Chapter VI: Part 6

We give here an extract from the "Memoirs" of Elliott. He says:--"As the marriage ceremony performed by me and my predecessors may be interesting to many of my readers, I give it verbatim: The parties are first asked their names and places of abode; they are then asked to stand up, and inquired of if they are both single persons; if the answer be in the affirmative, the ceremony proceeds. Each is next asked, 'Did you come here of your own free will and accord?' Upon receiving an affirmative answer, the priest commences filling in the printed form of the certificate. The man is then asked, 'Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, forsaking all others, and keep to her as long as you both shall live?' He answers, 'I will.' The woman is asked the same question, when, being answered the same, the woman then produces a ring, which she gives to the man, who hands it to the priest; the priest then returns it to the man, and orders him to put it on the fourth finger of the woman's left hand, repeating these words, 'With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, with all my goods I thee endow, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.' They then take hold of each other's right hand, and the woman says, 'What God joins together let no man put asunder.' Then the priest says, 'Forasmuch as this man and this woman have come together by giving and receiving a ring, I therefore declare them to be man and wife before God and these witnesses, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.'"

The following are among the memorable matches effected through the agency of Robert Elliott, and recorded in his Memoirs:--

1812.--Rev. Wm. Freemantle, an English clergyman. C. Ewen Law, son of Lord Ellenborough, to Miss Nightingale.

1815.--A "droll gaberlunzie without legs or arms, to a comely damsel, both appearing anxious for the ceremony," to the disgust of the not too fastidious parson himself.

1816.--Lord Chief Justice Erskine. Within a year, however, his lordship unsuccessfully tried to loosen his matrimonial chains by a divorce by the Scottish law.

1826.--E. Gibbon Wakefield, with Miss Turner. Of the trial which ensued upon this union we give particulars below.

During the latter part of Elliott's "ministration" competition in the marrying business became brisk, and he had numerous rivals, the most powerful of these candidates for clerical emolument being another son of Mars, named David Laing. The competition became so pronounced that the rival parsons canvassed for the assistance and co-operation of the postillions, who, commencing by receiving a commission per runaway pair, at last ended by working upon a system of equal shares with their priestly co-partners.

In 1827, at the Kent Assizes, a Gretna Green marriage was the subject of a curious trial before Mr Baron Hullock. The action was taken against one Mrs Wakefield and her two sons, for conspiring "to take away by subtle stratagems" a young lady named Turner, who had not yet left school. The David Laing above mentioned was called as a witness on behalf of the defendants, and he affirmed that the couple were married lawfully according to the Scottish fashion--namely, by putting on the lady's finger a ring. The witness said he was seventy-five years old, and had spent more than half of his life in the performance of marriages. In cross-examination by Mr Brougham, he admitted obtaining L30 for this particular ceremony, or even L50, but could not remember exactly, "being somewhat hard of hearing." The accused was found guilty of causing this young lady to "contract matrimony without the consent of her father, and to the great disparagement of the King's peace." The chief prisoner, E. Gibbon Wakefield, was convicted of abduction, and the marriage, which excited considerable public attention, was afterwards rendered invalid, and annulled by an Act of Parliament specially obtained. After this flagrant case Gretna Green marriages fell into disrepute, and the business showed a steady decline, though cases of the employment of pseudo-parsons are on much later record. In 1853, a person named Thomas Blythe, a witness before the Court of Probate at Westminster, stated that he lived at Springfield, Gretna Green, and that he obtained his livelihood by means of agriculture, but that he not unfrequently took advantage of opportunities to increase his income by small strokes of business in the "joining" line. Again, the demise of another "joiner" was announced so late as 1872, when the obituary of Simon Laing appeared in the _Glasgow Herald_. It is probable, however, that the pursuit of his "clerical" profession ceased long before the date of his death, for, in 1856, the old law by which the mere verbal declaration of consent before witnesses was sufficient to constitute a Scottish legal marriage became effete through the passing of the Act of Parliament, 19 and 20 Victoria, cap. 96. By this Act the laws of Scotland and England were brought into assimilation, and in that year the occupation of the northern hedge-parsons was virtually gone.

It may be said such marriages as those we have described were considered as clandestine and ill-advised in Scotland, as in more southern parts, the Church of Scotland doing all that lay in its power to discourage and prevent them. The only punishment, however, which it had for transgressors being excommunication, the restraint by the Kirk was very slight, its injunctions and fulminary condemnations being treated with contempt.

Probably the best known of the notable marriages which have taken place at Gretna is that of the Earl of Westmoreland with the daughter of Child, the banker, whose counting-house was at the sign of the Marygold, in the Strand. The romantic but determined couple had the advantage of an early start, one starlight night in May, but the pursuit was not less hot than the departure had been well arranged, and when within a few miles of the Border the coach was nearly overtaken by Mr Child's carriage. The Earl, however, not to be baulked when so near the end of the journey, shot down one of the pursuing horses, while one of the servants cut the carriage straps behind. The crown of firs which mark Gretna from the surrounding country came quickly into view, the bridge was crossed, and the village was reached by the reckless couple. A parson was found, and quickly the Earl and Miss Child were made one. Within a year Mr Child died, it is said, of the mortification and disappointment connected with this affair. The elder daughter of the match, Lady Sophia Fane, afterwards married Lord Jersey, and inherited his immense fortune, including Child's Bank at Temple Bar.

Death and Burial Customs and Superstitions.

Among the many pagan beliefs and observances which were adhered to during many centuries of Christian creed and worship, and some of which have survived among the less enlightened even to the present day, a large place is held by those connected with death and burial. In Scotland, many trivial things were regarded as omens of death. In the northern Highlands, an itching of the nose was believed to prognosticate the death of a neighbour. In the southern parts, a humming in the ear was held to prelude the death of a relative. The crowing of a cock at an unusual hour was regarded as a token of the death of some person in the parish. In the Lowlands, the howling of a strange dog was accepted as a warning of the approaching death of some inmate of the house near which the melancholy wail was raised. The "death candle," as the phosphoric light sometimes seen flickering over burial-grounds was called, was similarly regarded in the Hebrides.

In some parts of the Highlands it is still believed that the last moments of a dying person are prolonged by the door of the death-chamber being closed. It is usual, therefore, for it to be left ajar, so that there may be room for the departing spirit to take its flight, and yet the intrusion of any evil thing be prevented. When a death occurred, the clock was stopped, and its face covered, as were all the mirrors in the house. A bell was laid under the head of the corpse, and a vessel containing earth and salt placed upon the breast.

From the moment of death until the departure of the funeral procession to the place of burial, the corpse was watched night and day by parties of friends and neighbours, who relieved each other. Silence was observed, but this did not prevent the consumption of much ale and whisky. Among the poorer classes the interment took place soon after death, in order to lessen the cost of watching, but the well-to-do deferred the funeral for at least a week, and sometimes a fortnight, in order that the hospitality of the house might be more extensively offered and enjoyed. Among these a feast was given on the evening preceding the funeral.

There were many superstitious beliefs and customs connected with funerals. As in England, the proverb was accepted that "happy is the corpse that the rain falls on." If the funeral party, on the way to the burial-ground, walked in a straggling manner, it was regarded as an omen that another death would soon occur under the same roof. In the Hebrides, if one of the party stumbled and fell, the incident was held to indicate that he would be the next to die.

In the last century, there was a lamentable amount of ale and whisky drinking before and after funerals. The company began to assemble two hours before the time appointed for the corpse to be carried from the house. If the deceased was a farmer, each of the guests was offered a glass of whisky at the gate of the farm-yard, and another on crossing the threshold. On entering the guest-room, a portion of shortbread and another glass of whisky were handed to him, a reverential silence being observed for a time, after which conversation was carried on in whispers. When all the guests were assembled, the minister commenced a religious service, which lasted about three-quarters of an hour. This was followed by the handing round of oatcake, cheese, and whisky, and afterwards shortbread and more whisky. Then the coffin was carried out, and followed to the grave by all those who were sufficiently sober to walk straight.

Religious ceremonies at burials have never found favour in the Church of Scotland. They were discouraged both by the First Book of Discipline and the Westminster Directory, the compilers of the former saying, "for avoiding all inconveniences, we judge it best that neither singing nor reading be at the burial,... yea, without all kind of ceremony heretofore used, other than that the dead be committed to the grave with such gravity and sobriety as those that be present may seem to fear the judgment of God, and to hate sin, which is the cause of death." The Westminster Directory deals with the matter in much the same way, the Assembly maintaining that the burial of the dead is not a part of the work of the ministry, as baptisms and marriages are.

It appears to have been customary in the early centuries of the Church in Scotland, to bury the dead uncoffined; and this custom prevailed among the poor for some time after the Reformation. It lingered in rural districts longer than in towns, and in some later than in others; but the Kirk Session records of some parishes refer to the provision of coffins for the interment of persons who were practically paupers in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. As to the mode of burial before the use of coffins became general, the General Assembly ordained, in 1563, "that a bier should be made in every country parish, to carry the dead corpse of the poor to the burial-place, and that those of the villages or houses next adjacent to the house where the dead corpse lieth, or a certain number out of every house, shall convey the dead corpse to the burial-place, and bury it six feet under the earth."

The biers appear to have been of more than one kind. Some of them were mere rails upon which the corpse was laid, covered only with a pall, called in Scotland a mort-cloth. Others were wooden boxes, with the lid on one side furnished with a hinge, so that the corpse could be taken out, and lowered into the grave by ropes. In some parts of the Highlands, a long basket, made of twisted rushes, was used, and called the "death hamper." There were three pairs of loop handles, through which short iron bars were passed for convenience of carriage; and on the grave being reached, it was lowered by ropes, so arranged that it could be turned over and recovered for future use.

Before the Reformation, it was the custom to bury unbaptised children apart from members of the Church, the north side of the churchyard being reserved for that purpose. This was afterwards regarded as contrary to the true principles of Protestantism, and in 1641 the Synod of Fife ordained that "all these who superstitiously carries the dead about the kirk before burial, also these who bury unbaptised bairns apart, be taken notice of and censured." Suicides and excommunicated persons were also, at one time, buried apart, and at night. In 1582, the Kirk Session of Perth refused to allow the corpse of a man who had committed suicide by drowning to be "brought through the town in daylight, neither yet to be buried among the faithful,... but in the little Inch within the water."

With regard to interment within the churches, the Scottish Reformers seem to have been in advance of those south of the Border. The Brownists were as much in advance of the former, for in 1590 one of the leaders of that denomination wrote:--"Where learned you to bury in hallowed churches and churchyards, as though you had no fields to bury in? Methinks the churchyards, of all other places, should be not the convenientest for burial; it was a thing never used till Popery began, and it is neither comely nor wholesome." Interment in churches was, on sanitary grounds, even more objectionable than in the grounds adjacent to them, and in 1576 the General Assembly prohibited the practice, and ordered that those who contravened the ordinance should be suspended from the privileges of the Church.

Long after that time, however, burials in churches continued to take place, owing to the value attached by families of rank above that of the commonalty to the privilege of having their relatives buried apart. In 1643, the Assembly again prohibited all persons, "of whatsoever quality, to bury any deceased person within the body of the kirk, where the people meet for hearing of the Word." But the ordinance was disregarded by all who thought themselves powerful enough to do so, and as ministers had very little to do with a matter which had been declared to be unministerial, they usually found their will sufficient to serve their purpose. In 1695, the Kirk Session of Kilmarnock recorded a minute that, the north aisle being then filled with pews, "they shall, when required, cause lift six pews, on each end, next to the north wall of the aisle, so oft as any of the families of Rowallan, Craufordland, and Grange, shall have occasion to bury their dead;... and, after burial, the said pews shall be set up again in their places, at the expense of the session." Kirk Sessions seem to have felt themselves powerless to enforce their ordinances in the face of a long existing custom and a fancied right of the gentry to burial within the church; and in one instance, which occurred in a Highland parish in 1727, the Kirk Session petitioned the Presbytery to "put a stop to such a bad practice."

The custom of ringing a bell at funerals, which was a common one before the Reformation, was continued afterwards. There is an entry in the records of Glasgow, for 1577, of the sale of "the auld bell that yed throw the toun of auld at the burial of the dead." In 1621, the Kirk Session of Dumbarton ordained that "the beadle, John Tome, and his successors, shall ring the mort-bell before all persons deceased within town, for such prices as the minister and session shall set down." It may be that the custom, like the ringing of church bells, originated in the superstition that the sound of bells scared away evil spirits; for an edict of the Town Council of Aberdeen, passed in 1643, includes the tolling and ringing of bells among the "superstitious rites used at funerals," which it prohibits.

Towards the close of the seventeenth century, it seems to have been usual for the church bell to be tolled at funerals, and that without any charge being made, for, in 1696, the Kirk Session of Mauchline made a minute that they "thought it reasonable that whoever desired the tolling of the bell at the funeral of their relations, should pay some small quantity of money to the kirk treasurer, to be disposed of for the poor's use." Similar ordinances were passed about the same time by the Kirk Sessions of other parishes in Ayrshire. It was decided, however, in the Civil Court, in 1730, that the money arising from fees for the ringing of bells and burials within the church did not properly belong to the fund for the relief of the poor, but might be used for the maintenance of the fabric of the church. The poor, however, do not appear to have lost much by this decision, for during the year ended October, 1732, the "big" bell at Kilmarnock was tolled for funerals only seven times. It may be explained that there were two bells in many churches, the larger one to be tolled at the funerals of the rich, and the smaller at those of the poor. In the register of burials at Inverness, the words "big bells" are added to the entries of the funerals of "persons of quality."

The burials register of the parish of Tough, in Aberdeenshire, record that, in 1784, forty-two of the parishioners joined in the purchase of a new bell for the church, stipulating that, when deaths occurred in their families, "the bell be rung once before the day of interment, that is, when the officer gets the first notice of a contributor's death, and then upon the day of interment, from morning until the coffin be laid in the ground, in the manner that bells ought to be rung at funerals, and that by no other person than the officer allenarlie."

Palls were, from a very early period, regarded as essential parts of the funeral paraphernalia. In 1598, the Kirk Session of Glasgow ordered a black cloth to be bought "to be laid on the corpses of the poor," and, for at least two hundred years afterwards, it was the custom for the "mort-cloth" to be taken to the house where a corpse awaited burial, and laid over it. The reason for this may be found in the early custom of burial without a coffin, and in the case of those who desired to show some regard for appearances, in the proclamation of Council in 1684, that coffins should not be covered with silk or decorated with fringes or metal-work. The mort-cloths kept "to be laid on the corpses of the poor" were probably of coarse black woollen cloth; but those used at the funerals of well-to-do people were, as a rule, of richer and more handsome material. In the sessional records of the parish of Mauchline for 1672 there is an entry of the payment of a sum of no less than L10, 12s. 4d. as completing the price of a new mort-cloth, which implies that some portion of the total cost had been paid previously. Another new mort-cloth provided for the same parish in the last quarter of the eighteenth century is described as having been made of Genoa velvet, conformably fringed.

The preaching of funeral sermons received little favour in Scotland during the early period of the Reformed Church. "We have," says Baillie, writing from London during the sitting of the Westminster Assembly, "with much difficulty, passed a proposition for abolishing their ceremonies at burials, but our difference about funeral sermons seems irreconcilable. As it has been here and everywhere preached, it is nothing but an abuse of preaching, to serve the humours only of rich people for a reward. Our Church has expressly discharged them, on many good reasons; it's here a good part of the minister's livelihood, therefore they will not quit it. After three days' debate, we cannot yet find a way of agreeance."

It was in consequence of this inability to agree on the subject that the Scottish commissioners at Westminster declined to hear the sermon preached on the occasion of the funeral of Pym. Baillie wrote:--"On Wednesday, Mr Pym was carried from his house to Westminster on the shoulders, as the fashion is, of the chief men of the Lower House, all the House going in procession before him, and before them the Assembly of Divines. Marshall had a most eloquent and pertinent funeral sermon--which we would not hear, for funeral sermons we must have away, with the rest."

The earliest registers of deaths are those of Aberdeen, which commence in 1560; Perth, beginning in 1561, and the Canongate, Edinburgh, in 1565. The register of burials in the last-named parish commences in 1612, and that of Greyfriars in 1658. Those of rural parishes generally commence in the last century, and they are, as a rule, more or less imperfect. It appears from the Edinburgh registers, in which the deaths are summarised annually, that the mortality has greatly diminished during the last hundred and fifty years. In the first four decades of the last century, nearly two-thirds of the deaths were those of children, and the deaths of adult females were double those of adult males. The dawn of a better state of things appears in 1741, when the deaths of 276 men, 401 women, and 942 children, were registered, which, if we accept the generally received statement that the population of the city was then fifty thousand, gives an annual average death-rate of 34 per thousand. The average mortality of the ten years ending with 1878, as shown by the report of the Registrar General, was 24 per thousand; and that of the week ending October 8, 1898, was 20 per thousand; which was precisely that of the thirty-three largest towns of the southern portion of the island.

Contemporary events in other places were not unfrequently recorded in the local registers of deaths in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Thus, in the Aberdeen register, we have the murder of Lord Darnley very circumstantially recorded as follows, though under a wrong date:--"The ninth [10th] day of February, the year of God 1566, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, King of Scotland, who married Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, daughter to King James the Fifth, was cruelly murdered under night, in Edinburgh, in the Cowgate, at the Kirk of Field, by James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and other his assisters, whose deed God revenge. So be it."[13] The ascription of the crime to Bothwell does not appear in the Canongate register, which merely records the fact of Darnley being blown up with gunpowder.

The assassination of the Earl of Murray is recorded in several parish registers. The session clerk of Aberdeen recorded it, with much particularity, as follows:--"The twenty-third day of January, the year of God 1569, James, Earl of Murray, Lord Abernethy, Regent to the King and realm of Scotland, was cruelly murdered and shot in the town of Linlithgow, by a false traitor, James Hamilton of Bodywallhaucht, by the conspiracy and treason of his own servant, William Kircaldy, and John Hamilton, bloody Bishop of St. Andrew's, whose deed we pray God to revenge. So be it." With equal circumstantiality the same clerk made an entry in the register of the murder of Coligny, and the horrible massacre of the Protestants of Paris, on St. Bartholomew's day, 1572, which event he prays God to revenge.

Some of the entries in the church registers of Edinburgh are of considerable historical interest. In that of St. Giles is chronicled the removal of the remains of the Marquis of Montrose from the Abbey Church of Holyrood to St. Giles's Church, where they were honoured with a magnificent and pompous funeral. The entry in the register of burials records the final interment as follows:--"11 May 1661.--The Rt. Hon. James, Marquis of Montrose, Earl of Kincardine, Lord Grahame and Mugdok, His Majesty's late commissioner and Captain General for the kingdom of Scotland, and knt. of most hon. order of the Garter, was conveyed from the kirk of Holyrood House with great honour and solemnity to St. Giles's kirk and buried." The corpse had been, in the first instance, interred at the Burgh Muir, so that this was the third removal.

The register of the Greyfriars' Church, Edinburgh, contains the following record of another and more generally interesting translation:--"Robert Garvock, Patrick Forman, James Stewart, David Fernie, Alexander Russell, was executed in the Gallowlee, for owning the truth, upon the 10 day of October 1681 years, and their heads fixed upon Bristo Port, taken down and buried privately in Louristone Yards, now accidentally dug up upon the 15 day of October 1726, and buried decently upon the 19 day of the said month in the Greyfriars' churchyard, close to the Martyrs' Tomb."

The grandeur of the final interment of the remains of the Marquis of Montrose, followed later by the costly obsequies of Lord Roslin, induced the Scottish Parliament, in 1681, to pass an Act which, besides restricting the number of persons who might attend the funeral of a person of rank to one hundred, prohibited "the using or carrying of any branches, banners, and other honours at church, except only the eight branches to be upon the pall, or upon the coffin where there is no pall." The Act seems, however, to have had little effect in diminishing the excessive costliness of funerals among all classes above the very poorest. The funeral of Sir William Hamilton, who died in 1707, was attended with a display and an amount of hospitality which cost a sum equal to two years of his salary as a judge. The funeral of Lachlan Macintosh, chief of the Highland clan of that name, in 1736, cost (including the customary festivities) a sum which involved his successors in pecuniary embarrassments for a century afterwards. The funerals of Highland chiefs were attended by all the clan, sometimes numbering thousands of persons, and the procession to the place of burial extending to more than a mile in length; the coronach--a hymn of lamentation, an example of which may be found in Scott's "Lady of the Lake"--being chanted by hundreds of voices, accompanied by the bagpipes.

The Story of a Stool.

James I. after the Reformation introduced into Scotland bishops, and his son Charles I. attempted to force upon the Scottish church a book of canons and a liturgy. Both actions were regarded with strong aversion, and culminated in bitter strife. The king directed that on Sunday, July 23rd, 1637, the new service-book should be read in every parish church in Scotland. Before the appointed day arrived, opposition was manifest in all quarters, and few had the courage, even if they had the desire, to conduct their services from the new prayer-book.

On the eventful Sunday when the new order of service was to be formally introduced, the chief church of the capital of Scotland, the old Cathedral of St. Giles, was filled by an unusually large congregation. Among those present were two archbishops, several bishops, the lords chancellor and treasurer, privy council, judges, and magistrates. A large number of the humble people, composed chiefly of the wives of citizens and their maids, filled the body of the church. In those days no pews were in the church, and the poor-folk brought clasp-stools.

When Dean Hannay, attired in a surplice, commenced reading prayers from the service-book a riot arose which has seldom been equalled in the house of God. The Dean could not be heard for the clamour of many voices. The voice of a female--that of Jenny Geddes--was heard above others. She cried, "Out, out! does the false loon mean to say his black mass at my lug?" and then threw her stool at the Dean's head.

This was the signal for a riot: an attempt was made to tear from the Dean his surplice, but he disengaged himself from it, and with difficulty made his escape. Hand-clapping, hisses, curses, &c., put an end to any attempt to conduct the service. The Bishop of Edinburgh attempted from the pulpit to restore order, but a stool was thrown at him, and, had not a friendly hand averted its course, doubtless he would have been seriously injured, or even killed. Stones and other missiles were thrown at the pulpit.

The Lord Chancellor, it is recorded, commanded the magistrates to call out the town-guard to drive the ringleaders from the church. The church was cleared of the rioters, but outside they battered the doors, broke the windows, cried out, "A Pope! A Pope!" "Antichrist!" "Stone him! Stone him!" The Dean tried to resume his reading, but the shouts of the multitude without drowned his voice.

_From the Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh._]

The service in Greyfriars' Church had to be stopped on account of the rioting without, and at the college, we are told in Stevenson's "Annals of Edinburgh," the minister preferred the old extempore form of prayer, till he learned how the liturgy had been received in other city churches.

On leaving church the Bishop of Edinburgh was attacked by the mob, and narrowly escaped death at their hands. Other rioting occurred, and for many years the memorable day was known as "Stony Sabbath."

The local authorities, it is recorded, desired to maintain order, and on the Monday the local magistrates repaired to a meeting of the Privy Council, and expressed their great regret at the outrage, and promised to discover the ringleaders and have them punished.

On one of the piers of St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, is a memorial brass bearing the following inscription:--

TO
JAMES HANNAY, D.D.,
DEAN OF THIS CATHEDRAL,
1634-1639.

_He was the first and last who read
the service-book in this church._

THIS MEMORIAL IS ERECTED IN HAPPIER TIMES
BY HIS DESCENDANT.

In the Moray or south-west aisle is a memorial of gun-metal to Jenny Geddes, with an inscription written by the late Lord President Inglis, which reads as follows:--

CONSTANT ORAL TRADITION
AFFIRMS THAT NEAR THIS SPOT
A BRAVE SCOTCH WOMAN, JANET GEDDES,
ON THE 23 JULY 1637,
STRUCK THE FIRST BLOW IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE
FOR FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE,
WHICH AFTER A CONFLICT OF HALF-A-CENTURY
ENDED IN THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

The Martyrs' Monument, Edinburgh.

In the capital of Scotland are more imposing monuments than the Covenanters' Memorial in Greyfriars' Churchyard, but not one more historically interesting. It attracts the attention of visitors from all parts of the world, and to the inhabitants of the city it must be a matter of pride to have this memorial to the memory of the men who fought for religious freedom.

The early Scottish reformers were in earnest respecting their faith; a bond was prepared, setting forth that they would stand unflinchingly by the Calvinistic faith, and if necessary would fight in its defence.

This was signed on December 3rd, 1557, by the Earls of Glencairn, Argyll, and Morton, Lord Lorn, Erskine of Dun and many more, who assumed the title of "Lords of the Congregation."

A man in Scotland might do many indiscreet things and even be guilty of crime, and be pardoned; but to flinch or fall from the Covenant was to commit a sin that his countrymen could not forgive.

Charles I., aided by Archbishop Laud, attempted to force upon the Presbyterians of Scotland a liturgy, and in other ways to alter the mode of divine worship in the country. The king's action was regarded with alarm, and steps were taken to maintain the religious freedom of the country. The Solemn League and Covenant of 1557 against Popery was renewed and new articles added. A copy was sent to each town in Scotland. That belonging to Edinburgh was, on March 1st, 1638, solemnly read aloud in Greyfriars' churchyard. It was subscribed to by a large number of the nobility, gentry and others of all ranks and conditions, ages and sexes. It is impossible to count the signatures on the document, but it is believed that over five thousand names occur, and the more zealous added to their subscription such sentences as "till death." The size of the parchment is four feet long and three feet eight inches broad, and it is preserved in the Register Office, Edinburgh. It was spread upon a flat stone in the churchyard for signature, and was signed by all who could get near to it.

Not a few who signed this document were amongst the many who suffered death for their adherence to the faith they held. At the Battle of Bothwell Bridge on June 22nd, 1679, it is recorded that 800 Covenanters were slain on the field of battle, and about 1300 taken prisoners and brought to Edinburgh, and later 200 were conveyed to Stirling.

At Edinburgh the prisoners were kept in an enclosed piece of land (now forming a part of the graveyard of Greyfriars), in a great measure without shelter, for five months, and supported with a short supply of bread and water. Guards watched them day and night. The condition of the prisoners was most distressing and moved to pity the inhabitants of the city, but they were not permitted to render the least assistance.

The troubles of many of these brave men did not end with imprisonment. "On the 15th of November," it is recorded, "256 were taken to Leith and put on board a vessel to be carried to the plantations in America. The vessel sailed on the 27th, but was wrecked on the coast of Orkney on December 10th, when upwards of 200 perished. Some of the remaining prisoners were tried, condemned and executed; the remainder, upon signing bonds, obtained their liberty."

The monument is erected near the graves of the martyrs who were buried in Greyfriars' churchyard. It was in that part of the burial-ground that criminals were interred, and an allusion is made to this fact in the inscription on the martyrs' monument.

James Currie of Pentland obtained from the Town Council of Edinburgh, on August 28th, 1706, permission to erect a stone in Greyfriars' churchyard to the memory of the martyrs, on condition "there being no inscription to be put upon the tomb but the sixth chapter of Revelation, verses 9, 10 and 11."

A carved stone representing an open Bible, with the verses cut in full, was erected, and this forms, we are told, the under part of the present more stately monument, which was substituted in 1771, when the original slab was removed. The old inscription with some slight alterations was transferred to the present monument. The inscription is as follows:--

"Halt, passenger, take heed what you do see.
This tomb doth shew for what some men did die.
Here lies interr'd the dust of those who stood
'Gainst perjury, resisting unto blood;
Adhering to the covenants and laws;
Establishing the same: which was the cause
Their lives were sacrific'd unto the lust
Of prelatists abjur'd; though here their dust
Lies mixt with murderers and other crew,
Whom justice justly did to death pursue.
But as for them, no cause was to be found
Worthy of death; but only they were found
Constant and steadfast, zealous, witnessing
For the prerogatives of Christ their King;
Which truths were seal'd by famous Guthrie's head,
And all along to Mr Renwick's blood:
They did endure the wrath of enemies:
Reproaches, torments, deaths and injuries.
But yet they're those, who from such troubles came,
And now triumph in glory with the Lamb.

"From May 27th, 1661, that the most noble Marquis of Argyle was
beheaded, to the 17th February 1688, that Mr James Renwick suffered,
were one way or other murdered and destroyed for the same cause about
eighteen thousand, of whom were executed at Edinburgh about an
hundred of noblemen, gentlemen, ministers and others, noble martyrs
for JESUS CHRIST. The most of them lie here.

Rev. vi. 9.--And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the
altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for
the testimony which they held:

10.--And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy
and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell
on the earth?

11.--And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was
said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season,
until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be
killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

Chap. vii. 14.--These are they which came out of great tribulation,
and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb.

Chap. ii. 10.--Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life.

"The above monument was first erected by JAMES CURRIE, merchant,
Pentland, and others, in 1706; renewed in 1771."

(Added on the monument at a subsequent date):--

"Yes, though the sceptic's tongue deride
Those martyrs who for conscience died--
Though modern history blight their fame,
And sneering courtiers hoot the name
Of men who dared alone be free,
Amidst a nation's slavery;--
Yet long for them the poet's lyre
Shall wake its notes of heavenly fire;
Their names shall nerve the patriot's hand
Upraised to save a sinking land;
And piety shall learn to burn
With holier transports o'er their urn.

JAMES GRAHAME.

Peace to their mem'ry! let no impious breath
Sell their fair fame, or triumph o'er their death.
Let Scotia's grateful sons their tear-drops shed,
Where low they lie in honour's gory bed;
Rich with the spoil their glorious deeds had won,
And purchas'd freedom to a land undone--
A land which owes its glory and its worth
To those whom tyrants banish'd from the earth."

"For the accomplishment of this resolution, the three kingdoms lie
under no small debt of gratitude to the Covenanters. They suffered
and bled both in fields and on scaffolds for the cause of civil and
religious liberty; and shall we reap the fruit of their sufferings,
their prayers and their blood, and yet treat their memory either with
indifference or scorn? No! whatever minor faults may be laid to their
charge, whatever trivial accusations may be brought against them, it
cannot but be acknowledged that they were the men who, 'singly and
alone,' stood forward in defence of Scotland's dearest rights, and to
whom we at the present day owe everything that is valuable to us
either as men or as Christians."

It only remains for us to add that James Currie, who was the means of raising the original monument, suffered much during the persecution and more than once narrowly escaped capture.

INDEX

Alloway Kirk, witches in, 178

Antiquity of bells, 34

Assassins of James I., 6

Averting evil spirits at birth, 194

Bag-pipes at funerals, 254

Banns, publication of, 213

Banquets at baptism, 207

Baptism of bells, 42

Beating bounds, 16

Begg, Dr, opposes the organ, 107

Behaviour at kirk, 119

Bell Lore, 34-45

Beltane superstitions, 46

Betrothals, 212, 213

Bible and witchcraft, 166

Bible thrown into the fire, 191

Biers, 241

Biggar, witchcraft at, 184

Birth and Baptism. Customs and Superstitions, 194-209

Black Rood, 29

Brank, 115

Brechin Cathedral, 66

Bristo Port, heads on, 252

Burghs, origin of, 64-66

Burning witches, 163, 168, 184, 191

Calvinism, advent of, 164

Care of the poor, 149

Celtic crosses, 24, 28

Charter of St. Giles's Church, 6

Children, marriage of, 216

Christmas, punished for keeping, 117

Church, marriages to be celebrated in, 222

Church music, 98-107

Churches, interment in, 243

Clova jougs, 113

Coins, objection to foreign, 144

Compulsory attendance at kirk, 119, 137

Consent of parents to be given for marriage, 216

Covenanters slain, 262

Covenanters' flag, 27, 28

Craft-gilds, 128

Creeping to the cross, 27

Cripples assisted, 155

Cross, the, in Scotland, 1-33

Cross in baptism, 197

Culdees supplanted, 73

Currie, James, 263

Curiosities of Church Finance, 130-161

Dead, tales about the, 166

Death and Burial. Customs and Superstitions, 237-254

Death hamper, 242

Denmark, Princess Anne and witchcraft, 175

Devil and minstrels, 170

Devil preaching a sermon, 177

Discipline of the Kirk, 108-129

Douglas, Lady Janet, suffered for witchcraft, 163

Dress of women condemned, 120

Drinking at funerals, 239

Drunkards punished, 124, 138

Duddingston jougs, 114

Dunblane Cathedral, 66

Dundee bells, 44

Easter Sunday customs, 48

Eastwood, witchcraft at, 192

Edinburgh Market Cross, 5, 7, 11

Episcopacy and witchcraft, 173

Erskine, Lord Chief Justice, married at Gretna Green, 229

Excommunications, 110

Farthings at collections, 146

Fishing on Sunday, 135

Flodden, 12

Foreign coins, objections to, 144

Forbidding the banns, 220

Forbidding marriage, 127

Frost, Thomas. Saints and holy wells, 46-63
---- Church music, 98-107

Funeral bells, 40-41, 44, 245-247

Funeral sermons, 248

Geddes, Jenny, 256, 259

Gladstone, W. E., restores Edinburgh Cross, 10-11

Glasgow Cathedral, 67-85

Gifts of bells to churches, 35

Graveyard of Greyfriars, 260-266

Gretna Green gossip, 227-236

Gossips' wake, 195

Haddington, witchcraft at, 184

Hamilton, Sir William, funeral of, 253

Hand-bells at funerals, 40-41

Handfasting, 210-212

Hannay, Dean, 256, 258

Harmonium, 106

Holyrood Abbey founded, 31

Holy Wells, 46, 63

Hospitality at funerals, 253

Hours of church service, 96

Howlett, E. Bell Lore, 34-45

Humours of the collection, 141

Hymns submitted, 102

Ignorant persons' children not to be baptised, 205

Introduction of the organ at Glasgow, 105

Iona crosses, 18-22

James VI. and witchcraft, 174

Jougs, 113

Kilmarnock Cross, 16

Kirkcaldy, witchcraft at, 189

Kirkwall Cathedral, 67

Knox burned in effigy, 12
---- deemed a wizard, 171

Lanark Cross, 16

Length of sermon, 121

Life in the pre-Reformation Cathedrals, 64-85

Linlithgow, 16

Liturgy used, 93

Long sermons, 95

Macintosh, L., funeral of, 253

Manner of examining witches, 180

Mar, Earl of, suffered for witchcraft, 163

Market crosses, 4

Marriage laws and customs, 210-226

Marriage vow, punished for violating, 125

Martyrs' Monument, Edinburgh, 260-266

Mass, punished for saying, 13

Medical assistance, 155

Memorable marriage at Gretna Green, 232

Millar, A. H. Life in the pre-Reformation Cathedrals, 64-85

Mode of marrying at Gretna Green, 231

Money-box, church, 147

Montrose, Marquis, body removed, 251

Monuments, Destruction of, 3

Murray, Earl, assassination of, 251

Observance of old church festivals forbidden, 121

Omens of death, 239

Opening doors for departing spirits, 238

Organs, 89, 98, 99, 102, 104, 106

Origin of Glasgow Cathedral, 71

Our Lady, wells dedicated to, 55

Pagan rites at marriages, 224

Palls, 247

Parochial inquisitions, 178

Parsons at Gretna Green, 229-232

Peebles bells, 38

Perth bells, 39, 43

Pews, introduction of, 140

Pilgrimages to saints' wells, 60-62

Pillory, 116, 124, 125

Poor travellers' hospital, 54

Prayer-book, introduction of the, 100
---- objection to, 255

Precentor, 88, 104

Press guarded, 122

Priest pelted at the Cross, 13

Private baptism, 198-202

Proclamations published at crosses, 12

Psalmody, 100, 101, 102

Public Penance, 111

Public worship in olden times, 86-97

Ransoms for sailors, 156

Reader, 87

Rees, Rev. R. Wilkins. Curiosities of Church Finance, 130-161
---- Witchcraft and the kirk, 162-193

Reformation, 1

Registers of baptisms, 201, 206, 208

Registers of deaths, 249

Riddle-turning, 124

Riding the marches, 16

Repentance stool, 111, 158

Roslin, Lord, funeral of, 253

Royal edicts proclaimed from crosses, 16

Ruthwell Cross, 26

Sabbath-breaking, 136

Saints and holy wells, 46-63

Scandals and marriage, 217-218

Schoolmasters, 152

Scots money, 133

Scotchmen warned not to follow James VI. to England, 17

Sculptured tombstones, 23

Seal of Holyrood Abbey, 32

Sharp, Archbishop, assassinated, 173

Silver in bells, 41

Singing hymns, objections to, 92

Slanderers punished, 125

Solemn League of the Covenant, 261

Spurious money at collections, 146

Stirling, penance at, 196

Story of a stool, 255-259

St. Andrew's Cathedral, 66

St. Andrew's Well, 56

St. Bernard's Well, 53

St. Catherine's Well, 52

St. Columba's Wells, 48

St. Corbett's Well, 54

St. Fergus's Well, 48

St. Fillan's Well, 50

St. Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh, 66

St. Helena's Wells, 49

St. Iten's Well, 49

St. Kentigern, 67

St. Maelrubha Well, 47

St. Margaret of Scotland, 29

St. Medan's Chapel and Well, 50-51

St. Mulvay's Well, 47

St. Mungo, 67

St. Olav's Well, 54

St. Querdon's Well, 59

St. Ronan's Well, 48

St. Thenew's Well, 59

St. Wallach's Bath, 57

Sunday observance, 117, 133-138

Superstitions, marriage, 221

Swearing, punished for, 124

Taking snuff in the kirk, 128

Tokens of death, 237

Tyack, Rev. Geo. S. The Cross in Scotland, 1-33
---- Discipline of the Kirk, 108-129

Tyninghame, witchcraft at, 184

Unbaptised children, burial of, 242

Uncoffined burials, 241

Votive offerings, 57

Watching the dead, 238

Waters, Rev. Alexander. Public worship in olden times, 86-97

Western Isles, crosses in, 22

Westminster Assembly of Divines, 87

Wine at Edinburgh Cross, 11

Witchcraft, 123

Witchcraft a capital offence, 164

Witchcraft and the Kirk, 162-193

Footnotes:

[1] "Iona: its History, Antiquities, etc.," by Rev. A. MacMillan and Robert Brydall, 1898.

[2] "Church and other Bells of Kincardineshire."

[3] "Church and other Bells of Kincardineshire," Eeles.

[4] Chambers' "History of Peebles."

[5] "Bell Lore," North.

[6] Hope's Reprint "Popish Kingdome."

[7] "Bell Lore," North.

[8] "Bell Lore," North.

[9] Eeles.

[10] "Bells of Exeter Cathedral," p. 7.

[11] The Relief Church originated in 1752 in opposition to the system of patronage, and received its name from its relief from that burden. In 1847 it became, by union with the Secession Church, the United Presbyterian Church.

[12] For the accompanying illustrations of a repentance-stool, and of the jagg or jougs, I am indebted to Mr Wm. Andrews, from whose work on "Bygone Punishments" (London 1899) they are taken.

[13] The spelling of this and the following extracts is modernised.

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