102 Scottish Bukgiial Life. 



early {'losing of ale-houses. 



The civic rulers of those early da}s were alive to the impor- 

 tance of regulating- the business of the ale-house keeper in other 

 ways than tixing' the price of his goods. It was an offence to be 

 drinking' in such a house " after ten horis at evin," and the penalty 

 fell not on the keeper of the house but on his customers. 



FORBIDDING USE OF BUTOHEE-MEAT. 



A curious enactment of a sumptuary character appears, with 

 variations, in minutes of 1580, 1580, and 1595. Its purport is to 

 forbid the eating of butcher-meat either on Friday or Saturday. 

 " Oistlars," as the innkeepers are termed, are forbidden to " roist 

 or seith " flesh on either of these days, and the owner of a house 

 in which any is used is to be lined five merks. One of the minutes 

 bears that the purpose of the prohibition is for the " down-putting 

 of dearthe." An Act of the Scottish Parliament of earlier date 

 (1507) had forbidden the eating of flesh on three of the days of 

 the week, for the vaguely expressed reason that " it is great hurt 

 to the common weill of this realm, the indifferent and dayly eating 

 of fleshe within the same." 



TUB BURNING UF A WITCH. 



A superstitious belief in witchcraft possessed all classes of the 

 people during the period over which this period extends. I have 

 found iio trace in the minute book of the cruel persecutions to 

 which it gave rise. But there is extant an account of the Burgh 

 Treasurer of Kirkcudbright for the year ended at Michaelmas, 

 1698, which throws a lurid light on this dark page of history. It 

 contains a long list of items referring to the execution of a poor 

 woman, Elspeth M'Ewen, belonging to Dairy, against whom the 

 Kirk-Session of that parish instituted a prosecution on the accusa- 

 tion that she possessed and exercised the power of the evil eye. 

 A special commission was issued to the Steward-Depute and 

 various lay conunissioners to try her, with a jury, at Kirkcud- 

 bright ; and on their sentence, confirmed by the Privy Council, 

 she was given to the flames. We seem to hear them crackling 

 and to see the tortured flesh shrinking as we read such callous 

 entries as these : 



Item for peits to burn Elspeth wt. jOO 



Item for twa pecks of colls 10 



