Volume I Part 60 (1/2)

[889] These words may be rendered, ”You will feel the point of it for ever.” The letter referred to is not contained in Prince A. Labanoff's collection of Queen Mary's Letters; but an English copy of it is preserved in Spotiswood's History, p. 130, and will be inserted in the Appendix to the present volume.

[890] In MS. G, ”be certaine effectis.”

[891] In MS. G, ”dewtiefull;” Vautr. edit. ”duteifull obedience.”

[892] In MS. G, ”towards us your.”

[893] ”Mot” is omitted both in MS. G. and Vautr. edit.

[894] The inhabitants or Congregation of Edinburgh, met in the Tolbooth or Council House, on the 7th July 1559, and publickly elected Knox as their Minister.--(Historie of the Estate of Scotland, in Wodrow Miscellany, p. 63.) ”With this choice, (Dr. M'Crie remarks,) which was approved by his brethren, Knox judged it his duty to comply, and immediately began his labours in the City.” He was soon afterwards obliged to leave Edinburgh, but John Willock, who became his colleague, supplied his place, and in the month of August dispensed the Sacrament in St. Giles's Church.--(ib. p. 67.)

[895] In MS. G. and Vautr. edit. ”began.”

[896] The Tolbooth or Council House must not be confounded with the Old Tollbooth or Jail, which was described in 1561 as ruinous, and ordered to be demolished. It was, however, repaired, and has been immortalized as ”The Heart of Mid-Lothian.” In Chambers's ”Reekiana,” a number of curious and interesting notices are collected regarding this building, which was situated at the west-end of St. Giles's Church, and encroached so much on that part of the High Street, called the Luckenbooths, as to leave only a kind of lane to the north, of 14 feet wide. Further to the south, and connected with the south-west corner of St. Giles's Church, with a covered pa.s.sage to the Parliament Square, there was a large ma.s.s of buildings, which included what was known as the New Tolbooth or Council House, the Goldsmith's Hall, &c. All these were pulled down when the Signet Library was built, and the ornamented exterior of the Parliament House, (begun in 1632, and completed in 1640,) was so unfortunately sacrificed. The Old Tolbooth or Jail was demolished in 1817; and the changes which took place in and around the Parliament Square at that time, completely altered the singularly picturesque character of the Old Town of Edinburgh.

[897] Here, and in other places, Vautr. edit. has ”Church.”

[898] In Vautr. edit. the word ”Kirk” or ”Church” is omitted.

[899] The Abbey of Cambuskenneth was founded by King David the First, in the year 1147. This House, of the order of Canon-Regulars of St.

Augustine, although connected with Stirling, is in the parish of Logie, and s.h.i.+re of Clackmannan. It was situated on the north side of the river Forth, about one mile N.E. from the town of Stirling. During the wars with England, it was often plundered, but in 1569, it was nearly all demolished; and there now remains little besides a square tower of fine proportions, to indicate its site.--See Sir J.G. Dalyell's ”Brief a.n.a.lysis of the Chartularies of the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, Chapel Royal of Stirling,” &c. Edinb. 1828. 8vo.

[900] In Vautr. edit. ”Lyndors.”--The Abbey of Lindores, in the parish of Newburgh, Fife, was, like most of our monastic buildings, finely situated, overlooking the fertile sh.o.r.es of the Tay. It was founded by David Earl of Huntingdon, brother to King William the Lion, upon his return from the Holy Land, about the year 1178. It was erected into a temporal lords.h.i.+p by King James the Sixth, 20th December 1600, in favour of Sir Patrick Lesley of Pitcairly, son of Andrew fifth Earl of Rothes, who had held the Abbacy _in Commendam_, since 1581.--John Abbot of Lindores who is here mentioned, must have been a person of some importance; yet his name has not been discovered, although he sat in Parliament in 1542 and subsequent years, and he appears in the Sederunt of the Lords of Session, in November 1544. Some further particulars respecting him will be given in a subsequent note.

[901] MS. G, ”sould not be.”

[902] In MS. G, and Vautr. edit., ”procurement was the preiching stooll.”

[903] Alexander Whitelaw of New Grange, had been a pensioner in England so early as the time of Edward the Sixth, for which the Earl of Huntly caused him to be forfeited, 5th July 1549. See before, Note 538. At a later period, he became an active and confidential agent of Knox and the Reformed party; and his name frequently occurs in their correspondence in Sir Ralph Sadler's State Papers. Knox speaks of Whitelaw as a man who had often hazarded himself, and all he had, for the cause of G.o.d.

Throgmorton calls him ”a very honest, sober, and G.o.dly man, and the most truly affectionate to England of any Scotsman.” Accordingly, he gave him a letter of recommendation to Elizabeth's Council, and, as he was very religious, he counsels them to let him see _as little sin in England_ as possible.--(Note by Sir Walter Scott, in Sadler's Papers, vol. i. pp.

468, 537.) In the Account of the Collector of the Thirds of Benefices, 1561, two bolls of wheat are deducted--or ”defalkit for the teindis of the Newgrange of Aberbrothock, be reasone the same was nocht lauborit the zeir compted, be occasion of the pley dependand thairupon, betuix Alexander Quhytlaw and William Stewart.” Three bolls of bear, and eight bolls of meal, were deducted for the same cause.

[904] William Knox, a younger brother of the Reformer, was then a merchant. In September 1552, the English Council, out of respect to his brother, granted a patent ”to William Knox, a merchant, giving him liberty, for a limited time, to trade to any port of England, in a vessel of one hundred tons burden.”--(Strype's Memorials, vol. ii. p.

299.) And Knox himself, in a letter written in 1553, says, ”My brother, William Knox, is presentlie with me. What ye wold haif frome Scotland, let me know this Monunday at nycht; for hie must depart on Tyisday.”--(M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. pp. 90, 91.) He afterwards became a preacher, and was for many years minister of c.o.c.kpen in Mid-Lothian.--(MS. Books of a.s.signation of Stipends; Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. pp. 369, 408.)

[905] In MS. G, ”in four pieces.”

[906] In the MS. ”wald nott weir.”

[907] In MS. G, this marginal note, and that on the next page, are taken into the text.

[908] In the MS. the date is left blank, ”the &c. day.” Vautr. edit. and MS. G, read, ”the 28th day of August.”

[909] In MS. G, ”we can skairslie beleve.”

[910] In MS. G, ”was maid against, or without our advyse.” In Vautr.

edit. ”was made by.”

[911] In MS. G, ”in na cais.”