There is a ballad on the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, where the Covenanters were defeated in 1679. Though none of these ballads on the Civil War have much merit, they are comparatively free from coarseness, and occasionally touches of feeling occur in them. The ballad on Bothwell Bridge concludes thus :— Alang the brae, beyond the brig, Many brave men lies cauld and still; The bloody fight of Bothwell Hill." 10 In the satirical rhymes and lampoons from the Restoration to the Revolution there is ample evidence of the dissolute life 9 Scott's Minstrelsy, Vol. II., pp. 222-225. 10 The ballad on this battle is printed in most of the collections of ballads and songs; and there is another contemporary one, beginning "Ye are welcome Whigs from Bothwell Bridge". Hogg composed a modern ballad on the battle of Bothwell Bridge, from which I quote the following verse : "When rank oppression rends the heart, And rules wi' stroke o' death, Wha wadna spend their dear heart's blood of the ruling party; but the far greater part of these compositions are unsuitable for quotation. There is a vehement and violent satire on the Stair family, and the famous lawyer himself is made the object of much bitter abuse. His crooked neck is constantly alluded to; while his wife had the reputation of being a witch. The apparent inconsistencies and the shortcomings in the career of the great President of the Session, and of his eminent son, were mercilessly exposed and held up to scorn; and their changes of front in politics were sharply brought out, with damaging effect. 11 A dispute, already noticed, arose between the Court of Session and the bar, touching the question whether a party aggrieved by a sentence of this court might lawfully appeal to the parliament of Scotland. Many of the advocates maintained the affirmative, which greatly offended the lords and the government, and they were dismissed from their places, and forbidden to reside in Edinburgh, being treated as malcontents, because they had disagreed with the lords, and ventured to defend law and justice. But after a short time, many of them yielded, acknowledging the errors of their ways, and professed repentance. The lords, however, did not long enjoy their victory, as shortly afterwards parliament began to entertain appeals, though not with the aim of checking the corruption of the judges, but because some of the chief members of the Estates desired to have a share of the good things which were agoing, and thus to be enabled to assist the fortunes of their friends. In the satirical squibs on this matter, the President of the Session received much attention; and the verses to the advocates who stayed behind contain the following lines :— "Even so, of advocates you're but the Rump, 11 Book of Scottish Pasquils, pp. 179-190. Yet where the tail is thus in the head's place, No doubt the body has a shen face. Thus, thus, some men reform our laws and gown, As tailors do, by turning upside down." The following lines refer to the president's threats against the malcontent advocates : "The president with his head on one side, He swears that for treason we all shall be tried. The president bids us repent of our sin, And swears we'll be forfeit if we don't come in : At this period there were persons in Scotland called peats or pats, whose function was to extract as much as could be got from the pockets of clients, "whether rich or poor, for the purpose of perverting justice". On this there is a curious contemporary rhyme entitled, "Robert Cook's Petition against the Peats," addressed to the Lords of Session, which begins thus: "The humble petition of Master Robert Cook, Having spent all his money in following his book, And so on the rhyme goes, naming the different lords, and showing that they all employed peats; that John Hay of Murray, by virtue of his daughter, had a peatry which yielded thousands annually; that Lord Newbyth had hitherto run halves with the peats, but having found that they were all cheats, he resolved that his own son, William Baird, should be peat of his house as well as heir; that Lord Newton was always ready to take whatever men would give, and when he was peat to him 12 Book of Scottish Pasquils, pp. 216, 218-221. 13 Mr. Charles Maitland. self, avoided all the danger of sharing the half. After hearing the petition, the bench remitted it to Lord Castlehill, 14 who, after duly considering it, declared that the peats were grievous to the nation, as by some inspiration they pled without speaking, and consulted without writing.15 Without attaching much importance to writings of this description, we know from various sources of information that instances of disgraceful judicial delinquency were then common in Scotland. A satirical rhyme on the government of the Duke of Lauderdale, and his wife, called "A Litany," was written about 1671. There are several other satires on his wife, under the name of Bessie; and it is stated that she swayed both Church and State. "She plots with her tail, and her lord with his pate -with a head on one side, and a hand lifted high—she kills us with frowning, and makes us to die-the nobles and barons, boroughs and clownes-she threatened at home even the principal towns-but now she usurps both the sceptre and crownand thinks to destroy us with a flap of her gown." 16 The Revolution and the events flowing from it called forth many satirical ballads and rhymes, especially from the party who adhered to the banished dynasty. It is from this date that Jacobitism assumed the form of a political creed, and became a distinctive name of a party in the State. This party, in manifesting their opinion and feeling in favour of the exiled family, endeavoured by all means to depreciate the Revolution settlement and the whole course of subsequent proceedings, by sati 14 Sir John Lockhart. 15 Book of Scottish Pasquils, pp. 224-227. 16 The following lines are from the "Litany": "From this huffing Hector, and his queen of love, From a parliamentary council that does rage and rave, + Sharp. The Test. rising and abusing all who adhered to the new order of affairs. Many of the Jacobite ballads and songs are rude and coarse, but some of them are highly humorous, and occasionally pathetic. They afford important elements for the history of the period from the Revolution to the Rising of 1745; and at that time they supplied to many of the people the chief political and literary food within their reach. Here it may be stated that satire is and always has been a powerful weapon when properly wielded; but none of the Jacobite ballads or rhymes have attained to high rank as really genuine and effective satires. Indeed, though they are not often deficient in the elements of contempt and scorn of a kind, they seldom or never rise to the height of vigorous sarcasm; they never hit on the strain of that seething and stinging roll of sarcasm which smites its victims right and left, till they fall helpless under its piercing force. The Jacobite ballads have more of the comic and the ludicrous elements, of homely but effective forms of humour and wit, which together constitute their main characteristics. The ballad entitled "The Coronation Song," 1689, is a comic and ridiculous description of King William and Queen Mary. It is full of rough humour, and excessively coarse in phraseology. William is represented as descended from the orange tree, but it is hoped that he will soon descend from a tree of another class -the gallows. His personal appearance is minutely described: "he had the head of a goose, and the legs of a crane," and rode in Hyde Park like a hog in armour, and in Whitehall carped like a country farmer. He had not stood to his declaration, but had completely cheated the nation. Cromwell only smelt at the crown through the rump; but though there were three who had better claims than Orange, yet he with a jump ventured his neck to place himself upon the throne. Some of the verses are extremely profane and vulgar, and the song concludes with this wish:: |