Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it.

Strange as this expectation appears to us, it is quite of a piece with early modes of thought.

Johnstone of that ilk = Johnstone from Johnstone

It was answered by the Sheriff. 1st, That the Act of Sederunt did not impose any positive injunction on Sheriffs to strike Fiars; that if the Fiars were substantially just, the Court could have no power to reduce them; and that the Act of Sederunt had never been observed in East Lothian; […] .