Walk to the Castle--The old Wynds and their Occupants--Regalia of
Scotland--Storming of the Castle--Views from its Summit--Heriot's
Hospital--Other Hospitals--St. Giles's Cathedral--Changes--The
Spirit of Protestantism.
Let us now descend into the city. We will not linger long in old
Holyrood Palace, interesting as it is, nor dwell upon "the stains" of
Rizzio's blood in Queen Mary's room, as these have been described a
thousand times, and are familiar to every one. Neither will we spend
time in gazing upon the spot where once stood that quaint old gaol,
called "The Heart of Midlothian," made classic by the pen of Scott, in
the beautiful story of Jeanie Deans. Neither will we visit the old
"Parliament House" and the "Advocates' Library;" but we will pass right
up through High Street, amid those colossal buildings, rising, on either
side, to the height of six, seven, and even eight and ten stories,
swarming with inhabitants; and dive into one or two of those close, dark
wynds, where reside, in countless multitudes, the poorest and most
vicious of the people. Here, it must be confessed, are some strange
sights and appalling noises. Yet it is not quite so bad as some have
represented it. All large cities have their poor and vicious
inhabitants, and although those of the Scottish metropolis are
tolerably dirty and vastly degraded, they bear no comparison to the
lazzaroni of Naples and the beggars of Rome. Some of the streets and
wynds are narrow enough and vile enough, but they contain, after all,
many worthy people, who own a Bible, and read it too; and were you only
to become thoroughly acquainted with them, you would be surprised to
find how much of honesty and kindly affection still dwell in their
hearts. In ancient times the houses in these very "closes" or "wynds"
were inhabited by the nobility and gentry. Hence Grey's Close,
Morrison's Close, Stewart's Close, &c. They built their houses in these
narrow streets in order to be more secure from the attacks of their
enemies, and to be the better able to defend the principal thoroughfares
into which they opened. In Blythe's Close may be seen the remains of the
palace of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise. In another stand the old
houses of the Earls of Gosford and Moray. One of the largest old palaces
is now inhabited by beggars and rats.
It would be a great improvement if these miserable dwellings could be
removed, and replaced by better streets and houses; a still greater one,
if the people could only be induced to abandon the use of whiskey, for
then they would abandon their hovels as a matter of course. Their
besetting sin is the love of strong drink, though this has been
gradually diminishing for the last few years throughout Scotland. It is
to be hoped that the pious and moral portion of the community will unite
in a strong effort to reclaim this degraded class of their
fellow-townsmen, and that the time will speedily come when the only
reproach which rests upon their fair fame shall be wholly obliterated.
But let us leave this region, the only unpleasant one in the whole of
this magnificent city, and ascend to the old Castle, where we shall see
the Regalia of Scotland, preserved in a little room at the top of the
Castle. These regalia consist of the crown of Robert Bruce the hero of
Bannockburn, the sceptre of James the Fifth, a sword presented by Pope
Julius the Second to James the Sixth, and other articles of inferior
note. It is somewhat singular that the Regalia should have lain
concealed from 1745 to the year 1818. At the time of the Union in 1707
between England and Scotland, they were walled up by some Scottish
patriots, in order to prevent their being removed to London.
What recollections of the stormy but glorious history of Scotland
cluster around the mind, while gazing at that antique-looking crown
which adorned the head of the Bruces and the ill-fated Mary. The freedom
and prosperity now enjoyed by the nation had a gloomy and tempestuous
birth. Their very religion, placid and beautiful now, was cradled amid
the war of elements and the shock of battle. But, thanks to God, it is
all the purer and stronger for its rough and tempestuous youth.
Draw near to the edge of that battlement, and look down over the
frowning rock. Would it be possible, think you, to storm the Castle from
that side? One would suppose it beyond the power of man. It has been
done, however, and the circumstance illustrates the spirit of hardihood
and enterprise which has ever distinguished the people of Scotland. In
the year 1313, when the Castle was in the possession of the English,
Randolph, Earl of Moray, was one day surveying the gigantic rock, when
he was accosted by one of his men at arms with the question, "Do you
think it impracticable, my lord?" Randolph turned his eyes upon the
speaker, a man a little past the prime of life, but of a firm well-knit
figure, and bearing in his keen eye and open forehead marks of
intrepidity which had already gained him distinction in the Scottish
army. "Do you mean the rock, Francis?" said the Earl; "perhaps not, if
we could borrow the wings of our gallant hawks."[11]
[Footnote 11: We give the version of Leitch Ritchie, who has thrown the
facts into the form of a dialogue, and given a false name to the hero;
otherwise the narration is entirely authentic.]
"There are wings," replied Francis, with a thoughtful smile, "as strong,
as buoyant, and as daring. My father was keeper of yonder fortress."
"What of that? You speak in riddles."
"I was then young, reckless, high-hearted: I was screwed up in that
convent-like castle; my sweetheart was in the plain below"--
"Well, what then?"
"'Sdeath, my lord, can you not imagine that I speak of the wings of
love? Every night I descended that steep at the witching hour, and every
morning before the dawn I crept back to my barracks. I constructed a
light twelve-foot ladder, by means of which I was able to pass the
places that are perpendicular; and so well, at length, did I become
acquainted with the route, that in the darkest and stormiest night, I
found my way as easily as when the moonlight enabled me to see my love
in the distance waiting for me at the cottage door."
"You are a daring, desperate, noble fellow, Francis! However, your
motive is now gone; your mistress"--
"She is dead; say no more; but another has taken her place."
"Ay, ay, it's the soldier's way. Women will die or even grow old; and
what are we to do? Come, who is your mistress now?"
"MY COUNTRY! What I have done for love, I can do again for honor; and
what I can accomplish, you, noble Randolph, and many of our comrades can
do far better. Give me thirty picked men, and a twelve-foot ladder, and
the fortress is our own!"
"The Earl of Moray, whatever his real thoughts of the enterprise might
have been, was not the man to refuse such a challenge. A ladder was
provided, and thirty men chosen from the troops; and in the middle of a
dark night, the party, commanded by Randolph himself, and guided by
William Francis, set forth on their desperate enterprise.
"By catching at crag after crag, and digging their fingers into the
interstices of the rocks, they succeeded in mounting a considerable way;
but the weather was now so thick, they could receive but little
assistance from their eyes; and thus they continued to climb, almost in
utter darkness, like men struggling up a precipice in the night-mare.
They at length reached a shelving table of the cliff, above which the
ascent, for ten or twelve feet, was perpendicular; and having fixed
their ladder, the whole party lay down to recover breath.
"From this place they could hear the tread and voices of the 'check
watches,' or patrol, above; and, surrounded by the perils of such a
moment, it is not wonderful that some illusions may have mingled with
their thoughts. They even imagined that they were seen from the
battlements, although, being themselves unable to see the warders, this
was highly improbable. It became evident, notwithstanding, from the
words they caught here and there in the pauses of the night-wind, that
the conversation of the English soldiers above related to a surprise of
the Castle; and at length these appalling words broke like thunder on
their ears: 'Stand! I see you well!' A fragment of the rock was hurled
down at the same instant; and as rushing from crag to crag it bounded
over their heads, Randolph and his brave followers, in this wild,
helpless, and extraordinary situation, felt the damp of mortal terror
gathering upon their brow, as they clung with a death-grip to the
precipice.
"The startled echoes of the rock were at length silent, and so were the
voices above. The adventurers paused, listening breathless; no sound was
heard but the sighing of the wind, and the measured tread of the
sentinel who had resumed his walk. The men thought they were in a
dream, and no wonder; for the incident just mentioned, which is related
by Barbour, was one of the most singular coincidences that ever
occurred. The shout of the sentinel and the missile he had thrown, were
merely a boyish freak; and while listening to the echoes of the rock, he
had not the smallest idea that the sounds which gave pleasure to him
carried terror and almost despair into the hearts of the enemy.
"The adventurers, half uncertain whether they were not the victims of
some illusion, determined that it was as safe to go on as to turn back;
and pursuing their laborious and dangerous path, they at length reached
the bottom of the wall. This last barrier they scaled by means of their
ladder; and leaping down among the astonished check-watches, they cried
their war-cry, and in the midst of answering shouts of 'treason!
treason!' notwithstanding the desperate resistance of the garrison,
captured the Castle of Edinburgh."
Sit down here on the edge of this parapet. That huge cannon there is
called Mons Meg, from being cast at _Mons_, in Flanders, and reminds us,
somewhat significantly, of the terrible use to which all the
arrangements of the Castle are applied.[12] How singular, that men have
to be governed and controlled like bull-dogs, that castles and dungeons,
halters, and cannon, are necessary to keep them from stealing each
other's property, or cutting each other's throats! Surely mankind have
ills enough to bear without turning upon each other like tigers.
[Footnote 12: At present it is used as a barracks for soldiers and a
magazine of arms.]
"Many and sharp the numerous ills,
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
Regret, remorse, and shame;
And man, whose heaven-erected face
The smiles of love adorn,
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn."
BURNS.
But all is quiet now. The tendency of the times is to peace; and
Edinburgh Castle, Mons Meg, and the whole array of cannon bristling over
the precipice, are but objects of natural curiosity or of poetical
interest.
Do you see yonder turreted building, with high pointed gables and
castellated walls, in the Elizabethan style, just beyond the Grass
Market. That is George Heriot's Hospital, one of the proudest monuments
of the city, and one of the most beautiful symbols of its peaceful
prosperity. It was founded by the rich and benevolent George Heriot,
jeweller to King James the Sixth, "Jingling Geordie," as he is quaintly
termed in the "Fortunes of Nigel." It is of vast extent, as you
perceive, and presents a good specimen of the mixed style of
architecture prevalent in the days of Queen Mary. The object of this
noble institution is the maintenance and education of poor and
fatherless boys, or of boys in indigent circumstances, "freemen's sons
of the town of Edinburgh." Of these, one hundred and eighty receive
ample board and education within its walls. By this means they are
thoroughly prepared for the active business of life, each receiving
at his dismissal a Bible, and other useful books, with two suits of
clothes chosen by himself. Those going out as apprentices are allowed
$50 per annum for five years, and $25 at the termination of their
apprenticeship. Boys of superior scholarship are permitted to stay
longer in the institution, and are fitted for college. For this purpose
they receive $150 per annum, for four years. Connected with this
institution are seven free schools, in the different parishes of the
city, for the support of which its surplus funds are applied. In these
upwards of two thousand children receive a good common school education.
The girls, in addition to the ordinary branches, are taught knitting and
sewing.
In addition to these provisions for the education of the poor, there are
also ten "bursaries," or university scholarships, open to the
competition of young men, not connected with the institution. The
successful candidates receive $100 per annum for four years. No wonder
that Sir Walter Scott felt authorized to put into the mouth of the
princely founder of these charities the striking sentiment: "I think
mine own estate and memory, as I shall order it, has a fair chance of
outliving those of greater men."
Edinburgh abounds in charitable hospitals, and particularly in free
educational institutions, in the support of which the citizens evince a
laudable enthusiasm. Thus, for example, we have Watson's Hospital, the
Merchant Maiden's Hospital, the Trades' Maiden Hospital, Trinity College
Hospital, Cauvin's Hospital, a little out of the city; Gillespie's
Hospital, Donaldson's Hospital, Chalmers's Hospital, the House of
Refuge, the House of Industry, the Strangers' Friend Society, the
Institution for the Relief of poor old Men, and another for the Relief
of indigent old Women, and many others.
Below us, on one side of High Street, you see the fine old Gothic
Cathedral of St. Giles. It was founded in the twelfth or thirteenth
century, and named after St. Giles, abbot and confessor, and tutelar
saint of Edinburgh in the olden time. The Scottish poet, Gavin Douglas,
bishop of Dunkeld, was sometime provost of St. Giles. He translated
Virgil into English, the first version of a classic ever made in
Britain, and was the author of "The Palace of Honor," from which some
have absurdly supposed that John Bunyan borrowed the idea of the
"Pilgrim's Progress." This edifice is interesting, chiefly as connecting
the past with the present condition of Scotland, and indicating the
mighty transitions through which it has passed. In the fifteenth century
incense ascended from forty different altars within its walls; now it
contains three Protestant places of worship. Once it enshrined the
relics of St. Giles; now its cemetery contains the body of John Knox! On
the 13th of October, 1643, "the solemn League and Covenant" was sworn to
and subscribed within its walls, by the Committee of the Estates of
Parliament, the Commission of the Church, and the English Commission.
The sacred vessels and relics which it contained, including the arm-bone
of the patron saint, were seized by the magistrates of the city, and the
proceeds of their sale applied to the repairing of the building.
Puritanism has thus often showed itself a rough and tempestuous
reformer; nevertheless it possesses wonderful vitality, and has
conferred upon Scotland the blessings of civil and religious liberty.
Its outer form is often hard and defective, and its movements irregular
and convulsive, but its inner spirit is ever generous and free. Its
rudeness and excess none will approve; its life, energy, and activity,
all will admire. It came forth, like a thunder-cloud, from the
mountains. Its quick lightning-flashes went crashing amid the old images
of papal worship. The atmosphere of spiritual pollution was agitated and
purified. Upon the parched ground fell gentle and refreshing showers.
The sun of freedom began to smile upon hill and valley, and the whole
land rejoiced under its placid influence.