In Aberdeenshire, there were ‘in this ait-seed time, great frosts and
snaw, no ploughs going, and little seed sawing, so vehement was this
storm. No peats could be had to burn, for ane lead [horse-burden] would
have cost 13s. 4d. [1s. 1-1/3d. sterling], whilk would have been cost
[bought] other years for 2s. [2d. sterling]. The brewsters left aff to
brew for want of fire. The reason of this scarcity was, because the
Covenanters, coming here in March 1639, causit the haill servants, who
should have casten the peats for serving of both Aberdeens, flee out of
the country for fear; and so not only was our peats dear, but, through
the unseasonableness of the spring, the victual also became very
dear.’--_Spal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 8.]
[Sidenote: 1640.]
As the young Earl Marischal was returning from Aberdeen to his castle
of Dunnottar, a quarrel arose amongst some of the large party of
gentlemen convoying him; and in a fight between Forbes, the young Laird
of Tolquhon, and Mr George Leslie, the former was wounded in the head.
Leslie was returned in shackles to Aberdeen, along with an associate
named Fraser, to be punished. At the command of the earl, who acted
as general and governor of the district for the Covenanters, a stock
or block with an axe beside it was raised at the market-cross, with a
scaffold round about, and a fire; these being meant as preparations
for cutting off Leslie’s hand. The hangman stood ready to do his
office, when the young man was brought out, amidst the pitiful cries
of the populace, who deemed the punishment a monstrous cruelty. The
arm had been laid down on the block, and the axe was raised for the
stroke, when, past the expectation of the beholders, the Master of
Forbes suddenly approached and forbade the execution; ‘whereat the
people mightily rejoiced.’ The general did this for satisfying of young
Tolquhon, but was believed to have from the first designed to grant a
pardon.--_Spal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY.]
Eight hundred Covenanting troops, under the command of General Munro,
marched from Aberdeen, to take rule in the estate of the Marquis of
Huntly at Strathbogie, the marquis himself being now with the king in
England. They carried six _putters_, or short pieces of ordnance. On
approaching Strathbogie, where there was no resistance, ‘they took
horse, nolt, sheep, and kine, drove the bestial before them, slew and
did eat at their pleasure. They brak up girnels wherever they came, to
furnish themselves bread. Coming after this manner to Strathbogie, the
first thing they entered to do was hewing down the pleasant planting
about Strathbogie, to be huts for the soldiers to sleep in upon
the night.... Then they fell to and meddled with the meal girnels,
whereof there was store within that place, took in the office-houses,
began shortly to bake and brew, and make ready good cheer; and when
they wanted, took in beef, mutton, hen, capon, and such-like, out of
Glenfiddich and Auchindown, where the country people had transported
their bestial, of purpose out of the way, from the bounds of
Strathbogie. Always they wanted not good cheer for a little pains.’
[Sidenote: 1640.]
Seeing the world run in this fashion, John Dhu Ger, the Highland rogue,
broke loose also,[88] and fell to plundering throughout the land of
Moray. Munro, hearing that he had collected an immense _spreath_ of
cattle and sheep at Auchindown, sent Rittmaster Forbes with a small
party to rescue the goods out of his hands; but John stood his ground,
and defended his prey manfully. The Rittmaster retired with his party,
and told Munro in excuse that he did not find it good riding-ground.
Afterwards Munro made good his point, and took out of Auchindown John
Dhu Ger’s plunder and other bestial, to the amount of ‘2500 head of
horse, mares, nolt, and kine, with great number of sheep, and brought
them to Strathbogie,’ where, it is said, ‘they were sold by the
soldiers to the owners back again, for 13s. 4d. the sheep, and ane
dollar the nolt,’ the horse remaining unsold.
The head men of the country, deprived of the presence of their chief,
the marquis, were obliged to bow to the rule of General Munro. Some
came in, and undertook to join the Covenanting army; others, who
did not do so, submitted to large fines. ‘Neither work-horse nor
saddle-horse was left about Strathbogie, but either the master was
forced to buy his own horses, or let them go for the service of the
army;’ all arms being likewise taken from them. ‘Baron, gentleman,
herd, and hireman,’ all alike suffered. Amongst other spoil, Munro
seized a great quantity of home-made cloth which he found bleaching
about the country, hanging it over the lofty walls of Strathbogie
Castle to dry--‘pity to behold!’ At length, after oppressing the
country for upwards of a month, this Covenanting party ‘flitted their
camp,’ previously setting fire to their wooden lodges, and emptying
out what was unspent from the girnels. ‘They left that country almost
manless, moneyless, horseless, and armless.’--_Spal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 5.]
At the command of a committee of the General Assembly, some memorials
of the ancient worship, hitherto surviving in Aberdeen, were removed.
In Machar Kirk, they ‘ordained our blessed Lord Jesus Christ his
arms to be hewen out of the front of the pulpit, and to take down
the portrait of our blessed Virgin Mary, and her dear son baby Jesus
in her arms, that had stood since the up-putting thereof, in curious
work, under the sill-ring at the west end of the pend whereon the great
steeple stands.... Besides, where there was ane crucifix set in glassen
windows, this he [the Master of Forbes] caused pull out in honest men’s
houses. He caused ane mason strike out Christ’s arms in hewen wark
on ilk end of Bishop Gavin Dunbar’s tomb, and siclike chisel out the
name of Jesus, drawn cypher-wise IHS, out of the timber wall on the
fore-side of Machar aile, anent the consistory door. The crucifix on
the Old Town cross dung down; the crucifix on the New Town cross closed
up, being loath to break the stone; the crucifix on the west end of
St Nicholas’ Kirk in New Aberdeen dung down, whilk was never troubled
before.’--_Spal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 30.]
[Sidenote: 1640.]
This day, being Sunday, a dismal accident happened, of some consequence
for its bearing on the interests of the Covenant, as it caused the
destruction of a considerable number of gentlemen who were preparing to
act in that cause. The Earl of Haddington was at this time stationed
at Dunglass Castle, in Berwickshire, along with a number of other
Covenanting chiefs, and a store of ammunition. On the day noted, the
house was blown up by the explosion of the powder, which was placed
in a vault underneath. There perished the earl himself, his brother
Robert, and a bastard brother; Colonel Alexander Erskine, son of the
Earl of Mar; Sir John Hamilton of Redhouse; Sir Gideon Baillie of
Lochend; James Inglis of Ingliston; John Coupar of Gogar; Sir Alexander
Hamilton of Innerwick; and some others, including about fifty-four
servants, men and women; while thirty gentlemen, and others of inferior
degree, were sore hurt, but not irrecoverably. It was thought that an
English page, named Edward Paris, who was trusted by the earl with the
key of the vault, set fire to the powder voluntarily, in consequence of
pet; but accident is much more probable. ‘No part of him was ever found
but ane arm, holding ane iron spoon in his hand.’
‘One thing wonderful happened, about eight of the clock, on the
Thursday at night, before the blowing up of the house of Dunglass.
There appeared a very great pillar of fire to arise from the north-east
of Dunbar, as appeared to them in Fife who did behold it, and so
ascended towards the south, until it approached the vertical point of
our hemisphere, yielding light as the moon at her full, and by little
evanishing until it became like a parallax, and so quite evanished
about eleven of the clock in the night.’--_Bal._
The Earl of Haddington, being only the second generation of a family
raised by state employment and royal favour to extraordinary wealth,
might have been expected to take no part against King Charles. It is
stated that when the king heard of the accident, he remarked that
‘albeit Lord Haddington had been very ungrateful to him, yet he was
sorry that he had not at his dying some time to repent.’[89]
Amongst the killed was Colonel Alexander Erskine, a younger son of the
late Earl of Mar. He was a handsome and gallant soldier, originally in
the French service, and is noted as the lover whose faithlessness is
bewailed in _Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament_:
‘I wish I were within the bounds,
Where he lies smothered in his wounds,
Repeating, as he pants for air,
My name whom once he called his fair:
No woman’s yet so fiercely set,
But she’ll forgive, though not forget.’
[Sidenote: 1640.]
The orders for the discipline of the school at the kirk of Dundonald,
in Ayrshire, in this year, have been preserved,[90] and exhibit
arrangements and rules surprisingly little different from what might
now be found in a good Scotch parish school. There were to be prayers
morning and evening, and a lesson each day on the Lord’s Prayer,
Belief, Commands, Graces, or Catechism. Somewhat unexpectedly, we find
it enjoined on the master, that he teach his scholars good manners,
‘how to carry themselves fashionably towards all ... the forms of
courtesy to be used towards himself in the schule, their parents at
hame, gentlemen, eldermen, and others of honest fashion, abroad.’ One
arrangement seems of questionable tendency, and certainly has not
taken root amongst us--namely, ‘for the mair perfyte understanding of
the children’s behaviour, there shall be a _clandestine censor_, of
whom nane shall know but the master, that he may secretly acquaint the
master with all things, and, according to the quality of the faults,
the master shall inflict punishment, striking some on the lufe with
a birk wand or pair of taws, others on the hips, as their faults
deserve, but none at ony time or in ony case on the head or cheeks.’
The conclusion conveys an impression of good sense in the deviser of
the rules. ‘Especially is the master to kythe [shew] his prudence
in taking up the several inclinations of his scholars, and applying
himself thereunto, commendations, allurements, fair words, drawing
from vice, and provoking to virtue, such as may be won thereby, and
others by moderate severity, if that be fund maist convenient for
their stubbornness. And _let the wise master rather by a grave and an
authoritative countenance repress insolence, and gain every one to his
duty, than by strokes, yet not neglecting the rod when it is needful_.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC. 28.]
[Sidenote: 1640.]
At the command of the minister of the parish, accompanied by several
gentlemen of the Covenanting party, the timber-screen of Elgin
Cathedral, which had outlived the Reformation, was cast down. ‘On the
west side was painted in excellent colours, illuminate with stars of
bright gold, the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
This piece was so excellently done, that the colours and stars never
faded nor evanished, but keepit hale and sound, as they were at the
beginning, notwithstanding this college or canonry kirk wanted the
roof since the Reformation, and no hale window therein to save the
same from storm, snow, sleet, nor weet; whilk myself saw.... On
the other side of this wall, towards the east, was drawn the Day of
Judgment.... It was said, this minister caused bring home to his house
the timber thereof, and burn the same for serving his kitchen and other
uses; but ilk night the fire went out wherein it was burnt, and could
not be holden in to kindle the morning fire, as use is; whereat the
servants and others marvelled, and thereupon the minister left off
any further to bring in or burn any more of that timber in his house.
This was marked and spread through Elgin, and credibly reported to
myself.’--_Spal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1641.