were kept in strict and probably vile f.rmance,
and ransom was demanded from them, where-
by, says the Horning, the Armstrongs "vsurped
or authoretie thai [the complainers] beand our
frie Liges.
the saids theifis haifing
no pouer [both of which statements might
appeal to the humour of the Armstrongs] nor
comission to tak thaim." But not only had
the Armstrongs seized the persons of the sheep
relievers, but had also annexed their seventeen
horses and "their sleuth hound dog," which
was "be way of stoutreif and manifest oppress-
ioun."

It could hardly be expected that the humour of the affair would appeal to James. To him it was "in high contemption of ws and or Lawis and in ewill exempill to vytheris our trew liges to comit the lyk greouis attemptatis gif the comitters heirof be sufferit to remain wn punishezit." It was his will that Thomas Weir, having presented the Letters of Horning to the Sheriff, was 'to pas and in our name and authoritie tak seuer sourtie" [sure surety] of the "comitters of the cryme that thai sall compeir befoir our Justice or his Deputs and wnder ly our Lawis for the samyn in our Tolbuith of Edgr" within twenty days, the surety to be found within six days. If no surety was forthcoming he was to "incontinent thereafter Denounce the Dissobeyers or Rebells and put tham to or horne, and escheit and Inbring all ther mouabill guds to or vse for their contemption."

This was all very brave fooling, for although it is not in the least likely that the invitation to come out and be shot-or hanged-would be accepted, yet due form had to be fulfilled. The true position of affairs, however, is revealed in the next passage. The law with regard to such matters was that the charges had to be delivered to the persons accused; in this case, however, the law was to be overridden and the charges were to be as Lauchfull as gif thai ver chargit personally

Because the said personis duells vpone or Borders qlks ar Broken be thaim vbi non est intus accessus and or officers dar not Repair to the perts qrin thai duell for fear of ther lyf."

The Government was clearly in a farcical position. Sheep and horses had been stolen, not to speak of the dog; seventeen men had been kept prisoners for over two months, yet all it could do was to send an official to a town twenty miles distant from the offenders, there to blow thrice on an ineffectual trumpet.

From the Sheriff Court Book, in which the document has reposed so long, we find that Thomas Weir duly fulfilled his commission. On

December 1 he presented the letters to the Sheriff-Clerk, who copied them "word be word." Two days later "opin proclamation" of them was made at the Market Cross, which at that time stood on the flat roof of three

shops in a commanding position in the market place. On the 5th, "the six dayis being bypast," he "denounced the sds personis or sovran lords rebells, and put thaim to his hienes horn be threeblasts of the trumpet, and ordaint the mouabill guds to be escheit and inbring to his hienes vse," though he did not add how the last was to be carried out.

for

We may add one other item. The Rev. Mr John Fraser, in his Statistical Account of Liberton Parish" (1792), says: In the village [of Liberton] are to be seen the vestiges of three large penned vaults, which were certainly erected as asylums for cattle . when the families of Douglas and Buccleugh were wardens of the south marches they allowed their retainers constantly to commit depredations on the inhabitants of this part of the country, destroying their grain, carrying off their cattle, etc., so that, upon a given signal, the whole villagers turned out to combat their spoilers. And as an asylum for their cattle erected these penned vaults, before the doors of which they always built a high wall, and on the top of it stationed men, with a quantity of large stones, which they threw down upon the enemy when they attempted to get at the cattle by breaking open the doors. Many of these vaults and walls were to be seen entire some years ago in this neighbourhood."-G. W. SHIRLEY in Glasgow Herald.”

The high prices paid for seats to see King George go to his crowning are interesting chiefly in view of the fact that the figure has risen throughout the centuries almost in an arithmetical progression. In the days of William the Conquerer, for example, the price of a seat was a "blank"; of Henry I. a 'crocard"; of King John a "fuskin -all rames of base coins, practically valueless, whose importation from abroad was put a stop to by Act of Parliament in the reign of Henry V. At the Coronation of the second Edward the price first becomes intelligible to us, in name, at any rate, if not in amount. For, in these good old days a seat could be had for a farthing. At the next ceremony it was a halfpenny, and at the crowning of Richard II. one penny! Sixpence was the charge to view Elizabeth's progress to the Abbey; half-a-crown for Charles II. and the same amount for James II. At last with the advent of George III. it leaps up to ten guineas. That was the beginning of the tall prices which reign today.

Printed and Published by A. Walker & Son, 113 High Street, Galashiels.

UNIV

OF

N

MR JOHN BUCHAN.

1898 readers of "Chambers's Journal" were delighted with the vigour and open-air feeling of a new story which began to run in the widely-circulated pages of that longestablished magazine. There was a youthful buoyancy about the tale and a go in the narrative which carried the reader along, while lovers of the old Scottish language felt indebted to the author for the purity of the Braid Scots used in the text.

The story

referred to was "John Burnet of Barns," and the author was Mr John Buchan, whose love 'for the Borderland is evidenced by his frequent residence there and the fine descriptions thereof in many of his books. Though he has so much solid work to his credit, Mr Buchan is a young man, and we may confidently expect many additional volumes from his pen, written in that fresh style which never grows old.

To the proprietor of the "Peeblesshire Advertiser" we are indebted for the fine portrait block used in our supplement and for the following condensed details regarding Mr Buchan, who was recently adopted by the

Unionist Associations of Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire, as prospective Unionist cardidate at the next election. Mr John Buchan is thirty-five years of age, and is a son of the Rev. John Buchan, minister of Joha Knox U.F. Church, Glasgow (now retired and living in Peebles, where he was born), and Mrs Buchan, who is the younger daughter of the late Mr John Masterton, Broughton Green, Peeblesshire. His paternal grandfather was a writer and bank agent in Peebles for many years, and his uncle, the late Mr William Buchan, was for twenty-five years Town Clerk of the burgh and Procurator-Fiscal for the county of Peebles; while his maternal uncles are well-known farmers in the Broughton district.

Mr Buchan has had a brilliant carcer. Educated at Glasgow University and at Brasenose College, Oxford; he is a Scholar of Brasenose College, winning the Newdigate, Stanhope, and Bridgeman Prizes, Senior Hulme Prize, Fellowship at Brasenose, and First-Class Honours in Classics and Philosophy. He was President of the Union shortly after Sir John Simon (the present SolicitorGeneral), and was succeeded in the President's chair by Mr Steel-Maitland (the present Mem