THE MaRRIAGE OF JOHN, LorD MaxweELL. 119 
—himself a minor—should graciously approve of her at the 
end of that time. 
Mr Armstrong gives as his authority Chalmers’s 
Caledonia, vol. 111. note p. 104. What Chalmers says is as 
follows! :—‘‘ John, Lord Maxwell, was contracted to the Earl 
of Angus’s sister by ‘ hand-fisting,’ in January, 1572, and 
Morton gave a banquet at his castle of Dalkeith on that occa- 
sion; but the feast was spoilt by the Queen’s party in Edin- 
burgh Castle, who intercepted the wine and other provision 
on the way to Dalkeith.’’ If Chalmers by ‘“‘ hand-fisting ”’ 
understood the same thing that Mr Armstrong did, he must 
have believed that the Earl of Morton, then Lord Chancellor 
and soon to be Regent, was so elated at Lord Maxwell’s 
readiness to take his niece Elizabeth Douglas on trial for a 
year, that he was eager to celebrate the occasion by a feast. 
Chalmers, however, says that the “‘ hand-fisting ’’ took place 
at Dalkeith and not at “‘ Hand-fasting Haugh.” 
Chalmers gives as his authority The Historie and Life of 
King James the Sext. p. 160. This work was printed under 
the editorship of Mr Malcolm Laing in 1804 from a manu- 
script belonging to Lord Belhaven, the work of an unknown 
author, who is believed to have been a contemporary with 
the events he relates.2 This Historie says :—‘‘ At this tyme 
Johnne, Lord Maxwell, was contractit in marriage with ane 
sister of Archibald Earle of Angus. And Moirtoun hade 
provydit for ane bankett to have bein maid in Dalkeith, for 
feasting of sum nobill and gentle men to that handfasting. 
And as the wyne was kairtit in Leith to haue bein caried to 
Dalkeith, with stoir of venisoun and uther great provisioun, 
the same was sa notified to the people of Edinburgh, that 
thair horsmen sortit, apprehendit the same in the way, with 
1 I quote from the new edition of the Caledonia recently pub- 
lished, where (vol. v., p. 104, note n) the story about Lord Maxwell 
is reprinted without any comment. 
2 Another version of this History was printed under the same 
title for the Bannatyne Club in 1825 from a manuscript belonging to 
the Marquess of Lothian. Here the story of Lord Maxwell’s marriage 
is related in almost the same words as in the Belhaven version, 
