As the Privy Council was sitting in its chamber in Holyrood Palace, an
outrage took place, recalling the wild acts of thirty years since. One
John Young, poultry-man, attacked Mr Richard Bannatyne, bailie-depute
of the regality of Broughton, at the council-room door, and struck him
in the back with a whinger, to the peril of his life. The Council,
in great indignation, immediately sent off Young to be tried on the
morrow at the Tolbooth, with orders, ‘if he be convict, that his
majesty’s justice and his depute cause doom to be pronounced against
him, ordaining him to be drawn upon ane cart backward frae the Tolbooth
to the place of execution at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh, and there
hangit to the deid and quartered, and his head to be set upon the
Nether Bow, and his hand to be set upon the Water Yett.’--_P. C. R._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV. 27.]
A warrant was granted by the Privy Council regarding Alexander Robison,
a Jesuit lately taken and put into the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, ‘where
he has remained divers months bygane’ [since the 20th September of
preceding year]. As his staying in the country could not but lead to
the corruption of the people in their religious opinions and their
allegiance to the king, the Council deemed it expedient that Robison
be ‘sent away out of the country nor unnecessarily halden within the
same.’ He was therefore to be called before a justice court in the
Tolbooth, where, ‘after acknowledging of his offence in transgressing
of his majesty’s laws made against the resorting and remaining of
Jesuits within this kingdom,’ they were to ‘take him solemnly sworn and
judicially acted, that he sall depairt and pass furth of this kingdom
with the first commodity of a ship going toward the Low Countries, and
that he sall not return again within the same without his majesty’s
licence ... under pain of deid.’--_P. C. R._
Two days after, the Council took into consideration certain petitions
of Alexander Robison, ‘heavily regretting the want of means to
entertein him in ward and satisfy his bypast charges therein.’ ‘Seeing
it accords not with Christian charity to suffer him to starve for
hunger, he being his majesty’s prisoner,’ the lords agreed that he
should have 13s. 4d. [that is, 1s. 1-1/3d. sterling] per day, counting
from the 20th of September last.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1627.]
The latter part of this year, marked by a military disaster and
disgrace nearly unexampled in British annals[11], was made further
memorable by a tempest of extraordinary violence, which destroyed a
vast quantity of mercantile shipping, including many collier vessels
carrying their commodity to the Thames. At one part of the coast of
Scotland, a high tide, assisted by the storm, produced an inundation
over a large tract of low land. It came upon the Blackshaw in
Carlaverock parish, and upon certain parts of the parish of Ruthwell
‘in such a fearful manner as none then living had ever seen the like.
It went at least half a mile beyond the ordinary course, and threw down
a number of houses and bulwarks in its way, and many cattle and other
bestial were swept away with its rapidity; and, what was still more
melancholy, of the poor people who lived by making salt on Ruthwell
sands seventeen perished; thirteen of these were found next day, and
were all buried together in the churchyard of Ruthwell, which no doubt
was an affecting sight to their relations, widows, and children, &c.,
and even to all that beheld it. One circumstance more ought not to
be omitted. The house of Old Cockpool being environed on all hands,
the people fled to the top of it for safety; and so sudden was the
inundation upon them, that, in their confusion, they left a young child
in a cradle exposed to the flood, which very speedily carried away the
cradle; nor could the tender-hearted beholders save the child’s life
without the manifest danger of their own. But, by the good providence
of God, as the cradle, now afloat, was going forth of the outer door,
a corner of it struck against the door-post, by which the other end
was turned about; and, going across the door, it stuck there till the
waters were assuaged.
‘Upon the whole, that inundation made a most surprising devastation in
those parts; and the ruin occasioned by it had an agreeable influence
on the surviving inhabitants, convincing them, more than ever, of what
they owed to divine Providence; and for ten years thereafter, they had
the holy communion about that time, and thereby called to mind even
that bodily deliverance.’[12]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC. 25.]
[Sidenote: 1627.]
There now being much anxiety about foreign invasion, some care was
taken to ascertain the state of the national defences, and there
was also a proposal to fortify various places, of which, it may be
remarked, Leith was one. Sir John Stewart of Traquair had been sent
to inquire into the condition of Dumbarton Castle, and now reported
as follows: ‘At his entry within the castle, he found only three men
and a boy in ordinar guarding the same. The walls in the chief and
most important parts were ruinous and decayed; the house wanting
doors, locks, or bolts, and nather wind nor water tight; the ordnance
unmounted, and little or no provision of victuals and munition (except
some few rusty muskets) within the same.’
The description, it is to be feared, was generally characteristic. In
those days, which we look back upon as so romantic, there was one thing
wanting--revenue. In Scotland, owing to the poverty of the government,
national buildings alternated between long periods of neglect and
decay, and abrupt attempts at repair when there was a pressing need. As
to the case of Dumbarton, Sir John Stewart was empowered to get it put
into proper order, with a promise of reimbursement.--_P. C. R._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1629.