Note 19 — I. HUMOROUS.
Reading edition
The day referred to as “the mirk Munanday” was Monday, the 25th of March, 1652. In consequence of an eclipse of the sun there was total darkness for eight minutes. Great fear possessed the people, and there is an entry in the Records of the Burgh of Peebles which sets forth that the inhabitants of that place began to pray to God. There is a reference to the occasion in Law’s Memorials. He says: “The like, as thought by astrologers, was not since the darkness at our Lord’s Passion. The country people, tilling, loosed their ploughs, and thought it had been the latter day.... The birds clapped to the ground.”