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
