[1] The occasion of these verses requires a note. The union in 1900 of the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church led to the secession of certain congregations of the former, who called themselves the Free Church, and maintained that the union involved a departure from the principles of that church and a breach of the conditions under which certain properties were held. They brought an action to establish their right to these properties, as the sole remaining repository of Free Church principles. This action was decided against the claimants in the Scottish courts, but, on appeal, the House of Lords, under the guidance of Lord Halsbury (then Lord Chancellor), reversed the decision.

[2] Mr Henry Johnston, K.C., of the Scots Bar (afterwards Lord Johnston), led for the appellants.

[3] The leading counsel for the respondents was Mr R. B. Haldane (M.P. for East Lothian), afterwards Lord Chancellor of England.

[4] A famous Free Church divine of the old school.

[5] The Greek text has not been followed in the songs, as it would be hard to find equivalents for Lycidas and Simichidas in Lowland Scots. Jock’s song is a free paraphrase of Victor Hugo’s Guitare. How close that famous lyric is to the Theocritean manner will be admitted by those who remember Walter Headlam’s Greek version of it.

[6] The Lang Whang is the old Edinburgh-Lanark road.

[7] From “The Marquis of Montrose.”

[8] From “Prester John.”

[9] From “Salute to Adventurers.”

[10] From “A Lodge in the Wilderness.”