St. Ronan's Well Page 22
AUTHOR'S NOTES.
Note I., p. 14.--BUILDING-FEUS IN SCOTLAND.
In Scotland a village is erected upon a species of landright, verydifferent from the copyhold so frequent in England. Every alienation orsale of landed property must be made in the shape of a feudalconveyance, and the party who acquires it holds thereby an absolute andperfect right of property in the fief, while he discharges thestipulations of the vassal, and, above all, pays the feu-duties. Thevassal or tenant of the site of the smallest cottage holds hispossession as absolutely as the proprietor, of whose large estate it isperhaps scarce a perceptible portion. By dint of excellent laws, thesasines, or deeds of delivery of such fiefs, are placed on record insuch order, that every burden affecting the property can be seen forpayment of a very moderate fee; so that a person proposing to lend moneyupon it, knows exactly the nature and extent of his security.
From the nature of these landrights being so explicit and secure, theScottish people have been led to entertain a jealousy ofbuilding-leases, of however long duration. Not long ago, a great landedproprietor took the latter mode of disposing of some ground near athriving town in the west country. The number of years in the lease wassettled at nine hundred and ninety-nine. All was agreed to, and thedeeds were ordered to be drawn. But the tenant, as he walked down theavenue, began to reflect that the lease, though so very long as to bealmost perpetual, nevertheless had a termination; and that after thelapse of a thousand years, lacking one, the connexion of his family andrepresentatives with the estate would cease. He took a qualm at thethought of the loss to be sustained by his posterity a thousand yearshence; and going back to the house of the gentleman who feued theground, he demanded, and readily obtained, the additional term of fiftyyears to be added to the lease.
Note II., p. 90.--DARK LADYE.
The Dark Ladye is one of those tantalizing fragments, in which Mr.Coleridge has shown us what exquisite powers of poetry he has sufferedto remain uncultivated. Let us be thankful for what we have received,however. The unfashioned ore, drawn from so rich a mine, is worth all towhich art can add its highest decorations, when drawn from less abundantsources. The verses beginning the poem which are published separately,are said to have soothed the last hours of Mr. Fox. They are the stanzasentitled LOVE.
Note III., p. 252.--MAGO-PICO.
This satire, very popular even in Scotland, at least with one party, wascomposed at the expense of a reverend presbyterian divine, of whom manystories are preserved, being Mr. Pyet, the Mago-Pico of the Tale,minister of Dunbar. The work is now little known in Scotland, and not atall in England, though written with much strong and coarse humour,resembling the style of Arbuthnot. It was composed by Mr. Haliburton, amilitary chaplain. The distresses attending Mago-Pico's bachelor life,are thus stated:--
"At the same time I desire you will only figure out to yourself his situation during his celibacy in the ministerial charge--a house lying all heaps upon heaps; his bed ill-made, swarming with fleas, and very cold on the winter nights; his sheep's-head not to be eaten for wool and hair, his broth singed, his bread mouldy, his lamb and pig all scouthered, his house neither washed nor plastered; his black stockings darned with white worsted above the shoes; his butter made into cat's harns; his cheese one heap of mites and maggots, and full of large avenues for rats and mice to play at hide-and-seek and make their nests in. Frequent were the admonitions he had given his maid-servants on this score, and every now and then he was turning them off; but still the last was the worst, and in the meanwhile the poor man was the sufferer. At any rate, therefore, matrimony must turn to his account, though his wife should prove to be nothing but a creature of the feminine gender, with a tongue in her head, and ten fingers on her hands, to clear out the papers of the housemaid, not to mention the convenience of a man's having it in his power lawfully to beget sons and daughters in his own house."--_Memoirs of Mago-Pico. Second edition. Edinburgh_, 1761, p. 19.