312 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Arthur?s Seat.
to the cone from the base by the way of St. Anthony?s
Well, for a wager, in fifteen minutes, on a hot summer?s
day-a feat in which he was timed by the
eminent naturalist William Smellie.
In 1828 the operations connected with the railway
tunnel, under the brow of the columnar mass
of basalt known as Samson?s Ribs, commenced,
and near to the springs so well known in tradition
as the Wells of Wearie. Close by these wells, and
near a field named Murder Acre, in May the work-
In 1843 the sum 0Cit;40,000 was paid to Thomas
Earl of Haddington, for the surrender of his office
of Hereditary Keeper of the Royal Park, and
thereafter extensive improvements were carried
out under the supervision of the Commissioners for
Woods and Forests. Among these not the least
was the Queen?s Drive, which winds round the
park, passes over a great diversity of ground from
high to low, slope to precipice, terrace to plateau,
and commands a panorama second to none in
DUDDINGSTON CHURCH (EXTERIOR).
men came upon three human skeletons, only three
and a half feet below the surface of the smooth
green turf. As a very large dirk was found near
one of them, they were conjectured to be the remains
of some of Prince Charles?s soldiers, who had
died in the camp on the hill. The U Wells,? are
the theme of more than one Scottish song, and a
very sweet one runs thus :-
#?And ye maun gang wi? me, my winsom Mary Grieve ;
There is nought in the world to fear ye ;
To gang to the Wells 0? Wearie.
Nor tinge your white brow, my dmrie ;
By the lanesome Wells 0? Wearie.?
For I have asked your minnie, and she has $en ye leave,
? Oh, the sun winna blink in your bonnie blue een,
For I will shade a bower wi? rashes lang and green,
Europe. All the old walls which had intersected
the park in various places, in lots as the Hamilton
family had rented it off for their own behoof, were
swept away at this time, together with the old
powder magazine in the Hause, a curious little
edifice having a square tower like a village church ;
and during these operations there was found at the
base of the craigs one of the most gigantic
boulders ever seen in Scotland. It was blown up
by gunpowder, and, by geologists, was alleged to
have been tom out of the Corstorphine range
during the glacial period.
Among the improvements at this time may be
included the removal, in 1862, and re-erection (in
the northern slope of the craigs) of St. Margaret?s
