the unprinted Acts of the General Assembly of 1699, was one entitled, "Recommendations for building the bridges of Lanark and Ancrum." At a meeting of the Presbytery of Ayr, held at Kirkoswald, 1st July, 1779, a petition was presented by the minister and others in Daily, "desiring a collection "to be made through this Presbytery to help to defray the charge of building "a stone bridge, with two arches, over the Water of Girvan, near the kirk of "Dailie, and showing the necessity and usefulness of the bridge for passage "to a great part of the said parish to the church." At a subsequent meeting the prayer of the petition was granted.

When pontages and assessments, voluntary or otherwise, began to be levied for the building and maintenance of bridges, architects of the highest standing in the country were sometimes called in to prepare the plans. Accordingly, in 1682 we find Robert Mylne of Balfargie, who was Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland in the reign of Charles II. and his two immediate successors as well as the architect that completed the design for Holyrood Palace, instructed to build a stone bridge of one arch over the river Clyde at "Romellweill Crags," now Ram's Horn Pool, 29 miles above Lanark. The spot is close to the "Roman road" of the Ordnance Map, which, previous to the erection of this bridge, had no doubt crossed the river near it by a ford. Mylne's bridge was superseded in 1770 by another of three arches, erected by Russell and Telford, 360 yards below its site. No trace of the old bridge now remains,2

With these facts before us, and their number might be largely increased, no surprise need be felt at finding what was apparently once the main line of communication between Bothwell and Carluke and the former representative of that part of the Glasgow and Carlisle road, carried over the South Calder by a substantial stone bridge. Possibly the date of its erection, if sought for, may yet be discovered among the papers or accounts of the Hamilton or Dalziel Estates.

This extract has been obligingly furnished by Rev. James Wilson, St. Quivox.

2 Mylne: The Master Masons to the Crown of Scotland and their Works, pp. 221-227.

No. XXI.

THE PAPINGO:

BY

THE REV. WILLIAM LEE KER, M.A.

[Read at a Meeting of the Society held on 19th April, 1894.]

"WHAT is the use," it may be asked, "of writing any more about the "papingo? The sport is abandoned. The bows which used to be employed "at the pastime are unstrung, and the arrows are covered with dust. "Neither men nor boys ever speak a word or even think a thought about "this ancient pastime. Besides, a good deal on the subject has already "appeared in print, and so the matter may now quite properly be let alone." Ah, well! there's not a little truth in such remarks. And yet the story of the papingo may be more fully told than ever it has been, and there are yet some hearts that beat quickly, and some eyes that glance brightly, when the ongoings at this ancient sport are referred to, and altogether it may not be remiss to have a parting word about a pastime which for so many centuries delighted the hearts of men and maidens on village greens, and which now appears to be hopelessly and helplessly abandoned among the things that

were.

The popinjay, that is, shooting with arrows at a bird resembling a parrot, was a sport both ancient and widespread. It may almost be said to be as old as Homer. Certainly the poet describes, among the games which accompanied the funeral rites of Patroclus, something closely resembling the popinjay. But the bird shot at was a pigeon and not a parrot, and it was a real bird at which Teucrus and Menones shot, while the mark for the players at the papingo was only a wooden representation of the popinjay. According to Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, the pastime of the popinjay was familiar to the Londoners of very early times. Here was a curious proviso which Strutt quotes in connection with this matter: "In case any person should be slain "or wounded in these sports, with an arrow shot by one or other of these

archers, he who shot the arrow may not be sued or molested, if he had, "immediately before the discharge of the weapon, cried out, 'Fast.'" Evidently the archers practising the game of papingo were protected from harm by crying out "Fast," just, I suppose, as modern golfers think they may use their drivers with impunity, provided only they call out "Fore," While, however, the sport of popinjay seems to have been so general and so ancient, it is noteworthy that not even such an enquirer as the authority already named has been able to discover any delineation or representation in any engraving, or otherwise, of this pastime. The ancients shot with their arrows at parrots, but none of their artists have provided us with any sketch of their doing so.

But this article is not so much on the popinjay as on the papingo-that is, the Scottish popinjay; for papingo is just the Scotch for popinjay, which, in its turn, is old English for parrot. And it is curious to note that though this sport was doubtlessly played in all parts of Scotland, played doubtlessly in some form wherever archery in general was practised, nevertheless the writer of this article cannot find any proof of its having been in use anywhere else than in these two towns of Ayrshire, viz., Kilwinning and Irvine. It is true that Sir Walter Scott, in Old Mortality, says that it was practised in early times at Dalserf in Lanarkshire. But the note quoted by Sir Walter from the history of the Somerville family, on which he founded his story of the prowess of "The Green Marksman" on the 5th day of May, 1679, does not describe the papingo sport, and therefore the great Wizard of the North must have been indebted to what he had seen or heard elsewhere for the spirited narrative with which his readers are so familiar. Very likely the papingo was practised at Dalserf in 1679, but at the present time there is only a very vague tradition of its having formed one of the sports of the great wappenschaw gatherings in the county of Lanark. Then, in his Notes to Old Mortality, Sir Walter in 1816 writes: "The festival of the Popinjay is still, I "believe, practised at Maybole in Ayrshire." Well, the belief of the great novelist may have been correct, but in the present year of grace, 1894, there is not the slightest tradition of the papingo in Maybole. But, surely, if it had been in use in 1816, "the oldest inhabitant" would have had something to say about it.

So far then as Scotland is concerned-so far, in other words, as the papingo is concerned-it is only with Kilwinning and Irvine that history enables us, with anything like accuracy, to associate the ancient sport under consideration. While, however, our information respecting this old Scottish pastime is limited to what we can gather from the records of these ancient towns, nevertheless the information is very ample. J. Dickie, Esq., town-clerk of Irvine, kindly provided the writer with a most interesting document in connection with the papingo and the ancient royal burgh of Irvine. Among other things contained in the Fiscal's communication was the following copy of a "Bond of Hendrie "Dyet, Smyth, Burges of Irving," which is dated 29th August, 1665:— "The Magistrates haveing conforme to the old aintient practics, appoynted "the Paippingoe to be set up, and that whasoever Burgess is pleasit to adres "thameselffs thairto with their bows and arrows for schooting thairat might "have full friedome and libertie upoun deponing the ordinarie consignatione, "and that several dayis being appoynted for schooting thairat, and at last this "day, as being the last day, that whosever sould ding the same doun sould "be capitan and have ane benne or scarffe consisting of the value of twelff "pundis Scotts or thairby. . . . And it falling out that I have attaint "to the honor this day in being Capitan throu my schooting down of the "papingoe, and haveing recivit ane scarff of the value aforesaid, Thairfore, "and for observing of the said ordinance Witt ye me as principall, and "with me John Thomson, Flescher, Burges of the said Burgh, as cautioner "and souertie for me to be bound and obleist lykas we by their presents "faithfallie bind and obleis as conjunctlie and severallie our airs and executoris "to the Magistratis of this Burgh present, or for the tyme being, that I, the "said Hendrie Dyet, sall upone the first Tysday of May next to come, "jm. v je, thrie scoir six yearis exhibit, and produce ane papingoe with ane "silk scarff of the value of twelve pundis with twentie ellis of ribbens of the "value aforesaid, that so the antient practeis may be keipit up in all tym "comyng, both with us and our posteritie and Burgessis of this Burgh."

From this interesting bond of Mr. Hendrie Dyet, only a part of which has been quoted, we perceive that in 1665 the papingo had been long practised in Irvine; that the spelling of the pastime was not fixed, being written both Paippingoe and Papingoe; that the sport was engaged in in the month of

May, and continued four several days; that on "the fourt day the Papingoe to "be maid louse for shooting her af"; that the person who might "ding the

samyn doun" was called captain; that he received as a prize "ane Benne "or Scarff," consisting of the value of about twelve pounds Scots; and that the said captain had to promise, and to find some one who would be surety for the fulfilment thereof, that, in the following year, he would provide a new papingo, a scarf similar in value to that which he had received as a prize, and twenty ells of ribbons, which were to be divided into so many parts, and given away as prizes.

Irvine, therefore, can claim a very ancient connection with this old sport; but it seems to have abandoned it much earlier than the neighbouring town of Kilwinning. So far as can be ascertained, it probably fell into disuse in Irvine about the year 1721. Certainly, in this year, the old steeple of the Parish Church had to be taken down, and, as in all likelihood the game was practised at this steeple, it fell into disuse when the tower fell into ruins. Moreover, about this date the archers of Irvine seem to have adopted a change which was becoming common, and substituted guns for bows and arrows, so that, even after this date, they kept up the old sport, they must have done so, as Sir Walter Scott says the people of Dalserf did in 1679, namely, with "fusees and carabines." Long after 1721, indeed, the Irvine archers practised a kind of papingo. At the beginning of the present century they might have been seen, in an enclosure on the west side of the Academy, busily engaged in twanging the bow. But it was only at a target of about eighteen inches in diameter, set up on a pole of about fifty feet high, and at a distance of about thirty yards, and the main object they seem to have had in view was not proficiency in archery, but to be able to obtain success at the annual papingo sport, which continued to be celebrated by their more conservative neighbours in the ancient, and evidently ancient-loving, town of Kilwinning.

Kilwinning, indeed, was evidently for centuries greatly taken up with the papingo. It was the grand annual festival. The boys of Kilwinning had their papingo. The working men had their papingo. The gentlemen had their papingo. And as each party held their festival on separate days, and the whole country side took an interest in the sport, one can easily understand