420 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
own name to the burgh, where he possessed a stronghold presenting such great natural
advantages as were likely to tempt his frequent residence within its walls. Edwin, who
was the ablest and most powerful among the sovereigns of Britain in his time, lost his
kingdom and his life at the Battle of Hatfield, on the 12th of October 633. From that
date, the Castle and town of Edinburgh may be considered as occupying some degree of
prominence among the towns of the ancient kingdom, and thenceforward we are able
to glean occasional authentic notices of it from our older chroniclers. The reign of
Edwin is chiefly memorable for the introduction of Christianity into the kingdom of
Northumbria, and probably no long time elapsed thereafter before some humble Christian
fme was reared in Edinburgh, to supersede by its worship the heathen rites for which the
summit of Arthur’s Seat, or of some other of the neighbouring hills, may have been set
apart as the most appropriate temple.
Glancing back thus over an interval of twelve centuries, the familiar scenes that surround
us acquire a new aspect, and become pregnant with a deeper meaning than the mere beauty
of the landscape, or the unrivalled grandeur of the old city that occupies its heights, can
convey to the tasteful observer. History becomes a living drama, instead of a mere bundle
of dusty parchments ; and the actors, who pass away in succession with its many changing
scenes, appear once more before us what they really were, men of like passions with ourselves.
With this feeling we have attempted to recover the fading traces of the more
ancient antiquities of the Scottish capital, and to preserve an authentic record of those of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which are fast passing away, like their predecessors,
beyond recall, notwithstanding the promise of durability which the substantial masonry of
that period seems to offer. 6L The walles,” says Taylor the Water Poet, in his Penny-
Zesse PiZgrimage, ‘‘ are eight or tenne foot thicke, exceeding strong, not built for a day, a
weeke, or a moneth, or a yeere, but from Antiquitie to Posteritie, for many Ages.” Posteritie,
however, finds little that suits its changed tastes and habits in these ‘( goodlie
houses,” and is busy replacing them with structures more adapted to modern wants ; but
the very fact of their having thus become obsolete confers on them a new value, as monuments
of a period and state of society altogether different from our own. This it is that
gives to the pursuits of the antiquary their true value. These relics of the past, however
insignificant they may appear in themselves, assume a very different claim on our interest
when thus regarded as the memorials of our national history, or the key to the manners
and the habits of our forefathers. As such they acquire it worth which no mere lapse of
time could confer ; nor have our forefathers played so mean a part in the history of nations
that their memorials should possess an interest only to ourselves.
’
