1616.] THE EARL OF SOMERSET. 185 



king and the court officials. On December 15, 

 James himself wrote to the Privy Council of Scot- 

 land "anent the causis of his heir coming," and to 

 give them timely notice of the high honour he thus 

 intended to confer upon " his native and ancient 

 kingdom." He professed that for many years he had 

 a great and natural longing to revisit his native heath, 

 which " salmon-like " instinct produced restlessness, 

 and caused him to wake many times in his sleep, so 

 much so that he could never rest satisfied till the 

 journey was accomplished. A lot of fulsome twaddle 

 follows, in which his Majesty excuses himself for 

 neglecting to revisit the " Land o' Cakes ' at an earlier 

 period ; but the fact was " The Land of Promise " 

 possessed too many attractions when compared with 

 the natural products of his " ancient kingdom," which, 

 in the opinion of Sir Anthony Weldon (who had the 

 misfortune of beino- included in the kind's suite 

 during the progress), only possessed " great store of 

 fowle, as fowle houses, fowle sheetes and shirts, fowle 

 lynnen, fowle dishes and potts, fowle trenchers and 

 napkins, with which sort," he adds, " we have been 

 forced to fare as the children of Israel did with their 

 fowle in the wilderness. " 



^^ Robert Carr, of Fernihurst, half-brother of Andrew, ist 

 Lord Jedburgh, was one of the numerous Scots who rendered 

 themselves so obnoxious to the English in the reign of 

 James I. This person was particularly disliked, owing to the 

 underhand share he had in the destruction of the idolized Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, whose estates the royal favourite coveted, 

 and subsequently obtained. Carr, having ingratiated himself 

 into the favour of James I., was appointed, upon the decease 



