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
