[276] Pace, the weight of a clock, from Fr. le poids.
[277] Swey, a kind of crane moving on a hinge against a wall.
[278] It might have been supposed that this was a descendant of Sir Robert Bruce; but the account of the Clackmannan family in Douglas’s Baronage takes no notice of such a person; and it was beyond doubt Peter de Bruis, ‘a Flandrian,’ who is mentioned several times in Fountainhall’s Decisions as building a harbour at Cockenzie, and obtaining a privilege for making playing-cards.
[279] It was at its perihelion on the 17th of December, when it was only 128,000 geographical miles from the sun.
[280] Abbotsford Miscellany, i. 356.
[281] See vol. i. p. 421.
[282] Pamphlet on Woollen Manufactories, printed at Edinburgh in 1683.
[283] Memorials for the Gov. of Royal Burghs in Scotland. By Philopoliteios [Bailie Skene of Aberdeen]. Aberdeen, 1685.
[284] Husbandry Anatomised, or an Inquiry into the Present Manner of Tilling the Ground in Scotland, &c. By Ja. Donaldson. Edinburgh, 1697.
[285] Provost Dickison was assassinated in 1572. See vol. i. p. 81.