To the boy the affair became sadly tragical. When craved by the
cautioners for his father’s debts, he was willing to comply; but
the selfish father-in-law would not listen to any such proposition.
The unfortunate gentlemen had to pay, in some instances to the wreck
of their own estates. The many maledictions which they consequently
launched at the youth, affected him greatly in his conscience and
feelings. ‘And so, through melancholy, as was thought, he contracts ane
consuming sickness, whereof he died, leaving behind him ane son called
John in the keeping of his mother.’--_Spal._
The singular fortunes of this boy of sixteen--for he is said to have
been no older at his death--became the subject of a ballad containing
some stanzas of a more poetical character than are usually found in
that class of compositions.[59]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC. 14.]
Died at Stirling, the Earl of Mar, Lord-treasurer of Scotland, the
school-friend of King James VI., and a most respectable nobleman. Scott
of Scotstarvet, who seems to have had rather more than the usual relish
for the misfortunes of his neighbours, says of Lord Mar: ‘His chief
delight was in hunting; and he procured by acts of parliament, that
none should hunt within divers miles of the king’s house; yet often
that which is most pleasant to a man is his overthrow; for, walking in
his own hall, a dog cast him off his feet, and lamed his leg, of which
he died; and at his burial, a hare having run through the company, his
special chamberlain, Alexander Stirling, fell off his horse and broke
his neck.’[60]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1635.]
The winter 1634-5 is described by a contemporary as ‘the most
tempestuous and stormy that was seen in Scotland these sixty years
past, with such abundance of snow and so rigid a frost, that the
snow lay in the plains from the 9th of December to the 9th of
March.’--_Bal._ Another chronicler says that between the 26th of
January and the 16th of February, ‘there fell furth ane huge snow,
that men nor women could not walk upon our streets [Perth]. It was
ten quarter or twa ell heich through all the town. Tay was thirty
days frozen ower. There was are fast appointit, and there came a
gentle thow, blissit be God.’ From the long stoppage of running waters
everywhere, it became impossible to get corn ground, and a scarcity
began to be felt. Ale became equally scarce, and no wonder--‘they
knockit malt in knocking stanes.’--_Chron. Perth._ Owing also to the
depth of the snow and its lying so long, ‘many bestial, both wild and
tame, died; the flocks of sheep in the Lowlands, and the goats in the
mountains, went all in effect to destruction.’--_Bal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JAN.]
The excuse of the Marquis of Huntly not being held sufficient by the
Privy Council, he was obliged to proceed to Edinburgh to answer for the
Frendraught outrages. He commenced his journey on the 9th of January,
and came by short stages to Aberdeen. In ten days, he had only reached
Fettercairn in Forfarshire. Thence, after being storm-stayed in the
place for three days, he advanced to Brechin, six miles; thence, next
day, proceeded two miles further to his own house of Melgum. Here the
snow detained him till the 10th of February. He and his lady then
proceeded, ‘in ane coach borne upon lang trees upon men’s arms, because
horse might not travel in respect of the great storm and deepness of
the way clad with snaw and frost.’ This journey of about a hundred and
fifty miles seems to have occupied fully five weeks, including the
detentions on the way.
The appearance of the marquis before the Council ended in his
liberation, and that of the gentlemen previously imprisoned, upon
their undertaking to repress the disorders, and give surety for a
second appearance at a fixed time, the marquis also giving caution to
Frendraught that he and his tenants should be unharmed, under a penalty
of a hundred thousand pounds [probably Scots money]. The affair being
thus so far settled, the marquis returned to his own country in May. He
returned to the capital in summer, and was favourably received by the
Council on account of his endeavours for the quieting of the country.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JAN?]
‘... there was seen in Scotland a great blazing star, _representing
the shape of a crab or cancer, having long spraings spreading from
it_. It was seen in the county of Moray, and thought by some that this
star, and the drying up of the pot of Brechin, as is before noted, were
prodigious signs of great troubles in Scotland.’--_Spal._
This portent is the more worth noting, as the description so curiously
recalls the appearance of some of the _nebulæ_ brought into view by the
powers of Lord Rosse’s telescope--though, of course, from anything we
know of the distance of these objects, the possibility of one of them
coming into view of the naked eye, would scarcely be surmised by any
modern astronomer. [Sidenote: 1635.]
Early in this year commenced a great mortality, probably in consequence
of the scarcity which prevailed during the preceding year. The
small-pox raged among the young for six or seven months with great
severity, and, what was remarked as unusual, some persons took the
disease for the second time.[61]
There was also a scarcity this year. ‘The fiar was ten pounds Scots the
boll of meal and beir.... Several of the clergy, to the shame of them
all, charged twelve pounds Scots and above.’[62]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 26.]
Grant younger of Ballindalloch, reported to the Council that he had
lately taken an opportunity to attack some of the broken men who formed
the company of the outlaw James Grant. Entering into pursuit of two,
named Finlay M‘Grimmen and ---- Cumming, he and his people had killed
the first, and taken the second. They had carried Cumming three miles,
intending to exhibit him alive to the Council, along with the head of
M‘Grimmen; but the country rising upon them, they had been obliged to
put the man to death. The Lords accepted this act as good service, and
ordered M‘Grimmen’s head to be affixed to the Nether Bow Port; at the
same time giving the inbringer of it a guerdon of a hundred merks, ‘for
encouragement of others.’---_P. C. R._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1635.]
The year at which we are now arrived is the epoch of the establishment
of a regular letter-post in Scotland. There was previously a system of
_posts_, in the proper sense of the word--namely, establishments at
certain intervals, where horses could be had for travelling, and which
had the occasional duty of forwarding packets of letters regarding
public affairs. As illustrative of this system of posts, which was
probably limited to the road between Edinburgh and Berwick (as part
of the great line of communication with London), with possibly one or
two other roads--On the 29th of March 1631, the lords of the Privy
Council dealt with the fault of ---- Forres, postmaster of Haddington,
respecting a packet of his majesty’s letters which had been lost by his
carelessness. It appears that Forres was bound to have fresh horses
always ready for the forwarding of such packets; but on one late
occasion he had sent a packet by a foot-boy, who had lost it by the
way, and he had never taken any further trouble regarding it. On the
ensuing 3d of November, the Council had occasion to find fault with
William Duncan, postmaster in the Canongate, and more particularly
with a post-boy in Duncan’s employment, because the latter, instead
of carrying his majesty’s packet to the postmaster at Haddington, had
given it to ‘a whipman’ of Musselburgh, to be carried to Duncan’s house
there (designing probably that it should be forwarded by another hand).
The Council recommended Sir William Seton ‘to prescribe regulations
to the postmasters, for the sure and speedy despatch of his majesty’s
packet, both anent the postmasters their constant residence at the
place of their charge, and keeping of are register for receipt of the
packets.’--_P. C. R._
These circumstances appear as characteristic of a time when the postal
arrangements were at once very new and very simple.
The necessity of having this system of posts for the communication
of intelligence between the king and his Scottish Council was partly
incidental to the time. In the days of King James, things were of so
simple a nature, and in general so much left to the discretion of
the Council, that a system of posts for the despatch of packets was
scarcely required. Charles, having entered on a course more difficult,
and in which great energy on his own part and that of his subservient
Scottish Council was called for, and all little enough as being
contrary to the general inclinations of the people, found a need for
more frequent communication; and hence these posts in the Canongate and
at Haddington.
[Sidenote: 1635.]
At length this system merged in one applicable to the sister-kingdom
also, and in which a regular periodical transmission of letters
for private individuals was included. To quote from a contemporary
writer--‘Till this time [1635] there had been no certain or constant
intercourse between England and Scotland. Thomas Witherings, Esq., his
majesty’s postmaster of England for foreign parts, was now commanded
“to settle one running post, or two, to run day and night between
Edinburgh and London, to go thither and come back again in six days;
and to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any
post-town in the said road; and the posts to be placed in several
places out of the road, to run and bring and carry out of the said
roads the letters, as there shall be occasion, and to pay twopence
for every single letter under fourscore miles; and if one hundred and
forty miles, fourpence; and if above, then sixpence. The like rule the
king is pleased to order to be observed to West Chester, Holyhead, and
thence to Ireland; and also to observe the like rule from London to
Plymouth, Exeter, and other places in that road; the like for Oxford,
Bristol, Colchester, Norwich, and other places. And the king doth
command that no other messenger, foot-post, or foot-posts, shall take
up, carry, receive, or deliver any letter or letters whatsoever, other
than the messengers appointed by the said Thomas Witherings: except
common known carriers, or a particular messenger to be sent on purpose
with a letter to a friend.”‘[63]
The post between London and Edinburgh was of course conducted on
horseback. It usually went twice a week, sometimes only once. Three
years after, when the troubles had begun, the communication became
insecure. A person in England then wrote to his friend in Scotland: ‘I
hear the posts are waylaid, and all letters taken from them and brought
to Secretary Cooke; therefore will I not, nor do you, send by that way
hereafter.’[64]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
‘There was seen in the water of Don a monster-like beast, having the
head like to ane great mastiff dog or swine, and hands, arms, and paps
like to a man. The paps seemed to be white. It had hair on the head,
and the hinder parts, seen sometimes above the water, seemed clubbish,
short-legged, and short-footed, with ane tail. This monster was seen
swimming bodily above the water, about ten hours in the morning, and
continued all day visible, swimming above and below the bridge without
any fear. The town’s-people of both Aberdeens came out in great
multitudes to see this monster. Some threw stones; some shot guns and
pistols; and the salmon-fishers rowed cobles with nets to catch it, but
all in vain. It never shrinked nor feared, but would duck under the
water, snorting and bullering, terrible to the hearers and beholders.
It remained two days, and was seen no more.’--_Slightly altered from
Spalding._
It seems most probable that this was one of the herbivorous cetacea,
as the _manatus_. ‘They have,’ says Cuvier, ‘two mammæ on the breast,
and hairy moustaches; two circumstances which, when observed from a
distance, may give them some resemblance to human beings, and have
probably occasioned those fabulous accounts of Tritons and Sirens which
some travellers pretend to have seen.’ The manatus haunts the mouths
of rivers in the hottest parts of the Atlantic Ocean, and it is just
possible that a stray individual may have found its way to the coast of
Scotland, more especially as it was the summer season.
[Sidenote: 1635]
The author of an _Account of Buchan_,[65] supposed to have been written
about 1680, tells us that, some years before, two mermaids had been
seen at Pitsligo, by a group of persons, one of whom was Mr Alexander
Robertson, chaplain to the Laird of Pitsligo, ‘known to be ingenious.’
This writer refers to the strange marine animal of 1635, as a mermaid.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 19.]
George, first Earl of Kinnoul, Chancellor of Scotland, had died at
London in December 1634,[66] and now he was to be interred in his
family tomb at the parish church of Kinnoul, near Perth. The funeral
was one of those grand heraldic processions, of which that of the
Earl of Buccleuch, under June 11, 1634, has been given as an example.
There were _saulies_, trumpeters, and pursuivants in great numbers;
relatives to carry the arms of the deceased, his coronet, his spurs,
his gauntlet, his mace, and great seal, and the arms of many of his
ancestors on both sides. His physician and chaplain in mourning,
‘a horse in dule,’ and two pages of honour, were other figures.
And finally came the coffin, surmounted by a pall of black velvet,
carried by twelve gentlemen, followed by the deceased’s son, in a long
mourning robe and hood, assisted by six earls and three lords going
three abreast. ‘In this order went they through the town of Perth, and
near the bridge crossed the water (wharves and boats being appointed
on purpose), and so marched to Kinnoul church, where, after the
funeral-sermon being ended, the corps were set in the tomb prepared for
them.’[67]
A full-length figure of the earl still surmounts his tomb; a good
illustration of the full dress of a man of first rank in that age. The
spiteful Scott of Scotstarvet tells us, ‘he was a man of little or
no learning, yet had conquest a good estate--namely, the baronies of
Kinnoul, Aberdalgie, Dupplin, Kinfauns, Seggieden, Dunninald, and many
others; all which estates in a few years after his decease, his son
made havock of.’
[Sidenote: 1635.