Ex Libris 
 ' C. K. OGDEN ' 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 r//
 
 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 OF PIE B, 
 
 Cfjitflg (Ecclesiastical, 
 
 CONNECTED WITH SOME OP ITS DISTRICTS. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. J. W. TAYLOR, 
 
 FSEE CUL'BCn. FLI3K AND CBEICU. 
 
 VOL I. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 JOHNSTONE, HUNTER, & CO. 
 1876.
 
 BUT EAGERLY HE READ, AND READ AGAIN, 
 WHATE'ER THE MINISTER'S OLD SHELF SUPPLIED : 
 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARTYRS, 
 TRIUMPHANTLY DISPLAYED IN RECORDS LEFT 
 OF PERSECUTION AND THE COVENANTS TIMES 
 WHOSE ECHO RINGS THROUGH SCOTLAND TO THIS 
 
 HOUR. 
 
 Wordsworth.
 
 sso 
 
 , / 
 
 HISTOEICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 OF FIFE. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE NORTHERN, THE EASTERN, 
 
 AITOTHB 
 
 CENTRAL PORTIONS.
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 the side of perpetuating these feelings. People 
 seldom flitted. They very rarely travelled from 
 home. Now, removals are very frequent; there 
 is much more travelling, and very many leave 
 their country to settle in foreign lands. It was 
 to preserve local facts and traditions that this 
 work was first undertaken, and published in 
 parts. Now, the parts are collected into a vo- 
 lume, that in these days of railway trains and 
 emigration ships, the " folk lore " and local feel- 
 ings of the past may not be altogether lost. 
 
 The reader maybe curious to see what we 
 subjoin, a description of the district which this 
 volume traverses, taken from " Hardyng's Chro- 
 nicle of the Tounes and Myles of Scotland." 
 This Chronicle is said to have been written by 
 Hardyng, an Englishman, in the reign of Edward 
 III., somewhere about A.D. 1360, to facilitate the 
 march oftheEnglish armiesthrough Scotland. It is 
 entitled " How the maker of thisbooke reporteth 
 the distance and myles of the tounes in Scotland,
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 and the way how to conveigh an armie as well 
 
 by lande as water into the chifest parts thereof." 
 
 ******** 
 
 Then from the Doune, a waie ye have right faire 
 Throughout Monteith and eke Clakmannanshire, 
 And so through Fiffe to Talk land to repair, 
 Therty long miles without mosse or myre, 
 For so it is compted, with horse and carte to hyre, 
 From Sterling eastward, to the high Oyghills, 
 Which some menne call montaigns and some fells. 
 
 From Falk land then to Disert toune, south east, 
 Twelf myles it is, of fair ready waye, 
 And from Falk land to Saynte Andrews east 
 But other xii myles, withouten onye waye, 
 Wher the byshoppe's See is, and Castell as thei say, 
 And at Kyngorne and Disert may ye meete 
 You for to vytayle all your English fleete. 
 
 Then ryde northwest from S. Ancrews toune 
 Alongest the south syde of the water of Taye, 
 Up to the burgh of Saint Jhons Towne 
 Ryte north from Fiffe, a countrie fresh and gay, 
 And from Saynt Andrews xxiiii myles thei say, 
 A pleasant grounde and fruitful countrey 
 Of corn and cattell with prosperitie. 
 
 Which countrey of Fiffe along the Scottish sea, 
 And from S. Andrews to Oyghylls thei say
 
 V1U PREFACE. 
 
 Ts xliii myles long of good countrey, 
 
 And sometyme in bredth vi myles of fayr way, 
 
 But from Logh Leven eastward without way 
 
 Of right good way, briefly to conclude, 
 
 xii miles conteyne it doth in latitude. 
 
 At Ennerkeithen and Saynt Margarite's Hope 
 Your navy may receav vytale in that countrie 
 Alon'gest the water of Forth as I can grope 
 With hulke and barge, of no smal quantite 
 You to supporte in your necessytie, 
 So that you maye not in those countrys fayle 
 To have for your army redye vytale."
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 of |ife. 
 
 ABDIE : Page. 
 
 Lindores Loch and Castle, . . 4 
 
 Dalcairn, .... 6 
 
 Lindores Villa, ... 7 
 
 Old Church, . . . . 7 
 
 Inchrye, .... 9 
 
 Kinnaird and Denmilne, . . 9 
 
 Abbey, .... 11 
 
 NEWBURGH : 
 
 Pitcairlie, . . . . 15 
 
 MacdufFs Cross, ... 17 
 
 Black Earn Side, ... 23 
 
 FLISK : 
 
 Ballanbreich, .... 24 
 
 iliskmillan, .... 27 
 
 Fliak Church, .... 28
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CREICH : 
 
 Page. 
 
 Sepulchral Monuments, 
 Creich Castle, . 
 Luthrie, 
 Carphin, 
 Parbroath, 
 
 30 
 32 
 37 
 37 
 38 
 
 BALMERINO : 
 
 
 Corbiehill, 
 
 38 
 
 Balmerino Village, . 
 Abbey, 
 Naughton, 
 Peasehill, 
 
 39 
 40 
 42 
 
 47 
 
 KILMANT : 
 
 
 Mountquhanie, 
 Rathillet, 
 Murdochcaimie, 
 Starr, .... 
 
 49 
 50 
 53 
 55 
 
 MOONZIE : 
 
 
 Lordscairnie, . 
 Colluthie, 
 
 57 
 58 
 
 DUNBOG : 
 
 
 Collairnie, 
 
 60 
 
 MONIMAIL : 
 
 
 The Mount, . 
 Melville House, 
 Upper Hankeilour, 
 
 63 
 
 65 
 67
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ad 
 
 COLLESSIE : 
 
 Page. 
 
 Halhill, .... 
 
 72 
 
 Rankeilour-Makgill, . 
 Kinloch, .... 
 Rossie House, 
 
 74 
 75 
 
 77 
 
 ACCHTERMUCHTT : 
 
 
 Myres, .... 
 
 79 
 
 STRATHMIGLO, .... 
 
 81 
 
 3? A. R T II. 
 
 
 Capar anb its IJrigjjbonrjwob. 
 
 
 CCPAR : 
 
 
 Its Burgh Charter, . . 
 Schoolhill, .... 
 
 88 
 88 
 
 Royal Visits, .... 
 Churchyard, .... 
 Church Spire, 
 " Them to Cupar maun to Cupar," . 
 Cupar Muir, .... 
 
 91 
 95 
 96 
 103 
 
 104 
 
 CERES : 
 
 
 Meaning of the Name, 
 Rcottarvit Tower, 
 Struthere, .... 
 Crawford Cemetery, . 
 
 108 
 . 109 
 115 
 127
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CERES Continued. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Craighall, 
 
 127 
 
 Eminent Ministers, . 
 
 132 
 
 Pitscottie, 
 
 137 
 
 Duraquair, 
 
 139 
 
 KEMBACK : 
 
 
 Blebo, .... 
 
 140 
 
 Dura Den, 
 
 141 
 
 Kemback House, 
 
 143 
 
 DAIESIE : 
 
 
 Estate of, 
 
 145 
 
 Castle of, 
 
 146 
 
 Bridge of, 
 
 149 
 
 Dr Maccullocb, 
 
 149 
 
 F A. E, T III. 
 
 
 |aikianb, iettle, anb f 
 
 >slk 
 
 FALKLAND PALACE : 
 
 
 King JaineslV., 
 
 156 
 
 King James V., 
 
 156 
 
 Mary of Guise, 
 
 162 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots, 
 
 165 
 
 King James VI., 
 
 165 
 
 Andrew Melville, 
 
 174 
 
 Gowrie Conspiracy, . 
 
 177
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 xiii 
 
 FALKLAND PALACE Continued. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Nichol MoncriefTs House, . 
 
 186 
 
 Royal Falconer's House, 
 
 186 
 
 Richard Cameron's House, . 
 
 188 
 
 Charles!., . . 
 
 191 
 
 Bishop Laud, . 
 
 193 
 
 Charles II., . 
 
 1% 
 
 Richard Cameron, 
 
 198 
 
 Emilia Geddie, . , 
 
 204 
 
 Duchess of Athole, . 
 
 210 
 
 Rob Roy, 
 
 214 
 
 Old Dates of Houses, 
 
 216 
 
 Balmblae, . . . 
 
 216 
 
 FREUCHIE, .... 
 
 218 
 
 KETTLE : 
 
 
 Old Name, . 
 
 220 
 
 Castle of Clatto, 
 
 222 
 
 Rev. Mr Cranstown, . 
 
 224 
 
 Chapel, . . . 
 
 224 
 
 Bankton, 
 
 227 
 
 LESLIE : 
 
 
 Original Name, 
 
 231 
 
 Leslie House, . 
 
 233 
 
 Earl of Rothes, 
 
 234 
 
 Duke of Rothes, 
 
 236 
 
 Duchess of Rothes, . 
 
 240 
 
 Eighth Earl, . 
 
 242 
 
 Ebenezer Erskine, 
 
 246 
 
 Ralph Erskine, . . 
 
 246
 
 Xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 IP ^H,T I"V. 
 
 
 St ^nbreios, 
 
 
 ST ANDBEWS : 
 
 Page. 
 
 St Salvator's College, . 
 
 253 
 
 Bishop Kennedy, 
 
 255 
 
 Patrick Hamilton, 
 
 256 
 
 The Castle, .... 
 
 257 
 
 George "Wishart, 
 
 258 
 
 Cardinal Beaton, . 
 
 262 
 
 John Knox. .... 
 
 266 
 
 Walter Mylne, 
 
 267 
 
 Cathedral Destroyed, . 
 
 270 
 
 St Leonard's College, 
 
 274 
 
 George Buchanan, 
 
 275 
 
 St Mary's College, 
 
 278 
 
 Andre w Melville, 
 
 278 
 
 James Melville, 
 
 278 
 
 Trinity or Town Church, 
 
 287 
 
 Robert Blair, .... 
 
 288 
 
 Samuel .Rutherford, . 
 
 288 
 
 Charles II., .... 
 
 296 
 
 Archbishop Sharpe, . 
 
 301 
 
 Kinkell, .... 
 
 310 
 
 Halyburton, .... 
 
 ' 314 
 
 Principal Hadow, 
 
 315 
 
 Dr Samuel Johnson, . 
 
 318
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 ST ANDREWS Continued. Page. 
 
 Dr George Hill, ... 321 
 
 Lord Campbell, ... 322 
 
 John Leyden, .... 322 
 
 Thomas Chalmers, ... 324 
 
 Dr John Hunter, ... 325 
 
 DrGillespie, .... 325 
 
 Professor Duncan, . . . 325 
 
 Dr Jackson, .... 326 
 
 Dr George Cook, . . . 326 
 
 Dr James Hunter, . . . 326 
 
 Professor Alexander, . . . 326 
 
 Professor Tennant, . . . 327 
 
 DrHaldane, .... 327 
 
 Debating Societies, . . . 328 
 
 Theological Society, . 328 
 
 APPENDIX : 
 
 Conjectural Derivation of Names of 
 
 Places, ... 330
 
 istamal 
 
 CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 !Urt|j of 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 BY no object is the imagination more sensibly 
 affected than by the sight of an old castle or 
 tower. The mind is immediately roused into 
 activity, as the scenes which these decaying 
 ruins may have witnessed rise before it. Though 
 nothing certain may be known, yet fancy stops 
 not in her busy work. lirave knights, noble lords, 
 and ladies fair, may have walked through these 
 deserted courts. These silent and mouldering 
 halls may have seen much of human sorrow and 
 of human joy. Domestic peace and horrid war, 
 revelry and lamentation, may have reigned here 
 in turn. Yet does the mind feel relief, and curio- 
 sity is made glad, when we can fix upon some 
 
 A
 
 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 particular incident connected with the place we 
 see, which history or tradition has made sure. 
 
 The object of the present Essay is to clothe 
 with the interest of truth the old and decaying 
 ruins with which our neighbourhood abounds, and 
 to make them suggest to the peasant as he goes 
 to his work to their favoured proprietor as he 
 surveys them and to the curious stranger as he 
 passes by or to the 
 
 " Citizens, who take the air 
 Close packed and smiling in a chaise and one" 
 
 the scene which history sanctions. 
 
 There is a preference given to ecclesiastical 
 antiquities. And if we are asked the reason of 
 this, we would answer in the words of the follow- 
 ing beautiful and truthful quotation: "The 
 Church is the dwelling-place of history ; the 
 churchyard is her symbolical flower-garden." 
 Of Scotland can this be said more truly than of 
 any land. It is her Church that has made Scot- 
 land great. It is her Church that has made 
 Scotland interesting. Foreigners contemplating 
 the contendings unto imprisonment, exile, and 
 death, endured alike by her peers and her pea- 
 sants, on behalf of the principles of her Church,.- 
 have regarded Scotland with veneration.
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 
 
 The notices introduced in this little sketch con- 
 nect themselves with the three most important 
 and prominent periods in oar history. The first 
 of these is the glorious Reformation from Popery, 
 when Protestantism was established in 1560. 
 The second was the important era of 1638, com- 
 monly known as the Second Reformation, when 
 Presbyterianism was vindicated and fully de- 
 veloped. The third has reference to the twenty- 
 eight years of suffering, commonly known as the 
 Killing Times, which preceded the memorable 
 Revolution of 1688. Speakiug of this period, an 
 eminent statesman (Mr Fox) says, " That Scot- 
 land was in a state of more absolute slavery 
 than, at that time, existed in any part of Chris- 
 tendom." 
 
 Were an ecclesiastical statistical account of 
 Scotland prepared, there would not be a spot of 
 our land but would have its strange story to tell 
 of one or other of these eventful times. And it 
 would be curious to observe, how that, in differ- 
 ent parts of the country there have been different 
 struggles, and different principles that have taken 
 root, and prolonged their stay. 
 
 A summer's day might enable one to see all 
 the places which are here noticed. The leisurely
 
 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 survey of two days would be better. And let 
 him who goes carry with him the words of John- 
 son, which in spirit are most appropriate "Far 
 from me, and from my friends, be such frigid 
 philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and 
 unmoved over any ground which has been dig- 
 nified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue." 
 
 The Parish of Abdie supplies many spots of 
 interest to the student of the past. 
 
 LOCH AND CASTLE. 
 
 This beautiful Loch is the eye of the landscape. 
 It imparts animation to the scenery, and is itself 
 ever varying in its expression. On a quiet 
 summer day it reposes placidly in the sunshine, 
 the water-hen gently rustling the reeds on the 
 margin, and the strong-billed duck circling the 
 waters in the centre, as with a sharp plunge it 
 dives for its prey. At other times, when the 
 sea-fowl frequent its shores and the north-west 
 winds blow, its waters are stirred, and the mimic 
 waves form into foam, and imitate a storm. It
 
 IN T1IE NORTH OF FIFE. 
 
 was from its stormy appearance that it received 
 its name. The Picts were the inhabitants of 
 Fife when places got their present names. These 
 Picts spoke Gaelic, and they called this loch 
 Lindores the Rough Loch. Lintie in Gaelic 
 signifying a lake ; and dorr, rough. 
 
 Six hundred years ago there stood on the 
 northern bank of this Loch a strong castle, which 
 was called the Castle of Lindores. Until lately 
 some ruins on the high ground, immediately to 
 the south and east of the village of Lindores, 
 where the policy wall of Inch rye now stretches, 
 indicated the site of that Castle. It figured in 
 the wars of Scottish Independence. These wars 
 extended for the space of thirty years, betwixt 
 1286 and 1315, when the battle of Baunockburn 
 was won. Edward I. was determined to annex 
 Scotland to England; and had not Wallace fought 
 and Bruce conquered, Scotland, from being an 
 independent kingdom, would have been con- 
 verted into an English province. In 1300 
 Edward sent a great army into Fife. The Castle 
 of Lindorea was occupied by them as an import- 
 ant military position, for it stood at the entrance 
 of one of the principal passes through Fife. In 
 June of 1300 there was a battle fought betwixt
 
 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 the English, who held the Castle of Lindores, 
 and Sir William Wallace. The English were 
 overcome, and Sir John Pseworth, their General, 
 was killed. " This battele," says Sir James Bal- 
 four in his Annals, " is called Dillecarrens Field, 
 quherin 3000 English wer killed, and 500 takin 
 prisoners : the Scots lost not above 300, in re- 
 spect the woods and passages of the montans 
 and quagmyres were weill knowen to them, only 
 Sir John Synton, Sir Thomas Lochore, and Sir 
 Johne Balfour, Shriffe of Fyflfe, wer woundit and 
 hurt." 
 
 If the reader would wish to visit the scene of 
 this battle, he will find a rough hill road turning 
 off at Inchrye Lodge, which will conduct him to 
 the spot. As he toils up the rough ascent let him 
 relieve his panting breath, and while he stands 
 and looks back he will see through the opening 
 of ClatchardPass,therockygrandeursofKinnoull 
 Hill, displaying on its side the castled Tower of 
 Kinfauns, lighted up with a gleam of the Tay, 
 and shut in by the distant background of the 
 Logiealmond Hills. When he reaches the top, 
 he will see betwixt the hills a rocky cairn, dark 
 with the bonnet fir tree. It is this cairn which 
 gives name to the place. Dal-a-cairn means the
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 
 
 Field of the Cairn, from dail or dal, a field ; and 
 earn, a heap of stones a cairn. 
 
 The whitened villa of Lindores was the pro- 
 perty and residence of Sir Frederick Maitland, 
 who, in 1815, intercepted with his ship the 
 Bellerophon, Napoleon Bonaparte. Sir Frederick 
 published, at the time, a modest, well-written, 
 and most interesting account of the capture. 
 
 THE OLD CHURCH OF A33DIE 
 
 fringes the Loch. Its unroofed walls, belfried 
 gable, and reclining tombstones, throw back the 
 mind on bye-gone times. And yet we can find 
 little to relate in connection with it. Of the 
 eight ministers of Abdie from the Reformation 
 to the Revolution, there is only one of whom 
 anything is known this is Mr Andrew Murray. 
 His ministry extended from 1622 to 1638. It 
 is rather as a courtier than as a clergyman that 
 he is distinguished. Mr Andrew lived at the 
 time of the crisis of the great national struggle, 
 which involved the double question, shall the 
 King of Scotland be an absolute or a constitu- 
 tional King, and shall the Scottish Church be 
 Presbyterian or Episcopalian ? In this great 
 contest, the Kirk contended for those great prin-
 
 8 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 ciples of civil and religious liberty which were 
 afterwards ratified in the glorious Revolution of 
 1688, and which form at this day the foundation 
 of the British Constitution. Mr Murray sided 
 with Charles I. against the Church and country, 
 when Charles attempted despotically to subvert 
 the liberties of both. For this, he was first 
 knighted by the King, and afterwards created 
 Lord Balvaird. By inheritance, Mr Murray 
 acquired the baronies of Arngask and Balvaird, 
 and subsequently succeeded to the title and 
 estate of Stormont. He is thus the ancestor of 
 the Mansfield family. Lord Mansfield is the 
 present patron of the Church of Abdie, in which 
 his ancestor served as minister. 
 
 There is an old low stone in the churchyard 
 which records a loyalty of a different t}'pe from 
 Mr Murray's. The stone is placed to the east 
 of the Church. It has an open Bible sculptured 
 on one side, and on the other there is the follow- 
 ing inscription :" Here lies the body of Mr 
 John Adamson, Minister of the Gospel, who 
 died May 3, 1723 ; that faithful contender for 
 the Church's intrinsic power, and witness against 
 the encroachments made upon his Lord and 
 Master, Jesus Christ's royal prerogatives."
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 
 
 I 1ST C H ft Y K. 
 
 Let us now retrace our steps to Inchrye. 
 Within the policy there are two water-worn 
 hollows, known as the Big Ship and the Little, 
 which, in days of persecution, were hiding-places 
 where the Presbyterians assembled for worship. 
 Pleasant places they are to visit on a summer 
 day. And yet, even amid the smiles of summer, 
 when the sunshine lies cheerily on hill and hollow, 
 on dreamy wood and gleaming lake, there is an 
 undertone of feeling, grave and solemn, which 
 affects the thoughtful mind, as it reflects that here 
 the men and women of Scotland met to worship 
 God, and to maintain a believing testimony for 
 Him at the risk of liberty and life. 
 
 Inchrye means the Island of the King, or the 
 Large Island. The observant eye can readily 
 trace the evidence of a morass and bog all round 
 Inchrye. 
 
 ICITSTNA.IR.D A.ND DEN'MILNE. 
 
 The property which adjoins Inchrye, a little to 
 the north, is Kinnaird. It is celebrated as the 
 property of Sir James Balfour of Denmilne and 
 Kinnaird, Knight and Baronet, Lord Lyon King
 
 10 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 at Arms to Charles I. and Charles II. Here 
 Sir James chiefly resided, although there is now 
 no trace remaining of his mansion-house. An 
 imposing pigeon-house, a park- line of elderly 
 trees on either side of the public road, and two 
 handsome chesnut trees, indicate the whereabouts 
 of the house in the time of Sir James. No 
 modern poet has thrown a lasting interest over 
 the Knight of Kinnaird, as Sir Walter Scott, in' 
 Marmion, has done to his predecessor in office, 
 Sir David Lindsay of the Mount. But although, 
 
 "All unnamed in 
 Hero-scroll or verse," 
 
 Sir James Balfour is worthy of being remembered 
 as one who devoted himself to the study of his 
 country's history. Many manuscripts he col- 
 lected ; many works he wrote in illustration of 
 Scottish history. We have seen a list of twelve 
 separate works of which he was the author. As 
 Sir David Lindsay took part with the Reformers, 
 Sir James shows, in different parts of his Annals, 
 that although by office connected with the Court, 
 all his sympathies were with the Presbyterians. 
 
 Sir James died in 1657, and lies buried in the 
 ivy-covered aisle of the old Church of Abdie. 
 
 A strange mystery overhangs the last Knight-
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 11 
 
 Baronet of Denmilne. Upwards of 100 years 
 ago he rode off from Denmilne attended by his 
 groom. No after trace of him was ever found. 
 
 We have been told that every year a letter 
 comes from France, addressed to the Balfonrs of 
 Denmilne. This, the tenant who receives it, 
 transmits to the proprietor. 
 
 What connection these two things have with 
 each other, or whether any at all, we have no 
 means of knowing. 
 
 We now reach the mined 
 
 ABBEY OK LINDORES. 
 
 It is from this Abbey that the Parish derives its 
 name of Abdie. Some think that Abdie is just 
 an abbreviation of the words A bbey on the Tay. 
 But it is more likely that, like most other old 
 names in the locality, it is of Celtic origin. 
 Abaid in Gaelic means an Abbey. By a trans- 
 position, not uncommon both in names of persons 
 and places, Abaid has been popularly changed 
 into Abdie. Sir James Balfour, in his Annals 
 under the year 1178, thus writes : " This same 
 yeire King William foundit the Monastery of 
 Aberbroth in Angus ; and his brother, Earle 
 David, after his retnrne from the Holy Land,
 
 12 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 foundit the Monastery of Lindores, in the woodes 
 in Fyffe." Episodes of interest have taken place 
 within the walls of this Abbey, and connect 
 themselves with great names and important eras. 
 Here is one which occurred in 1306, the year in 
 which Robert the Bruce was crowned at Scone: 
 " This zeire ther was a mutuall endenture made 
 betwix Sir Gilbert Hay of Erole, Sir Neill Camp- 
 bell of Lochaw, and Sir Alexander Setton, Knights, 
 at the Abbey of Lindors, to defend King Robert 
 and his Crown to the last of their bloodes and 
 fortunes ; upon the sealing of the said endenture, 
 they solemnly toke the Sacrament at St Marie's 
 Altar in the said Abbey Church." 
 
 About the year 1488 there might be seen, on 
 sunny days, an old man sauntering within the 
 enclosures of the Abbey. He is tall of stature ; 
 he is a shorn monk ; but his tall form, and the 
 tones of his voice, and the glance of his eye, tell 
 of one accustomed to command, though he is now 
 broken with age and weary of the world. This 
 is the Earl of Douglas, warded for life by James 
 III. as a shorn monk within this Abbey. Here 
 he died and was buried. 
 
 A low and irregular square of ruins, which the 
 ivy is fast covering to hide the ravages of time
 
 IN THE NOBTH OK FIFE. 13 
 
 and of men's hands, and high garden walls which 
 stand entire, readily mark out the site of this 
 once renowned Abbey. The situation is right 
 sweet, says Sibbald ; and so famed was it in times 
 of Popery, as a place of sanctity, that Christopher 
 Irvin, who wrote asmallTopographical Dictionary 
 two hundred years ago, says of it " it is thought 
 nothing venomous liveth there." The vastly big 
 old pear * trees, which Sibbald notes, still stand 
 around it, as an evidence of the richness of its 
 soil. 
 
 This Abbey, when in the zenith of its pros- 
 perity, could name two men of note, as holding 
 close connection with it. 
 
 The first was Lawrence of Lindorcs. In the 
 early part of the 15th century (1406), he held 
 the appointment of Inquisitor General of Heresy. 
 He is spoken of as f a priest most sonnd, and 
 a celebrated theologian. By his sentence was 
 James Resby burnt at Perth in 1407 the first 
 who suffered for the Protestant faith. His 
 
 * The pear-tree seems to liave been a favourite in the 
 grounds of monasteries and nuiiiierieB. Near to KJcho Nun- 
 nery there ia an old pear-tree. Its uanio is "Carl Hemp." 
 It* circumference ia IB feet around the trunk. It ix -100 years 
 old, and still brings forth fruit. I'ruhably it U the largest 
 iwar-tree in Scotland. 
 
 t Clerical solidiwtiruiui et theologus famomis.
 
 14: HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 name is also mentioned as Inquisitor in 1433, 
 when Paul Craw was burnt at St Andrews. 
 This Lawrence of Lindores had the spirit of his 
 office always alive within him. Old historians 
 say that he gave no rest to the heretics, or Lollards 
 (another name for Protestants), within the king- 
 dom, and he is accounted author of a book 
 entitled "The Swarm of Heretical Lollards 
 which he Drove out of the Whole Kingdom." 
 Lawrence held the situation of rector of Criech. 
 
 The name which sheds most lustre on this 
 Abbey, however, is that of John Leslie, Bishop 
 of Ross. He held the Abbacy of Lindores in 
 commendam. The history of the Bishop of Ross 
 is closely interwoven with that of his royal mis- 
 tress, Mary Queen of Scots. He was commis- 
 sioned to France to invite Queen Mary over to 
 her Scottish dominions. He accompanied her. 
 Amid her varying fortunes he was her counsellor, 
 and, as herself testified, the most pious and de- 
 voted of her servants. For her sake he suffered 
 imprisonment and banishment, dying at Rome 
 in the 69th year of his age, somewhere about 
 1580. 
 
 A portrait of the Bishop hangs in the hall of 
 King's College, Aberdeen. The sharp features
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 15 
 
 and the compressed lip give indication of the 
 shrewdness and firmness by which through life 
 he was distinguished. 
 
 Newburgh was disjoined from Abdie, and 
 erected ecclesiastically into a parish in 1622. 
 This ecclesiastical disjunction was ratified by a 
 deed of Parliamentary Commissioners at Holy- 
 rood House, 3d February 1632, " whereby the 
 said Kirk of Newburgh is separat from the Kirk 
 of Ebdie, and declares the same to be an separat 
 Kirk be itself in all time coming." 
 
 F I T C A. I R. L I E 
 
 is in the parish. Pit is a Celtic prefix, and 
 indicates a hollow or low -lying place. This 
 description does not seem applicable to the 
 position of the present house when looked at 
 from the present public road for the house is 
 built on an eminence which overtops the road. 
 But when seen from the old road above Lum- 
 quhat, or from the old Newbnrgh road, the 
 situation of Pitcairlie appears low. Sibbald
 
 16 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 says " the old tower of Pitcairlie was in a glen." 
 It was the residence of Patrick Leslie, a younger 
 son of the Earl of Eothes. This Patrick was 
 created the first Lord Liridores in 1600. Patrick 
 Lesley was the father, and Pitcairley was the 
 birthplace, of Major- General David Leslie, an 
 eminent general and commander of the forces in 
 Scotland in the days of the Covenant. Like his 
 more distinguished relative, Alexander Leslie 
 Lord Leven, he served in the army of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, and gained his soldiership there. In 
 the battle of Marston Moor, 1644, he fought 
 along with Cromwell against Charles I., and by 
 a dashing charge of cavalry which he commanded, 
 he was prominent in deciding the fate of the 
 battle. In 1645 he discomfited Montrose at 
 Philiphaugh. In 1650 he was appointed Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, when the Earl of Leven, in 
 consequence of advancing years, resigned. He 
 displayed great generalship in throwing his army 
 betwixt Cromwell and Edinburgh, and after- 
 wards in occupying the heights above Dunbar. 
 But the cool generalship of Leslie was overborne 
 by the imprudence and impetuosity of others. 
 
 His army left the hill, "which," says the old 
 Chronicler, " was their strength and forte," and
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 17 
 
 was disastrously routed by Cromwell. David 
 Leslie adhered to the falling fortunes of Charles 
 II. He shared with him the battle and defeat 
 of Worcester in 1651. He was detained as 
 prisoner by Cromwell for a year or two in Eng- 
 land. At the Restoration of Charles II. he was 
 created Lord Newark. The ruined tower of 
 Newark Castle, standing on the sea rocks close 
 by St Monance, is the only remaining memento 
 of David Leslie's toils, title, and estates. 
 
 M -A. C-DTJFF'S CROSS. 
 
 On the old road betwixt Newburgh and Auch- 
 termuchty, and less than a mile from Newburgh, 
 stands the remains of the famous Cross of Mac- 
 duff. A small mound of earth, encircled with 
 large whinstone boulders, contains in its centre 
 the pedestal of the cross, and will at once arrest 
 the eye of every passer-by. The old road out 
 of Fife to Perth passes close by it on the south, 
 stretching onwards to the west. The cross thus 
 stood near the western extremity of the county 
 of Fife, on a prominent hill overlooking the 
 Strath of Earn, and thus making visible procla- 
 mation of its sanctuary privileges. 
 
 The block, which is firmly embedded where it
 
 18 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 was placed eight hundred years ago, is of free- 
 stone. Observant eyes have noticed that it is 
 placed so as to indicate the four cardinal points. 
 De Foe, in his Tour through Great Britain, 
 makes mention of this cross, and says that " the 
 inscription is now worn out, and was in such 
 antiquated terms, mixed with Macaronic or half 
 Latin words, that few men now living would 
 have been able to make it out." 
 
 I have before me " An Essay upon the In- 
 scription of Macduffs Cross in Fyfe, by J. C., 
 1678," in which the author supplies the subjoined, 
 as what was generally given in his day, as " the 
 inscription upon Macduffs Cross, which stands 
 above the Newburgh, near Lindores, upon the 
 confines of Stratherne and Fyfe." 
 
 Maldraradrum dragos malairia largia largos 
 Spalando spados sive nig fig knippite gnaroa 
 Lorea lauriseos lauringen louria luscos 
 Et coluburtos sic fit tibi bursea burtus 
 Eritus et blaradrum sive lim, sive lam, sive labrum 
 Propter Macgidrim et hoc oblatum 
 Accipe smeleridem super limpide lampida labrum. 
 The Essayist says " I had this of an ingenious 
 gentleman, telling me he came by it from the 
 Clerk of Crail, who informed that several suc- 
 ceeding clerks there have for a considerable time
 
 IN THE NORTH OP FIFE. 19 
 
 engrost this as a true copy in their books, to 
 preserve it from perishing ; for it is now quite 
 worn off the stone at least, altogether illegible." 
 After giving his own emendations, and conclud- 
 ing, after a learned analysis, that the language 
 is Saxon, with a few Danish and French words, 
 all thrown into a Latinised form, he thus para- 
 phrases it : 
 
 " Ye Earl of Fyfe, receive for your services as my 
 Lieutenant by right of this Regality, large measures 
 of victual or corn, for the transgression of the laws, as 
 well from those as want or put away their weapons of 
 warfare, as of such as stays away from, or refuses to 
 come to the Host, or those that raises frayes or dis- 
 turbances therein, or from such as keep, haunt, and 
 frequent unlawful convocations, together with all 
 amercements due to me, for the slaughter of a free 
 liege, or for robbery and theft, or for adultery and 
 fornication within your bounds, with the unlaws of 
 fugitives, and the penalties due by such cowards as 
 deserts the Host, or runs away from their colours, thus 
 shall your gains be the greater. And yet further to 
 witness my kindness I remit to those of your own 
 kindred, all issues of wounds, be it limb, litli, or life, 
 in swa far as for this offering (to wit of nine kyne and 
 a queyoch) they shall be indemnified for limb, lith, 
 or life." 
 
 Like many things else, the Essay turns out to 
 be too learned and ingenious to be true. The 
 honest author seems to have suspected this him-
 
 20 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 self, for while it is being " printed by the Heir 
 of Andrew Anderson, Printer to the King's most 
 excellent Majesty," he appends the following 
 note: "Just now, as it was adoing under the 
 irons (i.e., in the press,), am I told there is an 
 exact coppie, with a true exposition of this in- 
 scription at the Newburgh in the hands or books 
 of the Clerk there ; and pitie it were, that so old 
 and famous a monument in this our kingdom 
 should be so closlie dormant in a poor country 
 village, without being communicate (for aught I 
 know) to any : But this, however, I hope may 
 invite those of the Newburgh to divulge it, if 
 any such thing they have." 
 
 "Those of the Newburgh" had indeed their 
 own version of the inscription, and the true one. 
 Here it is : 
 
 Ara, urget lex quos, lare egentes, atria, lis quos : 
 Hoc qui laboras, haec fit tibi pactio portus 
 Mille reum drachmas mulctam de largior agris 
 Spes tantum pacis, cum nex fit a nepote natis. 
 Propter Macgidrum, et hoc oblatum accipe semeL 
 Haereduin super lymphato lapide labem. 
 
 The Rev. Walter Wood, of Elie, in whose 
 History of the East Neuk we have found this 
 " exact coppie," convincingly shows, by trans- 
 posing one or two of the lines, and by placing
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 21 
 
 the one version alongside of the other, that the 
 first is just a corrupted form of the second, and 
 conjectures that the first had been orally com- 
 municated by some one who had tried to commit 
 it to memory without understanding Latin. We 
 subjoin Mr Wood's translation : 
 
 " An altar for those whom law pursues, a hall for 
 those whom strife pursues, being without a home. 
 Who makest thy way hither, to thee this paction be- 
 comes a harbour. But there is hope of peace only 
 when the murder has been committed by those born 
 of my grandson. I set free the accused, a fine of a 
 thousand drachms from his lands. On account of 
 Macgridin (Mugdrum) and of this offering, take once 
 for all the cleansing of my heirs beneath this stone 
 filled with water. " 
 
 Spens of Wormiston, who killed a person of the 
 name of Kinninmonth, claimed and enjoyed, as 
 being within the degree of kindred to Macduff, 
 the privilege of sanctuary which the inscription 
 promised. 
 
 History tells us how it was that Macdnff, 
 "Fife's lion-hearted Thane," had honour and 
 privileges heaped upon himself and his favoured 
 county. It was he who had gone to England 
 and had encouraged Malcolm Canraore to at- 
 tempt the recovery of his throne and kingdom 
 from the usurper Macbeth. The attempt was
 
 22 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 made and was successful. Macduff became 
 Malcolm's favourite noble. His thaneship was 
 changed into an earldom 
 
 " the first that ever Scotland 
 In such an honour named." 
 
 Great immunities and advantages were conferred 
 on Fife, as Macduffs sheriffdom. As a regality, 
 or territorial possession bestowed by the King, 
 Fife is one of the oldest, and most distinguished 
 by its privileges ; hence, as if it were a distinct 
 principality, it early received and still retains the 
 well-known appellation of THE KINGDOM OF 
 FIFE. 
 
 Malcolm Canmore's reign extended from A.D. 
 1056 to 1093. It marks a crisis in the history 
 of Scotland's religion. The simple worship and 
 doctrine of the Culdees had prevailed for several 
 centuries in Scotland. But Rome had been 
 making her encroachments, and was gradually 
 supplanting the Culdee faith. Malcolm Canmore 
 greatly helped forward this, for his fifteen years' 
 residence in England had familiarised him with 
 the Romish worship, and his Queen, the English 
 Princess Margaret, was a devoted Papist. The 
 crucifix was her favourite symbol. On this ac- 
 count it was that the cross was the form in
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 23 
 
 which Macduffs sanctuary privileges were pub- 
 lished. If it was erected in a time when Popery 
 was progressing, it was destroyed at a time when 
 Popery got a death-blow in Scotland, for the 
 upper part, which contained the inscription, was 
 cast down and broken in 1559, the era of the 
 Reformation, when the badges of Popery were 
 demolished in the land. 
 
 "We venture no remarks on the hieroglyphic 
 Cross of Mugdrum. 
 
 " The events it does commemorate 
 Are dark, remote, and undistinguishable, 
 As are the mystic characters it bears." 
 
 K: EA.RN SIDE. 
 
 Eastward from Lindores Abbey for several 
 miles there stretched a wood, which is known in 
 the histories of Sir William Wallace as Black 
 Earn Side, or, as it is often falsely spelt, Black 
 Iron Side. It seem to have been a dark wood 
 covering the hillsides, and extending to the 
 river-edge. The name which it bore of Earn 
 Side Wood favours the idea which geologists en- 
 tertain, that the river Earn had wound its course 
 by the foot of the Fife hills, that the river Tay 
 had swept in by the foot of the Carse of Gowrie 
 hills, and that the junction of the rivers took
 
 24 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 place near Longforgan. Be this as it may, this 
 wood was resorted to by Sir William Wallace, 
 and occasionally afforded him shelter. There is 
 a bridge along which the road passes near the 
 top of the ascent, about two miles east from the 
 Abbey, which is still known as Wallace's Brig. 
 The wood gave name to one of Wallace's battles. 
 
 " Thia wood we'll hold as long as we can stand, 
 To the last man we'll fight it, sword in hand 
 The right is ours, let's to it manfully ; 
 I'll free this laud once more before I die." 
 
 " This same zeire (1298), also in the month 
 of Junii, the Batell of Black Ironsyde, in Fyfe- 
 shire, was fought betwix Sir William Vallace, 
 the Protector, and the Earle of Pembrocke, 
 general of the Englishe armey, in which batell 
 the English wer totally routted and overthrown. 
 Sir Duucane Balfour, Sheriffe of Fyfe, was killed, 
 and Sir John Grhame was hurt, only of the 
 Scotts of quality." Balfour' 's Annals. 
 
 CA.STL.E. 
 
 Eastwards from Lindores, and on the western 
 extremity of Flisk parish, is situated the Castle
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 25 
 
 of Ballanbreich. Ballanbreich is derived from 
 two Celtic words baile or balla, a town, and 
 breac or brech, a trout. It signifies the trout- 
 town, and indicates that that part of the river 
 had been favourable for fishing. This castle, 
 and the barony which is attached to it, now the 
 property of the Earl of Zetland, belonged for 
 many generations to the ancient and noble family 
 of Rothes. Andrew, the fifth Earl of Rothes, 
 lies buried in the churchyard of Flisk. John, 
 the sixth Earl of Rothes, is the one of all the 
 line whose memory a statesman and a Pres- 
 byterian delights to honour. The debt of grati- 
 tude which is due to him is great, for, when the 
 foundations of British liberty were laid in oppo- 
 sition to the despotism of Charles L, John, Earl 
 of Rothes, was a willing worker in that sacred 
 cause. He was not ashamed to avow himself 
 friendly to Presbytery, when it had to encounter 
 the wrath of the King and the plottings of the 
 Court. With counsel, fortitude, and wit he was 
 ever ready ; aud he has bequeathed at once great 
 principles and his own honoured name in trust 
 to posterity. 
 
 The Earl of Rothes figured as an author as 
 well as an actor. To his pen we are indebted
 
 26 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 for a minute account of the doings of these days 
 under the title of u Rothes' Relation." He 
 died in 1641. His son, who was created Duke 
 of Rothes, acted a part clean contrary to his 
 father. He was the willing agent of Charles II. 
 and James II. in oppressing the Church, and 
 overthrowing the principles which his father had 
 so stoutly supported. Yet when death drew 
 nigh, he sought the presence and the prayers of 
 the very ministers he had persecuted, which led 
 the Duke of Hamilton to remark, " When well 
 we banish these men from us, and yet when 
 dying we call for them ; this is melancholy 
 work." He died, and was buried ; and in Leslie 
 House the curious may see a representation of 
 the splendid yet heartless state which attended 
 his funeral. 
 
 The Duke of Rothes, to please King Charles, set 
 up games and sports on the Sabbath afternoon, 
 in conformity with " the Book of Sports." The 
 writer has heard an old man tell, that the exist- 
 ence of these sports was preserved as a tradition 
 in his father's family, and that his great grand- 
 father had played at " cat and dog" on the lawn 
 of Ballanbreich on Sabbath-day.
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 27 
 
 Leaving Ballanbreich and proceeding east- 
 wards, if the traveller delights in magnificent 
 views, he may enjoy one of the finest which 
 Scotland affords, by following the road which 
 turns up by the farm of Flisk Miln (Millan, 
 the bleak height of Flisk.) The scene is girded 
 by the swelling Grampians. Schehallion rises 
 out from among them in pointed grandeur. Ben 
 Lawers and Ben More stand like twin giants in 
 the far west. Benledi sits on her mountain seat 
 overlooking the Trossach beauties which lie 
 scattered at her feet. The Strath of Earn, 
 Merdovn Top, the broken front of Kinnonl Hill, 
 all contribute their varied beauties ; the broad 
 acres of the Carse of Gowrie, and their smiling 
 homesteads reflecting the sunbeams ; Dundee 
 looking forth from her smoke, and telling of the 
 world's busy bustle ; the Tay's broad wave 
 studded with sails ; and the plough toiling 
 quietly up the hill on which you stand fill up 
 the wide and diversified picture. 
 
 Our thoughts are recalled from this general 
 survey by the sight of the
 
 28 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 3MA.NSE AND CHURCH OF 
 
 Which stand in near neighbourhood, on a little 
 eminence flanked by a dell, and overlooking the 
 river. This church can rank among its earlier 
 ministers some names of note. John Waddell, 
 minister of Flisk, was rector of the University of 
 St Andrews in 1527, and, as such, was one of 
 the judges who condemned Patrick Hamilton. 
 Sir James Balfour, parson of Flisk, 1561, is cha- 
 racterised by Dr Eobertson, " as the most corrupt 
 man of his age." He belonged to the house of 
 Mountquhanie, and was appointed Lord Presi- 
 dent of the Court of Session, under the title of 
 Lord Pittendriech, having taken the title from a 
 small property in the parish of Portmoak, at the 
 foot of the Western Lomond, which belonged to 
 the Balfours. The course of Sir James does not 
 seem to have been regulated by anything like 
 principle. He sided with the Papist or with the 
 Protestant party, with the Court or with the Con- 
 gregation, just as it suited his interests. He is 
 accused of being one who compassed the death 
 of Darnley. The house in which the unfortunate 
 Darnley was murdered belonged to Balfour's 
 brother, and among the names which an unknown
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 29 
 
 hand fixed upon the door of St Giles, as having 
 devised the murder, is the name of Mr James 
 Balfour, parson of Flisk, in conjunction with the 
 Earl of Bothwell and others. Knox expresses 
 a most contemptible opinion of this man. He 
 writes in his history, " among those who openly 
 professed the same purity, was he that now rules 
 or else misrules Scotland, viz., Sir James Bal- 
 four (sometimes called Master James), the chief 
 and principal Protestant that then was to be 
 found in this realm. This we write because we 
 have heard that the said Master James alleges 
 that he was never of this our religion, but that 
 he was brought up in Martin Luther's opinion of 
 the sacrament, and therefore he cannot commu- 
 nicate with us. But his own conscience and two 
 hundred witnesses beside, know that he lies; 
 and that he was one of the chief that would have 
 given his life, if men might credit his words, for 
 defence of the doctrine that the said John Knox 
 taught. But albeit, that those that never were 
 of us (as none of Mountquhanie's sons have 
 shown themselves to be) depart from us it is no 
 great wonder ; for it is proper and natural that 
 the children follow the father ; and let the godly 
 liver of that race and progeny be shown, for if in
 
 30 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 them be either fear of God or love of virtue 
 farther than the present commodity persuades 
 them men of judgment are deceived." 
 
 The Church of Flisk contributed a Principal 
 to St Leonard's College, St Andrews, in 1592, 
 in the person of Mr John Wemyss, its minister. 
 
 None of the ministers of Flisk displayed any 
 steadfastness of principle during the times of 
 trial which passed over the Church. Mr William 
 Myles conformed to Episcopacy in 1662, and 
 again at the Revolution in 1688 was ready to 
 assume a Presbyterian profession. 
 
 A little advance on the road which has been 
 indicated brings us into the PARISH OF 
 
 SEPTJLCH.RA.L, MONUMENTS. 
 
 Two sepulchral monuments, of great antiquity, 
 have been brought to light in this parish. 
 
 In a field immediately to the back of the Free 
 Church Manse, when the ploughmen were en- 
 gaged in ploughing in the spring of 1817, the 
 plough laid bare a double circle of stones. The 
 Eev. Alexander Lawson repaired to the spot, 
 carefully examined the stone circles, took a 
 drawing of them, and sent a most minute ac-
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 81 
 
 count of the whole to the Edinburgh Magazine 
 of that year. la his communication to the 
 magazine Mr Lawson conjectured that it might 
 be a Druidical temple or oratory. His more 
 recent opinion which is far more probable, both 
 from the size of the circles and from calcined 
 human bones being found beneath is that it was 
 a grave. And if so, who can tell the date of that 
 grave? Evidently it was before the time of 
 churchyard burial grounds. 
 
 Antiquius quo quid est hoc venerabilius. 
 
 To secure the preservation of these stone circles, 
 Mr Lawson got them removed, and placed them 
 in a wood behind his manse in the very form in 
 which they were found. 
 
 The other monument is a tombstone in the old 
 church of Creich. It is a flat slab, with the 
 figure of a knight in armour and of his lady en- 
 graved on it. The outer edge is sloped and 
 contains an inscription chiselled in deep Saxon 
 characters, which tells in Monkish Latin 
 
 Here lies David Barclay of Luthrie, Baron or Lord 
 
 of * * * who died on the day of the month 
 
 A.D. 1400. 
 
 Here lies Helen de Douglas, the wife of the above- 
 mentioned, who died on the 29th day of the month 
 of January A.D. 1421.
 
 82 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 The name of the Barony of David Barclay " has 
 foiled philologists." I have asked the aid of 
 several not unskilled in antiquarian lore, but 
 none has deciphered the name to his own satis- 
 faction. So that, in the words of the old author, 
 " I shall not stick to say they be no small clerks 
 who should read me distinctly, with one breath, 
 the inscription," and supply the desiderated 
 words. 
 
 C A. S T Hi :K OF CE.EICH. 
 
 One of the principal objects of interest in this 
 neighbourhood is the mined Castle of Creich. 
 It is a square massy tower open to wind and 
 weather. Part of one of the round flanking 
 towers still stand, and a row of old trees marks 
 out the garden which was attached to it. Within 
 this castle was born Dame Janet Beaton, Lady 
 Buccleuch, widow of Sir Walter Scott of Brank- 
 some, mentioned in the " Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel" 
 
 " Of noble race the Ladye came, 
 Her father was a clerk of fame, 
 Of Bethune's line of Piccardi ; 
 He learn'd the art that none may name 
 In Padua, far beyond the sea. 
 
 About 1560, when this castle stood in its 
 strength, its halls were gladdened by the residence
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 33 
 
 of Mary Beaton, niece of Archbishop Beaton, 
 and one of the four Maries whose beauty was 
 only inferior to that of their royal mistress, Queen 
 Mary, and who were her maids of honour. 
 
 " Yestreen the Queen had four Maries, 
 
 The nicht she'll hae but three ; 
 There was Marie Seaton, and Marie Beaton, 
 And Marie Cannichael and me." 
 
 Mary Beaton was the daughter of Robert Beaton, 
 Laird of Creich. Her mother was Madame 
 Gresmere, who was a maid of honour to Mary 
 of Guise, Queen of James V. In an entry in 
 the Household Book of King James V., under 
 date May 1588, there is mention made of a gown 
 of red "Crammossy velvet" given to Madame 
 Gresmere for her marriage. The cost of the 
 gown is set down at lib 188. In 1541 there is 
 this additional entry: " Augt. 27. Item to the 
 Laird of Creich in parte payment of his tocher 
 with Madame Gresmere at the King's command, 
 iij cxxx iij lib vj viij d ." 
 
 The last of the lairds of Creich was a steady 
 supporter of the Presbyterian Church. He bore 
 office in her communion, for among the Commis- 
 sioners for the Public Affairs of the Kirk chosen 
 by the General Assembly of 1644, there is the 
 name of David Beton of Creigh as one of the 
 
 c
 
 34 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 elders. His name occurs again in the Commis- 
 sion of the General Assembly of 1648. Anna, 
 the sister of David Beton, was married to Sir 
 John Moncrieff of Moncrieff, a zealons Presby- 
 terian, to whom Samuel Rutherford addressed 
 one of his famous letters. He was no common 
 man to whom Rutherford could write in these 
 terms : " Now, very worthy Sir, I am glad in 
 the Lord, that the Lord reserveth any of your 
 place and note in this time of common apostacy, 
 to come forth in public to bear Christ's name 
 before men when the great men think Christ a 
 cumbersome neighbour, and that religion carrieth 
 hazards and persecutions with it. 
 
 This parish has furnished three eminent wit- 
 nesses to the truth. Mr ANDREW STRACHAN 
 was minister of Creich about the beginning of 
 the 17th century, when King James was en- 
 deavouring to overthrow the liberties of the Kirk, 
 and especially to disallow the General Assemblies, 
 "the bulwark of our Kirk, whereupon dependeth 
 the preservation of the true religion, and of the 
 purity thereof in doctrine and discipline." In 
 July 1605 Mr Strachan repaired to Aberdeen to 
 attend a meeting of General Assembly, which 
 had been lawfully appointed. The King by an
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 35 
 
 undue stretch of prerogative endeavoured to pre- 
 vent the meeting from being held. Tet did the 
 ministers, to save the threatened rights of the 
 Church, meet and constitute. For thus acting 
 they incurred the wrath of the King. Mr 
 Strachan was imprisoned in Blackness. He, 
 along with other five brethren, imprisoned for the 
 same offence, were tried at Linlithgow, when 
 thirty ministers assembled to accompany them 
 to the bar. Ultimately he was driven from his 
 country to languish in banishment, and to find 
 a grave in Middleburgh in the Netherlands 
 
 In this parish was born the celebrated ALEX- 
 ANDER HENDERSON. The parish has substantial 
 reason to hold in continued remembrance the 
 name of this distinguished man, as the following 
 extract from the Minute of Session, Oct. 1712, 
 shows " There was a bond of 2000 merks se- 
 cured on the lands of Creich, which Mr Alexan- 
 der Henderson, late minister of Leuchars, and 
 afterwards of Edinburgh, had mortified for the 
 encouragement of a schoolmaster in the parish. 
 The said Mr Alexander Henderson being born 
 in the town of Luthrie." This boy, who played 
 by the Montray Burn, and rambled amid the un- 
 broken pastures of Creich, became afterwards the
 
 36 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 companion of nobles and the counsellor of kings. 
 In the most memorable Assemblies of the Church 
 of Scotland he presided. He originated the idea 
 of the Westminster Assembly, and of the West- 
 minster Standards. He sat at the council table 
 with Rothes and Loudon. He was closeted with 
 King Charles. His grave eloquence was addressed 
 to Lords and Commons. No man lived more 
 laboriously or more nobly, for his life was spent 
 in contending for the rights of the Church of Christ 
 against the encroachments of the Civil Power, 
 and in advancing the Covenanted Reformation 
 of Scotland. He died regretted in 1646, "in 
 great modesty, piety, and faith." 
 
 Mr JOHN ALEXANDER, minister of Creich, is 
 mentioned by Wodrow as one of the noble band 
 of Presbyterian nonconformists. He wonld not 
 renounce the validity of Presbyterian ordination 
 and receive admission at the hand of a Prelatist, 
 and therefore he was outed by the act of Council 
 at Glasgow 1662. 
 
 This parish, which gave to Presbytery one of 
 its most eminent ministers, in the person of 
 Alexander Henderson, also supplied to Scottish 
 Episcopacy one of the most respectable of its 
 Bishops. It was in Creich that BISHOP SAGE
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 37 
 
 was born in 1652. In Ballingry and Tibermuir 
 he officiated as a schoolmaster. He was ad- 
 mitted into priest's orders in 1684, and appointed 
 to one of the churches in Glasgow. In 1705 he 
 was consecrated a Bishop, and died in 1711. A 
 strict Royalist and Episcopalian, he wrote on 
 the controversies of his day, and his writings 
 were much valued by his own party. Some of 
 Bishop Sage's writings have been reprinted by 
 the Spottiswoode Club. 
 
 JL, TJ T H R, I E. 
 
 Luthrie, which is mentioned as the birth-place 
 of Alexander Henderson, derives its name from 
 lilh, a pool or morass, and rigli, properly, a king, 
 but employed as a termination to denote any- 
 thing marked or prominent. Luthrie, the morass 
 of the king, or, the large morass. There are 
 those still alive who remember that in their early 
 day stagnant water overspread in winter all the 
 ground betwixt Starr and Kinsleath, and who 
 in frosty weather have often enjoyed sliding 
 betwixt these two places. 
 
 O A R I? H I 3ST. 
 
 Carphin, the name of the property which 
 adjoins Luthrie, is composed of cm r, a fort, and
 
 38 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 Finn, a Northman the fort of the Northmen. 
 Tt is jnst another rendering of Norman or North- 
 man's Law, which forms the background of 
 Carphin, and to the fort on the top of which the 
 Danes were accustomed to carry their booty, 
 before conveying it on board their ships, which 
 anchored in the Tay. 
 
 A fragment of an arch and a line of old elms 
 indicate the situation of the old house of Par- 
 broath. The house links itself with the Seaton 
 family. They were firm adherents of Queen 
 Mary and Popery. David Seaton held the office 
 at Court of Comptroller in 1589. Sir John 
 Scott of Scotstarvit says of them "The memory 
 of that family is extinguished, albeit it was very 
 numerous, and brave men descended thereof." 
 
 iSalmmno, 
 
 CORBIEHILL. 
 
 Entering Balmerino parish from the west 
 we meet with Corbiehill, called also Birkhill. 
 "Laurentius de Abernethie, son ofOrm," says
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 39 
 
 Keith in his Catalogue, "gave Corbie, called 
 also Birkhill (from a park of hirks surrounding 
 the house), to the Monastery of Balraerino ; and 
 in his charter is expressed the reason of his 
 donation, viz., because Queen Emergarda, dying 
 on the 3d of February, in the year 1233, and 
 being buried in the Church of Balmerino before 
 the great altar (ante magnum altare), had, by 
 her testament, left him 200 merks stei i.ig." 
 Corbiehill manifestly received that name bi_c>JUi-: 1 . 
 it had been a favourite resort of the corbies or 
 crows. Very likely a rookery had been theie. 
 Now only an old ash stands here and there, on 
 which the crows alight as a halting-place it; 
 coming and going to their nests in the woods. 
 
 VILLA.G-E. 
 
 The Parish of Balraerino is so called from the 
 hamlet which nestles in the curve of the hills, 
 and runs out its small pier into the Tay. Bal- 
 merino signifies the town by the sea. Fordoun 
 calls it Habitaculum ad Mare. The situation is 
 pleasant, and as it is sheltered by the bills, and 
 yet not shaded from the sunshine, the air is re- 
 garded as very salubrious. The Scottish physi- 
 cians recommended Balmerino as the residence
 
 40 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 of Madeline, James V.'s first wife, when she was 
 sinking in consumption. 
 
 A. B B E Y. 
 
 Little remains to indicate the extent and mag- 
 nificence of the once famed Abbey of Balmeri- 
 noch. Once the choice residence of royalty, the 
 abode of learning, and the dwelling-place of 
 nobles, it is now a shed for cattle. Close by, 
 there is the decaying stem of a gigantic chestnut- 
 tree which adorned the Abbey in the days of its 
 glory, and now in the day of desolation increases 
 the ruined grandeur which still lingers here. 
 
 The author of Robinson Crusoe, in his tour 
 through Scotland, has this note regarding Bal- 
 merino : " I turned to the north-east part of the 
 county to see the ruins of the famous Monastery 
 of Balmerinoch, of which Mr Camden takes 
 notice, but saw nothing worth observation, the 
 very ruins being almost eaten up by time. The 
 Monastery was founded by Queen Ermangred, 
 wife of King William of Scotland." Any one 
 studious of the " Antiquities of Balmerino," will 
 find in the volume which relates to Balmerino 
 Abbey, published by the Abbotsford Club, and 
 edited by the late W. B. D. Turnbull, all 
 materials ready prepared for him.
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 41 
 
 Mr James Elphiustone, parson of Inverarity, 
 was the first who bore the title of Lord Bal- 
 merino. He was Secretary to King James VI., 
 and got the two Abbacies of Balmerino and 
 Cupar erected into two temporal lordships. 
 
 His son John, second Lord Balmerino, was a 
 prominent supporter of the Presbyterian cause, 
 alike by his countenance, his counsel, and his 
 means. Rutherford addresses one of his Aber- 
 deen letters to him " as his very noble and truly 
 honourable Lord." Balmerino's bold signature 
 is conspicuous in the National Covenant sub- 
 scribed in 1638. 
 
 When in 1633 King Charles I. came down to 
 Scotland to be crowned, he manifested a great 
 desire to push the royal prerogative to unwar- 
 rantable lengths, converting Parliament into a 
 piece of pageantry, and managing everything by 
 his own will. His royal influence he used in en- 
 forcing an act which had reference to the apparel 
 of Churchmen, and which Charles intended to 
 use against hated Presbyterianism. Yet was 
 there spirit and principle enough in the nobles of 
 Scotland to resist these encroachments upon their 
 own privileges, and the liberties of their Church. 
 The indignation of the nobles was moved to a just
 
 42 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 severity when the King refused to hear the senti- 
 ments of the peers, and when the state of the vote 
 was openly falsified to meet the King's wishes. 
 The Lords met to consider their grievances, 
 and to seek their redress. A petition was drawn 
 out expressive of their "feelings. This petition 
 Lord Balmerino was desirous to soften in some 
 of its expressions. For this purpose it was com- 
 mitted to him. His lordship showed the petition 
 to a lawyer from Dundee, of the name of Dun- 
 more, allowed him to carry it home, but charged 
 him to show it to no man and to take no copy of 
 it. Dnnmore went from the Abbey to Hay's of 
 Naughton, with whom he spent the night. Dur- 
 ing their evening converse, when Naughton's 
 wine had probably unlocked the secret chambers 
 of the lawyer's mind, he spoke of this petition. 
 Naughton's curiosity was excited. By night, it 
 is said, he abstracted the paper from Dunmore's 
 chamber and carried it direct to Spottiswoode, 
 Archbishop of St Andrews. Spottiswoode, 
 alarmed at its contents, started with it to 
 London, " beginning his journey as he often 
 did," says Burnet, " on a Sunday, which was a 
 very serious thing in that country," 
 The paper gave rise to a trial. When the
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 48 
 
 jury retired, there was a striking incident which 
 happened. Gordon of Bnckie, now an old man, 
 and who, forty-three-years before, had assisted 
 in the murder of the Earl of Murray, addressed 
 his fellow-jurors : "This is a matter of blood and 
 they would feel the weight of it as long as they 
 lived. He had in his youth been drawn in to 
 shed blood for which he had the King's pardon ; 
 bnt it cost him more to obtain God's pardon. 
 This had given him many sorrowful hours both 
 day and night." As he spoke, the tears ran 
 down his face. 
 
 Notwithstanding this affecting appeal, when 
 it came to the vote, after many hours' arguing, 
 seven voted acquit, and eight voted condemn. 
 The result of the trial excited great commotion. 
 Meetings were held, and it was proposed to force 
 the prison, and to secure Lord Balmerino's liberty; 
 or, if the sentence was executed to avenge 
 his death, both upon the court and the jurors. 
 Traquair hastened to the court, explained the 
 state of public feeling, and obtained the King's 
 pardon. Yet, says Buruet, the ruin of King 
 Charles's affairs in Scotland was in a great 
 manner owing to that persecution. 
 
 Lord Balmerino's death is thus recorded by
 
 44 HISTORICAL AKTIQUITIES 
 
 Sir James Balfour : " The last of this mounthe 
 of Febuarii, 1649, Johne Elphinstone, Lord 
 Balmerinoche, deyed of ane apoplexie iu his 
 owen chamber in Edinburghe, one Thursday, 
 about 3 in the morning, being the first of Marche, 
 having supped with the Marques of Argyle, gone 
 weill to bed, but fond himselve seekie after his 
 first sleeipe, called to a servant for some sacke, 
 but before the servant coulde returne with the 
 wyne he was gone." 
 
 The later wearers of the Balmerino title did 
 not inherit the high qualities of their ancestors. 
 The phrase, " Balmerino's eik," tells of the jolly 
 propensities of one of them. It means an eik 
 which knew no end, fcr the punch-bowl was con- 
 stantly replenished and thus was never emptied. 
 
 The last Lord took part with the Pretender in 
 1745. He was executed in 1747, when the title 
 was attainted. 
 
 Connected with this parish there were men 
 of low degree, but of noble spirit, who, in their 
 own sphere, testified for the principles of the per- 
 secuted Church of Scotland. One of them was 
 ANDREW GUULAND, weaver in Balmerino. He 
 was present at the murder of Archbishop Sharpe 
 at Magus Muir. He took no active part in the
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 45 
 
 murder, but only held the horses of those who 
 were engaged in it. So hot was the search after 
 all who were in the least connected with this 
 tragedy, that Andrew thought it prudent to go 
 away to a different part of the country, and 
 there to gain his livelihood as an orrie man about 
 farm-towns. While at his work in the parish of 
 Cockpen, the curate happened to pass, and asked 
 him whether he attended the Parish Church on 
 the Lord's-day. Andrew's Presbyterian blood 
 rose, and he said that he did not own the curate, 
 and refused to give any account of himself. At 
 the curate's instigation he was seized, carried to 
 Dalkeith to prison, and thereafter to Edinburgh. 
 While lying in the prison at Edinburgh, the 
 report broke out that he had been present at the 
 Archbishop's death. No evidence of this was 
 adduced, but the advocate trepanned him, says 
 Wodrow, into a confession in the following man- 
 ner. At one of the examinations, the advocate, 
 addressing himself to Andrew, aggravated the 
 circumstances of the Archbishop's murder in a 
 most moving way, and as the most horrible part 
 of it represented that it was while upon his knees 
 praying, that the bloody deed was done. This 
 touched the simple countryman so, that he got
 
 46 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 up his hands and cried oat, 4 dreadful, he 
 would not pray one word for all that could be 
 said to him.' Andrew was tried on the charge 
 of being concerned in the Bishop's death, was 
 found guilty, and was condemned to execution 
 his head to be set up at Cupar, and his body 
 at Magas Muir. He died heroically, denying 
 that he died as a murderer, though he was acci- 
 dentally joined with those who executed justice 
 upon a Judas, who sold the Kirk of Scotland for 
 51,000 merks a-year. 
 
 There lived in this parish another obscure 
 person, whose name history takes not up, al- 
 though he was a sufferer in the covenanted re- 
 formation of Scotland. Yet does it live in tradi- 
 tion. WILLIAM MURDOCH was a blacksmith in 
 Gauldry in these trying times. He boldly pro- 
 fessed himself a Presbyterian, and attended their 
 field preachings. For his steadfastness he was 
 apprehended. It was in his own house he was 
 seized, and while leaving it for prison he passed 
 through his smithy, and when, unobserved by 
 his conductor, he quietly lifted a file and hid it 
 about his clothes. He was brought to Cupar 
 and lodged in the common prison, where there 
 were many fellow-prisoners suffering for the
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 47 
 
 same cause. Whenever night fell, he commenced 
 filing through the iron stancheons which secured 
 the window, and, before morning, he and all his 
 companions in tribulation were seeking the shelter 
 which unfrequented paths afforded them from 
 the rage of their persecutors. 
 
 In Wodrow's lists, Mr Walter Greg of this 
 parish is mentioned as one of the ministers who 
 were confined to their own parishes, as un- 
 derlying the suspicions of a tyrannical Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 On Newton Hill, which rises to the west of 
 Newton farm, on the borders of this parish, tra- 
 dition points out a place where, in days of per- 
 secution, the Covenanters were wont to meet. 
 It is a sequestered spot, where the hare may 
 lurk secure, and where the plover, in its circling 
 flight, utters its lonely scream. This solitary 
 place has seen multitudes gathered together, 
 and listening, when it was treason to do so, to 
 the Gospel, preached by Mr Thomas Hogg, of 
 Kiltearn, by Mr John Welsh, of Irongray, and 
 by Mr Donald Cargill. 
 
 PEA.8EHILL. 
 
 We cannot pass the farm of Peasehill without
 
 48 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 animadverting on the sad transmutation to which 
 its name has been subjected. Near this was a 
 battle fought with the Danes, and on this hill 
 the terms of peace were arranged. Hence was 
 it called the Hill of Peace, or Peace-hill. But 
 now it has passed into Peasehill ! 
 
 " O what a fall was there, my countrymen !" 
 
 From war and peace to pease and beans ! The 
 only method to rescue the name from this de- 
 grading coiTuption is for landlord and tenant to 
 encase it in a language which Lowland lips are 
 less likely to pervert, and call it Dunipace, 
 which means the Hill of Peace. 
 
 There is a public road which winds round the 
 base of Newton Hill, and carries the traveller 
 into the PARISH OF 
 
 iuimang* 
 
 This road passes the farm of Kinnaird, which 
 belonged, in Popish times, to the Nunnery of 
 Elcho, and the fields of Little Kinnear, which 
 formed part of the church lands of Balmermo 
 Abbey. Should Popery regain the supremacy
 
 IK THE NORTH OF FIFE. 49 
 
 to which it is fast rising, there will be a settle- 
 ment of a long account of these church lands. 
 
 The square tower of the old Castle of Cruivie 
 is also seen on the side of the hill, considerably 
 to the east of the present farm of Cruivie. It is 
 in the parish of Logic, and belonged to the 
 Ramsays of Colluthie. 
 
 In passing along we catch a sight, on a terrace 
 on the hill-side, of Forret, also in the parish of 
 Logic. To the house of the Laird of Forret 
 belonged the meek, the gentle, but firm martyr, 
 Dean Thomas Forret, Vicar of Dollar, who was 
 burned for the truth in 1538. 
 
 To the back of the present modem mansion- 
 house of Mountquhanie, a dark pile of ruin rises 
 amid rows of venerable trees. This is the re- 
 mains of the Old house of Mountqnhanie. The 
 name of one who was once its owner figures in 
 an interesting chapter of Scottish history. 
 Among those who, in 154C, plotted and perpe- 
 trated the murder of Cardinal Beaton, was David 
 Balfour, son to the Laird of Mountquhanie. 
 The conspirators being declared rebels, gallantly
 
 50 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 defended the Castle of St Andrews. When. 
 every attempt to reduce the Castle had failed, 
 recourse was had to treachery, " that, under 
 truth, they might get the Castle betrayed." 
 In this perfidious service was the Laird of 
 Mountquhanie, Sir Michael Balfour, employed. 
 His own son being one of the conspirators, his 
 designs were the less suspected. But, after he 
 had " laboured by foot and hand" in the dis- 
 honourable work, he failed of success, " God 
 not appointing," says Knox, " so many to be 
 betrayed." 
 
 The Lady of Mountquhanie, in the troublous 
 times of 1638 and onwards, took part with the 
 Covenanters. Livingstone, whose mention is 
 praise,names her as theLady Monwhanny, along 
 with the Lady Halhill, the Lady Raith, the Lady 
 Innertiel, all ladies of the Covenant belonging 
 to Fife, " whose memory was very precious and 
 refreshing." 
 
 Is a place familiar to every reader of the Scottish 
 Worthies, and it is at once associated with the 
 name of Hackston or Halkerstone, who made it 
 famous. Tall beeches, with their glossy stems
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 51 
 
 and brown branches inclose the place " which 
 once knew him." 
 
 As the properties of Moantqnhanie and Ra- 
 thillet stand close to each other, so a similarity 
 of enterprise conjoins their former proprietors. 
 Balfour of Moantqnhanie was concerned in the 
 murder of Archbishop Beaton. Hackston of 
 Hathillet was connected with the murder of 
 Archbishop Sharpe. Little did Sharpe dread the 
 near approach of a violent death, when, on the 
 3d of May 1679, he turned aside to smoke a 
 forenoon pipe with the curate of Ceres. And 
 little did the nine gentlemen who were the 
 actors think, when they went forth that morn- 
 ing in search of Carmichael, whose oppression 
 was intolerable, that instead of the servant the 
 master should be thrown in their way. Of all 
 the nine, Hackston was the only one who was 
 unresolved in his own mind regarding the deed 
 on which they determined. He used remon- 
 strances, and kept aloof from any active partici- 
 pation in the act. " I shall never lay a hand 
 upon you," was Hackston's reply to the Arch- 
 bishop's appeal ; and when Sharpe did fall under 
 the redoubled strokes, Hackston had rode a 
 little oil. It is a curious coincidence, that it was
 
 52 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 the same day in May that Cardinal Beaton was 
 assassinated. 
 
 At the battle of Bothwell Bridge Hackston 
 was present, conducting himself with great 
 bravery. At Airs Moss, in 1680, he com- 
 manded, and being overpowered by numbers 
 was taken captive by Bruce of Earlshall, and 
 carried to Edinburgh. Every one knows the 
 unheard of cruelties to which this good man was 
 subjected at his execution, and how his heart 
 was cut out of his breast and presented to the 
 spectators on the point of a knife, while yet it 
 was throbbing with the lingerings of life the 
 executioner pronouncing aloud the words, 
 " Here is the heart of a traitor." 
 
 It was the heart of a brave man and a Chris- 
 tian. " I am told," says Wodrow, " he was with- 
 out any sense of religion in his younger days, but 
 getting good of the Gospel preached in the fields, 
 and having thereby a real and thorough change 
 wrought upon him, he left all to follow it, and 
 at last sealed it with his blood." Nor was the 
 servant behind his master, for in the list of those 
 denounced in 1684 as rebels and fugitives be- 
 cause of their faithful adherence to the cause of 
 the persecuted Church of Scotland, we find the
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 53 
 
 name of James Kinnier, servant to Hackston of 
 Raihilkt. 
 
 The family of Hackston exhibits one of those 
 strange reactions by which the son is thrown 
 into a position clean contrary, in all respects, to 
 that occupied by the father. Young Hackston 
 became, in his last years, a supporter of the 
 Pretender. The influence of his wife effected 
 this. He had married Lady Gibson, who was 
 first the widow of Sir Edward Gibson of Kinloch, 
 and secondly the widow of Mr Balllie of Luthrie, 
 and the mother of Colonel Baillie, and last of all 
 the wife of Mr Hackston of Rathillet. Lady 
 Gibson was a determined Jacobite. The ex- 
 planation is thus very plain. The poor man 
 "cared for the things that are of the world, how 
 he might please his wife ;" he forgot the claims 
 of truth an d of patriotism, and lent his little in- 
 fluence to support a scion of the Stuart House 
 which had cruelly murdered his own father. 
 
 MTJUDOCHCA-IRlSriE. 
 
 A little to the west of Rathillet is Mnrdoch- 
 cairnie. Sir Robert Melville of Murdochcairnie 
 was a man of some note in his day. He was 
 King's Commissioner to the General Assembly
 
 54 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 in 1594, and one of the members of the Secret 
 Council. 
 
 In connection with Murdochcairnie we may 
 here mention the death of Aytoun, younger of 
 Inchdairnie, when on his way to visit his aunt, 
 Lady Murdochcairnie. This young gentleman, 
 when a student in St Andrews, was remarkable 
 for his piety. At the age of 17 he was inter- 
 communed because of his attachment to the per- 
 secuted Presbyterian ministers, and forced to 
 leave his father's house. Thus wandering about 
 without a sure abode, he was proposing to shelter 
 himself in the house of his relative. He had got 
 beyond Auchtermuchty when he saw a party of 
 the King's dragoons riding furiously towards 
 Cupar. With the view of escaping them he 
 quickened his horse's pace: but one of the 
 troopers, despatched by his commander, over- 
 took him, and wounded him mortally. The 
 wounded man could scarcely keep his seat until 
 he reached the nearest cottage. There he was 
 sheltered, and Sir John Ayton of Ayton, his 
 relative, was sent for. Sir John Ayton de- 
 spatched a servant to Cupar for a surgeon. By 
 the interference of the dragoons the surgeon was 
 hindered from going. Some of their number
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 55 
 
 were sent for the wounded man, Despite of all 
 remonstrance on the part of Sir John, the 
 wounded man was hurried to Cupar. Four 
 times he fainted by the way, and on the morrow 
 he died in a lodging-house in peace and security, 
 forgiving the soldier who mortally wounded him. 
 This happened in 1672. 
 
 From Murdochcairnie we may look across to 
 Starr farm, for the sake of remarking on the 
 name. One wonders, how has that name dropped 
 from the clouds on this place? What does 
 Starr mean ? Starr is an old Scotch word, and 
 signifies a " sedge." The place was evidently 
 named Starr, the Place of Sedges, from the sedges 
 which grew thickly there when, in former dayo, 
 the Luthrie marsh extended from Starr to Kins- 
 leith. It is for the same reason that the village 
 of Starr, in Markiuch parish, got its name. 
 That village stands close by the site of an old 
 swamp, where the sedges, having found for them- 
 selves an appropriate habitat, had grown pro- 
 fusely. It is of consequence to preserve the 
 correct spelling of Starr. A place which in 
 older days would have been called Stan-, is in 
 later times named Seggie.
 
 56 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 Of this parish was Mr JOHN SHARP minister 
 in 1605. He was one of the members who kept 
 the meeting of Assembly at Aberdeen, and was 
 chosen their clerk. For this he was imprisoned, 
 and latterly banished. He was appointed Pro- 
 fessor of Divinity in the University of Die in 
 Dauphine. 
 
 In Wodrow's lists, Mr George Thompson is 
 entered as one of the ministers outed by the 
 Glasgow Act, 1662. 
 
 When time has mossed over with hoary age 
 the years in which we live, it will be mentioned 
 as one of the most interesting circumstances con- 
 nected with this parish, that for twelve years Dr 
 Chalmers was its minister. 
 
 We now enter the little PARISH OP 
 
 The hill-top situation of Moonzie is expressed 
 in the name Monadh, in Gaelic signifying a Hill. 
 It is also preserved in popular rhyme 
 
 " Gae ye east or gae ye wast, 
 Or gae ye ony way ye will, 
 Te whma get to Moonzie Kirk, 
 Unless ye do gae up the hill.
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 57 
 
 Is the principal object which attracts the obser- 
 vation of the passer-by. Its strong donjon and 
 one of its flanking towers have withstood the 
 decay of centuries. It is, and has been for many 
 generations, theproperty of theEarlsof Crawfurd. 
 
 Alexander, Earl of Crawfurd, who is still known 
 in the locality from the nicknames he bore of 
 "The Tiger,'' and "Earl Beardie," married 
 about 1450 a daughter of the Earl of March, 
 through whom he came into possession of the 
 lands of Auchter Moonzie and Cairnie. It was 
 by him that this old Castle was built. 
 
 Calderwood relates, that after the discomfiture 
 of his army by the English at the Solway, King 
 James V., melancholy and dejected, " visited the 
 Castle of Cairnie pertaining to the Earl of Craw- 
 furd, where the said Earl's daughter, one of his 
 royal mistresses, was. He returned to Falkland 
 and took bed." When the news had reached 
 him that the Queen had given birth to a daughter, 
 be turned from such as he spake with and said, 
 " It will end as it began, it came with a woman 
 and it will end with a woman." He died 13th 
 December 1542- 
 
 One of the Lords of Cairnie the Earl of Craw-
 
 58 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 fnrd of 1690 was a firm-hearted Presbyterian. 
 He was desirous when the Revolution of 1688 
 came round, that the government of the Church 
 should be entirely in the hands of those who had 
 been Nonconformist or Presbyterian. He leaves 
 it as a warning when he is silent in the dust, 
 "that if any of the prelatic party are permitted 
 to have the government, of the Church, it will 
 bring ruin to the Church and disappointment to 
 the nation." 
 
 COLLTTTHIE. 
 
 The Eamsays and the Carnegies, both families 
 of distinction, were connected with Colluthie, 
 and took their title from it. Under the year 
 1356, Balfour records that Archibald Douglas, 
 son of the noble Sir James, and who afterwards 
 was Earl of Douglas, was taken " by the Eng- 
 lishe, with Johne, King of France, in the batell 
 of Poictiers, but by the means of Sir William 
 Ramsay of Colluthey made his escape, and so 
 fred himselve of their hands." 
 
 David Carnegie, Laird of Colluthie, was one 
 of the King's Commissioners in the General As- 
 sembly which met at Edinburgh April 1583. 
 
 This same David Carnegie of Colluthie, in
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 59 
 
 1591, signs, as first witness, Mr Patrick Adam- 
 son's, of St Andrews, commonly called Arch- 
 bishop Adamsou's, confession, declaration, and 
 recantation. 
 
 Mr James Wedderburn, minister of Moonzie, 
 was one of the noble band of 400 who were ejected 
 in 1662. He was appointed assistant to his 
 father in 1659, and when his father died in 1661 
 he became sole minister. He gained a high 
 character as an ardent and faithful preacher of 
 Christ. It was this which acquired for him the 
 appellation of " The Angel of Moonzie." His 
 brethren spoke of him generally under this title ; 
 and they said of him that although there were 
 many ministers who were possessed of higher 
 abilities and of greater learning, yet were there 
 few who were more successful in their Master's 
 work than the Angel of Moonzie. 
 
 Mr Wedderburn died on the 23d of July 1687, 
 in the fifty-second year of his age. Had he lived 
 but a year longer he would have seen the glorious 
 Revolution of 1688, under William, Prince of 
 Orange, and would have been brought back 
 again to his much-loved parish. He was buried 
 in the churchyard of Cupar. In the Latin in- 
 scription on his tombstone in the wall, which
 
 60 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 affection had laboriously ornamented, and which 
 time has now obliterated, he is called, " Ecclesiae 
 Munsise fidelissimi pastoris " The most faithful 
 Pastor of the Church of Moonzie. 
 
 In entering the parish of Dunbog from the 
 east, the old Castle of Collairney, now in ruins, 
 is seen rising on the sloping sides of Dunbog hill. 
 
 Sir David Barclay was a member and office- 
 bearer of the Church of Scotland in the high days 
 of the Covenant. Indeed, almost all the landed 
 proprietors in the north of Fife were so. Beaton 
 of Creich, Sir David Barclay of Collairney, 
 Arnot of Fernie, Erskine of Scotscraig, are all 
 named as elders in the Acts of Assembly. 
 Blessed days for a land, when squire and tenant 
 and hind worship together in the undivided 
 Church of their country ! 
 
 Some of the descendants of the Collairney 
 family were not ashamed to attach themselves 
 to the cause of Christ in the day of tribulation, 
 as appears from the following notice : On the 
 9th of January 1679, Mrs MARGARET BARCLAY,
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 61 
 
 niece of Sir David Barclay ofCottairnie, who had 
 for some time been in prison in Edinburgh for 
 being at private meetings, was set at liberty for 
 the recovery of her health, upon giving security 
 for 500 merks to return to jail by the 20th, if 
 called, or when called, and meanwhile to confine 
 herself to her room, under the same penalty. 
 
 By letters of intercommuning, of date August 
 5, 1675, we find Lady Collarney, with many 
 others, denounced a rebel for inviting and coun- 
 tenancing outed ministers in their Invasion and 
 intrusion upon the kirks and pulpits of Balma- 
 rinoch, Collessie, Moonzie, and Anchtermuchty, 
 and hearing them preach and pray therein, and 
 for resetting and entertaining Mr John Welsh, a 
 declared and proclaimed traitor. 
 
 Mr WILLIAM TULLIDAFF, minister of Dunbog, 
 appears prominent in the histories of these stormy 
 times in the seventeenth century. In March 1664 
 died Mr James Wood, Principal of the College 
 of St Andrews, a learned and eminently pious 
 man. On his death-bed Archbishop Sharpe 
 visited him, and circulated the report that, in 
 the prospect of death, Mr Wood considered the 
 matter of Church Government as a very small
 
 62 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 thing, and that he was as much for Episcopacy 
 as for Presbytery. These reports being com- 
 municated to Mr Wood, vexed him much, and, 
 to counteract them, he determined to leave be- 
 hind him a public testimony declaring his un- 
 qualified attachment " to the Presbyterian Go- 
 vernment as the ordinance of God, appointed by 
 Jesus Christ for ordering his visible Church, and 
 that if he was to live, he would account it his 
 glory to seal this word of his testimony with his 
 blood." This declaration Mr Wood subscribed 
 in presence of three witnesses of whom Mr Wm. 
 Tullidaff, minister at Dunbog, was one. The 
 other two were public notaries. Sharpe stormed 
 when this was known. The witnesses were 
 thrown into prison. When the trial came, all 
 the witnesses swore to Mr Wood's dying testi- 
 mony. The Archbishop was proved a spreader 
 of lying calumnies, and Mr Tullidaff and his 
 fellow-witnesses were liberated. 
 
 Mr Tullidaff was outed in 1662. He and Mr 
 Wm. Rowe, of Ceres, were the only two of the 
 outed ministers in the Presbytery of Cupar who 
 were spared to witness the blessed Revolution 
 of 1688.
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 63 
 
 JfltonimaiL 
 
 THE MOUNT. 
 
 On the south side of the hill which is sur- 
 mounted by the Hopetoun Monument, there 
 grow a few old trees, irregularly placed. These 
 trees mark the site where stood, in the be- 
 ginning of the sixteenth century, the dwelling- 
 place of SIR DAVID LINDSAY OF THE MOUNT, 
 Lord- Ly on- King- at- Arms. He was a " special 
 servant" at the Court of King James IV., having 
 been employed as a confidential companion of 
 the Prince, afterwards James V. His own pen 
 records this in an address to the King 
 
 When thou was young, I bore thee in mine arm 
 Full tenderly, till thou begouth to gang ; 
 
 And in thy bed oft happit thee full warm 
 With lute in hand softly to thee sang ; 
 Sometimes in dancing, fairly I flung, 
 
 And sometimes playing farces on the floor, 
 
 And sometimes on mine office taking care. 
 
 On the summit of the hill tradition points out a 
 place which was known as " Sir David's Walk." 
 Here he walked in solitary meditation, cherish- 
 ing poetic ardours, and constructing those poems
 
 64 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 and dramas which, from the one mind on the 
 Monnthill diffused their influence to many ; and 
 being read in the palace and the baron's hall, 
 and exhibited before men of all estates, helped 
 forward powerfully the then advancing Refor- 
 mation. From this tendency of his writings, 
 Lindsay has been styled the Poet of the Refor- 
 mation. He was employed in embassies to 
 different Courts, and is supposed to have died 
 about 1558. 
 
 Dame Janet Douglass, his wife, died not long 
 after him. The poet was succeeded in the office 
 of Lyon-King-at-Arms by his nephew, Sir 
 David Lyndsay, of Rathillet and Luthrie. He 
 was succeeded in the heritage of the Mount by 
 his brother Alexander, whose son, the third Sir 
 David, became Lyon-King in 1592. He con- 
 tinued in office until 1621, when he resigned in 
 favour of his son-in-law Jerome Lindsay. In 
 1630 Sir Jerome Lindsay ceased to be Lyon- 
 King, when Sir James Balfour of Kinnaird was 
 appointed. In the Old Church of Monimail 
 there was a family pew belonging to the Lindsays 
 of The Mount. Its carved oaken canopy is still 
 preserved as an heir-loom at Kinnaird. The 
 Lindsay Arms, J. L. (the initials of Jerome
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 65 
 
 Lindsay), the date 1645, are engraved on it, as 
 also the following quaint couplet : 
 
 Thy hairt prepair, thy God in Chryst ador, 
 Mount up by grace, and then thous com to glor. 
 
 3M E U VIX, L K HOUSE. 
 
 In Melville House there hang two paintings 
 of much interest to the Protestant and to the 
 Presbyterian. The first is an original full-length 
 portrait of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, 
 dressed in a buff jerkin and trousers, resembling 
 modern mud-boots. A pair of immense spurs 
 are attached to his heels, a broad lace collar 
 decorates the neck, and a trusty sword hangs by 
 his side. His features are large, his hair close 
 dipt, and a look of gravity sits on the counte- 
 nance, which well becomes the Leader of the 
 Protestants in the Thirty Years' War. The second 
 is the portrait of Sir Alexander Leslie, who was 
 Lieutenant-General, and afterwards Field-Mar- 
 shal of the forces of Gustavus. To Sir Alex- 
 ander did Gustavus give the portrait of himself, 
 which we have described above, in testimony of 
 the regard he bore him. After gaining many 
 military honours abroad, Sir Alexander was
 
 66 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 called home to command the army of the Cove- 
 nanters In their struggles against Charles I. for 
 civil and religious liberty. The banner under 
 which he fought was the bravest which was ever 
 unfurled, for it bore enstamped on it the Scottish 
 arms, and had these words engraved in golden 
 letters " For Christ's Crown and Covenant." 
 "Such," says Baillie, "was the wisdom and 
 authority of that old, little, crooked soldier, that 
 all, with an incredible submission, gave over 
 themselves to be guided by him, as if he had 
 been great Solyman. Such was the man's un- 
 derstanding of our Scots humours, that he gave 
 out not only to the noblemen, but to very mean 
 gentlemen, his directions in a very homely and 
 simple form, as if they had been but the advices 
 of their neighbour and companion." Sir Alex- 
 ander was created Earl of Leven in 1641, for his 
 important services. In the portrait, the crooked- 
 ness of his figure is hid by a kind of loose black 
 dress. His figure and his features are small. 
 His hair of a sandy colour, and his beard is 
 pointed. He is the founder of the House of 
 Leven, and a nobler founder no family could 
 have, for the title was gained in fighting for the 
 great principles of civil liberty, and for the
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 67 
 
 pure principles of Presbyterianism the Pres- 
 byterianism of 1638-50, to which every right- 
 hearted son of Scotland looks as the period of the 
 purest development of the principles of the Re- 
 formed Church of Scotland. The grandson of 
 the first Lord Leven left an only child, a daughter. 
 In this daughter the honours and estate of Leven 
 met, and as she married George Earl of Melville, 
 the titles of Leven and Melville were united. 
 This George Lord Melville was a sufferer for his 
 religion during the trying times of James II., 
 and fled to Holland. He rejoiced in the Revolu- 
 tion of 1688, and was appointed by King William 
 to be High Commissioner to the Parliament of 
 1690, when the Confession of Faith was ratified, 
 patronage abolished, and the Presbyterian Church 
 restored to her liberties. 
 
 UPPER 
 
 Was the ancestral home of Sir ROBERT SIBBALD. 
 His father was Mr David Sibbald, third brother 
 to Sir James Sibbald, "Knight-Baronet of Ran- 
 kellor." 
 
 Every one interested in the antiquities of Fife 
 will be curious to know something of Sir Robert,
 
 68 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 the historian of Fife. An Autobiography, of 
 which only thirty copies were printed in 1833, 
 enables me to supply the following account. 
 
 Sir Robert was born in Edinburgh 15th April 
 1641. After finishing his philosophy studies at 
 the College of Edinburgh, his mother " would 
 have had him study divinity," but the distrac- 
 tions of the Church deterred him. The influence 
 of Archbishop Leighton, who was Principal of 
 Edinburgh College during the five years that 
 young Sibbald studied there, was greatly instru- 
 mental in determining his choice apart from the 
 Presbyterian Church. " The impressions I re- 
 tained from Mr Leighton his discourses, disposed 
 me to affect charity for all good men of any per- 
 suasion, and I preferred a quiet life, wherein I 
 might not be ingadged in factions of Church or 
 State." Medicine became his chosen profession. 
 He prosecuted his studies at Leyden, then the 
 first medical school in Europe. At Angiers he 
 'got his patent of doctor," and returned to 
 Scotland in 1662. In company with Sir Andrew 
 Balfour he founded the Botanical Gardens of 
 Edinburgh, getting " ane lease of the garden 
 belonging to Trinity Hospital, embellishing the 
 fabric of the garden, and importing into it plants
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 69 
 
 from all places." Charles II. gave him a patent 
 to be his geographer for the kingdom of Scotland, 
 and another to be his physician there, together 
 with his commands to publish the natural history 
 of the country, and the geographical description 
 of the kingdom. It was in fulfilment of this 
 appointment that he prepared "The History, 
 Ancient and Modern, of the Sheriffdoms of Fife 
 and Kinross, with a description of both." In 
 1681, chiefly through his exertions, the Edin- 
 burgh Royal College of Physicians was esta- 
 blished, and in 1684 he was chosen its President. 
 The story of his being knighted he thus tells : 
 " In the beginning of the year 1682 1 was adver- 
 tised on a Saturday night to bring with me next 
 day Dr Stanson and Dr Balfour, to wait upon 
 His Royal Highness, James Duke of York, after 
 the forenoon sermon. To our surprisall, there 
 was ane carpet layed, and we were ordered to 
 kneel, and were each of us knighted by His 
 Royal Highness, then Commissioner." 
 
 Now we come to what Sir Robert calls " the 
 difficultest passage of his life." The Earl of 
 Perth, his patron and friend, had turned Papist. 
 " One Sunday the Earl had taken physick, he 
 took the opportunity, we being alone, to tell me,
 
 70 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 weeping, that he was of that persuasion. This 
 did occasion odd thoughts in my mind. In Sep- 
 tember 1685 he carried me along with him to 
 Drummond to see his Lady, who was then dying. 
 I knew nothing of it, but he told me afterwards, 
 that the very next day after her arrival he 
 brought her over to the Romish persuasion. 
 The next day after I arrived at Drummond he 
 had given me the Life of Gregory Lopez and or 
 Father Davila to read. One day about 11 o'clock 
 he called me up to his study to read to me a 
 paper that the Duchess of York had writ upon 
 her embracing that religion, and discoursed very 
 pathetically upon it. I know not how it came 
 about, I felt a great warmness of my affections 
 while he was reading and discoursing, and there- 
 upon, as I thought oestro quodam pietatis motus in 
 this, I said I would embrace that religion, upon 
 which he took me in his arms and thanked God 
 for it." Thus are converts made. This " broad- 
 school disciple of Archbishop Leighton, who 
 refused to take any part in the Presbyterian 
 contendings for truth, lest his charity should 
 suffer, yields up his Protestantism 
 
 " At the fascination of a high-born smile.' 
 
 When Sir Robert returned to Edinburgh the
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 71 
 
 townspeople, hearing that he and the Earl of 
 Perth had become Papists, laid the blame of the 
 Earl's perversion on Sir Robert, broke into his 
 house, and threatened to " Rathillet" him. He 
 escaped by the garden, lay hid in the fields all 
 night, and " was conveyed down to the Abbey 
 by Lieutenant-General Drummond in his coach, 
 with Claverhouse, who was then Viscount of 
 Dundee." Shortly afterwards he set out for 
 London. On " the night after his arrival there, 
 he was carried to Court to kiss the King's hand." 
 
 " The air of London river and city did not 
 agree with him," so that he resolved to return 
 to Scotland. But he had shrewdness enough to 
 see, during his eight or nine weeks' sojourn in 
 London, that matters were hastening to a 
 Revolution "that the Jesuits were pressing 
 the king to illegal and unaccountable undertak- 
 ings" and that the gathering wrath of the 
 nation would overturn the Government. 
 
 On his return home in 1686, he wrote to the 
 Earl of Perth telling him of his purpose to return 
 to the Protestant faith. In September he was 
 received by the Bishop of Edinburgh upon ac- 
 knowledgment of his rashness, took the Sacra-
 
 72 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 ment according to the way of the Church of 
 England, and kept constantly his parish church. 
 
 Coilessie, 
 
 Within Melville Park, and in that portion 
 which lies in the parish of Collessie, near to an 
 erect block of whinstone, is the site of the Old 
 House of Halhill. 
 
 Mr HENRY BALNAVES of Hallhill is well known 
 to the reader of Knox's history. He was an 
 advocate by profession, and was appointed a 
 Lord of Session in 1538. He was a warm ad- 
 herent to the infant Reformation, and suffered 
 along with John Knox a long imprisonment on 
 board the French galleys, as also in the old castle 
 of Rouen. While there he composed a book, of 
 which the following is the title " The Confes- 
 sion of Faith, containing how the Troubled Man 
 should seek Refuge at his God, thereto led by 
 Faith ; with the Declaration of the Article of 
 Justification, &c., compiled by Mr Henry Bal- 
 naves of Halhill, and one of the Lords of Session
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 73 
 
 and Council of Scotland, being a prisoner within 
 the old palace of Roan, in the year of our Lord 
 1548." 
 
 Sir JAMES MELVILLE, son of the Laird of 
 Raith, succeeded as proprietor of the lands of 
 Halhill, and his tombstone, conspicuous on the 
 wall of the churchyard, summons " the pilgrim 
 passing along this way" to 
 
 " Repent, amend, on Christ the burden cast of your sad sins." 
 
 Sir James Melville was the founder of the 
 Melville Family. John Livingstone tells us that 
 Sir James u professed that he had got assurance 
 from the Lord that himself, wife, and children 
 should meet in heaven." 
 
 Sir James and his brother, Sir Robert Melville 
 of Murdochcairnie, were distinguished as am- 
 bassadors and statesmen in the reigns of Queen 
 Mary and King James VI. As might be ex- 
 pected from statesmen in those days, they gave 
 a steady but modified support to the Presbyterian 
 cause. The zeal which was awanting on Sir 
 James' part was conspicuous in his daughter, 
 Lady Culross. She was highly accomplished, 
 but still more eminent for her piety, and for her 
 stout adherence to the persecuted Church of her
 
 74 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 country. She employed her pen in encouraging 
 imprisoned and banished witnesses for the truth, 
 It was she who wrote to Rigg of Athernie, when 
 he was confined to Blackness Castle, that " the 
 darkness of Blackness was not the blackness of 
 darkness." 
 
 Lady Halhill, the wife of the second Sir James 
 Melville, was a devoted friend of the Covenanted 
 Church of Scotland, and an honoured corre- 
 spondent of Samuel Rutherford. 
 
 Looking from the high grounds in Collessie, 
 theeyefixes ontheHouse of Rankeilour-Makgill, 
 raising its pavilion roof from amid its surround- 
 ing wood. Mr James Macgill of Rankeilour, 
 Clerk Register in the reigns of Mary and James, 
 took an active part in the transactions of these 
 stirring times. Among the lists of fines for 
 Nonconformity imposed by Middleton in 1662, 
 we find Macgill of Rankeilour, 3000. Since 
 then this House has sent forth those who have 
 contended and suffered for the right.
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 75 
 
 KI 1STL O C U, 
 
 Half-hid by its trees and its many undulations, 
 is celebrated as the residence of JOHN BALFOUR. 
 He was brother-in-law to Hackston of Rathillet, 
 and took a public part in field conventicles, and 
 in opposing the despotic measures of the Court. 
 From incidental notices in the histories of the 
 times, it would appear that Balfour of Kinloch, 
 called Captain Burleigh, was moved to the part 
 he acted rather from political than from religions 
 feelings. Whatever his motives were, the part 
 he acted was a prominent one. In 1677, in an 
 October afternoon, a small company of gentle- 
 men, not exceeding six or seven, had met at 
 dinner in Kinloch House. They were suddenly 
 surprised by the appearance of Capt. Carstairs, 
 who, solely on the warrant of the Archbishop, 
 had taken upon himself to indict hardships and 
 cruelties throughout the East of Fife on all Non- 
 conformists. Carstairs' company amounted in 
 number to ten or twelve, and announced their 
 arrival by discharging their fire-arms through 
 the windows. The gentlemen boldly repelled 
 the assault, and discomfitted Carstairs and his
 
 76 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 men. Yet was this act of self-defence magnified 
 into a heinous misdemeanour, and because, when 
 summoned before the Council, they consulted 
 their safety and appeared not, they were de- 
 nounced as rebels, and the transaction used as a 
 handle against the whole Presbyterian cause. 
 
 JOHN BALFOUR was one of those who took a 
 prominent part in the murder of Archbishop 
 Sharpe in 1679. In the' same year he was 
 present at the battle of Bothwell Brig, and com- 
 manded some regiments of infantry. A reward 
 of 10,000 merks is offered to whoever shall ap- 
 prehend John Balfour of Kinloch, and David 
 Hackston of Ilathillet, and present them to the 
 Council dead or alive. Balfour fled to Holland 
 for safety, and in 1683 he is adjudged by the 
 Lords of Council " to be executed and demeaned 
 as a traitor when apprehended, and his name, 
 fame, and memory, to be extinct, and his lands 
 to fall to his Majesty as in common form." 
 
 The name of Balfour of Burleigh is still honour- 
 ably represented in Holland. In the Brussels 
 newspaper of 28th July 1828, Lieut.-Colonel 
 Balfour de Burleigh is named Commandant of 
 the troops of the Netherlands in the West Indies. 
 The family of Wemysshall are the representatives
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 77 
 
 of Balfour, through Barbara Balfour, the grand- 
 daughter of John Balfonr, and their ancestor. 
 The late Colonel Wemyss wrote in 1817, "I am 
 too prond of my great progenitor to refuse my 
 name to his life." 
 
 " Among some of the ministers of Christ, in the 
 Church of Scotland, eminent for grace and gifts, 
 for faithfulness and success, whom he had known 
 and had acquaintance of, who were before the 
 blessed Second Reformation in the year 1638," 
 John Livingstone mentions Mr John Moncrieff, 
 minister at Collessie, in Fife, and after at King- 
 horn. 
 
 ROSSIE HOUSE. 
 
 The names of Kossie and Kinloch are to be 
 ascribed to the same source. A broad sheet of 
 wateroverspreadthelow grounds, and was known 
 as Rossie Loch. Rossie, a derivation from the 
 Gaelic ros, signifies a little promontory or piece 
 of land projecting into water. Kinloch means 
 the head of the loch. You find the two words 
 meeting in Kinross, which just means the head 
 of the promontory. 
 
 In a plantation a little to the east of Rossie
 
 78 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 House there is a decaying building, with its roof 
 uncovered and the door torn off its hinges. This 
 is the burial place of Sir John Brown. Sir John 
 was proprietor of Fordell, in the parish of Arn- 
 gask. He sat as Commissioner from Perth in 
 the Committee of Estates, was Major-General 
 of a Horse Brigade, and during his short career 
 distinguished himself as an active officer. He 
 married Marie Scott, eldest daughter, and one of 
 the co-heirs of Sir James Scott of Rossie, in Fife. 
 On Sabbath, 20th July 1651, betwixt Dunferm- 
 line and Inverkeithing he encountered a detach- 
 ment of Oliver Cromwell's army, led on by 
 Major-General Lambert and Colonel Overton. 
 There is as great a conflict betwixt the Scotch 
 and English accounts of the numbers engaged 
 as there was in the battle itself ! In the despatch 
 which Oliver Cromwell addressed to the Parlia- 
 ment, and dated " Lithgow, July 21," he writes, 
 " that the number of the English troops were 
 three regiments of foot, two regiments of horse, 
 and about 400 horse and dragoons more," and 
 that the Scotch " had five regiments of foot, and 
 four or five of horse." " The number of Scotch 
 killed was near 2000, some say more." Sir 
 James Balfour's account is that the number of
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 79 
 
 the Scotch was 2500 horse and foot, and that 
 they encountered 10,000 of the English. The 
 number slain was almost alike on each side, 
 being about 800. Sir John Brown is named in 
 Cromwell's despatch as taken prisoner, and Sir 
 James Balfour says that Sir John fought gal- 
 lantly. 
 
 Sir John did notlongsurvivehis captivity. He 
 died in September, of fever, in Leith Garrison, 
 where he was imprisoned. " His corps," says 
 Lamont, " was brought over to Rossie, in Fyfe." 
 Sir James Balfour records, " His corpes wer in- 
 terred amongst his ancestors at Arngascke." 
 Local tradition supports Lament's statement, and 
 points to this building in the wood as his tomb. 
 
 M YRKS. 
 
 We know of no other place to which an 
 historical interest attaches until we arrive at 
 the Castellated House of Myres. In former 
 days the property of the Moucrieffs of Readie, 
 it gave a safe harbour to some of the saints of
 
 80 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 God when hunted down by wicked men. It is 
 related as a tradition among the descendants of 
 that family, that there was, in what now appears 
 as a recess at the foot of the dining-room, a 
 close press with concealed doors, commnnicating 
 with the cellar, and that there, in times of strict 
 search, the persecuted minister was frequently 
 hid. One distinguished sufferer there was who, 
 oftener than once, found refuge in this hiding- 
 place. It was Mr John Welch, of Iron gray, and 
 grandson of the celebrated Mr John Welch, of 
 Ayr. Dear hospitality that was ! Because, it 
 appears, he harboured Mr John Welch, a de- 
 clared traitor, the Council fined the Laird of 
 Readie in 2000 merks. Yet it was a safe and 
 a profitable investment ; for Christ says, inas- 
 much as ye do it to the least of my little ones, 
 ye do it unto me, and the repayment may yet 
 be running on, even unto the third and fourth 
 generation. Among those that were summoned 
 before the Council for being present at con- 
 venticles, the Laird of Eeadie is farther men- 
 tioned as one, and an additional fine of 850 
 pounds is laid upon him. Auchtermuchty comes 
 in for its share of honour in these shaking times, 
 for the name of its chief magistrate Maxwell,
 
 IN THE NORTH OF FIFE. 81 
 
 Provost of Auchtermuchty stands with a fine 
 of 250 pounds attached to it, because he faith- 
 fully served God rather than man, and sought 
 the safety and well-being of his soul at the hazard 
 of man's displeasure and man's wrongous penal- 
 ties. In the same condemnation, a neighbouring 
 proprietor, Pitcairn of Pitlour, was involved, 
 having been fined 1100 pounds for his attach- 
 ment to the Presbyterian ministers. 
 
 Although I do not find any minister of Auch- 
 termuchty renowned for his adherence to the 
 cause of Presbytery in the days of its distress, 
 I find, in the proclamations of the Council, Auch- 
 termuchty itself mentioned "its kirk and pulpit 
 being one into which outed ministers were invited 
 and countenanced." 
 
 We shall conclude these sketches with two 
 other notices. 
 
 In the adjoining village of Strathmiglo, in the 
 possession of one who is lineally descended from
 
 82 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 the sister of the Rev. Donald Cargill, is the 
 Bible which he carried with him to the scaffold 
 when he was executed in 1681. It is a very 
 beautiful Cambridge edition, printed in 1657, 
 with red marginal lines, ornamentally bound and 
 strengthened with silver clasps, which the respect 
 of its subsequent owners has added. This vener- 
 able volume shows on some of its pages the 
 weather marks which it received, when, on the 
 lonely hill-side, or on the naked moor, Cargill 
 held it in his hand, and under the passing storm, 
 proclaimed to those who received no mercy from 
 man. the sovereign and abundant mercy of God . 
 
 On the western Lomond, where the top rises 
 above the main ridge there is a sequestered glen. 
 It is a lonely spot, known only to the shepherd 
 or adventurous explorer. 
 
 There the bird of the hill makes its nest in the fern, 
 There the dark purple heather and bonny blue bells, 
 Deck the mountain. 
 
 Its name is Glen-vale. Often was it the retreat 
 of the hunted covenanter. Wellwood preached 
 in this solitude, and so did Blackadder. Great 
 multitudes assembled here, and heard the word 
 gladly. Amongst those who frequented this
 
 IN THE NORTH OP FIFE. 83 
 
 desert place was Lady Leys, wife of Hay of Mug- 
 dram, who, for his wife's piety, was subjected 
 to the penalty of heavy fines. 
 
 A brave old place was this Strathmiglo in the 
 witnessing times of Scotland. It was like one 
 of the villages in Israel in the days of Deborah, 
 which offered its inhabitants willingly. But our 
 space prevents us from entering into particulars 
 regarding those who, in their day, fought the 
 good fight for conscience and constitutional law, 
 for the freedom of the Church and the glory of 
 Christ. 
 
 Frequently in parks are seen trees of old 
 growth in straggling rows. These mark the 
 place where has stood some dwelling of man it 
 may have been a humble cottage, or an impos- 
 ing mansion. The dwelling has disappeared ; 
 but the old trees remain pointing out and adorn- 
 ing the spot. So happens it with those who 
 have lived and acted in the world. The earthly 
 house of this tabernacle is dissolved, but the
 
 84 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 graces and the virtuous deeds which distinguished 
 their lives remain and flourish after they are 
 gone, and benefit to latest ages the land which 
 gave them birth. 
 
 END OF PART I.
 
 PAET II 
 
 aito its
 
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 1 
 
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 I * T s 
 
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 v>
 
 of (Tupnr. 
 
 AT length, after weeks of mist and sickly vapour, 
 a bright day breaks in the late October. Autumn 
 sheds one of her melancholy smiles before she 
 resigns herself to gloomy winter. 
 
 The sun is darting its golden rays through the 
 clear and unclouded sky. The tinted trees stand 
 motionless, as if lost in silent meditation. The 
 gnats dance merrily, enjoying the last sunshine of 
 the season. The gossamer web, loosened from 
 its grassy moorings, floats on the still air, show- 
 ing the course of the imperceptible current. The 
 curling smoke rises above the embosoming woods, 
 and where the glade opens into the level fields, 
 the ploughman may be seen bending over the 
 plough, and again stirring up the earth which has 
 but newly resigned its abundance. 
 
 Let us embrace such a day, and resume our
 
 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 rambles, historical and antiquarian, taking 
 Cupar as our starting point. 
 
 Situated midway betwixt St Andrews and 
 Falkland, Cupar seems to have been, in the early 
 days of Scottish history, rather a place of transit 
 than the scene of memorable events. It was in 
 the royal Palace of Falkland, or in the Arch- 
 episcopal Palace of St Andrews, that eventful 
 doings were accomplished, and Cupar served but 
 as a halting place of rest and refreshment to the 
 actors. 
 
 Yet is not Cupar without its passages of in- 
 terest. Miscellaneous the account must neces- 
 sarily be. 
 
 Cupar ranks among the oldest of Scottish 
 Eoyal Burghs. In the Index of Charters by 
 King David II., somewhere about the year 1356, 
 there is a charter to William Ramsay, Earl of 
 Fyfe, of the erection of Coupar in ane free burgh. 
 
 Change of name generally indicates a change 
 of idea and of condition. That eminence at the 
 east of Cupar, on which the Madras Academy 
 buildings stand, formerly a stronghold of the 
 Earls of Fife, and long known as the Castle-hill, 
 now bears the more peaceful designation of 
 School-hill, thus intimating that the semi-bar-
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 89 
 
 barons days of baronial consequence have given 
 place to times of more general education and in- 
 telligence. One of the slopes of this Castle-hill 
 was called, before the Reformation, the Playfield. 
 Here were exhibited plays, which, under the 
 name of mysteries and moralities, were professedly 
 intended to communicate religious instruction 
 to the people. These performances supplied the 
 place of pulpit, of book, and of newspaper, and 
 exercised a powerful influence on the multitudes 
 who assembled to witness them. 
 
 As the Mount, the residence of Sir David 
 Lindsay, is only about three miles from Cupar, 
 the playfield was often called into requisition for 
 the exhibition of the Knight's plays. Here is 
 the proclamation which himself gives to sum- 
 mon to one of those scenic performances: 
 
 " Fail not to be upon the Castle hill, 
 
 Beside the place where we purpose to play, 
 With glide stark wine your flaggons see you fill, 
 And had yourselves the merriest that you may." 
 
 It was here that the "Satire of the Three 
 Estates," and "The tragedy of the Cardinal" 
 were first acted. 
 
 The effect which " the theatrical plays and 
 comedies, and notable histories" of Lyndsay bad
 
 90 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 in exposing the corruptions in State and Church 
 which then prevailed, and in helping onwards 
 the advent of the Reformation, was widely in- 
 fluential. In illustration of this, Row states that 
 Sir David Lindsay's "Four Monarchies" was 
 the means of introducing the Reformation Spirit 
 among " all the scholars of the grammar school 
 of Perth, taught by Mr Andrew Simson, to the 
 number of three hundred and above," and that 
 the reading of this poem was the very first step 
 to the making of Mr Simson himself a Pro- 
 testant. We may also quote as an evidence in 
 the same direction, the following passage from 
 James Melville's autobiography : " I remember 
 the benefit of David Lindsay's book, quhilk my 
 eldest sistere, Jsbel, wold reid and sing, namelie, 
 concerning the latter judgment, the pains of 
 hell, and the joyes of heavin, whereby sche 
 wold cause me baith greit and be glad." The 
 popular power of Sir David Lindsay's writings 
 in Scotland was very great, and continued long. 
 The common people could repeat large portions 
 by memory, and so great was their confidence 
 in what he had written, that it was a proverbial 
 expression applied by them to any thing they 
 did not credit, " That's no in Davie Lindsay"
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 91 
 
 Pitscottie, in his chronicles, mentions that in a 
 Council of the Popish Clergy, an "act was 
 made that Sir David Lindsay's buik be abolished 
 and burnt :" and that Coupar of Fyfe " was 
 among the earliest places in Scotland where 
 the Popis religion was abolished, and the 
 images thairof caused to be castindown." This 
 was as early as 1558. 
 
 Cupar seems to have ofttimes received passing 
 visits of Royalty. In 1540, Mary of Guise, 
 Queen of James V., having landed from France 
 at the East Neuk of Fife, was there met by the 
 King, and conducted to St Andrews. There, 
 says the chronicler, " the King and Queine re- 
 mained the space of fourteen dayes, with gritt 
 merrines, sich as justing on horss, and running 
 at the lists, archerie, and hunting, and all other 
 princelie games. Thairafter, the King, and 
 Queine went to Couper in Fyfe, and dyned thair, 
 and syne passed to Falkland." 
 
 Twenty-one years after this, on the 21st March 
 1561, were the streets of Cupar enlivened by the 
 presence of their daughter, the beautiful Mary, 
 Queen of Scotland. It was her first passage 
 through her kingdom. Only four months had 
 passed since she had arrived from France, and
 
 92 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 taken possession of the throne of her ancestors. 
 Then too was she in the opening bloom of her 
 unrivalled beauty, for she had not completed her 
 nineteenth year. 
 
 In 1560, Knox preached to the Lords of the 
 Congregation in Cupar, when their spirits were 
 dejected by the temporary success, the cruel op- 
 pression, and the arrogant boasting of the Queen 
 Regent. Her French troops had come from 
 Stirling to Fife, " at which they nad greatest 
 indignation." They gained some small victories 
 on the coast, and fiercely spoiled the district, 
 sparing neither sheep, oxen, kye, nor horse. 
 The Queen's spirit was elated, and in her pride, 
 she profanely asked, " Where is now John 
 Knox's God? My God is now stronger than 
 his, yea even in Fife !" Knox repaired to the 
 Lords at Cupar in their greatest dejection, and 
 made a comfortable sermon to them, upon the 
 danger wherein the disciples stood when they 
 were in the midst of the sea, and Jesus upon the 
 mountain. He exhorted them not to faint, but 
 to row against contrarious blasts, till Jesus 
 Christ should come : " For I am assuredly per- 
 suaded, said he, that God shall deliver us from 
 this extreme trouble, as I am assured that this
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 93 
 
 is the Gospel of Jesns Christ which I preach to 
 yon this day. The fourth watch is not yet come. 
 Abide a little, the boat shall be saved, and Peter, 
 who hath left the boat, shall not drown, I am 
 assured ; albeit I cannot assure yon by reason of 
 this present rage." 
 
 Sir James Melville, in his Memoirs, tells us, 
 that in 1583 James VI. held Court at Cupar. 
 The minion, James Stewart, Earl of Arran, was 
 then rising into power with the King, and mak- 
 ing himself odious with the Nobility. " By his 
 insolency," says Melville, " he drove the Earl 
 of Gowrie from Court, far against his Majesty's 
 intention, who sent me for him to his house to 
 bring him again to Court, which was for the time 
 at Couper in Fyfe, where his Majesty agreed 
 him and the Earl of Arran." 
 
 About this time might be seen in Cupar, and 
 frequently in the company of Sir James Melville, 
 a person of some political importance. It was 
 Davison, one of England's chief secretaries, and 
 for the present Elizabeth's accredited commis- 
 sioner to the Scottish king. " His Majesty 
 was for the time at Falkland," writes Melville, 
 " and wrote for me, to be directed to ride and
 
 94 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 meet the said Davison, whom I was commanded 
 to convoy to Coupar, there to remain till his 
 Majesty had time to give him audience. After- 
 ward I conveyed him to my own house," at 
 Halhill. This secretary Davison is connected 
 with a passage in history of tragical interest. 
 When Queen Elizabeth, after assuming for a 
 time an ill-counterfeited reluctance to do any- 
 thing against Queen Mary, whom she had long 
 detained a prisoner, at length consented to sign 
 Mary's death warrant ; she professed that this 
 was meant only as a terror to Mary's partizans, 
 and as a means of suppressing those dangerous 
 plots which were ever and anon contrived for 
 Mary's deliverance. The death sentence, after 
 being signed, was committed to the keeping of 
 Secretary Davison. The English Council know- 
 ing what was agreeable to Elizabeth, succeeded 
 in gaining possession of the sentence, gave to 
 poor Mary but the short warning of one night 
 to prepare for death, and next day hurried her 
 to execution. Elizabeth was enabled, from the 
 circumstances of the transaction, to act the part 
 which she had assigned to herself. She feigned 
 great indignation, wrote to James a letter in 
 which she cast the blame of his mother's death
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 95 
 
 on the Council; and committed Davison to the 
 Tower of London. 
 
 We shall close these notices of royal visits by 
 mentioning the reception given by the town of 
 Cupar to Charles II. Through the impatient 
 loyalty of the Scots, and his own perfidiousness 
 in solemnly swearing to engagements which he 
 never meant to keep, Charles found himself 
 again, after years of exile, on Scottish ground. 
 On the 1st of July 1650, he landed at Dundee, 
 and thence he passed to St Andrews. " The 6th 
 of July, leaving St Andrews, he came to Couper, 
 where he gatt some desert to his foure-houres ; 
 the place where he satte downe to eate was the 
 Tolboothe. The towne had appointed Mr 
 Andro Andersone, Scholemaster ther for the 
 tyme, to give a musicke song or two whille he 
 was att tabell. Mr David Douglyssehada speach 
 to him at his entrie to the toune. After this he 
 went to Falkland all night. All this tyme the 
 most pairt of the gentelmen of the Shyre did goe 
 alongs with him." Lamont. 
 
 A visit to the bnrying-ground will lead the 
 thoughts from these passing pageants to subjects 
 of graver concern. Built into the west wall is 
 an elaborately sculptured monument, which is
 
 96 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 weather-worn and obliterated for time bnries 
 tomb stones and effaces epitaphs. This monu- 
 ment is said to have been chiselled in Holland, 
 and it covers the dnst of the Rev. Mr William 
 Scot, who was surpassed by few in his day "for 
 piety, gravity, learning, solidity in judgment, and 
 faithful adherence to the principles of the Scottish 
 Church." By birth, Mr Scot was connected with 
 the family of Balwearie, and this accounts for 
 the ample patrimonial means he enjoyed. Both 
 his words and deeds prove that while he had the 
 liberal means, he also had the liberal heart, 
 which deviseth liberal things. When far ad- 
 vanced in life, he gave this account of himself in 
 one of the defences he was forced to make against 
 the solicitations made to him by the Archbishop 
 of St Andrews "I h ave continued in my min istrie 
 manie yeers, spending more goods nor ever I 
 gained thereby." The spire which surmounts 
 the church tower and the shadow of which falls 
 daily on his tomb, is a conspicuous monument of 
 his pnblic-spiritedness and liberality, for it was 
 erected at his sole expense. 
 
 Mr Scot's ministry extended from 1595 to 
 1642. The greater part of this period was em- 
 bittered to the faithful ministers and people of
 
 CUPAE AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 97 
 
 Scotland by the attempts of James VT. and 
 Charles I. to substitute Episcopacy in the place 
 of Presbytery. In struggles and sufferings Mr 
 Scot was associated with Andrew and James 
 Melville, with Alexander Henderson and Samuel 
 Rutherford. He had to confront the King at 
 Hampton Court, and at home to resist the in- 
 sidious proposals of Archbishops Gladstanes and 
 Spottiswoode of St Andrews. He united the 
 courteousness of the gentleman with the con- 
 stancy of the martyr. His courteonsness and 
 his birth connexions probably saved him from 
 the extremity of trial to which many of his 
 brethren were subjected, while his constancy led 
 him firmly to say " before I embrace these things 
 that are urged, I am readie to undergo his Ma- 
 jesty's will" and to be silenced. 
 
 It is somewhat consolatory to knowthat before 
 his lengthened day of usefulness closed a day the 
 opening and high noon of which were so gloomily 
 obscured a brightening ray broke forth. His 
 monumental inscription makes reference to the 
 altered and more hopeful state of ecclesiastical 
 matters at the time of his death. This inscrip- 
 tion, now illegible on the stone, has been pre- 
 served in a curious book, entitled " An Theatre 
 
 o
 
 98 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 of Mortality, or a further Collection of Funeral 
 Inscriptions over Scotland, gathered by Robert 
 Monteith," and published in 1713. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 Scotis resuscitatis, Anglis excitatis, renovato 
 faedere, reparata religione, prostrata hierarchia, 
 restitute presbyterio, succenturiantibus illustris- 
 simis prima nobilitate et ministerio bene meritis 
 in Eoclesiam, nunquam Satis memorandis, con- 
 firmante Caesare Britannico, adstipulantibus, 
 regni ordinibns, obiit placidissime in Do- 
 mino unus, qui nobis cunctando restituit rem, 
 Gulielraus Scotus, Ecclesiae Cuprensis pastor, 
 ex illustri et antiquissima familia Scoto-Balviri- 
 ana 84 anno aerae Christi M.DC.XLII A D. Cal. 
 Junii 13. 
 
 The indulgent reader will accept the following 
 translation as embodying the spirit of the in- 
 scription: "When the hopes of Scotland were 
 revived, when England was excited to activity, 
 when the covenant was renewed, when re- 
 ligion was repaired, when Prelacy was over- 
 thrown, when Presbytery was restored, when 
 the most illustrious of the chief nobility und 
 of the most eminent ministers in the church, 
 who are worthy to be held in perpetual re-
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 99 
 
 membrance co-operated, when his British Ma- 
 jesty confirmed this happy change, and the 
 estates of the kingdom concurred in it then 
 quietly died in the Lord, one who, by his 
 counsel, helped to restore to us this happy con- 
 dition of affairs, viz., William Scot, minister of 
 the church at Cupar, descended from the illus- 
 trious and very old family of Scot of Balwearie, 
 in the year of his age 84, and of the year of Christ 
 1642, 20th May." 
 
 Mr Scot was the writer of a work entitled, 
 " Apologetical Narration of the State of the 
 Kirk of Scotland." 
 
 Fronting the gate of entrance to the church- 
 yard, and a little to the south of the church, the 
 visitant may see an erect cleanly painted tomb- 
 stone. The top of it is ensculptured with two 
 heads facing each other, and an hand in the 
 centre. This inscription records what the stone 
 was erected to commemorate. " Here lies in- 
 terred the heads of Lawrence Hay, and Andrew 
 Pitulloch, who suffered martyrdom at Edin- 
 burgh, July 13, 1681, for adhering to the Word 
 of God, and Scotland's covenanted work of re- 
 formation ; and also one of the hands of David 
 llackston of Rathillet, who was most cruelly
 
 1 00 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 murdered at Edinburgh, July 30, 1680, for the 
 same cause." 
 
 We have been unable to discover any particu- 
 lars of the personal history of Lawrence Hay and 
 Andrew Pitulloch, save that Andrew Pitulloch 
 was a common land labourer. Even Wodrow, 
 indefatigable in his inquiries, although he al- 
 ludes to them, supplies us with no information. 
 But their obscure names have found a place in 
 " a cloud of witnesses for the royal prerogatives 
 of Jesus Christ ; or the last speeches and testi- 
 monies of those who have suffered for the truth 
 in Scotland since the year 1680." As we are 
 thus led to mention " the cloud of witnesses," 
 we may add that there are two works which no 
 other country in the world save Scotland could 
 have furnished. The one of them is " Naphtali, 
 or the wrestlings of the Church of Scotland for 
 the Kingdom of Christ, together with the last 
 speeches and testimonies of some who have 
 died for the truth since 1660 to 1667." The 
 other is the " cloud of witnesses extending from 
 1680 to 1688." An honest criticism will see in 
 these works, extreme statements with which it 
 cannot sympathize, but which from the state of 
 the times and the suffering of the parties, it can
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 101 
 
 easily explain, and modes of expression which 
 will cause it to remember, that they were uttered 
 nearly 200 years ago, and by persons in the 
 humblest walks of life, but it will pass over these 
 accidental abatements, and will rejoice in sur- 
 veying that heroic array of noblemen and 
 learned men, of lairds, of ploughmen, of arti- 
 zans, of soldiers and sailors, who in the face of 
 oppression, and torture, and death, firmly ad- 
 hered to what they could intelligently defend as 
 the cause of Christ, 
 
 The testimony of Lawrence Hay is dated " At 
 the Iron House." In it he says " O Sirs, give 
 him much credit, for he hath disappointed me of 
 my fears in that wherein I feared appearing before 
 men, and helped me to stand before them, so that 
 I had no terror or amazement, more than they 
 had been the meanest of creatures. Although I 
 can not say that I have fought the good fight, as 
 that eminent Apostle said, yet I can say, praised 
 be God, he hath given me tlfe victory through 
 Jesus Christ my Lord."' 
 
 Andrew Pittulloch in his last speech " leaves 
 his testimony against them that say we hold our 
 principles of men, and that we die for pleasing 
 men ; but it is not so, for I never thought that
 
 102 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 little of my life as to lay it down for the pleas- 
 ing of any." " We hold our principles of none 
 bnt of God and his Word." In another place he 
 says " My head shall be a standing witness 
 against them and preach to them from Cupar 
 Tolbooth." And so it did. The heads of both 
 of these martyrs, and the hand of Hackston re- 
 mained affixed to the Tolbooth, until the Revolu- 
 tion came and consigned the skeletonised remains 
 to their present resting-place. 
 
 The Eecords of the Synod of Fife supply us 
 with notes illustrative of the Presbytery of Cupar. 
 Under the year 1657, the Presbytery is recom- 
 mended to have a care of their Register, for the 
 Register " is written with verie small writt, it 
 is hardly legible, with base ink for the most 
 pairt, and without a competent margine, and in 
 verie many places interlyned." It would ap- 
 pear that the members of Presbytery were very 
 fond of protesting, and that the business was not 
 carried on in the most brotherly spirit. The 
 Synod warns the Presbytery against this, and 
 recommends the brethren to dine together after 
 business, that the ill humours of the meeting may 
 evaporate amid the fumes of Scotch broth and 
 beef, and in the easy interchange of after-dinner
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 103 
 
 pleasantries. There is much of the philosophy 
 of common sense in the minute. Here is part 
 of it "That the Presbitrie will endeavour by 
 all meanes ane peaciable carriage of thair affairs, 
 and to shun by all means entring of protesta- 
 tions about matters of smaller importance, 
 quhairin thair is difference of judgement amongst 
 them. And that for intertainment of kyndliness 
 amongst them, they will tak thair refreshment 
 togidder the day of thair Presbyteriall meeting, 
 after the dissolving thairof." 
 
 Before passing away from Cupar we subjoin 
 what seems to us as the truest explanation of 
 the oft-quoted local proverb, " Them to Cupar 
 maun to Cupar. 1 ' The explanation has at least 
 the merit of being classical, for it is founded on 
 the following quotation from Buchanan's History 
 of Scotland. " Inland, and almost in the centre 
 of the county, lies Cupar, whither the rest of 
 the Fifeans come for the administration of 
 justice." Them to Cupar are wilful, litigious 
 persons who will have their own way, and who, 
 contrary to the persuasion of all their friends, are 
 resolutely set on going to Cupar, and entering 
 on a law suit. Such obstinate, wilful persons 
 must just be left to themselves.
 
 104 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 Leaving Cnpar, and proceeding about a mile 
 and a half westward, we arrive at CUPAR MUIR. 
 A few scattered cottages, a free-stone quarry, 
 and a busy pottery, mark out the place. But 
 Cupar Muir and the fields around it shewed an- 
 other sight 300 years ago. The Eden was not 
 then, as it is now, an embanked river, having 
 its course prescribed to it. It spread its strag- 
 gling waters over the low fields, which are known 
 as " the Wards," and which now yield luxuri- 
 ant harvests. The mode of crossing it was by 
 regular ferries, and the name of Ferrybank still 
 remains to remind ns of this. 
 
 On the morning of Wednesday, 13th June 
 1559, a thick mist enveloped the landscape. As 
 the mist began to dissipate, two armies were 
 dimly seen occupying the different sides of the 
 river. The army of the Congregation occupied 
 the sloping fields above the farm of Retreat, and 
 the present village of Cupar Mnir. On the op- 
 posite side the Queen Regent's forces stretched, 
 (Pitscottie, who knew the locality, says,) as far 
 as Tarvit Mill along by the foot of Scottarvit 
 Hill, and up by the Garlic Bank. 
 
 It is needful shortly to explain the circum- 
 stances which arrayed these two contending
 
 CCPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 105 
 
 armies against each other. John Enox had come 
 to St Andrews on the invitation of the Earl of 
 Argyle and Lord James Stewart. On bis own 
 responsibility, in the face of Archbishop Hamil- 
 ton's threatening, and contrary to the opinion of 
 his friends, he was left to preach on Sabbath, 
 10th Jane. His subject was, " Christ casting 
 the buyers and sellers out of the Temple." As 
 the result, the Provost, the bailies, and the 
 " commonalitie of the town, for the most part," 
 declared on behalf of the Reformation, and 
 " agreed to remove all monuments of idolatry." 
 That Sabbath evening the Archbishop stole out 
 of St Andrews, and rode post to Falkland, where 
 the Qneen Regent was residing. His represen- 
 tations aroused the Queen. Proclamations were 
 issued for the assembling of the army. Ven- 
 geance was vowed against Cn par andSt Andrews. 
 By the morning of the 13th, 3000 armed men 
 were on the march, 2000 of them French soldiers, 
 commanded by Gen. D'Oisel, and 1000 Scottish 
 troops, led by James, Duke of Hamilton. 
 
 The Earl of Argyle and Lord James Stewart 
 were apprized of the Queen's designs. With 
 the view of opposing them the two young noble- 
 men set out to Cupar, after despatching messen-
 
 106 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 gers throughout the country to make their dan- 
 ger known. On the night they arrived at Cupar 
 they numbered only 100 horse and a company 
 of foot soldiers from the coast. But by mid- 
 day of Tuesday the muster rose to 3000 men. 
 And still their friends arrive, Lord Ruthven 
 from Perth, and the Earl of Rothes with 1000 
 spears. Dundee sends a regiment of its citizens 
 with the martial Provost, Mr James Haly- 
 burton at their head ; and from St Andrews, 
 and Cupar as being most directly in danger, new 
 companies of fighting burghers continue to otfer 
 themselves. Knox says, " God did so multiply 
 our numbers that it appeared as men had rained 
 from the clouds." 
 
 The numbers that thus flocked to the uplifted 
 standard of the congregation, and the mediation 
 of Lord Lindsay prevented battle and bloodshed. 
 When Lord Lindsay, after holding parley with 
 the Lords of the Congregation, crossed the Eden, 
 and conferred with the Duke of Hamilton and 
 General D'Oisel, he found the Duke desirous to 
 avoid fighting with his own countrymen, and 
 D'Oisel, although " choleric and hasty" was not 
 so fool -hardy as to risk an engagement with an 
 enemy which greatly outnumbered his troops, and
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 107 
 
 whose hearts were roused to courage by the great- 
 ness of the interest they were called to defend. 
 " He moved up to the hill-head of Tarvit with 
 certane of his captanes, to spy and see if the con- 
 gregation was sick ane number as my Lord Lind- 
 say said they were." The sight satisfied him, 
 and he referred the matter to Lindsay for settle- 
 ment. On the Hovlet Hill, on Garlie Bank, a 
 treaty was drawn out and signed by the Duke 
 and D'Oisel, whose signature has proved a 
 standing puzzle to the antiquarian. The treaty 
 was carried to the congregation. "This se- 
 cured," says Knox, "we departed first, be- 
 cause we war thereto requeasted by the Duke, 
 and so we returned to Conper, lauding and prais- 
 ing God for his mercie shewed, and thairafter 
 everie man departed to his dwelling place." 
 
 Knox, who was present with the army at 
 Cupar Muir, often alludes to the feelings of 
 anxiety be experienced both there and in the 
 other places, where the fate of the infant refor- 
 mation seemed to be brought to the issue of a 
 battle. " I have not forgotten what was the 
 dolour and anguishe of my ain heart at Sanct 
 Johnston, Couper Mure, and Edinburgh Crags." 
 
 On the evening of that memorable 18th of
 
 108 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 June, Sir James Melville of Halhill had his first 
 interview with the Queen Regent, and he tells 
 us how the doings at Cupar Muir affected her. 
 " I found the Queen Regent within the old tower 
 of Falkland ; because that same day her array 
 under Duke Hamilton and Monsieur D'Oisel was 
 ranged in battei upon Cupar Moor, against the 
 Lords of the Congregation ; at what time her 
 Majesty made a hard complaint unto me of her 
 disobedient subjects. And even as I was speak- 
 ing with her, the Duke and Monsieur D'Oisel re- 
 turned from the said Muir without battei. 
 Whereat the Queen was much offended, think- 
 ing they had lost a very fair occasion." 
 
 Parts!) of Ceres. 
 
 THE name of Ceres has no connection with 
 Ceres, the Roman Goddess of corn and hus- 
 bandry. Its name is derived from St Cyr, who 
 was assigned to the parish as its patron saint in 
 the days of Popery. The old method of spelling 
 the name was Cyrus, Cyras, and Seres. Its 
 present form may have been assumed to dis- 
 tinguish it from St Cyrus near Montrose.
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 109 
 
 An hour's walk conveys us from Cupar Muir 
 to Scottarvit Tower. There it stands like an old 
 warden, looking forth from its site, which com- 
 mands at one glance the donble straths of Eden 
 and of Ceres. From nnmberless points does this 
 venerable Tower meet the eye, awakening the 
 mind's curiosity and interest. 
 
 Above the door of the round turret, which ad- 
 mits to the battlement, there is a stone with the 
 subjoined inscription : 
 
 SIS 
 
 '6 
 
 These initials indicate the names of the mem- 
 bers of the family in 1627, when the turret was 
 built. SI S is Sir John Scot, D A D is Dame 
 Anne Drummond of Hawthornden Lady Scot, 
 and I S is John Scot their son. 
 
 The name of Sir John Scot is inseparably con- 
 nected with Scottarvit. It was in this stable 
 tower that he wrote his " Staggering State of 
 Scottish Statesmen" a small volume of 190 
 pages, in which he gives a short gossiping ac- 
 count of the chief officers of State in Scotland. 
 In these stone-arched rooms he enjoyed with the
 
 110 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 bard of Hawthornden " the feast of reason and 
 the flow of soul," and held discussions with the 
 learned men of the day. From these small 
 windows he surveyed the broad lands of Fife, 
 and as he gazed, it may have been, that then the 
 first conception of a Statistical account of Scot- 
 land suggested itself to his mind. 
 
 We wonder this fact has leen lost sight of, 
 and that the claims of Sir John Scot of Scot- 
 tarvit as the first designer of a Statistical 
 Account of Scotland have been allowed to lie 
 dormant. The evidence is abundant and in- 
 contestible. We adduce a portion of it. 
 
 Baillie in his journal of the General Assembly 
 1643, has this short notice, " Sir John Scot's 
 bill, for pressing Presbyteries to describe their 
 own bounds, was not so much regarded." 
 
 The Records of the Synod of Fife are more 
 copious and minute. At a provincial Assembly 
 or Synod, holden at St Andrews, April 5, 1642, 
 the following deliverance was given : " Anent 
 the bill given in by my Lord Scotstarvit to the 
 Assemblie (Synod) complaining that, notwith- 
 standing of ane act of the last General Assemblie 
 holden at Edinburgh, appointing all the severall 
 Presbyteries of this kingdom to sett down the de-
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. Ill 
 
 scriptions of their severall parishes^ according to 
 the alphabet then given to the several Commis- 
 sioners to deliver to their Presbyteries, and to 
 report the same to the Chancellerie, betwixt 
 and the first day of Jannar last bypast, yet none 
 of the ministrie of this province, except nyne of 
 the Presbyterie of Kirkcaldie has obeyed the 
 samen : thereupon the Assemblie (Synod) consi- 
 dering the worthiness of the work, tending to the 
 honour of the nation, appointed the moderators 
 of the severall Presbyteries to urge the fulfilling 
 of the foresaid act, betwixt this and the first of 
 May next preceislie." 
 
 The term " Statistics," we are told, was first 
 introduced by Sir John Sinclair from the Ger- 
 man into the English language. But here we 
 have in the above extracts, substantially the 
 idea and plan of the statistical account. 
 
 In thus claiming for Sir John Scot the honour 
 of having in 1642 designed and publicly an- 
 nounced the plan of the great National Work 
 which Sir John Sinclair executed in 1798, we 
 but state a fact. We leave intact the high and 
 merited praise which is due to Sir John Sinclair 
 for the energy, the perseverance, and labour with 
 which he completed a publication which extends
 
 112 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 to twenty-one volumes which involved the 
 editor in seven years, seven months, and seven 
 days of ceaseless labour and anxiety which in 
 those days of high postage called forth a corres- 
 pondence of 20,000 letters and which set in 
 motion the minds and pens of 900 contributors. 
 With this, as with many other great works, the 
 conception and fulfilment wss separated by a 
 wide interval. Broached by a Fife Baronet in 
 1642, it was taken up and carried out by a Caith- 
 ness Baronet 158 years after. 
 
 How interesting would it be, to recover some 
 of the accounts which were then prepared, for it 
 is evident from the subjoined minute Oct. 1642, 
 that considerable progress had been made. 
 " Anent the reference concerning Sir John Scot, 
 his bill, given in to the last Assemblie (Synod) 
 requiring the description of the severall paroches 
 within the province, the Assemblie (Synod) 
 schewes they have done diligence, whilk hes bein 
 delivered be some, and is in readiness to be de- 
 livered be others." 
 
 In addition to the projecting of the Statistical 
 Account, Sir John Scot had much to do in pro- 
 moting the Survey of Scotland by Timothy Pont, 
 and in the preparation of the Maps of Scotland
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 113 
 
 by Sir Robert Gordon of Straloch, and his son 
 Mr James Gordon, minister of Rotliiemay ; and 
 in the publishing of Arthur Johnstone's Edition 
 of the Scots Poets. He was appointed a Lord 
 of Session, under the title of Lord Scottarvit, and 
 filled the office of Director of Chancery. 
 
 The old man closes the pages of his " Stagger- 
 ing State," with this sad recital of the evil 
 fortunes, to which himself was subjected in the 
 unprincipled reign of Charles II. " Albeit he 
 was possessor of the said place of Chancery 
 above 40 years, and doer of great services to the 
 King and country, yet by the power and malice 
 of his enemies, he has been at last thrust out of 
 the said places in his old age, and likeways fined 
 iu 500 sterling, and one altogether unskilled 
 placed to be Director. He had been a Counsel- 
 lor since the year of God 1620, and for his 
 Majesty's and predecessor's service, been twenty- 
 four times in London being 14,400 miles and 
 twice in the Low Countries for printing the 
 Scots Poets, and the Atlas ; and paid to John 
 Bleau a hundred double pieces for printing the 
 poets." 
 
 One of Sir John Scot's descendants deserves 
 honourable mention for his steadfast adherence 
 
 H
 
 114 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in the 
 days of her persecution. It is George Scot of 
 Pitlochie. For adhering to principle and for fre- 
 quenting conventicles he was fined, imprisoned 
 011 the Bass, and ultimately driven to leave his 
 native land. In 1685, the merciless fury of 
 James VII. 's persecuting Government was at its 
 height. Many of the best of Scotland's inhabi- 
 tants despaired of deliverance, and were looking 
 for refuge to the distant and uncivilised colonies. 
 Amongst these were Pitlochie and his lady, and 
 several of the Riggs of Athernie, to whom by 
 marriage, the Scottarvit family were related. 
 
 Early in September 1655, a ship lay in Leith 
 Roads, receiving its passengers and provisions 
 for a distant voyage. This ship had been char- 
 tered by Pitlochie. The jails of Edinburgh, 
 Glasgow, Stirling, and even the noisome dun- 
 geons of Dunnottar Castle had been opened, to 
 allow those who had been imprisoned for wor- 
 shipping God in the fields, to exchange impri- 
 sonment for perpetual banishment. Pitlochie's 
 ship was warranted to receive such, and upwards 
 of a hundred prisoners were escorted on board 
 by a company of soldiers. The passengers had 
 scarcely lost sight of the receding shores of Scot-
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 1 15 
 
 land, before a miserable fate overtook them. 
 Putrid fever broke oat in the ship. Three or 
 four bodies were daily cast into the deep. " Up- 
 wards of sixty died," says Frazer of Brea, 
 " whose blood will be found in the skirts of ene- 
 mies, as really as if they had died at the Cross 
 and Grassmarket of Edinburgh." In the list 
 of those who died are the names of Pitlochie and 
 his lady, of Lady Athernie, her son, and 
 daughter. After enduring much severity from 
 a cruel Captain, the survivors landed on the 
 shores of New Jersey, and some returned again 
 to Scotland, when three years afterwards, Wil- 
 liam Prince of Orange unfurled the banner of 
 the Revolution on the shores of England. 
 
 Passing south-west through the nestling vil- 
 lage of Craigrothie, whose name indicates that 
 the hills surround it like a wheel, we arrive at 
 the ruinous house of STRUTHERS. The little 
 stream, which rises out of the adjoining morass, 
 and runs eastward, may have supplied the place 
 with the name of Struthers, for Sruth in Gaelic 
 signifies a stream. Once this ivy-clad ruin had 
 its prosperity. A noble park surrounded it ; rows 
 of stately beeches shaded it ; turret and arch 
 adorned it ; and under its roof prince and peer
 
 116 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 have reposed. In the time when Royalty kept 
 frequent Court at Falkland, a Fife residence was 
 an object of ambition to every courtier. With 
 this view, Lord Lindsay of the Byres acquired 
 Struthers. The family of Lindsay afterwards 
 succeeded to the peerage of Crawford, and 
 Struthers became their favourite residence. 
 
 Struthers is connected with " ane noble and 
 valiant Sqnire, William Meldrum, umquhile 
 Laird of Cliesh and Binns." 
 
 " Meek in chalmer like a lamb 
 But in the field ane campion." 
 
 This noble and valiant Squire, after performing 
 feats of chivalry in France returned in 
 great honour to Scotland. His company was 
 much desired by Patrick Lord Lyndsay of the 
 Byres, and with him Squire Meldrum took up his 
 abode at Struthers, as his man of affairs. Under 
 Lord Lindsay, he was made Sheriff-Depute of 
 Fife. 
 
 Pitscottie relates how that betwixt Leith and 
 Edinburgh Squire Meldrum was murderously 
 attacked by Stirling of Keir, in consequence of 
 his attachment to a lady in Strathearn, whom 
 Keir wished to marry a relation of his own. 
 Meldrum was " evil martyred, for his hochis war
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 117 
 
 catted, and the knappis of his elbows war 
 strikia off, and was strikin through the bodie, so 
 thair was no sign of lyff in him. Yitt be the 
 mightie power of God, he eschapped the death, 
 and leived fyftie yeirs thairafter." 
 
 Squire Meldrum was a great favourite in the 
 cottages of the poor, and at the tables of the rich. 
 He had the good fortune to become the frequent 
 companion of Sir David Lindsay, who took a 
 great liking to him, and who wrote his life as a 
 ballad of romance, which was for long in the 
 months of many. It was at Struthers that Squire 
 Meldrnm died. 
 
 " Adew, my Lords ! I may na langer tarrie 
 My Lord Lindsay, adew above all other ; 
 I pray to God and to the Virgin Marie 
 With your Lady to live lang in the Struther." 
 
 From 1653, daring the time of the Common- 
 wealth, " the Struthers" seems to have been 
 occupied by an English force which was stationed 
 there, that in co-operation with other English 
 troops at Burntisland and Falkland, they might 
 hold Fife subject to Cromwell. 
 
 In the life of Robert Blair we are told that 
 the Presbytery of Cupar were molested by the 
 leaguers at Struthers. In 1653, two of the offi-
 
 118 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 cers at the Struthers took up their names, and 
 commanded them to disperse, and not to meet 
 again. That day Mr Blair sat with the Presby- 
 tery of Cupar as correspondent from the Pres- 
 bytery of St Andrews. He spoke freely and 
 boldly, yet prudently, to the English officers. 
 The next day some few of the Presbytery of 
 Cupar convened. After prayer and adjourning 
 of their meeting, one of their number, Mr Wm- 
 Row, being found on the street, was carried up 
 to their camp at the Struthers, but presently dis- 
 missed. Thereafter they convened in their 
 Presbyterial meetings and were not troubled. 
 
 Two names stand out from the noble line of 
 Crawford, and invest Struthers with an honour- 
 able interest. The Restoration of 1 660 famishes 
 the one. The Revolution of 1688 supplies the 
 other. In contemplating their lives we are 
 entertained with the high spectacle of men 
 struggling in unsettling times to maintain their 
 uprightness. 
 
 The first of these was John, 17th Earl of Craw- 
 ford Lindsay. A firm Presbyterian, he was also 
 an inflexible supporter of Charles II. It was 
 he who bore the sceptre on January 1st, 1651, 
 when Charles II. was crowned at Scone, putting
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 119 
 
 it into the King's hands with these weighty words 
 which in every particular Charles' whole reign 
 contradicted. " Sire, receive this sceptre, the 
 sign of the royal honour of the kingdom, that 
 you may govern yourself aright, and defend all 
 Christian people committed by God to your 
 charge, punishing the wicked and protecting the 
 just." 
 
 On 15th February we found Earl Crawford 
 entertaining Charles II. at "the Struthers," 
 where he remained until Monday 17th " Mr 
 Duncan and the minister of the Parish preaching 
 on the Sabbath in the hall of ' the Strnthers.' " 
 Before 1651 closed, Crawford was surprised by 
 Cromwell's soldiers, carried to the Tower of 
 London, and there kept a prisoner for nine years 
 because of his attachment to the King. With 
 the Restoration in 1660 Crawford was set at 
 liberty and reinstated in the offices of High 
 Treasurer and President of the Council. His 
 return to Scotland was hailed with every demon- 
 stration of gladness. But this did not last long. 
 Archbishop Sharpe was bent on his removal from 
 office and from Court. Sharpe enforced it on 
 the King that he was not secure, so long as any 
 who supported the Covenant were about him, and
 
 120 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 urged him to try Crawford whether he would 
 renounce the Covenant. The King did so, and 
 found Crawford resolute. " No," said he, " I 
 have endured much for your Majesty, and I am 
 resolved to remain loyal, but to renounce the 
 Covenant is what I cannot do with a good con- 
 science." The consequence was that he laid 
 down his Treasurership, retained his integrity, 
 and retired to Struthers. 
 
 On his way thither, in the street of Kirkcaldy, 
 he met Mr Robert Blair who had been banished 
 from St Andrews, and conversed with him. 
 This was reported to Sharpe. Mr Blair was 
 subjected to closer confinement in the Parish of 
 Aberdour, and the Earl was the more narrowly 
 watched. From 1663 to the year of his death 
 he lived quietly at Struthers, receiving outed 
 ministers to the hospitalities of his house, and 
 using his influence to get for them as much 
 freedom as could be extorted from the tender 
 mercies of Persecutors. 
 
 He died in 1678, aged 81. Samuel Ruther- 
 ford dedicated to this Earl of Crawford, "A 
 peaceable and temperate Plea for Paul's Presby- 
 tery in Scotland," published in 1642. To him 
 also he wrote one of his Aberdeen letters. The
 
 CDPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 121 
 
 moral of the life which the Earl deliberately 
 chose, is sufficiently indicated in the following 
 sentences. " O ray dear Lord, consider that our 
 Master, eternity, and judgment, and the last 
 reckoning will be upon us in the twinkling of an 
 eye. There will shortly be a proclamation by 
 One standing in the clouds that prisons, con- 
 finements, forfeitures of nobles, wrath of kings, 
 hazard of lands, houses and name for Christ 
 shall be no more. At the day of Christ, truth 
 shall be truth and not treason." 
 
 The Countess of Crawford failed not her Lord 
 in any thing that was good. Robert Blair, 
 mentioning the Countess on his death-bed, said 
 of her, " My Lady Crawford set her alone, set 
 her alone among women." 
 
 His son William succeeded him in the peerage 
 as Eighteenth Earl, and inherited his decided 
 principles as a Presbyterian, his high feelings as 
 a Christian, and his patient endurance of per- 
 secution for conscience' sake. One little sentence 
 in a letter of his preserved by Wodrow dis- 
 covers the honest nature of the man, and the 
 life-long nobility of principle which guided him. 
 " I wish," he writes, " to be confirmed in what
 
 122 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 is real duty, without the least regard to ease and 
 shifting of suffering." 
 
 In another letter he says, " As I never had a 
 sixpence from my father besides what was em- 
 ployed in my education, so I divested myself of 
 all I had in any other title for the payment of 
 his debt, that the memory of so good a man and 
 so kind a father might not suffer by the neglect 
 of a son that owed all things to him in gratitude 
 as well as duty." Such a display of home piety 
 in the requiting of parents is not very common 
 in any rank of life. 
 
 Another extract shews the straits to which 
 this peer of the realm was reduced in the days 
 of persecution for his adherence to principle. 
 " The means of my subsistence," he writes from 
 Struthers in 1685, " even in my own country, 
 are so inconsiderable that I have in the midst of 
 my friends hardly any redundancy above the 
 meanest of food and raiment." 
 
 These are marks of solid worth which may be 
 known and read of all men, yet Macaulay, draw- 
 ing this nobleman's character upwards of 160 
 years after he has been in his grave, is pleased 
 to stigmatize him as a hypocitical religionist. 
 
 The Earl's intelligent, patriotic, and consistent
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 123 
 
 preference of Presbyterianism has exposed him 
 to the unjust censures of Bishop Burnet, and 
 other Episcopalian writers. Tet the body of 
 evidence extant has only to be honestly ex- 
 amined to satisfy any one how great was the 
 forbearance and moderation of the Earl in the 
 settling of Scottish ecclesiastical affairs at the 
 Revolution. We subjoin a few extracts from 
 letters written at the time. 
 
 State of feeling in Scotland regarding Epis- 
 copacy and Presbytery. "This is beyond all 
 doubt to me, there is not a member in the house, 
 yea, I may say, nor subject in the nation, who 
 are thoroughly for King William's interest, who 
 are not disgusted at prelacie and wishes Presby- 
 terie were established in its puritie." 
 
 Disloyalty of the Episcopal Clergy to King 
 William. "Most of them have expressly 
 prayed against our King (William), and for the 
 late King (James VII.), and have hounded out 
 their people to rise in arms.' 1 
 
 Effect of the maintaining of Episcopacy. "I 
 would reckon Scotland as effectually lost as 
 Ireland once seemed to be." 
 
 Lenity of the Earl's procedure to the Episcopal 
 Clergy " We have been tender in our exami-
 
 124 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 nations and sentences as if we had been judging 
 men for their lives." " I shall once more repeat, 
 what I have oft said on this subject, that no 
 Episcopal man, since the late happy revolution, 
 whether laic or of the clergy, hath suffered by 
 the Council upon the account of his opinion of 
 church matters, but allenarly (solely) for their 
 disowning the civil authority, and setting up 
 for a cross interest." 
 
 Numberless additional extracts to the same 
 effect might be given, but enough has been 
 produced, Presbyterianism had just emerged 
 from 28 years of bitter persecution waged in the 
 interests of Episcopacy, during which time 18,000 
 of the choicest of Scotland's inhabitants had 
 suffered cruel deaths, prolonged imprisonment, 
 enforced exile, and ruinous fines. Yet when the 
 blessed Revolution of 1683 came restoring 
 power to Presbyterianism, Presbyterianism re- 
 taliated not. By the grace of God her annals 
 are unstained with blood and violence. 
 
 Notwithstanding the incessant reproaches of 
 party writers, William Earl of Crawford was 
 deservedly entitled by his countrymen " the 
 great and the good Earl." After using his in- 
 fluence to obtain for the Church of Scotland as
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 125 
 
 secure a settlement as he could, be died in 1698, 
 full of years and honour. 
 
 Here is a goodly quarto of 400 pages, with all 
 the pomp of large type, a broad margin, and 
 adorned frontispiece. It contains " Memoirs of 
 the life of the late Right Honourable John Linde- 
 say, Earl of Crawford and Lindesay, Lord Liode- 
 say of Glenesk, and Lord Lyndesay of the Byres, 
 one of the sixteen Peers of Scotland, Lieutenant- 
 General of his Majesty's Forces, and Colonel of 
 the North British Grey Dragoons, by Richard 
 Rolt, author of the ' History of the late War.' 
 1753." It is a somewhat diffuse and inflated 
 account of a brave soldier and distinguished 
 general. We have an account of his Lordship 
 from 1705, when he was committed to the care 
 of an " old governante at the family seat at 
 Struthers, in Fifeshire," onward duringhis studies 
 at Glasgow University, where he acted as the 
 champion of his fellow collegians, heading them 
 in their encounters with the citizens ; in making 
 enterprises on fruit gardens ; and in redressing 
 their aflronts ; and throughout the various cam- 
 paigns in which a chivalrous love of arms led 
 him to engage. His first service was as a volun- 
 teer under Prince Eugene, in 1733, when Austria
 
 126 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 resisted the progress of French power in Ger- 
 many. In 1738, Lord Crawford joined the Rus- 
 sian army under the famed Count Munich, and 
 fought against the Turks in several battles, in 
 those Principalities with which recent warfare 
 has familiarised us. At the battle of Grotska 
 in 1739, he was engaged with the Austrian army 
 against the Turks. In this battle he had his 
 favourite Spanish steed shot under him, and his 
 thigh bone splintered with a ball. Despite of 
 this wound, which invalided him for a year, and 
 lamed him for life, he lost not his martial ardour. 
 At the battle of Dettingen, 1743, where for the 
 last time a King of Great Britain (George II.) 
 appeared in fight, Lord Crawford bravely com- 
 manded a detachment. He skilfully conducted 
 the retreat at Fontenoy in 1745. In the rebel- 
 lion of 1746, he commanded the Hessian troops 
 which guarded the important passes to the Low- 
 lands at Stirling and -Perth, while the Duke of 
 Cumberland routed the rebels at Culloden. 
 Again, we find him in the Netherlands taking 
 part in marches and skirmishes until the peace 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, terminated the war.
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 127 
 
 The Earl of Crawford had married, in 1747, a 
 daughter of the Duke of Athole, but before the 
 year had closed she died of fever. Nor was the 
 Earl long of following her. The wound he had 
 received at Grotzka carried death with it. It 
 broke out anew, and after causing him much 
 torment it terminated his life in London, 25th 
 December 1749, at the age of 47. 
 
 His burial and that of his Countess connect 
 them both with Ceres. The visitor of the 
 churchyard may see two coronetted coffins with 
 faded crimson and soiled mountings in " the de- 
 solate place," which the Crawfords had builded 
 for themselves. These contain the mortal re- 
 mains of this Lord and Lady Crawford. 
 
 Southward and eastward from Struthers, is 
 seen the broken outline of the ruins of CRAIG- 
 HALL. The name is taken from the site, for 
 Craighall stands on the ndge of a craig, which 
 overlooks a small ravine. 
 
 Honoured in the lists of Scottish lawyers ever 
 be the name of Sir Thomas Hope, who, upwards 
 of 200 years ago, possessed this estate of Craig- 
 hall. Seldom has there been a nobler entrance 
 on professional life than his. 
 
 Fourteen ministers having, in 1606, held a
 
 128 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 General Assembly at Aberdeen, in defence of the 
 freedom of the Church, against the despotic in- 
 terference of King James, were thrown into dif- 
 ferent prisons. Six of them, four of whom be- 
 longed to Fife,* were incarcerated in Blackness. 
 A day was appointed for their trial at Linlith- 
 gow. When the day arrived, in consequence of 
 the strong feeling expressed against them by the 
 king, no lawyer could be found to undertake 
 their defence. Even the Church's paid procura- 
 tor, Mr Thomas Craig, awed by the fear of the 
 king's wrath, forgot his duty, and declined to ad- 
 vocate the case. When the ministers were thus 
 deserted, two youthful advocates bravely stepped 
 forward, and offered to conduct the defence. 
 These young advocates were Mr Thomas Hope, 
 and Mr Thomas Gray. For two hours did Mr 
 Hope stoutly maintain the cause of the empan- 
 nelled ministers, against the charges of Sir 
 Thomas Hamilton, the Lord Advocate. His ad- 
 vocacy, powerful though it was felt to be, failed 
 in obtaining justice to his clients, for they were 
 
 * The names of the six are worthy of remembrance ; they 
 were Mr James Forbes of Alford, Mr John Welsh of Ayr, Mr 
 Alexander Strachan of Creich, Mr John Sharp -jf KILmany, 
 Mr Robert Durie of Anstruther, and Mr Andrew Duncan of 
 Grail.
 
 CCPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 129 
 
 all banished ; but it succeeded in attracting 
 notice to himself. Calderwood says, "his plead- 
 ing that day procured him great estimation and 
 manie clients ; and his credit has ever growne 
 sen syne." 
 
 So great did his credit grow, that in 1626, 
 Charles I. made him king's advocate. Bishop 
 Burnet mentions him in these terms, "Sir 
 Thomas Hope, a subtle lawyer, though in all 
 respects he was a zealous Puritan, was made the 
 king's advocate." But the favour of the court 
 was powerless in causing this high principled 
 man to swerve from his principles. Through- 
 out the difficulties of that testing time, he re- 
 mained the firm friend of the Presbyterian 
 Church. He felt that the true interests of the 
 Crown can never be separated from the liberties 
 of thenation and the rightsof the Church. When 
 consulted as a crown lawyer, regarding the in- 
 troduction of Episcopacy and a Liturgy, he can- 
 didly declared his opinion in favour of the Pres- 
 byterian Church, and did not hesitate to express 
 his sympathy with her. " We are informed," 
 writes Baillie, in 1637, " that the best lawyers, 
 Hope, Nicolson,and Stewart, being consulted by 
 the king, declared all our by past proceedings
 
 130 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 to be legal," Before the famous Glasgow As- 
 sembly of 1638, the Marquis of Hamilton the 
 Commissioner, laboured hard at the Council table, 
 to have a resolution passed, that in conformity 
 with the king's will a modified Episcopacy 
 should not be questioned in the approaching 
 Assembly. Many of the Council went into this, 
 but Sir Thomas Hope, then Lord Advocate, like 
 a patriotic Presbyterian, stoutly resisted it, and 
 got the resolution defeated. " For this contra- 
 diction, adds Baillie, "the advocate was per- 
 fumed by the Commissioner with many unkind 
 words. " In consequence of this unbending firm- 
 ness, " the Advocate's service was no more re- 
 quired by the Commissioner, and Sir Lewis 
 Stewart was used in his room." In 1643 King 
 Charles addressed his commission "to our trusty 
 and well-beloved Sir Thomas Hope, of Craig- 
 hall," and Sir Thomas sat as Lord High Com*- 
 missioner in the General Assembly of that year. 
 
 By reason of his great practice at the bar, Sir 
 Thomas Hope acquired a large fortune. He be- 
 came proprietor by purchase of the lands of 
 Granton in Mid-Lothian, of Prestongrange in 
 East Lothian, of Kerse near Grangemouth, of
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 181 
 
 Merton in the Merse, and of Craighall and its 
 barony in Fife. 
 
 Most of the older families in Scotland, whe- 
 ther in the noble rank of Lords, or in the honour- 
 able rank of Lairds, can read the names of their 
 ancestors in the lists of those who contended with 
 national spirit for the interests of the Presbyterian 
 Church. The families of Hope and Hopetoun 
 may be prond to claim as their founder this 
 distinguished lawyer and true-hearted Presby- 
 terian Sir Thomas Hope. His death took place 
 in 1646. 
 
 Two of his sons, at the time of bis death, sat 
 as Lords of Session. One of them bore the title 
 of Lord Craighall, and the other that of Lord 
 Hopetonn. 
 
 Returning to the village of Ceres, we enter it 
 by a narrow bridge, by which, tradition says, 
 the men of Ceres marched out to join King 
 Robert the Bruce on the eventful field of Ban- 
 nockbnrn, and along which the lumbering coach 
 of Archbishop Sharpe rumbled on that fatal day 
 when he met his death on Magus Muir. 
 
 Ceres has in its list of ministers many names 
 of historical celebrity.
 
 132 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 Mr Patrick Constan or Adamson was the 
 first minister after the Reformation, having been 
 ordained in 1563. It was he who made the 
 threefold distinction of Bishop. " My Lord 
 Bishop" was a title essentially Popish. "My 
 Lord's Bishop" was the tulchan Bishop who held 
 the title, that my Lord might draw the fruits of 
 the benefice. " The Lord's Bishop" was the true 
 minister of the Gospel. Yet did Mr Patrick 
 forget his own distinctions. He dissembled with 
 his brethren, and in 1576 " griped the Bishopric 
 of St Andrews." But, as his own published re- 
 cantation shews, his worldly pomp and pre- 
 eminence" afforded him but small consolation. 
 He was relieved in extreme poverty by the very 
 brethren whose cause he had betrayed, and died 
 in 1577 in great dolour. 
 
 Mr Thomas Buchanan was ordained 1578, 
 and died 1599. He was cousin to the learned 
 George Buchanan. James Melville relates an 
 affecting interview which brings the two cousins 
 together. "That September," he writes, "in time 
 of vacans, my uncle, Mr Andrew, Mr Thomas 
 Buchanan, and I, hearing that Mr George Buch- 
 anan was weak, and his historic under the press, 
 past ower to Edinbruche annes errand, to visit
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 133 
 
 him and sie the wark. When we came to his 
 chalmer, we fand him sitting in his chair, teach- 
 ing his young man that servit him to spell a, 6, 
 ab ; e, 6, eb, frc" After salutation, Mr Andrew- 
 says, ' I sie, Sir, ye are nocht idle.' ' Better 
 this,' quoth he, ' nor stealing sheep, or sitting 
 idle, quhilk is as ill.' Thereafter he showed us 
 the Epistle Dedicatorie to the King ; the quhilk, 
 when Mr Andrew had read, he tauld him that it 
 was obscure in some places, and wanted certean 
 words to perfect the sentence. Says he ' I may 
 do nae mair for thinking on another mater.' 
 'What is that?' says Mr Andrew. 'To die,' 
 quoth he, 'but I leave that and mauie ma 
 things fur you to helpe.' 
 
 " We went from him to the printer's work- 
 house, whom we fund at a place, quhilk might 
 be an occasion of steying the haill wark, anent 
 the burial of David Rizzio. Therefore, steying 
 the printer, we cam to Mr George and fund him 
 bedfast by (contrary to) his cnstome, and ask- 
 ing him how he did ? ' Even going the way of 
 weelfare,' says he. Mr Thomas, his cnsin, 
 shows him of the hardnes of that part of his 
 storie, that the king wnld be offendit with it, and 
 it might stey all the wark. 'Tell me, man,'
 
 ] 34 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 says he, ' giff I have tauld the truth.' ' Yes,' 
 says Mr Thomas, 'I think sae.' 'I will byd 
 his fead Cfeud) and all his kins then,' quoth he, 
 ' pray, pray to God for me and let him direct 
 all.' Sae bi the printing of his historic was 
 endit, that maist lerned, wyse, and godlie man 
 endit this mortal life." 
 
 Although Mr Thomas differed in his views of 
 some college transactions with Mr Andrew Mel- 
 ville, one of the greatest faults in the estima- 
 tion of James Melville, James speaks of him in 
 the following terms of high respect : " This was 
 Mr Thomas Buchanan, first schulemaister in 
 Stirling, and then Provost of Kirkheugh in St 
 Andrews, and minister of Syres, a man of not- 
 able gifts of learning, natnrall wit, and upright- 
 ness in the cause of the Kirk against the Bishops, 
 but had his awin imperfections, viz., of extream 
 partiality in the cause of his friends, which maid 
 him to alter (differ) with Mr Andrew." 
 
 Another distinguished minister of Ceres, who 
 was also a sufferer in the kingdom and patience 
 of Jesus Christ, was Mr William Eow. He 
 was younger son of Mr John Row of Carnock, 
 and son-in-law to the well-known Mr Robert 
 Blair of St Andrews. In 1607 he acted as mo-
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 135 
 
 derator of the Synod of Perth. In consequence 
 of his acting in this capacity against the views of 
 Sir David Murray, Lord of Scoue, who threatened 
 and brawled, and insisted to have Mr Alex- 
 ander Lindsay, Bishop of Dunkeld, chosen as 
 constant moderator, Mr Row was put to the 
 horn, and forced to lurk in concealment here 
 and there among his friends. In 1608 he is 
 named in a petition of the General Assembly as 
 one of the " banished and confined ministers." 
 Under 1665, April 4, Lamont writes in his 
 diary, " The diocesian Synod satt att St Andrews, 
 where Mr Sharpe, the Archbishop, himself was 
 Moderator, and did preach that day. Those 
 ministers of the Presbyterie of St Andrews that 
 were suspended this tyme twelve months, wer 
 now deposed, with Mr William Row, minister of 
 Cyres. 
 
 " April 21 and 22. The sentence of deposition 
 was intimatt to the fornamed persons, with this 
 provision, if they keiped not the next Presby- 
 terie day, and acknowledged their fawlt, and 
 were submissive to the present ecclesiastick go- 
 vernment, they sonld remove their abode from 
 ther respective congregations." 
 
 Mr Row outlived the persecuting times of
 
 136 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 Charles II. and James VII., and was restored to 
 the church and parish of Ceres in 1689. He 
 was one of sixty ministers whom, out of 350 
 ejected to make way for Prelacy, the Revolution 
 still found alive, and to whom the rule of the 
 Church was re-entrusted. Mr Row died in 
 1698. 
 
 Mr Thomas Halyburton succeeded Mr Row as 
 minister of Ceres in 1700. The memoirs of his 
 life have long been a cottage book in Scotland, 
 and a common engraving of him has made us 
 familiar with the light gracefulness and vivacity 
 of his appearance. After labouring three years 
 in Ceres, he recorded this as what he found, 
 " that of 300 or 400 persons, there were not 
 above 40 who had not at one time or other been 
 more or less awakened by the word. All who 
 were thus convinced did declare that any awa- 
 kenings ever they had were either under the 
 preachers in the fields, or since the Revolution. 
 There was never one that said he was touched 
 by the Curates." In 1710, Mr Halyburton was 
 translated from Ceres to St Mary's College, St 
 Andrews, as Professor of Divinity. His health, 
 never robust, with difficulty carried him through 
 the duties of but one session. To a student who
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 137 
 
 visited him in his last illness, he said, " If I had 
 you lads all about me now, I would give you a 
 lesson of divinity. By the power of that grace 
 revealed in those truths I taught you, here I lie 
 pained without pain, without strength yet strong. 
 I think it would not be a lost session this though 
 you were all here." Mr Halyburton died in the 
 morning of the 23d September 1712, aged 38. 
 "What a loss," says a contemporary writer, 
 " may we justly reckon the death of this great 
 little man to the poor wrestling Church of Scot- 
 land." 
 
 Leaving Ceres and passing eastwards we arrive 
 at PITSCOTTIE. Pitscottie means the littlehollow. 
 It stands at the entrance to Dura Den, and as 
 the rising ground on two sides appear to meet, 
 when seen from the west, the name is de- 
 scriptive of the place. On the little table land 
 which is at present occupied by the modern 
 steading of Pitscottie farm, there stood three 
 centuries ago a " narrow countrie hous covered 
 with strae and ried." In this house there lived 
 " in guid civilitie," Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, 
 the author of "The Chronicles of Scotland." 
 As we look on the place of his habitation, imagi- 
 nation readily enters into the daily life of the old
 
 138 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 chronicler as he "sought, gathered, collected, 
 and wrote'' the notable acts which he records. 
 Going one day to Struthers to gather information 
 from Lord Lindsay, and another to St Andrews 
 to Mr John Mayor, Doctor of Theology, or away 
 to Sir William Brnce of Earlshall, where he met 
 Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, Sir David Lindsay 
 of the Mount, Andrew Fernie of that Ilk, ane 
 nobleman of recent memory, and Sir William 
 Scott of Balwirie, and after having been " in- 
 structed and learned and laitly informed by thir 
 authors," coming home to Pitscottie like a bee 
 laden with its sweet burden. Here it was in this 
 garden, along these fields, and by the side of 
 that rippling stream that he sauntered, ruminat- 
 ing on what he had gathered, and reducing it to 
 form in the pages of his history. There are some 
 arrogant critics who have written disparagingly 
 of " the Chronicles of Scotland," but let any one 
 begin the perusal, and soon will he confess to a 
 fascination, which binds him to the quaint and 
 graphic narration, and which carries him un- 
 weariedly to the end. It is matter of regret 
 that so little is known of the personal history of 
 old Pitscottie. 
 PITSCOTTIE MUIR is named in adecreet against
 
 CTJPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 139 
 
 some outed ministers in 1C71 ; as a place where 
 field-preachings were held ; and in many after 
 acts against conventicles we find it specified. 
 
 Taking the road which passes Pitscottie Farm, 
 and leads to Cupar, we come abont half-a-mile 
 on to the decaying homstead of a small farm. 
 That is DURAQUAIR, or as it is popularly. called, 
 Little Dnra. On the opposite side of the road, 
 where a thriving wood climbs the hill, there was 
 held a celebrated conventicle in 1674, at which 
 Mr John Welsh of Irongray preached. Howie, 
 the author of the Scots Worthies, knew of Dura- 
 quair, and thus in his little garden amid the 
 moorlands of Lochgoin he writes regarding it : 
 " Among Mr Welsh's converts in Fife was the 
 Countess of Crawford. She was daughter to the 
 Earl of Annandale, and sister to the Duke of 
 Hamilton. This took place at Duraquair, near 
 Cupar, and hard by her own house, where the 
 power of God was manifested, to the check- 
 ing the conscience and awakening the hearts of 
 many. On that occasion there were about 8000 
 persons present, and the Honourable Lady de- 
 clared she was constrained to close with the offer 
 then made. This impression was lasting, and 
 evinced by much fruit of piety, which shone
 
 140 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 forth in all her walk as a Christian." We are 
 elsewhere told that " Mr Blackadder had this 
 information from herself, who told him with 
 great majesty and seriousness in presence of her 
 lord." 
 
 On the day when Mr Welsh preached at 
 Duraqnair, Adam Masterton, younger of Grange, 
 was scouring the country with a party of Life 
 Guards. After disturbing a field-preaching by 
 Mr Wellwood in the Lomond Hill, young Grange 
 marched straight to Dnraqnair ; " but the 
 people had got notice and hurried Mr Welsh away. 
 A great body of them escorted him as far as Largo, 
 where they hired a boat. Mr Welsh, with his wife 
 and some others, landed safely under night in Aber- 
 lady Bay, and got to his own house in Edinburgh." 
 
 of 
 
 Let us retrace our steps to Pitscottie, that we 
 may enjoy entire the walk through Dura Den. 
 As we approach Pitscottie, a full view is got of 
 the house of BLEBO, standing amid the woods 
 and swelling protuberances of its own hill. On the
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 141 
 
 walls of this house hang two portraits of ecclesi- 
 astical interest. The one is a painting of Cardinal 
 Beaton in his flaming scarlet. The other is a 
 likeness of Archbishop Sharpe, taken by bis own 
 daughter. 
 
 This DURA DEN meets the traveller like a de- 
 lightful episode amid common-place things. It 
 is a vale of beauty, doubly sweet because unex- 
 pected, amid red-roofed villages, and railway 
 lines, and toil-wrought fields. He who has geo- 
 logical tastes may here gratify them to the full 
 bent, in reading the lessons which the rocks 
 supply; and he who wants these tastes, need not 
 feel the want, for he can let his senses luxuriate 
 amid the sweet sound of falling waters and sing- 
 ing birds, and the sight of wild flowers growing 
 in sheltered nooks, and the scent and ccol shade 
 of overhanging woods, and " the breath of 
 Heaven, fresh blowing, pure and sweet." 
 
 But there are few favoured spots where the 
 lover of the picturesque does not meet with 
 some abatements to bis pleasure. Here are 
 many-storied mills, and rows of low-roofed 
 cottages, showing that this sweet stream, formed 
 to sing its own songs in its own valley, is doomed 
 to the servile toil of driving spinning jennies. It
 
 142 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 is as if a poet were chained to a counting-room 
 desk, and his pen, whose numbers had delighted 
 many, was employed all day in registering bales 
 of cotton and yarn. Had it been the old meal mill 
 with its dark wheel standing out against its white 
 powdered walls, and turning its grindstones " to 
 the water's dash and din," it might, like Oliver 
 Basselins in the valley of the Vire, have symbo- 
 lised with the landscape. 
 
 In the valley of the Vire, 
 
 Still is seen an ancient mill, 
 With its gables quaint and queer, 
 And beneath the window sill 
 On the stone 
 These words alone, 
 Oliver Basselins lived here. 
 
 By the time we had settled this question of 
 taste, or to keep pace with the times, and use 
 the phrase of the day, this aesthetic point, we 
 find ourselves opposite to Kemback House. 
 This reminds us that the stream gives to the 
 Den through which it flows the name of Dura. 
 Dur in Gaelic, like hudor in Greek, means water. 
 Dura Den is the den of the water. It also bears 
 the name of the Kem. Thus it is able to divide 
 its favours on both sides with impartiality giv- 
 ing to the property on the left bank the designa-
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 143 
 
 tion of Dura, and to the property on the right 
 that of Kemback. 
 
 KEMBACK, reposing tinder the shadows of the 
 hill, has its reminiscences of the past to tell. 
 In the fifteenth century it belonged to a cadet of 
 the house of Graham. The family of Graham 
 was conspicuous in assassinating at Perth, the 
 first and noblest and best beloved of the James's 
 one of the foremost in his dominions as 
 scholar, poet, and musician. The ballad lines 
 impale the principal of the name who took a 
 chief part in that bloody deed 
 
 " Robert Graham, 
 Wha kill'd our king, 
 God gie hi shame." 
 
 The laird of Kemback was present and joined in 
 the murder. 
 
 This property afterwards passed into posses- 
 sion of a family of the name of Schives, and was 
 long held by them. Lamont, under date 1655, 
 November 21, thus relates the melancholy end 
 of one of the proprietors : " Mr Jhone Sives, 
 laird of Kembocke, in Fyfe, was found dead att 
 the water syde of Eden, in the place called the 
 Haugh, near to Edrie's lodging. The most pairt 
 of the day before, he was drinking ale and
 
 144 HISTOBICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 strong waters at George Trnmbell's house in 
 Cupar, near the Tolbooth, with Sir George 
 Moresone, laird of Dairsie, Aehannachie, the 
 laird of Mount, and divers others. He was a 
 great oposer of the Presbyterie of St Andrews 
 anent the planting of Kembo Kirk with a 
 minister." 
 
 There is a local tradition, that after the year 
 1662, a member of the family of Schives suffered 
 persecution for non-conformity. He was ob- 
 liged to leave the house, and to hide himself in a 
 cave in the neighbourhood. His place of con- 
 cealment was discovered by tracing in the snow 
 the footsteps of a sister who carried food to 
 him. 
 
 In 1667 the estates of Kemback became the 
 property of the family to whom at present it be- 
 longs. Lament thus journalizes "Mr John 
 Makgill, late minister of Coupar in Fyffe, and 
 now Dr Makgill, a mediciner, bought the lands 
 of Kemback in Fyffe, from the Lady Kemboke 
 surnamed Sivves. It stood him about twenty- 
 five thousand merkes Scots money, and is esti- 
 matte to be about 7 chalders of victuall, and 
 seven hundred merkes of money yearly 14 in 
 all ; beside the casualities, which are a libertie of
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 145 
 
 salmond fishing in a pairt of Eden water, 80 of 
 sheeps grasse on the hill to goe with the tennants 
 flocks, 2 horse grasse, and 2 kay to be keeped 
 with the tennant, both summer and winter, 15 
 dissone of Kean fowls," &c. 
 
 This Mr John Makgill was admitted minister 
 of Dunbog in 1646, and was translated to Cupar 
 in 1654. In 1662 he was outed because " he 
 would not submit to Episcopal Government." 
 In 1663 he went to France, studied medicine, 
 and graduated as Doctor. " He came home," 
 says Lament, '.' in a grey sute, but went abroad 
 in black apparrell." His profession was changed, 
 but not his principles. To these he nobly ad- 
 hered, and suffered for them once and again in 
 fines and penalties. 
 
 of Sairsie. 
 
 At the northern extremity of the Den are seen 
 the Church and ruined Castle of Dairsie. They 
 stand upon a wooded bank, the base of which is 
 swept by the winding Eden. 
 
 The estate of Dairsie was acquired by David 
 
 Leirmonth, of Clatto, in 1520. His son, Sir 
 
 K
 
 146 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 James Leirmonth, of Balcoray and Dairsie, acted 
 a prominent part in the eventful times of the 
 dawning Reformation. He was Master of the 
 Household in the reign of James V., and was 
 one of the commissioners sent to treat with 
 Henry VITI. regarding the marriage of Edward 
 VI. and the infant Mary of Scotland. He 
 was Provost of St Andrews from 1532 to 
 1547, and was thus officially in the focus of the 
 great events which were then adoing. He was 
 a favourer of the Reformation, and this secured 
 for him the hatred of Cardinal. Beaton. His 
 name was in the doomed roll of noblemen and 
 gentlemen which was presented to James V. by 
 the Cardinal and Prelates in 1542. Foiled in 
 this attempt, the rage of the Cardinal still dogged 
 Sir James, and it was found, after the Cardinal 
 had himself been put to death, in May 1546, that 
 a plot had been prepared by him whereby Sir 
 John Melville of Raith, Kirkcaldy, laird of 
 Grange, Normand Lesley, and Sir James Leir- 
 month of Dairsie, were " either to have been 
 slain, or else taen, and after to have been used 
 at the Cardinal's pleasure." 
 
 Sir James died peacefully in 1547. 
 
 This old castle was very much rebuilt by Arch-
 
 CUPAR AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 147 
 
 bishop Spottiswoode, and within it he found a 
 calm retreat from the ungracious service he had 
 undertaken of opposing his country's faith, that 
 he might enjoy the Court smiles of James VI. 
 and his son Charles. Born the son of an emi- 
 nent Presbyterian minister, Archbishop Spottis- 
 woode set himself to destroy what his father 
 had painfully and prayerfully built up, and the 
 Church of Scotland, galled by his Episcopal in- 
 novations and the severities with which they 
 were enforced, like the wounded eagle, saw that 
 the arrow which had pierced her was feathered 
 with a pinion nursed in her own side. But his 
 efforts to establish Episcopacy against a nation's 
 conscience, though permitted for a time to suc- 
 ceed, proved at last hopelessly ineffectual. From 
 before 1609, Bishop Spottiswoode had laboured 
 hard to supersede Presbytery, but when he saw 
 the reaction of national feeling in the memorable 
 year 1638, he fled to London. His exclamation 
 was, " Now, all that we have been doing these 
 thirty years is undone." He became dejected in 
 spirit, and died 22d November 1639. 
 
 In this Castle of Dairsie, tradition says that 
 he prepared his history*. 
 
 The adjoining church was erected by Arch-
 
 148 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES 
 
 bishop Spottiswoode in 1622. As it was intended 
 both as a Parish Church and Archepiscopal 
 Chapel, its outward architecture and internal 
 upfitting were meant to embody all those devices 
 and sermons in stone and wood in which Pusey- 
 ism delights. Every one admires the church. 
 It is beautiful for situation. Its massive Gothic 
 windows and outward proportions and many-sided 
 tower make the building not unfit for the site. 
 
 When we see the commotion which even in 
 this nineteenth century the insidious introduction 
 of the mummeries of Puseyism into some of the 
 Episcopalian congregations in England awakens, 
 we need not feel surprised at the zeal which the 
 Presbyterian Church Courts manifested 200 years 
 ago, tohavethisold Church of Dairsie cleared of all 
 " superstitious monuments and kirk burial." In 
 the records of the Synod of Fife there are vari- 
 ous entries on this subject anent the Kirk of 
 Dairsie. It was found that throughout this 
 Church, " crosiar staffes were emblazoned not 
 as a sign or cognizance common in the arms of 
 the family of Spottiswoode, but merely a sign of 
 his degree hierarchical." Further it was found 
 that there was " a glorious partition wall with 
 a degree ascending thereto, dividing the body of
 
 CCPAR AXD ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 149 
 
 the kirk frae their quoir, as it is ordinarily called 
 in Papistrie, and among them that follow 
 Papists." All this was ordered to be removed, 
 and that " nothing remains but shoulder height 
 to be for backs of seats adjoining thereto. 1 ' 
 Bark burial was discharged altogether. 
 
 The bridge which crosses the Eden here was 
 bnilt by Archbishop Spottiswoode to facilitate his 
 communication with St Andrews. 
 
 We shall close these sketches with the mention 
 of one whose name is still affectionately remem- 
 bered in this parish. Dr Robert Macculloch, 
 ordained in 1771, fulfilled here the long ministry 
 of fifty years and upwards. He was the son of 
 the Rev. William Macculloch, whose labours 
 were so signally owned at Cambuslang in 1742. 
 Full of the impressions which the great work in 
 bis native parish had left behind, he came to 
 Dairsie, and there he laboured on abundantly, 
 helped and cheered by many a valued visit at 
 communion and other seasons, of such men as Dr 
 Erskine, Dr Webster, Mr M'Laren, Dr Gillies, 
 and Dr Balfour. His manners were stern ; his 
 love of order was excessive. He could not have 
 slept if he knew that his hat was not in its right 
 place. His adherence to time was most rigid.
 
 150 HISTORICAL ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 Every thing must go on with the regularity of 
 clock-work. Those who knew him tell, as most 
 characteristic of him, that some years before his 
 death he had his coffin provided, and this he did, 
 not as Charles V., that he might lay himself 
 down in it and look forth on the vanity of earthly 
 things, but simply that he might protect his 
 family against the hazard of being overcharged 
 at his death, as he thought he himself had been 
 at the funeral of some of his family. 
 
 He published lectures on the Prophecies of 
 Isaiah, in four sturdy volumes. They are chiefly 
 valuable as containing the spirit and substance 
 of Vitringa's commentary. But his greatest 
 works, and they are still following him, were not 
 " with ink and pen," but by the living voice on 
 the hearts of men. We have beard aged persons 
 particularise with emotion some of his ministra- 
 tions. Many quiet undemonstrative cottagers 
 will silently respond to this reference, and those 
 who have the best means and who are most cap- 
 able of judging, are forward to acknowledge how 
 much of what is good in the district is to be 
 traced to the prolonged and owned ministry of 
 Dr Macculloch. 
 
 END OF PART II.
 
 PAET III. 
 
 JalHanto, ItettU, aa&
 
 df alfelanfc, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A FRENCH Author has the following reflection : 
 " I confess it would be impossible for me to 
 reside, or even to travel with pleasure, in any 
 country where there were neither archives nor 
 antiquities. That which gives interest and 
 beauty to things is the trace of man having 
 passed there, lived there, suffered there." To 
 any one with the tastes of this author, Falkland 
 will be full of interest. Everything is here 
 mossed over with antiquity. Everything is sug- 
 gestive of the actions and events of former times. 
 It is the Palace, uplifting its grey walls and 
 roof in the old burgh, which lends all its import- 
 ance and attraction to the place. What distin-
 
 154 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 guished persons has that Palace received within 
 its portals ! What momentous consultations 
 have been held within its halls ! Events which, 
 in their issues, have involved the interests of 
 nations and of churches, have here had their 
 rude beginnings in the thoughts and converse of 
 a few individuals. 
 
 Originally, this Palace of Falkland was but a 
 tower and stronghold of the Macduffs, Thanes 
 of Fife. la the times of James I. it came into 
 possession of the Crown, and continued to grow 
 in favour with all the James's as a Hunting 
 Lodge. It became, under James V. and James 
 VI., the Fountainbleau of Scotland. 
 
 Noways would it repay the trouble to attempt 
 recounting its tales 
 
 " Of old, unhappy, for off things, 
 And battles long ago." 
 
 These times of " sturt and strife" have long 
 since exhausted themselves. They contributed 
 but few of the living forces which go to the for- 
 mation of a nation's greatness, and supply the 
 elements of modern history. The most interest- 
 ing, and the most picturesque point of view in 
 history is where the barbarous and the civilised 
 touch each other ; just as in natural scenery,
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 155 
 
 the most striking landscape is formed where cul- 
 tivated and grain-bearing fields meet the nn- 
 broken upland, rough with grey rocks, and 
 variegated with the whin, the broom, and the 
 heather. 
 
 The mid -reign of James V. is such an era in 
 history, and there we will commence. Falkland 
 Palace was then known as the " Old Tower of 
 Falkland." The hunting forest which surrounded 
 it stretched from Strathmiglo throughout the 
 Howe of Fife. This forest had been nursed and 
 protected by successive monarchs, for when 
 James IV. built " ane verrie monstruous great 
 schip," named the Great Michael, " it tuik so 
 meikle timber, that she wasted all the woodis of 
 Fife, except Falkland Wood." Enclosed by this 
 forest, and surrounding the Palace, was a deer 
 park. Sir David Lindsay alludes to it as a 
 noticeable feature in the landscape : 
 
 " Farewell, Falkland, the fortress of Fyfe 
 
 Thy polite park under the Law-mound Law, 
 Bum tyme in thee I led a lusty lyfe. 
 The fallow deer, to see them raik on' raw.' 
 
 This old tower often resounded with the merry 
 feats produced by the disguises and wanderings 
 of James IV. and James V. Pitscottie writes
 
 156 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 of James IV., " He would ride out through any 
 part of the realm, him all alone, unknown that 
 he was king, and would lodge in puir men's 
 housis, as he had been ane traveller through the 
 countrie." This description applies equally to 
 James IV. and James V., and it is difficult to 
 assign to each of them respectively the traditional 
 stories which are given of their wanderings. The 
 two following may be taken as specimens of their 
 Fife adventures. 
 
 One of the roads from Falkland to Cupar 
 crossed theKeilour, at a ford a little below Ban- 
 keilour. Close to the ford was the mill of Balla- 
 mill. The King, happening to be overtaken 
 there by a storm and by nightfall, sought shelter 
 from the miller. The miller, a kind jolly man, 
 was taken by the frank bearing of the stranger, 
 and gave orders to his wife to slaughter the hen 
 that roosted next the cock, and prepare it for 
 supper. When the supper was set on the table, 
 the miller assigned the board-head to the 
 stranger. The stranger declined it, wishing the 
 miller to be gudeman in his own house, but the 
 miller's word was resolute, " Sit up, for I will 
 ha'e strangers honoured here." The night was 
 spent happily, and^on the morning, the King
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 157 
 
 prevailed on the miller to give him a convoy. 
 They had not gone far until the miller discovered 
 that his companion was no other than the king. 
 Fain would he have returned, but the King in- 
 sisted that he should go on to Falkland. At 
 dinner, a seat of honour was appointed to the 
 miller, and when he declined it, the King re- 
 minded him of his own rule, " Sit up, for I will 
 ha'e strangers honoured here." The miller 
 remained a few days the king's guest, every day 
 making him long, amid the honours and restraint 
 of the palace, for the freedom of his own cottage 
 and the clatter of his own mill. At parting, the 
 King asked him whether he would have the 
 " twa " parts or the " aught" parts cf Ballamill. 
 The honest miller, thinking that eight was more 
 than two, named the eight. He got what he 
 wanted, and returned home right glad; not 
 merely the tenant, but now the proprietor of the 
 eighth of the lands of Ballamill. 
 
 On another occasion, when out a hunting, to 
 the west of Falkland, the King was separated 
 from his company. He entered a wayside ale- 
 house near to Milnathort, and there found a 
 tinker regaling himself. The King joined him 
 in a tankard of ale. In their conversation the
 
 158 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 tinker expressed a great desire to see the King, 
 whom he knew to be out hunting that day. 
 The King offered to help him to the sight he 
 desired, and got the tinker, wallet and all, placed 
 on the horse behind him. " But how will I dis- 
 tinguish the king from the other nobles ?" asked 
 the tinker, as they rode along. He was told 
 that all the nobles would be unbonneted in the 
 king's presence. When they came to the place 
 which had been appointed for meeting, and when 
 the hunt was over, they saw a company of nobles 
 awaiting his Majesty. Every bonnet was raised, 
 and every head remained uncovered, as they 
 drew near. " Which is the King?" asked the 
 tinker, "for they are all unbonneted." The 
 King humorously answered, " It must be either 
 you or I." In a moment, the astounded tinker 
 slid off the horse, and falling on his knees, offered 
 his homage to the King. What became of the 
 tinker we cannot tell. Not unlikely he may 
 have had a home given him in Kingskettle, and 
 "by special appointment" been constituted tinker 
 to his Majesty. 
 
 James V. ever loved Falkland, for it was the 
 scene of his first adventure. When a lad of fif- 
 teen he here planned and executed his escape
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 159 
 
 from the powerful Douglas, Earl of Angus. Long 
 had Angus held possession of his Majesty, em- 
 ploying the king's authority according to his own 
 pleasure, for his own influence and aggrandise- 
 ment. James was impatient under the restraint, 
 and once and again had moved different of the 
 nobles to attempts at his rescue, which had proved 
 unsuccessful. The King's own quickness and 
 energy stood him in better stead than the stout 
 valour of bis nobles. Watching his opportunity, 
 when the Earl of Angus had gone to Tantallon, 
 and when his Arus- eyed keeper, George Douglas, 
 the Earl's brother, was absent for the day on his 
 own business, the King set forward to Falkland 
 accompanied by James Douglas of Parkhead, the 
 captain of the guard, and about an hundred 
 gentlemen. On their way they called on the 
 Laird of Fernie, the forester of Falkland Park, 
 and ordered him to summon the gentlemen of 
 the county to assemble, with their " speediest 
 dogs," at Falkland at seven next morning, " to 
 chase the deer with hound and horn." 
 
 When the King had retired to his own cham- 
 ber after supper, he called for James Douglas, 
 the captain of the guard, and drinking to him 
 and talking of to-morrow's sport, he undressed
 
 160 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 and went to bed. The captain thus seeing the 
 King in bed withdrew, thinking all was " sicker 
 enough. " The watch is set, and all is still, when 
 the King arose, and by the help of Jockie Hart, 
 " ane yeoman of the stable and ane other secret 
 servant," mounted prepared horses, and riding 
 up the vale of Devon, at break of day entered 
 the town and castle of Stirling. 
 
 Next morning the King was missed, the cry 
 of treason was raised, George Douglas was spur- 
 ring onwards to Balmbreich, for word was that 
 the King had gone there. But the King was 
 safe within the enclosing walls of Stirling Castle, 
 and soon did he issue his proclamation, that no 
 one bearing the hated name of Douglas should 
 approach him within six miles, under the pain of 
 treason. 
 
 It was in June of 1527 that this successful 
 escape was effected. 
 
 James V. had a decided taste for architecture. 
 " He did many gude acts, sick as bigging of 
 palaces and castles." He had enlarged and de- 
 corated Holyrood for the reception of his first 
 bride, Magdalene of Valois. For the entertain- 
 ment of his second, the designing Mary of Lor- 
 raine, he converted the old tower of Falkland
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 161 
 
 into a palace. It must have been sadly dilapi- 
 dated when James undertook its repair, or rather 
 reconstruction. Beaton of Creich, who was its 
 keeper, in a report which he made to the Scottish 
 Parliament in 1525, says that it " was riven, and 
 the thak y r of brokin." Great was the transfor- 
 mation under the architectural taste of the King. 
 The pillared buttresses, the medallioned walls, 
 the mullioned windows, all characterise the florid 
 style which James loved, and indicate him as 
 distinctly as the mouldering and alternating 
 initials of J. R. (James Rex) and M. R. (Maria 
 Regina). The Holyrood-like appearance, which 
 the round towers with their conical tops impart 
 to this palace, will strike a stranger. 
 
 In this palace, which himself had greatly built 
 and beautified, James V. breathed his last in 
 1542. That eager politician, Kirkcaldy of 
 Grange, the brave old seaman, Sir Andrew Wood 
 of Largo, were near him ; and so was the crafty 
 Cardinal Beaton, with the forged will, all ready 
 for the King's signature. They told him of the 
 birth of his daughter, but the King spoke little, 
 and at length turning his back to his lords, and 
 his face to the wall, be died. 
 
 His body was conveyed to Holyrood, and
 
 162 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 i 
 
 there buried beside his first Queen in the Abbey 
 Church. His tomb is inscribed thus : 
 " Illustris Scotorura Rex, Jacobus, ejus nominis 
 5, aetatis snas anno 31, Regni vero 30, mor- 
 tem obiit in Palacio de Falkland, 14 Decembir. 
 A.D. 1542. Cujus corpus est traditnm sepul- 
 ture." 
 
 In consequence of James V.'s double French 
 marriage, " the great and ancient friendship and 
 alliance" which existed betwixt France and 
 Scotland was much strengthened. During the 
 regency of his widow, Mary of Guise, and the 
 reign of his daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, the 
 Scoto-French alliance was even more intimate, 
 for then Frenchmen abounded in Scotland, and 
 were much employed about the Court. The 
 thistle and the lily were then intertwined as the 
 thistle and the rose are now. It is curious to 
 observe how this historical circumstance has left 
 its mark on the language of Scotland. Names 
 of persons in Scotland are taken from the French, 
 as Dalziel, which is the Scotch rendering of 
 D'Oysel. Names of places in Scotland are Scot- 
 ticised French, as Pettycur, which is just petit 
 corps, because a small French party of soldiers 
 landed there in the days of the Regent Mary, to
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 163 
 
 assist in putting down the rising Reformation. 
 In Cupar there is a lane called the Mouse Wynd ; 
 the original of this is Mews, a place for stabling, 
 because when Cupar, as the county town, received 
 passing visits of royalty, it was in that wynd 
 where were the mews, or royal stables. The 
 Mouse Wynd in Cupar is matched by the Rotten 
 Row in Glasgow, which is just the Routine Row 
 by which the bishop and chapter walked in pro- 
 cession to the Cathedral. The daily Scotch ex- 
 clamations, " Oa Aye," " Oh Yes," is just the 
 French " Oui." 
 
 Jockteleg, the name which a Scotchman gives 
 to the clasp-knife which he carries in his pocket, 
 is a Scottish version of Jacques de Leige, the 
 name of a celebrated foreign cutler who manu- 
 factured them. 
 
 The aumrie, by which, in Scottish cottages the 
 cupboard is known, is nothing but the French 
 aumoire. It were easy to go on multiplying 
 examples.
 
 164 ANTIQUITIES COIWECTED 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 After the death of James V., his widow, Mary 
 of Guise, the Queen Regent, was but seldom at 
 Falkland. The rise of the Protestant religion in 
 the country, and her desire to put it down, so 
 engaged her that she had little leisure for the 
 quiet and retirement which Falkland supplies. 
 
 The only occasion of importance on which we 
 meet with her at Falkland was June 1559 ; when 
 on the night of the 12th her French troops, under 
 D'Oysel lay all night at Falkland, and on the 
 morning of the 13th marched along the front of 
 Cult Hills to meet the Protestant forces at Cupar 
 Muir. Sir James Melville, in his Memoirs, says 
 that when he was sent from France to the Queen 
 Regent, the Constable of France, in giving him 
 his instructions, informed him that the object of 
 the King of France in sending troops to Scotland, 
 was only to secure civil obedience from the Scots 
 unto their lawful Queen adding, "If it be only 
 religion which moves them, we must commit 
 Scotsmen's souls unto God, for we have difficulty 
 enough to rule the consciences of Frenchmen."
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 165 
 
 It was " only religion which then moved Scots- 
 men," and moved them to the very heart. 
 Scotsmen were engaged in those struggles which 
 a year later secured for the land the glorious 
 Reformation. The authority of the Queen 
 Regent was on one side, and the religion and 
 liberty of the country were on the other ; and, 
 notwithstanding the Constable's protestation, the 
 influence of France was ever arrayed with 
 unerring instinct against the rising cause of 
 Protestantism. 
 
 Here, in the earlier and happier days of her 
 reign, the favourite of romance Mary, Queen 
 of Scots often resorted, hunting and hawking 
 in the forest, beguiling the wet day with her 
 needlework ; and, as she gazed through the stone- 
 shafted window on the mist-covered Lomonds, 
 recalling with fondness the sunnier plains of 
 beautiful France. 
 
 It was, however, in the reign of " the Most 
 High and Mighty Prince, James VI.," that 
 historical events gathered thickly around Falk- 
 land, investing it ever afterwards with national 
 interest. The first occasion worthy of being 
 noticed on which he came to Falkland was, when 
 a lad of sixteen, he escaped from the Lords who
 
 166 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 had detained him at Ruthven Tower. He was 
 fretting and fuming under the indignity he had 
 suffered, and was meditating vengeance against 
 all the abettors of the Ruthven Raid. But, 
 amid this ebullition of boyish passion, he had the 
 good sense to send across to Collessie, to Hallhill, 
 and summon to his aid the sagacious counsel of 
 Sir James Melville. 
 
 Sir James was one, arrayed in soft apparel, 
 and in King's Courts, whom yet it is worth the 
 trouble to go forth to see. From the early age 
 of fourteen, when he had been sent to France 
 as a page of honour to wait upon the young 
 Queen of Scots, he had breathed the air of courts, 
 and yet he retained his integrity. Hear the 
 spirit in which he received the King's commis- 
 sion : " I had determined to be no more concerned 
 in public affairs, but to lead a quiet and contem- 
 plative life the rest of my days. This desire of 
 my Prince and Master was like to put me from 
 this resolution. In this perplexity, I had recourse 
 in humble prayer to God, so to direct my actings 
 as they might tend to his glory, and to the weal 
 of my Prince and country. And, thereafter, 
 according to my dutiful obedience, I went unto 
 his Majesty."
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 167 
 
 When he came to Falkland he soothed the 
 King by his sage converse and counsels, advising 
 him to a general act of oblivion to all who had 
 been engaged in the Raid of RutWen. Honour 
 to the good man's memory ! he preferred the in- 
 terest of the King and country to his own. " He 
 perilled himself rather than conceal the truth 
 which endangered his Majesty." For, some 
 weeks after, the King, " taking him to the 
 Gallery of Falkland," asks his mind regarding 
 the bringing back of that worthless favourite, 
 James Stuart, Earl of Arran. " The Earl of 
 Arran is one of the worst instruments which can 
 come about you," was his reply. Bravely and 
 honestly said, Sir James! but your faithfulness 
 will cost you your place. And so it was. Arran 
 was reinstated as the favourite, and Sir James' 
 place in the Privy Council was supplied by 
 another. "So," writes he, "I was shut out of 
 doors, and had no more place to do good." 
 
 The influence of the Church was exerted in 
 the same direction as Sir James*. A deputation 
 appointed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and 
 consisting of Mr Robert Pont, Mr David Lind- 
 say, Mr John Davidson, and Mr David Fer- 
 gusson, came to Falkland 18th July 1583. They
 
 168 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 were brought into the King's cabinet, and there 
 they endeavoured to convey to the King the 
 Church's counsel against the minions who 
 swayed his ear and heart. Mr David Fergusson 
 commended the King for his "paraphrase in 
 meeter" of the Hundred-First Psalm, and insinu- 
 ated the admonition that, as he had rendered so 
 faithfully David's meaning, he should follow 
 David's example : 
 
 " Mines eyes shall on the faithful look, that they may 
 
 dwell with me, 
 
 Who walketh in a perfect way, he shall my serrant 
 be." KING JAMES' Version. 
 
 Others spake more boldly. But " after some 
 fair speeches, as they took their leave the King 
 layed his hands upon everie one of them." 
 
 And now comes into view the historical fea- 
 ture which distinctively characterises Falkland. 
 It was in Scotland what Hampton Court after- 
 wards was in England, the place where James 
 held his conferences regarding the Church. A 
 very short digression will enable the thoughtful 
 reader to understand the bearing of these con- 
 ferences. 
 
 The Scottish Kirk did in 1560 what the 
 Swedish nation do now. At every coronation
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 169 
 
 in Sweden, the herald calls aloud, " Carl is 
 crowned King. HE AND NONE ELSE." The 
 Reformed Church of Scotland proclaimed, Jesus 
 Christ is the Head and Monarch of the Church. 
 HE AND NONE ELSE. The Scottish Church 
 acknowledged the lawful authority of the King 
 in all things civil. But in things ecclesiastical 
 they refused to obey any one " but only Christ, 
 the only spiritual King and Governor in his 
 Kirk," a great principle this, which has ever 
 gathered around it the spiritual life of the conn- 
 try, and all the true and effectual contending for 
 national freedom. 
 
 This policie of the Kirk political statesmen 
 have ever " mislyked," calling it " a devout 
 imagination." The able but worldly Regent 
 Morton opposed it in its infancy. James VI. 
 at the outset was not inclined to resist it, until 
 his mind and feelings were misled by minions. 
 When Sir James Melville came to James after the 
 Raid of Ruthven, he found the King resolved 
 " that he would give satisfaction to the Church 
 in their desires, as the fittest and most effectual 
 way for settling peace in the country." But no 
 sooner did a profligate favourite gain an in- 
 fluence over James, than all his better aspira-
 
 170 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 tions forsook him : "At the advice of Arran the 
 King forbade the free Assemblies of the Kirk, 
 the same being one of the occasions of all the 
 following troubles." These favourites succeeded 
 in fastening in the King's mind, " as a nail in a 
 sure place," that " free assemblies" and " free 
 monarchy" could never agree, and thus it be- 
 came the life work of the King to overthrow 
 Presbyterian Church Government. 
 
 On May 18, 1584, a packed Parliament was 
 convened at Edinburgh, and held with closed 
 doors. Arran, and Patrick Adamson, Arch- 
 bishop of St Andrews, were the ruling spirits, 
 and the rest were obsequious to the Royal plea- 
 sure. They met on three separate days, and 
 during their sittings they overthrew the whole 
 platform of church government, which had been 
 established by previous acts of Parliament, and 
 which had existed for twenty-four years, to the 
 contentment of the nation and the comfort of the 
 church. They said "Let us take to ourselves the 
 house of God in possession." The only voice 
 raised against these tyrannical and unconstitu- 
 tional doings was the voice of the church. Mr 
 David Lyndsey, minister of Leith, was sent to 
 remonstrate in the name of the church. All
 
 "WITH FALKLAND. 171 
 
 access was denied him, and be was cast into 
 Blackness Castle. James Lawson and Walter 
 Balcomquhall, ministers in Edinburgh, protested 
 in the pulpit, and again at the Market Cross, 
 against these proceedings; and to prevent them- 
 selves being cast "into sure and fast prison," 
 they fled to England. 
 
 Meanwhile, after the rising of the Parliament, 
 the King had returned to Falkland, to watch the 
 efiect of what had been done in Edinburgh. The 
 ministers, from their exile in England, had written 
 their flocks, explaining the grounds oftheir flight, 
 and counselling the people to faithfulness. The 
 King, to counteract these letters of the exiled 
 ministers, had a reply in name of the people, 
 penned by Patrick Adamson, defendingthe King's 
 prerogative and the Parliament's doings, renoun- 
 cing the ministry, and expressing a hope that his 
 Majesty would provide in their room " good and 
 quiet spirited pastors." Arran was despatched 
 divers times to Edinburgh to urge the people to 
 subscribe this reply. Some of " the baser sort" 
 did subscribe, but the great body of the people 
 boldly refused ; and for refusing many an honest 
 citizen was imprisoned, and two brothers, of the 
 name of Cathkin and Robert Mark, were banished.
 
 172 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Nor had this storm yet passed away. Eleven 
 Edinburgh elders and deacons were summoned 
 to Falkland before the King on June 24th 1584. 
 The King inquired of them why they had not 
 subscribed the reply which had been prepared by 
 Adamson, in answer to the letter of their exiled 
 ministers. John Blackburn readily replied, " Be- 
 cause it was against the Word of God and his 
 conscience." The King in his own little way 
 tried to turn the man into ridicule, and to make 
 mirth out of him. Hitching in his chair and 
 laughing, he said, "Here we have gottin a Scrip- 
 turar." Arran stormed and endeavoured to 
 browbeat the man. He called him a proud 
 knave, and asked him, "If the sinews of his craig 
 yuiked?" In other words, if he wished to be 
 hanged. But Blackburn was firm. He repeated 
 his statement, that he was willing to submit his 
 judgment to the light of God's Word. " The 
 King riseth, and goeth quickly to the foot of the 
 board, and took the pen, inkhorn, and paper from 
 the Clerk, and gave him and put him to a bye- 
 board." But the bye-board was soon exchanged 
 for the guard-room. He is respited from the 
 iron chains until night, that he might stand and 
 catch the light from the high window to prepare
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 173 
 
 his answer. For six days was the poor man de- 
 tained in the guard-room, with the shackles on 
 his feet. For a month was he kept at Falkland, 
 and for another month at Dunfermline, on his 
 own charges, until his case was disposed of. By 
 such brave contendings and endurings on the 
 part of obscure and poor men has Scottish free- 
 dom, civil and religious, been won ! 
 
 From 1588 to 1603, the Reformed Church of 
 Scotland's " bonds in Christ were manifest in all 
 the palace." The rooms and courts of this old 
 palace witnessed the plottings of James and of 
 his flatterers, and the assembling ofttimes of grave 
 Divines, summoned by the call of the King, or by 
 the exigency of the occasion, to defend the 
 inalienable rights of the Church of Christ. 
 Sometimes there were what was known in after 
 stages of church history as blinks outbursts of 
 sunshine amid the clouds. It was one of these 
 sudden and short blinks when James, after his 
 return from Denmark with his young Queen, 
 appeared in the General Assembly of 1590, and 
 broke forth, " in praising God that he was born 
 in such a time as the time of the light of the 
 Gospel, to such a place as to be King in such a 
 kirk, the sincerest kirk in the world. The kirk
 
 174 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 of Geneva," continued he, " keepeth Pash and 
 Yule. What have they for them? They have 
 no institution. As for our neighbour kirk in 
 England,. it is an evil-said mass in English, 
 wanting nothing but the liftings." The reader 
 may well be astonished, and ask what great 
 change is this that has come over the King ? Is 
 James also among the prophets ? It is nothing 
 more than the workings of a capricious mind 
 guided by no right principle, but moved to a fit 
 of good humour, and in the humour of the mo- 
 ment uttering for the selfish object of pleasing 
 others, sentiments which his heated imagination 
 can picture, but which his heart feels not. Re- 
 member the proverb, King James! Nequidnimis. 
 It is too great a leap this of yours ! The words 
 were good, but your heart was not sincere ; and 
 twenty years of petty persecution on your part 
 witness your insincerity. 
 
 There was one man who, in these years, im- 
 pressed the stamp of his name, his image, and 
 his words on this Falkland Palace, and history 
 has rendered the impression indelible. That man 
 was Andrew Melville. There was no one in his 
 dominions whom the King disliked and dreaded 
 more. James regarded Melville with the aver-
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 175 
 
 sion with which a base spirit regards a noble and 
 generous one. The courtiers, of course, reflected 
 the feelings of the King. Melville knew how 
 unwelcome he was, when he was kept standing 
 long in the corridor awaiting an audience, and 
 when courtier and servant alike cast upon him, 
 as they passed, their cold and disdainful look. 
 But when a man has a work to do for God, he 
 feels his heart uplifted above the petty annoy- 
 ances which men can occasion. Melville had a 
 work to do, and he did it well, " purchasing to 
 himself a good degree, and great boldness in the 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus." Within this 
 Palace, in September 1596, Melville told the 
 King that "In Scotland there were two kings, 
 two kingdoms, and two jurisdictions. There 
 was the civil king, James the Sixth. There was 
 Christ Jesus the King, and his kingdom the Kirk, 
 whose subject King James the Sixth is, and of 
 whose kingdom King James was not a king, nor 
 a lord, nor a head, but a member." Most me- 
 morable words ! whose echo centuries have not 
 silenced, for still do they ring through every cor- 
 ner of Scotland as distinctly as they did through 
 the four corners of that room where, with great 
 " vehemence," they were uttered.
 
 176 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 In 1592 there had been an attempt to surprise 
 and seize the King as he lived securely at Falk- 
 land, and this was known at the time, and named 
 in history, as the Raid of Falkland. Earl Both- 
 well had spurred across the East Lomond with 
 a company of his retainers, thinking to take the 
 King at unawares ; but Robert Affleck, servitor 
 to Sir Robert Melville, meeting the company on 
 the Lomond heights, " when it was already dark 
 night," turned, and joined himself with them as 
 if he had been one of them, and knowing the 
 near roads on the hill, he contrived to reach the 
 Palace in time to give the alarm, and to get the 
 gates secured. The country about rose, and the 
 Earl and his accomplices fled, " so wearied with 
 ryding night and day, that they fainted for want 
 of meate and sleepe." 
 
 Sir James Melville, writing of this alarm, says, 
 " We gave his Majesty counsel to ride quietly to 
 Bambrigh, on the Tay, that there he might, 
 when he pleased, take a boat and go over to 
 Angus, where he would have leisure to convene 
 the towns of Perth and Dundee. That same 
 night I lay in my boots upon my bed (at Hal- 
 hill), expecting word from Falkland, where there 
 was one left to be ready for that effect."
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 177 
 
 Falkland links into a more important episode 
 of Scottish history. It connects itself with the 
 dark and mysterious Gowrie conspiracy. On an 
 antnmn morning in 1600, Alexander Ruthven, 
 brotherof the Earl of Gowrie, rode into Falkland, 
 attended by his two servants, Andrew Henryson 
 and Andrew Ruthven. They had rode from 
 Perth. It was only betwixt six and seven 
 o'clock when they arrived, and put up at " ane 
 Law's house." Very soon after their arrival, 
 Alexander Rnthven is seen in close converse 
 with the King, beside the Palace stables. The 
 King lays his hand graciously on Alexander's 
 shoulder, and their talk seems very eager. Alex- 
 ander is telling the King a story, which rouses 
 at once his curiosity and his avarice. The even- 
 ing before, he said, he had been taking a quiet 
 walk in the environs of Perth, when in a secluded 
 spot he met a suspicious- looking man, with his 
 face muffled in his cloak. On asking him his 
 name and errand, the man answered confusedly. 
 His confusion excited Alexander's suspicions. 
 He examined the man more closely, and found 
 beneath his cloak a pot full of foreign gold coins. 
 He ordered the man to accompany him, and going 
 back to the town, he locked him up in a secure
 
 178 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 place unknown to any one. And the object of 
 his early ride that morning was to acquaint the 
 King, and to get the King to accompany him to 
 Perth, and personally examine the matter. 
 
 But, for the present, their converse must be 
 stopped, for all was impatience for the chase. 
 The hounds and huntsmen were out, the courtiers 
 were in their saddles, and the morning was 
 bright. The King mounted his horse, and joined 
 in the hunt, his imagination all the time filled 
 and busied with the strange story. The chase 
 was a long one ; " it lasted from seven hours in 
 the morning until eleven, and more, being one of 
 the greatest and sorest chases that ever his 
 Majesty was at." 
 
 No sooner is the buck run down, than an order 
 is given for fresh horses, and the King and his 
 sixteen attendants start off with Alexander 
 Euthven to Perth. When they were within 
 about a mile of the town, Alexander Ruthven 
 posted on to forewarn the Earl of his Majesty's 
 near approach. The Earl had commenced his 
 dinner, but leaving it unfinished, and gathering 
 together about sixty of his retainers, he set forth 
 on foot, and met the King at the Inch. 
 
 It was about one o'clock when the King and
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 179 
 
 his company entered Growrie House. There was 
 no provision made for his entertainment, " and 
 the longsomeness of the preparing and the bad- 
 ness of the cheer" fretted the hungry King, and 
 the hungry courtiers. Two o'clock had passed 
 until dinner was served. After the King had 
 dined in the dining-room, and while his court 
 were dining in the hall, Alexander Ruthven con- 
 ducted the King through the hall, and up a turn- 
 pike, and through different rooms, locking each 
 door behind them. At length he brought him to 
 a chamber which entered into a turret, where, to 
 the King's dismay, instead of meeting with the 
 strange man and the pot of gold, he saw a man 
 in armour with a dagger at h is girdle. Alexander 
 locks the turret door, draws the dagger, and 
 threatens the King with death should he attempt 
 the least alarm, at the same time urging him to 
 bethink himself of his father's, the late Earl of 
 Growrie's murder. The King dreading death 
 remonstrated eagerly, but Alexander swore 
 solemnly, that it was not his life nor his blood 
 that he craved, but only a promise. " What is 
 the promise ?" asked the King. " My brother 
 will tell you," said Alexander. " Then bring 
 your brother," replied the King.
 
 180 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 While these things are adoing in the turret, 
 the Duke of Lennox, the Earl of Arran, and the 
 rest of the King's attendants have finished din- 
 ner, and going out by a side door were saunter- 
 ing in the garden, when Mr Thomas Cranstoun 
 entering hurriedly calls to them, that the King 
 is horsed, and away through the Inch. They all 
 rush off in separate ways, in search of their horses. 
 
 It was when the Earl of Gowrie, the Earl of 
 Mar, and the Duke of Lennox, had reached the 
 street gate, that a voice was heard from the turret 
 " That," said the Duke of Lennox, " is the 
 King's voice." Sir John Ramsay, a young page, 
 darts up a staircase, which was known as the 
 Black Turnpike, and at the top of it finds the 
 King and Alexander Ruthven struggling. By 
 one stroke of his dagger he wounds Alexander. 
 A second stroke, from Sir Thomas Erskine, kills 
 him. The last words he uttered were " Alas, 
 I had not the wyte of it." 
 
 The Earl of Gowrie, with a drawn sword in 
 each hand, rushes up the staircase, and stumbles 
 over the dead body of his brother. A scuffle 
 ensues, and the Earl also is killed. 
 
 The rumour of the Earl's slaughter soon spread 
 over the town. The burghers gathered tumultu-
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 181 
 
 ously. The Earl was their Provost, and they all 
 loved him. Proceeding in a mass, they surrounded 
 Gowrie House, calling out " Give us our Provost. 
 Thou son of Seignor Davie, thou hast slain an 
 honester man than thyself." The King had to 
 appease the tumult, by addressing the crowd 
 from the windows ; and, summoning the magis- 
 trates to the room, he left the house and the 
 bodies of the two brothers to their care. 
 
 It was eight o'clock at uight before the King 
 could leave the town. The night was dark and 
 wet. Right glad was he to reach the shelter of 
 his own palace of Falkland, and to hear its doors 
 barred behind him. It had been an eventful day 
 this Tuesday, 5th of August, and ranch had the 
 King to think of as he laid his head on the pillow. 
 It had been a fatal day to the noble house of 
 Gowrie. 
 
 Dead men cannot speak; and so the King 
 had the telling of his own story to himself, but 
 many received his version of it in the same spirit 
 of hesitancy as the honest countryman to whom 
 the King related it" A wonderfu' story, your 
 Majesty, if its true." 
 
 "At that time, being in Falkland," writes 
 James Melville, " I saw a funambulus (a rope-
 
 182 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 dancer) a Frenchman, play strange and incredi- 
 ble pratticksupon stented tackel (stretched rope) 
 in the Palace close, before the King, Queen, and 
 hale court. This was politiklie done to mitigate 
 the Queen and people for Cowrie's slaughter." 
 The time at last arrived when James was to 
 exchange Holyrood for Whitehall, and Falkland 
 for Hampton Court. Sir Robert Carey had 
 arranged with his sister, Lady Scrope, and was 
 watching beneath the chamber window where in 
 .Richmond Palace, Queen Elizabeth was dying. 
 When the Queen had breathed her last, Lady 
 Scrope dropped a signet ring, and Sir Robert, 
 bearing the news was off, as fast as a relay of 
 fleet horses could carry him, to Scotland. On 
 Thursday, March 24, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died, 
 and on Saturday, the 26th, the tidings were 
 conveyed to King James in his bed-chamber at 
 Holyrood. It was the quickest journey that had 
 ever been performed betwixt London and Edin- 
 burgh. There is a spurious story, which exists 
 as a popular tradition, that Sir Robert Carey 
 delivered the news to King James at Falkland, 
 and that the King, there and then, bestowed on 
 him the rank and the title of Viscount Falkland. 
 Sir Robert Carey was afterwards created Earl of
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 183 
 
 Monmouth ; but it was Sir Henry Carey who 
 was entitled Viscount Falkland, and that not 
 until 1620. This very circumstance of selecting 
 Falkland so many years afterwards, as a title of 
 nobility in England, shows the lingering attach- 
 ment which King James still cherished amid the 
 fertile meadows of England for his early hunting 
 home. 
 
 The name of Falkland is thus connected with 
 breath, and life, and individual action. It is 
 embalmed in British history by the virtues of 
 Lucius, the second Viscount Falkland, " the 
 generous and the just." Virtues bright in them- 
 selves, yet sullied by the direction in which they 
 were exerted, for they were employed on behalf 
 of the unconstitutional and false policy of Charles, 
 and thus they shone like the funeral embellish- 
 ments of the hearse and the coffin, or like the 
 flowers with which the grave is strewn. 
 
 An attempt was made, in 1611, to change the 
 Presbytery seat from Cupar to Falkland. The 
 hated name of Presbytery, the king-pleasing 
 abettors of Episcopacy endeavoured to abolish, 
 by substituting Exercise in its place to designate 
 the district meeting of ministers to manage the 
 affairs of the Church. During the short and
 
 184 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 forced prevalence of Episcopacy, Exercise, derived 
 from exerdtus, an assembly, is uuiformly used in 
 all their minutes and documents in this sense. 
 The King's Majesty had intimated his will 
 "Anent the transporting of the Exercise from 
 Coupar to Falkland ;" but the brethren " craved 
 a supplication to be sent to his Majesty for con- 
 tinowing the meiting at Coupar for sundry gude 
 caussis and considerations, namelie, that Falk- 
 land in winter, or efter greit weittes in sommer 
 is not accessible. In the meantym, to satisffie 
 his Majestie's desire, thae ar orderit to convein 
 at Falkland, the hail brethreine of the Exercise 
 of Coupar, till the Assemblie, and thairefter till 
 his Majestie's answer be returned thairanent." 
 
 It was no fault of James if Falkland did not 
 enjoy all the honours civic and ecclesiastical 
 which he had to confer. But this he was will- 
 ingly ignorant of, that the honour which cometh 
 from above, and exalteth a place and a people, is 
 an honour which kings cannot give, although they 
 have often sought to take it away, and that is 
 loyalty to the royal prerogative of Him who is 
 higher than the kings of the earth, and Whose 
 kingdom is a spiritual kingdom.
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 185 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 It was the Augustan age of Falkland during 
 the early reign of James VI. Its every day life 
 must then have been stirring and gay. What 
 with gatherings of Ambassadors and grave 
 Statesmen ; what with^te* in the Palace, and 
 buntings in the hills, the little burgh must have 
 looked very proud and important. 
 
 This may, then, be the best time to take a 
 survey of the town. If, as Thackeray says, 
 "the lives of streets are as the lives of men," 
 these streets of Falkland have a tale of their 
 own to tell. 
 
 " Yon never tread upon them, but you set 
 Your feet upon some ancient history." 
 
 Nobles in attendance upon the Court would, in 
 these days of royalty, have rooms for themselves 
 and for part of their retainers in the Palace. 
 Some of the nobility and gentry had private 
 houses in the town. For some of the principal 
 servants of the King's household there were 
 separate dwellings. And the burgesses of Falk- 
 land who were possessed of domiciles, or carried
 
 186 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 on trade in it, held themselves high as inhabi- 
 tants of a privileged place. 
 
 On the south side of the street, and fronting 
 the Palace, is a substantial two-storeyed house, 
 with its venerable thatched roof and its harled 
 walls. It bears the following inscription in 
 capital letters: 
 
 AL PRASE tO GOD, 
 THANKS TO THE MOST 
 EXCELLENT MONARCH OP 
 GREAT BRITAINE, OF WHOSE 
 PRINCELIE LIBERALITIES 
 THIS IS MY PORTIONE. 
 DEO LATJS. ESTO FIDU8. 
 ADEST MERCES. NICHOL MONCRIEFF. 
 1610. 
 
 The sentiments with which Mr Moncrieff con- 
 cludes his inscription, and which he has couched 
 in Latin, may be rendered, " Praise to God. Be 
 faithful. The reward is at hand." 
 
 The house adjoining occupies the site of a 
 house which was built in 1607, and which was 
 assigned to the Royal Falconer. A stone of a 
 horse-shoe shape, which belonged to the older 
 house, and which is built into the present one, 
 is thus inscribed :
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 187 
 
 J K 6 
 
 GOD 8AIF YE KINO 
 OF OBIT BRITAN, 
 FRANCE, AND IRLAND, 
 OUR 8OVERIAN, FOR OF 
 HIS LIBERALITY THIS 
 
 HOUSE DID i (EDIFY.) 
 
 Crossing the street from these two houses, and 
 immediately to the west of the Palace, was the 
 Palace Green. Here stood the royal hostelry, 
 with stables, brewery, and barns. It was the 
 resort of knights and gentlemen, and the lounge 
 of their retainers, where each after his own 
 fashion regaled himself with the wines of France, 
 or with a tankard of home-brewed ale. 
 
 Not far from this there lately stood, in a 
 garden, a fragment of wall which was known as 
 " The Bnrleigh Walls." It was the remains of 
 a dwelling-house which belonged to the Balfours 
 of Bnrleigh, and which in the times of King 
 James sheltered that stirring and sturdy family, 
 then in the sunshine of their prosperity. 
 
 At the corner of the square, from amid roofs 
 of venerable thatch, a round tower raises its 
 conical summit. The round tower, borrowed 
 from the French style of architecture, was adopted 
 as a characteristic of old Scottish baronial homes,
 
 188 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 and we never look upon it bat with delight. 
 Here it forms part of a house, which in its earlier 
 days was occupied by a Baron of Parliament, 
 and now belongs to a family of the name of 
 Halkerston, said to be connected with Hackston 
 of Rathillet, of " Scots' Worthies" memory. 
 
 In the main street, and forming as it were part 
 of the south side of the square, there is a three- 
 storeyed house with yellow harled front, and erect 
 chimney, and steep thatched roof, at present used 
 as a co-operative store. This is the house in 
 Falkland on which every true-hearted Scotsman 
 will look with the deepest interest. It is the 
 house in which the godly and youthful Scotch 
 martyr, Richard Cameron, was born and lived. 
 It was the dwelling of a family who, all of them, 
 ultimately, testified for Christ and his cause, two 
 of them to death, and the others to bonds and 
 imprisonments. The present occupant and pro- 
 prietor thinks that the fore-part of the house is 
 much in the same condition in which it was when 
 inhabited by the family of the Camerons. From 
 an Instrument of Sasine drawn up by Thomas 
 Lawson, clerk to the burgh of Falkland in 1700, 
 we were kindly allowed to make the following 
 extract : " Compeared personally, Thomas
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 189 
 
 Watson, burgess of the said burgh, as procurator 
 for umquhile Allan Cameron, Merchant, burgess 
 of Falkland, and Mr Richard Cameron, his eldest 
 lawful son, household proprietors of the tenement 
 of land, and Margaret Paterson, spouse of the 
 said Allan, and mother to the said Mr Richard, 
 and past to the ground of the same with an dis- 
 creet man, George Coll, one of the present bailies 
 of the said burgh of Falkland, having and holding 
 then in his hands an disposition containing 
 therein an provin of resignation of the dates of 
 the fourt and last days of February, one thousand 
 six hundred and seventy years, granted and sub- 
 scribed by the said Allan and Mr Richard 
 Cameron and Margaret Paterson, each an of 
 them with consent of another to, and in favour 
 of, the deceast David Fergusson, Merchant, 
 burgess of Kirkaldie," &c. 
 
 In the Mill Wynd, and close to the large mill, 
 there is an humble tenement which James 
 VI. bestowed upon one of his grooms of the 
 name of Ramsay, for faithful service. The present 
 proprietor is a Ramsay, and for 260 years have 
 the Ramsays possessed this house, banding it 
 down from sire to son. They hold it on condition 
 of paying to the Sovereign the sum of five baw-
 
 190 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 bees Scots, but for the same the sovereign is 
 obliged to call in person. The popular version 
 of the story, never awanting in pictorial effect, 
 says that the Sovereign must call in a coach-and- 
 six for the five bawbees. 
 
 At the foot of this Mill Wynd there stood, 
 where now stands the gas work, what was 
 called the College. Probably this was nothing 
 more than a school of an higher class and range, 
 for the instruction of families of upper rank. 
 
 About the middle of the Cross Wynd, and on 
 the east side of it, there is a small court, one 
 side of the court is now occupied as a smithy, a 
 second by a stable, and the third by a dwelling- 
 house. This place is dignified with the name 
 of the Parliament Close. In Newton of Falk- 
 land, too, there is a Parliament Close, and one 
 also in Freuchie. It is possible that the Baronial 
 Courts may have been held in these closes. Or 
 it may be, that political gossips who thought 
 themselves wiser than even the Scottish Solomon, 
 may have met there to discuss, so far as they 
 dared, the events of the day, and that in bur- 
 lesque the name of Parliament may have been 
 given to the place of their meeting. 
 
 Falkland has her Rotten Eow as well as
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 191 
 
 Glasgow. Rotten is the unfortunate and laugh- 
 able rendering of the French routine. We meet 
 with it in the Glasgow street "the Rotten 
 Row ;" and at Cross Regal Abbey, where the 
 path by which the Bishop and the Chaplain 
 walked in procession to the chapel, is popularly 
 known as the Rotten Row. In Falkland, the 
 Rotten Row was the prescribed route by which 
 funerals were conducted to the burial-ground, so 
 that the inmates of the Palace might not be dis- 
 turbed by seeing these mementoes of mortality 
 passing before the Palace windows. 
 
 But it is time to leave these local details, and 
 return to the course of history. 
 
 Charles I. visited Falkland on the 4th of 
 July, 1633, and, to quote the words of one of the 
 fulsome addresses with which he was enter- 
 tained in his progress, " the radiant beams of 
 his sun-like appearance 1 ' again recalled its for- 
 mer splendour. June 18 had been the Corona- 
 tion Day. In the Abbey Church of Edinburgh, 
 Charles had been invested with the Scottish 
 crown and sceptre. He had held a Parliament, 
 wherein many of the noblemen, barons, and 
 burgesses, boldly resisted the encroachments 
 which he had set his heart in making on the
 
 192 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Church. Charles look their opposition ill. He 
 sulked, and let no opportunity pass of marking 
 his displeasure. From Edinburgh he went to 
 Linlithgow, and from thence to Stirling. The 
 Provost of Stirling had been one of the bur- 
 gesses who opposed the King at the Parliament. 
 The King remembered this, and on the presenta- 
 tion of a piece of plate by the Provost, refused 
 to admit him to kiss hands. Upon Wednesday, 
 3d, the King went to Dunfermline, his birth- 
 place ; and on Thursday, 4th, came to Falkland. 
 Rushworth, in his Historical Collections, adds 
 this Note, " that the nobility and gentry of Fife 
 had prepared to give a noble reception to his 
 Majesty, but many of them being Dissenters, 
 his Majesty was pleased to take another way, 
 and avoided them." A petty and mean affront 
 this, which only disgraces the monarch that 
 made it, but which men like my Lord Rothes, 
 Lindsay, Balmerinoch, and the gentry of Fife, 
 could afford to despise, when, instead of the 
 countenance of an unconstitutional King, they 
 had the satisfaction in their consciences of hav- 
 ing acted a faithful part, at once to their country 
 and their Church. 
 There, then, walking in the streets of Falkland
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 193 
 
 is Charles I., with his grave countenance, his 
 lustrous eye, his upturned moustache, his depend- 
 ing tuft, and his long hair falling in curls on his 
 shoulders. He was not allowed to regulate the 
 apparel of Kirkmen in Scotland, but he is master 
 of his own, and he is very careful of it. His 
 collar is broad and profusely embroidered. A 
 broad blue ribbon suspends the most noble Order 
 of the Garter on his breast. He wears a high 
 crowned bat. A cloak is thrown over his 
 shoulders. A knot of ribbons binds his velvet 
 breeches at the knees, and a long staff enables 
 him to steady himself on his high-heeled shoes. 
 
 " Friday and Saturday the 6th and 7th of July 
 the King hunted in his park at Falkland, and 
 there, on Sunday, Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, 
 preached before his Majesty." 
 
 In the King's company there is one, no less 
 notable than the King himself. That square, 
 short man, with the four-cornered cap, and the 
 dress of a Churchman, and wearing, in imitation 
 of his Royal Master, a moustache and Charlie, is 
 William Laud, at present Bishop of London, and 
 Councillor to his Majesty, but who, in a few weeks 
 will be Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate 
 of England. Laud's is but a monkish mind, 
 
 N
 
 194 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 which has long dwelt with the moles and the 
 bats, and which delights in medieval darkness. 
 He is the High Priest of the high places of the 
 Church of England. The Church of England, 
 at the Reformation, did that which was right in 
 the sight of the Lord in declaring against Popery 
 and the Pope. Howbeit, the high places were 
 not taken away. The Reformers would have 
 removed these, but the imperious Henry VITI., 
 and the no less imperious Elizabeth, demanded 
 that they should be retained. Laud would have 
 collected and elevated into a system these rem- 
 nants of Popery which deformed the Anglican 
 Church, and separated her from the other Re- 
 formed Churches. He was the Dr Pusey of his 
 time. He would have protected and magnified 
 those semi-popish observances in the Anglican 
 Church which connects her with the Church of 
 Rome, and separates her from the simplicity of 
 Scripture. He has come down to Scotland, with 
 his Royal Master, to enforce the Presbyterian 
 Church into conformity with his pet system. 
 
 Here are some of his brief entries into his 
 Diary : 
 
 July 1, Monday. I went over Forth to Brunt 
 Island.
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 195 
 
 July 2, Tuesday. To St Andrews. 
 
 July 3, Wednesday. Over Tay to Dundee. 
 
 July 4, Thursday. To Faulkland. 
 
 July 7, Sunday. To St Johnston. 
 
 July 8, Monday. To Dunblane and Stirling, 
 my dangerous and cruel journey, crossing 
 part of the Highlands by coach, which was 
 a wonder there. 
 
 From these markings it appears that Laud ar- 
 rived at Falkland on the Thursday, spent Friday 
 and Saturday there, and gave to the inhabitants 
 of Scotland the edifying example of setting ont 
 again on his journey on the Sabbath, and travel- 
 ling on that day from Falkland to Perth. 
 
 There are degrees of comparison in every- 
 thing. In the above extract it is amusing to 
 see the Bishop applying the word cruel to a little 
 rough jolting which he got in his cushioned 
 coach, as he crossed the Shirramuir. If the 
 Presbyterians of Scotland had cropped his ears, 
 and slit his nose, and branded his brow with a 
 red hot iron, as was done at his instigation to 
 many a poor Puritan in England, he would have 
 better understood the meaning of cruel. 
 
 Presbyterian pens have not spared Laud, 
 but their severest sentences are mild com-
 
 196 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 pared with the pitiless scorn with which Lord 
 Macanlay, Englishman and Episcopalian, re- 
 gards him : " For that individual (Laud), indeed 
 we entertain a more unmitigated contempt than 
 for any other character in our history." Such is 
 Macaulay's estimate. 
 
 Falkland continues faithfully to reflect the un- 
 settled and changing scenes through which Scot- 
 land passes. Charles II. comes from his asylum 
 in Holland in 1650, and receives for a season 
 Scotland's chivalrous,ineffectual, and ill- requited 
 loyalty. He comes and goes to Falkland, 
 haunting like a troubled ghost his ancestral halls. 
 On the night of the 6th July the old Palace 
 opens its doors to receive him into his ancestral 
 halls. "The time that he abode at Falkland he 
 went down one day and dined at the Earl of 
 Wemyss' house, and another at Lesly, with the 
 Earl of Kothes." On the 1st of January 1651, 
 he was crowned .at Scone. He was crowned, 
 " swearing the national Presbyterian Covenant. 
 He died thirty years after, swallowing the Popish 
 wafer." Back again he comes to Falkland on 
 the 22d, and remains a few days. It was his 
 last visit to Falkland, and the last time that the 
 Palace lodged royalty. A wandering life he led,
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 197 
 
 going hither and thither a King without a 
 kingdom until he fled from the battlefield of 
 Worcester, and escaped to Paris. 
 
 And now a different actor appears. A letter 
 was written by Oliver Cromwell from Burnt- 
 island, 29th July 1651, which begins thus 
 " The greatest part of the army is in Fife, wait- 
 ing what way God will further lead us." Fife 
 had opportunity enough to become acquainted 
 with these soldiers of Cromwell, for garrisons of 
 them were established in different parts of the 
 county, and remained for many years. Under 
 1652, Lamont has the entry in his Diary " This 
 yeare the English beganne to cutt doune Fack- 
 land Wood ; the most pairt of the tries wur 
 oakes." The wood was used by Cromwell in 
 building some forts at Perth. Of date "January 
 3, 1655, we have this "There cam ane order 
 from the English garrison that lays att the 
 Palace of Fackland, to the parish of Largo, to 
 briuge 52 loads of coalls, being but a fortnight's 
 pnrvision of fyre for the garrison." 
 
 .Cromwell, the Protector, had the palaces of 
 Kings at his command, and thus did he dispose 
 of them " Collonell Lockart, who latelie mar- 
 ried the Protector's niece, got by gift from the
 
 198 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Protector the Palace of Fackland, with the 
 parke." 
 
 Disaster overtakes the palace itself, as well as 
 its former occupants. Somewhere about this 
 time it was, that the north and east wings were 
 destroyed by fire, and were allowed to remain 
 in ruins. 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 Falkland has supplied one of the noble band 
 of " Scots' Worthies" in the youthful Kichard 
 Cameron. We have pointed out the house in 
 which he was born, and have seen that his father, 
 Allan Cameron, was a merchant burgess of 
 Falkland. Richard himself was an Episcopalian 
 for many years, and acted as schoolmaster, and 
 as precentor to the curate. This had been his 
 cradle religion, and he gave himself no thought 
 about it until one day he attended a field preach- 
 ing by some outed Presbyterian minister, when 
 the Word went with power to his heart, and he 
 turned to the Lord.
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 199 
 
 After undergoing this heart revolution, Falk- 
 land, which was then entirely the dwelling-place 
 of Court parasites, almost every one of whom 
 regarded it as treason to countenance anything 
 that was opposed to the King's religion, became 
 but an unkindly home to him. He left it about 
 1662, so far as we can discover, and never re- 
 turned to Falkland again. His first employment 
 was in the house of Sir Walter Scott of Harden, 
 where he served as tutor to the family. Soon 
 afterwards we find him joining himself to Mr 
 Welsh, of Irongray, and the other field preachers. 
 By them he was licensed to preach the Gospel. 
 While faithfully calling upon all men to repent, 
 and to turn to the Lord, he lifted up an unwaver- 
 ing testimony against "the Indulgence." He 
 regarded the acceptance of an indulgence from 
 any earthly king as derogatory to the commis- 
 sion of Christ to go and preach the Gospel ; as 
 dishonouring to the laws and liberties of the 
 kingdom, which had already established the right 
 to preach the Evangel ; and as opposed to the 
 scope and spirit of the National Covenant. 
 
 His decided and openly declared sentiments 
 regarding " the Indulgence" brought upon him 
 much opposition, and led him in 1678 to retire
 
 200 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 to Holland. Here he was welcomed by M' Ward 
 and Brown, two exiled Scottish ministers, and 
 was by them and Mr Coalman, a Dutch minis- 
 ter, solemnly ordained to the holy ministry. 
 When the hands of the Presbytery, which were 
 laid on his head, were removed, Mr M'Ward 
 continued his, and said, "Behold, all ye beholders, 
 here is the head of a faithful minister and ser- 
 vant of Jesus Christ, who shall lose the same 
 for his Master's interest, and shall be set up be- 
 fore sun and moon in the public view of the 
 world." 
 
 In the beginning of 1680 Mr Cameron returned 
 to Scotland. Henceforward you find him associ- 
 ated with Donald Cameron and Alexander 
 Peden, and regarded as the representative of 
 the strict Covenanters. One bold act this 
 humble covenanting minister did in this year, 
 1680, which the two kingdoms of England and 
 Scotland imitated eight years after : He publicly 
 and formally renounced all allegiance to the 
 Stuart dynasty for their tyranny, their perjury, 
 and their profligacy. This, and nothing more, 
 was just what the nation did in the glorious 
 Revolution of 1688. Ignorance and prejudice 
 may deride the Covenants and the Covenanters
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 201 
 
 of Scotland, but he who can read history aright 
 will rejoice to acknowledge that the Scottish 
 Covenants and the Scottish Covenanters, in their 
 leading principles and leading contendings, were, 
 throughout years of oppression, the great and 
 the only assertors of constitutional law and 
 freedom. 
 
 July 22, 1680, was Richard Cameron's last 
 day on earth. He had slept all night in the 
 house of William Mitchell, in Meadow-head, at 
 the water of Air. In the morning he was sup- 
 plied with water to wash, and when he dried his 
 face and hands, he said, "This is their last 
 washing, I have need to make them clean, for 
 there is many to see them." During the day, 
 Bruce of Earlshall, with a troop of dragoons, 
 120 in number, was seen hovering in the neigh- 
 hood. The Covenanters, nnmbering in all 
 63, took up their position on the east end of 
 Airsmoss, on a firm piece of land, which was 
 surrounded by morasses. About four o'clock in 
 the afternoon, Bruce with his dragoons assailed 
 them. Cameron prayed, and in his short prayer, 
 his thrice repeated expression was long remem- 
 bered : " Lord, spare the green, and take the 
 ripe.' 1 Stoutly did the Covenanters fight, but
 
 202 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 they were overpowered by numbers. Nine of 
 them were left dead on the field, two of whom 
 were Richard Cameron and his brother Michael. 
 Earlshall gave a guinea to one of his troopers to 
 cut off Mr Cameron's head and hands, and with 
 these as his booty ; and with Haxton of Ra- 
 thillet, John Pollock, and William Manuel, as his 
 prisoners, he set out on his march to Edinburgh. 
 At night Cameron's friends returned, and dug 
 a grave in which they buried his headless body, 
 and the eight who had fallen with him. It was 
 to this grave that Peden repaired, and there be- 
 fore God poured out his lamentations and prayers. 
 In strains worthy of the occasion, the gifted 
 authoress of the " Lays of the Kirk and Cove- 
 nant," has commemorated that affecting scene : 
 
 " There came a worn and weary man to Cameron's 
 
 place of rest, 
 He cast him down upon the sod, and smote upon his 
 
 breast; 
 He wept, as only strong men weep, when weep they 
 
 must or die, 
 
 And, ' to be tef thee, Ritchie,' was still his hitter cry. 
 ***** 
 
 " ' I hless Thee for the quiet rest, Thy servant taketh 
 
 now; 
 I bless Thee for his blessedness, and for his crowned 
 
 brow;
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 203 
 
 For every weary step he trod, in faithful following 
 
 Thee, 
 And for the good fight fonghten well, and closed right 
 
 valiantly. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Upon the wild and lone Airsmoss, down sank the 
 
 twilight grey, 
 In storm and cloud the evening closed, upon that 
 
 cheerless day ; 
 But Peden went his way refreshed, for peace and joy 
 
 were given ; 
 And Cameron's grave had proved to him the very gate 
 
 of Heaven." 
 
 Old Patrick Walker, the pedlar, tells us there is 
 " a large grave-stone upon four high pillars, with 
 Cameron's name upon the head of it, and the 
 form of an open Bible before him, and the names 
 of the other eight round the sides of it. And 
 downward upon the same stone was the follow- 
 ing inscription, all in very legible letters : 
 
 " Halt, curious passenger, come here and read, 
 Our souls triumph, with Christ our glorious head, 
 In self-defence we murdered here do ly, 
 To witness 'gainst the nation's perjury.' 
 
 In the year 1723, when I came from Mr Peden's 
 grave-stone at Cumnock, I came to Airsmoss to 
 that grave-stone, and stayed some time in that 
 bloody spot, and can assert the truth of this."
 
 204 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Close by the old flat grave-stone a modern 
 monument has been raised, to testify that in our 
 day there exists a wide-spread sympathy with 
 Cameron's contendings, and that it is to those 
 principles for which he struggled and died that 
 we owe our boasted privileges and liberties. The 
 modern monument stands a bright object amid 
 the dark muirlands, and the sun as it goes down 
 "beyond the hill where Lugar flows," gilds with 
 slanting beam the fresh chiselled sand-stone 
 pinnacles. 
 
 The Lord has different kinds of witnesses, and 
 each is needed in his own place. While Richard 
 Cameron is thus contending on the high places of 
 the field, there is a little girl of good family iu 
 Falkland, meekly and firmly maintaining the 
 same testimony, and, like aflo wer, shedding sweet- 
 ness all around her. Her father was proprietor 
 of the estate of Templelands, at present a small 
 pendicle in the neighbourhood of the town, but 
 then an extensive property, and he was clerk 
 to the King's Stewartry of Fife. Her name was 
 Emilia Geddie. She was born at Falkland in 
 1665, and she died in 1681 at the early age of 
 sixteen. Her precocity, both in parts and in 
 piety, is truly marvellous. When only about
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 205 
 
 five years of age she said to her teachers, when 
 learning the Shorter Catechism, " / think the 
 Bible is God's word, and the Catechism is the 
 Bible's word." She had a perfect and clear up- 
 taking of the great principles for which the 
 Church was then struggling, and she had the 
 heroic fortitude which faith gives to suffer for 
 them. Her father was plied by some of those 
 declarations which Government employed to en- 
 trap unwary souls into apostacy, and he was 
 threatened with loss of place, and loss of goods, 
 and with imprisonment in case of refusal. He 
 spoke in the hearing of bis daughter of the pain- 
 ful position in which he was placed. This little 
 girl, then only eight years old, with a gracious 
 heroism encouraged her parent. "Don't com- 
 ply," she said. "Although they take all from 
 us, let us live by faith and God will provide for 
 us. As for herself, she was willing to go and 
 serve some lady, that would give her meat and 
 old clothes, and all her wages she would give 
 for the support of her parents." Thus to its 
 very letter was the word fulfilled, " Out of the 
 month of babes and sucklings bast thou ordained 
 strength because of thine enemies, that thou 
 mightest still the enemy and the avenger." And
 
 206 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 so the enemy and the avenger was stilled by a 
 child's voice. Mr Geddie remained faithful. 
 His prelatic persecutors cast him into prison, 
 but the prayer of. his child prevailed with God, 
 and he was at length liberated. 
 
 She had personal as well as relative reproach 
 to bear for her principles. In the ninth year of 
 her age, when going to school, she was assailed 
 by some rude boys, who beat her cruelly, " be- 
 cause she would not swear to them, that she 
 would be no more a Whig, but go to church and 
 hear the curate. " If at any time she would speak 
 to any of her companions for breaking the Sab- 
 bath, or any other wrong-doing, they would only 
 laugh at her, and call her "a strange young 
 Whig." 
 
 Once she was assailed with a temptation of 
 Satan. She was enabled to overcome, and by a 
 natural reaction, joy and gladness took the place 
 of dejection. With a watchful and discriminating 
 tenderness she observed, "Soon after, I was so 
 plagued with lightness of heart, that to be rid of 
 it, I could have wished to be in my former 
 tempted condition. " 
 
 She had been staying at Kirkcaldy and spend- 
 ing a Sabbath there, when she met with some
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 207 
 
 persons whose religious life consisted merely in 
 hearing sermons. She said, " These people are 
 like to some horses, which pall a great deal of 
 fodder from the rack, and tread it under their 
 feet, eating little or nothing of it. We should be 
 like the horses which eat what they pull down." 
 
 She had an innocent delight in contemplating 
 nature, and in watching the instincts and actions 
 of the inferior animals. Her pet employment 
 was to tame and feed birds. This observation 
 she made for herself, which has escaped the 
 notice of many older minds, " that birds drink 
 none before they can fly for it," and in this she 
 saw the wise and wonderful arrangement of God. 
 
 But the wind that withereth the flowers passed 
 over her in the end of 1680. Her decline was 
 gradual, although her suffering was often great. 
 " I am not weary of my bed," she said, " for my 
 bed is green, and all that I meet with is perfumed 
 with love to me. The time, night and day, is 
 made sweet to me by the Lord. When it is even- 
 ing it is pleasant ; and when it is morning I am 
 refreshed." 
 
 The year 1681 still found her lingering. At 
 length, on a Sabbath, the call came : " About 
 eight o'clock at night her attendants, thinking
 
 208 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 that she was just expiring, called for a light. 
 She smiled, and said, ' I shall not die yet ; for I 
 want that promised presence of God which I 
 have long believed I shall have in the moments 
 of death.' She gave solemn counsels to her com- 
 panions, and about two hours before her death, 
 with her eyes and hands towards heaven, and 
 sitting up in her bed, she pleaded the promises 
 God had spoken to her heart, and implored mer- 
 cies for herself, her parents, and the suffering 
 church and people of God." She then lay quietly 
 down waiting for death. Thus died this youthful 
 and faithful witness for Christ and his suffering 
 cause. 
 
 Two memorials of Emilia Geddie remain in 
 good condition in Falkland". There is the house 
 in which she lived, which belonged to her father. 
 It may be seen in the wynd which bears the name 
 of Sharpe's Close a substantial three-storeyed 
 house. Inserted beside the door is a deeply 
 sculptured stone with heraldic emblems with 
 the initials, " W.S. J.W. 1727," and the motto 
 " Diligeutia et vigilantia." The initials indicate 
 William Stevenson and Jean Wallace. The 
 latter was related to Mrs Geddie, and seems to 
 have inherited the Geddie property. There is
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 209 
 
 also Emilia's Grave. It is on the east wall of 
 the burial ground. It is surrounded by a low 
 wall and balustrade. On the pillars at the 
 entrance are J.G. (John Geddie) A.W. (Ann 
 Wallace) : 1691. The grave-stone, with its 
 epitaph, seems the erection of William Stevenson 
 and his wife. 
 
 Among the persecuted ministers who preached 
 in the neighbourhood of Falkland, in the solitude 
 of the Lomonds, or under the cover of the woods, 
 were Mr John Blackadder, Mr John Wellwood, 
 Mr John Welsh of Irongray, and Mr Donald 
 Cargill. In illustration of the great fatigue 
 which these men often underwent, we may read 
 what Kirkton has written regarding Mr Welsh 
 " I have known him ride," says Kirkton, "three 
 days and two nights without sleep, and preach 
 on a mountain at midnight on one of the nights." 
 Mr Welsh was often hid in the house of Moncrieff 
 of Reedie at Myres. On one occasion, he and 
 the curate of Falkland had a small encounter. 
 The curate was accustomed to boast of the large 
 number of communicants on his roll an inglo- 
 rious boast, seeing that it was brought about 
 entirely by pressure from without, compelling 
 the people by authority to attend his ministry,
 
 210 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 or seducing them by motives of worldly interest. 
 However, he boasted of it, and was lifted up by it. 
 Nothing would satisfy him but that he would 
 meet Mr Welsh and refute his doctrine. In this 
 vapouring humour he came to the wood of Falk- 
 land, where Mr Welsh was preaching to a multi- 
 tude of people, assembled from different parts of 
 the country. In these days the Word of God 
 was precious to the persecuted Presbyterians; 
 and when the curate attempted to speak, the 
 assembled people, intolerant of the interruption 
 of the service, would have treated him roughly 
 had not Mr Welsh come to his rescue. 
 
 Despite of all the attempts to repress a testi- 
 mony for the cause of Christ in Falkland, some 
 noble instances of individual faithfulness occur. 
 Wodrow mentions the sufferings of Thomas 
 Thomson, in Easter Conland, in Falkland. Be- 
 cause he would not conform to Episcopacy he 
 was fined 100 sterling, soldiers were quartered 
 on him, and at last he was obliged to leave his 
 farm with his wife and family, and to hide and 
 wander until the Revolution came and restored 
 liberty. 
 
 Among all the individual portraitures which 
 connect themselves with Falkland, none is more
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 211 
 
 graceful and interesting than that of Lady 
 Catherine Hamilton, Dnchess of Athole. She 
 was the pions daughter of a pious mother. While 
 yet "in the prime of earliest youth," at the 
 engaging age of nineteen, her private papers 
 show her dealing closely with the Lord, and 
 covenanting with Him. Her piety she brought 
 with her as her richest dower, when, in her 
 twenty-first year, she was married to the eldest 
 son of the Marquis of Athole, John, Lord 
 Murray, who was created first Duke of Athole. 
 Falkland had about the year of the Restoration, 
 1660, passed into the power of the Athole family. 
 In room of the sovereignty of the Isle of Man, 
 they had received 70,000 along with the heredi- 
 tary keepership of the Palace of Falkland, and 
 the Palace bolls, which amounted to the annual 
 value of 1200. In 1689 the Duchess and her 
 husband resided there. Her attachment to the 
 oppressed Presbyterian Church of Scotland was 
 one of principle. Both principle and piety 
 had attached her warmly to the non-conforming 
 Church of Scotland, and when the Revolution of 
 1688 came, opening the door for the restoration 
 of the faithful Presbyterian ministers to their 
 charges, we find her in her Diary, dated Falkland,
 
 212 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 May 9, 1691, manifesting her concern regarding 
 the appointment of a minister to the parish. 
 " O Lord, help me always to remember thy 
 goodness to me. Thou hast many times pre- 
 vented me with thy mercies and disappointed 
 my fears, and now again lately, I have had 
 another proof of it. Thou only knowest what a 
 burden it was to me, the fear I was in that my 
 husband should have obstructed a good minister 
 being settled in this place, and now, glory to 
 God that has given me to see him the main, nay, 
 I may say the only instrument of bringing a 
 godly minister, the Rev. Mr John Forrest, to this 
 place. O Lord ! grant he may, in the first place, 
 reap the benefit of his ministry to himself, and 
 bless it in a special manner to him, that he, find- 
 ing the good of it, may yet be more instrumental 
 in bringing in good ministers to the places he 
 has interest in." Mr Forrest's connexion with 
 Falkland was a short one, for, in 1692, we find 
 him succeeded by Mr SelkrSg. 
 
 It is most satisfactory to observe how deeply 
 rooted the faith of this pious lady was in the 
 essential doctrines of grace. Around the " sure 
 covenant" her thoughts and desires were ever 
 hovering, " O Lord, I come unto thee for thou
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 213 
 
 art the Lord my covenanted God. Thoa knowest 
 that this day I know not of any fraud or guile 
 in this declaration." Again she writes, "I did, 
 thou knowest, O Lord, with the sincerity of my 
 soul, accept of the Lord as my covenanted God, 
 and did most earnestly entreat the assistance of 
 the Holy Spirit and strength to be with me for 
 ever, that I may never go out of thy way, but be 
 helped to live uprightly and holily all the days of 
 my appointed time." 
 
 This well-ordered covenant, which had been 
 her solace through life, was her strength at death. 
 When Mr Findlater, the minister, attended her 
 when she died, at Hamilton in 1707, in the 45th 
 year of her age, he brought the everlasting cove- 
 nant to her thoughts, as a strong refuge, and the 
 last words he heard her utter were, " That is all 
 my salvation and all my desire." 
 
 The excellence of this noble woman is seen in 
 the regard her husbandcherished for her memory, 
 and in the influence which her gentle piety had 
 in binding him to the covenanted Church of 
 Scotland, even when he changed his politics and 
 party, and joined the Tories in the reign of 
 Queen Anne.
 
 214 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 On the battlements of the Palace, immediately 
 above the gateway, there is a stone with the fast 
 fading but pious inscription, "Deus dat cui 
 vult" God gives to whom he pleases. This 
 motto was verified when, in 1715, the Palace 
 became the temporary abode of the Highland 
 freebooter, Rob Roy Macgregor. Taking ad- 
 vantage of the unsettled state of the country, 
 occasioned by the rebellion on behalf of the 
 Pretender, Rob, who was no Pretender, thought 
 it a good time to pay the Lowlands a visit on 
 his own account. He came to Fife, and took up 
 his quarters for a time in the Palace, overawing 
 the neighbourhood, and making his own exac- 
 tions. 
 
 Rob Roy, in the royal Palace of Falkland, 
 seems as little at home as he is in Wordsworth's 
 poetry. Of Wordsworth's poem we give the only 
 portion for which our readers will thank us
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 215 
 
 " A famous man is Robin Hood, 
 The English ballad-singers' joy ; 
 
 And Scotland has a thief as good 
 
 An outlaw of as daring mood 
 She has her brave Rob Roy ! 
 
 Then clear the weeds from off his grave, 
 
 And let us chant a passing stave 
 
 In honour of that hero brave. 
 Heaven gave Rob Roy a dauntless heart, 
 
 And wondrous length and strength of arm ; 
 Nor craved he more to quell his foe, 
 
 Or keep his friends from harm." 
 
 The Palace motto saw another strange fulfil- 
 ment when the Palace became the abode of the 
 Presbyterian minister. Vicissitude most strik- 
 ing ! While the Stuart race are dying out in exile, 
 their ancestral balls cover, and their ancestral 
 hearths warm, an incumbent of that church 
 which they sought to extinguish. As late as 
 1808 the Palace was used as the dwelling of the 
 parochial minister. 
 
 The Falkland of thirty years ago was different 
 from the Falkland of the present day. We can 
 see it now, as we saw it then, for the first time. 
 The shadows were falling on its empty square 
 the fountain was sending forth its pure waters, 
 not as now in separate jets, but in one vigorous
 
 216 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 unbroken gush, which made the large stone 
 trough to boil with the agitation, and which 
 filled the otherwise silent square with its mono- 
 tonous and lulling sound. The old barn-looking 
 church, with its outside stair and brown shut- 
 tered windows, stood near it. lu passing through 
 the town the eye is struck with the old dates 
 which many of the lintels display. In the Mill 
 Wynd there is a cottage with 1680 above the 
 door the year when Charles II. was reigning 
 as an absolute monarch, and when the Parlia- 
 ment of England were discussing a bill to ex- 
 clude the Duke of York from the succession. In 
 the Cross Wynd there is an old lintel dated 1686 
 the year after Charles II. had died, and when 
 James II. was plotting to restore the Popish 
 religion. In the main street there is the well- 
 to-do looking house of the merchant burgess, 
 Lawson, presenting on its front a pair of scales, 
 and the year 1696 when William III., after 
 the death of his beloved Mary, sat securely on 
 the British throne. 
 
 The Maspie Burn separates the royal burgh 
 of Falkland from the barony of Balmblae. This 
 barony of old belonged to a family of the name 
 of Carmichael. The walls that enclosed the
 
 WITH FALKLAND. 217 
 
 garden attached to the family residence still 
 stand, and the arched door-way of entrance is 
 still visible. The people of Falkland say that 
 the Balmblae House contained in its day the 
 finest dining-room in Fife. 
 
 Amid these minor items, let hs not overlook 
 the fine motto which encircles the town arras a 
 deer crouching beneath a spreading tree Cole 
 temperantiam et non contemne Christum : Prac- 
 tise temperance, and do not despise Christ. 
 
 Leaving Falkland by the east, we may ob- 
 serve, close by the present schoolhouse, a large 
 stone deep sunk in the ground. This stone is 
 known to this day as the " Liquor Stone." On 
 this stone funeral companies were in the habit 
 of placing the coffin, while drink was supplied to 
 refresh them, in bearing the body to the church- 
 yard. 
 
 "We pass through the sweet-lying village of 
 Newton of Falkland, regaled by the gleam of 
 the Balreavie Burn, and by the cawing of the 
 rooks amid the old trees of Lathrisk, and we 
 arrive at
 
 218 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 A quaint old place is Frenchie. Its frequent 
 squares, and courts, and bullet-paved closes, and 
 tortuous streets, give it a character of its own. 
 Among the villages of Scotland we know no one 
 like it. These twisting, narrow, and orderless 
 streets represent a time when there were no 
 wheel carriages, and when all journeys were 
 performed on horseback, and when all goods 
 were conveyed by pack horses. 
 
 Freuchie lay beyond the precincts of the Court 
 at Falkland, and it is to this fact that we are to 
 look for the meaning of the proverbial saying, 
 "Go to Freuchie." The disgraced courtier, 
 when he got his dismissal, was sent there. The 
 good people of Freuchie have an explanation 
 more complimentary to their village, although 
 we fear it will be regarded as apocryphal by 
 every one but themselves. They say that in the 
 time of the Kings there lived a very wise man
 
 WITH FREUCHIE. 219 
 
 at Freuchie, and that the King, when puzzled 
 with any subject that was too much for him, 
 wonld command some of his attendant courtiers 
 " to go to Freuchie," and get the counsel of the 
 Freuchie sage. 
 
 Freuchie has its own memories to record. In 
 what is called the Parliament Close, the walls 
 of an old barn still stand where, during ' the 
 killing times" in 1685, a body of Covenanters 
 were lodged, on their way to the dungeons of 
 Dnnnottar. There they were held in fast prison, 
 and there many of them died. 
 
 Tradition says that Rob Roy's gillies made 
 very free with the goods of the villagers. In 
 one house the very burial bread, which had been 
 prepared for a funeral, was carried off by them. 
 A horse was taken from J. Lumsden's stable to 
 carry Rob's " ill gotten gear " to Perth ; but in 
 a fit of honesty, for which Rob often prided him- 
 self, the horse was returned. 
 
 Two characteristic stories illustrate the differ- 
 ing conditions of Falkland and Freuchie. Falk- 
 land, as a " burgh of ancient charter proud," 
 rejoices in her municipal privileges. After 
 an election of bailies, a burgess who bad been 
 elected to that high office, enters his byre
 
 220 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 with all his blushing honours fresh upon him, 
 and approaching his cow addressed her, in the 
 fullness of his heart, " Ah, crummie, crummie, 
 ye're naea common coo noo, ye're a bailie's coo, 
 ma woman." Freuchie's interests, on the other 
 hand, were with the unfranchised. The hope of 
 her villagers was with forthcoming reform. In 
 those days of high excitement, the Freuchie 
 weaver, getting hold of an all-absorbing news- 
 paper, casts the care of crummie on his wife, 
 " Jenny, attend you here to the coo, and let me 
 attend to the affairs of the nation." 
 
 ONE feels relieved in finding that, after all, 
 Kettle has nothing to do with pots and pans. 
 Its original name is Cattul, a compound Celtic 
 word, which signifies the battle of the stream. 
 Very likely the word commemorates some for- 
 gotten battle fought on the banks of the Eden 
 long, long ago, when the fortifications in the 
 East Lomond could tell their own story. 
 A tradition survives of a battle fought at Hole
 
 WITH KETTLE. 221 
 
 Kettle with the Danes, and stone coffins have 
 been found there. Who knows but that this for- 
 gotten battle of Cattul may have been the battle 
 in which the incident took place, which gave to 
 Scotland the thistle as the national emblem ? 
 It may have been that, coming along from their 
 camp at Daneshelt, or down from their fort at 
 Norman's Law, the Danes, under the silence and 
 the darkness of night, intended to surprise the 
 Scottish army, and that one of their number 
 planting his bare foot on a thistle, cried out 
 under the sudden pain, and so by the alarm saved 
 the Scottish army. 
 
 A later tradition explains how the old name 
 of Cattul was modernized into Kettle. The 
 story goes that one of the Kings, hunting in the 
 myres of Kettle came upon a beautiful spring 
 of pure water bubbling up. The King alighted 
 from bis horse, and admiring and drinking of 
 the spring, his fancy struck with the resem- 
 blance which it had to a boiling pot, and in- 
 dulging itself in an innocent pun on the name 
 Cattnl, dubbed it the King's Kettle. 
 
 The east part of the parish of Kettle rises into 
 the wild upland. There, even at this day, a 
 feeling of loneliness takes possession of one. You
 
 222 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 find yourself amid solitary fields, resounding in 
 early spring with the cry of the plover, diversified 
 only by the ploughman bending over his share, 
 and bounded by a horizon of hill, out of which 
 Clatto Knock, and Down Law, and Glass Law, 
 and the bulkier and more distant Largo Law 
 rise as forts. Near to the farm house of Clatto, 
 on a grassy bank of uncommon verdure, there 
 are two venerable ash trees, which have sur- 
 vived the storms of many generations. These 
 trees indicate the spot where stood centuries ago 
 the Castle of Clatto. A beautiful situation the 
 castle had, looking down into the den with its 
 tiny streamlet. 
 
 It is a spot which might fitly appropriate to 
 itself the exquisite lines of Wordsworth 
 
 " Meek loveliness is round thee spread, 
 
 A softness still and holy ; 
 The grace of forest charms decayed, 
 And pastoral melancholy." 
 
 Yet, amid these still scenes, there lived in this 
 old tower the lawless family of the Setons a 
 father and six sons, who were wont to issue forth 
 from the caverns in the den, and rob the passing 
 traveller. , 
 
 It chanced that James IV. passed that way in
 
 WITH KETTLE. 223 
 
 one of his wandering excursions. Two of the 
 young Setons, not knowing him to be the King, 
 rushed forth upon him at a turn of the den. The 
 King, who was an expert swordsman, stoutly 
 defended himself, and in the scuffle cut off the 
 hand of one of his assailants. The wounded 
 man withdrew, and his brother, not thinking it 
 safe to maintain the combat with such an as- 
 sailant, also made off. The King dismounted 
 and picked up the bloody hand. Next day, 
 returning with a body of attendants he called at 
 the Castle. Old Clatto put on a show of wel- 
 come. The King inquired for his sons. Four 
 appeared, one was from home and the other was 
 sick. The King desired to see the sick man, 
 objections and apologies were offered, but the 
 King's word prevailed. Placing himself by the 
 bed, the King wished to feel the sick man's arm. 
 The whole arm is offered. " Let me try the 
 other," said the King. Reluctantly was the 
 maimed arm produced. " Ah !" said the King, 
 "You have lost a hand, probably I can fit 
 you," and out he brings the stiffened hand. 
 The evidence was conclusive. The assize was 
 short. The execution was speedy. In an hour 
 the old laird and his five sons were hanging
 
 224 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 dead from the ash trees which surrounded their 
 dwelling. 
 
 Before the [Reformation, and up to the year 
 1636, the Parish Chnrch was situated at Lath- 
 risk. In the days of Popery the church belonged 
 to the priory of St Andrews, and William Myre- 
 town, perpetual Vicar of Lathrisk, founded the 
 Collegiate Church of Crail in 1517. The east 
 part of the parish was supplied by a chapel at 
 Kettle. The Church lands of Chapel were, by 
 James Earl of Murray, when Prior of St An- 
 drews in 1558, " disponed to John Arnot and 
 his heirs, declaring that he and his progenitors 
 had been possessors of those lands past memory 
 of man." Three hundred years are now added 
 to the above date, and still the lands are pos- 
 sessed by an Arnot. 
 
 Mr William Cranstoun was minister of Kettle 
 at the time that King James VI. was endea- 
 vouring to pave the way for the prelatic power 
 of the bishops, by making them constant mode- 
 rators of the Presbytery and Synod. At a 
 meeting of the Synod of Fife, held at Dysart on 
 the 18th of August 1 607, Mr Cranstoun " did an 
 honest and stout part" in maintaining the liberty 
 of the Church. Lord Lyndsay, Lord Holyrood-
 
 WITH KETTLE. 225 
 
 house, and Lord Scoon, had come to attend the 
 Synod as Commissioners from his Majesty, with 
 the view of having Bishop Gladstanes appointed 
 constant moderator. It was Mr Cranstoun's 
 duty, as the moderator appointed by the last 
 Synod, to preach the opening sermon. But 
 Bishop Gladstanes and the King's Commissioners 
 had determined to pnsh aside the Synod's mode- 
 rator, and to have a nominee of their own to 
 preach the sermon. Mr Cranstoun, ignorant of 
 all this, was in the Session-house composing his 
 thoughts for the service, while the people were 
 assembling in the church and the psalms were 
 singing. Feeling the air in the Session-house 
 to be close, he went to the pnlpit, " partly for 
 more open air, partly that his affection might be 
 stirred up with singing the psalms." While he 
 is sitting in the pnlpit a messenger is sent to him 
 with a letter, but his thoughts are engaged with 
 the worship, and without opening the letter he 
 thrusts it into his pocket. Soon after, another 
 messenger ascends the pulpit with a verbal order 
 from the Lords the Commissioners to Mr Cran- 
 stouu, to leave the pnlpit. He replied "that he 
 came to that place in the name of a greater Lord, 
 whose message he had not yet discharged."
 
 226 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Next came one of the bailies of the town, 
 whispering to Mr Cranstoun that he was com- 
 manded by the Lords to desire him to come 
 down. " And I command you in the name of 
 God," said Mr Cranstoun boldly, " to sit down 
 in your own seat and hear what God will say 
 to you by me." The bailie obeyed. Last of all 
 came the Netherland Consul, saying that the 
 Lords had appointed another to preach. " But 
 the Lord," said Mr Craustoun resolutely, " and 
 His Kirk have appointed me." And so he entered 
 on prayer and preached. 
 
 After sermon, the members of Synod were 
 threatened with a charge of horning, whereby 
 they would be denounced as rebels should they 
 refuse to vote the office of constant Moderator 
 to the Bishop. " The brethren answered seve- 
 rally, that they would rather abide homing, and 
 all that can follow thereupon, then lose the liberty 
 of the Kirk." By such strict and self-denying 
 resistance of Erastian encroachment, has Pres- 
 byterianism achieved its scriptural and consti- 
 tutional freedom in Scotland. 
 
 This worthy and faithful minister of Kettle, 
 Mr William Cranstoun, was too uncompromising 
 to escape the wrath of the Bishops. When an
 
 WITH KETTLE. 227 
 
 old man, he was deprived of his charge by Arch- 
 bishop Spottiswoode, through the Court of High 
 Commission, in 1620. 
 
 Near to where the present house of Chapel 
 stands, there stood the old house of Bankton. 
 The old trees, which still grow, cast their 
 shadows over it. On the lintel of the garden 
 door was engraved the significant motto, " A 
 weighty man ne'er wants a weapon." In 1679 
 James Russell was the proprietor of Bankton 
 and Kettle. He belonged to that class of men 
 of whom Scotland in his day reared many who 
 feared God and loved the Gospel of Christ, and 
 who esteemed it a duty ever to be maintained in 
 the face of all hardship, to defend the principles 
 of Christ's Church and the liberties of their 
 country. This house often missed its master, 
 for because of his principles he was often obliged 
 to bide, to escape imprisonment and fines. Often 
 was he driven to associate with resolute spirits 
 like himself, frequenting the lonely moors to en- 
 joy a preached Gospel, and sometimes drawing 
 the sword when need was, and fighting valiantly 
 as Christian men for liberty and life. Saturday, 
 3d May 1679, saw a band of these resolute men 
 gathering on the uplands to the south of Cupar.
 
 228 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 James Russell was there, and so was his neigh- 
 bour, John Balfour of Kinloch, known as Bnrley, 
 and Balfour's kinsman, Hackston of Rathillet, 
 and the Hendersons of Kilbrackmont, and George 
 Fleming of Balbethell, and William Dingwall, 
 aftasDaniel, alias Danziel, of Caddam, killed after- 
 wards at Drumclog. They were all well mounted, 
 and each carried his sword and pistols. The ob- 
 ject of their quest was Cannichael, an Edinburgh 
 bankrupt, who, armed with power from Govern- 
 ment to fine and imprison all who attended field 
 preaching, was like a wolf desolating the county. 
 They missed the servant, but they found the 
 master. For when about to separate they were 
 told that the Archbishop of St Andrews was 
 near, and soon they saw his lumbering coach 
 descending the ridge of the hill near Blebo Mains. 
 Questions of casuistry, which might puzzle 
 learned clerks in their study, are often unhesitat- 
 ingly disposed of, in the time of action, by honest 
 and intrepid minds. They felt the persecution 
 raised against themselves and their unoffending 
 brethren throughout the land as not only a 
 violation of Christianity and law, but as an out- 
 rage on humanity. They regarded Sharpe and 
 all his party "by their bloody doings to be
 
 WITH KETTLE. 229 
 
 bloodsuckers, murderers, and open-declared 
 enemies to God and man," as at war with their 
 country, and as in time of war, they thought it 
 just to pursue them to death. Sharpe they 
 esteemed as the head and heart of the persecu- 
 tion. Seeing him thus cast unexpectedly in their 
 way, they made haste and did not delay. 
 
 Russell was the first to spur his horse after 
 the retreating coach. He unclasps his cloak and 
 throws it from him, and coming up to the car- 
 riage he fires his pistol into it, and then cuts the 
 traces. It was Russell who, when the deed was 
 done, pronounced with a free drawn breath, 
 " He's dead now." 
 
 It is a singular enough fact that all those who 
 were active in putting the Archbishop to death, 
 such as Russell and Burley, escaped with their 
 life ; while Hackston of Rathillet, who stood aloof 
 and refused to have any part in it, and poor 
 Andrew Gulland, who was innocently and acci- 
 dentally present, and who only looked on, were 
 both executed on the charge of being the Arch- 
 bishop's murderers.
 
 230 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 HE who would try the strength of his lungs, may 
 breast the East Lomond on a breezy spring day, 
 and cross to Leslie. This was once the highway 
 betwixt Falkland and Holyrood. Many a foot- 
 man has run with his message, and many a 
 knight has pushed his charger, across this moun- 
 tain tract. 
 
 The climber will be repaid by a magnificent 
 view on either side. Northward is the Howe of 
 Fife, dark with fir woods, studded with villages 
 and farm steads, begirdled by the Ochils, and 
 traversed by the sounding rail car, with its coil- 
 ing smoke. Southward is the smiling coast of 
 Fife and the expanding Firth, bright with the 
 dazzling sun gleam. 
 
 Leslie lies at our feet, and it is there we are 
 going. How well it looks from this ! Its double
 
 WITH LESLIE. 231 
 
 line of streets stretching along its own miniature 
 ridge, the Leven coursing past in its dark bed, 
 that fringe of noble beech trees, and the house 
 of Rothes, reflecting its manorial dignity on the 
 village. 
 
 It is vain to attempt to connect the name of 
 Leslie with the features of the place. Fetkill 
 was the original and descriptive name of the 
 parish. Leslie is a name brought with the 
 Rothes family, and affixed to the place. Let us 
 avail ourselves in this particular of the help of 
 Christopher Irvine, the faithful adherent of 
 Charles I. In his Scottish nomenclature, Chris- 
 topher says, "Thename Lesly is an old Highland 
 word signifying Lees-lye the share of a pleasant 
 field. So I believe it is an old Scots name and 
 not an Hungarian, as some do insinuate. Their 
 first lands was the barony of Lees-lye in the 
 Garioch." We have heard two lines of an old 
 ballad quoted as expressing the origin of the 
 name of Leslie, and we give them as an illustra- 
 tion of a loose popular explanation : 
 
 " Between the lees lea and the mere 
 He slew a man and left him there." 
 
 We leave it with the general antiquarian to 
 decide whether the Old Kirk of Leslie, part of
 
 232 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 which is built into the mausoleum of the Rothes 
 family, was the original of King James' poem, 
 " Christ's Kirk on the Green." On the green, and 
 not far from the gateway of the burial-ground, 
 may still be seen the Bull Stone, to which the 
 poor animals brought up for the bull fights, 
 were attached ; for this was a famous gathering- 
 place for these barbarous fights and games of 
 strength and skill. May it not be from this that 
 the parish was named Fetkill Fete kill, the 
 Church of the Games. It is true that there is 
 here a combination of the different languages of 
 Gaelic and French. But such heterogeneous com- 
 binations are occasionally met with, as in Falkirk 
 Vallum, a wall, and Kirk, the kirk built on the 
 old Roman wall Valkirk, Falkirk. A fighting 
 place Leslie seems to have been. The gateway to 
 Leslie House, at the foot of Leslie path, still bears 
 the name of the Barras Yett, or the Gate of Com- 
 bats. Here cock-fights took place in the presence 
 of the Duke and the villagers. So late as an hundred 
 years ago these games and fights were still prac- 
 tised. Since then, what had flourished under the 
 patronage of noble Dukes, fell under the manage- 
 ment of the chapmen, who had a society here. 
 They had their rough contests among themselves
 
 WITH LESLIE. 233 
 
 with bar, and putting-stone, and shinties, and 
 when "the malt got the better of the meal," 
 with fists. By degrees the fight extended to the 
 neighbouring towns, and scenes were enacted 
 worthy of Donuybrook. Mediaeval sports and 
 games look well in the fancy pages of a novelist, 
 but they brutalise the people by whom they are 
 practised. Better far is the modern volunteer 
 movement, which gathers up and disciplines for 
 the country's defence the fighting prowess and 
 propensities of every country side. 
 
 There is a house on the south side of the 
 principal street, and about the middle of it, in 
 which Burley and Russell, and others of their 
 companions, after putting Archbishop Sharpe to 
 death on Magus Muir, lodged all the night. 
 Probably they thought that by seeking shelter 
 near to the abode of the Duke of Rothes, who 
 was High Sheriff of Fife, their hiding-place might 
 escape suspicion. The present house bears the 
 date of 1681, having been rebuilt then in the 
 room of the old house. It still belongs to the 
 descendants of Thomas Webster, who in 1679 
 favoured and resetted the Archbishop's execu- 
 tioners. 
 
 The visitant of Leslie soon finds his attention
 
 234 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 concentrated on the Manor House. In the days 
 of its grandeur it formed a quadrangle resem- 
 bling Holyrood Palace, but outrivalling it, for 
 the picture gallery was three feet longer than 
 that of Holyrood. It was built by the Duke of 
 Rothes, in the hey-day of his prosperity, and 
 was burned down in 1763. The present house is 
 but a fragment of the former, having been re- 
 paired in 1767. 
 
 An old heritage were these woods and lands on 
 which you look, for they were granted in 1282. 
 But of the long line of noble proprietors let us 
 select three. First is Norman Leslie, a cadet 
 of the family, who sheathed his dagger in the 
 body of Cardinal Beaton, and whose gallant 
 bearing at the head of thirty Scottish Squires in 
 the battle of St Quentins, placed him high in the 
 lists of French chivalry. His charger fell be- 
 neath him, himself mortally wounded, was carried 
 to the King of France's tent, and there died in 
 1554. 
 
 The one of all the line to which the Scottish 
 Presbyterian turns with most interest is John, 
 sixth Earl. We have before us an engraving 
 taken from a painting by George Jamieson, 
 the distinguished Scottish painter, bearing
 
 WITH LESLIE. 235 
 
 the date 1625, when the Earl was in his 25th 
 year. There he stands, with his beaming eye 
 and delicate features, on which the play of 
 humour is seen, dressed in his peeked doublet, 
 trunk breeches, gartered hose, and resetted 
 slippers. Early and stoutly did he uptake the 
 cause of the Covenanted Church of Scotland. 
 Ready was he in debate, and often by his 
 sportive mirth did he conquer. He was the wit 
 of the Covenanting nobles. " Much quick speech, 
 especially from Rothes' month," writes fiaillie, 
 " past at the table" in General Arundel's tent, 
 where King Charles met commissioners from the 
 Scottish army. But wit alone is too light ballast 
 for the ship in a gale. The gay Rothes was for 
 a time tempted by Court preferment and pro- 
 mises. "The King, Charles L," says Burnet, 
 " gained the Earl of Rothes entirely, who hoped, 
 by the King's mediation, to have married the 
 Countess of Devonshire, a rich and magnificent 
 lady, that lived long in the greatest state of any 
 of that age." To effect this connection, in 
 which he failed, he is represented as deserting 
 his principles. This representation is not cor- 
 rect, for we have Mr George Hutcheson, a mini- 
 ster in Edinburgh, bearing this testimony to the
 
 236 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Earl of Rothes in 1656 : " All the lovers of 
 Christ in Scotland do with thankfulness remem- 
 ber their obligations to the Right Hon. the Earl 
 of Rothes, of precious memory, whom the Lord 
 raised up to be a prime instrument in the late 
 Reformation, and who spent himself, till his last 
 breath, in that public service." 
 
 His son, John, the seventh Earl, and after- 
 wards Duke of Rothes, attached himself to the 
 King, and was no friend of the Presbyterian 
 Church. He fought at the battle of Worcester, 
 September 3, 1651, as an officer in the Scots 
 army, on behalf of Charles II., and was there 
 taken prisoner and cast into the Tower. At the 
 Restoration, in 1660, Charles II. made Rothes 
 President of the Council, and manifested every 
 desire to shew him favour. But the favour of 
 Charles II. was ever purchased at a price so dear 
 that no true patriot could pay it, for his favour 
 was the price of the country's liberties and true 
 interests. Accordingly we find Rothes soon en- 
 gaged in most discreditable employment. The 
 Synod of Fife met in St Andrews, April 2, 1661 
 Mr David Forret, minister of Kilconquhar, 
 being the moderator. When the Synod were de- 
 liberating on an address to remind the people of
 
 WITH LESLIE. 237 
 
 the several parishes " of their oath to God in 
 covenant, in case that Episcopacy should again 
 be established in the land," the Earl of Rothes, 
 accompanied by the Laird of Ardross, and Bal- 
 fonr Beton, appeared, and commanded them, on 
 the pain of treason, to repair to their respective 
 homes. Mr Ferret followed Rothes to his cham- 
 ber, and told him that "few or none of the 
 Synod but had ministered the Covenant to hun- 
 dreds, and for himself, he had tendered it to 
 thousands, and if he should be silent at such a 
 time, and speak nothing for it, but betray the 
 people, he wist not what he deserved; hanging 
 were too little for him." 
 
 Rothes was natnrally a good tempered man. 
 He had nothing of the gall of the persecutor in 
 him. Had he not been goaded on by ambition 
 he would have shunned such work. This was 
 his first act of oppression, and all his better 
 feelings rose against it. "He professed to this 
 judicatory that it was sore against his will that 
 he came to that employment." Use will fami- 
 liarise him. Soon these feelings will cease to 
 trouble him. But a few months passed away, 
 when Rotbes suppressed the national Church 
 with less scruple than he did this provincial
 
 238 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Synod. " 1661, September 5, being Thursday, 
 the Chancellor, Glencairn, and the Earl of Rothes, 
 having come down from Court some days before 
 the Council of State sat at Edinburgh, and the 
 next day being Friday, they caused emit to be 
 proclaimed over the cross, a proclamation in his 
 Majesty's name for establishing Episcopacy again 
 in the Church of Scotland, which was done with 
 great solemnity, and afterwards printed. All, 
 whether men or women, were discharged to 
 speak against that office under the pain of 
 treason." 
 
 For his subserviency, honours were showered 
 down thick upon him. In 1664 he came from 
 London as his Majesty's Commissioner for 
 Scotland. For this he was to have 10 sterling 
 a-day for his table. In addition, he at the 
 same time held the offices of treasurer of the 
 kingdom, president of the Secret Council, Lord 
 General of all the Forces in Scotland, and 
 Keeper of the Great Seal for the time. In 1667 
 he was proclaimed Chancellor of Scotland. Titles 
 were multiplied for his special honour. Duke of 
 Rothes, Marquis of Ballenbreich, Earl of Leslie, 
 Viscount of Lugton, Lord Achmoutie and Coskie-
 
 WITH LESLIE. 239 
 
 berry. The whole culminated in a death-bed of 
 terror, and in a magnificent funeral in 1681. 
 
 When death came, the Duke sent for the 
 covenanting ministers, whom he had oppressed, 
 to pray with him. When Mr John Carstairs 
 came, the Duke told how heavy the words of 
 James Guthrie lay upon his conscience " We 
 all thought little of what that man did in ex- 
 communicating us, but I find that sentence 
 binding on me now, and it will bind to all 
 eternity." The Duke of Hamilton said " We 
 banish these men from us, and yet when dying 
 we call for them ; this is melancholy work." 
 Equally striking was the testimony of the 
 Popish Duke of York. When he heard that the 
 dying Rothes had sent for a Covenanting minis- 
 ter to pray with him, he said " All Scotland is 
 either Presbyterian through their life or at their 
 death, profess what they would." 
 
 Hanging on the walls of Leslie House there 
 are the painted shadows of three of the Duke's 
 chief associates. There is Dalziel of Binns, ar- 
 rayed in shining armour. However barbarous 
 his beard and dress might be when he neglected 
 both to remind him of bis vow to avenge the 
 death of Charles I., he appears, in this portrait,
 
 240 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 trimmed into the appearance of a veteran and 
 orderly soldier. His long, prominent, stern 
 features, shaded with his grey hairs, are of a 
 piece with his iron coat of mail in which he is 
 encased. 
 
 On the further side of the same wall is the 
 bloated, swollen, butcher-looking Duke of Lauder- 
 dale. He who started as a sainted Covenanter, 
 and, by a sliding scale of apostacy, died an in- 
 fidel. Betwixt the twohangs Archbishop Sharpe, 
 dressed in canonicals. He looks not unlike what 
 one of his contemporaries and co-presbyters said 
 of him, " The greatest knave that ever was in 
 the Kirk of Scotland." 
 
 These three were the men wh'o, in company 
 with the Duke, " drove and shook the ark of God 
 in the Philistines' cart," hurried the country into 
 risings, and by the very excess of their cruelties 
 and oppressions prepared the way for the glorious 
 Revolution of 1688. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to imagine a more beau- 
 tiful contrast than that which the character and 
 conduct of the Duchess of Rothes supplied to the 
 Duke's. Wodrow says of her, " She never had 
 a parallel for religion and every good thing in 
 her age." Even in the days of his unfaithfulness,
 
 WITH LESLIE. 241 
 
 the Puke's profligate heart ofttimes relented in the 
 presence of her injured meekness. A Christian 
 in heart, and a Presbyterian in principle, she re- 
 mained immovable amid Court smiles and Court 
 threatenings. All her influence was directed to 
 mitigate the persecutions of the afflicted Church, 
 and toprotectits humble members and adherents. 
 Leslie House itself ofttimes afforded an asylum to 
 the intercommuned minister. On such occa- 
 sions, when in good humour, the Duke would 
 give her a significant hint, " My lady, I would 
 advise you to keep your chickens in about, else 
 I may pick up some of them." Or, "My hawks 
 are to be out to-night, my lady, so you had bet- 
 ter take care of your blackbirds." On one occa- 
 sion forty individuals were seized attending a 
 conventicle at Glenvale, on the Lomond Hill, 
 and were carried before the Duke. " Put them," 
 said he, good huraouredly, " in Bailie Walker's 
 back room." The Bailie was a good man, and 
 in his back room private prayer meetings were 
 often held. When asked what more was to be 
 done to them, he answered, "Give them plenty 
 of meat and drink, and set them about their 
 business in the morning.' 1 One can scarcely re- 
 cognise the same individual in the Duke acting 
 
 Q
 
 242 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 in this kindly manner on his own domains, and 
 the Duke as President of the Secret Council, ex- 
 ulting over the unfortunate sufferer undergoing 
 the torture of the boot or screw, and savagely 
 ordering one twist more, or another touch. 
 
 The two daughters walked in the ways of their 
 mother. Lady Margaret, who inherited the 
 title of the Countess of Rothes and the estates, 
 and who was married to the Earl of Hadding- 
 ton, was a model of Christian virtue. She and 
 her husband resolutely eschewed the political 
 religion of the Duke, refused the test, and sted- 
 fastly supported the Presbyterian interest under 
 its persecutions. 
 
 Her son became the eighth Earl of Rothes. 
 He died young. An interesting memorial of his 
 death has been preserved to us by Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Blackadder, son of Mr Blackadder, the 
 outed Presbyterian minister, who in the days of 
 persecution, had sometimes been sheltered in 
 Leslie House. The following is the Colonel's 
 account : 
 
 " May 6th, 1722. Took a sudden resolution 
 again to go to Leslie, hearing my Lord is very 
 ill. Riding alone all the day ; serene, serious
 
 WITH LESLIE. 243 
 
 temper. Came to Leslie at night, and was 
 much affected, and I hope edified, seeing my 
 Lord's carriage. He called all his family to- 
 gether, and took leave of them solemnly ; re- 
 commended them to the serious study of religion 
 and holiness, as the one thing needful as that 
 alone which would make them happy in time and 
 to eternity, and that when they came to be in the 
 condition he was in (death looking them in the 
 face), they would see it to be so. Then he 
 prayed most fervently ; this was very affecting 
 to us all He shewed the greatest submission 
 and resignation ; and though he was in much 
 pain, yet the greatest patience, never uttering 
 the least fretting expression ; shewing a desire 
 to be gone, yet submitting to the will of God as 
 to the time. About eleven at night he caused 
 his son, Lord Leslie, read Psalm xxxiv. to him, 
 and as he went along, he repeated the emphati- 
 cal expressions, such as, / sought the Lord, he 
 heard me and delivered me, ffc. This poor man 
 cried, and the Lord heard him. O taste and see 
 that God is good, fyc. I left him about twelve, 
 being so much fatigued and affected that I 
 fainted away. 
 " I waited on my Lord next day, and it was
 
 244 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 well spent time. He shewed a lively faith, 
 trusting in God, relying upon his promises and 
 his faithfulness, and gave solid reasons of his 
 hope; declaring his full satisfaction with the 
 Gospel method of salvation ; and besought a 
 minister that was present and me to deal plainly 
 with him, and tell him if we thought he was 
 wrong, or if we thought his faith was true, and 
 right founded ; or if we thought it was presump- 
 tion. For my part I could not refuse to give 
 testimony to the Spirit of God, and to the truth 
 and reality of that gracious work of the Spirit, 
 which by all the skill and experience I had 
 in religion, I thought I saw in him. So we 
 encouraged him to go on believing, trusting, 
 relying. He spoke to excellent purpose dur- 
 ing the day ; was very pertinent and ready in 
 the Scriptures; prayed once I think publicly, 
 and often privately, with his eyes so fixed and 
 intent towards heaven, as if he were looking 
 into it, and reminded me of Stephen, Acts 
 vii. 55. 
 
 " He desired the physician, and he himself fre- 
 quently felt his pulse, not for the prolonging of 
 life, but to observe how fast he spent and 
 weakened ; and was not pleased when they pro-
 
 WITH LESLIE. 245 
 
 mised him long time to live ; telling us he had 
 no more to do here, and was well content to go 
 out of a vain, sinful world, and to be with Christ 
 which is far better This humility and good 
 nature he carried with him to the last ; and even 
 his brisk, cheerful temper, and pleasant way of 
 speaking. When they told him that one of his 
 physicians was gone, he said, smiling, 'The 
 doctor thinks I will not die to-night, but perhaps 
 I shall beguile him.' I sat up with him till 
 about one in the morning, and then I left him ; 
 for he pressed me to go, and said he would send 
 for me when he grew weak. 
 
 "May 9. Called in the morning, my Lord 
 being weak. This day he prayed once in public 
 with his family with great earnestness, recom- 
 mending them to God ; and prayed secretly, often 
 with fixed fervent looks towards heaven. As 
 he weakened, he began to be delirious, but when- 
 ever spiritual discourse was begun to him, he 
 immediately came to himself again, and joined 
 in it with the greatest seriousness, and he bade 
 us that were about him check him when we found 
 him wavering, which \ve took the freedom to do, 
 and which be took most kindly. About three 
 hours before his death, his thoughts began much
 
 246 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 to waver, and the fever seized his head, and he 
 became uneasy, but suddenly his spirit fled, and 
 he went away calmly with little struggle. In a 
 word, I never saw any man die more as a Chris- 
 tian hero, with so much natural fortitude, and 
 such lively faith. He was pleasant in his life, 
 and pleasant in his death. O keep the impres- 
 sion strong upon my heart for ever, of what I 
 hare seen and heard here !" 
 
 The names of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, 
 two of the Fathers of the Secession in 1733, 
 come in our way as incidentally connected with 
 Leslie. Ebenezer, about the time he was 
 licensed, acted as tutor to the Rothes family. 
 A stouter asserter and defender of Reformation 
 faith and Reformation principles Scotland has 
 not produced, in any age, than Ebenezer Erskine. 
 
 In the Leslie Churchyard, this epitaph on the 
 tombstone, of John Archer, and Agnes Walker, 
 his spouse, both of whom died in 1711, is said to 
 have been written by Ralph Erskine 
 
 " Here lies within this earthen ark, 
 
 An Archer grave and wise; 
 Faith was his arrow, Christ the mark, 
 And glory was the prize.
 
 WITH LESLIE. 
 
 His bow is now a harp, his song 
 
 Doth Halleluiahs 'dite ; 
 His consort, Walker, went along 
 
 To walk with Christ in white." 
 
 These lines have the genuine ring of "The 
 Gospel Sonnets," and " The Believer's Riddle." 
 But within the enclosures of the grave-yard 
 criticism is inclined to silence. The solemn 
 mystery of life is felt. All that bare heraldry, 
 or poetry, or sculpture can do seems insignificant 
 compared with the spiritual hope, honestly ex- 
 pressed by the humble Secession minister, whose 
 whole mind and affections were in close and 
 constant sympathy with the mind and heart of 
 God. 
 
 These historical notices are given as illustrative 
 of the piety and principle of Scotland. The piety 
 of a land is like the corn crops and the grass, 
 which grow up in a year, and are used up in a 
 year, for the sustenance of man and of cattle. 
 The principles of a land are like the tall and 
 spreading trees which adorn the valley, or 
 shelter the mountain side, and out of which tim- 
 ber is got to build churches, schools, and houses, 
 the halls of commerce, and the courts of justice.
 
 248 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED WITH LESLIE. 
 
 Every one that loves his country with an intelli- 
 gent love will desire that the memory of her 
 contendings, and the knowledge of her principles, 
 may never die out of the land. 
 
 END OF PART III.
 
 PART IV
 
 ,
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PROBABLY no city in Scotland is more vividly 
 and distinctly photographed on many minds than 
 this old city of St Andrews. Hundreds of edu- 
 cated men in all parts of the world, and of every 
 profession, well remember when first they heard 
 the long roll of the waves on the western sands, 
 and saw the old town standing on its rocky pro- 
 montory, with its steeples and ruined towers re- 
 lieved against the evening sky. The remem- 
 brance is indelible ; for it is connected with the 
 first separation from home, and with the first 
 realised conviction that life must be a work of 
 self-reliance and of labour. 
 This St Andrews is the Oxford of Scotland.
 
 252 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 As of Oxford, so of St Andrews, it may be said, 
 it is a town in a University. The academic 
 here prevails. The air and aspect of the city are 
 of Halls and Colleges. Not inappropriately did 
 Professor Tennant, the author of " Anster Fair," 
 say, " the very place provokes to study." Much 
 more so was this the case a few years ago than 
 now, for then St Andrews had not the jaunty 
 gaity of a frequented watering place, but the 
 sober and severe gravity of a studious retreat. 
 
 It is not easy to tell where first outgoings may 
 conduct. It was on a country walk that we first 
 set out to visit a few old castles, and ruined 
 abbeys, and to connect their grey walls with the 
 events which in olden times they had witnessed. 
 And now in the same historical search, we find 
 ourselves treading, in our country hobnails, the 
 streets of the once ecclesiastical metropolis of 
 Scotland. It is not to admire the symmetry of 
 arch or column, or to attempt to revive from their 
 ruins the architectural achievements of the past ; 
 it is not on an excursion of artistic gratification 
 that we have come. Our humble wish is to 
 stand on spots where heart has triumphed, to 
 allow the associations which arise unbidden to 
 envelope us, and there to meditate for a little
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 253 
 
 upon the faith and patriotism of the high-souled 
 witness - bearing which ennobled martyrs, and 
 which is still blessing their country. In the 
 harvest season no songster entertains ns with 
 melody, few wild flowers smile on our pathway, 
 because there is a larger song of praise and a 
 wider expanse of beauty ; the hills and valleys 
 wave with plenty, they also sing and shout to 
 God, for He has made them glad. Even so must 
 the aesthetic and artistic give place to the great 
 and the heroic. 
 
 And what appearance had this old city in those 
 days, when these scattered ruins stood in finished 
 beauty ? Even an unimaginative mind asks this 
 question, and forms its own picture. 
 
 Then rose the Cathedral, a completed struc- 
 ture with apse, naves, and aisle, with its Gothic 
 windows, its heavy buttresses, its niches and 
 their saintly statues, and its copper- covered roof, 
 shining under the sun-beams, a mark to ships far 
 out at sea. A wall, with round towers, gave 
 protection to the city ; and ports, with St Andrew 
 and his cross sculptured over their wide gates, 
 admitted carriages ; while the foot traveller went 
 in and out by the narrow postern. The College 
 of St Salvator, with its stately steeples, surveyed
 
 254 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 the city, which is chiefly composed of narrow 
 houses, with crow-stepped gables, covered with 
 reed. The Castle stood in its strength, looking 
 toward the sea, and guarded by fosse and port- 
 cullis. Three Colleges and three Monasteries 
 were scattered throughout the town, each stand- 
 ing within its own inclosure ; and six Churches 
 opened their doors for mass and confession. 
 
 The every- day aspect of St Andrews was then 
 picturesque enough, for it was made up of variety 
 and contrast. Shaven monks and hooded Friars, 
 the Cardinal flaunting in scarlet, and great digni- 
 taries of the Church in every variety of garb, 
 armoured knights and broad-frilled courtiers, a 
 student now and then, or a gowned regent, were 
 seen on its streets. Bells tolled at canonical hours, 
 and honest burghers dropped on their knees in 
 the presence of priestly processions bearing the 
 Host. 
 
 A more unusual commotion was awakened 
 when Royalty arrived, or when some political 
 combination brought together a band of nobles 
 and their armed retainers, or when the Senzie 
 Fair came round, and crowded the town with 
 peaceful merchants, intent on trafficking. 
 
 Such was the notable town of Sanct Androis, 

 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 255 
 
 as it stood in the pomp of ecclesiastical grandeur. 
 The Pope then ruled the Church, and the Church 
 in turn ruled the nation. 
 
 We purpose a more minute and leisurely sur- 
 vey, and we begin with the times nearing the 
 Reformation, which may be regarded as the 
 epoch of Scotland's real history. 
 
 Let us take our stand in presence of St Salva- 
 tor's College. 
 
 About the year 1450, the talk of the day 
 throughout Scotland was busied in discussing the 
 three great undertakings which the munificent 
 James Kennedy, Archbishop of St Andrews, was 
 engaged with. The first was what Lindsay of 
 Pitscottie calls " the triumphant College" of St 
 Salvator. The second was " his lair," or burying- 
 place, . including under that term the present 
 College Church, and the tomb which Kennedy 
 erected in it to receive his own mortal remains. 
 The third was the famous ship which he was 
 building, and which was called the Bishop's 
 Barge : " He knew not which of the three was 
 costliest ; for it was reckoned at the time by 
 honest men of consideration, that the least of 
 the three cost him ten thousand pounds sterling." 
 
 Under the eulogising pen of Lindsay, Bishop
 
 256 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Kennedy rises, as he well deserves, to the di- 
 mensions of a great scholar, a great patriot, and 
 a great Christian : " He was wondrous godly 
 and wise, and was well learned in divine sciences, 
 and practised the same to the glory of God." 
 He acted as councillor to James II., and as pre- 
 ceptor to James III., and died in 1466. 
 
 In front of this College of St Salvator the 
 martyr pile of Patrick Hamilton blazed, Septem- 
 ber 1525. On the morning of the day of his 
 martyrdom, Hamilton was conducted from his 
 prison-cell in the Castle, across to the Cathedral 
 Church. There, in the presence of James, 
 Archbishop Beaton, and of Bishops, Abbots, 
 Clerks, Grey Friars and Black, he was accused 
 of heresy by " ane black frier, callit Campbell." 
 Most nobly did Hamilton close his testimony by 
 these memorable words : "Nor yet believe I that 
 there is anything can save the soul of man save 
 only the blood of Christ, which ransom stands 
 not in earthly things, neither mass, matins, nor 
 dirges, but by repentance of our sins, and faith 
 in Jesus Christ." " What need we any farther 
 witness ?" say the Bishops and Kirkmen ; " we 
 ourselves have heard from his own mouth. He 
 denies the institution of the Holy Kirk, and the
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 257 
 
 authority of the Holy Father the Pope." And so 
 they condemn him. The same day which heard 
 the sentence pronounced, witnessed the execu- 
 tion of it. The time was short, and the sentence 
 sharp, as another Scottish martyr afterwards 
 said. " Foment this old College there was ane 
 great fire, and ane stake, and ane scaffold set, 
 whereon they put this innocent man, in presence 
 of the whole people." He speaks his last words 
 to the spectators, and offers up his last prayer to 
 God. The crackling flamnes do their work, and 
 in this fiery chariot bis spirit ascends to heaven. 
 Thus fell Scotland's protomartyr. By birth he 
 was related to the first families of the land. In 
 age he was a youth, for he had scarcely com- 
 pleted his twenty- fourth year. In scholarship 
 he excelled all his countrymen. This was the 
 first of a long series of martyr fires, in the light 
 of which alone yon can read Scotland's history 
 aright. 
 
 From the College onr steps conduct us to the 
 Castle. Bare and cold it stands on its headland, 
 showing the weather taints of many centuries, 
 listening alternately to the waves of ocean break- 
 ing at its base, and to the rude winds blustering 
 round its battlements. Its date goes back as far
 
 258 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 as to the year 1200, when Bishop Rogers built 
 it as his Episcopal Palace. Recent excavations 
 have exposed the fosse by which it was secured 
 as a place of strength in turbulent times. Within 
 its walls James I. was educated, and James III. 
 was born. But our present object is to recall it 
 as the scene of the captivity of that " maist 
 godlie, learned, and noble Scots martyr, Mr 
 George Wishart." 
 
 " This prison is an holy place, 
 And this sad floor an altar." 
 
 It was into the eastern, or sea tower, that George 
 Wishart was thrown, in January 1546; and there 
 he lay, straitly bound in irons, until the following 
 March. His crime was that he preached the 
 Word of God to be the only rule of faith, and 
 faith in Christ the only way of salvation. He 
 belonged to the Wisharts of Pittarrow, in For- 
 farshire, and is thus minutely and affectionately 
 described by one who was his pupil in Cam- 
 bridge: "Maister George Wischart was a man 
 of tall stature, polde-headed, and on the same a 
 round French cap of the best. Judged of me- 
 lancholy complexion by his physiognomy, black- 
 haired, long-bearded, comely of personage, well
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 259 
 
 spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous, 
 lowly, lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learn, 
 and was well travelled, having on him for his 
 habit or clothing, never but a mantle frieze gown 
 to the shoes, a black Milan fustian drnbbit, and 
 plain black hosiery, coarse new canvass for his 
 shirts, and white falling bands and cuffs at the 
 hands." There is an engraving taken from the 
 original painting by Holbein, which gives an im- 
 pression in some particulars different from the 
 above description. Great gentleness and ami- 
 ableuess is the prevailing expression in the coun- 
 tenance which it pourtrays. 
 
 The trial of this witness to the truth was in- 
 vested with much pomp and circumstance, so as 
 to strike all beholders with awe. The Lord- 
 Cardinal had caused his servants " to address 
 themselves in their most warlike array, with 
 jack, spear, and splint, and in warlike order to 
 convey the Bishops to the Abbey Church." Mr 
 George was conveyed by the Captain of the 
 Castle, " lyke to ane lamb going to be sacrificed." 
 As he entered the Church, a poor, lame beggar 
 lying at the door asked alms, to whom he gave 
 his purse. 
 
 Wynram, Dean of the Monastery, preached.
 
 260 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Sermon being ended, according to the order fol- 
 lowed in the trial of heresy, they caused George 
 Wishart to ascend a pulpit to listen to the articles 
 of his accusation. The old chroniclers speak of 
 the blustering threats and lying menaces of his 
 accusers, and contrast them with his meek an- 
 swers. The published reports of the trial more 
 than warrant their statements : " Runnagate," 
 " a heretic," " traitor," " thief," are some of the 
 epithets applied to the gentle martyr. The 
 reader will find in Foxe's Martyrology, or in 
 Knox's History, bis godly oration, and the pa- 
 thetic prayer in which he gives expression to 
 the wonder which exercises the souls under the 
 altar " How long wilt Thou suffer the rage 
 and great cruelty of the ungodly to exercise 
 their fury upon Thy servants, who do further 
 Thy Word in this world ?" But nothing will 
 move the hearts of those who are resolutely 
 set against the cause of Christ. The trial is 
 concluded with the sentence that he be burned 
 as " ane heretic." 
 
 Again is Mr George conducted back from the 
 Abbey Kirk to the Castle. A night intervenes 
 betwixt the passing and the execution of the 
 sentence ; and during that interval many moving
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 261 
 
 things occur. An offer is made that a priest 
 will wait upon him for confession : " Send me," 
 said Wishart, " the honest and godly man that 
 made sermon yesterday." Wynram is sent for, 
 and comes ; and after an affecting interview, 
 asks Mr George if he will have the sacrament. 
 "Gladly," said he "if I can have it as Christ's 
 institute." Wynram repairs to the Bishops, and 
 bearing witness to his innocence, asks if the 
 sacrament might be given him. The Bishops 
 consulted, and concluded that no benefit of the 
 Church could be given to an heretic. But the 
 sacrament he did get, and that, too, as Christ's 
 ordinance, for thus it happened : 
 
 44 At the hour of noon, when the table was 
 covered for dinner in the captain's chamber, Mr 
 George was asked if he would partake : ' With 
 ane gude will,' said he, ' for that meat is my 
 last meat.' And when they sat down and put 
 silence in the house ane while, he declared unto 
 them Christ's latter supper, death, and passion, 
 and exhorted them for the space of half-an-hour. 
 This being done, he took bread and wine, and 
 ate and drank himself, and gave it to the captain 
 and the rest, blessing it in the name of the 
 Father, the Sun, and the Holy Ghost."
 
 262 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Thus was celebrated in Scotland the first Pro- 
 testant communion. 
 
 Meanwhile, in another part of the Castle, the 
 Cardinal is entertaining his Bishops at dinner, 
 and making merry with them ; outside the peo- 
 ple are collecting in crowds, and the workmen 
 are finishing the preparations of the stake, which 
 was placed " before the Castle yett, on the west 
 side, foment the west blokehonse." At length 
 all is ready. There is the stake heaped up for 
 the martyr. There were cushions and carpeting 
 spread on the battlements, that the Cardinal and 
 his Bishops might at their ease survey the spec- 
 tacle. The guns of the Castle are pointed to- 
 wards the stake, and the men - at - arms are 
 directed to surround it, lest a rescue should be 
 attempted. 
 
 And now the godly martyr, clothed in coarse 
 linen, and hung round with bags of powder, is 
 led forth and tied to the stake. The fire is ap- 
 plied, and amid its crackling and enwrapping 
 flames the martyr looks to where the Cardinal 
 lies in pomp, and utters his doom in these pro- 
 phetic words : "He that lies so glorious on yon 
 wall-head, shall lye as shameful as he lyes glori- 
 ous now."
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 268 
 
 Thus died George Wishart for the "Word of 
 God, and for the testimony of Jesos, 1st March, 
 1546. 
 
 Twenty-oiie years have passed away since 
 Patrick Hamilton suffered a similar fate. Sepa- 
 rated by time, Wishart and Hamilton are yet 
 intimately associated. Both suffered at the 
 stake as witnesses fcr Christ's blessed evangel; 
 both were of high birth, of distinguished scholar- 
 ship, and of eminent piety. 
 
 When there is heard the going of a sound on 
 the top of the mulberry trees, the leaves and 
 branches that are highest are the first to acknow- 
 ledge the moving of the breeze. 
 
 It was scarcely three months until the fore- 
 warning which George Wishart uttered, regard- 
 ing Cardinal Beaton, was fulfilled. The Cardinal 
 was adding to the defences of the Castle, called 
 by Pitscottie, " his Strength.' ' The work was in 
 progress on the morning of Saturday, 29th May, 
 1546. Masons and wrights were going out and 
 in, and the drawbridge was lowered to receive 
 the stones and lime, when Kirkaldy of Grange, 
 with a few companions, approached and engaged 
 the warder in converse. Norman Leslie, and 
 those with him, came next and were admitted.
 
 264 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 It was not until the rudeness of John Leslie of 
 Parkhill, near Newburgh, Beaton's declared foe, 
 alarmed the warder, that any attempt was made 
 to let down the drawbridge. The resisting war- 
 der was in a moment despatched, the keys were 
 taken from him, and his body cast into the fosse. 
 Kirkaldy of Grange now plants himself at the 
 private postern, Norman Leslie busied himself 
 in getting the workmen and retainers removed 
 beyond the walls. Meanwhile, the Cardinal is 
 awoke by the shouts and the clamour. He in- 
 quires from a window what the noise meant, and 
 is answered that his castle is taken. He attempts 
 escape by the postern, but finding it secured from 
 without, he retires again to his chamber, and 
 barricades the door. Leslie of Parkhill, Peter 
 Carmichael of Balmeadow, and James Melville 
 of Carnbee, demand admittance, and assail the 
 door in vain, until they call for fire to burn it, 
 when the Cardinal opens it. Both Leslie and 
 Carmichael rudely attack and strike him, but 
 James Melville, the friend of Wishart, and " a 
 man of nature most gentle," interposes, and 
 withholding them, addresses the Cardinal : 
 " Repent thee of thy former wicked life, but 
 especially of the shedding of the blood of that
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 265 
 
 notable instrument of God, Mr George Wishart, 
 which cries in vengeance upon thee, and we are 
 sent to revenge it." A sword-stroke or two did 
 the rest, and he whose name but yesterday was 
 a name of terror in Scotland, now lies before 
 them a lifeless corpse. Thus fell the Cardinal 
 in the 52d year of his age. Norman Leslie, and 
 Kirkaldy, and the rest of their companions 
 gathered around the body, and thrust their 
 daggers into it, to identify themselves with the 
 deed. In Leslie House the dagger which Nor- 
 man Leslie used on the occasion, is preserved. 
 
 While these things are doing, rumour runs 
 through the town. Sir James Learrnonth of 
 Dairsie, the provost, and the other authorities, 
 and a crowd of citizens, assemble, and from the 
 outer side of the fosse demand to see the Car- 
 dinal. Those that held the Castle conveyed the 
 dead body to the eastern tower, and hung it 
 over the battlements in the sight of all men. 
 
 After being thus exposed for a time to remove 
 all doubts regarding his fate, the body, " un- 
 knelled and uncoffined,'' was cast into the dun- 
 geon of the sea-tower, where it lay in salt for nine 
 months. Tbence it was taken, when the Castle 
 was given up to Hamilton the governor, and
 
 266 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 obscurely buried in the convent of the Black 
 Friars. 
 
 It was by the gate of this old Castle that John 
 Knox, in July 1548, was led out, along with Mr 
 Henry Balnaves of Hathill, and Mr James 
 Melville of Carnbee, and other true-hearted 
 companions, to be consigned prisoners to the 
 French galleys. But this did not take place 
 until Knox had disputed with the Kirkmen of St 
 Andrews, and silenced them ; and until he had 
 preached publicly in the Town Kirk, and de- 
 nounced Popery as Antichrist. The last year 
 had wrought a great change in public opinion. 
 As was observed by Forsyth, the then laird of 
 Nydie, " a man fervent and uprycht in religion," 
 who often left the home-walks of his quiet farm 
 that he might witness what was going on in the 
 town " Men now have other eyes than they 
 had then." When Knox next appears on the 
 scene in 1559, Scotland will be prepared for him 
 by longer years of tyranny and superstition ; and 
 be will be prepared for Scotland by exile, and 
 prayer, and faith, and by the stirring of his own 
 resolute spirit. 
 
 One other scene let us contemplate. The 
 Castle has a new occupant in Archbishop Hamil-
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 267 
 
 ton, the natural brother of the Governor of the 
 Kingdom, but it still retains the old spirit of the 
 bloody Cardinal. An aged man of the name of 
 Walter Mylne, who had been parish priest of 
 Lunan in Forfarshire, was seized by some of the 
 Archbishop's messengers near to Dysart. When 
 he was seized, he was "warming himself in ane 
 poor wife's house, and was teaching her the 
 commandments of God, and learning her how 
 she should instruct her bairns, and her house- 
 hold, and bring them up in the fear of God." He 
 was conveyed to St Andrews, and there, despite 
 of his great age, for he was eighty-two years old, 
 he was condemned to be burnt. The old man's 
 words were very brave in answer to the charges 
 that were laid against him. At length the Arch- 
 bishop interposed, and said, u Wilt thon recant 
 and thy life shall be spared?' "That will I 
 not," said Mylne, " to grant myself ane heretic, 
 for I am ane poor servant of God, whiles gang- 
 ing to bed without my supper, and I desire no 
 more wealth in this world, for I hope my reward 
 shall be in Heaven ; therefore do with me as you 
 think best, for I will abide your judgment." 
 
 When the sentence was made known one un- 
 broken burst of indignation was heard through
 
 268 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 the town. The Provost, Sir Patrick Learmonth, 
 refused to take part in the execution of the sen- 
 tence, and left the town. Not a rope, nor a 
 barrel of tar, nor a pound of powder could be 
 got in any booth in St Andrews. But these ob- 
 structions were got over, and on the north side 
 of the Cathedral, on the high ground overlooking 
 the sea, the pile was prepared. The old man 
 was brought out, and was lifted up on the faggots 
 which were to consume him. In his dying testi- 
 mony there was a strange commingling of the 
 meekness of the martyr, and of the prophetic 
 power of the seer: "As for me, it makes not 
 meikle of my death, for I am four score and two 
 years bygane, therefore by nature I have not 
 long to live. But if I be burnt at this time there 
 shall ane hundred better than I rise off the ashes 
 of my bones, and shall scatter the horrid pack of 
 you hypocrites that perturb the servants of God. 
 I trust to God that I shall be the last in Scot- 
 land that shall suffer for this cause." And so it 
 was, he was the last who suffered death for 
 witnessing against Popery in Scotland. 
 
 A heap of stones was raised by the townspeople 
 over the spot where he suffered, as a cairn of 
 testimony against this deed of wickedness and
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 269 
 
 cruelty. This gave deadly offence to the Arch- 
 bishop and the kirkmcn. Once and again was 
 the heap demolished by them, and the Church's 
 anathema denounced against those who should 
 build it up again. But as often was the heap 
 renewed, until, by night, all the stones were 
 removed. 
 
 It was on the 25th of April 1558 that the aged 
 Walter Mylne suffered, and over his grave it 
 was afterwards truly inscribed that the faith of 
 Jesus, revealed in holy Scripture, while it was to 
 others the cause of life, was the occasion of death 
 to him : 
 
 Sola fides Christii sacris signata libellis, 
 Quas vitse causa est, est ruihi causa necia. 
 
 A befitting close to this record of violent deaths, 
 endured for the Word of God and the testimony 
 of Jesus, is supplied by the words of Lord Bacon 
 " Martyrdoms I reckon among miracles, for 
 they exceed the strength of human nature." 
 
 From the Castle we cross to the Cathedral. 
 
 The 10th of June 1559 saw the Cathedral in 
 completed beauty. Its buttresses rested firmly 
 on the ground, its turrets and minarets roee 
 gracefully in the summer sky, and the setting
 
 270 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 sun was brightly reflected, as it had often been, 
 from its copper-covered roof and from its glass- 
 stained windows. This was the last day of its 
 magnificence. On the llth its glory was laid 
 in ruins. 
 
 Knox, feeling that Scotland's crisis had ar- 
 rived, ascended the pulpit of the Town Church 
 in defiance of the threats of Archbishop Hamil- 
 ton, and preached a fervid sermon on Christ's 
 casting out the buyers and sellers from the 
 Temple. His appeals fell on ears and hearts 
 prepared to receive them. With expedition the 
 work of demolition was begun. The provost 
 and magistrates agreed to the removal of all 
 monuments of idolatry ; the commonalty of the 
 town cast down the altars, and carrying the 
 images, burnt them on the spot where Walter 
 Mylne was martyred ; while some of the baser 
 sort, rejoicing in lawless license, hurried reforma- 
 tion into ruin,. 
 
 In the presence of the ruins of this once mag- 
 nificent Cathedral, it may be difficult to mitigate 
 the censure of those who regard the religion of a 
 country but as one of the fine arts. We would 
 offer to their consideration the observation of 
 one of the greatest of modern thinkers: "These
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 271 
 
 proud piles were, in fact, raised to celebrate the 
 conquest, and prolong the dominion of the powers 
 of darkness over the souls of the people. They 
 were as triumphant arches, erected in memorial 
 of the extermination of that Truth which was 
 given to be the life of man." 
 
 To those whose patriotism rejoices in the solid 
 attainments of their country, these ruins will 
 appear as an incidental mishap attendant upon 
 a great and salutary revolution. They will re- 
 gard a humble church, destitute of architectural 
 ornament, with bare walls and deal pews, placed 
 in the centre of a thriving village, which week 
 after week supplies to those who occupy its 
 crowded benches the vigorous truths of the 
 Gospel, which invests their cottages with the 
 hallowed quiet of a Protestant Sabbath, and 
 which on the Monday, sends forth the scholar 
 to the school, and the mechanic to the workshop, 
 and the ploughman to the fields, as far prefer- 
 able to stately steeples casting their shadows 
 over deserted streets, looking forth on undrained 
 fields, and tolling forth a frequent summons to 
 the observance of ceremonies which leave the 
 mind uninformed and the heart unimpressed. 
 
 A representation of St Regul us' Tower and
 
 272 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Chapel formed the device on the Archbishop's 
 seal. It is very rude, yet does it convey some 
 idea of what that venerable building was when 
 the square tower was surmounted by a spire 
 and cross, when the chapel extended its fronton 
 both sides of the tower, and when a small turret, 
 a/ac simile of the large tower, stood on one of its 
 corners. 
 
 The year 1560 brought with it to Scotland the 
 glorious Reformation from Popery, with all its 
 unnumbered blessings. The appearance of the 
 country is changed, and on no portion of it is the 
 change more visible than St Andrews, hitherto 
 named " the Metropolis of Darkness." The 
 Castle, the Archbishop's residence, is now 
 tenantless. The Cathedral stands unroofed. 
 The friars grey, black, and white have disap- 
 peared. Instead of Bishops, you now meet with 
 Lords of the Congregation. The whole town 
 breathes more freely, and public anxiety is on 
 tip-toe to hail every new report of the progress 
 which Protestantism is making through the 
 land. 
 
 In the year 1566, a company of grave divines, 
 dressed in Geneva cloaks and caps, attracted the 
 notice of the inhabitants. They might be seen
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 273 
 
 in the early forenoon passing along in little 
 companies of twos and threes, with a heavy 
 volume under their arm, and again separating 
 to their lodgings in the evening. These are the 
 superintendents and some of the more eminent 
 ministers of the Reformed Church of Scotland, 
 who have met to consider the Helvetic Confes- 
 sion of 1566, issued by the pastors of Zurich 
 among the first of these confessions emitted by 
 the Churches of the Reformation, which, by 
 their marvellous harmony, evince that, when 
 truth is sought for with a single eye, unity of 
 creed is not the visionary unattainable thing 
 which modern writers represent it to be. 
 
 We may in passing look within the precincts 
 of the Priory, merely to call to mind that it was 
 from this that Regent Murray took his title and 
 derived his revenues as Lord Prior, and that 
 royalty was oft times hospitably entertained here. 
 Queen Mary, on many different occasions during 
 1561 and 1562, abode here, " remaining for ane 
 space." After the Raid of Ruthven, in 1583, 
 James VI. arrived here from Falkland. Meet- 
 ing some of bis nobles and barons in whom he 
 could confide, at Dairsie, " His Majesty," writes 
 
 Sir James Melville of Halhill, " thought himself 
 
 s
 
 274 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 at liberty, expressing great joy, like a bird flown 
 out of a cage, passing his time in hawking by 
 the way, after his meeting them, thinking 
 himself sure enough ; albeit, I thought his estate 
 far surer when he was in Falkland. For when 
 he came to St Andrews, he lodged in an old Inn 
 (vetus hospitium), in a very open part, the yard 
 dykes being his great strength." 
 
 St Leonards, in its quiet retirement, with its 
 shady entrance and sunny gardens, invites our 
 steps. Here the vanished past readily rises up 
 before our thoughts. It was within this academic 
 retreat that the doctrines of the Reformation 
 found an unacknowledged refuge. Hence it was 
 a saying in years preceding the Reformation, 
 " He hath drunk of St Leonard's Well," the 
 meaning of which was, that the person was in 
 his heart favourable to the Reformed doctrine. 
 " Our hail college," writes James Melville in 
 1571, " masters, and schollars, were sound and 
 zealous for the good cause. The other twa 
 colleges (St Salvator's and St Mary's), were 
 nocht sae." James Melville studied here. His 
 autobiography will continue to fascinate with its 
 many charms while books exist. It was within 
 this college-yard that John Knox was wont to
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 275 
 
 come in 1572, when lodging in the Abbey, " and 
 call us scholars unto him, and bless us, and 
 exhort us to know God and his work in our 
 country, and stand by the gude cause, to use our 
 time weel^and learn the gade instructions and 
 follow the gude example of our masters." It 
 was in the halls of this college that, in 1574, a 
 General Assembly was held, when Patrick 
 Adamson announced the memorable distinction 
 of my Lord Bishop (the Popish Bishop), my 
 Lord's Bishop (the Tulchan Bishop), and the 
 Lord's Bishop (the sincere minister of Christ). 
 
 Over this college the distinguished George 
 Buchanan presided as Principal in 1566. 
 
 " It sae bechanced at that hoar, 
 That in Sanct Leonard's tapmast tower, 
 Don George Buchanan, douce and meek, 
 Was reading by his windock-cheek, 
 After a three hours' spell at Greek, 
 His Hebrew Bible riclit." 
 
 The unfailingly uniform portrait of George 
 Buchanan has made every reader familiar with 
 his solid and sagacious countenance, surmounted 
 with his skull-cap, and finished oil' with his 
 venerable beard. 
 
 Among the sights which this spacious South
 
 276 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Street presented towards the latter part of the 
 16th century, none was more impressive than 
 that of old John Knox proceeding from his lodg- 
 ing in the Abbey to the Town Church to preach. 
 On week-day and on Sabbath-day he^svent, and 
 thus was he seen : "I saw him every day of his 
 doctrine go hulie and fear (warily) with a furring 
 of martricks about his neck, a staff in the ane 
 hand, and gude, godly Kichard Bellenden, his 
 servant, holding up the other oxter, from the 
 Abbey to the Parish Kirk ; and by the said 
 Richard and another servant lifted up the pulpit, 
 whar he behoved to lean at his first entry, but 
 afore he had done with his sermon he was sae 
 active and vigorous that he was lyke to ding that 
 pulpit in blads, and fly out of it." A word pic- 
 ture this most truly pre-Raphaelite. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THIS chapter begins some years after the period 
 at which the last closed. John Knox has 
 breathed his last, and is laid in his grave in the
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 277 
 
 Greyfriars' Churchyard of Edinburgh a grave 
 ever to be associated with the memorable words 
 which the Earl of Morton uttered on the day of 
 the funeral : " Here lies one who never feared 
 the face of man." The conflict so victoriously 
 closed by Knox had been waged with Popery, 
 that spiritual wickedness in high places; still 
 is the Church's history to continue a history of 
 conflict, but now it is to be maintained with the 
 powers of this world, and with the Church's own 
 apostate sons. 
 
 Most notable the fact is, and worthy of being 
 pondered, that while Hooper, Latimer, Cran- 
 mer, Jewel, and all the most eminent of the 
 Reformation divines of England, desired that 
 the Church of England should be modelled ac- 
 cording to the pattern of the Scottish and other 
 Reformed Churches, the secular politicians of 
 Scotland laboured to have the government of the 
 Church of Scotland conformed to that of Eng- 
 land. A cross current this is which no ecclesias- 
 tical chart should omit. In England the desire 
 of the divines evaporated in a few feeble and 
 futile attempts. In Scotland the desire of the 
 politicians ripened into a struggle long and ar- 
 dent, wherein the Church and country were
 
 278 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 arrayed against King and Court, and "spiritual 
 wisdom" was set against " black policy." No 
 town in Scotland knew more of this contest than 
 St Andrews. 
 
 ThetwoMelvilles JamesMelvillethenephew, 
 and Mr Andrew the uncle inaugurated a new 
 era in the literature and philosophy of Scotland. 
 James Melville, when regent under his uncle in 
 Glasgow College, was the first in Scotland who 
 taught Aristotle's logic in Greek. Mr Andrew, 
 as Principal, " taught things nocht heard of in 
 this country before," for he employed the whole 
 course of philosophy as known in the schools, 
 and this over and above " his own ordinary pro- 
 fession, the holy tongues and theology." He 
 was the first who gave instruction in Hebrew, 
 Chaldee, and Syriac, and made the sacred Scrip- 
 tures his text- book. 
 
 The fame of St Mary's College as a school of 
 divinity dates from the coming of these two men 
 in December 1580. This seminary was founded 
 by Archbishop James Beaton in 1538, but it had 
 never risen much above the importance of a 
 Pedagogy. Now, however, its obscurity was 
 exchanged for eminence. It became as a city 
 set on a hill. Andrew Melville's desire was,
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 279 
 
 that as a Protestant College it should counter- 
 act the Jesuit seminaries abroad. To this he 
 was moved by his intercourse with Mr Thomas 
 Smeaton, who, having been himself a seminary 
 priest, was well acquainted with the devices and 
 plots of the Jesuits, and who ceased not to warn 
 ministers to study the Popish controversy. 
 
 A more engaging sight St Andrews did not 
 present than the tender affection which united 
 these two Melvilles. Often together, James 
 always showed the most marked respect to hia 
 uncle, while Mr Andrew returned it with an al- 
 most fraternal kindness. Nor was it a great 
 difference of age which separated them. James 
 was in his 25th year when he became Professor 
 in St Mary's, and Mr Andrew was only ten years 
 older. James was taller than his uncle, and had 
 a winning gentleness of expression in his counte- 
 nance. Mr Andrew was light and wiry, short 
 in stature, and walked with an elastic gait. His 
 keen eye and compressed lip shewed the heroic 
 stoutness which dwelt in the man. 
 
 He had travelled through much of the Conti- 
 nent on foot, had studied at Paris, had taught in 
 Poictiers, and afterwards was associated with 
 Theodore Beza for five years, as Professor in
 
 280 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Geneva. He bore the character of one of the 
 first scholars in Europe. 
 
 Most willingly would he have spent his days in 
 the academic quiet of St Mary's, paying court to 
 the muses during his hours of relaxation in the 
 lays of classic Rome, prelecting in the class-room, 
 and with the easy familiarity of table-talk, en- 
 tertaining and instructing both students and pro- 
 fessors after dinner and supper. But " lettered 
 ease" he had none. All his labours were con- 
 ducted amid the clash and din of opposition. At 
 the outset he had to encounter the wrath of the 
 regents of philosophy in St Leonard's College. 
 He had oppugned, in his public lessons of theo- 
 logy, Aristotle as one of " the patriarchs of 
 heresy." Immediately the outcry was raised 
 that "their great Diana, their bread-winner, 
 their honour, their estimation, was assailed." But 
 this contest had a meet ending. After " meikle 
 fighting and fashirie," his chief opponents yielded 
 to the truth, " became baith philosophers and 
 theologians, and served as honest, upright pastors 
 in the kirk." His next struggle was with the 
 Provost and magistrates of the town, who, taking 
 advantage of the generous and gratuitous ser- 
 vices of James and Andrew Melville as preachers,
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 281 
 
 would have held the ministry vacant, and spent 
 the kirk rents in " goff, archerie, and gude 
 cheer," against " the weil, baith of the town 
 and university." 
 
 But his life-long struggle was with the King 
 and his evil counsellors, in defence of the Church's 
 government- That government he had seen com- 
 pleted by the labours of the ministers and elders 
 of the Church, and ratified by the estates of Par - 
 liament-in 1581. By that government a fence 
 was set around the Church's doctrine. It was 
 self-government mutually enforced by equals on 
 each other. Its leading provision was that 
 "bishops should be called by their ain names, 
 or by the name of Breither in all time coming, 
 and that lordly authority and name be banished 
 from the Kirk of God, which has but one Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and that all bishops should act as 
 pastors of particular congregations." No great 
 difficulty was there to find Christ's authority for 
 such a principle ; but the difficulty was to main- 
 tain it against 
 
 " Tho minions of a minion king," 
 
 who would not allow that it could stand with free 
 monarchy.
 
 282 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 When opposed by the King and his courtiers 
 in establishing this principle, the Scottish Refor- 
 mers were led to contend for another great prin- 
 ciple the Headship of Christ, whereby they pro- 
 tested against " placing a vanishing shadow, a 
 breath going and not returning again, with ab- 
 solute power and authority in the room and seat 
 of the Most Migh God." There is the vitality of 
 God's truth in these principles. They have blessed 
 Scotland, and they will bless her still. 
 
 It would be long to tell the particulars of that 
 intrepid stand which Andrew Melville made for 
 these great principles, and the sufferings which 
 he endured in their defence. He was the first to 
 decline the jurisdiction of King and Council when 
 he was accused of no civil crime or misdemeanour, 
 and to maintain that in matters of conscience and 
 of doctrine he was not subject to them, but to 
 Christ and to the Church. Thus did he lay the 
 foundations of that liberty in which the nation 
 now rejoices ; for it cannot be denied, and may 
 Scotland never ungratefully forget, that it was 
 in contending for the rights of Christ's Church 
 that the civil freedom of this country was achieved. 
 This formed the grand testimony of Andrew 
 Melville. In the palace, at the council board,
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 283 
 
 and in his own class-room, he maintained that 
 there was another King, even Jesns, whose king- 
 dom was a spiritual kingdom. For this he was 
 banished and imprisoned, and at last died an 
 exile in Sedan. 
 
 Nephew and uncle, as they were lovely in 
 their lives, so in the manner of their death, 
 they were not divided ; for James, after fulfil- 
 ling a short but blessed pastorate in East An- 
 struther, died in banishment at Berwick, 1614, 
 aged 59. 
 
 There is one circumstance very visible in the 
 Melvilles, and which familiarity with the per- 
 sonal history of the Scottish worthies would dis- 
 cover as characteristic of the whole class ; it is 
 the combination of every tender feeling, with the 
 firm and robust in character. There is in the 
 Scottish worthy unbending firmness in all that 
 concerns the truth of God, associated with the 
 most affecting sensibility. It is the same strange, 
 yet fascinating combination of contraries which 
 Nature, by one of its inimitable contrasts, pre- 
 sents in the flowing of soft and pliant water over 
 hard and rugged rock. 
 
 The reader will willingly receive in illustration 
 of this the following artless account of the feelings
 
 284 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 of James Melville, when his uncle was foreed to 
 flee to escape the wrath of the King : 
 
 "As for myself, to confess the truth, I was 
 almaist exanimate with heaviness of heart, the 
 which, if it had not resolved in abundance of 
 tears, my life had been suffocate ; for the which 
 cause I took me to a chalmer, and closing the 
 door, let my affections break out and go loose at 
 random, which a special loving friend of mine, 
 waiting on me, suffered for the space of an hour; 
 but after knocked sae and spake to me, that baith 
 for love and reverence it behoved me to open ; 
 who not only used all the comforts he could, but 
 waited on me, and conveyed me hame to St An- 
 drews ; this was Andrew Wood of Strath vithie. 
 
 " At my coming to St Andrews, my wound, 
 scarcely stemmed, began to bleed apace, finding 
 naething, wherever I cast my eyes, but matter 
 of melancholy. His books were in danger, he 
 being put to the horn, and therefore I addressed 
 me with diligence to pack them up, and put them 
 aside, and scarce was there ane which I had 
 known in his common use that rankled not my 
 wounds again, sae that that labour was very 
 painful and heavy to me. But above ail it was 
 a daily heart-break to me to see that notable
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 285 
 
 wark sae well begun, yielding in the first spring- 
 time of it sic appearance of plentiful fruits, with 
 sic a calamity, cut off from all hope of harvest. 
 I thought I felt continually a cauld heavy lump 
 lying on my heart, lyking for to choak me ; and 
 sure I am it had cost me my life, if the mighty 
 hand of my God had not cured baith body 
 and soul ; and after the curing thereof, fur- 
 nished beyond all conscience of ability and 
 expectation some measure of strength and 
 gifts to take a piece of courage, and hanld 
 on the spunk of life in the wark, until God 
 should have mercy and return for the restoration 
 thereof." 
 
 ID every great movement, there is the reflux 
 as well as the flow ; there is the periodical waning 
 before the full development is reached. The 
 fear and favour of the Court prevailed against 
 the gallant struggles of Fresbyterianism, and 
 the old city saw the archiepiscopality re- 
 stored, in name at least, but in greatly di- 
 minished lustre. The first who wore the title 
 of Archbishop of St Andrews, after the Refor- 
 mation, was the unhappy Patrick Adamson, 
 who, to enjoy it, turned traitor to his own pro- 
 fessions.
 
 286 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 The second was Mr George Gladstanes, who 
 died in 1615. 
 
 Mr John Spottiswoode was next in succession. 
 With him the title became extinct, in 1639, until 
 it was revived in the person of Sharpe. 
 
 In every thing the spirit of these men was op- 
 posed to that of the Presbyterian ministers. 
 Bishop Burnet thus speaks of them : "As the 
 Bishops were the creatures of King James, so 
 they were obliged to a great dependence on him, 
 and were thought guilty of gross and abject 
 flattery towards him." "Some few that were 
 stricter and more learned did lean so grossly to 
 Popery, that the heat and violence of the Refor- 
 mation became the main subject of their sermons 
 and discourses." 
 
 The first, or post- reformation period of Scot- 
 tish Episcopacy is comprehended in the lives of 
 the three Bishops named above, so that here we 
 may attempt to trace its characteristics. In its 
 government it was very wily, for in its forms it 
 tried to accommodate itself as much as possible 
 to the forms of Presbytery, contenting itself with 
 securing the supremacy of the Bishops. In its 
 public worship it was non-liturgical, until a 
 special liturgy was provided for it by Archbishop
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 287 
 
 Laud. Its psalter bore the right royal title, 
 " The psalms of King David, translated by King 
 James" a poetical version of no mean merit. 
 Its preachers in their public discourses enforced 
 the divine right of kings, and the passive obedi- 
 ence of the subjects in all matters. It distracted, 
 by its ambitious pretensions, a church which 
 would otherwise have been united ; and by de- 
 pending for its existence upon the inquisitorial 
 powers of the High Commission and the Star 
 Chamber, it destroyed the civil liberties of the 
 country. 
 
 In crossing from St Mary's and surveying the 
 weather wasted steeple of the Town Church, the 
 mind is soon lost in recalling the crowding scenes 
 of interest, which this venerable tower must have 
 witnessed. It had seen from its calm elevation, 
 cardinal, priest, and monk following in procession 
 the uplifted Host. It had heard from within the 
 walls of the old three- aisled Church dedicated to 
 the Trinity, which stood at its base, the accents 
 of Knox's rude eloquence, and Christopher Good- 
 man's soberer teaching. It had listened to the 
 didactic and expostulatory voice of Mr Andrew, 
 and to the calmer tones of James Melville. It 
 had seen Presbyterian Ministers, and Episco-
 
 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 palian Bishop or Dean alternating the service, 
 as the influence of the crown, or the faith of the 
 country obtained the temporary ascendancy. 
 
 In August 1639 there came to St Andrews as 
 minister of that Church, Mr Robert Blair, being 
 u esteemed the meetest man to fill the vacant 
 place, where there were three Colleges, very 
 corrupt, and the body of the townspeople addicted 
 to prelacy and the ceremonies, it being the See 
 of the Arch-prelate." He had as his colleague 
 Mr Samuel Rutherford, who consented to come 
 to St Andrews as Principal of St Mary's College, 
 on condition that he should have the privilege of 
 preaching regularly every Sabbath. The anec- 
 dote of the English merchant shortly and graphi- 
 cally presents the characteristic excellencies of 
 the preaching of these two eminent ministers : 
 " I went to St Andrews," said the merchant, 
 " where I heard a sweet, majestic looking man 
 (Mr Blair), and he showed me the majesty of 
 God. After him I heard a little fair man (Mr 
 Rutherford), and he showed me the loveliness 
 of Christ." 
 
 Local circumstances connect Mr Blair's name 
 with the neighbourhood of St Andrews, for he 
 became proprietor of Clermont, and through his
 
 WITH ST ANDHEWS. 289 
 
 exertions it was that Cameron was erected into 
 a separate parish. 
 
 The space which he occupied in the eye of the 
 Church and country .was large. His ministry 
 was greatly owned of God in different parts of 
 the land. His services were widely employed 
 by the Church, the nobility, ad the King. We 
 meet with him as Chaplain in the Army, as Mode- 
 rator in the General Assembly, as Commissioner 
 to Westminster, and as Chaplain to the King. 
 It was at the desire of King Charles himself that 
 Mr Blair accepted the situation of chaplain, when 
 Alexander Henderson died in 1646 ; and the 
 terms which the King employed indicated his 
 high estimation of Mr Blair: U I think," said 
 the King, " he is pious, prudent, learned, and of 
 a meek and moderate calm temper." 
 
 Two things may be here noted in connection 
 with Mr Blair, more especially as they charac- 
 terised all Scottish Presbyterians. The one was 
 his extreme distrust of Cromwell. When Mr David 
 Dickson and he retired from an interview with 
 Cromwell, Dickson remarked "1 am very glad 
 to hear this man speak as he does." Mr Blair 
 replied "And do yon believe him? If you 
 knew him as well as I do, you would not believe
 
 290 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 one word he says. He is an egregious dissembler, 
 and a great liar. Away with him, he is a greet- 
 ing devil." The other was his attachment to the 
 unhappy Charles, and his strongly expressed 
 condemnation of the King's execution. Charles 
 had earnestly desired that Mr Blair might be per- 
 mitted to be with him at his death, but this was 
 refused. Mr Blair's feelings and purpose are 
 thus described by his son-in-law : " Mr Blair 
 regretted that he could not obtain liberty, nay, 
 not so much as to speak to the King ; but there- 
 after did often profess, that if he had been per- 
 mitted to have gone to the King, and to have 
 been with him at his death, he would never have 
 advised him so far to submit to that most illegal 
 and wicked sentence of death, as to go upon his 
 own feet to the scaffold, and that he (Mr Blair) 
 was resolved so to speak and carry, on the 
 scaffold, testifying against that horrid murder ; 
 that he laid his account to die with the King, 
 and that he would as willingly have laid down 
 his head to the hatchet as ever he laid his head 
 to the pillow." 
 
 All this loyal attachment to the first Charles 
 profited him nothing afterwards ; for no sooner 
 had the Restoration placed the second Charles on
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 291 
 
 the throne, than, through the intrigues of Sharpe, 
 Mr Robert Blair was banished from St Andrews 
 in 1661, and died at Couston, in the parish of 
 Aberdour, in 1666. His ornamented tomb-stone, 
 with it& fading Latin inscription, may be seen in 
 front of the south wall of the ruined church of 
 Aberdour. 
 
 Stirring sights St Andrews saw during Mr 
 Blair's ministry. 
 
 In 1645 the Laird of Carabo marched through 
 the town at the head of a newly raised regiment, 
 with displayed banners and martial music, ou 
 their way to Kilsyth, to oppose the progress of 
 the perfidious Monlrose. In this battle, in which 
 Montrose conquered, many of these men of Fife 
 fell, and among them was Cambo, their captain. 
 But victory and defeat were not far apart. Only 
 a few months later, and the prisoners of Philip - 
 haugh, where Montrose was defeated by General 
 David Leslie, were brought to St Andrews, and 
 afterwards executed. Among them was one, not 
 unknown in the city Sir Robert Spottiswoode, 
 President of the Court of Session, and son of the 
 late Archbishop Spottiswoode. 
 
 In 1647 the town was alarmed by the appear- 
 ance of the plague. During the alarm an affect-
 
 292 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 ing and vigilant separation was observed betwixt 
 the whole and the sick. Those who were whole 
 met for public worship in the Market Street, in 
 the Square, while the infected and suspected met 
 in the field. Betwixt the living and the dying 
 Mr Blair went, preaching to them both. 
 
 Occasionally some of Cromwell's troopers, 
 with their short cropped hair and long swords, 
 having come from their encampment at Struthers, 
 might be seen sauntering in the streets, remind- 
 ing the inhabitants by their presence of Oliver's 
 supremacy. Lamont tells us that they some- 
 times intruded when their presence was not 
 desired : " 1653, September 27. The Provincial 
 Assembly of Fife sat at St Andrews, when Mr 
 Robert Blair was moderator. About the close 
 of this meeting two English officers came into 
 the place where theysatt; the judicatory in- 
 quired if they had come in with a purpose to 
 sitt and voice with them ; they answered not, 
 but only they were commanded to come to hear 
 and see that they acted nothing in prejudice to 
 the Commonwealth. They answered that they 
 had not so much as once nominated the Com- 
 monwealth since they sat down, and that they 
 (meaning the English officers), were the first
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 293 
 
 that spoke of the Common wealth, and not the 
 Assembly." 
 
 When we mentioned Samuel Rutherford as 
 Principal of St Mary's College, and colleague 
 with Mr Blair in the ministry of the Town 
 Church, we named one of the most remarkable 
 men of his day. He began his ministry in the 
 secluded parish of Anwoth, in Galloway, having 
 been settled there in 1627. It is no common 
 person, and no common life, that leaves traces 
 behind, which the passage of two centuries does 
 not obliterate. There is a quiet nook which is 
 stilt called " Rutherford's Walk." Two stones 
 stand on the farm of Mossrobin, which bear the 
 name of the Witnessing Stones of Rutherford ; 
 and one of the most interesting sights to the 
 wanderer in Galloway is the old walls of the 
 little church of Anwoth in which Rutherford 
 preached. An earnest ministry was his at An- 
 woth. " Woods, trees, meadows, and hills," he 
 wrote, "are my witnesses that I drew on a fair 
 match betwixt Christ and Anwoth." A labori- 
 ous student was he, as his study in Bushy-Bield 
 witnessed, when with the morning light he rose 
 to write his " Treatise on Grace," to check the 
 rising flood of legalism, and to store his mind
 
 294 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 with that varied learning which gave him rank 
 with the ripest scholars of bis day. 
 
 Kntherford did not want tribulation, which 
 Luther places among the three things which con- 
 stitute a well-equipped minister of Christ. In 
 December 1 634, he writes to Lady Kenmure : 
 "It has pleased the Lord to let me see from all 
 appearances that my labours in God's work are 
 at an end, and I must now learn to suffer, in the 
 which I am a dull scholar. I desire not to go 
 on the lee-side or sunny side of religion, or to 
 put truth betwixt me and a storm, my Saviour 
 did not do so for me, who in his suffering took 
 the windy side of the hill." For his faithful ad- 
 herence to Christ's persecuted cause he was 
 warded in Aberdeen in 1636. In the streets 
 of that city he used to be pointed out as the 
 banished minister. Here he contended with the 
 doctors of Aberdeen, and wrote those famous 
 letters, regarding which there is no medium of 
 opinion, for they are either the subject of highest 
 appreciaiton,or of censure and contempt. They can 
 afford to bear much, when Richard Baxter wrote 
 of them: "Hold off the Bible, such a book the 
 world never saw;" and whenRichard Cecil, speak- 
 ing of them, said, "They are one of my classics."
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 295 
 
 Rutherford was thirty-nine years of age when, 
 he came to St Andrews, in 1639, as Professor of 
 Divinity in St Mary's. When the visitor enters 
 the court of St Mary's he may observe, built into 
 the walls, stones initialled D. R. H., M. R. H. 
 These letters indicate the name of Mr or Dr 
 Robert Howie, Rutherford's predecessor as Prin- 
 cipal, and they were placed there when in his 
 time the College was enlarged and repaired. 
 Diligently and efficiently within this College en- 
 closure did Rutherford ply his work as Professor, 
 until, as Macward, one of his students, records, 
 " God did so singularly second his indefatigable 
 pains both in teaching and in preaching, that 
 the University forthwith became a Lebanon, 
 out of which were taken cedars for building 
 the house of the Lord throughout the whole 
 land." 
 
 Rutherford attended the meeting of the West- 
 minister Assembly from 1643 to 1647, having 
 been sent there as Commissioner; and when he 
 returned to Scotland, it was with this attestation 
 from that venerable Synod: "We cannot but 
 restore him with ample testimony of his learning, 
 godliness, faithfulness, and diligence, and we 
 humbly pray the Father of Spirits to increase
 
 296 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 the number of such buraing and shining lights 
 among you." 
 
 But his very eminence marked him out for the 
 malice and cruelty of the Prelates. Cromwell 
 died in 1658. Charles II. was restored in 1660. 
 Meanwhile, Sharpe, through the basest dissimu- 
 lation, had betrayed the Church which sent him 
 to London to overwatch her interests. The 
 friends of Presbytery were now silenced and 
 persecuted. Rutherford's name was among the 
 first in the doomed list. His treatise, " Lex, 
 Rex : the Law and the Prince. A discourse for 
 the Just Prerogative of King and People," which 
 defined with boldness and discrimination the 
 leading principles of constitutional government, 
 was denounced. On the 23d October 1660, a 
 fire was lighted before the entrance of St Mary's, 
 and that book was burnt with all the inquisi- 
 torial forms of reprobation. The author of it was 
 suspended from his office, deprived of his income, 
 and warded to his own house. But God's good- 
 ness prevented the remainder of man's wrath. 
 When a messenger arrived to summon him as a 
 traitor to appear and answer to the Parliament, 
 which was to meet in March 1661, the messen- 
 ger had to execute the summons on the sick man
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 297 
 
 as he lay on his bed of death. " Tell them," 
 was Rutherford's reply, "I have got a summons 
 already before a Superior Judge and judicatory, 
 and I behove to answer my first summons ; bu t 
 ere your day arrive, I will be where few kings 
 and great folks come.'' When this message was 
 delivered, the Parliament, with impotent rage, 
 decreed that he should be removed out of his 
 house in St Mary's College, and not be allowed 
 to die there. Lord Burleigh made this wither- 
 ing remark, after they had passed their resolu- 
 tion: " Ye have voted that honest man out of 
 his College, but you cannot vote him out of 
 Heaven." 
 
 On the 30th of March a funeral company as- 
 sembled at St Mary's gate, and devout men 
 carried him to his burial. They laid him in a 
 grave under the shadow of the ruined Abbey. 
 A stone has been placed over his tomb with the 
 well-known inscription, in which the piety is 
 better than the poetry 
 
 " What tongue, what pen, or skill of men, 
 Can famous Rutherford commend ? 
 Hia learning justly rained his fame, 
 True goodness did adorn hia name.
 
 298 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 He did converse with things above 
 Acquainted with Emmanuel's love, 
 Most orthodox he was and sound, 
 And many errors did confound. 
 For Zion's King and Zion's cause, 
 And Scotland's covenanted laws, 
 Most constantly he did contend, 
 Until his time was at an end. 
 At last he wan to full fruition 
 Of that which he had seen in vision." 
 
 This epitaph had originally the date of Oc- 
 tober 9, 1735, and the initials of W. W. ap- 
 pended to it. Years after, the same spot re- 
 ceived the mortal remains of Halybnrton, and 
 traditional veneration has named it Sacred 
 Ground. It is gratifying to see that respect for 
 Kutherford still lingers around his tomb, and has 
 induced some admirer of his piety and principles 
 of late to uplift the decaying stone, to letter it 
 anew, and by placing it erect save it from the 
 tread of the frequent visitors, and from the action 
 of the weather. 
 
 Rutherford's last will and testament shows 
 how little of this world's goods satisfied him. It 
 is an bumble inventory, in which his library, 
 the student's wealth, bulks very large. " His 
 books were estimat to 1800 lib. Item, the uten-
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 299 
 
 cills and domicills of his house, with the abulie- 
 ments of his body, all estiraat to 200 lib. 
 " Snmma of the inventori, 2000 lib." 
 We recur to an incident which caused no 
 small stir in St Andrews during Rutherford's 
 lifetime it was the public entry of Charles II. 
 After leaving Holland, and landing at Dundee, 
 his M ajesty came to St Andrews, 4th July 1 650. 
 Every mark of loyal respect was paid him. The 
 keys of the city were presented to him at the 
 port, where Mr Andrew Honeyman, the minister, 
 made an address to him in English ; and when 
 he came onwards in procession to St Mary's 
 College, Mr Samuel Rutherford made a speech 
 to him in Latin. The King lodged in the house 
 of Hugh Scrymgeonr, near to the Abbey. 
 
 And here we may take occasion to allude to 
 the charge of disloyalty brought against the 
 Presbyterians of Scotland, as exhibiting one of 
 those historical untruths which party rage has 
 propagated, and thoughtlessness has received in 
 the face of the most flagrant evidence to the 
 contrary. During that long and arduous 
 struggle which England and Scotland maintained 
 for their freedom against the petulant despotism 
 of James VI., and the pertinacious despotism of
 
 300 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Charles I., the aim and desires of Scottish Pres- 
 byterians were summed up in that impressive 
 declaration of the Earl of Loudoun : " Our desires 
 are only the enjoying of our religion and liberties, 
 according to the ecclesiastical and civil law of 
 his Majesty's kingdom, and we humbly offer 
 all civil and temporal obedience to your Majesty, 
 which will be required or expected of loyal 
 subjects." The Scottish Presbyterians being 
 thus truly enlightened, and constitutional in 
 their loyalty, were alike opposed to the un- 
 patriotic subserviency of the Cavaliers and 
 Churchmen, and to the violent extremes of 
 Cromwell and the Sectarians. They stoutly 
 protested against the execution of Charles I. 
 They chivalrously espoused the cause of Charles 
 II. In January 1649, Charles I. was beheaded ; 
 on February 4th, Presbyterian Scotland pro- 
 claimed Charles II. King. In the face of Crom- 
 well and his invading armies, they crowned 
 Charles II. at Scone, in January 1651. During 
 the whole of Cromwell's Protectorate, Scotland 
 was treated as a conquered country, and was 
 held in check by the presence of soldiers. Many 
 were the fines levied upon Scottish gentlemen, 
 and upon none more than those of Fife, for not
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 301 
 
 yielding acknowledgment and submission to 
 Cromwell's government. 
 
 We have made this induction of facts to show 
 that instead of disloyalty there was a prodigal 
 expenditure of loyalty on the part of Scotland, 
 in behalf of the House of Stuart. In return for 
 this, all that Scottish Presbyterians reaped after 
 Charles II. 's restoration in 1660, was twenty- 
 eight years of persecution and cruelty, such as 
 no other nation had ever endured. 
 
 During these dismal twenty-eight years 
 James Sharpe, Archbishop of St Andrews, stands 
 out as one of the most prominent actors. To form 
 a correct estimate of his character, the reader 
 must view him in connexion with Leighton, 
 Archbishop of Glasgow, author of the Com- 
 mentary on Peter, which every one knows. 
 
 Both Leighton and Sharpe had been ordained, 
 and had officiated as Presbyterian ministers 
 Sharpe at Crail, Leighton at Newbattle. 
 
 Both conformed to Episcopacy. Leighton did 
 so from the fancy view he entertained of primi- 
 tive Episcopacy, and from the flattering per- 
 suasion, that if rightly exhibited, it would be 
 seen to be little different from Presbyterianism, 
 and thus a union might be formed, and the con-
 
 302 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 tests of the time ended. Sharpe conformed with 
 the ambitious desire of aggrandising himself. 
 
 Leighton was pious; Sharpe was political. 
 Both were re-ordained and consecrated at 
 Westminster, 12th December 1661. Both in- 
 stinctively felt the uncongeniality of disposition 
 and the contradiction of views by which they 
 were respectively characterised. The one dis- 
 trusted and disliked the other. 
 
 Leighton's conscience took the alarm, as his 
 memorable lamentation Burnet relates : "He said 
 in a letter to Burnet ' that in the whole progress 
 of that affair there appeared such gross charac- 
 ters of an angry Providence, that however he 
 was satisfied in his own mind as to Episcopacy 
 itself, yet it seemed that God was against them, 
 and they were not like to be the men that should 
 build up his Church, so that the struggling about 
 it seemed to him like a fighting against God.' " 
 Sharpe persevered with an ominous infatuation. 
 
 Leighton used all his influence to repress 
 the persecuting measures which were employed 
 to support Episcopacy. Sharpe advocated 
 them. When Leighton remonstrated with 
 Charles, the King laid the blame of these mea- 
 sures on Sharpe.
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 303 
 
 Leighton, after struggling for a time, withdrew 
 from a Church from which he felt that Heaven's 
 influences were withheld, and died in retirement, 
 of a broken heart. Sharpe, with the bitterness 
 of an apostate and the fury of a persecutor, con- 
 tinued to breathe out threatenings and slaughter 
 against those of this way, until a violent death 
 overtook him in 1679 on Magus Moor. 
 
 After Leighton and Sharpe were re-ordained 
 and invested with their Episcopal dignities, 
 Leighton refused to join in the pomp of a public 
 entry, and quietly retired to his residence in 
 Dunblane. The grandeur of a procession was 
 quite a thing after Sharpe's mind, and thus are 
 the particulars noted by our zealous diarist, 
 Lament : 
 
 u As for Mr Sharpe, he came to Fife April 15, 
 1662, and dyned that day at Abetsau (Abbots- 
 hall), Sir Andrew Ramsay's, formerly provost 
 of Edinbro', his house, and that night came to 
 Lesly, being attended by divers, both of the 
 nobilitie and gentrie. The next day, being 
 Wednesday, the 16th of April, he went to St 
 Andrews from Lesly, attended from the Earl of 
 Rothes, his house, with about 60 horse ; but, by 
 the way divers persons and corporations (being
 
 804 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 written for in particular by the said E. of Rothes 
 a day or two before,) raett him, some at ane 
 place, and some at ane other, viz., some from 
 Faukland, Achtermoughtie, Cnpar, Craill, and 
 about 120 horsemen from St Andrews and else- 
 where, so that once they were estimate to be 
 about 700 or 800 horse. The nobilitie ther were 
 E. of Rothes, E. of Kelly, Earle of Leven, and 
 the Lord Newwarkes ; of gentrie, Ardrosse, 
 Lundy.Rires, Dury, Skaddoway, Doctor Mairtin, 
 of Strandry, and divers others. All the way 
 the said Archbishop rode thus, viz., betwixt two 
 noblemen, namely, Rothes on his right, and 
 Kelly on his left hand. No ministers were pre- 
 sent ther, safe Mr William Barclay, formerly 
 deposed out of Faukland, and Mr Walter Comry, 
 minister of St Leonard's College, that came forth 
 with the Bishop, his son, out of St Andrews to 
 meet his father. (He dwells in the Abbey in 
 Mr George Wemyss' house, that formerly be- 
 longed to B. Spottiswoode, Archb. of St An- 
 drews). That night there supped with the said 
 Bishop the E. of Rothes, Kelly, Newwarke, 
 Ardrosse, Lundy, Strandry, and divers others ; 
 and divers of them dined with him the next day. 
 As for Rothes and Ardrosse, they lodged with
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 305 
 
 him all night. On the Sabbath after he preached 
 in the Town Church in the forenoone, and a 
 velvet cushion in the pulpit before him ; his text, 
 1 Cor. ii. 2, ' For I determined to know nothing 
 amonge you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' 
 His sermon did not ran mutch on the words, but 
 in a discourse of, vindicating himself, and of 
 pressing of Episcopacie and the ntilitie of it, 
 showing, since it was wanting, that tber hath 
 beine nothing but troubels and disturbancies 
 both in Church and State." 
 
 In Wod row's correspondence we have a simi- 
 lar account of Archbishop Sharpe's first sermon by 
 one who heard it. Wodrow's informant adds, 
 that the Archbishop closed his discourse by tell- 
 ing, u that if these arguments he had offered were 
 not convincing, he had more painful ones in re- 
 serve." This same informant, by bribing the 
 door-keepers, got admission into the first Synod 
 which the Archbishop held, and hiding beneath 
 the seats heard what was done : " He said there 
 were very many absent, at which the Bishop 
 stormed not a little. And further, when a minis- 
 ter, whom he thinks was the minister of Leuchars, 
 complained of the growth of Popery in their 
 bounds, and entreated that some means might be
 
 306 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 fallen on to suppress it, the Bishop, with heat and 
 violence said : " Let alone of that, sir; let us take 
 care to bear down the fanatics, our greatest 
 enemies." 
 
 For seventeen yearsdid Sharpe enjoy his Archi- 
 episcopal elevation ; if enjoyment it could be, to 
 live as the primate of subservient curates, as the 
 companion of profligate and apostate nobles, such 
 as Lauderdale and Middleton, as the destroyer 
 of his country's liberties, and the oppressor of his 
 country's Church, as a councillor of the High 
 Commission and Star Chamber, in constant fear 
 alike of the prayers of the godly and of the sword 
 of the assassin. Probably no man could be 
 named in the whole of Scotland's chequered 
 history, whose career is more chargeable with 
 the blood of the quiet livers of a land than 
 Sharpe. 
 
 The executioners of the bloody counsels, which 
 Sharpe advocated in the Star Chamber, were 
 Claverhouse, Dalzell of Binns, Grierson of Lagg, 
 and Bruce of Earlshall ; men whose soldierhood 
 consisted in hunting and shooting down poor 
 peasants, and whose bravery was manifested in 
 blasphemously outraging the forbearance of a 
 long-suffering God.
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 307 
 
 Popery has written her errors on flowers. 
 Many of the names which wild flowers bear 
 show their Popish origin. Mariolatry is inscribed 
 on very many of them, such as Lady's Mantle, 
 which means our Lady's, the Virgin Mary's 
 Mantle ; Lady Grass, Lady's Bedstraw, &c. &c. 
 Presbyterianism has associated her antipathies 
 with weeds. There is a weed which every worker 
 of a garden knows, a weed with a smooth leaf and 
 spreading root, which grows in shady places, and 
 which is most difficult to get rid of when once it 
 has got into the soil. This weed is known in 
 England by the name of Goutweed. In Scotland 
 it is called Bishopry. One sunny day in June, 
 Sharpe was sauntering in his garden within the 
 Abbey enclosures, and was amusing himself by 
 observing the gardener at his work. This weed 
 came frequently in the man's way. " What do 
 you call that troublesome weed ?" asked the 
 Archbishop. "Aye," said the man, "it is a 
 bitter bad weed, they ca' it Bishopry, my Lord, 
 and when its ance got in, it's no easily got out." 
 This answer cost the man his place, and two or 
 three twists of the thumb screw, and much ill 
 usage, for Sharpe suspected, and on inquiry found
 
 308 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 that the man was a favourer of the Presbyterian 
 cause. 
 
 Sharpe had only two successors in the Arch- 
 bishopric. The one was Alexander Burnet, who 
 died in 1684 ; the other was Arthur Boss, who 
 was unseated in place and power by the glorious 
 Revolution of 1688. 
 
 We are thus brought forward to the second, 
 or Ante-Revolution period of Scottish Episco- 
 pacy, and may pause in passing to survey its 
 characteristics. We wont be long detained, for 
 it has but the one prevailing feature of cruelty 
 and persecution. It appears red with the blood 
 of slaughtered saints. God only knows the 
 amount of suffering and of sorrow which, by 
 cruel deaths, by torture, by imprisonment, by 
 fires, by banishments, poor Scotland endured at 
 the hand of Scottish Episcopacy betwixt the 
 years 1660 and 1688. To the last it exerted its 
 envenomed and deadly influence against that 
 which has made Britain great ; for, while in 
 England the Bishops were co-operating with the 
 Nonconformists 'in effecting, on behalf of their 
 common Protestantism, the blessed Revolution ; 
 and, while in Ireland Episcopalians and Presby- 
 terians fought as fellows in the siege of Deny
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 309 
 
 and Enniskillen, Scottish Episcopacy, feeling that 
 their interests were inseparable, firmly adhered 
 to the House of Stnart, to Popery, and to ab- 
 solutism. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE seventeen years of Sbarpe's primacy had 
 given St Andrews a most undesirable distinction. 
 While he lived a certain measure of briskness 
 might have been imparted to the town by the 
 expending of his Archiepiscopal revenues, and 
 by the resort of place-seeking clergy ; but every 
 thing that ennobleth and exalteth a place 
 perished. In dens and caves, in moss and moor- 
 laud, where God-fearing men lay hid ; in cot- 
 tages, which mourned the absence of father and 
 brother out on the hills, with a price set on their 
 heads ; in the flats of Holland, where noblemen 
 and gentlemen lived in exile, the name of St 
 Andrews was a name of ill omen. It was the 
 seat of that Black Prelacy which broke God's 
 folk in pieces, and which oppressed God's heri-
 
 310 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 tage. These seventeen years have more to do 
 with the subsequent ecclesiastical history of the 
 town than most suppose. 
 
 The professors and ministers had acted so often 
 the part of what was known in the phrase of 
 these times as "Jack on both sides," that all 
 sense of public principle had disappeared, and 
 although the Vicar of Bray had not appeared, 
 his resolution was uniformly acted upon, that 
 come what might, they would hold their places, 
 where they might eat and drink, might dose and 
 die. In vain after this you look for any appear- 
 ance on behalf of Christ's cause. Hereafter all 
 Christian memories of the Scottish Worthies' 
 kind, disappear from St Andrews and its neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 There are two of that class which we might 
 have introduced earlier. Two miles from St 
 Andrews, on the Crail road, you come on Kin- 
 kell. It has to the passer-by only the appear- 
 ance of a commonplace farm.' A wall of rock, 
 bright with flowering whins stretches down to the 
 farm-town, and a row of ocean-blasted ash trees 
 surround two sides of what has once formed a court. 
 In those days of trouble a Scottish manor-house 
 stood here, and the proprietors wore the name
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 311 
 
 of the place as their patrimonial title. They 
 attached themselves to the cause of Christ. At 
 their own peril they harboured outed ministers, 
 and opened their house to the preaching of the 
 Gospel. On one occasion, Mr John Welsh, the 
 younger, preached at Kinkell. A profligate youth 
 being at the University of St Andrews attended 
 sermon, and in his spite and mockery threw some- 
 what at the preacher, and hit him. Mr Welsh 
 stopped, and said he did not know who had put 
 that public aflront on a servant of Christ, but be 
 he who he would, he was persuaded there would 
 be more present at his death, than were hearing 
 him preach that day, and the multitude was not 
 small. This turned out to be Philip Standfield, 
 son to Sir James Standfield of Newmilns, by 
 Haddington. This unhappy youth was tried, 
 and condemned and executed for the murder of 
 his father. Mr Standfield acknowledged this in 
 prison after he was condemned, and that God 
 was about to accomplish what he had been 
 warned of. This is told by Wodrow, as we have 
 transcribed it. On another occasion, Mr Black- 
 adder preached at Kinkell on a Sabbath-day to a 
 considerable congregation. The long gallery 
 and two chambers were full, and multitudes out
 
 312 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 of doors : "Their peaceful meeting was disturbed 
 by the arrival of the militia to disperse them, at- 
 tended by a great number of the rascality, with 
 many of the worst got scholars from the College, 
 and some noblemen's sons." But the stout bear- 
 ing of the laird, and the kindness of his lady, 
 quelled the militia, who retired and allowed the 
 service to go on without further molestation. 
 
 Among the list of those who were fined for 
 having conventicles, we meet with the name of 
 Lady Kinkell ; and among fugitives for the sake 
 of their principles whom it was illegal to reset, 
 we find the first iu the Fife lists, John Henryson , 
 servant in Kinkell. 
 
 When in November 1688, William of Orange 
 unfurled the flag of liberty on the headlands of 
 England, and when the loud acclaim was heard 
 throughout the land, it would, we fear, be but 
 feebly returned from this city of St Andrews. 
 What the nation hailed as a glorious Revolution, 
 was here regarded as a civil rebellion, for the 
 sympathies of the leading citizens were with the 
 dethroned Stuarts. But professors and ministers 
 contrived to get over these feelings, and to adjust 
 themselves to the altered state of things. King 
 William was often heard to say, " That he won-
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 313 
 
 dered what was become of the Episcopal party." 
 And the author of Robinson Crusoe remarks it, 
 as " very observable in the Revolution, that the 
 people of Scotland came all into the principles of 
 the suffering sincere party." 
 
 But the convincing logic of events very soon 
 demonstrated that even the material prosperity 
 of a place decays with its religious interests. In 
 1697, we find these time-serving professors 
 hatching "ane proposal for transporting the 
 University to Perth," a proposal which would 
 have deprived St Andrews at once of its import- 
 ance and its principal means of support. From 
 the papers which relate to this projected transla- 
 tion, we transcribe the following, which forms 
 part of a letter from Mr John Craigie : "The 
 victuals are dearer here than anywhere else, viz., 
 fleshs, drinks of all sorts. This place is ill- 
 provided for all commodities and trades, which 
 obliges us to send to Edinburgh and provide 
 ourselves with shoes, clothes, halts, &c., and what 
 are here are double rate. This place is ill-pro- 
 vided of fresh water, the most part being served 
 with a stripe, where the foul clothes, herring, 
 fish, &c., are washed, so that it is most pairt 
 neasty and unwholesome. This place is a most
 
 314 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 thin and piercing air, even to an excess, seeing 
 that nitre grows upon the walls of chambers 
 where fires are used, if there be a light to the 
 north. As also why infectious diseases have 
 been observed to begin and rage most here, as in 
 the visitation in 1640, when Dr Bruce died. This 
 place being now only a village, where most part 
 farmers dwell, the whole streets are filled with 
 dunghills, which are exceedingly noisome and 
 ready to infect the air, especially at this season, 
 when the herring gutts are exposed in them, or 
 rather in all corners of the town by themselves, 
 and the season of the year apt to breed infection, 
 which partly may be said to have been the occa- 
 sion of last year's dysenteric, which from its 
 beginning here raged through most part of the 
 kingdom." A truely doleful picture this! It 
 looks as if place and people had been alike 
 covered with the hairmould of decay. 
 
 From this we turn to a very different subject 
 of contemplation, to 
 
 *' Man's highest triumph, man's profoundest fall, 
 The death-bed of the just." 
 
 In September 1712, Halyburton lay on his 
 death-bed. His weighty dying sayings are words 
 of life to survivors. Speaking of dying, he said:
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 315 
 
 " This is a lesson of practical divinity ; this is 
 the practice of religion to make use of it when 
 we come to the pinch." " It is good to have 
 Him to go to when we are turning our face to 
 the wall.' 1 This was his estimate of the mini- 
 stry : " I would rather be a contemned minister 
 of God than the greatest prince on earth. I 
 preached the Gospel of Christ with pleasure, and 
 I loved it, for my own soul's salvation was upon 
 it." Thoughts of St Andrews were much on his 
 spirit : " That which fills me with fear is a mis- 
 improven Gospel in St Andrews." " Sirs, I shall 
 be a witness against St Andrews." Steadily 
 contemplating death, and all in it that is terrible 
 to nature, the dying believer could say: "Blessed 
 be God, I am provided; God is a good portion. 
 I want death to complete my happiness." Meagre 
 truly is this passing notice, but it is enough 
 
 " To express, 
 
 If not his worth, yet our respectfulness." 
 We shall see from the subject now to be nar- 
 rated, that events, which to no inconsiderable 
 extent affect the present ecclesiastical condition 
 of Scotland, took their rise in very commonplace 
 times, and with very commonplace persons. In 
 1720, Mr James Hadow was Principal of St
 
 316 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 Mary's College. Previously to this he had been 
 minister of Cupar, and Professor of Divinity. 
 His theology seems to be of that fussy kind which 
 is always in dread of heresy, which, like a jointed 
 automaton, moves with a regulated precision, 
 which wants the freedom and humanity of 
 Scripture, and which is apt to be " too orthodox 
 to be evangelical." Associated with him as Pro- 
 fessor of Ecclesiastical History was Mr Archi- 
 bald Campbell, formerly minister of Larbert. 
 Mr Campbell's views took an extremely opposite 
 direction from Principal Hadow's. In an Essay 
 on " Enthusiasm," he laid down principles which 
 subverted the whole scope and character of re- 
 vealed religion, and which derided as extrava- 
 gance the idea of an anxious inquirer "consult- 
 ing the Throne of Grace, laying their matters 
 before the Lord, and imploring his light and 
 direction." Principal Hadow was an Ultra- 
 Calvinist ; Professor Campbell was a Rationalist. 
 Betwixt these widely-differing phases of senti- 
 ment there existed a class of ministers, who 
 feeling deeply the necessities of their own hearts, 
 and who receiving the declarations of God's 
 Word in the simplicity of faith, maintained that 
 God has in the Gospel offer made a deed of gift
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 317 
 
 and grant of his Son unto mankind lost, so that 
 each one is warranted on the ground of that 
 offer to take Christ as his own to rest on, and what 
 Christ has done as belonging particularly to 
 himself for appropriation and participation. This 
 class embraced such men as Boston of Ettrick, 
 Hog of Carnock, Wilson of Maxton, Webster 
 of Edinburgh, Wilson of Perth, and the Erskines 
 These men felt that the free and unconditional 
 and sincere offer which the Gospel makes to 
 every one, is the only foundation of the sinner's 
 faith and hope. 
 
 It was around this as the foundation-doctrine 
 that the controversy gathered. The higher 
 Calvinists, such as Principal Hadow, brought 
 forward their views of election so as in reality 
 to impede and fetter the Gospel offer. The 
 misty divines perplexed and puzzled themselves 
 and their hearers, by throwing in faith and re- 
 pentance as conditions betwixt the sinner and 
 the Gospel offer. The Paganised divines, such 
 as Professor Campbell, looking down with a self- 
 complacent air from their philosophic height, 
 professed to treat the whole subject as the rub- 
 bish of theological jargon the word-war of 
 weak-brained and narrow-minded enthusiasts.
 
 318 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 It was only such men as Boston and his asso- 
 ciates who saw and estimated aright the vitally 
 important truth imperilled. 
 
 To these times and to these persons we must 
 look, when we search for the sources of those 
 ecclesiastical divisions which Scotland mourns. 
 Boston names Principal Hadow as " the spring" 
 of the movement against the truth. He encoun- 
 tered with much success the Principal in the 
 Commission, and defended the doctrine which 
 himself and his associates maintained, viz ., the 
 absolute and unconditional freedom of access to 
 the Saviour, which the Gospel gives to every 
 sinner. Along with his eleven brethren, Boston 
 bore the Commission's rebuke, protested against 
 their deliverance, and to the day of his death 
 bewailed it. Some years later, the remembrance 
 of what was then done, and the growing oppres- 
 sion of the Church Courts, forced Erskine, 
 Moucrieff, Wilson, and Fisher, into the first 
 great separation from the Church of Scotland. 
 
 Late in a dusky evening in the month of 
 August, 1773, a post-chaise rattled over the 
 rough streets of St Andrews. The travellers it 
 contained were Dr Samuel Johnson, and Boswell 
 his biographer. The old city was somewhat
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 819 
 
 flattered by the arrival. Next day the sun shone 
 cheerily, and many curious eyes watched the 
 portly form of Johnson, arrayed in his wide 
 broad- skirted brown coat and top-boots, and 
 steadying his rolling gait by a large English 
 oaken stick. He walked through the streets 
 and wynds, marked, as himself describes it, 
 " by the silence and solitude of inactive indigence 
 and gloomy depopulation." He surveyed the 
 Castle. He sauntered amid the ruins of the 
 Cathedral, with his head uncovered, speculating 
 in sonorous phrase regarding the scenes which 
 the crumbling walls had witnessed. 
 
 But Johnson's sympathies were most vividly 
 affected by social intercourse It was when he 
 supped at the ' the Mitre," or drank tea in his 
 own rooms, in company with Goldsmith, 
 Reynolds, and Garrick, that the powers of his 
 mind were seen in full play. The Professors 
 " entertained Johnson and Boswell with a very 
 good dinner," and in the intercourse which 
 flanked it, and in his breakfastings and tea- 
 driukings, would the great Cham of literature be 
 seen to advantage. Had the entertaining of 
 Johnson and Boswell devolved on Fergusson the 
 poet, they would not have fared so well as they
 
 320 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 did. Fergusson's Scotch pride was stung by 
 Johnson's prejudices against Scotland, and in a 
 poem " to the Principal and Professors of the 
 University of St Andrews, on their superb treat 
 to Dr Samuel Johnson," he thus addresses 
 them: 
 
 St Andrews town may look right gawsy, 
 Nae grass will grow upon her causey ; 
 Nor wa'flower of a yellow dye 
 Glour dowy o'er her ruins high ; 
 Sin Samy's head, weel bang'd in lear, 
 Has seen the Alma Mater there. 
 Regents, my winsome billy boys, 
 'Bout him you've made an unco noise. 
 ***** 
 
 But hear me, lads, 'gin I'd been there, 
 
 How I wad trimm'd the bill o' fare ! 
 
 For ne'er sic surly wight as he 
 
 Had met wi' sic respect frae me. 
 
 Mind ye what Sam, the lying loun, 
 
 Has in his dictionar laid down ? 
 
 That aits in England are a feast 
 
 To cow, an' horse, and sic like beast; 
 
 While in Scots ground this growth was common 
 
 To feast the gab o' man and woman. 
 
 Tak tent, ye Regents ! then an' hear 
 
 My list o' gudely hameil gear. 
 
 The poet's bill of fare consists of " A Haggis 
 fat," "A gude sheep's head," " gude fat brose, 
 a dainty dose,"
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 321 
 
 
 
 And white and bloody puddin's routh, 
 To gar the Doctor skirl o' drouth. 
 Then let his wisdom girn and snarl 
 O'er a weel toastit girdle farl ; 
 An' learn, that maugre o' his wame, 
 III bairns are aye best heard at hame. 
 
 From 1780 to 1819 St Andrews was familiar 
 with the grave aspect of Dr George Hill, Princi- 
 pal of St Mary's College, and successor to Prin- 
 cipal Robertson, in guiding the counsels of the 
 Church when Moderation was in the ascendant, 
 life has been written by one who was related 
 to him, and who succeeded him in ecclesiastical 
 influence the late Dr George Cook. 
 
 The Americans, when they speak of the libe- 
 rality of then-institutions, not unfrequently crown 
 their argument with the boast that the humblest 
 atizen may fire his ambition with the hope of 
 one day sitting in the President's chair. Britain 
 in a quieter way, has also her own stories to tell 
 the open door to hononr, and of the advance- 
 ment which merit may secure to the humblest. 
 1795 there was among the theological stu- 
 dents of St Mary's a big-boned student, who 
 passed among his fellows as by no means remark- 
 able for talent or attainment, who wore his black
 
 322 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 coat until it was rusty, and who eked out 
 his slender income by private teaching. That 
 obscure student sat on the Woolsack as the 
 Right Hon. Lord Campbell, Lord Chancellor 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 Contemporary with Lord Campbell as a stu- 
 dent in St Andrews, was the celebrated Dr John 
 Leyden, poet, philologist, aud " the most mar- 
 vellous of Orientalists." He was prematurely cut 
 off in 1811, by fever, in India, where he held the 
 situation of judge. 
 
 But we hasten to close these details by a pass- 
 ing notice of the greatest of modern Scotchmen, 
 as St Andrews knew him thirty years ago. That 
 dreamy-looking man, whose shaggy hair is tinged 
 with grey, clad in an olive -coloured great-coat, 
 with a white neckcloth loosely twisted round his 
 neck, walking with an absorbed air, and bearing 
 a roll of manuscript and books huddled up to his 
 chin, is Dr Chalmers. He is on his way to his 
 class. Chalmer's students need no porter's bell 
 to summon them. Already are they clustered 
 on the outer stairs that lead to the lecture-room. 
 The censor who calls the roll has no absentee to 
 mark. No student here adopts the equivoque for 
 his being away, "I was indisposed, sir," for
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 323 
 
 every student is disposed to attend. And well 
 are they rewarded for their attendance. Chal- 
 mers is no ingenious constructor of systems. He 
 is but an interpreter of the nature and wants of 
 man. Philosophy discovers man's wants, Chris- 
 tianity supplies them. Such the ethics Chalmers 
 taught; himself taught by the searching experi- 
 ence he had passed through. 
 
 If it was said of Samuel Johnson that he 
 Johnsonized the public taste by his writings, it 
 might be said of Thomas Chalmers that he 
 Chalmerianized the mind of young Scotland, 
 betwixt the years 1823 and 1829, in the low- 
 roofed crowded class-room which looked out with 
 two dim windows in to the Butts Wynd. He 
 had exalted the pulpit by the noble fervour of a 
 restored and vindicated Evangelism. Now he is 
 in the second stage of his great mission, and is 
 rescuing the class-room from the old and mis- 
 chievous metaphysics of false philosophy, and is 
 making ethical science instead of the perverter 
 the handmaid of the Gospel of Christ. A great 
 work this, and such as only a mind great in genius 
 and devotion could undertake and accomplish. 
 It was part of the fulfilling of the great proposi- 
 tion which Chalmers' life so brilliantly esta-
 
 324 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 blishes VERITATEM PHILOSOPHIA 
 
 THEOLOGIA INVENIT, RELIGIO POSSIDET. 
 
 No sketch of Dr Chalmers in St Andrews 
 would be complete without an allusion to two of 
 the most distinguished of his students. That 
 tall figure, crossing the street and looking 
 thoughtfully to the ground, stooped somewhat in 
 shoulders, and his hand awkwardly grasping the 
 lappet of his coat, is Alexander Duff, the pride 
 of both Colleges, whose mind has received the 
 impress of Chalmers* big thoughts, and the form 
 of his phraseology. Under Chalmers he was 
 the institutor of Sabbath Schools, and the origi- 
 nator of Students' Missionary Societies. Now 
 he labours on the bank of the Ganges, an ac- 
 knowledged chief among missionaries. The 
 companion that attends Duff non passibus equis, 
 younger and smaller, with a pale countenance, 
 and bright eye and springy gait, is John 
 Urquhart, whom the grave wematurely claimed. 
 
 Let us try and recall the appearance of that old 
 College Court of St Salvator, as it looked thirty 
 years ago. Dingy and decaying and old-world- 
 like it seemed, but it was full of interest. On its 
 east and south sides were the ruins of the houses 
 in which the College bread was baked, and the
 
 WITH ST ANDREWS. 
 
 brewed. Along the north side 
 extendeda range of barrack-like building, supply, 
 log m its upper stones rooms for the collegians, 
 and from winch the last occupant was driven by 
 the nightly invasion of a ghost; and affording 
 
 unQGF tnP m a TTQCJ .ni -, 
 
 me uiaA^ds, CiJiSS-rflftina fVn* O^ i * 
 
 '&MIOO x wsiuo i(jj vrrCGK jinn 
 
 logic. The west side was occupied by the Ion*, 
 bare, and cold-looking common halls, where the 
 students were wont to dine, where the laws of 
 
 the College were yearly read in the presence of 
 Principal, professors, and students, and in the 
 corner of which, drawing the cariosity of all ey es 
 fl the old pulpit from which John Knox'a 
 voice had roused Scotland to the Reformation 
 
 >s area ' associated with forms which the 
 student's mind never forgets. There fa the 
 accomplished Latinist, Dr John Hunter- a ! 
 
 bent his venerable figure and whitened hi 
 s reammg hair. That is Dr Thomas Gillespt 
 
 stout and stiff in person, his chin buried hh 3 ' 
 neckcloth, and his spectacles spread upon 
 breast; beloved of his ' "
 
 326 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 pocket, his shoulder forming an obtuse angle, 
 and his gold-linked watch chain with its comple- 
 ment of seals, dangling at full length ; even the 
 biggest dunce in his class respected him for his 
 mathematical enthusiasm and learning, and the 
 most staid student was often forced into a smile 
 by his innocent peculiarities ; he will ever be 
 known as the life-long friend of Dr Chalmers. 
 That is the philosophic Jackson ; and this Dr 
 George Cook ; many metaphysicians have every 
 sense except common sense Dr Cook's strong 
 common sense, undimmed by the mist of meta- 
 physics, was to him et decus et tutamen. There is 
 Dr James Hunter, marching to his class-room 
 with the military air of a colonel of grenadiers; 
 and he who walks with an elastic step through 
 the court is Professor Alexander, who always 
 felt an honest anxiety for the good of his 
 students. 
 
 A whole generation of professors death has 
 thus removed. " My last remaining tie with the 
 College is dissolved by the death of Professor 
 Alexander," writes one who, engaged in life's 
 business, is yet a good way off from life's middle 
 
 " Vitae summa brevis spem nos yetat inchoare longam."
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 327 
 
 We would bat deepen the pathos of this reflec- 
 tion, as well as widen its scope, by going to St 
 Mary's College and recalling other two, whom 
 the city but lately knew and now knows no 
 more. We miss the busy Principal Haldaue, 
 who in his day occupied many situations, and 
 displayed a singular aptitude for each, whether 
 as the country minister, the professor of mathe- 
 mathics, the teacher of divinity, the moderator 
 of the General Assembly, or the city preacher. 
 There is also Professor Tennant, a sou of mirth- 
 ful song, whom literature claims for herself, a 
 true Phil-Hebraist, with whom thelove of Hebrew 
 was a passion before it procured for him a chair. 
 You hear the sharp stroke of stilts, and on look- 
 ing round, you see the Professor swinging on his 
 crutches, for he was lame in both his feet; his 
 hat is tied by a ribbon under his chin, and his 
 happy face is rosy with buffeting against the 
 wind. Why is it that the public have been de- 
 prived so long of those lectures on Hebrew 
 literature and the Holy Land, which he so care- 
 fully elaborated in the seclusion of Devon Grove, 
 writing them first on a slate before he trans- 
 ferred them to paper, and which when delivered 
 electrified every one who listened to them ?
 
 328 ANTIQUITIES CONNECTED 
 
 On Friday evenings a feeble light uniformly 
 glimmered from one or two of these old class- 
 rooms. This was the product of a few thin 
 tallow candles placed in wide wooden blocks, and 
 intimated that this was the night for the meeting 
 of the Debating Societies. The Literary and the 
 Classical Societies were there in their strength. 
 But the most celebrated, both for its age and 
 position, is the Theological Society which meets 
 in St Mary's. This Society can count up its" two 
 and a-half centuries, for it dates from the days 
 of Andrew Melville, who instituted it. When 
 the Duke of Wellington saw the Eton scholars 
 at cricket and foot-ball, he said to the friend who 
 attended him : " It is in places like this that 
 Waterloo was gained." This remark may be 
 appropriately applied to these debating societies. 
 They exercise a fontal influence on the student, 
 oftentimes calling forth powers of which the 
 possessor was unconscious, and giving shape and 
 course to his after life. Were some student to 
 gather together the salient facts connected with 
 these societies, and the subjects of their discus- 
 sion, the work would not be without its interest 
 and use. 
 
 Here these notices close, for they connect
 
 WITH 8T ANDREWS. 329 
 
 themselves with the past, leaving living men 
 and present things to fulfil their day and work. 
 
 Like the shell which lies on the shore, is this 
 old city. Apply the shell to the ear, and you 
 hear within its windings the sound of the sea in 
 its varying moods. Sometimes it is the swelling 
 surge of the great billows, lifting up their voice, 
 and making a mighty noise ; and sometimes it 
 is the dirge-like song, the mournful monotone, 
 when in the language of the Prophet, " There is 
 sorrow on the sea, and it cannot be quiet." Even 
 it is thus with St Andrews. The thoughtful 
 mind looks on the city, and reads in it an epi- 
 tome of these eventful doings, which for weal or 
 for woe have swept over Scotland. 
 
 END OF PART IV.
 
 CONJECTURAL DEBJVATIOH 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 GAELIC OF SOME NAMES OF PLACES 
 
 CHIEFLY IN THE 
 
 NORTH OF FIFE. 
 
 Ayton, a manor or gentleman's seat, from ait 
 a place. 
 
 Airdit, a height, from airde, a high place. 
 
 Auchtermuchty, from uchdard, the ascent of a 
 hill, and much or muchg, a sow. The hill on the 
 face of which Auchtermuchty stands is one of 
 the long shapeless hills which are called " sow- 
 back." It means the town on the face of the 
 sow-back hill. 
 
 Ballanbreich, trout-town, bal town and breac 
 a trout ; or deriving it from braich barley, it may 
 signify barley-town. 
 
 Balmerino, the sea-town, bal town, and mara, 
 gen. of muir the sea. 
 
 Balmullo, the town on the hill, bal town and 
 mallach, a summit or hill. 
 
 Balmeadow, the wooded town, bal town and 
 maide wood.
 
 331 
 
 Balintagart, the priest town, bed town, sagart, 
 pronounced tsagart, priest. 
 
 Balhelvie, the town of St John's work. Bal, 
 town, and ealbhuidh, pronounced eal-a vhue, St 
 John's work. This yellow wild-flower had 
 grown luxuriantly here. 
 
 Balgove, the town of the blacksmith. Bal, 
 town, and gobha, a blacksmith. 
 
 Blebo, from bleagh, milk, and bo, a cow. The 
 place may have been celebrated for its breed of 
 milk cows, like crummie in the song, 
 
 My crummie is a usefu* cow, 
 And she is come of a good kin', 
 
 or its dairy pasture may have been of a superior 
 quality. 
 
 Cairnie, from cam a heap of stones loosely 
 thrown together. Cairnie, Murdoch- Cairnie, 
 Myre- Cairnie, Lord's- Cairnie, Hill-Cairnie, all 
 take their names from the conical, cairn-like 
 hills in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Carphin, from caer, a fort, and Finn, a North- 
 man, the fort of the Northmen, in allusion to 
 Norman, or Northman's Law, which forms the 
 back-ground of Carphin. 
 
 Clacharl, the high rock, from clach, a rock, and 
 ard high. 
 
 CoUuthie, the back of the morass, from cul, the 
 back of any thing, and lith, a pool or morass. 
 Colluthie is close by Lnthrie or Lithrie, the pool 
 or morass. A few cottages in the neighbour- 
 hood are known by the name of Myrehead, 
 which is just the English rendering of Col- 
 lutliie.
 
 332 
 
 Collairnie, the back of the field, from cul, the 
 back, and lair a field. 
 
 Coultra, behind the sea-shore, from cul, the 
 back, and traigh, the sea-shore. 
 
 Craigfoodie, under the hill or crag, from cruach, 
 a hill, andfodhe under, beneath. 
 
 Craigrothie, encircled with hills, from cruach a 
 hill, and roth a wheel. 
 
 Craigsanquhar, the old fort on the hill, from 
 cruach hill, seann old, and caer fort. 
 
 Creich, hilly, from cruach, a hill or heap. 
 
 Cruvie, from crubh, cruibh, a horse shoe, in al- 
 lusion to the curve which the hills form behind 
 the farm-town. 
 
 Cunnoquhie, the place that was well seen, or 
 from which a good view could be had, from chun- 
 naic, pret. of the irreg. verb/a/c, to see. 
 
 Cupar, the cup-like or hollow field, from cop 
 or cup, a bowl or cup, and ar a field. 
 
 Clatto, from chit, pronounced Klagt, a rocky 
 eminence. 
 
 Drumnod, the bare ridge, from druim, a ridge, 
 and nochd, naked, bare. 
 
 Dunbog, from dun hill, and bog or buig, a 
 marsh or fen. 
 
 Dunmuir or Dunmore, the big hill, deriving its 
 name from Norman Law, at the foot of which it 
 lies. 
 
 Dura, water, from dur water. Hence Aber- 
 dour, the mouth of the water, aber, the mouth 
 and dour or dur water. 
 
 Drums, from druim, a ridge. 
 
 Drumcarro, from druim, a ridge, and caer, a fort
 
 333 
 
 a fortified-looking hill. As seen from distant 
 views Drumcarro has much of this appearance. 
 
 Ftrnie, abounding in the alder tree, frorafearn 
 an alder, orjearnach abounding in alder. 
 
 Fliskmiln, Flisk-height, from Flisk, and 
 maolan, a height or bleak eminence. 
 
 Foodie, under, below, from fodha, at the foot 
 of, showing the position of the place to the ad- 
 joining hill. 
 
 Fife, from Fiu, (which is the Gaelic name for 
 Fife), worth or value. It has always been con- 
 sidered a valuable and desirable province, alike 
 from situation, climate, and soil. 
 
 Flisk, fromjiiche, witness, and visge, a river. 
 Often in winter when the wetting mist gathers 
 on the hills and descends towards the Tay, 
 scarcely anything is seen but only the river and 
 the dagging vapour. 
 
 Ghnduchie, tlie glen of little hillocks, from 
 glean a glen, and due, ducca, a heap or little hil- 
 lock. 'Ihere is a place near still called " Sandy 
 Knowes." 
 
 Grange, a grain farm, from grainnee which 
 signifies a grain farm. 
 
 Inchrye, the island of the king, or the promi- 
 nent island, innis an island, and righ king. 
 
 Kinsleith, the end of the hill, from ceann the 
 end or bead, and shabh a hill. The old name of 
 Kinsleith is Kinsleaves. 
 
 Kinnear, above the water, from ceann the head, 
 and near water, stream. 
 
 Kinnaird, the top of the height, from ceann 
 the head, and naird upwards, to the height.
 
 334 
 
 Kingask, the end of the slope, from ceann the 
 head, and gaisg a slope. 
 
 Kilmaron, the cell of St Roan, from cill a 
 churchyard or chapel. 
 
 Kilmany, the chapel of the monks, from cill 
 a chapel and manach a monk. Kilmany seems 
 to have been a place of Ecclesiastical importance, 
 for in a report given in to the General Assembly 
 of 1572 by a commission appointed to consider 
 the formation of Kilmany, it is styled " vicariae 
 de Kilmanie" the vicarage of Kilmany. 
 
 Letham, a soft morass, from leth a morass and 
 am soft. 
 
 Lindifferon, either the stream or the meadow 
 of the alder trees, as you derive it from loin a 
 little streamlet, or lin, loin, a meadow, and fearn 
 an alder tree. 
 
 Lindores, the ruffled or angry lake, from linn 
 a lake and dorr rough, angry. 
 
 Lochmalonie, the loch of the meadow, from 
 loch a lake or loch, and Ion, loin a meadow. 
 
 Lomond, bare hill, from lorn bare and monadh 
 a hill. 
 
 Lucklaw, or Lughla hill, from lughla less, and 
 law a hill. Lucklaw is one of the terminating 
 points of the Ochils to the east. In height it 
 is less than the hills which run westward. 
 
 Lumquhat, bare residence, from lorn bare and 
 cuchailte a residence. 
 
 Luthrie or Lithrie, from leth a port or morass 
 and probably righ a king, a principal or promi- 
 nent morass. 
 
 Moomie, the mounter hill, from monadh, a hill.
 
 335 
 
 Mountquhanie, the hill of the view, from 
 monadh, a hill, and chunnaic, pret. of the irreg. 
 verb ./ate to see. 
 
 Naughton. The old name of Naughton, as 
 given in the Register of St Andrews, is Hyhat- 
 nachton. This is evidently composed of aite, a 
 place, which, when aspirated, would be written 
 Haite, and Nachton, the name of a Pictish king, 
 by whom Abernethy was restored. It means the 
 dwelling place of Nachtou, and very likely was 
 one of his seats. 
 
 Nydie, from neid a battle. The hill of Kem- 
 back was anciently called Nydie hill, and the 
 derivation of Kemback is by some supposed to 
 be Kemp-achar the field of battle. 
 
 Parbroath, locally pronounced Parbrode, good 
 grain crop, from barr a crop and brod the best of 
 grain. 
 
 Piltachop, the hollow of the cup or bowl, from 
 pit a hollow and chop cup or bowl. Many of 
 the fields on this farm decline into hollows. 
 
 Pitblado, the smooth hollow, from pit a hollow, 
 and bladh smooth. 
 
 Pitscottie, the little hollow, from pit a hollow, 
 and scot little. 
 
 Pitlair, low ground, from pit a, hollow, and far, 
 lair ground. 
 
 Pitcairlie, from pit a hollow, and cairleumverb 
 act. and neut. to tumble about, and describes a 
 place where the surface is very irregular heights 
 and hollows all tumbled together. 
 
 Pitletlrie, the low morass, from pit a hollow, 
 and Itth a morass.
 
 336 
 
 Pitcullo, the back-lying hollow, from pit a 
 hollow, and cut the back. 
 
 Pitormie, from pit a hollow and or-mhadainn 
 the break of day the hollow which looks to the 
 east. 
 
 Pittulloch, from pit, a hollow, and tulach, a 
 knoll. A place marked by a height and a hol- 
 low, or by heights and hollows. 
 
 Ramornie, the great road, from rad, raid a 
 road, and more great. 
 
 Rathillet, many roads, from rad road, and 
 tullead more, additional. 
 
 Scotscraig, little hill, from scot little, and 
 cruach a hill. 
 
 Scottarvit, little Tarvit, from scot little. 
 
 Starr, the place of sedges, from the Scotch 
 word starr, a sedge. 
 
 Struthers, from sruth, a stream. 
 
 Tarvit, a fertile place, from tar bach fruitful, 
 and ait a place. 
 
 Tor, a hill, from torr a hill. 
 
 Worm.it, from urram or urramach, revered, 
 worshipful, and ait a place. Probably it was an 
 hermitage or retreat, to which the Culdees of 
 Kilmany may have retired for meditation. 
 
 Clje <nb. 
 
 JOHN CUNNINGHAM OBR, PRINTER, CUPAR.
 
 LIST OF WORKS 
 
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 1. JEANIE HAT, THE CHEERFUL GIVER. And other Tales. 
 
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 Vols. III. and IV. In progreu. 
 
 The Letter-Note Singing Method : Elementary Division, in Twenty- 
 three Lessons. By David Colville. Royal 8vo, sewed, - - 1 
 
 Cloth, . - 1 6 
 
 The Choral Qnlde : Being the Exercises contained in the foregoing 
 
 Work. Two Parts, sold separately each .003 
 
 A Course of Elementary Practice In Vocal Music. For use in con- 
 nection with any Method of Solmizalion. Composed and Arranged by 
 David Colville. Two Parts each . - - .004 
 
 A Graduated Course of Elementary Instruction In Singing on 
 the Letter-Note Method (by meant of which any difficulty of learning 
 to Sing from tke common Notation can b eatily overcome), in 
 Twenty-six Lesions. By David Colville and George Beutley. Royal 
 8vo, in Wrapper, 
 
 Cloth, - - - - - - -018 
 
 The Pupil's Handbook: Being the Exercises contained In the fore- 
 going Work. For the use of Classes and Schools. Two Paru, .-old 
 separately each .... 
 
 An Elementary Course of Practice In Vocal Mnsio, with numerous 
 Tables, Diagrams, etc., and copious Kxamples of all the usual Times, 
 Keys, and Change* of Keys. For use In connection with any Mrthod 
 of Solmliation. By David Colville. Complete in Two Part* each - 4 
 
 Colvllle's Choral School : A Collection of Easy Part Ronjrv Anthems, 
 etc., in Vocal Score, for the use of Schools ami Pinifinjr Cla**s. 
 Arranged progressively, and forming a complete Coune of Practice 
 in Vocal Music, In Twenty Parts each - - - 4
 
 16 
 
 List of Works Johnstone, Hunter, & Co. 
 
 THE TREASURY .HYMNAL: 
 
 A Selection of Part Music, in the Ordinary Notation, with Instrumental Accompani- 
 ment : the Hymns selected from Dr Bonar's " Hymns of Faith and Hope." The 
 Letter-Note Method of Musical Notation is added as a help to young singers. 
 Twenty-four Numbers. Super-royal 8vo. One Penny each. 
 
 1. FORWARD, ..... 
 A BETHLEHEM HYMN, - 
 
 2. THE FRIEND, .... 
 Lost BUT FOUND, .... 
 
 3. A LITTLE WHILE, ... 
 A STRANGER HERE, ... 
 
 4. THE BLANK, - - - ... ; ; 
 THE NIGHT AND THE MORNING, - 
 
 5. THE CLOUDLESS, .... 
 THE SUBSTITUTE, .... 
 
 6 THT WAY, NOT MINE, - 
 
 REST YONDER, .... 
 
 7. EVER NEAR, ----- 
 Quis SEPARABIT, - - - 
 
 8. ALL WELL, - - ''.''' ' ":' 
 DISAPPOINTMENT, - - - - 
 CHILD'S PRAYER, - 
 
 9. GOD'S ISRAEL, .... 
 THE ELDER BROTHER, - 
 
 Old Melody. 
 
 Arranged from, Mozart. 
 
 Haydn. 
 
 Pleyel. 
 
 A daptedfrom Mendelssohn. 
 
 Pleyel. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Adapted from Rode. 
 Haydn. 
 
 Do. 
 
 A Iteredfrom Pleyel. 
 Steibelt. 
 
 German Melody. 
 Beethoven. 
 Haydn. 
 
 Do. 
 Weber. 
 A tterbury. 
 Beethoven. 
 
 DAY SPRING, ------ German Melody. 
 
 10. THE NIGHT COMETH, .... Venetian Melody. 
 How LONG, ------ Mendelssohn. 
 
 11. THE Two ERAS, ----- Spohr. 
 THE SHEPHERD'S PLAIN, ... Whitaker. 
 
 12. BRIGHT FEET OF MAY, ... Do. 
 HEAVEN AT LAST, .... dementi. 
 
 13. No NIGHT DESCEND ON THEE, - - Graun. 
 THE VOICE FROM GALILEE, - - Kirmair. 
 
 14. THE FIRST AND THE LAST, - - - Schubert. 
 ECCE HOMO, ------ Mozart. 
 
 15. A CHILD OF DAY, .... Spohr. 
 THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS, '- - Haydn. 
 
 16. THE SLEEP OF THE BELOVED, - - Polish Melody. 
 STRENGTH BY THE WAY, ... Weber. 
 
 17. THE BATTLE SONG OF THE CHURCH, - Colville. 
 THE DAY AFTER ARMAGEDDON, - - Hummel. 
 
 18. SABBATH HYMN, Dr Miller. 
 
 MARTYR'S HYMN, Hindostanee Melody. 
 
 19. HE is COMING, Himmel. 
 
 LIVE, ------- Handel. 
 
 20. SUMMER GLADNESS, .... German Melody. 
 LIKKS, ------- Spohr. 
 
 21. USE ME, ..-.-- Anonymous. 
 SMOOTH EVERY WAVE, ... Bering. 
 
 22. BEGIN WITH GOD, - Anonymous. 
 HOMEWARDS, ----- Mozart. 
 
 23. THE DESERT JOURNEY, ... Hastings. 
 LAUS DEO, Bost. 
 
 24. THINGS HOPED FOR, - Pleyel. 
 HE LIVETH LONG WHO LIVETH WELL, Beethoven.
 
 If
 
 This book is DUE on the last 
 date stamped below. 
 
 10M-1 1-50(2555) 470 
 
 REMINGTON RAND - 20
 
 *"",' * 
 
 FUT2 Historical anti 
 
 V.I 
 
 DA 
 880 
 
 1875 
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