14
bot within covered weshel or lanterne, under the paine of ane unlaw ; ’’ from all which it
would seem that the houses were atill mostly wooden tenements, thatched with straw, and
never higher than two storeys, “he nobility had not yet begun to build mansions for their
MEMORIA L S OF EDINB UR GH.
residence in the capital while
attending on the court; but
continued to take up their
abode in the monasteries, according
to the fashion of the
times.
Still earlier in the same
reign, all travellers are forbid
to lodge with their friends
when they visit the borough,
but in the ‘( hostillaries ; bot
gif it be the persones that
leadis monie with them in
companie, that sal1 have
friedome to harberie with
their friends; swa that their
horse and their meinze be
harberied and ludged in the
commoun hostillaries ; ” and
burgesses are forbid to harbour their friends under pain of forty shillings.
In this and the following reign, occur successive sumptuary laws, which give considerable
insight into the manners of the age. All save knights and lords, of at least 200 merks
yearly rent, are prohibited from wearing silk or furs, of various descriptions ; “ and none
uther were borderie, pearle, nor bulzeone, bot array them in honest‘ arraiments, as serpes,
beltes, broches, and cheinzies.” While, again in the fourteenth Parliament of James II.,
held in Edinburgh in 1457, the ladies seem to have called down such restrictions upon
them in an especial manner, by their love of display. It is there required of the citizens, ‘( that they make their wifes and dauchters gangand correspondant for their estate ; that
is to say, on their heads short curches, with little hudes ; and as to their gownes, that na
women weare mertrickes nor letteis, nor tailes unfitt in length, nor furred under, bot on the
Halie-daie. And, in like manner, the barronnes and other puir gentlemen’s wives. “hat
na laborers nor husbandmen weare on the warke daye, bot gray and quhite : and on the
Halie-daie, bot lichtblew, greene, redde, and their wives richt-swa ; and courchies of their
awin making, not exceeding the price of xl. pennyes the elne.”
On the 2lst of February 1438, James I., the poet, the soldier, and the statesman, fell
by the hands of his rebellious subjects, in the convent of the Dominicans at Perth, spreading
sorrow and indignation over the kingdom, Within less than forty days thereafter, all
the conspirators had been apprehended and brought to Edinburgh for trial. The meaner
sort were left to the hangman ; but for their titled leaders, the ingenuity of a barbarous
Scots Acta, 121110. 3d and 4th Parliaments, Jamea I.
VIGNETTE-Ancient houses near the Kirk-of-Field, from a map 1575.
