Note 319 — THE PREFACE. (continued 2)

During the festivities of the month of May, the games of Robin Hood were attended with so much disorderly license, that they were ordered to be suppressed by an Act of the Scotish Parliament in 1555. It is not easy, however, to abolish long continued customs; and complaints to the General Assembly for their continued observance were made until the close of the 16th century. Of the tumult that took place in Edinburgh, on the 21st of June 1561, a very minute and interesting account is preserved in the Diurnal of Occurrents, pp. 283-4.

Several persons were brought to trial on account of these riots. On the 20th July 1561, Robert Hannay, smith, and nine others were tried, as art and part in choosing George Durye in the month of April last, and calling him Lord of Inobedience, and for rioting on Sunday the 12th May. (See Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. p. 409.) And James Fraser, sadler, and five others, were tried on the 8th of August, on account of the riots in the month of July. (Ib. p. 410.)