288 Calm, gratify.
289 Apparel.
290 Condition.
291 Ere.
292 Slippers.
293 A quantity.
294 Mouthfuls.
295 Serve.
296 Cauls.
297 A warm at the fire.
298 Custom.
299 Jests.
300 Mask.
301 Above the rest.
302 Necklace.
303 Decorated with lace.
304 Stockings.
305 Throat.
306 Heaps.
307 Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 47.
308 Spottiswoode.
309 Grease.
310 MS. Hist. of Scotland, quoted by Pitcairn.
311 The tercel is the male hawk (Falco peregrinus), so called because one-third the size of the female.
312 Letters and Papers of the Reign of King James VI., p. 76.
313 Bankrupts.
314 Maitland’s History of Edinburgh.
315 Acts of Sederunt, p. 161.
316 The Privy Council in the previous April had passed an act, ‘that the haill marquisses and earls of this kingdom sall leave off their former resolution anent the wearing of velvet robes in time of parliament,’ and ‘that they sall provide themselves with robes of red scarlet cloth again the next session, &c.’—Maitland Club Misc., i. 147.
317 Letter of the three privy-councillors, in Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 84.
318 Melville’s Diary, p. 648.
319 These particulars are derived from a fragment of the deed entered into by the gentlemen for payment of the money.
320 Letters, &c., of the Reign of James VI.
321 Ibid., p. 89.
322 Geneal. Deduction of Fam. of Rose of Kilravock, Spald. Club, p. 249.
323 Letter in James Melville’s Diary, Wodrow Club ed., p. 671.
324 Melville’s Diary, p. 688.
325 Pitcairn. Lives of the Lyndsays. Lands of the Lyndsays.
326 See depositions of witnesses, &c., in Pitcairn, iii. 47.
327 28th April 1608. ‘Forsameikle as the Lords of Secret Council are informit that there is ane horse-race appointit to be at Peblis the ... day of May nextocome, whereunto grit numbers of people of all qualities and ranks, intends to repair, betwixt whom there being quarrels, private grudges, and miscontentment, it is to be feirit that at their meeting upon fields, some troubles and inconvenients sall fall out amangs them, to the break of his Majesty’s peace and disquieting of the country without remeed be providit; Therefore the Lords of Secret Council has dischargit, and be the tenor hereof discharges, the said horse-race, and ordains that the same sall be nawise halden nor keepit this year; for whilk purpose ordains letters to be direct, to command, charge, and inhibit all and sundry his Majesty’s lieges and subjects by open proclamation at the mercat-cross of Peblis and other places needful, that nane of them presume nor tak upon them to convene and assemble themselves to the said race this present year, but to suffer that meeting and action to depart and cease, as they and ilk ane of them will answer upon the contrary at their heichest peril,’ &c.
328 This was probably at the place called Silver Mills, on the Water of Leith; now involved in the suburbs of Edinburgh.
329 Atkinson’s Discoverie of Gold Mynes in Scotland (Bann. Club), 1825. Chron. Kings of Scotland.
330 Napier’s Life of John Napier.
331 Literally, the separation; in larger sense, the restoration of order.
332 The fishing of salmon in the river Dee on Sunday was a custom of some antiquity, as it had been expressly warranted by a bull of Pope Nicolas V. in 1451. The privilege was limited to the Sundays of those five months of the year in which salmon most abound; and the first salmon taken each Sunday was to belong to the parish church. The bull recites that both by the canon and the common law, the right of prosecuting the herring-fishing on Sunday was conceded to all the faithful.—Reg. Epis. Aber. (Spalding Club).
333 Earl of Haddington’s Notes, quoted by Pitcairn, iii. 597. It may be worthy of remark, that no notice of such shocking transactions occurs in the Privy Council Record at this time.
334 Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI.
335 Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 56.
336 Mait. Club Misc., i. 158.
337 See under June 1590.
338 Osborne’s Traditional Memoirs—Secret Hist. Court James I. Vol. i., p. 219.
339 Printed in full in Ritson’s Country Chorister.
340 A large collection of documents illustrative of this case will be found in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, iii. 124-199. The story has been made the subject of a play, under the name of the Ayrshire Tragedy, by Sir Walter Scott.
341 The superior men of a Highland clan were called the duniwassals.
342 Hive.
343 Notes to Border Minstrelsy, i. clxxvi.
344 Melrose State Papers.
345 Spal. Club Misc., ii. 396. For something more regarding Robin Abroch, see under October 26, 1624.
346 Privy Council Record.
347 Von Buch’s Travels through Norway.
348 Denmylne MSS., apud Pitcairn, iii. 52.
349 This narrative, as well as the letters of challenge, is printed entire in the Guardian, Nos. 129 and 133.
350 In March 1615, James Stewart is once more, and very solemnly, condemned by the Privy Council to exile, in consequence of fresh offences of the same kind.
351 From a paper in Balfour’s MSS., printed in Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. iii.
352 Some Observations of Mr John Livingstone, MS. Adv. Lib. ‘It appears from the council registers of Aberdeen, that the corporation voluntarily gave a thousand merks for the support of M‘Birnie’s widow and children.’—Notes to Coll. Hist. Aber. and Banff, Spal. Club.
353 Sting is a Scotch word for a pole, and the phrase sting and ling is believed to express simply the method of carrying practised by draymen.
354 This unheard-of snow-fall was equally notable in the south. When the thaw came, it caused an unexampled flood in the Ouse of Yorkshire, which lasted ten days, carrying away a great number of bridges. ‘After this storm followed such fair and dry weather, that in April the ground was as dusty as in any time of summer. The drought continued till the 20th of August, and made such a scarcity of hay, beans, and barley, that the former was sold at York for 30s. and 40s. a wainload.’—History of York, 1785, i. 256.
355 Letters and Papers of the Reign of James VI., pp. 243, 317. Balfour’s Annals, ii. 58.
356 Catholic historians note the martyrdom of one of their faith, which took place amidst the more immediate tumults of the Reformation. His name was Black, and he is described as a Dominican monk of Aberdeen, respectable both for piety and learning. Being taken to Edinburgh to dispute with Willox and other apostles of the Reformation, the populace cut short the argument by stoning him to death on the streets, January 7, 1562.—Dempster. D. Camerarius.
357 True Relation of the Proceedings against John Ogilvie, 1615: reprinted in Pitcairn.
358 See the entire form of abjuration in Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen. Spalding Club. 1846.
359 This term is usually applied to an insinuating, wheedling fellow of swindling propensities.
360 See papers on these subjects in Spottiswoode Miscellany, vols. i. and ii.
361 Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI., p. 293.
362 The suburb called Portsburgh was under the jurisdiction of Tours, Laird of Inverleith.
363 See documents in Maitland Club Misc., ii. 26.
364 Sharp-pointed staves.
365 ‘Who thereafter wrote himself Sir John Hay of Landes, knight, one altogether corrupt, full of wickedness and villainy, and a sworn enemy to the peace of his country.’—Sir James Balfour’s Annals.
366 Translated from Johnston’s Historia Rerum Britannicarum, apud Secret Hist. of Court of Ja. I., ii. 30.
367 Chronicle of Perth.
368 Johnston’s Hist. Rer. Brit., p. 619.
369 See Muses’ Welcome.
370 Johnston’s Hist. Rer. Brit., p. 519. Calderwood.
371 We can here see the original of Scott’s exquisite picture of Caleb Balderstone endeavouring to convince a messenger that cold water was better for his stomach in the morning than ale or brandy.
372 The organ was no new instrument at Holyrood. There is an entry in the lord-treasurer’s book, under February 8, 1557-8, of £36 ‘to David Melville, indweller in Leith, for ane pair of organs to the Chapel in the Palace of Holyroodhouse.’
373 See the satire and answer in Abbotsford Miscellany, i. 297.
374 Ferly is the Scotch for wonder.
375 Shewed.
376 Abridged from the Muses’ Welcome.
377 The above is a traditional story related in Forsyth’s Beauties of Scotland.
378 Printed in the Scots Magazine, January 1806, from a MS. volume of excerpts of the Edinburgh city records in the Advocates’ Library.
379 This Colonel Gray, who is stated to have been a rank papist, embarked at Leith, about the end of May 1620, with a party of fifteen hundred men for the service of the king of Bohemia.—Cal.
380 Act of Secret Council, quoted in Blackwood’s Magazine, i. 498.
381 See the case of Margaret Barclay at greater length in Scott’s Demonology, p. 307.
382 Fleming’s MS., Adv. Lib., quoted in Pitcairn, iii. 443.
383 Survey of Moray., p. 208.
384 Now called Castle-Grant.
385 Works of John Taylor, the Water-poet. London, folio, 1630.
386 See Drummond’s Works, folio, Edinburgh, 1711, p. 234.
387 Gifford’s edition of Jonson’s Works. London, 1816, vol. I., p. cccxxxii.
388 He seems to have been the same with Macdonald of Keppoch.
389 Johnstoni Hist., p. 529.
390 Scot’s Stag. State of Scots Statesmen.
391 Earnest-money is arles in Scotland.
392 See under December 17, 1596.
393 Maitland Miscellany, p. 195.
394 Father Anderson was afterwards the author of a book entitled The Ground of the Catholique and Roman Religion, 1623, 4to.
395 Lives of the Saints, i. 358.
396 Succinct Survey of Aberdeen, 1685.
397 New Stat. Acc. of Scotland—Aberdeenshire, passim. Beauties of Scotland, iv. 199.
398 Letters of Reign of James VI. Pitcairn.
399 Adamson’s Notes to Sibbald’s Hist. Fife.
400 See under July 28, 1612.
401 A fixed bar of iron, with fetters attached by movable rings.
402 Session Register of Perth.
403 Chronicle of Perth, 23.
404 Calderwood.
405 Philip, second son of the Landgrave of Hesse, came to the English court April 6, 1622, on a negotiation from his father.—Nichols’s Progresses of King James I., iii. 759, 763.
406 Gregory’s History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland, 1836, p. 405.
407 Archæologia Scotica, i. 43.
408 Virtues of the Indian Perfume Tobacco, 1667. An. Scot., i. 82.
409 See under October 1590.
410 Stones supposed to possess medicinal virtues were then not uncommon.
411 Miscellanies, p. 39.
412 Calderwood.
413 See under March 30, 1620.
414 Life of John Livingstone, Glasgow, 1754, p. 89.
415 Letters of Reign of James VI., p. 368.
416 See the undated letter of Gordon, Analecta Scot. ii. 386. Patrick Gordon was the person who had acted for the king in prosecuting poor Stercovius to the gallows for a satire on the Scottish nation. See pp. 448, 449.
417 Mait. Club Misc., iii. 344.
418 ‘Wha had brought money with the infection from Danskein.’—Chron. Perth.
419 Extract from Privy Council Record, Edin. Mag., Oct. 1817.
420 Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, p. 268.
421 Archæologia Scotica, ii. 111.