91 Z F84 S Pi . 1 *}^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 'W-' i^':%l Scottish Chap-B(>g>ks. l :V':j;gh:N^^ i,;M^A.^£ R PAStM, M t :iii[:'fti'jr! ' I ' l '. !i<\ ' mmmmmirMii. iii )m> .i-Ji:...!,i ! ,!MMiiii!i BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 HOME USE RULES AH books subject to recall All borrowers must regis- ter in the library to borrow books for home use. , All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs. Limited books must be returned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students must return all books before leaving town. Officers should arrange for th^ return of books wanted during their absence from town. Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the ' library as much as possible. For special pur- poses they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use , their library privileges, for the benefit of otiier persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not . allowied to circulate. Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. Cornell University Library The original of tiiis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013278639 THE HUMOROUS CHAP-BOOKS SCOTLAND. JOHN FRASER. PABT I. NEW YORK.! HENRY L. HINTON, PUBLISHER, 744 BROADWAY. 1873. DEDICATION. And moat to him, whose well-stocked mind is rich In long-forgotten lore Of local histoi-y, and curious tales Of the brave days of yore ; VI. In road-side legends, snatches of old rhymes, And pawky Scottish wit, — Whereof some weak reflection men may find In these poor pages writ; Go, therefore, little book, across the seas. To bear from me and mine, This humble tribute of the love .we owe That friend of " auld lang syne." PREFACE The materials for this volume were collected in Scotland, in which country it was intended that it should have been first published. Circumstances, however, called the author suddenlyHo America, while yet his Chap-labours were unfinished ; and until he is able to resume his researches on native ground, they cannot be completed. The following chapters, therefore, are merely an installment of a larger work, which may, or may not, be written. Their chief claim to notice is that they contain the results of original investigations in a thoroughly fresh and unexplored field ; and, as such, are offered as a humble but sincere contribution to the litera- ture of his native land, by The Authob. New York, May 1, 1873. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. INTEODUOTOKY REMARKS. SEOTIOK 1. What are Chap-books? 2. The objects and limits of this book. 3. Previous writings on the subject. 4. The character and value of chap-books. 5. Political aspects of Scotland in the eighteenth century. 6. Social aspects. 7. Want of roads and conveyances. 8. Insecurity of life. 9. Popular superstitions. 10. Severity of the penal code. 11. Tyranny of the Kirk Session. 12. Tyranny in the domestic circle. 13. One-sidud administration of law. 14. Intemperance of the age. CONTENTS. SECTION 15. Popular games. 16. General features. CHAPTEE II. BALLADS AND CHAP-BOOKS. SECTIOK 1. Early literature of Scotland.— Minstrelsy in the olden time. 2. Minstrelsy and the Keformation.— Origin of the literary chap-man. 3. Origin of the Humorous Chap-boolss. — Scot- tish literature from Ramsay to Burns. 4. Character of the chap-books. — Chap-books historically valuable. — Stationery stores In the Saltmarket in the eighteenth century. 5. Qualifications of a successful chap-man. — Peter Duthie. 6. Classification of chap-books. — ^Humorous chap- books. 7. Instructive chap-books. CONTENTS. SECTION 8. Romantic chap-books. 9. Superstitious chap-boolcs. 10. Authorship of chap-boolcs. CHAPTER in. LIFE AND WKITINGS OF DOnOAL O K A H A M , THE GBEAT OHAP-WKITEB. 1. His birthplace, parentage, and childhood. 2. The '45. — Dougal declares for Charlie, but maintains a politic neutrality. — He escapes from Drummossie Muir, and writes his famous History. 3. Metrical History of the Rebellion of 1745-6, by Dougal Graham. — Excessive rarity of the two first editions. 4. Third edition of Graham's History. — Its liter- ary and historical qualities. Illustrative quotations. 5. Dougal settles in Glasgow. — He lays down the ell-wand, and takes up the pen. X CONTENTS. SECTION 6. The ' Glasgow bell-man ' in the olden time. — Dougal, after a fierce struggle, is appointed the " skellat bellman " of Glasgow. 7. Dougal's writings. 8. His death and Elegy thereon. 9. His minor poetical effusions. — " John High- landraan'sKemarkson Glasgow." — "Turn- imspike," 10. His personal character. 11. His position as a Scottish Humorist. CHAPTEE lY. GENEEAL C L A S S I FI A TI O H OF SPBJECT. I. — Dramatic Sketches. SECTION 1. "Jockie and Maggie's Courtship." — Critical remarks. — Curious Scotch custom of 'bed- ding.' 2. "The Coalman's Courtship." — Critical re- marks. 3. " The Art of Courtship." CONTENTS. SI SECTION 4. " Silly Tam" alias "Simple John."— Other versions of same. 5. " History of the Haverel Wives." 6. Brief notice of some poetical chap-books. 7. " A Diverting Courtship." 8. " The Pleasures of Matrimony." — Other ver- sions of same. CHAPTER V. II.-~Simple Prose NarraMves. Introductory Remarks : — The heroes of vulgar ro- mance. — The Scottish ' natural.' — Character of the Fools of Koadsitle Fiction. — General classification. SECTION 1. " George Buchanan." — Different versions of same. — Analysis of the History. — Critical remarks. — Connection between Scholarship and Soicery. — The yiisa fools of history. — The original of the George Buchanan of fiction. — Source of the various stories. — Brief notice of the English cliap-boolc en- titled " Tarlton's Jests." XU CONTENTS. BBOTION 2. "Lothian Tom." — Analysis of same. — Criti- cal remarlis. — Lothian Tom's English pro- totype. — Brief notice of the English chap- book entitled ' ' The Merry Conceits of Tom ' Long, the Carrier."— The 'Toms' of Ac- tion. — John Franky, the English fool. CHAPTEB VI. II. — Simple Prose Narratives. — Gontirmed. gECTION 1. (3.) " John Cheap, the Chapman." — ^Analysis of his exploits. — Critical remarks. 2. (4.) a. "Leper, the Tailor."— 6. " The Grand Solemnity of the Tailor's Funeral." 3. (5.) " John Falkirk's Jokes." 4. (6.) "John Falkirk's Carriches. "—Critical remarks. — Immorality of the lower classe.% in Scotland last century. 5. (7.) " Paddy from Cork." 6. (8.) " History of Buchaven ; or. Wise Willifr and Witty Eppy." General resume of the preceding Chapters. Concluding remarks. THE HUMOROUS CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. CHAPTER I. i 1. What are Chap-hooks ? ) 2. The objects and limits of this book. 5 3. Fremous writings on fhe subject. ) 4. The character and value of chap-books. ] 5. Political aspects of Soot- land in the Eighteenth Century. 5 6. Social aspects. I 7. Want of roads and con- veyances. § 8. Insecurity of life. § 9. Popular superstitions. § 10. Severity of the penal code. § 11. Tyranny of the Kirk § 12. Tyranny in the domes- tic circle. § 13. One-sided administra- tion of law. ^ 14. Intemperance of th£ age. I 15. Popular games. § 16. General features. § 1. It is easier to say what a chap-book Is, than to define what it is not. As M. Charles Nisard, in his account of the popu- lar Hterature of France, remarks of the " almanachs," — "II ne manque pas de gens aujourd'hui qui pensent vous embarrasser en vous demandant qui n^a pas son jour- nal? lis vous embarrasseraient bien 2 CHAP-BOOKS OF 8C0TLAJ7D. davantage sHls demandaient qui ri'a pas son almanack ?" So it may be asked, what are not chap-books ? Chambers'' s Encyclo- j>cedia defines them as " a variety of old and scarce tracts of a homely kind, which at one time formed the only popular hterature. In the trade of the bookseller they are dis- tinguishable from the ordinary products of the press by their inferior paper and typo- graphy, and are reputed to have been sold by chapmen or peddlers." This, however, is not nearly comprehensive enough, includ- ing but a very small portion of the literature embraced under the class ' chap :' for chap- books vary greatly in shape, price, and char- acter ; from the half-penny villainously print- ed sheet of paper or broadsheet, containing the last dying speech and confession of Nichol Mushet, the mnrderer, to the neatly bound and fairly printed " History of the Eebeliion in 1745," consisting of some 200 pages, and illustrated with diagrams and a hkeness of the author. In short, ' chap-book' was the name given to almost every species of publication that was hawked round the country districts of Scotland last century, — CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 3 including broadsides of all kinds; humoi'ous sketches, sacred and profane; political and sectarian sqnibs ; histories, romantic and narrative; jest-books and manuals of in- struction in dancing, cookery, charms, and the interpretation of dreams: ranging in price from a farthing to a six-pence and a shilling each. Originally, the word had a more limited signification; the earliest chap- books being nearly uniform in size and price. Each volume consisted of a twenty-four- page single sheet, duodecimo, execrably coarse in texture, dirty gray or whity-brown in colour, illustrated by one or more rough woodcuts, and printed in a rude and unfin- ished style of typography. In size and shape they were identical with their modern representatives, which are still issued in large numbers under the name of ' penny histories,' and are sold at country fairs and gatherings in Britain by travelling packmen. The prefix ' chap ' originally meant ' to cheap or cheapen,' as in the word ' cheap- ening-place,' meaning a market-place, — hence the English Cheapside and Easteheap. ' Chapman' is the designation given to those 4 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND: peddlers, or, as they were often called, ' flying' or 'itinerant ' stationers, who at one time were the only merchants in rural districts ; and the literature, which they car- ried nicely assorted in their packs in little pigeon-holes, was called chap-books. § 2. It is not our intention to treat of chap-hooks in the larger signification of the word. That would necessitate the intro- duction of several chapters on love-songs, ballads, party squibs,and miscellaneous tracts, which have been discussed repeatedly by many eminent men; and to the information already accumulated regarding which po one, who did not devote the greater part of his life to the work, could hope to add any thing new. While, therefore, it -svill be necessary to refer incidentally to these forms of literature, these chapters will be ■devoted to a consideration of those humor- ous penny histories, and sketches — mostly of local origin, and consisting generally .of twenty-four pages — which may be said to have sprung into existence toward the mid- dle of last century, and to which we must turn for the fullest and truest expression of CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 5 the habits, humours, and every-day hfe of the Scottish commonalty during that period. § 3. Motherwell, the Paisley poet, writ- ing forty-eight ye'ars ago, says, " in truth it is no exaggeration when we state, that he who desires to acquire a thorough know- ledge of low Scottish hfe, vulgar manners, national characteristics, and popular jokes, must devote his days and nights to the study of John Cheap, the chapman ; Leper, the tailor; Paddy from Cork ; the Whole Pro- ceedings of Jockie and Maggie! s Courtship ; Janet Clinker' s Orations; Simple John and his twelve Misfortunes, etc." Yet how few modern readers, even in Scotland, are fami- har with so much as the titles of the tracts just enumerated ? But a few years ago, John Cheap and his brethren were distributed broadcast over Scotland by countless flying stationers, and sold in thousands at every fair, hamlet and country gathering north of the Tweed ; yet at this hour their very names are forgotten, and the original or im- expurgated editions are to be found only on the shelves of antiquarians and old-booksellers 6 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. As early as 1824, Motherwell was unable to make a complete collection of them ; and in his eloquent introduction to ' " Scottish Songs," published in 1825, Allan Cunning- ham laments " that those little copies have vanished before the influence of a more fleeting literature." Abridged versions of most of them are still in circulation, but the veritable narratives, which formed the intel- lectual food and amusement of the common people for nearly a hundred years, are now all but passed away and forgotten. There are many reasons why this is to be re- gretted ; not the least cogent being that no record of the history and char- acter of this kind of literature remains, to throw light upon the manners and tastes of a bygone age. More attention is paid to the subject in France. In 1852 the Impe- rial Government of that covmtry appointed a Commission to examine into the character and influence of French chap-books; and two years later the secretary to the Com- missioners pviblished a semi-official work, in two handsome and beautifully illustrated volumes, entitled, " Histoire des Livi-es Pop- CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 7 ulaires ou de la Litterature du Oolportage, depuis le 2^Ve siecle jusqu'd Vetablisse- ment de la CorriTnission d' examen des livres du coljportage, (30 novembre, 1852,) par M. Charles Nisard, Secretaire-adjoint de la Commission. Paris, Librairie D'Am- yot, Editeur, 8, rue de la Paix, mdcccliv." In England, again, Dr. J. O. HalHwell- Pliillips,towh.om students of literature are so deeply indebted, has done something to rescue from oblLrion the 'litterature du oolportage' of that country, and more than one antiquarian has performed a like service for that of Ireland. But Scottish chap- books, superior in every respect to kindred productions in England, Ireland, and France, have been altogether ignored. This is the more to be wondered at when it is remembered, that Sir Walter Scott was so impressed with the importance of the subject, that he entertained serious intentions of undertaking some such work as that here desiderated. Motherwell, too, cherished a like design, and went so far as to make a fair coHectionof the necessary material; but all that he has left is a few brief notes in a 8 CHAP BOOKS OF BGOTLANS. local journal of whicli he was editor — ^tte "Paisley Magazine for 1824." In the article referred to, Motherwell reveals one secret of his failure. After explaining, with a groan, that he had at -one time possessed a fair assortment of the original editions of many popular penny histories, the enraged editor goes on to say, " but some unprinci- pled scoundrel has relieved us of that treasure. There are a number of infamous creatures, who acquire large libraries and curious things by borrowing books they never mean to return, and some not unfre- quently slide a volume into their pocket at the very moment you are fool enough to busy yourself in showing them some nice typographic gem, or bibliographic rarity. These dishonest and heartless villains ought to be cut above the breath whenever they cross the threshold. They deserve no more courtesy than was of old vouchsafed to witches, under bond and indenture to the devil." This failure on the part both of Scott and Motherwell, undoubtedly the two most competent men of their age for the task, is the more unfortunate because they CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. g have left so few behind them able and will- ing to undertake the duty. With the excep- tion of Dr. Laing, of Edinburgh, whose hands are already full, and to whom Scot- land owes so much for his splendid and un- selfish labours in the cause of her early literature, there is no well-known writer from whom we should naturally expect a work of the kind. It was mainly the consciousness of this fact, and the knowledge that each fresh delay but made more difii- cult the task of investigation and research, that impelled the writer to move in the matter, and throw together such facts as he succeeded in gleaning, in connection with a subject of which so little is, and so much ought to be, known. Besides the brief and not quite accurate paper in the Paisley Magazine, above men- tioned, and a few hues in Chambers's Jour- nal and Encyclopmdia there is absolutely nothing in the language on the subject of Scottish chap-books. The late Dr. Strang of Glasgow, in his entertaining gossip about Glasgow clubs, remarks, in a foot-note to a brief notice of Dougal Graham, — " A his- lO CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. tory of the vulgar literature of Scotland has ■ been long and is unquestionably still a desideratum, for certainly nothing could tend to throw so much light on the man- ners and tastes of the great body of the peo- ple as such a work." Twenty years have elapsed since the pubhcation of " Glasgow and its Clubs," and up to this writing no at- tempt has been made to fiU the long-felt gap in the national literature of Scotland, which BO moved the sympathies of Sir Walter Scott, Motherwell, and Dr. Strang. § 4. Professed history is too frequently confined to a record of the more striking results of the passions and virtues of emin- ent personages, and the transactions of a nation in its collective capacity — to the neglect of the nice shades of moral and social progress, the private Hfe of the 6?ra- matis personm, and, of course, of the great pubhc — whose mode of living, thoughts, loves, sorrows, joys, hopes, and fears were, until lately, considered to be unworthy the notice of the historian. And yet what is thought, and said, and felt is as real history, and as important to be known, as that which GSAP-B00K8 OF SCOTLAND. n is visibly done by man to man. It is im- possible thoroughly to understand the his- tory of Scotland, or the character of her people during the last century, without studying these vulgar, but graphic and in- tensely Scottish, productions under review. For many years they constituted the chief and universal literature of old and young, among the lower and agricultural middle classes, throughout the lowlands; and in them we have reflected the mind, supersti- tions, customs, and language of the people who read them, more accurately and vividly than in the stately pages of Robertson or of Hume. In every point of view the Chap- book is full of interest. It guides us to the manners and customs of an age gone by ; it reveals to us the popular mind and feelings more surely and sharply than the most elaborate treatise ; its incidents are strongly felt and forcibly described; its images, those which Nature suggests, not the com- binations of refined art: and the customs, adventures, and superstitions narrated, are clothed in the rude, simple, energetic and nervous language of a half-unlettered people. 12 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. They originated in the necessities of an age just sufficiently educated to feel the want of cheap literature, and cut off by the puritan- ical and traditional austerities of the clergy and people, from popular amusements and sports. They filled the place now occupied by cheap concerts, lectures, newspapers, and the shoal of serial publications which cater for the public taste. But, apart from their historical value, they claim for themselves a distinct and unique place in literature, for their intrinsic and literary merits. It has been too much the fashion to regard rough, idyllic sketches like Jackie and Maggies Courtship, as rude, illiterate productions, possessing a considerable share of humour, but interesting chiefly for their grossness and rarity. It will be shown by-and-by that they are much more and much other than this ; that the most characteristic of them are wi-itten with extraordinary vigour, humour, and dramatic skill: and are entitled to be ranked with such classical master- pieces as the humorous narratives in the Canterbury Tales. But before proceeding to trace their history and growth, and to CHAP-BOOKS OF SOOTLAND. 13 •criticise in detail their merits and defects, it will be necessary briefly to sketch the pol- itical, Hterary, and domestic features of the age, on which the chap-books throw so strong and truthful a hght. § 6. On the 15th of November, 1688— day ever memorable in the annals of Britain ^"WiUiam, Prince of Oraiige, landed with his army in England, to take possession of the throne made vacant by that weak- headed bigot, James : and on the eleventh of April, 1689, William and Mary were crowned at London, and proclaimed at Edin- burgh. Three months later, Prelacy was ■officially abohshed, and the Presbyterian form of Chui'ch government which now exists estabhshed in its stead. At the same time, the parochial system of schools, concerning which several tentative enactments had been previously passed, was finally settled. These, and other measures, went some way to con- solidate the hold of the new sovereigns on the affections of the Scottish nation; and, if they had been left to work out their results in peace, would probably have put an end to the disaffection and broils which, for many 14 GEAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. years afterward, kept the country in a con- tinual state of fermentation. But, unfor- tunately, the new Govejnment soon turned its back on Scotland; intent only on the depression of France, 'and the overthrow of the Roman Cathohc interest in Europe. This might have passed unnoticed by the public, if it had not been for the stupendous bungling and wickedness of William's sub- ordinates, which brought about the tragedy of Glencoe, on the 13th of February, 1692. Scarcely had the nation recovered from the shock occasioned by this atrocity, when it was a second time overwhelmed, by the dis- astrous Darien expedition; the coUapse of which was mainly owing to the unjust and short-sighted jealousy and opposition of the English Government. A great famine, which laid waste the country about the same time, aggravated the already embit- tered- feelings of the people; which were further intensified by the ratification of the Act of Union in February, 1707, (Queen Anne being then on the throne,) in direct and flagrant opposition to the expressed wishes of the whole Scottish nation. This, CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 15 which eventually proved an incalculable blessing to both countries, was at first a fer- tile source of jealousy, heart-burning, and discontent. To make bad worse, several statutes were passed immediately afterwards that pressed severely and specially on the Scots ; and every thing was done that could exasperate, and left undone that might concihate, their affections. All these things incensed a people naturally proud; making a revolution possible, and turning the eyes not only of Jacobites and Catholics, but of Pope-detesting Presbyterians, to the exiled house of Stuart. An event soon occurred to precipitate the impending crisis. On the 1st of August, 1714, Queen Anne died, her husband having predeceased her by twelve years, and the Elector of Hanover was called to the throne, under the title of George the First. The new King inaugu- rated his accession to power by unceremon- iously turning the Tories out of doors, and replacing them with Whigs ; which so en- raged some of the already disaffected noble- men, that the Earl of Mar, with one or two others, hurried north to his Scotch i6 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. estates, and raised the standard of revolt in the name of the Pretender, on the 6th of September, 1715. Scotland must have been terribly provoked before the country could rise, as it did, in large numbers, to place a Catholic on the throne. From the first, however, misfortune dogged the footsteps of the rebels ; and when, on December 22d, the ill-fated son of James VII. landed at Peterhead, he found his cause at the point of collapsing. In Uttle more than two months, owing to general imbeciHty and want of spirit, the ruin of the Pretender's hopes was completed; and, on February Tth, the fast dwindling army of rebels was dis- banded at Aberdeen. About this time, the good effects produced by the Union on the commerce of the country began to be real- ized in the lowlands, particularly in Glas- gow; which, being favorably situated with respect to the American and West-Indian colonies, was fast losing its character of a small episcopal town, and assuming that of a great manufacturing capital. In the com- mercial centres of the South the old feeline of disaffection and resentment was on the CBAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. ' 17 wane ; and Glasgow was among the first to raise and dispatch a contingent to aid Argyll in crushing the rebellion. But G-lencoe is not in Lanarkshire, and north of the Grampians the popular feeling still ran in another and quite opposite direction. As late almost as 1800, Scotland may be said to have consisted of two great divisions, inhabited respectively by people of different race, language, and manners. The larger in surface, a range of mountain pastures, was held by Celts ; possessing all the pecul- iarities of that people unmodified, with many of the common characteristics of pastoral and half-savage life, — faithful, brave, hardy ; patient of suffering, but constitutionally in- dolent ; incapable of sustained exertion : and superstitiously averse from change. They had lived hitherto regardless of all law but the wiU of their chiefs, — ignorant of all patriotism beyond a passionate attachment to their native glens. Across the ' Highland Line ' was a people differing in all respects from their northern neighbours — ^frugal, and patient of toil; cau- tious yet not cowardly, nor devoid of enter- i8 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. prise; Bober-minded; not generally imagina- tive, but with a vein of romance capable of being excited to the highest enthusiasm: and tenacious of purpose to obstinacy. In spite of local circumstances, this people had early taken a part in the intellectual struggle of Europe. A national system of schools had spread the benefit of education through all classes; and, although by no means bustling politicians, yet in questions affecting their liberty or rehgion, no people could be more energetic, or more splendidly lavish of their goods and lives. With |their Highland countrymen they had no sympathy ; regarding them as aUens in blood and language, and little better than lawless and dangerous barbarians. The recollection of the iU-fated Darien expedi- tion, and the misgovernment of William and Mary, had begun to fade from the minds of men engaged in active businesp and prosperous pursuits; and the good re suits of the Union were beginning to make themselves seen, in rapidly increasing towns, growing intelligence and comfort, security of Hfe, and commercial activity. These CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 19 beneficial influences had not yet pierced into the mountainous recesses of the North, where still, as ever, the name of English- man was synonymous with injustice and oppression. On the wild and hardy highlanders the claims of hereditary loyalty had made a deep impression, which their own wrongs, and the mihtary glories of Montrose and Dundee, had combined to deepen. Thus, while south of the Firth of Forth and Tay, George I. held sway over a peaceful, indus- trious, and well-disposed people,^ — north of that line his rule was utterly and fiercely disowned, by rebellious and warlike clans; nearly as different from their southern brethren in manners, ideas, dress, and lan- guage, as if they had been born west of the Alleghanies. To this state of matters the Government were not sufficiently alive; and, whether from supineness or ignorance, they allowed the^ feehng of isolation and disaf- fection, which had spread through the northren countries, to smoulder unheeded amid the glens ; while the exiled Stuarts used every means to keep it alive, until such 20 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND time as it suited them to fan it into the flame of open rebellion. Thus, while the lowlanders, who were mostly Whi^ or Presbyterians, were experiencing the bene- fits of the Union, in the rapid multiplication of their factories, schools,and shipping — ^their ruder neighbours, who were chiefly Jacobites or Episcopalians and Catholicsj were as ready in 1745, as they had been thirty years before, to declare themselves for the Stuart line. An opportunity at length offered, and on the 22d of June, 1745, Prince Charles Edward, the Pretender's son, landed on the west coast with a retinue of seven persons ; preparatory to raising the standard of re- volt at Glenfinnan, on the 19th of August following. Into the details of the young Pretender's daring but iU-starred enterprise it is unnecessary to enter. It is sufficient to say, that the same cruel fate which had never ceased to dog the royal line of Stuart, from the assassination of James the First, continued to pursue the brave but misguided Charles, whose hopes were forever overthrown and crushed on the field of Culloden, 16th April, 1746. CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 21 To Scotland, the immediate consequences of the rebellion were temporary oppression by the English troops, and the ruin ot many noble families. Its remoter conse- quences were of a different character. The attention of the Grovernment was now most effectually roused to the condition of the Highlands ; and decisive measures were at once adopted to eradicate all seeds of disloyalty, by a summary dissolution of the old patriarchal system. For this pur pose, in 1747, the hereditary jurisdictions were- purchased .or wrested from the heads of clans; a new act was passed for the more effectual disarmament of the High- landers ; and another, which however was repealed soon after as inexpedient and oppressive, prohibiting the wearing of tartan clothes. The tenure of ward-holdings was abolished; and legislative provision was made for the regular administration of jus- tice by the King's judges throiighout North Britain. The rebelHon did good, too, by setting forever at rest the Stuart claims, and permitting the people to settle down in tranquil industry under the Brunswick 22 CBAP-B00K8 OF SCOTLAND. sway. An immense impulse was in this way given to the national prosperity. The whole system of trade, husbandry, and manufactures, which had hitherto proceeded by slow degrees, began to make rapid ad- vances; and the increased communication between this Highlands, Lowlands, and England broke down, in some measure, the barriers which the ignorance and prejudices of centuries had helped to rear, — so that the movement was not isolated or confined to the large towns, but was the outcome of the simultaneous exertion of the united strength of the whole nation. The commencement of the reign of Geo];ge III., in 1760, marks another era of great improvement in the condition of Scot- land. Through the wise influence and ad- vice of the Earl of Bute — whom, shortly after his accession to the throne, (reorge placed at the head of affairs — Scotland obtained for the first time that share of general consider- ation and public employment to which it was entitled. All animosities respecting succession were now at rest ; the people were experiencing the good effects of trade CHAF-B00K8 OF SCOTLAND. 23 and industry ; and -wjth wealth came re- finement of manners, and a more general diffusion of the comforts of life. It is un- necessary to pursue this branch of inquiry further. The above rude outhne is merely meant to serve as a reminder, to refresh the memory of the reader, and prepare him for the right understanding of what follows. § 6. The eighteenth century was eminently n transition age; so are all periods more or less, but in this case the transition from a lower to a much higher level was unpre- cedentedly rapid. Hand labour was giving place to machinery ; ignorance and coarse- ness to knowledge and light ; old landmarks were being obliterated ; old institutions as- sailed. The paths trodden by the footsteps of ages were broken up, and the prejudices and customs — ^legacies of a thousand years — were passing away never to return. Al- though printing had been established in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the end of the 16th and beginning of the ITth centuries respectively, and had crossed the Gram- pians in 1622, books were still too rare, ex- pensive, and learned, to be widely circulated 24 OHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. or read. The educational condition of tlie people was indeed deplorable. In schools the universal text-book was the Catechism; and the library of a well-to-do farmer consisted of that treatise, a Bible, and a coUeetion of penny histories and broadsides. Comparatively few in the humbler ranks could read or write; and the chief intellectual food of the peo- ple, in the earlier part of the century, was the songs and ballads recited and sung by peasants or peddlers^ who took the place of the old minstrels, whom the Keformation had swept away with kindred "follies." From 1567 may be dated the publication of broadsides, which then began to be issued in considerable numbers from the Edinburgh press. It is doubtful how far they were circulated among the common people. The probability is that they were not popularly read imtil well on in the I7th century. In 1644, the Kev. Zacchary Boyd complained to the General Assembly that " their schools- and country were stained, yea pestered, with idle books, and their childi-en fed on fables, love-songs, baudry ballads, heathen husks,youth's poison." The year 1696 saw OHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 25 the establishment of the Presbyterian Church, and the system of parochial schools ; the beneficial results of which began after some years to show themselves in a general improve- ment of the national tone, and a growing de- sire for intellectual food. Increased facilities for education and increased security of pro- perty, co-operated powerfully to soften and modify the national character, and divert energies, hitherto misspent or misdirected, into channels of morality and industrial pur- suits. But it was long before these good re- sults became vulgarly apparent. Many cir- cumstances combined to retard and hinder the national progress. Of such were the politi- cal fermentation in the north ; the want of means of communication throughout the country ; the inequality of the laws, and the maladministration of justice ; and the super- stition and ignorance of the people gene- rally. On these points Sir Archibald Grant, a Highland laird of the time under review, gives clear and decisive evidence. According to this authority, husbandry and manufactures were in very low esteem for many years after the Union. 26 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. So long as the feudal system continued in force, land was looked upon rather as a source of power than of revenue. Even in years of abundance, all its produce was consumed on the spot, being obtained by the unskilled and desultory labours of men, whose only object was to secure the means of subsistence, and whose regular employ- ment was war. These retainers lived in wretched one-roomed hovels, crowded around the castle of their chief. The arable landin the neighbourhood was keptconstant- ly under corn crops ; and beyond it, a large tract was occupied in common, chiefly in the pasturage of cattle. Sir Archibald informs us, in his reminiscences, that tur- nips in fields, for cattle, were wondered at ; wheat was confined to East-Lothian ; inclosures were few, and planting was very httle ; roads were excessively rare, and, without exception, bad, there being no one to repair them ; while north of the Tay there were no coaches, chariots, or chaises, and even carts were almost unknown. A friend of Sir Archibald, one Colonel Mid- dleton, was the first person who employed CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 27 carts or waggons at Aberdeen ; and these two were the first to possess hay north of the Forth. Table and body-linen were coarse in texture, and seldom shifted; movable necks and sleeves being worn by the upper classes. Wooden, mud, and thatched houses existed in large numbers within the gates in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen ; while without, few houses of any better kind were to be found. Tyranny reigned everywhere. Nobles and chiefs were tyrants ; so were the clergy and the privy council, and the bailies and magistrates : and there was no such thing as fixed property or liberty. Grant's account of his own paternal estate in Aberdeenshire, then not behind the greater part of Scotland, is important. "By the indulgence of a very worthy father, I was allowed, when very young, to begin to inclose, and plant, and provide, and prepare nurseries. At the time (1716), there was not one acre on the whole estate inclosed, nor any timber upon it, but a few elm, sycamore, and ash, about a small kitchen garden adjoining to the house, and 28 CHAP-BOOKS OF SGOTLANS. some straggling trees at some of the farm- yards, with a small copsewood not inclosed, and dwarfish, and browsed by sheep and cattle. All the farms ill-disposed and mixed ; diiferent persons having alternate ridges ; not one wheel-carriage on the estate, nor indeed any one road that would allow it, and the rent about £600 sterling per annum ; grain and services converted to money. The house was an old castle, with battle- ments, and six diflferent roofs, of various heights and directions, confusedly and in- conveniently combined, and all rotten ; with two wings, more modern, of two storiee only; the half of the windows of the higher rising above the roofs ; with granaries, stables, and houses, for all cattle and the vermin attend- ing them, close adjoining ; and with the heath and moor reaching in angles or gush- ets to the gate, and much heath near, and what land near that was in cultm-e belonged to the farms, by which their cattle and dung were always at the door. The whole land raised and uneven, and full of stones, many of them very large, of a hard iron quaUty, and all the ridges crooked in shape GHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 29 ■of an S, and very high and full of noxious weeds, and poor, being worn out by culture, without proper manure or tillagiB. Much of ■the land and moor near the house poor and boggy; the rivulet that runs before the house in pits and shallow streams, often varying channels, with banks always ragged and broken. The people poor, ignorant, and slothful, and ingrained enemies to plant- ing, inclosing, or any improvements ot clean- ness ; no keeping of sheep, or cattle, or roads; farm-houses, and even corn-mills, and manse and school, all poor, dirty huts, jpuil&d in pieces for manure, or fell of themselves, almost each alternate year" % 1. This account of the carriages aiid roads is confirmed by all the chap-books of last century, in not one of which is a coach, cart,- or #agg6n once alhided to. People who w^nt on joilrneys used horses, and travellers wefe divided into two classes — equestrian and pedestrian. In JocTcie and Maggie's Courtship, composed and pub- lished after 1750, Jockie and his mother pay a visit to a friend who resides in the neigh- bourhood. So in the morning, " the brose 30 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. being done, an' a' things ready, Jock halters the black mare, lays on the sunks an' a cover- ing — fine furnitnre for a country wife. Jockie mounts an', his mither behind him, trots awa' till coming down the brae aboon John Davie's well, the auld beast being unferry o' the feet, she foundered before, the girth an' curple brake, Jockie tumbled o'er her lugs, an' his mither out o'er him, in the weU wi' a slunge." In the same way when Maggie ran for Uncle Kabby, and Uncle Eabby sent for Sandy the Souter of Seggyhole, " The Souter saddled his mare, an' Uncle Rabby got off at a . gaUop on his grey powney." To make matters worse, the few roads which did exist were Httle better than beaten tracks, made rugged and at times impassable by swollen torrents, or mountain thieves and caterans. Kegular communication was aU. but unknown, and in 1763 there was only one stage-coach between Scotland and Lon- don. This conveyance set out from Edin- burgh once a month, and took from fifteen to eighteen days to get over the ground. In 1678, an attempt was made to run a CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 31 coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow, but it fell through for want of support. Sixty- five years later, in 1743, the magistrates of both cities, tried to induce one John Walker to start one, to travel twice a week from either town, the Glasgow officials guaranteeing him the. sale of two hundred tickets yearly in their own city. But the scheme was thought 'too risky, and fell through. In 1749, a respectable citizen from the Trongate, named John Mcllquham, went on a journey to London, and was ever afterward called ' London John.' Amusing evidence to the same effect is furnished by Lord Lovat's account of a journey from Inverness to Edinburgh in 1740. " I came off on Wednesday, the 30th of July, fropi my own house, dined at your sister's,, and did not halt at Inverness, but came all night to Corribrough, with Evan BaiUie and Duncan Eraser ; and my chariot did very well. I brought my wheelwright with me the length of the Avemore,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 32 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. eight miles from the place, when, on the plain road, the axletree 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 a force of men, where I got an English wheelwright and a smith, who wrought two days mend- ing 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 McGlassian, told me that the Duke of Athol had two as good workmen at Blair 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 I was pretty secure till I came to this place. I was storm-stayed two days at Castle Drummond by the most OHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 33 tempestuous weather of wind and rain that I ever remember to see. The Dutchess 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 iDunblaiue, who happened to be very useful to us that day ; for I was not three miles gone from Castle Drummond, when the axletree of my fore-M'^heels broke in two in the midst of the hill, betwixt Drummond and the Bridge of Erdock, and we were forced to sit in the hiU with a boisterous day, till chamberlain Drummond was so kind as to go down to the 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 axletree made; so that it was' dark night before we came to Dunblaine, 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." 34 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. Even in Glasgow and Edinbvugk, private carriages were exceedingly rare, tlie fashion- able mode of conveyance being the sedan- chair. In some verses, entitled John High- land'marCs Remarks on Glasgow, hjJioTOi^BX Graham, author of the Metrical History of the Rebellion of '45, already mentioned, and whose name will occur frequently in the course of this book, we have a humorous description of one of these chairs — " And tere I saw another mattam, Into a tarry sack, And twa poor mans be carry her, Wi' rapes about him's neck — She pe sae fn' o' faulty, As no gang on the grun', Put twa poor mans pe carry her, In a barrow covered abune'." § 8. This want of roads and means of com- munication, necessarily isolated districts and communities from the rest of the country; and, in the Highlands especially, proved a fertile source of evil. Cattle-lifting, black- mail, and highway robberies abounded; and where there was no security there could not be any deep attachment to the reigning govern- CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 35 ment. The inhabitants of the Highlands generally, and of the adjacent country, were grievously oppressed by gangs of lawless thieves and robbers from the remote north, who stole and openly carried off their horses and cows; and as Badenoch, in particular, lay near the seats of those ruffians, great numbers of its inhabitants were reduced to beggary. Several attempts were made to obviate these evils, but without success, until Macpherson, of Cluny, in the sunamer of 1T44, undertook — on consideration of being paid a certain sum to be raised by general subscription — to rid the district of thieves, to recover stolen property, and to become Hable for the losses sustained by any one who con- tributed to the relief fund. This was, in fact, a revised edition of the black-mail system pursued by Hob Hoy, who, however, stole more cattle than he recovered. In Cluny's hands it proved completely successful: so much so, that when a certain clergyman began a sermon on the heinous nature of the crime of theft, an old Highlander in the audience interrupted him with the remark, that he need not say anything on that subject, as 36 CEAP-BOOKB OF SCOTLAND. Cluny witli his broadsword had done more to check thieving, than all the ministers put together could do by their sermons. This general insecurity was not confined to Scot- land, but extended to all parts of the King- dom, and furnished material for the large collection of cheap literature, devoted to deeds of violence, bloodshed and highway robberies. Among the best known of these works are, — McPherson^s Rant, Rob Roy, Jack Shepherd, Dick Turpin, The Gentle- man Robber, George Barnwell, David Haggart, The Negro Robber, Jack Man- song, The Female Robber, The Irish Assassin, The Bloody Gardener, Redmond G'Hanlan, McPherson, Fleemy, Balf, Gilder Roy, Donald McDonald,and Moll Inlanders. § 9. Hand-in-hand with the want of cheap, intelligent literature, went that lusty hand- maiden of ignorance — Superstition. An un- believer in charms, dreams, fortune-teUing, witchcraft, and the visible activity of elves, brownies, witches, warlocks, and the devil, with other superhuman and demoniacal agencies, was accounted little better than an CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 37 atheist. Fishermen purchased a fair wind and a heavy ' take ' from some sham ^olus ; maids and mistresses consulted the trarelling conjuror as to the time and results of their marriage ; and if a child fell sick, or a cow's milk failed, or the horse took the ' baits,' or the good man had an unusually severe head- ache after a ' spree,' — ^it was attributed to the ' evil eye.' The chcking of the death-watch, the rites of Hallowe'en and ITew Year, and the ' candle spail,' were regarded with reverence and fear ; and every woman in the land read her fortune in her tea-cup. Thus, in The Coalman^ s Courtship, when Sawny comes home drunk, and is put to bed, pale and haggard, his mother cries, — " Wa Sawny man, what's come o'er thee now ? Thou's gotten skaith ; some auld wife's bewitched ye!" So, too, Janet Clinker's Orations is full of superstitious allusions. Two old gossips, Maggy and Janet, are discussing the affairs of the parish, when the former expresses her surprise, that the " deils dinna flee on the minister whan he flytes and miscas them sae;" and asks her friend 38 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. " if she thinks they hear him ? " On which Janet : " Ay, they hear and see too, they are neither blind nor hleer'd ; but ay whan ye speak o' them name the day, cry its Wednesday thro" a' the warld, and there's nae fear o' you " " Indeed, they say there's black deils and white anes o' them, humel anes and horn'd anes, the very witches is ha'f deils whan they're living, and hale anes w^han they're dead. The brownies are ha'f dogs, ha'f deils, a' rough but the mouth, seeks nae claise, ae man's meat will sare them and tliey'U do ten men's wark in ae night ; * for it's hobgoblins, fairies and elfs, that shoots folk's beasts to death, and no hole to be seen in the skin o' them. H'ard ye no tell o' the twa Highland wives ? how the tane cried, " Ochon, Shenet, my cow is shot ! " "Hoch," quo she, '' wha shother?" "Deed,it wasthe Deil." "Och, Shenet, we'll a' be shot whan the de'il has gotten a gun !" In The Pleasures of Matrimony the young lady's maid visits a conjuror, to dis- cover whether a certain gallant is in love with her mistress ; and the gallant himself goes to the same place on a similar errand. So, again, the incident in the History of John Cheap the Chapman, where John, on *Thi8 reminds one of Milton's drudging goblin, whope shadowy flail by night would thrash the corn "That ten day-labourers could not end." CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 39 being refused bread and milk by the inhos- pitable farmer's wife, knots three or four long straws, and, muttering some gibberish, pretends to bewitch the cows in the byre ; handing over the kirn, butter and milk, sap and substance, without and within, to the tender mercies of the enemy of mankind. In the Highlands, the faculty of second- sight was invariably and implicitly believed in, and every parish boasted its seer or seers, of both sexes. The vision came upon the seer without premonition. If, in the morn- ing, the prediction was expected to be ful- filled within a few hours ; if, at noon, not for days. Was a woman seen standing at a man's left hand ? — the vision presaged the .mar- riage of the pair ; and if several women stood in a row beside a man, the one next him would be his first wife, and the second nearest his second, the third his third, and so on. Sometimes, a spectre or bfowny in- tervened to produce the phenomenon. At one time almost every family in Zetland had a browny, to whom they gave sacrifice for his service. "When they churned their milk, a portion of it was sprinkled on every 40 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. corner or house for the use of the spirit ; and when they brewed, some of the wort was poured through a hole in what was called the 'Browny's Stone' as a sacrificial offering. Certain stacks of corn, too, were called ' Browny's Stacks,' from off which, though they were unbound with straw-ropes, the greatest storm of wind was unable to blow any straw. Predictions of death formed a large class of cases of second-sight. The event was usually indicated by the subject of vision appearing in a shroud, and the. higher the vestment rose on the figm-e, the nearer was the event. So late as 1763 an educated man published a treatise in de- fence of the delusion, and even at the pre- sent day in the remoter parts of the High- lands second-sight is impHcitly beUeved in. Allusion has been made to witchcraft, the history of which occupies a large and ugly place in the annals of Scotland. " While Presbyterianism," writes the late Robert Chambers, " of the puritanic type reigned uncontrolled between 1640 and 1661, witches were tortured into confession and savagely burnt, in vast numbers ; the CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 41 clergy not merely concurring, but taking a lead in the proceedings. During the Crom- well ascendancy, English squeamishness greatly impeded justice in this department, to the no small dissatisfaction of the more zealous. On the Restoration, the liberated energies of the native powers fell furiously on, and got the land in a year or two pretty well cleared of, those vexatious old women who had been allowed to accumulate during the past decade. From 1662 to the Revo- lution, prosecutions for witchcraft were comparatively rare, and, however cruel the government might be towards its own op- ponents, it must be acknowledged to have introduced and acted consistently upon rules to some extent enlightened and humane with regard to witches — namely, that there should be no torture to extort confession, and no conviction without fair probation. «***•« -pov a few years after the Revolution, the subject rested in the quies- cence which had fallen upon it some years before. But at length the General Assem- bly began to see how necessary it was to look after witches and charmers, and some 42 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. salutary admonitions about these offenders were from time to time issued. The office of Lord Advocate or public prosecutor, had now fallen into the hands of Sir James Stewart of Goodtress, a person who shared in the highest convictions of the religious party at present in power, including rever- ence for the plain meaning of the text, ' thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' The consequence was, that the reign of William III. became a new Witch Period in Scotland, and one involving many notable cases." The wretched creatures were tortured on the rack, drowned in ponds, burnt at the stake, and starved or beaten to death. Most frequently, when convicted, the vic- tim was gagged with a broad piece of iron, called the ' witch's bridle,' which was forced into the mouth so as to press down the tongue. The head was then fixed in an open case, to which was attached a chain by which to rivet the body to the stake. Every little district and village had its ' witch-detector,' — an infamous impostor who pretended to be able to discover witches from an examination of the moles 0HAP-B00K8 OF SCOTLAND. 43 upon their bodies, these being thought to be nips given at birth by Satan, and insensible to pain. If, on the mole being pierced with a long needle, made for the purpose, the suspected person showing signs of being pained, he was at once found guilty and burnt, and the result of the examination de- pended entirely on the amount of the fee with which the detector had been bribed ; for the ' brod,' or needle, was so contrived that the operator, by touching a spring, could make the steel retire into its sheath. In England, it is estimated, that more than 30,000 ' witches ' were burnt, while the number of those who perished in Scotland is incalculable. At one sitting alone, of the Parliament in Edinburgh, upwards of 600 persons were indicted for witchcraft. The charges generally related to some alleged practising against the health of men, or cattle, or the growth of crops ; and there is a remarkable uniformity in the description of the sickness caused by witches, which seems to indicate the prevalence of violent fever and ague. To cure, was as dangerous to cause, disease ; and the imputations were 44 CHAP-BOOKS OF 8G0TLAND. often childishly absurd. Against one woman it was proved, that one night, while her husband was lying in bed, and she was dressing, a cat came and, after sitting upon him, and crying ' wallawa !,' worried one of her kittens: whereupon the goodman slew it, immediately after which his horse and dog went mad. This damning evidence against the woman was further confirmed by the fact that her children were aU ' quick-ganging devils ;' for one day an evil spirit, disguised as a magpie, chased the youngest out of the house, and tried to peck her eyes out. It is impossible, in short, to imagine any transaction of life into which sorcery might not enter, and advantage was taken of the superstition, by unscrupulous persons, to gratify private passions and spleen, or to accomplish other unholy ends. Among the forms most frequently assumed by evil spirits were those of the cat, hare and dog. The devil appeared to his servants, sometimes as an old grey-bearded man, with a white gown and a ' thrummy ' hat ; sometimes as a black man, a lamb, a calf, or a horse : and, at others, in the shape of a black beast, CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 45 whicli rose out of the ground in the midst of its worshippers, and waxed larger by de- grees. He loved to officiate as chairman at the midnight revels of witches and warlocks, and to promote the harmony of the evening by extemporising infernal ditties. On one occasion, according to Sinclair, The vera- cious author of Satan's Invisible World Discovered, the fiend, disguised as a young maiden, most ravishingly beautiful, ap- peared to certain of the sons of men, and sang a song of his own composition, which became suddenly very popular. In the Spalding piub Miscellany (1841-42), there is preserved a curious account of " The de- bursements made by the comptar, at com- mand and by-virtue of the Provost, Bailies, and Council, in the burning and sustentation of the witches : t £. s. d. Imprimis for bui-ying Suppak, who died in prison , 6 8 Item for trailing .Manteith througli tlie street of tiie town in a cart, who hanged herself in prison, and for cart hire and burj'ing her 10^ Jonet Wischart and Issbell Cooker. 46 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. Item for twenty loads of peat to bum them 40 Item for a boll of coals 23 Item for four tar-barrels 26 8 Item for fire and iron barrels 16 8 Item for a stake and dressing it 16 Item foy four fathom, of tows 4 Item for jjarryiug the peats, coals, and barrels to the Hill 13 4 Item for Jon Justice [Jack Ketch] for their execution; 13 4 Thomas Leis. Item, the 23d of Feb., for peats, tar-bar- rels, lire and coals, to buru the said Thomas, and to Jon Justice for his fee in executing him 3 13 4 The last witch executed in Scotland was a poor Highland woman, a native of the parish of Loth, in Sutherlandshire, who was burnt in a pitch-barrel at Dornoch, for having transformed her daughter iato a pony, and had her shod by the devil. This took place in June, 1722 ; but the Statutes against witchcraft were not repealed till 1750. So late as 1851, one Andrew Daw- son, in practice as a veterinary surgeon some- where in the region of tlie Grampians, was had up before the Kirk Session on a charge of sorcery, and summarily excommunicated CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 47 for having cured certain diseases by means of 'chucky stanes.' The universality of the be- lief in fortune-telling, dreams, ghostly visi- tatiojis,. and the hke, is attested by the number and character of the chap-books which treat of the supernatural. Among the best known of these are Visits to the World of Spirits, The Prophecies of Thomas a' Rhymer, Peden, x&c, (&c.. The Spaewife, The Golden Dreamer, Professor George /Sinclair's /Satan's Invisible World Discovered, fortune-telling books of every description, and mole and dream interpret- ers in endless variety ; besides such com- paratively recent works as Buonaparte's Book of Fate, and the hke. It was not till the beginning of the present century that this great fabric of superstition was materially shaken. In John Cheap the Chapman and similar sketches, written and pubhshed after 1750, there are many indi- cations that a great change was passing over the popular mind. John Cheap himself, although he frightens the goodwife into hospitality by making beUeve to bewitch her cattle, makes haste to escape from the 48 CHAP-BOOKB OF SCOTLAND. neighbourhood in case the trick may be dis- covered. He has, indeed, a wise contempt for such quackery, which intelligence on the part of a drunken peddler shows how the behef in charms and witchcraft, was rapidly dying out, or, at least, becoming greatly modified. That it has quite perished even now, however, cannot be affirmed ; for to this day there are hundreds who think it unlucky to travel on a Friday; or to be born or married on certain days ; or to go to fish if they are met by a black eat in the morn- ing ; and who feel uncomfortable at dinner if they are helped to salt ; or their neigh- bour, having spilled it, has neglected to throw a portion of it over his shoulder. To this day, too, the herring-fishers of Lochfyneside have a lucky and an unlucky method of doing everything. It is considered, for instance, unlucky to turn back for anything; or to give a bit of fire to one's neighbour when barking nets. Neither will a fisherman dare put a net on board his boat on the first night of the season unless the tide is at flood; or go to sea on the same occasion if a woman do not first grace his boat with her presence, CHAP-SOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 49 and either smile, or drink success to his fishing. An Ardrishaig shipbuilder would shudder at the thought of launching a boat against the sun, or in a line not parallel with the course of that luminary. Another superstition is that herring always desert the neighbourhood of land which has been manured with their dead fellows ; . and be- hevers in this fancy point conclusively to Shieidig, a small village in the North of Scotland, where, on one occasion, years ago, a heavy fishing was had, and there being no salt at hand, the herring were used to manure the soil. Since that day, it is said, no member of the herring ti-ibe has ever visited that' shore. There are still one or two old men who, when hauling in their nets with a good ' shot ' of ' maskit ' herring, or, to use the technical provincialism, a ' good strag,' always sprinkle a 'puckle salt' on the fish, in order to counteract the baneful in- fiuence of some possible evil eye that may be on them. Allan Cunningham, in a passage of remarkable beauty, written in 1825, bewails the vanishing of these dreamp of superstitious belief. A4 so CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. A poetical and imaginative power, he writes, nursed these old beliefs in spite of their education and the light which learning shed ; while their southern neighbours, hav- ing less imaginative power, and niuch less knowledge, dismissed them as idle and un- profitable encumbrances. Much of the richness of the illustration, much of the poetical strength of expression, has left us: and what was accounted the fittest food for the Muse is charmed away from her hps by the magic-wand of adventure, invention, and discovery. To a shepherd's way of life, poetry may be supposed to have Httle to add, since his whole existence seems poetical; yet, when the arrows of the elves, and the spells of the witches, were broken or destroyed, the poetical part" of sheep- surgery departed also : he now consults the receipt-book, and seeks no longer to avert or cure the evil which has fallen on his flock, by the poetry of charms or conjur- ations. The mariner, when he spreads his sail for a foreign shore, no longer purchases a favoiirable wind and a prosperous voyage from the witches of Lapland or Galloway; CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 51 and though he whistles for a breeze when the sea is calm, he does so more through custom than from the hope of awakening the sleeping wind. The fisherman, when he dip's his nets in the water, thinks not now ■of augmenting his draught of fish by warb- ling to his victims a charmed rhyme; and the cowherd, when he drives his cattle to the pasture, has forgot of late to regulate their movements, and protect them from the .spells of witches, with a rod of rowan-tree. *A horse-shoe is no longer nailed above the stable-door, as a charm against the entrance ■of mischievous beings; nor is an ox's head buried under the barn threshold, to ensure the coming of the corn unblighted to the flail. The maid dreads no more the in- fluence of evil eyes over her gathering of cream, as the churn staflF ascends and de- scends amid the fragrant element; and the * This statement can hardly be correct, aa, even now, after the lapse of nearly half a century, the horse-shoe is to be found nailed to the doors of barns, stables, and smithies in the West- ern Highlands of Scotand, although it may be that much of the ancient meaning has fled ; and the persons who nail them on hardly know why they do it, unless it be that their fathers did so before them. 52 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. matron, as she bars her door at night, summons no more Saint Bride and her brat, and all other powers, in whose might her ancestors had belief, to protect her and hers from all manner of fiends and shapes in the service of Satan. These and many- other rural superstitions of a poetical nature, have melted away before the thaw of knowledge. When the peasant stood on the hill-top, and looked to earth and sky as the sun sank, to discover the promise of to-mor- row, he composed something like the mdi- ments of poetry as he remarked the colours of the clouds, and the amplified or decreased appearance of the hills, and deduced from, the varied scene before him the certainty of sunshine or rain. He sits at home now and consults his almanack. When time was com- puted by the sun's shadow, or by the evening light, a shepherd, as he gazed on the stars and moon, composed the poem while he pondered out the hour; the bughting star and the northern wain, and the plough, are all names fitted for rustic poetry ; but they CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 53 have slipped out of conversation now that a watch has usurped their office. Men had their lucky days, on which they transacted business; a sailor was unwilling to weigh anchor on a Friday ; and a family was sure to be overwhelmed with calamity and mis- fortune, had the head of the house chanced to marry in May. Two magpies on the roof of a dwelling house were ominous of a funeral in one county, and of a wedding in another ; a hare hirpling before a youth as he was on the way to his love, during the (twilight, has made him turn pale, and in- duced him to break his tryste; while a shower of rain on a bridal procession has gone nearer to snatch the bride from the bridegroom's arms, than all the address and cunning of his rivals. I have known men set down a corpse, and wait till a cloud interposed between them and the sun, before depositing it in the earth. Such a superstiti- ous feeling is still recorded in Enghsh rhyme : Happy is the bride that the sun shines on, And happy is the corse that the rain rains on. These and innumefable other remains of a 54 OEAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. curious and primitive people have been current in many men's memories; and as they contain the very elements of poetry, there can be httle doubt that poetry has suffered by their loss, and that man is be- coming more of a machine-^an instrument capable of cultivating a given quantity of ground — a spinning-jenny for preparing thread — a kind of mihtary engine covered with plumes and scarlet, for demohshing towns and destroying the human species. § 10. Another feature of the age was the extreme severity of its penal enactments. There was never a Glasgow Ayre closed its sittings that several wretches were not doomed to execution for crimes, or rather misdemeanors, which now-a-days would be amply punished by a brief imprisonment. Men and women were drummed out of the city and banished from the burgh for slight offences, or cat-of-nine-tailed through the pubHc thoroughfares at the back of a cart, to be pelted with mud and refuse by a brutal, unsympathisiag rabble. The last woman who suffered in this way was flogged along Argyll street, Glasgow, in 1793. CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 55 The following extracts from the Glasgow Mercury speak for themselves : '• Thursday, July 30th,1778. On Monday,Barbara Barber was tried before the Magistrates of this City for keeping a bawdy house. She was sentenced to remain in prison till Wednesday the 12th of August next, and then to stand on the Tolbooth stair-head with a label on her breast, having these words, — ' For keeping a notorious bawdy house;'' and afterwards to be banished from the city and liberties for seven years, undes the usual certification." " Glasgow, December 24th, 1778. By sentence of the Magistrates, Catharine Buchanan and Sarah McDougal are to stand on the Tolbooth stair-head, bareheaded, on Wednesday the 30th of December, with a label on their breasts, ' I stand here for theft and reset of theft '; and afterwards to be sent to the house of correction for two months, and Catharine Buchanan to be banished from the town for seven years. The process was carried out at the expense of the protecting society." A few years earlier, Catharine Buchanan and Sarah McDougal would have been hanged ; a few years later, imprisoned for seven or ten days. § 11. The same spirit of harshness and severity prevailed everywhere, andin no quar- ter more prominently than in the Church. For nearly two centuries the jurisdiction of 56 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. the Bark Session had been submitted to without a grumble. Its judgments were bind- ing as the edicts of the Council of Nice ; irre- vocable as the statutes of the Medes. Every- where the influence of the Church reigned supreme. Its authority penetrated to the most secret places of domestic life, invading the sanctity of the kitchen, and seriously curtailing the dimensions of the wardrobe. If a person absented himself from one diet of divine service on Sunday, he was fined in three shillings and four pence; if he went to any other kirk than his own, he was mulcted in twice that sum. One or two magistrates were told off to watch at the church doors, to take a note of the absentees ; while others were appointed to report on such of the members as disgraced themselves by drunkenness. Does not Leper, the tailor, inform us how two ' zealous civil- eers,' one Sunday afternoon, invaded the kitchen, and carried away his ' kail pot,' on the ground that he should be at Kirk, and had no right to be cooking during divine service ? The fines imposed for breaking the Sabbath, besides making public repent- CHAP-BOOKa OF SCOTLAND. 57 ance, graduated, according to the repeti- tion, or the gravity of the offence, from six shillings and eight pence to £6 Scots. A curious instance of the religious super- stition of the times was the fact, that fast days were thought to be more sacred than the Sabbath, and consequently any desecration of them was punished with even more severity ; the lowest fine being forty shil- hngs for the first, eighty for the second, and one hundred and twenty for the third offence. Persons were also prohibited from public walking on Sunday, and children from appearing in the street on the same day. Profane swearers were iined a shilling an oath ; adulterers were ducked in the river ; prostitutes were publicly whipped, and banished for life ; ' change-houses' were searched by the elders every Saturday night, with the view of 'dilating' drinkers; wife- beaters were compelled to ' ride the stang ;' and scolds had to stand in the church aisle in sack cloth, and make public confession of their evil tongue. The stringency of these regulations regarding the observance of the Sabbath, and the sin of incontinency, natu- 58 CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. rally gave the clerical conclaves abundant matter for jurisdiction, and led to many and serious evils : so much so, that as the Kirk increased in severity, the people sank deeper in vice ; and the most gross immorality, in- temperance, superstition, ignorance, and child murder, were accompanied by a phar- asaical observance of religious rites, and an austerity that refused to countenance May- pole dances, Robin Hood games, mysteries, plays, and every kind of popular amusement and sport, — including ' penny weddings ' and country 'fairs.' Leper, the tailor, thought it no sin to get most beastly drunk on Sunday, but was filled with horror at the idea of shaving on that day; John Cheap compelled the elder to give him lodging and food, by threatening to tell 'the minister' if he refused ; and other chap-books of the period teem with references to the terrible judg- ments of the Kirk Session. The ' Jug' and the ' Cutty Stool ' were the two most prom- inent articles of ecclesiastical furniture, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries; and the dread which they inspired was a fertile source of infanticide and other evils. The OHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 59 Records of the Books of Presbyteries and Sessions contain abundant proof of the rapid increase of illegitimacy which suc- ceeded the Reformation. Towards the end of the ITth century, it was declared in the legislature that there were frequent murders of innocent infants, whose mothers conceal- ed their pregnancy; and it was according- ly enacted that women found guilty of this sort of secrecy, and whose babes were dead or missing, should be held as guilty of murder, and punished accordingly. In other words. Society, by treating female frailty with puritanic severity, held out the most powerful temptation to unfortunate women to conceal the fact of their pregnancy, and the consequence of their sin ; and then, on merely negative evidence, punished with death the very ci-imes which it had itself induced. But, terrible as this act was, it did not avail to make women brave the severity of that social punishment which stood on the other side. It had, accordingly, many vic- tims, and furnished the incident on which, as everyone knows, the Heart of Midlothian turns. As might be expected in an age so 6o GHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. harsh, and careful of the outsides of the plat- ters, laws were passed, ecclesiastical and civil, to restrain excess in personal expendi- ture. At one period work-people were re- stricted on ' week-days ' to clothes of grey and white, and on holidays to light blue, green, and red ; while their wives' 'curches' were ordered to be home made, not exceeding forty-pence the ell ; and no woman was allowed to go to Ku-k or market with her face veiled, under pain of ' escheat' or forfeit- ure of -the curch. After the Kevolution, the discipline of the church abated some- what of its rigour; but its lay-officer or Kirk-treasurer, was still a very formidable person. The poems of Kamsay, and the chap-books generally, are full of allusions to the terrible powers, not only of the Kirk-trea- surer himself, but of his ' man ' or servant. In a parody by the younger Ramsay on the Integer Vitce of Horace, tliis personage is set forth as the analogue of the Sabine wolf: " For but last Monday, walking at noon-day, Conning a ditty, to divert my Betty, By me that sonr Turk (I not frighted) our Kirk- Treasurer's man passed. CRAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 6l And sure more horrid monster in tlie Torrid Zone cannot be found, sir, ttiougli for snakes re- nowned, sir ; Nor does Czar Peter's empire boast sncii creatures, Of bears tlie wet-nurse." Burt, in his betters, goes so far as to assert that the Kirk-treasurer employed spies to report upon private individuals, so that people lay at the mercy of villains who were ready to forswear themselves for six- pence. Card and dice playing in taverns, with drinking and desecration of Sunday, were the crimes which gave most employ- ment to these active emissaries. Especially was their anxiety strong about Sabbath ob- servance. It seemed, says Burt, as if the Scotch recognized no other virtue. People would startle more at the humming or whisthng of a tune on a Sunday, than if anybody should tell them you had ruined a family. Innumerable extracts might be given from the vulgar literature of the age, bearing out the above remarks, but the fol- lowing may serve as a sample. In Jackie and Maggie^ s Courtship, the Minister, the Bark Session, the Eark-trea- surer, the Sackcloth, and the Cutty Stool, 62 CEAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. are all denounced in set terms. Jockie's mother anathematises the two last " as just a wheen Papish rites an' rotten cere- monies, fashing fouks wi' sacking gowns and buttock mails, an' I dinna ken what ; but bide ye till I see the minister." So, too, " Jockie, being three times summoned to the ses- sion and not appearing, the session insisted for a warrant from the justice of peace, which was readily granted, more for diversion than for justice salie. The warrant being given to John King, tlie consta- ble, he went away with Clinkem Bell, on Satur- day's morning, and catched John just at his brose, hauls him awa', ane at ilka oxter like tvva butcher dogs hinging at a bill's beard ; his mither followed, driving him up with good counsel, "my bra' man Johnny, baud up ye'r head, an' dinna think shame, for a' ye'r fauts is but perfect honesty, ye're neither a thief, nor a horse-stealer." Poor Jockie was only a father when he should not have been one, — rather a virtue than a vice, in the eyes of his mother. Naturally enough the sin sat lightly on his conscience, and if it had not been for the ' black stool,' he would have been a happy man. On being brought before the Jus- GHAP-BOOKS OF 8C0TLAJHD. 63 tiee, and asked if he was willing to support the child, he cried. " O ! yes, , stir, 'am no refusing tp gie moat an' meal to maintain't ; but my mither winnalet me to the blaplv stool," w'lich is ooiToborated by the mother exclaiming ; "Ony thing ye lilce, stir, but that shamefu' stance, the black stool. Here's uncle Babby, an' auld Sandy the Soutor, will be caution that we's face tiie Session on Sunday ; the lad's wae enough that he did it, but he cannot help it now it's past, and "by-hand." The trial scene is so characteristic, that it will bear being quoted at greater length. "On Sabbath, after sermon, the Session met. John and his mother is called upon : he enters cour- ageously, saying, ' goode'en to you, maister minis- ter, bellman, an' elders a'; my mither an' me is baitii here.' Mess John. — Then let her in, — come awa', good- wife. What's the reason you Icept your son so long bacli from answering the Session ? You see it is the thing you are obliged to do at last. Mith. — Deed, stir, I think there needna be nae mair mark about it ; I think wlien he's gien the lazy hulk, the mither o't, baith meal an' groats to main- tain't, ye needna fash him ; he's a dutiful father indeed, weel I wat, wlien he feeds his bystarts sae weel. Mess John.— Woma.n, are you a hearer of the gospel, that ye reject the dictates of it ? How come 64 CBAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. you to despise the discipline of the church? are not offenders to be rebuked and chastised ? MUli. — Yes, stir, a' that's very true ; but I hae been three or four times through the Bible, and the New Testament, an' I never saw a repenting-stool in't a' ; tiien whar cou'd the first of them come frae, for the Apostles had nane o' them? But a daft history book tells me that tlie first of them was us'd about Rome, among the Papists ; an' aj' when ony of them turn'd VVhfgs, thej' were put on a four- neuked thing, like a yarn-winnle blades, an' rave a' their gouls sindry till they turn'd Papists again ; an then, for anger, they put them on a black stane or stool in the middle o' the Kirk, an' the seek gown about them, wi' the picture o' the de'il an' Satan on't; a sweet be wi' us, we suedna speak o' the ill thief in the Kirk ! but it is a mercy the minister's here an' he come ; but that was the origin o' your repenting-stools. An' when the Whigs chas'd awa' the Papist fouk out o' this kintry, they left a wheen o' their religious pictures, an' the stool of repentance was amongst the spoil ; but ye's no get my bairn to set upon a thing as high as a hen-bawk, an' ilka body to be glowring at him. Mess John. — Woman, I told you formerly, that any one who refuses submission to the government of the church is liable to excommunication." In spite of the vigorous defence made by his mother, John is sentenced " to appear pubhcly on the stool of repentance on Sabbath next, and the two following there- CHAP-BOOKS OF SCOTLAND. 65 after, to be absolyed from the scandal." John refuses, as long as he can, to obey the sentence, but is ultimately forced to give in, when his lawful wife bears him a son, which the minister refuses to ' christen,' so long as its father remains obdurate. This lets us into the secret of much of the Kirk's authority in these cases. The superstitious faith, and transcendent efficacy, attached to the baptismal rite in the last century, were lamentably strong. In the narrative just quoted from, Marion affirms that " 'tis a very uncanny thing to keep an un- christened creature about a house, or yet to meet, in the morning, a body wanting a name:" and another speaker defines the