96 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
antique mansion, which forms a prominent feature in the view of the Old Town from
the north, having two terraced roofs at different elevations, guarded by a neatly coped
parapet wall, and commanding an extensive view of the Forth, where the English fleet
then lay.
The preachers were invited by Cromwell to leave the Castle, and return to their pulpits,
but they declined to risk themselves in the hands of the ‘‘ sectaries,” and their places were
accordingly filled, sometimes by the independent preachers, but oftener by the soldiers,
who unbuckled their swords in the pulpit, and wielded their spiritual weapons, greatly
to the satisfaction of crowded audiences, (‘ many Scots expressing much affection at the
doctrine, in their usual way of groans ! ” Cromwell himself is said, by Pinkerton, to have
preached in St Giles’s Churchyard, while David, the second Lord Cardross, was holding
forth at the !Crone.2
On the 13th of November the Palace of Holyrood was accidentally set on fire by some
of the English troops who were quartered there, and the whole of the ancient Palace
destroyed, with the exception of the north-west towers, finished by James V. It seem
probable that the troops, thus deprived of a lodging, were afterwards quartered in some of
the deserted churches. Nicol mentions, immediately after the notice of this occurrence, in
his Diary, that “ the College Kirk, the Gray Freir Kirk, and that Kirk cailit the Lady
Yesteris Kirk, the Hie Scule, and a great pairt of the College of Edinburgh, wer wasted j
their pulpites, daskis, loftis, saittes, and all their decormentis, wer all dung doun to the
ground by these Inglische sodgeris, and brint to asses.” Accommodation was at length
found for them in Heriot’s Hospital, then standing unfinished, owing to the interruption
occasioned by the war ; and it was not without considerable difficulty that General Monk
was persuaded, at a later period, to yield it up to its original purpose, on suitable barracks
being provided elsewhere.
The siege of the Castle was vigorously prosecuted : Cromwell mustered the colliers from
the neighbouring pits, and set them to work a mine below the fortifications, the opening of
which may still be seen in the freestone rock, on the south side, near. the new Castle road.
The commander of the fortress had not been, at the hst, very hearty in his opposition to
Cromwell, and finding matters growing thus desperate, he came to terms with him, and
saved the Castle being blown about his ears, by resigning it into the General’s hands.
One of the earliest proceedings of the new garrison was to clear away the neighbouring
obstructions that had afforded shelter to themselves in their approaches during the siege. ‘‘ Considering that the Wey-hous of Edinburgh was ane great impediment to the schottis
of the Castell, the samyn being biggit on the hie calsey; thairfoir, to remove that impediment,
General Cromwell gaif ordouris for demolisching of the Wey-house ; and upone the
last day of December 1650, the Englisches began the work, and tuik doun the stepill of it
that day, and so contiiiued till it wes raised.”8 We learn, from the same authority, of the
re-ediiication of this building after the Restoration. The Wey-hous, quhilk wes demoleist
by that traitour Cromwell, at his incuming to Edinburgh, eftir the feght of Dumbar,
began now to be re-edified in the end of August 1660, but far inferior to the former
condition.’” The cumbrous and ungainly building thus erected, remained an encumbrance
1 Cromwelliang apud Carlyle’s Letters, &c., vol. i p. 361.
8 Nicol’s Diary, p. 48.
9 Pinkerton’s Scottish Gallery, Lord Cardroas.
4 Ibid, p. 300.
