Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/100

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. JAN. 29, '98.

a later possessor of the estate of Kildeis. A Drummond of Kildeis had to leave Scotland for his Jacobite principles. While an exile in France his wife resided at the mansion of Kildeis. After years of exile, on a dark night, a stranger came to the door, saying he was benighted, and asking for lodgings. The lady was called by the sole domestic, who had already refused the request, but the horseman insisted on seeing the mistress of the house, to ascertain if she would not accede to granting him the desired hospitality. The lady told him she was a lone woman, and could on no account think of admitting a stranger at an unseasonable hour, but informed him that he would find lodgings at a change-house in the adjoining village of Muthill. He continued to expos- tulate, and said he would not take a refusal, and insisted upon getting admission, which the lady as vigorously declined. At last he leaped from the horse, and clasped the lady in his arms, while uttering the following words :

The lady sae lang has lain her lane,

She kens na the laird when he 's come hame.

I received the above information from an

old lady whose grandmother was a Drummond

of Kildeis. A. G. REID.

Auchterarder.

ERA IN ENGLISH MONKISH CHRONOLOGY (8 th S. xi. 387 ; xii. 421, 466 ; 9 th S. i. 10). MR. STEVENSON, I find, neither admits that he has misquoted Spelman and misrepresented Ideler, nor yet produces texts in confirmation of his reports. I beg leave, therefore, to print the words of both writers side by side with MR. STEVENSON'S report of what the first " says," and the other " contends."

1. The quotations from Spelman's 'Concilia, i. p. 125, are Spelman's own opinion, anc his summing-up of the sense of extracts that he made from a Canterbury MS. whose testimony he relied upon :

Mr. Stevenson. Spelman,

" Spelman, ' Concilia,' " Donationes et privi

i. 193 [sic, an erroneous legia non conferri scripti

reference, neither ex- ante Withredi regis tern

plained nor corrected], pora [,sc. ante A.D. 694]."

says that it is probable "Praediaet privilegi;

that the era of the Incar- conceduntur sine charti

nation was seldom or usque ad Withredi tern

never used in diplomas pora." before Baeda's time."

As Spelman's words have not been producec by MR. STEVENSON, I am at liberty to reiterat that what is reported to have been said b; Spelman was really said by Mabillon, wh corrected him. Mabillon says (ii. 27, 8) " Annos incarnationis ante venerabilemBedam in diplomatis locum raro aut nunquam habu

sse veri simile est." MR. STEVENSON renders he words of Mabillon's opinion pretty closely, nd inadvertently gives what is an incorrect eference to the 'Concilia 'in support of his misattribution of them to Spelman.

2. I am informed that I misapprehend the bject of the note to the first of the Crawford Charters. It appears to me and if I am wrong the author of the note will correct me hat the object of the annotation was to sup- )ort the belief that the era of the Incarnation was not used in England in the seventh cen- ury in dating diplomas (1) by denying that he era was introduced into England by Augustine, and (2) by asserting that the era vas brought into use in England by Venerable 3ede. MR. STEVENSON distinctly opened these ssues, and the result of his discussion is that no English document could have been dated with the year of grace in the seventh century, 'or the alleged reason that that method was not known in England until the eighth. MR. STEVENSON now turns his back upon his own propositions, and assures me that, even if I 3ould prove all my theses the chief of which s that Augustine did introduce the era of the [ncarnation into England his (MR. STEVEN- SON'S) position would be quite unaffected thereby. In pursuing his particular object of disproving Kemble's belief that Augustine .ntroduced the era, MR. STEVENSON invoked [deler, saying that that writer " is, no doubt, correct in his contention that this era was brought into use by Bseda." Ideler, where cited by MR. STEVENSON, does not refer to any country in particular. What he says is matter of common knowledge and there is neither contention nor dispute. His words are :

' 1m achten Jahrhundert wurde der Gebrauch der dionysischen Aere allgemeiner verbreitet und zwar hauptsachlich durch Beda der ihrer in seinen Schriften haufig gedenkt."

That is :

" In the eighth century the use of the Dionysian era was more generally disseminated, and that chiefly through Bede, who often makes mention of it in his writings."

This version will, perhaps, be of service to readers whose knowledge of German is less than my own, as it will enable them to appre- ciate exactly MR. STEVENSON'S assertions : (1) that my objection to his citing Ideler in the way he did is a quibble ; and (2) that Ideler ascribed the main share in the spread of the era of the Incarnation to Bede.

Ideler's statement is not opposed to Kem- ble's view, but tends to confirm it ; and in order to cite Ideler in support of an attack upon Kemble we must omit the qualifying