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I.—P. 29. Capitular of
Charlemagne, De villis imperialibus.
This ordinance was made in
the year 812. It runs in the name and person of the Emperor, and bears
marks that much of it is his own in meaning, if not in words.
[The Judex was the steward
upon each Villa. The Maior under him was not to have more in charge than
he could oversee in one day. The Villæ, or estates of the Emperor, many of
them of great extent, are here (for convenience) rendered Manors.]
C. 8. The Emperor commands
each Judex to have care of the vineyards in his manor, and to put the wine
in good casks, and diligently care that there be no miscarriage (naufragium).
C. 9. Measures of liquid
and dry to be kept of the same standard as those of the palace.
C. 11. No Judex to take
quartering for himself or his dogs upon our men (super homines nostros) in
forests.
C. 13. Stallions to be
provided.
C. 14. Care to be taken of
the stud mares, and the colts to be separated at the proper season.
C. 17. Bees to be kept at
every manor.
C. 18-19. Poultry to be
kept at mills and at the royal stables; in the chief manors, not less than
a hundred poultry and thirty geese.
C. 21. Every Judex to keep
up fish ponds, and increase them by all means.
C. 23. In every manor the
Judex to have byres, piggeries, houses for sheep, goats, and kids. Lame
oxen, and cows or horses, free of scab or disease, to be given for the
dogs' food, but so that neither our byre nor our plough be deprived of
cattle.
C. 27. Our houses to have
continually fires and watches for safety.
C. 32. The best seed each
season to be prepared by purchase or otherwise.
C. 34. It is especially to
be cared, that all things made with the hand, as lard, preserved meat,
wine, vinegar, mustard, butter, malt, mead, honey, wax, flour, shall all
be made and prepared with extreme cleanliness (summo nitore).
C. 35. Tallow to be made of
fat sheep as well as pigs; and not less than two oxen to be fattened in
each manor, either for tallow or for sending to us.
C. 36. Our woods and
forests to be well kept. The Judex to superintend needful grubbing of
wood, and not to allow our wood to be turned into arable. To preserve well
our beasts of chase in the forests, and to protect hawks' nests. To
collect diligently the dues of the forest, and if he send his own swine
into our wood to fatten, let himself be first to pay the tithe for good
example.
C. 37. To manage skilfully
our fields and farms, and set up our meadows for hay in due time.
C. 38. To have plenty of
fed geese and fatted poultry for our use.
C. 39. The poultry and eggs
paid by the labourers and cottars (servientes et mansuarii) to be
received, and where more than required for use, to be sold.
C. 40. On all our manors,
the Judex to have swans, pea fowls, pheasants, geese, pigeons, partridges,
turtles, for ornament (pro dignitatis causa.)
C. 41. The stables,
kitchens, bake-houses, wine-presses, to be carefully prepared, in order
that our servants may properly, well, and cleanly perform their offices.
C. 42. Every manor to have
in the mansion (camera) beds, feather-beds and bed-clothes, table linens,
dish towels, seat covers, vessels of brass, lead, iron, wood, fire dogs (andedos),
chimney chains and hooks, hatchets, wedges, shovels, and all other
utensils, so that it may not be necessary to borrow. And weapons used
against the enemy, so far as useful at home, should be placed in the
mansion on their return from war.
C. 43. In the women's
work-room should be lint, wool, woad, vermilion and other dye stuffs, wool
combs, teazles, soap, grease, vessels, and other necessaries.
C. 45. Every Judex to have
in his employment good artificers, that . is, blacksmiths, workers in gold
or silver, shoemakers, turners, carpenters, shield makers, fishers,
falconers, soap-makers, brewers who can make cider, beer, perry, and other
drinks; bakers able to make fine bread for our use; makers of nets for
hunting, fishing, and fowling, and other artisans whom it would be too
long to enumerate.
C. 46. The Judex to take
great care of the fences of our parks, mending from time to time, not
waiting till a complete new fence is required; and so in all our
buildings.
C. 48. Wine-presses to be
prepared. No one to presume to press our grapes with the feet, but all to
be done cleanly and decently.
C. 53. Every Judex to take
care that our men in their employment be not thieves or criminals.
C. 54. That our family
labour industriously, and do not go idling to fairs.
C. 55. Accounts to be kept
and sent us of income and expense.
C 56. The Judex to hold
courts and administer justice.
C. 57. Not to prevent
complaints made to us from reaching us.
C. 62. At Christmas,
yearly, every Judex shall report to us, separately, distinctly, and in
order, what he has out of his administration, what of land tilled for
himself; what from rents and duties; what from fines; what from beasts of
chase, taken in our forests without our permission; what from diverse
compositions; what from mills; what from forests; what from breweries;
what from bridges or ships; what from free men, and centeni who are
attached to our estate; what from markets; what from vineyards; what from
those who pay wine; what from hay; what from timber, faggots, and
shingles, and other produce of the woods; what from peat mosses; what from
pulse; what from millet and panic; what from wool, lint, and hemp; what
from the fruits of trees; what from nuts larger and smaller; what from
grafted trees; what from gardens; what from rape-lands; what from fish-stanks;
what from hides, skins, and horns; what from honey and wax; what from
tallow, lard, or soap; what from mulberry drink, made wine (vino cocto),
mead, and vinegar; what from beer; from wine, new and old; from corn, new
and old; what from chickens and eggs, and geese; what from the fishers;
what from the blacksmiths; from the shield-makers or shoemakers; what out
of the great chest, and the smaller boxes; what from the turners or
saddlers; from smelters of iron or lead; what from tributaries; what from
colts and fillies — that we may know what or how much we have of each
thing.
C. 63. In all the
foregoing, let it not seem harsh to our Judices that we require these
accounts, for we wish that they, in like manner, count with their
subordinates, without offence. And all things whatsoever any man should
have in his house or in his "villa," our Judices ought to have in our
"villas."
C. 64. Our cars for war to
be litters well made, covered with hides so closely sewed, that if
necessity occur for swimming rivers, they may pass through (after being
lightened of their contents), without water entering. We will also, that
flour be sent for our household in each car, 12 bushels of flour ; and in
those which bring wine, 12 modia of wine, according to our modius. And
with each car let there be a shield and a lance, a quiver of arrows and a
bow.
C. 65. The fish of our
ponds to be sold for our profit when we are not resident, and others put
in their place.
C. 68. Good barrels, hooped
with iron, to be used both in expeditions with the army, and for sending
to the palace ; and no butts to be made of skins.
C. 69. The Judices to
report to us, always, how many wolves each has caught, and send us their
skins. And in the month of May, to search and take the cubs with poison
and hooks, as well as with pits and dogs.
C. 70. Volumus quod in
horto omnes herbas habeant, id est lilium, rosas (then follow about
seventy names of plants, mostly herbs, and even those now valued as
flowers, perhaps then used in the kitchen or still-room). Hortulanus
habeat super domum suam Jovis barbani. Of trees, we will that the Judices
have apple-trees, pears, plums, service trees, medlars, chestnuts, peaches
of diverse kinds, quinces, filberts, almonds, mulberries, laurels, pines,
figs, cherries of diverse kind; the names of the apples, gozma-ringa,
geroldinga, crevedella, spirauca; some sweet, some more acid; one sort for
keeping all winter, another for immediate use ; early and late.
Pertz, monumenta Germaniœ
historica. Legum. tom, i. p. 181.
II.—P. 269. Aelfric's
Homilies in Anglo-Saxon.
Aelfric, monk and mass
priest, as he calls himself, in his preface to his homilies, was
afterwards Archbishop of York, and died in 1052. His reason for writing in
Anglo-Saxon, rather than Latin, was, that he " found much error in many
English books, because his countrymen had not the Gospel lore among their
writings, except only the men who knew Latin, and except the books which
King Alfred wisely turned from Latin into English, which are to be had."
For the same reason, he says, he used no obscure words, but simple English
(seal simplicem Anglicam), that it may more easily reach the hearts of
readers and hearers, to the weal of their souls ; for they cannot receive
instruction in any other language than their native tongue.
Aelfric's "Sermones
Catholici," are forty discourses on the solemn days of the Christian year,
with a few in commemoration of the Virgin, St. John Baptist, Michael the
Archangel, and the greater Apostles and Saints. They are for the most part
plain intelligible explanations of Christian doctrine, and narratives of
Bible history, suited to people who drew their instruction chiefly from
the priest's sermon. But the language is always pure and vigorous, and
sometimes rises with the subject to considerable rhetorical power. The
translation is by Mr. Thorpe, who has edited the book with his usual care,
but leaves his readers disappointed that he does not bestow on them more
of the rich stores of his ripe learning. Here is a sentence from the
homily of Easter Sunday, as translated by Mr. Thorpe.
"Unhappy was the Jewish
people that they were so unbelieving. All creatures acknowledged their
Creator, save only the Jews. Heaven acknowledged the birth of Christ; for
when he was born, a new star was seen. The sea acknowledged Christ when he
went with dry feet on its waves. Earth acknowledged him, when it all
trembled at Christ's resurrection. The sun acknowledged him, when it was
darkened at Christ's passion, from mid-day to the ninth hour. The stones
acknowledged him, when they burst asunder at their Creator's departure.
Hell acknowledged Christ, when it led forth its captives through the
harrowing of Jesus ; and yet the hard-hearted Jews, through all these
signs, would not incline with faith to the merciful Jesus, who will help
all men who believe on him." I. p. 229.
Sermones Catholici, or
homilies of Aelfric, in Anglo-Saxon, with an English version by Benjamin
Thorpe. London, 1844.
III.—P. 270. Library of
the Culdees of St. Serf's, a.d. 1152
The charter granting the
isle of Lochleven to the Priory of St. Andrews, is without date, but the
granter, Bishop Robert, and the witnesses, mark it to have been made about
the year 1152. It conveys to the Canons regular, the abbey of the island,
hitherto held by the Culdees, with all its pertinents, namely, Findahin;
Portemuoch; the mills at the Bridge; a mill in Findahin; Chircness; Half
Urechan; Sconin; twenty melis of cheese, one pig from Markinche; twenty
melis of cheese, and four melis of malt, and one pig from Admor; twenty
melis of barley from Balcrystin; twenty melis of cheese, and one pig from
Bolgin son of Torfin; the tithes of our house of the island; the tithes of
the whole rent which we are to receive at that house ; the church
vestments which the Culdees had ; these books, namely,—
A pastoral.
A gradual.
A missal.
An Origen.
The "Sentences" of the
Abbot of Clairvaux (St. Bernard), 'a commentary upon the famous collection
of theological subtleties.
Three quires concerning the
Sacraments.
A part of a collection
called the "Bibliotheca," probably the Vulgate of St. Jerome.
A "Lectionarium," which
seems to have been a collection of the portions of St. Paul's Epistles
used at mass.
The Acts of the Apostles.
The text of the Gospels
after St. Prosper (a follower of St. Augustin). Three books of Solomon.
Glosses on the Song of Solomon. Interpretations of phrases. A collection
of the "Sentences." A commentary on Genesis. Exceptions of Ecclesiastical
rules.
Registrum prioratus Sancti
Andreœ, p. 43.
IV.—P. 255. Lease between
the Abbot of Scone and Hay
of Leys. Anno 1312, with a translation interlined.
The interlineation is, of
course, more recent than the body of the indenture; but the hand and the
reason of the translation preclude the idea of its being more than a few
years later. The words translated are:—
Concesserunt
....................Has grantit.
Dimiserunt ........................Has lettin.
Pertinenciis........................Purtenauncis.
Rectis divisis .....................Richtuis diuisis.
Solebant............................Was wont.
Linealiter ...........................Euin in line.
Ex latere............................On side.
Procreandis........................To be to gitt.
Descendentibus .................Descendit.
Triginta ..............................Thritti.
Annuatim............................Iere bi iere.
Hyeme ..............................Wyntir.
Immediate sequentes .........For utin oni mene foluand.
Quod molent .....................That thai sal grind.
Pro sustentatione sua ........For ihair fode.
Molendinum........................Miln.
Vecesimum quartum vas .....Four and twentiand fat.
Jure seruientis molendini......i.e. cnaveschipe.
Prestabit ...........................Sal gif.
Genere...............................Kynd.
Natiui ................................In born men.
Preparacionem...................Grafting.
Sustentationem .................Vphalding.
In circuitu ..........................Abute thaim.
Forinsecum........................Forayn.
Percipient focale ................Sal tak fuayl.
Alienabunt..........................Do away.
Eorum successoribus .........Tha that comis in ihair stede.
Vsufructu ..........................Gres water and other prqfitis.
Indiguerint .........................Thay haf mister.
Exorte fuerint......................Haf grouyn.
Decidentur ........................Haf fallin (a misreading).
Reseruari ..........................Be yemit.
Dominio.............................The lauerdscape.
Requisiti............................Requerit.
Simulatione.......................Feyning,
Accedere...........................i.e. venire.
Contingat...........................Impersonaliter.
Revocare...........................Cal agayn.
Sui recessus ....................Of thair parting.
Recedent..........................Sal depart.
Edificia.............................Biging.
Construi facient ................Sal ger be made.
Competentia.....................Gaynand.
Dimittent edificata.............Sale leue bigit.
Cyrographi .......................Hand chartir.
Confecti ...........................Made.
Penes .............................Anentis (a mistake).
Residenti..........................Duelland.
Appensum........................Hingand.
Liber de Scona, p. 104,
where the original indenture is represented in facsimile.
V.—P. 270. Catalogue of
Books in Glasgow Cathedral. a. 1432.
This list of books is
preserved in the ancient Register of the Bishopric.
The first section, of books
for the use of the choir, consists chiefly of church service books. We
find ten missals; seven breviaries, some of them small portiforia
or portuas books, used for carrying abroad ; five psalters, having
nothing joined with them; seven antiphonaria, or anthem books, some
with psalters added; six gradalia, grails, or books of offices; five
processionaria, or books giving the formulæ and the services used in
church processions — each distinguished by being covered with white
leather or red, being magni or parvi voluminis, solennes
or non multo solennes, notati (with music), or non notati,
cathenati, chained to the desks, or preserved in chests and
presses. Then we have a collectariurn, or book of the collects; an
ordinarium, ordinate, or ritual book — continent ordinem divinii
offiici; two libri pontificates, or pontificals, books of the
part of the ritual appropriate to the Bishop; a catholicon which,
if it be the glossary of Joannes de Janua, and I can give no other
conjecture, is oddly placed among the service books of the choir, and
noted as chained beside the high altar; the Old Testament, in two large
volumes; an Epistolare, or book of the epistles (perhaps those of
St. Paul only), with the gospels at the end; another volume of the
epistles of St. Paul; two copies of Legenda Sanctorum, books more
commonly called passionaria; a small volume containing lives of St.
Kentigern and St. Servan. One of the breviaries is placed outside the
choir for chance comers who may be able to read it.
A processionarium
was in the hands of the binder, and for the honour of Glasgow we have his
name, Richard Air. But his prefix of dominus, marks him to be a
churchman. The greater number of these volumes remained constantly in the
choir, and were chained to the desks or stalls of the canons and vicars.
Books are frequently met with, still bearing the mark of this species of
durance, in two holes bored through the lower corners of the oak boards
next the binding.
The next class, kept in
presses, not within the library, is very miscellaneous. It contains two
parts of the Pandects, described by their well-known, but hitherto
unexplained symbol of ff; the Institutes of Justinian; the Acts of the
Apostles; a book of hymns, collects, and capitula; Saint Augustin's
treatise on the psalms; a book of the decretals and decrees; a book on the
quodlibets, by a Mr. John Poysley; the venerable Bede's book of
forty homilies on the gospels (are these the originals of our friend
Aelfric's homilies?) a book of theology, with the arms of the Cardinal of
Scotland painted in the first letter (this was undoubtedly Cardinal Walter
Wardlaw, Bishop of Glasgow); a book of the sermons of St. Bernard; two
volumes of the sermons of Pope Leo; a book of St. Augustin's; St. Jerome
on the creed; Valerius Maximus; Peter Damian's book, Groecismus;
the statutes of the Council of Tours; an exposition of the psalter; a
large book beginning, Reverentia Preclare Virtutum; Ovid's
metamorphoses; Aristotle's rhetoric, in Latin; Armanorum Questiones, a
book by Richard Fitz Rauf, Archbishop of Armagh, against the Armenians;
Friar Richard on the ethics of Aristotle; Friar Peter on the fourth book
of the Sentences; the third and fourth books of Bonaventure (upon the
Sentences); Saint Augustin against Faustinus the heretic; Francesco
Petrarca (probably either De Remediis Utriusque Fortuna or De
Vita Solitaria); a book beginning, Est Margarite; the works of
Sallust, whose name, Caius Crispus Sallustius, the scribe has understood
to be the names of three persons; a number of little books of paper, whose
names were unknown; a work of Henri Boyc, a commentator on the Decretals,
who flourished at the end of the fourteenth century; Braco, which
should perhaps be Brito, who wrote Super Leges Anglie;
Speculum Judiciale, perhaps the Speculum Juris of Durandus; the
Summa Casuum Conscientiœ of Bartholomeus Pisanus; Boetius de
Consolatione, with the gloss of Nicholas Trivet, a Dominican friar — the
last five in the hands of canons of the Cathedral, either for their life,
or during the pleasure of the Chapter.
The books in the library,
chained, beginning at the north corner of the west shelf, are as follows:—
A book of theology "of faith and its object," illuminated with gold, the
binding defective; a book of theology of Saint Thomas, probably Thomas
Aquinas's Compendium Theologiœ; Historia Ecclesiaslica,
probably the work of Bede; the morals of Aristotle, in Latin ; Treatises
of Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus (Doctor Subtilis), and Bonaventure, chiefly
on various parts of the sentences of Peter Lombard; Summa Confessorum;
a book of Canon Law; a concordance of the Bible, illuminated with gold; a
commentary on the Five Books of Moses; the commentaries of Nicholas de
Lira on the gospels; a Bible complete, illuminated with gold — a beautiful
volume; a book of questions in theology; the treatise of an Anglican
doctor on the four books of the Sentences; De Lira's commentary on the
Psalter ; St. Paul's Epistles, with a gloss; an explanation of the
Prologues of the Bible; a commentary on the Psalter according to St.
Augustin.
The second shelf in the
library contains first a collection of civil law, consisting of the code
of Justinian ; the Pandects, which it was the fashion to divide into three
parts, the Digestum Vetus, Digestum Novum, and
Inforciatum, a name of unknown meaning and etymology; the Ten
Collations, with the Authenticæ. Secondly, works on the Canon Law, viz.,
the Speculum Judiciale of Durandus; Summa Copiosa, a
treatise on the Decretals, known also by the names of Summa Charitatis,
Summa Aurea, and Summa Hostiensis, from its author, Henri de
Suze, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia; Liber Innocentii, probably the
constitutions of Pope Innocent IV., in the Council of Lyons, 1245; a book
of Decreta; another; Liber Clementis, the constitutions of
Pope Clement IV.; a book of the Decretals. Then follow a volume containing
the epistles of Bernard, Abbot of Clarevalle, and the treatise of Isidore,
Bishop of Seville, on Etymologies; a commentary on Genesis; Friar
Gregory's lecture on the book of Sentences; the Historia Ecclesiastica
of Bede; a volume of Master Hugh of Paris, probably Hugo de Sancto Victore,
who wrote De vanitate rerum mundanarum, etc.; a Bible complete;
Saint Augustin on the gospel; Liber questionum Ermenorum compositus per
Ricardum Radulphi, a copy of which was noticed in the second class; a
fair volume of Mechanics (perhaps it should be metaphysics), with
treatises of heaven and earth, generation and corruption, and many others,
treatises of Aristotle; a volume commencing Finis et Fabula Rerum;
the Liber Collationum of Odo, Abbot of Cluny (printed in the Bibl.
Patr. Latin, t. 10, p. 236); a volume in red binding, having in the first
line, Quoniam secundum Apostolum. And so the second shelf is full.
On the third shelf were
placed, a book of Sermons; the book of Sentences, perhaps the original
work of Lombard; Epitaphium Senecæ, containing the Epistles of St.
Paul to Seneca, which were received as genuine by St. Jerome and other
ancient fathers (the commencement is probably a mistake of the scribe for
Lucius Annæus Seneca); a book of the sermons of St. Austin; the
book of Archbishop Brad wardin (which Leland calls Divinum Opus),
De causa Dei contra Pelagium; the Rhetoric of Aristotle; Epistles
of St. Austin; a small volume, De Peccato Ade; the Epistles of Clement
(perhaps Pope Clement IV.) to several princes; the second book of Duns
Scotus, called Doctor Subtilis; a book of Landulphus, on the second book
of the Sentences; a book on St. Austin's work De Civitate Dei; a
book of the Quodlibets, or commonplaces of scholastic disputations ; the
treatise of a John Forrest on the first book of the Sentences; the first
part of the Summa Sancti Thomœ, a treatise of Thomas Aquinas on the
Sentences; Saint Austin's De regulis veræ fidei; Friar Gregory's
lecture on the first book of Sentences; the Liber Pastoralium of
Saint Gregory the Pope; a book of the Collations, probably that commonly
quoted as Authenticæ or Novella Constitutiones; a book on Faith,
written against divers errors; Bonaventure on the third book of the
Sentences; Saint Austin on the Trinity ; Peter of Torento on the fourth
book of the Sentences; a volume containing the works of two authors,
Jocelin — perhaps the monk of Fumes — and William de Monte Haudon, of whom
I know nothing but the title of his book, Super apparatu Clementis;
a Lucidarius, which is described in the catalogue of the ancient library
of the Louvre — Le Lucidaire est un ouvrage de Théologie en vers du 13ième
siècle sans nom d'auteur, traduit de Saint Ambrose. — Registrum Episc.
Glasg., vol. II., p. 334.
VI.—P. 273. James
Melvill's Diary.
Sa I was put to the scholl
of Montrose, finding of God's guid providence my auld mother Mariorie
Gray, wha, parting from hir brother at his mariage, haid taken vpe hous
and scholl for lasses in Montrose; to hir I was welcome againe as hir awin
sone. The maister of the scholl, a lerned, honest, kynd man, whom also for
thankfulnes I name Mr. Andro Miln; [Minister at Fedresso.] he was verie
skilfull and diligent. The first yeir he causit us go throw the Rudiments,
againe therefter enter arid pas throw the first part of Grammer of
Sebastian, therwith we hard Phormionem Terentii, and war exer-cisit in
composition; eftir that entered to the second part, and hard therwith the
Georgics of Wirgill, and dyvers vther things.
I never got a strak of hys
hand, whowbeit I committed twa lourd faults as it were with fyre and
sword. Haiffing the candle in my hand on a wintar night, befor sax hours,
in the scholl, sitting in the class, bernlie and negligentlie pleying with
the bent, it kyndlit sa on fyre that we had all ado to put it out with our
feet. The othir was, being molested by a condisciple wha cuttit the
strings of my pen and ink horn with hys pen knife ; I minting with my pen
kniff at his legges to fley him, he feared and lifting now a leg now the
othir, rasht on his leg on my pen kniff and strak himself a deip wound in
the schin of the leg quhilk was a quarter of a yeir in curing. In the tyme
of the trying of this matter, he saw me sa humble, sa feard, sa grieved,
yield sa manie teares, and ly fasting and murning in the scholl all day,
that he said he could not find in his hart to punish me fordar. Bot my
righteous God let me not slipe that fault, bot gaiff me a warning and
remembrance what it was to be defyled with blude, whowbeit negligentlie;
for within a schort space eftir, I had causit a cutler new come to the
town, to polishe and scharpe the sam pen knyff, and haid bought a pennie
worth of aples, and cutting and eating the same in the linkes, as I put
the cheiue in my mouthe, I began to lope vpe vpon a little sandie brae,
haiffing the pen kniff in my richt hand, I fell and therwithe strak
myselff, missing my wombe, an inch deep into the inwart syde of the left
knie, even to the bean, wherby the aequitie of God's judgement and my
conscience strak me sa, that I was the mair war of knyffes all my dayes.
In Montrose was Mr. Thomas
Andersone, minister, a man of mean gifts, bot of singular good lyff. God
moved hym to mark me and call me often to his chalmer, to treat me quhan
he saw anie guid in me, and to instruct and admonise me otherwise. He
desirit me ever to rehearse a part of Calvin's Catechism on the Sabothes
at efter noon, because he hard the peiple lyked weill of the clernes of my
voice, and pronuncing with some feeling; and thereby God moved a godlie
honest matron in the towne to mak meikle of me thairfor, and callit me hir
lytle sweit angle. The minister was able to teach na ofter but ance in the
ouk; but haid a godlie honest man reidar, wha read the scripture
distinctly and with a religius and devot feiling, whereby I fand myself
movit to gif good eare and learn the stories of scripture, also to tak
pleasure in the Psalms which he had almost by heart in prose. The Lard of
Done, mentioned befor, dwelt oft in the towne, and of his chairitie
entertenit a blind man, wha had a singular good voice, hym he causit the
doctor of our schole teatche the whole Psalms in miter, with the tones
thereof, and sing tham in the kyrk ; be heiring of whome I was sa delyted,
that I lernit manie of the psalmes, and toones thereof in miter, quhilk I
have thought evir sen syne a great blessing and comfort. The exerceise of
the ministerie was keipit oukly then in Montrose, and thair assemblies
ordinarly, whilk when I saw I was movit to lyke fellon weil of that
calling, bot thought it a thing vnpossible that evir I could haf the
abilitie to stand vp and speik, when all held thair tongue and luiked, and
to continue speaking alean the space of an houre. There was also there a
post that frequented Edinburgh, and brought hame Psalm-books and ballats,
namely of Robert Semple's making, wherein I tuk pleasure, and learnit
something baith of the state of the country, and of the missours and
cullors of Scots ryme. He schew me first Wedderburn's songs, whairof I
lerned diverse par ceur, with great diversite of toones. He frequented our
scholl, and from him also I lerned to understand the callender efter the
common use thereof. And finallie, I receavit the communion of the body and
blud of the Lord Jesus Christ, first at Montrose, with a greater reverence
and sense in my saule than oft therefter I could find, in the 13 yeir of
my age; whar, coming from the table, ane guid honest man, ane elder of the
kirk, gaiff me an admonition concerning lightnes, wantonnes, and nocht
takin tent to the preatching and word read and prayers, quhilk remeaned
with me evir sen syne. Sa God maid every person, place, and action to be
my teacheris, bot alas ! I vsed tham never sa fruitfullie as the guid
occasiones servit, bot was carryit away in vanitie of mind with young and
fullishe conceats quhilk is the heavie challange of my conscience.
The tyme of my being in
Montrose was about twa yeirs, during the quhilk the common newes that I
hard was of the grait praises of the government, and in end, the heavie
mean and pitifull regrat amangs men in all esteatts, for the traiterus
murdour of James Erle of Murro, called the Gnid Regent. — The diary of
Mr. James Melvill. Edinburgh, 1829. P. 17-19.
The whole is of the
greatest interest for all who desire to see the old Scotch scholar life.
But the book is now well known. |
