[286] Fount. Decisions, i. 189, 193.
[287] This epizootic raged also in England and other countries. It was a disease styled Angina Maligna (probably pneumonia); a blue mist was seen on the pastures.—Short’s Chron. Hist. of Air Meteors, &c., 1748.
[288] This curious case is stated more briefly in the present volume, p. 227.
[289] The common men were paid at the rate of 6d. a day; drummers, 1s.; sergeants, 1s. 6d.
[290] Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 187.
[291] From original documents.
[292] Fountainhall’s Decisions, i, 188. In January 1686, the widow of Patrick Cunningham, apothecary, successfully pursued Lady Evelick for two hundred merks, being a sum the lady had promised in writing ‘for the skaith the said Patrick suffered when her son James Douglas put fire in Harry Graham’s chamber.’—Foun. Dec.
[293] The jail of Dumfries seems to have then been either insecure or ill-conducted. In May 1683 there was a complaint before the Privy Council from Sir Patrick Maxwell of Springkell, regarding a notorious robber named Ludovick Irving, whom he had caused to be followed to Ireland, there apprehended, and then brought to Dumfries at an expense to himself of two hundred pounds sterling. The man was first put into ‘a sure vault,’ but was removed by the magistrates into ‘ane utter room, which had no sure posts nor doors;’ so he had no difficulty in escaping. Sir Patrick claimed his expenses from the magistrates, and demanded their punishment.—P. C. R.
[294] Strictly Wester Gledstanes, situated in the barony of Carnwath and county of Lanark.
[295] From a petition of the workmen employed in the king’s printing-office in 1678, craving exemption from watching and warding, it appears they were fifteen in number.—P. C. R.