QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH,
ACONG THE SHORE,
WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ~ NOTES OF THE
DIFFERENT TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
BY THE REV. JAMES S. MILL;
SOUTH QUEENSFERRY,
In the north-east of the county of Linlithgow, is a parish of small extent,
and lies on the shore of the Forth. Generally, it is supposed to have taken
its name from Margaret, the Queen of Malcolm Canmore, in Consequence of
her crossing here;ia her frequent excursions to and from Edinburgh and
Dunfermline. It is certainly a place of great antiquity, evidences of which
are abundant. enough, both in and around the town, in the structures and
relics still extant,
No houses of
any style or importance are found in it; while its streets, narrow and short,
with a number of lanes and alleys of a somewhat dark and dingy character,
but, on the whole; clean and tidy, with a fresh healthy air about them, do not
add to its importance. How it may have looked in the days when Margaret
' wa wont to pass.througb it on her many benevolent and political embassies,
we cannot say: not just as it does now indeed; and yet, after all, not any
very great change since then may have passed over it. There is a sort of
old-world look about it, a kind of air of eld, that reminds one very strongly
of far-back times; and although none of the present structures could, by
any possibility, have witnessed the ,queenly splendour and royal pomp of the
kind-hearted and well-beloved wife of Canmore in her journeyings through
it to and from the city, still not a few of them cannot, from their appearance,
be many generations later than that period.
Queensferry, it would seeqformed part of the parish of Dalmeny until
The town itself is small and of rather mean appearance.
84 QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH.
the year 1636, when it was disjoined and erected into a parish and royal
burgh. The reasons which led to this we have not been able to learn ; but
no doubt they were quite satisfactory to the movers in the matter of that day.
As a regality its magistracy consists of a provost, a land bailie, two sea bailies,
a dean of guild, and a towncouncil. How these worthies demeaned themselves
in their ‘sage devisings for the public weal’ in days long gone by is
very amusing, as the burgh records relate ; but hardly less so than their more
distant successors, especially on the occasion of the election of a parishminister
or parliamentary representative. It is but a year or two since this
little sea-side town bulked very largely in the‘ public eye in these respects ; and
really, the way in which ‘those then in authority’ conducted themselves on
both occasions was ludicrously picturesque. We remember reading the
reports of their sayings and doings at the period, as given in the journals,
with the intensest zest-the Scotsman and the Dati‘y Revkw, for the time
being, actually taking the place of Punch and Fun, and affording almost as
great an amount of real hearty, laughable enjoyment. Not that we thought
meanly of the little burgh then, 01‘ wouId speak depreciatingly of it now : we
merely felt how absurdly funny it was that ‘honest folks,’ as a douce towncouncil,
should so entirely lose their heads, and break with common sense,
as to make themselves the 4pl dif of the nation in that very unenviable sense
of the phrase. -
The surroundings of this breezy little seaside town are very interesting.
A little to the west is a place called the Binks, rendered historical by the
landing of Edgar Atheling,. with his mother Agatha, and his sisters Margaret
and Christina, when driven forth by Norman conquest from home and
country ; Port Edgar, farther westward still, is hardly less memorable from
the twofold circumstance, of being the rock on which the same Saxon prince
landed a year after,-when again driven to seek safety in flight from the highhandedness
of dynastic usurpation, and the place selected, a few centuries
later, for the embarkation of his Majesty George IY., on his return, from his
visit to Scotland, into England ; then on the right again, and nearly half-way
to the other ferry, stands ‘ old Garvey’s castled cliff,’ abruptly lifting its huge
black back from the waters of the Firth, and threatening ‘ with its teethed
embrasures every daring foe,’ a bold and picturesque object; while on the
opposite shore, and within tidal mark, as sung by Cririe-
-
Rosyth
Lifts high her towering head, in ruins now,
Of noble Stuarts once the fortress strong,’
