333-6 Pinkerton suggests in his edition that Bruce could not trust the Highlanders and Islesmen, and so put them in the rear, and stiffened their ranks with his own followers from Carrick. For this there is no warrant. The “barons of Argyll and Inchgallye” (the Hebrides) attended Bruce’s Parliament at St. Andrews in March, 1309 (Acts Parl. Scot., i. 99). Cf. also note on X. 14. In any case on the Sunday afternoon Bruce took the front position in the New Park with these very men (445, 446).
360 ane playne feld by the way. I.e., an open, level part by the road through the park, just outside the wood. The historians have shifted the position to suit their various and erroneous ideas of the field of battle. Barbour, it is to be noted, says nothing of bogs, nor of Buchanan’s “calthrops of iron” (Scot. Hist., ed. 1762, p. 213). Friar Baston, captured at Bannockburn, in his Latin poem, says there were stakes in the pits (Scotichronicon, lib. xii., chap. xxii.). Geoffrey Baker, of Swinbroke, enlarges them to long ditches covered with hurdles, an utter misapprehension (Chronicon, pp. 56, 57. Cf. notes on Bk. XII. 536, 537). At Cressy (1346) the English dug “many pits” (multa foramina) of the depth and width of a foot in front of their first line as a defence against possible pursuit by the French cavalry (Baker, p. 166). An analagous device is described by Herodotus as having been successfully used by the Phocians to destroy Messalian cavalry (Book viii., chap. xxviii.).
426 till ane vale. Apparently in the valley behind Coxet Hill. “Gillies Hill” is said to have taken its name from these “gillies,” or servants (Nimmo’s History of Stirlingshire, second edition, p. 219). Barbour never calls them “gillies,” and why a Gaelic name? The writer of the description of the district in the Old Statistical Account (1796) makes no mention of this “tradition,” and suggests a derivation from the personal name Gill or Gillies. “The names both of Gillies and Morison occur in the muirlands” (vol. xviii., p. 392).
437 the Fawkirk. A Scots translation of the original Gaelic name (in twelfth century) Eaglais breac, “the speckled or particoloured church,” in reference to the stone of which it was built. In “Falkirk” the “l” has been substituted for “w,” as a sign of length in the vowel (see Language l, App. G). Local pronunciation does not sound the “l.” The English chroniclers write the name Foukyrk (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 205), or Faukirke (Annales London., p. 104).
440-453 Acting on the information received, and unaware, as yet, which road the English would choose for an advance to Stirling, Bruce makes a fresh disposition of his troops, departing from that laid down in lines 305-347, so as to be ready for either line of advance. He himself occupies the “entry” to the Park road, which was a continuation of the medieval (Roman?) highway passing west of St. Ninian’s, with his mixed brigade of Highlanders and Lowlanders; while Randolph is posted at St. Ninian’s Kirk overlooking the level about seventy feet below. Apparently (see below) both divisions are masked by the wood. The others are in reserve to reinforce when it should turn out to be necessary. The historians, ignoring this alteration in dispositions, land themselves, as a result, in unintelligible confusion. Douglas later trapped an English column in the “entre” of Jedburgh Forest (Bk. XVI. 310 et seq.).
486 confort his men. See note on 250.
523 Aucht hundreth. Gray says they were only three hundred, under the command of Robert Lord de Clifford and Henry de Beaumont (Scalacronica, p. 141). We learn from the same author that Philip de Mowbray, constable of Stirling, went out and met Edward when the army was three leagues, or miles, from the castle, and suggested that he should advance no farther as, the English having come so far, and being within touch, he considered himself relieved; besides, he said, the Scots had blocked the narrow ways (lez estroitz chemyns) of the wood—i.e., of the New Park. But from the conditions, as we have seen (Bk. X. 822), the castle could not be held to be relieved so long as the Scots were in force before it. We note that Mowbray also expected the army to come by the Park roads. Now Barbour says that Clifford’s detachment left the main body two miles away (515). Apparently, then, this movement was the result of Mowbray’s information (see next note). However, it was known to Edward when he summoned his army that the Scots had taken up a position between him and Stirling in strong, marshy places difficult for horsemen (Foedera, ii., p. 481).
532 it suld reskewit be. So the Scots might conclude, but the version of the Lanercost chronicler better fits the case: “After dinner” (post prandium—say, about midday) “the army of the King (Edward) came to the neighbourhood of the Torwood” (he takes the Park to be an extension of the larger forest), “and when it was known that the Scots were in the wood” (from Mowbray), “the first line (prima acies) of the King, whose leader was Lord Clifford, wished to surround the wood so that the Scots should not escape in flight” (p. 225). This is in harmony with the self-confidence of the English, and explains why the horsemen did not, as they might have done, avoid Randolph’s foot, if they were only making for the castle. There was apparently no obstacle to Mowbray communicating personally with the relieving army, and he cannot have gone alone; so that the parties were actually in touch, and, as Mowbray argued, a technical “relief” had been performed.
536 thai wist weill. From Mowbray probably, but cf. note on 523. Aymer de Valence, too, had gone on before the army to prepare its line of march and carefully examine the stratagems of the Scots (insidias Scotorum. Vit. Edw., p. 201).
537 Beneth the Park. “Made a circuit upon the other side of the wood towards the castle, keeping the open ground” (as beaux chaumps. Scalacronica, p. 141).