We have hitherto heard the name of Queen Mary chiefly in connection with tragic matters: verily a name of tears. For once we find her connected with a piece of pleasantry, and it was in association with the author of the _Rolment of Courtis_. The father of this worthy writer was caterer to the queen. One day, as she was passing to mass, he acquainted her with his having a child to be baptised, and desired her to assign the infant its name. She said she would open the Bible in the chapel, and whatever name she cast up, that should be given to the child. The name cast up was that of the prophet Habakkuk, which, in the form of Abacuck, was accordingly conferred on the future writer. [Sidenote: 1587. SEP.] Abacuck Bisset’s _Rolment of Courtis_ exists in manuscript in the Advocates’ Library, only a portion of it, containing _A Short Form of Process_ for civil cases, having been printed. It was composed in the old age of the author, after the commencement of the reign of Charles I., and seems to have been designed for immediate publication, as it is prefaced with sundry of those complimentary verses with which authors used to gratify each other in days while as yet reviews were not. One set of these, by Mr Alexander Craig of Rose Craig, and which appears in his _Poetical Exercises_ (Raban, Aberdeen, 1623), is not without some feeling: [Sidenote: 1587.] ’Twixt _was_ and _is_ how various are the odds! What one man doth another doth undo; One consecrates religious works to gods, Another leaves sad wrecks and ruins new. This book doth shew that such and such things were, But would to God that it could say, They are! ‘When I perceive the south, north, east, and west, And mark, alas! each monument amiss, Then I confer times present with the past, I read what was, but cannot tell what is: I praise thy book with wonder, but am sorry To read old ruins in a recent story.’ Abacuck himself appears to have had a turn for verse, and in this form he gives his poetical friends notice of the contents of his book, that they may address him regarding it. After a great deal of very dry prose matters about decreets, suspensions, exceptions, &c., he either makes or quotes the following: CERTAIN AULD RULES CONTEINED IN THE ANCIENT REGISTER OF SCOTLAND ANENT THE MEITHIS AND MERCHES OF LAND. All landis, wherever they be In Scotland partis, has merches three, Headroom, water, and montis borde, As eldren men has made record. Your headroom to the hill direct, Frae your haugh tilled in effect. Betwixt twa glenis ane montis borde, Divides thae glenis, I sall stand for’t. Water comand frae ane glen head, Divides that glen, and stanches feid. Thortrom[151] burnis in montis hie Sall stop nae headroom, though they be.