2''d S. NO lOa, Jan. 23. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



67 



remainder of the publication is occupied with the 

 songs, of which I subjoin a list : — • 



1. Medley on the Plot — " Down, down discoverers." 



2. Medley on the Association — " Now treasons haunt 

 the throne. 



3. A Drinking Catch — « Come boys fill up a bum- 

 per." 



4. Philander — « A plague on the factions o' th city." 



5. " Now, now the work's done." 



G. " Old Jemmy is a lad right lawfully descended." 



7. The Healths — " Since plotting's a trade." 



8. York and Albany — " Now, now, the zealots all 

 must droop." 



9. The Duke's return from Scotland —" Now the Tories 

 that glory in lioyal Jemmy's return." 



10. On the Duke's return after Shipwrack — " Through 

 tempests at sea." 



11. Great Jemmy — " Here's a health to the man." 



12. A Pastoral Song — " In fair Arcadian plains." 



13. Young Jemmy, a Catch — "Young Jemmy, the 

 blade of royal stamp." 



14. Ossery, a Catch — " CounfOssery, and what of he ? " 



15. The Plot uuveil'd — " Draw, draw the vail." 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



KAIM OF MATHERS : KILLMSTER. 



A much-adraired ballad, bearing the title of the 

 Kaim of Mathers^ written in the purest ancient 

 Scotch, enjoying a great popularity, not only in 

 the counties of Angus and Mearns, but through- 

 out Scotland generally, is now before me. I am 

 rather surprised that this specimen of our ancient 

 ballads should not have come under my notice 

 before now ; but such is the case, not having 

 fallen in with it in the chap form (in which I have 

 it), or any other, until a few days ago. It is di- 

 vided into three parts, and thus characteristically 

 commences : 



" 'Twas all within Redcastle's Tower, 

 So merrie was the nyght 

 Kyng James our sov'reign liege was there, 

 Wyth peers of stalwart myght." 



It then goes on to recount how Melville of Glen- 

 berrie, the sheriffe of our Mernes land, having 

 gained the ill will of the gentry of the county, by 

 the commission of numerous acts of an obnoxious 

 kind, a complaint of his conduct was made to the 

 then king, the able but unfortunate James I., 

 who, in reply to the alleged acts of his officer, is 

 said to have remarked, " sorrow gif he (the she- 

 riff) were sodden and supped in brie." The 

 monarch was taken at his word, and before many 

 days the detested sheriff was seized while at a 

 hunting party by Barclay of Mathers, — a proge- 

 nitor of the late Barclay of Quaker notoriety, and 

 of the late Barclay of turf, coach, and prize-ring 

 fame, — who, with other chief men of the Mearns, 

 actually took the king at his word, and not only 

 boiled the miserable official in barley broth, but 

 actually supped a portion of it after the boiling 

 process, in order to carry out to the letter the 



royal command. If any contributor to " N. & Q." 

 can inform me where a copy of the Kaim of 

 Mathers may be had, a favour would be conferred. 

 The boiling feat committed on the high official of 

 the Mearns by royal order is not without parallel 

 in Scotland in days of yore. In Caithness-shire, 

 during the time of William the Lion, a number of 

 persons, principally, it is said in an old MS. which 

 I have seen, of the name of Harrold, wei'e con- 

 demned to the punishment of castration for having 

 boiled the bishop of that diocese. The discon- 

 tented persons, who it would seem had good cause 

 for displeasure against the prelate, met him on his 

 way home from Wick, the county town to Scrab- 

 ster, his residence, and, having pursued, took the 

 unlucky bishop from a hole in which he had 

 sought safety, and afterwards boiled him at a 

 place called, from the deed said there to have 

 been committed, Killiminister or Killmster. K. 

 Arbroath. 



Miviat ^aiti, ■ 



A Jacobite Relic. — I have found the following 

 doggerel in a bundle of loose papers, of the seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth centuries, recently lent to 

 me for examination : — 



" James Cwsar's Mare — a ffarmer in Bedfordshire who 

 has lost his Mare. 



" My Neighb' James I must bewale. 

 Who's lost his Mare both head and tayle ; 

 Honest himself in every thing 

 As any man, God bless the King, 



What villains then were they 



That stole his Mare away. \ 



A curs upon such wicked men, 



But Gadbury does tell 



That all things shall goe well, <• 

 And the Man shall have his Mare again. 



" Some fooles that would their Neighbours fright 

 Call James a bloody Jacobite, 

 • But he was n'er in proclimacSn, 



Nor treason acted against y« Nation ; 

 And of late he did declare. 

 The fellons he would spare. 

 His mercy's sure above all men, 

 Then let us all unite, 

 Both Whigg and Jacobite, 

 That the man may have his own again." 



Edward Peacock. 

 The Manor, Bottesford, Brigg. 



Culter. — The derivation of cvlter from colo ter- 

 rain seems extremely probable. Still, does it not 

 appear questionable, when we reflect that in the 

 old language of Egypt, the cradle of agriculture, 

 the word col signifies land, and ter a cutting in- 

 strument ? J" P« 

 Dominica. 



Notice of Nell Gwins Dancing. — In the Epi- 

 logue to Fletcher's comedy of The Chances, as 

 altered by the celebrated Villiers, Duke of Buck- 



