94 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
manner. They deprived and excommunicated the whole body of Archbishops and Bishops,
abolished Episcopacy, and all that pertained to it, and required every one to subscribe the
Covenant, under pain of excommunication.
Leslie was appointed General of their forces ; and on
the 21st of March 1639, they proceeded’to assault Edinburgh Castle. No provision had
been made against such an attack, and its Governor surrendered at the first summons.
Early in 1648, Oliver Cromwell paid his first visit to Edinburgh, after having defeated
the army of the Duke of Hamilton. He took up his residence at Moray House, in the
Canongate, and entered into communication with “ the Lord Marquis of Argyle, and the
rest of the well affected Lords.” There he was visited by the Earl of Loudon, the Chancellor,
the Earl of Lothian, and numerous others of the nobility and leading men.’ The visit was
a peaceable one, and his stay brief.
On the death‘of his father, Charles 11. was proclaimed King at the Cross of Edinburgh;
but the terms on which he was offered the Scottish Crown proved little to his satisfaction,
and the Marquis of Montrose sought to win it for him without such unpalatable conditions.
He completely failed, however, in the attempt, and was seized, while escaping in the
disguise of a peasant, and brought to Edinburgh on the 18th of May 1650. He was
received at the Water Gate by the magistrates and an armed body of the citizens, and
was from thence conducted in a common cart, through the Canongate and High Street,
to the Tolbooth; the hangman riding on the horse before him. He was condemned to
be hanged and quartered, and the sentence was executed, three days after, with the most
savage barbarity, at the Cross of Edinburgh. His head was affixed to the Tolbooth,
and his severed members sent to be exposed in the chief towns of the kingdom.’ The
annals of this period abound with beheadings, hangings, and cruelties of every kind.
Nicol, at the very commencement of his minute and interesting Diary, records that (‘ thair
we8 daylie hanging, skurging, nailling of luggis, and binding of pepill to the Trone, and
booring of tongues I ”
The King at length agreed to subscribe the Covenant, finding no other terms could be
had. He was
surrounded with a numerous body of nobles, and attended by a life-guard provided by the
city of Edinburgh. The procession entered at the Water Gate, and rode up the Canongate
and High Street to the Castle, where he was received with a royal salute. On his return
from thence, he walked on foot to the Parliament House, where a magnificent banquet had
been prepared for him by the Magistrates. (( Thereafter he went down to Leith, to ane
ludging belonging to the Lord Balmarinoch, appointed for his resait during his abyding at
Leitl~.”~T he fine old mansion of this family still stands at the corner of Coatfield Lane,
in the Kirkgate. It has a handsome front to the east, ornamented with some curious specimens
of the debased style of Gothic, prevalent in the reign of James VI.
The arrival of the parliamentary forces in Scotland, and the march of Cromwell to
Edinburgh, produced a rapid change in affairs. ‘‘ The enemy,” says Nicol, ‘( placed their
whole horse in and about the town of Restalrig, the foot at that place called Jokis Lodge,
and the cannon at the foot of Salisbury Hill, within the park dyke, and played with their
cannon against the Scottish leaguer, lying in Saint Leonard’s Craigs.” The English army,
They now had recourse to arms.
On the 2nd of August, he landed at Leith, and rode in state to the capital.
Guthrie’s Memoirs, p, 298. 2 Nicol’s Diary, p. 12. a Ibid, p. 21..
YAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 95
as is well known, followed the Scottish forces under Leslie, in all their movements, so that
they were encamped at various times all round the city. One spot is particularly pointed
out, immediately to the westward of Coltbridge, where Cromwell’s forces lay on the rising
ground all around, and only separated from the Presbyterian army by the Water of Leith
and the marshy fields along its banks. Roseburn House, a very interesting old mansion,
where Cromwell is said to have passed the night while the army lay encamped in its neighbourhood,
still remains, bearing the date 1562 over its principal entrance. In levelling
one of the neighbouring mounds some years since, some stone coffins were found, and a
large quantity of human bones, evidently of a very ancient date, as they crumbled to pieces
on being exposed to the air ; but the tradition of the neighbouring hamlet is, that they
were the remains of some of Cromwell’P troopers. Our informant, the present intelligent
occupant of Roseburn House, mentioned the curious fact, that among the remains dug up,
there were the bones of a human leg, with fragments of a wooden coffin or case, of the
requisite dimensions, in which it had evidently been buried apart.
The battle of Dunbar at length placed the southern portion of Scotland completely in
the power of Cromwell, at the very moment when he was preparing to abandon the enterprise,
and embark his troops for England. The magistrates, as well as the ministers and
the principal inhabitants, having been involved in the movements of the defeated party,
either deserted the town, or took refuge in the Castle on the approach of the victorious
General.
On the 7th of September 1650, Cromwell entered Edinburgh at the head of his army,
and took possession of it and of the town of Leith. The capital was now subjected to
martial law ; the most rigid regulations were enforced, such as, (‘ that upone ony allarum
no inhabitant luik out of his hous upone payne of death, or walk on the streets after top-tow,
upone payne of imprissonement.” Yet the peaceable inhabitants found no great reason
to complain of his civic rule ; justice seems to have been impartially administered, though
often with much severity, and the most rigid discipline enforced on the English troops.
‘‘ Upon the 27th of September,” says Nicol, “ by orders of the General Cromwell, thair
wes thrie of his awin sodgeris scurged by the Provest Marschellis men, fiom the Stone
Chop to the Neddir Bow, and bak agane, for plundering of houssis within the toun ; and
ane uther sodger maid to ryde the Meir at the Croce of Zdinburgh, with ane ppnt stop
about his neck, his handis bund behind his back, and musketis hung at his feet, the full
space of twa hours, for being drunk.” The same punishment of riding the Mare remained
in force, as a terror to evil doers, till the destruction of the old citadel of the town-guard,
and all its accompaniments, in the year 1785.
The General again took up his residence in “ the Earl of Xurrie’s house in the Cannigate,
where a strong guard is appointed to keep constant watch at the gate ; ”’ and his
soldiers were quartered in the Palace, and billeted about the town, while actively engaged
in the siege of the Castle. The guard-house was in Dunbar’s Close, a name which it
retains from the quarters it then furnished to the victors of Dunbar ; and a tradition is
preserved, with considerable appearance of probability, that a handsome old house, still
remaining at the foot of Sellars’ Close, was occasionally occupied by Cromwell. It is a fine
Nicol’s Diary, p. 30. ’ Ibid, p. 33.
f King’s Pamphleta, apud Carlyle, vol i. p. 375.
See the Wooden Mare in the view, ante, p. 74.
