HOME-THOUGHTS FROM THE SEA

Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the north-west died away;

Sunset ran one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz

Bay;

Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;

In the dimmest north-east distance dawned Gibraltar

grand and grey;

"Here and here did England help me; how can I help England?"-say;

Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise

and pray,

While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa.

R. Browning.

NOTES

BOADICEA (more correctly Boudicca) queen of the Iceni in East Britain, having been outraged by the Romans,; raised a revolt against them in 61. She won great successes at first, but being eventually defeated, slew herself.

THE MASSACRE OF THE BRITONS. This ballad is suggested by a poem of the bard Aneurin, and describes the massacre of British chiefs, said to have been perpetrated by Hengist and Horsa in the fifth century. The story is in all probability the merest legend.

Gorthyn. Vortigern.

The Dark-Dwellers on the Sea. Hengist and Horsa.

The Ocean Maid. Ronwen (Rowena).

The Twice-Raised Monarch. Vortigern, who had been deposed and succeeded by his son Gwrthwyr or Vortimer. On Vortimer's death, to which we have an allusion in the second verse, Vortigern once more ascended the throne.

Eidiol. Emrys Wledig or Ambrosius.

THE WAR SONG OF DINAS VAWR is wholly Peacock's invention. It is sung by "the men of King Melvas," and describes the capture of the fort of Dinas Vawr on the Towy.

THE FIGHT AT MALDON. Brihtnoth, Alderman of the East Saxons was slain in 991 during the reign of Ethelred the Unready, in a gallant but futile resistance to the Danes at Maldon in Essex.

THE FATAL SISTERS. This poem is a paraphrase of the Icelandic Darradar-Liad or Lay of Darts. It is supposed to have reference to the battle of Clontarf, which took place on Good Friday

1014 A.D. Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, aided Sigtrygg "of the silken beard," against Brian, the Ardrigh (chief king) of Ireland. Sigurd and his troops were cut to pieces, but the death of Brian on the other side more than outweighed the Irish success.

The scene described in the poem is supposed to have been seen in Caithness at the very hour of the battle.

The Fatal Sisters are the Valkyriur, “the choosers of the slain.”

THE TRIUMPH OF OWEN. This poem is a free translation of a poem by the famous Welsh bard Gwalchmai, and commemorates the defeat of Madoc ab Meredydd at Abermenai, by Owen, prince of Gwynedd (N. Wales) in 1157.

In 1216 A.D.

THE FRENCH AT ST. EDMUNDSBURY. the barons, provoked by John's manifest intention of disregarding the Magna Carta, to which he had sworn in the preceding year, offered the crown to Lewis, the Prince Royal of France. Lewis landed in Kent, and mastered the whole of the eastern counties. Though the forces of John met with disaster in the Wash, the French prince received small support, and finally, after John's death at Newark, was forced to withdraw.

THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE was fought August 15, 1388. The Scots were returning from a successful raid in England and laid siege to the castle of Otterbourne. They were there surprised by the English under the famous Harry Hotspur, son of the Earl of Northumberland. A fierce fight followed, in which Douglas was killed and Hotspur made a prisoner.

This ballad is pre

THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT. eminently non-historical. It seems to be a distorted version of the Battle of Otterbourne. Indeed, not a few verses towards the end of the ballad are almost identical with verses occurring in the English version of that battle. It is hardly necessary, however, to point out that the Battle of Otterbourne did not take place in the reign of Henry IV., while the King of Scotland was not James, but Robert II. The Battle of Humbledon mentioned at the end of the poem is the Battle of Homildon Hill, in which the Scots were totally defeated, September 14, 1402.

THE BATTLE OF SHREWSBURY. In July, 1403, the Earl of Northumberland in concert with Owen Glendower revolted against Henry IV. His son Harry Percy, known as Hotspur, marched towards Shrewsbury, where he was to be joined by Glend

NOTES

ower with a Welsh force. Henry IV. succeeded in attacking Hotspur before the arrival of the Welsh, and after a desperate battle, in which Hotspur was killed, won a complete victory (July 23, 1403), a few miles from Shrewsbury.

THE BATTLE OF HARLAW was fought, July 24, 1411, between Donald, Lord of the Isles, who was in league with the English, and had planned a plundering expedition against the town of Aberdeen. The townsmen under the Earl of Mar and their Provost marched some twenty miles out of Aberdeen to meet the invader and completely defeated him.

HENRY V. BEFORE HARFLEUR. Henry V. landed in Normandy late in the summer of 1415, besieged Harfleur, the chief seaport at the mouth of the Seine, and after five weeks' siege captured it.

HENRY V. BEFORE AGINCOURT. Henry V. at Agincourt, a village lying slightly north of the Somme, with 6,000 men utterly routed an army of 30,000 French under Jean d'Albret, Constable of France, which barred his retreat to Calais. The English are said to have lost less than 200 men, the French no fewer than 10,000 slain (October 25, 1415).

PIBROCH OF DONUIL DHU. "This is a very ancient pibroch belonging to Clan Macdonald and supposed to refer to the expedition of Donald Balloch, who, in 1431, launched from the Isles with a considerable force, invaded Lochaber, and at Inverlochy defeated and put to flight the Earls of Mar and Caithness, though at the head of an army superior to his own."-Sir Walter Scott.

THE DEATH OF RICHARD III. Richard III. was defeated and slain at Bosworth in Leicestershire by the Earl of Richmond, who succeeded him under the title of Henry VII. (August 22, 1485.)

FLODDEN FIELD. James IV. was totally defeated by the English under the Earl of Surrey at Flodden Field, between the Till and Tweed. James himself perished, together with most of his nobles (September 9, 1513).

MARY AMBREE. There is, as far as can be ascertained, no historical basis for this ballad. The campaign to which it refers is that conducted by the Earl of Leicester in 1585 to aid the Dutch in their struggle against Philip II. of Spain.