Memorials of Edinburgh in the olden time

Preface

. The Work now brought to a close, under the title of Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, was begun years ago, not with the pen, but the pencil. In the gratification of a taste for the picturesque relics of the past with which the old Scottish capital abounds, a considerable number of sketches and drawings accumulated, which acquired a value altogether apart from any claim to artistic merit, when the subjects of many of them disappeared in the course of the radical changes wrought of late years on the Old Town. Believing that the interest which these monuments of former ages are calculated to excite commands the sympathy of a numerous and increasing class, I was induced to prepare a selection of the drawings for engraving, and to draw up a slight descriptive narrative to accompany them ; but the absence of desirable information in other works on the subject, and the accumulation of a good deal of curious material, led to a total change of plan, the result of which is now before the reader.

On referring to the works already published on the antiquities of Edinburgh, none of them seemed to embrace the object in view. Maitland's History presents a huge accumu lation of valuable, and generally accurate, but nearly undigested materials ; while Arnot furnishes a lively and piquant rifacimento of bis predecessor's labours, embellished with occasional illustrations derived from his own researches ; but — with one or two slight excep tions — neither of them have attempted to describe what they were themselves cognisant of. Both of the historians of Edinburgh seem, indeed, to have lacked that invaluable faculty of the topographer, styled by phrenologists locality, and the consequence is, that we are treated with a large canvass, composed in the historic vein of high art, when probably most readers would much rather have preferred a cabinet picture of the Dutch school.

In striking contrast to either of these, are Mr Robert Chambers's delighful " Traditions." The author has there struck out an entirely new path, and with the happiest results. The humour and the pathos of the old-world stories of Edinburgh in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ere New Town and Old Town improvements were more substantial than the dreams of future reformers, are secured — not without occasional heightening touches from the delineator's own lively fancy. It is only surprising that the " Traditions of VI

PREFACE.

. Edinburgh" have not diffused an antiquarian taste far more widely than is yet to be found among the modern denizens of the Scottish capital. The following Memorials of old Edinburgh differ perhaps as much from the picturesque traditions of the latter writer, as from the stately historic quarto of Arnot, or from Mait land's ponderous folio. They are pen and pencil sketches, professing, in general, considerable minuteness of outline, though with a rapid touch, that precludes very elaborate finish. Accuracy has been aimed at throughout, not without knowingly incurring the risk of occa sionally being somewhat dry. I am well aware, however, of having fallen short of what was desired in this all-important point, notwithstanding an amount of labour and research in the progress of the work, only a very small portion of which appears in its contents.

Some hundreds of old charters, title-deeds, and records of various sorts, in all varieties of unreadable manuscript have been ransacked in its progress ; and had it been possible to devote more time to such research, I have no doubt that many curious and interesting notices, referring to our local antiquities, would have amply repaid the labour. Of the somewhat more accessible materials furnished in the valuable publications of our antiquarian book-clubs, abundant use has been made ; and personal observation has supplied a good deal more that will probably be appreciated by the very few who find any attraction in such researches. In the Appendix some curious matter has been accumulated in a small type, which readers of tender eyes and moderate antiquarian appetites will probably avoid — to their own loss.

I am not altogether without hope, however, that should such readers be induced to wade through the work, they may find antiquarian researches not quite so dull as they are affirmed, on common report, to be ; since, in seeking to embody the Memorials of my native city, I am fortunate in the possession of a subject commanding associations with nearly all the most picturesque legends and incidents of our national annals. In selecting the accompanying illustrations, the chief aim has been to furnish an example of all the varieties of style and character that were to be found in the wynds and closes of old Edinburgh. The majority of them have some curious or valuable associations to add to their interest, but some were chosen for no other reason than to illustrate ancient man ners, all records of which are rapidly disappearing.

Their accuracy is their chief recom mendation. It would have been easy to have embellished them with spurious additions such as are of frequent occurrence in the illustrated candidates for the drawing-room table. Their claim to any value, however, rests solely on their being true Memorials of old Edin burgh, as it has come down to us from former generations. If they should appear some what plain, and sparingly furnished with ornaments, the best apology is, that our old Scottish style of architecture — apart from ecclesiastical edifices — partook of the national character ; — it was solid, massive, and enriched with little display of ornament, yet exhibiting as a whole, an accidental, but striking, picturesqueness, altogether beyond the reach of elaborate art.

PREFACE.

. VII In the progress of the work I have been indebted for much kind and valuable assistance to some of the most zealous students of Scottish literary and topographical antiquities. To Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., I am under special obligations for many curious reminiscences of the olden time ; for free access to his valuable museum of antiquities, which rivals the more famed collection of Abbotsford ; for the use of some of the rare treasures of his library ; and, indeed, for an amount of courtesy and kindness for which any acknowledgment I can offer is a very inadequate return. To David Laing, Esq., I owe the use of a book of pencil sketches, drawn by Mr Daniel Somerville in 1817 and 1818, which has enabled me to recover views of several ancient localities demolished before my own sketching days.

The use which has been made of these sketches is acknow ledged on the several plates. To Mr Laing's well-known courtesy I have been still more indebted for access to rare books, and other curious sources of information which were other wise beyond my reach. To Mr William Rowan of New College Library, I have also to express my obligations for valuable materials derived from original sources, and still more from the stores of his singularly retentive memory. From W. B. D. D. Turnbull, Esq., I have received, in addition to much friendly assistance, free access to his extensive library, well known as probably the most perfect collection in the kingdom on his own favourite studies of Topography and Heraldry. To Robert Chambers, Esq., Alexander Smellie, Esq., and the Rev. Principal Lee, as well as to others, I have to return thanks for much kind and unexpected aid.

To John Sinclair, Esq., City Clerk, and to James Laurie, Esq., of the Sasine Office, my thanks are due for facilitating my researches among the city charters and records, as well as to many others, whose obliging assistance has in various ways lightened the labour of the work. It is impossible, indeed, to do more than allude to these. In searching for the charters and title-deeds of old mansions, by which alone accurate and trust worthy information could in many cases be obtained, I have met with the frankest co-operation from strangers, to whom my sole introduction was the object of research ; while the just appreciation of such courtesy has been kept alive by the surly or supercilious rebuffs with which I was occasionally arrested in similar inquiries. Some of the latter have been amusing enough.

On one occasion access to certain title-deeds of an ancient property was denied in a very abrupt manner, while curiosity was whetted meanwhile by the information, some what testily volunteered, that the deeds were both ancient and very curious. All attempts to mollify the dragon who guarded these antiquarian treasures proving unavailing, the search had to be abandoned ; but I learned afterwards, that the old tenement which had excited my curiosity, — and which, except to an antiquary, seemed hardly worth a groat, — was then the subject of litigation between two Canadian claimants to the heirship of the deceased Scottish laird ; and the unconscious archæologist had been set down as the agent of some Yankee branch of the Quirk-Gammon-and-Snap school of legal practitioners !

PREFACE.

. In acknowledging the assistance I have been favoured with, I must not omit to notice that of my friend Mr James Drummond, A.R.S.A., to whose able pencil the readers owe the view in the interior of St Giles's Church, which forms the vignette at the head of the last chapter. To the Rev. John Sime, I am also indebted for the drawing of the ground plan of St Giles's Church, previous to the recent alterations, an engraving of which illustrates the Appendix ; and to the very accurate pencil of Mr William Douglas, for several of the inscriptions which illustrate that peculiar feature of our ancient buildings. The remainder of the vignettes are from my own sketches, unless where other sources are stated, and for the correctness of these I am responsible, nearly the whole of them having been drawn on the wood with my own hand.

It may be desirable to state, that the historical sketch comprised in the first seven chapters of the Work was written, and nearly all through the press, before I found time to arrange a large collection of materials in the form in which they are now presented in the Second Part. I have accordingly, in one or two cases, somewhat modified my earlier views. The opinion expressed on p. 50, vol. i., for example, as to the total destruction of the whole private buildings of the town in 1544, I am now satisfied is erroneous, and various edifices are accordingly described in succeeding chapters, the walls of which evidently suffered no very great injury from that destructive conflagration. I am far from conceiving that the materials for an antiquarian history of Edinburgh are exhausted, though probably nearly all has now been gleaned from traditional sources to which any worth can be attached.

There is, indeed, no lack of such legends to those who choose to go in search of them. The Scottish antiquary finds an amount of sympathy in his pursuits, among the peasantry and the lower classes of the town population, which, however it be accounted for, he will look for in vain among the more educated, as a class. The tenants of the degraded dwellings of the old Holyrood aristocracy cherish the memory of their titled predecessors with a zeal that would do credit to the most accomplished editor of the Blue Book. One half of the old wives of Edinburgh prove, on evidence which it would be dangerous to dispute, that their crazy mansions were once the abodes of royalty, or the palaces of Scottish grandees, while the monotony of hackneyed tales of Queen Mary and Cromwell — the popular hero and heroine of such romances, — is occa sionally varied by the ingenious embellishments of some more practised story teller.

Modern local traditions, however, are like the modern antiques of our ballad books ; their genealogy is more difficult to trace than the evidence of their spuriousness. One might, indeed, pardon the fictions of antiquarian romancers, if they brought to the aid of the memorialist such skilful forgeries as Chatterton furnished to the too credulous historian of Bristol ; finding in the unfailing treasures of the old muniment chest of St Mary's, Ret cliffe, and the versatile parchments of " The gods prieste Rowley," whatever the diligent antiquary wished to discover ! The exorcisms of such disenchanters as the modern architect

PREFACE.

. IX of St Giles's, however, have put to flight more pleasant facts, and fictions too, than the inven tive genius even of a Chatterton can restore ; while popular periodical literature, diluted into halfpenny worths of novelette and romance, has so poisoned the pure old springs of tradition, that one detects in the most unsophisticated grand-dame tales of the present day, some adulteration from the manufactory of the literary hack. This it is which makes it so reasonable a source of regret, that Arnot should have stalked through the purlieus of old Edinburgh, elevated on historic stilts, at a time when a description of what lay around him, and a relation of the fireside gossip of the stately old Scottish dames of the eighteenth century, would have snatched from oblivion a thousand curious reminiscences, now altogether beyond recall.

To a very different and much less attractive source, we are compelled to turn for the chance of recovering some of those curious associations with which the picturesque haunts of old Edinburgh abound. My own researches have satisfied me, that the clues to many such still lie buried among the dusty parchments of old charter chests ; but their recovery, must, after all, depend as much on a lucky chance as on any very diligent inquiry. It has often chanced that after wading through whole bundles of such dull M.S.S., — those of the sixteenth century frequently measuring singly several yards in length, — in vain search for a fact, or date, or other corroborative evidence, I have stumbled on it quite unexpectedly when engaged in an altogether different inquiry. Should, however, the archæological spirit which is exercising so strong an influence in France, Germany, and England, as well as in other parts of Europe, revive in Scotland also, where so large a field for its enlightened operations remains nearly unoccupied, much that is valuable may yet be secured, which is now overlooked or thrown aside as useless.

Antiquarian research has been brought into discredit, far less by the unimaginative spirit of the age than by the indiscriminating pursuits of its own cultivators, whose sole object has too frequently been to amass " a south o' auld nick-nackets." Viewed, how ever, in its just light, as the handmaid of history, and the synthetic, more frequently than the analytic, investigator of the remains of earlier ages, it becomes a science, bearing the same relation to the labours of the historian, as chemistry or mineralogy do to the investi gations of the geologist and the speculations of the cosmogonist. In this spirit, and not for the mere gratification of an aimless curiosity, I have attempted, however ineffectually, to embody these Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time. D. W. Edinburgh, Christmas 1B4 7.

C CONTENTS. VOLUME I. PART' I. HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. Chapter Page I. Earliest Traditions, .......... 1 II. From the Accession of the Stuarts to the Death of James III., ..... 11 III. From the Accession of James IV. to tbo Battle of Flodden, ..... 22 IV. From the Battle of Flodden to the Death of James V., ...... 34 V. From the Death of James V. to tho Abdication of Queen Mary, ..... 48 VI. From the Accession of James VI. to the Restoration of Charles II., . . . . .81 VII. Historical Incident* after the Restoration, ....... 99

Part II. Local Antiquities And Traditions

I. The Castle, . . . . . . . . . . .121 II. King's Stables, Castle Bams, and Castlehill, . . . . . . . 134 III. The Lawnmarket, . . . . . . . ' . . . .158 IV. The Tolbootb, Luckenbooths, and Parliament Close, . . . . . 184 VOLUME II. V. The High Street, ........... 1 VI. The High Street and Netherbow, ........ 29 VII. The Canongate and Abbey Sanctuary, ........ 56 VIII. St Leonards, St Mary's Wynd, and the Colgate, ...... 90 IX. The West Bow and tho Suburbs, ... . . . . . • • U3 X. Leith and the New Town, . . . . . . • • 136 XI. Ecclesiastical Antiquities, . . . . • • • • • .157 CONTENTS.

Appendix

. Page No. I. Edinburgh '-01 201 II. Ancient Maps and Views of Edinburgh, ....-••• III. Churches, .....-••••• 205 IV. Corporation and Masonic Halls, ....-•■ V. Wrychtishousis, .......-■• 208 VI. Porteous Mob, ........-•• 2n9 VII. Lady Ann Bothwell's Lament, .....-•• 209 VIII. Armorial Bearings, . . ....... *H IX. The Restoration. Burning of Cromwell, the Pope, &c, . . • . - -H X. West Bow. Major Weir, . . . . . . . - .213 XI. Old Bank Close. Assassination of Sir George Lockhart by Chiesley of Dairy, . . . 215 XII. Sir David Lindsay, . .......... 216 XIII. Umfraville's Cross, .......... 21 6 XIV. Greyfriars' Monastery, .......... 217 XV. The Whitefriars' Monastery, ......... 218 XVI. St Katherine's Well, 218 XVII. Claudero, . . . . . . . . . . . 218 XVIII. St Giles's Church, .......... 221 XIX.

Ancient Lodgings, .......... 223 XX. The Pillory, ........... 225 XXI. James Craig, Architect. Plan of the New Town, ...... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME I. Notice to the Binder. — The Plates, the titles of which are printed in capitals, to face the pages of reference in the following list. Page Page 1. Ancient Carved Stone, Edinburgh Castle, 1 2. Ancient House, Canonmills, . . 3 3. Carved Stone from the Old Barrier Gate, Edinburgh Castle, . . .6 4. The Castle, from a Map of 1575, . . 8 5. Corbel, from St Giles's Church, . . 10 6. The Old High Street, . . .11 7. Ancient Houses, near the Kirk-of- Field, . 14 8. Mary of Gueldcrs' Arms, from her Seal, . 17 9. Trinity College Church, from the South-West, . . .18 10. Bishop Kennedy's Arms, St Giles's Church, 21 11. The Castle, from the West Port, 1640, . 22 12.

The King's Pillar, St Giles's Chuich, . 24 •13. Ancient Padlock, dug up in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, . . . .27 14. City Cross, . . . .33 15. Palace of Holyiood previous to 1554, . 34 16. Blackfriars Wynd, . . .36 17. Holyrood Chapel, entrance to the Roval Vault, . ... 42 18. Norman Capital, Holyrood Abbey, . 46 19. Black Turnpike, . . .47 20. The Great Hall, Trinity Hospital, 50 21. Ancient Chapel, Kirkgate, Leith, . 54 22. Corbel from the ancient South Porch, St Giles's Church, . . .64 23. St Mary's Church, South Leith, . 66 24. Heart of Mid-Lothian, . . 71 25. Saint Giles, from the City Seal, 1565, . 73 26. Queen Mary's Bath, . . .76 27. Carved Stone in the Castle, containing the Cipher of Queen Mary and Henry Lord Darnley, . . ■ .77 28. Tower of the City Wall in the Vennel, 80 29. Holyrood Chapel, . . .81 30.

Old Tolbooth, Leith, . . .82 31. The Maiden, . . . .86 32. Jenny Geddes's Stool, . . .92 33. Dunbar's Close, High Street, . 95 34. The Citadel, Leith, . . .97 35. Parliament House, about 1646, . . 100 36. The Golfer's Land, Canongate, . 104 37. The Darien House, . . .107 38. West Bow, from the Castle Road, 1843, . . . .113 39. The Capital of the City Cross, . .115 40. Interior of the Tower of the Ancient Town Wall, in the Vennel, . . .116 4 1 . Ancient Doorway, Halkerston's Wynd, 118 42. The Castle, about 1750, . . . 121 43. French Prisoners' Vault in the Castle, . 126 44. Mouldings of the Chancel Arch, St Margaret's Chapel, in the Castle, . .128 45. Lintel from the Guise Palace, Blyth's Close, 134 46. Ancient Crow-Steps, from the Mint, . 135 47. Cipher of Robert Mowbray of Castlewan, 140 48.

Gothic Niche, Kennedy's Close, Castlehill, 142 49. Lord Sempill's House, Castlehill, . 145 50. Piscina, Palace of Mary of Guise, Castlehill, . . . .146 51. Ancient Carved Doorway, from the Guise Palace, . . . .147 52. Ancient Sculptured Lintel, Blyth's Close, 148 53. Edward Hope's House, Todd's Close, Castlehill, . . . .151 54. Large Gothic Niche, Blyth's Close, . 154 55. Ancient Niches, Blyth's Close, . . 155 56. Ancient Houses, Castlehill, . . 156 57. Painted Oak Beam from the Guise Chapel, 157 58. Gladstone's Land, Lawnmarket, . .158 59. Ancient Lintel, Lady Stair's Close, . 164 60. Riddle's Close, Lawnmarket, Bailie Macmoran's House, . . .168 61. Ancient Corbel, from the Old Bank Close, 172 62. Old Bank Close, . . .174 63. Carved Stone, from the Old Bank Close, 176 64. Carved Stone, from the Old Bank Close, 179 65.

Gosford's Close, Lawnmarket, . 180 66. Head of West Bow, Lawnmarket, . 183 67. North side of the Tolbooth, . .184 68. The Weigii-Hou.se, . . .195 69. The Old Pacliamoiit Stairs, . . 212 70. Reid's Close, Canonoate, . . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME II. Page 71. Anns of Edinburgh, from Common Seal of the City, 1565, . . . 1 72. House of Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, 7 73. Ancient Lintel, from Roxburgh Close, . 10 74. Old Assembly Rooms, West Bow, . 23 75. Clamshell Turnpike, . . .24 76. Lochaber Axes, . . .28 77. Ancient Inscriptions, from Blackfriars' Wynd, 29 78. Allan Ramsay's Shop, opposite Niddry's Wynd, . . . .31 79. Ancient Gothic Corbel, North Gray's Close, 34 80. Ancient Sculpture, the Offering of the Wise Men, from Sandilands Close, . . 36 81. John Knox's House, Netherbow, . 38 82.

Ancient Doorway, Blackfriars' Wynd, . 44 83. Cardinal Beaton's House, Cowgate, 46 84. Ancient Doorways, Fountain Close, . 52 85. Netherbow. Port, from the East, . 54 86. Canongate Tolbooth, . . .56 87. Gothic Niche, Old Fleshmarket Close, Canongate, . . . .58 88. Smollet's House, St John Street, Canongate, . . . .69 89. Canongate Cross, . . .73 90. Mansion of George first Marquis of Huntly, Bakehouse Close, Canongate, . . . .76 91. Nisbet of Dirleton's House, Canongate, 79 92. Jenny Ha's Change-House, Canongate, 80 93. Back of the White Horse Close, Canongate, . . . .84 94. Ancient Turnpike Stair, Symson's House, Cowgate, . . . .90 95. Tirling Pin, Mint Close, . . 97 96. Ancient Inscription, Cowgate, . .101 97. Initials from an Ancient Doorway, Cowgate, 103 98. Symson, the Printer's House, Cowgate, .... 104 99.

Tailors' Hall, Cowgate, . . .106 Page? 100. French Ambassador's Chapel, Cowgate, . . . 108 101. Brown Square, from the Society, . Ill 102. Gothic Niche, College Wynd, . .112 103. Major Weir's House, West Bow, . 113 104. The West Bow, entrance to Major Weir's House, . . .115 105. The Haunted Close, West Bow, . 120 106. Ancient Finials, from the Grassmarket, 123 107. The Potterrow, . . .125 108. Hospital of Our Lady, Paul's Work, 132 109. St Ninian's Row, 1845, . . 134 110. Sculptured Arms, Vinegar Close, Leith, 136 111. Ancient Council - House, Coalhill, Leith, .... 141 112. Ancient Signal Tower, Tolbooth Wynd, Leith, . . .145 113. Cinerary Urn, dug up at the Dean, . 150 114. Original Plan for the New Town, 1768, . . . .151 115. The Tolbooth of Broughton, . .152 116. Chapel of Robert, Duke of Albany, St Giles's Church, . . 157 " 117.

Norman Doorway, North Porch, St Giles's Church, • . . . .159 118. St Giles's Church, from the North- West, . . . .166 119. Sculptured Boss, from St Eloi's Chapel, St Giles's Church, . . .167 120. Ornamental Details, from Trinity College Church, .... 175 121. Trinity Hospital, Women's Ward, . 176 122. Abbot Crawfurd's Arms, from Holyrood Abbey, . . . . ']86 123. Old Greyfriars' Church, . . 191 124. Wrychtishousis, . . . 208 125. Ground Plan of St Giles's Church, 222 126. Plan of Edinburgh and Leith, with Projected Improvements, 1828. . d MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH

PART I. HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.

THE PAST. TO THB FBO-VTISPICB OF ABAKUK BISSBTS BOOK B OF Tltl OLD MOHU IIFN'TS OF SCOT LAW I Twixt Was, and Is, how various are the Ods! What one man doth, another doth vndoe: One consecrates Religious Workes to Gods, Another leaues sad Wrackes and Ruines now. Thy Booke doth shew that such and such things wen But, would to God that it could say, They are. When I pererrelhe South, North, East, and West, And mark, alace, each Monument amis ; Then I conferre Tymes present with the pa»t : I reade what was, but cannot see what is ; I prayse thy Booke with wonder, but am sorle. To reade olde Kubie-i In a recent storie. Poetical Rtcrrationet of Mr Alerandtr Craig, qf Rose-Craig. Scoto Uritan. 1023. st Anthony's well. A silver stream, os in the days of yore. ■When the old hermit of the neighbouring cell Ble<;s'd the clear waters of St Anton's Well ; A nd yon grey ruins, on who?e grassy floor The lambkins browse, rung out the matin bell, Whose voice upon the neighbouring city fell Waking up 'ninng its crowds old hearts that wore Griefs like our own ; sounding to one the knell Of ruined hopes, to which another heeds As joyful music on his marriage morn.

Up yon steep cliff" how oft light steps have borne The wedding or the christening train ; where weeds So long have grown the chapel altar stood, And daily pilgrims knelt before the Holy Rood. Thus fashions change, while Nature is the same The altar gone,— the chapel's crumbling walls O'erlooking there the Stuarts' ancient halls. Deserted all and drear; with but the fame Of buried glories giving them a name; Where yet the past as with a spell enthralls The wanderer's fancy, rapt in musing dream Of ancient story, helping it to frame Old scenes in yon grey aisles, when mass was sung. While Mary— hapless Queen— knelt low the while. And thrilling chaunts and incense lilled the aisle; — Vain dream .'—Of all that there sofondly clung, Nought save the daisy and the blue harebell Breathe their old inceuse by St Anton's Well. IN THE OLDEN TIME.

Chapter I. Earliest Traditions

i I HE history of Edinburgh, down to a comparatively I recent included in that of its Castle and Abbey. | The first, the fortress, round whose protecting citadel the rude huts of our forefathers were gathered and continued to increase, until, amid the wealth and security of more peaceful times, the Abbey of the Holyrood reared its consecrated walls, and absorbed to itself much of the wealth and the learning, many of the vir tues, and doubtless also some of the vices, of the wild Saxons that peopled the fertile Lothians. It is unnecessary to follow in this History, the fanciful disquisitions of zealous antiquaries, respecting the origin and etymology of Edinburgh ; it has been successively de rived, both in origin and name, from Saxon, Pict, and Gael ; and in each case, with sufficient ingenuity, only to leave the subject more deeply involved than at first.

To expect that the first rude gathering of the hamlet, that forms the nucleus of the future capital, should leave its traces in the surviving records or traditions of the past, were as unreasonable, as that the rustic should challenge the veracity of a living historian, because he fails to adorn his Vignette — Ancient carved stone over the entrance to the Ordnance Office, Edinburgh Castle. pages with the ' mute inglorious' history of his native village. All that tradition could have preserved of its early history, may still be traced by the intelligent eye, in the natural features of its romantic site. In the midst of a fertile and beautiful country, and within easy distance of a navigable estuary of the sea, rises a bold and precipitous cliff, towering upon three of its sides, an inaccessible natural fortress, to the height of 300 feet above the plain.

In immediate con nection with this, the sloping hill forms at once the natural approach to the Castle, and a site protected already on one side by a marsh and lake, and on all but one by steep ap proaches,'admitting of ready defence and security from surprise. Here at once is discovered a situation, planned, as it were, by the hand of Nature, to offer to the wandering tribes of early Caledonia, the site for their Capital ; when every one's hand was against his brother, and war was deemed the only fitting occupation of men. Nor was it until the union with our once natural foes, had made the rival sisters, ' like kindred drops to mingle into one,' that Edina ventured forth from her hilly stronghold, and spread abroad her noble skirts over the valley of the Forth. But in addition to the natural obscurity of an infant city, the history of Edinburgh, as of Scotland, is involved in more than usual uncertainty, even down to a period when both should fill an important page in the annals of the British Isles, owing to the double destruction of the national records, first, under Edward I., and again under Cromwell; leaving its historian dependant for much of his material on vague and uncertain tradition, or on information obtained by patient labour, or fortunate chance in the pursuit of other investigations.

The earliest notices refer almost exclusively to the Castle, which has been occupied as a fortified station as far back as our traditions extend. The remotest date we have been able to discover, assigned for its origin, is in Stow's Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles, where it is placed as far back as 989 years before Christ ; sufficiently remote, we should presume, for the most zealous chronologist. " Ebranke,11 savs he, " the sonne of Mem pricius, was made ruler of Britayne ; he had, as testifieth Policronica, Ganfride, and other twenty-one wyves, of whom he receyved twenty sonnes and thirty daughters ; whyche he sente into Italye, there to be maryed to the blood of the Troyans. In Albanye (now called Scotlande) he edified the castell of Alclude, which is Dumbritavn ;T he made the castell of Maydens, now called Edenbrough ; he made also the castell of Banburgh in the 23d yere of his reign.