244 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cowgate.
farlane sent for the magistrates, who secured the
house and servants. -4 contemporary says :-
?? I saw his (Cayley?s) corpse after he was unclothed,
and saw his blood where he lay on the floor for
04 hours after he died just as he fell, so it was difficult
to straighten him.? (? Dom. Ann.,?? Vol. 111.)
Criminal letters were raised against .Mrs. Macfarlane
by the Lord Advocate, Sir David Dalrymple,
and the father and brother of the deceased, who
was a native of York. Not appearing for trial
she was declared an outlaw, while her husband was
absolved from all blame.
Mrs. Murray, Cayley?s landlady, who kept a
grocery shop in the Cowgate, vindicated herself
in a pamphlet from imputations which Mrs. Mac-
In wild terror Mrs. Macfarlane now rushed from
the room, locked the door, and sending for her
husband showed him the body, and told him all
that had transpired. ? Oh, woman !? he exclaimed,
in misery, ?what have you done?? His friends
whom he consulted advised her instant flight, and
at six o?clock that evening she walked down the
High Street, followed by her husband at a little
distance, and disappeared.
By ten that night-deeming her safe-Mr. Mac-
Walter Scott, related to him more than once, that
when she, a little girl, was once left alone in
Swinton House, Berwickshire, she wandered into
the dining-room, and there saw an unknown lady,
?beautiful as an enchanted queen, pouring out
teg at a table. The lady seemed equally surprised
as herself, but addressed the little intruder kindly,
in particular desiring her to speak first to her
mother Sy herself of what she had seen.? Margaret
for a moment looked out of the window,
and when she turned the beautiful lady had
vanished! On the return of the family from
church, she told her mother of what she had
seen, was praised for her discretion, and pledged
to secresy in what seemed to be a dream. Subfarlane?s
accusations had thrown upon her character,
and denying that the lady had been in the house
on the Saturday before the murder; ?but evidence
was given that she was seen issuing from the close
in which Mrs. Murray resided, and after ascending
the Back Stairs was observed passing through the
Parliament Square towards her own house.?
Of this Scottish Lucretia the future is unknown,
and the only trace seems something of the marvellous.
Margaret Swinton, a grand-aunt of Sir
OLD HOUSES IN THE COWGATE.
Cowgate.1 EXCAVATIONS IN THE COWGATE. 24F
Captain Cayley?s slayer, who had found a temporary
shelter in the house of the Swintons as a kinswoman,
and had a hiding-place concealed by a
sliding panel. Sir Walter Scott, who introduced the
incident into ?Peveril of the Peak,? states in a
magnificent piece of masonry, when compared with
the hasty erection of 15 r3. On the slope nearer
-the Cowgate, at fourteen feet below the present
surface, there was found a range of strong oak
coffins, lying close together, and full of human
EAST END OF THE COWGATE, LOOKING TOWARDS THE SOUTH BACK OF CANONGATE.
(A#m a Paintiq in Se* @ Gcogc Mansor: irr porrrrsion #for. 1. A. Sidq).
note to that work, that she afterwards returned to
Edinburgh, where she lived and died.
When excavations were made for the erection of
the new Courts of Law in 1844, and the site of
the old Back Stairs was cleared, some curious
discoveries were made, illustrative of the changes
that had taken place in the Cowgate during the
preceding 400 years.
A considerable fiagment of the wall of James 11.
,remains. In form these coffins were remarkable,
being quite straight at the sides, with lids ridged
in the centre. The same operatioins brought to light,
beyond the first city wall, and at the depth of
eighteen feet below the present level of the
Cowgate, a common shaped barrel, six feet high,
standing upright, embedded eighteen inches deep
in a stratum of blue clay, and with a massive
stone beside it. The appearance of the whole
I
