Scottish Bi ughal Life. 101 



"WATCH AND WARD" — A FEAR OF INVASION. 



In another minute dealing- with the duty of " watch and ward '' 

 we seeiu to hear an echo of the fears of Spanish invasion which 

 haunted the country even after the days of the xirmada, while 

 Scotland was distracted by the intrigues of noble factions. It is 

 of date the day before Christmas, 1595, and it made oi^der that 

 watch was to be kept tiig-htly by six armed persons to be chosen 

 for that purpose by the bailies. Negligent watchmen were to be 

 punished " in the stokis or gorgattis;" and their •• puttar furthe" 

 (the person, we presume, who had sent a negligent substitute) 

 was to pay a fine of forty shillings. And " in case of ony tumoult 

 or uproar in the toun, ilk persoun to be in reddiness, at ane schout 

 or clink of the comoun tell, to ryss and cum to the gait boidint 

 with wapponis, under the pane of tynsall of thair fredome and 

 banischement of the town for evir, and also under the pane of ten 

 pund of unlaw.'' 



AMUSEMENTS. 



We have already seen that the worthy burgesses of the six- 

 teenth century relaxed themselves indoors with draughts or chess. 

 Of the fondness of the young men for athletics we have incidental 

 evidence in several of the minutes. In 1597 the grass of the 

 Friars' Kirkyard — that is the burial ground of the old church that 

 stood where the castle now is — was let to Thomas Hall on a 

 nineteen years' lease, subject to these conditions, among others : 

 that he was to build and maintain a dyke around it, but was to 

 leave a style and door, which should be " patent " all day, but 

 locked at night, '• and it sal be lesum to the toun and young men 

 thairof. to big buttis thairin and use archerie, and to repair and 

 gang thairintill. as they half occasioun : secludane [excluding*] all 

 players of futeball, cache-kyllis, and uthir games out of it, bot 

 allanerlie [only] the buttis." '■ Cache-kyllis " may be a local term 

 for a primitive form of lawn tennis, which in old Scotch was 

 termed cache-pole or catch-pule. Archery butts or targets seem 

 to have been provided elsewhere : for in February, 1579, a disposi- 

 tion was granted to Robert Hall, burgess, of certain common land 

 •• beneth the toun and at the buttis." The churchyard seems to 

 have been a popular resort for purposes of recreation. In an 

 earlier minute (of 1580) we rind a prohibition against the playing 

 of " keich-ball upon the Freir Kirk, for demolishing the sklait 

 thairof." 



