according to knowledge."* If, however, she perceived any abatement of the inundation before she uttered her threats, she was not a simpleton.

1361.

The pestilence again in Scotland, with the same symptoms as in 1349.23

1362.

One hundred shillings provided to the vicar of Cloveth and Kildrummy.*4

du, et prenant le petit Jesus d'entre les bras de nostre Dame, lui dist, si tu ne me rends mon fils, je ne te rendrai pas le tien; et à quelque tems de là, l'enfant revint à la maison sain et sauve. Une autre fois, un frere portier d'une ordre de Franciscains perdit per mesgarde les clefs du couvent, et ne sçachant où ils les avoit esgarées, alla dans l'eglise, et lia la statue de St Anthoine de Lisbon par les pieds, la trempa dans un puys où il l'avoit descendue la teste la premiere, la retira, et elle apporta les clefs penduës miraculeusement à son col; ce qui est digne d'admiration, et non d'imitation."

That is, "The Portuguese are extremely fond of St Anthony of Lisbon; they pray to him, in particular, whenever a drought happens. They take his image, fix a rope to its feet, and sink it headlong into a well. Having thoroughly and often wet it, and soaked it, they draw it out again; and they do the like to the statue of the Virgin Mary. Surprised at this extraordinary ceremony, I applied to the guardian of the Capuchins at Damaon to learn its reason: he told me, that St Anthony chose to be treated so; and that, in this way, he had wrought an infinity of miracles; that the blessed Virgin made a child to be found again which a poor woman had lost: The manner was this; the woman having lost her child, came into the church, and taking the infant Jesus out of the arms of our Lady, said to her, Unless thou givest me back my son, I will not give thee back thine: Some time after, her child came home safe and sound. On another occasion, a friar, porter of a convent of Franciscans, having carelessly mislaid his keys, and not knowing where he had put them, went into the church, took the statue of St Anthony of Lisbon, immersed it headlong in a well, and drew it out again. Then the statue brought back the keys hung miraculously about its neck. This is worthy of admiration; yet the conduct of the friar ought not to be imitated.

* " Simplicitate quadam fatua, sed mente, quamvis non secundùm scientiam, devota;" Fordun. L. xiv. c. 21.

1370.

Andrew Dempster of Caraldston became bound to the abbot and abbey of Aberbrothock, that he and his heirs should furnish a person, residing within the territory of Aberbrothock, to administer justice in the courts of the abbey. An annual salary of twenty shillings Sterling was allowed to the judge thus furnished. The salary to be paid out of the issues of the courts.*

* "Facient ipsis deserviri de officio judicis in curiis eorum per unum hominem eorundem residentem in schira de Aberbroth. qui jurabit specialem fidelitatem ad dictum officium faciendum;" Chart. Aberbroth. vol. i. fol. 1,

APPENDIX.

NO. I.

VOL. II. Page 81.

Of the manner of the Death of MARJORY, Daughter of ROBERT I.

It is an opinion generally received, that Marjory the daughter of Robert I. while big with child, was thrown from her horse, and killed, between Paisley and the castle of Renfrew, (on Shrove Tuesday, 2d March 1315-6); and that her child was brought into the world by the Caesarean operation.

Crawfurd thus relates the story :' "At this place, in the lands of Knox, there is a high cross standing, called Queen Blearie's cross; but no inscription is legible. Tradition hath handed down, that it was erected on this occasion. Marjory Bruce, daughter of the renowned Robert I. and wife of Walter, great Stewart of Scotland, at that time Lord of this country, being hunting at this place, was thrown from her horse, and, by the fall, suffered a dislocation of the vertebrae of her neck, and

died on the spot. She being pregnant, fell in labour of King Robert II.; the child or foetus was a Caesar. The operation being by an unskilful hand, his eye being touched by the instrument, could not be cured; from which he was called King Blearie. This, according to our historians, fell out in the year 1317."

Such is the tradition which Crawfurd relates in a strange and embarrassed style.

I cannot discover the origin of this story. Fordun, the author of Excerpta e Chronicis Scotiae, and John Major, relate the birth of Robert Stewart, afterwards King of Scotland by the name of Robert II.; but they mention nothing of extraordinary circumstances attending his birth.*

Barbour, who wrote in the reign of Robert II. and Winton, who wrote soon after the death of Robert III. are silent as to the events related by Crawfurd, and so also are Ballenden, Lesley, and Buchanan.

Boece not only omits any mention of this story, but speaks in a strain inconsistent with it. His words are, " Mortua eisdem ferè temporibus Marjora, Roberti filia, relicto filio adhuc puero Roberto Stewart."3 If Boece had imagined that Marjory lost her life in this extraordinary manner, he never would have said, "That she died leaving a son yet

a child."

It is said, in confirmation of the vulgar tradition, that, by the unskilfulness of the surgeon who performed the Caesarean operation, the infant received a wound in the eye, and that hence Robert II. was styled Blear-eye.

That Robert II. when advanced in years, had a remarkable inflammation in one of his eyes, is certain. Froissart, who visited his court, speaks thus:4 "Robert King of Scotland had one eye turned up, (or tucked up), and red; it seemed like sanders wood."*

But surely this affords no presumption that Robert II. received a wound in his eye when he was entering into the world, or that the inflammation was occasioned by that accident. A man bred up in war as he was, might have had his eye hurt without the unskilfulness of a surgeon.

The chief argument in favour of the popular tradition, arises from the circumstances of a cross, or pillar, having been erected on the spot where the Princess Marjory is supposed to have died. That pillar has been removed within the memory of man; and it was known in the beginning of this century by the name of Queen Blearie's cross.t

* The words of Froissart are corrupted; but their sense is sufficiently intelligible : "Le roy Robert d'Escosce, avec uns yeux rouges rebrassés. Il sembloit de sendal." In those times rouge comme sendal was a common phrase for exceedingly red.

† I am assured by persons eminently skilled in the Gaelic language, that there are two words in that language, pronounced Cuiné Blair, which literally signify Memorial of Battle. The difference of sound between Cuiné Blair and Queen Blearie, as pronounced by the vulgar, is less than generally occurs between the Gaelic and the Saxon pronunciation of the same words. It is certainly less than between Ard Saet and Arthur's Seat, Dunpendir