jERVISE'S LAND OF THE LINDSAYS..
THE Natural History of &Thorne shows what may be done with an apparently unpromising subject, by untiring industry, close observation of nature, and a mind so possessed with its materials as to reflect them simply and plainly. Similar qualities probably could deal as successfully with the topography of a parish as with its natural history. The rise and fall of the territorial owners— "the short and simple annals of the poor "—the ecclesiastical his- tory and religious changes—the alterations in its natural features consequent upon reclamation and improved cultivation—with, more than all, the superstitions and traditions of the district— might furnish a very agreeable work, if done well but not over- done. Some choice would indeed be required ; for many places have not matter enough for topographical story. Gilbert White was favourably located at Selborne : there are parishes where even the natural historian can do but little, their nature is so bare. Mr. Jervise seems to have designed a work somewhat on the plan we have mentioned ; but, instead of taking a single place for his topic, he embraces nine parishes and numerous estates,—for —for so extensive were the domains of the Lindsays in the height of their family numbers and potentiality. The connexion of this family with Scottish history and Scottish song—the wild and romantic nature of their country—the variety and richness of Scotch super- stitions and traditions, whether founded or pure inventions (as Mr. Jervise thinks is often the case with heraldic stories)—have accu- mulated a larger stock of materials than most English parishes possess, especially for the early period. The greater fulness of re- cord to which the parochial church-government of Scotland after the Reformation gave rise has also yielded minuter accounts of parish history than can generally be found in England. The very extent of the subject, however, has interfered with the completeness of the execution. Each of the nine parishes, as well as the single estates, is handled separately and successively, and treated in the same mode so far as the material admits. The origin of the name of the parish, its ecclesiastical history, notices of the owners and remarkable parishioners, crimes, traditions, and superstitions, with architectural, antiquarian, and agricultural sketches, follow each other with sameness, if not with something like confusion. The Lindsays in their heyday were a tree of many • The History and Traditions of the Land of the Lindsay's in Angus and ?deans; with Notices of Alyth and Meigle. By Andrew Jervise. To which is added an Ap- pendix, containing Extracts from an old Rental-book of Edzell and Lethnot, and Other interesting Doeusomis. Published by Butberlaud sad Knox, .P.dinburdh• branches. The frequent recurrence of the same name with some lo- cal family distinction adds to the confusion, by puzzling the reader who has not a turn for genealogy, or does not wish to be at the trouble of working out a series of pedigrees. This was perhaps inseparable from the nature of the undertaking ; but the defect might have been lessened by an introductory survey of the country and the family, so as to stamp the features of the particular parishes and the clans which held them more clearly upon the mind. Those territories which had a single owner might afterwards have been grouped together, as in the case of the Lindsays of EdzelL The volume, however, has a good deal of curious matter, picked up from various sources,"besides that quarry in all which concerns the Lindsay family The Lives of the Lindsays. The following histance of a composition for homicide, worthy of the darker ages, is a sample. The Lindsays of Edzell had been exasperated by the violent doings, involving murder, of the eldest son of the eleventh Earl of Crawford, the head of the race. On the 5th July 1607, the young Laird of Edzell, with his brother and some followers, attacked the Master of Crawford in the High Street of Edinburgh, severely wounded him, and killed his uncle Lord Spynie, another of the Lindsays.
" Young Edzell fled fromjustice, and took up his abode in the castles of Auchmull, Invermark, and Shanno, all situate in Glenesk, and in points so difficult of access, particularly the last mentioned, that he contrived to evade his pursuers for a considerable period. His father was prohibited from shel- tering him, under heavy penalties; and it was on his being hunted from Auch- mull and Invermark that he erected the fortalice at Shaun°, which is known synonimously as the 'Castle' and 'Auldha',' and of which some foundations still remain on the hill-side to the West of the farm-house.
"Accountable for the misdeeds of his son, Lord Edzell was so greatly harassed by the Earl of Crawford anent the unfortunate murder of Spynie, that he found peace neither at home nor abroad. No less than five of his servants were 'shot with pistols and hurt,' and himself 'not wundit only,' as he quaintly observes, but banishit from my virtue.' It was under these painful circumstances that Lord Edzell found himself compelled to write the King, craving ever to be tryit of the unhappy slaughter of my umquhill Lord of Spynie' ; but it was not until a second appeal was made to his Majesty, setting forth the insecure state in which his person and property stood with his overbearing chief, that the trial of Edzell and his son of Canterland, as suspected connivers at the death of Lord Spynie,' was permitted. The trial was fixed for the 6th of September 1607; but the accusers failing to appear, the matter lay dormant for many years, during which Lord Edzell died, and his son was so far restored to favour as to be again received into the church, from which he had been excommunicated.
"The murder of Spynie, however, was not allowed altogether to rest. In the year 1616 the matter was agitated anew by Spynie's eldest son and heir, who, acting for his sisters and other kindred, demanded a compensation for the said elaughter."Offeris' were accordingly made by Edzell for himself and in name of his followeris' to Lord Spynie, for the purpose of ' removing of all grudge, haitred, and malice coneetivit and borne be them against him and his followeris for the onhappie and negligent and accidentarie slaughter' of the late Lord. As this document of offeris ' is in itself curi- ous, and not only shows young Edzell's innocence of the matter, but the complete want of intention on his part, and that of his accomplices, to murder Spynie, it is here given entire, and in its original orthography.
In the first, I attest the grytt god, quha knawis the secrettis of all hairtis, that it was never my intention to hairm that Noble man, moire nor I weld have done my awin hairt, Quhom at that tym and all tymis preceding I ever lovit and respeckit as my Wncle, and weld ever have rather hazsard my lyff then have knawin him in any sik danger.
" Forder, I shall declair for myself and all thaie quha ar alyiff that war present thereat, that We are innocent in thocbt, word, and dead of that fact; and it is off veritie that the committer thairoff died, for that evil dead quhilk fell in his hand, wiolentlye, quhom I cold never patientlie behold, efter trial and confessione of sik onhappie creueltie ; quhilk sell be maid manifest and confirmed, be all testimonies requisit, under all hiest paynis. " Secondlie, for declaration of my penitencie and the sorrowe of my hairt for that onnaturall and onhappie fact, I offer to the said Noble Lord, my Lord of Spynie, and to his twa sisteris, the sowme of Ten Thowsand Merks, and forder at the discretione of freindis, to be chosin equalie betuixt we.
" 'Thridlie, Becaus the rwinit and rent estait of my Hoye may permit no forder offer off grytter sowmes, I offer to do eik Honour and Homage to the said Noble Lord of Spynie his sisteris curators and freindis as thaye shall
crawe. LYNDMAY.' "A contract was therefore entered into, by which Edzell agreed to give the heirs of the late Spynie the lands of Garlobank, in the pariah of Kirriemuir, in addition to the large sum of ten thousand marks, mentioned in the offeris' ; and the affair was finally set at rest in 1617, by the royal grant of a remission for the murder, by letters of Slains,' under the Great SeaL" In a country so famous as Scotland for witches, the Land of the Lindsays of course furnishes evidence of their existence, as well as of other " devilish cantrip sleights" ; and the superstitions come
down in vigour almost to our time.
"Nor was the white adder less an object of superstition in old times than the _perforated stone. Such an animal is said to have been rare ; and as his qualities fell little short of those anticipated from the discovery of the philo- sopher's stone, his acquisition repaid tenfold any toil or trouble which the lucky possessor had undergone in catching him—his great and unique pro- lofty being the conferring of no less a power than taibhae, or the second sight. The wonderful gift of seeing into the firmly-sealed volume of futurity was supposed to be innate in some person ; but the broo' or broth of the white adder had the same magical effect on the partaker as if he had been born heir to the gift. This was the manner in which Broehdarg, the celebrated Prophet of the North, was ,endowed with the marvellous power of diving into futurity, and of knowing the persons who cast ill on their neighbours.' Going to the Continent in youth as the servant of a second Sidrophel, he got a white adder from his master to boil one day, and was admonished on the pain of his existence not to let a drop of the 'broo' touch his tongue. On scalding his fingers, however, he inadvertently thrust them into his mouth as a soothing balm ; when he instantly beheld the awful future stretched out before him. Fearing the ire of his master, he fled from his service, and do- miciling himself among his native mountains in Aberdeenshire, was con- sulted by all the bewitched and love-sick swains and maidens far and near, and died an old wealthy earl about eighty years ago ! "Another party in the same district, who lived within these forty years, obtained the second sight also from partaking of the 'bre*. of a white adder. This person was much sought after, and on one occasion visited a farm in where Lethnot, whe many cattle had died in a singularly unaccountable manner; and procuring a white basin full of spring water, he took a round ball, pure and clear as polished steel, which he carried about with him, and dipping it three times into the basin in the name of the Trinity, discovered the like- ness of the Evil One to the astonished farmer, who in the bewitching jade be- held the physiognomy of one of his own cotter women ! This witch is still remembered by some old residentera; and one respectable person assures us that she was as thorough a witch as ever stept, for he himself, for calling her 'a witch' one day, while driving one of his father's carts, had a cartfull of lime upset three several times within the short space of a mile, and in sight of the weird's residence."
The Devil himself was a visitant in the same parish of Leth- not in the early part of the last century : of which there are many proofs.
" One of these stories is based on a quarrel which took place between the farmer of Witton and a fellow parishioner. Witton had long a craving to be revenged on his neighbour; and on learning one evening that the object of his hatred was from home and would not return until a late hour, he went away to meet him. Before departing on his unhallowed expedition, how- ever, his excited appearance and the unusually late hour so alarmed his wife, that she tried every means to dissuade him from his journey ; and all protestation having failed, she inquired, as a last resort, and in a piteous tone, who was to bear her company during his absence ? To this he answered gruffly and in a frantic manner, The Devil, if he likes ! ' and immediately went forth on his errand of revenge. So, sure enough, in the course of an hour or two, his Satanic Majesty rose from the middle of the earthen floor of the chamber where the poor disconsolate woman sat, and presented himself to her astonished gaze! Whether he attempted to do her any injury is not related ; but, having had presence of mind to put her son, a mere boy, out at a back-window for the minister, his reverence and the boy, with some of the neighbours, made way for the house. When within a short distance of it, Mr. Thomson, supposing that he felt the odour of brimstane smeik,' was so impressed with the belief of the bona fide presence of Beelzebub, that he re- traced his steps to the manse, and arrayed himself in his black gown and linen bands, and taking the Bible in his band, went boldly forth to vanquish the master-fiend. On entering the ill-fated chamber, he charged the in- truder with the Spirit of the Word ; when, in the midst of a volume of smoke and uttering a hideous yell, he shrunk aghast, and passed from view in much the same mysterious way as he had appeared : and an indentation in the ground-floor of the farm-house was long pointed out as having been caused by the descent of Satan."
The farming of the whole district has undergone great changes within something like half a century, as well as in the mode of living among the farmers. We close with an example of this kind.
" Such were the proprietors of Careston from the earliest to the present time ; and, as a family called Mitchell still occupy the farm of Nether Cares- ton, which their progenitors have held from at least the time of Earl Henry of orawford, (the present tenant having held leases to his forefathers by Earl Henry until they were lately called up by the Earl of Fife,) some notice of them, as still preserved in the district, may not be inaptly given under this head. Having always been affluent, they were foremost m all sorts of agri- cultural improvement, and, among other advances were the first in the North-eastern district of the county to erect thrashing-mills and adopt the HEM of fanners. As a matter of course, they had much to contend with in so doing; since the wonderful power of the latter machine in separating the grain from the chaff was attributed to supernatural agency, and called the Devil's wind. It is also said, that the prejudice was so strong against their use, that Mitchell and his family were compelled to work them personally, and scarcely a housewife would allow a particle of the meal that was made from the corn which passed through them to enter her house. Still the farmer persevered ; and their advantage became so apparent, that even during his own lifetime no meal could be found that had not undergone the process of being chaffed by the heretical wind. " Nor was it alone in their farming operations that this family were ahead of their neighbours; for while other tenants had merely the glow of the fire and splinters of wood to aid them in their domestic duties in the evenings, and only the cold earthen floor under their feet, they had white tallow candles for enlivening the gloom, and the floor of the ben or inner apartment of their house laid with green turf, or strewn with rushes taken from the banks of the Noran. These, it is said, were deemed so extravagant by the laird at the time, that Mitchell incurred his enmity to such a degree that he threatened to turn him out of his holding if he persevered in their adoption. Mitchell was invincible, however; the threat went for nothing, and he con- tinued to augment the comfort of his house by steady steps, and, as already said, was followed in Nether Careston by successive descendants, one of whom occupies it to this day."
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