May 13
‘The king entered into Scotland, accompanied with the Duke of Lennox, the
Earls of Arundel, Southampton, Pembroke, Montgomery, and Buckingham,
Bishops of Ely, Lincoln, and Winchester, and sundry barons, deans, and
gentlemen. He stayed in Dunglass two nights, and a night in Seaton. On
Friday, the 16th, he came to Leith, and about four afternoon, out of Leith
to the West Port of Edinburgh, where he made his entry on horseback, that
he might the better be seen by the people; whereas before he rode in the
coach all the way. The provost, bailies, and council, and a number of
citizens arrayed in gowns [of plain velvet], and others standing with
speat staves, received him at the port.’ The provost, William Nisbet, and
the town-clerk, John Hay, having severally harangued him, five hundred
double angels in a silver double-gilt basin, were presented to him—’ wha,
with ane mild and
gracious countenance, receivit them with their propyne.’ ‘The cannons of
the Castle were shot. He was convoyed first
to
the great kirk, where the Bishop of St Andrews had a flattering sermon
upon the 21st Psalm, and thanked God for his prosperous journey. He
knighted the provost. When he came to the palace of Holyroodhouse, the
professors and students of the College of Edinburgh presented to him some
poems made to his praise, and in sign of welcome.’—Cal.
May 17
‘. . . . the English service was begun in the Chapel-royal, with the
singing of choristers, surplices, and playing on organs.’—Cal. Amid
the general feeling of satisfaction at seeing their native prince amongst
them once more, this exemplification of ceremonial worship was allowed by
the people to pass without tumult, yet not without serious discontents and
apprehensions. The bishops were so fearful of the popular spirit, that
they endeavoured to dissuade the king, but without success. The common
people in Edinburgh, as we are told by a native historian, considered the
service in the chapel as ‘staining and polluting the house of religion by
the dregs of popery. The more prudent, indeed, judged it but reasonable
that the king should enjoy his own form of worship in his own chapel; but
then followed a rumour, that the religious vestments and altars were to be
forcibly introduced into all the churches, and the purity of religion, so
long established in Scotland, for ever defiled. And it required the utmost
efforts of the magistrates to restrain the inflamed passions of the common
people.'
Having to meet his parliament a few
weeks after, the king went to Falkland to hunt. But the park of his Fife
palace did not content him. Carnegie, Lord Kinnaird, son of a favourite
minister of old, and himself a friend of the king, dwelt in state in a
noble castle overlooking the embouchure of the South Esk in Forfarshire,
with an extensive muir full of game close by—Muirthrewmont or Muirromon
(as the country people call it). James gladly rode thither, for the sake
of the abundant sport. The house of Kinnaird was furnished on the occasion
for various pleasures, and deficient in no sort of enjoyment, Two poets of
temporary and local fame came with courtly Latin strains suitable to the
occasion. His majesty tarried ten days in the district, and then came to
Dundee, which welcomed him with poem and with speech. Returning to
Edinburgh, he set himself to drive his ends with the clergy, who were now
less able or disposed to resist his innovations than they had been twenty
years before. At his command, several of the Scottish councillors and
bishops received the communion in the English manner in the Chapel-royal,
and William Summers, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, officiated there,
‘observing the English form in his prayer and behaviour.’ ‘On the 15th
June, some noblemen and bishops who had not communicat before, communicat
kneeling, yet not half of the noblemen that were required. The ministers
of Edinburgh, in the meantime, were silent; neither dissuaded the king
privately, nor opened their mouth in public against this innovation, or
bad example.’— Cal.
On the 19th of June, the king
formally visited the Castle of Edinburgh, in order to celebrate his
fifty-first birthday on the natal spot. Andrew Kerr, a boy of nine years
of age, welcomed him at the gate in ‘ane Hebrew speech.’ At the banquet in
the great hall, the English and Scottish nobility and the magistracy of
Edinburgh met in the utmost amity and satisfaction. By the desire of the
king, who wished to advance his native country in the eyes of the English,
the wives and children of the Scottish nobility appeared in their finest
dresses, shining with jewels, and were treated with great distinction. The
feast was not over till nine at night; and after its conclusion, the
Castle rang with a chorus of the ladies’ voices and a band of instruments.
On the return of the royal party to the Palace, a great multitude
assembled there to see ‘pastimes with firework.'
On the 26th, ‘there was a timber
house erected on the back of the Great Kirk of Edinburgh [south side],
which was decored with tapestry, where the town prepared a banquet for the
king and the nobility. The day following, sundry knights and gentlemen of
good note were banqueted in the same house, and made burgesses. They
danced about the Cross with sound of trumpets and other instruments;
throwed glasses of wine from the Cross upon the people standing about, and
ended with the king’s scoll [health.] ‘—Cal.
June 20
This day is dated from Leith a satire upon Scotland, heretofore
usually attributed to Sir Anthony
Weldon, but upon doubtful evidence. It was entitled, A Perfect
Description of the People and Country of Scotland, and was printed
with the signature JOHNS E. It
seems the splenetic effusion of some Cockney who had been tempted to
follow the king’s train into Scotland, and had found himself a smaller man
there than he expected.
In the air, the soil, and the
natural productions of Scotland, this
railer can find nothing goodly or agreeable. The thistle, he says, is the
fairest flower in their garden. Hay is a word unknown. ‘Corn is reasonable
plenty at this time; for, since they heard of the king’s coming, it hath
been as unlawful for the common people to eat wheat, as it
was of old for any but the priests to eat the
show-bread. . . . . They would persuade the footmen that oaten cakes would
make them well-winded; and the children of the chapel they have brought to
eat of them for the maintenance of their voices.... They persuade the
trumpeters that fasting is guid for men of their quality; for emptiness,
they say, causeth wind, and wind causeth a trumpet sound sweetly.
‘They christen without the cross,
marry without a ring, receive the sacrament without reverence, die without
repentance, and bury without divine service. They keep no holidays, nor
acknowledge any saint but St Andrew, who, they say, got that honour by
presenting Christ with ane oaten cake after his forty days’ fast.... They
hold their noses if you speak of bear-bating, and stop their ears if you
speak of play.... I am verily persuaded if [the] angels at the last day
should come down in their white garments, they would run away, and cry:
"The children of the chapel are come again to torment us!" . . . . For the
graven images in the new beautified chapel, they threaten to pull them
down after his departure, and make of them a burnt-offering to appease the
indignation they imagine is conceived against them in the breast of the
Almighty for suffering such idolatry to enter their kingdom. The organs, I
think, will find mercy, because they say there is some affinity between
them and their bagpipes. The shipper that brought the singing-men with
their papistical vestments, complains that he hath been much troubled with
a strange singing in his head ever since they came aboard his ship; for
remedy whereof the pastor of the parish hath persuaded him to sell the
profaned vessel, and distribute the money among the faithful brethren.’
Our scribbler
speaks of the women as huge-boned monsters, whereof the upper class are
‘kept like lions in iron grates. The merchants’ wives are likewise
prisoners, but not in such strongholds. They have wooden cages [meaning
the timber galleries in front of the houses], through which, peeping to
catch the air, we are almost choked with the sight of them.... To draw you
down from the citizen’s wife to the country gentlewomen, and so convey you
to the common dames, were to bring you from Newgate to Bridewell.’
In an answer to this satire, a
strong defence is entered on the subject of victuals and other materials
of conviviality. ‘Except meat should have rained down from heaven, it
could not be imagined more cheap, more plentiful. Ane of those twelve pies
that were sold for a penny, might have stopped your mouth for his
quarrel.... What else would you have had? You know there were some
subjects that kept open butteries and cellars from morning till night....
The man is angry that all the taps were not pulled out, that every guid
fellow might swim in sack. and claret.’
June 30
The king commenced a second excursion in his native dominion; by Stirling,
Perth, St Andrews—thence back to Stirling, where he received a deputation
of Edinburgh professors, who disputed before him in the Chapel-royal of
the Castle, in the presence of the English and Scottish nobility and many
learned men. Here the; British Solomon was quite in his element. The first
question discussed ‘by the learned doctors was, "Ought sheriffs and other
inferior magistrates to be hereditary?"—a question at this time agitated
in the national senate, where it was the earnest wish of King James that
it should be decided in the negative. As might have been expected, the
oppugners of the question soon got the advantage; for the weighty
arguments of royalty were thrown into that scale.
‘The king was highly delighted with
their success; and turning to the Marquis of Hamilton (hereditary sheriff
of Clydesdale), who stood behind his chair, said: "James, you see your
cause is lost, and all that can be said for it is clearly answered and
refuted."
‘The second thesis was On the Nature
of Local Motion. The opposition to this was very great, and the respondent
produced numerous arguments from Aristotle in support of his thesis, which
occasioned the king to say: "These men know the mind of Aristotle as well
as he did himself when alive."
‘The third thesis was Concerning the
Origin of Fountains or Springs. The king was so well pleased with this
controversy, that, although the three-quarters of an hour allotted for the
disputation were expired, he caused them to proceed, sometimes speaking
for and against both respondent and opponent, seldom letting an argument
on either side pass without proper remarks.
‘The disputations being over, the
king withdrew to supper; after which he sent for the disputants, whose
names were John Adamson, James Fairlie, Patrick Sands, Andrew Young, James
Reid, and William King, before whom he learnedly discoursed on the several
subjects controverted by them, and then began to comment on their several
names, and said: "These gentlemen, by their names, were destined for the
acts they had in hand this day;" and proceeded as followeth:
"Adam was the father of all, and
Adam’s son had the first part of this act. The defender is justly called
Fairlie; his thesis had some fairlies in it, and he sustained them very
fairly, and with many fair lies given to the oppugners. And why should not
Mr Sands be the first to enter the sands? But now I clearly see that all
sands are not barren, for certainly he hath shewn a fertile wit. Mr Young
is very old in Aristotle. Mr Reid need not be red with blushing for his
acting this day. Mr King disputed very kingly, and of a kingly purpose,
concerning the royal supremacy of reason above anger and all passions. I
am so well satisfied," added his majesty, "with this day’s exercise, that
I will be godfather to the College of Edinburgh, and have it called the
College of King James, for, after its founding, it stopped sundry
years in my minority. After I came to knowledge, I held to it, and caused
it to be established; and although I see many look upon it with an evil
eye, yet I will have them know that, having given it my name, I have
espoused its quarrel, and at a proper time will give it a royal god-bairn
gift to enlarge its revenues." The king being told that there was one in
company his majesty had taken no notice of—namely, Henry Charteris,
principal of the College, who, though a man of great learning, yet, by his
innate bashfulness, was rendered unfit to speak in such an august
assembly—his majesty answered: "His name agrees well with his nature; for
charters contain much matter, yet say nothing; and, though they say
nothing, yet they put great things into men’s mouths."
‘The king having signified that he
would be pleased to see his remarks on the professors’ names versified, it
was accordingly done as follows:
‘As Adam was the first man,
whence all beginning tak,
So Adamson was president, and first man in this act.
The thesis Fairlie did defend, which, though they lies contein,
Yet were fair lies, and he the same right fairlie did maintein.
The field first entered Mr Sand; and there he made me see
That not all sands are barren sands, but that some fertile be.
Then Mr Young most subtilie the thesis did impugn,
And kythed old in Aristotle, although his name be Young.
To him succeeded Mr Reid, who, though Reid be his name,
Needs neither for his dispute blush, nor of his speech think shame.
Last entered Mr King the lists, and dispute like a king,
How reason, reigning like a king, should anger under bring.
To their deserved praise have I thus played upon their names,
And will their college hence be called
The College of King James.’
In the course of his excursion, the
king had a hunt in the neighbourhood of Dunfermline. At this time, the
coal-works at Culross, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, were conducted
with great activity under their enterprising proprietor, Sir George Bruce.
James invited his company to dine with him at a collier’s house,
referring to an elegant mansion which Sir George had built for his
accommodation in the town of Culross. They proceeded in the first place to
examine the coal-works, which were then wrought a considerable way under
the sea, issuing at some distance from shore in a little island or moat,
where the product of the mines was put directly on board vessels to be
transported to various places. The king and his courtiers, unaware of this
peculiar arrangement, were conducted along the mine till they reached the
sea-shaft, and here being drawn up, found themselves suddenly surrounded
by the waves. James, always apprehensive of attempts on his life, was
excited to great alarm by this unexpected situation, and called out
‘Treason!’ His courteous host reassured him by pointing to an elegant
pinnace moored by the moat to carry him ashore, in the event of his not
wishing to return by the mine. Doubtless the affair added a little zest to
the banquet which the party immediately after partook of in the hospitable
mansion of Bruce.
The king pursued his progress by
Glasgow, Paisley, Hamilton, and Dumfries, passing across the Border to
Carlisle on the 5th of August, amidst the general regrets of his subjects.
It was remarkable how much peace and good feeling prevailed amongst the
people during the royal visit. The Chancellor Dunfermline, in afterwards
summing up the whole affair to the king, said: ‘In all the time of your
majesty’s remaining in this kingdom, in sae great companies, and sae many
noblemen and great personages of twa nations convened, never ane action,
word, or appearance of any discord, variance, or offence betwix any of the
nations with other, for whatsomever cause. I doubt gif ever the like has
been seen, at sic occasion of so frequent a meeting of men, strangers, and
unknown to each other.’—M. S. P.
It may be worth mentioning, that by
warrant signed at Hitchinbroke, October 23, 1618, the king gave to
Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank ‘a gilt basin which was given to us by our
burgh of Edinburgh, with their propine of money, at our first entry of the
said burgh, at our last being in our said kingdom; together with two gilt
cups, one of them in form of a salmon, presented to us by our burgh of
Glasgow; and another gilt cup which was given us by the town of Carlisle;
together with some remanent of musk and ambergrise, which was unspent at
our being there; and, lastly, ane large iron chest, which did sometime
belong to the late Earl of Gowrie.’—An.
Scot.
1618, Feb
The king’s attention was drawn to two abuses in the police of the city of
Edinburgh. Notwithstanding the warning given by a fire in 1584, it was
still customary for baxters and browsters to keep stocks of heather and
whins in the very heart of the city, to the great hazard of adjacent
buildings; and individuals disposed to build houses within the city were
in some instances prevented by a fear of the risk to which they would be
thus exposed. The other evil complained of was less dangerous, but more
offensive, Candlemakers and butchers were allowed to pursue their callings
within the town, to the great disgust of ‘civil and honest neighbours, and
of the nobility and country people that comes there for their private
adoes.’ Indeed, ‘it hath oftentimes fallen out, that in mony streets and
vennels of the said burgh, the filth of slaughtered guids is in such
abundance exposed to the view of the people, and the closes and streets
sae filled therewith, as there can no passage be had through the same.’ A
proclamation was launched against these abuses.—-P. C. R.
On the 4th of March 1619, the Privy
Council sent an order to the magistrates of Edinburgh, demanding that they
should take order for keeping the streets of the town clean, and
describing the existing state of things in these terms: It ‘is now become
so filthy and unclean, and the streets, vennels, wynds, and closes thereof
so overlaid and covent with middings, and with the filth of man and beast,
as [that] the noble, councillors, servitors, and others his majesty’s
subjects wha are lodgit within the said burgh, can not have ane clean and
free passage and entry to their lodgings; wherethrough their lodgings have
become so loathsome unto them, as they are resolved rather to make choice
of lodgings in the Canongate and Leith, or some other parts about the
town, nor [than] to abide the sight of this shameful uncleanliness and
filthiness; whilk is so universal and in such abundance through all parts
of this burgh, as in the heat of summer it corrupts the air, and gives
great occasion of sickness; and, furder, this shameful and beastly
filthiness is most detestable and odious in the sight of strangers, who,
beholding the same, are constrained with reason to give out mony
disgraceful speeches agains’ this burgh, calling it a puddle of filth and
uncleanness, the like whereof is not to be seen in no part of the world.’
The plan of police proposed by the Council is for each inhabitant to ‘keep
the streets foment their awn bounds clean, as is done in other civil,
handsome, and wed-governed cities.’ No idea of a cleaning department of
police.
Considering how closely Edinburgh
was built, and that its numberless narrow alleys were kept in the state
which is described, it is not at all surprising that the pest so
frequently broke out within its bounds. We learn from the above edict that
the natural connection of decaying organic matter with pestilential
disease, was not then unknown; the fact was admitted, but neglected. At
this time, the attention of the public in Scotland was concentrated on
questions regarding religious observances— many of them of little
substantial consequence—while these real life-and-death matters were
wholly overlooked.
It is rather remarkable, that so
early as 1527, there appears to have been a general arrangement for
cleaning the city of Edinburgh at stated times, and with a profit to the
corporation. In that year, there is an entry as follows in the Council
Record of the city: ‘The gait-dichting, and duties thereof, is set this
year to come, with the aventure of deid and weir, to Alexander Peunicuik,
for the soum of £20, to be dicht and clengit sufficiently ilk 8 days anes,
with a dozen of servants.’ Pennicuik is enjoined to ‘tak nae mair duties
for the dichting thereof, except and allenarly of fish, flesh, salt, and
victuals.’
May 13
The king having proposed that ‘the most notorious and lewd persons’ in the
middle shires (Borders) might be ‘sent to Virginia, or some other remote
parts,’ the councillors answered that it was not necessary, because the
country was now reduced to ‘obedience and quietness;’ and it might even
prove detrimental, seeing that many who were ‘in danger of the laws for
auld feids,’ but had latterly been at peace, might, if they heard of such
a design, ‘mak choice rather to loup out and become fugitives, nor to
underly the hazard and fear of that matter.’
Notwithstanding the peace and
obedience described as now existing, scarcely two years had elapsed when
we find evidences that the king’s proposal was found to be rational and of
promise. In April 1620, ‘a hundred and twenty of the broken men of the
Borders were apprehended by the landlords and wardens of the Middle
Marches, at the command of the Privy Council, and sent to the Bohemian
wars, with Colonel Andrew Gray.’—Bal.
June 2
The Privy Council issued a commission to certain gentlemen in Irvine, to
try two persons of that burgh accused of witchcraft. In the recital on
which the commission proceeds, it is set forth—‘that
John Stewart, vagabond, and Margaret Barclay, spouse to Archibald Deane,
burgess of Irvine, were lately apprehendit upon most probable and clear
presumption of their practising of witchcraft agains John Dean; burgess of
Irvine, and procuring thereby the destruction of the said John, and the
drowning and perishing of the ship called the Gift of God,
of Irvine, and of the haill persons aifd goods being
thereintill: likeas the said John Stewart, upon examination, has clearly
and pounktallie confessit the said devilish practices, and the said
Margaret, foolishly presuming by her denial to eschew trial and
punishment, doeth most obdurately deny the truth of that matter,
notwithstanding that the said John constantly avows the same upon her,’
&c.
It appears that Margaret Barclay had
conceived and expressed violent hatred of her brother-in-law, John Deane,
and his wife, in consequence of their raising or propagating a scandal
against her. John Deane’s ship having been lost at Padstow, on the English
coast, and John Stewart, a spaeman, having spoken of this fact
before it was known by ordinary means, a suspicion arose that the latter
had been concerned in some sorcery by which the vessel had suffered. On
his being taken up, a confession was extorted from him, that he had taught
magical arts to Margaret Barclay, by which she had brought about the loss
of the vessel; and he narrated a ridiculous scene of enchantment as having
occurred on the shore, with the devil present in the form of a lady’s
lapdog, Margaret Barclay being the principal actor. Margaret was then
apprehended, as also one Isobel Tosh, whom Stewart described as an
assistant at the evil deed. Margaret’s servant-girl, a child of eight
years of age, and Isobel Tosh, were, apparently through terror, induced to
make admissions supporting Stewart’s statement. A most tragical series of
incidents followed. Isobel Tosh, trying to escape from prison, fell and
hurt herself so much that she died in a few days. Stewart hanged himself
in prison. Margaret Barclay, tortured by the laying of weights upon her
limbs, confessed what was laid to her charge; and though she denied all
when relieved, yet was she condemned and executed, finally returning to an
acknowledgment of guilt, which can only be attributed to hallucination.
Throughout all this affair—to all appearance consisting of a series of
forced accusations and confessions, till reason at length gave way in the
principal party—the Earl of Eglintoun, so noted afterwards as a
Covenanter, took part along with the commissioners; while the assistant
parish clergyman, Mr David Dickson, and several other ministers, most of
them noted in the annals of the time as men of extraordinary piety,
assisted in working on the religious feelings of the accused to induce
confession. It does not seem ever to have occurred to any of these
well-meaning persons, lay or clerical, that a worthy duty in the case
would have been to inquire into the facts, and judge by collating them,
whether there was any ground whatever for the accusation.
June 11
The Privy Council was informed of ‘an abuse lately taken up by a number of
young boys and pages, servants to noblemen, barons, and gentlemen.’ It was
represented that these persons, ‘whenever they fund ony boy newly enterit
in service, or pagerie, as they term it, lay hands upon him, and impose
upon him [the payment of] some certain pieces of gold, to be spent in
drinking, riot, and excess, for receiving of him in their society and
brotherheid.’ It was further alleged that, ‘if ony of thir new enterit
boys refuse to condescend to them in this point, they do then shamefully
misuse them, awaiting all occasions to harm and disgrace them;’ so that
many open disturbances were the consequence. The Council issued a
proclamation against these practices, threatening heavy punishment to all
who might be guilty of the like in future.—P. C. R.
June 20
‘At twa afternoon, David Toshach of Monyvaird, younger, [was] slain in the
south gate of Perth by Lawrence Bruce, younger of Cultmalindy, his
brother, and divers others their associates; the twa that was with
Monyvaird, ane deadly hurt, but died not; the other [David Malloch], his
right hand clean stricken fra him. This done in a moment of time. All the
committers thereof eschewit out of the town, before any of the townsmen
heard of ony such thing."
No one seems to have immediately
suffered for this outrage; but, four years after, the Privy Council
informed the king that Cultmalindy, besides banishing his two sons and a
servant, had offered a thousand crowns by way of assythment to the friends
of the slaughtered man, and £2000 to the two men who had been mutilated.
‘This feid,’ it is added, ‘has altogether undone auld Cuitmalindy; for his
estate is exhausted and wracked, and he is become very waik of his
judgment and understanding, by the grief that thir troubles has brought
upon him; whilk were the occasion of his wife’s death, and of the exile
and banishment of his sons and friends, now by the space of four years; in
the whilk exile twa of his friends of good rank and quality has departed
this life.’—Pit.
Mr Pitcairn quotes a local proverb
as having apparently taken its rise with reference to the misfortune of
one of Monyvaird’s servants:
‘Hands aff’s fair-play:
Davie Malloch says nay.’
It was rather a bitter jest for
David. This person, from the locality, may be presumed to have been an
ancestor, or near collateral relation, of David Malloch, subsequently
called Mallet, the poet.
June
The king’s declaration regarding sports on the Sunday and other holidays
came to Edinburgh. It commenced with a judicious allusion to the abundance
of papists in Lancashire. He had there found, too, the people complaining
that they were prevented from indulging in their ancient sports. One
effect of this must be that they would think papistry a better religion,
since it allowed of sports. Another inconvenience is, ‘that this
prohibition barreth the common and meaner people from using such exercises
as may make their bodies more able for war, when we or our successors
shall have occasion to use them, and, in place thereof, sets up filthy
tipplings and drunkenness, and breeds a number of idle and discontented
speeches in their ale-houses; for when shall the common people have leave
to exercise, if not upon the Sundays and holidays, seeing they must apply
their labour, and win theft living in other days.’ The king therefore
willed that no lawful recreation be barred to the people—’such as dancing,
either men or women; archery fur men, leaping, vaulting . . . . nor from
having of May-games, Whitsun-ales, and Morris-dances, and the setting up
of May-poles;’ seeing, however, that no one was allowed so to indulge who
had not previously attended service in church.
When James Somerville of Drum was at
school at the village of Dalserf in Lanarkshire, about 1608, it was
customary ‘to solemnise the first Sunday of May with dancing about a
May-pole, firing of pieces, and all manner of revelling then in use.’ His
grandson tells an anecdote apropos: ‘There being at that time few
or no merchants in this petty village, to furnish necessaries for the
scholars’ sports, this youth resolves to furnish himself elsewhere, that
so he may appear with the bravest. In order to this, by break of day, he
rises and goes to Hamilton, and there bestows all the money that for a
long time before he had gotten from his friends, or had otherwise
purchased, upon ribbons of divers colours, a new hat and gloves. But in
nothing he bestowed his money more liberally than upon gunpowder, a great
quantity whereof he buys for his own use, and to supply the wants of his
comrades. Thus furnished with these commodities, but with ane empty purse,
he returns to Dalserf by seven o’clock (having travelled that Sabbath
morning above eight miles), puts on his . . . .
clothes and new hat, flying with ribbons of
all colours; in this equipage, with his little fusee upon his shoulder, he
marches to the churchyard where the May-pole was set up,
and the solemnity of that day was to be kept. There first at the foot-ball
he equalled any that played; but for handling of his piece in charging and
discharging, he was so ready, that he far surpassed all his
fellow-scholars, and became a teacher of that art to them before the
thirteenth year of his own age. The day’s sport being over, he had the
applause of all the spectators, the kindness of his condisciples, and the
favour of the whole inhabitants of that little village.’ —Mem. Som.
In June 1625, the presbytery of Lanark exercised
discipline upon John Baillie, William Baillie, John Hirshaw, John and
Thomas Prentice; and Robert Watt, a piper, ‘profaners of the Sabbath in
fetching hame a May-pole, and dancing about the same, on Pasch Sunday.’—R.
P. L.
It is manifest from the church-registers of that time,
that the universal external observance of the Sunday as a Sabbath, for
which Scotland has long been remarkable, was not yet established. In
August 1628, the minister of Carstairs regretted to the presbytery of
Lanark the breach of the Sabbath ‘by the insolent behaviour of men and
women in foot-balling, dancing, and barley-breaks.’ About the same time,
two tailors were libelled before the same court for working on Sunday.
Such things could not have happened a few years late; or at any time
since.
July
A mysterious affair occupied the attention of the state-officers. While
the servants of one Kennedy, a notary, residing in Galloway, were ‘filling
muck in beir-seed time,’ they had found a withered human hand amongst some
dung. No person having lately been murdered or missed in the country, it
was impossible to tell whence this severed member had come or to whom it
had belonged. Kennedy, who had lately come to the house, professed to know
nothing of the matter. It seemed to him that the hand had been there many
years. This affair might have passed over with little notice, if it had
not been followed up by a series of marvellous occurrences. As his wife
was sitting with some gossips at supper in her husband’s absence, some
blood was observed upon the candlestick, and afterwards some more matter
resembling gore was found on the threshold of the cellar door. It was also
stated that, as Kennedy was walking one day with the minister, near the
parish church, some drops of blood were seen upon the grass. All these
things being reported to the authorities in Edinburgh, they gave orders
for Kennedy’s apprehension, and he was accordingly brought thither, and
kept six weeks in the Tolbooth. When examined, he could assign no cause
for the above facts, but ‘complained that his cattle and horses had died
in great number, and that his wife had long been vexed with extraordinary
sickness; all which he ascribed to witchcraft used against them.’ It being
impossible to bring anything home against the man, he was dismissed.—M.
S. P.
That eccentric genius, John Taylor, the Thames
waterman, commonly called the WATER-POET, set out
from his native London on the 14th of July, on a journey to
Scotland—’because,’ says he, ‘I would be an eye-witness of divers things
which I had heard of that country.’ He called it a Pennyless Pilgrimage,
because he intended to attempt making his way without any funds of his
own, and entirely by the use of what he might get from friends by the way.
Having traversed the intermediate distance on horseback in about a month,
he entered Scotland by the western border, walking, while a guide rode
with his baggage on a gelding. Somewhat to his surprise, he observed no
remarkable change on the face of nature.
‘There I saw sky above, and earth
below,
And as in England, there the sun did shew;
The hills with sheep replete, with corn the dale,
And many a cottage yielded good Scotch ale.’
As he passed along Annandale, he counted eleven hundred
neat at as good grass as ever man did mow. At Moffat, where he arrived
much wearied by his walk from Carlisle, he ‘found good ordinary country
entertainment; my fare and my lodging was sweet and good, and might have
served a far better man than myself.’ He travelled next day twenty-one
miles to a sorry village called Blyth, in Peeblesshire, where his lodging
was less agreeable. Next again, passing through a fertile country for corn
and cattle, he entered Edinburgh.
A gentleman named Mr John Maxwell, whom he casually
encountered, conducted him to see the Castle, which he deemed impregnable,
and where he noted the extraordinary piece of antique ordnance which still
exists there under the name of Mons Meg. ‘I crept into it, lying on my
back, and I am sure there was room enough and to spare for a greater than
myself.’ He describes the principal street of the city as the fairest and
goodliest he had ever seen, ‘the buildings on each side of the way being
all of squared stone, five, six, and seven stories high.’ ‘I found
entertainment beyond my expectation or merit, and there had fish, flesh,
bread, and fruit in such variety, that I think I may without offence call
it superfluity. The worst was,’ he adds waggishly, ‘that wine and ale were
so scarce, and the people there such misers of it, that every night before
I went to bed, if any man had asked me a civil question, all the wit in my
head could not have made him a sober answer.’
At Leith, he met a bountiful friend in Bernard Lindsay,
one of the grooms of his majesty’s bed-chamber, and was informed that
‘within the compass of one year, there was shipped away from that port
fourscore thousand bolls of wheat, oats, and barley, into Spain, France,
and other foreign parts, and every boll contains the measure of four
English bushels . . . . besides some hath been
shipped away from St Andrews, Dundee, Aberdeen, Dysart, Kirkcaldy,
Kinghorn, Burntisland, Dunbar, and other portable towns.’
In good time, Taylor commenced a progress through the
country, entertained everywhere by hospitable gentlemen, who probably
considered his witty conversation ample recompense. At Dunfermline, he
viewed with pleasure the palace and remains of the abbacy, and the
surrounding gardens, orchards, and meadows. Then he went to visit at
Culross the enterprising coal-proprietor, Sir George Bruce, who
entertained him hospitably and sent three of his men to guide him over the
works. The imagination of the Water-poet was greatly excited by the
singular mine which Sir George had here formed, partly within the
sea-mark. ‘At low-water, the sea being ebbed away, and a great part of the
sand bare—upon this same sand, mixed with rocks and crags, did the master
of this great work build a circular frame of stone, very thick, strong,
and joined together with bituminous matter, so high withal that the sea at
the highest flood, or the greatest rage of storm or tempest, can neither
dissolve the stones so well compacted in the building, nor yet overflow
the height of it. Within this round frame, he did set workmen to dig
. . . . they did dig forty foot down right into
and through a rock. At last they found that which they expected, which was
sea-coal. They, following the vein of the mine, did dig forward still; so
that in the space of eight-and-twenty or nine-and-twenty years, they have
digged more than an English mile, under the sea, [so] that when men are at
work below, a hundred of the greatest ships in Britain may sail over their
heads. Besides, the mine is most artificially cut like an arch or vault,
all that great length, with many nooks and by-ways; and it is so made that
a man may walk upright in most places.’
‘All I saw was pleasure mixed with profit,
Which proved it to be no tormenting Tophet;
For in this honest, worthy, harmless hall,
There ne’er did any damned devil dwell.'
‘The sea at certain places doth leak or soak into the
mine, which by the industry of Sir George Bruce is conveyed to one well
near the land, where he hath a device like a horse-mill, with three great
horses and a great chain of iron, going downward many fathoms, with
thirty-six buckets attached to the chain, of the which eighteen go down
still to be filed, and eighteen ascend still to be emptied, which do empty
themselves without any man’s labour into a trough that conveys the water
into the sea again. . . . . Besides, he doth
make every week ninety or a hundred tons of salt, which doth serve most
part of Scotland; some he sends into England, and very much into Germany.’
The pennyless pilgrim proceeded to Stirling, of whose
castle and palace he speaks in terms of high admiration; stating,
moreover, that at his host Mr John Archibald’s, his only difficulty was
for ‘room to contain half the good cheer that he might have had.’
Advancing to St Johnston (Perth), he lodged at an inn kept by one Patrick
Pitcairn. It was his design to visit Sir William Murray of Abercairny; but
he here learned that that gentleman had left home on a hunting excursion.
It was suggested that he might overtake him at Brechin; but on reaching
that city, he found that Sir William had left it four days before.
Taylor now made a journey such as few Englishmen had
any experience of in that age. Proceeding along Glen Esk, and passing by a
road which lay over a lofty precipice, he lodged the first night at a poor
cot on the Laird of Edzell’s land, where nothing but Erse was spoken, and
where he suffered somewhat from vermin—the only place, however, in
Scotland where he met any such troubles. With immense difficulty, he next
day crossed Mount Skene by an uneven stony way, full of bogs, quagmires,
and long heath, ‘where a dog with three legs would outrun a horse with
four,’ and came in the evening to Braemar. This he describes as a large
county, full of lofty mountains, compared with which English hills are but
‘as a liver or a gizzard below a capon’s wing.’ ‘There I saw Benawne [Ben
Aven], with a furred mist upon his snowy head, instead of a night-cap.’
He here found his friend, Sir William Murray, engaged
in Highland sports, along with the Earl of Mar, the Earl of Enzie
(afterwards second Marquis of Huntly), the Earl of Buchan, and Lord
Erskine, accompanied by their countesses, and a hundred other knights and
squires, with their followers, ‘all in general in one habit, as if
Lycurgus had been there.’ ‘For once in the year, which is the whole month
of August, and sometimes part of September, many of the nobility and
gentry of the kingdom, for their pleasure, come into these Highland
countries to hunt, where they conform to the habit of the Highlandmen, who
for the most part speak nothing but Irish... Their habit is shoes with but
one sole apiece; stockings which they call short hose, made of a warm
stuff of divers colours, which they call tartan: as for breeches, many of
them, nor their forefathers, never wore any, but a jerkin of the same
stuff that their hose is of, their garters being bands or wreaths of hay
or straw, with a plaid about their shoulders, which is a mantle of divers
colours, [of] much finer and lighter stuff than their hose; with flat blue
caps on their heads, a handkerchief knit with two knots about their neck;
and thus they are attired Their weapons are long bows and forked arrows,
swords and targets, harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Lochaber axes. With
these arms, I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their
attire, any man of what degree soever that comes amongst them, must not
disdain to wear it; for if they do, they will disdain to hunt, or
willingly to bring in their dogs; but if men be kind to them, and be in
their habit, then they are conquered with kindness, and the sport will be
plentiful. This was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen
in those shapes.’
Taylor allowed himself to be invested by the Earl of
Mar in Highland attire, and then accompanied the party for twelve days
into a wilderness devoid of corn and human habitations— probably the
district around the skirts of Ben Muicdhui. He found temporary lodges
called lonchards, designed for the use of the sportsmen, and he
himself received a kind of accommodation in that of Lord Erskine. The
kitchen, he tells us, was ‘always on the side of a bank, many kettles and
pots boiling, and many spits turning and winding, with great variety of
cheer, as venison—baked, sodden, roast, and stewed beef—mutton, goats,
kid, hares, fresh salmon, pigeons, hens, capons, chickens, partridge,
moorcoots, heath-cocks, cappercailzies, and termagants; good ale, sack,
white, and claret, tent (or Alicant), with most potent aquavitæ.’
Thus a company of about fourteen hundred persons was most amply fed.
‘The manner of the hunting is this: five or six hundred
men rise early in the morning, and disperse themselves divers ways, and
seven, eight, or ten miles compass, they bring or chase in the deer in
many herds (two, three, or four hundred in a herd), to such or such a
place, as the noblemen shall appoint them. Then, when day is come, the
lords and gentlemen of their companies ride or go to the said places,
sometimes wading up to the middle, through burns and rivers; and then
they, being come to the place, lie down on the ground, till those foresaid
scouts, who are called the Tinchel-men, bring down the deer....After we
had stayed there three hours or thereabouts, we might perceive the deer
appear on the hills round about us (their heads making a show like a
wood), which, being followed close by the Tinchel, are chased down into
the valley where we lay. Then, all the valley on each side being waylaid
with a hundred couple of strong Irish greyhounds, they are let loose, as
occasion serves, upon the herd of deer, [so] that with dogs, guns, arrows,
durks, and daggers, in the space of two hours, fourscore fat deer were
slain, which after are disposed, some one way and some another, twenty or
thirty miles, and more than enough left for us to make merry withal at our
rendezvous.’
After spending some days in this manner in the Brae of
Mar, the party, attended by Taylor, went into Badenoch, and renewed the
sport there for three or four days, concluding with a brief visit to
Ruthven Castle. This grand old fortress—anciently the stronghold of the
Cumins, lords of Badenoch—seated on an alluvial promontory jutting into
the haugh beside the Spey, occupying an area of a hundred and twenty yards
long, and consisting of two great towers surrounded by a fortified wall
with an iron gate and portcullis, was now the property of the Gordon
family. Here, says Taylor, ‘my Lord of Enzie and his noble countess (being
daughter to the Earl of Argyle) did give us most noble welcome for three
days.’ ‘From thence we went to a place called BaIlo[ch] Castle, a fair and
stately house, a worthy gentleman being the owner of it, called the Laird
of Grant....Our cheer was more than sufficient, and yet much less than
they could afford us. There stayed there four days four earls, one lord,
divers knights and gentlemen, and their servants, footmen, and horses; and
every meal four long tables furnished with all varieties; our first and
second course being threescore dishes at one board; and after that always
a banquet; and there, if I had not forsworn wine till I came to Edinburgh,
I think I had there drank my last.’
The Water-poet was afterwards four days at Tarnaway,
entertained in the same hospitable manner by the Earl and Countess of
Moray. He speaks of Morayland as the pleasantest and most plentiful
country in Scotland, ‘being plain land, that a coach may be driven more
than four-and-thirty miles one way in it, alongst the sea-coast.’ He spent
a few days with the Marquis of Huntly at the Bog, ‘where our entertainment
was, like himself, free, bountiful, and honourable,’ and then returned by
the Cairn-a-mount to Edinburgh.
Here he was again in the midst of plentiful good cheer
and good company for eight days, while recovering from certain bruises he
had got at the Highland hunting. In Leith, at the house of Mr John Stuart,
he found his ‘long approved and assured good friend, Mr Benjamin Jonson,’
who gave him a piece of gold of the value of twenty-two shillings, to
drink his health in England. ‘So with a friendly farewell, I left him as
well as I hope never to see him in a worse estate; for he is among
noblemen and gentlemen that know his true worth and their own honours,
where with much respective love he is worthily entertained.’
In short, Taylor, in his progress through Scotland,
seems to have been everywhere feasted sumptuously, and supplied liberally
with money. So much of a virtue comparatively rare in England, and so much
plenty in a country which his own people were accustomed to think of as
the birthplace of famine, seems to have greatly astonished him. The wonder
comes to a climax at Cockburnspath, near his exit from Scotland, where he
was handsomely entertained at an inn by Master William Arnot and his wife,
the owners thereof: ‘I must explain,’ he says, ‘their bountiful
entertainment of guests, which is this:
‘Suppose ten, fifteen, or twenty men and horses come to
lodge at their house. The men shall have flesh, tame and wild fowl, fish,
with all variety of good cheer, good lodging, and welcome, and the horses
shall want neither hay nor provender; and at the morning at their
departure the reckoning is just nothing. This is this worthy gentleman’s
use, his chief delight being to give strangers entertainment gratis!
And I am sure that in Scotland, beyond Edinburgh, I have been at
houses like castles for building; the master of the house’s beaver being
his blue bonnet, one that will wear no other shirts but of the flax that
grows on his own ground, and of his wife’s, daughters’, or servants’
spinning; that hath his stockings, hose, and jerkin of the wool of his own
sheep’s backs; that never by his pride of apparel caused mereer, draper,
silk-man, embroiderer, or haberdasher, to break and turn bankrupt; and yet
this plain home-spun fellow keeps and maintains thirty, forty, fifty
servants, or perhaps more, every day relieving three or four score poor
people at his gate; and besides all this, can give noble entertainment for
four days together to five or six earls and lords, besides knights,
gentlemen, and their followers, if they be three or four hundred men and
horse of them, where they shall not only feed but feast, and not feast but
banquet; this is a man that desires to know nothing so much as his duty to
God and his king, whose greatest cares are to practise the works of piety,
charity, and hospitality. He never studies the consuming art of
fashionless fashions; he never tries his strength to bear four or five
hundred acres on his back at once; his legs are always at liberty, not
being fettered with golden garters and manacled with artificial roses...
Many of these worthy housekeepers there are in Scotland....
‘There th’ Almighty doth his blessings heap,
In such abundant food for beasts and men,
That I ne’er saw more plenty or more cheap.’ |