280 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Lord Provosts.
burgh of great numbers of? His Majesty?s subjects
and strangers, there should be three weekly market
days for the sale of bread, when it should be
lawful for dealers, both buyers and landward, to
dispose of bread for ready money; three market
days for t k sale of meat under the same circumstances,
were also established-Sunday, Monday,
and Thursday.
In I 5 28 the Lord Maxwell became again provost
of Edinburgh, and when, some years after, his
exiled predecessor, Douglas of Kilspindie, became
weary of wandering in a foreign land he sought in
vain the clemency of James V., who, in memory of
all he had undergone at the hands of the Douglases,
had registered a vow niver to forgive them.
The aged warrior-who had at one time won the
affection of the king, who, in admiration of his
stature, strength, and renown in arms, had named
him ?? Greysteel,? after a champion in the romance
of ?? Sir Edgar and Sir Guion ?-threw himself in
lames?s way near the gates of Stirling Castle, to seek
pardon, and ran afoot by the side of his horse, encumbered
as he was by heavy armour, worn under
his clothes for fear of assassination. But James
rode in, and the old knight, sinking by the gate in
exhaustion, begged a cup of water. Even this was
refused by the attendants, whom the king rebuked
for their discourtesy ; but old Kilspindie turned
sadly away, and died in France of a broken heart.
In the year 1532 the provost and Council furnished
James V. with a guard of 300 men, armed
on all ?pointts for wayr,? to serve against his
? enimies of Ingland,? in all time coming.
In 1565, when Mary was in the midst of her
most bitter troubles, Sir Simon Preston of Craigiiiillar
and that ilk was provost, and it was in his
house, the Black Turnpike, she was placed a
prisoner, after the violated treaty of Carberry Hill ;
and four years after he was succeeded in office by
the celebrated Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange.
In 1573 Lord Lindsay was provost, the same
terrible and relentless noble who plotted against
Kizzio, led the confederate lords, conducted Mary
to Lachleven, who crushed her tender arm with
his steel glove, and compelled her under terror of
death to sign her zbdication, and who lived to
share in the first Cowrie conspiracy.
In 1578 the provost was George Douglas of
Parkhead, who was also Governor of the Castle ; a
riot having taken place in the latter, and a number
of citizens being slain by the soldiers, the Lords of
the Secret Council desired the magistrates to remove
him from office and select another. They
craved delay, on which the Council deposed
Douglas, and sent a precept commanding the city to
choose a new provost within three hours, under pain
of treason. In obedience to this threat Archibald
Stewart was made interim provost till the usual
time of election, Michaelmas ; previous to which,
the young king, James VI., wrote to the magistrates
desiring them to make choice of certain
persons whom be named to hold their offices for
the ensuing year. On receiving this peremptory
command the Council called a public meeting of
the citizens, at which it was resolved to allow no
interference with their civic privileges. A deputation
consisting of a bailie, the treasurer, a councillor,
and two deacons, waited on His Majestyat Stirling
and laid the resolutions before him, but received no
answer. Upon the day of election another letter was
read from James, commanding the Council to elect
as magistrates the persons therein named for the
ensuing year ; but notwithstanding this arbitrary
command, the Council, to their honour, boldly u p
held their privileges, and made their own choice of
magistrates.
Alexander Home, of North Berwick, was provost
from 1593 to 1596. He was a younger son of
Patrick Home of Polwarth, and his younger sister
was prioress of the famous convent at North Berwick,
where strange to say she retained her station
and the conventual lands till the day of her death.
In 1598 a Lord President of the College of
Justice was provost, Alexander Lord Fyvie, afterwards
Lord Chancellor, and Earl of Dunfermline
in 1606. Though the time was drawing near for
a connection with England, a contemporary writer
in 1598 tells us that ?in general, the Scots would
not be attired after the English fashion in anysort;
but the men, especially at court, followed the
French fashion.?
Sir William Nisbet, of Dean, was provost twice
in 1616 and 1622, the head of a proud old race,
whose baronial dwelling was long a feature on the
wooded ridge above Deanhaugh. His coat of
arms, beautifully carved, was above one of the doors
of the latter, his helmet surmcunted by the crest of
the city, and encircled by the motto,
? HIC MIHI PARTrVS HONOS.?
It was in the dark and troublesome time of
1646-7, when Sir Archibald Tod was provost, that
James Cordon, the minister of Rothiemay, made his
celebrated bird?s-eye view of Edinburgh-to which
reference has been made so frequently in these
pages, and of which we have engraved the greater
Part.
James Cordon, one of the eleven sons of the
Laird of Straloch, was born in 1615. He was
M.A. of Aberdeen, and in April, 1647, he submitted
Lad Plovosts] PROVOST DRUMMOND. 281 -
fluence of the Duke of Lauderdale. in return for
ment of Colonel Gordon, who with Leslie and
Walter Butler of the Irish Musketeers, slew the
great M?allenstein, Duke of Friedland.
Sir Hugh Cunningham was provost when Anne
was proclaimed by the heralds at the Cross, on
the 8th of March, 1702, Queen of Scotland ; and
she in her first letter to Parliament pressed them
to consider the advantages which might accrue to
of the city. A cadet of the noble house of Perth, he
his view of the city-a work wonderful for its ? got a protection to enable him to appear in this
I minuteness and fidelity-to provost Tod and the matter. ? Thus he was brought to the street again.?
Council, who made him a free burgess, and paid him His predecessor in 1676 was a Sir William Binny,
A333 6s. 8d. Scots, or A27 16s. 8d. sterling for who, in 1686 had a curious case before the Court I the drawing, which was engraved in Holland by of Session, against Hope of Carse, on the testa-
De Witt, and dedicated to the provost and magisi
trates, who appear by the city accounts to have had
a collation on the occasion.
The provost who was present at and presided over
the barbarous execution of Montrose, in 1650, was
Sir James Stewart of Coltness, who suffered therefor
a long imprisonment after the Restoration,
and was only rescued from something worse by
his having obtained for his Grace L6,ooo as the
price of the citadel of Leith. Sir Andrew while in
the civic chair conducted himself so tyrannically,
by applying the common good of the city for the
use of himself and his friends, and by inventing new
employments and concessory offices within it, to
provide for his dependents, that the citizens, weary
of his yoke, resolved to turn him out at the next
election ; but he having had a majority the burgesses
were forced to ?intent a reduction of the
election.?
This case being submitted to the Chancellor and
President, they ordered an Act to be passed in the
Common Council of the city, declaring that none
should hereafter continue in office as provost for
more than two years. But this regulation has not
been strictly observed, and the Lord Prwosts of
the city are now elected for three years.
In 1683 Sir George Drummond was Lord Pre
vost ; but in August, 1685, he became a bankrupt,
and took refuge in the Sanctuary at Holyrood, the
first, says Fountainhall, ?that during his office has
broke in FAinburgh.? A week or two afterwards, a
riot having taken place at the Town Guard-house,
the Lord Chancellor, the Earl oi Perth, who was
bound to do what he could to protect the provost,
84
was born in 1687, and when only eighteen years
of age was employed by the Committee of the
Scottish Parliament to give his assistance in the
arrangement of the national accounts prior to the
Union; and in 1707, on the establishment of the
Excise, he was rewarded with the office of Accountant-
General, and in I 7 I 7 he was a Commissioner
of the Board of Customs. In 1725 he was elected
Lord Provost for the first time, and two?years afterwas
named one of the commissioners and trustees for
improving the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland.
Hewasthe principal agent in the erection of the
Royal Infirmary ; and in I 745 he served as a volunteer
with Cope?s army at the Rattle of Prestonpans.
As grand-master of the freemasons he laid the
foundation-stone of the Royal Exchange, and in
1755 was appointed to that lucrative-if dubious
-office, a trustee on the forfeited estates of the
Jacobite lords and landholders. We have related
(in its place) how he laid the foundation-stone of the
North Bridge. He died in 1766 in the eightieth
year of his age, and was honoured, deservedly,
with a public funeral in the Canongate. To
Provost Drummond Dr. Robertson the historian
owed his appointment as Principal of the University,
which was also indebted to him for the institu
