There is an old house on the west side of the Kirkgate, with a stair from the street to the sunk flat, which has stone pillars and arches; but these, from modern changes, are at present hid. According to tradition, the house was the Danish Ambassador's.

The whole of the oblong space embraced between the Crosswynd on the east, Bruce Street on the west, Queen Anne Street on the north, and High Street on the south, was the Earl of Dunfermline's Yard. His residence was in the Palace Constabu

lary or Regality Bailie House, near the grand west entrance to the Abbey, at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. His successor, the Marquess of Tweeddale, as previously noticed, had a tenement at the head of St Catharine's Wynd in 1704, marked on the Ground-Plan View.

(P. 157.)-As notice is taken here of the new churchyard having been formerly called the Bowling-green, and of a street at the north-west end of the town, Golf Drum (Golf Hill), having been so named in consequence of being used, as is supposed, by James VI. for his favourite amusement of golf, it may be mentioned that there have been for some time past two bowlinggreens in the town, one at the east end of Buchanan Street, and another at the east end of Golfdrum Street, opposite to the McLean School and Dwelling-house. The latter is beautifully situated at the head of a romantic ravine, terminated by the houses on Bridge Street, over which the church spire and tower and townhouse steeple are seen tapering. King James's son, Charles I., appears also to have been partial to the pastime of golf, from a curious story told by Wodrow in his Analecta; and although the scene of it was on South Leith links, yet as Charles was a native of Dunfermline, and may also have indulged in the same recreation here, it may be now repeated. It is at once serious and jocose.

"February 1714.-My Lord Ross tells me that he had this account when in England from Sir Robert Pye himself, who was a neighbour of his when he lived at Pesey. Sir Robert then was an old man, of about eighty years, and he told him that when a young man, he came down (1642, I think) with King Charles the First to Edinburgh: That the king and court received frequent expresses from the queen; that one day the king desired those about him to find somebody who could ride fast, for he had a matter of great importance and haste to despatch to the king (queen), and he would give a handsome reward to any young fellow whom he could trust. Sir Robert was a young sturdy fellow, and, standing by, he undertook it. The king gave him the packet out of his own hand, and commanded him to deliver it out of his own hand to the queen, and to nobody else. Sir Robert undertook and made his journey in less than three days; and when he came, got access to the queen, and delivered the packet. She retired a little and opened it, and pretty soon came out, calling for the person that brought the letters, and seemed in a transport of joy; and when he told her what he was, and his diligence to bring it quickly to her majesty, she offered even to embrace him for joy, and said she was mightily obliged to him, and would never forget

that service. By what he learned afterwards, he supposed the contents were about the affairs of Ireland, and was of opinion that the king sent by him the warrant under the Privy Seal or Signet-manuel for the rising of the Irish rebels: That he either was present (returning again to Edinburgh to the king), or heard from some who were present, that the king received the full accounts of the massacre in Ireland, when playing with the Court, at the Links of Leith, at the golf, and seemed noways concerned with it, but went on very cheerfully at his game."

The sites of the old Bowling-green, Friars and Bee Alley Gardens, Abbey Park, Abbot, Canmore, Monastery, and New Row streets, Priory Lane, as well as Fratery Ruins, Old and New Churches, &c., all as noticed at p. 157, are shown in the Ground-Plan View, No. I.

On the 16th December 1857, there was introduced into the old Bowling-green, or new churchyard, one of the Crimean guns, presented to the city by the Board of Ordnance. It is a thirty-six pounder, nine feet in length, and rests upon a light iron carriage. Its position is the centre of the south walk, on the projecting portion of the ground. The inhabitants are

indebted for this gift mainly to Dr E. Henderson.

In the appendix to the first volume, p. 498, certain needed and contemplated improvements on the churchyard are noticed, and I am happy to say have now been all carried into effect, especially the widening of the main walk, by which hearses can enter at one gate and retire by the other, through the whole extent of the burial-ground.

An alteration has been made in the interior of the new church by James Kerr, Esq., Middlebank, with the consent of the Heritors and Magistrates, and approval of Mr Burn, architect, in the hope of improving the hearing, at an expense of above £200, generously defrayed entirely by himself. It is the closing-in of the tower above the pulpit, at the same elevation as the rest of the ceiling of the edifice, and in the same style. The appearance is good, and probably some benefit has also accrued of the kind expected.

The same benevolent gentleman, too, some years ago, partly with a similar view, and partly in order to conceal a large vacant unprofitable space behind the pulpit, and likewise to promote warmth, erected boarding at the east end of the church and at the transepts, about 10 feet in height, which is painted similarly

to the adjoining columns. The objection naturally enough made to it in point of appearance would be obviated, or greatly lessened, by the crowning it, as has been often suggested, with an ornamental scroll, somewhat similar to such wooden enclosures of a portion of the English cathedrals, for divine service. Our native distinguished artist, J. N. Paton, Esq., could easily furnish a suitable design.

The appearance of the interior of the church has recently been much improved by a thorough cleaning of the pews, repainting of the fronts of the galleries, of the pillars to a considerable height, and of the boarding alluded to, covering anew the front of the Magistrates' pew with crimson cloth, and matting all the passages. The erection of the renovated old royal gallery panelling in the north transept, previously noticed as in progress, will heighten the effect, and be in itself an object of interest.

A part of the old east boundary-wall of the Abbey Park is shown on the Ground-Plan engraving. It is 50 feet in length, 7 in height, 3 in thickness, and 162 from the New Row houses.

chapel still

The bones

(Pp. 160, 452-4).-In June 1854, while Mr E. Beveridge, proprietor of Brucefield, was removing some gravelly soil near the south entrance to his house and factory from the Queensferry road, where some trees are growing, the understood site of the old St Leonard's Hospital, part of the skeleton of a body and some loose bones were discovered, but without any remains of wooden or stone coffins. Traces of the hospital exist, which appears to have stood east and west. were found at the east end of it. The hospital itself was a little southward of this position, and of the Franciscan garden, partly on the road to Brucefield House, but no vestige of it now remains. Eight widows still receive about eight pounds each from the produce of sixty-four acres of land in the immediate vicinity of the old hospital. The patronage of it seems to have originally belonged to the Abbacy of Dunfermline; and after the Reformation this is thought to have formed part of the gift of James VI. to his queen, Anne of Denmark, which subsequently was bestowed by her upon the Earl of Dunfermline, the heritable bailie of the temporal lordship. From him it passed to his successor, the Marquess of Tweeddale, who had under him an elimosinar (almoner) or distributor of alms, who granted rights

to the owners of the lands, and gave institution to the widows presented by the patron. Robert Douglas, Esq. of Craigdhu, at present holds this office under the Marquess.

In a field, south from Urquhart farm-steading, west from the town, the following notice is inserted in the Ordnance Survey Plan, "Numerous human bones were found here." There is reason to believe that the information upon which this entry has been made is founded in mistake; but still there may have been a churchyard, according to tradition, in the vicinity, and the church with which it was connected, whether there, or, more probably, farther eastward, so as to be nearer to the town and Abbey, was in all likelihood St Mary's, alluded to by me at pp. 160 and 231 of the first volume; for the toll-bar in that locality on the Limekilns road is still named the Lady's Mill Toll, and a factory building near it, now in ruins, was called the Lady-mill Factory. The "gudly landis" belonging to the altar of the blessed Mary, below the parochial church of Dunfermline, are noticed in the 514th charter of the Dunfermline Register, p. 381.

It may be as well to give this charter in an English form, from the varied information which it contains, some of which I shall have occasion immediately to refer to for other purposes.

"Charter of JAMES MURRAY of the Lands of Perdew, with their pertinents.

James, Archbishop Primate of the realm, has granted to James Murray the lands of Perdew, otherwise Broomhill, along with certain acres-viz., the stane acre, short acre, and the boot acre, as pertinents of this same land of Perdew, lying within the regality of Dunfermline, on the south part of its lower town, on either side of the stream, commonly called the Lyne, bounded as follows:-Beginning at the gardens of St Cuthbert, descending by certain stones fixed for divisions, and proceeding by the land of David Bothwell, named the Haugh, to the south, even to the goodly lands belonging to the altar of the Blessed Mary, within the parish church of Dunfermline, even as far as the King's Way, which leads to the grange of Dunfermline, and thence proceeding by the said way towards the north, as far as the said Water of Lyne, and descending by the stream as far as the boot acre, lying on the western part of the Limekiln, and descending to the meadow of the Terrar, and proceeding by the draught or 'schet' of the said meadow as far as the lands of the laird of Pittencrieff, called in like manner the boot, and ascending to the said stream called the Lyne as far as the short acre,