1057. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, Sir William Borthwick, who had distinguished himself in various important negotiations at foreign courts, was elevated to the peerage, and obtained a license from the sovereign to build a castle, of which the present ruins are the original, and in style and strength, afford a correct notion of the baronial fortresses of those days. The form of the building is square; seventy-four by sixty-eight feet within the walls; of hewn stone within and without, and near the foundation thirteen feet thick. Besides the sunk story, the height from the adjacent area to the battlement is ninety feet, or, including the arched roof, one hundred and ten feet. In one of the lower apartments was an excellent spring well. On the first floor were the state apartments, approached by a drawbridge. The principal

hall, forty feet long, had its music gallery, lustres, tapestry, and richly painted ceiling; while its capacious chimney retains the marks of having been elaborately carved and gilded. Previous to the invention of artillery, this fortress must have been impregnable, and might have remained to this day without a scar, had not the cannon of Cromwell made an experiment upon its walls. It was here that Queen Mary retired for some time with Bothwell, previously to her final separation from him at Carberry.

On the 18th of November, 1650, Lord Borthwick, who, under every political vicissitude had remained firmly attached to the royal cause, was summoned by the Protector to surrender; and after a short resistance, in which he had no prospect of relief, capitulated, and received permission to remove his family and property unmolested. The title is now claimed by Mr. Borthwick of Crookstone.

In following the course of the South Esk, the principal objects in the form of manorial residences are Arniston, the seat of the Melville family, Dalhousie Castle, and Newbattle Abbey. Further down is the House-or, as it is more usually styled, the palace-of Dalkeith, erected about the beginning of the last century, by Ann, duchess of Buccleugh and Monmouth, and which, in addition to the many illustrious guests who have sojourned within its princely halls, had latterly the honour to receive our lamented sovereign, George IV., on his visit to the Scottish capital. The park, in which this princely mansion is situated, is estimated at eight hundred Scotch acres; it presents every variety of rich and diversified scenery, and is daily receiving fresh embellishments from the hand of taste. It is completely walled in, stocked with every vegetable production compatible with the climate; intersected by the windings of the North and South Esk, which unite at a short distance below the house; and with all the mingling charms of wood and water, seems to realize the dreams of a terrestrial Eden.

DALKEITH.-HORTICUlture.

85

Dr. Smollet has well observed, that in every part of Scotland which he had seen, there was an incredible number of noble houses. Dalkeith, Pinkie, Yester, and Lord Hopton's-" all of them within a few miles of Edinburgh, are princely palaces, in any one of which a sovereign might reside at his ease. Since that time the number has greatly increased; and although of less spacious and imposing architecture than those named, the modern edifices display a minute attention to comfort and elegance, with an almost inviolable observance of the rules of architecture and good taste. What is particularly deserving of notice is, the great improvement which has recently taken place in the arrangement of park and pleasure grounds, and the profusion of exotics which are now successfully introduced into the lawn as well as the gardens and greenhouses. Plants that, fifty years ago, were supposed incapable of undergoing the rigour of a Scottish winter, are fully acclimated, and found to flourish as in their native soil. Great and increasing attention is given to the botanical department in these villa residences. Flower gardens and greenhouses, enriched with many names to which the last generation were strangers,* prove how far in all these, as in the human mind, education and habit may overcome natural temper and prejudice, and extract the most beautiful product from the most unpromising soil.

The town of Dalkeith, beautifully situated at the confluence of the North and South Esk, is well built, and, in point of commercial activity, population, and extent, may be considered as holding the third rank in the county. It is celebrated for its weekly markets, and is the chief emporium of this wide and fertile district. Manufactures have not hitherto become a source of industry, but retail shops of every description are numerous, and a spirit of enterprise and its happy fruits every where apparent. Among its buildings of a public nature, the church-in ancient times the castle chapel, and in 1406, collegiate, but now ruinous-is the only surviving monument of interest in the townand that chiefly from its containing the "coffined chiefs" of the Buccleugh family. Its position in the middle of the town, with its walled burial ground, still serves as a chronicler of the past, and an impressive monitor of the present. The public school of Dalkeith has been long and justly

• Professor Dunbar, with infinite taste and industry, has made a collection of heaths-the most extensive, perhaps, in Europe-and with many other rare plants and flowers, accumulated during a series of years and experiments, has so embellished his villa near Edinburgh as to render it an object of especial curiosity.

A prosperous Dalkeith merchant, says Mr. Chambers, having for many years excited the envy of his neighbours by his rapid purchases of property, till, at length, he had made almost the half of the street his own, died just as he had acquired the house adjoining the burial-ground; whereupon it was wittily remarked, "that there was no getting beyond the grave!"

celebrated, and counts among the number of its élèves, the late Lord Melville.

It is worthy of remark, that, during a visit of three weeks to the earl of Douglas, (successor to the "gallant Graham,") at his castle of Dalkeith, Froissart, the French historian, collected materials for his glowing description of the fight at Otterbourne, and other gallant exploits of the Scottish chivalry.

The following story, as recorded in a well-known repository of the marvellous,* may serve to illustrate the superstitious creed of our ancestors. In 1638, during the residence of the earl of Traquair, as lord high treasurer of Scotland, in the castle, one James Spalding, charged with homicide, was found guilty, and condemned to be executed. Having failed in his prayer for a remission of the sentence-"Oh, why," he exclaimed, "was I not condemned to lose my head like a man, and not sentenced to die like a dog!" On the scaffold, continues the same authority, he prayed that the "soul might never quit his body till he had obtained a remission of his crime." This done, the science of the executioner was completely defeated-nothing could strangle the prisoner-and at last it was resolved to bury him alive! But even the accomplishment of this desperate resource of the astonished functionary was foiled; and, fearful to relate, there was "such a rumbling and tumbling in the grave, that the earth was moved, and the mules (mould) so heaved up, that they could hardly keep them down!" From that time forward his house, at the east end of the town, was haunted by a spectre.

The extensive coal-field around Dalkeith has been wrought for several centuries, and seems to have been employed for domestic use in this country† much earlier than on the continent, where at Liege, Charleroi, and various other districts, it is raised in great quantities under the name of houille, in honour of Houille, its first patron in Belgium.

To this discovery the manufacturing districts of the present day owe their prosperity; and in proof of this, in every district in France where coal mines are wrought, manufactures have been established, and industry received a most gratifying impulse. In Lyons, which, in its smoky prosperity resembles London, this fact is particularly exemplified; and hardly less so in Rouen, and other coal districts: but in France, there is much more coal than inclination on

• Satan's Invisible World Discovered.

Towards the middle of the fifteenth century, when Eneas Sylvius visited Scotiand, the poor people, he observes, who begged at the churches, received for alms pieces of stone, with which they went away contented; and this stone, says he, impregnated either with sulphur, or some other inflammable matter, burns like wood. Boetius, at a somewhat later period, mentions" black stones dug out of the earth, which were very good for firing, and of such intense heat as to soften and melt iron."