Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

298 Scotland, Social and Domestic.
" So far furtli from me,
It is my ain Sone Jesus.
He is nail'd to the tre ;
He is nail'd Weill ;
For he is nail'd throw wynegare,
Throw toothe and throw tung,
Throw halie harn pan.*
The notorious Major Weir was executed at the Gal-
lowlee, near Edinburgh, on the 14th April, 1676. Weir
was a native of Clydesdale ; he had served in the army,
and, about the year 1650, became superintendent of
tide-waiters at Leith. He was there noted for his piety
and his remarkable gift of prayer. When an old man
he confessed himself guilty of incest. His gift of prayer,
he said, was communicated by his staff, over which he
leant in his devotions. On his own confesssion he was
burned, and his staff was consumed with him. His
sister, who was particeps criminis, was also burned.
The dwelling of Major Weir remained uninhabited.
In the autumn of 1696, the people of the West were
disturbed and agitated by the strange reports which
reached them from Bargarran, "Renfrewshire. Christian
Shaw, a child of eleven years, daughter of the proprietor
of Bargarran, was suffering from hysteria. In a fit of
petulance, she accused Catherine Campbell, the maid
who attended her, of drinking and stealing. Catherine
resented the imputations, and a quarrel ensued. A few
days after, Christian experienced a return of her con-
vulsions. During her paroxysms she pretended to put
out of her mouth egg shells, orange peel, hair, feathers,
pins, and hot cinders. She professed to talk with in-
* "Kirk-session Eecords of Dunfermline," 7th May, 1650. The
latter rhymes seem to have originally formed a hymn of the Romish
Church.