278 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
wes almaist at the port, and the said men of weare standand in clois heids in readines to
haue enterit at the bak of the samyne, movit Thomas Barrie to pass furth of the port,
doun to the Cannogait, to have sene his awne hous, quhair in his said passage he
persavit the saidis ambushmentis of men of weare, and with celeritie retiirnit and warnit
the watchemen and keiparis of the said port; quhilk causit thame to steik the samin
quicklie, and sua this devyse and interpryse tuke na prosperous effect.”l The citizens
took warning from this, and built another gate within the outer port to secure them
against any such surprise. There is something amusingly simple both in the ambuscade
of the besiegers, and its discovery by the honest burgher while taking his quiet morning’s
stroll beyond the walls. But the whole incidents of the siege display an almost total
ignorance of the science of war, or of the use of the engines they had at command. The
besiegers gallop up Leith Wynd and down St Mary’s Wynd, on their way to Dalkeith,
seemingly unmolested by the burgher watch, who overlooked them from the walls ; or
they valorously drag their artillery up the Canongate, and after venturing a few shots at
the Nether Bow they drag them back, regarding it as a feat of no little merit to get them
safely home again.
Many houses still remain scattered about the main street and the lanes of the Canongate
which withstood these vicissitudes of the Douglas wars; and one which has been
described to us by its owner as of old styled the Parliament House, may possibly be that
of William Oikis, wherein the Regent Lennox, with the Earls of Morton, Mar, Glencairn,
Crawford, Menteith, and Buchan; the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay and others
assembled, and after pronouncing the doom of forefaulture against William Maitland,
.
younger of Lethington, and the chief of their opponents,
adjourned the Parliament to meet again at Stirling,
This house,’ which was situated on the west side of the
Old Flesh Market Close, presented externally as mean
and uninviting an appearance as might well be conceived.
An inspection of its interior, however, furnished
unquestionable evidence both of its former
magnificence and its early date. The house before
its entire demolition was in the most wretched state
of decay, and was one of the very last buildings
in Edinburgh that a superficial observer would have
singled out for any assemblage except a parliament of
jolly beggars; but on penetrating to an inner lobby
of its gloomy interior, a large and curiously carved
niche was discovered, of the. same character as those
described in t8he Guise Palace. The workmanship of
it, as will be seen in the accompanying view, though
in a style ap_ _p arently somewhat later, is much more
elaborate than any of those previously noticed, except the largest one on the east side of
Diurn. of Occurrents, pp. 239, 240.
The house, with several of the adjoining closes here referred to, has been taken down, at the instance of the City
Impmvementa’ Commission.
