454 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
any reasonable doubt entertahed, it shows that both King James VI. aud his Queen, Anne of Denmark, have
been entertained there by the Magistrates of the city, in the palmy days of Old Edinburgh :-“1598, May 2.-
The 2 of Maii, the Duck of Holsten got ane banquet in MMman’s ludging, given by the toune of Ed‘. The
Kings M. and the Queine being both y’ ther wes grate solemnitie and mirrines at the said banquet”-(Fragment
of Scottish History, Diary, p, 46.)
QUEENSBEBRHYo usE.-In a foot-note at page 298, it is suggested that Queensberry House oocupies the
site of a mansion built by the celebrated Lord Halton, afterwards Earl of Lauderdale, in 1681. The following
entry in Fountainhall’s Decisions, omitted, like many other of the old Judge’s curious details, in the printed
folio, proves that the house is the same which was built by Lord Halton, and afterwards disposed of to the first
Duke of Queensberry :-
“81 Junij 1686.-By a letter from his Majesty, Queensberry is laid asyde €rom all hi~ places and offices, as
his place in the Treasurie, Priv Counsell, Session, &c., and desired not to goe out of Tome, till he cleared his
accounts. So he bought Lauderdale’s House in the Cannongate.”
XX. THE PILLORY.
BRANDINAGN D MmLATINa.-The strange and barbarous punishmente recorded both by old diarists, and
in the Scottish criminal records, as put in force at the Cross or Tron of Edinburgh, afford no inapt
illustration of the gradual and very slow abandonment of the cruel practices of uncivilised times. In the
sixteenth century, burning or branding on the cheeks, cutting off the ears, and the like savage mutilations were
adjudged for the slightest crimes or misdemeanors. On the 5th May 1530, for example, ‘‘ William Kar oblissis
him that he sall nocht be sene into the fische merkat, nother byand nor selland fische, vnder the pane of
cutting of his lug and bannasing of the toune, t o t gif he haif ane horse of his aune till bring fische to the
merket till sell vniuersale as vther strangearia dois till OUT Souerane Lordis legis.”-(Acts and Statutes of the
Burgh of Edinburgh, Mait. Misc., voL ii p. 101.) At this period the Greyfriars or Bristo Port appears to have
been a usual scene for such judicial terrors. On the 1st July 1530, “Patrick Gowanlok, fleschour, duelland
in the Abbot of Melrosis lugying within this toune,” is banished the town for ever, under pain of death, for
harbouring a woman infected with the pestilence ; “And at the half of his moveable gudia be applyit to
the common workis of this toune for his dehlt, And ala that his seruand woman csllit Jonet Gowane, quhilk
is infekkit, for hir conceling the said seiknes, and passand iu pilgrimage, scho haiffand the pestilens apone hir
that .who ealbe brynt on baith the cheikis and ban& thie toune for ever vnder the pane of deid. And quk
that lykis till sed ju-stice execute in this mater, that thai mm to the Grayfrier port incontinent q&r thai aall et?
the samys put till mtioun.”-(Ibid, p. 106.)
- - .
DROWNINB.--of a different nature is the following scene enacted in the year 1530, without the Greyfriar’s - Port, which was then an unenclosed common on the outskirts of the Borough. Muir, and remained in that state
till it was included within the precincts of the latest extension of the town walls in 1618. Drowning in
the North Loch, and elsewhere, was a frequent punishment inflicted on females. “The quhilk day Katryne
Heriot is convict be ane assise for the thiftus steling and conseling of twa stekis of bukrum within this tovne,
and als of commoun theift, and als for the bringing of this contagius seiknes furth of Leith to this toune, and
brekin of the statuti8 maid tharapone, For the quhilk causes echo i a adiuyit to be drounit in the Quare11 holZw at
the CrayfTere port, mncr incontinent, and that we8 gevin for dome.”-(Ibid, p. 113.) The workmen engaged in
draining the ancient bed of the Nprth Loch in the spring of 1820, discovered. a large coffin of thick fir deals,
A PPENBIX. 45 5
containing-apparently the skeletons of a man and two women ; which, says Mr Skene, in narrating the
discoveq, “Corresponds singularly with the fact of a man of the name of Sinclair, and twu sistes, with
both of whom he was convicted of having committed incest, being drowned in the North Loch in the year
1628.”-(Archaeologia Scotica, voL ii. p. 474,)
BORINGP ERJURERTSoN’ auEs.-’l!he Acts of Sederunt of the Court of Session abound with evidence of
similar cruel practices of early timea. On the 13th June 1561, Mongo Steivenston convicted of being
“pejurett and mainsworn,” is ordered to be punished “be persing throw the toung, and escheiting all his
movabill guds to our Soverane Lady’s use,” and the Provost and Magistrates art? required to proceed forthwith
to the Market Cross, and put the same in execution. In another case of supposed perjury, on the 29th
June 1579, the King‘s advocate produces a royal warrant for examining Iohne Souttar, notar, and Robert
Carmylie, vicar of Ruthwenis ; and for the mair certane tryale of the veritie in the said matter, to put thaim
in the buttis, genia, or ony uther tormentl, and thairby to urge thaim to declair the treuth.”
Another era was that of the Douglas warn, when the highest crime that could be committed by the
peasantry of the Lothians, was the carrying provisions to the beleaguered capital ; and accordingly many poor
men, and a still greater number of women, were mutilated and hanged, simply for being caught bringing coals,
salt, or garden stu€fs, to Edinburgh. Coming down, however, to more recent and peaceful times, we find
similar modes of punishment adopted in the seventeenth century. Inthe Acts of Sederunt, 6th February 1650,
‘‘ The Lords found John Lawsone, indwellar in Leith, to be a false lying witnes, and alse ane false informer of
an assize ; and ordaines him to be set upon the Trone ane hour, and his tongue to be bored with ane yrone, and
thereafter to be dismissed. And in lyke manner find John Rob to be ane false informer of witnesses ; and
ordain him to be set upon the Trone, and his lugg to he nailed to the Trone be the space of ane hour, and
thereafter to be dismissed. And declares both the persons forsaids to be infamm in all tyme coming j and
their haill moveables to be escheat to his Majestie’s use.”
COH~~ONWEAPULNTISHH YENTS.-TOWards the close of the year 1650, an entire change took place in the
administration of justice, by the transfer of the government to the nominees of Cromwell and of the English
Parliament. Their rule is generally allowed to have been impartid, but the modes of punishment in use
continued to be of the mme character as we have already described. Nicoll remarks in his Diary for December
1651 (p. 69) :--“It wes observed, that in’ the Englische airmy thair wes oftymes guid discipline aganes
drunkiness, fornicatioun, and uncleanes ; quhipping fornicatouris, and geving thame thrie doukis in the sea,
and causing drunkardis ryd the trie meir, with stoppis and muskettis tyed to thair leggis and feit a paper on
thair breist, and a drinking cop in thair handis; and by schuitting to death sindrie utheris quha haid
committed mutinie.”
The next entry we shall quote from the old diarist introduces*u$ to a new crime, brought about by the
political changes of that eventful period, and for which we find a novelty introduced in the mode of punishing
that unruly member, the Tongue :-‘‘ Last of September 1652.-Twa Englischea, for drinking the Kingis helth,
war takin and bund to the gallous at Edinburgh &oce, quhair ather of thame resavit threttie nyne quhipes
upon thair naiked bakes and shoulderis, thaireftir thair lugges wer naillit to the gallous. The ane haid hie lug
cuttit from the ruitt with a resoure ; the uther being also naillit to the gibbit, haid his mouth skobit, and his
tong being drawn out the full lenth, was b u d togidder betuix twa stickes hard togidder with ane skainzie threid
the space of half ane hour or thairby.”
One or two more notices from the wme gossipping chronicle of the seventeenth century will suffice to
illustrate the tender mercies of the Commonwealth rule in Edinburgh :-
“26 Marche 1656.-Mr Patrik Maxwell, ane arrant decevar, wes brocht to the Mercat Croce of Edinburgh,
quhaii a pillorie wes erectit, gairdit and convoyed with a company of sodgeris ; and thair, eftir ane full houris
