Chapter XXIX: Part 29

‘It may be safely affirmed,’ he says, ‘that the horses, cows, sheep, and goats yearly stolen in that country are in value equal to £5000, and that the expenses lost in the fruitless endeavours to recover them, will not be less than £2000; that the extraordinary expenses of keeping [neat-]herds and servants to look more narrowly after cattle on account of stealing, otherwise not necessary, is £10,000. There is paid in black-mail or watch-money, openly or privately, £5000; and there is a yearly loss, by understocking the grounds, by reason of thefts, of at least £15,000; which is altogether a loss to landlords and farmers in the Highlands of £37,000 a year.

‘... The person chosen to command this _watch_, as it is called, is commonly one deeply concerned in the thefts himself, or at least that hath been in correspondence with the thieves, and frequently who hath occasioned thefts in order to make this watch, by which he gains considerably, necessary. The people employed travel through the country armed, night and day, under pretence of inquiring after stolen cattle, and by this means know the situation and circumstances of the whole country. And as the people thus employed are the very rogues that do these mischiefs, so one half of them are continued in their former businesses of stealing, that the business of the other half may be necessary in recovering.... Whoever considers the shameful way these watches were managed, particularly by Barrisdale and the Macgregors, in the west ends of Perth and Stirling shires, will easily see into the spirit, nature, and consequences of them.’[766]

Pennant informs us that many of the lifters of black-mail ‘were wont to insert an article by which they were to be released from their agreement, in case of any civil commotion; thus, at the breaking out of the last rebellion, a Macgregor (who assumed the name of Graham), who had with the strictest honour till that event preserved his friends’ cattle, immediately sent them word that from that time they were out of his protection, and must now take care of themselves.’

The same author justly remarks the peculiar code of morality which circumstances, partly political, had brought into existence [Sidenote: 1745.] in the Highlands, whereby cattle-stealing came to be considered rather as a gallant military enterprise than as theft. He says the young men regarded a proficiency in it as a recommendation to their mistresses. Here, however, it must be admitted, we only find the disastrous results of a general civil disorder arising from political disaffection and antagonisms.

Both Gartmore and Mr Pennant speak of ‘Barrisdale’ as a person who at this time stood in great notoriety as a levier of black-mail, or, as Barrisdale himself might have called it, a protector of the country. Descended from a branch of the Glengarry family, his father had obtained from the contemporary Glengarry, on wadset, permission to occupy a considerable tract of ground named Barrisdale, on the south side of Loch Hourn, and from this he had hereditarily derived the appellative by which he was most generally known, while his real name was Coll MacDonell, and his actual residence was at Inverie, on Loch Nevis. Although the government had kept up a barrack and garrison at Glenelg since 1723, Barrisdale carried on his practice as a cattle-protector undisturbed for a course of years, drawing a revenue of about five hundred a year from a large district, in which there were many persons that might have been expected to give him opposition. According to Pennant, ‘he behaved with genuine honour in restoring, on proper consideration, the stolen cattle of his friends.... He was indefatigable in bringing to justice any rogues that interfered with his own. He was a man of a polished behaviour, fine address, and fine person. He considered himself in a very high light, as a benefactor to the public, and preserver of general tranquillity, for on the silver plates, the ornaments of his baldric, he thus addresses his broadsword:

“Hæ tibi sunt artes, pacis componere mores;
Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.”[767]

At the breaking out of the rebellion, Barrisdale and his son acted as partisans of the Stuart cause, the latter in an open manner, the consequence of which was his being named in the act of attainder. During the frightful time of vengeance that followed upon Culloden, the father made some sort of submission to the government troops, which raised a rumour that he had undertaken to assist in securing and delivering up the fugitive [Sidenote: 1745.] prince. What truth or falsehood there might be in the allegation, no one could now undertake to certify; but certain it is, that, when a party of the Camerons were preparing, in September 1746, to leave the country with Prince Charles in a French vessel, they seized the Barrisdales, father and son, as culprits, and carried them to France, where they underwent imprisonment, first at St Malo, and afterwards at Saumur, for about a year. It was at the same time reported to London that the troops had found, in Barrisdale’s house, ‘a hellish engine for extorting confession, and punishing such thieves as were not in his service. It is all made of iron, and stands upright; the criminal’s neck, hands, and feet are put into it, by which he’s in a sloping posture, and can neither sit, lie, nor stand.’[768] This report must also remain in some degree a matter of doubt.

The younger Barrisdale, making his escape from the French prison, returned to the wilds of Inverness-shire, and was there allowed for a time to remain in peace. The father, liberated when Prince Charles was expelled from France, also returned to Scotland; but he had not been more than two days at his house in Knoydart, when a party from Glenelg apprehended him. Being placed as a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, he died there in June 1750, after a confinement of fourteen months. The son was in like manner seized in July 1753, in a wood on Loch-Hourn-side, along with four or five other gentlemen in the same circumstances, and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. He was condemned upon the act of attainder to die in the Grassmarket on the 22d of May 1754, and while he lay under sentence, his wife, who attended him, brought a daughter into the world.[769] He was, however, reprieved from time to time, and ultimately, after nine years’ confinement, received a pardon in March 1762, took the oath of allegiance to George III., and was made a captain in Colonel Graeme’s regiment, being the same which was afterwards so noted under the name of the _Forty-second_. When Mr John Knox made his tour of the West Highlands in 1786, to propagate the faith in herring-curing and other modern arts of peace, he found ‘Barrisdale’—that name so associated with an ancient and ruder state of things—residing at the place from which he was named. ‘He lives,’ says the traveller, ‘in silent retirement upon a slender income, and seems by his appearance, conversation, and deportment, to have merited a better fate. He is about six feet high, [Sidenote: 1745.] proportionally made, and was reckoned one of the handsomest men of the age. He is still a prisoner, in a more enlarged sense, and has no society excepting his own family, and that of Mr Macleod of Arnisdale. Living on opposite sides of the loch, their communications are not frequent.’[770]

It seems not inappropriate that this record of the old life of Scotland should end with an article in which we find the associations of the lawless times of the Highlands inosculating with the industrial proceedings of a happier age. A further extension of our domestic annals would shew how the good movements of the last fifteen years were now accelerated, and how our northern soil became, in the course of little more than a lifetime, one of the fairest scenes of European civilisation. Fully to describe this period—its magnificent industries, its rapid growth of intelligence, of taste, of luxury, the glories it achieved in literature, science, and art—would form a noble task; but it is one which would need to be worked out on a plan different from the present work, and which I should gladly see undertaken by some son of Caledonia who may have more power than I to do her story justice, though he cannot love or respect her more.

APPENDIX.

Having been favoured by the publishers of the _Courant_ and _Mercury_ with an inspection of such early volumes of their venerable journals as they respectively possess, I have caused a few curious but comparatively trivial paragraphs to be copied for insertion in this place. To these are added a few notices of a characteristic nature from other sources:

[Sidenote: 1720. SEP.]

‘EDINBURGH, _September 19_.—Upon the 17th instant, the Right
Honourable the Earl of Wemyss was married to the only child of Colonel
Charteris, a fortune of five hundred thousand pounds sterling, English
money, which probably in a short time may be double that sum. But that
is nothing at all in comparison of the young lady herself, who is
truly, for goodness, wit, beauty, and fine shapes, inferior to no lady
of Great Britain; all which the very noble earl richly deserves, being
a most complete and well-accomplished gentleman, and the lineal
representative of a most noble, great, and ancient family in Scotland
of five or six hundred years’ standing,’ &c.—_Contemporary Journal._

[Sidenote: 1722. AUG. 13.]

‘Last week Sir Robert Sibbald of Kipps, M.D., Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians, died here in the 83d year of his age. He was a
person of great piety and learning, and author of many learned and
useful books, especially in natural history.’—_C. M._

On the 11th November 1723, a number of people proceeding from
Galashiels and its neighbourhood to attend a fair at Melrose, and
crossing the Tweed in a ferry-boat at Nether Barnsford, near what
afterwards became Abbotsford, were thrown by the oversetting of the
boat into the water, then in flood, and eighteen of them drowned. A
boy named Williamson, son of a tradesman in Galashiels, was preserved
in a wonderful way. Thrown at first to the bottom of the river, he
caught a man by the hair of his head, and was thus enabled to rise to
the surface. There he was kept afloat by grasping, first by a bundle
of lint, and then a sackful of gray cloth, letting go each in
succession as it became saturated with water. Then a deal from the
‘lofting’ of the boat came near him, and he grasped it firmly below
his breast. Meanwhile he was moving rapidly down the stream. There was
a place where formerly a bridge had been, and where three piers yet
stood in the water. It was with difficulty he got through one of the
spaces, and over a cascade on the lower side of the bridge. Sometimes,
thrown on his back, he was under water for thirty or forty yards, but
he never let go the deal. At length, after going considerably more
than a mile in this manner, he was taken up by the West-house-boat,
the manager of which had been warned of his coming, and of his
possible preservation, by a ploughman mounted on a horse which,
escaping from the overset boat, had swum ashore, in time to admit of
this rapid and dexterous movement—_C. M._

[Sidenote: 1724. JUNE 2.]

There was this day buried in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard, the wife of
Captain Burd of Ford, ‘thought to be the largest woman in Scotland.’
‘Her coffin was a Scots ell and four inches wide, and two feet
deep.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: 1725. FEB. 18.]

‘We hear that a Quaker woman is encouraged by our magistrates, in her
proposal of setting up a woollen manufactory in this city, and
obliging herself to employ all the strolling beggars in work, and to
give them food and raiment.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: MAR. 13.]

‘Died William Clerk, brother to the deceased Sir John Clerk of
Pennicuik; remarkable for his frequent peregrinations through Europe,
which procured him the name of _Wandering Will_.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: 1728. FEB. 26.]

Died Marjory Scott, an inhabitant of Dunkeld, who appears to have
reached the extraordinary age of a hundred years. An epitaph was
composed for her by Alexander Pennecuik, but never inscribed, and it
has been preserved by the reverend statist of the parish, as a
whimsical statement of historical facts comprehended within the life
of an individual:

‘Stop, passenger, until my life you read,
The living may get knowledge from the dead.
Five times five years I led a virgin life,
Five times five years I was a virtuous wife;
Ten times five years I lived a widow chaste,
Now tirèd of this mortal life I rest.
Betwixt my cradle and my grave hath been
Eight mighty kings of Scotland and a queen.
Full twice five years the Commonwealth I saw,
Ten times the subjects rise against the law;
And, which is worse than any civil war,
A king arraigned before the subjects’ bar.
Swarms of sectarians, hot with hellish rage,
Cut off his royal head upon the stage.
Twice did I see old prelacy pulled down,
And twice the cloak did sink beneath the gown.
I saw the Stuart race thrust out; nay, more,
I saw our country sold for English ore;
Our numerous nobles, who have famous been,
Sunk to the lowly number of sixteen.
Such desolation in my days have been,
I have an end of all perfection seen!’[771]

[Sidenote: OCT. 29.]

‘A person, who frequents the [King’s] Park, having long noticed a man
to come from a cleft towards the north-west of Salisbury Rocks, had
the curiosity some days ago to climb the precipice, if possibly he
might discover something that could invite him there. He found a
shallow pit, which delivered him into a little snug room or vault hung
with dressed leather, lighted from the roof, the window covered with a
bladder. It is thought to have been the cave of a hermit in ancient
times, though now the hiding-place of a gang of thieves.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: NOV. 7.]

‘Yesterday, one Margaret Gibson, for the crime of theft, was drummed
through the city in a very disgraceful manner. Over her neck was fixed
a board with spring and bells, which rung as she walked. At some
inches distant from her face was fixed a false-face, over which was
hung a fox’s tail. In short, she was a very odd spectacle.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: DEC. 10.]

‘A gentleman travelling to the south was attacked on Soutra Hill by
two fellows armed with bayonets, who desired him to surrender his
purse. The gentleman putting his hand beneath his jockey-coat,
presented a pistol, and asked them whether that or [Sidenote: 1728.]
his money were fittest for them. They earnestly begged he would spare
their lives, for necessity had forced them to it, and they had never
robbed any save one countryman an hour before of 6_s._ 8_d._ The
gentleman put them to this dilemma, either to receive his bullets or
cut an ear out of each other’s heads; the last of which with sorrowful
hearts they performed.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: DEC.]

The prospectus was issued of a weekly paper under the name of _The
Echo_, to contain, besides news, literary matter for the instruction
and amusement of society. The undertakers expressed themselves
confident of assistance from ‘persons of taste, wit, and humour, with
which they know our nation abounds.’ The price to be 2_s._ 6_d._ a
quarter.—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: DEC. 24.]

‘A fire broke out in the house of William Gib in Kittlenaked, and
burnt four cows to death; but how the fire happened is not known.’—_E.
E. C._

[Sidenote: 1729. JAN. 14.]

‘We hear that the Lady Cherrytrees died some days ago in the 104th
year of her age.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: JAN. 28.]

‘Yesternight, two women were committed to the Guard for walking the
streets in men’s apparel.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: JAN. 30.]

‘Yesternight, a company of night-ramblers demolished a vast many
windows in the Cowgate and Grassmarket, broke down the seat and loosed
the railing before Scott’s Land, and played the like tricks in several
other places.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: FEB. 4.]

‘There are just now fifty recruits in the Canongate gaol, belonging to
Halket’s Regiment, ready to be transported to Holland.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: SEP.]

‘The Quakers are building a place of worship in Peebles’s Wynd. Though
it be roofed, there is as yet no window in it; but some merrily
observe these people have light within.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: 1730. APR. 27.]

‘On Thursday was interred, in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard, the corpse
of Mr Andrew Cant, one of the ministers of this city at the
Revolution, and since made a bishop of the clergy of the Episcopal
Communion. He was esteemed a learned and eloquent preacher. He died in
the 91st year of his age, and 64th of his ministry.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: 1731. MAR. 29.]

‘Last Thursday night, Mr Cockburn, son to my Lord Justice-clerk, was
married to Miss Rutherford, daughter to the Laird of Fernilie.’ [This
lady was the authoress of the song, beginning ‘I’ve seen the smiling
of Fortune beguiling,’ to the tune of the _Flowers of the
Forest_.]—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: APR. 12.]

‘There is one Mr David Burnet, officer of the Excise in Glasgow, died
the 8th instant, and left £50 sterling to the poor of the parishes
where he was officer in—namely, £10 to Edinburgh, £10 to Glasgow, £10
to Ayr, £10 to Hamilton, £10 to Carnwath, as an encouragement to these
several places to deal kindly with the officers residing among
them.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: JULY 1.]

‘Yesternight.... Ferrier, Esq., late Provost of Dundee, was married to
the heiress of Coldingknows, a handsome young lady of a considerable
fortune; and we hear that he was attended by persons of
distinction.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: AUG. 26.]

‘Last Tuesday, died Mrs Heriot, late the widow of Mr James Watson, his
Majesty’s Printer, by whom she had a very considerable estate, a great
part of which comes to her present husband.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: AUG. 30.]

‘They write from Glasgow that one Robert Lyon is now living there, who
was in the service of King Charles I.; aged 109 years. He has got a
new set of teeth, and recovered his sight in a wonderful manner.’—_E.
E. C._

[Sidenote: DEC. 21.]

‘By a letter from Stonhive, we have an account that one John Anderson
died there lately who could not be less than 108 years old, he having
been about 16 at the fight of the Bridge of Dee, which happened in the
1639.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: 1731. NOV.]

‘William Crawford, janitor of the High School at Edinburgh, somewhat
in years, having been thrice proclaimed in the kirk, went thither with
his friends, and stood some hours expecting his bride. At last he
received a ticket from her in these terms: “William, you must know I
am pre-engaged. I am so. I never could like a burnt cuttie. I have now
by the hand my sonsie, menseful strapper, with whom I intend to pass
my youthful days. You know, old age and youth cannot agree together. I
must then be excused if I tell you I am not your humble servant.” The
honest man, not taking it much to heart, only said: “Come, let us at
least keep the feast on a feast-day. Dinner will be ready. Let us go
drink, and drive care away. May never a greater misfortune attend an
honest man!” Back to dinner they went, and from the company convened
the bridegroom got a hundred merks, and all charges defrayed; with
which he was as well satisfied as he who got madam.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: NOV. 19.]

‘Died William Eadie, bellman of the Canongate, Edinburgh, aged 120. He
had buried the inhabitants of the Canongate thrice. He was 90 years a
freeman, and married a second wife, a lusty young woman, after he was
100 years old.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: 1732. APR. 9.]

‘Died John Gray, master of the Rope and Sail Manufactory at Edinburgh;
eminent for his unparalleled skill in cutting whalebone.’—_C. M._

In April, it was intimated from Kirkcaldy, that Margaret White of that
place, aged 87, has lately cut eight fresh teeth. ‘Her husband,’
moreover, ‘is in hopes she may bring him also a new progeny, as she
has recovered, with her new tusks, a blooming and juvenile air.’

These were encouraging facts for the aged; but what were they in
comparison with the case of Jean Johnston of Old Deer, in Buchan!
Being aged 80, and the widow of three husbands, she lately married for
her fourth a young man of eighteen, who had since bound himself
apprentice to a wheel-wright. ‘She seems exceedingly well pleased with
him, and remarks that, had it not been for the many changes of
husbands she had been blessed with, she must have long ago been dead.’
She lived, too, in hopes of a fifth husband, should this one
unfortunately not live long.

‘Thursday last,’ says the paper of June 5th, ‘a certain gray-haired
hair-merchant in the Landmarket, aged between seventy and eighty, a
very heavy and corpulent man, laid half a guinea that he should make
the round of Hope Park in twenty minutes, which is reckoned about a
Scots mile. He made it out in about _nineteen_ minutes, but was so
reduced before he reached the starting-post that he arrived there upon
_all-fours_. On taking a dram, he reverted so well, that he offered to
lay the same wager again instantly.’

The paper for 4th May related that, lately, ‘a young man, a merchant
in Edinburgh, came to Leith to see a female friend take boat in order
to cross the water. The boat being put off and near the pier-end
before he came down, and he observing a rival in the boat with madame,
was so exasperate, that in order to get at ’em, he jumped off the
pier-end into the flood, and had actually perished by this passionate
frolic, had not two of Montague’s regiment stepped down, and with both
difficulty and danger, haled him out.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: FEB. 6.]

‘Died the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, Countess of Dalkeith,
&c., aged about 90. She was relict of James Duke of Monmouth, natural
son of Charles II., beheaded on Tower Hill, July 15, 1685. She had
issue by the Duke, James, late Earl of Dalkeith, and Henry, late Earl
of Deloraine. In 1688, she was again married to Charles Lord
Cornwallis, and had issue a son and two daughters. By her death, an
estate of £15,000 per annum, and the title of Duke of Buccleuch,
descend to Francis, Earl of Dalkeith, her grandson.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: OCT. 18.]

Thomas Ruddiman gave in his paper an account of an incident at
Musselburgh, such as a subsequent native, the late David M. Moir
(Delta), would have delighted to paint in even [Sidenote: 1732.]
greater breadth. The magistrates, according to ancient annual custom,
had to perform the ceremony of riding round the marches of their
burghal property. On this occasion, they were attended by their
vassals and the burgesses, to the number of 700, all of them of course
mounted and in their best array. ‘The trumpets and hautboys marched in
front; then the magistrates and town council, followed by the
gentlemen vassals, with the town standard; after them the several
incorporations, distinguished by their respective shining new
standards, and headed by the masters of the crafts. In this good order
they marched out to the Links, making a gay appearance. But, alas!
while they were marshalling, an unlucky difference arose between the
weavers and the tailors, which should have the _pas_ or precedency. In
order to prevent effusion of the blood of his majesty’s good subjects,
they agreed to submit the merits of the cause to the magistrates. The
tailors argued that, as the precedency had previously fallen to them
by lot, no opposition could now be offered in that respect. It was
alleged, on the other hand, that they—the weavers—were _Men_, and as
such preferable at all events to _Tailors_. This signal affront could
not be digested. Accordingly, to work they went, without waiting the
decision of authority; and while the weaver squadron were filing off
to take the post of honour, with Captain Scott at their head, Adjutant
Fairley, who acted in that capacity to the tailor squadron, directed a
blow at the captain’s snout, which brought him to the ground. Thus
were the two corps fiercely engaged, and nought was to be seen but
heavy blows, hats off, broken heads, bloody noses, and empty saddles;
till at last the plea of manhood seemed to go in favour of the
needlemen, who took Scott, hero of the weavers, prisoner, disarmed
him, and beat his company quite out of the field, though far more
numerous. It was with the utmost difficulty that the weavers got their
standard carried off, which they lodged in their captain’s quarters
under the discharge of three huzzas: ’tis true the conquering tailors
were then off the field, and at a mile’s distance. The weavers allege,
in excuse of their retreat, that the butcher squadron had been ordered
up to assist the tailors, and that they did not incline to engage with
these men of blood.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: 1733. OCT. 30.]

A circumstance somewhat like the Tain entertainment, in honour of
Governor Macrae, took place in Edinburgh, on this king’s birthday,
which was observed with unusual rejoicings, on account of the recent
stimulus to loyalty from the marriage of the Princess Royal to the
Prince of Orange. ‘David Campbell, his Majesty’s Tailor for Scotland,
came to this kingdom from Jamaica, purely on design to solemnise the
day. He accordingly entertained at his lodgings in the Abbey his
Majesty’s Blue Gowns [a set of licensed beggars, corresponding in
number to the king’s years, which were now fifty], and at night he
kept open table, where several gentlemen were entertained, all the
royal healths were drunk, and those of every remarkable person of the
illustrious name of Campbell, with the sound of trumpet and other
music.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: OCT.]

The _Caledonian Mercury_ gives a droll, chirping account of an
association which, it is easy to see, had in view the prevention of an
over-severe excise system for Scotland. Yesternight, says the
paragraph, ‘there came on, at the Parrot’s Nest in this city, the
annual election of office-bearers in the ancient and venerable
_Assembly of Birds_; when the _Game-cock_ was elected preses; the
_Blackbird_, treasurer; the _Gled_, principal clerk; the _Crow_, his
depute; and the _Duck_, officer; all birds duly qualified to our happy
establishment, and no less enemies to the excise scheme. After which
an elegant entertainment was served up; all the royal and loyal
healths were plentifully drunk in the richest wines; _the glorious
205_; _all the bonny birds_, &c. On this joyful occasion nothing was
heard but harmonious music, each bird striving to excel in chanting
and warbling their respective melodious notes.’ The glorious 205, it
may be remarked, were those members of the House of Commons who had
recently thrown out a bill for increasing the tax on tobacco.

[Sidenote: 1734. MAR. 6.]

‘John Park, some time dempster to the Court of Justiciary, and who
lately stood a trial there for horse-stealing, was whipped through the
city, pursuant to his sentence; [Sidenote: 1734.] by which also he
stands condemned to transport himself, never again to return to
Scotland, on pain of being whipped quarterly till he is again
transported. He is a very old man, with a graceless gray head, gray
beard, and but one hand, having left the other in some scrape.’—_C.
M._

[Sidenote: APR. 19.]

‘When Mr Adam Fergusson, minister of Killin, came to Perth to intimate
the sentence of the commission (which looses Mr William Wilson’s
pastoral relation in that burgh), Mr Fergusson was met in the suburbs
by several of the inhabitants, who fell upon the gentleman, though
vested with supreme authority, and attended by several armed men; yet
they were all severely cudgelled, and obliged to retire, _re
infectâ_.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: JULY 12.]

‘Died here, the Rev. Mr John Maclaren, one of the ministers of the
city; esteemed a well-meaning man, and void of hypocrisy.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: 1735. JAN. 9.]

‘On Saturday was se’nnight [Dec. 28, 1734], died at Balquhidder, in
Perthshire, the famous Highland partisan, _Rob Roy_.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: JAN. 24.]

‘Died, in the 12th year of her age, the Lady Jane Campbell, fourth
daughter to his Grace the Duke of Argyle.... His Grace has no male
issue, but several daughters living, and it is the peculiar right of
this family, that when they marry any daughters, their vassals are
obliged to pay their portions, and are taxed in order to it, according
to the number of their cattle.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: AUG. 18.]

We find at this time a beginning to that system of emigration to
America by which the Highlands were so much depopulated during the
eighteenth century. ‘The trustees for the colony of Georgia have
projected a settlement of Highlanders from this country, and have
actually sent round for Inverness and Cromarty a ship commanded by
Captain Dunbar, to take in 160 men, women, and children, who are to be
settled on the far boundary of the river Alatamaha, who will be a
gallant barrier in case of a war with France and Spain. And Mr
Oglethorpe, with the other trustees, are applying to the society in
Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge to send a minister along
with them who speaks Irish, with proper encouragement; and we are
assured the society are so well satisfied with the project, that they
have amply instructed their committee of directors to close in with
it.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: 1736. JAN. 19.]

‘The annual friendly meeting of the gentlemen of the name of Wilson,
was held at the house of Jean Wilson, spouse to Arthur Cumming,
periwig-maker, opposite to the City Guard; the Right Hon. Alexander
Wilson, Lord Provost of the city, preses. There were present about
forty gentlemen and others of that clan, who were served at supper by
persons of the name. The entertainment was sumptuous, and choice wines
went merrily round.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: JAN. 21.]

‘A very uncommon chain of events happened here [Lanark] t’other week.
Elizabeth Fairy was proclaimed in order to marriage on Sunday, was
accordingly married on Monday, bore a child on Tuesday; her husband
went and stole a horse on Wednesday, for which he was banished on
Thursday; the heir of this marriage died on Friday, and was decently
interred on Saturday; all in one week.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: FEB. 9.]

‘The 4th inst., several young gentlemen of this place [Montrose] acted
Mr Allan Ramsay’s celebrated _Pastoral Comedy_, for the diversion of
the gentlemen and ladies of and about this town, with all the dresses
suitable, and performed it with so much spirit and humour, as
agreeably surprised the whole audience; to oblige whom they re-enacted
it and the farce of the _Mock Doctor_ two succeeding nights. The money
taken, after deducting the necessary charges, being very considerable,
was distributed among the poor.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: MAR. 13.]

‘This week, several gentlemen laid a wager that a horse, twenty-six
years old, belonging to Mr. Pillans, brewer, should not draw 101
stone-weight up the West Bow to the Weigh-house; and yesterday it was
surprisingly performed, one of the wagerers riding on the top of
all.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: JULY 9.]

Nine unfortunate young women—‘very naked and meagre beings’—‘made an
_amende_ [Sidenote: 1736.] _honorable_ through the several streets of
the city [of Edinburgh], the hangman attending them, and drums beating
to the tune of _Cuckolds-come-dig_.’—_C. M._

While Allan Ramsay was preparing his playhouse, an Italian female
rope-dancer, named Signora Violante, performed in Edinburgh and some
other Scottish towns. It was announced that she danced a minuet on the
rope, as well as it could be done on the floor—danced on a board
placed loosely on the rope—danced on the rope with two boys fastened
to her feet—danced with two swords at her feet—the rope being no
thicker than penny whip-cord. In Edinburgh, the scene of her
performances was the ‘Old Assembly Hall.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: 1738. MAR. 22.]

‘A grand convention was held of the adherents to the seceding
ministers of the Church of Scotland, in a square plain on Braid Hills,
two miles south of this city. About 10 before noon, Mr Thomas Mair,
minister of Orwel, in Kinross-shire, opened the service of the day
(standing in a pulpit reared up within a tent), with a sermon from
Jeremiah i. 5. At noon, Mr William Wilson, one of the ministers of
Perth, preached from Ezekiel xxii. 24, and afterwards baptized ten
children, brought thither some 20, some 30 miles off. At four
afternoon, Mr Ralph Erskine, one of the ministers of Dunfermline,
preached from Hosea xxiii. 9, &c. The apparent tendency of these
sermons was to excite devotion and fervour, a renewal of solemn
engagements, to deprecate sin in general, and those of this corrupt
age in particular: and it was observed that it was no proper expedient
either to wash away sin, or indemnify the sinner, to purchase
indulgences at the hand of the kirk-treasurer, and some other tenets
that savoured of a popish tincture were soundly lashed. There were
about 5000 hearers at each sermon (I mean of the household of faith),
some of whom from South Britain and Ireland, besides the ungodly
audience, consisting of many thousands, some of whom set fire to
furze; others hunted the hare around ’em to create disturbance, a
certain huntsman having laid a plot to carry off the collection. The
convention dispersed at 7 at night.’—_C. M._

[Sidenote: APR. 7.]

In consequence of a butcher’s dog going mad, and biting some others of
her species, the magistrates of Edinburgh ordered the slaughter of all
the butchers’ dogs in the city, and, commanding the seclusion of all
other dogs whatsoever, put a shilling on the head of every one which
should be found abroad. There then took place a crusade against the
canine species, which seems to have been nearly the sole Scottish
incident reported in London for the year. ‘The street cadies went very
early into obedience to this edict; for the drum had scarce gone round
to intimate the same, when they fell a-knocking on the head all
suspicious or ill-affected curs, some of which they hanged on
sign-posts, &c.; and with difficulty could they be restrained from
killing the dogs that lead the blind about the streets, or attacking
the ladies with their lap-dogs. A detachment of the City Guard was
ordered down to the butcher-market, when they made very clean havoc of
all the dogs there. Saturday, at noon, the town-officers being
provided with large oaken clubs, went a dog-hunting, and killed every
cur they could see or hear of; so that nothing was to be seen but
chasing, hacking, and slashing, or heard other than the lamentation of
butchers’ wives, &c., for the loss of _Credit_, _Honesty_, _Turk_,
_Twopenny_, _Cæsar_, &c.’

Three days later, the magistrates of Leith ordered all the dogs of
their town to be put to death. Accordingly, the curs were driven into
the harbour, and drowned, or else knocked on the head. ‘Several
gentlemen and others,’ it is reported, ‘have sent off their dogs to
the country, and a certain writer has despatched his favourite _Tipsy_
to Haddington in a cloak-bag. Patrick Kier in Multries-hill having
tied up his dog, the beast gnawed the rope, and getting loose, rushed
into the room on his master, and bit him severely. The dog was
immediately killed, and Mr Kier carried to the sea and dipped.’—_C.
M._

[Sidenote: 1740. JULY 30.]

Lord Lovat having occasion at this time to travel from his house of
Beaufort, in Inverness-shire, to Edinburgh, with his two daughters,
made an effort to get his coach [Sidenote: 1740.] ready, and, after
two or three days spent in its repair, set out on his journey. Passing
through Inverness without stopping, he came the first night to
Corriebrough. To pursue his own narrative, as given in a letter to a
friend:[772] ‘I brought my wheel-wright with me the length of
Aviemore, in case of accidents, and there I parted with him, because
he declared that my chariot would go safe enough to London; but I was
not eight miles from the place, when on the plain road, the axle-tree
of the hind-wheels broke in two, so that my girls were forced to go on
bare horses behind footmen, and I was obliged to ride myself, though I
was very tender, and the day very cold. I came with that equipage to
Ruthven late at night, and my chariot was pulled there by force of
men, where I got an English wheel-wright and a smith, who wrought two
days mending my chariot; and after paying very dear for their work,
and for my quarters two nights, I was not gone four miles from
Ruthven, when it broke again, so that I was in a miserable condition
till I came to Dalnakeardach, where my honest landlord, Charles
M‘Glassian, told me that the Duke of Athole had two as good workmen at
Blaire as were in the kingdom, and that I would get my chariot as well
mended there as at London. Accordingly, I went there and stayed a
night, and got my chariot very well mended by a good wright and a good
smith. I thought then that I was pretty secure till I came to this
place. I was storm-stayed two days at Castle Drummond by the most
tempestuous weather of wind and rain that I ever remember to see. The
Dutches of Perth and Lady Mary Drummond were excessively kind and
civil to my daughters and to me, and sent their chamberlain to conduct
me to Dumblain, who happened to be very useful to us that day; for I
was not three miles gone from Castle Drummond, when the axle-tree of
my fore-wheels broke in two, in the midst of the hill, betwixt
Drummond and the bridge of Erdoch, and we were forced to sit in the
hill, with a boisterous day, till Chamberlain Drummond was so kind as
to go down to Strath, and bring wrights, and carts, and smiths to our
assistance, who dragged us to the plain, where we were forced to stay
five or six hours till there was a new axle-tree made, be that it was
dark night before we came to Dumblain, which is but eight miles from
Castle Drummond, and we were all much fatigued. The next day, we came
to Lithgow, and the day after that we arrived here, so that we were
twelve days on our journey by our misfortunes, which was seven days
more than ordinary.’

[Sidenote: 1743. JAN. 10.]

‘Friday [Jan. 7], died William Mackintosh of Borlum, Esq., aged
upwards of 80 years of age. He has been prisoner in the Castle these
15 years for his accession to the Rebellion 1715.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: JAN. 17.]

‘On Thursday last [Jan. 13], died the Honourable Colonel John Erskine
of Carnock. He was a True Old Whig.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: JAN. 17.]

‘Friday, the place of one of the Principal Clerks of this city was
conferred on Mr William Forbes, writer, he paying, as a consideration
for the same, in room of Mr Home deceased, £1410 sterling.’—_E. E. C._

APR. 14.

‘Thursday last, died at Sanquhar, William Kelloch, aged 111 years. He
served the town as one of their common officers 96 years, and his son,
now living, has served in the same station 70 years. He was a very
honest man, had his senses to the last, and never made use of
spectacles.’—_E. E. C._

[Sidenote: MAY 9.]

‘Notwithstanding the late execution of Margaret Stewart for
child-murder, yet we are told that two more new-born children have
since been found dead, with marks of violence on them.’—_E. E. C._

INDEX.

Aa-na-Mullich, skirmish at, between the government troops and the
Mackenzies, 463.

Aberdeen, King’s College, grants a diploma to a quack doctor, 262.

Aberdeen, pope burned in effigy at, 4;
disturbances at Church of, on account of doxology, 103;
woollen manufactures at, 156;
popish meeting dispersed at, 203.

Abernethy forest, cutting of, superintended by Aaron Hill, 547.

ADAIR, John, mathematician, engaged in making maps of Scotland, 42.

Advertisements, curious, in _Edinburgh Gazette_ in 1707, 325.

Advocates’ Library, established under Parliament House, 245.

African Company, established, 121;
expedition to Darien, 206;
restitution of its losses, 259.

Agricultural improvements, introduced into Scotland by Elizabeth
Mordaunt, an English lady, 419;
promoted by a society, 484.

Agricultural Improvers, Society of, 484;
implements invented, 503.

AIKENHEAD, Thomas, tried and executed for blasphemy, 160.

ALLARDICE, Catharine, a misspelled letter by, 595.

Anatomy first proposed to be taught in Edinburgh, 105.

Ancrum Bridge rebuilt by kirk collection, 134.

ANDERSON, James, editor of _Diplomata Scotiæ_, encouraged in his work,
318;
appointed postmaster for Scotland, 400;
lets a house to Sir R. Steele, 418.

ANDERSON, Mrs, printer of the Bible, 364.

ANGUS, an Episcopal clergyman, deposed, 78.

Apostasy from Protestant faith punished, 214.

Apparel, act of parliament for restraining expenses of, 149;
old fashions of dress enumerated, 148;
extravagances of, denounced, 448, 482;
cost of various articles, 571.

ARBUTHNOT, Lady, her jointure, 57.

Archbishop of Glasgow imprisoned, 12;
permitted to live at certain places, 167.

Archers, Royal Company of, 495.

ARGYLE, John, Duke of, takes command of government troops (1715), 389.

ARGYLE, seventh Earl, and first Duke of, 1;
his debauched life, 191;
befriends the Master of Lovat, 187.

Arithmetic, a mechanical invention for, 210.

Arms being got from abroad, James Donaldson proposes to manufacture
them at home, 311;
edict against carrying arms, 497.

ARNOT, Sir David, assault by, 157.

Assembly, General, clergy of, at first plainly dressed, 148.

Assembly in Edinburgh for dancing purposes, 480.

Aston’s company of players, 518, 544, 550.

Astrology practised by John Stobo, 85.

Atheistical books imported into Edinburgh, 160.

Atmospherical phenomena, 366, 442, 480.

Auchensaugh, covenant renewed at, in 1712, 376.

Auchterarder, riot at, on reading of funeral-service, 366.

BAILLIE, Captain William, imprisoned debtor, liberated by Privy
Council, 28.

BAIRD, Archibald, imprisoned for housebreaking, 64.

BALCARRES, Earl of, imprisoned at Revolution, 11;
replaced in confinement, 19;
story of Dundee’s ghost having appeared to, 19.

Baldoon park for rearing cattle, 152.

BALFOUR of Denmill, mysterious disappearance of, 346.

BANE, Donald, a prize-fighter, 522.

‘_Bangstrie_’ at Earlshall, Croshlachie, Ellieston, &c., 157–159.

Banishment petitioned for by various culprits, 116.

Bank-notes for twenty shillings commenced, 212.

Bank of Scotland established, 128;
temporarily suspends payment in 1704, 306;
run upon in 1715, 402;
last stoppage in 1728, 544;
sets up four branches, 577.

Bank, Royal, of Scotland, established, 537;
causes a stoppage in the Bank of Scotland, 544.

Banking, primitive style of, by a shopkeeper in Glasgow, 577.

Baptism, inconsistencies regarding, 370.

_Barbreck’s Bone_, for cure of madness, 262.

Bargarran’s daughter (Christian Shaw), her case, 167;
thread spun by her, 510.

Barrisdale, Macdonell of, 615.

Bass, siege of, 95.

Bath of hot air (a hummum) established at Perth, 260.

BAYNE, James, wright, ruined by his concern in rebuilding Holyrood
Palace, 29.

_Beardie_ [Walter Scott]‘s marriage, 37;
attends a funeral at Glasgow, 387.

BELL, Sir John, of Glasgow, episcopal worship at his house disturbed,
273.

Bible in Irish language, first printed, 39.

——, printing of, in Scotland (1712), 364.

Bills of Exchange, treatise upon, printed, 278.

Births, ceremonies at, 572.

Bishops expelled from the Convention in 1689, 5.

_Black-foot_, a, litigation by one for remuneration, 191.

_Black Mail_ in the Highlands, 498, 612, 614.

—— _Watch_, the, 498, 581, 610.

BLACKWELL, a preceptor, libels Lady Inglis of Cramond, 89.

_Blair_ of Balthayock and Carnegie of Finhaven, 190.

‘Bloody Baillie,’ a witness on Porteous Mob, 601.

Blythswood, Campbell of, _cousinred_ with Sir Walter Scott, 37.

BOIG, Adam, starts the _Edinburgh Courant_, 314.

Books burnt at Cross, 276.

——, licenses for printing, 52, 220.

BOSWELL of Balmouto, a rash Jacobite, 84.

Botanic Garden established in Edinburgh, 81;
extension of, 142.

BRAND, Alexander, in trouble for making ‘donatives’ to Privy Council,
176;
proposes scavengering of Edinburgh, 592.

Brewers of Edinburgh in rebellion, 509.

Bride’s clothes, their cost, 240.

BRIDGE, William, an English coppersmith, 33.

BRIDGMAN, or Evory, a pirate, seizes a man-of-war, 150.

BROICH, James, sad tale of his ship taken by a privateer, 22.

BROWN, Dr Andrew (Dolphington), is licensed to print a treatise of his
own on fevers, 52.

BROWN, Jean, of Potterrow, a religious visionary, 430.

BROWN, Rev. George, his _Rotula Arithmetica_, 210.

_Browny_, a spirit, 284.

BRUCE, Captain Henry, imprisoned for defending Holyroodhouse, 13.

BRUCE, David, and other boys, carried out to sea in an open boat, 355.

BRUCE, Peter, confined at the Revolution, 12;
transfers right of making playing-cards, 34.

BUCHANAN, David, servant of Lord Dundee, 15.

Bugs in Glasgow, 542.

Bullock, fat, at Dalkeith, 479.

Burghs, royal, convention of, curious details, 51.

Burleigh, Master of, murders Stenhouse, a schoolmaster, 326.

BURNET, Captain, of Barns, his unscrupulous recruiting, 43.

BUTE, Earl of, his law-case against his stepmother, 375.

CAIRNS, a boy, murdered, 547.

Caldron, a copper, law-case about, 77.

CALLENDER, John, master-smith, his account against exchequer, 47
_note_.

Cambuslang, religious demonstrations at, 607.

CAMERON, Sir Evan, of Locheil, 288.

Cameronian regiment raised in 1689, 8.

Cameronians, the, proceedings of, 376, 532.

CAMPBELL of Cessnock’s parks for rearing cattle, 153;
his plan for shot-casting, 155.

CAMPBELL of Lawers, murdered at Greenock, 473.

CAMPBELL of Lochnell’s funeral, 387.

Canongate, duels in, 466.

—— Tolbooth, mutiny of prisoners in, 71;
petition from keeper of, 80;
mutinies of recruits in, 182, 601.

Card-playing, law against, 296.

Cards, playing, manufacture of, a monopoly, 34.

CARDROSS, Lord, and Sir John Cochrane, case between, 191.

CARMICHAEL of Bonnyton, his quarrel with opposite neighbours, 73.

CARSTARES, William, the king’s adviser, 107;
his death, 403.

Catarrh, infection of, at St Kilda, 181.

Catholics, troubles of, after the Revolution, 25;
severe treatment of priests, 82;
act against in 1700, 205;
worship interrupted in Edinburgh, 108;
at Aberdeen, 203;
again in Edinburgh, 204, 466;
Catholic priest banished, 362;
gentlemen troubled, 295;
priests numerous and bold, 383;
seminary for priests at Scalan, 205;
Catholic books seized and burned, 146.

Cattle, breeds of, efforts to improve, at Baldoon and elsewhere, 152.

Cattle fair of Crieff, 338.

—— ‘lifting’ in the Highlands, 30, 420, 486, 498, 610, 614.

CAYLEY, Captain John, shot by Mrs M‘Farlane, 412.

Cess, evasion of, in the Highlands, 91.

CHANCELLOR of Shieldhill fined for a riot, 73.

CHARTERIS, Colonel Francis, gambling anecdote of, 296;
his death, 579.

Child-murder, imputed, cases of, 19, 27, 625.

Children of the upper classes, provision for, in various instances, 55.

Choille Van, skirmish at, 468.

Christian Knowledge, Society for Propagation of, 252.

Claim of Right, some articles violated, 10.

Claret, &c., price of in Scotland, at beginning of 18th century, 183,
270.

CLELAND, William, appointed lieutenant-colonel of Cameronian regiment,
9.

Clerical uniform recommended, 147.

Cloth-manufacture, woollen, 155.

Clubs of a censurable character, 521, 543.

CLUNY MACPHERSON establishes a guard in lieu of ‘Black Watch,’ 611.

Coal-pits at Tranent, mode of draining, 472.

—— -works, railway at Prestonpans, 472.

COCKBURN, Andrew, post-boy, robbed, 32.

—— ——, an Episcopalian minister at Glasgow, his chapel destroyed by a
mob, 367.

COCKBURN, Justice-clerk, quarrels with Earl of Ilay and Sir David
Dalrymple, 402.

COCKBURN, Mr, of Ormiston, an improver of agriculture, 485.

Cock-fighting introduced, 266.

Coin of Scotland at the Union, 330.

Coldingham, kirk discipline of, 92;
episcopal meeting-house, 93;
witches of Coldingham, 94.

_Collegium Butterense_ at Aberdeen, 230.

Colliers in Fife and Lothian, as slaves, 248.

Combats with swords in public, 522.

Commerce as affected by the Union, 336, 338.

—— and Manufactures in Scotland, subsequent to Revolution, 336, 416.

Common Prayer, Book of, two clergymen maltreated for using, at
Dumfries, 65;
Rev. James Greenshields prosecuted for using, 350.

Companies formed for manufactures, 88.

Concert of music in Edinburgh in 1695, 89;
by Edinburgh amateurs, 432.

Condition and habits of Scottish people, change for the better, 568;
hospitality, 570;
dress, &c., 571.

Copyrights of books, granted by Privy Council to printers and
booksellers, 220.

CORNWELL, Christopher, servitor, imprisoned, 15.

Coronation of George I., rejoicings at, 414.

Corporation privileges, troubles arising from, 75.

Correction-houses for mendicants built, 219.

_Courant, Edinburgh_, commenced, 314.

_Courant, Edinburgh Evening_, newspaper started (1718), 438.

Covenant sworn at Auchensaugh, 376.

Covenanters’ heads, re-interment of, 532.

Cowbin, estate of, ruined by drifted sand, 119;
Kinnaird of Culbin petitions for exemption from cess, 119;
inscription on family tombstone, 120.

CRAIG, Margaret, a poor girl, drowns her infant, 19.

Craigcrook, romantic story of a murder connected with, 333.

CRAWFORD, Earl of, president of parliament, 1;
superintends torture of a prisoner, 40.

CRAWFORD, John, Morer’s account of, 271.

Crieff, cattle-fair of, described, 338.

CRIGHTON, Captain John, his restraint relaxed and renewed, 67;
liberated, 68.

Criminalities connected with the sexual affections, 59.

Criminals condemned to become soldiers, 64.

—— banished without trial, 115, 211.

Cromdale, dispersion of Highlanders at, 2.

CULLODEN, Lady, the body forgotten at her funeral, 309.

_Culreach_, system of in Scotland, 236.

_Curiosities, House of_, at Grange Park, 99.

Customs, attacks on officers of, 215, 589, 594.

Dalnaspidal, fête at, by General Wade, 561.

DALRYMPLE, Sir John, his enmity against Highland Jacobites, 61;
his concern in massacre of Glencoe, 62.

DALYELL, Sir Thomas, of Binns, treated for lunacy, 297.

Dancing Assembly established, 479;
meetings for in provincial towns, 590.

Darien Expedition, 107, 206.

DAVIDSON, Robert, of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, petitions Council in
consequence of having had his house destroyed, 108.

DAVIDSON, William, ‘writer,’ incarcerated for false news, 72.

Dearth in Scotland, 136, 195, 348, 606.

Debauchery in Edinburgh, 312.

Dee, bridge over at Black Ford, erected, 277.

Defoe visits Scotland (1706), 322;
conducts the _Courant_ newspaper, 324, 325;
his account of the _Equivalent_, 328;
quoted regarding trade of Scotland, 336;
his illiberal remark on Greenshields’s case, 351.

Deportment, Rules of Good, by Petrie, 455.

DICKSON, Margaret, her trial, execution, and subsequent recovery, 500.

DICKSON, Sir R., of Sorn-beg, refuses to pay for wines to gratify the
officers of state, 188.

Dies and punches for coining, 141.

Dingwall, poverty-stricken in 1704, 52;
deputation from Inverness visits the town to report on its trade, 52;
effect of cheap whisky at, 133.

_Dirty Luggies_ in Edinburgh, 593.

Disarming of the Highlanders, 497;
General Wade’s letter to Lord Townsend, 528.

Dogs, mad, 624.

Don river dried up in several places, 442.

DON, Sir James, of Newton, receives permission to travel into England
with horses and arms, 50.

DONALDSON, James, commences _Edinburgh Gazette_ (1699), 313;
which stops (1707), but is recommenced, 324;
his invention for manufacture of arms, 311.

_Donatives_ to Privy Council, custom of giving, 177.

Douglas, Cameronian regiment formed at, 8.

DOUGLAS, Captain, convicted of assault, 60.

DOUGLAS, Duchess of, her style of speech, 507.

DOUGLAS, Duke of, murders Mr Ker, 506.

Dow Loch, story of the, 263.

Doxology attempted to be introduced in church, 103.

Dress, old, articles of, enumerated, 148;
a constant fashion of, proposed in parliament, 149;
description of, 269;
changes of, 571.

Drove-road for cattle at New Galloway, 153.

DRUM, Lady of, petitions to be left unmolested by Irvine of Murtle,
144.

DRUM, Laird of, taken in care for weakness of mind, 22.

DRUMMOND, George, founds the Royal Infirmary, 557.

DRUMMOND, Lord, popish baptism of his child, 383.

DRUMMOND, May, a preaching Quaker lady, affecting case of, 559.

DUDDS, Dr, a quack mediciner, 261.

Duel between Matthew M‘Kail and William Trent in King’s Park,
Edinburgh, 149;
other duels, 543, 566.

Duels, military, their prevalence, 405.

DUFF, Laird of Braco, checks lawless proceedings of the gipsies of
Moray, 234.

Dumfries, riot at, from reading Book of Common Prayer, 65.

DUN, Lord, a judge, anecdote of, 293.

DUNBAR, Sir David, of Baldoon, his breeds of cattle, 152.

Dundee, Jacobitism in, 415;
grain riots at, 452;
dancing assembly at, 590.

DUNDEE, Lady, 97.

——, Viscount of, 1, 16, 19.

DUNDONALD, Countess of, her death, 356.

DUNKELD, Bishop of, speaks pathetically of James VII., 5.

DUPIN, Nicolas, engaged in the linen-manufacture and paper-making, 86;
his inventions, 102.

Dutch Guards’ officer, wounded in duel, 543.

DYSART, Rev. John, of Coldingham, his rigorous discipline, 92.

Earlshall, violences at, 157.

Earthenware manufacture, 156.

Earthquake at Selkirk, 543;
at Glasgow, 581.

East Indiaman, loss of, near island of Lewis, 551.

_Echo_, a literary paper proposed, 621.

Eclipse of the sun, April 22, 1715, 399.

EDIE, David, apostate from Protestant faith, 214.

Edinburgh, dirty state of, 593.

——, great fire in (1700), 225.

——, Lord Provost of, inflicts capital punishment, 568.

Edinburgh; see the entire volume _passim_.

EDMONDSTONE of Newton, banished for concern in murder of the Master of
Rollo, 119.

EDMONDSTONE, William, comes into collision with Row of Inverallan, 49.

Education in practical arts recommended (1726), 530.

EGLINTOUN, Earl of, beggars at his funeral, 555.

Egyptians, or gipsies, 233.

Election for Ross-shire, on a Saturday, 341;
one at Fortrose, strange proceedings at, 465.

Election of Peers at Holyrood, incident at one, 403.

ELPHINSTONE, Alexander, fights a duel with Lieutenant Swift, 566.

Episcopal clergy, rabbled out at the Revolution, 6;
persecuted, 78, 229, 273, 350, 366, 405;
two relieved by Principal Carstares, 404.

Episcopal meeting-houses at Eyemouth, &c., suppressed, 229;
one at Glasgow destroyed by a mob, 368;
remarkable number of, in Edinburgh, in 1715, 405;
increase of, in the North, 480.

Episcopalians, their troubles regarding Book of Common Prayer, 65, 366.

‘Equivalent Money,’ at the Union, 259, 328;
its disposal, 444.

Equivocating prayers, 78.

Erskine, disgraceful scenes at parish-church of, 69.

ERSKINE, Mrs, widow of minister of Chirnside, petitions for relief,
181.

ERSKINE, Thomas, a Quaker brewer, 467.

Exchange Coffee-house (Edinburgh) circulates ‘seditious news,’ and is
shut up in consequence, 72.