‘At this time arose great discontentment betwixt the provost, bailies,
and council of Edinburgh, and their ministers, because the ministers
had procured the king’s letter and direction to the magistrates and
council, for augmentation of their yearly stipends. They were not
content with twelve hundred merks for every one, beside their house
mail [rent], which was more than their predecessors, worthier than
they, had, but importunately craved two thousand. The people,’ says
the zealous Presbyterian historian, ‘detested them for their ambition,
their avarice, and malice at honest and godly professors. They were
well fingerfed in other men’s houses, howbeit they had sufficient to
maintain them at home.’--_Cal._
In June 1626, Charles I. enjoined the magistrates to give each of their
ministers £100 sterling of yearly stipend, with a free house.--_Bal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 30.]
[Sidenote: 1625.]
The news of the death of King James--which occurred on the 27th of
March--reached Edinburgh on the 30th, at the outbreak of a storm of
extraordinary violence which raged along the whole coast, destroying
much shipping, and throwing down several harbours. ‘The water raise
above the harbour of Leith, and ran into the houses of the town; yea,
the boats and barks within the same floated so above the shore, that
some of them were cast away upon the sides of the houses; and great
ships therein could not be keepit, with all their anchors and cables,
from doing great skaith, ilk ane to ane other, whereof the like was
never heard tell of in our days. Sundry mariners, keeping their ships
[fra] skaith, were hurt themselves, and in special James Langlands and
Robert Dury, two masters of ships, very expert in that art, were baith
cast away, working for the relief of their awn ships.’--_Jo. H._
‘The like harm was done in sundry other parts upon the coast along the
Firth, in Saltpreston, Kirkcaldy, Ardross, and other parts. Salt-pans
were overthrown, ships and boats broken, coal-heughs beside Culross
drowned. The like of this tempest was not seen in our time, nor the
like of it heard in this country in any age preceding. It was taken
by all men to be a forerunner of some great alteration. And, indeed,
the day following--to wit, the last of March--sure report was brought
hither from court, that the king departed this life, the Lord’s day
before, the 27th of March.’--_Cal._
This was long after remembered as the storm of the _Borrowing Days_,
such being a popular appellation for the last three days of March, as
expressed in a well-known popular rhyme. It is a proverbial observation
of the weather, which seems to be justified by fact, the bad weather
being connected with the vernal equinox.