+Source.+--_The Book of Pluscarden_, pp. 81-82. (_Historians of
Scotland_, vol. x.)
In all the early days of the life of the said King the Catholic Church
of Christ flourished at its highest in the kingdom of Scotland, justice
reigned, vice was withered up, virtue increased, and the State grew so
much that prosperity and peace and abundance of wealth and the pouring
in of money and fruitful plenty prevailed in Scotland during all his
time. The King, moreover, was adorned with every virtue, beloved by all
good men, hated by the wicked. A ruler is so called from ruling well;
for where there is no rule, there is no ruler. That King, indeed, so
behaved towards his enemies that they feared him with the utmost fear
and loved him with hearty love; and in his country he maintained
unshaken peace, law, and unbroken prosperity, so that the inhabitants
thereof abode in the beauty of peace, in the tents of trustfulness and
in plenteous ease; and he quelled all insolence, disturbances, rioting,
and rebellion. Now he had this habit, that he was wont to travel every
year through all the districts of his kingdom with a large retinue, to
become acquainted with his people, to reprove shortcomings, to
administer justice, to punish rebels, to cherish and reward the good,
and, with the officers of each district, thoroughly to reform all
abuses. He would not allow within his kingdom any idlers without a trade
or means of livelihood. When the knights and officers of one district
went away from him, the sheriff of another district, with a chosen train
of knights, came to meet him. Moreover, he made it a statute of the
realm that everyone should, in each working day, dig the length and
breadth of his own body--that is, seven feet--considering that idleness
is the foe of virtue. Likewise he would not allow very many licences for
horses, save only those devoted to work, in the court of any lord, or in
the houses of the rich; for too great a number of horses destroys the
sustenance of the poor; for they were bred neither for necessary
purposes nor for profit. The King also decreed that merchandise should
not cross over by sea to any place without the kingdom; for so many
ships were distressed, others taken by foes and enemies, that the
kingdom was much impoverished in this particular; and therefore he
decreed that up to a certain time no ship should pass out of the realm
on pain of loss of goods. Thus, notwithstanding it was with great
difficulty that this was enforced, yet many ships laden with all manner
of merchandise would come in abundance and readily to the country in
these days without danger, and barter all their merchandise, goods for
goods, without the medium of cash. This King also forbade any but free
burgesses to meddle in such trade at all. When these statutes had been
in force for a time, the country in a few years so flourished in
fruitfulness and abundance of all wealth, in handicrafts also, and in
metals and moneys and all the other advantages of policy and good
government, that numberless ships and merchants, hearing of the King's
justice and wisdom, poured in thither from all parts of the world, and
said they saw in the country better and greater things than they had
heard of from afar. Accordingly the country became so wealthy that
Lombards came from the borders of Italy, bringing into the country
untold gold and silver and precious stones, and made the King an offer
to build and construct a city in the country on their own account, on
Queensferry Hill or on an island near Cramond, if the King would see
that they got the due and needful privileges and liberties. This would
have been accorded to them had not death, which snatches all things
away, so soon carried off the King from the world, leaving no lawful
offspring from him to succeed to the throne.