The Black Saturday in Scotland
By D. T. Taylor
From the "Advent Herald."
# THE BLACK SATURDAY IN SCOTLAND. Bro. Himes:—Having discovered the origin and true application of the above appellation, as referred by us to a dark day supposed to have occurred about the year 1780, I herewith transmit for your columns a correct account of the same, with the remark, that the following statement invalidates the application of the phrase "Black Saturday," to a dark day in Scotland in the above mentioned year. Still I think the testimony adduced in my letter in the Herald last December goes to show that a dark day of some kind, though perhaps local and of less celebrity, did occur in Scotland about the year 1780. In 1621, the Scottish Parliament met on Saturday, the 4th of August the last day of their session, at Edinburg, to ratify the "Five Articles" of the Acts of the General Assembly of the Kirk, holden at Perth on the 25th day of August, 1618. Over these "Five Articles" the Assenters and Dissenters were quarrelling most heartily. Early in the morning a great fire occurred, in the city which much alarmed the people, and says the historian Calderwood, threw the lords into the "greatest perplexity," and "which accident" he says, was taken for a forewarning to the Estates [i. e. the king and lords] to take heed what they did. When the day had come another incident took place also serving to show us the superstition of these times. "Many of the people being convened in the outer court of the palace, observed that when the lords were mounted on their horses, a swan did flee over their heads, from the north towards the south, slashing with her wings, and muttering her natural song. The people," continues Calderwood, "shaking their heads, whispered among themselves that they feared a bad conclusion of that Parliament." Parliament met, the votes were taken on the "Five Articles," and much against the wishes of many, the king and lords ratified the doings of the Kirk. Calderwood thus describes the sequel. "When all the acts were now concluded and the ringleaders were insulting over the defenders of the ancient orders, gasping for thanks and reward, and wishing every one to have wings to flee to court with the report; the Grand Commissioner rising from the throne to ratify the acts by touch of the sceptre, at that very same moment, was sent from the heavens, in at the windows of the house, which was dark before by reason of the darkness of the day, an extraordinary great lightning, after the first a second, and after the second a third more fearful. Immediately after the lightnings followed an extraordinary great darkness which astonished all that were in the house. The lightnings were seconded by three loud claps of thunder. Many within the Parliament House thought them to be shots of cannon out of the Castle. It appeared to all that dwell within the compass of ten or twelve miles, that the clouds stood right above the town and overshadowed that part only. The beacon standing in the entry of Leith haven was beaten down with one of the blasts of thunder. After the lightning, darkness and thunder, followed a shower of hailstones extraordinary great, and last of all rain in such abundance that it made gutters run like little brooks; the lords were imprisoned about the space of an hour and a half. Servants rode home with foot-mantles and their masters withdrew themselves, some to their coach and some to their foot. So the 'Five Articles' were not honored with the carrying of the honors, or riding of the Estates in ranks. In the mean time the Castle thundered with their fiery cannons according to the custom used at the Parliaments. This Saturday, the fourth of August, was called by the people, Black Saturday. It began with fire from the earth in the morning, and ended with fire from heaven in the evening. When the fear was past, then durst Atheists scoff and say, that as the Law was given with fire from Mount Sinai, so did these fires confirm their laws." The curious reader may find this account in David Calderwood's History of the Church of Scotland, published in 1678, on page 783. It fully explains the tradition of the Black Saturday as well as the cause of the phenomenon, which seems to have been nothing more than an usual hailstorm accompanied with thunder and lightning, darkening the very heavens over Edinburg, and coming down the pages of history, and handed from father to son as a fearful and memorable occurrence happening as it did in connection with other notable events. Will the other Advent papers copy this article so as to correct any wrong views that may have grown out of the term, Black Saturday, as referring to the dark day of May 19th, 1780? Error will never help a good cause. We want only the truth.
D. T. TAYLOR.
Worcester, Dec. 22nd, 1855.