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GNsmarket.1 THE GAELIC CHAPEL. 235
target, andnogentlemantookthe road without pistols
in his holsters, and was the chief place for carriers
putting up in the days when all the country traffic
was conducted by their carts or waggons. In 1788
fortysix carriers arrived weekly in the Grassmarket,
and this number increased to ninety-six in 1810.
In those days the Lanark coach started fiom
George Cuddie?s stables there, every Friday and
Tuesday at 7 am. ; the Linlithgow and Falkirk
flies at 4 every afternoon, ?( Sundays excepted ; ?
and the Peebles coach from ? Francis M?Kay?s,
vintner, White Hart Inn,? thrice weekly, at g in
the morning.
Some bloodshed occurred in the Castle Wynd
in 1577. When Morton?s administration became
so odious as Regent that it was resolved to deprive
him of his power, his natural son, George Douglas
of Parkhead, held the Castle of which he was
governor, and the magistrates resolved to cut off
all supplies from him. At 5 o?clock on the 17th
March their guards discovered two carriages of
provisions for the Castle, which were seized at
the foot of the Wynd. This being seen by Parkhead?s
garrison, a sally was made, and a combat
ensued, in which three citizens were killed and six
wounded, but only one soldier was slain, while sixteen
others pushed the carriages up the steep slope.
The townsmen, greatly incensed by the injury,?
says Moyse, ?? that same night cast trenches beside
Peter Edgafs house for enclosing of the Castle.?
Latterly the closes on the north side of the
Market terminated on the rough uncultured slope
of the Castle Hill; but in the time of Gordon of
Rothiemay a belt of pretty gardens had been there
from the west fiank of the city wall to the Castle
Wynd, where a massive fragment of the wall of
1450 remained till the formation of Johnstone
Terrace. On the west side of the Castle Wynd
is an old house, having a door only three feet
three inches wide, inscribed:
BLESSIT. BE. GOD. FOR. AL. HIS. GIFTIS.
16. 163 7. 10.
The double date probably indicated arenewal of
the edifice.
The first Gaelic chapel in Edinburgh stood in
the steep sloping alley named the Castle Wynd.
Such an edifice had long been required in the
Edinburgh of those days, when such a vast number
of Highlanders resorted thither as chairmen, porters,
water-carriers, city guardsmen, soldiers of the
Castle Company, servants and day-labourers, and
when Irish immigration was completely unknown.
These people in their ignorance of Lowland Scottish
were long deprived of the benefit of religious
instruction, which was a source of regret to themselves
and of evil to society.
Hence proposals were made by Mr. Williarn
Dicksos, a dyer of the city, for building a chapel
wherein the poor Highlanders might receive religious
instruction in their own language; the contributions
of the benevolent flowed rapidly in; the
edifice was begun in 1767 and opened in 1769,
upon .a piece of ground bought by the philanthropic
William Dickson, who disposed of it to the Society
for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. The
church cost A700, of which LIOO was given by
the Writers to the Signet.
It was soon after enlarged to hold about 1,100
hearers. The minister was elected by the subscribers.
His salary was then only LIOO per
annum, ?and he was, of course, in communion with
the Church- of Scotland, when such things as the
repentance stool and public censure did not
become thing of the past until 1780. ?Since the
chapel was erected,? says Kincaid, ?the Highlanders
have been punctual in their attendance on
divine worship, and have discovered the greatest
sincerity in their devotions. Chiefly owing to the
bad crops for some years past in the Highlands,
the last peace, and the great improvements Carrying
on in this city, the number of Highlanders has of late
increased so much that the chapel in its present
situation cannot contain them. Last Martinmas,
above 300 applied for seats who could not be
accommodated, and who cannot be edified in the
English language.?
The first pastor here was the Rev. Joseph
Robertson MacGregor, a native of Perthshire, who
was a licentiate of the Church of England before
he joined that of Scotland., ?The last levies of
the Highland regiments,? says Kincaid, ?? were
much indebted to this house, for about a third of
its number have, this last and preceding wars,
risqued (xi.) their lives for their king and country ;
and no other church in Britain, without the aid or
countenance of Government, contains so many
disbanded soldiers.?
Mr. MacGregor was known by his mother?s
name of Robertson, assumed in consequence of
the proscription of his clan and name ; but, on the
repeal of the infamous statute against it, in 1787,
on the day it expired he attired himself in a fill
suit of the MacGregor tartan, and walked conspicuously
about the city.
The Celtic congregation continued to meet 51
the Castle Wynd till 1815, when its number had
so much increased that a new church was built for
them in another quarter of the city.
The Plainstanes Close, with Jatnieson?s, Beattie?s,
s
*

... THE GAELIC CHAPEL. 235 target, andnogentlemantookthe road without pistols in his holsters, and was ...

Book 4 p. 235
(Score 0.83)

CHAPTER 111.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES IK TO THE
BATTLE OF FLODDEN.
- -_ --._ .- -7
/ -,
___ --.. .
' 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 a8 curious traditions connected
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 conspicuously,
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.' The sturdy seaman
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.'
Immediately after the coronation of the young King, his heralds were sent to demand
the restitution of the Castle in his name; and thig, 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
Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 489. Pitacottie, vol. .i p. 225.
VIQNETTE-The Castle, from the West Port, J. a., about 1640.

... 111. FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES IK TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN. - -_ --._ .- -7 / -, ___ --.. . ' ...

Book 10 p. 24
(Score 0.83)

176 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
and especially of U 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 Frenchman
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 distance
from danger, now made his appearance, and with characteristic
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 Gourlaye’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.’ 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
afTray,-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 favourable
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 h ~ u s e , ” ~
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 retreat, 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. LL The 3d of Apryle, the
Birrel’s Diary, p. 24. . ’ Calderwood, vol. iv. pp. 678-681. * Ibid, vol. v. p. 65.
YIQNETTE-carved Stone from Old Bank Close, in the collection of A. 0. Ellis, Esq.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. and especially of U one bearing the manifest badge of Antichrist,” viz., his badge ...

Book 10 p. 191
(Score 0.82)

OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Corstrophinc
- ~- I
CRAIGCROOK IN THE PRESENT DAY.
than doubled all the specie circulating in France,
when it was hoarded up, or sent out of the country.
Thus severe edicts were published, threatening with
dire punishment all who were in possession of Azo
of specie-edicts that increased the embarrassments
of the nation. Cash payments were stopped at the
bank, and its notes were declared to be of no value
after the 1st November, 1720. Law?s influence was
lost, his life in danger from hordes of beggared and
infuriated people. He fled from the scenes of his
splendour and disgrace, and after wandering through
various countries, died in poverty at Venice on the
zist of March, 1729. Protected by the Duchess of
Bourbon, William, a brother of the luckless comptroller,
born in Lauriston Castle, became in time a
Mardchal de Camp in France, where his descendants
have acquitted themselves with honour in
many departments of the State.
C H A P T E R XI.
CORSTORPHINE.
hrstorphine-Suppd Origin of the Name-The Hill-James VI. hunting there-The Cross-The Spa-The Dicks of Braid and Corstorphine--?
Corstorpliine Cream?-Convalt.scent House-A Wraith-The Original Chapel-The Collegiate Church-Its Provosts-Its Old
Tombs-The Castle and Loch of Corstorphine-The Forrester Family.
CORSTORPHINE, with its hill, village, and ancient
church, is one of the most interesting districts of
Edinburgh, to which it is now nearly joined by lines
of villas and gas lamps. Anciently it was called
Crosstorphyn, and the name has proved a puzzle to
antiquarians, who have had sonie strange theories
on the subject of its origin.
By some it is thought to have obtained its name
from the circumstance of a golden cross-Croix
d?orjn-having been presented to the church by
a French noble, and hence Corstorphine; and
an obscure tradition of some such cross did once
exist. According to others, the name signified
?? the milk-house under the hill,?? a wild idea in

... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Corstrophinc - ~- I CRAIGCROOK IN THE PRESENT DAY. than doubled all the specie ...

Book 5 p. 112
(Score 0.82)

THE GUISE PALACE. 93 The Castle Hill.]
queen?s Deid-room, where the individuals of the
royal establishment were kept between their death
and burial. In 1828 there was found walled up
in the oratory an infantine head and hand in wax,
being all that remained of a bambina, or figure of
the child Jesus, and now preserved by the Society
of Antiquaries. The edifice had many windows
on the northern side, and from these a fine view
spent her youth in the proud halls of the Guises
in Picardy, and had beell the spouse of a Longueville,
was here content to live-in a close in
Edinburgh! In these obscurities, too, was a
government conducted, which had to struggle with
Knox, Glencairn, James Stewart, Morton, and
many other powerfd men, backed by a popular
sentiment which never fails to triumph. It was
DUKE OF GORDO~?S HOUSE, BLAIR?S CLOSE, CASTLE HILL.
must have been commanded of the gardens in
the immediate foreground, sloping downward to
the loch, the opposite bank, with its farm-houses,
the Firth of Forth, and Fifeshire. ?? It was interesting,?
says the author of ? Traditions of Edinburgh,?
?to wander through the dusky mazes of
this ancient building, and reflect that they had
been occupied three centuries. ago by a sovereign
princess, and of the most illustrious lineage. Here
was a substantial monument of the connection
between Scotland and France. She, whose ancestors
owned Lorraine as a sovereignty, who had
the misfortune of Mary (of Guise) to be placed in
a position to resist the Reformation. Her own
character deserved that she should have stood in
a more agreeable relation to what Scotland now
venerates, for she was mild and just, and sincerely
anxious for the welfare of her adopted country. It
is also proper to remember on the present occasion,
that in her Court she maintained a decent gravity,
nor would she tolerate any licentious practices
therein. Her maids of honour were always busied
in commendable exercises, she herself being an
examplc to them in virtue, piety, and modesty,

... GUISE PALACE. 93 The Castle Hill.] queen?s Deid-room, where the individuals of the royal establishment were ...

Book 1 p. 93
(Score 0.82)

I22 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
well's time, and, to all appearance, coeval with the battery, but its commanding .position
and 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 resemblance
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
III.'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.l 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 fa-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,' 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.'
. Immediately within the drawbridge, there formerly stood an ancient and highly ornamental
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
preseut 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.'
Immediately to the west of this, another ancient ornamented gateway still exists.
Bannatyne Misc., vul. ii. p. 398. dnte, p. 8. ' In the survey of the Caatle, taken for Sir William Drury in 1572, the following detlcription occurs :-" On the fore
parte eatwarde, next the towne, standa like iiij= foote of the hanle, and next unto the same stands Davyes Towre, and
from it a courten, with vj cannons, in loopea of atone, lookingein the atreatwarde ; and behynd thesamestandes another
teare of ordinance, lyke xvj foote clym above the other ; and at the northe ende standa the Couatablea Towre; and in
the bottom of the 8am0, is the way into the Caatle, with XI" steppes." The number of the atepps is in another hand, the
YS. being partially injured.-Bann. Misc., vol. L p. 69.
They were preserved, and placed in their present situations through the
good taate of R. M'Kerlie+ Esq., of the Ordnance Office, to whose recollections of the old gateway, when an officer in
tbe garrison in 1800, we are mainly indebted for the ahove description.
+ Vide pp. 1 and 6, for views of these stones.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. well's time, and, to all appearance, coeval with the battery, but its commanding ...

Book 10 p. 133
(Score 0.82)

138 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
bounded on the east 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 kouth-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 land‘ 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 elegaut workmanship, meets the view, forming the
entry to a turnpike stair. The doorway is surmounted with an ogee arch, in the tympanum
of which is somewhat rudely sculptured a coronet with supporters,--‘( two deerhounds,”
says Chambers, ‘‘ the well-known supporters of the Duke of Goidon’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 Improvements
Commission, endorsed, I-‘ 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
Caste1 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 lifetime
of the Duke, but afterwards returned to Edinburgh, where she principally resided
till her death, which took place at the Abbey Bill in 1732, sixteen years after that of
her huaband.
In 1711, her Grace excited no small stir in Edinburgh, by sending to the Dean and
Faculty of Advocates, -‘aI 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 seventyfive
members present, testxed their favour for the House of Hanover by voting its
rejection.s
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 pictorial
idornments) filling a panel over the chimney-piece, and surrounded by an elaborate piece
.
1 The term ImuZ, in this and similar instances throughout the Work, is used according to its Scottish acceptation,
* Traditionq vol. i p. 153.
* Norie, a house-decorator and painter of the last century, whom works are very common, painted on the panels of
Pinkerton remarks, in his introduction to the ‘‘ Scottish Gallery,” 1799,-“Norie’a
and signifies a building of several stories of separate dwellings, communicating by a common stair.
Douglas’s Peerage, vol. i. p. 654.
the older houaea in Edinburgh.
genius for landacapea entitles him to o place in the list of Scotch paintera”

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. bounded on the east by Brown’s Close, and forms a detached block of houses of ...

Book 10 p. 149
(Score 0.81)

THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF YAMES 111 17
The increasing importance which the royal capital was now assuming, speedily drew
attention to its exposed situation. In the reign of Robert IL 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, and 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 t.he 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 oEce 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 Gueldera,--“ a lady,” says Drummond, “ young, beautiful, and of a masculine
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 beginning
of the following year, a- Parliament was assembled at
Edinburgh, whose first enactmenta 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
VIQNETTE-M~V of Gueldera’ Armefrom her -1.
C

... STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF YAMES 111 17 The increasing importance which the royal capital was now assuming, ...

Book 10 p. 18
(Score 0.81)

BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF YAMES 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 mony benisoun.
.
Thou sulde haif hard the ornate oratouris,
Makand her Hynes salutatioun,
Baith of the clergy, toun, and counsalouris,
With niony notabill narratioun,
Thow sdde haif sene hir Coronatioun,
In the fair abbay of the Haly Rode,
In presence of ane myrthfull multitude.
Sic bankettiog, sic awfiill tournaments,
On how and fute, that tyme quhilk suld haif belie,
Sic chapell royal& with sic instrumenta,
And craftye musick, singing from the splene,
In this cuntre w a ~ne ver 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 t,he 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, iu 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 waa 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, aB it is related by Dnunmond,
seems a grave satire on the knightlyprowess 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

... OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF YAMES V. 43 The greit maister of housholde, all thair last, With him, in ordour, ...

Book 10 p. 47
(Score 0.81)

130 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
The high estimation in which this huge cannon was anciently held, appears from numerous
notices of it in early records. Mons Meg was taken, by order of James IT., 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 gu‘nnkrs. 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 klle 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 :-64 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,’ 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 L4 the great
iron murderer, Muckle Meg.” ’ This justly celebrated cannon, after sustaining for centuries,
in so credible a manner, the dignity of her pre-eminent greatness, at length burst
tu tor 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 gateway
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 11. arrived with an army at Carlingwark, to besiege the Castle of Threave, the N‘Lellans
presented his Majesty with the piece of ordnance, now called Mons Meg, to batter down the fortlet of the rebellious
chieftnin. The first discharge of this great gun is mid to have consisted of a peck of powder and a granite ball, nearly a~
heavy as a Galloway cow. This ball is believed, in its course through the Castle of Threave, to have carried away the
hand of Nargaret de Douglas, commonly called the Fair Maid of Galloway, as ahe sat at table with her lord, and waa
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 waa alive. As a recompense for the present of this extraordinary engine of war, and for the loyalty
of theM‘Lellans, the King, before leaving Galloway, erected the town of Kirkcudbright into a royal burgh, and granted
to Eraany Kim, the smith, the lands of Mollance, in the neighbourhood of Threave Castle. Hence the smith waa 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 Thorna of Carlingwark; ” but a few yeara 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 =has, which
plainly showed that there had been an extensive forge on that spot at some former period. Although the lands of Nollance
have now passed into other hands, there are several persona of the name of Kim, blacksmithn, in this quarter, whb
are said to be descendants of the brawny makers of Mollance Neg. 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 employed
in making balls of granite on the top of Bennan Hill, and that, aa each ball was fioiahed, they rolled it down the
rocky declivity facing Threave Castle. One of these balls is still shown at Balmaghie House, the reaidence of Captain
Oordon, in that neighbourhood, and corresponds exactly in size and quality with those carried with the cannon to Edinburgh.
AB 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 waa partially repaired under the superintendence of Sir .
Alexander Gordon of Culvennan, Sheriff-Depute of the Stewartry ; and one of the workmen, when digging up iome
rubbish within the walls, found a massive gold ring, with an inscription on it, purporting 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 irodgun in the Castle of Edinburgh, commonly called.Mount Meg, waa wrought and made.” This statement
should, of itself, set the question at rest. For further evidence, see History of Galloway, Appendix, vol. i. pp. 2638.
.
’ Wardie is fully two miles north from the Castle, near Granton. ’ Provincial Antiquitieq p. 21.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. The high estimation in which this huge cannon was anciently held, appears from ...

Book 10 p. 141
(Score 0.81)

YAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARK 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.’ 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 11.
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 hnndred armed
citizens, rushed into the outer court of the Palace and demanded the Queen’s release.
Darnley 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.’
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 conspirators,
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 ; 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 remaius, with the inscription upon
it, in antique iron letters, LAVS DE0.4
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 apartment
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 Elizabeth
and Marp 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 Chalmem’s Queen Mary, vol. ii. p. 163.
4 Letters of Randulph to Cecil, Wright’s “Queen Elizabeth and her Times,” vol. i p. 232.
’ Knox. p. 341. The Queen’s Letter, Keith, vol. 5. p. 418,
VIoNmr~carvedS tone over the entrance b the royal apartments, Edinburgh Castle.

... V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARK 77 blood that had been left on its blade. This the discoverers, not ...

Book 10 p. 84
(Score 0.8)

for, a matrimonial alliance having been concluded
between Ermengarde de Beaumont (cousin of
Henry) and King VJilliam, the Castle was thriftily
given up as part of her dowry, after having had an
English garrison for nearly twelve years.
Alexander II., their son, convened his first
parliament in Edinburgh in 1215. Alexander III.,
son of the preceding, having been betrothed to
Margaret daughter of Henry 111. of England
nine years before their nuptials were celebrated
at York in 1242, the queen, according to Amot,
had Edinburgh Castle appointed as her residence;
but it would seem to have been more
of a stronghold than a palace, as she complained
to her father that it was a ?? sad and solitary place,
without verdure, and, by reason of its vicinity to
the sea, unwholesome;? and ?that she was not
permitted to make excursions through the kingdom,
nor to choose her female attendants.? She was in
her sixteenth year.
Walter Earl of Menteith was at this time
governor of the fortress, and all the offices of the
city and of the nation itself were in the hands of
his powerful family. Many Englishmen of rank accompanied
the young queen-consort, and between
these southern intruders and the jealous Scottish
nobles there soon arose disputes that were both
hot and bitter. As usual, the kingdom was rent
into two powerful factions-one secretly favouring
Henry, who artfully wished to have Scotland under
his own dominion; another headed by Walter
Comyn, John de Baliol, and others, who kept
possession of Edinburgh, and with it the persons
of the young monarch and his bride. These
patriotically resisted the ambitious attempts of the
King of England, whose emissaries, 0; being joined
by the Earls of Carrick, Dunbar, and Strathearn,
and Alan Dureward, High Justiciary, while theiI
rivals were preparing to hold a parliament at
Stirling, took the Castle of Edinburgh by surprise,
and liberated the royal pair, who were triumphantly
conducted to a magnificent bridal chamber, and
afterwards had an interview with Henry at Wark,
in Northumberland.
During the remainder of the long and prosperous
reign of Alexander 111. the fortress continued to
be the chief place of the royal residence, and foI
holding his courts for the transaction of judicial
affairs, and much of the public business is said tc
have been transacted in St. Maxgaret?s chamber.
In 1278 William of Kinghorn was governor;
and about this period the Castle was repaired and
strengthened. It was then the safe deposit of the
principal records and the regalia of the kingdom.
And now we approach the darkest and bloodiesl
.
portion of the Scottish annals ; when on the death
of the Maid of Norway (the little Queen Margaret)
came the contested succession to the crown between
Bruce, Baliol, and others ; and an opportunity was
given to Edward I. of England of advancing a
claim to the Scottish crown as absurd as it was
baseless, but which that ferocious prince prosecuted
to the last hour of his life with unexampled barbarity
and treachery.
On the 11th of June, 1291, the Castle?of Edinburgh
and all the strongholds in the Lowlands were
unwisely and unwarily put into the hands of the
crafty Plantagenet by the grasping and numerous
claimants, on the ridiculous pretence that the subject
in dispute should be placed in the power of
the umpire ; and the governors of the various fortresses,
on finding that the four nobles who had been
appointed .guardians of the realm till the dispute
was adjusted had basely abandoned Scotland to
her fate, they, too, quietly gave up their trusts to
Edward, who (according to Prynne?s ? History ?)
appointed Sir Radulf Basset de Drayton governor
of Edinburgh Castle, with a garrison of English
soldiers. According to Holinshed he personally
took this Castle after a fifteen days? siege with his
warlike engines.
On the vigil of St. Bartholomew a list was
drawn up of the contents of the Treasury in the
Castra de Edrir6ut-g; and among other religious
regalia we find mentioned the Black Rood of
Scotland, which St. Margaret venerated so much. .
By Edward?s order some of the records were left
in the Castle under the care of Basset, but all the
most valuable documents were removed to England,
where those that showed too clearly the
ancient independence of Scotland were carefully
destroyed, or tampered with, and others were left
to moulder in the Tower of London.
On the 8th of July, 1292, we find Edward again
at Edinburgh, where, as self-styled Lord Paramount,
he received within the chapel of St. Margaret the
enforced oath of fealty from Adam, Abbot of Holyrood;
John, Abbot of Newbattle ; Sir Brim le Jay,
Preceptor of the Scottish Templars; the Prior of
St. John of Jerusalem ; and Christina, Prioress of
Emanuel, in Stirlingshire.
Bnice having refused to accept a crown shorn
of its rank, Edward declared in favour of the
pitiful Baliol, after which orders were issued to
the captains of the Scottish castles to deliver
them up to John, King of Scotland. Shame at last
filled the heart of the latter; he took the field, and
lost the battle of Dunbar. Edward, reinforced by
fifteen thousand Welsh and a horde of Scottish
traitors, appeared before Edinburgh Castle; the

... a matrimonial alliance having been concluded between Ermengarde de Beaumont (cousin of Henry) and King ...

Book 1 p. 23
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KING’S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. I45
1680. 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
But oh, alas 1 that might not be,
To dine, aa she did oft, forsooth ;
Her h.o. use was ov’r near the Tolbooth. I slipt my page, and 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 Semple’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 I needs must gang,
And leave that comely company.
Her lad convoy’d me with her key,
Out through the garden to the fiela,
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
me,” having (( given his woes an airing in song,” on his desertion by an inconstant beauty,
for the Duke of Athol, 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
Bquare.
To the east of Sempill’s Close, there stood till recently an ancient and curious land,
possessing all the characteristics of those already alluded to as the earliest houses remaining
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
*
Wataon’a Collectiou of Scots Poema, part i. p. 14, The full title of the Poem previously alluded to is, “A Picktooth
for the Pope ; or, The Pack-man’s Paternoster, set downe in s Dialogue betwixt s Pack-man and P Priest” The
work ia now very scarce. A polemical work by the same author, entitled ” Sucrilege sacredly handled,” London, 1619,
contains in the preface the following quaint allusion to his name-“ A sacred and high aubject tpmeth 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 &‘em, how Sineplc
aoever.”
VIGNETTE-Lord Sempill’s House, Sempill’s Close, Castle Hill.
T .

... STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. I45 1680. It contains some interesting local allusions, and among ...

Book 10 p. 157
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EARLIEST TRA DITZONS. 3
sess himself of Edgar, the youthful heir to the crown, then lodged within its walls. In
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, both slain at the siege of Alnwick castle ; 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 ; all
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.
In the reign of Alexander I., at the beginning of the twelfth century, the first
distinct notices of the town as 8 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 Sanctae 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.” e
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 introduced
by the Pope’s dispense, as fitter to live among souldiers. They continued in the
Castle dureing Malcolm the Fourth his reign ; upon which account we have several1 charters
of that king granted, apud Monasterium Sanctae Crucis de Castello Puellarum. Under
Icing 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.” ’ 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 HoIyrood, besides conferring valuable
revenues, derivable from the general resources of the royal burgh of Edinburgh, gives them
€1 107.1
[ll?S.]
Lord Hailes recorda a monkish tradition, which may be received a~ a proof of the popular belief, in the strong attachment
of the Queen to her husband. “ The hody of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, waa removed from its place of sepulture
at Dunfermline, and deposited in L costly shrine. While the monks were employed in this service, they approached the
tomb of her husband Malcolm. Still,
as more hands were employed in raising it, the body became heavier. The spectators stood amazed ; and the humble
monka 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 wa8 removed with ease,’’
-Annals, vol. i. p. 303. ’ Liber Cartarum Sancta Crucis, p. xi.
* Father Hay, Ibid. xxii. Richard Augustin Hay, canon of St Genevieve, at PSrig and prospcclivc Abbot of Holpod
at the Revolution, though an iudustrioue antiquary, aeemn to have had no better authority for this nunnery than the
disputed name C&mm Puellarclm
The body became on a sudden so heavy, that they were obliged to set it down.

... TRA DITZONS. 3 sess himself of Edgar, the youthful heir to the crown, then lodged within its walls. ...

Book 10 p. 4
(Score 0.8)

OUTLINE OF ITS GEOLOGY. '49
were thus accumulated, which though much obscured and broken by later
geological changes, still form some of the most conspicuous hillsin the midland
'valley,-the. Sidlaws, Ochils, Pentlands, and the chain of hills running
from the Pentlands by Tinto, Douglas, Corsincone ..and Loch Doon, into
Ayrshire.
-During this prolonged time of volcanic action there seem' to have. been
many local disturbances of level over and above the general subsidence already
referred to. - The most,widespread and important of these took place after
the deposition of the Lower Old 'Red Sandstone. The whole physical
geography of the gountry was changed j a wide interval passed, of which we
have in the Edinburgh district no record, and when the next set of strata,
those of the so-called Upper Old Red Sandstone, came to be laid down, the
sandstones, conglomerates, and lavas of the former inland seas and lakes had
been elevated into land. The Upper Old, Red Sandstone forms the base of
the great Carboniferous System of central Scbtland. It consists of red, yellow,
white; and greenish sandstonks, clays, congIomerates, and occasional limestones.
At Edinburgh it forms the ground on which the city is built, from the Castle
to Arthur's.Seat, whence it stretches southwards .along the west flank of the
Braid and Pentland Hills, rising in the East and West Cairn Hills fa a height
of 1839 and 1844 feet above the sea. In this region it has yielded very few
fossils. Some plants occasionally occur in the sandstones, and minute
crustacea (Lqberditiu) are found in some of the calcareous bands.
Toward the end of the formation of these red strata, volcanic action, which
would seem to have been dormant here since the extinction of the Pentland
volcanoes, broke out anew. The site of Edinburgh was covered by' the
ejections of at least one volcanic vent, the rocks of Arthur's Seat, Calton Hill,
and Craiglockhart Hill being some of the remaining fragments of these
ejections. Probably the rock on which Edinburgh Castle stands may represent
the site of one of these volcanic craters. From this time onward the @eat
plain of the Lothians and Fife was dotted oveE with little active volcanoes,
each throwing out a comparatively small amount of dust or lava and then
dying out, while fresh successors appeared elsewhere.
Above the red sandstone on which Edinburgh is built lies a great mass of
white sandstone and black shales, which spread westward from the Castle and
extend northward to Granton and Leith. . They seem to have been laid down
in an estuary or in some inland sheet of fresh water to which the sea had
occasional access. The plants include large conifers
(like the huge trunks which have from time to time been exhumed from the sand-
They abound in fossils.

... OF ITS GEOLOGY. '49 were thus accumulated, which though much obscured and broken by later geological ...

Book 11 p. 208
(Score 0.8)

of all human shape at the foot of the cliff. James V,
was struck with remorse on hearing? bll this terrible
story, He released the friar ; but, singular to say,
William Lyon was merely banished the kingdom ;
while a man named Mackie, by whom the alleged
poison was said to be prepared, was shorn of his
ears.+
On thd last day of February, 1539, Thomas
Forret, Vicar of Dollar, John Keillor and John
Beveridge, two black-friars, Duncan Simpson a
priest, and a gentleman named Robert Forrester,
were all burned together on the Castle Hill on a
charge of heresy; and it is melancholy to know that
a king so good and so humane as James Vb was a
spectator of this inhuman persecution for religion,
and that he came all the way from Linlithgow
Palace to witness it, whither he returned on the
2nd of March. It is probable that he viewed it
from the Castle walls.
Again and again has the same place been the
scene of those revolting executions for sorcery
which disgraced the legal annals of Scotland.
There, in 1570, Bessie Dunlop ?? was worried ? at
the stake for simply practising as a ?wise woman?
in curing diseases and recovering stolen goods.
Several others perished in 1590-1 ; among others,
Euphemie M?Calzean, for consorting with the devil,
abjuring her baptism, making waxen pictures to be
enchanted, raismg zi storm to drown Anne of
Denmark on her way to Scotland, and so f0rth.f
In 1600 Isabel Young was ?woryt at a stake I?
for laying sickness on various persons, ?and
thereafter burnt to ashes on the Castle Hill.??#
Eight years after, James Reid, a noted sorcerer,
perished in the same place, charged with practising
healing by the black art, ?whilk craft,??
says one authority, ?? he learned frae the devil, his
master, in- Binnie Craigs and Corstorphine, where
he met with him and consulted with him diveE
tymes, whiles in the likeness of a man, whiles in
the likeness of a horse.? Moreover, he had tried
to destroy the crops of David Liberton by putting
a piece of enchanted flesh under his mill door,
and to destroy David bodily by making a picturc
of him in walc and mel$ng it before a fire, an
ancient sdperstition-common to the Westerr
Isles and in some parts of Rajpootana to thi:
day. So great was the horror these crimes excited,
that he was taken direct from the court to the
stake. During the ten years of the Commonwealtt
executions on this spot occurred with appalling
frequency.$ On the 15th October, 1656, seven
~
Tytler, ? Criminal Trials,? &c. &c. $ ? Diurnal of Occumnts.?
$ spot.iwod, ? Mmllany.? 0 Pitcairn
xlprits were executed at once, two of whom were
iurned ; and on the 9th March, 1659, ? there were,?
iays Nicoll, ?fyve wemen, witches, brint on the
:astell Hill, all of them confessand their covenantng
with Satan, sum of thame renunceand. thair
iaptisme, and all of them oft tymes dancing with
;he devell.?
During the reign of Charles? I., when the Earl of
Stirling obtained permission to colonise Nova
Scotia, and to sell baronetcies to some zoo supposed
colonists, with power of pit and gallows over
their lands, the difficulty of enfeoffing them in
possessions so distant was overcome by a royal
mandate, converting the soil of the Castle Hill for
the time being into that of Nova Scotia; and
>etween 1625 and 1649 sixty-four of these baronets
took seisin before the archway of the Spur.
When the latter was fairly removed the hill
became the favourite promenade of the citizens ;
md in June, 1709, we find it acknowledged by the
town council, that the Lord?s Day (? is profaned by
people standing in the streets, and vaguing (sic) to
ields, gardens, and the Castle Hill.? Denounce
ill these as they might, human nature never could
Je altogether kept off the Castle Hill ; and in old
imes even the most respectable people promenaded
:here in multitudes between morning and evening
jervice. In the old song entitled ?The Young
Laud and Edinburgh Katie,? to which Allan
Ramsay added some verses, the former addresses
i s mistress :7
? Wat ye wha I met yestreen,
Coming doon the street, my jo ?
FG bonny, braw, and sweet, my jo I ? My dear,? quo I, ? thanks to the night,
That never wished a lover ill,
Since ye?re out 0? your mother?s sight,
Let?s tak? a walk up to the HX.? ?
M y mistress in her tartan screen,
In IS58 there ensued a dispute between the
magistrates of Edinburgh and the Crown as to the
proprietary of the Castle Hill and Esplanade. The
former asserted their right to the whole ground
claimed by the board of ordnance, acknowledging
no other boundary to the possessions of the former
than the ramparts of the Castle. This extensive
claim they made in virtue of the rights conferred
upon them by the golden charter of James VI.
in 1603, wherein they were gifted with all and
whole, the loch called the North Loch, lands,
pools, and marisches thereof, the north and south
banks and braes situated on the west of the burgh,
near the Castle of Edinburgh, on both sides of the
Castle from the public highway, and that part of

... all human shape at the foot of the cliff. James V, was struck with remorse on hearing? bll this ...

Book 1 p. 86
(Score 0.79)

GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 9
stranger who had come to visit it ‘in Erin’s yellow vesture clad,’ and in’
bearing ‘ every inch a king.‘
The second time was when, in 1842, we saw the young Prince Albert and
Victoria riding up from Holyrood to the Castle. Then too Nature was propitious,
and her smile mingled with those of tens of thousands of the loyal
and leal-hearted of the land, at the sight of the princely pair in ‘the day of
their espousals, and in the day of the gladness of their heart’ Nor did any
prophetic whisper then darken or disturb the general and enthusiastic joy.
Surely it was one of the proudest and most magnificent days that our Scottish
metropolis ever saw-and she looked that morning as if she herself felt that
it was.
OLD INPIRUARY TOWER

... DESCRIPTION. 9 stranger who had come to visit it ‘in Erin’s yellow vesture clad,’ and in’ bearing ...

Book 11 p. 13
(Score 0.78)

Land, according to P. Williamson?s Directory for
1784.
Amid the tumultuom excitement of the Highlanders
entering the city with their trophies, they
repeatedly fired their muskets in the air. One
being loaded with ball, the latter grazed the forehead
of Miss Nairne, a young Jacobite lady, who
was waving her handkerchief from a balcony in
the High Street. ?Thank God!? exclaimed the
THE CASTLE ROAD. (From n Drawing by ranm Drummona, R.S.A.)
the Weigh-house, where the Highland pcket-at
whom was fired the 32 lb. cannon ball still shown,
and referred to in an early chapter-occupied the
residence of a fugitive, the Rev. George Logan, a
popular preacher, famous controversialist, and
author of several learned treatises.
The noise made by the Highlanders in the city,
the din of so many pipes in the lofty streets, and
the acclamations of the Jacobites, had such an
1
?that this accident has happened to me, whose
true principles are known. Had it befallen a
Whig, they would have said it was done on purpose.?
*
This victory annihilated the only regular army
in the kingdom, and made Charles master of it all,
with the exception of the castles of Edinburgh and
Stirling, and a few petty Higliland forts. It caused
the greatest panic in London, and a serious run
upon the Bank of England.
The fugitives who reached the Castle numbered
105. To close it up, guards were now placed at
all the avenues. The strongest of these was near
* Note to chap LI., ? Waverley.?
that he called a council of war, at which he urged
upon the officers, ?that as the fortress was indefensible,
with a garrison so weak, terms for capitulating
to the Scottish prince should at once be
entered into.?
To this proposal every officer present assented,
and it would have been adopted, had not General
Preston, the man whom the authorities had just
superseded, demanded to be heard. Stern,
grim, and tottering under wounds won in King
William?s wars, and inspired by genuine hatred of
the House of Stuart, he declared that if such a
measure was adopted he would resign his cornmission
as a disgrace to him. On this, Guest
handed over to him the command of the fortress,

... according to P. Williamson?s Directory for 1784. Amid the tumultuom excitement of the Highlanders entering ...

Book 2 p. 328
(Score 0.78)

YAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 67
the tower of the preceptoy, and not that of the present parish church, as the talented
editor of Keith’s History suggests.’ No vestige, indeed, of St Anthony’s steeple has
existed for centuries, and it is probable that it was totally destroyed at this period. The
tower of St Mary’s, which was takendown in 1836, was evidently an erection of a much
later date, and too small to have admitted of a battery 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 aiid 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 lkgent in Edinburgh
Castle, but. all attempts at reconciliation proved ineffectual, as the asRailants would
accept of no other terms than the demolition of the fortifications of Leith, and the dismissal
of all the French troops from Scotland.
Meanwhile, the Queen Regent lay in the Castle of Edinburgh, sufferilig 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 authoritynamely,
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, Marischal,
and Glencairn, 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
moved them. 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.
At the request of the
barons, she received a visit from John Willock, with whom she conversed for a considerable
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.’
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 iuclined 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
The scene was so affecting that all present were moved to tears.
Keith, 1844, Spottiswood Soc., voL i p. 271. Wodrow MieL voL i. p. 84. * Calderwood, voL i. p. 589. Keith, voL i. p. 280.

... V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 67 the tower of the preceptoy, and not that of the present parish church, as ...

Book 10 p. 73
(Score 0.77)

GRANTON. 9'
Snow-white, snow-soft, snow-silently,
Our darliig bud up-curled,
And drop i' the grave, God's lap, our wee
White rose of all the world.' *
Or this note of the same sad melody :-
' Ah, God ! when in the glad life-cup
The face of death swims darkly up,
The crowning flower is sure to droop.
And so we laid our darling down,
When summer's cheek grew ripely brown :
And still though grief hath milder grown,
Unto the stranger's land we cleave,
Like some poor birds that grieve and grieve
Round the robbed nest, and cannot leave.'
His description of Craigcrook Castle, in that other poem of almost equal
merit, which bears the name, is likewise very admirable, a perfect photograph
of this old picturesque residence, as it now looks and lives in this leafy month
of June, and with the quotation of which we shall pass on :
' Mid glimpsing greenery at the hill-foot stands
The castle with its tiny town of towers :
A smiling martyr to the climbing strength
Of ivy that will crown the old bald head,
And roses that will mask him merry and young,
Like an old man with children round his knees.
With cups of colour here the roses rise
On walls and bushes, red and yellow and white ;
A dance and dazzle of roses range all round.'
GRAN T 0 N,
Which lies some three or four miles to the east, in the same parish, and
about two and a half from Edinburgh, is a place of very recent origin. It
was founded in the year 1835 by the Duke of Buccleuch, as proprietor of the
adjacent estate of Caroline Park, and is yet considerably on the sunny side
of its half-century. Still, recent though it be in its origin, and with Leith in a
way as its rival, it has made wonderful progress during the short period of its
existence. As a seat of population, indeed, it has not attained to anything
like importance, but in stir and commercial activity it far surpasses many
towns or seaports of ten or twenty times its. size.

... 9' Snow-white, snow-soft, snow-silently, Our darliig bud up-curled, And drop i' the grave, ...

Book 11 p. 144
(Score 0.77)

YAMES VI. TO RESTORATION 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
1649, by order of the Committee of Estates.
, Holinshed mentions also the spring at the Well-house Tower, under the name of “ St
Margaret’e 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.’ 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 quarteredY4 and
their heads exposed upon the Castle wall.’
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 o%c& 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 cufitody 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 epecial acknowledgments
of gratitude. In 1578, one hundred of their choicest young men were well
accoutred and sent to Stirling as a royal guard’ 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.”
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 (4 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 Nebrm
1 Bannatyne Misc. vol., ii. p. 76. Diurnal of Occuaents, p. 535.
Idid, p. 37.
’ Hkt. of James the Sext., p. 145.
Maitland, p. 36.

... VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 85 when the siege commenced, and all further supplies were then completely ...

Book 10 p. 93
(Score 0.77)

KING‘S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. I57
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 immortal
allegory constructed by John Bunyan for the instruction of a later age. The Christian
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, a8 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 broddis
” 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.
Painted Oak Beam from Mary of Guise’s Chapel.

... STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. I57 devices, and divide the ceiling into irregular square and ...

Book 10 p. 171
(Score 0.77)

B I0 GRAPH I GAL S.KE T C HE S. 185
No. LXXVIII.
THE MARQUIS OF HUNTLY,
AFTERWARDS
DUKE OF GORDON.
THIS Print represents the MARQUISO F HUNTLYw,h en about the age of twentyone.
His first entry
on public life was by adopting the profession of arms, and in being appointed
Captain of an independent company of Highlanders raised by himself in 1790.
and with which he joined the 42d Regiment, or Royal Highlanders, the following
year. Shortly afterwards, the regiment remained nearly a twelvemonth in
Edinburgh Castle, during which period Kay embraced the opportunity of etching
the “ Highland Chieftain.”
In 1792 he entered the 3d Regiment of Foot Guards as Captain-lieutenant.
In 1793, when orders were issued by his Majesty to embody seven regiments of
Scottish fencibles, the Duke of Gordon not only raised the Gordon Fencibles,
but the Marquis made an offer to furnish a regiment for more extended service.
Early in 1794 he accordingly received authority for this purpose, and so much
did the family enter into the spirit of constitutional loyalty, that, besides the
Marquis, both the Duke and Duchess of Gordon “ recruited in their own person.”
The result of such canvassing was soon manifest ; in the course of three months
the requisite numbers were completed, and the corps embodied at Aberdeen on
the 24th June. As a matter of course the Marquis was appointed Lieutenantcolonel
Commandant.
The first movement of the “ Gordon Highlanders” was to England, where
they joined the camp at Netley Common, in Southamptonshire, and were
entered in the list of regular troops as the 100th regiment. They were soon
afterwards despatched to the Mediterranean, where the Marquis acconipanied
them, and where they remained for several years. Leaving his regiment at
Gibraltar, his lordship embarked on board a packet at Corunna, on his passage
home ; but, after having been three days at sea, the vessel was taken by a French
privateer, and the Marquis was plundered of every thing valuable : he was then
He was born at Edinburgh on the 1st of February 1770.
The daring exploit-a race on horseback, from the Abbey Strand, at the foot of the Canongate,
to the Castle gate-betwixt the Marquis and another sporting nobleman, which occurred about this
period, will be remembered by many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh.
2 B

... I0 GRAPH I GAL S.KE T C HE S. 185 No. LXXVIII. THE MARQUIS OF HUNTLY, AFTERWARDS DUKE OF GORDON. THIS Print ...

Book 8 p. 262
(Score 0.76)

330 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. 1174S- .
to England or theremote districts of Scotland. The
old Chevalier was proclaimed as James VIII., in
all large towns where, and particularly in the capital,
the concealed friends of his cause avowed their
sentiments, and joined the old Jacobites in drinking
deep potations to a prince, who, as his organ
the Caledonian Mercury, had it, ?? could eat a dry
crust, sleep on pease straw, take his dinner in four
minutes, and win a battle in five.? The ladies
especially, by their enthusiasm, contributed not a
little to produce great action in his favour. ?All
Jacobites,? wrote President Forbes at this time, to
Sir Andrew Mitchell, ? how prudent soever, became
mad ; all doubtful people became Jacobites; all
bankrupts became heroes, and talked of nothing but
hereditary rights and victory. And what was more
grievous to men of gallantry-and, if you will
believe me, much more mischievous to the public
-all the fine ladies, if you will except one or two,
became passionately fond of the young adventurer,
and used all their arts and industry for him in the
most temperate manner.?
Meanwhile the gamson in the Castle obtained
from certain Whig friends a supply of provisions,
which, by ropes, they drew up in barrels and baskets,
on the west side of the rock ; but neither the Highlanders
nor the citizens suffered any molestation
till the night of the 25th September, when the
veteran Preston, on going his rounds in a wheelchair,
being alarmed by a sound like that of goats
scrambling among the rocks, he declared it to be a
Highland escalade, and opened a fire of musketry
and cannon from Drury?s battery, beating down
several houses in the West Port.
In consequence of this the prince strengthened
his picket at the Weigh-house, to prevent all intercourse
with the fortress, upon which Preston
wrote to Provost Stewart, intimating that unless
free communication was permitted he would
open- a heavy cannonade. On this, the town
council represented to the prince the danger in
which the city stood. ? Gentlemen,? he replied,
<?I ani equally concerned and surprised at the
barbarity of those who would bring distress upon
the city for what its inhabitants have not the powei
to prevent; but if, out of compassion, I should
Temove my guards from the Castle, you might with
equal reason require me to abandon the city.?
He also assured them that the injuries of the
citizens would be repaid out of the estates of the
0fficers.h the Castle, ?and that reprisals would be
made upon all who were known abettors of the
German government.? General Preston being
further informed that his brother?s house at Valleyfield
would be destroyed, he replied that in that
case he would cause the war-ships in the Forth to
burn down Wemyss Castle, the seat of Lord Elcho?s
father; but after some altercation with the council,
the grim veteran agreed to suspend hostilities till he
received fresh orders from London. Next day, however,
owing to some misunderstanding, the Highland
picket fired on certain persons who were conveying
provisions into the Castle, the guns of which opened
on the Weigh-house, killing and wounding several
in the streets. Charles retaliated by enforcing a
strict blockade ; and, in revenge, Preston?s gamson
fired on every Highlander that came in sight.
On this, by order of the Adjutant-General, Lord
George Murray, the picket was removed to the
north side of the High Street ; but, as it was found
inconvenient to relieve the post by corps, the gallant
Lochiel undertook the entire blockade with his
Camerons, who for that purpose were placed in the
Parliament House.
Several loose characters, among whom was
Daddie Ratcliff-who occupies so prominent a
post in Scott?s ?Heart of Midlothian ?-dressed as
Highlanders, committed some outrages and robberies
; but all were captured and shot, chiefly by
Perth?s Regiment, on Leith Links.
Charles contemplated the summons of a Scottish
Parliament, but contented himself with denouncing,
on the 3rd of October, ?? the pretended Parliament
summoned by the Elector of Hanover at Westminster,?
and declaring it treason for the Scots to attend.
On the preceding day the following proclamation
was issued from Holyrood.
?CHARLES P. R. being resolved that no communication
?shall be open between the Castle and
town of Edinburgh during our residence in the
capital, and to prevent the bad effects of reciprocal
firing, from thence and from our troops, whereby
the houses and inhabitants of our city may
innocently suffer, we hereby make public notice,
that none shall dare, without a special pass, signed
by our secretary, upon pain of death, either resort
to, or come from the said Castle, upon any pretence
whatsoever ; with certification of any persons convicted
of having had such intercourse, after this our
proclamation shall immediately be carried to execution.
Given at our palace of Holyrood House,
2nd Oct., 1745.
Another guard was posted the next day at the
West Church, while the Camerons began to form
a trench and breastwork below the reservoir
across the Castle Hill, but were compelled to retire
under a fire of cannon from the Half-moon, and
musketry from the iite-du@nf, with the loss of
some killed and wounded. Among the former was
me officer. Another picket was now placed at
(Signed) J. MURRAY.?

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. 1174S- . to England or theremote districts of Scotland. The old Chevalier was ...

Book 2 p. 330
(Score 0.76)

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