This is given according to Edit. 1594, &c. In MS. it is gyhyt. But this must certainly be an error; unless we should suppose it to be from AS. gehyd, “tectus, abditus, absconditus, hid, hidden, covered.” Somner.
Fra Butler had apon gud Wallace seyn,
Throuch auld malice he wox ner wod for teyn.—V. 401.
We have here one proof, among many in our old national works, of the danger of editors rashly venturing to change the language. In Edit. 1594, it is;—
Fra Butteller had on feild gude Wallace seyne, &c.
The editor had supposed that seyn apon, being an obsolete phrase in his time, must of necessity be improper. He had not known that it is very ancient, being pure Anglo-Saxon. The verb is used in a neuter sense; and seyn apon signifies beheld, looked upon. Thus on se-on is, intueri, aspicere in. On that wundor seon; Istud miraculum intueri.
Quhen thai com ner, a nobill knycht it was,
The quhilk to name hecht Elyss off Dundass.—V. 533.
This is the ancestor of the ancient house of Dundas of that ilk. Helias, or as here written Elyss, seems to have been a common name in this family. The first on record is Helias, son of Uchtred, who got the lands of Dundas, A. 1124, in the reign of Alexander I. One of the same christian name appears as witness to a charter in the reign of Alexander II. Serle de Dundas, probably the father of our Elyss, is mentioned in Ragman Roll. V. Nisbet’s Remarks, p. 34, 35, and Heraldry, I. 275.