I 0 6 . MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
their will. The magnificent carved stalls, which had just been completed, and all the costly
fittings of the Chapel were devoted to destruction, and the fine old fabric only abandoned
when its newly-completed decorations had been reduced to an unsightly heap of ruins.
Other acts of violence were perpetrated by the rioters; and the students again testified
their zeal, by marching in triumphal procession to the Cross, with banda of music, and the
College mace borne before them, and there again burning the effigy of the Pope.
On the assembly of the Parliament, the Bishop of Edinburgh prayed for the welfare
and restoration of King James, and the Episcopal body generally maintained their fidelity to
the exiled Prince, the well-known consequence of which was the restoration of Presbytery
as the national religion, and the expulsion of the recently-created Bishops from their sees.
On the 11th of April 1688, William and Mary were proclaimed at the Cross, King
and Queen of Scotland. The Castle was still held by the Duke of Clordon for King
James, while Viscount Dundee, after a brief conference with its commander, in which he
endeavoured to induce the Duke to accompany him to the Highlands, engaged him to
hold out that fortification, while he went north to raise the friends of the King. The
citizens were filled with the utmost alarm at the news of this interview. The drums beat
to arms, and a body of troops, which the Duke of Hamilton had quartered in the city, was
called out to pursue Dundee, but no serious consequences resulted; and the Duke of
Gordon, being almost destitute of provisions, at length yielded up the Castle on the 13th
of June 1689, the last considerable place of strength that had remained in the interest of
the exiled Monarch.
In 1695, the grand national project of the Darien expedition was set on foot, and a
company formed for establishing a settlement on the Isthmus of Darien, and fitting out
ships to trade with Africa and the Indies. The highest anticipations were excited by this
project. The sum of 2,400,000 sterling waa speedily subscribed, and a numerous body
embarked for the new settlement. When intelligence reached Edinburgh of the company
having effected a landing at Darien, and successfully repelled the attacks of the Spaniards,
thanksgivings were offered up in all the churches, and a general illumination made
throughout the city. The mob further testified their joy, by securing the city ports ; and
then setting fire to the Old Tolbooth door, they liberated the prisoners incarcerated for
printing seditious publications.
The indignation of the populace was no less vehement on the failure of this national
project than their joy at its first success. The prison was again forcibly opened, the
windows of all obnoxious citizens were broken ; and such violence was shown, that the
Commissioner and officers of state were compelled to leave the city for some days, to escape
the vengeance of the infuriated multitude.
The Old Darien House still stands' within the extended line of the city wall, near the
Bristo Port, a melancholy and desolate looking memorial of that unfortunate enterprise. It
is a substantial and somewhat handsome structure, in the French style, and with the curious
high-pitched roof which prevailed in the reign of William 111. It has more recently been
abandoned to the purposes of a pauper lunatic asylum, and is popularly known by the name
of Redlam. A melancholy association attaches to a more modern portion of it towards the
1 The Darien House was entirely demolished in 1871 ; and its site ia now occupied by several bloclw of buildings,
on the walla of one of which is B tablet indicating where it stood.
