"
As we passed over what is known as the Lady Bridge spanning the River
Tame, just where it joins the River Anker at the foot of the castle, we
saw a stone built in the bridge called the Marmion Stone, and remembered
Sir Walter Scott's "Tale of Flodden Field" and his famous lines:
"Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!"
Were the last words of Marmion.
But we found other references in Sir Walter's "Marmion":
Two pursuivants, whom tabards deck,
With silver scutcheon round their neck
And there, with herald pomp and state,
They hail'd Lord Marmion:
They hail'd him Lord of Fontenaye,
Of Lutterward, and Scrivelsbaye,
Of Tamworth tower and town.
and in the Fifth Canto in "Marmion," King James of Scotland is made to
say:
"Southward I march by break of day;
And if within Tantallon strong.
The good Lord Marmion tarries long,
Perchance our meeting next may fall
At Tamworth, in his castle-hall."--
The haughty Marmion felt the taunt,
And answer'd, grave, the royal vaunt:
"Much honour'd were my humble home,
If in its halls King James should come.
* * * * *
And many a banner will be torn,
And many a knight to earth be borne,
And many a sheaf of arrows spent.
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