MYTHICAL BARDS

AND

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM WALLACE

CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM OF BLIND HARRY

I would ... tell

How Wallace fought for Scotland, left the name
Of Wallace to be found, like a wild flower,

All over his dear country, left the deeds
Of Wallace, like a family of ghosts,

To people the steep rocks and river banks,
Her natural sanctuaries, with a local soul
Of independence and stern liberty.

WORDSWORTH

LIND HARRY! You cannot avoid him and

BLIND

ever

his problem if you busy yourself ever so little with Scottish literature. For he wrote one of the most influential books that ever appeared in his native land, one that contributed mightily to the renown of a national hero, William Wallace, valiant champion of noble Scots against treacherous Southron foes. Over four centuries have passed since then, yet his work is a mystery still. A new plan must be tried if we hope to discover the secret of the author.

Thirty odd years ago, when I was an undergraduate, and enthusiastic (as I expect ever to remain) for the works of Sir Walter Scott, my atten

tion was directed to a study of The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry,* by Professor Veitch of Glasgow, from which I got my first firm impression of Blind Harry's personality. Professor Veitch

wrote:

"He seems to have travelled about the country, carrying his rhymes in his memory as his stock-intrade, reciting them by lowly hearth and in lordly hall, and touching with his own patriotic flame the hearts of all ranks of his countrymen. The blind Minstrel's only means of subsistence seems to have been the voluntary gifts of his patrons, high and low. Occasionally in his later years he received the dole of a few shillings from the Royal Treasury. He was thus truly a wandering minstrel blind, aged and poor. About the time when the race of them was nearly dead—and we may look on 'The Life of Wallace' as the actual lay of the Last Minstrel' - Major tells us that Harry had access to the highest personages in the land; and thus it was that Scott, in making his aged harper draw near the stately tower of Newark, and pass, though with trembling steps, the embattled portal arch, to be received with a kindly welcome, was but imaginatively repeating the actual experience of the last of the accredited Scottish minstrels.

* Whenever an asterisk or similar mark occurs in the text, a note will be found at the end of the book.