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Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time

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APPENDIX. I. EDINBURGH. EFERENCE has been made in the beginning of this Work to thevenerable antiquity ascribed to Edinburgh by early chroniclers, who assign as it founder, Ebranke, a contemporary of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Israel I-Qrafton’s Chronicle, 1569. John Hardyng, a still earlier chronicler, records of the same ancient ‘‘ Kyng of Brytain,”- “ He made also the Mayden Castell stronge That men now calleth the Cutell of Edenburgb, That on a rock standeth full hye out of throng On mount Agwet, where men may se out through Full many a toune, caatel, and borough, . In the shire about, it is 80 hye in sjght Who will it scale he ahall not find it light.” The following reference to Edinburgh by a foreigner, evidently describing the iirst impression conveyed by the view of it from the Forth, occurs in a curious French poem, “Le Chevalier sans reproche Jacques de Lalain, par Messire Jean d’Ennetieres,” &c. &c. Tournay, 1632. Bvo. In thia, the 9th canto is occupied with the details of a combat between the hero and James (9th) Earl of Douglas, fought at Stirling in presence of the king, three against three. Towards the close of the preceding canto @. 2061, Edinburgh is thua described,- Lalain’s vessel having arrived in the Forth :- ‘‘ Edymbourgk toutesfois fait paroistre aea cornea, Au dessoue d’un espois de nuagee bien mornes. Devers l’Est, et le Sud lh ceint une muraille, Du coat4 du couchant, il ne luy faut tenaille Ny bouleuert flancquant ; car un bien haut rocher La couvre tellement qu’on ne peut l’approcher. U dessua le cbaateau est de nature telle, Que 1’Eacopis le dit le fort de la Pucslle : Tant l’a forti66 la nature avec l’art, Que des We8 pouroyent maintenu tel rampart. Au Nort un precipice en hauteur effroyable, Le rend de celle part de tout point imprenable.”
Volume 10 Page 462
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