You can download this volume here - Electric Scotland

274 Geo. Neilson
Act in 1689 ; and its records betray no extravagant feeling over
the Union of 1707.
Internal affairs are the staple of the extracts. The days of
border history were past ; the burgh appears to have made its
last combatant stand in the abortive attempt to keep out
Cromwell's army after the battle of Dunbar. The central
interest is domestic. For Mr. Renwick, we suspect, Peebles
holds undimmed its reputation for pleasure ; its alleged sepulchral
quiet he seems determined to disprove. At least there
is no denying that the annals silently achieve that end, for brisk
episodes abound. A '
witch's
'
get
is a term of abuse ; the
education authority of the period imprisoning folk for '
not putting
are by a violent maid-servant declared
their children to the school '
'
to be nothing but mensworne rascalls' ; neighbours quarrelled
with each other with the formula c I defye the, divell.' Once
at least they went still further and defied the provost, for a
burgess in 1667 upbraided that dignitary by '
saying he spoke not
majestick lyke' an observation too heinous to atone for by a
less fine than 40 merks '
plus incarceration during the provest's
pleasur.' On occasion a provost's wife could be riotous against a
burgess *
pulling doun of his bonet after he had called her a
brazen faced loun,' but much graver was the case when the
provost himself was assaulted by '
dinging of his hatt and
piriweig.' For this, James Sheill not only went to prison but
paid a fine, and had his burgess ticket riven '
cross '
publictly
att the
in token of forfeiture of all his burgess privileges.
The liveliness of Peebles otherwise is evinced by the frequency
of morning drinks, and pints and gallons of ale to workmen,
as e.g.
by
'
quhen they lifted up the stipell bell to set her rycht,'
such freaks as that of the roisterer *
ringing the fray bell,'
by the c tua new lockis that was brokin be the mos-truperis upon
the portis,' and by the grim necessities of a town's hangman,
the scourging of thieves, the pillorying of resetters '
with ane
paper on their heidis,' and the searching out of stranger undesirables.
So far from dull was Peebles that the town officer
himself got 'notoriously drunk' one night whereby the prisoners
in the '
thieves' hole '
put fire to the doors and nearly
set the
town a-blaze. Death itself was only an excuse for prolonging
such festivities, and in 1697 the council had to repress the
'
abuses at wakes frequented by crowds, playing at cards, and
drinking excessively, and swearing.' Pleasure even at Peebles
had to be kept within reasonable bounds.