Another daughter," he says,
"was supposed to be possessed with an evil spirit."
My friend, Mr. Sharpe, gives another edition of the tale. According
to his information, ti was the bridegroom who wounded the bride. The
marriage, according to this account, had been against her mother's
inclination, who had given her consent in these ominous words: "Weel,
you may marry him, but sair shall you repent it."
I find still another account darkly insinuated in some highly scurrilous
and abusive verses, of which I have an original copy. They are docketed
as being written "Upon the late Viscount Stair and his family, by Sir
William Hamilton of Whitelaw. The marginals by William Dunlop, writer in
Edinburgh, a son of the Laird of Househill, and nephew to the said Sir
William Hamilton." There was a bitter and personal quarrel and rivalry
betwixt the author of this libel, a name which it richly deserves, and
Lord President Stair; and the lampoon, which is written with much more
malice than art, bears the following motto:
Stair's neck, mind, wife, songs, grandson, and the rest, Are wry, false,
witch, pests, parricide, possessed.
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