Part 61
‘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.
END OF VOL. I.
Edinburgh: Printed by W. and R. Chambers.
[Illustration: House of Robert Gourlay, a rich Edinburgh Citizen of 1574.
See pages 143 and 255.]
FOOTNOTES:
[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.