176 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
to extinguish the flames. On the same daya grand
assault was to be made.
By this time the batteries against the town were
all in full play. Mount Pelham was distant 1,200 feet
from the eastern curtain ; Mount Somerset was distant
only 600 feet ; a third mound, Mount Falcon,
near the river, and southeast of St. Nicholas?s
called the Schole of Warre,? which is full of curious
details, and was published at London in 1565.
The detailed orders issued by Lord Grey for
the assault on the 4th of May are very curious;
they are preserved among the Talbot Papers, and.
contain the names of some of the earliest ofticers.
in the English army, and old Bands of Berwick,
PLAN OF LEITH, SHOWING THE EASTERN FORTIFICATIONS.
(XacsimiZe ufter GrrmwiZk CoZZid ? GrEat Britaids Coaating Pilot,? London, 1693.)
church, was 300 feet distant from the fifth bastion,
near where King Street is now.
After several days? cannonade from eight guns
on Mount Somerset (now familiar to the children
of Leith as the Giant?s Brae), the steeple of St.
Anthony, with its cannon and defenders, fell with a
mighty crash, to the great exultation of the English,
who contemplated the effects of their skill with
silent wonder ; and meanwhile Admiral Winter,
having crept close in-shore, bombarded the town,
by which many of the luckless inhabitants perished
with the defenders. Thomas Churchyard, who
accompanied the English in this expedition, wrote
a poem called ? The Siege of Leith, more often
?May 4th, 1560, vppone Saturday in themornyng,
at thri of the clock, God willinge, we shal be in
readyness to give the assalte, in order as followithe,
if other ympedyinent than we knowe not of hyndre
us not.?
For the first assault (i.e., column of stormers),
Captain Rede, with 300 men ; Captains Markham,
Taxley, Sutton, Fairfax, Mallorye, the Provost
Marshall, Captains Astone, Conway, Drury (afterwards
Sir Tlrilliam and Marshal of Berwick), Berkley,
and Fitzwilliams, each with zoo men, and 500
arquebusiers, to be furnished by the Scots.
Thus 3,000 men fornied the first column.
For the second were Captains Wade, Dackare,
