Footnote 268:
_Treatise on the Sanctification of the Lord’s Day._
Footnote 269:
Maitland’s _History of Edinburgh_, p. 202.
Footnote 270:
_Elizabeth West._
Footnote 271:
_Coltness Collections._
Footnote 272:
_Historical Account of the Bank of Scotland_, 4to, p. 6.
Footnote 273:
_Diary of David Hume of Crossrig_, p. 69.
Footnote 274:
_Account of Bank of Scotland_, p. 7.
Footnote 275:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 276:
As to the troubles from the Coldingham meeting-house, see under March
24, 1694.
Footnote 277:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 278:
A _quaigh_ or drinking-cup.
Footnote 279:
Alluding to a controversy between two of the Aberdeen professors on a
question which we have seen revived in great fervour in our own day.
Footnote 280:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 281:
Alexander Duff was descended from a race of gentry in Morayshire—the
Duffs of Muldavit—and it stems to have been by saving, prudence, and
good management that he was enabled to increase his share of the
family possessions, and so far advance the prospects of his house,
that it was ennobled in the next generation, and now ranks among the
eight or ten families of highest wealth in Scotland. There is a
characteristic story about Braco surveying one day an extensive tract
of country containing several tolerable lairdships, when, seeing the
houses in various directions all giving out signs of being inhabited
by their respective families, he said: ‘A’ that reek sall come out o’
ae lum yet!’ and he made good his word by ultimately buying up the
whole of that district.
Footnote 282:
The above narration appeared in the _Dumfries Journal_ (newspaper).
Footnote 283:
The system of _culreach_ or repledgiation was one of great antiquity
in Scotland, but last heard of in the Highlands. So lately as 1698,
George Earl of Cromarty obtained a charter, giving him this among
other powers: If any of the indwellers and tenants of his lands should
happen ‘to be arrested or attached before any judge or judges,
spiritual or temporal, in any time coming, to repledge and call them
back to the privilege and liberty of the said court of bailiery and
regality of Tarbat.’
Footnote 284:
Documents of the process in Spalding Club Miscellany, iii. 175.
Footnote 285:
Burns’s fine ode on Macpherson will be remembered:
Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,
Sae dantonly gaed he,
He played a spring and danced it round,
Beneath the gallows tree.
There was, however, an earlier celebration of the robber’s hardihood
on a broadside, a copy of which will be found in Herd’s _Collection of
Scottish Songs_ (1776). See also a curious volume, entitled _Scottish
Ballads and Songs_ (Edinburgh, T. G. Stevenson, 1859).
A long two-handed sword is shewn in Duff House, the seat of the Earl
of Fife, as that of Macpherson. It is a formidable weapon, 4 feet 3
inches long, and having a wavy-edged blade. It is obviously a mediæval
weapon, yet, of course, may have been used in a later age.
_March 4, 1701._—There was a petition to the Privy Council from Peter
and Donald Brown, prisoners in the Tolbooth of Banff, representing
that they had been condemned solely as ‘repute vagabond Egyptians,’ to
be hanged on the 2d April. They claimed a longer day, ‘either for
their relief or due preparation;’ and the Lords granted reprieve till
the second Wednesday of June.
Footnote 286:
_Edinburgh Encyclopædia_, article ‘Steam-engine.’
Footnote 287:
_Acts of S. Parl._, x. 267.
Footnote 288:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 289:
See a more remarkable case of the disappearance of a gentleman under
March 1709.
Footnote 290:
See account for ‘Mrs Margaret’s wadding-cloaths,’ given in full in the
_Edinburgh Magazine_ for October 1817.
Footnote 291:
Memoir by Elizabeth Mure of Caldwell [a lady who died in 1795, at the
age of eighty-one], _Caldwell Papers_, i. 264.
Footnote 292:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 293:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 294:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii.
Footnote 295:
It was an old mode of advertisement in country towns, down to the
author’s early years, to send an old woman through the streets with a
wooden dish and a stick, to _clap_ or beat upon it so as to gather a
crowd, before whom she then gave her recital.
Footnote 296:
_Analecta_, i. 10.
Footnote 297:
Sir John had entered at the bar in the preceding year, and it is not
improbable that he came into acquaintance with Steuart in a
professional capacity.
Footnote 298:
Copy of the sentence printed in Wilson’s _Prehistoric Annals of
Scotland_, from one in the possession of the late Alexander Macdonald,
Esq.
Footnote 299:
That is, the eighteenth century.
Footnote 300:
[Sinclair’s] _Stat. Acc. of Scot._, xviii. 578.
Footnote 301:
Collection of papers in Oxenford Castle.
Footnote 302:
_Ed. Ev. Courant_, Nov. 21, 1743.
Footnote 303:
Alluding, probably, to the affair of the Impostor Roderick. See under
June 1, 1697.
Footnote 304:
_Copy of a Letter anent a Project for Erecting a Library in every
Presbytery, or at least County, in the Highlands, from a Reverend
Minister of the Scots Nation, now in England, to a Minister in
Edinburgh._ Edinburgh, 1702. Small 4to, 6 leaves.
Footnote 305:
Wodrow Pamphlets, vol. xciii.
Footnote 306:
_Analecta Scotica_, ii. 366; iv. 235.
Footnote 307:
Anderson’s _Prize Essay on the State of Knowledge in the Highlands_.
Footnote 308:
See under October 6, 1697.
Footnote 309:
A district on the south side of Loch Ness, in Inverness-shire.
Footnote 310:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 311:
The daughter of the late peer.
Footnote 312:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 313:
Mr Campbell had, in 1709, an action at law against Mungo Campbell of
Netherplace, for recovery of fifty pounds which he charged for
attendance upon him, and performance of the operation of lithotomy. It
was represented on the other side that he had done his work with an
unskilfulness which resulted in some most distressing injuries to his
patient, and the Lords held that the seventeen guineas already paid
was guerdon sufficient.—Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 510.
Footnote 314:
Dalyell’s _Musical Memoirs of Scotland_, p. 132.
Footnote 315:
_Edinburgh Evening Courant._
Footnote 316:
_Edinburgh Evening Courant_, December 30, 1725.
Footnote 317:
_Edinburgh Evening Courant._
Footnote 318:
From a description of the presbytery of Penpont, App. to Symson’s
_History of Galloway_. Edin. 1823.
Footnote 319:
A fairy legend connected with the Dow Loch, and illustrating the
superstitious feeling with which it was regarded, has been
communicated by a friend:
‘The farmer of Auchen Naight, near the Dow Loch, was not in opulent
circumstances. One day, during the pressure of some unusual calamity,
he noticed, to his surprise, a cow browsing tranquilly by the side of
the lake, and, on nearer inspection, found it to be a beautiful animal
of large size, and perfectly white. She allowed herself to be driven
home by him without resistance, and soon commended herself greatly to
his wife by her tameness and exceeding opulence in milk. The result of
her good qualities, and also her fruitfulness, was that a blessing
seemed to have come with her to his house. He became rich in the
possession of a herd of twenty fine cattle, all descended from the
original White Cow.
‘After some years had elapsed, and all his other cattle had been used
up, the goodman had to consider how he was to provide a winter’s
“mart” for his family—that is, a bullock to be killed and salted
according to the then universal practice of the country. Should it be
the mother or one of her comely daughters? The former was still in
fine condition, highly suitable for the purpose; but then the feeling
connected with her—should they sacrifice in this manner the source of
all their good-fortune? A consideration that she might fail in health,
and be lost to them, determined them to make her the mart of the year.
It is said that, on the morning which was to be her last, she shewed
the usual affection to her mistress, who came to bid her a mournful
farewell; but when the butcher approached with his rope and axe, she
suddenly tore up the stake, and broke away from the byre, followed by
the whole of her progeny. The astonished goodman and his wife were
only in time to see the herd, in which their wealth consisted, plunge
into the waters of the Dow Loch, from which they never re-emerged.’
Footnote 320:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 321:
His lordship died in 1714.
Footnote 322:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 323:
_Caledonia_, i. 881, _note_.
Footnote 324:
Arnot’s _Hist. Edinburgh_, 4to, p. 195. It would appear that the
combativeness of the cock furnished in those days no insignificant
part of the amusements of the English people. We find in the London
newspapers of March 1720, the following paragraph, speaking strongly
of the prevalence of the sport: ‘On the last Monday of the month,
there will be kept a famous _cocking_ betwixt the gentlemen of
Shropshire and Cheshire, at Mr George Smith’s, at the Red Lion, at
Whitchurch.’
Footnote 325:
_Reliquiæ Scoticæ_ (Edin. 1828).
Footnote 326:
[Sinclair’s] _Stat. Acc. Scot._ iii. 378.
Footnote 327:
This tourist’s manuscript, after lying for many years in the
possession of Mr Johnes of Hafod, was printed by Mr Blackwood of
Edinburgh in 1818.
Footnote 328:
_Dom. Ann. of Scotland_, ii. 494.
Footnote 329:
_Ibid._ ii. 282.
Footnote 330:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 331:
A term expressive of a tough, lean person.
Footnote 332:
_Domestic Annals of Scotland_, i. 68.
Footnote 333:
Ibid. ii. 318.
Footnote 334:
Ibid. ii. 401.
Footnote 335:
_Letters of Lady Margaret Burnett_, Edinburgh, 4to, 1828, p. 63.
Footnote 336:
_Acts of Scot. Parl._, xi. 66, 221.
Footnote 337:
EDINBURGH, _December 6, 1725_.—‘Died Alexander Nisbet of that Ilk, so
well known by being author of several elaborate Treatises of Heraldry,
one of which treatises is now at the press, and will be shortly
published, the author having finished the manuscript long before his
death.’—_Edinburgh Evening Courant._
Footnote 338:
_Acts of Scot. Parl._, xi. 85.
Footnote 339:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 203.
Footnote 340:
By Andrew Bell in Cornhill, London.
Footnote 341:
Boswell. _Tour to the Hebrides_, p. 401.
Footnote 342:
Anderson’s _Hist. Fam. of Fraser_, p. 110.
Footnote 343:
_Miscellanies_, p. 189.
Footnote 344:
John Brand, in his _Description of Orkney and Zetland_, 1703, says,
with reference to the population of the latter group of islands: ‘Not
above forty or fifty years ago, almost every family had a Browny, or
evil spirit so called, which served them, to whom they gave a
sacrifice for his service; as, when they churned their milk, they took
a part thereof, and sprinkled every corner of the house with it for
Browny’s use; likewise, when they brewed, they had a stone, which they
called _Browny’s Stone_, wherein there was a little hole, into which
they poured some wort for a sacrifice to Browny. My informer, a
minister in the country, told me that he had conversed with an old
man, who, when young, used to brew, and sometimes read upon his Bible,
to whom an old woman in the house said, that Browny was displeased
with that book he read upon, which if he continued to do, they would
get no more service of Browny. But he being better instructed from
that book, which was Browny’s eyesore, and the object of his wrath,
when he brewed he would not suffer any sacrifice to be given to
Browny, whereupon the first and second brewings were spilt, and for no
use; though the wort worked well, yet in a little time it left off
working, and grew cold; but of the _third_ browst or brewing he had
ale very good, though he would not give any sacrifice to Browny, with
whom they were no more troubled. I had also from the same informer,
that a lady in Unst, now deceased, told him that when she first took
up house, she refused to give a sacrifice to Browny; upon which the
first and second brewings misgave, but the third was good, and Browny
not being regarded nor rewarded, as formerly he had been, abandoned
his wonted service. They also had stacks of corn called _Browny’s
Stacks_, which, though they were not bound with straw-ropes, or any
way fenced, as other stacks use to be, yet the greatest storm of wind
was not able to blow any straw off them.
‘Now, I do not hear of any such appearances the devil makes in these
isles, so great and many are the blessings which attend a Gospel
dispensation.’
Footnote 345:
Harrington’s _Nugæ Antiquæ_, by Park, 2 vols. 1804, i. 369.
Footnote 346:
_Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil_, 4to (Abbotsford Club), 1842,
p. 24.
Footnote 347:
This investigation occurred in the year 1665.
Footnote 348:
Identical with Charles Hope of Hopetoun introduced under December 22,
1698.
Footnote 349:
Original document quoted and abridged in a volume called _The Court of
Session Garland_. Edinburgh: T. G. Stevenson. 1839.
Footnote 350:
_Analecta_, iii. 364.
Footnote 351:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 125.
Footnote 352:
See _Court of Session Garland_, p. 20.
Footnote 353:
Published in 1754.
Footnote 354:
Brewster’s _Edinburgh Encyclopædia_, art. ‘Burnett, James.’
Footnote 355:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 356:
Petition against Mr Greenshields, 1709, Defoe’s _History of the
Union_, p. 21.
Footnote 357:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 358:
Minutes of the Session of Torryburn, printed in a _Collection of
Tracts on Witchcraft_, by David Webster. Edinburgh: 1820.
Footnote 359:
Lord Anstruther was the same judge and privy-councillor whom we have
seen concerned in the case of Aikenhead. He published a volume of
Essays, in which he speaks not very handsomely of the fair sex. ‘It is
true,’ says he, ‘woman is subject to man; he is her head; but I may
question if it was not rather inflicted as the punishment of her sin,
than sprung from the prerogative of our nature. But it may be thought
we retain some resentment at the first cause of our misery, and _by
our innate love to the sex, they continue to be the bane of human
life_.’—_Scottish Elegiac Verses_, note. p. 175.
Footnote 360:
_Acts of S. Parl._, xi. 180.
Footnote 361:
Hume of Crossrig’s _Diary_. Stevenson, Edin. 1843.
Footnote 362:
Memorial by his Lordship, _Culloden Papers_, p. 35.
Footnote 363:
Chamberlayne’s _Pres. State of Great Britain_, 1718.
Footnote 364:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 365:
_Account of the Bank of Scotland_, p. 7.
Footnote 366:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 367:
_Account of the Bank_, &c., p. 8.
Footnote 368:
Anderson’s _Essay on the Highlands_, 1827, p. 142.
Footnote 369:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 527.
Footnote 370:
_Book of the Thanes of Cawdor_ (Spald. Club), p. 417.
Footnote 371:
This anecdote is related in a memoir of President Forbes (_Scots
Magazine_, 1802), as having been derived from his lordship’s own
conversation.
Footnote 372:
Broadside of the time.
Footnote 373:
Privy Council Record.
Footnote 374:
_Analecta Scotica_, i. 238.
Footnote 375:
_Analecta Scotica_, ii. 59.
Footnote 376:
The town of Kirkcaldy was at the same time favoured with a like
imposition on its beer, with certain little drawbacks or burdens, as
ten pounds a year to the professor of mathematics in King’s College,
Aberdeen, and twenty-five to the seven macers of parliament.
Footnote 377:
Colonel Erskine had purchased the earl’s estates in 1700.
Footnote 378:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, i. 273.
Footnote 379:
_Essays on a Land Mint_, Edinburgh, 1706. It would appear, from the
records of parliament, that Dr Hugh Chamberlain was the author of this
scheme.
Footnote 380:
_Crim. Proc._, MS. Ant. Soc.
Footnote 381:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, iv. 115.
Footnote 382:
Wilson’s _Life of Defoe_ (3 vols., 1830), _passim_.
Footnote 383:
Maclaurin’s _Criminal Cases_, p. 21. Wood’s _Peerage_.
Footnote 384:
Contemporary broadside.
Footnote 385:
Defoe’s _Hist. of Union_, p. 591.
Footnote 386:
Statutes at large, v. 149.
Footnote 387:
_Domestic Annals_, ii., 311.
Footnote 388:
_Scots Acts_, iii. 810.
Footnote 389:
_Hist. Acc. of the Bank of Scotland_, p. 9.
Footnote 390:
Introduction to Anderson’s _Diplomata_, reprint 1773, p. 174.
Footnote 391:
_Hist. Union_, p. 598.
Footnote 392:
_Historical Account of the Bank of Scotland_, p. 10.
Footnote 393:
Ruddiman, _Introduction to Diplomata_.
Footnote 394:
Wood’s _History of Cramond_, p. 39, _note_.
Footnote 395:
_Edinburgh Gazette_, Nov. 4, 1707.
Footnote 396:
Wodrow reports a wild tale about the discovery of the guilty man. It
is to the effect that Lady Craigcrook, a twelvemonth after the fact,
dreamed she saw the murderer, whom she recognised as an old servant,
kill the woman, and then hide the money in two old barrels filled with
trash. Her husband made inquiry, and finding the man possessed of a
suspicious amount of money, got him apprehended, and had his house
searched, when he found his bags, which he readily identified, and a
portion of the missing coin.—_Analecta_, iv. 171.
Footnote 397:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 409.
Footnote 398:
Parish Register of Spott.
Footnote 399:
Defoe’s _Hist. Union_, pp. 602, 604.
Footnote 400:
_Analecta_, i. 218.
Footnote 401:
Mr Strang, who quotes this passage in his amusing book on the Clubs of
Glasgow, states that these four gentlemen were Mr Cunninghame of
Lainshaw, Mr Spiers of Elderslie, Mr Glassford of Dougalston, and Mr
Ritchie of Busby—the estates here named being all purchased out of
their acquired wealth.
Footnote 402:
This anecdote was related to me by Sir Walter Scott, as derived from
his mother, who had received part of her education under the care of
the Hon. Patrick’s widow.
Footnote 403:
[Mackie’s] _Journey through Scotland_, 1723, p. 194.
Footnote 404:
The Customs and Excise in England brought in respectively £1,341,559
and £947,602.
Footnote 405:
‘Mum, a species of fat ale, brewed from wheat and bitter herbs, of
which the present generation only knew the name by its occurrence in
revenue acts of parliament, coupled with cider, perry, and other
excisable commodities.’—_The Antiquary_, chap. xi.
Footnote 406:
This is partly shewn by the small sum (£431) set down in the year 1748
for ‘spirit imported.’
Footnote 407:
For the statistics of this article, the author is indebted to a
manuscript volume containing an abstract of the Scottish Excise
revenues, which has been kindly shewn to him by the gentleman above
adverted to.
Footnote 408:
_Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock_, Spald.
Club publication, p. 397.
Footnote 409:
The entire poem was published in the _Edinburgh Annual Register_ for
1813.
Footnote 410:
Burt’s _Letters_, i. 194.
Footnote 411:
_Letters_, i. 193.
Footnote 412:
See a small volume containing all these acts, printed by the heirs of
Andrew Anderson, Edinburgh, 1709.
Footnote 413:
_State Trials_, fol. v. 630.
Footnote 414:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 556.
Footnote 415:
_Dom. Annals of Scot._, ii. 424.
Footnote 416:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 554.
Footnote 417:
Act, Town Council of Edinburgh.
Footnote 418:
Wodrow Coll. of Pamphlets. Adv. Lib.
Footnote 419:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 518.
Footnote 420:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant_, April 7, 1724.
Footnote 421:
_Decisions_, ii. 524.
Footnote 422:
Forbes’s _Journal of the Session_, 1714, p. 352.
Footnote 423:
Broadside printed by Reid, Bell’s Wynd, Edinburgh, 1709.
Footnote 424:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, i. 237.
Footnote 425:
Ibid., iv. 288.
Footnote 426:
_Caledonian Mercury_, passim.
Footnote 427:
_Analecta_, i. 283.
Footnote 428:
_Scots Magazine_, 1771.
Footnote 429:
_Hist. Acc. Bank of Scotland_, p. 10.
Footnote 430:
Letter of Campbell of Burnbank. _Argyle Papers_, p. 187.
Footnote 431:
_Analecta_, i. 309, 313.
Footnote 432: