Though Eustachius Roche is still described as tacksman-general of
the mines, it is to be suspected that that adventure was seen to be
unproductive, as we find him now entering upon a new contract with the
king for a wholly different object. He proposed to make a superior
kind of salt by a cheap process, assigning the profits to the king,
excepting only a tenth for himself and his heirs, ‘unsubject to
confiscation for ony offence or crime.’ He assured the king that this
project would add a hundred thousand merks yearly to his revenue. The
king on his part gave him the exclusive right to make salt in the
proposed new way, with certain other privileges.--_P. C. R._
A Bond of Association was entered into by Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm
and fifty of the most important men of his kin and clan, which throws
an important light on the customs of the age. A later and more notable
Sir Walter Scott says of this bond--which he had seen in the possession
of his cousin, William Scott, Esq. of Raeburn--that ‘it is calculated
to secure against any clansman taking any “room” or possession over the
head of another of the name. Any one who was accused of having done so,
bound himself to stand by the award of five men, to be mutually chosen,
bearing the name of Scott. Even if the chief should encroach upon the
possessions of any inferior person of the name, he declares he will
submit the cause, in like manner, to four persons of the name of Scott;
which shews an independence on the part of the clansmen which I was not
prepared for. The bond ... seems to have been calculated to prevent
kinsmen from going to law with each other, and to secure a species of
justice within the clan, to the advancement of the “guid and godlie
purposes” of their chief.’--_Pit._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
‘In this time, [the Laird of] Easter Wemyss took up 1500 waged men for
the king of Navarre, now allegit king of France.’--_Moy._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY.]
A sad accident befell in the family of Lord Somerville, at Drum, near
Edinburgh.
[Sidenote: 1589.]
‘The Lord Somerville having come from Cowthally early in the morning,
in regard the weather was hot, he had ridden hard to be at the Drum by
ten o’clock, which having done, he laid him down to rest. The servant,
with his two sons, William, Master of Somerville, and John his brother,
went with the horses to ane shot of land, called the Pretty Shot,
directly opposite to the front of the house, where there was some
meadow-ground for grazing the horses, and willows to shadow themselves
from the heat. They had not long continued in this place, when the
Master of Somerville, after some little rest, awaking from his sleep,
and finding his pistols that lay hard by him wet with dew, he began to
rub and dry them, when unhappily one of them went off the ratch [lock],
being lying on his knee and the muzzle turned sideways. The ball struck
his brother John directly in the head, and killed him outright, so that
his sorrowful brother never had one word from him, albeit he begged it
with many tears. A lamentable case, and much to be pitied, two brave
young gentlemen so nearly related, and dearly loving one another, who
besides their being brethren by birth, were entirely so in affection,
communicating all their affairs and designs one to the other, wherein
they were never known to differ in the least....
‘The father, hearing the shot, leapt from his [bed] (being then in the
chamber of dais), to the south light, and seeing his son and servants
all in a cluster, called aloud to know the matter; but receiving no
answer, he suspected some mischief, and thereupon flew hastily down
the stair, and went directly to the place where they were, which the
gentlemen observing, they advised the Master to take him to his horse,
until his father’s passion and fury should be over, which at length,
upon their earnest entreaty, he did, taking his direct way for Smeaton,
where his lady-mother then lived by Smeaton Ford. The father, being
come upon the place, first hears the lamentation of the servants, and
then sees the sad spectacle of his son all bloody and breathless, with
his head laid upon a cloak, whereon he falls himself, and cries aloud:
“My son, my son, dead or alive? dead or alive?” embracing him all the
time, which he continued for some space, and thereby giving opportunity
for his eldest son to escape. At length, finding no motion in his dear
son, all in a fury he arises and cries aloud: “Where is that murderer?
who has done the deed?” Staring wildly about, missing the Master, he
cries out: “Oh, heavens, and is it he? Must I be bereft of two sons
in one day? Yes, it must be so, and he shall have no other judge nor
executioner but myself and these hands.” And with that immediately
mounts his horse, commanding two of his servants to attend him, making
protestation in the meantime that they should both go to the grave
together. But God was more merciful, for by this time the Master was
past Smeaton Ford, and before his father came that length, he was at
Fallside House, out of all danger.... Coming now a little to himself,
he [the father] began much to condemn this unwarrantable attempt of
his, upon second thoughts. Before he came back, the sad object of
his sorrow was removed to the place of Drum, and the corpse decently
handled by the ladies of Edmonston, Woolmet, and Sheriff-hall, near
neighbours, for in less than ane hour the report went over all the
country. Yea, before the king rose from dinner he had notice of it,
being then in Holyroodhouse, with the circumstance of the father’s
following the other son with intention to kill him; for which the king,
within three days thereafter (the Lord Somerville coming to wait upon
his majesty), reproved him by saying “he was a madman; that having
lost one son by so sudden an accident, should needs wilfully destroy
another himself, in whom, as he was certainly informed, there was
neither malice nor design, but a great misfortune, occasioned by unwary
handling of the pistol, which should have rather been a matter of
regret and sorrow to him that the like had happened in his family, than
that he should have sought after revenge. Therefore he commanded him to
send for his eldest son, and be reconciled to him, for he knew he was a
sober youth, and the very thoughts of his misfortune would afflict him
enough, albeit he were not discountenanced by him.”’
The unhappy principal in this tragedy was in reality an amiable young
man, insomuch as to be called the Good Master of Somerville. ‘I have
heard it reported that Sir James Bannatyne of Newhall, one of the
senators of the College of Justice, asserted there was not a properer
youth trod the streets of Edinburgh, nor one of whom there was greater
expectation, than William, Master of Somerville; but when God designs
the ruin of a family, all supports are removed, that the fall may be
the more sudden, as happened in this young nobleman’s case, who after
he had contracted in the latter end of February, and should have been
married in April 1591, that very month he took a fever, which kept him
long, and so weakened his body that he never recovered, but continued
under a languishing sickness for more than ten months. It was supposed
the thoughts of his own great misfortune in killing of his brother,
the disagreement of his parents ... hastened his death. He died at
Cowthally in the month of January 1592.... A devote gentleman, William
Inglis of East Shiel, as the corpse passed the outer gate, struck upon
his breast, and cried out to the hearing of many: “This day the head is
as clean taken off the house of Cowthally, as you would strike off the
head of a syboe!”[156] And indeed it proved so.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1589.