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
. -
1628, by numerous wooden booths being stuck up
all around it, chiefly between the buttresses, some
of which were actually cut away for this ignoble
purpose, while the lower tracery of the windows
was destroyed by their lean-to roofs, just as we
may see still in the instance of many churches
in Belgium. These wretched edifices were called
the Krames, yet, as if to show that some reverence
was still paid to the sanctity of the place, the
Town Council decreed, ?? that no tradesman should
be admitted to these shops except bookbinders,
mortmakers (i.e. watchmakers)] jewellers, and goldsmiths.?
? Bookbinders,? says Robert Chambers,
?must be in this instance meant to signify booksellers,
the latter term being then unknown in
Scotland ;? but within the memory of many still
Displaying double-beaded winged dmgons clustering round a central rose with the hook of the altar lam?.
Sanction was given in the early part of 1878
by the municipal authorities for extensive restorations,
to be conducted in a spirit and taste un
known to thebarbarous ?improvers? of 1829. At
the head of the restoration committee was placed
Dr. Rilliam Chambers, the well-known publisher
and author. According to the plans laid before
it, the last of the temporary partitions were to be
removed, the rich-shaped pillars embedded therein
to be uncovered and restored ; the galleries and
pews swept away, when the church will assume its
old cruciform aspect. ? By these operations the
Montrose aisle will be uncovered, and form an
interesting historical object. Provision is made
for the Knights of the Thistle, if they should desire
it, erecting their stalls, as is done by the Knights of
east angle of the church. Another account says
they were named from the infamous Lady March,
wife of the Earl of Arran, the profligate chancellor
of James VI., from whom the nine o?clock bell
was also named ?The Lady Bell,? as it was rung
an hour later to suit herself. An old gentlewoman
mentioned in the ?? Traditions of Edinburgh,? who
died in 1802, was wont to own that she had, in
her youth, seen both the sfdtue and the steps ; but
it is extremely unlikely that the former would
escape the iconoclasts of 1559, who left the church
almost a ruin.
But time has accomplished a change that John
Knox and ?Jenny Geddes? could fittle foresee !
was ordered for the church. ?The instrument,?
says the Scofsmzn, ?consists of two full manuals
and a pedal organ of full compass. The great
organ contains eleven stops, and one of sixteen
feet in metal. There are eleven stops in the
swell organ, and one of sixteen feet in wood.
The pedal organ contains five stops, including two
of sixteen feet in wood, and one of sixteen feet in
metal. In the great organ there is to be a silver
clarionet of eight feet; a patent pneumatic action
is fitted to the keys, and the organ will be blown
by a double cylinder hydraulic engine.?
In its most palmy days old St. Gilas?s couldnevei
boast of such ?a kist 0? whistles ? as this !
