.  Roderick Dhu, or the Black, as he was called.

221.  In Holy-Rood a knight he slew.  That is, in Holyrood Palace.  “This was by no means an uncommon occurrence in the Court of Scotland; nay, the presence of the sovereign himself scarcely restrained the ferocious and inveterate feuds which were the perpetual source of bloodshed among the Scottish nobility” (Scott).

223.  Courtiers give place, etc.  The Ms. reads: 

    “Courtiers give place with heartless stride
     Of the retiring homicide.”

227.  Who else, etc.  The Ms. has the following couplet before this line: 

    “Who else dared own the kindred claim
     That bound him to thy mother’s name?”

229.  The Douglas, etc.  Scott says here:  “The exiled state of this powerful race is not exaggerated in this and subsequent passages.  The hatred of James against the race of Douglas was so inveterate, that numerous as their allies were, and disregarded as the regal authority had usually been in similar cases, their nearest friends, even in the most remote part of Scotland, durst not entertain them, unless under the strictest and closest disguise.  James Douglas, son of the banished Earl of Angus, afterwards well known by the title of Earl of Morton, lurked, during the exile of his family, in the north of Scotland, under the assumed name of James Innes, otherwise James the Grieve (i.e. reve or bailiff).  ‘And as he bore the name,’ says Godscroft, ’so did he also execute the office of a grieve or overseer of the lands and rents, the corn and cattle of him with whom he lived.’  From the habits of frugality and observation which he acquired in his humble situation, the historian traces that intimate acquaintance with popular character which enabled him to rise so high in the state, and that honorable economy by which he repaired and established the shattered estates of Angus and Morton (History of the House of Douglas, Edinburgh, 1743, vol. ii. p. 160).”

235.  Guerdon.  Reward; now rarely used except in poetry.  Cf.  Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 59:  “That glory does to them for guerdon graunt,” etc.