in the matter: but perhaps doctor Craig, my mother's uncle, who was one of the king's physicians, possessed him with these apprehensions; for he was disgraced for saying he believed the king was poisoned. It is certain no king could die less lamented or less esteemed than he was. This sunk the credit of the bishops of Scotland, who, as they were his creatures, so they were obliged to a great dependence on him, and were thought guilty of gross and abject flattery towards him. His reign in England was a continued course of mean practices. The first condemnation of sir Walter Raleigh was very black but the executing him after so many years, and after an employment that had been given him, was counted a barbarous sacrificing him to the Spaniards. The rise and fall of the earl of Somerset, and the swift progress of the duke of Buckingham's greatness, were things that exposed him to the censure of all the world. I have seen the originals of about twenty letters that he wrote to the prince and that duke while they were in Spain, which shew a meanness as well as a fondness that render him very contemptible. The great figure the crown of England had made in queen Elizabeth's time, who had rendered herself the arbiter of Christendom, and was the wonder of the age, was so much eclipsed, if not quite darkened, during this reign, that king James was become the scorn of the age; and while hungry writers flattered him out of measure at home, he was despised by all abroad, as a pedant without true judgment, courage, or steadiness, subject to his favourites, and delivered up to the counsels, or rather the corruption of Spain.

The puritans gained credit as the king and the The puri

tans gained ground.

bishops lost it. They put on external appearances of great strictness and gravity: they took more pains in their parishes than those who adhered to the bishops, and were often preaching against the vices of the court; for which they were sometimes punished, though very gently, which raised their re18 putation, and drew presents to them that made up their sufferings abundantly. They begun some particular methods of getting their people to meet privately with them: and in these meetings they gave great vent to extemporary prayer, which was looked on as a sort of inspiration: and by these means they grew very popular. They were very factious and insolent; and both in their sermons and prayers were always mixing severe reflections on their enemies. Some of them boldly gave out very many predictions; particularly two of them who were held prophets, Davison and Bruce. Some of the things that they foretold came to pass: but my father, who knew them both, told me of many of their predictions that he himself heard them throw out, which had no effect: but all these were forgot, and if some more probable guessings which they delivered as prophecies were accomplished, these were much magnified. They were very spiteful against all those who differed from them; and were wanting in no methods that could procure them either good usage or good presents. Of this my father had great occasion to see many instances: for my great grandmother, who was a very rich woman, and much engaged to them, was most obsequiously courted by them. Bruce lived concealed in her house for some years: and they all found such advantages in their submissions to her, that she was

counted for many years the chief support of the party: her name was Rachel Arnot. She was daughter to sir John Arnot, a man in great favour, and lord treasurer deputy. Her husband Johnstoun was the greatest merchant at that time; and left her an estate of 2000l. a year, to be disposed of among his children as she pleased: and my father marrying her eldest grandchild saw a great way into all the methods of the puritans.

conspiracy.

Gowry's conspiracy was by them charged on the Gowry's king, as a contrivance of his to get rid of that earl, who was then held in great esteem: but my father, who had taken great pains to inquire into all the particulars of that matter, did always believe it was a real conspiracy. One thing, which none of the historians have taken any notice of, and might have induced the earl of Gowry to have wished to put king James out of the way, but in such a disguised manner that he should seem rather to have escaped out of a snare himself, than to have laid one for the king, was this: upon the king's death he stood next to the succession to that (the) crown of England; for king Henry the seventh's daughter that was married to king James the fourth, did after his death marry Dowglas earl of Angus: but they could not agree: so a precontract was proved against him: upon which, by a sentence from Rome, the marriage was 19 voided, with a clause in favour of the issue, since born under a marriage de facto and bona fide. Lady Margaret Dowglas was the child so provided for. I did peruse the original bull confirming the divorce. After that, the queen dowager married one Francis Steward, and had by him a son made lord Methuen by king James the fifth. In the patent he • Melvil makes nothing of it. S.

King Charles at first a friend to the puritans.

is called frater noster uterinus. He had only a daughter, who was mother or grandmother to the earl of Gowry: so that by this he might be glad to put the king out of the way, that so he might stand next to the succession of the crown of England. He had a brother then a child, who when he grew up, and found he could not carry the name of Ruthen, which by an act of parliament made after this conspiracy none might carry, he went and lived beyond sea; and it was given out that he had the philosopher's stone. He had two sons, who died without issue; and one daughter, married to sir Anthony Vandike the famous picture drawer, whose children, according to his pedigree, stood very near to the succession of the crown. It was not easy to persuade the nation of the truth of that conspiracy: for eight years before that time king James, on a secret jealousy of the earl of Murray, then esteemed the handsomest man of Scotland, set on the marquis of Huntly, who was his mortal enemy, to murder him; and by a writing, all in his own hand, he promised to save him harmless for it. He set the house in which he was on fire and the earl flying away was followed and murdered, and Huntly sent Gordon of Buckey with the news to the king: soon after, all who were concerned in that vile fact were pardoned, which laid the king open to much censure. And this made the matter of Gowry to be the less believed.

When king Charles succeeded to the crown, he was at first thought favourable to the puritans; for his tutor and all his court were of that way: and

P (Abp. Spotiswood calls it "a commission to apprehend "and bring Murray to his "trial." Hist. b. vi. an. 1592.)

He was always very par

tial to the Scotish nation. Dr. Heylin, in his history of the Presbyterians, says, that a little before this breaking out into rebellion the court might well

Dr. Preston, then the head of the party, came up in the coach from Theobald's to London with the king and the duke of Buckingham; which being against the rules of the court gave great offence: but it was said, the king was so overcharged with grief, that he wanted the comfort of so wise and so great a man. It was also given out, that the duke of Buckingham offered Dr. Preston the great seal: but he was wiser than to accept of it. I will go no further into the beginning of that reign with relation to English affairs, which are fully opened by others. Only I will tell one particular which I had from the earl of Lothian, who was bred up in the court, and whose father, the earl of Ancram, was gentleman of the bedchamber, though himself was ever much hated by the king. He told me, that king Charles 20 was much offended with king James's light and familiar way, which was the effect of hunting and drinking, on which occasions he was very apt to forget his dignity, and to break out into great indecencies on the other hand the solemn gravity of the court of Spain was more suited to his own temper, which was sullen even to a moroseness. This led him to a grave reserved deportment, in which he forgot the civilities and the affability that the nation naturally loved, to which they had been long accustomed nor did he in his outward deportment take any pains to oblige any persons whatsoever: so far from that, he had such an ungracious way of shewing favour, that the manner of bestowing it was

be called an academy of that nation; most of the officers of the household, and seven out of eight of the grooms of the bedchamber, which proved of

VOL. I.

very great use to them in being constantly informed of his majesty's most private transactions during the civil war. D.

D