o Ascog's lake, blue-sleeping in the morn,
And to the happy homesteads that adorn
Thy Rothesay's lovely bay.

ASCOG LODGE, EAST BAY, ROTHESAY,
September 1843.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Rothesay Castle is first mentioned in history in connexion
with its siege by Husbac the Norwegian, and Olave king of Man, in 1228.
Among other means of defence, it is said that the Scots poured down
boiling pitch and lead on the heads of their enemies; but it was,
however, at length taken, after the Norwegians had lost three hundred
men. In 1263, it was retaken by the Scots after the decisive battle of
Largs.

[6] This bid was the scene of a conflict between the men of
Bute and the troops of Lisle, the English governor, in which that
general was slain, and his severed head, presented to the Lord High
Steward, was suspended from the battlements of the castle.

[7] In 1398, Robert the Third constituted his eldest son Duke
of Rothesay, a title still held by every male heir-apparent to the
British crown. It was the first introduction of the ducal
dignity--originally a Norman one--into Scotland.

[8] The walls forming the choir of the very ancient church
dedicated to the Holy Virgin are still nearly entire, and stand close to
the present parish church of Rothesay. Within a traceried niche, on one
side, is the recumbent figure of a knight in complete armour, apparently
of the kind in use about the time of Robert the Second or Third. His
feet are upon a lion couchant, and his head upon a faithful watch-dog,
with a collar, in beautiful preservation, encircling its neck. The
coat-of-arms denotes the person represented to have been of royal
lineage. Popular tradition individualizes him as the "Stout Stewart of
Bonkill" of Blind Harry the minstrel, who fell with Sir John the Grahame
at the battle of Falkirk--although that hero was buried near the field
of action, as his tombstone there in the old churchyard still records.

Sir John Stewart of Bonkill was uncle and tutor to the then Lord High
Steward, at that time a minor.

A female figure and child recumbent, also elaborately sculptured in
black marble, adorn the opposite niche, and under them, in alto-relievo,
are several figures in religious habits. Another effigies of a knight,
but much defaced, lies on the ground-floor of the choir--the whole of
which was cleaned out and put in order by the present Marquis of Bute in
1827.

[9] On the 4th of April 1406, this unfortunate prince,
overwhelme