chants and others are discharged from entering the Burgh, on account of a dreadful plague raging in England, and which broke out in Prestonpans and other parts of Scotland, and all persons are discharged from entering, or going without parts of the town, or to reset strangers or their goods, under pain of death; and the Magistrates and Council conclude their sederunt with these words, "God save the king, and God avert the plague from Jedburgh." These precautions were ineffectual, as the plague broke out that year, and of which many died.

The Council do not appear to have sanctioned any person leaving the town at any time; for ten years after the notice regarding the plague, an act is passed to the following effect:-"Christian Arres, and Margaret Wright, spouse to Robert Porteous, Townhead, and Isabel Buchan, were banished the Burgh in all time coming, under pain of death, for going away to harvest, contrary to the law of the Burgh, and resetters of them to pay £30 without favour.

In 1643 the Council seem to have taken a liking to the Earl of Buccleuch, for, in that year, all the Scotts in the country are admitted burgesses, and fifty persons besides admitted, on going out with the rest of the army on ane expedition. All the officers of the Earl of Lothian's regiment were made burgesses.

The inhabitants of former days have possessed a warlike spirit, for every now and then an act appears, ordering a roll of the inhabitants to go out as soldiers, and there does not seem to have been any want of volunteers.

Very near the commencement of the eighteenth century, I find the following letter of excuse ordered to be sent by the Provost to the Assembly in Edinburgh : "That he could not attend next Wednesday on account of the burning of the witches."

It is not without interest, too, to notice that the same record bears that the accused persons confessed the crimes alleged against them.

About the same period there is evidence of the relative state of morality of the four quarters of the town. A roll of the idle and disorderly of both sexes was made up, and ordained either to go to service or be banished the town. Now it is singular that the Townhead supplied 19, Highgate 8, Black-quarter 3, and Canongate 3. I make no remarks as to the present condition of the Burgh.

In 1645, the masons were paid 12s. per day and their mornings' drink.

Horses for hire at 8s. per day, and when to Edinburgh or farther, 30s. for the first three days, and 6s. every other day.

The following act is instructive of the manners of the trade of fleshers during the 17th century. "It is statute and ordained, that whatsoever person or persons within the said trade that shall at any time happen to lift an axe, or draw a knife to one another, the lifter or drawer thereof is to loss the liberty of the said trade in all time coming, by and attour the personal punishment that shall be inflicted on the doers thereof by the deacon and members of trade for the time, and this to be the law in all time coming."

The following is a specimen of the bond and procedure when the above provision was violated:William Spinnie enters into a bond in the following terms: "I William Spinnie, younger, flesher in Jedburgh, forasmuch as I did by wicked humour, did in ane radgy manner, lift an axe to William Leck and Adam Wauch, and whilk was ane wicked action, and that the samein was ane an unrighteous act contrary to the law of the trade-therefore, and through God's assistance, I hereby makes, binds, and obliges mysel, in the said trade books, that I shall at no time hereafter, by word or deed, or countenance, to do the like in all time coming, or in any way express mysel in unbecoming language to any brethren of the trade; and in case of doing any deed unbecoming, I hereby forfault and loss the liberty and privileges of the trade, and I shall willingly undergo what personal punishment the deacon and members of the trade for the time being shall inflict."

About the beginning of the seventeenth century we find the Magistrates trying their hand at educating the people. In 1624 a William Jeffrey was admitted a Schoolmaster by the advice of the Bishop of CaithHis salary was to be £100, of which £20 was to be paid by the Kirk Session; besides the augmentation by the Bishop, and the quarter's wages, and a cartfull of Turfs laid down at his door by the parent of each bairn.

ness.

The next statute shows the Magistrates and Council to have been rather illiberal. "Statute and ordained that every man's son, after six years of age, shall

go to the High School, and no where else, under a penalty of 10 sterling."

The following acts are very instructive :-" All the old Deacons and Quarter Masters of every craft, ordered on Fair days to convene in the High Church yard, with hats on their heads, upon the first rap of the swash, for conveying the Provost and Bailies through the Fair."

"The Magistrates and Council having resolved to make a great show at the Cross on Thursday, being the thanksgiving day for his Majesty's home coming, (June 1664,) and six out of every trade to keep off the people."

There seems to have been a great number of brewers in the Burgh, for in 1664 twenty brewers subscribed an agreement to relieve the Burgh of a duty to the excise, and for which they agreed to stent themselves.

In these days the hostels were kept by the leading people in the town. In 1663, Jessie Rutherford, spouse of John Moscripe, and Isobel Ainslie, appeared before the Magistrates, and swore that they had only vended, coft, and sold a tun-and-a-half of wine; and Bessie Turnbull, spouse to Andrew Crombie, the Sheriff Clerk, no more than a tun in the year.

The Magistrates have been in the early days anxious to keep good order in the town. In 1620 it was enacted that persons evil disposed, and drinking after nine o'clock, to be fined £10 sterling, and put in the stocks for ten days."

The next is hard to understand: "No opprobrious

words or blasphemy to be used either before the face or behird the back."

The Magistrates and Council appear to true notion of the dignity of their office.

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have had a We notice

that in 1620, “a green cloth and cushion ordered to be procured, for laying before the Magistrates at Court and Council;" and next year the Councillors were ordered "to wear hats." It seems the Provost wore a velvet robe and mantle, for we find an Act passed for "an oak chest to be made with three locks to keep the velvet robe and mantle, and also the titles of the Burgh."

It is curious and instructive to notice the many statutes passed by the Magistrates and Council in regard to drawing the customs of St. James's Fair. It seems that the people of Kelso, jealous of the claim of the community of the King's Burgh, used to carry over all the beasts that came to the market, to the Kelso side, with the view of appropriating the fair to themselves. To prevent this, the Magistrates issued proclamations to the Burghers and community in general, to be ready on the Green at a certain hour to assist the Magistrates in bringing the cattle, and other paraphernalia of the fair, to the Jedburgh side of the river, and many a fray occurred between the doughty Burghers of Barony and the Royal Burghers. · Jeddart's here" appears to have prevailed, if we are to believe the testimony of the Burgh records. The Burghers of the Barony do not seem to have acted friendly toward the Magistrates when the great bulk of the Jedburgh people were left; for we find often

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