3?6 OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH. me West Bow.
sorely. Keeping on the defensive, Westerhall
gave way step by step, seeking to gain the advantage
of the ascent, and thus supply the defect ?of
his stature, which Writes perceiving, he bore in
close upon him hand to hand. Thus they continued
in close and mortal combat for about a
quarter of an hour, ?clearing the causeway,? so
that none could venture near them, or leave the
conveyed to their lodgings. Their wounds were
slight, save that which Writes had just received on
his head, from which several pieces of bone came
away. After he was cured, and after the death of
Hugh Lord Somerville, Privy Councillor to James
VI. (an event which occurred in 1597), these combatants
were reconciled, and their feud committed
to oblivion.
ASSEMBLY ROOMS, WEST BOW, LOOKING TOWARDS THE LAWNYARKET.
(F~om a Drawing ay Yawzes Skcnr of RztbicZaw).
shop doors; neither dared any man attempt to
part them, for every thrust and stroke of their
swords threatened all who came near. . .
Westerhall eventually was driven down, fighting
every inch of the way to the foot of the Bow; and,
having on-for riding, probably-a pair of long
black boots drawn close up, was becoming quite
weary, and stepping within a shop door, stood
there on his defence; and then the last stroke
given by Hugh Somerville nearly broke his good
sword, as it struck the stone lintel of the door,
where the mark remained for years after.
?The tome being by this tyme all in an uproar,?
they were separated by a party of halberdiers, and
Eleven years after this, in the month of June,
1605, William Thomson, a dagger-maker in the
Bow, was slain by a neighbour of his own, named
John Waterstone, who, being taken red hand, was
next day beheaded on the Castle Hill. The Earl of
Dunfermline was at that time Provost.
The arched gate at the foot of the first bend in
the Bow is distinctly shown in Rothiemay?s map
(see j. I I 2). Within this and the old city wall, on
the west side, was an ancient timber-fionted tenement,
known as ?Lord Ruthven?s Land,? being the
residence of the gloomy and daring Patrick third
Lord Ruthven, whose son was the first Earl of
Gowrie-the same dark and terrible lord who rose
The West Bow.] THE HIDDEN SWORD. 317
from his sick-bed (a few months after to be his
death-bed, though he fled to Newcastle in the
interim); and, donning his armour, drew back the
arras of the Queen?s chamber, looking like a pale
spectre under his steel-barred helmet, on that fatal
night in the March of 1566, when he planted his
dagger into David Rizzio, whose death was mainly
his contrivance; and in the demolition of this
which the blade was covered, such as Vzncere a d
mori, Fide sed cui $e4 and Sdi De0 GZoria. The
manner of its concealment, and the fierce character
of the old Lord Ruthven, within whose ancient
lodging it was discovered, may readily suggest to
the fancy its having formed the instrument of some
dark and bloody deed ere it was consigned to its
strange hiding-place.?
ASSEMBLY ROOMS, WEST BOW.
(From U McMIrcd Diawing T. Hanriltm pu6lished im 1830).
house a singular relic of him apparently was discovered.
?? Between the ceiling ,and floor in one
of the apartments, a large and beautifully chased
sword was found concealed, with the scabbard
almost completely decayed, and the blade, which
was of excellent temper, deeply corroded with
rust half-way towards the hilt.? Was this the corrosion
of blood? ? ? The point of it,? says Daniel
Wilson, ?was broken 06 but it still measured
324 inches long. The maker?s name, WILHELM
WIRSBERG, was inlaid in brass upon the blade.
His device, seemingly a pair of pincers, was
engraved on both sides, surmounted by a coronet,
and encircled on one side with a motto partly
defaced, and on the other with his name repeated,
and the words in.soZ.ingen. Various other mottoes
were engraved amid the ornamental work with
He died at the close of 1566, or early in the
following year;? and a curious key, which was
found in the demolition of his house, was procured
by the Society of Antiquaries in 1848.
Up the West Bow for centuries did all that was
regal, noble, and diplomatic, advance on entering
the city; and down it, for 124 years-between the
Restoration and I f84-went more criminals than
can be reckoned, to their doom, and many a?victim
of misrule, such as the luckless and unflinching
Covenanters, testifying to the last and glorying in
their fate.
Down the Bow, on the 3rd of September, 1716,
there were marched from the Castle, en route for
trial at Carlisle, eighty-nine Jacobite prisoners.
?? The departing troop was followed by a wail of
indignant lament fiom the national heart, the
