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 Polarization in
Electromagnetic Systems
Second Edition

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 For a listing of recent titles in the
Artech House Antennas and Electromagnetics Analysis Library,
turn to the back of this book.

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 Polarization in
Electromagnetic Systems
Second Edition

Warren L. Stutzman

artechhouse.com

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 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the U.S. Library of Congress

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-1-63081-107-5

Cover design by John Gomes

© 2018 Artech House

685 Canton St.
Norwood, MA

All rights reserved. Printed and bound in the United States of America. No part of this
book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks
have been appropriately capitalized. Artech House cannot attest to the accuracy of this
information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity
of any trademark or service mark.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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 I cannot thank my wife, Claudia, enough for providing endless
emotional support. She supported me even when I was generally
missing in action at home because of being immersed in writing
the manuscript. She also shared some of the pain when I was
stressed out searching for a missing square root of two.

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6765_Book.indb 6 1/26/18 8:26 AM
 Contents

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xix

Part I Polarization Fundamentals

1 Introduction 3

1.1 Polarization Basics and a Brief History of

Polarization 3
1.2 Overview of the Book 6
References 10

2 Wave Polarization Principles 11

2.1 Introduction 11
2.2 Plane Waves 11
2.3 Concept and Visualization of Polarized Waves 17
2.4 Quantifying Polarization States 27
2.5 Decompostion of Waves 32

vii

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 viii Polarization in Electromagnetic Systems

2.6 Problems 38
References 38

3 Polarization State Representations 41

3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 The Polarization Ellipse 43
3.3 The Poincaré Sphere 48
3.4 The Polarization Vector 50
3.5 Stokes Parameters 55
3.6 Polarization Ratio 59
3.6.1 Polarization Ratio for Linear Polarization 59
3.6.2 Polarization Ratio for Circular
Polarization 64
3.7 Polarization State Representation Examples 66
3.8 Determination of Orthogonal Polarization States 69
3.8.1 Orthogonal State for the Polarization
Ellipse Using ε , τ 71
3.8.2 Orthogonal State for the Polarization
Ellipse Using γ , δ 73
3.8.3 Orthogonal States on the Poincaré
Sphere 75
3.8.4 Orthogonal Polarization Vector 75
3.8.5 Stokes Parameters for an Orthogonal
State 78
3.8.6 Polarization Ratio for an Orthogonal
State 79
3.9 Problems 80
References 82

4 Partially Polarized Waves 83

4.1 Unpolarized Waves 83

4.2 Partially Polarized Waves and Degree of
Polarization 86
4.3 Stokes Parameters Representation for Partially
Polarized Waves 87
4.4 Other Representations for Partially Polarized
Waves 91

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 Contentsix

4.5 Problems 93
References 93

Part II System Applications

5 Antenna Polarization 97

5.1 Antenna Basics 97

5.2 Antenna Polarization Principles 101
5.2.1 Antenna Pattern Types 102
5.2.2 Antenna Co-polarization and Cross-
Polarization 104
5.3 Omnidirectional Antennas 109
5.3.1 Linearly Polarized Omnidirectional
Antennas 109
5.3.2 Circularly Polarized Omnidirectional
Antennas 112
5.4 Directional Antennas 112
5.4.1 Linearly Polarized Directional
Antennas 112
5.4.2 Circularly Polarized Directional
Antennas 118
5.5 Broadband Antennas 123
5.5.1 Linearly Polarized Broadband
Antennas 123
5.5.2 Circularly Polarized Broadband
Antennas 125
5.6 Polarization Purity of Circularly Polarized
Antennas 125
5.7 Problems 128
References 128

6 Antenna-Wave Interaction 131

6.1 Polarization Efficiency 131

6.2 Calculation of Polarization Efficiency 136
6.2.1 Polarization Efficiency Evaluation
Using the Poincaré Sphere 137
6.2.2 Polarization Efficiency Evaluation
Using Stokes Parameters 140

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 x Polarization in Electromagnetic Systems

6.2.3 Polarization Efficiency Evaluation

Using Polarization Ellipse Quantities 140
6.2.4 Polarization Efficiency Using Axial
Ratios 143
6.2.5 Polarization Efficiency Expressed Using
Polarization Ratios 149
6.2.6 Polarization Efficiency Expressed Using
Polarization Vectors 150
6.2.7 Decomposition of Polarization Efficiency
into Unpolarized and Completely
Polarized Parts 152
6.2.8 Decomposition of Polarization Efficiency
into Co-polarized and Cross-Polarized
Parts 154
6.3 Vector Effective Length of an Antenna 155
6.4 Normalized Complex Antenna Output Voltage 161
6.5 Problems 163
References 166

7 Dual-Polarized Systems 167

7.1 Introduction to Dual-Polarized Systems 167
7.2 Cross-Polarization Ratio 170
7.3 Cross-Polarization Discrimination and Cross-
Polarization Isolation 176
7.3.1 Definitions 176
7.3.2 Dual Decomposition 180
7.3.3 Calculating XPD 182
7.3.3.1 Ideal Dual-Linearly Polarized
Receiving Antenna 183
7.3.3.2 General Dual Polarization 184
7.3.3.3 Near Dual-Circular
Polarization 186
7.4 Performance Evaluation of Dual-Polarized
Systems 192
7.4.1 Isolation Degradation Caused by
Imperfect Antennas 193
7.4.2 Calculation of Isolation in Systems 193

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 Contentsxi

7.5 Polarization Control Devices 196

7.5.1 Polarizers 196
7.5.2 Orthomode Transducers 199
7.5.3 Polarization Grids 199
7.6 Problems 200
References 201

8 Depolarizing Media and System Applications 203

8.1 Introduction 203
8.2 Principles of Depolarizing Media 203
8.3 Depolarization at Interfaces 211
8.3.1 General Formulation of Interface
Polarization Effects 211
8.3.2 Reflection from a Plane, Perfect
Conductor 219
8.3.3 Reflection from the Ground 220
8.4 Dual-Polarized Communication Systems with a
Depolarizing Medium in the Path 226
8.4.1 General Formulation for a Depolarizing
Medium 226
8.4.2 Rain on a Radio Path 230
8.4.3 Inclusion of Antenna Effects in System
Calculations 237
8.4.4 Depolarization Caused by Faraday
Rotation 242
8.5 Depolarization Compensation and Adaptive
Systems 245
8.6 Polarization in Radar 249
8.6.1 Radar Basics 249
8.6.2 Polarimetric Radar 251
8.6.2.1 Point Radar Targets 252
8.6.2.2 Distributed Radar Targets 256
8.7 Polariztion in Radiometry 257
8.7.1 Radiometer Basics 257
8.7.2 Radiometer Applications 259
8.8 Problems 259
References 260

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 xii Polarization in Electromagnetic Systems

9 Polarization in Wireless Communication

Systems Including Polarization Diversity 265
9.1 Introduction 265
9.2 Polarization in Wireless Communications: System
Principles 266
9.2.1 Overview 266
9.2.2 Single-Polarized Systems 267
9.2.3 Advantages of Using Circular
Polarization 268
9.2.4 Dual-Polarized Systems 270
9.3 Diversity in Wireless Communications 270
9.3.1 Diversity Principles 270
9.3.2 Diversity Types 272
9.3.3 Diversity Combining 274
9.4 Polarization Diversity at Base Stations 274
9.5 Polarization Diversity at Terminals 276
9.6 Performance Comparison of Polarization Diversity
to Other Diversity Types 277
9.6.1 Comparison of Base Station Diversity
Techniques 278
9.6.2 Comparison of Terminal Diversity
Techniques 281
9.7 Future Directions in Polarization Applications to
Wireless 282
9.8 Chapter Summary 284
9.9 Problem 284
References 284

10 Polarization Measurements 287

10.1 Introduction to Polarization Measurements 287

10.2 Antenna Pattern Measurement Principles
Including Polarization 289
10.2.1 Pattern Measurement Techniques 289
10.2.2 Co-polarized and Cross-Polarized
Radiation Patterns 293
10.2.3 Polarization Pattern Measurement 295
10.2.4 The Spinning Linear and Dual-Linear
Pattern Methods 297

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 Contentsxiii

10.3 Complete Polarization State Measurement 299

10.3.1 Amplitude-Phase Method 300
10.3.2 Multiple Amplitude Component
Methods 304
10.3.3 Measurement of the Polarization of
Large Antennas 307
10.4 Measurement of Partially Polarized Waves 309
10.5 Antenna Gain Measurement 312
10.5.1 Gain Measurement of Linearly
Polarized Antennas 315
10.5.2 Gain Measurement of Circularly
Polarized Antennas 315
10.5.3 Absolute Gain Measurement 317
10.6 Measurements on Handsets and Other Small
Devices 318
10.7 Problems 320
References 322

Appendix A: Frequency Bands 325

A.1 Radio Bands 325
A.2 Microwave Bands 325

Appendix B: Useful Mathematical Relations 327

B.1 Unit Vector Representations 327
B.2 Trigonometric Relations 327

List of Symbols 331

About the Author 337

Index 339

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6765_Book.indb 14 1/26/18 8:26 AM
 Preface

Polarization is the fourth dimension of electromagnetic waves, with the other

three being frequency, direction of propagation, and intensity. Of the four
dimensions in electromagnetic systems, polarization is often the most misun-
derstood and neglected. If polarization is not properly included in the design
phase of systems, performance can be seriously compromised or the system
can even fail. On the other hand, polarization features can be exploited in
communication systems to improve reliability and increase capacity. In sens-
ing applications, multiple polarizations are used to increase information about
targets and scenes.
This book had its beginnings with a technical report published by the
author in 1977 and submitted to the research sponsor, NASA. The associ-
ated research was on Earth-space propagation in the 10 to 30 GHz frequency
range. At these frequencies rain along the propagation path can cause severe
attenuation and depolarization and thus the frequencies were not used at the
time. Virginia Tech was among the first few organizations in the world to
investigate the effects with the goal of understanding propagation impair-
ments and of learning how to configure systems to use dual polarization to
double satellite communications capacity. The depolarization effects of rain
on communication links were investigated through extensive measurement
programs, including a terrestrial link and satellite links using the ATS-6, CTS,

xv

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 xvi Polarization in Electromagnetic Systems

COMSTAR, SIRIO, INTELSAT, and OLYMPUS satellites. The mathemati-

cal representations of polarization and the models to predict weather induced
impairments were developed and verified with measured data. The models
were used by government and industry to design systems that implement dual
polarization on satellite links, which are now common in today’s operational
systems. Colleagues and engineers in industry who used the report encour-
aged me to turn the report into this book.
This second edition is an expanded and reorganized version of the first
edition, which was published in 1993. It now has two parts. Part I covers the
fundamental theory and mathematical formulations. Part II applies the fun-
damentals to application areas such as antenna polarization, antenna-wave
interaction, dual-polarized systems, and depolarizing media. New to the second
edition is specific information on applications to: wireless communications,
adaptive systems, radar, and radiometry. Chapter 9 on wireless communica-
tion systems is entirely new. Chapter 10 is a greatly expanded treatment of
measurement considerations for polarization.
The book should be useful to the practicing engineers involved with
antennas, propagation, communications, radar, or radiometry. It is organized
for rapid understanding of the principles and for easily locating material
needed in computations. At the same time, the book is suitable for use in the
classroom, especially as a part of radio systems-oriented courseware that is
intended to study the complete propagation channel. Several examples with
full computations are included to reinforce the important quantative concepts.
Many end-of-chapter problems have been included for self-study enrichment
and for classroom use.
It is assumed that the reader has some knowledge of electromagnet-
ics, but he/she need not have a complete understanding of electromagnetic
theory. Maxwell’s equations will not be presented or solved. Instead, Chapter
2 presents the needed formulas for wave polarization calculations. Emphasis
is always on understanding the concepts and mathematics needed for system
calculations. Chapter 3 presents the polarization state representations. The
techniques for treating partially polarized waves are presented in Chapter 4.
Chapter 5 starts Part II. It treats antenna polarization (greatly expanded
from the first edition) with many examples of specific antennas that can be
used for generating linear, circular, and dual polarization. The important
problem of computing the power received by an arbitrarily polarized wave
incident on a receiving antenna is presented in Chapter 6. Dual-polarized
radio systems are presented Chapter 7, including system evaluation methods
and hardware components needed to implement dual polarization. Chapter 8

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 Contentsxvii

covers all aspects of medium effects on polarized waves, including propagation

through a medium and reflections from media. Applications to communica-
tions, radar, and radiometry are included. Chapter 9 treats many topics in
wireless communications related to polarization, such as frequency reuse with
dual polarization and polarization diversity. Chapter 10 presents principles and
techniques for measuring the polarization of waves and antennas.

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6765_Book.indb 18 1/26/18 8:26 AM
 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the many people with whom I collaborated at Virginia
Tech during research programs in propagation through rain on millime-
ter-wave radio links and in reflector antenna design. Graduate students and
faculty colleagues contributed much to this book. Fellow faculty (Charles
Bostian, Tim Pratt, and Gary Brown) provided many valuable suggestions. I
also extend gratitude to Hal Schrank for encouraging me to write this book
and for generously sharing his notes on polarization with me. Many graduate
students performed research in areas related to this book and material from
their labor is evident herein. In particular, I give special mention to Randy
Persinger, Bill Overstreet, Steve Lane, Keith Dishman, Don Runyon, Kerry
Yon, and Koichiro Takamizawa. For the second edition, Neill Kefauver pro-
vided valuable input on near field ranges.

xix

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6765_Book.indb 20 1/26/18 8:26 AM
 Part I:
Polarization Fundamentals

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6765_Book.indb 2 1/26/18 8:26 AM
 1
Introduction

1.1 Polarization Basics and a Brief History of Polarization

Electromagnetic waves have the following characteristics:

1. Frequency of the oscillation of the wave;

2. Direction of propagation;
3. Intensity (i.e., strength) of the wave;
4. Polarization.

The first three parameters are common to any type of wave. But the
fourth characteristic, polarization, is unique to electromagnetic waves. For
example, acoustic waves are not polarized. Polarization in electromagnetic
systems is the topic of this book. Far from being just a curiosity of physics,
polarization is of significant practical importance. However, polarization is
often not well understood by engineers, and this misunderstanding can lead
to less than optimum system performance, and in some cases even complete
system failure. In addition, polarization can be exploited. For example, com-
munication capacity can be doubled by using orthogonal polarizations. The
goal of this book is to understand polarization concepts and to provide useful
tools to improve the design of electromagnetic systems.

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 4 Polarization in Electromagnetic Systems

Including polarization consideration into system design has several ben-

efits, such as improved system performance or increased capacity in a commu-
nication system. An example of performance improvement in a communication
system is the use of polarization diversity to combat multipath fading on a
non-line-of-sight link. The performance of a line-of-sight communication link
is increased by using orthogonally polarized channels on the same frequency
and path. Information carrying capacity in theory can be doubled, and is
realized in practice as well. A second application area is remote sensing. The
use of multiple polarizations in a remote sensing system increases the amount
of information that can be collected about the target/image compared to a
single-polarized system.
Polarization, sometimes spelled polarisation in the literature, was defined
by Etienne-Louis Malus in 1808 for explaining optical refraction in crystals [1].
Malus used optical experiments to investigate polarization effects associated
with refraction and reflection. A mechanical analogy is a wave on a rope.
Consider a rope passing through a picket fence. Suppose vertical motion waves
are generated on the rope (i.e., vertically polarized waves). The wave can pass
through a vertical slit in fence pickets, but if the rope oscillations are horizontal
the wave will not pass through the pickets. Augustine Jean Fresnel in 1821
proposed that polarization can be decomposed into two mutually orthogonal
components, each perpendicular to the direction of propagation [2, p. 15].
James Clerk Maxwell laid the theoretical foundation for electromagnetics in
1864. Maxwell’s equations unified the areas of electricity, magnetism, and
optics, previously thought to be separate physical phenomena. The study of
optics (i.e., light) and many of its properties was centuries old before the work
of Maxwell, who showed that visible light is a part of what we now call the
electromagnetic spectrum. Both light and radio waves obey Maxwell’s equa-
tions that describe the wave motion associated with electric and magnetic fields.
Because the electric field (and magnetic field) of an electromagnetic wave
is perpendicular to the wave propagation direction, it is referred to as a trans-
verse wave. In contrast to the transverse nature of electromagnetic waves, sound
waves are longitudinal waves and are not polarized. The mechanical analogy
of a wave on a rope is again helpful in understanding polarization and wave
motion. The actual motion of the rope is vertical (and transverse) whereas the
wave motion propagates in the direction of the rope axis. The orientation of
the electric field of an electromagnetic wave carries the polarization informa-
tion. Specifically, polarization is the behavior of the electric field with time.
For example, if the electric field of a wave (i.e., the electric field vector) viewed
at one point along the wave propagation path oscillates back and forth along a
line, the wave is said to be linearly polarized. Mathematically, electromagnetic

6765_Book.indb 4 1/26/18 8:26 AM

 Introduction5

waves are vector waves, whereas acoustic waves are scalar waves (i.e., carry no
field orientation information).
Polarization implies orientation sensitivity. A simple demonstration can
be performed with polarized sunglasses. Using two pairs of sunglasses, hold
one lens from each pair back-to-back. As one lens is rotated the transmitted
light will diminish, reducing to zero (appearing black) when the polarization
states of the lenses are orthogonal. Another simple demonstration is the dim
appearance of a digital device display, such as found in an LCD display, when
viewed with polarized sunglasses. The dim appearance is caused by the opti-
cal display, which is polarized, being cross-polarized to the sunglasses lenses
polarization. Similarly, with communication systems, when the receive antenna
on a link is polarized identically to that of the transmit antenna, maximum
signal will be received (neglecting any degrading propagation effects). But no
signal will be received when the receive antenna is orthogonally polarized to
the transmit antenna.
In 1887–88, in a series of experiments Heinrich Hertz verified Maxwell’s
equations in the laboratory by generating, propagating, and detecting electro-
magnetic waves. In addition, Hertz demonstrated reflection and refraction of
electromagnetic waves as well as polarization [3]. Of course, in the twentieth
century many applications for electromagnetics evolved and matured. These
include electric power transmission, radio, and television. Radar came to
prominence in World War II. In the field of communications, satellite com-
munications emerged in the 1960s and optical communications (via lasers
and fibers) became common in the 1980s, followed by the current wireless
communications revolution. Radiometers are used to passively detect natural
electromagnetic emissions; applications for radiometers include radio astron-
omy and imaging. Electromagnetic waves are also used to process materials.
Industrial drying and cooking using a microwave oven are good examples.
Natural emissions, like those from the sun, tend to be randomly polar-
ized; that is, the electric field orientation is completely random with time.
Polarized sunglasses take advantage of this by using lenses that pass only ver-
tical polarization, thereby reducing glare. Glare is mostly caused by horizon-
tally polarized waves that have significant reflection from horizontal surfaces
such as a calm lake.
When interacting with media, electromagnetic phenomena are some-
times best understood by postulating particles (or quanta). This conceptualiza-
tion is key to explaining the photoelectric effect. For our purposes, however,
we use only the wave nature of electromagnetics. There is no way to directly
observe waves; instead wave effects are observed indirectly. For example, the
wavelength of a wave is found experimentally by creating a standing wave,

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 6 Polarization in Electromagnetic Systems

moving a probe along the propagation direction, and measuring the distance
between successive nulls (which is a half wavelength). Maxwell presented his
equations as laws. A physical law cannot be proved, but instead is found to
be always consistent with physical observations.
The importance of polarization in electromagnetic systems continues to
grow. With analog systems, there are often several implementation difficul-
ties when building an electromagnetic system to utilize polarization features,
mainly the necessity for expensive and bulky hardware components. However,
as digital implementations become more pervasive in electromagnetic systems,
the fourth dimension of electromagnetic waves (polarization) will be exploited
more fully by using software processing to replace hardware functionality.

1.2 Overview of the Book

This book presents principles and techniques that are needed for applications
such as communications, radar, and radiometry. Communications (e.g., wire-
less) receives the most attention due to its importance. Although the material
in this book applies to the whole electromagnetic spectrum, applications to
optics are not presented in any depth.
Part I of the book (Chapters 1 to 4) treats the fundamentals of wave
polarization to facilitate the understanding of polarization and to develop
analytic formulas that permit easy calculation. Included is a discussion of the
physical principles, the mathematical representations of polarization states of
completely polarized waves, and the topic of partially polarized waves.
Chapters 2 and 3 present the fundamental physical and mathematical
descriptions of polarization in electromagnetic systems. The material is not
a rigorous physics treatment, but instead provides a basic understanding of
polarization. Mathematics is introduced for two purposes. First, derivations
are presented for understanding the principles involved. Second, mathematics
is presented to the extent necessary for use in calculations to evaluate real-
world systems quantitatively.
Electromagnetics can be addressed in either the time domain or the
frequency domain. We begin with time domain representations of wave polar-
ization in Chapter 2 because it facilitates understanding of polarization via
visualization of the space-time behavior of waves. Frequency domain represen-
tations, introduced in Chapter 3 through the use of phasors (complex-valued
vectors), are usually employed in practice because the resulting mathematics
are simplified. Frequency domain formulations are exact for a monochromatic

6765_Book.indb 6 1/26/18 8:26 AM

 Introduction7

wave, which is a single frequency signal, but yield accurate approximate results
for narrow bandwidth signals.
Several common mathematical representations for polarization states are
detailed in Chapter 3. The representations each have appropriate uses either
for displaying/visualizing polarization states or for performing calculations
in various system applications.
A wave that contains a randomly polarized component in addition to a
completely polarized portion is referred to as a partially polarized wave. Most
light sources are randomly polarized. Antennas generate only completely polar-
ized waves. Natural sources of radio waves, such as radio stars, are partially
polarized, containing both completely polarized and randomly polarized parts.
Partially polarized waves are treated in Chapter 4.
Part II (Chapters 5 to 10) applies the fundamentals of Part I to the follow-
ing topics: antenna polarization, interaction of a wave with an antenna, dual-
polarized systems, depolarization of waves in media, polarization in wireless
systems, and measurement of polarization. Figure 1.1 is a simplified diagram
of a general electromagnetic system that highlights the topics in Part II. This
typical generic system could apply to communications, radar, radiometry, or
other sensing and industrial applications. The general electromagnetic system
can be divided into three major blocks:

1. Generating subsystem. If the generating subsystem is active, there is a

signal transmitter as the source of electromagnetic waves. In a passive
system (e.g., a radiometer), generation of electromagnetic waves is by
a natural radiation process such as noise.
2. Propagation medium. In general, the medium through which an elec-
tromagnetic wave propagates through can alter the polarization state
and direction of the wave. An example is a communication signal

Figure 1.1 Overview of a general electromagnetic system.

6765_Book.indb 7 1/26/18 8:26 AM

 8 Polarization in Electromagnetic Systems

passing through rain. In radar, the medium (or target) backscatters

a signal that differs in polarization from the transmitted signal.
3. Receiving subsystem. In a communication system, the receiver is distant
from the transmitter. In radar the receiver is usually colocated with
the signal transmitter. In a radiometric system, there is only a receiver.

The polarization of an antenna is simply the polarization of the wave

radiated by the antenna when transmitting. In nearly all cases, the polariza-
tion of a particular antenna is the same when used either to transmit or to
receive. Antenna polarization is presented in Chapter 5, including discussion
of many antenna types available to generate various polarizations and radia-
tion pattern shapes.
In the most general case, the transmitting and receiving subsystems can
be multipolarized (typically dual-polarized). A common design situation is to
determine the transmit antenna polarizations that reduce deleterious propaga-
tion medium effects and to use them in operational systems. An example is
a communication link between an Earth terminal and a satellite at ultrahigh
frequency (UHF) frequencies and below, where the Faraday rotation effect
rotates a linearly polarized wave as it propagates along the portion of the path
through the ionosphere. A second example is a communication link (terrestrial
or Earth-space) operating at several gigahertz or higher frequencies when rain
along the path depolarizes the wave. In both examples, the wave generated
by the transmitting subsystem is altered by the medium along the propaga-
tion path. In the absence of a depolarizing medium, the system is designed to
match the polarization of the receiving antenna to that of the generated wave
to assure maximum received power (assuming all system parameters other
than polarization are properly configured). If the medium depolarizes the
wave along the propagation path, the fraction of received power is reduced
and can go to zero in the extreme case. It is possible in some cases to employ
an adaptive system that responds to dynamic changes in polarization and
maintain a low level of polarization mismatch. The antenna-wave interaction
process is examined in detail in Chapter 6.
Two simultaneous signal channels can be operated over a communica-
tion link on the same frequency and over the same propagation path using a
dual-polarized system (similar to the block diagram in Figure 1.1). There are
two design issues. First, the antennas must be of sufficient quality that the dual
polarizations are close to purely orthogonal, thus minimizing self-interference
between the channels. In other words, the system should have very little cross
talk due to cross-polarization between channels. Second, the propagation

6765_Book.indb 8 1/26/18 8:26 AM

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time, as offensive to them,’ who complain that ‘they find a difficulty
in breathing a light sharp air when they are near you.’

The Privy Council, in terms of the 27th Apr. 20.

act of Queen Mary—rather a far way to go
back for authority in such a matter—discharged all printers ‘to print
or reprint any pamphlets, books, or others, relating to the
government, or of immediate public concern, until the same be seen,
revised, and examined by the Earls of Lauderdale and Annandale,
the Lord Advocate, Lord Anstruther, and Sir John Maxwell of
Pollock,’ under heavy penalties.[210]

Margaret Halket, relict of the deceased June 17.

Mr Henry Erskine, late minister of
Chirnside, petitioned the Privy Council for the stipend of the bypast
half year during which the parish had been vacant, she being ‘left in a
verie low and mean condition, with four fatherless children no way
provided for, and other burdensome circumstances under which the
petitioner is heavily pressed.’ The petition was complied with.[211]
This was the mother of the two afterwards famous preachers,
Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine. The application of Mrs Erskine is given
here as the type of many such, rendered unavoidable before the
present humane arrangements in behalf of 1697.
the surviving relatives of the established
clergy.

James Hamilton, keeper of the Canongate July 18.

Tolbooth, gave in a humble petition to the
Privy Council, setting forth that ‘for a long while bygone’ he has ‘kept
and maintained a great many persons provided for recruiting the
army in Flanders.’ In this last spring, ‘the prisoners became so
tumultuous and rebellious, that they combined together and
assassinat the petitioner’s servants, and wounded them, and took the
keys from them, and destroyed the bread, ale, and brandy that was in
the cellar, to the value of eight pounds sterling.’ ‘Seeing the
petitioner’s due as formerly is two shillings Scots per night for
himself, and twelve pennies Scots for the servants for each person,’
in respect whereof he was ‘liable for ane aliment of twenty merks
monthly to the poor, besides the expense of a great many servants,’
payment was ordered to him of £837, 17s. for house-dues for the
recruits, during a certain term, and £107, 8s. for damages done by
the mutiny.[212]

In July 1697, in the prospect of a good July.

harvest, the permission to import grain free
of duty was withdrawn. About the same time, a great quantity of
victual which had been imported into Leith, was, on inspection,
found to be unfit to be eaten, and was therefore ordered to be
destroyed.
On the 28th of December, the Privy Council was informed of a
cargo of two hundred bolls of wheat shipped in order to be
transported to France, and, considering that ‘wheat is not yet so low
as twelve pounds Scots per boll,’ it was proposed by the Lord
Chancellor that it should be stopped; but this the Council thought
‘not convenient.’

The Master of Kenmure, Craik of Aug. 3.

Stewarton, and Captain Dalziel, son to the
late Sir Robert Dalziel of Glenae, were accused before the Privy
Council of having met in April last at a place called Stay-the-Voyage,
near Dumfries, and there drunk the health of the late King James
under the circumlocution of The Old Man on the other Side of the
Water, as also of drinking confusion to his majesty King William,
these being acts condemned by the late Convention as treasonable.
The Master was absent, but the two other 1697.
gentlemen were present as prisoners. The
Lords, after hearing evidence, declared the charge not proven, and
caused Craik and Dalziel to be discharged.[213]

An Edinburgh tavern-bill of this date— Sep.

apparently one for supper to a small party—
makes us acquainted with some of the habits of the age. It is as
follows, the sums being expressed in Scottish money:

SIR JOHN SWINTON TO MRS KENDALL.

For broth, £00 : 03 : 00

For rost mutton and cutlets, 01 : 16 : 00
For on dish of hens, 03 : 00 : 00
For harenes, 00 : 05 : 00
For allmonds and rasens, 01 : 06 : 00
For 3 lb. of confectiones, 07 : 16 : 00
For bread and ale, 01 : 00 : 00
For 3 pynts of clarite, 06 : 00 : 00
For sack, 02 : 16 : 00
For oysters fryed and raw, 03 : 16 : 00
For brandie and sugare, 00 : 06 : 00
For servants, 02 : 02 : 00

£30 : 06 : 00

The sum in English money is equal to £2, 10s. 6½d. One remarkable
fact is brought out by the document—namely, that claret was then
charged at twenty pence sterling per quart in a public-house. This
answers to a statement of Morer, in his Short Account of Scotland,
1702, that the Scots have ‘a thin-bodied claret at 10d. the mutchkin.’
Burt tells us that when he came to Scotland in 1725, this wine was to
be had at one-and-fourpence a bottle, but it was soon after raised to
two shillings, although no change had been made upon the duty.[214]
It seems to have continued for some time at this latter price, as in an
account of Mr James Hume to John Hoass, dated at Edinburgh in
1737 and 1739, there are several entries of claret at 2s. per bottle,
while white wine is charged at one shilling per mutchkin (an English
pint).
An Edinburgh dealer advertises liquors in 1720 at the following
prices: ‘Neat claret wine at 11d., strong at 15d.; white wine at 12d.;
Rhenish at 16d.; old Hock at 20d.—all per bottle.’ Cherry sack was
1697.
28d. per pint. The same dealer had English ale at 4d. per bottle.[215]
Burt, who, as an Englishman, could not have any general relish for
a residence in the Scotland of that day, owns it to be one of the
redeeming circumstances attending life in our northern region, that
there was an abundance of ‘wholesome and agreeable drink’ in the
form of French claret, which he found in every public-house of any
note, ‘except in the heart of the Highlands, and sometimes even
there.’ For what he here tells us, there is certainly abundance of
support in the traditions of the country. The light wines of France for
the gentlefolk, and twopenny ale for the commonalty, were the
prevalent drinks of Scotland in the period we are now surveying,
while sack, brandy, and punch for the one class, and usquebaugh for
the other, were but little in use.
Comparatively cheap as claret was, it is surprising, considering the
general narrowness of means, how much of it was drunk. In public-
houses and in considerable mansions, it was very common to find it
kept on the tap. A rustic hostel-wife, on getting a hogshead to her
house, would let the gentlemen of her neighbourhood know of the
event, and they would come to taste, remain to enjoy, and sometimes
not disperse till the barrel was exhausted. The Laird of Culloden, as
we learn from Burt, kept a hogshead on tap in his hall, ready for the
service of all comers; and his accounts are alleged to shew that his
annual consumpt of the article would now cost upwards of two
thousand pounds. A precise statement as to quantity, even in a single
instance, would here obviously be of importance, and fortunately it
can be given. In Arniston House, the country residence of President
Dundas, when Sheriff Cockburn was living there as a boy about 1750,
there were sixteen hogsheads of claret used per annum.
Burt enables us to see how so much of the generous fluid could be
disposed of in one house. He speaks of the hospitality of the Laird of
Culloden as ‘almost without bounds. It is the custom of that house,’
says he, ‘at the first visit or introduction, to take up your freedom by
cracking his nut (as he terms it), that is, a cocoa-shell, which holds a
pint filled with champagne, or such other wine as you shall choose.
You may guess, by the introduction, at the conclusion of the volume.
Few go away sober at any time; and for the greatest part of his
guests, in the conclusion, they cannot go at all.
1697.
 ‘This,’ it is added, ‘he partly brings about by artfully proposing
after the public healths (which always imply bumpers) such private
ones as he knows will pique the interest or inclinations of each
particular person of the company, whose turn it is to take the lead to
begin it in a brimmer; and he himself being always cheerful, and
sometimes saying good things, his guests soon lose their guard, and
then—I need say no more.
‘As the company are one after another disabled, two servants, who
are all the while in waiting, take up the invalids with short poles in
their chairs, as they sit (if not fallen down), and carry them to their
beds; and still the hero holds out.’[216]
Mr Burton, in his Life of President Forbes, states that it was the
custom at Culloden House in the days of John Forbes—Bumper
John, he was called—to prize off the top of each successive cask of
claret, and place it in the corner of the hall, to be emptied in pailfuls.
The massive hall-table, which bore so many carouses, is still
preserved as a venerable relic; and the deep saturation it has
received from old libations of claret, prevents one from
distinguishing the description of wood of which it was constructed.
Mr Burton found an expenditure of £40 sterling a month for claret in
the accounts of the President.

At an early hour in the morning, seven Oct. 6.

gentlemen and two servants, all well armed,
might have been seen leaving Inverness by the bridge over the Ness,
and proceeding along the shore of the Moray Firth. Taking post in
the wood of Bunchrew, they waited till they saw two gentlemen with
servants coming in the opposite direction, when they rushed out into
the road with an evidently hostile intent. The leader, seizing one of
the gentlemen with his own hand, called out to his followers to take
the other dead or alive, and immediately, by levelling their pistols at
him, they induced him to give himself up to their mercy. The
victorious party then caused the two gentlemen to dismount and give
up their arms, mounted them on a couple of rough ponies, and rode
off with them into the wild country.
This was entirely a piece of private war, in the style so much in
vogue in the reign of the sixth James, but which had since declined,
and was now approaching its final extinction. The leader of the
assailants was Captain Simon Fraser, otherwise called the Master of
Lovat, the same personage who, as Lord Lovat, fifty years after, came
to a public death on Tower-hill.
The father of this gentleman had recently 1697.
succeeded a grandnephew as Lord Lovat;
but his title to the peerage and estates, although really good, had
been opposed under selfish and reckless views by the Earl of
Tullibardine, son of the Marquis of Athole, and brother of the widow
of the late Lovat; and as this earl chanced to be a secretary of state
and the king’s commissioner to parliament, his opposition was
formidable. Tullibardine’s wish was to establish a daughter of the
late lord, a child of eleven years old, as the heiress, and marry her to
one of his own sons. His sons, however, were boys; so he had to
bethink him of a more suitable bridegroom in the person of Lord
Salton, another branch of the house of Fraser. Meanwhile, Captain
Simon, wily as a cat, and as relentless, sought to keep up his juster
interest by similar means. He first tried to get the young lady into his
power by help of a follower named Fraser of Tenechiel; but Tenechiel
took a fit of repentance or terror in the midst of his enterprise, and
replaced the child in her mother’s keeping. Lord Salton was then
hurried northward to the Dowager Lady Lovat’s house of Castle
Downie, to woo his child-bride, and arrange for her being brought to
safer lodgings in Athole. He went attended by Lord Mungo Murray,
brother at once to the Earl of Tullibardine and the Dowager Lady
Lovat. The Master, seeing no time was to be lost, brought a number
of the chief gentlemen of his clan together at a house belonging to
Fraser of Strichen, and had no difficulty in taking them bound under
oaths to raise their followers for the advancement of his cause. It was
by their aid that he had seized on Lord Salton and Lord Mungo
Murray at the wood of Bunchrew.
Lord Salton and his friend were conducted amidst savage shouts
and drawn dirks to the house of Fanellan, and there confined in
separate apartments. The fiery cross was sent off, and the coronach
cried round the country, to bring the faithful Frasers to the help of
their young chief. A gallows was raised before the windows of the
imprisoned gentlemen, as a hint of the decisive measures that might
be taken with them. They saw hundreds of the clansmen arrive at
muster on the green, with flags flying and bagpipes screaming, and
heard their chief taking from them oaths of fidelity on their bare
daggers. When five hundred were assembled—a week having now
elapsed since the first assault—the Master put himself at their head,
and went with his prisoners to Castle Downie, which he took into his
care along with its mistress. The child, however, was safe from him,
for she had been already transferred to a 1697.
refuge in her uncle’s country of Athole.
Fraser was, of course, mortified by her escape; but he was a man
fertile in expedients. He first dismissed his two prisoners, though not
till Salton had bound himself under a forfeiture of eight thousand
pounds to ‘interfere’ no more in his affairs. His plan was now to
secure, at least, the dowager’s portion of the late lord’s means by
marrying her. So, too, he calculated, would he embarrass the
powerful Tullibardine in any further proceedings against himself.
That night, the lady’s three female attendants were removed from
her by armed men; and one of them, on being brought back
afterwards to take off her ladyship’s clothes, found her sitting in the
utmost disorder and distress on the floor, surrounded by Fraser and
his friends, himself trying by burned feathers to prevent her senses
from leaving her, and the others endeavouring to divest her of her
stays. Robert Monro, minister of Abertarf, then pronounced the
words of the marriage-ceremony over her and the Master of Lovat.
As the woman hurried out, she heard the screams of her mistress
above the noise of the bagpipes played in the apartment adjacent to
her bedroom; and when she came back next morning, she found the
lady to appearance out of her judgment, and deprived of the power of
speech. Lady Lovat was at this time a woman of about thirty-five
years of age.
Such accounts of this outrage as reached the low country excited
general horror, and Tullibardine easily obtained military assistance
and letters of fire and sword against the Master of Lovat and his
accomplices. The Master was not only supported by his father and
other clansmen in what he had done, but even by the Earl of Argyle,
who felt as a relative and old friend of the house, as well as an
opponent of Tullibardine. On the approach of troops, he retired with
his reluctant bride to the isle of Agais, a rough hill surrounded by the
waters of the Beauly, where Sir Robert Peel spent the last summer of
his life in an elegant modern villa, but which was then regarded as a
Highland fastness. A herald, who ventured so far into the Fraser
territory to deliver a citation, left the paper on a cleft stick opposite
to the island. Fraser had several skirmishes with the government
troops; took prisoners, and dismissed them, after exacting their
oaths to harass him no more; and, in short, for a year carried on a
very pretty guerrilla war, everywhere dragging about with him his
wretched wife, whose health completely gave way through exposure,
fatigue, and mental distress. In September 1697.
1698, he and nineteen other gentlemen
were tried in absence, and forfaulted for their crimes, which were
held as treasonable—a stretch of authority which has since been
severely commented on. At length, the Master—become, by the death
of his father, Lord Lovat—tired of the troublous life he was leading,
and by the advice of Argyle, went to London to solicit a pardon from
the king. Strong influence being used, the king did remit all charges
against him for raising war, but declined to pardon him for his
violence to the Lady Lovat, from fear of offending Tullibardine. He
was so emboldened as to resolve to stand trial for the alleged forced
marriage; but it was to be in the style of an Earl of Bothwell or an
Earl of Caithness in a former age. With a hundred Frasers at his
back, did this singular man make his appearance in Edinburgh, in
the second year before the beginning of the eighteenth century, to
prefer a charge against the Earl of Tullibardine—perhaps the very
last attempt that was made in Scotland to overbear justice. On the
morning, however, of the day when the charge was to be made, his
patron, Argyle, was informed by Lord Aberuchil, one of the judges (a
Campbell), that if Fraser appeared he would find the judges had been
corrupted, and his own destruction would certainly follow. He lost
heart, and fled to England.[217]

Sir Robert Dickson of Sorn-beg was one Nov. 9.

of a group of Edinburgh merchants of this
age, who carried on business on a scale much beyond what the
general circumstances of the country would lead us to expect. He at
this time gave in a memorial to the king in London, bearing—‘In the
year 1691, I with some others who did join with me, did engage
ourselves to the Lords of your majesty’s Treasury in Scotland, by a
tack [lease] of your customs and foreign excise, by which we did
oblige ourselves to pay yearly, for the space of five years, the sum of
twenty thousand three hundred pounds sterling. Conform to which
tack, we continued as tacksmen during all the years thereof, and did
punctually, without demanding the least abatement or defalcation,
make payment of our whole tack-duty, save only the sum of six
hundred pounds, which still remains in my hand unpaid, and which I
am most willing to pay, upon the Lords of the Treasury granting me
and my partners ane general discharge.’ Nevertheless, ‘the Lords of
the Treasury have granted a warrant for seizing of my person, and
committing me prisoner until I make 1697.
payment of the sum of two thousand and
three hundred pounds sterling more, which they allege to be due to
the officers of state for wines, and which I humbly conceive I and my
partners can never be obliged to pay, it being no part of my contract.
And I humbly beg leave to inform your majesty that, if such a custom
be introduced, it will very much diminish your majesty’s revenue; for
it is not to be thought that we nor any other succeeding tacksmen can
give such gratification over and above our tack-duty without a
considerable allowance, and this still prejudges your majesty’s
interest. [Sir Robert seems to mean that, if farmers of revenue have
to give gratuities to officers of state, these must be deducted from the
sum agreed to be paid to his majesty.] They were so forward in the
prosecution of the said warrant, that I was necessitat to leave the
kingdom, and come here and make my application to your majesty.’
The memorial finally craved of the king that he would remit ‘the
determination of the said wines’ to the Lords of Session.
The Lords of the Privy Council had, of course, the usual dislike of
deputies and commissions for seeing appeals taken against their
decisions to the principal authority, and they embraced the first
opportunity of laying hold of the customs tacksman and putting him
up in the Tolbooth. There he did not perhaps change his mind as to
his non-liability in justice for two thousand three hundred pounds
for presents of wine to the officers of state in connection with the
farming or tack of the customs, being a good ten per cent. upon the
whole transaction; but he probably soon became sensible that the
Privy Council of Scotland was not a body he could safely contend
with. The Lord Advocate speedily commenced a process against him,
on the ground of his memorial to the king falling under the statute of
King James V. for severe punishment to those who murmur any
judge spiritual or temporal, and prove not the same; and on this
charge he was brought before the Council (1st of February 1698). It
was shewn that the charge for gratuities was ‘according to use and
wont,’ and that the memorial was a high misdemeanour against their
lordships; therefore inferring a severe punishment. As might have
been expected, Sir Robert was glad to submit, and on his knee to
crave pardon of their lordships, who thereupon discharged him.[218]
The reader, who has just seen some other 1697.
Edinburgh merchants punished for
imputing to state-officers the possibility of their being bribed with
money, will probably smile when he sees another in trouble so soon
after, for remonstrating against the necessity he had been under of
actually giving them bribes.

It had occurred to Mr Charles Ritchie, Dec. 28.

minister of the gospel, to be asked by
Lieutenant Whitehead, of Colonel Sir John Hill’s regiment at Fort-
William, to join him in marriage with the colonel’s daughter, and the
ceremony was performed in the presence of several of the officers of
the regiment, the minister professing to know of no impediment to
the union of the young couple. For this fact, Mr Charles had been
carried to Edinburgh, and put up in the Tolbooth, where he
languished without trial for several months. He now petitioned for
release or banishment, stating that he had been kept in jail all this
time ‘without any subsistence,’ and ‘is reduced to the greatest
extremity, not only for want of any mean of subsistence, but also by
want of any measure of health.’
The Council, viewing his consent to banishment, granted him that
boon, he enacting himself bound to depart ‘furth of the kingdom’
before the 1st of February, and never to return without his majesty’s
or the Council’s warrant to that effect.[219]

Throughout this year, there were protracted legal proceedings

before the Privy Council, between Blair of Balthayock, in Perthshire,
and Carnegie of Finhaven, in Forfarshire, in consequence of the
latter having brought on a marriage between his daughter and a
young minor, his pupil, Blair of Kinfauns, the relative of Balthayock.
The affair ended in a condemnation of Finhaven and a fine of one
hundred and fifty pounds, to be paid to Balthayock for his expenses
in the action.
On the 20th September 1703, by which time Balthayock was dead,
Finhaven presented a petition to the Privy Council, setting forth that
he had not submitted to the sentence, but placed the sum of the fine
in consignment, and thereupon was liberated. Balthayock had never
called for the suspension; her majesty’s late gracious indemnity had
discharged the fine, ‘the cause of which,’ he alleged, ‘was natural and
ordinary, and the marriage every way suitable.’ There might be
demur to the last particular, as young 1697.
Kinfauns, when led into the marriage with
Carnegie’s daughter, was only a boy. Nevertheless, the Council now
ordained the money to be rendered back to the petitioner.[220]

The Court of Session had before it a 1698. Jan. 27.

remarkable case, involving matters of the
highest delicacy, regarding two prominent members of society. David
Lord Cardross—son of the Lord Cardross whose piety had exposed
him to sufferings all but the highest in the late reigns—was married
in February 1697 to the daughter of Henry Fairfax of Hurst, in
Berkshire, an heiress of ten thousand pounds. They were the grand-
parents of the Chancellor Lord Erskine. He had been helped in the
obtaining of this match by Sir John Cochrane, another eminent
sufferer in the late times of trial. To secure his best services as
proxenata, or, as it is called in Scotland, black-foot, Lord Cardross
had given Sir John a bond, securing him a thousand pounds, if he
should be able to effect the marriage. When the marriage was
completed, Cochrane applied for the promised sum, but was met
with the assertion that no money was fairly due, as the lady’s hand
had been obtained without his assistance. He sued Lord Cardross
first in Westminster Hall, where the bond was declared void by the
Lord Chancellor, as granted ob turpem causam, and now in the
Court of Session for similar reasons, much to the enjoyment of all the
lovers of gossip. Sir John, probably seeing public sentiment to be
against him, gave up his claim to the whole £1000 as a reward for his
services, and restricted it to £600, as required to repay him for
expenses he had incurred in Lord Cardross’s lovesuit. Even this was
denied to him, unless he could ‘condescend’ upon an account of
special outlays in Lord Cardross’s behalf. We do not hear of his doing
anything in consequence of this award, and it is to be suspected that
he lost some character by the transaction, as well as legal expenses,
and got nothing in return.[221]
Those who looked back with feelings of sympathy and pride to the
sufferings of the patriots under the late reigns, must have had some
painful feelings when they reflected on the present doings of some of
them and their descendants. The Argyle of this day, though a man of
both ability and spirit, highly qualified to serve his country, was now
living in circumstances which certainly formed a marked contrast
with the history of his grandfather and 1698.
father. Being married unhappily—his wife
was a daughter of the Duchess of Lauderdale—he was induced to
associate himself with another lady, for whose sake he seems to have
in a great measure abandoned public life. Purchasing a house called
Chirton, near Newcastle (which he bequeathed to his mistress), he
was content to spend there in inglorious self-indulgence the days
which ought to have been consecrated to the service of his country.
Sad to say, this representative of pious martyrs died of bruises
received in a house of evil fame at North Shields (September 1703).
Even worse was the story of his Grace’s brother, James, who carried
off Miss Wharton, an heiress of thirteen, and forcibly married her
(November 1690)—a crime, the proper consequences of which he
escaped, while his instrument and assistant, Sir John Johnston of
Caskieben, paid the penalty of an ignominious death at Tyburn.
Worse still, the actual Gordon of Earlstoun, so renowned for his
resolute conduct in the evil days, fell, more than twenty years after,
under censure for a lapse in virtue of the highest class, and
underwent the higher excommunication; ‘but,’ says Wodrow, ‘they
find the intimation of it will not be for edification, and people will
still converse with him, do as they will; so the sentence is not
pronounced.’

We have seen something of an old clan- Feb. 22.

feud between the Laird of Mackintosh and
his vassal, Macdonald of Keppoch. The Keppoch who had
overthrown the chief at Inverroy in 1688, and afterwards burned
down his house of Dunachtan, was now dead; but in his son, Coll
Macdonald, he had left a worthy successor. Coll was as defiant of the
Mackintosh claims as his father had been, and, though he lived
within ten miles of the well-established garrison of Fort-William, he
seemed as utterly beyond the reach of the law as if he had haunted
the wilds of Canada. It now became necessary to take sharp
measures with him, in order to make good the rights of his superior.
The king, seeing ‘it is below the justice of our government that any
of our loyal subjects should be disappointed of the benefit of our
laws,’ was pleased to resort once more to that desperate remedy of
letters of fire and sword which he had, to all subsequent appearance,
employed once too often six years before in the case of the Glencoe
Macdonalds. A commission was accordingly granted to Lachlan
Mackintosh of that Ilk, to the governor for the time of Fort-William,
Farquharson of Monaltrie, Farquharson of Invercauld, and a number
of other gentlemen, ‘to convocate our lieges 1698.
in arms, and pass and search, seek, hunt,
follow and take, and in case of resistance, pursue to the death Coll
Macdonald [and a multitude of other persons specified, outlaws and
fugitives from justice], and if any of them shall happen to flee to
houses or strengths [then grants full power] to asseige the said
houses or strengths, raise fire, and use all force and warlike engines
that can be had for winning thereof,’ slaughter of the persons
pursued not to be imputed as a crime.[222]
There was, in reality, nothing to prevent the same class of
inhumanities flowing from this order as had followed on the Glencoe
commission, if the officers intrusted with it had been disposed, as in
the other case, to carry it out to the letter. It was effectual for its
purpose without any extreme atrocities, and, three months after, we
hear of a detachment from Fort-William to assist Mackintosh ‘in
maintaining his own lands against Keppoch and others, who may
disturb him in the peaceable possession thereof.’
In a poem written in 1737, Coll Macdonald of Keppoch is spoken of
as a kind of Rob Roy, who had fought against the government at
Killiecrankie, Cromdale, and Dunblane; who had resisted the law
regarding lands which he occupied, and been denounced rebel on
that account; who ‘from thefts and robberies scarce did ever cease;’
but who had, nevertheless, not merely kept possession of his
territory, but rather improved his circumstances; and finally, four
years ago, had died at home in peace. He was, says the poet in a note,
‘a man of low stature, but full of craft and enterprise: his life, if
printed, would make an entertaining piece, whether one considers
the depth of his genius, the boldness of his adventures, or the various
turns of adverse fortune which he bore with uncommon steadiness,
and had the art to surmount.’

A commission was granted by the Privy Mar. 1.

Council to Sir John Maxwell of Pollock, ——
Maxwell of Dalswinton, Hugh M‘Guffock of Rusco, Adam Newall of
Barskeroch, and four other gentlemen, to try, and, if guilty, adjudge
to death, Elspeth M‘Ewen and Mary Millar, now prisoners in the
tolbooth of Kirkcudbright, ‘alleged guilty of the horrid crime of
witchcraft, and [who] has committed several malefices.’
On the 26th of July, a committee of Privy Council reported that
they had examined the proceedings of the commissioners in the case
of Elspeth M‘Ewen (the report signed by the 1698.
Lord Advocate), who had been pronounced
guilty upon her own confession and the evidence of witnesses, ‘of a
compact and correspondence with the devil, and of charms and of
accession to malefices.’ It was ordered that the sentence of death
against Elspeth should be executed, under care of the steward of
Kirkcudbright and his deputies, on the 24th of August.
In July, a number of noblemen and gentlemen of Renfrewshire
sent a letter to the Privy Council, setting forth the case of a young
woman named Margaret Laird, of the Earl of Glencairn’s land in the
parish of Kilmacolm. Since the 15th of May, ‘she hath been under ane
extraordinary and most lamentable trouble, falling into strange and
horrible fits, judged by all who have seen her to be preternatural,
arising from the devil and his instruments.’ In these fits, ‘she sees
and distinctly converses with divers persons whom she constantly
affirms to be her tormentors, and that both while the fits continue,
and in the intervals wherein she is perfectly free of all trouble and
composed.’ The persons named were of those formerly accused by
‘confessing witches.’ ‘In some of these fits there is such obstruction
upon her external senses, that she neither sees nor feels bystanders,
though in the meantime she sees and converses with any of her
alleged tormentors when we cause any of them come before her; and
at the sight or touch of any of them, yea, even upon her essaying to
name them when not present, she’s thrown into the fits, and therein
gives such an account of their circumstances (though otherwise
unknown to her) as is very convincing.’ The writers had been so
impressed by the various facts brought under their notice, as proving
fascination or witchcraft, that they found themselves obliged to make
a representation of the case ‘out of pity to the poor distressed
damsel;’ and they were the more solicitous about the affair, that the
country people were in a state of such excitement, and so incensed
against the alleged witches, that ‘we fear something may fall out in
their hands that the government would willingly prevent.’
The Council appointed a committee of inquiry, and ordered the
sheriff of the county—the Earl of Eglintoun—to apprehend the
suspected witches, ‘that it may appear whether, after their being
seized and committed, the said Margaret shall complain of their
tormenting her or not.’
In September, Mary Morison, spouse of Francis Duncan, skipper,
Greenock, was under accusation of witchcraft, but allowed to be at
liberty within the city of Edinburgh, ‘the said Francis her husband
first giving bond that the said Mary shall 1698.
keep the said confinement, and that he shall
produce her before the Lords of Justiciary at any time to which she
shall be cited before the 15th of November next, under a penalty of
ten thousand pounds Scots.’
Mrs Duncan was detained as a prisoner in Edinburgh till the 15th
November, although no such proof could be found against her as the
Advocate could raise an action upon, her husband kept all the time
away from his employment, and her ‘numerous poor family’ starving
in neglect at home. On a petition setting forth these circumstances,
and re-asserting her entire innocence, she was set at liberty.
The Lord Advocate soon after reported to the Privy Council a letter
he had received from the sheriff of Renfrewshire, stating that ‘the
persons imprisoned in that country as witches are in a starving
condition, and that those who informed against them are passing
from them, and the sheriff says he will send them in prisoners to
Edinburgh Tolbooth, unless they be quickly tried.’ His lordship was
recommended to ask the sheriff to support the witches till November
next, when they would probably be tried, and the charges would be
disbursed by the treasury. A distinct allowance of a groat a day was
ordered on the 12th of January 1699 for each of the Renfrewshire
witches.[223]
While the works of Satan were thus coming into new prominence,
the clergy were determined not to prove remiss in their duty. We find
the General Assembly of this year remitting to their ‘commission,’ ‘to
give advice to presbyteries and ministers, upon application, against
witchcraft, sorcery, and charming.’ In the ensuing year, they
deliberated on an address to the Privy Council, for punishing witches
and charmers; and the same subject comes up in the two subsequent
years, in one instance in connection with ‘masquerades, balls, and
stage-plays.’[224]

An ‘unkindly cold and winter-like spring’ May 10.

was threatening again to frustrate the hopes
of the husbandman, ‘and cut off man and beast by famine.’ Already
the dearth was greatly increased, and in many places ‘great want
both of food and seed’ was experienced, while the sheep and cattle
were dying in great numbers. In consideration of these facts, and of
the abounding sins of profaneness, 1698.
Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, &c.,
‘whereby the displeasure of God was manifestly provoked,’ a solemn
humiliation and fast was ordered for the 17th of May within the
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, and the 25th day of the month for
the rest of the kingdom.
An edict of the same date strictly forbade the exportation of
victual. One, dated the 7th July, orders that the girnels at Leith,
which had been closed in hopes of higher prices, be opened, and the
victual sold ‘as the price goes in the country, not below the last
Candlemas fairs.’ On the 13th, there was an edict against regrating or
keeping up of victual generally, threatening the offenders with
forfeiture of their stocks. In September, the tolerance for importing
of foreign grain was extended to the second Tuesday of November
ensuing. On the 9th November, a proclamation stated that ‘through
the extraordinary unseasonableness of the weather for some months
past, and the misgiving of this year’s crop and harvest, the scarcity of
victual is increased to that height, as threatens a general distress and
calamity.’ Wherefore the exportation of grain was again strictly
prohibited. A strong proclamation against forestalling and regrating
appeared on the 15th of the same month.
A solemn fast was kept on the 9th of March 1699, on account of
‘the lamentable stroke of dearth and scarcity.’ During this spring
there were officers appointed to search out reserved victual, and
expose it at current prices; also commissioners to appoint prices in
the several counties. We find the commissioners of supply for the
county of Edinburgh, by virtue of powers intrusted to them by the
Privy Council, ordaining in April maximum prices for all kinds of
grain—an interference with the rights of property at which our
forefathers never scrupled, notwithstanding the constant experience
of its uselessness for the object in view. They fixed that, till
September next, the highest price for the best wheat should be
seventeen pounds Scots per boll, the best oats twelve pounds, and
the best oatmeal sixteen shillings and sixpence per peck (half a
stone).[225]
‘These unheard-of manifold judgments continued seven years [?],
not always alike, but the seasons, summer and winter, so cold and
barren, and the wonted heat of the sun so much withholden, that it
was discernible upon the cattle, flying fowls, and insects decaying,
that seldom a fly or cleg was to be seen: our harvests not in the
ordinary months; many shearing in 1698.
November and December; yea, some in
January and February; many contracting their deaths, and losing the
use of their feet and hands, shearing and working in frost and snow;
and, after all, some of it standing still, and rotting upon the ground,
and much of it for little use either to man or beast, and which had no
taste or colour of meal.
‘Meal became so scarce, that it was at two shillings a peck, and
many could not get it. It was not then with many, “Where will we get
siller?” but, “Where shall we get meal for siller?” I have seen, when
meal was sold in markets, women clapping their hands and tearing
the clothes off their heads, crying: “How shall we go home and see
our children die of hunger? They have got no meat these two days,
and we have nothing to give them!” Through the long continuance of
these manifold judgments, deaths and burials were so many and
common, that the living were wearied with the burying of the dead. I
have seen corpses drawn in sleds. Many got neither coffin nor
winding-sheet. I was one of four who carried the corpse of a young
woman a mile of way, and when we came to the grave, an honest
poor man came and said: “You must go and help to bury my son; he
has lain dead these two days; otherwise, I shall be obliged to bury
him in my own yard.” We went, and there were eight of us had to
carry the corpse of that young man two miles, many neighbours
looking on us, but none to help us. I was credibly informed that in
the north, two sisters on a Monday morning were found carrying the
corpse of their brother on a barrow with bearing ropes, resting
themselves many times, and none offering to help them. I have seen
some walking about at sunsetting, and next day, at six o’clock in the
summer morning, found dead in their houses, without making any
stir at their death, their head lying upon their hand, with as great a
smell as if they had been four days dead; the mice or rats having
eaten a great part of their hands and arms.
‘Many had cleanness of teeth in our cities, and want of bread in our
borders; and to some the staff of bread was so utterly broken (which
makes complete famine), that they did eat, but were neither satisfied
nor nourished; and some of them said to me, that they could mind
nothing but meat, and were nothing bettered by it; and that they
were utterly unconcerned about their souls, whether they went to
heaven or hell.
‘The nearer and sorer these plagues seized, the sadder were their
effects, that took away all natural and relative affections, so that
husbands had no sympathy for their wives, nor wives for their
husbands, parents for their children, nor 1698.
children for their parents. These and other
things have made me to doubt if ever any of Adam’s race were in a
more deplorable condition, their bodies and spirits more low, than
many were in these years.
‘The crowning plague of all these great and manifold plagues was,
many were cast down, but few humbled; great murmuring, but little
mourning; many groaning under the effects of wrath, but few had
sight or sense of the causes of wrath in turning to the Lord: and as
soon as these judgments were removed, many were lift up, but few
thankful; even these who were as low as any, that outlived these
scarce times, did as lightly esteem bread as if they had never known
the worth of it by the want of it. The great part turned more and
more gospel-proof and judgment-proof; and the success of the gospel
took a stand at that time in many places of the land, but more
especially since the Rebellion, 1715.
‘King William his kindness is not to be forgotten, who not only
relieved us from tyranny, but had such a sympathy with Scotland,
when in distress of famine, that he offered all who would transport
victual to Scotland, that they might do it custom-free, and have
twenty pence of each boll.
‘I cannot pass this occasion without giving remarks upon some
observable providences that followed these strange judgments upon
persons who dwelt in low-lying fertile places, who laid themselves
out to raise markets when at such a height, and had little sympathy
with the poor, or those who lived in cold muirish places, who thought
those who lived in these fertile places had a little heaven; but soon
thereafter their little heavens were turned into little hells by
unexpected providences.... There was a farmer in the parish of West
Calder (in which parish 300 of 900 examinable persons wasted
away, who at that time was reckoned worth 6000 merks of money
and goods) that had very little to spare to the poor; the victual lay
spoiling in his house and yard, waiting for a greater price. Two
honest servant-lasses, whose names were Nisbet, being cast out of
service (for every one could not have it; many said, they got too much
wages that got meat for their work), these two lasses would not steal,
and they were ashamed to beg; they crept into a house, and sat there
wanting meat until their sight was almost gone, and then they went
about a mile of way to that farmer’s yard, and ate four stocks of kail
to save their lives. He found them, and drove them before him to the
Laird of Baad’s, who was a justice-of-peace, that he might get them
punished. The laird inquired what moved them to go by so many
yards, and go to his. They said: “These in their way were in straits
themselves, and he might best spare them.” The laird said: “Poor
conscionable things, go your way—I have nothing to say to you.” One
of them got service, but the other died in want; it was her burial I
mentioned before, who was carried by us four. But so in a very few
years he was begging from door to door, whom I have served at my
door, and to whom I said: “Who should have pity and sympathy with
you, who kept your victuals spoiling, waiting for a greater price, and
would spare nothing of your fulness to the poor; and was so cruel to
the two starving lasses, that you took them prisoners for four stocks
of kail to save their lives? Ye may read your sin upon your judgment,
if ye be not blind in the eyes of your soul, as ye are of one in your
body, and may be a warning to all that come after you.”’[226]
These striking and well-told anecdotes of the dearth are from the
simple pages of Patrick Walker. The account he gives of the religious
apathy manifested under the calamity is corroborated by a rhymster
named James Porterfield, who was pleased to write a series of poems
on three remarkable fires in Edinburgh, which he viewed entirely in
the light of ‘God’s Judgments against Sin’—such being indeed the
title of his book,[227] which he dedicated to the magistrates of the city.
He says:
To awake us from our sin,
Horses and cattle have consumed been;
And straits and dearth our land have overswayed,
And thousand lives therewith have been dismayed;
Many through want of bread dropped at our feet,
And lifeless lay upon the common street:
These plagues made no impression on the flock,
And ministers seemed ploughing on a rock.

In the five or six years of this dearth, ‘the farmer was ruined, and
troops of poor perished for want of bread. Multitudes deserted their
native country, and thousands and tens of 1698.
thousands went to Ireland, &c. During the
calamity, Sir Thomas Stewart laid out himself, almost beyond his
ability, in distributing to the poor. He procured sums from his
brother, the Lord Advocate, and other worthy friends, to distribute,
and he added of his own abundantly. His house and outer courts
were the common resort of the poor, and the blessing of many ready
to perish came upon him; and a blessing seemed diffused on his little
farm that was managed for family use, for, when all around was
almost blasted by inclement seasons and frosts in the years 1695–6–
7, it was remarked here were full and ripened crops. The good man
said the prayers of the poor were in it, and it went far.’[229]
When the calamity was at its height in 1698, the sincere but over-
ardent patriot, Fletcher of Salton, published a discourse on public