2nd s. No 42., Oct. 18. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



313 



Thornton. 104. 108. 116. 135. 



Gould. 115. 



Kendall. 120. 122. 134. 



Whitfield. 124. 



Sealey. 151. 165, 



Selwin. 157. 164. 



Crachrode. 159. 162, 163. 



Thirty-seven of the poems are not assigned to 

 any author : 121 is ascribed to Storniont or Mark- 

 ham. It may be taken as a proof that Mr. Siss- 

 more had the opportunity of obtaining accurate 

 information, that he was able, where a poem was a 

 joint production, to assign each part to its author. 

 Moreover, he has written at the end of the last 

 poem in the volume (one of Markham's), with 

 reference to the last couplet : 



" Olim in Manuscripto. ■• 



" Oceani ad fines, atque uda cubilia soils, 

 Insula Dircaja stat celebrata lyra." 



W. H. Gdnneb. 



Winchester. 



MUBDISTON V. lillLLAB.* 



(2"<» S. ii. 30.) 



At the time when the question was asked, " Is 

 this trial published, and where can it be obtained ? " 

 I had not the book at hand in which it is reported, 

 viz. Maclaurin's Criminal Cases in Scotland, pub- 

 lished in 1774 ; where this case will be found on 

 p. 557. 



The trial took place in January 1773 ; upon an 

 indictment at the instance of " His Majesty's Ad- 

 vocate against Alexander Murdison, tenant in 

 Ormiston, and John Millar his shepherd," on 

 charges of sheep-stealing, or receiving sh6ep 

 knowing them to be stolen. The report of the 

 case occupies no less than thirty- seven quarto 

 pages. These, though I knew their contents 

 generally before, I have now read over again. 

 The report does not contain a word on the "in- 

 stinct of sheep," nor does it make any mention 

 of a dog. It consists of arguments upon various 

 legal points arising in the course of the trial, and 

 particularly on the verdict, — Whether, being 

 signed on a Sunday, it was not therefore invalid ? 

 Whether, finding only some of the articles charged 

 in the indictment, and saying nothing of other 

 charges, did not invalidate it ? And, lastly, whe- 

 ther an appeal from the High Court of Justiciary 

 to the House of Lords was competent or not ? 

 " The Court adjudged the pannels to be hanged." 



N.B. In Scotland, the persons tried are called 

 the pannels. 



The prisoners offered a petition of appeal to the 

 House of Lords ; which was, on March 10, 1773, 



Thia should be " Murdison and Millar." 



remitted to a committee ; upon whose report the 

 petition was rejected. The report concludes : 



" N.B. Murdison and Millar were executed in terms of 

 the Sentence of the Court of Justiciary." 



The report contains none of the evidence. 

 Maclaurin, in his Preface, says : 



" It is irksome to search the record of the Court of 

 Justiciary, tlie only source from which a Icnowledge of 

 this (criminal) law can be derived." 



It is also there only that the evidence given on 

 this trial can be found. 



The statement in Blackwoodts Magazine (vol. ii. 

 p. 83.) gives, no doubt, a tolerably correct account 

 of the transaction. It was undoubtedly written 

 by Sir Walter Scott, who long resided in the near 

 neighbourhood of the farm of Ormiston. In his 

 note to chap. xii. of the second volume of St. 

 Ronan's Well, he gives a further account of the 

 sagacity of the dog (but none of a sheep) ; and he 

 also re-states the story of the sagacity of another 

 dog, also mentioned in Blackwood, and begins it 

 by saying : " Another instance of similar sagacity 

 a friend of mine discovered in a beautiful spa- 

 niel," &c. 



I cannot at this moment lay my hand upon vol. i. 

 of Chambers's Miscellany, as referred to by the 

 Querist ; but I have no doubt that the article 

 contained in it is a transcript either from the 

 Magazine, or the novel, or a compound of both. 



J. S. s. 



COACH MISERIES. 



(2"'' S. ii. 126.) 



I am one of those who well remember the 

 journeys to and from home in our schoolboy days, 

 when a week or more was deducted from the 

 holidays for the time necessarily passed in travel- 

 ling, to say nothing of the gradual diminution of 

 pocket-money in the latter instance. There are, 

 doubtless, many others who equally well recollect 

 Collier's and Rogers's long coaches from South- 

 ampton to London, each pursuing a separate route 

 from Winchester, in one or other of which I spent 

 my first day when " homeward bound." Then 

 came the adventurous expedition to York by 

 "Nelson" or "Highflyer," occupying two days 

 and the intervening night. On the fourth I reached 

 the domestic hearth, but only when the season 

 was that of summer. Never shall I forget the 

 delays and circumbendibuses of a winter's journey 

 in a deep snow, such as to my belief and experi- 

 ence was more frequent and tremendous in earlier 

 than in more recent years : never, too, shall I 

 forget, when very young, and easily alarmed by 

 stories of hobgoblins and highwaymen, what hor- 

 rible tales of murder and robbery were inflicted 

 by coachey and guard on my shuddering ears, 

 when we came in sight on some desolate moor of 



