Summon an hundred horse, by break of day,
To wait our pleasure at the castle gates.
Douglas.
Under the reign of the last Stewarts, there was an anxious wish on the
part of government to counteract, by every means in their power, the
strict or puritanical spirit which had been the chief characteristic of
the republican government, and to revive those feudal institutions which
united the vassal to the liege lord, and both to the crown. Frequent
musters and assemblies of the people, both for military exercise and for
sports and pastimes, were appointed by authority. The interference, in
the latter case, was impolitic, to say the least; for, as usual on such
occasions, the consciences which were at first only scrupulous, became
confirmed in their opinions, instead of giving way to the terrors of
authority; and the youth of both sexes, to whom the pipe and tabor in
England, or the bagpipe in Scotland, would have been in themselves an
irresistible temptation, were enabled to set them at defiance, from the
proud consciousness that they were, at the same time, resisting an act of
council. To compel men to dance and be merry by authority, has rarely
succeeded even on board of slave-ships, where it was formerly sometimes
attempted by way of inducing the wretched captives to agitate their limbs
and restore the circulation, during the few minutes they were permitted
to enjoy the fresh air upon deck. The rigour of the strict Calvinists
increased, in proportion to the wishes of the government that it should
be relaxed. A judaical observance of the Sabbath--a supercilious
condemnation of all manly pastimes and harmless recreations, as well as
of the profane custom of promiscuous dancing, that is, of men and women
dancing together in the same party (for I believe they admitted that
the exercise might be inoffensive if practised by the parties
separately)--distinguishing those who professed a more than ordinary
share of sanctity, they discouraged, as far as lay in their power, even
the ancient wappen-schaws, as they were termed, when the feudal array of
the county was called out, and each crown-vassal was required to appear
with such muster of men and armour as he was bound to make by his fief,
and that under high statutory penalties. The Covenanters were the more
jealous of those assemblies, as the lord lieutenants and sheriffs under
whom they were held had instructions from the government to spare no
pains which might render them agreeable to the young men who were thus
summoned together, upon whom the military exercise of the morning, and
the sports which usually closed the evening, might naturally be supposed
to have a seductive effect.
The preachers and proselytes of the more rigid presbyterians laboured,
therefore, by caution, remonstrance, and authority, to diminish the
attendance upon these summonses, conscious that in doing so, they
lessened not only the apparent, but the actual strength of the
government, by impeding the extension of that esprit de corps which soon
unites young men who are in the habit of meeting together for manly
sport, or military exercise. They, therefore, exerted themselves
earnestly to prevent attendance on these occasions by those who could
find any possible excuse for absence, and were especially severe upon
such of their hearers as mere curiosity led to be spectators, or love of
exercise to be partakers, of the array and the sports which took place.
Such of the gentry as acceded to these doctrines were not always,
however, in a situation to be ruled by them. The commands of the law were
imperative; and the privy council, who administered the executive power
in Scotland, were severe in enforcing the statutory penalties against the
crown-vassals who did not appear at the periodical wappen-schaw. The
landholders were compelled, therefore, to send their sons, tenants, and
vassals to the rendezvous, to the number of horses, men, and spears, at
which they were rated; and it frequently happened, that notwithstanding
the strict charge of their elders, to return as soon as the formal
inspection was over, the young men-at-arms were unable to resist the
temptation of sharing in the sports which succeeded the muster, or to
avoid listening to the prayers read in the churches on these occasions,
and thus, in the opinion of their repining parents, meddling with the
accursed thing which is an abomination in the sight of the Lord.
The sheriff of the county of Lanark was holding the wappen-schaw of a
wild district, called the Upper Ward of Clydesdale, on a haugh or level
plain, near to a royal borough, the name of which is no way essential to
my story, on the morning of the 5th of May, 1679, when our narrative
commences. When the musters had been made, and duly reported, the young
men, as was usual, were to mix in various sports, of which the chief was
to shoot at the popinjay, an ancient game formerly practised with
archery, but at this period with fire-arms.
[Note: Festival of the Popinjay. The Festival of the Popinjay is
still, I believe, practised at Maybole, in Ayrshire. The following
passage in the history of the Somerville family, suggested the
scenes in the text. The author of that curious manuscript thus
celebrates his father’s demeanour at such an assembly.
“Having now passed his infancie, in the tenth year of his age, he
was by his grandfather putt to the grammar school, ther being then
att the toune of Delserf a very able master that taught the grammar,
and fitted boyes for the colledge. Dureing his educating in this
place, they had then a custome every year to solemnize the first
Sunday of May with danceing about a May-pole, fyreing of pieces, and
all manner of ravelling then in use. Ther being at that tyme feu or
noe merchants in this pettie village, to furnish necessaries for the
schollars sports, this youth resolves to provide himself elsewhere,
so that he may appear with the bravest. In order to this, by break
of day he ryses and goes to Hamiltoune, and there bestowes all the
money that for a long tyme before he had gotten from his freinds, or
had otherwayes purchased, upon ribbones of diverse coloures, a new
hatt and gloves. But in nothing he bestowed his money more
liberallie than upon gunpowder, a great quantitie whereof he buyes
for his owne use, and to supplie the wantes of his comerades; thus
furnished with these commodities, but ane empty purse, he returnes
to Delserf by seven a clock, (haveing travelled that Sabbath morning
above eight myles,) puttes on his cloathes and new hatt, flying with
ribbones of all culloures; and in this equipage, with his little
phizie (fusee) upon his shoulder, he marches to the church yaird,
where the May-pole was sett up, and the solemnitie of that day was
to be kept. There first at the foot-ball he equalled any one that
played; but in handleing his piece, in chargeing and dischargeing,
he was so ready, and shott so near the marke, that he farre
surpassed all his fellow schollars, and became a teacher of that art
to them before the thretteenth year of his oune age. And really, I
have often admired his dexterity in this, both at the exercizeing of
his soulders, and when for recreatione. I have gone to the gunning
with him when I was but a stripeling myself; and albeit that
passetyme was the exercize I delighted most in, yet could I never
attaine to any perfectione comparable to him. This dayes sport being
over, he had the applause of all the spectatores, the kyndnesse of
his fellow-condisciples, and the favour of the whole inhabitants of
that little village.”]
This was the figure of a bird, decked with party-coloured feathers, so as
to resemble a popinjay or parrot. It was suspended to a pole, and served
for a mark, at which the competitors discharged their fusees and
carabines in rotation, at the distance of sixty or seventy paces. He
whose ball brought down the mark, held the proud title of Captain of the
Popinjay for the remainder of the day, and was usually escorted in
triumph to the most reputable change-house in the neighbourhood, where
the evening was closed with conviviality, conducted under his auspices,
and, if he was able to sustain it, at his expense.
It will, of course, be supposed, that the ladies of the country assembled
to witness this gallant strife, those excepted who held the stricter
tenets of puritanism, and would therefore have deemed it criminal to
afford countenance to the profane gambols of the malignants. Landaus,
barouches, or tilburies, there were none in those simple days. The lord
lieutenant of the county (a personage of ducal rank) alone pretended to
the magnificence of a wheel-carriage, a thing covered with tarnished
gilding and sculpture, in shape like the vulgar picture of Noah’s ark,
dragged by eight long-tailed Flanders mares, bearing eight insides and
six outsides. The insides were their graces in person, two maids of
honour, two children, a chaplain stuffed into a sort of lateral recess,
formed by a projection at the door of the vehicle, and called, from its
appearance, the boot, and an equerry to his Grace ensconced in the
corresponding convenience on the opposite side. A coachman and three
postilions, who wore short swords, and tie-wigs with three tails, had
blunderbusses slung behind them, and pistols at their saddle-bow,
conducted the equipage. On the foot-board, behind this moving
mansion-house, stood, or rather hung, in triple file, six lacqueys in
rich liveries, armed up to the teeth. The rest of the gentry, men and
women, old and young, were on horseback followed by their servants; but
the company, for the reasons already assigned, was rather select than
numerous.
Near to the enormous leathern vehicle which we have attempted to
describe, vindicating her title to precedence over the untitled gentry of
the country, might be seen the sober palfrey of Lady Margaret Bellenden,
bearing the erect and primitive form of Lady Margaret herself, decked in
those widow’s weeds which the good lady had never laid aside, since the
execution of her husband for his adherence to Montrose.
Her grand-daughter, and only earthly care, the fair-haired Edith, who was
generally allowed to be the prettiest lass in the Upper Ward, appeared
beside her aged relative like Spring placed close to Winter. Her black
Spanish jennet, which she managed with much grace, her gay riding-dress,
and laced side-saddle, had been anxiously prepared to set her forth to
the best advantage. But the clustering profusion of ringlets, which,
escaping from under her cap, were only confined by a green ribbon from
wantoning over her shoulders; her cast of features, soft and feminine,
yet not without a certain expression of playful archness, which redeemed
their sweetness from the charge of insipidity, sometimes brought against
blondes and blue-eyed beauties,--these attracted more admiration from the
western youth than either the splendour of her equipments or the figure
of her palfrey.
The attendance of these distinguished ladies was rather inferior to their
birth and fashion in those times, as it consisted only of two servants on
horseback. The truth was, that the good old lady had been obliged to make
all her domestic servants turn out to complete the quota which her barony
ought to furnish for the muster, and in which she would not for the
universe have been found deficient. The old steward, who, in steel cap
and jack-boots, led forth her array, had, as he said, sweated blood and
water in his efforts to overcome the scruples and evasions of the
moorland farmers, who ought to have furnished men, horse, and harness, on
these occasions. At last, their dispute came near to an open declaration
of hostilities, the incensed episcopalian bestowing on the recusants the
whole thunders of the commination, and receiving from them, in return,
the denunciations of a Calvinistic excommunication. What was to be done?
To punish the refractory tenants would have been easy enough. The privy
council would readily have imposed fines, and sent a troop of horse to
collect them. But this would have been calling the huntsman and hounds
into the garden to kill the hare.
“For,” said Harrison to himself, “the carles have little eneugh gear at
ony rate, and if I call in the red-coats and take away what little they
have, how is my worshipful lady to get her rents paid at Candlemas, which
is but a difficult matter to bring round even in the best of times?”
So he armed the fowler, and falconer, the footman, and the ploughman, at
the home farm, with an old drunken cavaliering butler, who had served
with the late Sir Richard under Montrose, and stunned the family nightly
with his exploits at Kilsythe and Tippermoor, and who was the only man in
the party that had the smallest zeal for the work in hand. In this
manner, and by recruiting one or two latitudinarian poachers and
black-fishers, Mr Harrison completed the quota of men which fell to the
share of Lady Margaret Bellenden, as life-rentrix of the barony of
Tillietudlem and others. But when the steward, on the morning of the
eventful day, had mustered his _troupe dore_ before the iron gate of the
tower, the mother of Cuddie Headrigg the ploughman appeared, loaded with
the jackboots, buff coat, and other accoutrements which had been issued
forth for the service of the day, and laid them before the steward;
demurely assuring him, that “whether it were the colic, or a qualm of
conscience, she couldna tak upon her to decide, but sure it was, Cuddie
had been in sair straits a’ night, and she couldna say he was muckle
better this morning. The finger of Heaven,” she said, “was in it, and her
bairn should gang on nae sic errands.” Pains, penalties, and threats of
dismission, were denounced in vain; the mother was obstinate, and Cuddie,
who underwent a domiciliary visitation for the purpose of verifying his
state of body, could, or would, answer only by deep groans. Mause, who
had been an ancient domestic in the family, was a sort of favourite with
Lady Margaret, and presumed accordingly. Lady Margaret had herself set
forth, and her authority could not be appealed to. In this dilemma, the
good genius of the old butler suggested an expedient.
“He had seen mony a braw callant, far less than Guse Gibbie, fight brawly
under Montrose. What for no tak Guse Gibbie?”
This was a half-witted lad, of very small stature, who had a kind of
charge of the poultry under the old henwife; for in a Scottish family of
that day there was a wonderful substitution of labour. This urchin being
sent for from the stubble-field, was hastily muffled in the buff coat,
and girded rather to than with the sword of a full-grown man, his little
legs plunged into jack-boots, and a steel cap put upon his head, which
seemed, from its size, as if it had been intended to extinguish him. Thus
accoutred, he was hoisted, at his own earnest request, upon the quietest
horse of the party; and, prompted and supported by old Gudyill the
butler, as his front file, he passed muster tolerably enough; the sheriff
not caring to examine too closely the recruits of so well-affected a
person as Lady Margaret Bellenden.
To the above cause it was owing that the personal retinue of Lady
Margaret, on this eventful day, amounted only to two lacqueys, with which
diminished train she would, on any other occasion, have been much ashamed
to appear in public. But, for the cause of royalty, she was ready at any
time to have made the most unreserved personal sacrifices. She had lost
her husband and two promising sons in the civil wars of that unhappy
period; but she had received her reward, for, on his route through the
west of Scotland to meet Cromwell in the unfortunate field of Worcester,
Charles the Second had actually breakfasted at the Tower of Tillietudlem;
an incident which formed, from that moment, an important era in the life
of Lady Margaret, who seldom afterwards partook of that meal, either at
home or abroad, without detailing the whole circumstances of the royal
visit, not forgetting the salutation which his majesty conferred on each
side of her face, though she sometimes omitted to notice that he bestowed
the same favour on two buxom serving-wenches who appeared at her back,
elevated for the day into the capacity of waiting gentlewomen.
[Illustration: Tillietudlem Castle--128]
These instances of royal favour were decisive; and if Lady Margaret had
not been a confirmed royalist already, from sense of high birth,
influence of education, and hatred to the opposite party, through whom
she had suffered such domestic calamity, the having given a breakfast to
majesty, and received the royal salute in return, were honours enough of
themselves to unite her exclusively to the fortunes of the Stewarts.
These were now, in all appearance, triumphant; but Lady Margaret’s zeal
had adhered to them through the worst of times, and was ready to sustain
the same severities of fortune should their scale once more kick the
beam. At present she enjoyed, in full extent, the military display of the
force which stood ready to support the crown, and stifled, as well as she
could, the mortification she felt at the unworthy desertion of her own
retainers.
Many civilities passed between her ladyship and the representatives of
sundry ancient loyal families who were upon the ground, by whom she was
held in high reverence; and not a young man of rank passed by them in the
course of the muster, but he carried his body more erect in the saddle,
and threw his horse upon its haunches, to display his own horsemanship
and the perfect bitting of his steed to the best advantage in the eyes of
Miss Edith Bellenden. But the young cavaliers, distinguished by high
descent and undoubted loyalty, attracted no more attention from Edith
than the laws of courtesy peremptorily demanded; and she turned an
indifferent ear to the compliments with which she was addressed, most of
which were little the worse for the wear, though borrowed for the nonce
from the laborious and long-winded romances of Calprenede and Scuderi,
the mirrors in which the youth of that age delighted to dress themselves,
ere Folly had thrown her ballast overboard, and cut down her vessels of
the first-rate, such as the romances of Cyrus, Cleopatra, and others,
into small craft, drawing as little water, or, to speak more plainly,
consuming as little time as the little cockboat in which the gentle
reader has deigned to embark. It was, however, the decree of fate that
Miss Bellenden should not continue to evince the same equanimity till the
conclusion of the day.