_Our thwort the Kerss to the_ Torwode _he yeide.--_ _The rone wes thik that Wallace slepyt in._--V. 319–357.
“In Dunipace parish is the famous Torwood, in the middle of which there are the remains of Wallace’s Tree, an oak which, according to a measurement, when entire, was said to be about twelve feet diameter. To this wood Wallace is said to have fled, and secreted himself in the body of that tree, then hollow, after his defeat in the north.” Stat. Acc. III. 336.
This “is still dignified by the name of _Wallace’s Tree_. It stands in the middle of a swampy moss, having a causeway round its ruins; and its destruction has been much precipitated by the veneration in which the Scottish hero has been long held, numerous pieces having been carried off, to [be] convert[ed] into various memorials of the champion of Scotland.” Kerr’s Hist. Bruce, I. 127.
_Throuch the Oychall thai had gayne all that nycht,_ _Till_ Airth _ferry, or that the day was brycht._--V. 411.
In MS. it is _Qwenys_ ferry; but the word first written has been scraped out, and _Qwenys_ substituted on the head margent above it. The term deleted seems to have been _erd_; most probably written by mistake for _Airth_, in a copy which may have been taken from recitation. The term _Qwenys_ indeed is apparently in the same hand with the rest of the MS.; but the transcriber, thinking only of _erd_ as signifying the earth, had indulged the idea that it must be an error. As the companions of Wallace were on their way to Dunipace in quest of him, to have gone from Gask to Queensferry would have been to take a very circuitous course without any apparent necessity. _Airth_ is the reading of editions 1594, 1620, 1648, and 1673. In Edit. 1714 it is _Queens-ferry_, as would seem on the authority of the MS.
_In_ Dundaff _mur that sammyn nycht he raid._ _Schir Jhone the_ Grayme, _quhilk lord wes of that land,_ _Ane agyt knycht had maid nane othir band;_ _Bot purchest pess in rest he mycht bide still_, &c.--V. 436.
The castle of _Dundaff_, of which there are still some remains, was situated in Stirlingshire, near the source of Carron. This old knight, by some called David, by others John, was proprietor not only of Dundaff, but of the lands of Strathblane and Strathcarron. V. Nimmo’s Stirlingshire, p. 358. A fabulous antiquity has been ascribed to this family; it having been asserted that the wall of Antonine vulgarly received the name of _Graham’s Dike_, because in a very early period of our history it was penetrated by a valorous chief, from whom those of this celebrated name had their origin. We have no written evidence of the existence of this family before the reign of David I., when William de Grahame appears as witness to the charter of the foundation of Holyrood-house. Sir J. Dalrymple’s Coll. p. 397. From it originated many distinguished families, as that of Montrose, Menteith, Fintry, Balgowan, &c. It was the son of this “agyt knycht” who was the faithful friend of Wallace, and who fell at the battle of Falkirk.