352 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Roslin.
? scratching on a pewter plate two verses, which are
~ preserved among his works, and run thus :-
? My blessings on you, sonsie wife ! . I ne?er was here before ;
Nae heart could wish for more.
You?ve gien us walth for horn and knife,
? IIeaven keep you free frae care and strife,
Till far ayont fourscore?;
And while I toddle on through life,
I?ll ne?er gang by your door.?
Bums and Nasmyth, it would appear, had spent
the day in ?a long ramble among the Pentlands,
which, having sharpened the poet?s appetite, lent
an additional relish to the evening meal.?
It is stated in a recent work that the old inn is
still kept by the descendants of those who estab
lished it at the Restoration.
nected with the victory : the ?Shinbones Field,?
where bones have been ploughed up ; the ? Hewan,?
where the onslaught was most dreadful; the
? Stinking Rig,;? where the slain were not properly
interred ; the ?? Kill-burn,? the current of which was
reddened with blood j and ? Mount Marl,? a farm so
called from a tradition that when the English were
on the point of being finally routed, one of them
cried to his leader, ? Mount, Marl-and ride ! ?
Many coins of Edward I. have also been found
hereabout.
confirmations of this charter from James VI.
and Charles 11. In modern times it has subsided
into a retreat of rural quietness, and the abode
of workers in the bleaching-fields and powdermills.
In the old inn of Roslin, which dates from 1660,
Dr. Johnson and Boswell, in 1773, about the close
of their Scottish tour, dined and drank tea. There,
also, Robert Bums breakfasted in company with
Nasniyth the artist, and being well entertained by
Mrs. Wilson, the landlady, he rewarded her by
ROSLIN CHAPEL:-THE CHANCEL. ( A f t r a Pkologtagh Sy G. w. ki?ilson b CO.)
In 1754, near Roslin, a stone coffin nine feet
long was uncovered by the plough, It contained
a human skeleton, supposed to be that of a chief
killed in the battle ; but it was much more probably
that of some ancient British wamor.
The village of Roslin stands on a bank about a
mile east of the road to Peebles. About 1440,
this village, or town, was the next place in importance
to the east of Edinburgh and Haddington;
and fostered by the care of the St. Clairs of Roslin, it
became populous by the resort of a great concourse
of all ranks of people. In 1456 it received from
James 11. a royal charter creating it a burgh of
barony, with a market cross, a weekly market, and
an annual fair on the Feast of St. Simon and Jude
-the anniversary of the battle of Roslin; and
respectively in the years 1622 and 1650 it received
