Bruntisfield--St. Margaret's Convent--Canaan Lane--
Hermitage of Braid--Morton Hall--Dreghorn--Colinton--
Craiglockhart--Craighouse--Merchiston Castle--The
Wryteshouses.
At the outset of these walks, I must pause and explain to my
imaginary companions where we are going, and what we are going to
see. Let them not raise their hopes too high! I am taking them
neither to the dark and mysterious wynds of the Old Town, nor to
the beautiful and distant glen of the Esk, nor farther afield, to
Linlithgow's "lonely bower." My sphere is a humbler one. The Old
Town of Edinburgh has been so much and so ably written upon, that it
can only be from idleness that any one is ignorant of its history.
Roslin, Hawthornden, Dalkeith, Linlithgow, have each their separate
guide-books, with every detail most fully given. But extending
round Edinburgh, at a distance of from three to five miles, are a
number of curious old places, and remains of antiquity, of which the
traditions are gradually dying away. The great extension of the
town of late years has swept away the memory of some; others, from
having changed owners at short intervals, have lost the recollections
of their former days; others, again, can only have their history
unravelled by a diligent search through scarce, and sometimes
voluminous works.
To collect some of these stories and out-of-the-way facts together
has been my object; and if those who have neither time nor money for
more distant expeditions will accompany me on an afternoon ramble, I
think they will find much to interest them. I have avoided statistics
of any kind,--they are the dry bones of description, and can easily
be looked up if they are wanted,--and I have limited myself to the
desultory information, which would naturally be poured forth in the
course of a walk. The first one begins very much within the suburbs,
but, as one writes most readily of what one knows best, I begin with
my own home.
Bruntisfield is the last of the old houses in the immediate vicinity
of Edinburgh which is still inhabited by its owners. Merchiston
Castle and the Grange are let; the Wryteshouse has long disappeared;
but Bruntisfield, in spite of recent additions and alterations,
still preserves much of the character of the semi-fortified mansion,
with protecting outworks, which centuries ago frowned over the
Boroughmuir. Its antiquity is even more apparent inside than outside,
from the thickness of the walls, the diversities of the levels, and
the steep little turret stairs.
The earliest owners of Bruntisfield appear to have been the Lauders
of Haltoun (or Hatton, as it is called now). In 1452 we find James
II. granting a charter to his consort, Queen Marie, "for the very
sincere affection which he bears towards her," of the lands of
Haltoun, the Plat, Weschal, Nortoun, Broumysfelde (Bruntisfield), the
North Row of Rathow, and the rents of Gogar, belonging to the king
by the forfeiture of the late "William de Laudre of Haltoun." The
Lauders seem to have been shortly after restored, for in 1490 King
James IV. granted a charter to "Sir Alexander Lawdre of Haltoun of
the lands of Broumsfield." The same Sir Alexander, seven years later
(1497), assigned "Brounisfeld, with its mansion-house, garden and
herbarium (or park), to his son Alexander Lawder," who in James IV.'s
confirmation of the charter (1506) is quaintly styled "the king's
familiar," and who held these lands of his father by the yearly
payment of a red rose. Bruntisfield appears to have been considered
a suitable appanage for the heir-apparent of Haltoun, for in August
1586 we find James VI. confirming a charter of Sir William Lauder
granting these lands to his eldest son Alexander.
Soon after this (in 1603) Bruntisfield passed away from the Lauders,
being sold by Alexander Lauder to John Fairlie, probably a cadet
of the family of Braid.[1] He apparently altered and added to the
house, as it would seem from the date 1605, which with the initials
I. F.--E. W., is over some of the windows. The original house was of
much older date, as we have evidence that a mansion-house stood here
in 1457.
[1] The arms of Fairlie of Bruntisfield were--or, a lion rampant; in
chief three stars gules. (Nisbet's _Heraldry_.)
In 1695 William Fairlie sold Bruntisfield to George Warrender,
afterwards Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and created a baronet in 1715.
His family was of French extraction,--his ancestor, a De Warende,
having come from Picardy in the train of Mary of Guise. By degrees he
acquired other lands lying contiguous to Bruntisfield, by purchase
from Rigg of Riggsland, Biggar of Whitehouse, and Dick of Grange; and
these form the property of Bruntisfield as it now stands.
[Illustration: _Bruntisfield House._]
The Lauders of Haltoun became extinct in the 17th century, and their
representation devolved on the Maitland family by the marriage of
Elizabeth Lauder, the heiress of Haltoun, with Charles, fourth Earl
of Lauderdale. That descent we have inherited through my father's
mother, Lady Julian Maitland; so that, after a lapse of nearly three
hundred years, the descendants of the original possessors inhabit the
old house again.
After the purchase of Bruntisfield by George Warrender, it remained
for nearly a hundred years in possession of the younger branch of the
family, which came to an end in 1820 by the death of Hugh Warrender,
an old bachelor, who was Crown Agent for Scotland.[2] He was
succeeded by his cousin, my grand-uncle, the Right Hon. Sir George
Warrender, M.P., who on taking possession discovered the existence
of a secret room. The house was then thickly covered with ivy. Lee,
the Royal Academician, and an architect that Sir George had brought
down from London with him, were the first to suspect its existence,
from finding more windows outside than they could account for. The
old woman who had charge of the house denied for a long time any
knowledge of such a room; but, frightened by Sir George's threats,
she at length showed them the narrow entrance, that was concealed
behind a piece of tapestry. This was torn down, and the door forced
open, and a room was found, just as it had been left by some former
occupant,--the ashes still in the grate. Whether, as one story said,
it had been used as a hiding-place in troubled times,--or whether,
according to another legend, it had been the room of a dearly loved
child of the house, after whose death it had been hurriedly shut up,
never to be entered again by the broken-hearted parents,--there are
now no means of knowing; but the blood-stains on the floor point to
some darker tragedy, and a tradition still lingers that, not long
after the discovery of the room, a skeleton was found buried below
the windows. It is still known as the Ghost-room, though nothing has
been seen, at any rate for many years.
[2] The following lines were found among some old family papers, and
are headed,--