‘The god of Music joins when Colvil plays,
And all the Muses dance to Haddington’s essays;
The charms are mutual, piercing, and compleat—
This in his art excels, and that in wit.’
Defoe’s Caledonia, 1706.
1718.
Robert Lord Colville of Ochiltree (for it is necessary so to distinguish him from Lord Colville of Culross) died unmarried in March 1728, after having been in possession of the peerage for fifty-seven years. Wodrow tells a gossip’s story about his lordship having ‘walked’ for some time after his apparent departure from the earth.[[518]]
After a comparatively private form of entertainment had been in vogue some years, the lovers of harmony in Edinburgh constituted themselves in 1728 into a regular society, with a governor and directors, the entire number of members being seventy, and, for the sake of room, transferred their meetings to St Mary’s Chapel, where they continued to assemble for a long course of years.[[519]] The progress of their gay science is marked by the publication, in 1730, of a collection of Scots tunes for the harpsichord or spinet by Adam Craig, appropriately dedicated to the Honourable Lords and Gentlemen of the Musical Society of Mary’s Chapel, as ‘generous encouragers and promoters of music’—this collection being the first of the kind that was published,[[520]] although there were several previous collections containing Scottish tunes, mingled with others.
June.
At this time the house of the Rev. Mr M‘Gill, minister of Kinross, was represented as troubled with spirits. The first fact that excited attention, was the disappearance of some silver spoons and knives, which were soon after found in the barn, stuck up in straw, with a big dish all nipped in pieces. Next it was found that no meat was brought to table but what was stuck full of pins. The minister found one in an egg. His wife, to make sure against trick, cooked some meat herself; but behold, when presented at table, ‘there were several pins in it, particularly a big pin the minister used for his gown. Another day, there was a pair of