Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/87

Rh sail blaw to the gret calamity and truble of all Scotland. Thomas wes ane man of gret admiration to the peple, and schaw sundry thingis as thay fell." The common sense translation of this story is, that Thomas presaged to the earl of March that the next day would be windy; the weather proved calm; but news arrived of the death of Alexander III., which gave an allegorical turn to the prediction, and saved the credit of the prophet.

Barbour, Winton, Henry the Minstrel, and others, all refer to the prophetic character of Thomas. In Barbour's Bruce, written about 1370, the bishop of St Andrews is introduced as saying, after Bruce had slain the Red Cumin:—

Bruce, ii. 86.

Wintoun's words are these:—

Henry the Minstrel represents him as saying, on being falsely told that Wallace was dead:—

Wallace, B. ii. ch. 3

How far Rymer himself made pretensions to the character of a prophet, and how far the reputation has been conferred upon him by the people in his own time and since, it is impossible to determine. It is certain, however, that in almost every subsequent age, metrical productions came under public notice, and were attributed to him, though, it might be supposed, they were in general the mere coin of contemporary wits, applied to passing events. There are, nevertheless, a considerable number of rhymes and proverbial expressions, of an antique and primitive character, attributed to Thomas the Rhymer, and applicable to general circumstances : of some of these we deem it by no means unlikely that they sprung from the source to which they are ascribed, being in some instances only such exertions of foresight, as a man of cultivated understanding might naturally make; and in others, dreamy vaticinations of evil, which never have been, and perhaps never will, be realized. Many of these may be found in the Border Minstrelsy, and in "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," and the "Picture of Scotland," compilations by the editor of the present dictionary. It may also be mentioned, as illustrative of the forceful character of this early and obscure genius, that he and his predictions are as well known in the Highlands and Hebrides as in our southern counties. The Cambrian and Caledonian Magazine, 1833, gives the two following Gaelic predictions, as imputed to him by the Highlanders:—