414 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the Earl of Hertford in 1544. No other evidence, however, exists in support of this
than the general inference deducible from the burning of Leith by the English, immediately
before their embarkation ; a procedure which, unless accompanied by more violent
modes of destruction, must have left the remainder of the church in the same condition
as the nave which still exists. Such evidence as may still be gleaned from contemporary
writers leaves little reason to doubt that it was not demolished until the siege of Leith in
1560, when it was subjected to much more destructive operations than the invaders’ torch.
It stood directly exposed to the fire of the English batteries, cast up on the neighbouring
downs, and of which some remains are still left.‘ “In thia meintyme,” says Bishop
Lesley, “the Inglismen lying encamped upoun the south est syd of the tom, besyd
Mount Pellam, schot many gret schottis of cannonis and gret ordinances, at the parrishe
Kirk of Leyth, and Sanct Anthoneis steple, quhilk was fortefiit with mounted artailyerie
thairupoun be the Frenchmen, and brak doun the same.”2 An anonymous historian of
the same period relates still more explicitly :-‘‘ The 15th of Aprill, the fort wes cast and
performed, scituate upon the clay-hills, east from the Kirk of Leith, about twoe fflight
shott; where the greate ordinance being placed, they beganne to shoote at St Antonyes
steeple in Leith, upon the which steeple the Frenchmen had mounted some artillerie,
which wes verie noifiome to the campe ; bot within few howers after, the said steeple was
broken and shott downe, likewise they shott dome some part of the east end of the Kirk of
Leith.’” St Mary’s Church, as it existed at the time our drawing was made, showed at
the east end two of the four great central pillars of the Church, and was otherwise
finished by constructing a window in the upper part of the west arch of the central tower,
much in the same style as was adopted in converting the nave of Holyrood Abbey into a
parish church. The date 1614, which was cut on the east gable, probably marked the
period at which the ruins of the choir were entirely cleared away. The side aisles appear
for the most part to be the work of the same period. A range of five dormer windows
was constructed at that date above both the centre and side aisles, and though a novel
addition to a Gothic Church, must have had a very picturesque and rich effect. The whole
of these, with the exception of the two western ones on the south side of the Church, were
taken down in 1747,” and the remaining ones were demolished in 1847, along with the
east and west gables of the Church, and, in fact, nearly every feature that was worth
preserving ; the architect having, with the perverse ingenuity of modern restorers, preserved
only the more recent and least attractive portions of -the venerable edifice. As
some slight atonement for this, the removal of the high-pitched roof of the side aisles has
brought to light a range of very neat square-headed clerestory windows, which had
remained concealed for upwards of two centuries, and which it is fortunately intended to
retain in the restoration of the building.
The only other ancient parish church that remains to be noticed is that of St Cuthbert.
Its parish appears to have been one of the earliest and most extensive districts set apart
as a parochial charge. ‘( The Church of St Cuthbert,” says Chalmers, (‘ is unquestionably
ancient, perhaps aa old as the age which followed the demise of the worthy Cuthbert,
towards the end of the seventh century.” It was enriched by important grants, and parti-
Ante, p. 66. ’ A Hietorie of the Estate of Scotland, Wodrow Misc., vol. i. p. 84.
Lesley, p. 285.
+ Maitland, p. 494.
ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 415
cularly by the gift from Macbeth of Liberton, of the tithes and oblations of Legbernard
-a church of which all traces are now lost-onferred on it in the reign of David I., previous
to the foundation of Holyrood Abbey. The Chapels of Corstorphine and Liberton
pertained to it. The Crown lands surrounding the Castle were bestowed on it by David
I., and it claimed tithes of the fishing on the neighbouring coast ; so that it was then the
wealthiest church in Scotland, except that of Dunbar ; but from the date of the foundation
of St David‘s Abbey of Holyrood it became a vicarage, while the Abbey drew the
greater tithes. Besides the high altar, there were in St Cuthbert’s Church several altars,
dedicated to the Holy Trinity, to St Anne, and other saints, of most of which no very
accurate account is preserved. The ancient church was subjected to many viciseitudes, and
greatly modified by successive alterations and repairs, so that comparatively little of the
original fabric remained when the whole was demolished about the middle of last century,
and the present huge, unsightly barn erected in its stead. In Gordon’s bird‘s-eye view it
appears as a large cross church, with a belfry at the west gable, and a large square tower,
probably of great antiquity, standing unroofed at the south-west corner of the nave. The
ancient church was nearly reduced to a heap of ruins by the Duke of Cordon, during the
siege of the Castle in 1689; and little attempt was likely to be made at that period to
preserve any of its early features in the necessary repairs preparatory to its again being
used as the parish church.
Among the dependencies of the ancient Church of St Cuthbert there were the Virgin
Mary’s Chapel, Portsburgh, of which nothing more is known than its name and site; and
St Roque’s and St John’s Chapels on the Borough Muir. About half a mile to the west
of Grange House there stood, till the commencement of the present century, the ruins-of
the ancient Chapel of St Roque, dedicated to the celebrated saint of that name. A later
writer derives its title from the unconsecrated surname of its supposed founder, Simon La
Roque, French ambassador,’ but without assigning any authority. In the treasurer’s
accounts for March 20th, 1501-2, the following entry occurs :-“Item, to the wrichtis of
Sanct Rokis Chapell xiiij a.” This, it is exceedingly probable, indicates the erection of
the chapel, as it corresponds with the apparent date suggested by its style of architecture.
It cannot, however, be certainly referred to the chapel on the Borough Muir, as a subsequent
entry in 1505, of an offering (‘ to Sanct Rowkis Chapell,” describes the latter as
at the end of Stirling Bridge. Of the following, however, there can be no doubt:-
‘( 1507, Augt 15. The Sanct Rowkis day to the kingis offerand in Sanct Rowkis Chapell
xiiij s.” That this refers to the chapel on the Borough Muir of Edinburgh is proved
by the evidence of two charters signed by the king at Edinburgh on the same day. The
shrine of St Roque was the special resort of aflicted outcasts for the cure of certain
loathsome diseases. Lindsay, in The Monarchie, describes the saint as himself bearing
a boil or ulcer as the symbol of his peculiar powers :-
Sanct Roche, weill seisit, men may see,
Ane byill new broki on his knee.
1 HiSt. of Weat Kirk, p. 11. Possibly Monsieur Lacrak, ambaeaador in 1567, here meant. It is, at any rate,
without doubt, an error, originating probably in the similarity of the namea
