The Cowgate.] - THE MAGDALENE CHAPEL 261
Michael Macqueen (or Macquhen), .a wealthy citi-
Zen, and afterwards by his widow, Janet Rhynd.
1725, accompanied by a servant, ?or tumbler,?
who robbed him, and against whom he warned the
people of certain country towns in the Courant of
December, I 7 25.
Arnot records that in early times there existed
in the Cowgate an ancient Maisoson Dieu which had
fallen into decay; but it was re-founded in the reign
with ancient painted glass-the only fragments in
all Scotland which have survived the Reformation,
the latter was used as a hall for their meetings.
The foundation was augmented in 1541 by two
donations from Hugh Lord Somerville, who was
taken prisoner by the English in the following
year, and had to ransom himself for I,OCO merks.
If the edifice suffered in the general sack of the
city during the invasion of 1544 it must have been
The hospital4esigned to accommodate a chap
lain and seven poor men-and the chzpel, the little
square spire of which (with its gargoyles formed like
cannon, each with a ball stuck in its mouth) is
nearly lost amid the towering modern edifices which
surround it-were dedicated to St Mary Magda-
1 and contain the royal arms of Scotland, encircled
by a wreath of thistles, and those of the Queen
Regent Mary of Guise, within a wreath of laurel,
with the shields of the founder and foundress within
ornamental borders. These probably date from
1556, in which year we find that ?The baillies and
