The City Cross. J EXECUTIONS AT. THE CITY CROSS. ?5?
It flits, expands, and 2 hifts, till loud
From midmost of the spectre crowd,
The awfd sunzmom canu I?
Then, according to Pitscottie, followed the ghastly
roll of all who were doomed to fall at Flodden, including
the name of Mr. Richard Lawson, who
?? Then on its battlements they saw
A vision passing Nature?s law,
Strange, wild, and dimly seen ;
Figures that seemed to rise and die,
Gibber and sign, advance and fly,
While nought confirmed could ear or eye
Dream of sound or mien.
Yet darkly.did it seem as there,
Heralds and pursuivants prepare,
, qith trumpet sound and blazon fair,
A summons to proclaim ;
But?indistinct the pageant.proud,
As fancy forms of midnight cloud,
When flings the moon uwn her shroud
As ever Scotland bred,
A catheran to his trade.
Had ever greater joy,
I and my Gilderoy !?
Descended from a highland clan,
No woman then or woman-kind
Than we two when we lived alone, .
wild pranks on the shores of Loch Lomond, when
brought to Edinburgh, were drawn backwards on a
hurdle to the cross, on the 27th of July, 1636, and
there hanged-Gilderoy and John Fprbes suffering
on a higher gallows than the rest, and, further, having
their heads and hands struck off, to be affixed to
the city gates, Gilderoy, we need scarcely add,
has obtained a high ballad fame. There is a broadside
of the time, containing a lament to him written
by his mistress, in rudeverses, not altogether without
some pathos ; one verse runs thus :-
??I appeal from that summons and sentence,?
he exclaimed, courageously, ? and take me to the
mercy of God and Christ Jesus His Son.?
? Verily,? adds Pitscottie, ?the author of this,
that caused write the manner of this summons, was
a landed gentleman, who was at that time twenty
years of age, and was in the town at the time
? My love he was as brave a man
of these exhibitions we shall take the following
from the diary of Nicoll vmhziim :-
?* Last September, 1652. Twa Englisches, for
drinking the King?s health, were takin and bund
at Edinburgh croce, quhair either of thame resavit
bf the saidsummons, and thereafter when the field thretty-nine quhipes -on thair naiked bakes and
was stricken, he swore to me thm was no man shoulderis; thairafter their lugs were naillit to the
escujed that was called in this summons, but that gallows. The ane had his lug cuttit from the ruitt
man alone who made his protestation and appealed with a razor, the uther being also naillit to the gibfrom
the said summons, but afC the Cave perished in bet had his mouth skobif, and his tong being drawn
the field with the king.? out the full length, was bound together betwix twa
Under the shadow of that cross have been trans- sticks, A G Y ~ iugeddw, with m skainzie-tbd, for the
acted many deeds of real horror, more than we can
enumerate here-but a few may suffice. There, in
1563, Sir Jaines Tarbat, a Roman Catholic priest,
was pilloried in his vestments, with a chalice bound
to his hands, and, as Knox has it, was served by the
mob with ?his Easter eggs,? till he was pelted to
death. There died Sir William Kirkaldy, hanged
space of half one hour thereby.? Punishments of
this cruel kind were characteristic of the times, and
were not peculiar to the Scottish capital alone.
In later and more peaceful times the city cross
was the ?Change, the great resort of the citizens for a
double purpose. They met there to discuss the
topics of the day and see their acquaintances, with-
*with his face to the sun? (as Knox curiously pre- out the labour of forenoon calls down steep closes I dicted before his own death), for the execution took and up steeper turnpike stairs ; and these gatherings I place at four in the afternoon, when the sun was in I usually took place between the hours of one and two,
the west (Calderwood) ; and there, in time to come, , And during the reigns of the two first Georges it
died his enemy Morton. There died Montrose , was customary at this place, as the very centre and
and many of his cavalier comrades, amid every ! cynosare of the ?city, for the magistrates to drink
ignominy that could be inflicted upon them ; and , the king?s health on a stage, *? loyalty being a virtue
the two Argyles, father and son. An incredible I which always becomes peculiarly ostentatious when
number of real and imaginary criminals have ren- I it is under any suspic,ion of weakness.?
dered up their lives on that fatal spot, and among 1 ?The cross, the font or basin of which ran with
the not least interesting of the former we may men- wine on festive occasions, was the peculiar rallyiiig
tion Gilderoy, or ? the red-haired lad,? whose real point of those now extinct Zuzzaroni-the street
name was Patrick Macgregor, and who, with ten , messengers or caddies. ? A ragged, half-blackguard
other caterans, accused of cattle-lifting and many 1 lobking set they .. were, but allowed to be amazingly
