390 MEMQRIPLS OF EDINBURGH.
Underneath the coat of arms, to the left of the above inscription, was the motto,--PIETbs,
SINE VINDXCE, LVGET ; and Qn the right raide,-Jus EX ARM AT^ EST. The monumeqt which
stood directly opposite to that of tbe Regent was generally understood ts be that of the
Earl of Atholl, w40 was buried with greqt slolemnity in the south aisle of the church on
$be 4th-of July 15i9, The sumptuous preparations for this funeral led to the interference
of the General Assembly, by whom, ‘‘ commissiouq was givin to some brethrein to declare
ta the lords that the Assemblie thought the croce and the straups superstitious &ad ethnick
like, and to Crave they may be removed at the Erle of Atholl’ra buriall, The lords
answered, they eould caus cover the mortcloath with blacke velvet, and remove the
stro~vpe~,”T~h e lords, however, failed in their promise. The strqppes, or flambeaux,
were use4 on the occasioa, sotwithstanding the promise to the contrary, in consequence
of which g riot ensued. Crawford2 describes the stately monument, erected over hi4
graye; but, from his allusion to an allegorical device of a pelican, vulned, feeding her
young-the crest of the Earls of Moray, but an emblem, as he conceives, designed tq
signify the long devotion borng by the Earl of Atholl to his country-he has evidently
mistaken for it that of the Regent. There was 4 vacapt panel on this monument,
appwentlyintepded for inserting a brass plate similar to that, on the Earl of Murray’e
tomb, but it had either been removed or never inserted, On the top had been a coat of
arms, but all that remained was) a representation of two pigeons, and the date 1579: which,
boweyer, may be received as conclusive evidence of its having been the Earl of Atholl’s
monument, The portion of the Church which contained these monuments was approached
by a door frpm the Parliament Close, which was never clased, so that the Regent’s Aisle
waa a common place for appointments. It is alluded to in Sempill’s satirical poem, ‘‘ The
Banishment of Poverty,” as a convenient lounge for idlers, where he humorously describes
the repQst provided for him by the Genius of Poverty :-
Then I knay go way how to fen ;
I dined with Paints and noblemen,
My guta rumbled like a hurle-barrow ;
Ev’n sweet Saint Gilq and Earl of Murray.
It probably originated PO less in the veneration with which ‘( the Good Regent’’ was
regarded than in the Convenience of the place, that it was long a Gommon occurrence to
make bills payable at “ the Earl of Murray’s ” tomb, and to fix on it as the place of assignation
for those who proposed entering on any mutual contract.‘ The fact will seem hardly
credible to future generations, that this national monument, erected, as the inscription on
it expressed, as the tribute of a mourning countrr to their common father, was deliberately
demolished during the alterations in 1829 in the process of enlarging the Assembly Aisle.
Calderwood’s Hist., vol. iii. p, 446. 3 Crawford’q Officers of State, p. 136. Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. ii. Ap. p. 180. ’ Kincaid‘s Hist. of Edinburgh, p. 179. ’ The custom is one of long standing. Among the Closeburn papers, in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., a contract
by Sir Thorn= Kirkpatrick for the payment of a considerable Bum of money, dated in the reign of Charles I., makes
it payable at Earl Murray’s tomb. There is a remarkable charter of James 11. in 1452, entailing the lands of Barntoun
on Oeorge Earl of Caithness, and his heirs and asdgns, and hia natural daughter; with this proviso, that he, or his
amigns, should cause to be paid to his bastard daughter, Janet, on a particular day, between the rising and setting of the
sun, in the Pariah Church of St Oilea, in his burgh of Edinburgh, upon the high altar of the same, three hundred marks,
usual money.cCaledonig vol. ii p. 774.
The pigeons were probably young pelicans.
