Montgomery manuscripts

The Montgomery Manuscripts.
19
to Westminster, attended by divers Noblemen and many Gentlemen, being by greater numbers con-
veyed to the borders, where he was received by English Lords, Esqrs., and Gentry in great splendor.?
Among the Scottish Lairds (which is a title equivalent to Esqrs.) who attended his Majesty to
Westminster, he of Braidstane was not the least considerable, but made a figure, more looked on
than some of the Lords' sons, and as valuable in account as the best of his own degree and estate in
that journey.
When the said Laird had lodged himself in Westminster, he met at Court with the said George
(his then only living brother), who had with longing expectations waited for those happy days. 8 They
enjoyed one the others most loving companies, and meditated of bettering and advancing their pecu-
liar stations. Forseeing that Ireland must be the stage to act upon, it being unsettled, and many
forfeited lands thereon altogether wasted, they concluded to push for fortunes in that kingdom, as
7 In great splendor. — As James passed on to take pos-
session of his new throne, immense multitudes assembled
to see him at various places on his line of progress, the
magnates of each county, after he had passed the border,
preparing entertainments for him at their houses. At
Newcastle and York, civic banquets of unusual grandeur
awaited him. " With splendour equally profuse, sir
Robert Carey received him at Widdrington, the bishop of
Durham at Durham, sir Edward Stanhope at Grimston,
lord Shrewsbury at Worksop, lord Cumberland at Bel-
voir castle, sir John Harrington at Exton, lord Burghley
at Burghley, and sir Thomas Sadler at Standen. With
princely hospitality, sir Oliver Cromwell regaled him at
Hinchinbrook ; and there the sturdy little nephew and
namesake of sir Oliver received probably the first impres-
sion of a king, and of the something less than divinity that
hedged him round Nearer and nearer Lon-
don, meanwhile, the throng swelled more and more ; and
on came the king, hunting daily as he came, incessantly
feasting and drinking, creating knights by the score, and
everywhere receiving worship as the fountain of honour.
Visions of levelling clergy and factious nobles, which had
haunted him his whole life long, now passed for ever from
him. He turned to his Scotch followers, and told them
they had at last arrived in the land of promise. " — Fors-
ter, Grand Remonstrance, p. 100. Stow has given full
details in his Annals, of the king's grand progress from
Berwick to London, among a people who had been go-
verned by queens for more than fifty years, and to whom
a king had then become a wonder to behold. The first
proclamation issued by James was one to prohibit the
crowding of the people on his line of march, for the dust,
as he approached London, became somewhat too oppres-
sive for the royal cortege. He reached the great city on
the I Ith May, and on the 16th issued his second proclama-
tion forbidding the killing of deer, and of such wild-fowl
as served hawking. James' was crowned on the 25th
July, and had previously ordered the money intended for
distribution on that occasion to be struck with the inscrip-
tion Ccesar Ciesarum. — Irvine, Lives of the Scottish Poets,
vol. ii., p. 229, note.
8 Those happy days. — From the hour that James had
actually attained to the throne of Great Britain and Ire-
land, he was never left at peace for a day by his Scottish
subjects, who believed that he had now become the pos-
sessor of inexhaustible resources, and were determined to
assist him to the utmost in the development and enjoyment
of the same. A small number of those who accompanied
him into England, and who appear to have been special
favourites with him in Scotland, soon felt the genial in-
fluences of the change. Among the latter may be espe-
cially mentioned sir George Home, created earl of Dun-
bar ; sir John Ramsay, created earl of Haddington ; sir
John Hay, created earl of Carlisle ; and Mr. Robert
Ker, afterwards earl of Somerset. The English nobility
were, of course, very jealous of these and many other
Scottish courtiers, calling them "beggarly Scots," of
which indignity the latter complained to the king, who is
said to have jocosely replied — "Content yourselves; I
will shortly make the English as beggarly as you, and so
end that controversy. " A ballad written at the time, and
afterwards printed in Ritson's Country Chorister, thus
notices the Scottishman's very much improved appearance
after his residence for a few years in England : —
11 Bonny Scot, we all witness can
That England hath made thee a gentleman.
Thy blue bonnet, when thou came hither,
Could scarce keep out the wind and weather,
But now it is turned to a hat and feather ;
Thy bonnet is blown, the devil knows whither.
Thy shoes on thy feet, when thou earnest from plough,
Were made of the hide of an old Scot's cow:
But now they are turned to a rare Spanish leather,
And decked with roses altogether.
Thy sword at the back was a great black blade.
With a great basket-hilt of iron made ;
But now a long rapier doth hang at thy side,
And huffingly doth this boruiy Scot ride."
Chambers, Domestic Annals, vol. i., p. 433.
A Scottish lady, who accompanied her husband across the
Border in the month of June following, has left a curious
record of her expenses by the way, and during some time after
her arrival in London. This document is printed by Fraser
among the family papers at Eglinton Castle, and although
he gives no account of it, we may reasonably infer that it
was originally written by some member, or connexion, of
the family. When this lady got so far as Newcastle, on
her journey, she was obliged to expend "iiii. s. for ten
quarters of tefeni, to be me ane skart " On her arrival in
York, she incurred the following expenses : — " For mend-
ing of my coffer, vi. d. ; for ane par of shouis, ii. s. vL d. ;
for tha wysching of my chlos, xii. d. ; for prines (pins),
xii. d. ; for tou par of gloufes, v. s." In Lester, among
other matters, she purchased certain trimmings " to make