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
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