Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/125

 in a strain superior to what that author generally assumes:

P. 45. v. 187. The historical allusion in this passage, is probably to the capture of the Duc d'Aquillain and Melampe privateers, by Captain Lockhart of the Tartar frigate; a commander who afterwards greatly distinguished himself in the British naval service. This popular derivation of the name of Lockhart is certainly erroneous, as the name occurs in charters at a period long anterior to Sir Symon Lockharde de Lee et Cartland, who accompanied James Lord Douglas to Spain, on his journey to the Holy Land. But, in the anecdotes of family history introduced into this poem, the author has seldom recourse to better authority than Abercrombie.

P. 50. v. 321. The allusions to the history of Douglas, in this passage, refer chiefly to circumstances narrated in Hume of Godscroft's history. The traditions on which the history of the family of Douglas is founded, are certainly of Gaelic extraction, and may probably be still preserved in some of the genealogical verses of Gaelic tradition. It is to be regretted that no attempt has been made to preserve the traditionary history of the Highland clans, to record which was the principal occu-