cantoned with other four in the angles. The tiar, or
bonnet, was of purple velvet; but, in 1685, it got a
.cap of crimson velvet, adorned with four plates of
gold, on each of them a great pearl, and the bonnet
-is trimmed up with ermine. Upon the lowest circle
there are eight small holes, two and two, on the
-four quarters of the crown, which mere for lacing
-or tying thereto diamonds or precious stones.
The crown is g inches in diameter, 27 inches
about, and in height from the under circle to the
top of the cross patee 6; inches.
The sceptre : its stem or stalk, which is of
silver double overgilt, is two feet long, of a hexagon
form, with three buttons or knobs; betwixt the
first button and the second is the handle of a
hexagon form, furling in the middle and plain.
Betwixt the second button and the third are three
sides engraven. From the third button to the
capital the three sides under the statues are plain,
and on the other three are antique engravings. Upon
the top of the stalk is an antique capital of leaves
embossed, the abacus whereof arises round the
prolonged stem, surrounded with three little statues;
between every two statues arises a rullion in the
form of a dolphin ; above the rullions and statues
stands another hexagon button, with oak leaves
under every corner, and down it a crystjl (beryl?)
globe. The whole sceptre is in length 34 inches.?
The statues are those of the Virgin, St. Andrew,
and St. James. The royal initials, J. R. V. are
engraved under them. If James V. had this
sceptre made, the metallic settings of the great
beryl belong to some sceptre long anterior to
his time.
The sword is in length 5 feet ; the handle and
pommel are of silver overgilt, in length 15 inches.
The pommel is round and somewhat flat on the two
sides. The traverse or cross OF the sword, which
is of silver overgilt, is in length 17h inches; its
form is like two dolphins with their heads joining
and their tails ending in acorns; the shell is
hanging down towards the point of the sword,
formed like an escalop flourished, or rather like
a green oak-leaf. On the blade of the sword
are indented with gold these letters-JuLIus 11. P.
The scabbard is of crimson velvet, covered with
silver wrought in philagram-work into branches oj
the oak-tree leaves and acorns.?? Such are the
Scottish regalia, which, since the destruction 01
those of England by Cromwell, are the only ancien!
regal emblems in Great Britain.
The sword of state is of an earlier date than the
rod of the sceptre, being presented by the rvarlikr
Pope Julius to James IV. with a consecrated hai
in 1507. The keys of St. Peter figure promhentlj
among the filagree work. After the fall of the Castle
of Dunottar, in 1651, the belt of the sword became
an heirloom in the family of Ogilvie of Barras.
The great pearl in the apex of the crown is
alleged to be the same which in 1620 was found
in the burn of Kellie, a tributary of the Ythanz
in Aberdeenshire, and was so large and beautiful
that it was esteemed the best that had at any time
been found in Scotland.? Sir Thomas Menzies,
Provost of Aberdeen, obtaining this precious jewel,
presented it to James VI., who in requital gave
him twelve or fourteen chaldron of victuals about
Dunfermline, and the custom of certain merchant
goods during his life.? *
Before quitting the Castle of Edinburgh, it is impossible
to omit some special reference to Mons
Meg-that mighty bombard which is thirteen feet
long and two feet three and a half inches within the
bore, and which was long deemed by the Scots a
species of palladium, the most ancient cannon in
Europe, except one in Lisbon, and a year older
than those which were made for Mahomet 11.
Not a vestige of proof can be shown for the popular
error that this gun was forged at Mons, while unvarying
tradition, supported by very strong carroborative
evidence, proves that she was formed by
Scottish artisans, by order of James II., when he
besieged the rebellious Douglases in the castle
of Thrieve, in Galloway, during 1455. He posted
his artillery at the Three Thorns of the Carlinwark,
one of which is still surviving ; but their fire proving
ineffective, a smith named M?Kim, and his sons,
offered to construct a more efficient piece of ordnance.
Towards this the inhabitants of the vicinity
contributed each a ,rrczud, or iron bar. Tradition,
which never varied, indicated the place where it was
forged, a mound near the Three Thorns, .and when
the road was formed there, that mound was discovered
to be a mass of cinders and the iron dCbris
of a great forge. To this hour the place where the
great gun was posted is named Knock-cannon. Only
fwo of Meg?s bullets were discharged before Thrieve
surrendered, and it is remarkable that both have
been found there. ?The first,? says the New
Statistical Accowif, <?was, towards the end of thk
last century, picked out of the well and delivered to
Gordon of Greenlam. The second was discovered
in 1841, by the tenant of Thrieve, when removing
an accumulation of rubbish.? It lay in a line direct
from Knock-cannon to the breach in the wall. To
reward M?Kim Jarnes bestowed upon him the
forfeited lands of MolIFnce. The smith is said to
have nanied the gun after his wife ; and the con-
traction of the name from Mollance to Mince, or
Mons Meg, was quite natural to the Scots, who
sink tlie l?s in all similar words. The balls still
preserved in the Castle of Edinburgh, piled on
each side of the gun, are exactly similar to those
found in Thrieve, and are of Galloway granite,
from tlie summit of the Binnan Hill, near the
Carlinwark.+ Andrew Symson, whose description
of Galloway was written 180 years ago, records
?that in the isle of Thrieve, the great gun, called
Nounts Meg, was wrought and made.? This,
though slightly incorrect as to actual spot, being
written so long since, goes to prove the Scottish
origin of the gun, which bears a conspicuous place
in all the treasurer?s accounts ; and of this pedigree
of the gun Sir Walter Scott was so convinced that,
as he wrote, ? henceforth all conjecture must be set
aside.? In 1489 the gun was employed at the siege
of Dumbarton, then held for Janies 111. by his
adherents. In 1497, when James IV. invaded
England in the cause of Perkin Warbeck, he con-
. veyed it with his other artillery on a new stock
made at St. Leonard?s Craig; and the public
accounts mention tlie sum paid to those who
brought ?hame Monse and the other artailzerie
froiii Dalkeith.? It was frequently used during the
civil war in 157r, and two men died of their exertion
in dragging it from the Blackfriars Yard to the
Castle. On that occasion payment was made to a
person through whose roof one of the bullets had
fallen in mistake. In Cromwell?s list of captured
guns, in 1650, mention is made of ?the great iron
murderer, Meg ;n and Ray, in his ? Observations ?
on Scotland eleven years after, mentions the ?great
old iron gun which they call Mounts Mq, and
some ? Meg of Berwick.?? A demi-bastion near
the Scottish gate there bears, or bore, the name of
&legs Momt, which in those days was the term for
a battery. Another, in Stirling, bore the same
name ; hence we may infer that the gun has been
in both places. It was stupidly removed in mistake,
among unserviceable guns, to the Tower of London
~II 1758, where it was shown till 1829, when, by the
patriotic exertions of Sir Walter Scott, it was sent
home to Edinburgh, and escorted from Leith back
to its old place in the Castle by three troops of
cavalry and the 73rd or Perthshire regiment, with
a band of pipers playing at the head of the procession.
We are now in a position to take a brief but
comprehensive view of the whole Castle, of which
we have hitherto dealt in detail, and though we
must go over the same ground, we shall do so at
* ?? History of Woway.?
so rapid a rate that such repetition as is unavoidable
will be overlooked. In the present
day the Castle is entered by a barrier of palisades,
beyond which are a deep ditch and drawbridge
protected by a ttte-de$onf, flanked out and
defended by cannon. Within are two guardhouses,
the barrier and the main, the former
a mean-looking edifice near which once stood a
grand old entrance-gate, having many rich sculptures,
an entablature, 2nd a pediment rising from
pilasters. Above the bridge rises the great halfmoon?
battery of 1573, and the eastern curtain
wal1,Vhich includes an ancient peel with a corbelled
rampart. The path, which millions of armed men
must have trod, winds round the northern side of
the rock, passing three gateways, the inner of which
is a deep-mouthed archway wherein two iron
portcullises once hung. This building once terminated
in a crenelated square tower, but was some
years ago converted into a species of state prison,
and black-hole for the garrison; and therein, in
1792, Robert Watt and David Downie, who were
sentenced to death for treason, were confined;
and therein, in times long past and previous to
these, pined both the Marquis and Earl of Argyle,
and many of high rank but of less note, down
to 1747.
Above the arch are two sculptured hounds, the
supporters of the Duke of Gordon, governor in
1688, and between these is the empty panel
from which Cromwell cast down the royal arms
in 1650. Above it is a pediment and little cornice
between the triglyphs of which may be traced
alternately the star and crowned heart of the
Regent Morton. Beyond this arch, on the left, are
the steps ascending to the citadel, the approaches
to which are defended by loopholes for cannon
and musketry. On the right hand is a gun battery,
named from John Duke of Argyle, comrnanderinchef
in Scotland in 1715 ; below it is Robert
Mylne?s battery, built in 1689 ; and on the acclivity
of the steep hill are a bombproof powder magazine,
erected in 1746, the ordnance office, and
the house of the governor and storekeeper, an
edifice erected apparently in the reign of Queen
Anne, having massive walls and wainscoted apartments.
In the former is a valuable collection of
fire-arms of every pattern, from the wheel-lock
petronel of the fifteenth century down to the latest
rifled arms of precision.
There, also, is the armoury, formed for the
reception of 30,000 rifle muskets, several ancient
brass howitzers, several hundred coats of black mail
(most of which ar6 from tlie arsenal of the knights
of Malta), some forty stand of colours, belonging
