e pitched into a rhyme.
The simple sire could only boast
That he was loyal to his cost;
The banish'd race of kings revered,
And lost his land--but kept his beard."

He died in 1729 at Kelso. "Beardie's" second son, named Robert, was a
farmer at Sandyknowe, and was Sir Walter Scott's grandfather.

A contributor to _Notes and Queries_, for October 1st, 1859, gives the
following interesting particulars of a Shaving Statute relating to
Ireland:--"In a parliament held at Trim by John Talbot, Earl of
Shrewsbury, then Lord-Lieutenant, anno 1447, 25 Henry VI., it was
enacted 'That every Irishman must keep his upper lip shaved, or else be
used as an Irish enemy.' The Irish at this time were much attached to
the national foppery of wearing mustachios, the fashion then throughout
Europe, and for more than two centuries after. The unfortunate Paddy who
became an enemy for his beard, like an enemy was treated; for the
treason could only be pardoned by the surrender of his land. Thus two
benefits accrued to the king: his enemies were diminished, and his
followers provided for; many of whose descendants enjoy the confiscated
properties to this day, which may appropriately be designated
Hair-breadth estates." The effects of this statute became so alarming
that the people submitted to the English revolutionary razor, and found
it more convenient to resign their beards than their lands. This
agrarian law was repealed by Charles I., after existing two hundred
years.

The Macedonian soldiers were ordered by Alexander to shave, lest their
beards should be handles for the enemy to capture them by. The smooth
chin was adopted in the Greek army. To pull a person's beard has from
remote times been regarded as an act of most degrading insult. Dr Doran
tells a tragic story bearing on this usage. "When the Jew," says the
doctor, "who hated and feared the living Cid Rui Dios, heard that the
great Spaniard was dead, he contrived to get into the room where the
body lay, and he indulged his revengeful spirit by contemptuously
plucking at the beard. But the 'son of somebody' (the hidalgo) was
plucked temporarily into life and indignation by the outrage; and
starting up, endeavoured to get his sword, an attempt which killed the
Jew by mere fright which it caused." In Afghanistan "the system of
administering justice was such," says the "Life of Abdur Rahman"
(London, 1890) "that the humble were able to bring their claims before
the s