Currie.] LENNOX TOWER. 333
The surface of the pond on Harelaw Muir is 802
feet above the level of the sea.
One of the chief antiquities of Cume is Lennox
Tower, on a high bank overhanging the Water of?
Leith, and now called by the rather uncouth name
of Lumphoy. It is a massive edifice, measuring
externally fifty-five feet by thirty-five, with walls
above seven feet in thickness. It is entered by
an archway on the north, where the gate was
secured by a horizontal bar, the socket of which
as cattle were apt to stray into it. The extent of
the outer rampart, which goes round the brow of
the hill, is given in the ? Old Statistical Account ?
as measuring ?304 paces, or 1,212 feet.?
It was surrounded by a moat, and there can still
be traced the remains of a deep ditch. Though
small, it was undoubtedly a place of some strength.
Amongst the many conjectures of which it has
been the subject, one declares it to have been a
hunting-seat of James VI. and a residence of George
still remains in the wall. It is all built of polished
ashlar; the hall windows are arched, with stone
seats within them, and the ascent to the upper
storeys has been by a narrow circular stair, part
of which still remains within the thickness of the
wall, at the north-east angle, the steps of which are
only three feet long.
It is said, traditionally, to take its name from the
Lennox family, to whom it belonged; and the
same vague authority assigns it as a residence to
Mary and Darnley, and afterwards to the Regent
Morton. It occupies very high ground, commandhg
a beautiful prospect of the Firth of Forth, and
has a subterranean passage to the river, which was
Heriot, hy whom it was bequeathed to a daughter,
? from whom, along with the adjacent land, it was
purchased by an ancestor of the present proprietor.?
It has been alleged that there existed a subterranean
communication between it and Colinton
Tower, the old abode of the Foulis family; and
the common stock story is added that a piper once
tried to explore it, and that the sound of his pipes
was heard as far as Currie Bridge, where he
perished. But people were still living in 1845 who
had explored this secret passage for a considerable
way.
? It is supposed that the garrison (in war time)
secured by this means a clandestine supply of water,
334 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie.
? for provisions, and the enemy in confident expectation
of starving them out,asoldier accidentally caught
some fish in his bucket (in the act of drawing water),
which the governor boastingly held out in sight
of the besiegers. On seeing this unexpected store,
the assailants hastily raised the siege, deeming it
hopeless to attempt to starve a garrison that was
so mysteriously supplied.? It is probable that
this episode octurred during the war between the
king?s and queen?s party, which culminated in the
siege of Edinburgh Castle in 1573.
Curriehill Castle, the ancient ruins of which
stand on the opposite bank of the Leith, at a little
distance, and which was the stronghald and ,for
ages the abode of the Skenes, was a place of some
note during that war. Among the six chief places
mentioned as being fortified and garrisoned in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh are Lennox Tower,
on the loyalists? or queen?s side, and Curriehill
for the king.
In Crawford of Drumsoy?s ?Memoirs of the
Affairs of Scotland,? we find the following, under
date I572 :-
?The siege of Nidderie-Seaton being raised for
the relief of Merchiston, the governor found means
to supply his masters at Edinburgh with some corn
and about fifty or sixty oxen. Those who guarded
the booty mere in their turn taken by the Lairds of
Colington and Curryhill, and imprisoned at Corstorphin.
This galled the loyalists, lest it should
dishearten the governor and garrison of Nidderie;
and to let them see how much they rwented the
loss, the Lord Seaton was sent out with a hundred
horse, who took the Laird of Curryhill out of his
own house, and delivered him to the governor.
The same day he lighted by chance upon Crawford
of Liffnorris, who was coming into Leith, attended
with fifty horse, to assist the Associators. These,
with their leader, were taken without blows, and
were sent next morning to the governor, to keep
Curryhill company, but in a day or two were exchanged
for those at Corstorphin. Seaton, however,
kept the horses to himself, and brought them into
Edinburgh loaded with provisions, which he bought
at a doubleprice from the country people; nor did
the loyalists at any time take so much as one
bushel of corn which they did not pay for, though
they often compelled the owners to sell it.?
Malleny and Baberton, in Cume, are said to
have been the property of James VI. ; and Alexander
Brand, to whom he gave the latter house,
was a favourite of his.
Eastward of, Kinleith, at the north-east end of
the Pentland range, are the remains of a camp
above a pass, through which General Dalyell
marched with the Grey Dragoons and other horse
to attack the Covenanters at Rullion Green, in
1666.
The following is the rofl of the heritors of Currie
Parish in 1691 :-
Lord Ravelrig. Sir John Maitland of Ravelrig
was a senator of the College of Justice, 1689-17 10;
afterward fifth Earl of Lauderdale, who early joined
the Revolution party.
Robert Craig of Riccarton.
John Scott of Malleny.
Alexander Brand of Baberton
Charles Scott of Bavelaw.
Lawrence Cunningham of Balerno, whose family
William Chiesley of Cockburn.
About the niiddle of the last century an English
company endeavoured to work the vein of copper
ore at Eastmiln, but failing to make it profitable,
the attempt was abandoned.
Currie was celebrated in former days as the residence
of several eminent lawyers ; and, curiously
enough, the principal heritors were at one time
nearly all connected with the Court of Session.
Of these, the most eminent were the Skenes of
Curriehill, father and son, said, in the ? Old Statistical
Account,? to have been connected with the
royal family of Scotland.
John Skene of Curriehill came prominently forward
as an advocate in the reign of James VI. In
the year 1578 he appears in a case before the
Privy Council, connected with Hew Campbell of
Loudon, and others, as to the Provostship of the
town of Ayr, and in the following year as Prolocutor
for the magistrates of Stirling, in a case against the
craftsmen of that burgh.
In the year 1588 he was elected to accompany
Sir James Melville of Halhill, the eminent Scottish
memorialist, on a mission to the Court of Denmark.
?I told his Majesty? (James VI.), he records,
?that I would chuse to take with me for a lawyer
Mr. John Skeen. His Majesty said he judged
there were many better lawyers. I said he was best
acquainted with the German customs, and could
make them long harrangues in Latin, and that he
was good, true, and stout, like a Dutchman. Then
his Majesty was content that he should go with
me.?
This mission was concerning the marriage of
Anne of Denmark, and about the Orkney Isles.
In 1594 Sir John Skene of Curriehill was appointed
Lord Clerk Register, and in 1598 he seems
to have shared that office with his son James.
Three years before that he appears to have been an
Octavian-zs the eight lords commissioners, who
was for three centuries resident there.
