370 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
were exhumed in digging for the foundation of the north pier of the Dean Bridge. They
we very slightly burned, and the ornamental devices, which have been traced on the soft
clay, bear a striking resemblance to those usually found on the fragments of ancient
pottery which have been discovered in the Tumuli of the North
American Continent. Annexed is a view of one of those discovered
at the Dean, and now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.
Another interesting feature which belongs to the history of the
New Town, in common with many other cities, is the absorption of
hamlets and villages that have sprung up at an early period in the
neighbouring country and been gradually swallowed up within its
extending outskirts. First among such to fall before the progress
of the rising town, was the village of Moutrie’s Hill, which stood
on the site of the Register Office and James’ Square, the highest
ground in the New Town. This suburban hamlet is of great antiquity, and its etymology
has been the source of some very curious research. Lord Hailes remarks on the subject,
‘‘ Moutrees is supposed to be the corruption of two Gaelic words, signifying the covert
or receptacle of the wild boar.”’ It appears, however, from contemporary notices, to
have derived its name from being occupied by the mansion of the Noutrays, a family of
distinction in the time of James V. A daughter of Alexander Stewart, designed of the
Grenane, an ancestor of the Earls of Galloway, who fell at the Battle of Flodden, was
married in that reign to Moutray of Seafield.’ Upon the 26th April 1572, while the
whole country around Edinburgh was a desolate and bloody waste by reason of long
protracted civil war, a party of the Regent Mar’s soldiers, who had been disappointed in an
ambuscade they had laid for seizing Lord Claud Hamilton, one of the opposite leaders,
took five of their prisoners, Lieutenant White, Sergeant Smith, and three common soldiers,
and hanged them immediately on their return to Leith. The leaders of the Queen’s party,
in Edinburgh, retaliated by like barbarous executions, “ and causit hang the morne theirefter
twa of thair souldiouris vpoun ane trie behind Movtrays Hous, in sicht of thair
aduersaris, in lycht, quha hang ane day, and wer takin away in the nycht be the saidis
aduersaris.”’ Another annalist, who styles the locality ‘‘ The Multrayes in the hill besyid
the toun,” adds, “ The same nycht the suddartia of Leith come to the said hill and cuttit
doun the deid men, and als distroyit the growand tries thairabout, quhairon the suddartis
wer hangit. Thir warres wer callit amang the peopill the Douglass wearres.” ‘ Near to
the scene of these barbarous acts of retaliation, on the ground UON occupied by the buildings
at the junction of Waterloo Place with Shakespeare Square: formerly stood an ancient
stronghold called Dingwdl Castle. It is believed to have derived its name from John
Dingwall, who was Provost of the neighbouring Collegiate Foundation of Trinity College,
and one of the original Judges of the Court of Session on the spiritual side. The rains of
the castle appear in Gordon of Rothiemay’s map as a square keep with round towers at
its angles; and some fragments of it are believed to be still extant among the fouudations
of the buildings on its site. Near to this also there would appear to have been an
‘
Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 96. * Wood’s Peerage, voL i p. 618. Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 262. ’ Ibid, p. 294.
* Shakespeare Square, in the centre of which stood the old Theatre Rojal, was removed in 1860 for the erection of
the new Poet-Office.
