The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott ... Notes & life of the author.

NOTES TO CANTO F IRST.
This affront could only be expiated by a just with sharp lances. In tis
course, Lindsay left his helmet unlaced. so that it gave way at the touch
of his antagonist's lance, and he thus avoided the shock of the encounter.
This happened twice: —in the third encounter, the handsome Courtenav
lost two of his front teeth. As the Englishman complained bitterly of
Lindsay's fraud in not fastening his helmet. the Scottishman agreed to
run six courses more, each champion staking in the hand of the king two
hundred pounds to be forfeited, if, on entering the lists, any unequal ad.
vantage should be detected. This being agreed to, the wily Scot de.
manded, that Sir Piers, in addition to the lossof his teeth, should consent
to the extinction of one of his eyes, he himself having lost an eye in the
fight of Otterburn. As Courtenay demurr'd to this equalization of optical
powers, Lindsay demanded the forfeit: which, after much altercation,
the king appointed to' be paid to him, saying, ha surpassed the English
both in wit and valour. This must appear to the reader a singular
specimen of the humour of that time. I suspect the Jockey Club would
have given a different decision from Henry IV.
NOTE IX.
Largesse, largesse.
This was the cry with which heralds and pursuivants were wont to C.e
knowledge the bounty received from the knights.
They hailed Lord Marmion:L
They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye,
Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye,
Of Tamworth tower and town.
Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present romance, is entirely a fictitious personage. In earlier times, indeed, the family of Marmion, lords of Fontenay, in Normandy,washighly distinguished. Robert
de Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, a distinguished follower of the Conqueror,
obtained a grant of the castle and town of Tamworth, and also
of the manor of Scrivelby, in Lincolnshire. One or both of these
noble possessions was held by the honourable service of being the
royal champion, as the ancestors of Marmion had formerly been to the
Dukes of Normandy. But after the castle and dlemesne of Tamworth had
passed through four successive barons from Robert, the family became
extinct in the person of Philip de Marmion, who died in 20th Edward I.,
without issue male. He was succeeded in his Castle of Tamworth by
Alexander de Frevil, who married Mazera, his grand-daughter. Baldwin
de Freville, Alexander's descendant. in the reign of Richard I., by the sup.
posed tenure of his castle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal chamin.
pion, and to do the service appertaining; namely, on the day of coronation, to ride completely armed, upon a barbed horse, into Westminster
Hall, and there to challenge the combat against any who would gainsay
the king's title. But this office was adjudged to Sir John Dymoke, to
whom the manor of Scrive'by had descended by another of the co-heiresses Y
of Robert de Marmion; and it remains in that family, whose representas.
tive is Hereditary Champion of England at the present day. The family
and possessions of Freville have merged in the Earls of Ferras; I have
not, therefore, created a new family, but only revived the titles of an old
one in an imaginary personage.
It was one of the Martmion family, who, in the reign of Edward II., pert
formed that chivalrous feat before the very castle of Norham, which
Bishop Percy has woven into his beautiful ballad, " The Hermit of Warkworth." The story is thus to:d by Leland:
"The Scottes calme yn to the marches of England, and destroyed the
Castles of Werk and Herbotel, and overran much of Northumberland
marches.
"At this tyme Sir Thomas Gray and his friendes defended Norham
from the Scottes.
" It were a wonderfull processe to declare what mischiefs cam by
bungre and asseges by the space of xi yeres ia Northumbvelpad; for
b0 i