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IN BYWAYS OF
SCOTTISH HISTORY
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IN BYWAYS
OF SCOTTISH
HISTORY
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By
LOUIS A. BARBÉ B.A.
Officier d'Académie
Author of "The Tragedy of Gowrie House" "Viscount Dundee"
"Kirkcaldy of Grange" etc.
BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
LONDON GLASGOW BOMBAY
1912
Preface
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When the author of the following papers came to Scotland,many years ago, he knew nothing of the countrythat was to become his home, and was hardly less ignorantof its history. To acquire some acquaintance withboth he followed the same plan: he began with the highways,as indicated, in the one case, by the advertisementsof the railway and steamboat companies, and, in theother, by the works of Tytler and Hill Burton. Beforelong, however, he learned that the knowledge thus obtainedmight be pleasantly supplemented by independentexcursions off the beaten track. Topographically the resultwas the discovery of charming bits of scenery, of whichhe still recalls the picturesque beauty with delight. Historically,too, he found his way into interesting nooks andcorners which his early guides had either ignored entirelyor contented themselves with referring to in the briefestwords. The outcome of some of his explorations—if it benot presumptuous to apply such a term to them—is setforth in the present volume. In venturing to publish it,he is not without a hope that the interest which he hasfelt in his rambles through some of the byways of Scottishhistory may, to some extent, be shared by others. If heshould be disappointed in this, he will have to admit thathe has done less than justice to subjects that had it inthem to be made pleasant and attractive.
Those subjects are varied, but, as regards most of them,not wholly unconnected. Dealing, as they mainly do,with the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, theyhave, at least, a certain chronological unity, an