Walks near Edinburgh 11

Walks near Edinburgh 11

We now go westwards along a steep and narrow lane at the back of the

castle, and join the high road at a spot still called "Petty France."

It was here that some of Queen Mary's French attendants lived, while

their mistress held her court in the castle above. A few yards

farther south, we pass a venerable plane-tree, one of the largest in

the country, which has always been known as "Queen Mary's Tree," from

the tradition that she planted it herself.

 

We are now once more on the old Dalkeith road, which was formerly

a much more important thoroughfare than now, as it was one of the

main coach-roads to London, running south over Soultra and through

Coldstream and Wooler to Newcastle. The gate of Edmonstone stands at

the top of the steep hill before us, and, as our way turns to the

left very soon after passing the lodge and crossing the brow of the

hill, we skirt its park-wall for some way.

 

This place originally belonged to the Edmonstones of that Ilk, who

are now represented by the Edmonstones of Duntreath. They were near

neighbours and hereditary enemies of the Wauchopes of Niddrie, and

many were the frays that occurred between them. We find a curious

mention of Edmonstone in the witch-trials which took place before

James VI. in 1590. Agnes Sampson, "the Wyse Wyfe of Keyth" (whom

Archbishop Spottiswoode describes as "a most remarkable woman, not

of the base and ignorant sort of witches, but matron-like, grave and

settled in her answers"), confessed, amongst other things, that,

having been sent for to heal the old Lady Edmonstone, she told the

gentlewomen her daughters that she would disclose to them that night

whether their mother would recover or not. She bade them meet her

in the garden after supper, between five and six. Having gone into

the garden herself, she summoned the devil to appear, calling him

by the name of "Elva." Thereupon he leaped over the stone wall in

the likeness of a dog, and came so near her that she was afraid, and

charged him "By the law he lived under, not to come nearer, but to

answer her." She then asked if the lady would live or not; and, he

said "No." In his turn he asked where the gentlewomen, the lady's

daughters, were; and, being informed they were to meet Agnes in the

garden, said he would have one of them. "It shall not be so," said

the Wyse Wyfe; and he retired howling, and hid himself in the well.

There he remained till after supper. When the young gentlewomen

descended to the garden, the dog appeared suddenly out of the well

and terrified them. He seized the Lady Torsenze, and tried to drag

her into the well, and would have drowned her, had not Agnes and the

other ladies caught hold of her firmly, and with all their might

drawn her away. Then with a howl the dog disappeared, and Agnes told

the gentlewomen that she could not help the lady, "in respect that

her prayer stopped, and that she was sorry for it."[36] For this, and

for other things which she confessed, Agnes Sampson was condemned to

be hanged and burnt in 1592.

 

[36] Pitcairn's _Criminal Trials_, vol. i. part iii. p. 235.

 

In 1626, Edmonstone was sold to James Rait, whose grand-daughter and

heiress married John Wauchope, second son of the Laird of Niddrie.

Charles I. was in Scotland, and happened to be present at this John

Wauchope's christening in 1633. He took a beautiful gold and enamel

chain from his neck and put it round that of the child; and it is

still carefully preserved at Edmonstone. Sir John Don Wauchope, the

present possessor of the property, is a direct descendant of John

Wauchope and Miss Rait. Parts of the house are known to be at least

four hundred years old, but at the end of the last century it was

partly burnt, and afterwards restored and added to. In throwing out

a window in the library, the workmen came on a niche containing the

skeleton of a man. The shoes of the figure appeared to be perfect

when the niche was opened, but on exposure to the air, they crumbled

into dust.

 

We now find ourselves on the steep ridge known as Edmonstone Edge,

on which the Scots pitched their camp before the battle of Pinkie

in 1547. To our right lies Woolmet, now only a farm, but once the

property of the Edmonstones of Woolmet, cadets of the Edmonstones

of that Ilk. After descending the hill we see to our left one of

the oldest and most interesting places in Midlothian. The old

house of Niddrie Marischal is hidden among the trees, and beyond

it stretches a wilderness of shady walks, high holly hedges, and

velvety bowling-greens, through which wanders the Burdiehouse burn,

here full of trout, which have been the sport and amusement of

many generations. The Wauchopes are undoubtedly the oldest family

in the county. It is not known when they acquired Niddrie, and the

difficulty of tracing their origin is aggravated by the loss of their

more ancient muniments. "The family of Niddrie Marischal," say the

MS. notes written by William Wauchope in 1700, "was forfaulted in

James II.'s time, for making an inroad into England, so that by that

means most of the old charters and evidents were lost." The house

was burnt in Queen Mary's time, and the few charters that survived

that disaster were mostly destroyed when the English came to Scotland

in Cromwell's time. The tradition in the family is that Niddrie[37]

was granted to the Wauchopes by Malcolm Canmore. Mackenzie, in his

_Lives of Eminent Scotsmen_, says they came from France in his reign

about the year 1062. The first to whom a charter appears is Gilbert

Wauchope, who had a charter of "the lands of Niddery" from Robert

III. (1390-1406). From him the present laird, Colonel Wauchope of the

Black Watch, is the seventeenth in direct succession.

 

[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._)

 

Always a true and loyal race, the Wauchopes remained faithful to

the old religion, and supported Queen Mary's cause to the end.

The sad fate of young Niddrie, and the circumstances which led to

the destruction of the ancient castle in 1596 by the Edmonstones,

hereditary enemies of the Wauchopes, are well-known.[38] Nearly a

hundred years later, the adherence of the family to the cause of

James VII. proved the ruin of the chapel, which had been founded by

Archibald Wauchope in 1502, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and,

as we have elsewhere said, was subordinate to the church of Liberton.

A mob from Edinburgh first wrecked the Chapel-Royal of Holyrood, and

then came out to Niddrie, and demolished this chapel also.

 

[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--

 

Hay, bid the trumpet sound the march,

Go, Bolton, to the van;

Young Niddrie follows with the rear.

Set forward, every man!

 

AYTOUN--"Bothwell."

 

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.)

 

When the year 1745 brought Prince Charles to this country to make his

gallant attempt to win back his father's throne, the Laird of Niddrie

collected a considerable sum of money for the royal cause. The prince

was encamped at Duddingston, but, as some of the enemy's troops lay

between that village and Niddrie, it was difficult to convey the

money to him. The plan the laird adopted was this: he sent his son

(my great-great-grandfather), a boy about six years old, in charge of

his tutor, with a large basket of fruit as a present to the prince.

The money was carefully concealed at the bottom of the basket. The

boy passed through the enemy's lines in safety, they suspecting

nothing, and reached the royal camp, where he delivered the money

into the prince's own hands. A few days afterwards, as the prince was

marching out with his troops, he perceived the boy walking with his

tutor on the farther side of a hedge. He stopped and said, "Is that

the young Laird of Niddrie?" and, desiring the tutor to lift him over

the hedge, he took him up in his arms and gave him his blessing.

 

This was not the only time that the Laird of Niddrie sent supplies

to his royal master, for, on another occasion, the money was

successfully taken to the prince by one of the Yetholm tenants, a man

named Thomson, who packed the coins in a load of hay, and succeeded

in crossing the country undiscovered. As a reward for his courage

and loyalty, the laird gave him his farm rent free from that time.

The laird's own family were of divided opinions. His wife, a Hume,

Lord Kimmerghame's daughter, was a Whig, like all her family. She

had a cousin, a Sandilands, in the Hanoverian army. He was wounded

at Prestonpans. She went out secretly and brought him back from the

field of battle; and, unknown to her husband, lodged him in some safe place, and attended him till he was better.