[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.