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more an affectation bordering upon heresy". What good effects followed from this ecclesiastical censure, I do not find; it is, however, evident, that the Scottish act of parliament against long tails was as little observed, as that against muzzling. Probably the force of the poet's satire effected a more speedy reformation of such abuses, than the menaces of the church, or the laws of the land. But these capricious vanities were not confined to Scotland alone. In England, as we are informed by several antiquaries, the women of quality first wore trains in the reign of Richard the Second: a novelty which induced a well meaning divine, of those times, to write a tract Contra caudas dominarum, against the Tails of the Ladies". Whether or no this remonstrance operated so far, as to occasion the contrary extreme, and even to have been the distant cause of producing the short petticoats of the present age, I cannot say. As an apology, however, for the English ladies, in adopting this fashion, we should in justice remember, as was the case of the Scotch, that it was countenanced by Anne, Richard's queen: a lady not less enterprising than successful in her attacks on established forms; and whose authority and example were so powerful, as to abolish, even in defiance of France, the safe, commodious, and natural mode of riding on horseback, hitherto practised by the women of England, and to introduce side-saddles*.

An anonymous Scotch poem has lately been communicated to me, belonging to this period: of which, as it was never printed, and as it contains capital touches of satirical humour, not inferior to those of Dunbar and Lyndesay, I am tempted to transcribe a few stanzas. It appears to have been written soon after the death of James the Fifth. The poet mentions

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the death of James the Fourth, who was killed in the battle of Flodden-field, fought in the year 15132. It is entitled DUNCANE LAIDER, or MACGREGOR'S TESTAMENT. The Scotch poets were fond of conveying invective, under the form of an assumed character writing a will. In the poem before us, the writer exposes the ruinous policy, and the general corruption of public manners, prevailing in Scotland, under the personage of the STRONG MAN', that is, tyranny or oppression. Yet there are some circumstances which seem to point out a particular feudal lord, famous for his exactions and insolence, and who at length was outlawed. Our testator introduces himself to the reader's acquaintance, by describing his own character and way of life, in the following expressive allegories.

a v. 78.

My maister houshold was heich Oppressioun,
Reiff my stewart, that cairit of na wrang;
Murthure, Slauchtir", aye of ane professioun,
My cubicularis has bene thir yearis lang :
Recept, that oft tuik in mony ane fang,
Was porter to the yettis', to oppin wyde;
And Covatice was chamberlane at all tydem.
Conspiracie, Invy, and False Report,

Were my prime counsalouris, leve" and deare;
Then Robberie, the peepill to extort,

And common Thift tuke on tham sa the steir",
That Treuth in my presince durst not appeir,
For Falsheid had him ay at mortal feid,
And Thift brocht Lautie finallie to deid.

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8 that scrupled to do no wrong.
h murder, slaughter.

The pages of my bed-chamber;
in Scotland, chamber-lads.
took many a booty.

gates; yates, yattis.
mall times.

• theft.

call

n beloved.

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steer, steerage; the management.

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enmity, hatred.

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brought loyalty to death.

Oppressioun clikit Gude Reules be the hair,
And suddainlie in ane preesoun him flang';
And Crueltie cast Pitie our the stair",

Qhuill Innocence was murthurit in that thrang".
Than Falsheid said, he maid my house richt strang,
And furnist weill with meikill wrangus geir*,

And bad me neither god nor man to feir. Y

At length, in consequence of repeated enormities and violations of justice, Duncane supposes himself to be imprisoned, and about to suffer the extreme sentence of the law. He therefore very providently makes his last will, which contains the following witty bequests.

To my CURAT Negligence I resigne,
Thairwith his parochinaris to teche;
Ane ather gift I leif him als condigne1,
Slouth and Ignorance sendill for to preche:
The saullis he committis for to bleiche
In purgatorie, quhill thaie be waschin clened,
Pure religion thairbie to sustene.

To the VICAR I leif Diligence and Care
To tak the upmost claith and the kirk kowe,
Mair nor to put the corps in sepulture:
Have pouir wad six gryis and ane sow,
He will have ane to fill his bellie foweb:

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* furnished it well with much ill- proscribed as a coarse indelicate word,

gotten wealth.

y v. 15. seq.

a

as good.

C

to be bleached;

rified.

z parishioners.

b seldom.
whitened, or pu-

4 till they be washed clean.

Part of the pall, taken as a fee at funerals. The kirk-kow, or cow, is an ecclesiastical perquisite which I do not un

It often occurs in our Translation of the Bible: and is used, somewhat singularly, in a chapter-act of Westminster-abbey, so late as the year 1628. The prebendaries vindicate themselves from the imputation of having reported, that their dean, bishop Williams, repaired the abbey, "out of the diet, and BELLIES of the prebendaries, and revenues of our

His thocht is mair upon the pasche fynis,
Nor the saullis in purgatorie that pynis.i
Oppressioun the PERSONE I leif untill*,
Pouir mens corne to hald upon the rig',
Quhill he get the teynd alhail at his willm:
Suppois the barins thair bread suld go thig",
His purpois is na kirkis for to big°;
Sa fair an barne-tyme god has him send❜n,
This seven years the queir will ly unmendin."
I leif unto the DEAN Dignite, bot faill',
With Greit Attendence quilk he sall not miss,
Fra adulteraris [to] tack the buttock-maill' ;
Gif ane man to ane madin gif ane kiss',
Get he not geir, thai sall not come to bliss "
His winnyng is maist throw fornicatioun,
Spending it shur with siclike occupatioun.
I leif unto the PRIOURE, for his part,
Gluttony, him and his monkis to feid,

said church, and not out of his own re-
venues," &c.
Widmore's WESTMINST.
ABBEY, p. 213. Append. Nuм. xii.
Lond. 1751. Here, as we now think,
a periphrasis, at least another term, was
obvious. How shocking, or rather ri-
diculous, would this expression appear
in a modern instrument, signed by a
body of clergy!

iHe thinks more of his Easter-offerings, than of the souls in purgatory. Pasche is paschal. PAIS, Easter.

I leave Oppression to the PARSON, the proprietor of the great, or rectorial tythes.

To keep the corn of the poor in the rig, or rick. [The rig is the ridge of the open field, where the Parson is so oppressive as to detain the whole of the poor people's corn, till he thinks fit to draw his title.-RITSON.]

m Until he get the tythe all at his will. Suppose the children should beg their bread. Barins, or Bearns. To build no churches. P So fair a harvest.

:

The choir, or chancel, which, as the rector, he is obliged to keep in repair. The more tythe he receives, the less willing he is to return a due proportion of it to the church.

without doubt.

* A fine for adultery. MAILIS is duties, rents. MAILE-MEN, MAILLERIS, persons who pay rent. Male is Saxon for tribute or tax Whence Maalman, Saxon, for one paying tribute. See Spelman and Dufresne, in VV.

If a man give a maid one kiss. Chaucer says of his SOMPNOUR, or Apparitor, PROL. Urr. p. 6. v. 651.

He would suffer for a quart of wine
A good fellow to have his concubine,
See the FREERES TALE, where these
abuses are exposed with much humour.
Urr. edit. p. 87.

"If he does not get his fine, they will not be saved. GEIR is properly goods,

chattels,

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his profits, in the spiritual court.

* surely in the sanie manner.

y

With far better will to drink ane quart',
Nor an the bible ane chaptoure to reid;
Yit ar thai wyis and subtile into deid,
Fenzeis thame pouir", and has gret sufficence,
And takith wolth away with gret patience.

I leif the ABBOT Pride and Arrogance,
With trappit mules in the court to ryde ̊,
Not in the closter to make residence ;
It is na honoure thair for him to byde",
But ever for ane bischoprik provyde:
For weill ye wat ane pouir benefice

Of ten thousand markis may not him suffice.

To the BISCHOP his Free will I alleges,
Becaus thair [is] na man him [dares] to blame;
Fra secular men he will him replege",

And weill ye wat the pape is fur fra hamei:
To preich the gospell he thinkis schame,
(Supposis sum tym it was his professioun,)
Rather nor for to sit upon the sessioun *.

an English gallon.

z to read one chapter. a unto death.

bfeign themselves poor.

to ride on a mule with rich trappings. Cavendish says, that when Cardinal Wolsey went ambassador to France, he rode through London with more than twenty sumpter-mules. He adds, that Wolsey "rode very sumptuouslie like a cardinal, on a mule; with his spare-mule, and his spare-horse, covered with crimson velvett, and gilt stirrops," &c. MEM. OF CARD. WOLSEY. edit. Lond. 1708. 8vo. p. 57. When he meets the king of France near Amiens, he mounts another mule, more superbly caparisoned. Ibid. p. 69. See also p. 192. [See a manuscript of this Life, MSS. LAUd. i. 66. MSS. ARCH. B. 44. Bibl. Bodl.] The same writer, one of the cardinal's domestics, says that he constantly rode to Westminster-hall, "on a mule trapped in crimson velvett with a saddle of the

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same. Ibid. p. 29. 30. In the Computus of Maxtoke priory, in Warwickshire, for the year 1446, this article of expenditure occurs, "Pro pabulo duarum mularum cum harnesiis domini PRIORIS hoc anno." Again in the same year, "Pro freno deaurato, cum sella et panno blodii coloris, mulæ PRIORIS." MS. penes me supr. citat. Wiccliffe describes a WORDLY PRIEST, "with fair hors and jolly, and gay saddles and bridles tinging by the way, and himself in costly clothes and pelure." Lewis's WICCL. p. 121.

It

f

d continue.

e look out for a bishoprick.

marcs.

give, assign.

He will order tryal in his own court. is therefore unsafe to attack him. i You well know the pope is at a great distance.

He had rather sit in parliament.

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