33 merk-schot. Jamieson’s Dictionary gives as explanation: “Seems the distance between the bow markis which were shot at in the exercise of archery.” In the New English Dictionary: “The distance between the butts in archery” (citing this passage). E and H read bow-schote = 150 to 200 yards.
36 his men. That is, the men of his own battle at the “entry,” not the whole army drawn up in line, as is generally assumed. Cf. Bk. XI. 440-53, and note.
42 his hors he steris. Cf. with the account, professing to be based on Barbour, in Scott’s Lord of the Isles, canto vi., XV.: “The Bruce stood fast,” etc.
49 in-till a lyng. “They quickly took their positions so as to come at each other in a line.”
58 And he doune till the erd can ga. I.e., De Boun; but Sir Herbert Maxwell says Bruce! (Robert the Bruce, p. 205). With this Scottish version of the event cf. the following English one (c. 1326): “When the English had now passed the wood”—i.e., the Torwood—“and were approaching Stirling, behold! the Scots were moving about, as if in flight, on the edge of the grove” (sub memore, i.e., the wood of the New Park), “whom a certain knight, Henry de Boun, with the Welshmen, pursued up to the entry” (introitum, Barbour’s “entre”) “of the grove. For he had it in his mind that, if he should find Robert Bruce there, he would either slay him or bring him back his captive. But when he had come hither, Robert himself issued suddenly from the cover of the wood” (a latebris silvæ); “and the aforesaid Henry, seeing that he could not resist the crowd of Scots, and wishing to retire to his friends, turned his horse; but Robert withstood him, and with the axe which he carried in his hand, smashed in his skull. His squire, while endeavouring to shield and avenge his lord, is overcome by the Scots” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 202). Gray says the advanced guard under the Earl of Gloucester entered the road within the Park and were repulsed (tost furvont recoillez. Scala., p. 141) by the Scots; and that, as was reported, Robert Bruce here slew a knight, Peris de Mountforth, with an axe. A John de Mountfort was slain at Bannockburn, and in the list cited his name immediately precedes that of Henry de Boun (Annales Londonienses, p. 231, in Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II., vol. i.). Buchanan places this incident at the beginning of the main battle on Monday as something scarcely worth mentioning (parum quidem dictu) (Rer. Scot. Hist., ed. 1762, chap. xxxix.). Barbour, of course, concentrates on Bruce’s performance, but the Vita Edwardi incidentally corroborates Gray in remarking that in this day’s fighting Gloucester was unhorsed (p. 202), which could have happened only in the Park affair.
67 thai com on. As we see, the De Boun affair was part of a serious skirmish, an attempt to force the road to Stirling through the Park, in which the English van was repulsed. See above on 58, and hereafter on 176. This important fact is usually overlooked, as in Hume Brown’s History, i., p. 158.
140 The layff went. Some, says Gray, fled to the Castle of Stirling (au chastel), the others to the King’s host (Scala., p. 141).
144-6 “Quickly took off their helmets to get air, for they were hot, and covered with perspiration.”