in of the armed men gives us no favourable idea of the king's original intention; and we are told, that Sir Patric Gray feconded the king's blow, by cleaving the earl's fcull with a battle-ax. It is childish, therefore, for the advocates of James to mention the obftinacy of the earl as the caufe of his death. Their beft plea is an appeal to the hiftory of government in all ages, whether a fubject under a monarchy, guilty of the crimes the earl of Douglas was accused of, might not have been put to death in the manner he was, notwithstanding his fafe-conduct; a difquifition into which I fhall not now enter, my province being only to reprefent facts.'

Mr. Guthrie has favoured us with a particular account of a treasonable contract, betwixt Edward IV. of England and the duke of Albany, brother to James III. of Scotland, which has hitherto never once been mentioned by any Scotch historian. It was first exhibited to the public view by Mr. Rymer, in his colle&ions, and fhews that, whatever was the infatuation of the king of Scotland at that time, the oppofition of his brother was influenced by motives no lefs irreconcileable with honour and the intereft of his country, than with the dictates of fraternal affection. We fhall make no apology for laying before our readers this valuable piece of hiftorical information in the author's own words.

He (the king of France) had for fome time kept up a correfpondence with the duke of Albany, who, notwithstanding all the obligations he lay under to Lewis, was diffatisfied with his coldness in folliciting his being reinftated in his Scotch honours and estate. That duke's first wife, the earl of Orkney's daughter, was ftill alive, as was his fecond wife, the daughter of the earl of Murray; but feveral objections were made to the laft marriage. Edward, who was no ftranger to the duke's difficulties and difcontents, fecretly offered him all he could demand as the price of his fervices; and he agreed that it fhould be no less than the crown of Scotland, which the duke was to hold of Edward.

Lewis having fome fufpicion of this infamous compact, the duke was fo narrowly watched, that a fhip, commanded by one James Douglas, was fent to carry him off by stealth from France; and the fhip-mafter having perfectly fucceeded in his undertaking, Edward gave him a noble reward upon the duke's arrival in England. It appears that they met together at the caftle of Fotheringay, in the beginning of June, and that they entered into articles of agreement the tenth of the fame month, which were repeated and ratified the next day. In this negociation the duke of Albany is filed Alexander king of Scotland, by the gift of the king of England, a meanness which

never had disgraced even the Baliol titles. The rest of this agreement is infamous, almost beyond belief or precedent. Alexander obliged himself and his heirs to affift, with all his power, king Edward and his heirs, in all his quarrels, and against all earthly princes or perfons; to fwear fealty and do homage to the said king Edward for the crown of Scotland, within fix months after his being put in poffeffion of the most part of the kingdom; to give up the town and caftle of Berwic to the crown of England, as also the castle of Lochmaben, and counties of Lidfdale, Efkdale, and Anandale, fourteen days after his being conducted by the English army to Edinburgh; to break, renounce, and difclaim the old league between Scotland and France, and never to renew the fame. Laftly, if he could make himself clear of all other women (a teftimony that his lady was not yet dead) according to the laws of the Chrif tian church, within a year, or sooner, to marry the lady Cecil. king Edward's daughter, to his nephew the duke of Rothfay; and if he could not by the laws of the church get free of other women, not to fuffer his eldest fon and heir to be married, but by the order of the king of England, and to fome lady of his blood. On the other hand, king Edward obliged himself to aflist the said Alexander towards reducing the kingdom of Scotland to his obedience, and to fupport him in it against James, now holding the crown of that realm.'

In spite of all the weakness and imprudence fo glaring in the chara&er of James III. every reader muft fympathize with diftreffed royalty at the recital of his affaffination, which was attended with a circumftance of barbarity that ftrongly marks the ferocious temper of the infurgents of thofe times.

The first line of the royalifts obliged that of the rebels to give way but the latter being fupported by the Anandale men and borderers, the first and fecond lines of the king's army were beat back to the third. The little courage James poffeffed had forfaken him at the first onfet; and he had put fpurs to his horfe, intending to gain the banks of the Forth, and to go on board one of Wood's fhips. In paffing through the village of Bannockburn, a woman who was filling her pitcher at the brook, frightened at the fight of a man in ar mour galloping full fpeed, left it behind her; and the horse taking fright, the king was thrown to the ground, and carried, bruised and maimed, by a miller and his wife into their hovel. He immediately called for a prieft to make his confeffion; and the ruftics demanding his name and rank, 1 was (faid he incautioufly) your king this morning." The woovercome with aftonishment, clapped her hands, and running to the door, called for a priest to confefs the king. "I am

man,

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quickly, that, unless excellent tillage be given, the foil can never be clean. But to think that one or two plowings annually can poffibly equal the benefit of marle, is an evident abfurdity.

Clay is, I apprehehend, in no respect equal to marle, except the duration of the benefit received from it: the degree of fertility it confers, is not comparable to that of marle; but a very good clay may certainly equal, and has been found to exceed an indifferent marle: the expence is the fame.

• Chalk is used in may parts of England with a success equal to that of any marle under the fun; but it is very obfervable, that wherever this manure is fo very excellent, it is univerfally the fat, soft, soapy kind: quere, therefore, whether that fort and marle be not the fame thing under different names? The expence of this manure varies like that of marle. It lasts as long.

Lime, I apprehend, is the most common and general manure of any that is used in England. It is fo much valued in many parts of the kingdom, that the farmers think no management will do without it: but it is very obfervable, that we experimentally know little of its real utility. The few trials that have been published on it, prove rather against it. It is faid to be much of that nature which is requifite for affifting the carth in yielding its fertility, but gives no increase. However, but little is well known concerning it upon fome foils there can be no doubt of its being exceedingly beneficial, particularly the black moory, peat-earths, and boggy lands: and this feems to prove the juftness of the above-mentioned obfervation, for thefe foils certainly abound much in vegetative virtue, but are greatly in want of being enabled to exert it. The expence of liming, in various parts, is fo extremely different, that it is impoffible even to sketch any thing like a medium. It rifes from ten fhillings to ten pounds. Lime no where lafts long; two or three years, and, in many places, only one, are the common duration of the benefit.

Dungs of all kinds are much affected, and with great reafon, by the farmers. The general method is to fodder the ftraw of the crop in a yard adjoining the barns, where all forts are collected together, forming a compoft, the chief part of which is rotten ftraw: the benefit every one finds from it is very great; but in the quantities commonly ufed, viz. from ten to thirty loads, the fertility it occafions does not laft long: it is a common notion' that land fhould be manufactured with it every three years; in fome places four. The expence is difficult to calculate, as it cofts the farmer nothing but carriage, and perhaps turning over.

go forward, not to use the acquaintance, company, or counfel of women, as ye tender your honour, life, and eftate." After delivering those words, he retired through the crowd, and was no more feen, though, when the fervice was ended, James earnestly enquired after him.

That this scene was acted feems to be paft difpute; for Sir David Lindfay, who was then a young man, and prefent in the church, reported it both to Buchanan and Lindsay the hiftorian. It is, however, equal'y certain, that the whole was a contrivance of the queen, to whole other afflictions the stings of jealousy were now added. In one of the Scotch inroads into England, one Heron, the proprietor of the cafile of Ford, had been taken prifoner, and fant to Scotland, where he was detained on a charge of murder, of which he seems to have been innocent. The English hiftorians mention this as having paffed after James entered England; but, from the latter part of the fuppofed phantom's fpeech, I am inclined to believe that it happened before; and that Heron's wife and beautiful daughter had been, for fome time, folliciting James for his deliverance.'

The fufpicion of our author concerning the fabrication of this pretended miracle, is farther confirmed by a transaction of a fimilar nature, which, though gravely related by the Scotch writers, he thinks is of too ludicrous a caft to be admitted into the body of hiftory, and has therefore thrown it into a note. The following is the account of it, as extracted from Lindfay.

"In this mean time, when they were taking forth their artillery, and the king being in the abbey for the time, there was a cry heard at the market-cross of Edinburgh, at the hour of midnight, proclaiming as it had been a fummons, which was named and called by the proclaimer thereof, The Summons of Plotcock; which defired all men "to compear, both earl and lord, and baron and gentleman, and all honeft gentlemen within the town (every man specified by his own name) within the space of forty days, before his mafter, where it fhould happen him to appoint, and be for the time, under the pain of disobedience." But whether this fummons was proclaimed by vain perfons, night-walkers, or drunk men, for their paftime, or if it was but a fpirit, I cannot tell truly but it was fhewn to me, that an inn-dweller of the town, Mr. Richard Lawfon, being evil difpofed, ganging in his gallery ftair forenent the cross, hearing this voice proclaiming this fummons, thought marvel what it fhould be, cried on his fervant to bring him his purfe; and when he had brought him it, he took out a crown, and caft over the ftair, faying, "I ap? peal

peal from that fummons, judgment and fenténce thereof, and takes me all whole in the mercy of God, and Chrift Jefus his fou." Verily the author of this, that caufed me to write the manner of this fummons, was a landed gentleman, who was, at that time, twenty years of age, and was in the town the time of the faid fummons; and thereafter, when the field was tricken, he fwore to me, there was no man that escaped that was called in this fummons, but that one man alone, which made his proteftation, and appealed from the faid fummons; but all the lave were perished in the field with the king,”

Such anecdotes would scarcely merit the smallest notice either of history or criticism, did they not ferve to fhew the credulity of otherwife refpectable writers; and that the fuperftition which infatuated the mind of James III. was not fo much the particular foible of that monarch, as the general weakness of the age in which he lived..

It may not be improper to extract the author's account of the death of James IV. as it refutes a prejudice pretty generally entertained on that fubject.

The relation I have given of this fatal battle is drawn from the most probable accounts I meet with in the beft authors, every one of whom differ among themselves. It is plain that the fatal defeat of the Scots was owing to the king's romantic diffofition, which he had always too much indulged, and to the want of difcipline among his Highlanders, who were the flower of his army. Scotch writers have, indeed, attributed the defeat of their countrymen to the treachery of lord Hume. What they call treachery, was poffibly no more than a cautious conduct, which was incompatible with the fury and madness of his countrymen; nor can I fee, if he was a traitor, why he did not retire when the earl of Angus left the army, or openly declare for the English. That nobleman was unquestionably unpopular; and the malice of his countrymen went fo far, that it was openly reported the king fled from the battle to the caftle of Hume, where he was murdered, though nothing can be more certain, than that his body was found on the field of battle. It appeared that he had been fhot through the body with an arrow, and that he had received a mortal wound in the head with a bill. Many of James's domeftics who furvived him, knew and mourned over his corpfe; nor could the earl of Surry, who had often feen him, be mistaken as to the identity of his perfon.'

The body of James was accordingly carried from Newcastle, and royally interred at Shene in Surry. If it should appear ftrange to the reader, that the Scots did not reclaim the body (a favour that would have been eafily granted them) I

can