NOTE 1.—HORSES OF THE CATHOLICS, p. 129.
ON occasions of public alarm, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the horses of the Catholics were often seized upon, as they were always supposed to be on the eve of rising in rebellion.
NOTE 2.—TOBACCO, p. 150.
The lines here quoted belong to, or were altered from, a set of verses at one time very popular in England, beginning, “Tobacco that is withered quite.” In Scotland the celebrated Ralph Brskine, author of the Gosp l Sonnets, published what is called “Smoking Spiritualized, in two parts The first part being an Old Meditation upon Smoking Tobacco.’’ It begins:
This Indian weed now withered quite,
Tho’ green at noon, cut down at night,
Shows thy decay;
All flesh is hay.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. (Laing.)
NOTE 3.—NUNNERY OF “WILTON, p. 156.
The nunnery of Wilton was granted to the Earl of Pembroke upon its dissolution by the magisterial authority of Henry VIII. or his son Edward VI. On the accession of Queen Mary, of Catholic memory, the Earl found it necessary to reinstal the Abbess and her fair recluses, which he did with many expressions of his remorse, kneeling humbly to the vestals, and inducting them into the convent and possessions from which he had expelled them. With the accession of Elizabeth the accommodating Earl again resumed his Protestant faith, and a second time drove the nuns from their sanctuary. The remonstrances of the Abbess, who reminded him of his penitent expressions on the former occasion, could wring from him no other answer than that in the text—“Go spin, you jade—go spin.”
NOTE 4.—BARONY LAIGH KIRK, p. 253.
The Laigh Kirk or Crypt of the Cathedral of Glasgow served for more than two centuries as the church of the Barony Parish, and for a time was converted into a burial-place. In the restorations of this grand building the crypt was cleared out, and is now admired as one of the richest specimens of Early English architecture existing in Scotland (Laing).
NOTE 5.—AN AGED CLERGYMAN, p. 258.
I have in vain laboured to discover this gentleman’s name and the period of his incumbency. I do not, however, despair to see these points, with some others which may elude my sagacity, satisfactorily elucidated by one or other of the periodical publications which have devoted their pages to explanatory commentaries on my former volumes; and whose research and ingenuity claim my peculiar gratitude, for having discovered many persons and circumstances connected with my narratives of which I myself never so much as dreamed.
NOTE 6—INCH CAILLEACH, p. 294.
Inch Cailleach is an island in Loch Lomond, where the clan of Mac-Gregor were wont to be interred, and where their sepulchres may still be seen. It formerly contained a nunnery ; hence the name Inch Cailleach, or the Island of Old Women.
NOTE 7.—BOYS’ SNOW-BALLING, p. 317.
The boys in Scotland used formerly to make a sort of saturnalia in a snowstorm by pelting passengers with snow-balls. But those exposed to that annoyance were excused from it on the easy penalty of a beck (courtesy) from a female or a bow from a man. It was only the refractory who underwent the storm.
NOTE 8.—TO FIGHT LIKE HENRY WYND, p. 329.
Two great clans fought out a quarrel with thirty men of a side, in presence of the king, on the North Inch of Perth, on or about the year 1392; a man was amissing on one side, whose room was filled by a little bandy-legged artizan of Perth. This substitute, Henry Wynd—or, as the Highlanders called him, Gow Chrom, that is, the bandy-legged smith— fought well, and contributed greatly to the fate of the battle, without knowing which side he fought on; so, “to fight for your own hand, like Henry Wynd,” passed into a proverb.—[See The Fair Maid of Perth.]
NOTE 9.—MONS MEG, p. 336.
Mons Meg was a large old-fashioned piece of ordnance, a great favourite with the Scottish common people; she was fabricated at Mons, in Flanders, in the reign of James IV. or V. of Scotland. This gun figures frequently in the public accounts of the time, where we find charges for grease to grease Meg’s mouth withal (to increase, as every school-boy knows, the loudness of the report), ribands to deck her carriage, and pipers to play before her when she was brought from the Castle to accompany the Scottish army on any distant expedition. After the Union there was much popular apprehension that the regalia of Scotland, and the subordinate palladium, Mons Meg, would be carried to England to complete the odious surrender of national independence. The regalia, sequestered from the sight of the public, were generally supposed to have been abstracted in this manner. As for Mons Meg, she remained in the Castle of Edinburgh till, by order of the Board of Ordnance, she was actually removed to Woolwich about 1757. The regalia, by his Majesty’s special command, have been brought forth from their place of concealment in 1818, and exposed to the view of the people, by whom they must be looked upon with deep associations; and in this very winter of 1828–29 Mons Meg has been restored to the country, where that which in every other place or situation was a mere mass of rusty iron becomes once more a curious monument of antiquity.
NOTE 10.—FAIRY SUPERSTITION, p. 343.
The lakes and precipices amidst which the Avondhu or river Forth has its birth are still, according to popular tradition, haunted by the elfin people, the most peculiar but most pleasing of the creations of Celtic superstitions. The opinions entertained about these beings are much the same with those of the Irish, so exquisitely well narrated by Mr. Crofton Croker. An eminently beautiful little conical hill, near the eastern extremity of the valley of Aberfoil, is supposed to be one of their peculiar haunts, and is the scene which awakens in Andrew Fairservice [Mr. Jarvie] the terror of their power. It is remarkable that two successive clergymen of the parish of Aberfoil have employed themselves in writing about this fairy superstition. The eldest of these was Robert Kirk, a man of some talents, who translated the Psalms into Gaelic verse. He had formerly been minister at the neighbouring parish of Balquidder, and died at Aberfoil in 1688 at the early age of forty-two.
He was author of the Secret Commonwealth, which was printed after his death in 1691, an edition which I have never seen, and was reprinted in Edinburgh, 1815. This is a work concerning the fairy people, in whose existence Mr. Kirk appears to have been a devout believer. He describes them with the usual powers and qualities ascribed to such beings in Highland tradition.
But what is sufficiently singular, the Rev. Robert Kirk, author of the said treatise, is believed himself to have been taken away by the fairies, in revenge, perhaps, for having let in too much light upon the secrets of their commonwealth. We learn this catastrophe from the information of his successor, the late1 amiable and learned Dr. Patrick Graham, also minister at Aberfoil, who in his sketches of Perthshire, has not forgotten to touch upon the Daoine Shie, or men of peace.
The Rev. Robert Kirk was, it seems, walking upon a little eminence to the west of the present manse, which is still held a Dun Shie, or fairy mound, when he sunk down in what seemed to mortals a fit, and was supposed to be dead. This, however, was not his real fate.
“Mr. Kirk was the near relation of Graham of Duchray, the ancestor of the present General Graham Stirling. Shortly after his funeral he appeared in the dress in which he had sunk down to a mutual relation of his own and of Duchray. ‘Go,’ said he to him, ‘to my cousin Duchray, and tell him that I am notdead. I fell down in a swoon and was carried into Fairyland, where I now am. Tell him that when he and my friends are assembled at the baptism of my child (for he had left his wife pregnant), I will appear in the room, and that, if he throws the knife which he holds in his hand over my head, I will be released and restored to human society.’ The man, it seems, neglected for some time to deliver the message. Mr. Kirk appeared to him a second time, threatening to haunt him night and day till he executed his commission, which at length he did. The time of the baptism arrived. They were seated at table; Mr. Kirk entered, but the Laird of Duchray, by some unaccountable fatality, neglected to perform the prescribed ceremony. Mr. Kirk retired by another door, and was seen no more. It is firmly believed that he is, at this day, in Fairyland.”—Sketches of Perthshire, p. 254.
NOTE 11.—SLAUGHTER OF MACLAREN, p. 362.
This, as appears from the introductory matter to this Tale, is an anachronism. The slaughter of MacLaren, a retainer of the chief of Appine, by the MacGregors did not take place till after Rob Roy’s death, since it happened in 1736.
NOTE 12.—ABERFOIL, p. 371.
I do not know how this might stand in Mr. Osbaldistone’s day, but I can assure the reader whose curiosity may lead him to visit the scenes of these romantic adventures, that the Clachan of Aberfoil now affords a very comfortable little inn. If he chances to be a Scottish antiquary, it will be an additional recommendation to him that he will find himself in the vicinity of the Rev. Dr. Patrick Graham, minister of the gospel at Aberfoil, whose urbanity in communicating information on the subject of national antiquities is scarce exceeded even by the stores of legendary lore which he has accumulated.—Orig. Note. The respectable clergymen alluded to has been dead for some years.—[Added in 1829.]
NOTE 13.—WALTER CUMING OF GUIYOCK, p. 372.
A great feudal oppressor, who, riding on some cruel purpose through the forest of Guiyock, was thrown from his horse, and his foot being caught in the stirrup, was dragged along by the frightened animal till he was torn to pieces. The expression, Walter of Guiyock’s curse,” is proverbial.
NOTE 14.—THE MACRIMMONS, p. 441.
The MacRimmons or MacCrimonds were hereditary pipers to the chiefs of MacLeod, and celebrated for their talents. The pibroch said to have been composed by Helen MacGregor is still in existence. See the Introduction to this Novel (p, 23).
NOTE 15.—JEDDART CAST, p. 359.
“The memory of Dunbar’s legal (?) proceedings at Jedburgh is preserved in the proverbial phrase ‘Jeddart Justice.’ which signifies trial after execution.”—Minstrelsy of the Border, Preface, p. Ivi (Laing).
NOTE 16.—MACGREGOR PAPERS, p. 501.
Some papers connected with Rob Roy MacGregor, signed “Ro. Campbell,” in 1711, were lately presented to the Society of Antiquaries. One of these is a kind of contract between the Duke of Montrose and Rob Roy, by which the latter undertakes to deliver within a given time “Sixtie good and sufficient Kintaill highland Cowes, betwixt the age of five and nine years, at fourtene pounds Scotts per piece, with ane bull to the bargane, and that at the head dykes of Buchanan upon the twenty-eight day of May next.” Dated December 1711.—See Proceedings, vol. vii. p. 253 (Laing).
1 [For a correction of this note, see note to Introduction to A Legend of Montrose.]