below the strata of coal that abound in the fields, it
communicates through the coal-rooms that are
wrought with other shafts, which occasions a rumbling
noise, that does not precede, but accompanies,
a high wind.?
According to the old Valuation Roll, Monkton
was the property of Patrick Falconer between I 726
and 1738.
Stonyhill and Monkton, according to Inquisitiones
A)kciaZes, both belonged to John, Earl of Lauder-
NEW HAILES HOUSE.
of fit accompaniments of a very ancient and
stately house.
Colonel Francis Charteris was a cadet of an?
ancient and honourable Dumfriesshire family, the
Charteris of Amisfield, whose tall, old, stubborn-looking
fortalice stands between the two head streams
of the Lochar. After serving in the wars of Marlborough,
the year 1704 saw him figuring in E h -
burgh as a member of the beau msde, with rather
an awkward reputation of being a highly successful
dale, at one time. The gardens of both appear to
have been among the earliest in Britain; and entries
in the household books of Dalkeith Palace show
that fruit and vegetables (which, however, could
scarcely have been so excellent then as now),
came therefrom two centuries ago.
Stonyhill House, near New Hailes, the property
of the Earl of Wemyss, seeming, in its present form,
to be only the offices of an ancient mansion, was
the residence, firstly, of Sir William Sharp, son of
the ill-fated Archbishop Sharp, and his wife, Helen
Moncrieff, daughter of the Laird of Randerston ;
and secondly, of the inglorious, or ? wicked
Colonel Charteris?; and it has remnants in its
vicinity, especially a huge buttressed garden wall,
gambler. There is a story told of him that, being
at the Duke of Queensbeny?s house in the Canongate
one evening, and playing,with the duchess, he
was enabled, by means of a mirror, or, more probably,
a couple of mirrors that chanced to be
placed opposite each other, to see what cards were
in the hands of Her Grace-Mary Boyle, daughter
of Lord Clifford-through which means he won
from her no less a sum than three thousand pounds
sterling-a very great one at that time. (? Domestic
Annals of Scotland.?)
It is added that the duke was so provoked by
this incident, that he got a Bill passed by the
Parliament over which he presided as Lord High
Commissioner, to prohibit all gambling beyond a
364 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, [Newton.
gift ratified by Bishop Richard and Pope Gregory.
There are many places in Scotland of the name
of Newton.
In 1612 a Sir William Oliphant of Newton (but
which is not very apparent) was appointed King?s
Advocate, and held the office till 1626. ? He conquered
the lands of Newton, the barony of Strabroke,
and the Murrows, near Edinburgh,? says Scott of
Scotstarvit ; ?? but was unfortunate in his children
as any of the rest. For his eldest son, Sir James,
populous villages, consisting of long rows of red-tiled
cottages that border the wayside, which are chiefly
inhabited by colliers, and are known by the classical
names of Red Raw, Adam?s Raw, Cauld Cots, and
Cuckold?s Raw.
The present parish comprehends the ancient
parishes of Newton, on the south-east, and Wymet
-now corrupted, as we have said, into Woolmetwhich
also belonged to the abbey of Dunfermline,
and were incorporated with the lordship and
was expelled therefrom for having shot his own
gardener dead with 3 hackbut. His eldest sonnamely,
Sir James, by Inchbraikie?s daughter-in his
drunken humours stabbed his mother with a sword
in her own house, and for that fled to Ireland. He
disposed and sold the whole lands, and died in
@eat penury. The second brother, Mr. William,
lay many years in prison, and disposed that barony
of Strabroke and Kirkhill to Sir Lewis Stewart,
who at this day (about 1650) enjoys the same.?
Newton parish is finely cultivated, and forms
part of the beautiful and fertile district between
Edinburgh and the town of Dalkeith.
It abounds with coal, and there are numerous
wch James the Sith?s princely grant to Lord
Thirlstane.
Three-quarters of a mile north of Newton Church
is Monkton House, belonging to the Hopes of
Pinkie, a modem edifice near the Esk, but having
attached to it as farm offices an ancient structure,
stated to have been the erection and the favourite
residence of General Monk. Here is a spring
known as the Routing WeZZ, which is said, by the
peculiar sound it makes at times, to predict a
coming storm.
?The case is,? according to the ?Old Statistical
Account? (Vol. XVI.), ? that this well being dug
many fathoms deep through a rock in order to get
