310 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton.
Scots now takefl this to be a prophecy of the
thing which has happened. ? The next day,
4th May, the army landed two miles bewest the
town of Leith, at a place called Grantaine Cragge,
every man being so.prompt, that the whole army
was landed in four hours.? As there was no opposition,
a circumstance unlooked for, and having
guides, ?? We put ourselves in good order of war,??
continues the .narrator, ?marching towards Leith in
three battayles (columns), whereof my lord admiral
led the vanguard, the Earl of Shrewsbury the rearguard,
the Earl of Hertford the centre, with the
artillery drawn by men. In a valley on the right
of the said town the Scots were assembled to the
number of five or six thousand horse, besides foot,
to impeach our passage, and had planted their
artillery at two straits, through which we had to
pass. At first they seemed ready to attack the
vanguard.? But perceiving the English ready to
pass a ford that lay between them and the Scots,
the latter abandoned their cannon, eight pieces in
all, and fled towards Edinburgh j the first to quit
the field was ? the holy cardynall, lyke a vallyant
champion, with him the governor, Therles of
Huntly, Murray, and Bothwell?
The.fame of Granton for its excellent freestone
is not a matter of recent times, as in the City
Treasurer?s accounts, 1552-3, we read of half an
ell of velvet, given to the Laird of Carube
(Carrubber?) for ?licence to wyn stones on his
lands of Granton, to the schoir, for the hale space
of a year.?
In 1579 a ship called the Jinas of Leith
perished in a storm upon the rocks at Granton,
having been blown from her anchorage. Upon
this, certain burgesses of Edinburgh brought an
action against her owner, Vergell Kene of Leith,
for the value of goods lost in the said ship ; but he
urged that her wrecking was the ?providence of
God,? and the matter was remitted to the admiral
and his deputes (Privy Council Reg.)
In 1605 we first find a distinct mention legally,
of the old fortalice of Wardie, or Granton, thus in
the ?Retours.? ? Wardie-muir cum turre et fortalicio
de Wardie,? when George Tours is served heir to
his father, Sir John Tours of Inverleith, knight,
14th May.
In 1685, by an Act of Parliament passed by
James VII., the lands and barony of Royston
were ?ratified,? in favour of George Viscount
Tarbet, Lord Macleod, and Castlehaven, then
Lord Clerk Register, and his spouse, Lady Anna
Sinclair. They are described as comprehending
the lands of Easter Granton with the manor-house,
dovecot, coalheughs, and quarries, bounded by
?
.
Granton Bum; the lands of Muirhouse, and
Pilton on the south, and the lands of Wardie and
Wardie Bum, the sea links of Easter Granton, the
lands of Golden Riggs or Acres, all of which had
belonged to the deceased Patrick Nicoll of Royston.
The statesmen referred to was George Mackenzie,
Viscount Tarbet and first Earl of Cromarty,
eminent for his learning and abilities, descended
from a branch of the family of Seaforth, and born
in 1630. On the death of his father in 1654, with
General Middleton he maintained a guerrilla warfare
with the Parliamentary forces, in the interests
of Charles 11. ; but had to leave Scotland till the
Restoration, after which he became the great confidant
of Middleton, when the latter obtained the
chief administration of the kingdom.
In 1678 he was appointed Justice-General for
Scotland, in 1681, a Lord of Session and Clerk
Register, and four years afterwards James VII.
created him Viscount Tarbet, by which name he is
best known in Scotland.
Though an active and not over-scrupulous agent
under James VII., he had no objection to transfer
his allegiance to William of Orange, who, in 1692,
restored him to office, after which he repeatedly
falsified the records of Parliament, thus adding
much to the odium attaching to his name. In
1696 he retired upon a pension, and was created
Earl of Cromarty in 1703. He was a zealous
supporter of the Union, having sold his vote for
A300, for with all his eminence and talent as a
statesman, he was notoriously devoid of principle.
He was one of the original members of the Royal
Society, and was author of a series of valuable
articles, political and historical works, too
numerous to be noted here. He died at New
Tarbet in 1714, aged eighty-four, and left a son,
who became second Earl of Cromarty, and another,
Sir James Mackenzie, Bart., a senator with the
title of Lord Royston. His grandson, George,
third Earl of Cromarty, fought at Falkirk, leading
400 of his clan, but was afterwards taken prisoner,
sent to the Tower, and sentenced to death. The
latter portion was remitted, he retired into exile,
and his son and heir entered the Swedish service;
but when the American war broke out he raised the
regiment known as Macleod?s Highlanders (latterly
the 71st Regiment), consisting of two battalions,
and served at their head in the East Indies.
Lord Royston was raised to the bench on the
7th of June, I 7 10 ; and a suit of his and the Laird of
Fraserdale, conjointly against Haliburton of Pitcur,
is recorded in ? Bruce?s Decisions ? for 17 15.
He is said to have been ?one of the wittiest
