‘In the meantime, there was ane great dearth in Scotland of all kind of
victuals.’--_D. O._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 7.]
In the course of the late civil war, Lords John and Claud Hamilton came
to an inn to apprehend old Carmichael and the Laird of Westerhall. The
house being beset and set on fire, the two gentlemen surrendered, on
condition that their lives should be spared; but after they came forth,
and were disarmed, Westerhall was slain, and Carmichael carried away a
prisoner.
Westerhall being a dependent of the house of Angus, his death added
largely to the resentment already felt by the Regent towards the
Hamiltons. Love, however, which so often raises wrath, here came in
to smooth it. There was a certain widowed Countess of Cassillis, whom
Lord John knew and loved; and, as she was a cousin of the Regent, it
became necessary to effect a reconciliation with him before a match
could be effected. As one step towards this object--for doubtless there
would be others, and particularly one involving a money-payment to the
griping Morton--Lord John, now the actual head of the princely house
of Hamilton, agreed, along with his brother, to perform a ceremony
of expiation for the death of Westerhall. The Earl of Angus, head of
the house of Douglas, being placed in the inner court of Holyrood
Palace, Lords John and Claud walked across barefooted and bareheaded,
and falling down on their knees before the earl, held up to him each
a naked sword by the point, implying that they put their lives in
his power, trusting solely to his generosity for their not being
immediately slain. Soon after this strange scene, Lord John wedded Lady
Cassillis.
[Sidenote: 1574-5.]
This seems, after all, to have been but a partial and temporary
restoration of the Hamiltons to court favour. There were many who
could not forget or forgive their concern in the slaughter of the
Regents Moray and Lennox. Douglas of Lochleven, uterine brother of
Moray, was irreconcilably bitter against them. ‘Twice he set upon the
Lord Hamilton, as he was coming from Aberbrothick, and chased him so
that he was constrained to return to Aberbrothick again. Another time,
as he was coming through Fife, he made him flee to Dairsie, which he
beset and lay about it till the Regent sent to him and commanded him to
desist.’--_H. of G._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 8.]
Though copies of the English Bible had found their way into Scotland,
and been of great service in promoting and establishing the reformed
doctrines, there was as yet no abundance of copies, nor had any edition
been printed within the kingdom. There was, however, a burgess of
Edinburgh named Thomas Bassendyne, who for some years had had a small
printing-office there. He was probably too poor a man to undertake
the printing of a thick quarto, the form in which the Bible was then
usually presented; but he took into association with himself a man
of better connection and means, named Alexander Arbuthnot, also an
Edinburgh burgess; and now it was deemed possible that an edition of
the Scriptures might be brought out within the realm of Scotland. The
government, under the Regent Morton, gave a favourable ear to the
project, and it was further encouraged by the bishops, superintendents,
and other leading men of the kirk.
On the day noted, the Privy Council, seeing that ‘the charge and hazard
of the wark will be great and sumptuous,’ decreed that each parish in
the kingdom should advance £5 as a contribution, to be collected under
the care of the said officers of the church, £4, 13s. 4d. of this
sum being considered as the price of a copy of the impression, to be
afterwards delivered, ‘weel and sufficiently bund in paste or timmer,’
and the remaining 6s. 8d. as the expense of collecting the money. The
money was to be handed to Alexander Arbuthnot before the 1st of July
next.
[Sidenote: 1574-5.]
Arbuthnot and Bassendyne, on their parts, bound themselves to execute
the work under certain penalties, and respectable men came forward as
their sureties. Those who stood for Arbuthnot were David Guthrie of
Kincaldrum, William Guthrie of Halkerton, William Rynd of Carse, and
James Arnot of Lentusche--all Forfarshire gentlemen, be it remarked--a
fact arguing that Arbuthnot himself was of the same district. The exact
arrangements of Arbuthnot and Bassendyne between themselves do not at
this time appear; but we find that Bassendyne engaged in Flanders
one ‘Salomon Kerknett of Magdeburg’ to come and act as ‘composer’ at
49s. of weekly wages, and sought the aid of Mr George Young, servant
of the abbot of Dunfermline, as corrector of the press. Having ‘guid
characters and prenting irons,’ it was to be expected that the work,
great and sumptuous as it was, would go quickly and pleasantly on. This
hope, however, was not to be realised. (See under July 18, 1576.)--_P.
C. R._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR.]
Among the evils of these times, was one which the present generation
knows nothing of but from history. Owing to the constant exporting of
good coin, and the importing of bad, the circulating medium of the
country was in a wretched state. There seems to have been a regular
system for coining base placks and lions (otherwise called _hardheads_)
in the Low Countries, to be introduced by merchants into Scotland. The
Regent, in a proclamation, described the abundance of debased money as
the chief cause of the present dearth, the possessors of grain being
thus induced to withhold it from market. For this reason, according to
his own account, proceeding upon an act of the convention now sitting,
he ordained the old coin to be brought to the cunyie-house, where it
would be ‘clippit, and put in ane close lockit coffer upon the count
and inventar of the quantity receivit frae every person;’ and meanwhile
the lately issued genuine placks and lions were to have currency at
twopence and a penny apiece respectively--that is, at denominations
above their value. Any one hereafter possessing the false coin, was to
be punished as an out-putter of false money.
‘Every day after this proclamation, induring the convention, the poor
veriit and banned the Regent and haill lords openly in their presence,
whenever they passed or repassed frae the Abbey, whilk was heavy and
lamentable to hear.’--_D. O._
The Regent, while thus an oppressor of his people by attempting to
enhance the value of the coin, was engaged in several sumptuous
undertakings. He was restoring the Castle of Edinburgh at a vast
expense, and also erecting a new mint--putting over its door, by the
way, a prayer which he had at this time much need to use--