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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

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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
Volume 6 Page 366
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