I02 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
which he was burned, on the sloping bank at Greenside,’ has been rescued, only within
the last year, from all profane associations, by the erection of the new Lady Glenorchy’s
Chapel thereon. The fall of this great master of the black art would seem to have been
peculiarly fatal to its votaries ; as many as ten witches were burnt in the city during the
6ame year.
In the following pear, while the Palace of Holpood was undergoing repair for the
residence of the Duke of York, afterwards James VII., the unhappy prisoners taken at
the battle of Bothwell Bridge were brought to Edinburgh, and the greater number of
them confined for five months, during the most inclement season of the year, in the inner
Greyfriars’ Churchyard, that long narrow slip of ground, enclosed with an iron gate, which
extends between the grounds of Heriot’s Hospital and the old Poor’s House. They were
exposed there during the whole of that period, without any shelter from the weather;
yet the whole of them remained faithful to their principles, although they could at once
have procured their liberty by acknowledging the rising at Bothwell to have been
rebellion.
In 1680, the Duke of York arrived in Edinburgh, as Commissioner from the King to
the Scottish Parliament, along with his Duchess, Nary DEste, daughter of the Duke of
Modena, celebrated by Dryden and other wits of the time for her beauty. The Lady
Anne, his daughter, afterwards Queen Anne, also accompanied him on this occasion, and
greatly contributed, by her easy and affable manners, towards the popularity which he
was so desirous to acquire. The previous vicegerents had rendered themselves peculiarly
obnoxiouti to all classes, and thereby prepared the people the more readily to appreciate the
urbanity of the Duke. “ He behaved himself,” says Bishop Burnet, ‘‘ upon his first going
to Scotland, in so obliging a manner, that the nobility and gentry, who had been so long
trodden on by the Duke of Lauderdale, found a very sensible change; so that he gained
much on them all. It was visibly his interest to make that kingdom sure to him, and to
give them such an essay of his government as might dissipate all hard thoughts of him,
with which the world was possessed.’’ To the success with which he pursued this course
of policy may be, to some extent, attributed the strong attachment which the Scottish
nobility afterwards displayed to the House of Stuart, which led to the rebellions in 171 5
and 1745.
A grand entertainment was
provided for him in the Parliament House, which was fitted up at great expense for the
occasion. The Duchess, the Lady Anne, and the principal nobles at the Scottish Court,
were present on the occasion, and the expense of the banquet was npwards of d214,OOO
Scottish money.
During the Duke’s residence at Edinburgh, a splendid court was kept at Holyrood
Palace. The rigid decorum of Scottish manners- gradually gave way before the affability
of such noble entertainers ; and the novel luxuries of the English Court formed an additional
attraction to the Scottish grandees. Tea was introduced for the first time into Scotland
on this occasion, and given by the Duchess, as a great treat to the Scottish ladies who
The city spared no expense to welcome the Duke of York.
Chambers’s Minor Antiquities, p. 85.
Burnet’s Hist., Edin. Ed., vol. ii. p. 322.
On the authority of ‘‘a gentleman who had the spot pointed out to him
by his father sixty years ago ” (1833).
