The condition of the ordinary places of worship in this time of civil
war is sketched in the _Lamentation of Lady Scotland_, printed by
Lekprevik in 1572.
‘The rooms appointit people to consider,
To hear God’s word, where they suld pray together,
Are now convertit in sheep-cots and faulds,
Or else are fallen, because nane them uphalds.
The parish kirks, I ween, they sae misguide,
That nane for wind and rain therein may bide:
Therefore nae pleasure tak they of the temple,
Nor yet to come where nocht is to contemple,
But craws and dows, cryand and makand beir,
That nane throuchly the minister may hear.
But feathers, filth, and dung does lie abroad,
Where folk should sit to hear the word of God;
Whilk is occasion to the adversaries,
To mock and scorn sic things before your eyes.
Thus to disdain the house of orison,
Does mak folk cauld to their devotion;
And als they do disdain to hear God’s word,
Thinking the same to be ane jesting bourd;
They go to labour, drinking, or to play,
And not to you,[80] upon the Sabbath day.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1572.]
The civil war told nowhere with more severity than on Edinburgh, which
was the scene of the principal transactions. The bringing of victuals
or coal to the city was forbidden by the beleaguering troops under
pain of death, and the penalty was exacted in many instances. The
consequence was ‘great penury and scant of vivres, sae that all was
at ane exceeding dearth.’--_D. O._ In May, oatmeal was nine shillings
of the native money per peck; eleven ounces of wheaten bread cost
8d., ‘and baps of nine [ounces] for 12d.’ It was found necessary to
demolish some houses for the sake of the wood, to be used as fuel. At
the commencement of a truce on the 22d of July, the meal had risen to
twelve shillings, the boll of wheat to ten pounds, and a carcass of
beef to sixteen pounds. On that day, ‘after noon, the victuals whilk
was keepit to ane dearth was brought to Leith and sauld, the meal
for five shillings the peck, ... and [sae] very mickle bread baken,
that it that was sauld for sixteen pennies was sauld for six pennies.
Thanks to God.’ During the scarcity, ale not being to be had, a drink
of vinegar and water was substituted.--_D. O._ ‘Nochttheless,’ if we
are to believe the same chronicle, ‘the remainers therein [that is,
in Edinburgh] abade patiently and were of good comfort, and usit all
pleasures whilk were wont to be usit in the month of May in auld times,
viz., Robin Hood and Little John.’
[Sidenote: APR. 16.]
From the day here noted to the 8th of June, the war between the queen’s
party in Edinburgh and the king’s beyond the city was conducted on
the principle of _No quarter_. All who were taken on either side were
presently put to death. The common belief was, that this frightful
system originated with Morton, who conceived that by such severity the
war would sooner cease. In the end, both parties, ‘wearied of execution
daily made, were content to cease from such rigour, and use fair wars,
as in former times.’--_Spot._
[Sidenote: APR. 21.]
‘... there was ane minister [named Robert Waugh] hangit in Leith (and
borne to the gibbet, because he was birsit[81] with the boots[82]).
The principal cause was that he said to the Earl of Morton, that he
defended ane unjust cause, and that he wald repent when nae time was to
repent. And when he was required by whom he was commanded to say the
same, he answered and said: “By the haly spreit.”‘--_D. O._
In the same year, Mr Andrew Douglas, minister of Dunglass, was first
tortured, and then hanged, for publicly rebuking Morton on account of
his living with the widow of Captain Cullen.
[Sidenote: JULY 19.
1572.]
Another characteristic incident of the time, but of a somewhat
mysterious character, occurred in a southern burgh. James Tweedie,
burgess of Peebles, John Wightman, Martin Hay, and John Bower there,
and Thomas Johnston, son to Thomas Johnston of Craigieburn, were
tried for being concerned in ‘the cruel slaughter of the umwhile John
Dickison of Winkston; committit within the town of Peebles on the
1st of Julii instant.’ They were acquitted. The fact is only worth
mentioning here, to afford an opportunity of illustrating the long
perseverance of tradition in certain favouring circumstances. In his
youth, which was passed in the town referred to, the author distinctly
remembers hearing an aged person speak of how Provost Dickison was long
ago ‘stickit’ at the back of the Dean’s Well in the High Street. The
event was then 240 years past.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT. 29.]
‘The Earl of Mar, Regent, ended his life, about three hours in the
morning. It was constantly affirmed, that about the time of his death,
the trough of the water of Montrose, where it runneth through his
lands, was dry, the water running nevertheless above [higher up]. At
the same time, a violent wind drave a great number of sheep from the
links of Montrose into the sea.’--_Cal._
Some events of the kind did certainly occur about the time of the
Regent’s death; but, contrary to all rule in such matters, they came
after that event, if we are to believe another historian, who places
them under November, and describes them as follows:
‘In this mean time was ane great ferly in Montrose. By the space of
six hours, the water thereof was dry in the sea, and during the whilk
space the people past within the said sea, and got sundry fishes....
After the whilk space, the people on the sands perceiving the water as
ane popill pitt, frae the whilk they fled to land, and syne it was sea
again suddenly, and never nane perishit hereinto. Also there was ane
hill callit ... , whilk burnt by the said space; men riding by the way,
the manes and coils of their horses burnt, the wands of their hands
burnt; poor men passing on the way, the staves in their hands burnt,
and when they wald dight [wipe] off the fire thereof, it wald entres
again.’--_D. O._