[204] Myln’s _Lives of the Bishops of Dunkeld_. Edinburgh, 1831.
[205] Originally the name was the ‘Wynd of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
the Fields,’ as being the approach to the collegiate church so named
which stood on the site of the University—the ‘Kirk o’ Field’ of the
Darnley tragedy.
[206] Now Chambers Street.
[207] A small ‘bit’ of College Wynd, ending in a _cul de sac_, is all
that remains of this once leading thoroughfare between the city and the
‘Oure Tounis Colledge.’
[208] When it became an unfashionable place of residence it was dubbed
by the fops of the town ‘Cavalry Wynd.’ The northern end of Guthrie
Street is the site of the old Horse Wynd.
[209] Macgill was King’s Advocate to James VI., and is said to have
died of grief when his rival, Thomas Hamilton, was preferred for the
presidentship.
[210] Most of the traditionary anecdotes in this article were
communicated by Charles, eighth Earl of Haddington, through
conversation with Sir Walter Scott, by whom they were directly imparted
to the author.
[211] Near by is the Magdalen Chapel, a curious relic of the sixteenth
century, belonging to the Corporation of Hammermen. It was erected
immediately before the Reformation by a pious citizen, Michael
Macquhan, and Jonet Rhynd, his widow, whose tomb is shown in the floor.
The windows towards the south were anciently filled with stained glass;
and there still remain some specimens of that kind of ornament, which,
by some strange chance, had survived the Reformation. In a large
department at the top of one window are the arms of Mary of Guise,
who was queen-regent at the time the chapel was built. The arms of
Macquhan and his wife are also to be seen. In the lower panes, which
have been filled with small figures of saints, only one remains—a St
Bartholomew—who, by a rare chance, has survived the general massacre.
The whole is now very carefully preserved. When the distinguished
Reformer, John Craig, returned to Scotland at the Reformation, after
an absence of twenty-four years, he preached for some time in this
chapel, in the Latin language, to a select congregation of the learned,
being unable, by long disuse, to hold forth in his vernacular tongue.
This divine subsequently was appointed a colleague to John Knox, and
is distinguished in history for having refused to publish the banns
between Queen Mary and Bothwell, and also for having written the
National Covenant in 1589. Another circumstance in the history of this
chapel is worthy of notice. The body of the Earl of Argyll, after his
execution, June 30, 1685, was brought down and deposited in this place,
to wait till it should be conveyed to the family burying-place at
Kilmun.