The sad old age of Prince Charles is described by Lord Mahon [Stanhope] in his able History:  ch. xxx:  and some additional details will be found in Chambers’ narrative of the expedition.  During later life, an almost entire silence seems to have been maintained by the Prince upon his earlier days and his royal claims.  But the bagpipe was occasionally heard in the Roman Palace, and a casual visit, which Lord Mahon fixes in 1785, drew forth the recital which is the subject of this poem.  The prince fainted as he recalled what his Highland followers had gone through, and his daughter rushing in exclaimed to the visitor, ’Sir! what is this!  You must have been speaking to my father about Scotland and the Highlanders!  No one dares to mention these subjects in his presence:’  (Mahon:  ch. xxvi).

St. 2 Drowsing His thoughts; The habit of intemperance, common in that century to many who had not Charles Edward’s excuses, appear to have been learned during the long privations which accompanied his wanderings, between Culloden and his escape to France.

St. 5 Hebrides; Charles landed at Erisca, an islet between Barra and South Uist, in July 1745.

St. 7 Fettering Forth; ‘Forth,’ according to the proverb, ’bridles the wild Highlandman.’—­Charles passed it at the Ford of Frew, about eight miles above Stirling.—­At Gladsmuir; or Preston Pans; Sep. 21, 1745.—­White Horse; The armorial bearing of Hanover.

St. 8 Clan Colla; general name for the sept of the Macdonalds.

St. 10 Caer Luel; Urien ap Urbgen is an early hero of Strathclyde or Alcluith, the British kingdom lying between Dumbarton and Carlisle, then Caer Luel.

St. 12 Ben Aille; a mountain over Loch Ericht in the central Highlands.

St. 13 Ice-brook-temper’d; ’It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook’s temper’:  (Othello:  A. 5:  S. 2).

St. 14 At Falkirk; Jan 17, 1746.  ’On the eve after his victory Charles again encamped on Bannockburn.’

St. 16 The mortal moor; named Culloden and Drummossie:  Ap. 16, 1746.  The cold at that time was very severe.

St. 17 A nation’s craven rage; See Appendix F.

St. 21 Love’s gentler judgment; We may perhaps quote on his behalf
Vergil’s beautiful words

   . . . utcumque ferent ea facta minores,
   Vincet amor patriae laudumque inmensa cupido.

—­It is also pleasant to record that over the coffin of Charles in S. Peter’s, Rome, a monument was placed by George the Fourth, upon which, by a graceful and gallant ‘act of oblivion,’ are inscribed the names of James the Third, Charles the Third, and Henry the Ninth, ’Kings of England.’

On the simple monument set up by his brother Henry in S. Pietro, Frascati, it may be worth notice that Charles is only described as Paterni iuris et regiae | dignitatis successor et heres:—­the title, King, (given to his Father in the inscription), not being assigned to Charles, or assumed by the Cardinal.