French knychtis hors feit, 4sh. Item, for the French knychtis collaciounes, belcheir, servandis, wages, fra the 11th day of December instant to this day, £4. 4sh. 5d. Item, for his folkis expensis in Edinburgh quhilk remanit behind him, £7. 13sh. Item, to the French knight himself, £112. ** Item, ane ducat of wecht, to gild the knop of the goblets that was the Bishop of Murray's, and given to Anthony Darsey, 15sh. 6d. Item, to the said Anthony, the French knight, 400 French crowns in English money, summa £280. Item, for a twelbe-piece silver vessel, new made in Flanders, weighing 12 pound, 8 ounces, £280. Item, ane salt fat of the lady of gold, given by the queen on New Year's Day, the year of God 1504, and given to the said knycht. Item, ane stoup and ane flaggat of silver, brought hame be Master James Merchanstoun, with their cases given to him. Item, the ten goblets of silver, given by the Bishop of Murray on New Year's Day by past, given to him. Item, for burnishing and grathing of the same, 13sh. Item, that day after the French knight departed sent to Hadington to his servants fifty French crowns, summa £36. Item, to the French knycht's expenses in Hadington, and on the morrow to his dinner, horse's meat, and belcher, £5. 15sh. 8d. Item, to seven French saddles to him, £9. 15sh. Item, to James Ackman, for the French knight's lodging from Michaelmas to Candlemas, which is 18 weeks, each week 24sh., summa £21. 13sh."

These entries occur towards the end of the year 1506; but, in the succeeding summer of 1507, the king appears to have instituted another

gorgeous tournament in honour of the black lady. She again appeared in a triumphal chariot, and was arrayed in a robe of damask silk, powdered with gold spangles; whilst her two damsels were clothed in gowns of green Flanders taffeta. On this occasion there were introduced a troop of wild men. The books of the High Treasurer conduct us behind the scenes, and let us know that the " goatskins and harts' horns in which these civilized savages enacted their parts, were sent by Sir William Murray from Tullibardine, at the expense of six shillings." It was probably on this occasion that Dunbar indited his lines on "Ane Black Moir.'

66

'Lang have I sung of ladies white,
Now of ane black I will indite

That landed forth from the last ships;
Whom fain I would describe perfyte,1
My ladye with the meikle2 lippis.

"How she is tute mow'd like an ape,
And like a gangaral unto graip;
And how her short cat-nose up skips;
And how she shines like ony saip3-
My ladye with the meikle lips.

"When she is clad in rich apparel,
She blinks as bright as ane tar-barrel;
When she was born, the sun thol'd clipse,
The nycht be fain fought in her quarrel-
My ladye with the meikle lips.'

It appears from the books of the High Treasurer, under December 2, 1512, that the queen had a black maiden who waited on her. " Item, for three ells French russet to the queen's black maiden, 37. 16s. 6d."

VIII. JAMES IV. AND THE FLYING ABBOT OF TUNGLAND.

This monarch had a singular passion for collecting all sorts of quacks about him. Of these, one of the most extraordinary was a French adept, who pretended to possess not only great skill in medicine, but other still more attractive and mysterious secrets. He was an alchymist, and persuaded the credulous monarch that he had either discovered, or was on the point of discovering, the philosopher's stone. He represented himself as eminently skilful in detecting gold and silver mines; and, on the occasion of an embassy setting out from Stirling to the Court of France, had the assurance to declare that he had constructed a pair of artificial wings, by which he undertook to fly to Paris, and arrive long before the ambassadors. "This time," says Bishop Lesly, "there was an Italiane with the king, wha wes made Abbot of Tungland. He causit the king believe that, by multiplying, and uthers his inventions, he would make fine gold of other metal, quhilk science he called the Quintessence: whereupon the king made great cost; but all in vain. This abbot tuke in hand to flie with wings, and to be in France before the said ambassadors; and to that effect he caused make ane pair of wings of feathers, quhilk being festinitt uponn him, he flew off the castle-wall of Stirling; but shortly he fell to the ground, and broke his thie-bane; but the wyte (blame) thereof he ascribed to their beand some hen feathers in the wings, quhilk yarnit and coveted the myddin, and not the skies."*

* Lesly's Historie of Scotland, p. 76.

It was on this famous occasion that Dunbar composed his humorous satirical stanzas, entitled "Of the Fenyeit Frier of Tungland." The real name of this bold empiric was John Damidne, and he first appeared at the Court of James in the capacity of a French leech, or physician.* He soon recommended himself to the king's good graces by his chemical knowledge and his extravagant pretensions; so that he and his servants appear to have lived wholly at the royal expense; and we find him comfortably established in his laboratory at the palace, receiving, from time to time, various sums of gold, which he undertook to multiply. Thus, under the 3rd of March, 1501, "the king sent to Striveline four Hary nobles in gold”—a sum equal, as it is stated, to nine pounds Scots money" for the leech to multiply." These, however, were not his sole occupations; for, after the mysterious labours of the day were concluded, Master John was wont to play at cards with the sovereign-a mode by which he probably transferred the contents of the royal exchequer into his own purse as efficaciously as by his distillations. Saltpetre, bellows, two great stillatours, brass mortars, coals, and numerous vessels, of various shape, uses, and denominations, form the items in the Treasurer's accounts connected with the studies of this foreign adept; and so beloved was he by his

*It is thus noticed in the books of the High Treasurer, under the 12th of January, 1501:-" Item, to ane man of Maister Johne Leiches, to fee him a horse fra Edinburgh to Striveline, and to his expenses 13 shillings."

Item, to the king and the French leich to play at the rartis, £9. 5sh., March 4, 1501.-MS. Accounts of the High Treasurer.

royal pupil, that, on a temporary visit, which he found it necessary to pay to France, James inade him a present of his own horse and two hundred pounds.*

On his return to the Scottish court, he entertained the king by a new kind of morris-dance, which he had imported from the Continent. It is thus quaintly mentioned in the books of the High Treasurer:-" Item, payit to Johne Francis, for twenty-one elne of red taffeta and blue, quhilk was sax dansing cotes in Maister Johne's dans, £13. 13sh. Item, for five elne blue taffeta to the woman's goune in the said dans, £3. 10sh." Soon after this, the Abbot of Tungland, in Galloway, died; and the king, with that reckless levity, and which was so strangely blended with superstition, in his character, appointed this adventurer-half doctor, half alchymist, half morris-dancer, to the vacant dignity.†

According to Lesly, it was in September, 1507-8, that the abbot exhibited himself, in the form of a bird, on the battlements of Stirling Castle; and, by the low-minded propensities of the "hen-feathers,' which he had inadvertently admitted into the construction of his wings, was dragged to the earth, and broke his thigh-bone. Having recovered from this accident, he afterwards obtained, on the 8th

*MS. Acc. of High Trea. sub. May 29 and June 3, 1501. Item, to Gareoch Pursuivant to pass to Tungland for the Abbacie to French Maister Johne, 13sh. Item, payit to Bardus Altorite, Lumbard, for Maister Johne, the French medicinar, new-made Abbot of Tungland, he aucht the said Bardus, £35.-MS. Accounts of High Treasurer of Scot land, sub. March 11 and 12, 1503.