rendered it easy to bear them down, as they struggled breathless and disordered out of the heads of the lanes. This was not the only piece of good fortune which attended Angus on the occasion; for Home of Wedderburn, also a great adherent of the Douglases, arrived on the spot while the conflict was yet raging, and darting through the Netherbow gate at the head of his formidable borderers, appeared in the street in a decisive moment. The Hamiltons took to flight, leaving seventy killed behind them, one of whom was Sir Patrick Hamilton, the peace-maker, who had vainly attempted to prevent this sanguinary and disgraceful

rencontre.

The Earl of Arran and his natural son were in such imminent danger that, in their flight, meeting a collier's horse, they were glad to throw off its burthen, and both mounting the same steed, they escaped through a ford in the lock, which then defended the northern side of the city. The consequences of this skirmish which, according to the humor of the age, was long remembered, under the name of cleanse the causeway, raised Angus in a little time to the head of affairs.

MANNERS OF THE AGE.

Towards the 16th century the manners of the English became more humane than those of their ancestors had been, whom continual warfare, and an eager thirst for conquest and spoil had united to render ungentle and tremendous. Their exercises, sports and passion for feasting we have mentioned in another place. Dancing round the may-pole, and riding the hobby. horse, were favorite country sports: but these suffered a severe check at the reformation, as did the humorous pageant of Christmas personified by an old man hung round with savory dainties.

There is reason to think that gaming was the favor

ite amusement of the Scots in the sixteenth century. Sir David Lindsay, in a tragedy, makes Cardinal Beaton declare, that he had played with the king for 3,000 crowns of gold in one night, at cards and dice;' and an anonymous bard (cited by the historian of English poetry) avers, that

'Halking, hunting, and swift horse rynning
Are changit in all his wrangus wynnin :
There is no play bot 'cartes and dice.'

As to the tables of the Scots, no particular remark occurs, unless it be that two national dishes (still cherished at the plentiful tables in the north) made in the sixteenth century, a part of the usual meal. Hospitality from one end of the island, seems to have been especially harbored at religious houses; and if the monk or holy friar' was to a proverb, fond of good living, jollity and conviviality of all, he was not backward in imparting a share of his dainties to the benighted or wandering stranger. The Scots afford, at this period, no materials for any particular observation on their dress. The ladies, in spite of a legal ordinance, 'that no woman cum to the kirk nor mercat with her face muffalit,' appear by the declamations of their contemporary poets to have continued to use the fashion which they thought most becoming.

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THE FIELD OF STIRLING.-DEATH OF JAMES III.

Never was any race of monarchs more unfortunate than the Scottish; their reigns were generally turbulent and disastrous, and their own end often tragical. According to fabulous authors, more than one hundred

had reigned before James VI, the half of whom died by violence; and of six successive princes, the immediate predecessors of that monarch, not one died a natural death. James III came to an untimely end in Stirlingshire.

A misunderstanding subsisted between this prince and several of the chief nobility, during a great part of his reign; a minute investigation of the various causes of which, would be foreign to our purpose. James did not possess those talents for government which had distinguished several of his predecessors; for, though some wise and useful regulators were established in his reign, and his errors have no doubt been much exaggerated by faction; yet it cannot be denied that marks of an imprudent and feeble mind are visible in the general turn of his conduct.

A natural timidity of temper, together with a foolish attention to astrology, filled his mind with perpetual jealousy and suspicion; a fondness for architec ture, music, and other studies and amusements, which though innocent and useful, were too trifling to engage the whole care and time of one who held a sceptre over a fierce and turbulent people rendered him averse to public business. Indolence and want of penetration led him to make choice of ministers and favorites who were not always the best qualified for the trust committed to them. The ministers of state had usually been chosen from amongst the nobility; but in the reign of James, the nobles, either from fear or hatred of them, or from a consciousness of his own inability to maintain his dignity among them, were seldom consulted in affairs of government, and often denied access to the royal presence.

This could not fail to excite the displeasure of the Scottish barons, who were naturally haughty, and who, in former reigns, had not only been regarded as the companions and counsellors of their sovereigns, but had

possessed all the great offices of power and trust. Their displeasure arose to indignation when they beheld every mark of the royal confidence and favor conferred upon persons of mean rank, such as, Cochran a mason; Hemonel, a tailor; Leonard, a smith; Rogers, a musician; and Torfifan, a fencing-master, whom James always kept about him, caressed with the fondest affection, and endeavored to enrich with an imprudent liberality.

To redress this grievance the barons had recourse to a method altogether characteristic of that ferocity which had always distinguished them. Unacquainted with the slow and regular method adopted in modern times, of proceeding against royal favorites and evil counsellors, by impeachment, they seized upon those of James by violence, tore them from his presence, and, without any form of trial, executed them with a military despatch and rigor. So gross an insult could not but excite some degree of resentment, even in the most calm and gentle breast; but true policy would have suggested to a wise prince, as soon as the first impulse of passion was over, the necessity of relinquishing a behavior which had given so great offence to subjects so powerful as the Scottish barons were at that time; for their power was become so predominant by a concurrence of other causes, beside the nature of the feudal constitution, that the combination of a few of them was able to shake the throne. The attachment of James to favorites was, notwithstanding, so immoderate, that he soon made choice of new ones, who became more assuming than the former, and consequently objects of greater detestation to many of the barons, especially those who, by their near residence to the court, had frequent opportunities of beholding their ostentation and insolence.

At length matters came to an open rupture; a party of the nobility, after a series of combinations amongst themselves, took to arms; and, having either by persuasion or force, prevailed upon the Duke of Rothsay, the

king's eldest son, a youth of fifteen to join them, they, in his name, erected their standard against their sovereign, who, roused by the intelligence of such operations, quitted his retirement and also took the field. An accommodation at first took place; but upon what terms is not known. The transactions of the latter part are variously stated by historians, and but darkly by the best. Those who lived nearest the time and had opportunities of information, probably found that they could not be explicit without being obliged to 'throw reflections upon either the father or the son; and, therefore, saw it prudent to be upon the reserve. Some affirm that the malcontents proposed that James should resign his crown on behalf of his son; but this accommodation, whatever the articles were, as it appears to have been attended with no mutual confidence, was of very short duration. New occasions of discord soon arose; the malcontents asserted that James had not fulfilled his part of the treaty, but ignorance of the articles thereof, renders us unable to form any other opinion concerning the truth of this charge. It is certain, however, that the confederacy began now to spread wider than ever, so as to comprehend almost all the barons, and consequently all their military tenants and retainers upon the south side of the Grampian mountains.

Hostilities were first commenced by the malcontents, who seized upon the castle of Dunbar, and applied to their own use the arms and ammunition that were found in it. James was at that time in the castle of Edinburgh, in which, as a place of safety, he had shut himself up, till by the arrival of his northern subjects whom he had summoned to his assistance, he should be in a condition to take the field; but as Stirling was more convenient for the rendezvous of the northern clans, he was advised to go thither. Upon his arrival he was denied access into the castle by James Shaw, the governor, who favored the other party; and while he was deliberating which step to take upon this unexpected incident,