THE CA S TL E. 131
in 1682, in firing a royal salute to the Duke of York, afterwards James VII., a circumstance
that did not fail to be noted at the time as an evil 0men.l On her restoration to
Edinburgh, in 1829 (from which she had been taken as a lump of old iron), she was again
received with the honours accorded to her in ancient times, and was attended in grand procession,
and with a military guard of honour, from Leith to her ancient quarters in the
Castle.’
Near the battery on which this ancient relic now stands is situated the postern gate, as
it is termed, which forms the western boundary of the inner fortification, or citadel of the
Castle. Immediately without this, the highest gmund was known, till the erection of the
new barracks, by the name of Hawk-Hill,’ and doubtless indicated the site of the falconry
in earlier times, while the Castle was a royal residence. Numerous entries in the treasurers’
books attest the attachment of the Scottish Kings to the noble sport of hawking, and the
very high estimation in which these birds were held.
On the northern slope of the Esplanade, without the Castle wall, there still exists a long,
low archway, like the remains of a subterraneous passage, the walls being of rubble work,
and the arch neatly built of hewn stone. Until the enclosure and planting of the ground
excluded the public from the spot, this was popularly known as the Lions’ Den, and was
believed to have been a place of confinement for some of these animals, kept, according
to ancient custom, for the amusement of the Scottish monarchs, though it certainly looks
much more like a covered way to khe Castle.’ Storer, in his description of the West Bow,
mentions a house “ from which there is a vaulted passage to the Castle Hill,” as a thing
then (1818) well known, the house being reported to have afforded in earlier times a place
of meeting for the Council. This tradition of an underground way from the Castle, is one
of very old and general belief; and the idea was further strengthened, by the discovery of
remains of a subterranean passage crossing below Brown’s Close, Castle Hill, in paving it
about the beginning of the present century.* At the bottom of the same slope, on the
margin of the hollow that once formed the bedsf the North Loch, stand the ruins of an
ancient fortification, called the Well-house Tower, which dates as early at least as the
erection of the first town wall, in 1450. It formed one of the exterior works of the
Castle, and served, as its name implies, to secure to the garrison comparatively safe access
to a spring of water at the base of the precipitous rock. Some interesting discoveries were
made relative to this fortification during the operations in the year 1821, preparatory to
the conversion of the North Loch into pleasure grounds. d ere moval of a quantity of
rubbish brought a covered way to light, leading along the southern wall of the tGwer to
a strongly fortzed doorway, evidently intended as a sally port, and towards which the
Fountainhall’s Chron. Notes, No. 1.
a A curious and ancient piece of brasa ordnance, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum, is worthy of notice here
It was found on the battlementa of Bhurtpore, when taken by Lord Combermere,
’ Kincaid, p. 137. “The governor appointed a centinell on the Hauke Hill, to give notice 80 won an he 8aw the
4 A very curious monumental atone stands near the top of the bank, but it can hardly be included, with propriety,
It was brought from Sweden, and presented many yeara since to the Society of Antiquaries
There is engraved on it a serpent encircling a mm, and on the body of the serpent
Vide
from ita connection with Edinburgh.
and bears the iIlECriptiO~~ACOBUM8 ONTEITHH E FECIT, ELHITBURAGNXHO, DOM.1 642
mortar piece fired.”-Siege of the Caatle, 1689.
among our local antiquities.
by Sir Alex. Setoun of Preston.
a Runio inscription, aignifying,-Ari engraved this stone in memory of Hiam, hie father.
Archmlogia Scotica, voL ii p. 490.
Bann. Club, p, 55.
God help hie SOUL
e Chambers’s Traditions, vol. i. p. 156.
132 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
defences of the tower were principally directed. The walls are here of very great thickness,
and pierced by a square cavity in the solid mass, for the reception of a sliding beam
to secure the door, while around it are the remains of various additional fortifications to
protect the covered way.
During the same operations, indications were discovered of a pathway up the cliff, partly
by means of steps cut in the shelving rock, and probably completed by moveable ladders
and a drawbridge communicating with the higher story of the Well-house Tower. About
seventy feet above, there is a small building on an apparently inaccessible projection of the
cl3, popularly known as ‘ I Wallace’s Cradle ” (an obvious corruption of the name of the
tower below), which would seem to have formed a part of this access from the Castle to
the ancient fountain at its base. In excavating near the tower, and especially in the neighbourhood
of the sally port, various coins were found, chiefly those of Edward 111. and
Cromwell, in very good preservation. There were also some foreign coins, and one of
Edward I., many f r a p e n t s of bombshells, a shattered skull, and other indications of
former warfare. The coins are now in the Antiquarian Museum, and are interesting
from some of them being of a date considerably anterior to the supposed erection of the
tower.a
The ancient fortifications .of the town of Edinburgh, reared under the charter of James
11.) formed, at this part, in reality an advanced wall of the Castle, the charge of which
was probably committed entirely to the garrison. The wall, after extending for a short
way from the Well-house Tower, along the margin of the Loch, was carried up the Castle
bank, and thence over the declivity on the south, until it again took an easterly direction
towards the ancient Overbow Port, at the first turning of the West Bow, so that the whole
of the Esplanade was separated from the town by this defence. There was in the highest
part of the wall, a gate which served as a means of communication with the town by the
Castle Hill, and was styled the Barrier Gate of the Castle. This outer port was temporarily
restored for the reception of George IT., on his visit to the Castle in the year 1822, and it
was again brought into requisition in 1832, in order completely to isolate the garrison,
during the prevalence of Asiatic cholera.
Previous to the enclosure and planting of the Castle bank and the bed of the ancient
North Loch, the Esplanade was the principal promenade of the citizens, and a road led
from the top of the bank, passing in an oblique direction down the north side, by the
Well-house Tower, to St Cuthbert’s Church, some indications of which still remain. This
church road had existed from a very early period, and is mentioned in the charter of
.
1 The following extracts from the Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 332-3, in reference to the siege of the Castle by Sir
William Drury in 1573 (ante, p. 84), embrace various interesting allusions to the local detail :- “ Wpoun the xxij
day of Maij, the south quarter of the toure of the Castell, callit Dauid’s toure, fell through the vehement and continual1
achuting, togidder with some of the foir wall, and of the heid wall beayd Sanct Margaretia set.
“ Wpoun the xxiiij day, the eist quarter of the said tour fell, with the north quarteris of the port cuheis ; the tour
als callit Wallace tour, with some mair of the foir wall, notwithstanding the Castell men kust thair hand with schutting
of small artailzerie. . . . . Wpoun the xxvj day, the hail1 cumpangis of Scotland and Ingland, being quietlie
convenit at vij houris in the mornyng, passed with ledders, ane half to the blookhous, the vther half to Sanct Katherin’a
eet, on the west syd, quhair the syid wea schote doun.” The Caatle vwa at length rendered by Sir William Kirkaldy
on the 29th of the month. In Calderwood’s History, Wodrow Soc., vol. iii. 281, the followiug occurs, of the same
date :-“Captain Nitchell waa layed with his band at Sanct Cuthbert’a Kirk, to atoppe the passage to St Margaret’a
Well.” Also in “The Inventory of Royal Wardrobe,” dcc,, p. 168,-“1tem, am irne yet for Sanct Margareth’a
t.o ur*, ”A &rcch. wlogia Scotica, vol. ii. pp. 469-477.
