400 An Antiquary's Notes. 



fitted to excite a sense of the fascination of manuscript. 

 Outwardly considered, indeed, it is not of much account : 

 damp has been at it, perhaps the mice have sampled the vellum, 

 and it is ragged and frayed about its inwards although constitu- 

 tionally intact. Such as it is, it will serve to illustrate the con- 

 stant possibilities of surprise, the revelation of unsuspected ele- 

 ments of early record — in a word, those chances of discovery, 

 sometimes even romantic chances of historical discovery, which, 

 lurk in the faded lettering of long ago. For my charter was a 

 document of State, a voucher from an obscure and troubled 

 period of Scotland, a witness called thus late into the witness- 

 box to testify concerning the days when James II. held ineffectual 

 sway, when Crichton and Livingstone rivalled each other in their 

 effort to hold the reins of government, while the powerful Earl of 

 Douglas, sullen, contemptuous, and nursing his own ambitions- 

 regardless alike of King and minister, stood proudly aloof. It 

 was a charter of James II. in January, 1448-9, containing a 

 transumpt or official copy certified under the Great Seal of no 

 fewer than eight earlier charters. Some of these were previously 

 known, though not in their completeness, some were now for the 

 first time added to the existing store of national record. What 

 were the grants contained in these deeds ? There was an earldom 

 in one of them ; there was in another a lordship over what is now a 

 great westland shire ; there was a Border barony with almost Pala- 

 tine jurisdiction ; there was the moiety of a holding in Ayrshire 

 which had formed a seat of the Stewart line. Here was a confirma- 

 tion and re-grant by David II. in 1368 to Thomas Fleming of the 

 Earldom of Wigtown as his grandfather had held it except that 

 for certain reasons the right of regality was reserved. There was 

 a charter by this Earl, Thomas Fleming, in 1372 indicating that 

 on account of the great and severe discords between him and the 

 native chiefs of the Earldom of Wigtown he had sold to Sir 

 Archibald, Lord of Galloway, all his Earldom for a certain 

 notable money-price — the Earldom with all its marches, 

 pastures, moors, ways, paths, waters, bondsmen and bond- 

 ser\ice, with the rights of hawking, hunting, fishing, fees, for- 

 feitures, and estates, liberties, conveniences, easements, appurten- 

 ances, and free customs. It is the full authentic story of the 

 acquirement of the Earldom by Archibald the Grim. Here, too, 

 is the charter, a few months earlier, of September, 1367, granting 



