Anderson's Protocol Book. 179 



Anderson's book ranges over a great variety of subjects. 

 Some of the instruments are mere records of transactions of 

 buying or selling or borrowing, and contain little of interest 

 except the names of persons and places. But others bring us 

 into touch with the daily life of the men and women of the 

 period in some of its unfamiliar aspects, or remind us of the 

 obsolete methods of old Scottish practice or procedure. Thus 

 Nos. 4 and 5 illustrate the quaint symbolism which accom- 

 panied the reality of a removing. They show how three 

 articles belonging to the defender were set out in the open as 

 a sign of the ejection to follow, and as an incitement to the 

 tenant to remove. If he remained on the premises, the act of 

 exposure was repeated, and his goods were removed from his 

 lands by the pursuer, who then brought in his own. Again, 

 in Nos. 14 and 15 we see in operation the right of the superior 

 to control the marriage of the heir of his deceased vassal. In 

 No. 14, Newlandis of that Ilk requires Alexander Charteris, 

 who has the right of his marriage, to give him an honest 



woman of , and then follows a contraction which seems 



to be composed of the letters " ptn. " Mr Shirley suggests 

 that " portion," Mr J. C. R. Macdonald that " position," 

 is intended ; and I am inclined to adopt the latter view, 

 as, while the heir was entitled to demand a wife of 

 character and suitable status, he had, so far as I 

 know, no right to insist upon receiving a lady of fortune. 

 In No. 15 we find Alexander Charteris giving Newlands the 

 choice of three women, the daughters respectively of James 

 Charteris of the Hoile, of Roger Charteris of Bartympane 

 and of his own brother. When we turn to No. 7 we find that 

 materials frequently mentioned in the Accounts of the Lord- 

 High Treasurer of Scotland (see, for example. Vol. IV. Index) 

 as in use for the garments of both men and women, were not 

 unknown to the ladies of Tynron ; for Katherine Wilson, who 

 was apparently the wife of William Schitlington of Stane- 

 house, gave her grand-daughter a gown of Rouen russet and 

 a tunic (" colobium ") of Paris black with " ane braid bar of 

 blak velvet." According to D'Arnis' Lexicon Manuale ad 

 scriptores mediae et infimae Latinitatis {Par\^, 1890) " colobium " 

 means a tunic either sleeveless or with short sleeves, which 



