EDZELL-MAJOR WOOD. 17 in humble life, it being scarcely fifty years since the grave closed on a poor female of the same name, called Euphemia, or, more familiarly, "Sleepin' Effie Lindsay." This singular creature belonged to the parish of Guthrie, but latterly resided in Cortachy, and, on various occasions, lay in a state of utter unconsciousness for a fortnight or more at a time. These soporific attacks were periodical in her case: all attempts to arouse her from them were in vain; and, after lying in that morbid condition for the long and almost incredible period of six weeks, she at last expired, unconscious, it is believed, of her approaching end. The ashes of Major James Wood lie within the bounds of the same cemetery with those of the great lords of Edzell; and, as his history is intimately associated with the traditions of the locality, some notice of him may not be inaptly classed under this head. This well-known veteran (a cadet of the old house of Balbegno) resided at Invereskandy, and is popularly said to have been factor to the penultimate laird of Edzell. His old dwelling, latterly converted into a barn, had thick walls and small windows, with cut lintels of rather superior workmanship; these may show the consequence of the place and the status of its old occupant, but all trace of the building has now disappeared. The Major is represented as a tall, robust person, equally hard of heart and of feature, and, were tradition to receive implicit credit, he was destitute of all those qualities that render one fellow-creature the cherished friend of another. Indeed, the factorship has been characterised as more the pastime, and the horrid scenes of debauchery and seduction really the business, of his every-day life. It is needless to say that he was famed in the district, and looked upon as little short of a demon in human form, so that the fine ford in the immediate neighbourhood of his house was only taken advantage of during his absence, or in the hours of his repose. One sweet and guileless maiden, who unwarily crossed the ford when inviting B some friends to her approaching marriage, was pounced upon by him in a lone dreary part of the muir, and only after a severe struggle, succeeded in extricating herself from his grasp. Running towards the river, she sprang in her confusion from the high banks into a deep pool, and fell a victim to the rolling waters. Such are some of the tales still told of the Major, who, like other mortals, came to his end. Had he done so rashly, or by open violence, then local story would have been deprived of a favourite subject of conversation and obloquy. The common belief in the reputed awfulness of his deathbed, which is now proverbial, may be gathered from the following, which is the only remembered stanza of a long poem composed on the occasion, by an almost unlettered provincial bard, that lived towards the close of last century : "An' when the Major was a-deein', The de'il cam like a corbie fleein' ; In truth, it is popularly believed that the Major did not die, as implied by the common sense of the term, but was suffocated by having a quantity of daich, or dough, stuffed into his mouth to check his blasphemous ravings! He was buried near to the south-west corner of the Lindsay vault, under a large flag-stone, on which are seen a blank shield and the illegible remains of an inscription. An incident equally characteristic of the credulity of the period is related concerning the translation of his body to the grave. While the company rested on their way to the churchyard, the coffin suddenly became so heavy that it could not be carried farther. In this singular dilemma, the minister had courage to crave the aid of Omnipotence, and fervently exclaimed: "Lord! whoever was at the beginning of this, let him be at the end of it," when the coffin turned as marvellously light as before it was heavy!" EDZELL-MAJOR WOOD'S REAL CHARACTER. 19 Still, though the Major and his evil deeds were hid from mortal eyes, the parishioners were so prejudiced against the spot where he lay, and even the spokes which bore him thither, that none of them would allow their relations to be buried in the former, or carried on the latter. Mr. Bonnyman, the eccentric schoolmaster already mentioned, is said to have been the first to break down this barrier of superstition and credulity, by giving strict orders, on his own approaching dissolution, that his body should be carried on the rejected bearers, and laid in the same grave with that of the Major. Excited by curiosity, while Mr. Bonnyman's grave was being made, many persons went to view the spot, and some believed that among the remains of his once gigantic frame they discovered traces of the dough with which he is said to have been hurried out of existence ! Such are a few of the traditions regarding this dreaded son of Mars, which, if but half as true as reported, are enough to satisfy the most prurient taste. But doubting the existence of so heartless a monster, except in the excitable minds of the superstitious, and desiring to find some real trace of his life and transactions, we set inquiry on foot in the records within our reach, and have found such direct and conclusive proofs of his engagements and doings, during a long period of his life, as to show that the demoniacal actions imputed to him were merely the offspring of imagination, and were most probably suggested by the well-known deeds of another and more justly notorious Major, the celebrated Weir (who was contemporaneous with Wood), the account of whose "Damnable Historie" has been circulated among the peasantry of Scotland ever since its first publication. Though the discipline of the Church was lax at the period, and pecuniary donations had vast influence with her, it can scarcely be believed that, if the character of Wood was fraught even with a tithe of the ferocity with which tradition has clothed it, he would have either been invested with the respon sible office of an elder of the parish, or been recognised as a witness to the baptism of several children of families of known. respectability. Nor can it be presumed that the partner of his bosom could for a moment have tolerated such doings; for in her-to whom, by the way, tradition never so much as once alludes—we find, from the nature of her gifts to "halie kirke," the beau-idéal of a religious and God-fearing woman, while the Major's provision for her after his decease, and his mortification to the poor, show a spirit of charity, as well as of conjugal love and affection, equal at least to that of most men. These traditions may therefore, as a whole, be safely set down among those in which truth and fiction are strangely and unaccountably mingled.1 The old kirkyard of Edzell also contains the ashes of the parents and other near relatives of one who, in the midst of many disadvantages, rose to high eminence in the laborious. study of natural history, and could number among his intimate friends the celebrated Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, and Mr. Pennant. This was George Low, afterwards minister of Birsay and Harray, the industrious author of Fauna Orcadensis and Flora Orcadensis, and translator of Torfæus' History of Orkney. He was born in the village of Edzell, in March 1747.2 His mother's name was Coupar; his father, a small crofter, held the humble appointment of kirk-officer, and died when 1 In May and June 1659, Major Wood is a witness cited by the Presbytery of Brechin to bear testimony to the good character of Mr. Andrew Straiton, afterwards minister of Oathlaw (Br. Presb. Book). It appears from the Parish Register of Edzell, that on the 15th of January 1684, Major James Wood was elected an elder, and on the 5th of January 1685, he was present at the baptism of a son of John Lyndsay in Dalbog. In July and August of the same year, his wife presented a mortcloth to the church, and a table-cloth for the communion-table; and on the 6th of October 1695, "a band was given in by Mr. John Lindsay, factor to the Laird of Edzell, for two hundred and fiftie marks, mortified to the poore of Edzell, by Major James Wood, only payable after the decease of Margrat Jackson, his relick, by whom it is presented, and ane receipt given by the minister and session to the said Margrat Jackson, acknowledging hir right to the interest y'of for the forsaid soume, during hir lyfetyme, according to the Letter will of the defunct." 2 Erroneously printed 1746 in many biographies.-"1747, March 29; George Low, lawfull son of John Low, kirk-officer, and Isabel Coupar his spouse, baptized." -Par. Reg. of Edzell.) EDZELL-REV. GEORGE LOW. 21 George was only thirteen years of age, leaving the son and two daughters. The daughters were married to respectable villagers of Edzell, of the names of Thomson and Lindsay. The latter was an ingenious self-taught mechanic, who to his trade of general merchant added that of watch and clock maker; and having had his shop robbed on an Edzell market night, the peculiarity of the tools with which he wrought led to the discovery of the thief, a notorious provincial highwayman, who, for a similar crime, was hanged on Balmashanner Hill, at Forfar, in 1785, and is said to have been the last person that suffered capital punishment by the decree of any Sheriff-depute in Scotland. Low began his studies at Aberdeen, and afterwards went to St. Andrews. Being taken to Orkney in 1766, by Mr. Alison, then minister at Holm, he became tutor to the family of Mr. Grahame, a wealthy merchant in Stromness, with whom he remained six years. While there, he studied assiduously for the ministry, and, his divinity studies being incomplete, he received "lessons," as was then usual in such cases, from some of the ministers in the Presbytery, in order to prepare him for examination previous to licence as a preacher. On leaving the family of Mr. Grahame, he went to Shetland, where he preached in various parts for two years, and during that time he became acquainted with Mr. Pennant, whom he accompanied on his tour through Shetland. From his great botanical knowledge, he was of much service to Mr. Pennant, through whose influence Sir Lawrence Dundas, then patron of most of the churches of Orkney and Shetland, presented Mr. Low to that of Birsay and Harray, where he was settled on the 14th of December 1774. Two years afterwards he married Helen, daughter of his former benefactor, "the learned Mr. Tyrie, of Sandwich," but she died within sixteen months, after giving birth to a still-born child. Her husband survived until the 13th of March 1795,1 and dying at Birsay, was buried in the church below the pulpit. A correspondent informs us that 1 Presb. Rec. Cairston, 18th March 1795. |