line 358.  Ayrshire in early times comprised three divisions, Cunninghame in the north, Kyle between the Irvine and the Doon, and Carrick to the south of that stream.  Burns, by his song ’There was a Lad was born in Kyle,’ has immortalised the middle division, which an old proverb had distinguished as productive of men, in contradistinction to the dairy produce and the stock of the other two.

line 362. ’"Magicians, as is well known, were very curious in the choice and form of their vestments.  Their caps are oval, or like pyramids, with lappets on each side, and fur within.  Their gowns are long, and furred with fox-skins, under which they have a linen garment reaching to the knee.  Their girdles are three inches broad, and have many cabalistical names, with crosses, trines, and circles inscribed on them.  Their shoes should be of new russet leather, with a cross cut upon them.  Their knives are dagger-fashion; and their swords have neither guard nor scabbard.”—­See these, and many other particulars, in the Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits, annexed to Reginald Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft, edition 1665.’—­Scott.

line 369.  Scott quotes thus from Reginald Scott’s ’Discovery of Witchcraft’ (1665):—­

’A pentacle is a piece of fine linen, folded with five corners, according to the five senses, and suitably inscribed with characters.  This the magician extends towards the spirits which he invokes, when they are stubborn and rebellious, and refuse to be conformable unto the ceremonies and rights of magic.’

line 373.  The term ‘Combust’ is applied to the moon or the planets, when, through being not more than eight and a half degrees from the sun, they are invisible in his light.  Chaucer, in the ‘Astrolabe,’ has ‘that he be not retrograd ne combust.’  ‘Retrograde’ is the term descriptive of the motion of the planets from east to west.  This is the case when the planets are visible on the side opposite to the sun.  See Airy’s ‘Popular Astronomy,’ p. 124.  ‘Trine’ refers to the appearance of planets ’distant from each other 120 degrees, or the third part of the zodiac.  ’Trine was considered a favourable conjunction.  Cp. note on Par.  Lost, X. 659, in Clarendon Press Milton—­

     ‘In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite.’

Stanza xxii. line 407.  ’It is a popular article of faith that those who are born on Christmas or Good Friday have the power of seeing spirits and even of commanding them.  The Spaniards imputed the haggard and downcast looks of their Philip ii to the disagreeable visions to which this privilege subjected him.’—­Scott.

line 408.  See St. Matthew xxvii. 50-53.

line 415.  Richard I of England (1189-99) could not himself have presented the sword, but the line is a spirited example of poetic licence.

line 416.  Tide what tide is happen what may.  Cp.  Thomas the Rhymer’s remarkable forecast regarding the family of Haig in Scott’s country;—­