Owing to the sending of forces from Scotland to put down the Irish
rebellion, a considerable intercourse had sprung up between the
two countries. The Privy Council accordingly found it necessary to
establish postages betwixt Port-Patrick and Edinburgh, and betwixt
Port-Patrick and Carlisle, for the conveyance of packets of letters.
In this movement, England was more concerned than Scotland, and she
therefore cordially agreed to bear all the expense that should be
required. It is interesting to trace the first steps in a system now so
important as the Post-office.
[Sidenote: 1642.]
On a resolution being formed by the parliament of England and the
Scottish commissioners, to establish a line of posts between Edinburgh
and Port-Patrick, and Port-Patrick and Carlisle, the business of
making the arrangements was confided to Robert Glencorse, merchant
in Dumfries, under a duty of consulting ‘Mr Burlmakie, master of the
letter-office.’ Robert was himself ‘established postmaster betwix Annan
and Dumfries, twelve mile; and Mark Loch, betwix Carlisle and Annan,
twelve mile; Andrew M‘Min betwix Dumfries and Steps of Orr, twelve
mile; Ninian Mure betwix the Steps of Orr and Gatehouse of Fleet,
twelve mile; and George Bell from thence to the Pethhouse, eleven mile;
and John Baillie from thence to the Kirk of Glenluce, thirteen mile;
and John M‘Caig from that to the port, ten mile.’ These persons were
considered ‘the only ones fit for that employment, as being innkeepers
and of approved honesty in these parts.’ The lords of the Privy
Council were (September 27) supplicated to ratify the arrangements,
and to ‘allow John M‘Caig, postmaster in Port-Patrick, to have a post
bark.’ The supplication was at once complied with.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: APR.]
At this time of general strife and trouble, when civil war was
beginning to appear inevitable, a monster passed through the country
for exhibition to the curious. It was an Italian of about twenty-four
years of age, ‘having from his birth, growing from the breast upwards,
face to face, as it were ane creature having a head and syde [long]
hair, like the colour of the man’s hair; the head still drooping
backward and downward. He had eyes, but closed, not opened. He had
ears, two arms, two hands, three fingers on ilk hand, ane body, ane
leg, ane foot with six taes; the other leg within the flesh, inclining
to the left side.... It had a kind of life and feeling, but void of
all other senses; fed by the man’s own nourishment.... This great wark
of God was admired of by many in Aberdeen and through the country,
as he travelled; yet such was the goodness of God, that he would go
and walk where he listed, carrying this birth without any pain, yea
unespied when his clothes was on. When he came to the town, he had two
servants waiting upon him, who with himself were well clad. He had his
portraiture with the monster drawn, and hung out at his lodging to the
view of the people. The one servant [was] ane trumpeter, who sounded at
such time as the people should come to see this monster, who flocked
abundantly into his lodging. The other servant received the monies frae
ilk person for sight, some more, some less. And after there was so much
collected as could be gotten, he, with his servants, shortly left the
town and went south again.’--_Spal._
It may somewhat stay our smiles at the simplicity of Spalding’s
narration, that it was not till the present century that the
true theory of such monsters was arrived at--to wit, that they
are twin-births, in which, through some simple disturbing cause,
development has been arrested or taken a wrong course.
[Sidenote: 1642.]
There is an account of this remarkable person, illustrated by a
portrait, in Palfyn’s _Traité des Monstres, de leur Causes, de
leur Nature_, &c. (Leyden, 1708). The author had first seen him at
Copenhagen, and afterwards at Bâle, while he was still a young man.
He bore the name of Lazare Colloredon Genois, and the attached figure
had been baptised separately under the name of Jean Baptiste. Lazare
is described as a man of good stature and appearance, and of agreeable
manners. He wore a large cloak, to conceal the unsightly brother whom
nature had attached to his breast. Usually he shewed a good deal of
vivacity, but was now and then depressed in thinking of what should be
his fate, if, as was likely, his brother should die before him. Jean
Baptiste was a very imperfect being, nourished only by what Lazare ate;
his eyes nearly closed, and his respiration scarcely perceptible.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: APR. 10.]
As it had been with Christmas, so it now was with Pasch. According to
Spalding, ‘no flesh durst be sold in Aberdeen for making good cheer,
as wont was to be. So ilk honest man [Episcopalian] did the best he
could for himself. A matter never before heard of in this land, that
Pasch-day should be included within Lentron time, because it was now
holden superstitious; nor nae communion given on Good Friday nor this
Pasch-day, as was usit before. Marvellous in Aberdeen to see no market,
fowl or flesh, to be sold on Pasch-even.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
Up to this time, from the beginning of the year, there was a scarcity
of white fish along the east coast, ‘to the hurt and hunger of the
poor ... and beggaring of the fishermen. It was reported that when the
fishers had laid their lines and taken fishes abundantly, there came
ane beast called the Sea Dog to the lines, and ate and destroyed the
haill bodies, and left nothing on the lines but the heads. A judgment
surely from God Almighty, for the like scarcity of fishes to continue
so long has scarcely been seen here in Scotland; whilk bred great
dearth of meal and malt, at aucht, nine, or ten pounds the boll, and
all other meats also very dear.’--_Spal._
The honest town-clerk of Aberdeen probably by sea-dog means the
well-known _dog-fish_, one of the cartilaginous family, which is a
constant enemy of our fisheries at this day.
The same authority informs us that dearth continued throughout the
ensuing winter. ‘White meal,’ he says, probably meaning flour, ‘was
at eight pounds the boll.’ The people had been accustomed to dear
summers--the stock of grain of the preceding year usually getting low
at that season--but this was the first dear winter for many years.
‘There was also great rains, whereby none was able to travel; great
storms in the sea, and few fish gotten, to the great grief of the
people.’
[Sidenote: 1642.]
In November, when the recent commencement of hostilities between the
king and the English parliament must have been thrilling men’s minds
in Scotland, Spalding notes, that ‘in ane seaman’s house in Peterhead,
there was heard, upon the night, beating of drums, other times
sounding of trumpets, playing on piffers, and ringing of bells, to the
astonishment of the hearers. Troubles followit.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT. 18.]
The preservation of the strict rule of the church was at this time
sought in the most earnest manner, no one dreaming of any such thing
on the other side as the rights of conscience, or the danger of
creating a reaction to contrary purposes. At a provincial assembly
held in Aberdeen, there was much business regarding the few symptoms
of _Brownism_ or independency lately presented throughout the country.
Gilbert Garden, younger of Tillifroskie, in the parish of Birse, was
denounced by his parish minister for forsaking the kirk, and affecting
to regard his private family devotions as sufficient. Being brought
before the court, he confessed that such was his case, but defended
himself; whereupon the minister was enjoined to excommunicate him if
he proved obdurate. (About a twelvemonth after, young Tillifroskie was
seized ‘upon the causey of Edinburgh,’ and put in the Tolbooth there,
on account of his Brownism.) One Ferendale was afterwards proceeded
with in the same sharp way, but was induced to deny the Brownist
tenets in time to save himself. Another man, named Maxwell, ‘a silly
wheel-wright of his calling,’ who had also been summoned for Brownism,
deemed it most prudent to vanish from the town. After an ineffectual
search for this important recusant, the ministers out of their pulpits
forbade all men to ‘reset’ him.--_Spal._
[Sidenote: 1642.]
One of the means of keeping up the excitement necessary for sustaining
the war against the king was to thunder constantly in the pulpits about
the papists. The difficulty seems to have been to find a real live
papist, to give some sort of countenance to these fulminations, for at
this time, in the simple but expressive words of Spalding, ‘none durst
be seen.’ Now and then, a smart _razzia_ brought out one or two cowed
professors of the abhorred faith. A small clerical party, supported
by a couple of bailies, went out of Aberdeen on the evening of Sunday
the 16th of April (1643), ‘with caption to tak Alexander Hervie in
Grandhame for popery, who was lying bedfast in the gut [gout], to have
taken him as ane excommunicat papist; but they could not find him.
His son they saw upon horseback, excommunicat likewise; but they
had no commission against him.’ Two days later, the young Laird of
Birkenbog seized a priest named Robertson in the house of Forbes of
Blackton, and brought him to Aberdeen. Being soon after transported to
Edinburgh, this priest was sent to West Flanders, with a hint that, if
he reappeared in Scotland, he should be hanged.
On the 8th of October 1643, Thomas Blackhall and his wife, and the
wife of one Collieson, were excommunicated as papists by Andrew Cant,
minister of Aberdeen. ‘Strange to see,’ says Spalding, ‘the wife to be
excommunicat, and the husband not to keep company with her!’
One of the saddest acts of discipline that proceeded from the dominant
party at this time, was the banishment of Dr Forbes of Corse, who had
been professor of divinity in Aberdeen under the Episcopal Church.
Learned above his fellows, modest and peaceable even in his opposition,
and protesting that he was sound in the controversies against papists,
Socinians, and Arminians, he was, nevertheless, compelled to leave
his country, April 1644, because he could not be induced to sign the
Covenant. He had purchased a house for the professors of divinity, but
neglected to reserve his own liferent; so he was obliged to leave it
to his Covenanting successor, at the same time breaking up his library
and selling a part of his books. ‘Surely,’ says Spalding, ‘this was ane
excellent religious man, who feirit God, charitable to the poor, and
ane singular scholar; yet he was put fra his calling, his country, his
friends, and all, for not subscryving our Covenant, to the grudge and
grief of the best.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1643.