To this moment there is a proverbial expreffion among the Highlanders allufive to the old practice: a fuppliant will tell his patron, Curri mi clocher do charne, I will add a stone to your cairn, meaning, when you are no more I will do all poffible honour to your memory.

There was another fpecies of honour paid to the chieftains, that I believe is ftill retained in this ifland, but the reason is quite loft: that of fwearing by his name, and paying as great a refpect to that as to the most facred oath; a familiar one in Arran is, by Nail: it

is at prefent unintelligible, yet is fufpected to have been the name of fome ancient hero.

The cairns are to be found in all parts of our islands, in Cornwal, Wales, and all parts of North Britain; they were in ufe among the Northern nations; Dahlberg, in his 323d plate has given the figure of one. In Wales they are called Carneadau, but the proverb, taken from them, with us, is not of the compliment kind; Karn ar dy ben, or, a cairn on your head, is a token of imprecation.

Total in money, 332l. 18 B. 6d.

£. B. d.

332 18 6 366

2 10

45 11 10

237 2 0 O 4

In Scotch money, 1666 2 II

Strange

Ilay; from the fame.

N various parts of this neighIbourhood are fcattered small holes, formed in the ground, large enough to hold a fingle man in a fitting pofture: the top is covered with a broad ftone, and that with earth: into these unhappy fugitives took shelter after a defeat, and drawing together fods, found a temporary concealment from enemies, who in early times knew not the giving or receiving of quarter. The incurfions of barbarians were always fhort; fo that the fugitives could easily fubfift in their earths till the danger was over. Men were then almost in a ftate of nature: how ftrong was their resemblance to beaits of prey! The whole fcenery of this place was unfpeakably favage, and the inhabitants fuitable. Falcons fcreamed inceffantly over our heads, and we difturbed the eagles perched on the precipice.

the

to lay a carpet for the kinge to done, ther fhall be a forme fett upon creepe to the croße upon: and that carpett before the crucifix, and a cufhion laid upon it for the kinge to kneale upon. And the master of the jewell-houfe ther to be ready with the crampe rings in a bason of filver, and the kinge to kneele upon the cushion before the forme.

And then the clerke of the closett be redie with the booke concerninge the halowinge of the crampe rings, and the aumer mufte kneele on the right hand of the kinge, holdinge the fayd booke. When that is done, the kinge fhall rise and go to the alter, wheare a gent. uher fhall be redie with a cushion for the kinge to kneale upon: and then the greatest lords that fhall be ther, to take the bafon with the rings, and beare them after the king to offer. And thus done, the queene shall come downe out of her cloffet or traverfe into the chappell, with ladyes and gentlewomen waitinge upon her, and creepe to the crofje, and then goe agayne to her closett or traverse. And then the ladyes to creepe to the croffe likewife, and the lords and noblemen likewife."

Dr. Percy, who has printed this curious extract at the end of his notes on Northumberland houshold book, obferves, that our ancient kings, even in the dark times of fuperftition, do not feem to have affected to cure the King's Evil; at leaft this MS. gives no hint of any fuch power. This miraculous gift was left to be claimed by the Stuarts; our ancient Plantagenets were humbly content to cure the cramp.The Doctor adds, that, in 1536, when the convocation under Henry VIII. abolished fome of the old fuperftitious

fuperftitious practices, this of creeping to the cross on Good-Friday, &c. was ordered to be retained as a laudable and edifying, cuftom. See Herbert's life of Henry VIII. It appears, in the Northumberland Houthold-book, to have been obferved in the earl's family, the value of the offerings then made by himself, his lady, and his fons, being there feverally afcertained.

There is alfo fpecified a candle to be offered by each of the above perfons on St. Blay's days on which the learned editor obferves, that "the anniverfary of St. Blafius is "the 3d of February, when it is

ftill the custom, in many parts is of England, to light up fires on "the hills on St. Blayfe night; a " custom anciently taken up, per"haps, for no better reafon than "the jingling resemblance of his name to the word Blaze."

On the Origin of the Order of the Garter; from the Supplement to Granger's Biographical Hiftory.

N Raftel's Chronicle, 1. vi. under

following curious paffage: " About the 19 yere of this kinge, he made a folempne feest at Wyndefore, and a great justes and turnament, where he devyfed, and perfyted fubftanegally, the order of the knyghtes of the garter; howe be it fome afferme that this order began fyrft by kynge Rycharde, Cure de Lyon, at the fege of the citye of Acres; wher, in his great neceffyte, there were but 26 knyghtes that fyrmely and

furely abode by the kinge; where he caufed all them to were thonges of blew leyther about theyr legges. And afterwarde they were called the knyghtes of the blew thonge." I am obliged for this paffage to John Fenn, Efq. a curious and ingenious gentleman of Eaft-Dereham, in Norfolk, who is in poffeffion of the most rare book whence it is taken. Hence fome affirm, that the origin of the garter is to be dated from Richard I.* and that it owes its pomp and fplendor to Edward III.

Speech made by Henry the First, to the great Men of the Realm, whom be called together by his Royal Mandate, to meet at London, is the fixth Year of his Reign, 1106; being the first which we have on Record from the Throne.

"My Friends and faithful Subjects, both Foreigners and Natives,

COU, all know very well, that

YOU

my brother Robert was both called by God, and elected King of Jerufalem, which he might have happily governed; and how fhame

he juftly deferves God's anger and reproof. You know alfo, in many other inftances, his pride and bru tality: because he is a man that delights in war and bloodshed; he is impatient of peace. I know that he thinks you a parcel of contemp tible fellows; he calls you a fet of drunkards and gluttons, whom he hopes to tread under his feet. I, truly, a king, meek, humble and peaceable, will preserve and cherish

VOL. XVII.

L

you

you in your antient liberties, which I have formerly fworn to perform; will hearken to your wife counfels with patience, and will govern you justly, after the example of the best of princes. If you defire it, I will ftrengthen this promife with a written charter; and all thofe laws which the holy King Edward, by the infpiration of God, fo wifely enacted, I will again fwear to keep inviolably. If you, my brethren, will stand by me faithfully, we fhall easily repulse the strongest efforts the cruelleft enemy can make

againft me, and thefe kingdoms. IfI am only fupported by the va lour and power of the English nation, all the weak threats of the Normans will no longer feem formidable unto me."

Henry had difpoffeffed his elder brother, Robert, the Duke of Nor mandy, of his right of fucceffion to the English crown; and being apprehenfive of his defigns against him, endeavoured, by the moft artful infinuations, to engage his nobles in his intereft.

MISCEL

Some Account of a Difcourfe on the different Kinds of Air, delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society, Nov. 30, 1773. By Sir John Pringle, Bart. Prefident.

TH

HIS difcourfe chiefly relates to the fubject for which the annual prize medal of 1773 was conferred on the Rev. Dr. Priestley, namely, the many curious and ufeful experiments contained in his Obfervations on different kinds of Air, read at the Society in March, 1772, and inserted in the last volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions.

In this difcourfe the learned prefident has traced the progrefs of the most important difcoveries of the properties of air from the time of Bacon and Galileo to the prefent time; and has comprized in a few pages the refult of innumerable experiments. In fact, the difcourfe may be confidered as a compen dious hiftory of common and factitious air, fo far as the effential pro-, perties of either have yet been difcovered.

To Lord Bacon the prefident afcribes the difcovery of factitious or artificial air. To sir Ifaac Newton, that true permanent air arifing from fixed bodies by heat and fer

mentation. To Dr. Hales, the air abounding in the Pyrmont waters. To Dr. Brownrig, the quality of that air, which is of the mephitic or deadly kind, fuch as is found in damps, deep wells, caverns, and coal-pits, fo often fatal to miners. To Dr. Black, that of fixed air. And to Mr. Lane, the difcovery of the chalybeate principle in the Spa and Pyrmont waters, in confequence of a converfation with Doc-, tor Watfon, jun. on an experiment, of Mr. Cavendifh's, by which that gentleman had found the mephitic air fufficient to diffolve any calca-, reous earths. "Nothing," fays the prefident, "feemed now to be wanting to the triumph of art, but an eafy method of joining, as there fhould be occafion, one or both of thofe principles to common water, in order to improve upon nature in the more extenfive ufe of her medicine; and this was effected by Dr. Prieftley, after fome other important difcoveries had been made in this part of pneumatics, firft by Dr. Black, profeffor of Chymiftry at Edinburgh, and then by Mr. Cavendish, a member of the Royal Society."

Of all thefe facts, and others, which the prefident enumerated, Dr. Priestley carefully availed himfelf; and conceiving that common

L 2

water,