The Earl of Leven, a young man, grandson of the great commander,
ended his life in a manner characteristic of this mad-merry time. ‘He
died of a high fever, after a large carouse with the Earl of Dundee
at Edinburgh and the Queensferry. Some say that, in crossing, they
drank sea-water one to another, and, after their landing, seck.’ A
funeral-sermon was preached for him, on the text, ‘Our life is but a
vapour, &c.,’ being ‘the first funeral-sermon that hath been preached
in Fife these twenty-four years last past, or more.’--_Lam._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY.]
At this time, while the plague raged with great violence in Holland,
carrying off as many as 739 persons in one day in Amsterdam, ‘there was
much death in Scotland by ane fever called the _Purple Fever_.’--_Nic._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV.]
‘There fell out much division between the king’s Customers [officers of
customs] and the merchants of Edinburgh, anent the searching of their
merchandise and goods, and payment of their customs; and the Customers
being informed that the merchants had brought in privily from England
certain braid claith, and had convoyed the same over the town-wall
privily in the night, they thereupon received warrant from the Great
Treasurer and his deputes for searching the haill merchants’ booths of
Edinburgh, and to stamp and seal their haill braid claith, and to take
their oaths of verity anent the quantity of their merchandise and goods
customable. The merchants, hearing the report thereof, in a moment
closed up all their shops and doors, and held out Sir Walter Simpson,
principal Customer, and his associates, from entry to their shops; but
he placed sentries at their doors, that they should receive nothing
out.’ The affair ended in a riot, in the course of which Sir Walter’s
house was pillaged and an apprentice shot, and which was only quieted
by military force.--_Nic._
* * * * *
This year, like the two preceding, was remarkable for abundance of
the fruits of the earth. ‘Much corn cuttit down in July ... the
cherries sold at twelve pennies Scots [that is, one penny sterling] the
hundred.’ Great penury nevertheless complained of.--_Nic._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC.]
[Sidenote: 1664.]
‘There appeared nightly, frae four hours in the morning till daylight,
ane fiery comet, tending in our sight frae the south-east to the
north-west, and seen in our horizon betwixt Arthur’s Seat and Pichtland
Hills, with ane tail terrible to the beholders.... This comet, in the
head, was, in our sight, the breadth of ane reasonable man’s hand, and
sprang out in the tail the length of five or six ells.’--_Nic._ It
‘began to appear about three o’clock in the morning, very terrible in
its first apparition; after that, it appeared at evening. It was a star
of a more dim and bluish apparition (like a candle dying out) than the
rest of the stars, with a long train of lightning from it, sometimes a
fathom and a half in appearance, sometimes shorter.’--_Lam._
Pepys relates that the king and queen sat up on the night of the 17th
of December, to see this comet, ‘and did, it seems.’ He also tells us
of a lecture he was present at, in Gresham College, where Mr Hooke made
it seem ‘very probable that this is the very same comet that appeared
before in 1618, and that in such a time probably it will appear again,
which is a very new opinion.’[211]
The comet of 1664 passed its perihelion on the 4th of December, at
a distance from the sun somewhat greater than that of the earth’s
orbit. The remark of Mr Hooke is erroneous in point of fact, but
nevertheless interesting, as shewing that the periodicity of comets was
now a subject of speculation among the few then cultivating natural
philosophy in England.
* * * * *
About the end of this year, Sharpe, Archbishop of St Andrews, purchased
the lands of Scotscraig, a good estate in Fife, at 95,000 merks or
thereby (about £5540). In the spring of 1669, he made a further
purchase of the lands of Strathtyrum, near St Andrews, for about 27,000
merks. These doings argue the lucrative nature of the preferments for
which Sharpe, as his brethren believed, had sold his party and his
conscience. He had a brother William, who was at the same time rising
in prosperity, and who, in 1665, bought the lands of West Newton, near
Musselburgh, now called Stonyhill, at 27,000 merks. This William Sharpe
was knighted by the Commissioner Lauderdale in 1669.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1665.