I may observe, for example, the case of an apparitor sent to Borthwick from the Primate of Saint Andrews, to cite the lord of that castle, who was opposed by an Abbot of Unreason, at whose command the officer of the spiritual court was appointed to be ducked in a mill-dam, and obliged to eat up his parchment citation.

The reader may be amused with the following whimsical details of this incident, which took place in the castle of Borthwick, in the year 1547. It appears, that in consequence of a process betwixt Master George Hay de Minzeane and the Lord Borthwick, letters of excommunication had passed against the atter, on account of the contumacy of certain witnesses. Wildam Langlands, an apparitor or macer (bacularius) of the See of St Andrews, presented these letters to the curate of the church of Borthwick, requiring him to publish the same at the service of high mass. It seems that the inhabitants of the castle were at this time engaged in the favourite sport of enacting the Abbot of Unreason, a species of high-jinks, in which a mimic prelate was elected, who, like the Lord of Misrule in England, urned all sort of lawful authority, and particularly the church tual, into ridicule. This frolicsome person with his retinue, otwithstanding of the apparitor's character, entered the church, seized upon the primate's officer without hesitation, and, dragging him to the mill-dam on the south side of the castle, compelled him to leap into the water. Not contented with this partial immersion, the Abbot of Unreason pronounced, that Mr William Langlands was not yet sufficiently bathed, and therefore caused his assistants to lay him on his back in the stream, and duck him in the most satisfactory and perfect manner. The unfortunate apparitor was then conducted back to the church, where, for his refreshment after his bath, the letters of excommunication were torn to pieces, and steeped in s bowl of wine; the mork abbot being probably of opinion that a tough parchment was but dry eating, Langlands was compelled to eat the letters, and swallow the wine, and dismissed by the Abbot of Unreason, with the comfortable assurance, that if iny more such letters should arrive during the continuance of his office, they should a' gang the same gate," i. e. go the

Baine road.

This exhibition, the play-mare of Scotland, stood high among holyday gambols. It must be carefully separated from the wooden chargers which furnish out our nurseries. It gives rise to Hamlet's ejaculation,—

But oh, but oh, the hobby-horse is forget

There is a very comic scene in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of Woman Pleased," where Hope-on-high Bombye, a puritan cobbler, refuses to dance with the hobby-horse. There was much difficulty and great variety in the motions which the hobby-horse was expected to exhibit.

The learned Mr Douce, who has contributed so much to the Elustration of our theatrical antiquities, has given us a full account of this pageant, and the burlesque horsemanship which it practised.

Hirpool. Marry, sir, is this process parchment ?

Sumner. Yes, marry is it.

Harpool. And this seal wax?
Sumner. It is so.

Harpool. If this be parchment, and this be wax, eat you this parchment and wax, or I will make parchment of your skin, and beat your bring into wax. Sirah Sumner, despatch-devour, sirrah, devour.

I am my Lord of Rochester's sumner; I came to do my off, and then shalt answer it.

Harpod, Sirmab, no railing, but betake thyself to thy teeth. Thou shalt eat no worse than thou brangest with thee. Thou bringest it for y lord; and wilt thou bring my lord worse than thou wilt eat thyself? Sumner. Sir, I brought it not my lord to eat.

Horpool. 0, do you Sir me now? All's one for that; I'll make you at it for bringing it.

Sumner. I cannot eat it.

Herpool. Can you not ? 'Sblood, I'll beat you till you have a stomach! (Beats him.)

aner, Oh, hold, hold, good Mr Servingman; I will eat it. Harpool. He champing, be chewing, sir, or I will chew you, you rogue. Tough wax is the purest of the honey.

Ser The purest of the honey? O Lord, sir! oh! oh! Harpool. Feed, feed; tis wholesome, rogue, wholesome. Cannot you, like an honest sumber, walk with the devil your brother, to fetch 17our bailiff's rents, but you must come to a nobleman's house with proces? If the seal were broad as the lead which covers Rochester Church, thou shouldst eat it.

Sumner. Oh, I am almost choked - I am almost choke 1! Herpool. Who's within there? Will you shame my lord? Is there Do beer in the house? Butler, I say.

**ite hobby-horse," says Mr Douce, was represented by a man equipped with as much pasteboard as was sufficient to form the head and hinder parts of a horse, the quadrupedal defects being concealed by a long mantle or footcloth that nearly touched the ground. The former, on this occasion, exerted all his skill in burlesque horsemanship. In Sympson's play of the Law-breakers, 1636, a miller personates the hobbyhorse, and being angry that the mayor of the city is put in competition with him, exclaims, Let the mayor play the hobby-horse among his brethren, an he will; I hope our townlads cannot want a hobby-horse. Have I practised my reius, my careers, my pranckers, my ambles, my false trots, my smooth anibles, and Canterbury paces, and shall master mayor put me besides the hobby-horse? Have I borrowed the forehorse bells, his plumes, his braveries; nay, had his mane new shorn and frizzled, and shall the mayor put ine besides the hobby-horse?'"-DOUCE's Illustrations, vol. II. p. 468.

Note II.

-REPRESENTATION OF ROBIN HOOD AND
LITTLE JOHN.

The representation of Robin Hood was the darling Maygame both in England and Scotland, and doubtless the favourite personification was often revived, when the Abbot of Unreason, o. other pretences of frolic, gave an unusual degree of license.

The Protestant clergy, who had formerly reaped advantag from the opportunities which these sports afforded them directing their own satire and the ridicule of the lower orderagainst the Catholic church, began to find that, when thes purposes were served, their favourite pastimes deprived thera of the wish to attend divine worship, and disturbed the frame of mind in which it can be attended to advantage. The celebrated Bishop Latimer gives a very naïve account of the manner in which, bishop as he was, he found himself compelled to give place to Robin Hood and his followers.

"I came once myselfe riding on a journey homeward fron London, and I sent word over night into the towne that I would preach there in the morning, because it was holiday, and me thought it was a holidayes worke. The church stood in my way, and I took my horse and my company, and went thither, (I thought I should have found a great company in the church, and when I came there the church doore was fast locked. I tarryed there halfe an houre and more. At last the key was found, and one of the parish comes to me and said, — Sir, this is a busie day with us, we cannot hear you; it is Robin Hood's day. The parish are gone abroad to gather for Robin Hood. I pray you let them not.' I was faine there to give place to Robin Hood. I thought my rochet should have been regarded, though I were not: but it would not serve, it was fine to give place to Robin Hood's men. It is no laughing matter, my friends, it is a weeping matter, a heavie matter, a leavie matter. Under the pretence for gathering for Robin Hood, a traytour, and a theif, to put out a preacher; to have his office lesso esteemed; to preferre Robin Hood before the ministration of God's word; and all this hath come of unpreaching prelates, This realme hath been ill provided for, that it hath had such corrupt judgments in it, to prefer Robin Hood to God's word." -Bishop Latimer's sixth Sermon before King Edward.

While the English Protestants thus preferred the outlaw's pageant to the preaching of their excellent Bishop, the Scottish. calvinistic clergy, with the celebrated John Knox at their head. and backed by the authority of the magistrates of Edinburgh, who had of late been chosen exclusively from this party, found it impossible to control the rage of the populace, when they attempted to deprive them of the privilege of presenting their pageant of Robin Hood.

(1561) "Vpon the xxi day of Junij, Archibalde Dowglas of Kilspindie, Provest of Edr., David Syminer and Adame Fullartoun, baillies of the samyne, causit ane cordinare servant, callit James Gillion, takin of befoir, for playing in Edr. with Robene Hude, to wnderly the law, and put him to the knowledge of ane assyize qlk yaij haid electit of yair favoraris, quia with schort deliberatioun condemnit him to be hangit for ye said cryme. And the deaconis of ye craftismen fearing vproare, maid great solistatnis at ye handis of ye said provost and bail lies, and als requirit John Knox, minister, for eschewing of tumult, to superceid ye executioun of him, vnto ye tyme yai suld adverteis my Lord Duke yairof. And yan, if it wes his mynd and will yat he should be disponit vpoun, ye said deaconis and craftismen sould convey him yaire; qulia answerit, yat yai culd na way stope ye executioun of justice. Quban ye tiine of ye said pouer mans hanging approchit, and yat ye hangman wes cum to ye jibbat with ye ledder, vpoune ye qlk ye said cordinare should have bene hangit, ane certaine and remanent craftischilder, quba wes put to ye horne with ye said Gillione, ffor ye said Robene Hiude's playes, and vyris yair assistaris and favoraris, pust to wappinis, and yai brak down ye said jibbat, and yan clacit ye said provest, baillies, and Alexr. Guthrie, in ye said Alexander's writing buith, and held yame yairin; and yairefter past to ye tolbuyt, and becaus the samyne was steiket, and onnawayes culd get the keyes thairof, thai brake the said tolbuith dore with foure harberis, per force, (the said provest and baillies luckand thairon,) and not onlie put thar the said Glilione to fredome and libertie, and brocht him furth of the said tolbuit, boc alsua the remanent presonaris bein, thairintill; and this done, the said craftsmen's servands, wir'

the said condemnit cordonar, past doun to the Netherbow, to have past furth thairat; bot becaus the samyne on thair coming thairto wes closet, thai past vp agane the Hie streit of the said bourghe to the Castellhill, and in this menetyme the saidis provest and baillies and thair assistaris being in the writting buith of the said Alexr. Guthrie, past and enterit in the said tolbuyt, and in the said servandes passage vp the Hie streit, then schiote furth thairof at thame ane dog, and hurt ane servand of the said childer. This being done, thair wes nathing vthir but the one partie schuteand out and castand stanes furth of the said tolbuyt, and the vther pairtie schuteand hagbuttis in the same again. And sua the craftismen's servandis, aboue written, held and inelosit the said provest and baillies continewallie in the said tolbuyth, frae three houris efternone, quhill aught houris at even, and na man of the said town prensit to relieve thair said provest and baillies. And than thai send to the maisters of the Castell, to caus tham if thai myelit stay the said servandis, quha maid ane maner to do the same, bot thai could not bring the same to ane finall end, ffor the said servands wold on rowayes stay fra, qubill thai had revengit the hurting of ane of them; and thairefter the constable of the castell come down thairfra, and he with the said maisters treatet betwix the said pties in this maner:-That the said provost and baillies sall remit to the said craftischilder, all actioun, cryme, and offens that thai had committit aganes thame in any tyme bygane; and band and oblast thame never to pursew them thairfor; and als commandit thair maisters to resaue them agane in thair services, as thai did befoir. And this being proclamit at the mercat cross, thai scalit, and the said provest and bailies come furth of the same tolbouyth." &c. &c. &c.

John Knox, who writes at large upon this tumult, informs us it was inflamed by the deacons of craftes, who, resenting the superiority assumed over them by the magistrates, would yield no assistance to put down the tumult. "They will be magistrates alone," said the recusant deacons, e 'en let them rule the po. pulace alone;" and accordingly they passed quietly to take their four-hours penny, and left the magistrates to help themselves as they could. Many persons were excommunicated for this outrage, and not admitted to church ordinances till they had inade satisfaction.

Note I.

INABILITY OF EVIL SPIRITS TO ENTER A
HOUSE UNINVITED.

There is a popular belief respecting evil spirits, that they cannot enter an inhabited house unless invited, nay, dragged over the threshold. There is an instance of the same superstition in the Tales of the Genii, where an enchanter is supposed to have intruded himself into the Divan of the Sultan.

"Thus,' said the illustrious Misnar, let the enemies of Mahomet be dismayed! but inform me, O ye sages! under the semblance of which of your brethren did that foul enchanter gain admittance here?'- May the lord of my heart,' answered Balihu, the hermit of the faithful from Queda, triumph over all his foes! As I travelled on the mountains from Queda, and saw neither the footsteps of beasts, nor the flight of birds, behold, I chanced to pass through a cavern, in whose hollow sides I found this accursed sage, to whom I unfolded the invitation of the Sultan of India, and we, joining, journeyed towards the Divan; but ere we entered, he said unto me, Put thy hand forth, and pull me towards thee into the Divan, calling on the name of Mahomet, for the evil spirits are on me, and vex me.'" I have understood that many parts of these fine tales, and in particular that of the Sultan Misnar, were taken from genuine Oriental sources by the editor, Mr James Ridley.

But the most picturesque use of this popular belief occurs in Coleridge's beautiful and tantalizing fragnient of Christabel. Has not our own imaginative poet cause to fear that future ages will desire to summon him from his place of rest, as Milton longed

On various parts of his castle he inscribed, as expressing La religious and political creed, the legend,

UN DIEU, UN FOY, UN ROY, UN Lor.

He declined to be promoted to an earldom, which Queen Mary offered him at the same time when she advanced her natural brother to be Earl of Mar, and afterwards of Murray, On his refusing this honour, Mary wrote, or caused to be wrdten, the following lines in Latin and French:

Sunt comites, ducesque alii; sunt denique reges;

After the battle of Langside, Lord Seton was obliged to retire abroad for safety, and was an exile for two years, dure which he was reduced to the necessity of driving a waggon in Flanders for his subsistence. He rose to favour in James VL reign, and resuming his paternal property, had himself painte in his waggoner's dress, and in the act of driving a wain with four horses, on the north end of a stately gallery at Seton Cast He appears to have been fond of the arts; for there exists a beautiful family-piece of him in the centre of his family. M Pinkerton, in his Scottish Iconographia, published an engrar ing of this curious portrait. The original is the property d Lord Somerville, nearly connected with the Seton family, and is at present at his lordship's fishing villa of the Pavilion, neur Melrose.

Note L,

THE RESIGNATION OF QUEEN MARY.

The details of this remarkable event are, as given in the preceding chapter, imaginary; but the outline of the events i historical. Sir Robert Lindesay, brother to the author of the Memoirs, was at first intrusted with the delicate commission of persuading the imprisoned queen to resign her crown. As le flatly refused to interfere, they determined to send the Lori Lindesay, one of the rudest and most violent of their own far tion, with instructions, first to use fair persuasions, and d these did not succeed, to enter into harder terms. Knox 20ciates Lord Ruthven with Lindesay in this alarming comm sion. He was the son of that Lord Rutliven who was pr agent in the murder of Rizzio; and little mercy was to be expected from his conjunction with Lindesay.

The employment of such rude tools argued a resolution on the part of those who had the Queen's person in their power, to proceed to the utmost extremities, should they find Mary obst nate. To avoid this pressing danger, Sir Robert Melville was despatched by them to Lochleven, carrying with him, coneen led in the scabbard of his sword, letters to the Queen from ta Earl of Athole, Maitland of Lethington, and even from Throgmorton, the English ambassador, who was then favourable to the unfortunate Mary, conjuring her to yield to the necessity of the times, and to subscribe such deeds as Lindesay should lay before her, without being startled by their tenor; and assuring her that her doing so, in the state of captivity under which she was placed, would neither, in law, honour, nor conscience. be binding upon her when she should obtain her liberty. Submitting by the advice of one part of her subjects to the menace of the others, and learning that Lindesay was arrived in a boasting, that is, threatening humour, the Queen, with some reluctancy, and with tears," saith Knox, subscribed one dred resigning her crown to her infant son, and another establishing the Earl of Murray regent. It seems agreed by histomana, that Lindesay behaved with great brutality on the occasi The deeds were signed 24th July, 1567.

Note O.

SUPPOSED CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE
LIFE OF MARY.

A romancer, to use a Scottish phrase, wants but a hair to ake a tether of. The whole detail of the steward's supposed nspiracy against the life of Mary, is grounded upon an exression in one of her letters, which affirmis, that Jasper Dryfesale, one of the Laird of Lochleven's servants, had threatened o murder William Douglas, (for his share in the Queen's scape,) and averred that he would plant a dagger in Mary's wn heart.-CHALMERS' Life of Queen Mary, vol. i. p. 278.

Note Q.

DEMEANOUR OF QUEEN MARY.

In the dangerous expedition to Aberdeenshire, Randolph, the nglish ambassador, gives Cecil the following account of Queen lary's demeanour:

"In all those garbulles, I assure your honour, I never saw te Queen merrier, never dismayed; nor never thought I that tomache to be in her that I find. She repented nothing but, when the Lords and others, at Inverness, came in the morning rom the watches, that she was not a man to know what life it to lye all night in the fields, or to walk upon the causeway ith a jack and a knaps-cap, a Glasgow buckler, and a broadword."-RANDOLPH to CECIL, September 18, 1562.

The writer of the above letter seems to have felt the same npression which Catherine Seyton, in the text, considered as roper to the Queen's presence among her armed subjects.

Though we neither thought nor looked for other than on at day to have fought or never-what desperate blows ould not have been given, when every man should have ught in the sight of so noble a Queen, and so many fair ladies, ar enemies to have taken them from us, and we to save our noura, not to be reft of them, your honour can easily judge!" -The same to the same, September 24, 1562.

Note R.

ESCAPE OF QUEEN MARY FROM
LOCHLEVEN.

It is well known that the escape of Queen Mary from LochEven was effected by George Douglas, the youngest brother of ir William Douglas, the lord of the castle; but the minute cirstances of the event have been a good deal confused, owing two agents having been concerned in it who bore the same ame. It has been always supposed that George Douglas was nduced to abet Mary's escape by the ambitious hope that, by ach service, he might merit her hand. But his purpose was fiscovered by his brother Sir William, andhe was expelled from he castle. He continued, notwithstanding, to hover in the neighborhood, and maintain a correspondence with the royal prisoner and others in the fortress.

If we believe the English ambassador Drury, the Queen was rateful to George Douglas, and even proposed a marriage with him: a scheme which could hardly be serious, since she was still the wife of Bothwell, but which, if suggested at all. might be with a purpose of gratifying the Regent Murray's ambition, and propitiating his favour; since he was, it must be remembered, the brother uterine of George Douglas, for whom uch high honour was said to be designed.

The proposal, if seriously made, was treated as inadmissible, and Mary again resumed her purpose of escape. Her failure in er first attempt has some picturesque particulars, which might ave been advantageously introduced in fictitious narrative. Drury sends Cecil the following account of the matter:

But after, upon the 25th of the last, (April 1567,) she terprised an escape, and was the rather near effect, through The accustomed long lying in bed all the morning. The manner

of it was thus: there cometh in to her the laundress early at other times before she was wanted, and the Queen according to such a secret practice putteth on her the hood of the laun dress, and so with the fardel of clothes and the muffler upon her face, passeth out and entreth the boat to pass the Loch; which, after some space, one of them that rowed said merrily. Let us see what manner of dame this is,' and therewith offered to pull down her muffler, which to defend, she put up her hands, which they spied to be very fair and white; wherewith they entered into suspicion whom she was, beginning to wonder at her enterprise. Whereat she was little dismayed, but charged them, upon danger of their lives, to row her over to the shore, which they nothing regarded, but eftsoons rowed her back again, promising her it should be secreted, and especially from the lord of the house, under whose guard she lyeth. It seemeth she knew her refuge, and where to have found it if she had once landed; for there did, and yet do linger, at a little village called Kinross, hard at the Loch side, the same George Douglas, one Sempel and one Beton, the which two were sometime her trusty servants, and, as yet appeareth, they mind her no less affection."-BISHOP KEITH's History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland, p. 490.

Notwithstanding this disappointment, little spoke of by historians, Mary renewed her attempts to escape. There was in the Castle of Lochleven a lad, named William Douglas, some relation probably of the baron, and about eighteen years old. This youth proved as accessible to Queen Mary's prayers and promises, as was the brother of his patron, George Douglas, from whom this William must be carefully kept distinct. It was young William who played the part commonly assigned to his superior, George, stealing the keys of the castle from the table on which they lay, while his lord was at supper. He let the Queen and a waiting woman out of the apartment where they were secured, and out of the tower itself, embarked with them in a small skiff, and rowed them to the shore. To prevent instant pursuit, he, for precaution's sake, locked the iron grated door of the tower, and threw the keys into the lake. They found George Douglas and the Queen's servant, Beton, waiting for them, and Lord Seyton and James Hamilton of Orbieston in attendance, at the head of a party of faithful followers, with whom they fled to Niddrie Castle, and from

thence to Hamilton.

In narrating this romantic story, both history and tradition confuse the two Douglasses together, and confer on George the successful execution of the escape from the castle, the merit of which belongs, in reality, to the boy called William, or, more frequently, the Little Douglas, either from his youth or his slight stature. The reader will observe, that in the romance, the part of the Little Douglas has been assigned to Roland Græme. In another case, it would be tedious to point out in a work of amusement such minute points of historical fact; but the general interest taken in the fate of Queen Mary, renders every thing of consequence which connects itself with her misfortunes.

I am informed in the most polite manner, by D. MacVean, Esq. of Glasgow, that I have been incorrect is my locality, in giving an account of the battle of Langside. Crookstone Castle. he observes, lies four miles west from the field of battle, and rather in the rear of Murray's army. The real place from which Mary saw the rout of her last army, was Cathcart Castle, which, being a mile and a half east. from Langside, was situated in the rear of the Queen's own army. I was led astray in the present case, by the authority of my deceased friend, James Grahame, the excellent and amiable author of the Sabbath, in his drama on the subject of Queen Mary; and by a traditionary report of Mary having seen the battle from the Castle of Crookstone, which seemed so much to increase the interest of the scene, that I have been unwilling to make, in this particular instance, the fiction give way to the fact, which last is undoubtedly in favour of Mr MacVean's system.

It is singular how tradition, which is sometimes a sure guide to truth, is, in other cases, prone to mislead us. In the celebrated field of battle at Killiecrankie, the traveller is struck with one of those rugged pillars of rough stone, which indicate the scenes of ancient conflict. A friend of the author, well acquainted with the circumstances of the battle, was standing near this large stone, and looking on the scene around, when a Highland shepherd hurried down from the hill to offer his services as cicerone, and proceeded to inform him, that Dundee was slain at that stone, which was raised to his memory. "Fie, Donald," answered my friend, how can you tell such a story to a stranger? I am sure you know well enough that Dundee was killed at a considerable distance from this place, near the house of Fascally, and that this stone was here long before the battle, in 1688."" Oich! oich " said Donald, no way abashed, and your honour's in the right, and I see you ken a' about it. And he wasna killed on the spot neither, but lived till the next morning; but a' the Saxon gentlemen like best to hear he was killed at the great stane." It is on the same principle of pleasing my readers, that I retain Crookstone Castle instead of Cathcart.

If, however, the author has taken a liberty in removing the actual field of battle somewhat to the eastward, he has been tolerably strict in adhering to the incidents of the engagement,