Bannatyne Club > Origines parochiales Scotiae > Volume 2, part 1

252 ORIGINES [kilbuide.
Kingscross on the north of Whiting bay is supposed to be the place at which King Robert
Bruce, accompanied by Maclonis or Fullarton, embarlied for Carricii under the belief that his
messenger Cuthbert had made the appointed signal on Turnberry point.-' His ' hostes,' whom
Barbour represents as affirming of herself,
For in tliis warld is nane trewly
Wat tliingis to cum sa welo as I,
is said to have foretold before his departure the good fortune he should afterwards experience, a
prophecy of which the poet, after a somewhat lengthy dissertation on astrology and necromancy,
observes,
Bot, quhethir scho that tald the king
How his purpos suld tak' ending
Wenit or wist it witterly.
It fell eftir all halely
As scho said, for syn king was he
And of full mckill renoune."
Bruce left Arran in the spring of 1307 (apparently). This humble beginning of a course which
produced results so important is thus described by his biographer :
This was in ver, quhen wiutir tid
With his blastis hidwis to bid
Was ourdi'ifin, and birdis smale,
As thristUl and the nichtingale,
Begouth richt meraly to sing
And for to mak in thar singing
Sindry notis and soundis ser
And melody plesand to her :
And the treis begouth to ma
Burgeonis and bricht blumis alsua
To win the heliug of thar hed
That wikkit wintu- had tham reved.
And all grevis begouth to spring.
IntiQ that tjTu the nobOl king
With his flot and ane few menyhe,
Thre hundreth I trow tha micht wele be,
Is till the se furth of Arane
Ane litill forow the evin gane.^
' Local Tradition. New Stat. Ace. See The Brus, ^ The Brus, xxxvi. 159-164.
xxxiv. XXXV. xxxvi. xxxvii. ' The Brus, xxxvii. 1-18.