‘The new market-cross of Edinburgh was founded by the community of
the said town, and within three months after was completed.’ ‘Also at
this time there was great preparations making for the coming of King
James into Scotland, baith in all his majesty’s palaces, castles, and
abbeys, and especially in his castle of Edinburgh, whereof the new fore
wark, with the great hall thereof, and many other rooms therein, was
biggit to his majesty’s great expenses by Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank,
knight, his majesty’s treasurer-depute.’--_Jo. Hist._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 13.]
[Sidenote: 1617.]
‘The king entered into Scotland, accompanied with the Duke of
Lennox, the Earls of Arundel, Southampton, Pembroke, Montgomery,
and Buckingham, Bishops of Ely, Lincoln, and Winchester, and sundry
barons, deans, and gentlemen. He stayed in Dunglass two nights, and
a night in Seaton. On Friday, the 16th, he came to Leith, and about
four afternoon, out of Leith to the West Port of Edinburgh, where he
made his entry on horseback, that he might the better be seen by the
people; whereas before he rode in the coach all the way. The provost,
bailies, and council, and a number of citizens arrayed in gowns [of
plain velvet], and others standing with speat staves,[364] received him
at the port.’ The provost, William Nisbet, and the town-clerk, John
Hay,[365] having severally harangued him, five hundred double angels
in a silver double-gilt basin, were presented to him--‘wha, with ane
mild and gracious countenance, receivit them with their propyne.’ ‘The
cannons of the Castle were shot. He was convoyed first to the great
kirk, where the Bishop of St Andrews had a flattering sermon upon the
21st Psalm, and thanked God for his prosperous journey. He knighted the
provost.... When he came to the palace of Holyroodhouse, the professors
and students of the College of Edinburgh presented to him some poems
made to his praise, and in sign of welcome.’--_Cal._
[Sidenote: MAY 17.]
‘... the English service was begun in the Chapel-royal, with the
singing of choristers, surplices, and playing on organs.’--_Cal._ Amid
the general feeling of satisfaction at seeing their native prince
amongst them once more, this exemplification of ceremonial worship
was allowed by the people to pass without tumult, yet not without
serious discontents and apprehensions. The bishops were so fearful of
the popular spirit, that they endeavoured to dissuade the king, but
without success. The common people in Edinburgh, as we are told by a
native historian, considered the service in the chapel as ‘staining
and polluting the house of religion by the dregs of popery. The more
prudent, indeed, judged it but reasonable that the king should enjoy
his own form of worship in his own chapel; but then followed a rumour,
that the religious vestments and altars were to be forcibly introduced
into all the churches, and the purity of religion, so long established
in Scotland, for ever defiled. And it required the utmost efforts
of the magistrates to restrain the inflamed passions of the common
people.’[366]
[Sidenote: 1616.]
[Sidenote: JUNE 8.]
Having to meet his parliament a few weeks after, the king went to
Falkland to hunt. But the park of his Fife palace did not content
him. Carnegie, Lord Kinnaird, son of a favourite minister of old,
and himself a friend of the king, dwelt in state in a noble castle
overlooking the embouchure of the South Esk in Forfarshire, with an
extensive muir full of game close by--Muirthrewmont or Muirromon (as
the country people call it). James gladly rode thither,[367] for
the sake of the abundant sport. The house of Kinnaird was furnished
on the occasion for various pleasures, and deficient in no sort of
enjoyment.[368] Two poets of temporary and local fame came with courtly
Latin strains suitable to the occasion.[369] His majesty tarried ten
days in the district, and then came to Dundee, which welcomed him with
poem and with speech. Returning to Edinburgh, he set himself to drive
his ends with the clergy, who were now less able or disposed to resist
his innovations than they had been twenty years before. At his command,
several of the Scottish councillors and bishops received the communion
in the English manner in the Chapel-royal, and William Summers, one of
the ministers of Edinburgh, officiated there, ‘observing the English
form in his prayer and behaviour.’ ‘On the 15th June, some noblemen and
bishops who had not communicat before, communicat kneeling, yet not
half of the noblemen that were required. The ministers of Edinburgh,
in the meantime, were silent; neither dissuaded the king privately,
nor opened their mouth in public against this innovation, or bad
example.’--_Cal._
On the 19th of June, the king formally visited the Castle of Edinburgh,
in order to celebrate his fifty-first birthday on the natal spot.
Andrew Kerr, a boy of nine years of age, welcomed him at the gate in
‘ane Hebrew speech.’ At the banquet in the great hall, the English and
Scottish nobility and the magistracy of Edinburgh met in the utmost
amity and satisfaction. By the desire of the king, who wished to
advance his native country in the eyes of the English, the wives and
children of the Scottish nobility appeared in their finest dresses,
shining with jewels, and were treated with great distinction. The feast
was not over till nine at night; and after its conclusion, the Castle
rang with a chorus of the ladies’ voices and a band of instruments.
On the return of the royal party to the Palace, a great multitude
assembled there to see ‘pastimes with firework.’[370]
On the 26th, ‘there was a timber house erected on the back of the Great
Kirk of Edinburgh [south side], which was decored with tapestry, where
the town prepared a banquet for the king and the nobility. The day
following, sundry knights and gentlemen of good note were banqueted in
the same house, and made burgesses. They danced about the Cross with
sound of trumpets and other instruments; throwed glasses of wine from
the Cross upon the people standing about, and ended with the king’s
scoll [health.]‘--_Cal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 20.]
[Sidenote: 1617.]
This day is dated from Leith a satire upon Scotland, heretofore
usually attributed to Sir Anthony Weldon, but upon doubtful evidence.
It was entitled, _A Perfect Description of the People and Country of
Scotland_, and was printed with the signature JOHNE E.
It seems the splenetic effusion of some Cockney who had been tempted to
follow the king’s train into Scotland, and had found himself a smaller
man there than he expected.
In the air, the soil, and the natural productions of Scotland, this
railer can find nothing goodly or agreeable. The thistle, he says, is
the fairest flower in their garden. Hay is a word unknown. ‘Corn is
reasonable plenty at this time; for, since they heard of the king’s
coming, it hath been as unlawful for the common people to eat wheat,
as it was of old for any but the priests to eat the show-bread....
They would persuade the footmen that oaten cakes would make them
well-winded; and the children of the chapel they have brought to
eat of them for the maintenance of their voices.... They persuade
the trumpeters that fasting is guid for men of their quality; for
emptiness, they say, causeth wind, and wind causeth a trumpet sound
sweetly.[371]...
[Sidenote: 1617.]
‘They christen without the cross, marry without a ring, receive the
sacrament without reverence, die without repentance, and bury without
divine service. They keep no holidays, nor acknowledge any saint but St
Andrew, who, they say, got that honour by presenting Christ with ane
oaten cake after his forty days’ fast.... They hold their noses if you
speak of bear-bating, and stop their ears if you speak of play.... I am
verily persuaded if [the] angels at the last day should come down in
their white garments, they would run away, and cry: “The children of
the chapel are come again to torment us!”... For the graven images in
the new beautified chapel, they threaten to pull them down after his
departure, and make of them a burnt-offering to appease the indignation
they imagine is conceived against them in the breast of the Almighty
for suffering such idolatry to enter their kingdom. The organs, I
think, will find mercy, because they say there is some affinity between
them and their bagpipes.[372] The shipper that brought the singing-men
with their papistical vestments, complains that he hath been much
troubled with a strange singing in his head ever since they came aboard
his ship; for remedy whereof the pastor of the parish hath persuaded
him to sell the profaned vessel, and distribute the money among the
faithful brethren.’
Our scribbler speaks of the women as huge-boned monsters, whereof the
upper class are ‘kept like lions in iron grates. The merchants’ wives
are likewise prisoners, but not in such strongholds. They have wooden
cages [meaning the timber galleries in front of the houses], through
which, peeping to catch the air, we are almost choked with the sight
of them.... To draw you down from the citizen’s wife to the country
gentlewomen, and so convey you to the common dames, were to bring you
from Newgate to Bridewell.’
In an answer to this satire, a strong defence is entered on the subject
of victuals and other materials of conviviality. ‘Except meat should
have rained down from heaven, it could not be imagined more cheap,
more plentiful. Ane of those twelve pies that were sold for a penny,
might have stopped your mouth for his quarrel.... What else would you
have had? You know there were some subjects that kept open butteries
and cellars from morning till night.... The man is angry that all the
taps were not pulled out, that every guid fellow might swim in sack and
claret.’[373]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE 30.]
[Sidenote: JULY 10.]
The king commenced a second excursion in his native dominions, by
Stirling, Perth, St Andrews--thence back to Stirling, where he received
a deputation of Edinburgh professors, who disputed before him in the
Chapel-royal of the Castle, in the presence of the English and Scottish
nobility and many learned men. Here the British Solomon was quite in
his element. The first question discussed ‘by the learned doctors was,
“Ought sheriffs and other inferior magistrates to be hereditary?”--a
question at this time agitated in the national senate, where it was the
earnest wish of King James that it should be decided in the negative.
As might have been expected, the oppugners of the question soon got the
advantage; for the weighty arguments of royalty were thrown into that
scale.
‘The king was highly delighted with their success; and turning to the
Marquis of Hamilton (hereditary sheriff of Clydesdale), who stood
behind his chair, said: “James, you see your cause is lost, and all
that can be said for it is clearly answered and refuted.”
[Sidenote: 1617.]
‘The second thesis was On the Nature of Local Motion. The opposition to
this was very great, and the respondent produced numerous arguments
from Aristotle in support of his thesis, which occasioned the king to
say: “These men know the mind of Aristotle as well as he did himself
when alive.”
‘The third thesis was Concerning the Origin of Fountains or Springs.
The king was so well pleased with this controversy, that, although the
three-quarters of an hour allotted for the disputation were expired,
he caused them to proceed, sometimes speaking for and against both
respondent and opponent, seldom letting an argument on either side pass
without proper remarks.
‘The disputations being over, the king withdrew to supper; after
which he sent for the disputants, whose names were John Adamson,
James Fairlie, Patrick Sands, Andrew Young, James Reid, and William
King, before whom he learnedly discoursed on the several subjects
controverted by them, and then began to comment on their several names,
and said: “These gentlemen, by their names, were destined for the acts
they had in hand this day;” and proceeded as followeth:
[Sidenote: 1617.]
“Adam was the father of all, and Adam’s son had the first part of
this act. The defender is justly called Fairlie;[374] his thesis had
some fairlies in it, and he sustained them very fairly, and with many
fair lies given to the oppugners. And why should not Mr Sands be the
first to enter the sands? But now I clearly see that all sands are not
barren, for certainly he hath shewn a fertile wit. Mr Young is very old
in Aristotle. Mr Reid need not be red with blushing for his acting this
day. Mr King disputed very kingly, and of a kingly purpose, concerning
the royal supremacy of reason above anger and all passions. I am so
well satisfied,” added his majesty, “with this day’s exercise, that I
will be godfather to the College of Edinburgh, and have it called _the
College of King James_, for, after its founding, it stopped sundry
years in my minority. After I came to knowledge, I held to it, and
caused it to be established; and although I see many look upon it with
an evil eye, yet I will have them know that, having given it my name,
I have espoused its quarrel, and at a proper time will give it a royal
god-bairn gift to enlarge its revenues.” The king being told that
there was one in company his majesty had taken no notice of--namely,
Henry Charteris, principal of the College, who, though a man of great
learning, yet, by his innate bashfulness, was rendered unfit to speak
in such an august assembly--his majesty answered: “His name agrees well
with his nature; for charters contain much matter, yet say nothing;
and, though they say nothing, yet they put great things into men’s
mouths.”
‘The king having signified that he would be pleased to see his remarks
on the professors’ names versified, it was accordingly done as follows:
‘As Adam was the first man, whence all beginning tak,
So Adamson was president, and first man in this act.
The thesis Fairlie did defend, which, though they lies contein,
Yet were fair lies, and he the same right fairlie did maintein.
The field first entered Mr Sands, and there he made me see
That not all sands are barren sands, but that some fertile be.
Then Mr Young most subtilie the thesis did impugn,
And kythed[375] old in Aristotle, although his name be Young.
To him succeeded Mr Reid, who, though Reid be his name,
Needs neither for his dispute blush, nor of his speech think shame.
Last entered Mr King the lists, and dispute like a king,
How reason, reigning like a king, should anger under bring.
To their deserved praise have I thus played upon their names,
And will their college hence be called _The College of King
James_.’[376]
[Sidenote: 1617.]
In the course of his excursion, the king had a hunt in the
neighbourhood of Dunfermline. At this time, the coal-works at Culross,
on the shore of the Firth of Forth, were conducted with great activity
under their enterprising proprietor, Sir George Bruce. James invited
his company to dine with him at a _collier’s house_, referring to an
elegant mansion which Sir George had built for his accommodation in
the town of Culross. They proceeded in the first place to examine
the coal-works, which were then wrought a considerable way under the
sea, issuing at some distance from shore in a little island or moat,
where the product of the mines was put directly on board vessels to
be transported to various places. The king and his courtiers, unaware
of this peculiar arrangement, were conducted along the mine till they
reached the sea-shaft, and here being drawn up, found themselves
suddenly surrounded by the waves. James, always apprehensive of
attempts on his life, was excited to great alarm by this unexpected
situation, and called out ‘Treason!’ His courteous host reassured
him by pointing to an elegant pinnace moored by the moat to carry
him ashore, in the event of his not wishing to return by the mine.
Doubtless the affair added a little zest to the banquet which the party
immediately after partook of in the hospitable mansion of Bruce.[377]
The king pursued his progress by Glasgow, Paisley, Hamilton, and
Dumfries, passing across the Border to Carlisle on the 5th of August,
amidst the general regrets of his subjects. It was remarkable how much
peace and good feeling prevailed amongst the people during the royal
visit. The Chancellor Dunfermline, in afterwards summing up the whole
affair to the king, said: ‘In all the time of your majesty’s remaining
in this kingdom, in sae great companies, and sae many noblemen and
great personages of twa nations convened, never ane action, word,
or appearance of any discord, variance, or offence betwix any of
the nations with other, for whatsomever cause. I doubt gif ever the
like has been seen, at sic occasion of so frequent a meeting of men,
strangers, and unknown to each other.’--_M. S. P._
It may be worth mentioning, that by warrant signed at Hitchinbroke,
October 23, 1618, the king gave to Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank ‘a
gilt basin which was given to us by our burgh of Edinburgh, with their
propine of money, at our first entry of the said burgh, at our last
being in our said kingdom; together with two gilt cups, one of them in
form of a salmon, presented to us by our burgh of Glasgow; and another
gilt cup which was given us by the town of Carlisle; together with some
remanent of musk and ambergrise, which was unspent at our being there;
and, lastly, ane large iron chest, which did sometime belong to the
late Earl of Gowrie.’--_An. Scot._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1618.