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 ... xxs.‘
[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.