BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF YAMES V. 45
ordained that the Baillies of the Cannongate garre sik like be done upon the said east
side.”
Although all the Parliaments during this reign assembled at Edinburgh, the Palace
of Holyrood was only the occasional residence of James V. Yet he seems to have
diligently continued the works begun here by his father, and tradition still assigns to
him, with every appearance of truth, the erection of the north-west towers of the Palace,
the only portion of the original building that has survived the general conflagration by
the English in the following reign. On the bottom of the recessed pannel of the north
tower, could be traced, about thirty years since, in raised Roman letters, gilt, the words,
. The last occurrence of local interest in the lifetime of this Monarch, is thus recorded
in the Diurnal of Occurrents :-“Upon the last day of Februar, their was ane certaine
of persones accusit for heresie in abbay kirk of Halyrudhous ; and thair was condempnit
twa blackfreris, ane Channon of Sanct Androis, the vicar of Dollour ; ane preist, and ane
lawit man that duelt in Stirling, were brynt the same day on the Castell Hill of
Edinburgh.”’ Thus briefly is recorded an occurrence, which yet is the pregnant forerunner
of events that crowd the succeeding pages of Scottish history, until the Stuart
race forfeited the throne.
Our subject does not require us to deal further with the character of James V., or the
general events of his reign. He died at Falkland on the 14th of December 1542, and
his body was thereafter conveyed to Edinburgh, where his faithful servitor and friend,
Sir David Lindsay, must have directed the mournful ceremony that laid his royal master
by the side of Queen Bhgdalene, his first young bride, in Holyrood Church. The
sumptuous display, that can neither lighten grief nor ward off death, attended, as usual,
on the last rites of the poet King. From the household books of the Cardinal Beaton,
we learn that he spent “for a manual at the King’s funeral, 10s.; for a mitre of white
damask, 42s.; for four mourning garments, S3, 18s. lOd.,” wherewith to officiate in
the services of the church, that committed the remains of his royal master to their final
resting-place.
Of the general manners of the age, considerable insight may be obtained from the acts
of the Parliaments held during this reign, regulating inn-keepers and travellers, bailies,
craftsmen, judges, and beggars, all of whom are severally directed in their callings, with
careful minuteness.
But the satires of Sir David Lindsay are still more pointed and curious in their
allusions to this subject. His Supplication to tAe Kingis grace in Contemptioun of Syde
Tail&, attacks a fashion that had already excited the satiric ire of Dunbar, as well as
the graver but less effectual censures of the Parliament ; and already, in thia early poem,
he begins to touch with sly humour on the excesses of the clergy, even while dealing with
this humble theme. Though bishops, he says,-with seeming commendation,-for the
dignity of their ofiice, have men to bear up their tails, yet that is no reason
-LACOBVS REX SCOTORVM.
That every lady of the land
Suld have hir hill 80 q d e trailland
1 Scota Acta, 12mo. vol. i. p. 248, ’ Diurnal of Occurrenb, p. 23.
