Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Volume 2 (of 2) (part 3 of 3)

Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Volume 2 (of 2) (part 3 of 3)

An instrument of torture, called the Thumbikens, was introduced into practice by the Privy Council, as a means of extorting confessions. This was done at the recommendation of Generals Dalyell and Drummond, who had seen the thumbikens used in Russia. One of the first persons, if not the first, subjected to this torture, was Mr William Spence, a servant of the Earl of Argyle, who for some weeks had been tortured in various less compulsory ways to make him confess what he knew of the rebellious designs of his master. He had maintained firmness under the boots, and contrived to endure without flinching the torture of being kept awake for five nights, though driven by it ‘half distracted.’ But after his thumbs had been crushed by the thumbikens, on the boots being again presented to him, his firmness gave way.[311]

The thumbikens consists of a bar of iron, moving loose upon a vertical screw, and under which, by the use of a nut moving on the screw, provided with a handle, the thumbs of the victim can be squeezed so as to produce the most exquisite pain.

In September of this year, Mr William Carstairs, who had been concerned in some of the plots of the day, was tortured by the thumbikens before the Privy Council. He bore the pain with firmness, though not without giving vent to his agony by cries, until the Dukes of Hamilton and Queensberry left the room, unable any longer to witness the revolting spectacle. He was at length induced by these means, to give some information regarding Baillie of Jerviswood and others.

[Sidenote: 1684.]

After the Revolution, this remarkable man became, as is well known, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, and the confidential adviser of King William regarding the affairs of Scotland; he was familiarly recognised as Cardinal Carstairs. The identical thumbikens by which he had been tortured, was presented to him by the Privy Council, and it was long preserved by his family. An anecdote was handed down by his descendants respecting the horrible little instrument. ‘I have heard, Principal,’ said King William to him, ‘that you were tortured with something they call thumbikens; pray, what sort of instrument of torture is it?’ ‘I will shew it you,’ answered Carstairs, ‘the next time I have the honour to wait upon your majesty.’ Soon after, accordingly, the Principal brought the thumbikens to be shewn to the king. ‘I must try it,’ said the king; ‘I must put in my thumbs here--now, Principal, turn the screw. O not so gently--another turn--another. Stop, stop! no more! Another turn, I am afraid, would make me confess anything.’[312]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AUG. 15.]

Monro, the Edinburgh executioner, having beaten a beggar with undue severity, was deprived of his post, and moreover punished by being thrown into the Thieves’ Hole. One hears with surprise of such an interference for humanity, amidst the atrocious cruelties to which political and religious exasperations were provoking the government. The vacant post was conferred on one George Ormiston, whom Fountainhall describes as ‘a well-favoured discreet fellow.’ If we are to believe Milne’s Account of the Parish of Melrose, 1743, this man was a member, if not the representative, of the Ormistons of Westhouse, a family once of some account, possessing a tower on the Tweed, near Melrose, and having the custom of a bridge across the river at that place; ‘a memorandum to old families not to be puffed up with pride, on account of their antiquity, for they know not what mean offices they or theirs may be obliged to stoop to.’

* * * * *

[Sidenote: SEP. 10.]

Colonel Graham of Claverhouse, as constable of Dundee, represented to the Privy Council that he found several persons in prison there for petty thefts, ‘which will be fitter to be punished arbitrarily than by death.’ In compliance with his humane suggestion, he was empowered to restrict the treatment of these persons and any others that might hereafter commit the like offences, ‘to ane arbitrary punishment, such as whipping or banishment, as he shall find cause.’--P. C. R.

[Sidenote: 1684.]

It will excite surprise to find the Bloody Claverse interposing for a gentler justice in behalf of ordinary criminals--he who coolly ordered the summary death of so many people in Clydesdale and Galloway, for merely sentimental offences. But, while the nil admirari is nowhere more applicable than in matters concerning human inconsistency, it were perhaps no more than justice to one who was at least a gallant soldier and a steadfast friend in adversity to the sovereign who had employed him, if we remembered how amiable in private life have been many modern statesmen noted for severity in public action. Claverhouse was a political enthusiast, who had made up his mind to the particular course--rather a rough one--by which the interests of his country were to be protected and advanced; and with the help of a strong will, and under the call of what came to him as duty, he scrupled not to walk in that path, though by no means inhumane or harsh in the matters of ordinary life. In a letter to the Earl of Aberdeen, written in June 1683, he reveals to us his principle of action in a sentence: ‘I am,’ says he, ‘as sorry to see a man die, even a Whig, as any of themselves; but when one dies justly for his own faults, and may save a hundred to fall in the like, I have no scruple.’[313]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: OCT.]

One Marion Purdie, dwelling at the West Port of Edinburgh, once a milk-wife, and now a beggar, was apprehended and imprisoned as a witch. She was accused of laying diseases and frenzies upon her neighbours. The king’s advocate was now giving little heed to such cases, and so poor Marion ‘dies of cold and poverty in prison about the Christmas.’--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: OCT.]

It is remarked at this time that Colonel Douglas was training and exercising his regiment with extreme diligence. He studied to get his men all of one height, and would allow none to keep their beards long or have bad cravats or cravat-strings, being anxious that they should all look young and brisk. When they were deficient in these articles, he bought them new ones with their pay. He also ‘caused them all tie their hair back with a ribbon, so it cannot blow in their eyes when they visy at their firing.’ (Can this have been the origin of tied hair?) A more important regulation still of this commander--‘He discharges any of their officers to keep cellars, whereby they made their soldiers waste their pay in drinking.’--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: OCT.]

[Sidenote: 1684.]

A tempest which took place at the end of this month, accompanied both by snow and thunder, caused the throwing ashore of ‘a new kind of fish like a mackerel or herring, but with a long snout like a snipe’s beak. Dr Sibbald says it is the Acus marinus, the Sea Needle, described by him in his Naturalis Historia. They have been seen before, but are not frequent, and therefore are looked upon by the vulgar as ominous.’--Foun.

When Charles II. died three months after, Fountainhall remarked there having been few or no prognostics of the event, ‘unless we recur to the comet, which is remote, or to the strange fishes mentioned above, or the vision of blue bonnets ... in none of which is there anything for a rational man to fix his belief upon.’

* * * * *

By an act of the second parliament of Charles II., fines were appointed for all who withdrew themselves from the regular parish churches; but as, because of the law which gives the husband exclusive power over the goods held by him and his wife in communion, it was impossible to exact any fine for the delinquency of a married woman, it had become necessary to make the husband answerable when his wife offended. Under this arrangement, some ladies of rank, addicted to attending conventicles, had brought no small trouble upon their partners. The Council, at length feeling it was a hard law where the husband was a conformist, requested power from the king to remit the fines in such cases. Soon after the following case occurred.

[Sidenote: DEC. 4.]

[Sidenote: 1684.]

David Balcanquel of that Ilk, having been, in virtue of the act, amerced in three years of his valued rent or fifteen hundred pounds, ‘upon the account of his wife not keeping the church,’ represented the matter very pathetically to the Privy Council, setting forth how he himself had always kept his parish church, and, ‘notwithstanding the distractions and disorders that have been in the country where he lives [Fife], has always demeaned himself as ane dutiful and loyal subject.’ The Council took the case into favourable consideration, and, ‘seeing it never was the intention of his majesty that his weel-affected subjects should be ruined by the mad and wilful opinions of phanatick wives, without any fault of their own’--seeing, moreover, that Balcanquel protested ‘it is not in his power to persuade his wife to go to church, notwithstanding of all the endeavours he has used for that effect, and he is willing to deliver her up to the Council to be disposed of at their pleasure‘--they agreed to discharge his fine, taking him only bound ‘to deliver up his wife to justice whenever required.’--P. C. R.

It was not always as in this case in regard to conventicle troubles. Wodrow had heard the following converse case ‘very weel attested:‘[314] About the time of the Circuit Court in 1685, there was an honest man in the parish of Baldernock, who was sore bested with a graceless and imperious wife, a hater of all seriousness. When he performed family worship, she interrupted him; when he went to a conventicle, she cursed him; and when he came home, she threw stools at him. Scarce durst the poor man return from these meetings without a few neighbours to protect him from his wife’s violence. Being denounced and cited to the court at Glasgow, he failed to appear; but she came forward, and, on his name being called, cried out: ‘My lords, it’s all true--he is a rebel; there is not a conventicle in all the country but he is at it. He deserves to be hanged. Hang him, my lords!’ The lords asked who she was, and on being told, and hearing her go on further in the same strain, they ordered the man to be scored out of the roll, saying: ‘That poor fellow suffers enough already from such a wife!’

* * * * *

[Sidenote: DEC.]

Amongst those now suffering under the severities of government, there was no one more remarkable than Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, a Berwickshire gentleman of large fortune, of vigorous character, and great zeal as a Presbyterian and Whig. Though only recognised by the government as ‘a factious person,’ he had been several times rather severely handled. Being now under suspicion of a concern in the Rye-house plot, he was denounced on the 13th of November as guilty of treason, and obliged to go out of the way. The harshness with which his friend Robert Baillie of Jerviswood was treated, was sufficient to shew that the more closely he concealed himself the better.

[Sidenote: 1684.]

Polwarth, who was a man of forty-three years of age, had a wife and ten children, all young, residing at his house of Redbraes in the Merse. Patrick, the eldest son, was taken up and put in prison; and on the 26th of December, there was a petition from him to the Privy Council, setting forth the piteous condition of the family now deprived of their father and threatened with the loss of their estate. He was but ‘a poor afflicted young boy,’ he said, who could do no harm to the state; he, moreover, cherished loyal principles and a hatred of plots. All he craved was liberty, that he might ‘see to some livelihood for himself,’ and ‘be in some condition to help and serve his disconsolate mother and the rest of his father’s ten starving children.’ The boon was granted grudgingly, the young man being obliged first to obtain security for his good-behaviour to the extent of two thousand pounds sterling.--P. C. R.

[Sidenote: 1684.]

[Sidenote: 1684.]

The first concealment of Sir Patrick was the family burial vault, under the east end of the parish church of Polwarth, a place where he had no fire, and only during the day light from an open slit in the wall. With the comfort of a bed and bed-clothes, he endured life in this singular Patmos for a whole winter month, supplied nightly with food by his daughter Grizzel, and having no sort of entertainment to beguile the tedium of the day but his own reflections, and the repetition of Buchanan’s Psalms, which had long been charged on his memory. Each night, the young Grizzel came with a packet of provisions, and stayed with him as long as she could, so as to get home before day. According to an interesting family memoir, written by her daughter, Lady Murray of Stanhope: ‘In all this time, my grandfather shewed the same constant composure and cheerfulness of mind, that he continued to possess to his death, which was at the age of eighty-four; all which good qualities she inherited from him in a high degree. Often did they laugh heartily in that doleful habitation, at different accidents that happened. She at that time had a terror for a church-yard, especially in the dark, as is not uncommon at her age, by idle nursery stories; but when engaged by concern for her father, she stumbled over the graves every night alone, without fear of any kind entering her thoughts, but for soldiers and parties in search of him, which the least noise or motion of a leaf put her in terror for. The minister’s house was near the church; the first night she went, his dogs kept such a barking, as put her in the utmost fear of a discovery; my grandmother sent for the minister the next day, and, under pretence of a mad dog, got him to hang all his dogs. There was also difficulty of getting victuals to carry him without the servants suspecting; the only way it was done, was by stealing it off her plate at dinner into her lap. Many a diverting story she has told about this, and other things of a like nature. Her father liked sheep’s head, and while the children were eating their broth, she had conveyed most of one into her lap; when her brother Sandy (the late Lord Marchmont) had done, he looked up with astonishment, and said: “Mother, will ye look at Grizzel; while we have been eating our broth, she has ate up the whole sheep’s head.” This occasioned so much mirth among them, that her father at night was greatly entertained by it, and desired Sandy might have a share in the next.... As the gloomy habitation my grandfather was in, was not to be long endured but from necessity, they were contriving other places of safety for him; amongst others, particularly one under a bed which drew out, in a ground-floor, in a room of which my mother kept the key. She and the same man worked in the night, making a hole in the earth, after lifting the boards, which they did by scratching it up with their hands, not to make any noise, till she had left not a nail upon her fingers; she helping the man to carry the earth as they dug it, in a sheet on his back out at the window into the garden; he then made a box at his own house, large enough for her father to lie in, with bed and bed-clothes, and bored holes in the boards for air. When all this was finished, for it was long about, she thought herself the most secure happy creature alive. When it had stood the trial for a month of no water coming into it, which was feared from being so low, and every day examined by my mother, and the holes for air made clear, and kept clean picked, her father ventured home, having that to trust to. After being at home a week or two, the bed daily examined as usual, one day, in lifting the boards, the bed bounced to the top, the box being full of water; in her life she was never so struck, and had near dropt down, it being at that time their only refuge. Her father, with great composure, said to his wife and her, he saw they must tempt providence no longer, and that it was now fit and necessary for him to go off, and leave them; in which he was confirmed, by the carrier telling for news he had brought from Edinburgh, that the day before, Mr Baillie of Jerviswood had his life taken from him at the Cross, and that everybody was sorry, though they durst not shew it. As all intercourse by letters was dangerous, it was the first notice they had of it, and the more shocking, that it was not expected. They immediately set about preparing for my grandfather’s going away. My mother worked night and day in making some alterations in his clothes for disguise; they were then obliged to trust John Allan, their grieve, who fainted away when he was told his master was in the house, and that he was to set out with him on horseback before day, and pretend to the rest of the servants that he had orders to sell some horses at Morpeth fair. Accordingly, my grandfather getting out at a window to the stables, they set out in the dark. Though, with good reason, it was a sorrowful parting, yet after he was fairly gone, they rejoiced, and thought themselves happy that he was in a way of being safe, though they were deprived of him, and little knew what was to be either his fate or their own.

‘My grandfather, whose thoughts were much employed, and went on as his horse carried him, without thinking of his way, found himself at Tweedside, out of his road, and at a place not fordable, and no servant. After pausing, and stopping a good while, he found means to get over, and get into the road on the other side, where, after some time, he met his servant, who shewed inexpressible joy at meeting him, and told him, as he rode first, he thought he was always following him, till upon a great noise of the galloping of horses, he looked about and missed him; this was a party sent to his house to take him up, where they searched very narrowly, and possibly hearing horses were gone from the house, suspected the truth and followed. They examined this man, who, to his great joy and astonishment, missed his master, and was too cunning for them, that they were gone back before my grandfather came up with him. He immediately quitted the high road, after a warning by so miraculous an escape, and in two days sent back his servant, which was the first notice they had at home of his not having fallen into their hands.’[315]

Sir Patrick escaped to Holland, whence he returned with the Prince of Orange to take a high place in the councils of his country under a happier régime.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: DEC. 2.]

We have seen many instances of Catholics deprived, under acts of parliament, of the privilege of educating their own children. This statutory power was now applied by the government to gentlefolk of what were called fanatical principles. The Lady Colville was imprisoned in the Edinburgh Tolbooth for her irregularities of religious practice, and particularly for ‘breeding up her son Lord Colville in fanaticism and other disloyal principles.’--Foun. Dec.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1685.

JAN.]

[Sidenote: 1685.]

‘One James Cathcart, a pretended mathematician and astrologer, emitted a printed paper at Edinburgh, inviting any to come to him, and get resolutions of any difficult questions they had to ask, such as anent their death, their marriage, what husbands or wives they would get, and if they would prosper and succeed in such projects of love, or journeys, &c.; as also professed skill to cure diseases. This was a great impudence in a Christian commonwealth to avow such an art; for if he had it by magic, then he was a sorcerer; if not, he was an impostor and abuser of the people, which even is death.... In his paper, he cited some texts of Scripture, allowing an influence to the stars.’--Foun.

REIGN OF JAMES VII.: 1685-1688.

James Duke of York succeeded his brother in the three kingdoms (February 6, 1685), at a mature period of life, being fifty-three years of age. While reckoning as James II. in England and Ireland, he was the seventh of the name in Scotland.

The transition from the one sovereign to the other was very much like that from James VI. to Charles I. It was in each case from a man of lax principle to one who carried principle to obstinacy. It was also in each case a change from that easy good-nature which gets through difficulties, to a certain severity of temper which does not so much subdue difficulties as it makes them. If James could have kept his religion out of sight, there was enough of loyalty in the nation to have carried him to the end of a prosperous reign; he might have even completed his brother’s designs for rendering the English crown absolute. But he was too earnest a Catholic to give his subjects a pretext for forgetting the fact, or to allow of their winking at his assaults upon their liberties.

The Duke of Monmouth, who had set up some pretensions to the crown as a legitimate son of Charles II., now resided in exile at Brussels. He had ingratiated himself with the dissenters in England, and hoped by their assistance to dethrone the new monarch. He formed a design, in concert with the Earl of Argyle, for an invasion of the island. The latter nobleman set sail in May, and, after touching at the Orkneys, descended upon the west of Scotland, where he was joined by two thousand five hundred of his clan. A boat’s crew whom he sent on shore at Orkney being taken prisoners, gave information of his design, and the bishop of that diocese immediately carried the intelligence to Edinburgh. The militia of the kingdom was called out. The gentlemen of Argyle’s clan were seized and brought to the capital. The earl, finding all his prospects blighted, made a hesitating and timid advance towards Glasgow, where he hoped, but vainly, to be joined by the persecuted people of the west. The government forces advancing on every hand to meet him, his troops melted away; and after pursuing a solitary flight for a little way in disguise, he was taken prisoner at Inchinnan in Renfrewshire, and transported to Edinburgh, where he was immediately executed upon his former sentence (June 30, 1685).

The expedition which Monmouth conducted to the west of England was equally unfortunate, and that nobleman being seized under similar circumstances, was also executed. The exasperations, terrors, and anxieties which the sovereign had endured, first from the endeavours of the Whig party to exclude him from the throne, and latterly from these two rebellions, revenged themselves in severities which have fixed an indelible stigma upon his name. Under the Chief-justice Jeffries, hundreds of Monmouth’s followers, and even some wholly innocent, were summarily condemned and executed. It became a ‘killing time’ with the poor Presbyterians of the west of Scotland, many of whom were seized and shot dead in the fields. Everywhere men were reduced to silence; but at the same time, much of their respect and affection was lost.

From the commencement of his reign, James took no pains to conceal his religion. Encouraged by the suppressed rebellions and the stillness which everywhere prevailed, he now thought he might safely commence a series of measures for restoring the Catholic faith in his dominions. As the law stood, no papist could hold any office in the state. They were excluded, in both kingdoms, by a test oath, abjuring the errors of popery. Early in 1686, James endeavoured to get an act passed in both parliaments for dispensing with this oath, so that he might be enabled to introduce men of his own religion into all places of trust, which he judged to be the best way of proselytising the people at large. But to his surprise, the same parliaments which had already declared his temporal power to be nearly absolute, refused to yield to him on the subject of religion. Neither entreaties nor threats could prevail upon them to pass the necessary acts. In Scotland, the Duke of Queensberry, Sir George Mackenzie, and other statesmen, who had hitherto been the readiest to yield him obedience in all his most unpopular measures, submitted rather to be displaced than to surrender up the religion along with the liberties of the nation.

When he found that the parliaments would not yield to him, he dissolved them, and, pretending that he had only asked their consent out of courtesy, assumed to himself the right of dispensing with the test. This was establishing a power in the crown to subvert any act of parliament, and consequently no law could henceforth stand against the royal pleasure. If it had been assumed upon a temporal point, it is not probable that any resistance would have been made; for the right of the king to do as he pleased, and the illegality of all opposition to his will on the part of the people, were principles now very generally conceded. But it concerned the existence of the Church of England, and the religious prepossessions of the great majority of the people. There was therefore an almost universal spirit of resistance.

In order to give his measures an appearance of fairness and put them on a sufficiently broad ground, he granted a toleration to all kinds of dissenters from the Established Church. Affecting to have long been convinced that ‘conscience ought not to be constrained nor people forced in matters in religion;’ that all attempts of the kind were detrimental to the social economy and the interests of government, leading only to ‘animosities, name-factions, and sometimes to sacrilege and treason;’ he, by proclamations in the first six months of 1687, discharged all existing laws against dissenters in both sections of Britain, with certain moderate reservations, making it practicable for Presbyterians in Scotland to set up chapels for their own worship. This was a most remarkable step for a British sovereign to take. First, it openly assumed a right of the monarch, by his ‘absolute power’--for such was the phrase he used--to overrule the acts of parliament. Next, it gave ‘a degree and amount of toleration, beyond what any class of religionists was quite prepared to sanction. Therefore it was at once unconstitutional and over-liberal. Obvious as the royal motives were, there was a general expression of satisfaction with the measure among the English dissenters, while a considerable meeting of Presbyterian clergy in Scotland sent an address of thanks, with a promise of ‘entire loyalty in doctrine and practice’ for the future. But everywhere, the established clergy and the great bulk of the respectable middle classes, adherents of episcopalian protestantism, were alarmed and alienated, judging the movement to be, as it undoubtedly was, designed as a step towards the return of popery.

In the height of his power, James had deprived the boroughs of both kingdoms of their charters, and granted new ones, in which he was left the power of nominating the magistracies. He took advantage of this liberty to put Catholics into every kind of burgal office. He also attempted to get men of the same religion introduced into the chief seats in the universities.

What rendered these events the more alarming to the nation was the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the king of France, in consequence of which the Protestants of that kingdom were subjected to a cruel persecution at the hands of their Catholic brethren. The people of Great Britain received about fifty thousand of these innocent persons under their protection; and as they were scattered over the whole country, they everywhere served as living proofs of Romish intolerance and cruelty. The British saw that if the king were not resisted in his endeavours to introduce popery, they would soon be groaning in hopeless subjection to a small dominant party, if not driven, like the French Protestants, far from their homes and native seats of industry, to wander like beggars over the earth.

The king had commanded the clergy to read in their pulpits his edict of universal toleration. Several of the English bishops, after ascertaining that the whole body almost to a man would support them, presented a petition to the king, in which they respectfully excused themselves from obeying his command. For this they were thrown into the Tower, and brought to trial, but, to the great joy of the nation, acquitted.

At this time (June 1688), the birth of a son to the king threw the nation into a state of extreme anxiety for the ultimate interests of the Protestant religion. It is to be observed that, if this prince had not come into the world, the crown would have fallen, in the course of time, to the king’s daughter Mary, who, for some years, had been married to the Prince of Orange. This lady being a Protestant, and the king being now advanced in life, the people had hitherto cherished a prospect of seeing the Protestant faith eventually secured under her sway. But now the Protestant line was excluded, and with it all hope was at an end. To add to the general dissatisfaction, there was some cause to suspect that the child was a spurious one, brought forward for the purpose of keeping up a popish line of succession.

The concurrence of all these circumstances brought the nation to such a uniformity of sentiment as had not been witnessed for fifty years. While the old enemies of the dynasty remained as they had always been, its best friends and supporters were now disaffected and thrown into alarm. Tories as well as Whigs, church zealots as well as dissenters, were become impressed with the idea that some extraordinary measure was necessary to save the nation from popery, if not from slavery.

The people of all orders turned their eyes to William Prince of Orange, who had long taken a lead in opposing the arrogant continental policy of the French monarch, and whose court had for some years been a resort of British malcontents. The prince himself was strongly inclined, for reasons of general policy as well as of personal ambition, to attempt a revolution in England. Being invited by a great number of influential persons, of both sides in politics, including some of the clergy, he no longer hesitated to make preparations for an invasion. In October he set sail with an army of about sixteen thousand men, and on the 5th of November cast anchor in Torbay, in Devonshire, while the king’s fleet lay wind-bound at Harwich. James had surrounded himself with a standing army; but, as generally happens in such crises, it partook of the almost universal feeling of the people, and was not to be depended on. Even with the assistance of a less scrupulous force from Scotland, he could hardly venture to risk an engagement with the prince, to whose standard a great number of the nobility had already resorted. He therefore retired before the advancing army to London, and was immediately deserted by all his principal counsellors, and even by his younger daughter, the Princess Anne. Feeling no support around him, he first despatched the queen and her infant to France, and then prepared to follow. In the disguise of a servant, he escaped down the river to Feversham, but being there seized by the populace as a popish refugee, he was brought back to London. It was found, however, that the government could not be settled on a proper footing while he remained in the country; and he was therefore permitted once more to depart (December 23, 1688). He left the kingdom in the belief that the people could not do without him, and would call him back in triumph; but, in reality, nothing could have been more agreeable to them than his departure.

In Scotland, the Privy Council and Established Church were left by the departure of the king an isolated power in the midst of a people generally indisposed to give them support. There was an irrepressible popular eagerness to break out against such popish establishments as the king had set up--to attack and extrude the more obnoxious of the clergy, and to take some vengeance upon the more noted instruments of the late arbitrary power, as the Chancellor Perth and Graham of Claverhouse, whom James had lately created Viscount Dundee. The populace did lose no time in rising against the popishly furnished chapel-royal at Holyrood and a Catholic printing-office which had been placed in its neighbourhood; and after a struggle with the armed guards, both places were pillaged and ruined. The Chancellor Perth, who had incurred peculiar odium from turning papist, was seized in the act of flight and thrown into a vile prison. In the west country, the populace rabbled out two hundred of the parochial clergy, not treating them over-gently, yet after all, using less roughness than might perhaps have been expected. In the other parts of Scotland, where prelacy had won some favour or been quietly endured, no particular movement took place.

In January 1689, about a hundred Scottish noblemen and gentlemen assembled at Whitehall, and, having previously ascertained the disposition of their countrymen, resolved to follow the example of England, by offering the supreme management of their affairs to the Prince of Orange. A Convention was consequently appointed by the prince to meet at Edinburgh on the 14th of March. This assembly, which was elected by the people at large, excluding only the Catholics, experienced at first some embarrassment from the adherents of King James. The Duke of Gordon still held the castle in that interest, and was able, if he pleased, to bombard the Parliament House with his cannon. The Viscount Dundee was also in Edinburgh with a number of his dragoons, and every day attended the assembly. On the other hand, an immense number of the westland Whigs, or Cameronians--as they were called from one of their ministers--had flocked to the city, where they were concealed in garrets and cellars. Dundee, when he saw that there was a majority of the Convention hostile to his old master, concerted with the Earl of Mar and Marquis of Athole a plan for holding a counter-Convention at Stirling, after the manner of the royalist parliament held at Oxford by Charles I. In the expectation that his friends would have been ready to accompany him, he brought out his troop of dragoons to the street; but finding their minds somewhat changed, he was obliged to take his departure by himself, as the parading of armed men so near the Parliament House would have subjected him to a charge of treason. He therefore rode out of the city with only a small squadron, and clambering up the Castle-rock, held a conference with the Duke of Gordon at a postern, where it was resolved upon between them that he should go to raise the Highland clans for King James, while his Grace should continue to hold out the Castle.

The liberal members of the Convention took advantage of this movement to summon the people to arms for their protection, and they were instantly surrounded by hundreds of armed Cameronians, who completely overawed the adherents of the late government. The Convention then declared King James to have forfeited the crown, by his attempts to overcome the religion and liberties of his subjects. The sovereignty of Scotland was settled, like that of England, upon the next Protestant heirs, the Prince and Princess of Orange, who were accordingly proclaimed at Edinburgh on the 11th of April.

It is not necessary here to detail the efforts made by King James to recover possession of Ireland--ending in his overthrow at the Boyne--or the gallant stand made for him in the spring of 1689 by the Duke of Gordon in Edinburgh Castle, and by Lord Dundee in the Highlands of Perthshire. By the death of the latter at the battle of Killiecrankie (July 27), all formidable opposition to the new settlement came to an end. It is understood that, if circumstances would have permitted, King William would have rather continued to maintain the Episcopal Church in Scotland than establish any other. Finding, however, that the bishops remained faithful to King James, he was compelled to take the Presbyterians under his protection. The Convention, changed by the royal mandate into a Parliament, proceeded in July to abolish prelacy in the Church, and to establish the moderate Presbyterianism which still exists. All the clergy formerly in possession of churches were permitted to retain them, if they felt disposed to accede to the new system, and take the oaths to government. The Solemn League and Covenant, though still supported by a party, was overlooked. The clergy were deprived of the power of inflicting a civil punishment by means of excommunication. General Assemblies and other Church courts were restored, with independent powers in ecclesiastical matters, and, the act of supremacy being abolished, Christ was understood to reign as formerly over the church. The clergy, however, tacitly admitted the king to be their patron and nursing father; and while the moderator of the assemblies convened and dissolved them in the name of Christ, the king’s commissioner, or representative, was also allowed to do the same in the name of the sovereign. Thus at length, by one of those compromises which sometimes follow the exhaustion of passion, a sort of middle way was found, in which the religious prepossessions of the great bulk of the people could rest in peace, while still the reasonable powers of the state were not dangerously interfered with. So did the great troubles of the seventeenth century come to an end, and allow the genius of the nation at length to give a due share of its energies to that material prosperity which had so long been repressed. The course of Scotland since, under its moderate church and zealous dissenting communions, its useful parish schools, and mild government; the advance of the country in population, in the culture of its soil, in every branch of honourable industry, and in the paths of science and literature; these might well form the subjects of another work equal in extent to the present.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1685.

FEB. 26.]

The curious book, entitled ‘Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, by Mr George Sinclair, late professor of philosophy at the college of Glasgow,’ was endowed by the Lords of the Privy Council with a copyright of eleven years; all persons whatsoever being prohibited ‘from printing, reprinting, or importing into this kingdom, any copies of the said book,’ during that space of time. This little volume, which was often reprinted during the eighteenth century, and so lately as 1814, contains, in the language of its own title-page, a ‘Choice Collection of Modern Relations, proving evidently against the Atheists of this present age, that there are Devils, Spirits, Witches, and Apparitions, from authentic records and attestations of witnesses of undoubted veracity.’

[Sidenote: 1685.]

To maintain the efficacy of witchcraft and the reality of spirits and apparitions was at that time a part of the external Christianity of the country, and it was a recognised part of ‘atheism,’ as all freedom of judgment was then called, to entertain a doubt about either. The work of Mr George Sinclair was an example of a series in which the popular beliefs on these subjects were defended as essential to orthodoxy. One of the most remarkable of these treatises was the Antidote against Atheism, published by Dr Henry More in 1655; in which we find, first, a most ingenious, and, for the age, well-informed exposition of the arguments for a God from the remarkable adaptations and provisions seen, throughout animated nature--next, and in close connection, a deduction of theism and providence from examples of bewitched persons, ghosts, vampires, guardian genii, &c. The heading of one of his chapters is: ‘That the evasions of Atheists against Apparitions are so weak and silly, that it is an evident argument that they are convinced in their own judgment of the truth of these kinds of phenomena, which forces them to answer as well as they can, though they be so ill provided.’ Not less remarkable was the Saducismus Triumphatus of Joseph Glanvil, printed in 1681; in which are presented many narratives regarding both witches and spirits, including the celebrated one of the Drummer of Tedworth, all evidently deemed as necessary by the author for the overthrow and refutation of one of the prevalent forms of infidelity. It is equally worthy of notice, that when John Webster, ‘practitioner in physic,’ ventured before the world in 1677 with his book, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, in which he threw ridicule on the whole popular code of ideas regarding the doings of witches, his greatest solicitude was to guard himself against the imputation of being one who treated lightly anything of the nature of scriptural evidence.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MAR. 3.]

Robert Mean, of the Letter-office, had written a report to London, to the effect that the westland people were again in arms, and the king’s forces marching against them. Lord Livingstone consequently posted down from London, to take command of the forces. When his lordship arrived and found the report false, he made a complaint against Robert, who was consequently imprisoned for his indiscretion, being not the first or second time he had been in trouble for similar offences. Colonel Worden, a friend of the new king, felt that it was hard to make Mean suffer where his intention was so good; so he procured a royal letter in favour of the postmaster. On a penitent petition, Robert was liberated, and allowed to resume his office, but with a warning ‘that if he shall be found in any fault of his office hereafter, he shall be severely punished therefor.’--Foun. P. C. R.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: APR. 8.]

The Duke of Queensberry, the Earl of Perth, and the Archbishop of St Andrews, arrived in Edinburgh from London, ‘having been only eight days by the way.’--Foun.

[Sidenote: 1685.]

This must have appeared as rapid travelling in those days, for, twelve years later, the stage-coach from York to London spent the whole lawful days of a week upon its journey. This fact we learn from a passage in the diary of George Home of Kimmerghame, in Berwickshire,[316] where the following statement is made: ‘Thursday, October 21 [1697], Sir John Home of Blackadder set out post for London, at two o’clock. It afterwards appears that he tired of posting [as slow], and [for expedition, doubtless] got into the stage-coach at York on Monday the 25th, and was expected to reach London in it on Saturday the 30th.’

* * * * *

[Sidenote: APR. 16.]

The equestrian statue of Charles II., which had cost £1000, though only formed of lead, was set up in the Parliament Close, Edinburgh. ‘The vulgar people, who had never seen the like before, were much amazed at it. Some compared it to Nebuchadnezzar’s image, which all fell down and worshipped, and others foolishly to the pale horse in the Revelations, and he that sat thereon was death.’--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: APR.]

Sir Alexander Forbes of Tolquhoun, in Aberdeenshire, having entertained in his house Alexander Ogilvie of Forglen, Sir John Falconer, and Lord Pitmedden, missed immediately after two mazer cups on which he set great value. He wrote to Ogilvie, mentioning the fact of the cups being missed, and asking if he could tell anything about them. Ogilvie, though feeling that this was scarcely civil, returned a friendly answer, assuring Sir Alexander that he had never even seen the cups, and knew absolutely nothing directly or indirectly about them. Hereupon Sir Alexander replied apologetically, and for some years he conducted himself in the most friendly way towards Ogilvie, as if to make up for his former incivility.

[Sidenote: 1685.]

Afterwards, on Ogilvie refusing to take part with him in some quarrels with a third party, Sir Alexander appeared to conceive a malicious feeling towards him. To wreak this out, he raised an action against him in the Court of Session, on the allegation that he had fraudulently abstracted the fore-mentioned cups. ‘And when the case was called, Tolquhoun had the confidence to appear personally at the bar and own and countenance the same, and crave [Ogilvie’s] oath of calumny anent that defamatory libel.’ After Ogilvie had thus acquitted himself, Tolquhoun craved permission to enter on a proof of the libel by witnesses; which the lords assented to. While the matter was pending, Tolquhoun frequently upbraided Ogilvie with the terms cup-stealer and cup-cheater: nor did he hesitate to resort to legal quirks for keeping the charge as long as possible over the head of the accused. At length, the case came on, and, being found wholly without sound evidence, was pronounced to be altogether founded in malice.

[Sidenote: APR. 30.]

A subsequent process by Forglen against Tolquhoun for oppression and defamation was undefended by the latter, and ended in his being amerced in twenty thousand merks Scots, whereof one-half was adjudged to the aggrieved party.--P. C. R.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: JUNE.]

A dog being stolen out of the house of the Earl of Morton in Peebles, it chanced that the Earl’s son, the Hon. George Douglas, soon after observed the animal following the Laird of Chatto on the High Street of Edinburgh. On Douglas claiming it, the Laird of Chatto very civilly gave it up. Some days after, as Douglas was walking the street, followed by the dog, John Corsehill, a footman of Chatto, came up and attempted to take the animal into his possession, doubtless believing that it was his master’s property. Douglas bade him forbear, as the dog was his; but John Corsehill, not being satisfied, gave him some foul language, and when Douglas soon after returned along the street, Corsehill renewed his attempt; whereupon Douglas called him a rascal, to which the lackey responded in the same terms. ‘Which being such an indignity to any gentleman, [Douglas] did step back, and make to his sword; but before he got it drawn, the footman did hit him twice with a cudgel over the head, and did continue violently to assault him, [Douglas] still retiring, and with his sword warding the blows; but the footman was so furious, that he run himself upon the point of the sword, and so was killed.’

The excuse of Douglas for this unhappy chance was, that Corsehill had been the first aggressor, and that ‘no gentleman could endure publicly to be called a rascal without resentment.’ He protested that he had only acted in self-defence.--P. C. R.

Another, though less fatal quarrel took place soon after, in consequence of a similar circumstance. Captain Scott, of the King’s Guard, having lost his dog in the college of Edinburgh, adopted the belief that it had been appropriated by Mr Gregory, the professor of mathematics. On this notion he acted so far as to fall upon the learned gownsman and give him a hearty beating. The other professors took up the case, and on their complaint to the Chancellor, Scott was compelled to crave pardon.--Foun. Dec.

[Sidenote: 1685.

JULY 7.]

Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, an associate in Argyle’s expedition, and a forfaulted traitor, was taken in a relative’s house in Renfrewshire at the end of June, and was on the 3d July, with his son and another traitor, brought into Edinburgh, ‘bound and bareheaded, by the hangman.’ On the day noted in the margin, the English packet coming to Edinburgh was known to have been twice stopped and robbed near Alnwick. It was conjectured at the time that this might be done by some of Sir John Cochrane’s friends, ‘lest there should have been any warrant from the king by these packets to have execute him; that so the Earl of Arran might have leisure to inform the king what Sir John could discover, and so obtain a countermand.’--Foun. There were other conjectures on the subject; but no one could have surmised that the robber of the packet was Sir John’s daughter Grizzel, disguised in men’s clothes, as was long after ascertained to be the case. Sir John obtained a pardon from the king, and lived to be Earl of Dundonald. The heroine Grizzel was married to John Kerr of Morriston, in Berwickshire.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AUG.]

‘Sir George Drummond, provost of Edinburgh, breaks and runs to the Abbey for debt, the first provost that, during his office, has broke in Edinburgh.’--Foun. A week or two after, in consequence of some objectionable matters being thrown over the windows of Patrick Graham, captain of the Town-guard, whereby some gentlemen’s clothes were spoiled, a trivial riot took place at the guard-house. The Lord Chancellor, Earl of Perth, who of course was bound to do what he could for a Drummond, took advantage of this petty affair to get a protection to the bankrupt provost, to enable him to appear and defend the town. Thus he was ‘brought to the street again.’

* * * * *

[Sidenote: SEP.]

[Sidenote: 1685.]

George Scott of Pitlochie had some claims upon the public in compensation for certain manuscripts originally belonging to his father, Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet, which he had surrendered to the Court of Session. Sir John had written a curious book, entitled an Account of the Staggering State of Scots Statesmen, in which, with irrepressible marks of gusto, he detailed the misfortunes which had befallen the persons and families of most of those who had taken a lead in public affairs or borne office during the preceding century. Now the usual destiny had overtaken his own son, who was fallen into poverty, and somewhat at a shift for a living. For some time, he besieged the Privy Council for help or patronage, and was at length gratified with a very peculiar gift. About two hundred westland peasants had been taken up for various acts of recusancy, and, for safety on the approach of Argyle, they were gathered out of the prisons, driven off like a flock of sheep to the east side of the island, and huddled into a vault of Dunnottar Castle, where they lived for a few weeks in circumstances of privation, as to food, air, water, and general accommodation, truly piteous. Hearing of their sad state, and relenting somewhat, the Council caused these poor people to be brought to Leith. It was hoped, perhaps, that they would now make such submissions as might warrant their liberation; and some did thus work themselves free. But the greater number positively refused to take the oath of allegiance, ‘as embodied with the supremacy,’ as they would thus be rejecting Christ from ‘the rule in his own house,’ as well as over their own consciences.

[Sidenote: SEP. 5.]

Pitlochie, who was himself a vexed Presbyterian, being now in contemplation of a settlement in the colony of East Jersey, and in want of labourers or bondsmen for the culture of his lands, petitioned the Council for a consignment of these tender-conscienced men, and nearly a hundred, who had been condemned to banishment, were at once ‘gifted’ to him. He freighted a Newcastle ship to carry them, and the vessel sailed from Leith roads, carrying with her a number of ‘dyvours and broken men’ besides the Covenanters. It was a most disastrous voyage.

Partly perhaps because of the reduced and sickly state of many of the prisoners at starting, but more through deficiency of healthful food, and the want of air and comfort, a violent fever broke out in the ship before she had cleared the Land’s End. It soon assumed a malignant type, and scarcely any individual on board escaped. The whole crew excepting the captain and boatswain died; Pitlochie himself and his lady also sunk under the disease. Three or four dead were thrown overboard every day. ‘Notwithstanding of this raging sickness, much severity was used towards the prisoners at sea by the master of the ship and others: those under deck were not allowed to go about worship by themselves, and when they essayed it, the captain would throw down great planks of timber upon them to disturb them, and sometimes to the danger of their lives.’

[Sidenote: 1685.]

Fifteen long weeks were spent by this pest-ship before she arrived at her destination; and in that time seventy had perished! The remainder were so reduced in strength as to be scarcely able to go ashore. The people at the place where they landed, ‘not having the gospel among them,’ were indifferent to the fate of the Scottish Presbyterians. But at a place a few miles inland, where there was a minister and a congregation, they were received with great kindness. They then became the subject of a singular litigation, a Mr Johnston, the son-in-law and heir of Pitlochie, suing them for their value as bond-servants. A jury found that there was no indenture between Pitlochie and them, but that they were shipped against their will; therefore Mr Johnston had no control over them. A good many of them are said to have died within a short space of time in the plantations; the rest returned to their native country at the Revolution. Such was the sad story of Pitlochie’s voyage.--P. C. R. Wod. Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: OCT.]

Robert Pringle of Clifton, a considerable gentleman of Roxburghshire, was lately dead, leaving one child, Jonet Pringle, now about twenty years of age, as heir to the bulk of his property, while his brother Andrew succeeded as heir of provision. It was obviously desirable for the general interest of the family, that the two branches should be re-united, and when any interest of this sort existed, objections of a natural and moral kind seldom stood long in the way. Andrew Pringle’s eldest son was only thirteen; therefore, if suitable at all as a match for his fair cousin, he was certainly not suitable yet. But then there was a tribe of Murrays of Livingstone, the relations of Jonet’s mother, who anxiously desired to have the disposal of her. Already Lieutenant George Murray, of the King’s Guard, was alive to his prospective interests in the matter. How to countermine him? The young lady vanished from society; much reason to suppose it was by the prompting and assistance of her uncle Andrew. Lieutenant Murray obtained from the Privy Council an order against Andrew Pringle to produce his niece; but he cleared himself by oath of the charge of having been concerned in putting her away. Murray urged that she should be exhibited--as her relation he had an interest in seeing this done--and Andrew Pringle, who had not acted very well towards his deceased brother, was ill fitted to take a charge of the niece. Mr Pringle was ordered, on pain of a fine of ten thousand merks, to bring forward his niece before the 5th of November, and, to make sure of him, he was put into prison. It was, however, soon ascertained that the young lady had gone over the Border with her boy-cousin, and been married to him by a regular English clergyman!

[Sidenote: 1685.]

In these circumstances, it became needless for the lieutenant to go forward with his case against Mr Pringle. A contract was made between him and Pringle, whereby for seven thousand merks he agreed to withdraw all opposition. All offence to the laws of the country by so improper a marriage was soon after effaced by a fine of five hundred merks imposed on the young couple.--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: OCT. 20.]

At a meeting of the synod of Edinburgh, there was a report from the presbytery of Haddington on the case of a poor man, the gardener of Sir John Seton of Garmilton, who, having turned Catholic, had become in their opinion liable to a sentence of excommunication. But such processes had now become a matter of some delicacy, as the king might thereby be offended. The bishop, in some terror, signed the warrant for going on with the process against the gardener, and, lest the act should appear a strong one, he tried to soften it by professing to his clergy to have little fear of popery, as the king had promised to protect the Protestant religion. A few weeks after, a letter came down from the king, forbidding the church authorities to go on with the excommunication of the gardener. With what grim smiles would the westland Whigs hear of this transaction!--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: DEC. 17.]

In the course of our perquisitions into domestic matters in Scotland, the first trace that is found of any effort at a systematic education of young ladies in elegant accomplishments, occurs in a petition of Isobel Cumming to the Privy Council at this date. She was a widow and a stranger, who had been invited some years before to come to Edinburgh, ‘where she conceived the centre of virtue to be in this kingdom,’ in order to instruct young gentlewomen ‘in all sorts of needlework, playing, singing, and in several other excellent pieces of work, becoming ladies of honour.’ In this useful course of life, she had received much encouragement, and she was going on continually ‘improving herself for the advantage of young ladies of quality.’ Now, however, she was beset by a serious obstruction, in an order to quarter a certain number of soldiers in her house. She petitioned for an immunity from this branch of citizenly duty, and the lords--who, as oftener than once remarked, seem never to have been deficient in Christian-like feeling in matters apart from Christianity--immediately granted her request.--P. C. R. [Sidenote: 1686.

JAN. 31.]

After what we have seen of the hardness of general feeling towards the Catholic religion during the last hundred years, it may be well understood that the fitting up of a popish chapel, college, and printing-office in Holyrood Palace would be regarded with no resigned feelings by the multitude, whatever might be the views of state-councillors, under a sense of delicacy or deference towards the king. At the ‘skailing’ of the chapel one day, some of the populace threw dirt and called names to the worshippers, and one of the offenders, ‘a baxter lad,’ was consequently whipped through the Canongate. On the youth being rescued by the mob, the guards were called in, and a woman and two men were shot. ‘Then all were commanded off the streets, and all ordained to hang out bowets [lanterns]; and some being apprehended, the next day a woman and two men were scourged ... guarded all the way betwixt two files of musketeers and pikemen, for fear of being deforced again.’ Afterwards, a drummer who said he could find it in his heart to run his sword through all papists, was shot; and one Keith, a fencing-master, who spoke some sentences in a jovial company approving of the tumult, saying, ‘if the trades lads would fall upon the Town-guard, he would secure Captain Patrick Graham,’ was tried, condemned, and hanged, ‘dying piously in much composure.’--Foun.

Such were the symptoms of popular feeling which heralded the Revolution.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: FEB. 16.]

The Archbishop of St Andrews and Bishop of Edinburgh departed for London, ‘in the retour coach which had, the week before, brought down the Marquis of Athole and Sir William Bruce from thence.’--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: APR.]

‘Two charlatans came to Edinburgh, with recommendations from his majesty, called Doctor Reid and Salvator Moscow, from Sicily.’ They ‘erected stages, and in their printed papers did brag of admirable cures, as sixty-four blind persons restored to sight, who had never seen from their birth, with many other extravagant undertakings.’--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: JUNE 14.]

[Sidenote: 1686.]

The parliament passed an act to encourage Mr John Adair to proceed with a design he had formed and in part executed, for producing serviceable maps of the counties of Scotland, and a hydrographical description of its sea-coasts for the use of mariners. It was arranged to remunerate Adair by a small tax on tonnage. He accordingly proceeded with his work, obtained mathematical instruments to the value of £100 from abroad, brought one Maxon an engraver from Holland at a cost of £70, and ‘did truly survey, navigate, and delineate the coast from Sunderland Point in England to Buchan-ness, in eight large maps, including the rivers and firths of Forth and Tay, likewise the Firth of Clyde on the west sea in one large map; upon which he bestowed (having ordinarily paid 20s. sterling per diem for boats) £200 sterling.’

At a time when, even in England, Flamstead’s salary of a hundred a year was often in arrears, it was not to be expected that any government patronage to science in Scotland should be effectively carried out. It appears that the tonnage-rate assigned to Adair proved, from one cause and another, unproductive, and he was left with the work on his hands, seriously embarrassed by his expenses, and unable to publish what he had executed. About 1691, an effort was made to get the maps engraved and published by a subscription at one pound per copy; but of seven hundred subscribers required, no more than a hundred could be procured--so few were then the individuals possessing the union of taste, public spirit, and means necessary to make them encourage such a project. At length, in 1694, on Adair’s petition, the Privy Council made some arrangements for supplying him with funds, and he was commissioned to go on with his labours. It was at the same time made an instruction to him that, while conducting his surveys, he should obtain information regarding the natural curiosities of the country, and also its antiquities. Among the former were mentioned, clays and marls dug from the ground, and crystals, flints, and ‘figured stones, having the shapes of plants, shells, animals, &c.’--such being the conception of that age regarding those fossils in which the geologist now sees the actual remains of the organisms of the earlier epochs of creation! The funds, derived from a tonnage-rate, seem to have come in very slowly and in inadequate amount. Adair nevertheless, had a hired vessel for a succession of summers along the western coast, and in 1703 he was able to bring out a volume in folio, containing maps of the east coast, with letter-press descriptions. He described himself next year as having received £1800 sterling to account, while about £500 remained due. He adds that, even if that balance were paid, he would have no profit for his own trouble, or anything to reimburse him for what he had spent in the support of his numerous family while absent on his surveys.

[Sidenote: 1686.]

Owing to the difficulty of obtaining the needful funds, the remainder of Adair’s work, though in a state of forwardness, was never presented to the world. It appears that he died in London towards the close of 1722, probably in reduced circumstances. His wife was next year honoured with a pension of £40.[317]

A man of kindred talents was endeavouring at the same time with Adair to produce a work which was calculated to reflect some honour on the country. We refer to John Slezer, a German or Dutchman, who had come to our northern land in 1669, and been patronised by several of the nobility, who by and by procured for him a commission as engineer in an artillery corps. He was afterwards encouraged by Charles II., the Duke of York, and other great personages, to undertake a work descriptive of Scotland; and the first result appeared in 1693, in a folio entitled Theatrum Scotiæ[, containing fifty-seven views of palaces and noblemen’s seats. The country was vain enough to desire to see such a work executed, but too poor to give it a remunerative sale. Yet Slezer struggled on to complete it by other volumes. The Scottish parliament, on his petition, made some arrangements to assist him with money, but they were attended with little good effect. Two volumes of additional drawings, therefore, remained for years unengraved, or at least unready for publication; and the poor author had to betake himself to the sanctuary of Holyroodhouse, where he and his talents lay useless for thirteen years, while his family lived miserably in the city. Here he died in November 1717, leaving debts to the amount of £2249, and claims on the government to a nearly equal amount.[318]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: JUNE and JULY.]

[Sidenote: 1686.]

‘In the year 1686,’ says Patrick Walker, ‘especially in the months of June and July, about Crossford, two miles below Lanark, especially at the Mains on the water of Clyde, many people gathered together for several afternoons, where there were showers of bonnets, hats, guns, and swords, which covered the trees and ground; companies of men in arms marching along the water-side; companies meeting companies all through other, and then all falling to the ground, and disappearing, and other companies appearing the same way. I went there three afternoons together, and, as I could observe, there were two of the people that were together saw, and a third that saw not; and though I could see nothing, yet there was such a fright and trembling upon those that did see, that was discernible to all from those that saw not. There was a gentleman standing next to me who spoke as too many gentlemen and others speak. He said: “A pack of damned witches and warlocks that have the second-sight! De’il haet do I see!” And immediately there was a discernible change in his countenance, with as much fear and trembling as any woman I saw there; who cried out: “Oh, all ye that do not see, say nothing; for I persuade you it is matter of fact, and discernible to all that is not stone-blind!” Those that did see, told what works the guns had, and their length and wideness; and what handles the swords had, whether small, or three-barred, or Highland guards; and the closing knots of the bonnets, black and blue; and these who did see them there, wherever they went abroad, saw a bonnet and a sword drop by the way.’

The explanation of this kind of marvel has already been given under 1668. In the present instance, the subjective character of the phenomenon is borne out by what Walker tells of some, including himself, not being able to see anything, and of a gentleman suddenly becoming sensible of the vision.

[Sidenote: 1686.]

Honest Patrick acknowledges having been afterwards much twitted and laughed at by ‘learned critics,’ and even ‘young ministers and expectants,’ about his report of the Crossford visions, on the score of his having been himself present, without witnessing the alleged prodigy. He admits that he was there three days, and saw nothing, but goes on: ‘Will these wild-ass colts tell me what stopped the eyes of the long clear-sighted Balaam, that saw a star arise out of Jacob, ... yet saw not the angel standing with a drawn sword in his hand, and his dull ass saw him, and stopped three times? And what stopped the eyes of the men that were with Daniel, at the river Hiddekel, when he saw the vision, but they saw not, but greatly quaked? And what stopped the ears of Paul’s companions in wickedness, going the devil’s errand to Damascus, that saw the light and made them fall to the ground, but heard not the words of the voice that spake to him? And what stopped the ears and eyes of the captain of the Castle of Edinburgh, who was alarmed three times at night, while the sentinels were with him; but when they were sent off, he both saw and heard the different beating of drums, both English and Scots, in that strange apparition in the year 1650, before the English came to it?’

* * * * *

‘This winter, there happened three fires at Edinburgh, and all on the Sabbath-day, to signify God’s displeasure at the profanation of his day.’ And yet ‘there is no certain conclusion can be drawn from these providential accidents, for a few would draw just the contrary conclusion--that God was dissatisfied with our worshipping him on that day: so these providences may be variously interpreted.’--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1687.

JAN. 13.]

One Reid, a mountebank, was at this time practising in Edinburgh. He was popishly inclined, and actually, four days after this date, was received into the Catholic church with one of his blackamoors; which, Fountainhall tells us, was ‘a great trophy’ to the popish party, now in the ascendency. On the date here noted, Reid had Scott of Harden and his lady in court ‘for stealing away from him a little girl called the Tumbling Lassie, who danced upon his stage; she danced in all shapes, and, to make her supple, he daily oiled all her joints; and he claimed damages, and produced a contract, where he had bought her from her mother for £30 Scots. But,’ adds Fountainhall, ‘we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns; and physicians attested the employment of tumbling would bruise all her bowels and kill her; and her joints were now grown stiff, and she declined to return.’ The mountebank, though favoured by the chancellor on account of his popery, lost his cause.--Foun. Dec.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MAY 1.]

[Sidenote: 1687.]

Being Sunday, a young woman of noted piety, Janet Fraser by name, the daughter of a weaver in the parish of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, had gone out to the fields with a young female companion, and sat down to read the Bible not far from her father’s house. Feeling thirsty, she went to the river-side (the Nith) to get a drink, leaving her Bible open at the place where she had been reading, which presented the verses of the 34th chapter of Isaiah, beginning--‘My sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment,’ &c. On returning, she found a patch of something like blood covering this very text. In great surprise, she carried the book home, where a young man tasted the substance with his tongue, and found it of a saltless or insipid flavour. On the two succeeding Sundays, while the same girl was reading her Bible in the open air, similar blotches of matter, like blood, fell upon the leaves. She did not perceive it in the act of falling till it was about an inch from the book. ‘It is not blood, for it is as tough as glue, and will not be scraped off by a knife, as blood will; but it is so like blood, as none can discern any difference by the colour.’

Showers of blood are amongst the familiar prodigies by which mankind were alarmed in days of ignorance and superstition. A writer of our time remarks that it is most probable that these bloody waters were never seen falling, but that people, seeing the standing waters blood-coloured, were assured, from their not knowing how else it should happen, that it had rained blood into them. ‘Swammerdam,’ he goes on to say, ‘relates that, one morning in 1670, great excitement was created in the Hague, by a report that the lakes and ditches about the city were found to be full of blood. A certain physician went down to one of the canals, and taking home a quantity of this blood-coloured water, examined it with the microscope, and found that the water was water still, and had not at all changed its colour, but that it was full of prodigious swarms of small red animals, all alive, and very nimble in their motions, the colour and prodigious numbers of which gave a reddish tinge to the whole body of the water in which they lived.... The animals which thus colour the water of lakes and ponds are the pulices arborescentes of Swammerdam, or the water-fleas with branched horns. These creatures are of a reddish-yellow or flame-colour. They live about the sides of ditches, under weeds, and amongst the mud; and are therefore the less visible, except at a certain time, which is the beginning or end of June. It is at this time that these little animals leave their recesses to float about the water, and meet for the propagation of their species; and by this means they become visible in the colour which they give the water. The colour in question is visible, more or less, in one part or other of almost all standing waters at this season; and it is always at the same season that the bloody waters have alarmed the ignorant.’--Encyc. Brit., 7th ed., xix. 59. If we can suppose some quantity of the water so discoloured to be carried up by a whirlwind, transported along, and afterwards allowed to fall, such a fact as the depositing of blood-like stains on Janet Fraser’s Bible might be accounted for.

[Sidenote: 1687.]

Medieval history is full of stories of blood being found on or in the host, and of dismal misinterpretations of the phenomenon being accepted. Several massacres of Jews have arisen from this cause alone. Modern science sees the matter in its true light. In 1848, Dr Eckhard, of Berlin, when attending a case of cholera, found potatoes and bread within the house spotted with a red colouring matter, which, being forwarded to Ehrenberg, was found by him to be due to the presence of an animalcule, to which he gave the name of the Monas Prodigiosa. It was found that other pieces of bread could be inoculated with this matter. It is curious to reflect that, if Ehrenberg had been present to examine a certain spotted host in Frankfort in 1296, and supposing his rational explanations to be received, the lives of ten thousand unhappy descendants of Abraham might have been saved.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: JULY 6.]

In compliance with ‘a general outcry and complaint’ from the public, the magistrates of Edinburgh called up the butchers and vintners, and fined them for extortion. It was in vain that these men set forth that there was no rule or law broken, and that when they bought dear they must sell dear. It was held as a sufficient answer to the butchers, that they did exact large profits, besides using sundry arts to pass off their meat as better than it was, and they regrated the market by taking all the parks and enclosures about Edinburgh, so as to prevent any from ‘furnishing’ but themselves. It was alleged of the vintners, that they exacted for a prepared fowl triple what it cost in the market; they sold bread purposely made small; they charged twenty-four pence for the pound of sugar, while the cost to themselves was eightpence, ‘and even so in the measure of tobacco.’--Foun.

[Sidenote: 1687.]

Though the butchers formed one of the fourteen incorporated trades of Edinburgh, their business was of a limited description, and indeed continued so till a comparatively recent time, owing to the generally prevalent use of meat salted at Martinmas, a practice rendered unavoidable by the scarcity of winter fodder for cattle before the days of turnip husbandry. Of the animals used, cattle formed but a small proportion. John Strachan, a ‘flesh-cady’ or market-porter, who died in 1791 in the 105th year of his age, remembered the time--not long after that now under our attention--‘when no flesher would venture to kill any beast [that is, bullock] till all the different parts were bespoken.’[319] It may also be remarked that Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, 1772, tells us that ‘the gentleman is now living who first introduced stall-fed beef into Perth.’ He adds, with strict truth: ‘Before that time the greater part of Scotland lived on salt meat throughout the winter, as the natives of the Hebrides do at present, and as the English did in the feudal times.’

A truer remedy for the alleged extortions of the butchers was soon after hit upon by the Privy Council, in allowing meat to be brought into town by ‘landward men’ not of the corporation. ‘Some,’ adds Fountainhall timidly, ‘think that all [should be] permitted to bring in bread every day,’ being the same case with that of the maltmen, who were forbidden to form a deaconry.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: NOV. 24.]

The usual rule of the government in the two last reigns against unlicensed printing, was now very rigorously enforced, in order to prevent the issue of controversial pamphlets against the Catholic religion. James Glen, bookseller in Edinburgh, was imprisoned by an order from the Chancellor, for publishing a brochure called The Root of Romish Ceremonies, designed ‘to prove popery to be only paganism revived.’ It was a remarkable step for the government to take, while an uncontrolled popish printer was at constant work in the palace. Perhaps Lord Perth, who had become a Catholic (some say to please his wife, some to please the king, no one to please himself), felt sore at a bon mot of Glen, which Fountainhall has thought worthy of being preserved. The Council having (January 1686) issued an edict against the selling of books reflecting on popery, and their macer having brought this to Glen amongst others, he quietly remarked that ‘there was a book in his shop which condemned popery very directly--namely, the Bible--might he sell that?’

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1688.

JAN.]

At this time, so unpropitious to literature, an attempt was made to establish a periodical work of a kind which we only expect to see arising when the affairs of the learned republic are at a comparatively advanced stage. Mr John Cockburn, minister at Ormiston, in Haddingtonshire, printed the first number of a work containing ‘the monthly transactions and an account of books out of the Universal Bibliotheque and others.’ The Chancellor, finding in it some passages reflecting on the Roman Catholic Church, at once suppressed the publication.--Foun. Dec.

[Sidenote: 1688.

JAN. 19.]

Copious periwigs, with curls flowing down to the shoulders, were now in vogue, both at home and abroad. There being an active exportation of hair for the foreign peruke-makers, the article was found to have become dear, and the native artists began to complain. On their petition, the Privy Council forbade the exporting of hair.--Foun.

It may give some idea of circumstances attending this fashion, that at a date not long subsequent to the period under our attention, a female living in a town in the south of Scotland was accustomed to dispose of her crop of yellow hair to a travelling merchant at fixed intervals, and always got a guinea for it.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: FEB.]

Sir James Stanfield was one of the English manufacturers who had been induced to settle and practise their art at Newmills, in Haddingtonshire, in order that Scotch money should not need to be sent away for English-made goods. This respectable man was afflicted with a profligate eldest son, whom he at length saw fit to disinherit. He had become melancholy, probably in consequence of domestic troubles, and on a certain day in November, he was found drowned in a pool of water near his own house. It was debated whether he had been murdered or had drowned himself; and it was noted that the widow and son contended for the latter view of the case, and accordingly, without further ado, took measures for having the body immediately buried. A suspicion, however, arose that Sir James had met with foul play, and two surgeons were sent by the authorities in Edinburgh, to examine the body and report.

[Sidenote: 1688.]

The corpse was raised from the grave, after it had lain there two days; and the surgeons, having made an incision near the neck, became convinced that death had been induced by strangulation; so that the supposition of suicide was set aside. This inspection took place in the church. After the cut had been sewed up, and the body washed, and put into clean linen, James Row, a merchant of Edinburgh, and Philip Stanfield, eldest son of the deceased, took it up, one on each side, to deposit it in the coffin, when, behold, an effusion of blood was observed to take place on the side sustained by the son, so as to defile his hands. He instantly let the body fall, with the exclamation, ‘Lord, have mercy on me!’ and rushed, horror-struck, into the precentor’s desk, where he lay for some time groaning and in great agitation, utterly refusing to touch the corpse again. This incident was at once accepted in the light of a revelation of the young man’s guilt as his father’s murderer; and he was therefore taken into custody and brought to Edinburgh for trial.

The trial took place on the 7th of February, but brought out little evidence worthy of attention. Nevertheless, on the strength of the bleeding, and of his being known to have cursed his father, the unfortunate young man was found guilty, and sentenced to death, with sundry aggravations of punishment.

By pretending an inclination to turn papist, he got a brief respite, but, on the 24th of the month, was hanged, protesting his innocence to the last, and finally dying Protestant. By reason of a slip of the rope, he came down till his knees rested on the scaffold, and it was necessary to use more direct means of strangulation. Then his tongue was cut out, as a retribution for the cursing of his father, and his hand hacked off and sent to be put up on the east port of Haddington, as a memorial of the murder. The body was hung up in chains, but after a few days was stolen away, and found lying in a ditch among water. It was hung up again, but a second time taken down. Both in the strangulation on the scaffold and the being found in a ditch among water, the superstitious remarked something like a providential notice of the facts of the murder of which he was assumedly guilty.

It will be acknowledged that, in the circumstances related, there is not a particle of valid evidence against the young man. The surgeon’s opinion as to the fact of strangulation is not entitled to much regard; but, granting its solidity, it does not prove the guilt of the accused. The horror of the young man on seeing his father’s blood, might be referred to painful recollections of that profligate conduct which he knew had distressed his parent and brought his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave--especially when we reflect that Stanfield would himself be impressed with the superstitious feelings of the age, and might accept the hæmorrhage as an accusation by heaven on account of the concern his conduct had had in shortening the life of his father. The whole case seems to be a lively illustration of the effect of superstitious feelings in blinding justice.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MAR. 6.]

[Sidenote: 1688.]

The Privy Council considered a legal case about a very small matter. The beautiful lake of Duddingston, under the southeast front of Arthur’s Seat, and adjoining to the royal park of Holyrood, had been graced by the late Duke of Lauderdale with a few swans. His too clever duchess--who had for years been carrying on terrible legal wars with his heirs--deemed herself entitled to take out five of these birds at her own pleasure. Sir James Dick, the proprietor of the lake, determined to recover the swans; so he caught three of them, and broke a lockfast place in order to get the remaining two; and then placed them all once more upon the loch. Hereupon the duchess raised a process, which was now decided in her favour, on the ground that the birds had been brought to the loch by the late duke, and that Sir James’s tolerance of them there did not make them his. The baronet, indignant at being thus balked, turned all the rest of the swans off his lake; but here he was met by the Duke of Hamilton, heritable keeper of the palace, alleging that, as the lake bounded the royal park, the wild animals upon it belonged to him. So he caused the swans to be once again restored to their haunt.--Foun. Dec.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MAR.]

One Niven, a musician in Inverness, caused a girl of twelve years, his pupil, to marry him under basely deceptious pretences. To induce a minister to perform the ceremony, he suborned a youth to personate the girl’s brother, and convey the consent of the father, who was himself a clergyman. For this ‘abominable imposture and treachery,’ he was condemned to stand with his ear nailed to the pillory, and then banished.--Foun. Dec.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: JULY.]

For some time, we have heard little of witches; but now one appears. An old woman at Dunbar having threatened some people who refused to give her money, and ‘some evil accidents befalling them shortly after,’ she was seized and tried before a commission. She at first confessed, but afterwards retracted; nevertheless, the commission condemned her. Before proceeding to any greater extremity, they thought it well to bring her before the Council itself, who were at first inclined to ‘assoilzie’ her; but afterwards, ‘she was remitted back to Dunbar, to be burnt there, if her judges pleased.’--Foun.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1688.

JULY 22.]

The girdle--a round iron plate used for baking oaten cakes over a fire--a household article once universal among the middle and humbler classes in Scotland--was invented and first made at the little burgh of Culross, in Fife. In 1599, King James gave the Culrossians an exclusive privilege to make girdles, and this had been confirmed by a gift from Charles II. in 1666. Nevertheless, a neighbouring gentleman, Preston of Valleyfield, had kept girdle-makers (craticularum fabros) on his barony, for which he was now challenged at law by the burghers of Culross. He defended himself on various grounds; and the lords, before decision, ‘recommended to Drumcairn to take trial if the girdle-makers of Culross have any other trade or craft than that of making girdles, and at what prices they sell the same; and likewise to try if the men at Valleyfield do make sufficient girdles, and at what prices they make the same, and if they have any other trade than making of girdles, &c.’ How the matter ended we do not learn.--Foun. Dec.

* * * * *

About this time, an Englishman, apparently a military officer, described Scotland from personal observation, and so has preserved for us some general traits of the people.

‘Their drink,’ he says, ‘is beer, sometimes so new that it is scarce cold when brought to table. But their gentry are better provided, and give it age, yet think not so well of it as to let it go alone, and therefore add brandy, cherry brandy, or brandy and sugar, and [this] is the nectar of their country, at their feasts and entertainments, and carries with it a mark of great esteem and affection. Sometimes they have wine--a thin-bodied claret, at tenpence the mutchkin, which answers our quart.’

It is evident from this that whisky as yet formed no conspicuous indulgence among the Scottish people. They had come, however, to be much given to another stimulant, which has ever since had a great fascination for them. ‘They are fond of tobacco, but more from the sneesh-box [snuff-box] than the pipe. And they have made it so necessary, that I have heard some of them say, that, should their bread come in competition with it, they would rather fast than their sneesh should be taken away. Yet mostly it consists of the coarsest tobacco, dried by the fire, and powdered in a little engine after the form of a tap, which they carry in their pockets, and is both a mill to grind, and a box to keep it in.’[320]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1689.]

The infatuated king had fled to France, the ministers of his will had dispersed in terror, and a convention was about to meet and settle the crown upon William and Mary, when a singular instance of private revenge, recalling the rougher days of a century earlier, took place in Edinburgh.

[Sidenote: 1689.]

Sir George Lockhart, long the most eminent counsel at the Scottish bar--‘the most learned lawyer and the best pleader,’ says Burnet, ‘I have ever known of any nation’--and now President of the Court of Session, had had occasion, in the routine of judicial business, to give an award in favour of the unhappy wife and children of Chiesley of Dalry, near Edinburgh--a profligate man of violent passions, the descendant of a noted fanatic of the time of the Civil War. The sum assigned them from the husband and father’s estate was only ninety-three pounds a year. Chiesley openly avowed a resolution to be avenged on the judge; nay, he wrote to him, saying: ‘You have taken the government of my family from me--I desire a remedy at your hands; otherwise, I will not scruple to attack you at kirk or market;’ or using words to that effect.

[Sidenote: 1689.]

On Sunday, the 31st of March--while the town was under the excitement of the siege of the Castle by the troops of the new government--Sir George Lockhart attended worship, as usual, in the New Church, a portion of St Giles’s cathedral. Chiesley came armed, and endeavoured, by money offered to the bedral, to get into Lord Castlehill’s seat, which was just behind that of the President, being resolved there to wreak out his vengeance, although certain to lose his own life in consequence. Not succeeding in getting into this seat, he flitted restlessly about the church till the conclusion of the service, when he walked out, and preceded the Lord President to the head of the close near by,[321] in which the latter had his residence. The President came along, attended by Lord Castlehill and Mr Daniel Lockhart, and as he entered the close saluted Chiesley, who gloomily returned his greeting. To pursue the narrative of a contemporary: ‘My Lord Castlehill and Daniel Lockhart convoyed him a piece down the close, and talked a while with him, after which they both departed. The President called back the last, and whilst Daniel was returning, Dalry approached, to whom Daniel said: “I thought you had been at London,” without any other answer than that he was there [that is, here] now. Daniel offered to take him by the hand; but the other shuffled by him, and coming close to the President’s back, discharged his pistol before that any suspected his design. The bullet going in beneath the right shoulder and out at the left pap, was battered on the wall. The President immediately turned about, looked the murderer grievously in the face, and then finding himself beginning to fail, he leant to the wall, and said to Daniel: “Hold me, Daniel, hold me.” These were his last words. He was carried immediately to his own house, and was almost dead before he could reach it. Daniel and the President’s chaplain apprehended in the meanwhile Dalry, who owned the fact, and never offered to flee. He was carried to the guard, kept in the Weigh-house, and afterwards taken to prison. The President’s lady, hearing the shot and a cry in the close, got in her smock out of bed, and took the dead body in her arms; at which sight, swooning, she was taken to her chamber. The corpse were laid in the same room where he used to consult.’--Father Hay.

The murderer was tortured, but confessed nothing, and in three days he was hanging in chains at Drumsheuch; whence, however, his body was stolen away by his friends. Within the present century, on enlarging a cellar in Dalry house, a skeleton with some rusty irons about it was found in the earth, and concluded to be the remains of Chiesley.

* * * * *

Here--for the present, at least--ends our record of domestic occurrences and things in Scotland. It brings the life of the nation from the rudeness of the middle of the sixteenth century down to the comparative civilisation of the close of the seventeenth, when the existing political system was nearly settled. A strange phantasmagoria, beginning with the half mail-clad baron and his band of followers in swords and pistols, and ending in the silken and embroidered gallant in full periwig and a rapier for show. We have seen in the earlier years of the period little regard for law amongst the people, and no power in the government to enforce it. But gentlemen have latterly rather fallen out of the custom of stabbing an enemy as he walked the High Street. They no longer go in force and in ‘effeir of weir’ to assail a neighbour in his house, or throw lighted brands into it, or drive off his horses and cattle, by way of making out a point of legal satisfaction from him. The maintenance of any form of peace in Aberdeenshire or Banffshire does not now wholly depend on the good-will of the head of the Gordon family, himself a constant offender against law in as far as he clung to the Romish religion. As regards the protection of life and property, a great improvement has evidently been effected. It is evident from many circumstances that, during the whole time, there was a pressing tendency to improvement--partly to be accounted for, doubtless, by the near neighbourhood of England. But it was impeded by the almost incessant civil strife that was kept up in consequence of the contention between two principles of ecclesiastical polity--an assertion of infallibility and independence in the church on the one hand, and an effort to bend this to supposed state necessities on the other: men, in trying to make each other Episcopalians and Presbyterians, almost ceasing to be Christians. Throughout this broil, some fine traits of earnestness and self-devotion were evoked; but so absorbing a concentration of the general mind on certain theological or quasi-theological doctrines could not be healthful, could not be favourable even to a sound spirit of religion, could not but check any enlightened desire for material improvements. Hence, the population was yet small and generally poor, and little had yet been done to advance the arts of life. There had never yet been beyond the most feeble attempts in any kind of manufactures: even such articles as paper and woollen cloth had to be imported. No movement had yet been even thought of for advancing any branch of rural economy. Scotland had sent forth no voice in either literature or science; her universities could not train either the lawyer or the physician. She had not a bank, and there was not perhaps above half a million of coin in circulation. No news-sheet had yet taken root in the country. A post system had only existed on a small scale during the last twenty-five years. No stage-coaches were yet permanently established between our towns, or between Edinburgh and London. The most delicate lady, under noble rank, had to perform journeys on horseback, and if she had not strength or health to ride, she could not travel. No system of police existed in any city of the realm.

In certain intellectual and moral respects, the country was in no better state. The judge was understood to be accessible to private persuasions; and even direct bribes were suspected. The people believed as firmly in witchcraft as in the first principles of their religion, and we are not yet come within thirty years of the last example of a poor wretch burnt for mishaps that chanced to follow her evil wishes. Gentlemen of ancient family and good account were not above using the basest tricks or the grossest violence, in order to secure, by marriage, the fortune of some hapless young heiress of eleven years of age. Fallacies about markets and marketings were rife; monopolies and patents over-rode the people and kept them in poverty, no man being yet quite able to believe that there was room in the world for anybody but himself. Having concluded about any matter of opinion, men could bear with no dissent from that. It seemed to them the highest of earthly duties, that the thing each felt as a religious error should be rooted out, even though that could only be done by the extirpation of the persons entertaining it. This was to be doing God service and saving men from destruction; no one perceiving that the object aimed at was never attained, or that, if attainable, it was an immorality to attempt its attainment. Even the Claim of Rights, in which the sufferings of Presbytery since 1660 were enumerated, and its claims asserted, set forth among its demands that no popish book should henceforth be allowed to be printed.

Such was the Scotland of 1689--an improvement upon the Scotland of 1560, though to no great extent. Perhaps, after all, if we consider how surprisingly late are all the great discoveries, inventions, and social arrangements for convenience; how gaslight, steam-machinery, railways, and the electric-telegraph are of our own day; how lately it is that mankind learned that air and water are gaseous compounds, that gravitation arranges the worlds, that our own little earth passed through a long and wonderful history before man came upon it; how it is but as yesterday that the British people led the way in universal liberation of industry, and unhappily have yet many obvious social evils to be cured; we shall not greatly wonder that this land of mountain and flood, seated far northward and off at a side, was no better than it was at the close of the reign of the last James. We may at least view congratulatingly one thing which has been made out--that the bulk of the people shall be allowed to have, under sanction of law, the style of external Christianity which they prefer; so that, anyhow, it shall not be the majority which is persecuted. That attained--and only smaller denominations treated with harshness--behold, the country begins to make a real, though at first slow advance. In five years from the settlement of its religious troubles, it has its first bank; in a few years more, it has native newspapers. Other troubles or chances of trouble being removed by a union with England, and the suppression of all hopes in favour of a discrowned dynasty, commerce becomes active; an improved agriculture commences; and nearly every kind of manufacture for which England is distinguished, takes hearty root with us. Scotsmen, frugally reared, and endowed with the elements of learning at their parish-schools, go forth into every realm to take leading positions. Literature and science are cultivated at home with the most brilliant success. And the short period of a century sees nearly every disadvantageous contrast between our country and her neighbours obliterated.

* * * * *

ARTICLE OMITTED.

[Sidenote: 1688.

DEC.]

The break-down of King James’s power in this month let loose a popular feeling which had been long under the restraint of terror. The proceedings of an Edinburgh mob on the 10th of December, when the Catholic chapel and college at Holyrood were rifled and destroyed, and the books, trinkets, and images burned in the court-yard, are detailed in Wodrow. At that time, according to the honest confession of Patrick Walker, the extreme Presbyterians, regarding the Revolution as a surprising, unexpected, merciful dispensation, ‘thought it someway belonged to us to go to all the popish houses and destroy their monuments of idolatry, with their priests’ robes, and put in prison [the priests] themselves.’

Such houses were not many, for the religion of Rome has never been able to get any footing worth speaking of in Scotland, and even the patronage of this unfortunate king had done little for it. The mansion of the Maxwells near Dumfries and Traquair House near Peebles, were the only ones in the south which challenged particular attention. In the latter case, the marriage of the second Earl of Traquair to a daughter of the Earl of Winton,[322] had been the means of introducing a form of faith which the family has never since changed. We have seen something of the difficulties which his countess had in rearing her son, the present Earl, in her own religion; but she had succeeded in her object, notwithstanding all that presbyteries and privy councils could do. We learn that he was a quiet inoffensive man, who had never accepted any office under King James;[323] but that did not avail to save his house from the zealous on this occasion.

[Sidenote: 1688.]

Behold a resolute band leaving Edinburgh in December, and making their way ‘through frost and snow’ to that remote stately mansion on the Tweed, where the hated idolatry has for thirty years offended all well-disposed minds. The leader is Donald Ker of Kersland, a name suggestive of sufferings for presbytery in the past reign. They found at Traquair a great quantity of ‘Romish wares,’ but not all they came in search of, for a quantity had been carried off and secreted. Here, however, were an altar, a large crucifix of brass; several other crucifixes; ‘a large brodd opening with two leaves [triptich], covered within with cloth of gold of Arras work, having a veil covering the middle part, wherein were sewed several superstitious pictures;’ a eucharist cup of silver; an Agnus Dei of amber with a picture above; a box of relics, ‘wherein were lying, amongst silk-cotton, several pieces of bone, tied with a red thread, having written upon them the saint they belonged to--namely, St Crescentius, St Marianus, St Angelus, &c.;’ another ‘box of relics of bones, tied with a string--namely, St Victoria, St Theodora, St Donatus, St Benedictus, St Laureata, St Venturiana;’ ‘a harden bag, near full of beads;’ ‘a timber box, with many wafers in it;’ ‘a pot full of holy oil;’ ‘the holy-water sponge;’ ‘Mary and the Babe in a case most curiously wrought in a kind of pearl;’ several other examples of Mary and the Babe; about twelve dozen of wax candles; many papers containing pictures; about one hundred and thirty books, some of them with silver clasps; and a considerable number of other articles of less importance.[324] All of these they seized without any resistance, for the earl and the priests had fled from the house on their approach.

According to the recital of Walker--Ker sent James Harkness and some other persons to the house of a neighbouring clergyman, ‘who had the name of a Presbyterian minister,’ one Mr Thomas Louis, with orders to search it narrowly for the missing articles, but to ‘behave themselves discreetly.’ ‘Mr Louis and his wife mocked them, without offering them either meat or drink, though they had much need of it [!] At last, they found two trunks locked, which they desired to have opened. Mr Louis then left them. They broke up the coffers, wherein they found a golden cradle, with Mary and the Babe in her bosom; in the other trunk, the priests’ robes.’

[Sidenote: 1688.]

The whole of these articles, being brought together, were carried to Peebles (distance seven miles), and ‘all solemnly burned at the cross.’ The spoils of the Maxwells about the same time furnished the materials of a like solemnity at the cross of Dumfries.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Kennedy’s Annals of Aberdeen, i. 176.

[2] A marble effigy of this Lord Belhaven, in a reclining posture, is to be seen over his tomb in Holyrood Chapel.

[3] The Hon. Sir William Hamilton. He was long after resident at Rome for Queen Henrietta Maria.

[4] Wodrow’s Life of Trochrig, MS., quoted in Paisley Magazine, 1828.

[5] Stevenson’s Hist. of the Church of Scotland, quoting Historical Collections, MS.

[6] Spottiswoode Misc., ii. 379.

[7] Published in thin folio at London in 1637. 23d June 1637, ‘appeared George Deuchar, agent, and in name of Colonel Monro presented one book entitled Monro his Expeditions, in token of his affection for the good town.’--Edinburgh Coun. Register.

[8] John Gordon, of the house of Gight, engaged himself on the other side; and while serving the emperor as governor of Egra in Bohemia, he performed the notable act of the assassination of Wallenstein, for which his imperial master liberally rewarded him.

[9] Bannatyne Misc., iii. 221.

[10] Documents quoted in the Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, iii. 251. Black Book of Taymouth, p. 437.

[11] The failure of the Duke of Buckingham’s army to relieve Rochelle, and its shameful retreat from the Isle of Ré.

[12] Stevenson’s History of the Church of Scotland quoting a contemporary history which he supposes to have been written by one who was minister of Carlaverock or Ruthwell.

[13] Sir John is described in other entries as keeping priests in his house of Caddell, and there setting the law at defiance.

[14] Row’s Hist. Church of Scot., p. 348.

[15] Stevenson, quoting Historical Collections.

[16] Privy Council Record. Book of Adjournal.

[17] In June 1569, the Regent Moray reported to the General Assembly of the church a case which had puzzled him on a justiciary visit to Elgin. It was that of one Nicol Sutherland in Forres, who was convicted by an assize of incest with a woman who had been the paramour of his mother’s brother. The regent hesitated about considering this crime as rightly named, and wished the decision of the assembly on the point. The reverend assembly had no hesitation in pronouncing in the affirmative. Nicol would consequently be hanged.--B. U. K.

In August 1626, William Hamilton of Cultes was under discipline in the presbytery of Lanark for his incestuous marriage with his good dame’s brother’s wife--that is, we presume, the widow of his step-mother or step-grandmother’s brother.--R. P. L.

[18] In the General Assembly of 1565, the church found that the marriage of cousins was not forbidden in Scripture; but seeing that it had been attended with inconveniences, desired that the matter should be settled by the civil magistrate.--B. U. K.

[19] Dalyell’s Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 641.

[20] In the Privy Council Record is a list of a great number of persons dwelling in the eastern part of Berwickshire, who were summoned to give evidence on this trial, all their landlords being at the same time enjoined to see that they attended.

[21] Martine’s Gen. Collections, Macfarlane’s MS. (Adv. Lib.), vol. i., p. 168.

[22] The lands of Powes, Powmill, Carsebrook, and Woodside are mentioned as amongst those destroyed.

[23] From the original in the General Register House.

[24] The life here spoken of was written by Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo. From an abridgment of it in the Scots Magazine for March 1802, we derive the few particulars which follow.

[25] Kirkton’s Church History, p. 19.

[26] Blair’s Memoirs, MS. quoted in Notes to Kirkton.

[27] Wodrow’s Preface to Dickson’s Truth’s Victory over Error, apud Gillies.

[28] Livingstone’s Characteristics, quoted in Notes to Kirkton.

[29] Analecta, iii. 450.

[30] £2915.

[31] Father Blackhall’s Narrative (Spalding Club), p. 125.

[32] December 16, 1630, the Privy Council granted commission to a portion of their number, amongst whom was a bishop (Dumblane), to assemble in the Laigh Council-house for the examination of Margaret Wood, ‘and as they shall find occasion to cause put her to some slight and spare torture for the better trial and discovery of the truth of the matter.’

[33] See proceedings in Appendix to Spalding’s Troubles, vol. i. (Spalding Club edition).

[34] New Stat. Acc. of Scotland--Banffshire, p. 131.

[35] The notes to this article are from another list in the Spottiswoode Miscellany, ii. 383.

[36] James Spence of Wormiston. He became Lord of Noreholm and Chancellor of Sweden.

[37] Subsequently Earl of Brentford in the English peerage.

[38] Created Lord Eythan by Charles I. in 1642.

[39] He died of his wounds, a captive, at Gortz.

[40] Betrayed and taken at Hanau, and died in prison.

[41] Killed before Bremen.

[42] Called Dear Sandie--he was subsequently employed in the artillery of the Scottish Covenanting army.

[43] He was assassinated by a lieutenant of his own regiment, whom he had been provoked to batoon. A court-martial of Germans acquitted the lieutenant, on the ground that it was contrary to Swedish discipline to cudgel an officer. General Leslie, being then governor of Staten where the earl was buried, had the lieutenant immediately apprehended and shot at a post.

[44] Stevenson.

[45] Stevenson, quoting Historical Collections, MS.

[46] Book of Adjournal. P. C. R.

[47] Black Book of Taymouth, p. 75.

[48] Black Book of Taymouth, p. 440.

[49] Black Book of Taymouth, p. 77.

[50] See Cunningham’s Lives of British Painters, &c., v. 22, art. George Jameson.

[51] Mixed with Spalding’s quaint narration, are here inserted some special descriptions from the authorised account, published at the time, as abridged in Jackson’s History of the Scottish Stage.

[52] Muse’s Threnodie, ii. 118. Some specimens of the dress of the morris-dancers are still preserved at Perth.

[53] Black Book of Taymouth, p. 437.

[54] Another account states the number drowned at eight.

[55] From a manuscript of Sir James Balfour. Ancient Heraldic and Antiquarian Tracts., Edinburgh. 1837.

[56] Ed. Phil. Journal, Apr. 1839.

[57] View of Diocese of Aberdeen, Spal. Club.

[58] Go-summer and go-har’st are terms applied in Scotland to the mild weather which sometimes occurs between autumn and winter. There is a proverb in Peeblesshire: ‘If the deer lie down dry and rise dry on Rood-e’en (September 18), it’s a sign we’ll have a good go-har’st.’

[59] See Johnson’s Scots Mus. Museum, new edition, notes.

[60] Staggering State of Scots Statesmen.

[61] Spalding. Balfour.

[62] Stevenson.

[63] Rushworth’s Collections. Southey’s Commonplace-book, 3d Series, p. 528.

[64] Oliver and Boyd’s Almanac for 1839, p. 92.

[65] Collections for the His^t. Aber. and Banff, Spal. Club.

[66] The chancellor seems to have been involved in an unpleasant affair a short while before his death. Ho had procured the marriage of a young lady, named Inglis, with a good portion, to a nephew of his, named Butter, and thus disappointed the Earl of Traquair, who desired the ‘morsel for a cousin of his awn, with whom he was to have divided the prey.’ Traquair proceeded to ‘raise all the furies of the court against the chancellor,’ and procured a warrant for examination of some of his accounts--which, however, terminated in clearing his lordship of all suspicion. Traquair only shewed ‘his awn base ingratitude towards him who first of all men brought him to have the king’s favour and respect.’--Bal.

[67] Manuscript of Sir James Balfour, Heral. and Ant. Tracts, Edinburgh, 1837.

[68] Notes to Spalding Club edition of Spalding.

[69] Spalding Club Miscellany, ii. 73.

[70] For these authentic particulars of Gilderoy’s fate, we are indebted to the extracts from the Privy Council Record printed in the Appendix to the Spalding Club edition of Spalding’s Troubles.

[71] Act of Privy Council, quoted in Blackwood’s Magazine, i. 66.

[72] ‘... many mouths were there opened to the bishop’s disgrace. “False Antichristian!” “Wolf!” “Beastly belly-god!” and “Crafty fox!” were the best epithets and titles of dignity given him. The dean was mightily upbraided. Some cried: “He’s a son of a witch’s breeding and the de’il’s get. Nae halesome water can come forth from such a polluted fountain!” Others cried: “Ill-hanged thief, if at that time thou went’st to court, thou had been well hanged, thou hadst not been here to be a pest to God’s church this day!” One did cast a stool at him, intending to have given him a ticket of remembrance; but jouking became his safeguard at that time.’--Brief and True Relation of the Broil, &c., printed in App. to Rothes’s Relation, 1830.

[73] See Vol. I. p. 545.

[74] Rothes’s Relation of Proceedings Concerning the Affairs of the Kirk.

[75] Become fusty.

[76] Inundation.

[77] Clarendon’s Life, ii. 333.

[78] Whitelock’s Memorials, 485.

[79] Gordon of Rothiemay’s Hist. Scots Affairs from 1637 to 1641. Spalding Club, vol. i. 57.

[80] Lady Mary Stewart, daughter of Esme, first Duke of Lennox.

[81] Some extracts from this book were printed by the late Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., 4to, without date.

[82] The moneys are Scots, being but a fraction of sterling money of the same denomination.

[83] The lady thus devoted her plate to the maintenance of the Covenanted cause.

[84] Cosmo Innes--preface to Fasti Aberdonenses, Spalding Club, 1854.

[85] Gordon’s Hist. Scots Affairs.

[86] Maitland Club Misc., i. 476.

[87] Turners made by gipsies (cairds).

[88] The reader cannot fail to have perceived that John Dhu Ger has been twice killed already. How he contrived to outlive so many deaths, I am unable to explain.

[89] Guthry’s Memoirs.

[90] Edinburgh Magazine, March 1819.

[91] Balfour’s Annals of Scotland, iii. 128.

[92] Archæologia Scotica, i. 503, note.

[93] Wodrow’s Analecta, ii. 209, 280.

[94] The battle of Edgehill, fought on the 24th of October 1642.

[95] According to Burnet, Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston did the same thing. ‘He would often pray in his family two hours at a time, and had an unexhausted copiousness that way. What thought soever struck his fancy during those effusions, he looked on as an answer to prayer, and was wholly determined by it.’

[96] This whimsical association actually occurs in the dittay of a witch of this period.

[97] Stevenson’s History of the Church of Scotland.

[98] Willis’s Current Notes, April 1857.

[99] See Thorpe’s Northern Mythology; also article on Sandsting in New Stat. Acc. Scotland.

[100] On the 8th of June 1643, a case came before the Privy Council, at the instance of Lawrence Mercer and others, students at St Andrews, who complained of a scandalous charge got up against them by James Stewart of Ardvoirlich and his two sons, Robert and Harry, to the effect that umwhile Alexander Stewart, son of the first party, and brother of the two others, had received deadly injuries from them in a college tumult, and died in consequence. It was shewn that Alexander had provoked a tumult by his insolent speeches, and afterwards lay for a day or two in bed, but was found on inspection to be quite well, and he had lived in good health for nine months after. The lords accordingly declared the complainers to be innocent of what was laid to their charge.

[101] Notes to the Waverley Novels.

[102] In a curious and rare pamphlet, by William Lithgow, descriptive of the siege of Newcastle (Edinburgh, printed by Robert Bryson, 1645), we get some idea of the wretched state to which the place was reduced in consequence of its investiture of several months. ‘We found great penury and scarcity of victuals, ammunition, and other necessaries within that dejected town; so that they could not have held out ten days longer, unless the one half had devoured the other. The plague was raging in Gateside, Sandside, Sunderland, and many country villages about.’ For this reason, Tynemouth was obliged to surrender also; ‘the pestilence having been five weeks there with a great mortality, they were glad to yield and to scatter themselves abroad, but to the great undoing and infecting of the country about.’

Lithgow, by the way, was dissatisfied with the treatment of Newcastle by his countrymen. ‘As they abused their victory,’ says he, ‘in storming the town, with too much undeserved mercy, so they as unwisely and imprudently overreached themselves, in plundering the town with an ignorant negligence and careless omission.... And as they thus defrauded themselves with a whistle in their mouths, so they pitifully prejudged, by this their inveigled course, the common soldiers of their just due and dear-bought advantages.’

[103] ‘At Botarie, 25th October 1648, the brethren ordained to intimat out of their several pulpits, that whosoever receipts and converses with excommunicat persons, should be processed before the presbytery.’--Strathbogie Presbytery Record.

[104] Producing a fire by the friction of two sticks against each other.

[105] Daughter-in-law of the Lady Frendraught formerly noticed.

[106] Records of the Kirk of Scotland, 1838, p. 446.

[107] Peterkin’s Records of the Kirk of Scotland, p. 427.

[108] Maitland Miscell., i. 436.

[109] Maitland Miscel., i. 433.

[110] Caldwell Papers, i. 91.

[111] Wood’s Parish of Cramond, p. 77.

[112] Coltness Collections (Maitland Club), p. 58.

[113] Archæologia Scotica, ii. 108.

[114] Lyndoch lies about seven miles north-west from Perth.

[115] It is certain that Perth was visited by the plague in 1646. See Memorabilia of Perth, p. 179.

[116] In a popular publication quoted below[117] occurs the following notice of a well-known land mollusk, in connection with a traditionary story of the plague, which has long had general currency in Scotland:

‘In the woodlands, the more formidable black nude slug, the Arion or Limax ater, will also be often encountered. It is a huge voracious creature, herbivorous, feeding, to Barbara’s astonishment, on tender plants; fruits, as strawberries, apples; and even turnips and mushrooms; appearing morning and evening, or after rain; suffering severely in its concealment in long droughts, and remaining torpid in winter. The gray field slug (Limax agrestis) is actually recommended to be swallowed by consumptive patients! In the town of Dundee there exists a strange traditionary story of the plague, connected with the conversion, from dire necessity, of the Arion ater, or black slug, to a use similar to that which the luxurious Romans are said to have made of the great apple-snail. Two young and blooming maidens lived together at that dread time, like Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, in a remote cottage on the steep (indeed almost perpendicular) ascent of the Bonnetmaker’s Hill. Deprived of friends or support by the pestilence that walked at noonday, they still retained their good looks and healthful aspect, even when the famine had succeeded to the plague. The jaundiced eyes of the famine-wasted wretches around them were instantly turned towards the poor girls, who appeared to thrive so well whilst others were famishing. They were unhesitatingly accused of witchcraft, and had nearly fallen prey to that terrible charge; for betwixt themselves they had sworn never to tell in words by what means they were supported, ashamed as they felt of the resource to which they had been driven; and resolved, if possible, to escape the anticipated derision of their neighbours on its disclosure. It was only when about to be dragged before their stern inquisitors, that one of the girls, drawing aside the covering of a great barrel which stood in a corner of their domicile, discovered, without violating her oath, that the youthful pair had been driven to the desperate necessity of collecting and preserving for food large quantities of these Limacinæ, which they ultimately acknowledged to have proved to them generous and even agreeable sustenance. To the credit of the times of George Wishart--a glimpse of pre-reforming enlightenment--the explanation sufficed; the young women escaped with their lives, and were even applauded for their prudence.’

[117] Summer Life on Land and Water. By William W. Fyfe. 1851.

[118] Remarkable Passages of the Lord’s Providence towards Mr John Spreull, Town-clerk of Glasgow, 1635-54. T. Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1832.

[119] Arbroath Guide, Oct. 2, 1847.

[120] Executed in the Palace-yard, Westminster, 9th March 1649.

[121] 6th October 1648--‘appoints the four bailies, the old provost [Archibald Tod], the deacon of the chirurgeons, and their clerk, to go down to the Canongate in the afternoon, and in the Council’s name salute the Lord Cromwell, lieutenant-general of the English forces, and thir presents sall be their warrand.’--Ed. Council Register.

[122] Defoe’s Review of the Brit. Nation, 1709.

[123] Life of Cameron of Lochiel.

[124] Balfour’s Annals. Britain’s Distemper, by Patrick Gordon.

[125] Excerpts from Fraser of Wardlaw’s Memoirs. Inverness Courier.

[126] Rescinded Acts. Records of Kirk of Scotland.

[127] Balfour’s Annals, iii. 427.

[128] Son to umquhile John Stewart, usher to his majesty.

[129] Acts of Estates, MS. Gen. Reg. House.

[130] This narration is taken from Fergusson’s Diary, as quoted in Satan’s Invisible World. We are obliged, however, for the name of the minister to Wodrow, Analecta, i. 65.

[131] Maitland Miscel., i. 439.

[132] From tradition.

[133] On the 18th of March 1647, finding that ‘the pride and insolency of excommunicate persons doeth exceedingly increase, and that the dreadful censure of excommunication is much slighted and vilipended, whereby God is much dishonoured,’ the Estates passed an act renewing the force of all previous acts against such persons, and ordaining that, after forty days, letters of horning and caption should be issued against them, to be of full force unless they can shew that they have given ‘full obedience and satisfaction to the kirk.’ The acts against papists were at the same time renewed; none such to be capable of public employment, husbands to be ‘countable for their wives’ if the ladies should reset priests, and no person to take a servant unprovided with ‘a testimonial of the soundness of their religion from the minister where they dwelt.’

[134] Register of the Presbytery of Lanark. Acts of the Scottish Parliament, MS.

[135] Records of Kirk of Scotland, p. 473.

[136] Nicoll’s Diary.

[137] Kirkton’s Hist. Church Scot., p. 64.

[138] Nicoll’s Diary, p. 8.

[139] Dr Wilde, in Census of Ireland for 1851; part V., vol. i., p. 110.

[140] Baillie’s Letters, iii. pp. 97, 550.

[141] See an interesting narration on this subject in Mr Mark Napier’s Montrose and the Covenanters, 1838.

[142] The formula used on the occasion is given in the following terms by a writer of the seventeenth century: ‘When any one dies, the bellman goes about ringing the passing bell, and acquaints the people therewith in the following form: “Beloved brethren and sisters, I let you to wit, that there is ane faithful brother lately departed out of this present warld, at the pleasure of Almichty God (and then he veils his bonnet); his name is Wully Woodcock, third son to Jemmy Woodcock, a cordinger; he ligs at the sixt door within the Norgate, close on the Nether Wynd, and I would you gang to his burying on Thursday before twa o’clock, &c.” The time appointed for his burying being come, the bellman calls the company together, and he is carried to the burying-place, and thrown into the grave as dog Lion was, and there is an end of Wully.’--A Modern Account of Scotland, 1670. Harleian Miscellany, vi. 121.

[143] The mansion of the Earl of Moray in the Canongate, the same house that Cromwell occupied on his brief visit in 1648. It is now the Normal School of the Education Committee of the Free Church of Scotland.

[144] These anecdotes appear in A Short Abridgment of Britain’s Distemper from 1639 to 1649. By Patrick Gordon of Ruthven. Spalding Club. 1844. They are placed by the author in connection with Cromwell’s comparatively peaceful visit to Edinburgh in 1648, but must, beyond a doubt, refer to the crisis of 1650.

[145] See under date December 18, 1649.

[146] The small county of Kinross was included.

[147] The annual valued rent of Fife and Kinross in 1674 amounted to £383,379 Scots.

[148] It appears from factory accounts in the Caldwell papers as if oats fluctuated in the period 1645-54 between 6s. 1d. and 17s. 8d. sterling per boll. But probably the highest prices do not chance to occur in these accounts.

[149] Shew themselves.

[150] Nicoll, p. 67.

[151] Spalding Miscellany, iii. 205.

[152] From a copy of the petition in possession of the present Irvine of Drum.

[153] See under July 18, 1649.

[154] Illust. Shires of Aber. and Banff. Spal. Club. Vol. i. p. 285.

[155] Apparently a tax imposed on houses--equivalent to hearth-money.

[156] A small sect who held that families were the only proper congregations.

[157] Register of the Committee of Estates (Gen. Reg. House), Sept. 28, 1660.

[158] Account of the Regalia, by Sir Walter Scott.

[159] Burgh Record of Peebles.

[160] Strang’s Glasgow and its Clubs, p. 7.

[161] Whitelocke’s Memorials, 514, 515.

[162] Quoted in Spottiswoode Miscellany, ii. 91.

[163] Whitelock, 520.

[164] See the Court of Session Garland (Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1839), p. 4.

[165] Heath’s Chronicle, p. 356.

[166] Mil. Memoirs of the Great Civil War, 4to, p. 220.

[167] Memoirs of Locheil, p. 129.

[168] Clarendon.

[169] Wogan lay at Weem during his illness, and might therefore have been expected to lie interred in the churchyard of that parish; but Heath gives Kenmore as his last resting-place.

[170] Abbreviate of Justiciary Register, by Lord Fountainhall, quoted in notes to Law’s Memorials, p. 91.

[171] Caldwell Papers, i. 92.

[172] Satan’s Invisible World Discovered.

[173] Nicoll’s Diary.

[174] Baillie’s Letters, iii. 323.

[175] About July 1655, a woman in Suffolk was taken possession of by a devil at a Quaker meeting, and carried home, where she soon after died. A circumstance which figures in the diagnosis of many cases of alleged possession, is related regarding her. ‘Something ran up and down in her body under the skin, that bellowed in her like a calf.’--Nic.

[176] In an act of the Estates, March 22, 1647, it is acknowledged that, at Martinmas of the preceding year, the debt owing to Sir William Dick by the public was £533,971, 6s. 9d. Scots. In a supplication, he set forth ‘his hard and distrest condition for want thereof.’

[177] The English parliament, March 3, 1660, granted a protection to Sir Andrew Dick, and continued to him a pension of £5 a week which had been for some time in arrears, recommending him at the same time to the Council of State for such preferment in Scotland as he is capable of.--Mercurius Politicus: March 15, 1660.

[178] Mercurius Politicus, May 20, 1658.

[179] Baillie’s Letters, iii. 387.

[180] Lives of the Lyndsays, i. 296.

[181] Parliamentary Diary, iv. 168. Desborough, along with one Downing, represented Edinburgh in the parliament which Cromwell assembled at Westminster in 1654.

[182] Baillie. Letters, iii. 438. The countess is said by Baillie to have been the medium through which the Scottish nobility acted on General Monk, in prompting him to go to London, just before the Restoration.

[183] A Journey through Scotland, in Familiar Letters, &c. 8vo. London, 1723.

[184] In August 1657, his son, Lord Linton, was cited before the presbytery of Peebles for certain scandalous miscarriages--as, frequent absence from church, drinking, and swearing. He submitted, and was rebuked. On the 3d of December of the same year, ‘the presbytery, taking into their consideration a letter of complaint formerly sent unto them by the Lord Linton, complaining of his father as slandering him of unnatural dealing towards his parents,’ appointed a committee to speak with them both, and report. Lord Linton was afterwards asked to give in particulars of his complaint, but he does not appear to have complied with the request.

[185] Inverness Courier, January 1851.

[186] Stirk, a young ox. Hawkit, white-faced.

[187] John Mean had assisted Montrose and the Engagement, and incurred losses on these accounts. Acts of S. Parl., vii., App. 93.

[188] We only know of this act from its being alluded to in the Privy Council Record.

[189] Cosmo Innes’s Preface to the Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 1844.

[190] Thomson’s Scottish Acts, xi., App. p. 139.

[191] See under March 1652.

[192] In the parish of Aberdour, on the north coast of Aberdeenshire, is the house of Auchmedden, once belonging to a family named Baird. A local writer in 1724 reports that, among some high rocks near the Auchmedden millstone quarry, ‘there is an eagle’s nest; and the pair which breed there have continued in that place time out of mind, sending away their young ones every year, so that there is never more stays but the old pair.’[193] ‘At one period,’ says a writer of our own day, ‘there was a pair of eagles that regularly nestled and brought forth their young in the rocks of Pennan; but, according to the tradition of the country, when the late Earl of Aberdeen purchased the estate from the Bairds, the former proprietors, the eagles disappeared, in fulfilment of a prophecy of Thomas the Rhymer, “that there should be an eagle in the crags while there was a Baird in Auchmedden.” But the most remarkable circumstance, and what certainly appears incredible, is, that when Lord Haddo, eldest son of the Earl of Aberdeen, married Miss Christian Baird of New Byth, the eagles returned to the rocks, and remained until the estate passed into the hands of the Hon. William Gordon, when they again fled, and have never since been seen in the country. These facts, marvellous as they may appear, are attested by a cloud of famous witnesses.’[194]

[193] View of Dio. of Aberdeen, Spal. Club, p. 447.

[194] New Stat. Acc. of Scot.

[195] See under May 21, 1650.

[196] See Spottiswoode Miscellany, vol. ii., for a series of extracts.

[197] Life of Thomas Ruddiman, 117.

[198] Wodrow’s Analecta, i. 301.

[199] Analecta, i. 106.

[200] Law’s Memorials. By C. K. Sharpe, p. lxviii.

[201] Contemporary with Kincaid flourished, in the north country, a pricker named John Dick. One named John Hay, a messenger in Tain, who had reached sixty without any discredit attaching to his name, was denounced by a distracted woman as a wizard, and immediately seems to have fallen into the hands of Dick, who, without any authority, pricked him all over his body, having first shaved his head to ascertain that there were no insensible parts in that region. He was then transferred to Edinburgh, a journey of nearly two hundred miles, and locked up in the Tolbooth. On a petition from Hay, and the exhibition of certificates of character, he was ordered by the Lords of Council to be liberated.

[202] Kincaid lay nine weeks in jail, and then petitioned for his liberty, representing that, being an old man, he had suffered much in health by his confinement, and, if longer confined, might be brought to mortal sickness; whereupon the Lords liberated him, on condition of his giving security that he would prick no more without warrant.

[203] The full confessions of Isobel Gowdie and Janet Braidhead, being perhaps the two most remarkable witch-cases on record in Scotland, are given in Mr Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, iii. 600. From these confessions, the following narration is made up.

[204] The hiatus here supplied are a consequence of mutilation of the manuscript.

[205] Stubble.

[206] A Dismal Account of the Burning of our Solemn League and National Covenant ... at Linlithgow, May 29, 1662. Reprinted by Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1832.

[207] Wood’s Peerage, quoting Morison’s Decisions, 5626.

[208] In those days, there being as yet no habeas corpus act, it was quite common for persons suspected of crimes to lie several years untried in prison. On the 15th of February 1666, William Drew petitioned for trial or liberation, after having been five years confined in Glasgow jail, on a charge of murder exhibited against him by the Laird of Keir.

[209] In Richard Baxter’s treatise on the Divine Life are some consolatory remarks which he addressed on this occasion to the bereaved mother of the young earl.

[210] View of Diocese of Aberdeen, Spal. Club.

[211] Pepys’s Diary, 3d ed., ii. 408, 437.

[212] In compliance with his petition, Leslie was relieved from the duty of the collection.

[213] Men near akin to the chief.

[214] Introduction to the Heart of Midlothian.

[215] M‘Ure’s Hist. of Glasgow (reprint), p. 166.

[216] London Gazette, Feb. 18, 1667.

[217] London Gazette, May 6, 1667.

[218] Abbotsford Miscellany. Mungo Murray seems to have been a lieutenant of the king’s guard, and to have enjoyed a pension of £200. See Maitland Misc., iii. 154.

[219] See a letter from Sir Robert Dalrymple Horn Elphinstone to Sir James Stewart Denham, inserted in the Abbotsford edition of the Waverley Novels.

[220] About the time of his marriage, there are several entries regarding him in the Privy Council Record, as having contravened the law in the introduction and keeping of Irish cattle and horses.

[221] The editor of Lamont’s Diary gives the following note on George Wood’s funeral: ‘The revolting practice of attaching the corpse of a debtor seems from this entry to have been known in Scotland, even at this late period; while there does not appear to have been any legal authority for its adoption. The notion of its legality, however, still prevails among the vulgar in England; and although the late Lord Ellenborough held it to be contrary to the law of England, it was observed by the unfeeling creditors of Weivitzer the actor, and of the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan. How absurd soever this notion may seem, a still more glaring error is known in the north of Scotland. It is there believed by the common people, that a widow is relieved of her husband’s debts, if she follow his corpse to the door, and, in the presence of the assembled mourners, openly call upon him to return and pay his debts, as she is unable! Strange and unfeeling as this ceremony may be, the editor recollects an instance in which it was practised by the widow of a man in good society.’[325]

[222] Sir George Mackenzie’s Mem. Affairs Scot., 4to, p. 183.

[223] Mackenzie’s Mem. Affairs Scot., p. 244.

[224] Weir had been an officer on the popular side in the Civil War. In the registers of Estates, under March 3, 1647, reference is made to a supplication of Major Thomas Weir, in which he craved payment of 600 merks due to him by an act of the Committee of Estates of date the 17th of December 1644, and also payment of what might be due to him ‘for his service as major in the Earl of Lanark’s regiment by the space of twell months, and his service in Ireland as ane captain-lieutenant in Colonel Robert Home his regiment by the space of nineteen months;’ further asking ‘that the parliament wald ordain John Acheson, keeper of the magazine, to re-deliver to the supplicant the band given by him to the said John upon the receipt of ane thousand pound weight of poulder, twa thousand weight of match, and ane thousand pound weight of ball, sent with the supplicant to Dumfries for furnishing that part of the country.’ The matter was given over to a committee.

[225] Ravaillac Redivivus, p. 64.

[226] Mem. Affairs Scotland, p. 62.

[227] See under August 1660.

[228] Memorials, p. 43.

[229] Analecta Scotica, ii. 167.

[230] Sir George Mackenzie, Memoirs of Affairs of Scot., p. 217.

[231] Mackenzie’s Mem. Scot. Affairs, p. 226.

[232] A tight body-coat, from Fr. just-au corps.

[233] See vol. i., p. 427.

[234] See vol. ii., p. 318.

[235] Edin. Council Record.

[236] Arnot’s Hist. Edinburgh, 1779, p. 598.

[237] It is usually stated that the first coffee-house in England was set up in 1654 in a shed in the church-yard of St Michael, Cornhill, by one Pasqua, a Greek, servant of Mr Daniel Edwards, a Smyrna merchant.

[238] A tall house of several stories so called in Edinburgh.

[239] Crookshanks’s Hist. Ch. of Scot., ii. 127.

[240] Sketches of Perthshire (1812), quoted in Letters on Demonology.

[241] Sir George Mackenzie’s Hist. Affairs of Scot., p. 7.

[242] See Wodrow’s Analecta, i. 84.

[243] Balbegno is the name of a small estate in that county, near Middleton’s patrimonial property. It was bought in 1690 by Middleton’s brother.--Wood’s Peerage.

[244] Law cites the following couplet, apparently as the last words of the apparition:

‘Plumashes above, and gramashes below, It’s no wonder to see how the world doth go.’

Plumashes are plumages; gramashes, coarse hose used as gaiters. The words seem to be used allegorically to express the two opposite conditions of life--that of the gay cavalier and the plain hard-working man.

[245] ‘Lord Middleton used to assert that a certain palmister, whom he met in his youth, had predicted his elevation to the supreme command of his country; but the end of this prediction he always concealed, which made his companions suspect it was tragical, as afterwards it did indeed prove.’--Kirkton’s Church History.

[246] Blackwood’s Magazine, v. 75. Mr Hogg mis-states the year as 1620.

[247] Rec. of Justiciary, Arnot’s Crim. Trials, p. 138.

[248] Answer to Scots Presbyterian Eloquence.

[249] A copy of this document, extracted from the Record of the Privy Council, is printed in full in the appendix to Pennant’s Tour. It recites that Lachlan Maclean of Broloies, Hector Og Maclean his brother, and others, had been denounced rebels for refusing to answer to the Earl of Argyle, justiciar of Argyle, for having in the preceding April assembled three or four hundred men by the fire-process (the fiery cross) in Mull, Moveran, and other places, and taken warlike possession of the lands of Knockersmartin, &c. It grants commission to Lord Niel Campbell, and nine other gentlemen, to raise forces and proceed in warlike manner against the rebels, assuring them that no slaughter or fire-raising they may commit will be imputed to them as a crime, provided only they give an account of their proceedings before next New-year’s Day.

[250] A daughter of Hamilton of Bardowie, in Baldernoch parish, designed to pay a visit to her sister-in-law at Hamilton, when a deaf and dumb woman, who had a year before given a remarkable warning, came to the house, and, with many signs, endeavoured to dissuade the young lady from her journey. ‘She takes her down to the yard, and cuts at the root of a tree, making signs that it would fall and kill her. That not being understood by her nor any of them, she takes her journey, the dumb lass holding her to stay. When the young gentle-woman is at Hamilton, her sister-in-law and she go forth to walk in the park; and in their walking they both come under a tree that is cut through at the root, and leaning by the top upon another tree. In that very instant, they hear it shaking and coming down; her sister-in-law turns to the right hand, and she herself flees to the left, that way that the tree fell, and so it crushed her and wounded her sore, so that she dies in two or three days’ sickness.’--Law.

[251] Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, p. 4-10.

[252] The idea of familiar spirits was entertained in this age by persons of the most dignified character. In October 1675, the bishop and synod of Aberdeen were engaged in considering ‘divers complaints that some, under pretence of trances and familiarity with spirits, by going with these spirits commonly called the fairies, hath spoken reproachfully of some persons, whereof some are dead, and some living.’ The synod threatened both the seducers and the consulters with censure, ‘if, after admonition publicly given, they forbear not such practices, or to vent and spread such reproachful speeches, whereof the seducers are the authors.’--A. S. R.

[253] Analecta Scotica, i. 117.

[254] See under July 25, 1661, and April 1, 1662.

[255] Several of the inhabitants of Mull told me, that they had conversed with their relatives that were living at the harbour when the ship was blown up, and they gave an account of a remarkable providence that appeared, in the preservation of one Dr Beaton (the famous physician of Mull), who was on board the ship when she blew up, and was then sitting on the upper deck, which was blown up entire, and thrown a good way off; yet the doctor was saved, and lived several years after.--Martin’s Descrip. West. Isles, 1703. See of the present work, vol. i. p. 189.

[256] Ars Nova et Magna Gravitatis et Levitatis. In a subsequent work, entitled Hydrostatical Experiments, Sinclair described a kind of diving-bell of his own invention, which he called an Ark.

[257] Archæologia Scot., iv. 437.

[258] Works of Dr Alexander Pennecuik, p. 178.

[259] The grandfather of the celebrated David Hume.

[260] The distance is seventeen miles.

[261] A Short Account of Scotland. Published in London in 1702.

[262] Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology, p. 323. Sir Walter attributes the anecdote to a generation too late.

[263] See under November 1665.

[264] See under February 1589-90.

[265] Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 113.

[266] Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 157.

[267] Fountainhall.

[268] This is the traditionary account, from Sharpe’s Notes to Kirkton’s History, p. 182.

[269] Fountainhall.

[270] Archæologia Scotica, i. 499.

[271] Historical Observes, p. 49.

[272] See Fountainhall’s Decisions, passim.

[273] Fountainhall’s Historical Observes, p. 62.

[274] The documents connected with this curious witch-trial are printed in the Scots Magazine for 1772, and again in the same work in 1814.

[275] Vide Fynes Moryson on Scottish travelling, sub anno 1598.

[276] Pace, the weight of a clock, from Fr. le poids.

[277] Swey, a kind of crane moving on a hinge against a wall.

[278] It might have been supposed that this was a descendant of Sir Robert Bruce; but the account of the Clackmannan family in Douglas’s Baronage takes no notice of such a person; and it was beyond doubt Peter de Bruis, ‘a Flandrian,’ who is mentioned several times in Fountainhall’s Decisions as building a harbour at Cockenzie, and obtaining a privilege for making playing-cards.

[279] It was at its perihelion on the 17th of December, when it was only 128,000 geographical miles from the sun.

[280] Abbotsford Miscellany, i. 356.

[281] See vol. i. p. 421.

[282] Pamphlet on Woollen Manufactories, printed at Edinburgh in 1683.

[283] Memorials for the Gov. of Royal Burghs in Scotland. By Philopoliteios [Bailie Skene of Aberdeen]. Aberdeen, 1685.

[284] Husbandry Anatomised, or an Inquiry into the Present Manner of Tilling the Ground in Scotland, &c. By Ja. Donaldson. Edinburgh, 1697.

[285] Provost Dickison was assassinated in 1572. See vol. i. p. 81.

[286] Fount. Decisions, i. 189, 193.

[287] This epizootic raged also in England and other countries. It was a disease styled Angina Maligna (probably pneumonia); a blue mist was seen on the pastures.--Short’s Chron. Hist. of Air Meteors, &c., 1748.

[288] This curious case is stated more briefly in the present volume, p. 227.

[289] The common men were paid at the rate of 6d. a day; drummers, 1s.; sergeants, 1s. 6d.

[290] Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 187.

[291] From original documents.

[292] Fountainhall’s Decisions, i, 188. In January 1686, the widow of Patrick Cunningham, apothecary, successfully pursued Lady Evelick for two hundred merks, being a sum the lady had promised in writing ‘for the skaith the said Patrick suffered when her son James Douglas put fire in Harry Graham’s chamber.’--Foun. Dec.

[293] The jail of Dumfries seems to have then been either insecure or ill-conducted. In May 1683 there was a complaint before the Privy Council from Sir Patrick Maxwell of Springkell, regarding a notorious robber named Ludovick Irving, whom he had caused to be followed to Ireland, there apprehended, and then brought to Dumfries at an expense to himself of two hundred pounds sterling. The man was first put into ‘a sure vault,’ but was removed by the magistrates into ‘ane utter room, which had no sure posts nor doors;’ so he had no difficulty in escaping. Sir Patrick claimed his expenses from the magistrates, and demanded their punishment.--P. C. R.

[294] Strictly Wester Gledstanes, situated in the barony of Carnwath and county of Lanark.

[295] From a petition of the workmen employed in the king’s printing-office in 1678, craving exemption from watching and warding, it appears they were fifteen in number.--P. C. R.

[296] Creech’s Fugitive Pieces, p. 82.

[297] Letters to Earl Aberdeen (Spal. Club), p. 36.

[298] The same with Mr Thomas Stewart noticed at p. 245 of this volume.

[299] Coltness Collections.

[300] Sir Thomas’s father, Sir James Stewart of Coltness, presided as provost of Edinburgh at the execution of Montrose. Ho suffered imprisonment after the Restoration, and is said to have been only rescued from something worse by the intercession of a cavalier gentleman whose son’s life he had saved by his humane intercession some years before.

[301] Adverted to in this volume, p. 211.

[302] The Council (April 23) ordered three hundred pounds to the Rosses out of vacant stipends; but it is most unlikely that the money or any part of it was ever realised.

[303] In April 1684, Mrs Jean Barron, relict of the minister of Birse, craved charity of the Privy Council as the daughter of Mr Robert Barron, professor of divinity at Aberdeen, who ‘having had the honour to be the first who opposed the Covenant,’ was pursued for his life and banished on that account, finally dying in exile, in such poverty that any means he might have had for the maintenance of his family was lost; nor had any benefit ever been derived from his nomination to the bishopric of Orkney, by which King Charles I. had endeavoured to recompense his sufferings. Mrs Jean was now with three fatherless children reduced to great misery, in which she humbly hoped that the Council would not allow the daughter of so great a sufferer to remain. The Council recommended her case to the Lord Treasurer.

Anna Morton represented herself to the Council (July 20, 1685) as the daughter of Mr William Morton, formerly minister of South Leith, who, in 1640, for his refusal of the Covenant, was ‘not only thrust out of his church, and plundered of all his goods and gear, but, from the violent malice of these bloody persecutors, the Covenanters, was necessitat for shelter of his life to leave his native country and fly to England, where, thereafter, through their cruel malice, he was most pitifully used, being apprehended and incarcerat within the prison of York, and continued there in a most miserable and penurious condition, to the utter ruin of himself, his family, his fortune, and estate;’ all of which was fully testified by competent witnesses. The petitioner was now a widow with a charge of children, in helpless poverty and wretchedness, all traceable to the impoverishment of her father. The Council ordered her two thousand merks out of the vacant stipends of the diocese of Argyle.

[304] The death of the old Laird of Dumbiedykes in Scott’s tale of the Heart of Mid-Lothian, involves an allusion to this piece of national music: ‘He drank three bumpers of brandy continuously, and “soughed awa’,” as Jenny expressed it, in an attempt to sing Deil stick the Minister.’

[305] See vol. i. p. 24.

[306] MS. quoted in Wilde’s Table, Census of Ireland, 1851.

[307] Notes to Fountainhall’s Chronological Notes of Scottish Affairs, p. 5.

[308] A sugar-house was first set up in Glasgow in 1667.--Gibson’s Hist. Glasgow.

[309] Sir Walter Scott relates this anecdote on the authority of Mrs Murray Keith.--Notes to Fountainhall’s Chron. Notes, &c., p. 33.

[310] ‘These’ is always used for ‘those’ in Scottish documents of this age.

[311] Fountainhall’s Decisions. Burnet’s History.

[312] Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. v.

[313] Letters to George Earl of Aberdeen (Spal. Club), p. 122.

[314] Analecta, i. 114.

[315] Memoirs of Lady Grizzel Baillie.

[316] MS. in possession of Sir Hugh Purves Hume Campbell, Bart., Marchmont House.

[317] Papers Relating to the Geographical Description, Maps, and Charts of Scotland, by John Adair. Bann. Club Misc., ii. 345.

[318] Papers Relating to Slezer’s Theatrum Scotiæ, in Bann. Club Misc., ii. 307.

[319] Scots Magazine, Obituary, 1791.

[320] A Short Account of Scotland, &c. London, 1702.

[321] Called the Old Bank Close, in the Lawnmarket, where Melbourne Place now is.

[322] The earl’s first marriage to a daughter of the Marquis of Huntly--who, however, was not the mother of his children--is noticed in this volume under 1649.

[323] [Mackie’s] Journey through Scotland, 1723, p. 18.

[324] From an original inventory of the articles, read before the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland by Sir David Laing, in 1857.

[325] Lamont’s Diary (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 212, foot-note.

GENERAL INDEX.

Abduction, cases of, i. 222, 419, 469; ii. 251, 319, 390.

ABERCORN, Lady, her persecution of Boyd of Trochrig, ii. 7, 8; imprisonment in the Tolbooth, 25, 26.

Aberdeen, its relation to the Highlands of the Dee, i. 251; remarkable trials for witchcraft in, 278-285; election prayer of, 341; frequent clan-combats and riots at, 384; banqueting at baptisms forbidden, 541. Threatened bar at mouth of harbour of, ii. 115; its doctors, 119-121, 123-126.

Accidents, Presbyterian historian’s notes of rare, i. 444.

ACHESON and ASLOWAN, adventurers in gold-seeking, i. 18.

Actors, companies of, in Perth and Edinburgh, i. 306; at Aberdeen, 357. A company at Edinburgh, ii. 404.

Acus marinus, or sea-needle, ii. 463.

ADAIR, John, his maps of the counties of Scotland, &c., ii. 483-485.

Adulteration by Edinburgh traders, ii. 240.

AIKEN, Margaret, ‘the great witch of Balwery,’ i. 291.

AIKENHEAD, James, charged with selling amorous drugs, ii. 227.

AIRD, Robert, a distinguished Episcopalian clergyman, petition of, ii. 281.

AIRTH, Earl of, remark of, on a Presbyterian prophetess, ii. 122; his encounter with Graham of Duchrae, 309.

Ale, impost-duty on, ii. 253.

Algiers and Africa, collection for Scottish prisoners in, i. 124, 125, 471. Petitions for Scottish mariners taken by pirates, ii. 93.

Anabaptists, dipping of the, ii. 213.

ANDERSON, Andrew, a trafficking papist, dies in the Tolbooth, ii. 60.

ANDERSON, Dr Patrick, his tract on Cold Spring of Kinghorn, i. 506.

ANDERSON, Father, banished from Scotland, i. 514.

ANDERSON, Walter, kills Archbishop Gladstanes’s cook, i. 431.

ANDERSON, Widow, the king’s printer, her petition, ii. 450.

ANGUS, Earl of, a papist, commissioned to pacify the north, i. 234; craves permission to go into exile, 402, 403.

ANGUS, the Good Earl of; anecdote of his last illness, i. 235.

Apology for the Quakers, Barclay of Urie’s, ii. 344.

Apostates, punished as adulterers, i. 140.

Apparitions, frequent, ii. 435.

Apprentices, restriction of, ii. 41.

ARDKINLAS, Laird of, his narrow escape, i. 246, 247.

ARDVOIRLICH, his dispute with Lord Kilpont, ii. 154-156.

ARDVOIRLICH, Lady of, Macgregors’ barbarous conduct to, i. 195.

ARGYLE, sixth Earl of, Lord Boyd, and other nobles, forsake Queen Mary, i. 76.

ARGYLE, seventh Earl of, becomes a papist, i. 504.

ARGYLE, ninth Earl of, tried for qualifying the test, ii. 354; his letter of fire and sword against the Macleans, 370-372; his expedition and death, 469.

ARGYLE, Marquis of, beheaded, ii. 274, 275.

Arminianism, alarm for it in Scotland, ii. 1; spread of, in England, 60.

Army, old mode of raising an, i. 36.

ARTHUR, Sir John, a priest, prosecuted, i. 23.

Atheism, Antidote against, Dr More’s, ii. 475.

ATHOLE, John Stewart, Earl of, entertains Queen Mary at a hunt, i. 29; his suspicious death, 123, 124.

ATHOLE, Marquis of, his dispute with Laird of Struan, ii. 423.

Athole, witches of, warm friends of Queen Mary, i. 70; sad account of country of, 405.

ATKINSON, Stephen, a speculator in gold-mines, i. 50, 474.

AUCHINLECK, George, of Balmanno, stabs Captain Nisbet, i. 141.

AUCHMUTY, a barber, beheaded for killing James Wauchope, i. 314.

AWIN, M., a French surgeon, complaint against, by his Edinburgh brethren, i. 260.

BAILLIE, Memoirs of Lady Grizzel, quoted, ii. 465-467.

BALBEGNO’S ghost appears to General Middleton, ii. 364.

BALCANQUEL, of that Ilk, fined for his wife’s non-attendance at parish church, ii. 463.

BALCARRES, Earl of, his death, ii. 296.

BALFOUR, John, a discoverer of witches, ii. 61.

----, William, a papist, his violence in St Giles’ Kirk, i. 14, 15.

BALLINDALLOCH and CARRON, Grants of, feud between, ii. 50-54.

Band of Friendship entered into by Earl of Eglintoun, Earl of Glencairn, and others, i. 118, 119.

Bankrupt or dyvour, curious proceeding regarding, i. 236.

Bankrupts, severities against, i. 392.

BANNATYNE, George, transcribes Scottish poetry, i. 57; his arms and initials, 58.

Banner of Revenge, followed by a thousand mounted gentlemen, i. 363.

Baptisms, order against extravagance at, i. 541.

Bar, backing of parties to the, proclamation against, i. 403. An example of it, ii. 30.

Barbadoes, white population of, ii. 305; religionists transported as slaves to, 397.

BARCLAY, Margaret, tried for witchcraft, i. 488, 489.

BARCLAY of Collerine, his uncle’s petition, ii. 436.

Bards and minstrels, act against; two poets hanged, i. 131.

BARGENY, Laird of, his death and character,i. 293; another Laird of, collision with the Earl of Cassillis, 311; killed in a fight near Brig of Doon, 360.

Barnacles, their development into sea-birds, Sir Robert Murray’s account of, ii. 356.

BARTAS, Sieur du, a French poet, visits Scotland, i. 173-175.

Bass, Lauder of the, and his mother, hold out against their creditors, ii. 20.

Battle-visions, and ominous sights and sounds, superstitious feelings regarding, ii. 146-148.

Beacons for shipping, introduction of; Isle of May light-house, i. 522, 523.

Beardie, great-grandfather of Sir Walter Scott, ii. 312.

Beaver hats, Captain Hamilton’s petition for liberty to manufacture, ii. 453.

Bedesmen, the King’s, ancient custom regarding, i. 405.

BEDFORD, Earl of, ambassador to Scotland at baptism of King James VI., i. 39.

Bee-house, John Geddie’s novel, ii. 323.

Beggars, strong and idle, act against, i. 131, 478.

BELHAVEN, Lord, anecdote of the blind, ii. 7.

----, Lord, curious incident in life of, ii. 249.

Bellman, formula used by the Edinburgh, ii. n. 202.

Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, tale of, ii. 166, 167.

Bible, first edition of the, printed in Scotland, by Arbuthnot and Bassendyne, Edinburgh burgesses, i. 100; difficulties of its progress through the press, 106, 107; gratification of clergy at its completion, 131.

BIRNIE, Walter, preacher, the Privy Council’s kindness to, ii. 338.

Birthday, anniversary of Charles II.’s, held as a holiday all over Scotland, ii. 291.

BISSET, Abacuck, maimed; anecdote of Queen Mary concerning, i. 180, 181.

Black Band, a conspiracy formed against Home of Wedderburn, i. 96, 97.

Black Saturday, why so called, i. 523.

BLACKADDER of Tulliallan, his case with Balfour of Burleigh, i. 386, 387.

BLACKBURN, Peter, Bishop of Aberdeen, his death, i. 475.

BLACKHALL, Father, narrative of his career as a priest in Scotland, ii. 129-134.

BLAIR, Alexander, of Freirton, gives surety for improved conduct to his wife, i. 48.

Bleeding heart prophecy, i. 145.

Blood-showers, their probable origin, ii. 199, 488, 489.

Bog an Gicht Castle, illustration, ii. 48.

Bohemian army, from 3000 to 4400 men raised in Scotland for the, ii. 9-11.

Bond of Association between Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm and fifty of his clan, i. 190.

Books imported from Germany duty-free, i. 194, 195.

Borbrieffs, or birth-letters, petitions for, ii. 325.

Border Thieves, Regent Moray’s raid against, i. 60; Regent Morton’s raid, 88; their immunity from the pest, 158; James VI.’s punishment of, 293, 294; above 140 hanged by Earl of Dunbar, 400, 422, 423; strong effort for suppression of, 443; 120 sent to Bohemian wars, 488; Earl of Traquair’s rigorous measures with at Jedburgh, ii. 100.

Borrowing Days, storm of, i. 552, 553.

Borrowstounness, curious witch-trial at, ii. 405, 406; Sweet Singers of, 414-416.

BOTHWELL, Adam, Bishop of Orkney, letter of, on plague, i. 55; his character, 145.

BOTHWELL, Countess of, her humble supplication to James VI., i. 243; inconstancy of James’s favour to, 264.

BOTHWELL, Hepburn, Earl of, his abduction of Queen Mary, i. 41.

BOTHWELL, Stuart, Earl of, demands 5000 merks from city of Edinburgh, i. 189; his attempt to seize James VI. at Holyroodhouse, 229; second attempt at Falkland Palace, 237; third attempt at Dalkeith Castle, 238; scene in James VI.’s chamber at Holyrood, 250; his encounter with Laird of Cessford, 251; his encounter with Lord Home, 255; joins the papist lords, 255.

Bothwell Moor, harrying of, i. 71.

Bowmen, Charles I. raises a small troop of Highland, ii. 14.

BOYD, Janet, tried for witchcraft, ii. 31.

----, Robert, Lord, deserts the Queen’s party, i. 76; bond of manred with William Fairly, 77.

BOYD of Trochrig, suffers great persecution in Paisley, ii. 8.

Boys, Society of the, i. 403, 404.

BRACKLA, Laird of, murdered, i. 233.

BRAIDHEAD, Janet, the witch, extracts from her confession, ii. 285-291.

BRAND, John, beheaded for murder, i. 467.

Brandy, its importation restricted, ii. 332.

Branks, an instrument of punishment, i. 47.

Brazen Wall, a party of this regiment surprised by Captain Wogan, ii. 224.

Brechin, a keeper of a hotel in, apprehended for murdering his guests in bed, i. 78.

Bride of Baldoon, original of the Bride of Lammermuir, story of, ii. 326-328.

Bridges and roads, ruinous state of, ii. 409.

Brimstone, vitriol, and alum, privilege of making, granted, i. 443.

BRONKHORST, a Fleming, tries to get a patent for the gold-mines of Lanarkshire, i. 138; acts as portrait-painter to the king, 139.

BROWN, Gilbert, ex-abbot of New Abbey, imprisoned, i. 389; his books, &c., burnt, 422.

BROWN of Hartree, his duel with Hay of Smithfield, i. 264, 265.

BROWN, Robert, a Cambridge student; his peculiar religious doctrines, i. 153.

Brownism, a tendency towards, rebuked, ii. 127, 145.

Browster-wife, origin of the term, i. 328. Comic race by twelve brewster-wives, ii. 273.

BRUCE and FORESTER, of Stirlingshire, their dispute, i. 260.

BRUCE, Edward Lord, of Kinloss, his duel with Sir Edward Sackville, i. 447-451.

BRUCE of Clackmannan, patents a coal-mine water-engine, ii. 408.

BRUCE, Peter, his patents for various machines, ii. 408; his patent for playing-cards, 432.

BRUCE, Robert, of Clackmannan; an incident in his life, i. 240, 241.

BRUCE, Sir George, anecdote of James VI.’s visit to, at Culross, i. 485.

Bruits, rumours so called: their effects, ii. 4, 5.

BRUNTFIELD, Adam, slays James Carmichael in single combat, i. 286.

BUCCLEUCH, Countess of, her early marriage and death, ii. 250.

BUCCLEUCH, first Earl of, his burial-procession, ii. 73, 74.

BUCHANAN, George, tutor to James VI., i. 83; his death and character, 149, 150.

BULMER, on Englishman, works the gold-mines in Scotland, i. 254, 255, 290.

BURGESS, Dr, his specific for the plague, ii. 164.

BURNET, Rev. John, death of, ii. 363.

Burntisland, extraordinary riot in, i. 466. Shipping at, in time of Commonwealth, ii. 249; Dutch ships attack, 318.

BURTON, John, his brother’s complaint against him, ii. 424.

Butchers and Vintners, outcry against extortion of, ii. 489, 490.

Cabinet-making, James Turner’s petition, ii. 396.

CAITHNESS, Earl of, beheads Alister Mac William Mor, i. 387, 388; strife between, and Gordon and Mackay, 440-443; his unruly conduct checked, 536-538.

CALDER, Laird of, three gentlemen receive and die of poison meant for, ii. 146.

Caligraphy, Esther Inglis, a Frenchwoman, her MS. volumes, i. 550-552.

Camel, exhibition of a, ii. 69.

Camerons’ raid against Struan of Kinloch, ii. 308.

CAMPBELL and SMITH, a combat between, in Edinburgh, i. 72, 73.

CAMPBELL, Colin, of Glenurchy, a patron of the fine arts, ii. 62.

CAMPBELL, John, of Calder, shot by Mac Ellar, i. 246.

CAMPBELL of Moy, M‘Ranald of Glengarach’s attack on house of, i. 364.

CAMPBELL, Sir Duncan, Laird of Glenurchy, his style of living, i. 207.

CAMPBELL, Sir James, of Lawers, his thief-taking commission, ii. 381, 382.

Canongate, inhabitants of, infected by the pest, i. 56; tavern arrangements in, 59.

CANT, Andrew, his moderatorship, ii, 181; anecdote of, 182, 183.

Cape of Good Hope, the devil appears on board of a ship so called, ii. 347.

Cappers, Scotch privateer vessels so called, ii. 317.

Caravan betwixt Edinburgh and Glasgow, ii. 393.

CARDINESS, Lady, Sir Alexander M‘Culloch’s assaults on, ii. 321.

CARGILL, Donald, his predictions, ii. 372.

CARMICHAEL, James, kills Stephen Bruntfield in a duel, i. 286.

CARNEGIE and LITHGOW, Lords, duel of, ii. 305.

CARRUTHERS, Marion, an heiress, i. 25.

CARSTAIRS, Cardinal, anecdote of the thumbikens, ii. 460.

Cart, Hamilton’s patent for a new, i. 550.

CARVET, a Romish priest, pilloried, i. 33.

Cashielaws, an instrument of torture, i. 273.

CASHOGLE and DRUMLANRIG, private war between, i. 520, 521.

CASSILLIS and WIGTON, Earls of, dispute between, ii. 30.

CASSILLIS, Earl of, and Kennedy of Bargeny, dispute between, i. 310, 363-366.

CASSILLIS, Earl of, marries widow of Lord Thirlstane; unmeetness of the match, i. 293.

CASSILLIS, Gilbert, Earl of, sometimes called King of Carrick, his extraordinary torture of Master Allan Stewart, i. 65-68.

Castle-Kennedy, anecdote of a thunder-clap at, ii. 28.

Catastrophe Mundi, a treatise on comets, ii. 456.

CATHCART, James, a pretended astrologer, ii. 467.

CATHKIN and LAWSON, oppose Episcopalian principles, i. 512.

Catholic missionaries, success in Switzerland, i. 515. Catholics, see Papists.

Catholic nobles, driven to extremities, i. 219; their treasonable correspondence with Spain, 244; their sons placed under care of reformed ministers, 351; progress of persecution against, 415-417, 421, 422, 429. Further persecutions of, ii. 57-60, 335-338.

CHALMERS, James, his list of papists and seminary priests, ii. 283, 284.

CHANCELLOR, Susanna, accused of consulting charmers, ii. 44.

Change-houses, Kirke’s description of Scotch, ii. 407.

Chapel of Grace, pilgrimages to, i. 325.

CHARLES I., his baptism, i. 321. His marriage, ii. 4; proclamation against popery, 4; raises troop of Highland bowmen, 14; letter to the Scottish Council, 25; grants commission to Lord Gordon against papists, 36-41; his interference on behalf of papists, 57-60; his visit to Edinburgh, 63-69; proclamation against communion stragglers, 81; his expeditions against Scottish Covenanters, 106; commences the civil war, 109; rendered up by Scottish army, 112; his remark on death of Earl of Haddington, 137; anecdote of Irish rebellion, 141; his execution creates enmity between ruling powers of England and Scotland, 174.

CHARLES II., demonstrations on birth of, ii. 41; invited to Scotland and proceedings there, 174; his restoration, 255; remark on inhumane laws, 260; joy at restoration of, 261, 266; anecdote of his visit to James Guthrie, 276; extraordinary demonstration at Linlithgow on his birthday, 291, 292; his fondness for bees, 323, 324; evils of his reign, 330, 332; his equestrian statue in Parliament Close, 477.

Charms for healing sores, &c., i. 324. Specimen of, ii. 153.

CHATTAN or MACINTOSH, Clan, Earl of Moray’s expedition against, i. 542, 543.

Cheviot, order against hunting in, i. 453.

CHIESLEY of Dalry shoots Sir George Lockhart, ii. 495.

CHIESLEY, William, writer in Edinburgh, punished for a cheat, ii. 445.

Child-murder, hanging of women for, &c., ii. 414.

CHISHOLMS prosecute M‘Leans for witchcraft, ii. 293, 294.

Christie’s Well, pilgrimages to, i. 323.

Christmas-day, James VI. orders keeping of, i. 426; general disregard of, 506. Its observance in Edinburgh, ii. 297.

Church-discipline, severity of, i. 336; ii. 196-199.

Church-lands, convention for revocation of, ii. 6.

Church matters, meeting for deliberation on, ii. 12.

Citadels, order for destroying those raised during the Commonwealth, ii. 279.

Clairvoyance, quasi case of, ii. 394.

CLARK, Alexander, provost of Edinburgh, his reception of Charles I., ii. 63-65.

CLARK and RAMSAY, hanged for poisoning their master, ii. 373.

Clergy, their zeal and self-denying poverty, i. 132; collisions with Edinburgh merchants, 241, 242; their intolerance, 244; their admonitions of James VI., and general denunciations against common corruption of all estates of the realm, 267. Perfect accord with the Estates, ii. 179-181.

Clothing and cloth-works in Scotland, anecdotes connected with, ii. 416-422.

Cloth-manufacture, seven Flemings engaged to set agoing; result, i. 362; encouraged by James VI., 425. At Newmills, near Haddington, ii. 418.

Coaches, early examples of, i. 19; first hint at public coaches and wagons in Scotland, 431. Street coaches, ii. 358; stage-coaches, 218, 247, 391, 476.

Coal, early digging of, i. 24; Countess of Sutherland first works coal of Brora, 302; coal-works at Culross, 485; price of coal fixed, 519; Johnston’s licence to export, 520.

COCHRANE of Ochiltree, saved by his heroic daughter Grizzel, ii. 479.

COCKBURN, the executioner, hanged, ii. 433.

COCKIE, Isobel, burned for witchcraft, i. 280.

Cockpool, inundation of house of Old, anecdote of, ii. 17.

Coffee-houses, first known in Edinburgh and Glasgow, ii. 359-361.

Coin, attempt to raise the value of, i. 122.

COKE, William, burned for sorcery; bill of expenses, ii. 70, 71.

COLLACE, Mr William, first regent in St Leonard’s College, i. 73.

College of Physicians, proposed in Edinburgh, i. 521.

COLQUHOUNS and MACGREGORS, battle between, i. 377, 378.

COLVILLE, Lady, imprisoned for educating her son in disloyal principles, ii. 467.

COLVILLE, Lord, mission to France concerning the Scots Guard, i. 535.

Combat, a remarkable, i. 285; among the last attempts to settle a dispute by, 414.

Comets, early ideas about, i. 112, 113; appearance of a remarkable, in 1618, 505. Appearance of one during the day, ii. 185; in 1664 and 1665, 300-302; in 1676, 376; in 1680, curious notions regarding, 410-412; Halley’s, in 1682, 444.

Communion Tuesday meetings; their object, i. 508. Communion administered in Edinburgh after an interval of six years, ii. 235.

CON of Achry, a papist, excommunicated by presbytery of Aberdeen, ii. 59.

Confession of Faith, commonly called the King’s Confession, i. 142.

Conventicles, various persons fined for attending, ii. 334.

Copper-mine in parish of Currie, ii. 453.

Corn, great dearth of in 1567, i. 52.

CORNWALL, Archibald, hanged for poinding the king and queen’s portraits, i. 349.

Corstorphine, frightful tragedy at village of, ii. 401-403.

Costume, court order of, i. 426.

Court of Session, suspension of, ii. 128.

COUTS, Janet, accuses eleven women of witchcraft, ii. 194, 195.

Covenant, National, signed, ii. 105, 116; forced on people at Aberdeen, 120, 123.

Covenant, Solemn League and, made, ii. 109; character and consequences of, 111; forced on Lady Frendraught, 159; opinion of royalists regarding rule of, 160, 161; taken by Charles II., 175; forced on Marquis and Marchioness of Douglas, 191, 193; burned at Linlithgow, 291.

Covenanters, proceedings of the, ii. 106-113, 119-121, 123-126.

Covenanter’s Ribbon, ii. 124.

Cowdothe, an epidemic so called, i. 117.

COWPER, William, bishop of Galloway, a libel against, i. 372; his sudden death, 507, 508.

CRAIG, Marjory, hanged as a witch, ii. 377-379.

CRAWFORD and GLAMMIS, feud between, i. 117, 118.

CRAWFORD, Earl of, confined in the Tower, ii. 218; appointed Lord Treasurer, 255.

CRAWFORD, Master of, young Edzell’s attack on, i. 405, 406.

Crawford gold-field, i. 17, 51, 253, 290, 474.

Creditors, supposed power of, over interment of the dead, ii. 328, 329.

CRICHTON of Frendraught and GORDON of Rothiemay, dispute between ii. 45-50, 76-79, 84.

CRICHTON, Sir Robert, of Cluny, a caption used against him in church, i. 474.

CROMBIE, Thomas, summoned for slaughter of William Blair, ii. 4.

CROMWELL, Oliver, his first visit to Edinburgh, ii. 170, 171; crosses the Tweed with an English army, 201-207; anecdotes of, 203, 204; his law-commissioners for Scotland, 219; breaks up the General Assembly, 221; proclaimed protector, 242-244.

Crossford visions, Walker’s account of the, ii. 485-487.

CULTMALINDY and MONYVAIRD, feud between, i. 490.

CUMMING, Isobel, a teacher of young ladies, her petition, ii. 482.

CUNNINGHAM and CRAWFORD, Captains, harry Bothwell Moor, i. 71.

CUNNINGHAM of Robertland, murders Earl of Eglintoun, i. 161. Poinding of his goods, ii. 340.

Cunyie-house, master of, visits England, i. 386.

Cupar (Fife), great fire at, in 1668, ii. 321.

Custom-officers and Edinburgh merchants, dispute between, ii. 299.

Customs, i. 339-342; Spalding bewails suppression of old Christian, ii. 142.

DAES, Alexander, introduces paper-making, ii. 398; favours the shewing of an elephant, 410; complaint from, 432.

Dalkeith, James VI. residing at, i. 146.

Dalry paper-mills, Daes’s petition for, ii. 398.

DALRYMPLE, Janet, the unfortunate Bride of Baldoon, ii. 326-328.

DALRYMPLE, William, murdered by Mures of Auchindrain, i. 435-437.

Dancing, laws against, i. 338.

Danish nobles and gentlemen entertained by Edinburgh magistrates, i. 199.

DARNLEY, Lord, i. 35-37; his murder, 40.

DAVIDSON, William, an Edinburgh flesher, a monster-pig farrowed in his house, i. 76.

Day of Law in the reign of James VI., i. 247.

Dearths in Scotland, i. 59, 94, 99, 116, 117, 179, 180, 265, 271, 303, 304, 318, 444, 476, 530, 531, 538, 539; ii. 74, 75, 85, 134, 144, 149, 156, 185, 207, 235.

Deer slain with guns near the Border, i. 103.

Deer-hunting, the Water-poet’s description of Highland, i. 497.

Deil stick the Minister, anecdote of, ii. 453.

Denmark, King of, 2000 men raised in Scotland for, i. 53.

Devil of Glenluce, a house-infesting spirit, ii. 228-232.

DEVOE, Andrew, a dancing-master in Edinburgh, Bayne’s petition against, ii. 384; his complaint against the Fountains, 401.

DE VOIS, Cornelius, a gold-seeking adventurer, i. 50.

DICK, Alison, burnt for witchcraft; curious bill of expenses, ii. 70, 71.

DICK, Sir William, wealth of, ii. 183; his history and death, 236-240.

DICK’S house of Priestfield burnt, ii. 413.

DICKISON, Provost, murdered in Peebles, i. 81. Allusion to, ii. 480.

DICKSON, David, minister of Irvine, Stewarton Sickness takes its rise under, ii. 43; moderator of the General Assembly, 221.

DICKSON, John, an Englishman, hanged for slanderous speeches against James VI., i. 273.

DICKSON, John, of Belchester, broken on the rack for murder of his father, i. 224.

Dissection, malefactors given for, ii. 96.

Dissent, progress of Presbyterian, i. 543-545.

Divines, Assembly of, at Westminster, ii. 111.

Diving-bell, Maule of Melgum’s invention of the, ii. 387.

Dog dispute, tragical issue of a, ii. 478.

Dogs, acts against bringing to church, i. 342.

DONALDSON, Robert, murdered, ii. 329.

DOUGLAS, Andrew, minister of Dunkeld, tortured and hanged for rebuking Morton, i. 80.

DOUGLAS, Colonel, diligent training of his regiment, ii. 462.

DOUGLAS, Hon. George, his quarrel with John Corsehill, ii. 478.

DOUGLAS, Janet, a deaf and dumb girl, her deceptions as a witch-finder, ii. 376-381.

DOUGLAS, Marquis of, his difficulties with the presbytery of Lanark, ii. 190-194.

DOUGLAS, second Marquis of, his separation from Lady Barbara Erskine, ii. 340.

DOUGLAS, Mr Archibald, his mock-trial for concern in murder of Darnley, i. 163.

DOUGLAS of Lochleven, his hatred of the Hamiltons, i. 100.

DOUGLAS, Sir James, of Parkhead, slays James Stewart of Newton, i. 274.

DOUGLAS, William, beheaded for concern in duel with Home of Eccles, ii. 318.

DOUGLAS, William, stabs Thomas Lindsay, ii. 439-442.

DOWNIE, John, the pest breaks out in his ship, i. 139.

Dowries or Tochers, examples of, ii. 35.

Dragon-hole, near Perth, yearly procession to, i. 327.

Dream regarding Dunnottar Castle, i. 210.

Dress of clergymen and their wives, General Assembly’s regulations regarding, i. 102.

Dresses of the sexes, prank of interchanging, i. 327.

Drinking, Aberdeen town-council’s order against compulsory, ii. 4.

Drinking-debauch, unfortunate issue of a, ii. 345, 346.

Dromedary, exhibition of a travelling, ii. 249.

DRUMLANRIG and CASHOGLE, private war between, i. 520, 521.

DRUMMOND, Lady Jean, her portion of 5000 merks, ii. 34, 35.

DRUMMOND of Hawthornden, Ben Jonson’s visit to, i. 500-503.

DRUMMOND, Robert, his exposure in the ‘stocks’ for adultery, i. 92.

DRUMMOND, Sir George, becomes bankrupt, ii. 479.

DRUMMONDS and OLIVER YOUNG, dispute between servants of the, i. 293.

DRURY, Sir William, threatens to destroy the town of Linlithgow, i. 63.

Dryfe’s Sands, clan-battle of, i. 252.

Duddingston Loch, legal case about swans on, ii. 492.

DUFF, David, outrages committed by, in a dispute about land, i. 348.

Dumbarton, Castle of, taken by surprise by the king’s party, i. 73. Its ruinous state for national defence, ii. 18.

Dumbarton, encroachments of the sea on, i. 400.

Dumblane, four priests of, condemned to death for saying mass, i. 59.

Dumfries, complaint against minister and reader of, i. 95; James VI. executes justice at, 294; anecdote of a mission to Wigtown to purchase cattle, 304. A papist priest taken at, ii. 11; papist marriage at, 72; case of poisoning at, 92; insecurity of its jail, 442.

DUNBAR, Earl of, hangs above 140 Border thieves, i. 400; his ecclesiastical mission to Scotland from James VI., 413; further proceedings against Border thieves, 422, 423.

Dunbar, 300 fishermen perish at, i. 125. Battle of, ii. 176; the witch of, 493.

Dundee, its quarrel with Perth, i. 48; coining at, 157; anecdote connected with the pest, 399; suffers under pest, 414. Sack of, by General Monk, ii. 207; witch case at, 330; a jail delivery by Graham of Claverhouse, 461.

Dunfermline, great fire at, i. 542.

Dunglass Castle, dismal accident at, ii. 136.

DUNLOP, Bessie, her trial for witchcraft, i. 107-110.

DUNLOP, Thomas, a poor Quaker, persecution of, ii. 443.

Dunnottar Castle, dream regarding, i. 210. Siege of; anecdote of regalia of Scotland, ii. 213; Whigs confined in, 480.

Dunse, possessed woman at, ii. 43.

Dunse Law, magazine of pebbles at, ii. 126.

DUNTREATH, deaf and dumb Laird of, his divinations, ii. 384, 385.

DURIE, Gibson of, story of his kidnapping, i. 355, 356.

DURIE, John, a minister of Edinburgh; his return from banishment, i. 148.

Dutch invasion; fleet appears at mouth of Firth of Forth, ii. 318.

Eagles, remarkable anecdotes of, ii. n. 268.

‘Earth-dogs,’ or terriers, James VI. writes to Earl of Mar for, i. 547.

Earthquakes, i. 140, 292, 420, 454, 522; ii. 241.

Easter Sunday, communion on, disinclination of the people to kneeling, i. 509.

Ecclesiastical discipline, i. 336-338. Its bearing on the habits of the people, ii. 156-161.

Echt, Barmkyn of, strange sounds heard at, ii. 115.

Eclipses of the sun, i. 296; ii. 215.

Economy, traits of the public, i. 345-347.

Eddy-pool of Water of Brechin, drying up of, ii. 75.

Edinburgh, effects of the civil war on, i. 79-81, 87, 88; spirited resistance to Earl of Bothwell, 189; filthiness of, in 1617, 486. Charles I.’s visit to; his reception, ii. 63-69; taxes, poverty, vanity, and debt of, 235, 236, 247; three fires at, on one Sunday, 487. See whole work passim.

Edston-haugh, near Peebles, duel at, i. 265.

EDZELL, Laird of, his attack on Master of Crawford, i. 405, 406.

Eels, thousands of dead, cast on banks of North Loch, ii. 234.

Eggs, act against exporting, i. 467.

EGLINTOUN and GLENCAIRN, Earls of, feud between, i. 394, 395.

EGLINTOUN, Earl of, murdered by Cunningham of Robertland, i. 161-163.

Egyptians, Privy Council’s order against, ii. 54.

ELDER, James, a baker, tried for usury, ii. 298.

Elephant, the first seen in Scotland, ii. 410.

Elgin Cathedral, choir of, destroyed by a high wind, ii. 114; casting down of timber-screen of, 138.

ELIZABETH, Queen, sends a hostile army against Queen Mary’s friends in Scotland, i. 61; another, 85; intelligence of her death brought to King James, 381.

ELPHINSTONE, George, a Glasgow bailie, violent attacks against, i. 90.

ELPHINSTONE, Sir George, his dispute with Sir M. Stewart at Glasgow, i. 396-398.

English judicature at Leith, impartiality of, ii. 215.

English soldiers, their description of the Highlands, ii. 218; their contempt for stool of repentance, ibid.

English, their jealousy of the Scotch in reign of James VI., i. 432-434.

Entry-money at taking service, Privy Council’s proclamation against, i. 489.

Episcopacy introduced by James VI., i. 379, 394, 415, 426, 428, 480, 523; ii. 1, 2; abrogated, 106; re-established, 256; finally abolished, 474.

Equinoctial gale of 1606, devastating effects of, i. 392.

Ericht, subscription for building a bridge over river, ii. 54.

ERROL, Earl of, makes his peace with Kirk of Aberdeen, i. 288; trait of his domestic circumstances, 466. His death, ii. 55.

ERSKINE, Robert, with his three sisters, condemned to death for poisoning his two nephews, i. 452.

Eskdale Muir denuded of sheep, ii. 367.

Estates and Clergy, perfect accord between, ii. 179-181.

Evelick, singular boy-murder near, ii. 439.

Ewe and Lamb, a kidnapping ship so called, ii. 359.

Excommunicated persons, Privy Council’s measures against, ii. 18, 20-28, 36-41.

Excommunication, i. 336; pronounced against Marquis of Huntly, 417. Dealt out liberally, ii. 173; of a gardener revoked by James VII., 482.

FAAS, gipsies, a number of, executed, i. 476.

Falkirk and Stirling, sixteen farms between, buried in moss, ii. 35.

Falkland and Holyrood, improvement on the palaces of, for king’s visit, i. 476.

Famine in 1563, i. 25; severity of, in 1623, 538, 539. See Dearths.

FARQUHAR, Robert, a rich Aberdeen merchant, his loans to the state, ii. 181; story of, 182.

FARQUHARSON of Inverey, his fine of £4000 [Scots?], ii. 184.

Fast-day in Old Aberdeen, in 1644, a reality, ii. 154.

FAW, Moses, a gipsy, his petition granted, i. 426.

FAWS and the SHAWS, battle between, ii. 388.

Female Remonstrants in Parliament Close, strange scene with, ii. 369.

FENELON, Sieur de la Motte, a French ambassador, i. 151.

Fiacre, origin of application of the term to hackney-coaches, i. 324.

FIAN, John, schoolmaster at Prestonpans, burnt as a wizard, i. 211, 212.

FIELDING, Beau, and two Scotch gentlemen, drink three horrid toasts, ii. 381.

Fiery-cross, the Macleans raise 300 men by the, ii. n. 371.

Fife and Kinross, enormous sacrifices made by counties of, to resist Cromwell’s invasion, ii. 206.

Fines, Scottish Estates impose severe, ii. 183, 184; for attending conventicles, 334.

FINNIE, Agnes, burnt for witchcraft, ii. 149-153.

Fire-engine for Glasgow, first, ii. 244.

Fires on Midsummer and St Peter’s Eves, i. 326.

Fish, white, destroyed by dog-fish; Spalding’s idea of, ii. 144.

Fishermen, Earl of Errol’s petition against, ii. 458.

Fishing Society, formation of a, ii. 330, 331.

FLECK, George, reveals where the Earl of Morton’s treasure lay, i. 142.

FLEMING, Lord, his marriage celebrated, i. 29; sufferings in the civil war, 1570, 62.

Flesh, use of, forbidden by Privy Council, i. 50.

FLETCHER, Christian, saves the regalia of Scotland, ii. 214.

Flood in the Tay, remarkable, i. 525-527.

Florida, one of the Spanish Armada vessels, blown up, ii. 386-388.

Foot-race, curious, of twelve brewsterwives, and sixteen fishwives, ii. 273.

Foot-soldiers, five companies raised by Charles II., ii. 296.

FORBES, Dr, bishop of Edinburgh, i. 544.

----, of Corse, banishment of, ii. 146; his corpse refused burial in his own ground, 451.

FORBES, Master of, and GEORGE LESLIE, fight between, ii. 134.

FORBES of Leslie, his prosecution of Farquharson of Inverey, ii. 184.

FORBES of Tolquhoun and OGILVIE of Forglen, dispute between, ii. 477.

FORESTER, a bailie of Stirling, rare form of his funeral, i. 260.

FORRESTER, Lord, murdered by his mistress, ii. 401.

Forth, Firth of, alarm of invasion from vessels appearing in, ii. 15.

FOULIS, Lady, extraordinary trial of, for witchcraft, i. 202-205.

FOULIS, Thomas, an Edinburgh goldsmith; his gold, silver, and lead mines, i. 252-254, 290; a creditor of James VI., 295, 296.

FOUNTAINS, two brothers, their patent as Masters of the Revels, ii. 400, 459.

France, differences between Great Britain and, ii. 12.

FRASER, Helen, burnt for witchcraft, i. 280.

----, Janet, strange phenomenon on her Bible, ii. 488.

FRASER, Lord, and Laird of Philorth, dispute between, ii. 99, 100.

FRASER of Kirkhill, extracts from his diary, ii. 241.

FRASER’S view of the customs of the Highlanders, ii. 383.

FRENCH, Adam, of Thornydykes, his abduction, i. 469.

French language, town-council of Edinburgh patronise the teaching of, i. 94.

French Protestants, contributions for, i. 102; warmly entertained in England and Scotland, 163.

FRENDRAUGHT and ROTHIEMAY, dispute between, ii. 45-50, 76-79, 84, 98.

FRENDRAUGHT, Lady, falls under discipline of presbytery of Strathbogie, ii. 158-160; persecution of, 335.

Frolics and masqueradings, i. 327-329.

Frosts, great, in 1570-1-2-3, i. 72, 84, 457; freezing of several rivers in Scotland; a fair held upon the ice on the Thames, 409. Frost of 1683, ii. 454.

Gallow-lee, five phanatiques hanged at the, ii. 428.

GEDDES, Jenny, supposed heroine who cast the first stool at the bishop, ii. 103.

GEDDIE, John, his novel bee-house, ii. 323.

General Assembly, fasts for steerage from papists, i. 196; held in 1608, 416. Covenanting assembly at Glasgow, ii. 106; suppression of, by order of Cromwell, 221, 222.

GER, John Dhu, an outlaw, outrages of, ii. 121, 128, 135, 263.

German legions, unscrupulous recruiting of, in Scotland, ii. 13.

GIBB, Muckle John, chief of the Sweet Singers of Borrowstounness, ii. 415.

GIBSON, Alexander, kidnapped, i. 355.

----, Anna, abduction of, ii. 319.

GILDEROY, with nine caterans, executed, ii. 96-98.

GILLON, James, condemned for a riot, i. 9.

Gipsies, their first appearance in Scotland; act against, i. 84; severities against, six hanged, 476; their harbourage at Roslin, 539. Edict against, ii. 54; some in Haddington jail, ordered to be hanged and drowned, 99.

Girdle for baking invented in Culross, ii. 493.

GIRVANMAINS, Laird of, kills M‘Alexander of Drumachryne, i. 310, 311.

GLADSTANES, Archbishop, his cook killed, i. 431.

GLADSTANES, Marion, nearly poisons Nicolas Johnston, ii. 92.

GLAMMIS and CRAWFORD, feud between, i. 117, 118.

GLAMMIS, Lords, and LINDSAYS of Forfarshire, feud between, i. 312, 313.

GLANVIL’S Saducismus Triumphatus, ii. 476.

Glasgow, an earthquake in, i. 64; Smith’s excerpts from burgh records, 88-92; attempt to demolish its cathedral, 122, 123; tumult in 1606, 395-399. Great fire at, ii. 216; interesting incidents connected with, 244, 245, 247; another fire at, 389; a cloth manufactory set up in, 445; subscription for a fire at Kelso, 458.

Glass-manufacture, patent granted for, i. 432.

----work in Wemyss, Fife, the first known in Scotland, i. 510, 511.

GLEN, James, fined for publishing the Root of Romish Ceremonies, ii. 490.

GLENCAIRN and EGLINTOUN, Earls of, feud between, i. 394, 395.

Glengoner, gold-digging in, i. 18, 152, 253.

Glenluce, Devil of, incidents in history of the, ii. 228-232.

Gloucester frigate, shipwreck of the, ii. 405, 439.

God and the King, a book so called, i. 474.

God’s Blessing, a shaft of Hilderstone silver-mine so called, i. 412.

GOGAR, MILLER, and SANGSTER, hanged, ii. 422.

Gold and silver, licence to search for, i. 50.

----, exportation of, forbidden, i. 107.

---- mines in Lanarkshire, i. 17, 50, 152, 253.

Golden Assembly, why so called, i. 428.

Goldsmiths, the Edinburgh, historic importance of, i. 253.

Goodman’s Croft, the, act against, i. 324, 325.

GORDON, Adam, sets fire to Alex. Forbes’s house, and burns his lady, children, and servants--twenty-seven in all, i. 75.

GORDON, Adam, and FRANCIS HAY, combat between, i. 468.

GORDON and MACKAY, strife between, and Earl of Caithness, i. 440-443.

GORDON, Jean, divorcée of Bothwell; her coal and salt works at Brora, i. 302. Pleasing character of, ii. 30.

GORDON, Lord, commander of French Scots Guards, i. 535, 536. His commission against excommunicated papists, ii. 36-41.

GORDON, Mr James, a Jesuit, James VI. reasons with, i. 182.

GORDON of Craig, banished for papistry, i. 545, 546. His petition to the Council, ii. 38; petitions Charles I., 59.

GORDON of Dunkintie and his eldest son slain, ii. 69.

GORDON of Enbo, his quarrel with Sutherland of Duffus, ii. 5, 6.

GORDON of Gight, revenges his brother’s death, i. 468.

GORDONS OF GIGHT, persecuted for papistry, i. 352, 353, 403, 404; outrage by, at Turriff, 354; strange act at Aberdeen, 468.

GORDON of Rothiemay and CRICHTON of Frendraught, dispute between, ii. 45-50, 76-79, 84.

GORDON, Sir Robert, sent against Earl of Caithness, i. 536-538.

GORDON, William, his contempt of presbytery, ii. 160.

Go-summer and go-har’st, definition of, ii. n. 79.

GOULD, Mr William, his representations to Council against papists, ii. 59, 60.

GOURLAY, Agnes, punished for charming the milk of kine, ii. 188.

GOURLAY, John, customer, i. 195.

----, Robert, punished for exporting grain, i. 93; Regent Morton confined in his house, 143; king lives in same house, 255; illustration, 554.

GOWDIE, Isobel, the witch, her confession, ii. 286-291.

GOWRIE, Earl of, arrives with his brother in Edinburgh from Padua, i. 313; their attempt on life of James VI., 319.

Gowrie treason, anniversary of, a holiday, i. 408.

Grace, Act of, its effects, ii. 225.

GRAHAM, Bessie, executed for witchcraft, ii. 187, 188.

GRAHAM, Helen, an heiress, abduction of, i. 470.

GRAHAM, Mr John, of Hallyards, and Sir JAMES SANDILANDS, litigation between, i. 245.

GRAHAM of Claverhouse, imports cloth for his soldiers, ii. 419; entreats mild punishment for ordinary crimes, 461; his conduct at the Revolution, 473.

GRAHAM of Duchrae, his encounter with Earl of Airth, ii. 309.

GRAHAM of Inchbrakie, postmaster-general for Scotland, ii. 316, 317.

GRAHAM, Patrick, Captain of Town Guard of Edinburgh, ii. 420, 438.

GRAHAM, Richard, a wizard, worried and burnt at Cross of Edinburgh, i. 235.

Grain and fruit, abundance of, ii. 293.

GRAINGER, Mrs, saves the Scottish regalia, ii. 214.

GRANT, memoir of the family of; traditionary anecdote, i. n. 234.

GRANT of Carron and GRANT of Ballindalloch, feud between, ii. 50-54.

GRANT, younger of Ballindalloch, presents M‘Grimmen’s head to the Council, ii. 85.

GRAY, James, his forcible abduction of the daughter of John Carnegie, i. 222.

GRAY, James, a lieutenant in the Midlothian Militia, beheaded, ii. 395.

GREG, John, singular persecution of, ii. 99.

GREGOR, Clan, proclamation against, i. 524.

Greybeard, a Dutchman, works valleys of Wanlock-head for gold, i. 51.

Greyfriars, influence of, i. 3.

GRIEVE, a maltman, murdered by his son, ii. 293.

GRIEVE, Thomas, accused of curing disease by witchcraft, i. 540, 541.

GUELDRES, Mary de, re-interment of her supposed remains, i. n. 222.

GUILD, William, convicted of stealing, i. 14.

Guinea, a gold coin so called, ii. 114.

Gunpowder, manufacture of, ii. 11.

---- Plot, general joy in Scotland at detection of, i. 391.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, 6000 Scots go to assistance of, ii. 55-57.

GUTHRIE, Bishop, preaches before Charles I., ii. 67.

GUTHRIE, James,beheaded; anecdotes of, ii. 275-277.

GUTHRIE, John, minister of Perth, marries a couple of thirteen, i. 505.

GUTHRY, Helen, admonishes James VI. of his duty, i. 236, 237.

Hackney-coach licensed between Leith and Edinburgh, ii. 264.

HAITLY of Mellerstanes, slain by his father-in-law, i. 372.

Halkit Stirk, a Highland robber so called, apprehended by Laird of Grant, ii. 263; committed to the Tolbooth, 343.

Halley’s Comet in 1682, ii. 414.

Hallucinations, curious religious, ii. 313-315.

HAMILTON, a soldier, resolves to challenge Captain Bruce, i. 549.

HAMILTON, Alexander, a warlock, worried and burnt, ii. 32, 33.

HAMILTON, Archibald, a spy for Cromwell, hanged in chains, ii. 205.

HAMILTON, David, younger of Bothwell-haugh, complaint against, i. 347.

HAMILTON, James,of Bothwell-haugh, shoots the Regent Moray, i. 60.

HAMILTON, John, archbishop, keeps up the rites of the Catholic church, i. 23; hanged at Stirling, 73.

HAMILTON, Lords John and Claud; their conduct to old Carmichael and Laird of Westerhall, i. 99.

HAMILTON, Lord John, his narrow escape from town-guards’ volley of honour, i. 238.

HAMILTON, Marquis (subsequently Duke) of, raises 6000 Scots for Gustavus Adolphus, ii. 55-57; his expedition in 1648, 113, 170.

HAMILTON, Mr Robert, minister of St Andrews, writes down Knox’s prediction about Kirkaldy of Grange, i. 85.

HAMILTON, Patrick, his attack on Abacuck Bisset, i. 180.

HAMILTONS of Livingstone, lawless acts of, i. 258.

Hammerman, an Edinburgh, 1555, illustration, i. 10.

Hand-fasting, a custom so called, i. 335.

Hardheads, base coin so called in Scotland, act against, i. 101.

Hares, singular visit of, to city of Edinburgh, ii. 228.

HART and NORTON, booksellers, petition for liberty to import German books duty-free, i. 194.

HART, Andro, printer of Napier’s Logarithms, i. 455.

HART, John, printer, his edition of the Bible, ii. 41.

Harvests, plentiful, ii. 222, 226.

Hawking, James VI.’s love of this sport, i. 391.

HAY, Francis, and ADAM GORDON, combat between, i. 468.

HAY, Lord, of Yester, his conduct to Brown of Frosthill, i. 256.

HAY, Lord, of Yester, brother of the preceding, his widow founds a church in Edinburgh, i. n. 264.

HAY, Margaret, forcible abduction of, i. 223.

Heiresses under twelve years, fines for marrying, ii. 251.

HENDERSON, Robert, a baxter’s boy, burnt for fire-raising, i. 155.

HENDERSON, Robert, his wonderful cures, i. 24.

HEPBURN, George, his duel with Brown of Hartree, i. 264, 265.

HEPBURN, Robert, a partisan of Queen Mary, i. 68.

HEPBURN, James, of Moreham, his duel with Birnie, a skinner in Edinburgh, i. 285.

HEPBURN, Thomas, murder of, ii. 284.

Heraldry, Scottish touchiness regarding, i. 393.

HERES, Peter Groot, a German, receives a licence for paper-making, i. 194.

HERIOT, George, founder of Heriot’s Hospital, i. 253.

HERIOT, William, becomes cautioner for repentance of George Heriot, i. 59.

Heriot’s Hospital, solemn dedication of, ii. 253; barber-chirurgeon dispute, 342.

Hermaphrodite, a, hanged at Edinburgh, ii. 220.

HERTSYDE, Margaret, her prosperity and adversity, i. 412.

Hesse’s eldest son, Landgrave of, visits Edinburgh, i. 530.

HIGGINS, an Englishman, reprints the Mercurius Politicus at Leith, ii. 272.

High Commission Court established, i. 428.

---- School boys of Edinburgh, mutiny of, i. 261-264. Illiberality of master of, to private teachers, ii. 426.

Highland and Border incursions, i. 310.

---- bowmen, Charles I. raises a small troop of, ii. 14.

Highland spraichs, ii. 262.

Highlanders, pure loyalty of the, ii. 178, 179.

Highlands, rude condition of, i. 164, 378; ii. 306-311. Scarcity of schools in, 179.

Hilderstone silver-mines, i. 411, 412.

Hill, a musician, his abduction of Marion Foulis, ii. 227.

Hirsel, tragical incident at the, ii. 455.

HOGG, James, account of ‘Thirteen Drifty Days,’ ii. 366.

Holidays and popular plays, i. 326, 327.

Holland, war with, causes stagnation of trade, ii. 302.

HOLSTEIN, Duke of, visits Scotland, i. 298.

Holyrood and Falkland, improvements on the palaces of, for king’s visit, i. 476.

Holyrood Palace, as before the Fire of 1650, illustration, ii. 205; a popish chapel, college, and printing-office in, 483.

HOME, David, of Wedderburn; his son’s portraiture of, i. 95-99.

HOME, Jean, of Ayton, her abduction and marriage to George Home, ii. 390.

HOME, Lady, of Manderston, tried for witchcraft, ii. 33.

HOME, Lord; slaughter of Bailie Lauder, i. 300.

HOME, Sir George, of Wedderburn; sketch of his character by David of Godscroft, i. 119-122.

HOME, William, stabs Johnston of Hilton, ii. 455.

HOPE, Sir Thomas, extracts from his Diary, ii. 148.

HOPPRINGLES and ELLIOTS in Edinburgh, day of law between, i. 71.

Horse, exhibition of a dancing, ii. 247.

Horse-racing in Scotland, early practice of, i. 103, 410, 514. Every Saturday at Leith, ii. 273.

Horses, act preventing exportation of, i. 47.

House-painter craves permission to set up in Glasgow, ii. 247.

HUME, Sir Patrick, of Polwarth, his remarkable hiding-place and escape, ii. 464-467.

Huntingtower Well, supposed sanative qualities of, i. 322.

HUNTLY, fifth Earl of, his mysterious death, i. 103-106.

HUNTLY, sixth Earl (subsequently first Marquis) of, marriage to Lady Henrietta Stuart, i. 184; slaughter of Bonny Earl of Moray, 230-236; makes his peace with the kirk at Aberdeen, 288; his rental sheet, 315-317; excommunicated as an apostate papist, 417; relieved from excommunication, 429; Orders of Privy Council against, ii. 20-28, 36-41; his death and character, 89-92.

HUNTLY, Marchioness of, her mourning procession to Charles I., ii. 69; persecuted and exiled as a Catholic, 139.

HUNTLY, second Marquis of, marriages of his daughters, ii. 134; beheaded, 178.

HUNTLY, fourth Marquis of, decree ordering him to be separated from his mother, ii. 311.

Idolatry, act against, i. 147.

Illusions of sight and sound, curious, ii. 313-315.

Importation of goods, decree against, i. 458.

‘Incest,’ trials, and severe punishment of cases so called, ii. 28, 29.

Independents in civil war, ii. 111.

Indian Emperor, Dryden’s prologue to the, ii. 404.

INGLIS, Esther, her beautiful handwriting, i. 550.

INNES, Alexander, slays Innes of Peithock; beheaded, i. 110-112.

INNES, tragedy, the, i. 134-137.

Insane, treatment of the, in past times, ii. 424.

Interregnum, 1649-1660, ii. 174-254.

Inundation and violent tempest, memorable, ii. 17.

Invasion, alarm of, from vessels in Firth of Forth, ii. 15; fear of, 18; by the Dutch fleet, 318.

Inverness-shire, sad account of, in 1666, ii. 308.

IRELAND, Alexander, minister of Kincleven, his complaint against Sir John Crichton, of Innernytie, i. 390.

Irish Ague, an epidemic so called, ii. 199.

Irish beggars, order against, ii. 34.

---- rebellion, anecdote of Charles I., ii. 141.

‘Iron yetts’ of the Border thieves, i. 401.

IRVINE of Drum, his dispute with presbytery of Aberdeen, ii. 210-212.

IRVING, Francis, imprisoned in the Edinburgh Tolbooth for a papist riot, ii. 338-340.

ISLAY and KINTYRE, Lords of, tale of commotion between, i. 164-168.

JACK, Robert, merchant, hanged for coining, i. 48.

JAFFRAY, Alexander, an Aberdeen magistrate, ii. 96.

JAFFRAY, Grizzel, executed for witchcraft; affecting anecdote of her son, ii. 330.

JAMES VI., his birthplace, i. 38; writes to lords of secret council, 122; his formal visit to Edinburgh, 126, 129-131; sets up the doctrine of the divine right of kings, 127; a guise or fence played before him at St Andrews, 138; his gay mood after Morton’s death, 146; policy with French ambassadors, 151; his Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie, 154; his opinion of the pest, 154; anecdote of Bothwell-haugh, 163; orders prayers for his mother, 170; his grief at her death, 171; his visit to St Andrews with Du Bartas the French poet, and disputation with Andrew Melville, 173-175; his attempt to reconcile his nobles, 177, 178; writes to Denmark about grain, 179; reasons with Mr James Gordon, a Jesuit, 182; anecdote of Spanish Armada, 185; in expectation of his Danish bride, writes pressing letters for contributions, 192-200; sets sail for Denmark to bring her home, 193; his arrival with the queen at Leith, 196; her reception in Edinburgh, 196-199; supposed groundwork of his Demonology, 212, quoted, 306; his imbecility amidst his rude courtiers, 221; remonstrates with two Edinburgh ministers, 224; admonished by James Davidson, minister, for failures in king-craft, 227; his grudge against the ministers, 236; admonished by Helen Guthry, 236; Earl of Bothwell’s first, second, and third attempts to seize his person, 229, 237, 238; commissions Lord Ochiltree to seize the house of Row as a manufactory of false coin, 239; anecdote of courtship of Earl of Mar, 243; again in bad odour with clergy, 243-245; scene with Bothwell in his chamber at Holyrood, 250, 251; Thomas Foulis his Bank of England, 253; his queen delivered of a prince, 255; his fear of Bothwell, 255; inconstancy of his favour to Countess of Bothwell, 264; his proclamation against forestallers, 266; attempts to reconcile his hostile nobles, 266, 267; admonitions from clergy, 267, 268; his edict against, 275; its consequences, 276, 277; revokes commissions against witchcraft, 291; Melville’s Dix-huitaine, 291; hangs a number of Border thieves, 293; his debts to Edinburgh goldsmiths, 294, 95; nearly drowned on returning to Falkland from a General Assembly, 314; Gowrie conspiracy, 319; his restriction on number of persons entering Stirling Castle, 320; letter to laird of Dundas, 322; made a burgess of Perth, 348; poinding of his and the queen’s portraits, 349; his proclamation at Dumfries, 368; death of Queen Elizabeth, 381; his fondness of hawking, 391, 392; his unfortunate silver-mine adventure, 411, 412; his episcopal innovations, 415-417; persecution of Catholics, 421, 422; encourages cloth-making, 425; orders keeping of Christmas-day, 426; acknowledged head of the Kirk, 428; his reply about ‘beggarly Scots,’ 433; unrelenting towards satirists, 453; his ideas of free-trade, 459; Lord Melville’s letter to, 473; his visit to Scotland, 479-486; his disputations with Edinburgh professors, 483-485; anecdote of visit to Culross coal-mines, 485; his declaration regarding Sunday sports, 491; his interest in the pearl-fishery, 518; his Counterblast to Tobacco, 532; his letter to his Scottish councillors about _liberty of conscience_, 533; his picture falls from hall of Linlithgow Palace, 536; his death, 552.

JAMES VII., his residence at Holyroodhouse, ii. 403; gives balls, plays, and masquerades, 404; plays golf on Leith Links, 405; Mons Meg fired in honour of, 409; his act for encouragement of trade and manufactures, 417; Earl of Roscommon’s prologue to, 429; nearly drowned, 439; flies to France, 494.

JAMESON, George, the Scottish portrait-painter, ii. 62, 63.

Jedburgh, attempt made to proclaim Queen Mary at, i. 75.

Jesuits in Scotland, i. 182; fast held for discovery of, 465, 466.

JOHNSTON, Agnes, executed for murder of her grand-niece, ii. 367.

JOHNSTON, Janet, excommunicated; anecdote of her accouchement, ii. 19.

JOHNSTON, Laird of, and Lord John Maxwell, feud between, i. 155, 251, 301.

JOHNSTON, Laird of, shot by Lord Maxwell, i. 410.

JOHNSTON, Nicolas, Marion Gladstanes nearly poisons, ii. 92.

JOHNSTON of Hilton, stabbed by William Home, ii. 455.

JOHNSTON, Sir Archibald, his prayers, ii. 148; executed, 256.

JONSON, Ben, his visit to Scotland, i. 499-503.

JOP, Peter, a sailor, his petition to Privy Council on behalf of his papist wife, ii. 140.

Jougs, James Middleton threatened with the, ii. 160; illustration, 501.

Jugglers and the steeple-trick, i. 303.

Kate the Witch assails Sir F. Walsingham, i. 152.

KEITH, Robert, attempts to take forcible possession of the Abbey of Deir, i. 209.

KELLO, John, minister of Spott, executed for the murder of his wife, i. 68.

Kelso burnt down in 1645, ii. 163; again in 1684, 457.

KENMURE, Lord, a partisan of Charles II., ii. 222.

KENNEDY, a notary in Galloway, mysterious circumstance regarding, i. 492.

KENNEDY of Bargeny and Earl of Cassillis, dispute between, i. 311, 360-363.

KENNEDY, Quentin, disputation with John Knox at Maybole, i. 21.

KENNEDY, Sir Thomas, of Colzean, his feud with Mure of Auchindrain, i. 277, 360-363, 366-368, 435-437.

KER, James, a barber, his petition, ii. 399.

---- of Kersland, leader of an Edinburgh mob for burning popish relics, ii. 500.

KERR, a blacksmith, hanged, i. 385.

---- of Cessford, act of penitence for murder of Scott of Buccleuch, i. 27.

KERR, Robert, younger of Cessford, his encounter with Earl of Bothwell, i. 251.

KERR, Thomas, killed by Turnbull at Jedburgh, i. 320.

KILBIRNIE, Lady, and her husband, die of a pestilential fever, ii. 409.

Kilmarnock completely destroyed by fire in 1668, ii. 321.

KILPONT, Lord, his dispute with Ardvoirlich, ii. 154-156.

KINCAID, John, of Craig House, fined 2500 merks for abduction of Isobel Hutcheon, i. 223.

KINCAID, John, a pricker of witches, ii. 278, 285.

KINCAID of Warriston, murdered at instigation of his wife, i. 317.

Kindness, a sickness so called, i. 137.

King, clergy cease praying for the, ii. 235.

Kingdom’s Intelligencer, remarkable advertisement in the, ii. 272.

King’s evil, Charles I. touches 100 persons for, ii. 67.

Kinmont Willie, Buccleuch’s gallant relief of, i. 269-271.

KINNOUL, first Earl of, his funeral-procession, ii. 88.

KINTAIL, Mackenzie (subsequently Lord) of, a royal commission given to him and retracted, i. 256; bond of friendship with Earl of Huntly, 316; his quarrel with Macdonald of Glengarry, 369-372; his dispute with Macleod of Raasay, 437-439; obtains possession of island of Lewis, 424.

KINTYRE and ISLAY, Lords, tale of commotion between, i. 164-170.

KIRK, Robert, minister of Aberfoyle, his translations and Essay on Fairies, &c., ii. 361-363.

KIRKALDY of Grange, his defence of Edinburgh Castle, i. 82; hanged by Regent Morton, 85-87.

KIRKE, Thomas, account of Scotland by, ii. 407.

KIRKPATRICK, younger, of Closeburn, Lady Amisfìeld contrives his escape from prison, i. 427.

KIRKTON, Rev. James, his praise of the morals of Scotland in 1650, ii. 197.

KNOX, John--disputation at Maybole, i. 21; his second marriage, 28; ridiculous rumours about, 69; Melville’s recollections of, 74; his prediction of Kirkaldy of Grange’s death, 85-87.

Lamb, its use forbidden by Privy Council, i. 458.

Lamentation of Lady Scotland, i. 79.

LAMMIE, Captain, his ensign of white taffety, i. n. 155.

Lanark, presbytery of, its severity with the Douglas family, ii. 191; deals with eleven witches, 194, 195.

Largo, expense of building a hospital at kirk-town of, ii. 302, 303.

LASCARY, a Grecian priest, visits Scotland, ii. 395.

Latin, a licence required to teach, ii. 426.

LAUDER, William, murder of, i. 300.

LAUDERDALE, Earl (subsequently Duke) of, his account of the possessed woman of Dunse, ii. 43, 44; great influence of, 348; a beggar stabbed at his funeral, 447.

LAWSON and CATHKIN oppose Episcopalian principles, i. 512.

LAWSON, Sir James, of Humbie, drowned, i. 439.

Lawsuits, curious custom regarding, i. 434.

LAWTIE, David, writer, attacked by Thomas Douglas, i. 72.

Lead-mines of Lanarkshire, i. 254, 290.

LEARMONT of Balcomie, anecdote of, i. n. 309.

Leather, tanning of, its introduction, i. 516. Ornamental, ii. 427.

Lee Penny or curing-stone, of Lockhart of Lee, ii. 31.

LEES, Thomas, burnt as a wizard, i. 280.

Legend of Montrose, original story of, ii. 154-156.

LEITCH, Andrew, minister of Ellon, strange visions of, ii. 147.

Leith, English judicature at, ii. 215; a whale at, 218; revenue of port in 1656, 248.

Leith Roads, sea-fight between a Spanish ship and two Dutch waughters in, i. 529.

LENNOX and MAR, Regents; Lennox’s oration to the nobility at the parliament of Stirling, i. 76; death of Mar, 81.

LENNOX, Duke of, forced to leave the kingdom, i. 148.

LENNOX, young Duke of, his abduction of Lady Sophia Ruthven, i. 222.

Leprosy, its early prevalence in Scotland, i. 226.

LESLIE and M‘KAY raise men for Bohemian army, ii. 9-11.

LESLIE, Capuchin, called the ‘Archangel,’ his character, ii. 40, 41.

LESLIE, George, and Master of Forbes, fight between, ii. 134.

LESLIE, George, sheriff-clerk of Inverness-shire, his petition, ii. 307, 308.

Letter-post, establishment in Scotland of a regular, ii. 85-87.

LEVEN, Earl of, a funeral-sermon preached for, ii. 299.

Lewis, attempts to plant Lowlanders in, i. 308, 309, 388, 389, 424.

LEYS, Tutor of, a Quaker, his nephew restored to him, ii. 313.

Libel, repentance made in church for, i. 372.

Licentious conduct, church-discipline with, i. 334-336.

LIDDELL, Katharine, persecuted as a witch, ii. 396.

Liddesdale, thieves of, i. 43-45.

Life-guard, a royal, embodied under the command of Earl of Newburgh, ii. 274.

Light-house on Isle of May established, i. 522.

Lime used for manure in East-Lothian, ii. 398.

Lincluden Church, popish service in, in 1587, i. 172.

LINDSAY, Mr David, minister of Leith; his mission from Knox to Kirkaldy of Grange, i. 86, 87.

LINDSAY, Skipper, warns Morton of his doom, i. 138.

LINDSAY, Thomas, stabbed by William Douglas, ii. 439-442.

LINDSAYS of Forfarshire and Lords Glammis, feud between, i. 312, 313.

Linen manufacture of Scotland, ii. 421, 427.

Linlithgow, extraordinary demonstration at, on Charles II.’s birthday, ii. 291, 292.

LINTON, Lord, fined £5000 Scots for marrying an excommunicated papist, ii. 189.

Lioness and lamb, exhibited in Edinburgh, ii. 298.

LITHGOW and CARNEGIE, Lords, duel of, ii. 305.

LIVINGSTON and CARSE, Lairds of, strange appearance seen on their lands, i. 431.

LIVINGSTON, Jean, beheaded by the Maiden for murder of her husband, i. 317.

LIVINGSTONE, John, of Belstane, a barbarous assault upon, i. 156.

LIVINGSTONE, John; remarkable administration of the communion, ii. 41, 42; his courtship, 79, 80; banishment of, 281.

LOCHNELL, Laird of, shot by Duncan Macgregor, ii. 310.

LOCKHART, John, of Bar, outlawed for breaking images in kirk of Ayr, &c., i. 49.

LOCKHART, Sir George, murdered by Chiesley of Dalry, ii. 495.

LOGAN, Robert, of Restalrig, his contract with Napier of Merchiston, i. 257.

LOGIE, Laird of, assaulted in presence of James VI., i. 221.

Lord’s Supper, repugnance of the people to kneeling at the, ii. 19.

LORN, Thomas, accused of wandering from his family, i. 305.

Lottery-adventure authorised in 1671, ii. 341.

LOVAT, Lord, liberal hospitality of, i. 208.

Love-philters, supposed effects of, ii. 227.

LOW, Elizabeth, an excrescence eleven inches long cut from her forehead, ii. 342.

LUMSDEN, Margaret, the possessed woman of Dunse, ii. 43, 44.

LUNDIE, Laird of, his funeral-procession, ii. 300.

M‘ALEXANDER of Drumachryne, killed by Laird of Girvanmains, i. 310, 311.

MAC-ALLISTER, a cateran, anecdote of his attack on church of Thurso, ii. 190.

M‘BIRNIE, John, his character, i. 457.

M‘CALL, Marion, tried for drinking the devil’s health, ii. 345.

M‘CALYEAN, Eupham, charge against her, i. 39; burned for witchcraft, 217.

MAC CONNEL, Sir James, a great man in Ireland, visits Scotland, i. 286.

M‘CULLOCH, Sir Alexander, his assaults on Lady Cardiness, ii. 321.

MACDONALD, Lord, his thief-taking commission, ii. 382.

MACDONALD of Glengarry and Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail, quarrel between, i. 369-372.

M‘GIE, a mirror-maker, his petition, ii. 396.

M‘GILL of Rankeillour, exiled for murder, petition of, ii. 424-426.

MACGREGOR of Glenstrae, with twelve of his clan, hanged on one gallows, i. 383.

MACGREGOR, Patrick Roy, and his band, executed, ii. 306, 307.

MACGREGOR, Robin Abroch, anecdote of, i. 444, 445.

MACGREGORS, their barbarous slaughter of Drummond-ernoch, i. 195; battle with Colquhouns, 377; proclamation against, 524.

MACKAY and GORDON, strife between, and Earl of Caithness, i. 440-443.

M‘KAY and LESLIE raise men for Bohemian army, ii. 9-11.

MACKENZIE, John, of Kintail, i. 20.

----, Kenneth. See Kintail, Mackenzie of.

MACKER, Alexander, and six others, drowned for piracy, i. 52.

MACKINTOSH, chief of the Clan; his zeal in behalf of clergy, i. 289.

M‘LEANS and others, tortured for witchcraft, ii. 293, 294.

MACLEANS, Argyle’s letter of fire and sword against the, ii. 370, 372.

M‘LEOD of Assynt, petition of, ii. 271.

MACLEOD of the Lewis, banished to Holland, i. 389.

MACLEOD of Raasay, his dispute with Mackenzie of Kintail, i. 437-439.

MACMORAN, Bailie John, shot by Sinclair, son of the Chancellor of Caithness, i. 262; illustration of his house, 263.

M‘QUEEN, John, an Edinburgh minister, scandal against, ii. 454.

M‘RONALD of Gargarach, outrages of, i. 503.

Machar Kirk, removal of memorials of ancient worship from, ii. 136.

Machines, Peter Bruce receives patents for various, ii. 408.

Maiden, the, illustration of, i. 144, 145.

MAITLAND, Sir Richard, of Lethington, his description of thieves of Liddesdale, i. 44.

Malignants, persecution of, ii. 108, 173.

MAN, Andrew, convicted of warlockry, i. 281.

MAN, Lawrence, a boy of sixteen, beheaded, i. 386.

Manatus, supposed appearance of one in Water of Don, ii. 87.

Manners, traits of, i. 342-345.

Manred, definition of the term, i. 77; many connected with Huntly family, 315.

Maps and charts of Scotland, Adair’s, ii. 483-485.

MAR and LENNOX, Regencies of, 1570-2. See Lennox and Mar.

MAR, Dowager-countess of, extracts from her household book, ii. 117-119.

MAR, seventh Earl of, his marriage to Mary, daughter of Duke of Lennox, i. 243. His death, ii. 83.

MARENTINI, a travelling quack-doctor, his petition, ii. 383.

MARISCHAL, George, fourth Earl of, extent of his lands, i. 209; death of his lady, 301.

Market-cross, marriage-parties dance round, i. 337.

Market-cross of Edinburgh, foundation of new, i. 479.

Markets, interference with, i. 94, 241, 265, 303, 345, 458; ii. 489.

Marroco, the wonderful horse, i. 271.

MARY DE GUISE, i. 7.

----, Queen, her early reign, i. 7; arrival of at Leith, 11; a conspiracy against her, 19; hunting visit to Athole, 29; her harp, 31; progress in Fife, 32; her marriage to Darnley, 35; her abduction, 36, 41; her death, 170; a pleasant anecdote of, 180.

Masqueradings and frolics, i. 327-329.

Mass, General Assembly exhort the suppression of, i. 172; William Barclay and others, banished for attending, 349; denounced as rebels, 359, 360; mass performed in Edinburgh, 451. Fourteen wives of Dumfries tradesmen imprisoned for hearing, ii. 72, 73.

MATHIE, Janet, burned as a witch, ii. 377-379.

MAULD, Patrick, gets a patent for making soap, ii. 80.

MAXWELL, John, minister of Edinburgh, ii. 66, 67.

MAXWELL, Lord John, and Laird of Johnston, feud between, i. 155, 252, 296.

MAXWELL of Garrarie and his son, beheaded for treason, i. 510.

MAXWELL of Pollock, witch-conspiracy against, ii. 376-379.

MAXWELL, young Lord, his escape from Edinburgh Castle, i. 409; kills Laird of Johnston, 410; beheaded, 446, 447.

Maxwell’s, Lord, Handfasting, i. 78, 79.

May-pole dancing in Scotland, i. 491, 492.

MEAN, John, a zealous Presbyterian, i. 506, 544, 545, 549. His wife supposed to cast the first stool at the bishop, ii. 103; becomes master of the Edinburgh Post-office, 189; his son condemned as a spy for Cromwell, 206.

MEAN, Robert, appointed post-master at Edinburgh on Restoration, ii. 263, 264; his weekly diurnal, 284; complaint against, 316, 317; sent to the Tolbooth, 399; his false report, 476.

MELDRUM, John, executed on suspicion of setting fire to tower of Frendraught Castle, ii. 46-50.

MELDRUM of Haltoun, his conduct under ban of the horn, i. 527.

MELDRUM, younger, of Dumbreck; his capture of Gibson of Durie, i. 355-357.

MELGUM, Viscount, burnt in tower of Frendraught Castle, ii. 47-50.

MELGUM, Viscountess, attack of the Clan Cameron on her Castle of Aboyne, ii. 128-134.

MELVILLE, Andrew, his courageous conduct in protesting against Episcopacy, i. 128; his nephew’s picture of, 133; his disputes with James VI. at St Andrews, 175-177, 290; disputation on witch-transportation, 305; his tirade against Balcomie, n. 309.

MELVILLE, James; his recollections of Knox, Collace, &c., i. 73-75, 87; his picture of four Edinburgh ministers, 132; picture of his uncle, 133; description of Regent Morton’s last days, 143, 144; reception by, of mariners of Spanish Armada, 186-189; his Dix-huitaine on James VI., 292; his notice of a fiery globe, 386.

MELVILLE, Lady, of Garvock, drowned, i. 193.

----, Sir Robert, congratulates James VI. on improvement in the social state of Scotland, i. 473.

MENAINVILLE, De, a French ambassador, i. 150, 151.

MENZIES of Culdares, his dispute with Earl of Argyle, ii. 310.

MENZIES, Thomas, a papist, his petition, ii. 72.

Mercurius Caledonius, first original newspaper attempted in Scotland, notices from, ii. 267, 271.

Mermaids seen at Pitsligo, ii. 88.

Meteors--Battles in the air, i. 26.

METHVEN, Paul, his strange act of penitence, i. 38.

MIDDLETON, Earl of, his administration, ii. 255; his death and character, 364.

Militia in Scotland, list of, raised by counties and burghs, ii. 162, 163.

MILLER, GOGAR, & SANGSTER, hanged, ii. 422.

Mills, great destruction of water-, ii. 253.

MILNE, Thomas, maker of virginals, i. 507.

Mining by Stewart of Tarlair, i. 28.

Ministers, deposition of, remarks on, ii. 280-282.

Ministers’ stipend, discontent about, i. 552.

Minstrels in Glasgow, i. 90.

Mirk Mononday, why so called, ii. 215.

MITCHELL, David, Bishop of Aberdeen, his vicissitudes of fortune, ii. 297.

MITCHELL, James, shoots Bishop of Orkney, ii. 322; hanged, 374.

MITCHELSON, a prophetess of the Covenant, ii. 122.

Mithridates, King of Pontus,a comedy, acted at Holyroodhouse, ii. 429.

Monas Prodigiosa, an animalcule so called, ii. 489.

Money, a restriction to 10 per cent. on, i. 287.

MONK, General, his reception at Edinburgh, ii. 225.

MONMOUTH, Duke of, re-stocks his Scotch estates, ii. 367.

MONRO, Hector, of Foulis, extraordinary trial of, i. 205, 206.

Monro, his Expeditions, ii. 10.

MONRO, the Edinburgh hangman, deposed; George Ormiston succeeds, ii. 461.

MONRO’S list of Scottish officers under command of Gustavus Adolphus, ii. 56, 57.

Mons Meg, the Water-poet’s notice of, i. 493. Bursting of, ii. 409; illustration of, 468.

Monster, an Italian, travels in Scotland, ii. 143.

MONTEATH, Robert, minister of Duddingston, indicted for adultery, ii. 70; note on, 501.

MONTGOMERY, Isobel, kept in durance by her sister, i. 471.

MONTGOMERY, Mr Robert, excommunicated, i. 148.

MONTROSE, Earl of, and Sir James Sandilands, street-combat between, i. 258.

MONTROSE, Marquis of, ii. 109; heads a Covenanting deputation to Aberdeen, 119; enforces the signing of the Covenant, 123; lamentable incident after battle of Tippermuir, 154-156; demands liberation of Earl of Crawford and Lord Ogilvie, 163, 164; his death, 200; his ceremonial funeral at Restoration, 269-271.

Montrose, strange events occur there on the death of the Earl of Mar, i. 81.

MONYVAIRD and CULTMALINDY, feud between, i. 490.

MOODIE’S legacy, attempted perversion of, ii. 397.

Moon, strange irregularity imputed to the, ii. 61.

MORAY, Bonny Earl of, slaughter of the, i. 230-235; order for burial of, 296.

MORAY, James, Earl of, his marriage, i. 18; his difficulty in quieting towns of Perth and Dundee, 48; diminishes value of hardheads, 48; his gold and silver licence to De Vois, 50; his ‘justiceaire,’ 52; his raid to Jedburgh, 52; expedition against Border thieves, 60; his death, 60.

MORPHIE, James, tailor, his letter to Earl of Airly, ii. 168.

MORTIMER, George, a trafficking Jesuit, imprisoned, i. 533.

MORTON, Regent, effects of his rule, i. 82; takes Edinburgh Castle, 85; his money-grasping spirit, 87, 88, 99; his raid against the Border-men, 88; his act against exporting grain, 93; no friend to the press, 94; proclamation against base coin, erects a new mint, and magnificent palace at Dalkeith, 101; pungent jest by his fool, Patrick Bonny, 102; holds justice-courts at Dumfries, 103; beheads Alexander Innes of that Ilk, 111; suspends the act against exporting corn, 112; bribed by Lord Somerville, 114-116; his fall, 125, 128; his last days, 143-145; his head taken down from the Tolbooth, 150.

MORYSON, Fynes, an Englishman, visits Scotland, his observations, i. 298, 299.

MOSCROP, Patrick, and EUPHAM M‘CALYEAN, marry without permission of the Kirk, i. 72; Eupham M‘Calyean burned for witchcraft, 217.

MOSMAN, James, an Edinburgh goldsmith, and others, hanged, i. 85.

Moss, between Falkirk and Stirling, slides over sixteen farms, ii. 35.

Mountebank, German, receives a licence to erect a stage in Edinburgh, ii. 458.

MOWBRAY, Francis, killed in his endeavour to escape over wall of Edinburgh Castle, i. 372.

MUDIE, Lizzy, burned for witchcraft, ii. 385.

MUNGO, Murray, his attack on Thomas Sydserf, ii. 324.

MUNRO, General, his attack on Strathbogie, ii. 135.

MURCHISON, Sir Roderick, quoted, i. 51.

MURE, John, of Auchindrain, his feud with Sir Thomas Kennedy of Colzean, i. 277, 360-363, 366-368; trial for murder, 435-437.

MURE of Gledstanes, personated by Thomas Bell, ii. 445.

Murrain amongst cattle, severe, ii. 437.

MURRAY of Philiphaugh, his complaint against James Murray, ii. 101.

MURRAY, Sir Robert, of Craigie, founder of the Royal Society, ii. 355-357.

MURRAY, Touran, and six others, shot by Wood [Mad] Andrew Murray and his confederates, i. 53.

MUSGRAVE of Bewcastle’s combat with Lancelot Carleton, i. 365.

NAISMITH, James, his sermon, preached before Duke of Hamilton, ii. 170.

NAPIER, Archibald; his manure patent, i. 301.

NAPIER, Barbara, an Edinburgh citizen’s wife, tried for witchcraft, i. 216.

NAPIER, John, of Merchiston, his contract with Logan of Restalrig, i. 257; his war inventions, 272; his complaint to Privy Council, 359; his dispute with Napiers of Edinbellie, 417; publication of his work on the logarithms, 455; visit of Henry Briggs to, 456.

NAPIER, Sir Archibald, of Merchiston, Bishop of Orkney’s letter to, regarding the plague, i. 55.

NAPIER, William, a Quaker, imprisoned, ii. 344.

NATIONAL COVENANT, the, ii. 105-113; signing of, 116.

National defences, proposal to fortify Leith, &c., ii. 18.

Naval victory over the Dutch, rejoicings at the great, ii. 303.

NEILL, John, tried for sorcery, ii. 34.

Nest Egg, Mr Robert Lowrie so called, ii. 296.

NEVILLE, Nic, a sorcerer, burnt, i. 60.

New Acquaintance, a disease so called, i. 22.

Newcastle, pitiful state of, after siege, ii. n. 156.

NEWCOMB’S Mercurius Politicus, started, ii. 272.

Newmills, cloth-works at, ii. 416-421.

Newspapers overlook Scotland till 1637, ii. 113; one ordered from London for Glasgow, 245; an early one (Mercurius Caledonius) quoted, 267, 273; history of, 271; diurnal of John Mean, 284.

New-year’s Day, act appointing first of January as, i. 309.

NICOL, George, punished for leasing-making, ii. 61, 62.

Night-walkers, Privy Council acts against, i. 440.

NIMMO, Mrs, beheaded for murder of Lord Forrester, ii. 402.

NISBET, Alie, worried and burnt as a witch, ii. 33.

NISBET of Craigentinny, his duel with Macdougall of Makerston, ii. 446.

NITHSDALE, Earl of, commissioner for revocation of church-lands, ii. 6, 7; his domestic arrangements interfered with, 59.

NIVEN, a musician, punished with the pillory, ii. 493.

Noises heard in the air before the civil war, ii. 115.

North Loch, three men drowned in, ii. 434.

Nova Scotia, first colonised by men of Sutherland, i. 525. Order of baronets, ii. 3.

OCHILTREE, Lord, grudge of Lord Torthorald against, i. 425.

OCHILTREE, Lord, warden of west Border, i. 294.

Offences in the King’s House, i. 268.

OGILVIE, John, a Jesuit, hanged, i. 462-465.

----, Lord, of Airly, his complaint against Earl of Argyle, i. 225.

OGILVIE of Barras, defends the Castle of Dunnottar against the English, ii. 213.

OGILVIE of Forglen and Forbes of Tolquhoun, dispute between, ii. 477.

OGILVY of Craig, his persecution as a papist, ii. 58.

OGLE and PITARROW, younger, Lairds of, combat between, i. 387, 406.

OLIPHANT and RUTHVEN, Lords, feud between, i. 140.

Ominous sounds heard in a seaman’s house in Peterhead, ii. 145.

ORKNEY, Bishop of, shot, ii. 322.

----, Earl of, visits Earl of Sutherland, i. 385.

ORKNEY, John, Master of, tried for alleged attempt on life of Earl of Orkney, by witchcraft, &c., i. 273.

ORKNEY, Patrick Earl of, beheaded, i. 459-462; sketch of his style of living, 460.

OSWALD, Katherine, burnt as a witch, ii. 32.

Paisley, horse-races at, i. 513. Opposition to a clergyman at, ii. 8.

Paper, first manufacture of, designed in Scotland, i. 194. First established at Dalry, ii. 398.

PAPES, family of the, in Sutherland, prosperity and adversity of, i. 406-408.

Papistry, Presbyterian measures against, i. 336, 337, 343.

Papists, thought to be regaining confidence, i. 172; papist nobles driven to extremities, 218; papists perform mass in Edinburgh, 349; persecutions of, 353, 359, 389, 403, 415, 421; ii. 20-28, 36-41, 57-60, 145, 211, 335, 499.

Paris butchers of 1856 and Edinburgh poultrymen of 1599, parallel between, i. 304.

Parliament, riding of, i. 48, 394; ii. 65; rejoicings at first Scottish, after Restoration, 266-269.

Parturition pains, superstitious belief regarding, i. 39.

Pasch-day, sale of flesh forbidden in Aberdeen on, ii. 144.

Pearl, a large one found in the Ythan, i. 517; proclamation for preservation of the fishery, 518.

Peebles, assassination at, i. 81; host assembled at, against Border thieves, 88; provostry of, usurped by Master of Yester, 168; James VI. visits, 170; holds justice-court at, 368; horse-races at, 410; street-fight at, 418. Council books of, quoted, as to solar eclipse, ii. 215; as to snow-storm, 366; petition on account of test-act, 429; mob of women at, 430; popish furniture and trinkets burned at, 501.

PEEBLES, Thomas, a goldsmith, hanged for coining, i. 26.

PEIRSON, Alison, in Byrehill, burnt for witchcraft, i. 183.

Penny Bridals, i. 337; General Assembly’s act against, ii. 161, 162; increase of, 305.

Periwigs in vogue in 1688, ii. 491.

Perth Kirk-session Records, quoted, i. 306, 322-347.

Perth, quarrel with Dundee, i. 48; pest at, 154; Gowrie treason at, 222, 319; troubles with Bruce of Clackmannan, 240; strange frolic at, 328; holiday amusements at, 326; Sunday observance at, 331; king made a burgess of, 348; 1400 armed men raised in, 385; parliament at, 394; flood at, 525.

Pest, said to be brought into Edinburgh by James Dalgliesh, a merchant, i. 53; regulations regarding, 54; Dr Skeyne’s treatise on, 54; 2500 persons die of, 56; remarks regarding cause of, 57; kirk-session of Edinburgh appoint a fast for, 94; John Downie’s plague-ship, 139; James VI.’s inconsistency regarding, 154, 157; town-council of Edinburgh’s sanitary measure, 155; breaks out in Edinburgh and Perth, &c.; one-sixth of the entire population perish by, 157-159; Melville’s remarkable anecdote of, 159; days of humiliation for, 182; plague among the bestial, 218; 17,890 persons die of, in London, 292; breaks out in Aberdeen and Findhorn, 319; precautions of Aberdeen council against, 346; its reappearance in various quarters, 358, 359; in south of Scotland, 382; alleged case of, 385; Chancellor of Dunfermline’s eldest son and niece die of, 388; general spread and curious treatment of, 399, 400; in Dundee, Perth, &c., 404, 414, 417; a vessel from London ordered to discharge cargo at Inchkeith for fear of, 426; it again breaks out in Edinburgh, 548. 40,000 persons die of, in London, ii. 4; breaks out in Cramond, 89; its appearance after siege of Newcastle, 156; anecdotes and regulations regarding, 165-168; great London plague, 303.

Petards, proclamation against, i. 372.

Phanatiques, five of them hanged, ii. 427.

PHILIP, Robert, banished for performing mass, i. 451.

PHILO, Joannes Michael, a quack-doctor, miraculous cures of, ii. 347.

PHILORTH, Laird of, and Lord Fraser, dispute between, ii. 99, 100.

Philotus, a comedy, first known effort of Scottish muse in this department of literature, quoted, i. 374-377.

PHIN, Marion, her petition refused, ii. 386.

Pig, monster, farrowed in Edinburgh, i. 76.

Pilniewinks, a screw for the fingers, i. 210.

Pirates, Melville’s account of an affair at Anstruther with English, i. 175, 176; execution of twenty-seven, 429, 430.

PITARROW and OGLE, younger, Lairds of, combat between, i. 387.

PITTATHROW, Lady, accused of witchcraft, ii. 186.

Plague of London in 1665, Wodrow’s notice of, ii. 303. See Pest.

Plaiden stuffs and fingrams, manufacture of, ii. 416.

Plaids, town-council of Edinburgh’s order against ladies wearing, ii. 54.

Players, an Irish company of, ii. 405.

Playhouse in Edinburgh, the first, ii. 400.

Plays, popular, and holidays, i. 326, 327.

Pledge chalmer at Dumfries, i. 294.

Plumbers, curious trait regarding, ii. 408.

Poland, Lord Cranstoun raises a regiment for king of, ii. 240, 241.

Poland, Scotch merchants threatened with expulsion from, i. 547.

Police of Edinburgh, proclamation against two abuses in, i. 486; order for cleaning the city, 487. Improvement of regulations, ii. 212.

Poltergeist, a German spirit, ii. 232.

PONTIUS, Doctor, a quack, his visit to Aberdeen, ii. 149; his exhibitions, 295.

Poor, weekly collections for, i. 346. Falling off of collections in Glasgow churches, ii. 305.

Pope, Edinburgh apprentices burn him in effigy, ii. 412, 433.

Popery, Privy Council’s orders against persons professing, ii. 20-28.

Popish relics and furniture burnt by an Edinburgh mob, ii. 499-501.

Porpoises, or pellochs, thrown ashore on coast of Fife, ii. 220.

Post, the Aberdeen common, i. 346. From Edinburgh to London, established, ii. 85-87; between Port-Patrick, Edinburgh, and Carlisle, 142; arrangements in 1649, 189; improvement of, at Restoration, 263, 264; between Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Inverness, rates of, &c., 315-317.

Powder of Sympathy, receipt for, ii. 228.

Prap, Sir Robert’s, a cairn so called, ii. 425.

Presbyterian ministers, the banishment of six, i. 401, 402.

Presbyterian party in civil war, ii. 110.

Presbyterians, their severe discipline in time of the civil war, ii. 156; their inconsiderate rigours, 174, 181-185, 190-194; conduct when paramount in 1650, 196; extreme rigours with opponents, 209-212, 257, 258, 281, 451, 452, 460, 463-467; humbled by Cromwell, 221; severities against them, 280, 349, 353, 427, 448; act of grace in favour of, its effects, 368.

Presbytery, claim of independence by, its serious consequences, i. 127. How disposed of at the Restoration, ii. 256.

Press, the Regent Morton’s edict against, i. 93.

PRIMROSE, Patrick, a popish priest, his death, ii. 335-337.

PRINGLE, David, barber-chirurgeon to Heriot’s Hospital, ii. 342.

PRINGLE, Jonet, her marriage with her boy-cousin of thirteen, ii. 481.

PRINGLE, Thomas, his assault on Gavin Thomson, i. 418.

Printing-offices in Edinburgh in 1763, 1790, and 1858, ii. 447.

Printing, rule against unlicensed, enforced, ii. 490.

Privateering against the Dutch, ii. 317, 318.

Privy Council, book of, a review of the nobility and gentry of Scotland, i. 229; acts of, against murder, &c., 248; furious edict of, 274. Its occasional humanity, ii. 338.

Privy Seal record, strange adventure of, ii. 266.

Proclamation against penny-weddings, &c., ii. 459.

Prophecies regarding Queen Mary, i. 16; regarding Scots king’s succession to England, 381.

Protections against creditors, Council grants, ii. 341.

Protestant and Papist, supersession of the names, ii. 205.

Protestants expelled from the Palatinate, subscription for 700, ii. 55.

Protesters or Remonstrators of the kirk, ii. 216, 217.

Provost’s ox, the, i. 37.

Psalms, translation of the, introduced into Church of Scotland, ii 199; Kirk’s Irish and Gaelic, 361.

Pulices arborescentes of Swammerdam, ii. 488.

PURDIE, Marion, imprisoned as a witch, ii. 462.

Purple Fever, mortality of the, ii. 299.

PURVES, his death from extreme cold, ii. 368.

Putters, or short pieces of ordnance, ii. 135.

Quakers, their increase and strange doings, ii. 232-234; persecution of, 311; increase of, 343; the bishop’s complaint against, at Aberdeen, 447.

Queen’s Chocolate House, in Edinburgh, Dryden’s play acted at the, ii. 404.

Rain, great fall of, in Moray-land, ii. 113, 114.

RAMSAY and CLARK, hanged for poisoning their master, ii. 373.

RAMSAY, Thomas, minister of Dumfries, his zeal against popery, ii. 11, 72, 73.

Rats and mice, act favouring machines for catching, i. 429.

RAY, John, the naturalist, his journey into Scotland, ii. 282, 283.

Records of Scotland, interesting notices regarding, ii. 264-266.

Red herrings, privilege of making, granted, i. 443.

Red Parliament, Melville’s definition of, i. 394.

Red-hand, a butcher taken, and instantly hanged, ii. 381.

REDPATH, George, author of Answer to the Scots Presbyterian Eloquence, ii. 413.

Redshanks, Highlanders so called, i. 2.

Reek Pennies, or hearth-money, ii. 212.

Reformation, i. 2, 4.

Regalia of Scotland, interesting anecdote ofthe, ii. 213, 214.

Regals, or rigols, an ancient musical instrument, i. n., 198.

Regiam Majestatem, dispute between author and printer of, i. 421.

REID, a mountebank, and his Tumbling Lassie, ii. 487.

REID, a sorcerer, strangled and burnt, i. 382.

REID and MOSCOW, two charlatans, pretend to cure the blind, ii. 483.

Religious persecutions, remarks on, ii. 451.

Remonstrance, presentation of the famous, ii. 108.

Remonstrators or Protesters of the kirk, ii. 216, 217.

Restoration, rejoicings in Edinburgh at the, ii. 261, 266.

Revels, Masters of the, the Fountains’ patent as, ii. 400.

Revenue of Scotland, let on lease, ii. 427.

Revolutionary symptoms in Edinburgh, ii. 483.

RICCIO, David, murdered, i. 35, 38.

RIDDELL, John, a broken merchant, petition of, ii. 431.

Riding of the Parliament, i. 48. Increased splendour of, ii. 65, 66.

RIG of Atherny, threatens the clergy, i. 544, 545, 549.

RIG, Robert, imprisoned for marrying an excommunicated papist, ii. 72.

Riot of 1682 in Edinburgh, ii. 437.

Roads and bridges, ruinous state of, ii. 409.

Robberies, their frequency in 1664, ii. 298.

ROBERTSON, Bailie John, erects a leper-house in Greenside, Edinburgh, i. 226.

ROBERTSON of Struan, quarrel with Marquis of Athole, ii. 423; his wood and saw mills in Rannoch, 447.

Robin Hood games, i. 8.

ROBISON, Alexander, a Jesuit, petitions of, ii. 16.

ROCHE, Eustachius, contracts with James VI. for gold-mines, i. 151, 152; proposes to make a superior kind of salt, 189.

Roman antiquities found at Inveresk, i. 33.

ROMANNO, Murrays of, letters raised at the instance of the, i. 227-229. Gipsy-fight at, ii. 388.

RONALDSON, Walter, his ‘familiarity with a spirit,’ i. 358.

ROSE, Hugh, of Kilravock; character of, i. 287, 288.

Roslin, monster-calf at, i. 102; a grand resort for gipsies, 539, 540.

ROSS, Sinclair, Bishop of, afflicted with stone, i. 24. Young, Bishop of, afflicted with same disease, ii. 453.

ROSS, Thomas, his libel on the Scottish nation; beheaded and quartered, i. 504.

ROSSES, clergymen, crave compensation for losses incurred through persecution, ii. 451-453.

ROTHES, Earl (subsequently Duke) of, Lord High Commissioner, his progress through the west country, ii. 304; his funeral-procession, 426.

ROTHIEMAY and FRENDRAUGHT, dispute between, ii. 45-50, 76-79, 84, 98.

ROY, Bessie, tried for witchcraft, i. 206.

RUTHERFORD, Colonel, killed by the Moors, ii. 298.

RUTHERFORD, Lord, his engagement with the Bride of Baldoon, ii. 326-328; his prosecution of Captain Rutherford, 333.

RUTHVEN and OLIPHANT, Lords, feud between, i. 140.

Ruthven, Raid of, i. 128.

RUTHVEN, Sophia, Duchess of Lennox, buried, i. 222.

RUTHVENS, their complaint against Baillie of Torwoodhead, ii. 403.

SACKVILLE, Sir Edward, his duel with Edward Lord Bruce of Kinloss, i. 447-451.

St Andrew’s Day, kept as a holiday, ii. 297.

St Fittich’s and St Wollok’s Wells, sickly children bathed at, i. 323, 324.

Salt, Charles II.’s restrictions on making, ii. 332.

Saltmarket of Glasgow, great fire in, ii. 389.

SAMPSON, Agnes, burnt for witchcraft, i. 212-216.

SANDEMAN, Charles, his obligations as a cook, i. 47.

SANDILANDS, Sir James, and Mr John Graham of Hallyards, litigation between, i. 246.

SANDILANDS, Sir James, and Earl of Montrose, street-combat between, i. 258.

SANGSTER, GOGAR, & MILLER, hanged, ii. 422.

Saw-mills, Robertson of Struan’s, ii. 447.

SCHAW, John, fined for burying his wife in parish-church of Galston, i. 425.

School-discipline at Kirk of Dundonald, in Ayrshire, ii. 138.

Schools, Privy Council order plantation of parish, i. 479.

Scolding and slander, rigorous punishment of, i. 344, 345.

Scotch, order against their going to England, i. 432. Nobles and entire community nearly ruined by the civil wars, ii. 225.

Scotland, general sketch of, i. 1-6; factious state of, in 1571, 72. Indifference of England to, ii. 113; state of, after Cromwell’s invasion, 209, 212; concluding remarks on, 496.

Scotland, Perfect Description of the People and Country of, a satire, i. 481.

Scots, their supposed origin, i. 1.

---- Guard of the French king, its re-establishment craved, i. 535, 536.

SCOTT, Alexander, poet, his New-year Gift to Queen Mary, i. 15.

SCOTT, Captain, beats Mr Gregory, ii. 478.

----, George, Walter, & Ingram, condemned to death for an atrocious crime, i. 472.

SCOTT, George and William, their achievements, ii. 169.

SCOTT, John, a Quaker, fined for brewing on Sunday, ii. 376.

SCOTT of Pitlochie, story of his unfortunate voyage to East Jersey, ii. 479-481.

SCOTT of Raeburn, a Quaker, his children ordered to be separated from him, ii. 311.

SCOTT, Sir Walter, of Branxholm, Laird of Buccleuch, celebrated exploit of, i. 269-271.

SCOTT, Thomas, hanged for murder of Robert Donaldson, ii. 329.

SCOTT, Walter, of Harden, married to the Flower of Yarrow, i. 46.

Sea-monsters, various appearances of; superstitions regarding, i. 64-66.

SEATON, Thomas, his religions dissimulation, ii. 301.

SEMPLE, Lord, and his son, ii. 336.

----, Robert, his writings, i. 49.

Service-book or Liturgy introduced into Scottish church; its reception, ii. 101-104.

Seventeenth of December, tumult of the, i. 276-278.

SHAKSPEARE, surmised to have been in Aberdeen while the remarkable witch-trials were proceeding; quotations from Macbeth and Othello strengthening this supposition, i. 283-285, 357.

SHARPE, Archbishop, ii. 256; his cortège to St Andrews, 291; his land purchases, 300; attempt on his life, 322; assassination of, 350.

SHAWS and the FAWS, battle between, ii. 388.

Sheep and cattle, abundance of, ii. 371.

Ship-of-war burnt in Leith Roads through the mad humour of an Englishman, i. 453.

Shorter Catechism, General Assembly sanction, ii. 170.

Shotts, Kirk of, communion at, ii. 41.

Shrovetide customs, revival of, ii. 273, 274.

Sieve, divination by the, strange story of, ii. 434.

Sigget Well, dedicated to Virgin Mary, i. 324.

Siller Gun at Dumfries, i. 294.

Silver Heart in Culross Abbey Church, wood-cut of, i. 450.

Silver lace and silk stuffs, law against wearing, ii. 357, 358.

SINCLAIR, Colonel, with 900 Scotsmen, slain in Norway, i. 446.

SINCLAIR, George, author of Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, ii. 387; his copyright of, 475.

SINCLAIR, Henry, Bishop of Ross, dies of stone, i. 24.

SINCLAIR, Sir William, of Mey, shoots Bailie Macmoran, i. 262, 263.

Single-combats, edict against, i. 310.

SKEYNE, Dr, his treatise on the pest, i. 54.

SLEZER’S Theatrum Scotiæ, ii. 485.

Small-pox, severe visitation of, in Aberdeen, i. 431. Great severity of, ii. 85; about 240 children die of, 140; upwards of 800 deaths in Glasgow from, 347.

SMIBERT, William, his unbaptised child, i. 32.

SMITH, James, barters wheat for Norway timber, ii. 71.

SMOLLETT, George, an ancestor of the novelist, denounced as a rebel, i. 248. Spanish ship blown up by, ii. 387.

Sneesh-box, fondness of the Scotch for the, ii. 494.

Snow-storm, an enormous, i. 458, 459. Great, in 1633, ii. 61; in 1664-5, 302; in 1674, 365.

Soap, first manufactured in Leith, by Nathaniel Uddart, i. 511, 512. Patent granted to Patrick Mauld for making, ii. 80, 81.

Soldiers, Colonel Monro endeavours to erect hospital for Scottish, ii. 75.

SOMERVILLE, James, younger of Drum and Cambusnethan, his marriage, ii. 207-209; his son’s death, 443.

SOMERVILLE, Lord; his lawsuit with his cousin, and its success, i. 113-116.

SOMERVILLE, Lord, sad accident in the family of, i. 190-192.

SOMERVILLE of Drum, anecdote of, i. 491.

Spanish and Dutch sea-fight on coast of Zetland, ii. 15.

Spanish Armada, excitement in Scotland caused by, i. 185-189; vessels destroyed, 186; ii. 386.

‘Speat’ on the Water of Carron, ii. 98.

Sports, James VI.’s declaration regarding, on Sundays and holidays, i. 491.

SPYNIE, Lord, dies of wounds received in a street-fight, i. 406.

Stage-coach, Countess of Crawford travels to England in a, ii. 218; advertised for various towns, 247; betwixt Edinburgh and Haddington, and Edinburgh and Glasgow, 391.

STAIR, Lord, ii. 370.

STALKER, Andrew, a goldsmith, kills a servant of Earl of Angus, i. 294.

Standing army in Scotland, commencement of a, ii. 313.

STANFIELD, Sir James, his son hanged for his murder, ii. 491, 492.

Star, Melville’s notice of a brilliant, i. 386; appearance of a great fiery, 472; ii. 84.

Star of Tycho, Holinshed’s notice of, i. 84.

STERCOVIUS, a Pole, beheaded for publishing his Legend of Reproaches against the Scottish nation, i. 452.

STEWART, Alexander, an itinerant doctor, ii. 184.

STEWART, Hercules, brother of the Earl of Bothwell, hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh, i. 259.

STEWART, James, banished for performing mass, i. 451.

STEWART, Janet, petition of, ii. 437.

----, John, a vagabond, hangs himself in prison, i. 488, 489.

STEWART, John, hanged for witchcraft, ii. 377-379.

STEWART, Margaret, abduction of her daughter, i. 419.

STEWART, Master Allan, receives the revenues of the Abbey of Crossraguel; his torture by Earl of Cassillis, i. 65-68.

STEWART of Minto, his dispute with Sir George Elphinstone, i. 396-398.

STEWART of Tarlair, mining by, i. 28.

----, William, stabs Lord Torthorald, i. 415.

STEWARTS of Coltness; anecdote of the plague, ii. 165; Thomas of, his country-house, 245; his flight to Holland, 448-451.

STEWARTS of Traquair, and Hay of Yester, feud between, i. 168-170.

Stewarton Sickness, a religious fervour so called, ii. 42, 43.

Stirling, a parliament held by Regent Lennox at, i. 76; taking of, quick transmission of news to London, 159; strange sounds heard by four gentlemen of, 541. Sixteen farms between Falkirk and, buried in moss, ii. 35; the session sit at, 116.

Stones, large, transported by a river, ii. 98.

Stool of repentance, i. 334, 335.

STORIE, Richard, charged with murder, ii. 442.

STRACHAN of Thornton, his alleged theft, i. 534, 535.

Strathbogie, Presbytery Record of, extracts from, ii. 156-161.

Street-carriages of Edinburgh, regular system of, ii. 358.

Street-conflicts in Aberdeen, i. 343.

---- fights, Edinburgh, the first of, i. 48.

STRUAN, Laird of, his dispute with Marquis of Athole, ii. 423; his saw-mills, 447.

STRUTHERS, William, his sermon, i. 513.

STUART, Esme, usually called Monsieur D’Aubigné; his mission to Scotland, i. 126-128.

STUART, James (Earl of Arran), his rise, i. 126; influence over James VI., 128; his fall, 129; his marriage to the Countess of March, 146; his death, 275; his death avenged, 414.

STUART, Robert, natural son of the Earl of Orkney, beheaded, i. 461.

STUART, Sir William of Monkton, slain by Stuart Earl of Bothwell, i. 184, 185.

SUFFOLK, Earl of, his journey of pleasure through Scotland, i. 454, 455.

Sugar-works at Glasgow, ii. 455.

Summaries: Reign of Mary, 1561-1565, i. 7; Regency of Moray, 1567-1570, 43; Regencies of Lennox and Mar, 1570-1572, 61, 62; Regency of Morton, 1572-1578, 82, 83; Reign of James VI. 1578-1585, 126-129; 1585-1590, 160, 161; 1591-1603, 219-221; 1603-1625, 379-381. Reign of Charles I., 1625-1637, ii. 1-3; 1637-1649, 105-113; Interregnum, 1649-1660, 174-177; Reign of Charles II., 1660-1673, 255-261; 1673-1685, 349-355; Reign of James VII., 469-475; concluding remarks, 496-499.

Sun, total eclipse of the, i. 296. Celebrated eclipse of, ii. 215.

Suns, curious appearance of three, ii. 9.

Sunday, observance of, i. 329-333.

Superstitions and superstitious practices, i. 322-326.

Suppers, laudable custom of, revived, ii. 267.

Surgeons exempted from serving as jury-men, i. 42.

SUTHERLAND, Earl of, overtaken by a snow-storm, i. 363; contributions of tenantry to, 517.

SUTHERLAND of Duffus, his quarrel with Gordon of Enbo, ii. 5, 6.

Swans on Linlithgow Loch, anecdotes of, ii. 267, 268.

Swearing, fines for, i. 342.

Sweden, king of, troops levied in Scotland for, i. 445; unfortunate issue, 446.

Sword-dance, description of the, ii. 67, 68.

SYDSERF, Thomas, editor of the Mercurius Caledonius, ii. 271; his theatre, 324.

TAILIEFEIR, Bessie, sentenced to be brankit, i. 46.

Tailors, petition against outlandish, ii. 253, 254.

Tallow, laws against exporting, ii. 5.

Tarugo’s Wiles, Sydserf’s play called, ii. 324.

Taxes, allocation of, to various towns, ii. 7.

Tay, remarkable flood in the, i. 525-527.

TAYLOR, John the Water-poet, his visit to Scotland, i. 493-500.

Tea, in Scotland, its first introduction, ii. 405.

TENNANT, Francis, hanged for his pasquils against the king and progenitors, i. 320.

Tercel called for by James VI., i. 391.

Test, magistrates of Peebles in a puzzle about the, ii. 429; burlesque of, 433.

Thanksgiving-day, on settlement between King and Estates, ii. 140.

Theatre, first, in Edinburgh established about 1679, ii. 400.

Theatricals in Scotland, toleration of, i. 306, 307.

Thirteen Drifty Days, Hogg’s account of the, ii. 365-367.

THOMSON, Annaple, and others, worried and burnt as witches, ii. 405, 406.

THOMSON, Gavin, assaulted by Thomas Pringle, i. 418.

THOMSON, Margaret, her complaint against Tutor of Calder, ii. 154.

Thumbikens, an instrument of torture so called, ii. 460.

Tide, remarkable swelling of the, at Leith, &c., i. 476.

Tobacco, Murray’s patent for importing, i. 531, 532. Licence for sale of, ii. 74; tax on, 332; first practitioner of tobacco-spinning in Leith, 346.

Toe-writing, singular instance of, ii. 253.

Toleration, want of, in Scotland, i. 244; imputation of toleration indignantly repudiated by King James, 533. Declared against by the Presbyterian kirk, ii. 180; granted by James VII., 470; want of, at the Revolution, 498.

Tories, first introduction of the word into Scotland, ii. 227.

TORTHORALD, Lord, stabbed by William Stewart, i. 415.

Town-guard of Edinburgh, origin of the, ii. 438.

Trade, decree against freedom of, i. 458. Interesting particulars regarding, in Scotland, ii. 248, 249.

Transmigration of witches to distant places, &c., disputation on, i. 305.

Traquair, burning at Peebles of popish relics found at, ii. 499-501.

TRAQUAIR, Countess of, and her son, ii. 336.

----, first Earl of, anecdote of, ii. n. 88; his death and character, 251, 252.

Travelling, anecdotes of, i. 299, 381, 493; ii. 218, 247, 391, 476.

Trembling Exies, a disease so called, ii. 222.

Trough, Children of the (a singular anecdote), i. n. 234.

Tulyies or combats in Edinburgh, i. 47, 185, 258, 318.

Tumbling Lassie and Reid the mountebank, ii. 487.

TURNBULL and SCOTT, hanged for publishing a libel against Morton, i. 125.

TURNBULL, Andrew, beheaded, i. 320.

---- of Airdrie, abduction of his daughter, i. 419.

Turners, a base coin so called, ii. 128.

TWEEDIES and VEITCHES, feud between, i. 200-202; James VI. endeavours to suppress, 432.

Universities, order against receiving fugitive students at, i. 439.

URQUHART of Craigston, singular fortunes of his grandson, ii. 81-83.

USHER, Adie, a Border-thief, hanged; his son Willie, i. 546.

Usury severely punished, ii. 298.

VALLAM, James and George, hanged for robbery, i. 364.

VAUTROLLIER, a French Protestant, prints a volume of poems for James VI., i. 154.

VEITCHES and TWEEDIES, feud between, i. 200-202, 432.

Victory, naval, over the Dutch, rejoicings at, ii. 303.

Vintners and Butchers, outcry against extortion of, ii. 489, 490.

Visions in the air, ii. 313-315.

VOIS, Cornelius de, his gold and silver licence, i. 50.

Wages of skilled artisans in Scotland, ii. 235.

WALDEN, Lord, his journey of pleasure in Scotland, i. 454, 455.

WALKER, Patrick, his account of illusive psalm-singing, ii. 314; of visions of bonnets and weapons at Crossford, 485.

WALLACE, Margaret, worried and burnt for witchcraft, i. 527-529.

WALSINGHAM, Sir Francis, a councillor of Queen Elizabeth, his mission to James VI., i. 152.

Waly, waly! a popular ballad, composed on the Marchioness of Douglas, ii. 340.

Wame-ill or land-ill, also called the Pestilence but Mercy, i. 57.

Wappinshaw, why so called, i. 542.

Watch, a body of men appointed to keep peace in the Highlands, ii. 306.

WATSON, William, minister of Burntisland, i. 467.

WATT, John, shot dead on the Burgh-moor, i. 349.

WAUGH, Robert, hanged for rebuking the Regent Morton, i. 80.

Weather, the, i. 107, 112, 259, 286, 421, 431, 457, 458, 523, 541; ii. 4, 12, 17, 28, 61, 79, 83, 113, 115, 122, 134, 149, 199, 217, 222, 224, 234-236, 240, 253, 298, 299, 305, 313, 319, 324, 358, 365-367, 371-373, 426, 454, 462.

WEIR, Bessie, hanged as a witch, ii. 377-379.

----, John, tried for ‘incest,’ for marrying the relict of his grand-uncle, ii. 28.

WEIR, Major, strangled and burnt, ii. 332.

----, of Cloburn, a boy of fourteen, taken to Ireland, and married to a daughter of Laird of Corehouse, i. 454.

Wells of Edinburgh run dry, ii. 226.

WEMYSS, Countess of, death and extravagance of the, ii. 215.

WEMYSS of Logie, Mrs Margaret Twinstoun contrives his escape from confinement, i. 238.

West Indies, deportation of poor people to the, ii. 304, 305.

WESTERHALL, Laird of, slain by the Hamiltons, i. 99.

Whale captured by the English at Leith, ii. 218.

Whales, fourteen killed at Dornoch, i. 319.

Wheat, Council grants licence for exporting 4000 bolls, ii. 54.

Whig, origin of the term, ii. 171, 172.

Whilliwha’s, swindlers so called, i. 468.

WIGTON and CASSILLIS, Earls of, dispute between, ii. 30.

Wind, tremendous storm of, i. 421.

Wine, its importation into Western Isles restricted, i. 531.

WIRTEMBERG, Duke of, visits Scotland, i. 418.

WISHART, Janet, burnt for witchcraft, i. 278, 279.

Witchcraft, act against, i. 24; William Stewart, Lyon King-of-arms hanged for, 60; witches of Athole, 70; Bessie Dunlop, burnt for, 107-110; Alison Peirson, burnt for, 183; trials of Lady Foulis and Hector Monro, 202-206; Bessie Roy tried for, 206; extraordinary trials for, 210-218; devil preaching to witches, illustration, 215; numerous cases of, 257; barbarous legal procedure in cases of, 273; remarkable trials in Aberdeen, 278-285; ‘the great witch of Balwery,’ 291; wood-cut of a witch seated on the moon, 378; the Broughton witches, 420; Margaret Barclay, executed for, 488; John Stewart, tried for, 488; Margaret Wallace, worried and burnt for, 527-529; Bessie Smith, of Lesmahago, 539; Thomas Grieve, strangled and burnt, 540; Privy Council’s doubts regarding, 548. Various cases of, ii. 31-34; John Balfour, a discoverer of, 61; William Coke and Alison Dick, burnt for witchcraft, their bill of expenses, 70, 71; case of Agnes Finnie and others, 149-154; conference of ministers on, 180; several trials and burnings for, 186-189; presbytery of Lanark and the eleven witches, 194, 195; proceedings of Cromwell’s law-commissioners for Scotland, 219, 220; burnings for, 243, 244; numerous trials for, at the Restoration, 277-279; confessions of Isobel Gowdie and Janet Braidhead, 285-291; M‘Leans and others tortured for, 293-295; more cases of, 330; Jean Weir hanged, 333; curious cases of, 376-381; another witch-storm, 385, 386; anecdotes of, 393-395; Katherine Liddel persecuted for, 396; curious witch-trial at Borrowstounness, 405, 406; Marion Purdie imprisoned for, 462; books on, 475.

WOGAN, Captain, his daring march to the north, ii. 223; verses quoted from Waverley on his death, 224.

WOOD, George, threatened arrestment of his corpse, ii. 328, 329.

WOOD, James, heir of Bonnington, beheaded, i. 350.

Wool, prohibition against exporting, &c., i. 475; Petition for dressing and refining of, ii. 346.

Wreckers of Dunbar and Western Islands, Council’s proceedings against, ii. 94, 95.

Writs, several persons hanged for making false, i. 260, 296.

YESTER, Master of, and Stewarts of Traquair, feud between, i. 168-170.

YORK, James, Duke of. See James VII.

YOUNG, Isobel, burnt for witchcraft, ii. 31.

----, John, his attack on Richard Bannatyne, ii. 16.

YOUNG, Margaret, petitions Privy Council against false imprisonment, ii. 153.

END OF VOL. II.

Edinburgh: Printed by W. and R. Chambers.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us