[1] ‘A man of science as well as of philosophic mind would employ
himself well in examining those accounts of prodigies in the early
annalists and chroniclers, which of late years have been regarded as
only worthy of contempt.’--SOUTHEY--_Omniana_, i. 266.
[2] De Fratribus Minoribus nulla est quæstio, professi siquidem
simulatam paupertatem, nulla prædia, nullos fundos habent; sed sub
prætextu pietatis ex interceptis testamentis, et stultæ pietatis zelo,
ditissimi facti sunt: quod ex eventu, post infelicem pugnam de Flodden,
compertum est: nam qui eo pugnaturi proficiscebantur, nisi confessione
facta remissionem a Fratribus Minoribus impetrassent, omnia mala
ominabantur. Interea omnem pecuniam, monumenta, et si quid pretiosum
alioqui habebant, eorum fidei committebant, sperantes, se mortuis,
illos ea quæ credebantur omnia fide integra posteris suis restituros:
at illi, eorum qui in prælio occubuerunt, nec fidem reposcere poterant,
bona in fundi comparatione, et ecclesiæ et monasterii exstructione
ad sui ordinis homines convertebant: nec aliter accidit in acie
Pinquini.--_Craig, Jus Feudale_, lib. i.
[3] _Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis_, ii., 309, 310.
[4] As often as I turn my eyes to the niceness and elegance of our
own times, the ancient manners of our forefathers appear sober and
venerable, but withal rough and horrid.--_Buchanan: De Jure Regni, as
quoted by Dugald Stewart in Preliminary Dissertation, Encyclopædia
Britannica._
[5] This phrase occurs in an order of the provost of Edinburgh (Earl of
Arran), dated 1518, excusing Francis Bothwell from taking the part of
Little John.--_Napier’s Life of Napier of Merchiston_, p. 53.
[6] See the Rev. Joseph Hunter’s tract, _The Ballad Hero Robin Hood_,
1852; making it at length tolerably certain that the outlaw lived in
the reign of Edward II, and for a short time held office in that king’s
household.
[7] Arnot’s _History of Edinburgh_.
[8] Scots Acts, 1555.
[9] Persons in the employment of the craftsmen; journeymen.
[10] From a sculpture on the Magdalen Chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh.
[11] Refreshment at 4 o’clock afternoon. Latterly, the term has been
applied to tea-drinking.
[12] A road in the line of the present Princes Street.
[13] Knox says she frowned here, and gave the books to Arther Erskine,
the captain of her guard, ‘the maist pestilent papist within the realm.’
[14] Anti-tune, antiphone, or response.
[15] _Notes to Ancient Scottish Poems from the Bannatyne Manuscript_,
1770.
[16] From a unique copy of this tract a reprint was given by Mr John
Robertson to the Bannatyne Club, 1833.
[17] See under October 1570; also April 5, 1603.
[18] _Comedy of Errors_, Act III. sc. 2.
[19] In July 1538, there is an entry in the treasurer’s books, of
14s. ‘to Alexander Naper for mending of the Queen’s sadill and her
_cheriot_, in Sanct Androis.’ In January 1541-2, there is another:
‘To mend the Quenis cheriot vi-1/4 elnis blak velvet, £16, 17s. 6d.’
Besides something for cramosie, satin, and fringes.
[20] History of the Family of Mackenzie, MS. in possession of J. W.
Mackenzie, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh.
[21] A tract containing the disputation was printed by Lekprivik in
1563, and has been republished, Edinburgh, George Ramsay & Co., 1812.
Dr M‘Crie, in his _Life of John Knox_, gives an ample abstract of this
curious pamphlet.
[22] Randolph to Cecil, Edin. Nov. 30, 1562. Chalmers’s _Life of Queen
Mary_.
[23] Edin. Council Register, apud Maitland.
[24] In England, the spring of 1562 had been marked by excessive rains,
and the harvest was consequently bad. Towards the end of the year,
plague broke out in the crowded and harassed population of Havre, in
France, then undergoing a siege, and from the garrison it was imparted
to England, which had been prepared for its reception by the famine.
There it prevailed throughout the whole year 1563, carrying off 20,000
persons in London alone. ‘The poor citizens,’ says Stowe, ‘were this
year plagued with a threefold plague--pestilence, dearth of money, and
dearth of victuals; the misery whereof were too long here to write. No
doubt the poor remember it.’ On account of the plague at Michaelmas,
no term was kept, and there was _no lord-mayor’s dinner!_ The plague
spread into Germany, where it was estimated to have carried off 300,000
persons.
[25] See notes to Scott’s _Lay of the Last Minstrel_.
[26] This curious contract is printed entire in Pitcairn, iii. 390.
[27] Scott’s notes, _ut supra_.
[28] There is a place called Tarlair near Banff.
[29] Nicol Burne’s Disputation, p. 143.
[30] While Drury lay before the castle, Lord Fleming entered into
a hostile correspondence with Sir George Carey, one of Elizabeth’s
officers. This is given in _Holinshed’s Chronicle_.
[31] Mr Pennant, from whom the above translation is borrowed, says, by
a strange mistake, ‘on one of the deer.’
[32] William Barclay, _De Regno et Regali Potestate adversus
Monarchomachos_. Parisiis, 1600. This author was a native of
Aberdeenshire, but finally settled at Angers, in France, as Professor
of Civil Law in the University there. He died in 1604.
Bishop Geddes, in introducing this extract from Barclay’s forgotten
work to the notice of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland
(1782), remarks that a still more grand entertainment of the same kind
was given in 1529 to King James V., his mother, Queen Margaret, and
the pope’s legate, by the then Earl of Athole, and that an account of
the affair has been preserved in Lindsay of Pitscottie’s _History of
Scotland_. The venerable bishop adds: ‘Need I take notice that the
hunting described by Barclay bears some resemblance to the _batidas_ of
the present king of Spain, where several huntsmen form a line and drive
the deer through a narrow pass, at one side of which the king, with
some attendants, has his post, in a green but of boughs, and slaughters
the poor animals as they come out almost as fast as charged guns can
be put into his hand and he fire them. These are things sufficiently
known; and the same manner of stag-hunting is practised in Italy,
Germany, and other parts of Europe.’[421]
[33] Gunn’s _Historical Enquiry respecting the Harp in the Highlands_.
1807.
[34] Agnes Strickland’s _Life of Queen Mary_.
[35] _Archæologia Scotica_, ii. 287.
[36] Richard Bannatyne’s _Memorials_, p. 238.
[37] Dalyell’s _Darker Superstitions of Scotland_, p. 130.
[38] Walter Goodall and Miss Agnes Strickland have been misled by the
description of the place in Bothwell’s Act of Forfeiture--‘_ad pontes,
vulgo vocatos foulbriggs_‘--into the belief that the queen was seized
at the suburb of Edinburgh formerly called Foulbriggs, and now Fountain
Bridge. In reality, the expression in the Act, rightly translated,
applies to the place indicated in the _Diurnal of Occurrents_--‘at
the Briggs, commonly called Foulbriggs,’ the syllable _foul_ being
presumably a vulgar casual addition which the ancient marshy condition
of the place rendered appropriate. All the other contemporary writers
place the scene of the seizure at the Almond--Buchanan, Birrel, and
Herries--while Sir James Melville, who was one of the party seized,
says ‘betwixt Linlithgow and Edinburgh’--an expression he could
scarcely have used if the fact had happened close to the city. In _Ane
Chronicle of the Kings of Scotland_, printed by the Maitland Club, and
apparently contemporary, _the brig of Awmont_ is the locality assigned.
But the most powerful evidence on the subject, and what sets the matter
at rest, is a Remission under the Privy Seal, of date October 1, 1567,
to Andrew Redpath, for his being concerned in ‘besetting the queen’s
way ... _near the water of Awmond_, and for taking and ravishing her,’
&c. It may be remarked that there is no evidence of the suburb alluded
to by Miss Strickland having been called Foulbriggs, or having existed
at all, at that time, while we have proof of the existence of a place
on the Almond Water, under the name of the _Briggs_, long before this
time. In the Register of the Privy Seal is ‘ane lettre maid to Robert
Hamilton in Briggis, makand him capitane and kepar of the place and
palace of Linlithgow,’ &c. 1543, Aug. 22.
[39] Privy Seal Register.
[40] Carries.
[41] Nickname.
[42] Garret.
[43] Searches.
[44] Thievery.
[45] Ere.
[46] Till.
[47] _Ancient Scottish Poems_, 2 vols. 1786.
[48] _Border Minstrelsy_, i. 157.
[49] Burgh Record of Canongate, _Maitland Club Mis._, ii. 303.
[50] Babees, halfpence, from _bas billon_, a low piece of money.
[51] Hume’s _Hist. House of Douglas_.
[52] Privy Seal Register.
[53] _Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes in Scotland._ Written
in 1619. Bannatyne Club, 1825.
[54] _Holinshed’s Chronicle._
[55] The original, preserved in the General Register House, is printed
at length in Pitcairn, iii. 394.
[56] Privy Seal Register.
[57] Council Register, quoted in _Maitland’s History of Edinburgh_, p.
32.
[58] _Ane Breve Descriptioun of the Pest_, &c. 1568.
[59] Mr M. Napier’s Notes to Spottiswoode’s History, Spot. Club edition.
[60] Where Napier had other estates.
[61] The bishop was about to go to York, to attend the investigation
respecting the queen.
[62] Justiciary Records, MS., Adv. Lib., quoted by Mr Mark Napier.
[63] Burgh Records of Canongate, _Mait. Club Mis._, ii. 313.
[64] The pest was severe in London in autumn 1569, whether by
communication from Scotland does not appear.
[65] Ane Addicioun of Scottis Cornicklis and Deidis, printed from an
original manuscript by Thomas Thomson, Esq.
[66] _Memorials of George Bannatyne._ Edited by Sir Walter Scott.
Bannatyne Club-book, 1829.
[67] Extracts from Canongate Council Register, _Maitland Club
Miscellany_, ii. 814.
[68] _Ane Trajedie in forme of ane Diallog betwix Honour, Gude Fame,
and the Authour heirof, in ane Trance._ Lekprevik, 1570.
[69] Dalyell’s _Illustrations of Scottish History_, p. 521.
[70] Harrison’s translation, _apud_ Holinshed.
[71] _Extracta e Chronicis Scocie._ Edin. 1842.
[72] Sir William Sinclair, who records these curious particulars, was
Lord Justice-general of Scotland, and altogether an estimable person.
According to Father Hay: ‘He gathered a great many manuscripts, which
had been taken by the rabble out of our monasteries in the time of the
Reformation.’--_Genealogy of the Sinclairs of Roslin_, edited by James
Maidment, Esq. 1835. See something further about him under June 1623.
[73] The distance from Bathgate to Edinburgh is eighteen miles.
[74] _Bannatyne’s Journal_, 46.
[75] _Calderwood_, iii. 20, 167, and _note_.
[76] The couplet almost verbatim occurs in the prophecies of
Bertlingtoun, in R. Waldegrave’s brochure, already quoted (under Jan.
1, 1561-2):
‘However it happen for to fall,
The Lyon shall be lord of all.’
[77] Eupham M‘Calyean subsequently attained still higher notoriety in
the character of a witch. See under Dec. 26, 1590.
[78] The whole series is printed in _Abbotsford Miscellany_, p. 5.
[79] Crawford’s _Memoirs_, 215.
[80] The Lady Scotland is understood to address ‘the richt honorable
and godly learnit gentleman, the Laird of Dun, minister of God’s word.’
[81] Bruised.
[82] He ‘wes extremelie pynit in the beitis lang of befoir.’--_D. O._
[83] _Calderwood_, iii. 393.
[84] The word _its_ did not then exist, and writers were forced to use
either _his_ or _her_ instead.
[85] Humboldt’s _Cosmos_.
[86] Brewster’s _Encyclopædia_.
[87] Tytler, vii. 388.
[88] Under the care of John Smith, youngest, the secretary of the Club.
1832.
[89] So called ‘for that in old Fathers’ days the people would that
day shear their heads and clip their beards, and so make them honest
against Easter Day.’--Authority quoted in Brand’s _Pop. Antiquities_,
by Ellis.
[90] ‘Robert Gurlay, the duke’s servant,’ is the last in the list of
persons forfeited by the parliament of James VI., August 1571.
[91] Calderwood.
[92] Register of the General Kirk of Edinburgh, _Maitland Club Mis._,
i. 101.
[93] Reg. of Gen. Kirk of Edinburgh, _Maitland Club Mis._, i. 111.
[94] As this conduct was such as might lead to a collision between
the parties, it is not easy to see how it illustrates the author’s
proposition of Wedderburn’s pacific temper.
[95] From a copy in the editor’s possession of a manuscript long
preserved in Broomhouse, Berwickshire.
[96] ‘There was presented to the Queen Regent (1558), by Robert
Ormiston, a calf having two heads, whereat she scripped [mocked], and
said: “It was but a common thing.”‘--_Knox._
[97] Coloured stripes sewed on a garment.
[98] Fringes or trimmings.
[99] This seems too high a phrase of compliment for the Regent Morton.
_His Grace_ was the ordinary phrase, according to Sir James Melville.
[100] Aberdeen Council Register, _Spal. Cl. Mis._ i. 30.
[101] _Abbotsford Miscellany_, 45.
[102] _Hist. of the House of Douglas_, ii. 260.
[103] The wife of the earl--Margaret Fleming, relict of the Master of
Montrose and the Master of Erskine--was believed to have the powers of
incantation. See under June 19, 1566.
[104] The seat of the Earl of Montrose, on the skirts of the Ochil
Hills.
[105] Crawford’s _Officers of State_. Moysie’s _Memoirs_.
[106] As much as to say, ‘Sport, and be at your ease.’
[107] Moysie.
[108] Calderwood.
[109] Arranged--not lying as rubbish.
[110] _Documents Relative to Royal Receptions_, 4to. Edinburgh, 1822.
[111] _Maitland Club Miscellany_, ii. 19.
[112] General Assembly, April 1578.
[113] A house called the _Novum Hospitium_, in the Priory Park. It has
long been demolished, excepting only the court-gate.
[114] _Atkinson’s Discoverie of Gold Mynes in Scotland._
[115] _Trans. Ant. Soc. Scot._ iii. 312.
[116] Row’s _History of the Kirk of Scotland_.
[117] The original of this document, commonly called the _King’s
Confession_, is preserved in the Advocates’ Library.
[118] See under May 1574.
[119] Fr. _clientèle_, dependents.
[120] This Scotch law-phrase has become familiar in England, under the
form of ‘art and part,’ and is not in general correctly understood.
The first word is not art, but _airt_, meaning direction, implying
that the accused was believed to have counselled and guided the actual
perpetrators of the crime.
[121] Powerfully.
[122] A strange thing.
[123] See under Jan. 1, 1561-2.
[124] For the above illustrations of his remark, the author is indebted
to Mr Mark Napier’s curious notes to the edition of Spottiswoode’s
History published by the Spottiswoode Club.
[125] ‘Item, to ane pyper and ane young boy his sone that playit in
Dalkeytht upon Sonday the xj day of Junii, fra the kirk to the castell
befoir his Hienes ... xx_s._‘
[126] A noteworthy anecdote of this lady is stated in Anderson’s
_History of the Family of Fraser_. On the death of her first husband,
the tutorship of her infant son, Lord Lovat, became a matter of
contention between the child’s grand-uncle, Fraser of Struie, and his
uncle Thomas; and it seemed likely there would be a fight between their
various partisans. In these circumstances, a clerical gentleman of the
clan, Donald Fraser Dhu, entreated the widow to interfere, and ask
Struie to retire. She gave an evasive reply, remarking that whatever
might befall, ‘not a drop of Stewart blood would be spilt.’ The
mediator then drew his dirk, and told her ladyship with a fierce oath,
that _her_ blood would be the first that would be spilt, if she did not
do as he requested. She then complied, and Thomas, the child’s uncle,
was accordingly elected as tutor.
[127] Calderwood.
[128] Melville’s Diary.
[129] He states that David Riccio was buried by the queen in the royal
vault, ‘almost in the arms of Magdalene Valois,’ and thence draws a
shameful inference against the chastity of Mary. To dedicate to the
young king a book in which he endeavoured to prove his mother an
adulteress, and the murderer of her husband, gives a strange idea of
the sense of that age regarding the rules of good taste, to say nothing
more.
[130] On this occasion Captain Lammie was killed. Sir Walter Scott, in
relating the incident in the _Border Minstrelsy_, expresses a hope that
he was ‘the same miscreant who, in the day of Queen Mary’s distress,
“his ensign being of white taffety, had painted on it the cruel murder
of King Henry, and laid down before her majesty, at what time she
presented herself as prisoner to the Lords.”--_Birrel’s Diary._’ It
was very probably so, as we find that he then, as well as now, was a
hired soldier of the government. As his painted ensign makes rather a
conspicuous appearance in Scottish history, it may be not unworthy of
notice that the following entry occurs in the Lord Treasurer’s books,
under March 18, 1567-8, nine months after the incident in question: ‘To
Captain Andro Lambie for his expenses passand of Glasgow to Edinburgh
to uplift certain men of weir, and to mak ane _Handsenyie_ of white
taffety, £25.’ He was then acting for the Regent Moray. It seems
probable that, having spoiled his ensign by the picture of the king’s
murder, he was now gratified with a new one at the expense of his
employer.
[131] In the parish of Carluke, Lanarkshire.
[132] He remained at this fine old castle twelve days, attended by
Arran, Sir Robert Melville, Secretary Maitland, Ferniehirst, Colonel
Stuart, and the Master of Gray; and regaled with ‘the play of Robin
Hood.’ ‘After the banquet was ended, Arran fell deadly sick.’--_Cal._
[133] _History of King James VI._
[134] _Darker Superstitions of Scotland_, p. 484.
[135] Note in _Maitland Club Miscellany_, iv. 123.
[136] _Gregory’s History of the Western Highlands and Isles_, p. 234.
[137] Estate--piece of ground.
[138] Threatens.
[139] A horn had originally, or perhaps was still used, in proclaiming
a man rebel; hence the term, horning, or being put to the horn.
[140] October ... 1587, ‘his majesty raid with ane host to Peebles,
for order-taking with the broken men, and returnit the tent
day.’--_Moysie’s Memoirs._
[141] It is understood that this was the place of worship formed out of
the choir or eastern portion of the church of St Giles. Opposite to the
pulpit, which was attached to the first pillar from the east end, was
the royal gallery or loft, also attached to a pillar. Thus the king and
the minister were sufficiently near each other for the colloquies in
which they occasionally indulged. See Wilson’s _Memorials of Edinburgh_.
[142] Harrington’s _Nugæ Antiquæ_, by Park. 2 vols. 1804. Vol. i., p.
369.
[143] A light bark with one mast.
[144] Rascal.
[145] Worthless fellows.
[146] Value.
[147] A bulk, a corpse.
[148] A gun in the poop of the ship.
[149] Discharged.
[150] _Maitland Club Miscellany_, i. 276.
[151] Transverse.
[152] It is to be feared that Abacuck was a person of a litigious and
troublesome temper. A complaint was made against him before the Privy
Council by Kenneth M‘Kenzie of Kintail, to the effect that Bisset had
purchased letters to force Kenneth to produce a clansman named Rory
M‘Allister M‘Kenzie, alleged to be at the horn for default in a civil
cause. It was alleged that, knowing that on the case being called,
he (Kenneth) could shew many good arguments for exonerating himself
of this responsibility, Bisset had delayed the calling, in hopes of
being able to do it when Kenneth should not be at hand to make his
own defence. The matter being brought fully before the Lords in the
presence of parties, it was decreed that Kenneth should be absolved
from the duty implied in Bisset’s letters.--_P. C. R._
In July 1608, Abacuck was involved in a still worse-looking affair. He
was charged before the Privy Council with having prosecuted Mr William
Reid, of Aberdeen, in a malicious manner at law, from no cause but
that of ‘some little eleist’ fallen out between him and Andrew Reid,
brother of William, in which the said William had no interest. He had
also traduced William Hay in regard to the propriety of his marriage,
though it was well known to be ‘an honest and famous marriage.’ The
Council found the charge just, and commanded Abacuck’s proceedings to
be stopped.
[153] _Melville Diary_, 291.
[154] The conduct of the clergy on this occasion is defended, but in
rather subdued terms, by Dr M‘Crie, _Life of Andrew Melville_, i. 395.
[155] _Statistical Acc. of Scot._ ed. 1845, v. 258.
[156] A leek (Fr. _cibolle_).
[157] _Maitland Club Mis._, i. 278.
[158] See the entire letter in _Blackwood’s Magazine_, ii. 313.
[159] _Chronicle Kings of Scotland._
[160] _Moysie’s Memoirs._
[161] Act of Privy Council, Notes to Waverley Novels (_Legend of
Montrose_).
[162] James Melville’s _Diary_.
[163] In this article, both editions of Moysie are used.
[164] Birrel’s _Diary_.
[165] Latterly called the West Bow.
[166] A public weighing-machine at the head of the West Bow.
[167] Johnston’s _Hist. Scot._ MS.
[168] From the reprint of a rare contemporary tract, in _Papers
relative to the Marriage of James VI._ (Bannatyne Club), 1828.
[169] Regals, or rigols, an ancient musical instrument, composed of a
series of reeded tubes resting on a bellows, which the player worked
with his left hand. See Dalyell’s _Musical Memoirs of Scotland_, 1849,
p. 117.
One is at a loss to understand how the poet thought of expressing his
admiration of the strings of the organ and regals.
[170] Burel’s _Description of the Queen’s Entry_, &c., 1590, in
Watson’s _Collection of Scottish Poetry_, 1712.
[171] Johnston’s _Hist. Scot._ MS.
[172] Edin. Council Record.
[173] _Maitland Club Misc._, i. 280.
[174] The entire letter is printed in _Blackwood’s Magazine_, ii. 628,
and in the _Caldwell Papers_.
[175] Calderwood.
[176] ‘Wha were lately pardonit by his majesty for slaughter of the
Laird of Dawick’s son.’
[177] Mr C. Innes’s preface to _Black Book of Taymouth_, xxv.
[178] Anderson’s _Hist. of the Frasers_, p. 102.
[179] See onward, under May 1600.
[180] See onward, under August 1618.
[181] _Britain’s Distemper_, by Patrick Gordon, Spald. Club.
[182] Tytler’s _History_, quoting letters in the State-paper Office.
[183] This lady did not long enjoy the position of a duchess. She died
on the 11th of May 1592, and was ‘buried in the Trinity College, in
the east end thereof, very solemnly.’--_Jo. Hist._ When the Trinity
College Church was taken down, that its site might form part of a
railway station, the remains of a female, believed to be those of the
royal foundress, Mary de Gueldres, were found in a side-aisle, and duly
re-interred in the royal sepulchre at Holyrood. Afterwards, the remains
of another female, who had apparently been buried under circumstances
of distinction, were found in the east end of the church, and suspected
by some to be the remains of the queen. The probability is, that these
latter remains were those of the youthful Sophia Ruthven, Duchess of
Lennox.
[184] May 19, 1591, the town-council of Aberdeen made arrangements for
the support of one Robert Abell, who was ‘visited with leprosy, and
thereby unable to win his living or frequent honest men’s society.’
He was placed in the house here described.--_Ab. C. R._ In 1612,
the magistrates made the like provision for Agnes Jameson, spouse
to Patrick Jack, ‘vexed and diseased with the sickness of leprosy,’
although she was not born and bred in the burgh.
[185] Edin. Council Record. See Professor Simpson’s curious Notices of
Leprosy in Scotland, _Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal_, No. 149.
[186] Now La Mancha.
[187] It will be found that the body of the Bonny Earl remained above
ground for six years, probably with a view to keeping up the popular
indignation against his murderers. (See under February 16, 1597-8.)
[188] It is necessary to distinguish this from the murder of another
Laird of Brackla in 1667, on which a ballad has been composed. See
Jamieson’s _Northern Ballads_.
[189] In a memoir of the family of Grant, written by Mr James Chapman,
minister of Cromdale, in 1729, and preserved in the Macfarlane
Collections in the Advocates’ Library, there is a curious traditionary
anecdote, which the writer connects with the murder of the Laird of
Brackla, and yet dates in 1540. It is given in the following terms:
‘[James Laird of Grant, called _Shemus nan Creagh_, or James the
Ravager] distinguished himself in assisting the Earl of Huntly, his
cousin, against the insults of several enemies, and particularly in
revenging the murder of Gordon Baron of Brackla, on Dee water-side,
who was murdered by the countrymen there. The revenge went such a
length, that above sixscore orphans were left in the desolate country
on Deeside, nobody knowing who their parents were. These miserable
orphans were, out of pity and commiseration, carried by the Earl of
Huntly into his castle, where they were maintained and fed thus. A
long trough of wood was made, wherein was put pottage or any other
kind of food allowed them; and the young ones, sitting round about
the trough, did eat their meat out of it as well as they could. The
Laird of Grant visiting the earl, was, for diversion’s sake, brought
to see the orphans slabbing at the trough; which comical sight so
surprised him, that he proposed to carry one-half of them to Balcastle,
alleging that, having a hand in destroying their parents, he was bound
in justice to take a concern in their preservation and maintenance.
Those of them that were brought to Castle-Grant are to this day called
_Slioch Namor_--that is, the Posterity of the Trough.’ As _Shemus nan
Creagh_ died in 1553, and the Grants were not engaged on the Earl of
Huntly’s side on this occasion, but participated with their relatives
and allies the Mackintoshes in suffering from his vengeance, it may be
presumed that this barbarous tale refers to the date assigned for it by
Chapman--namely, a period fully fifty years earlier than the murder of
the Laird of Brackla. It has nevertheless been introduced by Sir Walter
Scott in his _Tales of a Grandfather_, as applicable to the reign of
James VI.; and the reader who turns it up there, may experience some
amusement in contrasting its ample and picturesque details with the
simple original anecdote as above narrated.
[190] The Earl of Angus in this anecdote was a Protestant, and
succeeded by the earl noticed in the preceding article, who was of the
ancient faith.
[191] Fairnyear, the last year: the phrase means, formerly a lord.
[192] Andrew Wauchope of Niddry, and John Hamilton, younger, of
Samuelston.
[193] The king, probably from recollection of some incident of their
early school-days, used to recognise the grave earl by the name of
_Jock o’ Sklaitts_.
[194] The above anecdote was communicated to me by Sir Walter Scott
in 1827, immediately after he had derived it from the Earl of
Haddington (Earl Charles), to whom, I suppose, it had come through his
predecessors, the descendants of Lord Mar’s brother-statesman, Thomas,
first Earl of Haddington.
[195] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._ Abbotsford
Club Series. 1838. P. 16.
[196] Calderwood. _History of James VI._ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_.
Gregory’s _History of the Western Highlands and Isles_.
[197] This interlined in the manuscript in a different hand. Another
report is, that Lord Maxwell was slain by Willie Johnston, nephew of
the _Galliard_, mentioned under July 22, 1593.
[198] G. L. Meason’s preface to _Discoverie and Historie of the Gold
Mynes of Scotland_. Bannatyne Club. 1825.
[199] _Archæologia Scotica_, iv. 404.
[200] Napier’s _Life of Napier of Merchiston_.
[201] Another writer represents the Master of Montrose as setting upon
Sir James Sandilands.
[202] The writer of this curious story speaks of the form of the
funeral as rare.
[203] Council Register in Maitland.
[204] Patrick Anderson’s History MS. He adds: ‘I was at the time by
chance an eye-witness myself.’
[205] _Hist. K. Ja. 6._
[206] March 16, 1575-6, John Macmoran, messenger, reported to the Privy
Council, that in January last, when using his office in execution of
letters upon Patrick M‘Kie, burgess of Wigton, he had been set upon by
Alexander M‘Kie of Myreton and his two brothers, who cruelly struck and
chased him, giving him despiteful words, and threatening him with worse
if he ever again came there in a professional capacity. The offenders,
failing to appear on call to answer for this outrage, were put to the
horn.--_P. C. R._
[207] See _ante_, p. 143.
[208] Lady Yester in her widowhood founded a church in Edinburgh, which
has perpetuated her name. Her ladyship, after the above date, brought
Lord Yester two sons, the elder of whom earned on the line of the
family, and was the first Earl of Tweeddale.
[209] Patrick Anderson’s Hist. MS. Genealogy of the Hays of Tweeddale.
[210] Thrown down.
[211] For the ballad of _Kinmont Willie_, and many particulars of the
affair, see _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.
[212] Napier’s _Life of Napier_, 4to, p. 247.
[213] Wood’s _Peerage_, quoting Urquhart.
[214] Cockalane--Fr. _coq-à-l’âne_, defined in the dictionary of the
Academy, ‘Discours qui n’a point de suite, de liaison, de raison.’
Equivalent to the English phrase, a _cock-and-bull story_. The word
occurs in at least one English author--Etheridge.
[215] Through his connection with the Lovat family, his wife being
the mother of the present Lord Lovat, he was sheltered for some time
in a small island in the lake of Bruiach, a few miles from Beaufort
Castle.--_Anderson’s Hist. Acc. Fraser Family_, p. 90, note.
[216] _Spottiswoode_, iii. 40. Johnston’s Hist. Scot. MS. Scott’s
_Staggering State of Scots Statesmen_.
[217] He was put to the horn, and an edict of Privy Council denounced
those who should ‘reset’ him.
[218] Letter of Sir Thomas Hamilton, king’s advocate, Pitcairn, iii.
162.
[219] _History of the Kennedies_, 27.
[220] Letter above cited.
[221] The resemblance of this case to the phenomena of what is called
electro-biology will be apparent.
[222] The original documents regarding these trials are given in full
in the _Spalding Club Miscellany_, vol. i. Aberdeen. 1841.
[223] _William Shakspere, a Biography._ 1843.
[224] _Chronicle of the Cid_, translated by Robert Southey, pp. 75-83.
[225] Near Cramond Island.
[226] Fr. _Bon aller_, an entertainment at the commencement of a
journey.
[227] _Genealogical Deduction of Kilravock Family_, written in 1683-4.
[228] Letter of Thomas Mallison, Aberdeen, June 28, 1597. _Spalding
Club Misc._, ii. lx.
[229] _Mait. Club Misc._, i. 89.
[230] He held a privy-council on the 4th November, and occasionally
during the month till the 29th, at Dumfries.
[231] Calderwood.
[232] ‘... that fearful eclipse of the sun which continued the space
of two hours, so fearful that that Saturday is yet called by the
people the BLACK SATURDAY; a prognostic, as the times give occasion to
interpret, of that darkness which was to fall upon the kirk.’--_Scot’s
Narration._
[233] The house of Bailie Macmoran, who was killed by a boy at the High
School in 1595. This house still exists (see p. 263), and the room
where the duke was banqueted is now used as the Mechanics’ Library.
[234] Fynes Moryson’s _Itinerary_, folio, 1617.
[235] For an anecdote of this lady, see under October 1590.
[236] Pitcairn’s _Crim. Trials_, iii. 116.
[237] Gordon’s _Hist. House of Sutherland_. Phillips’s _Geology_. _New
Stat. Acc. Scot._ H. Miller’s _Testimony of the Rocks_, p. 496.
[238] _Calderwood_, iii. 76.
[239] Notes to James Melville’s _Diary_, Wodrow edition.
[240] See in _Deliciæ Literariæ_ (Edin. 1840), the title of the rare
tract printed by Waldegrave in 1599, announcing this disputation.
[241] Gregory’s _History of the Western Highlands and Isles_.
[242] This James Learmont of Balcomie had, nearly twenty years before,
fixed on the college-gate at St Andrews a placard offensive to Andrew
Melville, who consequently broke out upon him as he sat in church, to
this effect: ‘Thou Frenchiest, Italianest jolly gentleman, wha has
defiled the bed of sae many married [men], and now boasts with thy
bastinadoes to defile this kirk and put hands on His servants, thou
sall never enjoy the fruits of marriage, by having lawful succession
of thy body; and God shall baston thee in His righteous judgments!’
‘This,’ says James Melville, ‘was remembered when the said James lived
many years in marriage without child, and taken by the Highlandmen
coming out of Lewis, was siccarly bastoned, and sae hardly used, that
soon thereafter he died in Orkney.’
[243] _A. P. R._ Pit. Wood’s _Peerage_.
[244] _Gordon Papers_, _Spalding Club Misc._, iv. 123-319.
[245] _Stat. Acc. Scotland_, xi. 477.
[246] Published in the _Scots Magazine_, January 1807.
[247] Brazil fowls; that is, turkeys.
[248] Macfarlane’s _Genealogical Collections_, Adv. Lib.
[249] Butler’s _Lives of the Saints_.
[250] Extracts from Presbytery Book of Strathbogie (Spald. Club), xxiv.
[251] Father Blackhall’s _Narrative_.
[252] Shaw’s _History of the Province of Moray_, p. 326.
[253] Winzet, remarking how John Knox had put down festival-days as
unsanctioned in Scripture, says: ‘I misknow not some of you to object
the command, charging _sex days to labour, and the sevint to sanctify
the Lord_; therefore I desire the doubtsome man to cause his doctor
and prophet aforesaid [John Knox], with all the assistance of his best
learned scholars, to answer in writ, what Scripture has he, or other
authority, by [besides] the consent of the haly kirk universal, to
sanctify the Sunday to be the sevint day. And gif he abolishes with
us the Saturday, as ceremonial and not requirit in the law of the
evangel, what has he by [besides] the consent of God’s kirk to sanctify
ony day of the seven, and not to labour all the seven days.... Why
abolishes he not the Sunday, as he does Yule, Pasch, and the rest,
&c.?‘--_Tractates_, 1563, reprinted for Maitland Club, 1835.
[254] Privy Council Record.
[255] Extracts from Reg. Kirk-session of Rothiemay, Spal. Club.
[256] See extracts from their Register, Maitland Club Miscellany, i. 67.
[257] _Extracts from Register of General Kirk of Edinburgh_, same book,
p. 111.
[258] Niel’s edition of Zachary Boyd’s poems (1855), p. xli.
[259] _Extracts from the Council Registers of Aberdeen_, p. 71.
[260] _Maitland Club Misc._, i. 135.
[261] _Ibid._ p. 431.
[262] ‘... in that church excommunication is so terrible, that few
will have any manner of conversation with one excommunicated; and the
generality of the people, when they see a man whom their ministers
declare to be excluded from heaven, are easily induced to think
him unworthy to live on earth.’--_Ed. Phillips’s Cont. of Baker’s
Chronicle_, 1670, p. 617.
[263] Tubs.
[264] Boxes.
[265] Supposed to be a kind of sweetmeats.
[266] To hold stob and stake in a place, is an old periphrasis for
making it one’s permanent residence.
[267] The flet was the inside of a house.
[268] A neighbouring hamlet.
[269] January 12, 1591-2, the king repossessed David Hamilton
of Bothwell-haugh, Isobel Sinclair and Alison Sinclair,
heretrices-portioners of the lands of Woodhouselee, of ‘their lands,
houses, tacks, steadings, and possessions, wherefra they were
dispossest upon occasion of the late troubles.’--_P. C. R._
[270] Miss Gordon having married Mr Byron without any ‘settlement,’ her
property was seized by his creditors, and sold for £18,500, while she
and her son, the future poet, were left to penury.
[271] The name has been changed to Formartin--a proceeding against
which every person interested in the verity of history, not to speak of
considerations of taste, must protest.
[272] Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, ii. 429. See also vol. iii. 409.
[273] See the ballad of Christie’s Will, with the notes, in the
_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, iii. 151. This ballad was composed
by the editor on the traditionary story, in which the Earl of Traquair
is introduced as a litigant for whose benefit the capture of the judge
was made, the object being to prevent an adverse judgment in the Court
of Session.
[274] Alexander Gibson of Durie, commonly called Lord Durie, and author
of a well-known work called _Durie’s Practicks_, died June 10, 1614.
The story of his kidnapping was related a century after, as follows:
‘Some party in a considerable action before the Session, finding that
the Lord Durie could not be persuaded to find his plea good, fell upon
a stratagem to prevent the influence and weight which his lordship
might have to his prejudice, by causing some strong masked men kidnap
him, in the links of Leith, at his diversion on a Saturday afternoon,
and transport him to some blind and obscure room in the country, where
he was detained captive, without the benefit of daylight, a matter of
three months (though otherwise civilly and well entertained); during
which time his lady and children went in mourning for him as dead. But
after the cause aforesaid was decided, the Lord Durie was carried back
by incognitos, and dropt in the same place where he had been taken
up.’--Forbes’s _Journal of the Session_, Edin. 1714.
[275] _Book of Bon Accord_ (Aberdeen, 1839), p. 246. Knight’s _William
Shakspere, a Biography_, p. 443.
[276] John, fifth Earl of Cassillis, son of the lord who roasted Allan
Stewart in Dunure Castle; see pp. 65-67.
[277] See under January 1, 1596-7.
[278] Such is the account of a partial contemporary. In the Privy
Council Record, it is stated that the conflict was provoked by Bargeny,
and that his party were fully armed for the purpose with muskets,
hagbuts, and pistolets, while Cassillis’s attendants wore only their
swords. Cassillis’s defence, on the ground of his having commissions
giving him authority over his district, was sustained.
[279] Birrel, by an evident mistake, places this in 1601.
[280] The names of the party, as given in the Privy Council Record,
are curious as a sample of Highland nomenclature of the day. These
were Donald Glas M‘Rannald, and Ronald M’Rannald, brothers of the
aforesaid Alexander; Allaster M‘Ean Vich Innes, John, Angus, Donald,
and Ronald, his sons; Gorie M‘Allaster Vich Gorie, and Allaster his
brother; John Dow M‘Connell Vich Rannald, Allan and Angus his brothers;
Gillespich M‘Ean Vich Connell, William and Angus his brothers; William
M‘Connell Vich Gorie, and Angus his brother; John M‘Ean Vich Finlay
Roy, and Ewen M‘Finlay Roy his brother; John Dow Vich Connell Vich
Finlay; John M‘Innes Vich Connachie, and Paul M‘Connachie Vich Innes
his son; Farquhar Dow M‘Connell Vich Farquhar, Allaster Dow his
brother; Gilliecallum M’Farquhar Vich Connell Vich Farquhar, son to the
said Farquhar; Donald M‘Innes Vich Ean Dowie; Gillespich M‘Innes his
brother, &c.
[281] Poniard swords.
[282] Nicolson and Burn’s _Hist. Westmoreland_, i. 595.
[283] See this singular document in Pitcairn’s _Crim. Trials_, iii.
622; also in _Maitland Club Misc._, i. p. 141, where a fac-simile of it
is presented.
[284] Hist. Clan Mackenzie, MS. in possession of John W. Mackenzie, Esq.
[285] This Scottish _Philotus_ is to be distinguished from the
_Philotas_ of Daniel, for which see Collier’s _Annals of the Stage_,
iii. 350.
[286] _Riche his Farewell to Militaire Profession, &c._ Another of the
tales in the same volume is dramatised by Shakspeare in _Twelfth Night_.
[287] See Mr J. W. Mackenzie’s edition of _Philotus_, presented to the
Bannatyne Club in 1835.
[288] Calm, gratify.
[289] Apparel.
[290] Condition.
[291] Ere.
[292] Slippers.
[293] A quantity.
[294] Mouthfuls.
[295] Serve.
[296] Cauls.
[297] A warm at the fire.
[298] Custom.
[299] Jests.
[300] Mask.
[301] Above the rest.
[302] Necklace.
[303] Decorated with lace.
[304] Stockings.
[305] Throat.
[306] Heaps.
[307] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._, p. 47.
[308] Spottiswoode.
[309] Grease.
[310] MS. Hist. of Scotland, quoted by Pitcairn.
[311] The tercel is the male hawk (_Falco peregrinus_), so called
because one-third the size of the female.
[312] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of King James VI._, p. 76.
[313] Bankrupts.
[314] Maitland’s _History of Edinburgh_.
[315] _Acts of Sederunt_, p. 161.
[316] The Privy Council in the previous April had passed an act,
‘that the haill marquisses and earls of this kingdom sall leave off
their former resolution anent the wearing of velvet robes in time of
parliament,’ and ‘that they sall provide themselves with robes of red
scarlet cloth again the next session, &c.’--_Maitland Club Misc._, i.
147.
[317] Letter of the three privy-councillors, in _Letters and State
Papers of the Reign of James VI._, p. 84.
[318] Melville’s _Diary_, p. 648.
[319] These particulars are derived from a fragment of the deed entered
into by the gentlemen for payment of the money.
[320] _Letters, &c., of the Reign of James VI._
[321] _Ibid._, p. 89.
[322] _Geneal. Deduction of Fam. of Rose of Kilravock_, Spald. Club, p.
249.
[323] Letter in James Melville’s _Diary_, Wodrow Club ed., p. 671.
[324] Melville’s _Diary_, p. 688.
[325] Pitcairn. _Lives of the Lyndsays._ _Lands of the Lyndsays._
[326] See depositions of witnesses, &c., in Pitcairn, iii. 47.
[327] 28th April 1608. ‘Forsameikle as the Lords of Secret Council
are informit that there is ane horse-race appointit to be at Peblis
the ... day of May nextocome, whereunto grit numbers of people of
all qualities and ranks, intends to repair, betwixt whom there being
quarrels, private grudges, and miscontentment, it is to be feirit that
at their meeting upon fields, some troubles and inconvenients sall fall
out amangs them, to the break of his Majesty’s peace and disquieting of
the country without remeed be providit; Therefore the Lords of Secret
Council has dischargit, and be the tenor hereof discharges, the said
horse-race, and ordains that the same sall be nawise halden nor keepit
this year; for whilk purpose ordains letters to be direct, to command,
charge, and inhibit all and sundry his Majesty’s lieges and subjects
by open proclamation at the mercat-cross of Peblis and other places
needful, that nane of them presume nor tak upon them to convene and
assemble themselves to the said race this present year, but to suffer
that meeting and action to depart and cease, as they and ilk ane of
them will answer upon the contrary at their heichest peril,’ &c.
[328] This was probably at the place called Silver Mills, on the Water
of Leith; now involved in the suburbs of Edinburgh.
[329] Atkinson’s _Discoverie of Gold Mynes in Scotland_ (Bann. Club),
1825. _Chron. Kings of Scotland._
[330] Napier’s _Life of John Napier_.
[331] Literally, the separation; in larger sense, the restoration of
order.
[332] The fishing of salmon in the river Dee on Sunday was a custom
of some antiquity, as it had been expressly warranted by a bull of
Pope Nicolas V. in 1451. The privilege was limited to the Sundays of
those five months of the year in which salmon most abound; and the
first salmon taken each Sunday was to belong to the parish church.
The bull recites that both by the canon and the common law, the right
of prosecuting the herring-fishing on Sunday was conceded to all the
faithful.--_Reg. Epis. Aber._ (Spalding Club).
[333] _Earl of Haddington’s Notes, quoted by Pitcairn_, iii. 597. It
may be worthy of remark, that no notice of such shocking transactions
occurs in the Privy Council Record at this time.
[334] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._
[335] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._, p. 56.
[336] _Mait. Club Misc._, i. 158.
[337] See under June 1590.
[338] Osborne’s _Traditional Memoirs_--_Secret Hist. Court James I._
Vol. i., p. 219.
[339] Printed in full in Ritson’s _Country Chorister_.
[340] A large collection of documents illustrative of this case will be
found in Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, iii. 124-199. The story has been
made the subject of a play, under the name of the _Ayrshire Tragedy_,
by Sir Walter Scott.
[341] The superior men of a Highland clan were called the duniwassals.
[342] Hive.
[343] Notes to _Border Minstrelsy_, i. clxxvi.
[344] Melrose State Papers.
[345] _Spal. Club Misc._, ii. 396. For something more regarding Robin
Abroch, see under October 26, 1624.
[346] Privy Council Record.
[347] Von Buch’s _Travels through Norway_.
[348] Denmylne MSS., apud Pitcairn, iii. 52.
[349] This narrative, as well as the letters of challenge, is printed
entire in the _Guardian_, Nos. 129 and 133.
[350] In March 1615, James Stewart is once more, and very solemnly,
condemned by the Privy Council to exile, in consequence of fresh
offences of the same kind.
[351] From a paper in Balfour’s MSS., printed in _Bannatyne
Miscellany_, vol. iii.
[352] Some Observations of Mr John Livingstone, MS. Adv. Lib. ‘It
appears from the council registers of Aberdeen, that the corporation
voluntarily gave a thousand merks for the support of M‘Birnie’s widow
and children.’--_Notes to Coll. Hist. Aber. and Banff_, Spal. Club.
[353] _Sting_ is a Scotch word for a pole, and the phrase _sting and
ling_ is believed to express simply the method of carrying practised by
draymen.
[354] This unheard-of snow-fall was equally notable in the south.
When the thaw came, it caused an unexampled flood in the Ouse of
Yorkshire, which lasted ten days, carrying away a great number of
bridges. ‘After this storm followed such fair and dry weather, that in
April the ground was as dusty as in any time of summer. The drought
continued till the 20th of August, and made such a scarcity of hay,
beans, and barley, that the former was sold at York for 30s. and 40s. a
wainload.’--_History of York_, 1785, i. 256.
[355] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of James VI._, pp. 243, 317.
_Balfour’s Annals_, ii. 58.
[356] Catholic historians note the martyrdom of one of their faith,
which took place amidst the more immediate tumults of the Reformation.
His name was Black, and he is described as a Dominican monk of
Aberdeen, respectable both for piety and learning. Being taken to
Edinburgh to dispute with Willox and other apostles of the Reformation,
the populace cut short the argument by stoning him to death on the
streets, January 7, 1562.--_Dempster._ _D. Camerarius._
[357] _True Relation of the Proceedings against John Ogilvie_, 1615:
reprinted in Pitcairn.
[358] See the entire form of abjuration in _Selections from the Records
of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen_. Spalding Club.
1846.
[359] This term is usually applied to an insinuating, wheedling fellow
of swindling propensities.
[360] See papers on these subjects in _Spottiswoode Miscellany_, vols.
i. and ii.
[361] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._, p. 293.
[362] The suburb called Portsburgh was under the jurisdiction of Tours,
Laird of Inverleith.
[363] See documents in _Maitland Club Misc._, ii. 26.
[364] Sharp-pointed staves.
[365] ‘Who thereafter wrote himself Sir John Hay of Landes, knight, one
altogether corrupt, full of wickedness and villainy, and a sworn enemy
to the peace of his country.’--_Sir James Balfour’s Annals._
[366] Translated from Johnston’s _Historia Rerum Britannicarum_, _apud_
Secret Hist. of Court of Ja. I., ii. 30.
[367] _Chronicle of Perth._
[368] Johnston’s _Hist. Rer. Brit._, p. 619.
[369] See _Muses’ Welcome_.
[370] Johnston’s _Hist. Rer. Brit._, p. 519. Calderwood.
[371] We can here see the original of Scott’s exquisite picture of
Caleb Balderstone endeavouring to convince a messenger that cold water
was better for his stomach in the morning than ale or brandy.
[372] The organ was no new instrument at Holyrood. There is an entry in
the lord-treasurer’s book, under February 8, 1557-8, of £36 ‘to David
Melville, indweller in Leith, for _ane pair of organs_ to the Chapel in
the Palace of Holyroodhouse.’
[373] See the satire and answer in _Abbotsford Miscellany_, i. 297.
[374] _Ferly_ is the Scotch for _wonder_.
[375] Shewed.
[376] Abridged from the _Muses’ Welcome_.
[377] The above is a traditional story related in Forsyth’s _Beauties
of Scotland_.
[378] Printed in the _Scots Magazine_, January 1806, from a MS. volume
of excerpts of the Edinburgh city records in the Advocates’ Library.
[379] This Colonel Gray, who is stated to have been a rank papist,
embarked at Leith, about the end of May 1620, with a party of fifteen
hundred men for the service of the king of Bohemia.--_Cal._
[380] Act of Secret Council, quoted in _Blackwood’s Magazine_, i. 498.
[381] See the case of Margaret Barclay at greater length in Scott’s
_Demonology_, p. 307.
[382] Fleming’s MS., Adv. Lib., quoted in Pitcairn, iii. 443.
[383] _Survey of Moray._, p. 208.
[384] Now called Castle-Grant.
[385] _Works of John Taylor, the Water-poet._ London, folio, 1630.
[386] See _Drummond’s Works_, folio, Edinburgh, 1711, p. 234.
[387] Gifford’s edition of _Jonson’s Works_. London, 1816, vol. I., p.
cccxxxii.
[388] He seems to have been the same with Macdonald of Keppoch.
[389] _Johnstoni Hist._, p. 529.
[390] Scot’s _Stag. State of Scots Statesmen_.
[391] Earnest-money is arles in Scotland.
[392] See under December 17, 1596.
[393] _Maitland Miscellany_, p. 195.
[394] Father Anderson was afterwards the author of a book entitled _The
Ground of the Catholique and Roman Religion_, 1623, 4to.
[395] _Lives of the Saints_, i. 358.
[396] _Succinct Survey of Aberdeen_, 1685.
[397] _New Stat. Acc. of Scotland_--Aberdeenshire, _passim_. _Beauties
of Scotland_, iv. 199.
[398] _Letters of Reign of James VI._ Pitcairn.
[399] Adamson’s Notes to Sibbald’s _Hist. Fife_.
[400] See under July 28, 1612.
[401] A fixed bar of iron, with fetters attached by movable rings.
[402] Session Register of Perth.
[403] _Chronicle of Perth_, 23.
[404] Calderwood.
[405] Philip, second son of the Landgrave of Hesse, came to the English
court April 6, 1622, on a negotiation from his father.--_Nichols’s
Progresses of King James I._, iii. 759, 763.
[406] Gregory’s _History of the Western Highlands and Isles of
Scotland_, 1836, p. 405.
[407] _Archæologia Scotica_, i. 43.
[408] _Virtues of the Indian Perfume Tobacco_, 1667. _An. Scot._, i. 82.
[409] See under October 1590.
[410] Stones supposed to possess medicinal virtues were then not
uncommon.
[411] _Miscellanies_, p. 39.
[412] Calderwood.
[413] See under March 30, 1620.
[414] _Life of John Livingstone_, Glasgow, 1754, p. 89.
[415] _Letters of Reign of James VI._, p. 368.
[416] See the undated letter of Gordon, _Analecta Scot._ ii. 386.
Patrick Gordon was the person who had acted for the king in prosecuting
poor Stercovius to the gallows for a satire on the Scottish nation. See
pp. 448, 449.
[417] _Mait. Club Misc._, iii. 344.
[418] ‘Wha had brought money with the infection from
Danskein.’--_Chron. Perth._
[419] Extract from _Privy Council Record_, _Edin. Mag._, Oct. 1817.
[420] _Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain_, p. 268.
[421] _Archæologia Scotica_, ii. 111.