318 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
broad flight of steps conducted to the main floor of the building. By this mode of construction,
common in old times, the approach to the quadrangle could be secured against
any ordinary attack, and the indwellers might then hold out, as in their castle, until they
made terms with their assailants, or were relieved by a superior force.
The ancient building was erected by James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, as
appears from various allusions to it by early writers.’ He became Lord High Treasurer
in 1505, and was promoted to the Archiepiscopate of Glasgow in 1509, so that we may
unhesitatingly assign the date of this erection to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
He busied himself, after his translation to this see, in promoting many important
erections, and greatly enlarged and beautified the Episcopal Palace of Glasgow. Upon
all the buildings erected by him his armorial bearings were conspicuously displayed, and
a large stone tablet remained till a few years since over the archway of Blackfriars’
Wynd, leading into the inner court, blazoned with the Beaton Arms, supported by two
angels in Dalmatic habits, and surmounted by a crest, sufficiently defaced to enable
antiquaries to discover in it either a mitre or a cardinal’s hat, according as their theory
of the original ownership inclined towards the Archbishop, or his more celebrated nephew,
the Cardinal.$
The exterior angle of this building towards the Cowgate was finished with a hexagonal
turret, projecting from a stone pillar which sprang from the ground, and formed a
singularly picturesque feature in that ancient thoroughfare. We find, however, from the
early titles of the property, that the Archbishop’s residence. and grounds had included
not only the buildings between Blackfriars’ and Toddrick’s Wynds, but the whole of the
site occupied by the ancient buildings of the Mint; so that there can be little doubt the
Archbishop had extensive gardens attached to his lodgings in the capital. An inspection
of the back wall of the Mint in Toddrick’s Wynd would confirm the idea of its having
succeeded to a more ancient building of considerable architectural pretensions ; as, on
minute examination, various carved stones will be observed built up among the materials
of the rubble work.’
Here the Earl of Arran and the chief adherents of his faction were assembled on the
30th of April 1520, engaged in maturing their hastily-concerted scheme for seizing the
’
1 “Biachope James Beatoun remained still in Edinburgh in his awin ludging, quhilk he biggit in the Frierie Wynd.”
-Pitacottie’E Chronicles, voL ii. p. 313. ’ Nisbet, who is the best of d authorities on such a subject, says :-“ With us angels have been frequently made
use of aa supporters, CardinaI Beaton had his supported by two angels in Dalmatic habits, or, as some say, priestly
ones, which are yet to be seen on hia lodgings in Blrckfriars’ Wynd.”-Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. ii. part iv. The stone,
which is now in the posaession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., is exceedingly soft and much worn. The crest has most probably
been an otter’a head, which was that borne by the family. It is certainly neither a mitre nor a. cardinal’s hat, and
indeed the arms are simply those of the family, and not impaled with those of any see, aw we might expect them to have
been if surmounted with such an official badge.
a The following is the definition of the property as contained in a deed dated 1639, and preaerved in the Burgh
Charter Room :-“Disposition of houae, John Sharpe, elder, of Houston, advocate, to Mr J. Sharpe, younger, hia son. . .
All and hail that great lodging or tenement, back‘and fore, under and above, biggit and waste, with the yards and
pert’ aome time pertaining to the Archbishop of St Andrew’s, thereafter to umq‘ John Beaton of Capeldraw, thereafter
to the heira of umq Archibald Stewart and Helen Aitchison, and thereafter pertaining to urnq’O Thomas Aitchison, his
Highness Maister Cuneier, lying within the Burgh of Edinburgh, on ye south of the King’s High Street thereof, on ye
east side of ye trance thereof, betwixt the close called Gray’s Cloae and ye vennel called Toddrickb Wynd upon ye east,
the transe of ye said Blackfried Wynd on ye west, the High Street of Cowgate on ye soubh, the yard of umqb John
Barclay, thereafter pertaining to umqb Alex. Hunter, &e., on ye north,” Qc.
ST LEONARD’S, ST MAR Y’S WYND, AND CO WGATE. 319
Earl of Angus, and in all probability putting him to death, when Gawin Douglas,
Bishop of Dunkeld, the celebrated author of the Pallis of Honor, waited on the Archbishop,
to entreat his mediation between the rival chiefs. The result of the interview has
been related in the earlier part of this work. The Archbishop-was already in armour,
though under cover of his rochet, and when they met again after the bloody contest of ‘‘ Cleanse the Causeway,” it was in the neighbouring Church of the Blackfriars’, where
the poet’s interference alone prevented the warlike Bishop from being slain in arms at
the altar. After living in obscurity for a time, he was promoted to the Metropolitan See
of St Andrew’s by the interest of the Duke of Albany, and yet, such were the strange
vicissitudes of that age, that he is believed to have escaped the vengeance of the
Douglases during their brief triumph in 1525 by literally exchanging his crozier for a
shepherd’s crook, and tending a flock of-sheep upon Bogrian-knowe, not far from his own
diocesan capital. His venerable lodging in the capital is styled by Maitland, “ The
Archiepiscopal Palace, belonging to the See of St Andrews.” James V. appears to have
taken up his abode there on his arrival in Edinburgh, in 1528, preparatory to summoning
a Parliament; and the Archbishop, who had been one of the most active promoters of his
liberation from the Douglas faction, became his entertainer and host. The tradition
which assigns the same mansion as the residence of Cardinal Beaton, the nephew of its
builder, appears exceedingly probable, from his propinquity to the Archbishop, though no
mention is made of him in the titles, unless where he may be referred to by the Episcopal
designation common to both.’
The Palace of the Bishops of Dunkeld, and of Gawin Douglas in particular, the friendly
opponent of the Archbishop, stood on the opposite side of the same street, immediately
to the west of Robertson’s Close, and scarcely an hundred yards from Blackfriars’ Wynd.2
It appears to have been an extensive mansion, with large gardens attached to it, runniug
back nearly to the Old Town wall. Among the pious and munificent acts recorded by
Mylne’ of Bishop Lauder, the preceptor of James II., who was promoted to the See
of Dunkeld in 1452, are the purchasing of a mansion in Edinburgh for himself and successors,
and the founding of an altarage in St Giles’ Church there to St Martin, to which
his successor, Bishop Livingston, became also a c~ntributor.~T he evidence quoted
.
The ancient mansion of the Beatons posseases an additional interest, aa having been the first scene of operations of
the High School of Edinburgh, while a building w a erecting for ita use, as appears from the following notices in the
‘Burgh Record:-“March 12, 1654.-Caus big the grammer skule, lyand on the eist syd of the Kirk-of-Field Wynd.
Jun. 14, 1555.-House at the fute of the Blackfrier Wynd tane to be the grammer scole quhill Witsonday uixt to cum,
for xvj li. of male.” Tabula Naufragii. Motherwell, privately printed. Gla. 1834. ’ This site of the Biishop of Dunkeld‘a lodging was pointed out by Mr R. Chambers in a communication read before
the Society of Antiquaries, Feb. 7, 1847. The following notice, which occurs in a MS. list of pious donations in the
Advocates’ Library, of a charter of mortification, dated ult. Jan. 1498, confirms the description :-“A charter by Thos.
Cameron, mortifying to a chaplain of St Catharine’s altar in St Oeiles’ Kirk, his tenement in Edinburgh, in the Cowgate,
on the south side thereof, betwixt the Bishop of Dunkeld‘s Land on the east, and William Rappillowes on the west, the
common street on the north, and the gait that leads to the Kirk-of-Field [i.e., Inerrnary Street] on the south.” W e
have referred, however, in a previous chapter to the Clarn-aiLcu Turnpike in the High Street, 88 bearing the eame de.
signation ; and the following applies it to a third tenement seemingly on the north side of the aame street :-“A charter
be Janet Pateraon, relict of umq” Alex. Lowder of Blyth, mortiefieing to a chaplaine in St Gilies Kirk an ann. rent of 4
merks out of Wnr. Carkettel’s land in Edinburgh on the north side of the street, betwixt the Bishop of Dunkell’s land
on the east, and the 10/ St Jo. [Lord St John’s] land on the west,” dated “20 June, Regni 10,” probably 1523.
Dec. an. reg. Jac. V.
a Vitoe Dunkeldensis Eccleaise Episcoporum, p. 24.
“ Charter of mortification by Mr Thomas Lauder, canon in Aberdeen [the future bishop, as we presumel, to x chap
