55 put the ladyis in presoune. On November 7, 1306, there are “further orders for the custody of the Countesses of Carrick (the Queen) and Buchan, Marie, and Christine, the sisters, and Margerie the daughter, of Robert de Bruce ... three of the ladies to be in ‘kages.’” (Bain, ii., No. 1851). The Countess of Buchan, who had crowned Bruce, was to be placed in a cage of wooden bars and lattice in one of the turrets of Berwick Castle (Palgrave, p. 358; Scala., p. 131); Marie Bruce in a “kage” in Roxburgh (Palgrave, 359); Marjory in a “kage” in the Tower of London (359); Cristina in ward in England (ibid.). The Queen was to be in custody at “Brustewik” (p. 357); was removed thence by an order of June 22, 1308 (Bain, iii., No. 48). Marjory was in ward at Wattone in March, 1307 (Bain, ii., 1910). By 1311-1312 Maria de Brus is a prisoner in Newcastle (Bain, iii., 227, 340).
57-65 The Cambridge MS. begins at line 57. Lines 59-66 do not read satisfactorily in either MS., and the text is a composition from both with a view to clearness.
80 And set a sege. The Prince of Wales was in command at Kildrummy when it fell, shortly before September 13 (Bain, ii., No. 1829). Gray says the castle was invested by Thomas Earl of Lancaster and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford (Scala., p. 131).
83 He bad distroy. Cf. note on Bk. II. 205.
96 bargane at the barras. “Barras” or “barrace” is a “barrier” or outwork before a fortress, usually of wood. Cf. Wallace:
“Off hewyn temyr in haist he gert thaim tak
Syllys off ayk, and a stark barres mak” (Bk. x. 829-30).
115 the mekill hall. One form of the tradition is that the corn or forage was stored in the chapel of the castle and there set on fire (O.S.A., xviii. 417); another, that on the east side is the “Black Lardner,” so called because it was burnt in the siege (Macfarlane’s Geog. Coll., i., p. 29). Fordun says simply that the castle was lost by treachery (Gesta Annalia, cxx.).
134 wes battalit all, etc.—i.e., had battlements on the inside of the wall, as well as on the outside. The former case was unusual, but fortunate here because the besieged could thus shelter themselves from the fire within.
181 Snawdoune. Kildrummy is said to have had seven towers, of which one on the west side still stands, with the name of the “Snow Tower” (Geog. Coll., i., p. 28). There was a “Snowdoun” also at Stirling, and Sir David Lindsay, in the Complaynt of the Papingo, addresses Stirling Castle as “fair Snowdoun.” Nisbet speaks of a Snowdoun Castle in the county of Ross as an ancient residence of the Scottish kings (Heraldry, ii. 166). The name is, undoubtedly, old, and in its present form probably a corrupt assimilation to more familiar syllables.