244 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
dreaded. In this dilemma he had recourse to Will Armstrong, a worthy descendant of the
famous mosstrooper executed by Jamev V.,-who owed to the Earl’s good fiervices his
emape from a halter. Will promptly volunteered to kidnap the President on learning
that he stood in his patron’s way, and watching his opportunity when Lord Durie was
riding out, he entered into conversation with him, and so decoyed him to an unfrequented
spot called the Figgate Whins, near Portobello, when he suddenly pulled him from his
horse, muffled him in his trooper’s cloak, and rode off with the luckless judge trussed up
behind him. Lord Durie was secured in the dungeon of an old castle in Annandale called
the Tower of Graeme, and his horse being found on the beach, it was concluded he had
thrown his rider into the sea. His friends went into mourning, his successor was
appointed, the Earl won his plea, and Will was directed to set his captive at liberty. The
old judge waa accordingly seized in his dark dungeon, mufHed once more in the cloak,
and conveyed with such dexterity to the scene of his capture that he long entertained the
belief he had’ been spirited away by witches. The joy of his friends was probably
surpassed by the blank amazement of his successor, when he appeared to reclaim his old
office and honours. Accident long after led to a discovery of the whole story; but in
those disorderly times it was only laughed at as a fair ruse de gumre.‘ In the ballad the
bold moss-trooper alights at Lord Durie’s door, and beguiles him with a message from “the
fairest lady in Teviotdale.” Sir Walter, however, confesses to such ekeing and patching
of the traditionary fragments of the old ballad, that we must content ourselves with the
fact of the stolen President’s dwelling having stood on the site of the Heriot’s school in the
Assembly Close. Of this there can be no doubt, as it ia referred to in the boundaries of
various early deeds, in most of which the alley is styled Durie’s Close.
The Covenant Close has already been referred to:
with its interesting old land, surmounted with three
crow-stepped gables, forming the most prominent
feature in the range of the High Street as seeu from
the south. The front lands immediately below this
and the adjoining close again direct us to associations
with the olden time, though only as occupying the
site of what once was interesting, for fire and modern
reform together have effected an entire revolution in
this part of the town. Over the doorway immediately
above Bell’s Wynd an escallop shell? cut upon the
modern stone lintel, marks the site of the ‘‘ Clam
Shell Turnpike,” an edifice associated with eminent
characters, and some of the most interesting eras in
Scottish history. Maitland only remarks of it, in
this close there ‘( is an ancient chapel, which is still
plainly to be seen by the manner of its construction, though now converted into a dwelling-
1 Chrktie’s Will, Border Minstrelsy. There is little doubt of the general truth of thia tradition.
Ante, p. 93.
The leading facts,
though without the names, are related in Forbes’s Journal, and Scott tells UE that some old stnnzas of the ballad were
current on the Border in hia youth.
VIGNETTE-CIBIII Shell Turnpike, from Skena Taken down lT91.
