Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Volume 1 (of 2) (part 3 of 3)
Napier’s little book was published in an English translation by Henry Briggs of Oxford, the greatest mathematician of his day in England. The admiration of Briggs for the person of Napier was testified in the summer of 1615 by his paying a visit to Scotland, in order to see him. Of this rencontre there is a curious and interesting account preserved by William Lilly in his Life and Times. ‘I will acquaint you,’ says he, ‘with one memorable story related unto me by John Marr, an excellent mathematician and geometrician, whom I conceive you remember. He was a servant to King James I. and Charles I. When Merchiston first published his Logarithms, Mr Briggs, then reader of the astronomy lectures at Gresham College in London, was so surprised with admiration of them, that he could have no quietness in himself until he had seen that noble person whose only invention they were. He acquaints John Marr therewith, who went in[to] Scotland before Mr Briggs, purposely to be there when these two so learned persons should meet. Mr Briggs appoints a certain day when to meet at Edinburgh; but failing thereof, Merchiston was fearful he would not come. It happened one day, as John Marr and Lord Napier were speaking of Mr Briggs, “Oh! John,” saith Merchiston, “Mr Briggs will not come now.” At the very instant, one knocks at the gate. John Marr hasted down, and it proved to be Mr Briggs, to his great contentment. He brings Mr Briggs into my lord’s chamber, where almost one quarter of an hour was spent, each beholding other with admiration, before one word was spoken. At last Mr Briggs began: “My lord, I have undertaken this long journey purposely to see your person, and to know by what engine of wit or ingenuity you came first to think of this most excellent help unto astronomy--namely, the Logarithms; but, my lord, being by you found out, I wonder nobody else found it out before, when, now being known, it appears so easy.” He was nobly entertained by the Lord Napier; and every summer after that, during the laird’s being alive, this venerable man went purposely to Scotland to visit him.’
As Napier (whom Lilly erroneously calls lord) died in April 1617, Mr Briggs could not have made more than one other summer pilgrimage to Merchiston.
* * * * *
Died John M‘Birnie, minister of St Nicolas’ Church, Aberdeen--a typical example of the more zealous and self-denying of the Presbyterian clergy of that age. A similar one of the next age says of M‘Birnie: ‘I heard Lady Culross say: “He was a godly, zealous, and painful preacher; and that he used always, when he rode, to have two Bibles hanging at a leather girdle about his middle, the one original, the other English; as also, a little sand-glass in a brazen case: and being alone, he read, or meditated, or prayed; and if any company were with him, he would read or speak from the Word to them.”... When he died, he called his wife, and told her he had no outward means to leave her, or his only daughter, but that he had got good assurance that the Lord would provide for them; and accordingly, the day he was buried, the magistrates of the town came to the house, after the burial, and brought two subscribed papers, one of a competent maintenance to his wife during her life, another of a provision for his daughter.’[352]
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[Sidenote: 1615.]
The latter part of the winter 1614-15 was of such severity as to be attended with several remarkable circumstances which were long remembered. In February, the Tay was frozen over so strongly as to admit of passage for both horse and man. ‘Upon Fasten’s E’en [February 21], there was twa puncheons of Bourdeaux wine carriet, sting and ling,[353] on men’s shoulders, on the ice, at the mids of the North Inch, the weight of the puncheon and the bearers, estimate to three score twelve stane weight.’ This state of things, however, was inconvenient for the ferrymen, ‘being thereby prejudgit of their commodity.’ So they, ‘in the night-time, brak the ice at the entry, and stayit the passage.’--Chron. Perth.
[Sidenote: 1615.]
An enormous fall of snow took place early in March, so as to stop all communication throughout the country. On its third day, many men and horse perished in vain attempts to travel. The accumulation of snow was beyond all that any man remembered.
‘In some places, men devised snow-ploughs to clear the ground, and fodder the cattle.’--Bal. The snow fell to such a depth, and endured so long upon the ground, that, according to Sir Robert Gordon, ‘most part of all the horse, nolt, and sheep of the kingdom did perish, but chiefly in the north.’[354]
The Privy Council, viewing the ‘universal death, destruction, and wrack of the beasts and goods throughout all parts of the country,’ apprehended that, without some extraordinary care, there would not be enough of lambs left to replenish the farms with sheep for future use. They accordingly interfered with a decree forbidding the use of lamb for a certain time. Nevertheless, so early as the 26th of April, it was ascertained that there were undutiful subjects, who, ‘preferring their own private contentment and their inordinate appetite, and the delicate feeding of their bellies, to the reverence and obedience of the law,’ continued to use lamb, only purchasing it in secret places, as if no such prohibition had ever been uttered. It was therefore become necessary that severe punishment should be threatened for this offence. The threats launched forth on this occasion were found next year to have been of some effect in preserving the remnant of the lamb stock; and, to complete the restoration of the stock, a new decree to the like effect was then made (March 14, 1616).
[Sidenote: JAN.]
[Sidenote: 1615.]
The king and his English council having, with the usual short-sighted policy of the age, decreed that no goods should be imported into or exported out of England, except in English vessels, the burghs of Scotland were not slow to perceive that the interests of their country would be deeply injured thereby, as other states would of course establish similar restrictions, ‘and if so, there is naething to be expected but decay and wrack to our shipping, insaemickle as the best ships of Scotland are continually employed in the service of Frenchmen, not only within the dominions of France, but also within the bounds of Spain, Italy, and Barbary, where their trade lies, whilk is ane chief cause of the increase of the number of Scots ships and of their maintenance, whereas by the contrary, the half of the number of ships whilk are presently in Scotland will serve for our awn privat trade and negotiation.’
The king of France did in reality revenge the selfish policy of England by issuing a similar order in favour of French shipping, the first consequence of which was that an English vessel and a Dutch one, lading in Normandy, were obliged to disburden themselves and come empty home. ‘Ane Scottish bark perteining to Andrew Allan, whilk that same time was lading with French merchandise,’ would have been subjected to the same inconvenience, if the master had not pretended to an immunity in favour of his country, through its ancient alliance with France, ‘inviolably kept these 800 years bypast.’ The Scots factors in France entered a complaint before the parliament of Paris, reminding it of that ancient alliance, and pleading that the French had ever had liberty of trade in all Scottish ports; shewing, indeed, that Scotland was not comprised in the edict of the English monarch and his council. The parliament accordingly decreed that the Scotch should remain in the enjoyment of freedom of trade within France, as heretofore.
The attention of the king being necessarily called to the interests of Scotland in this matter, he was found obstinate in favour of the general principle of the English order in council. ‘Natural reason,’ he said, ‘teaches us that Scotland, being part of an isle, cannot be mainteined or preserved without shipping, and shipping cannot be mainteined without employment; and the very law of nature teacheth every sort of corporation, kingdom, or country, first to set their own vessels on work, before they employ any stranger.’[355] He was willing, however, to relax in particular cases. James argues logically, but he had not sagacity to anticipate the doctrines of Adam Smith.
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[Sidenote: FEB. 6.]
This day saw the extraordinary sight of a Scottish earl, cousin-german to the king, led out to a scaffold in the High Street of Edinburgh, and there beheaded. The sufferer was Patrick Earl of Orkney, whose father was a natural son of King James V. Forty years earlier, this man would have stood his ground against the law: now, it was too strong for him, and he fell before it.
[Sidenote: 1615.]
Earl Patrick appears to have been a man of grand and ambitious views, and his dream of life was to make himself a sort of independent prince in the remote group of islands where lay his estate. The sketch given of his style of living there by a contemporary writer is striking: ‘He had a princely and royal revenue; and indeed behavit himself with sic sovereignty, and, gif I durst say the plain verity, rather tyrannically, by the shadow of Danish laws, different and more rigorous nor [than] the municipal or criminal laws of the rest of Scotland; whereby no man of rent or purse might enjoy his property in Orkney, without his special favour, and the same dear bought.... Fitchit and forgit faults was so devisit against many of them, that they were compellit by imprisonment and small rewaird to resign their heritable titles to him; and gif he had a stieve purse and no rent, then was some crime devisit against him, whereby he was compellit [to give up] either half or haill thereof, gif not life and all beside. And his pomp was so great there [in Kirkwall], as he never went from his castle to the kirk, nor abroad otherwise, without the convoy of fifty musketeers and other gentlemen of convoy and guard. And siclike, before dinner and supper, there were three trumpeters that soundit still till the meat of the first service was set at table, and siclike at the second service; and consequently, after the grace. He had also his ships directit to the sea, to intercept pirates, and collect tribute of uncouth [foreign] fishers, that came yearly to these seas. Whereby he made sic collection of great guns and other weapons for weir [war] as no house, palace, nor castle, yea all in Scotland were not furnished with the like.’
[Sidenote: 1615.]
The doings of this insular potentate at length attracted the attention of the law, and he was summoned in 1610 to answer for various acts of the nature of a usurpation of the royal authority during the preceding twenty years. It appears from this summons, that he made laws of his own, and prosecuted divers gentlemen for disobeying them. He had forced some of these persons into a Bond of Manrent, obliging themselves to maintain his cause against whatsoever persons, and that they should never know of any ‘skaith’ threatening him but they would reveal it within twenty-four hours. He had imprisoned sundry persons in irons and stocks sundry days and weeks, and compelled many of the poorer class ‘to work for him all manner of work and labour by sea and land, in rowing and sailing his ships and boats, working in the stane quarry ... loading his boats with stane and lime ... bigging his park dykes, and all other sorts of servile and painful labour, without either meat, drink, or hire.’ While forbidding the people generally to sell any of the produce of their lands without his licence, he imposed on them grievous taxations. In short, he had acted the baronial tyrant in the extremest form of the character.
The earl was now a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, and there could have been no difficulty in convicting and punishing him. The king, however, felt mercifully towards his cousin; and after several briefer postponements, the case was hung up, and the earl conveyed, for the safer custody of his person, to Dumbarton Castle. It is believed that King James was even willing to have come to a compromise with the culprit, granting him the lucrative keepership of some one of the royal palaces, on condition of his renouncing all claim to Orkney. The earl refused to temporise, and continued to entertain the secret resolution to regain, if possible, his island sovereignty, and there set all law at defiance.
He had a natural son, Robert, a fitting instrument for his designs. Under his instructions, this youth proceeded to Orkney in 1614, and there assembling a company, took possession of the castle of Kirkwall, at the same time fortifying the church and steeple. Voluntarily or by compulsion, a great number of the islanders signed a bond, engaging to support him; and it was soon understood that Orkney was in rebellion against the crown. The Privy Council met to consider what should be done. The Earl of Caithness was now in Edinburgh, attempting to obtain remission for offences of his own, one of which consisted in his waging war in the preceding year against the Earl of Sutherland. It readily occurred to his wily mind, that, for a culprit like himself, nothing could be so good as to offer to help the government to punish the crimes of others. It was, moreover, rather a pleasure than a duty to carry war into Orkney. His offered services were accepted, and he quickly sailed with a strong military party for Kirkwall. He found the fortress strong, the country people generally in favour of the rebels, and great deficiency of provision for his troops. He nevertheless beleaguered the castle for about a month, during which time some damage was done by ordnance on both sides. At length, by adroit dealing with one Patrick Halcro, the chief associate of Robert Stuart, he brought about a surrender of the house and all it contained (September 29, 1614), with a condition for the saving of Halcro’s life, but for no favour to any other.
[Sidenote: 1615.
JAN. 6.]
Robert Stuart was brought to trial in Edinburgh, and condemned to death. He was a youth of only twenty-two, ‘of a tall stature and comely countenance;’ and it is to be remembered in his favour, that he withstood all the persuasions of the Earl of Caithness to give up Kirkwall Castle, foreseeing that he should be tortured into revealing his father’s guilt; he only surrendered on finding that Halcro was going to betray him. He died penitent, with five of his company.
The doom of the earl, the prime mover of the rebellion, followed. He ‘took the sentence impatiently.’ An attempt was made to excite the king to spare the royal blood, but without effect. ‘The ministers, finding him so ignorant that he could scarce rehearse the Lord’s Prayer, entreated the Council to delay his execution some few days, till he were better informed, and received the Lord’s Supper.... So he communicate on the Lord’s day, the 5th of February, and was beheaded at the market-cross of Edinburgh upon Monday the 6th of February; when Sir Robert Ker, the Earl of Rochester, was decourted. The king laid the blame of his death upon him [Rochester], but late, as his custom was, when matters was past remedy.’--Cal. G. H. S. Pit.
An entry in the session record of Perth, under September 1632, forms a curious and striking pendant to the history of this unfortunate branch of the Stuart family. ‘Disbursed at the command of the ministers to ane young man called Stewart, son to umwhile the Earl of Orkney, seven shillings.’
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[Sidenote: FEB. 28.]
This day, John Ogilvie, a Jesuit, was hanged in Glasgow, being the first priest who had suffered in that way in Scotland since the execution of the Archbishop of St Andrews at Stirling in 1571.[356]
[Sidenote: 1615.]
Ogilvie was a Scotsman of good family, who had lived for twenty-one years in a Jesuit college at Gratz. He came to Scotland in the autumn of 1613, and spent some time amongst the Catholics in the north, then went to London, and finally came back to Scotland in June 1614. For three months he lived skulkingly in Glasgow, occasionally performing mass, but was at length apprehended in October, along with thirteen or fourteen persons who had been present at those ceremonies. The latter were thrown into Dumbarton Castle, and only liberated on payment of large fines. Ogilvie himself was subjected to examination and trial. The only account he would give of himself was that he came to Scotland at the command of his superiors, ‘to save souls.’ To induce further confession, he was put on low diet and kept from sleep for several nights in succession; and being thus made ‘light in the head,’ he ‘began to discover certain particulars, but, howsoon he was permitted to take any rest, he denied all, and was as obstinate in denying as at first.’
The king, who was tolerant of the religion of the papists, as apart from their anarchical doctrines regarding papal supremacy, told his Council to let Ogilvie go unharmed into banishment, if he was but a Jesuit who had said mass, and only to deal severely with him if he had been a practiser of sedition, or refused to take the oath of allegiance. They soon found from his answers to certain questions that he was a bold and decided adherent of the doctrines of his order, holding that the pope was superior to the king, and might excommunicate him, and not clearly denying that the subjects might thus be absolved from their allegiance to their sovereign, and even slay him. He denied that he had been guilty of any real crime, saying that acts of parliament were but the dicta of partial men. The king’s authority came from predecessors who had acknowledged the supremacy of the pope: ‘if he will be to me as his predecessors were to mine, I will acknowledge him,’ not otherwise. In declining the king’s authority in such matters, he did no more than the best of the Presbyterian clergy did--a course in which they would persevere if they were wise. ‘I have done no offence,’ said he, ‘neither will I beg mercy. If I were even now forth of the kingdom, I should return. If all the hairs in my head were priests, they should all come into the kingdom.’
The one chance which Ogilvie had in the tolerant spirit of the king was thus closed. The zealous Presbyterians had of course nothing to say in arrest of judgment. According to their historian, the bishops felt it to be necessary that they should do something decided against the papists ‘for honesty’s sake‘--that is, some unmistakably sound and good thing on the right side, such as the hanging of a Jesuit clearly was--lest they should appear more inclined to persecute the ministers of the true, than those of a false religion. Accordingly, John Spottiswoode, archbishop of Glasgow, was all along the most conspicuous man in the prosecution of the unfortunate Jesuit. The trial took place in the Town-hall of Glasgow, before a commission composed of the magistrates and a number of noblemen, and condemnation was followed in three hours by execution.
[Sidenote: 1615.]
‘He continued a while upon his knees at prayer, with a cold devotion; and when the hour of execution approached, his hands being tied by the executioner, his spirits were perceived much to fail him. In going towards the scaffold, the throng of people was great, and he seemed much amazed; and when he was up, Master Robert Scott and Mr William Struthers, ministers, very gravely and Christianly exhorted him to a humble acknowledgment of his offence, and if anything troubled his mind, to disburden his conscience. In matters of religion, they said, they would not then enter, but prayed him to resolve and settle his mind, and seek mercy and grace from God through Jesus Christ, in whom only salvation is to be found. Ogilvie answered that “he was prepared and resolved.” Once he said that he died for religion, but uttered this so weakly as scarce to be heard by them that stood by on the scaffold. Then addressing himself to execution, he kneeled at the ladder-foot, and prayed. Master Robert Scott, in that while, declaring to the people, that his suffering was not for any matter of religion, but for heinous treason against his majesty, which he prayed God to forgive him. Ogilvie, hearing this, said: “He doeth me wrong.” One called John Abercrombie, a man of little wit, replied: “No matter, John, the more wrongs the better.” This man was seen to attend him carefully, and was ever heard asking of Ogilvie some token before his death; for which, and other business he made with him, he was put off the scaffold.
‘Ogilvie, ending his prayer, arose to go up the ladder; but strength and courage, to the admiration of those who had seen him before, did quite forsake him. He trembled and shaked, saying he would fall, and could hardly be helped up on the top of the ladder. He kissed the hangman, and said: “Maria, Mater gratiae, ora pro me; Omnes Angeli, orate pro me; Omnes Sancti, Sanctaeque, orate pro me!” but with so low a voice that they which stood at the ladder-foot had some difficulty to hear him.
‘The executioner willed him to commend his soul to God, pronouncing these words unto him: “Say, John, Lord have mercy on me, Lord receive my soul!” which he did, with such feebleness of voice, that scarce could he be heard. Then he was turned off, and hung till he was dead.’[357]
[Sidenote: 1615.]
This hanging would of course have procured some popularity for the king and bishops, if it had proceeded from the right motive. But the people saw that no gratitude was really due. ‘Some,’ says Calderwood, ‘interpreted this execution to have proceeded rather of a care to bless the king’s government, than of any sincere hatred of the popish religion. Some [alleged] that it was done to be a terror to the sincerer sort of the ministry, not to decline the king’s authority in ony cause whatever.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR.]
There was believed to be at this time an unusual number of Jesuits and seminary priests in Scotland, ‘pressing by all means possible to subvert the true religion.’ The kirk launched a fast at them, and ordered a general celebration of ‘the holie communion’ for discovery of all recusants. In Aberdeen, the elders subsequently reported three men and two women as having been absent on this occasion. Such persons were proceeded against, so as to force them, if possible, into conformity, in which case each person was expected to come forward publicly, and declare, ‘for the peace of my own conscience,’ I do, ‘by my own free choice and voluntary consent, renounce all the errors and superstitions of popery,’ and profess, ‘in the true simplicity of my heart,’ that ‘I shall own and maintain all the doctrines of the true Reformed Protestant Religion, and shall adhere to the whole worship and discipline thereof to my life’s end.’[358] In the present case, four persons remained recusant, and actually were excommunicated in the ensuing January; thus, in fact, losing all privileges as subjects of the realm.
[Sidenote: 1615.]
On the 14th of August, three citizens of Edinburgh, named Sinclair, Wilkie, and Cruikshanks, all men in respectable circumstances, were tried for the crime of entertaining in their houses three Jesuits or trafficking priests, including the unfortunate John Ogilvie. Sinclair confessed to having reset Mr James Moffat in the preceding October, but said he did it ‘only upon simplicity.’ The three men were condemned to be executed as traitors; and, as if to shew the certainty of their doom, a special order from the king was read in court for proceeding to both sentence and execution. The zealous multitude were accordingly in full hope of the punishment being inflicted; but there was no earnestness in the government in these proceedings. Let Calderwood tell the remainder of the tale. ‘The day following [the trial], betwixt four and five in the afternoon, they were brought furth with their hands bound, to the scaffold set up beside the cross and a gallows in it, according to the custom of execution. While a great multitude of people were going to see the execution, there was a warrant presented to the magistrates of Edinburgh to stay the execution. So they were turned back again to their wards. The people thought this form of dealing rather mockery than punishment.’
The sentence was commuted by the king’s order to banishment from Edinburgh for Cruikshanks, and for the other two to banishment from the king’s dominions, both during his royal pleasure.--Pit. Cal.
A little trait of the domestic circumstances of Catholics of rank at this time is worthy of notice. The Earl of Errol, as a recusant papist, was only enabled to remain in his country on condition that he should not pass beyond a small circle around his own castle in Aberdeenshire. Being embarrassed by debt, and troubled by his creditors, he found himself constrained to take some legal steps ‘for the provision of his mony young children, and settling of some good course for the estate of his house.’ It was necessary that he should be allowed to break temporarily through the obligation under which he lay to live within a certain space round his house. He therefore got a formal licence (November 9, 1615), ‘to repair to Edinburgh, and there to remain in some lodging, not kything ony way in daylight upon the heich street, for ten days after the 20th of November.’--P. C. R.
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[Sidenote: APR.]
[Sidenote: 1615.]
On the Saturday before Pasch Sunday, ‘ane extraordinar riot’ took place in the usually quiet little burgh of Burntisland. The gentleman who acted as chamberlain of the queen in the management of her dotarial estate of Dunfermline, was called upon, in the course of his duty, to send ‘precepts of warning to remove’ to Burntisland, ‘according to common order.’ No immediate steps of a strong character were meditated; it was merely a form of law. The inhabitants, led, as afterwards appeared, by their pastor, Mr William Watson, conceived a violent anger at the proceeding, and determined to give it an active resistance. When the officer and his witness came to the cross for the execution of his office, he was assailed by ‘a multitude of women, above ane hundred, of the bangster Amazon kind’--so states the grave chancellor, Earl of Dunfermline--and ‘maist uncourteously dung [driven] off his feet, and his witness with him, they all hurt and bloodit, all his letters and precepts reft frae him, riven and cast away, and sae staned and chased out of the town.’ The magistrates are alleged to have looked on without interference; nay, ‘the bailie’s awn wife’ was ‘the principal leader of this tumultuary army of Amazons;’ so that there was no room to doubt that the male inhabitants were the instigators of the riot.
Some sharp measures were taken for the punishment of the rioters, and the chancellor besought the king to send off Mr Watson to some quieter part of the country, and ordain Burntisland ‘to be provided with some minister of mair calm port, to rule and circumsede sic het humours as may be in that people.’--M. S. P.
Accordingly, on the 14th of December, the Council decreed that Mr William Watson should ‘transport himself out of the burgh of Burntisland’ before the 10th of January next, and thereafter ‘on nae wise repair to the said burgh, [nor] within aucht miles of the same, and on nae wise entertein ony intelligence with the inhabitants of Burntisland in ony matter concerning the government of that town.’--P. C. R. The king sent a warrant from Newmarket for this being carried into effect.
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[Sidenote: APR. 26.]
‘Amang the mony abuses whilk the iniquity of the time and private respect of filthy lucre and gain has produced within the commonwealth’--thus gravely commences an act of the Privy Council--‘there is of late discoverit a most unlawful and pernicious tred of transporting of eggs furth of the kingdom.’ ‘Certain avaritious and godless persons, void of modesty and discretion, preferring their awn private commodity to the commonweal, has gone and goes athort the country and buys the haill eggs that they can get, barrels the same, and transports them at their pleasure.’ As an unavoidable consequence, ‘there has been a great scarcity of eggs this while bygane,’ and any that are to be had have ‘risen to such extraordinar and heich prices as are not to be sufferit in a weel-governit commonwealth.’ ‘Moreover,’ proceeds this sage document, ‘if this unlawful tred be sufferit to be of ony langer continuance, it will fall out that in a very short time there will no eggs nor poultry be funden within the country.’
The Council was therefore prompted to order letters to be directed to all merchants and owners of vessels, forbidding them to carry eggs out of the country, on pain of heavy fines and such further punishment as the Council might see fit to decree.--P. C. R.
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[Sidenote: MAY 30.]
John Brand, student of philosophy, son of a former minister of Holyrood parish, was tried for the murder of a young man named William King, by stabbing him with a knife ‘upon St Leonard’s Craigs, beside the park-dyke.’ He was sentenced to be beheaded at the Cross.--Pit.
‘About this time certain bare and idle gentlemen lay in wait upon passengers by the ways about Edinburgh, and in parts of East Lothian, and would needs have money from them. The common people called them Whilliwha’s.’[359]--Cal.
* * * * *
Francis Hay, son of the late George Hay of Ardletham, and cousin-german to the Earl of Errol, was on terms of the most friendly intimacy with Adam Gordon, brother of Gordon of Gight. One day, when living familiarly together, a quarrel took place between them, followed by a single combat, in which Adam Gordon had the advantage, taking Hay’s sword from him, but instantly restoring it. Hay not being able to digest the affront, challenged Gordon some time after to renew the fight. Gordon, if we can believe a historian of the same name, ‘desired him to forbeir, seeing there was enough done already for any quarrel that was amongst them. Whereupon Francis came to Adam’s dwelling-place on horseback, with a pair of pistols at his girdle, and finds Adam walking about the fields, with his sword about him. Francis flies from his horse, and desires Adam to do him reason. So they go to it. Then again it was Adam his good hap to overcome Francis, and grants him his life; but as Adam was returning home, Francis, disdaining to be thus twice overthrown, shoots Adam behind his back with a pistol, and slays him.’
[Sidenote: DEC. 18.]
[Sidenote: 1615.]
Gordon of Gight, resolved to revenge his brother’s death, came to the house of William Hay of Logyruif, and there, without any warrant, seized Francis Hay, whom he immediately brought along to Aberdeen, and imprisoned in his own lodging, called the Bonnie Wife’s Inn, in the Gallowgate, where he kept him for forty-eight hours, excluding all his friends from seeing him. The sheriff-depute of Aberdeen was also a Gordon, and, of course, felt as a clansman regarding the late transaction. He therefore consented to preside at an irregular trial, to which Hay was forthwith subjected. At this trial, no one was allowed to appear for the alleged culprit. An advocate, who offered to come and act as his counsel, was told that if he did so, he should scarcely be down stairs till twenty whingers were put into him. Francis, in short, was condemned to lose his head, and next morning was actually led out to a solitary place, and there butchered by the swords of his enemies. In this wild way did the passions of men work themselves out in the north of Scotland, at the time when Bacon and Grotius were writing, when Drummond sang and Napier geometrised.
The Earl of Errol now came into the field, grievously offended because his relative had undergone law without his being consulted. The Gordons were summoned to answer for the irregularity of their proceedings at Edinburgh. This, again, drew forth their chief, the Marquis of Huntly, both to defend his own sheriffship, and to maintain his kinsmen. ‘Huntly and Errol did appear at Edinburgh, with all their friends on either side; so that the whole kingdom was divided in two factions, ready to fall together by the ears.’ The king himself now interfered, with a request that all proceedings should be suspended till he should come to Scotland. Accordingly, upwards of a year after, on his visiting his native kingdom, he brought the parties together, and persuaded them to be reconciled to each other, dismissing the offenders with only nominal punishments. ‘So was this controversy settled and taken away; yet it was not quite extinguished till 1627, that Viscount Melgum, the Marquis of Huntly’s third son, married ---- Hay, the Earl of Errol’s daughter.’--Pit. G. H. S.
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[Sidenote: NOV.]
Adam French of Thornydykes, ‘ane young bairn scarce past fourteen years of age,’ was attending school at Haddington, under the guardianship of Sir John Home of North Berwick, ‘donator to the gift of his ward and marriage,’ when a plot was laid for making that gift of non-effect by his maternal uncle, William Home of Hardiesmill, in connection with John Cranston of Moriston and Sir Patrick Chirnside of East Nisbet. Under divers pretences, the boy was inveigled away from the house where he resided, and taken to Rimmelton Law in the Merse, the house of John Cranston, whence he was next removed to East Nisbet, and introduced to a daughter of the laird, who was destined to become his wife. A proclamation of bans being made in hasty style, the young pair were straightway carried to Berwick, and there married.
[Sidenote: 1615.]
At the urgency of Sir John Home, the three persons concerned in the abduction, together with one Moffat, a servant, were tried before the supreme court (November 8, 1616), on the charge of ravishing and taking away Adam French. It was shewn in defence, that Adam, being fully fourteen years of age, was competent to contract marriage of his own freewill--the marriage was regular--he himself was satisfied with what had been done, and was ready to declare that he considered the accused parties as his friends. There was much discussion between the king’s advocate and the counsel of the accused on points of law; and, finally, the case was remitted to the sheriff of Berwickshire, the parties giving surety that they would not, in the meantime, fall foul of each other.--Pit.
Just about this time, an heiress of the same age as Adam French was the victim of similar selfishness on the part of her ‘friends.’ A narrative laid before the Privy Council represented Helen Graham, daughter of the deceased Sir John Graham of Knockdolian, as having been left by her father in the hands of persons in whom he had confidence, and with ‘a reasonable provision.’ Now that she was approaching her majority, being ‘about the hinder end of the fourteen year of her age,’ ‘there has fallen out some contestation betwixt them and others of her friends anent the keeping of her person, and she has been coupit fra hand to hand betwixt them, and twice exhibite before the lords of the secret council.’ In this contestation, ‘there is no regard had by ony of them to her will, but all of them, seeking their awn advantage, do what in them lies to procure her wrack and undoing.’ At her last exhibition before the Council, she had been committed to the care of John Muirhead of Brydonhill, who, being no relation to her, had no just pretension to the care of her person nor to the management of her estate. It was now apparent that John had ‘made merchandise of her,’ for, ‘against all modesty and good conscience,’ he had agreed and colluded with James Muirhead of Lawhope ‘for bestowing her in marriage upon Arthur Muirhead, his bastard son, who has no means, moyen, nor provision whatsoever;’ and she had been carried to the house of this James Muirhead, and thence by Arthur ‘transported agaitward toward the realm of England, there to have causit some priest marry her upon him.’ To all appearance, this project would have been accomplished, but for the interference of certain justices by the way. The complainer had, however, been carried back to John Muirhead’s house, and was now ‘deteinit as a prisoner by him, secludit and debarrit fra access, conference, and advice with ony person who professes her guid will.’ She demanded to be restored to liberty, and to have the free choice of her own curators; ‘for gif she be deteinit under the power of thir persons, who, without ony affection to herself, do only respect her estate and geir, she will be miserably undone and wracked.’
[Sidenote: 1615.]
John Muirhead appeared in answer to a summons, and succeeded in freeing himself from blame regarding Helen Graham’s abduction; while Arthur Muirhead was denounced rebel for non-appearance. John, who is described as ‘ane gentleman of ane honest and upright disposition,’ professed to be animated by the best wishes towards Helen, being ‘mindit, with the advice of the Earl of Montrose, her chief, and others her friends, to provide and foresee the best occasion for her weal.’ The lords appointed that Helen should remain with him till she should choose curators; and they at the same time indicated a few gentlemen, including John Muirhead, whom they thought suitable for the trust.
A few years earlier (June 1612), Mistress Isobel Montgomery, daughter of the deceased Robert Master of Eglintoun, was represented as being kept in durance by Hugh Lord Loudon and Mistress Margaret Montgomery, sister of Isobel, while they endeavoured to compel her to make ‘such disposition to the lands, guids, and geir appertaining to her, as to them sall seem expedient.’ The accused parties, being summoned to appear and bring Isobel before the lords, answered that the complainer was too sickly to travel; to test which allegation, a medical man was despatched to her residence, charged with the duty of reporting on her condition before a certain day.--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC. 15.]
The Privy Council recommended to the charity of the public the case of Andrew Robertson, John Cowie, John Dauling, James Pratt, and some others, formerly mariners of Leith, who, being lately on the coast of Barbary, had fought a bloody skirmish with the merciless Turks, by whom they were led into captivity, and presented for sale in Algiers. James Fraser, a resident in Algiers, had been moved with pity to redeem these poor men by an advance of £140, which they undertook to repay at a certain time. They, however, being in such poverty as to be unable to reimburse Fraser, were now throwing themselves upon the compassion of the public. On the recommendation of the Privy Council, there were collections made for them in churches.
[Sidenote: 1615.]
Captivity among the Moors of Northern Africa was no uncommon fate with Scottish mariners of that age. In 1625, there was a church collection ‘for the relief of some folks of Queensferry and Kinghorn, deteinit under slavery by the Turks at Sallee.’ In 1618, John Harrison sent to King James an account of his unsuccessful attempts to obtain the liberation of certain British subjects detained under Muley Sidan, Emperor of Morocco. Muley seems to have been inaccessible to all pleadings but those which came in the form of money.[360] A collection was made, August 1621, in all the parish churches in Scotland, and amounted to a large sum, ‘for the relief of the Scots prisoners in Tunis and Algiers.’--Bal.
[Sidenote: 1616.
JAN. 27.]
‘About five afternoon, there was a great fiery star, in the form of a dragon with a tail, running through the firmament, and in the running giving great light and spouting fire, which continued a pretty space before it vanished. Others describe it thus: that the night being fair and frosty, there arose a great fiery light in the south-west, after the setting of the sun, and ran to the north-east, having at the end thereof, as it were, the shape of the moon; and when it vanished out of sight, there were two great cracks heard, as if they had been thunder-claps. There followed a great calmness and frost for eight or ten days; but the month following was bitter and stormy weather.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FEB. 20.]
This day three men were tried for an extraordinary and most atrocious crime.
[Sidenote: 1616.]
Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig (ancestor of the Dukes of Queensberry) had become possessed of the lands of Howpaslot in Roxburghshire, much to the chagrin of the widow of a former proprietor. On a certain day in April 1615, Lady Howpaslot, as she was called, along with her friend, Jean Scott of Satchells, had a meeting at the Cross of Hawick with a man called George Scott, a cordiner of that town, commonly called Marion’s Geordie; when a course of conduct was resolved upon for the purpose of defeating the design of Drumlanrig to stock or plenish the lands. The interest of the cordiner in this object does not appear; neither does that of three other men, who entered into an agreement to assist him in his plan--namely, Walter and Ingram Scott, and another Scott described by his nickname of the Suckler. A few days after the Hawick meeting, George Scott, accompanied by William Scott of Satchells, ‘mussalit’ (disguised), proceeded under cloud of night to Elrig-burn-foot, where the Suckler joined them. Then all three went forward to Birnie Cleuch, where they met Walter and Ingram Scott, ‘having plaids and blue bonnets.’ Here, however, the Suckler deserted the party. The other men passed on to a cleuch or hollow on the lands of Howpaslot, where a flock of sheep were lying at rest. There they fell upon the poor animals with swords, ‘bendit staffs,’ and other weapons, killing about forty outright, and leaving twenty more wounded and mutilated on the ground.
On the day noted in the margin, George, Walter, and Ingram Scott, and John Scott the Suckler, were tried for this horrible crime, when the last being accepted as a witness for the crown, the other three were condemned to death. The Suckler suffered for sheep-stealing next year.--Pit.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 4.]
[Sidenote: 1616.
JUNE 11.]
The numberless feuds standing between gentlemen-neighbours throughout the country, were usually dealt with in one simple way. The parties were summoned to appear personally before the Council, and give assurances for keeping the peace towards each other for a certain time. When the time had nearly expired, the parties were again charged to appear and give renewal of the assurances. Thus things went on from one period to another, while any hatred remained between the parties. At the date noted, Harie Wood of Bonnytoun and Francis Ogilvy of Newgrange were summoned to appear and renew the former standing assurances; and meanwhile the Council ordered them ‘to observe our sovereign lord’s peace, and to keep good rule and quietness in the country, and that they nor nane of them invade or pursue ane another, for whatsomever deed, cause, or occasion, otherwise nor by order of law, and inflict ather of them, under the pain of three thousand merks.’ It is evident, from the Record of the Privy Council, that sanguinary quarrels amongst the upper classes, though not lessened in number, were not in general carried to such ferocious extremes as formerly. In April of this year, we find an aged statesman congratulating the king on the great improvement which he noted in the social state of Scotland. The person alluded to is Sir Robert Melville, the friend and servant of Mary, and who had been a grown man at the time of Pinkie field. Now advanced to near the ninetieth year of his age, this venerable person had lately been created a peer under the title of Lord Melville. He thus writes to the king: ‘All the said years [namely, in his younger days], we was destitute of the true religion, our country being full of barbarity, deadly feids, and oppressions. Since the time your majesty took the management of the affairs of your princely dominions in your awn hand, all your hieness’s countries has been peaceable and quiet; and specially this country, where the true religion flourishes, and justice [is] sae weel ministrat by your election of faithful officiars, as I may be bauld to affirm that no country is in ane mair happy estate, and has better occasion to be thankful to God and faithful to your majesty.’[361]
Stephen Atkinson, an Englishman, heretofore noticed as concerned in various mining adventures, was this day licensed by the Privy Council to search for gold, and ‘the Saxeer, the Calumeer, and the Salyneer stanes,’ in Crawford Muir, on the condition of his bringing all the gold to be coined at the Scottish mint, and giving a tenth of the product to the king.
It is not likely that much, if anything at all, was done by Atkinson in consequence, as in 1621 another similar licence to one Dr Hendlie speaks of the Crawford gold-field as having been lying for some years neglected.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 13.]
A book called God and the King, ‘shewing that his sacred majesty being immediately under God within his dominions, doth rightly and lawfully claim whatsoever is required by the aith of allegiance,’ was now proclaimed as a book of instruction for youth in schools and universities, ‘whereby, in their tender years, the truth of that doctrine may be bred and settled in them, and they thereby may be the better armed and prepared to withstand any persuasion that in their riper years may be offered and usit towards them for corrupting of them in their duty and allegiance.’--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 30.]
[Sidenote: 1616.]
This day, being Sunday, Sir Robert Crichton of Cluny went to attend morning-service at St Cuthbert’s Kirk, near Edinburgh, and had sat there a considerable time quietly, when he observed a boy belonging to the Earl of Tullibardine come to the door and look in. As the earl had before this time ‘sought both his land and life,’ he judged the boy to be a spy, and apprehended that some evil was designed to him. He therefore rose to go out, hoping peaceably to convey himself beyond the earl’s reach; but no sooner had he done so, than three men of the king’s guard--all, be it remarked, bearing the name of Murray, being that of the earl--rose from a seat behind, and shewed a warrant for taking him. By their own confession, they had come to church for the purpose of lying in wait to take Sir Robert, though intending not to meddle with him till the end of the service. They now told him that they were willing to wait for him till the dismissal of the people, keeping him meanwhile in a chamber adjoining to the church, whereas if he went forth by himself he might get skaith, as there were several of the earl’s ‘folk’ in the kirk-yard. Sir Robert, however, disdained to submit to this ignominious treatment; so he and his son, drawing their swords, prepared to offer resistance. Of course, a tumult took place in the church, ‘to the scandal of religion, and the great grief of the haill parochiners and others convenit at the sermon.’
The three guardsmen were ordered, for this offensive affair, to appear in the place of repentance in the church, and crave forgiveness of God and the people, while Sir Robert was committed to ward in the Tolbooth.--P. C. R.
A few years later (December 18, 1623), we find the Council issuing a strict order against the using of captions in churches.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
Mr Peter Blackburn, bishop of Aberdeen, departed this life, after he had lain a long time little better than benumbed. He was little of a zealot on the Episcopal side, and studying to please the Presbyterians, made himself ungracious to both parties. Calderwood alleges, ‘He was more mindful of a purse and 500 merks in it, which he kept in his bosom, than anything else.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY 11.]
Commissioners from a number of the burghs met to deliberate on a proposal of the king for working up, within the country, the whole wool produced in it, ‘in stuffs, plaids, and kerseys.’ They expressed themselves as content that the exportation of wool should be prohibited, in order that a trial should be made; but they could undertake no burden in the matter ‘anent the home-bringing of strangers,’ or for assurance that his majesty’s ends would be attained. A prohibition for the exporting of wool was soon after issued.--P. C. R.
[Sidenote: 1616.
JULY 19.]
A few months after the above date, we find a curious reference to wool in the Privy Council Record. The document states, that ‘in some remote and uncivil places of this kingdom’ an old and barbarous custom was still kept up of plucking the wool from sheep instead of clipping it. The king, hearing of the practice, wrote a letter to his Council, denouncing it as one not to be suffered; telling them it had already been reformed in Ireland, under penalty of a groat on every sheep so used, and was ‘far less to be endured in you.’ The Council immediately (March 17, 1617) passed an act in the same tenor, and further stating that many sheep died in consequence of this cruel treatment--concluding with a threat of severe fines on such as should hereafter continue the practice.--P. C. R.
It is remarkable that in the Faröe Islands there is, to this day, no other way of taking the wool from sheep than that which was then only kept up in remote parts of Scotland.
John Faa, James Faa, his son, Moses Baillie, and Helen Brown, were tried as Egyptians lingering in the country, contrary to a statute which had banished their tribe forth of the realm on pain of death. In respect no caution could be found by them to assure their leaving the country, they were sentenced to be hanged on the Burgh-moor. It is not known that this sentence was carried into execution; but neither is there anything known to make such severity unlikely.
In 1624, six Faas, and two other men of the gipsy tribe, were tried for the same offence of not voluntarily transporting themselves, and these men were executed. A number of their women and children were mercifully allowed to go free, on condition that they should immediately depart from the kingdom.--Pit.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: SEP. 16.]
‘... there arose such a swelling in the sea at Leith, that the like was not seen before for a hundred years. The water came in with violence beside the bulwark, in a place called the Timber Holf [Howf], where the timber lay, and carried some of the timber and many lasts of herrings lying there, to the sea; brake in sundry low houses and cellars, and filled them with water. The like flowing was in Dunbar, Musselburgh, and other parts of the sea-coast. The people took this extraordinary tide to be a forewarning of some evil to come.’--Cal.
* * * * *
The Chronicle of Perth notes for this year ‘great poverty of towns and great dearth;’ probably a consequence of the stormy spring and adust summer of the preceding year.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT.]
Preparations began to be made for the reception and entertainment of the king, who was expected to visit the country next year. Considerable repairs and improvements were made upon the palaces of Holyrood and Falkland. A proclamation was made that ‘beasts be fed in every place, that there might be abundance of flesh when the king came to the country.’ The Privy Council issued orders for the inhabitants to prepare clean lodgings for the king’s friends and attendants, and took order to have the streets purified.
[Sidenote: 1616.]
The chancellor’s circular to the burghs ordering them to arrange with their butchers for the furnishing of ‘fed beef’ against his majesty’s ‘here-coming,’ met an amusing response in the case of one little town--Wester Anstruther--which would appear to have been most unworthily endowed with burgal privileges. ‘Our toun,’ says this response, ‘is ane very mean toun, yea of all the burghts of this realm the meanest; nather is there ane flesher in our toun, nor any other person that is accustomit with feeding of beef, we being all seafaring men and fishers.’ Nevertheless, the two bailies inform his lordship that they had ‘dealt with some honest men of our neighbours to feed beef, and has enjoinit them to have in readiness the number of four fed nolt against the time of his majesty’s here-coming; whilk may be lookit for in our toun.’ Easter Anstruther, which has always been a better sort of town, was equally unacquainted with ‘that trade of the feeding of beef;’ but the bailie, nevertheless, had ‘taken such order that there sall be in readiness to that diet twelve oxen of the best we can get for money.’ The response of Dysart was a frank promise to have in readiness ‘ten or twelve sufficient and weel-fed beefs upon competent and reasonable prices, and sall feed and keep them sae lang as we may possibly get sufficient food for them, according to the season, not doubting of your lordship’s satisfaction in case of our losses.’--An. Scot.
One of the most notable preparations was the fitting up of a chapel-royal at Holyrood--not in the Abbey-Church, which then served as the parish kirk of the Canongate, but in a private room in the palace. An organ of the value of £400 was sent down from London to aid in the service. There were also timber statues of the twelve apostles and four evangelists, well carved and gilt, for the decoration of the chapel; but ‘the people murmured, fearing great alterations in religion, whereupon the bishops dissuaded the king from setting them up in the chapel.’--Cal.
[Sidenote: 1616.]
We have a curious trait of the feeling of the people about the refitting of the chapel at Holyrood in certain entries found at this time in the Privy Council Record. In July, an agreement had been made with Nicolas Stone, of London, for repairing the chapel; and next month the Council became engaged in an altercation with James Paton, George Coline, and others, slaters in St Andrews, who, doubtless under religious scruples, refused to undertake any conditions of service at the said work, though promised good and thankful payment for their labours. Application had consequently been made to the provost of St Andrews, requesting that he would command these his citizens to do the work proposed to them; but he made answer in a style worthy of the name he bore--John Knox--‘disdainfully alleging that it was not the custom of the country to press ony man to work;’ ‘wherethrough his majesty’s warks are hinderit, and by their [evil example] others may take occasion to leave his majesty’s service.’ The Privy Council ordered letters to be sent to the parties, charging them to appear and answer for their conduct; and when the day came, and they failed to make their appearance, they were put to the horn as rebels.--P. C. R.
* * * * *
An act of Privy Council against beggars, March 5, 1616, describes Edinburgh as infested with them--‘strang and idle vagabonds’--‘having their resets in some parts of the Cowgate, the Canongate, Potterrow, West Port, Pleasance, [and] Leith Wynd, where they ordinarily convene every night, and pass their time in all kind of riot and filthy lechery, to the offence and displeasure of God.’ By day, they are said to present themselves in great companies on the principal streets. Numbers of them ‘lie all day on the causey of the Canongate, and with shameful exclamations and crying, not only extorts almous, but by their other misbehaviour fashes and wearies as weel his majesty’s nobility and councillors, as others his majesty’s subjects repairing to this burgh; sae that hardly ony man of whatsomever quality can walk upon the streets, nor yet stand and confer upon the streets, nor under stairs, but they are impeshit by numbers of beggars.’ The Council therefore ordered the magistrates of Edinburgh and Canongate to get these wretched people expelled from their respective bounds, and suffer them no longer to seek alms on the streets. In like manner, they commanded that ‘the Laird of Innerleith and his bailies cause their streets and vennels to be kept free of beggars;‘[362] as also, that ‘Mr Patrick Bannatyne and Mr Umphra Bleenseillis remove the haill beggars out of their houses at the foot of Leith Wynd, and suffer nane to have residence, beild, or reset there.’ All this under threat of pecunial fines.
[Sidenote: DEC.]
In anticipation of the king’s visit, it now became necessary to repeat the above orders, because ‘it is like enough that when his majesty comes to this country next summer, they will follow his court, to the great discredit and disgrace of the country.’
[Sidenote: 1616.
DEC. 10.]
Nothing less, perhaps, than the strong language used by the Privy Council could make us fully aware of what we are spared of unpleasant sights and rencontres by a good poor-law. In those days, the wretched and the insane went freely about the highways and thoroughfares, a constant source of annoyance, disgust, and even terror. Only we of our day who saw Ireland before 1840 can form any idea of what the country was in this respect in the seventeenth century.
The Privy Council this day ordained that there should be a school in every parish in the kingdom, for the advancement of the true religion, and the training of children ‘in civility, godliness, knowledge, and learning.’ The school was in each case to be established, and a fit person appointed to teach the same, upon the expenses of the parishioners, at the sight and advice of the bishop of the diocese. Another act on the same day ordained regular catechising of children, and their being brought before the bishop for confirmation, under considerable penalties.
The above order for the plantation of schools was not vigorously carried out, and in 1626, King Charles I. is found making an effort to remedy the defect.[363]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1617.
FEB.]
‘The new market-cross of Edinburgh was founded by the community of the said town, and within three months after was completed.’ ‘Also at this time there was great preparations making for the coming of King James into Scotland, baith in all his majesty’s palaces, castles, and abbeys, and especially in his castle of Edinburgh, whereof the new fore wark, with the great hall thereof, and many other rooms therein, was biggit to his majesty’s great expenses by Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank, knight, his majesty’s treasurer-depute.’--Jo. Hist.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 13.]
[Sidenote: 1617.]
‘The king entered into Scotland, accompanied with the Duke of Lennox, the Earls of Arundel, Southampton, Pembroke, Montgomery, and Buckingham, Bishops of Ely, Lincoln, and Winchester, and sundry barons, deans, and gentlemen. He stayed in Dunglass two nights, and a night in Seaton. On Friday, the 16th, he came to Leith, and about four afternoon, out of Leith to the West Port of Edinburgh, where he made his entry on horseback, that he might the better be seen by the people; whereas before he rode in the coach all the way. The provost, bailies, and council, and a number of citizens arrayed in gowns [of plain velvet], and others standing with speat staves,[364] received him at the port.’ The provost, William Nisbet, and the town-clerk, John Hay,[365] having severally harangued him, five hundred double angels in a silver double-gilt basin, were presented to him--‘wha, with ane mild and gracious countenance, receivit them with their propyne.’ ‘The cannons of the Castle were shot. He was convoyed first to the great kirk, where the Bishop of St Andrews had a flattering sermon upon the 21st Psalm, and thanked God for his prosperous journey. He knighted the provost.... When he came to the palace of Holyroodhouse, the professors and students of the College of Edinburgh presented to him some poems made to his praise, and in sign of welcome.’--Cal.
[Sidenote: MAY 17.]
‘... the English service was begun in the Chapel-royal, with the singing of choristers, surplices, and playing on organs.’--Cal. Amid the general feeling of satisfaction at seeing their native prince amongst them once more, this exemplification of ceremonial worship was allowed by the people to pass without tumult, yet not without serious discontents and apprehensions. The bishops were so fearful of the popular spirit, that they endeavoured to dissuade the king, but without success. The common people in Edinburgh, as we are told by a native historian, considered the service in the chapel as ‘staining and polluting the house of religion by the dregs of popery. The more prudent, indeed, judged it but reasonable that the king should enjoy his own form of worship in his own chapel; but then followed a rumour, that the religious vestments and altars were to be forcibly introduced into all the churches, and the purity of religion, so long established in Scotland, for ever defiled. And it required the utmost efforts of the magistrates to restrain the inflamed passions of the common people.’[366]
[Sidenote: 1616.]
[Sidenote: JUNE 8.]
Having to meet his parliament a few weeks after, the king went to Falkland to hunt. But the park of his Fife palace did not content him. Carnegie, Lord Kinnaird, son of a favourite minister of old, and himself a friend of the king, dwelt in state in a noble castle overlooking the embouchure of the South Esk in Forfarshire, with an extensive muir full of game close by--Muirthrewmont or Muirromon (as the country people call it). James gladly rode thither,[367] for the sake of the abundant sport. The house of Kinnaird was furnished on the occasion for various pleasures, and deficient in no sort of enjoyment.[368] Two poets of temporary and local fame came with courtly Latin strains suitable to the occasion.[369] His majesty tarried ten days in the district, and then came to Dundee, which welcomed him with poem and with speech. Returning to Edinburgh, he set himself to drive his ends with the clergy, who were now less able or disposed to resist his innovations than they had been twenty years before. At his command, several of the Scottish councillors and bishops received the communion in the English manner in the Chapel-royal, and William Summers, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, officiated there, ‘observing the English form in his prayer and behaviour.’ ‘On the 15th June, some noblemen and bishops who had not communicat before, communicat kneeling, yet not half of the noblemen that were required. The ministers of Edinburgh, in the meantime, were silent; neither dissuaded the king privately, nor opened their mouth in public against this innovation, or bad example.’--Cal.
On the 19th of June, the king formally visited the Castle of Edinburgh, in order to celebrate his fifty-first birthday on the natal spot. Andrew Kerr, a boy of nine years of age, welcomed him at the gate in ‘ane Hebrew speech.’ At the banquet in the great hall, the English and Scottish nobility and the magistracy of Edinburgh met in the utmost amity and satisfaction. By the desire of the king, who wished to advance his native country in the eyes of the English, the wives and children of the Scottish nobility appeared in their finest dresses, shining with jewels, and were treated with great distinction. The feast was not over till nine at night; and after its conclusion, the Castle rang with a chorus of the ladies’ voices and a band of instruments. On the return of the royal party to the Palace, a great multitude assembled there to see ‘pastimes with firework.’[370]
On the 26th, ‘there was a timber house erected on the back of the Great Kirk of Edinburgh [south side], which was decored with tapestry, where the town prepared a banquet for the king and the nobility. The day following, sundry knights and gentlemen of good note were banqueted in the same house, and made burgesses. They danced about the Cross with sound of trumpets and other instruments; throwed glasses of wine from the Cross upon the people standing about, and ended with the king’s scoll [health.]‘--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 20.]
[Sidenote: 1617.]
This day is dated from Leith a satire upon Scotland, heretofore usually attributed to Sir Anthony Weldon, but upon doubtful evidence. It was entitled, A Perfect Description of the People and Country of Scotland, and was printed with the signature JOHNE E.
It seems the splenetic effusion of some Cockney who had been tempted to follow the king’s train into Scotland, and had found himself a smaller man there than he expected.
In the air, the soil, and the natural productions of Scotland, this railer can find nothing goodly or agreeable. The thistle, he says, is the fairest flower in their garden. Hay is a word unknown. ‘Corn is reasonable plenty at this time; for, since they heard of the king’s coming, it hath been as unlawful for the common people to eat wheat, as it was of old for any but the priests to eat the show-bread.... They would persuade the footmen that oaten cakes would make them well-winded; and the children of the chapel they have brought to eat of them for the maintenance of their voices.... They persuade the trumpeters that fasting is guid for men of their quality; for emptiness, they say, causeth wind, and wind causeth a trumpet sound sweetly.[371]...
[Sidenote: 1617.]
‘They christen without the cross, marry without a ring, receive the sacrament without reverence, die without repentance, and bury without divine service. They keep no holidays, nor acknowledge any saint but St Andrew, who, they say, got that honour by presenting Christ with ane oaten cake after his forty days’ fast.... They hold their noses if you speak of bear-bating, and stop their ears if you speak of play.... I am verily persuaded if [the] angels at the last day should come down in their white garments, they would run away, and cry: “The children of the chapel are come again to torment us!”... For the graven images in the new beautified chapel, they threaten to pull them down after his departure, and make of them a burnt-offering to appease the indignation they imagine is conceived against them in the breast of the Almighty for suffering such idolatry to enter their kingdom. The organs, I think, will find mercy, because they say there is some affinity between them and their bagpipes.[372] The shipper that brought the singing-men with their papistical vestments, complains that he hath been much troubled with a strange singing in his head ever since they came aboard his ship; for remedy whereof the pastor of the parish hath persuaded him to sell the profaned vessel, and distribute the money among the faithful brethren.’
Our scribbler speaks of the women as huge-boned monsters, whereof the upper class are ‘kept like lions in iron grates. The merchants’ wives are likewise prisoners, but not in such strongholds. They have wooden cages [meaning the timber galleries in front of the houses], through which, peeping to catch the air, we are almost choked with the sight of them.... To draw you down from the citizen’s wife to the country gentlewomen, and so convey you to the common dames, were to bring you from Newgate to Bridewell.’
In an answer to this satire, a strong defence is entered on the subject of victuals and other materials of conviviality. ‘Except meat should have rained down from heaven, it could not be imagined more cheap, more plentiful. Ane of those twelve pies that were sold for a penny, might have stopped your mouth for his quarrel.... What else would you have had? You know there were some subjects that kept open butteries and cellars from morning till night.... The man is angry that all the taps were not pulled out, that every guid fellow might swim in sack and claret.’[373]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 30.]
[Sidenote: JULY 10.]
The king commenced a second excursion in his native dominions, by Stirling, Perth, St Andrews--thence back to Stirling, where he received a deputation of Edinburgh professors, who disputed before him in the Chapel-royal of the Castle, in the presence of the English and Scottish nobility and many learned men. Here the British Solomon was quite in his element. The first question discussed ‘by the learned doctors was, “Ought sheriffs and other inferior magistrates to be hereditary?”--a question at this time agitated in the national senate, where it was the earnest wish of King James that it should be decided in the negative. As might have been expected, the oppugners of the question soon got the advantage; for the weighty arguments of royalty were thrown into that scale.
‘The king was highly delighted with their success; and turning to the Marquis of Hamilton (hereditary sheriff of Clydesdale), who stood behind his chair, said: “James, you see your cause is lost, and all that can be said for it is clearly answered and refuted.”
[Sidenote: 1617.]
‘The second thesis was On the Nature of Local Motion. The opposition to this was very great, and the respondent produced numerous arguments from Aristotle in support of his thesis, which occasioned the king to say: “These men know the mind of Aristotle as well as he did himself when alive.”
‘The third thesis was Concerning the Origin of Fountains or Springs. The king was so well pleased with this controversy, that, although the three-quarters of an hour allotted for the disputation were expired, he caused them to proceed, sometimes speaking for and against both respondent and opponent, seldom letting an argument on either side pass without proper remarks.
‘The disputations being over, the king withdrew to supper; after which he sent for the disputants, whose names were John Adamson, James Fairlie, Patrick Sands, Andrew Young, James Reid, and William King, before whom he learnedly discoursed on the several subjects controverted by them, and then began to comment on their several names, and said: “These gentlemen, by their names, were destined for the acts they had in hand this day;” and proceeded as followeth:
[Sidenote: 1617.]
“Adam was the father of all, and Adam’s son had the first part of this act. The defender is justly called Fairlie;[374] his thesis had some fairlies in it, and he sustained them very fairly, and with many fair lies given to the oppugners. And why should not Mr Sands be the first to enter the sands? But now I clearly see that all sands are not barren, for certainly he hath shewn a fertile wit. Mr Young is very old in Aristotle. Mr Reid need not be red with blushing for his acting this day. Mr King disputed very kingly, and of a kingly purpose, concerning the royal supremacy of reason above anger and all passions. I am so well satisfied,” added his majesty, “with this day’s exercise, that I will be godfather to the College of Edinburgh, and have it called the College of King James, for, after its founding, it stopped sundry years in my minority. After I came to knowledge, I held to it, and caused it to be established; and although I see many look upon it with an evil eye, yet I will have them know that, having given it my name, I have espoused its quarrel, and at a proper time will give it a royal god-bairn gift to enlarge its revenues.” The king being told that there was one in company his majesty had taken no notice of--namely, Henry Charteris, principal of the College, who, though a man of great learning, yet, by his innate bashfulness, was rendered unfit to speak in such an august assembly--his majesty answered: “His name agrees well with his nature; for charters contain much matter, yet say nothing; and, though they say nothing, yet they put great things into men’s mouths.”
‘The king having signified that he would be pleased to see his remarks on the professors’ names versified, it was accordingly done as follows:
‘As Adam was the first man, whence all beginning tak, So Adamson was president, and first man in this act. The thesis Fairlie did defend, which, though they lies contein, Yet were fair lies, and he the same right fairlie did maintein. The field first entered Mr Sands, and there he made me see That not all sands are barren sands, but that some fertile be. Then Mr Young most subtilie the thesis did impugn, And kythed[375] old in Aristotle, although his name be Young. To him succeeded Mr Reid, who, though Reid be his name, Needs neither for his dispute blush, nor of his speech think shame. Last entered Mr King the lists, and dispute like a king, How reason, reigning like a king, should anger under bring. To their deserved praise have I thus played upon their names, And will their college hence be called _The College of King James_.’[376]
[Sidenote: 1617.]
In the course of his excursion, the king had a hunt in the neighbourhood of Dunfermline. At this time, the coal-works at Culross, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, were conducted with great activity under their enterprising proprietor, Sir George Bruce. James invited his company to dine with him at a collier’s house, referring to an elegant mansion which Sir George had built for his accommodation in the town of Culross. They proceeded in the first place to examine the coal-works, which were then wrought a considerable way under the sea, issuing at some distance from shore in a little island or moat, where the product of the mines was put directly on board vessels to be transported to various places. The king and his courtiers, unaware of this peculiar arrangement, were conducted along the mine till they reached the sea-shaft, and here being drawn up, found themselves suddenly surrounded by the waves. James, always apprehensive of attempts on his life, was excited to great alarm by this unexpected situation, and called out ‘Treason!’ His courteous host reassured him by pointing to an elegant pinnace moored by the moat to carry him ashore, in the event of his not wishing to return by the mine. Doubtless the affair added a little zest to the banquet which the party immediately after partook of in the hospitable mansion of Bruce.[377]
The king pursued his progress by Glasgow, Paisley, Hamilton, and Dumfries, passing across the Border to Carlisle on the 5th of August, amidst the general regrets of his subjects. It was remarkable how much peace and good feeling prevailed amongst the people during the royal visit. The Chancellor Dunfermline, in afterwards summing up the whole affair to the king, said: ‘In all the time of your majesty’s remaining in this kingdom, in sae great companies, and sae many noblemen and great personages of twa nations convened, never ane action, word, or appearance of any discord, variance, or offence betwix any of the nations with other, for whatsomever cause. I doubt gif ever the like has been seen, at sic occasion of so frequent a meeting of men, strangers, and unknown to each other.’--M. S. P.
It may be worth mentioning, that by warrant signed at Hitchinbroke, October 23, 1618, the king gave to Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank ‘a gilt basin which was given to us by our burgh of Edinburgh, with their propine of money, at our first entry of the said burgh, at our last being in our said kingdom; together with two gilt cups, one of them in form of a salmon, presented to us by our burgh of Glasgow; and another gilt cup which was given us by the town of Carlisle; together with some remanent of musk and ambergrise, which was unspent at our being there; and, lastly, ane large iron chest, which did sometime belong to the late Earl of Gowrie.’--An. Scot.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1618.
FEB.]
The king’s attention was drawn to two abuses in the police of the city of Edinburgh. Notwithstanding the warning given by a fire in 1584, it was still customary for baxters and browsters to keep stocks of heather and whins in the very heart of the city, to the great hazard of adjacent buildings; and individuals disposed to build houses within the city were in some instances prevented by a fear of the risk to which they would be thus exposed. The other evil complained of was less dangerous, but more offensive. Candlemakers and butchers were allowed to pursue their callings within the town, to the great disgust of ‘civil and honest neighbours, and of the nobility and country people that comes there for their private adoes.’ Indeed, ‘it hath oftentimes fallen out, that in mony streets and vennels of the said burgh, the filth of slaughtered guids is in such abundance exposed to the view of the people, and the closes and streets sae filled therewith, as there can no passage be had through the same.’ A proclamation was launched against these abuses.--P. C. R.
On the 4th of March 1619, the Privy Council sent an order to the magistrates of Edinburgh, demanding that they should take order for keeping the streets of the town clean, and describing the existing state of things in these terms: It ‘is now become so filthy and unclean, and the streets, vennels, wynds, and closes thereof so overlaid and coverit with middings, and with the filth of man and beast, as [that] the noble, councillors, servitors, and others his majesty’s subjects wha are lodgit within the said burgh, can not have ane clean and free passage and entry to their lodgings; wherethrough their lodgings have become so loathsome unto them, as they are resolved rather to make choice of lodgings in the Canongate and Leith, or some other parts about the town, nor [than] to abide the sight of this shameful uncleanliness and filthiness; whilk is so universal and in such abundance through all parts of this burgh, as in the heat of summer it corrupts the air, and gives great occasion of sickness; and, furder, this shameful and beastly filthiness is most detestable and odious in the sight of strangers, who, beholding the same, are constrained with reason to give out mony disgraceful speeches agains’ this burgh, calling it a puddle of filth and uncleanness, the like whereof is not to be seen in no part of the world.’ The plan of police proposed by the Council is for each inhabitant to ‘keep the streets fornent their awn bounds clean, as is done in other civil, handsome, and weel-governed cities.’ No idea of a cleaning department of police.
Considering how closely Edinburgh was built, and that its numberless narrow alleys were kept in the state which is described, it is not at all surprising that the pest so frequently broke out within its bounds. We learn from the above edict that the natural connection of decaying organic matter with pestilential disease, was not then unknown; the fact was admitted, but neglected. At this time, the attention of the public in Scotland was concentrated on questions regarding religious observances--many of them of little substantial consequence--while these real life-and-death matters were wholly overlooked.
[Sidenote: 1618.]
It is rather remarkable, that so early as 1527, there appears to have been a general arrangement for cleaning the city of Edinburgh at stated times, and with a profit to the corporation. In that year, there is an entry as follows in the Council Record of the city: ‘The gait-dichting, and duties thereof, is set this year to come, with the aventure of deid and weir, to Alexander Pennicuik, for the soum of £20, to be dicht and clengit sufficiently ilk 8 days anes, with a dozen of servants.’ Pennicuik is enjoined to ‘tak nae mair duties for the dichting thereof, except and allenarly of fish, flesh, salt, and victuals.’[378]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 13.]
The king having proposed that ‘the most notorious and lewd persons’ in the middle shires (Borders) might be ‘sent to Virginia, or some other remote parts,’ the councillors answered that it was not necessary, because the country was now reduced to ‘obedience and quietness;’ and it might even prove detrimental, seeing that many who were ‘in danger of the laws for auld feids,’ but had latterly been at peace, might, if they heard of such a design, ‘mak choice rather to loup out and become fugitives, nor to underly the hazard and fear of that matter.’
Notwithstanding the peace and obedience described as now existing, scarcely two years had elapsed when we find evidences that the king’s proposal was found to be rational and of promise. In April 1620, ‘a hundred and twenty of the broken men of the Borders were apprehended by the landlords and wardens of the Middle Marches, at the command of the Privy Council, and sent to the Bohemian wars, with Colonel Andrew Gray.’[379]--Bal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 2.]
[Sidenote: 1618.]
The Privy Council issued a commission to certain gentlemen in Irvine, to try two persons of that burgh accused of witchcraft. In the recital on which the commission proceeds, it is set forth--‘that John Stewart, vagabond, and Margaret Barclay, spouse to Archibald Deane, burgess of Irvine, were lately apprehendit upon most probable and clear presumption of their practising of witchcraft agains John Deane, burgess of Irvine, and procuring thereby the destruction of the said John, and the drowning and perishing of the ship called the Gift of God, of Irvine, and of the haill persons and goods being thereintill: likeas the said John Stewart, upon examination, has clearly and pounktallie confessit the said devilish practices, and the said Margaret, foolishly presuming by her denial to eschew trial and punishment, doeth most obdurately deny the truth of that matter, notwithstanding that the said John constantly avows the same upon her,’ &c.[380]
It appears that Margaret Barclay had conceived and expressed violent hatred of her brother-in-law, John Deane, and his wife, in consequence of their raising or propagating a scandal against her. John Deane’s ship having been lost at Padstow, on the English coast, and John Stewart, a spaeman, having spoken of this fact before it was known by ordinary means, a suspicion arose that the latter had been concerned in some sorcery by which the vessel had suffered. On his being taken up, a confession was extorted from him, that he had taught magical arts to Margaret Barclay, by which she had brought about the loss of the vessel; and he narrated a ridiculous scene of enchantment as having occurred on the shore, with the devil present in the form of a lady’s lapdog, Margaret Barclay being the principal actor. Margaret was then apprehended, as also one Isobel Tosh, whom Stewart described as an assistant at the evil deed. Margaret’s servant-girl, a child of eight years of age, and Isobel Tosh, were, apparently through terror, induced to make admissions supporting Stewart’s statement. A most tragical series of incidents followed. Isobel Tosh, trying to escape from prison, fell and hurt herself so much that she died in a few days. Stewart hanged himself in prison. Margaret Barclay, tortured by the laying of weights upon her limbs, confessed what was laid to her charge; and though she denied all when relieved, yet was she condemned and executed, finally returning to an acknowledgment of guilt, which can only be attributed to hallucination. Throughout all this affair--to all appearance consisting of a series of forced accusations and confessions, till reason at length gave way in the principal party--the Earl of Eglintoun, so noted afterwards as a Covenanter, took part along with the commissioners; while the assistant parish clergyman, Mr David Dickson, and several other ministers, most of them noted in the annals of the time as men of extraordinary piety, assisted in working on the religious feelings of the accused to induce confession. It does not seem ever to have occurred to any of these well-meaning persons, lay or clerical, that a worthy duty in the case would have been to inquire into the facts, and judge by collating them, whether there was any ground whatever for the accusation.[381]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 11.]
[Sidenote: 1618.]
The Privy Council was informed of ‘an abuse lately taken up by a number of young boys and pages, servants to noblemen, barons, and gentlemen.’ It was represented that these persons, ‘whenever they fund ony boy newly enterit in service, or pagerie, as they term it, lay hands upon him, and impose upon him [the payment of] some certain pieces of gold, to be spent in drinking, riot, and excess, for receiving of him in their society and brotherheid.’ It was further alleged that, ‘if ony of thir new enterit boys refuse to condescend to them in this point, they do then shamefully misuse them, awaiting all occasions to harm and disgrace them;’ so that many open disturbances were the consequence. The Council issued a proclamation against these practices, threatening heavy punishment to all who might be guilty of the like in future.--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 20.]
‘At twa afternoon, David Toshach of Monyvaird, younger, [was] slain in the south gate of Perth by Lawrence Bruce, younger of Cultmalindy, his brother, and divers others their associates; the twa that was with Monyvaird, ane deadly hurt, but died not; the other [David Malloch], his right hand clean stricken fra him. This done in a moment of time. All the committers thereof eschewit out of the town, before any of the townsmen heard of ony such thing.’[382]
No one seems to have immediately suffered for this outrage; but, four years after, the Privy Council informed the king that Cultmalindy, besides banishing his two sons and a servant, had offered a thousand crowns by way of assythment to the friends of the slaughtered man, and £2000 to the two men who had been mutilated. ‘This feid,’ it is added, ‘has altogether undone auld Cultmalindy; for his estate is exhausted and wracked, and he is become very waik of his judgment and understanding, by the grief that thir troubles has brought upon him; whilk were the occasion of his wife’s death, and of the exile and banishment of his sons and friends, now by the space of four years; in the whilk exile twa of his friends of good rank and quality has departed this life.’--Pit.
Mr Pitcairn quotes a local proverb as having apparently taken its rise with reference to the misfortune of one of Monyvaird’s servants:
‘Hands aff’s fair-play: Davie Malloch says nay.’
[Sidenote: 1618.]
It was rather a bitter jest for David. This person, from the locality, may be presumed to have been an ancestor, or near collateral relation, of David Malloch, subsequently called Mallet, the poet.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
The king’s declaration regarding sports on the Sunday and other holidays came to Edinburgh. It commenced with a judicious allusion to the abundance of papists in Lancashire. He had there found, too, the people complaining that they were prevented from indulging in their ancient sports. One effect of this must be that they would think papistry a better religion, since it allowed of sports. Another inconvenience is, ‘that this prohibition barreth the common and meaner people from using such exercises as may make their bodies more able for war, when we or our successors shall have occasion to use them, and, in place thereof, sets up filthy tipplings and drunkenness, and breeds a number of idle and discontented speeches in their ale-houses; for when shall the common people have leave to exercise, if not upon the Sundays and holidays, seeing they must apply their labour, and win their living in other days,’ The king therefore willed that no lawful recreation be barred to the people--‘such as dancing, either men or women; archery for men, leaping, vaulting ... nor from having of May-games, Whitsun-ales, and Morris-dances, and the setting up of May-poles;’ seeing, however, that no one was allowed so to indulge who had not previously attended service in church.
[Sidenote: 1618.]
When James Somerville of Drum was at school at the village of Dalserf in Lanarkshire, about 1608, it was customary ‘to solemnise the first Sunday of May with dancing about a May-pole, firing of pieces, and all manner of revelling then in use.’ His grandson tells an anecdote apropos: ‘There being at that time few or no merchants in this petty village, to furnish necessaries for the scholars’ sports, this youth resolves to furnish himself elsewhere, that so he may appear with the bravest. In order to this, by break of day, he rises and goes to Hamilton, and there bestows all the money that for a long time before he had gotten from his friends, or had otherwise purchased, upon ribbons of divers colours, a new hat and gloves. But in nothing he bestowed his money more liberally than upon gunpowder, a great quantity whereof he buys for his own use, and to supply the wants of his comrades. Thus furnished with these commodities, but with ane empty purse, he returns to Dalserf by seven o’clock (having travelled that Sabbath morning above eight miles), puts on his ... clothes and new hat, flying with ribbons of all colours; in this equipage, with his little fusee upon his shoulder, he marches to the churchyard where the May-pole was set up, and the solemnity of that day was to be kept. There first at the foot-ball he equalled any that played; but for handling of his piece in charging and discharging, he was so ready, that he far surpassed all his fellow-scholars, and became a teacher of that art to them before the thirteenth year of his own age.... The day’s sport being over, he had the applause of all the spectators, the kindness of his condisciples, and the favour of the whole inhabitants of that little village.’--Mem. Som.
In June 1625, the presbytery of Lanark exercised discipline upon John Baillie, William Baillie, John Hirshaw, John and Thomas Prentices, and Robert Watt, a piper, ‘profaners of the Sabbath in fetching hame a May-pole, and dancing about the same, on Pasch Sunday.’--R. P. L.
It is manifest from the church-registers of that time, that the universal external observance of the Sunday as a Sabbath, for which Scotland has long been remarkable, was not yet established. In August 1628, the minister of Carstairs regretted to the presbytery of Lanark the breach of the Sabbath ‘by the insolent behaviour of men and women in foot-balling, dancing, and barley-breaks.’ About the same time, two tailors were libelled before the same court for working on Sunday. Such things could not have happened a few years later, or at any time since.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY.]
[Sidenote: 1618.]
A mysterious affair occupied the attention of the state-officers. While the servants of one Kennedy, a notary, residing in Galloway, were ‘filling muck in beir-seed time,’ they had found a withered human hand amongst some dung. No person having lately been murdered or missed in the country, it was impossible to tell whence this severed member had come or to whom it had belonged. Kennedy, who had lately come to the house, professed to know nothing of the matter. It seemed to him that the hand had been there many years. This affair might have passed over with little notice, if it had not been followed up by a series of marvellous occurrences. As his wife was sitting with some gossips at supper in her husband’s absence, some blood was observed upon the candlestick, and afterwards some more matter resembling gore was found on the threshold of the cellar door. It was also stated that, as Kennedy was walking one day with the minister, near the parish church, some drops of blood were seen upon the grass. All these things being reported to the authorities in Edinburgh, they gave orders for Kennedy’s apprehension, and he was accordingly brought thither, and kept six weeks in the Tolbooth. When examined, he could assign no cause for the above facts, but ‘complained that his cattle and horses had died in great number, and that his wife had long been vexed with extraordinary sickness; all which he ascribed to witchcraft used against them.’ It being impossible to bring anything home against the man, he was dismissed.--M. S. P.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 11.]
That eccentric genius, John Taylor, the Thames waterman, commonly called the WATER-POET, set out from his native London on the 14th of July, on a journey to Scotland--‘because,’ says he, ‘I would be an eye-witness of divers things which I had heard of that country.’ He called it a Pennyless Pilgrimage, because he intended to attempt making his way without any funds of his own, and entirely by the use of what he might get from friends by the way. Having traversed the intermediate distance on horseback in about a month, he entered Scotland by the western border, walking, while a guide rode with his baggage on a gelding. Somewhat to his surprise, he observed no remarkable change on the face of nature.
‘There I saw sky above, and earth below, And as in England, there the sun did shew; The hills with sheep replete, with corn the dale, And many a cottage yielded good Scotch ale.’
As he passed along Annandale, he counted eleven hundred neat at as good grass as ever man did mow. At Moffat, where he arrived much wearied by his walk from Carlisle, he ‘found good ordinary country entertainment; my fare and my lodging was sweet and good, and might have served a far better man than myself.’ He travelled next day twenty-one miles to a sorry village called Blyth, in Peeblesshire, where his lodging was less agreeable. Next again, passing through a fertile country for corn and cattle, he entered Edinburgh.
[Sidenote: 1618.]
A gentleman named Mr John Maxwell, whom he casually encountered, conducted him to see the Castle, which he deemed impregnable, and where he noted the extraordinary piece of antique ordnance which still exists there under the name of Mons Meg. ‘I crept into it, lying on my back, and I am sure there was room enough and to spare for a greater than myself.’ He describes the principal street of the city as the fairest and goodliest he had ever seen, ‘the buildings on each side of the way being all of squared stone, five, six, and seven stories high.’ ‘I found entertainment beyond my expectation or merit, and there had fish, flesh, bread, and fruit in such variety, that I think I may without offence call it superfluity. The worst was,’ he adds waggishly, ‘that wine and ale were so scarce, and the people there such misers of it, that every night before I went to bed, if any man had asked me a civil question, all the wit in my head could not have made him a sober answer.’
At Leith, he met a bountiful friend in Bernard Lindsay, one of the grooms of his majesty’s bed-chamber, and was informed that ‘within the compass of one year, there was shipped away from that port fourscore thousand bolls of wheat, oats, and barley, into Spain, France, and other foreign parts, and every boll contains the measure of four English bushels ... besides some hath been shipped away from St Andrews, Dundee, Aberdeen, Dysart, Kirkcaldy, Kinghorn, Burntisland, Dunbar, and other portable towns.’
[Sidenote: 1618.]
In good time, Taylor commenced a progress through the country, entertained everywhere by hospitable gentlemen, who probably considered his witty conversation ample recompense. At Dunfermline, he viewed with pleasure the palace and remains of the abbacy, and the surrounding gardens, orchards, and meadows. Then he went to visit at Culross the enterprising coal-proprietor, Sir George Bruce, who entertained him hospitably and sent three of his men to guide him over the works. The imagination of the Water-poet was greatly excited by the singular mine which Sir George had here formed, partly within the sea-mark. ‘At low-water, the sea being ebbed away, and a great part of the sand bare--upon this same sand, mixed with rocks and crags, did the master of this great work build a circular frame of stone, very thick, strong, and joined together with bituminous matter, so high withal that the sea at the highest flood, or the greatest rage of storm or tempest, can neither dissolve the stones so well compacted in the building, nor yet overflow the height of it. Within this round frame, he did set workmen to dig ... they did dig forty foot down right into and through a rock. At last they found that which they expected, which was sea-coal. They, following the vein of the mine, did dig forward still; so that in the space of eight-and-twenty or nine-and-twenty years, they have digged more than an English mile, under the sea, [so] that when men are at work below, a hundred of the greatest ships in Britain may sail over their heads. Besides, the mine is most artificially cut like an arch or vault, all that great length, with many nooks and by-ways; and it is so made that a man may walk upright in most places.’
‘All I saw was pleasure mixed with profit, Which proved it to be no tormenting Tophet; For in this honest, worthy, harmless hall, There ne’er did any damnèd devil dwell.’
‘The sea at certain places doth leak or soak into the mine, which by the industry of Sir George Bruce is conveyed to one well near the land, where he hath a device like a horse-mill, with three great horses and a great chain of iron, going downward many fathoms, with thirty-six buckets attached to the chain, of the which eighteen go down still to be filled, and eighteen ascend still to be emptied, which do empty themselves without any man’s labour into a trough that conveys the water into the sea again.... Besides, he doth make every week ninety or a hundred tons of salt, which doth serve most part of Scotland; some he sends into England, and very much into Germany.’
The pennyless pilgrim proceeded to Stirling, of whose castle and palace he speaks in terms of high admiration; stating, moreover, that at his host Mr John Archibald’s, his only difficulty was for ‘room to contain half the good cheer that he might have had.’ Advancing to St Johnston (Perth), he lodged at an inn kept by one Patrick Pitcairn. It was his design to visit Sir William Murray of Abercairny; but he here learned that that gentleman had left home on a hunting excursion. It was suggested that he might overtake him at Brechin; but on reaching that city, he found that Sir William had left it four days before.
[Sidenote: 1618.]
Taylor now made a journey such as few Englishmen had any experience of in that age. Proceeding along Glen Esk, and passing by a road which lay over a lofty precipice, he lodged the first night at a poor cot on the Laird of Edzell’s land, where nothing but Erse was spoken, and where he suffered somewhat from vermin--the only place, however, in Scotland where he met any such troubles. With immense difficulty, he next day crossed Mount Skene by an uneven stony way, full of bogs, quagmires, and long heath, ‘where a dog with three legs would outrun a horse with four,’ and came in the evening to Braemar. This he describes as a large county, full of lofty mountains, compared with which English hills are but ‘as a liver or a gizzard below a capon’s wing.’ ‘There I saw Benawne [Ben Aven], with a furred mist upon his snowy head, instead of a night-cap.’
He here found his friend, Sir William Murray, engaged in Highland sports, along with the Earl of Mar, the Earl of Enzie (afterwards second Marquis of Huntly), the Earl of Buchan, and Lord Erskine, accompanied by their countesses, and a hundred other knights and squires, with their followers, ‘all in general in one habit, as if Lycurgus had been there.’ ‘For once in the year, which is the whole month of August, and sometimes part of September, many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom, for their pleasure, come into these Highland countries to hunt, where they conform to the habit of the Highlandmen, who for the most part speak nothing but Irish.... Their habit is shoes with but one sole apiece; stockings which they call short hose, made of a warm stuff of divers colours, which they call tartan: as for breeches, many of them, nor their forefathers, never wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuff that their hose is of, their garters being bands or wreaths of hay or straw, with a plaid about their shoulders, which is a mantle of divers colours, [of] much finer and lighter stuff than their hose; with flat blue caps on their heads, a handkerchief knit with two knots about their neck; and thus they are attired.... Their weapons are long bows and forked arrows, swords and targets, harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Lochaber axes. With these arms, I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their attire, any man of what degree soever that comes amongst them, must not disdain to wear it; for if they do, they will disdain to hunt, or willingly to bring in their dogs; but if men be kind to them, and be in their habit, then they are conquered with kindness, and the sport will be plentiful. This was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen in those shapes.’
[Sidenote: 1618.]
Taylor allowed himself to be invested by the Earl of Mar in Highland attire, and then accompanied the party for twelve days into a wilderness devoid of corn and human habitations--probably the district around the skirts of Ben Muicdhui. He found temporary lodges called lonchards, designed for the use of the sportsmen, and he himself received a kind of accommodation in that of Lord Erskine. The kitchen, he tells us, was ‘always on the side of a bank, many kettles and pots boiling, and many spits turning and winding, with great variety of cheer, as venison--baked, sodden, roast, and stewed beef--mutton, goats, kid, hares, fresh salmon, pigeons, hens, capons, chickens, partridge, moorcoots, heath-cocks, cappercailzies, and termagants; good ale, sack, white and claret, tent (or Alicant), with most potent aquavitæ.’ Thus a company of about fourteen hundred persons was most amply fed.
‘The manner of the hunting is this: five or six hundred men rise early in the morning, and disperse themselves divers ways, and seven, eight, or ten miles compass, they bring or chase in the deer in many herds (two, three, or four hundred in a herd), to such or such a place, as the noblemen shall appoint them. Then, when day is come, the lords and gentlemen of their companies ride or go to the said places, sometimes wading up to the middle, through burns and rivers; and then they, being come to the place, lie down on the ground, till those foresaid scouts, who are called the Tinchel-men, bring down the deer.... After we had stayed there three hours or thereabouts, we might perceive the deer appear on the hills round about us (their heads making a show like a wood), which, being followed close by the Tinchel, are chased down into the valley where we lay. Then, all the valley on each side being waylaid with a hundred couple of strong Irish greyhounds, they are let loose, as occasion serves, upon the herd of deer, [so] that with dogs, guns, arrows, durks, and daggers, in the space of two hours, fourscore fat deer were slain, which after are disposed, some one way and some another, twenty or thirty miles, and more than enough left for us to make merry withal at our rendezvous’.
[Sidenote: 1618.]
After spending some days in this manner in the Brae of Mar, the party, attended by Taylor, went into Badenoch, and renewed the sport there for three or four days, concluding with a brief visit to Ruthven Castle. This grand old fortress--anciently the stronghold of the Cumins, lords of Badenoch--seated on an alluvial promontory jutting into the haugh beside the Spey, occupying an area of a hundred and twenty yards long, and consisting of two great towers surrounded by a fortified wall with an iron gate and portcullis,[383] was now the property of the Gordon family. Here, says Taylor, ‘my Lord of Enzie and his noble countess (being daughter to the Earl of Argyle) did give us most noble welcome for three days.’ ‘From thence we went to a place called Ballo[ch] Castle, a fair and stately house, a worthy gentleman being the owner of it, called the Laird of Grant.[384]... Our cheer was more than sufficient, and yet much less than they could afford us. There stayed there four days four earls, one lord, divers knights and gentlemen, and their servants, footmen, and horses; and every meal four long tables furnished with all varieties; our first and second course being threescore dishes at one board; and after that always a banquet; and there, if I had not forsworn wine till I came to Edinburgh, I think I had there drank my last.’
The Water-poet was afterwards four days at Tarnaway, entertained in the same hospitable manner by the Earl and Countess of Moray. He speaks of Morayland as the pleasantest and most plentiful country in Scotland, ‘being plain land, that a coach may be driven more than four-and-thirty miles one way in it, alongst the sea-coast,’ He spent a few days with the Marquis of Huntly at the Bog, ‘where our entertainment was, like himself, free, bountiful, and honourable,’ and then returned by the Cairn-a-mount to Edinburgh.
Here he was again in the midst of plentiful good cheer and good company for eight days, while recovering from certain bruises he had got at the Highland hunting. In Leith, at the house of Mr John Stuart, he found his ‘long approved and assured good friend, Mr Benjamin Jonson,’ who gave him a piece of gold of the value of twenty-two shillings, to drink his health in England. ‘So with a friendly farewell, I left him as well as I hope never to see him in a worse estate; for he is among noblemen and gentlemen that know his true worth and their own honours, where with much respective love he is worthily entertained.’
In short, Taylor, in his progress through Scotland, seems to have been everywhere feasted sumptuously, and supplied liberally with money. So much of a virtue comparatively rare in England, and so much plenty in a country which his own people were accustomed to think of as the birthplace of famine, seems to have greatly astonished him. The wonder comes to a climax at Cockburnspath, near his exit from Scotland, where he was handsomely entertained at an inn by Master William Arnot and his wife, the owners thereof. ‘I must explain,’ he says, ‘their bountiful entertainment of guests, which is this:
[Sidenote: 1618.]
‘Suppose ten, fifteen, or twenty men and horses come to lodge at their house. The men shall have flesh, tame and wild fowl, fish, with all variety of good cheer, good lodging, and welcome, and the horses shall want neither hay nor provender; and at the morning at their departure the reckoning is just nothing. This is this worthy gentleman’s use, his chief delight being to give strangers entertainment gratis! And I am sure that in Scotland, beyond Edinburgh, I have been at houses like castles for building; the master of the house’s beaver being his blue bonnet, one that will wear no other shirts but of the flax that grows on his own ground, and of his wife’s, daughters’, or servants’ spinning; that hath his stockings, hose, and jerkin of the wool of his own sheep’s backs; that never by his pride of apparel caused mercer, draper, silk-man, embroiderer, or haberdasher, to break and turn bankrupt; and yet this plain home-spun fellow keeps and maintains thirty, forty, fifty servants, or perhaps more, every day relieving three or four score poor people at his gate; and besides all this, can give noble entertainment for four days together to five or six earls and lords, besides knights, gentlemen, and their followers, if they be three or four hundred men and horse of them, where they shall not only feed but feast, and not feast but banquet; this is a man that desires to know nothing so much as his duty to God and his king, whose greatest cares are to practise the works of piety, charity, and hospitality. He never studies the consuming art of fashionless fashions; he never tries his strength to bear four or five hundred acres on his back at once; his legs are always at liberty, not being fettered with golden garters and manacled with artificial roses.... Many of these worthy housekeepers there are in Scotland....
‘There th’ Almighty doth his blessings heap, In such abundant food for beasts and men, That I ne’er saw more plenty or more cheap.’[385]
[Sidenote: 1618.]
In the summer of this year, Scotland received a visit from the famous Ben Jonson. The burly laureate walked all the way, notwithstanding a previous hint from Lord Bacon, that ‘he loved not to see Poesy go on other feet than poetical Dactylus and Spondæus.’ Among the motives for a journey then undertaken by few Englishmen, might be curiosity regarding a country from which he knew that his family was derived, his grandfather having been one of the Johnstons of Annandale. He had many friends, too, particularly among the connections of the Lennox family, whom he might be glad to see at their own houses. Indeed, his biographer, Gifford, expressly says he had received from some of these friends an invitation to spend some time amongst them in the north. In September, he was found by Taylor the water-poet, residing with one Mr John Stuart in Leith; and Taylor speaks of him generally as being then ‘among noblemen and gentlemen who knew his true worth and their own honours, where with much respective love he is entertained.’
Among those with whom he had amicable intercourse, was William Drummond, the poet, then in the prime of life, and living as a bachelor in his romantic mansion of Hawthornden, on the Esk, seven miles from Edinburgh. It is probable that Drummond and Jonson had met before in London, and indulged together in the ‘wit-combats’ at the Mermaid and similar scenes. Indeed, there is a prevalent belief in Scotland that it was mainly to see Drummond at Hawthornden that Jonson came so far from home. The story is, that the pilgrim came first to Hawthornden, and was received by Drummond with wonted ceremony, under the Covine Tree--that is, company tree--which still stands on the lawn in front of the house, when their greetings very appropriately took the form of a couplet:
[Sidenote: 1618.]
D. Welcome, welcome, royal Ben!
J. Thank ye, thank ye, Hawthornden--
the laureate having already learned to address a Scottish laird by what Scott calls ‘his territorial appellation.’ Be this as it may, we have no authentic notice of any intercourse between the two poets till the commencement of the ensuing year, when they undoubtedly spent a considerable time together, as it was then that they had those Conversations, which, being noted down by Drummond, and published many years after in his Works, have furnished so much food for modern controversy. These memoranda partly relate facts regarding Jonson himself, but chiefly report his opinions of his poetical contemporaries, which are generally of a censorious character. Added to them, however, is Drummond’s report on Jonson himself, in these terms: ‘Ben Jonson was a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and scorner of others, given rather to lose a friend than a jest; jealous of every word and action of those about him, especially after drink, which is one of the elements in which he lived; a dissembler of the parts which reign in him; a bragger of some good that he wanted; thinketh nothing well done but what either he himself or some of his friends have said or done. He is passionately kind and angry, careless either to gain or keep; vindictive, but if he be well answered, at himself; interprets best sayings and deeds often to the worst. He was for any religion, as being versed in both; oppressed with fancy, which hath overmastered his reason, a general disease in many poets,’ &c. Drummond has been severely blamed for stating so much, even privately, regarding a man whom he treated with all the external marks of friendship; but the censure seems scarcely just. It is not necessarily to be supposed that he was the less sensible of the merits of Jonson, that he also observed his being marked by that vanity, impulsiveness, and irritability which have been remarked in so many poets. Neither may he have loved him the less--possibly he only loved him the more--because of his faults. As to the act of taking such notes, some allowance may be made for a man of literary tastes, living at a distance from the centre of the world of letters, in an age when there were no periodicals to prattle about literary celebrities, or an opportunity occurring of hearing a famous poet talk of his poetical brethren, and of seeing that eminent person revealing his own character.
A letter written by Drummond to Jonson in this very month, and probably only a few days after their conversation, has been preserved:[386]
‘TO HIS WORTHY FRIEND, MR BENJAMIN JONSON.
‘SIR--Here you have that epigram you desired, with another of the like argument. If there be any other thing in this country (unto which my power can reach), command it; there is nothing I wish more than to be in the calendar of them who love you. I have heard from court that the late masque was not so much approved of the king as in former times, and that your absence was regretted--such applause hath true worth, even of those who otherwise are not for it. Thus, to the next occasion taking my leave, I remain
Your loving friend, WILLIAM DRUMMOND.
January 17, 1619.’
[Sidenote: 1618.]
From a consideration of the whole circumstances, it is most likely that Jonson had spent some time in autumn with his Lennox friends, and thus been introduced to the romantic beauties of Loch Lomond, and perhaps also to the romantic sports indulged in by the gentry of its neighbourhood. Certain it is, from Drummond’s report of his conversations, that he designed ‘to write a Fisher or Pastoral Play, and make the stage of it on the Lomond Lake.’ And after he had returned to London, Drummond sent him ‘a description of Loch Lomond, with a map of Inch Merinoch,’ which, he says, ‘may by your book be made most famous.’ It is possible, however, that this description of Loch Lomond and map of Inch Merinoch--one of the many isles in the lake--may have been intended for a prose work, which he also contemplated writing--namely, his ‘Foot Pilgrimage’ to Scotland, which, with a feeling very natural in one who found so much to admire where so little had been known, he spoke of entitling A Discovery. Unfortunately, this work, as well as a poem in which he called Edinburgh
‘The Heart of Scotland, Britain’s other eye,’
has not been preserved to us. We can readily see that the work contemplated must have been of a general character, for Jonson wrote to Drummond (London, May 10, 1619), not merely for ‘some things concerning the Loch of Lomond,’ but for copies of ‘the inscriptions at Pinkie,’ referring probably to the Roman antiquities which had been found in Queen Mary’s time at Inveresk, and also bids him ‘urge Mr James Scott,’ and send ‘what else you can procure for me with all speed.’ The king, he adds, was ‘pleased to hear of the purpose of my book.’ How much to be regretted that we have not the Scotland of that day delineated by so vigorous a pen as that of the author of Sejanus!
The last visit Jonson paid in Scotland was to Drummond at Hawthornden in the month of April, just before his return to London, which, as we see, he had reached before the 10th of May. He lived with Drummond on that occasion three weeks, enjoying, doubtless, the vernal beauties of that romantic spot, as well as the converse of his friend, and the more substantial hospitalities for which, if Drummond be right, he had only too keen a relish. Their parting--which, by Scottish use and wont, would be under the Covine Tree, when royal Ben set out on foot as before to return to London--who but wishes he could picture as it really was! Jonson’s letter of the 10th May, written soon after his arrival in London, and breathing of the feelings which his excursion had excited, may aptly conclude this notice:
[Sidenote: 1618.]
‘TO MY WORTHY, HONOURED, AND BELOVED FRIEND, MR W. DRUMMOND.
‘MOST LOVING AND BELOVED SIR--against which titles I should most knowingly offend, if I made you not some account of myself to come even with your friendship--I am arrived safely, with a most Catholic welcome, and my reports not unacceptable to his majesty. He professed, thank God, some joy to see me, and is pleased to hear of the purpose of my book; to which I most earnestly solicit you for your promise of the inscriptions at Pinkie, some things concerning the Loch of Lomond, touching the government of Edinburgh, to urge Mr James Scott, and what else you can procure for me with all speed. Though these requests be full of trouble, I hope they shall neither burthen nor weary such a friendship, whose commands to me I shall ever interpret a pleasure. News we have none here, but what is making against the queen’s funeral, whereof I have somewhat in hand, that shall look upon you with the next. Salute the beloved Fentons, the Nisbets, the Scotts, the Livingstones, and all the honest and honoured names with you, especially Mr James Wroth, your sister, &c. And if you forget yourself, you believe not in
Your most true friend and lover, BEN JONSON.[387]
LONDON, May 10, 1619.’
[Sidenote: 1618.]
At the very time when Ben Jonson and John Taylor had the pleasant experiences of the Highlands which are above described and adverted to, sundry parts of that province of Scotland were the scene of lawless violences, which these English poets could not have heard of without horror. M‘Ronald of Gargarach,[388] ‘with a band of lawless limmers his assisters and accomplices,’ went about ‘committing murders, slaughters, treasonable fire-raisings, and other insolencies, in all parts where they had any mastery or command.’ It was necessary to give his rival and antagonist, Sir Lachlan MacIntosh, a commission ‘to pursue him to the deid with fire and sword.’ At the same time, several men of the Clan Campbell, taking advantage of the absence of their chief, the Earl of Argyle, ‘has lately broken louss, and goes athort the country, in companies, sorning [upon] and oppressing his majesty’s guid subjects, in all parts where they may be masters.’ The earl, it appeared, had nominated none in his absence ‘to have the charge and burden to retein his clan and country under obedience.’ To supply this defect, the Council (July 9, 1618) summoned the chief men of the name--the Lairds of Glenurchy, Caddell, Lawers, Auchinbreck, and Glenlyon--to give information about the delinquents, and surety for the future peace of the country.
Contemporaneously with these outrages, were others of the like nature committed by ‘a number of vagabonds and broken men of the Clan Donochie (Robertsons),’ particularly in the lands of Simon Lord Fraser of Lovat.--P. C. R.
It may be remarked that the Earl of Argyle had gone abroad, either from dissatisfaction with the rewards assigned him for his putting down of the Macgregors and MacConnel of Kintyre,[389] or because of troubles on account of his debts.[390] To the surprise of his countrymen, he entered the service of Philip III. against the people of the Low Countries, and, by the persuasion of his wife, joined the Church of Rome. The poet Craig thus satirised him:
‘Now, Earl of Guile and Lord Forlorn, thou goes, Quitting thy prince to serve his Spanish foes: No faith in plaids, no trust in Highland trews, Chameleon-like, they change so many hues.’
The king felt as indignant as any, and on the 4th of February 1619, the Privy Council had this ‘shameful defection’ under its notice. It was alleged that the apostate earl not only goes openly to mass, but has associated with ‘auld M‘Ranald’ and sundry other exiled rebels. Sundry charges against him having been slighted, the Council now ‘do repute him as a traitor,’ and ordain him to be pursued as such. The earl, who, before leaving his country, had handed over his estates to his son, did not return till he was enabled to do so by the grace of Charles I. in 1638.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 20.]
[Sidenote: 1618.]
Thomas Ross, a man of good family, formerly minister of Cargill, in Perthshire, had gone to Oxford to study; but in a moment of partial lunacy--for the act can be accounted for in no other way--he wrote a libel on the Scottish nation, and affixed it to the door of St Mary’s Church. It spoke in scurrilous terms of the people of Scotland, excepting only the king and a few others, and counselled that the king should banish all Scots from his court. James took the matter in high dudgeon, and had Ross sent down to Scotland, with strict orders to bring him to condign punishment. He was accordingly tried at the date marginally noted, for an act of which the design was assumed to be to have stirred up the people of England ‘to the cruel, barbarous, and unmerciful murdering, massacring, and assassine of the haill Scots people, as well noblemen and councillors as others, attendants about his highness’s royal person in court.’ The unfortunate satirist professed penitence, and craved mercy, averring that he had been inops mentis at the time of his committing the act. Nothing could avail to save him. His right hand was first struck off, and then he was beheaded and quartered, his head being fixed on a prick at the Nether Bow Port, and his hand at the West Port.--Pit.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 29.]
Mr John Guthrie, minister of Perth, ‘on ane Sunday after the afternoon’s sermon, married the Master of Sanquhar with Sir Robert Swift’s daughter, ane English knight in Yorkshire. Neither of the parties exceeded thirteen years of age.’--Chron. Perth.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV. 18.]
‘About the midst of November, there appeared a prodigious comet in the morning, in the north-east, broad, and stretching with a large tail towards the north-west. It appeared fine and clear some few days in the beginning, and after became more dim and obscure, and vanished away at last in the north. This comet by appearance portended the wars of Germany, which began not long after, and continueth yet to this hour.’--Cal.
Dr Bembridge, ‘a very profound and learned mathematician,’ obliged the king with an account of this comet. He told him it was as far above the moon as the moon is above the earth, and not less than 2,300,000 English miles! Rushworth speaks of it as followed by, first, the Bohemian wars, then the German and Swedish, &c. ‘Dr Bembridge observed it to be vertical to London, and to pass over it in the morning; so it gave England and Scotland in their civil wars a sad wipe with its tail.’--Foun. Hist. Ob.
This notable comet was observed in Silesia, Rome, and Ispahan. From Skipton’s observations, Halley afterwards computed its orbit. It passed its perihelion on the 8th of November, at little more than a third of the earth’s distance from the sun. On the 9th of December, its tail was 70° in length, being, according to Kepler, the longest that had been seen for a hundred and fifty years.
[Sidenote: 1618.
DEC. 23.]
This comet is also remarkable as the only one, besides another in 1607, which was observable by the naked eye in the first half of the seventeenth century; whereas in other spaces of time of the same extent, as many as thirteen have been detected. The comet of 1607, which is the same with that seen in 1682, 1759, and 1835, and usually known as Halley’s comet, is not mentioned by any of our contemporary chroniclers as having been visible in Scottish skies.
Christmas was observed in Edinburgh at the command of the king, and two churches opened for service; but the attendance was scant. ‘The Great Kirk was not half filled, notwithstanding the provost, bailies, and council’s travels.... The dogs were playing in the flure of the Little Kirk, for rarity of people, and these were of the meaner sort.... Mr Patrick [Galloway] denounced judgments ... famine of the word, deafness, blindness, lameness, inability to come to the kirk to hear and see, to fall upon those who came not to his Christmas sermon.’--Cal.
A few weeks afterwards, Richard Lawson, James Cathkin, and John Mean, merchants, were obliged to appear before the Court of High Commission, accused of ‘not coming to the kirk on Christmas-day, for opening of their booth-doors, walking before them in time of sermon, dissuading others from going to the kirk, and reasoning against preaching on that day. They answered they did nothing of contempt; they reasoned to receive instruction, and to try what warrant others had. They were dismissed, with an admonition to be modest in their speeches and behaviour in time coming.’--Cal.
On Christmas-day 1621, there was service in the Old Kirk in St Giles, which the magistrates and state officials attended; but no other church was open, and Calderwood informs us that ‘one hundred and six booth-doors or thereby stood open’--a proof of the general disregard of the festival.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1618.]
Patrick Anderson, doctor of physic, and who is usually said to have been physician to Charles I., published a tract on the ‘Cold spring of Kinghorn,’ its admirable properties for the cure of sundry diseases. He took care to draw a distinction between the simply natural efficacy of this well and ‘the superstitious mud-earth wells of Menteith, or our Lady Well of Strathern, and our Lady Well of Ruthven, with a number of others in this country, all tapestried about with old rags, as certain signs and sacraments, wherewith they arle the devil.’[391] He further assured the public that the ‘clear and delicate cauld water’ of this spring, being drunk in great quantity, ‘is never for all that felt in the belly.’ Modern physiologists, it may be remarked, admit the rapid absorption of saline waters by the stomach; and the drinking of nine tumblers before breakfast is at this day not uncommon at Airthry.
Dr Patrick Anderson was the inventor of a pill of aloetic character, which long had a great celebrity in Scotland, and is still in such repute that an agency-office for its sale may be found in both Edinburgh and London. He is the more entitled to some notice here, as our work has been somewhat indebted to a History of Scotland by him, to be found in manuscript in the Advocates’ Library.
* * * * *
At this time, one Thomas Milne was a maker of virginals in Aberdeen--a calling, however, ‘but lately put in practice in the burgh.’ The trade must have been tolerably encouraged, as John Davidson, who had served an apprenticeship under Milne, now proposed to set up for himself. On his exhibiting a pair of virginals of his own making as his ‘master-stick’ before the Council, they gave him the freedom of the burgh without a fee, which he was too poor to pay.--Ab. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1619.
FEB. 15.]
Died, ‘Mr William Cowper, Bishop of Galloway, a very holy and good [man], if he had not been corrupted with superior powers and warldly cares of a bishopric and other such things. He was buried at the south door of the new kirk callit the South Kirk, in the Greyfriars’ Yard, or common burial-place of Edinburgh, whilk kirk was newly completed, and at the funeral sermon consecrated by Mr John Spottiswoode, archbishop of Sanctandrews.’--Jo. H.
[Sidenote: 1619.]
Cowper was an eloquent and able man, and had been conspicuous for his zeal against bishops, ‘appearing to all men to hate very much that lordly dignity in a kirkman, comparing them and their godless followers to snuffs of candles, whilk not only is destitute of light, but also casts out a filthy flewrish stink in man’s noses.’ To a former friend, who had accepted a bishopric, he wrote a despiteful letter, telling him he had fallen away and apostatised, and while he still loved himself, he hated his way. Afterwards, ‘perceiving the courses of the bishops daily going forward, and being a proud ambitious man, glorying in his gifts, he began first privately to be social and homely with the bishops, and then, after the Golden Assembly at Glasgow in 1610, perceiving that the bishops had gotten all their intent, he also embraced a bishopric, and (1612) was created Bishop of Galloway.’
Peeling that his conduct had been inconsistent, Cowper wrote an apology, which mainly came to this, that he had got more light than he had before. ‘One answered merrily: “It is true; for now he has upon his table two great candles, whereas before he had but one small candle--other more light I know none.”’
In the end, he announced from the pulpit, he would give full satisfaction to all who would come and confer with him. ‘Upon whilk invitation, so many came to him, both in the fields and in his own house, that he was wearied with them.’ [According to the Chronicle of Perth--‘The wives of Edinburgh came in to him, and shewed to him his awn books against friers’ books.’] One person went so far as to charge him with apostasy, and call upon him to prepare an answer shortly to the Judge of all the world. It would appear from what followed that the bishop was by this time out of health. ‘Within a day or two after, being at his pastime [golf?] in the Links of Leith, he was terrified with a vision, or an apprehension; for he said to his playfellows, after he had in an affrighted and commoved way cast away his play-instruments: “I vow to be about with these two men, who have now come upon me with drawn swords!” When his playfellows replied: “My lord, it is a dream: we saw no such thing,” he was silent, went home trembling, took bed instantly, and died.’--Row.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 23.]
It had been a custom of the congregations in Edinburgh to hold a meeting on the Tuesday before the administration of the communion. ‘If anything was amiss in the lives, doctrines, or any part of the office of their pastors, every man had liberty to shew wherein they were offended; and if anything was found amiss, the pastors promised to amend it. If they had anything likewise to object against the congregation, it was likewise heard, and amendment was promised. If there was any variance among neighbours, pains were taken to make reconciliation, that so both pastors and people might communicate in love at the banquet of love.’ On the present occasion, the affair had much the character of a modern public meeting, and the people stood boldly up to their pastors, arguing against the innovations of worship now about to be introduced, particularly kneeling at the sacrament.--Cal.
[Sidenote: 1619.]
‘At various times in the year 1621, there were private meetings of ministers and other good Christians in Edinburgh, setting apart days for fasting, praying, and humiliation, crying to God for help in such a needful time; whilk exercises, joined with handling of Scripture, resolving of questions, clearing doubts, and tossing of cases of conscience, were very comfortable.... Thir meetings the bishops and their followers, enemies still to the power of godliness and life of religion, hated to the death; and sundry ministers of Edinburgh inveighed against them, under the name of unlawful conventicles, candle-light congregations (because sometimes they continued their exercises for a great part of the night), persecuting them with odious names of Puritans, Separatists, Brownists, &c.’--Row.
One of the Edinburgh clergy ‘sent to Nicolas Balfour, daughter of umwhile Mr James Balfour, minister of Edinburgh, to advertise her that she was to be banished the town, for entertaining such meetings in her house; and reviled her despitefully, when she came to confer with him.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 28.]
This day, being Easter Sunday, the communion was administered in the Edinburgh churches for the first time after it had been arranged that the people should kneel on receiving the elements. There being a general disrelish for this new form, the people left the town in great numbers to communicate at country churches where the order was not yet appointed. Of those who attended in town, few willingly knelt besides government officials and pauper dependents on the church contributions. ‘Some were dashed and kneeled, but with shedding of tears for grief.’ In some churches throughout the country, certain persons told the ministers: ‘The dangers, if any be, light upon your soul, not on ours!’ Some departed, ‘beseeking God to judge between them and the minister.’ ‘It is not to be passed over, how that when John Lauder, minister at Cockburnspath, was reaching the bread to one kneeling, a black dog started up to snatch it out of his hand.’--Cal.
On next Easter Sunday, the like disinclination to kneeling was shewn. In the College Kirk, where sixteen hundred people communicated, only about twenty kneeled, and it was thought that none would have done so, ‘if they had not brought the poor out of the hospital, to begin, and give a good example.’ These, ‘being aged, poor, and ignorant persons, durst not refuse;’ yet even of them, some, ‘when they were kneeling, knocked on their breasts and lifted up their hands and eyes.’
While the officers of the government and many others joined cordially in the new arrangements, the bulk of the people revolted from them. Whenever they heard of a church in the country where they might be allowed to communicate sitting, they resorted to it in great numbers; ‘whereupon the auditory of the kirks of Edinburgh became rare and thin.’
[Sidenote: 1619.]
On Easter Sunday, 1622, at the communion in the Old Kirk, Edinburgh, ‘among all the two hundred and fifty [communicants] there was not a man of honest countenance but the President, Sir William Oliphant, the Advocate, Sir Henry Wardlaw, the Provost, the Dean of Guild, Dame Dick, the Master of Works’ wife, and two bailies, who communicate not: plaids, gray cloaks, and blue bonnets made the greatest show.’
At the same time, ‘many of the profaner sort were drawn out upon the sixth of May, to May-games in Gilmerton and Roslin; so profanity began to accompany superstition and idolatry, as it had done in former times. Upon the first of May, the weavers in Paul’s Work, English and Dutch, set up a high May-pole, with their garlands and bells hanging at them, whereat was great concourse of people.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: APR. 2.]
John Maxwell of Garrarie--‘ane landed gentleman, in the rank of ane baron, worth three thousand merks of yearly rent, and above’--was, with his son, George Maxwell, tried for the crime of treason. Garrarie had, in a crafty manner, possessed himself of the estate and whole worldly means of John M‘Kie of Glashock, who thus became a miserable dependent upon him, almost constantly living in his house. At length, tiring of the company, and probably also of the complaints of the unfortunate Glashock, Garrarie and his son resolved to be rid of him. On the 8th of July 1618, when Glashock was coming by night to the place of Garrarie, the two Maxwells, attended by an armed band of servants, fell upon him, tied his hands and feet, strangled him, and flung his body into a peat-moss.
The accused protested their innocence, and it was necessary twice to postpone proceedings against them, apparently for lack of evidence. Another remarkable circumstance was, that no fewer than seventeen gentlemen of the district incurred fines by failing to appear as jury-men. Notwithstanding these and other impediments, justice asserted its claims, and Garrarie and his son had their heads stricken off at the Cross of Edinburgh, with forfeiture of lands and goods.--Pit.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1619.
JULY 22.]
The period at which we have now arrived, being one of internal peace, is distinguished as the time when the practice of several of the useful arts was first introduced into Scotland. Sir George Hay, the Clerk Registrar--ancestor of the Earls of Kinnoul--a man of talent and intelligence, had set up, at the village of Wemyss, in Fife, a small glasswork, being the first known to have existed amongst us. An ironwork, of what nature we are not informed, was also originated by Sir George.
The Privy Council informed the king that Sir George Hay had enterprisingly set up works for iron and glass, which for some years he supported at high charges, in hopes of being remunerated by profits. ‘But now he has found, by experience, that all the country dispatch of his glass in ane haill year will not uphold his glassworks the space of ane month.’ It was entreated that the king would allow of Sir George’s glass being sold unrestrainedly in England, and at the same time restrict the exportation of coal into that country. By such means he admitted he had a hope of thriving.--M. S. P.
It would appear that the native manufacture, after all, prospered; for in February 1621, the Privy Council appointed a commission, including Sir George Hay, to meet and confer anent the glassworks, to examine and try the glass, and see that measures were taken for the full supply of the country, so as to save the introduction of foreign glass.
The commission soon after reported that the glassworks at Wemyss were going on satisfactorily. The cradles or cases contained fifteen wisps, each wisp having three tables, three-quarters of a Scots ell and a nail in depth. The glass was fully as good as Danskine glass, though they could wish it to be ‘thicker and tewcher.’ Being less sure of the character of the drinking-glasses produced, they recommended patterns of English glass of that kind to be established in Edinburgh Castle, for trying the sufficiency of Scots glass in all time coming. On the strength of this report, the Council granted the desired monopoly as against foreign glassmakers, on certain conditions, one of which was, that the price of ‘braid glass’ should not exceed ‘twelve punds the cradle.’--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT. 20.]
[Sidenote: 1619.]
Before this time, soap was imported into Scotland from foreign countries, chiefly from Flanders. It was estimated that the entire quantity brought in was about a hundred and twenty lasts. The king now gave a patent to Mr Nathaniel Uddart for the manufacture of soap within the country, and Mr Nathaniel accordingly raised a goodly work at Leith, furnishing it with all matters pertaining to the business. Before he had been at work two years (June 21, 1621), he petitioned the Privy Council that foreign soap should be prohibited, professing to be able himself to furnish all that was required for the use of the country people, and thus save money from being sent out of the country--a piece of false political economy much in favour, as we have seen, in those days. The Privy Council, after taking some pains to ascertain the character of ‘Mr Nathaniel his soap,’ and becoming convinced that he could furnish the quantity needful, granted the prohibition requested, but not without fixing down the native manufacturer at a maximum price. This was decreed to be £24 per barrel for ‘green soap,’ and £32 per barrel for ‘white soap,’ each barrel to contain sixteen stone.
If we are right in considering the stone at 17·39 pounds avoirdupois, and the last as containing twelve barrels, the estimated amount of regularly manufactured soap annually used in Scotland at that time might be approximately 400,880 pounds. In 1845, taking its consumption of the same article as one-seventh of that of Great Britain, Scotland consumed about twenty-seven million pounds!
Matters had not proceeded upon the footing of protection for above two years, when complaints became rife as to the inconveniences sustained by the lieges. The merchants of Edinburgh felt it as a grievance that their traffic for soap with the Low Countries was interrupted. They also complained of the quality of the article produced at Leith. The merchants of Dumfries and other distant ports groaned at being obliged to carry soap a long land-journey from Leith, when they could have it brought by ships direct to their doors. In short, it was not to be borne.
The Lords of Council took pains to inform themselves of the whole matter. They also had a letter from the king testifying his ‘dislike of this and others the like restraints, as being a mean to overthrow traffic and to destroy commerce.’ Being now satisfied that Uddart’s privilege was ‘hurtful to the commonweal,’ and that ‘the subjects has not been so commodiously furnist with the soap made by the said Mr Nathaniel as formerly they were with foreign soap,’ they decreed (July 1623) that the restraint should terminate in a year, or sooner, if he should produce an inferior or dearer article.--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1620.
MAR. 30.]
[Sidenote: 1620.]
While the struggle was going on between the Episcopalian and Presbyterian principles, there was a small group of Edinburgh citizens, including the booksellers Cathkin and Lawson, who took a lead in opposing the new practices, and standing up against the dictates of the High Commission. Deeply impressed with evangelical doctrine, and viewing all ceremonies as tending to the corruption of pure religion, they were disposed to venture a good way in the course they entered upon. Their wranglings in the kirk-session against ministers of the court fashion, and their earnest private exercises, were fully known to the king; but he bore with them till they began to lend countenance and active help to the few refractory ministers who fell under the ban of the bishops. He then, at the date noted, ordered them to be removed as ‘evil weeds’ from Edinburgh--William Rig, merchant, and James Cathkin, bookseller, to Caithness; Richard Lawson, to Aberdeen; Robert Meiklejohn, skinner, to Dunkeld; John Mean, to Wigton in Galloway; and Thomas Inglis, skinner, to Montrose. This was a great stretch of power in a country professedly under regular laws; and even the state-officers felt it to be so. After some dealings, in the course of which the clergy were eager to negative a suspicion of their having sent the names of the men to the king, the archbishop of St Andrews said he would intercede for them, and meanwhile stayed further proceedings. In the end, the offence of the Edinburgh patriots was passed over for this occasion.--Cal.
The Edinburgh pulpits were at this time filled with men wholly devoted to the Episcopalian system, and such of the people as were strenuous for the Presbyterian model, had to act not merely without clerical leaders, but in despite of clerical opposition. As a specimen of the spirit of these metropolitan clergy--‘Mr William Struthers (January 9, 1619) made a sermon in the Little East Kirk, whilk, by all the holy divines in Scotland, was judged rather to have been a discourse of hateful passion nor a sermon of a charitable divine or loving theologue. For the most part of his haill discourse consisted in calling Christ’s flock of Edinburgh a pack of cruel people, seeking the overthrow of their ministry; calling them also the authors of the Seventeenth of December.[392]... He also alleged the doings of the good town of that day till be in all histories a foul blot to them for ever. He alleged the people were bund to follow him and the rest of his brethren the ministers, and to do all things that they bade them do, calling the ministers the heid, and the people the tail, and whatever the ministers as the heid spak, it was good and savoury, and whatever the tail or the people spak was unsavoury, adding thereto that the language of the tail was deir of the hearing.... This sermon made me and all the hearers thereof tremble for fear to behold fit untruth spoken in the chair of verity....’--Jo. H.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 3.]
[Sidenote: 1620.]
It has been seen that horse-racing was, from an early time, practised as a public amusement at various places in Scotland. One of these, not formerly noticed, was Paisley. A silver bell of four ounce weight was made in 1608 to serve as a prize for the Paisley race: such was in those days the accustomed prize at a race, giving rise to the proverbial expression--‘He bore off the bell.’ It may be remarked, however, that the winner of a silver bell at a race did not obtain it as permanent property, but only for a year’s keeping, as is customary with the silver arrows and silver clubs now played for by archery and golfing societies.
At the date noted, the Town Council of Paisley, under the guidance of their provost, the Earl of Abercorn, arranged that their annual horse-race should be run on the 6th of May, ‘to be start at the gray stane called St Cormel’s Stane, and frae that richt east to the little house at the causeyend of Renfrew, and frae that the king’s highway to the Wall-neuk of Paisley; and what horse first comes over the score at ... Renfrew, sall have ane double angel; and the horse and master thereof that first comes over the score at the Wall-neuk of Paisley, sall have the said bell with the said burgh’s arms thereon, for that year, together with the rest of the gold that sall be given with the said bell ... except ane double angel that sall be given to the second horse and his master that comes next over the score to the foremost....’ The horses and their owners to gather at Paisley in good time before the race, and the riders to be weighed at the Tron of the burgh. It was also arranged that there should be ‘an aftershot race ... frae ane score at the slates of Ellerslie to ane other score at the causey-head of the burgh of Paisley, by horse of the price of ane hundred merks ... for ane furnished saddle, whilk sall be presented by the said bailies of Paisley present and to come at the score of the said causey-head.’[393]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1620.]
Patrick Anderson, a native of Ross-shire, and nephew of the celebrated Bishop Lesly, had risen by learning and talent to be head of the Scots College at Rome. This situation he left in order to add his exertions to those which a number of his co-religionists were making, at the hazard of their lives, for the recovery of Scotland from what they called the Calvinistic heresy. Dempster speaks of him as ‘moribus innocens ac fide integer,’ and tells us he had no superior in mathematics and theology. Such as he was, he threw himself into this mission with a zeal and gallantry which no generous opponent could now dispute, but which was regarded in the Scotland of his own day as only a diabolic mania for the turning of living souls to death and perdition.
[Sidenote: MAY 18.]
Poor Patrick had not practised long, when he was apprehended with his mass-clothes, books, and papers, and committed to prison as a trafficking Romish priest. He owned to the fact of his having performed mass sundry times, but would not tell in whose houses. In the ensuing October, a brother-missionary, an Irishman, named Edmund Cana, was apprehended, along with a younger brother, ‘who carried his mass-clothes, a portable altar, a flagon of wine, and other requisites necessar for the mass.’--Cal.
Possibly, King James had heard of the merits of Father Anderson as a man of learning, and felt some sympathy for him; perhaps the French ambassador made friendly intercession in his behalf. However it was, after the Father had suffered nine months’ imprisonment, the king came to the resolution to shew him some mercy. At his command, the Privy Council liberated the Father from prison, with a suit of good clothes, and some money in his pocket, on condition that he should leave Scotland, and return no more; otherwise, he would be liable to capital punishment. It was enjoined upon the provost and bailies of Edinburgh that they should ‘try and speir out some ship bown from the port of Leith towards France or Flanders; and when the ship is ready to lowse, that they tak the said Patrick Anderson furth of their Tolbooth, carry him to the ship, and deliver him to the skipper, and see him put aboard of the ship; and that they give a strait command and direction to the skipper that the said Anderson be not sufferit to come ashore again till their arrival at their port in France or Flanders, where they sall put him a-land, and sall report a certificate from the magistrates of the town or port where they land, that the said Anderson was set ashore there.’[394]--P. C. R.
[Sidenote: 1620.]
The Catholic Church was at this time anxiously set upon the recovery of Scotland; and many were they who devoted themselves to the work. We are now disposed to wonder, not merely how so many men were induced to risk their lives in this mission, but how they should have expected to produce conversions in a field so inveterately Protestant. There were, however, some encouraging precedents. It was but recently that St Francis of Sales had brought thousands of the Swiss Calvinists back to the bosom of the church. He and his cousin, Lewis de Sales, entered a Protestant canton in September 1594, amidst the tears and remonstrances of their friends, who believed their task impracticable, as well as dangerous. In the course of a very few years, says Alban Butler, ‘his patience, zeal, and eminent virtue wrought upon the most obdurate, and insensibly wore away their prejudices. It is incredible what fatigues and hardships he underwent in this mission; with what devotion and tears he daily recommended the work of God; with what invincible courage he braved the greatest dangers; with what meekness and patience he bore all manner of affronts and calumnies. In 1596, he celebrated mass on Christmas-day in the church of St Hippolytus at Thonon, and had then made seven or eight hundred converts. In 1598, the public exercise of the Catholic religion was restored, and Calvinism banished by the duke’s orders, over all Chablais and the two bailiwicks of Terni and Guillard.’ At the same time, ‘his extraordinary sweetness, in conjunction with his eminent piety, reclaimed as many vicious Catholics as it converted heretics. The Calvinists ascribe principally to his meekness the wonderful conversions he made amongst them. They were certainly the most obstinate of people at that time near Geneva; yet St Francis converted no fewer than seventy-two thousand of them.’[395] Such success in the great stronghold of Calvinism might well engender hopes regarding Scotland, whose determined adherence to the reformed faith had not then been so much tried as we now know it to have been.
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
The tanning of leather may be said to have been introduced into Scotland at this time. About a dozen tanners from Durham, Morpeth, and Chester-le-Street, were brought in, under royal patronage, in order ‘to instruct the tanners and barkers of the kingdom in the true and perfect form of tanning.’ They were invested with certain privileges, and distributed to various parts of the kingdom. It was hoped through this means that much money, which was usually spent on foreign leather, would now be kept within the kingdom.
[Sidenote: 1620.]
Unfortunately for the success of this reformation, a tax was put upon the leather--four shillings Scots per hide for the first twenty-one years, and thereafter one penny. The consequence was a grievous discontent among the cordwainers, who everywhere did what in them lay to thwart his majesty’s design. ‘To steir the people up to exclaim against it, they have very extraordinarily raised the prices of boots and shoon, to twenty shillings or thereby the pair of boots, and six shillings or thereby the pair of shoon, more nor was paid before;’ thus oppressing the whole country, and particularly the poorer sort of people, besides slandering the king and his Council. In January 1622, the Privy Council dealt with a complaint that many of the tanners throughout the country, disregarding the obvious benefit to themselves and the commonwealth from the new modes, continued the old practice of letting their leather remain but a short time in the pots, and then bringing it to market in a raw state. By way of a stimulus to these persons, a certain number of them were proclaimed rebels.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT.]
At this time, the Earl of Sutherland being a minor, and the family resources much reduced, the inhabitants of the district ‘did shew themselves exceeding loving and thankful to their Master and superior; for not only did they give a general contribution--every one according to his estate and ability--for defraying of his sister’s portion, who was now to be married to the Laird of Pitfoddels, but also they yielded a voluntary yearly support to the earl and his two brothers’ fitter maintenance at the university for the space of five years.... So much did they value and regard the education and good-breeding of him who was to govern and command them, knowing how much it doth concern every state and country to have weel-bred and wise superiors; which good-will and course of theirs was exceedingly weel thought of by the Earl of Sutherland and his greatest friends.’--G. H. S.
* * * * *
We find it noted that in this year a pearl was found in the burn of Kellie, a tributary of the Ythan, Aberdeenshire, so large and beautiful that it was esteemed the best that had at any time been found in Scotland. Sir Thomas Menzies, provost of Aberdeen, obtaining this precious jewel, went to London to present it to the king, who, in requital, ‘gave him twelve or fourteen chalder of victual about Dunfermline, and the custom of merchant goods in Aberdeen during his life.’[396] It has been reported that this pearl was inserted in the apex of the crown of Scotland.
[Sidenote: 1620.]
Apparently this circumstance called the king’s attention to the old repute of certain Scottish rivers for the production of pearls. In January 1621, we find the Privy Council adverting to the fact, that the seeking for pearls had for many years been left to interlopers, who pursued their vocation at unseasonable times, and thus damaged the fishery, to the hurt of his majesty’s interest, he having an undoubted right to all pearls, as he had to all precious metals found in his dominions. Being now inclined to take up pearl-seeking on his own account, he issued a proclamation for the preservation of ‘the waters wherein the pearls do breed;’ and, took measures to have the fishery conducted on a regular plan ‘no pearls to be socht or taken but at such times and seasons of the year when they are at their chief perfection both of colour and quality, whilk will be in the months of July and August yearly.’ The Privy Council commissioned three gentlemen to protect the rivers, and ‘nominat expert and skilful men to fish for pearls at convenient seasons;’ one gentleman for the rivers of Sutherland, another for those of Ross, and another (Mr Patrick Maitland of Auchincroch) for the waters Ythan and Don. The gentleman just named was further made commissioner ‘for receiving to his majesty’s use, of the haill pearls that sall be gotten in the waters within the bounds above written, and who will give reasonable prices for the same; the best of the whilk pearls for bigness and colour he sall reserve to his majesty’s awn use.’
Patrick Maitland gave up his commission in July 1622, and it was then conferred on Robert Buchan, merchant in Aberdeen, who was reputed to be skilful in fishing for pearls, and ‘hath not only taken divers of good value, but hath found some to be in divers waters where none were expected.’--P. C. R.
Among the acts of the first parliament of Charles I. was one for the ‘discharge of Robert Buchan’s patent of the pearl and other monopolies.’ Since then, there has occasionally been successful fishing for pearls in this river; it is said that ‘about the middle of the last century, a gentleman in Aberdeen got £100 for a lot of pearls found in the Ythan.’ The mouth of the river has a great muscle and cockle fishery, and is accordingly the haunt of an extraordinary variety and quantity of sea-fowl. In summer, when the water is low, school-boys often amuse themselves by going in search of pearls, feeling with their toes for the shell, which is distinguished by its curved shape, and griping it when found with a kind of forceps at the end of a long stick.[397]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1621.
FEB. 6.]
The church historian Calderwood notes the occurrence of three fires in Edinburgh in one day as being regarded by the people as ‘foretokenings of some mischief.’ ‘About the same time,’ he adds, ‘there came in a great whale at Montrose; which was also apprehendit to be a forerunner of some trouble.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 1.]
On a complaint that coal had risen to eight shillings the load, the Privy Council had interfered in the usual rash manner, and dictated a certain maximum price to be exacted for the article; namely, seven shillings the load--that is, horse-load; for coal was borne at this time, and for a long time after, on horseback. Certain coal-proprietors--Alexander, Master of Elphinstone; Samuel Johnston of Elphinstone; Sir James Richardson of Smeaton; Robert Richardson of Pencaitland; Jonet Lawson, Lady Fawside; and David Preston of Whitehall--now petitioned, setting forth that the cost of mining coal had greatly risen of late years, and that the dearth of the article to the public was much owing to the base fellows who act as carriers of coals. It was represented that some of the proprietors of ‘coal-heughs’ were £10,000, and some even £20,000 out of pocket. The Master of Elphinstone’s coal of Little Fawside had been on fire for several years; another mine of the same owner had caused an outlay of £8000. The Smeaton pits had been so unproductive for some years as scarcely to supply the laird’s house. The coal of Elphinstone had proved for nine years barren, and 20,000 merks had been sunk upon it, being more than it promised ever to repay. The coal of Mickle Fawside had undone the late laird’s estate, and ‘made him to sell ane part of his auld heritage:’ what with fire on the one hand and water on the other, it was a hopeless case. As for the coal of Pencaitland, it was wasted and decayed, past hope of recovery, but at such extraordinary charges as it was not worth having bestowed upon it. The basis of the evils complained of lay with the coal-carriers, who dealt fraudulently with the public. Had the particulars been rightly known, the lords, it was assumed, would never have given a decreet against the complainers, ‘who are gentlemen of grit charge and burden,’ overlooking the faults of those base fellows who carry coals.
[Sidenote: 1621.]
The lords appointed a commission to inquire into the matter, and report what prices they thought ought to be fixed for this necessary article. In consequence of a report soon after given in by this commission, it was ordained that the price of coal at ‘the hill’ should be 7s. 8d. (7-2/3d. sterling) per load; and it was at the same time agreed that a measure for the load and a charge for carriage should afterwards be appointed.--P. C. R.
On the 23d April 1623, an act of Privy Council was passed in favour of Samuel Johnston, laird of Elphinstone, in consideration of his having super-expended 20,000 merks on his coal-heughs, ‘to his great hurt and apparent wrack.’ It was stated that he had entertained forty families of men, wives, and children at the work, whose weekly charges exceeded two hundred merks. His coal would be lost, and these work-people thrown on the world, if some remedy were not provided, as he could no longer strive with the adverse circumstances in which he was placed. On the other hand, if the work could be held forward, and got into proper order, it might be ‘a gangand coal’ for a hundred years to come.
The Council, in consideration of the losses sustained by the laird, and to save so many poor people from being thrown out of employment, granted him what he asked as a remedy--namely, a licence to export coal for seven years.
It follows from the laird’s statement that the average weekly gains of a collier’s family reached five merks, or about 5s. 6d. sterling.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 12.]
A small private war between the Lairds of Drumlanrig and Cashogle came to a bearing this day at the Moss of Knockonie. This moss belonged to David Douglas, brother to Drumlanrig; but Cashogle had always been allowed to raise peats from it for his winter fuel. The two lairds having fallen into a coldness, Cashogle would not ask this any longer as a favour, but determined to take it as a right. Twice his servants were interrupted in their operations; so he himself came one day to the moss, with his son Robert and thirty-six men or thereby, armed with swords, hagbuts, lances, corn-forks, and staves. Hereupon, the Laird of Mousewald, a brother of the proprietor of the moss (who was absent), sent a friend to remonstrate, and to urge upon Cashogle the propriety of his asking the peats ‘out of love,’ instead of taking them in contempt. The Cashogle party returned only contemptuous answers, ‘declaring they sould cast their peats there, wha wald, wha wald not.’ Some further remonstrances being ineffectual, Drumlanrig himself, accompanied with friends and servants, came upon the scene, shewing that he had the royal authority to command Cashogle to desist. But even this reference failed to induce submission. At length, the Laird of Mousewald, losing temper, exclaimed: ‘Ye are ower pert to disobey the king’s majesty’s charge--quickly pack you and begone.’
[Sidenote: 1621.]
‘Immediately, ane of Cashogle’s servants, with ane great kent [staff], strak Captain Johnston behind his back, twa great straiks upon the head, whilk made him fall dead to the grund with great loss of blood. Then Robert Douglas [son of Cashogle] presentit ane bended hagbut within three ells to the Laird of Drumlanrig’s breast, whilk at the pleasure of God misgave. Immediately thereafter, Robert of new morsit the hagbut, and presented her again to him, whilk shot and missed him at the pleasure of God. Robert Dalyell, natural son to the Laird of Dalyell, was struck through the body with ane lance, who cried that he was slain; and some twa or three men was strucken through their clothes with lances, sae that the haill company thought that they had been killed, and then thought it was time for them to begin to defend themselves; whereupon Robert Douglas and three or four of his folk being hurt, was put to flight, and in flying, the said Robert fell, where the Laird of Drumlanrig chancit to be nearest him; wha, notwithstanding the former offer Robert made to him with the hagbut, not only spared to strike him with his awn hands, but likewise discouraged all the rest under pain of their lives to steir him.’ One of the Cashogle party was slain.
Such an occurrence as this in the south of Scotland, and amongst men of rank and property, shews strikingly that the wild blood of the country was yet by no means quieted. There was a mutual prosecution between the parties; but they contrived to make up the quarrel between themselves out of court, and, private satisfaction being, as usual, deemed enough, the law interfered no further.[398]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 2.]
[Sidenote: 1621.]
Amongst other symptoms of advancing civilisation proper to this period, was an effort towards the correction of unauthorised medical practice. ‘Persons without knowledge of the science of medicine’ were everywhere practising, ‘to the great and evident hazard of the lives and healths of many of our subjects;’ so declared the king. Drugs were also sold by ignorant persons. Another document refers to the judicatories of the kingdom for an account of ‘the frequent murders committed by quacks, women, gardeners, and others.’ The king, desiring to put a check on these evils, ordered the parliament to frame an act for the erection of a College of Physicians in Edinburgh, to be composed of seven doctors and professors of medicine, who should be incorporated, and without whose warrant no one should practise medicine in or near the city; three of their number to have the duty of superintending the sale of drugs. From various causes, this good design did not take practical effect till a later age.--An. Scot.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY.]
‘About this time there was a great earthquake in the town of Montrose and thereabouts, to the great terror of the inhabitants, so that many fled out of the town. Some was slain with the thunder there.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
Some foreign vessels trading for coal and salt having been shipwrecked, during the severe storms of the past winter, on the ‘blind craigs’ (that is, concealed rocks) in the Firth of Forth, it was proposed, by the enterprising coal and salt proprietor, Sir George Bruce, that he should be allowed to erect beacons at those dangerous spots, and reimburse himself by a small tax on the foreign vessels frequenting the Firth during the ensuing year. Hearing of this proposal, the other coal-proprietors in Fife and the Lothians felt that they were much concerned, seeing that ‘no stranger-ships come that way but either for coal or salt,’ and they considered that ‘the payment of this duty wald carry with it a very great reproach and scandal to the country, as if such a small piece of work in the most eminent river in the kingdom could not be gotten done without the contribution and help of strangers.’ For these reasons, they themselves undertook to set up the required beacons.--M. S. P.
[Sidenote: 1621.]
This movement may be regarded as another mark of the enlightened attention now beginning to be paid to things in which the material interests of the people were concerned. How far the proposal of Sir George Bruce was carried out we do not learn; but the probability is that he did not allow his plan to fall asleep. It bears out our view of the spirit beginning to manifest itself in Scotland, that the royal burghs, a few years later (September 1631), contemplated having lights erected on the Isle of May in the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and on ‘the Skairheids’ (P. C. R.), and soon after one was actually put upon the May, being the first known to have been formed in connection with the Scottish coasts, and for generations a solitary example on those of the island generally. A Fife laird, Alexander Cunningham of Barns--a relative, it would appear, of the wife of the poet Drummond--had the merit of establishing this useful protection for shipping. Obtaining the proper authority from Charles I., he, in 1635, erected on the isle ‘a tower forty feet high, vaulted to the top, and covered with flag-stones, whereon all the year over,’ says Sir Robert Sibbald, writing in the reign of Charles II., ‘there burns in the night-time a fire of coals for a light; for which the masters of ships are obliged to pay for each ton two shillings [twopence sterling]. This sheweth light,’ he adds, ‘to all the ships coming out of the Firths of Forth and Tay, and to all places between St Abb’s Head and Redcastle near Montrose.’
Through a natural antagonism, we may suppose, between the powers of darkness and the interest here concerned, the architect of the May light-tower was drowned on his return from the isle in a storm believed to have been raised by witches, who were in consequence burnt.[399] The fire was duly kept burning by the successors of Cunningham till the erection of a regular light-house on modern principles by the Commissioners of Northern Lights. It required three hundred and eighty tons of Wemyss coal annually, that kind being selected on account of the clearness of its flame. In 1790, the tack or lease of this privileged light, with its tax of three-halfpence a ton on Scottish, and threepence on foreign shipping, rose from £280 to £960, and in 1800 it was let at £1500, ‘a striking proof,’ as Mr Adamson justly remarks, ‘of the increase of the trade of this country’ during the period.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 4.]
This was a day of great concern and sorrow to the earnest Presbyterians of Scotland, as on it the parliament sitting at Edinburgh ratified the Five Articles introducing Episcopalian fashions into the church. At the moment when the commissioner, the Marquis of Hamilton, rose to apply the sceptre to the bills, thus giving them symbolically the royal assent, a flash of lightning burst into the house, followed by a second and a third, and these by loud thunder. A heavy darkness ensued. The discharge of rain was so great, that the ceremonial return to Holyroodhouse could not be effected, and all rushed home in confusion. The people, affected by these signs and wonders, called the day Black Saturday.
[Sidenote: 1621.]
The weather had been bad during the whole summer, and the harvest was likely to be late and meagre. A Presbyterian historian, after relating what happened at the ratification of the Five Articles, adds: ‘That very day made the greatest alteration of prices of victual within eight days, that ever was heard of in so short a space in Scotland, except the ill-windy Bartle-day in anno 159-.’--Row. It appears that wheat rose to £12 per boll, and the price might have been higher but for the coming in of foreign grain. The autumn was distinguished by heavy rains, carrying away the crops of extensive haughs or meadows. And of such as were preserved, scarcely any was ‘won’--that is, secured--before Hallowmass. The wetness of the season was also unfavourable to the winning of peat-fuel. ‘Never was greater fear of famine, nor scarcity of seed to sow the ground. Every person was careful to ease himself of such persons as he might spare, and to live as retiredly as possibly he might. Pitiful was the lamentation not only of vaiging beggars, but also of honest persons.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 28.]
‘Because there was a new brood and generation of the Clan Gregor risen up, who are begun to go in troops and companies about the country, armed with offensive weapons, there was a proclamation published that none who carry the name of Macgregor shall wear any armour, but ane pointless knife to eat their meat with, under the pain of death.’--Bal.
The Chronicle of Perth notes the holding of a justice court there, May 10, 1624, by the chancellor Sir George Hay, ‘where many compeirit and were clengit by assize; only three hangit--Macgregors!’ A few months later, the same authority tells us of ‘Robert Abroch, ane Macgregor, ane great limmer,[400] wha had been ance or twice forgiven and remitted by his majesty, for his oppression, upon hope of amendment, yet continued still in his knaveries; after there was mickle searching made for him in the Highlands, and all his friends chargit to apprehend [him], [he] came to Perth this day, being Tuesday, ane preaching-day, after sermon, and fell down on his knees, and ane tow about his neck, and offerit his sword by the point to the Chancellor of Scotland, wha refusit to accept of it, and commanded the bailies to ward him; like as they instantly warded him, and put baith his feet on the gaud,[401] where he remainit.’--Chron. Perth.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1621.]
‘This year, Sir William Alexander of Menstrie undertook a plantation in a part of America, which was then called New Scotland [Nova Scotia], where he intended to send a colony. Sir Robert Gordon, Tutor of Sutherland, joined himself in this enterprise, and did indent and contract with Sir William to send thither some men out of Sutherland, weel provided with corns, cattle, weapons, and other provision fit and sufficient for that journey, who should have a good portion of that country allotted them to inhabit. The Earl Marischal of Scotland, the Earl of Melrose, the Earl of Nithsdale, the Viscount of Dupplin, Sir Robert Gordon of Lochinvar, Sir Alexander Gordon of Cluny, James Gordon of Lesmoir, with divers other nobles and gentlemen, were likewise partners in this plantation. And for further advancement of this plantation, his majesty concluded to make heritable knights-baronets in Old Scotland; which honour should be bestowed upon the choicest undertakers of that enterprise, and upon such as were of best quality for vertue, birth, and means among the gentry.’--G. H. S.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT. 12.]
This day, Friday, commenced a remarkable flood in the Tay, which lasted for three or four days, and caused extensive destruction. The beautiful bridge, newly completed across the river at Perth, was swept away, excepting one arch only. In the middle of the second night, the water had risen so high, that the people living in low houses near the Castle Gavel Port in Perth, were obliged to remove to higher houses. The town was so environed with water, that no one could enter or leave it for several days. Children were let down from upper windows into boats, in order to be carried to places presumably safer. Household stuff and provisions were destroyed. The rain was accompanied by a violent wind from the east, which would somewhat help to maintain the waters of the river at a high elevation. The water flowed in the High Street and the Speygate ‘like mill-sluices;’ and one Charles Rollock became a distinguished public benefactor by going about in a boat through those streets, and rescuing people who were in danger of drowning--a service for which he afterwards received a double angel in recompense.
[Sidenote: 1621.]
The people were thrown into a state of extreme consternation, looking for nothing but the entire destruction of their fair city. ‘Whereupon Mr John Malcolm, minister, powerfully endued with God’s spirit, caused ring the preaching-bell on Sunday at seven hours in the morning, and the haill inhabitants came to the kirk. And there he exhorted them to repent of their sins, which had provoked the said judgment of God to come upon the city; assuring them that if they were truly penitent therefor, and would avow to God to amend their lives in time coming, God would avert his judgment, and give them deliverance. Whose powerful exhortations moved the people to cry to God with tears, clamours, and cries, and to hold up their hands to God, [promising that they would] amend their lives, and every one of them to abstain from their domestic sins. The like humiliation of men and women has not been seen within Perth before. Fasting, preaching, and praying continued all that week.... The waters began somewhat to decrease after noon on Sunday; but after daylight passed, there arose a greater tempest of wind and rain than at any time before, which so affrighted the people that night, that they looked for nothing but [that] the waters should have arisen to greater height [than] they were before. Notwithstanding thereof, miraculously, through the mercy of God, by [past] all men’s expectation, the waters greatly in the meantime decreased, which in the morning moved the people in the kirk and all other places to give hearty thanks to God for his mercy toward them.’[402]
One of the remarks current among the more serious class of people on this occasion, was that the inundation was sent as a judgment on Perth, on account of the five Episcopalian articles passed there by the General Assembly three years before, though how this vengeance should have fallen on the innocent people living in the place of that assembly, and not upon the churchmen who passed the articles, or rather the majority of them as apart from the minority, it is not easy to reconcile to a sense of either Divine wisdom or Divine justice. It chances that Perth is built on the meadow or haugh close to a river--namely, what is properly its flood-course; a kind of situation where no human habitations should ever be built. It is of course more or less inundated at every considerable flood, and thus exposed to no small inconvenience, as well as damage. These evils may be considered as the natural punishment inflicted on the people for the solecism against nature which they have committed. It may be safely presumed that, while their town stands there, it will be liable to such disasters as that here described, whether general assemblies reform upwards or downwards within its walls, and in whatever spirit the inhabitants may regard their consequent sufferings. They are, however, not alone in this respect, as, unfortunately, the low banks of rivers are the seats of many towns and parts of towns in all parts of the world.
[Sidenote: 1621.]
It is remarkable that, though there had been a bridge across the Tay at Perth so early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, the structure now destroyed was not replaced till the erection of the present beautiful fabric in 1771, the intercourse during the intermediate hundred and fifty years being maintained by ferry-boats.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV.?]
The Record of Privy Council at this time gives an example of the conduct of a north-country gentleman under ban of the law. George Meldrum of Haltoun had been put to the horn and denounced rebel for some failure of duty towards James Crichton of Frendraught and other persons; and it became necessary for the Marquis of Huntly, as sheriff of Aberdeen, to send a force for the capture of his person. James Gordon of Knockespock and George Gordon of Gowie went with a band for this purpose.
At their approach, Meldrum was out in the fields; but he no sooner saw them, than, surmising their design, he fled to his house, closed the gates, and prepared to stand a siege. They, anxious to vindicate the royal authority, beleaguered the house, resolved not to leave it till they should have reduced the occupant to his majesty’s obedience. They had lain about the place forty-eight hours, when John Innes of Crombie, hearing of what was going on, came to them in the utmost possible haste, mounted on his best horse, declaring to them his desire to deal with George for the purpose of inducing him to submit. ‘He entreated the deputies that, with their allowance, he might go and confer with the said George thereanent; whereunto they very gladly yielded, seeing they sought nought but obedience.... The Laird of Crombie in the meantime seemed very busy in going and coming to and frae the said George, feeding the deputies with false conceits and hopes, and sometimes with vain promises that he himself wald be cautioner for the said George, for the satisfaction of all his creditors ... and so, under this false pretext, having abused the ... deputies their sincere and upright meaning making them to believe all that he spak, and sae to be so much the more careless of looking to the house, he then brought the said George out of the house, set him upon his best horse, and put him away, to the great contempt and mocking of justice.’ For this conduct, the Laird of Crombie was denounced as a rebel.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1622.
MAR. 20.]
Margaret Wallace, the wife of John Dinning, a clothier in Glasgow, was tried before the Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, for sundry acts of witchcraft, and as a common practiser of that nefarious art. She was reported to have been a friend and confederate of one Christian Graham, a notorious witch of the same city, who was tried, condemned, and burnt in the preceding year. There is something singular in Mrs Dinning’s case, for some of the acts of criminality urged against her were cures for which no other than a humane motive was or could be imputed. The case is also curious on account of the remarkable resemblance of some of the means or modes of cure to the proceedings of the modern mesmeric hospital.
It was alleged of Margaret, that she had been a witch for eight or nine years. It was evident that she looked up to Christian Graham as her preceptress and superior. About four years before the time of her trial, being in the house of one Vallance, in Glasgow, she had taken a sudden fit of sickness, and sent for Graham, who came immediately to her relief. Taking Margaret tenderly in her arms, and kissing her, Graham said: ‘Nothing shall ail my dear bird;’ then led her down stairs, and conducted her to her own house, where she completely recovered. The two women coming back to Vallance’s house, found a little child of his, named Margaret, at the bottom of the stair, and it was alleged that they threw the sickness upon her. The child was found by her mother crying dismally; and all that night she lay in horrible pain, with pitiful screeches, shouts, and cries, apparently deprived of the power of her body. Margaret Wallace, coming next day to see the child, ‘declarit it was the sudden trance or disease that she had ta’en the day before, and willed the bairn’s mother to send for Christian Graham to cure her and relieve her thereof.’ The mother ‘having absolutely refused sae to do, saying she wald commit her bairn to God, and not mell with the devil or ony of his instruments, Margaret Wallace maist blasphemously answered again, that “Christian Graham could do as mickle in curing of that disease, as gif God himself wald come out of heaven and cure her--and, albeit the deid-strake were laid on, she could tak it aff again--and without her help there could be nae remeed to the bairn!” Thereafter, without the mother’s knowledge, Christian Graham was brought in by Margaret Wallace to the bairn; at whase coming, Margaret lifted up the bairn’s head, and Christian took her by the shackle-bane [wrist], and brought the bairn forth of her bed where she was lying in great pain before; and thereafter, setting her down upon ane stool, with some crosses and signs made upon her, and by uttering of divers words, restored her to her health.’
[Sidenote: 1622.]
It is quite evident here that Margaret was honourably candid, as against herself, in the view she took of the cause of the child’s ailment, and her subsequent conduct in trying to restore the child’s health, was creditable to her feelings. In another point of her dittay, however, feelings of a different kind came out.
It was alleged that Margaret had conceived a deadly hatred against Cuthbert Greig, a cooper, because of certain opprobrious speeches he had uttered against Christian Graham. ‘She avowed that she should make Cuthbert, within few days thereafter, not of ability to work or win himself ane cake of bread.’ According to this devilish threat, Cuthbert was soon after ‘visit and troublit with ane strange, unnatural, and unknawn disease,’ attended by continual sweating for fifteen days together, till in the end he was reduced to the utmost degree of weakness. It appeared that the man’s friends endeavoured to induce Margaret to interfere for his recovery; but she long persisted in refusing. At length, coming to his house, ‘she, to manifest her skill for his help, took him by the shackle-bane with the ane hand, and laid her other hand upon his breast, and, without ony word-speaking, save only by moving of her lips, passed frae him at that instant.’ Returning next morning, ‘she took him by the arm and bade him rise, wha at that time and fifteen days before, was not able to lift his legs without help.’ ‘She, having urged him to rise, and taking him by the hand, brought him out of his bed, and led him butt the house’ [into the outer apartment], where he ‘walkit up and down the floor, without help or support of ony.’ From that time, it is stated, he quickly recovered from his illness. Here, too, it must be owned, Margaret came ultimately to act a humane part.
Another child having an uncouth sickness, Wallace associated with Graham in a practice for her cure. They went under cloud of night ‘to the yard of James Finlay, burgess of Glasgow, where they remained the space of ane hour together practising sorcery and witchcraft, for curing of the bairn by unlawful means,’ and ‘that same night the sickness was ta’en aff the bairn and she convalesced thereof.’ For this, the two practitioners got a goose and a pint of wine. On another occasion, Wallace was alleged to have inflicted deadly sickness on a child, and allowed her to die.
Margaret had good counsel at her trial, and a stout defence was made; but all in vain. She was sentenced to be worried at a stake and burnt on the Castle Hill.--Pit.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 22.]
[Sidenote: 1622.]
A Dunkirk ship, belonging to the king of Spain, came up to Leith pursued by two Dutch waughters, but both were quickly driven out of the Firth of Forth by a west wind. A few days thereafter, the same vessels came back to Leith, ‘where they had ane great fecht, frae twelve at night till four in the morning, and many men slain.’[403] The magistrates of Edinburgh interfered to prevent further hostilities, and the three vessels lay there inactive for half a year, the Dunkirker not being able to get away for fear of the superior metal of her enemies. At length, the king ordered that the Dunkirker should be allowed to go out, without being followed by the waughters for a couple of tides. On the 4th of May 1623, this vessel left the harbour accordingly, but it ran upon the Mussel-scap, ‘within two pair of butt-lengths to the Bulwark,’ and thus in due time became liable to the attack of the waughters. While these were playing their guns upon her, the authorities in the city, knowing well the king’s favour for Spain, whose Infanta his son was at this time courting, mustered forces and cannon, and came hastily to the rescue. Finding that the Dutch had boarded her, and put up the Prince of Orange’s colours, they sent men on board to put up the flag of the king of Great Britain. The people shewed themselves ill affected to the object. ‘Some few went down, with their swords, and their cloaks about them. The president, chiding the provost and bailies, said: “I always said to his majesty that Edinburgh was but a nest of traitors. I shall write to his majesty of this your rebellion.” It was answered: ... “Edinburgh is not bound to serve in such a service without their burgh roods.”’ An effort was made to secure the vessel within the harbour--‘it was sport to see the lords and their gentlemen hailing St Ambrose with a rope into the harbourie. But they laboured in vain, for the water began to fall.’ The end of the business was, that, one night, the Dutch, after respectfully removing the guard and flag, set the vessel on fire, and having destroyed it, set sail for their own seas.[404]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 29.]
‘The Landgrave of Hesse’s eldest son, of the second marriage, came to Edinburgh. His lodging and entertainment was not looked to with that respect that became.’[405]--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 3.]
‘... there was a fiery dragon, both great and long, appeared to come from the south to the north, spouting fire from her, half an hour after the going to of the sun.’--Cal.
[Sidenote: 1622.]
This was a wretched summer. A fast was ordered at Aberdeen, July 21st, on account of ‘the felt wrath of God by this present plague of dearth and famine, and the continuance thereof threatened by thir tempestuous storms and inundations of weets likely to rot the fruits on the ground.’--A. K. S. R.
The usual consequence is recorded: ‘About the harvest, and after, there was such ane universal sickness in all the country as the like has not been heard of--but specially in this burgh, that no family in all the city was free of this visitation. There was also great mortality among the poor.’--Chron. Perth.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY.]
An act of Privy Council of this date aims at a restriction of the importation of wine into the Western Islands--‘with the insatiable desire whereof the said islanders are so far possest, that when there arrives ony ship or other vessel there with wines, they spend both days and nights in their excess of drinking, sae lang as there is any of the wine left; sae that, being overcome with drink, there falls out mony inconvenients amangs them, to the break of his majesty’s peace.’[406]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY 30.]
The Privy Council had the subject of that ‘infective weed callit tobacco’ under their attention. The king had formerly, upon good reasons of policy, forbidden its importation into the country; but this decree had been sadly evaded, insomuch that ‘the country was ever universally filled with tobacco, and public and common merchandise made of the same.’ Then his majesty had tried the restraining effect of a duty (20s. Scots, or 1s. 8d. English per pound); but the tobacco-merchants had learned the trick of smuggling, and it was not likely they would let it lie unfruitful when they could thereby save the payment of a tax. It had now, accordingly, become necessary to impose a new restraint; and the importation was again prohibited, under pain of the goods being confiscated to his majesty’s use.--P. C. R.
[Sidenote: 1622.]
An act of the Privy Council in the subsequent November explained that the king did not mean by this restraint ‘to deprive his loving subjects of the orderly sale and moderate use of tobacco,’ but only to prevent the abuse or excessive use of the herb. It was no part of his design to interfere with the patent which had been granted [November 7, 1616] to the late Captain William Murray, giving him the sole privilege of importing tobacco for the space of twenty-one years. He therefore now ordered proclamations to be issued, to the effect that the prohibition only held good against such as did not possess a licence under favour of Murray’s patent.--P. C. R. In the ensuing March, it was arranged that importers of tobacco should pay Murray’s representatives a duty of twenty shillings Scots per pound.
In 1624, the widow and daughter of Captain Murray resigned their relative’s patent into the hands of commissioners, for his majesty’s use, on their becoming bound to pay twenty thousand pounds Scots (£1666, 13s. 4d.) at three half-years terms.[407]
The prejudice of King James against tobacco was a strong feeling, partaking much of the character of antipathy. He published anonymously, and afterwards acknowledged the quaint pamphlet, A Counterblast to Tobacco, in which he argues against the use of the herb as a physical as well as moral corruption. Baker’s Chronicle states that the expedition of Sir Francis Drake, on its return in 1585[6], passed by Virginia, ‘a colony which Sir Walter Raleigh had there planted;’ ‘from whence Drake brings home with him Ralph Lane, who was the first that brought tobacco into England, which the Indians take against crudities of the stomach.’ This does not comport with the ordinary notion entertained in England, which uniformly represents Raleigh as the first introducer of the Nicotian herb. Lane became a despised man on account of his pusillanimity in giving up the colony; and there seems all reason to believe that to him King James alludes in the following passage from the Counterblast: ‘It is not so long,’ says he, ‘since the first entry of this abuse amongst us here, as this present age cannot well remember both the first author and the form of the first introduction of it amongst us. It was neither brought in by king, great conqueror, nor learned doctor of physic. With the report of a great discovery for a conquest, some two or three savage men were brought in, together with a savage custom. But the pity is, the poor barbarous men died, but that vile barbarous custom is yet alive, yea, in fresh vigour; so as it seems a miracle to me how a custom, springing from so vile a ground, and brought in by a father so generally hated, should be welcomed upon so slender a warrant.’
[Sidenote: 1622.]
If a tradition existing in 1667 is to be believed, King James was fain on one occasion to get over his antipathy to tobacco; but, to be sure, the compelling cause was a powerful one. ‘The smoke of it’ [tobacco], says a writer of that date, ‘is one of the wholesomest scents that is, against all contagious airs, for it o’ermasters all other smells, as King James, they say, found true, when being once hunting, a shower of rain drove him into a pigsty for shelter, where he caused a pipefull to be taken on purpose.’[408]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 18.]
A trafficking Jesuit, named George Mortimer, had lately been detected in the house of one Haddow, in Glasgow, and he and Haddow were both taken into custody. The king lost no time in ordering a court of justice to be held in Glasgow for the trying of Haddow and his wife for the crime of resetting Jesuits, certifying that, if found guilty, they should be banished the kingdom--as the impunity of the offence ‘might hearten that wicked and pernicious sort of people more bauldly to go on in perverting good subjects in religion, and withdrawing them from their dutiful obedience to us.’ He at the same time wrote to the principal ecclesiastical authorities, desiring them to consult about the best means of checking the present ‘new growth of popery,’ that ‘thereby the world may see that we strike with the sword of justice equally against the papist and puritan, that thereby no just imputation may be laid upon our proceedings as a cause of the increase of popery.’
In September, we learn that Mortimer lay a prisoner at Glasgow, ‘so heavily diseased, as it is feared he shall hardly if ever escape.’ The king--‘because we do not desire the lives of ony of that sort of people, if we may be secured from ony harm which they micht do by the perversion of ony of our guid subjects in their duty to God and us’--was now pleased to order that he should be committed to some ship sailing to a foreign port, ‘with certification to him, that gif at ony time hereafter he shall return, it will be capital unto him.’--P. C. R.
[Sidenote: 1622.]
This and some other instances of lenity towards Romish clergymen were ill looked on by the zealous Presbyterians, and there arose a fama to the king’s prejudice. On the 30th of October, he wrote from Hitchinbrooke to his Scottish councillors, in great indignation at a report which had gone abroad, in consequence of some late circumstances, to the effect that he intended to ‘tolerate or grant liberty of conscience!’ ‘The foolish apprehension thereof’ had ‘given occasion both to papist and puritan to tak heart and grow insolent, the one vainly boasting of the said pretendit liberty, and the other with a seeming fear thereof.’ ‘God knows,’ says the king solemnly, ‘that what proceedit in that course concerning the papists here was without ony such intention.’ It was ‘groundit upon good reasons of state, in the deep and mystery whereof every man is not to dive nor wyde.’ His conscience and his works alike bore witness of his constancy in the right course. So he ‘could not but marvel how ony of our subjects can be possest with so unjust ane opinion of us.’ The Council was enjoined immediately to consult with the Archbishop of St Andrews as to the best measures for the ‘curbing of insolent papists and disconform preachers.’ In case any of the former had shewn themselves in consequence of the pretended liberty, they were to be severely punished, as an example and terror to others. The Council, acknowledging his majesty’s ‘most religious and upright disposition towards the suppression of popery,’ communicated accordingly with the archbishop, requesting him to have a care to give his majesty satisfaction.--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT.]
George Earl Marischal, a noble of great wealth and influence, who has already been under our notice,[409] was now approaching the end of his earthly pilgrimage. After his death, his countess, who had hastily re-married, was accused of having been concerned, along with the gentleman whom she took for her second husband--Sir Alexander Strachan of Thornton, knight--in stealing forth of his lordship’s house of Benholm a green coffer belonging to him, containing money and other valuables, besides the furniture of the house, and a bag containing evidents of property. James Keith of Benholm was accused of having a share in the same crime.
[Sidenote: 1622.]
The case is worthy of notice, chiefly on account of the list of articles contained in the coffer--evidencing as they do a degree of wealth which few will be prepared to find belonging to a Scottish nobleman of that age. There were--‘of Portugal ducats and other species of foreign gold to the avail of twenty thousand pounds or thereby; thretty-sax dozen of gold buttons; ane rich jewel all set with diamonts, whilk the earl resavit as ane gift given to him the time he was ambassador in Denmark, worth sax thousand merks; the Queen of Denmark’s picture in gold, set about with rich diamonts, estimat to five thousand merks; ane jasp stane for steming of bluid,[410] estimat to five hundred French crowns; ane chenyie of equal pearl, wherein was four hundred pearls great and small; twa chenyies of gold, of twenty-four unce wecht; ane other jewel of diamonts set in gold worth three thousand merks; ane great pair of bracelets, all set with diamonts, price thereof five hundred crowns; the other pair of gold bracelets, at sax hundred pounds the pair; ane turcas ring worth ten French crowns; ane diamont set in ane ring, price twenty-eight French crowns; with ane number of other small rings set with diamonts and other rich stanes in gold, worth three hundred French crowns; mair sixteen thousand merks of silver and gold ready-cunyit, whilk was within the said green coffer; together with the haill tapestry, silver-work, bedding, and other guids, geir, and plenishing, being within the said place.’--Pit.
The king, in a letter to the Chancellor Hay, dated 22d August 1624, alludes to a recommendation he had formerly sent, that this injury to his esteemed councillor the Earl Marischal should be inquired into, and adds: ‘Whereas we are informed that, in a later letter under our hand, we have shewn to you that it was not our pleasure nor meaning in ony former letters to hurt the said Lady Marischal or ony other person, these are now expressly to mak it known to you, that we nather gave direction to insert any sic clause in our letters, nather, at the putting of our hand to the samen, did tak heed thereto, nor never meant ony sic favour to her who hath so ill deserved of one for whose sake we were only to respect her.’ And then he added a command to proceed with the case against the peccant lady.--An. Scot.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1623.
JAN.]
‘Lord Colville took journey to France, to crave the re-establishment of the Scots Guard and Company of Scottish Men at Arms, according to their first institution and the French king’s promise often made to that effect.’--Bal.
[Sidenote: 1623.]
The Scots Guard of the French king was an old institution, and for a long time past the command had passed from generation to generation of the Sieurs D’Aubigné (Earls and Dukes of Lennox). Louis XIII. readily agreed to the proposed revival of the corps, and designed to confer the command on Ludovick, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, the favourite councillor of King James. It chanced, however, that the duke was suddenly cut off by apoplexy (February 1624), ‘beloved and lamented’ beyond all remembered example, ‘because he was naturally inclined to do good without distinction of persons.’--G. H. S. The honour was therefore transferred to his nephew, Lord Gordon, son of the Marquis of Huntly.
In July 1625, Lord Gordon made his first muster of the corps on the Links of Leith, in presence of several officers deputed by the French king for that purpose. These gentlemen had been conducted to Edinburgh by Sir Robert Gordon, Tutor of Sutherland; they were there entertained in the handsomest manner by the Lord Gordon and other nobles, ‘and sent home again to their master, the French king, in great satisfaction and content.’ Lord Gordon’s younger brother, Lord Melgum, was his lieutenant, and the first gentleman of the company was Sir William Gordon, son of George Gordon of Kindroch, a branch of the family of Pitlurg.--G. H. S.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 20.]
‘... the king’s picture in the hall of the palace of Linlithgow fell ... and brake in pieces. The like befell the king of France’s picture, in that same place, six weeks before his death.’--Cal.
Such incidents were then invariably noted with superstitious awe. Aubrey tells us that on the first day of the sitting of the Long Parliament, the picture of Archbishop Laud fell in his closet, by the breaking of the string.[411]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1623.]
George, Earl of Caithness, was one of the most unruly spirits of his age. The almost uncontrolled power which he possessed in his own remote country, was generally employed by him in advancing base and selfish purposes, and half his life was passed in a state of outlawry. Sometimes he is found at war with the Sutherland family, sometimes with his neighbours the Mackays of Strathnaver. One year, he is proclaimed a rebel; the next, he is found honoured with a royal commission against some other rebel. (See the account of the case of the Earl of Orkney in 1615.) He was overwhelmed with debt, yet did not regard it much. His son, Lord Berriedale, having become responsible for him, lay five years in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, as a prisoner to the earl’s creditors, while Caithness himself passed a pleasant life in his sea-cliff fortalices of Girnigo and Aikergill, in the far north. There must have been something plausible about this singular noble. Notwithstanding all the injuries he had inflicted on the Sutherland family, and the badness of his general character, he contrived, in 1619, to patch up a reconciliation with Sir Robert Gordon, a most respectable man, a friend and servant of the king, and who represented the interests of that great family. He had on that occasion visited Sir Robert in Sutherland, and Sir Robert in his turn spent several days with the earl at Girnigo. The truce, however, was not of long continuance, for the Earl of Caithness’s outrages were incessant. It was felt by the Privy Council as a scandal to the country, that such a hardy rebel against the ordinary authorities of the land should exist, and they looked about for the means of putting him down. The usual expedient of the age was resorted to--namely, to employ some other great man against him--thus accomplishing by a kind of private war what ought to have been the business of a force of their own. Sir Robert was the man they pitched upon.
Behold, then, this courtier of St James’s and Newmarket, leaving those scenes in the south where he was accustomed to meet Bacon and (not many years ago) Shakspeare, and coming down to the land of Mackays, Guns, and Sinclairs, in order to conduct an army against one of those rude grandees who could even trouble a king. He had a strange associate in the enterprise; Lord Berriedale had been liberated from prison, on a paction with the creditors, that he might do what he could to bring his heartless father within the grasp of the law.
[Sidenote: SEP. 3.]
Sir Robert’s forces were the Clan Sutherland and their friends, a selection of the most active and hardy, and all well armed. Assembling in Strathullie, and having been properly arranged and officered, they lost no time in setting forth to cross the Ord. A company of the Clan Gun went before to clear the ground and prevent surprise. Before they had advanced far into Caithness, they learned that the earl, unable to withstand so great a force, had deserted the country, and taken refuge in Orkney, intending to go thence to Norway. At Latheron, James Sinclair of Murkle, Sir William Sinclair of Mey, the Laird of Forss, and some other Caithness magnates, came to yield their obedience and offer their assistance. Sir Robert received them with great civility, but ‘gave small trust to some of them; neither suffered he any of the inhabitants to come in or go out of the army after the setting of the sun until sunrising.’
[Sidenote: 1623.]
Passing Wick, he conducted his troops to Girnigo, a castle so strongly placed on the verge of a lofty cliff overhanging the sea, that there might have been some difficulty in taking it. The keys, however, were at once rendered up, and so the army took quiet possession of the fortress. They went forward, and, in like manner took Aikergill and Keiss, two forts which the earl had abandoned in succession. Meanwhile, Sir Robert had spies throughout all Caithness to report to him about the dispositions of the people. They were said to be quiet, but angry that any of the House of Sutherland should be charged with such a commission against their lord.
Learning that Lady Caithness, who was his cousin-german, had removed to a house a few miles distant, Gordon went to pay his respects to her. She pleaded for her husband, on the ground that he was not attempting any resistance; but Sir Robert left her no hopes of his being speedily pardoned. He proceeded with deliberation to settle Lord Berriedale in possession of the country and its fortresses, and made various other arrangements for its benefit; after which he returned in triumph to Dunrobin, and dismissed his men. ‘Thus you see how the Earl of Caithness, having attained to the top of fortune’s wheel, and to the height of his desires, by his service in Orkney, did by his own misdemeanours, and wicked actions, fall into this extremity, which a man of his life and conversation could not escape. Neither could the Earl of Orkney’s example, which was recent before his eyes, divert him from the course which brought him to this misery. A notable example to posterity.’--G. H. S.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 14.]
[Sidenote: 1623.]
During the earlier half of this year, Scotland suffered under a famine of extreme severity. There was a vast increase to the usually inordinate number of beggars, in consequence of many of the poorer class of tenants throwing their farms in the hands of their landlords, and wandering forth in search of food. And it is remarked that the condition of these new mendicants was the most miserable of all, ‘because they, being for the most part ashamed to beg, underlies all the extremities wherethrough the pinching of their bellies may affect them; whereas, by the contrair, strong and sturdy beggars, by their importunity and crying, and sometimes by extorting of almous, are in some measure relieved.’ The administrators of the state are found in alarm that, unless something be done to enable the poor to tide over till the new harvest should be realised in September, ‘numbers of them will betake themselves to live by stowth or [ere] they will starve through hunger, whilk will not only produce a foul imputation agains the whole land, but the wrath and anger of God will be wakened.’ At the date noted, therefore, the Privy Council took measures for bringing the principal men together in their respective county towns to arrange for a taxation according to means and substance, in order to procure victual for the poor. A hundred merks for every thousand pounds of substance was the rate recommended.
In July, the famine ‘increased daily, till at last many, both in burgh and land, died of hunger. Many poor came to Edinburgh for succour, of which number some died in the streets.’ A fast was held on account of the calamity; ‘the sermons began every day in the week at seven hours, and ended at nine. Immediately after the fast was ended, that same night, 7th of July, there was such a fire in the heaven, with thunder and fire-flaught, that the hearers and beholders thought verily that the day of judgment was come.’--Cal.
‘There was this harvest-time ane great mortality ... ten or twelve died ordinarily every day [in Perth] from midsummer to Michaelmas’ [September 29].--Chron. Perth.
It was probably to this famine that a story told by Wodrow refers. While the poor people were dying in great numbers in the fields, ‘some people passing by saw a young child about seven years old, lying and dying by a dike-side--which could not but move their pity, though they could give it no relief. They observed the child to get up to its feet, and looking up cheerfully towards heaven, clapping its hands, making a tripping and dancing motion with its feet, they heard it cry: “O! Lamb’s days for evermore! O! Lamb’s days for evermore! I see heaven! Lamb’s days for evermore!” And with that it presently fell down and died. I had this from my mother, who had it from her mother, and that it was told as a certain truth.’--W. A.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY 10.]
Bessie Smith, of Lesmahago, appeared before the presbytery of Lanark, and confessed sundry dealings with unlawful arts. She had ‘charmed the heart-fevers.’ The patients, kneeling under her direction, asked their health ‘for God’s sake, for Sanct Spirit, for Sanct Aikit, for the nine maidens that died in the boortree in the Ladywell Bank--This charm to be buik and beil to me, God grant that sae be.’ She also ‘appointed them the wayburn leaf, to be eaten nine mornings.’--R. P. L.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY 15.]
[Sidenote: 1623.]
While the Egyptians were everywhere a proscribed race, and often the victims of an indiscriminate severity, there was one spot where mercy and even kindness seems to have been extended to them. This was Roslin. Sir William Sinclair of Roslin, Lord Justice-general under Queen Mary, riding home one day from Edinburgh, found a poor Egyptian about to be hanged on the gibbet at the Burgh-moor, and brought him off unharmed. In remembrance of this kindness, ‘the whole body of gipsies were accustomed to gather in the stanks [marshes] of Roslin every year, where they acted several plays during the months of May and June.’ So tells us the quaint Father Hay, a connection of the Roslin family; and he adds: ‘There are two towers which were allowed them for their residence, the one called Robin Hood, the other Little John.’
At the time noted, the Privy Council had their attention called to this Patmos of the outlawed race. They remark that,‘while the laws enjoined all persons in authority to execute to the deid the counterfeit thieves and limmers, the Egyptians,’ it was nevertheless reported that a number of them were now within the bounds of Roslin, ‘where they have a peaceable receipt and abode as if they were lawful subjects, committing stowths and reifs in all parts where they may find the occasion.’ The Council, therefore, issued an order to the sheriff of the district, who happened to be Sinclair younger of Roslin himself, commanding him ‘to pass, search, seek, hunt, follow, and pursue the said vagabond thieves and limmers,’ and bring them to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh for due punishment.--P. C. R.
An order for the execution of a number of Egyptians was actually issued on the ensuing 27th of January.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 1.]
[Sidenote: 1623.]
One Thomas Grieve was tried in Edinburgh for carrying on a species of medical practice by witchcraft. He was accused of having cured many people of heavy sickness and grievous diseases, by various magical arts; as, for instance, the making of signs and crosses upon them, the washing of their shirts in south-running streams, and the uttering of unknown words. He took sickness off a woman near Leslie, in Fife, and put it upon a cow, ‘whilk thereafter ran wood [mad] and died.’ He cured William Kirk’s bairn in Tullibole, of the morbus caducus, ‘by straiking back the hair of his head,’ and wrapping the child in an anointed cloth, by that means putting him asleep. To cure diseased cattle, he sprinkled a byre with enchanted water. He passed various patients through a hasp of yarn three several times, and then threw the hasp into a fire, where it burned blue; thus the people were cured. He was alleged to have cured William Cousin’s wife by manifest sorcery, ‘causing her husband heat the coulter of his plough, and cool the same in water brought from Holywell of Hillside, thereafter making certain conjurations, crosses, and signs upon the water,’ which he caused the patient to drink. One of the items in the dittay was, ‘curing James Mudie, his wife and children, of the fever; in curing his wife, by causing ane great fire to be put on, and ane hole to be made in the north side of the house, and ane quick hen to be put furth thereat, at three several times, and ta’en in at the house-door witherships [contrary to the course of the sun]; thereafter taking the hen, and putting it under the sick woman’s oxter or arm, and therefra carrying it to the fire, where it was halden doun and burnt quick therein.’
The assize, having read the depositions of sundry parish ministers, and being ‘ripely advised,’ sentenced Thomas to be strangled at a stake and burnt.--Pit.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV. 30.]
‘... about nine hours at night, there appeared like a rainbow in the west, the moon shining clearly in the east, with some rain in the meantime, whereat many wondered.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1624.
JAN.]
From Martinmas of the preceding year to the end of January in the present, there was a hard continuous frost, which, after a slight thaw, was resumed, and lasted till the 23d of February. During this time, ‘eleven carts, with twenty-one puncheons of wine, came over upon the ice from Dundee here.’--Chron. Perth.
* * * * *
‘About the midst of Januar, four gentlemen of good credit, having gone out of Stirling some two miles or thereby, to pass their time, heard sensibly like the shots of many muskets, and after that, taking better heed, like the beating upon drums, and playing upon piffers and the sound of trumpets; and last of all, the shot of great cannons; so that for fear they went back again to the town, and reported what they had heard.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FEB. 18.]
[Sidenote: 1624.]
The Town Council of Aberdeen had occasion to consider an abuse which had lately crept into their burgh, in the form of ‘costly banqueting at the baptising of bairns,’ and the ‘convocating of great numbers of people thereto.’ It is mentioned that, on these occasions, there were ‘all sorts of succours [sugars], confections, spiceries, and dessert, brought from foreign parts, beside great superfluity of venison, and wild meat of all sorts ... and withal, extraordinary drinking and scolling [health-drinking] ... to the slander of the town, in sic a calamitous time, when God is visiting the whole land with dearth and famine, and mony poor anes [are] dying and starving at dykes and under stairs for cauld and hunger.’
The Council ordained that hereafter no person of whatever degree should have ‘mae than four gossips and four cummers at the maist’ at their baptisms, that not more than six women be invited ‘to convoy the bairn to and frae the kirk,’ and that twelve should be the utmost amount of company present ‘at the dinner, supper, or afternoon’s drink.’ All extravagances at table were at the same time strictly forbidden.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 25.]
The wappinshaw was a periodical muster of the irregular armed force of the country; it got its name from the more immediate purpose of the assembly--namely, an exhibition of weapons. At Dunfermline, on this day, while a wappinshaw was going on, ‘William Anderson, son till John Anderson, bailiff of the said town, and Charles Richeson, his servant, being shooting a shot with some of their friends in a certain place of the town, [a little piece of the lunt flieth upon a thack-house, which easily kindled. The fire increased with the violency of the wind[412]], and did flie from house to house, and sometimes wald flie over ane house without doing it any harm, but wald burn the next house, till the great admiration of all men; so that this fire burnt so meikle of the town, that, excepted the abbey and the kirk thereof, the tenth part were not free of it. This, by the judgment of all the beholders, was thought till have been some divinity, or some witchcraft, rather nor this foresaid accidental fire.’--Jo. H.
‘The fire began at twelve hours, and burnt the whole town, some few sclate houses excepted, before four afternoon; goods and geir within houses, malt and victual in kilns and barns, were consumed.’--Cal.
The town of Dunfermline consisted at this time of 120 houses, containing 287 families.--Bal.
There was a collection in the parish churches for ‘the support of the town of Dunfermline, burnt with fire’ (R. P. L.); and, in June 1625, King Charles I. ordered £500 sterling to be added to the fund for the relief of the poorer class of sufferers.--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY.]
[Sidenote: 1624.]
The Clan Chattan or MacIntosh, seated in the centre of Inverness-shire, were dependents of the Earls of Moray. None had entered more heartily into the revenge of the Bonny Earl’s death against the Marquis of Huntly, and for this service they had obtained certain lands from the Moray family. Now, that the Earl of Moray was reconciled with Huntly, he did not see any occasion longer to patronise or favour the MacIntoshes; so he attempted to remove them from the lands formerly conferred upon them. ‘This the Clan Chattan could hardly endure,’ says Sir Robert Gordon: about Whitsuntide, assembling five hundred men under their infant chief’s uncle, Lachlan MacIntosh [afterwards, by the by, a stout loyalist in the Civil War], ‘they keepit the fields in their Highland weed upon foot, with swords, bows, arrows, targets, hagbuts, pistols, and other Highland arms, and first began to rob and spulyie the earl’s tenants (who laboured their possessions) of their haill goods, geir, insight plenishing [household furniture], horse, nolt, sheep, corns, and cattle, and left them nothing that they could get within their bounds; syne fell in sorning throughout Moray, Stratherrick, Urquhart, Ross, Sutherland, Brae of Mar, and divers other parts, taking their meat and food perforce where they could not get it willingly, frae friends as well as frae their foes, yet still kept themselves from shedding of innocent blood.’
The Earl of Moray first brought a band of Monteith Highlanders against these marauders; but the expedition seems to have failed. Another enterprise of the same kind was no more successful. It was not till he went to London, and procured a power of lieutenancy in the north from the king, that he brought the MacIntoshes to subjection. The affair had a very characteristic ending. ‘Some slight loons [poor fellows], followers of the Clan Chattan, were execute; but the principal outbreakers and malefactors were spared and never troubled.’ Further, the ‘honest men’ who had disobeyed the order for refusing all supply to the MacIntoshes, being put to trial, the odd scene was presented of the criminals standing as witnesses against them; and while these culprits obtained pardon, their humane resetters ‘were soundly fined in as great sums as their estates might bear, and some above their estates were fined, and every one warded within the Tolbooth of Elgin, till the last mite was paid.’--Spal. ‘The fines were granted by his majesty to the Earl of Moray, as the fines for resetting the Clan Gregor were given to the Earl of Argyle; but these fines did not much advantage either of these two earls.’--G. H. S.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 10.]
[Sidenote: 1624.]
Dissent from the ‘comely order’ of church matters was still making itself apparent. We hear at this time of many people in Edinburgh holding private meetings for religious exercises, in contempt of the ordinary services of their regular pastors in the parish churches. ‘Like as they have assumed to these their seditious conventicles the name of Congregations, and done what in them lies falsely to impress on the hearts of his majesty’s people a persuasion that his majesty persecutes the sincere professors of true religion, and introduces corruption in the church-government.’ Considering how such practices ‘brought forth damnable sects of Anabaptists, Families of Love, Brownists, Arminians, Illuminati, and mony such pests, enemies to religion, authority, and peace, and occasions the murder of millions of people,’ the Privy Council thought proper to issue a proclamation, strictly forbidding all such meetings.
The Council had at the same time before them a set of Edinburgh citizens, partly the same as those whom the king had proposed to banish a few years before[413]--namely, William Rig of Aitherny, one of the bailies, John Hamilton, apothecary, John Mean, merchant, and John Dickson, ‘flesher’--who had again come into collision with the ecclesiastical authorities. At the usual congregational meeting before the celebration of the communion, Rig--‘puffed up,’ says Spottiswoode, ‘by a conceit of his own abilities’--took it upon him to challenge Dr Forbes ‘for sundry points of doctrine delivered by him in his sermons.’ Dr Forbes was a man of remarkable learning and dignity of character, for which reasons he was in time appointed bishop of Edinburgh by Charles I. It did not seem to him proper that he should be liable to the censure of a lay citizen, and he therefore declined to listen to the bailie. Rig then openly threatened the clergy, ‘that, unless they returned to the old form of administering the holy communion, the whole people would forsake them;’ and in this he was supported by his friends Mean, Hamilton, and Dickson. The Council took the affair up as an attempt to produce a schism in the church and a violation of the law. They answered, however--if we are to believe one of their own party--‘so wisely, punctually, and modestly, that the Council admired them.’ They were, nevertheless, to satisfy the king, sent to various prisons, as guilty of a misdemeanour. They ‘remained there, till by great dealing, pains, and moyen, they were relieved again.’--Row.
[Sidenote: 1624.]
William Rig and John Mean appear, from the report of their contemporary and friend, Mr John Livingstone, to have been earnest Christians of the evangelical type. Rig was ‘much exercised in spirit, and of great experience in the ways of God. I have been several times with him in private meetings, and observed that when he prayed, he began with bitter and heavy complaints and confession beyond any. He spent his income chiefly on pious uses.’ Mean ‘used both summer and winter to rise about three o’clock in the morning, and always, as he put on his clothes, he used to sing some part of a psalm, and then went to his closet, where he was employed in religious exercises till six. By that time, the rest of his family being got up, he worshipped with them, and then went to his shop. He was so much master of the Scripture, [that] though he had been half sleeping, he could have corrected readers if they miscalled or wrong cited ony scripture.’[414]
During the time when the king was pressing on the innovations in the church, dissentients of this kind were rising everywhere throughout the southern districts of Scotland, many of them lairds, a few of them nobles, but most of them belonging to the middle classes of society. Of the lairds, Livingstone enumerates Halhill (Fife), Crosshill (Lanarkshire), Cunningham-head, Cessnock, and Rowallan (Ayrshire). There was also a number of ladies, some of them of noble birth, who embraced and strongly held fast the evangelical views. Such were Margaret Countess of Wigton, Anne Marchioness of Hamilton, the Countess of Eglintoun, and Lady Loudon. For the time, these people, as well as the more earnest of the clergy, were kept silent under the frown of an imperious government, or made themselves but little heard; but the fire burned not the less intensely for being covered up; and when the time for resistance came, it was ready to break forth with the greater violence that it had been so long suppressed.
[Sidenote: 1624.
JULY 1.]
Almost as a matter of course, while these Presbyterian recusants were in hands, the state authorities took some order with papistry. John Gordon of Craig in Aberdeenshire had attracted their notice as ‘an excommunicat trafficking papist,’ who, not content with blaspheming the truth and its preachers himself, did all that he could to ‘withhold his people from coming to the kirk, boasting [threatening] some, and persuading others;’ thus, it is alleged, ‘he steirs up mony not weel satled in their religion to imitate him in his contemptuous and lawless proceedings, and in effect has cassen that pairt of the country lowss.’ The Council now charged Gordon to appear and answer for his offences. They likewise despatched an order to the magistrates of Aberdeen, for the routing up of a set of Catholics who for some time had been allowed to live peaceably there, commanding that they be taken and warded till further orders.--P. C. R. The government could calculate with tolerable security on the feeling of the great bulk of the people, that by thus striking a blow at popery, they would be allowed without much remonstrance to deal that severity towards puritanism which would frighten it from a troublesome opposition to the now semi-episcopalian establishment.
John Gordon of Craig was obliged for the time to leave the kingdom; but somehow the king was always forgiving to papists, and we accordingly find that in January 1625, having made submission and promised good behaviour in future, this ‘excommunicat trafficking papist’ was allowed to return to Scotland (P. C. R.), but not ultimately to rest there, as will hereafter be seen.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY 21.]
A Border thief, described as Adie Usher in Birkinhaugh, servant of Robert Elliot of Redheugh, was condemned and hanged at Edinburgh for sundry acts of cattle-stealing. In most of his proceedings he had been accompanied by his son, Willie Usher, a mere boy, who was also presented for trial, but spared on account of his youth.--Pit. After Willie Usher had spent some months in the Thieves’ Hole in Edinburgh, the Lords of the Privy Council received a complaint from him, ‘heavily regretting his hard estate and condition by his detention, thir mony owks bygane, miserably in ward in the Thieves’ Hole of Edinburgh, without possibility or mean to entertein himself, he being a young innocent boy not past the age of fourteen years, and his umwhile father having underlain his punishment and sufferit death for the crime laid to the said Willie’s charge.’ The Lords consequently ordered the magistrates ‘to attend the commodity of some ship going to the Low Countries,’ and see Willie set aboard thereof, ‘and mak intimation to the said Willie that if at ony time hereafter he sall return without licence, it sall be capital unto him.’--P. C. R.
[Sidenote: 1624.]
The master of Adie Usher seems to have been under suspicion of a concern in his delinquencies. In November, when about to fly from the city on account of infection, the Privy Council entered an order in the case of Lady Jean Stewart, whose husband, Robert Elliot of Redheugh, had been for some time a prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. She had represented ‘the utter distress, misery, and want whereunto she and her poor children are reduced, having contracted great debts and impandit her abulyiements and clothes for enterteinment of her husband in ward--and she is brocht to that pitch of necessity, that she has nowther means to live nor credit to afford him ony further supply.’ The Council ordered her a hundred merks for past charges, and granted her the sum of ‘threttein shillings and four pennies’ during pleasure--apparently meaning a daily allowance of 1s. 1-1/3d. sterling.--P. C. R.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 30.]
Poland is described as in this age swarming with Scotch pedlers. Its port, Dantzig, contained a number of settled merchants of a respectable order, some of whom were seen from time to time returning to their native country with considerable realised wealth. Formerly, the Scotch merchants at Dantzig, having a kind of rule and governance among themselves, lived in such a way as to secure the esteem of the people of the country. But latterly, ‘discipline being dissolved, the most part of them use such a dissolute form of living, that they are odious to the inhabitants, hurtful to themselves, and despised by strangers, to the great ignominy of the whole nation.’ There was also a continual immigration of multitudes of miserable, debauched, and weakly people from Scotland, including ‘exorbitant numbers of young boys and maids unfit for any service,’ reminding us of the overflowings of the Irish population into England, Scotland, and the United States of America in more recent days.[415] During this summer, owing, doubtless, to the pressure of the famine, this scandalous system had been carried to such a height, that the Scotch merchants were threatened with expulsion from the city. In this exigency, they wrote to the king, craving his intercession. Patrick Gordon, who acted as agent for the king in Dantzig, also wrote, apparently, at the same time, shewing how matters stood, and entreating that some order and rule should be established among his countrymen, as they should not otherwise be able much longer to withstand the strength of their enemies.[416]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV. 1.]
[Sidenote: 1624.]
The king wrote to the Earl of Mar, requesting him to send into Argyleshire and Glenorchy, for four or five couples of earth-dogs (terriers), which he was desirous of obtaining in order to transmit them to France. His majesty further requested ‘that ye have a special care that the oldest of them be not passing three years of age, and that ye send them not all in one ship, but some in one ship, and other some in another, lest one ship should miscarry.’[417]
The same Earl of Mar, having to spend the winter of 1631 in Stirling, and designing to amuse himself with fox-hunting, sent a letter to his cousin, the Laird of Glenurchy, entreating the favour of ‘a couple of good earth-dogs;’ and adding, what shews the importance of the favour, ‘I pray you use me as familiarly as I do you, for without ceremony, cousin, you shall not have a friend over whom ye have greater power than over me.’ P. S.--‘What ye send me, let it be good, although it be but one.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV. 2.]
There is at this time a glimpse of rationality regarding witchcraft in the public authorities, in as far as the Privy Council deemed it right to hesitate about the granting of commissions for the trial of persons charged with that crime. The Council had been troubled by the importunity of persons seeking for such commissions, and at the same time concerned to find that the informations on which the commissions were sought for ‘seemed to be very obscure and dark.’ As anxious for the truth, and to the intent that neither should the innocent be molested nor the guilty escape, they now arranged that all informations should henceforth pass through the hands of the bishop of the diocese, ‘to be seen and considered by him, and such of the ministry as he shall call unto him.’--P. C. R.
We have here a revelation of that doubt about the reality of witchcraft which is suspected to have lurked in the minds of all the principal official people throughout the seventeenth century. It was a time of comparative triumph for the established church. The bishops were not particularly in need of popularity. They could afford to be easy with both Romanists and necromancers. It was precisely in such circumstances that we could expect to find the chief administrative body letting slip a doubt as to the soundness of many of the alleged instances of sorcery lately subjected to trial.
[Sidenote: NOV. 23.]
[Sidenote: 1624.]
The pest, which had been for some time before in Holland, broke out ‘in sundry houses in Edinburgh, to the great terror of the whole town. It began in Paul Hay[418] a merchant’s house, a month before, and was not known till now; therefore the more dangerous, because hard to discern the clean from the unclean. Upon the last day of November, the president and other lords of Council and Session, meeting together, resolve to rise, and continue the session till the 8th of Januar.’--Cal.
One consequence of the occurrence of the pest at this time was, that the king’s design of enforcing a communion at Christmas, where all the people should kneel, was frustrated. Another result generally satisfactory was a relaxation of the severity against the Edinburgh citizens who were banished and imprisoned for opposing the new ceremonies. William Rig was allowed to leave his prison of Blackness, and remain for fifteen days with his wife at his house of Morton, where she was ‘very heavily visite with infirmity and sickness.’ Mean, having ‘a numerous family and his wife grit with child, and nane to have ane care for order-taking with them, how they sall be providit for and governit in this [time of] danger,’ was in like manner permitted to repair to Edinburgh, to see after them, and there remain till the 15th of January. So also John Hamilton was relieved from the Tolbooth to attend on his wife, who chanced to be in the same delicate condition as Mrs Mean. After all, ‘the pest raged not; few houses were infected with it; so that it appeared the chief end wherefore the Lord had sent it, was to disappoint the king by scattering the people.’--Cal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC.]
Amidst the alarms regarding the pest, people heard of a strange case of personal quarrel and vindictiveness. One William Hamilton, a soldier, son of the deceased William Hamilton, ‘called of Inchmachan,’ was lately come from the Low Countries, avowing ‘a settled purpose and resolution to appeal Captain Harie Bruce to the single combat, or otherwise to watch the opportunity to bereave him of his life.’ The Privy Council was obliged to take means for preventing a hostile collision.--P. C. R.
[Sidenote: DEC. 8.]
[Sidenote: 1624.]
The Privy Council readily apprehended that the prosecution of ‘this damnable and cruel intention’ would both breed danger to the parties and produce great trouble and controversy among their friends, to the disturbance of his majesty’s peace, if timous remeed be not provided. They therefore summoned the parties before them to give assurance of their good behaviour.
Deeming, as was formerly remarked, anything that illustrates the progress of the arts as worthy of notice in this record, though perhaps trifling in itself, we may advert to Mr Alexander Hamilton, brother to the secretary Earl of Melrose, as having now obtained a patent of twenty-one years for a new cart invented by him, ‘wherein greater weight and burdens may with far less force be drawn, and conveniently carried, than hath been done with ony other kind of cart hitherto known or heretofore used.’[419]
‘Sandy Hamilton,’ or ‘Dear Sandy,’ as he was called, was a man of note on account of his skill in some of the useful arts, particularly in those connected with the munitions of war. He practised these arts for some time in Germany, whence he was recalled to England, where the king granted him pensions and allowances to the amount of £800 sterling per annum. When the Civil War broke out, he joined his countrymen, and helped to fit out the Covenanting army of 1640 with a species of short but effective gun, which was carried slung between two horses, and the serviceableness of which was proved at the battle of Newburn-ford, when the Scots crossed the Tyne in the face of the enemy and became masters of Newcastle.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1624.]
In this year we have the latest known notice of a woman of extraordinary attainments who had lived for many years in Edinburgh, practising an art in which she was long after pronounced to have never been excelled. Caligraphy, or the art of beautiful writing, was in greater vogue in the seventeenth century than in our more utilitarian days. Under what circumstances Esther Inglis, a Frenchwoman residing in the Scottish capital, came to give her days to so laborious an art, we do not learn. Neither are we aware how it was that Esther came to live in the Scottish capital. There, however, we find her, so early as 1599, writing one of the little manuscript volumes which have given her celebrity. This book, preserved in the Bodleian Library, is entitled Les Proverbes de Salomon, escrites en diverses sortes de Lettres, par Esther Anglois, Françoise. A Lislesbourg en Ecosse. 1599. ‘This delicate performance,’ says Ballard,[420] ‘gains the admiration of all who see it; every chapter is wrote in a different hand; as is the dedication, and some other things at the beginning of the book, which makes near forty several sorts of hands. The beginnings and endings of the chapters are adorned with most beautiful head and tail pieces, and the margins are elegantly decorated with the pen, in imitation, I suppose, of the beautiful old manuscripts. The book is dedicated to the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth’s great favourite. At the beginning are his arms, neatly drawn, with all its quarterings--in number fifty-six. In the fifth leaf is her own picture, done with the pen, in the habit of that time. In her right hand, a pen, the left resting upon a book opened; in one of the leaves of which is written De l’Eternel le bien: de moi le mal, ou rien. On the table before her there is likewise a music-book lying open, which perhaps intimates that she had some skill in that art. Under the picture is an epigram in Latin, made by Andrew Melvin; and on the next page another, composed by the same author, which is as follows:
Æmula naturæ manus exprimit una figuras Mille, animans pictis Signa pusilla notis, Signa creans animata, polûm spirantia signa: Quæ picturata margine limbus obit. Mirum opus: at mage mira Manus; mira omnia vincit Mens manui moderans, dum manus urget opus.
ANDRÆUS MELVINUS.
Thus translated into English:
One hand dame nature’s mimic does express Her larger figures, to the life, in less. In the rich border of her work do stand, Afresh created by her curious hand, The various signs and planets of the sky, Which seem to move and twinkle in our eye. Much we the work, much more the hand admire, Her fancy guiding this does raise our wonder higher.
Another of Esther’s transcripts was entitled Historiæ Memorabiles Genesis, 1600. A copy of the French Psalms, written by her, and presented to Queen Elizabeth, is in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. There is also in the Bodleian a manuscript of hers, entitled Les Vingts et Six Quatrains de Guy de Faur, Sieur de Pybrac, escrits par Esther Inglis, pour son dernier Adieu, ce 21 Jour de Juin 1617. It seems to have been a gift to the celebrated Dr Hall--subsequently Bishop of Norwich--on parting from him at the time of the king’s visit to Scotland. The latest known of Esther’s works is a volume preserved in the Royal Library, Esther Inglis’s Fifty Emblems, dated at Edinburgh 1624.
[Sidenote: 1624.]
When the king was at Stirling, Esther’s son presented to him a little book entitled Sidus Celeste, and he experienced some of James’s good-natured patronage in consequence. In June 1620, Esther is found addressing the king in behalf of this son, who, having completed a school-course, ‘would gladly follow theology.’ But ‘as Dædalus was not able to free himself of his imprisonment in the isle Creta but by the help of wings made of pens and wax, even so my son is not able to free himself of inability to effectuate this his affection, but by the wings of your majesty’s letter, composed by pen and wax, through which he may wing his flight happily to some fellowship, either in Cambridge or Oxford, as occasion sall fall out.’ If so far favoured by his majesty, ‘I may have my tossed mind relieved of the great care I have perpetually for this said youth.’--An. Scot.
Ballard states, on the authority of a memorandum of Hearne, the antiquary, that Esther Inglis was married to a Scotsman, named Bartholomew Kello, and had a son, named Samuel Kello, who was educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, and was afterwards minister at Speckshall, in Suffolk.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1625.
MAR.]
‘At this time arose great discontentment betwixt the provost, bailies, and council of Edinburgh, and their ministers, because the ministers had procured the king’s letter and direction to the magistrates and council, for augmentation of their yearly stipends. They were not content with twelve hundred merks for every one, beside their house mail [rent], which was more than their predecessors, worthier than they, had, but importunately craved two thousand. The people,’ says the zealous Presbyterian historian, ‘detested them for their ambition, their avarice, and malice at honest and godly professors. They were well fingerfed in other men’s houses, howbeit they had sufficient to maintain them at home.’--Cal.
In June 1626, Charles I. enjoined the magistrates to give each of their ministers £100 sterling of yearly stipend, with a free house.--Bal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 30.]
[Sidenote: 1625.]
The news of the death of King James--which occurred on the 27th of March--reached Edinburgh on the 30th, at the outbreak of a storm of extraordinary violence which raged along the whole coast, destroying much shipping, and throwing down several harbours. ‘The water raise above the harbour of Leith, and ran into the houses of the town; yea, the boats and barks within the same floated so above the shore, that some of them were cast away upon the sides of the houses; and great ships therein could not be keepit, with all their anchors and cables, from doing great skaith, ilk ane to ane other, whereof the like was never heard tell of in our days. Sundry mariners, keeping their ships [fra] skaith, were hurt themselves, and in special James Langlands and Robert Dury, two masters of ships, very expert in that art, were baith cast away, working for the relief of their awn ships.’--Jo. H.
‘The like harm was done in sundry other parts upon the coast along the Firth, in Saltpreston, Kirkcaldy, Ardross, and other parts. Salt-pans were overthrown, ships and boats broken, coal-heughs beside Culross drowned. The like of this tempest was not seen in our time, nor the like of it heard in this country in any age preceding. It was taken by all men to be a forerunner of some great alteration. And, indeed, the day following--to wit, the last of March--sure report was brought hither from court, that the king departed this life, the Lord’s day before, the 27th of March.’--Cal.
This was long after remembered as the storm of the Borrowing Days, such being a popular appellation for the last three days of March, as expressed in a well-known popular rhyme. It is a proverbial observation of the weather, which seems to be justified by fact, the bad weather being connected with the vernal equinox.
END OF VOL. I.
Edinburgh: Printed by W. and R. Chambers.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] ‘A man of science as well as of philosophic mind would employ himself well in examining those accounts of prodigies in the early annalists and chroniclers, which of late years have been regarded as only worthy of contempt.’--SOUTHEY--Omniana, i. 266.
[2] De Fratribus Minoribus nulla est quæstio, professi siquidem simulatam paupertatem, nulla prædia, nullos fundos habent; sed sub prætextu pietatis ex interceptis testamentis, et stultæ pietatis zelo, ditissimi facti sunt: quod ex eventu, post infelicem pugnam de Flodden, compertum est: nam qui eo pugnaturi proficiscebantur, nisi confessione facta remissionem a Fratribus Minoribus impetrassent, omnia mala ominabantur. Interea omnem pecuniam, monumenta, et si quid pretiosum alioqui habebant, eorum fidei committebant, sperantes, se mortuis, illos ea quæ credebantur omnia fide integra posteris suis restituros: at illi, eorum qui in prælio occubuerunt, nec fidem reposcere poterant, bona in fundi comparatione, et ecclesiæ et monasterii exstructione ad sui ordinis homines convertebant: nec aliter accidit in acie Pinquini.--Craig, Jus Feudale, lib. i.
[3] Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, ii., 309, 310.
[4] As often as I turn my eyes to the niceness and elegance of our own times, the ancient manners of our forefathers appear sober and venerable, but withal rough and horrid.--Buchanan: De Jure Regni, as quoted by Dugald Stewart in Preliminary Dissertation, Encyclopædia Britannica.
[5] This phrase occurs in an order of the provost of Edinburgh (Earl of Arran), dated 1518, excusing Francis Bothwell from taking the part of Little John.--Napier’s Life of Napier of Merchiston, p. 53.
[6] See the Rev. Joseph Hunter’s tract, The Ballad Hero Robin Hood, 1852; making it at length tolerably certain that the outlaw lived in the reign of Edward II, and for a short time held office in that king’s household.
[7] Arnot’s History of Edinburgh.
[8] Scots Acts, 1555.
[9] Persons in the employment of the craftsmen; journeymen.
[10] From a sculpture on the Magdalen Chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh.
[11] Refreshment at 4 o’clock afternoon. Latterly, the term has been applied to tea-drinking.
[12] A road in the line of the present Princes Street.
[13] Knox says she frowned here, and gave the books to Arther Erskine, the captain of her guard, ‘the maist pestilent papist within the realm.’
[14] Anti-tune, antiphone, or response.
[15] Notes to Ancient Scottish Poems from the Bannatyne Manuscript, 1770.
[16] From a unique copy of this tract a reprint was given by Mr John Robertson to the Bannatyne Club, 1833.
[17] See under October 1570; also April 5, 1603.
[18] Comedy of Errors, Act III. sc. 2.
[19] In July 1538, there is an entry in the treasurer’s books, of 14s. ‘to Alexander Naper for mending of the Queen’s sadill and her cheriot, in Sanct Androis.’ In January 1541-2, there is another: ‘To mend the Quenis cheriot vi-1/4 elnis blak velvet, £16, 17s. 6d.’ Besides something for cramosie, satin, and fringes.
[20] History of the Family of Mackenzie, MS. in possession of J. W. Mackenzie, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh.
[21] A tract containing the disputation was printed by Lekprivik in 1563, and has been republished, Edinburgh, George Ramsay & Co., 1812. Dr M‘Crie, in his Life of John Knox, gives an ample abstract of this curious pamphlet.
[22] Randolph to Cecil, Edin. Nov. 30, 1562. Chalmers’s Life of Queen Mary.
[23] Edin. Council Register, apud Maitland.
[24] In England, the spring of 1562 had been marked by excessive rains, and the harvest was consequently bad. Towards the end of the year, plague broke out in the crowded and harassed population of Havre, in France, then undergoing a siege, and from the garrison it was imparted to England, which had been prepared for its reception by the famine. There it prevailed throughout the whole year 1563, carrying off 20,000 persons in London alone. ‘The poor citizens,’ says Stowe, ‘were this year plagued with a threefold plague--pestilence, dearth of money, and dearth of victuals; the misery whereof were too long here to write. No doubt the poor remember it.’ On account of the plague at Michaelmas, no term was kept, and there was no lord-mayor’s dinner! The plague spread into Germany, where it was estimated to have carried off 300,000 persons.
[25] See notes to Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel.
[26] This curious contract is printed entire in Pitcairn, iii. 390.
[27] Scott’s notes, ut supra.
[28] There is a place called Tarlair near Banff.
[29] Nicol Burne’s Disputation, p. 143.
[30] While Drury lay before the castle, Lord Fleming entered into a hostile correspondence with Sir George Carey, one of Elizabeth’s officers. This is given in Holinshed’s Chronicle.
[31] Mr Pennant, from whom the above translation is borrowed, says, by a strange mistake, ‘on one of the deer.’
[32] William Barclay, De Regno et Regali Potestate adversus Monarchomachos. Parisiis, 1600. This author was a native of Aberdeenshire, but finally settled at Angers, in France, as Professor of Civil Law in the University there. He died in 1604.
Bishop Geddes, in introducing this extract from Barclay’s forgotten work to the notice of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland (1782), remarks that a still more grand entertainment of the same kind was given in 1529 to King James V., his mother, Queen Margaret, and the pope’s legate, by the then Earl of Athole, and that an account of the affair has been preserved in Lindsay of Pitscottie’s History of Scotland. The venerable bishop adds: ‘Need I take notice that the hunting described by Barclay bears some resemblance to the batidas of the present king of Spain, where several huntsmen form a line and drive the deer through a narrow pass, at one side of which the king, with some attendants, has his post, in a green but of boughs, and slaughters the poor animals as they come out almost as fast as charged guns can be put into his hand and he fire them. These are things sufficiently known; and the same manner of stag-hunting is practised in Italy, Germany, and other parts of Europe.’[421]
[33] Gunn’s Historical Enquiry respecting the Harp in the Highlands. 1807.
[34] Agnes Strickland’s Life of Queen Mary.
[35] Archæologia Scotica, ii. 287.
[36] Richard Bannatyne’s Memorials, p. 238.
[37] Dalyell’s Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 130.
[38] Walter Goodall and Miss Agnes Strickland have been misled by the description of the place in Bothwell’s Act of Forfeiture--‘ad pontes, vulgo vocatos foulbriggs‘--into the belief that the queen was seized at the suburb of Edinburgh formerly called Foulbriggs, and now Fountain Bridge. In reality, the expression in the Act, rightly translated, applies to the place indicated in the Diurnal of Occurrents--‘at the Briggs, commonly called Foulbriggs,’ the syllable foul being presumably a vulgar casual addition which the ancient marshy condition of the place rendered appropriate. All the other contemporary writers place the scene of the seizure at the Almond--Buchanan, Birrel, and Herries--while Sir James Melville, who was one of the party seized, says ‘betwixt Linlithgow and Edinburgh’--an expression he could scarcely have used if the fact had happened close to the city. In Ane Chronicle of the Kings of Scotland, printed by the Maitland Club, and apparently contemporary, the brig of Awmont is the locality assigned. But the most powerful evidence on the subject, and what sets the matter at rest, is a Remission under the Privy Seal, of date October 1, 1567, to Andrew Redpath, for his being concerned in ‘besetting the queen’s way ... near the water of Awmond, and for taking and ravishing her,’ &c. It may be remarked that there is no evidence of the suburb alluded to by Miss Strickland having been called Foulbriggs, or having existed at all, at that time, while we have proof of the existence of a place on the Almond Water, under the name of the Briggs, long before this time. In the Register of the Privy Seal is ‘ane lettre maid to Robert Hamilton in Briggis, makand him capitane and kepar of the place and palace of Linlithgow,’ &c. 1543, Aug. 22.
[39] Privy Seal Register.
[40] Carries.
[41] Nickname.
[42] Garret.
[43] Searches.
[44] Thievery.
[45] Ere.
[46] Till.
[47] Ancient Scottish Poems, 2 vols. 1786.
[48] Border Minstrelsy, i. 157.
[49] Burgh Record of Canongate, Maitland Club Mis., ii. 303.
[50] Babees, halfpence, from bas billon, a low piece of money.
[51] Hume’s Hist. House of Douglas.
[52] Privy Seal Register.
[53] Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes in Scotland. Written in 1619. Bannatyne Club, 1825.
[54] Holinshed’s Chronicle.
[55] The original, preserved in the General Register House, is printed at length in Pitcairn, iii. 394.
[56] Privy Seal Register.
[57] Council Register, quoted in Maitland’s History of Edinburgh, p. 32.
[58] Ane Breve Descriptioun of the Pest, &c. 1568.
[59] Mr M. Napier’s Notes to Spottiswoode’s History, Spot. Club edition.
[60] Where Napier had other estates.
[61] The bishop was about to go to York, to attend the investigation respecting the queen.
[62] Justiciary Records, MS., Adv. Lib., quoted by Mr Mark Napier.
[63] Burgh Records of Canongate, Mait. Club Mis., ii. 313.
[64] The pest was severe in London in autumn 1569, whether by communication from Scotland does not appear.
[65] Ane Addicioun of Scottis Cornicklis and Deidis, printed from an original manuscript by Thomas Thomson, Esq.
[66] Memorials of George Bannatyne. Edited by Sir Walter Scott. Bannatyne Club-book, 1829.
[67] Extracts from Canongate Council Register, Maitland Club Miscellany, ii. 814.
[68] Ane Trajedie in forme of ane Diallog betwix Honour, Gude Fame, and the Authour heirof, in ane Trance. Lekprevik, 1570.
[69] Dalyell’s Illustrations of Scottish History, p. 521.
[70] Harrison’s translation, apud Holinshed.
[71] Extracta e Chronicis Scocie. Edin. 1842.
[72] Sir William Sinclair, who records these curious particulars, was Lord Justice-general of Scotland, and altogether an estimable person. According to Father Hay: ‘He gathered a great many manuscripts, which had been taken by the rabble out of our monasteries in the time of the Reformation.’--Genealogy of the Sinclairs of Roslin, edited by James Maidment, Esq. 1835. See something further about him under June 1623.
[73] The distance from Bathgate to Edinburgh is eighteen miles.
[74] Bannatyne’s Journal, 46.
[75] Calderwood, iii. 20, 167, and note.
[76] The couplet almost verbatim occurs in the prophecies of Bertlingtoun, in R. Waldegrave’s brochure, already quoted (under Jan. 1, 1561-2):
‘However it happen for to fall, The Lyon shall be lord of all.’
[77] Eupham M‘Calyean subsequently attained still higher notoriety in the character of a witch. See under Dec. 26, 1590.
[78] The whole series is printed in Abbotsford Miscellany, p. 5.
[79] Crawford’s Memoirs, 215.
[80] The Lady Scotland is understood to address ‘the richt honorable and godly learnit gentleman, the Laird of Dun, minister of God’s word.’
[81] Bruised.
[82] He ‘wes extremelie pynit in the beitis lang of befoir.’--D. O.
[83] Calderwood, iii. 393.
[84] The word its did not then exist, and writers were forced to use either his or her instead.
[85] Humboldt’s Cosmos.
[86] Brewster’s Encyclopædia.
[87] Tytler, vii. 388.
[88] Under the care of John Smith, youngest, the secretary of the Club. 1832.
[89] So called ‘for that in old Fathers’ days the people would that day shear their heads and clip their beards, and so make them honest against Easter Day.’--Authority quoted in Brand’s Pop. Antiquities, by Ellis.
[90] ‘Robert Gurlay, the duke’s servant,’ is the last in the list of persons forfeited by the parliament of James VI., August 1571.
[91] Calderwood.
[92] Register of the General Kirk of Edinburgh, Maitland Club Mis., i. 101.
[93] Reg. of Gen. Kirk of Edinburgh, Maitland Club Mis., i. 111.
[94] As this conduct was such as might lead to a collision between the parties, it is not easy to see how it illustrates the author’s proposition of Wedderburn’s pacific temper.
[95] From a copy in the editor’s possession of a manuscript long preserved in Broomhouse, Berwickshire.
[96] ‘There was presented to the Queen Regent (1558), by Robert Ormiston, a calf having two heads, whereat she scripped [mocked], and said: “It was but a common thing.”‘--Knox.
[97] Coloured stripes sewed on a garment.
[98] Fringes or trimmings.
[99] This seems too high a phrase of compliment for the Regent Morton. His Grace was the ordinary phrase, according to Sir James Melville.
[100] Aberdeen Council Register, Spal. Cl. Mis. i. 30.
[101] Abbotsford Miscellany, 45.
[102] Hist. of the House of Douglas, ii. 260.
[103] The wife of the earl--Margaret Fleming, relict of the Master of Montrose and the Master of Erskine--was believed to have the powers of incantation. See under June 19, 1566.
[104] The seat of the Earl of Montrose, on the skirts of the Ochil Hills.
[105] Crawford’s Officers of State. Moysie’s Memoirs.
[106] As much as to say, ‘Sport, and be at your ease.’
[107] Moysie.
[108] Calderwood.
[109] Arranged--not lying as rubbish.
[110] Documents Relative to Royal Receptions, 4to. Edinburgh, 1822.
[111] Maitland Club Miscellany, ii. 19.
[112] General Assembly, April 1578.
[113] A house called the Novum Hospitium, in the Priory Park. It has long been demolished, excepting only the court-gate.
[114] Atkinson’s Discoverie of Gold Mynes in Scotland.
[115] Trans. Ant. Soc. Scot. iii. 312.
[116] Row’s History of the Kirk of Scotland.
[117] The original of this document, commonly called the King’s Confession, is preserved in the Advocates’ Library.
[118] See under May 1574.
[119] Fr. clientèle, dependents.
[120] This Scotch law-phrase has become familiar in England, under the form of ‘art and part,’ and is not in general correctly understood. The first word is not art, but airt, meaning direction, implying that the accused was believed to have counselled and guided the actual perpetrators of the crime.
[121] Powerfully.
[122] A strange thing.
[123] See under Jan. 1, 1561-2.
[124] For the above illustrations of his remark, the author is indebted to Mr Mark Napier’s curious notes to the edition of Spottiswoode’s History published by the Spottiswoode Club.
[125] ‘Item, to ane pyper and ane young boy his sone that playit in Dalkeytht upon Sonday the xj day of Junii, fra the kirk to the castell befoir his Hienes ... xx_s._‘
[126] A noteworthy anecdote of this lady is stated in Anderson’s History of the Family of Fraser. On the death of her first husband, the tutorship of her infant son, Lord Lovat, became a matter of contention between the child’s grand-uncle, Fraser of Struie, and his uncle Thomas; and it seemed likely there would be a fight between their various partisans. In these circumstances, a clerical gentleman of the clan, Donald Fraser Dhu, entreated the widow to interfere, and ask Struie to retire. She gave an evasive reply, remarking that whatever might befall, ‘not a drop of Stewart blood would be spilt.’ The mediator then drew his dirk, and told her ladyship with a fierce oath, that her blood would be the first that would be spilt, if she did not do as he requested. She then complied, and Thomas, the child’s uncle, was accordingly elected as tutor.
[127] Calderwood.
[128] Melville’s Diary.
[129] He states that David Riccio was buried by the queen in the royal vault, ‘almost in the arms of Magdalene Valois,’ and thence draws a shameful inference against the chastity of Mary. To dedicate to the young king a book in which he endeavoured to prove his mother an adulteress, and the murderer of her husband, gives a strange idea of the sense of that age regarding the rules of good taste, to say nothing more.
[130] On this occasion Captain Lammie was killed. Sir Walter Scott, in relating the incident in the Border Minstrelsy, expresses a hope that he was ‘the same miscreant who, in the day of Queen Mary’s distress, “his ensign being of white taffety, had painted on it the cruel murder of King Henry, and laid down before her majesty, at what time she presented herself as prisoner to the Lords.”--Birrel’s Diary.’ It was very probably so, as we find that he then, as well as now, was a hired soldier of the government. As his painted ensign makes rather a conspicuous appearance in Scottish history, it may be not unworthy of notice that the following entry occurs in the Lord Treasurer’s books, under March 18, 1567-8, nine months after the incident in question: ‘To Captain Andro Lambie for his expenses passand of Glasgow to Edinburgh to uplift certain men of weir, and to mak ane Handsenyie of white taffety, £25.’ He was then acting for the Regent Moray. It seems probable that, having spoiled his ensign by the picture of the king’s murder, he was now gratified with a new one at the expense of his employer.
[131] In the parish of Carluke, Lanarkshire.
[132] He remained at this fine old castle twelve days, attended by Arran, Sir Robert Melville, Secretary Maitland, Ferniehirst, Colonel Stuart, and the Master of Gray; and regaled with ‘the play of Robin Hood.’ ‘After the banquet was ended, Arran fell deadly sick.’--Cal.
[133] History of King James VI.
[134] Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 484.
[135] Note in Maitland Club Miscellany, iv. 123.
[136] Gregory’s History of the Western Highlands and Isles, p. 234.
[137] Estate--piece of ground.
[138] Threatens.
[139] A horn had originally, or perhaps was still used, in proclaiming a man rebel; hence the term, horning, or being put to the horn.
[140] October ... 1587, ‘his majesty raid with ane host to Peebles, for order-taking with the broken men, and returnit the tent day.’--Moysie’s Memoirs.
[141] It is understood that this was the place of worship formed out of the choir or eastern portion of the church of St Giles. Opposite to the pulpit, which was attached to the first pillar from the east end, was the royal gallery or loft, also attached to a pillar. Thus the king and the minister were sufficiently near each other for the colloquies in which they occasionally indulged. See Wilson’s Memorials of Edinburgh.
[142] Harrington’s Nugæ Antiquæ, by Park. 2 vols. 1804. Vol. i., p. 369.
[143] A light bark with one mast.
[144] Rascal.
[145] Worthless fellows.
[146] Value.
[147] A bulk, a corpse.
[148] A gun in the poop of the ship.
[149] Discharged.
[150] Maitland Club Miscellany, i. 276.
[151] Transverse.
[152] It is to be feared that Abacuck was a person of a litigious and troublesome temper. A complaint was made against him before the Privy Council by Kenneth M‘Kenzie of Kintail, to the effect that Bisset had purchased letters to force Kenneth to produce a clansman named Rory M‘Allister M‘Kenzie, alleged to be at the horn for default in a civil cause. It was alleged that, knowing that on the case being called, he (Kenneth) could shew many good arguments for exonerating himself of this responsibility, Bisset had delayed the calling, in hopes of being able to do it when Kenneth should not be at hand to make his own defence. The matter being brought fully before the Lords in the presence of parties, it was decreed that Kenneth should be absolved from the duty implied in Bisset’s letters.--P. C. R.
In July 1608, Abacuck was involved in a still worse-looking affair. He was charged before the Privy Council with having prosecuted Mr William Reid, of Aberdeen, in a malicious manner at law, from no cause but that of ‘some little eleist’ fallen out between him and Andrew Reid, brother of William, in which the said William had no interest. He had also traduced William Hay in regard to the propriety of his marriage, though it was well known to be ‘an honest and famous marriage.’ The Council found the charge just, and commanded Abacuck’s proceedings to be stopped.
[153] Melville Diary, 291.
[154] The conduct of the clergy on this occasion is defended, but in rather subdued terms, by Dr M‘Crie, Life of Andrew Melville, i. 395.
[155] Statistical Acc. of Scot. ed. 1845, v. 258.
[156] A leek (Fr. cibolle).
[157] Maitland Club Mis., i. 278.
[158] See the entire letter in Blackwood’s Magazine, ii. 313.
[159] Chronicle Kings of Scotland.
[160] Moysie’s Memoirs.
[161] Act of Privy Council, Notes to Waverley Novels (Legend of Montrose).
[162] James Melville’s Diary.
[163] In this article, both editions of Moysie are used.
[164] Birrel’s Diary.
[165] Latterly called the West Bow.
[166] A public weighing-machine at the head of the West Bow.
[167] Johnston’s Hist. Scot. MS.
[168] From the reprint of a rare contemporary tract, in Papers relative to the Marriage of James VI. (Bannatyne Club), 1828.
[169] Regals, or rigols, an ancient musical instrument, composed of a series of reeded tubes resting on a bellows, which the player worked with his left hand. See Dalyell’s Musical Memoirs of Scotland, 1849, p. 117.
One is at a loss to understand how the poet thought of expressing his admiration of the strings of the organ and regals.
[170] Burel’s Description of the Queen’s Entry, &c., 1590, in Watson’s Collection of Scottish Poetry, 1712.
[171] Johnston’s Hist. Scot. MS.
[172] Edin. Council Record.
[173] Maitland Club Misc., i. 280.
[174] The entire letter is printed in Blackwood’s Magazine, ii. 628, and in the Caldwell Papers.
[175] Calderwood.
[176] ‘Wha were lately pardonit by his majesty for slaughter of the Laird of Dawick’s son.’
[177] Mr C. Innes’s preface to Black Book of Taymouth, xxv.
[178] Anderson’s Hist. of the Frasers, p. 102.
[179] See onward, under May 1600.
[180] See onward, under August 1618.
[181] Britain’s Distemper, by Patrick Gordon, Spald. Club.
[182] Tytler’s History, quoting letters in the State-paper Office.
[183] This lady did not long enjoy the position of a duchess. She died on the 11th of May 1592, and was ‘buried in the Trinity College, in the east end thereof, very solemnly.’--Jo. Hist. When the Trinity College Church was taken down, that its site might form part of a railway station, the remains of a female, believed to be those of the royal foundress, Mary de Gueldres, were found in a side-aisle, and duly re-interred in the royal sepulchre at Holyrood. Afterwards, the remains of another female, who had apparently been buried under circumstances of distinction, were found in the east end of the church, and suspected by some to be the remains of the queen. The probability is, that these latter remains were those of the youthful Sophia Ruthven, Duchess of Lennox.
[184] May 19, 1591, the town-council of Aberdeen made arrangements for the support of one Robert Abell, who was ‘visited with leprosy, and thereby unable to win his living or frequent honest men’s society.’ He was placed in the house here described.--Ab. C. R. In 1612, the magistrates made the like provision for Agnes Jameson, spouse to Patrick Jack, ‘vexed and diseased with the sickness of leprosy,’ although she was not born and bred in the burgh.
[185] Edin. Council Record. See Professor Simpson’s curious Notices of Leprosy in Scotland, Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, No. 149.
[186] Now La Mancha.
[187] It will be found that the body of the Bonny Earl remained above ground for six years, probably with a view to keeping up the popular indignation against his murderers. (See under February 16, 1597-8.)
[188] It is necessary to distinguish this from the murder of another Laird of Brackla in 1667, on which a ballad has been composed. See Jamieson’s Northern Ballads.
[189] In a memoir of the family of Grant, written by Mr James Chapman, minister of Cromdale, in 1729, and preserved in the Macfarlane Collections in the Advocates’ Library, there is a curious traditionary anecdote, which the writer connects with the murder of the Laird of Brackla, and yet dates in 1540. It is given in the following terms: ‘[James Laird of Grant, called Shemus nan Creagh, or James the Ravager] distinguished himself in assisting the Earl of Huntly, his cousin, against the insults of several enemies, and particularly in revenging the murder of Gordon Baron of Brackla, on Dee water-side, who was murdered by the countrymen there. The revenge went such a length, that above sixscore orphans were left in the desolate country on Deeside, nobody knowing who their parents were. These miserable orphans were, out of pity and commiseration, carried by the Earl of Huntly into his castle, where they were maintained and fed thus. A long trough of wood was made, wherein was put pottage or any other kind of food allowed them; and the young ones, sitting round about the trough, did eat their meat out of it as well as they could. The Laird of Grant visiting the earl, was, for diversion’s sake, brought to see the orphans slabbing at the trough; which comical sight so surprised him, that he proposed to carry one-half of them to Balcastle, alleging that, having a hand in destroying their parents, he was bound in justice to take a concern in their preservation and maintenance. Those of them that were brought to Castle-Grant are to this day called Slioch Namor--that is, the Posterity of the Trough.’ As Shemus nan Creagh died in 1553, and the Grants were not engaged on the Earl of Huntly’s side on this occasion, but participated with their relatives and allies the Mackintoshes in suffering from his vengeance, it may be presumed that this barbarous tale refers to the date assigned for it by Chapman--namely, a period fully fifty years earlier than the murder of the Laird of Brackla. It has nevertheless been introduced by Sir Walter Scott in his Tales of a Grandfather, as applicable to the reign of James VI.; and the reader who turns it up there, may experience some amusement in contrasting its ample and picturesque details with the simple original anecdote as above narrated.
[190] The Earl of Angus in this anecdote was a Protestant, and succeeded by the earl noticed in the preceding article, who was of the ancient faith.
[191] Fairnyear, the last year: the phrase means, formerly a lord.
[192] Andrew Wauchope of Niddry, and John Hamilton, younger, of Samuelston.
[193] The king, probably from recollection of some incident of their early school-days, used to recognise the grave earl by the name of Jock o’ Sklaitts.
[194] The above anecdote was communicated to me by Sir Walter Scott in 1827, immediately after he had derived it from the Earl of Haddington (Earl Charles), to whom, I suppose, it had come through his predecessors, the descendants of Lord Mar’s brother-statesman, Thomas, first Earl of Haddington.
[195] Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI. Abbotsford Club Series. 1838. P. 16.
[196] Calderwood. History of James VI. Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials. Gregory’s History of the Western Highlands and Isles.
[197] This interlined in the manuscript in a different hand. Another report is, that Lord Maxwell was slain by Willie Johnston, nephew of the Galliard, mentioned under July 22, 1593.
[198] G. L. Meason’s preface to Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes of Scotland. Bannatyne Club. 1825.
[199] Archæologia Scotica, iv. 404.
[200] Napier’s Life of Napier of Merchiston.
[201] Another writer represents the Master of Montrose as setting upon Sir James Sandilands.
[202] The writer of this curious story speaks of the form of the funeral as rare.
[203] Council Register in Maitland.
[204] Patrick Anderson’s History MS. He adds: ‘I was at the time by chance an eye-witness myself.’
[205] Hist. K. Ja. 6.
[206] March 16, 1575-6, John Macmoran, messenger, reported to the Privy Council, that in January last, when using his office in execution of letters upon Patrick M‘Kie, burgess of Wigton, he had been set upon by Alexander M‘Kie of Myreton and his two brothers, who cruelly struck and chased him, giving him despiteful words, and threatening him with worse if he ever again came there in a professional capacity. The offenders, failing to appear on call to answer for this outrage, were put to the horn.--P. C. R.
[207] See ante, p. 143.
[208] Lady Yester in her widowhood founded a church in Edinburgh, which has perpetuated her name. Her ladyship, after the above date, brought Lord Yester two sons, the elder of whom earned on the line of the family, and was the first Earl of Tweeddale.
[209] Patrick Anderson’s Hist. MS. Genealogy of the Hays of Tweeddale.
[210] Thrown down.
[211] For the ballad of Kinmont Willie, and many particulars of the affair, see Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
[212] Napier’s Life of Napier, 4to, p. 247.
[213] Wood’s Peerage, quoting Urquhart.
[214] Cockalane--Fr. coq-à-l’âne, defined in the dictionary of the Academy, ‘Discours qui n’a point de suite, de liaison, de raison.’ Equivalent to the English phrase, a cock-and-bull story. The word occurs in at least one English author--Etheridge.
[215] Through his connection with the Lovat family, his wife being the mother of the present Lord Lovat, he was sheltered for some time in a small island in the lake of Bruiach, a few miles from Beaufort Castle.--Anderson’s Hist. Acc. Fraser Family, p. 90, note.
[216] Spottiswoode, iii. 40. Johnston’s Hist. Scot. MS. Scott’s Staggering State of Scots Statesmen.
[217] He was put to the horn, and an edict of Privy Council denounced those who should ‘reset’ him.
[218] Letter of Sir Thomas Hamilton, king’s advocate, Pitcairn, iii. 162.
[219] History of the Kennedies, 27.
[220] Letter above cited.
[221] The resemblance of this case to the phenomena of what is called electro-biology will be apparent.
[222] The original documents regarding these trials are given in full in the Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. i. Aberdeen. 1841.
[223] William Shakspere, a Biography. 1843.
[224] Chronicle of the Cid, translated by Robert Southey, pp. 75-83.
[225] Near Cramond Island.
[226] Fr. Bon aller, an entertainment at the commencement of a journey.
[227] Genealogical Deduction of Kilravock Family, written in 1683-4.
[228] Letter of Thomas Mallison, Aberdeen, June 28, 1597. Spalding Club Misc., ii. lx.
[229] Mait. Club Misc., i. 89.
[230] He held a privy-council on the 4th November, and occasionally during the month till the 29th, at Dumfries.
[231] Calderwood.
[232] ‘... that fearful eclipse of the sun which continued the space of two hours, so fearful that that Saturday is yet called by the people the BLACK SATURDAY; a prognostic, as the times give occasion to interpret, of that darkness which was to fall upon the kirk.’--Scot’s Narration.
[233] The house of Bailie Macmoran, who was killed by a boy at the High School in 1595. This house still exists (see p. 263), and the room where the duke was banqueted is now used as the Mechanics’ Library.
[234] Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary, folio, 1617.
[235] For an anecdote of this lady, see under October 1590.
[236] Pitcairn’s Crim. Trials, iii. 116.
[237] Gordon’s Hist. House of Sutherland. Phillips’s Geology. New Stat. Acc. Scot. H. Miller’s Testimony of the Rocks, p. 496.
[238] Calderwood, iii. 76.
[239] Notes to James Melville’s Diary, Wodrow edition.
[240] See in Deliciæ Literariæ (Edin. 1840), the title of the rare tract printed by Waldegrave in 1599, announcing this disputation.
[241] Gregory’s History of the Western Highlands and Isles.
[242] This James Learmont of Balcomie had, nearly twenty years before, fixed on the college-gate at St Andrews a placard offensive to Andrew Melville, who consequently broke out upon him as he sat in church, to this effect: ‘Thou Frenchiest, Italianest jolly gentleman, wha has defiled the bed of sae many married [men], and now boasts with thy bastinadoes to defile this kirk and put hands on His servants, thou sall never enjoy the fruits of marriage, by having lawful succession of thy body; and God shall baston thee in His righteous judgments!’ ‘This,’ says James Melville, ‘was remembered when the said James lived many years in marriage without child, and taken by the Highlandmen coming out of Lewis, was siccarly bastoned, and sae hardly used, that soon thereafter he died in Orkney.’
[243] A. P. R. Pit. Wood’s Peerage.
[244] Gordon Papers, Spalding Club Misc., iv. 123-319.
[245] Stat. Acc. Scotland, xi. 477.
[246] Published in the Scots Magazine, January 1807.
[247] Brazil fowls; that is, turkeys.
[248] Macfarlane’s Genealogical Collections, Adv. Lib.
[249] Butler’s Lives of the Saints.
[250] Extracts from Presbytery Book of Strathbogie (Spald. Club), xxiv.
[251] Father Blackhall’s Narrative.
[252] Shaw’s History of the Province of Moray, p. 326.
[253] Winzet, remarking how John Knox had put down festival-days as unsanctioned in Scripture, says: ‘I misknow not some of you to object the command, charging sex days to labour, and the sevint to sanctify the Lord; therefore I desire the doubtsome man to cause his doctor and prophet aforesaid [John Knox], with all the assistance of his best learned scholars, to answer in writ, what Scripture has he, or other authority, by [besides] the consent of the haly kirk universal, to sanctify the Sunday to be the sevint day. And gif he abolishes with us the Saturday, as ceremonial and not requirit in the law of the evangel, what has he by [besides] the consent of God’s kirk to sanctify ony day of the seven, and not to labour all the seven days.... Why abolishes he not the Sunday, as he does Yule, Pasch, and the rest, &c.?‘--Tractates, 1563, reprinted for Maitland Club, 1835.
[254] Privy Council Record.
[255] Extracts from Reg. Kirk-session of Rothiemay, Spal. Club.
[256] See extracts from their Register, Maitland Club Miscellany, i. 67.
[257] Extracts from Register of General Kirk of Edinburgh, same book, p. 111.
[258] Niel’s edition of Zachary Boyd’s poems (1855), p. xli.
[259] Extracts from the Council Registers of Aberdeen, p. 71.
[260] Maitland Club Misc., i. 135.
[261] Ibid. p. 431.
[262] ‘... in that church excommunication is so terrible, that few will have any manner of conversation with one excommunicated; and the generality of the people, when they see a man whom their ministers declare to be excluded from heaven, are easily induced to think him unworthy to live on earth.’--Ed. Phillips’s Cont. of Baker’s Chronicle, 1670, p. 617.
[263] Tubs.
[264] Boxes.
[265] Supposed to be a kind of sweetmeats.
[266] To hold stob and stake in a place, is an old periphrasis for making it one’s permanent residence.
[267] The flet was the inside of a house.
[268] A neighbouring hamlet.
[269] January 12, 1591-2, the king repossessed David Hamilton of Bothwell-haugh, Isobel Sinclair and Alison Sinclair, heretrices-portioners of the lands of Woodhouselee, of ‘their lands, houses, tacks, steadings, and possessions, wherefra they were dispossest upon occasion of the late troubles.’--P. C. R.
[270] Miss Gordon having married Mr Byron without any ‘settlement,’ her property was seized by his creditors, and sold for £18,500, while she and her son, the future poet, were left to penury.
[271] The name has been changed to Formartin--a proceeding against which every person interested in the verity of history, not to speak of considerations of taste, must protest.
[272] Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, ii. 429. See also vol. iii. 409.
[273] See the ballad of Christie’s Will, with the notes, in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 151. This ballad was composed by the editor on the traditionary story, in which the Earl of Traquair is introduced as a litigant for whose benefit the capture of the judge was made, the object being to prevent an adverse judgment in the Court of Session.
[274] Alexander Gibson of Durie, commonly called Lord Durie, and author of a well-known work called Durie’s Practicks, died June 10, 1614. The story of his kidnapping was related a century after, as follows: ‘Some party in a considerable action before the Session, finding that the Lord Durie could not be persuaded to find his plea good, fell upon a stratagem to prevent the influence and weight which his lordship might have to his prejudice, by causing some strong masked men kidnap him, in the links of Leith, at his diversion on a Saturday afternoon, and transport him to some blind and obscure room in the country, where he was detained captive, without the benefit of daylight, a matter of three months (though otherwise civilly and well entertained); during which time his lady and children went in mourning for him as dead. But after the cause aforesaid was decided, the Lord Durie was carried back by incognitos, and dropt in the same place where he had been taken up.’--Forbes’s Journal of the Session, Edin. 1714.
[275] Book of Bon Accord (Aberdeen, 1839), p. 246. Knight’s William Shakspere, a Biography, p. 443.
[276] John, fifth Earl of Cassillis, son of the lord who roasted Allan Stewart in Dunure Castle; see pp. 65-67.
[277] See under January 1, 1596-7.
[278] Such is the account of a partial contemporary. In the Privy Council Record, it is stated that the conflict was provoked by Bargeny, and that his party were fully armed for the purpose with muskets, hagbuts, and pistolets, while Cassillis’s attendants wore only their swords. Cassillis’s defence, on the ground of his having commissions giving him authority over his district, was sustained.
[279] Birrel, by an evident mistake, places this in 1601.
[280] The names of the party, as given in the Privy Council Record, are curious as a sample of Highland nomenclature of the day. These were Donald Glas M‘Rannald, and Ronald M’Rannald, brothers of the aforesaid Alexander; Allaster M‘Ean Vich Innes, John, Angus, Donald, and Ronald, his sons; Gorie M‘Allaster Vich Gorie, and Allaster his brother; John Dow M‘Connell Vich Rannald, Allan and Angus his brothers; Gillespich M‘Ean Vich Connell, William and Angus his brothers; William M‘Connell Vich Gorie, and Angus his brother; John M‘Ean Vich Finlay Roy, and Ewen M‘Finlay Roy his brother; John Dow Vich Connell Vich Finlay; John M‘Innes Vich Connachie, and Paul M‘Connachie Vich Innes his son; Farquhar Dow M‘Connell Vich Farquhar, Allaster Dow his brother; Gilliecallum M’Farquhar Vich Connell Vich Farquhar, son to the said Farquhar; Donald M‘Innes Vich Ean Dowie; Gillespich M‘Innes his brother, &c.
[281] Poniard swords.
[282] Nicolson and Burn’s Hist. Westmoreland, i. 595.
[283] See this singular document in Pitcairn’s Crim. Trials, iii. 622; also in Maitland Club Misc., i. p. 141, where a fac-simile of it is presented.
[284] Hist. Clan Mackenzie, MS. in possession of John W. Mackenzie, Esq.
[285] This Scottish Philotus is to be distinguished from the Philotas of Daniel, for which see Collier’s Annals of the Stage, iii. 350.
[286] Riche his Farewell to Militaire Profession, &c. Another of the tales in the same volume is dramatised by Shakspeare in Twelfth Night.
[287] See Mr J. W. Mackenzie’s edition of Philotus, presented to the Bannatyne Club in 1835.
[288] Calm, gratify.
[289] Apparel.
[290] Condition.
[291] Ere.
[292] Slippers.
[293] A quantity.
[294] Mouthfuls.
[295] Serve.
[296] Cauls.
[297] A warm at the fire.
[298] Custom.
[299] Jests.
[300] Mask.
[301] Above the rest.
[302] Necklace.
[303] Decorated with lace.
[304] Stockings.
[305] Throat.
[306] Heaps.
[307] Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 47.
[308] Spottiswoode.
[309] Grease.
[310] MS. Hist. of Scotland, quoted by Pitcairn.
[311] The tercel is the male hawk (Falco peregrinus), so called because one-third the size of the female.
[312] Letters and Papers of the Reign of King James VI., p. 76.
[313] Bankrupts.
[314] Maitland’s History of Edinburgh.
[315] Acts of Sederunt, p. 161.
[316] The Privy Council in the previous April had passed an act, ‘that the haill marquisses and earls of this kingdom sall leave off their former resolution anent the wearing of velvet robes in time of parliament,’ and ‘that they sall provide themselves with robes of red scarlet cloth again the next session, &c.’--Maitland Club Misc., i. 147.
[317] Letter of the three privy-councillors, in Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 84.
[318] Melville’s Diary, p. 648.
[319] These particulars are derived from a fragment of the deed entered into by the gentlemen for payment of the money.
[320] Letters, &c., of the Reign of James VI.
[321] Ibid., p. 89.
[322] Geneal. Deduction of Fam. of Rose of Kilravock, Spald. Club, p. 249.
[323] Letter in James Melville’s Diary, Wodrow Club ed., p. 671.
[324] Melville’s Diary, p. 688.
[325] Pitcairn. Lives of the Lyndsays. Lands of the Lyndsays.
[326] See depositions of witnesses, &c., in Pitcairn, iii. 47.
[327] 28th April 1608. ‘Forsameikle as the Lords of Secret Council are informit that there is ane horse-race appointit to be at Peblis the ... day of May nextocome, whereunto grit numbers of people of all qualities and ranks, intends to repair, betwixt whom there being quarrels, private grudges, and miscontentment, it is to be feirit that at their meeting upon fields, some troubles and inconvenients sall fall out amangs them, to the break of his Majesty’s peace and disquieting of the country without remeed be providit; Therefore the Lords of Secret Council has dischargit, and be the tenor hereof discharges, the said horse-race, and ordains that the same sall be nawise halden nor keepit this year; for whilk purpose ordains letters to be direct, to command, charge, and inhibit all and sundry his Majesty’s lieges and subjects by open proclamation at the mercat-cross of Peblis and other places needful, that nane of them presume nor tak upon them to convene and assemble themselves to the said race this present year, but to suffer that meeting and action to depart and cease, as they and ilk ane of them will answer upon the contrary at their heichest peril,’ &c.
[328] This was probably at the place called Silver Mills, on the Water of Leith; now involved in the suburbs of Edinburgh.
[329] Atkinson’s Discoverie of Gold Mynes in Scotland (Bann. Club), 1825. Chron. Kings of Scotland.
[330] Napier’s Life of John Napier.
[331] Literally, the separation; in larger sense, the restoration of order.
[332] The fishing of salmon in the river Dee on Sunday was a custom of some antiquity, as it had been expressly warranted by a bull of Pope Nicolas V. in 1451. The privilege was limited to the Sundays of those five months of the year in which salmon most abound; and the first salmon taken each Sunday was to belong to the parish church. The bull recites that both by the canon and the common law, the right of prosecuting the herring-fishing on Sunday was conceded to all the faithful.--Reg. Epis. Aber. (Spalding Club).
[333] Earl of Haddington’s Notes, quoted by Pitcairn, iii. 597. It may be worthy of remark, that no notice of such shocking transactions occurs in the Privy Council Record at this time.
[334] Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI.
[335] Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 56.
[336] Mait. Club Misc., i. 158.
[337] See under June 1590.
[338] Osborne’s Traditional Memoirs--Secret Hist. Court James I. Vol. i., p. 219.
[339] Printed in full in Ritson’s Country Chorister.
[340] A large collection of documents illustrative of this case will be found in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, iii. 124-199. The story has been made the subject of a play, under the name of the Ayrshire Tragedy, by Sir Walter Scott.
[341] The superior men of a Highland clan were called the duniwassals.
[342] Hive.
[343] Notes to Border Minstrelsy, i. clxxvi.
[344] Melrose State Papers.
[345] Spal. Club Misc., ii. 396. For something more regarding Robin Abroch, see under October 26, 1624.
[346] Privy Council Record.
[347] Von Buch’s Travels through Norway.
[348] Denmylne MSS., apud Pitcairn, iii. 52.
[349] This narrative, as well as the letters of challenge, is printed entire in the Guardian, Nos. 129 and 133.
[350] In March 1615, James Stewart is once more, and very solemnly, condemned by the Privy Council to exile, in consequence of fresh offences of the same kind.
[351] From a paper in Balfour’s MSS., printed in Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. iii.
[352] Some Observations of Mr John Livingstone, MS. Adv. Lib. ‘It appears from the council registers of Aberdeen, that the corporation voluntarily gave a thousand merks for the support of M‘Birnie’s widow and children.’--Notes to Coll. Hist. Aber. and Banff, Spal. Club.
[353] Sting is a Scotch word for a pole, and the phrase sting and ling is believed to express simply the method of carrying practised by draymen.
[354] This unheard-of snow-fall was equally notable in the south. When the thaw came, it caused an unexampled flood in the Ouse of Yorkshire, which lasted ten days, carrying away a great number of bridges. ‘After this storm followed such fair and dry weather, that in April the ground was as dusty as in any time of summer. The drought continued till the 20th of August, and made such a scarcity of hay, beans, and barley, that the former was sold at York for 30s. and 40s. a wainload.’--History of York, 1785, i. 256.
[355] Letters and Papers of the Reign of James VI., pp. 243, 317. Balfour’s Annals, ii. 58.
[356] Catholic historians note the martyrdom of one of their faith, which took place amidst the more immediate tumults of the Reformation. His name was Black, and he is described as a Dominican monk of Aberdeen, respectable both for piety and learning. Being taken to Edinburgh to dispute with Willox and other apostles of the Reformation, the populace cut short the argument by stoning him to death on the streets, January 7, 1562.--Dempster. D. Camerarius.
[357] True Relation of the Proceedings against John Ogilvie, 1615: reprinted in Pitcairn.
[358] See the entire form of abjuration in Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen. Spalding Club. 1846.
[359] This term is usually applied to an insinuating, wheedling fellow of swindling propensities.
[360] See papers on these subjects in Spottiswoode Miscellany, vols. i. and ii.
[361] Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 293.
[362] The suburb called Portsburgh was under the jurisdiction of Tours, Laird of Inverleith.
[363] See documents in Maitland Club Misc., ii. 26.
[364] Sharp-pointed staves.
[365] ‘Who thereafter wrote himself Sir John Hay of Landes, knight, one altogether corrupt, full of wickedness and villainy, and a sworn enemy to the peace of his country.’--Sir James Balfour’s Annals.
[366] Translated from Johnston’s Historia Rerum Britannicarum, apud Secret Hist. of Court of Ja. I., ii. 30.
[367] Chronicle of Perth.
[368] Johnston’s Hist. Rer. Brit., p. 619.
[369] See Muses’ Welcome.
[370] Johnston’s Hist. Rer. Brit., p. 519. Calderwood.
[371] We can here see the original of Scott’s exquisite picture of Caleb Balderstone endeavouring to convince a messenger that cold water was better for his stomach in the morning than ale or brandy.
[372] The organ was no new instrument at Holyrood. There is an entry in the lord-treasurer’s book, under February 8, 1557-8, of £36 ‘to David Melville, indweller in Leith, for ane pair of organs to the Chapel in the Palace of Holyroodhouse.’
[373] See the satire and answer in Abbotsford Miscellany, i. 297.
[374] Ferly is the Scotch for wonder.
[375] Shewed.
[376] Abridged from the Muses’ Welcome.
[377] The above is a traditional story related in Forsyth’s Beauties of Scotland.
[378] Printed in the Scots Magazine, January 1806, from a MS. volume of excerpts of the Edinburgh city records in the Advocates’ Library.
[379] This Colonel Gray, who is stated to have been a rank papist, embarked at Leith, about the end of May 1620, with a party of fifteen hundred men for the service of the king of Bohemia.--Cal.
[380] Act of Secret Council, quoted in Blackwood’s Magazine, i. 498.
[381] See the case of Margaret Barclay at greater length in Scott’s Demonology, p. 307.
[382] Fleming’s MS., Adv. Lib., quoted in Pitcairn, iii. 443.
[383] Survey of Moray., p. 208.
[384] Now called Castle-Grant.
[385] Works of John Taylor, the Water-poet. London, folio, 1630.
[386] See Drummond’s Works, folio, Edinburgh, 1711, p. 234.
[387] Gifford’s edition of Jonson’s Works. London, 1816, vol. I., p. cccxxxii.
[388] He seems to have been the same with Macdonald of Keppoch.
[389] Johnstoni Hist., p. 529.
[390] Scot’s Stag. State of Scots Statesmen.
[391] Earnest-money is arles in Scotland.
[392] See under December 17, 1596.
[393] Maitland Miscellany, p. 195.
[394] Father Anderson was afterwards the author of a book entitled The Ground of the Catholique and Roman Religion, 1623, 4to.
[395] Lives of the Saints, i. 358.
[396] Succinct Survey of Aberdeen, 1685.
[397] New Stat. Acc. of Scotland--Aberdeenshire, passim. Beauties of Scotland, iv. 199.
[398] Letters of Reign of James VI. Pitcairn.
[399] Adamson’s Notes to Sibbald’s Hist. Fife.
[400] See under July 28, 1612.
[401] A fixed bar of iron, with fetters attached by movable rings.
[402] Session Register of Perth.
[403] Chronicle of Perth, 23.
[404] Calderwood.
[405] Philip, second son of the Landgrave of Hesse, came to the English court April 6, 1622, on a negotiation from his father.--Nichols’s Progresses of King James I., iii. 759, 763.
[406] Gregory’s History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland, 1836, p. 405.
[407] Archæologia Scotica, i. 43.
[408] Virtues of the Indian Perfume Tobacco, 1667. An. Scot., i. 82.
[409] See under October 1590.
[410] Stones supposed to possess medicinal virtues were then not uncommon.
[411] Miscellanies, p. 39.
[412] Calderwood.
[413] See under March 30, 1620.
[414] Life of John Livingstone, Glasgow, 1754, p. 89.
[415] Letters of Reign of James VI., p. 368.
[416] See the undated letter of Gordon, Analecta Scot. ii. 386. Patrick Gordon was the person who had acted for the king in prosecuting poor Stercovius to the gallows for a satire on the Scottish nation. See pp. 448, 449.
[417] Mait. Club Misc., iii. 344.
[418] ‘Wha had brought money with the infection from Danskein.’--Chron. Perth.
[419] Extract from Privy Council Record, Edin. Mag., Oct. 1817.
[420] Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, p. 268.
[421] Archæologia Scotica, ii. 111.
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 of the, 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 sitat, 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.