The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

246 APPENDIX TO THE
NOTE N.
Dark Knight of Liddesdale.-P. 73.
William Douglas, called the Knight of Liddesdale
flourished during the reign of David II., and was so
distinguished by his valour, that he was called the
Flower of Chivalry. Nevertheless, he tarnished his
renown by the cruel murder of Sir Alexander Ramsay
of Dalhousie, originally his friend and brother in arms.
The King had conferred upon Ramsay the sheriffdom
of Teviotdale, to which Douglas pretended some claim.
In revenge of this preference, the Knight of Liddesdale
came down upon Ramsay, while he was administering
justice at Hawick, seized and carried him off to his
remote and inaccessible castle of Hermitage, where he
threw his unfortunate prisoner, horse and man, into a
dungeon, and left him to perish of hunger. It is said,
the miserable captive prolonged his existence for several
days by the corn which fell from a granary above the
vault in which he was confined.l So weak was the
1 There is something affecting in the manner in which the
old Prior of Lochleven turns from describing the death of the
gallant Ramsay, to the general sorrow which it excited;" To tell you there of the manere,
It is bot sorrow for til here;
He was the grettast menyd man
That ony cowth have thowcht of than,
Of his state, or of mare be fare;
All menyt him, bath bettyr and war;
The ryche'and pure him menyde bath,
For of his dede was mekil skath."
Some years ago, a person digging for stones, about the old