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Social Life in Scotland
Supplement


Vol. i., p. 5, 1. 8 ; pp. 22-24.—Origin of Cairns.

IN a recent work descriptive of his personal explorations in Heth and Moab, Captain Conder remarks that while the menhir or long stone is the ancestor of the obelisk as a memorial stone, it was also an object of adoration as a personification of deity. In India, he remarks, the worship of the menhir is universal. As a sacred ceremony the natives of Hindostan, he adds, throw stones at the village lingham, which consequently becomes the nucleus of a memorial cairn. Of such practices traces are to be found in the Bible. Thus Solomon refers to stones being thrown upon a heap (Prov. xxvi. 8). At Mispah Jacob erected a menhir, and his followers made a heap around it (Gen. xxxi. 45, 46).—Captain Conder's "Heth and Moab," pp. 203-9.

Vol. i., p. 9, 1. 12.—The Phoenicians in Wales.

In a communication recently addressed to the editor of the Western Antiquary, Mr Robert Hunt, F.R.S., adduces what he styles "a few facts in support of the traditions that the Phoenicians were the merchant traders who carried the tin from Cornwall to nix with the copper of Cyprus, in the manufacture of the bronzes of antiquity." He proceeds—"That a foreign people actually worked some of the old deposits of tin is proved by the name of 'Attal Sarsen,' sometimes pronounced saracen, given to the waste heap of the old miners (sarsen signifies simply the stranger, and in this sense the name is applied to stones on Salisbury Plain, which are not native to that district). These waste heaps are often spoken of as 'Jews' leavings,' and the ancient furnaces found in the neighbourhood of the 'stream works,' always deeply buried amidst overgrown beds of peat-moss, are called 'Jews' houses,' and the blocks of metallic tin of all shapes and sizes, found beside those smelting works, are called ` Jews' house tin.' It may he contended that these rude blast-furnaces are the remains of the smelting works erected by the Jews, about A.D. 1200, upon whom King John inflicted severe penalties, and who were banished by Edward I. My impression is that the exceedingly rude character of these smelting works, and of the blocks of tin found with them, indicates a far more primitive system of metallurgy than that which prevailed when kings granted charters to the tinners of Cornwall. At St Ives Consols Mine, a remarkably rich deposit of tin was extensively worked, and was known as the `great carbona.' Similar, though smaller, deposits have been found in Providence Mine, and these were also called `carbonas.' In the parishes of Breage and Sithney a miner will describe a rich lode as 'a beauty—a regular carbona.'.... In St Matthew, chapter xxvii. verse 6, we read, `And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood." In the original Greek the word for treasury is corbona or corbana. In the Latin Testament published at Rheims A.D. 1582, the verse reads `Principes, autem sacerdotum, acceptis argentis dixerunt non licet cos mittere in carbonum.' The word has evidently been applied by the old miner to a place of wealth—a treasury. The word is not Greek, but Syro-Chaldaic or Aramaic, the language spoken by the Jews in the time of our Lord."

Vol. i., pp. 13, 14; pp. 20, 21.—Dolmen. or Ancient Altars.

Captain Cormier is clearly of opinion that the dolmen was a primitive altar. "The dolmen-building races," he writes, "most probably belonged to some Asiatic stock slowly spreading westwards into Europe—a course of migration which has been firmly established in the case of the Indo-European races through philological discovery." He adds, "In the dolmens and menhirs of Asia and Europe we probably find the remaining works of an ancient stock preceding both Aryan and Semitic races, and belonging to the illiterate and consequently pre-historic ages." Jacob found a dolmen at Bethel, hence he describes the place as the gate of heaven (Gen. xxviii. 17). Saul used a great stone in the work of sacrificing (1 Sam. xiv. 33). And the practice of preparing a table for God is condemned by the prophet Isaiah (lxv. 11).

In Gilead and Moab, Captain Conder estimates there are more than a thousand dolmens. And this number, he holds, does not in any degree militate against the view as to their use as altars. In Moab on a single occasion Balak erected twenty-one altars (Numbers xx. 3), and the prophet Hosea found the sacred centres crowded with them as "heaps in the furrows of the field" (Hosea xii. 11). Monuments of a character similar to the dolmens are to be remarked in vast numbers in the north of Africa, where the Phoenicians established extensive colonies. One has been found in Lower and four in Upper Galilee. In every instance the dolmen is without ornamentation or other mark of the engraver. The ancient custom practised in Greece and Rome of not permitting a bride to tread on the threshold, but of lifting her over it arose, it is believed, from the primitive rite of passing under the dolmens. —Captain Conder's "Heth and Hoab," pp. 197-275.

Vol. i., pp. 15-19.—Worship at Springs.

Many springs in Palestine are believed by the peasantry to be inhabited by good spirits. At the Oven of Job, near the Tabghah springs, on the borders of the Sea of Galilee, Captain Conder found blue beads and shells strung on thread and hung on a stick between the joints of the masonry, having been there deposited as propitiatory offerings to the local deity. Captain Conder believes the practice of making offerings at springs and wells is a relic of the tree and stone worship, which preceded the planetary worship of the ancient Assyrians.—Captain Conder's " Ileth and Moab," p. 243.

Vol. i., p. 21, 1. 26.—Pitandreich.

We have inadvertently fallen into error in rendering the place-name, "Pitandreich," as "the burial place of the Druids." Pit, or pet, or pettan, is the Celtic designation for a plot or portion of ground, while "dreich" is the Celtic "fraoch," heather, the entire word signifying the place of heath. Pitandreich or Pittendreich is not an uncommon place-name.

Vol. i., pp. 35, 36.—Primitive Symbolism.

The symbolism of the double disc represents the present life and the future. By a circle the present mundane existence is obviously denoted, and as no conception of a future state was possible, save that which was derived from the present, a double circle became the symbol of eternity. As a spear represented action, or the mode of preserving Iife, so a broken spear interjected between two discs, denoted that life temporal had closed and a spiritual existence begun. On the primitive memorial stone the crescent indicated that the person commemorated was a woman. The conventional beast of the early symbolism represents substance, or stock iii the forest.

Page 51, 1. 12.—For "Leger de Quinci," read "Seger de Quinci."

Page 57, 1. 7.—For "John of Liege," read "Jacques de Liege."

Page 58, 1. 10.—Household Furniture in the Sixteenth Century.

The best furnished chamber in St Leonard's College, occupied by George Buchanan as Principal, contained the articles described in the folIowing inventory:—"Two standard beds, the foreside of aik and the north side and the fruits of fir; ane feather bed and ane white plaide of four ells, and ane covering woven o'er with images; another auld bed of harden, filled with straws, with ane covering of green; ane cod; an inrower of buckram of five breds, part green, part red to yaillow; ane handers counter of the middling kind; ane little buird for the studio; ane furin of fir, and ane little letterin of aik on the side of the bed, with an image of St Jerome; ane stool of elm, with ane other chandler weighing."... In the year 1599, the furniture of St Leonard's College is thus inventoried:—"In the hall four fixed boards. The hale beds almaist fiat. In every chamber ane board and ane furme pertainand thereto Zvi glassen windows, and the nlaist part of all the chambers ciellered above, and the floors beneath laid with buirdis."

Vol. i., p. 105, 1. 13.—Marriage of the Clergy.

On Sunday, the 18th October 1500, Hugh Wallace, brother of the laird of Craigie, and perpetual parish clerk of the church of Symington, proceeded in presence of the congregation to resign his office into the hands of the curate, who thereupon, by the hands of a procurator, invested in the same William Wallace, described as "the well-born son," filius liberalis, of the said flugl2. Thereupon Dame Margaret Rutherford, the mother of William, took instruments on behalf of her "well-born son" as to the validity of the transaction.—Lifer Protocollorum, Glasgow, vol. i., 8 ; vol. ii., 270-276.

Vol. i., p. 109, 1. 17.—Forbidding the Banns.

The privilege of objecting to the celebration of a marriage, implied in the act of publishing the banns in the parish church, has been occasionally exercised. One curious instance is recorded in the parish register of St Dladoes, Perthshire, under the 2d Julie 1594. In this case the objector urges that "the man was an idiot, and nocht of writ and judgment to govern himself," and that the woman was "ane proud young bangster hizzie wha had goglet him in his simplicitie."

Vol. i., pp. 113-117.—Marriage Feasts in the Northern Counties.

"Weddings or marriage feasts were highly in vogue, and there was in every case a double feast, one at the bride's father's or friend's house, where the ceremony was performed. At this feast the bride and bridegroom sat as the principal guests, remaining for one or more days. The next feast was at the bridegroom's house on the arrival of the happy pair at their own home. This was called 'a bhanais theth'—`the heating of the house'—or, as the men of Sutherland literally rendered the phrase from their native tongue into English, `the wedding hot.'"—Memorabilia Domestica, 1694-1830, MS., vol. i., p. 255.

Vol. i., p. 120, 1. 1. —Sunday Marriages.

At Ayr, prior to the year 1627, marriages were solemnized on any day of the week, Fast-days excepted; but in that year the minister, Mr William Annand, made intimation `that nane should desyre him to marrie thame vpone onye Sabbothe daye herefter becaus of the great prophanitie that followes." By the Kirksession of Ayr, in 1654, was passed the following resolution:—"The session, taking to their consideratione the great abuse committed at manages be multitudes conveining, do therefor enact that Hereafter none shall be maryed except on Thursday immediatly after sermon, except in caise of necessitie, and that the persons to be maried enter the church before sermon vtherwayes not to be maried that day." The Presbytery records show that forty years prior to the date of this enactment Thursday was the ordinary day for marriages at Prestwick and the adjacent parishes.

Vol. i., p. 127, 1. 25.—English Marriages.

On the 6th October 1776, John Kerse, cooper in Coldstream, and Mary Young, in the parish of Greenlaw, appeared before the Kirksession and produced a certificate from the curate of the parish church of Tweedmouth, setting forth that he had, on the 17th of August, united them in lawful wedlock. But the Kirksession held that "neither of the parties had been lawfully married in their parish church," and therefore decreed that "they be proclaimed three times in order to marriage; and if any objections against the marriage appeared, the Session will proceed against them accordingly."

Vol. i., p. 127, 1. 27.—Scotsmen debarred from Marrying English Women.

By the eleventh Parliament of James VI. it was enacted "that no Scotsman marrie an Englishwoman without the King's license under the Great Seal, under pain of death and escheat of moveables."

Vol. i., p. 130, 1. 14.—Foundling.

In 1742 a male child was found in the malt kiln of Gateside brewery, in the parish of Dollar. To the infant's dress, which was of a superior texture, was attached a large sum of money. By the proprietor of Gateside the child was carefully tended, and on the 30th June 1742 it was baptized by the name of Dollar, being that of the parish; the Christian name of John was afterwards added. John Dollar settled in England, and attained affluence. On Sunday, the 24th April 1796, a female child was found at Linlithgow, apparently two or three weeks old. She was maintained by the parish, and baptized as "Robina Linlithgow." In the parish of St Martins, Perthshire, on 15th February 1818, was, by the name of Wilhelmina St Martins, baptized a female child, which, on the night of the 16th March 1817, was found at the door of William Sharp in Craignaherson.—Gibson's Reminiscences of Dollar, Edin. 1883, 2d edit., p. 236; Parish Registers of Linlithgow and St Martins.

Vol. i., p. 141..—Spelling of Family Names.

Up to the commencement of the nineteenth century, each session-clerk and registrar spelt family names according to the mode in which they were ordinarily expressed. Specimens of various spellings are subjoined. Alison appears in the forms of Alysone, Alanson, Alaneson, Alanesoun, and Alansoun; also of MacAllan, M'AlIone, and Makallane. Alexander appears as Alysander, Alexinder, Alexander, Alsynder, and Saunders. The surname of Anderson has the forms of Andersoun, Androsoun, and Androusen. Bain is written Bane, Bayn, and Bayne; Barclay is expressed as Bercklai, Berely, and Berkla; and Blair is Blar, Blare, and IByre. In the Registers of Linlithgowshire, Boag is written Bog, Boog, Bogg, Boig, and Boak. In the Kincardineshire Registers the predecessors of Robert Burns are registered as Burnes, Burness, Burnase, and Burnace. The prevailing name of Brown is recorded as Browun, Brun, Brune, and Brwne. Doig is written Dog and Dogg. Hill appears Hil, Hyl, and Hyll; and Murray is found as Mvrie and Murrie. Rae is Ra, Raa, and Ray; Roger is written Robear, Rogeare, Rodger, Rodgers, also Rodges; while Taylor is found as Tailyour, TaIyeour, Talyor, also in other forms.

Vol. i., p. 143, 1. 10.—The Registry Office.

The Registers of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, from 1820 to 1851, have lately been deposited in the General Register House.

Vol. i., p. 143, 1. 1 J.—Registering in Latin.

From the 26th March 1728 to the 10th September 1733, the entries in the Baptismal Register of Aberdour, Fifeshire, are in the Latin tongue.

Vol. i., p. 154, 1. 5.—The Lykwaik.

For "latewake" read "Iykewaik." The latter term is derived from two Anglo-Saxon words, lic, a body, and wac-ian, to watch.

Vol. i., p. 163, 1. S.—Funeral handbells.

In the manse of Mauchline is preserved a handbell, which was formerly run; at funeral processions, to indicate a change of bearers.

Vol. i., p. 163, 1. 9.—Bell-Ringing at Funerals.

On the 26th May 1783, the Kirksession of Terregles, Kirkcudbrightshire, ordained that "the kirk bell shall not be rung at any burial under one shilling sterling, as the lowest, and the better sort to pay two shillings and sixpence sterling—sixpence of which being allotted to the kirk-officer as his dues, and the remainder to the poor."

Vol. i., p. 164, 1. 18.—The Mortcloth.

The Kirksession of Logie, Stirlinbshire, on the 11th May 1690, purchased "a large and fine mortcloth," of which the items of cost are defined:—

Vol. i., p. 165, 1. 18.—For "Ancistoun" read "Anniston."

Vol. i., p. 172, 1. 20.—For "Kippo" read "Kipps."

Vol. i., pp. 182-185.—Charter Stones.

In a note appended to "The Lord of the Isles" (3 D), Sir Walter Scott supplies some curious particulars on the subject of "charter-stones." They were probably used, he thinks, as symbols to denote the right of possessing land prior to the general use of written documents. Sir Walter mentions a basaltic block in the shape of a sheep's kidney, which formerly stood at King's Case, near Prestwick, in Ayrshire, in evidence of the endowment there made on behalf of lepers by King Robert the Bruce. The surface of the stone being intensely smooth, there was no other mode of lifting it than by turning the hollow, and then extending the arms along the sides of the stone, and clasping the hands in the cavity. The stone lay near the leper's well at King's Case till a modern period, when some English dragoons wantonly broke it. The fragments have been deposited in a place of security by the freemen of Prestwick. Sir Walter refers to another charter-stone of blue or trap rock, which stands at Old Dailly in Carrick, and an attempt to remove which to the village of New Dailly led to a popular conflict. At Girvan, proceeds Sir Walter, if a man can set his back against a charter-stone in that place, he was supposed not liable to arrestment for debt, nor could cattle be poinded if made fast to the stone. There is a charter-stone at Inverness, set in an iron frame, at the market-place. While the famous coronation stone remained at Scone, it was regarded as the charter-stone of Scotland.

Vol. i., p. 189, 1. 24.—Seals and badges.

The use of seals is coeval with the art of writing. Seals were originally inscribed round the edge with the owner's name, while a star, or flower, or a small circle was carved in the centre. Next were used badges, emblematic of family names, such as a raven borne by the family of Corbet, or three fishes by the family of Herrin;. Heraldic shields may be traced to the reign of William the Lion.

Vol. i., p. 212, 1. 5. —The Swing Plough.

The inventor, James Small, was reduced to great extremities and might have perished from actual want but for the active beneficence of Sir John Sinclair, Bart.

Vol. i., p. 213, 1. 6.—The Thrashing Machine.

Ascertaining that Andrew Meikle was in poverty, Sir John Sinclair raised for him by subscription the sum of £1500, which was invested so as to place the aged mechanic in circumstances of comfort. Meikle died in 1811, and his remains were interred in the parish churchyard of Prestonkirk, Hadldingtonshire. At his grave has been raised a handsome tombstone, with the following legend:—"Beneath this stone are deposited the mortal remains of the late Andrew Meikle, civil engineer at Houston Mill, who died in the year 1811, aged 92 years. Descended from a race of ingenious mechanics, to whom the country for ages had been greatly indebted, he steadily followed the example of his ancestors, and by inventing and bringing to perfection a machine for separating corn from the straw (constructed upon the principles of velocity, and furnished with fixed beaters or skutchers), rendered to the agriculturists of Great Britain, and of other nations, a more beneficial service than any hitherto recorded in the annals of ancient or modern science."

Vol. i., p. 216, 1. 6.—Corn Mills.

In a note to "The Pirate," Sir Walter Scott writes thus "There is certainly something very extraordinary to a stranger in Zetland corn mills. They are of the smallest possible size; the wheel which drives them is horizontal, and the cogs are turned diagonally to the water. The beam itself stands upright, and is inserted in a stone quern of the old-fashioned construction, which it turns round and thus performs its duty. . . . These mills are thatched over in a little hovel, which has much the air of a pigsty. There may be five hundred such mills on one island, not capable any one of them of grinding above a sackful of corn at a tine."

Vol. i., p. 222, 1. 8.—Cost of a Journey.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ninian Imrie, in a MS. journal now in our possession, presents the following statement as to the cost of a journey from Edinburgh to London, which, by means of a hired chaise, he accomplished in 1802. - His narrative proceeds:-

So that the whole of this journey comes to one pound less than two shillings per mile, all expenses for myself and servant included."

Vol. i., p. 223, 1. 3.—Stage Coaches.

"In 1811 a diligence and pair actually ran for a short time between Aberdeen and Inverness, but this adventurous vehicle had but a short existence. . . . The roads between Aberdeen, Elgin, Nairn, and Inverness were in a miserable state, and as for roads beyond Inverness there simply were none. When in 1833 Lord Stafford, Duke of Sutherland, died, there were 450 miles of capital roads in Sutherland, where previous to 1812 none existed at all; and 134 bridges spanned the rivers of the same county, where previous to 1812 there had been but one."—Lord Ronald Gower's Reminiscences, 1883, 8vo, vol. i., p. 84.

Vol. i., p. 208, 1. 6.—Rent of Land.

On the 29th October 1669, George Graham, younger of Inchbrakie, in the county of Perth, leased to Alexander Alexander the home farm of Inchbrakie, for the term of three years, for the annual payment as rent of "the third sheaff off all the cornes, bear, cites, or pease that shall grow upon the croftes, carse, tath, and awald off the said toune and lands off Inchbrakie, and the fourth sheaff of all that shall be growne upon the third furre and fourth furre of the said landes." It was further stipulated that the tenant was to possess the entire straw.—General Register of Deeds, Dune Office.

Vol. i., p. 231, 1. 9,—Farm-houses.

Dr James Russell of Yarrow, in his "Reminiscences" (pp. 75-6), describes the farm-houses of Yarrow in the end of the last century as small, low-roofed, and covered with thatch. They were built on a uniform model—a room in one end, and a kitchen in the other. The kitchen opened into a third apartment, commonly used as a bedroom, while in certain houses were two attics, reached by a trap-ladder. The old farm-house at Foulshiels, in which. Mungo Park was born, remarks Dr Russell, was one of this description.

Vol. i., p. 234, 1, 16.—Camp-kettle.

A common error has been inadvertently fallen into. The camp-kettle described as Roman is certainly modern.

Vol. i., p. 236, 1. 21.—Contracts as to Eating Salmon.

An obliging correspondent has satisfied us that there is no evidence of the existence of any written contracts as to a restricted use of salmon. Our information as to an arrangement made in Strathmore was derived from Mr James Roger, minister of Dunino, in Fife, who was, in 1767, born at Bendochy, near the confluence of the salmon-fishing rivers of Isla and Ericht. Mr Roger referred to the stipulation as connected with a period considerably antecedent to his own.

Vol. i., p. 250, 1. 17. Rural Cottages.

Referring to the dwellings of the peasantry in Yarrow at the close of the eighteenth century, Dr James Russell describes them as smoky hovels, "the walls alternate rows of stones and sods, the floor of earth, and the roof of coarse timber covered with turf and rushes. The only chimney," he adds, "was a hole in the middle or end of the roof, surrounded at the top by a wicker frame, widening as it carne down, plastered with a mixture of straw and mud, and supported by a strong beam. The only window, or apology for a window, was a small aperture with a single pane of glass, and sometimes altogether open, and stuffed at night with old clothes."—Dr Russell's Reminiscences of Yarrow.

Vol. i., pp. 250-251.— The Black Houses.

A report on the condition of the dwellings of agricultural labourers in Scotland, presented to Parliament in 1875, contains a detailed account of the different kinds of houses found in the Highlands. Among these are named "the black houses," in which there exists but one entrance for the cattle and the human inhabitants, while in the interior are allowed to accumulate the dung of cattle and other unwholesome substances. As a commentary on this, the Commissioners observe that it does not appear that the people suffer, except in cases of occasional outbreaks of fever.

Vol. i., p. 259, 1. 1.—Drink Money.

During the seventeenth century and subsequently, "drink money" was allowed to craftsmen, to the extent of about one-eighth of the stipulated remuneration. In 1674 the Kirksession of Mauchline gave sixteen shillings Scots for ale to Agnes Hunter, a female pauper, who was dying.

Vol. i., p. 262, 1. 21.—Church Door Collections.

During the long period that the parochial poor were sustained by the Sunday offerings of the people, there were devised unworthy means of eluding the obligation. The coins deposited in the collecting plates were not infrequently of base metal. At their annual reckoning in 1703 the Kirksession of Alva examined the copper in the treasurer's box, when there were found "twenty-seven pounds and nine shillings of insufficient money." By the Session, the base money was sold to a chapman at fivepence per pound, the whole in Dutch weight amounting to fourteen pounds, or 5s. 10d. money. At Alva the reception of base money in the collecting plates was remarked from year to year.

Vol. i., p. 236, 1. 21.—Gipsies.

From India the gipsies proceeded westward to Beloochstan in the 4th century. In the 6th century they occupied the Chaldean marshes; thence they moved to the Cilician gates, and continued to inhabit Northern Syria, till the Greek emperors moved them to Iconium. In the 13th century they had reached the Bosphorus, and they were first heard of in Europe in the 14th century. When in 1428 they reached Moldavia they numbered 130,000, and were badly treated and sold. Hindustani words have been discovered among them.—Roberts' "Social History of the Southern Counties of England," Lond. 1856, 8vo, p. 257.

Vol. i., p. 277, 1. 15.—Licensed Beggars.

On the 19th June 1741 the Kirksession of Dunning granted to William Whittock, smith, the sum of "six shillings to buy some lead for making badges, to be given to some poor children, who at a late conjunct meeting of the heritors and session were allowed to bed." When the urgency which led to the granting of the badge had ceased, begging was prohibited. Hence on the 11th September of the same year the Kirksession of Dunning called on the poor persons, to whom they had given badges, to deliver them up. As "plenty and cheapness" had returned, they were enjoined "not to go through the paroch as formerly, but to procure their bread by serving others."—Dunning Kirksession Register.

Vol. i., p. 277, 1. 16.—Ordinary Beggars.

"Ballochneil [parish of Kirkoswald, Ayrshire] being near the public road," writes an octogenarian correspondent, "beggars were often with us. My mother kept a bed of blankets for their use, and we had often to carry cripples, and lead the blind in their progresses from house to house." A friend in the city of Edinburgh remembers that in his youth lame persons, in eastern Fifeshire, who subsisted by begging, were borne front one farmhouse to another on the backs of hinds.

Vol. i., p. 284, 1. 18.—Origin of Towns.

At a later stage, when a baron got from the king a grant of land on which he settled with his followers, he proceeded to build a church, a mill, and a brewhouse, and thereby founded a hamlet, which became his dun, or town.

Vol. 1., p. 286, 1. 15.—Claim of Stirling as the Second Burgh.

The earliest existing charter of the burgh of Stirling is granted by Alexander II., and is dated at "Kyncardin," 18th August 1226. In the Records of the Convention of Burghs, under February 1579, is the following entry:—"The samyn day Robert Alexander, commissioner for Striveling, protested that quhatsumever thing beis done or decernit betuix the burrowis of Dondie and Perth tuichim, the second place of burrowis clamit be tither of thanie, preiubit nocht Striveling and the privilege it lies to the second place of burrowis, and thairupon askit instrumentis."

Vol. i., p. 290, 1. 14.—Scottish Shipping.

'Those who incline to marvel at the smallness of Scottish shipping, are called on to remember that the entire English navy at the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588 consisted of twenty-three ships only, varying in burden from 50 to 1000 tons, and the largest carrying not more than forty tuns.

Vol. i., p. 291, 1. 4.—Burghal Custom.

Officers called "custumars" were appointed by the Crown in each burgh of export, these being chosen from among the leading burgesses. By the "custumars" were collected "the great custom" due to the sovereign ; and mercantile goods could not be legally exported without a cocket, that is, a certificate or parchment writ, issued by the "custumar" or from his department, bearing that the great custom had been paid.

Vol, i., p. 294, 1. 15.—Tasters and Measurers.

By the Town Council of Aberdeen were employed gustotors vini, or tasters of wine. In 1488 the Town Council of Dunfermline elected gustatores cervisice, or tasters of ale, and appreciactores carniunt, or flesh pricers; also liniatores, or measurers of burgh tenements—"lyuing stakes" being placed at regular distances along the march Iine.

Vol. i., p. 297, 1. 9.—"The Frieirs of Berwick"

In ascribing this poem to William Dunbar, we have inadvertently adopted the conjecture of Pinkerton, which is without any historical support. The poem is anonymous. As the writer describes the religious houses as actually existing, the poem must have been written some time prior to the year 1539, when by order of Henry VIII. the greater monasteries were suppressed.

Vol. i., p. 300. 1. 3.—House Bells.

In the year 1760 hung-bells, even in superior dwellings, were almost unknown. In castellated structures, there was a. mode of communicating with the household servants by gleans of tubulated apertures in the walls. In ordinary mansions the servants were summoned by gleans of a handbell which usually lay on the table, or on a niche specially prepared for its reception. In ordinary houses domestic servants were summoned by the floor being forcibly struck with the poker or by the shoe-heel.

Vol. i., p. 302, 1. 14.—Street Lamps.

In the early winter of 1554-55 the streets of Edinburgh were lighted up with lamps for the first time. On the 16th of November 1554, the Edinburgh Town Council "statut and ordanit for eschewing of evill doingis of lymmaris, wagaboundis, and vtheris that passis within the burgh on the nycht, steillis and revis within the samyn, that thair be nychtlie fra this day furth quhill the xxiiij day of Februar nixttocum, lanternis and bowettis sett furth at v houris at evin, and remane quhill ix houris." The common name for a bowet or hand-lantern was "a cut-throat."

Vol. i., p. 303, 1. 15.—Insalubrity of old Edinburgh.

The degraded condition of the Scottish capital about the year 1500 is poetically stigmatized by William Dunbar in his "Address to the Merchants of Edinburgh." The more pungent stanzas follow:—

Why will ye, merchants of renoun,
Let Edinburgh, your noble town,
For lack of reformatioun,
The common profit tync and fame?
Think ye not shame
That ony other regionn
Sall with dishonour hurt your name?

May nane pas through your principal gaits,
For stink of haddocks and of skates;
For cries of carlings and debates;
For fensum flytings of defame
Think ye not shame,
Before strangers of all estates,
That sic dishonour hurt your name?

Your stinking style that standis dirk,
Halds the licht fra your parish kirk
Your forestairs maks your houses mirk,
Like na country but here at home
Think ye not shame,
Sae little policy to wirk
In hurt and slander of your name?

* * * * *

Your burgh of beggars is ane nest;
To shout thai swenyours will not rest
All honest folk they do molest,
Sae piteously they cry and rame
Think ye not shame,
That for the poor has no thing drest,
In hurt and slander of your name?

Your profit daily does increas
Your godlie workis less and less
Through streettis nane may mak progress,
For cry of cruikit, blind, and lame
Think ye not shame,
That ye sic substance do possess,
And will not win ane better name?

* * * * *

Singular profit so does you blind,
The common profit goes behind
I pray that Lord remeid to find
That deit in to Jerusalem
And gar you shame,
That some reason may you bind,
For to reconquest your guid name!

Vol. i., p. 306, p. 26.—Burgh Nuisances.

From the "Edinburgh Burgh Court Papers" we ,lean the following:—On the 26th December 1722, the Incorporation of Fleshers applied to the magistrates for the removal of several nuisances. They represented that the Old Provost's Close being "the main avenue from the city to the mercat," was on both sides lined with a most nauseous piece of tapistric of puddings, tripes, livers, painshes, sheepheads, and draughts, and when there is no room for such hangings, there were put out boards and tubs on both sides of the close, leaving it so stranded that one cannot pass by another, without touching these nausances and spoiling their cloaths." The Incorporation added that "swine were commonly both keept and kill'd there." They further set forth that the tacksmen of the burgh "laid down fuilzie upon the avenues leading to the mercat," and "such fuilzie they removed but once in the year, while last year they took none away." In reference to "the swine keept at the North-Loch side," the memorialists remarked that these "by their continual working with their noses undermined the roads to the mercat, thereby endangering their servants in carrying their wares to the mercat." The petition being submitted to the Town Council, was by them remitted to the Works' Committee. On their report and recommendation, the nuisances were condemned, and those concerned in producing them ordered to desist from their practices under a penalty of £10 Scots, toties quoties.

Nearly a century later, viz., on the 10th July 1810, several persons were summoned before Mr John Tait, Judge of the Police Court, charged with "keeping swine in front of Dublin Street."

Vol. i., p. 322, 1. 14; 338, 1. 14.—Stallanger Rolls.

In some of the principal towns there existed a subordinate roll, known as "the Stallanger Roll." Those entered in it were entitled to keep a stall on the street on market days, but were not admitted to burghal privileges of any other sort. This subordinate roll was, at Dunfermline in the year 1488, known as "the Stallanger Row."

Vol. i., p. 320, 1. 6.—John Watson's Institution.

Our succinct account of this institution may be slightly supplemented. By a testamentary settlement executed on the 2nd July 1759, John Watson, Writer to the Signet, conveyed his property, under certain exceptions, to trustees, with instructions to apply the same "to such pious and charitable uses within the city" as they might determine. Accordingly, by a deed of destination dated 13th August 1764, the trustees proposed to apply the income "for the pious and charitable purpose of preventing child murder." They further devolved the management of the charity, after their own deaths, upon the Society of Writers to the Signet. Happily the trustees had not carried out their strangely unwise resolution of endowing a foundling hospital —such being the mode in which they proposed to "prevent child murder,"—and hence when they were severally gathered to their fathers, the new administrators, consisting of the Society of Writers to the Signet, adopted a scheme in strict consonance with the intentions of the donor. Having, in 1522, acquired by an Act of Parliament the necessary powers, they proceeded to establish an hospital for the maintenance and education of destitute children, also for assisting them, or such of them, at the outset of life as might specially deserve such aid. In 1825 a suitable structure was erected, and since its completion in 1828 there have in the institution been supported and educated about one hundred fatherless children of both sexes. The original fund was under £5000, but consequent on careful administration, the capital in August 1812 was found to amount to £109,000, exclusive of buildings.

Vol. i., p. 337, 1. 27.—Municipal Pipers.

In each of the rural burghs, also in populous places, was employed a piper, whose duty was daily to arouse the inhabitants, also to play on festive occasions. The last public piper at Alva, Stirlingshire, died in 1779, and his funeral expenses were discharged at the cost of the parish.—Alva Kirksession Register.

Vol. i., p. 339, 1. 1.—The Chapmen of Stirling.

To the "Fraternity of Chapmen of Stirling and Clackmannan" James I. granted the privilege of practising certain chivalrous sports. After a period of abeyance, the fraternity was revived at a meeting held at Stirling on the 24th of October 1726. At this meeting was enacted "a code of laws," which was submitted to and approved by the Magistrates of the Burgh, also by the Justices of the Peace of the counties of Stirling and Clackmannan.

The laws, thirty-eight in number, proceed thus "1st. Whosoever shall be found guilty of breaking the Sabbath-day shall pay the sum of five pounds Scots.

2d. Whosoever shall be found carrying and useing wrong weights or ell-wands, shall pay five pounds Scots; and the wrong weights and ell-wands shall be broken.

"3d. Whosoever shall be found guilty of wronging his neighbour by inviting buyers from his neighbour's stand, shall pay six pounds Scots.

4th. Whosoever shall pass an ill report upon his neighbour, shall be amerced in four pounds Scots.

5th. Whosoever shall be found guilty of profaneing the name of God by talking idle and profane words, shall pay the sum of four pounds Scots.

6th. Whosoever shall be found guilty of lyeing and theevish practices, shall be extruded the Court, and his goods confiscated.

"7th. Whosoever shall prejudge any person by fraudulent dealing or evil speaking, in any place where he shall happen to travel or lodge, shall be fined in five pounds Scots.

"8th. Whosoever shall be found drunk shall be liable in the fine of five groats.

"9th. Whosoever shall be found guilty of gameing at cards or dice, or ally other vitious game, shill pay four pounds Scots.

"10th. Whosoever shall be found guilty of buying or passing of counterfeit coyn of any sort, shall pay three pounds Scots for the first fault; and if found to continue in the practice thereof, shall be excluded the Court.

"11th. Whosoever shall deny a comrade brother chapman his wholesome advice and best counsel, either in buying or selling, shall pay three pounds Scots.

12th. Any stranger that it is to be brothered with this Incorporation, shall come in the will of the Court to the value of five pounds sterling.

"13th. No less money can be taken for admitting of any stranger to this Incorporation's freedom than ten shillings and ninepence sterling, except the Court designs to bestow it gratis.

"14th. Whosoever shall be found guilty of eating or abuseing people's corns, when travelling on the road, shall pay the sum of three pounds Scots.

"15th. Whosoever shall neglect to give due obedience and respect to their superiours, and who shall not be found clean and neat in their cloaths and linnens, shall be fined five groats.

16th. Whosoever shall be found eating any kind of victuals in the market place, or carrying or keeping anything in their bonnets that is not decent and becoming, shall pay twelve shillings Scots.

"17th. No stands be marked until sunrise, the day commonly called the Fair Even; and in marking the said stands, none shall be allowed more room than a deal length of nine foot for two cornrads; and whosoever marks first shall, besides marking for himself, mark out one stand in the best place of the market for my Lord's use, and in case that be neglected, my Lord is to have his choice of all the stands in the market, and who shall transgress the above rules shall pay fourtie shilling Scots.

"18th. The bailie hath power to call any other brother out of any stand where there are two together, and that either to keep his stand while he is drawing the pawns, or go along with Nina, in order to the drawing of them; and who refusetlh so to do shall pay thirtie shilling Scots, and the least pawn that is to be drawn from a brothered chapman is to be thirtie shilling Scots, or the value thereof in goods; and the least to be taken from a stranger is to be three pounds Scots, or the value thereof; and those who refuse to give in such pawns as was then exprest, are to pay, as a fine, the sowm of thirtie shilling Scots.

"19th. Whosoever is absent, after being warned, when the court is fenced, shall pay six pence for being absent; and whosoever shall not bring with him his weights and ell-wands, in order to be adjusted, shall be liable to the censure of the court.

"20th. Whosoever shall be disobedient to these laws, and refuseth to submit himself to a lawful fenced court, shall, without remede, be banished therefrom; and who shall be found keeping company with any such persons, shall pay three pounds Scots.

"21st. Whosoever shall borrow any thing at markets, such as timber and cloaths for their stands, and will not restore the same, and if complained upon, shall make satisfaction to the complainer; and if found a transgressor, shall, by and attour pay fourtie shilling Scots.

"22d. Whosoever shall interrupt his neighbour speaking, in a fenced court, shall pay six shillings Scots.

"23d. Whosoever shall reveal any of the secrets of the court, or shall reveal anything to the prejudice of his neighbour, shall pay six pounds Scots.

"24th. Whosoever shall know or see any thin, prejudicial to the interest of the court, or any member thereof, and not discover the same, shall pay the suns of three pounds Scots.

"25th. Whosoever shall give provocation to any brother, or other person, shall pay thirtie shillings Scots.

"26th. Whatsoever magistrate shall presume to keep court, or fine any brother, or enter any person, except at fairs within the shire, or if need require, in Stirling, on the weekly market day, shall pay four pounds Scots.

"27th. Whosoever shall refuse to carry charge in any of the offices of the court, after they shall be elected, shall pay six pounds Scots.

"28th. No person shall be admitted a brother, without a sufficient testimony of his good carriage and behaviour.

"29th. Every brother shall have a Bible for his own use, and present the same at courts, when called for, under the pain of six pounds Scots: And those who cannot read shall endeavour to learn, under the said penalty.

"30th. Whatsoever magistrates shall be found guilty of breaking any of the laws, shall forefault the double penalty of what they shall transgress.

"31st. Whatsoever difference shall happen betwixt brothers, that they shall apply to the proper judges of this Incorporation, and not to any other judge, before application to his own court, under the pain of six pounds Scots.

"32d. Whatever officer shall go through any mercat to draw pawns, shall be obliged to restore back the said pawns to the right owners, and that without loss either of goods or money.

"33d. Every brothered chapman's son shall pay for his entry only the half of the money that a stranger pays.

"34th. No member shall presume to put out the lite for the offices of the principal and depute lords of this incorporation, at their annual election, excepting the lords principal and depute presently in office, baillies, box masters, and clerks."

"35th. If it be made appear that any of their number do sell goods, either under the price that they cost them, or even at no tolerable profit, they shall be liable to whatsoever fine the court shall think fit to impose upon them, unless they can, and do give in such satisfying excuses as by the court shall be found reasonable and just, namely, as goods being damnified, going out of fashion, too dear bought, or their credit lies at the stake, and find, no other way to relieve it, or that they had a very (rood bargain in view, by which more than ordinary profit could probably be made; and further, that if any merchant doth inform this court of any of their number who maize bad payments, so that the merchant will be obliged to pursue him before the Judge Ordinar, and if the person complained upon can be convicted thereof, in face of court, he shall be liable to the censure of the foresaid court.

"36th. The election shall be holden in the town of Stirling, the tenth day of September, which is two clays after the fair commonly called the Rideing Fair: And it is further to be noticed, that if the Sabbath shall shoot, or alter the fair, our election shall be still two days thereafter ; and who of the brethren are absent from the said election, without a reasonable excuse, to be approvers off by the brethren, shall be liable to the fine of seven pounds Scots.

"37th. That every married man entered with this community shall attend any court thereof which warned thereto by the officer, under the pain •of losing his liberty, unless lie give a lawful excuse why he cannot attend the same.

"38th. All office-bearers of this community that shall be elected together with the whole office-bearers for the preceding year, shall attend my Lord Principal and go along with hint to his dinner, wherever it shall happen to be, on the election day, and that under the pain of six pounds Scots."

At their annual meetings in September, the Fraternity elected their officers, of whom the chief were styled "Lord Principal" and "Lord Depute." At the annual meeting held in 1793, there were 106 members present, such being the largest attendance upon record. In 1795 it was resolved to renew the annual sport of tilting at the ring. The annual gatherings were discontinued subsequent to 1811, when, chiefly on account of the discontinuance of itinerant merchandise, the institution fell into abeyance. The last Principal of the Fraternity was Major John Alexander Henderson of Westerton. The Records of the Fraternity are in the keeping of a gentleman resident in Glasgow.

Vol. i., p. 339, 1. 20.—Cowan's Bequest.

John Cowan bequeathed for behoof of guild-brethren at Stirling 40,000 marks, equal to £2222 sterling. This sum invested in land yields a free rental of upwards £3000.

Vol. i., p. 348, 1. 32.—The Senzie Fair.

This great annual fair was held at St Andrews in the cloister of the Priory. Commencing in the second week of Easter, it continued about fifteen days, the harbour during its progress being filled with vessels from France and Holland. So early as the twelfth century foreign merchants fixed their residence in the city, and of these the representatives, two centuries later, occupied positions of opulence. On the 2d of June 1362, Edward III. granted at Westminster a safe-conduct to England in favour of certain Scottish merchants, of whom were John de Dudyngston, John Gudesman, and Walter de Eglesham, burgesses of St Andrews, who are described as accompanied by four horsemen.—Rotuli Scotiae, vol. i., p. 815.

The Senzie Fair continued as one of the principal mercantile resorts in the east of Scotland till the times which succeeded the Reformation. At their meeting on the 6th April 1569, the Town Council of Edinburgh were informed by the magistrates of St Andrews that on account of "the pest" ravaging in their vicinity, the "Seingzie fair" would not be held. The intimation was given so that "the nychtbouris of this burgh sall nocht tyne their tyrne." —Edinburgh Town Council Record.

Vol. i., p. 351, 1. 6.—A Liar's Pillory.

At Dunfermline those who were found guilty of falsehood or detraction were placed upon "the lear-stane"---that is, the liars' stone—which was elevated in one of the principal streets. When in the Regality Court of Dunfermline, on the 17th March 1499, Ellyn of Walwode, spouse of John of Walwode, sergeant of the regality, was found to be "ane strubler of Robyn Gibson be detraccione," it was determined "that the lear-stane suld be set wane in the place where it was wont to stand, or els anie [other] guile stane.

Vol. i., p. 363, 1. 1 9.—House Accommodation.

Since our first volume was published, the Second Report of the Royal Commissioners on the houseing of the Working Classes has been issued. Dealing exclusively with Scotland, the Report shows that in Edinburgh there are 14,000 single-room tenements while in GIasgow 25 per cent, of the population live in single rooms. The Report is satisfactory, inasmuch that it indicates a state of improvement; yet it is unworthy of our legislators and of those entrusted with municipal authority that, apart from other considerations, the health of the community should, by a system of overcrowding, be so materially endangered. The only systematic effort which has yet been made to ameliorate the domiciliary condition of a neighbourhood, is that put forth in the city of Edinburgh at the suburb of Dean, on the Water of I.eith. The beneficent author of this important operation, Mr John Ritchie Findlay, has, in place of the insalubrious tenements which occupied the locality of the Dean, constructed workmen's dwellings on an approved sanitary system, and which are offered at rents so abundantly moderate as to fully meet the convenience of every prudent artisan.

Vol. i., p. 386, 1. 13.—Coal Miners.

In the district of Tranent, before the emancipation of the miners, offenders among them were punished in three modes. First, an iron collar was fastened round the neck of the offender, by means of which he was attached to a wooden support at the pit bottom for a whole day. Or secondly, the culprit had, at the pit-head, his hands tied in front of the gin horse, when he was compelled to run round the bin-bang, back foremost, before the horse, when winding the coal to the pit-head. Or thirdly, if several persons had offended, the horse was relieved from the yoke, and the offenders substituted, and while taking the horse's place were urged on with a whip. When the serfdom of the miner was abolished, coal-owners endeavoured to secure the permanent services of those born upon their estates by handing to each male child, on his christening day, ''arles," that is a piece of money implying an engagement.—M`Neill's " Tranent and its Neighbourhood," pp. 21-23.

Vol. i., p. 391, 1. 18.—Flax Manufacture.

By the poet Robert Henryson (1430-1506), the early manufacture of flax is described thus:—

"The lint ryped, the churle pulled the lyne,
Ripled the bolles, and in beites it set;
It steeped in the burne, and dryed syne,
And with ane beitteI knocked it and bet,
Syne swyngled it weill, and heckled in the flet,
His wyfe it span and twinde it into threed."

Vol. i., p. 395, 1. 18.—George Buchanan and Thomas Ruddiman.

From the existence of the Graham and Fairbairn partnership, unsuspected heretofore, some light is reflected upon an occurrence which excited vehement controversy, and largely tended to embitter the life of an accomplished scholar. In presenting to the learned world his important edition of Buchanan's works, Ruddiman assails his author's political opinions with an asperity singularly unbecoming an editor, and totally at variance with the estimate lie otherwise entertained of the illustrious writer. He founded his antagonism on the (,round that Buchanan had disseminated those doctrines which culminated in the Revolution, and had thereby wrecked the house of Stewart. Discreet as Ruddiman usually was, both as an editor and an original writer, it appears as if his Jacobitism had been superinduced by some foreign and dangerous influence. Not improbably his injudicious adviser was Mr David Graham, the Jacobite laird of Orchill, through whose financial assistance the publication of Buchanan's works, which in 1702 George Mosman had attempted and been constrained to abandon, was successfully resumed. Graham, as is shown in the catalogue of his books included in his legal inventory, possessed a valuable collection of ancient and modern literature, and he and Ruddiman had, through their kindred tastes, been probably brought together.

In gratifying the Perthshire laird with a view to the completion of his undertaking, Ruddiman excited a strong displeasure on the part of those who otherwise would have commended his industry. At Edinburgh was formed a "Historical Society," composed of many notable persons, which met fortnightly in order to concert measures for refuting what were styled "Mr Ruddiman's calumnies." But funds were not forthcoming, and at length the enterprise was abandoned.

Vol. i., p. 409, 1. 8.—Illicit Distillation.

If the drinking habits of the people had been proportioned to the eagerness with which persons of the middle and lower ranks aided in the production and distribution of contraband liquor, the nation must have become utterly besotted. To defeat or aid in defeating the officers of excise was deemed an enterprise positively laudable. In order to this end, no stratagem, however revolting, was deemed offensive or unworthy. Thus at the commencement of the present century, one of the principal hotel-keepers at Stirling, when he required a further supply of whisky, sent a funeral cortege into the highlands of Perthshire, which returned laden, hearse included, with casks of the contraband liquor. To lowland vendors, whose dealings were more circumscribed, women conveyed the illicit product of the mountain-still in a species of panniers, composed of tin, which were constructed so as to rest under the dress in the manner of the modern bustle. Some of these whisky panniers were used in the vicinity of Callander, Perthshire, within the last sixty years. Through the personal inquiries of a gentleman connected with the Geological Survey, we learn that the caverns in the declivities of the mountain of Ben-venue were frequented by illicit distillers within the memory of persons now living. Shepherds and herdsmen, in the interest of the "sma' stills," watched the approach of strangers as a specie of national or family duty. Early in the century a barge used by the officers of excise was, by unknown hands, probably a party of the inhabitants, sunk in the waters of Loch Lomond.

In his Memorabilia Domestica (vol. iii., p. 35), the Rev. Donald Sage refers to the career of Hugh Houston, of Creich, who, at an advanced age, died on the 10th March 1825. Houston was a considerable merchant, but his prosperity was chiefly due to his trading in contraband liquor. Respecting him Mr Sage writes thus ; " Mr Houston, when dining at the table of Mr Walter Ross, minister of Clyne, gave a minute account of a narrow escape he had made many years before, from a party of revenue officers, who were informed of his being in the receipt of a large quantity of foreign spirits, and were on their way to seize it. Mr Ross, he said, hearing of his perplexity, collected all the carts and broad-shouldered men in the vicinity, appointing them to meet at his friend's shop, at the hour of midnight, to convey his cargo of smuggled in and brandy to the church of Clyne, and deposit it under the east gallery. This was done, and the revenue officers were outwitted."

Mr Samuel Milligan, supervisor of excise at Stirling, who died at an advanced age upwards of twenty years ago, informed the writer that he early came to realise that revenue officers belonged to a section of the community utterly unpopular. The gauger, he found, was obnoxious to the old and a terror to the young; no one would satisfy his enquiries, and few were willing to render him service, even for payment. "Informations" against smugglers were made by those only who had been dismissed from their employment.

Vol. ii. p. 16, 1. 17.—General Register House.

The original grant of 112,000 for the erection of a General Register House was derived from the sale of the forfeited estates; it obtained the royal sanction on the 26th June 1765. The entire cost of the structure was about £25,000.

Vol. ii., p. 25, 1. 20—Corrupt Judges.

In 1579 an Act was passed prohibiting the judges "be thame selffis or be thair wiffis or servandes (to) tack, in ony time curling, buddis, brybes, guiles or geir fra quliatsumever person or persons presentlie havand, or that heirefter sail happyne to have, any actionis or caussis perseuit befoir thaime, aitlier fra the persewer or defender, under pain of confiscation." That enactment was wholly ineffective, the system of favouritism, consequent on private influence or direct bribery, continuing among the judges to prevail largely. It is related of Sir John Gilmour, Lord President of the Court of Session under Charles II., that when some one in his presence was lauding the impartiality of the English judges, he, by way of explanation, exclaimed, "Deil speed them, for they have neither kith nor kin!" After the Restoration, the use of private influence increased in the Court of Session to such an extent, that the Court endeavoured to repress it by passing an Act of Sederunt of the 6th November 1677. Two years afterwards the Act was renewed.

The judges held communication with suitors by a special mode. Each judge had an agent or "peat." The word "peat" was, it is believed, used as a contraction for Patrick,—a judge who had a son of that name at the bar, being in the way of saying to those suitors who waited upon him, "Have you consulted Pate," a gentle mode of suggesting that their money should be deposited in his hands.

The mode of selecting judges, chiefly on account of their political services, while it has not in recent times conduced to the public disadvantage, might happily be departed frond. See "State Papers, and Letters addressed to William Carstares," edited by Joseph M'Cormick, Edinburgh, 1774, 4to, p. 184 ; "The Court of Session Garland," second edition, 1871, 8vo, pp. 1-26; Dr Robert Chambers's "Traditions of Edinburgh," pp. 152-4; and Sir Walter Scott's "Bride of Lammermoor, chapter. i.

Vol. ii., p. 27, 1. 26.---Mute hill; Place of Judgment.

In the parish of Kintore, Aberdeenshire, to the east of the present royal burgh of that name, and near the banks of the river Don, formerly stood a conical mound, 30 feet in height and 150 feet in diameter at base; it was known as the castle-hill of Kintore. Several years ago, when the North of Scotland Rail. way was in the course of construction, it became necessary to include the castle-hill in the operations. As the workmen were engaged in the upper portion of the mound, it was ascertained that the original surface had been ten feet lower than the modern one. The former was found covered with a layer of charred earth, and along the east margin, at a point projecting beyond the conical summit, lay together in an irregular manner, a number of small stones, among which were eleven large blocks. Several of the latter were broken up, and the fragments built into railway brides, before the discovery became known. But on a visit to the place, Mr Alexander Watt, a local antiquary, discovered among the unbroken blocks two bearing sculptures, and a third, composed of "blue heathen," a species of gneiss, of which the top was artificially hollowed, so as to form a seat. It is conjectured that this rude " chair " was used as the judgment-seat of this Primitive mod-dun. The sculptured stones found, along with the judgment-chair, are now deposited in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh, and are correctly represented and described by Dr John Stuart iii the first volume of his "Sculptured Stones." One of the stones bears on each side the double disc and broken spear; also the conventional beast of the archaic age. The other represents the double crescent. By the former symbol we recognise the memorial stone of the lord of the forest; by the latter, that of a married woman, the wife of some ancient chief.

At a short distance from the mound at Kintore was discovered a series of pits, round and oval, from 3 to 4 feet in length, and from 2 to 3 in breadth, each containing charcoal and bones. In times less remote capital sentences were carried out in the immediate vicinity of the place of judgment, or upon it. And it is to be remarked that while the sculptured symbols associated with the judgment chair at Kintore would point to an age prior to the introduction of Christianity, the place is found long afterwards the centre of one of the landward divisions called thanages, to which was attached a local tribunal.

At Chapel of Garioch, in Aberdeenshire, about half a mile to the north-west of the parish church, a sculptured stone ten feet in height, two feet ten inches broad, and about ten inches thick, is known as the Maiden—that is Mod-dun stone. The association of this monument with the word "maiden" has been accounted for by a gruesome legend.

Vol. ii., P. 29, 1. 13.—A .Border Law of Combat.

There was an ancient law of the marches called "Handwarcelle," whereby the ownership of stolen goods was judicially determined. Arms were supplied to the combatants, but the precise character of the conflict, or its consequences, are not quite apparent. For some particulars in connection with this mode of border law, enacted in July and September 1280, see "Calendar of Documents relating; to Scotland," edited by Joseph Bain, 1884, vol. ii., pp. 58-9.

Vol. ii., p. 33, 1. 15.—Legal Oppression.

The king's "poor kindly tenants of Lochmaben," in a petition dated "Dumfries, 12th June 1592," set forth that they were "wreckit and herryed at all tymes be the theves, baith English and Scottish, on baith their borders," also that "at slivers tymes they were heavily extortionate be wardens, deputies, and keipers and constables of your Majestie's castle, reiving and takein; away our naigs out of our taiks and occupations at their ain hand at their pleasure." Instructions were given that the kindly tenants should not be further molested. —(Register of Deeds, Dalrymple Office, Vol. 113, Part 2, November 28th., 1722.)

Vol. ii., p. 37, 1. 2.—District Prisons.

At the commencement of the century, the keeper of the prison at Dunfermline was Mr John Henderson, watchmaker. Henderson, who was as keeper very imperfectly recompensed, usually entrusted the care of the prisoners to one of their own number, who, in acknowledgment of service, was allowed his freedom from early morning till the usual hour of rest.

Vol. ii., p. 45, 1. 9. —A Sheep-stealer's Sentence.

On the Gth July 1699, in the sheriff-court of Clackmannan, Robert Livingstone, chapman at Crook of Devon, pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing a ram and two wedders. He was consequently, by Mr William Murray the sheriff depute, sentenced "to be stripped naked of his clothes, and scourged by the hand of the hangman through the whole town of Clackmannan, with one of the sheep's heads and four feet hanging about his neck, and thereafter to be banished out of the said shire." The sentence proceeds that the offender "enacts himself that if ever he be seen or found within the said shire . . . he shall be guilty of death, without any order or process of law to be used against him for that offence."

Vol. ii., p. 49, 1. 26.—For "indlicator" read "judicator."

Vol. ii., p. 68, 1. 4.—Kidnapping.

In the Records of the Justiciary Court, examples are common in which on conviction for secondary crimes, sentence of death was commuted into exile to the plantations. But prior to the abolition of heritable jurisdictions in 1748, a system of kidnapping of boys was largely carried on in those districts which were adjacent to northern seaports. The extent to which this infamous system of seizing; young persons and shipping them to the American colonies had been carried was exposed on the trial, in 1765, of Peter Williamson, a youth kidnapped at Aberdeen, and who Having returned to this country proceeded to make known the infamous practice. Subjected to trial for detraction, Williamson justified the truth of his assertions, and thereby conduced towards the entire suppression of the system.

Vol. ii., p. 79, 1. 21.—The house of Durward.

The founder of the house of Durward was door-ward or doorkeeper to the king. Alan Durward held office as ostiarius reyis at the court of Alexander II.

Vol. ii., p. 84, 1. 24.—The Order of Reader.

The order of reader, though abolished by the General Assembly in 1645, was practically continued. In the Parish Register of Muthill, Perthshire, occurs the following entry: " 12th June 1654. The minister and elders, taking to their consideration the small allowance the reader has for his service, do unanimouslie ordaine that every adulterer and adulteress, fornicator and fornicatress shall each of them pay to him eight shillings.... The said day the reader is ordained to receive and keep the pledges consigned by persones to be contracted, and to be answerable for them." The reader at Muthill was also parochial schoolmaster and session-clerk.

Vol. ii., p. 87, 1. 2.—Church Vestments.

On the 1st of August 1560, the same day on which met that Convention of the Estates which established the Reformed faith, the Town Council of Edinburgh, in anticipation of the enactment, rave instructions that "the hale vestimenttis, kaipis, and uther kirk grayth . . . be sould and bestowit vpoun the said kirk wark."—Town Council Records of Edinburgh.

Vol. ii., p. 95, 1. 122.—Intercessory Prayer.

On the 30th April 1637, when much sickness prevailed in the parish of Tynninghain, "thirtie-three people were prayed for in the kirk."—Tynningham Parish Register.

Vol. ii., p. 110, 1. 27. —Church Seats.

In pre-Reformation times the clergy and gentry were at Divine service accommodated with sittings in the choir and chancel, which were paved with stone slabs, or glazed and coloured tiles. The common people were admitted only to the nave, which generally had an earthen floor, on which was strewn hay or straw, for convenience in kneeling. On the 19th of June 1560, about a year after the church of St Giles, at Edinburgh, had been appropriated for Protestant worship, the Town Council ordained the dean of guild to use the timber "lyand within the volt vnder the tolbuith, to mak saittis, fwrmes, and stullis for the peple to syt vpoun the tynie of the sermoun and prayaris within the kirk." He was also instructed "till do all vther thingis as sal be thocht bode for clecoring [of] the kirk." In the provincial towns and rural parishes, seats and desks were placed in churches by private families with permission of the kirksession. But such permission was not uniformly obtained, for in 1603 the kirksession of Stirling refused to allow the Commissary "to big ane removabill dark for his wyff, before that seat pertaining to my Lady Countess of Argyll." In 1627 the same kirksession licensed the construetion of one seat for the minister's wife. Up to this period nearly the whole of the church seats consisted of moveable benches and stools, which were ordinarily the property of those by whom they were used. The poor and occasional hearers were supplied with stools by the church officer, and the gratuities he received for granting the accommodation were included among the perquisites of his office. In 1637 the kirksession of Galston, in Ayrshire, resolved that "the whole dlaskes of the kirk be maid of one form, and all of one kind of timber, either of oaks or firs." In towns and populous places, there was usually "a common loft" with fixed pews, which were leased annually to the highest bidder. Pews were introduced about the commencement of the eighteenth century.

Vol. ii., pp. 121-5.—Sacramental Modes.

As a sequel to the narrative of Professor Walker, we are privileged to adduce the experience, of two other clerical writers. In his Memorabilia Donaestica, under the year 1789, Mr Donald Sage, minister of Resolis, writes thus:—"In the north of Scotland a distinction in the annual celebration of the Lord's Supper prevailed, which in the south was unknown. That distinction obtained between the public and private or parochial administration. The ordinance was considered to be publicly administered, when communicants from other parishes joined in the observance, and also when, on that account, there were two distinct services, one in Gaelic and the other in English, as well as two different congregations, the one without and the other within doors. . . . On these occasions it was customary for the minister to keep open table, as the services were prolonged, and many of the parishioners came from a distance. . . . The whole of the preceding week was occupied in giving and receiving presents of mutton, butter, and cheese. I have seen the whole range of a large cellar so closely occupied with mutton carcases, that the floor of the apartment was literally paved with them. . . . The sacramental occasions at Kildonan [Sutherlandshire] have made an impression upon ice. The congregation was assembled before the church and close by the banks of the river, the communion table extending about thirty feet long, covered with a white cloth, and surrounded by a dense multitude, amounting; in numbers to between three and four thousand."

In his "Reminiscences of Yarrow " (1886), Dr James Russell remarks that in the district of Ettrick, a compact was at hiring time entered into between masters and servants, that the latter were during their term of engagement to be allowed to attend so many fairs and so many sacraments. At the sacraments in Ettrick and Yarrow, baps of bread and barrels of aIe were planted round the churchyard enclosure for purchase and use. When a popular preacher mounted the rostrum, a rush was made to the tent, but when 'a wauf hand' turned up, the baps and barrels carried the day."

In the seventeenth, and also in the eighteenth centuries the communion table was, at the cost of the kirksession, made for the occasion. Consisting of large trees and deal boards rudely fashioned by the village joiner, all imperfections were concealed under the decent covering of a white cloth.—Edgar's "Old Church Life," pp. 137-8.

Vol. ii. p. 130, 1. 12.—Church Tokens.

Tokens, originally called "tickets," were usually made of lead, and not infrequently were of local manufacture. On the 29th June 1719, the kirksession of Dunning resolved that tokens were "all to be got new the old ones having been taken away, instead of money, by the highlanders, when the town was burnt in time of the rebellion. Further, that there be no fraud committed by any who may happen to find any of the old ones, the session thought requisite that the new ones should have stampt on them the letters D. K., also the date of the present year 1719." —Dunning Kirksession Records. When the first communion of the Secession Church at Ceres was celebrated in 1743, circular pieces of leather with a hole pierced in the centre, were used as tokens.—Edgar's "Old Church Life," p. 139.

Vol. ii., p. 133, 1. 3.—Non-celebration of the Communion.

In his valuable work, "Old Church Life in Scotland," Dr Edgar explains the cause why in the seventeenth century, the communion was for long intervals unobserved. The Protesters, Dr Edgar remarks, held the communion in such reverence that, so long as there was division of sentiment in their congregations on ecclesiastical topics, they stopped the celebration. At a meeting; of the six kirksessions of Edinburgh in April 1652, it was concluded that the communion "cannot convenientlie be celebrate, as is now thought, till there be a lawful judicatorie of the kirk to determine anent the present cause of defection carried on amongst us anent the Covenant, and what censure it deserves." The leader of the Protesting party was James Guthrie of Stirling, and in the kirksession register of his parish appears the following minute:—"November 5, 1657.—The eldership seriouslie and saddlie laying to heart the Lord's just displeasure which hath evidenced itselff in the congregation, being now for the space of nyne yeires without the enjoyment of that sealling ordinance, together with the earnest longing of many Christianes to partake thereof, and having great hopes that the manifestation of Chryst unto his people thairin sail tend much vnto the advancing of His interest in the hearts of His people, they do therefore unanimouslie appoynt and ordaine that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper be celebrate vpone the Lord's dayes, being the 15th and 22d of this instant November. Further, that they (the congregation) divide their families equallie, the one half of those that are found fitt to communicate to come the first, and the other half the second clay." Dr Edgar shows that the Resolutioners as well as the Protesters experienced some difficulty in regard to the celebration proceeding on the want of brotherly concord ; and impressed as they were with the conviction that so long as there were charges of defection on the one hand, and of contumacy on the other, the sacred ordinance might not be worthily observed. Nor were these views confined to the period of Covenanting struggles. For subsequent to the triumph of Presbytery at the Revolution, and the consequent healing of divisions, the members of the kirksession of Stirling felt called upon to pass the following resolution:—"29th March 1699.—The Session, considering that in this place the sacrament of the Lord's Supper hath not been administered these many years bygone, do design and determine, if the Lord will, that the day thereof be the twenty-eight day of May in the present year, being the last Sabbath thereof." In 1705 Mr John Hepburn, minister of Urr in Galloway, a man of deep religious fervour, was deposed from the ministry on the principal charge of "having neither dispensed the Lord's Supper to others nor partaken thereof himself for more than sixteen years."

Vol. ii., pp. 141-2.—Parish Manses.

In the specification of a manse for the parish of Dalmellington, submitted in 1699 to the Presbytery of Ayr, the intended structure is described as "threttie-six feet in lenth and fourteen feet wide within the walls, tbrettine feet high of side walls, two fire rooms below and two fire rooms above and cumsciled, with window cases and boards, glasses, partition walls, and all that is necessary to make a compleat manse, with a barn of three couple lenth, and a stable two couple lenth."

In describing the manse of Lochcarron, in Ross-shire, reared about the year 1726, Mr Donald Sage proceeds thus:—"The manse of Lochcarron was constructed after the fashion of all. Highland houses about the end of the seventeenth century. One hundred feet long, the walls were built of stone about three feet in height over the foundation, and around the roots of the cupples which were previously fixed in the ground, and over which were several layers of turf or fail, so as to bring the wall to the height of ten feet. The whole was thatched with divot or heather. The building was divided into several apartments—the first was called the chamber, where there was a chimney at one end, a small blazed window looking; to the south, and a tent bed inserted into the partition which divided it from the next room. In this apartment the heads of the fancily sat and took their meals; the bed in it was usually appropriated for guests. The next apartment contained tent beds close to each other for the junior members of the family, with an entry door by which access to the principal apartment was provided for the heads of the family to their own apartment as well as for their guests. From this second apartment, separate from the first, a back jamb went out, and which was the sleeping room of the heads of the family. Next came what was called the earn, or servants' hall (tigh slathat), which was larger, or rather longer, than the other two. It had a small boarded window on each side. The fireplace was usually an old mill-stone placed in the centre of the apartment, and on which the peat fire was kindled, with no other substitute for a vent than just a hole in the roof, fenced with a basket of wicker work open at both ends. Around the fire sat the servants of the family, and in the houses of farmers, also the heads of the family with their children.

Divided from the care, and often by a very slender partition, was the byre, or cow-house, occupying at least fifty feet of its length. Such was the first manse of Loclicarron. The manse of Kildonan, in Sutherlandshire, as it stood in 1780, is described by Mr Sage in these words :—" The body of the house, the unalterable model of manses in those days, which was that it had the usual number of chimneys, namely, one rising like an ass's ears at either end, and answering the purpose for which they were designed as ill as usual, as they drove the smoke down, instead of conveying it upward. It contained also the usual number of windows, viz., in front three in the upper flat, and two below, that is one on each side of the principal door. On the east gable there was in the upper flat a solitary window which looked out from the drawing-room, or rather dining-room, for drawing-rooms in manses were almost unknown, and then a small window at the summit of each ;able to light the garrets, very nearly approximating in size and appearance to the loopholes of the ancient fortress; these served, in the apartments for which they were intended, to make "darkness visible." The whole was built of lime and stone, and the roof covered with blue slate, a matter of little moment in these tunes of improvement, but of no ordinary consequence then, in a highland parish twenty-four miles long by seventeen broad, where it stood as the only human residence so constructed ; in other words, it was the only lime and stone slated house in the whole parish. The arrangements within exhibited the infancy of architecture. The partitions were made in the technical language of builders ` cat and clay' plastered over with lime, and finished with a coat of 'whitewash,' which was so made up as to be communicative to every one coming in contact with it. The rooms, including the garrets, were eight in number, namely, a parlour and bedroom, and an intervening closet, with a small window to the north on the lower flat. A dining-room, bedroom, and an intervening back closet of similar dimensions with its neighbour below, but accommodated with a larger window, on the second flat; also two garrets on the attic storey, the one fitted up as a bedroom, the other a long dreary apartment without plaster, and used as a place for lumber. Two low buildings stretched out in front from each end of the manse ; that to the west contained the nursery, the kitchen, and the byre, divided from each other by ' cat and clay' partitions, which very soon gave way, and brought the human and bestial inmates of each apartment within eye shot of each other. The east wing contained the barn and stable, divided by the same sort of partitions. From the barn door to the east extended a small rude enclosure intended as a corn yard, and from the stable door in the same direction another, as a cattle fold. A few yards to the north-east of the corn yard stood a flimsy clay and stone building, fitted up as a kiln. The whole of the office houses were roofed with divot and With clay and straw, which in process of time, and by the action of the weather, so far as the winds permitted, got an additional coat of green fob, but the heavy rains penetrated these miserable roofs from the first moment of their construction to the last stage of their decay."-Memorabilia Domestica, 1694-1819, vol. i., pp. 32-3, 188-9.

Vol. ii., p. 145, 1. 3.—Pre-Reformation Patronage.

Pre-Reformation patrons did not always insist on supplying vacant cures irrespective of popular sentiment. By Dr William Fraser, in his "Chiefs of Grant," are related the circumstances which attended the election of a clerk in the parish of Duthil, in Morayshire. On the 13th January 1547, the parishioners assembled in the church, when Mr Andrew Grant, an applicant for the vacant clerkship, appeared before them to solicit their votes. having received a unanimous support, Mr Andrew ascended the altar step, and there, while high mass was celebrated, he, in a loud voice, requested the parishioners who consented to his election, to stand up. Upon this, reports the notary who has recorded the proceedings, every one in the church rose, and with one voice exclaimed, "We choose Mr Andrew Grant to be our parish clerk of Duthil, and no other, unless we are compelled to the contrary by James, laird of Grant; and if we should be so compelled by the said James to elect another, we will that last election to be null and void to any one accepting it, inasmuch as it could not be called an election, but compulsion." Then follows the formal sanction given by the Dean of Moray to the election, the parishioners being admonished by him, "under pain of excommunication, to pay the dues and rights of the clerkship to Mr Andrew Grant, and to no other."

Vol. ii., p. 146, 1. 12.—Institution under Episcopacy.

In the Kirksession Register of Tillicoultry, appears the following entry:—"17th May 1676. On the whilk day preached Mr Robert Kirk, minister at Balquhidder. . . . Sermon being ended, the said Mr Robert Kirk, in obedience to the Bishop's appointment, and conform to Sir John Nicolson's presentation, together with collation granted thereupon by the said James, Bishop of Dunblane, he did proceed and actually give institution and admission to MIr Alexander Keith to be minister of the fore-said kirk of Tillicultrie, whereupon he delivered to hint the Pible, and took him by the hand, and likewise all the rest of the brethren then present; as also the said Sir John and Mr David Craigengelt, and John Sharp. As also he delivered to him the beltoul [bell-rope], the keys of the kirk, and the keys of the manse, and delivered to him earth and stane of the glybe of Tillicoultrie, whereupon the said Mr Alexander Kirk took instruments."

Vol. ii., pp. 147-155.—The Secession Church.

Our friend the Rev. Walter Macleod has sent us the following note:—"The Secession took place in 1733 on the "rounds stated in the 'Testimony' published soon afterwards. In 1747, when the Associates' had increased so as to form a Synod, a division took place on the question of the Burgess oath, which engaged the jurants to uphold the religion presently professed in the land. The members of the Secession who held that the oath might be taken by then were styled the Burghers, while those who deemed the acceptance of the oath inconsistent with their profession were known as Anti-Burghers. Each of these societies became further subdivided into the Old and New Light Burghers and AntiBurghers—this change occurring with the former in 1799, and with the latter in 180G. The Old Light party included Dr Thomas M'Crie, author of the Life of Knox, who with three other ministers organised the Constitutional Presbytery. The 'New Lights' of both parties became one in 1820 as the United Secession Church, and this body, by union with the Relief Church in 1847, formed the United Presbyterian Church. The majority of the Old Light Burghers returned to the Establishment in 1839 and the residue, joining a majority of the Anti-Burghers in 1842, formed the United Original Secession, the greater part of whom joined the Free Church in 1852. The conservative portion of the Anti-Burghers, who protested against the union of 1842, still continue under the designation of Original Seceders."

Vol. ii., pp. 157-8.—"The Men."

Referring to a muttering or conversational whisper, habitual during divine service, among the elders who, in Sutherland parishes, sat together in the lettron, or elders' seat (so called from the reading or precentor's desk, which usually stood in it), Mr Donald Sate, minister of Resolis, writes:--" The conversation was directly the reverse of anything bordering upon levity. Their low whispering conversation was nothing else than the impression made upon their own minds by the truths they were hearing. It must be admitted, however, that they very probably had a particular motive in making themselves so conspicuous. The principle on which elders in a highland parish in those days invariably were elected, was, that they should be not only the most advanced in years, but the most eminent Christians in the parish. To sustain the character of the office, and to act on the principle of their appointment to it by the tacit suffrages of the people, must be allowed, reasonably enough, to account for the rather ostentatious display which they made before their fellow parishioners of their attention to the sermon." —Memorabilia Domestica, Vol. i. p. 314.

Vol. ii., p. 158, 1. 8.—Clerical Magistrates.

While, as stated in the test, there existed in the northern counties, more especially in that of Caithness, a body of laymen, who in a measure usurped the functions of the clergy, the latter were not infrequently entrusted with duties considerably apart from those which strictly pertained to the sacred office. In his Memorabilia Dotnestica (h. 113), Air Sage remarks that the hev. Alexander Pope, minister of Peay, in Caithness (1734-178), was commissioned by the Sheriff to magisterially enforce order in his parochial district, and this by personal exertion he thoroughly effected. A short thick cudgel, which he bore with him in his walks, and frequently exercised upon the unruly, was among .ir Pope's parishioners known as " the bailie." Mr John Anderson, minister of Bellie or Fochabers (1809-1819) field office as factor to the Duke of Gordon, and was also commissioned as a Justice of the Peace. Hence the rhyme:—

Maister John Anderson,
Factor to his grace;
Minister of Fochabers,
And Justice of the Peace."

The plurality of offices exercised by Mr Anderson was obnoxious to his brethren of the Presbytery of Strathbogie, and their disapproval was, on the 27th May 1819, affirmed by the General Assembly. In their judgment proceeding on an appeal, the Assembly field that "engaging in secular employments was inconsistent with the full and faithful discharge of the spiritual function." In consequence of the Assembly's deliverance Mr Anderson resigned his parochial cure.

Vol. ii., p. 165, 1. 1,—Annual Election of Elders.

In the year 1615 was held at Fossoway "the annual election of elders," Mr Lawrence Mercer being the incumbent.—Kirksession Register.

Vol. ii., p. 165, 1. 8.—"Antediluvian Elders."

In south-western districts at the close of the seventeenth and the commencement of the eighteenth centuries, certain elders are in the kirksession registers described as "antediluvian." The term, in its ecclesiastical relation, is explained by Wodrow as signifying that the office-bearers so designated "had seen the glory of the former temple, and were ordained before the Restoration." Ministers who belonged to the pre-Restoration period were also occasionally designated "antediluvian."

Vol. ii., pp. 166-7.—The Jaggs or Jougs.

In the kirksession register of Tynningham appears the following entry:— "On the 15th October 1615, Maister John [Lauder] regrating that there was sae many railers in the toun especiallie women, and that they troublit the session sae aft, earnestlie desyrit that the civil magistrat wad concur in punish-in, of them, and that jogis micht be maid at the kirk door, wherein the delinquents micht be put." At Alva in Stirlingshire, the punishment of the Jaggs was rigorously enforced. In the parish register is the following entry:—"May 29, 1681. The Session appointed the clerk to make record that as sentenced, John lire had at the second bell entered the Jaggs, and stood there all the time bareheaded till the third bell was rung in, and that then he came into the church, and sate on the white furme before the pulpitt, and that after Divine service in the forenoon immediately before pronouncing the blessing, being called upon publickly by the minister, he expressed sorrow and grief for his sin. He was," proceeds the minute, "adjudged to give appearance the next Lord's-day, in the same manner he had done this." Ure's offence was that he had said to a neighbour he would slay hint " but for the fear of man rather than the fear of God."

At Fenwick, in Ayrshire, the jaggs remain attached to the church wall, about five feet from the ground; and in the Kirk-session Register of that parish, there are recorded cases of culprits being sentenced to "stand in the jougs from eight till ten, and thence to go to the place of repentance within the kirk."

Vol. ii. pp. 193-4.--Travelling Modes.

Early in the eighteenth century ministers expatiated upon one text or thecae for six or eight consecutive Sundays. Barrenness of doctrine was ascribed to those preachers who exhausted a text readily. On the 30th April 1704, Mr Mungo Lindsay, minister of Sorn, commenced a series of discourses on the second part of the 19th Psalm, and upon these eight verses he discoursed for one year and seven months. One of the questions put at Presbyterial visitations was, whether the portion of Scripture preached on that day by the minister was his ordinary text any time before, and the expected and approved answer was, "Yes." Complaining to the Presbytery of Ayr of their minister, Mr John Hanna, the parishioners of Craigie, in 1707, set forth among other imperfections in his conducting the public services, that "he doth often change his text, and cloth not raise many heads, and doth not present such as he names, but scruffs them."—Dr Edgar's Old Church Life, pp. 81-99.

Vol. ii., p. 195.—Examination of Elders.

On the second Sunday of June 1651, the elders of Tilliecultry made their annual "tryel of ther life and conversation and fidelitie." Their minute proceeds—"Andrew Blair was thocht to be remisse and slack in his office, and is desyrit to be adnionished for this tyme." Of William Drysdali, it is alleged that he " was thocht remisse in his office, and given somewhat to banning;" he was therefore "admonished bravelie." As to their brother, Robert lire, the members held that he was much to be blamed for slackness in his calling," also that he was "too frequent in the brewster hous; "he was consequently adjudged to be "gravelie admonished in face of the Session."—Tillicoultry kirksession Register.

Vol. ii., p. 111, 1. 12 ; p. 160, 1. 12; p. 209, 1. 8.—Sunday Fairs.

The Church Fairs, derived from the latin "feria," signifying a festival, took origin in the necessity for providing refreshment to those who assembled from great distances to engage in public worship. Though the practice of Sunday marketing, into which the congregational "fair" ultimately degenerated, was condemned by Parliamentary statute, both before and after the Reformation, it was long resolutely persisted in. In reference to the existence of the practice at a modern period, Nye have in the "Memoirs of Robert Haldane of Airthrey," Lond. 1852, pp. 7, 8, the following narrative:—"Mungo Haldane [of Gleneagles] was successively M.P. for the counties of Perth and Stirling, and died in 1757 at the age of seventy-three, unmarried. He was well remembered by a tenant of the Gleneagles estate, who lived to be more than a hundred years old, and was known to many of the present generation. lie used to tell how the laird put an end to Sunday trading in the neighbourhood by means not very consonant with the modern voluntary principle. It seems that Sunday trafficking was then prevalent in Scotland, in consequence of the packmen or itinerant hawkers bringing their goods for sale to the church doors on the Lord's day. As chief magistrate in the neighbourhood, the Baron of Gleneagles issued an order prohibiting the practice. On the following Sunday he did not happen himself to go to Blackford Church, but meeting his servants returning, he inquired whether the packmen had obeyed his mandate. Being informed that they had not, the old tenant used to tell with great emphasis, bow `the laird clapped his hand on his sword,' and declared that if he lived over another Sabbath, he would make the packmen repent of their perverseness. Accordingly, on the following Sunday, he himself went to the church, and finding the packmen assembled as usual and spreading out their goods for sale, he drew out his sword and scattered them in an instant. Having pursued them down the hill, as they fled in trepidation before the irate and portly Baron, he returned to the church gates and tossed their wares into the adjoining lake. This exercise of a rigour beyond the law,' which in those days was not very nicely weighed, had the desired effect, and Sunday trading has never been again attempted near Gleneagles from that day to the present." Nearly three centuries after the dilapidation of the structure, the site of Cambuskenneth Abbey, near Stirling, continued to be used as a place of Sunday marketing. In August 184S, a vigorous effort for the suppression of the practice was set on foot by Mr Peter Drummond, an energetic burgess of Stirling, who by means of printed tracts on Sunday observance, induced purchasers to withdraw.

Vol. ii., pp. 213-17.—Church Attendance.

The Kirksession of Alva, in a minute dated the 13th November 1665, and denoted on the margin, "a hint to the laird," gave the following instruction: "William Mitchel to desire his honour to be more early at the church on the Sabbath, because of the shortness of the day." Not improbably Sir James Erskine, who then possessed the barony of Alva, inclined to believe that there was some excuse for escaping the early part of a religious service which in a short November clay extended probably from eleven o'clock till late in the afternoon.

On the 16th October 1693, Mr Robert Gourlaw, minister of Tillicoultry, in the prospect of being "a moneth away by appointment of the Synod, requested the elders to notice that the people attend the ordinances in the neighbouring congregations till his return."—Tillicoultry Kirksession Register.

Vol. ii., pp. 220-222. —Punishment of church Sleepers.

The Kirksession of Dundonald in 1642 determined that "no women be suffered to sit in the time of sommer with plyds upon their heids," since "it is a cleuck to their sleiping in tyme of sermon." The Kirksession of Monifieth in 1643 took the decisive but strangely irreverent course of handing to "the bodall 5s. to buy one pynt of tar to put upon the women that held the plaid above their heals in the church."

Vol. ii., pp. 40-24S.—Secular Authority of Church Courts.

Kirksessions exercised authority in demanding the exile of those who had settled within the bounds of their jurisdiction without producing proper attestations. Thus, on the 28th April 1698, the Kirksession of Tillicoultry, on being informed that a man had come to the parish from Blackford without a certificate, instructed their officer to cause him to procure written evidence of respectability, under the pain of his being proceeded against before the civil magistrate in order to his removal.—(Tillicoultry Kirk-session Register). Even the celebrated robber chief, Rob Roy Macgregor, when in the year 1691 arraigned by the Kirksession of Balquhidder for certain social irregularities, did not venture to decline the sessional jurisdiction. Macgregor was charged along with "Janet Dow Macgregor, his servant in Crigans," also with a daughter of Donald Roy Ferguson in Balquidder."—(Kirksession Register of Balquhidder). James Alexander, tenant at Milnab, Perthshire, charged with committing a social offence within the bounds of the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, granted to that Presbytery, on the 20th September 1711, a legal bond, whereby under a penalty of two hundred pounds Scots, he became bound "to present and silt himself personallie before the Presbytery during the heall steps and dependence of process against him."—(General Register of Deeds, Mackenzie Office, vol. 109, December 10, 1711).

In his "Memorabilia Domestica," Mr Sage relates the particulars of a case of compulsory discipline of a most singular character. We present the narrative in his own words:—"The Rev. Alexander Pope, minister of Reay [from 1734 to 1782], was a man of very extraordinary strength of body and vigour of mind, and of deep and fervent piety. . . . He chose as his elders not only the most decent and orderly, but also the strongest men in the parish, the latter qualification being particularly necessary for the work they had often to do. A coarse fellow, a farmer, kept his mistress. Pointing out to hire the sinfulness of his conduct, Mr Pope called upon him to make a public profession of his repentance by appearing before the congregation to be publicly reproved. Flying into a passion, the fellow exclaimed, ' Before I submit to any such thing you may pluck the last tooth out of my head.' 'We shall see,' replied, the minister. . . . When the Session next met it was agreed that three of the strongest of their number should repair to the fellow's house next Sabbath morning, pinion his arms, and bring him to the church. When the Sabbath came this was done. The elders reached the farmer's house about ten, and after a fierce combat mastered him, and having bound him with a rope, marched him to church. When they arrived, one of the elders went to the minister to report what had been done and to receive further instructions. ' Bind him to one of the seats before the pulpit,' said Mr Pope, 'and sit one of you on each side of him until the service is finished.' This order was obeyed. Before pronouncing the blessing, Mr Pope proceeded to reprove the offender. 'You told us,' he began, 'that we might pull the last tooth out of your head before you would submit to be where you are, but'—pointing his finger in scorn at him, and uttering one of his most contemptible sounds, with his breath between his lips, which can better be imagined than described, he added, 'Fire ,faire! ort' a' inboic curl! c'aite in' bell thu nip"—an idiomatic phrase of one language which cannot be translated into another, but which may be rendered, You poor braggart, where are you now l "—(Memorabilia Domestica, vol. i., pp. 116, 117). In a notice of the stalwart minister of Reay, Dr Hew Scott remarks that he used to drive his graceless parishioners to church with a stick, when he found them engaged on Sunday at games out of doors.—(Fasti Eccl. Scot., iii. 367), Sessional rebukes, administered by the moderator, usually extended to great length. In the parish of Dundonald, in Ayrshire, the minister's pulpit address to social offenders was popularly described as "the wee sermon," in contradistinction to the ordinary discourse. By a few of the clergy a more reasonable course was adopted. Thus Mr Thomas Edward, minister of Tynningham (1686-1695), is, in the Kirksession register of his parish, reported as rebuking persons under discipline in these simple words, "According to your repentance, so be it unto you."

Vol. ii., pp. 256-8.--The Last Wolf.

There is no wolf, or part of the animal, in the Macgregor arms. Nearly every district in Scotland puts forth a claim to be the place where "the last wolf" was slain. Not improbably the actual " last" was that killed by Macqueen of Pall-a-chrocain, who died in 1797. A man of great stature and of corresponding strength, Macqueen kept the best deer-hounds in the country. One day, in the winter of 1743, he received a message from the chief of clan Mackintosh, that a large wolf had on the preceding day killed two children, who, with their mothers, were crossing the hills from Calder. Macqueen was consequently invited by the chief to attend a "Tainchel," or gathering in the forest of Tarnaway, in Moray, and to bring with him his dogs. On the morning of the tryst, Mackintosh waited eagerly for Macqueen, but he only arrived at noon. As Mackintosh was about to complain of his delay, Macqueen raised his plaid, and drew from under his arm the bloody head of the aggressor. "I met the bit beastie," said Macqueen, "and this is his head." Mackintosh expressed his admiration, and rewarded his vigorous kinsman with the lands of Sean-a-char for "meat to his dogs."

Vol. ii., p. 292, 1. 25.—Chivalric Sports. The Round Table.

We have ascertained by an actual measurement of it, that the Round Table at Stirling is of precisely the same dimensions as that which was constructed at Windsor, and of the other "table" at Kenilworth.

Vol. ii., p. 315, 1. 26.—For "" Lochleven" read "Lochmaben."

Vol. ii., p. 394, 1. 26.—For "Chieswood" read " Chiefswood."

Vol. ii., p. 396, 1. 10.—For "time" read "wine."

Vol. iii., p. 103, 1. 12,—Simon, Lord Lovat.

In the public collections preserved in the General Register House are included several letters of the twelfth baron of Lovat. In these Simon appears not discreditably. To a letter which on the 14th March 1730 he addressed to George Crawford, the Historiographer, he attached the following postscript: "The Marquis of Annandale is dead at Venise, and left his estate to my Lady Hopetonn and disinherited his two brothers, so you may believe he is in hell—adieu."

The indignation with which Lovat so tersely expresses his abhorrence of an act of disinheriting is at a later period followed by personal beneficence. One of the magistrates of Inverness, Bailie John Stewart, to whom Simon was related by marriage, was under a monetary obligation to a brother of Macleod of Cadboll, who was through his agents adopting rigorous measures for the recovery of the debt. On behalf of his relative, Lovat pleaded with Cadboll in the following letter:-

"My DEAR LAIRD OF CADBOL,—I hope this letter will find you in perfect health, and I beg leave to assure you of my most sincere and most affectionate respects and best wishes.

"I had the honour to write to you two weeks ago about poor Mr Donald Fraser's unfortunate fate. But I hope he will soon be provided for in spite of B---n, &c. I now presume to solicite you upon as disagreable a subject. Honest Baillie Stewart of Inverness, with whom I lived in great friendship for many years, and who is married to my near relation, M`Leod of Drynach's daughter, has fallen low more by the misfortunes of the times than by his own fault or mismanagement. He is owing you a debt, and your doers have been very hard upon him; he was forced to fly his own house for fear of being put in prison by caption. When his friends represented to you his melancholy situation, you were so good as to take a presentation of him, having got Baillie M'lntosh of Inverness as cautioner, a sufficient man,—and when Baillie Stewart let you see that he had a good friend to pay you, and was fully resolved to do it, as soon as his papers came from the south, -which completed his right to the effects which lie was to dispose of for your payment, you were so very good as to take a second presentation. But his agent, William Fraser, being so negligent as not to send north his papers by the last post, he is threatn'd to be put in prison next week if lie does not pay the money, which he is no more able to do than to eat the Castle of Inverness. Now, my dear cousine, the favour that I ask of you is this, that you will prolong the presentation he lyes now under for three weeks or a month, since he expects his papers from his agent every post, and is very positive that in three weeks he will satisfie you; and to let you see that my request is not impertinent, which I would never be guilty of to my dear laird of Cadbol, if Baillie Stewart dos not satisfie you in a month's time, I will give my own security for that money payable at Whitsunday next, and my security for that sum is as (food as any of the banks. I therefore most humbly entreat my dear Cadbol that you may grant my earnest request, which will be an everlasting obligation put upon me and many an honest man besides, which I will not conceall from them if you grant it. I humbly beg, pardon for this freedom, and I hope that you believe that I am with unalterable attachment, sincere gratitude, and a singular respect, my dear laird of Cadbol, your most obedient and most obliged humble servant, and most affectionate cousine. " Lovat."

"BEAUFORD, 5th December 1741."

As Bailie Stewart had failed to satisfy the claim within the period agreed upon, and an enforcement was again menaced, Lovat renewed his intercession with Cadboll, accompanied by the offer of his personal security. Lovat's second letter, no less than the former, is most creditable both to his skill and his generosity. Dated from "Beaufort Castle, 8th January 1742," the missive proceeds thus

"MY DEAR LAIRD of CADBOL,—My friend Baillie John Stewart of Inverness tells me that his agent, William Fraser, Writter to the Signett, has by some unluckie accident faill'd to send him the decreet of mauls and dutys consequentiall on the adjudication he is to assign to you in security of the debt he owes your brother, about which I wrote you formerly. This gives my friend great uneasiness, especially that his day of presentation is on Monday, the 11th curt. But I am sure it's not his fault that this affair is not transacted as you desired ere now, as you will see by the enclosed letter to him from his agent, William Fraser (which return), and therefor I send you this expressly to entreat that once more you continue the presentation for one moneth longer, and send your orders to your agent at Inverness accordingly on the receipt of this. And if in that time he dos not transmit to you, or order the security you propose, and likeways pay the five pound sterling desired in cash, I will be bound for the debt in terms of my former letter to you on this subject ; if or I think it will be hard to distress an honest man who I am certain is willing to do all in his power for your security. Therefor I will expect your complyance, which will be an additional proof of the many obligations I owe you, for which I will have a gratefull resentment all my life.

"The Revolution in Russia, and the Revolution that is like to be in Swedeland, and the confusion we are in at home and abroad, do portend great troubles and changes in our island even this very year. I pray God may restore and preserve the liberties of Scotland, whatever alterations and events may happen in the other parts of the world. This should be the constant prayer of all honest men, and I am sure it shall always be mine.

"The Patriots have carried the two greatest questions that came yet before the House of Commons, which was the Chairman of the Committee of EIections, and the Westminster Election. I wish they may go on and prosper against the Administration, &c., for I have no reason to have a friendship for then, having used me like a scoundrell.

When the good weather comes on in the spring I design to pay my respects to you and to my other good friends in East Ross, if God spare me in health. I have been much pain'd these two moneths past, by severall small boills that I had in my legs above my ankles. But I bless God they are all now heall, and J. have not been better in health of body than since I came last north, these ten years by gone.

I beg leave to make you the compliments of the season, and to wish you many a happy new year in health and prosperity ; and I am, with a singular attachment and respect, my dear Laird of Cadbol, your most affectionate cousin, and most obedient and most obliged humble servant, "LOVAT."


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