This is a tale of General Pickard, who by all accounts was a nasty piece of work, he believed in taking no prisoners, particularly women and children. Now he fought on the side of the Covenantors, those Scots who signed the covenant and refused to accept the English Prayer book. Pickard describes them as the Scottish version of the round heads however even Cromwell had bother with them.

This was a time of great religious fervour and everyone was feert o the meenister ( save Pickard it would seem)

After some sword fighting and marching of the pike men,( you will notice uniforms beginning to make an appearance here)

above
We were treated to some very loud bangs. This apparently is a reproduction of the first gun, no more than a long pipe really, and certainly no more accurate.

below
This is the next step not very accurate either but boy does it make a noise (aw ra weans started greetin when this photie was ta'en)

Unusually there were three women in this presentation, giving the audience a better view of what a woman would wear. After a battle, Pickard was rounding up the stray prisoners, he boasted to the audience of the fun they had had that day throwing the prisoners into a river and then spearing them on pikes as they tried to get out. While he spoke an escapee ran and hid in the encampment. The women tried to hide him, but any woman who stood up to a man in those days could only have one reason, she was a witch. This lady dabbled in herbs ( I am at present trying out her herbal cure for eczema)

After the accusation has been levelled Pickard tries to wrest her bottle of poison from her so that she could instead be made to fall on his sword. And they say we live in violent times !!

My old guest buik

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