Genealogy of the family of Forbes

XIV
larger in remote ages, are certainly a great proportion of the world :
Omne ignoium pro magnif.co, is an old obser\'ation : but the cool
research of the student will dispel the misty fabrics of the visionary.
Froissart, who dwelt a short time at Dalkeith with Lord Doi|g.
las, describes the finest country near the metropolis, as quite un-
productive, the inhabitants crafty, thievish, and vicious, and the
capital as mean and unequal in any way to the common good towns
of Flanders ; the houses were thatched, and the whole country so
disgusted the French army sent under M. Vienne to stir up the
Scotch against England, that they left it with joy, and with sen-
timents of aversion for their allies. A traveller who visited the
country in the reign of James the First, was equally struck with
the general nakedness of Caledonia. The trees were a few
round great men's houses or castles, the beggars extremely nu-
merous and disgusting, and instead of money, they received in
alms small yellow stones, which we may suppose to have been
pieces of brimstone, which the traveller mistook for such. —
Froissartdescribes Robert 11.* as a disgusting and blear-eyed sa-
vage ; and the traveller the poetical James the First as mean in
stature, pot-bellied and Jll-shaped. Thus the fairy dreams of
unfounded speculation vanish into homely deformity when the
test of truth is applied to them. What a picture shall we form
of Scotland, when we have the best information that it was over-
• The actions of tlie heroic Robert Bruce mav perhaps strike as
more meritorious, \phen we reflect that he was for many years afflicted
\ritb the leprosy, and died of its effects : his infirmities made him to
be looked upon as old, when he died, which he was not, being only 55
years. Being in IMay 1508 attacked in his quartern, his spirit chased
away bis complaint —
This said the king withouten weer,
Tbair bost has maid me hail and fcer,
For suld no medccyiie swa sone
Haiff cowerit ine, as thai haiff done.
Barbour.
Comparisons are odious ; but we cannot but think Bruce 3 hero far
superior eren to Wallsce,