Robert Jack had probably made a sort of mercantile speculation in bringing in a debased foreign _hardhead_. The importance attached to his crime is indicated by the payment (January 28, 1567-8) of £33, 6s. 8d. to George Monro of Dalcartie, for ‘expenses made by him upon six horsemen and four footmen for the sure convoying of Robert Jack, being apprehended in Ross for false cunyie.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: 1567-8. JAN. 5.] It may somewhat modify the views generally taken of the destruction of relics of the ancient religion under the Protestant governments succeeding the Reformation, that John Lockhart of Bar was denounced rebel at this time for conveying John Macbrair forth of the castle of Hamilton, and ‘for down-casting of images in the kirk of Ayr and other places.’[52] About the same time, the Regent learned that the lead upon the cathedrals of Aberdeen and Elgin was in the course of being piecemeal taken away. Thinking it as well that some public good should be obtained from this material, the Privy Council ordered (February 7, 1567-8) that the whole be taken down and sold for the support of the army now required to reduce the king’s rebels to obedience. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1567-8. JAN. 17.] ‘A play made by Robert Semple,’ was ‘played before the Lord Regent and diverse others of the nobility.’--_Bir._ There have been several conjectures as to this play and its author, with little satisfactory result. It was probably a very simple representation of some historical scene or transaction, such as we can imagine the life of the execrable Bothwell to have gratefully furnished before such a company. Semple appears to have been in such a rank of life as not to be above ordinary pecuniary rewards for his services, as on the 12th of February there is an entry in the treasurer’s books of £66, 13s. 4d. ‘to Robert Semple.’ He was a fruitful, but dull writer, being the author of _The Regentis Trajedie_, 1570; _The Bishopis Lyfe and Testament_, 1571; _My Lord Methvenis Trajedie_, 1572; and _The Siege of the Castle of Edinburgh_, 1573: besides various poems preserved in the Bannatyne Manuscript. * * * * * [Sidenote: FEB. 24.] Seeing that ‘in the spring of the year all kinds of flesh decays and grows out of season, and that it is convenient for the commonweal that they be sparit during that time, to the end that they may be mair plenteous and better cheap the rest of the year,’ the Privy Council forbade the use of flesh of any kind during ‘Lentern.’ Fleshers, hostelers, cooks, and taverners, were forbidden to slay any animals for use during that season hereafter, under pain of confiscation of their movable goods.--_P. C. R._ This order was kept up in the same terms for many years, a forced economy preserving a rule formerly based on a religious principle. * * * * * [Sidenote: MAR. 4.]