The break-down of King James’s power in this month let loose a
popular feeling which had been long under the restraint of terror.
The proceedings of an Edinburgh mob on the 10th of December, when the
Catholic chapel and college at Holyrood were rifled and destroyed,
and the books, trinkets, and images burned in the court-yard, are
detailed in Wodrow. At that time, according to the honest confession
of Patrick Walker, the extreme Presbyterians, regarding the Revolution
as a _surprising, unexpected, merciful dispensation_, ‘thought it
someway belonged to us to go to all the popish houses and destroy their
monuments of idolatry, with their priests’ robes, and put in prison
[the priests] themselves.’
Such houses were not many, for the religion of Rome has never been
able to get any footing worth speaking of in Scotland, and even the
patronage of this unfortunate king had done little for it. The mansion
of the Maxwells near Dumfries and Traquair House near Peebles, were the
only ones in the south which challenged particular attention. In the
latter case, the marriage of the second Earl of Traquair to a daughter
of the Earl of Winton,[322] had been the means of introducing a form of
faith which the family has never since changed. We have seen something
of the difficulties which his countess had in rearing her son, the
present Earl, in her own religion; but she had succeeded in her object,
notwithstanding all that presbyteries and privy councils could do. We
learn that he was a quiet inoffensive man, who had never accepted any
office under King James;[323] but that did not avail to save his house
from the zealous on this occasion.
[Sidenote: 1688.]
Behold a resolute band leaving Edinburgh in December, and making
their way ‘through frost and snow’ to that remote stately mansion on
the Tweed, where the hated idolatry has for thirty years offended all
well-disposed minds. The leader is Donald Ker of Kersland, a name
suggestive of sufferings for presbytery in the past reign. They found
at Traquair a great quantity of ‘Romish wares,’ but not all they came
in search of, for a quantity had been carried off and secreted. Here,
however, were an altar, a large crucifix of brass; several other
crucifixes; ‘a large brodd opening with two leaves [triptich], covered
within with cloth of gold of Arras work, having a veil covering the
middle part, wherein were sewed several superstitious pictures;’
a eucharist cup of silver; an _Agnus Dei_ of amber with a picture
above; a box of relics, ‘wherein were lying, amongst silk-cotton,
several pieces of bone, tied with a red thread, having written upon
them the saint they belonged to--namely, St Crescentius, St Marianus,
St Angelus, &c.;’ another ‘box of relics of bones, tied with a
string--namely, St Victoria, St Theodora, St Donatus, St Benedictus,
St Laureata, St Venturiana;’ ‘a harden bag, near full of beads;’ ‘a
timber box, with many wafers in it;’ ‘a pot full of holy oil;’ ‘the
holy-water sponge;’ ‘Mary and the Babe in a case most curiously wrought
in a kind of pearl;’ several other examples of Mary and the Babe; about
twelve dozen of wax candles; many papers containing pictures; about
one hundred and thirty books, some of them with silver clasps; and a
considerable number of other articles of less importance.[324] All of
these they seized without any resistance, for the earl and the priests
had fled from the house on their approach.
According to the recital of Walker--Ker sent James Harkness and some
other persons to the house of a neighbouring clergyman, ‘who had the
name of a Presbyterian minister,’ one Mr Thomas Louis, with orders to
search it narrowly for the missing articles, but to ‘behave themselves
discreetly.’ ‘Mr Louis and his wife mocked them, without offering them
either meat or drink, though they had much need of it [!] At last, they
found two trunks locked, which they desired to have opened. Mr Louis
then left them. They broke up the coffers, wherein they found a golden
cradle, with Mary and the Babe in her bosom; in the other trunk, the
priests’ robes.’
[Sidenote: 1688.]
The whole of these articles, being brought together, were carried to
Peebles (distance seven miles), and ‘all solemnly burned at the cross.’
The spoils of the Maxwells about the same time furnished the materials
of a like _solemnity_ at the cross of Dumfries.
[Illustration: The Jougs--at Duddingston Church.]