a2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Deacons mustered the whole burgher force of the city, armed and equipped in warlike array,
and marched at their head to the Links of Leith. From thence the magistrates proceeded
to the town, and ‘( held ane court upon the Tolbuyth stair of Leith, and created bailies,
sergeants, clerks, and demstars,’ and took possession. thereof by virtue of their infeftment
made by the Queen’s grace to them.”’ The superiority thus established, continued to be
maintained, often with despotic rigour, until the independence of Leith was secured by the
Burgh Reform Bill of 1833.
On the 22d of August, the Earl of Murray was invested with the dignity of Regent,
and proclamation of the same made at the Cross of Edinburgh; with great magnificence
and solemnity. In his strong hand, the sceptre was again swayed for a brief period with
such stern rigour, as checked the turbulent factions, and restored, to a great extent, tranquillity
to the people. But his regency was of brief duration; he fell by the hand of
an assassin in the month of January 1570, and the Earl of Lennox succeeded to hie
office. He was buried in St Giles’s Church, and a monument erected to his memory
in the south transept, which remained a point of peculiar attraction in the old fabric,
until it was most barbarously demolished, during the alterations effected on the building
in 1829.
The Castle, at this time, was held by Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, who still adhered
to the Queen’e party ; and he abundantly availed himself of the unsettled state of affairs
to strengaen his position. He had seized all provisions brought into Leith, and raised and
trained soldiers with little interruption. On the 28th of March 1571, he took forcible
possession of St Giles’s Church, and manned the steeple to keep the citizens in awe ; and
again on the 1st of May, the Duke of Chatelherault, having entered the town with 300
men, the men of war in the steeple, ‘( slappit all the pendis of the kirk,’ for keeping
thairof aganis my Lord Regent,” and immediate preparations were made for the defence
of the town. Troops crowded into the city, and others mustered against it, the Regent
being bent on holding a Parliament there. The Estates accordingly assembled in the
Canongate, without the walls, but within the liberties of the city, which extended to
St John’s Cross, and a battery was erected for their protection, upon (‘ the Dow Craig‘
abone the Trinity College, beside Edinburgh, to ding and seige the north-east quarter of
the burgh.’’ ’
The place indicated is obviously that portion of the Calton Hill where the house of the
governor of the jail now stands, a most commanding position for the purpose in view ;
from this an almost constant firing was kept up on the city during the sittings of the Parliament.
The opposite party retaliated by erecting a battery in the Blackfriars (the old
High School Yard), from which they greatly damaged the houses in the Canongate, while
the Nether Bow Port was built up with stone and lime, the more effectually to exclude
them from the usual place of meeting.
Diligent preparations were made for the defence of the town after the Parliament had
withdrawn. On the 6th of June, commandment was given ‘‘ by the lords of the nobility
in Edinburgh, to tir and tak down all the tymmer work of all houses in Leith Wynd and
Le., Judge8 or doomem, latterly hangmen. 9 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 117.
e Diurnal of Oocurrenta, p. 213.
3 Ibid, p. 202.
6 Most probably from the Gaelic A, i c , Black Craig.
i.e., Broke out loap-holes in the arched roof.
