Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/310



The peacock, it is well known, was considered, during the times of chivalry, not merely as an exquisite delicacy, but as a dish of peculiar solemnity. After being roasted, it was again decorated with its plumage, and a spunge, dipt in lighted spirits of wine, was placed in its bill. When it was introduced on days of grand festival, it was the signal for the adventurous knights to take upon them vows to do some deed of chivalry "before the peacock and the ladies."

The boar's head was also a usual dish of feudal splendour. In Scotland it was sometimes surrounded with little banners, displaying the colours and achievements of the baron, at whose board it was served. Pinkerton's History, Vol. I. p. 482.

There are often flights of wild swans upon St Mary's Lake, at the head of the river Yarrow.

The Rutherfords of Hunthill were an ancient race of Border lairds, whose names occur in history, sometimes as defending the frontier against the English, sometimes as disturbing the peace of the country. Dickon Draw-the-sword was son to the ancient warrior, called in tradition the Cock of Hunthill.