J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 3

THE SCOTTISH BOKDEK. 23
rather to a wolf, or boar, with which the neighbouring
Cheviot mountains must in early times have abounded;*
and there remain vestiges of another monster, of the
same species, attacking the horse of the champion. An
inscription, which might have thrown light upon this
exploit, is now totally defaced. The vulgar, adapting
it to their own tradition, tell us that it ran thus :
The wode Laird of Lariestoun
Slew the wode worm of Wormiestoune,
And wan all Lintoan paroschine.
It is most probable, that the animal destroyed by the
ancestor of Lord Somerville, was one of those beasts of
prey by which Caledonia was formerly infested, but
which, now.
Razed out of all her woods, as trophies hung,
Grin high emblazon'd on her children's shields.
Since publishing the first edition of this work I have
found the following account of Somerville's achieve-
ment, in a iNlS. of some antiquity :
• An altar, dedicated to Sylvan INIars, was found in a glen in
Weardale, in the bishopric of Durham. From the following votive
inscription, it appears to have been erected by C. T. V. Micianus, a
Roman general, upon taking an immense boar, which none of his pre-
decessors could destroy :
" Silvano invtcto sacrum, C. Tetius Veturius Micianus Prcef. Alae
SehosincE oh aprum eximiae fonnce captum, quern multi antecessores
ejus prccdari non potuerunt, Votum solvens lubenter posiiit,"
Lamb's Notes on Battle of Flodden, 1774, p. 67.