* * * * *
Dr. Johnson has remarked that the French are fond of Young's _Night
Thoughts_, a fact which is hard to be accounted for, that a nation so
celebrated for their gaiety should have a regard for an author treating
on such serious subjects.
_Wigs_.--In the reign of Queen Anne, enormous full-bottomed wigs often
cost twenty or thirty guineas each.
"_Capillary Attraction_."--When Charles II. was espoused to the Infanta
of Portugal, a fleet was sent over to Lisbon, with proper attendants to
bring her hither, but her majesty being informed that there were some
particular customs in Portugal, with relation to the ladies, which the
king would not easily dispense with, the fleet was detained six or seven
weeks, at a great expense, till _her majesty's hair grew_.
(Mr. Prince, with his Russia Oil, would have prospered under Royal
Patronage in those days; and Mr. Rowland would not have needed
immortality in Byron's verse: "incomparable _huile Macassar_.")
_The King of Kippen._--When James V. of Scotland, travelled in disguise,
he used a name which was known only to some of the principal nobility
and attendants. He was called the Goodman (the tenant, that is) of
Ballangiech. Ballangiech is a steep pass, which leads down behind the
Castle of Stirling. Once, when he was feasting in Stirling, the king
sent for some venison from the neighbouring hills. The deer were killed
and put on horses' backs to be transported to Stirling. Unluckily, they
had to pass the castle gates of Ampryor, belonging to a chief of the
Buchanans, who had a considerable number of guests with him. It was
late, and the company were rather short of victuals, though they had
more than enough of liquor. The chief, seeing so much fat venison
passing his very door, seized on it; and, to the expostulations of the
keepers, who told him that it belonged to King James, he answered
insolently, that if James was king in Scotland, he, Buchanan, was king
in Kippen, being the name of the district in which the Castle of Ampryor
lay. On hearing what had happened, the king got on horseback, and rode
instantly from Stirling to Buchanan's house, where he found a strong,
fierce-looking Highlander, with an axe on his shoulder, standing
sentinel at the door. This grim warder refused the king admittance,
saying that "the Laird of Arnpryor was at dinner, and would not be
disturbed." "Yet go up to the company, my good friend," said the king,
"and tell him that the good man of Ballangiech is come to feast with the
King of Kippen." The porter went grumbling into the house, and told his
master that there was a fellow with a red beard who called himself the
good man of Ballangiech, at the gate, and said he was come to dine with
the King of Kippen. As soon as Buchanan heard these words, he knew that
the king was there in person, and hastened down to kneel at James's
feet, and to ask forgiveness for his insolent behaviour. But the king,
who only meant to give him a fright, forgave him freely, and, going into
the castle, feasted on his own venison, which Buchanan had intercepted.
Buchanan of Arnpryor was ever afterwards called King of Kippen.