Kerlé beheld on to the bauld Heroun,
Vpon Fawdoun as he was lukand doune.—V. 145.
This appears to have been the head of the ancient family of Heron, who held Ford Castle in Northumberland. In the reign of Henry III. it was in possession of Sir William Heron, who was governor of the castles of Bamborough, Pickering, and Scarborough, lord warden of the forests north of Trent, and sheriff of Northumberland for eleven successive years. V. Hutchinson’s Northumb. II. 19. This castle has attracted much attention, as having been the scene of the enchantments of its fair mistress, by means of which our infatuated James IV. was disarmed before the fatal battle of Flodden; and it has acquired additional celebrity from the no less bewitching Muse of the author of Marmion.
To Dawryoch he knew the forss full weill.—V. 265.
This is Dalreoch, on the south bank of the Earn, four or five miles west from Forteviot. A bridge across the Earn is called that of Dalreoch. By the forss seems to be meant ford. V. Etym. Dict. in vo.
Our thwort the Kerss to the Torwode he yeide.—
The rone wes thik that Wallace slepyt in.—V. 319–357.
“In Dunipace parish is the famous Torwood, in the middle of which there are the remains of Wallace’s Tree, an oak which, according to a measurement, when entire, was said to be about twelve feet diameter. To this wood Wallace is said to have fled, and secreted himself in the body of that tree, then hollow, after his defeat in the north.” Stat. Acc. III. 336.
This “is still dignified by the name of Wallace’s Tree. It stands in the middle of a swampy moss, having a causeway round its ruins; and its destruction has been much precipitated by the veneration in which the Scottish hero has been long held, numerous pieces having been carried off, to [be] convert[ed] into various memorials of the champion of Scotland.” Kerr’s Hist. Bruce, I. 127.