YAMES IV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN.
And in Dunbar’s (‘ Droichis part of the Play ; ”I-
“My name is WELTE, thairfor be blyth,
I come heir comfort yow to kyth ;
Supposa that wretcbis wryng and wryth,
All darth I sal1 gar d6 ;
For sekerly, the treuth to tell,
I come amang yow heir to duel1 ;
Fra sound of Sanct Gelis bell,
Nevir think I tu fl6.
‘‘ Quharfor in Scotland come I heir,
With yow to byde and peraeveir,
In Edinburgh, quhar ia meriaat cheir,
Plesans, disport and play ;
Quhilk is the lampe, aod A per se,
Of this regioun, in all de@,
Of welefair, and of hooest8,
Renoune, and riche aray.”
Other local allusions of a similar nature might be selected, but these may suffice as
examples.
In the year 1496, Edinburgh wag visited by the famous Perkin Warbeck,S the
reputed Duke of York, who was murdered in the Tower. He arrived with a rich equipage
and a gallant train of followers, and was received by the King with every token of sincerity,
as the unfortunat,e Richard Plantagenet, son to King Edward IV. It is not easy
now, nor is it our province to decide, how far the King was really imposed on by his
specious tale, or if he was solely actua€ed by reasons of state policy. He undoubtedly
espoused his cause with zeal; involving, as it did, not only a breach with his intended
father-in-law, Henry VII. ; but the immediate prospect of a war with England, an event
seemingly at no time an object of peat dislike to the Scottish nation : and, moreover, testXed
the sincerity of his partizanship, by giving him in marriage his own kinswoman, the
Lady Catherine Gordon, whose beauty long after procured her at the English Court the
name of the White Rose. The peaceful policy of the English Monarch speedily won over
the inclinations of his future son-in-law, and the negotiations were renewed for the mar- .
riage of Jamea with the Princess Margaret; at the same time that, messengers arrived at
Holyrood Palace, bearing, a$ a gift from Pope Julius 11. to the Scottish King, a sword
and diadem wrought ‘with flowers of gold, which had been consecrated by him on Christmas
eve ; ’ the former of which is still preserved among the Scottish regalia, in Edinburgh
Castle.
Fully four years elapsed between the conclusion of the treaty of marriage and its fuElment
; and during that time, the Eing was actively occupied in preparations for the reception
of his bride. Up to this time, the Scottish Kings seem to have resided at the Abbey
of Holyrood, as the abbot’s guests : but he now set earnestly to work, €or the bigging of
a palace beside the Abbay of the Haly Croce,” the only part of which still in existence
is the for-yet ” or vaulted gateway to the Abbey Court, the south wall and other remains
of which may yet be seen in the Court-house of the Abbey, the indications of the arches
of its groined roof being still visible on the outer wall. The Treasurer’s accounts of the
Dunbar’s Poems, vol. ii p. 41.
. 3 Ebwthornden, p. 69.
’ Martial Achieve., voL ii. p. 506. ‘ Liber Cartarurn Sancta3 Cruck, Pref. 58.
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