James IV., while preparing for his fatal invasion
rn 1513, went daily to the Castle to inspect and
prove his artillery, and by the bursting of one of
them he narrowly escaped a terrible death, like
that by which his grandfather, James II., perished
at Roxburgh. ? The seven sisters of Borthwick,?
referred to by Scott in ?Marmion,? were captured,
with the rest of the Scottish train, at Flodden,
where the Earl of Surrey, when he saw them, said
there were no cannon so beautiful in the arsenals
of King Henry,
-.
After the accession of James V,, the Castle was ,
THE BLUE BLANKET, OR STAXDARD OF THE INCORPORATED TRADES OF EDINBURGH.
(From #he T Y ~ S ? Maiden?s HosjiiaZ, RiZZbank.)
named the Forge and Gun Houses, Lower Ammunition
House, the Register and Jewel Houses,
the Kitchen Tower, and Royal Lodging, containing
the great hall (now a hospital). Westward
were the Butts, still ?so-called, where archery was
practised. There were, and are still, several deep
wells ; and one at the base of the rock to the
northward, in a vault of the Well-house Tower,
between the west angle of which and the rock was
an iron gate defended by loopholes closing the
path that led to St. Cuthbert?s church, A massive
rampart and two circular bastions washed by the
improved by the skill of the royal architect, Sir
James Hamilton of Finnart, and greatly strengthened
; but its aspect was very different from that
which it bears now.
The entire summit of ~e stupendous rock was
crowned by a lofty wall, connecting a series of
round or square towers, defended by about thirty
pieces of cannon, called ? chambers,? which were
removed in 1540. Cut-throats, iron slangs, and
arquebuses, defended the parapets. Two tall edifices,
the Peel and Constable?s Towers connected
by a curtain, faced the city, overlooking the Spur,
a vast triangular ravelin, a species of lower castle
that covered all the summit of the hill. Its walls
were twenty feet high, turreted at the angles, and
armed with cannon. The Constable?s Tower was
fifty feet high. Wallace?s Tower, a little. below it,
defended the portcullis. St. Margaret?s Tower and
David?s we have already referred to. The others
that abutted 00 the rocks were respectively
Flodden on the 9th of September, 1513, caused
a consternation in Edinburgh unusual even in
those days of war and tumult. The wail that
went through the streets is still remembered in
