Memorials of Edinburgh in the olden time

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Presented to the

LIBRARY of the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

by

JOSEPH BUIST

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND co.

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MEMORIALS

OF

EDINBURGH

IN THE OLDEN TIME.

BY

DANIEL WILSON, LL.D.

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY, TORONTO;
LATE ACTING SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND.

mew JEDition.

EDINBURGH:

THOMAS C JACK, GRANGE PUBLISHING WORKS.
LONDON: 45 LUDGATE HILL.

1886.

:

CONTENTS.

PART I.— HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'S.

CHAP. "«"

I. EARLIEST TRADITIONS, ..... .... 1

II. FBOM THE ACCESSION OP THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OP JAMES III., . . . .11

III. FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OP PLODDEN, ... .22

IV. PROM THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO THE DEATH OF JAMES V., . . . .34
V. FROM THE DEATH OF JAMES V. TO THE ABDICATION OP QUEEN MARY, . . . .47

VI. FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES VI. TO THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II., . . .81

VII. HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION, ....... 99

PART II.— LOCAL ANTIQUITIES AND TRADITIONS.

I. THE CASTLE, ... ....... 121

II. KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLEHILL, ...... 134

III. THE LAWNMARKET, . . . . . . . . . . .158

IV. THE TOLBOOTH, LUCKENBOOTHS, AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE, ..... 184
V. THE HIGH STREET, ........... 221

VI. THE HIGH STREET AND NETHERBOW, ........ 249

VII. THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY, ........ 276

viii. ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND THE COWGATE, . . . . . 310

IX. THE WEST BOW AND THE SUBURBS, ........ 333

X. LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN, ......... 356

XI. ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES, ......... 377

APPENDIX.

NO.

I. EDINBURGH, ............ 423

II. ANCIENT MAPS AND VIEWS OF EDINBURGH, ....... 424

III. CHURCHES, ............ 428

IV. CORPORATION AND MASONIC HALLS, ........ 430

V. WRYCHTI8HOUSIS, ........... 432

VI. PORTEOUS MOB, *;.......... 433

VII. LADY ANN BOTHWELL'S LAMENT, ......... 433

vi CONTENTS.

HO. PAOE

VIII. ARMORIAL BEARINGS, .......... 435

IX. THE RESTORATION. BURNING OF CROMWELL, THE POPE, ETC., ..... 436

X. WEST BOW. MAJOR WEIR, .......... 438

XI. OLD BANK CLOSE. ASSASSINATION OP SIR GEORGE LOCKHART BY CHIKSLEY OF DALEY, . 440

XII. SIR DAVID LINDSAY, ........... 442

xm. UMFRAVILLE'S CROSS, . ....... 442

XIV. GREYFRIARS' MONASTERY, . .' . ..... 443

XV. THE WHITEFRIARS' MONASTERY, ". ." . . , . . . 444

xvi. ST KATHERINE'S WELL, . . ..... 445

XVII. CLAUDERO, ... . ..... 445

xviii. ST GILES'S CHURCH, . . . ...... 4oO

XIX. ANCIENT LODGINGS, . ......... 452

XX. THE PILLORY, . . • . - . . . . . . 454

PREFACE.

Work now brought to a close, under the title of MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH IN THE
OLDEN TIME, was begun years ago, not with the pen, but the pencil. In the grati-
fication of a taste for the picturesque relics of the past, with which the old Scottish capital
abounds, a considerable number of sketches and drawings accumulated, which acquired a
value altogether apart from any claim to artistic merit, when the subjects of many of
them disappeared in the course of the radical changes wrought of late years on the Old
Town. Believing that the interest which these monuments of former ages are calculated
to excite commands the sympathy of a numerous and increasing class, I was induced to
prepare a selection of the drawings for engraving, and to draw up a slight descriptive
narrative to accompany them ; but the absence of desirable information in other works
on the subject, and the accumulation * a good deal of curious material, led to a total
change of plan, the result of which is now before the reader.

On referring to the works already published on the antiquities of Edinburgh, none of
them seemed to embrace the object in view. Maitland's history presents a huge accumu-
lation of valuable, and generally accurate, but nearly undigested materials ; while Arnot
furnishes a lively and piquant rifacimento of his predecessor's labours, embellished with
occasional illustrations derived from his own researches ; but, with one or two slight
exceptions, neither of them have attempted to describe what they were themselves
cognisant of. Both of the historians of Edinburgh seem, indeed, to have lacked that
invaluable faculty of the topographer, styled by phrenologists locality, and the consequence
is, that we are treated with a large canvas, composed in the historic vein of high art,
when probably most readers would much rather have preferred a cabinet picture of the
Dutch school. In striking contrast to either of these, are Mr Robert Chambers's delightful

x PREFACE.

11 Traditions." The author has there struck out an entirely new path, and with the
happiest results. The humour and the pathos of the old-world stories of Edinburgh in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ere New Town and Old Town improvements were
more substantial than the dreams of future reformers, are secured: — not without occasional
heightening touches from the delineator's own lively fancy. It is only surprising that
the " Traditions of Edinburgh" have not diffused an antiquarian taste far more widely
than is yet to be found among the modern denizens of the Scottish capital.

The following Memorials of Old Edinburgh differ perhaps as much from the picturesque
traditions of the latter writer, as from the stately historic quarto of Arnot, or from Mait-
land's ponderous folio. They .are pen and pencil sketches, professing, in general, con-
siderable minuteness of outline, though with a rapid touch that precludes very elaborate
finish. Accuracy has been aimed at throughout, not without knowingly incurring the
risk of occasionally being somewhat dry. I am well aware, however, of having fallen
short of what was desired in this all-important point, notwithstanding an amount of
labour and research in the progress of the work, only a very small portion of which appears
in its contents. Some hundreds of old charters, title-deeds, and records of various sorts,
in all varieties of unreadable manuscript, have been ransacked in its progress ; and had it
been possible to devote more time to such research, I have no doubt that many curious and
interesting notices, referring to our local antiquities, would have amply repaid the labour.
Of the somewhat more accessible materials furnished in the valuable publications of our
antiquarian book-clubs, abundant use has been made ; and personal observation has
supplied a good deal more that will probably be appreciated by the very few who find any
attraction in such researches. In the Appendix some curious matter has been accumulated
which readers of moderate antiquarian appetites will probably avoid — to their own loss.
I am not altogether without hope, however, that should such readers be induced to wade
through the work, they may find antiquarian researches not quite so dull as they are
affirmed, on common report, to be ; since, in seeking to embody the Memorials of my
native city, I am fortunate in the possession of a subject commanding associations with
nearly all the most picturesque legends and incidents of our national annals.

In selecting the accompanying illustrations, the chief aim has been to furnish an
example of all the varieties of style and character that were to be found in the wynds and
closes of Old Edinburgh. The majority of them have some curious or valuable associations
to add to their interest, but some were chosen for uo other reason than to illustrate

PREFA CE. xi

ancient manners, all records of which are rapidly disappearing. Their accuracy is their
chief recommendation. It would have been easy to have embellished them with spiirious
additions, such as are of frequent occurrence in the illustrated candidates for the drawing-
room table. Their claim to any value, however, rests solely on their being true Memorials
of Old Edinburgh, as it has come down to us from former generations. If they should
appear somewhat plain, and sparingly furnished with ornaments, the best apology is, that
our old Scottish style of architecture, apart from ecclesiastical edifices, partook of the
national character; it was solid, massive, and enriched with little display of ornament,
yet exhibiting, as a whole, an accidental, but striking, picturesqueness altogether beyond
the reach of elaborate art.

In the progress of the work I have been indebted for much kind and valuable assistance
to some of the most zealous students of Scottish literary and topographical antiquities.
To Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., I am under special obligations for many curious
reminiscences of the olden time ; for free access to his valuable museum of antiquities,
which rivals the more famed collection of Abbotsford ; for the use of some of the rare
treasures of his library ; and, indeed, for an amount of courtesy and kindness for which
any acknowledgment I can offer is a very inadequate return. To David Laing, Esq.,

I owe the use of a book of pencil sketches, drawn by Mr Daniel Somerville in 1817

» •

and 1818, which has enabled me to recover views of several ancient localities demo-
lished before my own sketching days. The use which has been made of these sketches
is acknowledged on the several plates. To Mr Laing's well-known courtesy I have
been still more indebted for access to rare books, and other curious sources of infor-
mation, which were otherwise beyond my reach. To Mr William Rowan, of New
College Library, I have also to express my obligations for valuable materials derived
from original sources, and still more from the stores of his singularly retentive memory.
From W. B. D. D. Turnbull, Esq., I have received, in addition to much friendly
assistance, free access to his extensive library, well known as probably the most
perfect collection in the kingdom on his own favourite studies of Topography and
Heraldry. To Robert Chambers, Esq., Alexander Smellie, Esq., and the Rev.
Principal Lee, as well as to others, I have to return thanks for much kind and unex-
pected aid.

To John Sinclair, Esq., City Clerk, and to James Laurie, Esq., of the Sasine
Office, my thanks are due for facilitating my researches among the city charters and

xii PREFACE.

records, as well as to many others, whose obliging assistance has in various ways lightened
the labour of the work. It is impossible, indeed, to do more than allude to these. In
searching for the charters and title-deeds of old mansions, by which alone accurate and
trustworthy information could in many cases be obtained, I have met with the frankest
co-operation from strangers, to whom my sole introduction was the object of research ;
while the just appreciation of such courtesy has been kept alive by the surly or supercilious
rebuffs with which I was occasionally arrested in similar inquiries. Some of the latter have
been amusing enough. On one occasion access to certain title-deeds of an ancient property
was denied in a very abrupt manner, while curiosity was whetted meanwhile by the infor-
mation, somewhat testily volunteered, that the deeds were both ancient and very curious.
All attempts to mollify the dragon who guarded these antiquarian treasures proving
unavailing, the search had to be abandoned ; but I learned afterwards, that the old tene-
ment which had excited my curiosity — and which, except to an antiquary, seemed hardly
worth a groat — was then the subject of litigation between two Canadian claimants to the
heirship of the deceased Scottish laird ; and the unconscious archaeologist had been set
down as the agent of some Yankee branch of the Quirk-Gammon-and-Snap school of legal
practitioners 1

In acknowledging the assistance I have been favoured with, I must not omit to notice
that of my friend Mr James Drummond, A.B.S.A., to whose able pencil the readers owe
the view in the interior of St Giles's Church, which forms the vignette at the head of the
last chapter. To the Rev. John Sime, I am also indebted for the drawing of the ground-
plan of St Giles's Church, previous to the recent alterations, an engraving of which illus-
trates the Appendix ; and to the very accurate pencil of Mr William Douglas, for several
of the inscriptions which illustrate that peculiar feature of our ancient buildings. The
remainder of the vignettes are from my own sketches, unless where other sources are stated,
and for the correctness of these I am responsible, nearly the whole of them having been
drawn on the wood with my own hand.

It may be desirable to state, that the historical sketch comprised in the first seven
chapters of the Work was written, and nearly all through the press, before I found time to
arrange a large collection of materials in the form in which they are now presented in the
Second Part. I have accordingly, in one or two cases, somewhat modified my earlier views.
The opinion expressed on p. 50, for example, as to the total destruction of the whole private
buildings of the town in 1544, I am now satisfied is erroneous, and various edifices are

PREFACE. xiii

accordingly described in succeeding chapters, the walls of wliioli evidently suffered no very
great injury from that destructive conflagration.

I am fur from conceiving that the materials for an antiquarian history of Edinburgh are
exhausted, though probably nearly all has now been gleaned from traditional sources to
which any worth can be attached. There is, indeed, no lack of such legends to those who
choose to go in search of them. The Scottish antiquary finds an amount of sympathy in
his pursuit among the peasantry and the lower classes of the town population, which,
however it be accounted for, he will look for in vain among the more educated, as a class.
The tenants of the degraded dwellings of the old Holy rood aristocracy cherish the memory
of their titled predecessors with u zeal that would do credit to the most accomplished
editor of the 151 ue Book. One half of the old wives of Edinburgh prove, on evidence
which it would be dangerous to dispute, that their crazy mansions were once the abodes of
royalty, or the palaces of Scottish grandees, while the monotony of hackneyed tales of
Queen Mary and Cromwell — the popular hero and heroine of such romances — is occa-
sionally varied by the ingenious embellishments of some more practised story-teller.
Modern local traditions, however, are like the modern antiques of our ballad books ; their
genealogy is more difficult to trace than the evidence of their spuriousness. One might,
indeed, pardon the fictions of antiquarian romancers, if they brought to the aid of the
memorialist such skilful forgeries as Chatterton furnished to the too credulous historian of
Bristol ; finding in the unfailing treasures of the old muniment chest of St. Mary's llet-
cliffe, and the versatile parchments of " The gode prieste Rowley" whatever the diligent
antiquary wished to discover. The exorcisms of such diseuchauters as the modern architect
of St. Giles's, however, have put to flight more pleasant facts, and fictions too, than the
inventive genius even of u Chatterton can restore; while popular periodical literature,
diluted into halfpenny worths of novelette and romance, has so poisoned the pure old
springs of tradition, that one detects in the most unsophisticated grand-dams tales of
the present day, some adulteration from the manufactory of the literary hack. This
it is which makes it so reasonable a source of regret, that Arnot should have stalked
through the purlieus of Old Edinburgh, elevated on historic stilts, at a time when a
description of what lay around him, and a relation of the fireside gossip of the stately
old Scottish dames of the eighteenth century, would have snatched from oblivion a
thousand curious reminiscences, now altogether beyond recall. To a very different
and much less attractive source, we are compelled to turn for the chance of recovering

xiv PREFACE.

some of those curious associations with which the picturesque hauuts of Old Edinhurgh
abound. My own researches have satisfied me that the clues to many such still lie
buried among the dusty parchments of old charter chests ; but their recovery must,
after all, depend as much on a lucky chance as on any very diligent inquiry. It has
often chanced that, after wading through whole bundles of such dull MSS. — those of
the sixteenth century frequently measuring singly several yards in length — in vain
search for a fact, or date, or other corroborative evidence, I have stumbled on it quite
unexpectedly while engaged in an altogether different inquiry. Should, however, the
archaeological spirit which is exercising so strong an influence in France, Germany,
and England, as well as in other parts of Europe, revive in Scotland also, where
so large a field for its enlightened operations remains nearly unoccupied, much
that is valuable may yet be secured which is now overlooked or thrown aside as
useless.

Antiquarian research has been brought into discredit, far less by the unimaginative
spirit of the age than by the indiscrimiuating pursuits of its own cultivators, whose sole
object has too frequently been to amass "a fouth o' auld nick-nackets." Viewed,
however, in its just light, as the handmaid of history, and the synthetic, more
frequently than the analytic, investigator of the remains of earlier ages, it becomes a
science, bearing the same relation to the labours of the historian, as chemistry or
mineralogy do to the investigations of the geologist and the speculations of the
cosmogonist. In this spirit, and not for the mere gratification of an aimless curiosity,
I have attempted, however ineffectually, to embody these MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH IN
THE OLDEN TIME. D. W.

EDINBUBQH, Christina* 1847.

NOTE BY THE PUBLISHER.

This edition of the MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH is an exact reprint of the original work, with the
exception that, where buildings have been removed, or other alterations made, the fact is stated
either in a foot-note or otherwise.

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
PART I.

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.

TO THE FRONTISPIECE OF ABAKUK BISSKl's BOOKE OF THE OLD MONUMENTS OF SCOTLAND.

'Twixt Was, and Is, how various are the Ods !

What one man doth, another doth vndoe :
One consecrates Religious Workes to Gods,
Another leaues sad Wrackes and liuines now.

Thy Booke doth shew that such and such things were,
But, would to God that it could say, They are.

When I pererre the South, North, East, and West,

And mark, alace, each Monument amis ;
Then I couferre Tymes present with the past :
I reade what was, but cannot see what is ;

I prayse thy Booke with wonder, but am gone,
To reade olde Euines in a recent storie.

Poetical Recreationts of Mr Alexander Craig,
of Rose-Craig. Scoto Britan. 1623.

S>t antenna's TOell

A silver stream, as in the days of yore,
When the old hermit of the neighbouring cell
Bless'd the clear waters of St Anton's Well ;
And yon grey ruins, on whose grassy floor
The lamlikins browse, rung out the matin bell,
Whose voice upon the neighbouring city fell
Waking up 'mong its crowds old hearts that wore
Griefs like our own ; sounding to one the knell
Of ruined hopes, to which another heeds
As joyful music on his marriage morn.
Up yon steep cliff how oft light steps have borne
The wedding or the christening train ; where weeds
So long have grown the chapel altar stood,
And daily pilgrims knelt before the Holy Rood.

Thus fashions change, while Nature is the same ;
The altar gone, — the chapel's crumbling walls
O'erlooking there the Stuarts' ancient halls,
Deserted all and drear ; with but the fame
Of buried glories giving them a name ;
Where yet the past as with a spell enthralls
The wanderer's fancy, rapt in musing dream
Of ancient story, helping it to frame
Old scenes in yon grey aisles, when mass was sung,
While Mary — hapless Queen — knelt low the while,
And thrilling chaunts and incense filled the aisle ; —
Vain dream ! — Of all that there so fondly clung,
Nought save the daisy and the blue harebell
Breathe their old incense by St Anton's Well.

MEMORIALS

EDINBURGH IN THE OLDEN TIME,

CHAPTER I

EARLIEST TRADITIONS.

HE history of Edinburgh, down to a comparatively
| recent era, is included in that of its Castle and Abbey.

The first, the fortress, round whose protecting citadel
tlie rude huts of our forefathers were gathered and continued to increase, until, amid the
wealth and security of more peaceful times, the Abbey of the Holyrood reared its conse-
crated walls, and absorbed to itself much of the wealth and the learning, many of the
virtues, and doubtless also some of the vices, of the wild Saxons that peopled the fertile
Lothians. It is unnecessary to follow in this History the fanciful disquisitions of zealous
antiquaries, respecting the origin and etymology of Edinburgh ; it has been successively
derived, both in origin and name, from Saxon, Pict, and Gael ; and in each case, with
sufficient ingenuity only to leave the subject more deeply involved than at first. To expect
that the first rude gathering of the hamlet, that forms the nucleus of the future capital,
should leave its traces in the surviving records or traditions of the past, were as unreason-
able as that the rustic should challenge the veracity of a living historian, because he

VIGNETTE — Ancient carved stuiie over the entrance to the Ordnance Office, Edinburgh Castle.

A

2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

fails to adorn his pages with the " mute inglorious " history of his native village. All
that tradition could have preserved of its early history, may still be traced by the
intelligent eye in the natural features of its romantic site.

In the midst of a fertile and beautiful country, and within easy distance of a navigable
estuary of the sea, rises a bold and precipitous cliff, towering upon three of its sides, an
inaccessible natural fortress, to the height of 300 feet above the plain. In immediate con-
nection with this, the sloping hill forms at once the natural approach to the Castle, and
a site protected already on one side by a marsh and lake, and on all but one by steep
approaches, admitting of ready defence and security from surprise. Here at once is dis-
covered a situation, planned, as it were, by the hand of Nature, to offer to the wandering
tribes of early Caledonia the site for their Capital ; when every one's hand was against his
brother, and war was deemed the only fitting occupation of men. Nor was it until the
union with our once natural foes, had made the rival sisters, " like kindred drops to mingle
into one," that Edina ventured forth from her hilly stronghold, and spread abroad her
noble skirts over the valley of the Forth.

But in addition to the natural obscurity of an infant city, the history of Edinburgh, as
of Scotland, is involved in more than usual uncertainty, even down to a period when both
should fill an important page in the annals of the British Isles, owing to the double destruc-
tion of the national records, first under Edward I., and again under Cromwell ; leaving its
historian dependent for much of his material on vague and uncertain tradition, or on infor-
mation obtained by patient labour, or fortunate chance in the pursuit of other investigations.

The earliest notices refer almost exclusively to the Castle, which has been occupied as
a fortified station as far back as our traditions extend. The remotest date we have been
able to discover, assigned for its origin, is in Stow's Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles,
where it is placed as far back as 989 years before Christ ; sufficiently remote, we should
presume, for the most zealous chronologist. " Ebranke," says he, " the sonne of Mem-
pricius, was made ruler of Britayne ; he had, as testifieth Policronica, Ganfride, and other
" twenty-one wyves, of whom he receyved twenty sonnes and thirty daughters ; whyche he
sente into Italye, there to be maryed to the blood of the Troyans. In Albanye (now called
Scotlande) he edified the castell of Alclude, which is Dumbritayn ; * he made the castell
of Maydens, now called Edenbrough ; he made also the castell of Banburgh in the 23d
yere of his reign. He buylded Yorke citie, wherein he made a temple to Diana, and set
there an Arch-flame; and there was buried, when he had reigned 49 yeares."-

From more trustworthy sources, we learn of its occupation as far back as the fifth cen-
tury by the Picts, from whom it was wrested by the Northumbrian Saxons in the year
452. And from that time, down to the reign of Malcolm II., its history exhibits a con-
stant struggle, maintained between them and the Picts, and each alternately victorious.
From Edwin, one of these Northumbrian invaders, it may be remarked, who rebuilt the
fortress about the year 626, the name of Edwinesburg, as it is termed in the oldest char-
ters we have any notice of, is derived with more plausibility, than from any other of the
contradictory sources from which learned antiquaries have sought to deduce it.

Passing intermediate incidents of uncertain significance, the next important epoch is that
of 1093, when Donald Bane laid siege to the Castle, in an unsuccessful endeavour to pos-

1 Dumbarton.

EARLIEST TRADITIONS. ^

sess himself of Edgar, the youthful heir to the crown, then lodged within its walls, lu
that year, also, Queen Margaret (the widow of Malcolm Canmore, and the mother of
Edgar), to whose wisdom and sagacity he entrusted implicitly the internal polity of his
kingdom, died in the Castle, of grief, on learning of his death, with that of Edward, their
eldest son, hoth slain at the siege of Aluwick castle ; l and while the usurper, relying on
the general steepness of the rocky cliff, was urgent only to secure the regular accesses,
the body of the Queen was conveyed through a postern gate, and down the steep declivity
on the western side, to the Abbey Church of Dunfermline, where it lies interred ; while
the young Prince, escaping by the same egress, found protection in England, at the hand
of his uncle, Edgar Atheling. In commemoration of the death of Queen Margaret, a
church was afterwards erected, and endowed with revenues, by successive monarchs ; al 1
trace of which has long since disappeared, the site of it being now occupied by the barracks
forming the north side of the great square.

[1107.] In the reign of Alexander L, at the beginning of the twelfth century, the first
distinct notices of the town as a royal residence are found ; while in that of his successor
David, we discover the origin of many of the most important features still surviving. He
founded the Abbey of Holyrood, styled by Fordun " Monasterium Sanctse Crucis de Crag,"
which was begun to be built in its present situation in the year 1128. The convent, the
precursor of St David's Abbey, is said to have been placed at first within the Castle ; and
some of the earliest gifts of its saintly founder to his new monastery, were the churches of
the Castle and of St Cuthbert's, immediately adjacent, with all their dependencies ; among
which, one plot of land belonging to the latter is meted by " the fountain which rises near
the corner of the King's garden, on the road leading to St Cuthbert's church." 2

[1178.] According to Father Hay, the Nuns, from whom the Castle derived the name
of Castrum Puellarum, " were thrust out by St David, and in their place the Canons in-
troduced by the Pope's dispense, as fitter to live among souldiers. They continued in the
Castle dureiug Malcolm the Fourth his reign ; upon which account we have severall charters
of that king granted, apud Monasterium Sanctas Crucis de Castello Puellarum. Under
King William [the Lion], who was a great benefactor to Holyrood-house, I fancie the
Canons retired to the place which is now called the Abbay." 3 King David built also for
them, and for the use of the inhabitants, a mill, the nucleus of the village of Canonmills,
which still retains many tokens of its early origin, though now rapidly being surrounded
by the extending modern improvements.

The charter of foundation of the Abbey of the Holyrood, besides conferring valuable
revenues, derivable from the general resources of the royal burgh of Edinburgh, gives them

1 Lord Hailes records a monkish tradition, which may be received as a proof of the popular belief, in the strong attach-
ment of the Queen to her husband. " The body of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, was removed from its place of sepulture
at Dunfermline, and deposited in a costly shrine. While the monks were employed in this service, they approached the
tomb of her husband Malcolm. The body became on a sudden so heavy, that they were obliged to set it down. Still,
as more hands were employed in raising it, the body became heavier. The spectators stood amazed ; and the humble
monks imputed this phenomenon to their own unworthiness ; when a bystander cried out, ' The Queen will not stir till
equal honours are performed to her husband.' This having been done, the body of the Queen was removed with ease."
— Annals, vol. i. p. 303.

2 Liber Cartarum Sancte Crucis, p. xi.

3 Father Hay, Ibid. xxii. Richard Augustin Hay, canon of St Genevieve, at Paris, and prospective Abbot of Holyrood
.at the Revolution, though an industrious antiquary, seems to have had no better authority for this nunnery than the
•disputed name Castrum Puellarum.

4 MEM OKI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

a right to dues to nearly the same amount from the royal revenues at the port of Perth,
the more ancient capital of Scotland ; justifying the quaint eulogy of his royal descendant,
that "he was an soir sanct for the crown."

By another important grant of this charter, liberty is given to the Canons to erect a burgh
between the Abbey and the town of Edinburgh, over which they are vested with supreme
rule, with right of trial by duel, and by fire and water ordeal. Hence the origin of the
burgh of Canongate, afterwards the seat of royalty, and the residence of the Scottish
nobility, as long as Scotland retained either to herself. In the same charter also, the first
authentic notice of the parish church of St Cuthbert's, and the chapelries of Corstorphine
and Libberton are found, by which we learn that that of St Cuthbert's had already, at this
early date, been endowed with very valuable revenues ; while it confirms to its dependency
at Libberton, certain donations which had been made to it by " Macbeth of Libberton,"
in the reign of David I., erroneously stated by Arnot " as Macbeth the Usurper.

The well-known legend of the White Hart most probably had its origin in some real
occurrence, magnified by the superstition of a rude and illiterate age. More recent obser-
vations at least suffice to show that it existed at a much earlier date than Lord Hailes
referred it to.3 According to the relation of an ancient service-book of the monastery, in
which it is preserved, King David, in the fourth year of his reign, was residing at the
Castle of Edinburgh, then surrounded with " ane gret forest, full of hartis, hyndis, toddis,
and sic like manner of beistis ; " and on the Eood Day, after the celebration of mass, he
yielded to the solicitations of the young nobles in his train, and set forth to hunt, not-
withstanding the earnest dissuasions of a holy canon, named Alkwine. " At last, quhen
he wes cumyn throw the vail that lyis to the eist fra the said Castell, quhare now lyis the
Cauuongait, the staill past throw the wod with sic noyis and dyn of bugillis, that all the
bestis wer raisit fra thair dennis." The King, separated from his train, was thrown from
his horse, and about to be gored by a hart " with auful and braid tyndis," when a cross
slipt into his ha&ds, at sight of which the hart fled away. And the King was thereafter
admonished, in a vision, to build the Abbey on the spot.4 The account is curious, as
affording a glimpse of the city at that early period, contracted within its narrow limits,
and encircled by a wild forest, the abode alone of the fox and the hind, where now for
centuries the busy scenes of a royal burgh have been enacted.

David I. seems to have been the earliest monarch who permanently occupied the Castle
as a royal residence — an example which was followed by his successors, down to the disas-
trous period when it was surrendered into the hands of Edward I. ; so that with the reign
of this monarch, in reality begins the history of Edinburgh, as still indicated to the histo-
rian in the vestiges that survive at the present day. After the death of David I., we find
the Castle successively the royal residence of his immediate successor, Malcolm IV., of
Alexander II. , and of William, surnamed the Lion, until after his defeat and capture by
Henry II. of England, when it was surrendered with other principal fortresses of the king-
dom, in ransom for the King's liberty. Fortunately, however, that which was thus lost
with the fortunes of war, was speedily restored by more peaceful means ; for an alliance

1 Sir D. Lindsay's Satyre of the Estaitis. Ed. 1806, vol. ii. p. 67.

2 Arnot, p. 5. Macbeth of Libberton's name occurs as a witness to several royal charters of David I. [1124-53.}
Vide Liber Cart. Sanctse Crucis, pp. 8 and 9. Macbeth the Usurper was slain 1056.

" Annals, David I. « Liber Cart. Sanctse Crucis, p. xii.

EARLIEST TRADITIONS. 5

having been concluded between Ermengarde de Beaumont, cousin to King Henry, Edin-
burgh Castle was gallantly restored as a dowry to the Queen, after having been held by
an English garrison for nearly twelve years.

In the year 1215, Alexander II., the son and successor of "William, convened his first
Parliament at Edinburgh ; and during the same reign, still further importance was given
to the rising city, by a Provincial Synod being held in it by Cardinal 1'Aleran, legate from
Pope Gregory IX. The revenues of Alexander could not rival the costly foundations of
his great-grandfather, David I. ; but he founded eight monasteries of the Mendicant Order,
in different parts of Scotland ; one of which, the monastery of -Blackfriars, stood nearly on
the same spot as the Royal Infirmary now occupies ; near which was the Collegiate Church
of St Mary-in-the-Field, better known as the Kirk-o'-Field, occupying the site of the
College — all vestiges of which have long since disappeared. But of these we shall treat
more at large ill their proper place. His son and successor, Alexander III., having been
betrothed to Margaret, daughter of Henry III. of England, nine years before, their nuptials
were celebrated at York, in the year 1242. Arnot tells us " the young Queen had Edinburgh
Castle appointed for her residence ; " but it would seem to have been more in the character
of a stronghold than a palace ; for, whereas the sumptuousness of her namesake, Queen of
Malcolm Canmore, the future St Margaret of Scotland, while residing there, excited dis-
content in the minds of her rude subjects, she describes it as " a sad and solitary place,
without verdure, and by reason of its vicinity to the sea, unwholesome ; that she was not
permitted to make excursions through the kingdom, nor to chose her female attendants ;
and lastly, that she was excluded from all conjugal intercourse with her husband, who by
this time had completed his fourteenth year." " Redress of her last grievance," Dalrymple
adds, " was instantly procured, redress of her other grievances was promised."

Shortly after, the Castle was surprised by Alan Dureward, Patrick Earl of March, and other
leaders, while their rivals were engaged in preparation for holding a Parliament at Stirling ;
and the royal pair being liberated from their durance, we shortly afterwards find them hold-
ing an interview with Henry, at Werk Castle, Northumberland. During the remainder of
the long and prosperous reign of Alexander III., the Castle of Edinburgh continued to be
the chief place of the royal residence, as well as for holding his courts for the transaction
of judicial affairs ; * it was also during his reign the safe depository of the principal records,
and of the regalia of the kingdom.2

From this time onward, through the disastrous wars that ultimately settled the Bruce
on the throne, and established the independence of Scotland, Edinburgh experienced
its full share of the national sufferings and temporary humiliation ; in June 1291, the
town and Castle were surrendered into the hands of Edward I. Holinshed relates that
he came to Edinburgh, where "he planted his siege about the Castell, and raised engines
which cast stones against and over the walls, sore beating and bruising the buildings with-
in; so that it surrendered by force of siege to the King of England's use, on the 15 daie
after he had first laid his siege about it."3 He was here also again on 8th July 1292, and
again on the 29th of the same month ; and here, in May 1296, he received within the
church in the Castle, the unwilling submission of many magnates of the kingdom, acknow-
ledging him as Lord Paramount ; and on the 28th of August following, William de

1 Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 58!!. - Ibid., p. 587. 3 Chronicles, 1586, vol. iii. p. 300,

6 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Dederyk, Alderman of Edinburgh, with the whole community of the town, swore fealty tc

the usurper.

Immediately after the final triumph of the Bruce, few occurrences of importance, in con-
nection with Edinburgh, are recorded ; though here, on the 8th March 1327, his Parliament
held its sittings in the Abbey of Holyrood,1 and here also his sixteenth and last Parlia-
ment assembled in March 1328. From the glimpses we are able to obtain from time to
time, it may be inferred that it still occupied a very secondary station among the towns
of Scotland ; and while the Castle was always an object of importance with every rival
power, its situation was much too accessible from the English border to be permanently
chosen as the royal residence. In the interregnum, for example, after the death of Mar-
garet, the Maid of Norway, we find, in 1304, when a general Parliament was summoned
by Edward to be held at Perth, for the settlement of Scotland, sheriffs are appointed for
each of twenty-one burghs named, while Edinburgh is grouped with Haddington and
Linlitho-ow, under " Ive de Adeburgh ; " 2 and the recapture of the Castle, on two succes-
sive occasions, by Edward, obtains but a passing notice, amid the stirring interest of the
campaigns of Bruce.

Towards the close of 1312, when the persevering valour of Bruce, and the imbecility of
Edward II., had combined to free nearly every stronghold of Scotland from English garri-
sons, we find the Castle of Edinburgh held for the English by Piers Leland, a Gascon
knight ; but when Eandolph, the nephew of the Bruce, laid it under strict blockade, the
garrison, suspecting his fidelity, thrust him into a dungeon, and prepared, under a newly
chosen commander, to hold out to the last. Matters were in this state, when a romantic
incident restored this important fortress to the Scottish arms. William Frank, a soldier,
who had previously formed one of the Scottish garrison, volunteered to guide the besiegers
by a steep and intricate path up the cliff, by which he had been accustomed in former years
to escape during the night from military durance, to enjoy the society of a fair maiden
of the neighbouring city, of whom he was enamoured. Frequent use had made him fami-
liar with the perilous ascent ; and, under his guidance, Eandolph, with thirty men, scaled
the Castle walls at midnight ; and after a determined resistance, the garrison was over-
powered. Leland, the imprisoned governor, entered the Scottish service on his release,
and, according to Barbour, was created by the King Viscount of Edinburgh ; but after-
wards, he adds, he thought that he had an English heart, and made him to be kangit and
drawen?

1 Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. i. foL a Hailes' Annals, vol. i. p. 285.

* Ibid., vol. ii. p. 38.
VIONETTE — Ancient stone from Edinburgh Castle, now in the Antiquarian Museum.

EARLIEST TRADITIONS. 7

In the commencement of the following reign, during the unfortunate minority of David
II., the usurper, Edward Baliol, held a Parliament at Edinburgh, 10th February 1333,
consisting of what are known as the disinherited barons, with seven bishops, including both
William of Dimkeld, and, it is said, Maurice of Dunblane, the Abbot of Inchaffray, who
there agreed to the humiliating conditions proposed by Edward III. It is even affirmed
by Tyrrel, though disproved by later authorities, that Edward attended in person, and
received the homage of Baliol as Lord Paramount of Scotland; but two years later, Leland
informs us of his residence at Edinburgh from the 16th to the 26th September, when
" he received the homage of Robert, sunne to the doughter of Robert Bruse, King of
Scotland."

Soon after this return of Edward to Scotland, Guy, Count of Namur, landed at Berwick,
with a considerable body of men-at-arms, to the assistance of the English ; and marching
upon Edinburgh, its Castle being at that time dismantled and ruinous, he was encountered
on the Borough-muir by the Earls of Moray and March, with a powerful force, when a
fierce and bloody battle ensued. In accordance with the chivalrous notions of the times,
Richard Shaw, a Scottish esquire, was challenged to single combat by a knight in the train
of the Count of Namur, when, after a brave encounter, each fell, transfixed by the other's
spear. On the bodies being afterwards stripped of their armour, the chivalrous stranger
proved to be a woman, who, from some undiscovered cause, had perilled her life in this
romantic and fatal enterprise. While victory seemed inclining to the enemy, the oppor-
tune arrival of William de Douglas with a reinforcement determined the fortune of the
day. The Count's force gave way and retreated, though still in order, and fighting gallantly
with the pursuing enemy. Part of them, retreating through St Mary's Wynd, were met
there by a body of Scots, headed by Sir David de Anand, and suifered great slaughter ;
the few who escaped joined the remainder of the force that had effected a retreat to the
Castle rock, then dismantled and defenceless, and there piling up a temporary rampart with
the dead bodies of their horses, they made a last attempt to hold out against the Scottish
forces. But thirst and hunger compelling them to capitulate on the following day, they
were suffered by the Earl of Moray to depart, on promising not to bear arms against David
in the Scottish wars. In the following year the Castle was rebuilt by Edward, and put in
a state of complete defence, as one of a chain of fortresses, by which he hoped to hold the
nation in subjection : but while Edinburgh then remained in the hands of the English, the
adjacent country was filled with predatory bands of Scots, ever ready to take them at
advantage. Alexander Ramsay, in particular, after having succeeded, with a band of only
forty resolute men, in raising the siege of Dunbar, concealed himself and his followers in
the caves, excavated in the cliffs beneath the romantic house of Hawthornden,1 and so
ingeniously constructed for concealment, as to elude the vigilance of the most cunning
enemy to whom the secret was unknown. The entrance is still shown in the side of the
draw-well, which served at once to cloak its purpose, and to secure for the hiders a ready

1 On the gable of the old house at Hawthornden, the well-known residence of the poet and historian, is a tablet
erected by Bishop Abernethy Drummond, with the following inscription : — " To the memory of Sir Lawrence Aber-
nethy of Hawthornden, 2d son of Sir William Abernethy of Salton, a brave and gallant soldier, who, at the head of a
party, in 1338, conquered Lord Douglas five times in one day, yet was taken prisoner before sunset." — Fordun, lib.
xiii. c. 44.

g MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

supply of water. From thence they sallied out from time to time, as occasions offered,
and not only harassed the enemy in the neighbouring capital, but extended their inroads
even as far as into Northumberland.1

In 1341, the Castle was recovered from the English by an ingenious stratagem, planned
by William Bullock, who had previously held the castle of Coupar for Baliol. Under his
directions, one Walter Curry of Dundee received into his ship two hundred Scots, under
the command of William dc Douglas, Frazer, and Joachim of Kinbak, and casting anchor
in Leith Roads, he presented himself to the governor of the Castle, as master of an English
vessel, just arrived with a valuable cargo of wines and provisions on board, which he offered
to dispose of for the use of the garrison. The bait took ; and the pretended trader appeared
at the Castle, according to appointment, early on the following morning, attended by a dozen
armed followers, disguised as sailors. Upon entering the Castle, they contrived to over-
turn their casks and hampers, so as to obstruct the closing of the gates, and instantly slew
the porter and guard. At an appointed signal, Douglas and his men sprung from their
concealment in the immediate neighbourhood, and, after a fierce conflict, overpowered the
garrison, and took possession of the Castle, in the name of David II. In the following
month the young King, with his consort, Johanna, lauded from France, and, within a short
time, the English were expelled from Scotland. When, a few years afterwards, the disas-
trous raid of Durham terminated in the defeat of the Scottish army, and the captivity
of the King, we find, in the treaty for his ransom, the merchants and burgesses of Edin-
burgh, along with those of Aberdeen, Perth, and Dundee, are held bound for themselves,
and all the other merchants of Scotland, for its fulfilment. And, ultimately, a Parliament
was held at Edinburgh, in 1357, for final adjustment of the terms of the royal ransom, where
the Regent Robert, the steward of Scotland (afterwards King Robert II.), presided ; at
which, in addition to the clergy and nobles, there were delegates present from seventeen
burghs, among which Edinburgh appears for the first tune placed at the head.

After David II. returned from
England, he resided during his
latter days in the Castle, to
which he made extensive ad-
ditions, enlarging the fortifica-
tions so recently rebuilt, and
adding in particular an exten-
sive building, afterwards known
by the name of " David's
Tower," which stood for 200
years, till battered to pieces in
the regency of James VI. ; and
here he died on the 22d February

1370, in the forty-second year of his age, and was buried in the church of the Abbey of Holy
rood, before the high altar. He was a brave and gifted prince, who in happier times might

1 Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 290.
VIONKTTE— The Castle, from a map engraved in 1575, showing King David's Tower.

EARLIEST TRADITIONS. 9

have elevated the character of his people. Tradition represents him as beguiling his
tedious captivity in England with his pencil ; and Barnes relates that he left behind him,
in a vault in Nottingham Castle, the whole story of our Saviour's passion, curiously
engraved on a rock with his own hand.1

With the death of this unfortunate prince terminated the direct line of the Bruce, that
had so nobly established, in the independence of Scotland, their right to the throne ; and
with it, too, may be considered to close the first epoch in the history of the Scottish capital,
while as yet it was only the occasional seat of her Parliaments, and the temporary residence
of her prince ; with many of the characteristics of a frontier town, ever on the watch to
repel the approach of foreign invaders, or with resolute endurance to stand the first brunt
of the Southron's hostile inroads.

Abercromby2 says of it at this time : " Edinburgh was then but a small burgh, or rather,
as Walsingham calls it, a village, the houses of which, because they were so often exposed
to incursions from England, being thatched for the most part with straw and turf; and
when burnt or demolished, were with no great difficulty repaired. The strength of the
(Jastle, the convenience of the Abbey, the fruitfulness of the adjacent country, and its no
great distance from the borders, made after kings chuse to reside for the most part, to hold
their Parliaments, and keep their courts of justice in this place." Their mode of defence
corresponded with the character of their habitations. When an overwhelming host crossed
the borders, and poured down in irresistible fury upon the neighbouring Lothians, like the
borderers of later times, they drove off their cattle, concealed their more bulky wealth,
and even carried away the straw roofs of their houses, as some security against a conflagra-
tion,3 leaving the enemy to wreak their futile vengeance upon the walls, that could be again
replaced, to satisfy their simple wants, almost ere the retreating foes had reached their
homes. Yet they never failed to retaliate ; and no sooner had the invaders been starved
into a retreat from the deserted plains, than the burghers of the smoking hamlet were at
their heels; and, as Abercromby adds, "Conformably to their usual custom, followed the
enemy into his own country, and never put up their swords till by a retaliating invasion
they had made up for their losses."

To complete the view of national manners at this early period, we shall add the lively
picture of Froissart,4 which, notwithstanding the peculiarities incident to a foreigner's
description of habits altogether new to him, exhibits traits that may still be found under
comparatively slight modifications at the present day, after all the changes that five cen-
turies have produced. " The Scots," says he, " are bold and hardy, and much inured to
war ; they bring no carriages with them, on account of the mountains they have to pass,
neither do they carry with them any provisions of bread or wine ; they have no occasion
for pots or caldrons, for they dress the flesh of their cattle in the skins, after they have
taken them off, and being sure to find plenty of them in the country they invade, they
carry none with them. Under the flaps of his saddle, each man carries a broad plate of
metal,5 and he trusses behind him a bag full of meal. They place this plate over the fire,

1 Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 141. 3 Ibid, voL ii. 189.

8 Baoatyne, Misc. Edin. Regise Scotorum Desorip. 4 Ibid, voL i. p. 32.

5 Scottice, A Girdle.

10

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

mix with water their oatmeal ; and when the plate is heated, put a little of the paste upon
it, and make a thin cake, like a cracknell or biscuit, which they eat to warm their stomachs :
it is therefore no wonder that they should perform a longer day's march than any other
soldiers ! "

V:ONETTE — Corbel, from St Giles's Church

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS TO THE
DEATH OF JAMES III.

ITH the accession of Kobert II., the first of the
Stuarts, a new era begins in the history of Edin-
burgh. From that time may be dated its standing
as the chief burgh of Scotland, though it did not
assume the full benefits arising from such a posi-
tion till the second James ascended the throne. It
may, indeed, be emphatically termed the capital
of the Stuarts ; it rose into importance with their

increasing glory ; it shared in all their triumpns ; it suffered in their disasters ; and with
the extinction of their line, it seemed to sink from its proud position among the capitals
of Europe, and to mourn the vanished glories in which it had taken so prominent a part.
The ancient Chapel of Holyrood, neglected and forgotten by their successors, was left to
tumble into ruins ; and grass grew on the unfrequented precincts of the Palace, where the
Jameses had held high court and festival ; and the lovely but unfortunate Mary Stuarr
had basked in the brief splendour of her first -welcome to the halls of her fathers ; and
endured the assaults of the rude barons and reformers, with whom she waged so unequal
a contest.

During the reigns of the earlier Stuarts, the relative positions of Scotland and England
continued to preserve more of the character of an armistice in time of war, than any
approach to settled peace; and in the constant incursions which ensued, Edinburgh ex-

12 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

perienced the same evils formerly resulting from its exposed position. In 1383,1 we liiid
King Robert II. holding his court there, and receiving the ambassador of Charles VI. of
France, with whom he renewed the league entered into with his predecessor; and from
this time so constant an intercourse was maintained between the two courts, that both the
manners of the people and the style of building of the Scottish capital were formed on
the French model — traces of which were abundant in the last century, and are not quite
extinct even in the present day.

Immediately thereafter, in 1384, the town is found in the hands of the English. The
Scots, under the Earls of Douglas and March, having begun the war with great success,
the Duke of Lancaster, at the head of " an army almost innumerable," as Walsingham
styles it, passed the border, and marched straight to Edinburgh, which, however, he spared
from the destruction to which it was devoted, in grateful remembrance of his hospitable
entertainment there, while an exile from the English Court — a kindness the Scots showed
little appreciation of, in the reprisals with which they, as usual, followed him immediately
on his retreat to England. In requitance of this, he returned the following year and laid
the town in ashes.

[1385.] It was in this incursion that the first edifice of St Giles's was destroyed; at
this time only a parish church, originally in the patronage of the Bishop of Lindisfarn, from
whom it passed into the hands of the Abbot of Dunfermline. Yet, from the remains of
the original church that were preserved almost to our own day, it would seem to have been
a building of great richness and beauty, in the early Norman style. There is a very scarce
engraving, an impression of which is in the Signet Library, exhibiting a view of a very
beautiful Norman doorway, destroyed about the year 1 760, in the same reckless manner as
so many other relics of antiquity have been swept away by our local authorities ; and which
was, without doubt, a portion of the original building that had survived the conflagration
in 1385. The ancient church was, doubtless, on a much smaller scale than now, as suited
to the limits of the town ; thus described by Froissart, in his account of the reception of
De Kenne, the admiral of France, who came to the assistance of Robert II. at this time :
— " Edinburgh, though the kynge kepte there his chefe resydence, and that is Parys in
Scotland ; yet it is not like Tourney or Vallenciennes, for in all the towne is not foure
thousande houses ; therefore it behoved these lordes and knyghts to be lodged about in the
villages." The reception they met with was in keeping with their lodging. We are told
the Scots "dyde murmure and grudge, and sayde, Who the devyll hath sent for them?
cannot we mayntayne our warre with Englande well ynoughe without their helpe ? They
understand not us, nor we theym; therefore we cannot speke toguyder. They wyll
annone ryffle, and eat up alle that ever we have in this countrey ; and doo us more dis-
pytes and damages than thoughe the Englysshemen shulde fyght with us ; for thoughe the
Englysshe brinne our houses, we care lytell therefore ; we shall make them agayne chepe
ynough ! "

In the succeeding reign, at the close of 1390, we again find the ambassadors of Charles
VI. at the Scottish Court, where they were honourably entertained, and witnessed, in the
Castle of Edinburgh, the King's putting his hand and seal to the treaty of mutual aid and
defence against the English, which had been drawn up in the reign of his father. Shortly

1 Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 185. 2 Lord Berners Froissart.

THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF JAMES III. I3

after this, Henry IV. of England renewed the oft-confuted claim of superiority over Scot-
land ; and in pursuance of this, wrote letters to the Scottish King, and to the nobles and
prelates of Scotland, requiring them to meet him at Edinburgh by the 23d of August in
order to pay the homage due to him as their superior and direct lord.1 King Henry was
as good as his word, for with a well-ordered and numerous army, he crossed the Borders,
and was at Edinburgh before the day he had appointed ; as appears from a letter written
by him to the King of Scots, dated at Leith, 21st August 1400. 2 While there, the
Duke of Rothsay, who then held the Castle of Edinburgh, sent him a challenge to meet
him where he pleased, with an hundred nobles on each side, and so to determine the quar-
rel. But King Henry was in no humour to forego the advantages he already possessed,
at the head of a more numerous army than Scotland could raise ; and so contenting him-
self with a verbal equivocation in reply to this knightly challenge, he sat down with his
numerous host before the Castle, till (with the usual consequences of the Scottish recep-
tion of such invaders), cold and rain, and absolute dearth of provisions, compelled him to
raise the inglorious siege and hastily recross the Border, without doing any notable injury
either in his progress or retreat.

During the minority of James L, the royal poet, and his tedious captivity of nineteen
years in England, Edinburgh continued to partake of all the uncertain vicissitudes of the
capital of a kingdom under delegated government, though still prosperous enough to con-
tribute 50,000 merks towards the payment of his ransom. When at length he did return
to enter on the cares of royalty, his politic plans for the control of the Highland clans seem
to have led to the almost constant assembly of the Parliaments, as well as his frequent
residence at Perth. Yet, in 1430, we find him residing in Edinburgh, attended by his Queen
and court, as appears from accounts of the surrender of the Earl of Ross. At this time,
the rebellious Earl, having made a vain attempt to hold out against the resolute measures
of the King, wrote to his friends at court to mediate a peace ; but finding their efforts un-
availing, he came privately to Edinburgh,3 where, having watched a fit opportunity, when
the King and Queen were in the church of Holyrood Abbey at divine service, he prostrated
himself on his knees, and holding the point of his sword in his own hand, presented the
bilt to the King, intimating that he put his life at his Majesty's mercy. At the request of
the Queen, King James granted him his life, but confined him for a time in the castle of
Tantallan. His imprisonment, however, seems to have been brief, and the reconciliation,
on the King's part at least, sincere and effectual ; for the Queen having shortly after this
given birth to two sons — Alexander, who died soon after; and James, afterwards the
second monarch of the name ; — the King not only liberated him, with many other prisoners,
but is said to have selected him to stand sponsor for the royal infants at the font.

The style of building, still prevalent at this period, was of the same rude and fragile
nature as we have already described at an earlier period ; and repeated enactments occur,
intended to avert the dangerous conflagrations to which the citizens were thus liable. In
the third Parliament of this reign, a series of stringent laws were passed, requiring the
magistrates to keep " siven or aught twenty fute ledders, as well as three or foure sayes to
the commoun use, and sex or maa cleikes of iron, to draw down timber and ruiffes that are
fired." And, again, " that na fire be fetched fra ane house, til ane uther within the town,

' -Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 200. * Ibid, p. 215. 3 Ibid, p. 289.

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

bot within covered veshel or lantcrue, under the paine of aue uulaw ; " l from all which it
would seem that the houses were still mostly wooden tenements, thatched with straw, and
never higher than two storeys. The nobility had not yet begun to build mansions for their

residence in the capital while
attending on the court; but
continued to take up their
abode in the monasteries, ac-
cording to the fashion of the
times.

Still earlier in the same
reign, all travellers are forbid
to lodge with their friends
when they visit the borough,
but in the " hostillaries ; bot
gif it be the persones that
leadis monie with them in
companie, that sail have
fricdome to harberie with
their friends; swa that their
horse and their meinze be
harberied and ludged in the
commoun hostillaries ; " and
burgesses are forbid to harbour their friends under pain of forty shillings.

In this and the following reign, occur successive sumptuary laws, which give considerable
insight into the manners of the age. All save knights and lords, of at least 200 merks
yearly rent, are prohibited from wearing silk or furs, of various descriptions ; " and none
uther were borderie, pearle, nor bulzeone, bot array them in honest arrairnents, as serpes,
beltes, broches, and cheinzies." While, again in the fourteenth Parliament of James II.,
held in Edinburgh in 1457, the ladies seem to have called down such restrictions upon
them in an especial manner, by their love of display. It is there required of the citizens,
" that they make their wifes and dauchters gangand correspondaut for their estate ; that
is to say, on their heads short curches, with little hudes ; and as to their gownes, that na
women weare mertrickes nor letteis, nor tailes unfitt in length, nor furred under, bot on the
Halie-daie. And, in like manner, the barronnes and other puir gentlemen's wives. That
iia laborers nor husbandmen weare on the warke daye, bot gray and quhite : and on the
Halie-daie, bot lichtblew, greene, redde, and their wives richt-swa ; and courchies of their
awin making, not exceeding the price of xl. pennyes the elne."

On the 21st of February 1438, James L, the poet, the soldier, and the statesman, fell
by the hands of his rebellious subjects, in the convent of the Dominicans at Perth, spread-
ing sorrow and indignation over the kingdom. Within less than forty days thereafter, all
the conspirators had been apprehended and brought to Edinburgh for trial. The meaner
sort were left to the hangman ; but for their titled leaders, the ingenuity of a barbarous

1 Soots Acts, 12rao. 3d and 4th Parliaments, J runes I.
VIGN'ETTE — Ancient houses near the Kirk-of-Field, from a map 1575.

THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF JAMES III. 15

age was exercised to devise more novel and exquisite tortures to satisfy the indignation of
the people. The sufferings of the Earl of Athol were prolonged through three days; on
the second of which he was elevated on a pillar at the cross, to the gaze of the people, and
with a hot iron coronet, crowned in derision as the King of Traitors. On the third day,
he was dragged on a hurdle through the High Street to the place of public execution,
where, after further indignities, he was at length beheaded, and his head exposed on a pole
at the cross — the body being quartered and sent to the four chief towns of the kingdom.
With the like barbarous indignities, Robert Graham, the most active of the regicides,
suffered at the same time and place.

JSneas Sylvius, who afterwards filled the papal chair as Pope Pius II., was at this time
resident in Edinburgh, as the Pope's nuncio for Scotland, and witnessed, as Abercromby
says, " with some horror, but more admiration," l these executions. The remark of the
Italian ecclesiastic, " that he was at a loss to determine whether the crime of the regicides,
or the punishment inflicted on them by the justice of the nation, was the greatest "—would
not seem to imply any censure on the bloody revenge with which the Scottish Capital thus
expressed her indignation on the murderers of her King.

King James II. was not above seven years old, when the officers of state called a
Parliament in his name, which accordingly met at Edinburgh on the 20th of March 1438.
Their first act was the condemnation, already recorded, of the regicides ; and thereafter, the
youthful Sovereign was brought from the Castle, where he had been lodged since shortly
after his birth, attended by the three estates of the kingdom ; and being conducted in state
to Holyrood Abbey, was there crowned witli great magnificence— the first of the Scottish
Kings that is thus united, in birth and royal honours, with the capital of the kingdom.
During the two succeeding years, he continued to reside entirely in the Castle, under
custody of the Chancellor Crichton, greatly to the displeasure of the Queen and her party,
who thus found him placed entirely beyond their control. She accordingly visited Edinburgh,
professing great friendship for the Chancellor, and a longing desire to see her son ; by which
means she completely won the goodwill of the old statesman, and obtained ready access,
with her retinue, to visit the Prince in the Castle, and take up her abode there. At length
having lulled all suspicion, she gave out that she had made a vow to pass in pilgrimage to
the White Kirk of Brechin, for the health of her son ; 2 and bidding adieu to the Chancellor
over night, with many earnest recommendations of the young King to his fidelity and care,
she retired to her devotions, having to depart at early dawn on the ensuing morrow. Im-
mediately on being left at liberty, the King was cautiously pinned up among the linen and
furniture of his mother, and so conveyed in a chest to Leith, and from thence by water to
Stirling, into the hands of Sir Archibald Livingstone. Immediately thereafter, the latter
raised an army and laid siege to the Chancellor in the Castle of Edinburgh ; but the wary
statesman, having lost the control of the King, wisely effected a compromise with his
opponent, and delivering the keys into the King's own hands, they both supped with him
the same night in the Castle, and, on the following day, he confirmed the one in his office
of Chancellor, and the other in that of guardian of his person. This state of affairs did
not continue long, however, for Sir Archibald Livingstone having quarrelled with the
Queen, the King was shortly afterwards again carried off and restored to the guardianship

1 Marlial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 310. a Lindsay of Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 7.

1 6 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of the Chancellor, in the Castle of Edinburgh. His increasing years, however, seem to
have led to his enjoying greater liberty of person, as well as deference to his opinion.
Under the guidance of the Bishops of Aberdeen and Moray, then residing in Edinburgh,
' a conference was held in the church of St Giles, between him and his rival guardians,
which, from their mutual hatred to the Earl of Douglas, again led to an amicable arrange-
ment, the King making choice of Edinburgh Castle as the place where he should continue
to reside.

No sooner were the rival statesmen reconciled, than they consulted together to secure
the overthrow of the Douglas, whose exorbitant power was employed for the most oppres-
sive and tyrannical objects. To have openly proceeded against him as a criminal, while a<
the head of his numerous forces, would only have proved the sequel for a civil war. He
was accordingly invited to Edinburgh, with the most flattering assurances of friendship.
On the way, the Chancellor met him at Crichton Castle, about twelve miles S.E. of
Edinburgh, where he was entertained with every mark of hospitality, insomuch so as to
have excited the jealous fears of his friends. He rode thereafter to the Castle of Edinburgh,
accompanied by his brother and Sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbcrnauld : they were received
with every show of welcome, and admitted to the same table with the King ; but, towards
the close of the entertainment, a bull's head, the well-known symbol of destruction, was
set before them. They recognised the fatal signal, and sprang from the board, but being
immediately surrounded by armed men, they were led forth, in defiance of the tears and
entreaties of the young King, and immediately beheaded " in the back court of the Castle
that lyeth to the west ; " 1 or, according to Balfour, in the great hall of the Castle.2 In the
year 1753, some workmen digging for a foundation to a new storehouse within the Castle,
found the golden handles and plates of a coffin, which are supposed to have belonged to
that in which the Earl of Douglas was interred.3

From a protest afterwards taken by the son of Sir Malcolm Fleming, against the
sentence of his father, as being unwarrantable and illegal, as well as from the fact of no
attempt being made to bring the Chancellor to trial for the deed when the Douglas faction
prevailed, there would seem to have been some form of trial, and a sentence of condemna-
tion pronounced, with the assumed authority of the King.4 The popular estimation of the
deed may be inferred from the rude rhymes quoted by Hume of Godscroft :—

" Edinburgh Castle, towne and tower,

God grant thou sinke for sinne ;
An' that even for the black dinner
Eavle Douglas gat therein."

The Chancellor continued to maintain possession of the Castle, even when the Douglas
party succeeded in obtaining the guardianship of the young King, and used the royal
authority for demanding its surrender. Here he held out during a siege of nine months,
till he succeeded in securing satisfactory terms for himself; while of his less fortunate
coadjutors some only redeemed their lives with their estates, and the others, including
three members of the Livingstone family, were all tried and beheaded within its walls.

^ History of the Douglasses, 1643, p. 155. * Balfours Auuals, vol. i. p. 169.

' Al'"ot< P- 11- 4 Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 330.

THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF JAMES HI.

The increasing importance which the royal capital was now assuming, speedily drew
attention to its exposed situation. In the reign of Robert II. the singular privilege had
been conceded to the principal inhabitants, of building dwellings within the Castle, so as
to secure their families and wealth from the constant inroads of the English ; but now, in
the year 1450, immediately after the battle of Sark, the ancient city was enclosed within
fortified walls, traces of which still exist. They extended along the south declivity of the
ridge on which the older parts of the town are built ; after crossing the West Bow, then
the principal entrance to the city, from the west ; and running between the High Street,
and the hollow where the Cowgate was afterwards built, they crossed the ridge at the
Nether Bow, and terminated at the east end of the North Loch. Within these ancient
limits the Scottish capital must have possessed peculiar means of defence ; a city set on a
hill, arid guarded by the rocky fortress — " There watching high the least alarms," — it only
wanted such ramparts, manned by its burgher watch, to enable it to give protection to its
princes, and repel the inroads of the southern invader. The important position which it
now held, may be inferred from the investment in the following year of Patrick Cockburn
of Newbigging, the Provost of Edinburgh, in the chancellor's office as governor of the
Castle ; as well as his appointment along with other commissioners, after the defeat of the
English in the battle of Sark, to treat for the renewal of a truce. To this the young
King, now about twenty years of age, was the more induced, from his anxiety to see his
bride, Mary of Guelders, — " a lady," says Drummond, " young, beautiful, and of a mas-
culine constitution," — whose passage from the Netherlands was only delayed till secure
of hindrance from the English fleet.

She accordingly arrived in Scotland, accompanied by a
numerous retinue of princes, prelates, and noblemen, who
were entertained with every mark of royal hospitality, and
witnessed the solemnisation of the marriage, as well as the
coronation, of the young Queen thereafter, both of which
took place in the Abbey of Holyrood, with the utmost pomp
and solemnity.

The first fruit of this marriage seems to have been the
rebellion of the Earl of Douglas, who, jealous of the influence
that the Lord Chancellor Crichtou had acquired with the
Queen, almost immediately thereafter proceeded to revenge
his private quarrel with fire and sword ; so that in the begin-
ning of the following year, a Parliament was assembled at
Edinburgh, whose first enactments were directed against such
encroachments on the royal prerogative. His further deeds of blood and rapine, at length
closed by a hasty blow of the King's dagger in Stirling Castle, belong rather to Scottish
history ; as well as the death of the Monarch himself shortly after, by the bursting of the
Lyon, a famous cannon, at the siege of Roxburgh Castle, in the year 1460.

At this time, Henry VI. , the exiled King of England, with his heroic Queen and son,
sought shelter at the Scottish Court, where they were fitly lodged in the monastery of the
Greyfriars, in the Grassmarket ; and so hospitably entertained by the court and citizens of

VIGNETTE — Mary of Guelderb' Arms — from her seal.

1 8 MEM OKI A LS OF EDINB UR Gff.

Edinburgh, that in requital thereof, he granted to them a charter, empowering the Iree
citizens to trade to any part of England, subject to no other duties than those payable
by the most highly favoured natives: in acknowledgment, as he states, of the humane and
honourable treatment he had received from the provost, ministers, and burgesses of
Edinburgh. As, however, the house of Lancaster never regained the crown, the charter
survived only as an honourable acknowledgment of their services.

About this time it was that the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity, and the Hospi-
tal attached to it, were founded by the Queen Dowager, Mary of Guelders : and here the
royal foundress was interred in the year 1463.

In 1471, the Scottish capital again witnessed a royal marriage and coronation; Mar-
garet, Princess of Denmark, having landed at Leith in the month of July of that year,
where she was received with every demonstration of welcome and rejoicing. The courtly
historians of the period describe her as winning the favour of both Prince and people, by
a beauty and grace rarely equalled among the ladies of the age. Lindsay of Pitscottie
tidds— " The gentlevoman being bot twelff yeires of age at the tyme." l The alliance
was further rendered acceptable to the nation, by the royal bridegroom, King James III.,
having " gatt with the King of Denmarkis dochter, in tocher guid, the landis of Orkney
and Zetland." To all this we may add, from Abercromby 2 — " The very sight of such a
Queen could not but endear her to all ranks of people, who, to congratulate her happy
arrival, and to create in her a good opinion of themselves and the country, entertained her
and her princely train for many days, with such variety of shows, and such delicious and
costly feasts, that Ferrerius, a foreigner, who had seen all the gallantry and pomp of the
Courts of France and Savoy, tells us that no pen can describe them so much to the ad-
vantage as they deserve." It is to be regretted that a more detailed account of this royal
reception has not been given, as it would better than any other have served to convey a
lively picture of the manners of the citizens, and the character of the Scottish capital at
this period.

These joyous proceedings speedily gave place to others of a very different character.
The historians, in accordance with the credulity of the times, have preserved the tradition
of numerous prophecies and omens, wherewith the king was forewarned of the troubles that
awaited him, and his jealousy excited against his brothers. The youngest of them, the
Earl of Mar, was committed a prisoner to Craigmillar Castle, from whence he was after-
wards permitted to remove to the Canongate, when suffering under a violent fever, of
which he died there, under the care of the King's physician ; not without suspicion of foul
play. After his death, some reputed witches were tried at Edinburgh, and condemned to
the stake, for plotting, along with him, the death of the King ; and these, according to the
historians of the time, confessed that the Earl had dealt with them to have him taken away
by incantation — " For the King's image being framed in wax, and with many spells and
incantations baptized, and set unto a fire, they persuaded themselves the King's person
should fall away as it consumed."8

The successful confederacy against Cochrane, the succeeding Earl of Mar, and the other
royal favourites, belong not to our subject. But immediately thereafter, in 1481, we find
the King a captive in the Castle of Edinburgh, which served alternately as a palace and a

1 Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 176. » Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 407. » Drum, of Hawthoraden, p. 48.

THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF JAMES III. 19

prison, down to the accession of James VI. to the English throne ; and often, as in the
present case, fulfilled the double purpose at once. Not only was he held in a sort of hon-
ourable durance there by his rebellious barons; having, according to Drummond, "all
the honour which appertained to a Prince, save that he could not come abroad, and none
were permitted to speak unto him, except in the audience of his lord-keeper ; his chamber
doors were shut before the setting of the sun, and long after the rising opened ; such who
only heard of him could not but take him to be a free and absolute Prince ; yet when
nearly viewed, he was but a King in phantasy, and his throne but a picture ! " but, at the
same time, there lay within its dungeons the King's own prisoner, the Earl of Douglas ;
to whom, in this extremity, he at last made unsuccessful overtures of reconciliation.

The King having at length appealed, through the Duke of Albany, to Edward IV. of
England, the Duke of Gloucester marched to Edinburgh at the head of ten thousand men,
and encamped with them on the Borough Muir, at the very time when the rebellious barons
were assembled in council, in the Tolbooth. Here the Duke of Albany, who continued to
assume a very specious show of loyalty, joined them, attended by the Duke of Gloucester,
and about a thousand English and Scottish gentlemen ; and the parties having come to
terms, two heralds-at-arms were commanded to pass with them, to charge the captain of
the Castle to open the gates, and set the King's grace at liberty ; who, if Lindsay is to be
relied upon, somewhat contrary to our modern notions of kingly dignity, forthwith " lap on a
hackney to ride down to the Abbay : but he would not ride forward, till the Duik of Albanie
his brother lap on behind him ; and so they went down the geat to the Abbey of Hally-
ruid hous, quhair they remained ane long tyme in great mirrines ; " l and, as Abercromby
adds, he " would needs make him & partner in his bed, and a comrade at his table." On
the following day, William Bertraham, the Provost of Edinburgh, and with him the
whole fellowship of merchants, burgesses, and community of the said town, loyally and gene-
rously obliged themselves to repay to the King of England, under certain circumstances,
the dowry to his daughter, the Lady Cecil ; or otherwise, " undertook for the King of Scot-
laud, their Sovereign Lord, that he should concur in his former obligations, provided he
or they, the said provosts and merchants, were informed of the King of England's pleasure,
by the next Feast of All Saints ; " which obligations they afterwards fulfilled, repaying the
money, amounting to 6000 merks sterling, upon the demand of Garter King-at-Arms, the
King of England's messenger. In acknowledgment of this loyal service, the King granted
• to the city a deed, in 1492, by which the provost and bailies were created sheriffs within
all the bounds of their own territories, and rewarded with other important privileges con-
tained in that patent, which is known by the name of the Golden Charter.2 He also con-
ferred upon the craftsmen the famous banner, long the rallying point of the burgher ward
in every civil commotion, or muster for war, which is still preserved by the incorporated
trades, and known by the popular title of the Blue Blanket, The history of this famous
banner has been written by Alexander Pennycuik, an enthusiastic guild brother of the last
century, who begins the record — " When the Omnipotent Architect had built the glorious
fabric of this world ! " and after recording for the consolation of his brother craftsmen, that
" Adam's eldest eon was educate a plowman, and his brother a grazier," with many other
flattering instances of " God's distinguishing honour put upon tradesmen," he tells that

1 Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 200. 2 Drum, of Hawthorn, p. 52.

20

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the order of the Blue Blanket was instituted by Pope Urban II., about 1200, and so is
older than any order of knighthood in Europe. According to this author, vast numbers of
Scottish mechanics having followed to the Holy War, took with them a banner bearing
the inscription — "In bona voluntate tua edificenter muri Jerusalem,'1'' which they styled
the banner of the Holy Ghost, though, from its colour, familiarly called " The Blue Blan-
ket ; " and this, on their return, they dedicated to St Eloi's altar in St Giles's Church.
Whatever foundation there may be for this remoter origin, it is undoubted that James
HI. at this time, in requital of the eminent services of the burghers, confirmed them
in many privileges, and bestowed on them this ensign, with their heraldic bearings
embroidered by the Queen's own hands. It has ever since been kept in the charge of the
kirk-master or deacon-convener of the crafts for the time being ; every burgher, not only
of the capital, but of Scotland, being held bound to rally at the summons, when it is
unfurled.

Within a brief period after the incidents related, the Duke of Albany being confined a
prisoner in the Castle, succeeded in effecting his escape in a very daring fashion. His rivals
having just obtained their own deliverance, " counselled the King to justify * the Duke
his brother ; " which being known at the court of France, a French ship arrived in Leith
Roads the very day before his intended "justification," the captain of which sent a
messenger to the Duke, offering to supply him with a stock of wines ; and a confidential
servant being thereupon sent for " two bosses full of Malvesy ; " they were returned by him,
the one containing a letter informing him of the design against his life, and the other filled
with cord to aid him in his escape. Acting on this advice, he invited the captain of the
Castle to supper, and so liberally dispensed the supposed new supply of wine among his
guard, that watching his opportunity, he and his faithful attendant succeeded in over-
powering them, and putting them to the sword ; and escaping to an unguarded wall of
the Castle, they let themselves down by the cord, and so escaped to the French ship ; the
Duke carrying his attendant on his back, his thigh, having been broken in dropping
from the wall. So that his escape was not discovered till the nobles arrived on the fol-
lowing morning to wait on the King — then himself residing in the Castle — and to witness
the execution.

During this and succeeding reigns, the Parliaments continued to assemble generally at
Edinburgh, although Stirling Castle was the favourite residence of James III., where he
retired from the cares of the state ; and there in particular he found opportunity for display-
ing that love for " building and trimming up of chapels, halls, and gardens," 2 with which
Drummond charges him, as a taste that usually pertains to the lovers of idleness. His love
of display seems to have been shown on every opportunity during his residence at Edin-
burgh. We learn from the same authority, he acquired an easily won character for devo-
tion, by his habit of riding in procession from the Abbey of Holyrood to the churches in
the high town,' every Wednesday and Friday.

King James III. was slain on the 8th of June 1488, by his own rebellious nobles,
on the field of Stirling, nearly on the same arena as had been the scene of Scotland's
greatest victory under the Bruce. Whatever view the historian may take of this Mon-
arch's character and influence on the nation, he contributed more than any other of the

1 Put to death. 2 Hawthornden, p. 61.

THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF JAMES III.

21

Stuart race towards the permanent prosperity of the Scottish capital. By favour of his
charters, its local jurisdiction was left almost exclusively in the hands of its own magis-
trates ; on them were conferred ample powers for enacting laws for its governance ; with
authority, in life and death — still vested in its chief magistrate — an independence which
was afterwards defended amid many dangers, down to the period of the Union. By his
charters also in their favour, they obtained the right, which they still hold, to all the
customs of the haven and harbour of Leith, with the proprietorship of the adjacent coast,
and of all the roads leading thereto ; as well as many special privileges conferred on the
craftsmen, which they were not slow to protect from encroachment ; as his descendant
James VI. points out to his son Prince Henry, in the Basilicon Doron — " The craftsmen
think we should be content with their work, how bad soever it be ; and if in any thing
they be controuled, up goes the Blue Blanket ! "

Bishop Kennedy's Arms — from the choir of St Giles's Church.

CHAPTER HI.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES IV. TO THE
BATTLE OF FLODDEN.

AMES IV. was crowned at Edinburgh in June 1488, under
very inauspicious circumstances. His tender age seemed to
hold out a very unpromising future, under the guidance of
such councillors as had already made him their tool in the
Field of Stirling. Yet his reign of twenty-five years is one of the brightest in our national
history, and furnishes many valuable local associations, as well as curious traditions con-
nected with our present subject.

The opening scenes of this eventful reign introduce to our notice Sir Andrew Wood,
the most famous of our Scottish seamen, whose undaunted courage and loyalty shone con-
spicuously, while yet the death of his royal master, James III., remained uncertain.

The Prince, as James IV. was still called, had assembled the nobility adhering to him,
along with their followers at Leith, from whence messengers were despatched to Sir
Andrew's ships, then lying in the Firth, to ascertain if the King had found refuge on
board; and, if not, to endeavour to engage his adherence to their party.1 The sturdy sea-
man indignantly rejected the latter proposition, and refused to come on shore, till certain
of the nobility were delivered up as hostages for his safe return ; and he being detained
long on shore, his noble substitutes, the Lords Seton and Fleming, narrowly escaped the
halter, by his opportune arrival.2

Immediately after the coronation of the young King, his heralds were sent to demand
the restitution of the Castle in his name ; and this, with other royal strongholds, being
promptly surrendered to his summons, he assumed the throne without further obstacles.
Towards the close of the same year, 1488, his first Parliament assembled within the

1 Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 489. 2 Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 225.

VISNETTE— The Castle, from the West Tort, J. G., about 1640.

JAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN. 23

Tol booth of Edinburgh, and under the influence of the leaders at the Field of Stirling,
enacted, in his name, many harsh and unjust laws, directed against the adherents of the late
King, involving suspension or deprivation to all officers of state, and handing over " all
churchmen taken in armour, to their ordinaries, to be punished according to law." The first
occurrence that tended to rescue the King from implicit confidence in his father's enemies,
was the splendid victory obtained by Sir Andrew Wood, over a fleet sent by Henry VII.
of England, to execute reprisals on the murderers of the late King. They had committed
great ravages on the Scottish shipping, and completely blockaded the mouth of the Forth ;
when Sir Andrew sailed against them, and with an inferior force, completely defeated, and
brought the whole armament, consisting of five large ships, into Leith. Shortly after this,
the King concluded a truce with England, and on the 15th day of February 1490, his second
Parliament met at Edinburgh, and again another in the following year, both of which
enacted many salutary laws ; and, at the same time, Andrew Foreman, Protonotary of Pope
Alexander VI., arrived at the Scottish Court with consolatory letters to the King, whose
grief at the share he had taken in the fatal rebellion against his father still manifested itself
in severe penances and mortifications. He was also the bearer of a bull, addressed to the
abbots of Paisley and Jedburgh,1 empowering them to absolve and readmit into the church
all such as had been accessory to the death of King James III. of famous memory, on
their expressing sincere repentance for the same.2 And now the King, drawing towards
manhood, the ominous clouds that had threatened the commencement of his reign dis-
appeared, and a long and prosperous calm succeeding his early troubles, left him free to
give the rein to his chivalrous tastes, and extend his royal patronage to the many eminent
men that adorned the Scottish Court.

During this reign, Edinburgh became celebrated throughout Europe, as the scene of
knightly feats of arms. " In this country," says Arnot, " tournaments are of great anti-
quity ; they were held in Edinburgh in the reign of William the Lion, and in those of
many of the succeeding Princes. The valley or low ground lying between the wester road
to Leith, and the rock at Lochend, was bestowed by James II. on the community of Edin-
burgh, for the special purpose of holding tournaments and other martial sports." 3 Here,
most probably, the weaponshaws which were of such constant recurrence at a later period,
as well as such martial parades as were summoned by civic authority, were held, unless in
cases of actual preparation for war, when the Borough Muir seems to have been invariably
the appointed place of rendezvous. The favourite scene of royal tournaments, however,
was a spot of ground near the King's Stables, just below the Castle wall. Here James
IV., in particular, often assembled his lords and barons, by proclamation, for jousting ;
offering such meeds of honour as a spear headed with gold, and the like favours, presented
to the victor by the King's own hand ; so that " the fame of his justing and turney spread
throw all Europe, quhilk caused many errand knyghtis cum out of vther pairtes to Scotland
to seik justing, becaus they hard of the kinglie fame of the Prince of Scotland. Bot few
or none of thame passed away vnmached, and oftymes overthrow ne."*

One notable encounter is specially recorded, which took place between Sir John Cock-
bewis, a Dutch knight, and Sir Patrick Hamilton. " Being assembled togidder on great

1 Hawthornden, p. 68. '-' Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 497.

3 Aruot, p. 71. * Pitscottie, vol. ii. p. 246.

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

horsis under the Castle wall, in the barrace," the Scottish knight's horse having failed
him in the first onset, they encountered on foot, continuing the contest for a full hour, till
the Dutchman being struck to the ground, the King cast his hat over the Castle wall as a
signal to stay the combat, while the heralds and trumpeters proclaimed Sir Patrick the
victor.

A royal experiment, of a more subtle nature, may be worth recording, as a sample of
the manners of the age. The King caused a dumb woman to be transported to the neigh-
bouring island of Inchkeith, and there being properly lodged and provisioned, two infants
were entrusted to her care, in order to discover by the language they should adopt, what
was the original human tongue. The result seems to have been very satisfactory, as, after

allowing them a sufficient time,
it was found that " they spak very
guid Ebrew ! "

But it is not alone by knightly
feats of arms, and the rude chi-
valry of the Middle Ages, that
the court of James IV. is distin-
guished. The Scottish capital,
during his reign, was the residence
of men high in every department
of learning and the arts.

Gawin Douglas, afterwards
Bishop of Dunkeld, the well-
known author of " The Palice of
Honour," and the translator of
Virgil's .ZEneid into Scottish
verse, was at this time Provost
of St Giles's,1 and dedicated his
poem to the

"Maist gracious Prince ouir Souerain James the Feird,
Supreme honour renoun of cheualrie."

Dunbar, " the greatest poet that Scotland has produced," * was in close and familiar
attendance on the court, and with him Kennedy, " his kindly foe," and Sir John Ross, and
' Gentill Roull of Corstorphine," as well as others afterwards enumerated by Dunbar, in his
" Lament for the Makaris." Many characteristic and very graphic allusions to the manners
of the age have been preserved in the poems that still exist, by them affording a curious
insight into the Scottish city and capital of the James's. Indeed, the local and temporary
allusions that occur in their most serious pieces, are often quaint and amusing, in the highest
degree, as in Kennedy's " Passioun of Crist :"—

" In the Tolbuth then Pilot enterit in,
Callit on Christ, and sperit gif He wes King ? "

1 Keith's Bishops, 8vo, 1824, p. 468. « Kills' Specimens, 8vo, 1845, vol. i. p. 304.

VIGNETTE— North-east pillar, St Giles's choir.

JAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN. 25

And in Duubar's " Droichis part of the Play ; "

" My name is WELTH, thairfor be blyth,
I come heir comfort yow to kyth ;
Supposs that wretchis wryng and wryth,

All darth I sail gar d6 ;
For sekerly, the treuth to tell,
I come amang yow heir to duell ;
Fra sound of Sanct Gelis bell,

N«vir think I to fld

" Quharfor in Scotland come I heir,
With yow to byde and perseveir,
In Edinburgh, quhar is meriast cheir,

Plesans, disport and play ;
Quhilk is the lampe, and A per se,
Of this regioun, in all degre,
Of welefair, and of honeste",

Renoune, and riche aray."

Other local allusions of a similar nature might be selected, but these may suffice as
examples.

In the year 1496, Edinburgh was visited by the famous Perkin Warbeck, 2 the
reputed Duke of York, who was murdered in the Tower. He arrived with a rich equipage
aiid a gallant train of followers, and was received by the King with every token of sin-
cerity, as the unfortunate Richard Plantagenet, son to King Edward IV. It is not easy
now, nor is it our province to decide, how far the King was really imposed on by his
specious tale, or if he was solely actuated by reasons of state policy. He undoubtedly
espoused his cause with zeal ; involving, as it did, not only a breach with his intended
father-in-law, Henry VII. ; but the immediate prospect of a war with England, an event
seemingly at no time an object of great dislike to the Scottish nation : and, moreover, tes-
tified the sincerity of his partizanship, by giving him in marriage his own kinswoman, the
Lady Catherine Gordon, whose beauty long after procured her at the English Court the
name of the White Rose. The peaceful policy of the English Monarch speedily won over
the inclinations of his future son-in-law, and the negotiations were renewed for the mar-
riage of James with the Princess Margaret ; at the same time that messengers arrived at
Holyrood Palace, bearing, as a gift from Pope Julius II. to the Scottish King, a sword
and diadem wrought with flowers of gold, which had been consecrated by him on Christ-
mas eve ; 3 the former of which is still preserved among the Scottish regalia, in Edinburgh
Castle.

Fully four years elapsed between the conclusion of the treaty of marriage and its fulfil-
ment ; and during that time, the King was actively occupied in preparations for the recep-
tion of his bride. Up to this time, the Scottish Kings seem to have resided at the Abbey
of Holyrood, as the abbot's guests : but he now set earnestly to work, " for the bigg'ing of
a palace beside the Abbay of the Haly Croce," 4 the only part of which still in existence
is the " for-yet " or vaulted gateway to the Abbey Court, the south wall and other remains
of which may yet be seen in the Court-house of the Abbey, the indications of the arches
of its groined roof being still visible on the outer wall. The Treasurer's accounts of the

1 Dunbar's Poems, vol. ii. p. 41. 2 Martial Achieve., vol. ii. p. 506.

3 Hawthornden, p. 69. 4 Liber Cartarum Sanctte Crucie, Pref. 56.

26 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

expenses of the building, preserve a valuable record of its progress and character ; uo
expense seems to have been spared to render it a fitting residence for the future Queen.
Though some idea of the homely fashion of building still common, may be inferred from
an allusion of Dunbar, in his poem of the " Warld's Instabilitie : "

" Greit Abbais grayth I nill to gather,
Bot ane Kirk scant coverit with hadder I "

James IV. was not only an eminent encourager of literature, but by fame reputed both a
poet and musician, though nothing survives from his pen but the metrical order to his
treasurer, in reply to " The Petition of the Grey Horse, Auld Dunbar ; " but whatever
may have been the value of his own productions, his taste is abundantly proved by the
eminent men he drew around him.

Gawin Douglas undoubtedly owed his favour at court, as well as the friendship and
patronage of the Queen, and the partiality of Leo X. at a later period, to his learning and
talents, when through their good offices, he obtained, against the most violent opposition,
his appointment to the bishopric of Dunkeld in 1516. Kennedy, too, seems to have been
a constant attendant at court, while Dunbar was on the most intimate footing with
his royal master, and employed by him on the most confidential missions to foreign courts.
In 1501, he visited England with the ambassadors sent to conclude the negotiations for
the King's marriage, and to witness the ceremony of affiancing the Princess Margaret in
January following ; l and at length, on the 7th of August 1503, the Queen, who had attained
the mature age of fourteen years, made her public entrance into Edinburgh, amid every
demonstration of national rejoicing. A most minute account of her reception has been
preserved by John Young, Somerset Herald, her attendant, and an eye-witness of the whole ;
which exhibits, in an interesting light, the wealth and refinement of the Scottish capital at
this period.2 The King met his fair bride at the castle of Dalkeith, where she was hospit-
ably entertained by the Earl of Morton, and having greeted her with knightly courtesy,
and passed the day in her company, he returned " to hys bed at Edinborg, varey well
countent of so fayr meetyng." The Queen was attended on her journey by the Archbishop
of York, the Bishop of Durham, the Earl of Surrey, and a numerous and noble retinue ;
and was received, on her near approach to Edinburgh, by the King richly apparelled in
cloth of gold, the Earl of Bothwell bearing the sword of state before him, and attended by
the principal nobility of the court.3 The King, coming down from his own horse, " kyssed
her in her litre, and mounting on the pallefroy of the Qwene, and the said Qwene behind
hym, so rode thorow the towne of Edenburgh." On their way, they were entertained with
an opposite scene of romantic chivalry — a knight-errant rescuing his distressed ladye love
from the hands of her ravisher. The royal party were met at the entry to the town by the
Grey Friars — whose monastery, in the Grassmarket, they had to pass — bearing in procession
their most valued relics, which were presented to the royal pair to kiss ; and thereafter they
were stayed at an embattled barrier, erected for the occasion, at the windows of which
appeared " angells syngiug joyously for the comynge of so noble a ladye," while another
angel presented to her the keys of the city.

1 Dunbar's Memoirs. D. Laing. 1834. 2 Leland's Collectanea, vol. iv. p S87. 300 8 Ibid, 287.

JAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLOOD EN.

Within the gate, the houses were gaily decorated, the
windows being hung with tapestry, and filled with "lordes,
ladyes, gentylwomen and gentylmen ; and in the churches
of the towne, bells rang for myrthe." Here they were
received by the chapter and prebendaries of St Giles's
Church in their richest vestments, and bearing the arm of
their patron saint, which they presented to their Majesties
to kiss ; while the good city vied with the ecclesiastics in
testifying their joy by pageants and quaint mysteries,
suited to the auspicious occasion. Nigh to the cross, at
which a fountain flowed with wine, whereof all might drink,1 they were received by Paris
and the rival goddesses, " with Mercure that gaffe him the apylle of gold for to gyffe to
the most fayre of the thre." Further on was the salutation of the Angel Gabriel to the
Virgin ; while on another gate, probably the Netherbow, appeared the four virtues — Justice,
treading Nero under her feet ; Force, bearing a pillar, and beneath her Holofernes, all
armed ; Temperance, holding a horse's bit, and treading on Epicurus , and Prudence,
triumphing over Sardanapalus ! while the tabrets played merrily as the royal procession
passed through, and so proceeded to the Abbey. There they were received by the Arch-
bishop of St Andrews, accompanied by a numerous retinue of bishops, abbots, and other
ecclesiastics, in their official robes, and conducted to the high altar, at which they
knelt, while the " Te Dcum " was sung, and then passed through the cloisters into the
Palace.

In the great chamber (the hangings of which represented the history of Troy, and the
windows filled with the arms of Scotland and England, and other heraldic devices, in
coloured glass), were many ladies of great name and nobly arrayed ; and the King letting
go the Queen, till she had kissed all the ladies, the Bishop of Moray acted as Master of
the Ceremonies, naming each as she saluted her : — " After she had kyssed them all, the
Kyng kyssed her for her labour, and so took her again with low cortesay and bare lied,
and brought hyr to hyr chammer, and kyssed her agayn, and so took his leve right
humble ! "

" The eighth day of the said month, every man apointed himself richly for the marriage,
the ladies nobly aparelled, some in gowns of cloth of gold, others of crimson, velvet, and
black ; others of satin, tynsell, and damask, and of chamlet of many colours ; hoods,

chains, and collars upon their necks The Kyng sat in a chayre of cramsyn

velvet, the pannells of that sam gylte, under hys cloth of astat of blew velvet fygured of
gold; " with the Archbishop of York at his right hand, and the Earl of Surrey on his
left ; while the Scottish bishops and nobles led the Queen from her chamber, " crowned
with a varey ryche crowne of gold, garnished with pierry and perles, to the high altar,
where the marriage was solemnised by the Archbishop of Glasgow, amid the sound of
trumpets and the acclamation of the noble company." At the dinner which followed, the
Queen was served at the first course with " a wyld borres hed gylt, within a fayr platter,"
followed by sundry other equally queenly dishes. The chamber was adorned with hang-

1 Leland's Collectanea, vol. iv. p. 289.
VIGNETTE — Ancient iiadlock. dug up in Greyfriars' Churchyard, 1841.

28 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

ings of red and blue, with a canopy of state, of cloth of gold. " Ther wer also in the sam
chammer a rich bed of astat, and the Lord Gray served the King with water for to wash,
and the Earle of Huntley berred the towalle ! " The commons testified their sympathy
by bonfires and other tokens of public rejoicing, while dancing, music, and feasting, witli
coursing, joustings, and the like pastimes of the age, were continued thereafter during
many days, " and that done, every man went his way," the Earl of Surrey, with the chivalry
of England, to bide their second meeting on the field of Flodden.

This propitious alliance — which, notwithstanding the disastrous period that intervened,
ultimately led to the permanent union of the two kingdoms — was celebrated by Dunbar in
his beautiful allegory of " The Thrissil and the Hois," a poem, notwithstanding its obso-
lete language, scarcely surpassed in beauty by anything written since. " At this time,"
says its excellent biographer, " Dunbar appears to have lived on terms of great familia-
rity with the King, and to have participated freely in all the gaieties and amusements of
the Scottish Court ; his sole occupation being that of writing ballads on any passing
event, and thus contributing to the entertainment of his royal master.1 From several of
his writings, as well as from " The Flyting " with his poetic rival Walter Kennedy, many
curious local allusions may be gleaned. One satirical poem, an " Address to the Merchants
of Edinburgh," is particularly interesting for our present object, conveying a most graphic,
though somewhat highly-coloured picture of the Scottish capital at this period.2 " The
principal streets crowded with stalls — the confused state of the different markets — the
noise and cries of the fishwomen, and of other persons retailing their wares round the
cross — the booths of traders crowded together ' like a honeycomb,' near the church of St
Giles, which was then, and continued till within a very recent period, to be disfigured
with mean and paltry buildings, stuck round the buttresses of the church — the outer stairs
of the houses projecting into the street — the swarm of beggars — the common minstrels,
whose skill was confined to one or two hackneyed tunes — all together form the subject
of a highly graphic and interesting delineation." '

TO THE MERCHANTS OF EDINBURGH.

Quhy will ye, Merchants of renoun,
Let Edinburgh, your noble toun,
For lak of reformation
The common profit tyne and fame I

Think ye nocht schame,
That ony other region
Sail with dishonour hurt your name!

May nane pass throw your principal gates,
For stink of haddocks and of scates ;
For cries of carlings and debates ;
For sensutn flyttings of defame :

Tliink ye nocht echame,
Before strangers of all estates
That sic dishonour hurt your name !

1 Dunbar, by D. Laing, 1834, vol. i. p. 23. 2 Ibid, p. 32.

JAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN. 29

Your stinkand scule 1 that stundis dirk,
Holds the light from your Parroche Kirk ;
Your forestairs makis your houses mirk,
Lyk nae country but here at hame :

Think ye nocht schame,
Sae little polieie to work
In hurt and sclander of your name !

At your high Cross, quhair gold and silk
Sould be, thair is but curds and milk ;
And at your Trone but cokill and wilk,
Panaches, pudings of Jok and Jame :

Think ye nocht schame,
Sen as the world sayis that ilk
In hurt and sclander of your name !

Your common Menstrals have no tone,
But, Now the day dawis, and Into June •
Cuninger men maun serve Sanct Cloun,
And never to other craftis clame :

Think ye nocht schame,
To hold sic mowes on the moon,
In hurt and sclander of your name !

Tailors, Soutters, and craftis vyll,
The fairest of your streets do fyll ;
And merchandis at the Stinkand Styll
Are hampert in ane hony came :

Think ye nocht schame,
That ye have neither witt nor wyle
To win yourself ane better name !

Your Burgh of beggars is ane nest,
To shout thai swenyours will nocht rest ;
All honest folk they do molest,
Sa piteouslie they cry and rame :

Think ye nocht schame,
That for the poor lies no thing drest,
In hurt and sclander of your name !

Your proffeit daily does iucreas,
Your godlie workis less and less ;
Through streittis nane may mak progress,
For cry of cruikit, blind, and lame :

Think ye nocht schame,
That ye sic substance do possess,
And will nocht win aue better name !

In Gawin Douglas's Prologue to the Eighth Book of the yEneid, there is another
admirable satire on the manners of the times, but the allusions are mostly more general
in their application. Again, in Dunbar's " Tydingis fra the Sessioun," where a country
man tells his neighbour, " I come of Edinburgh fra the sessioun," the picture is equally
lively and pungent. In his " Remonstrance to the King," there occurs an inventory of

1 Probably stile; a passage which led through the Luckenbooths, to St Giles's Church, directly opposite the Advocates'
Close, continued to be known by this name till the whole was removed ill 1811.

30 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the various royal servitors, affording a curious insight into the crafts of the period. A
brief extract will suffice : —

Cunyouris, carvouris, and Carpentaria,
Beildaris of barkis, and ballingaris ;
Masounis, lyand upon the land,
And schip wrichtis hewand upone the strand ;
Glasing wrichtis, goldsmythis, and lapidaris,
Pryntouris, payntouris, and potingaris ; &c.

The introduction of printers in the list, shows the progress literature was making at this
time; as early as 1490, the Parliament enjoined the education of the eldest sons of all
barons and freeholders, in the Latin language, as well as in science and jurisprudeuce ;
but it was not till 1507 that the art of printing was introduced into Scotland, under the
royal auspices, when a patent was granted to Walter Chepman and Andrew Myllar, con-
ferring on them the exclusive privilege of printing there. Some of Dunbar's own poems
seem to have been among the very first productions that issued from their press, and form
now very scarce and highly valued reliques of the art. It affords evidence of the success
that attended the printing press, immediately on its introduction, that, in the year 1513,
Walter Chepman founded a Chaplainry at the altar of St John the Evangelist, on the
southern side of St Giles's Church, and endowed it with an annuity of twenty-three
marks.1 But, perhaps, the most lively characteristics of the times, occur in " The
Flytings " of Kennedy and Dunbar, already referred to, — a most singular feature of the
age, afterwards copied by their successors, — in which many local and personal allusions
are to be found. These poems consist of a series of pungent satires, wherein each depicts
his rival in the most ridiculous characters, and often in the coarsest language.

This literary gladiatorship originated in no personal enmity, but seems to have been a
friendly trial of wits for the amusement of the court. A few extracts, in connection with
our local history, will suffice, as specimens of these most singular literary effusions. Dim-
bar addresses Kennedy,2—

Thou brings the Carrick clay to Edinburgh Cross,

Upon thy buitings hobblaud hard as horn,

Strae wisps hing out quhair that the wats ar worn ;
Come thou again to skar us with thy straes,

We sail gar skale our Schulis all thee to scorn,
And stane thee up the calsay as thou gaea.

The boys of Edinburgh, as the bees out thraws,

And crys out ay, Heir cums our awin queer Clerk 1
Then fteis thou like a houlat chalet with craws,

Quhyle all the bitches at thy buitings bark,

Then carlings cry, Keip curches in the merk,
Our gallowa gapes, lo ! quhair ane graceless gaes :

Anither says, I see him want a sark,
I red ye, Kimmer, tak in your lining claia.

1 Maitland, p. 271.

2 These extracts from " The Flyting" are taken, with a few verbal exceptions, from Ramsay's Evergreen, as being
more easily understood by the general reader, than the pure version of Mr Laing.

JAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN. 31

Then rius thou down the gate with gild of boys,

And all the town-tykes hingand at thy heels •
Of lads and louns, ther ryses sic a noise,

Quhyle runsys rin away with cairt and wheels,

And cadger's avers, cast baith coals and creils,
For rerd of thee, and rattling of thy butes.

Fish wyves cry, Fy, and cast down skulls and skeils,
Some clashes thee, some clods thee on the cutes.

An allusion of the same nature as the concluding lines, to the fraternity of fishwives,
occurs in the " Devil's Inquest," by the same author, and would seem to afford historical
evidence that the ancient characteristics of that hardy race are still ahly represented in
their descendants.

Kennedy replies in equally caustic terms, ransacking history for delinquencies of the
Dunbars, with which to brand their namesake, and thus advises him : —

Pass to my Commissar and be confest,

Before him cour on knees, and cum in will ;
And syne gar Stobo for thy life protest ;

Renunce thy rymes, baith ban and burn thy bill,

Heive to the Heaven thy hands and hald thee still.
Do thou not thus, Brigane, thou sail be brint,
With pik, tar, fyre, gun-powder, and lint,

On Arthur-sate, or on ane higher hill !

It may surprise us that this poetic warfare, though begun in play, did not end in earnest
feud, from the zeal with which it is conducted ; yet they seemed to have remained to the
last good friends ; and in the " Lament for the Makaris," Duubar bewails the approaching
death of his rival, as a friend and brother.

But we must hasten from these merry pastimes of the court, that open on us like a
glimpse of some lively comedy enacted to sweet music of the olden time, delaying us too
long by its quaint pleasantries, and pass on to the more stirring events of the time,
that ended in " Flodden's bloody rout." The leading historical incidents that preceded
this disastrous field belong not to our subject, even if they were less familiar than they are
to the general reader. But among those that possess a local interest, may be mentioned
the General Synod of the Clergy, which assembled, by permission of the King, in the
Blackfriars,1 at Edinburgh, where, in presence of the Pope's nuncio, Bagimont's roll was
revised, and all benefices above forty pounds sterling yearly value, held bound to pay a
certain sum to the Pope ; the King, however, reserving to himself the right of making
still larger demands when needed.2

The Queen had already given birth to two sons at Holyrood Palace, both of whom died
in infancy; and in 1512, her third son, who speedily succeeded to the throne as James V.,
was born at Linlithgow ; when the King, seduced by the romantic challenge of the Queen
of France, " To ride, for her sake, three feet on English ground," forgot his fair young
Queen and infant son, and in defiance of every argument and artifice that his nobles could
adopt to win him from his purpose, flung away the fruits of a prosperous reign in one un-
equal contest. Lindsay of Pitscottie's account of the warnings that preceded the departure

1 A.D. 1511. ! Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 529.

3^ MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of the Scottish army from the capital, though familiar to many, are too intimately associated
with our local history to he omitted here. The King had already been warned against the
war, by an apparition of St John, at Linlithgow ; " yet this but hasted him fast to Edin-
burgh, to make him ready, and to make provision for himself and his army against the day
appointed. That is, he had seven great cannons out of the Castle of Edinburgh, called
the Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwik, the master-gunner ; furnished with powder
and lead to them at their pleasure; and in the meantime, they were taking out the artillery,
the King himself being in the Abbey, there was a cry heard at the Market-cross of Edin-
burgh, about midnight, proclaiming, as it had been, a summons, which was called by the
proclaimer thereof the summon of Plotcok,1 desiring all earls, lords, barons, gentlemen,
and sundry burgesses within the town, to compear before his master within forty days ; and
so many as were called, were designed by their own names. But whether this summons
was proclaimed by vain persons, night walkers, for their pastime, or if it was a spirit, I
cannot tell. But an indweller in the town, called Mr Richard Lawsoun, being evil dis-
posed, ganging in his gallery-stair, foment the Cross, hearing this voice, thought marvel
what it should be : So he cried for his servant to bring him his purse, and took a crown
and cast it over the stair, saying, ' I, for my part, appeal from your summons and judg-
ment, and take me to the mercy of God.' Verily, he who caused me chronicle this, was
a sufficient lauded gentleman, who was in the town in the meantime, and was then twenty
years of age ; and he swore after the field there was not a man that was called at that time
that escaped, except that one man, that appealed from their judgment."2 But neither this,
nor the entreaties of his Queen, who urged that " she had but one son to him, quilk was
over weak ane warrand to the realme of Scotland ! " could turn back the King from his
rash purpose. In defiance, as it seemed, alike of earth and heaven, the gallant, but head-
strong and devoted Monarch led forth the flower of Scottish chivalry to perish with him on
the bloody field of Flodden. The body of the King having fallen, as is understood, into
the hands of the victors, he was believed by many to have gone on his intended pilgrimage
to the Holy Land ; and popular tradition continued long after to regard him as another
King Arthur, or Sebastian, who was yet to return in the hour of danger, and right the
nation's wrongs.

We shall close this chapter with a curious, and we believe unique fragment of a ballad,
embodying this tradition, with other more local and apposite allusions.

An about the mids o' the night
He crap to the field o' the bluid ;
Laigh he bowit an dour he lookit,
But never a worde he spak.3

He turned the dead knight round about,
Till the moon shon on his bree ;
But his soth was tined wit a bluidy gash,
Drumbelee grew his ee.

1>luto- 2 Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 266. > Probably should be "said."

JAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLO D DEN.

Up and awa my lither foot page,

An Scotland and I maun part ;

But sweere by the deed iu ilk bluidy shrowd,

That thou layn my lare i" thy hart.

Giffe I were a King, as now I 'm uane,
Ille battell wold I prove,
My birde ladie in Halyroode ;
\Vae worth the wyt o' luve.

Sanct Giles sail ring ilk larum belle,

Wauk up the craimes and bowse.

Earl Angus has taen hirne to Floudenne

» » * *

He cut the crosse on his right shoulder
0' claith o' the bluidy redde,
An hes taen his ways to the haly land
Wheras Christe was quick and dead.1

33

"

1 This curious fragment was found by the author in an interleaved copy of "Dalrymple's remarks on the History of
Scotland." Two leaves have been torn out, so that these are only the concluding stanzas. The following note is
appended in the same hand :— " This I got from an old man, James Spence, gardener at Earlsha' ; it had been on the
fly leaf of a Psalm-book iu the family as long as he remembered."

CITY Cuoss.

CHAPTEE IV.
FROM THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO THE DEATH OF JAMES V.

BjHE ready voice of rumour preceded the more certain
Knews of the disastrous field of Flodden, and filled the
Scottish capital with dismay ; already sufficiently over-
i cast by the prevalence of the plague, which continued
to haunt the city during this eventful year. The pro-
vost and magistrates had marched at the head of their
trusty burghers to the field, and were involved in the
general misfortune ; but fortunately for the country, the
wisest precautions had been adopted to provide for such
a contingency. The provost and bailies "in respect that they were to pass to the army,
chose and left behind thame George of Touris, president, for the provost, and four others
for the bailies, till have full jurisdictioun in thair absence." l

The battle of Flodden was fought on the 9th of September 1513, and on the following

1 Registers of the City — Lord Hailes' Remarks.
VIGNETTE— James V.'s Tower, Holyrood, previous to 1554.

[Note]— The following ballad, the scene of which is laid in St Giles's Church, may find a place here, both from its
local allusions, and its general reference to the subject of the text :—

Wae worth the day our burghers leal

Rade our the Ynglish yird ;
Wae worth the day whan leman's guile,
To bluidy grave fand wit to wyle

Our gallant James the Feird.

Gawn Douglas rase frae a dead-troth sleep,

Teenefu' wi' erie dreams ;
Queen Margaret in Halyrood waukt to weep
Sin' their maister a ieman's tryst will keep

Ayout Tweed's border streams.

BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES V.

35

day, with the first rumours of the disaster, these magistrates issued a proclamation,
couched in plain and simple terms, yet exhibiting such firmness as showed them well
fitted for the trying occasion. It begins, "For sa meikle as thair is ane greit rumber1
now laitlie rysin within this toun, tueching our Soverane Lord and his army, of the
quilk we understand thair is cumin na veritie as yet, quhairfore we charge straigtlie, and
commandis that all maner of personis, nyhbours within the samen, have reddy their
fensible geir and wapponis for weir, and compeir thairwith to the said president's, at
jewing of the commoun bell, for the keeping and defens of the toun against thame that
wald invade the samyn."; It likewise warns women not to be seen on the street,
clamouring and crying, but rather to repair to the church, and offer up prayers for the
national welfare.

All the inhabitants, capable of bearing arms, were thus required to be in readiness ;
twenty-four men (the origin of the old town-guard), were appointed as a standing watch ;
and £500 Scots were forthwith ordered to be levied for purchasing artillery and fortifying
the town.

We have already described the line of the first circumvallations of the city, erected in
the reign of James II. ; but its narrow limits had speedily proved too confined for the
rising capital, and now with the dread of invasion by a victorious enemy in view, the
inhabitants of the new and fashionable suburb of the Cowgate became keenly alive to
their exposed position beyond the protecting shelter of the city wall.

The necessity of enclosing it seems to have come upon the citizens in the most un-

it is na ae day, but ouly ten,

Sin' Sanct Giles his quire had rung
Wi" the high mass an' the haly sign,
An* the aisles wi' the tramp o' stalwart men
That the Nunc Demittis suug.

But only ten sin' prince and squire,

An' churl, an' burger bauld,
In mauger o' hell's or heaven's forbear,
Had bight to ride, wi' helm an' spear,

Three yards on Ynglish mould —

When Douglas sought nigh the noon o' night

The altar o' gude Sanct Giles,
Up the haly quire, whar the glimmerand light
0' the Virgin's lamp gae the darkness sight

To fill the eerie aisles.

Belyve, as the boom o' the mid-mirk hour,

Itang out wi' clang an' mane ;
Clang after clang frae Sanct Giles's tower,
Whar the fretted ribs like a boortree bower

Mak a royal crown o' stane —

Or the sound was tint — 'fore mortal ee

Ne'er saw sic sight, I trow,
Shimmering wi' light ilk canopy,
Pillar an' ribbed arch, an' fretted key,

Wi' a wild uneardly low.

An' Douglas was ware that the haly pile
Wi' a strange kent thrang was filled, — -
Yearls Angus an' Crawford, an' bauld Argyle,
Huntly an' Lennox, an' Home the while,
Wi' mony ma' noble styled.

An' priests stood up in cope and stole,

In mitre an* abbot's weede,
An" James y'wis abon the whole,
Led up the kirk to win assoyl

Whar the eldritch mass was said.

Let the mass be sung for the unshriven dead ! —
Let the dead's mass bide their ban ! —

An' grim an' stalwart, in mouldy weed,

Priest after priest, up the altar lead,
King James his forbear wan.

Let the dead's mass sing ! said Inchaffrey's priest-
Dead threap na to the dead ;
Now peace to them wha tak' their rest,
A' smoured in bluid on Floddeu's breast ! —
Crist's peace ! — Priest Douglas cried.

Gane was the thrang frae the glymerand aisle,

As he groped to the kirk yard boun' ;
But or the mornin' sun 'gan smile,
"i'was kent that a woman was Scotland's mail,
A wean wore Scotland's crown.

1 Ilumour.

* Lord Hailes' Remarks, p. 147.

36 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

expected manner ; they no doubt regretted that luxury ami tuste for improvement had led
them so far out into the unprotected country. But they certainly did afterwards retrieve
their native character of prudence, as scarcely a house arose beyond the second wall for
two hundred and fifty years ; and if Edinburgh increased in any respect, it was only by
piling new flats on the Ancient Royalty, and adding to the height rather than to the
extent of the city.1

The utmost energy was immediately displayed in supplying the needful defences ; the
farmers of the Lothians lent their labourers and horses to the national work ; the citizens
rivalled one another in their zeal for the fortification of the capital against the dreaded
foe, " our auld inymis of Ingland." 2 So that, in an incredibly short time, the extended
city was enclosed within defensive walls, with ports, and battlements, and towers, an
effective protection against the military engineering of the age.

Considerable portions of this wall have remained to the present time, exhibiting abun-
dant tokens of the haste with which it was erected, as well as preserving, in the name of
the Flodden wall, by which it is still known, another proof of the deep impression that
disastrous field had left on the popular mind.

Fortunately for Scotland, Henry VIII. was too deeply engrossed with the French war
to follow up the advantage he had gained ; and Queen Margaret, who now assumed the
government in name of her infant son, having appealed to his generosity, towards a sister
and nephew, he willingly secured the neutrality of the Scots by a peace. Shortly after
this truce, a legate arrived at Edinburgh from the Pope, bearing his congratulations to the
young King on his accession to the crown,3 and presented him with a consecrated cap
and sword from 'his Holiness — the latter of which is still preserved among the Eegalia
in Edinburgh Castle.

[1515.] The nation now experienced all the evils of a long minority; the Queen
having speedily accepted Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, in marriage, was thereby
held to have forfeited the Regency ; and from this time, till the young King
asserted his independence, the people knew scarcely any other rule than the anarchy
of rival factions contending for power, in all which the capital had always a principal
share.

The Earl of Arran, upon the marriage of the Queen, marched to Edinburgh, numerously
attended by his kinsmen and friends, and laid claim to the Regency, as the nearest of
blood to the King. The Earl of Angus immediately followed him thither, attended by
above 500 armed retainers, ready to assert his claims against every opponent. So soon as
Arran, who, " with the chief of the nobility of the west, had assembled at the Archbishop
of Glasgow's house, in the foot of Blackfrier Wynd,"4 had learned of his arrival, he ordered
the gates to be secured, little aware of the formidable host he was thus enclosing within the
walls. On the following morning, Angus received early intimation of the rash scheme of
his rival, for making him prisoner, and lost no time in mustering his followers, whom he
drew up, well armed and in battle array, above the Nether Bow, and thereupon a fierce and
sanguinary conflict ensued between them, which was not stayed till Sir Patrick Hamilton,
Montgomery, and above seventy men had fallen in the aflray. Though the Regent pub-

1 Chambers's Traditions, vol. i. p. 3. 2 Diurnal of Occurrents.

a Balfour's Ann. vol. i. p. 239. 4 Crawford's Lives, vol. i. p. 69.

BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES V. 37

lishecl an edict prohibiting any of the name of Douglas or Hamilton to interfere in the
election of provost, the Earl of Arran, who had held that high office during the previous
year, 1519, attempted to control the citizens in their free choice. They immediately shut
their gates upon him, and a scuffle ensued, iu which one of the deacons of the crafts was
slain. A fierce and sanguinary tumult followed this, in consequence of the attempt of
Arran and the nobles of the west to surprise the Earl of Angus ; in which Gawin
Douglas, the Bishop of Dunkeld, tried in vain to act as mediator. The following is the
graphic account which Drummond furnishes of this famous contest : — Angus with an
hundred resolute followers, armed with long spears and pikes, which the citizens, as he
traversed the streets, furnished them from their windows, " invested a part of the town,
and barricado'd some lanes with carts and other impediments, which the time did afford.
The adverse party, trusting to their number, and the supply of the citizens (who, calling
to mind the slaughter of their deacon, showed them small favour), disdaining the Earl
should thus muster on the streets, in great fury invade him. Whilst the bickering con-
tinued, and the town is in a tumult, William Douglas, brother to the Earl of Angus, Sir
David Hume of Wedderburn, George Hume, brother to the late Lord, with many others
by blood and friendship tyed together, enter by violence the east gate of the town, force
their passage through the throngs, seek the Earl's enemies, find them, and scour the
streets of them. The Master of Montgomery, eldest son to the Earl of Eglinton, Sir
Patrick Hamilton, brother to the Earl of Arran, with almost fourscore more, are left
dead upon the place. The Earl himself findeth an escape and place of retreat through a
marsh upon the north side of the town ; the Chancellor and his retinue took sanctuary in
the Dominican Friars. Some days after, the Humes, well banded and backed with many
nobles and gentlemen of their lineage, took the Lord Hume's and his brother's heads
from the place where they had been fixed, and with the funeral rites of those times
interred them in the Black- Friars." l James Beatoun, Archbishop of Glasgow and Chan-
cellor of the kingdom, who was a zealous adherent of Arran, and had taken an active
share both in planning and executing the scheme, on the discomfiture of his party " fled
to the Black Freir Kirk, and thair was takin out behind the alter, and his rockit riviu aff
him, and had beine slaine, had not beine Mr Gawin Douglas requeisted for him, saying,
it was shame to put hand on ane consecrat bischop."

It was at the commencement of this aifray, which took place on the 30th April 1520,
and is known by the name of Cleanse the Causey, from the scene of contest, that the
well-known repartee of Gawin Douglas to the Archbishop of Glasgow occurred. Douglas,
who was uncle to the Earl of Angus, and now Bishop of Dunkeld, having appealed to the
Archbishop to use his influence with his friends to compromise matters, and prevent, if
possible, the bloodshed that must otherwise ensue ; the Archbishop excused himself, on
many accounts, adding, "Upon my conscience, I cannot help it;" at the same time,
striking his breast in the heat of his asseveration, he betrayed the presence of a concealed
coat of mail, whereupon Douglas retorted, " How now, my lord, methinks your conscience
clatters." 3

1 Hawthornden, p. 88. 2 Pitscottie, vol. ii. p. 288.

1 Crawford's Lives, vol. i. p. 62. The term clatters is peculiarly expressive here, as it signifies either males a
noise, or tattles, and may be rendered thus : — Methinks your conscience tells another tale I

38 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The streets of Edinburgh continued to partake largely of the general misrule that
prevailed throughout the kingdom during the long minority of James V. The Lord Home
had convened a council of the nobility so early as 1515, to devise some remedy for the
anarchy that existed, and at his urgent suggestion, John Duke of Albany was invited
from France to assume the reins of government. On his arrival the same year, "he
wes ressaueit with greit honour, and convoyit to Edinburgh with ane greit cumpany, with
greit blythnes and glore, and thair wes constitute and maid governour of this realme ;
and sone thairefter held ane Parliament, and ressaueit the homage of the lordis and thre
estaittis ; quhair thair wes mony thingis done for the weill of this cuntrey. Evill doaris
wes punuesit ; amang the quhilkis ane Petir Moifet, ane greit rever and theif, was heidit,
and for exampill of vtheris, his head wes put on the West Port of Edinburgh." The
Duke took up his residence at Holyrood, and seems to have immediately proceeded with
the enlargement of the Palace, in continuation of the works which the late King had
carried on till near the close of his life. Numerous entries in the Treasurer's accounts,
for the year 1515-16, furnish evidence of the building being then in progress.

The new governor, after having made a tour of the kingdom and adopted many stringent
measures for strengthening his party, returned to Edinburgh, and summoned a convention
of the nobility to meet him in the Abbey of Holyrood. But already the Lord Chamber-
lain had fallen out of favour, and " Prior John Hepburn of St Andrews clamb next the
Governor, and grew great in the Court, and remembered of old malice and envy betwixt
him and the Humes."5 Lord Home, who had been the sole means of the Duke of Albany's
elevation to the regency, was suddenly arrested by his orders, along with his brother
William. An old annalist states, that " the Ducke of Albany tooke the Lord Houme,
the chamberlane, and wardit him in the auld touer of Holyrudhouss, which was foundit by
the said Ducke," 8 an allusion confirming the previous account of the new works in pro-
gress at the palace. A series of charges were preferred against the brothers, of which the
most remarkable is the accusation by the Earl of Murray, the natural son of the late King,
that the Lord Chamberlain had caused the death of his father, " who, by many witnesses,
was proved to be alive, and seen to have come from the battle of Flowden." * They were
both condemned to be beheaded, and the sentence immediately thereafter put in execution,
" and their heads fixt on the Tolbooth of Edinburgh," 5 from whence, as we have seen,
they were removed by their faithful adherents, and laid in consecrated ground.

Throughout the minority of James V. the capital continued to be disturbed by succes-
sive outbreaks of turbulence and riot, from the contentions of the nobility and their
adherents, and especially from the struggles of the rival Earls of Angus and Arran. In
order to suppress this turbulent spirit, the Town Council augmented the salary of the
provost, and appointed four attendants armed with halberts, as a perpetual guard to wait
upon him, but altogether without effect on the restless spirit of the nobles.

During nearly the whole of this time the young monarch resided in the Castle of
Edinburgh, pursuing his education under the tuition of Gawin Dunbar, afterwards Arch-
bishop of Glasgow ; and his sports, with the aid of his faithful page, Sir David Lindsay ;

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 5. s Marjoribank's Aunals, Liber Cart. p. Ixxi.

s Pitscottie, vol. ii. p. 296. 4 Hawthornden, p. 85.

5 Crawford's Lives, vol. i. p. 324. Balfour's Ann. vol. i. p. 245.

BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES V. 39

unconscious of the tumultuous scenes of the neighbouring capital, and seemingly but little
thought of by its turbulent rivals, for his poor tutor was compelled to defray, from his
own purse, the necessary repairs of the royal apartments, then devoted to his use ; while
such was the straitened means of the young King, that he was indebted at one time to
the kindness of his natural sister, the Countess of Morton, for a new doublet and a pair
of hose. Sir David Lindsay has furnished, in his Complaynt, a lively description of their
pastimes at this period —

How as ane chapman beris his pack,

I bure thy Grace upon my back :

And sumtymes, stridlingis, on my uek,

Dansand with mony bend and bek :

The first sillabis that thow did mute,

Was pa, da, lyn, upon the lute ;

Than playit I twentie springis perqueir,

Quhilk was greit plesour for to heir :

Fra play, thow leit me never rest,

Bot gynkertoun thow luffit ay best ;

And ay, quhen thow come fra the scule,

Then I behuffit to play the fule

Thow hes maid lordis, schir, be Sanct Geill

Of sum that hes nocht servit so weill.1

Though placed within the Castle for safety, the King was not entirely confined to its
straitened bounds ; when not prevented by the disturbed state of the town and neighbour-
hood, he was not only permitted to ride forth in the intervals of his studies, but occasion-
ally took up his residence both at Craigmillar and Dalkeith.

Shortly after the period referred to, the Duke of Albany quitted the kingdom for the
last time, and the King, who had been removed to Stirling, to be out of reach of the
Queen's party, was brought to Holyrood, attended by a numerous train of nobles, and at
the mature age of twelve invested with the full powers of royalty, as the only means of
terminating the frightful anarchy that prevailed; and on the 22d of August 1524, "he
maid his solempnit entree with the lordis in the tolbuytht of Edinbrughe, with sceptour,
crouue, and sword of honour."

Sir David Lindsay alludes to this in his Complaynt, and pictures with lively satire the
obsequious courtiers joining in the diversions of the juvenile King.

Pitscottie tells with great naivete, that " the King and the lordis remained in Edin-
burgh aud Hallirudhouse the space of ane yeir, with great triumph and merrines, quhil

Imprudently, lyke witles fulis,

Thay tuke the young Prince fra the sculiB,

Quhare he, under obedience,

Was leirnand vertew, and science,

And haistcly pat in his hand

The governance of all Scotland.

» * * *

Schir, sum wald say, your Majestie

Sail now gae to your libertie ;

Ye sail to na man be coarcit,

Nor to the scule na mair subjectifc ;

We think thame varrey naturall fulis,

That lernis over meikle at the sunlis :

1 Sir D. Lindsay's Poems, 1806, vol. i. p. 257. = Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 9.

40 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

* * * *

Ilk man efter thair qualitie,
Thay did solist hie Majesti»,
Sum gart him ravell at the rakket,
Some harlit him to the hurly hakket.
And sum to schaw their courtlie corsis,
Wald ryid to Leith, and rin thair horsis.

at the last thair vaiked ane benefice quhilk pat thame all at variance for the dispositioun
of the same." l And so, after dividing with more or less success the patronage of the
crown, the nobles parted in greater disagreement than ever ; " bot Bischope James
Beatoun remained still in Edinburgh, in his awin ludging, quhilk he biggit in the Frieris
Wynd." 2

[1525.] The nominal rule of the youthful Sovereign proved of little avail to stay the
turbulence of his haughty nobles ; Angus again seized the government, nominating his
uncle, Archibald Douglas, Provost of Edinburgh. And such was the power he possessed,
that, under his protection, the assassins of M'Lellan of Bombie, who was slain in open
day at the door of St Giles's Church, walked with impunity about the streets ; while the
Queen herself deemed his safe conduct necessary, while she resided in Edinburgh, though
the Parliament was sitting there at the time. And so the King returned again to honour-
able durance in the dilapidated palace of the Castle ; or only made his appearance to act
as the puppet of his governor.

At this time it was that Arran and his faction demanded that the Parliament should
assemble within the Castle, to secure them against popular coercion ; but Angus, and
a numerous body of the nobles, and others, protested " that the Parliament be kept
in the accustomed place, and that the King be conveyed along the High Street, and
in triumph shown to his own people." And this being denied them, they surrounded the
Castle with two thousand men in arms, completely preventing the supplies of the garrison.
Those in the Castle retaliated, by firing on the town : but their differences were happily
accommodated, and " the King in magnificence and pomp is convoyed from the Castle to
his palace at Holyrood House, and the Estates assemble in the wonted place of the town
of Edinburgh."3

[1526.] The Earl of Lennox assembled a numerous body of adherents in the following
year, and marched towards Edinburgh to the rescue of the King ; but Angus not only
caused the provost to ring the alarum bell, and raise the town in his defence, but he per-
suaded the King, though much against his will, to head the burgher force against his own
friends. " Then the King caused sound his trumpets, and lap upon horse, and caused
ring the commoun bell of Edinburgh, commanding all manner of men to follow him ; so he
issued forth at the Wast Port, and the tounes of Edinburgh and Leith with him, to the
number of thrie thousand men, and passed forwards with thame," but only to arrive
in time to witness the death of the Earl of Lennox, and the complete discomfiture of his
party.

[1528.] Frequent attempts were made thereafter for the King's delivery from this thral-
dom ; but that which so many had failed in securing, he at length effected, by his own

1 Pitscottie, voL ii. p. 312. 2 Ibid, p. 313. 3 Hawthornden, p. 93.

BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES V. 41

address and vigour, and with only two attendants, made his escape from the Douglas faction,
at Falkland, to Stirling Castle. Shortly after this, he repaired to Edinburgh, whither he
summoned his barons to advise with him, and, with a degree of decision far beyond his
years, proceeded to assert his own independence and authority. One of the acts of this
Parliament against them, " quha cummis and burnis folkes in their housis,"1 exhibits in no
very pleasing light the rude violence prevailing at the period.

The year 1530 is assigned as the date of Lindsay's famous satire, The Complaint of
the Papingo,2 which may be regarded as the first note of the reforming movement by him,
of whom Pinkerton has said, " In fact, Sir David was more the reformer of Scotland than
John Knox ; for he had prepared the ground, and John only sowed the seed." The fare-
well of the papingo to the capital is couched in terms the more flattering, as coming
from so keen a satirist, —

"Adevv Edinburgh, thou heich triumphand toun,
Within quhose boundis, richt blythful have I bene,
Of trew merchandis, the rute of this regioim,
Moat reddy to ressave Court, King, and Quene;
Thy policie, and justice, may be sene,
Were devotioun, wysedom, and honestie,
And credence, tint, they micht be found in thee."

Various notices occurring about this period, exhibit the first symptoms of the reforming
doctrines showing themselves in the capital, e.g., in the Diurnal of Occurrents for 1532,
" In this zeir was ane greit objuratioun of the favouraris of Mertene Lutar, in the Abbay
of Halyrudhous." 3 About the same period, it records the destruction of nearly the whole
town by an accidental fire. This same year, the nobles assembled at Edinburgh, at the
King's summons, with their followers, to the number of twelve thousand, for the famous
hunting match, in which Johnnie Armstrong, the Border reiver, renowned in song and
story, was hanged, " to daunton the theives of Tividaill and Annandaill." 4

Notice has already been taken of Dunbar's allusions to the Court of Session, in the
former reign, but now, in 1537, the King instituted the College of Justice, and estab-
lished the Court on a permanent footing, with the confirmation of Pope Clement VII. 5
This event is one of the most important in the history of Edinburgh, on which, from that
time, both its prosperity and its metropolitan claims have more depended than on any occur-
rence in its history ; and which, from the security and the ready means of redress it afforded
to the inhabitants against the turbulent nobles of the period, made the town a place of
greater resort than it had ever before been.

The King now, with that self-reliance and energy that marked his entire character, after
negotiating for the hand of various noble ladies in marriage, set sail from Leith, accom-
panied by a large fleet and a numerous retinue; and, arriving at the French Court, he wooed
and won for himself the Princess Magdalene, eldest daughter of Francis I. On the 29th
of May the royal pair landed at Leith, amid every display of welcome ; and after tarry-
ing for a few days at the Palace of Holyrood, till the preparations of the citizens were
completed, the Queen made her entry in state into the capital, with processions of great

1 Scots Acts, 12mo, vol. i. p. 201. 2 Parrot. * Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 15.

4 Pitscottie, vol. ii. p. 342. 5 Hawthornden, p. 99. Scots Acts, 12mo, vol. i. p. 217.

42 MEMORIA LS OF EDINB UR GH.

magnificence, and sucli displays of loyal attachment, as testified the hearty welcome of
the people. The young Queen was of a most tender and affectionate disposition ; she

seems to have given

" Her hand with her heart in it "

to her royal lover, with a gentle spirit of resignation. So soon as she stepped on the Scottish
shore, she knelt and kissed the ground, praying for all happiness to her adopted country
and people ; l but ere six weeks had elapsed, the pomp of worldly honour that had greeted
her arrival, was called to follow the young bride to the tomb. She was buried with the
greatest mourning Scotland ever, till that time, was participant of, in the church of Holy-
rood House, near King James II.2 Buchanan, who was an eye-witness, says it was the
first instance of mourning-dresses being worn by the Scots ; and " triumph and mirrines
was all turned into deregies and soull massis, verrie lamentable to behold."3

Sir David Lindsay, in a poem of singular inequality, has expressed his Deploratioun of
the Deith of Quene Magdalene. He thus apostrophises (Crewell Deith) : —

Theif ! saw thow uoc'it the greit preparatyvis
Of Edinburgh, the nobill famous toun,
Thow saw the pepill, lauboring for thair lyvis,
To mak tryumphe, with trump, and clariouu ;
Sic plesour was never into this regioun,
As suld haif bene the day of hir entraoe,
With greit propy nis, * gevin till hir Grace.

Thow saw makand right costlie scaffalding,

Depaintit weill, with gold, and asure fyue,

Reddye preparit for the upsetting,

With fontanis, flowing water cleir, and wyne,

Disagysit folks,6 lyke creaturis divyne,

On ilk scaffold, to play ane syndrie atorie,

Bot, all in greiting turnit thow that glorie.

Provest, baillies, and lordis of the toun,

And princis of the preistis venerabill,

Full plesandlye in thair processioun,

With all the cunnyng clerkis honorabill ;

The herauldis, with their awful vestimentis,

With maseris 6 upon ather of thair handis,

To rewle the press, with burneist silver wandis.

Syne, last of all, in ordour tryumphall,

That maist illuster Princes honorabill,

With hir the lustye ladyis of Scotland,

Quhilk sulde haif bene ane sicht maist delectabil :

Hir rayment to rehers, I am nocht habill,

Of gold, and perle, and precious stonis brycht,

Twinklyng lyke sterris in ane frostie nycht.

Under ane pale of golde scho suld haif past,
Be burgeis borne, clothit in silkis fyne,

> Hawthornden, p. 104. » Ibid. 3 PiUcottiej vol. u.

« Disguised folk or actors. " JIaoer

BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES V. 43

The greit maister of housholde, all thair last,
With him, in ordour, all the kingis tryne,
Quhais ordinance war langsum to defyne ;
On this maner, scho passing throw the toun,
Suld haif resavit raony benissun.

Thou sulde haif hard the ornate oratouris,

Makand her Hynes salutatioun,

Baith of the clergy, toun, and counsalouris,

With mony uotabill narratioun,

Thow sulde haif sene hir Coronatioun,

In the fair abbay of the Haly Rude,

In presence of ane myrthfull multitude.

Sic banketting, sic awfull tournaments,

On hors, and f ute, that tyme quhilk suld haif bene,

Sic chapell royall, with sie instruments,

And craftye musick, singing from the splene,

In this cuntre was never hard, nor sene :

Bot, all this greit solempnitie, and gam,

Turnit thow hes in requiem (eternam.

James, though without doubt sincerely attached to his Queen, very speedily after his
bereavement, for reasons of state policy, began to look about him for another to supply her
place. And while his ambassadors were negotiating his alliance with Mary of Lorraine,
daughter of the Duke of Guise, the Scottish capital became the scene of tragical events,
little in harmony with the general character of this gallant Monarch. Groundless charges
of treason were concocted, seemingly by the malice of private enmity, in consequence of
which, John, son of Lord Forbes, and chief of his name, was convicted of having conspired
the King's death. He was beheaded and quartered on the Castle Hill, and his quarters
exposed on the principal gates of the city. This execution was followed in a few days by
a still more barbarous deed of like nature. The Lady Glamis, sister of the Earl of Angus,
convicted, as it would seem, by the perjury of a disappointed suitor, on the charge of a
design to poison the King, and of the equally hateful crime of being of the blood of the
Douglasses, was condemned to be burned alive. The sentence was immediately put in
execution on the Castle Hill, and in sight of her husband, then a prisoner in the Castle,
who, either in desperation at the cruel deed or in seeking to effect his escape, was killed
in falling over the Castle rock.

The horror of such barbarous events is somewhat relieved by an ordeal of a different
nature, which immediately followed them, and which, as it is related by Drummond,
seems a grave satire on the knightly prowess of the age.

" Upon the like suspicion," says he, " Drumlanrig and Hempsfield, ancient barons,
having challenged others, had leave to try the verity by combat. The lists were designed
by the King (who was a spectator and umpire of their valour) at the Court of the Palace
of Holyrood House. They appeared upon the day, armed from head to foot, like ancient
Paladines, and after many interchanged blows, to the disadvantage of their casks, corslets,
and vantbraces, when the one was become breathless, by the weight of his arms and
thunder of blows, and the other, who was short-sighted, had broken his ponderous sword,
the King, by heraulds, caused separate them, with disadvantage to neither of these

.,4 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

champions ; and the verity which was (omul, was, that they dared both to light iu close
arms ! "

In the month of June ir>;»8, the new Queen, Mary of Guise, destined to enact so pro-
minent ii purl in the future history both of the city and kingdom, was welcomed home
with costly gifts and every show of welcome, and " on Sanct Margarete's day thairafter,
sho maid her entres in Edinburgh, with greit trivmphe, and als with ordour of the haill
nobillis; hir Grace come in first, lit the AYest Port, and raid doun the hie gait to the
Abhav of Halyrudhous, with greit sportis playit to hir Grace throw all the pairtis of the
hum." Pitscottie adds, that " the Qucine was riehlio rewairdit and propyned by the pro-
veist. and tounschip, both with gold and spyees, wynes, and curious playes made to her by
the said hum;"8 and, indeed, such was the zeal of the good town to testify its grntulations
on the King's speedy escape from widowhood, that we find, shortly after, " the city cash
had run so low, as to render it necessary for the council to mortgage the northern vault of
the Nether How Port, for the sum of 100 merits Scots, to repair the said port or gate
withal." From this state of exhaustion, they do not seem to have again recovered during
the King's lifetime, as in 1541, the year before his death, they had to borrow from him
100 merits Scots, to put the park walls of Holyrood in repair, — a duty that seems to have
been somewhat unreasonably imposed on the town.

In the year 15W, Sir David Lindsay's Satyr? <>/ ' tha Thria Estaitis, the earliest Scottish
drama, if we except the Religious Mysteries, that we have any account of, was represented
for the first time at Linlithgow, at " the feaste of the epiphane," in presence of the Court.
At a later date, it was " playit beside Edinburgh, in presence of the Queen Regent, and
ane greit part of the nobilitie, with ano exceeding greit nowmber of pepill ; lestand fnv
nyne houris afore none, till six honris at euin," — an extent of patience in the listeners that
implies no slight degree of entertainment.

The extreme freedom with which tlif Pardoner, and others of the dramatis person,
treat of the clergy, and the alleged corruptions of the Church, may exeite our surprise that
this satire should have obtained, thus early, so willing an audience. Dr Irving has inferred
from this, that the King was better inclined to a reformation than is generally supposed,*
hnt the more probable explanation is to be sought for in the favour of the author at Court
Not long after, Killor, a blackfriar, constructing a drama on the Passion of Christ, which
was performed before the King on Good Friday morning, and wherein the author indulged
in the same freedom, he was condemned to the fiames.

In the seventh Parliament of this reign, held at Edinburgh, in March 1640, a carious
and interesting Act was passed " Tnitching the lugging of Leith Wynde," wherein "it is
ordained that the Provost, Baillies, and Council of Edinburgh, warne all manner of per-
sones that lies ony laudes, biginges, and waistes, upon the west side of Leith Wynde,
that they within Keir and day, big and repaire, honestlie, their said waistes and ruinous
houses, and gif not, it sail be leifful to the saidis Proveste and Baillies to cost down the
said waiste landes, and with the stnfte and stanes thereof, bigge ane honest subst&ntious
wall, fra the Porte of the Nether Bow, to the Trinitie College. And because tie easte side
of the saide Wyude perteines to the abbot and convente of Halyrude-house, it is

, p. 105. « Diurnal of OccurmiU, p. 28. » Pitecotti*, Tol. ii. p. 878.

« DiwwUUon on th* wrly Scotti.l. Drama. UTM of Scot. Foots, *ol i. p. S09.

BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES K 45

ordained that the Itoillics of the Cannongate garre sik like he done upon the said

•id*."1

Although :ill tho Parliaments during tliis reign assembled ivt Edinburgh, the Palaoo
of llolyrood was only the occasional residence of -lame- V. V.-l he seems to ha\e
diligently continued tho works begun hon> by his father, and tradition still assigns to
him, with ovory appearance of i ruth, the erection of the north-west to\\ers of the Palaoo,
the only port ion of t lie original building that has survived tlio >;cneral conflagration by
the Knu'lish in the following reign. On the bottom of the nvossod pan no I of the nortli
tower, could be traeed. about thirty years since, in raised Roman letters, gilt, tho word-.
-IACOBYS MX 8COTORVM.

The last, occurrence of local interest in the lifetime of this Monarch, is tints recorded
in the Diurnal of Occurrents : — " Upon the last day of Februar, tlieir was ane oerhuno
of jH'rsoues accusit for hercsie in ablmy kirk of Halyrndhous ; and thair was eondompnit
t\va blaekt'reris, sine rhaiiiuni of Sanet Androis, the vicar of Oollour ; ane (nvist, and ane
lawit man that dnelt in Stirling, were brynt the same day on the Tastell Hill of
Edinburgh." s Tims brietly is recorded an oeonnvnoe. \vhioh yet is the pregnant fore-
runner of o\oiit> that erowd the sueeooding pages of Seottish history, until the Stuart
race for foil oil the throne.

Our subject does not require us to deal further with the character of , lames V., or tho
general events of his reign, lie died at Falkland on the 14th of December IMU, tuid
his body was thereafter conveyed to Kdinbnrgh, where his faithful servitor and friend,
Sir David Lindsay, must have directed the mournful ceremony that laid his royal master
1>\ the side of Queen Magdalene, his tirst young bride, in Holyrood Church, Tho
sumptuous display, that can neither lighten grief nor ward oil' death, attended, as usual,
on the lust rites of the poet King. From the household books of the Cardinal Menton,
we learn that he spent "for a manual at the King's funeral. Ids.; for a mitre of white
damask, -I'Js. ; for four mourning garments, .(.';!, ISs. 1(1,1.," wherewith to ollieiate in
the services of the church, that committed tho remains of his royal master to their final
resting-place.

Of the general manners of the age, considerable insight may bo obtained from the acts
of the Parliaments held duriug this reign, regulating inn-keepers and travellers, bailies,
craftsmen, judges, and beggars, all of whom are severally directed in their callings, with
careful minuteness.

I'.ui the satires of Sir David Lindsay are still more pointed and curious in their
allusions to this subject His Supplication to tho Kingis yraco in Contemptioun t>/' tfytfa
Taillis, attacks a fashion that had already excited the satiric ire of Dunbar, as well as
the graver but less elfeelual censures of the Parliament; and already, in this early poem,
he begins to touch with sly humour on the excesses of the clergy, oven while dealing with
this humble theme. Though bishops, he says, with seeming commendation, — for the
dignity of their office, have men to bear up their tails, yet that is no reason

That every liuly of tlio land

Suld Imve hir tuill 10 «ydo traillmul

1 ScoU Aotn, 12mo, »ol. I. p. 248. • Dinriml of Ooourreuti, ji. 28.

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Quhare ever they go, it may be sene,
How kirk and calsay they soup cleue.

Yet shortly after he adds :-

I trow, Sanct Barnard, nor Sanct Blaia,
Gart never man beir up their clues,
Peter, nor Paule, nor Sanct Androw,
Gart never bear up their taillis, I trow.

The whole poem evidently depicts the extravagance of an age, when the clown trod
on the noble's heel. Nuns, and milkmaids, and burghers' wives, are alike charged
with the fashionable excesses that neither satire nor sumptuary laws proved able to
suppress.

VIGNETTE — Norman Capital from Holyrood Abbey.

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE DEATH OF JAMES V. TO THE ABDICATION OF

QUEEN MARY.

HE death of James]
V. again involved
the Scottish nation in ]
all the evils of a pro-
tracted minority, ag-
gravated by defeat and ;.|
internal discord. The fatal events of Flodden had placed the Crown of Scotland on his
infant brow, at the early age of eighteen months, and he again bequeathed its onerous
dignities to the unfortunate Mary, then only an infant of a few days old, the sole heir of
his crown, and of more than all his misfortunes.

With a sad presentiment of the future, the broken-hearted Monarch received on his
death-bed the intelligence, that his Queen had given birth to a daughter in Linlithgow
Palace, and exclaimed in the bitterness of his heart, " It came with a lass, and it will go
with a lass ! "

" Woe is me! " exclaimed Henry VIII. , when the news of the King's death reached
the English Court, " for I will never have any King in Scotland so set to me again, nor
one whom I favoured so well ! " Yet the advantages that such an occurrence afforded were
not lost sight of by that wily Monarch. His recent success had placed a number of the
Scottish nobility in his power, and these he now sought to secure to his interests, by grant-
ing them their freedom, and loading them with costly gifts. And from this time forward,
until the final accession of James VI. to the crown of England, an English party
continued to be maintained among the Scottish nobility, plotting the overthrow of every
patriotic scheme, the ready tools of their country's enemies ; and if occasionally they are

VIGNETTE— The Black Turnpike, where Queen Mary slept after her surrender at Carberry Hill.

48 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

found to throw the weight of their influence into the scale of liberty and rightj it is only
because the interests of England chanced to tally with such views.

One of the most eminent Scotsmen of this period was the celebrated Cardinal Beaton.
As the head of the Scottish clergy, he was naturally opposed to the entire system of policy
pursued by Henry VIII., and was mainly instrumental in preventing the promised inter-
view between James V. and the English Monarch at York, and thereby bringing on the
war, the disastrous issue of which is justly considered to have occasioned James's death.

This sudden event, as it overturned many of the schemes of the Cardinal, set him only
the more zealously to devise others. Immediately thereafter, he produced a will of the late
King, in which he was nominated Kegent, with three of the nobility as his assistants, and
which he caused forthwith to be proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh.

Historians are generally agreed as to the forgery of this will, yet the Earl of Arran, who,
next to the infant Mary, was heir to the crown, cheerfully acquiesced in its arrangement,
and showed himself willing to co-operate with the Cardinal in his ambitious designs. A
numerous part of the nobility, however, to whom the Cardinal was an object of detestation,
as his projects were altogether incompatible with their own selfish views, soon wrought
upon the imbecile Earl to desert his faction, and while the matter was still in suspense,
the opportune arrival of the liberated prisoners from London, now in the pay of the English
Monarch, on the 1st of January 1543, completed his overthrow; and, notwithstanding his
having already assumed the Regency, he was set aside, and the Earl of Arran elected in his
stead.

The grand scheme of the English Monarch at this period, from the failure of which
originated all the enmity he afterwards manifested towards Scotland, was the promotion
of a marriage between his own son, afterwards Edward VI, and the young Queen of
Scotland.

On the 8th of March a Parliament assembled at Edinburgh, to which the English
Monarch sent an ambassador with offers of lasting peace should they comply with his
proposed alliance. The Cardinal, who saw in this the certain downfall of the Church,
brought the whole influence of the clergy, as well as that of the Queen Dowager, Mary
of Guise, to bear against it, but at the moment without effect. The Cardinal, by a
vote of Parliament, was committed a prisoner to Dalkeith Castle, under the care of
Lord Seton, and everything was forthwith settled with England on the most friendly
terms.

About the same time, Marcus Grymanus, patriarch of Aquileia, or, according to Lesly
and others, Contareno, patriarch of Venice, arrived at Edinburgh, as the Papal Legate,
commissioned to use all his influence to prevent the proposed alliance between the Scottish
Queen and Prince Edward of England, and bearing the amplest promises of assistance
from the Pope, in case of a rupture with that crown. " After he had been courteously
and splendidly entertained at Edinburgh by persons of the greatest rank, he departed in
the beginning of March, and was so well pleased with the reception he had met with, that
wherever he went afterwards, he spoke of the magnificent civilities of the Scottish
nation." Bishop Leslie thus records a costly entertainment furnished to him in the
Scottish capital. " The Earle of Murray makand him the banquet in his house, although

1 Bishop Keith's History of Scotland, 1845, vol. i. p. 96.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 49

he had great store of all kind of silver wark, yet nottheless, for the greater magnificence,
he set forth ane cupboard furnished with all sorts of glasses of the finest chrystal that
could be made ; and to make the said patriarch understand that there was great abund-
ance thereof in Scotland, he caused one of his servants, as it had been by sloth and
negligence, pull down the cupboard cloth, so that all the whole christenings suddenly
were cast down to the earth and broken ; wherewith the patriarch was very sorry, but the
Earl suddenly caused bring another cupboard, better furnished with fine chrystal nor that
was ; which the patriarch praised, as well for the magnificence of the Earl, as for the
fineness of the chrystal, affirming that he never did see better in Venice, where he himself
was born." l

The legate exercised considerable influence over the Queen Dowager, and on his depar-
ture, transferred his legatine power to Cardinal Beaton.

Meanwhile, the people were filled with the utmost joy at the prospect of a peace, the
uncertainty which had prevailed for so many years having nearly destroyed trade. The
merchants bestirred themselves immediately with the liveliest zeal, every seaport of the
kingdom exhibited the most active symptoms of preparation for renewing the commercial
intercourse, so long interrupted with England, and Edinburgh alone fitted out twelve
large vessels, and despatched them laden with the most valuable merchandise. But the
Cardinal soon regained his liberty, and, aided by the co-operation of the Queen Dowager
and the contributions of the clergy, who at a convocation held at St Andrews, in May
of the same year, not only voted him money, but even the silver vessels of their churches,
he speedily overturned all the amicable arrangements with the English Monarch, and the
numerous fleets of merchantmen, that had so recently sailed for the English seaports,
were there seized, their merchandise confiscated, and the crews declared prisoners of war.
The first use the Cardinal made of this fund, was to turn his arms against his rivals at
home. The Earl of Lennox having appropriated the larger portion of thirty thousand
crowns sent by the King of France to aid the efforts of the Catholic party, the Cardinal
persuaded the facile Regent to raise an army to proceed against him to Glasgow, where
he then lay in the Bishop's Castle there ; but Lennox immediately summoning his own
friends and vassals to his standard, marched to Leith at the head of an army of ten
thousand men, from whence he sent a message to the Cardinal at Edinburgh, intimating
that he desired to save him such a journey, and would be ready to meet him any day he
chose, in the fields between Edinburgh and Leith.

Thus were the nobles of Scotland divided into rival factions, and bent only on each
others, overthrow, when, on the 1st of May 1544, an armament, consisting of two hundred
sail, commanded by Dudley Lord 1'Isle, then High Admiral of England, which had
been prepared by Henry to send against the French coast, made its appearance in the
Firth of Forth ; and so negligent had the Cardinal proved in providing against the enemy,
whom he excited to this attack, that the first notice he had of their intentions, was the
disembarkation of the English forces, under the command of the Earl of Hertford, at
Newhaven, and the seizure of the town of Leith.2 The Cardinal immediately deserted the
capital and fled in the greatest dismay to Stirling. The Earl of Hertford demanded the
unconditional surrender of the infant Queen, and being informed that the Scottish capital

1 Bishop Leslie's History of Scotland, Ban. Club, p. 179. * Ibid, p. 180.

D

5o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

and nation would suffer every disaster before they would submit to his ignominious
terms, he marched immediately with his whole forces upon Edinburgh. The citizens,
being taken by surprise, and altogether unprepared for resisting so formidable a force,
sent out a deputation, with Sir Adam Otterburn, the Provost, at its head, offering to
evacuate the town and deliver up the keys to the commander of the English army, on
condition that they should be permitted to carry off their effects, and that the city should
be saved from fire. But nothing would satisfy the English general but an unconditional
surrender of life and property. He made answer — That his commission extended to the
burning and laying waste the country, unless the governor would deliver the young Queen
to his master. The Provost replied — " Then it were better the city should stand on its
defence."

An immediate attack was thereupon made. The English army entered by the Water-
gate without opposition, and assaulted the Nether Bow Port, and beat it open on the second
day, with a terrible slaughter of the citizens. They immediately attempted to lay siege to
the Castle. " Seeing no resistance, they hauled their cannons up the High Street, by force
of men, to the Butter-Trone, and above, and hazarded a shot against the fore entrie of the
Castle. But the wheel and axle-tree of one of the English cannons was broken, and some
of their men slaine by a shot of ordnance out of the Castle ; so they left that rash enter-
prise." 1

Baffled in their attempts on the fortress, they immediately proceeded to wreak their
vengeance on the city. They set it on fire in numerous quarters, and continued the work
of devastation and plunder till compelled to abandon it by the smoke and flames, as well
as the continual firing from the Castle. They renewed the work of destruction on the fol-
lowing day ; and for three successive days they returned with unabated fury to the smoking
ruins, till they had completely effected their purpose.

The Earl of Hertford then proceeded to lay waste the surrounding country with fire
and sword. Craigmillar Castle, which was surrendered on the promise of being preserved
scatheless,2 was immediately devoted to the flames. Roslyn Castle shared the same fate.
Part of the army then proceeded southward by land, burning and destroying every abbey,
town, and village, between the capital and Dunbar. The remainder of the army returned
to Leith, which they plundered and set fire to in many places ; and then embarking their
whole force, they set sail for England.

This disastrous event forms an important era in the history of Edinburgh ; if we except
a portion of the Castle, the churches, and the north-west wing of Holyrood Palace, no
building, anterior to this date, now exists in Edinburgh. One other building, Trinity
Hospital, the oldest part of which bore the date 1462, has been swept away by the opera-
tions of the North British Railway, during the past year (1845), unquestionably, with the
exception of the Castle and churches, at once the most ancient and perhaps interesting
building that Edinburgh possessed.3

Such was the means adopted by Henry VIII. to secure the hand of the Scottish Queen
for his son, a method somewhat analogous to the system of wooing he practised with such

1 Calderwood's History, Wod. Soc. vol. i. p. 177. 2 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 32.

3 A remarkably interesting view of Edinburgh, previous to its destruction at this period, is still preserved in the British
Museum ; a careful fac-siraile of this is given in a volume of the Bannatyne Club's Miscellany, some account of which will
be found in a later part of this work.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 5!

success on his own behalf. The Scottish nation, torn at this time by rival factions, and
destitute of any leader or guide, could only submit in passive indignation to his ruthless
vengeance. Yet, with their usual pertinacity, they shortly after mustered about thirteen
hundred men, who "raid into England and brunt and herijt certane townes on the bor-
douris vnto Tilmouth ; " and, on the twelfth of July following, the Earl of Angus was
proclaimed lieutenant, and commanded the realm to follow him in an hour's warning,
" with foure dayis victuall, to pass on their aid enemies of Ingland." 1

During the following year 1545-6, Edinburgh Castle was for a brief period the scene
of Wishart's imprisonment, after his seizure by the Earl of Bothwell, and delivery into
the hands of Cardinal Beaton, at Elphinstone Tower ; an ancient keep, situated in East
Lothian, about two miles from the village of Tranent. A wretched dungeon, under the
great hall of Elphinstone, is still pointed out as the place of Wishart's imprisonment, as
well as another room, in which the Cardinal slept at the same period. The burning of
Wishart immediately afterwards at St Andrews, as well as the death of the Cardinal, by
the hands of Wishart's friends, which so speedily followed, are facts familiar to the
student of Scottish history.

The death of Henry VIII. in 1547 tended to accelerate the renewal of his project for
enforcing the union of the neighbouring kingdoms, by the marriage of his son with the
Scottish Queen. Henry, on his deathbed, urged the prosecution of the war with Scot-
land; and the councillors of the young King Edward VI. lost no time in completing their
arrangements for the purpose.

The Scottish Court was at this time at Stirling, but the council made the most
vigorous preparations for the defence of the kingdom. A proclamation was issued on the
19th of March, requiring all the lieges to be ready, on forty days' warning, to muster at
their summons, with victuals for one month ; and on the 25th of May, this was followed
by another order for preparing beacon fires on all the high hills along the coast, to give
warning of the approach of the enemy's fleet. The more urgently to summon the people
to arms, the Earl of Arran adopted an expedient seldom resorted to, except in cases of
imminent peril ; he caused the Fiery Cross to be borne by the heralds throughout the
realm, summoning all men, as well spiritual as temporal, between sixty and sixteen, to
be ready to repair to the city of Edinburgh, meil bodin in feir of weir, at the first notice of
the English ships.2

In the beginning of September, the Earl of Hertford, now Duke of Somerset, and
Lord Protector of England, during the minority of his nephew Edward VI, again entered
Scotland at the head of a numerous army ; while a fleet of about sixty sail co-operated
with him, by a descent on the Scottish coast. At his advance, he found the Scottish army
assembled in great force to oppose him, whereupon he wrote to the Governor of Scotland,
offering for the sake of peace, that while he still insisted on the hand of the Queen for his
royal master, he would agree to conditions by which she should remain within Scotland
until she were fit for marriage.

The Scottish leaders, however, were resolute in rejecting this alliance with England at
whatever cost ; and in proof of the strong feeling of opposition that existed, it may be
mentioned, that the Scottish army included a large body of priests and monks, who

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 33. 2 Keith's History, vol. i. p. 128. Tytler, vol. vi. p. 23.

S2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

inarched under a white banner, on which was painted a female kneeling before .a crucifix,
her hair dishevelled, and embroidered underneath the motto "Afflicts* Ecclesite ne

obliviscaris."

Preparatory to determining their differences by force of arms, the Earl of Huntly made
offer to the English leader to decide the issue by single combat ; but this he rejected, and
after skirmishing for several days with various success in the neighbourhood of Preston-
pans, where the English army was encamped, — a scene long afterwards made memorable
by the brief triumph of Mary's hapless descendant, Charles Stuart — the two armies at
length came to a decisive engagement on Saturday the 10th of September 1547, long
after known by the name of " Black Saturday." 2

The field of Pinkie, the scene of this fatal contest, lies about six miles distant from
Edinburgh, and so near to the sea, that the English ships did great injury to the Scottish
army, as they marched towards the field of battle. The stately mansion of Pinkie House,
formerly the residence of the Abbots of Dunfermline, still remains in perfect preservation,
in the immediate vicinity of the scene where the fatal battle of Pinkie was fought. The
Scots were at first victorious, and succeeded in driving back the enemy, and carrying off
the royal standard of England ; but being almost destitute of cavalry, they were unable to
follow up their advantage, and being at length thrown into disorder by the enemy's men-
at-arms, consisting principally of a body of mounted Spanish carabineers in complete mail,
they were driven from the field, after a dreadful slaughter, with the loss of many of their
nobles and leaders, both slain and taken prisoners.

Immediately after the battle, the English advanced and took the town of Leith, where
they tarried a few days, during which the Earl of Huntly, and many other Scottish
prisoners of every degree, were confined in St Mary's Church there, while treating for
their ransom.3 They also made an unsuccessful attempt on Edinburgh, whose provost
had fallen on the field, and where it is recorded that this fatal battle had alone made
three hundred and sixty widows;4 but finding. the Scottish nation as resolute as ever in
rejecting all terms of accommodation, they again pillaged and burned the town of Leith,
spoiled the Abbey of Holyrood, from which they tore off the leaden roof, and re-embarked
on board their fleet. They wreaked their vengeance on some defenceless fishing towns
and villages along the coast of the Firth, and then returned to England, where Arch-
bishop Cranmer prepared a general thanksgiving to be used throughout all the churches
in the kingdom, for the great victory God had vouchsafed them over their enemies ! So
differently are the same actions estimated, according as our interests are affected ; for the
Duke of Somerset had so exasperated the Scottish nation by his cruelty, and disgusted
even the barons who had inclined to the English party by his impolitic conduct, that they
were more unanimous than ever against the proposed alliance. " The cruelty," says
Tytler, " of the slaughter at Pinkie, and the subsequent severities at Leith, excited
universal indignation ; and the idea that a free country was to be compelled into a pacific
matrimonial alliance, amid the groans of its dying citizens, and the flames of its seaports,
was revolting and absurd." 6

The Queen Dowager availed herself of the popular feeling thus so strongly excited with

1 Tytler, vol. vi. p. 31. "• Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 44. » Biahop Leslie's History, p. 198.

4 Herries' Memoirs, p. 21. 5 Tytler, vol. vi. p. 42.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 53

promptitude and success ; she summoned the nobility to Stirling, and urged on them the
immediate assembly of another army. It was determined to despatch ambassadors to
France with a request for instant aid ; and at a council held there shortly after, it was
resolved to send the young queen, then a beautiful child, in her sixth year, to the French
Court, where she could pursue her education free from the dangers to which she was
exposed in a country divided by rival factions, and exposed to almost constant war.
By their victory at the battle of Ancrum, the Scots in some degree retrieved their ground,
and they were shortly afterwards gratified by the opportune arrival of Monsieur D'Esse'
in the Firth of Forth, as ambassador from the French Monarch, with a fleet of six score
sail, bringing a reinforcement of eight thousand French and one thousand Dutch troops,
which were disembarked at Leith on the 16th of June 1548, along with a numerous train
of artillery.1 Monsieur D'Esse was the bearer of the warmest assurance of further aid in
troops, money, and arms, from the French King, and a proposal that the ancient amity
of the two nations should now be confirmed by a marriage between his son, the Dauphin,
and the Scottish Queen, whose education meanwhile he offered to superintend with the
utmost care and affection. It need not be wondered at, that an alliance proposed in so
very different a manner from the last, was properly acceded to by the Scottish Parlia-
ment. The Earl of Huntly, it is said, when desired to use his influence in favour of
the marriage with Edward VI., after he had been taken prisoner, replied, that however
he might like the match, he liked not the manner of wooing ! 2 Shortly after, Monsieur
Villegagnon, set sail with four galleys from Leith, and passing round the north of Scot-
land, received the youthful Queen on board at Dumbarton. She was accompanied by her
governors, the Lords Erskine and Livingston, and her natural brother, the Lord James,
afterwards the famous Regent Murray, then in his seventeenth year. Along with her
also embarked the Queen's four Maries, famous in Scottish song, selected as her playmates
from the families of Livingston, Fleming, Seaton, and Beaton. " What bruit," says
Knox, in referring to them, " the Maries, and the rest of the dancers of the Court had,
the ballads of that age doe witness. " * The English Government, on learning of this
design, fitted out a fleet to intercept the Queen, but the squadron fortunately escaped
every danger, and cast anchor in the harbour of Brest on the 13th of August 1548.

The slow recovery even of the chief towns of the kingdom from such repeated ravages,
is apparent from the fact that Monsieur D'Esse, the French commander, on returning
from the south, undertook the fortification of Leith, but such was its ruinous state from
its frequent burnings, that no lodging could be found there for his men, and they were
forced to seek accommodation in the neighbouring villages.4

The fortification of Leith, however, exercised a most important influence upon it;
people crowded from all parts to .shelter themselves under the protection of its garrison ;
and it speedily thereafter, as we shall find, became a place of great importance, when the
conclusion of peace with England permitted the rival factions, into which the kingdom
was already divided, to gain head and assume form and consistency.

Maitland furnishes a detailed account of these fortifications, which had five ports, only

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 46. Tytler, vol. vi. p. 51. a Keith's History, Note, vol. i. p. 133.

3 Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 373-4. — See Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border for the old ballad — " The
Queen's Marie." * Bishop Leslie, p. 216.

54 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

one of which, called St Anthony's Gate, he was able to trace with certainty.1 This port
stood at the north-west corner of St Anthony's Wyud, and some remains of the ancient
bastion by which it was protected may still be seen in a neighbouring garden.

This gate, as well as the street that now occupies its site, were so named from their
vicinity to the preceptory of St Anthony— a detailed account of which, as well as its an-
cient dependency on Arthur's Seat, will be found in a later part of the work.

We have introduced here the view of
a very curious house, the date of erection
of which may be referred to this period.
It stood on the west side of the Kirkgate,
and was only taken down in 1845. It had
an inscription over the doorway, boldly cut
in old English letters —

and a niche above it, in which there had
doubtless been a statue of the virgin and
child. Local tradition pointed it out as
a chapel founded by Mary of Guise, but
apparently without any sufficient evidence.

The English, before their last departure
from Leith, had erected fortifications on the
neighbouring island of Inchkeith, and left
there a strong garrison, composed in part of
a troop of Italian mercenaries in their pay,
by whom it was held to the great detriment
of vessels navigating the Firth. But now,
as soon as Monsieur D'Esse had got the
fortifications of Leith in a state of forward-
ness, a general attack was made upon Inch-
keith, on Corpus Christi day, 1549,2 by a
combined force of Scotch and French troops, who embarked at break of day, in presence
of the Queen Dowager ; when, after a fierce contest, the enemy were expelled from their
stronghold, and compelled to surrender at discretion, with the loss of their leader, and
above 300 slain.3 The island continued from that time to be held by a French garrison,
on behalf of the Queen Dowager, until her death in 1560, and the remains of their forti-
fications are still visible there.

But the Scottish nation were not long in experiencing the usual evils consequent on the
employment of foreign troops. We have already, in an earlier part of the work,4 given an
illustration of the popular estimation of such allies, and the gratitude of the common
people on the present occasion does not seem to have been in any degree more sincere.
Heartburnings and animosities had already been manifested during the campaign, and
they at last broke out into open and fatal tumult in the capital.

V

Maitland, p. 486. 2 Bishop Leslie, p. 228. 3 Diurnal of Oocurrents, p. 48. 4 Chap. ii.

p. 12.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 55

In the beginning of October, in this same year, the Scottish forces were mustered on
the Borough Muir of Edinburgh, to the number of ten thousand men ; the English having
been at length fairly starved out of the country, " For the pest and hangar was rycht evill
amangis tham, quha mycht remayne na langer thairin ; " * and so, having no enemy to
contend with, they and their allies immediately quarrelled. " There chanced," says Bishop
Leslie (who has furnished the most detailed account of the transaction), " to fall out not
a little piece of trouble in Edinburgh, betwixt the Scotch and Frenchmen, by reason that
a French soldier fell at quarelling with a Scotsman upon the High Street, and after words
they came to blows, so that divers Scotsmen coming to the fray, would have had the
Frenchman to prison ; but divers of the French soldiers being also present, would not
suffer them to take him with them ; whereupon the captains being advertised, come with all
speed to the highway. The Laird of Stenhouse (James Hamilton), being the Captain of
the Castle and Provost of the town, comes likewise with a company to put order thereto.
The French soldiers being so furious that they shot their harquebusses indiferently at all
men, wherewith there were sundry slain, both men, weomeu, and children ; among the
which the foresaid Provost of Edinburgh was slayn, and Master William Stewart, a gentle-
man of good reputation, with sundry others ; whereby the whole people conceived a great
grudge and hatred against the Frenchmen, and for revenge thereof there was many French-
men slain at Edinburgh at sundry times thereafter." Calderwood further states, that
the Frenchmen were driven by the citizens from the Cross to Niddry's Wyud-head, where
they rallied and were joined by a number of their fellow-soldiers ; they were again com-
pelled to retreat, however, till on their reaching the Nether Bow, the whole body of French
troops encountered the Provost and citizens ; and there the Provost, and his son, and
various other citizens, women as well as men, were slain. The French troops kept posses-
sion of the town from five to seven at night, when they retired to the Canongate.3 To
appease the matter, the Frenchman, chief beginner of the business, was hanged the same
day at the market place of Edinburgh, where the quarrel first began. A very unpropitious
state of things, as the only alternative seemingly left to the Scots from another English
harrying.

In the month of April 1550, a final peace was concluded with England, the latter
abandoning all those unjustifiable projects of forced alliance, which had been attempted to
be enforced with such relentless barbarity during a nine years' war.

In the year 1551, the Queen Dowager returned from a visit she had made to the
French Court, and immediately thereafter, on the 29th of May, a Parliament was held at
Edinburgh, and another in the month of February following, at both of which enactments
were passed, which furnish, at once, evidence of the state of the pountry at the period,
and afford curious insight into the manners of the age. One of these is " anent the
aunuelles of landes burnt be our auld enemies of England, within the burgh of Edin-
burgh and other burghs," 4 and bears a special reference to Edinburgh, having been
enacted at the suit of the Provost and Bailies thereof, to settle disputed claims by the
clergy.

Others, again, are addressed against many prevailing vices or extravagances of the age,

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 48. - Bishop Leslie, p. 217.

3 Calderwood's History, vol. i. p. 258. 4 Scots Acts, vol. i. p. 271.

56 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

interfering with a high hand, even to the " ordouring of everie mannis house," and regu-
lating with a most rigid economy the number of dishes at each man's table, according to
his degree. But the most interesting is, that against printing without licence, furnishing
an insight into the variety and character of the writings then issuing from the press, and
already strongly influencing the public mind. " That na preuter presume to prent ony
buikes, ballattes, sanges, blasphemationes, rime, or tragedies, outlier in Latine or English
touug," without due examination and licence granted, under pain of confiscation of goods,
and banishment of the realm for ever.1 Sir David Lindsay had already published his
Tragedie of the Cardinal, and it seems to have been about this time that he put forth
The Historic and Testament of Squyer Meldrum, one of his most pleasing poems, though
in parts exhibiting a licence, as to incident and language, common to the writers of that
age. This poem is the versification of a romantic incident which occurred under his own
observation during the unsettled period, in the earlier years of the minority of James V.
(August 1517.)2 The rank of Sir David Lindsay, and the influence he had enjoyed
during the previous reign, had continued to preserve him from all interference ; nor was
it till the accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England, and the steps in favour of the
Protestant party that followed thereon, that the Catholic clergy at length denounced his
writings as the fruitful source of movement in the popular mind.

The object of the Queen Dowager, in her recent visit to France, had been mainly to
secure the interest of that Court in procuring for herself the office of Eegent. The Earl
of Arran, who still held that office, seems to have been altogether deficient in the requisite
talents for his responsible position ; swayed alternately by whichever adviser chanced to
hold his confidence, his government was at once feeble and uncertain.

No sooner had the Queen Dowager secured the approbation and concurrence of the
French King, than her emissaries departed for the Scottish capital, empowered to break
the affair to the Regent, with such advantageous offer as should induce him to yield up
the office without difficulty. Threats were held out of a rigid reckoning being required as
to the dilapidation of the revenue and crown-lands, which had taken place during his
government. On the other hand, he was offered the splendid bribe of the Dukedom of
Chatelherault, with ample provision for his eldest son at the French Court, while like
liberal promises secured to the Queen's party many of the nobility.

The Archbishop of St Andrews, who had latterly influenced all the motions of the
Eegent, chanced at this time to be dangerously ill, so that Arran was left without counsel
or aid, and yielded at length a reluctant consent to the exchange.

On the return of Mary of Guise from France, she accompanied Arran in a progress
through the northern parts of the kingdom, in which she exhibited much of that prudence
and ability which she undoubtedly possessed, and which, in more fortunate times, might
have largely promoted the best interests of the country : while such was the popularity
she acquired, that the Eegent became highly jealous of her influence, and when reminded
of his promise, indignantly refused to yield up the government into her hands.

The Queen Dowager, however, already possessed the real power ; and while the Eegent,
with his few adherents, continued to reside at Edinburgh, and maintain there the forms of
government, she was holding a brilliant court at Stirling, and securing to her party the

1 Scots Acts, vol. i. p. 286. s Pitscottie, vol. ii. p. 305.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 57

entire nobility, and most influential leaders among the clergy; the Primate of St Andrews,
brother of the Regent, being almost the only man of any weight still adhering to
him.1

Moved alike by promises and threats, the imbecile Eegent at length resigned the govern-
ment, and a Parliament thereupon assembled at Edinburgh on the 12th of April 1554, in
which the transference of the government was ratified, and a commission produced from
Queen Mary, then in her twelfth year, appointing her mother, Mary of Guise, Regent of
the realm, which the estates of Parliament confirmed by their subscriptions and seals.
The Earl of Arran, or as he was now styled, Duke of Chatelherault, then rose, and deli-
vered up the royal crown, sword, and sceptre, into the hands of Monsieur D'Oysel, the
French ambassador, who received them in the name of Queen Mary, by the authority of
the King of France, and others, her chosen curators ; and immediately thereafter he pro-
duced a mandate from the Queen, in obedience to which he delivered them to the Queen
Dowager.2 The new Regent acknowledged her acceptance of the office, and received the
homage and congratulations of the assembled nobility. She was then conducted in public
procession, with great pomp and acclamation, through the city to the Palace of Holyrood,
and immediately entered upon the administration of the government.

The uncertainty of the government, previous to this settlement, and the enfeebled power
of the nominal Regent, exposed the capital as usual to disorders and tumults. From the
Council Register of this year 1554, we learn, that owing to the frequent robberies and
assaults committed in the streets of Edinburgh at night, the Council ordered " lanterns or
bowets to be hung out in the streets and closes, by such persons and in such places as the
magistrates should appoint, to continue burning from five o'clock in the evening till nine,
which was judged a proper time for people to repair to their respective habitations." 3 The
account is curious and interesting, as furnishing the earliest notice of lighting up the public
streets of the Scottish capital.

The narratives of these disorders, furnished by contemporary authors, exhibit a state of
lawless violence that demanded of the magistrates no measured zeal to suppress. The
occasion was made available by rival factions to renew their ancient feuds, " and to quyt
querrellis, thinking this to be tyme most convenient."4 Various deadly combats took
place ; the Laird of Buccleuch was slain on the public streets by a party of the Kerrs,
and this was followed as usual by sworn strife between the rival clans. " About the same
time," says Bishop Leslie, " the Master of Ruthven slew a valiant gentleman, called John
Charteris of Kinclevin, in Edinburgh, upon occasion of old feud, and for staying of a
decret of ane proces which the said John pursued against him before the Lords of Session,"
which led to the passing of an Act by the next Parliament, that whosoever should slay a
man for pursuing an action against him, should forfeit the right of judgment in his action,
in addition to his liability to the laws for the crime. This author further records, that
the Lord Semple slew the Lord Crichtoun of Sanquhar, in the governor's own house in
Edinburgh; and by the interest of the Archbishop of St Andrews and other friends,
escaped free from all consequences of the crime.5 A state of things that must have made
the people at large rejoice in seeing the reins of government transferred to vigorous

1 Bishop Leslie, p. 245. 2 Keith's Hist., vol. i. p. 142. 3 Maitland, p. 14.

4 Bishop Leslie's History, p. 247. f Ibid, p. 248.

58 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

hands, whatever might be* the feelings of a few interested partizans of the Regent
Arrau.

In the midst of these transactions, and while the Queen Dowager was skilfully arranging
for the transference of the government into her own hands, the death of Edward VI.
had created a total change in the neighbouring kingdom, and rendered the position and
future line of policy to be pursued by Scotland in its intercourse with England altogether

different.

Probably, no ruler ever assumed the reins of government in Scotland with such general
approbation of the people as the Queen Regent now did. She had already manifested
both skill and judgment in attaining the Regency. She had secured it, although a decided
Catholic, with the full concurrence of the Protestant party ; and while, by her prudent
concessions to them, she had won their favour, she had managed this with such skill as in
no way to alienate from her the powerful Catholic party, among whose leaders were some
of the chief men of learning and ability at the Scottish Court.

But it has ever, even with the wisest rulers, proved a more difficult thing to maintain
authority than to acquire it. To the people, indeed, any government capable of securing to
them the free exercise of their rights, and curbing the licentious turbulence of the nobles,
must have proved a change for the better. Yet, in her very first proceedings, she attacked
one of the most deeply-rooted national prejudices, at once disgusting the nobility, and
exciting the jealousy of the people, by placing many of the most important offices of state
in the hands of foreigners, and rousing a spirit of opposition to the government which led
to the most fatal results.

Meanwhile, the Regent devoted herself sedulously to the promotion of peace. A cordial
union was established with England, and a Parliament assembled at Edinburgh, June 20th,
1555, many of whose enactments were well calculated to promote the interests of the nation.
One of them, however, entitled " An Act anent the speaking evil of the Queen's Grace,
or French-men," affords evidence not only that the jealousy occasioned by the presence of
the foreign troops was unabated, but that the unpopularity of her auxiliaries was already
extending to the Queen Regent.

Several of the new statutes are directed to restrain the laxity of the people in their
religious observances. One is entitled " Anent eating of flesh in Lentron (Lent) and other
daies forbidden." 1 Another of these Acts " Anent Robert Hude and abbot of Un-reason,"
exhibits symptoms of the spirit of jealous reform, that was now influencing both parties
on every question in the remotest degree affecting religion. It is the first attack on those
ancient games and festivals, which this spirit of reform succeeded at length in banishing
entirely from Scotland. The Act prohibits, under severest penalties, the choosing any such
personage as Robin Hood, Little John, abbot of Un-reason, or Queen of May ; and adds
" if onie weomen or others, about summer trees singing, make perturbation to the Queen's
lieges, the weomen perturbatoures sail be taken, handled, and put upon the cuck-stules of
every burgh or toune. "2 It may well be regretted by others, besides the antiquary, that
the singing about summer trees, as it is poetically expressed, should have excited the
jealousy of any party, as detrimental to the interests of religion.

1 Scots Acts, vol. i. p. 294. a Ibid, vol. i. p. 307.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 59

This year also is the period of John Kiiox's return to Scotland. On his escape from
France — whither he had been carried a prisoner, after the taking of the Castle of St
Andrews — he had remained in England till the death of Edward VI., whence he went for
a time to Geneva. Immediately on his return to Scotland, he began preaching against
the mass, as an idolatrous worship, with such effect that he was summoned before the
ecclesiastical judicatory, held in the Blackfriars' Church in Edinburgh, on the 15th of
May 1556. The case, however, was not pursued at the time, probably from apprehension
of a popular tumult ; but the citation had the usual effect of increasing his popularity ;
" and it is certain," says Bishop Keith, " that Mr Knox preached to a greater auditory
the very day he should have made his appearance, than ever he did before."1 At this
time it was that the letter was written by him to the Queen Regent, entreating for
reformation in the Church, which, on its being delivered to her by the Earl of Glencairn,
she composedly handed it to the Archbishop of Glasgow, after glancing at it, saying —
" Please you, my Lord, to look at a pasquill ! " — a striking contrast to the influence he
afterwards exercised over her royal daughter.2 No sooner had John Knox accepted an
invitation, which he received that same year, from an English congregation at Geneva,
than the clergy cited him anew before them, and in default of his appearance, he was
condemned as an heretic, and burned in effigy at the Cross of Edinburgh.

Towards the close of the year 1555, the City of Edinburgh gave a sumptuous
entertainment to the Danish Ambassador, at the expense of twenty-five pounds, seventeen
shillings, and one penny Scots ! doubtless a magnificent civic feast in those days.3 About
this time, the Queen Regent, acting under the advice of her French councillors, excited
the general indignation of the Scottish nobility and people in general, by a scheme for
raising a standing army, to supersede the usual national force, composed of the nobles
and their retainers, and which was to be supported by a tax imposed on every man's
estate and substance. Numerous private assemblies of the barons and gentlemen took
place to organise a determined opposition to the scheme ; and at length three hundred of
them assembled in the Abbey Church of Holyrood, and despatched the Lairds of Calder
and Wemyss to the Queen Regent and her council, with so resolute a remonstrance, that
the Queen was fain to abandon the project, and thought them little worthy of thanks that
were the inventors of what proved a fertile source of unpopularity to her government.*
The contentions arising from differences in religion now daily increased, and the populace
of the capital were among the foremost to manifest their zeal against the ancient faith.
In the year 1556, they destroyed the statues of the Virgin Mary, Trinity, and St Francis,
in St Giles's Church, which led to a very indignant remonstrance from the Queen Regent,
addressed to the magistrates ; but they do not seem to have been justly chargeable with
sympathy in such reforming movements, as we find the council of that same year, in
addition to other marks of honour conferred on the Provost, ordering that for his greater
state, the servants of all the inhabitants shall attend him, with lighted torches, from the
vespers or evening prayers, to his house.5

On the breaking out of war between England and France, in 1557, the Queen Regent,

1 Bishop Keith's History, vol. i. p. 150. 2 Calderwood's History, Wodrow Soc., vol. i. p. 316.

8 Council Registers, Maitland, p. 14. 4 Bishop Leslie's Hist., p. 255.

5 Maitland, p. 1 4.

60 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

under the influence of Henry II. of France, assembled a considerable force at Kelso, and
sought, by all means, to persuade the nobility to unite with her in invading England.
But though the Borderers availed themselves, with their usual alacrity, of the first
symptoms of hostilities, to make a raid across the marches, the general sense of the
nobility was strongly opposed to thus rashly plunging into war, without any just cause ;
and so resolute were they against it, that the Queen Eegent, after various ineffectual
attempts to precipitate hostilities, was compelled to dismiss the army, and abandon all
further attempts at co-operation with France.1

From this occurrence may be dated the true rise of those divisions in this country
which alienated from the Queen Regent the Scottish party, on which she had most
depended, and ultimately led to the war of the Reformation ; and from this time forward
the ecclesiastical is intimately blended with the civil history of the country, mainly
influencing every important occurrence.

The continuation of war between France and Spain at this period, induced the French
Monarch to seek to hasten on the proposed alliance between the Dauphin and the Queen
of Scots, to which the Queen Regent lent all her influence. A Parliament accordingly
assembled at Edinburgh on the 14th of December 1557, before which a letter was laid
from the King of France, proposing that the intended marriage should be carried into
effect without delay. James Stewart, prior of St Andrews, afterwards the Regent Murray,
and others of the leaders of the Protestant party, were chosen by the Parliament as Com-
missioners, empowered to give their assent to the marriage, on receiving ample security
for the preservation of the ancient laws and liberty of the kingdom. They accordingly
proceeded to Paris, and there, on the 24th of April 1558, were witnesses of the marriage,
which was solemnised with the utmost pomp and magnificence in the Cathedral of Notre
Dame.

Another Parliament was summoned immediately on their return, and accordingly
assembled at Edinburgh in the beginning of December. It ratified the transactions of
the Commissioners, and agreed, at the same time, to confer on the Dauphin the Crown of
Scotland during the continuance of the marriage.

As the reformed opinions spread among the people, they manifested their zeal by
destroying images, and breaking down the carved work of the monasteries and churches.
It was the custom at this period for the clergy of Edinburgh to walk annually in grand
procession, on the first of September, the anniversary of St Giles, the patron saint of the
town ; but in the year 1558, before the arrival of St Giles's day, the mob contrived to
get into the church, and carrying off the image of the saint, which was usually borne in
procession on such occasions, they threw it into the North Loch — the favourite place for
ducking all offenders against the seventh commandment — and thereafter committed it to
the flames.2 The utmost confusion prevailed on its being discovered to be amissing.
The bishops sent orders to the Provost and Magistrates either to get the old St Giles, or
to furnish another at their own expense ; but this they declined to do, notwithstanding
the threats and denunciations of the clergy, alleging the authority of Scripture for the
destruction of " idols and images."

1 Bishop Leslie'8 Hist., pp. 260, 261. » Calderwood's Hist., vol. i. p. 344.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 61

The priests, resolving not to permit the day to pass without the usual celebration, bor-
rowed a small statue of the saint from the Grey Friars, which they firmly secured witli iron
clamps to the " fertorie " or shrine,1 in which it was usually borne aloft. And the more
fully to do honour to the occasion, and to overawe the turbulent populace, the Regent was
prevailed on to grace the procession with her presence. The statue was borne through the
principal streets of Edinburgh in great pomp, attended by the canons of St Giles's Church,
and all the chief clergy in full canonicals, " with tabrons and trumpets, banners and bag-
pipes. The Queen Regent led the ring for honour of the feast. It was convoyed about,
and brought down the Hie Street to the common Cross. The Queen Regent dined that
day in Alexander Carpenter's house, betwixt the Bowes. When the idol returned back,
she left it and went in to her dinner."

The presence of the Regent had produced the desired effect in restraining the populace
from violence, but no sooner did she withdraw, than " the Little St Giles," as they con-
temptuously styled the borrowed statue, was attacked with the most determined violence,
and speedily shared the fate of its predecessor. The scene is thus graphically told by the
same historian from whom we have already quoted : — " Immediately after the Queen
entered her lodging, some of them drew near to the idol, as willing to help to bear him
up, and getting the fertorie upon their shoulders, beganue to shudder, thinking thereby
the idol should have fallen. But that chance was prevented by yron nailes. Then began
one to cry ' Down with the Idol ! down with it ! ' So without delay it was pulled down.
The patrons of the priests made some brags at the first ; but when the priests and friars
saw the feebleness of their god, they fled faster than they did at Pinkey Cleugh.3 One of
the professors [of the reformed doctrines] taking Saint Giles by the heels, and dadding
his head to the causeway, left Dagon without head or hands ; exclaiming, ' Fy on thee,
Young Saint Giles, thy father would not have been so used ! ' The friars fleeing," and as
Knox exultingly declares, " down go the crosses, off go the surplices, round caps and cor-
nets with the crowns. The Grey Friars gaped, the Black Friars blew, the Priests panted
and fled, and happy was he that got first to the house, for such a sudden fray came never
among the generation of antichrist within this realm before." *

This same year, 1558, Knox issued his famous "first blast of the trumpet against the
monstrous regiment of women," in which he attacks the Regent, along with Mary Queen
of England, and, indeed, all female rule ; by which he afterwards brought on himself the
personal enmity of Queen Elizabeth, even more than that of those against whom it was
directed. By his instructions the reforming party had organised themselves under the name
of the CONGREGATION, and their leaders now assumed the guidance in all the great move-
ments that occurred, entering into negotiations and treaties like a sovereign power. The
accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne of England further added to their influence, as
she failed not to strengthen, by every available means, the hands of the Protestant party,
and it consisted with her wonted course of policy thus to maintain her ascendancy by under-
mining the power of an opponent, rather than incur the consequences of an open rupture.
The unfortunate claim which the chiefs of the house of Guise, uncles to the youthful Queen
of Scotland, put forward in her name, as the legitimate successor of Queen Mary of Eng-

1 Fertour, a little coffer or chest ; a casket. — Jamieson. a Calderwood's History, vol. i. p. 346.

3 Ante, p. 51. 4 Knox's Hist., p. 95.

C2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

laud, roused iu the mind of Elizabeth that vindictive jealousy, which so largely contributed
to all the miseries that attended the course of Mary of Scotland, from the first moment of
her return to her native land.

From this time forward a fatal change took place in the policy of the Queen Regent.
She abandoned the moderate measures which her own natural disposition inclined her to ;
she lent herself entirely to the ambitious projects of the French Court and the Chiefs of
the house of Guise, and the immediate result was a collision between the Catholic and
Protestant parties. Some concessions had been granted at the request of the Lords of
the Congregation ; but now these were entirely withdrawn, a proclamation was issued for
conformity of religion, and several of the leaders of the reforming party were summoned
to answer for their past deeds.1

A provincial synod, worthy of notice, as the last ever held in Scotland during Roman
Catholic times, was convened on the 2d of March, this year, in the Blackfriars' Church,
Edinburgh, to consult what was required for the safety of the Church thus endangered.
Resolutions were passed for the amendment of life in the clergy, and the removal of other
crying abuses ; but it can hardly be wondered at that their general tone was by no means
conciliatory ; the decrees of the Council of Trent were again declared obligatory ; the use of
any other language than Latin, in the services of the Church, was expressly forbid ; and,
by an act of this same synod, Sir David Lindsay's writings were denounced, and ordered
to be burnt.2 According to Calderwood, this, the last synod of the Church, was dissolved
on the 2d of May, the same day that John Kuox arrived at Leith, — too striking a coinci-
dence to be overlooked.3

The conducting of the public religious services in an unknown language had long
excited opposition ; and the popularity of such writings as those of Dunbar, Douglas, and
Lindsay, in the vernacular tongue, doubtless tended to increase the general desire for its
use in the services of the Church, as well as on all public occasions.

In Kitteis Confessioun, a satirical poem ascribed to Sir David Lindsay, the dog-latin of
an ignorant father-confessor is alluded to with sly humour-
He speirit monie strange case,

How that my lufe did me embrace,

Quhat day, how oft, qubat sort, and quhair ?

Quod he, I wad I had been thair.

He me absolvit for ane plack,

Thocht he with me na price wald mak ;

And mekil Latine did he mummill ;

I heard na thing bot kummill bummill.

The poet was already in his grave when his writings were thus condemned. The last
years of his life had been spent in retirement, and the exact time of his death is unknown,
but Henry Charteris, the famous printer, who published Lindsay's works in 1568, says
that " shortly after the death of Sir David, they burnt auld Walter Mill." This occurred
in 1558, from which it may be inferred, that he died towards the close of the previous
year, 1557.4

1 Tytler, vol. vi. pp. 109, 110. « Pitecottie, vol. ii. p. 526. 3 Calderwood, vol. i. p. 438.

4 Chalmers' Sir D. Lindsay, vol. i. p. 42. Keith, vol. i. p. 156.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 63

The reforming party now proceeded to those acts of violence, which led to the destruc-
tion of nearly all the finest ecclesiastical buildings throughout Scotland. The Queen
Regent, on learning of their proceedings at Perth and elsewhere, wrote to the Provost and
Magistrates of Edinburgh, requiring them to defend the town, and not suffer the Earl of
Argyle and the Congregation to enter — offering the aid of her French troops for their
defence. But this the Magistrates declined, declaring that the entire populace were
prepared to favour that party, and could not be restrained by them. Upon receiving this
reply, the Regent thereupon withdrew with her French guard from Holyrood Abbey, and
retreated towards Dunbar.

The Magistrates, though unable to resist this popular movement, exerted themselves to
the utmost to restrain its violence. They sent a deputation to the leaders of the reforming
party, entreating them to spare both their churches and religious houses, — the former to be
continued in use as places of Protestant worship, and the latter as seminaries of learning.
They also placed a guard of sixty men for the protection of St Giles's Church, and, as a
further security, removed the carved stalls of the choir within the safer shelter of the
Tolbooth 51 and such was the zeal they displayed, that the Regent afterwards wrote them
a letter of thanks for their services. Yet their efforts were only attended with very partial
success. Upon the first rumour of the approach of the Earl of Argyle, the populace
attacked both the monasteries of the Black and Grey Friars, destroying everything they
contained, and leaving nothing but the bare walls standing.2

When the Earl of Argyle entered the town with his followers, they immediately pro-
ceeded to the work of purification, as it was styled. Trinity College Church, and the
prebendal buildings attached to it, were assailed, and some parts of them utterly destroyed ;
and both St Giles's Church, and St Mary's, or the Kirk of Field, were visited, their altars
thrown down, and the images destroyed and burnt. They visited Holyrood Abbey, over-
throwing the altars, and otherwise defacing the church, and removed also from thence
the coining irons of the Mint, compelling the treasurer to deliver up to them a considerable
sum of money in his hands.3

The Regent finding herself unable to resist this formidable party by force, entered into
negotiations with them, for the purpose of gaining time, while they, on the other hand,
corresponded with Queen Elizabeth and besought her aid ; but the English Queen was too
politic to commit herself by openly countenancing a fraction so recently sprung up, and
contented herself with evasive answers to their request, and many of their adherents
meanwhile falling away, they were compelled to retreat as hastily from the town as they
had entered, on the sudden return of the Regent from Dunbar.

Commissioners from both parties met, and a mutual accommodation was agreed on
between them, and signed by the Earl of Arran and Monsieur d'Oysel, on the 25th of
July, at Leith Links, and immediately thereafter the Queen Regent returned and took up
her residence in Holyrood Palace.

One of the chief clauses in this agreement required the dismissal of the French troops ;
and with a special view to the enforcement of this, an interview took place on the following
day between the Earls of Arran and Huntly, and some of the leaders of the Congregation,

1 Maitland, p. 16. 2 Calderwood, vol. i. p. 475. 3 Bishop Leslie, p. 275.

64 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

including the Earls of Argyle and Glencaim, and the Lord James Stewart. The place of
meeting was the Quarry Holes, or as it is not inappropriately styled by the writers of the
time, the Quarrel Holes ; a famous place of meeting for duels and private rencontres, at
the east end of the Gal ton Hill, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Palace of Holy-
rood— and there the two first-named Earls engaged, that should the Regent fail to fulfil
the conditions of agreement, and especially that of the dismissal of the French troops, they
would willingly join forces with them to enforce their fulfilment.1

Although the main body of the reformers had withdrawn from
Edinburgh, some of the leaders continued to reside there, and the
people refused to yield up St Giles's Church to be again used for
the service of the mass, although the Regent sought, by various
means, to recover it. She had already received notice of further
assistance coming from France, and did not choose to provoke a
quarrel till thus reinforced. As one means of driving them from
the church, the French soldiers made it a place of promenade during
the time of service, to the great disturbance of the Congregation. But though the preacher,
Mr Willocks, denounced them in no measured terms from the pulpit, and publicly prayed
God to rid them of such locusts, the people prudently avoided an open rupture, " except
that a horned cap was taken off a proud priest's head, and cut in four quarters, because
he said he would wear it in spite of the Congregation."

In the month of September 1559, Sir Ralph Sadler arrived at Berwick from Queen
Elizabeth, and entered into secret negotiations with the reformers, paying over to them,
for their immediate use, the sum of two thousand pounds, with the promise of further
pecuniary assistance, for the purpose of expelling the French from Scotland, so that it
could be managed with such secrecy as not to interfere with the public treaties between
the two nations.

The preparations for war were now diligently pursued by both parties. The Queen had
already received a reinforcement of a thousand French troops, who disembarked at Leith
in the end of August, and with their aid she immediately proceeded to enlarge and com-
plete the fortifications of that port, while she renewed her entreaties to the French Court
for further aid.

Shortly after, the Bishop of Amiens arrived at Edinburgh, as legate from the Pope, and
earnestly laboured to reconcile the reformers to the Church ; but any little influence he
might possibly have had, was destroyed in their eyes by the discovery that he had arrived
in company with a second body of French auxiliaries.

The Congregation at length marched to Edinburgh, towards the end of October, with
a force amounting to twelve thousand men, resolved to dislodge the French garrison from
Leith ; and the same day the Regent hastily retreated from Holyrood Palace, and took up
her residence within the protection of the fortifications at Leith.

The Congregation proceeded in the most systematic manner, — committees were chosen
for the direction of civil and religious affairs, and a letter was immediately addressed to the

1 Bishop Keith, vol. 1. p. 224. « Calderwood, vol. i. p. 502.

VIGNETTE— Corbel from the old south door of St Giles's Church.

JAMES V. TO ABDICA TION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 65

Queen Regent, demanding the dismissal of all foreigners and men-at-arms from the town
of Leith. To this she replied, with dignity, that their letter appeared rather as coming
from a prince to his subjects, than the reverse, and referred them for further answer to
the Lord Lion Herald, by whom the letter was sent. l

The Queen's messenger found the Lords of the Congregation assembled in the Tolbooth,
seriously debating whether she should be deposed from the Regency, as had been proposed
to them by Lord Ruthven. The reformed preachers joined in the discussion, freely de-
nouncing her as an obstinate idolatress, and a message was at length returned by the
Lord Lion, intimating to her that they suspended her, in the name of their Sovereign,
from the office of Regent.

In furtherance of their plans, a herald was sent to summon all French and native
soldiers to depart from Leith within twelve hours, and little regard being paid to their
orders, immediate preparations were made for the assault. Scaling ladders were hastily
prepared in the aisles of St Giles's Church, which so offended the preachers, as an act of
sacrilege, that they weakly prognosticated failure to the whole enterprise.

The prophecy wrought its own fulfilment, for the troops were so intimidated thereby,
that, upon marching to the attack, they forsook their artillery on the first sally that
the enemy made, and retreated so precipitately to Edinburgh, that the foot were trampled
down by the horsemen in their eagerness to enter the city gates.

The French pursued them to the middle of the Canongate and up Leith Wynd, slay-
ing indiscriminately women and children as well as men, and plundering the houses
exposed to their fury. The Queen Regent watched them from the ramparts, and welcomed
them with ill-judged mirth, as they returned victorious, laden with the homely booty they
had acquired in the action. " One brought a kirtle, another a petticoate, the third a pott,
or panne." Such was the panic at this period among the undisciplined rabble, who formed
the main force of the Congregation, that their flight was with difficulty restrained on their
reaching the West Port, at the opposite extremity of the city.2

A second contest, arising from an attempt by the French troops to intercept a convoy
carrying provisions into Edinburgh, was equally unfortunate. The forces of the Congre-
gation, headed by the Lord James, got entangled in a morass at Restalrig. Haliburton,
Provost of Dundee, one of the best of their leaders, fell in the action ; and though they
retreated at length with small loss, they were so completely disheartened, that they pre-
cipitately deserted the town that same night.

The Regent immediately returned to the Capital ; all who were in any way implicated
in the reforming movements were compelled to flee, and the best houses in the town were
conferred on her French soldiers as a reward for their services.

Each party again turned for security to foreign aid. Towards the close of the year
both leaders were anxiously watching for the first appearance of their allies' fleets. The
French commander at length hailed with delight the appearance of several large vessels
bearing up the Forth, which he at once decided to be the promised French fleet ; nor was
he disabused of his error, till he beheld his own victualling transports seized by them, and
the English flag hoisted in their rigging.

In the beginning of the following year, 1560, the Lords of the Congregation united

1 Keith, vol. i. p. 230. » Calderwood, vol i. p. 550. Knox, p. 195-7.

£

66 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

their forces with the English, for the purpose of expelling the French garrison from Leith.
The Council of Edinburgh manifested their sympathy by contributing the sum of sixteen
hundred pounds Scots to maintain four hundred men engaged in their service for one
month, for the reduction of that town.1

The English force landed, and took up their station around Restalrig Church, casting
up trenches and securing themselves from the danger of surprise.2 The forces of the Con-
gregation had now acquired both experience and discipline, and with the aid of such
auxiliaries, the tables were speedily turned.

The French troops began the attack by a sudden sally on the camp at Restalrig, by
which the English auxiliaries were taken at a disadvantage ; but they speedily rallied, and
chased them to the walls of Leith, killing above three hundred, though with a still greater
loss to themselves. In order more closely to press the siege, they removed their camp, a
few days after, to Pilrig, a rising ground still known by that name, lying directly between
Edinburgh and Leith.3

The united forces continued to press the siege at Leith. Early in May, a general
assault was made, but the scaling ladders were discovered to be too short when applied
to the walls, and the besiegers were driven back with great slaughter.

The ordnance of the French garrison were mounted along the walls, and on every
available point within the town of Leith. A battery that was erected on the tower of the
preceptory of St Anthony proved particularly annoying and destructive to the besiegers ;
and as they were unable, from their distance, to produce any effect on it, they advanced
their cannon to the Links of Leith, where they threw up mounds of earth, and erected a
battery of eight guns. With these they kept up so constant and destructive a firing, that,
in a few days, they not only dismounted the ordnance placed by the French in the steeple,
but greatly injured it and the adjoining buildings.4 •

On the 14th of April, being Easter Sunday, a constant firing was kept up by the
assailants, particularly at St Mary's Church, where the people were assembled for divine
service, so that a bullet was shot through the great east window, passing right over the
altar, during the celebration of high mass, and just before the elevation of the host.

Two of the mounds thrown up by the besiegers on this occasion still remain on Leith
Links, and almost directly opposite the east end of the church. One of them is on the
extreme east side of the Links ; the other, which lies considerably nearer the High School,
is locally designated the Giant's Brae. As there existed, till very recently, no houses
between the church and these open downs on which the batteries were erected, it must
have lain completely exposed to the fire of the besiegers. Some obscurity exists in the
narratives of the different historians of this period, as to which church is spoken of.
Bishop Leslie mentions their having " shot many great schottis of cannonis and gret
ordinances at the parrishe kirk of Leyth and Sanct Anthoneis steple." St Mary's Church
was not converted into the parish church, until the destruction, at a later period, of that
of Restalrig, to which Leith was parochially joined ; yet its position, agreeing so well with
the accounts of the siege, leaves no doubt that it is intended by this designation. As all
the historians, however, unite in speaking of St Anthony's steeple as that whereon the
French garrison had erected their ordnance, there seems no reason to question that it was

1 Maitland, p. 19. 2 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 57. 3 Ibid, p. 58. 4 Bishop Leslie, p. 285.

7 A ATE S V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 67

the tower of the preceptory, and not that of the present parish church, as the talented
editor of Keith's History suggests.1 No vestige, indeed, of St Anthony's steeple has
existed for centuries, and it is prohable that it was totally destroyed at this period. The
tower of St Mary's, which was taken down in 1836, was evidently an erection of a much
later date, and too small to have admitted of a hattery being mounted upon it.

On the 22d of April, Monluc, bishop of Valence, arrived as a commissioner from the
Court of France, and attempted to mediate between the Regent and the Lords of the
Congregation. He entered into communication with the reformers and their allies, and
spent two days in the English camp ; he thereafter passed to the Queen llegent in Edin-
burgh Castle, but all attempts at reconciliation proved ineffectual, as the assailants would
accept of no other terms than the demolition of the fortifications of Leith, and the dis-
missal of all the French troops from Scotland.

Meanwhile, the Queen Regent lay in the Castle of Edinburgh, suffering alike from
failing health and anxiety of mind. Her life was now drawing to a close, and she repeatedly
sought to bring about a reconciliation between the contending parties, that she might, if
possible, resign the sceptre to her daughter free from the terrible rivalry and contentions
which had embittered the whole period of her Regency ; but all attempts at compromise
proved in vain, and her French advisers prevented her closing with the sole proposal on
which the leaders of the Congregation at length agreed to acknowledge her authority —
namely, that all foreign troops should immediately quit the realm.

When the Queen Regent found her end approaching, she requested an interview with
the Lords of the Congregation. The Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of Argyle, Maris-
chal, and G-lencairn, with the Lord James, immediately repaired to the Castle, where they
were received by the dying Queen with such humility and unfeigned kindness as deeply
movedtthem. She extended her hand to each of them, beseeching their forgiveness with
tears, whereinsoever she had offended them. She expressed deep grief that matters should
ever have come to such extremities, ascribing it to the influence of foreign counsels, which
had compelled her to act contrary to her own inclinations.

The scene was so affecting that all present were moved to tears. At the request of the
barons, she received a visit from John Willock, with whom she conversed for a consider-
able time. He besought her to seek mercy alone through the death of Christ, urging her
at the same time to acknowledge the mass as a relic of idolatry. She assured him that
she looked for salvation in no other way than through the death of her Saviour ; and
without replying to his further exhortation, she bade him farewell.2

The Queen Regent died on the following day, the 10th of June 1560. The preachers
refused to permit her to be buried according to the rites of the Catholic Church. Her body
was accordingly placed in a lead coffin, and kept in the Castle till the 9th of October,
when it was transported to France, and buried in the Benedictine monastery at Rheims, of
which her own sister was then Abbess.

Both parties were now equally inclined to a peace ; and accordingly, within a very short
time after the death of the Regent, Cecil, the able minister of Queen Elizabeth, repaired to
Edinburgh, accompanied by Sir Nicholas Wotton. Here they were met by the Bishops of

1 Keith, 1844, Spottiswood Soc., vol. i. p. 271. Wodrow Miscel. vol. i. p. 84.
1 Calderwood, vol. i. p. 589. Keith, rol. i. p. 280.

68 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Valence and Amieus, and other French commissioners, and a treaty was formally con-
cluded and signed, by which, through the diplomatic skill of Cecil, the objects aimed at
by Queen Elizabeth, as well as the real interests of the Congregation, were completely
secured, notwithstanding the feeble remonstrances of the French commissioners. A sepa-
rate convention, agreed to at the same time, bound the French garrison to remove all the
artillery from the ramparts of Leith, completely to demolish its fortifications, and
immediately thereafter to embark for France.

On the 19th of July, — the third day after the embarkation of the French troops at
Leith, and the departure of the English forces on their march homeward, — a solemn public
thanksgiving was held by the reforming nobles, and the great body of the Congregation,
in St Giles's Church ; and thereafter the preachers were appointed to some of the chief
boroughs of the kingdom, Knox being confirmed in the chief charge at Edinburgh.

A Parliament assembled in Edinburgh on the 1st of August, the proceedings of whicli
were opened with great solemnity. The lesser barons, from their interest in the progress of
the reformed doctrines, claimed the privilege, which they had long ceased to use, of sitting
and voting in the Assembly of the Three Estates. This led to the accession of nearly a
hundred votes, nearly all of them adhering to the Protestant party. After the discussion
of some preliminary questions, — particularly as to the authority by which the Parliament
was summoned, — Maitland was appointed their " harangue maker," or speaker, and they
proceeded to choose the Lords of the Articles. Great complaint was made as to the choice
falling entirely on those well affected to the new religion, particularly among the Lords
Spiritual, some of whose representatives were mere laymen ; — but altogether without effect
" This being done," says Randolph, in an interesting letter to Cecil, " the Lords departed,
and accompanied the Duke as far as the Bow, — whicli is the gate going out of the High
Street, — and many down unto the Palace where he lieth ; the town all in armour, the

trumpets sounding, and all other kinds of music such as they have The Lords

of the Articles sat from henceforth in Holyrood House, except that at such times as upon
matter of importance the whole Lords assembled themselves again, as they did this day, in
the Parliament House."1

The Parliament immediately proceeded with the work of reformation, a Confession of
Faith was drawn up, and approved of by acclamation, embodying a summary of Christian
doctrine in accordance with the views of the majority, and this was seconded by a series of
acts rendering all who refused to subscribe to its tenets liable to confiscation, banishment,
and even death. Ambassadors were despatched to England with proposals of marriage
between the Earl of Arran, eldest son to the Duke of Chatelherault, and Queen Elizabeth,
while Sir James Saudilands, grand prior of the knights of St John of Jerusalem, was sent
to France to carry an account of their proceedings to the Queen.

The latter met with a very cool reception ; he was, however, entrusted with a reply from
the Scottish Queen, which, though it refused to recognise the assembly by which he was
sent as a Parliament, was yet couched in conciliatory terms, and intimated her intention
to despatch commissioners immediately, to convene a legal Parliament ; but ere Sir James
arrived at Edinburgh, the news reached him of the death of the young King, her royal con-
sort, anwhich avent caused the utmost rejoicing among the party of the Congregation.

1 MS. Letter St P. Off., 9th August 1560, Tytler.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 69

The Three Estates immediately assembled at Edinburgh on the 16th of January, and
despatched the Lord James, the chief leader of the Congregation, as ambassador to the
Scottish Queen, to invite her return to her own dominions. Ere his departure on this
mission, four commissioners arrived from the Queen, with assurances of her intention of
speedily returning home, and meanwhile bearing a commission to certain of the leading
men of Scotland, authorising them to summon a Parliament.

About this time a serious riot occurred in Edinburgh. " That the work of reformation
might not be retarded, Sanderson, deacon of the fleshers, or butchers, was, by the Council,
ordered to be carted for adultery."1 This the trades resented, as a general insult to their
body, and assembling in a tumultuous manner, they broke open the prison and released
him from durance. The magistrates, on this, applied to the Privy Council for aid against
the rioters — a number of the craftsmen were committed prisoners to the Castle, and the
corporations so intimidated, that they made humble supplication to the Council for release
of their brethren, promising all obedience and submission to the magistrates in time
coining. Upon this the craftsmen were released, and the offending deacon, it may be pre-
sumed, duly carted according to order.

The magistrates the same year removed the Corn Market, from the corner of Marlin's
Wynd, Cowgate (where Blair Street now is), to the east end of the Grassmarket, where
it continued to be held till the present century. At the same time, they forbade the
continuance of a practice that then prevailed of holding public markets on the Sundays,
and keeping open shops and taverns during divine service, under the pain of corporal
punishment.2

The enforcement of some of the more stringent enactments that had been introduced
for the reformation rf manners, gave rise to another and more serious tumult. Not-
withstanding the acts already referred to, the people still attempted the revival of some
of their ancient games. On the 21st of June, a number of the craftsmen and apprentices
united together for the purpose of playing Kobin Hood — " which enormity was of many
years left off, and condemned by statute." The magistrates interfered, and took from
them some weapons and an ensign. This the populace keenly resented, the city gates
were held by the mob, and numerous acts of violence committed. The magistrates, to
appease them, restored the banner and other spoils; but, watching a favourable
opportunity, they seized on James Gillon, a shoemaker, one of the ringleaders of the mob,
tried him on the charge of stealing ten crowns, and condemned him to be hanged. The
deacons of the crafts used all their influence with the magistrates to obtain his pardon,
but in vain. A deputation from the same body waited on John Knox, and besought his
influence on behalf of the offender, but he refused " to be a patron to their impiety." A
gallows was erected below the Cross, and all preparations completed for the execution,
when the rioters resumed their weapons, broke down the gallows, and put the magistrates
to flight ; pursuing them till they took refuge in a writer's booth. There they were held
captive, while the mob proceeded to assault the Tolbooth within sight of them. They
broke in the door with sledge hammers, and set Gillon and all the other prisoners at
liberty. On their departvire, the magistrates took refuge in the Tolbooth, and thence
fired on them on their return from an attempt to pass out by the Nether Bow Port ;

1 Council Register, Nov. 22d, 1560. Maitland, p. 20. a Ibid.

70 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

meanwhile, the deacons of the corporations were summoned to the rescue of the Provost
and Bailies, " but they past to their four-hour's penny, or afternoon's pint," returning for
answer, that since they will be magistrates alone, let them rule alone !

The Provost was compelled at last to seek the mediation of the Governor of the
Castle, but the rioters did not disperse, nor permit the magistrates to escape from durance,
until after nine o'clock at night, when a public proclamation was made at the Cross,
engaging that they should not pursue any one for that day's work.1

On the 19th of August 1561, Queen Mary landed at Leith, where she was received
by the Lord James, her natural brother, and many of the chief nobility ; and conveyed
in state to the Abbey of Holyrood House. On the news of her arrival, the nobility and
leaders, without distinction of party, crowded to Edinburgh, to congratulate her on her
return to her nntive land, and tender their homage and service, while the people
testified their pleasure by bonfires and music, and other popular demonstrations of
rejoicing.

Magnificent entertainments were provided by the town of Edinburgh, as well as by
the chief nobility, and everything was done on her arrival to assure her of the perfect
loyalty and affection of her subjects ; yet, if we may believe Brantome, an eye-witness, the
Queen could not help contrasting, with a sigh, the inferiority of the national displays on
her arrival, when contrasted with the gorgeous pageants to which she had been accustomed
at the Court of France.2

Contrary to what had been anticipated, the Queen received the Lord James into special
favour, and admitted him to the chief control in all public affairs ; but notwithstanding
the countenance shown to him, and other leaders of the Congregation, the religious
differences speedily led to dissensions between the Queen and the people. All toleration
had been denied to those who still adhered to the old faith, and both priests and laymen
were strictly enjoined by the magistrates of Edinburgh to attend the services of the
Protestant Churches. Some of them, instead of joining in the worship, had availed
themselves of this compulsory attendance to unsettle the faith of recent converts, on
which account they were ordered by proclamation to depart from the city within
forty-eight hours. The Queen remonstrated without effect, and the proclamation was
renewed with increased rigour; whereupon she addressed a letter to the Council and
community of Edinburgh, commanding them to assemble in the Tolbooth, and
choose other magistrates in their stead. The Council obeyed her commands, without
waiting to learn whom she would recommend for their successors, — a procedure
which excited her indignation little less than the contempt of the magistrates she
had deposed.3

Shortly after this, Knox visited the Queen at Holyrood, and had a long interview
with her. during which he moved her to tears by the vehemence of his exhortations.
The Lord James and other two courtiers were present, but they withdrew sufficiently
to permit of perfect privacy in this first conference between the Eeformer and Queen
Mary. The interview was long, and the Queen sufficiently patient under his very plain
spoken rebukes and exhortations, but they parted in the same mind as they had met;

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 284, 5. Kuox's History of the Reformation, 4to, p. 253, where the culprit is styled Balon
' Brautome, vol. ii. p. 123. Tytler, vol. vi. » Council Register, Oct. 8, 1561. Maitland, p. 21.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 71

each of them frankly disclosing opinions, involving the causes of the collision that
speedily followed.

The Queen soon after made a progress to the north, and on her return to Edinburgh,
preparations were made on a most magnificent scale for welcoming her. On the 3d of
September, she dined in the Castle, and thereafter made her public entry. Fifty black
slaves, magnificently apparelled, received her at the west gate of the city ; twelve of the
chief citizens, dressed in black velvet gowns, with coats and doublets of crimson satin,
bore a canopy, under which she rode in state, and immediately on her entry, a lovely boy
descended from a globe, and addressing her in congratulatory verses, at which she was
seen to smile, presented her with the keys of the city, and a Bible and Psalter. The most
costly arrangements were made for her reception ; all the citizens were required to appear
in gowns of fine French satin and coats of velvet, and the young men to devise for
themselves some befitting habiliments of taffeta, or other silk, to convey the Court in
triumph. A public banquet was given to the Queen and the noble strangers by whom
she was accompanied ; and most ingenious masks and pageants provided for her entertain-
ment, peculiarly characteristic of the times. A mystery was performed, in which Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram were destroyed, while offering strange fire upon the altar, as a
warning of the vengeance of God upon idolaters. A still more significant interlude had
been provided for her Majesty's benefit, in which a priest was to have been burnt at the
altar while elevating the host; but the Earl of Huutly persuaded them, with some
difficulty, to content themselves with the first allegory.

All the public way through which the procession had to pass, was adorned with splendid
hangings and devices, and the Nether Bow Port, where the Queen bade adieu to her enter-
tainers, was decorated for the occasion in the most costly fashion.1

The ancient Tolbooth, or " Pretorium," as it is styled in the early Acts of the Scottish
Parliaments, had fallen, at this time, into a very decayed and ruinous condition. The
Qiieen addressed a letter to the Town Council, bearing date the 6th of February 1561?
charging the Provost, Bailies, and Council to take it down with all possible diligence, and
provide, meanwhile, sufficient accommodation elsewhere for the Lords of the Session and
others ministering justice.

The royal letter expresses a most affectionate dread for " the skayth and great slaughter"
that may happen to the lieges by the downfall of the building, if not speedily prevented ;
but no apology seems to have been thought necessary for the very arbitrary demand
that the city of Edinburgh should erect, at its own charge, parliament and court-houses
for the whole kingdom. The proceedings of the Town Council, for many months after
this, are replete with allusions to the many difficulties they had to encounter in raising
money and providing materials for the new building. The master of the works is
ordered " gyf the tymmer of the Auld Tolbuith will serve for the wark of the New
Tolbuith, to tak the same as ma serve." In consequence of the proceedings, in
obedience to this order, the renters of the neighbouring booths appear with no very gentle
remonstrance against him, complaining " that presentlie the maister of wark was takand
away the jeists above their buthis, quhilk jeists had been bocht be thame, and laid lhair,
and wes thair awin propir guddis." The magistrates seem to have pacified them with a

1 Council Kegister, 3d Sept. 1561. Keith, vol. ii. p. 81, 82. Kuox's Hist., p. 269. Merries' Mem., p. 56.

72 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

promise of replacing, at some indefinite period, " als mony als gud jeistis " as had been
taken away.1

Materials and money continued equally difficult to be obtained ; the master of the
work had again to have recourse for stones to the old building, although the magistrates
were anxious, if possible, to preserve it. On the 5th of March 1562, an order appears for
taking the stones of the chapel in the Nether Kirk-yard. This supplies the date of the
utter demolition of Holyrood Chapel, as it was styled, which had most probably been
spoiled and broken down during the tumults of 1559. It stood between the present
Parliament House and the Cowgate; and there, on the 12th of August 1528, Walter
Chepmau founded a chaplainry at the altar of Jesus Christ crucified, and endowed it with
his tenement in the Cowgate.2

In the month of April, the Council are threatened with the entire removal of the Courts
to St Andrews, for want of a place of meeting in Edinburgh. This is followed by forced
taxation, borrowing money on the town mills, threats from the builder to give up the
work, " becaiise he had oft and diverse tymes requyrit money, and could get nane," and
the like, for some years following, until the magistrates contrived, at length, by some
means or other, to complete the new building to the satisfaction of all parties. During
this interval, the Town Council held their own meetings in the Holy-Blood Aisle in St
Giles's Church, until apartments were provided for them, in the New Tolbooth, which
served alike for the meetings of the Parliament, the Court of Session, and the Magistrates
and Council of the burgh.

The New Tolbooth, thus erected with so much difficulty, was not the famous Heart
of Midlothian, but a more modern building attached to the south-west corner of
St Giles's Church, part of the site of which is now occupied by the lobby of the Signet
Library.

In February 1561, the Lord James, newly created Earl of Mar, was publicly married
to Lady Agnes Keith, daughter of the Earl Marischal, in St Giles's Church. They
received an admonition "to behave themselves moderately in all things;" but this did not
prevent the event being celebrated with such display as gave great offence to the preachers.
A magnificent banquet was given on the occasion, with pageants and masquerades, which
the Queen honoured with her presence. Randolph, the ambassador of Queen Elizabeth,
was also a guest, and thus writes of it to Cecil : — "At this notable marriage, upon Shrove
Tuesday, at night, sitting among the Lords at supper, in sight of the Queen, she drank
unto the Queen's Majesty, and sent me the cup of gold, which weigheth eighteen or twenty
ounces." The preachers denounced, with vehemence, the revels and costly banquets on
this occasion, inveighing with peculiar energy against the masking, a practice, as it would
seem, till then unknown in Scotland.3

The reformation of religion continued to be pursued with the utmost zeal. The Queen
still retained the service of the mass in her own private chapel, to the great offence of the
preachers ; but they had succeeded in entirely banishing it from the churches. The arms
and burgh seal of Edinburgh, previous to this period, contained a representation of the
patron saint, St Giles, with his hind ; but by an act of the Town Council, dated 24th

1 Council Register, 10th Feb. 1561, &c. Maitland, p. 21, 22. Chambers's Minor Antiquities, p. 141-9.
3 Council Register, Maitland, p. 183. 3 Knox's Hist., p. 276. Tytler, vol. vi. p. 301.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY.

73

June 1562, the idol was ordered to be cut out of the town's standard, and a thistle
to be substituted in its place, though the
saint's fawn has been since allowed to
appear in his stead.

During this year the Council made
application to the Queen to grant them the
grounds belonging to the Black Friars,
lying to the south, between the Cowgate
and the town wall, to build an hospital
thereon for the poor; and also the Kirk-
of-Field, with all the adjoining buildings
and ground, to erect there a public school,
together with their revenues for endowing
the same. They also, at the same time,
besought her to grant them the yards and
site of the Greyfriars' monastery, " being
somewhat distant from the town," for the
purpose of a public burial-place. The Queen, in reply, granted the last request, appoint-
ing the Greyfriars' Yard to be devoted to the use of the town for the specified purpose ;
and for the rest, she engaged, so soon as sufficient funds were secured for building the
hospital and school, that she would provide a convenient site for them. The whole,
however, were at length made over to the magistrates, in the year 1566, for the purposes
specified.

Great excitement was occasioned in Edinburgh at this time, by an act of violence
perpetrated by the Earl of Both well, with the aid of the Marquis D'Elboeuf and Lord
John Coldingham. They broke open the doors of Cuthbert Eamsay's house, in St Mary's
Wynd, during the night, and made violent entry in search for his daughter-in-law, Alison
Craig, with whom the Earl of Arran was believed to be enamoured. A strong remon-
strance was presented to the Queen on this occasion, beseeching her to bring the
perpetrators to punishment ; but the matter was hushed up, with promises of amendment.
Emboldened by their impunity, Bothwell and his accomplices proceeded to further violence.
They assembled in the public streets during the night, with many of their friends. Gavin
Hamilton, abbot of Kilwinning, who had joined the reforming party, resolved to check
them in their violent proceedings. He accordingly armed his servants and retainers and
sallied out to oppose them, and a serious affray took place between the Cross and the
Troue ; shot and bolts flew in every direction ; the burghers were mustered by the ringing
of the town bells, and rival leaders were sallying out to the assistance of their friends,
when the Earls of Murray and Huntly, who were then residing in the Abbey, mustered
their adherents at the Queen's request, and put a stop to the tumult. Bothwell afterwards
successfully employed the mediation of Knox, to procure a reconciliation with Gavin
Hamilton, the Earl of Arran, and others of his antagonists.1

The Parliament met at Edinburgh on the 26th of May 1563. It was the first time that

1 Knox's Hist., pp. 279, 280. Keith, vol. ii. p. 130.
VIQNBITE — St Giles — from the Common Seal of the City of Edinburgh, 1565.

74 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Queen Mary had ever been present at the Assembly of the Estates, and its proceedings
were conducted with unusual pomp. The Queen rode in procession to the Tolbooth, in
robes of state, with the crown, sceptre, and sword borne before her, escorted by a bril-
liant cavalcade, and was hailed with loyal greetings as she passed along the High Street
The hall was crowded with the nobles and other members, in their most costly habili-
ments, and glittered with the gay trappings of the royal household, and the splendour
and beauty of the Court, that surrounded the throne. The Queen opened the proceedings
with an address which won the favour of her audience, no less than her extreme beauty,
so that the people were heard to exclaim, " God save that sweet face ! Did ever orator
speak so sweetly ? " On three succeeding days she rode thus to the Tolbooth, greatly to
the dissatisfaction of the preachers, who spoke boldly " against the superfluities of their
clothes," and at length presented articles for regulating apparel and reforming other
similar enormities.1

It may be mentioned, as characteristic of the times, that the Town Council, " for the
satisfaction of many devout citizens, and to prevent the crime of fornication," enacted,
about the same period, that all guilty of this crime should be ducked in a certain part
of the North Loch, then an impure pond of stagnant water, and a pillar was erected
there for the more efficient execution of such sentences. The punishment, however, was
not always reserved for such carnal offenders, but was also enforced against the most
zealous adherents of the ancient faith. In the month of August, a serious disturbance
occurred, in consequence of the Queen's domestics at Holyrood being found, during her
absence at Stirling, attending mass at the chapel there. Patrick Cranston, " a zealous
brother," as Knox styles him, entered the chapel, and finding the altar covered, and
a priest ready to celebrate mass, he demanded of them how they dared thus openly to
break the laws of the laud ? The magistrates were summoned, and peace restored with
difficulty.

A much more serious display of popular intolerance was exhibited in the year 1505.
The period appointed by the ministers of the Congregation for the celebration of the com-
munion chanced to fall at the season of Easter, and as it seems to have been at all times
regarded as a peculiar aggravation of the crime of " massing," when it was done at the
same time as they were administering the sacrament, the indignation of the reformers
was greatly excited by the customary services of the Roman Catholics at this period.
A party of them, accordingly, headed by one of the bailies, seized on Sir James Tarbat, a
Catholic priest, as he was riding home, after officiating at the altar. He was imprisoned
in the Tolbooth, along with several of his assistants ; but the populace, not content to
abide the course of law, brought him forth, clothed in his sacerdotal garments, and with
the chalice secured in his hand. He was placed on the pillory at the Market Cross, and
exposed for an hour to the pelting of the rude rabble ; the boys serving him, according to
Knox, with his Easter eggs. He was brought to trial with his assistants on the following
day, and convicted of having celebrated mass, contrary to law. He was again exposed for
four hours on the pillory, under the charge of the common hangman, and so rudely
treated that he was reported to be dead.

The Queen, justly exasperated at this cruel and insulting proceeding, sent to her friends

1 Knox'a Hist., p. 295. Keith, vol. ii. p. 199.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 75

throughout the country, requiring them to inarch with their adherents to Edinburgh, to
reduce its citizens to a sense of duty; but the magistrates having sent a humble repre-
sentation to her of their loyalty and desire to stay the popular violence, she contented
herself with requiring the immediate liberation of the prisoners. The Queen, however,
shortly after ordered the Provost to be degraded from his office, and another to be
elected in his stead.1

On the 28th of July 1565, Darnley was proclaimed King at the Market Cross of Edin-
burgh. The banns had already been published in the usual form in the Canongate Kirk,'J
and on the following day, being Sunday, at six o'clock in the morning, he was married to
the Queen, in the chapel of Holyrood House, by the Dean of Restalrig. During several
<lays, nothing was heard at the Court but rejoicing and costly banquets, while the people
were treated with public sports.3 The marriage, however, excited the strongest displeasure
of the reformers. Knox, on learning of its proposal, regarded it with especial indignation,
and in one of his boldest and most vehement harangues, in St. Giles's Church, challenged
the nobles and other leaders of the Congregation, for betraying the cause of God, by their
inaction. " I see," said he, suddenly stretching out his arms, as if he would leap from
the pulpit and arrest the passing vision, " I see before me your beleagured camp. I hear
the tramp of the horsemen as they charged you in the streets of Edinburgh ; and most of
all, is that dark and dolorous night now present to my eyes, in which all of you, my Lords,
in shame and fear, left this town — God forbid I should ever forget it ! " He concluded
witlr solemn warning against the royal marriage, and the judgments it involved. Such
was his vehemence, says Melvil, that, " he was like to ding the pulpit in blads, and flee out
of it ! " This freedom of speech gave general offence, and Knox was summoned before
the Queen ; he came to Court after dinner, and was brought into her cabinet by Erskine of
Dun, one of the superintendents of the kirk ; but the presence of royalty was no restraint.
She wept as she listened to his bold harangues ; and he left her at length, as she yielded
anew to a passionate flood of tears. As he passed from the outer chamber, he paused in
the midst of a gay circle of the ladies of the royal household, in their gorgeous apparel, —
and addressed them in a grave style of banter on the pity that the silly soul could not
carry all these fine garnishings with it to heaven ! Queen Mary dried her tears, and took
no further notice of this interview, but Knox must have been regarded amid the gay
haunts of royalty, at Holyrood, like the skull that checked the merriment of au old
Egyptian feast.

The Queen's marriage to Darnley was indeed fatal to her future happiness. He was
fully three years younger than her, of royal blood, and a near heir to the Crown ; but in
every other respect totally unworthy of her regard. He appears to have been made the
complete tool of the designing nobles. On the 9th of March 1566, the Queen was at
supper in her cabinet, at Holyrood House, in company with the Countess of Argyle and
Lord Robert Stuart, her natural sister and brother, Beaton of Creich, Arthur Erskine,
and David Rizzio, her secretary, when her husband Darnley conducted a body of armed
assassins into his apartments in the north-west tower of the Palace, immediately below

1 Knox's Hist., pp. 325, 326.

8 "The Buick of the Kirk of the Canagait, July 1565;" Edin. Mag.. Oct. 1817, p. 33, apud Chalmers.

3 Chalmers's Queen Mary, vol. i. p. 14«. 4 Melvil's Diary, p. 26. Tytler, vol. vi. p. 330.

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

those of the Queen, and communicating with them by a private staircase. Darnley him-
self first ascended the stair, and, throwing back the tapestry that concealed the doorway,
entered the small closet, still pointed out in the north-west turret, where the Queen and
her guests were seated at supper. He threw his arm round her waist, and seated himself
beside her at the table; when Lord Ruthven, a man of tall stature, clad in complete
armour, and pale and ghastly from the effects of disease, burst like a frightful apparition
into the room.

The Queen, now far advanced in pregnancy, sprung up in terror, and commanded him
instantly to depart ; but the torches of his accomplices already glared in the outer chamber,
and Darnley, though he affected ignorance of the whole proceedings, sat scowling with
looks of hate on their intended victim. The other conspirators crowded into the little
room ; and Ruthven, drawing his dagger, attempted to lay hold of Rizzio, who sprang
behind the Queen, and wildly besought her to save his life.

Ker of Fawdonside, one of the conspirators, held his pistol to the Queen's breast,
threatening her life if she gave any alarm. Darnley at length interfered, and grasped her
in his arms ; and George Douglas, snatching Darnley's own dagger from him, struck at the
wretched Italian over the Queen's shoulder, and plunging it in his side, left it there. He
was then dragged through the adjoining chamber to the outer entrance, where the Earl of
Morton and his associates rushed in and struck their daggers into his body, leaving a pool
of blood, the marks of which, according to popular tradition, still remain on the floor, and
are pointed out by the keepers to the credulous visitor.

The Queen was kept a close prisoner in

, her apartment, while her imbecile husband

assumed the regal power, dissolved the Parlia-
ment, and commanded the Estates immediately
to depart from Edinburgh on pain of treason.
The Earl of Morton, who had kept guard,
with one hundred and sixty followers, in the
outer court of the Palace while the assassins
entered to complete their murderous purpose,
was now commanded to keep the gates of
the Palace, and let none escape ; but the chief
actors in the deed contrived to elude the
guards, and, leaping over a window on the
north side of the Palace, they fled across the
garden, and escaped by a small outhouse or
lodge, still existing, and known by the name
of Queen Mary's Bath.

We have been told by the proprietor of this
house, that in making some repairs on the roof,
which required the removal of the slates, a rusty
dagger was discovered sticking in one of the
planks, and with a portion of it more deeply corroded than the rest, as though from the

VIGNETTK— Queen Mary's Bath.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY.

77

blood that had been left on its blade. This the discoverers, not unreasonably, believed to
have remained there from the flight of the murderers of Rizzio.

A flat stone, with some nearly obliterated carving upon it, is pointed out in the passage
leading from the present quadrangle to the Chapel of Holyrood Palace, as covering the
remains of Rizzio.1 It forms a portion of the flooring of the ancient Abbey Cloisters,
included in the modern portion of the Palace, when it was rebuilt by Charles II.

As Sir James Melvil was passing out by the outer gate of the Palace on the following-
morning, the Queen observed him, and throwing open the window of her apartment, she
implored him to warn the citizens, and rescue her from the traitors' hands. On the news
being spread, the common bell was rung, and the Provost, with some hundred armed
citizens, rushed into the outer court of the Palace and demanded the Queen's release.
Daruley appeared at the window in her stead, and desired them to return home, assuring
them that he and the Queen were well and merry. The Provost sought to see the Queen
herself, but Darnley commanded their immediate departure on his authority as King.2
She was deterred by the most violent threats from holding any communication with the
chief magistrate and citizens ; and they finding all efforts vain, speedily retired.3

The Queen succeeded, soon after, in detaching her imbecile husband from the conspir-
ators, and escaping from the Palace in his company at midnight. They fled together to
Seaton, and thence to Dunbar. They returned again to the capital within five days, but the
Queen feared again to trust herself within the bloody precincts of the Palace. She took
up her residence in the house of a private citizen in the High Street, and from thence she
removed, a few days afterwards, to one still nearer the Castle j in all probability the house
in Blyth's Close, Castle Hill, traditionally pointed out as the Palace of her mother, Mary
of Guise, the portion of which fronting the street still remains, with the inscription upon
it, in antique iron letters, LAVS DEO.4

Lord Ruthven had risen from his sick-bed to perpetrate the infamous deed of Rizzio's
murder ; he fled thereafter to Newcastle, and died there. Only two of the humbler actors
in it suffered at this period for the crime, Thomas Scott, the sheriff-depute of Perth, for
Ruthven, and Henry Yair, one of his retainers. The head of the former was set on the
tower of the Palace, and that of the other on the Nether Bow Port.

The period of the Queen's accouchement now
drew near, and she gladly adopted the advice of
her Council to take up her residence within the
Castle of Edinburgh. There, in a small apart-
ment still pointed out to visitors, James VI.
first saw the light on the morning of the 19th
of June 1566. The room in which the infant
was born, in whom the rival crowns of Eliza-
beth and Mary were afterwards united, has
undergone little alteration since that time ; it is
of irregular shape, and very limited dimensions, though forming part of the more ancient

1 Chalmers's Queen Mary, vol. ii. p. 163. " Knox, p. 341. 3 The Queen's Letter, Keith, vol. ii. p. i!8.

4 Letters of Bandolph to Cecil, Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times," vol. i. p. 232.

VIGNETTE — Carved Stone over the entrance to the royal apartments, Edinburgh Caatle.

;8 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

buildings often before used as a royal residence, and in one of the apartments of which
the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, expired only six years previous.

The greatest joy and triumph prevailed in Edinburgh on the announcement of the
birth of an heir to the throne. A public thanksgiving was offered up on the following day
in St Giles's Church; and Sir James Melvil posted with the news to the English Courtr
with such speed, that he reached London on the fourth day thereafter, and spoiled her
Majesty's mirth for one night, at least, with the " happy news."1

The birth of a son to Darnley produced little change on his licentious course of life.
By his folly he had already alienated from him the intersets and affections of every party ;
and the conspirators, who had joined with him in the murder of Rizzio, had already
resolved on. his destruction, when he was seized with the small-pox at Glasgow. From
this he was removed to Edinburgh, and lodged in the mansion of the Provost or chief
prebendary of the Collegiate Church of St Mary-in-the-Fields, as a place of good air.
This house stood nearly on the site of the present north-west corner of Drummond Street,
as is ascertained from Gordon's map of the city in 1647, where the ruins are indicated as
they existed at that period : it is said to have been selected by Sir James Balfour, brother
of the Provost, and " the most corrupt man of his age," 2 as well fitted, from its lonely
situation, for the intended murder.

Here the Queen frequently visited Darnley. She spent the evening of the 9th of
February 1567 with him, and only left at eleven o'clock, along with several nobles who
had accompanied her there, to be present at an entertainment at Holyrood House.

The Earl of Bothwell, whose lawless ambition mainly instigated the assassination, had
obtained a situation for one of his menials in the Queen's service, and by this means he
was able to obtain the keys of the Provost of St Mary's house, and cause counterfeit
impressions to be taken.8 He had been in company with the Queen on the 10th, at a
banquet given to her by the Bishop of Argyle, and learning that she must return to Holy-
rood that night, he immediately arranged to complete his murderous scheme.

Bothwell left the lodgings of the Laird of Ormiston in company with several of his own
servants, who were his sole accomplices, shortly after nine o'clock at night. They passed
down the Blackfriars' Wynd together, entering the gardens of the Dominican monastery by
a gate in the enclosing wall opposite the foot of the Wynd ; and by a road nearly on the
site of what now forms the High School Wynd, they reached the postern in the town wall
which gave admission to the lodging of Darnley. Bothwell joined the Queen, who was
then visiting her husband, while his accomplices were busy arranging the gunpowder in
the room below ; and, after escorting her home to the Palace, he returned to complete his
purpose. It may be further mentioned, as an evidence of the simple manners of the period,
that when Bothwell's servants returned to his residence, near the Palace, after depositing
the powder in Darnley's lodging, they saw the Queen, — as one of them afterwards stated
in evidence,— on her way back to Holyrood " gangand before them with licht torches as
they came up the Black Frier Wynd."* So that it would appear she walked quietly
home, with her few attendants, through these closes and down the Canongate, at that late
hour, without exciting among the citizens any notice of the presence of royalty.

1 Keith, vol. ii. p. 434. a Laing, vol. ii. p. 296.

s Robertson's Hist., vol. ii. p. 354. « Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. part ii. p. 493.

JAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 79

A loud explosion about two o'clock in the morning, while it shook the whole town and
startled the inhabitants from their sleep, satisfied the conspirators that their plot had
succeeded. An arch still exists in the city wall, behind the Infirmary, described by Arnot
as the door-way leading into the Provost's house, which was built against the wall. Its
position, however, is further to the east than the house is shown to have stood ; and
Malcolm Laing supposes it to have been a gun-port, connected with a projecting tower,
which formerly existed directly opposite Roxburgh Street ; but its appearance and position
are much more those of a doorway, and no port-hole resembling it occurs in any other
part of the wall. In a drawing of the locality at the time of the murder, preserved in the
State Paper Office (a fac-simile of which is engraved in Chalmers's Life of Queen Mary),
the ruins of the Provost's house seem to extend nearly to the projecting tower, so that the
tradition is not without some appearance of probability.

The murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, proved fatal to the hapless Queen of
Scotland. She took refuge for a time in the Castle of Edinburgh, and only left it, on
the urgent remonstrance of her Council, who dreaded injury to her health from her " close
and solitary life."

On Saturday, the 12th of April, the Earl of Bothwell was arraigned in the Tolbooth,
on the charge of the murder, but no evidence appeared against him, and he was acquitted.
It is not our province in this history to follow out the narrative of his forcible ravishment
of the Queen, and the fatal consequences in which she was thereby involved. On the
15th of June 1567, she surrendered to the Earl of Morton, at Carbery Hill, near Mussel-
burgh.

It was late in the evening before the captive Queen entered Edinburgh, but she was
recognised as she passed along the streets, and assailed with insulting cries from the rude
populace. She was lodged in the Black Turnpike, the town house of the Provost, Sir
Simon Preston.1 This ancient and most interesting building stood to the west of the
Tron Church, occupying part of the ground now left vacant, as the entrance to Hunter
Square, and the site of the corner house. Maitland describes it as a " magnificent edifice,
which, were it not partly defaced by a false wooden front, would appear to be the most
sumptuous building perhaps in Edinburgh." The views that exist of it, show it to have
been a stately and imposing pile of building, of unusual height and extent, even among
the huge " lands " in the old High Street. At the time of its demolition, in 1788, it was
believed to be the most ancient house in Edinburgh.

Here Queen Mary passed the night, in a small apartment, whose window looked to the
street ; and the first thing that met her eye on looking forth in the morning was a large
white banner, " stented betwixt two spears," whereon was painted the murdered Darnley,
with the words, " Judge and revenge my cause, 0 Lord." The poor Queen exclaimed to
the assembled multitude, — " Good people, either satisfy your cruelty and hatred by taking
away my miserable life, or release me from the hands of such inhuman tyrants." Some
of the rude rabble again renewed their insulting cries, but the citizens displayed their
ancient standard, the Blue Blanket, and ran to arms for her deliverance ; and had not the
confederates removed her to Holyrood, on pretence of restoring her to liberty, she might
probably have been safe for a time imder her burgher guards.

1 See the VIGNETTE at the head of this Chapter.

8o

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The confederate lords, as soon as they had got Queeii Mary safely lodged in Holyrood
House, formed themselves into a council, and at once drew up and signed an order for her
imprisonment in Loch Leven Castle. It was in fact only giving effect to their previous
resolutions. The same night she was hastily conveyed from the Palace, disguised in mean
attire, and compelled to ride a distance of thirty miles to the scene of her captivity.

On that night — the 16th of June 1567 — she bade a final farewell to the Palace of
Holyrood, and to Scotland's Crown. Her further history does not come within the
province of our Memorials, though her memory still dwells amid these ancient scenes,
and the stranger can never tread the ruined aisles of the Old Abbey Church, without some
passing thought of the gifted and lovely, but most unfortunate daughter of James V. —
Mary Queen of Scots.

V i us KTTE— Tower of Old City Wall in the Vennel.

hue ,••

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES VI. TO THE RESTORATION OR

CHARLES II.

- •• ., LUi'H

-;'J- ,-_.

— -t-* —

URING the long minority |
I of James VI. that suc-
' ceeded the forced abdication of '
Queen Mary, his residence was almost entirely
at Stirling, and Edinburgh ceased to be enlivened
with the presence of royalty, though it was still
the scene of many of the principal events connected with the national history of the period.
Immediately on the departure of the Queen from Holyrood, diligent search was made
throughout the city for the murderers of Darnley. Sebastian, a French attendant of the
royal household, and Captain William Blackadder, were seized and lodged in the Tolbooth :
and, as appears by the Record of the Privy Council,1 three others were shortly afterwards
placed in the same durance on this charge. Sebastian contrived to escape, but the others
were ordered " to be put in the irins and tormentis,2 for furthering of the tryall" of the
veritie ; " and although they persisted in denying all knowledge of the crime, they were
drawn backward on a cart to the Cross, and there hanged and quartered on the 24th of
June 1567.3

The Magistrates of Edinburgh had obtained from Queen Mary a ratification of their
long-coveted superiority over the town of Leith ; but they had never been able to avail
themselves of it to any practical end. They now took advantage of the general confusion
•o assert their claims ; and accordingly, on the 4th of July, the Provost, Bailies, and

1 Keith, vol. ii. p. 652. * i.e., Tortured. ' Birrel's Diary, np. 10, 11.

YIQNKTTE — Holyrood ChapeL

82 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Deacons mustered the whole burgher force of the city, armed and equipped in warlike array,
and marched at their head to the Links of Leith. From thence the magistrates proceeded
to the town, and " held ane court upon the Tolbuyth stair of Leith, and created bailies,
sergeants, clerks, and demstars,1 and took possession thereof by virtue of their infeftment
made by the Queen's grace to them."2 The superiority thus established, continued to be
maintained, often with despotic rigour, until the independence of Leith was secured by the
Burgh Reform Bill of 1833.

On the 22d of August, the Earl of Murray was invested with the dignity of Regent,
and proclamation of the same made at the Cross of Edinburgh, with great magnificence
and solemnity. In his strong hand, the sceptre was again swayed for a brief period with
such stern rigour, as checked the turbulent factions, and restored, to a great extent, tran-
quillity to the people. But his regency was of brief duration ; he fell by the hand of
an assassin in the month of January 1570, and the Earl of Lennox succeeded to his
office. He was buried in St Giles's Church, and a monument erected to his memory
in the south transept, which remained a point of peculiar attraction in the old fabric,
until it was most barbarously demolished, during the alterations effected on the building
in 1829.

The Castle, at this time, was held by Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, who still adhered
to the Queen's party ; and he abundantly availed himself of the unsettled state of affairs
to strengthen his position. He had seized all provisions brought into Leith, and raised and
trained soldiers with little interruption. On the 28th of March 1571, he took forcible
possession of St Giles's Church, and manned the steeple to keep the citizens in awe ; 8 and
again on the 1st of May, the Duke of Chatelherault, having entered the town with 300
men, the men of war in the steeple, " slappit all the pendis of the kirk,4 for keeping
thairof aganis my Lord Regent," and immediate preparations were made for the defence
of the town. Troops crowded into the city, and others mustered against it, the Regent
being bent on holding a Parliament there. The Estates accordingly assembled in the
Cauongate, without the walls, but within the liberties of the city, which extended to
St John's Cross, and a battery was erected for their protection, upon " the Dow Craig5
abone the Trinity College, beside Edinburgh, to ding and seige the north-east quarter of
the burgh."6

The place indicated is obviously that portion of the Calton Hill where the house of the
governor of the jail now stands, a most commanding position for the purpose in view ;
from this an almost constant firing was kept up on the city during the sittings of the Par-
liament. The opposite party retaliated by erecting a battery in the Blackfriars (the old
High School Yard), from which they greatly damaged the houses in the Canongate, while
the Nether Bow Port was built up with stone and lime, the more effectually to exclude
them from the usual place of meeting.

Diligent preparations were made for the defence of the town after the Parliament had
withdrawn. On the 6th of June, commandment was given " by the lords of the nobility
in Edinburgh, to tir and tak down all the tymmer work of all houses in Leith Wynd and

1 i.e., Judges or doomers, latterly hangmen. s Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 117.

Ibid, p. 202. « i.e.j Broke out loop-holes in the arched roof.

6 Most probably from the Gaelic Du, i.e., Black Craig. « Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 213.

JAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 83

Sanct Mary's Wynd, hurtful to the keiping of this burghe." And, again, on the 8th,
they caused the doors and windows of all the tenements on the west side of St Mary's
Wynd to Le "biggit up and closit," as well as other great preparations for defence.

On the 20th of June, three pieces of brass ordnance were mounted on St Giles's steeple,
and the holders of it amply stored with provisions and ammunition for its defence, and all
the walls, fosses, and ports, were again " newlie biggit and repairit ; " and within a few days
after, the whole merchants and craftsmen remaining in the burgh, mustered to a " wappin-
schawiug" in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, and engaged to aid and assist the Captain of the
Castle in the service of the Queen.1

When all others means failed, an ingenious plot was devised for taking the Nether Bow
Port by a stratagem, nearly similar to that by which the Castle was recovered in 1341,2
but the ambush was discovered by chance, and the scheme, happily for the citizens,
defeated. Immediately thereafter, " the Lords and Captain of the Castle causit big ane
new port at the Nether boll, within the auld port of the same, of aisler wark, in the maist
strenthie maner ; and tuik, to big the samyu with, all the aisler stanis that Alexander
Clerk haid gadderit of the kirk of Restalrig to big his hous with."3 This interesting
notation supplies the date of erection of the second Nether Bow Port, and accounts for its
position behind the line of the city wall ; as the original gate in continuation of St Mary's
Wynd would have to be retained and defended, while the new works were going on within.
On the -earlier site, but, we may presume to some extent at least, with these same materials,
the famous old " Temple Bar of Edinburgh," was again rebuilt in the form represented in
the engraving, in the year 1606.

At a still later date, the same parties, in their anxiety to defend this important pass,
" causit all the houssis of Leith and Sanct Marie Wyndis heidis to be tane doun ! "
The Earl of Mar was no less zealous in his preparations for its assault. He caused trenches
to be cast up in the Pleasance, for nine pieces of large and small ordnance, and mounted
others on Salisbury Crags, " to ding Edinburgh with," so that the poor burghers of that
quarter must have found good reason for wishing the siege to draw to a close. Provisions
failed, and all fresh supplies were most diligently intercepted; military law prevailed in its
utmost rigour, and the sole appearance of their enjoying a moment's ease occurs in the
statement, that " uochttheles the remaneris thairin abaid patientlie, and usit all plesouris
quhilkis were wont to be usit in the moneth of Maij in aid tymes, viz., Robin Hude and
Litill Johne."

This frightful state of affairs was at length brought to a close, with little advantage ti
either party; and on the 27th of July 1572, the whole artillery about the walls, on tht
steeple head of St Giles's, and the Kirk-of- Field, were removed to the Castle, and the Cross
being most honourably hung with tapestry, a truce was proclaimed by the heralds, with
eound of trumpets, and the hearty congratulations of the people.4

In the month of August Knox returned to Edinburgh, after an absence of nearly two
years. His life was drawing rapidly to a close, and on the 24th of November 1572 he ex-
pired in his sixty-seventh year. His body was interred in the Churchyard of St Giles, and
was attended to the grave by a numerous concourse of people, including many of the chief

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, pp. 220, 226, 251. 2 Ante, p. 8.

3 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 241. 4 Ibid, p. 308.

84

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

nobility. The simple eloge pronounced by the Regent over his grave, has been remembered
from its pointed force " There lies he who never feared the face of man." The old church-
yard has long since been paved, and converted into the Parliament Square, and all evidence
of the spot lost. It cannot but excite surprise that no eifort should have been made to
preserve the remains of the Reformer from such desecration, or to point out to posterity
the site of his resting-place.1 If the tradition mentioned by Chambers 2 may be relied upon,
that his burial place was a few feet from the front of the old pedestal of King Charles's
statue the recent change in the position of the latter must have placed it directly over his
grave ; perhaps as strange a monument to the Great Apostle of Presbyterianism as fancy

could devise !

On the death of the Earl of Mar, Morton was elected Regent, and the brief truce
speedily brought to a close. Within two days thereafter, Kirkaldy sallied out of the
Castle towards evening, and set fire to the houses on the south side of the Castle rock ; a
strong wind was blowing at the time from the west, and the garrison of the Castle kept
up a constant cannonade, so as to prevent any succour being attempted, so that the whole
mass of houses was burnt down eastward to Magdalen Chapel, — a piece of useless cruelty,
that gained him many enemies, without answering any good purpose.

The English Queen now sent Sir William Drury, with a body of troops and a train
of artillery, to assist the Regent in reducing the Castle, the last stronghold of the
adherents of Queen Mary. The fortress was gallantly defended by Sir William Kirkaldy,
and the siege is perhaps one of the most memorable in its history. The narrative of an
eye-witness, given in Holinshed's Chronicles, shows, even by its exaggerated descriptions,
the difficulties experienced by the besiegers. It is understood to have been written by
Thomas Churchyard, the poet, who was present at the siege, and has been reprinted in the
Bannatyne Miscellany, accompanied by a remarkably interesting bird's-eye view of the town
and Castle during the siege, engraved, as is believed, from a sketch made on the spot.

In anticipation of the siege, the citizens erected several strong defences of turf and
faggots, so as to protect the Church and Tolbooth. One is especially mentioned in the
Diurnal of Occurrents, as " biggit of diffet and mik,8 betuix the thevis hoill, and Bess
Wynd, tua elu thick, and on the gait betuix the auld tolbuyth, and the vther syid tua
speir heicht."4 About three weeks later, on the 17th of January, "the nobility, with
my Lord Regent, passed through St Giles's Church, at an entrance made through the
Tolbooth wall to the laigh council-house of the town, on the west side of the Tolbooth,
and there choose the Lords of the Articles, and returned the same way. The Earl
of Angus bore the Crown, the Earl of Argyle the Sceptre, and the Earl of Morton the
Sword of Honour. These were made of brass, and double overgilt with gold, because
the principal jewels were in the Castle of Edinburgh, and might not be had."* So effectual
did these ramparts prove, that the Parliament assembled as safely in the Tolbooth, and
the people went as quietly to church, as they at any time did before the war began.6

The brave Captain, Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, was already short of provisions

1 A few paces to the west of King Charles's statue, there has recently been placed a small surface-bronzed stone ia
the ground, with the initials " J. K.," indicating the Reformer's burial-place.

s Traditions, vol. ii. p. 195. * i.e., Turf and mud. 4 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 322.

* Diurnal of Occurreuts, p. Z'U. ' s Journal of the Siege, Bannatyne Misc ., vol. ii. p. 74.

JAMES VI. TO RESTORA TION OF CHARLES II. 85

•when the siege commenced, and all further supplies were then completely cut off; yet he
held out gallantly for thirty-three days, until reduced to the last extremities, and
threatened with the desertion and mutiny of his men. The garrison did not despair until
the besiegers had got possession of the spur, within which was the well on which they
mainly depended for water. This battery stood on the Esplanade, nearest the town, as may
be seen in the view given at the head of Chapter III., and was demolished in the year
1 649, by order of the Committee of Estates.

Holinshed mentions also the spring at the Well-house Tower, under the name of " St
Margaret's Well, without the Castle, on the north side," by which some of the garrison
suffered, owing to its being poisoned by the enemy.

The only well that remained within the Castle was completely choked up with the
ruins, and so great was the general devastation, that when a parley was demanded, the
messenger had to be lowered over the walls by a rope.1 The brave commander was
delivered up by the English General to the vindictive power of the Regent, and he and
his brother James, along with two burgesses of the city, were ignominiously " harlit in
cartis bakwart " to the Cross of Edinburgh, and there hanged and quartered, 2 and
their heads exposed upon the Castle wall.3

The Regent put the Castle into complete repair, and committed the keeping of it to
his brother, George Douglas of Parkhead. He was at the same time Provost of the city,
though he was speedily thereafter deprived of the latter office. Morton was now firmly
established in the Regency, and he immediately proceeded to such acts of rapacity and
injustice as rendered his government odious to the whole nation ; until the nobles at last
united with the people in deposing him. He succeeded, however, in speedily regaining
sufficient influence to secure the custody of the King's person.

The loyalty which the citizens of Edinburgh displayed at various times, until the
King's full assumption of the reins of government, obtained from him special acknow-
ledgments of gratitude. In 1578, one hundred of their choicest young men were well
accoutred and sent to Stirling as a royal guard.4 They sent him also, at a later period,
costly gifts of plate, though they remonstrated, with considerable decision, when he
attempted to interfere with their right of election of Magistrates ; apologising, at the same
time, for not sending the bailies to assign their reasons to him personally, because two
of them were absent, and " the thrid had his wyfe redy to depart furth of this warld." 5

The King at length summoned a Parliament to assemble at Edinburgh in October
1579, and made his first public entry into his capital. He was received at the West Port
by the Magistrates, under a pall of purple velvet; and an allegory of " King Solomon
with the twa wemen," was exhibited as a representation of the wisdom of Solomon; after
which the sword and sceptre were presented to him. At the ancient gate in the West Bow,
the keys of the city were given him in a silver basin with the usual device of a Cupid
descending from a globe, while " Dame Music and hir scollars exercisit hir art with great
melodie." At the Tolbooth, he was received by three gallant virtuous ladies, to wit, Peace,
Plenty, and Justice, who harangued him in the Greek, Latin, and Scotch languages ; and,
as he approached St Giles's Church, Dame Religion showed herself, and in the Hebrew

1 Bannatyne Misc. vol., ii. p. 76. 2 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 335. ' Hist, of James the Sext., p. 145.

4 Maitknd, p. 36. * Idicl, p. 37.

86

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

'

tongue desired his presence, which he obeyed by entering the Church. After sermon, a
more lively representation was prepared for him ; Bacchus appeared on the Cross distribut-
ing his wine freely to all ; the streets through which he passed were strewed with flowers,
and hung with tapestry and painted histories ; and the whole fanciful pageant wound up
with a very characteristic astrological display, exhibiting the conjunction of the planets, 'in
their degrees and places, as at his Majesty's happy nativity, " vividly represented by the
assistance of King Ptolome ! " 1

The King then passed on to his Palace of Holyrood, attended by two hundred horse-
men, and the Parliament assembled immediately after in the Tolbooth, and continued its
deliberations there for some weeks. The influence of Morton had been rapidly lessening
with the King, while the number and power of his enemies increased. Towards the close
of 1080, he was arraigned to stand his trial for the murder of Darnley ; and he was executed

the following year by an instrument called
the Maiden, a species of guillotine which he
had himself introduced into Scotland. His
head was placed on the Tolbooth, and his
body ignominiously buried at the Borough
Mnir — the usual place of sepulture for the
vilest criminals.

Considering the high hand with which
the civic rulers of the capital contrived to
carry nearly every point during the reign of
Queen Mary, it is astonishing how speedily
James VI. brought them into subjection. He
interfered constantly in their elections,
though only with partial success, and used
their purse with a condescending freedom
that must often have proved very irritating.
They were required to maintain a body-guard
for him at their own expense ; and whenever

it suited his Majesty's convenience, were commanded to furnish costly entertainments to
foreign nobles and ambassadors.2

In October 1589, the King suddenly sailed from Leith to bring home his Queen, Anne
of Denmark, leaving orders of a sufficiently minute and exacting nature for their honour-
able reception on his return. One of the first articles requires, that the town of Edinburgh,
the Canoi^te, and Leith, shall be in arms, ranked on both sides of the way between
Leith and Holyrood House, to hold off the press ; and the Council are directed to deal
earnestly with the town of Edinburgh for providing ships and all other necessaries.

Various acts of the Town Council show the straits they were put to in the accomplish-
ment of this. " The Baillies were ordained to pass through their quarters, and borrow
fra the honest nychtbouris thairof, ane quantitie of the best sort of thair naiperie,
to serve the strayngeris that sail arryve with the Quene." Orders were given for

1 Hist, of James the Sext., p. 178-180. Maitland, p. 37. 2 Maitland, p. 44, 5.

VIONETTE — The Maiden.

JAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 87

< • 4

the Nether Bow to be repaired — bonfires — "a propyne. of ane jowell to the Quenis
grace," &c. &c.

The King and Queen at length arrived at Leith on the 1st of May 1590, and remained
in " the King's work there" till the 6th of the month, while the Palace of Holyrood was
getting ready. On the 17th of May the Queen was crowned in Holyrood Abbey, Mi-
Robert Bruce pouring upon her breast " a bonye quantitie of oyll," and " Mr Andro
Meluene, principall of the Colledge of the Theolloges, making ane oratione in tua bunder

Lateine verse ! "

IIP. !\ 'fa a '• ujO inl lit
The second day they at length entered the capital, the manner of approaching which

from the Palace is worthy of notice, as a key to the usual route pursued on similar
occasions. " At her comming to the south side of the yardes of the Canogit, along the
parke wall, being in sight of the Castle, they gave her thence a great voley of shot, with
their banners and ancient displays upon the walls. Thence she came to the West Port,"
where she was received with a Latin oration, so that the royal procession must have skirted
along the whole line of the more modern city wall, where Lauriston now is. At the West
Port they were welcomed with even more than the usual costly display. The same variety
of allegories and ingenious devices had been prepared. An angel presented the keys to her
Majesty ; she rode in a chariot drawn by eight horses, decorated with velvet trappings,
richly embroidered with gold and silver, and was attended by sixty youths, as Moors, with
chains about their necks, and gorgeously apparelled with jewels and ornaments of gold.
The nine muses received them at the Butter Trone, with very excellent singing of psalms.
At the Cross she had another " verie good psalme," and then entered St Giles's Church,
where a sermon was preached before their Majesties. Numerous allegories, goddesses, Chris-
tian virtues, and the like, followed. Indeed, from the inventory furnished by a poet of the
period, the wide range of classic fancy would seem to have been rausacked for the
occasion : —

To recreat hir hie renoun,
Of curious things thair wes all sort,
The stairs and houses of the toun
With Tapestries were spred athort,
Quhair Histories men micht behauld,
With Images and Antioks auld.

* * * *

It written wes with stories tnae,
How VENVS, with a thundring thud,
Inclos'd ACHATES and ENAE,
Within a mekill mistie clud :
And how fair ANNA, wondrous wraith,
Deplors hir sister DIDOS daith.

* # # *

IXION that the quheill doia turne
In Hell, that ugly hole, so mirk ;
And EBOSTEATVS quha did burne
The costly fair EPHESIAN Kirk :
And BLIADES, quho falls in soun
With drawing buckets up and down.

1 Marriage of James VI., Bann. Club, p. 39.

gg MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

» * • •

All curious pastimes and consaitii,

Cud be imaginat be man,

Wes to be sene on Edinburgh gait*,

Fra time that brauitie began :

Ye might haif hard on eureie streit,

Trim melodie and musiok sweit.1

And so the poet goes on through thirty-four stanzas of like quaint description. At the
Nether Bow, after a representation of marriage had been enacted before them, there was
let down to the Queen, by a silk string, from the top of the Port, a box covered with
purple velvet, and with her Majesty's initials wrought on it in diamonds and precious
stones, — a parting gift from the good town. More very good psalms followed, and so
they rode home to the Palace, well pleased, it is to be hoped, with the day's entertain-
ments.2

A few davs after, the Magistrates entertained the Danish nobles and ambassadors, with
their numerous suites, at a splendid banquet, " maid at the townis charges and expensis, in
Thomas Aitchisoun's, master of the Cunzie hous lugeing, at Todrik's Wynd fute," — a well-
known building, the massive, polished, ashlar front of which still presents a prominent
object amid the faded grandeur of the Cowgate.

The records of the Town Council contain some curious entries regarding this feast. The
wine and ale seem to have formed nearly as important an item in the account as they did
in FalstafTs tavern bills I My Lord Provost undertakes to provide " naiprie" on the
occasion, and if needs be, to advance " ane bunder pund or mair, as thai sail haif ado;"
and the treasurer is directed " to agrie with the fydleris at the bankit, and the samen sail
be allowit in his compts.'"

The Lord High Treasurer's accounts are equally minute, testifying to the truth of an
expression used by James on the occasion, that "a King with a new married wife did
not come hame every day!" e.g., "Item, be his Grace precept and special command,
twentie-thrie elnis and ane half reid crammosie velvet, to be jowppis and breikis to his
Majesties four laquayis. Item, for furnessing of fyftene fedder beddis to the Densis
[Danes] within the Palice of Halierudhous, fra the fourt day of Maij 1590, to the auchtene
day of Julij ; takand for ilk bed, in the nicht, tua schilling!" &c. ; the whole winding np
with an item, to James Nisbet, jailor of the Tolbnith, for his expenses in keeping sundry
witches there, by his Majesty's orders.

Few incidents, which are very closely connected with Edinburgh, occurred during the
remainder of the King's life, until his accession to the English throne. In 1596, owing to
a disagreement between him and the clergy, a tumult was excited, which greatly exasper-
ated him, so that he ordered the Parliament and Courts of Justice to be removed from
thence, and even listened to the advice of several of his nobles, who recommended him
utterly to erase the city from the face of the earth, and erect a column on the site of it, "as
an infamous memorial of their detestable rebellion ! " The magistrates made the most
abject offers of submission, but King James,— who, with all his high notions of prerogative,
enjoyed very little of the real power of a king, so long as he remained in Scotland, — was

Dencription of the Queen's Entry into Edinburgh, by John Bvrel. Watson's Coll. of Scots Poems.
* Hist, of James the Sext., p. 38-42. » Acts of Town Council, apud Marriage of James VI., p.

35.

JAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 89

very willing to make the most of such an occasion as this, and remained for a time inexor-
able. The magistrates were required to surrender themselves prisoners at Perth, and one
of them having failed to appear, the town was denounced, the inhabitants declared rebels,
and the city revenues sequestrated to the King's use.

The magistrates at length went in a body to the Palace of Holyrood House, and, kneel-
ing before him, made offer of such concessions as the indignant monarch was pleased to
accept. One of the conditions bound them to deliver up, for the King's sole use, the
houses in their kirkyard, occupied by the town ministers, which was accordingly done, and
on the site of them, the Parliament House, which still stands (though recently entirely
remodelled externally), was afterwards built,. They also agreed to pay to him the sum of
twenty thousand merks, and so at length all difficulties were happily adjusted between
them, and the city restored to its ancient privileges.

After the execution of the famous Earl of Gowry and his brother at Perth, their dead
bodies were brought to Edinburgh and exposed at the Market Cross, hung in chains. From
that time, James enjoyed some years of tranquillity, living at Holyrood and elsewhere in
such homely state as his revenues would permit; and when the extravagance of his
Queen, — who was a devoted patron of the royal goldsmith, George Heriot, — or his
own narrow means, rendered his housekeeping somewhat stinted, he was accustomed
to pay a condescending visit to some of the wealthier citizens in the High Street of
Edinburgh.

An interesting old building, called Lockhart's Court, Niddry's Wynd, which was
demolished in constructing the southern approach to the town, was especially famous as
the scene of such civic entertainment of royalty. We learn, from Moyses's Memoirs, of
James's residence there in 1591, along with his Queen, shortly after their arrival from
Denmark, and their hospitable reception by Nicol Edward, a wealthy citizen, who was
then Provost of Edinburgh.1

His visits, also, to George Heriot were of frequent occurrence, and, as tradition reports,
he made no objection to occasionally discussing a bottle of wine in the goldsmith's little
booth, at the west end of St Giles's Church, which was only about seven feet square.2

The death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, produced a lively excitement in the minds both
of King and people. The anticipation of this event for years had gradually prepared, and
in some degree reconciled, the latter to the idea of their King going to occupy the throne of
" their auld enemies of England," but its injurious influence on the capital could not be
mistaken. On the 31st of March the news was proclaimed at the City Cross by the secre-
tary Elphinstone, and Sir David Lindsay, younger, the Lyon King.

King James, before his departure, attended public service in St Giles's Church, where he
had often before claimed the right of challenging the dicta of the preachers from the royal
gallery. An immense crowd assembled on the occasion, and listened with deep interest to
a discourse expressly addressed to his Majesty upon the important change. The King took
it in good part, and, on the preacher concluding, he delivered a farewell address to the
people. Many were greatly affected at the prospect of their King's departure, which was
generally regarded as anything rather than a national benefit. The farewell was couched
in the warmest language of friendship. He promised them that he would defend their

1 Moyaes's Memoirs, p. 182. 2 Chambers's Traditions, vol. ii. p. 210.

90 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

faith unchanged, and revisit the Scottish capital every three years. He committed his
children, whom he left behind, to the care of the Earl of Mar and others of his most
trusty nobles, and took his departure for England on the 5th of April 1603.

The accession of James to the English throne produced, at the time, no other change
on Edinburgh than the removal of the Court and some of the chief nobility to London.
The King continued to manifest a lively interest in his ancient capital; in ]608 he wrote
to the magistrates, guarding them in an unwonted manner against countenancing any
interference with the right of the citizens to have one of themselves chosen to fill the office
of Provost. In the following year, he granted them duties on every tun of wine, for sus-
taining the dignity of the civic rulers ; he also empowered the Provost to have a sword
borne before him on all public occasions, and gave orders that the magistrates should be
provided with gowns, similar to those worn by the Aldermen of London.

It is very characteristic of King James, that, not content with issuing his royal man-
date on this important occasion, he forwarded them two ready-made gowns as patterns,
lest the honourable Corporation of the Tailors of Edinburgh should prove unequal to the
duty.1

At length, after an absence of fourteen years, the King intimated his gracious intention
of honouring the capital of his ancient kingdom with a visit. He accordingly arrived there
on the 16th of May 1617, and was received at the "West Port by the magistrates in their
official robes, attended by the chief citizens habited in velvet. The town-clerk delivered
a most magnificent address,, wherein he blessed God that their eyes were once more per-
mitted " to feed upon the royal countenance of our true phoenix, the bright star of our

northern firmament Our sun (the powerful adamant of our wealth), by whose

removing from our hemisphere we were darkened ; deep sorrow and fear possessed our
hearts. The very hills and groves, accustomed before to be refreshed with the dew of your
Majesty's presence, not putting on their wonted apparel, but with pale looks, representing
their misery for the departure of their royal King. ... A King in heart as upright
as David, wise as Solomon, and godlie as Josias ! "

In like eloquent strains the orator proceeds through a long address, after which the King
and nobility were entertained at a sumptuous banquet, where the City presented his Majesty
with the sum of ten thousand merks, in double golden angels, tendered to him in a gilt
basin of silver.2

The King had been no less anxious than the citizens " to let the nobles of Ingland
knaw that his cuntrie was nothing inferior to thers in anie respect." By his orders the
Palace was completely repaired and put in order, and the Chapel " decorit with organis,
and uthir temporall policie," while a ship laden with wines, was sent before him "to lay in
the cavys of his Palicis of Halyruidhous, and uther partis of his resort." 8

A Parliament was held in Edinburgh on this occasion, wherein the King availed him-
self of the popular feelings excited by his presence, to secure the first steps of his favourite
project for restoring Episcopal government to the Church.

The King at length bade farewell to his Scottish subjects in September 1617, and
little occurred to disturb the tranquillity of Edinburgh during the remainder of his
reign.

1 Council Register, Sept. 7th, 1609. = Maitland, p. 60. » Hist, of James the Sext , p. 395.

JAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 91

In the following year, the Common Council purchased the elevated ground lying to tlifl
south of the city, denominated the High Riggs, on part of which Heriot's Hospital was
afterwards built, and the latest extension of the city wall then took place for the purpose
of enclosing it. A portion of this wall still forms the western boundary of the Hospital
grounds, terminating at the head of the Vennel, in the only remaiaing tower of the ancient
city wall. The close of the succeeding year was signalised by the visit of Ben Jonson, on
his way to Hawthornden, the seat of the poet Drummond, where the memory of his
residence is still preserved.

The accession of Charles I. was marked by demands for heavy contributions, for the
purpose of fitting out ships, and erecting forts for securing the coasts of the kingdom.
The Common Council of Edinburgh entered so zealously into this measure, that the King
addressed to them a special letter of thanks ; and as a further proof of his gratitude, he
presented the Provost with a gown, to be worn according to King James's appointment,
and a sword to be borne before him on all public occasions.

The citizens were kept for several years in anticipation of another royal visit, which
was at length accomplished in 1633. The same loyalty was displayed, as on similar occa-
sions, for receiving the King with suitable splendour. The celebrated poet, Drummond
of Hawthornden, was appointed to address him on this occasion, which he did in -a
speech little less extravagant than that with which the town-clerk had hailed his royal
father's arrival.

The orator's poetical skill was next called into requisition. The King was received at
the West Port by the nymph Edina, and again at the Overborn by the lady Caledonia, each
of whom welcomed him in copious verse, attributed to Drummond's pen. The members
of the College added their quota, and Mercury, Apollo, Eudymion, the Moon, and a whole
host of celestial visitants made trial of the royal patience in lengthy rhymes !

Fergus I. received the King at the Tolbooth, and " in a grave speech gave many
paternal and wholesome advices to his royal successor; " and Mount Parnassus was
erected at the Trone, " with a great variety of vegetables, rocks, and other decorations
peculiar to mountains," and crowded with all its ancient inhabitants. The whole fantastic
exhibition cost the city upwards of £41,000 Scottish money!1 The most interesting
feature on the occasion was a series of the chief works of Jamesone, the famous Scottish
painter, with which the Nether Bow Port was adorned. This eminent artist continued to
reside in Edinburgh till his death, in 1644. He was buried in the Greyfriars' Church-
yard, but without a monument, and tradition has failed to preserve any record of the
spot.

This hearty reception by the citizens of Edinburgh was followed by his coronation, on
the 18th of June, in the Abbey Church of Holyrood, with the utmost splendour and pomp ;
but the King was not long gone ere the discontents of the people were manifested by mur-
muring and complaints. Under the guidance of Laud, Charles had resolved to carry out
the favourite project of his father, for the complete establishment of Episcopacy in Scot-
laud ; but he lacked the cautious prudence of James, no less than the wise councillors of
Elizabeth. He erected Edinburgh into a separate diocese, taking for that purpose a por-
tion of the ancient Metropolitan See of St Andrews, and appointed the Collegiate Church

1 Maitland, p. 63-69.

9, MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH

of St Giles as its Cathedral. The consequences of his efforts are well known. The new
service-book, which had been expressly prepared for the use of the Scottish Ciiurch,
was, after considerable delay, produced in the public services of the day, on Sunday,

'23d July 1637.

In St Giles's Church, the Dean ascended the reading-desk, arrayed in his surplice, and
opened the service-book. The church was crowded on this memorable occasion, with the
Lord Chancellor, the Lords of the Privy Council, the Judges and Bishops, as well as a vast
multitude of the people.1 No sooner did the Dean commence the unwonted service, than

the utmost confusion and uproar prevailed.
The service being at a pause, the Bishop,
from his seat in the gallery, called to him
to proceed to the Collect of the day.
" De'il colic the wame o' thee ! " exclaimed
Jenny Geddes, as the Dean was preparing
to proceed with the novel formulas; and,
hurling the cutty stool, on which she
sat, at his head, " Out," cried she, " thou
false thief ! dost thou say mass at my lug?" 2

Dr Lindsay, the Bishop of Edinburgh, now attempted to quell the tumult ; he ascended
the pulpit, and reminded the people of the sanctity of the place ; but this only increased
their violence. The Archbishop of St Andrews and the Lord Chancellor interfered with
as little effect ; and when the Magistrates at length succeeded, by flattery and threats, in
clearing the church of the most violent of the audience, they renewed their attack from
the outside, and assaulted the church with sticks and stones, shouting meanwhile, Pape,
Pape, Antichrist, pull him dorvn! The Bishop was assaulted by them on his leaving the
church ; and, with great difficulty, succeeded in reaching his house in the High Street.
The access to the first floor was, according to the old fashion, still common in that locality,
by an outside stair. As he was endeavouring to ascend this, one of the rabble seized his
gown, and nearly pulled him backward to the street. An old song is believed to have
been written in allusion to this affray, of which only one verse, referring to this scene, has
been preserved : —

Put the gown upon the bishop,
That's his miller's-due o' kuaveship;
Jenny Geddes was the gossip,
Put the gown upon the bishop.

The poor Bishop at length reached the top of the stair ; but there, when he flattered
himself he was secure of immediate shelter, he found, to his inconceivable vexation, that
the outer door was locked ; and he had again to turn round and try, by his eloquence, to
mollify the wrath of his unrelenting assailants. Often did he exclaim, in answer to their
reproaches, that " he had not the wyte of it," but all in vain ; — he was hustled down again
to the street, and was only finally rescued, when in danger of his life, by the Earl of

* Maitland, p. 71.

* D. Laing, apud Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i. p. 137.
VIGNETTE — Jenny Oeddes's Stool.

JAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES IT. 93

Wemyss, his next door neighbour, who sent a party of servants to his aid, and had the
unfortunate prelate brought to the shelter of the Earl's own mansion.1

In the Greyfriars' Church the service-book met with a similar reception, while most
of the other clergy prudently delayed its use. till they should see how it was relished by
the people. This memorable day was afterwards distinguished by the name of Stoney
Sunday?

" The immortal Jenet Geddis," as she is styled in a pamphlet of the period, survived
long after her heroic onslaught on the Dean of Edinburgh. She kept a cabbage-stall at
the Trou Kirk, as late as 1661, and, notwithstanding the scepticism of some zealous
investigators, the Society of Antiquaries for Scotland still show, in their museum, her
formidable weapon — the cutty stool. — with which this heroine struck the initial stroke in
the great civil war.8

The multitudes of all ranks, who speedily assembled in Edinburgh, determined to unite
for mutual protection. They formed a league for the defence of religion, each section being
classified according to their ranks, and thus arose the famous committees called the Four
TABLES. On the royal edict for the maintenance of the service-book being proclaimed at
the Market Cross, on the 22d February 1638, a solemn protest was read aloud by some of
the chief noblemen of that party deputed for that purpose, and five days afterwards, be-
tween two and three hundred clergymen and others assembled at the Tailors' Hall (a fine
old building still existing in the Cowgate), and took into consideration the COVENANT that
had been drawn up.

This important document was presented to a vast multitude, who assembled on the
following day in the Greyfriars' Church and Churchyard. It was solemnly read aloud, and
after being signed by the nobles and others in the church, it was laid on a flat tombstone
in the churchyard, and eagerly signed by all ranks of the people. The parchment on whicli
it was engrossed was four feet long, and when there was no longer room on either side to
write their names, the people subscribed their initials round the margin.

The same National Covenant, when renewed at a later date, was placed for signature
in an old mansion, long afterwards used as a tavern, and which still remains in good
preservation, at the foot of the Covenant Close, as it has ever since been called.

In the year 1641 Charles again visited Edinburgh, for the purpose of " quieting distrac-
tion for the people's satisfaction." The visit, however, led to little good ; he offended his
friends without conciliating his enemies, and after another civic entertainment from the
magistrates of the city, he bade a final adieu to his Scottish capital. He is said to have been
fond of the game of golf, and the following anecdote is told of him in connection with it:—
While he was engaged in a party at this game, on the Links of Leith, a letter was de-
livered into his hands, which gave him the first account of the insurrection and rebellion
in Ireland. On reading which, he suddenly called for his coach, and, leaning on one of his
attendants, and in great agitation, drove to the Palace of Holyrood House, from whence
next day he set out for London.4

The Covenanters followed up their initiatory movement in the most resolute and effective

1 Chambera's Rebellions in Scotland, vol. i. p. 66. * Arnot, p. 109.

* Edinburgh's Joy, &e., 1661. Chainbers's Minor Antiq., p. 180.

4 W. Tytler of Woodhouselee, Esq., Archjeologia Scotica, voi. i. p. 503. The anecdote is so far incorrect as to
Charles's immediate departure for London, as he stayed till the dissolution of the Scottish 1'arliiimeiit.

94 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

manner. They deprived and excommunicated the whole body of Archbishops and Bishops,
abolished Episcopacy, and all that pertained to it, and required every one to subscribe the
Covenant, under pain of excommunication.

They now had recourse to arms. Leslie was appointed General of their forces ; and on
the 21st of March 1639, they proceeded to assault Edinburgh Castle. No provision had
been made against such an attack, and its Governor surrendered at the first summons.

Early in 1648, Oliver Cromwell paid his first visit to Edinburgh, after having defeated
the army of the Duke of Hamilton. He took up his residence at Moray House, in the
Canongate, and entered into communication with " the Lord Marquis of Argyle, and the
rest of the well affected Lords." There he was visited by the Earl of Loudon, the Chancellor,
the Earl of Lothian, and numerous others of the nobility and leading men.1 The visit was
a peaceable one, and his stay brief.

On the death of his father, Charles II. was proclaimed King at the Cross of Edinburgh;
but the terms on which he was offered the Scottish Crown proved little to his satisfaction,
and the Marquis of Montrose sought to win it for him without such unpalatable conditions.
He completely failed, however, in the attempt, and was seized, while escaping in the
disguise of a peasant, and brought to Edinburgh on the 18th of May 1650. He was
received at the Water Gate by the magistrates and an armed body of the citizens, and
was from thence conducted in a common cart, through the Canongate and High Street,
to the Tolbooth ; the hangman riding on the horse before him. He was condemned to
be hanged and quartered, and the sentence was executed, three days after, with the most
savage barbarity, at the Cross of Edinburgh. His head was affixed to the Tolbooth,
and his severed members sent to be exposed in the chief towns of the kingdom.2 The
annals of this period abound with beheadings, hangings, and cruelties of every kind.
Nicol, at the very commencement of his minute and interesting Diary, records that " thair
wes daylie hanging, skurgiug, nailling of luggis, and binding of pepill to the Trone, and
booring of tongues ! "

The King at length agreed to subscribe the Covenant, finding no other terms could be
had. On the 2nd of August, he landed at Leith, and rode in state to the capital. He was
surrounded with a numerous body of nobles, and attended by a life-guard provided by the
city of Edinburgh. The procession entered at the Water Gate, and rode up the Canongate
and High Street to the Castle, where he was received with a royal salute. On his return
from thence, he walked on foot to the Parliament House, where a magnificent banquet had
been prepared for him by the Magistrates. " Thereafter he went down to Leith, to ane
ludging belonging to the Lord Balmarinoch, appointed for his resait during his abyding at
Leith." : The fine old mansion of this family still stands at the corner of Coatfield Lane,
in the Kirkgate. It has a handsome front to the east, ornamented with some curious speci-
mens of the debased style of Gothic, prevalent in the reign of James VL

The arrival of the parliamentary forces in Scotland, and the march of Cromwell to
Edinburgh, produced a rapid change in affairs. " The enemy," says Nicol, " placed their
whole horse in and about the town of Restalrig, the foot at that place called Jokis Lodge,
and the cannon at the foot of Salisbury Hill, within the park dyke, and played with their
cannon against the Scottish leaguer, lying in Saint Leonard's Craigs." The English army,
1 Guthrie's Memoirs, p. 298. 2 Nicol's Diary, p. 12. 3 Ibid, p. 21.

JAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 05

as is well known, followed the Scottish forces under Leslie, in all their movements, so that
they were encamped at various times all round the city. One spot is particularly pointed
out, immediately to the westward of Coltbridge, where Cromwell's forces lay on the rising
ground all around, and only separated from the Presbyterian army by the Water of Leith
and the marshy fields along its banks. Roseburn House, a very interesting old mansion,
where Cromwell is said to have passed the night while the army lay encamped in its neigh-
bourhood, still remains, bearing the date 1562 over its principal entrance. In levelling
one of the neighbouring mounds some years since, some stone coffins were found, and a
large quantity of human bones, evidently of a very ancient date, as they crumbled to pieces
on being exposed to the air ; bat the tradition of the neighbouring hamlet is, that they
were the remains of some of Cromwell's troopers. Our informant, the present intelligent
occupant of Eoseburn House, mentioned the curious fact, that among the remains dug up,
there were the bones of a human leg, with fragments of a wooden coffin or case, of the
requisite dimensions, in which it had evidently been buried apart.

The battle of Dunbar at length placed the southern portion of Scotland completely in
the power of Cromwell, at the very moment when he was preparing to abandon the enter-
prise, and embark his troops for England. The magistrates, as well as the ministers and
the principal, inhabitants, having been involved in the movements of the defeated party,
either deserted the town, or took refuge in the Castle on the approach of the victorious
General.

On the 7th of September 1650, Cromwell entered Edinburgh at the head of his army,
and took possession of it and of the town of Leith. The capital was now subjected to
martial law; the most rigid regulations were enforced, such as, " that upone ony allarum
no inhabitant luik out of his hous upone payne of death, or walk on the streets after top-tow,
upone payne of imprissonement."1 Yet the peaceable inhabitants found no great reason
to complain of his civic rule ; justice seems to have been impartially administered, though
often with much severity, and the most rigid discipline enforced on the English troops.
" Upon the 27th of September," says Nicol, " by orders of the General Cromwell, thair
wes thrie of his awin sodgeris scurged by the Provest Marschellis men, from the Stone
Chop to the Neddir Bow, and bak agane, for plundering of houssis within the toun ; and
ane uther sodger maid to ryde the Meir at the Croce of Edinburgh, with ane pynt stop
about his neck, his handis bund behind his back, and musketis hung at his feet, the full
space of twa hours, for being drunk." 2 The same punishment of riding the Mare remained
in force, as a terror to evil doers, till the destruction of the old citadel of the town-guard,
and all its accompaniments, in the year 1785.

The General again took up his residence in " the Earl of Murrie's house in the Canni-
gate, where a strong guard is appointed to keep constant watch at the gate; "3 and his
soldiers were quartered in the Palace, and billeted about the town, while actively engaged
in the siege of the Castle. The guard-house was in Dunbar' s Close, a name which it
retains from the quarters it then furnished to the victors of Dunbar ; and a tradition is
preserved, with considerable appearance of probability, that a handsome old house, still
remaining at the foot of Sellars' Close, was occasionally occupied by Cromwell. It is a fine

1 Nicol's Diary, p. 30. a Ibid, p. 33. See the Wooden Mare in the view, ante, p. 74.

* King's Pamphlets, apud Carlyle, vol i. p. 375.

96 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

antique mansion, which forms a prominent feature in the view of the Old Town from
the north, having two terraced roofs at different elevations, guarded by a neatly coped
parapet wall, and commanding an extensive view of the Forth, where the English fleet
then lay.

The preachers were invited by Cromwell to leave the Castle, and return to their pulpits,
but they declined to risk themselves in the hands of the " sectaries," and their places were
accordingly filled, sometimes by the independent preachers, but oftener by the soldiers,
who unbuckled their swords in the pulpit, and wielded their spiritual weapons, greatly
to the satisfaction of crowded audiences, " many Scots expressing much affection at the
doctrine, in their usual way of groans ! " 1 Cromwell himself is said, by Pinkerton, to have
preached in St Giles's Churchyard, while David, the second Lord Cardross, was holding
forth at the Trone.2

On the 13th of November the Palace of Holyrood was accidentally set on fire by some
of the English troops who were quartered there, and the whole of the ancient Palace
destroyed, with the exception of the north-west towers, finished by James V. It seems
probable that the troops, thus deprived of a lodging, were afterwards quartered in some of
the deserted churches. Nicol mentions, immediately after the notice of this occurrence, in.
his Diary, that " the College Kirk, the Gray Freir Kirk, and that Kirk callit the Lady
Yesteris Kirk, the Hie Scule, and a great pairt of the College of Edinburgh, wer wasted ;
their pulpites, daskis, loftis, saittes, and all their decormentis, wer all dung doun to the
ground by these Inglische sodgeris, and brint to asses." Accommodation was at length
found for them in Heriot's Hospital, then standing unfinished, owing to the interruption
occasioned by the war ; and it was not without considerable difficulty that General Monk
was persuaded, at a later period, to yield it up to its original purpose, on suitable barracks
being provided elsewhere.

The siege of the Castle was vigorously prosecuted : Cromwell mustered the colliers from
the neighbouring pits, and set them to work a mine below the fortifications, the opening of
which may still be seen in the freestone rock, on the south side, near the new Castle road.
The commander of the fortress had not been, at the first, very hearty in his opposition to
Cromwell, and finding matters growing thus desperate, he came to terms with him, and
saved the Castle being blown about his ears, by resigning it into the General's hands.

One of the earliest proceedings of the new garrison was to clear away the neighbouring
obstructions that had afforded shelter to themselves in their approaches during the siege.
" Considering that the Wey-hous of Edinburgh was ane great impediment to the schottis
of the Castell, the samyn being biggit on the -hie calsey ; thairfoir, to remove that impedi-
ment, Genera] Cromwell gaif ordouris for demolisching of the Wey-house ; and upone the
last day of December 1650, the Englisches began the work, and tuik doun the stepill of it
that day, and so continued till it wes raised." * We learn, from the same authority, of the
re-edification of this building after the Eestoration. "The Wey-hous, quhilk wes de-
moleist by that traitour Cromwell, at his incuming to Edinburgh, eftir the feght of Dum-
bar, began now to be re-edified in the end of August 1660, but far inferior to the former
condition."4 The cumbrous and ungainly building thus erected, remained an encumbrance

1 Cromwelliana, apud Carlyle's Letters, &c., vol. i. p. 361. 8 Pinkerton'a Scottish Cutlery, Lord Cardross.

* Nicol's Diary, p. 48. 4 ibid, p. 30<X

JAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II.

97

to the street, at the head of the West Bow, till 1822, when it was hastily pulled down, to
widen the approach to the Castle, preparatory to the public entry of George IV.

When the authority of the English Parliament was completely established in Edinburgh,
the leaders of the army proceeded to arrange matters according to their own views. General
Lambert applied to the Town Council of Edinburgh " to appropriate to him the East Kirk
of Edinburgh, being the special kirk, and best in the town, for his exercise at sermon."
The request was granted, and the pulpit was thereafter occupied by " weill giftit " captains,
lieutenants, and troopers, as well as occasional English ministers, while others of the
troopers taught in the Parliament House,1 and like convenient places of assembly.

The citizens of Edinburgh were alarmed at this time by the settlement of a number of
English families in Leith, and proposals for the fortification of the town, that threatened
them with the loss of their highly-prized claim of superiority. The question afforded matter
for appeal and tedious litigation, and the rights of Edinburgh were only secured to them
at last on condition of their contributing £5000 sterling towards the erection of a citadel in
Leith.

The fortification which was erected, in consequence of this arrangement, was almost
entirely demolished shortly after the Restoration, to the great satisfaction of the jealous
citizens of Edinburgh, who seemed to dread no enemy so much as the rival traders of the
neighbouring port. The cemetery belonging to the ancient Chapel and Hospital of St
Nicolas was included within its site, and some of the old tombstones removed to the bury-
ing-ground at the river side. One small fragment of the citadel still remains on the north
side of Couper Street, of which we furnish a view. Many still living can remember it

to have stood on the beach, though now a wide space intervenes between it and the new
docks ; and the Mariners' Church, as .well as a long range of substantial warehouses, have
been erected on the recovered land.

So acceptable had the sway of the Lord Protector become with the civic rulers of Edin-
burgh, notwithstanding the heavy taxes with which they were burdened for the maintenance
of his army, and the general expenses of the government, that they commissioned a large

1 Nicol's Diary, p. 94.
VIGNETTE — Citadel, Leitli.

98 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

block of stone, for the purpose of erecting a colossal statue of his Highness in the Parliament
Square.

The block had just been landed on the shore of Leith, when the news arrived of Crom-
well's death. Monk altered his policy, and the magistrates not only found it convenient to
forget their first intention, but with politic pliability, some years after, they erected the fine
equestrian statue of Charles II., which still adorns that locality. The rejected block lay
neglected on the sands at Leith, though all along known by the title of Oliver Cromwell,
till, in November 1788, Mr Walter Ross, the well-known antiquary, had it removed, with
no little difficulty, to the rising ground where Ann Street now stands, nearly opposite St
Bernard's Well. The block was about eight feet high, intended apparently for the upper
half of the figure. The workmen of the quarry had prepared it for the chisel of the statuary,
by giving it, with the hammer, the shape of a monstrous mummy, and there stood the
Protector, like a giant in his shroud, frowning upon the city ; until after the death of
Mr Ross, his curious collection of antiquities was scattered, and the ground feued for
building.1

General Monk, commander-in-chief of the army in Scotland, having resolved, after the
death of Cromwell, to accomplish the restoration of Charles II., proceeded to arrange mat-
ters previous to his march for London. He summoned a meeting of commissioners of the
counties and boroughs to assemble at Edinburgh on the 15th of November 1659; and after
having communicated his instructions to them, and received a special address of thanks
from the magistrates of Edinburgh for his many services rendered to the city during his
residence in Scotland, he returned to England to put his purpose in force.

On the llth of May, iu the following year, the magistrates sent the town-clerk to the
King, at Breda, to express their joy at the prospect of his restoration. The messenger
paved the way to the royal favour by the humble presentation of "a poor myte of £1000,
which the King did graciously accept, as though it had been a greater business ! "

The " happy restoration " was celebrated in Edinburgh with the customary civic rejoic-
ings, bonfires, banquets, ringing of bells, and firing of cannon ; though some difficulty was
experienced in reconciling the soldiers to the unwonted task of firing the Castle guns on
such an occasion of national rejoicing.2 There was much wine spent on the occasion, " the
spoutes of the Croce ryning and venting out abundance of wyne, and the Magistrates and
Council of the town drinking the King's health, and breaking numbers of glasses ! "

1 Caledonian Mercury, Nov. 10, 1788. The block was afterwards replaced at the end of Arm Street, overhanging
the bed of the Water of Leith, and, either by accident or designedly, was shortly afterwards precipitated down the steep
bank, and broken in pieces. a Nicoi's Diary, p. 233.

CHAPTER VII.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION.

fPHE restoration of Charles to his father's

throne was nowhere more joyously regarded
than in the ancient capital of the Stuarts. A Parliament was shortly afterwards assembled,
at which the Earl of Middleton presided as Commissioner from the King, and the ancient
riding of Parliament from the Palace of Holyrood to the Tolbooth, was revived with more
than usual pomp and display. Some of the acts of this Parliament were of a sufficiently
arbitrary and intolerant character ; but it more concerns our present subject that the Charter
of Confirmation granted to Edinburgh was ratified, and the city's power of regality over
the Canongate confirmed.

One of the first proceedings of this Parliament was to revoke the attainder of the
Marquis of Montrose, and order his dismembered body to be honourably buried. On
Monday, 7th January 1661, according to Nicol, the Magistrates and Council of Edinburgh
caused the timber and slates nearest to that part of the Tolbooth, where the Marquis's head
was pricked and fixed, to be taken down, and made a large scaffold there, whereon were
trumpeters and others standing uncovered, and waiting till his corpse was brought in from
Meanwhile, a procession, composed of the chief nobility and Magis-

the Borough Muir.

VIGNETTE — The Parliament House, about 1646, from J. Gordon.

ioo MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

trates, attended by the burgesses in arms, proceeded to the Borough Muir, where the
Marquis's body was taken up from its ignominious grave, put into a coffin, and born back
to Edinburgh, under a rich canopy of velvet, amid music and firing of guns, and every
demonstration of triumph. The procession stopped at the Tolbooth until the head was
taken down and placed beside the body, after which the coffin was deposited in the Abbey
Church of Holy rood.1

The other portions of the body 2 were afterwards collected and restored to the coffin, and
on the llth of May following, the mutilated remains of the great Marquis were brought
back from the Abbey in solemn funeral procession, and buried in the south-east aisle of
St Giles's Church, " at the back of the tomb where his grandsire was buried," and which
retained, until recently, the name of Montrose's aisle.

Nicol furnishes a minute account of the proceedings on this occasion. The whole line
of street from the Palace to St Giles's Church was guarded by the burghers of Edinburgh,
Canongate, Portsburgh, and Potterrow, all in armour, and with their banners displayed.
Twenty-six young boys, clad in deep mourning, bore his arms, and were followed by the
Magistrates and all the members of Parliament, in mourning habits. The pall was borne
by some of the chief nobility, and the Earl of Middleton, His Majesty's Commissioner,
followed as chief mourner.3

The re-establishment of Episcopacy, in defiance of the most solemn engagements of the
King, put a speedy close to the rejoicings of the Scottish nation. The Magistrates of
Edinburgh, however, proved sufficiently loyal and complying. On the day of his Majesty's
coronation, the Cross was adorned with flowers and branches of trees, and wine freely
distributed to the people from thence, by Bacchus and his train. After dinner, the
Magistrates walked in procession to the Cross, " and there drank the King's health
on their knees, and at sundry other prime parts of the city."4

One of the first proceedings of the dominant party, was the trial and execution of the
Marquis of Argyle, who was condemned in defiance of every principle of justice, by judges,
each of them more deeply implicated than himself, in the acts for which he was brought
to trial. He exhibited the utmost serenity and cheerfulness after his condemnation. He
was beheaded by the instrument called the Maiden, the same that is said to have been
invented by the Earl of Morton, and was employed for his own execution. The head of
Argyle was exposed on the west end of the Tolbooth, on the same spike from which that of
Montrose had so recently been removed with every demonstration of honour and respect ;
a circumstance that illustrates, in a striking manner, the strange vicissitudes attendant on
civil commotions.

The most arbitrary and tyrannical enactments were now enforced, imposing exorbitant
penalties on any one found with what were styled seditious books in his dwelling ; no one

1 Nicol's Diary, p. 317.

3 Thoresby, the friend of Evelyne, in the account of his Museum, says : — " But the most noted of all the humane
curiosities, is the hand and arm cut off at the elbow, positively asserted to be that of the celebrated Marquis of Montrose.
It hath never been interred, has a severe wound in the wrist, and seems really to have been the very hand that wrote
the famous epitaph [Great, Good, and Just] for King Charles I., in whose cause he suffered. Dr Pickering would not
part with it, till the descent into Spain, when, dreading it should be lost in his absence, he presented it to this Repository,
where it has more than once had the same honour that is paid to the greatest ecclesiastical prince in the world. "—
Ducatus Leodiensis, by Whitaker, p. 3.

3 Nicol'a Diary, p. 330-2. « Ibid, p. 328.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. 101

was permitted to retain arras in his possession without a warrant from the Privy Council ;
and religious persecution was carried to such a length, that the people were driven to
open rebellion. The consequence of all this is well known. " The King's Majesty re-
solved to settle the Church government in Scotland," but the settlement thereof proved a
much more impracticable affair than he anticipated. One of the first steps towards the
accomplishment of this, was the consecration of Bishops, which took place on the 7th
of May 1662, in the Abbey Church of Holyrood. On the following day, the Parliament
assembled, and the Bishops were restored to their ancient privileges as members of
that body. They all assembled in the house of the Archbishop of St Andrews, at the
Nether Bow, from whence they walked in procession, in their Episcopal robes, attended
by the magistrates and nobles, and were received at the Parliament House with every
show of honour.1

The annals of Edinburgh, for some years after this, are chiefly occupied with the
barbarous executions of the Presbyterian Nonconformists ; in 1663, Lord Warriston,
an eminent lawyer and statesman, who had taken refuge in France, was delivered up by
Louis XIV. to^Charles II. He was sent to Edinburgh for trial, and, though tottering on
the brink of the grave, was condemned and executed for his adherence to the Covenant ;
the only mitigation of the usual sentence was, permission to inter his mutilated corpse in
the Grey friars' Churchyard. Others of humbler rank were speedily subjected to the
same mockery of justice, torture being freely applied when other evidence failed, so that
the Grassrnarket, which was then the scene of public executions, has acquired an interest
of a peculiar character, from the many heroic victims of intolerance who there laid down
their lives in defence of liberty of conscience.

The Bishops, as the recognised heads of the ecclesiastical system, in whose name these
tyrannical acts were perpetrated, became thereby the objects of the most violent popular
hate. In 1668, Archbishop Sharp was shot at, as he sat in his coach at the head of Black-
friars' Wynd. The Bishop of Orkney was stepping in at the moment, and received five
balls in different parts of his body, while the Archbishop, for whom they were intended,
escaped unhurt. The most rigid search was immediately instituted for the assassin. The
gates of the city were closed, and none allowed to pass without leave from a magistrate ;
yet he contrived, by a clever disguise, to elude their vigilance, and effect his escape. Six
years afterwards, the Primate recognised in one Mitchell, a fanatic preacher who eyed
him narrowly, the features of the person who fled from his coach after discharging the shot
which wounded the Bishop of Orkney. He was immediately seized, and a loaded pistol
found on him, but, notwithstanding these presumptive proofs of guilt, no other evidence
could be brought against him, and his trial exhibits little regard to any principle of
morality or justice. He was put to the torture, without eliciting any confession from
him; and at length, in 1676, two years after his apprehension, he was brought from the
Bass, and executed at the Grassmarket, in order to strike terror into the minds of the
Covenanters.2

The year 1678 is memorable in the annals of the good town, as having closed the career
of one of its most noted characters, the celebrated wizard, Major Weir. The spot on

1 Niool's Diary, p. 366. 2 Arnot, p. 148. 'A'odrow's Hist., vol. i. pp. 375, 513.

102 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

which he was burned, on the sloping bank at Greenside,1 has been rescued, only within
the last year, from all profane associations, by the erection of the new Lady Glenorchy's
Chapel thereon. The fall of this great master of the black art would seem to have been
peculiarly fatal to its votaries ; as many as ten witches were burnt in the city during the
.same year.

In the following year, while the Palace of Holyrood was undergoing repair for the
residence of the Duke of York, afterwards James VII., the unhappy prisoners taken at
the battle of Bothwell Bridge were brought to Edinburgh, and the greater number of
them confined for five mouths, during the most inclement season of the year, in the inner
Greyfriars' Churchyard, that long narrow slip of ground, enclosed with an iron gate, which
extends between the grounds of Heriot's Hospital and the old Poor's House. They were
exposed there during the whole of that period, without any shelter from the weather;
yet the whole of them remained faithful to their principles, although they could at once
Imve procured their liberty by acknowledging the rising at Bothwell to have been
rebellion.

In 1680, the Duke of York arrived in Edinburgh, as Commissioner from the King to
the Scottish Parliament, along with his Duchess, Mary D'Este, daughter of the Duke of
Modena, celebrated by Dryden and other wits of the time for her beauty. The Lady
Anne, his daughter, afterwards Queen Anne, also accompanied him on this occasion, and
greatly contributed, by her easy and affable manners, towards the popularity which he
was so desirous to acquire. The previous vicegerents had rendered themselves peculiarly
obnoxious to all classes, and thereby prepared the people the more readily to appreciate the
urbanity of the Duke. " He behaved himself," says Bishop Burnet, " upon his first going
to Scotland, in so obliging a manner, that the nobility and gentry, who had been so long
trodden on by the Duke of Lauderdale, found a very sensible change ; so that he gained
much on them all. It was visibly his interest to make that kingdom sure to him, and to
give them such an essay of his government as might dissipate all hard thoughts of him,
with which the world was possessed."2 To the success with which he pursued this course
of policy may be, to some extent, attributed the strong attachment which the Scottish
nobility afterwards displayed to the House of Stuart, which led to the rebellions in 1715
and 1745.

The city spared no expense to welcome the Duke of York. A grand entertainment was
provided for him in the Parliament House, which was fitted up at great expense for the
occasion. The Duchess, the Lady Anne, and the principal nobles at the Scottish Court,
were present on the occasion, and the expense of the banquet was upwards of £14,000
Scottish money.

During the Duke's residence at Edinburgh, a splendid court was kept at Holyrood
1'alace. The rigid decorum of Scottish manners gradually gave way before the affability
of such noble entertainers ; and the novel luxuries of the English Court formed an additional
attraction to the Scottish grandees. Tea was introduced for the first time into Scotland
on this occasion, and given by the Duchess, as a great treat to the Scottish ladies who

1 Chambers's Minor Antiquities, p. 85. On the authority of " a gentleman who had the spot pointed out to him
liy his father sixty years ago " (1833).

2 Burnet's Hist., Edin. Ed., vol. ii. p. 322.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. 103

visited at the Abbey. Balls, plays, and masquerades were likewise attempted, but the
last proved too great an innovation on the rigid manners of that period to be tolerated.
The most profane and vicious purposes were believed, by the vulgar, to be couched under
such a system of disguise ; and this unpopular mode of entertainment had to be speedily
abandoned. Plays, however, which were no less abhorrent to the people at that period,
afforded a constant gratification to the courtiers, and were persisted in, notwithstanding
the violent prejudices which they excited. The actors were regarded as part of the Duke of
York's household ; and, if we may give any credit to the satirical account which Dryden
has furnished of them, they were not among the most eminent of their profession. Some
members of the company, it would seem, had gone to Oxford, according to annual custom,
to assist in performing the public acts there. Dryden, with great humour, makes them
apologise to the University for the thinness of the Company, by intimating that many
of its members have crossed the Tweed, and are now nightly appearing before Edinburgh
audiences, for the ambiguous fee of "two and sixpence Scots." He slyly insinuates, how-
ever, that only the underlings of the company have gone north, leaving all its talent and
character at the service of the University: —

Our brethren have from Thames to Tweed departed,
To Edinborough gone, or coached or carted :
With bonny blue cap there they act all night,
For Scotch half-crowns, in English threepence hight.
One nyinph, to whom fat Sir John Falstaff's leau,
There with her single person fills the scene.
Another, with long use and age decayed,
Died here old woman, and rose there a maid.
Our trusty door-keeper, of former time,
There struts and swaggers in heroic rhime.
Tack but a copper lace to drugget suit,
And there's a hero made without dispute ;
And that which was a capon's tale before,
Becomes a plume for Indian Emperor.
But all his subjects to express the care
Of imitation, go, like Indian, bare ! '

The reader need hardly be reminded of the usual licence which the satiric poet
claims as his privilege, and which his Grace's servants at Edinburgh may have
retorted in equal measure on his Majesty's servants at Oxford, though no copy of
their prologue has been preserved. It is not improbable, however, that the early Scottish
theatre might merit some of the poet's sarcasms. The courtly guests of the royal Duke
were probably too much taken up with the novelty of such amusements, and the
condescending urbanity of their entertainers, to be very critical on the equipments of the
stage.

These amusements were occasionally varied with the exhibition of masques at Court, in
which the Lady Anne, and other noble young ladies, assumed the characters of gods and
goddesses, and the like fanciful personages that usually figure in such entertainments. The
gentlemen varied these pastimes with the games of tennis and golf. The Tennis Court,
which also served as the first theatre for the Court, stood immediately without the Water
Gate. It may be seen in Gordon's map, a large oblong building, occupying a considerable

1 Dryden's Misc., vol. ii.

104 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

portion of the ground between the old port and the building still known as Queen Mary's
Bath, the intervening ground being then entirely unoccupied. After being devoted to the
humble purpose of a weaver's workhouse, it was at length burnt to the ground, in the year
1777.1

Leith Links was the usual scene of the Duke's trials of skill at golf. Many traditions
still preserved prove his keen relish for this game, in which he is said to have become a
proficient. " The Duke of York," says Tytler, " was frequently seen in a party at golf on
the Links at Leith, with some of the nobility and gentry. I remember, in my youth, to
have often conversed with an old man, named Andrew Dixou, a golf club-maker, who
said that, when a boy, he used to carry the Duke's golf clubs, and to run before him and
announce where the ball fell."

The general harmony of the Court of Holyrood, during the visit of the Duke of York,
was, however, occasionally interrupted by other annoyances besides those occasioned by the
struggles of the Covenanters.

A custom had long prevailed in Edinburgh, of annually burning the Pope in effigy on
Christmas-day ; but the magistrates, justly conceiving that such a procedure was calculated
to afford little satisfaction to the Duke, determined to prevent its recurrence during his
stay in Edinburgh. The populace, however, were not then impressed with such awe for
civic enactments as the modern system of police has since produced. The students of the
College took up the matter, and bound themselves by a solemn oath to effect the incre-
mation of his Holiness in defiance of both Duke and magistrates. The military were called
out to put a stop to their proceedings, and some of the most active ringleaders taken
captive ; but the populace rose in defence of the students, and finished the day's work
by burning the Provost's house at Priestfield to the ground. The students, as the most
zealous movers in this tumult, were first visited with the wrath of offended authority. The
college gates were ordered to be closed, and the collegians to remove to the distance of
fifteen miles from the city; but the excitement after a time abated, and they were again
restored to their wonted privileges.

In 1682, the famous old cannon, Mons Meg, was burst in firing a salute in honour of
the Duke of York, shortly before his return to England. The Duke took his departure in
great state in the month of May, leaving the citizens of Edinburgh to resume their quiet
decorum, unseduced by the example of the Court. The older gentry of the last age con-
tinued to cherish a pleasing remembrance of his visit, and to tell, with great delight, of
the gaiety and brilliancy of the court at Holyrood House.

The intelligence of the death of Charles II. reached Edinburgh on the 6th of February
1685. The Chancellor and other officers of state, with the Privy Council, the lords of session,
the magistrates, and many of the chief nobility, proceeded to the Cross, accompanied by the
Lyon King-at-Arms, and his heralds, and proclaimed James Duke of York, King of Great
Britain. In April, on the assembling of Parliament, an act was passed for the confirmation
of the Protestant religion, and fresh tests enacted for its protection ; but the actions of the
King showed little respect for such laws, and much excitement was occasioned by proceed-
ings that were generally believed to be preparatory to the subversion of the Protestant
Church.

1 Arnot, p. 195. 2 ArcliEelogia Scotica, vol. i. p. 50 1.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. 105

In consequence of this, a popular tumult was excited ; a rabble of apprentices and
others watched the return of some of the chief officers of state from public attendance at
mass. The Chancellor's lady, and other persons of distinction, were insulted, and the
utmost indignation excited in the minds of these dignitaries against the populace. A
baker, who had been active in the riot, was apprehended and tried before the Privy Council.
He was condemned to be publicly whipped through the Canongate ; but the populace
rescued him from punishment, chastised the executioner, and kept the town in a state of
uproar and commotion throughout the night. The military were at length called out, and
fired on the rioters, by which three of them lost their lives. Two others were apprehended
and afterwards convicted, seemingly on very insufficient evidence, one of whom was hanged
and the other shot.

In July 1687, the King wrote to the Privy Council "that the Abbey Church was the
chapel belonging to his Palace of Holyrood House, and that the Knights of the noble Order
of the Thistle, which he had now erected, could not meet in St Andrew's Church,1 being
demolished in the rebellion, as they called our Reformation, and so it was necessary for
them to have this church ; and the Provost of Edinburgh was ordained to see the keys of
it given to them."2 Some opposition was made to this by the Bishop of Edinburgh, but
it was agreed to with little difficulty, and the inhabitants of the Canongate, whose parish
church it had been, were ordered to seek accommodation in Lady Tester's Church, till
better could be provided. The Canongate Church was shortly afterwards built from funds
that had been left by Thomas Moodie, a citizen of Edinburgh) for the purpose of providing
an additional place of worship.

Holyrood Chapel was now magnificently fitted up with richly carved stalls for the
Knights of the Thistle. " An altar, vestments, images, priests, and their apurtents,"
arrived at Leith, by the King's yacht, from London, for the purpose of completing the
restoration of the Abbey to its ancient uses. A college of priests was established in Holy-
rood, and daily service performed in the Chapel. Fresh riots were the consequence of this
last procedure, and two of those who had been most zealous in testifying their abhorrence
of such religious innovations, were executed, while others were publicly whipped through
the streets.

The fall of the ancient house of the Stuarts was now rapidly approaching. The feeble
representative of that long line of Kings was already anticipating an invasion from Hol-
land ; in the month of September 1688, orders were issued for raising the militia, and
these were speedily followed by others for erecting beacons along the coast. But James,
who. by his rashness, had forced on the crisis, was the first to desert his own cause ; and
the Scottish Parliament, with more consistency than that of England, availed themselves
of this to declare that he had forfeited the throne.

The news of the arrival of the Prince of Orange filled the Presbyterian party in Scotland
with the utmost joy. The Earl of Perth, who was Chancellor, hastily quitted Edinburgh,
and the mob made it the signal for an attack on Holyrood Chapel. A body of an
hundred men defended it with firearms, which they freely used against their assailants,
killing twelve of them, and wounding many more. . But this only increased the fury of the
mob ; the armed defenders were at length overpowered, and the Chapel delivered up to

1 i.e., The Cathedral of St Andrews. 2 Fountainhall, vol. i. p. 466.

to6 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

their will. The magnificent carved stalls, which had just been completed, and all the costly
fittings of the Chapel were devoted to destruction, and the fine old fabric only abandoned
when its newly-completed decorations had been reduced to an unsightly heap of ruins.

Other acts of violence were perpetrated by the rioters ; and the students again testified
their zeal, by marching in triumphal procession to the Cross, with bands of music, and the
College mace borne before them, and there again burning the effigy of the Pope.

On the assembly of the Parliament, the Bishop of Edinburgh prayed for the welfare
and restoration of King James, and the Episcopal body generally maintained their fidelity to
the exiled Prince, the well-known consequence of which was the restoration of Presbytery
as the national religion, and the expulsion of the recently-created Bishops from their sees.

On the lltli of April 1688, William and Mary were proclaimed at the Cross, King
and Queen of Scotland. The Castle was still held by the Duke of Gordon for King
James, while Viscount Dundee, after a brief conference with its commander, in which he
endeavoured to induce the Duke to accompany him to the Highlands, engaged him to
hold out that fortification, while he went north to raise the friends of the King. The
citizens were filled with the utmost alarm at the news of this interview. The drums beat
to arms, and a body of troops, which the Duke of Hamilton had quartered in the city, was
called out to pursue Dundee, but no serious consequences resulted ; and the Duke of
Gordon, being almost destitute of provisions, at length yielded up the Castle on the 13th
of June 1689, the last considerable place of strength that had remained in the interest of
the exiled Monarch.

In 1 695, the grand national project of the Darien expedition was set on foot, and a
company formed for establishing a settlement on the Isthmus of Darien, and fitting out
ships to trade with Africa and the Indies. The highest anticipations were excited by this
project. The sum of £400,000 sterling was speedily subscribed, and a numerous body
embarked for the new settlement. When intelligence reached Edinburgh of the company
having effected a landing at Darien, and successfully repelled the attacks of the Spaniards,
thanksgivings were offered up in all the churches, and a general illumination made
throughout the city. The mob further testified their joy, by securing the city ports ; and
then setting fire to the Old Tolbooth door, they liberated the prisoners incarcerated for
printing seditious publications.

The indignation of the populace was no less vehement on the failure of this national
project than their joy at its first success. The prison was again forcibly opened, the
windows of all obnoxious citizens were broken ; and such violence was shown, that the
Commissioner and officers of state were compelled to leave the city for some days, to escape
the vengeance of the infuriated multitude.

The Old Darien House still stands l within the extended line of the city wall, near the
Bristo Port, a melancholy and desolate looking memorial of that unfortunate enterprise. It
is a substantial and somewhat handsome structure, in the French style, and with the curious
high-pitched roof which prevailed in the reign of William III. It has more recently been
abandoned to the purposes of a pauper lunatic asylum, and is popularly known by the name
of Bedlam. A melancholy association attaches to a more modern portion of it towards the

The Darien House was entirely demolished in 1871 ; and its site is now occupied by several blocks of buildings,
on the walls of one of which is a tablet indicating svhere it stood.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. 107

south, as having been the scene where poor Ferguson, that unhappy child of genius, so
wretchedly terminated his brief career. The building bears, on an ornamented tablet above
the main entrance, the date 1698, surmounted by a sun-dial. The only relic of its original
grandeur that has survived its adaptation to later purposes, is a handsome and very
substantial stone balustrade, which guards the broad flight of steps leading to the first
floor.

A remarkable course of events followed on the failure of the Darien scheme, attended
with riots of the same desperate character as those commonly perpetrated by the populace of
Edinburgh when under the influence of unusual excitement. In 1702, a vessel belonging
to the East India Company, which entered the Frith of Forth, was seized by the Scottish
Government, by way of reprisal, for the unjust detention in the Thames of one belonging to
the Scottish African Company. In the course of a full and legal trial, the captain and
crew were convicted, in a very singular manner, of piracy and murder committed on the
mate and crew of a Scottish vessel in the East Indies. The evidence, however, appeared to
some influential parties insufficient to justify their condemnation, and the utmost excite-
ment was created by attempts to procure a pardon for them.

The report having been circulated that a reprieve had been granted, the mob assaulted
the Lord Chancellor while passing the Tron Church in his carriage, on his return from
the Privy Council. The windows were immediately smashed, the Chancellor dragged out,
and thrown upon the street ; and he was rescued with great difficulty from the infuriated
multitude by an armed body of his friends. The tumult was only appeased at last by the
public execution of the seamen.

In the Parliament which assembled in June 1705, the first steps were taken in Scot-
land with a view to the Union between the two kingdoms. The period was peculiarly
unfavourable for the accomplishment of a project against which so many prejudices were
arrayed. The popular mind was already embittered by antipathies and jealousies excited
by the recent failure of the favourite scheme of colonisation, and the plan for a Union
was almost universally regarded as an attempt to sacrifice their independence, and establish

VIGNETTE — The Darieu House.

io8 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

English supremacy. No sooner, therefore, were the articles made public, in the month of
October 1706, than a universal clamour and uproar ensued. The outer Parliament House
and the adjoining square were crowded with an excited multitude, who testified their
displeasure at the Duke of Queensberry, the Commissioner, and all who favoured the
Union. On the 23d of the month, the populace proceeded to more violent acts of
hostility against the promoters of the scheme. They attacked the house of Sir Patrick
Johnston, their representative in Parliament, formerly a great favourite when Provost of
the city, and he narrowly escaped falling a victim to their fury. From this they proceeded
to other acts of violence, till they had the city completely at their mercy, and were only
prevented blocking up the ports by the Duke ordering out the military to take possession
of the Nether Bow Port, and other of the most important points in the city.

The Commissioner, and all who abetted him, were kept in terror of their lives. Three
regiments of foot were on constant duty; guards were stationed in the Parliament Close and
the Weigh-house, as well as at the Nether Bow ; a strong battalion protected the Abbey ;
a troop of horse-guards regularly attended the Commissioner, and none but members were
allowed to enter the Parliament Close towards evening, on such days as the house was
sitting. His Grace, the Commissioner, walked from the Parliament House, between
a double file of musketeers to his coach, which waited at the Cross ; and he was driven
from thence at full gallop to his residence at the Palace, hooted, cursed, and pelted lay the
nibble.

The mob were fully as zealous in the demonstration of their good will as of their
displeasure. The Duke of Hamilton, whose apartments were also in the Palace, was an
especial object of favour, and was nightly escorted down the Canongate by several hundreds
of them cheering him, and commending his fidelity. It was on one of these occasions, after
seeing the Duke home, that the excited rabble proceeded to the house of the city member,
when he so narrowly escaped their fury.1 Fortunately, however, for Scotland the popular
clamour was unavailing for the purpose of preventing the Union of the two kingdoms, though
the corrupt means by which many of the votes in Parliament were secured, was sufficient
to have justified any amount of distrust and opposition. A curious ornamental summer-
house is pointed out in the pleasure grounds attached to Moray House, in the Canongate,
where the commissioners at length assembled to affix their signatures to the Treaty of Union.
But the mob, faithful to the last in their resolution to avert what was then regarded as the
surrender of national independence, pursued them to this retired rendezvous, and that
important national act is believed to have been finally signed and sealed in a " laigh shop,"
or cellar, No. 177 High Street, nearly opposite to the Tron Church.2 This interesting
locality, which still remains, had formed one of the chief haunts of the unionists during the
progress of that measure, and continued to be known, almost to our own day, by the name
of the Union Cellar. On the 16th of January 1707, the Scottish Parliament assembled for
the last time in its old hall in the Parliament Close, and having finally adjusted the Articles
of Union, it was dissolved by the Duke of Queensberry, the King's Commissioner, never
again to meet as a National Assembly.

The general discontent which resulted from this measure, and the irritation produced by

1 Lockhart's Mera., 1799, p. 222-229. Smollett's Hist., p. 469. Arnot, p. 189.

2 Tales of a Grandfather, vol. vi. p. 327.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. 109

the presence of a host of English tax-gatherers who speedily thereafter overran the whole
of Scotland, were mainly influential in directing anew the thoughts of the people to the
exiled family of the Stuarts. Edinburgh, however, took no share in the rising of 1715.
The magistrates exerted themselves to put the city in an effective state of defence. The
walls and gates were immediately repaired and fortified. The sluice at the east end of the
North Loch was dammed up, and trenches made at various accessible points. The city-
guard was augmented, the trained bands armed, and four hundred men ordered to be raised
and maintained at the city's expense.

These measures saved the capital from any concern in this rash enterprise, beyond an
ineffectual attempt upon the Castle. A party of the insurgents marched towards Edin-
burgh, but finding it in vain to attempt an assault, they repaired to Leith, and fortified the
citadel. This they were speedily compelled to evacuate, on the approach of the Duke of
Argyle's forces ; and after a feeble struggle, this ill-concerted rising was suppressed, and
tranquillity restored to the country.

The year 1736 is rendered memorable in the annals of the city by the famous Porteous
mob. The accounts already furnished of some of the more serious tumults that have
from time to time occurred in the Scottish capital, must have sufficed to show the daring
character of the populace, and their hearty co-operation in any such deed of violence. Yet
the cool and determined manner in which this act of popular vengeance was effected has
probably never been equalled.

The incidents of this remarkable transaction have been rendered so familiar by the
striking narrative of Scott (in all its most important features strictly true), that a very
hasty sketch will suffice. Captain John Porteous, the commander of the city-guard, having
occasion to quell some disturbances at the execution of one Wilson, a smuggler, rashly
ordered his soldiers to fire among the crowd, by which six were killed, and eleven wounded,
including females, and some of the spectators from the neighbouring windows. Porteous
was tried and condemned for murder, but reprieved by Queen Caroline, who was then acting
as Regent, in the absence of her husband, George II., at Hanover.

TTie people, who had regarded Wilson in the light of a victim to the oppressive excise
laws and other fruits of the hated Union, were exasperated at the pardon of one who had
murdered so many of their fellow-citizens, and determined that he should not escape. Many
people, it is said, assembled from the country to join in the enterprise. The leaders of the
mob were disguised in various ways, some of them in female attire. They surprised the
town-guard, armed themselves with their weapons, and then forcing the door of the Tol-
booth, by setting it on fire, they dragged from thence the unhappy object of their vengeance,
and led him to the scene of his crime, the ordinary place of execution, in the Grassmarket.
It was intended at first to have erected the gallows and executed him there with greater
formality, but the ringleaders found this project attended with too serious a loss of time,
and he was hastily suspended from a dyer's pole, over the entrance to Hunter's Close, in
the south-east corner of the Grassmarket. As soon as their purpose was effected, the
rioters threw away their weapons and quietly dispersed.

Notwithstanding the most searching investigations instituted, and the imprisonment
of various parties on suspicion of being concerned in this violent deed, no person was con-
victed for it, and no discovery ever made concerning any of its perpetrators. The order,

no MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

regularity, and determined resolution with which it was effected, as well as the secrecy so
successfully maintained, led to the supposition that its leaders must have been of a higher
rank than those usually concerned in popular tumults ; but recent disclosures restin°- on
the authority of an intelligent old man, have revealed the chief agent in this dariuo- act
of popular vengeance. Alexander Richmond, according to the narrator, was the son of
a respectable nurseryman at Foulbriggs, near the West Port. Pie was bred a baker, and
about the time of the Porteous mob, was a wild and daring lad, who took a prominent
share in all the riotings of the period. On the night of Porteous's execution, he was sent
early to bed, and deprived of his clothes by his father, who dreaded that his son, as usual,
would involve himself in the turbulent movements that were threatened. But the lad gut
hold of his sister's clothes, and making his escape by a window, joined the mob and took
a prominent part in breaking into the Tolbooth, and in all their other proceedings. OH
the passage of the rioters down the West Bow, he entered a shop, from the counter of
which he lifted a coil of rope, and threw down a half guinea he had brought out with him.
With this the wretched Porteous was suspended from the dyer's pole ; and immediately
thereafter Richmond returned by the West Port to his father's house. Proclamations
were issued against him at the time as a suspected party, on which he went to sea, and
after an absence of many years, he returned to Leith, and became master of a merchant
vessel.

Richmond disclosed his share in the Porteous mob to a few trustworthy friends, among
whom was the narrator of this account. He made money in his new mode of life, and his
heirs, in the female line, are still alive.1

Queen Caroline was highly exasperated on learning of this act of contempt for her
exercise of the royal prerogative. The Lord Provost was imprisoned, and not admitted to
bail for three weeks. A bill was brought into Parliament, and carried through the House
of Lords, for incapacitating him from ever holding any magisterial office in Great Britain,
and for confining him in prison a full year. This bill also enacted the demolition of the
Nether Bow Port, and the disbanding of the city-guard. The Scottish members, however,
serted themselves effectually in opposing this unjust measure when it was sent down to
the House of Commons, and by their means it was shorn of its most objectionable clauses
and the whole commuted to a fine of £2000, imposed on the city for behalf of the Captain's
widow. Even when thus modified, the bill was only carried by the casting vote of the
chairman, and Porteous's widow, on account of previous favours shown her by the maois-
trates, accepted of £1500 in full.

_ From this period, till the eventful year 1745, nothing remarkable occurs in the history
Edinburgh. On the report of the landing of Prince Charles, the city-guard was increased
and a portion of the royal forces brought into the neighbourhood of the city. The town
walls were hastily repaired, and ditches thrown up for additional defence. Upon the ap-
proach of the Prince's forces, which had crossed the Forth above Stirling, the Kin-'s troop,
along with the city-guard, were posted at Corstorphine and Coltbridge, and a volunteer force
was raised to aid in repelling the rebels. But citizens aud soldiers were alike lukewarm in

Banovenan cause, or terror-stricken at the sight of the Highland host. The whole
d precipitately on their appearance, and communicated such a panic to the citizens.

1 Illustrations of Geikie's Etchinge, p. 8.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. in

that, when they were assembled in St Giles's Church, and it was debated whether they
should stand on their defence or not, only three or four voices answered in the affirmative.
But while the citizens were still undetermined as to the terms of capitulation, the Nether
Bow Port was unwarily opened to let a coach pass out, on which a party of Highlanders,
who had reached the gate undiscovered, immediately rushed in and secured the city, took
possession of the guard-house, and seized on the arms and ammunition belonging to the
guard.

The young Chevalier speedily followed this advance guard. The Highland army en-
camped in the royal park, in the neighbourhood of Duddingston, and the Chevalier himself
took possession of Holyrood Palace. The heralds were required to publish at the Market
Cross the commission of Regency which the Prince had received from his father, ami
which was accordingly done with all the usual ceremonies attending royal proclamations.
Multitudes of the inhabitants now flocked to the neighbouring camp, attracted by the
novelty of the sight, or their favour to the cause of the Stuarts, while the Palace was
crowded by numbers of the better class of citizens, who hastened to testify their fidelity
to the exiled family.

They were received by the Prince with the utmost aifability and condescension ; but this
did not prevent him issuing an order, requiring the inhabitants of the town and county of
Edinburgh to deliver up their arms at the Palace, and the city to furnish a great variety of
stores for the use of the army, under pain of military execution in case of failure. The
supplies were furnished accordingly, and the city gratified with the Prince's gracious pro-
mise of payment, so soon as the troubles should be over. The Castle, however, was held
by General Guest, a stanch adherent of the Government, and on the Highlanders appearing
in the city, he displayed the flag, and fired some cannon to warn them not to approach the
fortress.

The Highlanders, thus amply supplied, marched to Preston, about nine miles to the
eastward of the capital, where they defeated and put to rout the royal forces, under the
command of Sir John Cope. The dragoons fled from the field without halting till they
reached Linlithgow. Their baggage, artillery, and military chests all fell into the Prince's
hands, who returned to the Palace of Holyrood in triumph. Notwithstanding the irregular
character of the Highland army, they behaved, in general, with great order and moderation ;
and such was the simplicity of the poor Highlanders, even in rapine, that it is said some of
them presented their pieces at passengers, and on being asked what they wanted, replied,
" a penny " with which they went away perfectly satisfied.1

The Prince intimated, on his return to Edinburgh, that the ministers should have full
liberty to continue their usual duties on the following day, which was Sunday, the only
requirement being, that, in the prayers for the royal family, no names should be
specified.

Only one of the city ministers, named Hogg, availed himself of this permission, and
lectured in the forenoon in the Tron Church. But the Rev. Neil M'Vicar of St Cuthbert's
was of the true old covenanting metal, and not to be intimidated by the near neighbour-
hood of the Jacobite forces. He sent word to the commander of the Castle of his intention
to continue the usual services of the day, and proceeded to his pulpit at the appointed hour.

1 Scots Mag., vol. vii. p 442.

ii2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The church was crowded with an unusually numerous auditory, among whom he recog-
nised many Jacobites, as well as a number of the Highland soldiers, attracted by the report
of his intentions, and the knowledge of his intrepid character. He prayed, as usual, for
King George, by name, and then added,—" And as for this young man who has come
among us seeking an earthly crown, we beseech thee that he may obtain what is far better,
a heavenly one ! " When this was reported to Prince Charles he is said to have laughed,
and expressed himself highly pleased at the courage and charity of the worthy
minister.1

For some days after the Battle of Prestonpans, the communication between the town
and the Castle remained uninterrupted. But the Highlanders, who kept guard at the
Weigh-house, having received orders to prevent all further intercourse with the fortress, the
governor, retaliated by threatening to cannonade the town. Messengers were immediately
despatched by the Lord Provost to the Palace, informing the Prince of the danger the city
was exposed to; but the governor having waited in vain for a favourable answer, a severe
cannonading at last took place, killing and wounding several of the inhabitants, besides
damaging many of the houses nearest the Castle, and spreading such consternation through
the town, that a great portion of the citizens were prepared for immediate flight. The
consequences that were apprehended from such proceedings were, however, happily averted
by a proclamation of the Prince, declaring the infinite regret he felt at the many murders
committed on the inhabitants by the commander of the garrison, and that he had ordered
the blockade of the Castle to be taken off, and the threatened punishment of his enemies to
be suspended, when he found that thereby innocent lives could be saved. Shortly after
this the Prince left Edinburgh, on his route to England, at the head of an army of about
five thousand men ; from thence he was followed, on his return northward, by the Duke
of Cumberland, who, on his arrival in Edinburgh, occupied the same apartments in the
Palace which had so recently been appropriated to the use of the Prince; and during his
stay there, the paintings of the Scottish monarchs, in the great gallery, were slashed and
otherwise greatly defaced by the English soldiers.

After the final overthrow of the Highland army at Culloden, a species of triumph was
exhibited in Edinburgh, in full accordance with the magnanimity of the Duke, who claimed
the entire credit of a victory, achieved rather by the policy of Duncan Forbes of Culloden.
Fourteen of the standards that had been taken from the insurgents were burnt at the Market
Cross with every mark of contempt. They were ignominiously carried thither by chimney
sweepers, — the Prince's own standard being particularly distinguished by being borne by
the common hangman ; and as each was thrown into the fire, the heralds proclaimed the
names of the commanders to whom they had belonged !

The usual election of magistrates having been prevented by the presence of the Hi»-li-
land army in Edinburgh, they were chosen in the following year by virtue of a royal man-
date, and the newly-elected Council testified their loyalty to the Hanoverian dynasty by
voting the freedom of the city to the Duke of Cumberland, and presenting to him the charter
of citizenship in a massive gold box, embossed with the city arms outside, and having the
Duke's own arms, with a suitable inscription, engraved within.

The overthrow of the adherents of Prince Charles was followed up by fines, imprison-

1 Hist, of the West Kirk, p. 119.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION 113

nieut, and confiscation to many of the most active leaders in the movement, and a general
persecution of " Papists, Jacobites, Episcopals, and disaffected persons." Archibald Stewart,
the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, was regarded with peculiar jealousy, on account of the
city having fallen into the hands of the Highland army, without resistance, or any attempt
at defence. He endured a long and severe trial, in which it was shown that the great
extent, and very dilapidated condition of the walls, as well as the manifest lukewarmness of
a large portion of the inhabitants towards the reigning family, rendered the defence of the
town, for any length of time, against a victorious army, quite impossible. The trial lasted
from the 27th of October till the 2d of November, when the Provost was acquitted by a
unanimous verdict of the jury. This was regarded as a triumph by the Jacobite party, and
a public meeting was summoned to assemble on the following evening in the Baxter's
Hall; but the magistrates took alarm at the proposal, and the meeting was summarily
interdicted, as calculated to destroy the prestige of the triumphant bonfire so recently
kindled at the Cross.

The house of Provost Stewart was a very curious old building in the West Bow, with
its main entrance at the foot of Donaldson's Close. It was only one story high, in
addition to the attics, on the north side, while on the south it presented a lofty front
to the Bow. This building stood immediately to the west of Free St John's Church ;
it is described by Chambers1 as being of singular construction, and as full of curious little
rooms, concealed closets, and secret stairs, as any house that ever had the honour of being
haunted. The north wall, which still remains built into the range of shops forming the
new terrace, stood long exposed to view, affording abundant evidence of this. Little
closets and recesses are excavated, almost like a honey-comb, out of the solid rock behind,
many of which, however, have been built up in adapting it to its new purpose. " In
one of the rooms," says Chambers, " there was a little cabinet about three feet high,
which any one, not acquainted with the mysterious arcana of ancient houses, would suppose
to be a cupboard. Nevertheless, under this modest, simple, and unassuming disguise,
was concealed a thing of no less importance and interest than a trap stair."2 This
ingeniously-contrived passage communicated behind with the West Bow, and, according
to the same authority, it was said to have afforded, on one occasion, a safe and unsuspected
exit to Prince Charles and some of his principal officers, who were enjoying the hospitality
of the Jacobitical Provost, when an alarm was given that a troop of the enemy, from
the Castle, were coming down the Close to seize them. This curious building derives an
additional interest from its last occupant, James Donaldson, the wealthy printer, from
whose bequest the magnificent hospital that bears his name has been erected at the west
end of the town.

Our historical sketch of the ancient capital of Scotland has mainly embraced the period
during which the Stuart race filled the throne, and made it the arena of many of the most
prominent incidents in their history ; and with this closing scene in the narrative of their
illustrious line, our historic Memorials of the Olden Time may fitly end. The associa-
tions with which the local antiquites of Edinburgh still abound, will afford a fitting oppor-
tunity for treating of incidents and characters of a later date, that are worthy of our notice,

1 Chambers's Traditions, vol. i. p. 143. Ibid, vol. i. p. 144.

, , 4 ME MORI A L S OF EDINB UR GH.

as well as for a more detailed consideration of some of those that have already been alluded
to iu this introductory sketch.

The appearance which Edinburgh presented at this period, as well as the character and
manners of its inhabitants, cannot be readily realised by those of the present generation.
Its general features had undergone little change since the departure of the Court to Eng-
land in 1G03. The extended wall, erected in the memorable year 1513, still formed the
boundary of the city, with the exception of the enclosure of the High Riggs, as already
described, on the south. The ancient gates remained kept under the care of jealous
warders and nightly closed at an early hour ; even as when the dreaded inroads of the
Southron, with fire and sword, summoned the burgher watch to guard their walls. At the
foot of the High Street, the lofty tower and spire of the Nether Bow Port terminated the
vista, surmounting the old Temple Bar of Edinburgh, interposed between the city and the
ancient burgh of Canongate.

This handsome structure was rebuilt in its latest form in the year 1606, directly in
a line with St Mary's and Leith Wynds, and about fifty yards further eastward than the
second erection already mentioned. It was by far the most conspicuous and important
of the six gates which gave access to the ancient capital, and was regarded as an object in
the maintenance and protection of which the honour of the city was so deeply involved,
that, as we have seen, its demolition was one of the penalties by which the government
sought to revenge the slight put upon the royal prerogative by the Porteous mob. In
style of architecture, it bore considerable resemblance to the ancient Porte St Honore of
Paris, as represented in old engravings ; and it is exceedingly probable that it was
constructed in imitation of some of the old gates of that capital, between which and
Edinburgh so constant an intercourse was maintained, at a somewhat earlier period than
the date of its erection.

When the destruction of this, the main port of the city, was averted by the strenuous
patriotic exertions of the Scottish peers and members of Parliament, it was regarded as a
national triumph ; but, unhappily, towards the middle of the last century, a perfect mania
seized the civic rulers throughout the kingdom, for sweeping away all the old rubbish, as
the ancient fabrics that adorned the principal towns were contemptuously styled. The
Common Council of London set the example by obtaining an Act of Parliament, in 1760,
to remove their city gates ; and, only four years afterwards, the Town Council of Edinburgh
demolished the Nether Bow, one of the chief ornaments of the city, which, had it been
preserved, would have been now regarded as a peculiarly interesting relic of the olden time.
The ancient clock, which was removed from the tower, was afterwards placed in that of the
old Orphan's Hospital, and continued there till the demolition of the latter building in
1845.

It is worthy of remark, however, that the destruction of this stately structure was not
the earliest symptom of improved taste in our civic dignitaries. Their first step towards
" enlarging and beautifying " the city, was the removal of the ancient Cross, an ornamental
structure, possessed of the most interesting local and national associations. The lower part
of it was an octagonal building of a mixed style of architecture, rebuilt in the year 1617,
in the form, already represented.1 In its reconstruction, the chief ornaments of the

1 Ante, p. 33.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION.

ancient building had been preserved; the heads, in basso relievo, which surmounted seven
of the arches, have been referred, by eminent antiquaries, to the remote era of the lower
empire. Four of these were placed by Mr Walter Ross, in his tower at Deanhangh,
and on its demolition in 1814, they were secured by Sir Walter Scott, along with a large
shallow stone basin, which served as the fountain from whence wine was distributed at the
Cross on occasions of festivity. All of these objects are now among the antiquities at
Abbot.sford.

The ancient pillar which surmounted the octagonal
building, has been described by Arnot,1 and most of his
successors, as a " column consisting of one stone up-
wards of twenty feet high, spangled with thistles, and
adorned with a Corinthian capital." It is still preserved
on the Drum estate, near Edinburgh, whither it was
removed by Lord Somerville in 1756, but it in no way
corresponds with this description.2 It is an octagonal
gothic pillar, built of separate stones, held together bjr
iron clamps, with a remarkably beautiful gothic capital,
consisting of dragons with their heads and tails inter-
twined, and surmounted by a battlemented top, on
which the unicorn was formerly seated, holding an iron
cross.

From this ancient edifice, royal proclamations, mid
the more solemn denunciations of the law, were an-
nounced ; and here also the chief pageants were dis-
played on occasions of public rejoicings. Before the art
of printing was invented, all Acts of Parliament, and other
matters of public interest were published from it to tbe
people, and from thence also the mimic heralds of the
unseen world, cited the gallant James and the nation's
chivalry to the domains of Pluto, immediately before the Battle of Flodden.

No incident in history appears to us more strongly to mark the perversion of taste, and
the total absence of the wholesome spirit of veneration, that prevailed during the eighteenth
century, than the demolition of this most interesting national monument. The love of
destructiveuess could alone instigate the act, for its site was in the widest part of the High
Street, at a time when the Luckenbooths narrowed the upper part of that thorough fare to
half its breadth, and immediately below it stood the guard-house, " a long, low, ugly build-
ing, which, to a fanciful imagination, might have suggested the idea of a long black snail
crawling up the middle of the High Street, and deforming its beautiful esplanade."3 No
such haste, however, was shown in removing this unsightly building. Its deformity gave no
offence to civic taste, and it continued to encumber the street till near the close of the cen-
tury. Propositions have been made at various times for the restoration of the City Cross.

1 Aruot, p. 303. a Restored in front of St Giles's Cathedral, 1869.

3 Heart of Mid-Lothian, vol. i. p. 247.
VIO.NKTTK — The Capital of tlie City

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

We shall only add, that until our civic rulers manifest, by some such act, a regard for the
monuments of antiquity committed to their care, they must take their unenviable share in
the minstrel's curse : —

Dun Edin's Cross, a pillar'd stone,

Rose on a turret octagon ;

But now is razed that monument,

Whence royal edict rang,
Aud voice of Scotland's law was sent

In glorious trumpet clang.
Oh ! be his tomb as lead to lead,
Upon its dull destroyer's head ! —
A minstrel's malison is said.1

Large portions of the city wall have been demolished from time to time, owing to the
extension of the town and the many alterations that have been made on the older portions
of it, so that only a few scattered fragments remain. These, however, are sufficient to show
the nature of the ancient fortifications. No part of the earliest wall, erected under the
charter of James II., in 1450, is now visible, if we except the fine old ruin of the Well-
house tower, at the base of the Castle rock, which formed a strong protection at that
point where the overhanging cliff might have otherwise enabled an enemy to approach under
its shelter. A fragment of this wall, about fifty feet long and twenty feet in height, was
found in 1832, about ten feet south from the Advocates' Library,2 when digging for the
foundations of a new lock-up-house, in connection with the Parliament House; and, in

1845, another considerable por-
tion was disclosed to the east
of this, on the site of the old
Parliament Stairs, in making
the more recent additions to
the same building. Both of
these fragments have been
closed over by the new build-
ings, and may in all proba-

bility continue to exist for
centuries. The next addition
to the fortifications of the
city is the well-known Flodden
wall, reared, as already de-
scribed, by the terrified citizens
in 1513.3 Of this there still
remains the large portion form-
ing the north side of Drummond Street ; an interesting little fragment at the back of
the Society, at Bristo Port, curiously pierced for windows and other openings ; and,
lastly, the old tower in the Vennel, already alluded to, which, thanks to the zealous
efforts of Dr Neill, has been preserved from destruction, when the Town Council had
already pronounced its doom as 'a useless encumbrance. We furnish a view of its in-

1 MarmioD, canto v. v. 25. 2 Minor Antiquities, p. 73. ' Ante, p. 35.

VIGNETTE— Interior of the Tower in the Vennel.

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. 117

terior, with the embrasures and loop-holes, as it appeared before the erection of the In-
fant School there.

We have already mentioned the erection of the wall in Leith Wynd, a considerable
portion of which still remains, by virtue of an Act of Parliament in 1540.1 Maitland
describes another addition in 1560, extending from thence to the end of the North Loch,
at the foot of Halkerston's Wynd.2 The southern wall of the west wing of Trinity Hospital
included part of this ancient defence. It stood about six feet south from the present
retaining wall of the North British Railway, in the Physic Gardens,3 and was a piece of
such substantial masonry, that its demolition, in 1845, was attended with great labour,
requiring the use of wedges to break up the solid mass. In 1591, the citizens were
empowered, by Parliament, to raise money on all lands and rents within Edinburgh, towards
strengthening the town, by an addition of height and thickness to its walls, with forcing
places, bulwarks, or flankers, &c. ;* and finally, the Common Council having, in 1618,
bought from Tours of Innerleith ten acres of land at the Greyfriars' Port, they immediately
ordered it to be enclosed with a wall, a considerable portion of which forms the western
boundary of the Heriot's Hospital grounds. It only remains to be added, that the last
attempt made to render these walls an effective defence, was in the memorable year 1745 ;
with how little success has already been narrated. From the evidence brought out in the
course of Provost Stewart's trial, they seem to have been, at that period, in a most ruinous
condition, and it is improbable that any efforts were made after that to stay their further
decay.

The changes wrought upon the town itself during the same period are no less remark-
able. Owing to its peculiar situation, crowning the ridge of the hill, on the highest point
of which the Castle is perched, and sloping off to the low grounds on either side, its limits
seemed to our ancestors to be defined almost beyond the possibility of enlargement. The
only approach to the main street, from the west, previous to the commencement of the
North Bridge, in 1765, was up the steep and crooked thoroughfare of the West Bow, by
which kings and nobles so often entered in state, and from thence it extended, in unbroken
continuity to St Mary's and Leith Wynds. The remainder of the street, through the
Caiiongate, has fortunately, as yet, escaped the revision of " improvements commissioners,"
and presents, in the continuation of the principal thoroughfare through the Nether Bow to
the Palace, many antique features, awaking associations of the period when the Scottish
nobility resided there in close vicinity to the Court.

A very few years, however, have sufficed to do the work of centuries in the demolition
of time-honoured and interesting fabrics. St Giles's Church has been renovated externally,
and reduced to the insipid standard of modern uniformity. George IV. Bridge, and its
approaches, have swept away nearly all the West Bow, Gosford's and the Old Bank Closes,
Libberton's Wynd, and some of the most interesting houses in the Cowgate. The projec-
tors of the New College have taken for its site another portion, including the Guise Palace,
in Blyth's Close, which bore, on its north front, the earliest date then existing on any
private building in Edinburgh ; and the same parties, in their zeal to do honour to Knox's

1 Ante, p. 44.

* Maitknd, p. 20, where it is defined as at the foot of Libberton'a Wyud, but this is obviously an error.

3 So culled from having long been the site of the Botanical Gardens. 4 Maitland. p. 45.

n8

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

memory, have devoted his picturesque old domicile to destruction. The Collegiate Church
of Mary of Guelders is destiued to a similar fate ; and, in truth, it would seem as if a
regular crusade had been organised by all classes, having for its object to root out every-
thing in Edinburgh that is ancient, picturesque, or interesting, owing to local or historical
iissociations, and to substitute in their stead the commonplace uniformity of the New Town.
One effect, however, of all this has been, by so greatly diminishing these ancient fabrics,
to awake an increased interest in the few that remain, while, even by the demolition of
others, many curious features have been brought to light, which would otherwise have
remained unknown.

It is earnestly to be desired that a lively veneration for these monuments of past times
may be more widely diffused, and produce such a wholesome spirit of conservatism, as may
at least preserve those that remain from reckless destruction. An antiquary, indeed, may
at times seem to resemble some querulous crone, who shakes her head, with boding predic-
tions of evil at the slightest variance from her own narrow rule ; but the new, and what
may be called the genteel style of taste, which has prevailed during the earlier portion of
the present century, has too well justified his complaints. The old Parliament Close, with
its irregular Elizabethan Court houses, and the ancient Collegiate Church (which on that
side at least was ornate and unique), have been remodelled according to the newest fashion,
and, to complete the change, the good old name of Close, which is pleasingly associated
with the cloistral courts of the magnificent cathedrals and abbeys of England, has been
replaced by the modern, and, in this case, ridiculous one of Square. In full accordance
with this is the still more recent substitution of the name of North British Close for that
of Halkerston's Wynd — the only thing that remained about that ancient alley to com-
memorate the death of David Halkerstoun of Halkerstoun, while bravely defending this
passage against the English in 1544. Modern imitations of the antique, such as have
been attempted in the newest thoroughfares in the Old Town, are easily erected, with more
or less taste, and as easily replaced. But if the Old Town of Edinburgh is once destroyed,
no wealth can restore the many interesting associations that still linger about its ancient
halls.

VIGNETTE— Ancient Doorway in Halkerston's Wynd.

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

PART II.
LOCAL ANTIQUITIES AND TRADITIONS.

(Etnnbutglj.

Inetall'd on hills, her head neare starrye bowres,

Shines Edinburgh, proud of protecting powers :

Justice defends her heart ; Religion east

With tempi™ ; Mars with towres doth guard the west ;

Fresh Nymphes and Ceres serving, waite upon her ;

And Thetis, tributarie, doth her honour.

The sea doth Venice shake ; Home Tiber beates ;

WLiifec She bot scorues her vassal! watteres' threats.

For scepters no where standes a towne more fitt,

Nor place where towne, world's Queene, may fairer eitt.

Bot this Thy praise is, above all most brave,

No man did e'er diffarne Thee bot a slave.

Drummond of ffawthornd 'fit,
from the Latin of Dr Arthur Johnstons.

Cfrr 3Tofott.

Tlie shady lane, the hedgerow, and the wool,

And ripening fields have won the poet's heart,

Until the love of Nature is a part

Of his soul's being ; — yet own I the mood

That seeks out nature in the crowded mart,

Nor thinks the poet's teaching unwithstood.

Because, within the thicker solitude

Of peopled cities, fancy plays its part : —

"Man made the town," and therefore fellowman

May garner there, within its dusky lanes

Of pent-up life, an airy empyrean,

Dwelling apart, in sympathy, where wanes

The light of present being, while the vast

" Has been" awakes again, — the being of the past.

St ©tleg's.

Hoar relic of the past, whose ancient spire
Climbs heavenward amid the crowded mart,
Keeping as 'twere within the city's heart,
One shrine where reverent thoughts may yet retire ;
And dreaming fancies, from the world apart,
Wander among old tales of which thou art
Sole relic. Is it vain that we inquire
Somewhat of scenes where thou hast borne a part
Mine own St Giles ! Old fashions have gone by,
And superstitious, — even of the heart, —
Thyself has changed some wrinkles for a smart
New suit of modern fashion. To my eye
The old one best beseemed thee, yet the more
CUng I to what remains, the soul of yore.

CHAPTEE I.
THE CASTLE.

T

historical incidents narrated in the earlier
part of the work, exhibit the Castle of
Edinburgh as the nucleus round which the town
has gradually arisen. Notwithstanding the numerous sieges which it has stood, the
devastations to which it has been subjected by successive conquerors, and above all, the
total changes in its defences, consequent on the alterations introduced in modern war-
fare, it still contains remains of an earlier date than any that are to be found in the
ancient capital.

The main portion of the fortifications, however, must be referred to a period subsequent
to the siege in 1572, when it was surrendered by Sir William Kirkcaldy, after it had been
reduced nearly to a heap of ruins. In a report furnished to the Board of Ordnance, from
documents preserved in that department, it appears that, in 1574 (only two years after
the siege), the governor, George Douglas of Parkhead, repaired the walls, and built the
half-moon battery, on the site, it may be presumed, of David's Tower, which was
demolished in the course of the siege.1 Tradition affixes the Protector's name to a small
tower, with crow-stepped gables, built to the east of the great draw-well, forming the
highest point of this battery. It is, without doubt, a building erected long before Crom-

1 MS. Report, R. M'Kerlie, Esq., Ordnance Office, wherein it is further stated that,— "In 1575, the Citadel con-
tained eight distinct Towers, fronting the Old Town and south-west, and twelve buildings were outside the Citadel but
within the walls, eight of which were in a castellated form."

YIGNKTTE — Edinburgh Castle, from a drawing by T. Sandby, about 1750.

\2?. MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

well's time, and, to all appearance, coeval with the battery, but its commanding position
und extensive view are not unlikely to have arrested his notice. Considerable portions of
the western fortifications, the parapet wall, and port holes of the half-moon battery, and
the ornamental coping and embrazures of the north and east batteries, as well as the
house now occupied by the barrack sergeant, are of a much later date. The building last
mentioned, situated immediately to the north of the grand parade, bears a close resem-
blance in its general style to the Darien House, erected in 1698, and the whole may,
with every probability, be referred to nearly the same period, towards the close of William
IJI.'s reign.

Very considerable alterations have been made from time to time on the approach to the
fortress from the town. The present broad esplanade was formed chiefly with the rubbish
removed from the site of the Royal Exchange, the foundation of which was laid in 1753.
In the very accurate view of the Castle furnished by Maitland, from a drawing by T.
Sandby, which represents it previous to this date, there is only a narrow roadway,
evidently of artificial construction, raised nearly to the present level, which may probably
have been made on the destruction of the Spur, an ancient battery that occupied a
considerable part of the Castle Hill, until it was demolished by order of the Estates of
Parliament, August 2, 1649.1 The previous elevation of the ground had evidently been
no higher than the bottom of the present dry ditch. The curious bird's-eye view of the
Castle, taken in 1573 (a fac-simile of which is given in the 2nd volume of the Bannatyne
Miscellany), and all the earlier maps of Edinburgh, represent the Castle as rising abruptly
on the east side, and in that of 1575, from which we have copied a view of the Castle,2 the
entrance appears to be by a long flight of steps. It may perhaps be considered as a
confirmation of this, that in the representations of the fortress, as borne in the arms of
the burgh, a similar mode of approach is generally shown.3

Immediately within the drawbridge, there formerly stood an ancient and highly orna-
mental gateway, near the barrier guard-room. It was adorned with pilasters, and very
rich mouldings carried over the arch, and surmounted with a remarkably curious piece of
sculpture, in basso relievo, set in an oblong panel, containing a representation of the
famous cannon, Mons Meg, with groups of ancient artillery and military weapons. This
fine old port was only demolished in the beginning of the present century, owing to its
being found too narrow to give admission to modern carriages and waggons, when the
present plain and inelegant gateway was erected on its site. Part of the curious carving
alluded to has since been placed over the entrance to the Ordnance Office in the Castle,
and the remaining portion is now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum.4

Immediately to the west of this, another ancient ornamented gateway still exists.

1 Bannatyne Misc., vol. ii. p. 398. 2 Ante, p. 8.

3 In the survey of the Caatle, taken for Sir William Drury in 1572, the following description occurs : — " On the fore
parte estwarde, next the towne, stands like iiijxr foote of the haule, and next unto the same stands Davyes Towre, and
from it a courten, with vj cannons, in loopes of stone, lookinge in the streatwarde ; and behynd the same standes another
teare of ordinance, lyke xvj foote clyni above the other ; and at the northe ende stands the Constables Towre; and in
tlie bottom of the same, is the way into the Castle, with xl" steppes." The number of the stepps is in another hand, the
MS. being partially injured. — Baun. Misc., vol. ii. p. 69.

4 Vide pp. 1 and 6, for views of these stones. They were preserved, and placed in their present situations through the
good taste of R. M'Kerlie, Esq., of the Ordnance Office, to whose recollections of the old gateway, when an officer in
the garrison ir 1800, we are mainly indebted for the above description.

THE CASTLE. 123

Along the deeply arched vault which leads into the Argyle Battery, may be traced the
openings for two portcullises, and the hinges of several successive gates that formerly
guarded this important pass. In Sandhy's view, already referred to, from which the
vignette at the head of this chapter is copied, this gateway is shown as finished with an
embattled parapet, and a flat roof, on which a guard could be stationed for its defence ;
but since then it has been disfigured by the erection over it of an additional building,
of a very unornamental character, intended for the use of the master carpenter.

The apartment immediately above the long vaulted archway, is a place of peculiar
interest, as the ancient state prison of the Castle. Within this gloomy stronghold, both
the Marquis and Earl of Argyle were most probably confined previous to trial ; and here
also many of lesser note have been held in captivity at different periods, down to the
eventful year 1746, when numerous noble and gallant adherents of the house of Stuart
were confined in it, as well as others suspected of an attachment to the same cause.1 The
last state prisoners lodged in this stronghold were Watt and Downie, accused of high
treason, in 1794, the former of whom was condemned and executed. It was at first
intended to have fulfilled the sentence of the law at the ancient place of execution for
traitors, on the Castle Hill, biit this being considered liable to be construed into a betrayal
of fear on the part of Government, as seeking to place themselves under the protection of
the Castle guns, he was ultimately executed in the Lawnmarket.

The only other objects of interest in the outer fortress are the Governor's House, a
building probably erected in the reign of Queen Anne, and the Armoury, immediately
behind it, where a well appointed store of arms is preserved, neatly arranged, intermixed
with some relics of ancient warfare. In the exterior fortifications, to the west of the
Armoury, may still be traced the archway of the ancient postern, which has been built up
for many years. Here Viscount Dundee held his conference with the Duke of Gordon,
when on his way to raise the Highland clans in favour of King James, while the Con-
vention were assembled in the Parliament House, and were proceeding to settle the crown
upon William and Mary. With only thirty of his dragoons, he rode down Leith Wynd,
and along what was called the Long-Gate, a road nearly on the present line of Princes
Street, while the town was beating to arms to pursue him. Leaving his men at the Kirk-
brae-head, he clambered up the rock at this place, and urgently besought the Duke to
accompany him to the Highlands, and summon his numerous vassals to rise on behalf of
King James. The Duke, however, preferred to remain and hold out the Castle for the
terror of the Convention, and Dundee hastily pursued his way to Stirling.2 On this same
site we may, with every probability, presume the ancient postern to have stood, through
which the body of the pious Queen Margaret was secretly conveyed in the year 1093, while
the fortress was besieged by Donald Bane, the usurper.3

The most interesting buildings, however, in the Castle, are to be found, as might be

1 The rebel ladies are also said to have been confined there, and Lady Ogilvie made her escape in the dress of a
washerwoman, brought by Miss Bahnain, who remained in her stead ; she was allowed afterwards to go free.

- Minor Antiquities, p. 65.

3 Ante, p. 3. It has been stated (Walks in Edinburgh, p. 52), but, we think, without sufficient evidence, that the
Castle was without fortifications on the west and north sides until a recent period, tradition assigning their first erection
to William III. But the same walls that still exist appear in Gordon's map, 1648, with the remains of ruinous build-
ings attached to them, proving their antiquity at that earlier date.

i -4 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

anticipated, on the loftiest and least accessible part of the rock on which it is built. Here,
on the very edge of the precipitous cliif, overhanging the Old Town several hundred feet
below, the ancient Koyal Palace is reared, forming the south and east sides of a large quad-
rangle, called the Grand Parade. The chief portion of the southern side of this square
consists of a large ancient edifice, long converted into an hospital for the garrison, but
which had been originally the great hall of the Palace. Notwithstanding the numerous
changes to which it has been subjected in adapting it to its present use, some remains of
its ancient grandeur have been preserved. At the top of the principal staircase may be
seen a very finely sculptured stone corbel, now somewhat mutilated, representing in front
a female face of very good proportions, and ornamented on each with a volute and thistle.
On this still rests the original oak beam; and on either side of it there are smaller beams
let into the wall, with shields carved on the front of each. The whole are now defaced
with whitewash, but they afford evidence of the existence formerly of a fine open timbered
roof to the great hall, and it is probable that much more of it still remains, though con-
cealed by modern ceilings and partitions. From the occasional assembling of the Parlia-
ment here, while the Scottish Monarchs continued to reside in the Castle, it still retains
the name of the Parliament House.1

The view from the windows on this side of the Palace is scarcely surpassed by any other
in the capital. Immediately below are the picturesque old houses of the Grassmarket and
West Port, crowned by the magnificent towers of Heriot's Hospital. From this abyss,
the hum of the neighbouring city rises up, mellowed by the distance, into one pleasing
voice of life and industry ; while, beyond, a gorgeous landscape is spread out, reaching
almost to the ancient landmarks of the kingdom, guarded on the far east by the old keep
of Craigmillar Castle, and on the west by Merchiston Tower. Between these is still seen
the wide expanse of the Borough Muir, on which the fanciful eye of one familiar with the
national history will summon up the Scottish hosts marshalling for southern war ; as when
the gallant Jameses looked forth from these same towers, and proudly beheld them gather-
ing around the standard of " the Ruddy Lion," pitched in the massive " Bore Stane,''1
still remaining at the Borough Muir Head.

Immediately to the east of this, the royal apartments are situated. The windows in this
part of the quadrangle have been very large, though now partly built up, and near the top
of the building, there is a sculptured shield, much defaced, which seems to bear the Scot-
tish Lion, with a crown over it. A stone tablet over the arch of the old doorway, with

1 In the Treasurer's Accounts, various items occur, relating to the royal apartments in the Castle, e.g. A.D. 1516, " for
treiu werk (timber work) for The Great Haw Windois in the Castell; gret gestis, doubill dalis, &c., for the Myd Cha-
mer ; " and, again, " to Robert Balye for flaring of the Lordis Haw in Davidis Tower of the Castell in Edr " — Pitcairn's
Crim. Trials, Appendix. The Hall is also alluded to in the survey of 1572, and its locality described as " On the south
syde wher the haule is," &c. — Bann. Misc., vol. ii. p. 70. In a series of "One hundred and fifty select views, by P-
Sandby," published by Boydell, there is one of Edinburgh Castle from the south, dated 1779, in which two of the great
hall windows remain ; they are lofty, extending through two stories of the building, us now arranged, and apparently
divided by stone mullions. The coping, supported on stone corbels, still remains as in the earliest views.

2 Bore Stanc, so called from the hollow or bore into which the staff of the royal standard was placed (vide Marmion,
canto iv. v. 28). About a mile south of this, near the entrance to Morton Hall, is the Hare. Stane (confounded by
Maitland, p. 506, with the former). Various stones in Gloucestershire and other districts of England bear the same
name, which an antiquarian friend suggests is probably derived from the Saxon Har, signifying slaughter, and therefore
indicating the site of an ancient battle. About a mile to the south of this, a huge Druidical mass of red sandstone bears
the name of Buck Stane. The two last are popularly believed to mark the rendezvous of the Court for coursing the
hare or hunting the buck in " The olden time. "

THE CASTLE. 125

the initials H. and M. inwrought, for HENRY and MARY, and the date 1566,1 commemo-
rates the birth of James VI., on the 19th June of that year. The small room, which was
the scene of this important event, forms the south-east angle of the building. It is singu-
larly irregular in form and circumscribed in its dimensions, its greatest length being little
more than eight feet. The room was formerly neatly panelled with wainscot, but, after
being abandoned for years as a drinking-room to the canteen, much of this has been
renewed in a very rude and inelegant fashion. The original ceiling, however, is pre-
served, wrought in ornamental wooden panels, with the initials I. R. and M. R. surmounted
with the royal crown, in alternate compartments ; and, on the wall, the commemorative
inscription, in black letter, mentioned by Maitland, still remains, with the Scottish arms
over it : —

Itorb 3!esu ftbrps't, tfmt erotmit \na0 mitb flTfaorniSf ,
Preserve tfre '23irdb,<iiifmi# "S&abQie 6eir i# borne,
3Cn& ?'enb $ip §>oiue 0urcessiont, to Heigne grill,
liang in tbtf ISealme, if tfmt it be (arftg will
?tt# grant, ® "UotD, qulj.it clu't of $ir py.o0'ttb
"&t to flTl-.g $onet ant) Pnm, tfolwb.
19th IVNII, 1566.

At the back of the fireplace was formerly shown a hole, said to have served as the
communication through which a wire was conveyed to a house in the Grassmarket, and
there attached to a bell, to advise the Queen's Catholic friends of the birth of her son.
The use of bells, however, except in church steeples, is of a much more modern date; and
equally apocryphal is another story of the infant Prince having been secretly let down over
the rock in a basket, into the hands of these same adherents of the Queen, to be educated
in the Catholic religion.

A considerable part of the east and north fronts of the ancient Royal Palace seem,
from the dates on them, as well as from the general style of the building, to have been
erected in the year 1616. The appearance, however, of many portions of the interior
leave no room to doubt that the works of that date were only a partial remodelling of a
more ancient fabric. Some of the stone panels on the east front are wrought in remark-
ably beautiful Elizabethan ornaments, and on one of them the regalia have been sculptured
in high relief, though some chance shot, in one of the later sieges of the Castle, has
broken away the larger portion of the figures. The turrets at the angles of the building,
as well as the clock tower in the quadrangle, were originally covered with ogee lead roofs,
similar to that still remaining on the turret staircase at the north end.

Immediately below the grand hall, are two tiers of large and strongly-vaulted bomb-
proof vaults, extending below the paved court of the quadrangle, communicating with a
wide arched passage, entered from the west side. The small loop-hole that admits light
into each of these huge vaults is strongly secured by three ranges of iron bars, and a
massive iron gate closes the entrance to the steep flight of steps that give admission to
the dreary dungeons. Within these gloomy abodes the French prisoners were confined
during the late war, above forty of them sleeping in a single vault. We furnish a view

1 Ante. p. 77. From the style of ornament, it appears to have been put up at a later period, probably by James VL
on his visit to Scotland in 1617.

126

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of one of thorn as it still exists, with the woodeu frame-work that sustained the hammocks
of the prisoners.

Immediately below Queen Mary's Room, there is another curiously- vaulted dungeon,
partly excavated out of the solid rock, and retaining the staple of an iron chain, doubtless
used for securing the limbs of some wretched captive in ancient times. No date can with
any certainty be assigned to these massive foundations of the Castle, though they undoubt-
edly belong to a remote period of its history.

In making some repairs on the west front of the royal apartments in the year 1830, a
remarkably curious and interesting discovery was made. Nearly in a line with the Crown
Room, and about six feet from the pavement of the quadrangle, the wall was observed,
when struck, to sound hollow, as though a cavity existed at that place. It was accord-
ingly opened from the outside, when a recess was discovered, measuring about two feet
six inches by one foot, and containing the remains of a child, enclosed in an oak coffin,
evidently of great antiquity, and very much decayed. The remains were wrapped in a
cloth, believed to be woollen, very thickly wove? so as to resemble leather, and within this
were the decayed fragments of a richly-embroidered silk covering, with two initials wrought
upon it, one of them distinctly marked I. This interesting discovery was reported at the
time to Major General Thackery, then commanding the Royal Engineers, by whose orders
they were again restored to their strange place of sepulture, where they still remain. It
were vain now to attempt a solution of this mysterious discovery, though it may furnish
the novelist with material on which to found a thrilling romance.

Within this portion of the old Palace is the Crown Room, where the ancient Regalia

VIGNETTE — French Prisoners' Vault in the Castle.

THE CASTLE. 127

of Scotland is kept. The apartment is a massive bomb-proof vault, and contains, along
with these national treasures, the old, iron-bound oak chest in which they were found in
the year 1817. The remarkably elegant crown is referred, with every probability, to the
era of Bruce, although it was not adorned with the graceful concentric arches of gold till
the reign of James V. It was further completed by the substitution of the present cap of
crimson velvet by James VII. for the former purple one, which had suffered during its
concealment in the civil wars. Next in interest to the crown is the beautiful sword of
state, presented by Pope Julius II. to James IV. The scabbard is richly wrought with
filigree work of silver, representing oak boughs adorned with leaves and acorns, — an oak
tree being the heraldic device of that warlike Pontiff. In addition to the finely propor-
tioned sceptre, surmounted with statues of the Virgin, St Andrew, and St James, which
was made for James V., these interesting national relics are accompanied by the royal jewels,
bequeathed by Cardinal York, the last of the Stuarts, to George IV., including the George
and collar of the Order of the Garter, presented by Queen Elizabeth to James VI. — the badge
of the Thistle of the same Monarch, containing a portrait of Anne of Denmark, — and the
coronation ring of Charles I.

The north side of this quadrangle now consists of a plain and uninteresting range of
barracks, erected about the middle of last century, previous to which time the site was
occupied by a church of large dimensions and great antiquity. It is described by Maitland
as " a very long and large ancient church, which," says he, " from its spacious dimensions,
I imagine that it was not only built for the use of the small garrison, but for the service of
the neighbouring inhabitants, before St Giles's Church was erected for their accommoda-
tion." l Unfortunately, that laborious and painstaking historian, having little taste for
ecclesiastical remains, has furnished no account of the style of architecture by which to
judge of its probable date, though his idea of its having existed before the earliest church
of St Giles, shows his conviction of its very great antiquity, and would carry its foundation
back to a much earlier period than can be assigned to it. This most probably was a church
that appears to have been built shortly after the death of the pious Queen of Malcolm Can-
more, and dedicated to her. It is mentioned by David I. in his charter of Holyrood, as
" the Church of the Castle of Edinburgh," 2 and is again confirmed to the Abbey of the
Holy Rood in that of Alexander III., as well as in successive Papal bulls.3 Robert II.
granted to St Margaret's Chapel, within the Castle of Edinburgh, an yearly rent of eight
pounds sterling, out of the customs of Edinburgh ; and this donation is confirmed by
Robert III.4

Some idea of the form of the church, may be gathered from old views. In the bird's-
eye view in Gordon's map, the south elevation is shown ; it also forms a prominent object
in Saudby's view of the Castle from the east, already referred to, and would seem to have
been a comparatively plain edifice, with crow-step gables and small windows, and was, in
all probability, an erection in the Norman style that prevailed at the period. From the
latter view, it would also appear to have been roofed with stone flags, and ornamented along
the ridge with carved pinnacles, such as may still be seen on St Mary's Church at Leith.
This church seems to have been applied to secular purposes soon after the Reformation

1 Maitland, p. 145. 2 Liber Cartarum, pp. 3-7.

3 Liber Cartarimi, pp. 64, 169, 186. * Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 693.

128

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

In 1595, the following entry occurs in the records of the Presbytery of Edinburgh : —
"Anent the desyre of James Reid, Constable of the Castell of Edinburgh, in effect
craving that, seing thair was ane paroche kirk within the said Castell, command wald be
given to John Brand to baptese the barnis borne in the Castell. The Presbyterie under-
standiuf that the kirk thairof is unreparitt, willis the said Constable to repair the same,
and to dedicatt it for na uther use bot for preiching. Thairefter his desyre sal be
answerit." l Eight years afterwards, it appears, from the same records, that the question of
its being a parish was disputed, and still under discussion, and so it remains even to our
own day. When Maitland wrote, the old church was divided by floors, and converted
into an armoury aud storehouse; and soon after his time, it must have been entirely

demolished.

We have been the more careful in describing the site

and general character of the ancient Church of the Castle,
in order to prevent its being confounded with a singularly
curious and interesting ecclesiastical edifice still remaining
there, immediately to the west of the garrison chapel, the
existence of which seems to have been totally lost sight of.
Its external appearance, though little calculated to excite
attention, leaves little reason to doubt that the original
walls remain. It is still in a tolerably perfect condition,
consisting of a very small building, measuring sixteen
feet six inches, by ten feet six inches within the nave , pro-
bably the smallest, as well as the most ancient chapel in
Scotland. At the east end, there is a neatly carved,
double, round arch, separating it from a semicircular chan-
cel, with a plain alcoved ceiling. It is decorated with the
usual Norman zigzag mouldings, and finished on the
outer side by a border of lozenge-shaped ornaments, the

pattern of which is curiously altered as it approaches the spring of the arch. No traces
of ornament are now apparent within the chancel, a portion of the building usually so
highly decorated, but the space is so small, that the altar, with its customary appendages,
would render any further embellishment immaterial. There have been formerly two
pillars on each side, supporting the arch, with plain double cushion capitals, which still
remain, as well as two of the bases, but the shafts of all the pillars are now wanting, and
the opening of the arch is closed in with a rude brick partition in order to adapt the
chancel to its modern use as a powder magazine. The original windows of the chapel have
all been built up or enlarged, but sufficient remains can be traced to show that they have
been plain, round-headed, and very narrow openings. The original doorway is also built
up, but may still be seen in the north wall, close to the west end, an arrangement not
unusual in such small chapels, and nearly similar to that at Craigmillar Castle. This
interesting edifice is now abandoned to the same uses as the larger church was in

1 Wodrow Misc., Vol. i. p. 463.
VIGNETTE— Mouldings of the Chancel Arch, from the Chapel in the Castle

THE CASTLE. I2g

Maitland's time, and is divided into two stories by a floor which conceals the upper portion
of the chancel arch.

This chapel is, without doubt, the most ancient building now existing in Edinburgh,
and may, with every probability, be regarded as having been the place of worship of
the pious Queen Margaret, during her residence in the Castle, till her death in 1093. It
is in the same style, though of a plainer character, as the earliest portions of Holyrood
Abbey, begun in the year 1128; and it is worthy of remark, that the era of Norman
architecture is one in which many of the most interesting ecclesiastical edifices in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh were founded, including Holyrood Abbey, St Giles's Church,
and the parish churches of Duddingston, Ratho, Kirkliston, and Dalmeny, all of which,
with the exception of St Giles's Church, still contain interesting remains of that era.1

The present garrison chapel is almost entirely a modern building, though including in its
walls portions of a former edifice of considerable antiquity. Immediately north of this is
the King's Bastion, or mortar battery, upon which is placed the famous old cannon, MONS
MEG. This ancient national relic, which is curiously constructed of iron staves and hoops,
was removed to the Tower of London in 1754, in consequence of an order from the Board
of Ordnance to the governor to send thither all unserviceable cannon in the Castle. It lay
there for seventy years, until it was restored to Scotland by George IV., in 1829, mainly
in consequence of the intercessions of Sir Walter Scott. The form of its ancient wooden
carriage is represented on the sculptured stone, already described, over the entrance of the
Ordnance Office, but that having broken down shortly after its return to Scotland, it has
since been mounted on an elegant modern carriage of cast-iron. On this a series of inscrip-
tions have been introduced, embodying the usually received traditions as to its history,
which derive the name from its supposed construction at Mons, in Flanders. There is good
reason, however, for believing that local repute has erred on this point, and that this
famous piece of artillery is a native of the land to which all its traditions belong. The evi-
dence for this interesting fact was first communicated in a letter from that diligent antiquary,
Mr Train, to Sir Walter Scott, and affords proof, from the local traditions of Galloway, that
this huge piece of ordnance was presented to James II. in 1455, by the M'Lellans, when he
arrived with an army at Carlingwark, to besiege William Earl of Douglas, in the Castle
of Threave. We have compressed into a note the main facts of this interesting communi-
cation respecting the pedigree of Mons Meg, which Sir Walter thus unhesitatingly attests
in his reply : " You have traced her propinquity so clearly, as henceforth to set all conjec-
ture aside."*

1 Our attention was first directed to this chapel by being told, in answer to our inquiries after the antiquities of the
Castle, that a font still existed in a cellar to the west of the garrison chapel ; it proved, on inspection, to be the socket
of one of the chancel pillars. In further confirmation of the early date we are disposed to assign to this chapel, we may
remark that the building gifted by David I. to his new Abbey, is styled in all the earlier charters, Ecclesia — " concedi-
mus ecclesiam, scilicet Castelli curn omnibus appendiciis, " — a description we can hardly conceive referable to so small a
chapel, while those of Corstorphine and Libberton are merely CapeUee, — dependencies of the Church of St Cuthbert —
and neither the style of this building, nor the probability derived from the practice of the period, admit of the idea that
so small a chapel would be erected apart from the church after its completion.

In " The inventare of golden and silver werk being in the Castell of Edinburgh," 8th Nov. 1543, the following items
occur: — "The Chapell geir of silver ouregilt, ane croce of silver with our Lady and Sanct John, — Tua chaudleris, — aue
chalice and ane patine, — aue halie watter fatt," &e., &c., all " of silver ouregilt. Chapell geir ungilt. Aue croce of
silver, — tua chandleris of silver, — ane bell of silver, — ane halie watter fatt, with the stick of silver, — ane caise of silver
for the mess breid, with the cover," &c. — Inventory of Royal Wardrobe, &c., 4to, Edinburgh, 1815, p. 112.

1 Contemporaries of Burns. Joseph Train, p. 200. — The Earl of Douglas having seized Sir Patrick M'Lellan,

I

I3o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The high estimation in which this huge cannon was anciently held, appears from numer-
ous notices of it in early records. Mous Meg was taken, by order of James IV., from
Edinburgh Castle on 10th July 1489, to be employed at the siege of Dumbarton, on which
occasion there is an entry in the treasurer's books of eighteen shillings for drink-money to
the gunners. The same records again notice her transportation from the Castle to the
Abbey of Holyrood, during the same reign, apparently at a period of national festivity.
Some of the entries on this occasion are curious, such as, — " to the menstrallis that playit
befoir Mons down the gait, fourteen shillings ; eight elle of claith, to be Mons a claith to
cover her, nine shillings and fourpence," &c. In the festivities celebrated at Edinburgh
by the Queen Dowager, Mary of Guise, on the marriage of her daughter, Queen Mary, to
the Dauphin of France, Mons Meg testified with loudest acclaim the general joy. The
treasurer's accounts contain the following item on the occasion : — " By the Queenis precept
and speciale command, to certane pyonaris for thair lauboris in the mounting of Mons furth
of her lair to be schote, and for the finding and carying of hir bullet after scho wes shot,
fra Weirdie Mure,1 to the Castell of Edinburgh," &c.

In the list of ordnance delivered by the governor to Colonel Monk, on the surrender of
the Castle in 1650, Meg receives, with all due prominence, the designation of " the great
iron murderer, Muckle Meg."! This justly celebrated cannon, after sustaining for cen-
turies, in so credible a manner, the dignity of her pre-eminent greatness, at length burst

tutor of Bomby, the Sheriff of Galloway, and chief of a powerful clan, carried him prisoner to Threave Castle, where
he caused him to be hanged on "The Gallows Knob," a granite block which still remains, projecting over the main gate-
way of the Castle. The act of forfeiture, passed by Parliament in 1455, at length furnished an opportunity, under the
protection of Government, of throwing off that iron yoke of the Douglasses under which Galloway had groaned upwards
of eighty years. When James II. arrived with an army at Carlingwark, to besiege the Castle of Threave, the M'Lellans
presented his Majesty with the piece of ordnance, now called Mons Meg, to batter down the fortlet of the rebellious
chieftain. The first discharge of this great gun is said to have consisted of a peck of powder and a granite ball, nearly as
heavy as a Galloway cow. This ball is believed, in its course through the Castle of Threave, to have carried away the
hand of Margaret de Douglas, commonly called the Fair Maid of Galloway, as she sat at table with her lord, and was
in the act of raising the wine-cup to her lips. Old people still maintain that the vengeance of God was thereby evidently
manifested in destroying the hand which had been given in wedlock to two brothers, and that even while the lawful
spouse of the first was alive. As a recompense for the present of this extraordinary engine of war, and for the loyalty
of the M'Lellans, the King, before leaving Galloway, erected the town of Kirkcudbright into a royal burgh, and granted
to Brawny Kim, the smith, the lands of Mollance, in the neighbourhood of Threave Castle. Hence the smith was called
Mollance, and his wife's name being Meg, the cannon, in honour of her, received the appellative of "Mollance Meg."
There is no smithy now at the "Three Thorns of Carlingwark; " but a few years ago, when making the great military
road to Portpatrick, which passes that way, the workmen had to cut through a deep bed of cinders and ashes, which
plainly showed that there had been an extensive forge on that spot at some former period. Although the lands of Mol-
lance have now passed into other hands, there are several persons of the name of Kim, blacksmiths, in this quarter, who
are said to be descendants of the brawny makers of Mollance Meg. It is likewise related, that while Brawny Kim and
his seven sons were constructing the cannon at the "Three Thorns of the Carlingwark," another party was busily em-
ployed in making balls of granite on the top of Bennan Hill, aud that, as each ball was finished, they rolled it down the
rocky declivity facing Threave Castle. One of these balls is still shown at Balmaghie House, the residence of Captain
Gordon, in that neighbourhood, and corresponds exactly in size and quality with those carried with the cannon to Edin-
burgh. As the balls in the Castle are evidently of Galloway granite, a strong presumptive proof is afforded that Mons
Meg was of Galloway origin. Some years ago, Threave Castle was partially repaired under the superintendence of Sir
Alexander Gordon of Culveunan, Sheriff-Depute of the Stewartry ; and one of the workmen, when digging up some
rubbish within the walls, found a massive gold ring, with an inscription on it, purportiug that the ring had belonged to
the same Margaret de Douglas, — a circumstance seeming to confirm a part of the tradition. This curious relic was
purchased from the person who found it, by Sir Alexander Gordon. — In addition to this, Symson, in his work written
nearly an hundred and sixty years ago, says : " The common report also goes in that country, that in the Isle of Threaves,
the great iron gun in the Castle of Edinburgh, commonly called Mount Meg, was wrought and made." This statement
should, of itself, set the question at rest. For further evidence, see History of Galloway, Appendix, vol. i. pp. 25-38.

1 Wardie is fully two miles north from the Castle, near Granton.

" Provincial Antiquities, p. 21.

THE CASTLE. 131

iu 1682, in firing a royal salute to the Duke of York, afterwards James VII., a circum-
stance that did not fail to be noted at the time as an evil omen.1 On her restoration to
Edinburgh, in 1829 (from which she had been taken as a lump of old iron), she was again
received with the honours accorded to her in ancient times, and was attended in grand pro-
cession, and with a military guard of honour, from Leith to her ancient quarters in the
Castle.2

Near the battery on which this ancient relic now stands is situated the postern gate, as
it is termed, which forms the western boundary of the inner fortification, or citadel of the
Castle. Immediately without this, the highest ground was known, till the erection of the
new barracks, by the name of Hawk-Hill,3 and doubtless indicated the site of the falconry
in earlier times, while the Castle was a royal residence. Numerous entries in the treasurers'
books attest the attachment of the Scottish Kings to the noble sport of hawking, and the
very high estimation in which these birds were held.

On the northern slope of the Esplanade, without the Castle wall, there still exists a long,
low archway, like the remains of a subterraneous passage, the walls being of rubble work,
and the arch neatly built of hewn stone. Until the enclosure and planting of the ground
excluded the public from the spot, this was popularly known as the Lions' Den, and was
believed to have been a place of confinement for some of these animals, kept, according
to ancient custom, for the amusement of the Scottish monarchs, though it certainly looks
much more like a covered way to the Castle.4 Storer, in his description of the West Bow,
mentions a house " from which there is a vaulted passage to the Castle Hill," as a thing
then (1818) well known, the house being reported to have aiforded in earlier times a place
of meeting for the Council. This tradition of an underground way from the Castle, is one
of very old and general belief ; and the idea was further strengthened, by the discovery of
remains of a subterranean passage crossing below Brown's Close, Castle Hill, in paving it
about the beginning of the present century.5 At the bottom of the same slope, on the
margin of the hollow that once formed the bed of the North Loch, stand the ruins of an
ancient fortification, called the Well-house Tower, which dates as early at least as the
erection of the first town wall, in 1450. It formed one of the exterior works of the
Castle, and served, as its name implies, to secure to the garrison comparatively safe access
to a spring of water at the base of the precipitous rock. Some interesting discoveries were
made relative to this fortification during the operations in the year 1821, preparatory to
the conversion of the North Loch into pleasure grounds. The removal of a quantity of
rubbish brought a covered way to light, leading along the southern wall of the tower to
a strongly fortified doorway, evidently intended as a sally port, and towards which the

1 Fountainhall's Chron. Notes, No. 1.

5 A curious and ancient piece of brass ordnance, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum, is worthy of notice here
from its connection with Edinburgh. It was found on the battlements of Bhurtpore, when taken by Lord Combermere,
and bears the inscription — JACOBDS MONTEITH ME FECIT, EDINBURGH, ANNO DOM. 1642.

* Kincaid, p. 137. " The governor appointed a centinell on the Hauke Hill, to give notice so soon as he saw the
mortar piece fired." — Siege of the Castle, 1689. Bann. Club, p. 55.

4 A very curious monumental stone stands near the top of the bank, but it can hardly be included, with propriety,
among our local antiquities. It was brought from Sweden, and presented many years since to the Society of Antiquaries
by Sir Alex. Setoun of Preston. There is engraved on it a serpent encircling a cross, and on the body of the serpent
a Runic inscription, signifying, — Ari engraved this stone in memory of Hiaim, his father. God help his soul. Vide
Arc-hsBologia Seotica, vol. ii. p. 490.

B Chambers's Traditions, vol. i. p. 156.

1 32 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

defences of the tower were principally directed. The walls are here of very great thick-
ness, and pierced by a square cavity in the solid mass, for the reception of a sliding beam
to secure the door, while around it are the remains of various additional fortifications to
protect the covered way.

During the same operations, indications were discovered of a pathway up the cliff, partly
by means of steps cut in the shelving rock, and probably completed by moveable ladders
and a drawbridge communicating with the higher story of the Well-house Tower. About
seventy feet above, there is a small building on an apparently inaccessible projection of the
cliff, popularly known as " Wallace's Cradle " 1 (an obvious corruption of the name of the
tower below), which would seem to have formed a part of this access from the Castle to
the ancient fountain at its base. In excavating near the tower, and especially in the neigh-
bourhood of the sally port, various coins were found, chiefly those of Edward III. and
Cromwell, in very good preservation. There were also some foreign coins, and one of
Edward I., many fragments of bombshells, a shattered skull, and other indications of
former warfare. The coins are now in the Antiquarian Museum, and are interesting
from some of them being of a date considerably anterior to the supposed erection of the
tower.2

The ancient fortifications of the town of Edinburgh, reared under the charter of James
II., formed, at this part, in reality an advanced wall of the Castle, the charge of which
was probably committed entirely to the garrison. The wall, after extending for a short
way from the Well-house Tower, along the margin of the Loch, was carried up the Castle
bank, and thence over the declivity on the south, until it again took an easterly direction
towards the ancient Overbow Port, at the first turning of the West Bow, so that the whole
of the Esplanade was separated from the town by this defence. There was in the highest
part of the wall, a gate which served as a means of communication with the town by the
Castle Hill, and was styled the Barrier Gate of the Castle. This outer port was temporarily
restored for the reception of George IV., on his visit to the Castle in the year 1822, and it
was again brought into requisition in 1832, in order completely to isolate the garrison,
during the prevalence of Asiatic cholera.

Previous to the enclosure and planting of the Castle bank and the bed of the ancient
North Loch, the Esplanade was the principal promenade of the citizens, and a road led
from the top of the bank, passing in an oblique direction down the north side, by the
Well-house Tower, to St Cuthbert's Church, some indications of which still remain. This
church road had existed from a very early period, and is mentioned in the charter of

1 The following extracts from the Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 332-3, in reference to the siege of the Castle by Sir
William Drury in 1573 (ante, p. 84), embrace various interesting allusions to the local detail :—" Wpoun the xxij
day of Maij, the south quarter of the toure of the Castell, callit Dauid's toure, fell through the vehement and continuall
schuting, togidder with some of the foir wall, and of the heid wall besyd Sanct Margaretis zet.

" Wpoun the xxiiij day, the eist quarter of the said tour fell, with the north quarteris of the port culzeis ; the tour
als callit Wallace tour, with some mair of the foir wall, notwithstanding the Castell men kust thair hand with schutting

of small artailzerie Wpoun the xxvj day, the haill cumpanyis of Scotland and Ingland, being quietlie

couvenit at vij houris in the mornyng, passed with ledders, ane half to the blockhous, the vther half to Sanct Katherin's
zet, on the west syd, quhair the syid wes schote doun." The Castle was at length rendered by Sir William Kirkaldy
on the 29th of the month. In Calderwood's History, Wodrow Soc., vol. iii. 281, the following occurs, of the same
date : — " Captain Mitchell was layed with his band at Sanct Cuthbert's Kirk, to stoppe the passage to St Margaret's
Well." Also in "The Inventory of Royal Wardrobe," &c., p. 168,— "Item, ane irne yet for Sanct Margareth's
tour," &c.

* Archaeologia Scotica, vol. ii. pp. 469-477.

THE CASTLE. 133

David I. to Holyrood Abbey, in the description of the lands lying under the Castle. In
the old song, entitled " The Young Laird and Edinburgh Katy," to which Allan Ramsay
added some verses, the laird addresses his mistress, —

My dear, quoth I, thanks to the Night
That never wisht a Lover ill ;
Since ye 're out of your Mither's sight,
Let 'a take a walk up to the Hill.

In a footnote the poet adds — " The Castle Hill, where young people frequently take
the air on an evening," but the local allusions of the earlier stanza are not carried out in
his additions.1 This favourite walk of the citizens has been greatly improved since then,
by levelling and the construction of parapet walls. In an act passed in the reign of Queen
Anne, for the better keeping of the Lord's Day, it is specially mentioned, along with the
King's Park and the Pier of Leith, as the most frequent scene of the Sunday promenadings
that then excited the stern rebukes of the clergy ; and, notwithstanding the great changes
that have occurred since that period, the same description might still be given, with the
single addition of the Oalton Hill to the list.

1 The Castle Hill was very often made the scene of public executions, and was particularly famous for the burning of
witches, and those convicted of unnatural crimes. In the reign of James IV., in 1538, John Lord Forbes was beheaded
here, and a few days afterwards, the Lady Glamis, sister of the Earl of Angus, was burnt alive, on a charge of high
treason. Here also, during the following reign, Foret, the Vicar of Dollar, and several others of the earliest reformers,
perished at the stake. The Diurnal of Occurrents records many other executions, such as — "September 1st, 1570,
thair wer tua personis brint in the Castell Hill of Edinburgh, for the committing of ane horrible sinne." Birrel again
mentions, e.g., July 1605, "Henry Lourie brunt on the Castell Hill for witchcraft, committed and done by him in Kyle; "
and in Nicol's Diary, from 1650 to 1667, including the period of the Commonwealth, executions on this spot occur with
painful frequency, as on the 15th of October 165G, when seven culprits, including three women, were executed for
different crimes, two of whom were burnt. Again, " 9th March 1659, thair wer fyve wemen, witches, brint on the
Castell Hill for witchcraft, all of them confessand thair covenanting with Satan, sum of thame renunceand thair
baptisme, all of thame oft tymes dancing with the Devill." In the reign of Charles I. a novel character was assigned to
it. The Earl of Stirling, having obtained leave to colonise Nova Scotia, and sell the honour of the baronetage to two
hundred imaginary colonists, the difficulty of infeoffing the knights in their remote possessions was overcome by a
royal mandate converting the soil of the Castle Hill of Edinburgh, for the time being, into that of Nova Scotia, and the
new baronets were accordingly invested with their honours on this spot.

CHAPTER IL

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL.

DREVIOTJS to the discovery of gunpowder, and while its destructive powers remained
only very partially understood, the vicinity of the Castle seems to have been eagerly
selected as a desirable locality for the erection of dwellings, that might thus in some degree
share in the protection which its fortifications secured to those within the walls ; and we
find, accordingly, in its immediate neighbourhood, considerable remains of ancient
grandeur. Before examining these, however, we may remark, that a general and progressive
character prevails throughout the features of our domestic architecture, many of which are
peculiar to Scotland, and some of them only to be found in Edinburgh.

Various specimens of the rude dwellings of an early date remain in the Grassmarket,
the Pleasance, and elsewhere, which, though more or less modified to adapt them to modern
habits and manners, still retain the main primitive features of a substantial stone ground-
flat, surmounted with a second story of wood, generally approached by an outside stair,
and exhibiting irregular and picturesque additions, stuck on, like the clusters of swallows'
nests that gather round the parent dwelling, as the offshoots of the family increase and
demand accommodation.

In buildings of more pretension, the character of the mouldings and general form of the
doorway, the ornaments of the gables, the shape of the windows, even the pitch of the roof,
and, what is more interesting than any of these, the style and character of the inscriptions

VIGNETTE — Liutel from the Guise Palace, Blyth's Close.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 135

so generally placed on them, all afford tests as to the period of their erection, fully as
definite and trustworthy as those that mark the progressive stages of the ecclesiastical
architecture of the Middle Ages. The earliest form of the crow-stepped gable presents a
iseries of pediments surmounting the steps, occasionally highly ornamented, and always
giving a rich efi'ect to the building. Probably the very latest specimen of this, in Edin-
burgh, is the fine old building of the Mint, in the Cowgate, which
bears the date 1574 over its principal entrance, while its other orna-
ments are similar to many of a more recent date. After the adoption
of the plain square crow-step, it seems still to have been held as an
important feature of the building ; in many of the older houses, the
arms or initials, or some other device of the owner, are to be found
on the lowest of them, even where the buildings are so lofty as to
place them almost out of sight. The dormer window, surmounted
with the thistle, rose, &c., and the high-peaked gable to the street,
are no less familiar features in our older domestic architecture.
Many specimens, also, of windows originally divided by stone mullions, and with lead
casements, still remain in the earliest mansions of the higher classes ; and in several of
these there are stone recesses or niches of a highly ornamental character, the use of which
has excited considerable discussion among antiquaries. A later form of window than
the last, exhibits the upper part glazed, and finished below with a richly carved wooden
transom, while the under half is closed with shutters, occasionally highly adorned on the
exterior with a variety of carved ornaments.

Towards the close of Charles II.'s reign, an entirely new order of architecture was
adopted, engrafting the mouldings and some of the principal features of the Italian
style upon the forms that previously prevailed. The Golfers' Land in the Canongate is
a good and early specimen of this. The gables are still steep, and the roofs of a high
pitch ; and while the front assumes somewhat of the character of a pediment, the crow-
steps are retained on the side gables ; but these features soon after disappear, and give way
to a regular pediment, surmounted with urns, and the like ornaments, — a very good speci-
men of which remains on the south side of the Castle Hill, as well as others in various
parts of the Old Town. The same district still presents good specimens of the old wooden
fronted lands, with their fore stairs and handsome inside turnpike from the first floor, the
construction of which Maitland affirms to be coeval with the destruction of the extensive
forests of the Borough Muir, in the reign of James IV. We furnish a view of some other
remarkably picturesque specimens of the same style of building in this locality, recently
demolished to make way for the New College. All these various features of the ancient
domestic architecture of the Scottish Capital will come under review in the course of the
Work, in describing the buildings most worthy of notice that still remain, or have been
demolished during the present centmy.

Immediately below the Castle rock, on its south side, there exists an ancient appendage
of the Royal Palace of the Castle, still retaining the name of the King's Stables, although
no hoof of the royal stud has been there for wellnigh three centuries. This district lies
without the line of the ancient city wall, and was therefore not only in an exposed situs-

i36 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

tion for the royal stables, but the approach to it from the Castle must have been by a
very inconvenient and circuitous route, although it was immediately overlooked by the
windows of the royal apartments. It seems more probable that the earliest buildings on
this site were erected in the reign of James IV., when the low ground to the westward
was the scene of frequent tiltings and of magnificent tournaments, the fame of which
spread throughout Europe, and attracted the most daring knights-errant to that chivalrous
Monarch's Court.1 Considerable accommodation would be required for the horses and
attendants on these occasions, as well as for the noble combatants, among whom the King,
it is well known, was no idle spectator ; but the buildings of that date, which we presume
to have been reared for these public combats, were probably only of a temporary nature, as
they were left without the extended wall, built at the commencement of the following
reign, in 1513, a procedure not likely to have taken place had they been of much value.
Maitland, however, mentions a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the remains of which
were visible in his time (1750) at the foot of the Chapel Wynd ; and Kincaid,2 who wrote
towards the close of the century, speaks of them as still remaining there ; but since then
they have entirely disappeared, and nothing but the name of the Wynd, which formed the
approach to the chapel, survives to indicate its site. This may, with every probability, be
presumed to have been at the point of junction with that and the Lady's Wynd, both
evidently named from their proximity to the same chapel.

On this locality, now occupied by the meanest buildings, James IV. was wont to preside
at the joustings of the knights and barons of his Court, and to present the meed of honour
to the victor from his own hand ; or, as in the famous encounter, already related, between
Sir Patrick Hamilton and a Dutch knight, to watch the combat from the Castle walls, and
from thence to act as umpire of the field. The greater portion of the ancient tilting ground
remained unenclosed when Maitland wrote, and is described by him as a pleasant green,
about one hundred and fifty yards long and fifty broad, adjoining the chapel of the Virgin
Mary, on the west. But this " pleasant green " is now crowded with slaughter-houses,
tan-pits, and dwellings of the humblest description.

In the challenge in 1571, between Alexander Stewart, younger, of Garlies, and Sir
William Kirkaldy of Grange, the place of combat proposed is, " upon the ground
the baresse be-west the West Port of Edinburgh, the place accustomed, and of old
appointed, for triell of suche maters."3 The exact site of this interesting spot is now
occupied in part by the western approach, which crosses it immediately beyond the Castle
Bridge ; it is defined in one of the title-deeds of the ground, acquired by the City
Improvements Commission, as " All and haill these houses and yards of Orchardfield,
commonly called Livingston's Yards, comprehending therein that piece of ground called
The Barras."

The interest attaching to these scenes of ancient feats of arms has been preserved by
successive events almost to our own day. In 1661 the King's Stables were purchased by
the Town Council for £1000 Scots, and the admission of James Boisland, the seller, to the
freedom of the city.4 The right, however, of the new possessors, to whom they would
seem to have been resold, was made a subject of legal investigation at a later date. Foun-

1 Ante, p. 23. 2 Maitland, p. 172. Kincaid, p. 103.

8 Calderwood'a Hist., Wod. Soc., vol. iii. p. 108. 4 Coun. Reg., vol. xx. p. 268, apud Kincaid, p. 103.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 137

tainhall records, llth March 1685, a reduction pursued by the Duke of Queensberry, as
Constable and Captain of the Castle of Edinburgh, against Thomas Boreland and the other
heritors and possessors of the King's Stables, alleging that they were a part of the Castle.
The proprietors claimed to hold their property by virtue of a feu granted in the reign of
James V. But the judges decided, that unless the defenders could prove a legal dissolu-
tion of the royal possession, they must be held as the King's Stables, belonging to the
Castle, and accordingly annexed to the Crown. Thomas Boreland's house still stands,1
immediately behind the site of the old Corn Market. It is a handsome and substantial
erection, adorned with picturesque gables and dormer windows, which form a prominent
feature in the oft-repeated view of " the Castle from the Vennel;" and from the date,
1675, which still appears over the main doorway, we may presume that this substantial
mansion, then so recently erected, had its full influence in directing the attention of the
Duke of Queensberry to this pendicle of the royal patrimony. It bears over the entrance,
in addition to the date, the initials T. B. and V. B., those of the proprietor, and probably
of his brother or wife ; and above them is boldly carved the loyal inscription,
FEAR • GOD • HONOR • THE • KING.

It may reasonably be presumed that the owner must have regarded the concessions
demanded from him on behalf of royalty, so speedily thereafter, as a somewhat freer
translation of his motto than he had any conception of, when he inscribed it where it
should daily remind him of the duties of a good subject.

Several of the neighbouring houses are evidently of considerable antiquity, and may,
with little hesitation, be referred to a much earlier date than this. Their latest reflection
of the privileges of royalty has been that of affording sanctuary for a brief period to debtors,
a right of protection pertaining to the precincts of royal residences, now entirely fallen into
desuetude there, though affirmed to have proved available for this purpose within the
memory of some aged neighbours.2

A little to the west of this, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Canal Basin, is a
place still bearing the name of the Castle Barns. It is described by Maitland as for the
accommodation of the Court when the King resided in the Castle, and it no doubt occa-
sionally sufficed for such a purpose ; but the name implies its having been the grange or
farm attached to the royal residence, and this is further confirmed by earlier maps, where
a considerable portion of ground, now lying on both sides of the Lothian Road, is included
under the term.

But the most interesting portion of Edinburgh connected with the Castle, is its ancient
approach. Under the name of the Castle Hill, is included not only the broad Esplanade
extending between the fortifications and the town, but also a considerable district,
formerly bounded on the south by the West Bow, and containing many remarkable
and once patrician alleys and mansions, the greater portion of which have disap-
peared in the course of the extensive changes effected of late years on that part of the
town.

A singularly picturesque and varied mass of buildings forms the nearest portion of the
town to the Castle, on the south side of the approach, though there existed formerly a very
old house between this and the Castle, as delineated in Gordon's map. This group is

1 Disposition of House in Portsburgh, Council Charter Koom. * Chambers' s Traditions, vol. i. p. 99.

138 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

bounded on the oast by Brown's Close, and forms a detached block of houses of various
dates and styles, all exhibiting considerable remains of former magnificence.

The house that now forms the south-west angle towards the Castle Hill bears, on the
pediment of a dormer window facing the Castle, the date 1630, with the initials A. M.,
M. N. ; and there still remains, sticking in the wall, a cannon ball, said to have been shot
from the Castle during the cannonade of 1745, though we are assured that it was placed
there by order of government, to indicate that no building would be permitted on that
side nearer the Castle. Through this land1 there is an alley called Blair's Close, leading
by several curious windings into an open court behind. At the first angle in the close,
a handsome gothic doorway, of very elegant workmanship, meets the view, forming the
entry to a turnpike stair. The doorway is surmounted with an ogee arch, in the tym-
panum of which is somewhat rudely sculptured a coronet with supporters, — " two deer-
hounds," says Chambers, " the well-known supporters of the Duke of Gordon's arms." *
This accords with the local tradition, which states it to have been the town mansion of
that noble family ; but the style of this doorway, and the substantial character of the
whole building, leave no room to doubt that it is an erection of a much earlier date
than the Dukedom, which was only created in 1684. Tradition, however, which is never
to be despised in questions of local antiquity, proves to be nearly correct in this case, as
we find, in one of the earliest titles to the property now in the possession of the City Im-
provements Commission, endorsed, " Disposition of House be Sir Robert Baird to William
Baird, his second son, 1694," it is thus defined, — "All and hail that my lodging in the
Castel Hill of Edinburgh, formerly possessed by the Duchess of Gordon." This appears,
from the date of the disposition, to have been the first Duchess, Lady Elizabeth Howard,
daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. She retired to a Convent in Flanders during the life-
time of the Duke, but afterwards returned to Edinburgh, where she principally resided
till her death, which took place at the Abbey Hill in 1732, sixteen years after that of
her husband.

In 1711, her Grace excited no small stir in Edinburgh, by sending to the Dean and
Faculty of Advocates, " a silver medal, with a head of the Pretender on one side, and on
the other the British Isles, with the word Reddite." On the Dean presenting the medal,
the propriety of accepting it was keenly discussed, when twelve only, out of seventy-
five members present, testified their favour for the House of Hanover by voting its
rejection.3

The most recent of the interior fittings of this mansion appear old enough to have
remained from the time of its occupation by the Duchess. It is finished throughout with
wooden panelling, and one large room in particular, overlooking the Castle Esplanade, is
elegantly decorated with rich carvings, and with a painting (one of old Norie's 4 pictorial
adornments) filling a panel over the chimney-piece, and surrounded by an elaborate piece

1 The term Land, in this and similar instances throughout the Work, is used according to its Scottish acceptation,
and signifies a building of several stories of separate dwellings, communicating by a common stair.

2 Traditions, vol. i. p. 153.

3 Douglas's Peerage, vol. i. p. 654.

4 Norie, a house-decorator and painter of the last century, whose works are very common, painted on the panels of
the older houses in Edinburgh. Pinkerton remarks, in his introduction to the "Scottish Gallery," 1799, — "Norie's
genius for landscapes entitles him to a place in the list of Scotch painters."

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 139

of carved wood work, exhibiting traces of gilding. An explosion of gunpowder, which took
place in the lower part of the house in 1811, attended with loss of life, entirely de-
stroyed the ancient fireplace, which was of a remarkably beautiful Gothic design.

Notwithstanding the comparatively modern decorations, the house still retains unequi-
vocal remains of a much earlier period. The sculptured doorway in Blair's Close, already
alluded to, forming the original main entrance to the whole building, is specially worthy of
notice, and would of itself justify us in assigning its erection to the earlier part of the
sixteenth century. It very nearly corresponds with one still remaining on the west side of
Blackfriar's Wynd, the entrance to the turnpike stair of an ancient mansion, which appears,
from the title-deeds of a neighbouring property, to have been the residence of the Earl of
Morton. In the latter example, the heraldic supporters, though equally rudely sculptured,
present somewhat more distinctly the same features as in the other, and both are clearly
intended for unicorns.1

The south front of the building is finished with a parapet, adorned with gurgoils in the
shape of cannons, and on the first floor2 (in Blair's Close) there is still remaining an
ancient fireplace of huge old-fashioned dimensions. The jambs are neatly carved Gothic
pillars, similar in design to several that formerly existed in the Guise Palace, Blyth's
Close ; and the whole is now enclosed, and forms a roomy coal-cellar, after having been
used as a bedcloset by the previous tenant in these degenerate days. As late as 1783, this
part of the old mansion was the residence of John Grieve, Esq., then Lord Provost of
Edinburgh.

This house has apparently been one of special note in early times from its substantial
magnificence. It is described in one of the deeds as " that tenement or dwelling-house
called the Sclate House of old, of the deceased Patrick Edgar," a definition repeated in
several others, evidently to distinguish it from its humble thatched neighbours, " lying on
the south side of the High Street of Edinburgh, near the Castle wall, between the lands of
the deceased Mr A. Syme, advocate, on the east, the close of the said Patrick Edgar on
the west," &c. It is alluded to in the Diurnal of Occurrents, 7th September 1570, where
the escape of Robert Hepburn, younger of Wauchtoun, from the Earl of Morton's adherents,
is described. It is added — " He came to the Castell of Edinburgh, quhairin he was ressauit
with great difficultie ; for when he was passand in at the said Castell zett, his adversaries
were at Patrik Edgar his hous end." s This mansion was latterly possessed, as we have
seen, by the Newbyth family, by whom it was held for several generations ; and here it was
that the gallant Sir David Baird was born and brought up.* It is said also to have been

1 The adoption of the royal supporters may possibly have been an assumption of the Regent's, in virtue of his
exercise of the functions of royalty. In which case, the building on the Castle Hill might be presumed also to be his,
and deserted by him from its dangerous proximity to the Castle, when held by his rivals. This, however, is mere con-
jecture. A note in the Diurnal of Occurrents, 20th Nov. 1572, states — " In this menetyme, James Earle of Mortoun,
regent, lay deidlie seik ; his Grace was lugeit in Williame Craikis lugeing on the south syid of the trone, in
Edinburgh."

2 To prevent misconception in the description of buildings, we may state that, throughout the Work, the floors of
buildings are to be understood thus : — Sunk, or area floor, ground floor, first floor, second floor, &c., reckoning from
below.

* Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 186.

4 On Sir David Baird's return from the Spanish Campaign, he visited his birth-place, and examined with great interest
the scenes where he had passed his boyhood. Chambers has furnished a lively account of this in his Traditions, vol. i.
p. 155.

140 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

afterwards possessed by the ancient family of the Nisbets of Dirleton, and by Gordon of
Braid; but, if so, it must have been as tenants, as it was sold by Mr Baird to A. Brown,
Esq., of Greenbanlr, from whom it passed successively to his sons, Colonel George Brown,
and Captain James Brown, commander of the ship Alfred, in the East India Company's
service. From these later owners, Brown's Close, where the modern entrance to the house
is situated, derives its name.

The name of Webster's Close, on the same side of the street, by which Brown's Court
was formerly known, served to indicate the site of Dr Webster's house, the originator of
the Widows' Scheme, and long one of the ministers of the old Tolbooth Kirk. He was a
person of great influence and popularity in his day, and entertained Dr Johnson often at
liis table during his visit to Edinburgh. At a later period it was occupied by the Rev. Dr
Greenfield, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University, after whose time
it passed through various hands, and closed its career as a cholera hospital, previous to its
demolition in 1837, to make way for the Castle Road. Dr Webster built another house
immediately adjoining this, from stones taken out of the North Loch. It was first occu-
pied by Mr Hogg as a banking house, and afterwards, for twenty years, by the Society of
Scottish Antiquaries, during the whole of which period, Alexander Smellie, Esq., the
Emeritus Secretary, resided in the house.

A very handsome old land of considerable breadth stands to the east of this. It presents
a polished ashler front to the street, ornamented with string courses, and surmounted by
an elegant range of dormer windows, with finials of various design. Over the main en-
trance, in Bos well's Court, there is a shield bearing a fancy device, with the initials T. L.,
and the inscription, 0 • LORD • IN • THE • IS • AL • MI • TRAIST. In a compartment
on the left of the shield, there are also the initials, I. L., R. W. ; a similar compartment
on the right is now defaced.1

Immediately to the west of the Assembly Hall, a tall narrow land forms the last remain-
ing building on the south side of the Castle Hill. In the style of its architecture it differs
entirely from any of the neighbouring houses, presenting a pediment in front, surmounted
with urns, and otherwise adorned according to the fashion that prevailed during the earlier
part of the last century.

This house, as appears from the title-deeds, was built by Robert
Mowbray, Esq., of Castlewan, in 1740, on the site of an ancient
mansion belonging to the Countess Dowager of Hyndford. The
keystone of the centre window in the second floor is ornamented
with a curiously inwrought cipher of the initials of Robert Mow-
bray, its builder; from whose possession it passed into that of
William, the fourth Earl of Dumfries, who succeeded his mother,
Penelope, Countess of Dumfries in her own right, and afterwards, by the death of his

1 The close, we believe, derives its name from a Dr Boswell, who resided there about eighty years since. We were
informed, however, by the good lady who very politely conducted us over the house, that it was the Earl of Both-
well's mansion, " An' nae doubt," said she, as she showed us into the best room, with its fireplace lined with Dutch
tiles, " nae doubt mony queer doings hae taen place here between the auld Earl and Queen Mary ! " Nothing is so
amusing, in investigating our local antiquities, as the constant association of Queen Mary's name with everything that
is old, however homely or even ridiculous.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 141

brother, united with it the title of Earl of Stair ; a combination of titles in one person,
that afforded the wits of last century a favourite source of jest in the supposed recontres of
the two noble Earls.

The mansion appears to have passed into this nobleman's possession very shortly after
its erection, as among the titles there is a declaration by William Earl of Dumfries, of
the date 20th March 1747, "that the back laigh door or passage on the west side of
the house, which enters to the garden and property belonging to Mr Charles Hamilton
Gordon, advocate, is ane entry of mere tolerance given to me at the pleasure of the
owner," &c.

The Earl was succeeded in it by his widow, who, exactly within year and day of his
death, married the Honourable Alexander Gordon, son of the second Earl of Aberdeen. On
his appointment as a Lord of Session in 1784, he assumed the title of Lord Eockville,
from his estate in East Lothian. He was the last titled occupant that inhabited this
once patrician dwelling of the Old Town ; and the narrow alley that gives access to the court
behind, accordingly retains the name of Rockville Close. Within this close, towards the
west, there is a plain substantial land now exposed to view by the Castle Road, originally
possessed by Elizabeth, Countess Dowager of Hyndford, and sold by her in the year 1740,
to Henry, the last Lord Holyroodhouse, who died at his house in the Canongate in 1755.1
Various ancient closes, and very picturesque front lands that formed the continuation of
the southern side of the Castle Hill, have been swept away to give place to the new
western approach and the Assembly Hall. One of these, Ross's Court, contained " The
great Marquis of Argyle's House in the Castlehill," described by Creech, in his " Fugitive
Pieces," as inhabited, at that degenerate period, by a hosier, at a rental of £12 per annum.
Another of them, Kennedy's Close, though in its latter days a mean and dirty alley,
possessed some interesting remains of earlier times. It probably derived its name from a
recent occupant, a son of Sir Andrew Kennedy of Clowburn, Baronet ; but both from the
antique character, and the remains of faded grandeur in some of its buildings, it had doubt-
less afforded residences for some of the old nobles of the Court of Holyrood. The front land
was said to have been the town mansion of the Earls of Cassillis, whose family name is
Kennedy. It was adorned, at the entrance to the close, with a handsome stone architrave,
supported on two elegant spiral fluted pillars, and the rest of the building presented a
picturesque wooden front to the street. Within the close there was another curious old
wooden fronted land, which tradition reported as having been at one period a nonjurant
Episcopal chapel. An inspection of this building during its demolition, served to show
that, although the main fabric was substantial and elegant stone work, the wooden front
was an integral part of the original design. It was found that the main beams of the house,
of fine old oak, were continued forward through the stone wall, so as to support the wood
work beyond, and this was further confirmed by the existence of a large fireplace on the
outside of the stone wall ; an arrangement which may still be seen in a similarly constructed
land at the head of Lady Stair's Close, and probably in others. Within this house there
was one of the beautifully sculptured gothic niches, already alluded to, of which we furnish
a view, in the state in which it existed when the house was taken down. This we presume

1 Douglas's Peerage.

142

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

to have been the same that Arnot alludes to as one of the private oratories existing in his
time, in which " The baptismal fonts are still remaining." It is described by him as a
building nigh the Weigh-house, on the south side of the Castle Hill, which has been set

apart for devotion.1 This idea, first suggested by him, of
these ornamental niches having been originally intended for
baptismal fonts, has been repeated by some of the most care-
ful writers on the antiquities of Edinburgh in our own day,
although the fitness of such an appendage to a private oratory
seems very questionable indeed. From our own observation,
we are inclined to believe that, in the majority of cases,
they were simply ornamental recesses or cupboards ; and
this is the more confirmed, from their most common position
being at the side of the fireplace, and the base in nearly
all of them being a flat and generally projecting ledge.
"We doubt not," Arnot adds, "but that many more of
the present dwelling-houses in Edinburgh have formerly been consecrated to religious
purposes ; but to discover them would be much less material than difficult ! " It may
reasonably be regretted that one who professed to treat of our local antiquities, should have
dismissed, in so summary and contemptuous a manner, this interesting portion of his
subject, for which, as he acknowledges, he possessed numerous facilities now beyond our
reach.

A house of a very different appearance from any yet described occupies a prominent
position on the north Castle bank, and associates the surrounding district with the name of
Scotland's great pastoral poet, Allan Ramsay. The house is of a fantastic shape, but it
occupies a position that, we may safely say, could not be surpassed in any city in Europe,
as the site of a " Poet's Nest." It is surrounded by a beautiful garden, and though now
in the very heart of the city, it still commands a magnificent and varied prospect, bounded
only on the distant horizon by the Highland hills. At the time of its erection, it was a
suburban retreat, uniting the attractions of a country villa, with an easy access to the centre
of the city. We have been told by a gentleman of antiquarian tastes, from information
communicated to him nearly fifty years ago, that Ramsay applied to the Crown for as much
ground from the Castle Hill as would serve him to build a cage for his burd, meaning his
wife, to whom he was warmly attached, and hence the octagon shape it assumed, not unlike
an old parrot cage ! If so, she did not live to share its comforts, her death having occurred
in 1743. Here the poet retired in his sixtieth year, anticipating the enjoyment of its pleasing
seclusion for many years to come ; and although he had already exhausted his energies in the
diligent pursuit of business, he spent, in this lovely retreat, the chief portion of the last
twelve years of his life in ease and tranquil enjoyment, though interrupted towards its close
by a painful malady. He was remarkably cheerful and lively to the last, and his powers of
conversation were such, that his company was eagerly courted by all ranks of society ; yet
he delighted in nothing so much as seeing himself surrounded by his own family and their
juvenile companions, with whom he would join in their sports with the most hearty life and
good-humour.

1 Arnot, p. 245.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 143

The poet was extremely proud of his new mansion, and appears to have been somewhat
surprised to find that its fantastic shape rather excited the mirth than the admiration of his
fellow-citizens. The wags of the town compared it to a goose pie ; and on his complaining
of this one day to Lord Elibank, his lordship replied, " Indeed, Allan, when I see you in
it, I think they are not far wrong ! "

On the death of Allan Ramsay, in 1757, he was succeeded in his honse by his son, the
eminent portrait-painter, who added a new front and wing to it, and otherwise modified its
original grotesqueness ; and since his time it was the residence of the Rev. Dr Baird,
late Principal of the University. Some curious discoveries, made in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the house, in the lifetime of the poet, are thus recorded in the Scots Magazine
for 1754, — " About the middle of June, some workmen employed in levelling the upper
part of Mr Ramsay's garden, in the Castle Hill, fell upon a subterraneous chamber about
fourteen feet square, in which were found an image of white stone, with a crown upon its
head, supposed to be the Virgin Mary ; two brass candlesticks ; about a dozen of ancient
Scottish and French coins, and some other trinkets, scattered among the rubbish. By
several remains of burnt matter, and two cannon balls, it is guessed that the building above
ground was destroyed by the Castle in some former confusion." This, we would be inclined
to think, may have formed a portion of the ancient Church of St Andrew, of which so little
is known ; though, from Maitland's description, the site should perhaps be looked for
somewhat lower down the bank. It is thus alluded to by him, — " At the southern side of
the Nordloch, near the foot of the Castle Hill, stood a church, the remains whereof I am
informed were standing within these few years, by Professor Sir Robert Stewart, who had
often seen them. This I take to have been the Church of St Andrew, near the Castle of
Edinburgh, to the Trinity Altar, in which Alexander Curor, vicar of Livingston, by a
deed of gift of the 20th December 1488, gave a perpetual annuity of twenty merks Scot-
tish money."1 In the panelling of the Reservoir, which stands immediately to the south
of Ramsay Garden, a hole is still shown, which is said to have been occasioned by a shot
in the memorable year 1745. The bsll was preserved for many years in the house, and
ultimately presented to the late Professor Playfair.

An old stone land occupies the corner of Ramsay Lane, on the north side of the Castle
Hill. It presents a picturesque front to the main street, surmounted with a handsome
double dormer window. On its eastern side, down Pipe's Close, there is a large and
neatly moulded window, exhibiting the remains of a stone mullion and transom, with which
it has been divided; and, in the interior of the same apartment, directly opposite to this,
there are the defaced remains of a large gothic niche, the only ornamental portions of which
now visible are two light and elegant buttresses at the sides, affording indication of its
original decorations.

Tradition, as reported- to us by several different parties, assigns this house to the Laird
of Cockpen, the redoubted hero, as we presume, of Scottish song ; and one party further
affirms, in confirmation of this, that Ramsay Lane had its present name before the days
of the poet, having derived it from this mansion of the Ramsays of Cockpen.2 Its

1 Maitland, p. 206.

1 The Lairds of Cockpen were a branch of the Ramsays of Dalhonsie ; Douglas's Peerage, vol. i. p. 404. Maitland in
his List of Streets, &c., mentions a Ramsay's Close without indicating it on the map.

144 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

last recorded noble occupants are mentioned by Chambers as " two ancient spinsters,
daughters of Lord Gray." Over the main entrance of the next land, there is a defaced
inscription, with the date 1621. The house immediately below this is worthy of notice,
as a fine specimen of an old wooden fronted land, with the timbers of the gable elegantly
carved. During the early part of the last century, this formed the family mansion of
David, the third Earl of Leven, on whom the title devolved after being borne by two
successive Countesses in their own right. He was appointed Governor of Edinburgh Castle
•by William and Mary, on its surrender by the Duke of Gordon in 1689 ; and shortly after
lie headed his regiment, and distinguished himself at the battle of Killicrankie by running
away ! To the east of this there formerly stood, at the head of Sempill's Close, another
wooden fronted land, ornamented with a curious projecting porch at the entrance to the
close, and similar in general style to those taken down in 1845, of which we furnish an
engraving. It hung over the street, story above story, each projecting further the higher
it rose, as if in defiance of all laws of gravitation, until at length it furnished unquestionable
evidence of its great age by literally tumbling down about the ears of its poor inmates,
happily without any of them suffering very serious injury.

Immediately behind the site of this house stands a fine old mansion, at one time
belonging to the Sempill family, whose name the close still retains. It is a large and
substantial building, with a projecting turnpike stair, over the entrance to which is the
inscription, PRAISED BE THE LORD MY GOD, MY STRENGTH, AND MY
REDEEMER. ANNO DOM. 1638, and a device like an anchor, entwined with the
letter S. Over another door, which gives entrance to the lower part of the same house,
there is the inscription, SEDES MANET OPTIMA CCELO, with the date and device
repeated. On the left of the first inscription there is a shield, bearing party per fesse, in
chief three crescents, a mullet in base. The earliest titles of the property are wanting, and
we have failed to discover to whom these arms belong. The house was purchased by
Hugh, twelfth Lord Sempill, in 1743, from Thomas Brown and Patrick Manderston, two
merchant burgesses, who severally possessed the upper and under portions of it By him it
was converted into one large mansion, and apparently an additional story added to it, as
the outline of dormer windows may be traced, built into the west wall.

Lord Sempill, who had seen considerable military service, commanded the left wing of
the royal army at Culloden. He was succeeded by his son John, thirteenth Lord Sempill,
who, in 1755, sold the family mansion to Sir James Clerk of Pennycuik.

The ancient family of the Sempills is associaled in various ways with Scottish song.
John, son of Robert, the third Lord, married Mary Livingston, one of " the Queen's
Maries." Their son, Sir James, a man of eminent ability and great influence in his day,
was held in high estimation, and employed as ambassador to England in 1599; he was the
author of the clever satire, entitled "The Packman's Paternoster." His son followed in
his footsteps, and produced an " Elegy on Habbie Simsou, the piper of Kilbarchan," l a
poem of great vigour and much local celebrity ; while his grandson, Francis Sempill of
Beltrees, is the author both of the fine old song, " She rose and let me in," and of a curious
poem preserved in Watson's collection, entitled " Banishment of Poverty," written about

1 Watson's Collection of Scots Poems, 1706, part i. p. 32.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL.

'45

IfiSO. It contains some interesting local allusions, and among others, the following, to
the mansion of his noble relatives, which would appear at that time to have been at
Leith : —

Kind widow Caddel sent for me

To dine, as she did oft, forsooth ;
But oh, alas ! that might not be,

Her house was ov'r near the Tolbooth.

* * *

I slipt uiy page, aud stour'd to Leith,

To try my credit at the wine,
But foul a dribble fyl'd my teeth,

He catch'd me at the Coffee-sign.
I staw down through the Nether- Wynd,

My Lady Sample's house was near ;
To enter there was my design,

Where Poverty durst ne'er appear.

I din'd there, but I baid not lang,

My Lady fain would shelter me ;
But oh, alas ! I needs must gang,

And leave that comely company.
Her lad convoy 'd me with her key,

Out through the garden to the flels,
But I the Links could graithly see,

My Governour was at my heels.1

There is a tradition in the family, that
Lady Sempill having been a Catholic, the
mansion was at that period a favourite place
of resort for the Romish priests then visiting
Scotland in disguise, and that there existed
a concealed passage, — apparently alluded to
in the poem, — by which they could escape on
any sudden surprise. One other incident in
connection with the Scottish muse deserves

notice here : — Dr Austin, the author of the celebrated song, " For lack of gold she has left
rue," having •' given his woes an airing in song," on his desertion by an inconstant beauty,
for the Duke of zYthol, married the Honourable Anne Sempill in 1754, by whom he
had a numerous family. His house is still standing in the north-west corner of Brown
Square.

To the east of Seuipill's Close, there stood till recently an ancient and curious land,
possessing all the characteristics of those already alluded to as the earliest houses remain-
ing in Edinburgh. It consisted only of two stories, and its internal arrangements were of
the simplest description. The entire main floor appeared to have formed originally a

1 Watson's Collection of Scots Poems, part i. p. 14. The full title of the Poem previously alluded to is, "A Pick-
tooth for the Pope ; or, The Pack-man's Paternoster, set downe in a Dialogue betwixt a Pack-man and a Priest." The
work is now very scarce. A polemical work by the same author, entitled " Sacrilege sacredly handled," London, 1619,
contains in the preface the following quaint allusion to his name — " A sacred and high subject seemeth to require a
sacred pen-man too : True. And though I be not of the tribe of Levi, yet I hope of the tents of Sent, how Simple
soever."

VIOMKTTK- Lord Serapill's House, Seinpill's Close, Castle HilL

146 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

single apartment, with a huge fireplace at the west end, and a gallery added to it by the
timber projection in front. The hearth-stone was raised above the level of the floor, and
guarded by a stone ledge or fender, similar in character to a fireplace of the thirteenth cen-
tury still existing at St Mary's Abbey, York. This room was lighted by a large dormer
window in the roof, in addition to the usual windows in front ; and in the thickness of
the stone wall, within the wooden gallery, there were two ornamental stone recesses, with
projecting sculptured sills, and each closed by an oak door, richly carved with dolphins
and other ornamental devices.1 The roof was high and steep, and the entire appearance
of the building singularly picturesque. We have been the more particular in describing
it, from the interest attaching to its original possessors. It is defined, in one of the title-
deeds of the neighbouring property, as " That tenement of land belonging to the chaplain
of the chaplainry of St Nicolas's Altar, founded within the College Church of St Giles,
within the burgh of Edinburgh ; " it is now replaced by a plain, unattractive, modern
building.

The most interesting portions of this district, however, or perhaps of any other among
the private buildings in the Old Town, were to be found within the space including Todd's,
Nairn's, and Blyth's Closes, nearly the whole of which have been swept away to provide a
site for the New College. On the west side of Blyth's Close there existed a remarkable
building, some portion of which still remains. This the concurrent testimony of tradition
and internal evidence pointed out as having been the mansion of Mary of Guise, the Queen
of James V., and the mother of Queen Mary. There was access to the different apart-
ments, as is usual in the oldest houses in Edinburgh, by various stairs and intricate
passages ; for no feature is so calculated to excite the surprise of a stranger, on his first visit
to such substantial mansions, as the numerous and ample flights of stone stairs, often placed
in immediate juxtaposition, yet leading to different parts of the building. Over the main
doorway, which still remains, there is the inscription, in bold Gothic characters, HaUjSf
l^OrtOt 3D00. with I. E., the initials of the King, at the respective ends of the lintel.
On a shield, placed on the right side, the monogram of the Virgin Mary is sculptured,2
while a corresponding shield on the left, now entirely defaced, most probably bore the usual
one of our Saviour.3

On the first landing of the principal stair, a small vestibule gave entrance to an apart-
ment, originally of large dimensions, though for many years subdivided into various rooms
and passages. At the right-hand side of the inner doorway, on entering this apartment, a
remarkably rich Gothic niche remained till recently, to which we have given the name of a
piscina, in the accompanying engraving, owing to its having a hole through the bottom of
it, the peculiar mark of that ecclesiastical feature, and one which we have not discovered in
any other of those niches we have examined. The name is at least convenient for distinction
in future reference to it ; but its position was at the side of a very large and handsome
fireplace, one of the richly clustered pillars of which appears in the engraving, on the
outside of a modern partition, and no feature was discoverable in the apartment calculated

I)

1 For the description of the interior of this ancient budding, w« are mainly indebted to the Rev. J. Sime, chaplain of
Trinity Hospital, whose uncle long possessed the property. A very oblique view of the house appears in Storer's " High
Street, from the Castle Parade." Plate 1, vol. ii.

" Vide Pugin's Glossary of Eccl. Ornament, p. 162. ' V'gnette at the head of the Chapter.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL.

to lead to the idea of its having been at any time devoted to other than domestic uses.
We may farther remark, that there were, in all, seven of these sculptured recesses, of
different sizes and degrees of ornament, throughout the range of buildings known as the
Guise Palace and Oratory, — a sufficient number of " baptismal fonts," we should presume,
even for a Parisian Hopital des Enfans trouves!

Various remains of very fine wood carving have from time to time been removed from
different parts of this building; a large and well-executed oaken front of a cupboard was
found in the apartment below the one last referred to, with the panels wrought in elegant and
varied designs ; ' and in another room on the same
floor, immediately beyond the former, there existed
a very interesting relic of the same kind, which long
formed one of the chief attractions to antiquarian
visitors. This was an ancient oak door, with richly
carved panels, now preserved in the Museum of the
Society of Antiquaries, of which we furnish a view.
The two upper panels are decorated with shields,
surrounded with a wreath and other ornaments of
beautiful workmanship, and each supported by a
winged cherub. The lower panels contain por-
traits carved in high relief, and which, in accord-
ance with the tradition of the locality, have generally
been considered as the heads of James V. and his
Queen. The lady is very little indebted to the
artist for the flattery of her charms, and the portrait
cannot be considered as bearing any resemblance to
those of Mary of Guise, who is generally repre-
sented as a beautiful woman.2 That of the King
has been thought to bear a considerable resemblance
to the portraits of James V., and " has all that free
carriage of the head, and elegant slouch of the bon-
net, together with the great degree of manly beauty
with which this monarch is usually represented." *
The heraldic bearings on the shields in the upper
panels remain to be mentioned ; one of them bears
a deer's head erased, while on the other is an eagle

with expanded wings grasping a star in the left foot, and with a crescent in base. The
whole appearance of this door is calculated to convey a pleasing idea of the state of the
arts in Scotland at the period of its execution, though in this it in no way surpasses the
other decorations of this interesting building. The door has been cut down in some
modern subdivision of the house, to adapt it to the humble situation which it latterly

1 Now iu the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq.

2 The Duke of Devonshire has an undoubted portrait of Mary of Guise. She is very fair complexioned, with reddish
hair. The picture in the Trinity House at Leith is not of the Queen Regent, but a bad copy of that of her daughter, at
St James, painted by Mytens.

3 Chambers's Traditions, vol. i. p. 81. The " manly beauty," however, is somewhat questionable.

1 48

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

occupied, the outer framework on one side being nearly cut away ; but its original posi-
tion was doubtless one of importance, suited to its highly decorated character. The
armorial bearings, though suggesting no relation to those of the Queen Regent, serve to
prove that it had been executed for the mansion in which it was found, as the same arms,
impaled on one shield, was sculptured over the north doorway of the building on the
east side of the close, with the date 1557, already alluded to, as the oldest then existing
on any house in Edinburgh,1 and the initials A. A., as represented below. The lintel
had been removed from its original position to heighten the doorway, for the purpose of
converting this part of the old Palace into a stable, and was built into a wall immediately
adjacent ; but its mouldings completely corresponded with the sides of the doorway from
which it had been taken, and the high land was rent up through the whole of its north
front, owing to its abstraction.2 This portion of the Palace formed a sort of gallery,

extending across the north end of the whole buildings, and internally affording com-
munication from those in Todd's and Nairn's Closes, and that on the west side of Blyth's
Close, with the oratory or chapel on the east side of the latter. The demolition of these
buildings brought to light many interesting features of their original character. The whole
had been fitted up at their erection in a remarkably elegant and highly ornate style ; the
fireplaces especially were all of large dimensions, and several of very graceful and elegant
proportions. One of these we have already alluded to, with its fine Gothic niche at the
side ; another in Todd's Close was of a still more beautiful design, the clustered pillars
were further adorned with roses filling the interstices, and this also had a very rich Gothic
niche at its side, entirely differing in form from the last, and indeed from all the others
that we have examined, in the apparent remains of a stoup or hollowed basin, the front of

1 It is not necessarily inferred from this that no older house exists. The walls of Holyrood admitted of being
roofed again after the burning in 1544, and it is not unlikely that some of the oldest houses still remaining passed
through the same fiery ordeal

8 This stone, which is in good preservation, is now in the interesting collection of antiquities of A. G. Ellis, Esq.
We have failed to trace from the shield any clue to the original owner or builder of this part of the Palace ; but the
data now furnished may perhaps enable others to be more successful Sir Robert Carnegie of Kinnaird, who was
appointed one of the Senators of the College of Justice in 1547, and as Ambassador to France in 1551, had a great
share in persuading the Duke of Chatelherault to resign the regency to Mary of Guise, — bore for arms an eagle dis-
plajed, azure ; but his wife's arms, — a daughter of Guthrie of Lunan, — do not correspond with those impaled with
them, and the initials are also irreconcilable. The same objections hold good in the case of his son, a faithful adherent
of Queen Mary.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 149

which had been broken away. We furnish an engraving of this apartment also, in the
dilapidated state in which it existed in its latter days, with the large fireplace concealed,
all but one clustered pillar, by a wooden partition.1 This apartment had also been finished
with highly carved ornamental work, considerable portions of which had only been
removed a few years previous to the entire destruction of the whole building. One
beautiful fragment of this, which we have seen, consists of a series of oak panellings,
about eight feet high, divided into four compartments by five terminal figures in high relief,
and the panels all richly finished in different patterns of arabesque ornament of the
finest workmanship. The demolition of this house in 1845 brought to light a curious
small concealed chamber on the first floor, lighted by a very narrow aperture looking
into Nairn's Close. The entrance to it had been by a movable panel in the room just
described, affording access to a narrow flight of steps, ingeniously wound round the wall of
a turnpike stair, and thereby effectually preventing any suspicion being excited by the
appearance it made. The existence of this mysterious chamber was altogether unknown to
the inhabitants, and all tradition had been lost as to the ancient occupants to whom it
doubtless afforded refuge.

Another apartment in this portion of the house, on the same flat with the fine Gothic
fireplace described above, was called the Queen's Dead Room, where the noble occupants
of the mansion were said to have lain in state, ere their removal to their final resting-place.
The room had formerly been painted black, to adapt it to the gloomy purpose for which
it was set apart, and the more recent coats of whitewash it had received very imperfectly
veiled its lugubrious aspect. The style of the fittings of this room, however, and indeed of
the greater portion of the building, was evidently long posterior to the date of erection, and
the panel over the mantelpiece was filled with a landscape, painted in the manner of Old
Norie. The inhabitant of this part of the house, when we last visited it, was a respectable
old lady, who kept her share of the Palace in a remarkably clean and comfortable condition,
and took great pride in pointing out its features to strangers. She professed an intimate
knowledge of the original uses of the several portions of the house, and showed a comfort-
able-looking room on the first floor, commanding a very fine view to the north, which
she called the Queen's bedroom. Two round arched or waggon-shaped ceilings were
brought to view in the progress of demolition, richly decorated with painted devices, in a
style corresponding with the date of erection, and both concealed by flat, modern, plaster
ceilings constructed below them. One of these, situated immediately above what was styled
the Queen's bedroom, had been lighted by windows ranged along each side of the arched
roof, and in its original state must have formed a lofty and very elegant room. The roof,
which was of wood, was painted in rich arabesques and graceful designs of flowers, fruit,
leaves, &c. , surrounding panels with inscriptions in Gothic letters. On one portion all that
could be made out was, gC 'dLtflbiUd Of ££ l&fffljtiotlg. On another was perfectly
defined the following metrical legend : —

1 These remains are mentioned in Chambers's Traditions, with this addition — " At the right-hand side is a pillar in
the same taste, on the top of which there formerly, and till within these few years, stood the statue of a saint presiding
over the font." The author had doubtless been misled in this by the traditions of the neighbourhood, and the appear-
ance of the jamb of the ancient fireplace partially exposed. We may remark that, except where it appears absolutely
necessary for preventing confusion or error, we have avoided directing attention to those points on which we differ from
previous writers.

1 5o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

4M paw tot. ftm nffleitit be,

&cb pan #a? Cbrntft cVim j?oto to me.

ssumlj ye vuai.i, uulfc iioxo thainn,
•embrace ps mitt), abanboim

The last word, obviously »>tn, had been curiously omitted, and a dash substituted for
it, as though for a guess or puzzle. In the centre of this roof there was a ring,
apparently for the purpose of suspending a lamp, and in one of the walls there
was a niche with a trefoil arch very slightly ornamented. The fireplace, which was
of very large dimensions, was entirely without ornament, and in no way corresponded
with the style of finish otherwise prevailing in the apartment, although its size and
massive construction seemed to prove that it must have been a portion of the original

fabric.

Another ceiling of a similar form, in a room adjoining this, on the west side of Blytli's
Close, was adorned with a variety of emblematic designs, mostly taken from Paradin's
Emblems (the earliest edition of which, as far as we are aware, was published at Lyons
in 1557), and from the Traicte des Devises Royales, although some of them are not to
be found in either of these works, — such as a hand amid flames, holding up a dagger,
with the motto, Agere et pati fortia ; a branch covered with apples, Ab insomni non
custodita dragoni ; and two hands out of a cloud, one holding a sword, and the other a
trowel, In utrumque paratus. This species of emblematic device was greatly in vogue in
the sixteenth century, and various other works of similar character still exist in the libraries
of the curious. Among other devices on this ceiling, may be mentioned an ape crushing
her offspring in the fervour of her embrace, with the motto, Ccecus amor prolis ; a serpent
among strawberry plants, Latet anguis in Herba ; a porcupine with apples on its spikes,
Magnum vectigal parsimonia, Ac.1 These devices were united by a series of ornamental
borders, and must have presented altogether an exceedingly lively and striking appearance
when the colours were fresh, and the other decorations of the chamber in consistent
harmony therewith.2

Another interesting feature in the decoration of the ceilings of this once magnificent
mansion, was the blazonry which distinguished the chief ornaments remaining in some of the
rooms. These consisted of the armorial bearings of the Duke of Chatelherault, with his
initials, I. H. ; those of France, with the initials H. R. ; and, lastly, those of Guise,
impaled with the Scottish Lion, and having the Queen Regent's intitials, II. R.3 The first
of these occupied the centre of a large entablature in the ceiling of the outer vestibule of
the apartment, where the elegant Gothic niche stood, to which we have given the name of

1 It is much to be regretted that no attempt was made to preserve these interesting specimens of early decorations,
which could have been so easily done, as they were all painted on wood. The restoration in one of the apartments of
the New College would have formed a pleasing memorial of the building that it superseded. The only fragments that
we know of are now in the collection of C . K. Sharpe, Esq.

1 A few items from " A Collection of Inventories, &c.," 1815, may afford some idea of the probable furnishing of the
walls. " The Queue Regentis movables, A.D. 1561. Item, ane tapestrie maid of worsett mixt with threid of gold of
the historic of the judgment of Salatnon, the deid barne and the twa wiffis. Item, ane tapestrie of the historie of the
Creatioun, contening nyne peces ; ane of the King Roboam, contening foure pecea ; ane other of little Salamon," &c.,
p. 126. " Of Rownd Gloibbis and Paintrie. Item, twa gloibbis, the ane of the heavin, the uther of the earth. Sex
cartis of sundrie cuntreis. Twa paintit brcddis, the ane of the muses, and the uther of crotescque or conceptis. Aucht
paintit broddis of the Doctouris of Almaine," &c. — Ibid, p. 130.

3 All now in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 151

a piscina ; aud those of France were in the same position iu the floor above.1 In. their
original position these devices were so obscured with dirt and whitewash as to appear
merely rude plaster ornaments ; but on their removal they proved to be very fine and care-
fully-finished carvings in oak, and retaining marks of the colours with which they had
been blazoned. These heraldic bearings are not only interesting, as confirming the early
tradition first mentioned by Maitland, — a careful and conscientious antiquary, — of its
having been the residence of Mary of Guise, but they afford a very satisfactory clue to the
period of her abode there. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was created Duke of Chatel-
herault in the year 1548, but not fully confirmed in the title till 1551, when it was
conceded to him as part of his reward for resigning the Regency to the Queen Dowager ;
and that same year she returned from France to assume the government. The death of
Henry II. of France occurred in 1559, just about the period when the complete rupture
took place between the Regent and the Lords of the Congregation, after which time her
chief place of residence was in Leith, until her last illness, when she took up her abode
in the Castle of Edinburgh, where she died. The interval between these dates entirely
coincides with that period of her history when she might be supposed to have chosen such a
residence within the city walls, and near the Castle, while the burning of the Capital and
Palace by the English army in 1544 was of so recent occurrence, and the buildings of the
latter were probably only partially restored.2

In accordance with the traditions of the locality, we have described the property in Todd's
Close as forming a part of the Guise Palace, entered from Blyth's Close, and with which
there existed an internal communication. It appears, however, from the title-deeds of the
property, that this portion of the range of ancient buildings had formed, either in the

1 Chambers mentions (Traditions, vol. i. p. 80) having seen, in the possession of an antiquarian friend, the City Arms,
which had been removed from a similar situation in the third floor. We have reason to believe, however, that he was
mistaken in this, and that the arms he saw were removed from an old house on the south side of the Canongate.

* No allusion occurs in any of the historians of the period in confirmation of the tradition. " The Queen Dowager,"
says Calderwood, A.D. 1554, "came from the Parliament Hous, to the Palace of Halyrudhous, with the honnours borne
before her " [vol. i. p. 283], on which Knox remarks, that, " It was als seemelie a sight to see the crowne putt upon her
head, as to see a saddle putt upon the backe of an unrulie kow ! " This, however, and similar allusions to her going to
the Palace on occasions of state, cannot be considered as necessarily inconsistent with the occupation of a private
mansion. The title-deeds of the property which we have examined throw no light on this interesting question. They
are all comparatively recent, the earliest of them bearing the date of 1622.

Some curious information about the household of Mary of Guise is furnished in the selection from the register of
the Privy Seal of Scotland, appended to Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, e.g. 1538. " Item, for iiij elnis grene veluet, to be
ye covering of ane sadill to the fule." Again, "for vij elnis, J elne grene birge satyne, to be the Quenis fule, ane
goune . . . zallow birge satyne, to be hir ane kirtill . . . blaid black gray, to lyne ye kirtill," &c. , and at her coro-
nation in 1540, " Item, deliuerit to ye Frenche telzour, to be ane cote to Serrat, the Quenis fule," &c. Green and
yellow seems to have been the Court Fool's livery. This is one of the very few instances on record of a Female
Buffoon or Fool, for the amusement of the Court. The Queen's establishment also included a male and female dwarf,
whose dresses figure in these accounts, alongside of such items, as—" For vj elnis of Parise blak, to be Maister George
Balquhannane ane goune, at the Quenis Grace entre in Edinburghe." "To Janet Douglas, spous of David
Liudesay, of the Monthe xl. li." "To the pow penny, deliuerit to David Lindesay, Lyoune herald, on the Quenis
[Magdalen] Saull-Mea and Dirige," &c. The following items from the Treasurer's accounts show the existence of
similar servitors in Queen Mary's household : — " 1562, Paid for ane cote, hois, lynyng and making, to Jonat Musche,
fule, £4, 5s. 6d. 1565, For grene plading to mak ane bed to Jardinar, the fule, with white fustiane, fedders, &c. Ane
abulzement to Jaquelene gouernance de la Jordiner. 1566, Ane garment of reid and yellow to be ane gowne, hois, and
cote, to Jane Colquhoun, fule. 1567, Ane abulzement of braid inglis yellow, to be cote and breikis, — -also Barkis, — to
James Geddie, fule." Subsequent entries show that Queen Mary had a Female Fule, called " Nicolau, the Queen's
Grace fule," who would appear, from the following item, to have been retained in the service of the Eegent after the
Queen's flight to England : — " 1570, The first day of August, be the Regent's g. speciale command, to Nichola the fule,
to mak hir expensia and fraucht to France, £16."

1 5 2 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

Regent's time, or almost immediately afterwards, a distinct mansion, occupied by Edward
Hope, son of John de Hope, — the ancestor of the celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, and of
the Earls of Hopetoun, — who came from France in 1537, in the retinue of Magdalen, Queen
of James V. The earliest title-deeds are wanting, which would fix the date of its acquire-
ment by Edward Hope, and determine the question as to whether he succeeded the Queen
in its occupancy, or was its first possessor.

Edward Hope was one of the most considerable inhabitants of Edinburgh in the reign
of Queen Mary, and the old mansion, such as we have described it, retained abundant
evidence of the adornments of a wealthy citizen's dwelling. He appears to have been a
great promoter of the Reformation, and was accordingly chosen, in 1560, as one of the
Commissioners for the Metropolis to the first General Assembly ; l and again we find him,
in the following year, incurring Queen Mary's indignation, as one of the magistrates of
Edinburgh most zealous in enforcing " the statuts of the toun " against any " masse-
moonger, or obstinat papist, that corrupted the people, suche as preests, friers, and others
of that sort, that sould be found within the toun." The Queen caused the provost, Archi-
bald Douglas of Kilspindie, along with Edward Hope and Adam Fullerton, " to be charged
to waird in the Castell, and commanded a new electioun to be made of proveist and
bailliifes ; " but after a time her wrath was appeased, and civic matters left to take their
wonted course.2 Within this house, in all probability, the Earls of Murray, Morton, and
Glencairn, John Knox, Erskine of Dun, with Lords Boyd, Lindsay, and all the leading men
of the reforming party, have often assembled and matured plans whose final accomplish-
ment led to results of such vast importance to the nation. The circumstances of that
period may also suggest the probable use of the secret chamber we have described, which
was discovered at the demolition of the building.

The close continues to bear the name of Edward Hope's through all the title-deeds
down to a very recent period ; and in 1622 it appears by these documents to have been
in the possession of Henry Hope, grandson of the above, and younger brother of Sir
Thomas, from whom, also, there is a disposition of a later date, entitled, " by Sir Thomas
Hope of Craighall, Knight Baronet, his Majesty's Advocate," resigning all right or claim
to the property, in favour of his niece, Christian Hope. This appears to have been a
daughter of his brother Henry, who was little less celebrated in his own time than the
eminent lawyer, as the progenitor of the Hopes of Amsterdam, "the merchant-princes" 01
their day, surpassing in wealth and commercial enterprise any private mercantile company
ever known. From Henry Hope it passed by marriage and succession through several
hands, until in 1691 it lapsed into the possession of James, Viscount Stair, in lieu of a
bond for the sum of " three thousand guilders, according to the just value of Dutch
money," probably some transaction with the great house at Amsterdam. The property
was transferred by him to his son, Sir David Dalrymple, who in 1702 sold it to
John Wightman of Mauldsie, afterwards Lord Provost of Edinburgh,* and the founder

1 Calderwood's Hist., Wod. Soo., vol. ii. p. 44. J Ibid, vol. ii. p. 155. Ante, p. 70.

3 It may not be out of place here to correct an error of Maitland. He remarks (Hist, of Edinburgh, p. 227) that
" the title of Lord, annexed to the Provost, being by prescription, and not by grant, every Provost iu the kingdom has
as great a right to that epithet as the Provost of Edinburgh hath. " It appears, however, from Fountainhall's Decisions
(Folio, vol. i. p. 400), that " The town, in a competition betwixt them and the College of Justice, got a letter from the
King [Charles It.] iu 1667, by Sir Andrew Ramsay, then their Provost procurement, determining then- Provost should

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 153

of the school recently rebuilt in Ramsay Lane, that still bears his name. Since then it
shared the fate of most of the patrician dwellings of the Old Town ; its largest apartments
were subdivided by flimsy partitions into numerous little rooms, and the old mansion
furnished latterly a squalid and straitened abode for a host of families of the very humblest
ranks of life.

The external appearance of this interesting range of buildings is more easily described
with the pencil than the pen. The accompanying engraving exhibits the front to the
Castle Hill, and also shows a curious feature that attracted considerable notice, at the
entrance to Todd's Close, where, owing to the construction of the overhanging timber
fronts, the whole weight of the buildings on each side seemed to be borne by a single
slender stone pillar, of neat proportions, though exhibiting abundant evidence of age and
long exposure to violence.

The buildings already described in Blyth's Close stood upon the west side, where a
portion of them still remains. They retained, in the relics of their ancient decorations,
evidence which appears to confirm the tradition of their having at one period been the
residence of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise ; but it is to that on the east side alone that
anything of an ecclesiastical character can, with propriety, be assigned.

About halfway down the close, and directly opposite the main entrance on the west side,
a projecting turnpike-stair gave access to a vestibule on the first floor, which formed only a
small portion of what had originally been a large and magnificent apartment. This we
conceive to have been what Maitland describes as " the chapel or private oratory of Mary of
Lorraine."1 Immediately on entering from the stair, a large doorway appeared on the
left hand, which had apparently given access to a gallery leading across to the Palace on
the opposite side of the close. Beyond this there was a niche placed, as usual, at the side
of a large and handsome fireplace, with clustered Gothic pillars, of the same form as those
already described in other parts of the building. The mouldings of this niche corresponded
in character with those on the opposite side of the close, but the sculptured top had been
removed. In the east wall, however, and almost directly opposite the fireplace, there was
a large and highly ornamental niche,3 of which we furnish a view. In the centre there
was the figure of an angel holding a shield, and the whole character of the tracery and other
ornaments was in the richest style of decorated Gothic.4 It, in all probability, served as a
credence table, or other appendage to the altar of the chapel.

This apartment was occupied as a schoolroom, about the middle of last century, by a
teacher of note, named Mr John Johnstone. " When he first resided in it, there was a
curious urn in the niche, and a small square stone behind the same, of so singular an
appearance, that, to satisfy his curiosity, he forced it from the wall, when he found in the
recess an iron casket, about seven inches long, four broad, and three deep, having a lid like
that of a caravan-trunk, and secured by two clasps falling over the key-holes, and corn-
have the same place and precedency within the town precincts that was due to the Mayors of London or Dublin, and
that no other Provost should be called Lord Provost but he ; " — a privilege that seema to have been lost sight of by the
civic dignitaries of the good town.

2 Maitland, p. 206. » Now in the collection of C. K. Sharpe, Esq.

4 This and various other examples serve to show that the principles of pure Gothic architecture were followed to a
much later date in Scotland than in England. The foundation stone of Caius College, Cambridge, for example, a good
specimen of the hybrid style of debased Gothic, was laid in 1565.

'54

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

municating with some curious and intricate machinery within.'" This interesting relic
was obtained from a relative of the discoverer by Robert Chambers, Esq., the author of the

" Traditions of Edinburgh," by whom it was
presented to Sir Walter Scott. It was empty
at the time of its discovery, but is supposed to
have been used for holding the smaller and
more valuable furnishings of the altar. It is
now in the collection at Abbotsford, and
has all the appearance of great antiquity.
Portions of another curious relic, found near
the same spot, and presented by the late
E. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., to the Society
of Antiquaries, are thus described in the
list of donations for 1829: — "An infantine
head and hand, in wax, being all that
remained of a little figure of the child Jesus,
discovered in May 1828, in a niche care-
fully walled up in the chapel of the house
formerly occupied by Mary of Lorraine, in
Blyth's Close, Castle Hill." 2

Considerable fragments of very fine carving

in oak remained in the chapel till within these few years. One specimen in particular,
now in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., presents a richly carved and exceedingly
beautiful design of grapes and vine leaves, surmounted by finials ; and other portions of
the same decorations have recently been adopted by the Duke of Sutherland, as models
for the carved work introduced by him in the interior fittings of Dunrobin Castle. The
windows of the chapel were very tall and narrow, and singularly irregular in their
height ; their jams were splayed externally on the one side, as is not uncommon in the
narrow closes of the Old Town, to catch every ray of light, and exhibited the remains
of stone mullions with which they had been originally divided.

In the east wall of this building, which still stands, there is a curious staircase built in
the thickness of the wall, which afforded access from the chapel to an apartment below,
where there was a draw-well of fine clear water, with a raised parapet of stone surrounding
it. Immediately to the north of this, on the same floor, another room existed with inter-
esting remains of former grandeur; the fireplace was in the same rich style of Gothic design
already described, and at the left side there was a handsome Gothic niche, with a plain one
immediately adjoining it. The entrance to this portion of the Palace was locked and
cemented with the rust of years ; the door leading to the inner staircase was also built up,
and it had remained in this deserted and desolate state during the memory of the oldest of
the neighbouring inhabitants; excepting that " ane sturdy beggar" lived for some time,
rent free, in one of the smaller rooms, his only mode of ingress or egress to which was by

1 Traditions, vol i. p. 85.

4 The genuineness of this relic has been called in question, from its resemblance to the fragments of a large doll, bub
those who have visited the Continent will readily acknowledge the groundlessness of such an objection.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL.

155

the dilapidated window. The same difficulties had to be surmounted in obtaining the
sketch, from which the accompanying vignette is given.
In the highest floor,

„. fJTT^--"- — **: -*&f*™ crc. — — "-- •••••-•,•

••'•r^-/

-•It;

various indications of the
same elaborate style of de-
coration were visible as we
have described in the ceil-
ings of the Palace. A curi-
ous fragment of painting,
filling an arch on one of the
walls, was divided into two
compartments by very ele-
gant ornamental borders.
The picture on the left
represented a young man
kneeling before an altar, on
which stood an open vessel amid flames, while, from a dark cloud overhead, a hand issued,
holding a ladle, and just about to dip it into the vessel. A castellated mansion, with
turrets and gables in the style of the sixteenth century, appeared in the distance ; and at
the top there was inscribed on a scroll the words Demum purgabitvr. In the other com-
partment, a man of aged and venerable aspect was seen, who held in his hands a heart,
which he appeared to be offering to a figure like a bird, with huge black wings. Above
this were the words . . Impossibile est. The whole apartment had been decorated in
the same style, but only very slight remains of this were traceable on the walls. On the
removal of the lath and plaster from the ceilings of the lower rooms, the beams, — which
were of solid oak, — and the under sides of the flooring above, were all covered with orna-
mental devices, those on the main beams being painted on three sides, and divided at
short distances by fillets or bands of various patterns running round them.1

The somewhat minute description which we have given of these ancient buildings will,
we think, amply bear us out in characterising them as among the most interesting that old
Edinburgh possessed. Here we have good reason for believing the widow of James V.
took up her residence during the first years of her regency ; — here, in all probability,
the leading churchmen and Scottish nobles who adhered to her party have met in grave
deliberation, to resist the earlier movements that led to the Reformation ; — in this mean
and obscure alley the ambassadors and statesmen of England and France, and the
messengers of the Scottish Queen, have assembled, and have been received with fitting
dignity in its once splendid halls ; while within the long desecrated fane royal and noble
worshippers have knelt around its altar, gorgeous with the imposing ceremonials of the
Catholic Church. It is a dream of times long gone by, of which we would gladly have
retained some such remembrance as the dilapidated mansion afforded; but time and modern
changes have swept over its old walls with ruthless hand, and this feeble description of its
decrepitude is probably the best memorial of it that survives.

There still remains to be described the fine old stone land at the head of Blyth's Close,

1 The Vignette at the end of the Chapter is from one of the oak beams belonging to the late Mr Hugh Paton.

IS6 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

which appears prominently in our view of the Castle Hill, with the inscription LAVS
DEO, and the date 1591, curiously wrought in antique iron letters on its front. The most
ancient portions of the interior that remain seem quite as early in character as those we
have been describing ; and indeed the back part of it, extending into the close, has appa-
rently been built along with the mansion of the Queen Regent. The earliest titles of this
building now existing are two contracts of alienation, bearing date 1590, by which the tipper
and under portions of the land are severally disposed of to Robert M'Naught and James
Rynd, merchant burgesses. The building, in all probability, at that period was a timber-
fronted land, similar to those adjoining it, which were taken down in 1845. Immediately
thereafter, as appears from the date of the building, the handsome polished ashlar front,
which still remains, had been erected at their joint expense. In confirmation of this there
is sculptured, under the lowest crow-step at the west side of the building, a shield bearing
an open hand, in token of amity, as we presume, with the initials of both proprietors.1

In an apartment on the second floor of this house, an arched ceiling was accidentally
discovered some years since, decorated with a series of sacred paintings on wood, of a very
curious and interesting character. A large circular compartment in the centre contains
the figure of our Saviour, with a radiance round His head, and His left hand resting on
a royal orb. Within the encircling border are these words, in gilded Roman letters, on
a rich blue ground, Ego sum via, veritas, et vita, 14 Jokne. The paintings in the larger
compartments represent Jacob's Dream, Christ asleep in the storm, the Baptism of
Christ, and the Vision of Death from the Apocalypse, surmounted by the symbols of the
Evangelists. The distant landscape of the Lake of Galilee in the second picture presents
an amusing, though by no means unusual liberty, taken by the artist with his subject.
It consists of a view of Edinburgh from the north, terminating with Salisbury Crags on
the left and the old Castle on the right ! This pictorial license aifords a clue as to the
probable period of the work, which, as far as it can be trusted, indicates a later period than
the Regency of Mary of Guise. The steeples of the Nether Bow Port and the old Weigh-
house are introduced — the first of which was erected in the year 1606, and the latter
taken down in lb'60. The fifth picture, and the most curious of all, exhibits an allegori-
cal representation, as we conceive, of the Christian life. A ship, of antique form, is seen
in full sail, and bearing on its pennon and stern the common symbol, IHS. A crowned
figure stands on the deck, looking towards a burning city in the distance, and above him
the word V.5L On the mainsail is inscribed Caritas, and over the stern, which is in the
fashion of an ancient galley, [Sa]piencia. Death appears as a skeleton, riding on a dark
horse, amid the waves immediately in front of the vessel, armed with a bow and arrow,
which he is pointing at the figure in the ship, while a figure, similarly armed, and mounted
on a huge dragon, follows in its wake, entitled Persecutio, and above it a winged demon,
over whom is the word Diabolus. In the midst of these perils there is seen in the sky a
radiance surrounding the Hebrew word mrp, and from this symbol of the Deity a hand
issues, taking hold of a line attached to the stern of the vessel. The whole series is executed
with great spirit, though now much injured by damp and decay. The broad borders between
them are richly decorated with every variety of flowers, fruit, harpies, birds, and fancy

1 This is one undoubted example of the date on a building being put on at a considerably later period than its erec-
tion, an occurrence which we have found reason to suspect in various other instances.

KING'S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL.

157

devices, and divide the ceiling into irregular square and round compartments, with raised
and gilded stars at their intersections. The fifth painting — of which we have endeavoured
to convey some idea to the reader — possesses peculiar interest, as a specimen of early
Scottish art. It embodies, though under different forms, the leading features of the im-
mortal allegory constructed by John Bunyan for the instruction of a later age. The Chris-
tian appears fleeing from the City of Destruction, environed still by the perils of the way,
yet guided, through all the malignant opposition of the powers of darkness, by the unerring
hand of an over-ruling Providence. These paintings were concealed, as in similar examples
previously described, by a modern flat ceiling, the greater portion of which still remains,
rendering it difficult to obtain a near view of them. Mr Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe has,
in his interesting collection, another curious relic of the decorations of this apartment,
consisting of a group of musicians, which may possibly have been one of the " paintit brod-
dis " mentioned among "the Quene Regentis Paintrie." One of the band is playing on
a lute, another on a horn, &c., and all with their music-books before them. This painting
was rescued by its present possessor, just as the recess or cupboard, of which it formed the
back, was about to be converted into a coal-cellar. Fragments of a larger, but much ruder,
copy of the same design were discovered on the demolition of the fine old mansion of Sir
William Nisbet of the Dean, in 1845, which bore above its main entrance the date 1614.
Most of the other portions of the interior have been renewed at a later period, and exhibit
the panelling and decorations in common use during the last century.

This building appears, from the various titles, to have been the residence of a succession
of wealthy burgesses, as usual with the "fore tenements of land," — the closes being then,
and down to a comparatively recent date, almost exclusively occupied by noblemen and
dignitaries of rank and wealth.

Fainted Oak Beam from Mary of Guiae'i CbapeL

CHAPTER III.
THE LA IV JVM A R KE T.

1,1 ANY citizens still liviug can remember
when the wide thoroughfare immediately
below the Castle Hill used to be covered with
the stalls and booths of the " lawn merchants,"
with their webs and cloths of every description,
giving that central locality all the appearance
of a fair. This also, however, with other old
customs, has passed away, and the name only
remains to preserve the memory of former
usages, although such was the importance of
this locality in former times, that its occupants
had a club of their own, styled " The Lawn-
market Club," which was celebrated in its
day for the earliest possession of all important
news.

The old market-place was bounded on the
west by the Weigh-house, or " butter troue,"
as it is styled in some of the title-deeds of the
neighbouring buildings, and on the east by the
ancient Tolbooth, and formed in early times
the only open space of any great extent, with
the single exception of the Grassmarket, that
existed within the town walls.

The Weigh-house, of which we furnish an
engraving, was a clumsy and inelegant building,

already alluded to,1 occupying the centre of the street at the head of the West Bow. It
was rebuilt in the year 1660 on the site of a previous erection, which is shown in Gordon's
map of 1646, adorned with a steeple at the east end, and appears, from contemporaneous
accounts, to have been otherwise of an ornamental character. The only decorations on

1 Vide pp. 96 7.
VIGNETTE.— Gladstone's Land.

THE LA WNMARKET. 159

the latter building, consisted of a rudely executed ogee pediment, containing the city
arms, and surmounted by three tron weights. On Queen Mary's entry to Edinburgh in
1561, this was the scene of some of the most ingenious displays of civic loyalty. Her
Majesty dined in the Castle, and a triumphal arch was erected at the Weigh-house, or
"butter trone," where the keys of the city were presented to her by "ane bony barne,
that desceudit doun fra a cloude, as it had bene ane angell," and added to the wonted
gift a Bible and Psalm-book — additions which some contemporary historians hint were
received with no very good grace.1 Cromwell established a guard in the older building
there, while the Castle was held out against him in 1650, and prudently levelled it with
the ground on gaining possession of the fortress, lest it should afford the same cover to
his assailants that it had done to himself. The latter erection proved equally serviceable
to the Highlanders of Prince Charles in 1745, when they attempted to blockade the Castle,
and starve out the garrison by stopping all supplies. The first floor of the large stone
land, in front of Milne's Court, was occupied at the same period as the residence and guard-
room for the officers commanding the neighbouring post ; and it is said that the dislodged
occupantj- — a zealous Whig, — took his revenge on them after their departure by advertising
for the recovery of missing articles abstracted by his compulsory guests. The court
immediately behind this appears to have been one of the earliest attempts to substitute
an open square of some extent for the narrow closes that had so long afforded the sole
town residences of the Scottish gentry. The main entrance is adorned with a Doric enta-
blature, and bears the date 1690. The principal house, which forms the north side of the
court, has a handsome entrance, with neat mouldings, rising into a small peak in the
centre, like a very flat ogee arch. This style of ornament, which frequently occurs in
buildings of the same period, seems to mark the handiwork of Eobert Milne, the builder
of the most recent portions of Holyrood Palace, and seventh Royal Master Mason, whose
uncle's tomb, — erected by him in the G-reyfriars' Churchyard, — records in quaint rhymes
these hereditary honours : —

Reader, John Milne, who maketh the fourtli John,

And, by descent from father unto son,

Sixth Master-Mason, to a royal race

Of seven successive kings, sleeps in this place.

The houses forming the west side of the court are relics of a much earlier period, that
had been delivered from the durance of a particularly narrow close by the march of fashion
and improvement in the seventeenth century. The most northerly of them long formed
the town mansion of the lairds of Comiston, in whose possession it still remains ; while that
to the south, though only partially exposed, presents a singularly irregular and picturesque

1 Ante, p. 71. " Quhen hir grace come fordwart to the butter troue of the said burgh, the nobilitie and convoy foir-
said precedand, at the qubilk butter trone thair was ane port made of tymber, in maist honourable maner, cullorit with
fyne cullouris, hungin with syndrie armes ; upon the quhilk port was singand certane barneis in the maist hevinlie wyis ;
under the quhilk port thair wes ane cloud opyunand with four levis, in the quhilk was put ane bony barne. And quhen
the queues hienes was cumand throw the said port, the said cloud opynnit, and the barne dscendit doun as it had beene
ane angell, and deliuerit to her hienes the keyis of the toun, togidder with ane Bybill and ane Psalme Buik, couerit with
fyne purpourit veluot ; and efter the said barne had spoken some small speitehes, he deliuerit alsua to her hieues thre
writtingis, the tennour thairof is vncertane. That being done, the barne asceudit in the cloud, and the said clud scekit j
and thairefter the quenis grace come doun to the tolbuith. " — Diurnal of Ocurrents, p. 68.

160 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

aspect — dormer windows rise above the line of roof — and a bold projection supported on
a large ornamental stone corbel, admits of a very tall window at an oblique angle below
it, evidently constructed to catch every stray gleam of light, ere the narrow alley gave way
to the improvements of the royal master-mason. Over the entrance to the stair there is
the very common inscription, Blissit . be . God . in . al . his . Giftis., with the date 1580;
and while the whole of the east side is substantially built of hewn stone, the south front,
— looking directly down the old West Bow — is a very picturesque timber facade, with
irregular gables, and each story thrusting its beams farther into the street than the one
below it.

One of the earliest proprietors of this ancient dwelling appears from the titles to have
been Bartholomew Somerville, merchant burgess ; the most conspicuous among those
generous citizens to whose liberality we are mainly indebted for the establishment of the
University of Edinburgh on a lasting basis. " In December [1639] following," says
Craufurd, " the Colledge received the greatest accession of its patrimony which ever had
been bestowed by any private person. Mr Bartholomew Somervale (the son of Peter
Somervale, a rich burgess, and sometime Baylie),1 having no children, by the good counsel
of his brothers-in-law, Alex. Patrick and Mr Samuel Talfar, mortified to the College
20,000 merks, to be employed for maintenance of an Professor of Divinity, and 6000
merks for buying of Sir James Skeeu's lodging and yaird, for his dwelling." 2 This
worthy citizen was succeeded in the old tenement by Sir John Harper of Cam-
busnethan.

Immediately to the east of Milne's Court, a more modern erection of the same kind
exists, which is associated in various ways with some of the most eminent men that have
added lustre to the later history of the Scottish capital. To this once fashionable and
aristocratic quarter David Hume removed in 1762 from his previous place of residence in
Jack's Land, Canongate ; here also, and in the same house, Boswell resided when he
received and entertained Paoli, the Patriot Corsican Chief, in 1771, and the still more
illustrious Dr Johnson, when he visited Edinburgh in 1773, on his way to the Western
Islands.

Entering by a narrow alley which pierces the line of lofty houses along the Lawn-
market, the visitor finds himself in a large court, surrounded by high and substantial
buildings, which have now evidently fallen to the lot of humbler inhabitants than those for
whom they were erected. These spaces, walled off by the intervening houses from the
main street, were in the Scottish metropolis like the similar edifices of the French nobility,
frequently designed with the view of protecting those who dwelt within the gate from the
unwelcome intrusion of either legal or illegal force. But James's Court scarcely dates
back to times so lawless, having only been erected by a wealthy citizen in 1727, on the
site of various ancient closes, containing the residences of judges, nobles, and dignitaries of

1 Peter Somerville's house stood near the head of the West Bow, with the Somerville arms over the doorway, sur-
mounted by his initials, and the date 1602.

a Craufurd's Hist of the University, p. 136. An apartment on the first floor of this land, lighted by two large win-
dows looking into Milne's Court, has a modern ceiling about ten feet from the floor — a comparison of this, with the
height of the next story, shows, that a space of about three feet must be enclosed between it and the floor above. It is
exceedingly probable that the modern plaster-work may conceal another painted roof similar to those described in Blyth's
Close.

THE LA WNMA RKE T. 1 6 1

note in their day, the most eminent of whom was the celebrated lawyer, Sir John Lander,
better known by his judicial title of Lord Fountainhall. This interesting locality is
thus described by the latest biographer of David Hume : — " Entering one of the doors
opposite the main entrance, the stranger is sometimes led by a friend, wishing to afford
him an agreeable surprise, down flight after flight of the steps of a stone staircase, and
when he imagines he is descending so far into the bowels of the earth, he emerges on
the edge of a cheerful, crowded thoroughfare, connecting together the Old and New Town ;
the latter of which lies spread before him, — a contrast to the gloom from which he
has emerged. When he looks up to the building containing the upright street through
which he has descended, he sees that vast pile of tall houses standing at the head of the
Mound, which creates astonishment in every visitor of Edinburgh. This vast fabric is
built on the declivity of a hill, and thus one entering on the level of the Lawnmarket,
is at the height of several stories from the ground on the side next the New Town. I
have ascertained," he adds, " that by ascending the western of the two stairs facing the
entry of James's Court, to the height of three stories, we arrive at the door of David
Hume's house, which, of the two doors on that landing-place, is the one towards the left." l

During Hume's absence in France, this dwelling was occupied by Dr Blair, and on his
leaving it finally for the house he had built for himself in St Andrew Square, at the cor-
ner of St David Street, James Boswell became its tenant. Thither, in August 1773, he
conducted Dr Johnson, from the White Horse Inn, Boyd's Close, Canongate, then one of
the chief inns in Edinburgh, where he had found him in a violent passion at the waiter,
for having sweetened his lemonade without the ceremony of a pair of sugar-tongs. The
doctor, in his indignation, threw the lemonade out of the window, and seemed inclined to
send the waiter after it.2

We have often conversed with a gentleman whose mother had been present at a tea-
party in James's Court, on the occasion of the doctor's arrival in town, and the impression
produced on her by the society of the illustrious lexicographer was summed up in the very
laconic sentence in which Mrs Boswell had then expressed her opinion of him, that he
was " a great brute ! " 3 Margaret, Duchess of Douglas, was one of the party, " with all
her diamonds," — a lady somewhat noted among those of her own rank for her illiteracy,
— but the doctor reserved his attentions during the whole evening almost exclusively for
the Duchess.4 The character thus assigned to him is fully borne out in the lively letters
of Captain Topham, who visited Edinburgh in the following year. He describes the recep-
tion of the doctor, by all classes, as having been of the most flattering kind, and he adds,
" From all I have been able to learn, he repaid all their attention to him with ill-breeding ;

1 Burton's Life of Hume, vol. ii. p. 336. The western portion of this vast fabric was destroyed by fire in 1858. On
its site has been erected, in the old Scottish style, an equally lofty structure for the Savings Bank and Free Church
Offices.

2 Boswell's Johnson, by Croker, vol. ii. p. 259.

3 The opinion of Lord Auchinleck about " the Auld Dominie " is well known, and the doctor's hostess, Mrs Boswell,
though assiduous in her attentions to her guest, seems to have coincided in opinion with the wit, who, on hearing him
styled by some of his admirers a constellation of learning, said, " Then he must be the Ursa Major." Boswell tells,
with his usual naivete1, that his wife exclaimed to him on one occasion, with natural asperity, — "I have seen many a bear
led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear ! " — Boswell's Johnson, note, Nov. 27, 1773.

4 " An old lady," as Dr Johnson describes her, "who talks broad Scotch with a paralytic voice, and is scarce under-
stood by her own countrymen." — Boswell's Johnson, by Croker, vol. i. p. 209.

L

1 62 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

and when in the company of the ablest men in this country, his whole design was to show
them how little he thought of them."1

It is told of Johnson, that being on one occasion in a company where Hume was
present, a mutual friend offered to introduce him to the philosopher, when the intolerant
moralist roared out, " No, sir ! " It is not therefore without reason that Mr Burton
questions -if Johnson would have been able to " sleep o' nights," had he learned that
he had been entrapped into the arch-infidel's very mansion ! 2

In Hume's day the North Loch lay directly below the windows of his house, with gar-
dens extending to its margin, and a fine open country beyond, diversified with woodland
and moor, where now the modern streets of the Scottish capital cover a space vastly ex-
ceeding its whole ancient boundaries for many centuries. Hume appears to have derived
great pleasure from the magnificent prospect which his elevated residence secured to him ;
yet although he writes to Dr Robertson in 1759, "I have the strangest reluctance to
change places," he was, nevertheless, one of the earliest to emigrate beyond the North Loch.
In 1770 he commenced building his new house, which was the first erected in South St
David Street, and in which he died. The old dwelling, however, was not immediately
abandoned to the plebeian population ; Boswell, as we have seen, succeeded him, and he
was followed in its occupancy by the Lady Wallace, Dowager, relict of Sir Thomas Wal-
lace of Cragie.3 The floor below Hume's house was the property of Andrew Macdowal,
Esq., advocate, author of the " Institutional Law of Scotland," a ponderous mass of legal
learning in three folio volumes. On his elevation to the bench in 1755, under the title of
Lord Bankton, his lordship, — in order to adapt the flat in the Lawnmarket to his increased
dignity and rank, — purchased the one below it, on a level with the court, and united
the two by an elegant internal stair of carved mahogany, which has since been displaced
by a more homely substitute, on the conversion of the old judge's dwelling into a printing
office.

Immediately to the east of the lofty range of buildings fronting James's Court, houses
of an early date, and of considerable variety of character, again occur. The first of these,
represented at the head of the chapter, is a tall and narrow stone land, of a marked char-
acter, and highly adorned, according to the style prevailing at the close of the sixteenth
century. The house belonged of old to Sir Robert Baunatyne, chaplain, and after passing
through several hands, was purchased in 1631 by Thomas Gladstone, merchant burgess, who
appears to have built the present stone front. On a shield below the crow-steps of the west

1 Topham's Letters, London, 1776, p 139.

8 We have adhered in this to the biographer of Hume, who assigns the same house to both. It is certain that Hume
had a tenant of the name of Boswell ; and as the house below was a large residence, consisting of two flats, the probability
of Boswell occupying the single flat seeins confirmed by the fact that he "regretted sincerely that he had not also a room
for Mr Scott," afterwards Lord Stowell, who had accompanied the doctor from Newcastle to the White Horse Inn,
Edinburgh. Dr Johnson's evidence, however, contradicts this. " Boswell," he writes, " has very handsome and
spacious rooms, level with the ground at one side of the house, and on the other four stories high," — a remark only
explicable, on this idea, by supposing him to refer to the peculiar character of the building, as described above.

s So late as 1771, his brother, Joseph Hume, Esq. of Ninewells, occupied a fashionable residence in the fifth flat of
an old house that stood at the junction of the Lawnmarket with Melbourne Place. The following notice of the residence
of Lady Hinewells, the grandmother, as we presume, of Hume, occurs in a series of accounts of a judicial sale of pro-
perty in Parliament Close, in the year 1680 : — " The house presently possest be the Lady Ninewells, being the fourth
storie above the entrie from the long trauss of the tenement upon the east side of the kirk-heugh, consisting of four fire
rowmes, with aue sellar, at a yearly rent of ane hundred fourtie and four pounds Scotts. "

THE LA WNMA R KE T. 163

gable are the initials T. G. and B. G., while on a corresponding shield to the east a
curious device occurs, not unlike an ornamental key, with the bit in the form of a crescent.
Many such fancy devices occur on the older buildings in Edinburgh, the only probable
explanation of which appears to be that they are merchants' marks. This house is alluded
to in the divisions of the city for the sixteen companies formed in 1634, in obedience to
an injunction of Charles I., where the second division, on the north side of the Castle Hill,
terminates at "Thomas Gladstone's Laud."1

Previous to the opening of Bank Street, Lady Stair's Close, the first below this old
building, was the chief thoroughfare for foot passengers taking advantage of the half-
formed earthen mound, to reach the New Town. It derives its name from Elizabeth.
Dowager Countess of Stair, who, as the wife of the Viscount Primrose, forms one of the
most interesting characters associated with the romantic traditions of old Edinburgh.
Scott has made the incidents of Lady Primrose's singular story the groundwork of " Aunt
Margaret's Mirror," perhaps the most striking of all his briefer tales ; while the scarcely
less interesting materials preserved by the latest survivors of the past generation form
some of the most attractive pages of " Chambers's Traditions." This story, with nearly
all the marvellous features of Aunt Margaret's tale, received universal credit from the
contemporaries of the principal actors in its romantic scenes, as well as from many of the
succeeding generation.

The Countess Dowager of Stair was long looked up to as the leader of fashion, and
an admission to her select circle courted as one of the highest objects of ambition among
the smaller gentry of the period. One cannot help smiling now at the idea of the leader
of ton in the Scottish capital condescendingly receiving the elite of fashionable society
in the second flat of a common stair in a narrow close of the Old Town ; yet such were the
habits of Edinburgh society in the eighteenth century, at a period when the distinctions of
rank and fashion were guarded with a degree of jealousy of which we have little conception
now.

A characteristic sample of the manners of the period is furnished in the evidence of
Sir John Stewart of Castlemilk, in the celebrated Douglas Cause, affording a peep into the
interior of Holyrood Palace about the middle of last century. Sir John Stewart states
that, being on a visit to the Duke of Hamilton, at his lodgings in the Abbey, the Countess
of Stair entered the room, seemingly in a very great passion, holding in her hand a letter
from Thomas Cochrane, Esq., afterwards Earl of Dundonald, to the Duke of Douglas, in
which he affirmed that the Countess of Stair had declared, that, to her knowledge, the
children said to be those of Lady Jane Douglas were fictitious ; whereupon the Countess
struck the floor three times with a staff which she had in her hand, and each time that she
struck the floor, she called the Earl a damned villain, which her ladyship said was his
own expression in his letter to the Duke. One can fancy the stately old lady in her high-
heeled shoes and hoop, flourishing her cane, and crushing the obnoxious letter in her
hand, as she applied to its author the elegant epithet' of his own suggestion. 2

In the same close which bears her ladyship's name also resided the celebrated biblio-
grapher and antiquary, Mr George Paton, the friend and correspondent of Lord Hailes,
Gough, Bishop Percy, Ritson, George Chalmers, Pennant, Herd, and, indeed, of nearly all

1 Maitland, p. 285. s Proof for Douglas of Douglas, Ksq., defender, &o. Douglas Cause.

164

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the most eminent venerators of antiquity, during the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Two small volumes of the Paton Correspondence — now rare and valuable — have been
published, which serve to show the very high estimation in which he was held as a literary
antiquary, and the numerous contributions furnished by him towards the most eminent
works of that class, only a small portion of which has been acknowledged by the recipients.
George Paton was a man of extreme modesty and diffidence, — a bachelor of retiring and
taciturn inclinations ; — yet he was neither illiberal nor unsocial in his habits ; his time, his
knowledge, and his library, were all at the service of his friends, and though not only tem-
perate but abstemious in his tastes, his evenings were generally spent with Herd, and
other kindred spirits, in Johnie Dowie's Tavern, in Libberton's Wynd, the well-known
rendezvous of the Scottish literati during that period. He was methodical in all his habits ;
the moment eleven sounded from St Giles's steeple, his spare figure might be seen
emerging from the wynd head, and the sound of his cane on the pavement of Lady Stair's
Close, gave the signal to his housekeeper for his admittance. This interesting old Edin-
burgh character bears in many respects a resemblance to the more celebrated " Elia " of
the East India House. He obtained a clerkship in the Custom House, the whole emolu-
ments of which, after an augmentation for many years' service, never exceeded £80 ; and
yet with this narrow income he contrived to amass a collection of books and manuscripts
to an extent rarely equalled by a single individual. On his death in the year 1807, at the
advanced age of eighty-seven, his valuable library was sold by auction, occupying consider-
ably more than a month in its disposal ; and its treasures were strenuously contended for
by the chief bibliopolists assembled from distant parts of the kingdom.1

The old mansion in Lady Stair's Close bears over its entrance this pious inscription,
" FEAEE THE LORD, AND DEPART FROM EVILL," with the date 1622, and the
arms and initials of its original proprietors, Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, — the
ancestor of the present Lord Gray, — and Geida or Egidia his wife, sister of Sir John
Smith of Grothill, Provost of Edinburgh. Sir William was a man of great influence and
note; although, by virtue of a new patent, granted by Charles I., the ancient title of Lord
Gray reverted to his family, he devoted himself to commerce, and became one of the most
extensive Scottish merchants of his day, improving and enlarging the foreign trade of his
country, and acquiring great wealth to himself. On the breaking out of civil commotions,
he adhered to the royal party, and shared in its misfortunes ; he was fined by the Parlia-
ment 100,000 merks, for corresponding with Montrose, and imprisoned first in the Castle

1 The correspondence between Paton and Gough — full of matter deeply interesting to the antiquary and topographer
— was some years since prepared for publication by Mr Turnbull, Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, but owing
to the paucity of subscribers, the MS. was thrown aside, to the great loss of literary students.

THE LAWNMARKET. 165

and afterwards in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, till the penalty was modified to 35,000
merks, which was instantly paid.1 Other and still more exorbitant exactions followed,
until his death in 1648, which was believed to have been accelerated by his share in the
troubles of the period. Other cares, however, besides those attendant on civil strife,
embittered the latter years of the noble merchant. From Sir Thomas Hope's diary, 12th
May 1645, we learn that " a dauchter of Sir William Grayis departit off the plaig, quhilk
put us all in greit fear.": So that the old mansion in Lady Stair's Close remains a
memorial of the terrible plague of 1645, the last and most fatal visitation of that dreadful
scourge which Edinburgh experienced, and which, like its first recorded appearance in
1513 — the memorable year of Flodden — followed in the wake of a disastrous war, while
the city was awaiting, in terror, the victorious forces of Montrose.

The " Statuts for the Baillies of the Mure,"3 first enacted in 1567, were renewed
with various modifications at this period, sealing up the houses where " the angel of the
pestilence" had stayed his boding flight, and forbidden to his victims the rites of sepulture
with their kindred. One interesting memorial of the stern rule of " the Baillies of the
Mure," during this terrible year, still remains in a field to the east of Warrender House,
Bruntsfield Links, — a central spot in the Old Borough Moor. Here, amid the luxuriant
pasturage of the meadow, and within sight of the busy capital, a large flat tombstone may
be seen, timeworn and grey with the moss of age ; it bears on it a skull, surmounted by
a winged sandglass, and a scroll inscribed mors pace .... kora ceeli, and below this a
shield bearing a saltier, with the initials M. I. R, and the date of the fatal year 1645.
The M. surmounts the shield, and in all probability indicates that the deceased had taken
his degree of Master of Arts. A scholar, therefore, and perhaps one of noble birth, has
won the sad pre-eminence of slumbering in unconsecrated ground, and apart from the dust
of his fathers, to tell of the terrors of the plague to other generations.

The lady of Sir William Grey appears to have long survived her husband, as in the
writs of some neighbouring properties, the old alley is styled Lady Grey's Close. The
Countess of Stair's house, we may add, is proved from the titles to have been the upper
story, " immediately above the dwelling-house, which partained to the heirs of David
Gray, merchant burgess," doubtless a descendant of its builder ; and her successor is a
Lady Clestram, the relict of some worthy laird, whose honouis did not prove strong enough
to overcome the eclat of a Countess's name.

The associations of the adjoining close connect us with a period much more recent,
and with characters yielding in interest to none with whose memories the localities of
Edinburgh are linked. Here, in the year 1786, the poet Burns,— just snatched from exile
by the generous intervention of the blind bard, Dr Blacklock, — found his way, fresh from

i Wood's Peerage, vol. i. p. 672. 2 Sir Thomas Hope's Diary, Eann. Club, p. 219.

" Statuts for the Baillies of the Mure, and ordering the Pent. For ordouring of the said mure, and penill infectit
thairupoun, for clengeing of houssis within the toun," &c. "That the Thesaurer causa mak for everie ane of the
Baillies, Clengers, and Berears of the deid, ane gown of gray, with Sanct Androiss corss, quhite behind and before ; and
to everie ane of tharae, ane staff, with ane quhite clayth on the end, quhairby thay may be knawin quhairevir thay pass.
That thair be maid twa clois beris, with foure feet, colorit over with blak, and ane quhite cross, with ane bell to be
hung in upoun the side of the said beir, quilk sail mak warning to the pepilL .... That with all deligence possible,
oa sone as ony houss sail be iufectit, the haill houshald, with their gndds, be depescit towert the mure, the deid buriet,
and with like diligence the houss clengit," &c.— Council Register, 1568. Maitland, p. 31.

,66 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the plough, to his friend Richmond, a writer's apprentice, and accepted the offer of a share
of his room and bed, in the house of Mrs Carfrae, Baxter's Close, Lawnmarket.1

In the first stair to the left, on entering the close, and on the first floor of the house,
is the poet's lodging. The tradition of his residence there has passed through very few
hands ; the predecessor of the present tenant (a respectable widow, who has occupied the
house for many years) learned it from Mrs Carfrae, and the poet's room is pointed out,
with its window looking into Lady Stair's Close. The land is an ancient and very
substantial building, with large and neatly moulded windows, retaining the marks of
having been finished with stone mullions; in one tier in particular the windows are
placed one above another, only separated at each story by a narrow lintel, so as to
present the singular appearance of one long and narrow window from top to bottom
of the lofty land. From this ancient dwelling, Burns issued to dine or sup with the
magnates of the land, and, " when the company arose in the gilded and illuminated
rooms, some of the fair guests — perhaps

Her Grace,

Whose flatnbeanx flash against the morning skies,
And gild our chamber ceilings as they pass,

took the hesitating arm of the bard, went smiling to her coach, waved a graceful
good-night with her jewelled hand, and, departing to her mansion, left him in the middle
of the street, to grope his way through the dingy alleys of the ' gude town,' to his obscure
lodging, with his share of a deal table, a sanded floor, and a chaff bed, at eighteenpence
a week." 2 The poet's lodging, however, is no such dingy apartment as this description
implies ; it is a large and well-proportioned room, neatly panelled with wood, according
to a fashion by no means very antiquated then ; and if he was as well boarded as lodged,
the hardy ploughman would find his independence exposed to no insurmountable tempta-
tion, for all the grandeur of the old Scottish Duchesses, most of whose carriages were
only sedan chairs, unless when they preferred the more economical conveyance of " a gude
pair of pattens ! "

Over the doorway of the old house immediately opposite to that of Burns', in
Baxter's Close, there is a curious and evidently a very ancient lintel, — a relic of some
more stately mansion of the olden time. It bears a shield, now much defaced, surmounted
by a crown, and above this a cross, with the figure of a man leaning over it, wearing a
mitre. The initials, A. S. and E. I. , are placed on either side ; and above the whole, in
antique Gothic letters, is the inscription, BLISSIT • BE • THE • LORD • IN •
HIS • GIFTIS • FOR • NOV • AND • EVIR. We are inclined, from the appearance
of this stone, to assign to it an earlier date than that of any other inscription in
Edinburgh. The house into which it is built is evidently a much later erection, and
no clue is furnished from its titles as to any previous building having occupied the site.
It passed by inheritance, in the year 1746, into the possession of Martha White, only
child of a wealthy burgess, whose gold won for her, some years later, the honours of
Countess of Elgin and Kincardine, Governess to her Royal Highness Princess
Charlotte of Wales, and the parentage of sundry honourable Lady Marthas, Lord
Thomases, and the like.

1 Allan Cunningham's Burns, vol. i. p. 115. a Ibid, vol. i. p. 131.

THE LA WNMA R KE T. 1 67

An ancient land in Johnston's Close, on the south side of the Lawnmarket, imme-
diately behind the West Bow, exhibits an unusually picturesque character in its gloomy
interior, abounding with plain arched recesses and corbelled projections, scattered through-
out in the most irregular and lawless fashion, and with narrow windows thrust into the
oddest corners, or up even above the very cornice of the ceiling, in order to catch every
wandering ray of borrowed light, amid the jostling of its pent-up neighbourhood. A view
of the largest apartment is given in the Abbotsford edition of the Waverley Novels, under
the name of " Hall of the Knights of St John, St John's Close, Canongate." We have
failed in every attempt to obtain any clue to the early history of the building, which
tradition has associated with this ancient order of soldier-priests.

In the first and smaller court of Riddle's Close, immediately to the east of this, there
is a lofty land with a projecting turret stair, bearing the date 1726, although a portion
of the building to the south belongs to a much earlier period. This lofty tenement
derives an interest from the fact of its having been the first residence of David Hume, as
an independent householder in Edinburgh, — adding another link to the associations with
which the Lawnmarket abounds in connection with the great philosopher. He removed
thither from Ninewells in 1751, from whence he writes, shortly after, to Adam Smith,
" Direct to me in Riddal's Land, Lawnmarket." He thus facetiously describes to the great
political economist, his own first attempts at domestic economy : — " I have now at last —
being turned of forty, to my own honour, to that of learning, and to that of the present age,
— arrived at the dignity of being a householder. About seven months ago I got a house
of my own, and completed a regular family, consisting of a head — viz., myself, and two
inferior members — a maid and a cat. My sister has since joined me, and keeps me com-
pany. With frugality, I can reach, I find, cleanliness, warmth, light, plenty, and con-
tentment. What would you have more ? Independence ? I have it in a supreme degree.
Honour ? That is not altogether wanting. Grace ? That will come in time. A wife ?
That is none of the indispensable requisites of life. Books ? That is one of them, and I
have more than I can use," &C.1 The titles of this property include " an express servitude
upon the tenement of land called Major Weir's Land, sometime belonging to James
Riddle of Caister, in the county of Norfolk, in England ; that the same shall not be built
higher than it is at present, lest it may anywise hurt or prejudice the said subject."
From a comparison of dates, no doubt can exist that Hume commenced his History of
England in Riddle's Land, though the bulk of it was written after his removal to Jack's
Land, Canongate.

An interesting mansion, of a much earlier date, but of equally lofty character, occupies
the opposite side of this narrow court Entering the doorway under a corbelled angle,
which adapts the projecting staircase to its narrow site, the visitor ascends a substantial
stone stair to a broad landing on the second floor. Here the stair seems to terminate,
but, on proceeding along the dark passage a little way, he will be surprised to stumble
on another equally substantial, though somewhat narrower, rather puzzling him to con-
jecture by what species of substructure it reaches a foundation on terra-firma. Without
ascending this second stair, however, he will reach a large apartment, now occupied as
a bookbinder's workshop, although retaining the proscenium and other requisites for

1 Burtou'o Life of Hume, vol. i. p. 377.

1 68 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

dramatic exhibitions, this having been used at one time as a public theatre. On passing
through this, an inner room is reached, which exhibits an exceedingly interesting series
of decorations of an earlier period, still remaining in tolerable preservation. The ceiling,
which is richly ornamented in stucco, in the style that prevailed during the reign of
Charles II., has a large circle in the centre, containing the royal crown, surrounded by
alternate roses and thistles, and with the date 1678. The remainder of the ceiling is
arranged in circular and polygonal compartments, with the Scottish Lion Rampant, and
the Lion Statant Gardant, as in the English crest, alternately. The walls of this apart-
ment are panelled in wood, and decorated in the very richest style of old Nome's1 art,
justifying his claim to rank among the landscape painters of Scotland. Every panel in
the room, on shutters, walls and doors, contains a different landscape, some of them
executed with great spirit ; even the keystone of an arched recess has a mask painted on
it, and the effect of the whole is singularly beautiful, notwithstanding the injury that
many of the paintings have sustained.

This fine old mansion was originally the residence of Sir John Smith of Grotham,
Provost of Edinburgh, who, in 1650, was one of the Commissioners chosen by the Com-
mittee of State, to convey the loyal assurances of the nation to Charles II. at Breda,
taking with them, at the same time, "The Covenant to be subscryvit by his Majestie."4
So recent, we may add, has been the desertion of this locality by the wealthier citizens of
Edinburgh, that the late Professor Pillans, who long occupied the Chair of Humanity
in the University of Edinburgh, was born and brought up within the same ancient
dwelling.

The inner court, of which we furnish an engraving, is a neat, open, paved square, that
still looks as though it might afford a fitting residence for the old courtiers of Holyrood.
The building which faces the visitor on passing through the second large archway, has
long been regarded with interest as the residence of Bailie Macmoran, one of the Magis-
trates of Edinburgh in the reign of James VI., who was shot dead by one of the High
School boys, during a barring-out or rebellion in the year 1595. The luckless youth who
fired the rash shot was William Sinclair,3 a son of the Chancellor of Caithness, and
owing to this he was allowed to escape, his father's power and influence being too great
to suffer the law to take its course.' Until the demolition of the Old High School in 1777,
the boys used to point out, in one part of the building, what was called the Bailie's
Window, being that through which the fatal shot had been fired.

The Bailie's initials, I. M., are visible over either end of the pediment that surmounts
the building, and the close is styled, in all the earlier titles of the property, Macmoran's
Close.4 After passing through several generations of the Macmorans, the house was

1 AmoDg the List of Subscribers to the first edition of Ramsay's Poems, published in 1721, are the names of James
Norrie and John Smibert (the friend of the poet), Painters.
1 Nicol's Diary, p. 4.

3 " William Sinclair, sone to William Sinclair, Chansler of Oames There wes ane number of

sehollaris, being gentlemen's bairns, made ane inuitinie Pntlie the haill townesmen ran to the schooll,

and tuik the said bairns and put yame in the Tolbuith, bot the haill bairns wer letten frie w'out hurte done to yame for
ye same, wan ane short tyme yairafter." — Bin-ell's Diary, p. 35.

4 This close affords a very good example of the frequent changes of name, to which nearly the whole of them were
subjected; the last occupant of note generally supplying his name to the residence of his successor. It is styled in
the various titles, Macmoran's, Sir John Smith's, Roystou's, and Riddle's Close.

THE LA WNMARKET. 169

acquired by Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik. By him it was sold to Sir Roderick Mackenzie
of Preston Hall, appointed a senator of the College of Justice in 1702, who resided in the
upper part of the house, at the same time that Sir James Mackenzie, Lord Royston, third
son of the celebrated Earl of Cromarty, " one of the wittiest and most gifted men of his
time," occupied the lower flat. Here, therefore, in all probability, his witty and eccentric
daughter, Anne, was born and brought up. This lady, who married Sir William Dick of
Prestonfield, carried her humorous pranks to an excess scarcely conceivable in our decorous
days ; sallying out occasionally in search of adventures, like some of the maids of honour
of Charles the Second's Court,1 dressed in male attire, with her maid for a squire, and out-
vying them in the extravagance of her proceedings. She seems indeed to have possessed
more wit than discretion. Some of her poetical lampoons have been privately printed by
C. K. Sharpe, Esq., in a rare, though well-known little volume, entitled, " A Ballad
Book," and furnish curious specimens of the notions of delicacy at the period.

Half a dozen more Provosts, Baronets, and Lords of Session, might be mentioned as
the old occupants of this aristocratic quarter, but it will probably interest the reader more
to learn that " The laigh tenement of land " was " sometime possessed by Jean Straiten,
relict of the deceased Mr David Williamson, Minister of the G-ospel at the West Kirk," —
the well-known " Daintie Davie " of Scottish song, who, if tradition has not wronged him,
had " worn out six wives," ere Jean Straiton, the seventh, contrived to survive him. He
was one of the ejected ministers in 1665, and was restored, to the great joy of the parish-
ioners, in 1689, although the Duke of Gordon, then under siege in the Castle, contrived
to keep him out of his church for some months thereafter, and left the ancient fabric well-
nigh reduced to ruins ere he surrendered the fortress.2 His grave is still pointed out in
the churchyard of St Cuthbert's, though there is no other inscription over it than his
initials on the enclosing wall, to mark the spot where he is laid.

The accompanying engraving renders a detailed description of the ancient court un-
necessary. One feature, however, is worthy of special notice, viz., the antique carved oak
shutters with which the lower half of one of the windows is closed, forming the finest
specimen of this obsolete fashion now remaining in Edinburgh.

To the east of this ancient quadrangle, there stood, till within these few years, the old
town residence of the Buccleuch family, entering from Fisher's Close, demolished about
1835, to make way for Victoria Terrace ; and immediately beyond this, in Brodie's
Close, there still remains, in the Roman Eagle Hall, an exceedingly beautiful specimen
of a large and highly decorated ancient saloon. This, however, falls to be treated of in
another chapter ; but the same old close — ere the besom of modern " improvement "
swept over it with indiscriminate destruction — contained various dwellings, pleasingly
associated with the memories of some of Edinburgh's worthiest citizens in " The Olden
Time."

On the east side of an open court, immediately beyond the Roman Eagle Hall, stood
the ancient mansion of the Littles of Craigmirar, bearing below a large moulded and
deeply recessed stone panel, WILLIAME • 1570 • LITIL, and on six shields, underneath
as many crow-stepped gables, were the initials, V. L., boldly cut in various forms.

William Little and his brother, Clement, may justly be considered, along with James

1 Grammout Memoirs. - Hist, of West Kirk, pp. 76-84.

1 7o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Lawson, the colleague and successor of Knox, the true founders1 of "' King James's Col-
lege;" that royal pedant having in reality bestowed little more on the University than a
charter and his name ! In 1580, Clement Little, advocate and commissary of Edinburgh,
dedicated all his books, consisting of three hundred volumes, " for the beginning of ane
library," — the undoubted foundation of that magnificent collection which the College now
possesses. This generous gift was bestowed during his lifetime, and the volumes " were
put up in Mr James Lawson's galery, an part of the lodgings appoynted for the ministry,
situated where the Parliament House is now found."

James Lawson is well known for his uncompromising resistance to the schemes of
King James for " re-establishing the state of bishops, flatt contrare the determination of
the kirk." On the assembly of the Estates for this purpose in 1584, the King sent word
to the Magistrates to seize and imprison any of the ministers who should venture to speak
against the proceedings of the Parliament. James Lawson, however, with his colleague
Walter Balcanquall, nothing daunted, not only preached against these proceedings from
the pulpit, but the latter appeared, along with Mr Robert Pont, at the Cross, on the
heralds proceeding to proclaim the act, and publicly protested, and took instruments
in the name of the Kirk of Scotland against them, in so far as they prejudiced the
former liberties of the kirk. " Arran made manie vowes that if Mr James Lawson's
head were as great as an hay stacke, he would cause it leap from his hawse ! " Both he
and his colleague were accordingly compelled to make a precipitate flight to England,
where James Lawson died the same year ; 4 Walter Balcanquall, however, returned after-
wards to his charge. Two years later, in 1586, we find him preaching before the King,
" in the Great Kirk of Edinburgh," when " the King, after sermoun, rebooked Mr Walter
publiclie from his seat in the loaft, and said he would prove there sould be bishops ! "
&c. The royal arguments were not altogether thrown away, as it would seem ; the
young Walter, son of the good man, — having probably listened to this rebuke from " the
minister's pew," — afterwards became the well known Dr Balcanquall, Dean of Durham
and Rochester, " special favorite to King James VI. and King Charles I. ; " to whom his
relative, George Heriot, committed the entire regulation and oversight of his magnificent
foundation.5

Clement Little also bore his share in the troubles of the period. On the 28th of April
1572, proclamation was made at the Cross, " that Mr Robert Maitland, Dene of Aberdene,
ane of the senatouris of the College of Justice, and Mr Clement Littill and Alexander
Sim, advocattis, commissaris of Edinburgh, wes present in Leith, partakaris with the
King, and rebellis to the Quene and her lieutennentis, thairfoir dischargit thame of thair
offices, in that pairt for euver." 6 The proclamation would appear, however, to have led
to no consequences of very permanent import.

1 Bower's Hist, of the University, vol. i. p. 69. 2 Craufurd's Hist, p. 20. 8 Calderwood, vol. iv. p. 65.

The following items from the will of Mr James Lawson, including a bequest to his colleague, are curious : —
" Imprimis, Yee sail deliver to the Frenche Kirk at London, three angells, to be distributed to their poore. Item, To
Maistresse Vannoll, who keeped me in my sicknesse, an angell. Item, I will that my loving brother, Mr James Car-
michaell, sail bate a rose noble iustantlie, and deliver it to my deere brother and loving friend Mr Walter Balcalquall,
who hath beene so carefull of uie at all times, and cheefelie in time of thia rny present sicknesse ; to remaine with
him as a perpetual! tokin and remembrance of my speciall love and thankfull heart towards him."— Calderwood' s Hist.,
vol. iv. p. 206.

J Di Steven's Memoir of G. Heriot, Appendix, p. 148. 6 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 295.

THE LAWN MARKET. 171

The son and namesake of the first William Little was Provost of Edinburgh in 1591,
and helped to complete the work which his generous relatives had so well begun. On the
election of a librarian, in the year 1647, we find the Magistrates showing a grateful sense
of their obligations to these noble benefactors of the town, by appointing a descendant of
theirs to the office. " Many favoured Mr Thomas Speir, son of an honest family, laureat
at the Lambas proceeding, especially in regard of his grandfather, William Little, Provost,
a most especial friend to the Colledge, and his great grand-uncle, Mr Clement Little,
commissary of Edinburgh, who gave the first being to the library."

The house, although occupied towards the close of last century as the Sheriff-clerk's
chambers, remained an entailed property in the possession of Clement Little's descendants,
until its demolition, and the principal carved stones are now preserved in the garden at
Inch House. According to the traditions of last century, as Creech informs us in his
" Fugitive Pieces," this interesting old mansion formed the residence of Cromwell during
part of the time he resided in Edinburgh,2 possibly while engaged in the siege of the
Castle. This close, which bears, in the earliest titles of property within it, the name of its
old residenter, Clement Little, appears in Edgar's map of 1742, as Lord Cullen's Close, so
that here also resided that eminent lawyer and judge, Sir Francis Grant of Cullen, who, in
1689, almost singly swayed the whole Scottish nation, when vacillating between the feudal
vassallage due to the old line of kings, and their sense of violated rights by its latest
representative ; and to whose influence was mainly owing the happy consistency of the
Scottish Parliament in their declaration that King James had, by his own act, forfeited
his throne, and left it vacant. He was raised to the bench in 1709, yet, though thus acute
on other people's matters, Lord Cullen was so utterly regardless about his own, that his
more shrewd and calculating spouse was accustomed to have all questions relating to his
own property represented to him in the form of a " case ; " and having obtained his
opinion as a lawyer, she took the advice for her direction, without troubling him with
further information as to whom it concerned. His friend, Wodrow, has recorded in his
history the closing scene of his life,— a scene which we may associate with the ancient
alley that bore his name : — " Brother," said he to one who informed him of his mortal
illness, " you have brought me the best news ever I heard ! " And the historian adds, in
figurative depiction, " That day when he died was without a cloud ! "

The transition is great from this single-minded and upright judge to the next
occupant who gave his name to the close, which it still retains, that of William, or, as he
was more generally called, Deacon Brodie. This notorious character, who was executed
at the Old Tolbooth on the 1st of October 1788, resided in the same elegant mansion
as had previously been the abode of such very different persons, — a suitable enough
dwelling for one who stood high in repute as a wealthy and substantial citizen, until the
daring robbery of the Excise Office in Chessel's Court, Canongate, brought to light a long-
continued system of housebreaking, scarcely ever surpassed in reckless audacity.3

The principal apartment in the house was lofty and elegant in its proportions. A
large arched window gave light to it from thb west, and a painting on the panelling,

1 Craufnrd's Hist., p. 159. ' Edinburgh Fugitive Pieces, p. 64.

3 For a particular account of this worthy, see Kay's Portraits, vol. i. p. 256.

I7, MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

representing the Adoration of the Wise Men, was said to be the work of Alexander

Roadman.

We have endeavoured thus far to conduct the reader through this portion of the
ancient capital, pointing out the various associations calculated to excite sympathy or
interest in connection with its time-honoured scenes. But all other objects of attraction
to the local historian, within this district, must yield before those of the Old Bank Close,
the site of which was very nearly that of the present paving of Melbourne Place. The
antique mansion, that formed the chief building in this close, excited very great and
general attention from the time that it was exposed to view in opening up the approach
to George IV. 's Bridge, until its demolition in 1834, to make way for the central
buildings of Melbourne Place, that now occupy its site. It stood immediately to the east
of William Little's Land, already described, in Brodie's Close, from which it was only
partially separated by a very narrow gutter that ran between the two houses, leaving them
united by a mutual wall at the north end.

This ancient building was curiously connected with a succession of eminent and

influential men, and with important historical events
of various eras, from the date of its erection until a
comparatively recent period. " Gourlay's House,"
for so it continued to be called nearly to the last,
was erected in 1569, as appeared from the date on it,
by Robert Gourlay, burgess, on the site, and, partly
at least, with the materials of an old religious house.
Little further is known of its builder than the fact
that he had been a wealthy and influential citizen,
who enjoyed the favour of royalty, and made the
most of it too, notwithstanding the pious averment sculptured over his door, 0 LORD
IN THE IS AL MY TRAIST.1 This appears no less from numerous grants of
privileges and protections of rights, among the writs and evidents of the property,
attested by King James's own signature, than by the very obvious jealousy with which
his favour at Court was regarded by his fellow-citizens.

One of these royal mandates, granted by the King at Dumfries, 21st June 1588, sets
forth, " Lyke as ye said Robert Gourlay and Helen Cruik, his spouse, has raisit ane new
biggin and wark upon ye waste and ground of their lands and houses foresaid, whereiu
they are quarelled and troubled for enlarging and outputing of ye east gavill and dyke of
their said new wark, on with ye bounds of ye auld bigging fouudit and edified thereupon,
of design, and presumed to have diminished and narrowit ye passage of ye foresaid transe
callit Mauchains Close, &c.,2 We, therefor, give and grant special liberty

1 On the demolition of the building, the words " 0 Lord," which extended beyond the lintel of the door, were found
to be carved on oak, and so ingeniously let into the wall that this had escaped observation. One could almost fancy that
the subservient courtier had found his abbreviated motto liable to a more personal construction than was quite agreeable.

2 In the earlier part of the same writ, the property is styled " ye lands of umq1" Alexander Mauthune, and now of ye
said Robert Gourlay." We learn from Maitland, that in the year 1511, " the Town Council twoards inlarging the said
Church of St Giles, bought of Alexander Mauckanes, four lauds or tenements, in the Booth-raw," or Luckeuboothg. —
Maitland's Hist., p. 180. This can scarcely be doubted to be the same individual.

VIGNETTE — Carved Stone from Old Bank Close, in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq.

THE LAWN MARKET. 173

to accomplish the foresaid bigging," &c. This royal mandate not seeming to have pro-
duced the ready acquiescence that was doubtless anticipated, King James, in the following
August, assumes the imperative mode, — " Whereas the said Robert Gourlay is quarelled
and troubled for diminishing of ye breid and largeness of ye passage thereof, by use and
wont ; albeit ye said vennel be na common nor free passage, lyke as ye same hath not been
this long time bygane, being only ane stay hill besouth ye said new wark, and nevir calsayit
nor usit as ane oppen and comoun vennall, lyke as ua manner of persones has now, nor
can justlie plead ony richt or entrie to ye said veunal, qlk be all lawis inviolable observit
in tymes bygane has pertainit, and aucht to pertene to US ; " and to make sure of the
matter this time, his Majesty closes by authorising the building of a dyke across the close,
" notwithstanding that ye said transe and venuall have been at ony time of before, repute
or halden ane comouu and free passage I "

The result of this mandate of royalty would appear to have been the erection of the house
at the foot of the close, — the only other building that had an entrance by it, — apparently
as the dwelling for his son, John Gourlay. This ancient edifice possessed a national interest
as having been the place where the earliest banking institution in Scotland was established.
The Bank of Scotland, or, as it was more generally styled by our ancestors, the Old Bank,
continued to carry on all its business there, within the narrow alley that bore its name,
until the completion of the extensive erection in Bank Street, whither it removed in 1805.
The house bore the date 1588, the same year as that of the royal mandates authorising its
erection, and on an upright stone panel, on its north front, a device was sculptured repre-
senting several stalks of wheat growing out of bones, with the motto, SPES ALTERA
VIT^E. The same ingenious emblem of the resurrection may still be seen on the fine
old range of buildings opposite the Canongate Tolbooth.

The only notice of Robert Gourlay we have been able to discover occurs in Calder-
wood's History, and is worth extracting, for the illustration it affords of the extensive
jurisdiction the kirk was disposed to assume to itself in his day : — " About this time,
Robert Gourlay, an elder of the Kirk of Edinburgh, was ordeanned to mak his publict
repentance in the kirk upon Friday, the 28th May [1574], for transporting wheate out of
the countrie." The Regent, however, interfered, and interposed his licence as sufficient
security against the threatened discipline of the church.1

John Gourlay is styled in some of his titles " customar," that is, one who " taks taxa-
tiounis, custumis, or dewteis ; " 2 and his father also, in all probability, occupied a
situation of some importance in the royal household ; nor is it to be supposed it was
altogether " out of mere love and gude will " that King James was so ready to secure
to him the absolute control over the close wherein he built his house. It was a building
of peculiar strength and massiveness, and singularly intricate in its arrangements, even
for that period. Distinct and substantial stone stairs led from nearly the same point
to separate parts of the mansion ; and on its demolition, a most ingeniously contrived
secret chamber was discovered, between the ceilinp- of the first and the floor of the second
story, in which were several chests full of old deeds and other papers.8 A carved stone,
at the side of the highest entrance in the close, bore a shield with a martlet on it,

1 Calderwood, vol. iii. p. 328. " Vide Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.

8 Now in the Chambers of the Improvements Commission.

1/4 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

surmounted by the initials R. G. ; the arrangement of the interior seemed to have
been designed with a view to its occasional subdivision for the separate lodgment of
illustrious occupants. A projecting turret, which appears in our engraving, enclosed
a spiral stone stair, each of the steps of which was curiously hollowed in front into the
segment of a circle. This stair afforded access to a small room in the highest floor of
the house, which tradition, as well as the appearance of the apartment, pointed out as
the place of durance of the various noble captives that found a prison within its old walls.
An adjoining closet was also shown, where the lockman was said to have slept, while in
waiting to do his last office on such of them as spent there the closing hours of life.
Popular rumour even sought to add to the number of these associations, by assigning the
former apartment as that in which the Earl of Argyle spent the last night before his
execution ; where one of his unprincipled and lawless judges was struck with astonish-
ment and remorse on finding his victim in a sweet and tranquil slumber only a few hours
before passing to the scaffold.

At the period of Argyle's execution, however, A.D. 1685, this private stronghold of
James VI. had passed out of the hands of subservient customars, into the possession of
the descendants of Sir Thomas Hope, — one of the most resolute opponents of the aggres-
sions of royalty, — who were little likely to suffer their dwelling to be converted into the
state prison of the bigoted James VII. ; while it is clearly stated by Wodrow, that the
unfortunate Argyle was brought directly from the Castle to the Laigh Council Room,
thence to be conducted to execution.

Very soon after the erection of Gourlay's house, it became the residence of Sir William
Durie, governor of Berwick, and commander of the English auxiliaries, during the memor-
able siege of the Castle in 1573; and thither,— on its surrender, after the courageous
defence, of which a brief account has already been given,1 — the gallant Sir William
Kirkaldy of Grange, and his brother, with the Lord Hume, Lethington, Pittadrow, the
Countess of Argyle, the Lady Lethington, and the Lady Grange, were conducted to await
the bloody revenge of the Regent Morton, and the heartlessness of Queen Elizabeth, that
consigned Sir William Kirkaldy and his brother to the ignominious death of felons.2

David Moyses, who himself held an office in the household of James VI., informs us
that on the 27th of May 1581, the very year succeeding that of the royal mandates in
favour of Gourlay, the Earls of Arran and Montrose passed from Edinburgh with a body
of armed men, to bring the Earl of Morton from Dumbarton Castle, where he was in ward,
to take his trial at Edinburgh ; and " upon the 29th of May, the said Earl was transported
to Edinburgh, and lodged in Robert Gourlay's house, and there keeped by the waged men."8
The Earl was held there in strict durance, until the 1st of June, and denied all intercourse
with his friends. On that day the citizens of the capital were mustered in arms on the

1 Ante, p. 84.

8 " The noblemen past to the said lieutennentis lugeing, callit Gourlayes logeing, thair to remayne quhill farder
aduertiseinent come fra the Quene of Ingland. "—Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 333. Calderwood, who furnishes the list of
noble captives, mentions the Laird of Grange as brought with others from the Abbey to the Cross for execution. Sir
William Durie, we may presume, declined to be his gaoler, after his death was determined on. — "When he saw the
scaffold prepared at the Croce, the day faire, and the sunne shyning cleere, his countenance was changed," &c. The
whole narrative is curious and minute, though too long for inserting here. — Calderwood, vol. iii. p. 284.

* Moyses' Memoirs, p. 53.

THE LA WNMA RKE T. 175

High Street, — two bands of men of war were placed about the Cross, and two above the
Tolbooth. " The first baud waited upou the convoy of the Erie of Morton, from the
loodgiug to the Tolbuith."1 The crime for which he was convicted, was a share in the
murder of Darnley, but eighteen other heads of indictment had been drawn up against
him. About six in the evening, he was conveyed back to his lodging in the Old Bank
Close. He supped cheerfully, and on retiring to rest, slept till three in the morning,
when he rose and wrote for some hours, and again returned to his couch. In the
morning, he sent the letters he had written, by some of the ministers, to the King, but
he refused to look at them or listen to their contents, or indeed do anything, " but
ranged up and doun the floore of his chamber, clanking with his finger and his thowme."
The Regent had shown little mercy as a ruler, and he had none to hope for from King
James. On that same day, he was beheaded at the Cross, by the Maiden, with all the
bloody formalities of a traitor's death, and his head exposed on the highest point of the
Tolbooth.2

In the following year, the same substantial mansion, — alternately prison and palace,3
— was assigned as a residence for Monsieur de la Motte Fenelon, the French ambassador,
who came professedly to mediate between the King and his nobles, and to seek a renewal
of the ancient league of amity with France. " He was lodged in Gourlay's house, near
the Tolbooth, and had an audience of His Majesty upon the 9th of the said month " of
January. He remained till the 10th of February, when " having received a satisfactory
answer, with a great banquet, in Archibald Stewart's lodgings, in Edinburgh, he took
journey homeward."4 The banquet was given at the King's request, to the great
indignation of the clergy, who had watched with much jealousy "the traffique of Papists,"

* Calderwood, vol. iii. p. 657.

5 Ante, p. 86. — " He was executed about foure houres after noone, upon Fryday, the secund of June. Phairnihirst
stood in a shott over against the scaffold, with his large ruffes, delyting in this spectacle. The Lord Seton and his two
eonnes stood in a staire, south-east from the Croce. Hia bodie lay upon the scaffold till eight houres at even, and ther-
after was carried to the Neather Tolbuith, where it was watched. Hia head was sett upon a prick, on the high«st atone
of the gavell of the Tolbuith, toward the publict street." — Calderwood, vol. iii. p. 575.

The common story told by Dr Jamieaon and other writers, about the Maiden, is entirely apocryphal. It is said that
the Regent Morton borrowed the idea from some foreign country. Halifax, in Yorkshire, has been oftenest assigned
as the place of its invention ; and the generally received tradition is, that the Regent was himself the first who suffered
by it. On the 3d of April 1566, the Maiden was used at the execution of Thomas Scot, an accomplice in the murder
of Rizzio,, when an entry appears in the Town records of 7s. paid for conveying it from Blackfriars to the Cross. The
next execution mentioned, is that of Henry Yair, on the 10th of August, when Andrew Goffersown, smyth, — who, at
the former date, received 5s. for grinding of y" Maiden, — obtains a similar fee for grinding of y' Widow. We are
inclined to infer that the same instrument is spoken of in both cases, and that the fanciful epithet which the old
Scottish guillotine still retains, was given to it on the former occasion, in allusion to its then unfleshed and maiden axe,
vide p. 86. It is at any rate obvious from this, that the Maiden was in use before the Earl of Morton was appointed
Regent.

8 Maitland remarks (p. 181), " The Old Tolbooth, in the Bank Close, in the Landmarket, which was rebuilt in the
year 1562, is still standing, on the western side of the said close, with the windows strongly stauchelled ; the small
dimensions thereof occasioned its being laid aside." We shall show presently the very different character of the original
building, although there still remains the intermediate possessor, Alexander Mauchane, already mentioned, unless, as is
most probable, he occupied the ancient erection as his dwelling. The allusions already quoted, where the Tolbooth is
mentioned along with this building, seem sufficient to prove that that name was never applied to it, although it
occasionally shared with the Tolbooth the offices of a prison, — a purpose that in reality properly belonged to neither.
Moyses styles it Gourlay's House, near the Tolboolh, — a true description of it — as it was within a hundred yards of the
Old Tolbooth or " Heart of Midlothian."

4 Moyses' Memoirs, pp. 73-77. Archibald Stewart appears to have been a substantial citizen, who was Provost of
the city in the year 1578.

176 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

and especially of" one bearing the manifest badge of Antichrist," viz., his badge as a
knight of the order of Saint Esprit! They accordingly intimated to their congregations
a day of fasting and prayer on the occasion, which was duly observed, while the French-
man was having his farewell repast.

In the year 1588, the King sent Sir James Stewart, brother
of the Earl of Arran, to besiege Lord Maxwell, in the Castle
of Lochmaben, where he was believed to have collected a force
in readiness to co-operate with an expected army from Spain,
against the government. The Castle was rendered on the
faith of safety promised to the garrison by Sir William
Stewart ; but the King, who had remained at a prudent dis-
tance from danger, now made his appearance, and with charac-
teristic perfidy, hanged the most of them before the Castle
gate. He returned to Edinburgh thereafter, bringing with
him the Lord Maxwell, " who was warded in Robert Gour-
laye's hous, and committed to the custodie of Sir William
Stewart." Scarcely a week after this, Sir William quarrelled
with the Earl of Bothwell, in the royal presence, where each
gave the other the lie, in language sufficiently characteristic

of the rudeness of manners then prevailing at the Court of Holyrood. They met
a few days afterwards on the High Street, each surrounded by his retainers, when a
battle immediately ensued. Sir William was driven down the street by the superior
numbers of his opponents, and at length retreated into Blackfriars' Wynd.1 There he
stabbed one of his assailants who was pressing most closely on him, but being unable to
recover his sword, he was thrust through the body by Bothwell, and so perished in the
aifray, — an occurrence that excited little notice at that turbulent period, either from
the citizens or the Court, and seems to have involved its perpetrator in no retributive
consequences.

The next occupant of note was Colonel Sempill, a cadet of the ancient family of that
name, and an active agent of the Catholic party, who " came to this countrie, with the
Spanish gold to the Popish Lords." The Earl of Huntly, who had shown himself favour-
able to the Spanish emissary, was commanded, under pain of treason, to apprehend him ;
and he also was accordingly warded in Robert Gourlay's house, seemingly at the same time
with Lord Maxwell. In this case, it proved an insecure prison, for he " soone after brake
waird and escaped, and that by Huntlie's moyen and assistance ; " " and on the 20th of May of
the following year, Huntly was himself a prisoner, "wairded in Robert Gourlay's house,"3
from whence he was soon afterwards transferred to Borthwick Castle. But not only was
this ancient civic mansion the abode or prison of a succession of eminent men, during the
troubled years of James the Sixth's residence in Scotland ; we find that the King himself,
in 1593, took refuge in the same substantial retrea.t, during one of those daring insurrections
of the Earl of Bothwell, that so often put his Majesty's courage to sore trial, and drove
him to seek the protection of the burgher force of Edinburgh. " The 3d of Apryle, the

1 Birrel's Diary, p. 24. " Calderwood, vol. iv. pp. 678-681. 3 Ibid, vol. v. p. 55.

VIONETTE— Carved Stone from Old Bank Close, in the collection of A. G. Ellis, Esq.

THE LA WNMARKET.

177

King being ludgit in Robert Gourlay's Judging, he came to the sermone, and ther, in pre-
sence of the haill peipill, he proinest to reuenge God's cause, to banische all the papists,
and yr requystet the haill peiple to gang with him against Boduell, quha wes in Leith for
the tyme." l His Majesty's pathetic exhortation, and promises of pious zeal in the cause
of the kirk, soon mustered a force of civic volunteers, who proceeded to Leith, where
Both well lay with a body of five hundred horse. The King gallantly headed his recruits so
long as the Earl retreated before them, first " to the Halkhill, besyde Lesteric," 2 and then
away through Duddingston ; but no sooner did Bothwell turn his horsemen to face them,
than his Majesty showed " the better part of valour " by a precipitate retreat, and never
drew bridle, we may presume, till he found himself once more safely sheltered within the
pend of Gourlay's Close, Holyrood Abbey being much too near the recent quarters of
the rebellious Earl to be ventured on for the royal abode.

From the various incidents adduced, it appears evident that Robert Gourlay was not
only a subservient courtier, but also that he was so far dependent on the King — whatever
may have been the nature of his office — as to place his house at his Majesty's free disposal,
whenever it suited his convenience.3 It is well known that King James was very con-
descending in his favours to his loyal citizens of Edinburgh, making no scruple, when the
larder of Holyrood grew lean, and the privy purse was exhausted, to give up housekeeping
for a time, and honour one or other of the substantial burghers of his capital with a visit of
himself and household ; or when the straitened mansions within the closes of old Edin-
burgh proved insufficient singly to accommodate the hungry train of courtiers, he would
very considerately distribute his favours through the whole length of the close ! In
January 1591, for example, as we learn from Moysie,4 when " the King and Queen's
Majesties lodged themselves in Nicol Edward's house, in Niddry's Wynd," the Chan-
cellor withdrew to Alexander Clark's house, at the same wynd head ; and, it is added, "on
the 7th of February, the Earl of Huntly, with his friends, to the number of five or six
score horse, passed from his Majesty's said house in Edinburgh, intending to pass to a
horse race in Leith." We are not quite sure if we are to understand that the whole six score
were actually lodgers in the wynd, but it is quite obvious, at least, that his Majesty found
his quarters there much too comfortable to be likely to quit " his said house " in a hurry.
The free use, however, which was made of Gourlay's mansion, lacked such royal condescen-
sion to sweeten the sacrifice ; it was only when its massive walls gave greater promise of
safety in the time of danger that the King made it his abode ; and we may presume its
owner to have enjoyed some more substantial benefits in return for such varied encroach-
ments on his housekeeping.

In the year 1637, David Gourlay, -the grandson of the builder, sold this ancient fabric
to Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, the courageous and intrepid adviser of the recusant clergy
in 1606, when the politic lawyers of older standing declined risking King James's displea-
sure by appearing in their behalf. In 1626 he was created King's Advocate by Charles

1 Bin-ell's Diary, p. 35>. » Restalrig.

8 We are indebted to Mr. R. Chambers for the following interesting note on this subject : — " In the Second Book of
Charters in the Canongate Council House, I find Adam, Bishop of Orkney, giving to Robert Gourlay, messenger, our
familiar servitor,' the office of messenger, or officer-at-arms, to the Abbey, with a salary of forty pounds and other per-
quisites."

4 Moysie's Memoirs, p. 182. Ante, p. 89.

M

178 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

I., who hoped thereby to gain him over from the Presbyterians. In this, however, the
King was completely disappointed. At the period of his acquiring Gourlay's house, he was
actively engaged in organising the national resistance of the liturgy, and in framing the
Covenant, which was subscribed in the following year by nearly the whole of Scotland.
He appears, from his Diary,1 to have taken a minute and affectionate interest in all that
concerned the members of his numerous family, long after they had left the parental roof.
The ancient mansion seems to have been purchased for his son, Sir Thomas, who, with his
elder brother, Sir John Hope of Craighall, both sat on the bench while their father was
Lord Advocate ; and it being judged by the Court of Session unbecoming that a father
should plead uncovered before his children, the privilege of wearing his hat while pleading
was granted to him, and we believe still belongs to his successors in the office of King's
Advocate, though fallen into disuse.

From Sir Thomas Hope the upper part of the old mansion was purchased by Hugh
Blair, merchant in Edinburgh, and grandfather, we believe, of the eminent divine that bore
his name. From him it came into the possession of Lord Aberuchill, a Senator of the
College of Justice ; and various other persons of rank and note in their day occupied the
ancient dwelling ere it passed to the plebeian tenantry of modern times.

The most interesting of its latter occupants was the celebrated lawyer Sir George Lock-
hart, the great rival of Sir George Mackenzie, appointed, in the year 1658, Advocate to
the Protector during life, and nominated Lord President of the Court of Session in 1685.
He continued at the head of the Court till the Revolution, and would undoubtedly have
been reappointed to the office, had he not fallen a victim to private revenge. Chiesly of
Dairy, an unsuccessful litigant, exasperated, as it appeared, by a decree of the Lord Pre-
sident awarding an aliment of 1700 merks, or £93 sterling, out of his estate, in favour of
his wife and ten children, conceived the most deadly hatred against him, and openly declared
his resolution to be revenged. On Sir James Stewart, advocate, seeking to divert him from
the purpose he avowed, he fiercely replied, — " Let God and me alone ; we have many things
to reckon betwixt us, and we will reckon this too ! " The Lord President was warned of
Chiesly's threats, but unfortunately despised them. The assassin loaded his pistols on the
morning of Easter Sunday, the 31st March 1689; he went to the New Kirk, — as the
choir of St Giles's Church was then styled, — and having dogged the President home from
the church, he shot him in the back as he was entering the Old Bank Close, where he
resided. Lady Lockhart, — the aunt of the witty Duke of Wharton, — was lying ill in bed.
Alarmed at the report of the pistol, she sprang up, and on learning of her husband's
murder rushed out into the close in her night-dress, and assisted in raising him from the
ground. The assassin, on being told that his victim had expired immediately on being
carried into the house, coolly replied, — " He was not used to do things by halves."

The murderer being taken red-hand, and the crime having been committed within the city,
he was brought to trial on the following day before Sir Magnus Prince, the Lord Provost,
as High Sheriff of the city. Although he made no attempt to deny the crime, he was put

1 The following entry appears in his Diary, " 7 January 1641, Payit to David Gourlay, J° merks, quhilk he affirtniti
to be awin to him of the pryce off his tenement sauld to my son Sir Thomas, and this gevin be him to his sone Thomas
Gourlay quhen he was going furth off the country." On 25th December 1644, is the brief entry, " Good David
Gourlay departit at his hous in Prestounpannis, about 8 hours of nycht." — Hope's Diary, Bauu. Club, pp. 123,
210.

THE LA WNMARKET.

179

to the torture, by special authority of the Estates, to discover if he had any accomplices.1
The very next day he was dragged on a hurdle to the Cross,. his right hand struck off
while alive, and then hanged, with the pistol about his neck, after which his body was
hung in chains on the Gallow-lee, between Leith and Edinburgh, and his hand affixed to
the West Port.2 The Castle being then under siege, and held out by the Duke of
Gordon on behalf of King James, a parley was beat by the besiegers, for a cessation of
hostilities during the interment of the President in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, which
was readily granted.3

The house of Dairy belonged
latterly to William Kirkpatrick,
Esq., of Allisland, whose grandson
related to us that the servants were
afraid to venture alone into the
back kitchen, and would not, on
any consideration, approach it after
dark, under the belief that Chiesly's
bones had been carried off by his

relatives and buried there, and that the ghost of the murderer haunted the spot. Oil
his grandfather repairing the garden wall at a later period, an old stone seat, which stood
in a recess in the wall, had to be removed, and underneath was found a skeleton, entire,
except the bones of the right hand ;— without doubt the remains of the assassin, that had
been secretly brought thither from the Gallow-lee.

Great exertions were used with the Improvements' Commissioners to induce them to
preserve the interesting fabric associated with such various characters and national events,
but in vain ; — civic rulers are ever the slowest to appreciate such motives. The demolition
of this, as well as of several surrounding buildings, brought to light numerous fragments
of an earlier erection, evidently of an ecclesiastical character, several of which we have had
engraved. These were used simply as building materials, the carved work being built into
the wall, and the stones squared on the side exposed. Numerous fragments of shafts,
mullions, and the like, also occurred among the ruins ; and an inspection of the earliest
writs and evidents of the property, serve to show that a building of considerable extent
had existed here prior to the Information, in connection with Cambuskenueth Abbey.
It is styled, in the earliest of these, " all and haill these lands, houses, and stables, biggit
and waste, lying within ye tenement sometime pertaining to the Comendator and Convent
of Cambuskenneth," and included both William Little's mansion to the west, and a por-
tion, at least, of the buildings in Gosford's Close, to the east. But the most interesting
and conclusive evidence on this subject is derived from these sculptured fragments rescued
from the ruins of the more recent building ; and judging from them, and from the plainer

1 It is a curious fact connected with the trial, that the Estates of Parliament passed a special act empowering hia
judges to examine him by the torture, although, only ten days after this trial, they declared King James to have
jorfaulted, the Crown, by illegal assumption and exercise of power, and " that the use of torture, without evidence, is
contrary to law. "

2 Crim. Registers of Edinburgh. Arnot's Crim. Trials, pp. 168-173.
8 Siege of the Castle of Edinburgh, 1689, Bann. Club, p. 47.

VIGNETTE. — Carved stone from Old Bank Close, in the collection of A. G. Ellis, Esq.

i«o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

relics that abounded in the latter fabric, the student of mediaaval architecture will pro-
nounce, no less confidently, that here there once stood a Gothic structure of an ecclesias-
tical character, and finished in a highly ornate style, than does the geologist, from the
fossil vertebra or pelvis, construct again the mastodon or plesiosaurus of pre-adamite eras.
In the three fragments of carved work we have engraved,1 we have the exterior dripstone
and corbel of a pointed window ; a highly decorated portion of a deeply splayed string
course (not improbably from an oriel window), and a corbel, from which we may infer the
ribs of a groined roof to have sprung,— hand specimens, as it were, of both the exterior
and interior of the fabric.

The building was, in all likelihood, the town mansion of the abbot, with a beautiful
chapel attached to it, and may serve to remind us how little idea we can form of the
beauty of the Scottish capital before the Reformation, adorned as it was with so many
churches and conventual buildings, the very sites of which are now unknown. Over the
doorway of an ancient stone land in Gosford's Close, which stood immediately to the east
of the Old Bank Close, there existed a curious sculptured lintel, containing a representation
of the Crucifixion, and which may, with every probability, be regarded as another relic of
the abbot's house that once occupied its site. We furnish a view of this building as it
latterly existed, with numerous additions of various dates and styles that tended to
increase the picturesqueness of the whole. In the underground story of the house there was
a strongly arched cellar, in the centre of the floor of which a concealed trap-door was
discovered, admitting to another still lower down, cut out of the solid rock. Some vague
traditions were reported as to its having been a place of torture ; there is much greater
probability that it was constructed by smugglers as a convenient receptacle for concealing
their goods, at a period when the North Loch afforded ready facilities for getting wines
and other forbidden articles within the gates, and enabled " an honest man to fetch sae
muckle as a bit anker o' brandy frae Leith to the Lawnmarket, without being rubbit o'
the very gudes he 'd bought and paid for by an host of idle English gangers ! " 2
Directly over the trap-door an iron ring was fastened into the arch of the upper cellar,
apparently for the purpose of letting down weighty articles into the vault below. This
vault, we presume, still remains beneath the centre of the roadway leading to George IV.
Bridge. On the first floor of this mansion, as Chambers informs us, the last Earl of
Loudon, together with his daughter, the present Marchioness of Hastings, used to lodge
during their occasional visits to town. In 1794 the Hall and Museum of the Society of
Antiquaries 3 were at the bottom of this close, where the accommodations were both ample
and elegant, but in an alley so narrow, that it was soon after deserted, owing to the
impossibility of reaching the entrance in a sedan chair, — the usual fashionable conveyance
at that period. This did not, however, prevent their being succeeded by Dr Farquharson,
an eminent physician ; indeed, the whole neighbourhood was the favourite resort of the
most fashionable and distinguished among the resident citizens, and a perfect nest of
advocates and lords of session. On the third floor of the front land, Lady Catherine and
Lady Ann Hay, daughters of the Marquis of Tweeddale, resided; and so late as 1773 it
was possessed, if not occupied, by their brother, George, Marquis of Tweeddale.

1 Vide, pp. 172, 176, 179. • Heart of Midlothian, Plumdamaa loquitur.

3 Kincaid's Traveller's Companion, 1794.

THE LA WNMARKET. 181

On the west side of the County Hall there still exists a part of the " transs " of Libber-
ton's Wynd, but all other remains have been swept away by the same " improvement
mania," whose work we have already recorded in the neighbouring closes. This wynd
formed, at one period, one of the principal thoroughfares for pedestrians from the fashion-
able district of the Cowgate to the " High Town." Its features did not greatly differ from
those of many other of the old closes, with its substantial stone mansions eked out here
and there by irregular timber projections, until the narrow stripe of sky overhead had
well-nigh been blotted out- by their overhanging gables.1 The most interesting feature
in the wynd was Johnie Bowie's Tavern, already alluded to, — the Mermaid Tavern of
Edinburgh during the last century, — whither the chief wits and men of letters were wout
to resort, in accordance with the habits of society at that period. Here Ferguson the
poet, David Herd, one of the earliest collectors of Scottish songs, " antiquarian Paton,"
with others of greater note in their own day than now, — lords of session, and leading
advocates, inhabitants of the neighbouring fashionable district, — were wont to congregate.
Martin, a celebrated portrait painter of the last century, instituted a club here, which was
quaintly named after the host, Doway College, and thither his more celebrated pupil, Sir
Henry Raeburn, often accompanied him in his younger days. But, above all, this was the
favourite resort of Robert Burns, where he spent many jovial hours with Willie Nicol, and
Allan Masterton, — the " blithe hearts " of his most popular song,— and with his city
friends of all degrees, during his first visit to Edinburgh. On the death of John Dowie
(a sober and respected city, who amassed a considerable fortune, and left his only son a
Major in the army), the old place of entertainment acquired still greater note under the
name of Burns's Tavern. The narrow room was visited by strangers as the scene of the
poet's most frequent resort; and at the period of its demolition in 1834, it had taken a
prominent place among the lions of the Old Town. The house had nothing remarkable
about it as a building. It bore the date of its erection, 1728, and in the ancient titles,
belonging to a previous building, it is described as bounded on the south by " the King's
auld wall." This ancient thoroughfare appears to have retained its original designation,
while closes immediately adjoining were receiving new names with accommodating facility on
every change of occupants. Libberton's Wynd is mentioned in a charter granted by James
III. in the year 1477 ; and in later years its name occurred in nearly every capital
sentence of the criminal court, the last permanent place ofi public execution, after the
demolition of the Old Tolbooth, having been at the head of the wynd. The victims of the
law's highest penalty, within the brief period alluded to, offer few attractions to the anti-
quarian memorialist, unless the pre-eminent infamy of the " West Port murderers," Burke
and Hare,— the former of whom was executed on this spot — be regarded as establishing
their claim to rank among the celebrated characters of Edinburgh. The sockets of " the
fatal tree " were removed, along with objects of greater interest and value, in completing
the approach to the new bridge.

Carthrae's, Forrester's, and Beth's Wynds, all once stood between Libberton's Wynd
and St Giles's Church, but every relic of them had been swept away years before the latter
work of destruction was projected. Forrester's Wynd was evidently a place of note in
earlier times, and frequent allusions to it occur in some of the older diaries ; e.g., " Vpoun

1 A very accurate and characteristic view of thi3 wynd, from the Cowgate, is given among Geikie's Etchings.

1 82 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the nynt day of Aprilc, the zeir of God 1566 zeris, Johne Sinclare, be the mercie of God
bischope of Brechin and Dean of Bestalrig, deceissit in James Mosmanis hous in Frosteris
Wynd, ane honest and cunniug letterit man, and president of the College of Justice
the tyme of his deceiss, &c." ' Another diarist records, in describing the firing of the
town by the garrison of the Castle, under Sir William Kirkaldy, in 1572, " the fyre
happit fra hous to hous throw the maisterie of ane grit wynd, and come eist the gait
to Bess Wynd at the kirk end of Sauct Geill," 2 in consequence of which " ther wes
ane proclamatiouu maid, that all thak houssis suld be tirrit,8 and all hedder staki*
to be trausportit at thair awine bounds and brunt ; and ilk man in Edinburgh to haue
his lumes full of watter in the nycht, wilder the pane of deid ; " a very graphic picture of
the High Street in the sixteenth century, with the majority of the buildings on either
side covered with thatch, and the main street encumbered by piles of heather and other
fuel accumulated before each door, for the use of the inhabitants ; and, from amid these,
we may add the stately ecclesiastical edifices of the period, and the substantial mansions
of the nobility, towering with all the more imposing effect, in contrast to their homely
neighbourhood.

The venerable alley called Bess or Beth's Wynd, after suffering greatly from the slow
dilapidation of time, was nearly destroyed by successive fires in the years 1786 and 1788.
On the latter occasion it was proposed to purchase and pull down the whole of its build-
ings extending from the Lawnmarket to the Cowgate, in order to open up the Parliament
House.4 This was not effected, however, till 1809, when the whole were swept away in
preparing the site for the Advocate's Library. " All the houses in Beth's Wynd," says
Chambers, " were exceedingly old and crazy ; and some mysterious looking cellar doors
were shown in it, which the old wives of the wynd believe to have been kept shut since
the time of the plague.'''' The same superstitious belief was prevalent in regard to some
grim and ancient uninhabited dwellings in Mary King's Close, part of which now remain.
An old gentleman has often described to us his visits to the latter close, along with his
companions, when a schoolboy. The most courageous of them would approach these dread
abodes of mystery, and after shouting through the keyhole or broken window-shutter,
they would run off with palpitating hearts, —

" Like one, that on a lonesome road

Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round, walks on

And turns no more his head ;
Because he knows a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread."

The popular opinion was, that if these houses were opened, the imprisoned pestilence
would burst out, spreading disease and death through the land, — a belief that was probably
thrown into discredit on the peaceful demolition of the former wynd.

A house at the head of Beth's Wynd, fronting the Old Tolbooth, was the residence of
Mr Andrew Maclure, writing-master, one of the civic heroes of 1745. He joined the
reluctant corps of volunteers who marched to meet the Highland army on its approach
towards Corstorphine ; but they had scarcely left the town walls a mile behind, when their

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 98. s Ibid, Part II. p. 326.

8 i.e.. All thatched houses should be unroofed. 4 Caledonian Mercury, 17th January 1788.

THE LAWNMARKET. 183

courage failed them, and they marched hastily home again without having even seen the
enemy. This corps of martial burghers became a favourite butt for the Jacobite wits ; and,
among other proofs of their self-devoted zeal, it transpired that the gallant penman had
secured within his waistcoat the professional breastplate of a quire of paper, and prepared
himself for his expected fate by affixing thereon a label, inscribed, — " This is the body of
Andrew Maclure, let it be decently interred," in the hope that he might thereby be secure
of Christian burial ! l

Before closing the chapter, we may add that the Lawnmarket appears to have been,
at all periods, a place of residence for men of note. In 1572 Mr Henry Killigrew, the
ambassador of Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Edinburgh to congratulate the Earl of Morton
on his accession to the Regency,2 when he " depairtit to Dauid Forrestaris lugeing abone
the tolbuith," 3 in the same neighbourhood as the mansion in Old Bank Close, soon after-
ward occupied by Sir William Durie. So long as Edinburgh continued to be the seat of
the Scottish Parliament, its vicinity to the Parliament House made the Lawnmarket be
selected as a favourite place of residence, as appears from numerous passing allusions to
the old nobility, though the particular houses referred to cannot now be traced. Defoe,
for example, — who was resident in Edinburgh at the period, — tells us in his history of the
Union, that on the 28th October 1706, the Parliament sat late, and the Parliament Close
was so full of people waiting the result of their decision, that the members could scarcely
get out. On this occasion the Duke of Hamilton, the popular favourite, who was usually
conducted in triumph by the mob to his lodgings in the Abbey, " on leaving the house,
was carried up to the Lawnmarket, and so to the lodgings of the Duke of Atholl," who
was appointed, as Lockhart tells us, in the place of the Duke of Queensberry at the
beginning of this session of parliament, the latter wishing to see the course of public
affairs before he ventured himself to face the difficulties of that period, " and therefore he
sent the Duke of Atholl down as Commissioner, using him as the monkey did the cat
in pulling out the hot roasted chestnuts."4 Here also was the house of Sir Patrick
Johnston, the city member, — tradition points out the old land still standing at the head
of Johnston's Close,6 — which was attacked and gutted by the same excited mob, in their
indignation at his favouring the unpopular measure of the Union.

1 Adjoining Mr Maclure's house was the Baijen Hole, an ancient and once celebrated baker's shop ! The origin of
this epithet has puzzled our local historians, but it occurs in Crawfurd's History of the University of Edinburgh, as
applied to the junior class of Students, whose patronage, above a century ago, of a famed species of rolls manufactured
there, under the name of Souter's Clods, had doubtless led to this title for the place, which resembled the laigh shops
Btill remaining underneath the oldest houses of the High Street.

2 Craufurd's Memoirs, p. 244. 8 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 313. * Lockhart's Mems. p. 139.

5 This we have on the authority of an old man, a pewterer, who has been an inhabitant of The Bow for the last fifty
years.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TOLBOOTH, LUCKENBOOTHS, AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE.

fPHE grim and massive prison of the old Scottish capital, which had degenerated to
that base office after having served for the hall of the national parliaments, for the
College of Justice founded by James V., and for some of the earliest assemblies of the
kirk, has, in our own day, acquired a popular interest, and a notoriety as extensive as the
diffusion of English literature, under the name of " The Heart of Midlothian." Such is
the power of genius, that the association of this ancient fabric with the assault of the
Porteous mob, and the captivity of the " Effie Deans" of the novelist's fancy, has been
able to confer on it an interest, even in the minds of strangers, which all the thrilling
scenes during the eventful reigns of our own Jameses, the tumults of Mary's brief reign,
and the civil commotions of that of her son, had failed to excite in the minds of
Scotsmen.

The site of the Tolbooth was in the very heart of the ancient capital, and so placed
that it might have occurred to a fanciful mind to suppose, that the antique fabric had been

VIGNETTE. — North aide of the Tolbooth.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 185

dropped whole and complete into the midst of the pent-up city. It stood at the north-
west corner of St Giles's Church, so close to that ancient building as only to leave a
narrow footpath beyond its projecting buttresses ; while the tall and gloomy-looking pile
extended so far into the main street that a roadway of fourteen feet in breadth was all
thai intervened between it and the lofty range of buildings on the opposite side. We
cannot better describe this interesting building than in the lively narrative of Scott,
written about the time of its demolition, — " The prison reared its ancient front in the
very middle of the High Street, forming the termination to a huge pile of buildings called
the Luckenbooths, which, for some inconceivable reason, our ancestors had jammed into
the midst of the principal street of the town, leaving for passage a narrow way on the
north ; and on the south — into which the prison opens — a crooked lane, winding betwixt
the high and sombre walls of the Tolbooth and the adjacent houses on the one side, and
the buttresses and projections of the old cathedral upon the other. To give some gaiety to
this sombre passage, well known by the name of the Krames, a number of little booths or
shops, after the fashion of cobblers' stalls, were plastered, as it were, against the Gothic
projections and abutments, so that it seemed as if the traders had occupied every ' buttress
and coigne of vantage,' with nests bearing the same proportion to the building as the
martlet's did in Macbeth's Castle." The most prominent features in the south front of
the Tolbooth, — of which we furnish an engraving, — were two projecting turret staircases.
A neatly carved Gothic doorway, surmounted by a niche, gave entrance to the building
at the foot of the eastern tower; and this, on its demolition in 1817, was removed by Sir
Walter Scott to Abbotsford, and there converted to the humble office of giving access to
his kitchen court.1

Some account has already been given, in our brief sketch of the period of Queen Mary,2
of the mandate issued by her in 1561, requiring the rebuilding of the Tolbooth, and the
many difficulties that the city had to encounter in satisfying this royal command. The
letter sets forth, that " The Queiny's Majestie, understanding that the Tolbuith of the
Burgh of Edinburgh is ruinous and abill haistielie to dekay and fall doun, quhilk will be
warray dampnable and skaythfull to the pepill dwelland thairabout . . . without
heistie remeid be providit thairin. Thairfor hir Heines ordinis ane masser to pass and
charge the Provest, Baillies, and Counsale, to cans put workmen to the taking doun of the
said Tolbuith, with all possible deligence." " In obedience to the Queen's command,"
says Maitland, "the Tolbooth was taken down."3 It has already been shown, however,
in the earlier allusions to the subject, that this is an error. The new building was erected
entirely apart from it, adjoining the south-west corner of St Giles's Church, and the
eastern portion of the Old Tolbooth bore incontestible evidence of being the work of a
much earlier period than the date of Queen Mary's mandate.

1 Sir Walter Scott remarks, in a note to the edition of his works issued in 1830, — "Last year, to complete the
change, a torn-tit was pleased to build her nest within the lock of the Tolbooth, — a strong temptation to have committed
a sonnet." The nest we must presume to have occupied the place of the lock, the key-hole of which, when deprived of
the scutcheon, would readily admit the torn-tit. The original lock and key, which were made immediately after the
Porteous mob, were in the possession of Messrs Cormack & Son, Leith Street, and formed the most substantial produc-
tions of the Locksmith's art we ever saw. The lock measured two feet long by one broad ; and the key, which was about
a foot long, looked more like a huge iron mace.

2 Ante, p. 71. 3 Maitland, p. 21.

1 86 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The ancient prison of Edinburgh had its EAST and WEST ENDS, known to the last by
these same distinctive appellations, that mark the patrician and plebeian districts of the
British metropolis. The line of division is apparent in our engraved view, showing the
western and larger portion of the building constructed of coarse rubble work, while
the earlier edifice, at the east end, was built of polished stone. This distinction was
still more apparent on the north side, which, though much more ornamental, could
only be viewed in detail, owing to the narrowness of the street, and has not, as far
as we are aware, been represented in any engraving.1 It had, on the first floor, a large
and deeply splayed square window, decorated on either side with richly carved Gothic
niches, surmounted with ornamental canopies of varied designs. A smaller window
on the floor above was flanked with similar decorations, the whole of which were, in all
probability, originally filled with statues. Maitland mentions, and attempts to refute, a
tradition that this had been the mansion of the Provost of St Giles's Church, but there
seems little reason to doubt that it had been originally erected as some such appendage
to the church. The style of ornament was entirely that of a collegiate building attached
to an ecclesiastical edifice ; and its situation and architectural adornments suggest the
idea of its having been the residence of the Provost or Dean, while the prebends and
other members of the college were accommodated in the buildings on the south side
of the church, removed in the year 1632 to make way for the Parliament House. If this
idea is correct, the edifice was, in all probability, built shortly after the year 1466, when
a charter was granted by King James III., erecting St Giles's into a collegiate church ;
and it may further have included a chapter-house for the college, whose convenient
dimensions would lead to its adoption as a place of meeting for the Scottish Parlia-
ments. The date thus assigned to the most ancient portion of the " Heart of Mid-
lothian," receives considerable confirmation from the style of the building ; but
Parliaments had assembled in Edinburgh long before that period ; three, at least, were
held there during the reign of James I., and when his assassination at Perth, in 1437, led
to the abandonment of the Fair City as the chief residence of the Court, and the capital of
the kingdom, the first general council of the new reign took place in the Castle of Edin-
burgh. We have already described the remains of the Old Parliament Hall still existing
there ; and this, it is probable, was the scene of all such assemblies as were held at
Edinburgh in earlier reigns.

The next Parliament of James II. was summoned to meet at Stirling, the following
year, in the month of March ; but another was held that same year in the month of
November, " in pretorio burgi de Edinburgh." The same Latin term for the Tolbooth is
repeated in the minutes of another Assembly of the Estates held there in 1449 ; and, in
1451, the old Scottish name appears for the first time in " the parleament of ane richt hie
and excellent prince, and our soverane lorde, James the Secunde, be the grace of Gode,
King of Scotts, haldyn at Edinburgh the begunyn in the Tolbuth of the samyn."2 A
much older, and probably larger, erection must therefore have existed on the site of the

1 We have drawn the view at the head of the Chapter from a slight sketch taken shortly before its demolition, by
Mr D. Somerville ; with the assistance of a most ingenious model of St Giles's Church and the surrounding buildings,
made by the Rev. John Sime, about the year 1805, to which we were also partly indebted for the south view of the same
building.

• Acts of Scottish Parliaments, folio, vol. ii.

LUCKENBOOTJfS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 187

western portion of the Tolbooth, the ruinous state of which at length led to the royal
command for its demolition in 1561, — not a century after the date we are disposed to
assign to the oldest portion of the building that remained till 1817, — and which, though
decayed and time-worn, was so far from being ruinous even then, that it proved a work of
great labour to demolish its solid masonry.

In a charter granted to the town by James III. in 1477, the market for corn and grain
is ordered to be held " fra the Tolbuth up to Libertones Wynde,"1 and we learn from the
Diurnal of Occurrents, that "the tour of the Auld Tolbuyth wes tane doun in 1571." :
The first allusion indicates the same site for the Tolbooth at that early period, as it
occupied to the last, and seems to confirm the idea suggested as to the earlier fabric. The
name Tolbooth literally signifies tax-house,8 and the existence of a building in Edinburgh,
erected for this purpose, might be referred, with every probability, to even an earlier
period than the reign of David L, who bestowed considerable grants on his monastery
of the Holy Cross, derivable from the revenues of the town.4 From the anxiety of the
magistrates to retain the rents of their " laigh buthis " in this ancient building, another
site was chosen in 1561 for the New Tolbooth, a little to the south of the old one; and
some ten years later, as appears from the old diarist, the tower was at length demolished,
and also probably the whole of the most ancient edifice. One of the carved stones from
the modern portion of the building, — apparently the centre crow-step that crowned the
gable,— was preserved, among other relics of similar character, in the nursery of Messrs
Eagle and Henderson, Leith Walk. It bore on it the city arms, sculptured in high relief,
and surmounted by an ornamental device with the date 1641. The style of the new
building, though plain and of rude workmanship, entirely corresponded with this date,
being that which prevailed towards the close of Charles L's reign. The unsettled state
of the country at that period, and the heavy exactions to which Edinburgh had been
exposed, both by the King and the covenanting leaders, abundantly account for the
plain character of the latter building. The only ornaments on the north side consisted
of two dormer windows, rising above the roof, with plain string-courses marking the
several stories.

The ornamental north gable of the most ancient portion of the building, appears to
have been the place of exposure for the heads and dismembered limbs of the numerous
victims of the sanguinary laws of Scotland in early times. In the year 1581, the head of
the Earl of Morton " was sett upon a prick, on the highest stone of the gavell of the
Tolbuith, toward the publict street," and the same point, — after doing the like ignominious
service to many of inferior note, — received, in 1650, the head of the gallant Marquis of
Montrose, which remained exposed there throughout the whole period of the Common-
wealth, and was taken down at length, shortly after the Eestoration, with every demonstra-

1 Maitland, p. 8. s Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 252.

* "Mr George Ramsay, minister at Laswaid, teaching in Edinburgh [1593], charged the Lords of the Colledge of
Justice with selling of justice. He said they sold in the Tolbuith, and tooke payment at home, in their chambers : that
the place of their judgement was justlie called Tol-buith, becaus there they tooke toll of the subjects." — Calderwood's
Hist. Tol. v. p. 290. For this he was summoned before the judges, but was dismissed, after some contention.

4 It is perhaps worthy of notice in regard to this subject, that the site of the Weigh-house, which, like the Tolbooth,
encroached on the main street, " was granted to the Edinburghers by King David II., in the 23d year of his reign, aunu
1352."— Maitland, p. 181.

1 88 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

tion of national honour and triumph, and committed, along with the other portions of his
body, to the tomb of his ancestors, in the south transept of St Giles's Church. The north
gable was not, however, long suffered to remain unoccupied. On the 27th of May 1661,—
little more than four months after the tardy honours paid to the Marquis of Montrose, —
the Marquis of Argyle was beheaded at the Cross, and " his heid affixt upone the held of the
Tolbuith, quhair the Marques of Montrois wes affixit of befoir." l The ground floor of this
ancient part of the Tolbooth was known by the name of the Purses, by which it is often
alluded to in early writings. In the ancient titles of a house on the north side of the
High Street, it is described as " that Lodging or Timber Land, lying in the burgh of
Edinburgh, forgainst the place of the Tolbooth, commonly called the poor folks' Purses."
In the trial of William Maclauchlane, a servant of the Countess of Wemyss, who was
apprehended almost immediately after the Porteous mob, one of the witnesses states, that
" having come up Beth's Wynd, he tried to pass by the Purses on the north side of the
prison ; but there perceiving the backs of a row of armed men, some with staves, others
with guns and Lochaber axes, standing across the street, who, he was told, were drawn
up as a guard there, he retired again." The crime sought to be proved against Maclauch-
lane, was his having been seen taking a part with this guard, armed with a Lochaber axe.
Another witness describes having seen some of the magistrates going up from the head of
Mary King's Close, towards the Purses on the north side of the Tolbooth, where they
were stopped by the mob, and compelled to make a precipitate retreat. This important
pass thus carefully guarded on the memorable occasion of the Porteous riot, derived its
name from having been the place where the ancient fraternity of Blue Gowns, the King's
faithful bedemen, received the royal bounty presented to them on each King's birthday,
in a leathern purse, after having attended service in St Giles's Church. For many years
previous to the destruction of the Old Tolbooth, this distribution was transferred to the
Canougate Kirk aisle, where it took place annually on the morning of the Sovereign's birth-
day, at eight o'clock. After a sermon, preached by the royal almoner, or his deputy, each
of the bedemen received a roll of bread, a tankard of ale, and a web of blue cloth sufficient
to make him a new gown, along with a leathern purse, of curious and somewhat com-
plicated workmanship, which only the initiated could open. This purse contained his annual
alms or pension, consisting of as many pence as the years of the King's age.

The origin of this fraternity is undoubtedly of great antiquity. Bedemen appointed
to pray for the souls of the King's ancestors and successors, were attached to royal
foundations. They are mentioned about the year 1226, in the Chartulary of Moray,2
and many curious entries occurred with reference to them, in the Treasurers' accounts,
previous to the Reformation. The number of these bedemen is increased by one every
royal birthday, as a penny is added to the pension of each ; an arrangement evidently
devised to stimulate their prayers for long life to the reigning sovereign, no less than for
peace to the souls of those departed.3

1 Nicoll's Diary, p. 335. 2 Statist. Ace. xiii. 412.

8 The following items appear in the Account of Sir Robert Melvill, Treasurer-Depute of King James VI. " Junij
1590. Item, to Mr Peter Young, Elimosinar, twentie four gownis of blew clayth, to be gevin to xxiiij auld men, accord-
ing to the yeiris of his hienes age. . . . Item, twentie four pursis, and in ilk purse twentie four schiling." Again
in "Junij 1617, To James Murray, merchant, for fyftene scoir sex elnis and ane half elue of blew claith, to be gownis to
f yf tie aiie aigeit men, according to the yeiris of his majesteis age. Item, to the workmen for careing of the gownis f ra

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 189

It used to be a very interesting sight, on a fine summer morning,1 between seven and
eight o'clock, before the Canongate Kirk bell began to ring for the appointed service, to
see the strange groups of Blue Gowns of all ages, from forty-five to ninety and upwards,
assembling in front of the kirk. Venerable looking men, bent with the weight of years ;
some lame, others blind, led by a boy or a wife, whose tartan or hodden-grey told of the
remote districts from whence they had come, or perhaps by a rough Highland dog, look-
ing equally strange on the streets of the ancient burgh ; while all the old bedemen were
clad in their monastic-looking habits, and with large badges on their breasts. It was
curious thus to see pilgrims from the remotest parts of Scotland and the Isles, — the men
of another generation, — annually returning to the capital, and each contriving to arrive
there on the very day of the King's birth and bounty. The reverend almoner, however,
could scarcely have had a more inattentive congregation, — a fact probably in some degree
to be accounted for by many of them understanding nothing but Gaelic. At the close of
the sermon the bread and ale were distributed, along with their other perquisites, and
thereafter the usual benediction closed the services of the day, though generally before
that point was reached the bedemen had disappeared, each one off to wend his way home-
ward, and to " pass and repass," as his large badge expressly bore, until the return of the
annual rendezvous.

Shortly after the accession of her present Majesty, whose youth must have had such
an economic effect on the royal bounty, this curious relic of ancient alms-giving was shorn
of nearly all its most interesting features. Certain members of the Canongate kirk-
session, it is said, were scandalised at the exhibition of the butt of ale at the kirk vestry
door, and possibly also at its exciting so much greater interest with the Queen's bedemen
than any other portion of the established procedure. "Whatever be the reason, the annual
church service has been abandoned ; the royal almoner's name no longer appears in the
list of her Majesty's Scottish household ; and the whole business is now managed in
the most matter-of-fact and commonplace style at the Exchequer Chambers in the
Parliament Square, not far from the ancient scene of this annual distribution of the royal
bounty.

At the west end of the Tolbooth a modern addition existed, as appears in our engrav-
ing, rising only to the height of two stories. This was occupied by shops, while the flat
roof formed a platform whereon all public executions took place, after the abandonment
of the Grassmarket in the year 1785. The west gable of the old building bore the appear-
ance of rude and hasty construction ; it was without windows, notwithstanding that it
afforded the openest and most suitable aspect for light, and seemed as if it had been so
left for the purpose of future extension. The apartments on the ground floor of the main
building were vaulted with stone, and the greater part of them latterly fitted up for
shops,2 until the demolition of the citadel of the old guard in 1785, soon after which
those on the north side were converted into a guard-house for the accommodation of that
veteran corps.

James Aikman, tailyeour, heis hous, to the palace of Halyrude hous," &o. From this last entry, the distribution would
appear to have been anciently made at the palace.

1 P"or many years the 4th of June, the Birthday of George III.

* In one of these Mr Horner, father of the eloquent and gifted Francis Horner, M.P., one of the originators of the
Edinburgh Keview, carried ou business as a silk mercer.

190 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Previous to the extension or rebuilding of the west portion of the Tolbooth, it had
furnished accommodation for the wealthiest traders of the city, and there also some of the
most imposing displays took place on Charles I. visiting his northern capital in 1633.
'; Upon the west wall of the Tolbooth," says an old writer,1 " where the Goldsmiths' shops
do stand, there stood ane vast pageant, arched above, on ane large mab the pourtraits of
a hundred and nine kings of Scotland. In the cavity of the arch, Mercury was represented
bringing up Fergus the first King of Scotland in ane convenient habit, who delivered to
his Majesty a very grave speech, containing many precious advices to his royal suc-
cessor ; " a representation, not altogether in caricature, of the drama often enacted on
the same spot, at a later period, when Jock Heigh, — the Edinburgh Jack Ketch for above
forty years, — played the part of Mercury, bringing up one in ane convenient habit, to hear
a very grave speech, preparatory to treatment not unlike that which the unfortunate
monarch received, in addition to the precious advices bestowed on him in 1633. The
goldsmiths' shops were latterly removed into the Parliament Close ; but George Heriot's
booth existed at the west end of St Giles's Church till the year 1809, when Beth's
Wynd and the adjoining buildings were demolished, as already described. A narrow
passage led between the church and an ancient three-storied tenement adjoining the
New Tolbooth, or Laigh Council House, as it was latterly called, and the centre one of
the three booths into which it was divided, measuring about seven feet square, was
pointed out by tradition as the workshop of the founder of Heriot's Hospital, where both
King James and his Queen paid frequent visits to the royal goldsmith. On the demoli-
tion of this ancient fabric, the tradition was completely confirmed by the discovery of
George Heriot's name boldly carved on the stone lintel of the door. The forge and
bellows, as well as a stone crucible and lid, supposed to have belonged to its celebrated
possessor, were discovered in clearing away the ruins of the old building, and are now
carefully preserved in the Hospital Museum.

The associations connected with the ancient building we have described, are almost
entirely those relating to the occupants whom it held in durance in its latter capacity as
a prison. The eastern portion, indeed, had in all probability been the scene of stormy
debates in the earlier Scottish Parliaments, and of deeds even ruder than the words of the
turbulent barons. There also the College of Justice, founded by James V. in 1532,
held its first sederunt ; the earliest statutes of the Court requiring that " all the lordis sail
entre in the Tolbuth and counsal-houss at viij howris in the mornyng, dayly, and sail sit
quhill xi howris be strikin." All these, however, had ceased to be thought of for centuries
previous to the demolition of the tall and gloomy prison ; though even in its degradation
it was connected with historical characters of no mean note, having been the final place of
captivity of the Marquises of Montrose and Argyll,2 and others of the later victims of
factious rivalry, who fell a sacrifice to the triumph of their opponents. The main floor of
the more ancient building, in its latter days, formed the common hall for all prisoners,
except those in irons, or incarcerated in the condemned cells. It had an old oak pulpit of
curious construction for the use of any one who took upon him the duties of prison chap-
lain, and which tradition, — as usual with most old Scottish pulpits, — affirmed to have been

1 Vide Campbell's Journey, vol. ii. p. 122. ! Nicoll's Diary, p. 334.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 191

occupied by John Knox. Here also there was inscribed on a board, the rhymes pre-
served by Scott in the " Heart of Midlothian," which have been traced to an English
poet of the seventeenth century :—

A prison is a house of care,

A place where none can thrive,
A touchstone true to try a friend,

A grave for men alive.
Sometimes a place of right,

Sometimes a place of wrong,
Sometimes a place for jades and thieves,

And honest men among.

The room immediately above the common hall may be presumed to have been " the
upper chamber of the Tolbooth," 1 in which James V. held his first council, after escaping,
in 1528, from his durance at Falkland Palace in the hands of the Douglas faction ; its
latter use was as a dungeon for the worst felons, whose better security was insured by
an iron bar placed along the floor. Here also the condemned criminal generally spent
the last wretched hours of life, often chained to the same iron bar, and surrounded with the
reckless and depraved, whose presence forbade a serious thought. It was indeed among
the worst features of this miserable abode of crime, that its dimensions entirely precluded
all classification. It had no open area attached to it, to which the prisoner might
escape for fresh air, or even a glimpse of the light of day, and no solitary cell whither
he might withdraw to indulge in the luxury of solitude and quiet reflection. Dante's
memorable inscription for the gates of hell might have found no inappropriate place over
its gloomy portal : —

All hope abandon, ye who enter here !

We must refer the reader to Chambers's " Traditions," for much that is curious and
amusing among the legends of the Tolbooth, gathered from the tales of its old inmates, or
the recollections of aged citizens. One of its most distinguishing traits, which it might be
supposed to retain as an heirloom of its former more dignified duties, was a total suspension
of its retentive capabilities whenever any prisoner of rank was committed to the custody of
its walls.2 A golden key, doubtless, was sometimes effectual in unlocking its ponderous
bars ; but when this was provided against, other means were discovered for eliciting the
convenient facility of "knowing those who ought to be respected on account of their rank."
It is no less worthy of note, that occasions occurred in which the Tolbooth proved the only
effectual road to freedom for some of the most notorious offenders, when seeking to elude
the emissaries of justice. An old lady, to whose retentive memory we owe some interesting
recollections of former times, — when, as she was wont to say, she used to gather gowans on
the banks of the Nor' Loch, and take a day's ramble in Bearford's Parks,3 — related the follow-
ing as a tradition she had heard in early youth : — When Mitchell, the fanatic preacher, who

1 Chambers's Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 614.

3 " The Viscount of Frendracht (of the surname of Creightoun), his brother being prissoner in the Tolbuith of Edin-
burgh for murther, and once pannelt befoir the Criminall Judge, escapit, being clothed in ane womanes apperoll, upoue the
ellevint day of Junij [1664], being Settirday, about sex houris at evin, in fair day licht." — Nicoll's Diary, p. 414.

8 The site of George Street, and the adjoining parts of the New Town.

192 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

shot the Bishop of Orkney in 1668, at the head of Blackfriars Wynd, in an attempt to
assassinate Archbishop Sharpe, so strangely eluded the strict search made for him; he effected
his escape by taking refuge iu the Tolbooth, to which ingress, in latter times at least, was
never very difficult. The city gates were shut at the time, and none allowed to go out
without a passport signed by one of the magistrates, but it will readily be believed that the
Tolbooth might be overlooked in the most vigilant pursuit after one who was to be con-
signed to it the instant he was taken. It may be, however, that this interesting tradition
is only a confused version of a later occurrence in the same reign, when Robert Ferguson,
a notorious character, known by the name of " the Plotter," was searched for in Edin-
burgh under somewhat similar circumstances, as one of the conspirators implicated in the
Rye-House Plot. It was almost certainly known that he was in the town, and the gates
were accordingly closed, but he also availed himself of the same ingenious hiding-place, and
quietly withdrew after the whole town had been searched for him in vain. Another similar
escape is mentioned in the " Minor Antiquities," where the Highlands were scoured by
the agents of government in search for a gentleman concerned in the rebellion of 1745,
while he was quietly taking his ease in " the King's Auld Tolbooth."

Of the numerous female inmates of this " house of care," we shall only mention two,
who contrast with one another no less strikingly in their crimes than in their fate. In the
year 1726 great interest was excited by a trial for forgery, in which Mr George Hender-
son, a wealthy merchant in Edinburgh, was accused of forging a bill upon the Duchess
of Gordon for £58, which he had endorsed to Mrs Macleod, the wife of a wig-maker in
Leith. Respectable citizens declared on oath that they had been present when Hender-
son signed the bill, and had affixed their names to it in his presence as witnesses ; others
had seen him on the same evening, a little above the Canongate Cross, in company with
Mrs Macleod, and dressed in " dark coloured clothes, and a black wig." So conclusive
did the whole evidence appear, that the Lord Advocate, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, pre-
sented himself before the Court on the last day of the summer Session, and demanded the
prisoner's conviction by a decree of the Judges. By the most strenuous exertions of council
and friends, the cause was delayed till the winter Session, and meanwhile the Lord Advo-
cate, when going north to Culloden, stopped at Kilravoch to inspect a new house that a
friend was having built. One of the carpenters employed on the house, an intelligent and
expert workman named David Household, could nowhere be found on the proprietor
inquiring for him to furnish some information ; this casual incident led to inquiries, and
at length to the discovery of a most ingenious and complicated system of fraud practised
by Mrs Macleod with the aid of Household, whom she had dressed up in her own husband's
black coat and wig, and bribed to personate the merchant who so narrowly escaped con-
viction and execution. So deeply was the Lord Advocate impressed with the striking
nature of the case, that he often afterwards declared, had Henderson been executed in
accordance with his official desire, " he would have looked upon himself as guilty of
murder."

On Household being shown to the witnesses, attired in his former disguise, they at once
detected the fraud. Henderson was released, and Mrs Macleod put on trial in his stead.
From the evidence produced, it appeared that this ingenious plot had been concocted for
the pious purpose of raising, on the credit of the bill, a small sum to release her husband

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 193

from prison j but the detection of its forgery involved her more deeply in crime. She
was found guilty, and executed on the 8th of March following. If Mrs Macleod had shown
art in contriving and executing this fraud, she displayed no less fortitude in meeting her
fate. She went to the place of execution dressed in a black robe and petticoat with a
large hoop, a white fan in her hand, and a white sarsenet hood on her head, according to
the fashion of the times. When she came upon the scaffold, she put off the ornamental
parts of her attire, pinned a handkerchief over her breast, and put the fatal cord about her
neck with her own hands. She maintained the same courageous deportment to the last,
and died denying her guilt.1

No prisoner incarcerated within the Old Tolbooth ever excited a greater degree of
interest in the minds of contemporaries than the one whom we present in contrast to
the last, — Katharine Nairn, the daughter of Sir Robert Nairn, Bart., of Dunsinnane, who
was brought to trial on the 5th of August 1765. She was accused and convicted of
poisoning her husband, with the aid of his own brother, her associate in other crimes.
The marriage appears to have been one of those unequal matches by which the happiness
of woman is so often sacrificed to schemes of worldly policy. The victim, to whom she
had been married in her nineteenth year, was a man of property, and advanced in life.
Popular indignation was so strongly excited at the report of the deeds she had per-
petrated, that she was with difficulty rescued from the mob on being first brought to
Edinburgh ; yet her presence so wrought on the fickle populace, that her guilt was soon
forgot in the sympathy excited by her youthful appearance. Both she and her paramour,
who was an officer in the army, were condemned ; and the latter was executed in the
Grassmarket, in accordance with his sentence, after he had been three times respited
through the interest of his friends. Meanwhile the fair partner of his guilt obtained a
reprieve in consequence of her pregnancy ; and only two days after her accouchement, she
composedly walked out of the Tolbooth, disguised in the garments of Mrs Shields, the
well-known midwife who had attended on her during her confinement, and added to her
other favours this extra-professional delivery. In her confusion she knocked at Lord Alva's
door in James's Court, mistaking it for that of her father's agent ; but the footboy, who
opened the door with a candle in his hand, had been present at the trial, and immediately
raised the hue and cry, while she took to her heels down a neighbouring close. She was
concealed for some time in the immediate neighbourhood of the prison, in a cellar about half-
way down the old back stairs of the Parliament Close, attached to the house of her uncle,
who was afterwards promoted to the Bench under the title of Lord Dunsinnane. Our
informant, an elderly gentleman, added, when relating it, that he was himself in-
debted to Mrs Shields for his first entrance on " the stage of life ; " and the old lady
when narrating her successful jail delivery, used to hint, with a very knowing look, "that
there were other folk besides her could tell the same tale," meaning, as was surmised, that
neither the turnkey nor the Lord Advocate were quite ignorant of the exchange of mid-
wives at the time. Katharine Nairn at length effected a safe flight to the Continent,
disguised in an officer's uniform ; 2 from thence she escaped to America, where she is said

1 Arnot's Criminal Trials, 8vo, p. 317.

1 She was conducted to Dover in a post-chaise, under care of one of her uncle's clerks. This person was kept in
constant dread of discovery during the journey from the extreme frivolity of her conduct.

N

194 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

to have married again, and died at an advanced age surrounded by a numerous and
attached family, — a striking contrast in love and fortune to the too faithful wife of the
poor wig-maker of Leith.

The hero, however, of the Tolbooth, to modern readers, is Captain Porteous.1 The
mob that thundered at its ancient portal on the eventful night of the 7th September 1 736,
and dashed through its blazing embers to drag forth the victim of their indignant revenge,
has cast into the shade all former acts of Lynch Law, for which the Edinburgh populace were
once so notorious. The skill with which the great novelist has interwoven the leading
acts of this striking act of popular vengeance, with the thrilling scenes of his beautiful
fiction, has done much to extend its fame, yet all the main features of the Porteous mob, as
related in the " Heart of Midlothian," are strictly true, and owe their influence on the mind
of the reader less to the daring character of the act, than to the moderation and singleness
of purpose with which it was accomplished. This has tended to confirm the belief that
the leaders of the mob were men of rank and influence, and although any evidence since
obtained seems rather to suggest a different opinion,2 most of the older citizens, who have
conversed in their youth with those who had witnessed that memorable tumult, adhere to
the idea then generally entertained, that the execution of Porteous was the act of men
moving in the higher ranks of society. We have been informed by a gentleman to whom

1 The following curious account of the attempt at escape by Robertson and Wilson, whose proceedings formed the
first act in the drama of the Porteons Mob, is given in the Caledonian Mercury for April 12, 1736: — "Friday
morning last, about two o'clock, the felons in the city jail made a grand attempt to escape; for which purpose Ratcliff
and Stewart, horse-stealers, some time brought over from Aberbrothock, had dropt a pack-thread out of a window,
to the end of which their accomplices tied spring saws and some other accoutrements, wherewith Ratcliff and Stewart
cut through the great iron bars that secure a very thick window on the inside, and afterwards the cross grate in
the window ; they then cut a large hole in the floor of their apartment, which is immediately over that wherein Robert-
son and Wilson (condemned to suffer Wednesday next) lie ; which last, in return for this friendly office, contributed
in the following manner to bring about their mutual escape, viz., Ratcliff and Stewart lay every night nailed to the
floor by a long iron bar fifteen inches round, the supporters whereof detain prisoners at the middle of the bar,
and are fastened with smaller iron bars passing through the floor to the apartment below, fixed there with wedges
through eyes, which wedges being struck out by Robertson and Wilson, Ratcliff and Stewart had access to shift
themselves to the end of the bar and unlock it. Being thus disengaged, they hauled Robertson and Wilson up
through the hole, and then proceeded to break out at a window fronting the north ; and, lest the sentinel on duty
at the Purses should mar the design, their associates in woman-dress had knocked him down. Stewart accordingly
came down the three storeys by a rope, in his shirt, and escaped ; Wilson essayed it next, but being a squat round
man, stuck in the grate, and before he could be disentangled, the guard was alarmed. Nor was it possible for
the keepers to hear them at work ; for whenever those in the upper apartment fell a sawing, they below sung
psalms. When they had done, Millar of Balmeroy, his wife, and daughter, tuned up another in their apartment, and so
forth.

" Yesterday forenoon Robertson and Wilson were carried from prison to the Tolbooth Kirk, to hear their last sermon,
but were not well settled there when Wilson boldly attempted to break out, by wrenching himself out of the hands of
four armed soldiers. Finding himself disappointed here, his next care was to employ the soldiers till Robertson should
escape ; this he effected by securing two of them in his arms ; and, after calling out, Geordie, do for thy life I snatched
hold of a third with his teeth. Hereupon Robertson, after tripping up the fourth, jumped out of the seat, and run over
the tops of the pews with incredible agility, the audience opening a way for him sufficient to receive them both ; and in
hurrying out at the south gate of the church, he tumbled over the collection-money. Thence he reeled and staggered
through the Parliament Close, and got down to the New StairSj and often tripped by the way, but had not time to fall,
some of the guard being close after him. Passing down the Cowgate, he ran up the Horse Wyud, and out at the Potter-
row Port, the crowd all the way covering his retreat, who, by this time were become so numerous, that it was dangerous
for the guard to look after him. In the wynd he made up to a saddled horse, and would have mounted him, but
the gentleman to whom the horse belonged prevented him. Passing the Crosscauseway, he got into the King's Park,
and took the Duddingston Road. Upon Robertson's getting out of the church door, Wilson was immediately carried
out, without getting sermon, and put in close custody to prevent his escape, which the audience seemed much inclined
to favour. So that he must pay for all Wednesday next."

2 Ante, p. 109.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 195

we are indebted for other curious traditions, that his great-grandfather, Lord Alva, had
often assured his grandfather of this, and stated, in corroboration, that Lord Haddington
was known to have taken a prominent share in the proceedings, disguised in his own
cook-maid's dress. There is little reason to anticipate that the mystery in which this
deed of popular justice is involved will ever be further cleai-ed up, now that nearly a
century and a half has elapsed since its occurrence. The absence, however, of all acts
of violence or private injury, seems rather to prove the unanimity of feeling that prevailed
on the occasion, than the presence of actors from the upper ranks of society ; since, how-
ever much the latter might desire to accomplish their purpose with the calm severity of a
judicial act, their inclinations could have had little effect in securing the moderation of the
rabble, to whom, on any other occasion, such an event would have proved so favourable an
opportunity for excess. We shall conclude our notice of this memorable deed, with the
very circumstantial narrative furnished in the evidence of George Wilson, a workman in
Edinburgh, as confirmed and extended by other witnesses examined on the trial of William
Maclauchhine, already alluded to. Their account is divested of the usual legal formality,
and otherwise somewhat abridged, but the substance is as follows : — Wilson stated that
he arrived about eleven o'clock at night at the Tolbooth, where he saw faggots of broom
brought by some of the mob, with which they set fire to the door. He waited till he
saw Captain Porteous brought down ; and after that the- mob carried him up the Lawn-
market until they came to Stewart's sign-post, near the Bow head, over which some of
them proposed to hang him, but others were against it. He was stopped a second time
at the Weigh-house. By this time Wilson contrived to get near Porteous, and heard some
of the rioters propose to hang him over the Weigh-house stair, but here the witness was
recognised as an intruder, and knocked down by one of the ringleaders in female attire.
After being run over by a number of the mob, Wilson recovered himself, and followed
them to the Grassmarket, where he saw Porteous dragged to the dyer's tree, whereon
he was hanged. There he saw the wretched captive give his purse to a wealthy citizen
who was near, to be delivered to his brother, a fact afterwards confirmed by the evidence
of the citizen himself. The account this witness gives of the mode in which the
final object of all this procedure was accomplished, fully confirms the resolute com-
posure with which the rioters are said to have acted throughout. He saw the rope
put about Porteous's neck, but he was not drawn up until it was reported that the
military were coming from the Cauongate by the Hospital port, at the foot of Leith
Wyud. Even after Porteous was hung up, he was twice let down again. The first
time the rope was not right about his neck ; and when he had been a second time drawn
up he was again let down, and his shirt drawn over his face. Others of the mob, how-
ever, were more violent in their proceedings, striking him on the face with their Lochaber-
axes, and shouting to cut off his ears, and otherwise to wreak their vengeance on him.
William Turner, another witness, mentions having observed Porteous, after he was hung
up, struggling to take hold of the rope, but the rioters struck at him with their weapons,
and compelled him to quit his hold. When they were satisfied that their object was
accomplished, they nailed the end of the rope to the pole, flung away their weapons, and
rapidly dispersed.

Such is the narrative, as related by eye-witnesses, immediately after the occurrence of

196 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

this memorable event. The newspapers for some time afterwards abound with notices of
the precautions taken, when too late, to prevent the recurrence of an act, the idea of which
can hardly have appeared otherwise than ridiculous even at the time. The gates of the
Nether Bow Port were fastened back to preserve the free access of the military to the city;
guards were established there ; the trained bands were called out ; grenadier companies
quartered in the town and suburbs ; and most effectual means taken to prevent the hanging
of a second Porteous, if any such had existed.1 On the second day after his execution, the
body of Porteous was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard,2 but the exact spot has long
since ceased to be remembered.3

The Tolbooth of Edinburgh was visited by Howard in the year 1782, and again in
1787, and on the last occasion he strongly expressed his dissatisfaction, declaring that he
had expected to have found a new one in its stead.4 It was not, however, till the year
1817 that the huge pile of antique masonry was doomed to destruction. Its materials
were sold in the month of September, and its demolition took place almost immediately
afterwards. The following extract from a periodical of that period, while it shows with
how little grief the demolition of the ancient fabric was witnessed, also points out the
GRAVE OF THE OLD TOLBOOTH. It seems to have been buried with a sort of pauper's
funeral, on the extreme outskirts of the new city that was rising up beyond those ancient
boundaries of which it had so long formed the heart. " Now," says the writer, " that the
Luckenbooths have been safely carted to Leith Wynd (would that it had been done some
dozen years ago !) and the Tolbooth, — to the unutterable delight of the inhabitants, — is
journeying quickly to Fettes Row, there to be transferred into common sewers and drains,
the irregular and grim visage of the Cathedral has been in a great measure unveiled."
The unveiling of the Cathedral had formed the grand object of all civic committees of
taste for well-nigh half a century before ; the renovation of the ancient fabric thereby
exposed to vulgar gaze became the next subject of discussion, until this also was at length
accomplished in 1829, at the cost not only of much money, but of nearly all its ancient
and characteristic features. Added to all these radical changes, the assistance rendered
by the Great Fire of 1824, unexpectedly removed a whole range of eyesores to such
reformers, in the destruction of the ancient tenements between St Giles's and the Tron
Church.

As the only means of giving width and uniformity to the street, all this comes fairly
within the category of civic improvements ; how far it tended to increase the picturesque
beauty of the old thoroughfare is a very different question. Taylor, the Water Poet,
in the amusing narrative of his " Pennylesse Pilgrimage " from London to Edinburgh,
published in 1618, describes the High Street as "the fairest and goodliest street that
ever mine eyes beheld, for I did never see or hear of a street of that length, which
is half an English mile from the Castle to a faire port, which they calle the Neather

1 Caledonian Mercury, September 23, 1736. 2 Ibid, September 9.

3 "No less than seventeen criminals escaped from the city jail on this occasion, among whom are the dragoon who
was indicted for the murder of the butcher's wife in Dunse, the two Newhaven men lately brought in from Blackness
Castle for smuggling, seven sentinels of the city guard, &c." — Ibid, September 9th.

* Arnot, who never minces matters when disposed to censure, furnishes a very graphic picture of the horrors of the
old jail of Edinburgh. — Hist, of Edinburgh, p. 298.

5 Edin. Mag. Nov. 18i7, p. 322.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 197

Bow, . . . the buildings on each side of the way being all of squared stone, five,
six, and seven stories high." " When I came first into the High Street," says another
traveller, writing more than a century after him, " I thought I had never seen anything
of the kind more magnificent." Gradually, however, the traveller learned, from his
civic entertainers, to mingle suggestions of improvement with his admiration. " You
have seen," says Topham, writing from Edinburgh in 1776, " the famous street at
Lisle, la Rue Royale, leading to the port of Tournay, which is said to be the finest in
Europe, but which, I can assure you, is not to be compared either in length or breadth
to the High Street at Edinburgh." He adds, however, " would they be at the expense
of removing some buildings which obstruct the view, nothing could be conceived
more magnificent." Similar remarks might be quoted from later travellers; we shall
only add that of our greatest living landscape painter, Turner, expressed since the removal
of the Luckenbooths, that " the old High Street of Edinburgh was only surpassed in
Europe by that of Oxford." Imposing as the effect of the High Street still is, —
although scarcely a year passes without the loss of some one or other of its ancient and
characteristic features, — we doubt if its broad and unencumbered thoroughfare will ever
again meet with the praise that it received from travellers who had to pass through the
narrow defile of the Purses, or thread their way along by the still more straitened
Krames that clung on to the old church walls. So far as picturesque effect is concerned,
this improvement very much resembles a reform effected of late years in Salisbury
Cathedral. An ancient screen which divided the Lady Chapel from the choir had long
been an eyesore to certain men of taste, who found in the glimpses of the little chapel
that they caught beyond, far too much left to their imagination. It was accordingly
demolished, under the direction of Mr James Wyatt, when, to their surprise, much of the
rich effect of the chapel vanished along with the screen, and they began to think that it
might have been a part of the original designer's intention to conceal the plain shafts of
the pillars, while their capitals, and the rich groinings of the roof, alone appeared. We
strongly suspect our city reformers fancied that every bit of the old church which the
Luckenbooths concealed was to disclose features as rich as the fine Gothic crown they
saw towering over the chimney- tops.8

The ancient buildings that occupied the middle of the High Street, between the
Tolbooth and the Cross, formed a range of irregular and picturesque lands, nearly all
with timber fronts and lofty peaked gables projecting into the street. Through one of
these, an alley, sometimes called the Old-Kirk Style, led from the head of Advocates'
Close to the old north porch of St Giles's Church, obliterated in the remodelling of that
venerable edifice. This ancient alley is alluded to by the name it generally received
to the last in Dunbar's Address to the Merchants of Edinburgh, written about the year

1 Letters from the North of Scotland, 1754.

• Topham's Letters, p. 8. There is an amusing tendency in many minds to regard every near object as obstructing
the view, without the least consideration of what lies beyond it. We heard lately of an English lady, who, on her arrival
in Edinburgh, took up her abode in fashionable lodgings at the west end of Princes Street. On a friend inquiring how
she liked the prospect from her window, she replied, that the view would really be very fine, were it not for that great
castle standing in the way !

3 " The chief ornament of Edinburgh is St Giles's Church, a magnificent Gothic pile, the beauties of which are almost
wholly concealed by the houses in its near neighbourhood, particularly the Luckenbooths, which, it is expected, will
shortly he pulled down." — Campbell's Journey, 1802, vol. ii. p. 125.

198 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

1490 ; * and in the following century it was the scene of the assassination of M'Lellan
of Bornbie, who in the year 1525, was waylaid and slain there in open day, with perfect
impunity, by the lairds of Lochinvar and Drumlanrig, during the turbulent sway of
the Douglases, in the minority of James V. Numerous personal encounters occurred
at the same place in early times, consequent on its vicinity to the Parliament House
and courts of law; and even after the fruits of many revolutions had put an end to
such scenes of violence, this dark alley maintained somewhat of its old character, as a
favourite resort of the thief and pickpocket, — degenerate successors of the cateran and
moss-trooper !

The buildings of the middle row were extremely irregular in character. The timber
land immediately in front of St Giles's steeple was only three stories high, and with a very
low-pitched roof, so as to admit of the clock being seen by passers in the High Street ;
while the one adjoining it to the west, after rising to the height of five stories and finish-
ing with two very steep overhanging gables in front, had a sixth reared above these, with
a flat, lead roof, — like a crow's nest stuck between the battlements of some ancient peel
tower.2 The two most easterly lands in the Luckenbooths differed from the rest in being
tall and substantial erections of polished ashlar work. The first of these was surmounted
with stone gables of unequal size, somewhat in the style of " Gladstone's land," at the head
of Lady Stair's Close, and apparently built not later than the reign of Charles I. The other
building, which presented its main front down the High Street, though evidently a more
recent erection, yielded in interest to none of the private buildings of Edinburgh. " Creech's
Land," as it was termed, according to the fashion of the burgh, after one of its latest and
most worthy occupants, formed the peculiar haunt of the muses during the last century.
Thither Allan Ramsay removed in 1725, — immediately after publishing the first complete
edition of his great pastoral poem, — from the sign of the Mercury's Head, opposite Niddry's
Wynd, and there, — on the first floor, which had formerly been the London Coffee House,
— he substituted for his former celestial sign, the heads of Ben Jonson and Drummond
of Hawthornden, and greatly extended his business with the profits of his successful
devotion to the Muses. It was on his removal to this central locality that he established
his circulating library, — the first institution of the kind known in Scotland, not without
both censure and interference from some of the stricter leaders of society at that period.
" Profaneness," says Wodrow, " is come to a great height ; all the villanous, profane,
and obscene books of plays, printed at London by Curie and others, are got down from
London by Allan Ramsay, and lent out for an easy price to young boys, servant women
of the better sort, and gentlemen; and vice and obscenity dreadfully propagated."
Ramsay's fame and fortune progressed with unabating vigour after this period ; and
his shop became the daily resort of the leading wits and literati, as well as of every
traveller of note that visited the Scottish capital.

1 Ante, p. 28.

2 Maitlaud informs us (p. 181) that the Krames were first erected against St Giles's Church in 1555. The Booth-
raw, or Luckeubooths, however, we have shown (ante, p. 172) was in existence 150 years before that, and probably
much earlier. Maitland derives its latter name from a species of woollen cloth called Laken, brought from the Low
Countries ; but Dr Jamieson assigns the more probable source in the old Scotch word Lucken, closed, or shut up ;
signifying booths closed in, and admitting of being locked, in contradistinction to the open stands, which many still living
can remember to have seen displayed in the Lawmnarket every market day.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 199

Gay, the poet, — who, during- the latter years of his life, seems to have been as regularly
installed into the household of the Duchess of Queensberry as ever any court-minstrel was
in a palace of old, — accompanied his patroness to Edinburgh, and resided for some time
in the Canongatc, at Queensberry House. He became, as was to be anticipated, a frequent
visitor of the Scottish poet, and is said to have derived great amusement from Ramsay's
humorous descriptions of the leading citizens as they daily assembled at the Cross, within
sight of his windows. That central spot " where merchants most do congregate," was
then adorned with the ancient structure demolished in 1756, and formed the daily
promenade for the ruffled and powdered exquisite to display his finery, no less than for the
trader bent only on business. The wits of Edinburgh used to meet there, at the poet's
shop, to amuse themselves with the intelligence of the day, and the most recent news in
the world of letters. The late William Tytler, Esq., of Woodhouselee, had frequently seen
Gay among these literary gossips, and described him as a pleasant-looking little man with
a tye-wig. He recollected overhearing him desire Eamsay to explain many of the Scottish
words and allusions to national customs that occur in the Gentle Shepherd, and which he
engaged on his return to England to communicate to Pope, who was already an admirer
of the beauties of that admirable pastoral.1 The prospect, however, from Allan Ramsay's
window, possessed other attractions for the poet besides the grave and humorous glimpses
of human nature it afforded ; for, owing to the singular site of the Scottish capital, it
commanded, although in the very heart of the town, a view for many miles into the
country, looking across Preston Bay to the fertile landscape of East Lothian, and the
heights that skirt the German Ocean.

Allan Ramsay's library and business were transferred by his successor, Mr James
Macewan, to the shop below ; and from him they passed into the hands of Mr Alexander
Kincaid, an eminent bookseller and publisher, and a man of highly cultivated rnind, who
took an active share in the management of civic affairs, and died while filling the office
of Lord Provost, January 21st, 1777. He was interred with all the honours due to his
rank, and his funeral appears to have excited an universal sensation at the period.2 During
his time the old land acquired an additional interest as a favourite lounge of Smollett, who
visited Edinburgh in 1776, and resided for some time at his sister's house in the Canon-
gate. He appears to have derived the same amusement as Gay from watching the curious
groups that daily assembled in front of this ancient tenement. In the lively account of
his visit given in Humphrey Clinker, he remarks — " All the people of business at Edin-
burgh, and even the genteel company, may be seen standing in crowds every day, from
one to two in the afternoon, in the open street, at a place where formerly stood a market-
cross, a curious piece of Gothic architecture, still to be seen in Lord Somerville's garden
in this neighbourhood." Kincaid was succeeded in the shop and business by Mr William
Creech, in whose hands this haunt of the Muses suffered no diminution of its attractions.
He received a liberal education in early life ; added to which, an inexhaustible fund of
amusing anecdote, and great conversational powers, served through life to make his society
be courted by the most eminent men of his time, notwithstanding the acquirement latterly
of penurious habits, and such a miserly keenness for money, as precluded not benevolence

1 Scot. Mag., July 1802.

2 A particular account of the funeral is given by Arnot, Appendix, No. XI.

200 MEM OKI A L S OF EDINB UR GH.

alone, but even, it is said, the honest discharge of commercial obligations.1 For forty
years Mr Creech carried on the most extensive publishing concern in Scotland, and during
the whole of this long period nearly all the valuable literary productions of the time
passed through his hands. He published the writings of the celebrated judge and
philosopher, Lord Kames, who appears to have regarded him with friendship and esteem.
He was also the publisher of the works of Drs Blair, Beattie, Campbell (the opponent of
Hume), Cullen, Gregory, Adam Smith, Henry Mackenzie (the Man of Feeling), Lord
Woodhouselee, Dugald Stewart, and Bums, besides many others of inferior note ; all of
whom resorted to the old laud in the Luckenbooths, or to the more select assemblies that
frequently took place at his breakfast table, designated by the wits Creech's levees. The
old bibliopolist is the subject of Burns' amusing poem, " Willie '« area,'" written on the
occasion of a long visit he paid to London in 1787, and forwarded to him by the poet at
the time. One or two of its stanzas are very lively and characteristic :—

0 Willie was a witty wight,
And had o' things an unco slight ;
Auld Reekie aye he keepit tight,

And trig and braw ;
But uow they '11 busk her like a fright,

Willie 'a awa.

Nae mair we see his levee door,
Philosophers and poets pour,
And toothy critics by the score

In bloody raw ;
The adjutant oi a' the core,

Willie 's awa.

From the same classic haunt the Mirror and Lounger were originally issued, the appear-
ance of which formed a new era in the literature of Edinburgh. The first paper of the
Mirror appeared on Saturday, 23d January 1779, and created quite a sensation among the
blue-stocking coteries of the capital. The succeeding numbers were delivered at Mr Creech's
shop every Wednesday and Saturday, and afforded a general source of interest and literary
amusement. Mr Mackenzie was the conductor and principal writer, but the chief contri-
butors latterly formed themselves into the " Mirror Club," which consisted of Henry
Mackenzie, Lord Craig, Lord Abercromby, Lord Bannatyne, Lord Cullen, George Home
of Wedderburn, William Gordon of Newhall, and George Ogilvie, advocates.2 Mr
Creech, like his predecessor, bore his share in the civic government, and twice filled
the office of Lord Provost. His reputation is still preserved by his " Fugitive Pieces," a
work of considerable local celebrity, although affording a very imperfect idea of the wit

1 Some curious illustrations, both of the wit and penuriousness of this old city bookseller, will be found scattered
through the pages of " Kay's Portraits. "

'2 Lord Craig, then an advocate, was the originator, and, next to Mackenzie, the greatest contributor to the Mirror. The
Club previously existed under the name of the Tabernacle, but assumed that which had been adopted for their periodical.
The names of the writers were carefully concealed, and in order to avoid observation, the Club held its weekly meetings
in no fixed place. " Sometimes in Clerihugh's, in Writer's Court, sometimes in Somer's, opposite the Guard House,
in the High Street, sometimes in Stewart's Oyster House, in the Old Fishmarket Close," &c., when one of the most
interesting occupations of the evening was the examination of the contents of the Contributors' box, which stood open
for all correspondents, at Mr Creech's door. — Fide Scot. Biog. Dictionary, — Article "Craig "

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 201

and humour that led Burns to style him " a birkie weel worth gowd," and made him a
favourite among the large circle of eminent men who adorned the Scottish capital in the
eighteenth century. He died in 1815, only two years before the interesting old land,
which bore his name for nearly half a century, was levelled with the ground.

A carefully engraved view of Creech's Laud is attached to the edition of his " Fugitive
Pieces," published by his successor soon after his death. An outside stair at the north
corner, which formerly gave access, according to the usual style -of the older houses, to
Allan Ramsay's library, on the first floor, had been removed about ten years before, but
the top of the doorway appears in the view as a small window. The laigh shop, which
occupied the subterranean portion of this curious building, is worthy of mention here.
Although such a dungeon as would barely suffice for the cellarage of a modern tradesman,
it was for many years the button warehouse of Messrs T. & A. Hutcheson, extensive and
wealthy traders, who, in the bad state of the copper coinage, — when even George III.
halfpennies would not pass current in Scotland, — produced a coinage of Edinburgh half-
pennies that were universally received. They were of excellent workmanship; bearing
on one side the city arms, boldly struck, and on the other the figure of St Andrew. They
continued in common use until the close of the last century, when a new copper coinage
was introduced from the Mint. Since then they have gradually disappeared, and are now
rarely to be met with except in the cabinets of the curious.

At the entrance to the narrow passage on the south side of this old land, — called the
Krames, from the range of little booths stuck against the walls and buttresses of St
Giles's Church, — there formerly existed a flight of steps known by the name of " Our
Lady Steps," from a statue of the Virgin that had once occupied a plain Gothic niche
in the north-east angle of the church. An old gentlewoman is mentioned in the
" Traditions of Edinburgh," who died about 1802, at the age of ninety, and who remembered
having seen both the statue and steps in her early days. The existence of the statue at
so recent a period, we suspect, must be regarded as an error of memory. It is scarcely
conceivable that an image of the Virgin, occupying so prominent a position, could escape
the fury of the Reforming mobs of 1559.1 The niche, however, remained, an interesting
memorial of other times, till it fell a sacrifice to the tasteless uniformity of modern
beautifiers in 1829.

The New Tolbooth, or Council House, has already been frequently alluded to, and its site
described in the course of the work.2 It was attached to the west wall of St Giles's Church,
and at some early period there had existed a means of communication with it from the
upper floors, as appeared by an arch that remained built up in the party wall.3 A
covered passage led through it into the Parliament Close, forming the only access to the latter
from the west. From the period of the erection of this building in the reign of Queen

" The poore made havocke of all goods moveable in the Blaoke and Gray friers, and left nothing but bare walls ;
yea, not so muche as doore or window, BO that the Lords had the lesse to doe when they came. After their ooraing, all
monuments of idolatrie within the toun, and in places adjacent, were suppressed and removed." — 29th June 1559. Cal-
derwood's Hist. vol. i. p. 475.

Ante, p. 72. The previous statement is scarcely correct; however, the old Council House stood immediately to the
north of the lobby of the Signet Library, but without occupying any part of its site ; the old building continued stand-
ing until the other was built to some height.

3 This also appears from the notice of the meeting of Parliament, 17th January 1572, ante, p. 84.

202 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Mary, the Scottish Parliaments arid the College of Justice assembled there, until their sitting
were transferred to the fine hall which still remains in Parliament Square, though so strangely
disguised externally by its modern facing. On the desertion of the New Tolbooth by the
Scottish Estates and Courts of Law, it was exclusivly devoted to the deliberations of
the civic counsellors, until the erection of the Royal Exchange provided enlarged
accommodation for the Council. The Laigh Hall, where Assemblies both of the Kirk
and Estates had often been held, was a large and handsome room. Its ceiling was beau-
tifully wrought in various panels, with rich pendants from their centres, and finished with
emblazonry and gilding. On its demolition some interesting and valuable relics of early
decorations were brought to light. The walls had been originally panelled with oak, and
when at a later period this came to be regarded as old-fashioned and inelegant, the. antique
panelling was concealed, without removal, behind a modern coating of lath and plaster.
There is reason to believe that the compartments of the walls when first completed had
been filled with a series of portraits, but unfortunately, little attention was paid to the old
building at the period of its destruction, and we are only aware of one of the paintings that
has been preserved. There is much probability in favour of this being an original portrait
of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise. It is well painted on an oak panel, and in fine
condition, and was at first believed to represent Queen Anne, the consort of James VI.,
having been almost completely obscured by smoke and dirt at the time of its discovery. It
was then thought that it must have been accompanied by a portrait of James ; and it is
exceedingly probable that others of equal value to the one thus accidentally preserved may
have been thrown aside and destroyed with the discarded panelling. This curious portrait
is now in the possession of Alexander Mackay, Esq. of Blackcastle. It represents the
Queen in a high-bordered lace cap and ruff, such as both she and her daughter are usually
painted with. The details of the lacework are elaborately rendered, and the expression of
countenance is dignified and very pleasing. On the painting being cleaned, an ingenious
monogram was brought to light, burned into the back of the panel, composing the word
MARIA, and leaving, we think, little doubt of the genuineness of the portrait, which was
thus found by accident, and has passed through no picture-dealer's hands.

To this ancient building belong many of the later historical associations that have been
referred by some of our local historians to its predecessor. It was from one of its windows
that the affrighted monarch James VI. attempted in vain to appease the enraged citizens
in 1596, when, "had they not been restrained by that worthy citizen, John Watt, the
deacon-convener, — who at this dangerous juncture assembled the crafts, — they would
undoubtedly have forced the door, and probably have destroyed the King and all that
were with him." 1 The whole tumult appears to have resulted in mutual distrust, which
was taken advantage of by some designing meddlers to set the Court and citizens at
variance. The Kirk and King were at the time nearly at open strife, and Mr Robert
Bruce was preaching to a select audience in St Giles's Church, preparatory to framing
" certain articles for redresse of the wrongs done to the Kirk," while the King was sitting
in the neighbouring Tolbooth, " in the seate of Justice, among the Lords of the Sessioun,"
seemingly thinking of nothing less than the granting of any such requests. While the
Commissioners went to the Tolbooth to make their wishes known to the King, " Mr

1 Maitland, p. 48.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 203

Michaell Cranstoun, then a verie fordward minister," profitably employed the leisure of
the congregation by reading to them " the Historic of Hamau and Mordecai, and suche
other places of Scripture. ... In the mean tyme, there ariseth a rumour in the toun,
that the King had givin no good answere to the Kirk ; and in the Tolbuith, that the toun
was in armes, before there was auie suche thing. But it fell furth so immediatelie ; for
a messinger of Satan, suborned by some of the cubicular courteours, came to the kirk
doore, and cried, ' Fly ! save yourselves ; ' and ranne to the streets, crying, ' Armour !
armour ! ' " * The consequences are readily conceivable, friends and enemies rushed
together to the Tolbooth, and so thoroughly terrified the King, that he speedily after for-
sook the capital, and vowed in his wrath that he would erase it from the face of the earth !
a proposition which he really seriously entertained.2

The last Parliament at which royalty presided was held in the same New Tolbooth,
immediately after the coronation of Charles I., July 1633, and this was in all probability
the latest occasion on which the Scottish Estates assembled in the ancient edifice, as the
more modern Parliament House that still exists was then in course of erection.

From this period the New Tolbooth was used exclusively for the meetings of the Town
Council, by whom it had been erected, and it -was latterly known only by the name of the
Council Chambers. Thither the unfortunate Earl of Argyle was brought from the Castle
preparatory to his execution on the 30th June 1685, and from thence his farewell letter
to his wife is dated. Fountainhall tells us, " Argile came in coach to the Toune Counsell,
and from that on foot to the scaffold with his hat on, betuixt Mr Annand, Dean of Edin-
burgh, on his right hand, — to whom he gave his paper on the scaffold, — and Mr Laurence
Charteris, late Professor of Divinity in the College of Edinburgh. He was somewhat
appaled at the sight of the Maiden, — present death will danton the most resolute courage,
— therfor he caused bind the napkin upon his face ere he approached, and then was led to
it." Notwithstanding this incident mentioned by Fountainhall, who in all probability
witnessed the execution, it is well known that Argyle exhibited unusual composure and
self-possession on the occasion. The Maiden was erected, according to ancient custom in
cases of treason, at the Cross, so that the Earl would have only a few paces to walk across
the Parliament Close from the Council Chambers, to reach the fatal spot. As a more
recent association with both the earlier and later uses of this building, Maitland mentions
— in addition to an armoury and wardrobe which it contained — that there also was the
repository wherein were kept the sumptuous robes anciently worn by the City representa-
tives in Parliament, together with the rich trappings and accoutrements for their horses,
which were used in the pompous cavalcade at the opening of the Scottish Legislature,
styled " The riding of Parliament." 4

The Parliament Close, which lies to the south of St Giles's Church, has passed through
a series of stranger and more remarkable vicissitudes than any other portion of the Old
Town. Could an accurate narrative now be given of all the circumstances accompanying
these successive changes, it would suffice to associate this narrow spot with many of the
most memorable events in Scottish history, till the adjournment of its last Parliament
there on the 22d of April 1707, never again to assemble. While St Giles's was the

1 Calderwood's Hist., vol. v. p. 513. 2 Ante, p. 88.

* Fountainhall's Historical Observes, p. 193. 4 Maitland, p. 180.

204 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

small and solitary parish church of the ancient unwalled town, there was the burial-place
for " the rude forefathers of the hamlet," and so it continued to the very end of the six-
teenth century. Down to that period the site of the present courts was occupied in part
by the collegiate building, for the residence of the prebendaries and other clergy that
officiated at the numerous altars founded at different times in St Giles's Church. The
whole of the remaining portion lay open towards the south, extending in successive
terraces to the Cowgate, and the greater part of it appears to have remained in this con-
dition till the latter end of the seventeenth century. In the nether kirkyard, between St
Giles's Church and the Cowgate, stood the ancient chapel of the Holy Rood till the
Reformation, when it appears to have been demolished, and its materials used in building
the New Tolbooth. Doubtless the erection of the latter building, where all the great civic
and national assemblies of the period took place, must have had considerable influence
in leading to the abandonment of the old churchyard of St Giles as a place of burial.
While its area continued enclosed with ecclesiastical buildings, and stood apart from the
great thoroughfares of the town, it must have been a peculiarly solemn and fitting place of
sepulture. But when the readiest access to the New Tolbooth was through the open church-
yard, and instead of the old monk or priest treading among its grassy hillocks, it became
the lounge of grooms and lackeys waiting on their masters during the meetings of Parlia-
ment, or of quarrelsome litigants, and the usual retainers of the law, during the sessions
of the College of Justice, all idea of sacredness must have been lost. Such appears to
have been the case, from the fact that no record exists to show any formal abandonment
of it as a churchyard. Queen Mary granted the gardens of the Greyfriars' monastery to
the citizens in the year 1566, to be used as a cemetery, and from that period the old
burial-place seems to have been gradually forsaken, until the neglected sepulchres of the
dead were at length paved over, and the citizens forgot that their Exchange was built
over their fathers' graves.

One of the latest notices we have discovered of the ancient churchyard occurs in Calder-
wood's narrative of the memorable tumult of 1596, described above, though the name
probably remained long after it had ceased to be used as such. On that occasion " the
noblemen, barons, and gentlemen that were in the kirk, went forth at the alarum, and
were likewise in their armes. The Earl of Mar, and the Lord Halyrudhous, went out to
the barons and miuistrie, couveenned in the kirkyard. Some hote speeches passt betuixt
the Erie of Mar and the Lord Lindsey, so that they could not be pacified for a long
tyme." Skirmishes and tumults of a like nature were doubtless common occurrences
there; exasperated litigants frequently took matters into their own hands, and made a
speedy end to " the law's delay," while the judges were gravely pondering their case
within. In like manner the craftsmen and apprentices dealt with their civic rulers ;
club law was the speediest arbiter in every difficulty, and the transference of the Tolbooth
to the west end of the old kirkyard, transferred also the arena of such tumults to the
same sacred spot. Yet with all this to account for the desertion of the ancient burial-
place, it cannot but excite the surprise of every thoughtful observer, who reflects that
within this consecrated ground, on the 24th November 1572, the assembled nobles and
citizens committed John Knox,— "the Apostle of the Scots," as Beza styles him, —

1 Calderwood's HisL, vol. v. p. 513.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 205

to the grave,1 the Regent Morton pronouncing over him his brief, but just and memor-
able requiem, and before the generation had passed away that witnessed and joined
in his funeral service, the churchyard in which they laid him had been converted into
a public thoroughfare. We fear this want of veneration must be regarded as a national
characteristic, which Knox assisted to call into existence, and to which we owe much of
the reckless demolition of time-honoured monuments of the past, which it is now thought
a weakness to deplore.2

It is mentioned in the " Traditions," 3 on the authority of " the then Recorder of
Edinburgh, that many of the tombstones were removed from St Giles's to the Greyfriars,
where they still exist; " but we do not know of a single inscription remaining that gives
probability to this assertion. All the monuments in the Greyfriars' Churchyard are of
a later date than Queen Mary's gift of the gardens of the ancient monastery, though
even were it otherwise, it would not be conclusive, as the royal grant was in all probability
only an extension of an ancient burial-ground attached to the monastery in the Grass-
market. It is mentioned almost immediately thereafter as a place of burial during the
dreadful plague of 1568, when a huge pit is ordered to be dug in the " Greyfriars' Kirk-
zaird." Bailie Macmorran's monument is, we believe, the only one in the old cemetery
which dates so early as the sixteenth century ; we are therefore forced to conclude that,
in the same spirit that led to the abandonment of St Giles's burial-ground, its ancient
monuments were converted to a similar purpose with the old chapel of the Holy Rood,
that stood in the lower yard.

A few of the most important changes that have taken place on this interesting spot, in
the heart of the ancient capital, arranged in the order of their occurrence, will best illustrate
the rapidity with which it passed through successive transitions. In the year 1496, the
provost of St Giles's Church granted to the citizens the northern part of his manse, with
the glebe, for augmenting the cemetery. In 1528 Walter Chepman, the celebrated
printer, founded and endowed a chaplainry in the chapel of the Holy Rood, in the nether
kirkyard; in 1559 the chapel was demolished and left in ruins; and in 1562 its materials
helped to build a new Tolbooth at the north-west corner of the churchyard. On the
Protestant clergy being finally established in the stead of their Catholic predecessors, the
prebendal buildings became the residence of the town ministers, and thither, in the year
1 580, the nucleus of the present University Library was removed, until a suitable building
should be procured for it. From this clerical college the ministers were ejected in 1597
by the incensed King, who trusted thereby to weaken their power and influence, by com-
pelling them to live apart from one another. The substantial forfeit thus wrung from the
reclaiming clergy seems to have been regarded by him as a peculiarly acceptable trophy ;
no doubt, in part at least, from the evidence it furnished of his having come off victorious
in a contest with those who, until then, had always proved his most untractable opponents.

1 Ante, p. 83.

2 Probably the annals of no other town could exhibit the same indifference to its ancient cemeteries, which even the
rude Indian holds sacred. Before the Reformation there were the Blackfriars kirkyard, where the Surgical Hospital
or old High School stands ; the Kirk of Field, — now occupied by the College, — Trinity College, Holyrood Abbey, St
Roque's and St Leonard's kirkyards. lu all these places human bones are still found on digging to any depth. In this
reapect Edinburgh exhibits a striking contrast to the more crowded English capital.

3 Chainbers's Traditions, vol. ii. p. 196. 4 " Statuts for the Pest.," Maitland, p. 32.

206 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

He particularly manifested his satisfaction during the following year, when the ejected
ministers had been allowed to return to their pulpits. " All this winter the King and Queen
remained in the Abbey, and came up to the toun sindrie tymes ; dynned and supped in the
ministers' houses behind the kirk. For the King keeped their houses in his owne hand, how-
be it they were restored to their generall ministrie in Edinburgh." To resume our chrono-
logical sketch: in the year 1617, on the return of King James to his Scottish capital, the
old churchyard had so entirely lost all traces of its original character that it was selected
as the scene of a magnificent civic banquet, with which the magistrates welcomed him back
to his native city. The ministers appear to have been restored after a time to their manses
in the kirkyard, but this was only by sufferance, and during the royal will ; for in 1632
the ancient collegiate buildings were at length entirely demolished, to make way for the
Parliament House, which occupies their site. On the 14th of August 1656 General
Monck was feasted in the great hall, along with Lord Broghall, President of the Council,
and all the councillors of state, and officers of the army. " This feast," says Nicoll,
" wes geviu by the toun of Edinburgh, with great solempnitie, within the Parliament Hous,
ritchlie hung for that end. The haill pryme men, and such of thair followeris as wer in
respect, wer all resavit burgessis, and thair burges tickettis delyverit to thame." The
Duke of York, afterwards James VII., was feasted by the city within the same old hall,
on his arrival in Edinburgh in the year 1680, along with his Duchess, and the Lady Anne,
who afterwards succeeded to the throne. In 1685 the equestrian statue of King Charles
was erected, almost above the grave of John Knox ; and without extending too minutely
these more striking data, we may remind the reader, that the same hall in which the Duke
of York was entertained in 1680, was the scene of the magnificent banquet with which the
next royal visitor was welcomed in 1822.8 The open area was at length enclosed with
buildings, at first only low booths, but these were soon after succeeded by the loftiest
private buildings ever reared in this, or probably any other town. In 1676, a consider-
able portion of the new buildings were destroyed .by fire. Another conflagration succeeded
this in 1700, known by the name of the " Great Fire," which swept the whole magnificent
range of buildings to the ground, and these were only re-erected to experience a third
time the same fate in the year 1824. On the last destruction of the eastern and larger
half of the old Parliament Close, the statue of King Charles was carted off to the Calton
Jail, where his Majesty lay incarcerated for several years, until the complete remodelling
of the whole locality, when he was elevated anew on a handsome pedestal, in which two
marble tablets have been inserted, found among some lumber in the rooms below the
Parliament House, and containing an inscription evidently prepared for the former

1 Calderwood's Hist., vol. v. p. 673. * Nicoll's Diary, p. 183.

3 The following curious remarks appear in a communication to the Caledonian Mercury, December 22d, 1788 : — "It
is somewhat remarkable that the last public dinner that was given in the Parliament House here was to King James
VII., then Duke of York, at which was present the Lady Anne, afterwards Queen Anne; and that the next dinner
that should be given in the same place— viz., this day — should be by the Revolution Club, in commemoration of
his expulsion from the throne ! The dinner was given by the Magistrates of Edinburgh. The whole Court of Scot-
land, and a numerous train of noblemen, with the Duke, were present. And the outer hall of the Parliament. House
was thrown into one room upon the occasion. Ti.is dinner cost the city above £1400 sterling. Sir James Dick,
the then Lord Provost, presided (as the present will do this day). The Duke of York, and all the noblemen who
were with him, were presented with the freedom of the city. The drink-money to the Duke's servants amounted to
£220 sterling."

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 207

pedestal. Its panegyric we suspect had proved too fulsome even for the sycophantish
period in which the statue was erected ; but it now forms the most interesting, and we
may add amusing, feature of this old monument of civic royalty.1

A view is given of the new Parliament House at page 99, as it appeared when first
erected, standing disengaged from all other buildings, with an open area to the east and
south. The same isolated position is shown in the bird's-eye view in Gordon's map of
1648, where the ground slopes down in open terraces from the Parliament Close to the
Cowgate ; but the value of this central spot through which the nobles, judges, and magis-
trates, and all their numerous attendants and solicitors, were daily passing, soon led to
its selection as a convenient site for building. So early as 1628 the southern side of the
church walls had been concealed by krames and booths stuck on between every buttress
and angle; and about the year 1663 the open ground was let out by the magistrates for
the purpose of erecting small shops. These were succeeded, in 1685, as appeared from
the date on one of the lands, by the loftiest buildings existing in the Old Town, which
towered in their southern elevation to the height of fifteen stories, and converted the once
solitary churchyard into the busiest and most populous nook of the ancient capital.

We have examined a set of original documents,2 relating to a judicial sale of the pro-
perty in the Parliament Close, drawn up in the year 1698, which furnish some curious
and minute information as to the extent and occupation of the old lands, and introduce
the names of citizens of note and influence at the period, as concerned in the various
transactions. " My Lord Fountainhall, George Warrender, ane of the present bailies,"
ancestor of the Baronets of that name, " George Home, merchant, and now Provost,"
and others,- appear as creditors and trustees.3 A few extracts will furnish a peep into the
domestic arrangements of the fashionable residenters in the Parliament Close towards the
close of the seventeenth century. Sir George Campbell of Cessnock, ancestor of the
Earls of Marchmont, occupied a lodging on the fourth story above the close, " entering
by the scale stair from the Parliament Close and Kirk-heugh," at a yearly rent of five
hundred and fifty merks Scots, and " consisting of seven fire rooms, and a closet with
aue fire ! " and above him was Sir William Binning of Wallyford, in the fifth story, with
equal accommodation, at a somewhat lower rental.

In the next scale stair entering from the close, " The Lord Mersington " is mentioned
as occupying a house of eight fire rooms and a cellar on the fifth floor, at the rent of two
hundred pounds Scots. Alexander Swinton, who assumed this title on his elevation to
the Bench in 1688, is a character of some note among our older citizens. So zealous

1 A correspondent of the Caledonian Mercury, Nov. 10th, 1788, who dates from St Bernard's (Walter Ross, Esq.,
we presume), supplies some interesting facts regarding this monument: — "The statue of Charles II., placed on the spot
intended for that of Cromwell, and superior to everything of the kind in Britain, is said by Maitland to have been
erected at the expense of the citizens. If he means that it was by a contribution for the purpose, it is a mistake. The
statue was placed by the Magistrates and Council. In the accounts of George Drummond, the town treasurer, in 1684-5,
he charges £2580 Scots (£215 sterling), the contents of a bill of exchange drawn by ' James Smith upou him, for the
price of King Charles II., his statue,' The bill seems to have come from Rotterdam."

2 In the possession of David Laing, Esq , Signet Library.

8 The property is thus described : — "All and haill these great lodgings, duelling houses, shops, vaults, sellars, and
pertinents of the same, lying within the brugh of Hdinburgh, betwixt the King's High Street therein, called the Cow-
giite, on the south, the Vennel commonly called the Kirk-heugh, and the tenement of land belonging to me, the said
Thomas Robertson, on the east; the Parliament Gloss on the north, and the Parliament House, and little yard belong-
ing to the same, and the void commonly called the Leather Mercatt on the west parts," &c.

208 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

was he iu his attachment to Presbyterianism, that lie relinquished his profession as an
advocate in 1681 rather than take the Test. Nevertheless, he learned soon after to hold
the favour of royalty in greater esteem. By a special dispensation from the King he
was restored to his rank as an advocate ; and on the removal of Lord Edmonston from
the Bench, in consequence of his opposition to the royal inclinations in one of his votes
as a judge, Swinton, the once resolute declaimer against the encroachments of royalty,
was selected as the most pliant successor that could be found. The poor King, James
VII, displayed at all times little judgment in the choice of his friends, and in this case
his selection appears to have been peculiarly unfortunate. The Revolution ensued
immediately after Swinton's elevation to the Bench, and if Lord Balcarras's account is
to be believed, the new judge took a leading share in some of the strangest proceedings
that followed. The mob signalised the dethronement of the King by an assault on the
Abbey Chapel, in which several of them were killed and wounded by the guard who were
stationed to defend it. On the following day Lord Mersington headed a rabble, accom-
panied by the Provost and Magistrates, and renewed the attack on Captain AVallace
and his men. The guards were speedily put to flight, and my lord and the rest of the
rioters completely gutted the chapel, which had been fitted up in the most gorgeous and
costly style. Balcarras styles Lord Mersington " the fanatical judge," and, according
to his description, he figures on the occasion girt with a broad buif-belt, with " a halbert
in his hand, and as drunk as ale and brandy could make him." He was the only
judge on the Bench at the Revolution that was reappoiuted by the new govern-
ment.

On the third floor in the eastern turnpike of the back land, Sir David Home, Lord
Crossrig, resided, — one of the first judges nominated after the Revolution, and shortly
afterwards knighted by King "William. The judicial report of tenants and valuations
exhibits a curious assemblage of occupants, from the renters of garrets, and laigh houses
" beneath the grund," at the annual rate of twelve pound Scots, to my Lord Crossrig, who
pays three hundred pounds Scots for his flat, and share of the common stair ! The Laird
of Merchistoun, Lady Hartfield, Sir James Mackenzie, Sir Patrick Aikenhead, Commissar
Clerk, Lady Harviston, Lady Colston, with Bailies, Merchants, and humble craftsmen, all
figure in the impartial articles of sale ; sharing together at their several elevations, above
and below ground, the numerous lodgings of this populous neighbourhood.

While the sale of this property was going on, the " Great Fire " suddenly took place,
and made a settlement of all valuations and purchases by reducing the whole lofty
range to a heap of ruins. " The fire broke out in the lodgeing immediately under the
Lord Crossrig' s lodgeing, in the Meal Mercat of Edinburgh, while part of his family
were in bed, and his Lordship going to bed ; and the allarum was so sudden, that
he was forced to retire in his night cloaths, with his children half naked; and that when
people were sent into his closet to help out with his cabinet and papers, the smoke was

1 Brunton & Haig's Senators of the College of Justice, p. 432. In contrast to this account, we may add the
notice of his death, by Sir James Stewart, Lord Advocate, in a letter to Carstairs. " On Tuesday last the Lord
Mersington dined well with a friend in the Merse, and went well to bed, but was found dead before four iu the morn-
ing, his lady in bed with him, who knew nothing of his (lying. A warning stroke. He was a good man. and ia much
regretted."

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 209

so thick that they only got out a small cabinet with great difficulty. But albeit, his
papers were lying on the floor, or hung about the walls of his closet in pocks, yet they
durst not stay to gather them up, or take them, though they were desired to do it, so
that that cabinet, and Alexander Christie, his servant's lettron, which stood near the
door of Jus lodging, with some few other things, was all that was got saved, and the rest,
even to his Lordship's wearing cloths, were burnt."1 A very lively and graphic account
of this conflagration or " epitome of dissolution," as it is' there styled, is furnished
in a letter written at the time of its occurrence by the celebrated Duncan Forbes of
Culloden, to his brother Colonel Forbes, wherein Lord Crossrig figures in a special
manner. It is dated " Edinburgh, 6th February 1700," and thus describes the event: —
" Upon Saturday's night, by ten a clock, a fyre burst out in Mr John Buchan's closet
window, towards the Meall Mercate. It continued whill eleven a clock of the day, with
the greatest frayor and vehemency that ever I saw fyre do, notwithstanding that I saw
London burue. Ther are burnt, by the easiest computation, betwixt 3 and 400 familys ;
all the pryde of Edenr is sunk ; from the Cowgate to the High Street all is burnt, and
hardly one stone left upon another. The Commissioner, President of the Parl*, Pres* of
the Session, the Bank, most of the Lords, Lawyers, and Clerks, were all burnt, and
many good and great familys. It is said just now, by Sr John Cochran, and Jordan-
hill, that ther is more rent burnt in this fyre than the whole city of Glasgow will amount
to. The Parliament House very hardly escapt ; all Registers confounded ; Clerks
Chambers, and processes, in such a confusion, that the Lords and Officers of State are
just now mett at Rosse's Taverne, in order to adjourneing of the Sessione by reason of
the dissorder. Few people are lost, if any att all ; but ther was neither heart nor hand
left amongst them for saveing from the fyre, nor a drop of water in the cisternes ; twenty
thousand hands flitting ther trash they know not wher, and hardly twenty at work.
These babells, of ten and fourteen story high, are down to the ground, and ther fall 's
very terrible. Many rueful spectacles, such as Corserig naked, with a child under his
oxter, happing for his lyffe ; the Fish Mercate, and all from the Cow Gate to Pett Street's
Close, burnt ; The Exchange, waults, and coal cellars under the Parliament Close, are
still burneing."1

Among other renters of the numerous lodgings into which the lofty old lands were
divided, the Faculty of Advocates are named as occupying one in " the Exchange Stairs "
for their library, at the yearly rent of two hundred and forty pounds Scots. Within this
the nucleus of the valuable library now possessed by them had been formed, on the
scheme suggested by its founder, Sir George Mackenzie, " that noble wit of Scotland,"
as Dryden terms him, whose name, while it wins the respect of the learned, is still
coupled among the Scottish peasantry with that of " the bluidy Clavers'," and mentioned
only with execrations, for the share he took, as Lord Advocate, in the persecution of the
Covenanters, during the reign of Charles II. Under his direction and influence the fines

1 Act. Parl. vol. x. p. 284.

2 Culloden Papers, p. 27. In a pasquinade in Wodrow's Collections, purporting to be "A Letter from the
Ghost of Sir William Austruther of that ilk, once senatour of the Colledge of Justice," to his former colleagues,
and dated, " Eli/sian Fields, 27 January 1711," the Lord Crossrig and E. Lauderdale are the only Lords of Session he
meets with "in the agreeable aboads," a compliment to the former somewhat marred by the known character of his
associate.

o

2IO MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of recusant members were set apart for the formation of a library, and a few years after-
wards their collection was greatly augmented by a gift of rare and costly books from
William, first Duke of Queensberry.

The Great Fire which we have described scattered and nearly destroyed the accumula-
tion of twenty years, and had it not been for the strenuous exertions of the keeper, Mi-
John Stevenson, advocate, not one of the books would have been saved. The result,
however, was the removal of the library to safer and more permanent quarters below the
Parliament House, where it has ever since continued, though with extensive additions,
corresponding both in dimensions and style to its increasing importance. These lower
apartments, dark and gloomy as they now look, when contrasted with the magnificent
libraries that have been erected above, are associated with names of no mean note m
Scottish literature. There Thomas Euddiman and David Hume successively presided in
the office of keeper, which post was also filled by Dr Irvine, the biographer of Buchanan,
and author of the " Lives of Scottish Poets ; " and within the same hall Dr Johnson was
received by some of the most eminent men of the last century, during his visit to Edin-
burgh in 1773.

The creditors, who were baulked of their expected returns in the very midst of their
exertions, appear, from the documents already referred to, to have proceeded immediately
after the fire to dispose of the sites. In the accounts consequent on these latter transac-
tions, new characters appear, and among the rest Eobert Mylne, the royal Master Mason,
who is due, " for the area of the houses in the Parliament Closs," a sum thus imposingly
rendered in Scots money, £00,600, OOs. Od. No time appears to have been lost in re-
building the houses unexpectedly demolished. The Royal Exchange, which bore its name
cut in bold relief over the doorway, had on it the date 1700, and the adjacent buildings
towered again to an altitude of twelve stories towards the south, maintaining their pre-
eminence as the loftiest lands in Edinburgh. On the east side an open piazza, decorated
with pilasters and a Doric entablature, formed a covered walk for pedestrians, and the
whole produced a stately and imposing effect. The aristocratic denizens of the former
buildings returned again to the accommodation provided for them in the Parliament
Close, and with them, too, came the renters of laigh stories and garrets, to complete
the motley population of the lands, as they were then subdivided in the Old Town
of Edinburgh. An amusing illustration of this is furnished in the trial, to which we
have already frequently referred, of William Maclauchlane, for his share in the Porteous
mob. He was footman to the Countess of Wemyss, who resided in a fashionable
flat in the Parliament Close, and on the forenoon of the eventful 7th of September
1736, he was despatched on an errand to Craigiehall, from whence he did not return
till the evening. The libel of his Majesty's Advocate sets forth, that having delivered
his message, " the pannel went from my Lady Wemyss' house to John Lamb's alehouse
in the same stair," from whence he issued shortly after in a jovial state, attracting every-
body's notice by his showy livery during the stirring scenes of that busy night, in which
he mingled, perfectly oblivious of all that was being enacted around him, and running a
very narrow risk of being made the scapegoat of the imbecile magistracy, who only wanted
a decent pretext for sacrificing a score of blackguards to the manes of Porteous, and the
wrath of Queen Caroline.

L UCKENBOOTHS AND PA RLIA ME NT CL OSE.

211

rest ?dT* ^edge-hammers thundering on the old Tolbooth door, and when the

.r ** rCprcSGDtfttlOU of $±Q StllTlDo* SC6DGS of flip T* f

mob, and having- duly broken into >,,-„ «. orteous

in^Tf :raterrt;f lastcentury' and down *° the * * » nd.

"'1

Chambers's Traditions, vol. ii. p. 204.

212

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Oil the south side of the Parliament Close, near to John's Coffeehouse, was the bank-
ing-house established by Sir William Forbes, the well-known author of the " Life of Dr
Beattie," as well as of other works, and one of the most benevolent and public-spirited
citizens of whom Edinburgh ever had to boast. Though descended from the ancient
Lords Pitsligo, attainted for their fidelity to the Stuarts, he commenced life as an
apprentice with the noted bankers, Messrs Coutts, and on their final establishment, in
London, he founded the banking company so long known by his name.1 So successful
was he in life, that he accomplished his long-cherished purpose of recovering the
attainted estates of the Barony of Pitsligo, which are now possessed by his descendants.
Adjoining the banking-house of this eminent citizen, Kay, the ingenious delineator of

the " Edinburgh Characters," kept the small print-shop
where he vended his portraits and caricatures during nearly
the whole of his career as an artist. His windows were
always filled with his newest etchings, and formed a centre
of attraction to the numerous loungers of the close,
some of the most noted among whom — both lawyers and
clients — were the frequent subjects of his pencil. An
ancient thoroughfare led from the centre of this range
of buildings to the Cowgate by a broad flight of steps,
latterly called the Back Stairs, of which we furnish a
view, showing the original state of the great south window
of the Parliament Hall. It is occasionally called by
writers of last century the New Stairs, but a passage of
some kind undoubtedly led through the nether kirkyard
to the Cowgate at an early period, affording ready ac-
cess from that fashionable suburb, to the collegiate church
of St Giles's, and the centre of the High Town. For
this the Parliament Stairs were probably substituted
about 1636, and continued from that time to form a con-
venient communication between the High Street and

the Cowgate, until their recent demolition to make way for the new Court
Houses.

The booths which disfigured the old cathedral front, forming the north side of the close,
have already been mentioned \ these were almost exclusively occupied by the goldsmiths,
whose hall was attached to the Parliament House, where the lobby of the Signet Library
now stands. Chambers furnishes in his " Traditions" an. amusing picture of the expectant
rustic bridegroom's visit to the Parliament Close, on the eve of his marriage, in order to
provide those indispensable household gear, the silver-spunes. On such occasions it was
usual for the goldsmith to adjourn with his customer to John's Coffeehouse, to receive
the order over a caup of ale or a dram, when the goldsmith was perhaps let into the
whole secret counsels of the rustic, including a history of his courtship, — in return
for which he sought to astonish his customer with the most recent marvels of city
news. The spunes, however, we rather think, form, according to old-established

1 Now incorporated with other banking companies under the name of the Union Bank of Scotland.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 213

custom, part of the bride's plenishing ; l but the brooch aud wedding-ring no doubt
demanded a similar errand to the goldsmiths' booths, and would form a still readier
introduction to the whole secrets of courtship. On such occasions- the customer paid
for the refreshments when giving the order, and the trader returned the compliment on
his second visit to receive and pay for the goods, which were then rarely to be found on
hand ready for sale.

The external appearance of the old Parliament House has been rendered familiar to
thousands who never saw it in its original state by the view of it on the notes of Sir
William Forbes and Co.'s Bank. Tradition pointed to Inigo Jones as the designer,
not without some confirmation from its general style. It was no model of architectural
beauty certainly, yet it presented a highly picturesque appearance and individuality
of character, which, with its thorough accordance with the age in which it was erected,
ought to have secured the careful preservation of its antique turrets and sculptures,
as a national monument associated with great historical events. There was a quaint
stateliness about its irregular pinnacles and towers, and the rude elaborateness of its
decorations, that seemed to link it with the courtiers of Holyrood, in the times of the
Charleses, and its last gala days under the Duke of York's vice-regency. Nothing can
possibly be conceived more meaningless and utterly absurd than the thing that super-
seded it. The demolition of the adjoining buildings, and the extension of the Court
Houses, so as to make the older part form only a subsidiary wing of the whole, have
given some consistency to what is, at best, a very commonplace design ; but the original
screen of stone, now forming the west wing of the Court Houses, which was built to hide
the antique fa?ade of 1636, had neither relation to the building it was attached to, nor
meaning of its own.

Over the main entrance of the old fabric were the royal arms of Scotland, boldly sculp-
tured, supported on the right by Mercy holding a crown wreathed with laurel, and on the
left by Justice having the balance in one hand, and a palm-branch in the other, with the
appropriate inscription, Stant his felicia regna, and immediately underneath the national
arms this motto, Uni unionum. This entrance, which stood facing the east, is now com-
pletely blocked up. Over the smaller doorway which forms the present main access to the
Parliament Hall, the city arms occupied an ornamental tablet, placed between two sculp-
tured obelisks, and underneath this inscription, on a festooned scroll, — Dominus custodit
introitum nostrum. The general effect of the whole will be best understood by a refer-
ence to the view on page 99.

An amusing anecdote is told of one of the old frequenters of the Parliament Close,
regarding the ancient doorway we have described. James Robertson, Esq. of Kincraigie,
an insane Jacobite laird, on being pressed on one occasion by the Honourable Henry
Erskine to accompany him into the Parliament House, somewhat abruptly declined the
invitation, — " But I '11 tell you what, Harry," added he, pointing to the statue that
stood over the porch, " tak' in Justice wi' ye, for she has stood lang at the door, and

1 We have the authority of an experienced matron for the following as a complete inventory of the bride's plenishing,
according to old Scottish notions, and which is often still regarded as indispensable : — 1. A chest of drawers, "split new,"
and ordered for the occasion ; 2. Bed and table linen, — or naiprie, as it is styled, — with a supply of blankets ; 3. The
silver spoons ; and, in some districts, 4. An eight-day clock. But the sine qwd non of all was — 5. A LADLE !

214 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

it wad be a treat for her to see the inside like other strangers ! " The renovators of
the old hall seem to have taken the daft laird's hint, — Justice has vanished from the
porch, to reappear in a most gaudy and tasteless fashion in the painted glass of the
great window.1 An incident, however, in connection with the fate of these ancient
warders of the Parliament porch, will best illustrate the taste of its beautifiers. Shortly
after the modernisation of the old front, the late Bailie Henderson observed a cart
conveying along the South Bridge a load of carved stones, among which the statues of
Justice and Mercy formed the most prominent objects. On inquiring at the carter as to
their destination, he learned that one of the Professors, who kept a Polar bear, had
applied to the Magistrates for stones to erect a bear's house within the College quad-
rangle, and he accordingly obtained a gift of these old rubbish for the purpose. The
Bailie gave the carter a fee to turn his horse's head, and deposit them at his own villa near
Trinity, from whence he sent him back with his cart full of stones equally well adapted
for the Professor's bear's house. On the death of Bailie Henderson, the statues, along
with other ornamental portions of the old building, were procured by A. Gr. Ellis, Esq., in
whose possession they now are.

The great hall measures 122 feet long, by 40 broad, and although its windows have
recently been altered, its curious, open-timbered oak roof remains, springing from a
series of grotesquely sculptured corbels of various designs. Long after it had been for-
saken by the Scottish Estates it retained the high throne at its southern end, where the
Sovereign, or his Commissioner, was wont to preside over their deliberations, and on
either side a range of benches for the nobles and barons, with lower ones in the centre
for the Commissioners of Burghs, the Scottish Estates having formed to the last only
one deliberative assembly. Without this area a pulpit was erected for sermons to the
Parliament, — the same, we believe, that is now preserved in the Museum of the Society
of Antiquaries under the name of " John Knox's pulpit." Along the walls there hung
a series of portraits of sovereigns and eminent statesmen, including paintings by
Sir Godfrey Kneller ; but some of these were the first of its decorations that disappeared,
having, it is said, been bestowed by Queen Anne on her Secretary, the Earl of Mar.2
Others, however, of these paintings adorned the walls, and are now, we believe,
among the miscellaneous collection at Holyrood House. Portions also of early deco-
rations, including fragments of ancient tapestry, were only removed in the latter end
of last century, — the same hangings, in all probability, as were put up during the Pro-
tectorate. Nicoll tells us, " The Preses and the remanent memberis of the great counsall
did caus alter much of the Parliament Hous, and did cans hing the Over hous with riche
hingeris, in September 1655, and removit these roumes thairintill appoyntit for
passing of the billis, and signeting of letters. So wes also the Lower Hous, diligatlie
hung." 8 Nor should we omit to mention the Creed and Ten Commandments, once so

1 In 1868, this window was replaced by a magnificent stained one, representing the inauguration of the College of
Justice, or the Supreme Court of Scotland, by King James V., in 1532.

* Minor Antiquities, p. 187. The following are mentioned in Brown's " Stranger's Guide," for 1820 : — " The outer
hall is ornamented by full length portraits of King William III., Queen Mary, his consort, and Queen Anne, all done
by Sir Godfrey Kneller ; also of George I., John Duke of Argyle, and Archibald Duke of Argyle, by Mr Aikman of
Carney.

3 Nicoll's Diary, p. 216.

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 215

appropriately suspended on the walls, and mentioned in a MS. volume of last century,
»I,H " taken down when the Court was repaired." l These ancient decorations have since
been replaced by statues of Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord President Blair, son of
the poet, Lord Melville, Lord Chief Baron Dundas, Lord Jeffrey, Lord President Boyle,
Lord Cockburn, &c. ; and by portraits of Lord Abercromby, Professor Bell, Lord
1'rougham, Lord Justice-Clerk Hope, Lord Colonsay, &c. There are also specimens by
the celebrated Jamesone, the earliest Scottish painter, who studied under Rubens at
Antwerp. This great hall is now used as a waiting-room and promenade by the advo-
cates and the various other practitioners connected with the Supreme Courts, and during
the sitting of the courts presents a very attractive and animated scene.

To a stranger visiting the Scottish capital, no one of its public buildings is so
calculated to excite a lively interest as the scene of its latest legislative assemblies ; for
while it shares with the deserted palace, and the degraded mansions of the Old Town, in
many grand and stirring associations, it still forms the Hall of the College of Justice,
founded by James V., — at once the arena of the leading Scottish nobles and statesmen
of the last two centuries, and the scene of action of many of the most eminent men of
our own day.

Beneath the old roof, thus consecrated by sacred historic memories, the first great
movements of the civil war took place, and the successive steps in that eventful crisis
were debated with a zeal commensurate to the important results involved in them, and
with as fiery ardour as characterised the bloody struggles which they heralded. Here
Montrose united with Rothes, Lindsay, Loudon, and others of the Covenanting leaders,
in maturing the bold measures that formed the basis of our national liberties ; and
within the same hall, only a few years later, he sat with the calmness of despair, to
receive from the lips of his old compatriot, Loudon, the barbarous sentence which was
executed with such savage rigour.

When the fatal overthrow of the Scottish army at Dunbar at length laid the capital at
the mercy of Cromwell, new scenes were enacted within the Parliament House — " witness
sindry Englisch trouperis quha oppinlie taught there." 2 If Pinkerton 3 is to be believed,
even the General, Cromwell himself, occasionally laid aside the temporal for the spiritual
sword, within the same august arena, to the great scandal of the Presbyterian citizens,
who were horrified to find that " men war not aschamed to tak upone thame the functione
of the ministrie, without a lauchfull calling." But while such novelties were being
enacted in the great hall, " the laich Parliament Hous " was crowded with Scottish
prisoners, and the building strictly guarded by bands of the same English troopers,
equally ready to relieve guard on the outer parade, or to take their turn within, where

Pulpit drum Ecclesiastic
Was beat with fist instead of a stick.

The Scottish strongholds, however, proved insufficient for the detention of their old
masters, under the care of foreign jailers. On the 17th of May 1654, the whole number
of prisoners in the " laich Parliament House," effected their escape by cutting a hole in
the floor of the great hall above, and all but two got clear off. Only ten days afterwards,

1 Supplement to Court of Session Garland, p. 4. s Nicdl's Diary, p. 94. 3 Ante, p. 96.

2 1 6 ME MORI A L S OF EDINB UR GH.

Lord Kiunoull and several other prisoners were equally successful in getting out of the
castle, by letting themselves down over the rock with their sheets and blankets cut into
strips ; and others confined in the Canongate Tolbooth effected, by like means, a similar
jail delivery for themselves.1 When a better understanding had been established between
the Protector and his Scottish subjects, the old hall was restored to more legitimate uses.
There, in the following year, General Mouck and the leaders of the Commonwealth were
feasted with lavish hospitality, and the courts of law resumed their sittings, with an
honest regard for justice scarcely known in Scotland before.

Then came the " glorious Restoration," under the auspices of the once republican
general ; and the vice-regent and royal commissioner, the Duke of York, was feasted
with his fair princess and daughter, attended by the beauty and chivalry of Scotland,
anxious to efface all memory of former doing in the same place. But sad as was the
scene of Scotland's children held captive in her own capital by English jailers, darker
times were heralded by this vice-regal banquet, when the Duke presided, along with
Dalziell and Claverhouse, in the same place, to try by torture the passive heroism of the
confessors of the Covenant, and the astute lawyer, Sir George Mackenzie, played the part
of king's advocate with such zeal, as has won him the popular title which still survives
all others, of " Bluidy Mackenzie." The lower rooms, that have so long been dedicated
to the calm seclusion of literary study, are the same that witnessed the noble, the
enthusiastic, and despairing, alike prostrate at the feet of tyrants, or subjected to
cruel tortures by their merciless award. There Guthrie and Argyll received the barbarous
sentence of their personal enemies without form of trial, and hundreds of less note
courageously endured the fury of their persecutors, while Mercy and Justice tarried at the
door.

A glimpse at the procedure of this Scottish Star Chamber, — furnished by Fountainhall,
in his account of the trial of six men in October 1681, " on account of their religion and
fanaticism," — may suffice for a key to the justice administered there. Garnock, one of
the prisoners, having railed at Dalziell in violent terms, " the General in a passion
struck him with the pomel of his shable on the face, till the blood sprung."2 With
such men for judges, and thumbekins, boots, and other instruments of torture as the means
of eliciting the evidence they desired, imagination will find it hard to exceed the horrors
of this infamous tribunal.

An interesting trial is mentioned by Fountainhall as having occurred in 1685.3 Richard
Rumbold, one of Cromwell's old Ironsides, was brought up, accused of being implicated in
the Rye House Plot. He had defended himself so stoutly against great odds that he was

1 The Scottish prisoners would seem to have been better acquainted with the secrets of their own strongholds than
their English jailers. Nicoll remarks, " It was a thing admirable to considder how that the Scottis prissoneris being so
cloelie keepit heir within the Castle of Edinburgh, and in the laich Parliament Hous, and within the Tolbuith of the
Cannogait, and daylie and nychtlie attendit with a gaird of sodgeris, sould sa oft escaip imprissournent. And now laitlie,
upone the 27 day of Maij 1654. being Settirday at miduicht, the Lord Kynnoull, the Laird of Lugtoun, ane callit Mar-
schell, and another callit Hay, by the moyen of one of the Inglische centrie escapit furth of the Castell of Edinburgh,
being lat doun be thair awin bedscheittis and blankettis, hardlie knut. All these four, with ane of the Inglische centrie,
escapit. Thair was ane uther prettie gentill man, and a brave soclger, essaying to do the lyke, he, in his duungoing, fell
and brak his neck, the knotis of the scheittis being maid waik by the former persoues wecht that past doun before him."
—Nicoll's Diary, p. 128.

2 Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 159. Ibid, vol. i. p. 365. •

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 217

only taken when completely disabled by wounds, and the court was hastily summoned to
sit on the following morning, " that he might not preveen the public execution by his
death." The evidence was found insufficient to convict him of a share in the Rye House
Plot, and the king's advocate proceeded accordingly to lead other accusations of treason
against him, among which he charged him as having been one of the masked execu-
tioners who beheaded Charles I. He appears to have been a man of most resolute
courage, and a determined republican ; he denied having been the king's executioner, but
readily admitted that he was on guard at the scaffold as one of Cromwell's troopers, and
that he had served as a lieutenant in his army at Dunbar, Worcester, and Dundee.
" Being asked if he owned the present king's authority, he craved leave to be excused,
seeing he need neither offend them nor grate his own conscience." He was executed
the same afternoon, with peculiar barbarity, and his quarters sent to be exposed in
some of the chief towns of Scotland, his head being reserved to grace the West Port of
Edinburgh. But the day of retribution came at last ; the Prince of Orange landed in
England, and the feeble representative of the Stuarts was the foremost to desert his own
failing cause. From the close of 1688 till March 1689, when a Convention of the
Scottish Estates was summoned to meet, Edinburgh was almost left to the government
of the rabble. The sack of Holyrood, already described, completely established the
superiority of the Presbyterian party, and they signalised their triumph by assaulting
the houses of the wealthy Catholics who resided chiefly in the Canongate, which they
" rabbled" as the phrase was, gutting and sometimes setting them on fire. When at length
the Convention met, the adherents of the exiled king crowded to the capital in hopes
of yet securing a majority in his favour. Dundee openly marched into the town with a
train of sixty horse, while the Whigs with equal promptitude, but secretly, gathered an
armed body of the persecuted Presbyterians, whom they concealed in garrets and cellars,
ready to sally out at a concerted signal, and turn the scales in favour of their cause.
The sumptuous old oaken roof of the Parliament Hall then witnessed as stirring scenes
as ever occurred in the turbulent minorities of the Jameses within the more ancient
Tolbooth. Dundee * arose in his place in the Convention, and demanded that all strangers
should be commanded to quit the town, declaring his own life and those of others of the
king's friends to be endangered by the presence of banded assassins. On his demand
being rejected, he indignantly left the assembly ; and the Convention, with locked doors
and the keys on the table before them, proceeded to judge the government of King
James, and to pronounce his crown forfeited and his throne vacant, beneath the same
roof where he had so often sat in judgment on the oppressed. Meanwhile Dundee
was mustering his dragoons for the rising of the North j the affrighted citizens were
beating to arms to pursue him, and the armed Covenanters sallying from their hiding-
places to strike for liberty against the oppressor, on the same streets where they had not
openly been seen for years, unless when dragged to torture and execution ; while the
Convention sternly bent themselves to the great question at issue, expecting every moment
that the Duke of Gordon would open a fire on them from the Castle guns, and compel

1 A sort of compromise would seem to have been tacitly entered into with regard to this brave " persecutor."
Dulziel and Mackenzie have been delivered up to unmitigated popular infamy, while the same censors still speak of the
Klmdy Clovers and the Gallant Dundee, as though they had contrived to divorce his evil from his good qualities in
order innocently to indulge their pride in the hero of Scottish song !

2 1 8 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

them to adjourn. It must be regarded as proving how thoroughly the cruel wrongs which
the Scottish Covenanters had suffered at the hands of their persecutors during the reign
of Charles II. were laid to the charge of the active agents in their execution, that the
statue of that " Monarch of Misrule " survived the rabblements of this period, and still
graces the area of the Parliament Close.

The Old Parliament House witnessed thenceforth more legitimate scenes. The name
that still survives all other memorials of the Scottish hierarchy, recalls the time when
" the honours " of the kingdom were laid on the table, and the Lord High Commissioner
occupied the throne as the representative of majesty, while the eloquent Belhaven, the
astute and wary Lockhart, and the nervous Fletcher, pleaded for the ancient privileges
of their country, and denounced the measure that was to close its Legislative Hall for
ever. Many an ardent patriotic heart throbbed amid the dense crowd that daily assembled
in the Parliament Close, to watch the decision of the Scottish Estates on the detested
scheme of Union with England. Again and again its fate trembled in the balance,
but, happily for Scotland, English bribes outweighed the mistaken zeal of Scottish
patriotism and Jacobitism united against the measure. On the 25th March 1707, the
Treaty of Union was ratified by the Estates, and on the 22d April following, the
Parliament of Scotland adjourned, never again to assemble. The Lord Chancellor
Seafield, the chief agent in this closing scene of our national legislature, exclaimed on
its accomplishment, with heartless levity, " There is an end of an auld sang ; " but the
people brooded over the act as a national indignity and wrong ; and the legitimate line
of their old Scottish kings anew found favour in their eyes, and became the centre of
hope to many who mourned over Scotland as a degraded province of her old southern
rival.

Since then the ancient hall retains only such associations as belong to men eminent
for learning, or high in reputation among the members of the College of Justice. Duncan
Forbes, Lord Kames, Monboddo, Hume, Erskine, Mackenzie, and indeed nearly all the
men of note in Scottish literature, — if we except her divines, — have formed a part of the
busy throng that gave life and interest to Scotland's Westminster Hall. Our own genera-
tion has witnessed there Cockburn, Brougham, Horner, Jeffrey, and Scott, sharing in the
grave offices of the Court, or taking a part in the broad humour and wit for which the
members of " the Faculty " are so celebrated ; and still the visitor to this learned and
literary lounge cannot fail to be gratified in a high degree, while watching the different
groups who gather in the Hall, and noting the lines of thought or humour, and the
infinite variety of physiognomy, for which the wigged and gowned loiterers of the Law
Courts are peculiarly famed.

Among the more homely associations of the Old Parliament Close, the festivities of
the King's birthday demand a special notice, as perhaps the most popular among the long-
cherished customs of our ancestors, which the present generation has beheld gradually expire.
It was usual on this annual festival to have a public repast in the Parliament Hall, where
tables were laid out at the expense of the city, covered with wine and confections, and the
magistrates, judges, and nearly all the chief citizens, assembled for what was styled " the
drinking of the King's health." On the morning of this joyous holiday the statue of King
Charles was gaily decorated with flowers by the "Auld Gallants" as the eleves of Heriot's

LUCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 219

Hospital are still termed, who claimed this office by long prescription, and their acknow-
ledged skill in the art of loyal decoration, acquired in the annual custom of decking their
own founder's statue.1 This formed one of the chief attractions to the citizens through-
out the day, as well as to their numerous rustic visitors who crowded into the capital
on the occasion, to witness or share in the fun. Towards the afternoon the veteran
corps of the city guard were called out to man the eastern entrance into the Parliament
Close while the guests were assembling for the civic entertainment, and thereafter to
draw up in front of the great hall, and announce with a volley to the capital at large each
loyal toast of its assembled rulers. Never did forlorn hope undertake a more desperate
duty ! The first volley of these unpopular guardians of civic order was the signal
for a frenzied assault on them by the whole rabble of the town, commemorated in
Ferguson's lively Address to the Muse on the " King's birthday." Dead dogs and cats,
and every offensive missile that could be procured for the occasion, were now hurled
at their devoted heads ; and when at last they received orders to march back again to their
old citadel in the High Street, the strife became furious ; the rough old veterans dealt
their blows right and left with musket and Lochaber axe wielded by no gentle hand,
but their efforts were hopeless against the spirit and numbers of their enemies, and the
retreat generally ended in an ignominious rout of the whole civic guard. All law, excepting
mob law, was suspended during the rest of the evening, the windows of obnoxious citizens
were broken, the effigies of the most unpopular public men frequently burnt, and for
more than half a century, the notorious " Johnny Wilkes," the editor of the North Briton,
and the favourite of the London apprentices, was annually burnt in effigy at the Cross
and other prominent parts of the town — an incremation which has lately altogether
fallen into desuetude.

Previous to the remodelling of the Parliament House, while yet the lofty lands of the
old close reared their huge and massy piles of stone high above the neighbouring buildings,
and the ancient church retained its venerable though somewhat dilapidated walls, the
aspect of this quadrangle must have been peculiarly grand and imposing, and such as we
shall look for in vain among the modern erections of the capital. It would be folly, how-
ever, after recording so many changes that have passed over it at successive periods, to
indulge in useless regrets that our own day has witnessed others as sweeping as any that
preceded them, obliterating every feature of the past, and resigning it anew to the slow
work of time to restore for other generations the hues of age that best comport with its
august and venerable associations. We shall close our notice with the following extract
from a local poem referring to the same interesting nook of the old Scottish capital : —

A scene of grave yet busy life

Within the ancient city's very heart,
Teeming with old historic memories, rife

With a departed glory, stood apart.
High o'er it rose St Giles's ancient tower

Of curious fret work, whence the shadow falls,—
As the pale moonbeams through its arches pour, —

Tracing a shadowy crown upon the walls

1 One of the graceful and innocent customs of earlier times, which was for sometime in abeyance, but is now happily
again revived.

220 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Where Scotland's nobles sate, as if in scorn

Or vain regret, o'er the deserted pile.
For centuries its paving had been worn

By courtiers, once unmatched in crafty guile,
By many a baron bold, and lovely dame,

And scions, too, of Scotland's royal line ;
While, from beneath, preferred a worthier claim

Names that with stern historic scenes entwine,
And some whose memory time has failed to keep,

Oblivious of the trust. Knox slumbers there,
Mingling with border chiefs that stilly sleep ;

And churl, and burgher bold, and haughty peer,
With those a people wept for, sharing now

The common lot, unhonoured and unknown.
Strange wreck, o'er ruins in the dust below I

Thrice desecrated burial-place ! The stone —
Where once were held in trust the noble dead

'Neath grassy hillock and memorial urn, —
With requiem graven only by their tread,

Whose steps forgotten generations spurn.
But civic sycophants, — a courtly tool, —

Bartered stone Cromwell for a Charles of lead, —
Ignoble meed for tyranny's misrule,

To rear above the great dishonoured dead !
Fire, time, and modern taste, — the worst of all, —

Have swept in ruthless zeal across the scene
And the lead king and shadow on the wall,

Alone survive of all that once has been.

CHAPTER V.

THE HIGH STREET.

AWING to the peculiar site of the Scottish
capital, no extension of the Old Town
beyond its early limits has in any degree
detracted from the importance of its most
ancient thoroughfare, which extends under
different names from the Palace to the
Castle, and may be regarded as of antiquity
coeval with the earliest fortifications of the
citadel to which it leads. Alongside of this
roadway, on the summit of the sloping ridge,
the rude huts of the early Caledonians were
constructed, and the first parish church of St
Giles reared, so early, it is believed, as the
ninth century.1 Fynes Moryson, an English
traveller, who visited Edinburgh in the year
1598, thus describes it: — " From the King's Pallace at the east, the city still riseth higher
and higher towards the west, and consists especially of one broad and very faire street, —
which is the greatest part and sole ornament thereof, — the rest of the side streetes and
allies being of poore building, and inhabited with very poore people." We may add, how-
ever, to his concluding remark, the more accurate observation of the eccentric traveller,
Taylor, the water-poet, who visited the Scottish capital a few years later, and shows his
greater familiarity with its internal features by describing " many by-lanes and closes on
each side of the way, wherein are gentlemen's houses, much fairer than the buildings in the
High Street, for in the High Street the merchants and tradesmen do well, but the gentle-
men's mansions, and goodliest houses, are obscurely founded in the aforesaid lanes."

The preceding chapter is chiefly devoted to some of the more ancient and peculiar
features of this street. Yet strictly speaking, while every public thoroughfare is styled in
older writs and charters " the King's High Street," the name was only exclusively applied

1 Arnot, p. 268. 2 Itinerary, London, 1617. Bann. Mis. vol. ii. p. 393.

VIGNETTE.— Common Seal of the City of Edinburgh, from a charter dated A.D. 1565. Vide p. 73, for the
Counter Seal.

222 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

to that portion extending from the Nether Bow to Creech's Land, until the demolition of
the middle row, when the Luckenbooths, and even a portion of the Lawnmarket, were
assumed as part of it, and designated by the same name.

Here was the battlefield of Scotland for centuries, whereon private and party feuds, the
jealousies of the nobles and burgher?, and not a few of the contests between the Crown and
the people, were settled at the point of the sword. In the year 1515 it was the scene of
the bloody fray known by the name of " Cleanse the Causey," which did not terminate
until the narrow field of contest was strewn with the dead bodies of the combatants, and
the Earl of Arran and Cardinal Beaton narrowly escaped with their lives.1 Other and
scarcely less bloody affrays occurred during the reign of James V. on the same spot,
while in that of his hapless daughter it was for years the chief scene of civil strife, where
rival factions fought for mastery. In 1571 the King's Parliament, summoned by the
Regent Lennox, assembled at the head of the Canongate, above St John's Cross, which
bounded " the freedome of Edinburgh," while the Queen's Parliament sat in the Tolbooth,
countenanced in their assumption of the Eoyal name by the presence of the ancient
Scottish Regalia, the honours of the kingdom ; and the battle for Scotland's crown
and liberties fiercely raged in the narrow space that intervened between these rival
assemblies.

But the private feuds of the Scottish nobles and chiefs were the most frequent subjects
of conflict on the High Street of the capital, and during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries many a bold baron and hardy retainer perished there, adding fresh fuel to the
deadly animosity of rival clans, but otherwise exciting no more notice at the time than
an ordinary street squabble would now do. It was in one of these tulzies, alluded to in
the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," that Sir Walter Scott of Buccleugh was slain, in the year
1551,2

When the streets of High Dunedin,
Saw lances gleam and falchions redden,
And heard the slogan's deadly yell.

Neither the accession of James VI., nor the attainment of his majority, exercised much
influence in checking those encounters on the streets of the capital. " Many enormities were
committed," says Calderwood, " as if there had beene no King in Israeli." The following
may suffice as a sample : — "Upon the seventh of Januar 1591, the King comming douu
the street of Edinburgh from the Tolbuith, the Duke of Lennox, accompanied with the
Lord Hume, following a little space behind, pulled out their swords, and invaded the
Laird of Logie. The King fled into a closse-head, and incontinent retired to a Skinner's
booth, where it is said he shook for feare."3 The sole consequence of this lawless act of
violence was the exclusion of the chief actors from court for a short time; and only six
days thereafter the Earl of Bothwell deliberately took by force out of the Tolbooth the
chief witness in a case then pending before the court, at the very time that the King was

1 Ante, p. 37.

2 "In thia zeir all wea at guid rest, exceptand the Laird of Cesfurde and Fernyhirst with thair complices
slew Schir Walter Scott, laird of Balclewche, in Edinburgh, quha was ane valzeand guid knycht." — Diurnal of Oc-
currents, 1551, p. 51.

8 Fide Calderwood, vol. v. p. 116, for a more particular account of royal mishaps in the close-head on this occa-
sion.

THE HIGH STREET. 223

sitting in the same building along with the Lords of Session.1 The unfortunate witness
was dragged by his captors to Crichton Castle, and there schooled into a more satisfactory
opinion of the case in question, under the terror of the gallows.

The ancient Cross which stood in the High Street has been frequently alluded to, and
some of the most remarkable events described of which it was the scene. It was alike the
theatre of festivals and executions ; garnished at one period with rich hangings, and flowing
with wine for the free use of the populace, and at another overshadowed by the Maiden, and
hung only with the reversed armorial bearings of some noble victim of law or tyranny.'''
In the year 1617 it was rebuilt on a new site in the High Street, apparently with the
view of widening the approach preparatory to the arrival of King James, in fulfilment of
his long-promised visit to his native city. The King sent word at that time of " his
naturall and salmon-like affection, and earnest desire," as he quaintly but very graphically
expresses it, "to see his native and ancient kingdome of Scotland." Accordingly, as Calder-
wood tells us in the very next sentence, " Upon the 26th of Februar, the Crosse of Edin-
burgh was taken douu ; the old long stone, about fortie foots or therby in length, was
translated, by the devise of certane mariners in Leith, from the place where it stoode past
memorie of man, to a place beneath in the Highe Streete, without anie harme to the stone ;
and the bodie of the old Crosse was demolished and another buildit, whereupon the long
stone or obelisk was erected and sett upon the 25th of Marche." The long stone must
have suffered injury since, but the fine Gothic capital, of which we have already given a
view, is without doubt a relic of the most ancient Cross demolished at this period. Among
the older customs of which this interesting fabric was the scene, no one is more curious
than Ihe exposure of dyvours or bankrupts, a class of criminals at all times regarded with
special indignation by their more fortunate fellow-citizens. The origin of this singular
mode of protecting commercial credit is thus related in the Acts of Sederunt of the Court
of Session for 1604: — " The Lordis ordaiue the Provest, Bailleis, and Counsale of Edin-
burgh, to cause big ane pillery of hewn stane, neir to the Mercat Croce of Edinburgh,
upon the heid thereof ane sait and place to be maid, quhairupon, in tyme cuming, sail
be set all dyvoris, wha sail sit thairon ane mercat day, from 10 hours in the morning

1 "Anent walpynnis in Buithis. Item, it is statute and ordanit be the Provest, Bailies, and Counsall of this burgh,
because of the greit slauchteris and utheris cummeris and tulzeis done in tyme bygane within the burgh, and apperendlie
to be done gif ua remeid be provydit thairto ; and for eschewing thairof ; — that ilk manner of peraone, merchandis, craftis-
men, and all utheris occupyaris of buthis, or chalmeris in the hiegait, outher heych or laych, that thay have lang
valpynnis thairin, sic as hand ex, Jedburgh staif, hawart jawalyng, and siclyk lang valpynnis, with knaipschawis and
jakkis ; and that thay cum thairwith to the hie-gait incontinent efter the commoun bell rynging." — Burgh Records,
Mar. 4, 1552.

s " Upoue Tysday the nyntene day of Junij 1660, eftir sennond endit, the Magistrates and Counsell of Edinburgh, all
in thair best robis, with a great number of the citizens, went to the Mercat Croce of Edinburgh, quhair a great long boord
wes covered with all soirtes of sweit meittis, and thair drank the kinges helth, and his brother; the spoutes of the Croce
rynnand all that tyme with abundance of clareyt wyne. Ther wer thrie hundreth dosane of glassis all brokin and cassin
throw the streitis, with sweit meitis in abundance," &c. — Nicoll's Diary, p. 293.

" Upone the 13 day of Maij 1661, Sir Archibald Johnnestoun of Warystoun, lait Clerk Register, being forfalt in this
Parliament, and being fugitive fra the lawis of this Kingdome, for his treasonable actis, he was first oppinlie declairit
traitour in face of Parliament, thaireftir, the Lord Lyon king at airmes, with four heraldis and sex trumpetteris, went to
the Mercat Croce of Edinburgh, and thair maid publiet intimation of his forfaltrie and treason, rave asunder his airmes,
and trampled thame under thair feet, and kuist a number of thame over the Croce, and affixt ane of thame upone the
height of the great stane, to remayne thair to the publiet view of all beholderis. Thir airmes were croced bakward, his
heid being put dounmest and his feet upmest." — Ibid, p. 332.

3 Calderwood, vol. vii. p. 243.

224 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

quhill ane hour efter dinner ; and the saidis dyvoris, before thair libertie and cuining forth
of the tolbuith, upon thair awn chairges, to cause mak and buy ane hat or bonnet of yellow
colour, to be worn be tharne all the tyme of their sitting on the said pillery, and in all tyme
thairefter, swa lang as they remane and abide dyvoris."1 Sundry modifications of this
singular act were afterwards adopted. In 1669 "The Lords declare that the habite is to
be a coat and upper garment, which is to cover their cloaths, body and arms, whereof, the
one half is to be of yellow, and the other half of a brown colour, and a cap or hood, which
they are to wear on their head, party coloured, as said is," z coloured, as is enacted at a
subsequent period, " conform to a pattern delivered to the magistrates of Edinburgh to
be keeped in their Tolbooth."8 The effect of such a custom, if revived in our day, amid
the bustle and fever of railway schemes, and "bubble speculations" of all kinds, could
not fail to exercise a very pleasing influence in diversifying the monotony of our unpic-
turesque modern attire, and giving some variety to our assemblies and promenades ! How
far commercial solvency would be promoted by the frequenters of the Stock Exchange being
thus compelled to wear their credit on their sleeve, we must leave these shrewd speculators
to determine at their leisure. Cowper, in his "Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq.," discusses a
somewhat analogous device, adopted by an Eastern sage, for distinguishing honest men from
knaves, and which consisted in the convicted defaulter wearing only half a coat thereafter j
but he adds for the comfort of all contemporaries : —

0 happy Britain ! we have not to fear
Such hard and arbitrary measures here ;
Else could a law, like that which I relate,
Once have the sanction of our triple state,
Some few, that I have known in days of old,
Would run most dreadful risk of catching cold ! *

In the steep and narrow closes that diverge on each side of the High Street, were once
the dwellings of the old Scottish nobility, and still they retain interesting traces of faded
grandeur, awaking many curious associations which well repay the investigator of their in-
tricate purlieus. Dunbar's Close, of which we furnish a view, has already been mentioned
as the place pointed out by early tradition where Cromwell's " Ironsides " were lodged,
and its whole appearance is both unique and singularly picturesque. Over the entrance to
the Rose and Thistle Tap, — the traditional guard-room of the victors of D unbar, —there is
a beautifully carved inscription, bearing one of the oldest dates now left on any private
building in Edinburgh. The stone is rebuilt into a new portion of the house, but is still
nearly as sharp as when fresh from the chisel ; the inscription is : —

FAITH • IN • CRIST • ONLIE • SAVIT • 1567.

1 Acts of Sederuut, 17th May 1606. * Ibid, 26th February 1669. * Ibid, 18th July 1688.

4 The following Act of Sederunt, for 13th December 1785, describes the latest version of the Edinburgh Cross,
if we except the radiated pavement that marks its site :— " The Lords having considered the representation of the Lord
Provost and Magistrates of the city of Edinburgh, setting forth, that when the Cross was taken away in the year 1756,
a stone was erected on the side of a well on the High Street, adjacent to the place where the Cross stood, which,
by Act of Sederunt, was declared to be the Market Cross of Edinburgh from that period. That since removing the
oity guard, the aforesaid well was a great obstruction to the free passage upon the High Street, which therefore tliey
intended to remove, and instead thereof to erect a stone pillar, a few feet distant from the said well, on the same side
of the High Street, opposite to the head of the Old Assembly Close. Of which the Lords approve, and declare
the new pillar to be the Market Cross." We suppose the more economical marking of the pavement was the only
result.

THE HIGH STREET.

225

On another part of the building the initials I'D", and K • T •, appear attached to some
curiously-formed marks, and are doubtless those of the original owners ; but unfortunately
all the early titles are lost, so that no clue now remains to the history of this singular
dwelling. The lower story, which is believed to have formed the black-hole or dungeon of
the English troopers, is vaulted with stone, and around the massive walls iron rings are
affixed, as if for the purpose of securing the prisoners once confined in these vaults. The
east wall of the main room above is curiously constructed of eliptic arches, resting on plain
circular pillars, and such portions of the outer wall as are not concealed by the wooden
appendages of early times, exhibit polished ashlar work, finished with neat mouldings and
string courses. 1

Immediately to the north of this ancient mansion, there is a large land entering from
the foot of Sellar's Close, which has two flat terraced roofs at different elevations, and forms
a prominent and somewhat graceful feature of the Old Town as seen from Princes Street.
This is known by the name of " The Cromwell Bartizan," 2 and is pointed out, on the same
traditional authority, as having been occupied by the General, owing to its vicinity to his
guards, and the commanding prospect which its terraced roof afforded of the English fleet
at anchor in the Firth. Over a doorway, which divides the upper from the lower part of
this close, a carved lintel bears this variation of the common legend : — THE . LORD . BE .
BLEIST . FOR . AL . HIS . GiFTis .3 A building on the west side, finished in the style pre-
valent about the period of James VI., has the following inscription over a window on the
third floor : —

j§gT~ THE LORD is THE PORTION OF MINE INHERITANCE AND OF

MY CUP ; THOU MAINTAINEST MY LOT. PsAL. XVI. VERSE 5.

In the house which stood opposite, a very large and handsome Gothic fire-place re-
mained, in the same style as those already described in the Guise Palace. In Brown's
Close adjoining this, Arnot informs us that there existed in his time " a private oratory,"
containing a " baptismal font," or sculptured stone niche ; but every relic of antiquity has
now disappeared ; and nearly the same may be said of Byres' Close, though it contained only
a few years since the town mansion built by Sir John Byres of Coates, the carved lintel ot
which was removed by the late Sir Patrick Walker, to Coates House, the ancient mansion
of that family, near Edinburgh. It bears the inscription, " Blissit be God in al His giftis,"
with the initials I " B •, and M ' B •, and the date 1611.4

1 Dunbar's, Brown's, and Sellar's closes, mentioned in this chapter, are now obliterated by recent city improve-
ment!.

s Vide p. 95, some confusion exists in the different attempts to fix the exact house, but these discrepancies tend
to confirm the general probability of the tradition ; the name JJartizan, however, would seem to determine the
building now assigned in the text.

3 In that amusing collection "Satan's Invisible World Discovered," written for the purpose of confounding atheists,
the following is given as an East LotLian grace, "in the time of ignorance and superstition :"

Lord be bless'd for all His gifts,
Defy the Devil and all his shifts.
God send uie mair siller. Amen.

4 The front land to the west of Byres' Close, was long the residence, Post Office, and miscellaneous establishment of
the noted Peter Williamson, who advertised himself as " from the other world ! " and published an ingenious narrative
of his Adventures in America, and Captivity among the Red Indians.. — Yidt K.iy's Portraits, vol. i. p. 137.

V

226 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

At the foot of this close, however, we again meet with valuable associations connected
with more than one remarkable period in Scottish history. A door-way on the east side of
the close affords access to a handsome, though now ruinous stone stair, guarded by a neatly
carved balustrade and leading to a garden terrace, on which stands a very beautiful old
mansion, that yields in interest to none of the ancient private buildings of the capital. It
presents a semi-hexagonal front to the north, each of the sides of which is surmounted by a
richly carved dormar window, bearing inscriptions boldly cut in large Roman letters, though
now partly defaced. That over the north window is :—

NIHIL • EST • EX • OMNI • PARTE • BEATUM •

• .'•tja is fc( v'riiii .niuH;ii>(ff ftf^Otit: -ul;f lu rtl'iu

The windows along the east side appear to have been originally similarly adorned ; two
of their carved tops are built into an outhouse below, on one of which is the inscription,
LAUS . UBIQUE . DEO . and on the other, FELICITER . INFELIX. In the title-deeds of this
ancient building,1 it is described as " that tenement of land, of old belonging to Adam,
Bishop of Orkney, Commendator of Holyroodhouse, thereafter to John, Commendator of
Holyroodhouse," his son, who in 1603, accompanied James to England, receiving on the
journey the keys of the town of Berwick, in his Majesty's name. Only three years after-
wards, " the temporalities and spiritualitie " of Holyrood were erected into a barony in
his behalf, and himself created a Peer by the title of Lord Holyroodhouse. Here, then, is
the mansion of the celebrated Adam Bothwell, who, on the 15th May 1567, officiated at the
ominous marriage-service in the Chapel of Holyrood Palace,2 that gave Bothwell legiti-
mate possession of the unfortunate Queen Mary, whom he had already so completely
secured within his toils. That same night the distich of Ovid was affixed to the Palace
gate :—

Mense malaa Maio nubere vulgus ait ; 3

and from the infamy that popularly attached to this fatal union, is traced the vulgar preju-
dice that still regards it as unlucky to wed in the month of May. The character of the old
Bishop of Orkney is not one peculiarly meriting admiration. He married the poor Queen
according to the new forms, in despite of the protest of their framers, and he proved equally
pliable where his own interests were concerned. He was one of the first to desert his royal
mistress's party ; and only two months after celebrating her marriage with the Earl of
Bothwell, he placed the crown on the head of her infant son. The following year he
humbled himself to the Kirk, and engaged " to make a sermoun in the kirk of Halierude-
hous, and in the end therof to confesse the offence in marieng the Queine with the Erie of
Bothwell." 4

The interior of this ancient building has been so entirely remodelled to adapt it to the
very different uses of later times, that no relic of its early grandeur or of the manners
of its original occupants remain ; but one cannot help regarding its chambers with a

1 Now the property of Messrs Clapperton and Co., by whom it is occupied as a warehouse.

2 "Within the auld chappel, not with the mess, both with preachings." — Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 111. Keith and
other historians, however, say, "within the great hall, where the council usually met."

8 Ovid's Fasti, Book v.

4 Booke of the Universal! Kirk of Scotland, p. 181.

THE HIGH STREET.

227

melancholy interest, disguised though they are by the changes of modern taste and
manners. The name of the Bishop of Orkney appears at the bond granted by the nobility
to the Earl of Bothwell, immediately before he put in practice his ambitious scheme against
Queen Mary; so that here, in all probability, the rude Earl, and many of the leading
nobles of that eventful period, have met to discuss their daring plans, and to mature the
designs that involved so many in their consequences. Here, too, we may believe both
Mary and James to have been entertained as guests, by father and son, while at the same
board there sat another lovely woman, whose wrongs are so touchingly recorded in the
beautiful old ballad of " Lady Ann Both well's Lament." She was the sister of the first
Lord Holyroodhouse, and is said to have possessed great personal beauty. She was
betrayed into a disgraceful connection with the Honour-
able Sir Alexander Erskine, a son of the Earl of Mar,

of whom a portrait still exists by Jamieson. He ig y<^ll t

there represented in military dress, with a cuirass and
scarf; but the splendour of his warlike attire is
evidently uunecesary to set oif his noble and expressive
countenance. The desertion of the frail beauty by this
gay deceiver was believed by his contemporaries to have
exposed him to the signal vengeance of heaven, on his
being blown up, along with the Earl of Haddington, and
many others of noble birth, in the Castle of Dunglass
in 1640, the powder magazine having been ignited by a
servant boy out of revenge against his master.1 Adam
Bothwell lies buried in the ruined Chapel of Holyrood,
where his monument is still to be seen, attached to the
second pillar from the great east window that once over-
looked the high altar at which Mary gave her hand to
the imbecile Darnley, and not far from the spot — if we
are to believe the contemporary annalist — where she
yielded it to her infamous ravisher.

The fore part of the ancient building in the High Street has been almost entirely
modernised, and faced with a new stone front, but many citizens still living remember
when an ancient timber facade projected its lofty gables into the street, with tier above
tier, each thrusting out beyond the lower story, while below were the covered piazza and
darkened entrances to the gloomy " laigh shops,"8 such as may still be seen in the few
examples of old timber lands that have escaped demolition. But this ancient fabric is
associated with another citizen of no less note in his day — " The glorious days of auld,

1 A rude version of this beautiful ballail was printed in 1606, and others have since been given of it by Percy, Jamie-
son, Kinloch, &c. ; Mr K. Chambers, however, was the first to publish the true history of the heroine, in his " Scot-
tish Ballads." A slight confusion occurs in hia account, where she is styled the daughter of Bothwell, Bishop of
Orkney, &c. The dates seeui to leave no doubt that the father was John, hi» son, the first who obtained the title of
Lord Holyroodhouse.

2 In a Sasine of part of this property, it is styled, " that western laic;h booth, or shop, lying within the fore tenement
of Mr Adam Bolhwell, under the laigh stair thairof ... as also that merchant shop entering from the High
Street," &c.

VIGNETTE. — Adam Bothweil's house, from the north.

228 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

worthy, faithfu' Provost Dick," — than ever was either the Bishop of Orkney, or my Lord
Holyroodhouse. Sir William Dick of Braid, an eminent merchant of Edinburgh, and
provost of the city in the years 1638 and 1639, presents, in his strangely chequered history,
one of the most striking examples of the instability of fortune on record. He was reputed
the wealthiest man of his time in Scotland, and was generally believed by his contemporaries
to have discovered the philosophers' stone ! l Being a zealous Covenanter, he advanced at
one time to the Scottish Convention of Estates, in the memorable year 1641, the sum of
one hundred thousand merks, to save them from the necessity of disbanding their army ;
and, in the following year, the customs were sett to him, " for 202,000 merks, and 5000
merks of girsoum."2 On the triumph of Cromwell and the Independents, however, his
horror of " the Sectaries " was greater even than his opposition to the Stuarts, and he
advanced £20,000 for the service of King Charles. By this step he provoked the wrath
of the successful party, while squandering his treasures on a failing cause. He was
unsparingly subjected to the heaviest penalties, until his vast resources dwindled away in
vain attempts to satisfy the rapacity of legal extortion, and he died miserably in prison, at
Westminster, during the Protectorate, in want, it is said, of even the common necessaries of
life.3 This romance of real life, was familiar to all during Sir Walter Scott's early years,
and he has represented David Deans exultingly exclaiming : — " Then folk might see men
deliver up their silver to the State's use, as if it had been as muckle sclate stanes. My
father saw them toom the sacks of dollars out o' Provost Dick's window, intill the carts
that carried them to the army at Dunse Law ; and if ye winna believe his testimony, there
is the window itsell still standing in the Luckenbooths, — at the aim stauchells, five doors
abune Advocate's Close."* The old timber gable and the stanchelled window of this
Scottish Croesus, have vanished, like his own dollars, beyond recall, but there is no doubt
that the modern and unattractive stone front, extending between Byres' and Advocate's
Closes only disguises the remarkable building to which such striking historical associations
belong. The titles include not only a disposition of the property to Sir William Dick
of Braid, but the appraising and disposition of it by his creditors after his death ; and its
situation is casually confirmed by a contemporary notice that indicates its importance at
the period. In the classification of the city into companies, by order of Charles I., the
third division extends " from Gladstone's Land, down the northern side of the High
Street, to Sir William Dick's Land."5 The house was afterwards occupied by the Earl of
Kintore, an early patron of Allan Ramsay, whose name was given to a small court still
remaining behind the front building, although the public mode of access to it has dis-
appeared since the remodelling of the old timber land.

1 Archseologia Scottica, vol. i. p. 336.

3 Sir Thomas Hope's Diary, Barm. Club, p. 158. Qersome, or entresse siller, now pronounced Grastum.

* These changes of fortune are commemorated in a folio pamphlet, entitled " The lamentable state of the deceased
Sir William Dick." It contains several copperplates, one representing Sir William on horseback, and attended with
guards, as Lord Provost of Edinburgh, superintending the unloading of one of his rich argosies at Leah. A second
exhibits him as arrested, and in the hands of the bailiffs, and a third presents him dead in prison. The tract is greatly
valued by collectors. Sir Walter Scott mentions, in a note to the Heart of Midlothian, that the only copy he ever saw
for sale was valued at £30.

* Scott says Gotford's Close, but it is obviously a mistake, as, independent of the direct evidence we have of the true
site of Sir William Dick's house, that close was not in the Luckenbooths, the locality he correctly mentions.

* Maitland, p. 285.

THE HIGH STREET. 229

Advocate's Close, which bounds the ancient tenement we have been describing on the
east, derives its name from Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees,1 who returned from exile on
the landing of the Prince of Orange, and took an active part in the Revolution. He was
an object of extreme dislike to the Jacobite party, who vented their spleen against him in
their bitterest lampoons, some of which are preserved in the Scottish Pasquils; and to them
he was indebted for the sobriquet of Jamie Wylie. Sir James rilled the office of Lord
Advocate from 1692 until his death in 1713, one year excepted, and had a prominent
share in all the public transactions of that important period. Being so long in the enjoy-
ment of his official title, the close in which he resided received the name of " the Advocate's
Close." The house in which he lived and died is at the foot of the Close, on the west side,
immediately before descending a flight of steps that somewhat lessen the abruptness of the
steep descent.2 In 1769, Sir James Stewart, grandson of the Lord Advocate, sold the
house to David Dalrymple of Westhall, Esq., who, when afterwards raised to the Bench,
assumed the title of Lord Westhall, and continued to reside in this old mansion till his
death.3 This ancient alley retains, nearly unaltered, the same picturesque overhanging
gables and timber projections which have, without doubt, characterised it for centuries, and
may be taken as a very good sample of a fashionable close in the palmy days of Queen
Anne. It continued till a comparatively recent period to be a favourite locality for gentle-
men of the law, and has been pointed out to us, by an old citizen, as the early residence of
Andrew Crosbie, the celebrated original of " Councillor Pleydell," who forms so prominent
a character among the dramatis personce of " Guy Mannering." The same house already
mentioned as that of Sir James Stewart, would answer in most points to the description of
the novelist, entering as it does, from a dark and steep alley, and commanding a magni-
ficent prospect towards the north, though now partially obstructed by the buildings of the
New Town. It is no mean praise to the old lawyer that he was almost the only one who
had the courage to stand his ground against Dr Johnson, during his visit to Edinburgh.
Mr Crosbie afterwards removed to the splendid mansion erected by him in St Andrew
Square, ornamented with engaged pillars and a highly decorated attic story, which stands
to the north of the Royal Bank ; 4 but he was involved, with many others, in the failure of
the Ayr Bank, and died in such poverty, in 1785, that his widow. owed her sole support to
an annuity of £50 granted by the Faculty of Advocates.

The lowest house on the east side, directly opposite to that of the Lord Advocate, was
the residence of an artist of some note in the seventeenth century. It has been pointed
out to iis by an old citizen recently dead 5 as the house of his " grandmother's grandfather,"
the celebrated John Scougal,6 painter of the portrait of George Heriot which now hangs in

1 Now called " Moredun " in the parish of Libbertou. The house was built by Sir James BOOU after the
Revolution.

" Sir James Stewart, Provost of Edinburgh in 1648-9, when Cromwell paid his first visit to Edinburgh, and again
in 1658-9, at the close of the Protectorate, — purchased the ancient tenement which occupied this site, and after the
Revolution, his son, the Lord Advocate, rebuilt it, and died there in 1713, when, '; so great was the crowd," as Wodrow
tells in his Analecta, " that the magistrates were at the grave in the Greyfriars' Churchyard before the corpse was taken
out of the house at the foot of the Advocate's Close." — Coltness Collections, Maitland Club, p. 17.

3 The house appears from the titles to have been sold by Lord Westhall, in 1784, within a few weeks of his death.

4 Now occupied as Douglas's Hotel. 5 Mr Andrew Greig, carpet manufacturer.

6 John Scougal, younger of that name, was a cousin of Patrick Scougal, consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen in 1664. Hs
added the upper story to the old land in Advocate's Close, and fitted up one of the floors as a picture gallery ; some

230

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH

the Council-room of the Hospital ; so that here was the fashionable lounge of the dilettanti
of the seventeenth century, and the resort of rank and beauty, careful to preserve unbroken
the links of the old line of family portraiture ; though a modern fine lady would be seized
with a nervous fit at the very prospect of descending the slippery abyss.

Following our course eastward we arrive at Roxburgh Close, which is believed to
derive its name from having been the residence of the Earls of Roxburgh. It has, however,
suffered a very different fate from the adjoining close. Few of its ancient features have
escaped alteration, and only one doorway remains — now built up — of the mansion reputed
to have been that in which the ancestors of the noble earls lived in state. We have
engraved a fac-simile of the quaint and pious legend that adorns the old lintel. If this
account be true (for which, however, there is only the authority of tradition), the date

carries us back to the year
1586, in which their ancestor,
Sir Walter Ker, of Cessford,
died, one of the leaders in the
affray already alluded to, in
which Sir Walter Scott of
Buccleugh was slain on the
High Street of Edinburgh.
Warriston's Close is another of the ancient alleys of the Old Town which still remains
nearly in its pristine state,1 exhibiting the substantial relics of former grandeur, like the
faded gentility of a reduced dowager. Handsome and lofty polished ashlar fronts
are decorated with richly moulded and sculptured doorways, surmounted by architraves
adorned with inscriptions and armorial bearings, still ornamental, though broken and
defaced. Timber projections of an early date jut out here and there, and give variety to
the irregular architecture, while far up, and almost beyond the point of sight that the
straitened thoroughfare admits of, dormer windows of an ornate character rise into the roof,
and the gables are finished with crow-steps, and, in one case at least, with armorial bear-
ings. Over the first doorway on the west side is the inscription and date :

.... QUE • ERIT • ILLE • MIHI • SEMPER • DEUS • 1583 •

The front of this building, facing the High Street, is of polished ashlar work, surmounted
with handsome though dilapidated dormer windows, and is further adorned with a curious
monogram ; but like most other similar ingenious devices, it is undecipherable without
the key. We have failed to trace the builders or occupants at this early period ; but
the third floor of the old land was occupied in the following century by James Murray,

of his finest works were possessed by the late Andrew Bell, engraver, the originator of the Encyclopedia Britannica,
who married his grand-daughter. Pinkerton remarks of him : — " For some years after the Revolution he was the only
paiuter in Scotland, and had a very great run of business. This brought him into a hasty and incorrect manner."
This is very observable in the portrait of Heriot, copied in 1698, from the original by Paul Vansomer, — now lost. The
head is well painted, but the drapery and background are so slovenly and harshly executed, that they appear more like
the work of an inexperienced pupil. Scougal died at Prestonpans about the year 1730, aged 85, having witnessed a
series of as remarkable political changes as ever occurred during a single lifetime. He is named George in the
Weekly Matjazlne (vol. xv. p. 66) and elsewhere, but this appears to be an error, as several of his descendants were
named after him, John.

Since the First Edition of these " Memorials " appeared, Warriston's and other closes in this part of the city have
been so much altered as now to present little of their characteristics as memorials of the past.

THE HIGH STREET. 231

Lord Philiphaugh, one of the judges appointed after the Revolution. He sat in the Con-
vention of Estates which assembled at Edinburgh, 26th June 1678, and was again chosen
to represent the county of Selkirk in Parliament in the year 1681, when he became a
special object of jealousy to the government. He was imprisoned in 1684 ; and under the
terror of threatened torture with- the boots, he yielded to 'give evidence against those
implicated in the Rye House Plot. He had the character of an upright and independent
judge, but his contemporaries never forgot " that unhappy step of being an evidence to
save his life,"1 a weakness that most of those who remembered it against him would
probably have shown in like circumstances.

A little further down the close another doorway appears, adorned with an inscription
and armorial bearings. At the one end of the lintel is a shield bearing the arms of Bruce
of Binning, boldly cut in high relief, and at the other end the same, impaled with those of
Preston, while between them is this inscription, in large ornamental characters,

GRACIA • DEI • ROBERTUS • BRUISS •

In the earlier titles of property in this close, it is styled Brace's Close, and the family have
evidently been of note and influence in their day. We were not without hope of being
able to trace their connection with the celebrated Robert Bruce, who, as one of the ministers
of Edinburgh, became an object of such special animosity to James VI. ; and the vicinity
of the old mansion to the ancient church where he officiated renders it not improbable in
the absence of all evidence.2

Still farther down, another doorway, ornamented with inscriptions and armorial bearings,3
gives access to a large and handsome dwelling on the first floor, adorned at its entrance
with a niche or recess, formed of a pointed arch, somewhat plainer than the " fonts "
described in Blyth's Close. Here was the residence of the celebrated Sir Thomas Craig, who
won the character of an upright judge, and a man of eminent learning and true nobleness
of character, during the long period of forty years that he practised as a lawyer, in the
reign of Queen Mary and James VI. One of his earliest duties as a justice-depute was the
trial and condemnation of Thomas Scott, sheriff-depute of Perth, and Henry Yair a priest,
for having kept the gates of Holyrood Palace during the assassination of Rizzio. He
appears to have been a man of extreme modesty, and little inclined from his natural dis-
position to take a prominent part in public affairs. Whether from timidity or diffidence, he
left Sir Thomas Hope to fulfil the duties which rightly devolved on him, as advocate for
the Church, at the famous trial of the six ministers. He was of a studious turn, and readier
in the use of his pen than his tongue. His legal treatises are still esteemed for their great
learning ; and several of his Latin poems are to be found in the " Delitias Poetarum Scoto-
rum," containing, according to his biographer Mr Tytler, many passages eminently poetical.
It is a curious fact, that although repeatedly offered by King James the honour of knight-
hood, he constantly refused it; and he is only styled " Sir Thomas Craig," in consequence

1 Mackay's Memoirs.

a In the Book of Retours, vol. ii., Nos. 26 and 30, in the year 1600, Robert Bruce, heir male of Robert Bruce of
Binning, his father, appears as owuer of various lands in Linlithgow, anciently belonging to the Prioress and Convent
of the B. V. Mary of Elcho, with the church lands of the vicarage of Byning.

3 The inscription, now greatly defaced, is, Gratia Dei, Thomas T . . . .

232 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of a royal order that every one should give him that title. He was succeeded in the old
mansion by his son, Sir Lewis Craig, and had the satisfaction of pleading as advocate while
he presided on the bench under the title of Lord Wrightslands. The house in Warriston'a
Close was subsequently occupied by Sir George Urquhart, of Cromarty, and still later by
Sir Robert Baird, of Sauchton Hall. But the most celebrated residenter in this ancient
alley is the eminent lawyer and statesman, Sir Archibald Johnston, of Warriston, the
nephew of its older inhabitant, Sir Thomas Craig. He appears from the titles to have
purchased from his cousin, Sir Lewis Craig, the house adjoining his own, and which is
entered by a plain doorway on the -west side of the close, immediately below the one last
described. Johnston of Warriston took an early and very prominent share in the resist-
ance offered to the schemes of Charles I., and in 1638, on the royal edict being proclaimed
from the Cross of Edinburgh, which set at defiance the popular opposition to the hated
Service Book, he boldly appeared on a scaffold erected near it, and read aloud the cele-
brated protest drawn up in name of the Tables, while the mob compelled the royal heralds
to abide the reading of this counter-defiance. It is unnecessary to sketch out very minutely
the incidents in a life already familiar to the students of Scottish history. He was
knighted by Charles I., on his second visit to Scotland in 1641, and assumed the designation
of Lord Warriston on his promotion to the bench. He was one of the Scottish Commis-
sioners sent to mediate between Charles I. and the English Parliament ; and after filling
many important offices he sat by the same title as a peer in Cromwell's abortive House of
Lords ; and, on the death of the Protector, he displayed his keen opposition to the restora-
tion of the Stuarts by acting as President of the Committee of Safety under Richard Crom-
well. On the restoration of Charles II. he became an object of special animosity, and having
boldly refused to concur in the treaty of Breda, he escaped to Hamburgh, from whence he
afterwards retired to Rouen in France. There he was delivered up to Charles by the French
King, and after a tedious imprisonment, both in the Tower of London and the old Tol-
booth of Edinburgh, he was executed with peculiar marks of indignity, on the spot where
he had so courageously defied the royal proclamation twenty-five years before. His own
nephew, Bishop Burnet, has furnished a very characteristic picture of the hardy and politic
statesman, in which he informs us he was a man of such energetic zeal that he rarely allowed
himself more than three hours sleep in the twenty-four. When we consider the leading
share he took in all the events of that memorable period, and his intimate intercourse with
the most eminent men of his time, we cannot but view with lively interest the decayed and
deserted mansion where he has probably entertained such men as Henderson, Argyle,
Rothes, Lesley, Monck, and even Cromwell ; and the steep and straitened alley that still
associates his name with the crowded lands of the Old Town.1

The following quaint and biting epitaph, penned by some zealous cavalier on the death

1 The importance which was attached to this close as oue of the most fashionable localities of Edinburgh during the
last century appears from a proposition addressed by the Earl of Morton to the Lord Provost in 1767, in which,
among other conditions which he demands, under the threat of opposing the extension of the royalty to the
grounds on which the New Town is built, he requires that a timber bridge shall be thrown over the North Loch,
from the foot of Warriston's Close to Bereford's Parks, and the public Register Offices of Scotland, built at the cost of
the town, "on the highest level ground of Robertson's and Wood's farms." To this the magistrates reply by stating,
aiming other objections, that the value of the property in the close alone is £20,000 ! — Proposition by the Karl of
Morton, fol. 5 pp.

THE HIGH STREET. 233

of his mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Craig, has been preserved by Sir James
Balfour, and is worth quoting as a sample of party rancour against the Whig statesman : —

Deevil suell ye deathe,

And burste the lyke a tune,

That took away good Elspet Craige, ,. „

And left y° knave her sone.

History and romance contend for the associations of the Scottish capital, not always
with the advantage on the dull side of fact. On a certain noted Saturday night, in the
annals of fiction, Dandy Dinmont and Colonel Mannering turned from the High Street
" into a dark alley, then up a dark stair, and into an open door." The alley was Writers'
Court, and the door that of Clerihugh's tavern ; a celebrated place of convivial resort during
the last century, which still stands at the bottom of the court, though its deserted walls no
longer ring with the revelry of High Jinks, and such royal mummings as formed the sport
of Pleydell and his associates on that jovial night. The picture is no doubt a true one of
scenes familiar to grave citizens of former generations. Clerihugh's tavern was the favourite
resort of our old civic dignitaries, for those " douce festivities " that were then deemed
indispensable to the satisfactory settlement of all city affairs. The wags of last century
used to tell of a certain city treasurer, who, on being applied to for a new rope to the Tron
Kirk bell, summoned the Council to deliberate on the demand; an adjournment to Cleri-
hugh's tavern it was hoped might facilitate the settlement of so weighty a matter, but
one dinner proved insufficient, and it was not till they had finished their third banquet in
Writers' Court, that the application was referred to a committee of councillors, who spliced
the old bell rope and settled the bill ! l

We have already alluded to some of the most recently cherished superstitions in regard
to Mary King's Close, associated with Beth's Wynd as one of the last retreats of the
plague ; but it appears probable, from the following epigram " on Marye King's pest,"
by Drummond of Hawthornden, that the idea is coeval with the name of the close: —

Turne, citizens, to God ; repent, ropent,
And praye your bedlam frenzies may relent ;
Think not rebellion a trifling thing,
This plague doth fight for Marie and the King?

Mr George Sinclair has furnished, in his " Satan's Invisible World Discovered," * an
account of apparitions seen in this close, and "attested by witnesses of undoubted veracity,"
which leaves all ordinary wonders far behind ! This erudite work was written to confound
the atheists of the seventeenth century. It used to be hawked about the streets by the
gingerbread wives, and found both purchasers and believers enough to have satisfied even
its credulous author. Its popularity may account for the general prevalence of superstitious
prejudices regarding this old close, which was, at best, a grim and gousty-looking place,
and appears, from the reports of property purchased for the site of the Royal Exchange,
to have been nearly all in ruins when that building was erected, most of the houses having
been burned down in 1750. The pendicle of Satan's worldly possessions, however, which

1 Writers' Court derives its name from the Signet Library having been kept there until its removal to the magnificent
apartments which it now occupies adjoining the Parliament House.

• Drummond of Hawthornden's Poems, Maitland Club, p. 395.

'•' Originally published in 1685, by Mr George Sinclair, Professor of Philosophy in Glasgow College, and afterwards
minister of Eastwood in Renfrewshire.

234 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

we have now to describe, is understood to be still standing in the nether regions of the
Royal Exchange area.

From Professor Sinclair's veracious narrative, it appears that Mr Thomas Coltheart, a
respectable law agent, removed from a lower part of the town to a better house in Mary
King's Close. The maid-servant was warned by the neighbours of its being haunted on
her first coming about the house, and became so intimidated that she deserted her place,
leaving Mr Coltheart and his wife alone in their new dwelling, to defy the devil and his
minions as they best might. The good lady had seated herself beside her husband's bed —
who had lain down on the Sunday afternoon, being slightly indisposed — and was engaged
in reading the Bible, when happening to lift her eye, she was appalled by beholding a head,
seemingly that of an old man with a grey beard, suspended in mid air at a little distance,
and gazing intently on her. She swooned at the sight, and lay in a state of insensibility
till the return of her neighbours from church. Her husband, on being told of the appari-
tion, sought to reason her out of her credulity, and the evening passed over without further
trouble ; but they were not long gone to bed when he himself spied the same phantom-head,
by the light of the fire, gazing at him with its ghastly eyes. He rose and lighted a candle,
and took to prayer, but with little effect; for in about an hour the bodiless phantom was
joined by that of a child also suspended in mid air, and this again was followed by a naked
arm from the elbow downwards, which, in defiance of all adjurations and prayers, not only
persisted in remaining, but seemed bent on shaking hands with them. The poor agent in
the most solemn manner addressed this very friendly but unwelcome intruder, engaging to
do his utmost to right any wrongs it had received, if it would only begone, but all in
vain. The goblins evidently considered that the worthy couple, and not they, were the
intruders. They persisted in making themselves at home ; though after all they seem
to have been civil enough ghosts, with no unfriendly intentions, so that they were only
allowed the run of the house. By and by the naked arm was joined by a spectral dog,
which deliberately mounted a chair, and turning its nose to its tail, went to sleep. This
was followed by a cat, and soon after by other and stranger creatures, until the whole floor
swarmed with them, so that " the honest couple went to their knees again within the bed ;
there being no standing in the floor of the room. In the time of prayer, their ears were
startled with a deep, dreadful, and loud groan, as of a strong man dying, at which all the
apparitions and visions at once vanished ! "

Mr Coltheart must have been a man of no ordinary courage, or this night's experience
would have satisfied him to resign his new house to the devil, or his subtenants, who seemed
to have taken a previous lease of it. He continued to reside there till his death without
further molestation ; but at the very moment he expired, a gentleman whose law-agent and
intimate friend he was, being in his house at Tranent — a small town about ten miles
from Edinburgh — was awoke while asleep in bed there with his wife, by the nurse, who
was affrighted by something like a cloud moving about the room. While the gentleman
got hold of his sword to defend himself and them against this unwonted visitor, the cloud
gradually assumed the form of a man. " At last the apparition looked him fully and
perfectly in the face, and stood by him with a ghostly and pale countenance." The gentle-
man recognised his friend Thomas Coltheart, and demanded of him if he was dead, and
what was his errand ? Whereat the ghost held up his hand three times, shaking it towards

THE HIGH STREET. 235

him, and vanished. He arose and proceeded immediately to Edinburgh, to inquire into
this strange occurrence, and arriving at the house in Mary King's Close, found the widow
in tears for the death of the husband whose apparition he had seen. This account, we are
told, was related by the minister, who was in the house on this occasion, to the Duke of
Lauderdale, in the presence of many nobles, and is altogether as credible and well-authen-
ticated a ghost story as the lovers of the marvellous could desire. The house, after being
deserted for a while, was again attempted to be inhabited by a hard-drinking and courageous
old pensioner and his wife ; but towards midnight the candle began to burn blue, the head
again made its appearance, but in much more horrible form, and the terrified couple made
a precipitate retreat, resigning their dwelling without dispute to this prior tenant.

Several ancient alleys and a mass of old and mostly ruinous buildings were demolished
in 1753 in preparing the site for the Royal Exchange, various sculptured stones belong-
ing to which were built into the curious tower erected by Walter Ross, Esq., at the Dean,
and popularly known by the name of "Ross's Folly." Several of these were scattered
about the garden grounds below the Castle rock, exhibiting considerable variety of carving.
Another richly carved stone, consisting of a decorated ogee arch with crocquets and finial,
surmounted by shields, was built into a modern erection at the foot of Craig's Close, and
nearly corresponded with one which stood in a more dilapidated state in the Princes Street
Gardens, tending to show the important character of the buildings that formerly occupied
this site. Among those in the gardens there was a lintel, bearing the Somerville arms,
and the date 1658, with an inscription, and the initials I. S., possibly those of James,
tenth Lord Somerville ; but this was discovered in clearing out the bed of the North
Loch.

The old laud at the head of Craig's Close, fronting the main street, claims special notice,
as occupying the site of Andrew Hart the famous old printer's " heich buith, lyand
within the foir tenement of land upone the north syd of the Hie Streit,"1 and which, by
a curious coincidence, became after the lapse of two centuries the residence of the cele-
brated bibliopolist, Provost Creech, and the scene of his famed morning levees ; and more
recently the dwelling of Mr Archibald Constable, from whose establishment so many of the
highest productions of Scottish literature emanated.

The printing-house of the old typographer still stands a little way down the close, on
the east side. It is a picturesque and substantial stone tenement, with large and neatly
moulded windows, retaining traces of the mullions that anciently divided them, and the
lower crowstep of the north gable bears a shield adorned with the Sinclair arms. Hand-
some stone corbels project from the several floors, whereon have formerly rested the antique
timber projections referred by Maitland to the reign of James IV. Over an ancient door-
way, now built up, is sculptured this motto, MY • HOIP • IS • CHRYST • with the initials
A • S • and M • K •, a curious device containing the letter S entwined with a cross, and
the date 1593. An interesting relic belonging to this land, preserved in the museum
of the Society of Antiquaries, is thus described in the list of donations for 1828 : " A
very perfect ancient Scottish spear, nearly fifteen feet long, which has been preserved
from time immemorial, within the old printing office in Craig's Close, supposed to have
bt-en the workshop of the celebrated printer, Andro Hart." In the memorable tumult ou

1 Andrew Hart's will. — Banti. MUc. vol. ii. p. '247.

236 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the 17th December 1596, already described, when the king was besieged in the Tolbooth
by the excited citizens, Andrew Hart is specially mentioned as one of the very foremost in
the rising that produced such terror and indignation in King James's mind ; in so much
so, that lie was soon after warded in the Castle of Edinburgh, at his Majesty's instance, as
one of the chief authors of " that seditious stirring up and moving of the treasonable
tumult and uproare that was in the burgh."1 We can fancy the sturdy old printer sallying
out from the close, at the cry of " Armour ! armour ! " hastily armed with his long spear
and jack, and joining the excited burghers, that mustered from every booth and alley to
lay siege to the affrighted monarch in the Tolbooth, or to help " the worthy Deacon Watt,"
in freeing him from his ignoble durance.

The house which stands between the fore and back lands of the famed typographer, was
celebrated during the last century as one of the best frequented taverns in the neighbour-
hood of the Cross, and a favourite resort of some of the most noted of the clubs, by means
of which the citizens of that period were wont to seek relaxation and amusement. Fore-
most among these was the Cape Club, celebrated in Ferguson's poem of Auld Reekie.
The scene of meeting for a considerable period, where Cape Hall was nightly inaugurated,
was in James Mann's, at the Isle of Man Arms, Craig's Close. There a perpetual High
Jinks was kept up, by each member receiving on his election a peculiar name and char-
acter which he was ever afterwards expected to maintain. This feature, however, was by
no means confined to the Cape Club, but formed one of the peculiarities of nearly all the
convivial meetings of the capital, so that a slight sketch of " the Knights of the Cape "
will suffice for a good sample of these old Edinburgh social unions. The Club appears
from its minutes to have been duly constituted, and the mode of procedure finally fixed, in
the year 1764 ; it had however existed long before, and the name and peculiar forms which
it then adopted were derived from the characters previously assumed by its leading
members.2 Its peculiar insignia were — 1st, a cape, or crown, which was worn by the
Sovereign of the Cape on state occasions, and which, in the palmy days of the Club, its
enthusiastic devotees adorned with gold and jewels ; and, 2d, two maces in the form of
huge steel pokers, which formed the sword and sceptre of his Majesty in Cape Hall.
These, with other relics of this jovial fraternity, are now appropriately hung in the lobby
of the Societies of Antiquaries.

The first Sovereign of the order after its final constitution was Thomas Lancashire, the
once celebrated comedian, on whom Ferguson wrote the following epitaph : —

Alas ! poor Tom, how oft, with merry heart,
Have we beheld thee play the sexton's part !
Each merry heart must now be grieved to see
The sexton's dreary part performed on thee.

The comedian rejoiced in the title of Sir Cape, and in right of his sovereignty gave name
to the Club, while the title of Sir Poker, which pertained to its oldest member, James
Aitken, suggested the insignia of royalty. Tom Lancashire was succeeded on the throne
by David Herd, the well-known editor of what Scott calls the first classic edition of Scottish
songs, whose knightly soubriquet was Sir Scrape. His secretary was Jacob More, the

1 Culderwood's Hist. vol. v. pp. 512, 520, 535.

2 A different account of the Knights of the Cape has been published, but the general accuracy of the text may be
relied upon, being derived from the minute books of the Club.

THE HIGH STREET. 237

well-known landscape painter,1 and among his subjects may be mentioned the celebrated
historical painter, Alexander Runciman, Sir Brimstone ; Robert Ferguson, the poet, dubbed
Sir Precentor, most probably from his fine musical voice ; Gavin Wilson, the poetical
shoemaker, who published a collection of masonic songs in 1788, whose club title was Sir
Maccaroni ; Walter Williamson of Cardrona, Esq., a thorough specimen of the rough bon
vivant laird of the last age ; Walter Ross, the antiquary ; Sir Henry Raeburn, who had
already been dubbed a knight under the title of Sir Toby, ere George IV. gave him that of
Sir Henry ; with a host of other knights of great and little renown, of whom we shall only
specify Sir Lluyd, as the notorious William Brodie was styled. Some ingenious member
has drawn on the margin of the minutes of his election, April 27th, 1773, a representation
of his last public appearance, on the new drop of his own invention, some fifteen years
later. The old books of the Club abound with such pencilled illustrations and commen-
taries, in which the free touch of Runciman may occasionally be traced, among ruder
sketches of less practised hands.

The following was the established form of inauguration of a Knight of the Cape. The
novice, on making his appearance in Cape Hall, was led up to the Sovereign by two knightly
sponsors, and having made his obeisance, was required to grasp the large poker with his left
hand, and, laying his right hand on his breast, the oath de fideli was administered to him
by the Sovereign — the knights present all standing uncovered — in the following words : —

I swear devoutly by this light,
To be a true and faithful Knight,
With all my might,
Both day and night,

So help me Poker !

Having then reverentially kissed the larger poker, and continuing to grasp it, the Sovereign
raised the smaller poker with both his royal fists, and, aiming three successive blows at the
novice's head, he pronounced, with each, one of the initial letters of the motto of the Club,
C. F. D., explaining their import to be Concordia Fratrum Decus. The knight elect
was then called upon to recount some adventure or scrape which had befallen him, from
some leading incident in which the Sovereign selected the title conferred on him, and which
he ever after bore in Cape Hall. This description of the mode of inauguration into that
knightly order will explain the allusions in Ferguson's poem : —

But chief, 0 Cape ! we crave thy aid,
To get our cares and poortith laid.
Sincerity, and genius true,
Of Knights have ever been the due.
Mirth, music, porter deepest dyed,
Are never here to worth denied ;
And health, o' happiness the queen,
Blinks bonny, wi' her smile serene.

The Club, whose honours were thus carefully hedged in by solemn ceremonial, established
its importance by deeds consistent with its lofty professions, among which may be specified
the gift by his Majesty of the Cape to his Majesty of Great Britain in 1778, of a contri-
bution from the Knights of one hundred guineas, " to assist his Majesty in raising troops.''

1 Jacob More was a pupil of Alexander Runciman. He went to Rome about 1773, where he acquired a high reputa-
tion as a landscape painter. He applied his art to the arrangement of the gardens of the Prince Borghese's villa, near
the Porta Pinciana, with such taste, as excited the highest admiration of the Italians. — Fateli.

238 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The entry money to the Club, which was originally half-a-crown, gradually rose to a guinea,
and it seems to have latterly assumed a very aristocratic character. A great regard for
economy, however, remained with it to the last. On the 10th of June 1776 it is resolved,
" that they shall at no time take bad half-pence from the house, and also recommend it to
the house to take none from them ! " and one of the last items entered on their minutes,
arises from an intimation of the landlord that he could not afford them suppers under
sixpence each, when it is magnanimously determined by the Club in full conclave, " that
the suppers shall be at the old price of four-pence half-penny ! " Sir Cape, the comedian,
appears to have eked out the scanty rewards of the drama, by himself maintaining a tavern
at. the head of the Canongate, which was for some time patronised by the Knights of the
Cape. They afterwards paid him occasional visits to Comedy Hut, New Edinburgh, a
house which he opened beyond the precincts of the North Loch about the year 1770, and
there they held their ninth Grand Cape, as their great festival was styled, on the 9th of
June of that year.1 This sketch of one of the most famous convivial clubs of last century
will suffice to give some idea of the revels in which grave councillors and senators were
wont to engage, when each slipt off his professional formality along with his three-tailed
wig and black coat, and bent his energies to the task of such merry fooling, while his
example was faithfully copied by clerk and citizen of every degree. " Such, 0 Themis,
were anciently the sports of thy Scottish children ! " The same haunt of revelry and wit
witnessed in the year 1785 the once celebrated charlatan, Dr Katterfelto, immortalised by
Cowper in " The Task," among the quackeries of old London, —

With his hair on end,
At his own wonders wondering for his bread !

His advertisement 2 sets forth his full array of titles, as Professor of Experimental Philo-
sophy, Lecturer on Electricity, Chemistry, and Sleight of Hand, &c., and announces to his
Patrons and the Public, that the Music begins at six and the Lecture at seven o'clock, at
Craig's Close, High Street

Another of the old lanes of the High Street, which has been an object of special note
to the local antiquary is Anchor Close. Its fame is derived, in part, at least, from the
famous corps of Crochallan Fencibles, celebrated by Burns both in prose and verse — a
convivial club, whose festive meetings were held in Daniel Douglas's tavern at the head of
the alley. Burns was introduced to this club in 1787, while in Edinburgh superintending
the printing of his poems, when, according to custom, one of the corps was pitted against
the poet in a contest of wit and irony. Burns bore the assault with perfect good humour,
and entered into the full spirit of the meeting, but he afterwards paid his antagonist the
compliment of acknowledging that " he had never been so abominably thrashed in all his
life ! " The name of this gallant corps, which has been the subject of learned conjecture,
is the burden of a Gaelic song with which the landlord occasionally entertained his guests.3
The Club was founded by Mr William Smellie, Author of the Philosophy of Natural
History, and numbered among its members the Honourable Henry Erskine, Lords Newton

1 Provincial Cape Clubs, deriving their authority and diplomas from the parent body, were successively formed iu
Glasgow, Manchester, and London, and in Charlestown, South Carolina, each of which was formally established in
virtue of a royal commission granted by the Sovereign of the Cape. The American off-shoot of this old Edinburgh
fraternity is said to be still flourishing in the Southern States.

* Caledonian Mercury, January 24th, 1788. s Kerr's Life of William Smellie, vol. ii. p. 256.

THE HIGH STREET. 239

and Gillies, with other men emiiieut for learning and rank. Mr Smellie may be regarded
as in some degree the genius loci of this locality ; the distinguished printing-house which he
established is still occupied by his descendants,1 and there the most eminent literary men of
that period visited, and superintended the printing of works that have made the press of the
Scottish capital celebrated throughout Europe. There was the haunt of Drs Blair, Beattie,
Black, Robertson, Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith, Lords Monboddo, Hailes, Kames, Henry
Mackenzie, Arnot, Hume, and, foremost among the host, the poet Burns ; of whom some
interesting traditions are preserved in the office. The old desk is still shown, at which these
and other eminent men revised their proofs ; and the well used desk-stool is treasured as a
valuable heir-loom, bearing on it an inscription, setting forth, that it is " the stool on which
Burns sat while correcting the proofs of his Poems, from December 1786 to April 1787."
Not even the famed Ballantyue press can compete with this venerable haunt of the Scottish
literati, whose very " devils " have consumed more valuable manuscript in kindling the
office fires, than would make the fortunes of a dozen modern autograph collectors ! It need
not surprise us to learn that even the original manuscripts of Burns were invariably
converted to such homely purposes ; the estimation of the poet being very different in 1787
from what it has since become. Of traditions of remote antiquity, the Anchor Close has its
full share ; and the numerous inscriptions, as well as the general character of the old
buildings that rear their tall and irregular fronts along its west side, still attest its early
importance. Immediately on entering the close from the High Street, the visitor discovers
this inscription, tastefully carved over the first entrance within the peud: THE • LORD
• IS • ONLY • MY • SVPORT • ; and high overhead, above one of the windows facing
down the close, a carved stone bears a shield with the date 1569, and, on its third and
fourth quarters, a pelican feeding her young with her own blood. Over another doorway a
little further down is this pious legend: 0 • LORD • IN • THE • IS • AL • MY •
TRAIST • Here was the approach to Dannie Douglas's tavern, celebrated among the older
houses of entertainment in Edinburgh as the haunt of the Crochallau corps. It is men-
tioned under the name of the Anchor Tavern in a deed of renunciation by James Deans of
Woodhouselee, Esq., in favour of his daughter, dated 1713, and still earlier references
allude to its occupants as vintners. The portion of this building which faces the High
Street, retains associations of a different character, adding another to the numerous
examples of the simpler notions of our ancestors who felt their dignity in no way endangered
when " the toe of the peasant came so near the heal of the courtier." It is styled in most
of the title deeds " Lord Forglen's Land," so that on one of the stories of the same building
that furnished accommodation to the old tavern, resided Sir Alexander Ogilvie, Bart., one
of the Commissioners of the Union, and for many years a senator of the College of Justice
under the title of Lord Forglen. Fountainhall records some curious notes of an action
brought against him by Sir Alexander Forbes of Tolquhoun, for stealing a gilded mazer
cup 2 out of his house, but which was at length accidently discovered in the hands of a
goldsmith at Aberdeen, to whom Sir Alexander had himself entrusted it some years before
to be repaired; and he having forgot, it lay there unrelieved, in security for the goldsmith's

1 This printing-office, together with the other objects of interest here described iu connection with Anchor Close,
was taken down ou the construction of Cockburn Street in 1859.
a Mazer Cup, a drinking cup of maple.

240 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

charge of Imlf-a-crown ! It finally cost its rash, and, as it appears, vindictive owner, a
penalty of 10,000 merks, the half only of the fine at first awarded against him.

A confused tradition appears to have existed at an early period as to Queen Mary's
having occupied a part of the ancient building within the close at some time or other.
The Crochallaii Fencibles were wont to date their printed circulars from " Queen Mary's
council-room," and the great hall in which they met, and in which also the Society of
Antiquaries long held their anniversary meetings, bore the name of the CROWN. In a
history of the close, privately printed by Mr Smellie in 1843, it is stated as a remarkable
fact, that there existed about forty years since a niche in the wall of this room, where
Mary's crown was said to be deposited when she sat in council ! We shrewdly suspect
the whole tradition had its origin in the Crochallan Mint. The building has still the
appearance of having been a mansion of note in earlier times; in addition to the inscriptions
already mentioned, which are beautifully cut in ornamental lettering, it is decorated with
such irregular bold string-courses as form the chief ornaments of the most ancient private
buildings in Edinburgh, and four large and neatly moulded windows are placed so close
together, two on each floor, as to convey the idea of one lofty window divided by a narrow
mull ion and transom. In the interior, also, decayed pannelling, and mutilated, yet hand-
some oak balustrades still attest the former dignity of the place.

Over a doorway still lower down the close, where the Bill Chamber was during the
greater part of last century, the initials and date W'R ' C'M • 1616, are cut in large
letters ; and the house immediately below contains the only instance we have met with iu
Edinburgh, of a carved inscription over an interior doorway. It occurs above the entrance
to a small inner room in the sunk floor of the house ; but the wall rises above the roof,
and is finished with crow-steps, so that the portion now enclosing it appears to be a later
addition. The following is the concise motto, which seems to suggest that its original
purpose was more dignified than its straitened dimensions might seem to imply: —

W . F. ANGVSTA . AD . VSVM . AVGSVTA . E.G.

The initials are those of William Fowler, merchant burgess ; the father, in all probability,
of William Fowler, the poet, who was secretary to Queen Anne of Denmark, and whose
sister was the mother of Drummond of Hawthoruden.1 At a later period this mansion
formed the residence of Sir George Drummond, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in the years
1683 and 1684, and probably a descendant of the original owner, in whose time the lower
ground appears to have been all laid out in gardens, sloping down to the North Loch, and
adorned with a summer-house, afterwards possessed by Lord Forglen. We are disposed to
smile at the aristocratic retreats of titled and civic dignitaries down these old closes, now
altogether abandoned to squalid poverty ; yet many of them, like this, were undoubtedly
provided with beautiful gardens and pleasure grounds, the charms of which would be
enhanced by their unpromising and straitened access.

1 There is reason for believing that the elder William Fowler, born in 1531, was also a poet (vide Archjeol. Scot,
vol. iv. p. 71), so that the burgess referred to in the text is probably the author of " The Triumph of Death," and other
poems, referred to among the original Drummond MSS. in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in a
fragment dated, " From my house in Edr. the 9. of Jan. 1590." The initials B. G., which are, no doubt, those of his
wife, may yet serve to identify him as the owner of the old tenement in Anchor Close.

THE HIGH STREET. 241

Not far from this, on the west side of the Old Stamp Office Close, stood a large, old-
fashioned mansion, which formed above a century ago the residence of Alexander, ninth
Earl of Eglinton, and his lovely Countess Susannah Kennedy — reputed the handsomest
woman of her time — to whom the Gentle Shepherd is dedicated, both in Ramsay's most
fluent prose, and in some of Hamilton of Bangour's flattering strains. She was brought
to Edinburgh just about the time of the Union by her father, Sir Archibald Kennedy of
Colzean — a rough old cavalier, who had borne a part in the best and worst achievements
of Claverhoiise — and her beauty speedily weaned the keenest devotees of politics from its
engrossing attractions. The Earl of Eglinton was already provided with a Countess, whose
protracted ill health had made him hopeless of an heir; and just when he had been smitten
with the universal admiration of the lovely Susannah, and had exhibited some very unequi-
vocal symptoms of the pangs of a despairing lover, his own Countess died, and the forlorn
widower " bore oif the belle," to the infinite chagrin of many younger, but less attractive
wooers.1 The Countess was somewhat of a blue-stocking, and the most conspicuous patroness
of the Scottish muses in her day. Her name appears on other dedication pages besides the
honourable one of the Gentle Shepherd. Ramsay dedicated to her the music of his first
Book of Songs — a little work now very rare — and at a later period he presented to her the
original manuscript of his great pastoral poem, which she afterwards parted with to James
Boswell. It is now preserved in the library at Auchinleck, along with the presentation
letter of the poet.

Euphemia, or Lady Effie, as she was more generally called, a daughter of the Earl by
his first Countess, was married to the celebrated " Union Lockhart," and proved an able
auxiliary to him in many of his secret intrigues on behalf of the exiled Stuarts. When
not engaged in attending parliament, he resided chiefly at his country seat of Dryden, while
Lady Effie paid frequent visits to Edinburgh, disguised in male attire. She used to frequent
the coffee-houses and other places of public resort, and joining freely in conversation with
the Whig partizans, she often obtained important information for her husband. It chanced
on one occasion, that Mr Forbes, a zealous Whig, but a man of profligate habits, had got
hold of some important private papers, implicating Lockhart, and which he had engaged
to forward to Government. Lady Euphemia Lockhart dressed her two sons — who were
fair and somewhat effeminate looking, though handsome youths, — in negligee, fardingale,
and masks ; with patches, jewels, and all the finery of accomplished courtezans. Thus
equipped, they sallied out to the Cross, and, watching for the Whig gallant, they speedily
nttracted his notice, and so won on him by their attentions that he was induced to accom-
pany them to a neighbouring tavern, where the pseudo fair ones fairly drank him below
the table, and then rifled him of the dangerous papers. This anecdote, which we have
obtained from a grand-nephew of Lady Lockhart, furnishes, we think, a more graphic
picture of the manners and notions of the age of Queen Anne than any incident we have
met with.

1 Sir John Clerk, Bart., as we have been told by a descendant of the Earl of Eglinton — after much coquetting and
versifying, had actually made a declaration of his passiou, which the father, at least, had so far under consideration as
to consult the Earl thereupon. His reply was — " Bide awee, Sir Archie, my wife's very sickly ! " a hint sufficient to
settle the hopes of the Baronet of Pennycuik. Sir J. Clerk was the author of the fine Scottish song, — " Oh merry may
the maid be that marries wi' the miller," with the exception of the first verse, which is ancient. The Earl was little
more than forty when he married this, his third Countess.

242 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The mansion of the Earl in the Old Stamp Office Close was celebrated at a subsequent
period as Fortune's tavern, a favourite resort of men of rank and fashion, while yet some of
the nobles of Scotland dwelt in its old capital. At a still later period, it was the scene of
the annual festivities during the sittings of the General Assembly of the Kirk, towards the
close of last century. The old Earl of Leven, who was for many years the representative
of majesty at the High Court of the Church, annually took up his abode at this fashionable
tavern, and received in state the courtiers who crowded to his splendid levees.1 Still more
strangely does it contrast with modern notions, to learn that the celebrated Henry Dundas,
first Viscount Melville, began practice as an advocate while residing on the third flat of the
old land a little further down the street, at the head of the Flesh Market Close, and con-
tinued to occupy his exalted dwelling for a considerable time. Below this close, we again
come to works of more modern date. Milne Square, which bears the date 1689, exhibits
one of the Old Town improvements before its contented citizens dreamt of bursting their
ancient fetters, and rearing a new city beyond the banks of the North Loch. To the
east of this, the first step in that great undertaking demolished some of the old lanes
of the Higli Street, and among the rest the Cap and Feather Close, a short alley which
stood immediately above Halkerston's Wynd. The lands that formed the east side of this
close still remain in North Bridge Street, presenting doubtless, to the eye of every tasteful
reformer, offensive blemishes in the modern thoroughfare ; yet this unpicturesque locality
has peculiar claims on the interest of every lover of Scottish poetry, for here, on the 5th
of September 1750, the gifted child of genius, Robert Ferguson, was born. The precise
site of his father's dwelling is unknown, but now that it has been transformed by the indis-
crimiuatiug hands of modern improvers, this description may suffice to suggest to some as
they pass along that crowded thoroughfare such thoughts as the dwellers in cities are most
careless to encourage.2

Availing ourselves of the subdivision of the present subject, effected by the improve-
ments to which we have adverted, we shall retrace our steps, and glance at such associations
with the olden time as may still be gathered from the scene of the desolating fires that
swept away nearly every ancient feature on the south side of the High Street. Within
the last few years, the sole survivor of all the antique buildings that once reared their
picturesque and lofty fronts between the Lawumarket and Niddry's Wynd has been demo-
lished, to make way for the new Police Office. It had strangely withstood the terrible
conflagration that raged around it in 1824, and, with the curious propensity that still pre-
vails in Edinburgh for inventing suggestive and appropriate names, it was latterly univer-
sally known as " the Salamander Land." 3 Through this a large archway led into the Old
Fish Market Close, on the west side of which, previous to the Great Fire, the huge pile
of buildings in the Parliament Close reared its southern front high over all the neigh-

1 In 1812 an unwonted spectacle was exhibited at the head of the Old Stamp Office Close, in the execution of three
young lads there, as the leaders in a riot that took place on New Year's Day of that year, in which several citizens were
killed and numerous robberies committed. The judges fixed upon this spot, as having been the scene of the chief blood-
shed that had occurred, in order to mark more impressively the detestation of their crimes. A small work was pub-
lished by the Kev. W. Innes, entitled " Notes of Conversations " with the criminals.

2 In Edgar's map, the close is shown extending no farther than in a line with Milue's Court, so that the whole of the
east side still remains, including, it may be, the poet's birthplace.

3 We have been told that this land was said to have been the residence of Defoe while iu Edinburgh ; the tradition,
however, is entirely unsupported by other testimony.

THE HIGH STREET, 243

bouring buildings with a majestic and imposing effect, of which the north front of James's
Court — the only private building that resembles it — conveys only a very partial idea.
Within the Fishmarket Close was the mansion of George Heriot, the royal goldsmith of
James VI. ; l where more recently resided the elder Lord President Dundas, father of
Lord Melville, a thorough bon vivant of the old claret-drinking school of lawyers.2 There
also, for successive generations, dwelt another dignitary of the College of Justice, the
grim executioner of the law's last sentence — happily a less indispensable legal function-
ary than in former days. The last occupant of the hangman's house annually drew " the
denipster's fee " at the Royal Bank, and eked out his slender professional income by
cobbling such shoes as his least superstitious neighbours cared to trust in his hands,
doubtless, with many a sorrowful reflection on the wisdom of our forefathers, and " the
good old times " that are gone by.3 The house has been recently rebuilt, but, as might
be expected, it is still haunted by numerous restless ghosts, and will run considerable
risk of remaining tenantless should its official occupant, in these hard times, find his
occupation gone.*

Borthwick's Close, which stands to the east, is expressly mentioned in Nisbet's
Heraldry 5 as having belonged to the Lords Borthwick, and in the boundaries of a house
in the adjoining close, the property about the middle of the east side is described as the
Lord Napier's ; but the whole alley is now entirely modernised, and destitute of attractions
either for the artist or antiquary. On the ground, however, that intervenes between this
and the Assembly Close, one of the new Heriot schools has been built, and occupies a site
of peculiar interest. There stood, until its demolition by the Great Fire of 1824, the old
Assembly Rooms of Edinburgh, whither the directors of fashion removed their " General
Assembly," about the year 1720,6 from the scene of its earlier revels in the West Bow.
There it was that Goldsmith witnessed for the first time the formalities of an old Scottish
ball, during his residence in Edinburgh in 1753. The light-hearted young Irishman has
left an amusing account of the astonishment with which, " oh entering the dancing-hall,
he sees one end of the room taken up with the ladies, who sit dismally in a group by them-
selves ; on the other end stand their pensive partners that are to be, but no more inter-
course between the sexes than between two countries at war. The ladies, indeed, may
ogle, and the gentlemen sigh, but an embargo is laid upon any closer commerce ! " Only
three years after the scene witnessed by the poet, these grave and decorous revels were
removed to more commodious rooms in Bell's Wynd, where they continued to be held till
the erection of the new hall in George Street. Much older associations, however, pertain
to this interesting locality, for, on the site occupied by the old Assembly Rooms, there
formerly stood the town mansion of Lord Durie, President of the Court of Session in 1642,
and the hero of the merry ballad of " Christie's Will." The Earl of Traquair, it appears,
had a lawsuit pending in the Court of Session, to which the President's opposition was

1 Dr Steven's Memoirs of George Heriot, p. 5.

2 Vide " Convivial habits of the Scottish Bar." — Note to " Guy Mannering."

3 Vide Chambers's Traditions, vol. ii. p. 184, for some curious notices of the Edinburgh hangmen.

4 The office of this functionary is now abolished, and the house is occupied by private families.
6 Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. ii. Appendix, p. 106.

6 In a sasine dated 1723, it is styled — " That big hall, or great room, now known by the name of the Assembly
House, being part of that new great stone tenement of land lately built," &c. — Burgh Charter Room.

244

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

dreaded. In this dilemma he had recourse to Will Armstrong, a worthy descendant of the
famous mosstrooper executed by James V., — who owed to the Earl's good services hia
escape from a halter. Will promptly volunteered to kidnap the President on learning
that he stood in his patron's way, and watching his opportunity when Lord Durie was
riding out, he entered into conversation with him, and so decoyed him to an unfrequented
spot called the Figgate Whins, near Portobello, when he suddenly pulled him from his
horse, muffled him in his trooper's cloak, and rode off with the luckless judge trussed up
behind him. Lord Durie was secured in the dungeon of an old castle in Annandale called
the Tower of Grasme, and his horse being found on the beach, it was concluded he had
thrown his rider into the sea. His friends went into mourning, his successor was
appointed, the Earl won his plea, and Will was directed to set his captive at liberty. The
old judge was accordingly seized in his dark dungeon, muffled once more in the cloak,
and conveyed with such dexterity to the scene of his capture that he long entertained the
belief he had been spirited away by witches. The joy of his friends was probably
surpassed by the blank amazement of his successor, when he appeared to reclaim his old
office and honours. Accident long after led to a discovery of the whole story; but in
those disorderly times it was only laughed at as a fair ruse de guerre.^ In the ballad the
bold moss-trooper alights at Lord Dune's door, and beguiles him with a message from "the
fairest lady in Teviotdale." Sir Walter, however, confesses to such ekeing and patching
of the traditionary fragments of the old ballad, that we must content ourselves with the
fact of the stolen President's dwelling having stood on the site of the Heriot's school in the
Assembly Close. Of this there can be no doubt, as it is referred to in the boundaries of
various early deeds, in most of which the alley is styled Durie's Close.

The Covenant Close has already been referred to,*
with its interesting old laud, surmounted with three
crow-stepped gables, forming the most prominent
feature in the range of the High Street as seen from
the south. The front lands immediately below this
and the adjoining close again direct us to associations
with the olden time, though only as occupying the
site of what once was interesting, for fire and modern
reform together have effected an entire revolution in
this part of the town. Over the doorway immediately
above Bell's Wynd an escallop shell, cut upon the
modern stone lintel, marks the site of the " Clam
Shell Turnpike," an edifice associated with eminent
characters, and some of the most interesting eras in
Scottish history. Maitland only remarks of it, in
this close there " is an ancient chapel, which is still
plainly to be seen by the manner of its construction, though now converted into a dwelling-

1 Christie's Will, Border Minstrelsy. There is little doubt of the general truth of this tradition. The leading facts,
though without the names, are related in Forbes's Journal, and Scott tells us that some old stanzas of the ballad were
current on the Border in his youth. a Ante, p. 93.

VIGNKTTE — Clam Shell Turnpike, from Skene. Taken down 1791.

THE HIGH STREET. 245

house," J to which Arnot adds the more definite though scanty information, " At the head
df Bell's Wynd there were an hospital and chapel, known by the name of Maison Dieu."*
Like most other religious establishments and church property, it passed into the hands
of laymen at the Reformation by an arbitrary grant of the crown, so that the original
charters of foundation no longer remain as the evidences of its modern claimants. It is
styled, however, in the earliest titles extant, " the old land formerly of George, Bishop
of Duukeld ; " so that its foundation may be referred with every probability to the
reign of James V., when George Crighton, who occupied that see from the year 1527
to 1543, founded the hospital of St Thomas near the Watergate, about two years before
his death, and endowed it for the maintenance of certain chaplains and bedemen, " to
celebrate the founder's anniversary obit, by solemnly singing in the choir of Holyrood
Church, on the day of his death yearly, the Placebo and Dirige, for the repose of his
soul," &c.8 There can be little doubt, moreover, that the old land, which was only
demolished in the year 1789, was the same mansion of Lord Home, to which Queen
Mary retreated with Darnley, on her return to Edinburgh in 1566, while she was haunted
with the horrible recollections of the recent murder of her favourite, Rizzio, and her mind
revolted from the idea of returning to the palace, the scene of his assassination, whose
blood-stained floors still called for justice and revenge against the murderers. " Vpoun
the xviij day of the said moneth of March," says the contemporary annalist,4 " our
soueranis lord and ladie, accumpauijt with tua thowsand horssmen come to Edinburgh,
and lugeit not in thair palice of Halyrudhous, hot lugeit in my lord Home's lugeing, callit
the auld bischope of Dunkell his lugeing, anent the salt trone in Edinburgh ; and the
lordis being with thame for the tyme, wes lugeit round about thame within the said burgh."
Lord Home, who thus entertained Queen Mary and Darnley as his guests, was, at that
date, so zealous an adherent of the Queen, that Randolph wrote to Cecil from Edinburgh
soon after that he would be created Earl of March ; 6 and although at the battle of Lang-
side he appeared against her, he afterwards returned to his fidelity, and retained it with
such integrity till his death as involved him in a conviction of treason by her enemies.
In the following reign this ancient tenement became the property of George Herio-t, and
the ground rents are still annually payable to the treasurer of the hospital which he
founded.

The portion of the High Street still marked as the site of this ancient building, is
closely associated with other equally memorable incidents in the life of Queen Mary ; for
almost immediately adjoining it, on the east side, formerly stood the famous Black Turn-
pike already alluded to,6 as the town house of Sir Simon Preston, Provost of Edinburgh
in 1567, to which the unhappy Queen was led by her captors, amid the hootings and
execrations of an excited rabble, on the evening of her surrender at Carbery Hill. This
ancient building was one of the most stately and sumptuous edifices of the Old Town. It
was lofty and of great extent, and the tradition of Queen Mary's residence in it had never
been lost sight of. A small apartment, with a window to the High Street, was pointed out

1 Maitland, p. 189. * Arnot, p. 246.

3 Maitland, p. 154. Keith furnishes this character of the bishop, " A man nobly disposed, very hospitable, and a
magnificent housekeeper; but in matters of religion not much skilled." '

4 Diurnal of Oceurrents, p. 94. 5 Keith, vol. ii. p. 292. c Ante. p. 79.

246 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

as that in which she spent the last night in the capital of her kingdom; the last on which
though captive, she was still its Queen. The magnificent and imposing character of this
building, coupled with the historical associations attached to it, have given it an exaggerated
importance in popular estimation, so that tradition assigned it a very remote antiquity,
naming as its builder, King Kenneth III., who was slain A.D. 994 ; not without the
testimony of heaven's displeasure thereat, for " the moon looked bloody for several nights,
to the infinite terror of those that beheld her," besides other equally terrible prodigies ! l
Maitland, the painstaking historian of Edinburgh, detecting the improbability of such
remote foundation for this substantial building, obtained access to the title-deeds, and found
a sasine of the date 1461, conveying it to George Robertson of Lochart, the son of the
builder, which would imply its having been erected early in the fifteenth century. From
other evidence, we discovered that it belonged in the following century to George Crighton,
Bishop of Dunkeld, and was in all probability either acquired or rebuilt by him for the
purpose of the religious foundation previously described. This appears from an action
brought by " the Administrators of Heriot's Hospital, against Robert Hepburn of Bearford,"
in 1693, 2 for "aground-annual out of the tenement called Robertson's Inn," and which
at a subsequent date is styled, " his tenement in Edinburgh called the Black Turnpike."
The pursuers demanded the production of the original writs from the Bishop of Dunkeld,
and it would appear from the arguments in defence, that the building had been conferred
by the Bishop on two of his own illegitimate daughters, and so diverted from the pious
objects of its first destination, perchance as a sort of compromise between heaven and
earth, by which more effectually to secure the atonement he had in view for the errors of a
licentious life. To all this somewhat discrepant evidence we shall add one more fact from
the Caledonian Mercury, May 15th, 1788, the date of its demolition: — "The edifice
commonly called the Black Turnpike, immediately to the west of the Tron Church, at the
head of Peebles Wynd, one of the oldest stone buildings upon record in Edinburgh, is
now begun to be pulled down. ... It may be true what is affirmed, that Queen Mary was
lodged in it in the year 1567, but if part of the building is really so old, it is evident
other parts are of a later date, for on the top of a door, the uppermost of the three entries
to this edifice from Peebles Wynd, we observe the following inscription : —

PAX • INTRANTIBVS • SALVS • EXEVNTIBVS • 1674."

The whole character of the building, however, seems to have contradicted the idea of
so recent an erection, and the inscription — a peculiarly inappropriate one for the scene
of the poor Queen's last lodging in her capital — is probably the only thing to which the
date truly applied.

We have passed over the intermediate alleys from the New Assembly Close to the
Tron Church, in order to preserve the connection between the ancient lands of the
Bishop of Dunkeld, that formed at different periods the lodging of Queen Mary.
Steveulaw's Close, the last that now remains of that portion of the High Street, still con-
tains buildings of an early date. Over a doorway on the west side, near the foot, is this

1 Aberorombie's Martial Achievements, vol. i. p. 194.

1 Fountainball's Decisions, vol. i. pp. 583, 688.

* We have stated reasons before for believing that dates were sometimes put on buildings by later proprietors.

THE HIGH STREET. 247

motto :— THE • FEIR • OF • THE • LORD • IS • THE • BIGENEN • OF • VISDOM •
I • H • ; and another bears a shield of arms, with an inscription partially defaced.
We have not discovered any names among its earlier occupants worthy of note ; but
immediately adjoining it, on the site of the west side of Hunter Square, formerly stood
Kennedy's Close, a scene associated with one of the most eminent among the distin-
guished men of early times. In a MS. memorandum book of George Paton, the Anti-
quary, the following note occurs: — " George Buchanan took his last illness, and died in
Kennedy's Close, first court thereof on your left hand, first house in the turnpike, above
the tavern there ; and in Queen Anne's time this was told to his family and friends who
resided in that house, by Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, Lord Advocate." A reference
to Edgar's map shows that the close consisted of two small courts connected by a narrow
passage, the sight of the first of which will exactly correspond with that of the present
Merchants' Hall. Here the eminent Scottish historian and reformer closed his active and
laborious life on the 28th of September 1582. Finding, when on his deathbed, that the
money he had about him was insufficient to defray the expenses of his funeral, he sent his
servant to divide it among the poor, adding — " that if the city did not choose to bury him,
they might let him lie where he was." He was interred on the following day in the Grey-
friars' Churchyard. It is justly to be regretted that the spot cannot now be ascertained,
notwithstanding that, on an application made to the Town Council, so recently as 1701,
" the through-stane " was directed to be raised in order to preserve it.1

In the centre of the High Street, in front of the Black Turnpike, the ancient citadel of
the Town-Guard cumbered the thoroughfare till near the close of last century, protected by
its ungainly utility from the destruction that befell many of the more valuable relics of
antiquity. During Cromwell's impartial rule in Edinburgh, it formed the scene of many
of his acts of " guid discipline, causing drunkardis ryd the trie nieir, with stoppis and
muskettis tyed to thair leggis and feit, a paper on thair breist, and a drinking cap in thair
handis.": This obsolete instrument of punishment, the wooden mare, still remained at
the end of the old Guard-house, when Kay, the Caricaturist, made his drawing of it imme-
diately before its destruction. The chronicles of this place of petty durance, could they
now be recovered, would furnish many an amusing scrap of antiquated scandal, interspersed
at rare intervals with the graver deeds of such disciplinarians as the Protector, or the
famous sack of the Porteous mob. There, such fair offenders as the witty and eccentric
Miss Mackenzie,3 daughter of Lord Royston, found at times a night's lodging, when she
and her maid sallied out disguised as preux chevaliers in search of adventures. Occa-
sionally even a grave judge or learned lawyer, surprised out of his official decorum by
the temptations of a jovial club, was astonished on awaking to find himself within its

1 The following is an extract from the Council Records, 3d December 1701 : — " The Council being informed that the
through-stane of the deceast George Buchanan lyes sunk under the ground of the Greyfriars, therefore they appoint the
chamberlain to raise the same, and clear the inscription thereupon, so as the same maybe legible." — Bann. Misc. vol. 2.
p. 401. The sight whereon his dwelling stood would form no inappropriate place for a commemorative tablet to replace
the lost " through-stane." Dr Irving, his biographer, has strangely persisted, in the face of this evidence, to affirm that
"his ungrateful country never afforded his grave the common tribute of a monumental stone." — (Irving's Life of
Buchanan, p. 309.) A skull, believed to be that of the historian, is preserved in the Museum of the University of
Edinburgh, and is so remarkably thin as to be transparent. The evidence in favour of this tradition, though not alto-
gether conclusive, renders the truth of it exceedingly probable.

! Nicoll's Diary, p. 69. ' Ante, p. 169.

248 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

impartial walls, among such strange bed-fellows as the chances of the night had offered to
its vigilant guardians. The demolition of the Cross, however, rendered the existence of
its unsightly neighbour the more offensive to all civic reformers. Ferguson, in his
" Mutual Complaint of the Plairistanes and Causey," humorously represents it as one of
the most intolerable grievances of the latter, enough to " fret the hardest stane ; " and at
length, in 1785, its doom was pronounced, and its ancient garrison removed to the New
Assembly Close, then recently deserted by the directors of fashion. There, however, they
were pursued by the enmity of their detractors. The proprietors of that fashionable district
of the city were scandalised at the idea of such near neighbours as the Tow?i-Rats, and by
means of protests, Bills of Suspension, and the like weapons of modern civic warfare,
speedily compelled the persecuted veterans to beat a retreat. They took refuge in
premises provided for them in the Tolbooth, but the destruction of their ancient strong-
hold may be said to have sealed their fate ; they lingered on for a few years, maintaining
an unequal and hopeless struggle against the restless spirit of innovation that had beset
the Scottish capital, until at length, in the year 1817, their final refuge was demolished,
the last of them were put on the town's pension list, and the truncheon of the constable
displaced the venerable firelock and Lochaber axe.

VIGNETTE — Loobaber axes from the Antiquarian Museum.

CHAPTER VI.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW.

TN the centre of the High Street, not far from the site of the Tron Church, there stood
in ancient times the Tron or public heam for weighing merchandise ; generally
styled in early deeds and writings the Salt Tron, to distinguish it from the Butter
Tron, or Weigh-house, already described. It is shown in the curious bird's-eye view of
the siege of Edinburgh Castle, drawn in 1573, in the form of a pillar mounted on steps, and
with a beam and scales attached to it. This central spot was the scene of many singular
exhibitions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more especially in the
exposure and punishment of culprits. While traitors and political offenders of all sorts
expiated their crimes at the Cross, the lesser offences of perjury and knavery were reserved
by a discriminating system of justice for the more ignominious, though less deadly, penalties
of the Tron. One of the liveliest of the scenes which were enacted there during the 1 7th
century, occurred on the arrival of the news in June 1650, that Charles II. had landed in
the north. The Estates of Parliament were then assembled at Edinburgh, and the fickle
populace were already heartily tired of trying to govern themselves. Nicoll, the old diarist,
tells us, "All signes of joyeswer manifested in a speciall rnauer in Edinburgh, by setting
furth of bailfyres, ringing of bellis, sounding of trumpettis, dancing almost all that night
through the streitis. The pure kaillwyfes at the Trone sacrificed thair mandis andcreillis
and the verie stoolis thai sat upone to the fyre."

It has been hastily concluded from this, by certain sceptical antiquaries, that, as Jenny

1 Nicoll's Diary, p. 16.
VIGNETTE — Ancient Doorway, Blackfriars' Wyml.

2qo MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Geddes, the heroine of 1637, was one of the kail wives of the Tron, her famous stool — the
formidable weapon with which she began the great rebellion, by hurling it at the Dean of
St Giles' head — must have perished in this repentant ebullition of joy, and accordingly
that the relic shown in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries is undeserving of credit.
We must protest, however, against so rash an hypothesis, which would involve the
destruction of the sole monument of the immortal Janet's heroic onslaught; seeing there can
be no reasonable question that a dame so zealous and devout would reserve her best stool for
the Sunday's services, and content herself with a common creepie for her week-day avoca-
tions at the Tron ! * There is no doubt, however, that Jenny gave unequivocal proofs of
her loyalty at a later period, as she is specially mentioned in the Mercurius Caledonius, a
newspaper published immediately after the Eestoration, as having taken apiomineut share
in similar rejoicings on the coronation of the king in 1661. "But among all our bontados
and caprices," says the curious annalist, " that of the immortal Jenet G-eddis, Princesse of
the Trone Adventurers, was most pleasant, for she was not only content to assemble all her
creels, basquets, creepies, frames, and other ingredients that composed the shope of her
sallets, radishes, turnips, carrots, spiuage, cabbage, with all other sort of pot merchandise
that belongs to the garden, but even her leather chair of state, where she used to dispense
justice to the rest of her langkale vassals, were all very orderly burned ; she herself
countenancing the action with a high-flown fkmrish and vermillion majesty."

Halkerston's Wynd, which is the first close now remaining on the north side of the
High Street below the Tron Church, had once been a place of considerable note, but
nearly every vestige of antiquity has disappeared. We have already given a view 2 of a
very curious ancient lintel still remaining on the east side, which bears on it the monogram
IHS, and a cross-fleury ', with a coronet surmounting the letter D. The whole style
and character of this doorway indicates a date long anterior to the Reformation, but the
building to which it belonged has been demolished, all but a portion of the outer wall,
and we have failed to obtain any clue to its early history. It was in its later state a
timber-fronted land, having a good deal of carving along the gables, and an ornamental
stone stair-case projecting beyond, altogether indicating the remains of a magnificent
and costly mansion of the olden time. Adjoining this, another doorway, forming a
similar vestige of a more modern building, bears the common inscription, BLISSIT . BE
GOD . FOR . AL . HIS . GIFTIS . and the initials and date • ED • D • 1609. This ancient
alley formed one of the accesses to the city from the north, previous to the erection of the
North Bridge. Fountainhall 8 gives a curious account of an action brought by Robert
Malloch in 1701 against the magistrates of Edinburgh, for shutting up the Halkerston's
Wynd Port. From this it appears that a suburban village had sprung up on Moutrie's
Hill, the site now occupied by James' Square, in which a number of poor weavers and other
tradesmen had set up in defiance of the incorporations of the Glide Toun. The deacons
finding their crafts in danger, took advantage of an approaching election to frighten the
magistrates into a just sense of the enormity of tolerating such unconstitutional interlopers

1 Even Jenny Geddes's well-earned reputation "cannot live out of the teeth of emulation." Kincaid (Hist, of Edin.
p. 63) puts forward a new claimant to her honours, " an old woman named Hamilton, grandmother to Robert Mein,
late Dean of Guild officer in Edinburgh."

8 Ante, p. 118. 3 Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. ii. p. 110.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW.

251

so near their ancient burgh. The port was accordingly shut up, and the sluices of the
North Loch closed, so as to flood a small mound that had afforded a footpath to the
port for the freetraders of this obnoxious village. The battle was stoutly maintained for
a time, but the magistrates finding the law somewhat rigid in its investigation of their
right over the city ports, and the election most probably being satisfactorily settled mean-
while, they opened the port of their own accord, and allowed the sluices of the North
Loch again to run.

In Kinloch's Close, immediately adjoining this wynd, there stood, till within the last
twenty years, a very handsome and substantial old stone land, with large and neatly moulded
windows, and abounding with curious irregular projections, adapting it to its straitened
site. Over the main entrance was a finely carved lintel, having the Williamson arms
boldly cut in high relief, with the initials I • W ' accompanied by a singular device of the
cross of passion springing from the centre of a saltier, and the inscription and date in
large Eoman letters, FEIR • GOD • IN • LUIF • 1595.

The ancient timber-fronted land which faces the street at the head of this close is
one possessing peculiar claims to our interest, as the
scene of Allan Ramsay's earlier labours, where, " at
the sign of the Mercury, opposite to Niddry's Wynd,"
he prosecuted his latter business as author, editor,
and bookseller. From thence issued his poems
printed in single sheets, or half sheets, as they were
written, in which shape they are reported to have
found a ready sale ; the citizens being in the habit
of sending their children with a penny for " Allan
Ramsay's last piece."1 Encouraged by the favour-
able reception of his poetic labours, he at length
published proposals for a re-issue of his works in a
collected form, and, accordingly, in 1721, they
appeared in one handsome quarto volume, with a
portrait of the a.uthor from the pencil of his friend
Smibert. Ramsay continued to carry on business
at the sign of the Mercury till the year 1725, so
that nearly all his original publications issued from

this ancient fabric. In that year he removed to the famous land in the Luckenboothe,
which has been already minutely described. The accompanying vignette represents
the former building as it existed previous to 1845, when a portion of the timber front
was removed, and the picturesque character of the old land somewhat marred by modern
alterations.

Immediately to the east of Ramsay's old shop, a plain and narrow pend gives access
to Carrubber's Close, the retreat of the faithful remnant of the Jacobites of 1688. Here,
about half way down the close, on the east side, St Paul's Chapel still stands, a plain and
unpretending edifice, erected immediately after the Revolution. Thither the persecuted

1 Scottish Biographical Dictionary, Article Ramsay.
VIGNETTE— Allan Ramsay's shop, opposite Niddry's Wynd.

2 5 2 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

Bishop arid his stanch nou-jurant followers repaired on the downfall of the national
establishment of Episcopacy, and there they continued to worship within its narrow
bounds amid frequent interruptions, particularly after the rising of 1745, resolutely
persisting for nearly a century in excluding the name of the " Hanoverian usurpers "
from their devotions. The chapel is still occupied by a congregation of Scottish Episco-
palians, but the homely worshippers of modern times form a striking contrast to the
stately squires and dames who once were wont to frequent the unpretending fane that
sufficed to accommodate the whole disestablished Episcopacy of the capital.

Immediately below the chapel, a huge escalop shell, expanding over the porch of the
main entrance to an old tenement, marks the clam-shell land. Here was the house of
Ainslie's master, during Burns's visit to Edinburgh, at whose table the poet was a
frequent guest, while on another floor of the same land, the elder Sir William Forbes of
Pitsligo, another of the poet's early friends, resided, until his removal to one of the first
erections in the New Town. The whole locality, indeed, is in some degree associated
with the poet's friends and favourite haunts in the capital ; for on the second floor of the
ancient stone land which faces the High Street, at the head of the close, was the abode
of Captain Mathew Henderson, " a gentleman who held the patent for his honours
immediately from Almighty God," on whom the poet wrote the exquisite elegy preserved
among his works, to the very characteristic motto from Hamlet, " Should the poor be
flattered?"

This old close was the scene of the only unsuccessful speculation of another poet,
whose prudent self-control enabled him through life to avoid the sorrows that so often
beset the poet's path, and to find in the Muse the handmaid of wealth. Allan Ramsay
was strongly attached to the drama, and in his desire for its encouragement, he built a
play-house at the foot of Carrubber's Close, about the year 1736, which involved him in
very considerable expense. It was closed immediately after by the act for licensing the
stage, which was passed in the following year, and .the poet's sole resource was in writing
a rhyming complaint to the Court of Session, which appeared soon after in the Gentleman's
Magazine. The abortive play-house has since served many singular and diverse purposes.
It is the same building, we believe, which bore the name of St Andrew's Chapel,
bestowed on it soon after the failure of the poet's dramatic speculation. In 1773 it
formed the arena for the debates of the Pantheon, a famous speculative club. In 1788,
Dr Moyes, the ingenious lecturer on Natural Philosophy, discoursed there to select and
fashionable audiences en optics, the property of light, and other branches of science, in
regard to which his most popular qualification was, that he had been blind almost from
his birth. Since then the pulpit of St Andrew's Chapel has been filled by Mr John
Barclay, the founder of the sect of modern Bereans ; by the Rev. Mr Tait, and other
founders of the Rowites, during whose occupancy the celebrated Edward Irving frequently
officiated. The chapel has also been engaged by Relief and Secession congregations, by
the Roman Catholics as a preaching station and schoolroom, and more recently as a hall
for lectures and debates of all kinds ;— as strange and varied a medley of actors as even the
fertile fancy of the poet could have foreshadowed for his projected play-house.1

1 It was latterly called Whitefield Chapel, used for meetings of the Carrubber's Close Mission. It has now been
demolished in the construction of Jeffrey Street.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BO IV. 253

Should this old close escape the destruction that already threatens so many of the haunts
of the olden time, it will not be considered by future generations as the least worthy of its
associations, that there, on the west side, and near the foot of the close, were the work-
shop and furnace of James Ballantine, the author of the " Gaberlunzie's Wallet," and the
" Miller of Deanhaugh," as well as of some of the liveliest of our modern humorous
Scottish songs — never heard with such effect as when sung by himself. There, it is
probable, many of his literary productions were matured, where also he completed, under
numerous disadvantages, the successful designs for the competition of 1844, which gained
for him the distinguished honour of executing the painted windows of the New House of
Lords. The close has suffered little from modern alteration, and still presents a very
pleasing specimen of the quaint and picturesque irregularity of style which gladdens the
eye of the artist, and sets the reforming citizen a ruminating on the possibility of a new
improvements commission, that shall sweep away such rubbish from every lane and alley
of the ancient capital.

Bishop's Close, which adjoins this on the east, preserves in its name a memorial of
" the Bishop's Land," one of the most substantial and noted among the private buildings
in the High Street of Edinburgh. It owed this peculiar designation to its having been
the residence of the eminent prelate, John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St Andrews, who,
as appears from the titles, inherited it from his father, the Superintendent of Lothian.
This fact is of some value, as serving to discredit the statement of his unrequited labours
during the latter years of his life. The date on the old building was 1578, at which time
the Superintendent would be in his sixty-ninth year ; and the house was sufficiently
commodious and magnificent to serve afterwards for the town mansion of the Scottish
primate. The ground floor of the building was formed of a deeply arched piazza, supported
by massive stone piers, and over the main entrance a carved lintel bore the common
inscription, BLISSIT . BE . YE . LORD . FOB . ALL . HIS . GIFTIS . 1578, with a shield impaled
with two coats of arms, and the initials V. N., H. M. A fine brass balcony projected from
the first floor, which has doubtless often been decorated with gay hangings, and crowded
with fair and noble spectators to see the riding of the parliaments, and the magnificent
state pageants of early times. This interesting old tenement was totally destroyed by fire
in 1814, but the carved lintel has been preserved, and is now built into the adjoining
pend of North Gray's Close. From the evidence in the famous Douglas cause, it appears
that Lady Jane Douglas resided in Bishop's Land soon after her arrival in Scotland, and
was visited there by Lord Prestongrange, then Lord Advocate, in 1752.1 Here also is
stated to have been the house of the first Lord President Dundas, and the birthplace of
the celebrated Viscount Melville ; 2 and so aristocratic were the denizens of this once
fashionable tenement, that we have been told by an old citizen there was not a family
resident in any of its flats, towards the end of the century, who did not keep livery ser-
vants—a strange contrast to their plebeian successors. In the title-deeds of Archbishop
Spottiswood's mansion, it is described as bounded on the east by the tenement sometime
pertaining to James Henderson of Fordel. This was no doubt the house referred to in
the " Diurnal of Occurrents," where it is said that Queen Mary, after the bootless muster
at Carbery Hill, " quheu she come to Edinburgh, wes lugeit in James Hendersones hous

1 Case of Respondents, foL p. 34. a Ch.imbers'a Traditions, vol. i. Appendix.

254

MEM OR IALS OF EDINB UR G ff.

of Fordell," ! and although this is an obvious mistake for Sir Simon Preston's residence
in the Black Turnpike, it is probable she had lodged there on some earlier and happier
occasion, when it was no very unwonted circumstance for her Majesty to become the guest
of the wealthier citizens of the capital. This old land, however, has also disappeared, and
is now replaced by a plain and unattractive modern erection.

We furnish a view of a very curious and beautiful Gothic
corbel, carved in the form of a grotesque head, with leaves
in its mouth, which was found on the east side of North
G-ray's Close, about twenty years since, in excavating for a tan
pit. It was discovered six feet below the ground ; and in the
course of digging, the workmen came upon a large fragment
of wall, of very substantial masonry, running from east to
west, and completely below the foundations of the neigh-
bouring houses. We have examined a large collection of
title-deeds of the surrounding property in the hope of dis-
covering the existence of some religious house here in early
times, of which these are fragments, but the earliest, which

is dated 1572, describes nearly the whole close as then in a waste and ruinous state — a
condition to which it appears to be rapidly returning, after having, from the appearance
of the old buildings, afforded fitting residence for titled courtiers and wealthy burgesses.
These discoveries, however, furnish evidence of the great changes which have taken place
on Edinburgh in common with most other ancient cities. This portion of the town has
evidently been totally destroyed in the conflagration effected by the Earl of Hertford's
army in 1544; and while the houses in the main street were speedily rebuilt, the ground
to the north lay for nearly thirty years an unoccupied waste, so that when the citizens at
length began to build upon it, they founded their new dwellings above the consolidated
ruins of the older capital. The carved stone was preserved in the nursery of Messrs
Eagle & Henderson, Leith Walk.

There was a fine old stone land at the head of Bailie Fife's Close on the west side,
which bore, on a large lintel over one of the upper windows, the Trotter arms, in bold
relief; two stars in chief, and a crescent in base; with the initials I. T., I. M., and the
date 1612.2 Another ancient tenement remains in good preservation, in Chalmers's Close,
which possesses claims of special interest to the antiquary, as one of the very few now left
in which the curious sculptured stone niches occur, that have been frequently referred to in
the course of this work. The house stands within the close, on the west side. On the
first floor a sinall niche appears, at the right side of the doorway, immediately on entering,
and in the opposite wall there is another of large size, and a highly ornamental character —
though now dilapidated, and greatly obscured with whitewash — through which a window
has been broken, looking into Barringer's Close. Alongside of the latter niche a narrow

1 Diurnal of Ooourrents, p. 115.

a Another large shield occurs on a pannel above the ground floor, with the initials I. P., M. H., and the Parley Arms
(Yorkshire)— a cheveron between three mullets,— impaled with those of Hay. Over a neatly moulded doorway below
is the inscription in Boman characters, now greatly defaced :— BE . PASIENT . IN . THE . [LORD.] [This ancient
dwelling-house, which had stood for nearly 250 years, suddenly fell to the ground on midnight of Saturday, November
10, 1861, burying iu its ruins thirty-five persons.]

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 255

turnpike stair has formerly afforded access to the floor above, and the general construction
of the apartment renders it exceedingly probable that it may have been used as a private
chapel before the Reformation. It is now subdivided by flimsy modern partitions, and
furnishes a residence for several families. The only clue afforded by the title-deeds
to former proprietors of any note, is, that here resided a worthy burgess of last century,
competitor with the author of the Gentle Shepherd, in his earlier occupation, and
the grandfather of one of the most eminent of the modern citizens of Edinburgh,
Lord Francis Jeffrey, with whom this old close was a favourite haunt in his boy-
hood. Over the doorway of the adjoining staircase, which projects into the close,
the name of JoljIU ^?0p? is cut in large old English characters, with a defaced coat
of arms between, and on the lowest crow-step a shield is sculptured with armorial
bearings, and the initials I' H' The dilapidated building retains considerable traces
of former magnificence, as well as undoubted evidence of an early date. The large
windows have been each divided with a mullion and transom, and are finished with
unusually rich mouldings at the sides. The hall on the first floor, which has been an
apartment of considerable size, is now subdivided into separate dwellings by slight
wooden partitions. There can be little doubt, we think, from the style of lettering
in the inscription and the general character of the building, that this is the mansion
of John de Hope, the founder of the Hopetoun family, who came from France in 1537,
in the retinue of the Princess Magdalene, Queen of James V., and who afterwards
became a substantial burgher in the Luckenbooths, visiting the continent from time
to time, and importing French velvets, silks, gold and silver laces, and the like valuable
foreign merchandise.1 It seems to be unquestionable that no other John Hope existed in
Scotland till the reign of Charles I. ; a date long posterior to that of the building. This
was his descendant, Sir John Hope of Craighall, the eldest son of the celebrated Lord
Advocate, who was Lord President of the Court of Session during the Protectorate, and to
whom Charles II. owed the shrewd, though unpalatable advice, " to treat with Cromwell
for the one halff of his cloake before he lost the quhole."

In the next alley, which is termed Sandilands' Close, a large and remarkably
substantial stone tenement, forms the chief feature on the east side, and presents an
appearance of great antiquity. The ground floor of this building is vaulted with stone,
and entered by doorways with pointed arches, and over the lower of these is a neat small
pointed window or loop-hole, splayed and otherwise constructed as in early Gothic
buildings. We present a view of one of the most interesting pieces of ancient sculpture
in Edinburgh, which forms part of the internal decorations of this old edifice. It seems
to be intended to represent the offering of the Wise Men, and is well executed in bold
relief, although, like most other internal decorations in the Old Town, plentifully
besmeared with whitewash. It appears to form the end of a very large antique fireplace,
the remainder of which is concealed under panneliug and partitions of perhaps a century
old, while another, of the contracted dimensions usual in later times, has been constructed
in the further corner. It is exceedingly probable that much more of this interesting
sculpture remains to be disclosed on the removal of these novel additions of recent date.

1 Coltness Collections, Mait. Club, pp. 16, 17. From which it appears that John de Hope and his son Edward
occupied the two booths east of the Old Church style.

256

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Such of the title-deeds of this property as we have obtained access to are unfortunately
quite modern, and contain no reference to early proprietors; but one of the present
owners described a sculptured stone, containing a coat of arms surmounted by a mitre,

that was removed from over the inner doorway
some years since, and which appears to have
been the Kennedy arms. If it be permissible
to build on such slender data, in the absence
of all other evidence, we have here, in all
probability, the town mansion of the good
Bishop Kennedy, the munificent patron of
learning, and the able and upright counsellor of
James II. and III.1 The whole appearance of the
building is perfectly consistent with this supposi-
tion. The form and decorations of the doorways,
particularly those already described, all prove
an early date ; while the large size and elegant
mouldings of the windows, and the massive
appearance of the whole building, indicate such
magnificence as would well consort with the
dignity of the primacy at that early period.

A very fine specimen of the ancient timber-fronted lands of the Old Town stood till
within the last few years at the head of Trunk's Close, behind the Fountain Well, on the
site of a plain stone tenement that has since replaced it. The back portion of the old
building, however, still remains entire, including several rooms with fine stuccoed ceilings,
and one large hall beautifully finished with richly carved pillasters and oak panneling,
which is described in the title-deeds as "presently "—i.e., in 1739— "a meeting-house
possest by Mr William Cocburn, minister of the gospel." It had previously formed the
residence of Sir John Scot of Ancrum, the first of that title, who was created a baronet by
Charles II. in 1671. From him it was acquired by Sir Gilbert Elliot of Stobs, in 1703,
and here resided that baronet, and his more illustrious son, General Elliot, the gallant
defender of Gibraltar, better known by his title of Lord Heathfield. On the pediment
over the window of a fine old stone land on the west side of Trunk's Close, is the inscrip-
tion in bold characters :— HODIE • MIHI • CRAS • TIBI • It is worthy of notice that
the same inscription is appropriately carved in similar characters over the splendid tomb
of Thomas Bannatine, in the Greyfriars' Churchyard. Several other ancient tenements in
this close are worthy of inspection for their antique irregularity of construction.

But the chief Lion among the venerable fabrics of the Old Town of Edinburgh has
long been the singularly picturesque structure which terminates the High Street towards
the east, and forms the mansion provided shortly after the Reformation, at the expense of
the town, for its first parish minister, the great Reformer, John Knox. Chambers remarks

1 A confused tradition of its having been an Episcopal residence is still preserved among the inhabitants, founded, it
may be presumed, on the sculptured mitre. The old dame who first admitted us to inspect it, stated that it was Biihop
' house ; a name, it is perhaps unnecessary to remark, not to be found in Keith's list.
VIGNETTE— Ancient Sculpture, Sandilands' Close.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 257

of it: — "This is perhaps the oldest stone building of a private nature now existing here;
for it was inhabited, before John Knox'a time, by George Durie, Abbot of Dunfcrmline
and Arch-Dean of St Andrews." He was promoted to Dunfermline by King James
V. in 1539, and was canonised by the Church of Rome within two years after his
death. No evidence now appears in the title-deeds of the property to afford a clue to
this or any other of its earlier possessors, but the tradition has been long universally
received which assigns it as the residence of the Reformer. Here, in the year 1559, he took
up his abode, along with his faithful wife, Marjorie Bowes, his companion during years
of wandering and danger, but who did not long survive his settlement in this more
promising place of rest To the same house, in 1563, he brought his second wife, Mar-
garet Stewart, daughter of " the good Lord Ochiltree," whose affections his defamers
affirmed he had gained by sorcery. Nicol Burne, in that curious work, " A disputation
concerning the controversit headdis of religion," represents him going for his bride,
" rydand with ane gret court on ane trim gelding, nocht lyk ane prophet or ane auld
decrepit priest, as he was, hot lyk as he had bene ane of the blude royal, with his bendes
of taffetie feschnit with golden ringis and precious stanes ; and as is plainlie reportit in
the country, be sorcerie and witchcraft, did sua allure that puir gentlewoman that scho
could not leve without him."

The house where Knox has received the messengers of Queen Mary, the nobles of the
court, and the leaders of the Congregation, is now rapidly falling to decay ; but it still
retains the traces of former magnificence. From its peculiar position, projecting into the
thoroughfare, and presenting its western front up the High Street, it is one of the most
remarkable houses in the Old Town ; forming a subject well calculated to tempt the artist's
pencil, even though it wanted the adventitious aid of historical associations. A long
inscription extends over nearly the whole front, immediately above the ground floor ; but it
is unfortunately concealed, all but the first two words, by the sign-boards of the traders,
who have succeeded to the occupancy of the ancient tenement. It is in large Roman
characters, and is understood to run thus :— LVFE • GOD • ABOVE • AL • AND •
YOVR • NICHTBOVR • AS • YI • SELF. A small effigy of the Reformer has long
decorated the angle of the old building, on which the pious care of successive tenants has
been expended, with a zeal not always appreciated by their fellow-citizens. He occupies
a pulpit of Presbyterian simplicity of form, and points with his right hand to a curiously
carved stone, whereon the name of the Deity appears, in Greek, Latin, and English,
surrounded by a glory on the side towards the preacher, while clouds gather around it
on the further side. Over a large bow window a carved stone is pierced with a circular
aperture, now closed up, but which, from its position, suggests the idea of having been
constructed for a public clock. Such of the stone-work as remains exposed is of polished
ashlar, but numerous timber additions have been made to the original fabric in early
times. Among these, a small apartment on the south front is, in all probability, the
study constructed for him at the expense of the town, soon after he took up his abode;
there, in conformity with the following act of Council: — " The samine day the Provost,
Baillies, and Counsail, ordanis the Dene of Gyld, with all diligence, to make ane warme
studye of dailies to the minister, John Knox, within his hous, abone the hall of the same,
with lyght and wyndokis thereunto, and all other necessaris." There, therefore, we may

R

258 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

believe, was the place whither the Reformer withdrew for private study and devotion, and
where the chief portion of his history was written.

The plaster ceiling of the hall appears to be a work about the time of Charles II., but a
great portion of it has now given way, and discloses the original oak beams and planking
of the floor above, which are painted in the style we have already described in the account
of Blyth's Close. Tradition has industriously laboured to add to the associations of the
old building by such clumsy inventions as betray their spuriousness. A vault underneath
the street, which contains a covered well, is exhibited to the curious by the tenant of the
" laigh shop/' as the scene of secret baptisms of children before the Reformation ; at a
time when it more probably formed a convenient receptacle for the good Abbot's wines,
and witnessed no other Christian rites than those over which his butler presided. The
" preaching window " has also been long pointed out, from whence the Reformer, accord-
ing to the same authority, was wont to address the populace assembled below. The
interesting narrative of his last sermon in St Giles's Church, and the scene that followed,
when his congregation lingered in the High Street, watching, as for the last time, the
feeble steps of their aged pastor, seems the best confutation of this oft-repeated tradition,
which certainly receives no countenance from history. Among these spurious traditions,
we are also inclined to reckon that which assigns the old Reformer's house to the cele-
brated printer, Thomas Bassandyne. Society Close, in its neighbourhood, was indeed
formerly called Bassandyne's Close, as appears by the titles ; but even if this be in
reference to the printer, which we question, it would rather discredit than confirm the
tradition, as another land intervened between that and the famed old tenement.1 There is
an access to Knox's house by a stair in the angle behind the Fountain Well, in the wall
of which is a doorway, now built up, said to communicate with a subterranean passage
leading to a considerable distance towards the north.

It is impossible to traverse the ruined apartments of this ancient mansion without feel-
ings of deep and unwonted interest. To the admirers of the intrepid Reformer, it awakens
thoughts not only of himself but of the work which he so effectually promoted ; to all it
is interesting as intimately associated with memorable events in Scottish history. There
have assembled the Earls of Murray, Morton, and G-lencairn ; Lords Boyd, Lindsay,
Ruthven, and Ochiltree, and many others, agents of the Court, as well as its most resolute
opponents ; and within the faded and crumbling hall, councils have been matured that
exercised a lasting influence on the national destinies. There, too, was the scene of his

1 AVe have discovered in the Burgh Charter Room a deed of disposition referring to part of this property, and of an
earlier date than any now in the hands of the proprietors, viz : — " Disposition of House in Nether Bow, March 1, 1624,
Ahioune Bassendyne and others to John Binning." One of the others is Alexander Crawford, her husband, while the
property appears to have been originally acquired by her as spouse of umq" Alexander Ker, two of whose daughters
by her are named, along with their husbands, as joint contracting parties in the disposition ; and, it may be added,
" umq1" Alexander Richardson, some time spouse to me, the said Alesoune, " an intermediate husband, is mentioned in
the deed. The house is situated down the close, and is bounded "by the waste land descending north to the wall of
Trinity College on the north . . . and the waste land of umquile James Bassendyne on the south parts." This deed is
dated only forty-seven years after the death of the printer ; so that James was, in all probability, a contemporary or pre-
decessor. Neither he nor Alesoun is referred to among the printer's relatives in his will (Bann. Misc. vol. ii. p. 203),
but '• Alesoun Baseindyne, my dochter," is appointed one of the executors in the will of Katharine Norwell, the widow
of the printer, who had married a second time, and died in 1593 (ibid, p. 220), and to whom she leaves her "twa best
new blak gowneis, twa pair of new cloikis, and twa new wylie cottis, with ane signet of gold, and ane ring with twa
btaneis. " She was probably the old printer's only child, and an infant at the time of his decease. The house, which
We believe to have been that of Thomas Bassendyne, is described towards the close of this chapter.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 259

escape from the shot of an assassin, which struck the candlestick before him as he sat at
his studies ; and within these walls he at length expired, in the sixty-seventh year of his
age, " not so much oppressed with years as worn out and exhausted by his extraordinary
labour of body and anxiety of mind."

A range of very picturesque buildings once formed the continuous row from " Knox's
corner," to the site of the ancient Nether Bow Port, but that busy destroyer, Time, seems
occasionally to wax impatient of his own ordinary slow operations, and to demolish with
a swifter hand what he has been thought inclined to spare. One of them, a curious
specimen of the ancient timber-fronted lands, and with successive tiers of windows divided
only by narrow pilasters, has recently been curtailed by a story in height and robbed of
its most characteristic features, to preserve for a little longer what remains, while the
house immediately to the east of Knox's, which tradition pointed out as the mansion of
the noble family of Balmerinoch, has now disappeared, having literally tumbled to the
ground. Immediately behind the site of this, on the west side of Society Close, an
ancient stone laud, of singular construction, bears the following inscription over its main
entrance :— R • H • HODIE • MIHI • CRAS • TIBI • CVR • IGITVR • CVRAS • There
appears to have been a date, but it is now illegible. The doorway gives access to a curious
hanging turnpike stair, supported on corbels formed by the projection of the stone steps
on the first floor beyond the wall. This is the same tenement already referred to as the
property of Aleson Bassendyne, the printer's daughter. The alley bears the name of
Bassendyne's Close, in the earliest titles ; more recently it is styled Panmure Close, from
the residence there of John Maule of Inverkeilory, appointed a Baron of the Court of
Exchequer in 1748 — a grandson of the fourth Earl of Panmure, attainted in 1715 for his
adherence to the Stuarts. The large stone mansion which he occupied at the foot of the
close, was afterwards acquired by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge,
founded in 1701, and erected into a body-corporate by Queen Anne. Its chief apart-
ment was used as their Hall ; from which circumstance the present name of the close
originated.

The old timber land to the east of this close is said to have been the Excise Office
in early times, in proof of which the royal arms are pointed out over the first floor.
The situation was peculiarly convenient for guarding the principal gate of the city, and
the direct avenue to the neighbouring seaport. It is a stately erection, of considerable
antiquity, and we doubt not has lodged much more important official occupants than the
Hanoverian excisemen. It has an outside stair leading to a stone turnpike on the first
floor, and over the doorway of the latter is the motto DEVS • BENEDICTAT. Since
George II. 's reign, the Excise Office has run through its course with as many and
rapid vicissitudes as might suffice to mark the career of a profligate spendthrift. In its
earlier days, when a floor of the old land in the Nether Bow sufficed for its accommoda-
tions, it was regarded as foremost among the detested fruits of the Union. From thence
it removed to more commodious chambers in the Cowgate, since demolished to make way
for the southern piers of George IV. Bridge. Its next resting-place was the large tene-
ment on the south side of Chessel's Court, in the Canongate, the scene of the notorious
Deacon Brodie's last robbery. From thence it was removed to Sir Lawrence Dundas's
splendid mansion in St Andrew Square, now occupied by the Royal Bank. This may

26o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

be considered its culminating point. It descended thereafter to Bellevue House in
Drummond Place, built by General Scott, the father-in-law of Mr Canning, which house
was demolished in 1846, in completing the tunnel of the Edinburgh and Leith Railway ;
and now, we believe, the exciseman no longer possesses a " local habitation " within the
Scottish capital.

On the southern side of the High Street, below " the Iron," some few remains of
antiquity have escaped the ruthless hand of destruction, though the general character of
the buildings partakes largely of modern tameness and insipidity. Previous to the
commencement of the South Bridge in 1785, the east end of the Tron Church, which has
since been considerably curtailed, abutted on to a large and stately range of building of
polished ashlar, with an arched piazza, supported on stone pillars, extending along nearly
the whole front. A large archway in this building, immediately adjoining the church,
formed the entrance to Marliu's Wynd, in front of which a row of six stones, forming
the shape of a coffin, indicated the grave of Marlin, a Frenchman, who, having first paved
the High Street in the sixteenth century, seems to have considered that useful work his
best public monument ; but the changes effected on this locality have long since oblite-
rated the pavior's simple memorial. The same destructive operations swept away the whole
of Niddiy's Wynd, an ancient alley, abounding with interesting fabrics of an early date,
and associated with some of the most eminent citizens of former times. Here was the
civic palace of Nicol Udward, Provost of Edinburgh in 1591, a large and very handsome
quadrangle building, of uniform architectural design and elegant proportions, in which
King James VI. and his Queen took up their residence for a time in 1591.1 This
building appears, from the description of it, to have been one of the most magnificent
private edifices of the Old Town.2 In the same wynd, a little further down on the
opposite side, stood St Mary's Chapel, an ancient religious foundation dedicated to the
Virgin Mary. It was founded and endowed by Elizabeth, Countess of Ross, in 1504,
the widow of John, Lord of the Isles, who was outlawed and forfeited by James III. for
treasonable correspondence with Edward IV. of England. She was the eldest daughter
of James, Lord Livingston, Great Chamberlain of Scotland, and appears to have held
considerable property by special charters in her own behalf. A modern edifice has been
substituted for the ancient chapel before the demolition of Niddry's Wynd, which formed
the hall of the corporation of wrights and masons. It was acquired by them in 1618,
since which they have borne the name of the United Incorporations of Mary's C/tapel.
The modern erection appeared from its style to have been built early in the eighteenth
century, and its name is now transferred to their unpretending hall in Bell's Wynd.

On entering Dickson's Close, a little farther down the street, the first house the visitor
comes to on the left hand is a neat and very substantial stone edifice, evidently the work
of Robert Mylne, and built about the period of the Revolution. Of its first occupants
we can give no account, but one of its more recent inhabitants is calculated to give it a
peculiar interest. Here was the residence of David Allan, " our Scottish Hogarth," as
he was called, an artist of undoubted genius, whose fair fame has suffered by the tame
insipidity which inferior engravers have infused into his illustrations to Ramsay and
Burns. The satiric humour and drollery of his well-known " rebuke scene " in a country

1 Ante, p. 89. " For a detailed account of this very interesting old building, vide Minor Antiquities, p. 207.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. =Cr

church, and the lively expression aiid spirit of the " General Assembly," and others of
his own etchings, amply justify the character he enjoyed among his contemporaries as a
truthful and humorous delineator of nature. He succeeded Ruuciman as master of the
Academy established by the Board of Trustees, the classes of which then met in the
College, while he received private pupils at his own house in Dickson's Close.1 A little
lower down the close on the same side, an old and curious stone tenement bears on its
lower crowstep the Haliburton Arms, impaled with another coat, on one shield. It is a
singularly unique and time-worn edifice, evidently of considerable antiquity. A curious
double window projects on a corbeled base into the close, while the whole stone-work is
so much decayed as greatly to add to its picturesque character. In the earliest deed
which exists, bearing the date 1582, its first proprietor, Master James Halyburton — a
title then of some meaning — is spoken of in indefinite terms as umyle or deceased ; so
that it is a building probably of the early part of the sixteenth century. It afterwards
was the residence of Sir John Haliday of Tillybole. The most interesting fact, however,
brought out by these early titles, occurs in defining the boundaries of the property,
wherein it is described as having " the trans of the prebendaries of the kirk of Crightoun
on the east pairt and oyr partes ; " so that a considerable part of Cant's Close appears
to have been occupied in early times by ecclesiastical buildings in connection with
the church of Crichton, erected into a collegiate foundation in 1449 by Sir Wm.
Crichton, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland.2 Directly opposite to the site of this
is another ecclesiastical edifice, the mansion of the Abbot of Melrose, which enters
from Strichen's Close. It is a large and substantial stone building, enclosing a small
square or court in the centre, the original access to which seems to have disappeared.
The whole building has evidently undergone great alterations ; and over one of the
doorways, a carved stone bears a large and very boldly cut shield, with two coats of
arms impaled, and the date 1600. There seems no reason to doubt, however, that the
main portion of the Abbot's residence still remains. The lower story is strongly vaulted,
and is evidently the work of an early date. The small quadrangle also is quite in
character with the period assumed for the building; and at its north-west angle in Cant's
Close, where a curiously carved fleur-de-lis surmounts the gable, a grotesque gurgoil of
antique form serves as a gutter to the roof. Here, therefore, we may assign with little
hesitation the residence of Andrew Durie, nominated by James V. to the Abbey of Mel-
rose in the year 1526; and whose death, Knox assures us, was occasioned by the terror
into which he was put on the memorable uproar on St Giles's day 1558. The close, which
is called the Abbot of Melrose's in its earlier titles, assumes that of Rosehaugh Close at a
later period, from the Abbot's lodging having become the residence of the celebrated Sir
George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, King's Advocate for Scotland after the Restoration.
During a great part of last century, this ancient mansion was occupied by Alexander
Fraser of Strichen, who was connected by marriage with the descendants of Sir George

1 Caledonian Mercury, Nov. 15, 1788. — His terms were one guinea per month for three lessons in the week, a fee
that undoubtedly restricted his private classes at that period to the most wealthy and fashionable students of art. The
date of the advertisement is the year of his marriage.

2 " It appears from old writings and charters connected with the house, that the tenement fronting the street, by
which it was bounded on the north, had been, before the Reformation, the lodging of the Provost of Crichton." — Tradi-
tions, vol. i. p. 92. The old building is long since destroyed.

262 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Mackenzie, and who sat for nearly half a century on the Bench under the title of Lord
Strichen. From him it derived its present name of Strichen's Close, and there is little
probability now that any of his plebeian successors will rob it of the title.

The front tenement, which extends between Strichen's Close and Blackfriars' Wynd,
presents no features of attraction as it now stands. It is a plain, modern land, re-erected
after the destruction of its predecessor in one of the alarming fires of the memorable year
1824, and constructed with a view to the humbler requisites of its modern tenants ; but
the old building that occupied its site was a handsome stone fabric of loftier proportions
than its plebeian successor, and formed even within the present century the residence of
people of rank. The most interesting among its later occupants was Lady Lovat, the relict
of the celebrated Simon, Lord Lovat, who was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1747; in con-
sequence of which it was generally known as Lady Lovafs Land. It possesses, however,
more valuable associations than this, its ancient title-deeds naming as the original
proprietor, Walter Chepman, the earliest Scottish printer, who introduced the printing-
press into Scotland in the year 1507, under the munificent auspices of James IV. To
the press of Walter Chepman, the admirers of our early national literature still turn,
not without hope that additions may yet be made, by further discovery of its invaluable
fragments, to the writings of those great men who adorned the Augustan age of Scotland.
The building, however, which perished in the conflagration of 1824, did not appear to
be of an earlier date than the period of the Revolution ; soon after which many of the
substantial stone tenements of the Old Town were erected. The more ancient edifice
seems to have been one of the picturesque timber-fronted erections of the reign of
James IV., and formed the subject of special privileges granted by that monarch to his
valued servitor. In the Registers of the Privy Seal (iv. 173), there is preserved the
following royal licence, dated at Edinburgh, February 5, 1510 : — " A licence maid to
Walter Chepman, burges of Edinburgh, to haif staris towart the Hie Strete and calsay,
with bak staris and turngres in the Frer Wynd, or on the forgait, of sic breid and
lenth as he sail think expedient for eutre and asiamentis to his land and tenement ;
and to flit the pend of the said Frer Wynd, for making of neidful asiaments in the
sammyn ; and als to big and haif ane wolt vnder the calsay, befor the for front of the
said tenement, of sic breid as he thiukis expedient ; with ane penteis vnder the greissis
of his for star," &c. The whole grant is a curious sample of the arbitrary manner in
which private interests and the general convenience of the citizens were sacrificed to the
wishes of the royal favourite. The printing house of Chepman & Millar was in the
south gait, or Cowgate l of Edinburgh, as appears from the imprint on the rare edition of
" The Knightly Tale of Golagros and G-awane," and others of the earliest issues from
their press in the year 1 508 ; and it no doubt was the same tenement with which, in
1528, Chepman endowed an altar in the chapel of the Holy Rood, in the lower church-
yard of St Giles. We would infer, however, from the nature of the royal grant, that the
ancient building at the Nether Bow was the residence of Walter Chepman, who was a

1 The names of streets so common in Scotland, formed with the adjunct gate, rarely if ever refer to a gate or port,
according to the modern acceptation of the word ; but to gait or street, as the King's hie gait, or, as here, the south gait,
meaning the south street. The Water Gate, which is the only instance of the ancient use of the word in Edinburgh,
is invariably written yctt in early notices of it.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 263

citizen of wealth and importance, occupying a high office, probably of an ecclesiastical
character, in the royal household, and in his titles is styled Walter Chepman de Ever land.1
A broad archway, which leads through the modern successor of the old typographer's
fore tenement, gives entrance to Blackfriars' Wynd, the largest, and undoubtedly the
most important, of all the ancient closes of Edinburgh. It derives its name from having
formed the approach to the monastery of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, founded by
Alexander II. in 1230, which stood on the site of the Old High School. This royal foun-
dation, which formed for a time the residence of its founder, received from him, among
other endowments, a gift of the whole ground now occupied by the wynd to erect houses
thereon. For fully five centuries this ancient alley may be said to have formed one of
the most aristocratic districts of the Scottish capital ; and it continued even after the
Reformation to be the chosen place of residence of some of the chief Scottish ecclesiastics.
It possessed, till a few years since, much of the fine antique picturesqueness that anciently
pertained to it, as will be seen in the accompanying view, drawn in 1837 ; but since then
a rapid demolition of its decaying tenements has taken place ; and although it still retains
some exceedingly interesting relics of the past, the general aspect of the Preaching Friars'
Vennel has given place to rude and tasteless modern erections, or to ruinous desolation.2

We have already noticed, in the introductory sketch, several of the most memorable
incidents of which this ancient alley has been the scene. There some of the keenest
struggles of the rival factions took place during the famous contest known as "Cleanse the
Causeway ; " down its straitened thoroughfare the victorious adherents of the Earl of Angus
rushed to assault the palace of the Archbishop of Glasgow at the foot of the wynd, and
from thence to wreak their vengeance on his person in the neighbouring church of the
Black Friars, whither he fled for shelter. In the reign of James VI., in 1588, it was the
arena of a similar contest between the retainers of the Earl of Bothwell and Sir William
Stewart, when the latter was slain there by the sword of his rival. The next remarkable
incident that occurred was in 1668, when Sharpe, Archbishop of St Andrews, was seated
in his coach at the head of Blackfriars' Wyud, waiting for the Bishop of Orkney, whose
residence would appear from this to have been in the wynd. Just as the Bishop was
approaching the vehicle, Mitchell, the fanatic assassin already described,3 and an intimate
acquaintance of the no less notorious Major Weir,4 aimed a pistol at the Primate, the
contents of which missed him, but dangerously wounded the Bishop of Orkney, who at the
moment was stepping into the coach. Since then the old alley has quietly progressed in
its declining fortunes to a state of desertion and ruin.

On the west side, near the head of the wynd, a decorated lintel bore the inscription and
device represented jn the accompanying woodcut, with the date 1564. The ground floor
of this building consisted of one very large apartment, with a massive stone pillar in the
centre, which formed the place of worship to which the adherents of the covenanted kirk
retreated on the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs at the Revolution ; and it is described,

1 It may be remarked here that Chepman's spouse, Agnes Coburn, is mentioned in the same titles, showing that he
was not bound by ecclesiastical vows of celibacy.

2 While the west side of Blackfriars' Wynd still stands, the east, with several closes adjacent, a description of which
is given in subsequent pages of this chapter, has been taken down, in connection with plans for the improvement of the
city.

3 Ante, p. 101. •> Ravaillac Redivivus, Lond. 1678, p. 12.

264

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

in

._ an advertisement of the year 1798, as " the Auld Cameronian Meeting-house." Tra-
dition pointed out the upper flat of the same tenement as having been the lodging of
" Nicol Muschett of ill memorie," while a student at college, though it appears, from the

evidence on his trial, that his
final residence was in Dickson's
Close. This ancient tenement,
which was latterly regarded with
interest, as bearing the oldest
date on any private building in
Edinburgh, excepting that al-
ready described in Blyth's Close,
has been recently entirely demo-
lished, and replaced by a plain
unpretending erection.1 But we
have since discovered a stone in
the possession of James Gibson Craig, Esq., bearing the much earlier date of 1506, which
was removed from a house taken down some years since, near the foot of this same wynd,
on the opposite side. The stone appears to have formed the top of a dormer window,
being triangular in shape, and surmounted by an unusually large crescent The date is
cut partly in Arabic and partly in Roman numerals, thus : — 15 VI. The site of this
ancient fabric is now a ruinous waste, rendering it impossible to recover any traces of its
proprietors, either in early or later times.

Immediately adjoining the former building, on the west side of the wynd, is the venerable
mansion of the Earls of Morton, an ancient timber-fronted land, already referred to in the
description of Brown's Close, Castlehill,* with its fine Gothic doorway, and sculptured tym-
panum, containing a coronet supported by unicorns. Such portions of the stone front as
remain exposed, exhibit the feature, which occurs so frequently in buildings of an early
date, of moulded windows originally divided by stone mullions. The desolate and deserted
aspect of the vice-regal residence, comports with the degraded state of this once patrician
locality, now " fallen on evil days and evil tongues." It has long been entirely shut up,
defying as completely all attempts at investigating its interior, as when Queen's men and
King's men were fighting in the High Street, and Kirkaldy of Grange was bent on driving
the Regent and all his followers from the town. The evidence of this mansion having
been occupied by the Regent Morton is not complete, though it is undoubtedly of an earlier
date, and appears to have been possessed by his immediate ancestors. The earliest title
which we have seen is a disposition by Archibald Douglas, younger of Whittinghame, one
of the senators of the College of Justice, in which it is described as "that tenement which
was some time the Earl of Mortouo's." From this it may be inferred to have been the
residence of his direct ancestor, John, second Earl of Morton, who sat in the Parliament
of James IV. in 1504,3 and whose grandson, William Douglas of Whittinghame was
created a senator of the College of Justice in 1575. He was a contemporary of his kins-

1 The ancient tenement at the head of Monteith's Close bore the date 1562, with an inscription over the doorway
of a remarkably fine inner turnpike, but it was demolished several years before the one in Blackfriars' Wynd.
* Ante, p. 188. * Douglas's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 269.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 265

man, the Regent Morton, and an associate with him in the murder of Rizzio ; BO that, if
the sculpture over the doorway be a device adopted by the Morton family, the correspond-
ing one, already described in the Castle Hill, may be considered as affording considerable
probability of that house having been the mansion of the Regent. William Douglas,
Lord Whittinghame, resigned his office as a judge in 1590, and was succeeded by his son
Archibald, the granter of the disposition referred to, a special favourite of James VI.,
who accompanied him on his matrimonial voyage to Norway, and was rewarded for his
" lovable service " soon after his return by this judicial appointment.

The portion of the wynd below this old mansion included, along with the building
of 1564, recently swept away to make room for an extensive printing-office, another
which was long used as a Roman Catholic Chapel. This was an antique stone fabric,
from which a curiously-projecting timber front was removed only a few years before its
desertion as a place of worship. On the fifth flat of this tenement, approached by a
steep and narrow turnpike stair, a large chamber was consecrated to the worship of the
Roman Catholic Church during the greater part of last century, and probably earlier.
When we last visited this primitive retreat of " Old Giant Pope, after the many
shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger days," there still remained painted, in
simple fashion, on one of the doors immediately below the chapel, the name of the old
Bishop, Mr Hay. This was the once celebrated opponent of Bishop AVm. Abernethy
Drummond, of the Scottish Episcopal Church, under the initials G. H., and well worthy
of note in the history of the locality as the last of the Bishops of Blackfriars' Wynd,
where the proudest nobles of Scotland were wont of old to give place to the dignitaries of
the Church.

Nearly opposite to this, a large and ancient tenement stood entire in the midst
of ruins, the upper story of which was also used as a chapel. It was dedicated to St
Andrew, and formed the chief Roman Catholic place of worship in Edinburgh, until it
was abandoned in the year 1813 for the ecclesiastical edifice at Broughton Street,
dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary. The interior of the chapel retained much
of its original state till its demolition. The frame -work of the simple altarpiece
still remained, though the rude painting of the Patron Saint of Scotland, which
originally filled it, had disappeared. Humble as must have been the appearance of this
chapel, even when furnished with every adjunct of Catholic ceremonial for Christmas or
Easter festivals, aided by the imposing habits of the officiating priests that gathered
around its little altar, yet men of ancient lineage were wont to assemble among the
worshippers ; and during the abode of the royal exiles at Holyrood Palace, Count
d'Artois, the future occupant of the French throne, with the princes and their attendants,
usually formed part of the congregation. An internal staircase formed a private entrance
for the priests and other officials from the floor below, where the straitened accommo-
dations it afforded sufficed for the humble residence of these successors of the Cardinals
and Archbishops who once dwelt in the same neighbourhood. The public access was by
a projecting stone staircase, which formed the approach to the different floors of the
building. Over this doorway was a sculptured lintel, with a shield of arms in the centre,
bearing three stars in chief, with a plain cross, and over it two swords saltier ways.
On either side of this was cut, in large antique characters, the inscription MISERERE

266 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

MEI DEVS ; and below, the initials G. Gr. The latter has been mistaken for the date
1616 ; but no one who examined the style of the doorway and inscription could feel any
hesitation in assigning to it a date of fully a century earlier.

Only one other old building remained on the west side of the wynd, bearing the pious
inscription over its entrance : — THE FEIB OP THE LORD is THE BEGYNNING OF AL VISDOME.
Below this, at the corner of the Cowgate, formerly stood the English Episcopal
Chapel, founded by Lord Chief Baron Smith in 1722. It was a plain edifice, possessing
no external features of an ecclesiastical character, as may be seen in our engraving of
" Cardinal Beaton's House," where it appears on the further side of the wynd. The
building existed exactly a century, having been demolished in 1822, after serving during
that period as the place of worship of all loyal and devout Episcopal High Churchmen,
at a time when Episcopacy and Jacobitisin were nearly synonymous in Scotland.
The interest that attaches to it as a feature of the olden time, when such a sight was
deemed the most suitable that could be selected for a chapel, probably attended by a
congregation including a greater array of rank and fashion than any that now assembles
in Edinburgh, is further increased from its having been the place of worship of Dr
Johnson when residing with Boswell, in 1773.

Here also, and not improbably on the same site, was the town mansion of William
St Glair, Earl of Orkney, the founder of Roslin Chapel, who maintained his Court at
Roslin Castle with a magnificence far surpassing what had often sufficed for that of the
Scottish Kings. He was royally served at his own table — if we are to believe the
genealogist — in vessels of gold and silver ; Lord Dirleton being his master of the house-
hold, Lord Borthwick his cup-bearer, and Lord Fleming his carver, with men of ancient
rank and lineage for their deputies. His Princess, Margaret Douglas, was waited on,
according to Father Hay, by seventy -five gentlewomen, whereof fifty -three were
daughters of noblemen, " all cloathd in velvets and silks, with their chains of gold,
and other pertinents ; togither with two hundred rideing gentlemen who accom-
panied her in all her journeys. She had carried before her, when she went to
Edinburgh, if it were darke, eighty lighted torches. Her lodgeing was att the foot
of Blackfryer Wynde ; so that, in a word, none matched her in all the countrey, save
the Queen's Majesty."1

Directly opposite to the site of Baron Smith's Chapel stood one of the palatial edifices
of the old capital, popularly known as Cardinal Beaton's house — a sufficiently humble
and unpretending structure, which undoubtedly formed an archiepiscopal residence of no
mean character in the sixteenth century. This ancient mansion, however, falls more
correctly to be treated of as one of the most interesting among the older features of the
Cowgate. The vignette at the beginning of the chapter exhibits the richest group of
mottoes to be found on any building in Edinburgh. They formed the decorations on the
architrave of a decayed old stone land on the same side, near the head of the wynd.
A shield, charged with armorial bearings, was sculptured on the left side of the doorway,
as represented in the woodcut, with the initials E. K., and the date 1619. The building
above this, at the head of the east side, was one of much more pretension externally,
having a front to the wynd of polished ashlar, and a range of unusually large windows,

1 Genealogie of the Sainte Claires of Rosslyn, p. 26.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 267

separated only by very narrow uprights. It is decorated with string courses and rich
mouldings, and forms a fine specimen of an Old- Town mansion of the sixteenth century.
It is stated by Chambers to be entailed with the estate of the Clerks of Penuycuik, aud
to have formed the town residence of their ancestors. This we presume to have been the
later residence of Alexander, fifth Lord Home ; the same who entertained Queen Mary
and Lord Darnley in his lodging near the Tron in 1565, and who afterwards turned the
fortune of the field at the Battle of Langside, at the head of his border spearmen. He
was one of the noble captives who siirreudered to Sir William Durie on the taking of
Edinburgh Castle in 1573. He was detained a prisoner, while his brave companions
perished on the scaffold ; and was only released at last after a tedious captivity, to die
a prisoner at large in his own house — the same, we believe, which stood in Blackfriars'
Wynd. A contemporary writer remarks : — " Wpouu the secund day of Junij [1575],
Alexander Lord Home wes relevit out of the Castell of Edinburgh, and wardit in his
awne lugeing in the heid of the Frier Wynd, quha wes carijt thairto in ane bed, be ressone
of his great infirmitie of seiknes."1

Scarcely another portion of the Old Town of Edinburgh was calculated to impress the
thoughtful visitor with the same melancholy feelings of a departed glory, replaced by
squalor and decay, which he experienced after exploring the antiquities of the Blackfriars'
Wynd. There stood the deserted and desecrated fane ; the desolate mansions of proud
and powerful nobles and senators ; and the degraded Palace of the Primate and Cardinal,
where even Scottish mouarchs have been fitly entertained ; and it seemed for long
as if the ground which Alexander II. bestowed on the Dominican Monks, as a special
act of regal munificence, was not possessed of value enough to tempt the labours of the
builder.

Emerging again through the archway at the head of the wynd, which the royal master-
printer Jlitted at his pleasure above three centuries ago, an ancient, though greatly
modernised, tenement in the High Street to the east of the wynd attracted the notice of
the local historian as the mansion of Lord President Fentonbarns, a man of humble origin,
the son of a baker in Edinburgh, whose eminent abilities won him the esteem and the
suffrages of its contemporaries. He owed his fortunes to the favour of James VI., by
whom he was nominated to fill the office of a Lord of Session, and afterwards knighted.
We are inclined to think that it is to him Montgomerie alludes in his satirical sonnets
addressed to M. J. Sharpe — in all probability an epithet of similar origin and significance
to that conferred by the Jacobites on the favourite advocate of William III. The poet
had failed in a suit before the Court of Session, seemingly with James Beaton, Arch-
bishop of Glasgow, and he takes his revenge against " his Adversars Lawyers," like other
poets, in satiric rhyme. The lack of " gentle blude " is a special handle against the ple-
beian judge in the eyes of the high-born poet ; and his second sonnet, which is sufficiently
vituperative, begins : —

A Baxter's bird, a bluiter beggar borne 1 a

This old mansion was the last survivor of all the long and unbroken range of build-
ings between St Giles's Church and the Nether Bow. In its original state it was one of

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 348. * Alexander Montgomerie's Poems ; complete edition, by Dr Irving, p. 74.

268 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the very finest speciraeus of this ancient style of building in Edinburgh, having the main
timbers and gables of its oaken facjade richly carved, in the fashion of some of the mag-
nificent old timber fronts of the opulent Flemings in Bruges or Ghent. The roof was
surmounted by a range of crow-steps of the form already described as peculiar to the
fifteenth or earlier part of the sixteenth centuries ; and an outside stair led to the first
floor, whose ancient stone turnpike staircase was decorated with the abbreviated motto,
in fine ornamental Gothic characters : — DEO • HONOR • ET • GLIA • l Another inscrip-
tion, we are told, existed over the entrance from Toddrick's Wynd, being only covered
up with plaster by a former tenant to save the expense of a signboard. A little way
down this wynd, on the east side, a favourite motto appeared, in bold Roman letters, over
an ancient doorway, repeating with slight variation the same sentiment already noticed in
other instances. THE FEIR OF THE LORD is THE BEGENING OF VISDOME. It occurred on an
ancient tenement which bore evident tokens of having at one time been the residence of
rank and fashion ; and an old iron-nobbed door on one of the floors possessed the
antiquated appendage of a risping pin. Toddrick's Wynd acquired a special interest from
its association with a memorable deed in the bloody annals of our national history. It
was by this ancient alley that the Earl of Bothwell and his merciless accomplices and
hirelings proceeded towards the gate of the Blackfriars' Monastery, in the Cowgate, on
the 9th of February 1567, to fire the powder by which the house of the Provost of the
Kirk-of-Field was blown into the air, and Lord Darnley, with his servant, Taylor,
slain.

The closes between this and the Netherbow mostly exist in the same state as they have
done for the two last centuries or more, though woefully contaminated by the slovenly
habits of their modern inmates ; this portion of the town being occupied now by a lower
class than many of the ancient ' alleys described in the higher part of the town. South
Gray's, or the Mint Close, however, forms an exception. It is a comparatively spacious
and aristocratic looking alley ; and some feeble halo of its ancient honours still lingers
about its substantial and picturesque mansions. It affords a curious instance of a close
retaining for centuries the name of a simple burgess, while it has been the residence of
nobles and representatives of ancient families, in striking contrast to the variable nomen-
clature of most of the alleys of the Old Town. It is mentioned by its present name in a
charter dated 1512, in which " umq1' John Gray, burgess of Edinburgh," is the author of
earlier titles referred to. By an older deed, the ground on which it is built appears to
have formed part of the lands of the Monastery of Greyfriars. In " the Inventer and

1 This auoieut tenement is thus described in a disposition by Sir Michael Preston to Lawrence Kenrison, dated 1626,
and preserved in the Burgh Charter Room :— " That tenement or land, some time waste and burnt be the English ;
some time pertaining to umquile Mr John Preston, some time President of the College of Justice, and my father ; on
the south part of the King's High Street, and on the east side of the trance of the wynd, called the Blackfriars' Wynd,
betwixt the said trance and laud above, pertaining to the heirs of umquile Walter Chepman, upon the west," &c. It is
pointed out in Chambers's Traditions as that of Lord Fentonbarns. The allusion to its burning shows the date of its
erection to be somewhat later than 1544. But it again suffered in the civil wars that followed, though probably not so
completely as to preclude repair, notwithstanding its appearance among the list of houses destroyed during the siege of
Edinburgh in 1572 : — " Tliir ar the houssis that wer distroyit this moneth (May) ; to wit, the Erie of Maris, now pre-
sent Regent, lugeing in the Cowgait, Mr Johne Prestonis in the Frier Wynd, David Kiuloch Baxteris house in Dal-
gleiah Closs," Ac. — (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 299.) The last mentioned is that of a wealthy burgess of the period,
whose name was borne by the close immediately below Niddry's Wynd, the same, we presume, that is alluded to here.
Its site is now occupied by the east side of Niddry Street.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 269

Wryts of ane lodging," &c., on the east side of the close, a charter is mentioned, dated
1456, "granted be David Bae, vicar generall ; Ffindlay Ker, prior; and the rest of the
Convent of Graifriers att Edinburgh, to Andrew Mowbray, burgess," of a certain piece of
laud on which it is built, bounded by the king's wall on the south. About halfway down
the close, on the east side, stands the ancient mansion of the Earls of Selkirk, having
a large garden to the south, while the principal entrance is from Hyndford's Close. The
building has the appearance of great antiquity. The ground floor of the south front
seems to have been an open arcade or cloister, and on the west wall a picturesque turret
staircase projects from the first floor into the close. This ancient tenement has successively
formed the residence of the Earls of Stirling, of the Earl of Hyndford, and, at a still later
period, of Dr Rutherford, the maternal grandfather of Sir Walter Scott. Hyndford's
Close, which forms the main approach to the house, retains its antique character, having
on the west side a range of singularly picturesque overhanging timber gables. It is
neatly paved, terminating in a small court, open at one side, and altogether presents a
very pleasing specimen of the retired, old-fashioned gentility which once characterised
these urban retreats. The fine old house described above, which forms the chief
building in the close, possesses peculiar interest as a favourite haunt of Scott
during his earlier years. Its vicinity to the High School gave it additional attrac-
tions to him, while pursuing his studies there, and he frequently referred in after
life to the happy associations he had with this alley of the Old Town. A very pleasing
view of the house from the garden is given in the Abbotsford edition of the great
novelist's works.

To the south of this mansion, in the Mint Close, a lofty tenement, enclosing a small
paved area, still bears the name of Elphinstone's Court, having been built by Sir James
Elphinstone in 1679. From him it passed to Sir Francis Scott of Thirlstane, by whom
it was sold to Patrick Wedderburn, Esq., who assumed the title of Lord Chesterhall
on his elevation to the Bench in 1755. His son Alexander, afterwards the celebrated
Lord Loughborough, Lord High Chancellor of England, disposed of it shortly after
his father's death to Lord Stonefield, who sat as a judge in the Court of Session during
the long period of thirty-nine years, and died in the Mint Close at the beginning of
the present century ; so recent is the desertion of this ancient locality by the grandees of
the capital.

Various ancient tenements are to be found in the adjoining closes, of which tradition
has kept no note, and we have failed to obtain any other clue to their history. One
large mansion in South Foulis Close bears the date 1539 over its main doorway, with two
coats of arms impaled on one large shield in the centre, but all now greatly defaced.
Another, nearly opposite to it, exhibits an old oak door, ornamented with fine carving,
still in tolerable preservation, although the whole place has been converted into
storerooms and cellars. But adjoining this is a relic of antiquity, beside which the
works of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries appear but as things of yesterday, and
even the ancient chapel of St Margaret in the Castle becomes a work of comparatively
recent date.

In the front of a tall and narrow tenement at the Nether Bow, nearly opposite to
John Knox's house, a piece of ancient sculpture has long formed one of the most noted

270 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of the antiquities of Edinburgh. It consists of two fine profile heads, in high relief and
life size, which the earliest writers on the subject pronounce to be undoubted specimens
of Roman art. It was first noticed in 1727, in Gordon's valuable work on Roman
Antiquities, the Itinerarium Septentrionale, accompanied by an engraving, where he
remarks : — " A very learned and illustrious antiquary here, by the ideas of the heads,
judges them to be representations of the Emperor SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, and his wife JULIA.
This is highly probable and consistent with the Roman history ; for that the Emperor,
and most of his august family, were in Scotland, appears plain in Xephiline, from Dio." *
This idea, thus first suggested, of the heads being those of Severus and Julia, is fully
warranted by their general resemblance to those on the Roman coins of that reign,
and has been confirmed by the observation of every antiquary who has treated of the
subject. A tablet is inserted between the heads, containing the following inscription, in
antique characters : —

3n jsttuore twltg. tut tecrn'0, pane tuo. • 05 • 3.2

This quotation from the Latin Bible, of the curse pronounced on our first parents after
the fall, is no doubt the work of a very different period, and was the source of the vulgar
tradition gravely combated by Maitland, our earliest local historian, that the heads were
intended as representations of Adam and Eve. These pieces of ancient sculpture, which
were said in his time to have been removed from a house on the north side of the street,
have probably been discovered in digging the foundations of the building, and along
with them the Gothic inscription — to all appearance a fragment from the ruins of the
neighbouring convent of St Mary, or some other of the old monastic establishments of
Edinburgh. The words of the inscription exactly correspond with the reading of Guten-
berg's Bible, the first edition, printed at Mentz in 1455, and would appear an object worthy
of special interest to the antiquary, were it not brought into invidious association with
these valuable relics of a remoter era. The characters of the inscription leave little reason
to doubt that it is the work of the same period, probably only a few years later than the
printing of the Mentz Bible.

The old tenement, which is rendered interesting as the conservator of these valuable
monuments of the Roman invasion, and is thus also associated in some degree with the
introduction of the first printed Bible into Scotland, appears to be the same, or at least
occupies the same site, with that from whence Thomas Bassendyne, our famed old Scottish
typographer, issued his beautiful folio Bible in 1574. The front land, which contains
the pieces of Roman sculpture, is proved from the titles to have been rebuilt about the
beginning of the eighteenth century, in the room of an ancient timber-fronted land, which
was " lately, of need, taken down," having no doubt fallen into ruinous decay. The back
part of the tenement, however, retains unequivocal evidence of being the original building.
It is approached by the same turnpike stair from the Fountain Close as gives access to

1 Itiner. Septent. p. 186.

* Maitland and others have mistaken the concluding letters of the inscription, as a contraction for the date, which
the former states as 1621, and a subsequent writer as 1603. Mr D. Laing was the first to point out its true meaning as
a contracted form of reference to Genesis, chapter 3. — Vide Archseologia Scotica, vol. iii. p. Wi, where a very accurate
and spirited engraving of the Sculpture, by David Allan, is introduced.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 271

the front land ; and owing to the alteration in the level of floors, and other changes conse-
quent ou the wedding of this wrinkled dowager of the sixteenth century with its spruce
partner of the eighteenth, an explorer of its intricate labyrinths finds himself beset by as
many inconveniences as Mr Lovel experienced on his first introduction 'to the mitred Abbot
of Trotcosey's Grange, at Monkbarns. On ascending the winding stair, by which he
reaches the door of the first floor, he has then to descend another ; and after threading a
dark passage on this lower level, somewhat in the form of the letter Z, he reaches a third
flight of steps equally zigzag in their direction, whose ascent — if he have courage to perse-
vere so far, lands him in " that other tenement of land, commonly called the Fountain, a,
little above the Nether Bow, on the south side of the High Street of Edinburgh ; and
which tenement of land, formerly called the Backland, some time belonged to Nicol and
Alexander Bassandene, lawful sons to Michael Bassaudene, lying in the closs called Bas-
sandene's Closs," &c. Such is the description of this ancient fabric, as given in the earlier
title-deeds of the present proprietor. The same building is repeatedly referred to in the
evidence of the accomplices of the Earl of Bothwell in the murder of Darnley, an event
which took place in the lifetime of the old printer. In the deposition of George Dalgleish,
one of those who was executed for his share in that crime, it is stated, that " eftir thay
enterit within the [Nether Bow] Port, thai zeid up abone Bassyntine's house, on the south
side of the gait, and knockit at aue dur beneth the sword slippers, and callit for the Laird
of Ormestounes, and one within answerit he was not thare ; and thai passit down a cloiss
beneth Frier Wynd, and enterit in at the zet of the Black Friers." This reference
clearly indicates the tenement which we have described ; the only question is, whether it
was that of Thomas Bassendyne, the printer, referred to in the imprint of his rare 4to
edition of Sir David Lindsay's Poems, printed in 1574, while " dwellaud at the Nether
Bow." In the statement of debts appended to his will, 2 there was " awand to Alesoun
Tod, mother to the defunct, for half ane zeiris male of the house iiii 1. ; " while there was
due to him, " be Michael Bassinden, bruther to the said vmquhile Thomas, of byrun
annuellis, the soume of ane hundreth ten pundis." From this, it seems probable that his
mother was liferented in that part of the house which formed the printer's dwelling and
establishment, while the remainder, belonging to himself, was occupied by his brother.
At all events he leaves in his will, " his thrid, the ane half thairof to his wyf, and the
vthir half to his mother, and Michael, and his bairnes ; " in which we presume to have
been included the house, which we find both he and his bairns afterwards possessing,
and for which no rent would appear to have been exacted during the lifetime of the
printer.

The name of the Fountain, by which the old tenement is distinguished in the titles, is
curious. The well, which now bears the same name, had in all probability formerly stood
either in front of this building, or more probably — from the speciality of the name, and
the narrowness of the street at that point — it had formed a portion of the building itself;
for it is not styled the Fountain Land, according to usual custom, but simply The Foun-
tain. In the evidence of the Earl of Bothwell's accomplices, already referred to, it is
stated by William Powrie, that after " thai hard the crack, thai past away togidder out at
the Frier Yet, and sinderit quhen thai came to the Cowgate, pairt up the Blackfrier

1 Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, Supplement, p. 405. * Bannatyne Misc., vol. ii. p. 202.

2/2

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Wynd, and pairt up the cloiss which is under the Endmyleis Well." ' Whether this be
the same well is doubtful, as no close lower down appears as a thoroughfare in early or
later maps ; it is evident, however, that the name of the Fountain Close is derived from
some other, and probably much more important, conduit than the plain structure beside
John Knox's house, which has long borne the same designation.

On the east side of the close, directly opposite the entrance to Bassendyne's house, an
ancient entrance of a highly ornamental character appears. It consists of two doorways,
with narrow pilasters on each side supporting the architrave, which is adorned with a
variety of inscriptions, as represented in the accompanying woodcut, and altogether forms
a remarkably neat and elegant design. This is the mansion of Adam Fullerton, whose

name is carved over the left doorway — an eminent and influential citizen in the reign of
Queen Mary, and an active colleague and coadjutor of Edward Hope in the cause of the
Reformation. In 1561, his name appears as one of the bailies of Edinburgh, who, along
with Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, the provost, laid hold of a poor craftsman who had
been guilty of the enormity of playing Robin Hood, and condemned him to be hanged —
a procedure which ended in the mob becoming masters of the town, and compelling the
magistrates to sue for the mediation of the Governor of the Castle, and at length fairly to
succumb to the rioters.3 Only two months after this commotion, Queen Mary landed at
Leith, and was loyally entertained by the town of Edinburgh — Adam Fullerton, doubt-
less, taking a prominent part among her civic hosts. In the General Assembly held at
Leith, January 16, 1571, his name occurs as commissioner of the town of Edinburgh.3
On the 23d of June following, during the memorable siege of Edinburgh by the Regent
Mar, in the name of the infant King, the burgesses of the capital who favoured the Regent,
to the number of two hundred men, united themselves into a band, and passing privately
to Leith, which was then held by the Regent's forces ; they there made choice of Adam
Fullerton for their captain.4 The consequence of this was his being " denuncit our soue-
rane ladies rebell, and put to the home" on the 18th of August following;5 and "vpoun
the tuantie nynt day of the said moneth, James Duke of Chattellarault, George Erie of
Huntlie, Alexander Lord Home, accumpanyit with diuerse prelatis and barronis, past to
the tolbuith of Edinburgh ; and thair sittand in parliament, the thrie estaitts being con-
venit, foirfaltit Matho Erie of Lennox, James Erie of Mortoun, John Erie of Mar," and
many other nobles, knights, and burgesses, of the Parliament, foremost among the latter
of whom is Adam Fullerton, burgess of Edinburgh, " and decernit ilk ane of thame to

1 Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, Supplement, p. 567.
* Booke of the Universall Kirk, p. 208.

2 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 283 ; ante, p. 69.

4 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 227. Ibid, p. 239.

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 273

have tint and foirfaltit thair lyvis, lands, and guidis, and ordaynit thair armes to be
riffin, and thair names and armes to be eleidit out of the buikis thairof for euer." l The
outlawed burgess's house in the Fountain Close appears to have been immediately seized
by his opponents as a forfeiture to the Queen, in whose name they acted, and to have
been converted into a battery and stronghold for assailing the enemy, for which its lofty
character and vicinity to the city wall peculiarly fitted it. A contemporary historian
relates that " the Kegent, Johue Erie of Mar, for beseageing of the toun of Edinburgh,
cawsit nyne pece of ordonance, great and small, be broght to the Cannogait, to have
assailzeit the east port of the toun ; bot that place was not thoght commodious, wharefore
the gunnis war transportit to a fauxburg of the toun, callit Pleasands ; and thairfra they
laid to thair batterie aganis the toun walls, whilk began the tent of September, and shot
at a platfurme whilk was erectit upon a housheid, perteining to Adame Fullartoun."

This desperate and bloody civil war was happily of brief duration. Adam Fullarton
speedily returned to his house at the Nether Bow ; and while the English forces, under Sir
William Durie were casting up trenches and planting cannon for the siege of Edinburgh
Castle in the name of the young King, he was again chosen a burgess of the Parliament
which assembled in the Tolbooth on the 26th of April 1573.3 This date corresponds with
that carved on the lintel of the old mansion in the Fountain Close. It may be doubted,
however, whether it indicates more than its repair, as it is expressly mentioned by the
contemporary already quoted, that " thaj did litill or na skaith to the said hous and
platforme."* We can hardly doubt that this ancient tenement will be viewed with
increasing interest by our local antiquaries, associated as it is with so important a period
of national history. The vincit veritas of the brave old burgher acquires a new force when
we consider the circumstances that dictated its inscription, and the desperate struggle in
which he had borne a leading part, before he returned to carve these pious aphorisms
over the threshold that had so recently been held by his enemies. It only remains to be
mentioned of the Fountain Close, that it formed, at a very recent period, the only direct
access from the High Street to the Cowgate Chapel, while that was the largest and most
fashionable Episcopal Chapel in Edinburgh.

Immediately below this is the Marquis of Tweeddale's Close, whose large mansion still
remains at the foot of it, though long since deserted by its noble occupants. It is men-
tioned by Defoe among the princely buildings of Edinburgh, " with a plantation of lime
trees behind it, the place not allowing room for a large garden." 5 This, however, must
have been afterwards remedied, as its pleasure grounds latterly extended down to the
Cowgate. Successive generations of the Tweeddale family have occupied this house, which
continued to be their town residence till the general desertion of the Scottish capital by
the nobility soon after the Union. The old mansion still retains many traces of former
magnificence, notwithstanding the rude changes to which it has been since subjected. Its
builder and first occupant was Lady Yester, the pious founder of the church in Edinburgh
that bears her name.6 By her it was presented to her grandson, John, second Earl of

1 Diurn. of Occurrents, p. 244. 2 Hist, of James the Sext, Bann. Club, p. 94.

* Diurn. of Occ., p. 331. 4 Hist, of James the Sext, p. 261. 6 Defoe's Tour, vol. iv. p. 86.

* Dame Margaret Ker, Lady Tester, third daughter of Mark, first Earl of Lothian, was born in 1572, the year of
John Knox's death, so that Tweeddale House is a building of the early part of the seventeenth century. Among the

274 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Twecddale, a somewhat versatile politician, who joined the standard of Charles I. at
Nottingham, in 1642, during the lifetime of his father. He afterwards adopted the
popular cause, and fought at the head of a Scottish troop at the Battle of Marston Moor.
He assisted at the coronation of Charles II. at Scone, and sat thereafter in Cromwell's
Parliament as member for the county of Haddington. He was sworn a privy councillor
to the King on his restoration, and continued in the same by James VII. He lived to
take an active share in the Revolution, and to fill the office of High Chancellor of
Scotland under William III., by whom he was created Marquis of Tweeddale, and
afterwards appointed High Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament in 1695, while the
grand project of the Darien expedition was pending. He died at Edinburgh before that
scheme was carried out, and is perhaps as good a specimen as could be selected of the
weathercock politician of uncertain times. The last noble occupant of the old mansion
at the Nether Bow was, we believe, the fourth Marquis, who held the office of Secretary
of State for Scotland from 1742 until its abolition. The fine old gardens, which de-
scended by a succession of ornamental terraces to the Cowgate, were destroyed to make
way for the Cowgate Chapel, now also forsaken by its original founders. This locality
possesses a mysterious interest to our older citizens, the narrow alley that leads into
Tweeddale Court having been the scene, in 1806, of the murder of Begbie, a porter
of the British Linen Company's Bank — an occurrence which ranks, among the gossips
of the Scottish capital, with the Ikon Basilike, or the Man in the Iron Mask. Tweeddale
House was at that time occupied by the British Linen Banking Company, and as Begbie
was entering the close in the dusk of the evening, having in his possession £4392,
which he was bringing from the Leith Branch, he was stabbed directly to the heart
with the blow of a knife, and the whole money carried off, without any clue being
found to the perpetrator of the deed. A reward of five hundred guineas was offered
for his discovery, but although some of the notes were found concealed in the grounds
of Bellevue, in the neighbourhood of the town, no trace of the murderer could be
obtained. There is little doubt, however, that the assassin was James Mackoull, a
native of London, and " a thief by profession," who had the hardihood to return to
Edinburgh the following year, and take up his residence in Eose Street under the name
of Captain Moffat. He was afterwards implicated in the robbery of the Paisley Union
Bank, when £20,000 were successfully carried off; and though, after years of delay,
he was at length convicted and condemned to be executed, the hardy villain obtained a
reprieve, and died in Edinburgh Jail fourteen years after the perpetration of the
undiscovered murder. The exact spot on which this mysterious deed was effected is
pointed out to the curious. The murderer must have stood within the entry to a stair
on the right side of the close, at the step of which Begbie bled to death undiscovered,
though within a few feet of the most crowded thoroughfare in the town. The lovers
of the marvellous may still be found occasionally recurring to this riddle, and not-

list of Lady Tester's " Mortifications " (MS. Advoc. Lib.) is the following :— " At Edinburgh built and repaired ane
great lodging, in the south side of the High Street, near the Nether Bow, and mortified out of the same ane yearly an :
rent 200 m. for the poor in the hospital beside the College kirk y ; and yrafter having resolved to bestow ye sd lodging,
with the whole furniture yrin to Jo : now E. of Tweeddale, her oy, by consent of the Town Council, ministers, and
kirk sessions, she redeemed the s* lodging, and freed it, by payment of 2000 merks, and left the s* lodging only bur-
dened with 40 m. yearly."

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 275

withstanding the elucidation of it referred to above, the question remains with most of
them as interesting and mysterious as at first, "Who murdered Begbie?"

This eastern nook of the Old Town has other associations with men eminent for talents
and noted for their deeds, though tradition has neglected to assign the exact tenements
wherein they dwelt of yore, while mingling with the living crowd. Here was the abode
of Robert Lckprevik, another of our early Scottish printers, to whom it is probable that
Bassendyiie succeeded, on his removal to St Andrews in 1570. Here, too, appears to
have been the lodging of Archbishop Sharp. Nicoll tells us that the newly-consecrated
bishops, on the 8th of May 1662, "being all convenit in the Bisliop of St Androis hous,
neir to the Neddir Bow, come up all in their gownis, and come to the Parliament, quh:i
wer resavit with much honour, being convoyit fra the Archebischop of Sant Androis hous
with 2 erles, viz., the Erie of Kellie and the Erie of Wcymis." Of scarce less interest is
the history of a humble barber and wig-maker, who carried on business at the Nether
Bow, where his gifted son, "William Falconer, the author of " The Shipwreck," is believed
to have been born about 1730. Here, at least, was his home and playground during his
early years, while he shared in the sports and frolics of the rising generation ; all but
himself long since at rest in forgotten graves.

World's End Close is the appropriate title of the last alley before we reach the site of
the Nether Bow Port, that terminated of old the boundaries of the walled capital, and
separated it from its courtly rival, the Burgh of Canongate. It is called, in the earliest
title-deed we have seen connected with it, Sir James Stanfield's Close ; 1 and though the
greater part of it has been recently rebuilt, it still retains a few interesting traces of
former times. Over the doorway of a modern land, a finely carved piece of open tracery
is built into the wall, apparently the top of a very rich Gothic niche, similar to those in
Blyth's Close and elsewhere ; and on the lintel of an old land at the foot of the close,
there is a shield of arms, now partly defaced, and this variation of the common
motto : — PRAISZE . THE . LORD . FOR . AL . HIS . GIFTIS .M.S. With which pious
ascription we bid adieu for a time to Old Edinburgh, properly so called, and pass into the
ancient Royal Burgh of Canongate.

1 This, we presume, was Sir James Stanfield of Newmills, or Amesfield, whose death took place in 1688, under
circumstances of peculiar mystery. He was found drowned, and suspicion being excited by a hasty funeral, and the
fact, as was alleged, that his wife had the grave clothes all ready for him before his death, the Privy Council appointed
two surgeons to examine the body, who reported that the corpse bled on being touched by his eldest son, Philip. Hia
servants were apprehended and put to the torture, without eliciting any further proof, and yet, on very vague
circumstantial evidence, added to the miraculous testimony of the murdered man, the son — a notorious profligate —
was condemned to death, and hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh. His tongue was cut out for cursing his father,
his right hand struck off for parricide, his head exposed on the east port of Haddington, as nearest the scene of the
murder, and his body hung in chains on the Gallow-lee, between Edinburgh and Leith. He died denying his
guilt, and Fountainhall adds, after recording sundry miraculous evidences against him : " This is a dark case of
divination, to be remitted to the great day ; only it is certain he was a bad youth, and may serve as a beacon to all
profligate persons."

CHAPTEE VII.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY.

ancient Burgh of Canongate may claim as its
founder the sainted David L, by whom the
Abbey of Holyrood was planted in the Forest of
Drumselch early in the twelfth century, as a shrine
for the miraculous cross which the royal hunter so
unexpectedly obtained within its sylvan glades. It
sprung up wholly independent of the neighbouring
capital, gathering as naturally around the conse-
crated walls of the monastery, whose dependents
and vassals were its earliest builders, as did its war-
like neighbour shelter itself under the overhanging
battlements of the more ancient fortress. Some-
thing of a native-born character seems to have
possessed these rivals, and exhibited itself in very
legible phazes in their after history ; each of them
retaining distinctive marks of their very different
parentage.1

In the year 1450, when James II. granted to the
lieges his charter, empowering them " to fosse, bul-
wark, wall, toure, turate, and otherwise to strengthen"
his Burgh of Edinburgh, because of their " dreid
of the evil and skeith of oure enemies of England,"
these ramparts extended no further eastward than
the Nether Bow. Open fields, in all probability,
then lay outside the gate, dividing from it the town-
ship of the neighbouring Abbey ; and although at a
later period a suburb would appear to have been

built beyond the walls, so that the jurisdiction of the town was claimed within the
Burgh of Canongate so far as St John's Cross, no attempt was made to secure or to

1 The Magistrates of the Canongate claimed a feudal lordship over the property of the burgh, as the successors
of its spiritual superiors, most of the title-deeds running thus : — " To be holden of the Magistrates of the Canongate, as
come in place of the Monastery of Holycross."

VIGNETTE — Canongate Tolbooth.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 277

protect it in any later extension of the fortifications of the capital. Towards this suburb,
the Burgh of the Canons of Holyrood gradually progressed westward, until, as now, one
unbroken line of houses extended from the Castle to the Abbey.

It seems strange that no attempt should have been made, either in the disastrous year
1513, when the Cowgate was enclosed, or at any subsequent period, to include the
Canongate and the royal residence within the extended military defences. It only affords,
however, additional evidence that the marked difference in the origin of each maintained
an influence even after the lapse of centuries.1 The probability is, that greater confidence
was reposed both by clergy and laity in the sanctity of the monks of Holyrood than in
the martial prowess of their vassals. Nor did such reliance prove misplaced, until, in the
year 1544, the hosts of Henry VIII. ravaged the distracted and defenceless kingdom,
under the guidance of the Earl of Hertford, to whom the Monk's cowl and the Abbot's
mitre were even less sacred than the jester's suit of motley. There is little reason to think
that a single fragment of building prior to that invasion exists in the Canongate, apart
from the remains of the Abbey and Palace of Holyrood. The return of Queen Mary,
however, to Scotland in 1561, and the permanent residence of the Court at Holyrood,
gave a new impetus to the capital and its suburban neighbour. The earliest date now
to be found on any private building is that of 1565, which occurs on an ancient tenement
at the head of Dunbar's Close ; and is characterised by features of antiquity no less
strongly marked than those on any of the most venerable fabrics in the burgh.

The rival Parliament which assembled here during the siege of the capital in 1571,
under the Regent Lennox, " in William Oikis hous in the Cannongat, within the freidom
of Edinburgh, albeit the samyne wes nocht within the portis thairof," has already been
referred to.2 But an ingenious stratagem which was tried by the besiegers shortly
afterwards, for the purpose of surprising the town, forms one of the most interesting
incidents connected with this locality. This " slicht of weir " is thus narrated by the
contemporary diarist already quoted: — Upon the 22d day of August 1571, my Lord
Regent and the nobles professing the King's authority, seeing they could not obtain
entry into the burgh of Edinburgh, caused several bands of soldiers to proceed from
Leith during the night and conceal themselves in the closes and adjoining houses
immediately without the Nether Bow Port, while a considerable reserve force was
collected at the Abbey, ready on a concerted signal from their trumpets to hasten to
their aid. On the following morning, about five o'clock, when it was believed the night
watch would be withdrawn, six soldiers, disguised as millers, approached the Port, leading
a file of horses laden with sacks of meal, which were to be thrown down as they entered,
so as to- impede the closing of the gates ; and while they assailed the warders with
weapons they wore concealed under their disguise, the men in ambush were ready to rush
out and storm the town. But, says the diarist, " the eternall G-od, knawing the cruell
murther that wald haue bene done and committit vpoun innocent pover personis of the
said burgh, wald not thole this interpryse to tak successe, bot eviu quhen the said meill

1 The Canongate appears to have been so far enclosed as to answer ordinary municipal purposes. It had its gates,
which were shut at night, as is shown further on, but the walls do not seem to have partaken in any degree of the
character of military defences, and were never attempted to be held out against an enemy.

2 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 214 ; vide ante, p. 82.

278

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

wes aJmaist at the port, and the said men of weare standand in clois heids in readines to
liaue enterit at the bak of the samyne, movit Thomas Barrie to pass furth of the port,
doun to the Cannogait, to have sene his awne hous, quhair in his said passage he
persavit the saidis ambushmeutis of men of weare, and with celeritie returuit and warnit
the watcbemen and keiparis of the said port ; quhilk causit thame to steik the samin
quicklie, and sua this devyse and interpryse tuke ua prosperous effect."1 The citizens
took warning from this, and built another gate within the outer port to secure them
against any such surprise. There is something amusingly simple both in the ambuscade
of the besiegers, and its discovery by the honest burgher while taking his quiet morning's
stroll beyond the walls. But the whole incidents of the siege display an almost total
ignorance of the science of war, or of the use of the engines they had at command. The
besiegers gallop up Leith Wynd and down St Mary's Wynd, on their way to Dalkeith,
seemingly unmolested by the burgher watch, who overlooked them from the walls ; or
they valorously drag their artillery up the Canongate, and after venturing a few shots at
the Nether Bow they drag them back, regarding it as a feat of no little merit to get them
safely home again.

Many houses still remain scattered about the main street and the lanes of the Canon-
gate which withstood these vicissitudes of the Douglas wars ; and one which has been
described to us by its owner as of old styled the Parliament House, may possibly be that
of William Oikis, wherein the Regent Lennox, with the Earls of Morton, Mar, Glen-
cairn, Crawford, Menteith, and Buchan ; the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay and others
assembled, and after pronouncing the doom of forefaulture against William Maitland,

younger of Lethiugton, and the chief of their opponents,
adjourned the Parliament to meet again at Stirling.
This house,2 which was situated on the west side of the
Old Flesh Market Close, presented externally as mean
and uninviting an appearance as might well be con-
ceived. An inspection of its interior, however, fur-
nished unquestionable evidence both of its former
magnificence and its early date. The house before
its entire demolition was in the most wretched state
of decay, and was one of the very last buildings
in Edinburgh that a superficial observer would have
singled out for any assemblage except a parliament of
jolly beggars ; but on penetrating to an inner lobby
of its gloomy interior, a large and curiously carved
niche was discovered, of the same character as those
described in the Guise Palace. The workmanship of
it, as will be seen in the accompanying view, though
in a style apparently somewhat later, is much more
elaborate than any of those previously noticed, except the largest one on the east side of

1 Diurn. of Occurrents, pp. 239, 240.

2 The house, with several of the adjoinin
Improvements' Commission.

ig closes here referred to, has been taken down, at the instance of the City

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 279

Elyth's Close. Directly opposite to this, but separated from it by modern partitions,
u large Gothic fireplace remained, decorated with rich mouldings and clustered
pillars at the sides. On the occasion referred to, the burgesses and the garrison of
the Castle used their utmost efforts to compel the Eegent's advisers to adjourn. Cannon
were planted in the Blackfriars' Yards, as well as on the walls, to batter this novel
Parliament House; and the Castle guns were plied with such efiect as " did greit skaith
in the heid of the Cannogait to the houssis thairof.1 '

The adjoining closes to the eastward abounded, a few years since, with ancient timber-
fronted tenements of a singularly picturesque character ; but the value of property became
for a time so much depreciated in this neighbourhood that the whole were abandoned by
their owners to ruinous decay. When making a drawing of a group of them some years
ago, which presented peculiarly attractive features for the pencil, we were amused to
observe more than one weather-worn intimation of Lodgings to Let, enlivening the fronts
of tenements which probably not even the most needy or fearless mendicant would have
ventured to occupy, though their hospitable doors stood wide to second the liberal invitation.
When we next visited them, the whole mass had tumbled to ruin, leaving only here and
there a sculptured doorway and a defaced inscription to indicate their importance in other
times, several of which remained till lately both in Coul's and the Old High School
Closes. To the east of the latter there stood, till within the last few years, a fine old
stone land, with its main front in Mid Common Close, adorned with dormer windows,
string courses, and other architectural decorations of an early period. Over one of the
windows on the first floor, the following devout confession of faith was cut in large Roman
characters : — i . TAKE . THE . LORD . JESVS . AS . MY . ONLY . ALL . SVFFICIENT . PORTION .
TO . CONTENT . ME . 1614. This tenement, however, shared the fate of its less substantial
neighbours, having been pulled down for other buildings.

The Old High School Close derived its name from a large and handsome mansion which
stood in an open court at the foot, and was occupied for many years as the High School
of the Burgh. The building was ornamented with dormer windows, and a neat pediment
in the centre, bearing a sun dial, with the date 1704. The school dated from a much
remoter era, however, than this would imply; it appears to have been founded in con-
nection with the Abbey, long before a similar institution existed in the capital. It is
referred to in a charter granted by James V. in 1529; and Henryson, once the pupil
of Vocat, clerk and orator of the Convent of Holyrood, is named as having successfully
taught the Grammar School of the Burgh of Canongate. Repeated notices of it occur in
the Burgh Records, e.g. : — "5 April 1580. — The quhilk day compeirit Gilbert Tailyeour,
skuilmaister, and renuncit and dimittit his gift grauntit to him be Adame Bischope of

1 Contemporary allusions to tins Parliament render it more likely that its place of meeting was on the south side of
the street, as it was battered from the Blackfriars' Yards. Moreover, it seems probable that the whole of the north aide
was an undisputed part of the Burgh of Canongate, as it now is of the parish ; while on the south its parochial bounds
extend no further westward than St John's Cross. In the Act of Parliament of 1540 (ante, p. 44), the Abbot of
Holyrood is referred to as the acknowledged superior of the east side of Leith Wynd. The oki house is, at any rate, one
which existed at the period, and was then a mansion of no mean note. The occupants of it some thirty years ago
used to tell the usual story of Queen Mary having resided there, and professed to point out her chapel, with the cou-
fessional — a place certainly constructed with some suitableness for such a purpose — the site of the altar, the priest's
robing-room, &c., and all in a crazy attic, which, long before its final destruction, seemed to have been deserted as past
hope of repair.

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

•A tl& ry^A <s( tj#! t'rntUMtitt fk'b'J* during bfa frfrfBht, in

»if / *w/r<i;jjgJr r«i^/ft)d it to him, " to be M4hi of tfcaaae, a*
n<;l.t to dis/wu* tite jmaroe."1 At die bead of Bae'« dose, a
fvjti#r t/> tlM: <sa*twar«J, an//tiMT loug aud Juterestsng injscrijjtion of the same period,
ju ktri<f.. U ijj v.-rU^ed over th« entntnc* to the close. It eonaste of die

MKKKKKK MM to'titlXK', A PJBCATfl, fUfJlSKfJ. DEBITO,
KT «'/JiTK fcf.'WTA, *K UBEEA. 1 ' 6 * 1 '8 '

, wl<«/;J< 1* o;^; '/f U<« ««/*ft UsstutjfuJ \ttw:ri\A\<tm of the Old Town, has heen recently
//(^^J^l f/y a ;w/yl<;rB >-}i/>p front ; but the whole U given, with a slight varia-
j« iJw: 'I'lv'Mrum Myrtaliwn? JrijratdiitteJy afljoining this, another stone tenement
ki//(/lar ditvrw\M i>rw,nt.* it* antique gabled facade to the street, adorned with a
fij(ur<: of a turltsiwA Mo<yr owu|»yiug a pulpit, projecting from a recess over the
\\nnr, Vimmut romantic «torw;»« are told of the Morocco Land, as this ancient
Uiiittnif,nt in *i.y\w\. 'J')/'; foJ lowing i« a» wmplete an outline of the most consistent of
MM w« liavo }>wn n]>\n b> gather, though it is scarcely necessary to premise that it
on vary different authority from some of the historical associations previously

J>wring o»« of l,hc (nmultuoiM outljreak» for which the mob of Edinburgh has rendered
\(.*i:\t HH\M\ id all puriodx, and which occurred soon after the accession of Charles L to his
fnl,h«r'« throw;, tins proroit— who had rendered himself peculiarly obnoxious to the
- -wiw MMultcd) IHM IIOUHC broken into arid fired, and mob law completely esta-
in Ui<! town. On the rcntorat,ion of order several of the rioters were seized, and,
olJinrx, Ainlniw (Jray, a younger HOII of the Master of Gray, whose descendants
now inline!!, Uio nnciunt honout'H and title of that family. He was convicted as the ring-
l«iu|ur of tlio inoh, mid, notwithstanding the exertions of powerful friends, such was the
iiilluiMiito nf \,\w pMiyoHl/ — who WIIH iiittiirnlly exasperated by the proceedings of the rioters —
llml, yung (Jrny WIIH (tonditinncd to bo executed within a day or two after his trial. The
law!, liny of liin doomed lifo had drawn to a close, and the scaffold was already preparing at
tint QrOII fur liin iffiioniiiiidiiH death; but the Old Tolbooth showed, as usual, its proper
MiMmtt of Ilid privllegdl of g(!iil.l(! blood. That vory night lie effected his escape by means
of a rnjio mid flln Oonveyod to him by a faithful vassal, who had previously drugged a
|MI«HII|, fur tho Hdiitiiuil nt, (/in I'urstm, and ciluct.ually }>ut a stop to his interference. A boat
lay n(< tlio foot of one of tbo neighbouring closes, by which he was ferried over the North
Kocli i mid long boforo tho town gal OH wore opened on the following morning, a lessening

' UegUtfl' of tlm llut'ifl) I'f tlin t'nnoiiKulo ; Mnltlniiil Oliili Miscollany, vol. ii. p. 845.

" Mmituith'n Ttifiiti-uiit Mi'i'tnliuiu. p. '248, whuru the l««t two words are incorrectly transposed. Bae's Close
.|.|... 11 .. n .-in itumittoil itiforniioM to it In thu Unj-iator of the Burgh, to Lave beeu the only open thoroughfare at that
tiotwuuu l<t>lth AYyml anil th« \Vntor (lute. (•.;/., Orders are given, 6th December 1668, "to caus big vpe the
t. \if H« I'lime," AH»|II, 180> Ootulwr 1874, "The Hailleia and Counsale ordains thair Thesaurer to big and upput
y»W U|m» ItnU (Hoop, Mill m»k th« ««u>yii lukt'rtat," a charge for which afterwards appears in the Treasurer's accounts.
Mull', Mi«>, vul, ti, \\\\. 3J8, 880, 888, Even iu 1(!47, wheu Gordon's bird's-eye view was drawn, only one other
»|>|>o»iti, »«d newly the \vhol« gixnuid lying behind the row of houses in the main street consists of open
. with ft w»U vvuiulug Kloiiy tlie North Baok of th*

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 281

sail near the mouth of the Firth told to the watchful eye of his vassal that Andrew Gray
was safe beyond pursuit.

Years passed over, and the sack of the obnoxious Provost's house, as well as the
escape of the ringleader, had faded from the minds of all save some of his own immediate
relatives. Gloom and terror now pervaded the streets of the capital. It was the terrible
year 1645 — the last visitation of the pestilence to Edinburgh — when, as tradition tells
us, grass grew thickly about the Cross, once as crowded a centre of thoroughfare as
Europe had to boast of. Maitland relates that, such was the terror that prevailed at this
period, debtors incarcerated in the Tolbooth were set at large ; all who were not freemen
were compelled, under heavy penalties, to leave the town ; until at length, " by the
unparalleled ravages committed by the plague, it was spoiled of its inhabitants to such a
degree that there were scarce sixty men left capable of assisting in defence of the town,
in case of an attack."1 The common council ordered the town walls to be repaired, and
a party of the train bands to guard them, an immediate attack being dreaded from the
victorious army of Montrose. They strove to provide against the more insidious assaults
of their dreadful enemy within, by agreeing with Joannes Paulitius, M.D., to visit the
infected, on a salary of eighty pounds Scots per month.2 In the midst of all these
preparations, a large armed vessel of curious form and rigging was seen to sail up the
Firth, and cast anchor in Leith Roads. The vessel was pronounced by experienced sea-
men to be an Algerine rover, and all was consternation and dismay, both in the seaport
and the neighbouring capital. A detachment of the crew landed, and proceeded imme-
diately towards Edinburgh, which they approached by the Water Gate, and passing up
the High Street of the Canongate, demanded admission at the Nether Bow Port. The
Magistrates entered into parley with their leader, and offered to ransom the city on
exorbitant terms, warning them, at the same time, of the dreadful scourge to
which they would expose themselves if they entered the plague-stricken city — but all
in vain.

Sir John Smith, the Provost at the time, withdrew to consult with the most influential
citizens in this dilemma, who volunteered large contributions towards the ransom of the
town. He returned to the Nether Bow, accompanied by a body of them, among whom
was his own brother-in-law, Sir William Gray, one of the wealthiest citizens of the
period. Negotiations were resumed, and seemingly with more effect. A large ransom
was agreed to be received, on condition that the son of the Provost should be delivered
up to the leader of the pirates. It seems, however, that the Provost's only child was a
daughter, who then lay stricken of the plague, of which her cousin, Egidia Gray, had
recently died. This information seemed to work an immediate change on the leader of
the Moors. After some conference with his men, he intimated his possession of an elixir
of wondrous potency, and demanded that the Provost's daughter should be entrusted to
his skill ; engaging, if he did not cure her, immediately to embark with his men, and
free the city without ransom. After considerable parley, the Provost proposed that the
leader should enter the city, and take up his abode in his house ; but this he peremptorily
refused, rejecting at the same time all offers of still higher ransom, which the distracted
father was now prepared to make.

1 Maitland, p. 85. " Ibid, p. 85.

282 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Sir John Smith at length yielded to the exhortations of his friends, who urged him in
so dreadful an alternative to accept the offer of the Moor. The fair invalid was borne on
a litter to the house near the head of the Canongate where he had taken up his abode,
and, to the astonishment and delight of her father, she was restored to him shortly after-
wards safe and well.

The denouement of this singular story bears that the Moorish leader and physician
proved to be Andrew Gray, who, after being captured by pirates, and sold as a slave,1
had won the favour of the Emperor of Morocco, and risen to rank and wealth in his
service. He had returned to Scotland, bent on revenging his own early wrongs on the
Magistrates of Edinburgh, when, to his surprise, he found in the destined object of his
special vengeance, a relative of his own. The remainder of the tale is soon told. He
married the Provost's daughter, and settled down a wealthy citizen of the Burgh of
Canougate. The house to which his fair patient was borne, and whither he afterwards
brought her as his bride, is still adorned with an effigy of his royal patron, the Emperor
of Morocco ; and the tenement has ever since borne the name of Morocco Land. It is
added that he had vowed never to enter the city but sword in hand ; and having
abandoned all thoughts of revenge, he kept the vow till his death, having never again
passed the threshold of the Nether Bow Port. We only add, that we do not pretend to
guarantee this romantic legend of the Burgh ; all we have done has been to put into a
consistent whole the different versions related to us. We have had the curiosity to
obtain a sight of the title-deeds of the property, which prove to be of recent date. The
earliest, a disposition of 1731, so far confirms the tale, that the proprietor at that date is
John Gray, merchant, a descendant, it may be, of the Algerine rover and the Provost's
daughter. The figure of the Moor has ever been a subject of popular admiration and
wonder, and a variety of legends are told to account for its existence. Most of them,
however, though differing in almost every other point, seem to agree in connecting it
with the last visitation of the plague.

A little to the eastward of Morocco Land, two ancient buildings of less dimensions in
every way than the more recent erections beside them, and the eastern one, more especially
of a singularly antique character, form striking features among the architectural elevations
in the street. The latter, indeed, is one of the most noticeable relics of the olden time
still remaining among the private dwellings of the burgh. It is described in the titles as
that tenement of land called Oliver's Land, partly stone and partly timber ; and is one of
the very best specimens of this mixed style of building that now remains. The gables are
finished with the earliest form of crowstep, considerably ornamented. A curiously moulded
dormer window, of an unusual form, rises into the roof; while, attached to the floor below,

1 Numerous references will be found in the records of the seventeenth century to similar slavery among the Moors.
In "Selections from the Registers of the Presbytery of Lanark," Abbotsford Club, 1839, is the following :— "2"th Oct.
1625. — The quilk day ane letter reseavit from the Bishope for ane contributioun to be collectit for the releaff of some
folks of Queiiisfarie and Kingorne, deteiuet under slaverie by the Turks at Salie." Again, in the "Minutes of the
Synod of Fyfe," printed for the same Club : — " 2d April 1616, Anent the supplication proponed be Mr Williame
Wedderburue, minister at Dundee, making mentione, thatwhairas the Lordis of his Hienes' Privie Counsell being cer-
tanelie informed that Androw llobertson, Johue Cowie, Johne Dauling, James Pratt, and their complices, marineris,
indwellaris in Leyth, being laitlie upon the coast of Barbarie, efter ane cruell and bloodie conflict, were overcome and
led into captivitie be certane merciless Turkes, who presented them to open mercatt at Algiers ill Barbarie, to be sawld
as slaves to the cruell barbarians," &o.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 283

an antique timber projection is thrown out as a covered gallery, within which there is
a very large fireplace on the external front of the stone wall, proving, as previously pointed
out, that the timber work is part of the original plan of the building. The first floor
is approached as usual by an outer stair, at the top of which a very beautifully moulded
doorway affords entrance to a stone turnpike, forming the internal communication to the
different floors. A rich double cornice encircles this externally, and beneath it is the
inscription in antique ornamental characters :— SOLI • DEO • HONOR • ET • GLORIA.
Owing to the protection afforded by the deep mouldings and the timber additions, this
inscription has been safely preserved from injury, and remains nearly as sharp and fresh as
when cut. The character of the letters corresponds with other inscriptions dating early in
the sixteenth century, and the whole building is a very perfect specimen of the best class
of mansions at that period. The interior, though described in the titles as having " afore
chamber and gallery, a chamber of dais," &c., has in reality accommodations only of the
very homeliest description, each floor consisting of a simple and moderately-sized single
apartment, subdivided by such temporary wooden partitions as the convenience of later
tenants has suggested. It appears to have been the mansion of John the second son of
Lawrence, fourth Lord Oliphant, an active adherent of Queen Mary. His elder brother,
who is styled Master of Oliphant, joined the Ruthven conspirators in 1582, and perished
shortly afterwards with the vessel and whole crew, when fleeing from the kingdom. The
other tenement, apparently of equal antiquity, and similar in style of construction, though
with fewer noticeable features, adjoins it on the west. It formed, at a somewhat later date,
the residence of Lord David Hay of Belton, to whom that barony was secured in succes-
sion by a charter granted to his father, John, second Earl of Tweeddale, in 1687. The
locality, indeed, appears from the ancient deeds to have been one of honourable resort
down to a comparatively recent period, as knights and men of good family occur among
the occupants during the eighteenth century. The boundaries of the house are defined on
the north " by the stone tenement of land some time belonging to the Earl of Angus."
Only a portion of the walls of this noble dwelling now remains, which probably was the
town residence of David, the eighth Earl, and brother of the Regent Morton. At the
latest, it must have formed the mansion of his son Archibald, ninth Earl of Angus, the
last of the Douglases who bore that title. As nephew and ward of the Regent Morton, he
was involved in his fall. After his death he fled to England, where he was honourably
entertained by Queen Elizabeth, and became the friend and confident of Sir Philip Sid-
ney while writing his Arcadia.1 He afterwards returned to Scotland, and bore his full
share in the troubles of the time. He died in 1588, the victim, as was believed, of witch-
craft. Godscroft tells that Barbara Napier in Edinburgh was tried and found guilty,
though she escaped execution ; and " Anna Simson, a famous witch, is reported to have
confessed at her death that a pictixre of wax was brought to her, having A.D. written on it,
which, as they said to her, did signify Archibald Davidson ; and she, not thinking of the
Earl of Angus, whose name was Archibald Douglas, and might have been called David-
son, because his father's name was David, did consecrate, or execrate it after her form,
which, she said, if she had known to have represented him, she would not have done it

J Hume of Godseroft's History of the Douglases, p. 362,

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

for all the world."1 It was the fate of tins old mansion of the Earls of Angus to be
linked at its close in the misfortunes of a Douglas. It formed during last century the
banking-house of Douglas, Heron, & Company, whose failure spread dismay and suffering
through a widely-scattered circle, involving both high and low in its ruin. The Chapel of
Ease in New Street, erected in 1794, now partly occupies the site. Several other interest-
ing relics of the olden time were destroyed to make way for this ungainly ecclesiastical
edifice. One of these appears from the titles to have been the residence of Henry Kinloch,
a wealthy burgess of the Canongate, to whose hospitable care the French ambassador was
consigned by Queen Mary in 1505. An old diarist of the period relates, that " Vpouii
Monunday the ferd day of Februar, the zeir of G-od foirsaid, thair come ane ambassutour
out of the realm of France, callit Monsieur Rnmbollat, with xxxvj horse in tryne, gentil-
men, throw Inglaud, to Halyrudhous, quhair the King and Queenis Majesties wes for the
tyme, accumpanyit with thair nobillis. And incontinent efter his lychtingthe said ambas-
satour gat presens of thair graces, and thairefter depairtit to Henrie Kyuloches lugeing
in the Cannogait besyid Edinburgh." A few days afterwards, " The Kingis Majestic
[Lord Daruley], accumpanyit with his nobillis in Halyrudhous, ressavit the ordour of
kn\rchtheid of the cokill fra the said llambollat, with great magnificence. And the smiiiii
nycht at evin, our soueranis maid ane banket to the ambassatour foirsaid, in the auld
chappell of Halyrudhous, quhilk wcs reapparrellit with fyne tapestrie, and hung magnifi-
centlie, the said lordis maid the maskery efter supper in nne honrable manner. And
vpoun the ellevint day of the said moneth, the King and Queue in lyik manner bankettit
the samin ambassatour ; and at evin our souerauis maid the maskrie and mumschance,
in the quhilk the Queenis grace, and all her maries and ladies tcerall cledin men's apperrell ;
and everie aue of thame presentit ane quhingar, bravelie and maist artificiallie made and
embroiderit with gold, to the said ambassatour and his gentlemen." On the following
day the King and Queen were entertained, along with the ambassador and his suite, at a
splendid banquet provided for them in the Castle by .the Earl of Mar ; and on the second
day thereafter, Monsieur Eambollat bade adieu to the Court of Holyrood. It is to be
regretted that, an accurate description cannot now be obtained of the burgher mansion
which was deemed a fitting residence for one whom the Queen delighted to honour,
and for whose entertainment such unwonted masquerades were enacted. It was probably
quite as homely a dwelling as those of the same period that still remain in the neighbour-
hood. The sole memorial of it that now remains is the name of the alley running
between the two ancient front lauds previously described, through which the ambassador
and his noble visitors must have passed, and which is still called Kiuloch's Close after
their burgher host.

New Street, which is itself a comparatively recent feature of the old burgh, is a curious
sample of a fashionable modern improvement, prior to the bold scheme of the New Town.
It still presents the aristocratic feature of a series of detached and somewhat elegant man-
sions. Its last century occupants were Lord Kames — whose house is at the head of the
street on the east side — Lord Hailes, Sir Philip and Lady Betty Austrufher, and Dr

1 Hume of Godsoroft's History of the Douglases, p. 432.

s Diurnal of Ocourrents, pp. 86, 87. There appears, indeed (Maitland, p. 149), to have been another Kiuloch's
lodging near the palace, but the correspondence of name and date seems to prove the above to be the one referred to.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 285

Young, a celebrated physician of the period, with others of wealth and influence, among
whom may be mentioned Miss Jean Ramsay, a daughter of the poet, who lived there till
a very advanced age, in the second house below the chapel.

A lofty stone tenement on the south side of the main street, to the east of Gillon'a
Close, was erected by Charles, fourth Earl of Traquair, and formed the residence of his
twin daughters, Lady Barbara and Lady Margaret Stewart. They both died there at a
very advanced age — Lady Margaret in 1791, and her sister in 1794. They must have been
born very early in the eighteenth century, as Dr Archibald Pitcairn, who died in 1713,
made them the subject of some elegant Latin verses. They were till lately remembered as
two kindly, but very precise old ladies, the amusement and main business of whose lives
consisted in dressing and nursing a family of little dolls — a recreation by no means
unusual among the venerable spinsters of former days. The date over the main doorway
of the building is 1700. A little farther to the eastward, and almost directly opposite the
head of New Street, is the Playhouse Close, within the narrow alley of which the stage
was established in 1747, on such a footing as was then deemed not only satisfactory but
highly creditable to the northern capital, where the drama had skulked about from place
to place ever since its denouncement by the early reformers, finding even the patronage of
royalty, and the favour of the vice-regal Court of Holyrood, hardly sufficient to protect it
from ignominious expulsion.

The history of the Scottish drama is one of very fitful and stinted encouragement, and
of correspondingly meagre results. The first approach to regular dramatic composition,
after the period when religious mysteries and moralities were enacted under the sanction
of the Church,1 was Sir David Lindsay's " Plesant Satyre of the Three Estaitis ; " and
this so effectually aided the work of the Reformers, under whose care the stage was
immediately placed, that it may be styled the first and last effort of dramatic genius in
Scotland, almost to our own day. It was " playit besyde Edinburgh in 1544, in presence
of the Quene Regent," as is mentioned by Henry Charteris, the bookseller, who sat
patiently for nine hours on the bank at Greenside to witness the play. It so far surpasses
any effort of contemporary English dramatists, that it renders the barrenness of the Scot-
tish muse in this department afterwards the more apparent. Birrell notes on the 17th
January 1568 : — " A play made by Robert Semple, and played before the Eegent [Murray]
and divers uthers of the uobilitie." This has been affirmed, though seemingly on very
imperfect evidence, to have been Philotus, a comedy printed at Edinburgh by Robert
Charteris in 1C03, the author of which is not named. It exhibits, both in plan and
execution, a much nearer approach to the modern drama than Sir David Lindsay's Satire,
and is altogether a work of great merit. In the same year there issued from the Edin-
burgh press, Darius, a tragedy written by " that most excellent spirit and earliest gem of

1 A few extracts from the Treasurers' Accounts will afford a hint of the dawn of theatrical amusements at the Scot-
tish court in the reign of James IV., January 1, 1503 : — " Item, ye samyn nyoht to ye gysaris that playit to ye King,
41. 4s. Feb. 8. — To ye mene that brocht in ye Morice Dance, and to ye menstralis in Strevelin, 42s. Feb. 18. — To ya
QUHNK OF YE CANOKOAIT, 14s." This character repeatedly occurs in the accounts, and seems to have been a favourite
masker. "1604, Jan. 1. — To Hog the tale-tellar, 14s. Jan. 8. — Yat samyn day to Thos. Bosuell and Pate Sinclair to
by yaim damming gere, 28s. Yat day to Maister Johne to by beltia for ye Morise Danse, 28s. Yat samyue nycht to ye
UYBAHIS OF YK TOUNK OP EDINBURGH, 8 fr. or. [French crowns.] June 10. — Payit to James Dog that ho laid douno for
girse one Corpus ChrUti day, at the play to the Kiugis and Quenis chatneris, 3s. -Id." &c.

286 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

our north,"1 Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling. His tragedies, however,
are dramatic only in title, and not at all adapted for the stage. James VI. endeavoured
to mediate between the clergy and the encouragers of the drama, and, by his royal
authority, stayed for a time their censure of theatrical representations. In the year 1592,
a company of English players was licenced by the King to perform in Edinburgh, against
which an act of the kirk-sessions was forthwith published, prohibiting the people to resort
to such profane amusements.2 The King appears to have heartily espoused the cause of
the players a few years later, as various entries in the treasury accounts attest, e.g. : —
"Oct. 1599. — Item, Delyuerit to his hienes selff to be gevin to ye Inglis commeidiauis
xiij crownes of ye gone, at iijli. ijs. viijd. ye pece. Nov. — Item. Be his Maties directioun
gevin to Sr George Elphingstoun, to be delyuerit to ye Inglis commedians, to by timber
for ye preparatioun of ane hous to thair pastyme, as the said Sr George ticket beiris, xl.
li. ; " and again a sum is paid to a royal messenger for notifying at the Cross, with sound
of trumpet, " his Matl08 plesour to all his lieges, that ye saidis commedianis mycht vse
thair playis in Edr," &c. In the year 1601, an English company of players visited
Scotland, and appeared publicly at Aberdeen, headed by " Laurence Fletcher, comediane
to his Majestie." The freedom of that burgh was conferred on him at the same time that
it was bestowed on sundry French knights and other distinguished strangers, in whose
train the players had arrived. Mr Charles Knight, in his ingenious life of Shakspeare,
shows that this is the same player whose name occurs along with that of the great
English dramatist, in the patent granted by James VI., immediately after his arrival in
the southern capital in 1603, in favour of the company at the Globe ; and from thence he
draws the conclusion that Shakspeare himself visited Scotland at this period, and sketched
out the plan of his great Scottish tragedy amid the scenes of its historic events. By the
same course of inference, Shakspeare's name is associated with the ancient Tennis Court
at the Water Gate, as it cannot be doubted that his Majesty's players made their appear-
ance at the capital, and before the Court of Holyrood, either in going to or returning
from the northern burgh, whither they had proceeded by the King's special orders ; but it
must be confessed the argument is a very slender one to form the sole basis for such a
conclusion.

The civil wars in the reign of Charles I., and the striking changes that they led to,
obliterated all traces of theatrical representations, until their reappearance soon after the
Eestoration. One curious exhibition, however, is mentioned in the interval, which may be
considered as a substitute for these forbidden displays. " At this tyme,"' says Nicoll, in
1659, "thair wes brocht to this natioun ane heigh great beast, callit ane Drummodrary,
quhilk being keipit clos in the Cannogate, nane haid a sight of it without thrie pence the
persoue, quhilk producit much gayne to the keipar, in respect of the great nurnberis of
pepill that resoirtit to it, for the sight thairof. It wes very big, and of great height, and
clovin futted lyke unto a kow, and on the bak ane saitt, as it were a sadill, to sit on.
Thair wes brocht in with it aue liytill baboun, faced lyke unto a naip."3

1 Drumiuoncl of Hawthornden's Letters, Archseol. Scot. vol. iv. p. 83.

" Nov. 1599. — Item, to Wm. Foray', messenger, passand with lettres to the mercat croce of Ed", chairging ye
elderis and deacouns of the haill four sessionis of Ed", to annul! thair act maid for ye discharge of certane Inglis coui-
msdianis, x. a., viiij. d." — Treasurers' accounts. 3 Nicoll's Diary, p. 226.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 287

During the government of the Earl of Rothes as High Commissioner for Scotland, a
play called " Marciano, or the Discovery," by Sir Thomas Sydserff, was acted on the
festival of St John, before his Grace and his Court at Holyrood,1 and at the Court of the
Duke of York, at a somewhat later period, a regular company of actors were maintained,
and the Tennis Court fitted up for their performances, in defiance of the scandal created
by such innovations.2 Lord Fountainhall notes among his " Historical Observes," 3 —
" 15th Novembris 1681, being the Quean of Brittain's birthday, it was keeped by our
Court at Halirudhouse with great solemnitie, such as bonfyres, shooting of canons, and the
acting of a comedy, called Mithridates King of Pontus, before ther Royall Hynesses,
&c., wheirin Ladie Anne, the Duke's daughter, and the Ladies of Honor ware the onlie
actors." Not only the canonists, both Protestant and Popish — adds my Lord Fountain-
hall, in indignant comment — " but the very heathen roman lawyers, declared all sceuicks
and stage players infamous, and will scarce admit them to the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper" — a somewhat singular mark of disapprobation from heathen lawyers! The
Revolution again banished the drama from Scotland, and we hear no more of it till the
year 1714, when the play of Macbeth was performed at the Tennis Court, in presence of
a number of the Scottish nobility and gentry assembled in Edinburgh for a grand archery
meeting. Party politics ran high at the time, some of the company present called for the
favourite song, " May the King enjoy his ain again" 4 while others as stoutly opposed it,
and the entertainments wound up in a regular melee, anticipatory of the rebellion which
speedily followed.

Allan Ramsay's unfortunate theatrical speculation has already been referred to. But
the scene of his successful patronage of the drama appears to have been first chosen by
Signora Violante, an Italian dancer and tumbler, who afterwards took the legitimate
drama under her protection and management. This virago, as Arnot styles her,5
returned to Edinburgh, " where she fitted up that house in the foot of Carrubber's Close,
which has since been occupied as a meeting-house by successive tribes of sectaries."
Driven from this quarter, as we have seen, the players betook themselves to the Taylor's
Hall, in the Cowgate, and though mere strolling bands, they were persecuted into
popularity by their opponents, until this large hall proved insufficient for their accommo-
dation. A rival establishment was accordingly set agoing, and in the year 1746, the
foundation-stone of the first regular theatre in Edinburgh was laid within the Play-house
Close, Canongate, by Mr John Ryan, then a London actor of considerable repute. Here
the drama had mainly to contend with the commoner impediments incidental to the
proverbial lack of prudence and thrift in the management of actors, until the year
1756, when, on the night of the 14th December, the tragedy of Douglas, the work of a
clergyman of the Kirk, was first presented to an Edinburgh audience. The clergy anew
returned to the assault with redoubled zeal, and although they were no longer able to
chase the players from the stage, John Home, the author of the obnoxious tragedy,

I Campbell's Journey, vol. ii. p. 163. * Vide, vol. i. p. 103.

II Fountainhall's Historical Observes, p. 51. Tytler concludes his account of the Duke's theatrical entertainment
with the following inference, which would have done credit to a history of the Irish stage : — " Private balls and
concerts of music, it would seem, were now the only species of public entertainments amongst us ! "— Archseol. Scot,
vol. i. p. 504.

* Campbell's History of Poetry in Scotland, p. 353. • Aruot, p. SCO.

288 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

deemed it prudent to renounce the orders that had been tarnished by a composition so
unwonted and unclerical.

The more recent history of the Edinburgh stage is characterised by no incidents of
very special note, until the year 1768, when it followed the tide of fashionable emigration
to the New Town, and the Theatre Royal was built in the Orphan's Park,1 which had
previously been the scene of Whitfield's labours during his itinerant visits to Edinburgh.
The eloquent preacher is said to have expressed his indignation in no measured terms when
he found the very spot which had been so often consecrated by his ministrations thus being
set apart to the very service of the devil.

The front land in the Canongate through which the archway leads into the Play-house
Close is an exceedingly fine specimen of the style of building prevalent in the reign of
Charles I. The dormer windows in the roof exhibit a pleasing variety of ornament, and
a row of storm windows above them gives a singular, and, indeed, foreign air to the
building, corresponding in style to the steep and picturesque roofs that abound in
Strasbourg and Mayence. A Latin inscription on an ornamental tablet, over the doorway
within the close, is now so much defaced that only a word or two can be deciphered. The
building where Ryan, Digges, Bellamy, Lancashire, and a host of nameless actors figured
on the stage, to the admiring gaze of fashionable audiences of last century, has long since
been displaced by private erections.

Nearly fronting the entrance to this close, a radiated arrangement of the paving indicates
the site of St John's Cross, the ancient eastern boundary of the capital. It still marks the
limit of its ecclesiastical bounds on the south side of the street, and here, till a compara-
tively recent period, all extraordinary proclamations were announced by the Lion Heralds,
with sound of trumpets, and the magistrates and public bodies of the Burgh of Canongate
joined such processions as passed through their ancient jurisdiction in their progress to the
Abbey. A little further eastward is St John's Close, an ancient alley, bearing over an old
doorway within it, the inscription in bold Roman characters :— THE . LORD . is . ONLY . MY .
SVPORT . Immediately adjoining this is St John Street, a broad and handsome thorough-
fare, forming the boldest scheme of civic improvement effected in Edinburgh before the
completion of the North Bridge, and the rival works on the south side of the town.
This aristocratic quarter of last century was in progress in 1768, as appears from the date
cut over a back doorway of the centre house ; and soon afterwards the names of the old
Scottish aristocracy that still resided in the capital — Earls, Lords, Baronets, and Lords
of Session — are found among its chief occupants. Here, in No. 13, was the residence of
Lord Monboddo, and the lovely Miss Burnet, whose early death is so touchingly com-
memorated by the Poet Burns, a frequent guest at St John Street during his residence
in the capital; and within a few doors of it, at No 10, resided James Ballantyne, the
partner and confidant of Sir Walter Scott in the literary adventures of the Great Unknown.
Here was the scene of those assemblies of select and favoured guests to whom the hospit-

1 So called from its vicinity to the Orphan's Hospital, a benevolent institution which obtained the high
commendations of Howard and the aid of Whitfield during the repeated visits made by both to Edinburgh.
A very characteristic portrait of the latter is now in the hall of the new Hospital erected at the Dean. The venerable
clock of the Nether Bow Port has also been transferred from the steeple of the old building to an elegant site over the
pediment of the new portico, where, notwithstanding such external symptoms of renewing its youth, it still asserts its
claim to the privileges and immunities of age by frequent aberrations of a very eccentric character.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 289

able printer read snatches of the forthcoming novel, and whetted, while he seemed to
gratify their curiosity, by many a shrewd wink, and mysterious hint of confidential insight
into the literary riddle of the age. The scene, indeed, has melancholy associations with
the great novelist. It is a place which he often visited as an honoured guest, while yet
with sanguine mind and fertile imagination he was anticipating the realisation, of dreams
as wild as his most fanciful legends ; but it is far more nearly allied to those mournful
years, when the brave man looked on the sad realities of ruined hopes, and bent him-
self sternly to rebuild and to restore. The house at the head of the street, facing the
Canongate, where James Earl of Hopetoun resided previously to 1788, is associated
with another of the most eminent Scottish poets and novelists,, the precursor of Scott in
the popular field of romance. The first floor of this house was the residence of Mrs
Telfer, of Scotstown, the sister of Smollett, during his second visit to his native country
in 1766; and here he resided for some time, and though in an infirm state of health,
mixed in the best society of the Scottish capital, and treasured up those graphic pictures of
men and manners which he afterwards embodied in his last and best novel, " Humphrey
Clinker."

At the foot of the Pleasance, and extending between that ancient thoroughfare and the
valley that skirts the base of Salisbury Crags, is a rising ground called St John's Hill,
which, from its vicinity to the places already described, may be presumed to have derived
its name from the same cause. The knights of St John of Jerusalem, who succeeded to
the forfeited possessions of the Templars, it is well-known held lands in almost every, shire
in Scotland, and claimed a jurisdiction, even within the capital,, over certain tenements
built on their ground, some of which, now remaining in the Grassmarket, still bear the
name of Temple Lands. In the absence of all evidence on this subject,. w.e venture to
suggest the probability of a similar proprietorship having been the source of this name.
In the earliest map of Edinburgh which exists, that of 1544, a church of large dimensions
appears occupying the exact site of St John's Hill, but this is no doubt intended for the
Blackfriars' Monastery which stood on the opposite side of the Pleasance. It is possible
that some early deeds or charters may yet be discovered to throw light on this subject,
though we have been unsuccessful in the search. The Templars,, indeed,, would seem to
have had an establishment at Mount Hooly on the southern verge of St Leonard's Hill.
" On the eastern side of Newington," says Maitland, " on a gentle eminence denominated
Mons Sacer, or Holy Mount, now corruptly Mount Hooly, was situate a chapel, which,
from the position of the bodies buried cross-legged ways, with their swords by
their sides, which were found lately in digging there, I take to have belonged to
the Knights Templars." It is difficult now to fix the exact site of this interesting
spot, owing to the changes effected on the whole district by the extended' buildings
of the town.1

On the north side of the Canongate, opposite to St John Street, a large and lofty
stone tenement bears the name of Jack's Land, where the lovely Susannah, Countess

Maitland, p. 176, where a reference is made to the Council Registers, but we have searched them in vain for any
notice of it under the date assigned. The fact of cross-legged corpses with swords by their sides being dug up, is, to
say the least of it, somewhat marvellous, and merited a more elaborate narrative from that careful historian. Perhaps,
however, it should be understood as referring to sculptured figures.

t

29o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

m

of Eglinton, resided during her latter years, and was visited by Lady Jane Douglas,
as appears in the evidence of the Douglas Cause. The other tenants of its numerous ./at*
were doubtless of corresponding importance in the social scale ; l but its most eminent
occupant was David Hume, who removed thither from Riddle's Land, Lawnmarket, in
1753, while engaged in writing his History of England, and continued to reside at Jack's
Laud during the most important period of his literary career. Immediately behind this,
in a court on the east side of Big Jack's Close, there existed till a few years since some
remains of the town mansion of General Dalyell, commander of the forces in Scotland
during most of the reign of Charles II., and the merciless persecutor of the outlawed
Presbyterians during that period. The General's dwelling is described in the Minor
Antiquities 2 as " one of the meanest-looking buildings ever, perhaps, inhabited by a
o-entleman." In this, however, the author was deceived by the humble appearance of the
small portion that then remained. There is no reason to believe that the stern
Muscovite — as he was styled from serving under the Eussian Czar, during the Pro-
tectorate— tempered his cruelties by any such Spartan-like virtues. The General's
residence, on the contrary, appears to have done full credit to a courtier of the Restora-
tion. We owe the description of it, as it existed about the beginning of the present
century, to a very zealous antiquary3 who was born there in 1787, and resided in the
house for many years. He has often conversed with another of its tenants, who remem-
bered being taken to Holyrood when a child to see Prince Charles on his arrival at
the palace of his forefathers. The chief apartment was a hall of unusually large
dimensions, with an arched or waggon-shaped ceiling adorned with a painting of the
sun in the centre, surrounded by gilded rays on an azure ground. The remainder of
the ceiling was painted to represent sky and clouds, and spangled over with a series of
silvered stars in relief. The large windows were closed below with carved oaken shut-
ters, similar in style to the fine specimen still remaining in Riddle's Close, and the
same kind of windows existed in other parts of the building. The kitchen also was
worthy of notice for a fire-place, formed of a plain circular arch of such unusual
dimensions that popular credulity might have assigned it for the perpetration of
those rites it had ascribed to him, of spiting and roasting his miserable captives ! 4 Our
informant was told by an intelligent old man, who had resided in the house for many
years, that a chapel formerly stood on the site of the open court, but all traces of it

1 The following advertisement will probably be considered a curious illustration of the Canongate aristocracy at a
still later period : — "A negro runaway. — That on Wednesday the 10th current, an East India negro lad eloped from a
family of distinction residing in the Canungate of Edinburgh, and is supposed to hare gone towards Newcastle. He is
of the mulatto colour, aged betwixt sixteen and seventeen years, about five feet high, having long black hair, slender
made and long limbed. He had on, when he went off, a brown cloth short coat, with brass buttons, mounted with
black and yellow button-holes, breeches of the same, and a yellow vest with black and yellow lace, with a brown duffle
surtout coat, with yellow lining, and metal buttons, grey and white marled stockings, a fine English hat with yellow
lining, having a gold loop and tassle, and double gilded button. As this negro lad has carried off sundry articles of
value, whoever shall receive him, so that he may be restored to the owner, on sending notice thereof to Patrick
M'Dougal, writer in Edinburgh, shall be handsomely rewarded." — Edinburgh Advertiser, March 12th, 1773. An
earlier advertisement in the Courant, March 7th, 1727, offers a reward for the apprehension of another runaway : — " A
negro woman, named Ann, about eighteen years of age, with a green gown, and a brass collar about her neck, on which
are engraved these words, ' Gustavus Brown in Dalkeith, his negro, 1726.' "

2 Minor Antiquities of Edinburgh, p. 230.

3 Mr Wni. Rowan, librarian, New College.

4 Fountainb all's Decisions, vol. i. p. 159. Burnet'a Hist, of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 33 I.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 291

were removed in 1779. It is not at all inconsistent with the character of the fierce
old cavalier that he should have erected a private chapel for his own use. Death fortu-
nately stepped in, says his fellow-soldier, Captain Crichton, in allusion to the dilemma
in which the General was placed on the accession of James VII., and " rescued him from
the difficulties he was likely to be under, between the notions he had of duty to his
prince on one side, and true zeal for his religion on the other." * The main idea that seems
to have guided him through life was a chivalrous loyalty. He allowed his beard to grow
as a manifestation of his grief on the beheading of King Charles, and retained it unaltered
till his death, though it latterly acquired a venerable amplitude that attracted a crowd
whenever he appeared in public. The early history of chivalry furnishes many examples
in proof of the perfect compatibility of such devoted loyalty with the cruelties which have
rendered his name infamous to posterity.

The Shoemakers' Lands, whicli stand to the east of Jack's Land, are equally lofty and
more picturesque buildings. One of them especially, immediately opposite to Moray
House, is a very singular and striking object in the stately range of substantial stone tene-
ments that extend from New Street to the Canongate Tolbooth. A highly-adorned tablet
surmounts the main entrance, enriched with angels' heads, and a border of Elizabethan
ornament enclosing the Shoemakers' Arms, with the date 1677. An open book is inscribed
with the first verse of the Scottish metre version of the 133d Psalm, — a motto that appears
to have been in special repute, towards the close of the seventeenth century, among
the suburban corporations, being also inscribed over the Tailors' Hall of Easter Ports-
burgh and the Shoemakers' Land in the West Port. The turnpike stair — the entrance •
to which is graced by this motto, and the further inscription, in smaller letters, IT is AN
HONOUR FOR MAN TO CEASE FROM STRIFE — rises above the roof of the building, and is
crowned with an ogee roof of singular character, flanked on either side by picturesque
gables to the street. The first of the two tenements to the west of this, at the head of
Shoemakers' Close, has an open pannel on its front, from which the inscription appears to
have been removed ; but the other, which bears the date 1 725, is still adorned with the
same arms, and the following moral aphorism : —

BLESSED is HE THAT WISELY DO

Til THE POOR MAN'S CASE CONSIDER.

The hall of the once wealthy Corporation of Cordiners or Shoemakers of Canongate,
to whom this property belonged, stood on the west side of Little Jack's Close, adorned
with the insignia of the Souters' Craft, and furnished for the convivial meetings of the
fraternity with huge oaken tables and chairs ; and with a substantial carved oaken throne,
adorned with the arms — a paring knife surmounted by a crown — and the date
1682, for the inauguration of King Crispin on the 25th of October, or St Crispin's Day.
It was long the annual custom of the craft to elect a king, who was borne through the
town, attended by his subjects, dressed in all sorts of fantastic and showy attire ;
after which he held his court at the Corporation Hall, and celebrated his coronation
with royal festivities. Unhappily for the Cordiners of Canongate, the sumptuary laws

1 Memoirs of Captain Crichton, Swift's works, London, 1803, vol. xiv. p. 318.

292 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of the old Scottish Parliaments were not framed to curl) the excesses of cobbler kings.
King Crispin and his train grew more extravagant every year. He latterly rode in this
fantastic annual pageant in ermined robes, attended by prince, premier, champion in
armour, and courtiers of all degrees, mounted on horseback, and decked in the most
gaudy costume they could procure, until at length the whole wealth and property of the
corporation were dissipated in this childish foolery, and King Crispin retired to private
life, and the humbler relaxation of cobbling shoes ! Mrs Malcolm, an old dame of a
particularly shrewish disposition, who inhabited an attic in the Shoemakers' Land
towards the close of last century, was long known by the title of the Princess, her
husband having for many years represented the Black Prince, and she his sable consort —
two essential characters in King Crispin's pageant. There can be little doubt that this
frivolous sport was a relic of much earlier times, when the Cordiners of the neighbouring
capital, incorporated in the year 1449, proceeded annually, on the anniversary of their
patron saint, to the altar of St Crispin and St Crispinian, founded and maintained by
them in the collegiate church of St Giles.1 Nor is it improbable, that in the Princess a
traditional remembrance was preserved of the Queen of tJte Canongate, mentioned in the
Treasury accounts of James IV.

The Canongate Tolbooth — a view of which heads this chapter — has long been a
favourite subject for the artist's pencil, as one of the most picturesque edifices of the
Old Town. It formed the court-house and jail of the burgh, erected in the reign of
James VI., soon after the abolition of religious houses had left this ancient dependency
of the Abbey free to govern itself. Even then, however, Adam Bothwell, the Protes-
tant commendator of Holyrood, retained some portion of the ancient rights of his
mitred predecessors over the burgh. The present structure is the successor of a much
earlier building, probably on the same site. The date on the tower is 1591 ; and prepara-
tions for its erection appear in the Burgh Register seven years before this, where it is
enacted that no remission of fees shall be granted to any one, " unto the tyme the
tolbuith of this burch be edefeit and biggit." 2 Nevertheless, we find by the Burgh
Registers for 1561, "Curia capitalis burgi vici canonicorum Monasterii Sancte Crucis
prope Edinburgh, tenta in pretorio ejusdem ; " and frequent references occur to the tolbuith,
both as a court-house and prison, in the Registers and in the Treasurer's accounts, e.g.,
1574, " To sax pynouris att the bailleis command for taking doun of the lintall
stane of the auld tolbuith windo, iijs. vjd." The very next entry is a fee "to ane
new pyper," an official of the Burgh of whom various notices are found at this early
period.

The Hotel de Ville of this ancient burgh is surmounted by a tower and spire, flanked
by two turrets in front, from between which a clock of large dimensions projects into the
street. This formerly rested on curiously-carved oaken beams, which appear in Storer's
views published in 1818, but they have since been replaced by plain cast-iron supports.
The building is otherwise adorned with a variety of mottoes and sculptured devices in the

1 Maitland, p. 305. The earliest notice we have found of the Cordiners of Canongate occurs in the Burgh Register,
10th June 1574, where "William Quhite, being electit and chosin diacone of the cordonaris be his brethir for this
present yeir, ... is ressavit in place of umquhill Audro Purvea." From this they appear to have been then an
incorporated body. — Canongate Burgh Register ; Mait. Misc. vol. ii. p. 329.

8 Canongate Burgh Register, 13th October 1584 ; Ibid, p. 353.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY.

293

style that prevailed at the date of its erection. Between the windows of the first and
second floor of the tower an ornamental sun-dial appears, and underneath the lower window
a carved tablet bears the following inscription : —

S. L. B.

PATRI.*: ET POSTERIS, 1591.

There are two bells in the tower, the oldest of which has this favourite motto, with the
date, cast on it: — SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA, 1008. The larger bell, as appears from
its inscription, was cast in 1796. Over the inner doorway, which leads both to the court-
house and the prison, are these appropriate words — ESTO FIDUS ; and on the most con-
spicuous part of the edifice, between the large windows of the council hall, a highly
ornamental panel, surmounted by a pediment adorned with a large thistle, bears the
following legend : — J. E. 6. JUSTITIA ET PIETAS VALIDE SUNT PBINCIPIS AHCES. Within
the panel the burgh arms are emblazoned, viz. — a stag's head with a cross between the
tynes, in commemoration of the monastic legend to which the origin of Saint David's
Abbey and its burgh is referred ; and underneath the motto, Sic ITUR AD ASTRA ; an
unfailing subject of mirth to the profane wits of the capital, as an avowal by the old vassals
of the Church that they now seek the way to heaven through the burgh jail.

The independence of the burgh of Canongate was of
brief duration, the magistrates of Edinburgh having
purchased the superiority of it from the Earl of Rox-
burgh, and procured a charter of confirmation from
Charles I. in 1636. It was till lately governed by its own
magistrates, and a baron bailie elected by the Edin-
burgh Town Council, who thus came in the place of
the Abbot of Holyrood as over-lords of the burgh.
These held weekly courts for the punishment of petty
offenders, and the settlement of disputed questions on
small debts ; and in general exercised full control over the
public affairs of the burgh.

The ancient market cross formerly stood nearly op-
posite to the Tolbooth. It is represented in Gordon's
map, as mounted on a stone gallery somewhat similar
to that of the neighbouring capital, though on a smaller
scale. This has long since disappeared, but the elegant
cross, represented in the accompanying vignette, still
exists attached to the south-east corner of the Tolbooth.

Its chief use in latter times was as the pillory ; and the iron staple remains to which the
culprit used to be secured by an iron collar round the neck, styled the Jougs, a species
of punishment which continued in use within the recollection of some of our older
citizens.1

1 "31st October, 1567. The quliilk daye Bessie Tailzefeir being acousit be the bailleis and counsall of the
selandring of TUos. Huntar, baillie, . . . thairfoir ordanit the said Bessie to be brankit the morne and set upone

294 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Moray House, which is one of the most remarkable objects of interest in the Canon-
gate, formed until 1835 part of the entailed estate of the noble house of Moray, in whose
possession it remained exactly two hundred years, having become the property of Mar-
garet, Countess of Moray, in 1645, by an arrangement with her younger sister, Anne,
then Countess of Lauderdale, and co-heiress with her of their mother, the Countess of
Home, by whom Moray House was built.1 This noble mansion presents more striking
architectural features than any other private building in Edinburgh, and is associated with
some of the most interesting events in Scottish history. It was erected in the early part
of the reign of Charles I. by Mary, Countess of Home, the eldest daughter of Edward,
Lord Dudley, and then a widow. Her initials, M. H., are sculptured over the large
centre window of the south gable, surmounted by a ducal coronet ; and over the corres-
ponding window to the north are the lions of Home and Dudley, impaled on a lozenge,
in accordance with the ancient laws of heraldry. The house was erected some years
before the visit of Charles I. to Scotland, and his coronation at Holyrood in 1633. It
can scarcely, therefore, admit of doubt that its halls have been graced by the presence of
that unfortunate monarch, though the Countess soon after contributed largely towards the
success of his opponents, as appears by the repayment by the English Parliament, in
1644, of seventy thousand pounds which had been advanced by her to the Scottish
Covenanting Government — an unusually large sum to be found at the disposal of the
dowager of a Scottish earl.

On the first visit of Oliver Cromwell to Edinburgh, in the summer of 1648, he took
up his residence at " the Lady Home's lodging, in the Canongate," as it then continued to
be called ; and entered into friendly negotiations with the nobles and leaders of the extreme
party of the Covenanters. According to Guthrie, " he did communicate to them his design
in reference to the King, and had their assent thereto ; " 2 in consequence of which " the
Lady Home's house, in the Canongate, became' an object of mysterious curiosity, from
the general report at the time that the design to execute Charles I. was there first dis-
cussed and approved."3 This, however, which, if it could be relied on, would add so
peculiar an interest to the mansion, must be regarded as the mere cavalier gossip of the
period. Even if we could believe that Cromwell's designs were matured at that time, he
was too wary a politician to hazard them by such premature and profitless confidence ; but
there can be no doubt of the future measures of resistance to the King having formed a
prominent subject in their discussions.

In the year 1650, only two years after the Parliamentary General's residence in the
Canongate, the fine old mansion was the scene of joyous banquetings and revelry on the
occasion of the marriage of Lord Lorn — afterwards better known as the unfortunate Earl of
Argyle — with Lady Mary Stuart, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Moray. The wedding-
feast took place on the 13th of May, and the friends were still celebrating the auspicious

the croce of this bruehe, thair to remane the space of aue houre." On the 6th October 1572, the treasurer is ordered
" to vpput and big sufficiently the corce," which had probably suffered in some of the reforming mobs, and may
have been then, for the first time, elevated on a platform. — Canongate Burgh Register, Mait. Misc. vol. ii. pp. 303, 326.

1 The entail was broke by a clause in one of the Acts of the North British Railway Company, who had purchased
the ancient Trinity Hospital for their terminus, and proposed to fit up Moray House in its stead ; an arrangement which
it is to be regretted has not been carried into effect. The name of Regent Murray's House, latterly applied to the old
mansion, is a spurious tradition of very recent origin.

2 Guthrie's Memoirs, p. 298. 3 Napier's Life of Moutrose, p. 4-ii.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 295

alliance of these two noble families, when, on Saturday the 18th of May, the already
excommunicated and doomed Marquis of Montrose was brought a captive to Edinburgh.
About fonr o'clock in the afternoon, the magistrates and guard received their prisoner at
the Water Gate, and, after reading to him his barbarous sentence, he was ignominiously
bound to a low cart provided for the occasion. The common hangman, who acted as
master of the ceremonies, having uncovered the Marquis, he mounted the horse before
him, and the melancholy procession moved slowly up the Canongate, a baud of meaner
prisoners, bound two and two, going bareheaded before him.

The striking contrast presented in this scene is painfully illustrative of the vicissitudes
that accompany civil war. Montrose had ftmght with and overthrown his great rival the
Marquis of Argyle, father of the young Lord Lorn, and had driven him almost a solitary
fugitive to the sea, while he wasted his country with fire and sword. As the noble captive
was borne beneath the windows of Moray House, the wedding guests, including the Earl
of Loudoun, then Lord Chancellor, Lord Warriston, and the Countess of Haddington,
along with the Marquis of Argyle, and the bride and bridegroom,1 stepped out on the fine
old stone balcony that overhangs the street to gaze upon their prostrate enemy. It is said
that the Lady Jane Gordon, Countess of Haddington, Argyle's niece, so far forgot her
sex as to spit upon him as he passed, in her revengeful triumph over their fallen foe.
But the marriage party quailed before the calm gaze of the noble captive. Though
suifering from severe wounds, in addition to the mortification and insult to which he was
exposed, he preserved the same composure and serenity with which he afterwards submitted
to a felon's death, appearing even on the scaffold — as Nicoll relates — in a style " more
becoming a bridegroom, nor a criminal going to the gallows." " On Montrose turning his
eye on the party assembled on the balcony at Moray House to rejoice over his fall, they
shrank back with hasty discomposure, and disappeared from the windows, leaving the
gloomy procession to wend onward on its way to the Tolbooth.3 This remarkable incident
acquires a deeper interest, when we consider that three of these onlookers, including the
gay and happy bridegroom, perished by the hand of the executioner on the same fatal
spot to which the gallant Marquis was passing under their gaze.

The period of which we write was one of rapid change. Little more than four
months had elapsed when the army of the Covenanters, with Leslie at its head, was
signally defeated at Duubar, and the victorious General Cromwell entered the Scottish
capital as a conqueror, and once more took up his quarters at Moray House. Throughout
the winter of 1650, its stately halls were crowded with Parliamentary commissioners and
military and civil courtiers attendant on the General's levee.4 Its next occupant of note
was the Lord Chancellor Seafield, who appears to have resided there at the period of the
Union, and peopled its historic halls with new associations, as the scene of the numerous
secret deliberations that preceded the ratification of that treaty. The stately old terraced
gardens remain nearly in the same state as when the peers and commoners of the last
Scottish Parliament frequented its avenues. The picturesque summer-house, adorned with

1 " It was reported that, in 1650, when the Marquis of Montrose was brought up prisoner from the Water Gate in a
cart, this Argile was feeding his eyes with the sight in the Lady Murrayes balcony in the Canongate, with hir daughter,
his lady, to whom he was new married, and that he was seen playing and smiling with her." — Fountainhall's Historical
Observes, 1685, p. 185. * Nicoll's Diary, p. 13.

3 Wigton Tapers ; Mait. Misc. vol. ii. pp. 482, 4S3. * Ante, p. 95.

296 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

its quaint old lious, in which the Unionists are said to have been scared while signing
some of their preliminary treaties, is still there. The upper terrace is shaded by a magni-
ficent thorn tree, which appears to be much older than the house ; on the second, a
curious arbour has been constructed by the interlacing stems of trees, twisted into the
fantastic forms in which our ancestors delighted; and on the lowest terrace, a fine fountain
of clear water is guarded by the marble statue of a little fisher, with his basket at his feet,
filled with the mimic spoils of the rod and line. The garden has a southern aspect, and
is of large dimensions, and both it and the house might still afford no unsuitable accom-
modation to the proudest Earl in the Scottish Peerage.1

Directly opposite to the Old Tolbooth, and not far removed from the stately mansion
of the Earls of Moray, is an antique fabric of a singularly picturesque character, associated
with the name of one of the adversaries of that noble house — George, first Marquis of
Huutly, who murdered the Bonny Earl of Moray in 1591. The evidence, indeed, is not
complete which assigns this as the dwelling of the first marquis, but it is rendered ex-
ceedingly probable from the fact that his residence was in the Canongate, and that this
fine old mansion was occupied at a later period by his descendants. In June 1636, he
was carried from his lodging in the Canongate, with the hope of reaching his northern
territories before his death, but he got no farther than Dundee, where he died in his
seventy-fourth year.2 The same noble lodging was 'the abode of the unfortunate Marquis,
who succeeded to his father's title, and perished on the block at the Cross of Edinburgh in
1649. Ten years before that, their old mansion in the Canongate was the scene of special
rejoicing and festivity, on the occasion of the marriage of his eldest daughter, Lady Ann
with the Lord Drummond, afterwards third Earl of Perth, " who was ane preceise puritane,
and therfore weill lyked in Edinburgh." 3 The house was occupied, when Maitland wrote,
by the Duchess-Dowager of Gordon ; and through a misinterpretation of the evidence
given by some of the witnesses concerned in the murder of Darnley in 1567, he pronounces
it to have been the Mint Office of Scotland at that period. If the date on the building,
which is 1570, be that of its erection, it settles the question. But, at any rate, an examina-
tion of the evidence referred to leaves no doubt that the Mint was situated at the period
entirely without the Canongate, and in the outer court of the Palace of Holyoood,4 though
this has not prevented the historian being followed, as usual, without investigation by later
writers. We have engraved a view of this curious old mansion as it appears from the
Bakehouse Close. It presents an exceedingly picturesque row of timber-fronted gables
to the street, resting on a uniform range of ornamental corbels projecting from the stone
basement story. A series of sculptured tablets adorn the front of the building, containing
certain pious aphorisms, differing in style from those so frequently occurring on the build-
ings of the sixteenth century. On one is inscribed : — " CONSTANTI PECTORI RES MORTALIVM

1 Moray House was for some time occupied by the British Linen Company's Bank ; and, since ] 847, has been used as
the Free Church Normal School, and the fine terraced gardens described above transformed into a playground for the
scholars.

1 Spalding's History of the Troubles, vol. i. p. 42.

8 Ibid, vol. i. p. 177.

4 " Incontinent the Erie [Bothwell], French Paris, William Powry, servitor and porter to the said Erie, Pat. Wil-
Boun, and the depouar, geid down the turnpike altogidder, and endlong the back of the Queenis garden quhill zwv cum
to the Cunzic-Hous, and the back of the stabilis [seemingly what is now called the Horse Wynd], quhill zow cum to the
Caunongate foreanent the Abbey zet."— Deposition of George Dalgleish ; Crim. Trials, Supp. p. 495.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 297

YMBRA." On another: — " UT TU LINGVO TV.<E, sic EGO HEAR : AVRIUJI DOMINVS SVH." A
third tablet bears the date, with ati inscription of a similar character ; but these have long
been concealed by a painting of Lord Nelson, which forms the sign of a tavern now
occupying a portion of the old Marquis's mansion. On an upright tablet, at the west
end, is the ingenious emblem of the resurrection referred to in the description of an
edifice in the Old Bank Close, which was similarly adorned.

On the east side of the Bakehouse or Hammermen's Close, an ornamental archway,
with pendant keystone, in the fashion prevalent towards the close of James VI. 's
reign, forms the entrance to a small enclosed court, surrounded on three sides by the
residence of Sir Archibald Acheson of Grlencairney, one of the Lords of Session appointed
soon after the accession of Charles I. He was created by the King a Baronet of Nova
Scotia in 1628, and was afterwards appointed one of the Secretaries of State for Scotland.
Over the pediment above the main entrance the Baronet's crest, a Cock standing on a
Trumpet, is cut in bold relief ; and below, the motto vigilantibus, with a cypher contain-
ing the letters A. M. H., being the initials of Sir Archibald Acheson, and Dame Margaret
Hamilton his wife. The date on the building is 1633, the same year in which Charles I.
paid his first visit to his native capital. The building is a handsome erection in the style
of the period ; though a curious proof of the rude state in which the mechanical arts
remained at that date is afforded by the square hole being still visible at the side of the
main doorway, wherein the old oaken bar slid out and in for securely fastening the door.
The three sides of the court are ornamented with dormer windows, containing the initials
of the builder and his wife, and other architectural decorations in the style of the
period.

The range of houses to the eastward of the patrician mansions described above still
includes many of an early date, and some associated with names once prominent in
Scottish story. Milton House, a handsome large mansion, built in the somewhat heavy
style which was in use during the eighteenth century, derived its name from Andrew
Fletcher of Milton, Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland, who succeeded the celebrated Lord
Fountainhall on the Bench in the year 1724, and continued to preside as a judge of the
Court of Session till his death in 1766. He was much esteemed for the mild and
forbearing manner with which he exercised his authority as Lord Justice-Clerk after the
Rebellion of 1745. He sternly discouraged all informers, and many communications,
which he suspected to have been sent by over-officious and malignant persons, were found
in his repositories after his death unopened.1 He was a nephew of the patriotic Fletcher
of Salton, and an intimate friend and coadjutor of Archibald, Duke of Argyle, during
whose administration he exercised a wise and beneficial control over the government
patronage in Scotland. The old mansion which thus formed the mimic scene of court
levees, where Hanoverian and Jacobite candidates for royal favour elbowed one another in
the chase, still retains unequivocal marks of its former grandeur, notwithstanding the
many strange tenants who have since occupied it. The drawing-room to the south, the
windows of which command a beautiful and uninterrupted view of Salisbury Crags and
St Leonard's Hill, has its walls very tastefully decorated with a series of designs of land-
scapes and allegorical figures, with rich borders of fruit and flowers, painted in distemper.

1 Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice, p. 499.

298 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

They are said to be the work of a foreign artist, and are executed with great spirit.
From the style of the landscapes more especially, we feel little hesitation in ascribing the
whole to the pencil of Francesco Zuccherelli, who had a high reputation in England
during the earlier part of the eighteenth century. Interspersed among the ornamental
borders there are various grotesque figures, which have the appearance of being copies
from an illuminated missal of the fourteenth century. They represent a cardinal, a monk,
a priest, and other churchmen, painted with great humour and extreme drollery of
attitude and expression. They so entirely differ from the general character of the com-
position, that their insertion may be conjectured to have originated in a whim of Lord
Milton, which the artist has contrived to execute without sacrificing the harmony of his
design. An elegant cornice, finished with painting and gilding, and a richly stuccoed
ceiling, complete the decorations of this fine apartment.

The house was occupied for some time as a Roman Catholic School, under the care of
the Sisters of Charity of St Margaret's Convent. The pupils particularly attracted the
attention of her Majesty Queen Victoria on her visit to the capital in 1842, as they
strewed flowers in her path on her approach from the palace of her ancestors by the
ancient royal thoroughfare of the Canongate. It has since been used as a Deaf and
Dumb School, and was afterwards appropriated to the benevolent objects of the Royal
Maternity Hospital, but is now the property of a large engineering firm.

The fine open grounds which surround Milton House, with the site on which it is
built, formed a large and beautiful garden attached to the mansion of the Earls of
Roxburghe. Lord Fountainhall reports a dispute, in 1694, between the Trades of
Canongate and the Earl of Roxburghe, in which the Lords declared his house in the
Cauongate free, and himself empowered, by right of certain clauses in a contract between
the Earl, the Town of Edinburgh, and Heriot's Hospital, to employ artificers on his
house who were not freemen of the burgh.1 Such contentions, originating in the jealousy
of the Corporations of the Canongate, are of frequent occurrence at the period, and show
with how despotic a spirit they were prepared to guard their exclusive rights. On the
2d June 1681, a complaint was laid before the Privy Council by the celebrated
Lord Halton, afterwards Earl of Lauderdale,3 stating that he was then building a
lodging for himself in the Canongate, and having employed some country masons,
the craftsmen of the burgh assaulted them, and carried off their tools. In the evidence,
it is shown that even a freeman of the capital dared not encroach on the bounds of the
Canongate; and that, "in 1671, the Privy Council fined David Pringle, chirurgeon,
for employing one Wood, an uufree barber, to exerce his calling in polling the
children's heads in Heriot's Hospital ! " 3 In this case Lord Halton seems also to
have been left free to employ his own workmen ; but the craftsmen were declared
warranted in their interference, and therefore free from the charge of rioting. The
Earl of Roxburghe's mansion appears, from Edgar's map, to have stood on the west
side of the garden, and to have been afterwards occupied by his brother John, the fifth

1 Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 614.

- Queensberry House having been built on ground purchased from the Lauderdale family (Traditions, vol. i. p. 2SO),
it seems probable that that ducal mansion occupies the site of Lord Halton's house.
3 FoiiDtaiuhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 138-9.

THE CANONGA TE AND ABBE Y SANCTUAR Y. 299

Karl, who took an active share in promoting the Union. He was soon after elevated to a
dukedom in the British Peerage, and successively filled the offices of Keeper of the Privy
Seal and Secretary of State for Scotland.

At the head of Reid's Close stands the ancient and picturesque stone tenement,
designated in the accompanying engraving Nisbet of Dirleton's House, which appears by
the date on it to have been erected in the year 1624. Its basement story is substantially
arched with stone, in accordance with the fashion of that age, when a citizen's mansion
had occasionally to be made his castle, in a very different sense from that which is now
maintained as the theory of British law. This edifice, which was probably reared by
some courtier of note and influence at that period, afterwards became the residence of
Sir John Nisbet, who was promoted to the Bench in 1664, under the title of Lord
Dirleton, and was the last who held the office of Lord Advocate conjointly with that of
a Judge. He was the predecessor of Sir George Mackenzie as Lord Advocate, and is
accused, both by Kirkton and Wodrow, of making himself the tool of the Bishops. The
latter relates a curious instance of his zeal in persecuting the unfortunate Covenanters.
Robert Gray having been brought before the Council, and examined as to his knowledge
of the hiding places of some of the leaders of that party, without their succeeding in
obtaining from him the desired information, Sir John took a ring from the man's finger
and sent it to Mrs Gray by a trusty messenger, who informed her that her husband had
told all he knew of the Whigs, and that he sent this ring to her in token that she might
do the same. Deceived by this ingenious fraud, the poor woman revealed their places of
concealment ; but her husband was so affected that he sickened and died a few days after.
The south front of the house appears in the engraving of Reid's Close, and is singularly
picturesque, and somewhat unique in its character.

A little further to the eastward, on the same side, is the huge mansion erected by
William, first Duke of Queeusberry, the builder of Drumlanrig Castle, who exercised
almost absolute power in Scotland during the latter years of the reign of Charles II.,
and presided as High Commissioner in the first Parliament of James VII. He afterwards
took an active share in the revolution that placed the Prince of Orange on the throne ; a
step which did not prove sufficient to redeem him from the hatred of the Presbyterian
party, against whom his power had been used in a very cruel and arbitrary manner.
He died in the Canongate in 1695. His character was made up of the strangest con-
tradictions ; a great miser, yet magnificent in buildings and pleasure grounds ; illiterate,
yet a collector of books, and commanding in his letters — which he dictated to a secretary —
a style that is admirable.1 His son, the active promoter of the union, and the Lord High
Commissioner under whose auspices it was accomplished, kept court here during that
stormy period, and frequently found his huge mansion surrounded by the infuriated mob
who so pertinaciously pursued every abettor of that hated measure.2 But the most

1 A collection of his letters now in the possession of C. K. Shnrpe, Esq., would form a curious and valuable acquisi-
tion to the literary world if published.

• A mysterious and horrible story is related in the " Traditions of Edinburgh," concerning the Duke's eldest son,
Lord Drumlanrig, an idiot, who, being deserted by his keeper on the day the union was passed — the whole household
having gone off, with the exception of a little kitchen boy — escaped from his confinement, murdered the boy, and was
found roasting him at the fire when the domestics returned in triumph from the Parliament Close. The dreadful tale
soon became known, and it was universally regarded as a judgment on the Duke for his share in the union.

300

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

eminent occupants of Queensberry House are Charles, the third Duke, who was bom there
in 1698, and his celebrated Duchess, Lady Catherine Hyde, the patroness of the poet
Gay, and the beauty of the court of George I, whose sprightliness and wit have been
commemorated in the numbers of Pope, Swift, and Prior ; and whom Horace Walpole,
Earl of Orford, celebrated in her old age as—

Prior's Kitty, ever fair !

The eccentric beauty espoused the cause of Gay with such warmth, that on the Lord
Chamberlain refusing to sanction the representation of Polly, a piece intended as a
continuation of the Be^ar's Opera, she received the poet into her house as her private

secretary, and both she and the Duke with-
drew in high dudgeon from court. Gay
accompanied his fair patroness to Edinburgh,
and resided some time at Queensberry House.
His intercourse with the author of " the
Gentle Shepherd," has already been referred
to, as well as his frequent visits to the poet's
shop at the cross.1 We furnish a view of
another and much humbler haunt of the
poet during his residence in Edinburgh.
It is a small lath and plaster edifice of
considerable antiquity, which still stands
directly opposite Queensberry House, and
is said to have been a much frequented
tavern in Gay's time, kept by an hospitable
old dame, called Janet Hall; and, if tradi-
tion is to be believed, Jenny HcCs change-

J/ouse was a frequent scene of the poet's relaxations with the congenial wits of the Scot-
tish capital.2

The huge dimensions of Queen sherry House are best estimated from the fact of its
having been subsequently converted into barracks and an hospital. The latest purpose to
which this once magnificent ducal residence has been applied, as a " House of Refuge for
the Destitute," seems to complete its descent in the scale of degradation. Little idea,
however, can now be formed, from the vast and unadorned proportions which the ungainly
edifice presents both externally and internally, of its appearance while occupied by its
original owners. The whole building was then a story lower than it is at present. The
wings were surmounted with neat ogee roofs. The centre had a French roof, with storm
windows, in the style of the Palace of Versailles, and the chimney stalks were sufficiently
ornamental to add to the general effect of the building, so that the whole appearance of
the mansion, though plain, was perfectly in keeping with the residence of a nobleman and
the representative of majesty. The internal decorations were of the most costly descrip-
tion, including very richly carved marble chimney pieces. On the house being dismantled,
many of these were purchased by the Earl of Wemyss, for completing his new mansion

1 Ante, p. 199.

2 Traditions, vol. i. p. 291.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 301

of Gosford House, near Edinburgh ; but his successors have continued to prefer the old
mansion, which stands only a few hundred yards from the modern pile; and it is left
accordingly in a more desolate state even than the deserted edifice in the Canongate, with
whose spoils it should have been adorned.

On the site now occupied by a brewery, a little to the eastward of Queensberry House,
formerly stood Lothian Hut, a small but very splendidly finished mansion, erected by
William, the third Marquis of Lothian, about 1750, and in which he died in 1767. His
Marchioness, who survived him twenty years, continued to reside there till her death, and
it was afterwards occupied by the Lady Caroline D'Arcy, Dowager Marchioness of the
fourth Marquis. The scene of former rank and magnificence would have possessed a
deeper interest had it now remained, from its having formed for many years the residence
of the celebrated philosopher, Dugald Stewart, and the place where he carried on many of
his most important literary labours'.

At the head of Panmure Close, on the north side of the street, an ancient edifice of
the time of Queen Mary still exists. It has already been referred to as bearing the
earliest date on any private building in the Canongate. It consists, like other buildings
of the period, of a lower erection of stone with a fore stair leading to the first floor, and
an ornamental turnpike within, affording access to the upper chambers of the building.
At the top of a very steep wooden stair, constructed alongside of the latter, a very rich
specimen of carved oak panneling remains in good preservation, adorned with the
Scottish lion, displayed within a broad wreath, and surrounded by a variety of ornament.
The doorway of the inner turnpike bears on the sculptured lintel the initials I. H.,
a shield, charged with a cheverou and a hunting horn in base ; and the date 1565,
which leaves little reason to doubt that its builder was John Hunter, a wealthy burgess,
who filled the office of treasurer of the burgh in 1568. The name of Panmure Close is
derived from its having been the access to Panmure House, an old mansion, part of
which still remains at the foot of Monroe's Close, now occupied as an iron foundry.
It formed the town residence of the Earl of Panmure, who was succeeded in it
towards the middle of last century by the Countess of Aberdeen. At that time it
was pleasantly surrounded by open garden ground, and was deemed a peculiarly
suitable mansion ; and towards the close of the century it was occupied by the cele-
brated Dr Adam Smith, who spent there the last twelve years of his life. It is now
as melancholy a looking abode as could well be assigned for the residence even of a poor
author.

John Paterson's House, or the Golfer's Land, as it is now more generally termed,
forms a prominent object among the range of ancient tenements on the south side of the
Canongate, and is associated with a romantic tale of the Court of James VII., during
his residence at Holyrood, as Duke of York. The story narrated in the " Historical
Account of the Game of Golf," privately printed by the Leith Club of Golfers, bears that,
during the residence of the Duke in Edinburgh, the question was started on one occasion
by two' English noblemen, who boasted of their own expertness in the game, as to
whether the ancient Scottish amusement was not practised at an equally early date in
England. The Duke's fondness for the game has already been referred to,1 and he was

Ante, p. 104.

302 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

now stimulated to its defence as a national amusement peculiar to Scotland, from his
earnest desire to win the popular favour, in which he was no way more likely to succeed than
by flattering their prejudices on any question of nationality, and becoming their champion
in its defence. The antiquity of the Scottish game is proved by a statute, passed in the
reign of James II., 1457, forbidding the practice of both " fute-ball and golfe," under
the penalty of the Baron's unlaw, and enacting the use of the Bow in its stead.
The evidence on the English side not being so readily forthcoming, the Englishmen
offered to rest the legitimacy of their national pretensions on the result of a match
to be played by them against his Royal Highness and any Scotsman he chose to select.
The Duke immediately accepted the challenge, and, after careful inquiry, selected as
his partner John Paterson, a poor shoemaker of the Canongate, whose ancestors had
been celebrated for centuries as proficients in the game, and who then enjoyed the
honour of being considered the best golfer of his day. The match was played by the
Duke and his partner against their English challengers on the Links of Leith ; heavy
stakes were risked by the Duke and his noble opponents on the results ; and after a
hard-fought field, the royal champion of Scotland and his humble squire carried the day
triumphantly. The poor shoemaker was rewarded with a large share of the stakes
forfeited by the challenger, and with this he built the substantial tenement which
still records his name, and commemorates his victory over the impugners of the national
sports.

A large and handsome tablet on the front of the mansion bears the Paterson Arms —
three pelicans feeding their young, with three mullets on a chief; and surmounted by a
knight's helmet, and a defaced crest, said to be a hand grasping a golfer's club. Over
the ground floor, a plain slab is inscribed with the following epigram, from the pen of
the celebrated Dr Pitcairn, commemorative of the heroic deeds of the builder, and the
national claims which he successfully asserted : —

Cum victor ludo, Scotia qui proprius, esset,

Ter tres victores pest redemitos avos,
Patersonus, huruo tune educebat in altum

Hanc, quse victorea tot tulet una, domum.

The letters of this elegant distich were formerly gilded so as to attract the notice of
the passer, bxit this has entirely disappeared, and the inscription no longer challenges
the attention of any but the curious antiquary. Underneath is placed the philanthropic
declaration I HATE NO PERSON, which might be supposed the very natural sentiment of one
who had achieved such unexpected honour and reward. It proves, however, to be merely
the transposition of the letters of his own name into an anagram, according to the quaint
fashion of the age. The ancient tenement appears in the accompanying engraving, and
the inscriptions upon it leave no reasonable doubt of the traditional fame of the Canongate
Golfer. We are sorry in any degree to disturb a tradition backed by such incontrovertible
evidence ; but it appears probable, from the evidence of the title-deeds, that the Golfer's
Land was lost, instead of won, by the gaming propensities of its owner. It was acquired
in 1609 by Nicol Paterson, maltman in Leith, from whom it passed in 1632 to his son,
John Paterson, and Agnes Lyel, his spouse. He died in 1663, as appears by the epitaph

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 303

on his tomb — which existed iu Maitland's time in the cemetery attached to Holyrood
Abbey — after having several times filled the office of bailie of Cauougate.1 Both of
these, we may infer from the inscription on the old tenement, were zealous and success-
ful wielders of the Golfing Club — a virtue which they bequeathed to the younger John
Paterson, the hero of the traditional tale, along with the old land which bears his name.
The style of the building confirms the idea of its having been rebuilt by him, with the
spoils, as we are bound to presume, which he won on Leith Links from " our auld
enemies of England." The title-deeds, however, render it probable, as we have hinted,
that other stakes had been played for with less success. In 1691, he grants a bond over
the property for £400 Scots. This is followed by letters of caption and horning, and
other direful symptoms of legal assault, which pursue the poor golfer to his grave, and
remain behind as his sole legacy to his heirs. Paterson appears, from other evidence, to
have been immediately succeeded in the old mansion by John, second Lord Bellenden,
who died there in 1704; since which time the Golfer's Land has run its course, like the
other tenements of this once patrician burgh, and is now occupied by the same class of
plebeian tenants as has everywhere succeeded to the old courtiers of Holyrood.2

Whiteford House, a comfortable modern mansion, originally occupied by Sir John
Whiteford, stands immediately behind Janet Hall's humble dwelling, surrounded by
open gardens, forming the sight of the ancient mansion of the Earls of Wintoun. George,
the fifth Earl, was attainted in consequence of his share in the ill-concerted insurrection
of 1715, and the old edifice, being then forsaken by its noble owners, was abandoned to
solitude and decay. The ground is marked in Edgar's map as the ruins of the Earl of
Wintouu's house ; and from the importance of the family, and their love of sumptuous
buildings, as well as the extensive space the ruins appear to have occupied, it may be pre-
sumed that " my Lord Seaton's house in the Canongate," where the French Ambassador
Manzeville lodged in 1582,3 in no way belied the charming glimpse of its gloomy quad-
rangle, with its heavy architraves adorned with armorial bearings and religious devices,
afforded in the lively pages of the " Abbot ; " or of its lofty hall, surrounded with suits
of ancient and rusty armour, interchanged with huge massive stone escutcheons, blazoned
with the Setou Arms ; all which were so utterly thrown away on the headstrong young
page, Roland Gramme. Whiteford House was latterly occupied for many years— till his
death in 1823 — by Sir William Macleod Bannatyue, a remarkably pleasing specimen of a
gentleman of Old Edinburgh, before its antique mansions and manners had altogether
fallen under the ban of modern fashion. He was a nephew of Lady Clanranald, who was
confined in the Tower for affording protection to Prince Charles during his wanderings

1 Maitland, p. 160.

2 The funeral letter of Lord Bellenden, from whence we have derived the information in the text, affords an evi-
dence of the change of manners since it was issued. It is as follows : — " The honour of your presence to accompany
the corps of my Lord Bellenden, my father, from his lodgings in Paterson's Land, near the Canongate foot, to his
burial place in the Abay Church, upon Sunday the 3d instant, at 8 of the clock in the morning, is earnestly desired by
John Bellenden." Some curious information is given in an " Act in favors of James Donaldson, to print Buriall Letters,
Mar. 10, 1699;" wherein it appears "That the petitioner hath fallen upon a device for printing or stamping them
in a fine wryt character, ... by this device the leidges may be both cheiper and sooner served than ordinar, Buriall
Letters being oft times in haste ; besides the decency and ornament of a border of skeletons' mortheadi, and other emblems
of mortality, which the Petitioner has so contrived that it maybe added or abstracted at pleasure !" — Documents re-
lative to Scottish printing. Mait. Misc. vol. ii. p. 233-4.

3 Moyse's Memoirs, p. 77.

304 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

— so nearly connected are these romantic incidents with our own day. He was raised to
the Bench on the death of Lord Swinton, and took his seat as Lord Bannatyne in 1799.
He was the last survivor of the Mirror Club, and one of the contributors to that early
periodical. His conversational powers were great, and his lively reminiscences of the
eminent men, and the leading events of last century, are referred to by those who
have enjoyed his cheerful society, when in his ninetieth year, as peculiarly vivid and
characteristic. The house is now used as a manufactory.

Among the antique groups of buildings in the Canongate, scarcely any one has more
frequently attracted the artist by the picturesque irregularity of its features than the
White Horse Close — an ancient hostelry to which a fresh interest has been attached by
the magic pen of Scott, who peopled anew its deserted halls with the creations of his
fertile genius. Tradition, with somewhat monotonous pertinacity, affirms that it acquired
its name from a celebrated and beautiful white palfrey belonging to Queen Mary.1 There
is no reason, however, to think, from the style and character of the building, that it is
any older than the date 1623, which is cut over a dormer window on its south front.
The interest is much more legitimate which associates it with the cavaliers of Prince
Charles's Court, as the quarters of Captain Waverley during his brief sojourn in the capital.
It forms the main feature in a small paved quadrangle near the foot of the Canongate.
A broad flight of steps leads up to the building, diverging to the right and left from the
first landing, and giving access to two singularly-picturesque timber porches which over-
hang the lower story, and form the most prominent features in the view. A steep and
narrow alley passes through below one of these, and leads to the north front of the
building, which we have selected for our engraving, as an equally characteristic and more
novel scene. Owing to the peculiar slope of the ground, the building rises on this side
to more than double the height of its south front ; and a second tier of windows in the steep
roof give it some resemblance to the old Flemish hostels, still occasionally to be met with
by the traveller in Belgium. But while the travellers' quarters are thus crowded into the
roof, the whole of the ground floor is arched, and fitted up with ample accommodation for
his horses — an arrangement thoroughly in accordance with the Scottish practice in early
times. In an Act passed in the reign of James I., 1425, for the express encouragement
of innkeepers, all travellers stopping at burgh towns are forbid to lodge with their
acquaintance or friends, or in any other quarters, but in " the hostillaries," with this
exception: — " Gif it be the persones that leadis monie with them in companie" — i.e.,
Gentlemen attended with a numerous retinue—" thai sail have friedome to harberie with
their friends ; swa that their horse and their meinze be harberied and lu/.ged in the
commoun hostillaries." Almost immediately adjoining the north front of the White
Horse Inn was a large tank or pond for watering horses, from whence the name of the
principal gate of the burgh was derived. Here, therefore, was the rendezvous for kuights
and barons, with their numerous retainers, and the chief scene of the arrival and departure
of all travellers of rank and importance during the seventeenth century, contrasting as
strangely with the provisions of modern refinement as any relic that survives of the
Canongate in these good old times.

The court-yard of the White Horse Inn is completed by an antique tenement towards

1 Chambers's Traditions, vol. ii. p. 295.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 305

the street, which tradition points out as the residence of Bishop Paterson, one of the
latest Episcopal dignitaries of the Established Church, and a special subject of scandal
to the Covenanters. He was formerly chaplain to the Duke of Lauderdale, and was
currently reported to have owed his promotion to the favour of the Duchess.1 A little
to the eastward of the White Horse Close, and immediately adjoining the Water Gate,
a plain modern land occupies the site of St Thomas's Hospital, founded by G-eorge
Crichton, Bishop of Dunkeld, in 1541, and dedicated to God, the Virgin Mary, and all
saints. It consisted of a chapel and almshouse, which were purchased by the Magistrates
of Canougate in the year 1617, from the chaplains and bedesmen, with the consent of
David Creichton of Lugtoun, the patron, who probably retained possession of the endow-
ments. Its new patrons converted it into an hospital for the poor of the burgh, and
invited the charity of the wealthy burghers of Canongate, by placing the following
inscription over the entrance, surmounted with the figures of two cripples, an old man and
woman, and the Canongate Arms : — HELPE HERE THE POORE, AS ZE VALD GOD DID zov.
JUNE 19, 1617. When Maitlaud wrote, the chapel had been converted into a coach-house,
and both it and the hospital were in a very ruinous state; and, m; 1778,, it was entirely
demolished, and its site occupied by private dwellings.2

The Water Gate formed the chief entrance to the burgh of Canongate,. and the main
approach to the capital previous to the erection, of the North Bridge. It is a port of con-
siderable antiquity, being represented as such in the maps of 1544 and 1573; and iu the
Registers of the Burgh for 1574, the Treasurer is ordered " to bye aue lok and key to the
Wattir Yet,"3 Through it the Earl of Hertford entered with the army of Henry VIII.
iu the former year ; and, at the same place, the Marquis of Montrose, the Earl of Argyle,
and others of less note, were received on their capture, with all the ignominy that party
rancour could devise.* Perhaps, however, the following un authorised entrance by the
same public thoroughfare, in the year 1661, may be considered no less singular than, any
of which it has been the scene. In the City Records of Edinburgh, .after a gift of escheat
granted by the Council to the Baron Bailie of Canongate,. of all heritable and movable
goods belonging to the witches thereof, a report follows by the Bailie concerning Barbara
Mylne, whom Janet Allen, burnt for witchcraft, " did once see come in at the Water
Gate in likeness of a catt, and did change her garment under her awiu staire,. and went
into her house."6 Such residenters were not effectually expelled by the gift of escheat,

1 An anonymous letter, addressed to the Bishop by some of his Presbyterian revilers-in 1681, is preserved among the
collection of original documents in the City Chambers. It supplies a sufficiently minute narrative of his proceedings
both in Edinburgh aud elsewhere ; of his escape from an enraged husband by leaping the Water of Errie, thenceforth
called "Paterson's Loup;" of his dealings with "that Jezebel the Dutchess;" the Town Guard of Edinburgh, ,&c., all
told in somewhat too plain language for modern ears.

8 Maitlaud, p. 155. Arnot, p. 249. The property of this- pious- foundation appears to have been alienated long
before. We have found, in the Burgh Charter Room, " A disposition of house near the ground of the Holy Cross.
John Patersone to Andrew Russell,'' dated 1628, which runs thus: — "All and hail, that fore buith and dwelling-
house, and back vault of the same, lying contiguous thereto ; lying in the ground pertaining to the land sometime
pertaining to the puir Bedemen of the Hospital, founded beside the Abbey of the Holy Cross, by umquhile George,
Bishop of Dunkeld ; and under the nether fore stair of the same, with the pertinents, aud free ish and entry
thereto ; which tenement lies within the said Burgh, on the south side of the King's High Street thereof, at the head
of the wynd called Bell's Wynd." The name of St Thomas does not occur iu the charter of foundation as given by
Maitland.

3 Register of the Burgh of the Canongate, 18th Oct. 1574. 4 Fountainhall's Hist. Observes, pp. 185-190.

5 Law's Memorials, Pref. p. Ixix.

U

306 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

though it is probable their worldly circumstances were thereby left more dependent on
their own peculiar resources. We are informed by an intelligent lady who resided in the
Caiiougate in her younger years, that one Christian Burns, who then dwelt in Strachie's
Close, enjoyed the universal reputation of a witch; and on one occasion within her recol-
lection was scored aboon the breath — i.e., had a deep cut made in her forehead by a
neighbouring maltster, whose brewing, as he believed, had been spoiled by her devilish
cantrips.

The Water Gate has long since ceased to be a closed port, but the Canongate dues were
still for some time after collected there on all goods entering the burgh. Its ancient site
was marked, till a few years since, by a pointed arch constructed of wood, and surmounted
with the Canongate Arms. This ornamental structure having been blown down in 1822,
the fishwives of Newhaveu and Musselburgh unanimously rebelled, and refused to pay the
usual burghal impost levied on their burdens of fish. The warfare was unflinchingly main-
tained by these amazons for some time, and the Magistrates were at length compelled
to restore peace to their gates, by replacing the decorated representative of the more
ancient structure. This., however, has again been removed, in consequence of the demoli-
I ion of an antique fabric on the east side of the gateway ; and such was the apathy of
the then generation that not even a patriotic fishwife was found to lift her voice against
the sacrilegious removal of this time-honoured landmark !

A radiated arrangement of the paving in the street, directly opposite to the Water
Gate, marks the site of the Girth Cross, the ancient boundary of the Abbey Sanctuary.
It appears in the map of 1573, as an ornamental shaft elevated on a flight of steps ; and
it existed in nearly the same state about 1750, when Maitlaud wrote his History of
Edinburgh. Every vestige of it has since been removed, but the ancient privileges,
which it was intended to guard, still survive as a curious memorial of the ecclesiastical
founders of the burgh. Within the sacred enclosures that once bounded the Abbey of
Holyrood, and at a later period formed the chief residence of the Scottish Court, the
happy debtor is safe from the assaults of inexorable creditors, and may dwell at ease in his
city of refuge, if he have been fortunate enough to bear off with him the necessary spoils.
It is, in truth, an inifxirium in imperio, an ancient royal burgh, with its own courts and
judges and laws, its claims of watch and ward, and of feudal service during the presence
of royalty, the election of peers, or like occasions of state, which every householder is
bound to render as a sworn vassal of the Abbey. Endowed with such peculiar privileges
and immunities, it is not to be wondered at that its inhabitants regard the ancient capital
and its modern rival with equal contempt, looking upon them with much the same feeling
as one of the court cavaliers of Charles II. would have regarded some staid old Presbyterian
burgher or spruce city gallant in his holiday finery. In truth, it is scarcely conceivable
to one who has not taken up his abode within the magic circle, how much of the fashion of
our ancestors, described among the things that were in our allusions to the Cape Club
and other convivial assemblies of last century, still survives in uudiminished vigour under
covert of the Sanctuary's protection.

On the south side of the main street, adjoining the outer court-yard of the Palace, a
series of pointed arches along the wall of the Sanctuary Court- House indicate the remains
of the ancient Gothic porch and gate-house of Holyrood Abbey, beneath whose groined

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 307

roof UK; dignitaries of the Cliurch, the nobles attending on the old Scottish Kings, and
the beauties of Queen Mary's Court, passed and repassed into the Abbey Close. This
interesting and highly ornamental portion of the ancient monastic buildings was, in all
probtibility, the work of the good Abbot Ballantyne, who rebuilt the north side of the
church in the highly ornate style of his time, about 1490, and erected the chapel of St
Ninian, North Leith, and the old stone bridge that led to it, which was demolished in
1789 to make way for the present upper drawbridge. Adjoining this ancient porch,
formerly stood Abbot Ballantyne's " great house or lodging, with the yard thereof, lying
beside the port of Holyrood House, on the north side of the street." The groined arch-
way of the fine old porch, with the remains of the good Abbot's lodging, forming, with
the exception of the chapel, the most ancient portions of the Abbey Palace that then
remained, were recklessly demolished by the hereditary keeper in 1753, in order, it is
said, to transfer his apartments from the gate-house to the main building of the Palace.
A small and unpretending dwelling, which now occupies part of the site of the Abbot's
mansion, may perhaps excite some interest in the minds of certain curious readers as
having once been the house of the notorious Lucbj Spence, celebrated in the verses of
Allan Ramsay in terms somewhat more graphic than poetical.1 A singular discovery was
made about fourteen years since, during the progress of some alterations on this building,
which furnishes a vivid illustration of the desperate deeds occasionally practised under the
auspices of its former occupant. In breaking out a new window on the ground floor, a
cavity was found in the solid wall, containing the skeleton of a child, with some remains
of a fine linen cloth in which it had been wrapped. Our authority, a worthy shoemaker,
who had occupied the house for forty-eight years, was present when this mysterious
discovery was made, and described very graphically the amazement and horror of the
workman, who threw away his crow-bar, and was with difficulty persuaded to resume
his operations.

At the corner of the Horse Wynd, and immediately to the west of the Abbey Court-
Ilouse, a dilapidated mansion of considerable extent is pointed out traditionally as the
residence of the unfortunate lli/zio, though it is an erection of probably a century later
than the bloody deed that has given so much interest to the name of the Italian favourite.
A curious and exceedingly picturesque court is enclosed by the buildings behind, and
bore in earlier times the name of the Chancellor's Court, having probably at some period
formed the residence of that eminent official dignitary. It is described in the title-deeds
as bounded by " the venall leading to the king's stables on the south, and the Horse
Wynd on the west parts ; " a definition which clearly indicates the site of the royal mews
to have been on the west side of the Abbey Close. More recent and trustworthy tradi-
tions than those above referred to, point out a large room on the first floor of this house as
having been the scene of some interesting proceedings connected with the rehearsal of
Home's Douglas, in which the reverend author was assisted by sundry eminent lay and
clerical friends. In the cast of the piece furnished by Mr Edward Hislop — a good
authority on Scottish theatricals — Principal Itobertson, David Hume, Dr Carlyle of
Inveresk, and the author, take the leading male parts, while the ladies are represented by
Professor Ferguson and Dr Blair, the eminent divine 1 Notwithstanding, however, the

1 Lucky Spence's Last Advice Ramsay's Poems, 4to, p. 33.

308 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

authority on which this rests, it is probable that the utmost countenance afforded by these
divines was their presence at the rehearsal, and the dinner which succeeded it in the
Erskine Club, at the Abbey.1 The old tenement, wherein this singular assemblage took
place, has been entirely demolished to make way for a chapel and school founded by the
Duchess of Gordon for the inhabitants of the Sanctuary. The antique building to the
south, separated from this by the vennel mentioned above, appears from the titles to
have been the residence of Francis Lord Napier at the memorable era of the Union
Parliament.

The ancient Tennis Court, the frequent scene of the dramatic amusements of the royal
occupants of Holyrood, which survives now only in name, immediately without the Water
Gate, has been repeatedly referred to in the course of the work.2 The game of Tennis,
which was a favourite sport throughout Europe during last century, is now almost
unknown. Its last most celebrated Scottish players are said to have been James Hep-
burn, Esq. of Keith, and the famous John Law, of Laurieston, afterwards Comptroller-
General of the finances in France.3 The whole ground to the eastward of the Tennis Court
appears in Edgar's map as open garden ground attached to the Palace, with the exception
of the small building known as Queen Mary's Bath ; but shortly after Lord Adam
Gordon, Commander of the Forces in Scotland, took up his residence at Holyrood Palace
in 1789, he granted permission to several favourite veterans, who had served under him
abroad, to erect small booths and cottages along the garden wall ; and they so effectually
availed themselves of the privilege that several of the cottages have since risen to be
substantial three and four storied lands. John Keith, a favourite subaltern, obtained ai
that time the piece of ground immediately adjoining Queen Mary's Bath, and in the
course of rearing the large building, which now remains in the possession of his daughters,
he had to demolish part of a turret staircase which led to the roof of the Bath. Here, on
removing a portion of the slating, a richly-inlaid dagger of antique form, and greatly
corroded with rust, was found sticking in the sarking of the roof. It remained for many
years in the possession of the veteran owner, and used to hang above the parlour fire-place
along with his own sword. His daughter, to whom we owe these particulars, described
the ancient weapon " as though it had the king's arms on it, done in gold." It was
finally lent to a young friend, to add to his other decorations, preparatory to his figuring
in one of the processions during the visit of George. IV. to Edinburgh in 1822, and was
lost through the carelessness of the borrower. This very curious relic of antiquity has
been supposed, with considerable appearance of probability, to have formed one of the
weapons of the murderers of Eizzio, who are known to have escaped through this part of
the royal gardens.4 This curious and exceedingly picturesque lodge of the ancient Palace
is well worthy of preservation, and it is to be hoped will meet with due care in any pro-
jected improvements in the neighbourhood of Holyrood House. The tradition of its
having been used as a bath by the Scottish Queen is of old standing. Pennant tells us

1 Vide Burton's Life of Hume, vol. j. p. 420, where it is shown that Dr Robertson was not then principal, nor Dr
Ferguson, professor ; though this is of little account, if they lived at the time in friendship with Home. Among the
company at the Abbey were Lord Elibank, Lord Milton, Lord Kaines, and Lord Monboddo.

2 Ante, p. 103. 3 Archa:ol. Scot., vol. i. p. 508.

4 Ante p. 76. We have made this curious discovery the subject of careful investigation, and feel assured that no
one who makes the same inquiries at the respectable proprietors of the house will entertain any doubt on the subject.

THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUARY. 309

seriously that Mary is reported to have used a bath of white wine to exalt her charms, a
custom, he adds, strange, but not without precedent.1 Othor no less efficacious means
have been assigned as the expedients resorted to by Queen Mary for shielding her beauty
against the assaults of time, but the existence of a very fine spring of water immediately
underneath the earthen floor might reasonably suggest her use of the pure and limpid
clement.

Beyond this lies the district of Abbey Hill, an old-fashioned suburb that has risen
up around the outskirts of the Palace, and includes one or two ancient fabrics that have
probably formed the residence of the courtiers of Holyrood in days of yore. Here is a
narrow lane leading into St Anne's Park, which bears the curious Gaelic title of Crq/t-
an-righ, or the King's Field ; a name that furnishes very intelligible evidence of its
former enclosure within the royal demesnes. One ancient tenement near the Palace has
the angles of its southern gable flanked with large round turrets, in the castellated style
of James VI. 's reign, while the north front is ornamented with dormer windows. This
antique fabric answers generally to the description of the mansion purchased by William
Graham, Earl of Airth, from the Earl of Linlithgow, at the instigation of his woefull myse
wyfe. It is described by him as the house at the back of the Abbey of Holyrood House,
which sometime belonged to the Lord Elphinstone ; and though, he adds, " within two
years after, or thereby, that house took fyre accedintallie, and wes totallie burned, as it
standeth now, like everie thing that the unhappie woman, my wyfe, lade hir hand to," a
many of our old Scottish houses have survived such conflagrations, and still remain in
good condition.

1 Pennant's Tour, vol. i. p. 71. - Minor Antiquities, p. 271.

CHAPTER VIII.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND THE COWGATE.

THE date of erection of the first houses in the ancient thoroughfare of the Cowgate
may be referred, without hesitation, to the reign of James III., when the example
of the King, who, as Drummond relates, " was much given to buildings, and trimming
up of chappels, halls, and gardens," was likely to encourage his courtiers in rearing
elegant and costly mansions ; and when, at the same time, the frequent assembling of
the Parliament and the presence of the Court at Edinburgh, were calculated to drive them
beyond the recently-built walls of the capital. Evidence, indeed, derived from some early
charters, seems to prove the existence of buildings beyond the range of the first wall,
prior to its erection, but these were at most one or two isolated and rural dwellings, and
cannot be considered as having formed any part of the street.

The whole southern slope of the Old Town, on which the steep closes extending
between the High Street and the Cowgate have since been reared, must then have formed
a rough and unencumbered bank, surmounted by the massive wall and towers erected by
virtue of the charter of James II. in 1450, and skirted at its base by the open roadway
that led from the Abbey of Holyrood to the more ancient Church of St Cuthbert, below
the Castle rock. It requires, indeed, a stretch of the imagination to conceive this crowded
steep, which has rung for centuries with the busy sounds of life and industry, a rugged
slope, unoccupied save by brushwood and flowering shrubs ; yet the change effected on it
in the fifteenth century was only such another extension as many living can remember to
have witnessed on a greater scale over the downs and cultivated fields now occupied by

VIGNETTE — Ancient Doorway, foot of Horse Wynd, Coweate.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE. 311

the modern town. To the same period may be referred, with much probability, the erec-
tion of houses along the ancient roadway from Leith that skirted the east wall of the
town ; and probably also the founding of the nunnery from whence the southern portion
of it derived its name, although Chalmers, seemingly on insufficient evidence, assigns the
origin of the latter to "the uncertain piety of the twelfth century."1 Spottiswoode
remarks, " in the chartularies of St Giles's, the Nuns of St Mary's Wynd in the City of
Edinburgh are recorded. The chapel and convent stood near to the walls of the garden
belonging at present to the Marquis of Tweeddale, and from its being consecrated to the
Virgin Mary, the street took its name which it still retains." A curious allusion to this
chapel occurs in the statutes of the burgh of Edinburgh, enacted during the dreadful
visitation of the plague in 1530, where Marione Clerk is convicted by an assize of con-
cealing her infection, and of having " past amangis the nychtbouris of this toune to the
chapell of Sanct Mary Wynd on Sonday to the mess, and to hir sisteris house and vther
placis," the pestilence being upon her, and thereby, as the statute says, doing all that was
in her to have infected the whole town. The unhappy woman, convicted of the crime of
going to church during her illness, is condemned to be drowned in the Quarell holes, and
there can be no doubt that the cruel and barbarous sentence was carried into execution.3
The salary of the chaplain of St Mary's Nunnery was, in 1490, only sixteen shillings and
eightpence sterling yearly ; and its whole revenues were probably never large, the most of
them having apparently been derived from voluntary contributions.4 The site of this
ancient religious foundation was on the west side of the wynd, where it contracts in
breadth, a few yards below the Nether Bow. Of its origin or founders nothing further is
known, but it was most probably dismantled and ruined in the Douglas wars, when the
houses in St Mary's and Leith Wynds were unroofed and converted into defensive barriers
by the beleaguered citizens.5

1 Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 761. s Spottiswoode's Religious Houses, 1755, p. 283.

3 Acts aud Statutes of the Burgh of Edinburgh ; Maifc. Misc. vol. ii. p. 115. This proceeding is by no means a
solitary case. The following, which is of date August 2, 1530, is rendered more noticeable by the reasons for mercy that
follow : — " The quhilk day forsamekle as it wes perfytlie vnderstaud and kend that Dauid Duly, tailyour, has haldin his
wif seyk in the contagius seiknes of pestilens ij dayis in his house, and wald nocht revele the samyn to the officiaris of
the toune quhill scho wes deid in the said seiknes. And in the meyn tyme the said Dauid past to Sanct Gelis Kirk
quhilk was Sonday, and thair said mess amangis the cleyne pepill, his wif beand in extremis in the said seiknes, doand quhat
was in him till haif infekkit all the touue. For the quhilk causis he was adiugit to be hangit on ane gebat befor his awiu
durr, and that wes geviri for dome."

The following notice of same date proves the execution of this strange sentence on the unfortunate widower, though
lie happily survived the effects : — " The quhilk day fforsamekle as Dauid Duly was decernit this day, befor none, for his
demeritis to be hangit on ane gebbat befor his dure quhar he duellis, nochtwithstanding because at the will of God he hen
eschapit, and the raip brokin, and fallin of the gibbat, and is ane pure man with small barnis, and for pete of him, the
prouest, bailies, and counsall, bannasis the said Dauid this toune for all the dais of his lyf, and nocht to cum tharintill
in the meyn tyme vnder the pain of deid." — Ibid, pp. 107, 108. 4 Arnot, p. 247.

5 The following is the reference to the chapel in the titles of the property occupying its site : — " All and hail these
two old tenements of land lying together on the west side of St Mary's Wynd, near the head of the same; the one on
the south of old pertaining to Robert and Andrew Harts, and the other on the north called Crenzen's Land ; and that
laigh dwelling-house, entering from St Mary's Wynd, on the west side thairof, in the south part of the tenement, of old
called St Mary's Chapel." In the Inventarittm Jocaliun A Itarit Monasterii Sancte Ciitcis, 1493 (Bann. Misc. vol. ii. p. 24),
there is mentioned " vna reliquia argentea pro altari Sancte Katerine cum osse eiusdem, quam fecit dominus lohannes Crun-
zanne, quondam Vicarius de Vre." [Aberdeenshire.] It is possible this may have been the chaplain of the nunnery from
whence the neighbouring tenement derived its name. Besides Alterages dedicated to the Virgin, there were in Edin-
burgh and its neighbourhood the Abbey Church of Holyrood, founded in honour of the Holy Cross, the Blessed Virgin,
and all saints ; Trinity College Church, in honour of the Holy Trinity, the ever blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, &c. ;
the large Collegiate Churoh of St Mary in the Fields ; St Mary's Chapel and Nunnery in St Mary's \Vynd ; St Mary's

312 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

The tenement directly opposite to the site of St Mary's Chapel, and forming the south
side of the alley leading into Boyd's Close, is curious, as having been the residence of
James Norrie, painter, the celebrated decorator during the earlier part of last century,
to whom we have already frequently referred. His workshops lay immediately behind, and
adjoining to the coach-house of Lord Milton, as appears from the titles of the property.
Both of them were afterwards converted into stabling for Boyd's celebrated White Horse
Inn. This street then formed the approach to the town by one of the great roads from
the south of Scotland; and here, accordingly, were several of the principal inns. At the
foot of the wynd was Mr Peter Ramsay's famed establishment, from which he retired with
an ample fortune, and withdrew to his estate of Baruton, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh,
still possessed by his descendants. A large and handsome edifice, with considerable pre-
tensions to architectural ornament, near the foot of the Pleasance, was the Black Bull Inn,
another of these commodious and fashionable establishments, which the erection of the
North and South Bridges ruined, by diverting the current of visitors to the capital into a
new channel.

Nicoll reports, in 1650, that " the toun demolished the haill houssis in St Marie Wynd,
that the enymie sould liaif no schelter thair, bot that thai mycht haif frie pas to thair can-
noun, quhilk thai haid moutit upone the Necldir Bow."1 The earliest date now observable
is that of 1680, cut over the doorway of a house about the middle of the wynd, on the
east side, but one or two other tenements present features of an earlier character. At
the foot of the wynd was situated the Cowgate Port, one of the city gates, constructed
with the extended wall in 1513; and, at a later period, another was erected across the
wynd at its junction with the Pleasance, which was known as St Mary's or the
Pleasance Port. This was the frequent scene of exposure of the dismembered limbs
of political offenders, as in the case of Garnock and other Covenanters, whose heads
were ordered " to be struck off, and set up upon pricks upon the Pleasauce Port of
Edinburgh." The old Port was demolished on the approach of the rebels in
1715, from the difficulty of maintaining it in case of assault;3 but part of the wall
remained, surmounted by one of the iron spikes, until it was demolished in 1837 to
make way for the new Heriot's School. This ancient thoroughfare is commended in
Ferguson's address to Auld Reekie, as the unfailing resort of threadbare poets and
the like patrons of the Edinburgh rag- fair. It still continues to be the mart for such
miscellaneous merchandise, flaunting in the motley colours of cast-off finery, and
presided over by

"St Mary, broker's guardian saunt."4

Beyond St Mary's Port, lay the Nunnery dedicated to Sancta Maria de Placentia. It
stood about sixty yards from the south-east angle of the city wall, not far from the foot
of Roxburgh Street ; but of this ancient religious foundation little more is known than the

Chapel, Niddry's Wynd ; the Virgin Mary's Chapel, Portsburgh ; the Hospital of Our Lady, Leith Wynd ; the Chapel
and Convent of St Mary de Placentia in the Pleasance ; the great Church at Leith, of old styled St Mary's Chapel ; and
the Collegiate Church of Restalrig, the seal of which — now of very rare occurrence — beara the figure of the Virgin and
Child, under a Gothic canopy.-

1 Nicoll's Diary, p. 24. 2 Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 159. 3 Keith's Hist. Spottiswoode Soc., vol. ii. p. 619.

4 The east side of this narrow wynd has now been entirely removed, and a spacious street substituted, named St
Mary's Street.

LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE. 313

name.1 This district anciently formed a part of the town of St Leonards, as it is
styled in the charter of Charles I. confirming the superiority of it to the magistrates
of Edinburgh ; and the name of Pleasance, that early superseded its quaint title of
Dearenough, and by which the main thoroughfare of this ancient village is still known,
preserves a solitary memorial of its long extinct convent. Some singularly primitive
erections, which remain on the east side of the street, undoubtedly belong, at the
latest, to the early part of the sixteenth century. A plain but very substantial sub-
structure of stone is surmounted by a timber superstructure mainly consisting of a
long sloping roof, pierced with irregular windows and loopholes wherever convenience
has suggested an opening ; while the whole plan of domestic architecture is evidently
the result of a state of society when it was no unusual occurrence for the villager to
carry off his straw roof along with him, and leave the enemy to work their will on the
deserted walls.2

St John's Hill and the village of Pleasance form a portion of the long ridge which
skirts the valley at the base of Salisbury Crags. The whole of this ground appears to
have been ecclesiastical property in early times, and appropriated to various religious
foundations, all of which were subject to the canons of Holyrood.3 St Leonard's Lane
bounded it on the south, separating it on that side from the Borough Muir. At the
junction of these lauds there stood, in ancient times, a cross, which is understood to have
been erected in memory of one Umfraville, a person of distinction, who was slain on the
spot in some forgotten contest.4 The shaft of the cross had long disappeared, having
probably been destroyed at the Reformation ; but the base, a large square plinth, with a
hollow socket in which it had stood, was only removed in the early part of the present
century. On an eminence at the end of the lane stood the chapel and hospital of St
Leonard, but not a fragment of either is now left, though the font and holy water stoup
remained in Maitland's time, and the enclosed ground was then set apart as a cemetery
for self-murderers. The hospital was one of those erected for the reception of strangers,
and the maintenance of the poor and infirm, and near to it there was another on the road
betwixt Edinburgh and Dalkeith, founded by Robert Ballantyne, Abbot of Holyrood,
for seven poor people. Of these hospitals, which were governed by a superior who bore
the title of Magister, Spottiswoode enumerates twenty-eight in Scotland at the period of
the Reformation.5 St Leonard's Chapel was the scene of a traitorous meeting of the
Douglases, held on the 2d of February 1528, to concert the assassination of their

1 Maitland, p. 176. Piacenza, or Placentia, is now the second town in the Duchy of Parma. The Church of S.
Maria di Cavnpagna, belongs to the Franciscan Friars. It was made the subject of special privileges by Pope Urban II.,
owing to his mother being buried there.

2 A relic of a remoter era, a copper coin of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, was found in a garden in the Pleasance,
and presented to the Society of Antiquaries in 1782. — Account of the Society, p. 72.

3 The following names of property in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh occur in the Stent Rolls of Holyrood, 1578-
1630 i — " The Kirkland of Libertoun, the landis callit Pleasance and Deiranewch, the aikeris callit Biedmannis Croft of
Sanct Leonardis gait, the landis of Bonyngtoun, the landis of Pilrig and commoun mvir, the landis of Wareistoun, the
l;u M I is of Brochtoun, the landis of Coittis, the landis of Sauchtonhall and Sauchton," &c. — Liber Cartarum, p. cxvii.

4 Maitland, p. 276, Umfraville was the name of an old border family of note, whose Castle of Harbottle, in the
middle marches, passed by marriage into the Talbois family. Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Umfraville,
knight of Harbottle, is mentioned by Wood as married, about 1430, to Sir John Constable of Halsham, ancestor of the
Viscounts Dunbar.

4 Spottiswoode's Religious Houses, p. 291.

3H MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

sovereign, James V.1 They were to enter the palace by a window at the head of the
King's bed, which was pointed out by Sir James Hamilton, one of their accomplices, who
used to be the King's bedfellow, according to the homely fashion of the times. The
energetic measures which were adopted on the discovery of this plot greatly tended to
secure the peace and good government of the capital.

At the foot of the Pleasance was the Cowgate Port, one of the principal gates of the
city, which afforded access to the ancient street from whence it derived its name. Alex-
ander Alesse, a canon of St Andrew's, who left Scotland in 1532 to escape the persecution
to which he was exposed in consequence of adopting the principles of the early Reformers,
describes the Cowgate thus : — " Infmiti viculi, qui omnes excelsis sunt ornati eedibus, sicut
et Via Vaccarum; in qua habitant patricii et senatores urbis, et in qua sunt priucipum
regni palatia, ubi uihil est humile aut rusticum, sed omnia magnifica." Mean and
degraded as this ancient thoroughfare now is, there are not wanting traces of those palmy
days when the nobles and senators of the capital had there their palaces, whose magni-
ficence excited the admiration of strangers, though now its name has almost passed into a
byeword. A little to the westward, beyond a slight but picturesque old fabric which
forms the north side of the Cowgate Port, the large old gateway remains which gave
access to the extensive pleasure grounds attached to the Marquis of Tweeddale's residence.
In Edgar's map, this garden ground appears rising in a succession of terraces towards the
noble residence, and thickly planted in parts with trees ; nevertheless, the whole area
had been covered at an earlier period with the crowded dwellings of the ancient capital, as
appears from Gordon's view of 1647 ; and now the n<3ble gardens are anew giving place
to rude masonry. The Cowgate Chapel occupies one large portion, and manufactories,
with meaner buildings, hem it in on nearly every side. Towards the west, at the foot of
Gray's Close, is Elphinstone's Court, already described, and beyond it the Mint Court
still stands, with its sombre and massive turret of polished ashlar work protruding into
the narrow thoroughfare of the Cowgate.

The venerable quadrangle of the Scottish Mint is formed by an irregular assemblage of
buildings of various ages and styles, yet most of them still retaining some traces of the
important operations once carried on within their walls. The Mint House was on the west
side of the Abbey Close at Holyrood Palace, in the earlier part of Queen Mary's reign,
as appears from evidence previously quoted. From thence it was removed for greater
safety to the new Mint House, erected in the Castle in 1559 ;2 and although, during the
troubled period that followed soon after, the chief coining operations were carried on at
Dalkeith and elsewhere, Sir William Kirkaldy still made use of "the cunzie hous in the
Castle of Edinburgh, quilk cunzet the auld cunzie of the Queen."3 No other Mint House
was permanently established in Edinburgh until the almost total destruction of the build-
ings in the Castle during the memorable siege of 1572. The date over the main entrance
to the most ancient portion of buildings in the Cowgate, at the foot of Toddrick's Wynd,

1 Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 615.

2 In the Treasurers' accounts, the following entry occurs : February 1562-3: — " Item, allowit to the Comptar, be
payment maid be Johne Achesoun, Maistar Cwnzeour, to Maister William M'Dowgale, Maister of Werk, for expensis
maid be him vpon the bigging of the Cwnze-hous, within the Castell of Edinburgh, and beting of the Cwnze-houa within
the Palace of Halierudhouse, fra the xiday of Februar 1559 zeris, to the 21 of April 1560, £460, 4s. Id."

* Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 291.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND. AND COWGATE. 315

is 1574, showing that their erection took place almost immediately after the demolition of
the Castle.

This remnant of one of the most important Government Offices of Scotland at that
early date is a curioiis sample of the heavy and partially castellated edifices of the period.
The whole building was probably intended, when completed, to form a quadrangle
surrounded on every side by the same substantial walls, well suited for defence against
any ordinary assault ; while its halls were lighted from the enclosed court. The small
windows in this part of the building remain in their original state, being divided by an oaken
transom, and the under part closed with a pair of folding shutters. The massive ashlar
walls are relieved by ornamental string courses, and surmounted with crow steps of the
earliest form, and of elegant proportions. The original entrance, which is on the west
side of the projecting turret, has long been closed up, and its sill is now sunk consider-
ably below the level of the paving owing to the gradual rising of the street, so
common in earlier times, and of which we shall hereafter refer to much more surprising
proofs. It bears on its lintel the following legend neatly cut in Roman characters : —
BE • MEECIFVL • TO • ME • 0 • GOD • 1574, above which is an ornamental niche, not
unlikely to have contained a bust of King James. The internal marks of former magni-
ficence are still more interesting than these external ones, notwithstanding the humble
uses to which the buildings have latterly been applied ; in particular, some portions of a
very fine oak ceiling still remain, wrought in Gothic panneling, and retaining traces of
the heraldic blazonry with which it was originally adorned. Two large and handsome
windows above the archway leading to Toddrick's Wynd,1 give light to this once magnifi-
cent hall, which is said to have formed the council-room where the officers of the Mint
assembled to assay the metal, and to discuss the general affairs of the establishment.
Here was the scene of the splendid banquet given " at the requeist of the Kingis
Majestie and for honour of the toun," to the Danish nobles and ambassadors, who came
over in the train of Anne, Queen of James VI., in 1590. The King writes, while
absent on his matrimonial expedition, to Sir Alexander Lindsay, whom he soon after
created Lord Spyiiie : — " From the Castell of Croneburgh, quhaire we are drinking and
dryuing our in the auld maner," and the entertainment of his guests on his return
appears to have shown no wish for a change of fashion in this respect. The banquet
was furnished on Sunday evening, in the great hall at the foot of Toddrick's Wyud,
which was hung with tapestry, and decorated with flowers for the occasion; and the
wine and ale form the chief items in the provision ordered by the council for the noble
strangers.2

In the introductory historical sketch some extracts are given from the very curious

1 As before mentioned (ante, p. 263), several interesting houses, referred to here and on subsequent pages, have
been taken down to make way for City improvements.

2 21st May 1590. "The quhilk day, John Arnott, Provest, Henry Charteris, &e., being convenit in the counsall at
the requeist of the Kingis Majestie, and for honour of the Toun ; It was thocht and agreit to mak ane honourabill
banket to the Dence Imbassadours, and the famous persouns of thair company, quha arryvet furth of Denmark with
the King and Queynis Majesties, and this upoun the Towuis charges and expensis, to be maid in Thomas Aitchisoun's,
Master of the Cunyie hous lugeing at Todrik's Wynd fute, upon Sonday at evin next to cum ; and for the making of
the preparation!! and furuessing thairto, hes set douu and devyset the ordour following; to wit, that the Thesaurer cans
bye and lay in four punsheons wyne ; John Borthuik, baxter, to get four bunnis of beir, with four gang of aill, and to
furneis breid ; Henry Charteris and Roger Maenacht to caus lung the hous with tapestrie, set the buirds, furmis,
chandleris and get flowres, &c." — Vide, p. 88.

316 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

poem by John Bvrel, written on the occasion of Queen Anne's arrival, and entitled,
" The Description of the Qveenis Maiesties maist honourable entry into the tovn of
Edinbvrgh." The history of the author is unknown, but we have found among the
title-deeds of part of the old property at the foot of Toddrick's Wynd, a disposition of a
house by " John Burrell, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his Majestie's cuuzie hous,"
dated 1628, and which, when taken in connection with the profuse and very circum-
stantial minuteness with which the poet dwells on the jewellery that was displayed on
that occasion, seems to afford good presumptive evidence of this being the same person.
After devoting nine stanzas to such professional details, he sums up the inventory by
declaring : —

All precius stains rnicht thair be sene,

Quhilk in the world had ony name,
Save that quhilk Cleopatra Queene

Did swallow ore into hir wame !

The poet proceeds thereafter to describe, with equal zest, the golden chains and other
ornaments made of the precious metals, and concludes with a patriotic supplication to
heaven on behalf of the good town. The goldsmiths connected with the Mint would appear
to have possessed lodgings either within the building or in its immediate neighbourhood ;
and it was no doubt owing to George Heriot's professional avocations that he obtained the
great tenement forming the north side of the Mint Court, which was afterwards devised
by him as the most suitable place for his benevolent foundation.1 George Heriot's large
messuage or tenement was found by his executors to be waste and ruinous, and altogether
unsuited for the purposes of his foundation. The buildings that now occupy its site appear
to have been erected exactly a century later than the older portion of the Mint Close. An
ornamental sun-dial , which decorates the eastern wing, bears the date 1 674 ; and over
the main doorway on the first floor, which is approached, in the old fashion, by an outside
stair, the letters C. R. II. are sculptured, surmounting a crown, with the inscription and
date, GOD SAVE THE KING, 1675. Here was the lodging of the celebrated Earl of Argyle
during his attendance on the Scottish Parliament, after Charles II. had unexpectedly
restored him to his father's title, as appears from a curious case reported in Fountainhall's
Decisions.2 The date is November 22, 1681, only a few days after the Earl had been
committed a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle, from whence he effected his escape under the
disguise of a page, holding up the train of Lady Sophia Lindsay, his step-daughter.
Towards the close of last century, the mansion on the north side of the court was the
residence of the eminent physician, Dr Cullcn, while Lord Hailes occupied the more ancient
lodging on the south, before he removed to the modern dwelling erected for himself in
New Street. The west side of the court was at one time the abode of Lord Belhaven ;
and Lord Haining, the Countess of Stair, Douglas of Cavers, and other distinguished
tenants, occupied this fashionable quarter of the town during the last century.

1 In Heriot's will the property is described as " theis my great tenements of landis, &o., lyand on the south side of
the King his Highe Streit thairoff, betwixt the Cloise or Wenall callit Gray's Clois or Coyne Hous Cloise, at the east,
the Wynd or Wenell callit Todrig's Wynd at the west, and the, said Coyne Horn Clois at the south." — Dr Steven's Life
of George Heriot, App. p. 27.

- Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 163.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE.

317

The main entrance on the first floor of the west side is approached, like that on the south,
by a broad flight of steps extending into the court. The doorway is furnished with a very
substantial iron knocker, of old-fashioned proportions and design ; but on the lower
entrance, underneath the stair, there remains a fine specimen of the knocker's more
ancient predecessor, the Risp, or Tirling Pin, so frequently alluded to in Scottish song,
as in the fine old ballad : —

There came a ghost to Margaret's door,

Wi' mony a grievous groan ;
And aye he tirled at the pin,

But answer made she none.1

The ancient privilege of sanctuary which pertained to these
buildings, as the offices of the Scottish Mint, is curiously illus-
trated by the case in Lord Fountainhall's Reports referred to
above. A complaint was laid before the Privy Council, No-
vember 22, 1681, that a cabinet of the Earl of Argyle, which
had been poinded forth of the " coin-house " of Edinburgh, for a
debt owing by the Earl's bond, had been rescued by open vio-
lence. In the debate that follows, its full privileges as " an
asyle, refuge, and sanctuary, to protect and defend the persons
of the servants employed to work there in the service of the
King and kingdom," as well as their tools and instruments, are
admitted, and the claims of " the abbey, the coin-house, and
such other places as pretend to be sanctuaries," are all placed
011 the same footing, without any final decision as to theii
rights.

The Archiepiscopal Palace, whose remains occupied the space
between Toddrick's and Blackfriars' "Wynd, afforded a striking
example of the revolutions effected by time and changing fashions

on the ancient haunts of those most eminent for rank and power. No doubt could be
entertained, from the appearance of the building, that a large part of it had been
rebuilt in a style more adapted to its humble denizens than to the period when, in the
Cowgate, " were the palaces belonging to the princes of the land, nothing there being
humble or rustic, but all magnificent ! " It had originally enclosed a small quadrangle,
and nearly the whole of the ground floor was substantially arched with stone, resting on
solid piers, well calculated to afford secure protection against such assaults as it was
frequently exposed to during the raids and tulzies of the sixteenth century.2 The entrance
to the inner courtyard was by an arched passage in Blackfriars' Wynd, within which a

1 These antique precursors of the knocker and bell are still frequently to be met with in the steep turnpikes of the
Old Town, notwithstanding the cupidity of antiquarian collectors. The ring is drawn up and down the notched iron
rod, and makes a very audible noise within.

2 " Feb. 8, 1541-2. — Remission to John Lausone, John Scot, John Myllar, and John Scot, sen., for their treasonable
besieging and breaking up the gates and doors of the lodging belonging to James (Archbishop) of Sanctandrois, situite
in the Blackfriara' Wynd, within the Burgh of Edinburgh, for his capture and apprehension, he being within the said
lodging at. the time," &c. — Pitcairn's Grim. Trials, p. *257. The Archbishop died in 1539. This was no doubt an Act
of Privy Council, applied for thereafter.

" •
'.'

3 1 8 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

broad flight of steps conducted to the main floor of the building. By this mode of con-
struction, common in old times, the approach to the quadrangle could be secured against
any ordinary attack, and the indwellers might then hold out, as in their castle, until they
made terms with their assailants, or were relieved by a superior force.

The ancient building was erected by James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, as
appears from various allusions to it by early writers.1 He became Lord High Treasurer
in 1505, and was promoted to the Archiepiscopate of Glasgow in 1509, so that we may
unhesitatingly assign the date of this erection to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
He busied himself, after his translation to this see, in promoting many important
erections, and greatly enlarged and beautified the Episcopal Palace of Glasgow. Upon
all the buildings erected by him his armorial bearings were conspicuously displayed, and
a large stone tablet remained 'till a few years since over the archway of Blackfriars'
Wynd, leading into the inner court, blazoned with the Beaton Arms, supported by two
angels in Dalmatic habits, and surmounted by a crest, sufficiently defaced to enable
antiquaries to discover in it either a mitre or a cardinal's hat, according as their theory
of the original ownership inclined towards the Archbishop, or his more celebrated nephew,
the Cardinal.8

The exterior angle of this building towards the Cowgate was finished with a hexagonal
turret, projecting from a stone pillar which sprang from the ground, and formed a
singularly picturesque feature in that ancient thoroughfare. We find, however, from the
early titles of the property, that the Archbishop's residence and grounds had included
not only the buildings between Blackfriars' and Toddrick's Wynds, but the whole of the
site occupied by the ancient buildings of the Mint ; so that there can be little doubt the
Archbishop had extensive gardens attached to his lodgings in the capital. An inspection
of the back wall of the Mint in Toddrick's Wynd would confirm the idea of its having
succeeded to a more ancient building of considerable architectural pretensions ; as, on
minute examination, various carved stones will be observed built up among the materials
of the rubble work.3

Here the Earl of Arran and the chief adherents of his faction were assembled on the
30th of April 1520, engaged in maturing their hastily-concerted scheme for seizing the

1 "Bischope James Beatoun remained still in Edinburgh in his awin ludging, quhilk he biggit in the Frieris Wynd."
— Pitscottie's Chronicles, vol. ii. p. 313.

2 Nisbet, who is the best of all authorities on such a subject, says: — "With us angels have been frequently made
use of. as supporters. Cardinal Beaton had his supported by two angels in Dalmatic habits, or, as some say, priestly
ones, which are yet to be seen on his lodgings in Blackfriars' Wynd." — Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. ii. part iv. The stone,
which is now in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., is exceedingly soft and much worn. The crest has most probably
been an otter's head, which was that borne by the family. It is certainly neither a mitre nor a cardinal's hat, and
indeed the arms are simply those of the family, and not impaled with those of any see, as we might expect them to have
been if surmounted with such an official badge.

f The following is the definition of the property as contained in a deed dated 1639, and preserved in the Burgh
Charter Room : — " Disposition of house, John Sharpe, elder, of Houston, advocate, to Mr J. Sharpe, younger, his son. . .
All and hail that great lodging or tenement, back and fore, under and above, biggit and waste, with the yards and
pert" some time pertaining to the Archbishop of St Andrew's, thereafter to umq" John Beaton of Capeldraw, thereafter
to the heirs of umq Archibald Stewart and Helen Aitchison, and thereafter pertaining to umq1' Thomas Aitchison, his
Highness Maister Cunzier, lying within the Burgh of Edinburgh, on ye south of the King's High Street thereof, on ye
east side of ye trance thereof, betwixt the close called Gray's Close and ye vennel called Toddrick's Wynd upon ye east,
the transe of ye said Blackfriers" Wynd on ye west, the High Street of Cowgate on ye south, the yard of urnqle John
Barclay, thereafter pertaining to umq Alex. Hunter, &c., on ye north," &c.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE. 319

Earl of Angus, and in all probability putting him to death, when Gawin Douglas,
Bishop of Dunkeld, the celebrated author of the Pallis of Honor, waited on the Arch-
bishop, to entreat his mediation between the rival chiefs. The result of the interview has
been related in the earlier part of this work. The Archbishop was already in armour,
though under cover of his rochet, and when they met again after the bloody contest of
" Cleanse the Causeway," it was in the neighbouring Church of the Blackfriars', where
the poet's interference alone prevented the warlike Bishop from being slain in arms at
the altar. After living in obscurity for a time, he was promoted to the Metropolitan See
of St Andrew's by the interest of the Duke of Albany, and yet, such were the strange
vicissitudes of that age, that he is believed to have escaped the vengeance of the
Douglases during their brief triumph in 1525 by literally exchanging his crozier for a
shepherd's crook, and tending a flock of sheep upon Bogrian-knowe, not far from his own
diocesan capital. His venerable lodging in the capital is styled by Maitland, " The
Archiepiscopal Palace, belonging to the See of St Andrews." James V. appears to have
taken up his abode there on his arrival in Edinburgh, in 1528, preparatory to summoning
a Parliament ; and the Archbishop, who had been one of the most active promoters of his
liberation from the Douglas faction, became his entertainer and host. The tradition
which assigns the same mansion as the residence of Cardinal Beaton, the nephew of its
builder, appears exceedingly probable, from his propinquity to the Archbishop, though no
mention is made of him in the titles, unless where he may be referred to by the Episcopal
designation common to both.1

The Palace of the Bishops of Dunkeld, and of Gawin Douglas in particular, the friendly
opponent of the Archbishop, stood on the opposite side of the same street, immediately
to the west of Robertson's Close, and scarcely an hundred yards from Blackfriars' Wynd.2
It appears to have been an extensive mansion, with large gardens attached to it, running
back nearly to the Old Town wall. Among the pious and munificent acts recorded by
Mylne3 of Bishop Lauder, the preceptor of James II., who was promoted to the See
of Dunkeld in 1452, are the purchasing of a mansion in Edinburgh for himself and suc-
cessors, and the founding of an altarage in St Giles' Church there to St Martin, to which
his successor, Bishop Livingston, became also a contributor.4 The evidence quoted

1 The ancient mansion of the Beatons possesses an additional interest, as having been the first scene of operations of
the High School of Edinburgh, while a building was erecting for its use, as appears from the following notices in the
Burgh Record: — "March 12, 1554.— Caus big the grammer skule, lyaud on the eist syd of the Kirk -of- Field Wynd.
Jun. 14, 1555. — House at the fute of the Blackfrier Wynd tane to be the grammer scole quhill Witsonday nixt to cum,
for xvj li. of male." Tabula Naufragii. Motherwell, privately printed. Glas. 1834.

2 This site of the Bishop of Dunkeld'a lodging was pointed out by Mr R. Chambers in a communication read before
the Society of Antiquaries, Feb. 7, 1847. The following notice, which occurs in a MS. list of pious donations in the
Advocates' Library, of a charter of mortification, dated ult. Jan. 1498, confirms the description : — "A charter by Thos.
Cameron, mortifying to a chaplain of St Catharine's altar in St Geiles' Kirk, his tenement in Edinburgh, in the Cowgate,
on the south side thereof, betwixt the Bishop of Dunkeld's Land on the east, and William Rappillowes on the west, the
common street on the north, and the gait that leads to the Kirk-of-Field [i.e., Infirmary Street] on the south." We
have referred, however, in a previous chapter to the Clam-shell Turnpike in the High Street, as bearing the same de-
signation ; and tUe following applies it to a third tenement seemingly on the north side of the same street : — " A charter
be Janet Paterson, relict of urnq" Alex. Lowder of Blyth, mortiefieing to a chaplaine in St Gilies Kirk an ann. rent of 4
mei-ks out of Win. Carkettel's land in Edinburgh on the north side of the street, betwixt the Bishop of Dunkell's land
on the east, and the lo/ St Jo. [Lord St John's] land on the west," dated "20 June, Regni 10," probably 1523.
Dec. an. reg. Jac. V.

3 Yitse Dunkeldensis Ecclesise Episcoporum, p. 24.

4 "Charter of mortification by Mr Thomas Lauder, canon in Aberdeen [the future bishop, as we presume], to a chap-

320 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

below renders it probable that the Episcopal residence in the capital, thus permanently
attached to the See of Duukeld, was the lodging on the south side of the Cowgate ; and
the same ecclesiastical biographer already referred to mentions as one of the good works
of Bishop Brown, the predecessor of Douglas, that he built the south wing of the house
at Edinburgh belonging to the Bishops of Duukeld.1 It cannot be doubted that the
mansion thus gifted and enlarged was a building well suited by its magnificence for the
abode of the successive dignitaries of the Church who were promoted to that exalted
station, and that it formed another striking feature in this street of palaces. Its vicinity
both to the Archiepiscopal residence and to the Blackfriars' Church— the later scene of
rescue of Archbishop Beaton by Gawin Douglas — affords a very satisfactory illustration
of one of the most memorable occurrences during the turbulent minority of James V.
The poet, after his ineffectual attempt at mediation, retired with grief to his own
house, and employed himself in acts of devotion suited to the danger to which his friends
were exposed ; from thence he rushed out, on learning of the termination of the fray,
in time to interpose effectually on behalf of the warlike priest, who had been personally
engaged in the contest, and, according to Buchanan, " flew about in armour like a fire-
brand of sedition." This old Episcopal residence has other associations of a very
different nature ; for we learn from Kuox's history that, when he was summoned to
appear in the Blackfriars' Church on the 15th of May 1556, and his opponents deserted
their intended attack through fear, " the said Johne, the same day of the summoudis,
tawght in Edinburgh in a greattar audience then ever befoir he had done in that toune :
The place was the Bischope of Dunkellis, his great loodgeing, whare he continewed
in doctriu ten dayis, boyth befoir and after nune." A modern laud now occupies
the site of Bishop Douglas's Palace ; and the pleasure grounds wherein the poet
was wont to stray, and on which we may suppose him to have exercised his refined
taste and luxurious fancy in realizing such a " gardyne of plesance " as he describes
in the opening stanzas of his Pallis of Honor, 'is now crowded with mean dwellings
of the artizan and labourer — too much engrossed with the cares of their own
domestic circle to heed the illustrious memories that linger about these lowly habi-
tations.

The range of buildings extending from the Cowgate Port to the Old High School Wyud,
on the south side of the street, still includes several exceedingly picturesque timber-fronted
tenements of an early date ; but none of them possess those characteristics of former mag-
nificence which were to be seen in the Mint Close. A finely carved lintel, which surmounted
the doorway of one of a similar range of antique tenements to the west of the High School
Wynd, has been replaced over the entrance to the modern building, erected on the same
site in 1801. The inscription, of which we furnish a sketch, is boldly cut in an unusual

lain in St Geiles Kirk in Edinburgh, of au annual rent of 6 merks out of the tenement of Donald de Keyle on the UT.
side of the gaite .... an annual rent, of 40 sh. out of his own house lyand in the Cowgaite, betwixt the land of the
Abbot of Melros on the east, and of George Cochran on the west," &c. — 23d Jan. 1449 ; MS. Advoo. Lib. " A mortifica-
tion made by James [Livingston] Bishop of Dunkeld, to a chaplain of St Martin and Thomas's Altar, in St Geiles Kirk
of Edinburgh, of an annual rent of £10 out of his tenement lying in the said burgh, on the north side of the Hie
Street," &c. — Ibid. " Confirmation of a charter granted be Thomas [Lauder] Bishop of Dunkeld, to a chaplain of the
Holy Cross Isle, in St Geiles Kirk in Edinburgh," of divers annual rents, dated 17th March 1480. — Ibid.

1 Vitse Dunkeld. Episc. p. 46. 2 Knox's Works, Wodrow Soc., vol. i. p. 251.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE. 32I

character, and with a shield in the centre, the armorial bearing of which have been
replaced by a brewer's barrel, the device of its modern owner and occupant. We have
found, on examining ancient charters and title-deeds referring to property in the Cowgate,
much greater difficulty in assigning the exact tenements referred to, from the absence of
such marked and easily recognisable features as serve for a guide in the High Street and
Canongate. All such evidence, however, tends to prove that the chief occupants of this
ancient thoroughfare were eminent for rank and station, and their dwellings appear to
have been chiefly in the front street, showing that, with patrician exclusiveness, traders
were forbid to open their booths within its dignified precincts. Another feature, no less

noticeable, is the extensive possessions which the Church held within its bounds. An
ancient land, for example, which occupied the site of one now standing at the foot of
Blair Street, on the west side, is described in the titles of the adjoining property as per-
taining to the Altar of St Katharine, in the Kirk-of- Field. In 1494, Walter Bertram,
Provost of Edinburgh, bestowed an annual rent from his tenement in the Cowgate " to a
chaplain of St Lawrence's Altar, in St Giles' Church." In 1528, Wm. Chapman " morti-
fied to a chaplain in St Giles' Kirk, at Jesus' Altar, in a chapel built by himself," a
tenement and piece of ground in the same street, " reserving to ye patrons yrof 26s. 8d.
for repairing the chapel with skletts and glass." Both Walter Chepman and Thomas
Cameron have already been named as similar donors. We shall only notice one more
from the same source :— " A mortification made be Janet Kennedy, Lady Bothwell, who
was before spouse to Archibald Earl of Angus, mortefeing to a chaplain in the Marie
Kirk in the Field, beside Edinburgh, her fore land of umqle Hew Berries tenement, and
chamber adjacent yrto, lying in the Cowgait, on the south side of the street, betwixt Ja,
Earl of Buchan's land on the east, and Thos. Tod's on ye west." 1 We have already
referred to "the Erie of Maris, now present Kegent, lugeing in the Kowgait," in 1572,2
and other eminent laymen will presently appear among the residenters in this patrician
quarter of the town.

The destruction of an ancient tenement in the Cowgate, in the month of June 1787,
when clearing the ground for the building of the South Bridge, brought to light some
curious memorials of an earlier age. The workmen employed in its demolition discovered
a cavity containing a quantity of money for the reception of which it appeared to have
been constructed. The treasure was found, on examination, to consist of a number of
small coins of Edward I. commonly called Longshanks, who, in the year 1295, defeated
the Scots at Dunbar, and soon after compelled the Castle of Edinburgh to surrender to his

1 A perfect iuventar of Pious Donations. MS. Advocates' Lib.

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 299.

322 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

overpowering force. Conjecture is vain as to the depositor of this hidden treasure ; but
we may fancy the prowess or cunning of some hardy burgher achieving sudden victory
over a stray baud of the insolent invaders, and concealing here the hard-won spoils, for
which he never returned. Beyond the arch of the bridge, from whence the busy crowds
of the modern city look down on this deserted scene of former magnificence, we again
come to antique memorials of other times. Here was a steep and straitened alley ascending
towards the southern side of the town, which formed in remote times the avenue to the
Collegiate Church of St Mary in the Fields ; and at a more recent, though still early
period, the public approach to the Old College of Edinburgh. This ancient avenue pos-
sessed interesting associations with successive generations, from the period when Domi-
nicans and Greyfriars, and the priests aud choristers of St Mary's College, clamb the steep
ascent, down to a time, not long gone by, when grave professors and wily practitioners
of the law shared among them ii&Jlats and common stairs.

This ancient thoroughfare formerly bore the name of " The Wynd of the Blessed Virgin
Mary iu-the-Field," as appears from the charters of property acquired by the town for the
establishment of King James's College.1 About the middle of the wynd, on the east
side, a curious and antique edifice retained many of its original features, notwithstanding
its transmutation from a Collegium Sacerdotum, or prebendal building of the neighbouring
collegiate church, to a brewers' granary and a spirit vault. Such, at least, we conceive to
have been its original destination. The ground floor had been entirely refaced with hewn
stone ; but over a large window on the first floor there was a sculptured lintel, which is
mentioned by Arnot as having surmounted the gateway into the inner court. It bore the
following inscription, cut in beautiful and very early characters : —

9toe jflarfa, <25ratt'a plena, Domuuts tecum.

At the close of the chapter, a sketch of a beautiful, though mutilated, Gothic niche is
given, which was on the front of the building. It is said to have originally stood over
the main gateway above the carved lintel we have described, and without doubt it con-
tained a statue of the Virgin, to whom the wayfarer's supplications were invited. These
interesting remains, so characteristic of the obsolete faith and habits of a former age,
afforded undoubted evidence of the importance of this building in early times, when it
formed a part of the extensive collegiate establishment of St Mary iu-the-Fields, founded
and endowed apparently by the piety of the wealthy citizens of the capital. To complete
the ecclesiastical features of this ancient edifice, a boldly-cut shield on the lower crow-step
bore the usual monogram of our Saviour, j Jj g — and the windows presented the common
feature of broken mullions and transoms, with which they had originally been divided.
Internally the building presented features of a more recent date, indicating that its earliest
lay occupants were worthy neighbours of the aristocratic denizens of the Cowgate. A
stucco ceiling in the principal apartment was adorned with a variety of ornaments in the
style prevalent in the reign of Charles I. , the most prominent among which was the winged

1 " Shaw's tenement in the Wynd of the Blessed Mary in-the- Field, now the College Wynd. Item, an instrument
of sasiue, dated 30th June, 1525, of a land built aud waste, lying in the Wynd of the Blessed Virgin Mary in-the-Field,
on the west side thereof, &c., in favour of Alex. Schaw, son of Wm. Schaw of Polkemmet." — From Descriptive Inventory
of Town's purchases for the College, Burgh Charter Boom.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE.

323

and crowned heart, the well-known crest of the Douglases of Queensberry ; suggesting
the' likelihood of its having been the town mansion of one of the first Earls, not im-
probably William Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig, created Earl of Queensberry by King
Charles I. during his visit to Scotland in 1633. The projecting staircase of the adjoining-
tenement to the south had a curious ogee arched window, evidently of early character, and
fitted with the antique oaken transom and folding shutters below. A defaced inscription
and date was decipherable over the lintel of the outer doorway, and one of the doors on
the stair possessed the old-fashioned appendage of a tirling-pin. Many of the buildings
which remained till the total demolition of the Wynd were of an early character ; and
some of them bore the initials of their builders on an ornamental shield sculptured on
the lowest crow-step, with the date 1736 — the only specimens of the kind that were known
belonging to the eighteenth century.

At the head of the wynd, on the east side, and on ground partly occupied by North
College Street, once stood a house which would now have been regarded with pecu-
liar interest as the birthplace of Sir Walter Scott. The elder Mr Scott then lived,
according to the simple fashion of our forefathers, on a Jlat of the old tenement,
approached from a little court behind by a turnpike stair, the different floors of which
sufficed for the accommodation of equally reputable tenants, until its demolition about
eighty years since to make way for the projected extension of the College. Here also,
near the top of the wynd, was the residence of the celebrated chemist, Dr Black ; and
doubtless, many of the learned professors were distributed, with other eminent persons,
among the densely-peopled lands of this classic locality ; where, to complete its literary
associations, tradition delights to tell that Oliver Goldsmith lodged, while studying
medicine at the neighbouring University.

The accompanying engraving represents a portion of the antique range of edifices that
extends between the College and the Horse Wynds. Here again, however, we are
baffled in our search after their earlier occupants. The building to the east of St Peter's
Close J was a very substantial stone edifice of a highly ornamental character, which
undoubtedly formed the residence of noble proprietors in early times. It appeared to be
an ancient building, remodelled and enlarged, probably
about the close of James VI. 's reign. Three large and
elegant dormer windows rose above the roof, the centre
one of which was surmounted by an escallop shell, while
a second tier of windows of similar form appeared behind
them, and sprang from what we conceived to have been
the original stone front of the building. The antique
staircase projected forward in a line with the more recent
additions, and on its lintel the initials of the original
proprietors, as represented in the accompanying woodcut.

On the other side of St Peter's Pend was the singularly picturesque timber-fronted tenement,
the curiously-carved lintel of which forms the vignette at the head of this chapter. Au
outside stair, constructed in a recess formed by the projection of a neighbouring building,

1 The College and Horse Wynds have, with the exception of a land of each, suffered at the hands of the Improve-
ments' Commission. St Peter's Close, standing as it did between the two wynds, has been totally extinguished.

1 7,1

324 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH,

led to a very handsome stone turnpike on the first floor. The fine doorway was finished
with very rich mouldings, and encircled with the following inscription, of which the
woodcut furnishes a fac-simile — a specimen of genuine vernacular which may possibly
puzzle some able linguists : —

GIF . VE . DEID . AS . VE . SOVLD . VE . MYCHT . HAIF . AS . VE . VALD .

Literally rendered into modern English, it is, If me did as we should, me might have as
me mould. There can be no question, from the style and character of this inscription,
that the building was of great antiquity, and had probably formed the residence of some
eminent ecclesiastic, or a noble of the court of James V. It possessed an interest, how-
ever, from a recent and more humble occupant. There was the printing establishment of
Andrew Symson, a worthy successor of Chepinan and Myllar, the first Scottish typo-
graphers, whose printing presses were worked within a hundred yards of this spot.
Symson was a man of great learning and singular virtue, who, though one of the curates
ejected at the Revolution, had escaped the detraction to which nearly all his fellow-
sufferers were subjected. We have his own authority for stating that he received a
University education, and was a condisciple of Alexander, Earl of Galloway, by whose
father he was presented to the parish of Kirkinner, in Wigtonshire. He was an author
as well as a printer ; and his most elaborate work, a poem of great length, and of much
more learned ingenuity than poetic merit, is announced in the preface as issued " from
my printing-house at the foot of the Horse Wynd, in the Cowgate, Feb. 16, 1705." It
is entitled TRIPATRIARCHICON ; or, The Lives of the Three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, extracted forth of the sacred story, and digested into English verse. Before this,
however, he had acted as amanuensis to the celebrated Lord Advocate, Sir George
Mackenzie ; and in 1699 he edited and published a new edition of Sir George's work on the
Laws and Customs of Scotland, a presentation copy of which still exists in the Advocates'
Library in good condition. It is elegantly bound in calf, and bears on the boards the
following inscription in gilt Roman characters : — DONUM ANDREW SYMSON, AM. VD. MD.
The Horse Wynd no doubt derived its name from its being almost the only descent
from the southern suburbs by which a horse could safely approach the Cowgate ; and as
a spacious and pleasant thoroughfare, according to the notions of former times, it was
one of the most fashionable districts of the town. About the middle of the wynd, on the
west side, an elegant mansion, finished with a pediment in front surmounted with urns,
was known in former years as Galloway House, long the residence of Lady Catherine,
Countess of Galloway, who formed the subject of one of Hamilton of Bangour's flattering
poetical tributes. She is referred to in a different style in the Ridotto of Holyrood
House, a satirical and very free ballad, written about a century ago by three witty
ladies, who were wont to bear their part in such gay scenes as it satirises.1 Lady
Galloway is described as

"A lady well known by her airs,
Who ne'er goes to revel but after her prayers ! "

1 The Ridotto, which affords a curious sample of the notions of propriety entertained by the fair wits of last century,
was the joint production of Lady Bruce of Kinross, her sister-iu law, the wife of J. R. Hepburn, Esq., of Keith and
Riccarton, and Miss Jenny Denoon, their niece, who was counted a great wit in her own day. Some of the most in-
teresting stanzas are quoted in the Tradition!, vol. ii. p. 39.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE. 325

She was noted among our precise grandames for her pre-eminent pomp and formality, and
would order out her carriage to pay a ceremonious visit to some titled neighbour at the
corner of the wynd. Here, too, resided Lord Kennet, Baron Stuart, and other suitable
occupants of so aristocratic a quarter. Lord Covington, Lord Minto, and other titled
dwellers in the Cowgate and the neighbouring alleys in recent times might be mentioned,
but encragh lias already been said to illustrate the striking revolution that took place in
this locality within a very brief period.

Nearly opposite the site of the Old Parliament Stairs, a uniform and lofty range of
handsome tenements forms the front of an enclosed quadrangle, which includes within its
precincts the Tailors' Hall, by far the most stately of all the corporation halls, if we except
St Magdalen's Chapel, and one interestingly associated with important national and civic
events. A handsome broad archway, considerably ornamented, forms the entrance through
the front tenement to the inner quadrangle. This exterior gateway is surmounted by an
ornamental tablet, decorated with a huge pair of shears, the insignia of the craft, and
bearing the date 1644, with the following elegant distich : —

ALMIGHTIE GOD WHO FOVND
ED BVILT AND CROVND
THIS WORK WITH BLESSINGS
MAK IT TO ABOVND.

This building, as seen from within the quadrangle, has an exceedingly picturesque and
imposing effect. Two loftly crow-stepped gables project, as uniform wings, into the court,
and between them is the deep-browed arcli leading from the Cowgate, above which rises a
double tier of windows, surmounted by a handsome ornamental gable in the roof. All
this, however, is the mere vestibule to the Tailors' Hall, which occupies the south and east
sides of the court. Here, again, we find evidence that the craft were wont of old, as now,
to extend their professional patronage to the muses. The accompanying vignette repre-
sents the Hall as it appeared prior to its receiving the addition of another story, to adapt
it for its modern use as a brewer's granary ; for, alas, the glory has long since departed
from the Tailor Craft in Edinburgh ! Over the ornamental pediment which surmounts the
east wing of the building, the insignia of the shears is again seen, with the date 1621, and
this pious inscription : — GOD . GIVE . THE . BUSING . TO . THE . TAILZER . CRAFT . IN
THE . GOOD . TOVN . OF . EDINBURGH. On the lowest crow-step beside this is cut the
professional device of three balls of thread ; and over the main entrance is the following
elegant and laudable dedication of the Hall and whole Corporation, as the temple and
ministers of virtue. No wonder than good citizens were scandalised when the former was
diverted from its legitimate use to the profane orgies of the players : —

TO . THE . GLORE . OF . GOD . AND . VERTEWIS . RENOWNE .

THE . CWMl'ANIE . OF . TAILZEOVRS . WITHIN . THIS . GOOD . TOVNE .

FOR . MEITING . OF . THAIR . CRAFT . THIS . HAL . HES . ERECTED .

WITH . TRUST . IN . GODS . GOODNES . TO . BE . BLIST . AND . PROTECTED .

Internally this venerable hall has been so entirely altered that no idea can now ba

326

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

formed of its original appearance. Not long after its erection, it became the scene of very
important movements preparatory to the great civil war. On the 27th February 1638,
between two and three hundred ministers met there to prepare for the renewal of the Cove-
nant, which was received with such striking demonstrations of popular sympathy on its
presentation to the public in the Greyfriars' Church on the following day. We are in-
formed by the Earl of Rothes, who took a prominent share in these proceedings, that he
and the Earl of Loudoun were appointed by the nobles to meet with the assembled clergy
in the Tailors' Hall, and on that occasion the Commissioners of Presbyteries were first
taken aside into a summer-house in the garden, and there dealt with effectually on the
necessity of all obstacles to the renewal of the Covenant being withdrawn.1 The same

means were afterwards successfully resorted to for removing the doubts of all scrupulous
brethren.2 The garden, which was the scene of these momentous discussions, retained till
very recently its early character ; but now, divested of its shrubs and formal Dutch par-
terres, it is degraded into a depositary for brewers' barrels. The same Corporation Hall
was used in 1656 as the court-house of the Scottish Commissioners appointed by Crom-
well for the administration of the forfeited estates.3 We have already referred to the very
different purposes to which it was devoted in more recent times, as the refuge of the Scot-
tish drama. Ramsay prints, in the Tea-Table Miscellany, " Part of an Epilogue sung
after the acting of the OBPHAN and GENTLE SHEPHEED in Tailors' Hall, by a set of young

1 Lord Rothes' Relation of Proceedings concerning the affairs of the Kirk, p. 72.

* Ibid, p. 79. " Upon Thursday the first of March, Rothes, Lindsay, and Loudoun, and sum of them, went down
to Tailyours Hall, wher the ministers mett ; and becaus sum wer come to toune since Tuysday last who had sum
doubts, efter that they who had bein formerlie resolved wer entered to subscryve, the noblemen went with these others
to the yaird, and resolved their doubts ; so that towards thrie hundred ministers subscryved that night. That day the
commissioners of burrowes subscryved also."

» Nicoll's Diary, p. 180.

VIGNETTE— Tailors' Hall.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE.

327

gentlemen, January 22, 1729 ; » and Chambers has preserved, in his « Minor Antiquities "

11 of fare presented in the same place on the 20th of March 1747 « By Desire of a

Lady of Quality, for the Benefit of a Family in Distress; » probably one of the last per-

formances there by a regular company. A handsome tenement stands immediately to the

west of the Tailors' Lands, surmounted with two ornamental gables, bearing on them the

fcials of the builders, and over the main doorway the following inscription:—

0 MAGNIFIE THE LORD WITH ME

AND LET US EXALT HIS NAME TOGETHER. I • H

ANNO DOMINI 1643.

Over another door of the same tenement, a sculptured tablet bears the device of two slede-
men carrying a barrel between them, by means of a pole resting on the shoulder of each,
technically styled a sting and ling. It is cleverly executed, and appears from the charac-
ter and workmanship to be coeval with the date of the building in which it is placed,
although the purposes to which the neighbouring property is now applied might suggest a
much more recent origin.1 Various antique tenements of considerable diversity of charac-
ter remain to the westward of this, all exhibiting symptoms of « having seen better days."
The last of these, before we arrive at the arches of George IV. Bridge, is another of the
old ecclesiastical mansions of the Cowgate. It is described in an early title-deed as « some
time pertaining to umq* Hew M'Gill, prebender of Corstorphine," and, not improbably a
relative of the ancestors of David Macgill of Cranstoun-Kiddel, King's Advocate to King
James VI., who is said to have died of grief on Sir Thomas Hamilton, the royal favourite-
afterwards created Earl of Melrose and Haddington-being appointed his colleague. We
find, at least, that the property immediately adjoining it, now demolished, belonged to that
family, and came afterwards into the possession of his rival. The operations of the Im-
provements Commission were no less effectual in the demolition of the interesting relics of
antiquity in the Cowgate than elsewhere. Indeed, if we except the old Mint and the
venerable Chapel of St Magdalene, no other site could have been chosen for the new
bridge where their proceedings would have been so destructive. On the ground now occu-
pied by its southern piers formerly stood Merchant's Court, a large area enclosed on three
sides by antique buildings in a plain but massive style of architecture, and containin-
internally finely stuccoed ceilings and handsome panneling, with other indications of former
magnificence suitable to the mansion of the celebrated Thomas Hamilton, first Earl of
Haddington, the favourite of James VI., and one of the most eminent men of his day
Some curious anecdotes of TAM o' THE COWGATE, as the King facetiously styled his
favourite, are preserved in the Traditions of Edinburgh, derived from the descendants of
the sagacious old peer, and many others that are recorded of him suffice to confirm the
character he enjoyed for shrewd wit and eminent ability. Directly opposite to this a
building, characterised by very remarkable architectural features, was peculiarly worthy' of
the attention of the local antiquary. Tradition, which represented the old Earl of Had-

brewe »«• «">*!«* «° e-ly as 1598. -Hist. of

32S MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

ding-toil's mansion as having been the residence of the French embassy in the reign of
Queen Mary, had assigned to this antique fabric the name of " The French Ambassador's
Chapel," which we have retained in the accompanying engraving, in the absence of any
more distinctive title. An ornamental pediment, which surmounted its western wing, was
decorated with the heads of the Twelve Apostles, rudely sculptured along the outer cornice ;
and on the top a figure was seated astride, with the legs extended on either side of the
cornice. It is supposed to have been designed as a representation of our Saviour, but the
upper part of the figure had long been broken away. This pediment, as well as the sculp-
tured lintel of the main doorway, and other ornamental portions of the edifice, were removed
to Coat's House, and are now built into diiferent parts of the north wing of that old man-
sion. But the sculpture which surmounted the entrance of this curious building was no less
worthy of notice than its singular pediment ; for, while the one was adorned with the
sacred emblems of the Apostles and the figure of our Saviour, the other exhibited no less
mysterious and horrible a guardian than a Warwolf. It was, in truth, with its motto,
SPERAVI ET INVENI — no unmeet representative of Banyan's Wicket Gate, with a hideous
monster at the door, enough to frighten poor Mercy into a swoon, and nothing but Chris-
tian charity and Apostolic graces within ; though the latter, it must be confessed, did not
include that of beauty. " I shall end here four-footed beasts," says Nisbet, " only men-
tioning one of a monstrous form carried with us. Its body is like a wolf, having four feet
with long toes and a tail; it is headed like a man ; — called in our books a warwolf passant, —
and three stars in chief argent ; which are also to be seen cut upon a stone above an old
entry of a house in the Cowgate in Edinburgh, above the foot of Libberton's Wynd, which
belonged formerly to the name of Dickison, which name seems to be from the Dicksous by
the stars which they carry." 1 Who the owner of these rare armorial bearings was does
not now appear from the titles, but the style of ornament that prevailed on the building
renders it exceedingly probable that it formed the residence of some of the eminent eccle-
siastical dignitaries with which the Cowgate once abounded. The destruction of the vener-
able alley, Libberton's Wynd, that formed the chief thoroughfare to the High Street
from this part of the Cowgate, involved in its ruin an old tenement situated behind the
curious building described above, which possessed peculiar claims to interest as the birth-
place of Henry Mackenzie, " The Man of Feeling." It was pointed out by himself as
the place of his nativity, at a public meeting which he attended late in life. He resided
at a later period, with his own wife and family, in his father's house, on one of the floors of
M'Lellan's Land, a lofty tenement which forms the last in the range of houses on the north
side of the street, where it joins the Grassmarket. This building acquires peculiar interest
from the associations we now connect with another of its tenants. Towards the middle
of last century, the first floor was occupied by a respectable clergyman's widow, Mrs Syme,
a sister of Principal Robertson, who maintained an establishment there for the accommo-
dation of a few boarders in this genteel and eligible quarter of the town. At that time
Henry Brougham, Esq. of Brougham Hall, arrived in Edinburgh, and took up his quar-
ters under Mrs Syrne's roof. He had wandered northward to seek, in change of scene,
some alleviation of grief consequent on the death of his betrothed mistress. It chanced,

1 Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. i. p. 335. The shield, however, so far differs from Nisbet's description, that it bears a
crescent 'between two stars in chief.

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE. 329

however, that his hostess had a fair and witty daughter, with whom he fell in love, and
forgetting his early sorrows, he married her, and spent the remainder of his life in
Edinburgh. The young couple continued to reside for some time after their marriage
in the old lady's house in the Cowgate ; and thereafter removing to No. 19 St Andrew's
Square, Henry Brougham, the future Lord Chancellor of England, was born there in the
year 1779. The elder Brougham lies buried in Restalrig Churchyard.

Almost directly opposite to St Magdalene's Chapel, a large and heavy-looking old
mansion faces the street, with a broad arched gateway opening into an enclosed court,
and two entrances from the street to the interior of the mansion, each of them sur-
mounted with its appropriate legend. Within, a handsome but wofully dilapidated
oaken staircase remains, and the interior exhibits other traces of bygone splendour,
amid the shreds and tatters of poverty that form the chief tapestry of the old halls of
the Cowgate in modern days. This extensive tenement is the mansion built by the
celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, king's advocate of Charles I., and yet the foremost among
those who organised the determined opposition to that monarch's schemes for remodelling
the Scottish Church, which led at length to the great civil war. Over one of the door-
ways is inscribed, TECVM HABITA, 1616, while the lintel of the principal entrance bears
this laconic motto, now so much defaced as to be nearly undecipherable, AT HOSPES
HVMO, which proves to be an anagram of the name of its celebrated builder.1 The
philosophy of its old founder's motto seems to acquire a new force in the degradation that
has befallen the dwelling-place of the crafty statesman, wherein he schemed the over-
throw of the throne and government. In this ancient mansion, in all probability, the
bold couucils were held that first checked the unfortunate Charles I., and gave confidence
to those who were already murmuring against his impolitic measures. Here too we may,
with considerable confidence, presume the National Covenant to have been drawn up,
and the whole scheme of policy matured by which the unhappy monarch found himself
foiled alike in the Parliament, the Assembly, and in the decisive Battle of Longmarston-
Moor. In the same house, Mary, Countess of Mar, daughter of Esme, Duke of Lennox,
died on the llth of May 1644.2 Both Bailie's Court — at one time the residence of Lord
Kennet — and Allison's Close, which a few years ago was one of the most picturesque
alleys in the Cowgate — are decorated at their entrances with passages selected from the
Psalms, a custom that superseded the older mottoes towards the latter end of the
seventeenth century. Beyond these, however, there still remain several tenements of
considerable antiquity and great variety of character ; and in particular one old timber-
fronted land, with the rude unglazed loop-holes, or shot windows, which were doubtless

1 " If the house near Cowgeat-head, north syde that street, was built by Sir Thomas Hope, as is supposed, the in-
scription upon one of the lintall-stones supports this etymologie — [viz., that the Hopes derive their name from HmMou
the Hop plant, and not from Esperance, the virtue of the mind] — for the anagram is At Hospes Humo, and has all the
letters of Thomas Houpe." — Coltness Collections, Maitland Club, p. 16.

2 Sir Thomas Hope's Diary, p. 205. The " Extracts from the Countess of Mar's Household Book," by C. K.
Sharpe, Esq., contains many very curious local allusions, e.g. : — "Jan. 7, 1639. — Given to the poor at Nidries wynd
head, as my Lady cam from the Treasurer deputes [Lord Carmichael], 6 sh. Aug. 1641. — Payit to the custome of
the Water Gate for ten horses that enterit with my La. carryage, lOd. 6 Sept. — To the gardener in ye Abay yard who
presentit to my Laidy aue flour, 6 sh. 16 Sept. — Payit for twa torches to lighten on my Laidy to the Court with my
Laidy Marquesse of Huntlie, 24 sh. 1641. — 5 Oct' y1 day to ye Abay Kirk broad, as my Laidy went to the sermon,
6 sh., &c."

33o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the usual substitute with our simple forefathers for the comfortable glazed sash that now
admits the morning beams to the meanest dwelling. Gawin Douglas, in his prologue
to the seventh book of the " JSneid," which contains a description of winter, warned
that the " day is dawing " by the whistling of a sorry gled, and glancing through

A schot wyndo onsohet, a Htill on char,
Persavyt the mornyng bla, wan, and bar.

Douglas, at the time he undertook his vigorous translation of Virgil, was Provost of the
Collegiate Church of St Giles, and we could hardly wish for more conclusive evidence of
the general prevalence of this rude device throughout the Scottish capital during the
prosperous era of the reign of James IV., than the very natural and graphic manner in
which the keen wintry prospect he espies through his half-open shutter is described, and
the comfortable picture of his own blazing hearth, where he solaces himself by the
resumption of his pleasing task : —

The dew-droppis congelit on stibbill and rynd,
And scharp hailstanys mortfundeit of kynd,
Hoppand on the thak and on the causay by :
The schot I closit, and drew inwart in hy,
Chyvirrand for cald, the sesson was so snell,
Schupe with hayt flatnbe to fleym the freezyng felL
And as I bownyt me to the fyre me by,
Baith up and down the hows I dyd aspy :
And seeand Virgill on ane lettron stand,
To write onone I hynt a pen in hand.

Another of these picturesque tenements is Palfrey's or the King's Head Inn, a fine
antique stone land built about the reign of Charles I. An inner court is enclosed by the
buildings behind, and it long remained one of the best frequented inns of old Edinburgh,
being situated nearly at the junction of two of the principal approaches to the town
from the south and west. From the style and apparent age of the building, however,
there can be little question that its original occupants ranked among the old Scottish
aristocracy.

In making the excavations necessary for the erection of a handsome suit of additional
court-rooms for the accommodation of the Lords Ordinary, built to the south of the old
Parliament Hall towards the close of 1844, some curious discoveries were made, tending
to illustrate the changes that have been effected on the Cowgate during the last four
centuries. In the space cleared by the workmen, on the site of the Old Parliament Stairs,
a considerable fragment of the first city wall was laid bare : a solid and substantial mass
of masonry, very different from the hasty superstructure of 1513. On the sloping ground
to the south of this, at about fourteen feet below the surface, a range of strong oaken
coffins were found lying close together, and containing human remains. In one skull
the brain remained so fresh as to show the vermicular form of surface, although the
ancient Churchyard of St Giles, of which these were doubtless some of the latest occu-
pants, had ceased to be used as a place of sepulture since the grant of the Greyfriars'
gardens for that purpose in 1566. The form of these coffins was curious, being quite
straight at the sides, but with their lids rising into a ridge in the centre, and altogether
closely resembling in form the stone coffins of a still earlier era. During the same

ST LEONARD'S, ST MARY'S WYND, AND COWGATE. 331

operations, the workmen found beyond the old city wall, and at a depth of eighteen feet
below the level of the present Cowgate, a common shaped barrel, about six feet high,
standing upright, imbedded eighteen inches deep in a stratum of blue clay, and with a
massive stone beside it. The appearance of the whole suggested the idea that the barrel
had been so placed to collect the rain water from the eaves of a neighbouring house, and
with a stepping-stone to enable any one to reach its contents. At a little distance from
this, to the westward, and about the same depth, a large copper vessel was found, measuring
fully eighteen inches in diameter by six inches deep. This interesting relic is now deposited
in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, along with some portions of the barrel staves,
and there can be no question that both had formed at a very remote period part of the
curta supellex of a citizen of note. The size of the copper vessel is of itself a proof of its
owner's wealth, and could only have belonged to some person of distinction. But the
most curious inference derived from these discoveries is the evidence they afford of the
gradual rising of the street in the course of ages. Some years before a pavement was
discovered, about twelve feet below the surface, in digging towards the east end of the
Cowgate for a large drain, and here domestic utensils, at a still lower level, proved how
gradual, yet unceasing, must have been the progress of this phenomenon common to
all ancient cities. From the want of police regulations in the Middle Ages, refuse and
rubbish accumulated on the street, and became trodden down into a firm soil, until
even pavements were lost sight of, and the bases of the buildings were adapted to the new
level.1

In the ancient title-deeds of Merchant's Court, already referred to as the mansion of
the Earl of Haddington, it is described as "that great lodging, with the yaird, well, closs,
and pert8 thereof, lying betwixt ye lands pertaining to umqle Wm. Speed, bailie, and ane
certain trance regal, leading to ye Grayfrer's Port, on ye west. The arable land, or croft
of the Sisters of ye Nuns of ye Sheyns, on ye south, &c." On a part of this ground lying
to the south of the Cowgate, and belonging to the Convent of St Catherine de Sienna, a
corporation was established so early as 1598, for the brewing of ale and beer, commodities
which have ever since been foremost among the staple productions of Edinburgh. The
name Society, which still pertains to this part of the town, preserves a record of this ancient
company of brewers, and from the same cause, the neighbouring Greyfriars or Bristow
Port, is frequently styled Society Port.2 Between this and the Cowgate lies the once
fashionable district, which a correspondent of the Edinburgh Advertiser in 1764 styles
" that very elegant square, called Brown Square," and which he thinks wants nothing to
complete its beauty but " an elegant statue of his Majesty in the middle ! " Such a pro-
ject might not now seem so extravagant, since the improvers of the neighbourhood have
swept away the east and west sides of it, and thrown it open to the great public thorough-
fare of the neighbourhood ; but at that time it was a little square area not so large as

1 Scotsman, Nov. 16, 1844.

1 " The foundation and building of the howssis for aill and beir brewing, besyd the Grayfrier Port, callit the Societie,
was begun in the yeir of God, 1598." — Hist, of King James the Sext, p. 374. " Ap. 26, 1598. In ye beginning of yis
inoneth, the Soeietie begun to y ' work at the Gray Friar Kirke." — Birrel'i Diary. A curious fragment of the Old Town wall
remains to the south of Society buildings, and one of them, built upon it, is a singular and unique specimen of early
architecture, wrought in ornamental panels between the windows, and with deep eaves to the roof, somewhat in the
style of the old brick and timber fronts, common at Canterbury and other ancient English towns. Adjoining this was a
long-established tavern, which bore the quaint name of the Hole in the Wa'.

332

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

many a gentleman's stable-yard, with the chief approach to it by a pend, or archway,
from the head of the Candlemaker's Row. Rank and fashion, however, alone resorted to
the admired locality, while it was no less worthy of note as a haunt of the muses. Here
was the residence of Dr Austin, already referred to, in a house at the north-west
corner; and a few doors from this, in the building on the west side through which the
arched entry led into Candlemaker Row, dwelt for above twenty years Miss Jeanie Elliot,
the author of the beautiful version of the " Flowers o' the Forest," beginning, " I 've
heard them lilting at the ewe-milking." She was the daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot of
Minto, and is described by a contemporary as " a remarkably agreeable old maiden lady,
with a prodigious fund of Scottish anecdote." It is added, as worthy of record, that she
was perhaps the only lady of her time in Edinburgh who had her own sedan chair,
which was kept in the lobby of her house ! Henry Mackenzie first took up house for him-
self in the middle tenement, still standing on the south side, while the celebrated Lord
Woodhouselee occupied one of those now demolished. The middle house on the north
side, a large and commodious mansion, still retains abundant traces of former grandeur,
and chiefly in the large drawing-room on the first floor, which is decorated with a series
of landscapes, interspersed with floral groups and other fancy devices, evidently in imita-
tion of the painted chamber at Milton House, though the work of a less skilful artist.
This was the residence of Sir Thomas Miller, of Barskimming and Gleulee, Bart., Lord
President of the Court of Session, who died there in 1789. He was succeeded in it by his
son, Sir William, promoted to the bench under the title of Lord Glenlee, and who, when
all other claimants to rank or gentility had long deserted every nook of the Old Town,
resisted the fashionable tide of emigration, and retained this as his town mansion till his
death in 1846. Indeed, such was the attachment of this venerable judge to his old dwelling,
that he rejected a handsome offer for the reversion of it, because the proposing purchaser,
who designed converting it into a printing office, refused to become bound to preserve the
paintings on its walls.

VIGNETTE — Gothic Niche, College Wynd.

CHAPTER IX.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS.

TN the centre of the ancient city there
stood, till a few years since, a
strange, crooked, steep, and altogether
singular and picturesque avenue from
the High Street to the low valley on the
south, in which the more ancient exten-
sions of the once circumscribed Scottish
capital are reared. Scarcely anything
can be conceived more curious and whim-
sically grotesque than its array of irre-
gular stone gables and timber galleries,
that seemed as if jostling one another
for room along the steep and narrow
thoroughfare ; while the busy throng
were toiling up or hurrying down its
precipitous pathways, amid the ceaseless
din of braziers' and tinsmiths' hammers,
for which it was famed, and the rumbling
of wheels, accompanied with the voci-
ferous shouts of a host of noisy assist-
ants, as some heavy-laden wain creeked
and groaned up the steep. The modern
visitor who now sees the Borvhead, an open
area nearly on a level with the Castle
drawbridge, and then by gradual and

easy descent of long flights of stairs, and the more gentle modern slope of Victoria
Street, at length reaches The Bowfoot Well in the Grassmarket, will hardly be persuaded
that between these two widely different elevations there extended only a few years
since a thoroughfare crowded with antique tenements, quaint inscriptions, and still
more strange and interesting associations ; unmatched in its historic and traditionary
memories by any other spot of the curious old capital, whose memories we seek to
revive. Here were the Templar .Lands, with their antique gables, surmounted by the
cross that marked them as beyond the reach of civic corporation laws, and with their old-

VIGNETTE— Major Weir's House.

334 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

world associations with the knights of St John. Here was the strange old timher-fronted
tenement, where rank and beauty held their assemblies in the olden time. Here was the
Provost's lodging where Prince Charles and his elated counsellors were entertained in
1745, and adjoining it there remained till the last a momento of his royal ancestor, James
II. 's massive wall, and of the old Port or Bow whereat the magistrates were wont to
present the silver keys, with many a grave and costly ceremonial, to each monarch who
entered his Scottish capital in state. Down this steep the confessors of the Covenant were
hurried to execution. Here, too, was the old-fashioned fore stair over which the amazed and
stupified youth, who long after sat on the bench under the title of Lord Monboddo, gazed in
dreamy horror as the wretched Porteouswas dragged to the scene of his crime, on the night
of the 7th September 1736, and near by stood the booth at which the rioters paused,
and with ostentatious deliberation purchased the rope wherewith he was hung at its foot.
Nor must we forget, among its most durable memorabilia, the wizards and ghosts who
claimed possessions in its mysterious alleys, maintaining their rights in defiance of the
march of intellect, and only violently ejected at last when their habitations were tumbled
about their ears.

This curious zig-zag steep was undoubtedly one of the most ancient streets in the Old
Town, and probably existed as a roadway to the Castle, while Edwin's burgh was com-
prised in a few mud and straw huts scattered along the higher slope. Enough still re-
mains of it to show how singularly picturesque and varied were the tenements with which
it once abounded. At the corner of the Lawnmarket is an antique fabric, reared ere
Newton's law of gravitation was dreamt of, and seeming rather like one of the mansions
of Laputa, whose builders had discovered the art of constructing houses from the chimney-
tops downward ! A range of slim wooden posts sustains a pile that at every succes-
sive story shoots further into the street until it bears some resemblance to an inverted
pyramid. It is, nevertheless, a fine example of an old burgher dwelling. The gables
and eaves of its north front, which appear in the engraving of the Weigh-house, are
richly carved, and the whole forms a remarkably striking specimen, the finest that now
remains, of an ancient timber-land. Next comes a stone-land, with a handsome polished
ashlar front and gabled attics of the time of Charles I. Irregular string courses decorate
the walls, and a shield on the lowest crow-step bears the initials of its first proprietors,
I. 0., I. B., with a curious merchant's mark between. A little lower down, in one of the
numerous supplementary recesses that added to the contortions of this strangely-crooked
thoroughfare, a handsomely sculptured doorway meets the view, now greatly dilapidated
and time-worn. Though receding from the adjoining building, it forms part of a stone
turnpike that projects considerably beyond the tenement to which it belongs : so numer-
ous were once the crooks of the Bow, where every tenement seemed to take up its own
independent standing with perfect indiiference to the position of its neighbours. On a
curiously-formed dormer window which surmounts the staircase, the city motto appears
to have been cut, but only the first word now remains legible. Over the doorway below,
a large shield in the centre of the lintel bears the Williamson arms, now greatly defaced
with this inscription and date on either side, SOLI . DEO . HONOR . ET . GLORIA . D . W .
1.6.0.4. The initials are those of David Williamson, a wealthy burgess in the time
of James VI. But the old stair once possessed — or was believed to possess — strange pro-

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 33,

perties, which would seem to imply that these sacred legends were not always effectual
in guarding the thresholds over which they were inscribed as charms against the approach
of evil. A low vaulted passage immediately adjoining it leads through the tall tenement
to a narrow court behind, and a solitary and desolate abode, once the unhallowed dwelling-
place of the notorious Major Weir. The wizard had cast his spell over the neighbouring
stair, for old citizens who have ceased to tempt such giddy steeps, affirm that those who
ascended it of yore felt as if they were going down. We have tried the ascent, and —
recommend the sceptical to do the same ; happily the old wizard's spells have defied even
an Improvements Commission to raze his haunted dwelling to the ground.1

No story of witchcraft and necromancy ever left so general and deep-rooted an impres-
sion on the popular mind as that of Major Weir ; nor was any spot ever more celebrated
in the annals of sorcery than the little court at the head of the Bow, where the wizard
and his sister dwelt. It appears, however, that he had long lodged in the Cowgate before
he took up house for himself, as we learn from that curious old book, Ravaillac Redivivus,
that Mitchell, the fanatic assassin who attempted the life of Archbishop Sharp in 1668,
" afterwards came to Edinburgh, where he lived some years in a widow's house, called
Mrs Grissald Whitford, who dwelt in the Cowgat, and with whom that dishonour of man-
kind, Major Weir, was boarded at the same time." Unfortunately, Widow Whitford's
house is no longer known, as we can scarce doubt that the lodging of such a pair must
still be haunted by some awfully significant memorial of their former abode. Whatever
was his inducement to remove to his famed dwelling in the West Bow, it was only
beseeming its character as a favourite haunt of the most zealous Presbyterians, that one
who at that time stood in eminent repute for his sanctity should choose his resting-place
in the very midst of " the Bowhead Saints," as the cavalier wits of his time delighted to
call them.

The reputation of this prince of Scottish wizards rests on no obscure allusions in the
legends of sorcery and superstition. His history has been recorded by contemporary
annalists with all the minuteness of awe-struck credulity and gossipping wonder, and has
since been substantiated as an article of the vulgar creed by numerous supernatural
evidences in corroboration of its wildest dittays. Major Weir was the son of a Clydesdale
proprietor, and served, according to Professor Sinclair, as a lieutenant in Ireland against
the insurgents of 1641. On his settling in Edinburgh, he entered the Town Guard, where
he afterwards rose to the rank of major. According to his contemporary, Master James
Frazer, minister at Wardlaw, who saw him at Edinburgh in 1660, " his garb was still a
cloak, and somewhat dark, and he never went without his staff. He was a tall black man,
and ordinarily looked down to the ground ; a grim countenance, and a big nose. At
length he became so notourly regarded among the Presbyterian strict sect, that if four
met together, be sure Major Weir was one ; and at private meetings he prayed to admira-

1 From some allusions to an apparition that disappeared in a close a little lower down, and which is given further
on, from "Satan's Invisible World Discovered," it has been frequently affirmed of late that Major Weir's house
was among the tenements demolished in 1 836, but popular tradition is supported by legal documentary evidence in
fixing on the house described in the text. — Vide, p. 167. Much of Sinclair's account of the Major appears to be taken
nearly verbatim from a MS. life, in "Fraser's Providential Passages," Advocates' Library, dated 1670, the year of his
execution.

3 RavailUc Kedivivus, p. 12.

336 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

tion, which made many of that stamp court his converse. He never married, but
lived in a private lodging with his sister Grizel Weir. Many resorted to his house to
hear him pray, and join with him ; but it was observed that he could not officiate in
any holy duty without the black staff or rod iti his hand, and leaning upon it, which
made those who heard him pray admire his flood in prayer, his ready extemporary expres-
sion, his heavenly gesture ; so that he was thought more angel than man, and was termed
by some of the holy sisters ordinarily Angelical Thomas.'''' This magical black staff
was no less marvellous a character than the Major himself. According to veracious
tradition, it was no uncommon thing for fhe neighbours to see it step in and tap at their
counters on some errand of its master, or running before him with a lantern as he went
out on nocturnal business, and gravely walked down the Lawnmarket behind his
mysterious link-boy.

The Major, in fact, had made a compact with the Devil, of which this was part pay-
ment ; but the foul fiend as usual overreached his dupe. He had engaged, it would seem,
to keep him scatheless from all dangers but one burn. The accidental naming of a Mr
Burn by the waiters of the Nether Bow Port, as he visited them in the course of his duty,
threw him into a fit of terror that lasted for weeks ; and the intervention of a water brook
called Libberton Burn in his way was sufficient to make him turn back. " A year before
he discovered himself, he took a sore sickness, during which he spake to all who visited
him like an angel." He found it, however, impossible longer to withstand the dreadful
tortures of conscience; and summoning some of his neighbours to his bedside, he made
voluntary confession of crimes, which needed no supernatural accessories to render them
more detestable. His confession seemed so incredible, that the magistrates at first refused
to take him into custody ; but he was at length carried off to prison, and lodged in the
Tolbooth along with his sister — the partner, if not the victim, of one of his crimes. As
might have been expected, strange and supernatural appearances accompanied his seizure.
The staff was secured by his sister's advice, and carried to prison along with them. A
few dollars were also found, wrapped up in some rags, and on the latter being thrown into
the fire, they danced in circles about the flames in an unwonted manner, while " another
clout, found with some hard thing in it, which they threw into the fire likewise, circled and
sparkled like gunpowder, and passing from the tunnel of the chimney, it gave a crack like
a little cannon, to the amazement of all that were present." 3 The money was no less
boisterous than its wrappers, and threatened to pull the bailie's house about his ears, who
had taken it home with him. On being carried to prison, the Major sunk into a clogged
apathy, from which he never afterwards revived, furiously rejecting the ministrations of
the clergymen who visited him, and replying only to their urgent exhortations with the
despairing exclamation, " Torment me not before the time ! " adding, with somewhat more
philosophic foresight, according to another annalist, " that now, since he was to go to the
Devil, he would not anger him."4 He was tried April 9, 1670, and confessed himself
guilty both of possible and impossible crimes. There can be no doubt, indeed, that the
wretched hypocrite was driven desperate by the stings of conscience, and felt some relief
in giving the Devil a share of his misdeeds. He was sentenced to be strangled and burnt,

1 Fraser's Providential Passages. MS. Advocates' Library.

1 Satan's Invisible World Discovered, p. 146. » Ibid, p. 147. * Law's Memorials, p. 23.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 337

and he died as lie had lived. When bound to the stake, and with the rope about his neck,
he was urged to say, " Lord, be merciful to me ; " but he answered, " Let me alone, I will
not; I have lived as a beast, and I must die as a beast." The Rev. Mr Fraser adds : — " His
black staff was cast into the fire with him. Whatever incantation was in it, the persons
present aver yt it gave rare turnings, and was long a burning, as also himself."

The reverend author of " Satan's Invisible World Discovered," declines, with mysterious
assumptions of propriety, to discuss what incantation was in the black staff that suffered
along with him. Nevertheless, he tells us enough to show it was no ordinary stick. On
one of the ministers returning to the Tolbooth to inform Grizel Weir that her brother was
burnt, " She believed nothing of it ; but, after many attestations, she asked where his staff
was ? for it seems she knew that his strength and life lay therein. He told her it was
burnt with him ; whereupon, notwithstanding of her age, she nimbly, and in a furious
rage, fell on her knees, uttering words horrible to be remembered." The Major's mother
appears to have set the example of witchcraft, as his sister, while in prison, declared,
" She was persuaded her mother was a witch ; ' for the secretest thing that either I myself,
or any of the family could do, when once a mark appeared on her brow, she could tell it
them, though done at a distance.' Being demanded what sort of a mark it was? she
answered, ' I have some such like mark myself, when I please, on my forehead.' Where-
upon she offered to uncover her head for visible satisfaction ; the minister refusing to behold
it, and forbidding any discovery, was earnestly requested by some spectators to allow the
freedom ; he yielded. She put back her headdress, and seeming to frown, there was seen
an exact horse-shoe shaped for nails in her wrinkles, terrible enough, I assure you, to the
stoutest beholder." This wretched being had unquestionably been driven mad by the
cruelty of her brother, and to her ravings may be traced many of the strangest traditions
of the West Bow. She described a fiery chariot that came for them, and took her and her
brother on unearthly errands, while it remained invisible to others ; and confessed to her
enchanted wheel, by means of which she could far surpass any ordinary spinner. She was
condemned to be hanged, and at the execution conducted herself in the same insane manner,
struggling to throw off her clothes, that, as she expressed it, she might die with all the shame
she could.

There were not lacking, however, credible witnesses to confirm the most extraordinary
confessions of Grizel Weir. The Eev. George Sinclair relates, on the authority of a
gentlewoman, a substantial merchant's wife, and a near neighbour of the Major, that
" some few days before he discovered himself, this gentlewoman coming from the Castlehill,
where her husband's niece was lying in of a child, about midnight, perceived about the
Bowhead three women in windows, shouting, laughing, and clapping their hands. The
gentlewoman went forward, till just at Major Weir's door there arose, as from the street, a
woman about the length of two ordinary females, and stepped forward. The gentlewoman,
not as yet excessively feared, bid her maid step on, if by the lanthorn they could see what
she was ; but haste what they could, this long-legged spectre was still before them, moving
her body with a vehement cahination — a great unmeasurable laughter. At this rate the
two strove for place, till the giantess came to a narrow lane in the Bow, commonly called
the Stinking Close, into which she turning, and the gentlewoman looking after her, per-
ceived the close full of flaming torches, and as it had been a great multitude of people,

Y

338 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

stentoriously laughing, and gaping with tahee's of laughter. . . . Though sick with fear,
yet she went the next morning with her maid to view the noted places of her former night's
walk, and at the close inquired who lived there? It was answered, Major Weir." It is
riot to be wondered that Major Weir's house should have been deserted after his death,
and that many a strange sound and fearful sight should have testified to the secure hold the
powers of darkness had established on this dwelling of their emissaries. The enchanted
staff was believed to have returned to its post, and to wait as porter at the door. The hum
rif the necromantic wheel was heard at the dead1 of night,, and the deserted mansion was-
sometimes seen blazing with the- lights of some eldrich festival, when the Major and his
sister were supposed to be entertaining the Prince of Darkness. There were not even
Wanting those, during the last century, who were affirmed to have seen the Major issue at
midnight from the narrow close,- mounted on a headless charger, and gallop off in a whirl-
wind of flame. Time, however, wrought its usual cure. The Major's visits became fewer
and less ostentatious, until at length it was only at rare intervals that some midnight
reveller, returning homeward through the deserted Bow, was startled by a dark and silent
shadow that flitted across his path as he approached the haunted corner. The house is now
used as a broker's store, but the only tenant, during well-nigh two centuries, who has had
the hardihood to tempt the visions of the night within its walls, was scared by such horrible
sights, that no one is likely to molest the Major's privacy again. When all these facts
are considered, it need not excite Our wonder that this house should have escaped even, the
rabid assaults of an Improvements' Commission, that raged so fiercely around the haunted
domicile. It may be reasonably questioned, indeed, whether, if workmen were found bold
enough to raze it to the ground, it would not be found on the morrow, in statu quo, grimly
frowning defiance on its baffled assailants !

Such are the associations with one little fragment of the Bow that still exists ; our
remaining descriptions must be, alas! of things that were, and that appeared so hideous to
the refined tastes of our civic reformers, that they have not grudged the cost of £400,000
to have them removed. Directly facing the low archway leading into Major Weir's Close
was the Old Assembly Rooms, bearing the date 1602, and described in its ancient title-
deeds as " that tenement of land on the west side of the transe of the Over Bow, betwixt
the land of umq'e Lord Ruthven on the north, and the King's auld wall on the south
parts." Lord Ruthven's land, which appears in our engraving of the Old Assembly Rooms,
was an ancient timber-fronted tenement, similar to those we have described in the Castle
Hill. It possessed, however, a peculiar and thrilling interest, if it was — as we conceive
from the date of the deed, and the new title of his sons, it must have been — the mansion
of the grim and merciless baron, who stalked into the chamber of Queen Mary on that
dir'e night of the 9th of March 1566, like the ghastly vision of death, and struck home his
dagger into the royal favourite, whose murder he afterwards claimed to have chiefly contrived.
A curious and valuable relic, apparently of its early proprietor, was discovered on the demo-
lition of this ancient tenement. Between the ceiling and floor in one of the apartments, a
large and beautifully-chased sword was found concealed, with the scabbard almost com-
pletely decayed, and the blade, which was of excellent temper, deeply corroded with
rust about half-way towards the hilt. The point of it was broken off, but it still measured
32} inches long. The maker's name, WILHELM WIRSBERG, was inlaid in brass on the blade.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 339

His device — seemingly a pair of pincers — was engraved on both sides, surmounted by a
coronet, and encircled on the one side with u motto, partly defaced, and on the other with
his name repeated, and the words in. sol. ingen. Various other mottoes were engraved
amid the ornamental work with which the blade w.as covered, such as, Vincere aut mori, —
Fide sed cui vide, — Pro aris et foots, — and Soli deo gloria. This singularly curious and
interesting relic was procured from the contractors at the time of its discovery, and was
last in the possession of the late Mr Hugh Paton. The manner of its concealment, and the
fierce character of the old Lord liuthven, within whose ancient lodging it was discovered,
may readily suggest to the fancy its having formed the instrument of some dark and bloody
deed, ere it was consigned to its strange hiding-place.

The character of the old tenement, wherein the assemblies of fashion were held previous
to 1720, will be best understood by a reference to our engraving. Over the doorway of
the projecting turnpike was inscribed the motto, IN DOMINO CONFIDO — the title of the
eleventh Psalm : and above this, within an ornamental panel, the arms of the Somervilles
were sculptured, with the initials P. S., J. W., and the date 1602. These are memorials
of Peter Somerville, merchant, and " yin of the present bailies," in 1624 — a wealthy
burgher, who possessed houses in different parts of the town, and whose son and heir,
Bartholomew Somerville, one of the most liberal contributors towards the establishment
of the infant University, has already been referred to in the account of the Lawnmarket.
His picturesque old gabled tenement appears in the same view to which we have referred
for his father's lodging.

All beyond this building lay without the line of the earliest town walls. A piece of
their massive masonry remained as a part of its southern gable, and retained, till its
demolition, one of the iron hooks on which the ancient gate had hung ; though it
must not be overlooked that this portal of the city was retained, like the modern
Temple Bar, as the appointed scene of certain civic formularies and long-established
state ceremonials, for nearly two, centuries after it had been supplanted in its military
functions by the West Port. To the west of this was the intricate and singular old
mansion of Provost Stewart, where he was believed to have entertained Prince Charles
and some of his principal officers in 1745, and to have afforded them hasty exit, in a
very mysterious fashion, on the approach of a party despatched by General Guest with
an urgent invitation for their company in the Castle.1 The house was one of no mean
note, and appears from its titles to have deserved the name of the Mansion House — such
was the succession of civic dignitaries that dwelt within its walls. It is described as
" that dwelling-house some time possessed by umqle Bailie Geprge Clerk, merchant ;
afterwards by the Countess of Southesk ; thereafter by Provost John Osborn ; thereafter
by Provost George Halliburton ; and thereafter by the said Provost Archibald Stewart."
Beyond this was an antique, timber-fronted tenement, which formed of old the mansion
of Napier of Wrychtishousis, and which enjoyed a far more popular reputation, as
containing the little booth from whence the rioters of 1736 procured the fatal rope
with which Porteous was hung. Many readers will remember a quaint little Dutch
manikin, with huge goggle eyes, and a bunch of flax in his hand, who presided over its
threshold in latter times. His history was traced for considerably more than a century

1 Ant«, p. 1U

340 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

as an industrious burgher. He was imported from Holland, it is believed, near the be-
ginning of last century, and first did duty with spade in hand at a seedsman's door in the
Canongate ; from thence he passed to a grocer in the High Street, and soon after he marie
his appearance in the Bow, where his antiquated costume consorted well with the old-
fashioned neighbourhood. Since the destruction of this, his last retreat, he has found a fit
refuge in the lobby of the Antiquarian Museum. On the opposite side of the street, the
last tenement on the east side of the first turning, and situated, as its titles express, "with-
out the place where the old Bow stood," was popularly known as the Clockmaker's Land.
It had been occupied in the reign of Charles II. by Paul Romieu,1 an ingenious knock-
maker, who is believed to have been one of the French refugees, compelled to forsake his
native land on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1675, as appears from the
records of the Corporation of Hammermen, a watch was, for the first time, added to the
knockmaker's essay, previous to which date it is probable that watches were entirely im-
ported. There remained on the front of this ancient tenement, till its demolition, some
portions of a curious piece of mechanism which had formed the sign of its ingenious tenant.
This was a gilt ball representing the moon, originally made to revolve by clockwork, and
which enjoyed to the last a share of the admiration bestowed on the wonders of the Bow.
Other and more curious erections than those we have described had occupied the ground along
this steep descent at a still earlier period, when the secular clergy shared with the Templars
the dwellings in the Bow. In the " Inventar of Pious Donations," to which we have
already frequently referred, a charter is recorded, bearing date February 15, 1541, whereby
" Sir Thomas Ewing mortifies to a chaplain in St Giles Kirk, an annual rent of twenty-
six shillings out of Henry Spittal's Land, at the Upper Bow, on the east side of ye transse
yrof, betwixt Bartil Kairn's Land on the south, St James Altar Land on the north, and
the King's Street on the west." Below the Clockmaker's Land, the tortuous thoroughfare
turned suddenly at an acute angle, and presented along its devious steep a strange assem-
blage of fantastic timber and stone gables ; several of them being among those strange
relics of a forgotten order of things, the Temple Lands, and one of them, with its timber
ceilings curiously adorned with paintings* in the style already described in the Guise
Palace, bearing the quaint legend over its antique lintel, in ornamental characters of a very
early date : —

HE • YT • THOLIS • OVERCVMMIS.

Behind these lay several steep, narrow, and gloomy closes, containing the most singular
groups of huge, irregular, and diversified tenements that could well be conceived. Here
a crazy stunted little timber dwelling, black with age, and beyond it a pile of masonry rising
story above story from some murky profound beyond, that left its chimneys scarcely rival-
ling those of its dwarfish neighbour after climbing thus far from their foundation in the
depths below. One of these, which we have engraved under the name of " The Haunted
Close," is the same in which the worthy gentlewoman, the neighbour of Major Weir, be-
held the spectral giantess vanish in a blaze of fire, as she returned down the West Bow at
the witching hour of night. The close, for all its wretched degradation, which had won

1 Minor Antiquities. Information derived fifty years ago (1833) from a man who was then eighty years of age.
8 Some curious fragments of this ceiling are now iu the collection of C. K. Sharpe, Esq.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 341

for it the savoury title it retained to the last, still preserved some remains of ancieut
grandeur, as appears in our view, where an ornamental building is introduced, which had
probably formed the summer house of some neighbouring patrician's pleasure-grounds
ere the locality acquired its unenviable distinction. The inventory of the tenants who
were at length ejected by the inexorable commissioners, forms, we think, as strange a
medley as ever congregated together in one locality. It is thus described : — " All
and hail these laigh houses lying in the said West Bow, in that close commonly
called the Stinking Close of Edinburgh^ some time possessed, the one thereof by Jolm
Edward, cobbler; another by Widow Mitchell; another by John Park, ballad crier;
another by Christian Glass, eggwife ; another by Duncan M'Lachlan, waterman ; and
another by Alexander Anderson, bluegown ; . . . and with shops, cellars, &c.,
are part of that tenement acquired by Sir William Menzies of Gladstanes, 29th April
1696."

Beyond the singular group of buildings thus huddled together, the Bow turned abruptly
to the south, completing the Z like form of the ancient thoroughfare. Here again, and
scattered among the antique tenements that surround the area of the Grassmarket, we
find the gables and bartizans surmounted with the stone or iron cross that marks the
privileged Templar Lands. These powerful soldier-priests possessed at one time lands
in every county, and nearly in every parish, of Scotland ; and wherever they permitted
houses to be erected thereon, they were required to bear the badge of their order, and
to submit to the jurisdiction of no local court but that of their spiritual lords. When
their possessions passed into secular hands at the Reformation, they still retained their
peculiar privileges and burdens, and their exemption from the exclusive burghal restric-
tions was long a subject of heart-burning and discontent to the chartered corporations
and the magistrates of Edinburgh. The Earl of Haddington is still Lord Superior of
the Temple Lands, and his representative used to hold Baron's Courts in them occasionally,
until this imperium in imperio was abolished by the Act of 1746, which extinguished the
ancient privileges of pit and gallows, and swept away a host of independent baronies all
over the kingdom. We cannot leave the West Bow, however, once the principal entry
into the town, without glancing at the magnificent pageants which it witnessed through
successive centuries. Up this steep and narrow way have ridden James IV. and V , his
Queen, Mary of Guise, and their fair and ill-fated daughter Queen Mary. Here, too, the
latter rode in no joyous ceremonial, with Bothwell at her side, and his rude border spear-
men closing around her ; though they had thrown away their weapons as they approached
the capital, that the ravished Queen might appear to her subjects as the arbiter of her
own fate. To those who read aright the history of this calumniated and cruelly wronged
Queen, few incidents in her life are more touching than when she rode up the Bow on this
occasion, and turning her horse's head, was about to proceed towards her own Palace of
Holyrood. It is the very culminating point of her existence ; but the die was already cast.
Bothwell, who had assumed for the occasion the air of an obsequious courtier, now seized
her horse's bridle, and she entered the Castle a captive, and in his power. By the same
street her son, James VI., and his Queen, Anne of Denmark, made their ceremonious
entries to the capital ; and in like manner, Charles I., Oliver Cromwell, and James VII.,
while Duke of York, accompanied by his Queen and daughter, afterwards Queen Anne.

342 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Such are a few of the great names associated with the ancient thoroughfare which we have
seen so recklessly destroyed, and which, until its sudden doom was pronounced, seemed
like a hale and vigorous octogenarian, that had defied the tooth of time while all around
was being transmuted by his touch.

On the lowest part of the declivity of the TJow, a handsome, though somewhat heavy
conduit, erected by Robert Milne in 1681, bears the name of the Bow-foot Well.
Directly facing this, at the south-west angle of the Grassmarket, there stood of old the
Monastery of the Franciscans or Greyfriars, founded by James I., for the encouragement
of learning. In obedience to an application from that monarch, the Vicar-General of the
Order at Cologne sent over to Scotland some of the brethren, under the guidance of
Cornelius of Zurich, a scholar of great reputation ; but such was the magnificence of the
monastic buildings prepared for them that it required the persuasive influence of the
Archbishop of St Andrew's to induce Cornelius to accept the office of Prior. That the
monastery was a sumptuous foundation, according to the times, is proved by its being
assigned for the temporary abode of the Princess, Mary of Guelders, who immediately after
her arrival at Leith, in June 1449, proceeded on horseback, behind the Count de Vere,
to her lodging in the Convent of the Greyfriars in Edinburgh, and there she was visited by
her royal lover, James II., on the following day.1 A few years later it afforded an asylum
to Henry VI. of England, when he fled to Scotland, accompanied by his heroic Queen,
Margaret, a.nd their son, Prince Edward, after the fatal battle of Towton. That a church
would form a prominent feature of this royal foundation can hardly be doubted, and we
are inclined to infer that the existence both of it, and of a churchyard attached to it, long
before Queen Mary's grant of the gardens of the monastery for the latter purpose, is
implied in such allusions as the following in the Diurnal of Occurfeuts, July 7, 1571.
" The haill merchandis, craftismen, and personis remanand within Edinburgh, maid thair
moustaris in the Gray Frear Kirk yaird;" and, again, where Birrel in his Diary, April
26, 1598, refers to the " work at the Gray Friar Kirke" although the date of erection
of the more modern church is only 1613. The exact site of these monastic buildings is
proved from the titles of the two large stone tenements which present their picturesque
and antique gables to the street, immediately to the west of the entrance from the Cow-
gate. The western tenement is described as " lying within the burgh of Edinburgh, at
the place called the Grayfreres," while the other is styled " that Temple tenement of laud,
lying at the head of the Cowgate, near the Cunzie nook, beside the Minor, or Greyfriars,
on the east, and the common King's High Street, on the north parts." Beyond this, in
the Candlemaker Row, a curious little timber-fronted tenement appears, with its gable
surmounted with the antique crow-steps we have described on the Mint buildings and
elsewhere; an open gallery projects in front, and rude little shot windows admit the light
to the decayed and gloomy chambers within. This, we presume, to be the Cunzie nook
referred to above, a place where the Mint had no doubt been established at some early
period, possibly during some of the strange proceedings in the Regency of Mary of Guize,2

1 Caledonia, vol. i. p. 699.

" Vpoun the 21 day of Julij [1559], James, commendatare of Sanctandrois, aud Alexander, erle of Glencarne,
with thair assistaris callit the congregatiouu, past from Edinburgh to Halyrudhoua, and thair tuik and intromettit with
the iruis of the cunzehous, and brocht the same to the said burgh of Edinburgh, to the priour of SanotauJrois lugeing,

THE WEST ROW AND SUBURBS. 343

when the Lords of the Congregation ":past to Halyrudhous, and tuik and 'intromettit with
the irnis of the cuuzehous."

The general aspect of the Grassrnarket appears to have suffered little change for above
two.hundred years. One of the most modern erections on its southern side is that imme-
diately to the west of the Templar Lands we have just described, which bears on a tablet
over the entrance to Hunter's Close, .ANNO . DOM . MDCLXXI . It is uot likely to
be soon lost sight of, that from a dyer's pole in front of :this old tenement Captain
Porteous was hung by his Lyuch-law judges A. D. 1736. The long range of ;buildings that
extend beyond this, present as singular and varied a group of antique tenements as either
artist or antiquary could desire. Finials of curious .and grotesque shapes surmount the
crow-stepped gables, and every variety of -form and
elevation diversifies .the sky line of :their roofs and
chimneys ; while behind, the noble pile of Heriot's
Hospital towers above them as a counterpart to the
old Castle that rises majestically over the north side
.of the same area.1 Many antique features are yet
discernible here. Several of the older houses are built
with bartizaned roofs and ornamental copings, designed

to afford their inmates au uninterrupted view of the magnificent < pageants that were
wont of old to defile through the wide area below, or of 'the gloomy tragedies that were
so frequently enacted there between the Restoration and the Revolution. One of these,
which stands immediately to the west of Heriot's Bridge, exhibits a very perfect
specimen of the antique style of window already frequently referred to. The folding
shutters and transom of oak remain entire below, and the glass in the upper part is set in
an ornamental pattern of lead. Still finer, though less perfect, specimens of the same
early fashion, remain in a teneaient on the north side, bearing the date 1634. It forms
the front building at the entrance to Plainstaue's Close — a distinctive title, implying
its former respectability as a paved alley. A handsome projecting turnpike . stair bears

being thairin." — Diuru. of Occ. p. 269. Humble a8 this nook appears, it U possible that it may be a fragment of . the
Regent1 Murray's lodging.

1 The careful and elaborate btetory of Heriot's Hospital, by Dr Steven, renders further investigation of its memorials
unnecessary. Tradition assigns to Inigo Jones the merit of having furnished the beautiful design for the Hospital,
which is well worthy of his genius. If so, however, it has been earned out in a modified form, under the direction
i of more modern .architects. The following entry occurs in the Hospital Records for 1675. "May 3. — There is a
necessity that the steeple of the Hospital be finished, and, a. top put thereupon. Ro. Miln, Master Mason, to think
on a drawing thereof, against the next council meeting." The master mason does not appear to have thought to good
purpose, as we find recorded the following year : — "July 10.— Deacon Sandilaua to put a roof and top to the Hospital's
steeple, according to the draught condescended upon be Sir William Bruce." In one of Captain Slezer's very accurate
general views of Edinburgh, published towards the close of the 17th century, Heriot's Hospital is introduced as it
then appeared, with the plain square tower over the gateway, and near' to it the Old Greyfriare' Church, with the
tower at the west end, as it stood previous to 1718, when the latter was accidentally blown up by gunpowder, which
had been deposited there for safety. A view of the Hospital, by Gordon of Rothietnay, which was engraved in
Holland before 1650, is believed to afford an accurate representation of the original design. 'The same is engraved in
the fourth edition of Sieger's views, under the name of. Jlogenffidit. ; Jn> this view, the tower is surmounted by a lofty
and beautiful spire, carrying out the idea of contrast in form and elevation which appears in the rest of the design,
much more effectively than the dome which has been substituted for it. The large towers at the angles of the building
appear in this view covered with ogee roofs, in more questionable taste. Several entries in the Hospital Records seem
to imply that two of the four towers had been completed according to this idea, and afterwards altered. The Records
afford evidence of frequent deviations from the original design being sanctioned, even after such parts of the building
were, finished accordiug to the plan.

344 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

over its entrance the common inscription, BLISSET . BE . GOD . FOR . AL . HIS . GIFTIS .l
with the initials, I. L., G. K. ; and the windows above retain the old oaken mullions
and transoms richly carved in a variety of patterns. Another antique tenement to the
east of this is finished with a hartizan and ornamental parapet, on the centre of which the
badge of its ancient subjection to the Templar Knights appears like a dagger struck into
the roof, and left to serve as a memento of strife in more peaceful times. The assignment
of this locality as the appointed place for a weekly market, dates from the year 1477, when
James III. appointed "all aid graits! and ger to be usit and said in the Friday Market
before the Gray-Frers; alsa all qwyck bestis, ky, oxon, not to be brought in the town, bot
under the wall fer west at oure stable."

The town wall extended on the west from the Castle across the area of the market on
the site now occupied by the Corn Exchange ; and here stood the ancient gate of the city
from whence the neighbouring suburb derived its name of the West Port. Like the
other gates of the city, it was usually garnished with a few heads and dismembered
limbs of malefactors and political offenders ; and so essential were these appendages
considered that Fountainhall, after recording the execution of three Covenanters in the
Grassmarket in the year 1681, adds: — "About eight dayes before this they had stolleu
away two of the heads which stood on the West Port of Edinburgh ; the criminal lords,
to supply that want, ordained two of thir criminall's heads to be struck off, and to be
affixed in ther place."3 Here also was the scene of some of those quaint ceremonials
wherewith our ancestors were wont to testify their loyal gratulations at the Sovereign's
approach. James VI. was appropriately received at the gate by King Solomon on his
first entry to the capital in 1579; and here, in 1590, his Queen, Anne of Denmark, was
welcomed in a Latin oration, and received the silver keys of the city in the accustomed
manner, from the hands of an angel who descended in a globe from the battlements of
the Port.4 King James was again welcomed in still more costly fashion at the same spot
im his return to his native city in 1617; and the Nymph Edina waited there for his son,
Charles I., in 1633, attended by beautiful damsels, and, with a brief congratulatory oration,
presented the keys, leaving, however, the burden of the welcome to the Lady Caledonia,
who lay in wait for him at the corner of the Bow, and in " a copious speech," prepared by
Drunimond of Hawthornden in his most bombastic vein, congratulated his Majesty on his
safe arrival.

The most interesting features of the burgh of Western Portsburgh have already been
described in a previous chapter.5 Many of the old buildings of its main street have been
replaced of late years by the plain unpretending erections of modern times. It still, how-
ever, has at least one venerable edifice of a picturesque character, erected in the reign of
Queen Macy by John Lowrie,6 a substantial burgher, and, as it would seem, a zealous
adherent of the ancient faith in those ticklish times. So, at least, we infer from the sculp-
tured lintel of its ancient doorway, which bears, in large characters, this abbreviation of the
common motto, — SOLI DEO • H • G • with the date 1565; and in the centre, between

1 The same inscription occurs with the date 1637, over a neighbouring tenement at the foot of the Castle Wynd.

s Charter of James III. ; Maitland, pp. 8, 9.

* Fountainhall's Historical Observes, p. 30.

4 Ante, pp. 85-87. " Ante, pp. 135-137. 6 Traditions, vol. i. p. 304.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 345

the builder's initials, a large ornamental shield bears the device of a pot full of lilies, one
of the most common emblems of the Virgin Mary. John Lowrie's initials are repeated
in ornamental characters on the eastern crow-step, separated by what appears to be de-
signed for a baker's peel, and probably indicating that its owner belonged to the ancient
fraternity of baxters. The burgh of Easter Portsburgh, which is associated with its
western neighbour under the same baron bailie, comprehends the Potterrow and adjoining
district of Bristo, and includes several buildings of considerable interest, though not of
great antiquity. One edifice, however, which appeal^ in our view of the Potterrow, was
a singular specimen of the ancient timber lands, and differed in character from any example
of that style of building that now remains. It bore the distinctive title of the Mahogany
Land, an epithet popularly applied to the most ornamental timber erections in different
parts of the town, and had undoubtedly existed at the time when the Collegiate Church
of St Mary stood in the neighbouring fields. Directly opposite to its site is a lofty
building, erected, as appears from its title-deeds, in 1715, and which, we are informed by
its proprietor, formed the lodging of the Earl of Morton. It has evidently been a mansion
of some importance. A broad and handsome archway leads into an enclosed court
behind, where there is cut, in unusually large letters, the inscription — BLISET . BE . GOD .
FOR . AL . HIS . GIFTIS . — and a monogram, now undecipherable. Robert, twelfth Earl of
Morton, succeeded to the title the same year in which the house was built, and was again
succeeded by his brother George, appointed Vice- Admiral of Scotland in 1733. He died
at Edinburgh in 1738, and was buried in the Greyfriars' Churchyard. Other associations,
however, far surpassing those of mere rank and ancient lineage, will make this locality
long be regarded as a peculiarly interesting nook of the Scottish metropolis. Nearly at
the point of junction of the Potterrow with Bristo Street — once one of the two great
thoroughfares from the south — there is a little, irregular, and desolate-looking court of
antique buildings, bearing the name of General's Entry. The south and east sides of this
little quadrangle are formed by a highly-decorated range of buildings. The crow-stepped
gable at the south-east angle is surmounted by a curious old sun-dial, bearing the quaint
punning moral, We shall die all ; and beyond this a series of sculptured dormer windows
appear, in the highly-decorated style of the seventeenth century. On one of the sculptured
pediments is a shield, bearing the unusual heraldic device of a monkey, with three stars in
chief. It is surrounded by a border of rich Elizabethan scroll work in high relief; and
beyond this, the initials J. D. The adjoining window bears, as its principal ornament, an
ingenious monogram, formed of large ornamental Roman characters. The tradition is one
of old standing, which assigns this mansion as the residence of General Monk, during his
command in Scotland under Oliver Cromwell. This is usually referred to as the origin of
the present name of the locality ; nor is the tradition altogether without some appearance
of probability in support of it. The house, we believe, was erected by Sir James
Dalrymple, afterwards Viscount Stair, justly regarded as the most eminent judge who
ever presided on the Scottish Bench. He is well known to have been a special favourite
of General Monk, who frequently consulted him on matters of state, and recommended
him to Cromwell in 1657 as the fittest person to be appointed a judge. Under these
circumstances, it may be inferred, with little hesitation, that Monk was a frequent visitor,
if not a constant guest, at General's Entry, when he came into the capital from his head-

346 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

quarters at Dalkeith . Palace. The old mansion continued to be the town residence of the
noble family of Stair, until, like the rest of the Scottish peers, they deserted their native
capital soon after the abolition of our national Parliament by the Act of Union. It is
not unlikely that the present name of the old court is derived from the more recent
residence there of John, second Earl of Stair, who served during the protracted campaigns
of the Duke of Marlborough, and was promoted to the rank of Lieuteuant-General soon
after the bloody victory of Malplaquet. He shared in the fall of the great Duke, and
retired from Court until the accesUon of George I., during -which interval it is probable
that the family mansion in the Potterrow formed the frequent abode of the disgraced
favourite.

Degradation and decay had long settled down on the old aristocratic haunt, when
Clariuda wrote from the same place in 1788, in 'anticipation of a visit from the poet
Burns, " I hope you '11 come a-foot, even though you take a chair home. A chair is so
uncommon a thing in OUT neighbourhood, it is apt to 'raise speculation — but they are all
asleep by ten." l The first interview between Mrs M'Lehose, the romantic Clarinda,
and her Sylvander, took place at the house of Miss Nimnio, a mutual friend, who resided
in Alison Square, Potterrow; an equally humble locality, and within a few paces of
General's Entry, but which derives a still deeper interest from having been the place
where the youthful poet Thomas Campbell lived during his stay in Edinburgh, while
engaged in the composition of his Pleasures of Hope. To appreciate the later associations
of these scenes of poetic inspiration and intellectual pleasures, the reader should rise
from the perusal of the ardent and romantic correspondence of Clarinda and Sylvander,
and proceed to visit the dusky little parlour on the first floor of the crazy tenement in the
Potterrow, where the 'poet was welcomed by the enthusiastic Clarinda. It is on the
north side of General's Entry, and approached by a narrow ' turnpike 'Stair, where the
whol« accommodations of Mrs .M'Lehose consisted of [a kitchen, ; bedroom, and the

• straitened parlour wherein she received the visits of the poet. Here this young and
beautiful woman resided with her i infant children, and struggled against the pinching
oares of poverty, and the worse sorrows created by an acutely sensitive mind. The
emigration, however, of the gentry of the Old Town to the more fashionable dwellings
beyond the North Loch had been very partially effected in 1788 ; and the contrast between
the little parlour in General's Entry, and the drawing-rooms of the poet's wealthier hosts,
was by no means so marked and striking as it afterwards became. Such are the strangely

• mingled associations of rank, 'historic fame, and genius, with lowly worth and squalid
-poverty, which still linger around so many old nooks of the Scottish capital, 'and give
^BOipeculiar an interest to its scenes.

Beyond this lies the more modern district that preceded the New Town, and included

• in its various-districts accommodation designed for very different ranks of society. Nicolson
•Street, which now forms a portion of the principal -southern avenue to the city, was con-
structed towards the close -of last century on an extensive unoccupied space of ground
lying between the Pleasance and • Potterrow. It belonged to Lady Nicolson, whose house
stood nearly at the, junction of South College Street with Nicolson Street, and on the

1 Correspondence between Burns and Clarimla, p. 152. The poet was at this period lame, from an injury in his
kuee.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 347

completion of the latter street, she erected a monument to her husband at the north eud,
consisting of a Corinthian column, measuring above twenty-five feet high. Upon the base
an inscription was cut in Latin and English, setting forth that Lady Nicolson had made
the adjacent ground, left to her by her husband, be planned out for building, under the
name of Nicolson Street, and had erected the monument there out df regard to his
memory. On the extension of the thoroughfare and the completion of the South Bridge,
this pious memorial was thrown aside into the yard of the public riding-school, then
occupying 'the site where the College of Surgeons now stands, and it has no doubt long
since been broken up for building materials. Though the monument of Lady Nicolson
might not possess any great value in general estimation, it would have been no unbecoming
act for the projectors of these extensive improvements to have found a site for it in the •
neighbouring square. The building in Nicolson Street, at the corner of Hill Street, now
occupied as the Blind Asylum, acquires peculiar interest from having long formed the
residence of the celebrated chemist, Dr Black, whose reputation contributed so largely to
the fame of the University to which he belonged. Further south, on the same side of the
street, a small and mean-looking court, surrounded by humble tenements, and crowded
with a dense population, bears the name of Simon Square. It has nothing in its appear-
ance to attract either the artist or the antiquary, yet its associations are intimately
connected with the Fine Arts; for here, in a 'narrow lane, called Paul Street, which leads
thence into the Pleasance, David Wilkie took lip his abode on his arrival in Edinburgh iu
1799. Wilkie was then a raw country lad, only fourteen years of age, and so little was
thought of the productions of his pencil that it required the powerful interest of the Earl
of Leven to overcome the prejudices of the Secretary of the Academy established in Edin-
burgh by the Board of Trustees, and obtain his admission as a student. The humble
lodging, where the enthusiastic young aspirant for fame first began his career as an artist,
cannot but be viewed with lively interest. It is a little back room, measuring barely ten
feet square, at the .top Of a common stair, on the south side of the street 'near the
Pleasance. From thence he removed to a better lodging iu East Richmond Street, and
thereafter to a comfortable attic in Palmer's Land, West Nicolson 'Street. This latter
abode of the great Scottish artist possesses peculiar associations with our national arts,
his eminent predecessor, Alexander Runciman, having occupied the same apartment till
1784. the year before his death,1 and having there probably entertained the Poet Ferguson,
while with ominous fitness he sat as his model for the Prodigal Son.

Near to this is the aristocratic quarter that sprung up during the tedious delays which
preceded the commencement of the New Town, and threatened by its success to compel
the projector s of that long-cherished scheme of improvement to 'abandon their design.
Here is George Square, once the abode of rank, and far more worthy of note, as the scene
where Scott spent his youth under the paternal roof ; that bright period of his existence,
of which so many beautiful details are preserved, full of ' sweet glimpses of the happy
circle that gathered round his father's hearth. The house which Scott's father occupied

1 The following entry is extracted from the old family Bible which belonged to the artist's father, and is now in the
possession of a gentleman in Edinburgh: — " Jatnea Runciman and Mary Smith, married 1735. Nov. 7, 'Kilwinning,
Alexander, born 15th Aug. 1736. Baptized by John Walker, minister, Canongate [Edinburgh]. Died Oct. 21st 1785
at 12 at night in Chapel Street."

348 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

is oil the west side of tlie square, No. 25, and there the lively and curious boy grew up to
manhood under the kindly surveillance of the good old pair. The little back room still
remains, " That early den" with the young antiquary's beginnings of the future Abbots-
ford collection, described so piquantly in Lockhart's life of him, by the pen of a female
friend ; and where Lord Jeffrey found him on his first visit, long years ago, " surrounded
with dingy books." Though shorn of all the strange relics that young Walter Scott
gathered there, it possesses one valuable memento of the boy. On one of the window
panes his name is still seen, inscribed with a diamond in a school-boy hand ; and other
panes of glass, which contained juvenile verses traced in the same durable manner, have
been removed to augment the treasures of modern collectors. On the east side of George
Square lies Windmill Street, the name of which preserves the record of an earlier period
when a windmill occupied its site, and raised the water from the Borough Loch to supply
the brewers of the Society. ' The Incorporation of Brewers has long been dissolved, and
the Borough Loch now forms the rich pasturage and the shady walks of the Meadows ;
while along its once marshy margin has since been built Buccleuch Place, where the
exclusive fashionables of the southern district long maintained their own ball-room and
assemblies.

The impossibility of converting this pendicle of the Borough Muir to any useful pur-
pose as private property, while it continued in its original state as a Loch, fortunately
prevented its alienation, while nearly every other portion of the valuable tract of land that
once belonged to the borough passed into private hands. At the western extremity of
the Borough Muir, the venerable tower of Merchiston still stands entire, the birth-place
of John Napier, the inventor of the Logarithms, to whom, according to Hume, the title
of a great man is more justly due than to any other whom his country ever produced.
The ancestors of the great Scottish philosopher were intimately connected with Edin-
burgh. The three first Napiers of Merchiston successirely filled the office of provost in
the reigns of James II. and III., and other connections of the family rose to the same
civic dignity. Their illustrious descendant was born at Merchiston Castle in the year
1550, on the eve of memorable changes whereof even the reserved and modest student
had to bear his share. The old fortalice of Merchistou, reared at an easy distance from
the Scottish capital, lay in the very field of strife. Round its walls the Douglas wars raged
for years, and the most striking incidents of the philosopher's early life intermingle with
the carnage of that merciless feud. On the 2d of April 1572, he was betrothed to Eliza-
beth, daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir, and on the 5th of the following month,
' The cumpany of Edinburgh past furth and seigit Merchingstoun ; quha wan all the
pairtis thairof except the dungeoun, in the quhilk wes certane suddartis in Leith ; the
haill houssis wes spoulzeit and brunt, to haue smokit the men of the dungeoun out ; but
the cuntrie seand the fyre, raise with the pover of Leith and put the men of Edinburgh
thairfra without slauchter, hot syndrie hurt." ' The keep of Merchiston formed, indeed, the
key of the south approach to the capital, so that whoever triumphed it became the butt of
their opponents' enmity. It lay near enough to be bombarded from the Castle walls by
Sir William Kirkaldy, though a cousin of its owner, because some of the king's men held
it for a time, and intercepted the provisions coming to the town. Again and again were the

1 Diurnal of Occurreiits, p. 295.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 349

grey towers of Merchiston beleagured by the furious Queen's men, and battered with their
cannon till they " maid greit slappis in the wall ; " but a truce was at length effected
betwixt the contending factions, and the donjon keep became once more the abode of the
student, and its battlements the observatory and watch-tower of the astrologer. Napier
was regarded by his contemporaries as possessed of mysterious supernatural powers; and the
marvels attributed to him, with the aid of a familiar spirit that attended him in the shape of
a Jet Black Cock, have been preserved among the traditions of the neighbourhood almost to
our own day.1 The philosopher indeed would seem to have indulged his shrewd humour
occasionally in giving countenance to such popular conceits. A field in front of Merchis-
ton still bears the name of the Doo Park as the scene of one of his necromantic exploits.
The pigeons of a neighbouring laird having annoyed him by frequent inroads on his grain,
he threatened at length to arrest them red-hand, and was laughingly dared to " catch
them if he could." The depredators made their appearance as usual on the morrow, and
partook so heartily of the grain, which had been previously saturated with alcohol by the
reclaiming owner, that he easily made the bewitched pigeons captives, to the no small
astonishment and awe of his neighbours.

It is curious to find a popular nursery tale originating in the grave pranks of the
illustrious inventor of the Logarithms, yet many juvenile readers will recognise the follow-
ing adventure of the Warlock of Merchiston and his Jet Black Cock as a familiar story.
Napier apparently impressed his domestics with a full belief in his magical powers, as the
readiest means of turning their credulity to account. Having on one occasion missed
some property, which he suspected had been taken by one of his servants, they were
ordered one by one into a dark room where the black cock was confined, and each of
them was required to stroke its back, after being warned that it would crow at the touch
of the guilty hand. The cock maintained unbroken silence throughout the mysterious
ordeal ; but the hand of the culprit was the only one found entirely free from the soot with
which its feathers had been previously anointed ! The philosopher, however, was au
adept in astrology, and appears himself to have entertained perfect faith in the possession
of unusual powers, particularly in that of discovering hidden treasure. A very singular
contract between him and Logan of Kestalrig — one of the Gowrie conspirators — was found
among the Merchiston papers, wherein it is agreed, that, " forsamekle as ther is dywerss
aid reportis, motiffis, and appirancis, that thair suld be within the said Robertis dwellinge
place of Fascastell a soum of monie and poiss, heid and hurdit up secritlie, quilk as yit
is onfund be ony man. The said Jhone sail do his utter and exact diligens to serche
and sik out, and be al craft and ingyne that he dow, to tempt, trye, and find out the
sam, and be the grace of God, other sail find the sam, or than mak it suir that na sik
thing hes been thair; so far as his utter trawell, diligens, and ingyne, may reach."5
This singular contract acquires a peculiar interest, when we remember the reported dis-
covery of hidden treasure with which the preliminary steps of the Gowrie Conspiracy were
effected.

Within a little distance of the ancient tower of Merchiston, and directly between it
and the town, another old mansion of the Napiers attracted the eye of the curious.

1 Mark Napier's Memoirs of Napier of Merchiston, 4to, p. 214. ' Napier's Napier of MeichiVon, p. 221.

3,50 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

This was the picturesque half-castellated edifice of Wrychtishousis, unfortunately acquired
by the trustees of Mr Gillespie, a wealthy and benevolent tobacconist who bequeathed
his whole fortune to found an hospital for the aged poor. By them it was entirely de-
molished in the year 1800, and the tasteless modern erection built which now occupies its
site. The nucleus of this singularly picturesque group of irregular masonry appeared to
have been an ancient keep, or Peel Tower, evidently of very early date, around which
were clustered, in various styles of architecture, intricate ranges of buildings and irregular
turrets, which had been added by successive owners to increase the accommodation afforded
by the primitive tower. The general effect of tkis antique pile was greatly enhanced on
approaching it by the numerous heraldic devices and inscriptions which adorned every
window, doorway, and ornamental pinnacle ; the whole walls being crowded with armorial
bearings, designed to perpetuate the memory of the noble alliances by which the family
succession of the Xapiers of Wrychtishousis had, been continued from early times. The
earliest records of this ancient family which have been discovered, show that William
Napier, the owner of the old mansion iu 1390, was then Constable of Edinburgh Castle,
and maintained that important stronghold at the beginning of the following century, with
the aid of Archibald, Earl of Douglas, and the unfortunate Duke of Rothesay, against
Henry IV., at the head of the whole military force of England. To this brave resistance,
which baffled all the efforts of the English monarch, and redeemed Scotland from total
subjection, the ingenious genealogist of the Xapiers conceives that the peculiar tenure
of the Wrychtishousis may be referred. From old charters, preserved in the Register
House, it appears that that property was held by payment to the king of a silver penny
upon the Castle Hill of Edinburgh. " Fourteen years' services as Constable, including so
memorable a siege, may perhaps account for the silver link between the W'rychtishousis.
aad the Castle Hill." J

The singular edifice thus intimately associated with a historical event of such memorable
importance, formed by far the most striking example of an ancient baronial mansion that
existed in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Minutely examined, it exhibited the
picturesque blending of the rude feudal stronghold with the ornate additions of more
peaceful times, combining altogether to produce a pleasing effect rarely equalled by more
regular designs. The effect of this irregular group of the various styles of Scottish
architecture is described, by those who still remember it with regret, as singularly striking,
especially when viewed from the Borough Muir towards sunset, rearing its towers and
pinnacles against the evening sky. Had it remained till now, it is probable that the pre-
valence of a better taste would have induced the trustees of Gtillespie's foundation to adapt
it to the purposes of their charitable institution, instead of levelling it with the ground.
Its demolition, however, was not effected even then without a spirited, though ineffectual
remonstrance, by a correspondent of the Edinburgh Magazine for July 1800, who writes
under the name of Common, and urges, among other arguments, the venerable antiquity of.
the building, one of the dates on which was 1376. " Above one window," he remarks,
"was the inscription, SICUT OLIV^. FRUCTIFERA, 1376; and above another, IN
DOMINO COXFIDO, 1400. There vere several later dates, marking the periods, probably of
additions, embellishments, or repair?, or the succession of different proprietors. The arms

1 Partition of the Lennoi, p. 181.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS.

351

over the principal door were those of Britain after the Union of the Crowns. On triangular
stones, above the windows, were five emblematical representations : —

And in these five, such things their form "xpress'd,
As we can touch, taste, feel, or hear, or see.

A variety of the Virtues also were strewed upon different parts, of the building. In one
place was a rude representation of our first parents, and underneath the well-known old
proverbial distich :: —

When Adam delved and Eve span,
Qnhair war a* the gentles than T

In another place was a head of Juliu* Caesar, and elsewhere a head of Octavius Secnndns,
both in good preservation." Many of these sculptures were recklessly defaced' and
broken, and the whole of them dispersed. Among those we have examined there is one,
now built over the doorway of Gillespie's School, having a tree cut on it, bearing for
fruit the stars and crescents of the family arms, and the inscription DOMINTJS KST ILLU-
MDs'ATio MEA ; another, placed over the Hospital Well, has this legend below a boldly
cut heraldic device, COXSTAXTIA ET LABOBE . 1339. On two others, now at Woodhouselee,
are the following, BEATUS TIB QUI SPKRAT iy E>EO . 1450 . and PATRICE ET POSTERIS . 151$ .
Altogether there were probably included in the decorations of this single building more
quaint and curious allegories and inscriptions than are now left to reward onr investigation
among all the antiquities of the Old Town. The only remains of this singular mansion
that have escaped the general wreck, are the sculptured pediments and heraldic carvings
built into the boundary walls of the Hospital ; and a few others, referred to above, which
were secured by the late Lord Woodhouselee, and now adorn a ruin on Mr Tytler's
estate at the Pentlands. An examination of these suffices to show that no dependence
can be placed on. the date referred to by Cadmon in fixing the age of the building, as the
whole are in the florid style that prevailed in the reign of James VI., and were no doubt
cut at one period as a durable memorial of the family tree.1 Maitland, after refuting the
popular derivation of the name of Wrychtishousis, from the supposed fact of the mright*
or carpenters having dwelt there while cutting down the oaks of the Borough Muir,
assigns it as the mansion of the Laxrd of Wryte.'1 That, however, is merely reasoning in
a circle, and deriving its name from itself; but no better explanation seems now dis-
coverable.

Only one other suburban district remains to be included in onr sketch of the old Scot-
tish Capital. Villages and hamlets have indeed been embraced within its modern exten-

1 A minute account of these, with accurate facsimiles of several of them, will he found in "The History of the Parti-
tion of the Lennox." The author shows that from the earliest records no evidence leads to the idea of any connection
between the owners of Merchiston and Wrychtishousis, notwithstanding their common name. Their arms are quite
distinct, until 1513 — the memorable year of floddeo — when on* of the heraldic sculptures shows an alliance between
the Lainl of Wrychtishousis and a daughter of Merchiston. The author, however, does not notice the fact that on the
family vault ia St Giles's Church, tho artm of both families are cut, not impaled, but on two distinct, though attached
shields, and with the llerchiston crest. He has been driven to some very ingenious and learned theories to account
for a shield bearing three crescents on the field, whick he found — where it ought to be — at Woodhouselee, keittg tkt
ar*u of tkt praent mmer of the kmae.

• Haitland, p. 508. — This derivation is deduced erroneously from the boundaries of the Borough Muir, as given by
himself, where be has printed in the possessive ease and as two words, what should evidently Mad, " The Laird of
Wrytesbouse," as in the previous sentence, " The Laird of March istom." — Ibid, p. 177.

752 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

sions, or swept away to make room for the formal streets aud squares of the New Town ;
but these are the offspring of another parentage, though claiming a part among the memorials
of the olden time. At the foot of Leith Wynd — and just without the ancient boundaries
of the capital, lies an ancient suburb, which though at no time dignified by the abodes of
the nobility, or even of citizens of note, was selected as the site of several early religious
foundations that still confer some interest on the locality. The foot of the Wynd (the only
portion which now remains) was remarkable as the scene of one of those strange acts of lawless
violence, which were of such frequent occurrence in early times. John Graham, parson of
Killearn, one of the supreme criminal Judges, having married the widow of Sandilands of
Calder, instituted a vexatious law-suit against her son. The partizans of the latter probably
considered it vain to compete with a lawyer at his own weapons, and his uncle, Sir James
Sandilands, accompanied by a body of his friends and followers, lay in wait for the Judge on
the 1st of February 1592, in the wynd, which then formed one of the principal avenues to
the town, and avenged their quarrel by murdering him in open day, without any of the per-
petrators being brought to trial or punishment.1 At the foot of the wynd stood the building
known as Paul's Work, rebuilt in 1619, on the site of an ancient religious foundation.
About the year 1479, Thomas Spence, Bishop of Aberdeen, founded an hospital there, for
the reception and entertainment of twelve poor men, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary,
under the name of the Hospital of our Lady in Leith Wynd, and it subsequently received
considerable augmentations to its revenues from other benefactors. It is probable that
among these benefactions there had been a chapel or altar dedicated to St Paul, unless,
indeed, this was included in the original charter of foundation.2 All these documents,
however, are now lost, and we are mainly left to conjecture as to the source of the change
of name which early took place. In 1582 the Common Council adapted this charitable
foundation to the new order of things, and drew up statutes for the guidance of the
Bedemen, wherein it is required that, "in Religion they be na Papistes, bot of the trew
Religion."3 Subsequently the whole revenues were diverted to purposes never dreamt of
by the pious founders. The buildings having probably fallen into decay, were recon-
structed as they now appear, and certain Dutch manufacturers were invited over from Delft,
and established there for the instruction of poor girls and boys in the manufacturing of
woollen stuffs. The influence of these strangers in their legitimate vocation failed of effect,
but Calderwood records in 1621, " Mauie of the profainner sort of the toun were drawen
out upon the sixt of May, to May games in Gilmertoun and Rosseline ; so profanitie
began to accompanie superstition and idolatrie, as it hath done in former times. Upon
the first of May, the weavers in St Paul's Worke, Euglishe and Dutche, set up a
highe May pole, with their garlants and bells hanging at them, wherat was great concurse

1 Arnot's Criminal Trials, p. 174.

" Feb. 7, 1696. — Reduction pursued by the Town of Edinburgh against Sir Wm. Binny, and other partners of the
Linen Manufactory in Paul's Work, of the tack set to them of the same in 1683. Insisted Imo, that this house was
founded by Thos. Spence, Bishop of Aberdeen, in the reign of King James II., for discipline and training of idle vaga-
bonds, and dedicated to St Paul ; and by an Act of Council in 1626, was deatinate and mortified for educating boys in a1
woollen manufactory ; and this tack had inverted the original design, contrary to the 6th Act of Parliament, 1633,
discharging the sacrilegious inversion of all pious donations." — Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 709. " There was a
hospital and chapel, dedicated to St Paul, in Edinburgh ; aud there was in the chapel an altar and chaplainry consecrated
to the Virgin ; of which Sir William Knolls, the preceptor of Torphiohen, claimed the patronage before the Privy Council,
in 1495."— Parl. Bee. 472. Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 471. 8 Maitland, pp. 468-9.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS 353

of people."1 Tliis manufacturing speculation, though devised for benevolent purposes,
entirely failed, and dissipated the whole revenues of the older foundation. We next find
it converted into an Hospital for the wounded soldiers of General Leslie's army, during
the skirmishing that preceded his total defeat at Dunbar ; 2 and thereafter it reached its
final degradation as a penal workhouse or bridewell, in which capacity it is referred to in
the " Heart of Midlothian." The building was decorated with the city arms, and sundry
other rudely sculptured devices on the pediments of the dormer windows that appear in
our view, and over the doorway was inscribed the pious aspiration : — GOD • BLIS • THIS •
WARK • with the date 1619.

Beyond this lies the district of Calton,3 which had for its superiors the Lords Balmeri-
noch, until the Common Council purchased the superiority of it from the last representative
of that noble family, who perished on the block in 1 746. The first Lord Balmerinoch was
made the scapegoat of his royal master James VI., on the Secretary Cecil producing a
letter to the Council, which his Majesty had written to the Pope, Clement VIII. , with the
view of smoothing his accession to the English throne. Lord Balmerinoch was accused as
the author of the letter, and sent prisoner to Edinburgh, "with the people of which place,"
says Scott of Scotstarvit, " he was little favoured, because he had acquired many lands
about the town, so that John Henderson, the bailie, forced him to light off his horse at
the foot of Leith Wyud, albeit he had the rose in his leg, and was very unable to walk,
till he came to the prison house." He was condemned to be beheaded, but was soon after
permitted to retire to his own house, the whole being a mere ruse to cover the King's
double dealing. The last Lord presented the Old Calton Burying Ground to his vassals,
as a place of sepulture, and it is said offered them the whole hill for £40. This district,
however, must have existed long before King James bestowed that title on his favourite,
as the last remains of an. ancient chapel, dedicated to St Ninian were swept away in 1814,
in clearing the site for the west pier of the Regent Bridge. Only the crypt, or vaulted
ground story, remained at the time of its demolition ; but " the baptismal font," as Arnot
styles it, or more probably the holy-water stoup, was removed by Mr Walter Ross in 1778,
to the curious Gothic tower built by him at Dean Haugh. It consists of a neatly sculp-
tured bason, forming the base of a Gothic niche, and surmounted by an elegant Gothic
canopy, and now forms one of the heterogeneous decorations collected by Sir Walter Scott
for his mansion at Abbotsford. Nothing is known either of the founders or the date of
erection of St Ninian's Chapel. The neighbouring Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity
was dedicated, in the charter of foundation, " For the praise and honour of the Holy
Trinity, of the ever-blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, of St Ninian the Confessor, and of
all saints and elect of God." * The chapel appears, however, to have been a dependency
of the Abbey of Holyrood, from different notices of it that occur in licences granted by
the Abbots to the Corporations of the Canongate, for founding and maintaining altars
in the Abbey Church. In a licence granted in 1554, by Robert Stewart, Abbot of
Holyrood, " for augmentatioun of dyuiue seruice at ane alter to be biggit within our sayd
abbay, quhare Sauct Crispine and Crispiniane yer patronis sail stand;" it is added,

1 Calderwood, vol. vii. p. 458. 2 Niooll's Diary, p. 23.

8 " Calton, or Caldoun, is admitted to be the hill covered with bushes." — Dalrymple's Annals, vol. i. p. 96.
4 Charter of Foundation, Maitlaud, p. 207.

354 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

" And als it is our will yat ye cordinaris dwellaud within our regalite, . . . besyde our
chapell of Sanct Niniane, outwith Sanct Androws Port besyde Edinburcht, be in brether-
heid and fallowschipe with ye said dekin and masteris of ye said Cordinar crauft." 1 The
main street of the Barony of Calton, derived from this ancient chapel the name of St
Ninian's Row, and although this had been superseded by common consent of late years,
there still remains carved on the west side of the large old well the name and date, ST
NINIAN'S Row, 1752; while on the lintel of the east doorway is cut " CRAIG END," the
term by which the High Calton was known of old. Here also is the boundary of South
Leith Parish, in proof of which there might recently be seen carved and gilded in raised
letters on a beam under the north-west gallery of St Mary's Church, Leith, " FOR THE
CRAIG END, 1652." The engraving of St Ninian's Row will serve to convey some idea
of the picturesque range of edifices dedicated of old to the Confessor, and swept away
by the recent operations of the North British Railway. They were altogether of a humble
character, and appear to have very early received a more appropriate dedication as
" The Beggar Row." One stone tenement, which seemed to lay claim to somewhat
higher pretensions than its frail lath and plaster neighbours, owed its origin to the
temporary prosperity of the vassals of St Crispin in this little barony. An ornamental
panel graced the front of its projecting staircase, decorated with the Shoemakers'
arms, surrounded with a richly sculptured border, and bearing the pious motto : — GOD

BLISS THEM CORDINERS OF EDINBURGH, WHA BUILT THIS HOUSE. It Was Sacrificed, WC

presume, in the general ruin of the Cordiners of Canongate and its dependencies. In
Sempill of Beltrees' curious poem, " The Banishment of Poverty," already referred to,
the author and his travelling companion, the Genius of Poverty, make for this locality
as the best suited for such wayfarers : —

We held the Long-gate to Leith Wyne,

Where poorest purses used to be ;
And in the Caltown lodged syne.

Fit quarters for such companie.

Such was its state in 1680, when it formed one of the chief thoroughfares to the city,
and the road which led by the ancient Burgh of Broughton to the neighbouring seaport.
The principal approach to Leith, however, continued for nearly a century after this to be
by the Eastern Road, through the Water Gate ; and the present broad and handsome
thoroughfare, which still retains the name of Leith Walk, was then simply an elevated
gravel path. The origin of this valuable modern improvement is strangely traceable to one
of the most disastrous campaigns of the seventeenth century. During the manoeuvrings
of the Scottish army under their Covenanting leader, General Leslie, in 1650, previous to
the battle of Dunbar, the whole forces were drawn up for a time in the open plain between
Edinburgh and Leith, and a line of defence constructed by means o'f a redoubt on the
Calton Hill, and another at Leith, with a trench and parapet extending between them.
The position was admirably adapted both for the defence of the towns and the security of
the army, so long as the latter remained on the defensive ; but the superior tactics of

1 Liber Cartarum, App. p. 291. This, it will be observed, is an earlier notice of the Cordiners of Canongate than
that referred to on p. 291. The Hall of the Cordiners of Calton was only demolished in 1845, for the site of the North
British Railway Station.

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 355

Cromwell soon drew General Leslie's forces out of their secure position, and tempted them
to follow to their own destruction. The mound thus thrown up between the two towns
was gradually improved into a pleasant footpath. Defoe remarks in 1748 — Leith Wynd
" leads north into a suburb called the Calton ; from whence there is a very handsome
gravel-walk twenty feet broad, continued to the town of Leith, which is kept in good
repair at the public charge, and no horses suffered to come upon it." 1 Thus it continued
till the opening of the North Bridge in 1772, when it seems to have been adopted as a
carriage-road, with very little provision for its security or maintenance. It has since been
converted, at great expense, into one of the broadest and most substantial roadways in the
kingdom, along which handsome streets and squares are now laid out, destined, when com-
pleted, to unite the capital and its seaport into one great city ; but it still retains, in its
name of Leith Walk, a memento of the period when it was carefully guarded for the
exclusive use of pedestrian travellers. About half-way between Edinburgh and Leith, on
the west side of the Walk, is the site of the Gallow-Lee, once a rising ground, whose
summit was decorated with the hideous apparatus of public execution, permanently erected
there for the exposure of the mangled limbs of notorious culprits or political offenders.
This accursed Golgotha, however, has been literally carted away, to convert the fine sand,
of which it chiefly consisted, into mortar for the builders of the New Town ; and the for-
saken sand-pit now blooms with the rarest exotics and the fresh tints of nursling trees,
the whole ground being laid out as a nursery. The rising ground called Heriot's Hill,
which lies immediately to the north of the nursery, serves to show the former height of the
Gallow-Lee. When the surrounding ground was unoccupied, and the whole area of the
New Town lying in open fields, the lonely gibbet with its loathsome burden must have
formed a prominent object from a considerable distance on every side — a moral lesson, as
our forefathers conceived, of great value in the suburban landscape !

1 Defoe's Tour, vol. iv. p. 86.

CHAPTER X.

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN.

rPHE history and antiquities of the ancient
burgh of Leith are much too intimately
connected with the Scottish capital to admit of
their being overlooked among its venerable me-
morials. The earliest notice of Leith occurs in
the original charter of Holyrood Abbey, where
it is mentioned among the gifts bestowed by
Saint David on his royal foundation, under the
name of Inverleith. Little, however, is known
of its history until the year 1329, when the
citizens of Edinburgh obtained from King
Robert I. a grant of the Harbour and Mills of
Leith, for the payment of fifty-two merks yearly.
From that period almost to our day it has
remained as a vassal of Edinburgh, not incor-
porated, like the Canongate, by amicable relations and the beneficent fruits of a paternal
sway, but watched with a spirit of mean jealousy that seemed ever to dread the step-child
becoming a formidable rival. It bore a share in all the disasters that befell its jealous
neighbour, without partaking of its more prosperous fortunes, until the Burgh Reform
Bill of 1833 at length freed it from this slavish vassalage, that proved in its operations
alike injurious to the Capital and its Port. The position it occupied, and the share it had
in the successive struggles that exercised so marked an influence on the history of Edin-
burgh, have already been sufficiently detailed in the introductory sketch. It suffered
nearly as much from the invading armies of Henry VIII. as Edinburgh ; while in the
bloody feuds between the Congregation and the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, and the no
less bitter strife of the Douglas wars, it was dragged unwillingly into their quarrels, and
compelled to bear the brunt of its more powerful neighbour's wrath.

In the reign of Alexander III. it belonged to the Leiths, a family who owned exten-
sive possessions in Midlothian, including the lands of Restalrig, and took their patri-
monial surname from the town. About the commencement of the fourteenth century
these possessions passed by marriage to the Logans, the remains of whose ancient strong-

VIONKTTE— Arms, Vinegar Close, Leith.

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 357

hold still frowns above the crag that rises from the eastern Lank of Lochend; and after
the royal grant of the Harbour to the Town of Edinburgh by Robert I., Sir Robert
Logan of Restalrig, Knight, the baronial lord of Leith, appears as a successful competitor
with the magistrates of Edinburgh for the right of road-way and other privileges claimed
by virtue of the royal grant. The estate of Restalrig extended from the outskirts of the
Canongate to the Water of Leith, including the Calton, or Wester Restalrig, as it was
styled ; but Logan was easily induced to sell the rights of his unfortunate vassals to their
jealous rivals. The Logans, however, continued long afterwards to possess nearly the
whole surrounding property, and thereby to maintain their influence and superiority in
the burgh, where they appear to have always had their town mansion. The following
allusion to it, in the reign of Queen Mary, by a contemporary, shows its dignity and
importance, at a period when a greater number of the nobility and higher clergy were
residing in Leith than had ever been at any earlier date. " Vpoun the xviij of May 1572,
thair come to Leith ane ambassatour fra the King of France, nameit Monsieur Lacrok, a
man of good knawlege, to intreat for peace betuix the pairties ; at the quhilk tyme of
his entrie, the haill inhabitaris and remanaris within the burgh of Edinburgh wer in thair
armour wpone the fieldis in sicht of thair aduersaris, quha dischargit fyve peices of
artailzerie at thame, and did na skaith. Vpoun the xxj day, the foirnameit ambassatour
come to Edinburgh Castell, met be George Lord Seytoun, at quhais entrie certane
mvnitoun wes dischargit ; quha past the same nycht to Leith agane, and lugeit in Mr
Johne Loganes lugeing thair."1 The whole possessions of this ancient family were at
length forfeited in the reign of James VI. by the turbulent baron, Robert Logan of
Restalrig, being involved in the Gowrie conspiracy; though his share in that mysterious
plot was not discovered till he was in his grave. The forfeited estates were transferred to
the Elphinstons of Balmerinoch, new favourites who were rising to wealth and power on
the spoils of the church and the ruin of its adherents.

One of the descendants of the barons of Restalrig appears to have retrieved in some
degree the failing fortunes of the family by a gallant coup-de-main, achieved against a
host of opponents. A gentleman in Leith has now in his possession the marriage-con-
tract between Logan and Isabella Fowler, an heiress whom tradition affirms to have
been the celebrated Tibbie Fowler o1 the glen, renowned in Scottish song, whose penny
siller proved so tempting a bait that the lady's choice involved the defeat of forty dis-
appointed wooers ! With Tibbie's siller he appears to have built himself a handsome
mansion at the head of the Sheriff Brae, which was demolished some years since to
make way for the Church and Alms Houses erected by Sir John Gladstone of Fasque,
Bart. It was decorated with a series of sculptured dormer windows, one of which bore
the initials I. L., with the date 1636.2

Among the antiquities of Leith, as might be anticipated, there are none of so early a
character as those we have described in the ancient capital. Its ecclesiastical establish-
ments apparently claim no existence prior to the fifteenth century ; while the oldest date
we have found on any private building is 1573. It is nevertheless a quaint, old-fashioned

1 Diurnal of Occurrenta, p. 263.

2 Campbell's Hist, of Leith, p. 315. Oeorije, grandson of Robert Logan, who was forfeited, married Isabel Fowler,
daughter to Ludovick Fowler of Burncastle. — Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. i.p. 202.

358 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

looking burgh, full of crooked alleys, and rambling narrow wynds, scattered about in the
most irregular and lawless fashion, and happily innocent as yet of the refinements of an
Improvements' Commission ; though the more gradual operations of time and changing
tastes have swept away many curious features of the olden time. There is indeed an air
of substantial business-like bustle and activity about its narrow unpretending thorough-
fares, and dingy-looking counting-houses, that strangely contrasts with the gaudy finery
of New Town trading. The London fopperies of huge plate-glass windows, and sculptured
and decorated shop fronts, so much in vogue there, are nearly unknown among the
burghers of Leith. The dealers are too busy about more important matters to trouble
themselves with these new-fangled extravagancies, while their customers are much too
knowing to be attracted by any such showy baits. The contrast indeed between the
Scottish Capital and its Port is even more marked than that which distinguishes the
courtly west end of London from its plebeian Wapping or White Chapel, and is probably,
in all the most substantial sources of difference, in favour of the busy little burgh : whose
merchants conduct a large and important share of the trade of the North of Europe in
their unpretending little boothies, while the shopkeeper of the neighbouring city magnifies
the petty details transacted over his well-polished mahogany counter, and writes himself
down merchant accordingly.1

The principal street of Leith is the Kirkgate, a broad and somewhat stately thorough-
fare, according to the prevalent proportions among the lanes and alleys of this close-packed
little burgh. Time and modern taste have slowly, but very effectually, modified its antique
features. No timber-fronted gable now thrusts its picturesque facade with careless grace
beyond the line of more staid and formal-looking ashlar fronts. Even the crow-stepped
gables of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are becoming the exception ; and it is
only by the irregularity which still pertains to it, aided by the few really antique tenements
that remain unaltered, that it now attracts the notice of the curious visitor as the genuine
remains of the ancient High Street of the burgh. Some of these relics of former times are
well worthy the notice of the antiquary, while memorials of still earlier fabrics here and
there meet the eye, and carry back the imagination to those stirring scenes in the history
of this locality, when the Queen Regent and her courtiers and allies made it their strong-
hold and chosen place of abode ; or when, amid a more peaceful array, the fair Scottish
Queen Mary, or the sumptuous Anne of Denmark, rode gaily through the street on their
way to Holyrood. At the south-east angle of the old churchyard, one of these memorials
meets the eye in the shape of an elegant Gothic pediment surmounting the boundary wall,
and adorned with the Scottish Regalia, sculptured in high relief, with the initials J. R. 6 ;
while a large panel below bears the Royal Arms and initials of Charles II., very boldly
executed. These insignia of royalty are intended to mark the spot on which King James's
H ispital stood — a benevolent foundation which owed no more to the royal patron whose
name it bore, than the confirmation by his charter in 1641 of a portion of those revenues
that had been long before bestowed by the piety of private donors on the hospital of St
Anthony, and the imposition of a duty on all wine brought into the port for the augmen-
tation of its reduced funds. Here certain poor women were maintained, being presented

1 The description given above, to a great extent, no longer applies, as the town has so rapidly extended as to be now
part of the City, and is also not behind its great neighbour in the wealth of imposing shop fronts.

LEITH AND THE NEW TOWN. 3S9

thereto by the United Corporations of Leith, exclusive of that of the Manners, the wealthiest
and most numerous class of privileged citizens, whose Hospital, dedicated to the Holy
Trinity, stood directly opposite to St Mary's Church, on the site now occupied by the
Trinity House. The inscription which adorned the ancient edifice is built into the south
wall of the new building at the corner of St Giles' Street, cut in large and highly orna-
mental antique characters— IN THE NAME OF THE LOKD VE MASTEBIS AND MARENELIS
BYLIS THIS HOVS TO YE PovR. ANNO DOMINI 1555. The date of this foundation is
curious. Its dedication implies that it originated with the adherents of the ancient faith,
while the date of the old inscription indicates the very period when the Queen Regent
assumed the reins of government. That same year John Knox landed at Leith on°his
return from exile; and only three years later, the last convocation of the Roman Catholic
clergy that ever assembled in Scotland under the sanction of its laws, was held in the
Blackfriars' Church at Edinburgh, and signalised its final session by proscribing Sir David
Lindsay's writings, and enacting that his " buik should be abolished and brunt."

To the east of the Trinity House, on the north side of the Kirkgate, a very singular
building fronts the main street at the head of Combe's Close. The upper stories appear
to have been erected about the end of the sixteenth century, and form rather a neat and
picturesque specimen of the private buildings of that period. But the ground floor pre-
sents different and altogether dissimilar features. An arcade extends along nearly the
whole front, formed of semicircular arches resting on massive round pillars, finished with
neat moulded capitals. Their appearance is such that even an experienced antiquary,
if altogether ignorant of the history of the locality, would at once pronounce them to be
early and very interesting Norman remains. That they are of considerable antiquity
cannot be doubted. The floor of the house is now several feet below the level of the
street ; and the ground has risen so much within one of them, which is an open archway
giving access to the court behind, that a man of ordinary stature has to stoop considerably
in attempting to pass through it. No evidence is more incontrovertible as to the great
age of a building than this. Other instances of a similar mode of construction0 are,
however, to be found in Leith, tending to show that the style of architecture is not a safe
criterion of the date of their erection. The most remarkable of these is an ancient edifice
in the Sheep's Head Wyud, the ground floor of which is formed of arches constructed
in the same very early style, though somewhat plainer and less massive in character,
while over the doorway of the projecting staircase is cut in ornamental characters the
initials and date, D. W., M. W., 1579. The edifice, though small and greatly dilapidated,
is ornamented with string courses and mouldings, and retains the evidences of former
grandeur amid its degradation and decay.1 Maitland refers to another building, still
standing at the north-west comer of Queen Street, which, in his day, had its lower 'story
in the form of an open piazza, but modern alterations have completely concealed this
»i unique feature. Here was the exchange or meeting-place of the merchants and traders
of Leith for the transaction of business, as was indicated by the popular name of the
Burss— evidently a corruption of the French terra Bourse— \>y which it was generally
known at a very recent period. The arches in the Kirkgate have also been closed up and

> This tenement is erroneously pointed out in Campbell's History of Leith as bearing the earliest date on any private
edifice m the town. * "

36o MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

converted into shops of late years, but not so effectually as to conceal their character,
which is deserving of special notice as a peculiar and very characteristic feature in the
domestic architecture of the town. Returning, however, to the ancient edifices of the
Kirkgate, we must refer the reader to the view already given of one which was only
demolished in 1845, and which, from its appearance, was undoubtedly one of the oldest
private buildings in Leith.1 Popular fame, as was mentioned before, assigned its erection
to Mary of Guise. The value to be attached to such traditional associations may be
inferred from a remark in the moat recent history of Leith :— " Were we to give credit to
all the traditionary information we have received, Mary of Lorraine would appear to have
had in Leith not one place of residence, but at least a score, there being scarcely an old
house in the town without its claims to the honour of having been the habitation of
the Queen Regent. The mortification, therefore, which certainly awaits him who sets
out on an antiquarian excursion through Leith, particularly if the house of that illus-
trious personage be the object of his pursuit, will not proceed from any difficulty in
discovering the former residence of her Majesty, but in the much more puzzling cir-
cumstance of finding by far too many ; — in short, that nearly all the existing antiquities
of Leith are fairly divided between Cromwell and Queen Mary, between whom there would
seem to have been a sort of partnership in building houses. As might naturally be
expected from this association, her Majesty and the Protector would appear to have lived
on the most sociable footing. We have in more than one instance found them residing
under one roof, Queen Mary occupying probably the first floor, and Cromwell living
up-stairs." 2 Such popular aptitude in the coining of traditions is by no means con-
fined to Leith ; but the antiquary may escape all further trouble in searching for the
Queen's mansion by consulting Maitland, who remarks, " that Mary of Lorraine having
chosen Leith for her residence, erected a house to dwell in at the corner of Quality Street
Wynd in the Rotten Row," now known as Water Lane, " but the same being taken down
and rebuilt, the Scottish Arms which were in the front thereof are erected in the wall
of a house opposite thereto on the southern side ; and the said Mary, for the convenience
of holding councils, erected a handsome and spacious edifice for her Privy Council to
meet in." 3 The curious visitor will look in vain now even for the sculptured arms
that escaped the general destruction of the ancient edifice wherein the Queen Regent.
Mary of Guise, spent the last years of her life, embittered by the strife of factions and
the horrors of civil war ; — an ominous preparative for her unfortunate daughter's assump-
tion of the sceptre, which was then wielded in her name. One royal abode, however, still
remains — if tradition is to be trusted — and forms a feature of peculiar interest among
the antiquities of the Kirkgate. Entering by a low and narrow archway immediately
behind the buildings on the east side, and about half way between Charlotte Street
and Coatfield Lane, the visitor finds himself in a singular-looking, irregular little court,
retaining unequivocal marks of former magnificence. A projecting staircase is thrust
obliquely into the narrow space, and adapts itself to the irregular sides of the court by
sundry corbels and recesses, such as form the most characteristic features of our old
Scottish domestic architecture, and might almost seem to a fanciful imagination to have
been produced as it jostled itself into the straitened site. A richly decorated dormer

1 Ante, p. 54. Abridged from Campbell's History of Leith, p. 312. '•' Maitland, p. 496.

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 361

window forms the chief ornament of this portion of the building, finished with unusually
fine Elizabethan work, and surmounted by a coronet and thistle, with the letter C. Behind
this a simple square tower rises to a considerable height, finished with a bartizaned roof,
apparently designed for commanding an extensive view. Such is the approach to the sole
remaining abode of royalty in this ancient burgh. The straitened access, however, conveys
a very false idea of the accommodation within. It is a large and elegant mansion, pre-
senting its main front to the east, where an extensive piece of garden ground is enclosed,
reaching nearly to the site of the ancient town walls ; from whence, it is probable, there
was formerly an opening to the neighbouring downs. The east front appears to have been
considerably modernised. Its most striking feature is a curiously decorated doorway,
finished in the ornate style of bastard Gothic, introduced in the reign of James VI. An
ogee arch, filled with rich Gothic tracery, surmounts the square lintel, finished with a lion's
head, which seems to hold the arch suspended in its mouth ; and on either side is a sculp-
tured shield, on one of which a monogram is cut, characterised by the usual inexplicable
ingenuity of these quaint riddles, and with the date 1631. l Here, according to early and
credible tradition, was the mansion of John, third Lord Balmerinoch, where he received
the young King, Charles II., on his arrival at Leith on the 29th July 1650, to review the
Scottish army, which then lay encamped on the neighbouring links, numbering above forty
thousand men. Charles having failed in obtaining the Scottish Crown on his own terms,
notwithstanding his being proclaimed King at the Cross of Edinburgh on the execution of
Charles I., had now agreed to receive it with all devout solemnity on the terms dictated
\>y the Presbyterian royalists, as a covenanted King. He proceeded from Leith on Friday,
2nd August, and rode in state to the capital of his ancestors, amid the noisiest demonstrations
of welcome from the fickle populace. From the Castle, where he was received with a royal
salute, he walked on foot to the Parliament House, to partake of a banquet provided for
him at the expense of the City, and from thence he returned the same evening to my Lord
Balmerinoch's House at Leith.

We have furnished a view of the fine old building at the Coalhill, near the harbour,
which is believed to have been " the handsome and spacious edifice" erected by the Queen
Regent for the meeting of her council. It is a large and stately fabric, and presents
numerous evidences of former magnificence in its internal decorations. The tradition is
confirmed by further evidence ; as a small and mean-looking little court behind, though
abandoned probably for considerably more than a century to the occupation of the very
poorest and most squalid of the population, still retains the imposing title of the Parlia-
ment Square. The whole of the buildings that enclose this dignified area abound with
the dilapidated relics of costly internal adornment ; some large and very fine specimens
of oak carving were removed from it a few years since, and even a beautifully carved

1 The arms on the secoud shield do not support the tradition, as they are neither those of Lord Balineriuoch, nor of
his ancestor, James Elphinstone, Lord Coupar, to whom the coroueted C might otherwise have been supposed to refer.
The Earls of Crawford are also known to have had a mansion in Leith, but the arms in no degree correspond with those
borne by any of these families. They are — quarterly, 1st and 4th, the Royal Arms of Scotland ; 2nd and 3rd, a ship
with sails furled ; over all, on a shield of pretence, a Cheveron. As, however, the house appears by the date to have
been built nineteen years before the visit of Charles to Leith, and the period was one when forfeiture and ruin compelled
many noble families to abandon their possessions, it is still possible that the tradition may be trustworthy, which assigns
it as the mansion of Lord Balnierinuch, and the lodging of the Merry Monarch.

362 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

old oaken chair remaiue;! till recently au heirloom, bequeathed by its patrician occupants
to the humble tenants of their degraded dwellings. A recent writer on the antiquities
of Lcith, conceives it probable that this may have been the residence of the Regent
Lennox ; but we have been baffled in our attempts to arrive at any certain evidence
on the subject by reference to the titles. " Mary," says Maitland, " having begun
to build in the town of Leith, was followed therein by divers of the nobility, bishops,
and other persons of distinction of her party ; several of whose houses are still remaining,
as may be seen in sundry places, by their spacious rooms, lofty ceilings, large staircases,
and private oratories or chapels for the celebration of mass." Beyond the probable
evidence afforded by such remains of decaying splendour and former wealth, nothing
more can now be ascertained. The occupation of Leith by nobles and dignitaries of
the Church was of a temporary nature, and under circumstances little calculated to
induce them to leave many durable memorials of their presence. A general glance, there-
fore, at such noticeable features as still remain, will suffice to complete our survey of the
ancient seaport.

The earliest date that we have discovered on any of the old private buildings of the
burgh, occurs on the projecting turnpike of an antique tenement at the foot of Burgess
Close, which bears this inscription on the lintel, in Roman characters : — NISI DNS FRUSTRA,
1573. This ancient alley is the earliest thoroughfare in the burgh of which we have
any account. It was granted to the burgesses of Edinburgh, towards the close of the
fourteenth century, by Logan of Restalrig, the baronial over-lord of Leith, before it
acquired the dignity of a royal burgh, and the owner of nearly all the lauds that extended
along the banks of the harbour of Leith. We are led to infer from the straitened propor-
tions of this narrow alley, that the whole exports and imports of the shipping of Leith were
conveyed on pack-horses or in wheel-barrows, as it would certainly prove impassable for
any larger wheeled conveyance. Its inconvenience, however, appears to have been felt at
the time, and the Laird of Restalrig was speedily compelled to grant a more commodious
access to the shore. The inscription which now graces this venerable thoroughfare, though
of a date so much later than its first construction, preserves a memorial of its gifts to the
civic Council of Edinburgh, as we may reasonably ascribe to the veneration of some wealthy
merchant of the capital the inscribing over the doorway of his mansion at Leith the
very appropriate motto of the City Arms. To this, the oldest quarter of the town, indeed,
we must direct those who go " in search of the picturesque." Waters' Close, which
adjoins Burgess Close, is scarcely surpassed by any venerable alley of the capital, either in
its attractive or repulsive features. Stone and timber lands are mixed together in admired
disorder ; and one antique tenement in particular, at the corner of Water Lane, with a
broad projecting turnpike, contorted by corbels and string courses, and every variety of
convenient aberration from the perpendicular or horizontal, which the taste or whim of its
constructor could devise, is one of the most singular edifices that the artist could select as a
subject for his pencil.

The custom of afBxing sententious aphorisms to the entrances of their dwellings appears
to have pertained fully as much to the citizens of Leith as of Edinburgh. BLISSIT . BE .
GOD . OF . HIS . GIFTIS . 1601., I. W., I. H., is boldly cut on a large square panel on
the front of an old house at the head of Sheriff Brae ; and the same favourite motto

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 363

frequently occurs with slight variations. The earliest instance of it is on the front of an
ancient tenement at the head of Binnie's Close, St Giles' Street, where it is accompanied
with a large and finely cut shield, with two coats of arms impaled, and the date 1594.
Near to this, in Muckle's Close, is the following :— THE . BLISSING . OF . GOD . is . GRIT .
RICHES .M.S. 1609. In Vinegar Close, an ancient building, now greatly modernised,
is adorned with a large sculptured shield, containing the armorial bearings represented ill
the vignette at the head of the chapter. In St Andrew Street, over a window on the first
floor of a house fronting Smeaton's Close, is the common legend — THE FEIR OF THE LORD
is THE BEGINNING OF AL viSDOME ; and on the same building within the close, another
window bears the brief inscription and date: — FEIR THE LORD, 1688; the year of the
Revolution. The lintel of the ancient doorway of a house in Water Lane, demolished in
1832, bore the following pious couplet, with the date 1574 : —

THEY AR WELCOME HERE,

QUHA THE LORD DO FEIK.

«

And over another doorway in Queen Street, there is cut, in more ancient and ornamental
characters — CREDENTI . NIHIL . LINGUAE. A fine old building near the head of Queen
Street, which was only demolished a few years since, was generally believed to be the
mansion which had been honoured as the residence of the Queen Regent ; but the name
of the street, which probably suggested the tradition, is of recent origin, and superseded
the more homely one of the Paunch Market ; and there is no evidence in its favour
sufficient to overturn the statement of Maitland, who wrote at a period when there was
less temptation to invent traditions than now. The ancient tenement, however, was
evidently one of unusual magnificence. Several large portions of very richly carved oak
panelling were removed from it at the time of its demolition, the style of which leaves
little doubt of their being fully as old as the date of the Queen Regent's abode in Leith ; l
and its walls were decorated with well executed paintings, some of which are said to have
had the appearance of considerable antiquity.2 The house was highly decorated on the
exterior with sculptured dormer windows and other ornaments common to the build-
ings of the period ; and the oak window frames were richly carved in the style so
frequently described among the features of our earlier domestic architecture. Many such
are still to be met with about Leith, carved in different styles, according to the period
of their execution ; the most common ornament on those of later date being the egg and
arrow.

Frequent mention is made by early historians of the King's Work, an extensive build-
ing that appears to have occupied the whole ground between the Broad Wynd and Ber-
nard Street. The exact purpose for which it was maintained is not clearly defined in any
of the early allusions, but it probably included an arsenal, with warehouses, and resident
officials, for storing the goods and managing the revenues of the port. This idea is con-
firmed by the reddendum in the charter, by which James VI. afterwards conferred it on
a favourite attendant — viz., that he was to keep one of the cellars in the King's Work in
repair for holding wines and other provisions for his Majesty's use.3 That some funds

1 Now in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq. * Campbell's History of Leith, p. 314. " Arnot, p. 572.

364 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

were derivable from it to the Crown is proved by the frequent payments with which it was
burdened by different monarchs, as in the year 1477, when King James III. granted out
of it a perpetual annuity of twelve merks Scots, for support of a chaplain to officiate at the
altar of the upper chapel, in the Collegiate Church of the blessed Virgin Mary which he
had founded at Restalrig. The King's Work was advantageously placed at the mouth of
the harbour, so as to serve as a defence against any enemy that might approach it by sea.
That it partook of the character of a citadel or fortification, seems to be implied by an
infeftmeut granted by Queen Mary in 1564 to John Chisholme, who is there designated
comptroller of artillery. The ancient buildings had shared in the general conflagration
which signalised the departure of the army of Henry VIII. in 1544, and they would appear
to have been re-built by Chisholme in a style of substantial magnificence. The following
are the terms in which the Queen confirms her former grant to the comptroller of artillery
on his completion of the work : — " Efter hir hieiies lauchfull age, and revocation made in
parliament, hir majeste sett in feu farrne to hir lovite suitoure Johnne Chisholme, his airis
and asignais, all and haille hir landis, callet the King's Werk in Leith, within the
boundis specifit in the infeftment, maid to him thairupon, quhilkis than war alluterlie
decayit, and sensyne are reparit and reedifit be the said Johnne Chisholme, to be policy
and great decoratioun of this realme, in that oppin place and sight of all strangearis and
utheris resortand at the schore of Leith." The property of the King's Work remained
vested in the Crown, notwithstanding the terms of this royal grant. In 1575, we find it
converted into an hospital for the reception of those who recovered from the plague, and
in 1613 it was bestowed by James VI. on his favourite chamber-chield, or groom of the
chamber, Bernard Lindsay of Lochill, by a royal grant which empowered him to keep four
taverns therein. A part of it was then fitted up as a Tennis Court for the favourite
pastime of catchpel, and continued to be used for this purpose till the year 1649, when it
was taken possession of by the Magistrates of Edinburgh, and converted into the Weigh
House of the burgh. The locality retained the name of Bernard's Nook, derived from its
occupation by the royal servitor ; and that of Bernard Street, which is now conferred on
the broad thoroughfare that leads eastward from the Shore, still preserves a memorial of
the favourite chamber-chield of James VI. A large stone panel which bore the date
1650 — the. year immediately succeeding the appropriation of the King's Work to civic
purposes — appeared on the north gable of the old Weigh-house which till recently
occupied its site, with the curious device of a rainbow carved in bold relief, springing at
either end from a bank of clouds.

The chief thoroughfare which leads in the same direction, and the one we presume
which superseded the Burgess Close as the principal approach to the harbour, is the Tol-
booth Wynd, where the ancient Town Hall stood : a singularly picturesque specimen of
the tolbooth of an old Scottish burgh. It was built by the citizens of Leith in the year
1565, though not without the strenuous opposition of their jealous over-lords of the Edin-
burgh Council, who threw every impediment in their way ; until at length Queen Mary,
after repeated remonstrances, wrote to the Provost and Magistrates : — " We charge zow
that ze permit cure Inhabitants of oure said toun of Leith, to big and edifie oure said Hous
of Justice, within oure said Toun of Leith, and mak na stop nor impediment to thame to do
the samyu, for it is oure will that the samyn be biggit, and that ze disist fra further molest-

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 365

ing of them in tyme cuming as ze will anser to us thairupon." ! This royal ummlate, which
was subscribed at Holyrood Palace on the 1st of March 1563, appears to have had the
desired effect, as an ornamental tablet in the upper part of the building had the Scottish
Arms, boldly sculptured, with two unicorns for supporters, and the inscription and date in
large Roman characters— IN DEFENCE, M. R., 1565. Soon after the demolition of
the Heart of Midlothian, the doom of the ancient Tolbooth of Leith was pronounced, and
plans procured for a new court-house and prison. Great exertions were then used by
several zealous antiquaries, and particularly by Sir Walter Scott and Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe, Esq., to induce the Magistrates of Edinburgh, under whose authority the work
proceeded, to preserve the picturesque and venerable facade, while the remainder of the
building could be demolished and rebuilt according to the proposed plan. The proposition
was treated with the usual good taste of our civic reformers. A deputation who waited on
my Lord Provost to urge their petition, were cavalierly dismissed with the unanswerable
argument, that the expense of new designs had already been incurred ; and so the singular
old house of justice of Queen Mary was replaced by the commonplace erection that now
occupies its site.

Near the top of the Tolbooth Wynd, an ancient signal-tower stood, which is repre-
sented in the accompanying engraving. It was furnished with little portholes at the top,
resembling those designed for musketry in our old Border peel towers and fortalices,
but which were constructed here, we presume, for the more peaceful object of watching the
owners' merchant vessels as they entered the Firth. An unusually striking piece of sculp-
ture, in very bold relief, occupied a large panel over the archway leading into the court-
yard behind. It bore the date 1678, and, amongst sundry other antique objects, the
representation of a singularly rude specimen of mechanical ingenuity. This consisted of a
crane, the whole machinery of which was comprised in one large drum or broad wheel,
made to revolve like the wire cylinder of a squirrel's cage, by a poor labourer who occupied
the quadruped's place and clambered up, Sisyphus-like, in his endless treadmill. The per-
spective, with the grouping and proportions of the whole composition, formed altogether an
amusing and curious sample of both the mechanical and the fine arts of the seventeenth
century.

At the foot of the Tolbooth Wynd, the good Abbot Ballantyne, who presided over the
Monastery of Holyrood during the closing years of the fifteenth century, caused a hand-
some stone bridge of three arches to be erected over the Water of Leith, and soon after
its completion, he built and endowed a chapel at the north end of the bridge, and dedi-
cated it to the honour of God, the Virgin Mary, and St Ninian. The Abbot appears to
have had considerable possessions in Leith. He appointed two chaplains to officiate, who
were yearly to receive all the profits arising out of a house erected by the founder at the
southern end of the Bridge of Leith, with four pounds yearly out of his lands or tene-
ments in South Leith. In addition to the offerings made in the chapel, the tolls or duties
accruing from the new bridge were to be employed in repairing the chapel, bridge, and
tenement, and the surplus given to the poor. This charter of foundation was confirmed
by James IV. on the 1st of January 1493.2 St Ninian's Chapel was built with the consent
of the Chapter of Holyrood Abbey, and the approbation of William, Archbishop of St

1 Maitland, p. 25. ! Ibid, p. 497.

366 ME MORI A LS OF EDINB UR GH.

Andrew's ; and the ground on which it and the neighbouring tenements were erected is
styled in a charter of Queen Mary, dated 1569, " The liberty of the north side of the Water
of Leith, commonly called Rudeside : " an epithet evidently resulting from its dependency
on the Abbey of the Holyrood. St Ninian's Chapel still occupies its ancient site on the
banks of the Water of Leith, but very little of the original structure of the good Abbot
remains ; probably no more than a small portion of the basement wall on the north side,
where a small doorway appears with an elliptical arch, now built up, and partly sunk in
the ground. The remainder of the structure cannot be earlier than the close of the sixteenth
century, and the date on the steeple, which closely resembles that of the old Tron Church
destroyed in the Great Fire of 1824, is 1675. A large sculptured lintel, belonging to the
latter edifice, has been rebuilt into a more modern addition, erected apparently in the
reign of Queen Anne. It bears on it the following inscription in large Roman characters :

BLESSED . AR . THEY . YAT . HEIR . YE . VORD . OF . GOD . AND . KEEP . IT . LVK . XI . 1600.

By the charter of Queen Mary, which confirmed the rights that had been purchased by the
inhabitants from Lord Holyroodhouse, the Chapel of St Ninian was erected into a church
for the district of North Leith, and endowed with sundry annual rents, and other ecclesi-
astical property, including the neighbouring Chapel and Hospital of St Nicolas, and their
endowments. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1606, creating North Leith a separate
and independent parish, and appointing the chapel to be called in all time coming the
"parish Kirk of Leith benorth the brig."

The celebrated George Wishart — well-known as the author of the elegant Latin
memoirs of Montrose, which were suspended to the neck of the illustrious cavalier when
he was executed — was minister of this parish in the year 1638, when the signing of the
Covenant became the established test of faith and allegiance in Scotland. He was soon
afterwards deposed for refusing to subscribe, and was thrown into one of the dungeons of
the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, in consequence of the discovery of his correspondence with the
Royalists. Wishart survived the stormy revolution that followed, and shared in the sun-
shine of the Restoration. He was preferred to the See of Edinburgh on the re-establish-
ment of Episcopacy in Scotland, and died there in 1671, in his seventy-first year. He
was buried in the Abbey Church of Holyrood, where a long and flattering Latin inscrip-
tion recorded the whole biography of that Celebris doctor Sophocardius, as he is styled,
according to the scholastic punning of that age. The last minister who officiated in the
ancient Chapel of St Ninian was the benevolent and venerable Dr Johnston, the founder
of the Edinburgh Blind Asylum, who held the incumbency for upwards of half a century.
The foundation of the new parish church of North Leith had been laid so early as
1814, and at length in 1826 its venerable predecessor was finally abandoned as a place
of worship, and soon after converted into a granary. " Thus," says the historian of
Leith, with indignant pathos, " that edifice which had for upwards of 330 years been
devoted to the sacred purposes of religion, is now the unhallowed repository of pease and
barley ! "

The Hospital and Chapel of St Nicolas, with the neighbouring cemetery, were most
probably founded at a later date than Abbot Ballantyne's Chapel, as the reasons assigned
by the founder for the building of the latter seem to imply that the inhabitants were with-
out any accessible place of worship. Nothing, however, is now known of their origin, and

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 367

every vestige of them was swept away by General Monk when constructing the Citadel of
Leith, soon after Cromwell took possession of the town.1

The fortifications which were reared under the directions of the Republican General, are
thus described in the Itinerary of the learned John Ray, who visited Scotland in 1661 : —
" At Leith we saw one of those citadels, built by the Protector, one of the best fortifications
that ever we beheld, passing fair and sumptuous. There are three forts advanced above
the rest, and two platforms; the works round about are faced with freestone towards the
ditch, and are almost as high as the highest buildings within, and withal thick and sub-
stantial. Below are very pleasant, convenient, and well-built houses for the governor,
officers, and soldiers, and for magazines and stores. There is also a good capacious chapel,
the piazza, or void space within, as large as Trinity College [Cambridge] great court." This
valuable stronghold, which was reared at the cost of upwards of £100,000 sterling, fell a
sacrifice, soon after the Restoration, to the cupidity of the Monarch, and the narrow-minded
jealousy of the Town Council of Edinburgh. It was demolished, and its materials sold.2
We have given, in a previous chapter, a view of the only fragment of it that still remains ;
and have there pointed out how extensive have been the encroachments effected on the old
sea beach of late years. Not only can citizens remember when the spray of the sea billows
was dashed by the east wind against the last relic of the Citadel that now stands so remote
from the rising tide, but it is only about sixty years since a ship was wrecked upon the
adjoining beach, and went to pieces there, while its bowsprit kept beating against the
walls of the Citadel, at every surge of the rolling waves that forced it higher on the
strand.3

Of the earlier fortifications of the town of Leith scarcely a fragment now remains,
although they were unquestionably of a much more substantial nature than either of the
walls that were constructed for the defence of the neighbouring capital. The capabilities
of Leith as a stronghold, which could command a ready intercourse with friendly allies
even when assailed by a hostile army, were first perceived by Monsieur D'Esse, the French
General, who arrived in the Firth of Forth in the summer of 1548, bringing powerful
reinforcements to the aid of the Queen Regent against the English invaders.4 Under the
direction of the French General, the port of Leith was speedily enclosed within formidable
ramparts, constructed according to the most approved principles of military science then
known on the Continent ; as was proved by their successful defence during the siege of
1 560, when the ramparts reared to repel an invading army came, under the strange vicissi-
tudes of civil war, to be maintained by foreign arms against the whole native force, mus-
tered, with more alacrity than skill, by the Lords of the CONGREGATION. A large and
strong bastion, which bore the name of Ramsay's Fort, was constructed immediately to the
north of the King's Work, at the foot of Bernard Street, for the defence of the harbour ;
from thence the ramparts extended, in a south-easterly direction, to the site now occupied
by the Exchange buildings, where the remains of the second bastion existed about forty

1 Ante, p. 97.

2 " The Council unanimously understood, that the Kirk of the Citadell [of Leith], and all that is therein, both
timber, seats, steeple, stone, and glasswork, be made use of and used to the best avail for reparation of the Hospital
Chapel, and ordains the Treasurer of the Hospital to see the samen done with all convenieuoy." — Excerpt from the
records of Heriot's Hospital, April 7, 1673.

3 Campbell's Hist, of Leith, p. 303. * Aute, p. 53.

368 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

years since. These consisted of a narrow mound of earth of considerable height, which
stood on the outskirts of the open common or Links of Leith, from the top of which a
beautiful and extensive view was commanded on every side. There was an ascent to these
remains of the ancient bastion by means of a flight of stone stairs ; and from the prome-
nade being long a favourite resort on account of the view which it afforded, it was generally
known by the name of the " Lady's Walk." From this point the walls extended nearly
in a line with Constitution Street, diverging on either side towards the central bastion
of the east wall, which projected considerably beyond the others, and crossing the line
of street obliquely towards the south-west corner of St Mary's Churchyard. The chief
gate of the town was St Anthony's Port, where the walls intersected the Kirkgate ; and
beyond this point no vestige of them has remained since the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury, although they extended thence to the river, and were continued on the opposite side,
so as to enclose the more modern suburb that formed the nucleus of North Leith. No
sooner was the treaty concluded which put an end to the siege of Leith, in 1560, than the
fortifications that had been reared with so much labour and skill were ordered to be razed
to the ground ; the Council of the kingdom and the Magistrates of Edinburgh being too
keenly impressed with a sense of their mischievous effects in the hands of an enemy, to
appreciate the value of a stronghold as one of the keys of the kingdom, which had baffled
the united forces of England and Scotland to compel its surrender. The following is the
order of the Council, issued at Edinburgh the 2d July 1560, commanding their immediate
demolition : — " Forsameikle as it is noturlie knawyn how hurtful the fortifications of Leith
hes bene to this haille realme, and in specialle to the townes next adjacent thairunto, and
how prejudiciall the samen sail be to the libertie of this haille countrie in caiss straingears
sail at any tyme hereafter intruse thameselfs thairin : For thir and siclyke considerations
the counsall has thocht expedient, and chargis the provest, baillies, and counsall of Edin-
burgh, to tak order with the town and commentie of the samen, and causs and compell
thame to appoint ane sufficient nomar to cast down and demolish the south pairt of the
said town, begynand at Sanct Anthones Port, and passing westward to the Water of
Leith, making the block-hous and courteine equal with the ground." In obedience to this
order, the whole of the fortifications facing Edinburgh appear to have been immediately
levelled with the ground. Those on the east, however, remained long after nearly entire.
They are represented in a perfect state, extending uninterruptedly from Bernard's Nook
to the point of intersection at the Kirkgate, in a plan of Leith by Captain Greenville
Collins, dedicated to Sir James Fleming, who was Provost of Edinburgh in 1681 ; aud
considerable remains of them were only cleared away in opening up Constitution Street
and the neighbouring approaches about fifty years since.

To the westward of Leith lies the ancient village of Newhaven, or Our Lady'e Port of
Grace, as it was termed of old. It originated in the general impetus given to trade and
commerce during the prosperous reign of James IV. Owing to the depth of water, a yard
and dock were erected there for shipbuilding, and a harbour constructed for the reception
of vessels, from whence it received the name of Newhaven. A chapel was soon afterwards
erected, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St James : considerable remains of which
may still be traced in the ancient cemetery of the village, consisting chiefly of rude but
massive rubble walls. The jealousy of the citizens of Edinburgh, however, stepped in to

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 369

strangle in its birth the rising haven. They purchased the superiority of it from James V. ;
and the Chapel of St James, which appears to have been a dependency of the Preceptory
of St Anthony at Leith,1 being suppressed at the Reformation, it sunk into the mere
fishing village it still remains. The houses are mostly of a homely and uninteresting
character, though on one near the west end of the village a large sculptured pediment is
decorated with a pair of globes, a quadrant, anchor, &c., surmounted by a war galley of
antique form, and with the inscription and date, — IN THE NEAM OF GOD, 1588.

Notwithstanding the modern title of the New Town of Edinburgh, it- is not altogether
destitute of antique and curious associations deserving of notice in these Memorials of the
olden time. It has not yet so completely swallowed up the ancient features of the broad
landscape that stretched away of old beyond the sedgy banks of the North Loch, but that
some few mementoes of bygone times may still be gleaned amid its formal crescents and
squares. In preparing the site of the New Town and digging the foundations of the houses,
numerous very curious relics of the aborginal owners of the soil have been brought to light.
In the summer of 1822 an ancient grave was discovered by some workmen when digging the
foundation of a house on the west side of the Royal Circus. It position was due north and
south, which is generally regarded as a proof of high antiquity. It was lined all round with
flat stones, and the form of a skeleton was still discernable when opened, lying with the
head to the south ; but the whole crumbled to dust so soon as it was touched. During the
following year, 1823, several rude stone coffins were disclosed in digging the foundation
of a house on the north side of Saxe-Coburg Place, near St Bernard's Chapel ; one of which
contained two urns of baked clay, now preserved in the Museum of the Society of Anti-
quaries. This was, in all probability, a burial-place of the period when the Romans had
penetrated thus far northward ; and the Britons, in imitation of their example, adopted the
practice of cremation, while they adhered to the ancient form of their sepulchres. A
minute account is printed in the Archteologia Scotica2 of the discovery, in 1822, of a num-
ber of stone coffins near the ancient Roman station at Cramond. They were of rude con-
struction, and laid in regular rows, lying due east and west. A representation is also given
of a key found in one of the coffins, not greatly differing in shape from those now in use.
No mention, however, is made of urns, and it is probable that they belong to a more recent
period, after the introduction of Christianity among the ancient Britons. Other stone
coffins were discovered about the same time immediately opposite to St Mary's Church,
in levelling the ground for the New Road ; 3 and similar evidences of the occupation of the
district by native tribes at a very remote period are frequently met with all round Edin-
burgh. Several such were found in 1846, along the coast of Wardie, in excavating for the
foundations of one of the bridges of the Granton Railway. During some earlier operations
for the same railway, on the 27th September 1844, a silver and copper coin of Philip II.
of Spain, along with a quantity of human bones mingled with sand and shells, were dis-
covered, apparently at a former level of the beach ; and which were supposed at the time to
be a memento of some Spanish galleon of the Great Armada. Rude clay urns are also of
frequent occurrence ; several such, filled with decayed and half burned bones, and ashes

1 "Rentale Portus Gracie alias vocata lie New Havyne." — MS. Ad. Lib. Analysis of Chartularies, J. G. Dalyell, Esq.
8 Arcbseologia Scotica, vol. iii. p. 40. 3 Ibid, vol. iii. p. 48.

2 A

370 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

were exhumed in digging for the foundation of the north pier of the Dean Bridge. They
ure very slightly burned, and the ornamental devices, which have been traced on the soft
clay, bear a striking resemblance to those usually found on the fragments of ancient
pottery which have been discovered in the Tumuli of the North
American Continent. Annexed is a view of one of those discovered
at the Dean, and now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.
Another interesting feature which belongs to the history of the
New Town, in common with many other cities, is the absorption of
hamlets and villages that have sprung up at an early period in the
neighbouring country and been gradually swallowed up withiu its
extending outskirts. First among such to fall before the progress
of the rising town, was the village of Moutrie's Hill, which stood
on the site of the Register Office and James' Square, the highest

ground in the New Town. This suburban hamlet is of great antiquity, and its etymology
has been the source of some very curious research. Lord Hailes remarks on the subject,
" Moutrees is supposed to be the corruption of two Gaelic words, signifying the covert
or receptacle of the wild boar."' It appears, however, from contemporary notices, to
have derived its name from being occupied by the mansion of the Moutrays, a family of
distinction in the time of James V. A daughter of Alexander Stewart, designed of the
Grenane, an ancestor of the Earls of Galloway, who fell at the Battle of Flodden, was
married in that reign to Moutray of Seafield.2 Upon the 26th April 1572, while the
whole country around Edinburgh was a desolate and bloody waste by reason of long
protracted civil war, a party of the Regent Mar's soldiers, who had been disappointed in an
ambuscade they had laid for seizing Lord Claud Hamilton, one of the opposite leaders,
took five of their prisoners, Lieutenant White, Sergeant Smith, and three common soldiers,
and hanged them immediately on their return to Leith. The leaders of the Queen's party,
in Edinburgh, retaliated by like barbarous executions, " and causit hang the morne their-
efter twa of thair soukliouris vpoun ane trie behind Movtrays Hous, in sicht of thair
aduersaris, in lycht, quha hang ane day, and wer takin away in the nycht be the saidis
aduersaris."3 Another annalist, who styles the locality " The Multrayes in the hill besyid
the toun," adds, " The same nycht the suddartis of Leith come to the said hill and cuttit
doun the deid men, and als distroyit the growand tries thairabout, quhairon the suddartis
wer hangit. Thir warres wer callit amang the peopill the Douglass wearres."4 Near to
the scene of these barbarous acts of retaliation, on the ground now occupied by the build-
ings at the junction of Waterloo Place with Shakespeare Square,5 formerly stood an ancient
stronghold called Dingwall Castle. It is believed to have derived its name from John
Dingwall, who was Provost of the neighbouring Collegiate Foundation of Trinity College,
and one of the original Judges of the Court of Session on the spiritual side. The ruins of
the castle appear in Gordon of Rothiemay's map as a square keep with round towers at
its angles ; and some fragments of it are believed to be still extant among the founda-
tions of the buildings on its site. Near to this also there would appear to have been an

'Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 96. " Wood's Peerage, vol. i. p. 618. 3 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 262. * Ibid, p. 294.
5 Shakespeare Square, in the centre of which stood the old Theatre Royal, was removed in 1860 for the erection of
the new Post-Office.

LETTH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 371

hospital for lepers in early times, from an entry in the Council Records of 30th September
1584, where Michael Chisholm and others are commissioned to inquire into "the estait
and ordour of the awld fundatioun of the Lipper-hous besyde Dyngwall." A rural man-
sion occupied in former days the north-eastern slope of Moutrie's Hill, — a curious waif
which long survived the radical changes that had transformed the silent fields in which it
stood into long avenues of populous streets and squares. From its elevated position — on
the hill where the Queen's men hung up their adversaries as a point visible alike to Edin-
burgh and Leith — it must have commanded a magnificent prospect of the Lothians and
Fifeshire, with the Forth, the German Ocean, and the Highland Hills. Now it is buried
under lofty tenements, in one of the most populous districts of the New Town, and with
miles of streets and houses on every side interposing between it and the distant country.
This nucleus of the New Town was not, however, the oldest building it contained. A
small fragment of an ancient thoroughfare on the west side of the Register Office till
lately bore the name of Gabriel's Road, although it had been closed for many years, and
reduced to a mere passage leading to one or two private dwellings ; a New Town close,
in fact, somewhat worse than many of its defamed precursors of the Old Town. This
mean-looking alley was the remains of a country road, along which some venerable citizens
still remember to have wended their way between green hedges that skirted the pleasant
meadows and corn fields of Wood's farm, and which was in days of yore a favourite
trystiug-place for lovers, where they breathed out their tender tale of passion beneath the
fragrant hawthorn. It led in an oblique direction towards the ancient village of Silver-
mills, and its course is still indicated by the irregular slant of the garden walls that
separate the little plots behind Duke Street from the East Queen Street garden.

When James Craig, the architect, a nephew of the poet Thomson, published his
engraved plan of the new city, which had been selected as the best from a host of
competing designs, he appended to it the following lines from his uncle's poem : —

August, around, what Public Works I see !

Ijo, stately streets ! lo, squares that court the breeze !

See long canals and deepened rivers join

Each part with each, and with the circling main,

The whole enliveu'd Isle.

The regular array of formal parallelograms thus sketched out for the future city, was
received by the denizens of the Old Town with raptures of applause. Pent up in narrow
and crooked wynds, its broad, straight avenues, seemed the beau ideal of perfection, and
the more sanguine of them panted to see the magnificent design realised. Some echo of
their enthusiastic admiration still lingers among us, but it waxes feeble and indistinct.
The most hearty contemners of the dingy, smoky Old Town, now admit that neither the
formal plan nor the architectural designs of the New Town, evince much intellect or in-
ventive genius in their contriver ; and, perhaps, even a professed antiquary may venture
to hint at the wisdom of our ancestors, who carried their road obliquely down the steep
northern slope, from Moutrie's Hill to Silvermills, instead of devising the abrupt pre-
cipitous descent from where the statue of George IV. now stands to the foot of Pitt
Street ; a steep which strikes a stranger with awe, not unmingled with fear, on his first

372

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

approach to our " Modern Athens " from the neighbouring coast. When, some two or
three centuries hence, the New Town shall have ripened into fruit for some twenty-second
century Improvements Commission, their first scheme will probably lead to the restoration
of Gabriel's Road, and its counterpart from Charlotte Square to Pitt Street, marking the
saltier of Scotland's patron saint on the antiquated parallelograms of James Craig !

The village of Silvermills, the remains of which lie concealed behind St Stephen's
Church and the modern streets that surround it, may not improbably owe its origin to
some of the alchemical projects of James IV. or V., both of whom were greatly addicted
to the royal sport of hunting for the precious metals, with which the soil of Scotland was
then believed to abound. Sir Archibald Napier, the father of the philosopher, was
appointed Master of the Mint and superintendent of the mines and minerals within the
kingdom ; and we are assured, on the authority of an ancient manuscript in the Cotton
Library, that "The Laird of Merchiston got gold in Pentland Hills."1 The village of
Silvermills consists almost entirely of a colony of tanners, but one or two of its houses
present the crow-stepped gables of the seventeenth century; and though now enclosed
within the extended town, we can remember many a Saturday's ramble through green
fields that ended at this rural hamlet.

Another and more important village, which has experienced the same fate as that of
Silvermills, is the ancient baronial burgh of Broughtou. Its name occurs in the charter
of foundation of Holyrood Abbey, granted by David I. in 1128, and implies, according to
Maitland, the Castle town. If it ever possessed a fortalice or keep, from whence its name
was derived, all vestiges of it had disappeared centuries before its fields were invaded by
the extending capital. The Tolbooth, however, wherein the baron's courts were held, and

oifenders secured to abide his judg-
ment, or to endure its penalties,
stood within these few years near
the centre of the old village, bearing
over its north door the date 1582.
Its broad flight of steps was appro-
priately flanked with a venerable
pair of stocks ; a symbol of justice
of rare occurrence in Scotland,
where the jougs were the usual and
more national mode of pillory. The
annexed vignette will suffice to
convey some idea of this antique
structure, which stood nearly in the

centre of the New Town, on the ground now occupied by the east end of Barony Street,
from whence it was only removed with all its paraphernalia of obsolete manners and
laws in the year 1829. The curious rambler may still stumble on one or two of the
humble tenements of the old village, lying concealed among the back lanes of the modern
town. A few years since, its rows of tiled and thatched cottages, with their rude fore-

II iscellane Seotica, Napier of Merchiston, p. 228.
VIGNETTE— The Tolbooth, Broughton.

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 373

stairs and loop-hole windows, contrasted most strangely with the adjoining fashionable
streets and squares.

This ancient barony and the surrounding lands comprehended within its jurisdiction
were granted by James VI. in 1568 to Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, in whose time
the Tolbooth of the burgh appears to have been erected. The bishop surrendered the lands
to the Crown in 1587, in favour of Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnoul, Lord Justice-Clerk ;
who obtained a charter from the king uniting them into a free barony and regality. Brough-
ton is reputed to have been notorious in old times as the haunt of witches, who were fre-
quently incarcerated in its Tolbooth. An execution of these victims of superstition, which
occurred there under peculiarly horrible circumstances, during the period of its possession
by the Bellendens, is thus noticed in the minutes of the Scottish Privy Council: — " 1608,
December 1. — The Earl of Mar declared to the Council that some women were taken in
Broughton as witches, and being put to an assize, and convicted, albeit they persevered
constant in their denial to the end, yet they were burned quick, after such a cruel manner
that some of them died in despair, renouncing and blaspheming [God] ; and others, half-
burned, brak out of the fire, and were cast quick in it again, till they were burned to the
death."1 Sir William Bellenden, the grandson of Sir Lewis, disposed of the whole lands
to Kobert, Earl of Roxburgh, in 1627, and by an agreement between him and Charles I.,
this ancient barony passed by purchase to the Governors of Heriot's Hospital in 1636, to
whom the superiority of Broughton was yielded by the Crown, partly in payment of
debts due by Charles I. to the Hospital. Thenceforward the barony was governed by
a bailiff nominated by the Governors of the Hospital, who possessed even the power
of life and death, the privilege of pit and gallons, which every feudal baron claimed
within his own bounds. In 1721, the Treasurer of the Hospital complains of the expense
incurred in prosecuting offenders in the case of some murders committed within the
regality ; but these onerous and costly privileges were at length abrogated in 1746, by the
act abolishing heritable jurisdictions, and the Governors a few years afterwards granted
the use of the Tolbooth to one of their tenants as a store-house, " reserving to the Hospital
a room for holding their baron courts when they shall think fit."2 The last occasion
on which Old Broughton was directly associated with any event of public importance,
was during the memorable campaign of 1650, which preceded the Battle of Dunbar,
when General Leslie made it his head-quarters, while he threw up the line of defence
from the base of the Calton Hill to Leith, which we have already described as the origin
of the great roadway that now forms the chief thoroughfare between Edinburgh and
Leith.

Beyond the village of Broughton lies that of Canonmills, on the Water of Leith, which
owes its origin to the same source as the Burgh of Canongate, having been founded by
the Augustine Canons of Holyrood, doubtless for the use of their own vassals on the lands
of Broughton, and their neighbouring possessions. Above this, on the Water of Leith,
are the villages of Stockbridge, Bell's Mills, and the Dean, all of considerable antiquity,
and now joined to the extended capital, or disappearing before the encroachments of its
modern streets. King David I. grants to the Abbey of Holyrood, in its foundation

1 Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, Sir Walter Scott, p. 315.

2 Dr Steven's History of Heriot's Hospital, pp. 118, 119.

374 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

charter, one of his mills of Dean, with the tenths of his mills of Liberton and Dean ; and
although all that now remains of the villages of Bell's Mills and the Dean are of a much
more recent date, they still retain unequivocal evidences of considerable antiquity. Dates
and inscriptions, with crow-stepped gables and other features of the 17th century, are to
be found scattered among the more modern tenements, and it was only in the year 1845
that the curious old mansion of the Dean was demolished for the purpose of converting
the Deanhaugh into a public cemetery. This was another of those fine old aristocratic
dwellings that once abounded in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, but which are now
rapidly disappearing, like all its other interesting memorials of former times. It was a
monument of the Nisbets of the Dean, a proud old race that are now extinct. They
had come to be the head of their house, as Nisbet relates with touching pathos, owing
to the failure of the Nisbets of that Ilk in his own person, and as such " laid aside the
Cheveron, a mark of cadency used formerly by the House of Dean, in regard that the
family of Dean is the only family of that name in Scotland that has right, by consent, to
represent the old original family of the name of Nisbet, since the only lineal male repre-
senter, the author of this system, is like to go soon off the world, being an old man,
and without issue male or female." The earliest notice in the minutes of Presbytery of
St Cuthberts of the purchase of a piece of family burying-ground, is by Sir William
Nisbet of Dean, in March 1645, the year of the plague. " They grantit him ane place
at the north church door, eastward, five elues of lenth, and thrie elnes of bredth." 2 It
appears to have been the piece of ground in the angle formed by the north transept and
the choir of the ancient Church of St Cuthbert ; and the vault which he erected there still
remains, surmounted with his arms ; a memorial alike of the demolished fane and the extinct
race. When we last saw it, the old oak door was broken in, and the stair that led down
to the chamber of the dead choked up with rank nettles and hemlock ; — the fittest monu-
ment that could be devised for the old Barons of the Dean, the last of them now gathered
to his fathers.

The old mansion-house had on a sculptured stone over the east doorway the date 1614,
but other parts of the building bore evident traces of an earlier date. The large gallery had
an arched ceiling, painted in the same style as one already described in Blyth's Close, some
portions of which had evidently been copied in its execution. The subjects were chiefly
-sacred, and though rudely executed in distemper, had a bold and pleasing effect when seen
as a whole. One of the panels, now in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., bears the
date 1627. The dormer windows and principal doorways were richly decorated with sculp-
tured devices, inscriptions, and armorial bearings, illustrative of the successive alliances of
its owners ; many of which have been preserved in the boundary walls of the cemetery
that now occupies its site. The most curious of these are two pieces of sculpture in basso
relievo, which surmounted two of the windows on the south front. On one of them a
judge is represented, seated on a throne, with a lamb in his arms ; in his left hand he holds
a drawn sword resting on his shoulder, and in his right hand a pair of scales. Two lions
rampant stand on 'either side, as if contending litigants for the poor lamb ; the one of them

1 Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. ii. part 4, p. 32. Alexander Nisbet, Gent., published the first voUime of his system of
heraldry in 1722 ; his death took place shortly afterwards.— Vide Preface to 2d Edition Fol.

2 History of the West Kirk, p. 2i.

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 375

resting his fore paw on the sword, and the other placing his paw in one of the scales. On
the other sculptured pediment a man is seen armed with a thick pole, with a hook at the
end, by which he grasps it; a goat, as it seems, is running towards him, as if butting at
him, while a bear seizes it by the waist with his teeth, and another is lying dead beyond.
The Hope's arms are sculptured on the former pediment, underneath the singular piece of
sculpture we have described — which occupies the upper part of a pointed arch — so that
it is not improbable that the curious scene of the judge determining the plea between the
lions and the lamb, may refer to a family alliance with the great Lord Advocate ; though
the key to the ingenious allegory has perished with the last of their race.

On the south side of the ancient Burgh of Broughton, and nearly on the sight of the
present broad street called Picardy Place, there existed till near the close of last century a
small village or hamlet called Picardy, which was occupied exclusively by a body of weavers
who are said to have been brought over from the French province of that name by the
British Linen Company, and settled there for the improvement of their manufactures.1
We have found, however, in a copy of Lord Hailes' Annals, a manuscript note, apparently
written while this little community of foreign artisans were still industriously plying their
looms, in which they are described as a body of French refugees, who fled to this country
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, and settling on the open common that
then lay between Broughton and the old capital, they attempted to establish a silk manu-
factory. A large plantation of mulberry trees is said to have been laid out by them on the
slope of Moutrie's Hill, and other provision made for carrying on the whole operations of
the silk manufacture there. It is well known, that about 50,000 French refugees fled to
England at that period, the majority of them settled at Spitalfield, while the remainder
scattered themselves over the kingdom. To a body of these unfortunate wanderers the
hamlet of Picardy most probably owed its origin. The failure of their mulberry plantations
here, as in other parts of the kingdom, no doubt compelled them to abandon their project ;
and their experience was probably afterwards made use of in the weaving of linen, on the
institution of a company for the encouragement of its manufacture in 1746. Since then
this chartered body has devoted its large capital exclusively to the purposes of banking ;
and it is now one of the most wealthy and influential banking companies of Scotland.

One other locality of considerable interest in the same neighbourhood is the low valley
of Greenside, which skirts the northern base of the Calton Hill. Though now exclusively
occupied by workshops and manufactories, or by modern dwellings of a very humble char-
acter, it formed in ancient times a place of considerable importance. It was bestowed on
the citizens by James II., as an arena for holding tournaments and the like martial sports
of the age; and, according to Pennant, it continued to be used for such feats of arms even
in the reign of Queen Mary. Here, he relates, during a public tournament, " the Earl
of Bothwell made the first impression on the susceptible heart of Mary Stuart, having
galloped into the ring down the dangerous steeps of the adjacent hill."2 The rude Earl,
however, trusted as little to feats of gallantry as to love for the achievement of his unscru-
pulous aims ; and this may rank among the many spurious traditions which the popular
interest in the Scottish Queen has given rise to. A chapel dedicated to the Holy Hood
stood in the valley of Greenside at a remote period, and served, in the year 1518, as the

1 Walks in Edinburgh, p. 217. " Pennant's Tour, vol. i. p. 70.

376 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

nucleus of one of the very latest foundations of a monastic institution in Scotland prior to
the Reformation ; but we leave the history of the ancient religious and benevolent founda-
tions of this locality for the next chapter. During the present century, it was destined for
a very different purpose. When the Union Canal was first projected, its plans included the
continuation of it through the bed of the North Loch, where the Edinburgh and Glasgow
Railway now runs. From thence it was proposed to conduct it to Greenside, in the area
of which an immense harbour was to have been constructed ; and this again being con-
nected by a broad canal with the sea, it was expected that by such means the New Town
would be converted into a seaport, and the unhappy traders of Leith compelled either to
abandon their traffic, or remove within the precincts of their jealous rivals. Chimerical as
this project may now appear, designs were furnished by experienced engineers, a map of
the whole plan was engraved on a large scale, and no doubt our civic reformers rejoiced in
the anticipation of surmounting the disadvantages of an inland position, and seeing the
shipping of the chief ports of Europe crowding into the heart of their uew capital !

Of the memorials of the New Town, properly so called, very few fall legitimately within
the plan of this work ; yet even its modern streets possess some interesting associations that
we would not willingly forego. We have already referred to the house which forms the
junction with St Andrew Square and St David Street, as the last residence of the cele-
brated philosopher and historian, David Hume ; where that strange death-bed scene
occurred which has been the subject of such varied comments both by the eulogists and
detractors of the great sceptic. Directly opposite to Hume's house, on the north side of
the square, is the house in which Henry Brougham was born. At that period St Andrew
Square contained the residences of several noblemen, and was deemed the most fashionable
quarter of the rising town. The house on the same side at the corner of St Andrew
Street was the mansion of David Steuart, Earl of Buchan, and possesses some claim to our
interest as the place where the Society of Scottish Antiquaries was instituted in 1780, and
where its earliest meetings were held.1 Within the first eastern division of George Street,
the eye of the modern visitor is attracted by the lofty and magnificent portico of the
Commercial Bank, a building that seems destined to attest for ages the skill and taste, if
not the inventive genius, of our native architects ; yet it occupies the site of the
Physicians' Hall, a chaste Grecian edifice designed by Craig, the foundation-stone of which
was laid by the celebrated Dr Cullen, in 1774, doubtless with the belief that remote ages
might bring to light the memorials which were then buried in its foundations. Nor must
we omit to notice the favourite dwelling of Sir Walter Scott in North Castle Street —
" The dear thirty-nine" which he left under such mournful circumstances in 1826. The
New Town of Edinburgh has already many such associations with names eminent in
literature and science, some of which, at least, will command the interest of other genera-
tions. Our Memorials, however, are of the olden time, and we leave future chroniclers to
record those of the modern city.

1 Paton's Correspondence, pp. 170-172.

CHAPTER XT.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES.

"VTEXT to the Castle of Edinburgh, the ancient

-^ Parish Church of St Giles, and the Abbey

of Holyrood, form the most prominent objects

of interest in the history of the capital. The

existence of the first Parish Church of Edinburgh

is traced to the second century after the death

of its tutelar saint, the Abbot and Confessor

St Giles, who was born in Greece, of illustrious

parentage, in the sixth century, and afterwards

abandoning his native land, and bestowing his

wealth on the poor, retired into the wilderness

of Languedoc, and founded the celebrated

monastery which long after bore his name.

To some wandering brother from the banks

of the Rhone, we probably owe the dedication

of the ancient Parish Church of Edinburgh

to St Giles, a favourite saint who owes his

honours in the southern capital to Matilda,

the Queen of Henry I. of England, and daughter

of St Margaret, Queen of Malcolm Canmore,

who founded there St Giles's Hospital for

lepers, in 1117. The Bishopric of Lindisfarn,

which comprehended Edinburgh, dates so early

as A.D. 635, and Simeon of Durham, in reckoning

the churches and towns belonging to the see in the year 854, mentions Edwinsburch among

the latter.1 We can only infer the existence of the Church, however, from this notice, as it

is not directly mentioned, nor can we discover its name in any authentic record till the

reign of Alexander II. — who succeeded his father, William the Lion, in 1214 — when

Baldredus, Deacon of Lothian, and John, Perpetual Vicar of the Church of St Giles, at

Edinburgh, affix their seals in attestation of a copy of certain Papal bulls aud other charters

1 Maitland, p. 270.
VIGNETTE— Chapel of Robert, Duke of Albany, St Giles's Church.

378 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

of the Church of Meggincke, one of the dependencies of the Abbey of Holyrood.1 It is again
mentioned in an Act of the reign of Robert the Bruce, dated 1319, wherein the Bishop of
St Andrew's confirms numerous gifts bestowed at various times on the Abbey and its
dependencies. One of these is a gift of all her possessions made by the Lady Donoca,
with the consent of her husband and son, in presence of a full consistory held at Edinburgh
in St Giles's Church on the Sunday before the Feast of St Thomas, in the year 1293.2 Still
later we find evidence of additions to the original foundation in 1359, when David II.,
by a charter under his great seal, confirmed to the chaplain officiating at the altar of St
Katherine's Chapel in the Parish Church of St Giles, all the lands of Upper Merchiston,
the gift of Roger Hog, burgess of Edinburgh. There can be no question, however, of
its existence at a much earlier date, as is proved by some of its original architectural
features, described hereafter, of which we possess authentic evidence. The Collegiate
Church of St Giles, as it now stands, is a building including the work of many different
periods, and though no part of its architecture indicates an earlier date than the fourteenth
century, its walls probably include masonry of a much more remote era. The prevalence
of Norman remains among such of the ancient Parish Churches of Midlothian as still
retain any of their original masonry, proves that a very general impetus had been given
to ecclesiastical architecture about the period of the founding of Holyrood Abbey, in
the 12th century. This entirely accords with what is usually found in the architectural
chronology of any populous district in the neighbourhood of an important ecclesiastical
foundation ; and, indeed, the history of the erection of St Giles's Church is almost
entirely comprised in three periods, each of which was marked by the founding of other
ecclesiastical buildings. The first of these is the early part of the 12th century, when the
example of David I., derived from his experience at the splendid court of Henry I. of Eng-
Lind, led to the founding or enlargement of numerous religious houses. The next is 1380—
soon after which Dalkeith Church was founded — when numerous chapels were added to the
Parish Church ; and again, during a succession of years ending in 1462 — the year in which
the charter of foundation of Trinity Collegiate Church is dated — when the choir of St Giles's
Church seems to have been enlarged and completed in its present form ; in anticipation, no
doubt, of its erection into a collegiate church, which took place a few years thereafter.

It must be a subject of unfailing regret to every true antiquary, that the restoration of
St Giles's Church in 1829 was conducted in so rash and irreverent a spirit, in consequence
of which so many of its peculiar features have disappeared, along with nearly all those
traces of its adaptation to the ceremonial of Roman Catholic worship, which had escaped the
rude hands of the equally irreverent, but far more pardonable, Reformers of the sixteenth
century. Had its restoration been delayed even for a few years, the increasing study of
Gothic architecture, which is already so widely dirfused, would in all probability have
secured the preservation of much that is now beyond recall. All that can now be done is to
endeavour to convey to the reader such idea of the original edifice, and of the successive
alterations and additions that it had received, as seemed to be indicated by the building
previous to its remodelling in 1829.3

1 Liber Cartarum Sancte Cruois, p. 55. 2 Ibid, p. 81.

3 The restoration of the original edifies is now (1872) being proceeded with, under the auspices of a number of
public-spirited citizens.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES.

379

Edinburgh, in the reign of David I. and long afterwards, was, as we have already shown,
no more than an assemblage of rude huts, constructed in full anticipation of their falling
a prey to the torch of the southern invaders. Froissart represents the Scots exclaiming
more than two centuries later, " thoughe the Englishe brinne our houses, we care lytell
therefore ; we shall make them agayne chepe ynough ! " Nevertheless, it is to David I.
that Edinburgh owes its earliest improvement and much of its future prosperity. He was
the first monarch who made the Castle of Edinburgh his chief residence ; and by his
munificent monastic foundation in its neighbourhood, he made it the centre towards which
the wealth of the adjacent country flowed, and thereby erected it into the capital of the
Lothians centuries before it assumed its position as the capital of the kingdom. It
cannot, therefore, surprise us to discover evidence of the rebuilding of the Parish Church
of Edinburgh about the period of his accession to the throne ; and we accordingly find
that some beautiful remains of the original edifice, somewhat earlier in style than the
oldest portions of the Abbey Church of Holyrood, were only destroyed about the middle
of last century.

The annexed vignette, copied from a very rare print, represents a beautiful Norman door-
way which formed the entrance to the nave of St Giles's Church on the north side, and was
only demolished about the year 1760. It stood immediately below the third window from
the west, within the line of the external wall. A plain round archway that had given
access to it was obliterated in the alterations
of 1829. This fragment sufficiently enables us
to picture the little Parish Church of St Giles
in the reign of David I. Built in the massive
style of the early Norman period, it would
consist simply of a nave and chancel united
by a rich Norman chancel arch ; altogether
occupying only a portion of the centre aisle
of the present nave. Small circular-headed
windows, decorated with zig-zag mouldings,
would admit the light to its sombre interior ;
while its west front was in all probability
surmounted by a simple belfry, from whence
the bell would daily summon the natives of
the hamlet to matins and vespers, and with
slow measured sounds toll their knell as they
were lain in the neighbouring churchyard.

This ancient church was never entirely demolished. Its solid masonry was probably very
partially affected by the ravages of the invading forces of Edward II., in 1322, when
Holyrood was spoiled; or by those of his son in 1335, when the whole country was wasted
with fire and sword. The town was again subjected to the like violence, probably with
results little more lasting, by the conflagration in 1385, when the English army under
Richard II. occupied the town for five days, and then laid it and the Abbey of Holyrood
in ashes. The Norman architecture disappeared piece-meal, as chapels and aisles were
added to the original fabric by the piety of private donors, or by the zeal of its own

3 So MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

clergy to adapt it to the wants of the rising town. In all the changes that it underwent
for above seven centuries, the original north door, with its beautifully recessed Norman
arches and grotesque decorations, always commanded the veneration of the innovators, and
remained as a precious relic of the past, until the tasteless improvers of the eighteenth
century demolished it without a cause, and probably for no better reason than to evade the
cost of its repair.

As the population of the town increased, and it advanced in wealth and importance,
altars and chapels were founded and endowed by its own citizens, or by some of the
eminent Scottish ecclesiastics who latterly resided in Edinburgh ; so that St Giles's had
increased to a wealthy corporation, with numerous altarages and chaplainries, previous to
its erection into a collegiate church by the charter of James III. in 1466. As usual with
all large churches, St Giles's presented internally the form of a cross, with the central
tower placed at the junction of the nave and choir with the transepts. Externally, how-
ever, this had almost entirely disappeared, owing to the numerous chapels and aisles added
at various dates, and it has only been restored by sacrificing some of the most interesting
and unique features of the ancient building. Previous to the alterations of 1462, not-
withstanding the general enlargement of the church by the addition of one or more rows of
chapels on either side of the nave, no portion of the central building appears to have been
elevated into a clerestory ; and in the nave this addition forms one of the modern altera-
tions effected in 1829. Before that recent remodelling, the nave was only elevated a
few feet higher than the aisles, and was finished in the same style in which the north
aisle still remains, with a neat but simple groining springing from the capitals of the
pillars, and decorated with sculptured bosses at the intersections. The south aisle of the
nave is evidently the work of a later date. The rich groining and form of its vaulting afford
an interesting subject of study for the architectural chronologist, when compared with the
simpler design of the north aisle. We may conclude, with little hesitation, from the style
of the former, that it was rebuilt in 1387, along with the five chapels to the south of it
described hereafter ; and, indeed, the construction of the light and beautiful shafts from
which their mutual vaultings spring, almost necessarily involved the demolition of the old
aisle. Over the vaulted roof of the centre aisle, in the space now occupied by the clere-
story, a rude attic was erected, which included several apartments, latterly used as the
residence of the bell-ringer Mitchell with his wife and family, who ascended to their
elevated abode by the antique turnpike that formerly rose into an octagonal pointed roof of
curious stonework, near the central tower. The arches of the tower still remain to show
the original height of the nave ; and a careful inspection of the choir proves, beyond all
doubt, that it underwent a similar alteration by the construction of a clerestory, at the
same time that it was lengthened, by the addition of the two eastmost arches, about the
middle of the fifteenth century.1 In some of the larger Gothic churches, the architects
are found to have ingeniously aided the perspective of " the long drawn aisles," by diminish-
ing the breadth of the arches as they approach the east end of the choir, where the high
altar stood, thereby adding to its apparent extent. In St Giles's Church, however, the
opposite is found to be the case. The two eastmost arches are wider and loftier than the

1 The choir was probably lengthened only to the extent of one arch ; but the removal of the east wall would neces-
sarily involve the rebuilding of the second.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 381

others. The pillars are decorated with foliated capitals, elaborately finished with sculp-
tured shields and angels' heads ; the shafts are fluted according to a regular and beautiful
design, and their bases are enriched with foliated sculpture ; while the other pillars of the
choir are plain octagons, with their capitals formed by a few simple mouldings. The arch-
ing and groining, moreover, of this extended portion of the aisles entirely differs from the
western and earlier part ; for whereas the latter are formed of concentric arches spring-
ing from four sides and meeting in one keystone, so that the top of the windows can
reach no higher than the spring of the arch, the former is constructed on the more usual
plan of a groined roof, running across the aisle, and admitting of the two eastmost windows
on each side rising nearly to the top of the arch. No less obvious proofs are discoverable of
the addition of the clerestory at the same period. There are flaws remaining in the
lower part of its walls, marking distinctly how far the old work has been taken down.
A slight inclination outward, in part of the wall immediately above the pillars, shows
that the roof of the choir had corresponded in height with the old nave ; and portions of
the original groining springing from the capitals of the pillars still remain, only partially
chiselled away. The extreme beauty of the clerestory groining, and its remarkably rich
variety of bosses, all furnish abundant evidence of its being the work of a later age than
the other parts of the building. On the centre boss, at the division of the two eastmost
compartments of the ceiling, is the monogram fljS, boldly cut on a large shield ; and on
the one next to it westward, the following legend is neatly arranged round a carved
centre in bold relief: — £i*OZ . jJIM . pla . &U0 . ttCU . — an abbreviation evidently of the
salutation of the Virgin, — Ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum, — though from its
height, and the contractions necessary to bring it within such circumscribed dimensions,
it is not easily deciphered. These, it is probable, stood directly over the site of the high
altar, which does not appear to have been removed from its original position at the east
end of the old choir upon its enlargement and elongation in the fifteenth century, as we
find that Walter Bertrame, burgess of Edinburgh, by a charter dated December 20, 1477,
founded a chaplainry at " the Altar of St Francis, situate behind the Great Altar," and
endowed it with various annual rents from property in Edinburgh and Leith.1

Another striking feature of the additions made to St Giles's Church in the fifteenth
century, is the numerous heraldic devices introduced among the ornaments, which afford
striking confirmation as to the period when they were executed. The north-east, or King's
Pillar, as it is generally called, of which we have already given a view,2 bears on the east
and west sides the royal arms of Scotland ; on the north side those of Mary of Guelders —
the Queen of James II. and the founder of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity —
impaled with the royal arms ; and on the 'south side the arms of France. James II. suc-
ceeded to the throne, a mere child, in 1438, and was killed by the bursting of a cannon at
the siege of Roxburgh Castle in 1460 ; and the remaining armorial bearings afford further
proof of the erection of this addition to the church between these two periods. On the oppo-
site pillar there are, on the south side, the arms of the good town ; and on the west those
of Bishop Kennedy, the cousin of James II. and his able and faithful councillor, who was
promoted to the metropolitan see in 1440, and died in 1466. The other arms are those
of Nicolson, and Preston, of Craigmillar. On the engaged pillar, on the north side of the
1 Maitland, p. 271. Inventar of Pious Donations. MS. Ad. Lib. ! Ante, p. 24.

382 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

altar, are the arms of Thomas de Cranston, Smtifer Regis, a man of considerable influence
in the reign of James II., and a frequent ambassador to foreign courts, who died about
1470 ; and on the engaged pillar to the south, the arms are those of Isabel, Duchess of
Albany and Countess of Lennox, who, in 1450 — about a year before her death — founded
the Collegiate Church of Dumbarton, and largely endowed other religious foundations.1
Maitland remarks — " In the year 1462, a great work seems to have been in hand at this
church ; for it was by the Town Council ordained that all persons presuming to buy corn
before it was entered should forfeit one chalder to the church work." 2 This may be sup-
posed to refer to the same additions to the choir begun in the reign of James II. and then in
progress, though it will be seen that other works were proceeded with about the same time.
The work had no doubt been aided by the contributions of that monarch, and may have
been further encouraged by the gifts of his widowed queen for masses to his soul. The
repetition of the royal arms on the King's Pillar is probably intended to refer to James III.,
in whose reign the work was finished. To the south of the choir, a second aisle of three arches,
with a richly-groined ceiling, forms the Preston Aisle, erected agreeably to a charter granted
to William Prestoime, of Gortouue, by the city of Edinburgh in 1454, setting forth " yat
forasmekle as William of Prestouu the fadir, quam God assoillie, made diligent labour and
grete menis, be a he and mighty Prince, the King of France, and mony uyr Lordis of
France, for the gettyn of the arme bane of Saint Gele ; — the quhilk bane he freely left to
our moyr kirk of Saint Gele of Edinburgh, withoutyn ony condition makyn ; — we con-
sidrand ye grete labouris and costis yat he made for the gettyn yrof, we pmlt, as said is
yat within six or seven zere, in all the possible and gudely haste we may, yat we sal big
an ile,. furth frae our Lady lie, quhare ye said William lyes in the said ile, to be begunyin
within a zere ; in the quhilk ile yare sail be made a brase for his crest in bosit work ; and
abone the brase a plate of brase, with a writ, specifiand, the bringing of yat relik be him
in Scotland, with his armis ; and his armis to be put, in hewyn marble, uyr thre parts of the
ile."3 The charter further binds the Provost and Council to found an altar there, with a
chaplain, and secures to the lineal descendants of the donor the privilege of bearing the
precious gift of St Giles's arm bone in all public processions. The arms of Preston still
remain on the roof of the aisle, as engaged to be executed in this charter ; and the same
may be seen repeated in different parts of their ancient stronghold of Craigmillar Castle ;
where also occurs their Rebus, sculptured on a stone panel of the outer wall : a press, and
tun or barrel.4 They continued annually to exercise their chartered right of bearing the
arm bone of the Patron Saint till the memorable year 1558, when the College of St Giles
walked for the last time in procession, on the 1st of September, the festival of St Giles,
bearing in procession a statue hired for the occasion, from the Grey Friars, to personate the
Great Image of the Saint, as large as life, because " the auld Saint Geile " had been
first drowned in the North Loch as an adulterer, or encourager of idolatry, and thereafter

1 A letter on the subject of these armorial bearings, signed A. D. [the late Alexander Deuchar, we presume, a first-
rate authority on all matters of heraldry], appeared in the Scots Magazine, June 1818. Tlie writer promises to send the
result of further observations, but he does not appear to have followed out his intentions.

8 Maitland, p. 271.

* Archaeologia Scotica, vol. i. p. 375.

4 The Rebus of Prior Bolton, in Westminster Abbey, is very similar to this : a tun, or barrel, with a bolt thrust
through it.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 383

burnt as a heretic. Only two years before, the Dean of Guild paid 6s. " for paynting of
Sant Geile ; " and " for mending and polishing Saint Gelis arme, 12d.," but his honours
were rudely put an end to by the rioters of 1558 ; and only four years thereafter the
Saint's silver-work, ring, and jewels, and all the vestments wherewith his image and his
arm bone were wont to be decorated on high festivals of the Church, were sold by authority
of the Magistrates, and the proceeds employed in repairing the Church. Sir David
Lindsay deserves more credit than has yet been ascribed to him for the irreverent handling
of the saint on this occasion. His Monarchie was finished in 1553, and had then had
time to have produced its influence on the popular mind. His description of the honours
paid by the citizens of Edinburgh to their Patron Saint is sufficiently graphic ; nor does
he hesitate to forewarn the clergy of the recompense that so speedily followed: —

Of Edinburgh, the greit idolatrie,

And manifest abhominatiouu,

On thair feist day, all creature may see,

Thay beir ane auld stok image throuoh the toun,

With talbrone, trumpet, schalme, and clarioun ;

Quhilk hes bene usit mony ane yeir bygone,

With priestis, and freiris, into processioun,

Siclyke, as Bell wes borne throuch Babylone.

Fy on yow, freiris ! that usis for to preiche,
And dois assist to sik idolatrie :
Quhy do ye uocht the ignorant pepill teiehe,
How ane deid image carvit of ane tre,
As it war haly, suld nocht honourit be ;
Nor borne on burges backis, up and doua :
Bot, ye schaw planelie your hypocrisie,
Quhen ye pas formest in processioun.

Fy on yow, fosteraris of idolatrie !
That till ane deid stok, dois sik reverence,
In presens of the pepill publicklie ;
Feir ye nocht God, to commit sik offence
I counsall yow da yit your diligence,
To gar suppresse sik greit abusioun :
Do ye nocht sa, I dreid your recompense,
Sail be nocht ellis, bot clene confusioun.

The arm bone of the Patron Saint, procured at so great a cost, and heretofore commanding
the devout admiration of the faithful, was most probably flung out into the neighbouring
churchyard, soon after the discomfiture of his adherents, to mingle unheeded with the
ashes of forgotten generations. One fact, however, we learn, from the charter granted
by the Magistrates to Preston of Gortoun, as to the appropriation of different parts of
the church at that period — viz., that the Lady Aisle, where the altar of the blessed Virgin
Mary stood, was part of what now forms the south aisle of the choir, or High Church. To
this altar we find one of the earliest recorded gifts bestowed, in the reign of David II.,
when the first mention of distinct chantries in St Giles's Church is found — viz., "Carta to
the Lady Altar of St Geille's, of ane tenement in Edinburgh, given by William Here,
burges of Edinburgh."1 From the style of architecture which prevails through the older

1 Robertson's Index, 1798, temp. David II., p. 66. The date of the charter is 1365. Regist. Mag. Sigill, p. 54.
The deed of gift to St Katharine's Altar in the same reign is dated 1359.

384 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

parts of the collegiate church, we feel little hesitation in assigning the erection of the
main portion of the fabric to the close of David's reign, which extended from 1329 to
1371, or to that of his successor Robert II. It is finished entirely in that simple and
comparatively plain style of pointed architecture, which Dallaway designates Pure Gothic,
and of which no specimen will be found later than the fourteenth century. It was a period
of almost incessant wars, involving the whole nation in misery for years ; but it was no
less characterised by religious zeal, encouraged, no doubt, in some degree by the fact
that ecclesiastical property was the only species of possession that had any chance of
escaping the fury of the invaders. Edward III., however, ca.rried on his Scottish invasion
with a ferocity that spared not even the edifices consecrated to religion. In 1355, he
desolated the country on to Edinburgh, and laid every town, village, and hamlet in ashes,
though not without suffering keenly from the assaults of the hardy Scots. This bloody
inroad was peculiarly associated in the minds of the people with the unwonted sacrilege of
the invaders, and as it happened about the time of the Feast of Purification, it was
popularly known as the Burnt Candlemas.1 In this desolating invasion, St Giles's Church,
no doubt, suffered greatly ; but the misery of the people, and the uncertainty involved in
such a state of continual warfare, did not prevent the restoration of their churches, and
we accordingly find in the Burgh Records a contract made, in the year 1380, between
the Provost and some masons to vault over a part of the church. This was, no doubt,
speedily accomplished, as in 1384 the Scottish barons assembled there and resolved on a
war with England, notwithstanding the desire of Robert II. for peace. The result was
that the whole town was exposed to another general conflagration by the invading army
of Richard II., and the Church of St Giles is expressly mentioned as involved in the
general destruction. There is no reason, however, to conclude from this, that the massive
walls of the old Gothic fabric were razed to the ground by the flames that consumed the
simple dwellings of the unwalled town. The cost of its restoration appears to have been
borne by the Government, and various entries occur in the accounts of the Great
Chamberlain of Scotland, rendered at the Exchequer between the years 1390 and 1413,
of sums granted for completing its re-edification. Nevertheless, the archives of the
city preserve authentic evidence of additions being made out of its own funds to the
original fabric in 1387, only two years after the conflagration, and an examination of such
portions of these as still remain abundantly confirms this idea ; the style of decoration
being exactly of that intermediate kind between the simple forms of the old nave and the
highly ornate style of the choir, which is usually found in the transition from the one to
the other.

The contract for the additions made to St Giles's Church from the revenues of the
town, and the contributions of its wealthier citizens at the time when the main fabric was
left to be restored from the general revenues of the kingdom, while it affords an insight
into the progress of the building at that date, cannot but be regarded as a curious proof
of that singular elasticity which the Scottish nation displayed during their protracted wars
with England ; showing as it does, the general and local government vieing with one
another in the luxury of ornate ecclesiastical edifices almost as soon as the invaders had
retreated across the Borders. The agreement bears to be made at Edinburgh, November

* Dalrymple's Annals, pp. 237, 8.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 385

29th, 1387, between " Adam Forster, Lord of Nether Leberton, Androw Yichtson, Provest
of the Burgh of Edynburgh, and Commnnitie of that Ilk, on the ta half, and Johne Johne
of Stone, and Johne Skayer, masounys, on the toyer half," and requires that " the forsaidys
Joline Johne, and Johne, sail make and voute fyve Chapells on the south syde of the
Paryce Kyrke of Edynburgh, fra the west gavyl, lyand and rynan doun est, on to the grete
pyler of the stepyl, voutyt on the same maner by the masounys, as the vout abovye Sanct
Stevinys auter, standand on the north syde of the parys auter of the Abbay of Haly-rude
Houss. Alsua vat ylk man sal mak in ylk Chapel of the four, a wyndow with thre lychtys
in fourni masoune lyke, the qwhilk patroune yai hef sene ; and the fyfte Chapel voutyt
with a dun-e, in als gude maner als the durre, standand in the west gavyl of ye forsaid
kyrk. Alsua ye forsayde five Chapellys sail be thekyt abovyn with stane, and water
thycht ; ye buttras, ye lintels fynyt up als hech as ye lave of yat werk askys." l The
whole of these five chapels remained, with their beautiful groined roofs, and clustered
columns, until the restoration of the ancient edifice in 1829, when the two west ones were
demolished, apparently for no better reason than because they interfered with the archi-
tect's design for a uniform west front. The third chapel, which now forms the west
lobby of the Old Church, as this subdivision of the building is styled, retained till the
same date the beautiful vaulted entrance erected in 1387; it was an open porch,
with a richly-groined ceiling, and over it a small chamber, lighted by an elegant oriel
window, the corbel of which was an angel holding the city arms. A fac-simile of this has
been transferred to the west side of the aisle,2 though without either the beautiful porch
which it surmounted, or the picturesque turret-stair which stood on its west side, and
formed the approach to the Priest's Chamber as well as to the roof of the church. The
demolition of this portion of the ancieut edifice led to the discovery of a large accumula-
tion of charters and ancient records of the city, which had been placed at some early period
in the chamber over the porch, and had lain there undisturbed probably for more than two
centuries. It had contained also a series of pictorial decorations of an unusual character
as the adornments of any part of a church, but which appear to have been painted on the
panelling of the chamber about the period of the Revolution, when it formed an appendage
to the Council Chambers. The only fragments of these that have been preserved are now
in the collection of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., and consist of a trumpeter, a soldier bearing a
banner, and a female figure holding a cornucopia. The costume of the figures, which are
above half-life size, is of the reign of William III. The paintings are really works of
some merit, so far as can be judged from these detached fragments, which were literally
rescued from the ruins of the ancient vestry, and are insufficient to show what had been the
subject of the whole design. The two eastern chapels are now included in the Old Church,
and though greatly defaced by modern partitions and galleries, retain some of the original
groining, constructed five centuries ago, in imitation of St Stephen's Chapel in the Abbey
of Holyrood.

» Maitland, p. 270.

2 The carved stones of the original window are now in the possession of A. E. Ellis, Esq., and cannot but excite the
surprise of every one who sees them, as the most of them are nearly as fresh and sharp as when first executed.
Among other interesting fragments rescued by Mr Ellis at the same period, there is a very fine stoup for holy water,
formed in shape of a shallow bason, with a large star covering it, and leaving the interstices for the water. It had pro-
jected from the wall on a richly-flowered corbel, which has been rudely broken in its removal.

2 B

386 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

An aisle appears to have been added at a later period to the south of the two last
chapels, the beautifully groined roof of which was fully as rich as any portion of the choir.
This appears to be the chapel referred to in a " charter of confirmation of a mortification
by Alexander Lauder of Blyth, Knight, Provost of Edinburgh, to ane altarage of St
Gilles Kirk," dated 17th August 1513,1 by which he founded a " chaplainry in the New
Chapel, near the south-western corner of the church, in honour of God, the Virgin Mary,
and Gabriel the Archangel." It consisted of two arches extending between the porch
and the south transept, and in the south wall, between the two windows, a beautiful altar
tomb was constructed under a deep recess, on which a recumbent figure had, no doubt, been
originally placed, although it probably disappeared along with the statues, and other ancient
decorations, that fell a prey to the reforming zeal of 1559, when " The Black and Gray
Freris of Edinburgh were demolissed and cast in doun aluterlie, and all the chepellis and
collegis about the said burgh, with thair zairds, were in lykwyise distroyit; and the images
and altaris of Sanctgeilis kirk distroyit and brint, be the Erlis of Ergyle and Glencarne,
the pryour of Sanctandrois and Lord Ruthvene, callit the congregation n."3 The principal
ornaments of this fine tomb suggest its having been erected for some eminent ecclesiastic.
Underneath the corbels from which the crocketed arch springs, two shields are cut, bearing
the emblems of our Saviour's passion, the one on the right having the nails, spear, and
reed with the sponge, and the other the pillar and scourges. The pinnacle with which the
arch terminates is adorned with the beautiful emblem of a heart within the crowri of
thorns, and on either side of it a lion and dragon are sculptured as supporters. On the
top of this an ornamental corbel formerly supported a clustered pillar, from the capital of
which the rich groining of the roof spread out its fan-like limbs towards the fine bosses of
the centre key-stones. All this, however, which combined to form one of the finest and
most unique features of the Old Church, has been sacrificed to secure that undesirable
uniformity which ruins the Gothic designs of modern architects, and is scarcely ever found
in the best ancient examples. One-half of the aisle has been demolished, and a wall built
across where the clustered pillar formerly supported the beautiful roof of the chapel, in order
to give it the appearance externally of an aisle to the south transept. The altar tomb
has been removed in a mutilated state to this fragment of the ancient chapel, now degraded
to the mean office of a staircase to the Montrose aisle on the east side of the same
transept, which, with a floor half way up its ancient pillars, serves for a vestry to the Old
Church.

On the north side of the nave a range of chapels appears to have been added at a some-
what later date than those built on the south side in 1387, judging from the style of orna-
ment and particularly the rich groining of the roof. These consisted of two small chapels
on each side of the ancient Norman porch, while above it there was an apartment known
as the Priest's Room. This had, no doubt, served as a vestry for some of the clergy offi-
ciating at the numerous altars of the church, though Maitland gives it the name of the
Priest's Prison, as the place of durance in olden times for culprits who had incurred the

1 Inventar of Pious Donations. M.S. Ad. Lib. Alexander Lauder filled the office of Provost in the years 1501-3,
and again in 1508-10. The Earl of Angus was the Provost in 1513, and marched with the burgher force to Flodden
Field.

8 Maitland, p. 271. » Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 269.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES.

387

Church's censures. This same apartment served as the prison in which Sir John Gordon
of Haddo was secured in 1644, previous to his trial and execution, from whence one of
the places of worship into which the nave of the ancient Collegiate Church was divided
derived its singular name of " Haddow's Hole." Both the porch, and the two chapels to
the east of it, have disappeared in the recent remodelling of the church, although they
formed originally very picturesque features externally, with their pointed gables, and steep
roofs " theikit with stane," and with them also the deep archway which had formerly given
access to the most ancient fragment of the Parish Church. The eastmost of these chapels,
which is now replaced by what appears externally as the west aisle of the north transept,
was the only portion of the church in which any of the coloured glass remained, with which,
doubtless, most of its windows were anciently filled. Its chief ornament consisted of an
elephant, very well executed, underneath which were the crown and hammer, the armorial
bearings of the Incorporation of Hammermen, enclosed within a wreath. From these
insignia we may infer that this was St Eloi's Chapel, at the altar of which, according to the
traditions of the burgh, the craftsmen of Edinburgh who had followed Allan, Lord High
Steward of Scotland, to the Holy Land, and aided in the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre
from the Infidels, dedicated the famous Blue Blanket, or " Banner of the Holy Grhost." l
The large and beautiful centre key-stone of this chapel
is now in the collection of C. K. Sharpe, Esq. It
is adorned with a richly-sculptured boss, formed
of four dragons, with distended wings, each different
in design, the tails of which are gracefully extended,
go as to cover the intersecting ribs of the groined
roof. The centre is formed by a large flower, to
which an iron hook is attached ; from whence, no
doubt, anciently depended a lamp over the altar
of St Eloi, the patron saint of the Hammermen
of Edinburgh. The painted glass from the chapel
window — which, from the rarity of such remains
in Scotland, would have possessed even a greater
value than the beautiful key-stone — has either
gone to enrich some private collection, or been

destroyed like the old chapel to which it belonged, as we have failed in all attempts
to recover any clue to it. The view of the church from the north-west will suffice
to convey some idea of the singularly picturesque appearance of this part of the old
building externally, even when encumbered with the last of the Krames, and with its
walls and windows defaced with many incongruous additions of later date. A restoration
of this would have well rewarded the labour of the architect, and merited a grateful
appreciation, which very few indeed will consider due to the uniformity that has been
effected by its sacrifice. The two western chapels still remain, with a very light and
elegant clustered pillar, adorned with sculptured shields on a rich foliated capital, from
which spring the ribs of the groined roof and the arches that divide it from the adjoining
aisle. The ornamental sculptures of this portion of the church are of a peculiarly

1 Pennecuick's History of the Blue Blanket, p. 28.

388 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

striking character. On the centre key-stone of the eastern chapel, the monogram of
the Virgin is inwrought with the leaves of a gracefully sculptured wreath, and the same
is repeated in a simpler form on one of the bosses of the neighbouring aisle. But the
most interesting of these decorations are the heraldic devices which form the prominent
ornaments on the capital of the pillar. These consist, on the south side, of the arms
of Robert, Duke of Albany, the second son of King Robert II. ; and, on the north side,
of those of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas. In the year 1401, David, Duke of
Rothsay, the unfortunate son of Robert III., was arrested by his uncle, the Duke of
Albany and Governor of Scotland, with the consent of the king his father, who had
been incensed against him by the daily complaints which his uncle contrived to have
carried to the old king's ear. The circumstances of his death have been pictured with
thrilling effect in the popular pages of "The Fair Maid of Perth." He was committed
a close prisoner to the dungeon of Falkland Castle, and there starved to death, notwith-
standing the intervention of a maiden and nurse, who experienced a far different fate
from that assigned by Scott, though their efforts to rescue the Prince from his horrible
death are described with considerable accuracy. " The Blacke Booke of Scone saith,
that the Earle Douglas was with the Governour when he brought the Duke from Saint
Andrew's to Falkland," : having probably been exasperated against the latter, who was
his own brother-in-law, by the indignity which his licentious courses put upon his sister.
Such are the two Scottish nobles whose armorial bearings still grace the capital of the
pillar in the old chapel. It is the only other case in which they are found acting in
concert besides the dark deed already referred to ; and it seems no unreasonable inference
to draw from such a coincidence, that this chapel had been founded and endowed by them
as an expiatory offering for that deed of blood, and its chaplain probably appointed to say
masses for their victim's soul. A view of this interesting and beautiful part of the
interior of St Giles's Church — with the gallery and pews removed — forms the vignette at
the head of the chapter.

The transepts of the church as they existed before 1829, afforded no less satisfactory
evidence of the progress of the building. Distinct traces remained of the termination of
the south transept a few feet beyond the pillars that separated the south aisle of the choir
from Preston's, or the Assembly Aisle, as it was latterly termed. Beyond this, the
groining of the roof entirely differed from the older portion, exhibiting unequivocal evidence
of being the work of a later age. This part of the Old Church forms — or rather, we
should perhaps say, formed — by far the most interesting portion of the whole building,
from its many associations with the eminent men of other days. Here it was that Walter
Chepman, a burgess of Edinburgh, famous as the introducer of the printing-press to
Scotland, founded and endowed a chaplainry at the altar of St John the Evangelist, " in
honour of God, the Virgin Mary, St John the Apostle and Evangelist, and all Saints."
The charter is dated 1st August 1513, an era of peculiar interest. Scotland was then
rejoicing in all the prosperity and happiness consequent on the wise and beneficent reign
of James IV. Learning was visited with the highest favour of the court, and literature
was rapidly extending its influence under the zealous co-operation of Dunbar, Douglas,

1 Hume of Qodscroft's Hist, of the Douglases, p. 118. Hume attempts to free the Earl from the charge, but with
little success.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 389

Kennedy, and others, with the royal master printer. Only one month thereafter, Scotland
lay at the mercy of her southern rival. Her King was slain ; the chief of her nobles
and warriors had perished on Flodden Field ; and adversity and ignorance again replaced
all the advantages that had followed in the train of the gallant James's rule. Thenceforth
the altars of St Giles's Church received few and rare additions to their endowments.
There is good reason for believing that Walter Chepman lies buried in the south transept
of the Church, close by the spot where " the Good Regent," James Earl of Murray, the
Regent Morton, and his great rival the Earl of Atholl, are buried, and adjoining the aisle
where the mangled remains of the great Marquis of Montrose were reiuterred, with every
mark of honour, on the 7th of January 1661. This receives strong corroboration
from an agreement entered in the Burgh Registers, 30th June 1 579, by which the
Couticil " grants and permits that upon the west part of Walter Chepmanis lyle, fernent
the Earl of Murrayis tomb, sal be broken, and thair ane burial-place be maid for the Earl
of Athole."

The Regent's tomb, which stood on the west side of the south transept, was on many
accounts an object of peculiar interest. As the monument erected to one who had played
so conspicuous a part in one of the most momentous periods of our national history, it
was calculated to awaken many stirring associations. The scene which occurred when the
Regent's remains were committed to the tomb was itself not the least interesting among
the memorable occurrences that have been witnessed in the ancient Church of St Giles,
when the thousands who had assembled within its walls were moved to tears by the
eloquence of Knox. " Vpoun the xiiij day of the moneth [of Februar, 1570], being
Tyisdaye," says a contemporary, " my lord Regentis corpis being brocht in ane bote be sey
fra Striueling to Leith, quhair itwas'keipit in Johne Wairdlaw his hous, and thairefter
caryit to the palace of Halyrudhous, wes transportit fra the said palace of Halyrudhous to
the college kirk of Sanctgeill in this manner ; that is to say, William Kirkaldie of Grange
knycht, raid fra the said palice in dule weid, beirand ane pensall quhairin wes contenit ane
reid lyoun ; efter him followit Coluill of Cleishe, maister houshald to the said regent, with
ane vther pensell quhairin wes contenit my lord regentis armes and bage ; efter thame wes
the Erlis of Athole, Mar, Glencarne, lordis of Ruthvene, Methvene, maister of Grahame,
lord Lindsay, with diuerse vtheris barronis, beirand the saidis corpis to the said college kirk
of Sanctgeill, quhairin the samyne wes placeit befoir the pulpett; and thairefter Johne
Knox minister made ane lamentable sermond tuitching the said murther ; the samin being
done, the said corpis wes burijt in Sanct Anthoneis yle within the said college kirk."1 The
Regent's tomb was surmounted with his arms, and bore on the front of it a brass plate
with the figures of Justice and Faith engraved thereon, and the epitaph composed by
Buchanan 2 for the purpose : —

IACOBO STOVARTO, MORAVIA COMITI, SCOTLE PROREGIi
VIRO, jETATIS SVM, LONGE OPTIMO : AB INIMICIS,
OMNIS MEMORISE DETERRIMIS, EX INSIDIIS EXTINCTO,
CEV PATRI COMMVNI, PATRIA M03RENS POSVIT.

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 158. 2 Calderwood's Hist., vol. ii. p. »26.

390 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH

Underneath the coat of anus, to the left of the above inscription, was the motto, — PIETAS,
SINE VINDICE, LUGET; and on the right side, — jus EXARMATUM EST. The monument which
stood directly opposite to that of the Regent was generally understood to be that of the
Earl of Atlioll, who was buried with great solemnity in the south aisle of the church on
the 4th of July 1579. The sumptuous preparations for this funeral led to the interference
of the General Assembly, by whom, " commissioun was givin to some brethrein to declare
to the lords that the Assemblie thought the croce and the stroups superstitious and ethnick
like, and to crave they may be removed at the Erie of AtholPs buriall. The lords
answered, they sould caus cover the mortcloath with blacke velvet, and remove the
strowpes."1 The lords, however, failed in their promise. The strowpes, or flambeaux,
were used on the occasion, notwithstanding the promise to the contrary, in consequence
of which a riot ensued. Crawford2 describes the stately monument erected over his
grave; but from his allusion to an allegorical device of a pelican, vulued, feeding her
young — the crest of the Earls of Moray, but an emblem, as he conceives, designed to
signify the long devotion borne by the Earl of Atholl to his country — he has evidently
mistaken for it that of the Regent. There was a vacant panel on this monument,
apparently intended for inserting a brass plate similar to that on the Earl of Murray's
tomb, but it had either been removed or never inserted. On the top had been a coat of
arms, but all that remained was a representation of two pigeons, and the date 1579,3 which,
however, may be received as conclusive evidence of its having been the Earl of Atholl's
monument. The portion of the Church which contained these monuments was approached
by a door from the Parliament Close, which was never closed, so that the Regent's Aisle
was a common place for appointments. It is alluded to in Sempill's satirical poem, " The
Banishment of Poverty," as a convenient lounge for idlers, where he humorously describes
the repast provided for him by the Genius of Poverty : —

Then I knew no way how to fen ;

My guts rumbled like a hurle-barrow ;
I dined with saints and noblemen,

Ev'n sweet Saint Giles and Earl of Murray.

It probably originated no less in the veneration with which "the Good Regent" was
regarded than in the convenience of the place, that it was long a common occurrence to
make bills payable at " the Earl of Murray's " tomb, and to fix on it as the place of assigna-
tion for those who proposed entering on any mutual contract.4 The fact will seem hardly
credible to future generations, that this national monument, erected, as the inscription on
it expressed, as the tribute of a mourning country to their common father, was deliberately
demolished during the alterations in 1829 in the process of enlarging the Assembly Aisle.

1 Calderwood's Hist., vol. iii. p. 446. s Crawford's Officers of State, p. 136. Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. ii. Ap. p. 180.

3 Kincaid's Hist, of Edinburgh, p. 179. The pigeons were probably young pelicans.

4 The custom is one of long standing. Among the Closeburn papers, in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., a con-
tract by Sir Thomas Kirkpntrick for the payment of a considerable sum of money, dated in the reign of Charles I., makes
it payable at Earl Murray's tomb. There is a remarkable charter of James II. in 1452, entailing the lands of Barntotm
on George Earl of Caithness, and his heirs and asai'jns, and his natural daughter ; with this proviso, that he, or his
assigns, should cause to be paid to his bastard daughter, Janet, on a particular day, between the rising and settiug of the
sun, in the Parish Church of St Giles, in his burgh of Edinburgh, upon the high altar of the same, three hundred marks,
uoual money. — Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 774.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 391

The plan of the architect proved after all a total failure, and a new hall had to be provided
elsewhere for the meetings of the General Assembly of the Church. The removal of this
important national monument was not effected without considerable opposition, and its
destruction in the face of repeated remonstrances reflects indelible disgrace on all who had
a share in it. The brass plate, with the inscription prepared by Buchanan for this tomb,
has been rescued from the general wreck, and is now preserved by the descendants of the
Regent at Dunnybristle House. We trust it is preserved to be again restored to the place
where it so long formed the chief point of attraction. The same transept, styled the Old
Church^ was the scene of Jenny Geddes's famous onslaught on the Dean of St Giles's,
owing to the alterations which were in progress on the choir at the period when the
use of the liturgy was attempted to be enforced, in order to adapt it for the cathedral
service.2 A very characteristic episode or by-play, which was enacted in a corner of the
church while the heroine of the Cutty Stool was playing her more prominent part with
the Dean, is thus narrated by a contemporary : — " A good Christian woman, much desirous
to remove, perceaving she could get no passage patent, betooke herselfe to her Bible in a
remote corner of the church. As she was there stopping her eares at the voice of popische
charmers, whome she remarked to be verie headstrong in the publict practise of their anti-
christiane rudiments, a young man sitting behind her beganne to sound foarth, Amen!
At the hearing therof, she quicklie turned her about, and after she had warmed both his
cheekes with the weight of her hands, she thus schott against him the thunderbolt of her
zeal — ' False theefe ! (said she) is there no uther parte of the kirke to sing masse in but
thou must sing it at my lugge ? ' The young man, being dashed with such ane hote unex-
pected rencounter, gave place to silence in signe of his recantatione." The erection of
the Bishopric of Edinburgh in 1633, and the appointment of the Collegiate Church of St
Giles to be the cathedral of the diocese, led to its temporary restoration internally to some-
thing like its ancient appearance. But ere the royal commands could be carried into
effect for the demolition of all its galleries and subdivisions, and its adaptation as the
cathedral church of the new bishop, the entire system of Church polity for which these
changes were designed had come to a violent end, involving many more important things
in its downfall. " In this Isle," says Kincaid, " are sundry inscriptions in Saxon charac-
ters, cut on the pavement, of very coarse sculpture." Similar ancient monuments covered
the floor in other parts of the church, but every vestige of them has been swept away in
the improvements of 1829. A large portion of one, boldly cut and with the date 1508, was
preserved in the nursery of the late firm of Messrs Eagle & Henderson. The inscription ran
round the edge of the stone in Gothic characters, and contained the name and date thus : —

31acot)i . lame . qut . olmt . ano . Dm . m» . t>° . octato.

A shield in the centre bore a lamb, well executed, lying with its feet drawn together.
Other two of these monumental stones, now completely defaced, form the paving in front
of the Fountain Well!

1 Lord Rothes' Relation, Append, p. 198.

8 "In the year 1636, the Town Council ordered one of the Bailiff's and one of the Clerks of Edinburgh to desire
James Hanna, the Dean of St Giles's Church, to repair to Durham, to take a Draught of the Choir of the Cathedral
Church in that city, iu order to tit up and beautify the inside of St Giles's Church after the same manner." — Maitlaud,
p. 281. * A Breefe and True Relations of the Broyle, &c., 1637.

392 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH

The changes effected on the mirth transept, though equally radical with any we h;ive
described on other parts of the church, were accompanied with some beneficial effects cal-
culated to atone in a slight degree for the destruction of its ancient features. This transept
remained in its original state, extending no further than the outer wall of the north aisle
of the choir. Beyond this, and within the line of the centre aisle of the transept, was the
belfry turret, with its curious and picturesque stone roof, which is" accurately represented
in the view from the north-west. This turret was entirely removed and built anew, with
a crocketed spire in lieu of the more unique though rude form of the old roof, in a
position to the west of the transept, so as so admit of the latter being extended as far north
as the outer wall of the old building. This was accomplished by the demolition of an aisle
which had been added to the old transept, apparently about the end of the fifteenth cen-
tury, and which, though equally richly finished with groined roof and sculptured bosses
and corbels, was used till very shortly before its demolition as the offices of the town-clerk.
The appropriation, indeed, of the centre of the ancient Collegiate Church, was perhaps an
act of as disgraceful and systematic desecration as ever was perpetrated by an irreverent
age. The space within the great pillars of the centre tower was walled off and converted
into a stronghold for the incarceration of petty offenders, and the whole police establish-
ment found accommodation within the north transept and the adjoining chapels. The
reverent spirit of earlier times, which led to the adornment of every lintel°and facade with
its appropriate legend or Scripture text, had long disappeared ere this act of sacrilege was
so deliberately accomplished, otherwise a peculiarly suitable motto might have been°found
for St Giles's north doorway in the text : " My house shall be called the house of prayer,
but ye have made it a den of thieves ! "

In the subdivision of the ancient church for Protestant worship, the south aisle of
the nave, with three of the five chapels built in 1389, were converted into what was called
the Tolbooth Kirk. Frequent allusions, however, by early writers, in addition to the
positive evidence occasionally furnished by the records of the courts, tend to show that
both before the erection of the new Tolbooth, and after it was found inadequate for the
purposes of a legislative hall and court house, the entire nave of St Giles's Church was
used for the sittings of both assemblies, and is frequently to be understood as the place
referred to under the name of the Tolbooth. In the trial, for example, of « Mr Adame
Colquhoune, convicted of art and part of the treasonable slaughter and murder of umq"
Robert Rankin," the sederunt of the court is dated March 16, 1561-2, " In Insula, vocat.
Halie-blude Till, loco pretorii de Edr.," ' and nearly a century later, Nicoll, the old diarist^
in the midst of some very grave reflections on the instabUitie of man, and the misereis
of kirk and stait in .his time, describes the frequent changes made on " the Kirk callit
the Tolbuith Kirk, quhilk wes so callit becaus it wes laitlie the pairt and place quhair the
criminall court did sitt, and quhair the gallons and the mayden did ly of old ; lykewyse,
this Kirk alterit and chayngit, and of this one Kirk thai did mak two." 2 During the
interval between the downfall of Episcopacy in 1639, and its restoration in 1661, a constant
succession of changes seem to have been made on the internal subdivision of St Giles's
Church, though without in any way permanently affecting the original features of the
building.

1 Pitcai.n's Crim. Trials, Supplement, p. 419. > Nicol].g j^ p m_

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 393

Externally, the recent alterations, though greatly injuring the Old Church in some parts,
and particularly in its south front towards the Parliament Close, have effected decided
improvements on others. Many of the buttresses had been injured or entirely removed to
make way for the booths erected against its walls, and most of the mullions and tracery of
the windows had disappeared, and been replaced by clumsy wooden sashes. In the year
1561 the western wall was rebuilt by order of the Town Council. It is probable that this
part of the building was originally characterised by the usual amount of ornament lavished
on the west fronts of cathedrals and collegiate churches, as canopied niches, gurgoils, and
other fragments of ornate ecclesiastical architecture were scattered in an irregular manner
throughout the rude masonry. When it was rebuilt, however, it was no doubt hemmed in
with buildings as it remained till 1809, so that there was little inducement to erect any-
thing more than a substantial wall. Here, therefore, the architect found a fair field for
the exercise of his genius, and the result is at any rate an improvement on what preceded
it. The east end is also improved externally by the addition of buttresses, though at the
sacrifice of " our ladie's niche ; " and the new work preserves an exact fac-simile of the
tracery of the great east window. On the north side of the choir the monument of the
Napier family forms a conspicuous and interesting feature, though recent investigations by
the late Professor Wallace are generally received as a confutation of the tradition that it
marks the tomb of the illustrious Inventor of Logarithms.1 It is exceedingly probable
that this monument indicates the site of St Salvator's altar, to the chaplain of which
Archibald Napier of Merchiston, in 1494, mortified an annual rent of twenty merks out of
a tenement near the College Kirk of the Holy Trinity.2

The present graceful Crown Tower of St Giles's, which forms so striking a feature not
only of the church but of the town, dates no further back than the year 1648, when it was
rebuilt on the model of the older tower, which had then fallen into decay. Of the four
bells, which seem to have formed the whole complement of the belfry in early times,
one, which bore the name of St Mary's Bell, was taken down at the same time that St
Giles's arm bone was cast forth as a relic of superstition, and " with the brazen pillars in

1 Archseologia Scotica, vol. iv. p. 213 ; where evidence is produced, derived from the writings of James Hume of
Oodscroft, a contemporary of Napier, to show that he was buried in St Cuthbert's Church. The question, however, still
admits of doubt. Hume's work, a Treatise on Trigonometry, wag published at Paris in 1636. He remarks of the
Inventor of Logarithms : — " II mourut Van 1616, et fut enterre' hors la Porte Occidentale d'Edinbourg, dans 1'Eglise
de Sainct Cudbert." In this statement the wrong year is assigned for his death, and other passages show that the
author was at least personally unacquainted with the Scottish philosopher. The stone in St Giles's Church ia, after all,
the best evidence. The inscription simply bears : — s . s . p. FAM . DE NEPEROHCM INTBKIUS mo SITUM EST. But it is
surmounted with the arms and crest of Merchiston, along with the Wrychtishousis shield. The recent biographer of
Napier remarks (Mems. of Napier of Merchiston, by Mark Napier, Esq., p. 425), "The stone has every appearance of
being much older than the time of the philosopher." To us, however, it appears quite in the style of that period, the
"best evidence of which is its close resemblance to that of the rare title-page of the first edition of the Logarithms,
published at Edinburgh by Andrew Hart, A.D. 1614, a fac-simile of which adorns that interesting volume of biography.
The close intimacy between the Napiers of Merchistoa and Wrychtishousis had been cemented by an alliance in 1513.
Its continuation in the time of the philosopher is shown by an application from his neighbour for a seat or da.sk adjoin-
ing his in the Parish Church of St Cuthbert, so that their possession of a common place of sepulture at the period of
his death is extremely probable. Add to this, the unvarying traditions among the descendants of Napier, as we are
assured by his biographer, all pointing to the Collegiate Church of St Giles as the burial-place of the philosopher, where
his ancestors had founded a chantry, most probably above their own vault. Further evidence may yet be discovered
on this subject. The late Rev. Principal Lee informed us, that he possessed an abstract of documents proving the use
of the family vault in St Giles's Church at a later date than the death of the philosopher, which adds to the improbability
of his being buried elsewhere.

8 Inventar of Pious Donations, M.S. Ad. Lib.

394 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the Church, were ordered to be converted into great guns for the use of the Town," a
resolution so far departed from, that they were sold the following year for two hundred
and twenty pounds.1 Two of the remaining bells were recast at Campvere in Zealand, in
1621 ; 2 and the largest of these having cracked, it was again recast at London in 1846.
In 1585, St Giles's Church obtained some share of its neighbours' spoils, after having
been stripped of all its sacred furniture by the iconoclasts of the sixteenth century. That
year the Council purchased the clock belonging to the Abbey Church of Lindores in Fife,
and put it up in St Giles's steeple,3 previous to which time the citizens probably regulated
time chiefly by the bells for matins and vespers, and the other daily services of the Roman
Catholic Church.

Such is an attempt to trace, somewhat minutely, the gradual progress of St Giles's,
from the small Parish Church of a rude hamlet, to the wealthy Collegiate Church, with its
forty altars, and a still greater number of chaplains and officiating priests ; and from
thence to its erection into a cathedral, with the many vicissitudes it has since undergone,
until its entire remodelling in 1829. The general paucity of records enabling us to fix the
era of the later stages of Gothic architecture in Scotland confers on such inquiries some
value, as they suffice to show that our northern architects adhered to the early Gothic
models longer than those of England, and executed works of great beauty and mechanical
skill down to the reign of James V., when political and religious dissensions abruptly
closed the history of ecclesiastical architecture in the kingdom. No record preserves to us
the names of those who designed the ancient Parish Church of St Giles, or the elaborate
additions that gradually extended it to its later intricate series of aisles, adorned with
every variety of detail. It will perhaps be as well, on the whole, that the name of
the modern architect who undertook the revision of their work should share the same
oblivion.

Very different, both in its history and architectural features, from the venerable though
greatly modernised Church of St Giles, is the beautiful edifice which stood at the foot of
Leith Wynd, retaining externally much the same appearance as it assumed nearly 400
years ago, at the behest of the widowed Queen of James II., whose ashes repose beneath
its floor. The Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity was founded in 1462, by the Queen
Dowager, Mary of Guelders, for a provost, eight prebends, and two singing boys ; in
addition to which there was attached to the foundation an hospital for thirteen poor bede-
men, clad, like the modern pensioners of royalty, in blue gowns, who were bound to pray
for the soul of the royal foundress. In the new statutes, it. is ordered that " the saidis
Beidmen sail prepair and mak ilk ane of yame on yair awin expensis, ane Blew-gown, con-
form to tlie first Foundation" The Queen Dowager died on the 16th November 1463,
and was buried " in the Queen's College besyde Edinburgh, quhilk sho herself foundit,
biggit, and dotit." ' No monument remains to mark the place where the foundress is laid;
but her tomb is generally understood to be in the vestry, on the north side of the church.
The death of the Queen so soon after the date of the charter of foundation, probably
prevented the completion of the church according to the original design. As it now stands
it consists of the choir and transepts, with the central tower partially built, and evidently

1 Maitland, p. 273. 2 Ibid, p. 02. 3 Burgh Register, vol. vii. p. 177. Maitland, p. 273. « Lesley's Hist. p. 36.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 395

hastily completed with crow-stepped gables and a slanting roof. The church is a beautiful
specimen of the decorated English style of archi-
tecture. The east end of the choir more especially
has a very stately and imposing effect. It is
an Apsis, with a lofty window in each of its three
sides, originally filled with fine tracery, and not

improbably with painted glass, though the only evidence of either that now remains is the
broken ends of mullions and transoms. The ornamental details with which the church
abounds exhibit great variety of design, though many of those on the exterior are greatly
injured by time. Various armorial bearings adorn different parts of the building, and
particularly the east end of the choir. One of the latter has angels for supporters, but
otherwise they are mostly too much decayed to be decipherable. One heraldic device,
which, from its sheltered position on the side of a buttress at the west angle of the south
transept, has escaped the general decay, is described both by Maitland and Arnot as the
arms of the foundress. It proves, however, to be the arms of her brother-in-law, Alexander
Duke of Albany, who at the time of her decease was residing at the court of the Duke
of Guelders. From the royal supporters still traceable, attached to a coat of arms sculp-
tured on the north-east buttress of the vestry, the arms of the foundress would appear to
have been placed on that part of the church where she lies buried. In the foundation
charter it is specially appointed, that "whenever any of the said Prebendaries shall read
Mass, he shall, after the same, in his sacredotal habiliments, repair to the tomb of the
foundress with a sprinkler, and there devoutly read over the De Prqfundis, together with
the Fidelium, and an exhortation to excite the people to devotion." Many of the details
of the church are singularly grotesque. The monkey is repeated in all variety of positions
in the gurgoils, and is occasionally introduced in the interior among other figures that
seem equally inappropriate as the decorations of an ecclesiastical edifice, though of common
occurrence in the works of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The varied corbels exhibit
here and there an angel, or other device of beautiful form ; but more frequently they
consist of such crouching monsters, labouring under the burden they have to bear up, as
seem to realise Dante's Purgatory of Pride, where the unpurged souls dree their doom of
penance underneath a crushing load of stone : —

As, to support incumbent floor or roof,
For corbel, is a figure sometimes seen,
That crumples up its knees unto its breast ;
With the feigned posture, stirring ruth unfeigned
In the beholder's fancy.1

The centre aisle is lofty, and the groining exceedingly rich, abounding in the utmost
variety of detail. A very fine doorway, underneath a beautiful porch with groined roof,
gives access to the south aisle of the choir, and a small but finely proportioned door-
way may be traced underneath the great window of the north transept, though now
built up. The admirable proportions and rich variety of details of this church, as well
as its perfect state externally, untouched, save by the hand of time — if we except the
tracery of its windows — render it one of the most attractive objects of study to the

1 Gary's Dante. Purgatory. Canto x.

396 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

lover of Gothic architecture that now remains in the capital. Unhappily, however,
the march of improvement threatens its demolition. It has already been marked for
a prey by the engineers of the North British Railway, for the purpose of enlarging
their terminus ; and unless the exertions of the lovers of antiquity succeed in averting
its destruction, the doom has already been pronounced of this venerable fane which
covers the remains of Mary of Guelders, the Queen of James II.1 The vestry affords,
externally, a fine specimen of the old Scottish method of " theiking with stone," with
which the whole church, except the central tower, was roofed till about the year 18H, when
it was replaced with slates. The vestry also exhibits a rare specimen of an ancient
Gothic chimney, an object of some interest to the architect, from the few specimens of
domestic architecture in that style which have escaped the general destruction of the
religious houses in Scotland.

The collegiate buildings,' erected according to the plan of the foundress, were built
immediately adjoining the church on the south side, while the hospital for the bede-
men stood on the opposite side of Leith Wynd. In 1567 the church, with the whole
collegiate buildings, were presented by the Regent Murray to Sir Simon Preston,
Provost of Edinburgh, by whom they were bestowed on the town. New statutes were
immediately drawn up for regulating " the beidmen and hospitularis now present
and to cum ; " 2 and the hospital buildings being found in a ruinous condition, part
of the collegiate buildings were fitted up and converted into the new hospital, which
thenceforth bore the name of Trinity Hospital. This venerable edifice was swept
away in 1845 in clearing the site for the railway station, and its demolition brought
to light many curious evidences of its earlier state. A beautiful large Gothic fire-
place, with clustered columns and a low-pointed arch, was disclosed in the north gable,
while many rich fragments of Gothic ornament were found built into the walls — the
remains, no doubt, of the original hospital buildings used in the enlargement and repair
of the college. In the bird's-eye view in Gordon's map, an elegant Gothic lantern
appears on the roof above the great hall, but this had disappeared long before the demoli-
tion of the building. In enlarging the drain from the area of the North Loch, in 1822,
an ancient causeway was discovered fully four feet below the present level of the church
floor, and extending a considerable way up the North Back of the Canongate. Its great
antiquity was proved on the recent demolition of the hospital buildings, by the discovery
that their foundations rested on part of the same ancient causeway thus buried beneath
the slow accumulations of centuries, and which was not improbably a relic of the Roman
invasion. One of the grotesque gurgoils of the Trinity Hospital is now preserved in the
Antiquarian Museum.

In the view of Trinity College Church, drawn by Paul Sandby for Maitland's History
of Edinburgh, a building is shown attached to the west end of it, which appears to have
been a separate hospital maintained by the town, after the Magistrates had obtained the
exclusive control of the Queen's charitable foundation. In the will of Katharine Norwell,
for example, the widow of the celebrated printer Thomas Basseudyne, dated 8th August

1 As anticipated, Trinity College Church was taken down on the construction of the North British Railway in 1846.
The stones having been almost entirely preserved, and a site obtained on a spot nearly opposite to where it originally
stood, it is now (1872) being rebuilt. 2 Maitland, pp. 211, 4SO.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 397

1593, she leaves " to ewerie ane of the pure folkis io the Hospitall of the Triuitie College,
and of the Toun College of the west end of the College Kirk, iij s. iiij d."1

One other collegiate church was enclosed within the walls of the ancient capital, knowii
as that of St Mary in-the-Fields, or, more commonly, the Ktrk-of-Field. We have
already referred to it as the scene of one of the most extraordinary deeds of violence that
the history of any age or country records — the murder of Darnley, the husband of Queen
Mary, perpetrated by Bothwell and his accomplices on the night of the 9th of February
1567, when the Provost's house, in which he lodged, was blown into the air with gun-
powder, involving both Darnley and his servant in the ruins.2 When young Roland
Graeme, the hero of the Abbot, draws near for the first time to the Scottish capital, under
the guidance of the bluff falconer, Adam Woodcock, he is represented exclaiming on a
sudden — " Blessed Lady, what goodly house is that which is lying all in ruins so close to
the city ? Have they been playing at the Abbot of Unreason here, and ended the gambol
by burning the church? " The ruins that excited young Graeme's astonishment were none
other than those of the Kirk-of- Field, which stood on the sight of the present University
buildings. It appears in the view of 1544, as a large cross church, with a lofty central
tower ; and the general accuracy of this representation is in some degree confirmed by the
correspondence of the tower to another view of it taken immediately after the murder of
Darnley, when the church was in ruins. The latter drawing, which has evidently been made
in order to convey an accurate idea of the scene of the murder to the English Court, is pre-
served in the State Paper Office, and a fac-simile of it is. given in Chalmers' Life of Queen
Mary. The history of the Collegiate Church of St Mary iu-the-Fields presents scarcely
any other feature of interest than that which attaches to it as the scene of so strange and
memorable a tragedy. Its age and its founder are alike unknown. It was governed by a
provost, who, with eight prebendaries and two choristers, composed the college, with the
addition of an hospital for poor bedemen ; and it is probable that its foundation dated no
earlier than the fifteenth century, as all the augmentations of it which are mentioned in
the " Inventar of Pious Donations," belong to the sixteenth century. Bishop Lesley
records, in 1558, that " the Erie of Argyle and all his cumpanie entered in the toune of
Edinburgh without anye resistance, quhair thay war weill receaved ; and suddantlie the
Black and Gray Freris places war spulyeit and cassin douue, the haill growing treis plucked
up be the ruittis ; the Trinitie College and all the prebindaris houses thairof lykewise
cassin doun ; the altaris and images within Sanct Gel is Kirke and the Kirk-of- Field
destroyed and brint."3 It seems probable, however, that the Collegiate Church of St
Mary-in-the- Field was already shorn of its costliest spoils before the Reformers of the
Congregation visited it in 1558. In the " Inventory of the Townis purchase from the
Marquis of Hamilton, in 1613," with a view to the founding of the college, we have
found an abstract of " a feu charter granted by Mr Alexander Forrest, provost of the
Collegiate Church of the blessed Mary in-the-Fields near Edinr', and by the prebends of
the said church," bearing date 1554, wherein, among other reasons specified, it is
stated • " considering that ther houses, especialy ther hospital annexed and incorporated
with ther college, were burnt doun and destroyed by their auld enemies of England, so
that nothing of their said hospital was left, but they are altogether waste and entirely

1 Banuatyne Misc., vol. ii. p. 221. : Ante, p. 78. * Lesley, p. 275.

398 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

destroyed ; wherethrough the divine worship is not a little decreaced in the college,
because they were unable to rebuild the said hospital ; . . Therefore they gave,
granted, set in feu farme, and confirmed to a magnificent and illustrious Prince, James
Duke of Chattelarault, Earl of Arran, Lord Hamilton, &c., all and hail their tenement or
hospital, with the yards and pertinents thereof ; lying within the burgh of Edinburgh in
the street or wynd called School-House Wynd, on the east part thereof." The Duke of
Chatelherault appears, from frequent allusions by contemporary annals, to have built a
mansion for his own use on the site of the Hospital of St Mary's Collegiate Church,
which afterwards served as the first hall of the new college. The Town Council proceeded
leisurely, yet with hearty zeal, in the gradual extension of the college ; and frequent
notices in the Council Records prove the progress of the buildings. On the 25th June
1656, the following entry occurs : — " For the better carieing on of the buildinges in the
colledge, there is a necessetie to break down and demolishe the hous neirest to the Patter-
raw Port, quich now the Court du Guaird possesseth ; thairfoir ordaines the thesaurer,
with John Milne, to visite the place, and to doe therein what they find expedient,
as weill for demolishing the said hous, as for provyding the Court du Guaird uterwayis."
Private citizens largely promoted the same laudable object, not only by pecuniary contribu-
tions, but by building halls and suits of chambers at their own cost. No regular plan, how-
ever, was adopted, and the old college buildings at the time of their demolition presented
a rude assemblage of edifices of various dates and very little pretension to ornament.

Beyond the walls of the capital the ancient Parish Church of Eestalrig was erected by
James III. into a Collegiate Church for a dean and canons ; and the college was sub-
sequently enlarged both by James IV. and V., as well as by numerous contributions
from private individuals. It must have been a large church, with probably collegiate
buildings of considerable extent attached to it, if we may judge from the uses to
which its materials were applied.1 The village also appears to have been a place
of much greater size and importance than we can form any conception of from its
present remains. It was no doubt in early times the chief town of the barony, and a
much more extensive one than the Port of Leith. During the siege of the latter in
1559-60, Bishop Lesley informs us that "the Lord Gray, lieutenneut of the Inglis
army, Judged in Lestalrig toun, in the Deanis hous, and mouy of all thair hors and
demi-lances." 2 The choir, which is the only part that has escaped demolition, is a
comparatively small, though very neat specimen of decorated English Gothic. It
remained in a ruinous state until a few years since, when it was restored and fitted
up with some degree of taste as a Chapel of Ease for the neighbouring district. A
church is believed to have existed here at a very early period, as it was celebrated for the
tomb of Saint Triduana, a noble virgin who is said to have come from Achaia in the
fourth century, in company with St Rule, and to have died at Restalrig. Her tomb was
the resort of numerous pilgrims, and the scene as was believed of many miracles.8 By a

1 Ante, p. 83. " Lesley, p. 284.

3 The miracles ascribed to St Triduana were chiefly wrought on diseased eyes ; and she is accordingly frequently
painted carrying her eyes on a salver or on the point of a sword. Lindsay speaks of pilgrims going " to St Tredwell
to mend their ene ; " and again in his curious inventory of saints in The Monarchic : —

Sanct Tredwall, als, tharc may be sene,
Quhilk on ane prick hes baith her ene.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 399

charter of James IV., dated a few months before the Battle of Flodden, the Abbots of
Holyrood and Newbottle are empowered to erect into a new prebendary the chapelry of
St Triduan's aisle, founded in the Collegiate Church of Restalrig by James Bishop of Ross.
The existence both of the church and parish at the death of Alexander III. is proved
by various charters. In 1291, Adam of St Edmunds, parson of Lestalric, obtained a
writ to the Sheriff of Edinburgh to put him in possession of his lands and rights ; and the
same ecclesiastic swore fealty to Edward in 1296.1 The portion of the choir now remaining
cannot date earlier than the fourteenth century, and is much plainer than might be expected
iu a church enriched by the contributions of three successive monarchs, and the resort of
so many devout pilgrims, as to excite the special indignation of one of the earliest assemblies
of the Kirk as a monument of idolatry. An ancient crypt or mausoleum of an octangular
form and of large dimensions, stands on the south side of the church. It is constructed
internally with a groined roof springing from a single pillar in the centre; and is still
more beautifully adorned externally with some venerable yews that have taken root in the
soil accumulated on its roof. This ancient mausoleum is believed to have been erected by
Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig, knight, in the earlier part of the sixteenth century,2 and
has evidently been constructed on the model of St Margaret's Well, which still stands in
its neighbourhood. It afterwards became the property of the Lords Balmeriuoch, and on
their forfeiture iu J 746 it passed to the Earls of Bute, whose property it now remains. In
the year 1560 the Assembly, by a decree dated December 21, " finds that the ministrie of
the word and sacraments of God, and assemblie of the peiple of the whole parochin of
Restalrig, be within the Kirk of Leith ; and that the Kirk of Restalrig, as a monument of
idolatrie, be raysit and utterly castin doun and destroyed ;" 3 and eleven years thereafter
we find its materials taken to build a new port at the Nether Bow.

Not far from the ancient Collegiate Church of Restalrig, on the old road to Holyrood
Abbey, is the beautiful Gothic Well dedicated to St Margaret, the Patron Saint of Scot-
land. An octagonal building rises internally to the height of about four and a half feet,
of plain ashlar work, with a stone ledge or seat running round seven of the sides, while the
eighth is occupied by a pointed arch which forms the entrance to the well. From the
centre of the water which fills the whole area of the building, pure as in the days of the
pious Queen, a decorated pillar rises to the same height as the walls, with grotesque
gurgoils, from which the water has originally been made to flow. Above this springs a
beautiful groined roof, presenting, with the ribs that rise from corresponding corbels at
each of the eight angles of the building, a singularly rich effect when illuminated by the
reflected light from the water below. A few years since this curious fountain stood by the
side of the ancient and little frequented cross-road leading from the Abbey Hill to the
village of Restalrig. A fine old elder tree, with its knotted and furrowed branches, spread
a luxuriant covering over its grass-grown top, and a rustic little thatched cottage stood in
front of it, forming altogether a most attractive object of antiquarian pilgrimage. Unhappily,
however, the inexorable march of modern improvement has visited the spot. A station of
the North British Railway now occupies the site of the old elder tree and the rustic cottage ;

1 Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 785.

2 " Obitus doinini Robert! Logane, militis, donatoris fundi preceptorie Sancti Anthonii prope Leith, anno Domini
1439. "—Obituary of the Preoeptory of St Anthony. 3 The Booke of the Universall Kirk, p. 5.

4oo MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

and the well has to be sought for within the recesses of a dark and unsightly drain,
grudgingly constructed by the Railway Directors after an interdict had arrested them in
the process of demolishing the ancient Gothic building, and stopping the fountain, whose
miraculous waters — once the resort of numerous pilgrims— seem to find a few, even in our
own day, who manifest the same faith in their healing virtues.1

Most of the smaller convents and chapels within the capital have already been treated
of along with the other features of their ancient localities. One, however, still remains to
be noticed, not the least value of which is, that it still exists entire, and with some unusually
rare relics of its original decorations. In early times there existed iu the Cowgate, a little
to the east of the old monastery of the Grey Friars, an ancient Maison Dieu, as it wag
styled, which, having fallen into decay, was refounded in the reign of James V., chiefly by
the contributions of Michael Macquhen, a wealthy citizen of Edinburgh, and afterwards of
his widow, Janet Rynd. The hospital and chapel were dedicated to St Mary Magdalene,
and by the will of the foundress were left in trust to the Corporation of Hammermen, by
whom the latter is now used as a hall for their own meetings. The foundation was sub-
sequently augmented by two several donations from Hugh Lord Somerville in 1541 ; and
though the building doubtless shared in the general ruin that swept over the capital in
1544, they must have been very speedily repaired, as the windows are still adorned with
the ancient painted glass, containing the royal arms of Scotland encircled with a wreath
of thistles, and those of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, within a laurel wreath, along
with the shields of the founder and foundress also enclosed in ornamental borders. One
other fragment, a Saint Bartholomew, has strangely escaped the general massacre of 1559,
that involved the destruction of all the other apostles. The workmanship of the latter
is decidedly inferior to that of the heraldic emblazonry — its hues have evidently faded ;
while the deep ruby and bright yellow of the royal arms still exhibit the unrivalled
brilliancy of the old glass-painters' work. These fragments of ancient painted glass possess
a peculiar value, as scarcely another specimen of the Art in Scotland has escaped the
destructive fury of the reforming mobs. Another unusual, though not equally rare feature,
is the tomb of the foundress, which remains at the east end of the chapel, with the inscrip-
tion round its border in ancient Gothic characters : —

Iijis ane honorabil woman, Saner Stijud, pe
Spous of imiqitl U .Wlitrl .Wlafiquljfii, (HIV.KIJ
of tfo. foimDtr of ijitf place, aim Btcessit pt
iiij ftaij of ©ttftn' ST. bno. nr. \i'. toij0.5

The centre of the stone is occupied with the arms of the founders, husband and wife, im-
paled on one shield. This sculptured slab is now level with a platform which occupies the

1 Lectures on the Antiquities of Kdinburgh, by a Member of the Holy Guild of St Joseph. Part iv. p. 126.

s The date assigned by Pennecuick for the death of the foundress is 1553 ; but this seems to be a mistake. She speaks
in the charter of her husband having resolved on this Christian work when " greatly troubled with a heavy disease, and
opprased with age," and as his endowment is dated 1503, this would make his widow survive him exactly half a century.
The date on the tomb is difficult to decipher, being much worn, but it appears to be 1507. The deed executed by her
is said to be dated so late as 1545, but the original is lost, and only a partial transcript exists among the records of the
Corporation of Hammermen. If such be the correct date, it is strange that nu notice should be taken of the burning of
the town by the Knglisa the previous year, although the deed refers to property lying in the High Street, and in various
closes and wynds, which must then have been in ruins, or just rising from their ashes. The deed of 1545 is possibly an
abstract of previous ones, including those of Lord Somerville, as it specifies his barony of Carnwath Miln, without
naming him.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 401

east end of the chapel for the accommodation of the officials of the Corporation of Ham-
mermen during their meetings; but it is probable from its elevation that it is an altar tomb,
the sides of which may also be decorated with sculpture, though so long hidden by the
Corporation Dais. The date of the foundation of the hospital is 1503, but the charter by
which its augmentation and permanent establishment was secured by the widow of its founder
is said to be dated so late as 1545 — the year succeeding the total destruction of the whole
town. It is at any rate a document of that age, and is not only curious as one of the latest
deeds executed for such a purpose, but is characterised by a degree of naivete as rare in legal
documents of the sixteenth century as now. It runs thus : — " To all and sundry, to whois
knowledge thir presents sail come, and be seen, I Jonet Ryne, relict, executrix, and only
intromissatrix, with the guds and gear of umquhil Michael Macquhan, burges of Edinburgh,
wishing peace in our Lord, makes known by thir presents, That when the said Michael
was greatly troubled with an heavy disease, and oppressed with age, zit mindful of eternal
life, he esteemed it ane gud way to obtain eternal life to erect some Christian work, for ever
to remain and endure : He left seveu hundred pound, to be employed for the supplement of
the edifice of the Magdalen chapell, and to the other edifices, for foundation of the chapel
and sustentation of seven poor men, who should continually there put forth their prayers
to God Almighty ; for there was many others that had promised to mortifye some portion
of their goods for perfeiting and absolveing of the said wark, but they failzied, and with-
drew from such an holly and religious work, and altogether refused thereupon to confer the
samen. Quhilk thing I taking heavily, and pondering it in my heart, what in such an
dificle business sould be done ; at last, I thought night and day upon the fulfilling of my
husband's will, and took upon me the burden of the haill wark, and added two thousand
pounds to the £700 left be my husband : And I did put furth these soumes wholly, after
his death, upon the edification of that chapel, ornaments thereof, and building of the edifice
for the habitation of the chaplane, and seven poor men, and for buying of land, as well
field-land, as burgh-land, and yearly annualrents, for the nourishment, sustentation, and
clothing of them, as hereafter mair largely set down. Therefore, mit ye me, To the praise
and honour of Almighty God, and of his mother the Blissed Virgin Mary, and of Mary
Magdallen, and of the haill celestial court, to have erected and edified ane certain chapell
and hospital-house, lyeing in the burgh of Edinburgh, upon the south side of the King's
high street, called the Cowgate, for habitation of the foresaid chaplain and poor, and that
from the foundation thereof; and has dedicate the samen to the name of Mary Magdallen,
and has foundit the said chaplain, and seven poor, for to give forth their continual prayers
unto God, for the salvation of the soul of our most illustrious Mary Queen of Scots, and
for the salvation of my said umquhil husband's soul and mine : And also, for the salvation
of the souls of our fathers and mothers, and for all the souls of those that shall put to their
helping hand, or sail give any thing to this work : As also, for the patrons of the said
chapel : And also, for the souls of all those of whom we have had any thing whilk we have
not restored, and for the whilk we have not given satisfaction ; to have given and granted,
and by this my present charter in poor and perpetual alms, and to have confirmed in mor-
tification : As also, to give and grant, and by this present charter, gives in poor alms and
mortification, to confirm to Almighty God, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the said chapell
and chapell-house, for the sustentation of ane secular chaplain, and seven poor men, and

2 c

402 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

for the chaplain, aud four poor brethren, to have their yearly food, and perpetual sustenta-
tion within the said hospital ; and for buying of their habits every twa year once, I mortify
these annualrents under-written," &C.1 After very minute directions for the appointment
of the chaplain and the management of the hospital, it is provided : — " And farder, the
said chaplane, every year, once in the year, for the said Michael and Jouet, sail make suf-
frages, which is, 'I am pleased,' and 'direct me, 0 Lord;' with ane Mess of rest, 'being
naked, he clothed me ; ' with two wax candles burning on the altar. To the whilk suffrages
and mess, he shall cause ring the chapel bell the space of ane quarter of an hour, and that
all the foresaid poor, and others that shall be thereiutill, shall be present at the foresaid
mess with their habites, requesting all these that shall come in to hear the said mess to
pray for the said souls. And farder, every day of the blessed Mary Magdallen, patron of
the foresaid hospital, and the day of the indulgence of the said hospital, and every other
day of the year, the said chaplaine shall offer up all the oblations, and for every oblation
shall have twa wax caudles upon the altar, and twa at the foot of the image of the patron
in twa brazen candlesticks, and twa wax torches on the feast of the nativity of our Saviour,
Pasch, and Whitsunday, of the days of Mary Magdallen, and of the days of the indulgences
granted to the said hospital, and doubleing at other great feasts, with twa wax candles
alenerly." Such were the provisions for the due observance of all the formulary of the ser-
vices of the Church, which the chaplain on his induction was bound " to give his great oath,
by touching the sacred Evangile," that he would neither infringe nor suffer to be altered.
It is probable that the chapel was hardly built ere the whole scheme of its founders was
totally overthrown. Certain evidence at least tends to show, that neither the steeple nor
its fine-toned bell ever fulfilled the will of the foundress, by summoning the bedemen and
all who chose to muster at the call to pray for the repose of the founders' souls. The
chapel is adorned at its east end with the royal arms, the city arms, and the armorial bear-
ing of twenty-two corporations, who unite to form the ancient body known as the United
Incorporation of Hammermen, the guardians of the sacred banner, the Blue Blanket, on
the unfurling of which every liege burgher of the kingdom is bound to answer the summons.
The north and east walls of the chapel are almost entirely occupied with a series of tablets
recording the gifts of numerous benefactors. The earliest of these is probably a daughter
of the founder, " Isobel Macquhane, spouse to Gilb* Lauder, merchant burgess of Edinr,
who bigged ye crose house, and mortified £50 yearly out of the Cousland, anno 1555."
Another records that, " John Spens, burgess of Edinburgh, bestowed 100 lods of
Wesland lime for building the stipel of this chapell, anno 1621." Here, therefore, is the
date of erection of the steeple, which receives corroboration from its general features, with
the old-fashioned gurgoils in the form of ornamental cannons, each with a bullet ready
to issue from its mouth. The furnishing of the steeple with " The Chapel Bell " appears
to have been the subject of still further delay, as the bell bears this legend around it, in
Roman characters:— SOLI DEO GLORIA • MICHAEL BURGERHUYS ME
FECIT, AN.NO 1632 ; and in smaller characters, GOD BLIS THE HAMMERMEN OF MAGDA-
LENE CHAPEL." The bell is still rung according to the will of the foundress, however
different be the objects answered by its warning note ; and it was further applied, soon
after its erection, to summon the inhabitants of the neighbouring district to the parish

1 Hist, of the Blue Blanket, *c., by Alexander Pennecuick, p. 46-48.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 403

church, as appears from the Corporation records:— "16 June, 1641, the Gray-friars' Kirk-
Session applied to the Corporation, in order to have the Magdalane Chappie bell rung on
their account, for which they agreed to pay £40 Scots yearly, which was agreed to during
pleasure." 1

This ancient chapel claims our interest now as the arena of proceedings strangely
different from those contemplated by its founders. In 1560, John Craig, a Scottish
Dominican monk, returned to his native country after an absence of twenty-four years,
during which he had experienced a succession of as remarkable vicissitudes as are recorded
of any individual in that eventful age. He had resided as chaplain in the family of Lord
Dacre, an English nobleman, and was afterwards appointed to an honourable office in the
Dominican monastery at Bologna, through the favourable recommendations of the cele-
brated Cardinal Pole. The chance discovery of a copy of Calvin's Institutes in the
convent library led to an entire change in his religious opinions, in consequence of which
he was compelled to fly ; and being at length seized, he endured a tedious imprisonment
in the dungeons of the Roman Inquisition. From this he was delivered the very day
before that fixed for an Auto-da-fe in which he was doomed to suffer at the stake, in
consequence of the tumultuous rejoicing of the Roman population on the death of the
Pope, Paul IV., in 1559, when the buildings of the Inquisition were pillaged, and its
dungeons broken open. Thence he escaped, amid many strange adventures, first to
Bologna, and then to Vienna, where he was appointed chaplain to the Emperor Maxi-
milian II. After a time, however, the Inquisition found him out, and demanded his
being delivered up to suffer the judgment already decreed. This it was that compelled
his return to Scotland, at the very time when his countrymen were carrying out a system
in conformity with his new opinions. He found, however, on revisiting his country
after so long an absence, that he had almost entirely forgot his native tongue, and he
accordingly preached in Latin for a considerable time, in St Magdalene's Chapel, to
such scholars as his learning and abilities attracted to hear him. He afterwards became
the colleague and successor of Knox, and as such published the banns of marriage in St
Giles's Church, preparatory to the fatal union of Queen Mary with Bothwell. We learn
also from Melville's Diary, that " The Generall Assemblie conveinit at Edinbruche
in Apryll 1578, in the Magdalen Chapell. Mr Andro Melvill was- chosin Moderator,
whar was concludit, That Bischopes sould be callit be thair awin names, or be the names
of Br either in all tyme coming, and that lordlie name and authoritie banissed from the
Kirk of God, quhilk hes hot a Lord, Chryst -Jesus." One other incident concerning
the ancient chapel worthy of recording is, that in 1661 the body of the Marquis of
Argyle was carried thither, and lay in the chapel for some days, until it was removed by
his friends to the family sepulchre at Kilmun, while his head was affixed to the north
gable of the Tolbooth.

The Abbey of Holyrood, though a far more wealthy and important ecclesiastical
establishment than St Giles's College, or any other of the ancient religious foundations
of the Scottish capital, may be much more summarily treated of here. Its foundation
charter still exists, and the dates of its successive enlargements and spoliations have
been made the subject of careful investigation by some of our ablest historians. The

J Archaeologia Seotica, p. 177. * Melville's Diary, Wodrow Soc. p. 61.

404 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

foundation of St David's Abbey has already been referred to, with the picturesque
legend from whence it derives its name. The beautiful fragment of the Abbey Church
which still remains, forming the nave of the ancient building, retains numerous traces
of the original work of the twelfth century, though enriched by the additions of a
later age. The earliest drawing of the Abbey and Palace that exists is the bird's-eye
view of 1544, where it is marked by its English draughtsman as " the King of Skotts
palis," although the sole claimant to the throne at that date was the infant daughter
of James V. A comparison of this with the portions still remaining leaves little doubt
of its general accuracy. The Abbey Church appears with a second square tower at
the west front, uniform with the one still standing to the north of the great doorway.
The transepts are about the usual proportions, but the choir is much shorter than it
is proved from other evidence to have originally been, the greater part of it having,
perhaps, been reduced to ruins before the view was taken. During the levelling of the
ground around the Palace, and digging a foundation for the substantial railing with
which it was recently enclosed, the workmen came upon the bases of two pillars, in a
direct line with the nave, on the site of the east railings, proving that the ancient choir
had been of unusual length. A mound of earth which extends still further to the east,
no doubt marks the foundations of other early buildings, and from their being in the direct
line of the building, it is not improbable that a Lady Chapel, or other addition to the
Abbey Church, may have stood to the east of the choir, as is frequently the case in larger
cathedral and abbey churches. A curious relic of the ancient tenants of the monas-
tery was found by the workmen already referred to, consisting of a skull, which had no
doubt formed the solitary companion of one of the monks. It had a hole in the top
of the cranium, which served most probably for securing a crucifix ; and over the brow
was traced in antique characters the appropriate maxim, Memento Mori. This solitary
relic of the furniture of the Abbey was procured by the late Sir Patrick Walker, and is
still in the possession of his family. The English army that " brent the abbey called
Holyrode house, and the pallice adjonynge to the same," in 1544, returned to complete
the destruction of the Abbey in 1547, almost immediately after the accession of Edward
VI. to his father's throne. Their proceedings are thus recorded by the English chronicler :
— " Thear stode south-westward, about a quarter of a mile from our campe, a monasterie :
they call it Hollyroode Abbey. Sir Water Bonham and Edward Chamberlayne gat
lycense to suppresse it; whearupon these commissioners, making first theyr visitacion
thear, they found the moonks all gone, but the church and mooch parte of the house well
covered with leade. Soon after, thei pluct of the leade and had down the bels, which
wear but two ; and according to the statute, did somewhat hearby disgrace the hous. As
touching the moonkes, bicaus they wear gone, thei put them to their peucions at large." l
It need hardly excite surprise, that the invaders should not find matters quite according
to the statute, with so brief an interval between such visitations. The state in which they
did find the Abbey, proves that it had been put in effectual repair immediately after their
former visit.

The repeated burnings of the Abbey by the English army were doubtless the chief
cause of the curtailment of the church to its present diminished size ; yet abundant

1 Patten's Expedition to Scotland. Frag, of Soot. Hist.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 405

evidence remains to show that the choir and transepts were in existence fully a quiirier of
a century later, and that had the necessary exertions been then made for its repair, we
might still have possessed the ancient building in its original and magnificent proportions,
instead of the ruined nave, which alone remains to show what once had been. In " the
heads of the accusation and chief offences laid to Adam, Bishop of Orknay, his charge,"
by the General Assembly of 1569, the fifth is, that " all the said kirks, for the most part,
wherein Christ's evangell may be preached, are decayed, and made, some sheepfolds, and
some so ruinous, that none darre enter into them for fear of falling ; specially Halrud-
house, although the bishop of Sanct Andrews, in time of papistry, sequestrate the whole
rents of the said abbacy, because only the glassen windows were not holden up and
repaired." * To this the Bishop replied, " That the Abbay Church of Halyrudhouse hath
been, these 20 years bygane, ruinous through decay of two principall pillars, so that none
were assured under it ; and two thousand pounds bestowed upon it would not be sufficient
to ease men to the hearing of the word, and ministration of the sacraments. But with
their consent, and help of ane established authority, he was purposed to provide the
means, that the superfluous ruinous parts, to wit, the Queir and Croce Kirk, might be
disponed be faithfull men, to repair the remaneut sufficiently."1 The Bishop's economical
plan was no doubt put in force, and the whole of the choir and transept soon after
demolished and sold, to provide funds for converting the nave into the Parish Kirk of
the Canongate. The two western pillars, designed to support a great central tower,
now form the sides of the east window constructed within the arch, and an examination
of the masonry with which the lower parts of this and the side arches are closed, shows
that it is entirely built with fragments of clustered shafts and other remains of the
ruins. It was at this time, we presume, that the new royal vault was constructed in
the south aisle of the nave, and the remains of the Scottish kings removed from their
ancient resting-place near the high altar of the Abbey Church. It is built against the
ancient Norman doorway of the cloisters, which still remains externally, with its beautiful
shafts and zigz(ag mouldings, an undoubted relic of the original fabric of St David.
The cloisters appear to have enclosed a large court, formed in the angle of the nave
and south transept. The remains of the north side are clearly traceable still, and the
site of the west side is now occupied by the Palace buildings. Here was the ambulatory
for the old monks, when the magnificent foundation of St David retained its pristine
splendour, and it remained probably till the burning of the Abbey after the death of
James V. We learn on the occasion of the marriage of James IV. with the Princess
Margaret of England, that " after all reverences doon at the Church, in ordere as
before, the Kyng transported himself to the Pallais, through the clostre, holdynge
always the Queen by the body, and hys hed bare, till he had brought hyr within her
chammer."

The west front, as it now remains, is evidently the work of very different periods. It
has been curtailed of the south tower to admit of the completion of the quadrangle accord-
ing to the design of Sir William Bruce, and the singular and unique windows over the
great doorway are evidently additions of the time of Charles I., whose initials appear

1 Booke of the Universal! Kirk of Scotland, p. 163. 2 Ibid, p. 167.

406

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Lelow, on the oak beam of the great doorway. Between the windows ail ornamental tablet
of the same date, and decorated in the style of the period, bears the inscription : — BASILI-
CAM HANG, CAROLVS REX, OFTiMvs INSTAVRAVIT, 1633; with the further addition in

English ; — HE SHALL BUILD A HOUSE FOB MY NAME, AND I WILL ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF

HIS KINGDOM FOR EVER ; a motto of strange significance, when we consider the events that
so speedily befell its inscriber, and the ruin that overwhelmed the royal race of the Stuarts,
as with the inevitable stroke of destiny. The chief portions of the west front, however,
are in the most beautiful style of early English, which succeeded that of the Norman.
The details on the west front of the tower, in particular, with its elaborately sculptured
arcade, and boldly cut heads between the arches, and the singularly rich variety of orna-
ment in the great doorway, altogether unite to form a specimen of early ecclesiastical
architecture unsurpassed by any building of similar dimensions in the kingdom. A
beautiful doorway on the north side, in a much later style, is evidently the work of Abbot
Crawfurd, by whom the buttresses of the north side were rebuilt as they now remain, in
the ornate style of the fifteenth century. He succeeded to the abbacy in 1457, and
according to his namesake, in the " Lives of Officers of State," he rebuilt the Abbey
Church from the ground. Abundant evidence still exists in the ruins that remain to
disprove so sweeping a statement, but the repetition of his arms on various parts of the
building prove the extensive alterations that were effected under his directions. He was
succeeded by Abbot Ballantyne, equally celebrated as a builder, who appears to have
completed the work which his predecessor had projected. Father Hay records, that " he
brocht hame the gret bellis, the gret brasin fownt, twintie fowr
capis of gold and silk ; he maid ane chalice of fine gold, ane
eucharist, with sindry chalicis of silver ; he theikkit the kirk with
leid ; he biggit ane brig of Leith, ane othir ouir Glide ; with
mony othir gude workis, qwilkis ware ouir prolixt to schaw." l
The brazen font here mentioned was carried off by Sir Richard
Lee, captain of the English pioneers. in the Earl of Hertford's
army, and presented to the Abbey Church of St Alban's, with a
gasconading Latin inscription engraved on it, which may be thus
rendered : — " When Leith, a town of some celebrity in Scot-
land, and Edinburgh, the chief city of that nation, were on fire,
Sir Richard Lee, Knight of the Garter, snatched me from the
flames, and brought me to England. In gratitude for such kind-
ness, I who heretofore served only to baptize the children of Kings, now offer the same
service to the meanest of the English nation. Lee, the conqueror, so wills it. Farewell.
A.D. 1543-4. 36 Hen. VIII." This font a second time experienced the fate of war,
during the commotions of Charles I.'s reign, when the ungrateful Southron, heedless of
its condescending professions, sold it as a lump of useless metal.2 Seacome, in his His-
tory of the House of Stanley, refers to an old but somewhat confused tradition of an
ancestor of the family of Norris of Speke Hall, Lancashire, who commanded a company, as
would appear from other sources, at the Battle of Pinkie, "in token whereof, he brought

1 Liber Cartarum, p. xxxii.

8 Curuden'a Britannia, by Gough, vol. i. p. 338, where the original Latin inscription U given.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 407

from the deceased King of (Scots' Palace all or most of his princely library, many books
of which are now at Speke, particularly four large folios, said to contain the Records and
Laws of Scotland at that time. He also brought from the said Palace the Wainscot of
the King's Hall, and put it up in his own hall at Speke, wherein are seen all the orders
of architecture, as Tuscan, Dorick, lonick, Corinthian, and Composite ; and round the
top of it this inscription, ' SLEEPE . NOT . TILL . YE . HATHE . CONSEDERD . HOW . THOW .

HAST . SPENT . YE . DAY . PAST . IF . THOW . HAVE . WELL . DON . THANK . GOD . IF . OTHER .

WAYS . REPENT . YE.' " ' Speke Hall still exists as one of the fine old manor-houses
of Lancashire, and could this tradition be relied on would form an object of peculiar
attraction, as the antique wainscot with its quaint moral still adorns the great hall. It
proves, however, to be the work of a later age, corresponding to similar specimens in the
neighbouring halls, erected in the reign of Elizabeth. It might, indeed, be confidently
affirmed, that the Roman orders were not introduced into Scotland till a considerably
later period ; but the above description answers very partially to the original. The tradi-
tion, however, is probably not altogether without foundation. Two figures of angels,
richly gilt, " in form such as are introduced under consoles in Gothic architecture,"
formerly surmounted the wainscot, evidently no part of the original design, and these, it
is conjectured, may have been among the spoils which were carried off from the Palace in
1547.2

The Abbey of Holyrood frequently afforded accommodation to the Scottish Court,
before the addition of a distinct royal dwelling to the ancient monastic buildings. This,
it is probable, was not Effected till the reign of James IV. It is certain, at any rate, that
large sums were spent by him in building and decorating the Palace during the interval
of four years between his betrothment and marriage to Margaret of England. In the
map to which we have so frequently referred, the present north-west tower, which forms
the only ancient portion of the Palace as it now stands, is shown standing almost apart,
and only joined to the south-west tower of the Abbey Church by a low cloister. To the
south of this appears an irregular group of buildings, of considerable extent, and
apparently covered with tiles, while the whole houses in the Canongate seem, from the
colouring of the drawing, to be only thatched. It is not necessary, however, further to
investigate the early history of the Palace here, as most of the remarkable historical
incidents associated with it have already been referred to.

The latest writer who has left any account of the old Palace is John Taylor, the Water
poet, in the amusing narrative of his Penny lesse Pilgrimage to Scotland in 1618. The
following is his description : — " I was at his Majestie's Palace, a stately and princely
seate, wherein I saw a sumptuous Chappell, most richly adorned with all appurten-
ances belonging to so sacred a place, or so royall an owner. In the inner court I saw
the King's Armes cunningly carved in stone, and fixed over a doore aloft on the wall, the
Red Lyon being the Crest, over which was written this inscription in Latin : — Nobis hcec
inmcta miserunt 106 Proavi. I inquired what the English of it was ? it was told me as
followeth, which I thought worthy to be recorded — 106 Fore-fathers have left this to us
unconquere d ; " — an interpretation which leads the Water poet into a series of very loyal

1 Vide Archseologia Scotica, vol. iv. ; from whence the inscription is corroctly given. • Ibid, p. 14

4o8 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

.reflections on "this worthy and memorable motto!" The visit of Taylor to the Palace
and Chapel was almost immediately after that of James VI. to Scotland, so that he no
doubt saw them in all the splendour which had been prepared for the King's reception.
The palace was probably abandoned to neglect and decay after the last visit of Charles I.
in 1641, otherwise it is probable that Cromwell would have taken up his abode there during
his residence in Edinburgh. The improvements, however, effected by Charles, both on the
Palace and Abbey Church, appear to have been considerable. One beautiful memorial of
his residence there is the elaborately carved sun-dial which still adorns the north garden of
the Palace, and is usually known as Queen Mary's Dial, although the cipher of her grand-
son, with those of his Queen and the Prince of Wales, are repeated on its most prominent
carvings. The Palace was converted into barracks by Cromwell soon after his arrival in
Edinburgh, and as Nicoll relates, " ane number of the Englisches futemen being ludgit
within the Abay of Haly Bud Hous, it fell out that upone an Weddinsday, being the
threttene day of November 1650, the haill royall pairt of that palice wes put in flame, and
brint to the ground on all the pairtes thairof." l The diarist, however, has afterwards
qualified this sweeping assertion by adding, " except a lyttel ; " and there is good reason
for believing that the oldest portion of the Palace, usually known as James the Fifth's
Tower, entirely escaped the conflagration, as its furniture, if not so old as Queen Mary's
time, certainly at least dates in the reign of Charles I., some of it being marked with the
cipher of that monarch and his Queen, Henrietta Maria. A fac-simile of a rare print, after
a drawing by Gordon of Rothiemay, in the first volume of the Bannatyne Miscellany,
preserves the only view of the Palace that has come down to us as it existed prior to this
conflagration. The main entrance appears to occupy nearly the same site as at present.
.It ia flanked on either side by round embattled towers, or rather semicircular bow windows,
between which is a large panel, surmounting the grand gateway, and bearing the royal
arms of Scotland. A uniform range of building, pierced with large windows, extends on
either side, and is flanked on the north by the great tower which still remains, but finished
above the battlements as represented in the vignette on page 34. The empty panels also
which still remain in the front turrets appear to have been filled with sculptured armorial
bearings. No corresponding tower existed at the south-west corner of the building until
its remodelling by Sir William Bruce.

The Palace was speedily rebuilt by order of the Protector, but his work came under
revision soon after the Restoration. The directions given by Charles II. for its alteration
and completion enter into the minutest details, among which such commands as the fol-
lowing were probably dictated with peculiar satisfaction : — " Wee doe hereby order you
to cause that parte thereof which was built by the usurpers, and doth darken the court,
to be taken down." 2 The zeal with which both Charles II. and James VII. devoted

> NicollYDiary, p. 35.

. ' Royal warrants. Liber. Cart. p. cxxix. The royal orders would appear to have been occasionally departed from,
e.g., the Earl of Lauderdale writes, by command of Charles II., iu 1671 : — "His Maj"* likes the front very well as it is
Designed, provided the gate where the King's coach is to come in be large enough, As also he likes the taking doune of
that narrow upper parte which was built in Cromwell's time. Hee likes not the covering of all that betwixt the two
great toures with platform at the second storie, but would have it heightened to a third storie, as all the inner court is,
ami sklaited with skaily as the rest of the court is to be ; " in all which respects the original design has evidently been
carried out, notwithstanding his Majesty's directions to tile cuutrarv.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 409

themselves to the restoration of the ancient palace of their fathers, would almost seeiu
to imply the forethought of securing a fit retreat for them in the ancient capital of the
Stuarts, in case of their being again driven from the English throne. On the north-west
pier of the piazza, within the quadrangle of the Palace, the following inscription, in large
Roman characters, marks the site of the foundation-stone of the modern works : — FVN •
BE • RO • MYLNE • MM • IVL -1671 •

The chief popular interest which attaches to the Palace arises from its associations
with the eventful reign of Queen Mary, and the romance that clings to the name of her
unfortunate descendant Prince Charles, though there is a nameless charm about the grey
ruins of the Abbey, and the deserted halls of the Palace of our old kings, which no Scots-
man can resist. A noble and a doomed race have passed away for ever from these scenes
of many a dark tragedy in which they acted or suffered, yet not without leaving memories
to haunt the place, and all the more vividly that no fortunate rival intrudes to break the
spell. In the accompanying engraving of the interior of the Chapel, a point of view has
been chosen which shows the royal vault, the cloister door behind it, the Roxburgh vault,
and the monument of Adam, Bishop of Orkney, attached to one of the pillars — a group
including some of the most interesting features of the ruined nave. The royal vault was
broken into by the revolutionary mob that spoiled the Chapel Royal in 1688, and it was
again rifled after the fall of the roof in 1768, in consequence of the folly of those employed
to repair it, who loaded it with a covering of huge flagstones, of a weight altogether dis-
proportioned to the strength and age of the walls. On the latter occasion, the head of
Queen Magdalene — which, when seen by Arnot in 1766, was entire, and even beautiful
— and the skull of Darnley were carried off. The latter having come into the possession
of Mr James Cummyug of the Lyon Office, the eccentric secretary of the Society of the
Antiquaries of Scotland, his life was rendered miserable thereafter by the persecutions
of the shrewdish cicerone of the Chapel, who haunted him like the ghost of the murdered
Darnley, and lived on his terrors by constant threats of exposure to the Barons of
Exchequer. After his death the skull was traced to the collection of a statuary in Edin-
burgh, but all clue to it seems now lost.

A few old portraits, with sundry relics of the various noble occupants of the Palace in
earlier times, form the only other objects of attraction to the curious visitor. Among the
pictures in the Duke of Hamilton's apartments is one of the many questionable portraits
of Queen Mary. It claims to be an original, in the dress in which she was executed,
though, if the latter statement be true, it goes far to discredit its originality. Another fair
lady, dressed as a shepherdess, and described as the work of Vandyke, though probably only
a copy, is a portrait of Dorothy, Countess of Sutherland — Waller's Sacharissa. Here,
too, are the portraits of two celebrated royal favourites, Jane Shore and Nell Gwynne, as
the ciceroni of the Palace invariably persist in styling the latter, though in reality a portrait
of her frail rival Moll Davies, and bearing a striking resemblance to her engraved portrait.
It corresponds also to the latter in having black hair, whereas that of Nell was fair ; but
it is usual to confer the name of Nell Gwynue on all portraits of such frail beauties.1

1 From Nell Gwynne's will, dated Oct. 18, 1687, and preserved at Doctors Commons, it appears tbat her real name
was Margaret Symcott ; so that the story of her descent from an ancient Welsh family is a spurious invention of courtly
peerage writers, for the gratification of lier illustrious descendants.

4io MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Among the representatives of the rougher sex in this very miscellaneous assemblage is a
very sour-looking divine, dubbed John Knox, and a grave clergyman, probably of the
time of Charles I., whose red calotte or skull cap, we presume, led to his being engraved
both by Pennant and Pinkerton as Cardinal Beaton.1 In the Marquis of Breadalbane's
apartments there is a full-length portrait of Lady Isabella Thyune, daughter of the Earl of
Holland, who perished on the scaffold during the great civil war. The lady is represented
with a lute in her hand, for her great skill on which she is celebrated in the poems of Waller.
Aubrey relates that her sister, " The beautiful Lady Diana Rich, as she was walking in her
father's garden at Keningt.on, to take the fresh air before dinner, about eleven o'clock,
being then very well, met with her own apparition, habit, and everything, as in a look-
ing-glass." She died about a month thereafter of the smallpox; and her sister, the Lady
Isabella, is affirmed to have received a similar warning before her death.2 These and other
portraits adorn the various lodgings of the different noblemen who possess apartments in
the Palace ; but many of them, being the private property of the noble lodgers, can hardly
be considered as part of the decorations of Holyrood. The latest contribution to its walls
is Wilkie's full-length portrait of George IV., in the Highland costume, as he appeared on
his visit to the northern capital in 1822.

A much slighter survey will suffice for the remaining ecclesiastical foundations of the
Scottish capital, of the majority of which no vestige now remains. Among the latter is
the Monastery of Blackfriars of the order of St Dominic, founded by Alexander II. in
1230, which stood on the site of the Surgical Hospital. It is styled in the foundation
charters Mansio Regis, that monarch having, we presume, bestowed on the friars oue of
the royal residences for their abode. It appears to have been a wealthy foundation, sub-
sequently enlarged by gifts from Robert I. and James III., as well as by many private
donations confirmed by the latter monarch in 1473.3 The monastery was accidently de-
stroyed by fire in 1528; but it is probable that the church was only partially injured by the
conflagration, as it appears in the view of 1544 as a large cross church, with a central tower
and lofty spire. It no doubt experienced its full share in the events of that disastrous
year, and it had hardly recovered from these repeated injuries when the Reformers of 1558
completed its destruction.

The Monastery of the Greyfriars in the Grassmarket has already been described, and
the venerable cemetery which has been made from its gardens frequently referred to. Over

1 A portrait of Cardinal Beaton, copied, we believe, by Chambers from an original French painting, is now at St Mary's
College, Blair, and another oopy of the same hangs in the Refectory of St Margaret's Convent, Edinburgh. It represents
him about the age of 35, when he was ambassador at the French Court. The face is oval, the features regular, and the
expression somewhat pensive, but very pleasing. He wears mustaches and an imperial, and we may add, bears not the
slightest resemblance to the Holyrood portrait. On the background of the picture the following inscription is painted,
most probably copied from the original portrait : — Le bieuherevx David de Bethvne, Arohevesque de St Andre, Chan-
celliere et Regent du royaume d'Ecosse, Cardinal et Legat a latere, fut massacre1 pour la foy en 1546.

* Law's Memorials, preface, p. Ixvi.

* " Charter of confirmation of all Mortifications maid to the said Brethren Predicators in Edin', viz. One made be
Alexander II., of an a. rent of 10 marks de fa-mis buryalibus de Edinr. One made be George Seaton and Cristain
Murray his spouse, of 20 marks yearly out of the lands of Hartshead and Clint. One made be Phillipia Moubray,
Lady Barnebugle, of 20s. sterling, yearly, out of little Barnbugle. One made be Joan Barcklay of Kippe of 10s. yearly,
out of tha lands of Duddingstone and husband-lands thereof. One be Jo. Sudgine of 30s. 4d. out of his tenement of
Leith, on the south side of the water thereof, between Alen Nepar's land on the East and Rottenrow on the West, 1 4
May 1473." — Inventar of Pious Donations, MS.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES.

the entrance to the churchyard, at the foot of the Candlemaker How, the following moral
distich was originally inscribed: —

Remember, Man, as thou goes by,
As thou art now, so once was I ;
As I am now, so .-halt thou be j
Remember, Man, that thou must die.1

The principal gateway, opposite the east end of the church, is a work of more recent
construction, and appears, from the records of Monteith, to have involved the destruction
of the monument of no less illustrious a citizen than Alexander Miller, master tailor to
King James VI., who died in the year 1616. The Old Q-reyfriars' Church, as it was styled,
was suddenly destroyed by a fire which broke out on the morning of Sunday the 19th of
January 1845, and presented to the astonished parishioners a blazing mass of ruins as they
assembled for the services of the day. It bore on the north-east pillar the date 1613, and
on a panel surmounting the east gable that of 1614, underneath the city arms. It was a
clumsy, inconvenient, and ungainly edifice, with few historical associations and no archi-
tectural beauties to excite any regret at its removal. It is very different, however,
.with the surrounding churchyard, which it disfigured with its lumpish deformity. Its
monuments and other memorials of the illustrious dead who repose there form an object
of attraction no less for their interesting associations than their picturesque beauty ; while
it is memorable in Scottish history as the scene of the signing of the Covenant by the
enthusiastic leaguers of 1638, and the place of captivity, under circumstances of peculiar
cruelty, of the insurgent Covenanters taken in arms at Bothwell Brig. Like other great
cemeteries it forms the peaceful resting-place of rival statesmen and politicians, and of many
strangely diverse in life and fortune. Here mingle the ashes of George Heriot, the father
of the royal goldsmith ; George Buchanan, Alexander Henderson, Sir George Mackenzie,
Sir James Stewart, Principal Carstairs, Sir John de Medina, the painter; Allan Ramsay,
Colin Maclaurin, Thomas Ruddiman, and many others distinguished in their age for rank
or genius.

The Carmelites, or Whitefriars, though introduced into Scotland in the thirteenth
century, did not acquire an establishment in Edinburgh till 1518, when the Provost and
Bailies, conveyed, by charter dated the 13th April, " to Jo. Malcolme, provincial of the
Carmelites, and his successors, yr lands of Green-side, with the chapell or kirk of the Holy
Cross yrof."2 From this we learn that a chapel existed there in ancient times, of which no
other record has been preserved, and adjoining it was a cross called the Rood of Greeuside.
It was the scene of martyrdom of David Stratoun and Norman Gourlay, a priest and lay-
man, who were tried at Holyrood House, in the presence of James V. ; and on the '27th of
August 1534, were led " to a place besydis the Roode of Greynsyd, and thair thei two war
boyth hanged and brunt, according to the mercy of the Papisticall Kirk." ' The tradition
has already been referred to that assigns the same locality for the burning of Major Weir.
On the suppression of the order of Carmelites at the Reformation, John Robertson, a
benevolent merchant, founded on the site of their convent an hospital for lepers, " pursuant

1 Monteith's Theatrum Mortalium, p. 1. The last word is evidently intended to be pronounced in the old broad
Scottish fashion, dee.

8 Inventar of Pious Donations. * Kuux's Hist., Wodrow Soc., vol. i. p. 60.

412 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

to a vow on his receiving a signal mercy from God." The hospital was placed under the
control of the Town Council, who drew up a series of most stringent statutes to secure the
good conduct and above all the perfect isolation of the wretched inmates. A gallows was
erected at the end of the hospital to enforce obedience, and even the opening of the gate
between sunset and sunrise was declared punishable with the halter. The grassy vale,
within whose natural amphitheatre the earliest exhibitions of the regular drama were
witnessed by the Court of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, and where the crowds of the
neighbouring capital were attracted at one time by the pastimes that accompanied a Wapin-
schaw, and at another by the terrors of judicial vengeance, retained till near the close of
last century nearly the same features that led to its selection for such displays in the reign
of James II. Pennant, writing in 1769, remarks : — "In my walk this evening I passed
by a deep and wide hollow beneath the Caltoun Hill, the place where those imaginary
criminals, witches, and sorcerers, in less enlightened times, were burnt ; and where at festive
seasons the gay and gallant held their tilts and tournaments."1 The locality still retains
its ancient name of Greenside ; but the grassy slope, from whence it derived its name, is
now one of the most densely-populated districts of the New Town.

Beyond the Monastery of the Carmelites, on the outskirts of Leith, at the south-west
corner of St Anthony's Wyud, stood the Preceptory of St Anthony, founded by Sir
Robert Logan of Restalrig in 1435. This was the only establishment of the order in
Scotland. They followed the rule of St Augustine, and appear to have been a sort of
religious knights, though not Knight Templars, as they are erroneously styled by Mait-
laud, who has been misled in this by a charter of James VI. The " Rentale Buke,"
containing a list of the benefactors to the preceptory, written on vellum, in the year 1526,
with a few additions in a later hand, is preserved in the Advocates' Library, wherein " It
is statuit and ordanit in our Scheptour for sindri resonabil causis that the saulis of thaim
that has gevin zeirlye perpetuall rent to this Abbay and Hospitall of Sanct Antonis besyd
Leith, or has augmentit Goddis seruice be fundacion, or ony vther vays has gevyn sub-
stanciusly of thair gudis to the byggyn reperacion and vphaldyng of the forsaid Abbay and
place, that thai be prayit for euerylk Sunday till the day of dome." 2 The list of benefac-
tors which follows exhibits a pretty numerous array, though in the majority of cases the
benefactions are of no great value. The obituary closes in 1499, and in little more than
half a century thereafter, the prayers for the dead, which the chapter of the preceptory
had ordained to last till the day of doom, were abruptly brought to a close, and the church
or preceptory reduced nearly to a heap of ruins, during the siege of Leith in 1560.3 No
other Scottish foundation appears to have been dedicated to this saint, notwithstanding
his celebrity by means of the picturesque legends which the Romish calender associates
with his name. . The ancient Hermitage and Chapel of St Anthony, which occupies a site
of such singular beauty underneath the overhanging crags of Arthur's Seat, are believed
to have formed a dependency of the preceptory at Leith, and to have been placed there to
catch the seaman's eye as he entered the Firth, or departed on some long and perilous
voyage ; when his vows and offerings would be most freely made to the patron saint, and
the hermit who ministered at his altar. No record, however, now remains to add to the

1 Pennant's Tour, vol. i. p. 69. s List of Benefactors, &c. Bann. Misc., vol. ii p. 299. 8 Ante, p. 66.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 413

tradition of its dedication to St Anthony; but the silver stream, celebrated in the plaintive
old song, " 0 waly, waly up yon bank," still wells clearly forth at the foot of the rock,
filling the little bason of St Anthony's Well, and rippling pleasantly through the long
grass into the lower valley.

The Chapel and Hermitage of St Anthony, though deserted and roofless for centuries,
appear to have remained nearly entire, with the exception of the upper portion of the tower,
till about the middle of the last century. Arnot, writing about the year 1779, remarks: —
" The cell of the Hermitage yet remains. It is sixteen feet long, twelve broad, and eight
high. The rock rises within two feet of the stone arch, which forms its roof; and at the
foot of the rock flows a pure stream, celebrated in an old Scottish ballad." All that now
remains of the cell is a small recess, with a stone ledge constructed partly in the natural
rock, which appears to have been the cupboard for storing the simple refreshments of the
hermit of St Anthony. The Chapel is described by the same writer as having been a
beautiful Gothic building, well suited to the rugged sublimity of the rock. " It was forty-
three feet long, eighteen feet broad, and eighteen high. At its west end there was a tower
of nineteen feet square, and it is supposed, before its fall, about forty feet high. The
doors, windows, and roof, were Gothic ; but it has been greatly dilapidated within the
author's remembrance."1 The tower is represented in the view of 1544 as finished with
a plain gabled roof; and the building otherwise corresponds to this description. The
wanton destruction of this picturesque and interesting ruin proceeded within our own
recollection ; but its further decay has at length been retarded for a time by some slight
repairs, which were unfortunately delayed till a mere fragment of the ancient hermitage
remained. The plain corbels and a small fragment of the groined roof still stand ; and
an elegant sculptured stoup for holy water, which formerly projected from the north wall,
was preserved among the collection of antiquities of the late firm of Messrs Eagle and
Henderson. It is described by Maitland as occupying a small arched niche, and
opposite to it was another of larger dimensions, which was strongly fortified for keeping
the Fix with the consecrated bread;2 but no vestige of the latter now remains, or of any
portion of the south wall in which it stood.

Towards the close of the fourteenth century, St Mary's Church at Leith appears to
have been erected ; but notwithstanding its large size — what remains being only a small
portion of the original edifice — no evidence remains to show by whom it was founded.
The earliest notice we have found of it is in 1490, when a contribution of an annual rent
is made " by Peter Falconer, in Leith, to a chaplain in St Piter's Alter, situat in the
Virgin Mary Kirk in Leith."3 Similar grants are conferred on the chaplains of St
Bartholomew's and St Barbarie's Altars, the latest of which is dated 8th July 1499 —
the same year in which the Record of the Benefactors of the neighbouring preceptory is
brought to a close.4

Maitland and Chalmers,5 as well as all succeeding writers, agree in assigning the
destruction of the choir and transepts of St Mary's Church to the English invaders under

1 Arnot, p. 256. 5 Maitland, p. 152. * Inventor of Pious Donations, MS. Ad. Lib.

* One charter of a later date is recorded in the Inventor of Pious Donations, by "Jo. Logane of Restalrig, mortify-
ing in St Anthony's Chapel in Leith, his tenement, lying on the south side of the Bridge," dated 10th Feb. 1505.
6 Maitland, p. 497. Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 786.

414 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

the Earl of Hertford in 1544. No other evidence, however, exists in support of this
than the general inference deduoible from the burning of Leith by the English, immedi-
ately before their embarkation ; a procedure which, unless accompanied by more violent
modes of destruction, must have left the remainder of the church in the same condition
as the nave which still exists. Such evidence as may still be gleaned from contemporary
writers leaves little reason to doubt that it was not demolished until the siege of Leith in
1560, when it was subjected to much more destructive operations than the invaders' torch.
It stood directly exposed to the fire of the English batteries, cast up on the neighbouring
downs, and of which some remains are still left.1 " In this meintyme," says Bishop
Lesley, " the Inglismen lying encamped upoun the south est syd of the toun, besyd
Mount Pellam, schot many gret schottis of cannonis and gret ordinances, at the parrishe
Kirk of Leyth, and Sanct Anthoneis steple, quhilk was fortefiit with mounted artailyerie
thainjpoun be the Frenchmen, and brak doun the same."! An anonymous historian of
the same period relates still more explicitly : — " The 15th of Aprill, the fort wes cast and
•performed, scituate upon the clay-hills, east from the Kirk of Leith, about twoe fflight
ehott ; where the greate ordinance being placed, they beganne to shoote at St Antonyes
steeple in Leith, upon the which steeple the Frenchmen had mounted some artillerie,
which wes verie noisome to the campe ; bot within few bowers after, the said steeple was
broken and shott downe, likewise they skott dorone some part of the east end of the Kirk of
Leith."' St Mary's Church, as it existed at the time our drawing was made, showed at
the east end two of the four great central pillars of the Church, and was otherwise
finished by constructing a window in the upper part of the west arch of the central tower,
much in the same style as was adopted in converting the nave of Holyrood Abbey into a
parish church. The date 1614, which was cut on the east gable, probably marked the
period at which the ruins of the choir were entirely cleared away. The side aisles appear
for the most part to be the work of the same period. A range of five dormer windows
was constructed at that date above both the centre and side aisles, and though a novel
addition to a G-othic Church, must have had a very picturesque and rich effect. The whole
of these, with the exception of the two western ones on the south side of the Church, were
taken down in 1747,4 and the remaining ones were demolished in 1847, along with the
east and west gables of the Church, and, in fact, nearly every feature that was worth
preserving ; the architect having, with the perverse ingenuity of modern restorers, pre-
served only the more recent and least attractive portions of the venerable edifice. As
some slight atonement for this, the removal of the high-pitched roof of the side aisles has
brought to light a range of very neat square-headed clerestory windows, which had
remained concealed for upwards of two centuries, and which it is fortunately intended to
retain in the restoration of the building.

The only other ancient parish church that remains to be noticed is that of St Cuthbert.
Its parish appears to have been one of the earliest and most extensive districts set apart
as a parochial charge. " The Church of St Cuthbert," says Chalmers, " is unquestionably
ancient, perhaps as old as the age which followed the demise of the worthy Cuthbert,
towards the end of the seventh century." It was enriched by important grants, and parti-

1 Ante, p 66. s Lesley, p. 285.

8 A Historic of the Estate of Scotland, Wodrow Misc., vol. i. p. 84. * Maitland, p. 494.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 415

cularly by the gift from Macbeth of Libertou, of the tithes and oblations of LegbernatU
— a church of which all trace.* are now lost — conferred on it in the reign of David I., pre-
vious to the foundation of Holyrood Abbey. The Chapels of Corstorphine and Liberton
pertained to it. The Crown lands surrounding the Castle were bestowed on it by David
I., and it claimed tithes of the fishing on the neighbouring coast ; so that it was then the
•wealthiest church in Scotland, except that of Dunbar ; but from the date of the foundation
of St David's Abbey of Holyrood it became a vicarage, while the Abbey drew the
greater tithes. Besides the high altar, there were in St Cuthbert's Church several altars,
dedicated to the Holy Trinity, to St Anne, and other saints, of most of which no very
accurate account is preserved. The ancient church was subjected to many vicissitudes, and
greatly modified by successive alterations and repairs, so that comparatively little of the
original fabric remained when the whole was demolished about the middle of last century,
and the present huge, unsightly barn erected in its stead. In Gordon's bird's-eye view it
appears as a large cross church, with a belfry at the west gable, and a large square tower,
probably of great antiquity, standing unroofed at the south-west corner of the nave. The
ancient church was nearly reduced to a heap of ruins by the Duke of Gordon, during the
siege of the Castle in 1689; and little attempt was likely to be made at that period to
preserve any of its early features in the necessary repairs preparatory to its again being
used as the parish church.

Among the dependencies of the ancient Church of St Cuthbert there were the Virgin
Mary's Chapel, Portsburgh, of which nothing more is known than its name and site ; and
St Roque's and St John's Chapels on the Borough Muir. About half a mile to the west
of Grange House there stood, till the commencement of the present century, the ruins of
the ancient Chapel of St Roque, dedicated to the celebrated saint of that name. A later
writer derives its title from the uncousecrated surname of its supposed founder, Simon La
Roque, French ambassador,1 but without assigning any authority. In the treasurer's
accounts for March 20th, 1501-2, the following entry occurs: — "Item, to the wrichtis of
Sanct Rokis Chapell xiiij s." This, it is exceedingly probable, indicates the erection of
the chapel, as it corresponds with the apparent date suggested by its style of architecture.
It cannot, however, be certainly referred to the chapel on the Borough Muir, as a sub-
sequent entry in 1505, of an offering "to Sanct Rowkis Chapell," describes the latter as
at the end of Stirling Bridge. Of the following, however, there can be no doubt : —
" 1507, Aug' 15. The Sanct Rowkis day to the kingis offerand in Sanct Rowkis Chapell
xiiij s." That this refers to the chapel on the Borough Muir of Edinburgh is proved
by the evidence of two charters signed by the king at Edinburgh on the same day. The
shrine of St Roque was the special resort of afflicted outcasts for the cure of certain
loathsome diseases. Lindsay, in The Monarchie, describes the saint as himself bearing
a boil or ulcer as the symbol of his peculiar powers : —

Sanct Roche, weill seisit, men may see, .

Ane by ill new brokin on his knee.

1 Hist, of West Kirk, p. 11. Possibly Moneieur Lacrok, ambassador in 1567, is here meant. It is, at any rat«,
without doubt, an error, originating probatily in the similarity of the names.

4i 6 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

And again, in speaking of domestic pilgrimages, he assigns to this saint the virtues for
which he was most noted by the citizens of Edinburgh in early times : —

Sa doitli our commoun populare,
Quhilk war to lang for till declare,
Thaii- superstitious pilgramagis,
To uionie divers imagis :
Sum to Sanct lloche, with diligence,
To saif thanie from the pestilence :
For thair teith to Sanct Apolleue ;
To Sanct Tredwell to mend thair eue.

The Chapel of St Roque has not escaped the notice of the Lord Lyon King's poetic eulo-
gist, among the varied features of the landscape that fill up the magnificent picture, as Lord
Marmion rides under the escort of Sir David Lindsay to the top of Blackford Hill, in his
approach to the Scottish camp, and looks down on the martial array of the kingdom covering
the wooded links of the Borough Muir. James IV. is there represented as occasionally
wending his way to attend mass at the neighbouring Chapels of St Katherine or St Roque ;
nor is it unlikely that the latter may have beeu the scene of the monarch's latest acts of
devotion, ere he led forth that gallant array to perish around him on the Field of Flodden.
The Church of St John the Baptist, which was afterwards converted into the Chapel of the
Convent of St Katherine de Sienna, was then just completed; but George Lord Setoun,
whose widow founded the convent a few years later, and Adam Hepburn, Earl of Both well,
her father, were among the nobles who marshalled their followers around the Scottish
standard, to march to the fatal field where both were slain. In accordance with the attri-
butes ascribed by Lindsay to St Roque, we find his chapel resorted to by the victims of
the plague, who encamped on the Borough Muir during the prevalence of that dreadful
scourge in the sixteenth century ; and the neighbouring cemetery became the resting-place
of those who fell a prey to the pestilence. Among the statutes of the Burgh is the follow-
ing for December 1530, "We do yow to wit, forsamekle as James Barbour, master and
gouernour of the foule folk on the Mure, is to be clengit, and lies intromettit with sindry
folkis gudis and clais quhilkis ar lyand in Sanct llokis Chapell, Thairfor al maner of personis
that has ony clame to the said gudis that thai cum on Tysday nixt to cum to the officiaris,
and thar clais to be clengit, certyfyand thaim, and thai do nocht, that all the said clais gif
thai be of litill availl sal be brynt, and the laif to be gevin to the pure folkis."1 Arnot
relates that this ancient chapel — an engraving of which is given in the re-issue of the
quarto edition of his history — narrowly escaped the demolition to which its proprietor had
doomed it about the middle of last century, owing to the superstitious terrors of the work-
men engaged to pull it down. The march of intellect, however, had made rapid strides ere
its doom was a second time pronounced by a new proprietor early in the present century,
when the whole of this interesting and venerable ruin was swept away, as an unsightly
encumbrance to the estate of a retired tradesman !

The teinds or tithes of the Borough Muir belonged of old to the Abbey of Holyrood ;
but this did not interfere with the acquirement of nearly the whole of its broad lands by
private proprietors, and their transference to various ecclesiastical foundations. The name

1 Acts and Statutes, Burgh of Edinburgh. Mait. Misc., vol ii. p. 117.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 417

of Gillie Grange, by which a part of it is still known, and that of The Grange, now the pro-
perty of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart., preserve memorials of the grange or farm which
belonged of old to the Collegiate Church of St Giles. Here, towards the close of the
prosperous reign of James IV., Sir John Crawford, a canon of St Giles's Church, founded
and endowed the Church of St John the Baptist, portions of the ruins of which are believed
still to form a part of the garden wall of a house on the west side of Newington, called
Sciennes Hall. The following notice of its foundation occurs in the Inventar of Pious
Donations, bearing the date tid March 1512: — " Charter of Confirmation of a Mortifica-
tion be Sir Jo. Crawford, ane of the Prebenders of St Giles Kirk, to a kirk bigged by
him at St Geillie Grange, mortyiefying yritnto 18 aikers of land, of the said lands, with
the Qu'arrie Land given to him in Charitie be ye said brough, with an aiker and a quarter
of a particate of land in his 3 aikers and a half an aiker of the said mure pertaining to
him, lying at the east side of the Common Mure, betwixt the lands of Jo. Cant on the
west, and the Common Mure on the east and south parts, and the Murebrugh, now bigged,
on the north." This church was designed as a chantry for the benefit of the founder and
his kin, along with the reigning Sovereign, the Magistrates of Edinburgh, and such others
as it was usual to include in the services for the faithful departed in similar foundations.
The chaplain was required to be of the founder's family or name, and the patronage was
assigned after his death to the Town Council of Edinburgh.

The Church of St John the Baptist did not long remain a solitary chaplainry. Almost
immediately after its erection, the Convent of St Katherine de Sienna was founded by the
Lady Seytoun, whose husband, George, third Lord Seton, was slain at the Battle of Flod-
den. " Efter quhais deceiss," says the Chronicle of the House of Seytoun, " his ladye
remanit wido continualie xlv yeiris. Sche was aue nobill and wyse ladye. Sche gydit
hir sonnis leving quhill he was cumit of age; and thairefter sche passit and remainit in
the place of Senis, on the Borrow Mure, besyd Edinburgh, the rest of her lyvetyme.
Quhilk place sche helpit to fund and big as inaist principale." The history of this religi-
ous foundation, one of the last which took place in Scotland in Roman Catholic times,
and the very last, we believe, to receive additions to the original foundation, acquires a
peculiar interest when we consider it in connection with the general progress of opinion
throughout Europe at the period. The Bull of Pope Leo X. by which its foundation is
confirmed, is dated 29th January 1517. Cardinal Wolsey was then supreme in England,
and Henry VIII. was following on the career of a devoted son of the Church which
won him the title of Defender of the Faith. Charles V., the future Emperor of Germany,
had just succeeded to the crown of Spain, and Martin Luther was still a brother of the
order of St, Augustine. This very year Leo X. sent forth John Tetzel, a Dominican monk,
authorised to promote the sale of indulgences in Germany, and soon the whole of Europe
was shaken by the strife of opinions. The peculiar circumstances in which Scotland then
stood, delayed for a time its participation in the movement ; and meanwhile the revenues
of the convent of St Katherine de Sienna received various augmentations, and the Church
of St John the Baptist was permanently annexed to it as the chapel of the convent. The
nuns, however, were speedily involved in the troubles of the period. In 1544 their con-
vent shared the same fate as the neighbouring capital, from the barbarous revenge of the

1 Hist, of House of Seytoun, p, 37.

2 D

4 1 8 • ME MORI A L S OF EDINB UR GH. .

English invaders; and in 1567, its whole possessions passed into the hands of laymen,
and its inmates were driven forth from the cloisters within whose shelter they had main-
tained the severe rules of their order with such strictness that even the pungent satirist,
Sir David Lindsay, exempts them from the unsparing censure of his pen. In the first act
of The Satyre of the Three Estaitis, Veritie enters with the English Bible in her hand,
and is forthwith pronounced by the Parson a Lutheran, and remanded to the stocks.
Chastitie follows, and in vain appeals to the Lady Prioress, the Abbot, the Parson, and
my Lord Temporalitie, all of whom give the preference to Dame Sensualitie, and ignomi-
niously dismiss her, until at length she is also consigned to the stocks. In her appeal to
my Lord Temporalitie, she tells him she has come to prove "the temporal state," because
the nuns have driven her out of doors. Nevertheless, in The Complaynt of the Papingo^
when scared by the sensuality of " The sillie nunnis,"

" Chaistitie thare na langer wald abyde ;
Sa for refuge, fast to the freiris scho fled,
Quhilkis said, thay wald of ladyis tak na cure :
Quhare bene echo now, than said the gredie Gled ?
Nocht amang yow, said scho, I yow assure :
I traist scho bene, upon the Burrow-mure,
Besouth Edinburgh, and that rioht inony menU,
Profest amang the sisteris of the Schema.
Thare hes scho fund hir mother Povertie,
And Devotioun her awin sister carnall :
Thare hath scho fund Faith, Hope, and Cheritie,
Togidder with the vertues cardinal! :
Thare hes scho fund ane convent, yet unthrall,
To dame Sensuall, nor with Riches abusit,
Sa quietlye those ladyis bene inclusit."

About three miles to the south of the Convent of St Katherine de Sienna is the Balm
Well of St Katherine, celebrated in ancient times for its miraculous powers in curing all
cutaneous diseases, aud still resorted to for its medicinal virtues. St Katherine, it is
said, was commissioned by the pious Queen of Malcolm Caumore, to bring home some oil
from Mount Sinai, aud staying to rest herself by this well on her return, she chanced to
drop some of the oil into the water, from which its peculiar characteristic, as well as its
miraculous powers, were affirmed to be derived. A black bituminous substance constantly
floats on (he water, believed to be derived from the coal-seams that abound in the neigh-
bourhood, and perhaps justly commands the faith still reposed in it as a remedy for the
diseases to which it is applied. A chapel was erected near it, and dedicated to St Mar-
garet, but no vestige of it now remains. Thither, it is said, the nuns of the convent on the
Borough Moor were wont to proceed annually in solemn procession, to visit the chapel and
well, in honour of St Katherine. When James VI. returned to Scotland in 1617, he
visited the well, and commanded it to be enclosed with an ornamental building, with a
flight of steps to afford ready access to the healing waters ; but this was demolished by
the soldiers of Cromwell, and the well now remains enclosed with plain stone work, as it
was partially repaired at the Restoration.1

With the last foundation of the adherents of the old faith we may fitly close these Memo-

1 Archseol. Scot. vol. i. p. 323. ;

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 419

rials of the olden time. An unpicturesque fragment of the ruins of the Convent of fcSt
Katherine de Sienna still remains, and serves as a sheep-fold for the flocks that pasture in
the neighbouring meadow ; and the name of the Sciennes, by which the ancient Mure-burgh
is now known, preserves some slight remembrance of the abode of " the Sisters of the
Schenis," where Ckastitie found hospitable welcome, at a time when the bold Scottish
satirist represents her as spurned from every other door. A few notes, in reference to
more recent ecclesiastical erections, are reserved for the Appendix ; but there is something
in the flimsy and superficial character of our modern religious edifices, which, altogether
apart from the sacred or historical associations attached to them, deprives them of that
interest with which we view the architectural remains of the Middle Ages. Instead of
stuccoed ceilings and plaster walls, we find, in the old fabrics, solid ribs of stone, and the
arched vaulting adorned with intricate mouldings and richly sculptured bosses. The
clustered piers below, that range along the solemn aisles, are like the huge oaks of the
forest, and their fan-like groinings like the spreading boughs, from whence their old builders
have been supposed to have drawn the first idea of these massive columns and the o'er-
arching roof.

After all, the olden time with which we have dealt is a comparatively modern one.
The relics even of St Margaret's Chapel, and St David's Monastery, and the Maiden
Castle, which Chalmers ranks only as " first of modern antiques," l would possess but poor
claims to our interest, as mere antiquities, beside the temples of Egypt or the marble
columns of the Acropolis. The Castle, indeed, is found to have been occupied as a strongr
hold as far back as any trustworthy record extends ; and beyond this our older British
chroniclers relate, as authentic, traditions which assign to it an origin nearly coeval with
the Temple of Solomon, and centuries before the founding of Rome ! Wyutoun records
of the renowned "Kyng Ebrawce," who flourished 989 years before the Christian era: —

" He byggyd EDYNBURQH wytht-alle,
And gert tbaim Allynclowd it calle,
The Maydyn castell, in sum place
The sorowful Hil it callyd was."

Coming down a little nearer our own day, we arrive at the era of Fergus the First, the
famed progenitor of one hundred and eighteen sovereigns, " of the same unspotted blood
and royal line," who began his reign 330 years before Christ. Fergus, however, was no
plebeian upstart. He again traced his descent from Milesius, who reigned in Ireland 1300
years before the Christian era, and " who makes the twenty-sixth degree inclusively from
Noe ; the twenty-first from Niul, a son of Feuius-farsa, king of Scythia, a prince very
knowing in all the languages then spoken ; the twentieth from Gaedhal-Grlass, a contem-
porary with Moses and Pharaoh ; the seventeenth inclusively from Heber-Scot, an excellent
bow-man ! " 2 Upon the whole, we are put in the fair way of tracing King Fergus's genealogy
back to Adam, — a very satisfactory and credible beginning, in case any of its more recent
steps should be thought to stand in need of additional proof. Leaving such famous
worthies of the olden time, we come thereafter to Edwin, king of Northumbria, of whom we
possess trustworthy historic account, and who, there seems no reason to doubt, gave his

1 Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 669. ! Dr Matthew Kennedy, Abercromby's Martial Achievements, vol. i. p. 4.

420 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

own name to the burgh, where he possessed a stronghold presenting such great natural
advantages as were likely to tempt his frequent residence within its walls. Edwin, who
was the ablest and most powerful among the sovereigns of Britain in his time, lost his
kingdom and his life at the Battle of Hatfield, on the 12th of October 633. From that
date, the Castle and town of Edinburgh may be considered as occupying some degree of
prominence among the towns of the ancient kingdom, and thenceforward we are able
to glean occasional authentic notices of it from our older chroniclers. The reign of
Edwin is chiefly memorable for the introduction of Christianity into the kingdom of
Northumbria, and probably no long time elapsed thereafter before some humble Christian
fane was reared in Edinburgh, to supersede by its worship the heathen rites for which the
summit of Arthur's Seat, or of some other of the neighbouring hills, may have been set
apart as the most appropriate temple.

Glancing back thus over an interval of twelve centuries, the familiar scenes that surround
us acquire a new aspect, and become pregnant with a deeper meaning than the mere beauty
of the landscape, or the unrivalled grandeur of the old city that occupies its heights, can
convey to the tasteful observer. History becomes a living drama, instead of a mere bundle
of dusty parchments ; and the actors, who pass away in succession with its many changing
scenes, appear once more before us what they really were, men of like passions with our-
selves. With this feeling we have attempted to recover the fading traces of the more
ancient antiquities of the Scottish capital, and to preserve an authentic record of those of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which are fast passing away, like their predecessors,
beyond recall, notwithstanding the promise of durability which the substantial masonry of
that period seems to offer. " The walles," says Taylor the Water Poet, in his Penny-
lesse Pilgrimage, " are eight or tenne foot thicke, exceeding strong, not built for a day, a
weeke, or a moneth, or a yeere, but from Antiquitie to Posteritie, for many Ages." Pos-
teritie, however, finds little that suits its changed tastes and habits in these " goodlie
houses," and is busy replacing them with structures more adapted to modern wants ; but
the very fact of their having thus become obsolete confers on them a new value, as monu-
ments of a period and state of society altogether different from our own. This it is that
gives to the pursuits of the antiquary their true value. These relics of the past, however
insignificant they may appear in themselves, assume a very different claim on our interest
when thus regarded as the memorials of our national history, or the key to the manners
and the habits of our forefathers. As such they acquire a worth which no mere lapse of
time could confer ; nor have our forefathers played so mean a part in the history of nations
that their memorials should possess an interest only to ourselves.

APPENDIX.

v-, - .••=,".••.•.. v\ -YJ ; .\ KYA1 'AOU.

'77317 <i£A ?.T/.K TOTDftA .IT

APPENDIX.

I. EDINBURGH.

"H EFERENCE has been made in the beginning of this Work to the venerable antiquity ascribed to Edinburgh
by early chroniclers, who assign as it founder, Ebranke, a contemporary of Eehoboam, the son of Solomon,
king of Israel! — Graf ton's Chronicle, 1569. John Hardy ng, a still earlier chronicler, records of the same
ancient " Kyng of Brytain," —

" He made also the Mayden Castell stronge
That men now calleth the Castell of Edenburgh,
That on a rock standeth full hye out of throng
On mount Agwet, where men may se out through
Full many a toune, caatel, and borough,
In the shire about, it is so hye in syght
Who will it scale he shall not find it Hght."

The following reference to Edinburgh by a foreigner, evidently describing the first impression conveyed by
the view of it from the Forth, occurs in a curious French poem, " Le Chevalier sans reproche Jacques de Lalain,
par Messire Jean d'Ennetieres," &c. &c. Tournay, 1632. 8vo. In this, the 9th canto is occupied with the
details of a combat between the hero and James (9th) Earl of Douglas, fonght at Stirling in presence of the
king, three against three. Towards the close of the preceding canto (p. 206J, Edinburgh is thus described, —
Lalain's vessel having arrived in the Forth : —

" Edymbourgk toutesfois fait paroistre ees cornea,
Au dessous d'un espois de nuages bien mornea.
Devers 1'Est, et le Sud la ceint une muraille,
Du cost^ du couchant, il ne luy fauttenaille
Ny bouleuert flancquant ; car un bien haul rocher
La couvre tellement qu'ou ne peut 1'approcher.
La dessus le chaateau eat de nature telle,
Que 1'Escocois le dit le fort de la Pucelle :
Tant 1'a fortine* la nature avec

Que des filles pouroyent maintenir tel rampart. . ,.. ^ . ...

Au Nort un precipice en hauteur effroyable,

Le rend de celle part de tout pofiit iinprenable.""

424 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

II. ANCIENT MAPS AND VIEWS OF EDINBURGH.

1544. — The frequent reference to maps of different dates through the Work, renders some account of them
desirable for the general reader. The oldest, and by far the most valuable, is that of which a facsimile is given
in the first volume of the Bannatyne Miscellany, to illustrate a description of Edinburgh, referred to in the
course of this Work, by Alexander Alesse, a native of Edinburgh, born 23d April 1500, who embraced the
Protestant faith about the time when Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish martyr, was brought to the stake in
1527. He left Scotland about the year 1532 to escape a similar fate, and is believed to have died at Leipzig in
1565. The original map is preserved in the British Museum (M.S. Cotton. Augustus 1, vol. ii. Art. 56), and is
assigned with every appearance of probability to the year 1544, the date of the Earl of Hertford's expedition
under Henry VIII. The map may be described as chiefly consisting of a view from the Calton Hill, and
represents Arthur's Seat and the Abbey apparently with minute accuracy. The higher part of the town is spread
out more in the character of a bird's-eye view ; but there also the churches, the Netherbow Port, and othsr
prominent features, afford proof of its general correctness. The buildings about the Palace and the whole
of the upper town have their roofs coloured red, as if to represent tiles, while those in the Canongate are
coloured grey, probably to show that they were thatched with straw. The only other view that bears any near
resemblance to the last, occurs in the corner of one of the maps in " John Speed's Theatre of the Empire of
Great Britaine," published at London in 1611. It is, perhaps, only a reduction of it, with some additions from
other sources. It must have been made, at any rate, many years before its publication, as both the Blackfriars
Church and the Kirk-of-Field form prominent objects in the town. Trinity College Church is introduced
surmounted by a spire. St Andrew's Port, at the foot of Leith Wynd, appears as a gate of some architectural
pretensions ; and the old Abbey and Palace of Holyrood, with the intricate enclosing walls surrounding them,
are deserving of comparison with the more authentic view.

1573. — The next in point of time is a plan engraved on wood for Holinshed's Chronicles, 1577, and believed
to be the same that is referred to in " A Survey taken of the Castle and towne of Edinbrogh in Scotland, by vs
Rowland Johnson and John Fleminge, aervantes to the Q. Ma"% by the eomandement of Sp William Drury,
Knighte, Governor of Berwicke, and Mr Henry Killigrave, Her Ma"" Embassador." The view in this is from
the south, but it is chiefly of value as showing the position of the besiegers' batteries. The town is mapped
out into little blocks of houses, with singular-looking heroes in trunk hose interspersed among them, tall
enough to step over their roofs ! A facsimile of this illustrates the " Journal of the Siege," in the second
volume of the Bannatyne Miscellany. Of the same date is a curioue plan of the Castle, mentioned in Blome-
field's History of Norfolk : — " At Ridleeworth Hall, Norfolk, is a picture of Sir William Drury, Lord Chief-
Justice of Ireland, 1579, by which hangs an old plan of Edinburgh Castle, and two armies before it, and round
it — Sir William Drurye, Kat., General of the Eaglithe, wantie Edinburghe Castle 1573." — Gough's British
Topography, vol. ii. p. 667.

1580. — Another map, which has been frequently engraved, was published about 1580 in Braun's Civitatei
Orbit. "Any person," says the editor of the Bannatyne Miscellany (vol. i. p. 185), "who is acquainted with
the localities of the place may easily perceive that this plan has been delineated by a foreign artist from the
information contained in the printed text, and not from any actual survey or sketch ; and consequently is of
little interest or value." The same, however, might, with equal propriety, be said of the preceding map, which
has fully as many errors as the one now referred to. The latter is certainly much too correct, according to the
style of depiction adopted in these bird's-eye maps, to admit of the idea of its being drawn from description,
though it is not improbable that it may have been made up from others, without personal survey. It affords
eome interesting points of comparison with that of 1574.

APPENDIX.

. 1045. — About thia date two drawings of Edinburgh appear to have been mad*, from which engravings wer«
executed in Holland. From their style of drawing, it is exceedingly probable that they are the work of Gordon
of Rothiemay, previous to his large bird's-eye view from the south, described in the next paragraph. They are
engraved on one large sheet of copper, forming long, narrow, panoramic views, each of them measuring seren
and a half inches by twenty-two and a half inches, within the work ; and ore now very rarely to be met with-.
The first is inscribed, VBBIS EDIN.E FACIES MERIDIONALIS — The Prospect of the South Side of Edinburgh. The
point of sight appears to be towards St Leonard's Hill. Heriot's Hospital is introduced without the dome of
the centre tower, and with the large towers at the angles covered with steep-pointed roofs, — a rude representa.
tion seemingly of the ogee roofs with which at least two of them were originally surmounted. (Vide page
343.) Beside it is the Old Grey friars, as it then stood, with a plain square tower at its west end. But the
most conspicuous object in both views is " The Tron Kirk, with the Steeple," as it is described, though it consist*
only of the square tower, finished with a pluin and very flat slanting roof ; — an object which suffices very
nearly to determine the date of the drawing. The Nether Bow Steeple, and the Steeple of Oanna-tolbuith, are
also introduced with tolerable accuracy. The Palace is, unfortunately, very rudely executed. The Abbey
Church, with its tower and spire, and James V. Tower, are the only portions shown, and neither of them very
well drawn. A wall runs from the Palace along the South Back of the Canongate to the Cowgate Port, pierced
with small doors, and entitled The Bade Entries to the Cannon-gait.

The companion view from the Calton Hill is entitled VRBIS EDIN/B LATVS SEPTENTRIONALE. The most
prominent objects are the same as in the former, including the unfinished steeple of the Tron Church. In both
the High Kirk steeple is very imperfectly rendered ; though, indeed, no old view renders St Giles's beautiful crown
tower correctly. The Castle C/tappel is marked in both views ; and in the latter, both it and the large ancient
church on the north side of the Grand Parade, form the most prominent objects in the Castle. The Palace is
entirely concealed in the latter view ; and in both of them no attention appears to have been paid to any details
in the private buildings of the town. The copy of these we have examined, and the only one we have ever seen
is in. the possession of David Laing, Esq. The plate has no date or engraver's name.

164 7. — Maitland remarks (History of Edinburgh, p. 86), " In this year, 1647, a draught or view of Edinburgh
being made by James Gordon, minister of Rothiemay, by order of the Common Council, they ordered the sum
of Five Hundred Marks to be paid him for the pains and trouble he had been at in making the same." This
Tiew, or plan, which was engraved at Amsterdam by De Wit, on a large scale, is one of the most accurate and
valuable records that could possibly exist. It is a bird's-eye view taken from a south point of sight, and measures
forty-one and a quarter inches long by sixteen inches broad. The public buildings are represented with great
minuteness and fidelity, and in the principal streets almost every house of any note along the north side may be
distinguished. A very careful copy of this was published at London, with views of the town in the corners of
the plate, early in the following century, " exactly done from the original of ye famous D. Wit, by And'. John-
ston," and is dedicated to the Hon. George Lockhart, the celebrated politician, better known as " Union Lockhart."
Another tolerably accurate facsimile of the original plan was engraved by Kirkwood on the same large scale, in the
present century ; but the plate and the chief portion of the impressions perished in the Great Fire of 1824, the pre-
mises of the engraver being at that time in the Parliament Square. Gough remarks, in his Topography (vol. ii. p.
673), " The Rev. Mr James Gordon of Rothiemny's plan of Edinburgh has been re-engraved in Holland, but not
so accurately as that done from his own drawing, in vol. xii. of Piere Vauder Aa's ' Gallerie agreable du Monde,' a
Collection of plans, views of towns, &o., in 66 vols. thin folio, at Leyden."

1660. — Another rare view of Edinburgh from the south, engraved by Rombout Van den Hoyen, appears to
have been drawn about 1650. In the left comer of the sky the arms of Scotland are introduced, not very accu-
rately drawn ; a flying scroll bears the name Edynburgwm, and above the sky is the inscription Edeiiburgum Civitas
Scotia tfleberima. Two mounted figures are introduced in the foreground, riding apparently orer the ridge of
St Leonard's Hill, along the ancient Dumbiedyke's Road, towards the town. The date of the view is ascertain-

426 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

able from the introduction of the Weigh-house steeple, demolished by Cromwell in 1650, and the spire of the
Tron Church, which was completed about 1663, although the church was so far advanced in 1647 as to be used
as a place of worship. The destruction of the greater part of the ancient Palace in the former year, affords
further evidence of this view having been taken about that period, as it is represented with considerable accuracy
as it stood previous to the fire. The north garden is laid out in the formal style of the period, with Queen, Mary's
Bath very accurately introduced in the angle formed by two of the enclosing garden walls. It appears to have
been engraved in Holland, and is illustrated with a stanza in Latin, Dutch, and French, consisting of a very self-
complacent soliloquy of the good town on its own ancient glory. A lithographic copy of this view is occasionally
to be met with.

1693.— The THEATRUM SCOT.E, of Captain John Slezer, was printed at London in 1693. He visited this
country for the first time in 1669, so that the drawings of the interesting series of Scottish views published by him
must have been made during the interval between these dates. They are of great value, being in general very
faithful representations of the chief towns and most important edifices in Scotland at that period. Much curious
information in, reference to the progress of this national work has been selected from the records in the General
Register House, and printed in the 2d vol. of the Bannatyne Miscellany. Among these, the following items of
the Captain's account of " Debursements " afford some insight into the mode of getting up the views : — •

IMPRIMIS. For bringing over a Painter, his charges to travel from place to place, and for Lib. Sterlin.
drawing these 57 draughts contained in the said Theatrum Scotiae, at 2
lib. sterlin per draught, . . . . . . . ' . 0114: 00 : 00

ITEM, To Mr Whyte at London, for ingraving the said 57 draughts, at 4 lib. 10

shillings over head, . 0256 : 10 : 00

ITEM, To Mr Wycke, the battell painter at London, for touching and filling up the

said 57 draughts with little figures, at 10 shillings sterlin per piece, inde, 0028 : 10 : 00

ITEM, Captain Slezer hath been at a considerable loss by 1 2 plates of prospects, which
were spoiled in Holland, as partly appears by a contract betwixt Doctor
Sibbald and the said Captain, dated anno 1691, which loss was at least 0072 : 10 : 00

In the early edition of Slezer's views the only general Prospect of Edinburgh is the one from the Dean. But
the view of the Castle from the south also includes some interesting portions of the Old Town, and to these
another view of the Castle from the north-east was afterwards added. Four different editions of the Theatrum
-Scotia) are described in Gough's British Topography, and a fifth edition of 100 copies was published at Edinburgh
in 1814, edited by the Rev. Dr Jamieson, with a life of Slezer, and other additional matter, and illustrated
with impressions from the original plates, which are still in existence. The work is to be met with in most public
libraries, and affords some curious views of the chief towns of Scotland, as they existed in the latter end of the
.seventeenth century.

1700.— About this date is a large and very accurate view of Edinburgh from the north, which has been
engraved more than once. The original plate, which appeared first in the third edition of Slezer's Theatrum
Scotia), dedicated to the Marquis of Annandale, was published in 1718. It is a long view, with the Calton
Hill forming the foreground, beyond which Trinity College Church and Paul's Work appear on one side,
with the North Loch stretching away towards the Well-house Tower. The large ancient church of the Castle,
as well as St Margaret's Chapel, form prominent objects in the Castle ; while in the town the Nether Bow Port,
the old High School, demolished in 1777, and others of the ancient features of the city, are introduced with con-
siderable care and accuracy of detail. The whole is engraved with great spirit, but no draftsman's or engraver's
name is attached to it. Another copy of the same, on a still larger scale, though of inferior merit as an engraving,
is dedicated to Queen Anne.

APPENDIX, 427

1742. — Of this elate is Edgar's map of Edinburgh, engraved for Maitland's History of Edinburgh. It was
drawn by William Edgar, architect, for the purpose of being published on a much larger scale ; but he died before
this could be accomplished, when it was fortunately engraved by Maitland, on a scale sufficiently large for re-
ference to most of its details. It is of great value as an accurate and trustworthy ground-plan of the city almost
immediately before the schemes of civic reform began to modify its ancient features. A very useful companion
to this is a large map, " including all the latest improvements," and dedicated to Provost Elder in 1793. It con-
tains a very complete reference to all the closes and wynds in the Old Town, many of which have since disappeared,
while alterations in the names of those that remain add to the value of this record of their former nomenclature.
1753. — A small folio plate of Edinburgh from the north-west, bearing this date, is engraved from a drawing
by Paul Sandby. It appears to have been taken from about the site of Charlotte Square, though the town is
represented at a greater distance. Its chief value arises from the idea it gives of the site of the New Town, con-
sisting, on the west side of the Castle, where the Lothian Road has since been made, of formal rows of trees, and
beyond them a great extent of ground mostly bare and unenclosed. Old St Cuthbert's Church is seen at the
foot of the Castle rock, with a square central tower surmounted by a low spire.

In 1816 an ingenious old plan of Edinburgh and its environs was published by Kirkwood, on a large
scale. He has taken Edgar as his authority for the Old Town ; South Leith from a survey by Wood in
1777 ; the intervening ground, including North Leith and the site of the New Town from a survey made in
1759, by John Fergus and Robert Eobinson ; and the south of Edinburgh, including the whole ground to
the Pow Burn, from another made the same year by John Scott. It is further embellished with a reduced
copy of the view of 1580, and a plan of Leith made in 1681. The names of most of the proprietors of ground
are given from the two last surveys, belonging to the town, and the whole forms a tolerably complete and
curious record of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh about the middle of the eighteenth century.

Gough remarks, in his British Topography, with reference to John Clerk, Esq. of Eldin, — whose amateur
performances with the etching needle are coveted by collectors of topographical illustrations, on account of their
rarity, a few impressions only having been printed for private distribution, — " I am informed he intends to etch
some views of Edinburgh of large size, having made some very accurate drawings for that purpose." Two of
these, at 1 east, have been etched on narrow plates, about fifteen inches long. One of them, a view from the north,
has Lochend and Logan of Restalrig's old tower in the foreground ; with the initials J. C., and the date 1774.
The other is from the head of the Links, with Wrychtishousis' mansion in the foreground. They are not, how-
ever so accurate as Gough — or more probably his Scottish authority, Mr George Paton — had anticipated.

To this list we may add a south view of Edinburgh by Hollar, on two sheets. We have never seen a copy of
it, nor met with any person who has seen more than one of the sheets, now at Cambridge. It is very rare, has
no date, and is perhaps, after all, only a copy of Gordon's bird's-eye view. Gough mentions an ancient drawing
of Edinburgh preserved in the Charter Boom of Heriot's Hospital, but no such thing is now known to exist,
although the careful researches of Dr Steven, in the preparation of his History of the Hospital, could hardly have
failed to discover it, had it still remained there.

Of modern views the best is that drawn by W. H. Williams, or as he is more frequently styled, Grecian
Williams, and engraved on a large scale, with great ability and taste, by William Miller. It is taken -from the
top of Arthur's Seat, so that it partakes of the character of a bird's-eye view, with all the beauty of correct per-
spective and fine pictorical effect

A rare and interesting print published in 1751, engraved from a drawing by Paul Sandby, preserves a view
of Leith at that period. It is taken from the old east road, and, owing to the nature of the ground, and the site
of the town being chiefly a declivity towards the river, little more is seen than the nearest rows of houses and
the steeple of St Mary's Church. The rural character of the neighbouring downs, however, is curious, as well
as a singular looking old-fashioned carriage, which forms one of the most prominent objects in the view.

428 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

III. CHURCHES.

- -- .' --',•• .'.V l''i ' ' ' . I'Vt *f4VK

TRON CHURCH. — The Tron Church, or Christ's Church at the Tron, as it should be more correctly termed,
ie one of two churches founded about the year 1637, in consequence of want of accommodation for the citizens
in the places of worship then existing. They proceeded very slowly, impeded no doubt by the political distur-
bances of the period. In 1647 the Church at the Tron was so far advanced as to admit of its being used for
public worship, but it was not entirely finished till 1663. On the front of the tower, over the great doorway,
a large ornamental panel bears the city arms in alto relievo, and beneath them the inscription .SDEM HANC
CHBISTO ET ECCLESI* SACRARUNT CITES EDiNBURGENSEs, ANNO DOM. MDCXLi. Some account has been given
(page 260) of the changes effected on the church in opening up the southern approaches to the city, in the
year 1785. It is finished internally with an open timber roof, somewhat similar to that in the Parliament
House ; but its effect has been greatly impaired by the shortening of the church when it was remodelled exter-
nally. In 1824 the old steeple was destroyed by tire. It was imilt according to a design frequently repeated
on the public buildings throughout Scotland at that period, but the examples of which are rapidly disappearing.
Old St Nicholas's Church at Leith still preserves the model on a small scale, and the tower of Glasgow College
is nearly a facsimile of it. The old tower of St Mary's Church, as engraved in our view of it, was another
nearly similar, but that has been since taken down ; and a destructive fire has this year demolished another
similar erection at the Town Hall, Linlithgow. The site chosen for the second of the two churches projected
in 1637 was the Castle Hill, on the ground now occupied by the Reservoir. The building of the latter church
was carried to a considerable extent, as appears from Gordon's View of Edinburgh, drawn about ten years later ;
but the Magistrates discovering by that time that it was much easier to project than to build such edifices, they,
•according to Arnot, "pulled down the unfinished church on the Castel Hill, and employed the materials in
greeting the Tron." There ia good reason, however, for believing that Arnot is mistaken in this account of the
interruption of the former building. It is unquestionable, at any rate, that at no period since the Reformation
has the same zeal been manifested for religious foundations as appears to have prevailed at that period. In
.1639, according to Arnot, David Machall, merchant burgess of Edinburgh, left three thousand five hundred
merks, or, as in the Inventar of Pious Donations, " 1000 nlerks yearly, to maintain a chaplain in the Tron
Ghnrch of Edin' to mak Exercise every Sunday from 8 to 9 in the morning." In 1647, Lady Yester founded
the church that bears her name ; and in 1650, Thomas Moodie, or as he is styled in Slezer's Theatrum Scotias*
Sir Thomas Moodie of Sachtenhall, bequeathed the sum of twenty thousand merks to the Town Council, in
trust, for building a church in the town, and which, after various projects for its application to different pur-
poses, was at length made use of for providing a church for the parishioners of the Canongate, on their ejection
from Holyrood Abbey by James VII. in 1687. Such does not seem to be a period when a church which had
been in progress for years, and, as would appear from Gordon's View, was advancing towards completion,
would be deliberately levelled with the ground, from the difficulty of raising the necessary funds. The fol-
lowing entry in the Inventar of Pious Donations, throws new light both on this and on the object of Moodie's
bequest : " Tha' Mudie left for the re-edyfmg to the Kirk that was throwne doun by the English in the Castle

Hill of Ed'. 40,000 merks,- but what is done y'in I know not." There is added on the margin in a later

hand, seemingly that of old Robert Milne, circa 1700 ; " The Wigs built the Canongate Kirk y'w'." From this
it appears that the church on the Castle Hill shared the same fate as the old Weigh-house, its materials having
most probably been converted into redoubts for Cromwell's artillery, during the siege of the Castle, for which
purpose they lay very conveniently at hand. In the year 1673, a bell, which cost 1490 merks and 8 shillings
Scots, was hung Up in the steeple, and continued weekly to summon the parishioners to church till the Great
Fire of 1824, when, after hanging till it was partly melted by the heat, it -fell with a tremendous crash among
the blazing ruins of the steeple. Portions of it were afterwards made into quaichs and other similar memorials

APPENDIX. -429

of the conflagration. In 1678 the furnishing of the steeple was completed, bv putting up there the old cloct
that had formerly belonged to that of the Weigh-house.

The bequest of Thomas Moodie appears to have cost its trustees some little concern as to how to dispose of
it, a few years having sufficed to effect very radical changes on the ideas of the civic Council as to the church
accommodation required by the citizens. Fountainhall records in 1681 (vol. i. p. 156), " The Town of Edin-
burgh obtain an act anent Thomas Hoodie's legacy and mortification to them of 20,000 merks, that in regard
they have no use for a church (which was the end whereto he destined it), that therefore they might be allowed to
invert the same to some other public work. The Articles and Parliament recommended the Town to the Privy
Council, to see the will of the defunct fulfilled as near as could be ; for it comes near to sacrilege to invert a
pious donation. The Town offers to buy with it a peal of Bells to hang in St Gile's Steeple, to ring musically
and to warn to Church, and to build a Tolbooth above the West Port of Edinburgh, and to put Thomas
Moodie's name and arms thereon. Some thought it better to make it a stipend to the Lady Yester's Kirk, or
to a minister to preach to all the prisoners in the Canongate and Edinburgh Tolbooths, and at the Cofrectiori-
house, Sunday about" In the records of the Privy Council, May 15, 1688, when Moodie's bequest was finally
appropriated towards providing the ejected burghers of Canongate with a Parish Church, it appears that the
annual interest of it had been appropriated to the payment of the Bishop of Edinburgh's house rent (Foun-
tainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 505.) The arms of Moodie now form a prominent ornament on the front of the
Canongate Church. In the vestry an elevation of the church is preserved, having a steeple attached to its south
front ; but the funds which had been raised for this ornamental, addition were appropriated to build the Chapel
of Ease at the head of New Street

LADY YESTER'S CHURCH. — The Inventar of Pious Donations appends to a long list of pious mortifieatioM by
Lady Yester, a genealogical sketch, which we correct and complete from Wood, who thus describes the eccle-
siastical origin of the Lothian family : — " Mark Ker, second son of Sir Andrew Ker of Cessford, entering into
holy orders, was promoted in 1546 to the dignity of Abbot of Newbottle ; which station he possessed at the
Eeforniation, 1560, when he renounced the profession of Popery, and held his benefice in coumiendam. ....
He married Lady Helen Lesly, second daughter of George fourth Earl of Eothes, and by her had issue,
Mark. On the death of his father in 1584, the Cominendatorship of Newbottle, to which the latter had been
provided by Queen Mary in 1567, was ratified to him by letters under the Great Seal ; and he was also
appointed one of the extraordinary Lords of Session in his father's place, 12th November 1584. He had the
lands of Newbottle erected into a barony, with the title of a Baron, 28th July 1587," &c. This was the father
of Lady Yester, of whom the following account appears in the Inventar: "The a4 Dame Margaret Ker wa»
the eldest [the third] daughter of Mark Commendator of Newbottle, one of the lo/ of council and session, yrafter
E. of Lothian, procreat betwixt him and [Margaret] Maxwell, a daughter of Jo. lo/ Herries. In her young
years she was 1st married to Ja. Lo. Hay of Yester, and by her wise and vertuous government, she was moat
instrumental in preserving and improving of the 8* estate. By him she had two sons, Jo. lo/ Hay of Yester,
yrafter E. of Tweedale, and Sir Wm. her 2d son, for whom she purchased the Barrone of Linplam, &c. The 8*
Dame Margaret Ker having lived many years a widow, she married Sir Andrew Ker, younger of Fernyhirst,
and procured his father to be made Lo/ Jedburgh. Besides the many Gardens, Buildings, Parks, made be her
in all places belonging to her husband, in every paroch qr either of her husbands had money-rents, she erected
and built Hospitals and schools." After this follows the list, which is altogether surprising, as evidence of cou-
tinued munificence and benevolent piety ; among which are the following items : —

" Towards the building of the Town [Tron 1] Kirk of Edin'., she gifted 1000 m.

" She built an kirk near the High School in Ed'., and bestowed toward the building y'of £1000, with 5000
ra. for the use of the minister of the s" church, and a little before her death caused joyne y'to au little Isle tor
the use of the minister, q' she lies interred, with an tomb in the wall, with this inscription :—

430 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

" Its needless to erect a marble Tomb :
The daily bread, that for the hungry womb,
And bread of life thy bounty hath provided,
For hungry souls, all times to be divided ;
World-lasting monuments shall reare,
That shall endure till Christ himself appear.
Pos'd was thy life ; prepar'd thy happy end ;
Nothing in either was without commend,
Let it be the care of all who live hereafter,
To live and die like Margaret Lady Yester :

Who died 15 March 1647. Her age 75."

The old Lady Yester's Church built in 1644, stood at the corner of the High School Wynd, surrounded by
a churchyard. It is a proof of the flimsy character of modem ecclesiastical edifices, as well as the little venera-
tion they excited in the minds of the worshippers, that this church has already disappeared, and been rebuilt
considerably to the westward, in a very strange and nondescript style of architecture. The tomb of the foun-
dress, and a tablet recording her good works, are both rebuilt in the New Church, and we presume her body
has also been removed to the new " minister's little isle."

IV. CORPORATION AND MASONIC HALLS.

CAKDLEMAKERS. — The Hall of this ancient Corporation still stands at the Candlemaker Row, with the arms
of the Craft boldly cut over the doorway on a large panel, and beneath, their appropriate motto, Omnia mani-
festo, luce. Internally, however, the hall is subdivided into sundry small apartments ; much more circumscribed
accommodation sufficing for the assembly of the fraternity in these days of gaslight and reform. The Candle-
makers of Edinburgh were incorporated by virtue of a Seal of Cause granted them in 1517, wherein it is
required " That na maner of Man nor Woman occupy the said Craft, as to be ane Maister, and to set up Buit,
bot gif he be ane Freman, or ells an Freman's Wyfe of the said Craft, allanerlie ; and quhan thay set up Buit,
thay sail pay to Sanct Geil's Wark, half a mark of sylver, and to the Reparatioun, bylding and uphalding of the
Licht of ony misterfull Alter within the College Kirk of Sanct Geils, quhair the said Deykin and Craftismen
thinks maist neidfull, and half ane Mark by and quhill the said Craftismen be furnist of ane Alter of thair
awin. And in lykwayis, ilk Maister and Occupiar of the said Craft, sail, in the Honour of Almichtie God, and
of his blessit Mother, Sanct Marie, and of our Patroun, Sanct Geill, and of all Sanctis of Heaven, sail gif zeirlie
to the helping and furthering of ony guid Reparatioun, either of Licht or ony other neidfull wark till ony Alter
situate within the College Kirk, maist neidfull, Ten Shillings ; and to be gaderit be the Deykin of the said
Craft, ay and quhill thay be provydit of an Alter to thameselffis ; and he that disobeis the same, the Deykin
and the Leif of the Craft sail poynd with ane Officiar of the Toun, and gar him pay walx to oure Lady's Alter,
quhill thay get an Alter of thair awin. And that nane of the said Craftismen send ony Lads, Boyis, or Servands,
oppinlie upoun the Hie-gaitt with ony Candill, to roup or to sell in playne Streites, under the payne of escheiting
of the Candill, paying ane pund of walx to oure Lady's Alter, the first fait," &c. It does not appear whether
or not the Craft ever founded an altar or adopted a patron saint of their own, before the new light of the Re-
formers of the Congregation put an end to the whole system of candle-gifts and forfeits to the altars of St Giles's
Church. The venerable fraternity of Candlemakers still exists, no unworthy sample of a close corporation.
The number of its members amounts to three, who annually meet for the purpose of electing the office-bearers
of the corporation, and distributing equitably the salaries and other perquisites accruing to them from its funds
in return for their onerous duties !

APPENDIX. 431

TAILORS. — The Corporation of Tailors, a more ancient fraternity, claiming, indeed, as their founder the lirst
stitcher of fig-leaf aprons, or, according to the old Geneva Bible, of breeches, in the plains of Mesopotamia, —
appear to have had an altar in St Giles's Church, dedicated to their- patron saint, St Ann, at the date of their
Seal of Cause, A.D. 1500. In 1554, Robert, Commendator of Abbey of Holyrood, grants to " ye Tailzour crawft
within our said Brvvcht of the cannogait of our said Abbay," Letters of Incorporation, which specially provide
for " augmentation of diuine seruice at ane altar biggit within our said Abbay, quhair Sanct An, thair patrone
now stands." So that this saint appears to have been the adopted patroness of the Craft in general.

Though the fine old hall in the Cowgate has long been abandoned by this Corporation, they still exist as a
body, and had a place of meeting in Carrubber's Close, one of the chief ornaments of which was an autograph
letter of James VI., addressed to the Tailors of Edinburgh, which hung framed and glazed over the old fire-
place. St Magdalene's Chapel, and the modern Mary's Chapel in Bell's Wynd, form the chief halls of the
remaining Corporations of Edinburgh, that have long survived all the purposes for which they were originally
chartered and incorporated.

FREEMASONS. — Probably in no city in the world have the brotherhood of the mystic tie more zealously
revived their ancient secret fraternisation than they did in Edinburgh during the eighteenth century. The
hereditary office of grand-master which had been granted by James II. to William St Clair of Roslin, and to
his heirs and successors in the barony of Roslin, was then about to expire with the last of that old line. In
1736, William St Clair of Roslin, the last hereditary grand-master, intimated to a chapter of the Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge his intention of resigning his office into the hands of the Scottish brotherhood, in order that
the office he inherited might be perpetuated by free election. The consequence was the assembly in Edin-
burgh, on the ensuing St Andrew's Day, of a representative assembly, consisting of deputies elected by all the
Scottish lodges, and thus was constituted The Grand Lodge of Scotland. The Scottish lodges took precedence
according to seniority : the Kilwinning Lodge standing foremost, and next in order the ancient Edinburgh
Lodge of St Mary, the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, and after it the Lodge of Perth and Scone, the more
ancient seat of the Scottish government. Their lodge halls are to be found in various quarters of the town
Among the antiquities of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., is a finely carved oak door of a small press or ambry, having a
figure of the Virgin carved in low relief on the panel, which belonged to one of the lodges. In the hall of St
Payid's Lodge in Hyndford's Close, a still more venerable antique used to be shown, — an original portrait of
K ing Solomon, painted for the first Grand Lodge, at the founding of the order, while the Temple of Jerusalem
was in progress ! We understand, however, that some of the brethren entertain doubts of its being quite so old,
though one venerable octagenarian answered our inquiries by an ancient legend of the burgh, which bears that
certain of the Town Guard of Edinburgh were present in Jerusalem at the Crucifixion, and carried off this
veritable portrait from the Temple during the commotions that ensued ; all which the reader will receive and
believe as a genuine old Edinburgh tradition !

The most characteristic feature, however, of the Masonic fraternity of Edinburgh, was the Roman Eagle
Lodge. There was at the period of Robert Burns's first visit to Edinburgh about a dozen different masonic
lodges assembling in Edinburgh, wherein noblemen, judges, grave professors, and learned divines, lawyers, and
scholars of all sorts, mixed with the brotherhood in decorous fraternisation and equality. It was, perhaps, from
an idea of creating within the masonic republic a scholarly aristocracy, that should preserve for their own
exclusive enjoyment one lodge of the fraternity, without infringing on the equality of rights in the order, that
the Roman Eagle Lodge was founded, at whose meetings no language but Latin was allowed to be spoken. It
was established, we believe, in the year 1780, by the celebrated and eccentric Dr Brown, author of Elementa,
Medicince, and founder of what is termed the Brunonian System in medicine. It affords no very flattering
picture of Edinburgh society at that period, to learn that this classic fraternity owed its dissolution to the
excesses of its members, wherein they far surpassed their brethren — not altogether famous as patterns of tem-
perance. The Roman Eagle Hall, in Brodie's Close, still bears the name of the learned brotherhood.

•433

.MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

V. WRYCHTISHOUSIS.

IN the description attached to a view of Wrichtialiouafa, in " An elegant collection of interesting views in
Scotland," printed \>y Oliver & Co., Nether Bow, 1802, the western wing is described as the most ancient part of
the edifice, while the eastern wing is affirmed to have been built in the reign of King Robert III., and the centre
range connecting the two in that of James VI. There was probably, however, no other authority for this than
the dates and armorial bearings, the whole of which we conceive to be the work of the latter monarch's reign.
Arnot furnishes the very laconic account of it, that it is said to have been built for the reception of a mistress
of King James IV. That it was built for such a purpose cannot admit of any credit ; bukit is possible that that
gay and gallant monarch may have entertained special favour for some of the fair scions of the old Napier
stock.

Allusion is made in a foot-note, on page 351, to " The History of the Partition of the Lennox ; " we find,
however, that the author had not only pointed out the shields of the Merchiston and Wrychtishousis Napiers on
the old tomb at St Giles's, in his Memoirs of Napiers of Merchiston, but we believe he was the first to detect
that the bearings on one of these shields was the Wrychtishousis arms, and not those of Scott of Thirlestane, as
they had previously been presumed to be ; these two families having been united in the person of Francis fifth
Lord Napier, son of the Baroness Napier and Sir William Scott, Bart., of Thirlestane. These arms, placed
above the tablet marking the tomb of the Napier family, on the north wall of the choir of St Giles's Church,
were removed, in the recent alterations, from the interior of the church, where they formerly stood above an
altar-tomb, underneath the same window, on the outside of which the tablet was placed. There is no reason
for believing them to be of the same date. The style of ornament round the border of the tablet can hardly be

APPENDIX. 433

assigned to an earlier reign than that of James VI., while the shape of the shields indicates a much more remote
era.

We are indebted to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., for the above spirited etching of Wrychtishousis, as
seen from the south-west The principal front of the building was to the north-east, and the old tower, which
had formed the nucleus of this picturesque edifice, and was the most prominent feature in the front view, is seen
here rising above its roof.

VI. PORTEOUS MOB.

A VERY curious allusion to the Porteous Mob occurs in the defence of the celebrated Home Tooke, on his
trial for libel, in 1777. The judge before whom he pled his own cause was the Earl of Mansfield, whose services
were engaged on behalf of the interests of the Scottish capital, at the time when it was sought to subject both
it and and its magistracy to ignominious pains and penalties, in order to gratify the indignant Queen Caroline,
whose unwonted powers as Regent had been insulted by the deed of the rioters, which set her royal pardon at
naught. Lord Mansfield must have known whatever could be communicated to one of the council for the
defence of Edinburgh and its ancient rights, and knowing this, Home Tooke addresses him : — " I shall not
trouble you to repeat the particulars of the affair of Captain Porteous at Edinburgh. These gentlemen are so
little pleased with military execution upon themselves, that Porteous was charged by them with murder, he was
prosecuted, convicted, and when he was reprieved after sentence, the people of the town executed that man
themselves, so little did they approve of military execution. Now, gentlemen, there are at this moment people
of reputation, living in credit, mating fortunes under tlw Crown, who were concerned in that very fact — who were
concerned in the execution of Porteous, I do not speak it to censure them ; for, however irregular the act, my
mind approves of it." — " Trial of John Home, Esq., for a libel, before the Right Hon. William Earl of Mans-
field, in the Court of King's Bench, 4th July 1777." The libel for which he was tried, was a vehement attack
on the conduct of the Ministry on the breaking out of the American war. The verdict involved him both in a
tedious imprisonment and a fine of ,£200. It can hardly, therefore, be supposed that the defendant would
unadvisedly risk such a statement, so that it affords a singular corroboration of the traditions that represent the
higher classes to have furnished the chief leaders in the Porteous Mob. We have been told by an old citizen
that Lord Mansfield was himself affirmed to have been among the rioters on the night of Porteous's execution ;
but that is exceedingly improbable, as he had then been practising for five years at the English Bar.

VII. " LADY ANN BOTHWELL'S LAMENT."

THE account of the heroine of this beautiful ballad given in the text (page 227) is incorrect In " The
Scottish Ballads," p. 133, it is remarked :— u The editor, by the assistance of a valued antiquarian friend, is
enabled now to lay a true and certain history of the heroine before the public. ' Lady Ann Bothwell,' was
no other than the Honourable Anna Bothwell, sister of Bothwell Bishop of Orkney, at the Reformation, but
who was afterwards raised to a temporal peerage under the title of Lord Holyroodhouse." As this account is
necessarily wrong, since it was not the Bishop, but his eldestson John, who was created Lord Holyroodhouse, Lad}'

Ann has been described in the text as the daughter of the latter. The following, however, is the true narrative,

2 E

434 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

which originally appeared in a note to "The Household Book of Lady Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar"—
a work now of great rarity, only a very small edition having been printed. It was edited by Charles Kirk-
patrick Sharpe, Esq. There is no date to it, but we are informed by the editor that it was published in 1814.
It is as an illustration of the following entry of 1st September 1640. (Page 43) :— " The Comptar craves
allowance of two nights charges, being sent to waitt upon the buriall of Col. Alexander, his corps, which was
buried before he came att Tyninghame, 53sh. 4d." To this the editor appends the following note in reference to
the Colonel : — " Colonel Alexander Erskine, Lady Mar's third son, was blown up in the Castle of Dunglass,
together with his brother-in-law the Earl of Hadington. ' Upon Sunday the 30th August 1640, the Earl of
Hadington, with about eighty persons, of Knights, Barons, and Gentlemen, within the place of Dunglass in the
Merse pertaining heritably to the Lord Hume, was suddenly blown up in the air, by a sudden fire occasioned
thus : Haddington, with his friends and followers, rejoicing how they defended the army's magazine frae the
English garrison of Berwick, came altogether to Dunglass, having no fear of evil, where they were all suddenly
blown up with the roof of the house in the air, by powder, whereof there was abundance in this place, and
never bone nor hyre seen of them again.' — Spalding. Bishop Guthrie remarks, that ' The very day the Scots
entered Newcastle, Dunglass Castle, in the keeping of Haddington (who had left the King's party, and held it
under Leslie), was blown up about mid-day ; he and about sixty gentlemen were buried under one of the walls,
which fell upon them as they stood in the close. The King said upon it, albeit he had been very ungrateful
to him, yet he was sorry that he had not at his dying some time to repent.'

" Sir Robert Gordon, in his History of the Sutherland Family, asserts that Lord Haddington and Colonel
Alexander Erskine had returned the day before from a victorious skirmish with the English, and were at
dinner when the explosion took place. He adds, 'This was ascryved to a servant of the Earle's (ane Englishman)
who was his harbour, but how truly I know not.'

" Alexander Erskine, son to John Earl of Mar, had a letter of provision of the abbacy of Cambuskenneth,
31st May 1608. He and his brother, Lord Cardross, were two of the chief mourners at the funeral of their
uncle, Ludovick Duke of Lennox, who died 16th February 1624, and was buried at Westminster (Sir Robert
Gordon's History of the Sutherland Family). He was knighted, but at what time is uncertain, and was in the
French military service, as appears from a letter printed by Lord Hailes, and communicated by Lord Alva. It
is addressed to a person unknown in France, by the leaders of the Scottish army, written in bad French (which
is translated by Lord Hailes), and dated from the camp at Dunse, 20th August 1640 : —

" ' SIR, — The state of our affairs has constrained us to levy a numerous army for preserving this kingdom
from utter ruin ; hence it is that we could not permit Colonel Erskine to transport his regiment (into France)
last year, and the same course still obliges us to employ the Colonel at home in the defence of his country.
Although he is exceedingly zealous in the public service, yet he will not accept of any commission from us,
unless with the consent of his Most Christian Majesty, and under the condition of being permitted to repair to

France at whatever time he may be required Peace is the aim of our

desires, and the wish of our souls ; as soon as that is concluded, we shall demonstrate, by our assisting Colonel
Erskine in his levies, and by procuring good recruits for his Majesty's service, that true Scotsmen can never
forget their ancient alliances, and the common interest which unites them with France ; and therefore, Sir, we
again entreat you to represent what has been here said, and the situation of Colonel Erskine's affairs, to his
Majesty, and to his Eminence. We hope to obtain these favours by. your means ; and, besides the obligations
which you will thereby confer on the Colonel, you will oblige us to remain, Sir, your most humble servants,
A. LESLIE. ARGYLE. ROTHES. MAR. BALCARRAS. BELMERINO. SEAFORTH.'

" This letter was written only ten days previous to the Colonel's death, which tradition affirms to have been
regarded as a punishment of Providence for his amorous perjuries towards Anna Bothwell (a sister of Lord
Holyroodhouse), whose lament has exercised the subtile wits of antiquarians, in the ascertainment of her
pedigree. She has been made out to be the divorced Countess of Bothwell, and also, I believe, a Miss Bosuell

APPENDIX. 435

of Auchinleck ; but a passage in Father Hay's MS. History of the Holyroodhouse Family, seems to confirm the
tradition beyond the possibility of doubt. Recording the children of Bishop Both well, who died 1593, he tells
us — ' He had also a daughter named Anna, who fell with child to a sone of the Earle of Mar.' Colonel
Alexander's portrait, which belonged to his mother is exceedingly handsome, with much vivacity of coun-
tenance, dark blue eyes, a peaked beard, and moustaches :—

' Ay me 1 I fell — and yet no question make
What I should do again for such a sake."'

Father Hay has thus recorded the seduction of Anna Bothwell, in his Diplomatum Cullectio (MS. Advoc.
Lib. vide Liber Cart. Sancte Crucis, p. xxxviii.) :— " Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, became Abbot of Holy-
rudehouse after Robert Steward, base son to King James the Fift by Euphern Elphinstone ; who was created
Earle of Orkney and Lord Shetland by King Jamea the Sixth, 1581. This Adam was a younger brother to Sir
Richard Bothwell, Provost of Edinburgh in Queen Maries time, and a second sone to Sir Francis Bothwell, lord
of the Session in King James the Fifts time, and was begotten upon Anna Livingstone, daughter to the Lord
Livingstone. He married Margaret Murray, and begote upon her John, Francis, William, and George Both-
wells, and a daughter Anna, who by her nurse's deceit, fell with child to a sone of the Earle of Mar."

Both the face and figure of Colonel Sir Alexander Erskine are very peculiar, as represented in his portrait.
He is dressed in armour, with a rich scarf across his right shoulder, and a broad vandyke collar round his
neck. The head is unusually small for the body ; and the features of the face, though handsome, are sharp, and
the face tapering nearly to a point at the chin. The effect of this is considerably heightened by the length of
his moustaches, and his peaked beard, or rather imperial, as the tuft below the under lip, which leaves the
contour of the chin exposed, is generally termed. The whole combines to convey a singularly sly and cat-like
expression, which — unless we were deceived when examining it by our knowledge of the leading incidents of
his history — seem very characteristic of the " dear deceiver."

The original portrait, by Jamieson, bears the date and age of Colonel Erskine — 1628, aged 29. Two stanzas
of the ballad, somewhat varied, occur in Brome's Play of the Northern Lass, printed in 1632 — not 1606 as
erroneously stated before. From this we may infer, not only that the ballad must have been written very
shortly after the event that gave rise to it — possibly by Anna Bothwell herself — but also that the seducer must
himself have been very young, so that the nurse is probably not unfairly blamed by Father Hay as an active
agent in poor Anna's wrongs.

VIII. ARMORIAL BEARINGS.

BLTTH'S CLOSE. — The armorial bearings in Blyth's Close, with the initials A. A., and the date 1557 (page
148), may possibly mark the house of Alexander Achison, burgess of Edinburgh, the ancestor of the Viscounts
Gosford of Ireland, and of Sir Archibald Achison, the host of Dean Swift at Market Hill, who, with his particu-
larly lean lady, became the frequent butt of the witty Dean's humour, both in prose and verse. The old burgess
acquired the estate of Gosford in East Lothian by a charter of Queen Mary, dated 1561. Nisbet says, "The
name of Aitchison carries, argent, an eagle with two heads displayed, sable ; on a chief, vert, two mullets,
or."

GOSFORD'S CLOSE. — Since the printing of the text (page 180), we have discovered the ancient lintel
formerly in Gosford's Close bearing a representation of the Crucifixion, and have succeeded in getting it removed
to the Antiquarian Museum. It has three shields on it, boldly cut, and in good preservation. On the centre

436 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

one is the Crucifixion, beautifully cut. On the shield to the right, two crescents in chief, on the field a boar's
head erased. On the left shield, a saltier, a bar in pale, intersecting a small saltier in the middle chief point.
On the fesse point, a circle forming with the saltier and bar a St Katherine's wheel. On the flanks, the initials
M. T. Above the whole is the inscription cut in very neat old ornamental characters : -SOLI . DEO . HONOR . ET .
GLORIA. This, we have little doubt, indicated the mansion of Mungo Tennant, burgess of Edinburgh, who,
says Nisbet (vol. i. p. 146), " had his seal appended to a reversion of half of the lands of Leny, the fourth of
October 1542, whereupon was a boar's head in chief, and two crescents in the flanks ; and in base the letter M.,
the initial letter of his Christian name." The bearings, it will be observed, are reversed. Similar liberties,
however, are not of such rare occurrence as heraldic authorities would lead us to expect. Francis Tennant,
probably a relative of this burgess, according to Nisbet sometime Provost of Edinburgh (though his name does
not appear in Maitland's list), an adherent of Queen Mary, was taken prisoner while fighting for her in 1571.

WARRISTON'S CLOSE. — The mansion of Bruce of Binning, with its finely sculptured lintel and armorial
bearings — Bruce impaling Preston — in Warriston's Close (page 231), appears from the following notice
by Chalmers (Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 758, extracted from the Chartularies of Newbottle Abbey), to be a building
of the very early part of the sixteenth century, if not earlier ; so that its substantial walls must have experi-
enced little damage from the burning of 1544. "Andrew, the abbot [of Newbottle], in May 1499, granted his
lands of Kinard, in Stirlingshire, to Edward Brus, his well-deserving armiger, rendering for the same sixteen
marks yearly ; and in December 1500, he gave to Robert Brus of Bining, and Mary Preston his spouse, the
Monastery's lands, called the Abbot's Lands of West-Bining in Linlithgowshire ; rendering for the same four
shillings yearly."

IX. THE RESTORATION. BURNING OF CROMWELL, THE POPE, &c.

DURING the rejoicings in Edinburgh, consequent on the "happy Restoration," the means taken to show the
sincerity of the new-fashioned loyalty were characterised by the oddest mixture of devotion and joviality con-
ceivable. In the following account of them recorded in Nicoll's Diary, not the least noticeable feature is the
scene between that notable traytor Oliver and the Devil, with which the holiday's heterogeneous proceedings
are wound up : —

"The Kingdome of Scotland haiffing takin to thair consideration the great thinges and wonderfull that the
Lord God had done for thame, in restoring unto thame thair native Soverane Lord and King, efter so long
banischement, and that in a wonderfull way, worthy of admiration, thai resolvit upone severall dayis of thank-
isgeving to be set apairt for his Majesteis Restauratioun, and for his mercyes to this pure land, quho haid opned
a dure of hope to his pepill, for sailing thrie Kingdomes in religion and justice. And, first, this day of thank-
isgeving began at Edinburgh, and throw all the kirkis and pairtes of Lothiane, upone Tysday the nyntene day of
Junij 1660, quhair thair wer sermondis maid throw all the kirkis, and quhairat all the Magistrates of Edinburgh
and the Commoune Consell were present, all of them in thair best robis ; the great mace and sword of honor
careyed befoir thame to the sermond, and throw the haill streitis as they went, all that day. And eftir the
sermond endit, the Magistrates and Consell of Edinburgh, with a great number of the citizens, went to the
Mercat Croce of Edinburgh, quhair a great long boord of foote of lenth wes covered with all soirtes of

sweit ineittis, and thair drank the Kinges helth, and his brether ; the spoutes of the Croce rynnand all that tyme
with abundance of clareyt wyne. Ther wer thrie hundreth dosane of glassis all brokin and cassin throw the streitis,
with sweit meitis in abundance. Major-generall Morgan commander in cheiff of all the forces in Scotland, and
the Governor of the Castell of Edinburgh, being both Englischemen, with sum of the speciall officeris of the

APPENDIX. 437

airmy, wer all present. Thair wes a gaird, also, of the niaist able burgessis of the toun, quha did gaird the
croce, tabill and streitis during this feast, all of thame weill apperrellit, and with partizens in thair handis, to
the number of four or fyve hundreth persones or thairby, in very gude equipage and ordor. And in the mean-
tyme, quhyll thai wer thus feasting at the Croce, the haill bellis in Edinburgh and Cannogait did reing, the
drumes did beatt, trumpettis soundit, the haill troupes on horsbak, and sodgeris on fute being also within the
toun at this tyme and upone service, with the haill inhabitantes, both men, wemen, and chyldrene, gave thair
severall volyes. Thair wer numberis of trumpettis and trumpettouris at this solempnitie, quha actit thair
pairtes formalie. Farder, at nycht thair wes bonefyres put out throw the haill streitis of Edinburgh, and fyre
workis both thair and at the Castell of Edinburgh, and within the Citidaill of Leith, that nicht, in abundance,
till eftir xij bouris and moir. Thair wer also sex violes, thrie of them base violes, playing thair continuallie.
Thair wer also sum musicians placed thair, quha wer resolvit to act thair pairtes, and wer willing and reddy,
bot by ressone of the frequent acclamationes and cryes of the pepill universallie throw the haill toun, thair
purpos wes interruptit. Bachus also, being set upone ane punzeon of wyne upon the frontische pece of the
Croce with his cumerhaldis, wes not ydle. And in the end of this solempnitie, the effigies of that notable
tyrant and traytor Oliver, being set up upone a pole, and the Devill upone aneuther, upone the Castell Hill of
Edinburgh ; it wes ordered by fyre wark, ingyne, and trayne, the devill did chase that traytour, and persewit
him still, till he blew him in the air."

BURNING THE POPE. — Of a somewhat different character are the proceedings with which the populace cele-
brated the Christmas of 1680, in defiance of the more hospitable intentions of the Magistrates, who were anxious
that no occurrence of an unpalatable nature should ruffle the serenity of the Duke of York, who had come to
Scotland as Commissioner and representative of his royal brother Charles II., at the meeting of the Scottish
Estates. The following is the account of these proceedings furnished by Lord Fountainhall, in his Historical
Observes : —

" On the 26 of December 1680, being Christmas day, some of the schollars of the Colledge of Edinburgh
having contributed together for the making ane effigies and image of the Pope, they entred in a bond and com-
bination to burne him after a solenme procession on Yuille day, and gave oaths on to another for the secrecy of
it ; yet it came abroad, and a Councell being called on the 24 of December, at night, for preventing it, they
ordered the King's forces to be brought within the City of Edinburgh to oppose it, and seized on some English
boyes of the name of Gray and others the next morning in thair beds, and imprisoned thame. Yet all this did
not divert the designe, but, by a witty stratagem, the boyes carried a portrait to the Castlehil (as if this blind
had been the true on, and they had intended to carry it in procession doune the streets and performe ther cere-
mony and pageantrie in the Abbey Court over against the Duke of Albanies windows), which made all the
forces draw up at the West Bow head, and in the Grasse Mercat, leist the boyes should escape by coming doune
the South Back of the Castle, and thus having stopped all avenues as they thought, thir boyes escaped by
running doune vennels leading to the North Loch side, and other boyes carried the true effigies from the
Grammar School! yeard to the head of Blackfreis Wind, and that on the Hy-Street, first clodded the picture
with dirt, and then set fyre to the pouder within the trunk of his body, and so departed. This was highlie
resented by some as ane inhospitall affront, designed to the Duke of York (though it was only to his religion and
not to himselfe), being a stranger among us (though he be deschended of Scots blood), and that it was but ane
aperie of the London apprentices, who had done the like before, and that it opened the Papists' mouths to call
us cruell. But what the boyes did in show, the Papists ware wont to do to us as haereticks in reality ; and some
thought boyes might as well sport themselfes with this, as ministers in the pulpit affirme the Popes to have
been bougerers, hsereticks, adulterers, sorcerers, sodomites, &c. ; the punishment whereof by all laws is Vivi
comburium, burning alive ; and it was a compensation for his excommunicating all Protestants yearly on this
day. In summe, it was a childish folly, and scarse deserved so much notice should have been taken of it."

The same incremation of his Holiness was re-enacted on the succeeding Christmas of 1681, accompanied

438 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

with some additional proceedings characteristic of the temper of the Government, and the consequent reaction
produced on the popular mind. Fountainhall remarks :— " We see a great stir made for the Colleginers burning
the Pope at Christinas 1680 ; this year the boyes and prentices forboor ther solemnity on Zuille day, because it
happened to be a Sunday, but they had it on the 26th of December at night. Ther preparations were so quiet
that none suspected it this year ; they brought him to the Croce, and fixed his chair in that place wher the
gallows stands, he was trucked up in a red goune and a niitar with 2 keyes over his arme, a crucifix in on
hand and the oath of the Test in the other, then they put fyre to him, and it brunt lenthy till it came to the
pouder at which he blew up in the air. While they ware at this employment ther ware lightnings and claps
of thunder, which is very unusuall at that season of the year. At this tyme many things were done in mockerie
of the Test : on I shall tell. The children of Heriots Hospitall finding that the dog which keiped the yairds
of that Hospitall had a public charge and office, they ordained him to take the Test, and offered him the paper,
but he, loving a bone rather than it, absolutely refused it ; then they rubbed it over with butter (which they
called ane Explication of the Test in imitation of Argile), and he licked of the butter but did spite out the
paper, for which they held a jurie on him, and in derision of the sentence against Argile, they found the dog
guilty of treason, and actually hanged him."

X. WEST BOW. MAJOR WEIR

IN our account of Major Weir (Part ii. chap, ix.), his sister is styled Grizel Weir, in accordance with Master
James Frazer's Providential Passages, a MS. from which Mr George Sinclair has evidently borrowed the
greater portion of his account of the Major, without acknowledging the source of his information. In Law's
Memorials, however, as well as in Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World Discovered, she bears the name of Jean
Weir, by which she is most frequently alluded to. One of the witnesses examined on the trial of this noted
wizard, as appears from the Criminal Record in the Register House of Edinburgh, was " Maister John Sinclare,
minister at Ormistoune," who deponed, among other strange items of evidence, that " having asked him if he
had seen the deivelL, he answered, that any fealling he ever hade of him was in the dark !" — Law's Memorials,
note, p. 26.

Projects for improving the Old Town of Edinburgh, and for extending it beyond its ancient limits, appear
to have engaged general attention even so early as the reign of Charles II., when the court and levees of the
Duke of York at Holyrood, revived somewhat of the old life and splendour of the Scottish capital, which her
citizens had so long beun strangers to. On account of the narrow limits of the Old Town, its inhabitants were
on nearly the same familiar footing as those of a country village ; and schemes of improvement that might now
lie unheeded for years in the hands of some civic committee, were then discussed at every club and change-
house, until they became incorporated among the faced ideas of the population, affording at any time a ready
theme for the display of wisdom by that industrious class of idlers, usually composed of retired traders,
country lairds, and half-pay officers, to whom a subject for grumbling over, and improving in theory, is as
necessary as daily food.

In Gough's British Topography (vol. ii. p. 674), the following account appears of an ingenious model of
Edinburgh, constructed about the middle of last century. It was, no doubt, furnished to the author by George
Paton, and shows how early some of the improvement schemes, which have since cost the citizens so much both
in antiquities and taxes, were made the subject of reforming speculations, and favourably entertained as
desirable alterations on the snug and closely-packed little Scottish capital of the eighteenth century: —

APPENDIX. 439

" A model of Edinburgh was executed by the late Mr Gavin Hamilton, bookseller : it was most accurately
done, with his intended improvements of carrying a street of a gentle ascent from the Grassmarket in a line up
to the west end of the Luckenbooths, for which purpose he could shift the representation of the houses, and
lay open his plan to public view. This finished work cost him some years' labour, and was shown in a room
of the Royal Infirmary in 1753 and 1754 : but after his death it was neglected, and destroyed for firewood.
His proposals, like other commodious, salutary, and beneficial projects for the improvement of the place, were
rejected ; as was likewise the scheme of an entry into the High Street of Edinburgh from St Cuthbert's or West
Church, along the hill side by south and west of the Castle, which by a gradual ascent might be completed at
no very considerable sum, to facilitate the easier conveyance of carriages from the south and west than by the
West Bow, a most inconvenient and steep height for horses with coals and other articles for the citizens' use ;
this might terminate the head of the causeway on the Castle HilL A south entry to the High Street being
much wanted for the same necessary purposes, has been of late proposed, but hitherto rejected also, from an
excess of toll all needful carriages would be subjected to, which many of the inhabitants are unable to
bear.

" Sir John Dalrymple has been at uncommon care and expence in causing to be executed an accurate
survey and plan for an easy access into the city from the south, by a gentle declivity and ascent from the High
Street at the head of Marlin's Wynd to Nicolson's Park in a streight line, without any arch."

The following jeu, d'esprit may suffice, like some of the school-rhymed arithmetical and grammatical rules,
days of the month, and the like useful helps to short memories, to preserve in the reader's recollection some
memento of the strange associations that have already been related in sober prose as pertaining to the old
West Bow : the like of which he will in vain seek for in any existing corner either of the Old or New
Town.

THE WAST BOW.
DEDICATED TO THE HON. BOARD OP COMMISSIONERS FOR CITY IMPROVEMENTS.

Through the auld Wast Bow, and to the Grass-Market,

Mony a ane has gane doun fast an' erie ;
Gentles wi' hollands fu' brawly besarkit, —

Covenant haulders o' warld's care fu' weary, —
Doom gaol an' gallows birds naething has carkit,
Fu' dauntonly fitting it to the Grass-Market.
Hurrying doun, stoiterin' an' stumblin',
The gleger ye gang better luck against tumblin' !

Up o'er its crooked an' dingy auld causey,

Fu' stately an' trig in their cleadin' o' braws,
Our Jamies escorted ilk royal Scottish lassie

To weddin' and beddin' in Holyrood ha's ;
Our pedant, King Jamie, King Charlie the saucy,
An' bauld Noll, rade in state, ilka ane o'er its causey,
Hurrying doun, &c.

Au' Provost an' Bailies, fu' prudely I'se warrant,

Ha'e bided for Eoyalty doun the Wast Bow ;
An' speered at the yett, whan he cam, for his errand,

An" keeked round the corner, wi' face in a low ;
An' Deacon an' Guild-Dean, an' Town-Clerk auld-faiaud,
I'racteesing their best bow fu' loyalu I'se warrant.
Hurrying doun, &c.

440 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

An' then there 's the Major, sin' less winna ser' him,
His servitude haulds o'er the crook o' the Bow,

Wi' his tittie, sin' better folk wunna gang near him,
Come thundering at midnight in glamour a'low ;

The Deil for their coachman ; a whup wi' some smeddum,

As needs maun wha drive wi' auld Clooty to lead 'em.
Hurrying doun, &c.

Or belyve, for a change, just as twal' is a bangin',
Whir, out frae the pend, in a whirlwind o' flame,

Ilk cloot, wi' a low frae the causey it 's clangin',
The headless hell-charger gangs galloping hame ;

111 luck to the loon says gude e'en as he 's gangin',

He were better gae doun the Wast Bow to his hangin'.
Hurrying doun, &c.

An' dinna forget, o' the auld gousty alley,

The Major's black caddie, his stick o' a' sticks,

At his bidin' on errands a shopin' wad sally,
Wad chap at the counter an' play aff its tricks ;

Yet ne'er ane wagged his tongue 'gainst the Major's queer vally

As he chanced on him dauuderin' doun the auld alley.
Hurrying doun, &c.

An' then there's Jock Porteous's gaist took an airin',
Wi' his gun o'er his shouther just primed for a shot,

Ance a year, at the fit o' the Bow disappearin',
Whar the dyster's pole ser'ed for the raxin' he got.

Deil ane, gaist or gomrell, wad think o' repairin',

To the new-fangled Bow for to tak him an airin'.
Hurrying doun, &c.

Foul fa' the Commissioners wi' their improvements,

Their biggius, an' howkins, an' sweepins awa ;
May the Major, when neist bent on ane o' his movements, —

'Tis the warst-waled retour that I wus may befa', —
Whisk his coach doun the Bow, just for ilk anes behovements,
Wi' a team o' Commissioners o' the Improvements.
Hurrying doun, etoiterin' an' stumblin',
The gleger ye gang better luck against tumblin' 1

XT. OLD BANK CLOSE. ASSASSINATION OF SIR GEORGE
LOCKHART BY CHIESLEY OF DALRY.

THE following is the circumstantial narrative of this savage act of vengeance, furnished in Father Hays
Manuscript Memoirs (Advocate's Library, tome iii. p. 135) : —

" It was not known that the villain was com'd from London till Sunday the 31st, which day he came to the
New Church, and offered money to the bedler for a part of my Lord Castlehills seat, just behind the Presidents,
whom he designed to have murdered there ; but not getting the seat, he would have none at all, and walked

APPENDIX. 441

up and down the church till the end of the sermon. When sermon was done, Chiesly went out before the
President, and gained his closs head, where he saluted him going down, as the President did Chiesly. My
Lord Castlehill and Daniel Lockhart convoyed [the President] a peace down the closs, and talked a while with
him, after which they both departed. The President called back the last, and whilst Daniel was returning,
Dalrey approached, to whom Daniel said, ' I thought you had been att London,' without receiving any other
answer than that ' He was there now.' Daniel offered to take him. by the hand, but the other shuffled by him,
and comeing close to the President's back discharged his pistol, before that any suspected his design : The
bullet going in beneath the right shoulder, and out att the left pap, was battered on the wall.

" The President immediately turned about, looked the murderer grievously in the face ; and then finding him-
self beginning to faile, he leant to the wall, and said, ' Hold me, Daniel ; hold me.' These were his last words.
He was carried immediately to his own house, and was almost dead before he could reach it Daniel and the
President's Chaplain apprehended, in the meantime, Dalrey, who own'd the fact, and never offered to file. He
was carried to the guard, kept in the Weigh-house, and afterwards taken to prisone.

" The President's Ladie, hearing the shot and a cry in the closs, got in her smock out of her bed, and took
the dead bodie in her arms, at which sight swounding she was carried to her chamber. The corps were laid in
the same room where he used to consult. The first of Aprile a Meeting of the States was call'd, att nine of the
clock, anent the Murtherer. The Provost of Edinburgh and two Bailliffs, with the Earle of Errol's deputys,
were admitted to concurr if they pleased. Two of each bench of the meeting, viz. the Earle of Eglinton and
Glencarne, Sir Patrick Ogilvy of Boyne and Blacbarroure, Barons, Sir John Dalrymple and Mr William
Hamilton, Burgesses, were impower'd to sit on the Assize, and to cause torture Dalrey, to know if any other was
accessarie to the murther. The President's friends, out of tenderness to the Ladie and childring, did not insist
upon the crime of assassination of a Judge and Privy Counsellor. Calderwood, designed Writter in Edinburgh,
upon suspicion was imprisoned. He was waiting at the closs head when the shot was given, and fled thereafter.
He had been likewise seen with Dalrey at the Abbey the Saturday before, following the President as he came
from Duke Hamilton's lodgeing.

" The Court sat down as the States rose. The Murtherer was brought in, who did not deny the fact, and
confesst that none was accessarie. He got the boots and the thumekins. Dureing the torture he confessed
nothing. Cardross and Polwart were against the tortureing. Calderwood was brought in also, but confessed
nothing. Sir George was buried in the Gray Friers Church, upon the south side. He was a great favourer of
the King's, no friend to the Roman Catholicks, and an open enimie of Melford's, whom he regarded as the
author of all the troubles brought upon the King and Country."

The Lady Grange, the romantic story of whose captivity in the Island of St Kilda has since furnished
materials both for the novelist and the historian, was a daughter of the assassin, Chiesley of Dairy, and is said
to have owed her strange fate to the fierce and vindictive spirit she inherited from her father. Lord Grange
entered deeply into the politics of the time, and his wife is believed to have obtained possession of some of the
secrets of his party, the disclosure of which would have involved the leaders in great danger, if not in ruin.
This accounts for the ready co-operation he found from men otherwise unlikely to have shared in such an abduc-
tion. Lady Grange is said to have accelerated the fate which her husband meditated for her, by reminding
him, in a fit of passion, " that she was Chieslie's daughter," a threat that implied he might experience a fate
similar to that of the Lord President if he provoked her anger. A curious account of the abduction and con-
finement of Lady Grange in the Western Isles, will be found in the Edinburgh Magazine for 1817.

In the Archseologia Scotica (vol. iv. p. 18), Father Hay's narrative is accompanied with the following
letter from Sir Walter Scott, addressed to E. W, A. Drummond Hay, Esq., Secretary of the Society of Anti-
quaries, in reference to the finding of the assassin's bones at Dairy. The reader will see that it greatly differs
from the account we have given (page 179.) The latter is derived from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq.,
a better authority, we have no hesitation in saying, on questions of fact and antiquarian research, than

443

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Sir Walter Scott, who, moreover, evidently writes witli an imperfect recollection of what he had heard ; whereas
Mr Sharpe's own grandfather was proprietor of Dairy at the period, and he has himself often heard the facts
related by his father, who was present when the discovery was made. The reader, however, has now both
versions of the story, and may adopt which of them pleases him. best : —

" DEAR SIR, — I return the curious and particular account of Sir George Lockhart's murder by Chiesley of
Dairy. It is worthy of antiquarian annotation, that Chiesley was appointed to be gibbetted, not far from his
own house, somewhere about Drumsheugh. As he was a man of family, the gibbet was privately cut down, and
the body carried off. A good many years since, some alterations were in the course of being made in the house
of Dairy, when, on enlarging a closet or cellar in the lower story, a discovery was made of a skeleton, and some
fragments of iron, which (were) generally supposed to be the bones of the murderer Ghiesley. His friends had
probably concealed them there when they were taken down from the gibbet, and no opportunity had occurred
tor removing them before their existence was forgotten. I was told of the circumstance by Mr James Walker,
then my brother in office, and proprietor of Dairy. I do not, however, recollect the exact circumstance, but I
dare say Francis Walker Drummond can supply my deficiency of memory. — Yours truly, WALTER SCOTT.
Shandwick Place, loth January 1829. To E. W. A. Drummond Hay, Esq."

XII. SIR DAVID LINDSAY.

IN the quotation from Sir David Lindsay's Complaynt (page 39), the text of Chalmers has been followed.
Slight as the change is that its punctuation requires to render it correct, the alteration in its sense is very con-
siderable. It should be read thus : —

" The first sillabis that thow did mute
Was pa, da, Lyn. Upon the lute
Then playit I tweutie springis perqueir,
Quhilk was greit plesour for to heir."

" Any old woman in Scotland," says Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to Marmion, " will bear witness that pa,
da, Lyn, are the first efforts of a child to say where 's David Lindsay ?" A still better reading of it has been
suggested, and the true one, as we think, viz., Play Davy Lindsay. The poems of Lindsay have now ceased to
occupy the place they so long held in the library of the Scottish cottage, yet some trace of their former study
is still preserved in the common rustic expression of scepticism— It 's no between the brods o' Davy Lindsay 1 —
implying that not even Lindsay, whom nothing escapes, has noticed the thing in question.

XIII. UMFRAVILLE'S CROSS.

A FEW additional notices of the Scottish Umfravilles may perhaps help to suggest a clue to the date of erection
of the ancient cross that formerly stood on the boundary of the Borough Muir, at St Leonard's Loan (page 293.)
In the year 1304, Edward, Longshanks, granted an indemnity to the Scots under certain conditions, one of
which imposed a graduated scale of fines on the Scottish clergy and nobles, proportioned in its severity to the
opposition hu had encountered from them, and the tardiness of their submission to his power. The heaviest of

APPENDIX. 443

all these oppressive exactions is imposed on INOELRAM DB UMFRAVILLE, and a proportionately severe fine is
required from his vassals.— (Lord Hailes's Annals, vol. i. p. 288.) This, therefore, indicates one of the chief
leaders of the Scots against their English invaders. His fine was to extend over a period of ten years, long
before which Edward was in his grave, and nearly every place of strength in Scotland had been wrested from
his imbecile son. There seems little reason to doubt that Ingelram de Umfraville would early avail himself of
an opportunity to renounce a foreign yoke burdened by such exactions, and to bear his part in expelling the
invaders from the kingdom. The following, however, is the very different account of Nisbet, in his " Historical
and Critical remarks on the Ragman Eoll " (p. 11), if it refer to the same person : —

" Ingelramus de Umphravile was a branch of the Umfraville family that were Englishmen, but possessed
of a great estate in Angus, and elsewhere, which they lost, because they would not renounce their allegiance
to England, and turn honest Scotsmen. In the rolls of King Robert I., there are charters of lands granted by
that Prince, upon the narrative that the lands had formerly belonged, and forfeited to the Crown, by the
attainder of Ingelramus de Umphravile,"

At an early date the Scottish Umfravilles occupied a high rank. In 1243, Gilbert de Umfraville, Lord of
Prudhow and Herbottil, in Northumberland, became Earl of Angus, by right of his marriage with Matilda,
Countess in her own right. The name of Gilleberto de Umframuill appears as a witness to a confirmation
of one of the charters of Holyrood Abbey, granted by William the Lyon (Liber Cartarum Sancte Crucis, p.
24) ; and in a subsequent charter in the same reign he appears as bestowing a carukate of land in Kinard on the
same Abbey (Ibid, p. 34). These notes can afford at best only grounds for surmise as to the knight whose
memorial cross was not altogether demolished till the year 1810. The base of it, which remained on its ancient
site till that recent date, was a mass of whinstone, measuring fully five feet square, by about three feet high
above ground. There was a square hole in the centre of it, wherein the shaft of the cross had been inserted.
We are informed that it was broken up and used for paving the roail.

The poet Claudero, of whom some account is given in a succeeding note, has dedicated an elegy to the
"Tunefield Nine," On the Pollution of St Leonard's Hill, a consecrated and ancient burial-place, near Edinburgh."
The following stanzas will be sufficient to account for the complete eradication of every vestige of its hospital
and graves from the ancient site : —

" The High Priest there, with art and care,

Hath purg'd with gard'ner's skill,
And treneh'd out bones of Adam's sons,
Repos'd in Leonard's Hill !

" Graves of the dead, thrown up with spade,

Where long they slept full still,
And turnips grow, from human pow,
Upon St Leonard's Hill ! "

XIV. GREYFRIARS' MONASTERY.

- THE residence of Henry VI. of England, as well as his heroic Queen and their son, at the Greyfriars
Monastery in the Grassmarket, after the total overthrow of that unfortunate monarch's adherents at the Battle
of Towton, is referred to in the description of the Grassmarket (pages 17 and 342). The visit of Henry
to the Scottish capital has, however, been altogether denied by some writers. The following note by Sir W.
Scott, on the fifth canto of Marmion, ought to place this at least beyond doubt : —

444 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

" Henry VI. with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal Battle of
Towton. In this note a doubt was formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his
Queen certainly did ; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble
friend Lord Napier has pointed out to me a grant by Henry of an annuity of forty marks to his Lordship's
ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King himself at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirty-
ninth year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God, 1461. This grant, Douglas, with his usual
ne"lect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this error being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane's MSS. pp. 119,
120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and
heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the
distressed monarch and his family called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet.
The English people, he says, —

Uiig nouveau roy cr<5erent,

Par despiteux vouloir,
Le vieil en deboutdrent,
Et son legitime hoir,
Qui fuytyf alia prendre
D'Escossd le garand.
De tous siecles le inentlre,

Et le plus tollerant. ' " — Recollection del Avanturei.

No such doubts seem to have been entertained by earlier writers on the question of Henry's entertainment
at Edinburgh. The author of the Martial Achievements remarks, in his Life of James III. (Abercombie's
Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 384) : — "A battle ensued between Caxton and Towton, King Edward gained
the day, and King Henry, hearing of the event (for he was not allowed to be at the battle, his presence being
thought fatal to either of the parties that had it), hastened with his wife and only son, first to Berwick, where
he left the Duke of Somerset, and then to Edinburgh, where he was received with uncommon civility, being
honourably lodged and royally entertained by the joint consent of the then Regents."

The same writer, after detailing various negotiations, and the final agreement entered into, between Henry
and the administrators of Government in Scotland, James III. being then a minor, adds : — "These transactions
being completed, the indefatigable Queen of England left the King, her husband, at his lodgings in the Grey-
Friers of Edinburgh, where his own inclinations to devotion and solitude made him choose to reside, and went
with her son into France." — (Ibid, p. 386.)

XV. THE WHITEFRIAHS' MONASTERY.

THE following curious fact, relating to the Monastery of the Carmelite Friars, founded at Greenside, under the
Calton Hill, in the year 1526, is appended in the form of a note to the description of this monastic order, in the
third part of " Lectures on the Religious Antiquities of Edinburgh, by a Member of the Holy Guild of St
Joseph" (p. 129), and is stated, we have reason to believe, on the authority of a well-known Scottish
antiquary : —

" The humble brother of our Holy Guild who is now engaged in an endeavour to form a Monatticon Scoti-
canum, informs me, on undoubted authority, that the succession of the Priors of Greenside is still perpetuated in
the Carmelite Convent at Rome, and his informant has seen the friar who bore the title of // Padre Priore
di Greentide."

APPENDIX. 445

XVI. ST KATHERINE'S WELL.

THE marvellous history of the origin of this well (page 418) rests on very early authority. Boece gives the
following account of both the well and chapel :— " Ab hoc oppido plus minus duobus passuum millibus, fons
cui olei guttge innatant, scatturit ea vi, ut si nihil inde collegeris, nihilo plus confluat ; quamtumvis autem
abstuleris nihilo minus remaneat. Natam esse aiunt effuso illic oleo Divoe Catherinse, quod ad Divam
Margaritam, ex Monte Sinai adferebatur. Fidem rei faciunt, Fonti nomen Divas Catherinse inditum, atque in
ejusdem honorem sacellum juxta, Divse Margarita jussu sedificatum. Valet hoc oleum contra varias cutis
scabricies." Dr Turner thus describes the substance which forms the peculiar characteristic of this and similar
wells : —

" Petroleum and Bitumen. Under these names are known certain natural tarry matters, more or less fluid,
which have evidently resulted from the decomposition of wood or coal, either by heat or by spontaneous action
under the surface of the earth. The most celebrated are those of Persia and the Binuan empire, and of Amiano
in Italy." — (Elements of Chemistry, seventh edition, p. 1182.)

The following analysis of the water of St Katherine's Well has been made expressly for this work, in the
chemical laboratory of Dr George Wilson, F.S.A. :— "The water from St Katherine's Well contains, after
nitration, in each imperial gallon, grs. 28.11 of solid matter, of which grs. 8.45 consists of soluble sulphates
and chlorides of the earths and alkalies, and grs. 19.66 of insoluble calcareous carbonates."

XVII. CLAUDERO.

THE eccentric poet Claudero deserves special notice among the Memorials of Edinburgh in the olden time,
as he has not only commemorated in his verse some of the most striking objects of the Old Town that have
disappeared, but he appears to have been almost the sole remonstrant against their reckless demolition.
James Wilson, the poet and satirist, who amused the citizens some eighty years ago with his humorous and
somewhat coarse lampoons, was a native of Cunibernauld, some of whose characters form the subject of his
verse. He was a cripple, in consequence, it is said, of the merciless beating he received from his own parish
minister at Cunibernauld, where he had rendered himself an object of universal hatred or fear by his mischief-
loving disposition. The account of this unwonted practice of clerical discipline, which is given in the
Traditions of Edinburgh, states that the occasion of his lameness was a pebble thrown from a tree at the minister
who, having been previously exasperated by his tricks, chased him to the end of a closed lane, and with his
cane inflicted such personal chastisement, as rendered him a cripple, and a hater of the whole body of the clergy
all the rest of his life. He went with a crutch under one arm, and a staff in the opposite hand ; one withered
leg swinging entirely free from the ground. The poetical merits of Claudero's compositions are of no very
high order, but it can hardly be doubted, notwithstanding, that all this youthful energy which rendered him
so great a torment to the whole village and parish, might have been turned to some good account under gentler
moral suasion than his Reverence of Cumbernauld applied with the pastoral staff to his unruly parishioner.

Claudero had the good sense to disarm his numerous enemies of the handle they might find in the satirist's
own personal deformity, by being the first to laugh at himself. In his Miscellanies in Prose and Verse,
published in 1766, and dedicated to the renowned Peter Williamson, he remarks in the author's preface :— " I
am regardless of critics ; perhaps some of my lines want a foot ; but then, if the critic look sharp out, he will

446 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

tind that loss sufficiently supplied in other places, where they have a foot too much ; and besides men's works
generally resemble themselves — if the poems are lame, so is the author ! "

Claudero lived ostensibly by teaching a school, which he kept in an old tenement in the Cowgate, at the
bottom of the High School Wynd. By his poetic effusions he contrived to eke out a precarious income, deriving
no unfrequent additions to his slender purse, both by furnishing lampoons to his less witty fellow-citizens who
desired to take their revenge on some offending neighbour by such means, and by engaging to suppress similar
effusions, which he frequently composed on some of the rich but sensitive old burghers, who willingly feed
him to secure themselves against such a public pillory. He latterly added to his professional income by per-
forming half-merle marriages, an occupation which, no doubt, afforded him additional satisfaction, as he was
thereby taking their legitimate duties out of the hands of his old enemies, the clergy.

Claudero, like other great men who have kept the world in awe, was himself subjected to a domestic rule
sufficiently severe to atone to his bitterest enemies for the wrongs they suffered from his pen. His wife was an
accomplished virago, whose shrewish tongue subdued the poetic fire of the poor satirist the moment he came
within her sphere, though, probably with little increase to her own comfort Like other poets' helpmates, she
had, no doubt, frequent occasion to complain of an empty larder, and the shrill notes of her usual welcome
often helped to send the not unwilling bard to some favourite howf, with its jolly circle of boon companions.

" The first piece in Claudero's collected poems is, " The Echo of the Royal Porch of the Palace of Holy-
rood-House, which fell under Military Execution, Anno 1753." From this it would appear that the military
guardians of the Palace had been employed in this wanton act of destruction. The poet — or rather the Echo
of the Old Porch— thus speaks of these " Sons of Mars, with black cockade :" —

" They do not always deal in blood ;
Nor yet in breaking human boues,
For Quixot-like they knock down stones.
Regardless they the mattock ply,
To root out Scots antiquity."

In the same vein the poet mourns the successive demolition of the most venerable antiquities of Edinburgh ;
generally allowing the expiring relic to speak its own grievances. The following is the lament for the old City
Cross, which, Claudero insinuates in the last line, was demolished lest its tattered and time-worn visage should
shame the handsome polished front of the New Exchange ; and this idea is enlarged on in the piece with which
it is followed up in the collection, entitled : — " The serious advice and exhortation of the Royal Exchange to
the Cross of Edinburgh, immediately before its execution."

"The Last Speech and Dying Words of the Cross of Edinburgh, which was hanged, drawn, and quartered, on
Monday the 15th of March 1756, for the horrid Crime of being an Encumbrance to the Street:—-

Ye sons of Scotia, mourn and weep,
Express your grief with sorrow deep ;
Let aged sires be bath'd in tears,
And ev'ry heart be fill'd with fears ;
Let rugged rocks with grief abound,
And Echos multiply the sound ;
Let rivers, hills, let woods and plains,
Let morning dews, let winds and rains,
United join to aid my woe,

And loudly mourn my overthrow.

For Arthur's Ov'n and Edinburgh Cross,
Have, by new schemers, got a toss
We, heels o'er head, are tumbled down,
The modern taste is London town.

APPENDIX. 447

I was built up in Gothic times,
And have stood several hundred reigns ;
Sacred my metn'ry and my name,
For kings and queens I did proclaim.
I peace and war did oft declare,
And roused my country ev'rywhere t
Your ancestors around me walk'd ;
Your kings and nobles 'side me talk'd;
And lads and lasses, with delight.
Set tryst with me to meet at night ;
No tryster e'er was at a loss,
For why, 1 'II meet you at the Cross.
I country people did direct
Through all the city with respect,
\Vlio missing me, will look as droll
As mariners without the pole.
On me great men have lost their lives,
And for a maiden left their wives.
Low rogues likeways oft got a peg

With turnip, , or rotten egg ;

And when the mob did miss their butt,

I was bedaubed like any slut.

With loyal men, on loyal days,

1 dress'd myself in lovely bays,

And with sweet apples treat the crowd,

While they huzza'd around me loud.

Professions many have I seen,
And never have disturbed been,
I 've seen the Tory party slain,
And Whiys exulting o'er the plaiu :
I 've seen again the Tones rise,
And with loud shouting pierce the skies,
Then crown their king, and chase the Whig
From Penlland Hill to Bothwell Brig.
I 've seen the cov'nants by all sworn,
And likewise seen them burnt and torn.
I neutral stood, as peaceful Quaker,
With neither side was I partaker.

I wish my life had longer been,
That I might greater ferlies seen ;
Or else like other things decay,
Which Time alone doth waste away :
But since I now must lose my head,
I, at my last, this lesson read :
' Tho: wealth, and youth, and beauty shine,
And all the graces round you twine,
Think on your end, nor proud beave,
There "s nothing sure this side the grave.'

Ye jolly youths, with richest wine,
Who drunk my dirge, for your propine,
I do bequeath my lasting boon :
May heav'n preserve you late and soon :
May royal wine, in royal bowls,
And lovely women cheer your souls,

448 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Till by old age you gently die,
To live immortal in the sky.

To own my faults I have no will,
For I have done both good and ill ;
As to the crime for which I die,
To my last gasp, Not 'jvilty, I.
But to this magisterial hate
I shall assign the pristine date.
When the intrepid, matchless Charles
Came here with many Highland Carls,
And o'er my top, in public sight,
Proclaim'd aloud his Father's Right ;
From that day forth it was agreed,
That I should as a Rebel bleed ;
And at this time they think it meet
To snatch my fabric off the street,
Lest I should tell to them once more
The tale I told ten years before.

At my destroyers bear no grudge,
Nor do you stain their mason-lodge,
Tho" well may all by-standers see
That better masons built up me.
The royal statue in the close
Will share the fate of me, poor Cross ;
Heav'ns, earth, and seas, all in a range,
Like me, will perish for Exchange."

Few civic events connected with the destruction of old, or the rearing of new buildings, escape the poet's
notice. One poem records the repair of the Abbey Church ; another mourns the rifling of its sepulchres ; a
third refers to the laying the foundation-stone of St Bernard's Mineral Well, 15th September 1760 ; while be-
tween these are lampoons and eulogies on old citizens, most of them long since forgotten. The fate of the Nether
Bow Port, which he witnessed, forms the subject of some of his wittiest prose, in " A Sermon preached by
Claudero, on the Condemnation of the Nether Bow Porch of Edinburgh, 9th July 1764, before a crowded
audience." A brief extract from this will suffice for an example of his humour, which is the more curious, as
what was then extravagant hyperbole, sounds now like the shrewdest foresight : — •

" What was too hard for the great ones of the earth, yea even queens, to effect, is now, even now in our day,
accomplished. No patriot duke opposeth the scheme, as did the great Argyll in the grand senate of our nation ;
therefore the project shall go into execution, and down shall Edina's lofty porches be hurled with a vengeance.
—Streets shall be extended to the east, regular and beautiful, as far as the Frigate Whins, and Porto Bello shall
be a lodge for the captors of tea and brandy. The city shall be joined to Leith on the North, and a procession
of wise masons shall there lay the foundation of a spacious harbour. Pequin or Nanquin shall not be able to
compare with Edina for magnificence. Our city shall be the greatest wonder of the world ; and the fame of
its glory shall reach the distant ends of the earth.

" No more shall the porch resound to the hammer of the cheerful Zaccheus ; and his neighbours are bathed
in tears at the overthrow of his well-tuned anvil.

" The NeLher Bow coffee-house of the loyal Smieton can now no longer enjoy its ancient name with pro-
priety ; and from henceforth The Revolution Coffeehouse shall its name be called.

" Our gates must be extended wide for accommodating the gilded chariots, which, from the luxury of the age,
are become numerous. — With an impetuous career they jostle against one another in our streets, and the unwary
foot-passenger is in danger of being crushed to pieces.

APPENDIX. 449

"The loade^l cart itself cannot withstand their fury, and the hideous yells of Coal Johnie resound through
the vaulted sky.— The sour-milk barrels are overturned, and deluges of Corstorphine cream run down our
strands, while the poor unhappy milk-maid wrings her hands with sorrow.

" Who, then, can blame the wise guardians of Edina, whose greatest care is the preservation of her people
and the safety of her inhabitants ?— Be hush, therefore, ye malevolent tongues, let sedition perish, and animosi-
ties be forgotten."

This is followed by a soliloquy of the old Port, narrating some facts in its own history not unworthy of
being recorded : —

" The Last Speech, Confession, and Dying Words, of the Nether Bow Porch of Edinburgh, which wag exposed

to roup and sale on Thursday, the 9th of August 1764 : —

" I was erected by King James VI. of ever-glorious memory, whose effigies was put upou my inside, and stood
there, till demolished by Cromwell the Usurper. My inscription is as follows : —

Anag.

Aria excubo.

Jacobus Rex.

Nou sic excubiae, nee oircumstantia pila,
Ut tutatur amor. —

Englished thus : —

Wateh-tow'rs, and thund'ring walls, vain fences prove ;
No guards to monarchs like their people's love.
Jacobus VI. Rex, Anna Regina, 1606.

" May my clock be struck dumb in the other world, if I lie in this ; and may Mack, the reformer of Edina' 3
lofty spires, never bestride my weathercock on high, if I deviate from truth in these my last words. Tho' my fabric
shall be levelled with the dust of the earth, yet I fall in hope, that my Cock shall be exalted on some more
modern dome, where it shall shine like the burnished gold, reflecting the rays of the sun to the eyes of ages
unborn. The daring Mack shall yet look down from my Cock, high in the airy region, to the brandy shops
below, where large grey-beards shall appear to him no bigger than mutchkin bottles, and mutchkin bottles shall
be in his sight like the spark of a diamond.

" Many, alas ! have been my crimes, but the greatest of all was, receiving the head of the brave Marquis of
Montrose from the hands of dastardly miscreants," &c.

What the exact date or the incidents that marked the close ol the poet's history were, we are not aware,
though it is not very difficult to guess the probable career of such a worshipper at the shrines of Bacchus and
the Muses. We learn from his poems that he visited London in 1765 — if we are safe in drawing such inferences
from any declaration of his verse. He seems to hint at a final abandonment of Edinburgh, its tasteless citizens
being left free to get a bill for removing, not the Cross alone, but even King Charles's statue, the pride of the
Scottish capital, from Parliament Close, without any one molesting them with remonstrance in prose or rhyme. All
classes are represented as mourning the loss of this personification of virtue clad in satiric guise. There is no
doubt, however, that he died at Edinburgh in 1789, after having been one of the most noted among the minor
characters in its compact little community for upwards of thirty years. His ghost may address the bereaved
capital on his final exit, in a verse of the " Epistle to Claudero, on his arrival at London, 1765 :" —

" Now vice may rear her hydra's head,
And strike defenceless virtue dead ;
Religion's heart may melt and bleed

With grief and sorrow,
Since satire from your streets is fled,

Poor Edinburrow 1

2 F

4S0 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

XVIII. ST GILES'S CHURCH.

THE accompanying ground-plan of St Giles's Church is designed to illustrate the description of the succes-
sive additions to the ancient Parish Church of Edinburgh, given in the concluding chapter (pp. 377-394). It
exhibits it as it existed previous to the alterations of 1829, and with the adjacent buildings which have been
successively removed during the present century. We are indebted for the original drawing to the Rev. John
Sime, chaplain of Trinity Hospital, whose ingenious model of the Old Church, with the Tolbooth, Luckenbooths,
&c., has already been referred to.

REFERENCES TO THE GROUND-PLAN.

The light subdivisions between the pillars mark the party walls with which the ancient church was partitioned
off into several places of worship. The large letters of reference in each mark the earliest sites of the pulpits.
H shows the old position of Dr Webster's pulpit in the Tolbooth Church, from which it was removed about the
year 1792 to its latter position against the south wall, in front of the old turnpike, now demolished. K indicates
the site of the old pulpit of the High Kirk, from whence it was removed about the years 1775-80, to its present
position in front of the great east window. Previous to this alteration, the king's seat projected in front of the
pillar directly opposite the pulpit, so that his Majesty, or the successive representatives of royalty who occupied
it, were within a convenient conversational distance of the preacher. This throws considerable light on the
frequent indecorous colloquies that were wont to ensue between James VI. and the preachers in the High Kirk ;
and shows how very pointed and irritating to royalty must the rebukes and personalities have been, in which
the divines of that day were accustomed to indulge, seated as his Majesty thus was vis-a-vis with his uncourtly
chaplain, like a culprit on the stool of repentance. King James, however, used to bandy words with the
preacher with a tolerably good-natured indifference to the dignity of the crown.

The following references will enable the reader to find without difficulty the chief objects of interest in St
Giles's Church, alluded to in the course of the work : —

a The Preston, or Assembly Aisle, where the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held its
annual sessions previous to 1829.

6 The Montrose Aisle.

c The Tomb of John, fourth Earl of Atholl.

d The Tomb of the Regent Murray.

e Door which stood always open during the day, approached by a flight of steps from the Parliament
Close.

/ Ancient Tomb (described on page 386), said to be that of William. Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, created
Earl of Caithness by James II., in 1455. The whole of this chapel to the west of the buttress and centre
pillar is now removed.

g The South Porch, built in 1387. The beautiful doorway has been rebuilt between the south pillars
of the tower, as an entrance to the Old Kirk. Above this porch was the Painted Chamber (vide page
385), in which a number of ancient charters were discovered in 1829, which, with the turret staircase
indicated in the plan, and the beautiful little dormer window that lighted the Priest's Chamber, all dis-
appeared under the hands of the restorers.

h The five Chapels built in 1387. The two west ones are now demolished.

t The Pillar of the Albany Chapel (vide p. 388), decorated with the arms of Robert Duke of Albany,
and the Earl of Douglas.

APPENDIX. 451

k The ancient North Porch, with fine Norman doorway, demolished about 1760. The room above,
entered by the narrow turnpike stair indicated in the plan, was the place of confinement of Sir John
Gordon of Haddo, in 1644. This, and the adjoining chapel to the east, are now entirely removed.

I A modern Doorway into Haddo's Hold Kirk, now built up.

TO Modern North Doorway to the Old Kirk.

n Entrance to the old Belfry Turret, being a passage partitioned off from St Eloi's Chapel, nearly the
whole site of which is now occupied with the new Belfry Turret

o North Transept and Aisle, used as the City Clerk's Chambers.

p Opening under the Belfry.'

q Modern North Entrances to the High Kirk, now built up.

r The Napier Tomb.

« Our Lady's Niche.

t Modern South Entrance to the High Kirk, now built up.

u Entrance to the Assembly Aisle.

v Old Kirk Style, or Stinking Style.

w Entrance to the Old Tolbooth, assaulted by the Porteous Mob in 1636, and now rebuilt at Abbotsford.

x Beth's or Bess Wynd.

y Covered Passage from the Tolbooth to Parliament Close, through the New Tolbooth or Council House.
It is not unworthy of notice here that the Town Council Records prove that the different chaplainries of St
Giles's Church, were held long after the Reformation had pulled down the altars and abolished their services.
In September 1620, " James Lennox is elected chaplain of the Chapelry of the Holy Rood and Holy Grose, in
the Burgh Kirk Yard of Saint Giles." This, no doubt, refers to the chapel founded and endowed by Walter
Chepman in 1528. Every vestige of the chapel had disappeared half a century before, and it is doubtful if even
the lower churchyard, in which it had stood, was in existence at the date of this election ; though it is pro-
bable that the "Nether Kirkyard" remained in use long after the upper yard had been abandoned as a place of
sepulture. So late as March 4th, 1629, " John Yair is elected chaplane of St Ninean's Altar in the College
Kirk of St Giles."

ST GILES'S CHURCHYARD. — In Edgar's map of Old Edinburgh there is shown about the middle of Forrester's
Wynd, on the east side, a small open court, which retained, till near the close of last century, distinct marks ot
having formed the entrance to the lower Churchyard of St Giles. It was pointed out as such early in the
present century to the Rev. John Sime, by Mr Cunningham, the builder of Portobello Tower, — a fabric, wherein
the chief sculptured stones and other relics of the ancient tenements demolished to make way for the South
Bridge, have been preserved. Mr Cunningham described a curious piece of sculpture, emblematic of death,
which appropriately decorated the lintel of the ancient gateway through which our forefathers were wont to be
borne to their last resting-place. It is the same sculptured lintel, we have no doubt, which is thus alluded to
in the Edinburgh Magazine for July 1800, — " A ng stone, on which was curiously sculptured a group resem-
bling Holbein's Dance of Death, was some months ago discovered at the head of Forrester's Wynd, which, in
former days was the western boundary of St Giles's High Churchyard. This relic was much defaced, and
broken in two, by being carelessly tossed down by the workmen. It was a curious piece. Amid other
musicians who brought up the rear, was angel playing on the Highland bagpipe,— a national conceit, which
appears also on the entablature of one of the pillars of the supremely elegant Gothic chapel at Roslin." We look
in vain now for this singular specimen of early Scottish art, where it should have been preserved, in the
Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

OAK COFFINS. — A description is given (page 330), of the discovery of oaken coffins on the site of the

452 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

lower churchyard, in 1844 ; the following notices of the Town Council Records, indicates the date and reason
of their disuse. An Act of Council, September 30th, 1618, "Discharges Oak Kists to be made for burials of
the deceased persones within the Brough." This, however, must have met with very slight attention, the
ancient usages in reference to the burial of the dead being in all countries and states of society the most
difficult to eradicate. Another Act of the Town Council, in February 1635, prohibits the Oak Kists being
brought to the Oreyfriars' Churchyard, " The-burial place in Greyfriars being scarce capable of the dead bodies
occasioned through Wainscott Kists." Even this failed in securing sufficient room for the dead, and an Act of
Town Council, dated 1st April 1636, provides for the augmentation of the Greyfriars' burial-ground.

XIX. ANCIENT LODGINGS.

A PEW additional notices of some value, regarding some of the ancient mansions referred to in the course of
the work, are introduced here, having been overlooked when preparing the Text, or only discovered when too
late to insert in their proper places.

WINTOUN HOUSE.— The site of the ancient mansion of the Earls of Wintoun is described on page 303. The
following notice of it appears in the Diurnal of Occurrents, a very curious collection of contemporary records of
the sixteenth century, printed by the Bannatyne Club, the practical value of which is greatly abridged by the
want of an index : — " Vpon the xiij day of Februar, the zeir of God foirsaid, Henrie lord Dernlie, eldest sone to
Matho erle of Lennox, come to Edinburgh be post fra Ingland, and wes lugeit in my lord Seytouns lugeing
in the Cannongait besyid Edinburgh."— (Diurnal of Occurrents in Scotland, p. 79.)

CARDINAL BEATON'S HOUSE. — From the following notices it will be seen that the ancient tenement which
stood till lately in the Cowgate, at the foot of Blackfriars' Wynd, was the scene of the first festivities in
Edinburgh after the arrival of Queen Mary, and was, not long after, honoured by her own presence, with
the chief nobles of her court : —

" Vpoun the xix day of August Ixj, Marie, quene of Scottis, our souerane ladie, arryvit in the raid of Leith
at sex houris in the mornyng, accumpanyit onlie with tua gallionis ; and thair come with hir in cumpany
monsieur Domell, the grand pryour, monsieur marques [d'Elbeuf], the said quenes grace moder broder, togidder
with monsieur Danguill [d'Amville], second sone to the constable of France, with certane vther nobill gentil-
men ; and at ten houris the samen day, hir hienes landit vpoun the schoir of Leith, and remanit in Andro
Lambis hous be the space of ane hour, and thairefter wes convoyit vp to hir palice of Halyrudhous.

" Vpoun the xxiiij day of August, quhilk wes Sonday, the quenes grace causit say mes in hir hienes chappell
within hir palace of Halyrudhous, quhairat the lordis of the congregatioun wes grittumlie annoyit.

" Vpoun the last day of August Ixj, the loun of Edinburgh maid the banket to monsieur Domell, the grand
pryour, -ninrques, and monsieur Danguill, in ane honourable maner, within the lugeing sumtyme pertenying to the
cardinall.

" Vpoun the first day of September, the said monsieur Domell depairtit, with the twa gallionis quhilk
brocht the quenes grace name to France, and his broder remanit in Scotland.

"Vpoun the secund day of September Ixj, the quenes grace maid hir entres in the burgh of Edinburgh on
this maner. Her hienes depairtit of Halyrudhous, and raid be the lang gait on the north syid of the said burgh,
vnto the tyme scho come to the castell, quheir wes ane zet maid to hir, at the quhilk scho, accumpanijt with the
maist pairt of the nobilitie of Scotland except my lord duke and his sone, come in and raid vp the castell bank
to the castell, and dynit thairin ; and quhen sho had dynit at tuelf houris, hir hienes come furth of the said

APPENDIX. 453

castell towart the said burgh, at quhilk draining the artailzerie schot vehementlio. And thairefter, quhen sho
was rydand down the castellhill, thair met her hienes ane convoy of the zoung mene of the said burgh, to the
nomber of fyftie, or thairby, thair bodeis and theis coverit with zeallow taffateis, thair armes and leggs fra the
kne doun bair, cullorit with blak, in maner of Moris, vpon thair heiddes blak hattis, and on thair faces blak
visouris, in thair mowthis rings, garnesit with intellable precious staneis, about thair neckkis, leggis and armes
infynit of chenis of gold ; togidder with saxtene of the niaist honest men of the toun, cled in veluot gownis and
veluot bonettis, berand and gangand about the paill wnder the quhilk her hienes raid ; quhilk paill wes of i'yne
purpour veluet lynit with reid taffateis, freinziet with gold and silk ; and efter thame wes ane cart with certano
bairnes, togidder with ane coffer quhairin wes the copburd and propyne quhilk suld be propynit to hir hienes ;
and quhen hir grace come fordwart to ihe butter trone of the said burgh, the nobilitie and convoy foirsaid
precedand, at the quhilk butter trone thair was ane port made of tymber, in niaist honourable maner, cullorit
with fyne cullouris, hungin with syndrie armes ; vpon the quhilk port wes singand certane barneis in the niaist
hevinlie wyis ; vnder the quhilk port thair wes ane cloud opynnand with four levis, in the quhilk was put ane
bony barne. And quhen the quenes hienes wes cumand throw the said port, the said cloude opynnit, and the
barne discendit doun as it had bene ane angell, and deliuerit to her hienes the keyis of the toun, togidder with
ane bybill and ane psahne buik, coverit with fyne purpourit veluot ; and efter the said barne had spoken some
small speitches, he deliuerit alsua to her hienes thre writtingia, the tennour thairof is vncertane. That being
done, the barne ascendit in the cloud, and the said clud stekit ; and thairefter the quenis grace come doun to
the tolbuith, at the quhilk was twa skaffattis, ane abone and ane vnder that ; vpone the vnder was situat ane
fair wirgin, callit Fortoune, vnder the quhilk was thrie fair virgynnis, all cled in maist precious attyrement,
callit [Peace] Justice and Policie. And efter ane litell speitche maid thair, the quenis grace come to the croce,
quhair thair was standand four fair virgynnis, cled in the maist hevenlie clething, and fra the quhilk croce the
wyne ran out at the spouttis in greit abundance ; thair wes the noyiss of pepill casting the glassis with wyne.
This being done, our souerane ladie come to the salt trone, quhair thair wes sum spekaris ; and tfter ane litell
speitche, thaj brunt vpoun the skaffet maid at the said trone, the maner of ane sacrifice ; and swa that being
done, sho depairtit to the nether bow, quhair thair wes ane vther skaffet maid, havand ane dragoun in the
samyn, with some speiches ; and efter that the dragoun was brynt, and the quenis grace hard ane psalme song,
hir hienes past to hir abbay of Halyrudhous with the said convoy and nobilities ; and thair the bairneis quhilk
was in the cairt with the propyne maid some speitche concerning the putting away of the mess, and thairefter
sang ane psalme ; and this being done, the cart come to Edinburgh, and the said honest men remaynit in her
vtter chalmer, and desyred hir grace to ressaue the said copeburd, quhilk wes double ourgilt ; the price thairof
wes ij° merkis ; quha ressauit the samyne, and thankit thame theirof. And sua the honest men and convoy come
to Edinburgh."

" And vpoun the nynt day of Februar at evin, the quenis grace and the reiuanent lordis come up in ane
honourabill maner fra the palice of Halyrudnous, to the cardinallis ludging in the Blak Freir Wynd, quhilk wes
preparit and hung maist honourable ; and thair hir hienes sowpit and the rest with her ; and efter supper the
honest young men in the toun come with ane convoy to hir, and vther sum come with merschance, weill accou-
terit in masry, and thairefter depairtit to the said palice. And the samyn nycht Thomas Grahame, comptroller
to the quenis grace, deeessit in the cunsie hous besyid Halyrudhous."

FIRST COACH IN SCOTLAND. — The following incidental notice in the " Memorie of the Somervilles," may be
inserted here, as bearing on the same period of Queen Mary's arrival in Scotland. — " About Ten o'clock the
Regent [Morton] went to the House, which was the same which is now the Tolbuith Church, in Coach. Ther
was non with him but the Lord Boyd, and the Lord SomervilL This was the second Coach that came to
Scotland. The first being brought by Alexander, Lord Seatone, when Queen Mary came from France."

BAILIE MACMOREAN'S HOUSE, RIDDLE'S CLOSE. — If the following notice in Birrel's Diary refers to the old
mansion still standing in Riddle's Close, Lawnmarket (described on page 168), of which there can scarcely bo

454 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

any reasonable doubt entertained, it shows that both King James VI. and his Queen, Anne of Denmark, have
been entertained there by the Magistrates of the city, in the palmy days of Old Edinburgh :— " 1598, May 2.—
The 2 of Maii, the Duck of Holsten got ane banquet in M'Morran's ludging, given by the toune of Edp. The
Kings M. and the Queine being both yr ther wes grate solemnitie and mirrines at the said banquet." — (Frag-
ment of Scottish History, Diary, p. 46.)

QUEENSBERRY HOUSE. — In a foot-note at page 298, it is suggested that Queensberry House occupies the
eite of a mansion built by the celebrated Lord Halton, afterwards Earl of Lauderdale, in 1681. The following
entry in Fountainhall's Decisions, omitted, like many other of the old Judge's curious details, in the printed
folio, proves that the house is the same which was built by Lord Halton, arid afterwards disposed of to the first
Duke of Queensberry : —

"21 Junij 1686. — By a letter from his Majesty, Queensberry is laid asyde from all his places and offices, as
his place in the Treasurie, Privy Counsell, Session, &c., and desired not to goe out of Toune, till he cleared his
accounts. So he bought Lauderdale's House in the Cannongate."

XX. THE PILLORY.

BRANDING AND MUTILATING. — The strange and barbarous punishments recorded both by old diarists, and
in the Scottish criminal records, as put in force at the Cross or Tron of Edinburgh, afford no inapt
illustration of the gradual and very slow abandonment of the cruel practices of uncivilised times. In the
sixteenth century, burning or branding on the cheeks, cutting off the ears, and the like savage mutilations were
adjudged for the slightest crimes or misdemeanors. On the 5th May 1530, for example, " William Kar oblissis
him that he sail nocht be sene into the fische merkat, nother byand nor selland fische, vnder the pane of
cutting of his lug and bannasing of the toune, bot gif he haif ane horse of his aune till bring fische to the
merket till sell vniuersale as vther strangearis dois till our Souerune Lordis legis." — (Acts and Statutes of the
Burgh of Edinburgh, Mait. Misc., vol. ii. p. 101.) At this period the Greyfriars or Bristo Port appears to have
been a usual scene for such judicial terrors. On the 1st July 1530, "Patrick Qowanlok, fleschour, duelland
in the Abbot of Melrosis lugyiiig within this toune," is banished the town for ever, under pain of death, for
harbouring a woman infected with the pestilence ; " And at the half of his moveable gudis be applyit to
the common workis of this toune for his defalt, And als that his seruand woman callit Jonet Gowane, quhilk
is infekkit, for hir conceling the said seiknes, and passand in pilgrimage, scho haiffand the pestilens apone Mr
that scho salbe brynt on baith the cheikis and bannist this toune for ever vnder the pane of deid. And quha
that lykis till see justice execute in this mater, that thai cum to tlie Grayfrier port incontinent quhar thai sail se
the samynput till executioun." — (Ibid, p. 106.)

DROWNING.— Of a different nature is the following scene enacted in the year 1530, without the Greyfriar's
Port, which was then au unenclosed common on the outskirts of the Borough Muir, and remained in that state
till it was included within the precincts of the latest extension of the town walls in 1618. Drowning in
the North Loch, and elsewhere, was a frequent punishment inflicted on females. " The quhilk day Katryne
Heriot is convict be ane assise for the thiftus steling and conseling of twa stekis of bnkrum within this tovne,
and als of conimoun theift, and als for the bringing of this contagius seiknes furth of Leith to this toune, and
brekin of the statutis maid tharapone, For the quhilk causes scho is a&iuyit to be drounit in the Quarell hoUis at
the Grayfrere port, nme incontinent, and that wes gevin for dome." — (Ibid, p. 113.) The workmen engaged in
draining the ancient bed of the North Loch in the spring of 1820, discovered a large coffin of thick fir deals.

APPENDIX.

455

containing apparently the skeletons of a man and two women ; which, says Mr Skene, in narrating the
discovery, "Corresponds singularly with the fact of a man of the name of Sinclair, and two sisters, with
both of whom he was convicted of having committed incest, being drowned in the North Loch in the year
1628."— (Archseologia Scotica, voL ii. p. 474.)

BORING PERJURERS' TONGUES.— The Acts of Sederunt of the Court of Session abound with evidence of
similar cruel practices of early times. On the 13th June 1561, Mongo Steivenston convicted of being
" perjurett and mainsworn," is ordered to be punished " be persing throw the toung, and escheiting all his
movabill guds to our Soverane Lady's use," and the Provost and Magistrates are required to proceed forthwith
to the Market Cross, and put the same in execution. In another case of supposed perjury, on the 29th
June 1579, the King's advocate produces a royal warrant for examining •' lohne Souttar, notar, and Robert
Carmylie, vicar of Ruthwenis ; and for the mair certane tryale of the veritie in the said matter, to put thaim
in the buttis, genis, or ony uther tormentis, and thairby to urge thaim to declair the treuth."

Another era was that of the Douglas wars, when the highest crime that could be committed by the
peasantry of the Lothians, was the carrying provisions to the beleaguered capital ; and accordingly many poor
men, and a still greater number of women, were mutilated and hanged, simply for being caught bringing coals,
salt, or garden stuffs, to Edinburgh. Coming down, however, to more recent and peaceful times, we find
similar modes of punishment adopted in the seventeenth century. In the Acts of Sederunt, 6th February 1650,
•' The Lords found John Lawsone, indwellar in Leith, to be a false lying witnes, and alse ane false informer of
an assize ; and ordaines him to be set upon the Trone ane hour, and his tongue to be bored with ane yrone, and
thereafter to be dismissed. And in lyke manner find John Rob to be ane false informer of witnesses ; and
ordain him to be set upon the Trone, and his lugg to be nailed to the Trone be the space of ane hour, and
thereafter to be dismissed. And declares both the persons forsaids to be infamous in all tyme coming ; and
their haill moveables to be escheat to his Majestie's use."

COMMONWEALTH PUNISHMENTS.— Towards the close of the year 1650, an entire change took place in the
administration of justice, by the transfer of the government to the nominees of Cromwell and of the English
Parliament. Their rule is generally allowed to have been impartial, but the modes of punishment in use
Continued to be of the same character as we have already described. Nicoll remarks in his Diary for December
1651 (p. 69): — "It wes observed, that in the Englische airmy thair wes oftymes guid discipline aganes
drunkiness, fornicatioun, and uncleaues ; quhipping fornicatouris, and geving thame thrie doukis in the sea,
and causing drunkardis ryd the trie meir, with stoppis and muskettis tyed to thair leggis and feit a paper on
thair breist, and a drinking cop in thair handis ; and by schuitting to death sindrie utheris quha haid
committed mutinie."

The next entry we shall quote from the old diarist introduces us to a new crime, brought about by the
political changes of that eventful period, and for which we find a novelty introduced in the mode of punishing
that unruly member, the Tongue : — " Last of September 1652. — Twa Englisches, for drinking the Kingis helth,
war takin and bund to the gallons at Edinburgh Croce, quhair ather of thame resavit threttie nyne quhipes
upon thair naiked bakes and shoulderis, thaireftir thair lugges wer naillit to the gallous. The ane haid his lug
cuttit from the ruitt with a resoure ; the uther being also naillit to the gibbit, haid his mouth skobit, and his
tong being drawn out the full lenth, was bund togidder betuix twa stickes hard togidder with ane skainzie threid
the space of half ane hour or thairby."

One or two more notices from the same gossipping chronicle of the seventeenth century will suffice to
illustrate the tender mercies of the Commonwealth rule in Edinburgh : —

"26 Marche 1655.— Mr Patrik Maxwell, ane arrant decevar, wes brocht to the Mercat Croce of Edinburgh,
quhair a pillorie wes erectit, gairdit and convoyed with a company of sodgeris ; and thair, eftir ane full houris

456 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

standing on that pillorie, with his heid and handis lyand out at hoilis cuttit out for that end, his rycht lug was
cuttit af ; and thaireftir careyit over to the touu of St Johnnestoun, quhair ane uther pillorie wes erectit, on
the quhilk the uther left lug wes cuttit af him. The caus heirof was this ; that he haid gevin out fals calumneis
and leyis aganes Collonell Daniell, governour of Peirth. Bot the treuth is, he was ane notorious decevar and
ane intelligencer, sunityme for the Englisches, uther tymes for the Scottis, and decevand both of thame :
besytle mony iither praukis quhilk wer tedious to writt."

" Last of Apryle 1655. — The Marschellis man, qulia wes apoynted to haif cuttit Mr Patrik Maxwell haill lug,
hot being buddit [bribed] did onlie cutt af a pairt of his lug, was thairfoir this day brocht to the Mercat Croce
of Edinburgh, and set upone the pillarie, and thair his lug boirit for not obeying his commissioun in that
poynt."

"23 Marche 1657. — Thair wes ane Englische sodger bund naikit to the gallous of Edinburgh, and first
scourgit, and thaireftir his lugges naillit to the gallous by the space of ane hour or thairby, and thaireftir his
lugges cuttit out of his heid for cunzieing and forging two halff crounes. The quhieh two half crounes war
festned and naillit to the gibit, quhair they remayne to this day."

These are only the minor punishments inflicted on offenders. The same annalist records hanging and
burning for more heinous crimes, with painful frequency ; proving either a period of unusual depravity, or of
unwonted strictness in searching after secret offences that are now scarcely ever heard of before our criminal
courts.

The mode of public pillory, by nailing the offender's ear to the Tron, continued in use in the eighteenth
century, though it was latterly only resorted to for the punishment of graver offenders, others being simply
exposed, with a label affixed to them publishing their infamy. On the 24th July 1700, as appears by the Acts
of Sederunt, John Corse of Corsemlin was convicted of using a vitiated bond, the same having been altered
with his knowledge, " and therefore the Lords ordain the said John to be sent to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
and from thence on Friday next, before eleven o'clock in the forenoon, to be taken by the hands of the common
hangman to the Tron, and there to have his ear nailed to the Tron and to stand so nailed till twelve hours
strike, and to have these words in great letters fixed on his breast, as he goes down the street, and upon the
Tron, For his knowledge of, and uging a vitiate bond."

NOSE PINCHING. — The following notices of a still later date show the same process of nailing continued,
with the addition of an entirely novel means of torture, called Nose Pinching. This, we presume, must have
been effected by screwing some instrument like a hand-vice on the nose, which, in addition to the acute pain
it inflicted, must have presented a singularly ludicrous appearance to the by-standers, as the culprit stood
nailed to the post with his pincher dangling from his nose, hugging as it were the instruments of his torture.
The following notices are extracted from a " List of Precedents excerpte from the Records of Warrands to
vouch the use and exercise of the Town of Edinburgh's Jurisdiction of Sheriffship by the Lord Provost and
Baillies."

" 29 October 1723. — The trial and process against James Stewart, alias M'Pherson, a vagrant thief, whipt
and sent to the Correction House for life."

" 28 December 1726.— The trial against George Melvil, notour thief ; set on the trone, and his nose
pinch'd."

" 17 October 1727.— The trial against David Allison for theft. Pillar'd, pinch'd in the nose, and sent to the
Correction House."

•' 29 March 1 728. — The trial against Jean Spence, notour thief ; pillar'd, her lug nailed, and her nose pinched."

INDEX,

INDEX.

[IN Part I. of this Work, the incidents are related in chronological order; and in Part II. (p. 119), according to a
systematic arrangement indicated in the headings of the several Chapters. By a reference to the Contents, any
historical event, or the description of a particular locality, may be readily found. The Index is intended as a guide to
incidental notices throughout the volume ; and, to render it more complete, all noblemen mentioned merely by their
titles in the course of the work, are here distinguished from one another by their proper names, and other individuals
generally by some distinctive title or description.]

Abbey Hill, 138, 309

Abbotsford, 154, 185, 348, 353

Aberdeen, William 2d Earl of, 141

Aberuchill, Lord, 178

Acheson, Sir Archibald, House of, 297

Adam of St Edmunds, Parson of Restalrig, 399

Advocate's Library, 182, 210

Close, 229

African Company, 107
Aikenhead, Sir Patrick, 208
Airth, Earl of, the Mansion of, 309
Albany, Alexander Duke of, 19, 20

Arms of, 395
John Duke of, 38, 39
Robert Duke of, 388
Isabell, Duchess of, 382
Alesse, Alexander, 314, 424
Alexander I., 3

II., 5, 377
III., 5, 356
VI., Pope, 23

Sir William. See Stirling, Earl of
Alison Square, 346
Allan, David, the Painter, 260
Allen, Janet, the Witch, 305
Allison's Close, Cowgate, 329
Alva, Lord, 193, 195
Amiens, Bishop of, 64, 68
Anand, Sir David de, 7
Anchor Close, 238
Ancrum, Battle of, 53
Angus, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of, 36, 37, 40, 51,

319

Archibald, 8th Earl of, 84
Archibald, 9th Earl of, 283
Anne, the Lady, 102, 206, 287, 341
Queen, 133

of Denmark, 86, 315, 341
Street, Stockbridge, 98
Anstruther, Sir Philip, 284

Antiquaries of Scotland, the Society of, 140, 180, 376
Argyle, Bishop of, 78

Archibald, 5th Earl of, 63, 64, 67, 84
Archibald, Marquis of, 100, 123, 141, 188, 295,

403

Archibald, 9th Earl of, 123, 174, 203, 216, 305,
316

Lodging of, 316
Countess of, 75, 174
Duke of, 109
Armstrong, Johnnie, 41

Will., 244

Armada, Spanish, 369
Arnot, Hugo, 142
Arran, James, 1st Earl of, 36, 37, 40, 318

James, 2d Earl of, 48, 51, 56, 63, 67, 68, 82, 151
James, 3d Earl of, 174
James Stewart, Earl of, 176
Assembly Aisle, St Giles's Church, 390. See Preston

Aisle.

Rooms, Assembly Close, 243
Bell's Wynd, 243
West Bow, 243, 338
Atholl, Duke of, 145, 183

Walter Stewart, Earl of, the execution of, IS
John, 4th Earl of, 389

Burial Place of, 389, 390 ,
Auchinleck, Lord, 161
Austin, Dr, 145, 332

Bagimont's Roll, 31
Baijen Hole, 183
Bailie's Court, Cowgate, 329
Bailie Fife's Close, 254
Baird, Dr, 143

Sir David, the Birth Place of, 139

Sir Robert, 138

Bakehouse Close, Canongate, 296
Balcanquall, Dr, 170

Walter, 170

460

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Balcarras, Lord, 208

Baldredus, Deacon of Lothian, 377

Balfour, Sir James, 78

Baliol, 7

Ballantine, James, 253

Ballantyne, Abbot, 307, 313, 365, 406

James, the Printer, 288
Balmain, Miss, 123
Balmerinoch, Lord, 94, 353

House of, Nctherbow, 259
House of, Leith, 94, 161
Bane, Donald, 3 ,
Bankton, Lord, 162
Bannatine, Thomas, 256
Bannatyne, Sir William Macleod, 303

Sir Robert, 162
Barras, The, 136
Barrie, Thomas, 278
Barringer's Close, 254
Bassandyne, Thomas, the Printer, 258, 270

The House of, 270
Aleson, 258

Bassandyne's Close, 271
Bath, Queen Mary's, 76, 308
Baxter's Close, 165
Hall, 113
Beacon Fires, 51
Bearford's Parks, 191, 232
Beaton, James, Archbishop, 37, 40, 267, 317

House of, 36, 317
Cardinal, 45, 48, 49, 51, 56

House of, 266, 317, 452
Arms, 318

Portraits of Cardinal, 410
of Creich, 75
Bedemen, 188, 394
Begbie's Murder, 274
Belhaven, Lord, 316
Bell's Mills, Village of, 373
Bellenden, Lord, 303

Sir Lewis, 373
Sir William, 373
Bellevue, 274

House, 260

Bernard Street, Leith. 363, 367
Bernard's Nook, 364, 368
Bertraham, William, Provost, 19
Berwick, 64

Beth's or Bess Wynd, 84, 181, 182, 188, 233
Big Jack's Close, Canongate, 290
Binuie's Close, 363 '
Binning, Sir William, 208
Binny, Sir William, 352
Bishop's Close, 253
Land, 253
Black, Dr, 323, 347

Turnpike, 79, 246
Blackadder, Captain William, 81
Black Bull Inn, Old, 312

Blackfriars, Monastery of the, 31, 37, 59, 62, 63, 82, 410
Wynd, 36, 40, 78, 101, 139, 176, 191, 263-

267, 317, 453
Yards, 279

Blacklock, Dr, 165
Blair, Dr, 239

Hugh, 178
Street, 321

Blair's Close, 138, 139
Blue Blanket, or Craftmen's Banner, 19, 21, 79, 387,

402

Blue Gowns, 188

Blyth's Close, Castlehill, 77, 139, 146-157
Boisland, James, 136
Bombie, M'Lellan of, 40, 130
Bore Stane, 124
Boreland, Thomas, 137
Borough Loch, 348

Moor, 55, 86, 99, 124, 165, 350
Borthwick, Lord, 266
Robert, 32
Castle, 176

Borthwick's Close, 243
Boswell, Dr, 140

James, 241

his Residence, 160
is visited by Dr Johnson, 161
Mrs, 161

Boswell's Court, 140

Bothwell, Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of, 26
Adam Hepburn, Earl of, 416
Patrick, 3d Earl of, 51
James, 4th Earl of, 73, 78, 79, 226, 296, 341,

375

Francis Stewart, Earl of, 176, 222
Adam. See Orkney, Bishop of
Ann, daughter of the Bishop of Orkney, 227

433

Janet Kennedy, Lady, 321
Bowes, Marjorie, wife of John Knox, 257
Boyd's Close, Canongate, 161, 312
Branding, the Punishment of, 454
Brechin, White Kirk of, 15
Breda, Town Clerk sent to Charles II. at, 98
Brest, Queen Mary arrives safely at, 53
Bride's Plenishing, Scottish, 213
Bristo Port, 331

British Linen Company, 274, 296, 375
Broad Wynd, Leith, 363
Brodie, Deacon, 171, 237
Brodie's Close, 169, 431
Broghall, Lord, 206
Brougham, Lord, the Birth-Place of, 329, 376

Henry, 328

Broughton, Burgh of, 354, 372
Brown, A. of Greenbank, 140
Thomas, 144
Square, 145, 331
Brown's Close, Castlehill, 132, 138, 264

High Street, 225
Bruce, Robert the. See Robert I.
Mr Robert, 87, 203
of Binning, 231

Sir William, the Architect, 405, 408
Buccleuch, Laird of, 57, 222, 230

Place, 348
Buchan, David Stuart, Earl of, 376

INDEX.

461

Buchanan, George, 42, 247

Buck Stane, 124

Bullock, William, 8

Burel, John, the Poet, 88, 316

Burgess Close. Leith, 362

Burke, the Murderer, 181

Burnet, Miss, 288

Burnings of Edinburgh, 9, 12, 50, 379. See Hertford,

Marquis of
Burns, Robert, 165, 181, 200, 238, 252, 346

Christian, a Witch, 306
Burnt Candlemas, 384
Burse, The, Leith, 359
Burton, Mr, 162

Butter Tron, 50. See Weigh-house
Byres' Close, 225

Caithness, George Earl of, 390

Calton, The, 353

Calton Hill, 82, 353

Calder, Laird of, 59

Cambuskenneth Abbey, house of the Abbot of, 179

Cameronian Meeting House, Auld, 204

Campbell, Sir George, 208

Thomas, the Poet, 346
Candlemaker Row, 332, 342, 411
Candlemakers' Hall, 430
Canmore, Malcolm, 3, 377
Canon, Ancient, 131. See Mom Meg
Canongate, 55, 82, 276-309
Church, 105, 429
Tolbooth. See Tolbooth
Queen of the, 285, 292
Canonmills, Village of, 3, 373
Cant's Close, 3, 261
Cap and Feather Close, 242
Carberry Hill, 79, 245
Cardross, Lord, 196

Carfrae, Mrs, Burns's first Edinburgh hostess, 1C6
Carlingwark, Three Thorns of, 130
Carmelites, Monastery of, 411, 444
Carnegie, Sir Robert, 148
Caroline, Queen, 109, 110
Carpenter, Alexander, 61
Carrubber's Close, 252, 287
Carthrae's Wynd, 181
Cassilis, Earl of, 141

Castle, Edinburgh, 2, 16, 121-133, 284, 419
Church, 127

St Margaret's Chapel, 127-129
Garrison Chapel, 129
Castlehill, 137-157, 350

Executions on the, 43, 45, 133
Church of St Andrew, 143
Castle Barns, 137
Castrum Puellarum, 3
Cecil (Queen Elizabeth's Minister), visits Edinburgh,

68

Cemeteries, Ancient, 205
Chalmers's Close, 254
Chambers, Robert, 154
Chapel Wynd, 136
Charles I., 91-94, 190, 203, 294

Charles II., 94-104, 218, 362

Statue of, 84, 206, 207, 218
Prince, 110-113, 159, 290
VI. of France, 12

Charteris, Henry, the Printer, 62, 285
John, of Kinulevin, 57
Laurence, 203
Chatelherault, Duke of. See James '2d Earl of Arran

Mansion of, 398
Chepman, Walter, the Printer, 30, 72, 205, 262, 321, 388

Burial Place of, 389
Cheisley of Dairy, 178, 215
Chessels's Court, Canongate, 171
Chimney, Ancient Gothic, 176
Chisholme, John, 364
Cholera, 133
Christie's Will, 243
Churchyard, Thomas, 84
Cinerary Urns, 370
Citadel, Leith, 97, 367
Clamshell Turnpike, 244

Land, Carrubber's Close, 252
Clariuda, 346

Clark's House, Alexander, 177
Clanranald, Lady, 303,
Claudero, the Poet, 445-449
Cleanse-the-Causeway, 36, 37, 222, 319
Clement VII., Pope, 41

VIII., Pope, 353
Clerihugh's Tavern, 201, 233
Clerk, Sir James, 144
John, 169
Bailie George, 339
Clestram, Lady, 165
Clockmaker's Laud, West Bow, 340
Club, Cape, 236

Crochallan, 238, 240
Erskine, 308
Lawnmarket, 157
Mirror, 200, 304
Coach, the first in Scotland, 453
Coalhill, Leith, 361
Coalfield Lane, Leith, 94, 360
Coats House, 328
Cochrane, Earl of Mar, 19

Thomas, 163
Cockbewis, Sir John, 23
Cockburn, Patrick, 17
Cockpen, the Laird of, 143
Coffins, Ancient Oak, 330, 451, 452

Stone, 369

Coldingham, Lord John, 73
College, 104, 322
Kirk, 430
Library, 170
Wynd, 322
of Justice, 41
Colston, Lady, 208
Coltbridge, 95, 110
Coltheart, Mr Thomas, 234
Combe's Close, Leith, 359
Comedy Hut, New Edinburgh, 238
Comiston, Laird of, 159

462

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Congregation, The, 61-70, 386
Constable, Archibald, 235
Constitution Street, Leith, 368
Contareno, Patriarch of Venice, 48
Cope, Sir John, 111
Cornelius of Zurich, 342
Corporation anil Masonic Halls, 430
Corpus Christ! Day, 54
Corstorphine, 4, 110
Coul's Close, 279
Couper Street, 97
Lord, 361
Covenant, The, 93, 244

Close, 93, 244
Covington, Lord, 325
Cowgate, 35, 310, 314-330, 400, 440

Tarn, of the. See Haddimjton, Earl of
Cowgate Chapel, 273, 314
Craig, Alison, 73

Elizabeth, 233
James, Architect, 371, 376
John, a Scottish Dominican, 403
Lord, 200, 201
Sir Lewis, 232
Sir Thomas, 231
Craigend, 354

Craigmillar Castle, IS, 39, 50, 129
Craig's Close, 212, 235, 236, 238
Cranmer, Archbishop, 52
Cranston, Patrick, 74
Cranstoun, Thomas de, 382
Crawford, Earl of, 361

Sir John, Canon of St Giles's, 417
Crawfurd, Abbot, 406
Creech, Provost, 200, 235
Creech's Land, 198
Crichton, Chancellor, 15, 17

George, Bishop of Dunkeld, 245, 305
Captain, 291

The Lodging of the Provost of, 261
Castle, 16
Crispin, King, 291

St, 292

Crochallan Club, 238, 240
Croft-an-righ, 309
Cromarty, Earl of, 169
Cromwell, Oliver, 94, 159, 171, 215, 247, 294, 341,

355

Bartizan, 96, 225
Crosbie, Andrew, Advocate, 229
Cross, The, 32, 74, 94, 100, 114, 115, 223, 454

Last speech and dying words of, 446
Crossrig, Lord, 208, 209
Crow-Steps, 134
Cruik, Helen, 172
Cullen, Dr, 171, 316, 376

Lord, 171

Culloden, The Battle of, 112
Cumberland, Duke of, 112
Cummyng, James, of the Lyon Office, 409
Curor, Alexander, 143
Currie's Tavern, 212
Curry, Walter, 8

Dacre, Lord, 403
Daft Laird, The, 214
Dalkeith, 26, 39, 48

Church, 378
Dalmeny, Church, 129
Dalrymple, Sir David, 153

Sir John, his projects for Improving the Old

Town, 439

Dalziel, General, 216, 290
Dalziel, General, the Mansion of, 290
Danes, 88

Danish Ambassador, 59
Darien Expedition, 106

House, 106
Darnley, Lord, 75, 78, 284, 296

his first Lodging in the Canongate,

452

D'Artois, Count, 265
David I., 3, 4, 187, 373, 378, 379

II., 8, 187, 378

David's Tower, Castle, 121, 122, 132
Dean, Village of, 373

Sir William Nisbet of, 157, 374
Deanhaugh, 115, 374
D'Anand, Sir David, 7
Deans, David, 228

James, of Woodhouselee, 239
Dederyk, William de, 6
D'Este, Duchess Mary, 102
D'Esse", Monsieur, 53, 54, 367
Defoe, 183, 211

Residence of, 242
De Kenne, Admiral, 12
D'Elbceuf, Marquis, 73
Dial, Queen Mary's, 408
Dick, Sir William, of Braid, 169, 228

House of, 228
Sir James, Provost, 206
Dickson, Andrew, 104
Dickson's Close, 261, 264
Dingwall Castle, 370

John, Provost of Trinity College, 370
Dirleton, Lord, 266
Donald Bane, 3

Donaldson, James, the Printer, 113
Donaldson's Close, 113
Donoca, the Lady, 378
Douglas, James, 2d Earl, 1 2

Archibald, 3d Earl, 350

Archibald, 4th Earl, 388

William, 6th Earl, 16

William, 8th Earl, 17. 130

Duchess of, 161

Margaret de, 130

Lady Jane, 163, 253, 290

of Cavers, 316

of Whittinghame, 264

Archibald, of Kilspindie, 152, 272

George, of Parkhead, 85, 121

George, 76

Gawin, Bishop of Dunkeld, 24, 29, 37, 319
330

William, Brother of the Earl of Angus, 37

INDEX.

463

Douglas, Uaunie, 239

Cause, 163

Douglas, Heron, & Co.'s Bank, 284
Dow Craig, Calton Hill, 82
Dowie, John, 181

Dowie's Tavern, Libberton's Wynd, 164, 181
Downie, accused of High Treason, 123
Drama, Scottish, 285, 326
Dress, 14, 45

Dromedary, Exhibition of a, 286
Drowning, The Punishment of, 454
Drum, The, 115
Drumlanrig, 43

Lord, 299

Drummond, Bishop Abernethy, 265
Lord, 296

of Hawthornden, 91, 240
Sir George, 240
George, 207

Drumselch, Forrest of, 276
Drury, Sir William, 84, 132, 174, 273, 424
Dryden, 103
Duddingstone, Village of, 111

Church, 129
Dudley, Lord, 294

Lord L'Isle, 49
Dumbarton Castle, 2, 53, 130
Dumfries, William Earl of, 140, 141

Penelope, Countess of, 140
D unbar, Battle of, 93
Gawin, 38

Town of, 50, 63, 77, 321
William, the Poet, 26, 28, 30
Dnnbar's Close, 95, 224

Canongate, 277
Dundas, Lord President, 243, 253

Sir Lawrence. 259

Dundee, Viscount, 106, 123, 216, 217
Dundonald, Earl of, 163
Dunfermline Abbey, 3

Abbot of, 12, 257

Dunkeld's Palace, Bishop of, 319, 320
Dunnybristle House, 391
Dunrobin Castle, 154
Dunsinnane, Lord, 193
Dureward, Allan, Justiciary of Scotland, 5
Durham, Bishop of, 26
Durie, Abbot, Andrew, 261
Abbot, George, 257
Lord, 243
Durie's Close, 244
Dyvoure, 223

Ebranke, 2, 419, 423

Edgar, Patrick, 139

Edinburgh, Ancient Maps of, 424

Ancient Painting of, 156
Viscount of, 7
Edmonston, Lord, 208
Kdward I., 2, 4, 5, 132, 321, 399

II., 6, 379

III., 132, 384

IV., 19

Edward VI., 48, 51, 58

Nicol. See Udicard
Edwin, King of Northumbria, 2, 419
Eglinton, Earl of, 241

Susannah, Countess of, 241, 289
Elgin, Countess of, 166
Elibank, Lord, 143,
Elizabeth, Queen, 61, 62, 68, 89, 174
Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 256, 332

Miss Jeanie, 332
Elphinstone, Lord, 309

Sir George, 286
Secretary, 89
Tower, 51

Elphinstone's Court, 269, 314
Emblems, Paradin's, 150
Erskine, Lord, 53
of Dun, 75
Sir Alexander, 227
Exchange, Royal, 122
Excise Office, 259

Falconer, William, 275

Falkland, 45, 388

Farquharson, Dr, 180

Fenelon, Monsieur de la Motte, 175

Fentonbarns, Lord, 267

Fergus I., 91

Ferguson, Robert, the Poet, 106, 181, 237, 242, 347

Robert, the Plotter, 192
Fettes Row. 196
Fiery Cross, 51
Figgate Whins, 244
Fires, 13, 209
Fisher's Close, 169
Fleming, Lord, 22, 266

Sir Malcolm, 16
Sir James, 368
Fleshmarket Close, 242

Canongate, 278
Fletcher, Lawrence, Comedian, 286

of Milton, Andrew. See Milton, Lard
Flodden Field, Battle of, 31, 34, 38
Fonts, 142, 147, 353
Forbes, Lord, 43

Duncan, of Culloden, 112, 192, 209

Sir Alexander, 239

Sir William, 212, 252
Foreman, Andrew, 23
Forglen, Lord, 239, 240

Forrest, Alex., Provost of the Kirk-of-Field, 397
Forrester's Wynd, 181

Forster, Adam, Lord of Nether Liberton, 385
Fortune's Tavern, 242
Fountain Close, 270

Well, 258, 391

Fountainhall, Lord, 161, 203, 207,287
Fowler, William, the Poet, 240

Tibbie, of the Glen, 357
Francis I., 41

Fraser of Strichen, Alexander, 261
Freemasons, 431
French Ambassador's Chapel, Cowgate, 328

464

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Frendracht, Viscount, 191
Froissart, 9, 12
Fullerton, Adam, 152, 272

Gabriel, the Archangel, Chapel of, 386
Gabriel's Road, 371
Callow Lee, 179, 275, 355
Galloway, Earl of, 324

Countess of, 324
House, 324

Gay, the Poet, 199, 300
Geddes, Jenny, 92, 250, 391
General's Entry, 345
George II., 109

IV., 97, 133

Wilkie's Portrait of, 410
Gill Bells, 211

Gillespie, William, Tobacconist, 350
Gillon, James, 69
Girth Cross, 306
Gladstone, Thomas, 162 •

Sir John, of Fasqne, 357
Gladstone's Land, 163
Glamie, Lady, 43, 133
Glass, Ancient Painted, 387, 400
Glasgow, 49

Archbishop of, 27, 36
Glencairn, Earl of, 59, 64, 67
Glenlee, Lord, 332
Gloucester, Duke of, 19
Golden Charter, 19
Goldsmith, Oliver, 243, 323
Golf, 104, 301
Golfer's Land, 135, 301

Gordon, George, 1st Duke of, 106, 123, 144, 169, 179
Duchess of, 138, 192, 308
Lady Ann, 296
Lady Catherine, 25
Lady Jane, 295
of Haddo, Sir John, 387
of Braid, 140
Hon. Alexander, 141
C. H., 141
Gosford's Close, 179
Gourlay, David, 177, 178
John, 173

Norman, burnt at Greenside, 411
Robert, 172
Gowry, Earl of, 89
Grame, Tower of, 244
Graham, Robert, 15
Grange, Lady, 174, 441
Grassmarket, 26, 69, 101, 109, 195, 342, 343
Grant, Sir Francis, 171
Gray, Lord, 28, 164

Residence of the Daughters of, 144
Sir William, 164, 281
Andrew, 280
Egidia, 164, 281
John, 282
Gray's Close, North, 254

South, See Mint Close
Greenfield, Dr, 140

Greenside, 23, 285, 375, 411, 444

The Rood of, 411
Gregory IX., Pope, 5
Greyfriars, 26, 269
Greyfriars' Church, 96, 411

Churchyard, 73, 83, 159, 205, 411, 452
Monastery, 63, 342, 400, 443
Port, 117, 331, 454
Grieve, John, Provost, 139
Grymanus, Marcus, Patriarch of Aquileia, 48
Guard-House, 115, 189, 247
Town, 219, 247, 431
Town, the Origin of, 35
Guelders, Mary of, 17, 18, 342, 381, 394
Guest, General, 111, 339
Guise, Duke of, 43

Mary of, 43, 44, 48, 52, 55, 67, 146-157
Mary of, Portrait of, 202
Palace, 139, 146-157

Leith, 360
Guthrie, James, 216
Guy, Count of Namur, 7

Haddington, Sir Thomas Hamilton, Earl of, 327, 331
Thomas, 2d Earl of, 227
The Earl of, 341
Lord, the 7th Earl, 195
Haddow's Hole Kirk, 387
Hailes, Lord, 284, 316, 370
Haliburton, Provost, of Dundee, 65
Provost George, 339
Master James, 261
Haliday, Sir John, 41
Halkerston's Wynd, 117, 118, 242, 250

Port, 250

Halton, Lord, 298, 454
Hammermen, Corporation of, 387, 400, 401
Hamilton, James, 4tli Duke of, 106, 108, 163, 183
Lord Claud, 370
Sir Patrick, 24, 36, 37, 136
Sir James, 314
Abbot, Gavin, 73

Gavin, his Model of the Old Town, 439
Hangman's House, 243

Hanna, James, Dean of St Giles's Church, 391
Hare Stane, 124
Harper, Sir John, 160
Hart, Andrew, the Printer, 235, 236
Hartfield, Lady, 208
Harviston, Lady, 208
Hastings, Marchioness of, 180
Haunted Close, West Bow. See Stinking Clote
Hawkhill, 131, 177
Hawthornden, 7
Hay, Father, 3

Lord David, 283
Bishop, 265
Lady Ann, 180
Lady Catherine, 180
E. A. Drummond, 154
Heathfield, Lord, 256
Heigh, Jock, 190
Henderson, of Fordel, 253

INDEX.

465

Henderson, Captain Matthew, 252
Bailie, 214
George, 192

Henry I. of England, 377, 378
II. of England, 5
IV. of England, 13, 350

VI. of England, 18, 342, 413, 4J1

VII. of England, 23

VIII. of England, 36, 47, 50, 51
II. of France, 60, 151

Hepburn, J. R., of Keith, 324
James, of Keith, 308
Prior John, 38
Robert, 139
Here, William, 383
Heriot, George, 89, 170, 190, 243, 310
Heriot's Hill, 355

Hospital, 91, 96, 343, 367, 373, 438
Hertford, Earl of, 49, 51, 277, 305
High Jinks, 233, 236
High Riggs, 91, 114
High School, 96, 168

where first established, 319
of Canongate, 279
Wynd, 78, 446
Hog, Rev. Mr, 111
Hole i' the Wall, 331

Holy Blood Aisle, St Giles's Church, 72, 392
Holyrood Abbey, 3, 4, 17, 25, 27, 31, 38, 39, 42, 45, 52,

91, 105, 403
Description of, 403-410
Chapel, St Giles's Churchyard, 12, 204

Greenside, 376
Porch, 307, 446
llolyroodhouse, Lord, 204

Henry, Lord, 141
John, Lord, 227, 228
Stent Rolls of, 313

Home, Lord, the Lodging of, 245, 267
Countess of, 294
Sir David, 208
Provost George, 207
John, Author of Douglas, 288, 307
Hope, John de, 151, 255
Christian, 152
Edward, 151, 152
Henry, 152
John, 178, 255
Sir Thomas, 152, 177, 231
The Arms of, 375
The Mansion of, 329
ITopetoun, Earl of, 289
Homer, Francis, 189
Horse Wynd, 194, 323

Abbey, 296, 306
Howard, 196
Hume, Sir David, 37

David, 160, 161, 167, 210, 376
Lord, 37, 38, 174, 222
of Godscroft, 16
Hunter's Close, 109, 343
Huutly, Alexander, 3rd Earl of, 28

George, 4lli Earl of, 52, 53, 63, 71, 73

Huntly, George, 6th Earl of, 176

George, 1st Marquis of, 296

Lodging of, 298
Hutchison, T. & A., 201
Hyde, Lady Catherine, 300

Inebaffray, Abbot of, 7
luchkeitb, Island of, 24, 54
Irvine, Dr, 210

Rev. Edward, 252

Jack's Close. See Big Jack's Clote

Land, Canongate, 160, 167, 183
James I., 13, 14, 186, 342

Execution of his Assassins at the Cross, 15
II., 14, 130, 132, 186, 342, 381
Crowned at Holyrood Abbey, 15
Bestows the Valley of Greenside on the Citi-
zens, 23
III., 18, 187, 310, 363, 380

Marriage of, to Margaret of Denmark, 18
IV., 22-33, 130, 136, 341, 389, 405

Crowned at Edinburgh, 22
V., 34-46

Birth of, 31

Escapes from Falkland, 41
Arrives at Leith with Magdalen of France, 41
Entry of Mary of Guise to Edinburgh, 44
VI., 81-91

Born in Edinburgh Castle, 77
Enters Edinburgh in State, 85, 341
Arrives at Leith with Anne of Denmark, 87
Bids farewell to Edinburgh, 89
Revisits Edinburgh, 90

VII., 101, 131, 174, 208, 341. See York, Duke qf
James's Court, 160, 193

Square, 250, 370
Jeffrey, Lord Francis, 255, 348
Jock's Lodge, 94
John's Coffee House, 211, 213
John, Vicar of St Giles, 377
Johnson, Dr, 160, 162, 210, 266
Johnston of Warriston, Sir Archibald, 101, 232, 295
Sir Patrick, 108, 183
Rev. Dr, 366

Johnston's Close, 167, 183
Johnstone, John, Teacher, 167, 1S3
Jonson, Ben, 91
Jougs, The, 293, 372
Julius II., Pope, 25

Kames, Lord, 200, 284
Katterfelto, Dr, the Conjuror, 233
Kay, the Caricaturist, 212
Keith, John, 308

Lady Agnes, 72

Kellie, Alexander, 3d Earl of, 275
Kelso, 60
Kennedy, Sir Andrew, 141

Sir Archibald, 241

Bishop, 256, 381

Walter, 24, 26, 28, SO
Kennedy's Close, Castlehill, 141

2 G

466

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.

Kennedy's Close, High Street, 247

Kenneth III., 246

Ker of Fawdonside, 76

Killigrew, Henry, Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth, 183

Killor, a Black Friar, burnt, 44

Kilravock, 192

Kincaid, Provost, 199

Kincardine, Countess of, 166

King's Head Inn, Cowgate, 330

Pillar, St Giles's Church, 381

Stables, 23, 135-137

Work, Leith, 363
Kinloch, Henry, 284
Kinloch's Close, 251

Canongate, 284

Kinnoul, William, 3d Earl of, 216
Kintore, John, 3d Earl of, 228
Kirkaldy, Sir William, 82, 84, 85, 121, 136, 174,182,

348, 389
James, 85

Kirkgate, Leith, 54, 358
Kirkheugh, 207, 208
Kirkliston Church, 129
Kirk-of-Field, 14, 63, 78, 321, 397
Kirkpatrick, William, ofAllisland, 179

Sir Thomas, of Closehurn, 390
Knolls, Sir William, Preceptor of Torphichen, 352
Knox, John, 53, 59, 62, 68, 69, 70, 75, 83, 205, 320,

389

House of, Netherbow, 257
Krames, The, 200

Lacrok, Monsieur, French Ambassador, 357, 415
Lady Stair's Close, 141, 163

Steps, St Giles's Church, 201
Lovat's Land, 262
Tester's Church, 96, 105, 429, 430
Lady's Aisle, St Giles's Church, 382, 383
Altar, 383
Niche, 201
Walk, Leith, 368
Wynd, 136
Lambert, General, 97
Lamb's Ale House, Parliament Close, 211
Lancaster, Duke of, 12
Lancashire, Tom, the Comedian, 236
Lands, 138
Lauder, Sir Alexander, of Blyth, 386

Sir John. See Fountainhall, Lord
Bishop, 319
Lauderdale, Duke of, 235

John, 2d Earl of, 102
Charles, 3d Earl of, 209, 298
Countess of, 2y4
Laurieston, 87

Law of Laurieston, John, 308
Lawnmarket, 157-183, 334

Club, 157

Lawson, James, 170
Lawsoun, Ptichard, 32
Leather Market, 207

Lee, Sir Richard, carries off the Brazen Font of Holy-
rood Abbey, 406

Leith, 23, 50, 52, 53, 81, 97, 356-368
Links, 93, 104
Walk, 354

Wynd, 44, 65, 82, 123, 278, 279, 352, 353
Church, South. See St Mary's
Church, North. See St Ninian's
Leitlis, Ancient Family of, 356
Lekprevik, Robert, the Printer, 275
Leland, Piers, 6
Lennox, John, 3d Earl of, 40

Matthew, 4th Earl of, 49, 82, 277, 362
Ludovic, 2d Duke of, 222
Isabell, Countess of, 382
Leo X., Pope, 26
Lepers, Hospital for, 371, 411
Leslie, General, 94, 353, 355, 373
Lethington, 174

Lady, 174

Leven, David, 3d Earl of, 144
David, 6th Earl of, 242
Libberton's Wynd, 164, 180, 328
Liberton, 4

Lighting of the Streets, First, 57
Lindisfarn, Bishop of, 12, 377
Lindores, the Clock of the Abbey Church of, put up in

St Giles's Steeple, 394
Lindsay, Lord, 205, 215

Sir David, 38, 39, 41, 42, 45, 56, 62, 152, 383,

442

Sir David, Younger, 89
Bernard, of Lochill, 364
Linlithgow, 47

Earl of, 309
Lion's Den, 131
Little, Clement, 169, 170, 171

William, 169, 171
Little Jack's Close, 291
Livingston, Bishop, 320
Lord, 53

Sir Archibald, 15
Vicar of, 143
Mary, 144

Livingstone's Yards, 136
Lochaber Axe, 248
Lochart's Court, 89
Lochend, 23
Lockhart, Sir George, Lord President, 178, 440

George, " Union Lockhart," 241
Logan of Restalrig, 362

Robert, 349

Sir Robert, 357, 399, 412
Long Gait, 123, 452
Lord Cullen's Close, 171
Lorn, Lord, 294

Lorraine, Mary of, 43. See Guise, Mary of
Lothian Road, 137

Hut, 301

Loudon, Earl of, 180, 215, 295, 326
Loughborough, Lord Chancellor, 269
Lounger, The, 200
Lovat, Lady, 262
Lowrie, John, 344
Luckenbooths, 115, 172, 196, 228

INDEX.

467

Macbeth, 4

Macdonald, Andrew, 162
MacEwan, James, 199
Mackenzie, Sir Roderick, 169

Sir Jamea. See Rni/ston, Lord
Sir George, 178, 210, 216, 261, 324
Henry, T/ie Man of Feeling, 328, 332
Miss Anne, 169, 247
Mackoull, James, 274
Maclauchlane, William, 188, 210
Macleod, Mrs, 192

Haclure, Mr Andrew, Writing Master, 182
Macmoran, Bailie, 168, 453
Macquhen, Michael, 400, 401
M'Gill, Prebendary of Corstorpliine, 327
M'Lehose, Mrs. See Clarinda
M'Lellan of Bombie, 130, 198
M'Naught, Robert, 156
M' Vicar, Rev. Neil, 111
Magdalene, Princess, 41, 42, 152
Magistrates' Gowns, 90
Maiden, the, 86, 100, 175, 203
Maison Dieu, 245, 400
Maitland, Robert, Dean of Aberdeen, 170
Malcolm II., 2
IV., 3

Mrs, the Black Princess, 292
Malloch, Robert, 250
Mauderston, Patrick, 144
Manzeville, Monsieur, 303
Mar, John, Earl of, 18

Coehrane, Earl of, 19
John, 6th Earl of, 83, 268, 273, 2S4
John, 7th Earl of, 90, 204
March, Earl of, 245

Patrick, Earl of, 5, 7
George, Earl of, 12
Mare, Wooden, 95, 247
Margaret, Queen. See St Margaret
of Denmark, 18
of England, 25, 26, 36, 405
Marischal, William, 4th Earl, 67
Marlin'a Wynd, 69, 260
Martin, the Painter, 401
Mary, Queen, 47-80, 125, 130, 157, 185, 226, 245, 341,

375, 452
is entertained in Cardinal Beaton's House,

Cowgate, 452

of Guelders. See Gudders
of Guise. See Guise
Mary King's Close, 182, 188, 233
Maries, The Queen's, 53, 144
Masterton, Allan, 181
Matilda, Queen, 377
Mauchain, Alexander, 172, 175
Mauchain's Close, 172
Maule, Baron, 259
Maxwell, Lord, 176
May Games, 353
Meal Market, 209
Medina, Sir John de, 411
Megginche, The Church of, 377
Melrose, Abbot of, 261

Melrose, Earl of. See Haddington, Earl of
Melvil, Sir James, 77, 78

Mr Andrew, 87, 403
Melville, Viscount, 242, 253
Merchants' Court, 327, 331
Merchants of Edinburgh, Address to the, 23
Merchiston Castle, 348
Jlersington, Lord, 208
Middleton, Earl of, 99, 100
Miller, Sir Thomas. See Glenlee, Lord,
Milne, Robert, 159, 210, 260
John, 159
Square, 242
Milne's Court, 159, 160
Milton, Lord, 297, 312

House, 297

Mint, 88, 135, 296, 314, 342
Close, 268, 314
Court, 314
Minto, Lord, 325
Mirror Club, 200

Mitchell, James, a Fanatic Preacher, 101, 191
Modena, Duke of, 102
Moffat, Captain, 274
Moffet, Peter, the Reiver, 38
Monboddo, Lord, 288, 334
Monck, General, 96, 98, 131, 206, 345
Monluc, Bishop of Valence, 67, 68
Mons Meg, 104, 122, 129-131
Monteith's Close, 264
Montgomery, Master of, 37

Alexander, the Poet, 267
Montrose, Earl of, 174

Marquis of, 94, 99, 187, 215, 295
Aisle, 100, 386

Monuments, Ancient, St Giles's Church, 391
Moodie, Thomas, 105, 428, 429
Moray, Earl of, 7

Countess of, 294
Bishop of, 27

House, Canongate, 95, 108, 294
More, Jacob, Landscape Painter, 237
Morocco, Emperor of, 282

Land, Canongate, 280
Morton, John, 2d Earl of, 26

James, 4th Earl of, 76, 86, 187
Robert, 12th Earl of, 345
James, 14th Earl of, 232
Countess of, 39
Mansion of the Earls of, 264
Moryson, Fynes, 221
Mound, The Earthen, 161
Moutray of Seafield, 370
Moutrie's Hill, 30, 150, 250, 370
Mowbray, Robert, of Castlewan, 140
Moyes, Dr, 252
Murray, Earl of, 38, 48

Regent, 73, 82, 243. See Stewart, Lord

Jama

Tomb of, St Giles's Church, 389
Muschett, Nicol, the Murderer, 264
Myllar, Andrew, 30
Mylne, Barbara, a Witch, 305

468

INDEX.

Nairn, Sir Robert, 193
Katharine, 193
Nairn's Close, 146, 148
Namur, Count of, 7
Napier of Merchiston, 208, 348

Tomb of, 393, 428
Lord, 243
Francis Lord, 308
Sir Archibald, 372

of Wrychtishousis. See Wrychtishoufis
Hegro servants, 290
Nether Bow, 17, 36, 55, 68, 82, 83, 87, 88, 91, 95

Port, 27, 44, 50, 71, 110, 111, 114, 277

Last Speech and Confession of the,

449

New Assembly Close, 248
College, 118, 135
Street, Canongate, 284
Town Antiquities of, 369-S76

The Plan of, 371
Newhaven, 49, 368

St James's Chapel, 368
Nicol, Willie, 181
Nicolson, Lady, 346
Street, 346

Niddry's Wynd, 55, 89, 177, 198
Nimmo, Miss, 346
Nisbet of Dirleton, 140, 299

of Dean, 157. See Dean
Alexander, 374

Norman Architecture, 12, 128, 129, 379, 405
Nome, Old, 138, 149, 168, 312
Norrie's Workshops, 312
Norris of Speke Hall, The Family of, 406
North Bridge, 355

Loch, 60, 109, 162, 180, 251, 280, 876, 454,

455
Norwell, Katharine, Widow of Bassendyne the

Printer, 396

Nose Pinching, the Punishment of, 456
Notre Dame, Cathedral of, 60
Nottingham Castle, 9

Ogilvie, Sir Alexander, 239

Lady, 123

Oikis House, William, 277
Old Bank, 173

Close, 172, 440
Gallon Burying-Ground, 353
Fishmarket Close, 242
Fleshmarket Close, Canongate, 278
High School Close, Canongate, 279
Stamp Office Close, 242, 243
Kirk, or Old Church, 385, 391

Style, 198. See Stinking Style
Oliver, Lord, 283
Oliver's Land, 282
Orange, Prince of, 105
Orchardfield, 136
Orkney, St Clair, Earl of, 266

Adam Both well, Bishop of, 101, 191, 226 280
292, 373, 405

ilonument of, 409

Ormiston, Laird of, 78
Orphan's Hospital, 114, 288

Park, 288
Otterburn, Sir Adam, Provost, 50

Palfrey's Inn, Cowgate, 330
Palmer's Land, 347
Panmure, Karl of, 301
House, 301
Close, 301
Paoli, General, 160
Paradin's Emblems, 150
Parliament Close, 108, 118, 162, 170, 203
House, 89, 97, 361
Stairs, 193, 212, 325, 330
Riding of, 204
Square, Leith, 361
Paterson, John, 301

Nicol, 302

Bishop, 305

Paterson's Land, Canongate, 301
Paton, George, the Antiquary, 163, 181, 247

438

Patrick, Alexander, 160
Paulitius, Dr Joannes, 281
Paul's Work, 352
Paunch Market, Leith, 363
Peebles Wynd, 246
Pennycuik, Alexander, 20
Perjurers, Boring the Tongues of, 455
Perth, Earl of, 105, 296
Pest. See Plague
Philiphaugh, Lord, 231
Physic Gardens, 117
Physicians' Hall, George Street, 376
Picardy, Village of, 375
Piers Leland, 6
Pillans, Professor, 168
Pillory, 74, 454
Pilrig, 66

Pinkie, Battle of, 52, 406
Pipe's Close, 143
Piscina, Ancient, 146
Pitcairn, Dr Archibald, 285, 302
Pius II., Pope, 15
Plague, The, 165, 182, 205, 311
Plainstanes Close, 344
Plantagenet, Richard, 25
Play fair, Professor, 143
Playhouse Close, 287
Plays, 44, 103
Pleasance, The, 83, 312

Port, 312

Pole, Cardinal, 403
Pope, Burning the, 437
Porteous, Captain, 109, 194-196, 440

Mob, 211, 433
Portobello Tower, 451
Preston, John, 268

Sir Michael, 268

of Craigmillar, 381

of Gortoun, 382

Sir Simon, Provost, 79, 245, 398

INDEX.

469

Prestongrange, Lord, 253
Prestonpans, 52
Potterrow, 345

Port, 398

Priestfield House, 104
Primrose, Viscount, 163

Lady, 163

Prince, Sir Magnus, 178
Provost, Title of Lord, 153
Purses, The, 188, 197, 280

Quarrel Holes, 64

Greyfriars' Port, 454
Queen Mary's Dial. See Dial
Bath. See Bath
Queensberry, Earl of, 323

Duke of, 108, 137, 183, 210, 299
Duchess of, 199
House, 199, 299, 454

Eaeburn, Sir Henry, 181, 237
Rae's Close, 280
Rambollet, Monsieur, 284
Ramsay, Alexander, 7

Allan, 142, 198, 228, 241, 251, 252, 326

Cuthbert, 73

George, 187

Miss Jean, 285

Lane, 143
Randolph, the Nephew of Bruce, 6

Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth, 72
Eatho Church, 129
Rebus of Preston, 382

of Prior Bolton, 382
Regalia, The, 25, 36, 127
Regent's Aisle, St Giles's Church, 300
Reid, James, Constable of the Castle, 123
Reid's Close, Canongate, 299
Reservoir, 143
Restalrig Church, 83, 398
Restoration, The, 98, 99, 436,
Rich, Lady Diana, Apparition of, 410
Richard, II., of England, 379, 384
Richmond, Alexander, 110

Street, East, 347

Riddle's Close, Lawnmarket, 167, 453
Riding School, Old, 347
Ridotto of Holyrood House, 324
Risp. See Tirling Pin
Robert the Bruce, 6, 356, 373
II., 8, 11, 12, 17, 384
Robertson, Dr, 162, 328

of Kincraigie, 214
Robin Hood, 58, 69, 83
Rockville, Lord, 141

Close, Castlehill, 141
Koman Eagle Hall, 169, 431
Romieu, Paul, the Clockmaker, 340
Roseburn House, 95
Rosehaugh Close, 261
Roslyn Castle, 50
Ross, Earl of, 13

Countess of, 260

lloss, Sir John, the Poet, 24
James, Bishop of, 399
Ross's Court, 141

Tavern, 209

Rothes, Lord, 215, 287, 326
Rothsay, 12

Duke of, 350, 388
Rotten Row, Leith, 360
Roull of Corstorphine, the Poet, 24
Rowan, Mr William, 290
Roxburgh, Earls of, 230
Roxburgh, Robert, 1st Earl of, 293, 373

Robert, 4th Earl of, 298

Castle, 18

House, 298

Close, 230

Royal Exchange, 235
lloyal Circus, 369
Royston, Lord, 169
Ruddiman, Thomas, 210
Rudeside, Leith, 366
Rumbold, Richard, an Ironside, 216
Runciman, Alexander, the Paiuter, 172, 237, 347
Runic Inscription, 131
Ruthven, Lord, 65, 76, 77

Master of, 57

Ruthven's Land, Lord, 338
Ryan, John, Actor, 287
Rye House Plot, 21 7, 231
Rynd, James, Burgess, 156

Janet, Foundress of Magdalene Chapel, 400-403

Sadler, Sir Ralph, 64
Salamander Land, 242
Salisbury Crags, 83

Cathedral, 197
Sanctuary, 137, 306, 317
Sanderson, Deacon, 69
Sandilands' Close, 255

Sir James, 63
Sark, Battle of, 17
Saxe-Coburg Place, 369
Scott of Thirlstane, Sir Francis, 269
of Ancrum, Sir John, 256

Sir Walter, 115, 129, 154, 185, 289, 347, 365, 376
442, 443

Birth Place of, 323

Thomas, one of the Murderers of Rizzio, 77
Scougal, John, the Painter, 229
Seafield, Lord Chancellor, 218, 295
Seaton, 77
Seatoun House, 303

Sebastian, one of the Murderers of Darnley, 81
Secret Chamber, 149, 152
Selkirk, Earl of, 269
Sellar's Close, 225
Sempill, Lord, 57, 144
Lady, ]45

Honourable Anne, 145
of Beltrees, 144, 854
Colonel, 176

Sempill's Close, 144, 145
Seton, George, 2d Lord, 22

47°

INDEX.

Seton, George, 3d Lord, 416, 417

George, 5th Lord, 48
Shakespeare, 286
Sharpe, Archbishop, 101, 192, 275

Charles K., 147, 150, 151, 154, 157, 169, 365,

441

Shaw, Richard, encounters a Lady in disguise, 7
Sheep-Head Wynd, Leith, 359
Sheriff Brae, Leith, 362
Shields, Mrs, the Midwife, 193
Shoemakers' Land, 291

West Port, 291
Close, 291

Shot Windows, 175, 330
Shutters, Antique, 169
Silvermills, Village of, 371
Sim, Alexander, 170
Sime, Eev. John, 186, 450, 451
Simson, Anna, a famous Witch, 283
Sinclair, John, Bishop of Brechin, 181
Smellie, William, the Printer, 239

Alexander, 140
Smith, Dr Adam, 167, 301

Sir John, Provost, 164, 168, 281
Smith's Chapel, Baron, 266
Smollet, 199, 289

Residence of, 289
Society, The, 327, 331, 348

Port, 331

Close, Netherbow, 258
Somerset, Duke of, 51, 52
Somerville, Lord, 115, 235

Bartholomew, 160, 339
Peter, 160, 339
South Foulis Close, 269
Speir, Thomas, 171
Spence, Thomas, Bishop of Aberdeen, 352

Lucky, 307
Spottiswood, Archbishop, Mansion of, 253

John, Superintendent of Lothian, 253
Spynie, Lord, 315
Stair, Earl of, 141, 346
Viscount, 153, 345
Countess of, 163, 316
Stair's Close, Lady. See Lady Stair
Stanfield, Sir James, 275
Stevenlaw's Close, 246
Stevenson, John, Advocate, 210
Stewart, Lord James, 53, 60, 64, 65, 67, 70, 72

Robert, Abbot of Holyrood, 354

Sir John, 163

Sir James, Brother of Earl of Arran, 176

Sir William, slain in Blackfriars' Wynd, 176

Sir Jamee, Lord Advocate, 178, 229

Professor, Sir Robert, 143

Alexander, younger of Garlics, 136

Lady Barbara, 285

Lady Margaret, 285
Stinking Style, 29, 198, 451

Close, West Bow, 337, 340, 341
Stirling, 51, 57

Castle, 17

Field of, 21. 23

Stirling, Earl of, 133, 286

Stockbridge, Village of, 343

Stonefield, Lord, 269

Stoney Sunday, 91

Stowell, Lord, 162

Straton, David, burnt at Greenside, 411

Strichen, Lord, 262

Strichen's Close, 261

Stuart, Lord Robert, 75

Baron, 325
St Andrew's, City of, 51

Church, Castlehill, 143
Chapel, Carrubber's Close, 252
Square, 229, 329, 376
Archbishop of, 27
Port, Leith Wynd, 354
St Anne's Park, 309
St Anthony, Preceptory of, Leith, 54, 66, 412

Hospital of, 358
St Anthony's Port, Leith, 54, 368

Aisle, St Giles's Church, 389
Chapel, 412
St Bernard's Well, 98
St Cuthbert's Church, 4, 111, 310, 374, 393, 414

Yard, 169

St David Street, 162, 376
St Eloi's Chapel, St Giles's Church, 387
St Giles, 73, 377

Statue of, 59, 60, 61, 382

St Giles's Church, 10, 12, 16, 27, 28, 40, 59, 60, 63,
64, 72, 78, 82, 87, 89, 97, 100, 203,
409, 377-394
Ground Plan of, 450
Yard, 96, 204, 330, 451
Day, 60, 163

St James's Chapel, Newhaven, 368
St John, Knights of, 167, 289
St John's Cross, 82, 222, 276, 288

Church, on the Borough Moor, 416, 417
Hill, 313

Close, Canongate, 288
Street, 288

St Katherine of Sienna, Convent of, 331, 417
St Katherine's Balm Well, 418, 445
Gate, Castle, 132

Chapel, St Giles's Church, 378, 384
St Leonard's, 94, 313, 442
St Magdalene's Chapel and Hospital, 400
St Margaret, 3, 5, 123, 129, 377, 418
St Margaret's Well, 399

Well, Castle, 3, 85, 132
Chapel, in the Castle, 127
Convent, 298
Day, 44

St Mary's Church, Leith, 52, 66, 128, 354, 413
Chapel, West Port, 136, 415
Abbey, York, Ancient Fire-place, 146
Chapel, Niddry's Wynd, 278, 311
Bell, St Giles's Church, 394
Port, 312

Wynd, 7, 73, 83, 278, 311

St Mary, Churches and Chapels dedicated to, 311
St Nicolas, Hospital and Chapel of, Leith, 97, 366

INDEX.

471

St Ninian'g Chapel, North Leith, 307, 365
Calton, 353

Row, 354

Alter, House of the Chaplain of, 146
St Paul's Chapel, Carrubber's Close, 251
St Peter's Close, Cowgate, 323
St Roque's Chapel, .on the Borough Muir, 415
St Thomas's Hospital, 25, 85, 245, 305
St Triduana's Tomb, Restalrig Church, 398
Surrey, Earl of, 26-28
Swinton, Alexander, Lord Mersington, 208
Sydserff, Sir Thomas, 287
Sylvius, jEneas, 15
Syme, A., Advocate, 139

Mrs, 3:>8
Symson, Andrew, the Printer, 324

Tables, The, 93

Tailors' Hall, Cowgate, 93, 287, 325-327
Carrubber's Close, 431
Portsburgh, 291
Corporation of, 431
Talfar, Samuel, 160
Tantallon Castle, 13
Tarbat, Sir James, a Priest, mobbed, 7 i
Taylor, the Water Poet. 197, 221, 407
Telfer of Scotstown, Mrs, 289
Templar Lands, 340, 341
Tennis Court, 103, 286, 287, 308
Thackery, Major-General, 126
Theatre. See Drama, Tennis Court, Plays, Tailors'

Hall, Cowgate, etc.
Threave Castle, 130

Thynne, Lady Isabella, Portrait of, 410
Tirling Pin, 317
Todrick's Wynd, 83, 268, 315
Tod's Close, Castlehill, 146, 148, 149, 151, 153
Tolbooth, or Heart of Midlothian, 63, 71, 84, 85, 106,
109, 183

New, or Council House, 72, 202, 203
Kirk, 194, 392

Tolbooth, Canongate, 216, 292
Leith, 82, 364
Wynd, Leith, 364
Topham, Captain, 161, 197
Torture, 81, 216
Touris, George of, 34
Tournaments, 23, 43, 136
Tours of Innerleith, 117
Town Guard, 35, 219, 243

House, 115, 189, 247
Tranent, 51, '234

Train, Joseph, the Antiquury, 129
Traquair, John, 1st Earl of, 243

Charles, 4th Earl of, 285

Trinity College Church, 18, 63, 96, 353, 394-417
Hospital, 50, 117, 396, 397

Leith, 359
House, Leith, 359

Tron, Butter, 50, 87, 157.' See Weigh-home
Salt, 91, 249. See Pillory
Church, 428
Trunk's Close, 256

Tumuli, Ancient, 370

Turner, J. M. W., the Painter, 197

William, a Witness, Porteous Mob, 195

Tweeddale, John, 2d Earl of, 274, 283

Charles, 3d Marquis of, 180, 274
George, 6th Marquis of, Mansion of, 180
Marquis of, Mansion of, 311, 814
Close, 273

Tytler, William, of Woodhouselee, 199

Udward, Nicol, 89, 177, 260
Umfraville's Cross, 213, 442
Union, The, 107, 211

Cellar, 108

Unreason, Abbot of, 58
Urban II., Pope, 20

Vallence, Bishop of, 67, 68
Vennel, The, 91, 117
Victoria, Queen, 298

Villeganon, Monsieur, receives Queen Mary at Dum-
barton, 53

Violante, Signora, 287
Virgin Mary's Chapel, West Port, 136, 415

Wallace of Craigie, Sir Thomas, 162
Lady, 162
Captain, 208

Walls, Town, 17, 35, 36, 91, 116, 117, 132
Warbeck, Perkin, 25
Wardie, 131, 369
Warrender, George, Bailie, 207

House, 165

Warriston, Lord. See Johnston of Warriston
Warriston's Close, 230
Warwolf, A, 328
Water Gate, 50, 94, 295, 305

Lane, Leith, 360, 362, 363
Water's Close, Leith, 362
Watt, Deacon, 202, 236

Executed for Treason, 1'23
Weaponshaws, 23, 412
Webster, Dr, 140
Webster's Close, 140
Weigh-house, 96, 97, 112, 157, 195

Old, demolished by Cromwell, 96
Leith, 364
Weir, Major, 101, 167, 335-338, 438

Grizel, 116-118, 213, 336-338, 438
Well-House Tower, 85, 116, 132
Weymss, 2d Earl of, 275

Francis, 5th Earl of, 211, 300
Countess of, 188, 210
Laird of, 59

West Bow, 17, 85, 113, 117, 131, 132, 333-342, 438
Westhall, Lord, 229

West Port, 38, 40, 44, 65, 85, 87, 90, 91, 136, 217, 344
Wharton, Duke of, 178
White, Martha, Conntess of Elgin and Kincardine

166

White Friars, or Carmelites, 411, 444
Whitefield, Rev. George, 288
Whiteford House, 303

4/2

White Horse Close, 304

Inn, White Horse Close, 304

Boyd's Close, 161, 102, 312
Whitford, Mrs Grissald, 335
Whittingham, Lord, 265
Wightman, Provost, 153
Wilkes, Johnny, Burning of, 219
William the Lion, 3, 23

III., 106
Williamson of Cardrona, 237

Mr David, Minister, 169
Willox, Mr John, 64, 67
Wilson, the Smuggler, 109, 194

Gavin, the Poetical Shoemaker, 237
James, the Poet. See Clnudero
Windmill Street, 348
Wintoun's House, Earl of, 303, 452
Wishart, confined in Edinburgh Castle, 51

Bishop George, 366
Witches, 18, 88, 133, 283, 305, 306, 373

INDEX.

Wood, Sir Andrew, 22, 23
Wood's Farm, 371
Wooden Mare, 95, 247
Woodhouselee, Lord, 332, 351
World's End Close, 275
Wotton, Sir Nicolas, 68
Wrightisland, Lord, 232
Writers' Court, 201, 233
Wrychtishousis, Mansion of, 130, 432

Napier of, 339, 350

Tomb of, 393, 432
Wyat, James, Architect, 197

Yair, Henry, one of the Murderers of Eizzio, executed, 77

Tester, Lady, 273, 429

Tester's Church, Lady, 96, 105, 425, 429, 430

York, Archbishop of, 26, 27

Young, John, Somerset Herald, 26

Zuccherelli, Franceso, 298

THE END.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

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