zzzzzzz

‘…When I was a young lad,
My fortune was bad— 

Pshaw! This is not the tune it goes to." Here he fell fast asleep, and sooner or later all his companions in misfortune followed his example.

The benches intended for the repose of the soldiers of the guard, afforded the prisoners convenience enough to lie down, though their slumbers, it may be believed, were neither sound nor undisturbed. But when daylight was but a little while broken, the explosion of gunpowder which took place, and the subsequent fall of the turret to which the mine was applied, would have awakened the Seven Sleepers ¹, or Morpheus himself. The smoke, penetrating through the windows, left them at no loss for the cause of the din.

1) Seven Christian youths who are said to have concealed themselves in a cavern near Ephesus during a persecution in the third century, and to have fallen asleep there, not awaking until two or three hundred years later, when Christianity had become the religion of the empire...'

Waking the Seven Sleepers would have been quite a task.  The seven youths of Ephesus woke in the 5^th century, according to the story, two centuries after they began snoring.  July 27^th is the feast day, so grab six friends, and enjoy a nap.  Scott’s text above comes from “Woodstock”.

Battle of Killiecrankie

‘Claverhouse's sword (a strait cut-and-thrust blade) is in the possession

of Lord Woodhouselee. In Pennycuik-house is preserved the buff-coat,

which he wore at the battle of Killicrankie. The fatal shot-hole is

under the arm-pit, so that the ball must have been received while his

arm was raised to direct the pursuit However he came by his charm of

proof, he certainly had not worn the garment usually supposed to

confer that privilege, and which is called _the waistcoat of proof, or

of necessity. It was thus made: "On Christmas daie, at night, a thread

must be sponne of flax, by a little virgine girle, in the name of the

divell: and it must be by her woven, and also wrought with the needle.

In the breast, or forepart thereof, must be made with needle work, two

heads; on the head, at the right side, must be a hat and a long beard;

the left head must have on a crown, and it must be so horrible that it

maie resemble Belzebub; and on each side of the wastcote must be made a

crosse."--SCOTT'S _Discoverie of Witchcraft,_ p. 231.’

The notes to Sir Walter Scott’s “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" contain the note above, which references one of the outcomes of the Battle of Killiecrankie, which ended on July 27, 1689 – namely that John Graham of Claverhouse was fatally wounded.  Despite the victory, Claverhouse’s death was a blow to the Jacobite cause.

Tour to Waterloo and Paris

Summer is a good time to think of light topics such as travel. With that in mind, Sir Walter Scott embarked on a trip to the continent on July 27, 1815.  The trip is described in his cousin and traveling companion John Scott's "Journal of a Tour to Waterloo and Paris, in company with Sir Walter Scott".

'Shortly after the surrender of Paris to the Allies in 1815, I was informed that Sir Walter Scott proposed, in company with Mr. Alexander Pringle the younger, of Whythank, and Mr. Robert Bruce, advocate, to visit Belgium and France during summer; and having had the good fortune to be admitted as a party in this interesting excursion, I set out with them to Newcastle on the 27th of July.


No communication had been established between Holland and the northern part of the British coast since the conclusion of hostilities ; we therefore determined to make for Kingstonon-Hull, as being the nearest seaport where we could hope to meet with a packet bound for the Continent.


Our first halt was at Lauder, where we breakfasted ; and I remember Sir Walter entering the inn with a quotation, which he was fond of repeating on such occasions,


" Their breakfast so warm to be sure they did eat,
A custom in travellers mighty discreet." ...'