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

NOTES TO CANTO SECONIh
nifies, in German, the habitation of the giants, to two Roman altars, taren
out of the river, inscribed, DEo MOGONTI CADENORUM. About halt' a
mile distant from Risingham, upon an eminence covered with scattered
birch trees and fragments of rock, there is cut upon a large rock in alto
relieve, a remarkable figure, called Robin'of Risingham, or Robin of
Reedsdale. It presents a Hunter, with his bow raised in one hand, and
in the other what seems to be a hare. There is a quiver at the back of the
figure, and he is dressed in a long coat or kirtle, coming down to the
knees, and meeting close, with a girdle bound round him. Dr. Horsley,
whosaw all monuments of antiquity with Roman eyes, inchles to think
this figure a Roman archer: and certainly the bow is rather of the ancient
size than of that which was so formidable in the hands of the Engii.h
archers of the middle ages. But the rudeness of the whole figure prevents
our founding strongly upon mere inaccuracy of proportion. The popular
tradition is, that it represents a giant, whose brother resided at Woodburn, and he himself at Risingham. It adds that they subsisted by hunt..
ing, and that one of them, finding the game become too scarce to support
them, poisoned his companion, in whose memory the monument was
engraven. What strange and tragic circumstance may be concealed.
under this legend, or whether it is utterly apocryphal, it is now impossible
to disoover.
NOTE X.
-.o thou revere
The statutes of the buccaneer.
The " statutes of the buccaneers" were in reality more equitable than
Could have been expected from the state of society under which they had
been formed. They chiefly related, as may readily be conjectured, to the
distribution and the inheritance of their plunder.
When the expedition was completed, the fund of prize-money acquired
was thrown together, each party taking his oath that he had retained or
concealed no part of the common stock. If any one transgressed in this
important particular, the punishment was his being set ashore on some
desert key or island, to shift for himself as he could. The owners of the
vessel had then their share assigned for the expenses of the outfit. These
were generally old pirates settled at Tobago, Jamaica, St. Domingo, or
some other French and English settlement. The surgeon's and carpenter's salaries, with the price of provisions and ammunition, were also de.
frayed. Then followed the compensation dueto the maimed and wounded,
rated according to the damage they had sustained; as six hundred pieces
of eight, or six slaves, for the loss of an arm or-legt, and so in propore
2otve to 3Roet
CANTO SECOND.
NOTE I.
--- the course of Tees
The vew from Barnard Castle commands the rich and magnificent
valley of Tees. Immediately adjacent to the river, the banks are very
thickly wooded. The finest view of its romantic course is from a hand.
some modern' bridge, built over the Tees by the late Mr. MIorxitt d
Rolkeby.