within the castle of Edinburgh, not so much for his captivity as his safety.

James III. has been stigmatized as a weak prince, because he delighted more in architecture and music, in masons and fiddlers, than in what was considered the noble exercises of hunting and hawking. This predeliction, however, shewed a superior taste, and was but a minor fault. His weakness lay in allowing the proficients of these arts to sway his judgment, which led him, in conjunction with his minions, to form the daring plan of extirpating the old nobility. His favourites were, as a matter of course, obnoxious to these noblemen; and, one Cochrane, a mason, whom he had created Earl of Mar, was particularly marked as an object of their wrath. An opportunity was soon found to put their design into execution, when James, encamped at Lauder, had convoked the country to march against the English. A midnight council was held in the church, by Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, and other nobles, to concert means for removing these ashen tools from the presence and councils of the king. When the propriety of the measure was agreed to, Lord Gray told the assembly of the Apologue of the Mice, who had formed a resolution, that it would be highly advantageous to their little community, that a bell should be tied round the cat's neck, to warn them of her approach at a distance; but which desirable measure unfortunately miscarried, from no mouse being willing to undertake the risk of fastening the bell." I understand the moral," said Angus, " and that "what we propose may not lack execution, I will bell the cat!"a term which afterwards passed into the baron's surname. Cochrane, while entering the kirk door, with the greatest arrogance, and arrayed in a rich hunting dress, was suddenly seized by the earl. He was conveyed, with the other servants of the king, to Lauder bridge, where the whole of them were hung by Douglas's party before the eyes of their royal master. At the place of execution, Cochrane behaved with the greatest bravery. He requested that in place of a hempen halter, he might be hung with a silken one, this favour however was denied, and a rougher one, made of hair, substituted in its place *

• Ridpath's Bord. Hist.-Heron's Hist. Scot. In 1479, the lands and castle of Tantallon, which had been forfeited by the Earl of Douglas in 1455, were given by James III. to Archibald, fifth Earl of Angus, surnamed Bell-the-Cat.

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It was easy to be foreseen that a prince who had his subjects so little under control, was verging to his fall. James, after many vicissitudes, saw Hume, Hepbur.1, and Angus, with the audacity of men who had risked their all on the success of rebellion, arrayed against him. With a force of abont 18,000 men, assembled out of East Lothian, Teviotdale, and the other estates of Douglas, they encountered the royal army in the neighbourhood of Stirling. The troops from the eastern borders, who were distinguished for their skill in archery led the van, while the young prince, under the protection of Angus and other lords, conducted the rear. James was horror struck at seeing his own son, who was now the forced tool of an unruly faction, armed against his life. The forebodings of that sorcery, which he had formerly courted, now cast its shadows over his darkened mind. His courage forsook him, and turning his horse's head from the fight, galloped of the field, and was followed by his disordered forces, who were completely routed. Unable to restrain his fiery steed, he fell, at the mill of Bannockburn, and was slain by some of the rebel corps, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, on the 11th of June, 1488.

In the month of October, after the death of the king, Patrick Hepburn Lord Hailes, and Alexander Home, were appointed by the first parliament of James IV., king's lieutenants, over the Merse, Lothian, the wards of Haddington, Linlithgow, and Lauderdale, till he should reach the age of twenty-one; and, in 1489, the parliament appointed Patrick, Lord Hailes, and the Earl of Bothwell, to collect the king's revenues and dues within the shires of Edinburgh and Haddington, Kirkcudbright and Wigton. Alexander Home, the great chamberlain, was appointed to the same office, for the earldom of March, the lordship of Dunbar and Coldbrandspath, Etterick Forest and Stirlingshire.

After ages of misery and war, more joyous scenes dawned on East Lothian, in the interesting union of the Thistle with the Rose. Scotland, jealous of the rivalry of the sister kingdom, had been too long under the control of France. That alliance was about to be broken, by the marriage of James IV., now in his thirtieth year, to the Princess Margaret of England, a maiden in her fourteenth year, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. She

Chalmers' Cal. II. 420.

was accompanied in her journey by her father as far as Northamptonshire, and after spending some days there, was intrusted to the care of the Earl of Surrey, accompanied with a splendid retinue of English nobility and gentry. The Earl of Northumberland, warden of the east marches, joined the cavalcade. Thus conducted, the princess passed through Berwick, and arrived at the old kirk of Lamberton, which was situated at a small distance from the march between Scotland and Berwick bounds. There James, with a gay and numerous court, was ready to receive her, and conveyed her to Dalkeith.*

In her progress through the county to the metropolis, at that time the roads were so founderous, and ill adapted to the luxury of vehicles with wheels, that, in some places it was found necessary to make by force a path for her carriage. Margaret arrived at the Abbey of Haddington, on the 2nd August, 1503, where she was sumptuously entertained, and abode for the night.

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In the words of the ancient journalist:†"The said Qwene, accompayned as before, drew her way toward Hadington; and "in passyng before Donbarre they schott ordonnaunce for the "luffe of hyr. Shee was lodged that sam nyght in the Abbay of "the Nonnes, ny to Hadington, and hyr company at the said 'place; wher in lyk wys was ordonned provysyon at the Gray Freres, as well for the company as for the horsys, as on the day "before."

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Margaret departed for Dalkeith castle, which was provided for her reception, in her litter, richly adorned, nobly accompanied, and in fair array, where she spent some pleasant days, and on the 7th August, proceeded to Edinburgh. Her meeting with James is described with great naivete. "A mile from Dalkeith, the king sent to the queen a great tame hart, for to have a course. "The king caused the said hart to be loosed, and put a grey"hound after him, that made a fair course; but the said hart "won the town, and went to his repair. Half the way the king "went to meet her, mounted on a bay horse, running as he would run after the hare, accompanied of many gentlemen. At the coming towards the queen, he made her very humble obeisance, in leaping down off his horse, and kissed her in her

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• Ridpath.

† Young, the herald, has given the whole progress, in curious detail, in Leland's Col. lectanea.

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"litiere. This done he mounted again, and soon being put in "order as before, a gentleman usher bare the sword before him. "The Earl of Bothwell bare the sword at the entering of the "town of Edinburgh, and had on a long gown of blue velvet, fur"red with martin. The king mounted on a palfrey with the said queen behind him; and so rode through the said town of Edinburgh. Half a mile nigh to that, within a meadow, was a pavi"lion, whereof came out a knight on horseback, armed at all "paces, having his lady paramour, that bare his horn; and, by a "venture, there came another also armed, and robbed from him "his said lady, and blew the said horn, whereby the said knight "turned after him: And they did well tourney till the king came "himself, the queen behind him, crying Pạix, and caused them "to be parted."*

The royal party were met by the lieges on horseback, and the Grey Friars, with their cross and relics, which they presented to the king to kiss, which he would not before the queen, and had his head bare during the ceremonies. The imagination had been tortured for devices, which appeared all but ludicrous. Near the cross a fountain cast forth wine, for those who chose to drink it, the lofty houses were hung with tapestry, the windows were filled with lords, ladies, and gentlemen,-the streets were crowded with a multitude numberless, and mad with joy,-and the churches and city bells rung their merry chime. Such was the reception Margaret met with in Scotland, which must have been gratifying to her mind. The heavy ordnance, which had been so often lighted with the "fires of death" against England, now hailed her daughter with different effect. Nor were there wanting some of the greatest of the early Scottish poets to celebrate the nuptials. Dunbar, in his beautiful poem of the Thistle and the Rose, breathes a strain not inferior to the versification of Chaucer :

"To se this court, bot all were went away;
Then up I leinyt, halflings in affrey,

Callit to my muse, and for my subject chois

To sing the ryel Thrissil and the Rose."

The queen received, as part of her dowery, the whole earldom of March, the lordships of Dunbar and Coldbrandspath, (excepting

Leland.

the castle of Dunbar, with its keeping, which the king reserved for himself,) and thus became connected with East Lothian.

Peace now rested her dove-like wings on the bosom of the country. During the happy interval the king indulged his taste by repairing and embellishing his castles and palaces, while in the splendour of his court he surpassed his predecessors. He improved and extended the administration of justice to the wildest and most remote parts of the kingdom; and the bold outlaw, whom neither the edicts of former sovereigns could bind, nor bolts of steel secure, now crouched submissively beneath his determined power. His navy was also strengthened by some ships of great magnitude, and every thing bid fair for a prosperous and energetic reign. But, alas! how futile are the whispers of hope, and how mutable are the affairs of this world. The same Earl of Surrey, who handed James to a joyous bride, in Lamberton kirk, in 1503, was destined to be his opponent and conqueror on Flodden field, ten years afterwards, and to be the means of consigning him to a gory grave.

Adam Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, led the gentlemen and youth of East Lothian to the fatal field of Flodden; and there was scarcely a family of any note in the county, but mourned the loss of some relation in this dreadful conflict. We have to record the names of John, Lord Hay of Yester; the Lords Seton and Elphingston; and David Lindsay, third son of Patrick, fourth Lord Lindsay and Byres, who were found amongst the slain, on the 9th September, 1513;* and George Lyle of Stanypeth.†

• In connection with the bravery ascribed to the men of Selkirk at Flodden, tradition has handed down the following rhyme, which has been the subject of much literary contest, in regard to the reflection it casts on Lord Home, who was not earl till 1604.

"Up wi' the soutors of Selkirk,

And down wi' the Earl of Hume;
And up wi' a' the braw lads,

That sew the single-soled shoon."

The second part of the beautiful song of the " Flowers of the Forest," was written in commemoration of this fatal fight, by Mrs Cockburn of Ormiston, relict of John Cockburn, Esq., whose father was lord justice-clerk.

+ Stanypeth Tower, now the property of James Balfour, Esq. of Whittingham, is romantically situated on the eastern banks of Papana water, on the edge of a perpendicular rock, shaded with trees, a drawing of which, by the Rev. John Thomson, is inserted in Scott's Border Antiquities, where it is mistakingly described to be on the water of Hopes. In a charter granted to Sir Robert Lyle of Duchal, who was created a peer by James II. about 1446, George Lyle of Stanypeth, is mentioned after the uncle of Sir Robert, as one of his heirs male.

In Henry the Minstrel's "Actis and Deidis of Wallace," Squire Lyle is noticed as