During the minority of James VI. the Records of Justiciary were very imperfectly kept, and perhaps, have been wilfully mutilated by one or other of the prevailing factions. In the first year of his reign, justice was suspended for the reasons given in the following droll memorandum : —
"Nota. — Fra the hinderend of August, 1568, to the secunde day of Marche in the samin yeir[1] na Dyettis of Justiciarle haldin, be ressoun of the pest [the plague] and the Regentis being in Inglande."
But after the King attained his majority the proceedings began to assume a more regular form, they were more fully reported, and being almost wholly written in the vernacular, give much more vivid impressions of the scenes and actors. The language cannot fail to be interesting to the philologist, though a little perplexing to the general reader.
In modern English we have dispensed with the distinction between the gerund, or noun of action, and the present participle active, but these remained distinct in Scots of the sixteenth century. Thus in the following ditty against a forger (1576), he is "dilatit of airt and pairt of the treasonabill forgaing, feinzeing etc., fals money, sic as penneis, quhilkis [which] wer out put be him amangis our souerane lordis liegis, dissanand [deceiving] thaim thairwith." Here the termination ing distinguishes the gerund the termination — and the participle. Many old French words are still in use in Scots speech; others, which have disappeared, may be noted in these Records, as, " tressonablie, blasphemouslie and miscliantlie [from the French mkliant} "; and again, " schote and dilaschct [old French delaschcr, to discharge] tventie schote of hagbuttis."
Then there was that other word of evil memory, the "row" (French -roue}, which happily occurs but seldom in Scottish criminal procedure. Indeed Mr. Pitcairn discovered only two cases in which a culprit was sentenced to the horrible fate of being broken on the wheel — the last being in 1604, when Robert Weir, the accomplice 'of the Lady of Warriston in the murder of her husband, was sentenced " to be brokin upoune ane Row, quhil [until] he be deicl; and to ly thairat during the space of xxiiij houris and thairefter his body to be tañe upone the said Row and set up in ane publict piase, betuix the place of Warestoun and the town of Leith."
Truly there were some "ugsome" sights to meet the eyes of tourists in Edinburgh in gentle King Jamies' reign!
- ↑ The year was reckoned as beginning on 15th March, until in 1599, the King altered it by proclamation to 1st January.
