Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time

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Go to: « Kay's Originals Vol. 1 « Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Cover Title Pages Contents List of Illustrations Preface Part 1: Historical Associations Part 1 Ch 1: Earliest Traditions Part 1 Ch 2: From The Accession of The Stuarts to the Death of James III Part 1 Ch 3: From the Accession of James IV to the Battle of Flodden Part 1 Ch 4: From the Battle of Flodden to the Death of James V Part 1 Ch 5: From the Death of James V to the Abdication of Queen Mary Part 1 Ch 6: From the Accession of James VI to the Restoration of Charles II Part 1 Ch 7: Historical Incidents after the Restoration Part 2: Local Antiquities and Traditions Part 2 Ch 1: The Castle Part 2 Ch 2: King's Stables, Castle Barns, and Castle Hill Part 2 Ch 3: The Lawnmarket Part 2 Ch 4: The Tolbooth, Luckenbooths, and Parliament Close Part 2 Ch 5: The High Street Part 2 Ch 6: The High Street and Nether Bow Part 2 Ch 7: The Canongate and Abbey Sanctuary Part 2 Ch 8: St Leonard's, St Mary's Wynd, and The Cowgate Part 2 Ch 9: The West Bow and Suburbs Part 2 Ch 10: Leith, and The New Town Part 2 Ch 11: Ecclesiastical Antiquities Appendix » Edinburgh Past and Present » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

APPENDIX. I. EDINBURGH. EFERENCE has been made in the beginning of this Work to thevenerable antiquity ascribed to Edinburgh by early chroniclers, who assign as it founder, Ebranke, a contemporary of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Israel I-Qrafton’s Chronicle, 1569. John Hardyng, a still earlier chronicler, records of the same ancient ‘‘ Kyng of Brytain,”- “ He made also the Mayden Castell stronge That men now calleth the Cutell of Edenburgb, That on a rock standeth full hye out of throng On mount Agwet, where men may se out through Full many a toune, caatel, and borough, . In the shire about, it is 80 hye in sjght Who will it scale he ahall not find it light.” The following reference to Edinburgh by a foreigner, evidently describing the iirst impression conveyed by the view of it from the Forth, occurs in a curious French poem, “Le Chevalier sans reproche Jacques de Lalain, par Messire Jean d’Ennetieres,” &c. &c. Tournay, 1632. Bvo. In thia, the 9th canto is occupied with the details of a combat between the hero and James (9th) Earl of Douglas, fought at Stirling in presence of the king, three against three. Towards the close of the preceding canto @. 2061, Edinburgh is thua described,- Lalain’s vessel having arrived in the Forth :- ‘‘ Edymbourgk toutesfois fait paroistre aea cornea, Au dessoue d’un espois de nuagee bien mornes. Devers l’Est, et le Sud lh ceint une muraille, Du coat4 du couchant, il ne luy faut tenaille Ny bouleuert flancquant ; car un bien haut rocher La couvre tellement qu’on ne peut l’approcher. U dessua le cbaateau est de nature telle, Que 1’Eacopis le dit le fort de la Pucslle : Tant l’a forti66 la nature avec l’art, Que des We8 pouroyent maintenu tel rampart. Au Nort un precipice en hauteur effroyable, Le rend de celle part de tout point imprenable.”

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424 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. TL ANCIENT MAPS AND VIEWS OF EDINBURGH. 1544.-The frequent reference to maps of different dates through the Work, renders some account of them desirable for the general reader. The oldest, and by far the most valuable, is that of which a facsimile is given in the iimt volume of the Bannatyne Miscellany, to illustrate a description of Edinburgh, referred to in the course of this Work, by Alexander Alesse, a native of Edinburgh, born 23d April 1500, who embraced the Protestant faith about the time when Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish martyr, was brought to the stake in 1527. He left Scotland about the year 1532 to escape a similar fate, and is believed to have died at Leipzig in 1565. The original map is preserved in the British Museum (NS. Cotton. Augustus 1, vol. ii Art. 66), and is assigned with every appearance of probability to the year 1544, the date of the Earl of Hertford’s expedition under Henry VIII. The map may be described as @fly consisting of a view from the Calton Hill, and represents Arthur‘s Seat and the Abbey apparently with minute accuracy. The higher part of the town is spread out more in the character of a bird’s-eye view ; but there also the churches, the Netherbow Port, and other prominent features, afford proof of its general correctness. The buildings about the Palace and the whole of the upper town have their roofs coloured red, a8 if to represent tiles, while those in the Canongate are coloured grey, probably to show that they were thatched with straw. The only other view that bears any near resemblance to the last, occurs in the corner of one of the maps in “John Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine,”published at London in 1611. It is, perhaps, only a reduction of it, with some additions from other sources. It must have been made, at any rate, many years before ita publication, as both the Blackfriars Church and the Kirk-of-Field form prominent objects in the town. Trinity College Church is introduced surmounted by a spire. St Andrew‘s Port, at the foot of Leith Wynd, appears as a gate of aome architectural pretensions ; and the old Abbey and Palace of Holyrood, with the intricate enclosing walls surrounding them, are deserving of comparison with the more authentic view. 1573.-The next in point of time is a plan engraved onwood for Holinshed’s Chronicles, 1577, and believed to be the same that is referred to in “A Survey taken of the Castle and towne of Edinbrogh in Scotland, by vs Rowland Johnson and John Fleminge, servantes to the Q. Ma”’, by the comandement of s‘ William Drury, Knighte, Governor of Berwicke, and Mr Henry Killigrave, Her Mah Embassador.” The view in this is from the eouth, but it is chiefly of value as showing the position of the besiegers’ batteries. The town is mapped out into little blocks of houses, with singular-looking heroes in trunk hose interspersed among them, tall. enough k step over their roofs ! A facsimile of this illustrates the “Journal of -the Siege,= in tKe second voIume of the Bannatpe Miscellany. Of the aame date is a curious plan of the Castle, mentioned in Blomefield’s Historp of Norfolk :--“ At Ridlesworth Hall, Norfolk, is a picture of Sir William Drury, Lord Chief- Justice of Ireland, 1579, by which hangs an old plan of Edinburgh Castle, and two armies before it, and round it-Sir Willkm h y e , Knt., General of the EngliShe, wanm Edinburgh Castle 1573.‘-Gough’s British Topography, vol. ii. p. 667. 1580.-Another map, which has bcen frequently engraved, was published about 1580 in Braun’s Civitates &his. ‘‘ Any person,” says the editor of the Bannatyne Miscellany (vol. i. p. 185), ‘‘ who is acquainted with the localities of the place may easily perceive that this plan has been delineated by a foreign artist from the information contained in the printed text, and not from any actual survey or sketch ; and consequently is of little interest or value.” The same, however, might, with equal propriety, be said of the preceding map, which has fully as many errors as the one now referred to. The latter is certainly much too correct, according to the style of depiction adopted in these bird‘s-eye maps, to admit of the idea of ita being drawn from description, though it is not improbable that it may have been made up ‘from others, without personal survey. It affords some interesting points of comparison with that of 1574.

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