486. Pricked. Spurred. It came to mean ride; as in F. Q. i. 1. 1: "A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine," etc. Cf. 754 below.
490. Torry and Lendrick. These places, like Deanstown, Doune (see on iv. 19 above), Blair-Drummond, Ochtertyre, and Kier, are all on the banks of the Teith, between Callander and Stirling. Lockhart says: "It may be worth noting that the poet marks the progress of the King by naming in succession places familiar and dear to his own early recollections—Blair-Drummond, the seat of the Homes of Kaimes; Kier, that of the principal family of the name of Stirling; Ochtertyre, that of John Ramsay, the well-known antiquary, and correspondent of Burns; and Craigforth, that of the Callenders of Craigforth, almost under the walls of Stirling Castle;—all hospitable roofs, under which he had spent many of his younger days."
494. Sees the hoofs strike fire. The MS. has "Saw their hoofs of fire."
496. They mark, etc. The to of the infinitive is omitted in glance, as if mark had been see.
498. Sweltering. The 1st ed. has "swelling."
506. Flinty. The MS. has "steepy;" and in 514 "gains" for scales.
525. Saint Serle. "The King himself is in such distress for a rhyme as to be obliged to apply to one of the obscurest saints in the calendar" (Jeffrey). The MS. has "by my word," and "Lord" for Earl in the next line.
534. Cambus-kenneth's abbey gray. See on iv. 231 above.
547. By. Gone by, past.
551. O sad and fatal mound! "An eminence on the northeast of the Castle, where state criminals were executed. Stirling was often polluted with noble blood. It is thus apostrophized by J. Johnston: