Oldbuck to regret its extinction.He conceives them to be descended from the ancient bards, and proceeds:--``They are called by others, and by themselves, Jockies, who go about begging; and use still to recite the Sloggorne (gathering-words or war-cries) of most of the true ancient surnames of Scotland, from old experience and observation.
Some of them I have discoursed, and found to have reason and discretion.One of then told me there were not now above twelve of them in the whole isle; but he remembered when they abounded, so as at one time he was one of five that usually met at St.Andrews.''
The race of Jockies (of the above description) has, I suppose, been long extinct in Scotland; but the old remembered beggar, even in my own time, like the Baccoch, or travelling cripple of Ireland, was expected to merit his quarters by something beyond an exposition of his distresses.He was often a talkative, facetious fellow, prompt at repartee, and not withheld from exercising his powers that way by any respect of persons, his patched cloak giving him the privilege of the ancient jester.To be a _gude crack,_ that is, to possess talents for conversation, was essential to the trade of a ``puir body'' of the more esteemed class; and Burns, who delighted in the amusement their discourse afforded, seems to have looked forward with gloomy firmness to the possibility of himself becoming one day or other a member of their itinerant society.In his poetical works, it is alluded to so often, as perhaps to indicate that he considered the consummation as not utterly impossible.Thus in the fine dedication of his works to Gavin Hamilton, he says,--And when I downa yoke a naig, Then, Lord be thankit, I can beg.
Again, in his Epistle to Davie, a brother Poet, he states, that in their closing career--The last o't, the warst o't, Is only just to beg.
And after having remarked, that To lie in kilns and barns at e'en, When banes are crazed and blude is thin, Is doubtless great distress;the bard reckons up, with true poetical spirit, the free enjoyment of the beauties of nature, which might counterbalance the hardship and uncertainty of the life, even of a mendicant.In one of his prose letters, to which I have lost the reference, he details this idea yet more seriously, and dwells upon it, as not ill adapted to his habits and powers.
As the life of a Scottish mendicant of the eighteenth century seems to have been contemplated without much horror by Robert Burns, the author can hardly have erred in giving to Edie Ochiltree something of poetical character and personal dignity, above the more abject of his miserable calling.The class had, intact, some privileges.
A lodging, such as it was, was readily granted to them in some of the out-houses, and the usual _awmous_ (alms) of a handful of meal (called a _gowpen_) was scarce denied by the poorest cottager.The mendicant disposed these, according to their different quality, in various bags around his person, and thus carried about with him the principal part of his sustenance, which he literally received for the asking.At the houses of the gentry, his cheer was mended by scraps of broken meat, and perhaps a Scottish ``twalpenny,'' or English penny, which was expended in snuff or whiskey.In fact, these indolent peripatetics suffered much less real hardship and want of food, than the poor peasants from whom they received alms.
If, in addition to his personal qualifications, the mendicant chanced to be a King's Bedesman, or Blue-Gown, he belonged, in virtue thereof, to the aristocracy of his order, and was esteemed a parson of great importance.
These Bedesmen are an order of paupers to whom the Kings of Scotland were in the custom of distributing a certain alms, in conformity with the ordinances of the Catholic Church, and who where expected in return to pray for the royal welfare and that of the state.
This order is still kept up.Their number is equal to the number of years which his Majesty has lived; and one Blue-Gown additional is put on the roll for every returning royal birth-day.On the same auspicious era, each Bedesman receives a new cloak, or gown of coarse cloth, the colour light blue, with a pewter badge, which confers on them the general privilege of asking alms through all Scotland, --all laws against sorning, masterful beggary, and every other species of mendicity, being suspended in favour of this privileged class.
With his cloak, each receives a leathern purse, containing as many shillings Scots (videlicet, pennies sterling) as the sovereign is years old; the zeal of their intercession for the king's long life receiving, it is to be supposed, a great stimulus from their own present and increasing interest in the object of their prayers.On the same occasion one of the Royal Chaplains preaches a sermon to the Bedesmen, who (as one of the reverend gentlemen expressed himself) are the most impatient and inattentive audience in the world.Something of this may arise from a feeling on the part of the Bedesmen, that they are paid for their own devotions, not for listening to those of others.Or, more probably, it arises from impatience, natural, though indecorous in men bearing so venerable a character, to arrive at the conclusion of the ceremonial of the royal birth-day, which, so far as they are concerned, ends in a lusty breakfast of bread and ale; the whole moral and religious exhibition terminating in the advice of Johnson's ``Hermit hoar'' to his proselyte, Come, my lad, and drink some beer.
Of the charity bestowed on these aged Bedesmen in money and clothing, there are many records in the Treasurer's accompts.The following extract, kindly supplied by Mr.Macdonald of the Register House, may interest those whose taste is akin to that of Jonathan Oldbuck of Monkbarns.
BLEW GOWNIS.
In the Account of Sir Robert Melvill of Murdocarney, Treasurer-Depute of King James IV., there are the following Payments:--``Junij 1590.