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down the street, reached Holyrood, where he sought sanctuary in the chapel of St. Augustine; there his English pursuers found him on his knees before the altar. WEST FRONT OF HOLYROOD ABBEY CHUKCH. ever intent on revenge, joined Sir William Douglas, the Black Knight of Liddesdale, whose forces lay in the fastnesses of Pentland Muir. From there one night he led the Liddesdale men, tion, violate the sanctuary, they set a guard upon ! the then open and unwalled city, attacked the the church, resolving to starve him into surrender ; i English, and left 400 of them dead in the streets. but fortunately for Robert Prendergast, the monks .of Holyrood were loyal to their king, and thinking probably an Englishman less in the world mattered :little from a Scottish point of view, they conveyed to him provisions every night unseen by the guard, For twelve days and nights he lurked by the altar *of St. Augustine, until, disguised in a monk‘s cowl ;and gown, he effected an escape; and more than Sir William Douglas re-captured the fortress in the following year. In 1370 David 11. was interred with every solemnity before the high altar, the site of which is now in the Palace Garden. It was inscribed, “UiC Rex sub Zapide Davici izditus af tumukrfus,” as given by Fordun. On the 18th of January, 1384-5, Robert IL, ... the street, reached Holyrood, where he sought sanctuary in the chapel of St. Augustine; there his English ...

Vol. 3  p. 53 (Rel. 2.96)

44 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood of it having perhaps been reduced to ruins before the view was taken. During the levelling of the ground around the palace, and digging a foundation for the substantial rai!ing with which it was recently enclosed, the workmen came upon the the present rampart wall, when near the same site two stone coffins of the twelfth century, now in the nave, were found. Each is six feet four inches. in length, inside measurement. In the abbey was preserved, enshrined in silver,. CROFT-AN-RIGH HOUSE. zealous veneration in the great cathedral near the The texture of this remarkable cross was said to have been of such a nature that no mortal artificer could tell whether it was of wood, horn, OG , field. of other early buildings [perhaps the abbey house?], and from their being in the direct line of the building it is not improbable that a Lady chapel or other addition to the abbey church may have stood to the east of the choir. . . . A curious relic of the ancient tenants of the monastery was found by the vorkmen, consisting of a skull, which had no doubt formed the solitary companion of one of the monks. It had a hole in the top of the cranium, which served, most probably, for securing a crucifix, and over the brow ‘ was traced in antique characters, Memento mori. This solitary relic of the furniture of the abbey was procured by the late Sir Patrick Walker, and is still in possession of his family.” ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood of it having perhaps been reduced to ruins before the view was taken. During ...

Vol. 3  p. 44 (Rel. 2.34)

according to Bellenden, was now standing boldly at bay, and, with its branching antlers, put the life of the pious monarch in imminent jeopardy, as he and his horse were both borne to the ground. With a short hunting-sword, while fruitlessly endeavouring to defend himself against the infuriated animal, there appeared-continues the legend-a silver cloud, from the centre of which there came forth a hand, which placed in that of David a sparkling cross of miraculous construction, in so far that the material of which it was composed could never be discovered. Scared by this interposition, the white stag fled down the hollow way between the hills, but was afterwards slain by Sir Gregan Crawford, whose crest, a stag‘s head erased with a cross-crosslet between the antlers, is still borne by his descendants, the Crawfords of Kilbirnie, in memory of that eventful day in the forest of Drurnsheugh. Thoughtful, and oppressed with great awe, the king slowly wended his way through the forest to the Castle ; but the wonder did not end there, for when, after a long vigil, the king slept, there appeared by his couch St. Andrew, the apostle of Scotland, surrounded by rays of glory, instructing him to found, upon the exact spot where he had been miraculously saved, a fwegfh monastery for the canons regular of St. Augustine ; and, in obedience to this vision, he built the noble abbey of Holyrood, “in the little valley between two mountains ”-i.e., the Craigs and the Calton. Therein the marvellous cross was preserved till it was lost at a long subsequent period; but, in memory of St. David’s adventure on Rood-day, a stag‘s head with a cross between the antlers is still boqe as the arms of the Canongate. Alfwin was appointed first abbot, and left a glorious memory for many virtues.* Though nobly endowed, this famous edifice was not built for several years, during which the monks were received into the Castle, and occupied buildings which had been previously the abode of a community of nuns, who, by permission of Pope Alexander III., were removed, the monks, as Father Hay tells us, being deemed “as fitter to live among soldiers.” Abbot M7illiard appears, in 1152, as second superior of the monks in the Castrum Puellarum, where they resided till I I 76. A vehement dispute respecting the payment of tithes having occurred between Robert bishop of St. Andrews and Gaufrid abbot of Dunfermline, it was decided by the king, apud Casielum PueZZamm, m presence of a great convention, con- ’ “ Memorials of Ediiburgh Castle.” sisting of the abbots of Holyrood and Stirling, Gregory bishop of Dunkeld, the Earls of Fife and March, Hugo de Morville the Lord High Constable, William Lord of Carnwath, David de Oliphant a knight of Lothian, Henry the son of Swan, and many others, and the matter in debate was adjudicated on satisfactorily. David--‘< sair sanct for the crown ” though King James I. is said to have styled him-was one of the best of the early kings of Scotland. “I have seen him,” remarks Aldred, “quit his horse and dismiss his hunting equipage when any, even the humblest of his subjects, desired an audience ; he sometimes employed his leisure hours in the culture of his garden, and in the philosophical amusement of budding and engrafting trees.” In the priory of Hexham, which was then in Scottish territory, he was found dead, in a posture of devotion, on the 24th of May, 1153, and was succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV. who, though he frequently resided in the Castle, considered Scone his capital rather than Edinburgh. In 1153 he appointed Galfrid de Melville, of Melville in Lothian, to be sheriff of the fortress, and became a great benefactor to the monks within it. In 1160, Fergus, Lord of Galloway, a turbulent thane, husband of the Princess Elizabeth daughter of Henry I. of England, having taken arms against the Crown, was defeated in three desperate battles by Gilbert de Umfraville ; after which he gave his son Uchtred as a hostage, and assumed the cowl as an Augustine friar in the Castle of Edinburgh, where-after bestowing the priory of St. Marie de Tray11 as a dependant on Holyrood-he died, full of grief and mortification, in IIGI. Malcolm died in 1165, and was succeeded by William the Lion, who generally resided at Haddington; but many of his public documents are dated “Ajud Monasienicnt San& Crzmi de CasteZZo.” In 1174 the Castle fell, for the first time, into the hands of the English. William the Lion having demanded the restitution of Northumberland, Henry of England affected to comply, but afterwards invaded Scotland, and was repulsed. In turn William entered England at the head of 80,ooo men, who sorely I ravaged the northern counties, but being captured by treachery near Alnwick, and treated with wanton barbarity and indecency, his vast force dispersed. A ransom of AIoo,ooo-an enormous sum in those dayswas demanded, and the Castle was given, with some others, as a hostage for the king. Fortunately, however, that which was lost by the chances of war was quickly restored by more pleasant means, ... to Bellenden, was now standing boldly at bay, and, with its branching antlers, put the life of the ...

Vol. 1  p. 22 (Rel. 2.21)

THE CANONGATE TOLBOOTH. OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. - CHAPTER I. THE CANONGATE. Its Origin-Songs concerning it-Records-Market Cross-St. Job’s and the Girth Crosses-Early Hktory-The Town of H~bcrgarc- Canongate Paved-The Governing Body-Fbising the DeviL-Purchase of the Earl of Roxburgh‘s ‘‘ Superiority ”-The Foreign Settlement -Gorge Heriot the Elder-Huntly’s House-Sir Walter Scott’s Story of a Fire-The Morocco Land-Houses of Oliphant of Nmland, Ltrd David Hay, and Earl of Angus-Jack’s Land-Shoemakers’ Lands-Marquiz of Huntly’s How-Nisbet of Dirleton’s Mansion- Golfer’s Land-John and Nicol Patemn-The Porch and Gatehouse of the Abbey-Lucky Spence. THE Canongate-of old the Court-end of Edinburgh- takes its name from the Augustine monks of Holyrood, who were permitted to build it by the charter of David I. in I I 28, and to rule it as a burgh of regality. “The canons,” says Chalmers, .<‘‘ were empowered to settle here a village, and from them the street of this settlement was called the Canongate, from the Saxon gaet, a way or street, 40 according to’the practice of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Scotland and England. The irnmunities which the canons and their villagers enjoyed from David’s grant, soon raised up a town, which extended from the Abbey to the Nether Port of Edinburgh, and the townsmen performed their usual devotions in the church of the Abbey till the Reformation,” after which it continued to ... CANONGATE TOLBOOTH. OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. - CHAPTER I. THE CANONGATE. Its Origin-Songs concerning ...

Vol. 3  p. 1 (Rel. 2.13)

50 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood. Wllliam, who had property in Broughton, after his death, none bore even nominally the title of abbot. A part of the lands fill to the Earl of Roxburghe, from whom the superiority passed, as narrated elsewhere. The “Chronicon Sancta Crucis” was commenced by the canons of Holyrood, but the portion that has been preserved comes down only to 1163, and breaks off at the time of their third abbot. “Even the Indices Sanctorum and the ‘ two Calendars of Benefactors and Brethren, begun from the earliest times, and continued by the care of numerous monks,’ may-when allowance is made for the magniloquent style of the recorder-man nothing more than the united calendar, martyrology, and ritual book, which is fortunately still preserved. It is a large folio volume of 132 leaves of thick vellum, in oak boards covered with stamped leather, which resembles the binding of the sixteenth century.” . The extent of the ancient possessions of this great abbey may be gathered from the charters and gifts in the valuable Munim-nta Ecdesicp San& Cmcis de Edwinesburg and the series of Sent Rollr. To enumerate the vestments, ornaments, jewels, relics, and altar vessels of gold and silver set with precious stones, would far exceed our limits, but they are to be found at length in the second volume of the “ Bannatyne Miscellany.” When the monastery was dissolved at the Reformation its revenues were great, and according to the two first historians of Edinburgh its annual income then was stated as follows : By Maitland : In wheat. 27 chaldea, 10 bolls. I) In bear ... 40 .. g .. I t Inoa ts... 34 .. 15 .. 3tpecks. 501 capons, 24 hens, 24 salmon, 12 loads of salt, and an unknown number of swine. In money, &926 8s. 6d. Scots. By Arnot : In wheat ............ 442 bolls. .. ............. In bear 640 ss .. In oats .............. 560 .. with the same amount in other kind, and.&o sterling. CHAPTER VIII. HOLYROOD ABBEY (concluded). Charter of Willim 1.-Trial of the Scottish Tcmplars-Prrndergast’s Rercnpe--chanas by ROM IL and 111.-The Lord of the Isles- Coronation of James 11.-Marriages of James I[. and III.-Church, Bc. Burned by the Englih-Ph&d by them-Its Restoration by James VU.-The Royal Vault-Desaiption of the Chapel Royal-Plundered at the Revolution-Ruined in x*-The West Front- The Belhavcn Mouument-The Churchyard-Extent of Present Ruin-The Sanctuary-The Abbey Bells. .KING WILLIAM THE LION, in a charter under his :great seal, granted between the years 1171 and 1r77, ddressed to “all the good men of his whole kingdom, French, English, Scots, and Galwegians,” confirmed the monks of Holyrood in all that had been given them by his grandfather, King David, together with many other gifts, including the pasture of a thousand sheep in Rumanach (Romanno?), -a document witnessed in the castle, “apud &densehch. ” In 1309, when Elias 11. was abbot, there occurred an interesting event at Holyrood, of which no notice has yet been taken in any,history of Scotland-the trial of the Scottish Knights of the Temple on the usual charges niade against the erder, aftet the terrible murmurs that rose against it in Paris, London, and elsewhere, in consequence -of its alleged secret infidelity, sorcery, and other vices. According to the Processus factus contra Tem- .#arias in Scofict, in Wilkins’ Concilia,” a work of great price and rarity, it was in the month of December, 1309-when the south of ScotIand was averrun by the English, Irish, Welsh, and Norman troops of Edward II., and John of Bretagne, Earl of Richmond, was arrogantly called lieutenant of the kingdom, though Robert Bruce, succeeding to the power and popularity of Wallace, was in arms in the north-that Master John de Soleure, otherwise styled of Solerio, “chaplain to our lord the Pope,” together with William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, met at the Abbey of Holyrood “for the trial of the Templars, and two brethren of that order undernamed, the only persons of the order present in the kingdom of Scotland, by command of our most holy lord Clement V.” Some curious light is thrown upon the inner life of the order by this trial, which it is impossible to give at full length. In the first place appeared Brother Walter of Clifton, who, being sworn on the Gospels, replied that he had belonged to the military order of the Temple for ten years, since the last feast of All Saints, and had been received into it at Temple Bruer, at Lincoln, in England, by Brother William de la More (whom Raynouard, in his work on the order, calls a Scotsman), and that the Scottish brother knights received the statutes and observ ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood. Wllliam, who had property in Broughton, after his death, none bore even ...

Vol. 3  p. 50 (Rel. 2.05)

46 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. IHolyrood these ecclesiastical foundations :-The Priory of St. Mary’s Isle, in Galloway, gifted by Fergus, Lord of Galloway, who died a monk of Holyrood in 1161 ; the Priory of Blantyre, secluded on a rock above the Clyde ; Kowadill, in Hemes, gifted by Mac- Leod of Herries ; Oransay and Colonsay-in the former still stands their priory, built by a Lord of the Isles, one of the finest relics of religious antiquity in the Hebrides; the church of Melgynch, granted to them by Matthew, Abbot of Dunkeld, in 1289; the church of Dalgarnock, granted to them by John, Bishop of Glasgow, in 1322 j and the church and vicarage of Kirkcudbright, by of Haddington, mm ferra de Clerkynton, per rectas divisas. In 1177 the monastery was still in the Castle of Edinburgh. In 1180 Alexius, a subdeacon, held a council of the Holy Cross near Edinburgh, with reference to the long-disputed consecration of John Scott, Bishop of St. Andrews, when a double election had taken place. VI. WILLIAM II., abbot in 1206. During his time, John Bishop of Candida Casa resigned his mitre, became a canon .of Holyrood, and was buried in the chapter-house, where a stone long marked his grave. VII. WALTER, Prior of Inchcolm, abbot in 111. WILLIAM I. succeeded in 1152. He witnessed several charters of Malcolm IV. and William the Lion; and when he became aged and infirm, he vowed to God that he would say his Psalter every day. He enclosed the abbey with a strong wall. IV. ROBERT is said to have been abbot about the time of William the Lion. “ He granted to the inhabitants of the newly-projected burgh of the Canongate various privileges, which were confirmed, with additional benefactions, by David II., Robert III., and James 111. These kings granted to the bailies and community the annuities payable by the burgh, and also the common muir between the ’ lands of Broughton on the west and the lands of Pilrig on the east, on the north side of the road from Edinburgh to Leith.” V. JOHN, abbot in 1173, witnessed a charter of Richard Bishop of St. Andrews (chaplain to Malcolm IV.), granting to his canons the church the chapel of St Mary. XI, HENRY, the next abbot, was named Bishop of Galloway in 1253; consecrated in 1255 by the Archbishop of York, XII. RADULPH, abbot, is mentioned in a gift of lands at Pittendreich to the monks of St. Marie de Newbattle. XIII. ADAM, a traitor, and adherent of England, who did homage to Edward I. in 1292, and for whom he examined the records in the Castle of Edinburgh. He is called Alexander by Dempster. XIV. ELIAS 11. is mentioned as abbot at the time of the Scots Templar Trials in 1309, and in a deed of William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, in 1316. In his time, Holyrood, like Melrose and Dryburgh, was ravaged by the baffled army of Edward 11. in 1322. XV. SYMON OF WEDALE, abbot at the vigil of St. Barnabas, 1326, when Robert I. held a Parliament in Holyrood, at which was ratified a concord ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. IHolyrood these ecclesiastical foundations :-The Priory of St. Mary’s Isle, in ...

Vol. 3  p. 46 (Rel. 1.97)

founder to his new monastery were the churches of St. Cuthbert. and of the Castle, among which one plot of land belonging to the former is marked by ‘‘ the fountain which rises near the king’s garden, on the road leading to 3t. Cuthbert‘s church,” i.e., the fountain in the Well-house Tower. This valley-the future North Loch-was then Castle, where, in the twenty-first year of his reign, he granted a charter to the Abbey of Kelso, the witnesses to which, apud Castrum PueZZarum, were John, Bishop of Glasgow ; Prince Henry, his son ; William, his nephew ; Edward, the Chancellor ; ‘‘ BarthoZomeo $Zio Cornitis, et WiZZieZnza frateer i u s ; Jordan0 Hayrum;” Hugo de Morville, thc ST. MARGARET’S CHAPEL, EDINBURGH CASTLE, the garden, which Malcolm, the son of Pagan, culjivated for David II., and where tournaments were held, 44 while deep pools and wide morasses, tangled wood and wild animals, made the rude diverging pathways to the east and westward extremely dangerous for long after, though lights were burned at the Hermitage of St. Anthony on the Crag and the spire of St. John of Corstorphin, to guide the unfortunate wight who was foolhardy enough to travel after nightfall.” In 1144 we find (King David resident in the constable ; Odenell de Umphraville ; Robert Bruce ; William of Somerville; David de Oliphant; and William of Lindsay. The charter of foundation to the abbey of Holyrood-which will be referred to more fully in its place-besides conferring valuable revenues, derivable from the general resources of the city, gave the monks a right to dues to nearly the same amount from the royal revenues of the port of Perth, which was the more ancient capital of Scotland. ... to his new monastery were the churches of St. Cuthbert. and of the Castle, among which one plot of land ...

Vol. 1  p. 20 (Rel. 1.97)

$80 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Bmughtoa -- REMAINS OF THE VILLAGE OF OLD RROUGHTON, Isj2. (From a Drawing by Gcorp W. Simson ) CHAPTER XXV. THE VILLAGE AND BAKONY OF BROUGHTON. Brouzhton-The Villaee and Baronv-The Loan-Brouehton first mentioned-Feudal Superiors-Wltches Burned-Leslie’s Head-quarters- -Gordon of E1lor;‘s Children Murdered-Taken Rei Hand-Th Churches erected in the Bounds of the Barony. ACROSS the once well-tilled slope where now York Place stands, a narrow and secluded way between hedgerows, called the Loan of Broughton, led for ages to the isolated village of that name, of which but a few vestiges still remain. In a mernoir of Robert Wallace, D.D., the eminent author of the “Essay on the Numbers of Mankind,” and other works, an original member of the Rankenion Club-a literary society instituted at Edinburgh in 1716-we are told, in the Scots Magazine for 1809, that “he died 29th of July, 1771, at his cuzlntty lodgings in Broughton Loan, in his 75th year.” This baronial burgh, or petty town, about a mile distant by the nearest road from the ancient city, stood in hollow ground southward and eastward from the line of London Street, and had its own tolbooth and court-house, with several substantial stone mansions and many thatched cot- L‘olbooth of the Buigh-The Mmute Books-Free Burgesses-Modern tages, in 1780, and a few of the former are still surviving. Bruchton, or Broughton, according to Maitland, signified the Castle-town. If this place ever possessed a fortalice or keep, from whence its name seems to be derived, all vestiges of it have disappeared long ago. It is said to have been connected with the Castle of Edinburgh, and that from the lands of Broughton the supplies for the garrison came. But this explanation has been deemed by some fanciful. The earliest notice of Broughton is in the charter of David I. to Holyrood, ciwa A.D. 1143-7, wherein he grants to the monks, “Hereth, e2 Broctunam mm suis rectis a’iuisis,” &c. ; thus, with its lands, it belonged to the Church till the Reforrnation, when it was vested in the State. According to the stent roll of the abbey, the Barony of Broughton was most ample in extent,.and, among ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Bmughtoa -- REMAINS OF THE VILLAGE OF OLD RROUGHTON, Isj2. (From a Drawing by Gcorp ...

Vol. 3  p. 180 (Rel. 1.74)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. CATHEDRAL, 1787 (aper The Canongate Tolbooth . . . . . . I The Burgh Seal of the Canongate . . . , 3 TheMarket Cross, Canongate . . . . . 3 Haddington’s Entry . . . . . . . 4 East End of High Street, Nether Bow, and West End of Canongate . . . . . . . 5 Effigy of the Moor, Morocco Land . . . . 7 The Marquis of Huntly’s House, from the Canongate. 8 The MarquisofHuntly’sIlouse,from BakehouseClose‘ g Nisbet of Dirleton’s House . , . , . 12 The Golfers’ Land . . . . . . . 13 The Canongate-Continuation Eastward of Plan on page 5 . . . . . e . . 16 Tolbooth Wynd . . . . . . . 20 Lintel of John Hunter’s House, Panmure Close . . ZI The Water Gate . , . . . . . q Chessel’s Buildings . . . . . . . 25 Lintel above the Door of Sir A. Acheson’s House . 27 Smollett’s House, St. John Street . . . . 28‘ The Canongate Church . , . . . , 29 Fergusson’s Grave . . . . . . . 30 The Stocks, from thecanongate Tolbooth. . . 31 Levee Room in Moray House ; Sommer House in the Garden of Moray House ; Arbour in the Garden PAGE ‘ of Moray House ; Portion of a Ceiling in Moray House . . . . . . . . 32 Moray House . . . . . . . . 33 East End of the Canongate . . . . . 36 The Gnongate, looking West . . . . . 37 The Palace Gafe . . . . . . . 40 Queen Mary’s Bath . . . . . . . 41 Croft-an-righ House . . . , . . . 44 H o l p d Palace and Abbey . , ,. . . 45 Seal of Holymd Abbey . . . . . . 46 TheAbbeyChurch . . . . . . . 4 OF, ILLUSTRATIONS. D a d AZZm).-F~on&pzkc. PAGE Interim of the Chapel Royal of Holyrood House, 1687 49 Ground Plan of the Chapel Royal of Holyrood House 52 West Front of H o l y r d Abbey Church . , . 53 Interior of Holyrood Church, looking East . . 56 North Entrance to the Nave of Holyrood Abbey Church 57 The Belhaven Monument, Holyrood Church . . 60 Isometric Projection of the Royal Palace of Holyrood House . . . . . . . 61 The Abbey Port . . . . . . . 64 The Queen Mary Apartments, Holyrood Palace To faccpagc 66 Royal Gardens, and Ancient Horologe . . 68 Gardens, the Abbey Kirk, and‘the Kirkyard , 69 72 Holyrood Palxe, the Regent Moray’s House, the The Palaceof Holyrood House, the South and North Holyrood Palaceasit was before theFire of 1650 Holyrood Palace and Abbey Church, from the South- East . . . . . . . . . 73 The Royal Apartments, H o l y r d Palace Tu farepage 74 The Quadrangle, Holyrood Palace . . . . 76 The Gallery of the Kings, Holyrood Palace . . 77 Holyrood Palace, West Front . . . . . 80 The Hol-mod Fountain . . . . . , 81 The Royal Institution as itwas in 1829 . . . 84 The Royal Institution. . . . . . 85 TheNationalGallery. . . .. . . . 88 Interior of theNational Gallery . . . . Sg The Bank of Scotland, from Princes Street Gardens . 96 Head of the Mound, prior to the erection of the Free Church College, 1844 . . To factpage 97 Library of the Free Church College . . . . 97 West Princes Street Gardens, 1875 . . . . lot Nelson’s Monument, Calton Rill, from Princes Street. I O ~ The Calton Hill, Calton Gaol, Burying-ground, and Monuments. . . . . . . . 105 ... OF ILLUSTRATIONS. CATHEDRAL, 1787 (aper The Canongate Tolbooth . . . . . . I The Burgh Seal of the ...

Vol. 4  p. 392 (Rel. 1.63)

DUNGEONS IN THE CASTLE BELOW QUEEN MARY’S ROOM. CHL4PTER 111. CASTLE OF EDINBURGH-(cantinued.~~e~.) The Legend of the White Hart-Holyrood Abbey founded-The Monks of the Castrum Puellarum-David 1,’s numerous Endowments-His Death-Fergus, Lord of Gallaway. dies there-William the Lion-Castle Garrisoiied by the English for Twelve Years-The Castle a Royal Residence-The War of the Scottish Succession-The Castle in the hands of Edward I.-Frank’s Escalade-The Fortress Dismantled -Again in the hands of the English-Bullocks Stratagem for its Resapture-David‘s Tower. “THE well-known legend of the White Hart,’’ says Daniel Wilson, “ most probably had its origin in some real occurrence, magnified by the superstition of a rude and illiterate age. More recent observations at least suffice to show that it existed at a much earlier date than Lord Hailes referred it to.” It is recorded that on Rood-day, the 14th of September, in the harvest of 1128, the weather being fine and beautiful, King David and his courtiers, after mass, left the Castle by that gate before which he was wont to dispense justice to his people, and issued forth to the chase in the wild country that lay around-for then over miles of the land now covered by the new and much of the old city, for ages into times unknown, the oak-trees of the primeval forest of Drumsheugh had shaken down their leaves and acorns upon the wild and now extinct animals of the chase. And here it may be mentioned that boars’ tusks of most enormous size were found in 1846 in the bank to the south of the half-moon battery, together with an iron axe, the skull and bones of a man. On this Rood-day we are told that the king issued from the Castle contrary to the advice of his confessor, Alfwin, an Augustinian monk of great sanctity and learning, who reminded him that it was the feast of the’ Exaltation of the Cross, and should be passed in devotion, not in hunting; but of this advice the king took no heed. Amid the dense forest and in the ardour of the chase he became separated from his train, in “ the vail that lyis to the eist fra the said castell,” and found himself at the foot of the stupendous crags, where, “under the shade of a leafy tree,” he was almost immediately assailed by a white stag of gigantic size, which had been maddened by the pursuit, “noys and dyn of bugillis,” and which, ... IN THE CASTLE BELOW QUEEN MARY’S ROOM. CHL4PTER 111. CASTLE OF EDINBURGH-(cantinued.~~e~.) The Legend ...

Vol. 1  p. 21 (Rel. 1.62)

64 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. ,The Dean. Among the old houses here may be mentioned a mill, or granary, immediately at the southeast end of the bridge, which has sculptured over its door, within a panel, two baker’s peels, crossed with the date 1645, and the almost inevitable legend--“ BZeisit be God for CZZ His g@s.” Another quaint-old crowstepped double house, with A mill or mills must have stood here before a stone of Holyrood was laid, as David I., in his charter of foundation to that abbey, grants to the monks “one of my mills of Dene, a tithe of the mill of Libertun and of Dene, and of the new mill of Edinburgh,” A.D. I 143-7. In 1592, “the landis of Dene, wt the mylnes and mure thereof, and their pertinents, lyand within the Sherifdom of Edinburgh,” were given by James VI. to James Lord Lindesay, of the Byres. On the panel are carved a wheatsheaf between two cherubs’ heads, the bakers’ arms within a wreath of oak-leaves, and the motto, God’s Providence is ovr Inheritance-1677.” In 1729 a number of Dutch bleachers from Haarlem commenced a bleach-field somewhere near the Water of Leith, and soon exhibited to the village were wont to incarcerate culprits. It is six storeys in height, including the dormer windows, has six crowstepped gables, two of which surmount the square projecting staircases, in the westmost of which is a handsomely moulded doorway, sur mounted by a frieze, entablature, and coat of arms within a square panel. On the frieze is the legend,. in large Roman letters- GOD . BLESS. THE . BAXTERS , OF . EDIN . BRUGH . WHO . BUILT , THIS . HOUSE. 1675. flights of outside stairs, has a gablet, surmounted by a well-carved mullet, and the date 1670. It stands on the west side of the steep path that winds upward to the Dean, and has evidently been the abodeof some well-to-do millers inthedaysof old. On the steep slope, where 2 flight of steps’ ascends to the old Ferry Road, stands the ancient Tolbooth, wherein the bailies of this once sequestered gaze and to the imitation of Scotland, the printing and stamping of all colours on linen fabrics. Some thirty years after, we find the Cournnt for December, 1761, announcing to the public ‘‘ that Isabel Brodie, spouse to William Rankin, in the Water of Leith, about a mile from Edinburgh, cures the Emerads” (i.e., Hemorrhoids) and various other illnesses; forquacksseem tohave existed theqasnow. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. ,The Dean. Among the old houses here may be mentioned a mill, or granary, immediately ...

Vol. 5  p. 64 (Rel. 1.6)

and here and there were sedgy pools and lonely displayed; stout and true Covenanters borne forth tarns, where the heron fished and waded, with the i in groups to die at the gallows or in the Greygreat sheet of the South Loch, where now the Meadows lie; and there, too, was Duddingston, but in size twice the extent we find it now. Of all these hills have looked on since the Roman altars of Jove smoked at lnveresk and Cramond, of all the grim old fortress on its rock and St. Giles’s Gothic and imperial crown have seen, we shall endeavour to lay the wondrous story before our readers. The generations of men are like the waves of the sea ; we know not whence they come or whither they go; but generation after generation of citizens shall Banquo’s spectral line of . Dinas-Eiddyn, with their glittering torques, armlets, and floating hair; the hoodedScoto-Saxons of Lothian and the Merse, with ringed bymes and long battle-axes ; the steel-clad knights bf the Bruces and the Jameses ; merchants and burghers in broadcloth ; monks, abbots, and nuns; Templars on their trial at Holyrood for sorcery and . blasphemy; Knights - hospitallers and hermits of St. Anthony; the old fighting merchant mariners of Leith, such as the Woods, the Bartons, and Sir Alexander Mathieson, (( the king of the sea ; ” friars churchyard, where stands the tomb which tells us how 18,000 ofthem perished as “noble martyrs for Jesus Christ ;” cavaliers in all their bravery and pride, and in the days of their suffering and downfall j the brawling gallants of a century later, who wore lace ruffles and rapiers, and “ paraded ’’ their opponents on the stiiallest provocation in the Duke’s Walk behind Holyrood ; the giave senators and jovial lawyers of the last century, who held their “high jinks” in dingy taverns near the Parliament House; and many of the quaint old citizens who pass before us like figure in the valuable repertory of Kay :-all shall kings; the men of pass in review before us, and we shall touch on them one and all, as we think of them, tenderly and kindly, as of those who are long since dead and gone-gone to their solemn account at the foot of the Great WhiteThrone. In picturesque beauty the capital of Scotland is second to none. ‘( What the tour of Europe was necessary to see,I find congregated in this one city,” said Sir David Wilkie. “Here alike are the beauties of Prague and of Salzburg, the romantic sites of Orvieto and Tivoli, and all the magnificence of the Bays of Naples andGenoa. COUNTER SEAL OF THE ABOVE.? (Af7e-r Hemy LahzJ Here, indeed, to the painwitches andwizards perishing in the flames at the Grassmarket or the Gallow- -lee ; the craftsmen in arms, with their Blue Banner The device of the common seal represents a castle triple-towered, the gats thrown open. In uch of the towen is the head of a soldier. F o l i e appears at the lower part and side of the seal, and above the towen may be seen a crescent and a mullet. The lettcrinz is “SIGIL- - LUY COMYUNI BURGI DE EDINBCBHG.“ ter‘s fancy may be 6und realised the Roman Capitol and the Grecian Acropolis.’’ t A full length figure df St. Giles standing within a Gothic porch in pontifical vestments but without a mitre; in his right hand he holds a crozier, and in his left a boak. At each side is a short staff terminating in a fleur-de-lis. Branches of foliagk ornament the lower part and sides of the design. The lettering k ‘‘ EcrDrI SINGNO CREDATIS (COUDE BENNI) GNO:’ (Fmm a Dmnunt dated 1392). ... here and there were sedgy pools and lonely displayed; stout and true Covenanters borne forth tarns, where the ...

Vol. 1  p. 8 (Rel. 1.48)

THE ROYAL APARTMENTS, HOLYROOD PALACE. ... ROYAL APARTMENTS, HOLYROOD ...

Vol. 3  p. v (Rel. 1.47)

Ho1yrood.J THE SCOTTISH TEMPLARS. 51 ances of the order from the Master of England, who received them from the Grand Master at Jerusalem and the Master at Cyprus. He had then to detail the mode of his reception into the order, begging admission with clasped hands and bended knees, aflirming that he had no debts and was not affianced to any woman, and that he ‘‘ vowed to be a perpetual servant to the master and the brotherhood, and to defend the Eastern land; to be for ever chaste and obedient, and to live without his own will and property.” A white mantle bad then been put upon his shoulder (to be worn over his chain armour, but looped up to leave the swordami free); a linen coif and the kiss of fraternity were then given him. On his knees he then vowed “never to dwell in a house where a woman was in labour, nor be present at the marriage or purification of one; that from thence forward he would sleep in his shirt and drawers, with a cord girt over the former.” The inquisitors, who were perhaps impatient to hear of the four-legged idol, the cat, and the devil, concerning all of which such curious confessions had been made by the Florentine Templars, now asked him if he had ever heard of scandals against the order during his residence at Temple in Lothian, or of knights that had fled from their pre ceptories; and he answered :- “Yes ; Brother Thomas Tocci and Brother John de Husflete, who for two years had been preceptor before him at Balantradoch (Temple), and also two other knights who were natives of England.” Being closely interrogated upon all the foolish accusations in the papal bull of Clement, he boldly replied to each item in the negative. Two of the charges were that their chaplains celebrated mass without the words of consecration, and that the knights believkd their preceptors could absolve sins. He explained that such powers could be delegated, and that he himself ‘‘ had received it a considerable time ago.” Sir William de Middleton, clad in the military order of the Temple, was next sworn and interrogated in the same manner. He was admitted into the order, he said, by Sir Brian le Jay, then Master of England, who was slain by Wallace at the battle of Falkirk, and had resided at Temple in Lothian and other preceptories of the order, and gave the same denials to the clauses in the bull that had been given by Clifton, with the addition that he “was prohibited from receiving any service from women, not even water to wash his hands.” After this he was led from the court, and fortyone witnesses, summoned to Holyrood, were examined. These were chiefly abbots, priests, and even serving-men of the order, but nothing of a criminal nature against it was elicited ; though during similar examinations at Lincoln, Brother Thomas Tocci de Thoroldby, a Templar, declared that he had heard the late Brim le Jay (Master of Scotland and afterwards of England) say a hundred times over, “ that Christ was not the true God, but a mere man, and that the smallest hair out of the beard of a Saracen was worth any Christian’s whole body ;a and that once, when he was standing in Sir Brian’s presence, certain beggars sought alms “for the love of God and our ,Blessed Lady,” on which he threw a halfpenny in the mud, and made them hunt for it, though in midwinter, saying, ‘‘ Go to your lady and be hanged !” Another Templar, Stephen de Stapelbrvgge, declared that Sir Brian ordered him at his admission to spit upon the cross, but he spat beside it. The first witness examined at Holyrood was Hugh Abbot of Dunfermline, who stated that he had ever viewed with suspicion the midnight chapters and “ clandestine admission of brethren.” E l k Lord Abbot of Holyrood, and Gervase Lord Abbot of Newbattle, were then examined, together with Master Robert of Kydlawe, and Patrick Prior of the Dominicans in tbe fields qear Edinburgh, and they agreed in all things with the Abbot of Dunfermline. The eighth witness, Adam of Wedale (now called Stow), a Cistercian, accused the Templars of selfishness and oppression of their neighbours, and John of Byres, a .monk of Newbattle, John of Mumphat and Gilbert of Haddington, two monks of Holyrood, entirely agreed with him ; while the rector of Ratho maintained that the Scottish Tqmplars were not free from the crimes imputed to the order, adding ‘‘ that he had never known when any Templar was buried or heard of one dying a natural death, and that the whole order was generally against the Holy Church.” The former points had evident reference to the rumour that the order burned their dead and drank the ashes in wine ! Henry de Leith Rector of Restalrig, Nicholas Vicar of Lasswade, John Chaplain of St. Leonard’s, and others, agreed in all things with the Abbot of Dunfermline, as did nine Scottish barons of rank who added that the knights were ungracious to the poor, practising hospitality alone to the great and wealthy, and then only under the impulse of fear ; and moreover, that had the Templars been good Christians they would never have lost the Holy Land.” The forty-first and last witness, John Thyng, who for seventeen years had been a serving brother of the order in Scotland, coincided with the others, ... THE SCOTTISH TEMPLARS. 51 ances of the order from the Master of England, who received them from the ...

Vol. 3  p. 51 (Rel. 1.44)

THE PALACE OF HOLYROOD HOUSE (33), THE SOUTH AND NORTH GARDENS (33), THE ABBEY KIRK (2) AND THE KIRKYARD (2) ... PALACE OF HOLYROOD HOUSE (33), THE SOUTH AND NORTH GARDENS (33), THE ABBEY KIRK (2) AND THE KIRKYARD ...

Vol. 3  p. 69 (Rel. 1.4)

1230 by King Alexander II., and in its earliest charters named Mansio Re@, as he had bestowed upon the monks a royal residence as their abode. The church built by Alexander was a large cruufsrm edifice with a central rood-tower and lofty spire. It was renowned for king the scene of the SIR JAMES PALSHAW, BART., AND H.m. LIEUTENANT OP EDINBURGH. (Fmm a Photograph ay 3~ha Meffat.) bishop of Glasgow and Lord High Chancellor, fled from the Douglases during the terrible street conflict or tulzie in 1519, and, as Pitscottie records, was dragged “ out behind the altar, and his rocki: riven aff him, and had been slake,” had not Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, interceded for him: in the realm, summoned in 1512 by the Pipal Legate, Cardinal Bagimont, who presided. In this synod, says Balfour, all ecclesiastical benefices exceeding forty pounds per annum were taxed in the payment of ten pounds to the Pope by way of pension, and to the King of Scotland such a tax as he felt disposed to levy. This valuation, which is still known by the name of Bagimont‘s Roll, was made thereafter the standard for taxing the Scottish ecclesiastics at the Vatican. It was to this church that James Beaton, Archcrate bishop.” And here we may remark that the Scottish word fulzie, used by us so often, is derived from the French t&ifi--n; to confuse, or to mix The monastery was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1528, but the church would seem to have been uninjured by the view of it in 1544, though no doubt it would suffer, like all the others in the city, at the hands of the English in that year. In 1552 the Provost and Council ordered Alex. Park, city treasurer, to deliver to “the Dene of Gild x li., that he may thairwith pay the Blak ... by King Alexander II., and in its earliest charters named Mansio Re@, as he had bestowed upon the monks a ...

Vol. 4  p. 285 (Rel. 1.38)

People don't play riddle games with Giants, or get tricked by Faerie Queens. They don't follow Blind Maniacs into Futures, or have their Lives saved by Death. Timothy Hunter in The Books of Faerie 54 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Holymd under his great seal, granted to David, Abbot of Holyrood, a piece of land within the Castle of Edinburgh whereon to erect a house, to which the monks, their servants and families, might repair in time of peace and war. This piece of ground was eighty feet in length and eighty in breadth, wherever the abbot might choose, “beyond the site of our manor” (the royal lodging?); “the said abbot and his successors paying therefor to us and to our heirs a silver penny at the said castle on Whitsunday yearly, if asked only, so that the foresaid abbot and his successors and their servants shall be bound to take the oath of fidelity for the due security of the said castle to the keeper thereof, who may be for the time, have free ish and entry to the said castle at accustomed and proper hours.” On the 5th April, 1391, King Robert III., undei his great seal, granted a charter to the Abbey of Holyrood, confirming the charter of David 11. to the abbey, dated 30th December, 1343. It is dated at Edinburgh. When the abbey became a species of palace has never been distinctly ascertained, but Robert 111. appears sometimes to have made Holyrood his residence. James I. occasionally kept his court there; and in the abbey his queen was delivered of twin princes, on the 16th October, 14 I 6-Alexandeq who died, and James, afterwards second of that name. In 1428 a remarkable episode occurred in the abbey church. Alexander, Lord of the Isles, who had been in rebellion against James I., but had been utterly defeated by the royal troops in Lochaber, sent messengers to the king to sue for mercy. But the latter, justly incensed, refused to enter into .my negotiations with an outlawed fugitive. Alexander, driven to despair, and compelled to fly from place to place, was compelled at last to trust to the royal clemency. Travelling secretly to Edinburgh, he suddenly presented himself, upon a solemn festival, before the high altar 01 Holyrood, and holding his‘drawn sword by the point, he presented the hilt to the astonished king, in token of his unconditional submission, and falling on his knees, in presence of Queen Jane and the whole court, implored the royal mercy. The ill-fated James granted him his life, at the tender intercession of his royal consort, but sent him a prisoner to the sequestered castle of Tantallon, on its sea-beat Tock, under the charge of his nephew, the Earl of Angus. The island chief eventually received a free pardon, was restored to all his honours, castles, and estates, and stood as sponsor for the twin princes, Alexander and James, at the font . In 1437 the Parliament met at Edinburgh, on the 25th March, after the murder of James I., and adopted immediate measures for the government of the country. Their first act was the coronation of the young prince, in his sixth year, on whose head at Holyrood, as James II., the crown was solemnly placed by James Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews, in presence of a great concourse of the nobles, clergy, and representatives of towns, amid the usual testimonies of devotion and loyalty. On March 27th, 1439, Patrick Abbot of Holyrood and his convent granted a charter to Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig, and his heirs, of the ofice of bailie over their lands of St. Leonard’s, in the town of Leith, “from the end of the great volut of William Logane, on the east part of the common gate that passes to the ford over the water of Leith, beside the waste land near the house of John of Turyng on the west part, and common Venale called St. Leonard’s Wynd, as it extended of old on the south part, and the water of the port OF Leith on the north, and . . . . in the ninth year of the pontificate of our most holy father and lord, Eugenius IV., by Divine Providence Pope.” Chronologically, the next event connected with the abbey was the arrival of Mary of Gueldres in 1449. In company with John Railston, Bishop of Dunkeld, and Nicholas Otterburn, official of Lothian, the Lord Chancellor Crichton went to France to seek among the princesses of that friendly court a suitable bride for young James 11.; but no match being suitable, by the advice of Charles VII. these ambassadors proceeded to Burgundy, and, with the cordial concurrence of Duke Philip the Good, made proposals to his kinswoman, hlary, the only daughter and heiress of Arnold, Duke of Gueldres, and in 1449 the engagement was formally concluded. Philip promised to pay _f60,boo in gold as a dowry, while James, on the other hand, settled IO,OOO crowns upon her, secured on land in Strathearn, Athole, Methven, and East Lothian, while relinquishing all; claim to the Duchy of Gueldres, in the event of an heir male being born to Duke Arnold ; and the Parliament met at Stirling, resolved that the royal nuptials should be conducted on a scale of splendour suited to the occasion. The fleet containing the bride anchored in June in the Forth. She was “young, beautiful, and of a masculine constitution,” says Hawthornden, and came attended by a splendid train of knights and nobles from France and Burgundy, including tlie Archduke Sigisniund of Austria, the Duke of Brittany, and the Lord of Campvere (the three brothers-in-law of the King of Scotland), togetho ... don't play riddle games with Giants, or get tricked by Faerie Queens. They don't follow Blind Maniacs into ...

Vol. 3  p. 54 (Rel. 1.35)

78 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Edinburgh Castle. entrance to the apartment in which her daughter was delivered of James VI, It was formerly part of a large room which, before being partitioned, measured 30 by 25 feet. On the I 1 th of February, 1567, after the murder of Darnley, Mary retired to this apartment, where she had the walls hung with black, and remained in strict seclusion until after the funeral. Killigrew, who came from Elizabeth with letters of condolence, on his introduction found (( tbe Queen’s Majesty in a dark chamber, so that he could not see her face, but by her words she seemed very doleful.” In 1849, an antique iron chisel, spear-shaped, was found in the fireplace of this apartment, which was long used as a canteen for the soldiers, but has now been renovated, though in a rude and inelegant form. Below the grand hall are a double tier of strongly-vaulted dungeons, entered by a passage from the west, and secured by an intricate arrangement, of iron gates and massive chains. In one of these Kirkaldy of Grange buried his brother David Melville. The small loophole that admits light into each of these huge vaults, whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, is strongly secured by three ranges of iron bars. Within these drear abodes have captives of all kinds pined, and latterly the French prisoners, forty of whom slept in each. In some are still the wooden frames to which their hammocks were slung. Under Queen Mary’s room there is one dungeon excavated out of the solid rock, and having, as we have said, an iron staple in its wall to which the prisoner was chained. The north side of the quadrangle consists now of an uninteresting block of barracks, erected about the middle of the eighteenth century, and altered, but scarcely improved, in 1860-2, by the Royal Engineers and Mr. Charles W. Billings. It occupies the site, and was built from the materials, of what was once a church of vast dimensions and unknown antiquity, but the great western gable of which was long ago a conspicuous feature above the eastern curtain wall. By Maitland it is described as ((a very long and large ancient church, which from its spacious dimensions I imagine that it was not only built for the use of the garrison, but for the service of the neighbouring hinabitants before St. Giles’s church was erected for their accommodation.” Its great font, and many beautifully carved stones were found built into the barrack wall during recent alterations. It is supposed to have been a church erected after the death of the pious Queen Margaret, and dedicated to her, as it is mentioned by David I. in his Holyrood charter as “the church of the Castle of Edinburgh,” and is again confirmed as such in the charter of Alexander 111. and several Papal bulls, and the ‘( paroche kirk within the said Castell,” is distinctly referred to by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1595.” In 1753 it was divided into three storeys, and filled with tents, cannon, and other munitions of war. A winding stair descends from the new barracks to the butts, where the rock is defended by the western wall and Bute’s Battery, near which, at an angle, a turret, named the Queen’s Post, occupies the site of St. Margaret’s Tower. Fifty feet below the level of the rock is another guardhouse and one of the draw-wells poisoned by the Englishin 1572. Kear it is the ancient posterngate, where Dundee held his parley with the Duke of Gordon in 1688, and through which, perhaps, St. Margaret’s body was borne in 1093. From thence there is a sudden ascent by steps, behind the banquette of the bastions and near the principal, magazine, to Mylne’s Mount, where there is another grate for a bale-fire to alarm Fife, Stirling, and the north. The fortifications are irregular, furnished throughout with strong stone turrets, and prepared for mounting about sixty pieces of cannon. Two door-lintels covered with curious sculptures are still preserved : one over the entrance to the ordnance office represents Mons Meg and other ancient cannon ; the other a cannoneer of the sixteenth century, in complete armour, in the act of loading a small culverin. The Castle farm is said to have been the ancient village of Broughton, which St. David granted to the monks of Holyrood ; the Castle gardens we have already referred to; and to the barns, stables, and lists attached to it, we shall have occasion to refer elsewhere. The Castle company was a corps of Scottish soldiers raised in January 1661, and formed a permanent part of the garrison till 1818, when, with the ancient band of Mary of Guise, which garrisoned the Castle of Stirling, they were incorporated in cne of the thirteen veteran battalions emjodied in that year. The Castle being within the abrogated parish of Holyrood, has a burial-place for its garrison in the Canongate churchyard ; but dead have been buried within the walls frequently during sieges and blockades, as in 1745, when nineteen soldiers and three women were interred on the summit of the rock. The Castle is capable of containing 3,000 infantry; but the accommodation for troops is greatly ; neglected by Government, and the barracks have Wodmw’s ‘ I Miscellany.” ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Edinburgh Castle. entrance to the apartment in which her daughter was delivered of ...

Vol. 1  p. 78 (Rel. 1.3)

THE TOWER 327 Liberton.] between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis. Macbeth of Liberton also granted to St. Cuth bert’s Church the tithes and oblations of Legbor nard, a church which cannot now be traced. The name is supposed to be a corruption o Lepertoun, as there stood here a hospital fo lepers, of which all vestiges have disappeared ; bu the lands thereof in some old writs (according tc the “New Statistical Account”) were called “Spital town.” At Nether Liberton, three-quarters of a mile nortl of the church, was a mill, worked of course by thc Braid Burn, which David I, bestowed upon tht monks of Holyrood, as a tithe thereof, ‘‘wit1 thirty cartloads from the bush of Liberton,” gift! confirmed by William the Lion under the Grea Seal circa I I 7 1-7. The Black Friars at Edinburgh received fivc pounds sterling annually from this mill at Nethei Liberton, by a charter from King Robert I. Prior to the date of King David’s charter, thc church of Liberton belonged to St. Cuthbert’s The patronage of it, with an acre of land adjoining it, was bestowed by Sir John Maxwell of that iik in 1367, on the monastery of Kilwinning,pro sahh aniiiim SUE et Agnetis sponsiz SUE. This gift was confirmed by King David 11. By David 11. the lands of Over Liberton, ‘( quhilk Allan Baroune resigned,” were gifted tc John Wigham ; and by the same monarch the land: of Nether Liberton were gifted to William Ramsay, of Dalhousie, knight, and Agnes, his spouse, 24th October, 1369. At a later period he granted a charter “to David Libbertoun, of the office of sergandrie of the overward of the Constabularie of Edinburgh, with the lands of Over Libbertoun pertaining thereto.” (“ Robertson’s Index.”) Adam Forrester (ancestor of the Corstorphine family) was Laird of Nether Liberton in 1387, for estates changed proprietors quickly in those troublesome times, and we have already reterred to him as one of those who, with the Provost Andrew Yichtson, made arrangements for certain extensive additions to the church of St. Giles in that year. William of Liberton was provost of the city in 1429, and ten years subsequently with William Douglas of Hawthornden, Meclielson of Herdmanston (now Harviston), and others, he witnessed the charter of Patrick, abbot of Holyrood, to Sir Yatrick Logan, Lord. of Restalrig, of the office of bailie of St. Leonard’s. (“ Burgh Charters,” No. At Liberton there was standing till about 1840 a tall peel-house or tower, which was believed to XXVI.) have been the residence of Macbeth and other barons of Liberton, and which must not be confounded with the solitary square tower that stands to the westward of the road that leads into the heart of the Braid Hills, and is traditionally said to have been the abode of a troublesome robber laud, who waylaid provisions coming to the city markets. The former had an old dial-stone, inscribed ‘‘ God’s Providence is our Inheritance.” Near the present Liberton Tower the remains of a Celtic cross were found embedded in a wall in 1863, by the late James Drummond, R.S.A. It was covered with knot-work. The old church-or chapel it was more probably -at Kirk-Liberton, is supposed to have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary-there having been a holy spring near it, called our Lady’s Well-and it had attached to it a glebe of two oxgates of land. In the vicinity was a place called Kilmartin, which seemed to indicate the site of some ancient and now forgotten chapel. In.1240 the chapelry of Liberton was disjoined by David Benham, Bishop of St. Andrews and Great Chamberlain to the King, from the parish of St. Cuthbert’s, and constituted a rectory belonging to the Abbey of Holyrood, and from then till the Reformation it was served by a vicar. For a brief period subsequent to 1633, it was a prebend of the short-lived and most inglorious bishopric of Edinburgh ; and at the final abolition thereof it reverted to the disposal of the Crown. The parochial registers date from 1639. When the old church was demolished prior to :he erection of the new, in 1815, there was found very mysteriously embedded in its basement an ron medal of the thirteenth century, inscribed in xncient Russian characters “ THE GRAND PRINCE 3 ~ . ALEXANDER YAROSLAVITCH NEVSKOI.” The old church is said to have been a picuresque edifice not unlike that now at Corstor- Ihine ; the new one is a tolerably handsome semi- Gothic structure, designed by Gillespie Graham, ,eated for 1,430 persons, and having a square ower with four ornamental pinnacles, forming a )leasing and prominent object in the landscape outhward of the city. Subordinate to the church there were in Catholic imes three chapels-one built by James V. at 3rigend’ already referred to ; a second at Niddrie, ounded by Robert Wauchope of Niddrie, in 1389, .nd dedicated to “ Our .Lady,” but which is now inly commemorated by its burying-ground-which ontinues to be in use-and a few faint traces of ... TOWER 327 Liberton.] between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis. Macbeth of Liberton ...

Vol. 6  p. 327 (Rel. 1.3)

58 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [~dpUCd. proper exertions been made for their repair and preservation, particularly by the Bishop o€ Orkney, and ere it shrank to the proportions of a chapel. But even when the Reformation was in full progress the following entry appears in the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, under date the 8th February, 1557-8 :-A36 “to David Melville, indweller in ,Leith, for ane pair of organs to the chapel in the palace of Holyroodhouse.” The remains of George Earl of Huntly, who was slain at the battle of Corrichie, when he was in rebellion against the Crown, were brought by sea to Edinburgh in 1562, and kept all winter unburied in the Abbey of Holyrood-most proba, bly in the church. Then an indictment for high treason was exhibited against him in the month of May following, “eftir that he was deid and departit frae this mortal lyfe,” and the corpse was laid before Parliament : in this instance showing the rancour of party and the absurdity of old feudal laws. It was somewhere about this time that the new royal vault was constructed in the south aisle ol the nave, and the remains of the kings and queens were removed from their ancient resting-place near the high altar. It is built against the ancient Norman doorway of the cloisters, which still remains externally, with its slender shafts and beautiful zigzag mouldings of the days of David I. “The cloisters,” says Wilson, ‘‘ appear to have enclosed a large court, formed in the angle of the nave and transept. The remains of the north are clearly traceable still, and the site of the west side is occupied by palace buildings. Here was the ambulatory for the old monks, when the magnificent foundation of St. David retained its pristine splendour, and remained probably till the burning of the abbey after the death of James V.2 who was buried there beside his first queen in December 1542, and his second son, Arthur Duke of Albany, a child eight days old, who died at Stirling. In the royal vault also lie the remains of David 11. ; Prince Arthur, third son of James IV., who died in the castle, July 15th, 1510, aged nine months ; Henry, Lord Darnley, murdered 1567 j and Jane, Countess of Argyle, who was at supper with her sister, the queen, on the night of Rizzio’s assassination. “ Dying without issue, she was enclosed in one of the richest coffins ever seen in Scotland, the compartments and inscriptions being all of solid gold.” In the same vault were de. posited the remains of the Duchess de Grammont, who died an exile at Holyrood in 1803 ; and, in the days of Queen Victoria, the remains of Mary of Gueldres, queen of James 11. ’ Among the altars in thechurchwere two dedicated to St. Andrew and St. Catharine, a third dedicated to St. Anne by the tailors of Edinburgh, and a fourth by the Cordiners to St. Crispin, whose statutes were placed upon it. On the 18th of June, 1567, two days after the imprisonment of Queen Mary, the Earl of Glencairn and others, “with a savage malignity, laid waste this beautiful chapel,” broke in pieces its most valuable furniture, and laid its statues and other ornaments in ruins. On the 18th of June, 1633, Charles I. was crowned with great pomp in the abbey church and amid the greatest demonstrations of loyalty, when the silver keys of the city were delivered to him by the Provost, after which they were never again presented to a monarch until the time of George IV. : but afterwards the religious services were performed at Holyrood with great splendour, according to the imposing ritual of the English Church-“ an innovation which the Presbyterians beheld with indignation, as an insolent violation of the laws of the land” In 1687 the congregation of the Canongate were removed from the church by order of James VII., and the abbey church-now named a chapelwas richly decorated, and twelve stalls were placed therein for the Knights of the Thistle. An old view of the interior by Wyck and Mazell, taken prior to the fall of the roof, represents it entire, with all its groining and beautiful imperial crowns and coronets on the drooping pendants of the interlaced arches. They show the clerestory entire, and within the nave the stalls of the knights, six on each side. Each of these stalls had five steps, and on each side a Corinthian column supported an entablature of the same order, each surmounted by two great banners and three trophies, each composed of helmets and breastplates, making in all twenty-four banners and thirty-six trophies over the stalls. At the eastern end was the throne, surmounted by an imperial crown. On each side were two panels, having the crown, sword, and sceptre within a wreath of laurel, and below, other two panels, with the royal cypher, J.R., and the crown. Wyck and Mazell show the throne placed upon a lofty dais of seven steps, on six of which were a unicorn and lion, making six of the former on the right, and six of the latter on the left, all crowned. Behind this rose a Corinthian canopy, entablature, and garlands, all of carved oak, and over all the royal arms as borne in Scotland ; the crest of Scotland, the lion sejant; on the right the ensign of St. Andrew; In defence on the left the ensign of St. George. Amid a star of spears, swords, ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [~dpUCd. proper exertions been made for their repair and preservation, particularly by ...

Vol. 3  p. 58 (Rel. 1.29)

Holyrood.] SUCCESSION. OF ABBOTS. 47 between Randolph the famous’ Earl of Moray and Sir William Oliphant, in connection with the forfeited estate of William of Monte Alto. Another species of Parliament was held at Holyrood on the 10th of February, in the year 1333-4, when Edward 111. received the enforced homage of his creature Baliol. XVI. JOHN II., abbot, appears as a witness to three charters in 1338, granted to William of Livingston, William of Creighton, and Henry of Brade (Braid?). XVII. BARTHOLOMEW, abbot in 1342. XVIII. THOMAS, abbot, witnessed a charter to William Douglas of that ilk, Sir James of Sandilands, and the Lady Elenora Bruce, relict of Alexander Earl of Carrick, nephew of Robert I., of the lands of the West Calder. On the 8th of May, 1366, a council was held at Holyrood, at which the Scottish nobles treated with ridicule and contempt the pretensions of the kings of England, and sanctioned an assessment for the ransom of David II., taken prisoner at the battle of Durham. That monarch was buried before the high altar in 1371, and Edward 111. granted a safe conduct to certain persons proceeding to Flanders to provide for the tomb in which he was placed. XIX. JOHN III., abbot on the 11th of January, ~372. During his term of office, John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III., was hospitably entertained at Holyrood, when compelled to take flight from his enemies in England. XX. DAVID, abbot on the 18th of January, in the thirteenth year of Robert 11. The abbey was burned by the armyof Richard 11. whose army encamped at Restalrig; but it was soon after repaired. David is mentioned in a charter dated at Perth, 1384-5. XXI. JOHN (formerly Dean of Leith) was abbot on the 8th of May, 1386. His name occurs in several charters and other documents, and for the last time in the indenture or lease of the Canonmills to the city of Edinburgh, 12th September, 1423. In his time Henry IV. spared the monastery in gratitude for the kindness of the monks to his exiled father John of Gaunt. XXII. PATRICK, abbot 5th September, 1435. In his term of office James II., who had been born in the abbey, was crowned there in his sixth year, on the 25th March, 1436-7; and anothet high ceremony was performed in the same church when Mary of Gueldres was crowned -as Queen Consort in July, 1449. In the preceding year, John Bishop of Galloway elect became an inmate of the abbey, and was buried in the cloisters. XXIII. JAMES, abbot 26th April, 14~0. XXIV. ARCHIBALD CRAWFORD, abbot in 1457. He was son of Sir William‘ Crawford of Haining, and had previously been Prior of Holytood. In 1450 he was one of the commissioners who treated with the English at Coventry concerning a truce ; and again in 1474, concerning a marriage between James Duke of Rothesay and the Princess Cecile, second daughter of Edward IV. of England. He was Lord High Treasurer of Scotland in 1480. He died in 1483. On the abbey church (according to Crawford) his arms were carved niore than thirty times. “He added the buttresses on the walls of the north and south aisles, and probably built the rich doorway which opens into the north aisle.” Many finely executed coats armorial are found over the niches, among them Abbot Crawford’s frequently- fesse ermine, with a star of five points, in chief, surmounted by an abbot’s mitre resting on a pastoral staff. XXV. ROBERT BELLENDEN, abbot in 1486, when commissioner concerning a truce with England. He was still abbot in 1498, and his virtues are celebrated by his namesake, the archdean of Moray, canon of ROSS, and translator of Boece, who says ‘‘ he left the abbey, and died ane Chartour-monk.” In 1507 the Papal legate presented James IV., in the name of Pope Julius II., in the church, amid a brilliant crowd of nobles, with a purple crown adorned by golden lilies, and a sword of state studded with gems, which is still preserved in the Castle of Edinburgh. He also brought a bull, bestowing upon James the title of Defender of the Faith. Abbot Bellenden, in 1493, founded a chapel in North Leith, dedicated to St. Ninian, latterly degraded into a victual granary The causes moving the abbot to build this chapei, independent of the spiritual wants of the people, were manifold, as set forth in the charter of erection. The bridge connecting North and South Leith, over which he levied toll, was erected at the same time. XXVI. GEORGE CRICHTOUN, abbot in 1515, and Lord Privy Seal, was promoted to the see of Uunkeld in 1528. As we have recorded elsewhere, he was the founder of the Hospital of St. Thomas, near the Water Gate. An interesting relic of his abbacy exists at present in England. About the year 1750, when a grave was being dug in the chancel of St Stephen’s church, St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, there was found buried in the soil an ancient lectern bearing his name, and which is supposed to have been concealed there at some time during the Civil Wars. It is of cast brass, and handsonie in design, consisting of an eagle with expanded wings, supported by a shaft deco- The piers still remain. ... SUCCESSION. OF ABBOTS. 47 between Randolph the famous’ Earl of Moray and Sir William Oliphant, in ...

Vol. 3  p. 47 (Rel. 1.29)

‘‘ are decayit, and made some sheep-folds, and some sa ruinous that none dare enter into thame for fear of falling, especially Halyrud HOUS, althocht the Bishop of Sanct Androw’s, in time of Papistry, INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL OF HOLYROOD HOUSE, 1687- (AflW Wyck a d p. Mad;.) abbacy in favour of his son before 1583, and died in 1593. He was interred near the third pillar from the south-east corner, on the south side of the church. up and repairt.” To this Bothwell answered that the churches referred to had been pillaged and ruined before his time, especially Holyrood I Church, “quhilk hath been thir tnintie yeris 1 bygane ruinous through decay of twa principal pillars, sa that none wer assurit under it,” and that two thousand pounds would not be sufficient for 24th February, 1581, and was a Lord of Session in 1593. In 1607 part of the abbey property, together with the monastery itself, ,vas converted into a temporal peerage for him and his heirs, by the title of Lord Holyroodhouse. John Lord Bothwell died without direct heirs male, and though the title shouldhave descended to his brother ... are decayit, and made some sheep-folds, and some sa ruinous that none dare enter into thame for fear of ...

Vol. 3  p. 49 (Rel. 1.21)

scott monument national art gallery holyrood palace national gallery st giles ... monument national art gallery holyrood palace national gallery st giles ...

Vol. 1  p. 1 (Rel. 1.2)

28 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Canongate. the days that were no more. ‘* No funeral hearse,” says Lockhart, “crept more leisurely than did his landau up the Canongate ; and not a queer, tottering gable but recalled to him some long-buried memory of splendour or bloodshed, which, by a few Most Noble Order of the Thistle, which he had now [relerected, could not meet in St. Andrews’ church (z.e., the cathedral in Fife}, being demolished in the Rebellion; and so it was necessary for them to have this church, and the Provost of Edinburgh SMOLLETT’S HOUSE, ST. JOHN’S STREET. words, he set before the hearer in the reality of life.” The Canongate church, a most unpicturesquelooking edifice, of nameless style, with a species of Doric porch, was built in 1688. The Abbey chwh of Holyrood had hitherto been the parish church of the Canongate, but in July, 1687, King James VII. wrote to the Privy Council, that the church of the Abbey ‘‘ was the chapel belonging to his palace of Holyrood, and that the knights of the was ordained to see the keys of it given to them. After a long silence,” says Fountainhall, “the Archbishop of Glasgow told that it was a mansal and patrimonial church of the bishopric of Edinburgh, and though the see was vacant, yet it belonged not to the Provost to deliver the keys.” Yet the congregation were ordered to seek accommodation in Lady Yester’s church till other could be found for them, and the Canongate ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Canongate. the days that were no more. ‘* No funeral hearse,” says Lockhart, “crept ...

Vol. 3  p. 28 (Rel. 1.2)

76 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood. ~ ~~ ~~ ~ period, and in 1736- one of unusual brilliance was given in January, the Hon. Charles Hope (afterwards Muster Master-General for Scotland) being king, and the Hon. Lady Helen Hope queen. In the Gallery of the Kings a table was covered with 300 dishes en ambigzr, at which sat 150 ladies at a time . . . . illuminated with 400 wax candles. ‘!The plan laid out by the council of the Company was exactly followed with the their dark days had found refuge at St. Germains. He entered Holyrood under a salute from the castle, while the approaches were lined by the Hopetoun Fencibles and Windsor Foresters. He held a levCe next day at the palace, where he was soon after joined by his son, the Duc d’Angoul6me. The royal family remained several years at Holyrood, when they endeared themselves to all in Edinburgh, where their presence was deemed but greatest order and decency, and concluded without the least air of disturbance.” Yet brawls were apt to occur then and for long after, as swords were worn in Edinburgh till a later period than in England j and an advertisement in the Cowant for June, 1761, refers to a silver-mounted sword having been taken in mistake at an election of peers in that year at Holyrood. The ancient palace had once more royal inmates when, on the 6th of June, 1796, there landed at Leith, under a salute from the fort, H.R.H. the Comte d’Artois, Charles Philippe, the brother of Louis XVI., in exile, seeking a home under the roof of the royal race that had so often intermarried with his family, and which in a natural link of the old alliance that used to exist between Scotland and France. The count, with his sons the Duc d‘Angoul6me and the Duc de Bem, was a constant attender at the drills of the Edinburgh Volunteers, in the meadows or elsewhere, though he never got over a horror of the uniform they wore then-blue, faced with redwhich reminded him too sadly of the ferocious National Guard of France. , He always attended in his old French uniform, with the order of St. Ampoule on his left breast, just as we may see him in Kay’s Portraits. He was present at St. Anne’s Yard when, in 1797, the Shropshire Militia, under Lord Clive-the j ~ s t English regiment of militia that ever entered Scotland-was reviewed by Lord Adam Gordon, the commander-in-chief. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood. ~ ~~ ~~ ~ period, and in 1736- one of unusual brilliance was given in ...

Vol. 3  p. 76 (Rel. 1.19)

THE QUEEN MARY APARTMENTS, HOLYROOD PALACE. 1, Queen Mav; 2, Supper-room; 3, Bed-room; 4, Lord Darcley’s Room; 5, Private Staircase. ... QUEEN MARY APARTMENTS, HOLYROOD PALACE. 1, Queen Mav; 2, Supper-room; 3, Bed-room; 4, Lord Darcley’s Room; 5, ...

Vol. 3  p. vi (Rel. 1.18)

60 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. LHol~lrood. and intriguing apostbte as one of the greatest and best men of his time.” In the churchyard, now all turned into flowerbeds and garden ground, there long remained a , .few plain gravestones, the inscriptions on some of range is of a very singular nature to be in the vicinity of a populous city, being little else than an assemblage of hills, rocks, precipices, morasses, and lakes.” It includes Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Craigs, and, of course, as a refuge, originated in which are preserved by Menlteith in his “Theatre of Mortality,” and by Maitland in his C‘History.’l One alone remains now, that of Mylne (the builder of the palace), which was removed from its ald site (the north-east angle -of the ancient choir) in 1857, and placed against the eastern ,wall of the church. The extent of the ruin as it now remains is 127 feet in tlength by 39 feet in breadth, within the walls; and there .still exist nominally six deans .and seven chaplains of the Chapel Royal, all, of course, clergymen of the Church of .Scotland. The whole ruin has an air .of intense gloom and damp THE BELHAVEN MOAUMENT, HOLYROOD CHURCH. desolation ; the breeze waves the grass and rank weeds between the lettered grave-stones, the ivy rustles on the wall, and by night the owl hoots in the royal vault and the roofless tower where .stands the altar-tomb of Belhaven. For a considerable space around the church and palace of Holyrood-embracing a circuit of four miles and a quarter-the open ground has been, since the days of David I., a sanctuary, and is so mow, from arrest on civil process. This spacious the old ecclesiastical privilege of sanctuary, with the exemptions of those attached to a monarch’s court. When the law of debtor and creditor was more stringent than it is now, this peculiarity brought many far from respectable visitors to a cluster of houses round the palace-a cluster nearly entirely swept away about I 85 7-as varied in their appearance as the chequered fortunes of their bankrupt inmates j and it is believed to have been in a great measure owing to some private claims, likely to press heavily upon him, that Charles X. in his second exile sought a residence in deserted Holyrood. The House of Inchmurry, formerly called Kirkland, in the parish of St. Martin’s, was a country residence of the abbots of Holyrood. One of the bells that hung in the remaining tower was placed in the Tron church steeple, another in St. Cuthbert’s chapel of ease, and the third in St. Paul’s, York Place, the congregation of which had it in their former church in the Canongate, which was built 1771-4. This last is sniall, and poor in’ sound. CHAPTER IX. HOLYROOD PALACE. F i ~ t Notice of its History-Marriage of James 1V.-The Scots of the Days of Flodden-A Brawl in the Palace-Jams V.’s. Tower-The Gudeman of Ballengeich-His Marriage-Death of Queen MagdalentThe Council of November, 1-A Standing Army Proposed-The Muscovite Ambassadors Entertained by the Queen Regent, THE occasional residence of so many of his kingly ancestors at the abbey of Holyrood, and its then sequestered and rural locality, doubtless suggested to James IV. the expediency of having a royal dwelling near it ; thus, we find from the Records of the Privy Seal the earliest mention of a palace at Holyrood occurs on the 10th of September, 1504, when ‘( to Maister Leonard Log, for his gude and thankful service, done and to be done, to the kingis hienis, and speciallie for his diligent and grete laboure made be him in the building of the palace beside the Abbey of the Holy Croce,” of (( the soume of forty pounds.” This is the first genuine notice of the grand old Palace of Holyrood. In 1503 the then new edifice witnessed the marriage festival of James IV. and Mzgaret Tudor, ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. LHol~lrood. and intriguing apostbte as one of the greatest and best men of his ...

Vol. 3  p. 60 (Rel. 1.13)

Coweate.1 VERNOUR’S from the two bridges named, it seems to cower in its gorge, a narrow and dusky river of quaint and black architecture, yet teeming with life, bustle, and animation. Its length from where the Cowgate Port stood to the foot of the Candlemaker Row is about 800 yards. . I t is difficult to imagine the time when it was probably a narrow country way, bordered by hedgerows, skirting the base of the slope whereon lay the churchyard of St. Giles’s, ere houses began to appear upon its lie, ,and it acquired its name, which is now proved to have been originally the Sou’gate, or South Street. One of the earliest buildings immediately adjacent to the Cowgate must have been the ancient chapel of the Holyrood, which stood in the nether kirkyard of St. Giles’s till the Reformation, when the materials of it were used in the construction of the New Tolbooth. Building here must have begun early in the 15th century. In 1428 John Vernour gave a land (i.e., a tenement) near the town of Edinburgh, on the south side thereof, in the street called Cowgate, to Richard Lundy, a monk of Melrose,‘ for twenty shillings yearly. He or his heirs were to have the refusal of it if it were sold. (“Monastic Ann,” Tevio tdale.) In 1440 William Vernour, according to the same authority, granted this tenement to Richard Lundy, then Abbot of Melrose, without reserve, for thirteen shillings and fourpence yearly; and in 1493, Patrick, Abbot of Holyrood, confirmed the monks of Melrose in possession of their land called the Holy Rood Acre between the common Vennel, and another acre which they had beside the highway near the Canongate, for six shillings and eightpence yearly. On the 31st May, 1498, James IV. granted to Sir. John Ramsay of Balmain (previously Lord Bothwell under James 111.) a tenement and orchard in the Cowgate. This property is referred to in a charter under the Great Seal, dated 19th October, 1488, to Robert Colville, director of the chancery, of lands in the Cowgate of Edinburgh, once the property of Sir James Liddell, knight, “et postea johannis Ramsay, oZim nunntpafi Domini BoifhveZe,” now in the king‘s hands by the forfeiture first of Sir James Liddell, and of tenements of John Ramsay. Many quaint timber-fronted houses existed in the Cowgate, as elsewhere in the city. Such mansions were in favour throughout Europe generally in the 15th century, and Edinburgh was only influenced by the then prevailing taste of which so many fine examples still remain in Nuremberg . TENEMENT. 239 and Chester ; and in Edinburgh open piazzas and galleries projecting from the actual ashlar or original front of the house were long the fashion-the former for the display of goods for sale, and the latter for lounging or promenading in; and here and there are still lingering in the Cowgate mansions, past which James 111. and IV. may have ridden, and whose occupants buckled on their mail to fight on Flodden Hill and in Pinkey Cleugh. Men of a rank superior to any of which modem Edinburgh can boast had their dwellings in the Cowgate, which rapidly became a fashionable and aristocratic quarter, being deemed open and airy. An old author who wrote in 1530, Alexander Alesse, and who was born in the city in 1500, tells us that “the nobility and chief senators of the city dwell in the Cowgate-via vaccarum in qud hrabifanf pdfriXi et senafores urbis,” and that U the palaces of the chief men of the nation are also there ; that none of the houses are mean or vulgar, but, on the contrary, all are magnificent-ubi nihJ Aunt& aui rusticum, sed omnia magzzjfca P Much of the street must have sprung into existence before the wall of James 11. was demolished, in which the High Street alone stood; and it was chiefly for the protection of this highly-esteemed suburb that the greater wall was erected after the battle of Flodden. A notarial instrument in 1509 cpncerning a tenement belonging to Christina Lamb on the south side near the Vennel (or wynd) from the Kirk of Field, describes it as partly enclosed with pales of wood fixed in the earth and having waste land adjoining it. In the division of the city into three quarters in I 5 I 2, the 6rst from the east side of Forester‘s Wynd, on both sides of the High Street, and under the wall to the Castle Hill, was to be held by Thomas Wardlaw. The second quarter, from the Tolbooth Stair, ‘‘ quhak Walter Young dwellis in the north part of the gaitt to the Lopley Stane,” to beunder the said Walter; and the third quarter from the latter stone to Forester‘s Wynd “in the sowth pairt of the gaitt, with part of the Cowgate, to be under George Dickson.” In 1518, concerning the “Dichting of the Calsay,” it was ordained by the magistrates, that all the inhabitants should clean the portion thereof before their own houses and booths “als weill in the Kowgaitt venellis as on the Hie Gaitt,” and that all tar barrels and wooden pipes be removed from the streets under pain of escheat. In 1547 and 1548 strict orders were issued with reference to the gwds at the city gates, and no man who was skilled in any kind of gunnery was to quit the tom ... VERNOUR’S from the two bridges named, it seems to cower in its gorge, a narrow and dusky river of ...

Vol. 4  p. 239 (Rel. 1.13)

lies directly at the south-eastern base of Arthur's Seat, and has long'been one of the daily postal districts of the city. Overhung by the green slopes and grey rocks ok Arthur's Seat, and shut out by its mountainous mass from every view of the crowded city at its further base in Duddingston, says a statist, writing in 1851, a spectator feels himself sequestered from the busy scenes which he knows to' be in his immediate vicinity, as he hears their distant hum upon the passing breezes by the Willow Brae on the east, or the gorge of the Windy Goule on the south; and he looks southward and west over a glorious panorama of beautiful villas, towering , ' From the style of the church and the structure of its arches, it is supposed to date from the epoch of the introduction of Saxon architecture. A semicircular arch of great beauty divides the choir from the chancel, and a Saxon doorway, with fantastic heads and zig-zag mbuldings, still remains in the southern face of the tower. The entrance-gate to its deep, grassy, and sequestered little buryingground, is still furnished with the antique chain and collar of durance, the terror of evildoers, named the jougs, and a time-worn Zouping-on-stone, for the use of old or obese horsemen. Some interesting tombs are to be found in the burying-ground ; among these are the marble obelisk castles, rich coppice, hill and valley, magnificent in semi-tint, in light and shadow, till the Pentlands, or the 1 on e 1 y Lam m er m u i r ranges, close the distance. The name of this hamlet and parish has been a vexed subject amongst antiquaries, but as a surname it is not unknown in Scotland : thus, among the missing charters of Robert Bruce, there is one to John Dudingstoun of the lands of Pitcorthie, in Fife; and among the gentlemen GATEWAY OF DUDDINGSTON CHURCH, SHOWING TIIE JOUCS AND LOUPING-ON-STONE. slain at Flodden in I 5 I 3 there was Stephen Duddingston of Kildinington, also in Fife. Besides, there is another place of the same name in Linlithgowshire, the patrimony of the Dundases. The ancient church, with a square tower at its western end, occupies a green and rocky peninsula that juts into the clear and calm blue loch. It is an edifice of great antiquity, and belonged of old to the Tyronensian Monks of Kelso, who possessed it, together with the lands of Eastern and Western Duddingston ; the chartulary of that abbey does not say from whom they acquired these possessions, but most probably it was from David I. Herbert, first abbot of Kelso, a man of great learning and talent, chamberiain of the kingdom under Alexander I. and David I., in 1128, granted the lands of Eastern and Western Duddingston to Reginald de Bosco for an annual rent of ten marks, to be paid by him and his heirs for ever. erected to the memory of Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles by his unfortunate grandson, whose fate is also recorded thereon; and that of James Browne, LLD., Advocate, the historian of the Highlands and Highland clans, in the tower of the church. In the register of assignations for the minister's stipends in the year 1574, presented in MS. by Bishop Keith to the Advocates' Library, Duddingston is said to have been a joint dependence with the Castle of Edinburgh upon the Abbey of Holyrood. The old records of the Kirk Session are only of the year 1631, and in the preceding year the lands of Prestonfield were disjoined from the kirk and parish of St. Cuthbert, and annexed to those of Duddingston. On the r8th'of May, 1631, an aisle was added to the church for the use of the Laird of Prestonfield, his tenants and servants. David Malcolme, minister here before I 741, was an eminent linguist in his time, whose writings were commended by Pinkerton, and quoted with respect by Gebelin in his Monde Plillit$ and Bullet in his Mkmoirrs Celtiques; but the church is chiefly famous for the incumbency of the Rev. John Thomson, a highly distinguished landscape painter, who from his early boyhood exhibited a strong predilection for art, and after being a pupil of Alexander Nasmyth, became an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy. He became ... directly at the south-eastern base of Arthur's Seat, and has long'been one of the daily postal districts of ...

Vol. 4  p. 314 (Rel. 1.12)

CHobd. - OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. - 52 - set at liberty ; but on the suppression of the order throughout Scotland, their vast possessions were given to their rivals, the Knights of St. John at Torphichen. In 1337, about the time that John 11. was abbot, sanctuary was given in Holyrood church to a remarkable fugitive from the Castle of Edinburgh, which at that time was held by an English garrison under Thomas Knyton. In one of the forays made by him in search of supplies, he had been guided adding, “that many brethren of the Temple, being . common people, indifferently absolve excornrnunicated persons, saying that they derived power from their lord the Supreme Pontiff;” and also, ‘‘ that the chapters were held so secretly that none save a Templar ever had access to them.” So ended the inquisition at Holyrood, ((which could not be made more solemn on account of the weapon that lay near, and so severe was the How that his blood bespattered the floor. He affected to bear with this new outrage, and nursing his wrath, quitted the fortress; but next day, when Thomas Knyton rode through the gate into the city with a few attendants, Prendergast rushed from a place of concealment-probably a Close head-and passing a long sword through his heart, dashed him a corpse on the causeway. He then leaped on Knyton’s horse, and spurring to a rich booty near Calder Muir by a soldier named Robert Prendergast, an adherent of Baliol, who served under the English banner. Upon returning to the castle, instead of being rewarded, as he expected, the Scottish traitor, at dinner in the hall, was placed among the servingmen and below the salt. Filled with rage and mortification, he remained ~. . GROUND PIAN OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL OF HOLYROOD HOUSE. (From air Engraving irr thx History ofthe A&y,guSlirhed h 1821.) A, Gmt West Entrance; 6, North Door; C C, Doon from South Aisle to Clo‘sters. now walled up; D, Great East Window; E, Stair tm Rood-loft ; F, Door to the Palace, shut up ; G. Remaining Pillars, north side: H, Screen-work in Stone. ... - OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. - 52 - set at liberty ; but on the suppression of the order throughout Scotland, ...

Vol. 3  p. 52 (Rel. 1.11)

TALLY-STICK, BEARING DATE OF 1692. discovery was made in one of our churches. Some years ago a chest, without any address, but of enormous weight, was removed from the Old Weigh House at Leith, and lodged in the outer aisle of the old church (a portion of St. Giles’s). This box had lain for upwards of thirty years at Leith, and several years in Edinburgh, without a clainiznt, and, what is still more extraordinary, without any one ever having had the curiosity to examine it. On Tuesday, however, some gentlemen connected with the town caused the mysterious box to be opened, and, to their surprise and gratification, they found it contained a the power which the chamberlain had of regulating matters in his Court of the Four Burghs respecting the common welfare was transferred to the general Convention of Royal Burghs. This Court was constituted in the reign of James III., and appointed to be held yearly at Inverkeithing. By a statute of James VI., the Convention was appointed to meet four times in each year, wherever the members chose; and to avoid confusion, only one was to appear for each burgh, except the capital, which was to have two. By a subsequent statute, a majority of the burghs, came, by whom it was made, or to whom it belongs, this cannot remain long a secret. We trust, however, that it will remain as an ornament in some public place in this city.” More concerning it was never known, and ultimately it was placed in its present position, without its being publicly acknowledged to be a representation of the unfortunate prince. In this Council chamber there meets yearly that little Scottish Parliament, the ancient Convention of Royal Burghs. Their foundation in Scotland is as old, if not older, than the days of David I., who, in his charter to the monks of Holyrood, describes Edinburgh as a burgh holding of the king, paying him certain revenues, beautiful statute of his majesty (?), about the size of life, cast in bronze. . . . . Although it is at present unknown from whence this admirable piece of workmanship ‘and having the privilege of free markets. The judgments of the ( F Y O ~ Scoftish ~ntiq7rurirm -w7’scunr.) magistrates of burghs were liable TALLY-STICK, BEARING DATE OF 1692. to the review of the Lord Great Chamberlain of Scotland (the first of whom was Herbert, in IIZS), and his Court of the Four Burghs. He kept the accounts of the royal revenue and expenses, and held his circuits or chamberlainayres, for the better regulation of all towns. But even his decrees were liable to revision by the Court of the Four Burghs, composed of certain burgesses of Edinburgh, Stirling, Roxburgh, and Berwick, who met ahiiually, at Haddington. to decide, as a court of last resort, the appeals from the chamberlain-ayres, and determine upon all matters affecting the welfare of the royal burghs. Upon the suppression of the office of chamberlain (the last of whom was Charles Duke of Lennox, in 1685), the power of controlling magistrates’ accounts was vested in the Exchequer, and the reviewd of their sentences in the courts of law ; while . . or the capital with any other six, were empowered to call a Convention as often as they deemed it necessary, and all the other burghs were obliged to attend it under a. penalty. The Convention, consisting of two deputies from each burgh, now meets ancually at Edinburgh in the Council Chzmber, and it is somewhat singular that the Lord Provost, although only a meniber, is the perpetuai president, and the city clerks are clerks to the Convention, during the sittings of which the magistrates are supposed to keep open table for the members. The powers of this Convention chiefly respect the establishment of regulations concerning the trade and commerce of Scotland ; and with this end it has renewed, from time to time, articles of staple contract with the town of Campvere, in Holland, of old the seat of the conservator of Scottish privileges. As the royal burghs pay a sixth part of the sum imposed as a land-tax upon the counties in Scotland, the Convention is empowered to consider the state of trade, and the revenues of individual burghs, and to assess their respective portions The Convention has also been iii use to examine the administrative conduct of magistrates in the matter of burgh revenue (though this comes more properly under the Court of Exchequer), and to give sanction upon particular occasions to the Common Council of burghs to alienate a part of the burgh estate. The Convention likewise considers and arranges the political seffs or constitutions of the different burghs, and regulates matters concerning elections that may be brought before it. Before the use of the Council Chamber was assigned to the Convention it was wont to meet in an aisle of St. Giles’s church. Writers’ Court-so named from the circumstance of the Signet Library being once there-adjoins the Royal Exchange, and a gloomy little cuZ de sac it ... BEARING DATE OF 1692. discovery was made in one of our churches. Some years ago a chest, without ...

Vol. 1  p. 186 (Rel. 1.1)

natural death-all the rest having lost their lives in defence of their country. If we turn to Holyrood, what visions and memories must arise of Knoq standing grim and stem before his queen, in his black Geneva cloak, with his hands planted on the horn handle of his long walking-cane, daringly rebuking her love of music and dancing-unbending, unyieldmg, and unmelted, by her exalted rank, her beauty, or her bitter tears j and of that terrible night in the Tower of James V., when sickly Ruthven, looking pale as a spectre under the open visor of his helmet, drew back with gauntleted hand the ancient arras as the assassins stole up the secret stair,-and then Rizzio, clinging wildly to the queen’s skirt, and dying beneath her eyes of many a mortal wound, with Darnley’s dagger planted in his body; of Charles Edward, in the prime of his youth and comeliness, already seeing the crown of the Stuarts upon his exiled father‘s head, surrounded by exultant Jacobite ladies, with white cockades on their bosoms, and dancing in the long gallery of the kings to the sound of the same pipes that blew the onset at Falkirk and Culloden ! A very few years later, and Boswell, ‘and Dr. Johnson in his brown suit with steel buttons, might have been seen coming arm-in-arm from the White Horse Hostel in Boyd’s Close-the burly lexicographer, as his obsequious follower tells us, grumbling and stumbling in the dark, as they proceeded on their way to the abode of the latter in James’s Court; but his visit to Scotland compelled the pedant, who trembled at the Cock Lane ghost and yet laughed at the idea of an earthquake in Lisbon, to have, as Macaulay says, a salutary suspicion of his own deficiencies, which skems on that occasion to have crossed his mind for the first time.” In yonder house, in Dunbar’s Close, the Ironsides of Cromwell had their guard-house ; and on the adjacent bartizan, that commanded a view of all the fields and farms to the north, in the autumn evenings of 1650~ the Protector often sat with Mathew Tiomlinson, Monk, and Ireton, each smoking their yards of clay and drinking Scottish . ale, or claret, and expounding, it might be, texts of Scripture, while their batteries at the Lang-gate ’ and Heriot’s Hospital threw shot and shell at the Castle, then feebly defended by the treacherous Dundas, from whom the Protector‘s gold won what, he himself admitted, steel and shot might never have done, the fortress never before being so strong as it was then, with all its stores and garrison. And in, that wynd, to which, in perishing, he gave his name, we shall see the sturdy craftsman Halkerston fighting to the death, with his two-handed sword, against the English invaders. Turn which way we hay in Edinburgh, that stirring past attends us, and every old stone is a record of the days, the years, and the people, who have passed away. In a cellar not far distant the Treaty of Union was partly signed, in haste and fear and trembling, while the street without rang with the yells and opprobrious cries of the infuriated mob ; and after that event, by the general desertion of the nobility, came what has been emphatically called the Dark Age of Edinburgh-that dull and heartless period when grass was seen to grow around the market-, cross, when a strange and unnatural stillness-the stillness of village life-seemed to settle over every one and everything, when the author of “ Douglas ” was put under ban for daring to write that tragedy, and when men made their last will and testament before setting out by the stage for London, and when such advertisements appeared as that which we find in the EdinbuTh Coirranf for 7th March, 1761 -“A young lady who is about to set out fqr London in a postchaise will be glad of a companion. Enquire at the publisher of this paper ; ” -when Edinburgh was so secluded and had such little intercourse with London, that on one occasion the mail brought but a single letter (for the British Linen Company), and the dullness of local life received a fillip only when Admiral de Fourbin was off the coast of Fife, or the presence of Thurot the corsair, or of Paul Jones, brought back some of the old Scottish spirit of the past. The stately oaks of the Burghmuir, under which Guy of Namuis Flemish lances fled in ruin and defeat before the Scots of Douglas and Dalhousie, have long since passed away, and handsome modem villas cover all the land to the base of the bordering hills; but the old battle stone, in which our kings planted their standards, and which marked the Campus Martius of the Scottish hosts, still lingers there on the south; and the once lonely Figgatemuir on the east, where the monks of Holyrood grazed their flocks and herds, and where Wallace mustered his warriors prior to the storming of Dunbar, is now a pleasant little watering place, which somewhat vainly boasts itself ‘‘ the Scottish Brighton.” The remarkable appearance and construction of old Edinburgh-towering skyward, storey upon storey, with all its black and bulky chimneys, crowstepped gables, and outside stairs-arise from the circumstance of its having been twice walled, and the necessity for residing within these barriers, for protection in times of foreign or domestic war. Thus, what Victor Hug0 says of the Paris of Philip ’ ... death-all the rest having lost their lives in defence of their country. If we turn to Holyrood, what ...

Vol. 1  p. 6 (Rel. 1.09)

Corstorphine.] CORSTORPHINE CHURCH. 115 was no side road into which he could have disappeared. He returned home perplexed by the oddness of the circumstance, when the first thing he learned was, that during his absence this friend had been killed by his horse falling in the Candlemakers Row.’’ The church of Corstorphine is one of the most interesting old edifices in the Lothians. It has been generally supposed, says a writer, that Scotland, while possessed of great and grand remains of Gothic architecture, is deficient in those antique rural village churches, whose square towers and ivied buttresses so harmonise with the soft landscape scenery of England, and that their place is too often occupied by the hideous barn-like structure of times subsequent to the Reformation. But among the retiring niinor beauties of Gothic architecture in Scotland, one of the principal is the picturesque little church of Corstorphine. It is a plain edifice of mixed date, says Billings in his ‘‘ Antiquities,” the period of the Decorated Gothic predominating. It is in the form of a cross, with an additional transept on one of the sides; but some irregularities in the height and character of the different parts make them seem asif they were irregularly clustered together without design. A portion of the roof is still covered with old-&ey flagstone. A small square belfry-tower at the west end is surmounted by a short octagonal spire, the ornate string’ mouldings on which suggest an idea of the papal tiara As the church of the parish, it is kept in tolerably decent order, and it is truly amazing how it escaped the destructive fury of the Reformers. This edifice was not the original parish church, which stood near it, but a separate establishment, founded and richly endowed by the pious enthusiasm of the ancient family whose tombs it contains, and whose once great castle adjoined it. Notices have been found of a chapel attached to the manor of Corstorphine, but subordinate to the church of St. Cuthbert, so far back as 1128, and this chapel became the old parish church referred to. Thus, in the Holyrood charter of King DavidI., 1143-7, he grants to the monks there the two chapels which pertain to the church of St. Cuthbert, ‘‘ to wit, Crostorfin, with two oxgates and six acres of land, and the chapel of Libertun with two oxgates of land.” In the immediate vicinity of that very ancient chapel there was founded ancther chapel towards the end of the fourteenth century, by Sir Adam Forrester of Corstorphine; and that edifice is sup posed to form a portion of the present existing church, because after its erection no mention whatever has been found of the second chapel as a separate edifice. .The building with which we have now to do was founded in 1429, as an inscription on the wall of the chancel, and other authorities, testify, by Sir John Forrester of Corstorphine, Lord High Chamberlain of Scotland in 1425, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist, for a provost, five prebendaries, and two singing boys. It was a collegiate church, to which belonged those of Corstorphine, Dalmahoy, Hatton, Cramond, Colinton, &c. The tiends of Ratho, and half of those of Adderton and Upper Gogar, were appropriated to the revenues of this college. “Sir John consigned the annual rents of one hundred and twenty ducats in gold to the church,” says the author of the “New Statistical Account,” “on condition that he and his successors should have the patronage of the appointments, and on the understanding that if the kirk of Ratho were united to the provostry, other four or five prebendaries should be added to the establishment, and maintained out of the fruits of the benefice of Ratho. Pope Eugenius IV. sanctioned this foundation by a bull, in which he directed the Abbot of Holyroodhouse, a$ his Apostolic Vicar, to ascertain whether the foundation and consignation had been made in terms of the original grant, and on being satisfied on these points, to unite and incorporate the church of Ratho with its rights, emoluments, and pertinents to the college for ever.” The first provost of this establishment was Nicholas Bannatyne, who died there in 1470, and was buried in the church, where his epitaph still remains. When Dunbar wrote his beautiful ‘ I Lament for the Makaris,” he embalmed among the last Scottish poets of his time, as taken by Death, “ the gentle Roull of Corstorphine,” one of the first provosts of the church- ‘( He has tane Rod1 of Aberdeen, A d gentle Rod1 of Corstorphine ; Twa better fellows did nae man see : Timor mortis conturbat me.” There was, says the “ The Book of Bon Accord,” a Thomas Roull, who was Provost of Aberdeen in 1416, and it is conjectured that the baid was of the same family ; but whatever the works of the latter were, nothing is known of him now, save his name, as recorded by Dunbar. In the year 1475, Hugh Bar, a burgess of Edinburgh, founded an additional chaplaincy in this then much-favoured church. “ The chaplain, in addition to the performance of daily masses for the souls of the king andqueen, the lords of the ... CORSTORPHINE CHURCH. 115 was no side road into which he could have disappeared. He returned home ...

Vol. 5  p. 115 (Rel. 1.04)

326 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Libertou. extended from east to west over all the country. This inequality in the surface .contributes much to the ornament of the view, by the agreeable relief which the eye ever meets with in the change of objects ; while the universal declivity, which prevails more or less in every field, is favourable to the culture of the lands, by allowing a ready descent to the water which falls from the heavens.” (Agricultural Survey of Midlothian.) Situated in a hollow of the landscape, on the Colinton slope of the Pentlands, is Bonally, with the Vale of the Leith, and enters the parish here, on the west side by a lofty aqueduct bridge of eight arches, and passes along it for two and a half miles. Near Slateford is Graysmill, where Prince Charles took up his headquarters in 1745, and met the deputies sent there from the city to arrange about its capitulation, and where ensued those deliberations which Lochiel cut short by entering the High Street at the head of go0 claymores. Proceeding eastward, we enter the parish of Liberton, one of the richest and most beautiful in its ponds, 482 feet above the tower, added to a smaller house, and commanding a pass among the hills, was finished in 1845 by Lord Cockburn, who resided there for many years. There are several copious and excellent springs on the lands of Swanston, Dreghorn, and Comistun, from which, prior to the establishment of the Water Company in 1819, to introduce the Cramley water, the inhabitants of Edinburgh chiefly procured that necessary of life. At Corniston are- the remains of an extensive camp ofpre-historic times. Adjacent to it, at Fairmilehead, tradition records that a great battle has been fought ; two large cairns were erected there, and when these were removed to serve for road metal, great quantities of human bones were found sea-level. A peel i all the fertile Lothians. Its surface is exquisitely diversified by broad low ridges, gently rising swells and intermediate plains, nowhere obtaining a sufficient elevation to be called a hill, save in the instances of Blackford and the Braid range. “As to relative position,” says a writer, ‘‘ the parish lies in the very core of the rich hanging plain or northerly exposed lands of Midlothian, ahd commands from its heights prospects the most sumptuous of the urban landscape and romantic hills of the metropolis, the dark farm and waving outline of the Pentlands and their spurs, the minutely-featured scenery of the Lothians, the Firth of Forth, the clear coast line, the white-washed towns and distant hills of Fife, and the bold blue sky-line of mountain The parish itself has a thoul€IE BATTLE OR CAMUB STONE, COMISTON. ranges away in far perspective. in and under them. Near \$here they stood there still remains a relic of the fight, a great whinstone block, about 20 feet high, known as the Kelstain, or Battle Stone, and also as Cuvw Stage, from the name of a Danish commander. Corniston House, in this quarter, was built by Sir James Forrest in 1815. The Hunter’s Tryst, near this, is a well-known and favourite resort of the citizens of Edinburgh in summer expeditions, and was frequently the headquarters of the Six Foot Club. Slateford, a village of Colinton parish, is two and a half miles from the west end of Princes Street. It has. a ‘United Secession place of worship, dating from 1784, and is noted as the scene of the early pastoral labours of the Rev. Dr. John Dick The Union Canal is carried across . sand attractions, and is dressed out in neatness of enclosures, profusion of garden-grounds, opulence of cultivation, elegance or tidiness of. mansion, village, and cottage, and busy stir and enterprise, which indicate full consciousness of the immediate vicinity of the proudest metropolis in Europe.” One of the highest ridges in the parish is crowned by the church, which occupies the exact site of a more ancient fane, of which we have the first authentic notice in the King’s charter to the monks of Holyrood, circa 1143-7, when he grants them ‘‘ that chapel of Liberton, with two oxgates of land, with all the tithes and rights, etc.,” which had been made to it by Macbeth-not the usurper, as Arnot erroneously supnoses, but the Macbeth, or Macbether, Baron of Liberton, whose name occurs as witness to several royal charters of David I. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Libertou. extended from east to west over all the country. This inequality in the ...

Vol. 6  p. 326 (Rel. 1.04)