206 A SCOTTISH BLOOD-FEUD 



which Sir Walter Scott embodied in ' Auchendrane, or 

 the Ayrshire Tragedy.' Certain it is that this narrative 

 was composed by one who took an active and interested 

 part in the events described ; that he is able, or professes 

 to be able, to repeat what was said in most secret con- 

 ferences, and that the manuscript comes to an abrupt 

 end at the very time when the Mures were arraigned on 

 the charge of murder. It is known that Mure, unlike 

 most Scottish lairds of that day, was an accomplished 

 scholar, having composed a history of Scotland, which 

 remains in manuscript in the Advocates' Library, Edin- 

 burgh, but it might be supposed that, were he indeed the 

 author of the Historie of the Kennedyis, he had drawn 

 on his imagination for the details of almost incredible 

 violence which marked the course of family feuds in 

 Ayrshire three hundred years ago. There is, however, 

 ample confirmation to be found in the Records of the 

 Court of Justiciary, and the interest of this vivid though 

 anonymous history consists in the fact that it was 

 written by an eye-witness of the closing scenes of feu- 

 dahsm in Scotland, and, if Mure was the real author, by 

 one who was blood-stained more deeply than any of his 

 fellows. 



The first letting-out of waters seems to have been 

 the treatment by this Gilbert, Earl of Gassilis, of Allan 

 Stewart, Commendator of the Abbey of Crossraguel. The 

 office of commendator was created on the secularisation 

 of Church property at the Scottish Reformation, and was 

 held by a layman appointed by the crown. Cassilis 

 obtained this appointment from his uncle, Quentin 

 Kennedy, the last Abbot of Crossraguel; but this was 



