High Street.] CARDINAL BEATON?S HDUSE. 263
his Heraldry :-? With us (the Scots) angels
have been frequently made use of as supporters.
Cardinal Beaton had his, supported by two angels,
in Dalmatic habits, or, as some say, priestly ones,
which are yet to be seen on his lodgings in Blackfriars
Wynd.? The cardinal?s arms, as borne on
his archiepiscopal seal, are Bethune and Balfour
quarterly, with a cross-crosslet-headed pastoral
staff, and the tasselled hat over all.
Upon all the buildings erected by the archbishop
?his armorial bearings were conspicuously displayed,?
says Wilson, ?and a large stone tablet
remained, till a few years since, over the archway
of Blackfriars Wynd, leading into the inner court,
supported by two angels in Dalmatic habits, and
surmounted by a crest, sufficiently defaced to enable
antiquaries to discover in it either a mitre or a
cardinal?s hat, according as their theory of the original
ownership inclined towards the archbishop
or his more celebrated nephew the cardinal.?
Occupying the space between Blackfriars Wynd
and Toddrick?s Wynd, the archiepiscopal palace
afforded a striking example of the revolutions
effected by time and change of manners on the
ancient abodes of the opulent and the noble. As
it appeared before its demolition no doubt could
be entertained that some portions of it had been
rebuilt, to suit the requirements of its last humble
denizens, but much remained to form connectinglinks
in the long chain of ages, The whole of the
entrance floor had been strongly groined with stone,
built on solid pillars, calculated to afford protection
during the brawls and conflicts of the times.
Within the arched passage that led from the
Wynd a broad flight of steps led to the first floor
of the palace, a mode of construction common in
those days, when the architect had to cogsider
security, and how the residents might resist an attack
till terms were obtained, or succour came.
In early times the whole of the space occupied by
the Mint in the Cowgate and other buildings to
the north thereof had been the garden grounds of
the archiepiscopal residence.
Here it was, as we have related, that the Earl
of Arran and his armed adherents held their stormy
conclave on the 30th of April, 1520, concerting the
capture and death of Angus, whose war array held
the High Street and barricaded the close-heads ;
and liere it WLS that Gawain Douglas, the Bishop of
Dunkeld, and translator of Virgil, whose two brothers
fell at Flodden, called on the archbishop,
and strove to keep the peace in vain, for the prelate
was already in his armour, and the dreadful conflict
of ? Cleanse the Causeway ? ensued, giving
victory to the Douglases, and compelling the
fugitive archbishop, during 1525, the time they
were.in power, to seek safety in the disguise of a
shepherd, and, literally, crook in hand, to tend
flocks of sheep on Bograin-knowe, not far from his
diocesan city of Glasgow.
James V, took up his abode in the archiepiscopal
palace in 1528, preparatory to the meeting of
Parliament, and the archbishop, who had been one
of the most active promoters of his liberation from
the Douglas faction, became his host and entertainer.
Here, in after years, resided his nephew,
David Beaton, the formidable cardinal, who, in
1547, was murdered so barbarously in the castle of
St. Andrew, and here also was literally the cradle
of the now farnous High School of Edinburgh, as it
was occupied as the ?Grammar Skule? in 1555,
while that edifice, which stood eahward of the
Kirk-of-field, was in course of erection,
We next hear of the little paiace in the reign of
Mary. On the 8th of February, 1562, her brother,
the Lord James Stewart, ? newly created Earl of
Mar (afterwards Moray) ? was married upon Agnes
Keith, daughter to William Earl Marischal,? says
the Diurnal of Occurrents, (? in the kirk of Sanct
Geil, in Edinburgh, with solemnity as the like has
not been seen before; the hale nobility of this
realm being there present, and convoyit them down
to Holyrood House, where the banquet was made,
the queen?s grace thereat.? After music and
dancing, casting of fire-balls, tilting with fire-spears,
and much jollity, next evening the queen, with all
her court, came up in state from Holyraod ?to
the cardinal?s lodging in the Blackfriar Wynd,
which was preparit and hung maist honourably.?
Then the queen and her courtiers had a joyous
supper, after which all the young craftsmen of the
city came in their armour, and conveyed her back
to Holyrood. Up Blackfriars Wynd, past the
house of the late cardinal, Queen Mary proceeded
on the fatal night of the 9th of February, 1567,
about the same time nearly that Bothwell and his
accomplices passed down the next alley, on their
way to the Kirk-of-field. She had dined that day
at Holyrood, and about eight in the evening went
to sup with the Bishop of Argyle. At nine she
rose from the table, and accompanied by the Earls
of Argyle, Cassilis, and Huntly, escorted by her
archer-guard and torch-bearers, went to visit
Darnley in the lonely Kirk-of-field, intending to
remain there for the night, but returned home. As
she was proceeding, three of Bothwell?s retainers,
Dalgleish, Powrie, and Wilson, in their depositions,
stated that after conveying the powder-bags to
the convent gate, at the foot of the Blackfriars
Wynd, they saw ?the Qucnes grace gangand
