Baillie

“ BAILLIE, WILLIAM (fl. 1648) , Scottish general, was the son of Sir William Baillie of Lamington, an adherent of Queen Mary of Scotland. His mother was a daughter of Sir Alexander Hume, lord provost of Edinburgh, and he was born during the lifetime of his father's first wife, Margaret Maxwell, countess of Angus. Sir William Baillie, on the death of the countess, married his mistress, but the son was not thereby legitimatised, and the estates were inherited by Margaret Baillie, the eldest daughter by the first marriage. ”

“ He afterwards exchanged into the cavalry, but retired from the service in 1701 with the rank of captain in the 18th light dragoons, and in 1773 was appiointed a commissioner of stamps, which office he held until 1795. Both before and after leaving the army Baillie devoted his leisure entirely to art, until he was considered one of the most accomplished counoisseurs of his time. ”

“ Miss Baillie must make up this trio of female poets. Her tragedies and comedies, one of each to illustrate each of the passions, separately from the rest, are heresies in the dramatic art. She is a Unitarian in poetry. With her the passions are, like the French republic, one and indivisible: they are not so in nature, or in Shakspeare. Mr. Southey has, I believe, somewhere expressed an opinion, that the Basil of Miss Baillie is superior to Romeo and Juliet. ”

“ A fight between two bloodthirsty gipsy clans, both as wild as peat-reek, and armed with no more becoming weapons than bludgeons, cutlasses, and scythe-blades. More, the event would place me in a hard position. I could not fight. It would be too absurd for words that I should be mixed up in their mellays. But the man at my side expected me to aid him. I owed my life to him, and with these folk gratitude is reckoned one of the first of the virtues. To refuse William Baillie my help would be to offer him the deepest unkindness. ”

“ But, worse and worse for Baillie's feelings, not only did it appear that the victory had been gained by the English of the joint army rather than by the Scottish contingent, but gradually the rumour was confirmed, which had been first borne to London on the wings of the wind, that the Englishman by whose conduct, if by that of any one man, the fate of the battle had been decided, was Lieutenant-general Cromwell. "The left wing, which I commanded, being our own horse, saving a few Scots in our rear, beat all the Prince's horse. God gave them as stubble to our swords. ”

“ Baillie was taken ill, probably from over-fatigue, and was prematurely brought to bed of twin-daughters, one of whom died in the birth, and the other, named Joanna—after her maternal uncle, the celebrated John Hunter—lived for eighty-nine years, and became the most celebrated of her race, and one of the most celebrated women of her time. ”

“ She may be brunt at ony rate, for she is condemned by the gude auld law of our forefathers.—Ay, so she may; that stands to reason.
[Crowd close round the stake where Mary Macmurren is bound.]
SHERIFF (to the Crowd) .
Desist, I say, or the soldiers shall disperse you forthwith.
FATHERINGHAM.
Would they burn the miserable creature for an imaginary crime; one may say, for a pastime!
BAILLIE (to Fatheringham) .
No, good Sir; not imaginary. She is a witch by her own confession. ”

“ No sooner had Baillie returned from the pursuit of Montrose than intelligence was brought him that Macdonald, with the 200 men which Montrose had left with him, had burnt the town of Coupar-Angus,—that he had wasted the lands of Lord Balmerino,—killed Patrick Lindsay, the minister of Coupar,—and finally, after routing some troopers of Lord Balcarras, and carrying off their horses and arms, had fled to the hills. This occurrence, withdrawing the attention of Baillie from Montrose’s future movements, enabled the latter to proceed to the north without opposition. ”

“ Miss Baillie was a conspicuous instance of high poetic powers existing in a mind capable of fulfilling the ordinary duties of life. Among her friends were numbered most of those whose genius has adorned their day. Her modest residence at Hampstead was sought by visitors from all parts of Europe, and especially from America, attracted by admiration of her genius, and love for her virtues. In her has set one of the last and brightest stars of that splendid constellation of genius, which arose during the early part of the present century. ”

“ Baillie, Robert, a zealous Scotch Presbyterian, tried for complicity in the Rye House Plot, and unfairly condemned to death, and barbarously executed the same day (in 1683) for fear he should die afterwards and cheat the gallows of its victim.
Bailly, Jean Sylvain, an astronomer, born at Paris; wrote the “History of Astronomy, Ancient and Modern,” in five volumes; was distracted from further study of the science by the occurrence of the Revolution; elected president of the National Assembly; installed mayor of Paris; lost favour with the people ”

“ CLAUDIEN.
My noble baron, you and I are rivals, and rest our pretensions here on very different foundations; you on being known to the lady, I on the reverse. But I am the wiser of the two.
HARTMAN.
How so, I pray?
CLAUDIEN.
Is it not a notorious fact, that strangers of any apparent likelihood always occupy the vantage ground in every woman's favour? Had the fair Rosella known me as long as she has known you, she might have discovered in me as many faults, perhaps, as would have excluded me from the very threshold of her vestibule. ”

“ Laud spoke of him as ‘a man well known to be as true to, and as stout for, the church of England established by law as any man that came to preferment in it’ (Works, iv. 293) . Baillie mentions him on his death as ‘a great enemy to us’ (Baillie, Letters, ed. Lang, i. 270) . He left one son, Paul Neile of ‘Bowdill,’ Yorkshire, who was knighted 27 May 1633, and was father of William Neile [q. v.]
He published:
Articles for his primary visitation as Bishop of Winchester, printed by R. Young, London, 1628. ”

“ Violet Murrey, the young, the unfortunate, the gentle, and, I firmly believe, the innocent,—to give evidence to her prejudice, it is a fearful duty!
SHERIFF.
It is so, good Sir; yet it must be done. I have taken into custody, on accusation of witchcraft, the fairest woman in the west of Scotland; and you must answer on oath to the questions that may be put to you, whether it be for or against her. If she be innocent, Providence will protect her.
Enter the Chief Baillie of Paisley behind them, and listens to the conclusion of the above speech. ”

“ I command thee to do it; and thou knowest I have not often used this stern word.
HERMAN.
O no, sir! You have not indeed used it; and I shall never meet with another master like you,
RAYNER.
Thou wilt meet, I hope, my dear Herman, with a far better master than I have been to thee, though not with one for whom thou wilt do so much kindly service as thou hast done for me; and for this cause, perhaps, thou wilt not love him so much. God prosper thee for it, wherever thou goest!—Take this embrace and blessing for all thou hast done for me. Farewel! farewel! thou must be gone now ”

“ In the Army especially such Anti-Presbyterian sentiments, and questionings of the infallibility of the Scots, had become rife. "The Independents have so managed matters," writes Baillie, April 26, "that of the officers and sojers in Manchester's army, certainly also in the General's (Essex's) , and, as I hear, in Waller's likewise, more than two parts are for them, and these of the far most resolute and confident men for the Parliament party." As regarded Essex's army and Waller's, Baillie afterwards found reason to think that this was a great exaggeration ”

“ The Privy Council therefore ordained him to be transported by the first ship to the plantations of America, not to return thence under pain of death.
William Baillie, ‘ane Egyptian,’ prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, but regarding whom we hear of no specific offence and no trial, was summarily ordered (Sep. 12, 1699) to be transported in the first ship going to the plantations, the skipper to be allowed a proper gratuity from the treasury, and at the same time to give caution for five hundred merks that he would produce a certificate of the man being landed in America. ”

“ Baillie, the nominal commander of the covenanters, afterwards affirmed the real cause of the disaster to have been the unwarrantable interference of the committee of estates, the chief member of which was Argyll. From the battle Argyll escaped on horseback to Queensferry, where he got on board ship and sailed down the Firth to Newcastle. ”

“ Baillie protested against fighting, but his aristocratic masters of the council of war decided to cut off Montrose from the hills by turning his left wing. The Royalist general seized the opportunity, and his advance caught them in the very act of making a flank march (August 15) . The head of the Covenanters’ column was met and stopped by the furious attack of the Gordon infantry, and Alastair Macdonald led the men of his own name and the Macleans against its flank. A breach was made in the centre of Baillie’s army at the first rush, and then Montrose sent in the Gordon and Ogilvy horse. ”

“ ELLA.
⁠It is a blessed one: I would believe it.
RODRIGO.
⁠Yes, we'll believe it. Whilst our battle roars,
Thou'lt think of me in thy lone distant tower,
And be to me a gallant armed mate,
With prayers and wishes striving powerfully.
Give me thy hand: we will not weep and wail:
We will part cheerfully.—God bless thee, Ella!
Nay, hang not on me thus!
Thou lov'st a brave man: be thou valiant then,
As suits a brave man's love. ”

“ This kind-hearted individual was Mrs Baillie, widow of the Rev. Dr Baillie of Hamilton, who was then resident at Longcalderwood, and whose celebrated daughter, Joanna Baillie, afterwards took a warm interest in the fame and fortunes of her mother's protégé. From the age of eight to fourteen, young Struthers was engaged as a cowherd and in general work about a farm; he then apprenticed himself to a shoemaker. On the completion of his indenture, he practised his craft several years in his native village till September 1801, when he sought a wider field of business in Glasgow. ”

“ BAWLDY.
She bade me——she bade me say—ye maun come to her.
GRIZELD BANE.
To whom, and where? Thou speakest as if my hand were already on thy throat, where it shall very soon be, if thou tell not thy errand more distinctly.
BAWLDY.
The stranger leddy at the tower, the Leddy Annabell, desires that ye wad meet her in the lone shed, near the outer gate, in the afternoon. Gi' me an answer, an please ye.
GRIZELD BANE (in a kind of chant) .
Where there be ladies and where there be lords,
Mischief is making with glances and words,
Work is preparing for pistols and swords. ”

“ FRIAR.
I am a priest, confessor to Henriquez.
FIRST CENTINEL.
Thou shalt have entrance presently.
FRIAR.
I thank thee. (Going up close to Balthazer.)
Thou art Balthazer?
BALTHAZER.
⁠And thy servant, father.
FRIAR.
Thou'rt up by times; it is still pitchy night.
BALTHAZER.
Nay; look thou eastward; yon dull line of light,
Bounding the sable darkness of the earth
From the sky's fainter gloom: it is the dawn.
FRIAR.
Ha! runs the time so fast! What noise is that? ”

“ So argued Baillie and the Presbyterians. But, indeed, they saw more behind the Accommodation Order. The Toleration it sought to provide might seem, from the wording, only a moderate Toleration in the interest of the Independents of the Assembly and their immediate adherents. From what Baillie says, one infers that Mr. Solicitor St. John and Mr. Marshall had been drawing up the Order in this moderate form, and that Cromwell and Vane would fain have had more. "The great shot of Cromwell and Vane," says Baillie, "is to have a liberty for all religions, without any exceptions." ”

“ MARIAN.
Whose woe, dear Alice?
ALICE.
His woe—their woe; poor Claude's, and Malcolm's too.
Death seizes on the dearest and the best!
MARIAN (embracing her) .
I will not hear thee say so, gentle Alice.
A dearer and a better than thyself
'T were hard to find. No; nor do I believe
That she whom thou lamentest did surpass thee.
ALICE.
Hush! say it not!—I pray thee, say not so:
In pitying me thou must not rob the dead. ”

“ GRIZELD BANE (looking over the window) .
Ha, ha! what want ye, good Mr. Magistrate?
BAILLIE.
Some body has suffered violence in this house; open the door immediately.
GRIZELD BANE.
And what would you have from the house that ye are so impatient to enter? There be corses enow in the churchyard, I trow; ye need not come here for them.
SHERIFF.
She is a mad woman, and has murdered somebody.
FIRST OFFICER.
Mad, your honour! she's the witch we ha' been seeking in vain to apprehend, and the blackest, chiefest hag o' them a'. ”

“ Folk had come in from the country round as on some errand of enquiry, and the coats of a few of the soldiery were to be discerned among the rest. But I had no fear of them, for they were of the lowlands regiment, and had no knowledge of me. The sight of us, and of myself in especial, for Baillie had changed his garb, caused some little stir in the crowd and many inquisitive looks.
The captain came up to me. "There's dooms little to be dune here," he cried; "the place is in sic a fever, I canna think what's gaun to happen. We may as weel gang back to the muirs and wait till things quiet doun." ”

“ Baillie, the friend of Walter Scott, the woman whose masculine muse every great poet has for nearly half-a-century delighted to honor, Joanna Baillie, wrote because she could not help pouring out the fullness of her heart and mind, and the natural consequence was fame ”