"
The New Inn, Act I.
Note X. p. 135.--LORD HENRY HOWARD
Lord Henry Howard was the second son of the poetical Earl of Surrey,
and possessed considerable parts and learning. He wrote, in the year
1583, a book called, _A Defensative against the Poison of supposed
Prophecies._ He gained the favour of Queen Elizabeth, by having, he
says, directed his battery against a sect of prophets and pretended
soothsayers, whom he accounted _infesti regibus,_ as he expresses it.
In the last years of the Queen, he became James's most ardent
partisan, and conducted with great pedantry, but much intrigue, the
correspondence betwixt the Scottish King and the younger Cecil. Upon
James's accession, he was created Earl of Northampton, and Lord Privy
Seal. According to De Beaumont the French Ambassador, Lord Henry
Howard, was one of the greatest flatterers and calumniators that ever
lived.
Note XI. p. 136.--SKIRMISHES IN THE PUBLIC STREETS
Edinburgh appears to have been one of the most disorderly towns in
Europe, during the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century.
The Diary of the honest citizen Birrel, repeatedly records such
incidents as the following: "The 24 of November [1567], at two
afternoon, the Laird of Airth and the Laird of Weems met on the High
Gate of Edinburgh, and they and their followers fought a very bloody
skirmish, where there were many hurt on both sides with shot of
pistol.
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