YAMES YI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES 11. 89
very willing to make the most of such an occasion as this, and remained for a time inexorable.
The magistrates were required to surrender themselves prisoners at Perth, and one
of them having failed to appear, the town was denounced, the inhabitants declared rebels,
and the city revenues sequestrated to the King’s use.
The magistrates at length went in a body to the Palace of Holyrood House, and, kneeling
before him, made offer of such concessions as the indignant monarch was pleased to
accept. One of the conditions bound them to deliver up, for the King’s sole me, the
houses in their kirkyard, occupied by the town ministers, which was accordingly done, and
on the site of them the Parliament House, which still stands (though recently entirely
remodelled externally), was afterwards built. They also agreed to pay to him the sum of
twenty thousand merks, and 80 at length all difficulties were happily adjusted between
them, and the city restored to its ancient privileges.
After the execution of the famous Earl of Gowry and his brother at Perth, their dead
bodies were brought to Edinburgh and exposed at the Market Cross, hung in chains. From
that time, James enjoyed some years of tranquillity, living at Holyrood and elsewhere in
such homely state as his revenues would permit; and when the extravagance of his
Queen,-who was a devoted patron of the royal goldsmith, George Heriot,-or his
own narrow means, rendered his housekeeping somewhat stinted, he was accustomed
to pay a condescending visit to some of the wealtllier citizens in the High Street of
Edinburgh.
An interesting old building, called Lockhart’s Court, Niddry’a Wpd, which was
demolished in constructing the southern approach to the town, was especially famous as
the scene of such civic entertainment of royalty. We learn, from Moyses’s 34emoirs, of
James’s residence there in 1591, along with his Queen, shortly after their arrival from
Denmark, and their hospitable reception by Nicol Edward, a wealthy citizen, who was
then Provost of Edinburgh.’
His visits, also, to George Heriot were of frequent occurrence, and, as tradition reports,
he made no objection to occasionally discussing a bottle of wine in the goldsmith’s little
booth, at the west end of St Giles’s Church, which was only about seven feet square.*
The death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, produced a lively excitement in the minds both
of King and people. The anticipation of this event for years had gradually prepared, and
in some degree reconciled, the latter to the idea of their King going to occupy the throne of ‘‘ their auld enemies of England,” but its injurious influence on the capital could not be
mistaken. On the 31st of March the news was proclaimed at the City Cross by the secretary
Elphinstone, and Sir David Lindsay, younger, the Lyon King.
King James, before his departure, attended public service in St Giles’s Church, where he
had often before claimed the right of challenging the dicta of the preachers from the royal
gallery. An immense crowd assembled on the occasion, and listened with deep interest to
a discourse expressly addressed to his Majesty upon the important change. The King took
it in good part, and, on the preacher concluding, he delivered a farewell address to the
people. Many were greatly affecied at the prospect of their King’s departure, which was
generally regarded as anything rather than a national benefit. The farewell was couched
in the warmest language of friendship. He promised them that he would defend their
’
Mopes’s Memoirs, p. 182. * Chambers’s Traditions, VOL ii. p. 210.
M
