20 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2-a S. IX. Jan. 14. '60. 



made a pithy and fit exhortation to the people to pray 

 God for it ; and therewith he prayed and praised God for 

 the same, the whole Counsel on their knees on the Cross, 

 and the whole people in the streets in like sort. The 

 bells are yet ringing, the youths of the town gone out to 

 skirmish "for joy, and bonfires are to be built at night. 



" The Council go this tyde over to the King for further 

 deliberation in this matter. The King at his return to 

 Falklands quickly caused [to be] thrust out of the 



house from the Queen, Gowry's two sisters and 



swore to root out the whole house and name. 



" Upon the Convening of the Council, the Ports of the 

 Towne were shut for apprehending Gowry's other bro- 

 thers, and the lands are to be given to these new knights 

 and others. 



" This is the information and report come here by the 

 Proclamation, which some yet doubt to be fully so. 



" Gowry's Secretary is taken, and matters hoped to be 

 discovered by him. 



" Your honors 



" Humbly at Comandment, 



" Geo. Nicolsok." 



The improbabilities of this story even then, it 

 appears, were apparent, and the people seem to 

 have doubted the truth of it from the first. In 

 another letter, dated the 11th of August, also 

 written to Cecil, and by Nicholson, we are told 

 farther : — 



" The Doubt of the truth thereof still increaseth ex- 

 ceedingly ; and unless the King takes some of the Con- 

 spirators, and gives them out of his hands to the Town 

 and Ministers to be tried and examined for the confess- 

 ing and clearing of the matter to them and the people, 

 upon the scaffold at their execution, a hard and danger- 

 ous contempt will arise and remain in the hearts of the 

 people, and of great ones, of him and his dealings in this 

 matter. For it is begun to be known that the Report 

 coming from the King differs. That the man that should 

 have been in the Chamber for killing the King, should 

 be able, and yet without heart or hand, should have 

 many names, and yet that no such man should be taken, 

 or known or judged to be" (exist). 



In a letter of a later date (August 14th), we 

 have a minute account of the proceedings that 

 subsequently took place at the Cross. This Gowry 

 conspiracy must have caused James much humili- 

 ation : — 



" On Monday the King came over the water to Leith, 

 then he went to the Kirk, heard Mr. David Lyndsay 

 make a pithy exhortation to him to do justice to his de- 

 liverance, and afterwards the King came up to this 

 town (Edinburgh) ; and at the very Market Cross here, 

 Mr. Galloway, his Minister, making Declaration of the 

 matter, and taking upon his soul and conscience that it 

 was cruel murder intended by Gowry against the King, 

 The King then, in the same place where the Officers 

 make their Proclamations, confirmed what Mr. Patrick 

 (Galloway) had said, and with exceeding wonderful pro- 

 testations vowed to do, and to do justice without solici- 

 tation of Courtiers." 



We have, besides these two letters, some far- 

 ther account from the same individual. In a 

 letter to Cecil of the 21st of August he says : — 



" The more the King dealeth in this matter, the greater 

 doth the doubts rise with the people what is the truth. 

 Mr. John Rind, the Pedagogue, has been extremely 

 booted, but confesseth nothing of that matter against the 



Earl or his Brother. Neither do Mr. Thomas Cranston 

 or George Cragengelt confess anj'thing to argue any 

 matter or intent in the Earl (as I heard). These men 

 have protested the same very deeply, and that in case 

 torture make them say otherwise, it is not true or to be 

 trusted. Already the Hangman of this Town is sent for 

 and gone to the King, to execute some or all of them." 



w. o. w. 



THE CROSSING SWEEPER. 



I have more than once heard the following very 

 remarkable story from a venerable friend who 

 was, rather more than twenty years ago, one of 

 the principal members of my congregation ; who 

 had himself heard it from the gentleman to whom 

 the incident happened, and who was his highly 

 respected personal friend. Its substantial truth 

 may, therefore, be confidently relied on; while its 

 remarkable character seems to make it worthy 

 of preservation among "N". & Q." 



The late Mr. Simcox, of Harbourne near Bir- 

 mingham, a gentleman largely engaged in the 

 nail trade, was in the habit of going several times 

 a year to London on business, at a period when 

 journeys to London were far less readily accom- 

 plished than they are at present, being long before 

 the introduction of railways. On one of these 

 occasions he was suddenly overtaken by a heavy 

 shower of rain, from which he sought shelter un- 

 der an archway, as he had not any umbrella with 

 him, and was at a considerable distance from any 

 stand of coaches. The rain continued for a long 

 time with unabated violence, and he was conse- 

 quently obliged to remain in his place of shelter, 

 though beginning to suffer from his prolonged 

 exposure to the cold and damp atmosphere. Un- 

 der these circumstances he was agreeably surprised 

 when the door of a handsome house immedi- 

 ately opposite was opened, and a footman in livery 

 with an umbrella approached, with his master's 

 compliments, and that he had observed the gen- 

 tleman standing so long under the archway that 

 he feared he might take cold, and would there- 

 fore be glad if he would come and take shelter in 

 his house — an invitation which Mr. Simcox gladly 

 accepted. He was ushered into a handsomely- 

 furnished dining-room, where the master of the 

 house was sitting, and received from him a very 

 friendly welcome. 



Scarcely, however, had Mr. Simcox set eyes on 

 his host than he was struck with a vague remem- 

 brance of having seen him before : but where or 

 in what circumstances, he found himself altoge- 

 ther unable to call to mind. The gentlemen soon 

 engaged in interesting and animated conversation, 

 which was carried on with increasing mutual re- 

 spect and confidence ; while, all the time, this re- 

 membrance kept continually recurring to Mr. 

 Simcox, whose inquiring glances at last betrayed 

 to his host what was passing in his mind. " You 



