house, where, without dismounting, he called for half a gill. He was told by the servant maid that her master and mistress were on before him for the same church, and that they had locked up the measures, and left out only the bottle. To this the minister replied "Never mind, my woman, bring the bottle, my mouth just holds half a gill." The order was obeyed; but the young woman kept a lynx-eye on his efforts of deglutition. The reverend gentleman paid for the half gill; on which the servant said-" Ee na, sir, ye took three half gills; for I saw yer bandees play wiggy waggy three times." Finding himself convicted, he paid the claim and left, no doubt much refreshed, and better informed of the intelligence of a country servant girl. INCIDENT.-In 1565, Regent Murray formed a plot to way-lay Queen Mary as she passed through Kinross, from Perth; intending to seize and imprison his Sovereign. Her Majesty was too quick for the Regent. Having got a hint of the danger, she passed through Kinross just two hours before the arrival of Murray's emissaries on their traitorous purpose. In this act, Murray's object was good; the failure of which is much to be deplored. Had he succeeded, he would have prevented her marriage with the infamous Darnley, and with the still more dastardly Bothwell. Nay, more, he would have saved her head: LOCH LEVEN.-This magnificent sheet of water has engaged the pen of the historian, the contemplative eye of the tourist, and the pencil of the painter, ever since the days of the unfortunate Queen Mary's incarceration within the walls of its renowned Castle. In its original state it was 15 m. in circumference, extending over 4638 imperial acres, and nearly 19 feet in depth; while now, it is barely 12 m. in circumference, with an area of 3543 acres, and depth of 14 feet.* The difference was brought about by a considerable drainage, with a view of reclaiming one or two thousand acres of lands, by which the grasping disposition of man was to be rewarded; but after an outlay of nearly £35,000 the land proved to be little better than a bed of sand; so that with the exception of some mill-owners, it has never paid its expense, besides giving rise to endless difficulties and disputes.-The lake receives the Orwell and all the other streams of the county. It is studded with four little islands. The vale of Kinross, with its fine spreading trees, the town, and Kinross House, are seen to great advantage on the W. and N.W. sides. It is bounded on the N. by the plain of Orwell; a part of the Lomond hills terminates on the N.E.; and Benarty hill on the S.E. In this direction the River Leven flows from the lake, "and, after a course almost due east of 13 miles, falls into the sea at the town of Leven. It is joined by the Lothry a short way below Leslie House, and by the Orr half-a-mile above Cameron-bridge." "Its current is very rapid, having a fall of no less than 310 feet in the above distance."* About a mile E. from the town, but near the lake, are the ruins of Burleigh Castle. The principal island of the four already adverted to is opposite the town, and is about 5 acres in extent, on which stand the ruins of the Castle, built by a King of the Picts. The great tower of the Castle is four storeys in height; of a square form; with walls of six feet thick. Its main entrance was on the second floor, which was reached by an outside stair and a drawbridge. The principal apartment fronted the entrance, and was provided with a wooden floor hinged on one side, and a bolt or spring at the other, by which, if overcome by an enemy, they could in a moment send all on it into the dungeon below. Loch Leven Castle was besieged by the English in 1301, which ended in Sir John Comyn raising the siege. In 1335 Allan Vypont held the Castle in the interest of David II., against Sir John Strevelyn, who had besieged it, but who was ultimately compelled to raise the siege, with great loss to the English. This was brought about by taking advantage of Strevelyn's absence, with most of his troops, who had gone to celebrate the festival of St Margaret at Dunfermline. Vypont seized the favourable opportunity on the 19th of June, rushed out and carried all before him, with considerable slaughter.§ In 1429, Archibald Earl of Douglas was committed a prisoner to the same castle, for unbecoming language to James I.|| In 1484, the eminent Patrick Graham, of primitive simplicity, (see p. 37,) was imprisoned in the Castle, after having first been incarcerated in Inchcolm, and then in the monastery of Dunfermline. The Castle was also the prison in which the poor Earl of Northumberland was confined for 3 years, in 1569, after his rebellion in England, where he was defeated, and took refuge in Scotland, where protection was promised him. By referring to pages 55 and * Fullerton. † Sir Walter Scott, and Keith, vol. ii., p. 642. Balfour's Annals. § Fordun, Abercromby, Buchanan, and Sir David Dalrymple. New Stat. Account,-Kinross. 56 the reader will find how basely he was betrayed. All the past on this celebrated Castle is but as a drop of water taken from the ocean compared with the imprisonment of the beautiful, the talented, the unfortunate Queen Mary! on whom history, tongue, and pencil-friend and foe, are still actively engaged. Before going further, I may state that the Castle was popularly called the Lion's Den, from the circumstance that the Regent Morton, like a fox, retired to it when in danger, and watched the progress of events. In June, 1567, the enemies of the Queen made a sudden attempt to secure her and Bothwell, with 1000 men, while her Majesty was unprepared; but as usual, too quick for the best of them, she contrived to go with Bothwell to the Castle of Borthwick, the seat of the Laird of Crookston, in Edinburghshire, 10 m. from Edinburgh. This was three weeks after her unfortunate marriage. Here again they were taken by surprise while sitting at supper, by Morton and his force, who surrounded the Castle. The Queen once more escaped their vigilance, as we are told by Lord Herries, who says that the Queen was disguised in man's apparel, booted and spurred; and Bothwell disguised in a woman's habit; and in the night deceived the guards, and rode off to Dunbar Castle. On the 14th of June the Queen and Bothwell left Dunbar with 2000 men, and were entrenched on Carberry hill, about 8 m. from Edinburgh, on the 15th. The opposite force, though not so numerous, were chiefly of the higher classes, better disciplined, and had more courage. After viewing the movements of each other during the day, the Queen's troops gradually dwindled away to little more than the half; observing this, her Majesty sent for the gallant Kirkaldy of Grange, and surrendered herself into the hands of the insurgents, after obtaining a solemn assurance that they would abide by the terms of their engagement. With the single exception of Kirkaldy, her majesty was taken to Edinburgh more like a low criminal than the Sovereign of Scotland; and that, as Calderwood says, when she was ready to faint from fatigue and want of refreshment. Such was the conduct of noblemen who called themselves men of honour, and who could trample on a fallen foc, and that foe a woman! Her Majesty was not taken to Holyrood Palace, but confined in the provost's house, (which was James Henderson of Fordell's town house); and there refused a change of clothes, and a woman to attend * Robertson the historian was born in the manse of Borthwick, of which his father was minister. her; and this on the authority of Keith.* Lest the citizens should rise, and rescue the Queen, she was next morning removed to Holyrood Palace, under a strong guard. On the evening of that day (16th of June,) "Mary was compelled to ride 30 miles to Lochleven Castle, mounted on a miserable hack." The royal captive rode between Lord Ruthven and Lord Lindsay of the Byres, "men familiar with blood, and of savage and fierce manners;" besides being surrounded by a strong guard. In appearance, Mary, once the boast of the nation, and the admiration of Europe, now presented a picture of the most degraded and abject humiliation; deserted by friends, sycophants, parasites, and flatterers; and left to taste the bitterness of the gall and wormwood preparing for her daily food. "Relentlessly pursued by her enemies, she was even more endangered by the falsehood, treachery, ambition, and cold-blooded cruelty of her once boasted friends, and apparently most devoted adherents." Thus, Tullibardine, the Comptroller, brother-in-law of the Earl of Mar, told the English ambassador Throckmorton, that "within the last forty-eight、 hours, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, on the part of the Hamiltons, has proposed to us to put the Queen to death."§ Be this as it may, on her arrival she was placed under the surveillance of William Douglas, the brother uterine of Murray. "Her accommodation was most wretched," and rendered more so by the severe and insulting treatment of "Lady Lochleven." The Queen employed her time in working a flowered crimson velvet bed, and which is now in Scone Palace. To crown her misfortunes, she was compelled to attach her signature to the abdication of the throne, by the threats of the brutal Lindsay, whose iron hand made the weeping sovereign understand that worse than imprisonment awaited her in case of a refusal. This "brought to a close the first act of this most tragic history of the beautiful, but erring and suffering, daughter of the house of Stewart." The Queen's first attempt to escape from prison, in the disguise of a laundress, was through the assistance of George Douglas, the younger brother of the owner of the Castle; but she was detected by the delicate whiteness of her hands and arms. She was conveyed back to her prison, and young Douglas dismissed from Loch Leven. Her second and last successful attempt, through the same agency, on the 2d of May, 1568, * Vol. II. p. 639. † Pict. Hist. of Scot. Pict. Hist. of Scotland. § Throckmorton to Elizabeth, July 27, 1567. was by a page having stolen the keys, which enabled her to get out, locking the gate, and throwing the keys into the lake to prevent pursuit. Miss Strickland tells us that Jane Kennedy, a female attendant, had not been quick enough to the Castle gates till they were locked by the retreating party, but who nevertheless leaped from the Queen's chamber window, on the third floor, into the loch, and, striking out, swam stoutly after the boat till she overtook it and was received in her dripping garments within that little ark. I may inform the reader that the same authority states that this true-hearted heroine was doomed to find a watery grave two-and-twenty years after this noble action. Before the close of this article, we shall find that even this discarded Queen had true friends, "but like the angels, few and far between." Her Majesty found it necessary to avoid the parish of Kirkcaldy in her flight, because of the Laird of Raith, Henry Balnaves, who had persecuted her from her cradle. Tytler states that the keys were discovered by a boy wading on the margin of the lake in 1805, at the close of a very dry autumn. They were very much covered with rust. "The keys of Lochleven Castle are now in the Museum of the Antiquarian Society, Edinburgh." That they were the real keys in question has been clearly proved by certain marks, though my limits deny me the power of leading evidence. As we now leave Loch Leven for the last time, I cannot do better than give the following lines from a native of the county, on a castle in which were acted many of the darkest tragedies that ever soiled the page of history. "No more its arches echo to the noise Of joy and festive mirth; no more the glance Of blazing taper through its windows beams, Lash'd by the wintry tempests, cold and bleak, And piecemeal crumble down the tower to dust."* On reaching the shore, Mary gallopped first to the Ferry, and without drawing bridle, to Niddry Castle, (parish of Kirkliston,) "having been joined on the road by Lord Claud Hamilton with 50 horse." Here she rested for a few hours. She then proceeded to Hamilton Castle, (in Lanarkshire,) where many of the nobles soon brought around the Queen an army of 6000 men. Here the historian is startled by finding that * Poems by Michael Bruce. |