the late rabble. It was proven that he said, if the trades' lads would fall on the town guard, he should secure their captain, Patrick Graine, for his part; and for drinking the confusion of Papists, though at the same time he drank the king's health; yet the chancellor was inexorable, and beat his own son for pleading for him, (and this was called to remembrance, when the chancellor himself was taken and maltreated by Captain Boswall, in Kirkaldie, who took him by sea when making his escape to France, after the Usurpation in 1688,) and so he was hanged on 5th March, 1686, and died piously. He was dealt with to accuse Queensberry with accession to the rabble, but refused *.'

'There being a band given in to Mackenzies' chamber, to one Douglas, to registrat; and he having given up the principall to one Weddel, the granter, and given the pursuer an extract, they were both pillored, and had their lugs nailed to Trone, 27th March, 1685; and Weddel warded, till he pay the debt.'

The Chancellor, Theasaurer, and Ross, Archbishop of St. Andrew's, come from London to Edinburgh, 8th April, 1685, haveing been only eight dayes by the way; and the councill ordered the shiles wherthrow the chancellor was to pass, to attend him.'

'The late king's statute on horseback was set

Were not men more firm and stubborn a century and a half ago than they are now? We much question that conscientious motives would carry many to such extremes in our time.

up in the Parliament-Closs, 16th April, 1685. It stood the town of Edinburgh more than 10007. sterling.'

'The fire-cross, by order of councill, is sent through the west of Fife and Kinross, as nearest Stirling, that all betwixt sixteen and sixty might rise and oppose Argyle, 9th June*.

George Drummond, Provost of Edinburgh, breaks, and goes to the abbey; he was the first provost that brok: during his office, there was complaints against him for meddling with the town's common good.'

'Anderson's Pills.-Thomas Weir got a signator for selling thereof, and ane Thomas Steell gives in a bill against him, as having the only secret thereof: but Weir having given Melfort talents, is preferred. 21st July, 1687.' --

"A mountebank having got licence from the Privy

* Here is a remarkable instance (perhaps the latest) of the firecross having been sent round by command of government. In his Account of Somerset's Expedition, Paten thus describes it. 'And thys is a crosse (as I haue hard sum say) of ii brandes endes, caried a crosse vpon a spears point, with proclamation of the time and place whan and whither they shall cum, and with how much provision of vitail. Some others say, it is a cros, painted all red, and set for certayn dayes in the feldes of that baronrie, whereof they will haue they people too cum: whearby, all between sixty and sixten are peremptorily summoned that if they cum not wyth their vitayll according at the tyme and place then appointed, all the land thear is forfeited straight to the Kynges vse, and the tariers taken for traitours and rebels.'-Vide Patten's Account of the Expedicion into Scotlande of the most Worthely Fortunate Prince Edward, Duke of Soomerset, preface, p. xii.

:

Councill, and of Mr. Fountin, Master of the Revells, and of the Magistrats of Edinburgh, to erect a stage, he built it in Blackfryer-Wind. The CustomeOffice being there, compleaned of it to the magistrates, whereupon the magistrates took it down; whereupon he cited them to the councill, who alleadge he should have first been examined by the Colledge of Physitianes; yet they offered him the Grass-mercate, for preventing servants and prentices withdrawing from their service; but he being Popish, the Chancellor caused the magistrates to put his stage in the Land-mercate. He craved also damages. 14th July, 1688 *.

* In the printed Decisions of Lord Fountainhall, occurs the following sly entry concerning this fellow :

Reid, the mountebank, pursues Scott of Harden and his lady, for stealing away from him a little girl, called the Tumbling-lassie, that danced upon his stage; and he claimed damages, and produced a contract, whereby he bought her from her mother for 301. Scots But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns; and physicians attested the employment of tumbling would kill her; and her joints were now grown stiff, and she declined to return, though she was at least a prentice, and so could not run away from her master. Yet some cited Moses's law, that if a servant shelter himself with thee against his master's cruelty, thou shalt not deliver him up. The lords renitente Cancellario assoilzied Harden.'— Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. I. p. 429.

And the following account is given of his conversion, and of the importance attached to it by the silly bigotry of Perth, and the other courtiers and statesmen of James II. :

'January 17, 1687, Reid, the mountebank, is received into the Popish Church, and one of his blackamores was persuaded to accept of baptism from the Popish priests, and to turn Christian Papist, which was a great trophy. He was called James, after the King, and Chancellor, and the Apostle James.-Ibid. p. 4.

SOME PARTICULARS OF THE CATESBY RACE, OF CRANFORD MANOR *.

(From Baker's History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton.)

JOHN DE CATESBY, of Ladbroke, in Warwickshire, one of the commissioners appointed in that county for the suppression of unlawful assemblies in the reign of Ric. II. In 13 Hen. IV. (1411-12), his widow, and John de Catesby, her son, obtained a grant of free warren in their demesne lands of Rodburne, Ladbroke, and Shuckburgh, in Warwickshire, and' Assheby leger,' Welton, and Watford, in this county. Sir William Catesby, grandson of John, in conjunction with Sir Richard Ratcliffe, and Viscount Lovell, formed the triumvirate which gave rise to the memorable distich

'The Rat, the Cat, and Lovell our dog,

Rule all England under the hog ;'

alluding to King Richard III. having adopted a boar for one of his supporters. For this poetical libel, Collingbourn, the author, was hanged, headed, and quartered,' on Tower-hill. Catesby is charged with ungratefully deserting or betraying his early patron, Lord Hastings, to whose friendship he owed his introduction to the usurper, who in the first year of his reign constituted him esquire of the body, chancellor and chamberlain of the

* The Catesbys, for a private family, seem to have figured extraordinarily in our national history.

exchequer for life, and chancellor of the marches of Wales. He obtained grants also of various forfeited manors and lucrative wardships; and, amongst other local appointments, was steward of the manors in this county belonging to the duchy of Lancaster, master forester of Rockingham, 'justice' of Whittlebury forest, and joint constable, with Viscount Lovell, of Rockingham Castle. He was well versed in the law of the land, and is said to have made the judges shake at his displeasure. He followed the fortunes of his royal master to the fatal field of Bosworth, where he was taken prisoner, and three days afterwards beheaded, at Leicester, On the morning of his execution he made a will, in which the following are passages. This is the will of William Catesby, Esq., made the xxv th August, 1 Hen. VII., to be executed by my dere and wellbeloved wife, to whom I have ever been trew of my body, putting my sole trust in her for the executing thereof for the helth of my soul, the which I am undoubted she will execute; and for my body, when she may, to be beryed in the church of St. Leger, in Aisby, and to do such memoriall for me as I have appointed by for, and to restore all lands that I have wrongfully purchased, and to pay the residue of such land as I have bought truly, and to demene hit among her children and myne as she thynketh good after her discretion. I doubt not the king will be good and gracious lord to them; for he is called a full gracious prince, and