[1] The arms of Fairlie of Bruntisfield were—or, a lion rampant; in chief three stars gules. (Nisbet's Heraldry.)

[2] The following lines were found among some old family papers, and are headed,—

VERSES—A FRAGMENT.

Descriptive of Bruntisfield House, now in the possession of Mr. Warrender, written in June 1790 at the desire of a young lady to whom the author was much attached.

[3] When my aunt, Lady John Scott, was staying at Bruntisfield in 1863, she trenched the mound across, and made a thorough examination of it, but discovered nothing, beyond that it was undoubtedly artificial.

[4] The opening lines of the tragedy are believed to have been inspired by the woods of the Flass in Berwickshire, Home having been for a short time on a visit to the neighbouring parish of Westruther.

[5] For a detailed account of the convent of St. Catherine and its founders, see The Convent of St. Catherine of Sienna, by George Seton, 1871. Privately printed.

[6] The arms of Fairlie of Brede were—or, a lion rampant, gules; between his forepaws a star of the last bruised with a bendlet, azure. It is said that the first of this family was a natural son of Robert II.; hence they have the tincture and figure of the Royal Arms (without the tressure), and bruised with a bendlet, a mark of illegitimation. (See Nisbet's Heraldry.)

In his MS. notes, written in 1700, William Wauchope of Niddrie mentions the Fairlies of Brede among the seven old families in the county which were already extinct. The others were—the Logans of Lochsterrick (Restalrig); the Prestons of Craigmillar, the Herrings of Gilmerton, the Edmistons of Edmiston, the Giffords of Sheriffhall, and the Lauders of the Bass.

[7] Scott—"The Gray Brother."

[8] See Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland.

[9] Violet Fane—"Autumn Songs."

[10] I have been told by Mr. Stillie, who has good reasons for knowing the truth of the matter, that Allan Ramsay laid the scenery of "The Gentle Shepherd," round the Hunter's Tryst, and that

lies down in the hollow at the bottom of the hill by the Braid Burn. Old Mr. Trotter of the Bush was very anxious to establish the fact that Habbie's Howe was up the Logan Water in Glencorse; and Mr. Brown of Newhall claimed the site for his property farther west along the Pentlands, and wrote a book to prove that he was right. In consequence, it is the generally received opinion that the spot now called Habbie's Howe on Newhall was the one intended by Allan Ramsay; but, according to the tradition received by my informant from Allan Ramsay's friends and relations, both were wrong.

[11] The name of Hales is still retained by a quarry on the farther side of the Water of Leith.

[12] The Otterburn arms were—argent, guttee de sable; a cheveron between three otters' heads couped of the last; and on a chief azure, a crescent or.

[13] The same Dr. Munro was dining once at Niddrie. One of the children had not been well, and was still looking pale, and Mrs. Wauchope (my great-great-grandmother) asked him what she had better do. "You should take advice, madam," was his answer, thus intimating that no opinion was to be got out of him gratis. His daughter married Sir James Stuart, the last baronet of Allanbank, and was the "pert wife" against whom Charles Sharpe inveighed with such bitterness for persuading her husband to sell the portrait of "Pearlin' Jean."

[14] Alas! that is how it looked a few years ago, but lately the place has been acquired by the Morningside Lunatic Asylum, and has been sadly changed. Modern plate-glass replaces the old sixteen and twenty paned windows that I remember, and other alterations seem in progress.

[15] Pitcairn's Criminal Trials.

[16] Scott—"Marmion."

[17] This story was told by Mrs. Williamson herself to the old Miss Robertsons (who lived in George Square), and they repeated it to Lady John Scott.

[18] The Napiers of Merchiston bear the arms of the Earls of Lennox of old, instead of their own,—their ancestor having married an heiress of that family in the 15th century.

[20] Sir David Lindesay in "The Monarchie" thus enumerates the saints to whom superstitious honours were paid:

[21] Miss Menie was of a very hospitable disposition. At the beginning of every winter she killed and salted down a Highland bullock, which she and her guests ate steadily through till it was finished. Lady Robert Kerr, and my two great-grand-aunts, Mrs. Mackenzie and Mrs. David Wauchope, constantly dined with her, and she used to press her neighbour, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, to come, with the reminder, "We we getting gey near the tail noo."

[22] Scott—"Marmion."

[23] Scott—"The Gray Brother." For this and other stories of the Somerville family, see The Memorie of the Somervilles.

[24] The name Drum signifies a rising ground, the back or ridge of a hill. Here the forest of Drumselch—i.e. Druim sealche, the hill of the hunting—began and reached almost to Holyrood House.

[25] It has been supposed by several good judges, including Charles Sharpe, that this melancholy accident gave rise to the ballad of "The Two Brothers." The names, William and John, certainly agree with those of the ballad, but there are several trifling dissimilarities. In all the different versions of "The Two Brothers," it is a knife that gives John the deadly wound, whereas the Somerville tragedy was caused by the accidental discharge of a pistol. Then, in the version I am about to quote, the scene of the story is laid in the north. This version differs slightly from all those hitherto published. In it the brothers are styled Lord William and Lord John. It was given to Lady John Scott many years ago by Campbell Riddell (Sir James Riddell of Ardnamurchan's brother), and it has a pretty old tune.

THE TWO BROTHERS.

[26] Memorie of the Somervilles, vol. i. p. 466.

[27] Cibolle, a leek.

[28] The Bland Burges Papers.

[29] The Laird of Cambusnethan's first wife was the beautiful Katherine Carmichael, the Captain of Crawfuird's daughter, whose early love had been won by James V. By the king she was mother to Lord John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham, and to Janet, Countess of Argyle. The king stood godfather to her eldest son by the Laird of Cambusnethan, who was called James after him, but was better known as "the Laird with the Velvet Eye." The Laird of Cambusnethan's second wife was of the family of Philiphaugh.

[30] Memorials of the Earls of Haddington, by Sir William Fraser.

[31] Dexter, a lion rampant for Edgar; Sinister, two swords conjoined in base, piercing a man's heart, a cinquefoil in chief, for Pearson.

[32] "Gude e'en to ye, Daddie Ratton; they tauld me ye were hanged, man; or did ye get out o' John Dalgleish's hands, like half-hangit Maggie Dickson?"—Heart of Midlothian, chap. viii.

[33] In the reign of James II., William Preston of Gourton (as he is styled) had travelled far, and been at much pains and expense in procuring the arm-bone of St. Giles, which he generously bestowed on the church of St. Giles at Edinburgh. For these reasons, on his decease, the Provost and magistrates of Edinburgh engaged to build over his sepulchre an aisle, to have his crest cut out in a conspicuous manner, with a motto intimating what he had done with so much zeal and fidelity for the church, and to cause his armorial bearings, engraven on marble, to be put in three different places in the aisle. Besides, it was expressly ordered that his male representative should have the honour, in all future processions, to bear this relic. This was a singular grant which the family of Preston enjoyed. They retained possession of it until the Reformation. (Whyte's Account of the Parish of Liberton.)

[34]Letter dated December 2, 1566.

[36] Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. part iii. p. 235.

[37] Various derivations have been given of the name of Niddrie Marischal. It is said to have been originally a hunting-seat of the king's, and therefore called Nid-du-Roy. The Rev. Mr. Whyte—the historian of Liberton parish—derives it from the Gaelic Niadh and Ri, "the King's Champion." The addition of Merschell, Marischal, or Marshal, as it is variously spelt, and which distinguishes it from Niddrie Seton in West Lothian, arose, say Sir George Mackenzie, Nesbit, and others, from "the heads of this family of Wauchope of Niddrie having been hereditary Bailies to Keith Lords Marischal, and Marischal-Deputes in Midlothian; from the Lords Marischal they had the lands of Niddry designed Niddry Marischal." The Rev. Mr. Whyte repeats this statement, with the verbal confirmation of Lord Hailes—no mean authority; but we must confess we have not met with anything like proof of the fact. (History and Genealogy of the Family of Wauchope.)

[38] "The estate was again forfaulted in Archibald's time, father to Francis, my great-grandfather, because he followed Queen Mary; and possibly having some power at that time, satisfied his own bold humour in disobliging his neighbours. He mutilated the Laird of Woolmet, and never rid without a great following of horsemen, whom he maintained, and gave to every man a piece of land as a gratuity, which continued during their service. The house at that time was of long standing, capable to lodge a hundred strangers, and lay most eastwards from the place it now stands in. It was then burnt by his neighbours, after he broke his neck in Skinner's Close (Edinburgh), being alarmed by his man, and thinking to save himself out of a storm window, while his enemies were already in great number at his door, with design to murder or take him prisoner." (MS. Notes by William Wauchope, 1700.)

There seems to have been a hereditary friendship between the Bothwell family and the Wauchopes. Robert Wauchope is the "young Niddrie" mentioned in the following lines, as riding with James, Earl of Bothwell, to intercept the queen and carry her off to Dunbar—

His son Archibald (the young Niddrie of William Wauchope's notes) was a friend and companion of Francis, Lord Bothwell, and was concerned in the attack on the palace of Holyrood, December 27, 1591. (See History and Genealogy of the Family of Wauchope of Niddrie-Merschell, by James Paterson, 1858. Privately printed.)

[39] Dron brats, a kind of apron worn behind. (Jamieson's Dictionary.)

[40] Tironensian Monks, a branch of the Benedictines, so called from the Abbey of Tiron in France, from which they were brought by David I. in 1113, and planted at Selkirk. He removed them to Kelso in 1126. (See Registrum Cartarum de Kelso, Ban. Club, 1846.)

[41] She was Anne Hepburn, a famous beauty, eldest daughter of Sir Patrick Hepburn of Waughton, and wife of Sir James Hamilton of Priestfield, second son of Thomas, first Earl of Haddington.

[42] See Scot's Staggering State, edited with notes by Charles Rogers.

[43] Two of these songs, being less well known than others, I quote from the versions given me by Lady John Scott.

THE WATER O' WEARIE'S WELL.

The other song is the Scottish version of the old fairy tale of the Frog Prince, and runs thus:—

THE LADYE AND THE FAIRY;
OR
THE PADDO'S SANG.

There is a very pretty old tune to "The Paddo's Sang."

[44] Castock, cabbage-stock.

[45] Birrel's Diary; Anderson's MS. History of Scotland in the Advocates' Library.

[46] Sir David Lindsay writes of persons going

   To Sanct Trid well to mend thair ene.

[47] I had intended only to quote a few lines of this touching lament, but it is all so beautiful, I cannot refrain from quoting the whole, and trust that those who know it well already will not mind reading it again.

THE MARCHIONESS OF DOUGLAS.

[48] Collegiate Churches of Midlothian. Bannatyne Club, 1861.

[50] See Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh.

[51] The Logans of Restalrig quartered the arms of Ramsay of Dalhousie with their own. They bore 1st and 4th, or, three piles issuing from a chief, and conjoined in base, sable, for Logan; 2nd and 3rd, argent, an eagle displayed with two heads sable, beaked and membered gules, for Ramsay.

[52] There is a poem in the Bannatyne MS. termed "Rowll's Cursing." Whether written by him, or only in his name, is not known. "The following passage in it," writes the learned Lord Hailes, "determines the era at which he lived:—

The Pontiff here meant must have been the virtuous Alexander VI., who was Divine Vicegerent, from 1492 to 1503." In Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland, printed by Dr. Laing in 1822, the poem is given, and entitled

but to which of the two Rowlls this refers is unknown.

[53] Wilson's Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh.

[54] She was Christian Hamilton, daughter of Grange Hamilton, and maternal grand-daughter of the first Lord Forester.

[55] Kirkton's History of the Church of Scotland, edited with notes by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, page 184.

[56] Fountainhall's Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 231-233.

[57] This preparation of milk is very ancient, and probably originated among the Tartars, by whom it was made of mares' milk, and called Koumiss. It is believed to have been introduced into this country by the wandering Eastern tribes, who, leaving their native Phœnicia, gradually spread themselves along the north of Africa, and, leaving traces of their passage in the Basque Provinces and Brittany, colonised first Cornwall, and then the western coast of this island; and a few of whose customs still linger among us. There is a very interesting dissertation on this subject in The Pillars of Hercules, by the late David Urquhart, M. P.

[58] Should any one wish to pursue this subject further, he will find it most exhaustively treated in vol. I. of Archæological Essays, by the late Sir James Young Simpson, Baronet. May not possibly Torphin, who gave his name to the neighbouring village of Corstorphine, have been a leader in the same Saxon host?

[59] The original document, with signatures and seals attached, is preserved in the Register House, Edinburgh.

[60] The arms of Lauder of Haltoun were—argent, a griffon salient sable, beaked and membered gules.

[61] Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland; Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, ii. p. 445.

[62] Scot's Staggering State.

[63] See Wood's Account of the Parish of Cramond, 1794.

[64] The Laws of Lauriston bear ermine, a bend between two cocks, gules. The cock in their arms is supposed by Nisbet to refer to the concluding part of the crow of that bird having a similar sound to the name Law.

[65] Scott's Tales of a Grandfather.

[66] There are two curious sundials at Barnton. One is an obelisk dial, about twelve feet high, dated 1692. The other, of monumental design, was erected by Lord Balmerino.

[68] It was either this Sir Archibald's widow or his mother, that was the Lady Primrose who entertained Flora Macdonald so hospitably in London, during her detention there in 1747, and to whose house in Essex Street, Strand, Prince Charles came during the secret visit he paid to London in 1750. Dr. King, in his Political and Literary Anecdotes, gives an account of meeting the Prince at Lady Primrose's.

[69] They were both Swintons of Swinton.