146 OLD AND NET
into the royal presence, the king became alarmed,
and retired into the Tolbooth, amid shouts of
?? &ly !? .? Save yourself !? ?Armour ! Armour !?
When the deputation returned to the portion of
St. Giles?s absurdly named the little kirk, they found
another multitude listening to the harangue of a
clergyman named Michael Cranston, on the text of
? Hamanand Mordecai.? The auditors, on hearing
that the king had retired without any explanation,
now rush?ed forth, and with shouts of ?Bring out
the wicksd Haman !? endeavoured to batter down
the doors of the Tolbooth,? from which James was
glad to make his escape to Holyrood, swearing he
would uproot Edinburgh, and salt its site !
This disturbance, which Tytler details in his
History, was one which had no definite or decided
purpose-one of the few in Scottish annals where
The species of spire or lantern formed by groined
ribs of stone, which forms the most remarkable
feature in the venerable church, seems to be. pecumonarch
to show his gratitude by attention to
the cause of religion, and his care of the new
Subjects committed to his care.
The king now rose, and addressed the people
from whom he was about to part in a very warm
and affectionate strain. He bade them a long
adieu with much tenderness, promised to keep
them and their best interests in fond memory
during his absence, ?and often to visit them and
communicate to them marks of his bounty when
in foreign parts, as ample as any which he had
been used to bestow when present with? them.
A mixture of approbation and weeping,? says
Scott in his History, ?followed this speech; and
the good-natured king wept plentifully himself at
taking leave of his native subjects.?
The north transept of the church long bore the
queer name of Haddo?s Hole, because a famous
cavalier, Sir John Gordon of Haddo-who defended
his castle of Kelly against the Covenanters,
and loyally served King Charles 1.-was imprisoned
there for some time before his execution at the
adjacent cross in 1644.
high alm) was ordered to be cast-into cannon
for the town walls, instead of which they were sold
for Azzo. Maitland further records that two of
the remaining bells were re-cast at Campvere in
1621 ; one of these was again recast at London in
1846. ?
In 1585 the Town Council purchased the clock
belonging to the abbey church of Lindores in
Fifeshire, and placed it in the tower of St. Giles?s,
? previous to which time,? says Wilson, ? the
citizens probably regulated time chiefly by the
bells for matins and vespers, and the other daily
services of the Roman Catholic Church.?
In I 68 I we first find mention of the musical bells
in the spire. Fountainhall records, with reference
to the legacy left to the city by Thomas Moodie, the
Council propose ?to buy with it a peal of bells, to
hang in St. Giles?s steeple, to ring musically, and
to build a Tolbooth above the West Port of Edinburgh,
and put Thomas Moodie?s nanie and arms
thereon.?
When the precincts of St. Giles?s church were
secularised, the edifice became degraded, about
. -
