near Hawick in 1616. Howpasley was the property of a lady named Scott, but by some means, either by wadset, apprising, or other legal diligence, it came into temporary pos session of Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig, who put a stock of sheep on it. But the Lady of Howpasley was full of the old bor der mettle: she summoned sundry of her clan, Jock Scott the Suckler and other Scotts — Wattie and Ingram and Marion's Geordie and Bonnie Johnnie — and arranged with them the lesson to be read to the land-grabber. It took the form of " sic monstruous and vnhard of crewaltie," so runs the ditty, "as the lyk guhair of hes nocht bene hard amangist the wyld Irisch' and savadge people, let be within any reformet and ciuile pairt of his Maiesteis domininois." The Scotts above named, coming by stealth one night to How pasley, fell upon the sheep, slew forty of them, "and the rest of thame, thair spaldis [shoul ders] and legis wer sturkin away fra thame in maist barbarous maner, and war sa left spreuleing in thair deidthrawis [death strug gle] upone the grund." Jock the Suckler having turned king's evidence, which brought three of his comrades to the gallows, was pardoned; but he was far too notorious to be allowed to go free. He was rearrested on a charge of sheep-stealing, and swung for it on June 21. What became of his faithful ac complice — his dog — called Hide-the-Bastard? The frequency of capital punishment is one of the ugliest features in the social life of the metropolis at this time; and the number of malefactors hanged, beheaded, burnt, drowned, broken on the " row " and other wise disposed of in public spectacle, bore a large proportion to the city population, which cannot have greatly exceeded 20,000. Milder measures might have failed to redeem the country from the anarchy which had long prevailed, but unhappily the reign of James VI. is distinguished by the initiation and fre'The allusion is to the Highlanders, who were still called Itish or Erse.
palling quency of in atheir class shocking of proceedings crueltyfarand more folly, ap. inasmuch as they were conducted before the highest tribunals in the land and occupied in a peculiar degree the personal attention of the monarch. No Scotsman can look back without shame and burning indignation upon the action of the State and the Reformed Church in the suppression of witches. No doubt the guilt was not all on one side. No doubt there were, in all parts of the country, creatures of both sexes,— partly imposters and partly dupes of still greater scoundrels — who claimed to exercise supernatural pow ers by the aid of evil spirits.- These were a class of miscreants, among whom would-be assassins could always find willing instru ments — a class which it was right and nec essary to suppress; but the means adopted to do so — the black superstition and abject terror shown by clergy and laity alike — brought down the judges to a lower level of disgrace than the culprits themselves. The " dittays " drawn up by the Lord Advocate against the accused often betray almost incredible simplicity and credulity. Thus among the charges against Patrick Lowrie, executed for sorcery in 1603, ap pears the accusation that " the said wikkit Spreit, the Devill, in the liknes of Helen McBrune, presentit to the said Patrik ane hair belt; in ane of the endis of the quhilk belt appeirit the similitude of foure fingeris and ane thombe, nocht far differrent frame the clawis of the Devill" • Any juryman whom common sense or common honesty prompted to reject such rubbish as this, did so at his peril. Instances occur of jurymen who had acquitted persons accused of witch craft being put on their trial for wilful error on assize—an offense punishable with for feiture, banishment, and being proclaimed "infamous." In 1591, Barbara Napier, having been tried for conspiring with " ane notoure and knowin nigromancer " to kill the king, and a number of other illegal acts, twelve out of
