Part 70
Watson was a man of some merit, and deserves to be remembered as the first publisher of a collection of Scottish poetry. His death, with the style of ‘his majesty’s printer,’ on the 24th September 1722, is noticed by the _Edinburgh Courant_. He appears to have thriven by his patent, as the paragraph stating his widow’s death, a few years later, adverts to the considerable means which had been left to her, and which she then left to a second husband.
Footnote 442:
Brochure of two pages, _Miscellany Papers_, Adv. Lib.
Footnote 443:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_.
Footnote 444:
Wodrow _Correspondence_, _index_.
Footnote 445:
Wodrow MSS., Adv. Lib., and printed entire in _A New Book of Ballads_, Edinburgh, 1844. Lockhart admits that Cockburn was not one of the most respectable of the Episcopal clergy.
Footnote 446:
_Strange News from Scotland, or Scotch Presbyterian Piety evidently proved by the Regard they shew to Consecrated Churches; a late Instance whereof may be seen at this Day at Dunglass, belonging to Sir James Hall, Bart., near Cockburnspath._ Sold by J. Morphew, near Stationers’ Hall. 1712.
Footnote 447:
_Courant_ newspaper, quoted in _Reliquiæ Scoticæ_.
Footnote 448:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 735, 738.
Footnote 449:
Sir Hugh Dalrymple’s report of the case, quoted in Burton’s _Criminal Trials_, i. 55.
Footnote 450:
‘The building of Inversnaid Fort was contracted for by —— Nasmyth, builder in Edinburgh, grandfather of Alexander Nasmyth, the well-known landscape-painter. One winter-night, Mr Nasmyth and his party of workmen were roused from sleep in their lodging at the rising fort by some travellers, who piteously beseeched shelter from the snow-storm. On the door being opened, Rob Roy’s men rushed in, and began to abuse the poor masons in a shocking manner; could scarcely be restrained from taking their lives; and finally drove or dragged them half-naked through the snow to a place where they dismissed them, after taking them solemnly bound by oath never to come back to that country. Mr Nasmyth, being held by government to a contract which he could not fulfil, was seriously injured in his means by this affair; but its worst consequence was the effect of the exposure of that dreadful night on his health. He sunk under his complaints about eighteen months after.’—_Information communicated by Mr James Nasmyth, late of Patrickcroft, near Manchester._
Footnote 451:
_Alamode_, ‘a kind of thin silken manufacture.’—_Johnson._
Footnote 452:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_.
Footnote 453:
_Analecta_, ii. 76.
Footnote 454:
These expressions are from the _Engagement to Duties_, printed in Struthers’s _Hist. Scot. from Union to 1748_.
Footnote 455:
_Analecta_, i. 322.
Footnote 456:
Fountainhall’s _Decisions_, ii. 756.
Footnote 457:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, ii. 85, 86.
Footnote 458:
_Analecta Scotica_, i. 877.
Footnote 459:
_Courant_ newspaper, _Reliquiæ Scot._
Footnote 460:
_Analecta_, ii. 206.
Footnote 461:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, ii. 254.
Footnote 462:
P. Rae’s _History of Rebellion of 1715–16_, p. 40.
Footnote 463:
A congenial spirit, Matthew Prior, produced a sort of paraphrase of this piece:
‘In total death suppose the mortal lie, No new hereafter, nor a future sky, Yet bear thy lot content, yet cease to grieve, Why, ere Death comes, shouldst thou forbear to live? The little time thou hast ’twixt instant now And death’s approach, is all the gods allow: And of this little hast thou aught to spare To sad reflection and corroding care? The moments past, if thou art wise, retrieve With pleasant memory of the bliss they give; The present hour in present mirth employ, And bribe the future with the hope of joy.’
Footnote 464:
_Analecta_, ii. 261.
Footnote 465:
From a private letter, dated Edinburgh, Feb. 20, 1714, _Analecta Scotica_, i. 14.
Footnote 466:
His son Robert, father of Walter Scott, W.S. The youth was designed for the sea, but became disgusted with it in consequence of a shipwreck on the first voyage, and settled as a farmer at Sandyknowe, near Kelso.
Footnote 467:
_Journal of Mr James Hart_ (Edinburgh, 1832), _preface_.
Footnote 468:
This play was entitled _Marciano, or the Discovery_, and was described on the title as having been ‘acted with great applause before his Majesty’s High Commissioner and others of the Nobility at the Abbey of Holyroodhouse on St John’s Night.’
Footnote 469:
George Chalmers, _Life of Ramsay_, quoting the _Scots Courant_ for August and December, 1715. The Tennis Court still exists, but reduced to the condition of a smith’s workshop.
Footnote 470:
Alex. Maxwell to R. Wodrow, Edin., Feb. 15, 1715, in _Private Letters, now first printed from Orig. MSS._ Edin. 1829.
Footnote 471:
Preface to the _Journal of Mr James Hart_. Edinburgh, 1832.
Footnote 472:
Meaning the total solar eclipse which happened on the 29th of March 1652, of which see an account in _Domestic Annals_, vol. ii. p. 215.
Footnote 473:
_Historical Summary of the Post-office in Scotland._ By T. B. Lang. (For private circulation.) Edinburgh, 1856.
Footnote 474:
Justiciary Record. Sir John, soon after his collision with Mr Houston, was actively engaged in raising volunteers at Greenock for the suppression of the Rebellion.
Footnote 475:
_Hist. Acc. Bank of Scotland_, p. 10.
Footnote 476:
Orig. letter in Paper Office, quoted by George Chalmers, _Caledonia_, i. 870, _note_.
Footnote 477:
_Private Letters_, &c., Edin., 1829, p. 17.
Footnote 478:
_Life of Carstares_, prefixed to his _State Papers_. Edinburgh, 1774.
Footnote 479:
Notes on Old Tolbooth, _Scottish Journal_, p. 299.
Footnote 480:
Chalmers’s _Life of Ruddiman_, p. 37.
Footnote 481:
Justiciary Record.
Footnote 482:
_Caldwell Papers_, i. 235.
Footnote 483:
_St James’s Evening Post._
Footnote 484:
Newspaper advertisements.
Footnote 485:
See _Domestic Annals_ under those dates.
Footnote 486:
_Reports of the Commissioners_, fol.
Footnote 487:
The original subscription list is in possession of N. Fergusson Blair, of Balthayock, Esq.
Footnote 488:
Burton’s _History of Scotland_, ii. 218.
Footnote 489:
Colonel Patrick Vans of Barnbarroch.
Footnote 490:
_Scottish Elegiac Verses_, 1842.
Footnote 491:
See Lockhart’s _Life of Scott_, index.
Footnote 492:
Justiciary Record.
Footnote 493:
Notes to _Peveril of the Peak_.
Footnote 494:
Pope’s Works, Roscoe’s ed., ix. 34, 35.
Footnote 495:
_The Scots Courant._
Footnote 496:
_Scots Courant_, Oct 24, 1716.
Footnote 497:
_A Treatise on Forest Trees, in a Letter_, &c., published at Edinburgh in 1761.
Footnote 498:
Perhaps Sir Archibald was wrong here. See the account of Baldoon Park in this volume, under the date October 1696.
Footnote 499:
_Spalding Club Miscellany_, ii. 97.
Footnote 500:
The above facts are gathered from an anonymous volume, published in 1729, entitled _An Essay on the Means of Enclosing and Fallowing Scotland_.
Footnote 501:
MS. of Graham of Gartmore, App. to Burt’s _Letters_, 2d ed., ii. 349.
Footnote 502:
Gordon of Ellon, son to a farmer in Bourtie—a merchant in Edinburgh, and once a bailie there, and a rich man. By him the house of Ellon was built anew in a handsome style.—_View of Diocese of Aberdeen_, Spal. Club, p. 301 (written about beginning of the 18th century).
Footnote 503:
In February 1721, John Webster, a gardener, having committed murder upon a young woman named Campbell, ‘on Heriot’s Hospital ground, behind our town-wall,’ was tried in the barony of Broughton, and condemned to die.
Footnote 504:
_Celebrated Trials_, iii. 272 (name and date of incident there given erroneously). _Scottish Journal_, Oct. 23, 1847. Contemporary confession. _Notes and Queries_, Dec. 1859, quoting three numbers of the contemporary newspaper, the _Scots Courant_.
Footnote 505:
Broadside reprinted in _Analecta Scotica_, i. 246.
Footnote 506:
Letter of Rev. Mr Murray, dated Comrie Manse, 2d July, 1717; _Ant. Scot. Transactions_, iii. 296.
In a letter of Mr James Anderson, editor of the _Diplomata Scotiæ_, to his son, Edinburgh, June 20, 1717, it is noted, as a recent event, that ‘Rob Roi surrendered to D. Atholl, but not meeting with such things as he expected, has made his escape.’—_MSS._, _Adv. Library_.
Footnote 507:
_Steele’s Correspondence_, edited by John Nicholls. 2 vols. 1787.
Footnote 508:
_Streams from Helicon_, 1720, p. 48.
Footnote 509:
He wrote to his daughter on the 17th September and 7th October, 1720, from Edinburgh.—_Steele’s Letters._
Footnote 510:
_Analecta Scotica_, i. 16.
Footnote 511:
Cibber’s [Shiels’s] _Lives of the Poets_, iv. 118.
Footnote 512:
Gibson’s _History of Glasgow_, 1777, p. 208. It was asserted that the duties paid to government for tobacco brought to Glasgow between August 1716 and March 1722, amounted to no more than £2702. A representation for the Glasgow merchants shewed that the real sum was £38,047, 17_s._ 0¾_d._—_Edin. Ev. Courant_, Jan. 21, 1723.
Footnote 513:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, iii. 129.
Footnote 514:
_The City of Edinburgh’s Address to the Country_, Ramsay’s _Poems_, i. 19.
Footnote 515:
_Journey through Scotland_ [by Macky?], 1723, p. 274.
Footnote 516:
_Edinburgh Evening Courant_, June 14, 1722. ‘On Tuesday last [19th January 1725], being the birthday of Prince Frederick, there was an extraordinary appearance of ladies and persons of distinction, at a musick opera in this city.’—_Ibid._
Footnote 517:
M‘Gibbon died on the 3d October 1756, bequeathing the whole of his means to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
Footnote 518:
‘My Lord Colville died in March last, and about Culross it is very currently believed that he has appeared more than once, and has been seen by severals. Some say that he appeared to Mr Logan, his brother-in-law [minister of Torry]; but he does not own it. Two of his servants were coming to the house, and saw him walking near them; and, if I remember, he called to them just in the same voice and garb he used to be in; but they fled from him, and came in, in a great fright. They are persons of credibility and gravity, as I am told.”[521]
Footnote 519:
Arnot’s _Hist. Edinburgh_, p. 379.
Footnote 520:
Adam Craig died in October 1741. For this and several facts involved in the above article, I have to express my obligation to Mr David Laing’s Introduction to Johnson’s _Scots Musical Museum_.
Footnote 521:
Wodrow’s Analecta, iii. 519.
Footnote 522:
_Analecta Scotica_, i. 195.
Footnote 523:
Ibid. ii. 830.
Footnote 524:
From documents printed in Law’s _Memorials_.
Footnote 525:
George Chalmers’s _Life of Ruddiman_, p. 83.
Footnote 526:
_Edin. Ev. Courant_, Feb. 18, 1850.
Footnote 527:
Those who are desirous of further light upon the Marrow Controversy, may be referred to Struthers’s _History of Scotland from the Union_, &c., 2 vols. 8vo, which, by the way, is a book entitled to more notice than it has received. The worthy author, a self-educated working-man, has been led by his own taste to give details, not elsewhere to be easily met with, of the ecclesiastical proceedings of the earlier half of the eighteenth century, all of which he treats in the spirit of a strenuous old-fashioned west-country Presbyterian. He is copious and severe about the Jacobite and Episcopalian movements, but slights the troubles of the Catholics as ‘beneath the dignity of history.’
Footnote 528:
Letter of Alexander Jaffray of Kingsmills, to Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk.—_Spalding Club Miscellany_, ii. 98.
Footnote 529:
Jaffray’s letter, as above.
Footnote 530:
‘LONDON, _September 3, 1720_.—Last Wednesday, the York Buildings Company sent down to Scotland about sixty thousand pounds in guineas, guarded by a party of horse, being part of the purchase-money for forfeited estates. The same is to be lodged in the Exchequer at Edinburgh.’—_Newspapers of the day._
Footnote 531:
The Commissioners, who were engaged in their task for nearly nine years, seem to have had £1000 per annum each.
Footnote 532:
5 George I. cap. 20. _Statutes at large_, v. 152.
Footnote 533:
Mr James Drummond, on the 26th May 1720, writes from Blair-Drummond to ‘Mr David Drummond, Treasurer of the Bank, Edinburgh:’ ‘I’m heartily glad the Bank holds out so well. Ther’s great pains taken in the countrey to raise evill reports upon it. I had occasion to find so in a pretty numerous company the other day; yet I did not find any willing to part with your notes at the least discount.’—_MSS. in possession of N. Fergusson Blair of Balthayock._
Footnote 534:
The arrangement of the Friendly Society consisted simply in a combination of house-proprietors, each paying in 100 merks per £1000 Scots, or a fifteenth of the value of the property, as a stock out of which to compensate for all damage by fire.
Footnote 535:
_The Scribblers Lashed._ Ramsay’s _Poems_, i. 316.
Footnote 536:
From a contemporary account appended to _Satan’s Invisible World Discovered_.
Footnote 537:
Private Letters, &c.
Footnote 538:
See under September 1711.
Footnote 539:
Dr Mitchell’s _Strange and Wonderful Discourse concerning the Witches and Warlocks in Calder_, quoted in Sharpe’s edition of Law’s _Memorials_.
Footnote 540:
_Edin. Evening Courant._
Footnote 541:
_Ibid._
Footnote 542:
Bishop Keith’s _Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops_.
Footnote 543:
_Edin. Evening Courant._
Footnote 544:
From the documents printed in _Criminal Trials illustrative of the Heart of Mid-Lothian_. Edinburgh, 1818.
Footnote 545:
Edinburgh, 1835.
Footnote 546:
Private Letters, &c., p. 29.
Footnote 547:
Sir Walter Scott mentions this little fact in the _Border Minstrelsy_.
Footnote 548:
For a short time before the insurrection, he had acted as factor to Sir John Preston of Preston Hall, in Mid-Lothian, now also a forfeited estate, but of minor value.
Footnote 549:
_Memorial of William and Robert Ross to the Commissioners on Forfeited Estates. Report of Commissioners_, printed for Jacob Tonson, 1724.—Traditional and topographical notes from a relative of Donald Murchison.
Footnote 550:
It may be curious to contrast with the above account of the fight of Aa-na-Mullich, framed mainly from authentic documents, the following traditionary account, which has been communicated by Mr F. Macdonald, residing at Druidag Lodge, Lochalsh.
‘The first encounter that this famous man [Donald Murchison] had with the royal commissioner and troops was at the pass of Aa-na-Mullich, about a hundred yards from the end of Loch Affaric. He stationed himself and his Kintail men at the pass, on the north side of the river which empties itself into Loch Affaric, on a place called Tor-an-beithe, or Birch Hillock, where they had a good view of the enemy some miles off. On advancing towards this pass, Captain Monro of Fearn [mistake for Ross of Easterfearn], the royal commissioner, sent his son forward to reconnoitre on horseback, and when he appeared on the opposite side of the river, the poor fellow was shot at once, receiving a mortal wound. Upon hearing the report, and that Monro’s son was shot, the bulk of the royal troops wheeled round, and took to their heels, leaving Captain Monro with very few of his men to help in the painful duty of conveying his wounded son back. In this emergency, he implored Murchison to lend him some of his men to assist in carrying the wounded young man till he should be able to join his own fugitive troops; which, with his wonted generosity, he immediately complied with. They constructed a litter the best way they could, and retraced their steps to Beauly, which, however, they did not reach before the young man died. Murchison and his men followed, lest those troops who formerly fled should turn round and assault the men he had given to assist them. He followed as far as Knockfin on the heights of Strathglass.’ [Mr Macdonald ends by quoting two or three stanzas of a Gaelic poem composed by an old woman at Beauly, as they were passing with the dead body.]
Footnote 551:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant._
Footnote 552:
_Caledonian Mercury_, May 7, 1722.
Footnote 553:
_Wodrow Correspondence_, ii. 640.
Footnote 554:
Arnot’s _Crim. Trials_, p. 335.
Footnote 555:
_Wodrow Correspondence_, ii. 646.
Footnote 556:
_Cal. Mercury_, Aug. 7, 1722.
Footnote 557:
_Caledonian Mercury._
Footnote 558:
English contemporary journals. Broadside account of the skirmish. Information from Lochcarron, MS.
Footnote 559:
Wade’s Report in App. to 2d ed. of Burt’s _Letters_, 1822, vol. ii. p. 280.
Footnote 560:
_Lockhart Papers._
Footnote 561:
MS. poem on _Wade’s Roads in Scotland_, dated 1737, in possession of the Junior United Service Club.
Footnote 562:
The traditional account of Donald Murchison, communicated by Mr F. Macdonald, states that the heroic commissioner had been promised a handsome reward for his services; but Seaforth proved ungrateful. ‘He was offered only a small farm called Bundalloch, which pays at this day to Mr Matheson, the proprietor, no more than £60 a year; or another place opposite to Inverinate House, of about the same value. It is no wonder he refused these paltry offers. He shortly afterwards left this country, and died in the prime of life near Conon. On his death-bed, Seaforth went to see him, and asked how he was. He said: “Just as you will be in a short time,” and then turned his back. They never met again.’
Footnote 563:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, ii. 368.
Footnote 564:
_New Statistical Account of Scotland_, art. _Tranent_.
Footnote 565:
‘The brave Locheil, as I heard tell, Led Camerons on in clouds, man.’ _Contemporary Ballad._
Footnote 566:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant_, Jan. 29, 1723.
Footnote 567:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant_, April 1, 1723. _Scot. Elegiac Verses_, p. 247.
Footnote 568:
MS., Advocates’ Library.
Footnote 569:
Letter by Andrew M‘Dowall (subsequently Lord Bankton) and J. M‘Gowan. _Nugæ Scoticæ_, Edinburgh, 1829.
Footnote 570:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant_, May 1723.
Footnote 571:
From pamphlets published by Sir Alexander Murray.
Footnote 572:
Probably some attempt had been made to turn to account the foliated gypsum beds which exist near Kelso.
Footnote 573:
Poem on the Highland Roads, Wade’s MSS., in possession of Junior United Service Club.
Footnote 574:
_Edin. Ev. Courant_, August 22, 1743.
Footnote 575:
_Memoirs of George Baillie of Jerviswood and of Lady Grizel Baillie_, &c. 1822.
Footnote 576:
_Chalmers’s Brit. Poets_, xiv. 576.
Footnote 577:
_Celebrated Trials_, 6 vols. 1825. Vol. iii. p. 395.
Footnote 578:
_Memoirs of Lady Grizel Baillie._
Footnote 579:
_Edin. Ev. Courant_, May 9, 1723.
Footnote 580:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_.
Footnote 581:
This was the place of worship which Dr Johnson attended when in Edinburgh in 1773. It is now demolished.
Footnote 582:
_Analecta._
Footnote 583:
It may be satisfactory to local antiquaries to know that this hall was situated in what was consequently called the _Assembly_ (latterly, Old Assembly) _Close_, on the south side of the High Street. The assembly to be held on the 25th May 1736 was advertised as to take place ‘in their _new hall_, behind the City Guard.’ This last site was that afterwards occupied by a building used as an office by the Commercial Bank, now the Free Church of the Tron parish. A rent of £55 was paid for this new hall, which continued to be used for fifty years, although confessedly too small, and very inconvenient.
Footnote 584:
Burt’s _Letters_, i. 193.
Footnote 585:
The Horn Order and Crispin Knights are satirised in several pasquils of the time of Queen Anne as fraternities practising debauchery to an unusual degree. A satire on the Union says:
The Canongate know no cabals, Nor knights of the Horn order; And lights were not put out at balls, When I was a dame of honour.
The Crispins, and the Crispin pins, Wore things unknown unto us; We ladies then thought shame to sin, It cost pains to undo us, &c. _Maidment’s Collection of Pasquils_, il. 75.
Footnote 586:
Burt’s _Letters_, i. 193.
Footnote 587:
_Caledonian Mercury_, November 14, 1723.
Footnote 588:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant._
Footnote 589:
_Letters from the North of Scotland_, ii. 143.
Footnote 590:
Chalmers’s _Life of Ruddiman_, p. 75.
Footnote 591:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, iii. 142.
Footnote 592:
Mortgage.
Footnote 593:
Burt’s _Letters_, ii. 73.
Footnote 594:
Alexander Pennecuik, of Edinburgh, has a poem entitled _A Curse on the Clan Macphersons, occasioned by the News of Glenbucket being murdered by them_:
‘May that cursed clan up by the roots be pluckèd, Whose impious hands have killed the good Glenbucket! Villains far worse than Infidel or Turk, To slash his body with your bloody durk— A fatal way to make his physic work! Rob Roy and you fight ’gainst the noblest names, The generous Gordons and the gallant Grahams. Perpetual clouds through your black clan shall reign, Traitors ’gainst God, and rebels ’gainst your king, Until you feel the law’s severest rigour, And be extinguished like the base Macgregor!’ Pennecuik’s _Poems_, MS., Adv. Lib.
Footnote 595:
Wade’s MSS., in possession of Junior United Service Club.
Footnote 596:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant_, April 9, 1724.
Footnote 597:
_Private Letters_, &c., p. 37.
Footnote 598:
_Analecta._
Footnote 599:
Letter of John Maxwell of Munshes, writing, in 1811, from personal recollection of the incidents.—_Murray’s Lit. Hist. Galloway_, p. 337.
Footnote 600:
Wodrow’s _Analecta_, iii. 152, 157, 170.
Footnote 601:
‘A ewe which has given over bearing.’—_Jamieson._
Footnote 602:
That is, a native of Ireland.
Footnote 603:
Letter of John Maxwell of Munshes to W. M. Herries of Spottes, dated February 1811.—_Murray’s Lit. Hist. of Galloway_, Appendix, p. 337.
Footnote 604:
See _Domestic Annals of Scotland_, under September 1583.
Footnote 605:
_Caledonian Mercury_ of the day.
Footnote 606:
_Edin. Ev. Courant._
Footnote 607:
Lovat’s Memorial to the King, Burt’s _Letters_, 2d ed., ii. 264, App.
Footnote 608:
Letter of General Guest, _Spalding Club Miscellany_, iii. 229.
Footnote 609:
_Edinburgh Ev. Courant_, September 6, 1725. This paper remarks that the extent of country which belonged to the late Earl of Seaforth, and disarmed on this occasion, was no less than sixty miles in length and forty in breadth.
Footnote 610:
Lockhart Papers.
Footnote 611:
Miscellany Papers, Adv. Lib.
Footnote 612:
_Ed. Ev. Courant._
Footnote 613:
D. Webster’s _Account of Roslin Chapel_, &c., Edinburgh, 1819.
Footnote 614:
_Transactions of the Society of Improvers._
Footnote 615:
_Caledonian Mercury_, July 1735.
Footnote 616:
[Sinclair’s] _Stat. Acc. Scot._, xx. 74.
Footnote 617:
[Sinclair’s] _Stat. Acc. Scot._, viii. 525. A drawing and description of a winnowing-machine used in Silesia appears in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1747, as a thing unknown in England.
Footnote 618:
_Old Mortality_, chap. vii.
Footnote 619:
Newspapers of the day.
Footnote 620:
Introduction to the _Pirate_—a novel, it need scarcely be remarked, founded on the story of Gow.
Footnote 621:
‘LONDON, _March 29, 1720_.—Sunday evening the Duke of Douglas and the Earl of Dalkeith fought a duel behind Montague House, and both were wounded.’—_Newspapers of the day._
Footnote 622: