Abbotsford Club > Historical memoirs of the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a portion of the reign of King James the Sixth

viii PREFATORY NOTICE.
tlio licentious proceedings which ensued ait er that most harbaious
assassination. A<>"ain, he tliinks fit to give a mere outhne of tlie
splendid ceremonial which took j)lace on the first entry of jNIary
Queen of Scots into Edinburgh, on her arrival from France.
" The solemnities," he says, " were trulie statlie, but too long
for an abridgment. Some things we shall sie of best remark."*
He is not long of repeating the same offence — for he states that
Mary lost no time in sending an embassy to Elizabeth, " in
which tymes long conferences were past betwixt the Queen and
him, which are at length set doune in my originall, and heer
for brevitie omitted."t Once more, after Riccio's murder, he
abbreviates some of the particulars of iSIary's conduct.^ And
again, after narrating the facts attending Darnlev's murder, it is
evident that he only extracts the substance of his author's leading
remarks regarding the proceedings as to the divorce between
Lady Jane Gordon and Bothwell, and the subsec^uent infamous
marriage of the Queen to that bad man.§ It is also much to l)e
regretted that the transcriber has entirely suppressed the whole
of Lord Herries' narrative of INIary's long and cruel captivity
in England, which, from the original and authentic sources of
direct information which he possessed, must have been equally
minute and valuable, in an historical point of view. He contents
himself, however, with very briefly mentioning the fact of the
imprisonment of Mary in the Castle of Carlisle, shortly after her
landing in England, by Lord Scroop, the English Warden; and
then cuts short his labour of transcription by a flourish of his pen
thus — "from whence she was transported, &c. &c. !"|| To cite
only one instance more — after having described the conclusion
of the proceedings of the Convention of York, held for the
• Hist.]}. 5G. t -^- P- ^^- X II'- "■ § J I'- 8:'- II Jb. 104.