The sentences on a brawl in the churchyard, in September, 1554, are notable as being the last in the record where the fines were in the shape of offerings on the high altar of St. Mary’s Church. Fines where they were not given as a _solatium_ to the injured persons, were generally applied to aid “puir folks.” And punishments were as a rule inflicted summarily; lengthy imprisonments, taking the persons away from their ordinary occupations and maintaining them by the labours of others, are quite a modern invention. The vehemence of an outrageous fisherman is quenched in his own element. “George Blak, boatman, is discernit to be doukit owr the head in the sea, and also to pay forty shillings to the common gude for that he keist Fothringham, ane workman, our the shore [pier], and also struck Andro Cowtie, ane other of them, upon the face.” A worthless fellow is awarded the punishment of a woman: “Sande Hay, for troublance made upon Andro Watson, is discernit for his demerits to be put in the cuck-stule, there to remain until four hours efter noon.” This is how an objectionable couple is got rid of: “Alexr Clerke and Elesabeth Stevenson,[1] being banishit this burgh for their demerits, pykerie, and reset, and grite sumptuous spending by nicht, has contemptuously come to the town, contrair to the statutes; whairfore they are adjudgit—Sande to be nailit to the tron by the ear, and Elesabeth brunt upon the check, and they be again banishit for all the days of their life. And gif ever they be fund within this burgh, or ony of them, to be put to deith.” Footnote 1: As a rule—and indeed the custom has not yet entirely ceased in the country districts of Scotland—wives retained their full maiden names after marriage, and in both sexes the christian or given name was held to be—as doubtless it virtually is—the proper designation of a person,—the surname indicating the family or clan to which he or she belonged. On Scottish tombstones to this day, the inscription for the loss of a child by a married couple will read as “Son of John Smith and Barbara Allen.”