more an affectation bordering upon heresyu. 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 W. 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 stanzasy. It appears to have been written soon after the death of James the Fifth 2, The poet mentions

u See Notes to Asc. Sc. Poems, ut Proc. v. 47.5, p. 5. Urr. supr. p. 256.

And on her tecte a paire of spurris sharpe. See Collectanea Historica, ex Dic y For the use of this manuscript I am TION. MS. Thomæ Gascoign. Apud obliged to the ingenious Mr. Pennant; Hearne's W. HEMINGFORD, p. 512. whose valuable publications are familiar

* Chaucer represents his Wire of to every reader of taste and science. Bath as riding with a pair of spurs, V. 162.

Z

1

the death of James the Fourth, who was killed in the battle of
Flodden-field, fought in the year 1513a. It is entitled Dun.
CANE 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 corrup-
tion of public manners, prevailing in Scotland, under the per-
sonage of the STRONG Mand, 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 alle-
gories.

My maister houshold was heicho Oppressioun,
Reiff my stewart, that cairit of na wrang & ;
Murthure, Slauchtir", aye of ane professioun,
My cubicularisi has bene thir yearis lang:
Recept, that oft tuik in mony ane fang k,
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 Thifto tuke on tham sa the steir P,
That Treuth in my presince durst not appeir,
For Falsheid had him ay at mortal feid?,

And Thift brocht Lautie finallie to deid". v, 78,

8 that scrupled to do no wrong. b«Copied,” says my manuscript,"at 1 murder, slaughter. Taymouth, in September 1769. From · The pages of my bed-chamber; calla Manuscript in the library there, ending ed, in Scotland, chamber-lads. August 20th, 1490." The latter date I took many a booty. certainly cannot refer to the time when

gates ; yates, yattis. this poem was written.

m all times.

" beloved. See The Testament of Afr. Andro Kennedy. Anc. Sc. Poems, ut supr. p.35. P steer, steerage ;

management. d viz. LAIDER.

enmity, hatred. naned, hight.

í robbery.

'brought loyalty to death,

с

o theft.

the

9

Oppressioun clikit Gude Reules be the hair,
And suddainlie in ane preesoun him flang';
And Crueltie cast Pitie our the stairų,
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 laiv. He therefore very providently makes his last will, which contains the following witty bequests.

To my Curat Negligence I resigne,
Thairwith his parochinarisz to teche;
Ane ather gift I leif him als condignea,
Slouth and Ignorance sendill be for to preche:
The saullis he committis for to bleiche
In purgatorie, quhill thaie be waschin clene",
Pure religion thairbie to sustene.
To the Vicar I leif Diligence and Care
To tak the upmost claith and the kirk kowe,
Mair norf to put the corps in sepulture:
Have pouir wad six gryis and ane sow ,
He will have ane to fill his bellie foweh:

u

z

caught Good Rule. Read cleikil, derstand. (The kirk-kow is the Morclecked. Cheik is crooked iron, Uncus. tuary.-- Ritson.] threw him into prison.

I more than. over the stairs,

& If the poor have six pigs and one sow. murthered in the croud.

h His belly full. BELLY was not yet * furnished it well with much ill- proscribed as a coarse indelicate word. gotten wealth.

It often occurs in our Translation of the y v. 15. seq.

parishioners. Bible: and is used, somewhat singularly, as good. seldom.

in a chapter-act of Westminster-abbey, to be bleached; whitened, or pu so late as the year 1628. The prebenrified.

daries vindicate themselves from the im4 till they be washed clean.

putation of having reported, that their Part of the pall, taken as a fee at dean, bishop Williams, repaired the abfunerals. The kirk-kow, or cow, is an ec- bey, “out of the diet, and BELLIES of clesiastical perquisite which I do not an- the prebendaries, and revenues of our

с

e

the rig',

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
Quhill he get the teynd alhail at his will m :
Suppois the barins thair bread suld go thig",
His purpois is na kirkis for to bigo;
Sa fair an barne-tyme god has him send'n,
This seven years the queir will ly unmendin. 9
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 u
His winnyng wis 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 · The choir, or chancel, which, as the venues," &c.

Widmore's WESTMINST. rector, he is obliged to keep in repair. ABBEY, p. 213. Append. Num. xii. The more tythe he receives, the less willLond. 1751. Here, as we now think, ing he is to return a due proportion of a periphrasis, at least another term, was it to the church. obvious. How shocking, or rather ri r without doubt. diculous, would this expression appear A fine for adultery. Mailis is duin a modern instrument, signed by a ties, rents. MAILE-MEN, MAILLERIS, perbody of clergy!

sons who pay rent. Male is Saxon for He thinks more of his Easter-offer- tribute or tax Whence Maalman, Saxon, ings, than of the souls in purgatory. for one paying tribute. Sec Spelman and Pasche is paschal. Pais, Easter. Dufresne, in VV.

* I leave Oppression to the Parson, "If a man give a maid one kiss. the proprietor of the great, or rectorial Chaucer says of his SoMPNOUR, or Aptythes.

paritor, Prol. Urr. p. 6. v. 651. " To keep the corn of the poor in the rig, or rick. [The rig is the ridge of the

He would suffer for a quart of wine open field, where the Parson is so op

A good fellow to have lis concubine. pressive as to detain the whole of the See the FrxerEs Talk, wbere these poor people's corn, till he thinks fit to abuses are exposed with much humour. draw his tithe. — Ritsos.]

Urr. edit. p. 87. m Until he get the tythe all at his will. "If he does not get his fine, they will

* Suppose the children should beg not be saved. Geir is properly goods, their bread. Barins, or Bearns.

chattels. * To build no churcbes.

his profits, in the spiritual court. p So fair a harvest.

* surely in the sanie manner.

With far better will to drink ane quart',
Nor an the bible ane chaptoure? to reid;
Yit ar thai wyis and subtile into deida,
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 bydea,
But ever for ane bischoprik provydeo:
For weill ye wat ane pouir benefice
Of ten thousand markis may not him suffice.
To the Bischop his Free will I allege,
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 sessiounk.

z

Y an English gallon.

same. Ibid. p. 29. 30. In the Comto read one chapter.

putus of Maxtoke priory, in Warwick. unto death.

shire, for the year 1446, this article of o feign themselves poor.

expenditure occurs, “ Pro pabulo duato ride on a mule with rich trap- rum mularum cum harnesiis domini pings. Cavendish says, that when Car- PRIORIS hoc anno. Again in the same dinal Wolsey went ambassador to France, year, “ Pro freno deaurato, cum sella et he rode through London with more than panno blodii coloris, mulæ Prioris." twenty sumpter-mules. He adds, that MS. penes me supr. citat. Wiccliffe deWolsey “rode very sumptuouslie like a scribes a WORDLY Priest, “with fair cardinal, on a mule; with his spare-mule, hors and jolly, and gay saddles and briand his spare-horse, covered with crim- dles ringing by the way, and himself in son velvett, and gilt stirrops," &c. Mem. costly clothes and pelure." Lewis's OF CARD. WOLSEY. edit. Lond. 1708. 8vo. Wiccl. p. 121. p. 57. When he meets the king of d continue. France near Amiens, he mounts another e look out for a bishoprick. mule, more superbly caparisoned. Ibid. p. 69. See also p. 192. [See a mann give, assign. script of this Life, MSS. Laud. i. 66. h He will order tryal in his own court. MSS. ARCH. B. 44. Bibl. Bodl.] The It is therefore unsafe to attack him. same writer, one of the cardinal's do You well know the pope is at a great mestics, says that he constantly rode to distance. Westminster-hall, “ on a mule trapped k He had rather sit in parliament. in crimson velvett with a saddle of the

marcs.