Pages 4-5.-I have mentioned that the ancient double seal of the Burgh had been long amissing, and certainly such was the prevailing belief at the period of the publication of the first volume; all my inquiries for a sight of it at the civic authorities having failed. I am happy, however, to announce, although already known to many in the locality, that since then it has been discovered, and that I have had it for a time in my possession. I presume it had been recovered from its long seclusion on the removal of the old burgh and regality records a few years since, to the present commodious and more secure situation in a stone safe-room of the Town-house, adjoining the apartments of the Town-clerk. The want of it would not be much, if at all, felt, in consequence of the smaller single seal, itself old, being more convenient, and serving all ordinary purposes. The following is a more detailed and technical description of the present common seal of the burgh represented in Plate III., facing p. 94, of the first volume, than was there given, and for which as well as for one of the double seal, I am indebted to the kindness of Wm. Anderson, Esq., Marchmont Herald, Edinburgh. A blazon of the arms had been given in Edmondson's "(English) Heraldry," with a slight variation in the wording, which appears to have been adopted by Robson in his "British Heraldry." Mr Anderson says that "the achievement, as it appears in the Plate, may be read or blazoned as follows, viz. :-'Azure, a tower set on four steps, with a pyramidical roof, topped with a ball, above an indented battlement, Argent, masoned Sable, having a square window of four compartments over an arched gate, both Gules; on each side of the tower a lion rampant affrontée of the second (Argent).' The achievement is encircled with an edged belt or scroll, inscribed with these words, FERMILODVNI SIGILLVM CIVITATIS, which signifies unquestionably 'The Seal of the City of Dunfermline.' The upright lines in the field would likewise indicate Gules, but they appear to be broken to give the effect of a sky with clouds or Azure.”* This side is the same * For the sake of the uninitiated in heraldic language, it may be stated that the terms above employed are taken from the French, and denote metals or tinctures. Thus Azure signifies blue; Argent, silver or white; Sable, black; and Gules, red. in the double seal, with the exception, in the latter, of a small wicket or window of four pieces in the gate, and nebule work, instead of indented, around the battlement of the tower, as also an interior circle with the words ESTO RVPES INACCESSA,* "Let this be an inaccessible Rock :" a call, as it were, made by the king to his people to defend it to the last extremity. These words are in smaller capitals than those in the exterior, which are the same as on the single seal, SIGILLVM CIVITATIS FERMILODVNI, the last word, too, being spelled exactly as in the small seal, and not, as was formerly supposed, with E in the second syllable. The Tower, from its external appearance, would seem to be intended rather for a place of residence than a fort or place of strength, and might be King Malcolm's abode while hunting in the neighbourhood. Only an inconsiderable fragment of it now remains. The Tower, as shown on the seal, differs from the one sculptured in stone on the Town-house, representing the townarms, in respect of the number and situation of the windows; but which of these is the more exact likeness, it may now be impossible to determine. The seal is more likely to resemble the original.+ "The obverse side of the double seal of Dunfermline," says the Marchmont Herald, "represents a female figure, standing within an antique niche, or double canopied recess, set upon four steps, crowned with the ancient crown of Scotland, which then * As the ravine winds completely round the abrupt eminence on which the remains of the Tower may still be traced, and a deep fosse had evidently intersected the promontory in front, the stronghold must have been truly inaccessible."-Scottish Journal, vol. ii. p. 336. The old arms were over the main door of the former Town-house, as represented in figure of new Plate No. II., and were carved in wood, gilded, and on a blue ground. Two aged persons, one born in 1728, the other in 1740, and consequently of the corresponding ages of about forty-one and twenty-nine when the Old Town-house was removed, remembered and told this to my informant. The stone arms, therefore, now on the Town-house, must have been executed subsequently, and probably at the period of the erection of the present edifice, which was begun in 1769, and completed in 1771. There is an old stone representing the town-arms, with date 1620, in the pleasure-grounds of James Morris, Esq., Gardener's Land, which was brought from a house when taken down in Priory Lane, but which, it is likely, was not its original position. |