atrine and Vennachar. The name is now especially
applied to the pass between Lochs Katrine and Achray.

147. Close couched. That is, as he lay close couched, or hidden. Such
ellipses are common in poetry.

150. Amain. With main, or full force. We still say "with might and
main."

151. Chiding. Not a mere figurative use of chide as we now understand it
(cf. 287 below), but an example of the old sense of the word as applied
to any oft-repeated noise. Shakespeare uses it of the barking of dogs in
M. N. D. iv. 1. 120:

"never did I hear
Such gallant chiding;"

of the wind, as in A. Y. L. ii. 1. 7: "And churlish chiding of the
winter's wind;" and of the sea, as in 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 45:

"the sea
That chides the banks of England;"

and Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 197: "the chiding flood."

163. The banks of Seine. James visited France in 1536, and sued for the
hand of Magdalen, daughter of Francis I. He married her the following
spring, but she died a few months later. He then married Mary of Guise,
whom he had doubtless seen while in France.

166. Woe worth the chase. That is, woe be to it. This worth is from the
A. S. weorthan, to become. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 32:

"Wo worth the man,
That first did teach the cursed steele to bight
In his owne flesh, and make way to the living spright!"

See also Ezek. xxx. 2.

180. And on the hunter, etc. The MS. reads:

"And on the hunter hied his pace,
To meet some comrades of the chase;"

and the 1st ed. retains "pace" and "chase."

184. The western waves, etc. This description of the Trosachs was
written amid the scenery it delineates, in the summer of 1809. The
Quarterly Review (May, 1810) says of the poet: "He sees everything
with a painter's eye. Whatever he represents has a character of
individuality, and is drawn with an accuracy and minuteness of
discrimination which we are not accustomed to expect from mere verbal
description. It is because Mr. Scott usually delineates those objects
with which he is perfectly familiar that his touch is so easy, correct,
and animated. The rocks, the ravines, and the torrents which he exhibits
are not the imperfect sketches of a hurried traveller, but the finished
studies of a resident artist." See also on 278 below.

Ruskin (Modern Painters, iii. 278) refers to "the love of color" as
a leading element in Scott's love of bea