slieritt', and the bailies ; the wards, reliefs, and marriuges, within
the lurdsiiip, and the patronage of the cl:urc.>ie^
gone in moral rottenness to possess any virus of self-
reformation. In 1559, the Earl of Argyle, Lord
James Stewart and John Knox came to Linlithgow
on their celebrated march from Perth to Edinburgh,
and demolished the monastic houses. About this
period houses in the town were the property and
occasionally the residence of the Duke of Chatel-
herault and other highly distinguished courtiers. On
the 23d of January, 1569-70, the Regent Murray,
in passing through the town, was shot, in revenge
of a private injury, by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh.
The house from which the assassin took his aim be-
longed to Archbishop Hamilton of St. Andrews, and
stood on a site now occupied by a plain lumpish tene-
ment; and it had a projecting balcony overlooking
a narrow part of the street, and affording full com-
mand of the Regent's person while he moved slowly
and on horseback. The murder is the subject of Sir
Walter Scott's ballad of ' Cadzow-castle ;' and the
carbine with which it was perpetrated is preserved
at Hamilton-palace. The assassin escaped, fled to
France, and remained in voluntary exile. Murray,
during his progress from Stirling, was fully apprised
of his danger, but coidd not control the circum-
stances of his position. John Hume, an attached
follower, entreated him, on the very morning of the
murder, not to pass througli the town, but to ride
round the back of it, and offered to lead him to the
spot where the assassin lay in wait, and might easily
be seized. Murray consented to act on the advice,
but found himself so wedged up by crowds of the
populace, that he was obliged to follow the originally
intended route. The body was removed to Stirling,
thence by water to Leith, and thence to Holyrood-
house, and was buried in St. Anthony's aisle in St.
Giles' church.* Some months after the murder, the
* J-imes Hamilton of Bothwellhangh was nephew to the
Archbishop of St. Andrews. He had been condemned to death,
with six other gentlemen of distinction, — two of them of his
own name, the barnns of Innerwick and Kincavil,— and, with
them, had been led out to execution for his share in the battle
of Langside ; but, at the intercession of the reformed clergy,
the Regent spared the.r lives, and ordered them all buck lo
prison. James Hamilton was a cadet of the ducal house of
Cliatelherault; his father, the first ot his family, bring David
Hamilton, fifth son of John Hamilton C)f Orbiston. His estate
was situated in the parish of Bothwell and county of Lioark,
whence he had his designation. He had nan led Isabella ."5in.
clair, daughter and co-lieiress of Sinclair of Woodhouselee iu
Mid-Lothian, and this lady was the innocent cause of the un-
fortunate catastrophe. Hamilton had contrived to make his
escape from prison; but as the act of forfeiture remained in full
force against him, he was compelled to lurk among his (riends.
Whether the Regent had any particular hatred towards him
cannot now be ascertained ; yet certain it is, that the act ipf (or.
feiture was removed from all the fjentlemen taken prisoners in
that aftiiir, Bothwellhaugh excepted. After the confiscation of
Hamilton's estate, his wile — who had remained there (luring
her husband's absence, never imagining that her own inlieri.
taiice was to be also doomed to the same calacuily — proceeded
to Woodhouselee, thinking that on her own patrimony sue
might with security await the issue of more prospenms tunes.
But iu this she was mistaken. Sir James Bellendeii, Liud-
justice-clerk, one of the favourites of the Regent, had a^l.lo
and obtained the estate of Woodhouselee. As Belleiideii knew
that HamiltiMi's lady resided on the property, he applied !ii tim
Regent for an act ot possession ; and, accordingly, some olhcers
were sent to Woodhouselee, who secured ihe house, and turned
the unlortunate lady, iu a cold and stormy night, and in a state
of 111 health, naked into the fields. Before the morning dawn-
ed, she had become furiinifly deranged. Ihe enormity of the
latter provocation, iu addition to the injuries be had already
borne, completely overcame Hamillcui's prudence; and Iroiu
that moment he resolved to avenge his wrongs ou the Regent
himself, whom he believed to be the grand author of this injus-
tice. Nor did he conceal his intentions. He openly avowed,
wherever he went, that he would endeavour to eflect Moray's
destruction; and he accordingly watched his enemy's motioiiy
for some ticne, but was invariably disappointed in his daring
purposes. At length, unlortunalely, au opportunity ottered,
which Hamilton determined to improve. I'here are a number
of entries or passages — called iu Scotland clones — which have
an open outlet from the priocipal street of the t.>wn to the
fields ; and there is a trauition, that, on the night before tile
assassination, these were all chocked up with whins. This
tradition, if not true, is at least plausible, for Hamilton well
knew that there would be an iininediate pursuit, and the whini
might contribute to Ins safety by causing a brief delay. lli»
276
LINLITHGOW.
English army which entered Scotland to revenge the
Regent's death, or readjust the arrangements which
it had unsettled, burnt the Duke of Chaterherault's
house in Linlithgow, and threatened to destroy the
whole town. The parliament, during that distracted
year, was proposed to be held in Linlithgow; but
the Regent Lennox, marching thither in October,
prevented the intended meeting. In 1584, the rents
both of money and victual of the lordship of Lin-
lithgow were appropriated for supporting Blackness-
castle, estimated at much more than its real impor-
tance. In 1585, a parliament was held in the town
for establishing the Protestant councillors who had
recently placed themselves at the head of James the
Sixth's government. In 1587, a grant of the park
and woods and keeping of the castle was made,
through the king's feebleness, to Sir Lewis Bellen-
den, the justice-clerk. In 1591, by a charter of
James VI., all the lands and rents which had belonged
to the choristers, chaplains, and prebendaries of Lin-
lithgow-church, were granted to the burgh " in usum
et sustentationem lectoris (et) campanarii in dicta ec-
clesise, etin sublevamen pauperum hospitalis dicti bur-
gi." At the King's marriage in 1592, the barony, lands,
and palace were, according to former usage, given in
dowry to his bride, the Princess Anne of Denmark.
In 1594 an act of parliament ratified a charter of
James, confirming "twa auld infeftmentis grantit of j masquerade as
auld be his hienes predicessouris to the burgh of I the same animal
muir, he was apprehended, convicted, and put to
death. Others say, that some years after, being op-
pressed with the weight of blood, he surrendered
himself to justice, requesting only to be indulged as
to the mode of execution. His tomb is still to be
seen on the south of the church, — and, though now
defaced, is said to have had engraved on it the figure
of the instrument by which he suffered, and which
himself procured for the purpose. In 1617, James
VI., in the course of his visit to Scotland, made a
progress to Linlithgow ; and at his entrance to the
town, was met by James Wiseman, the burgh peda-
gogue, enclosed in a plaster figure resembling a lion,
and was addressed by him in the following doggerel
speech : —
" Thrice royal sir, here do I you beseerh,
Who art a lion, to hear a lion's speech ;
A miracle ! for since the days of jEsop,
No lion, till those days, a voice dared raise up
To such a majesty! Then, king of men.
The kini< of beasts speaks to thee from his den,
Who, tliouif h he now enclosed be in plaister.
When he was free, was Lithgow's wise schoolmaster."
" This," sarcastically remarks a cotemporary, " may
look ineffably ridiculous ; but when people were ac-
customed to hear the familiar pedantic character of
James emblematized by court-flattery as a lion, they
might well be excused for such an anomalous
schoolmaster in the guise of
In truth, there could not have
Linlithgw, quhairof the ane is maid of the said ' been a more apt emblem of the King himself, who
burgh with the small custumes and port of Blaknes, was neither more nor less at any time than a peda-
the uther of the frie custuming of certaine wearis, \ Rogue enclosed within a plaster-cast of majesty."
without ony dewtie to be payit thairfoir." In 159(5, [Chambers' Gazetteer, Art. Linlithgow.] — In 1633,
Linlithgow afforded refuge to the King from the Charles I., when at Edinburgh, intended to visit
tumult of Edinburgh; and seven years later, it shared ' Linlithgow, and had the palace put in order for his
the grief and degradation of the metropolis, resulting ! I'eception, but did not accomplish his object. A
from James' accession to the English crown, and his i charter of this King, probably ratified by the parlia-
ment of 1640, extended the jurisdiction of the ma-
gistrates "infra omnes publicas vias, itinera, et se-
mitas extra occidentalem portum dicti burgi ad pon-
tem de Even occidentaliter, et similiter circum circa
dictum burgum undique per omnes alias partes infra
dietas publicas vias et semitas per spatium mille
passuum." The same charter granted the right of
holding markets, and the jurisdiction of all fairs and
markets held within the space prescribed as the e.\-
tent of the burgh jurisdiction, and likewise the right
" custumas eorum, secundum donationes et cartas
per majores nostros in favorem dicti praepositi, bal-
livorum, et consulum prius concessas, exigendi."
In 1646, when Edinburgh was scourged by the
plague, Linlithgow afforded refuge to the senatus
of the university, and flung open her palace for the
session of parliament. In 1662, on the anniversarv
of the Restoration, the town signalized itself by a
surpassingly strange act of succumbency to the hier-
archical and persecuting Stuarts, — an act which was
without a parallel even in the excited and tumultu-
ous times in which it occurred, — the burning of the
Solemn League and Covenant. The deed must be
regarded, however, rather as a wanton expression of
zeal to which the many were impelled by a few, than
as an act authorized by the magistrates, or approved
by the sober portion of the community. The chief
actors were Mr. Mylne, one of the bailies, and Mr.
Ramsay, then minister of the parish. Ramsay's con-
duct was singularly foiled and set off in ignominious-
ness by his having formerly sworn the Covenant, and
been so zealous on its behalf as rigorously to press it
upon others. Changing his principles with the times,
proclaiming himself an apostate, and courting an
assiduous apostate's reward, he was first made dean
of Glasgow, then bishop of Dumblane, and after-
wards was raised to the see of Ross. The town gave
a sumptuous entertainment to James VII. when in
consequent abandonment of his native palaces. Some
time in the beginning of the 1 7th century, the town
was the scene of a singular instance of revenge. One
Crawford, while at school, had been stripped of his
coat by a person in the town, who found him tres-
passing on his ground. Having gone abroad, and
risen in the army, he returned to Linlithgow many
years after, and avenged the dignity, by stabbing the
man who offered it on the very spot. Accounts vary
with regard to some of the circumstances that fol-
lowed, though they all agree with regard to his hav-
ing been beheaded at the cross. According to some,
after lying concealed a night or two in the Burgh-
assassin took his station in a wooden frallery fronting the street ;
and, that he might the more securely accomplish his purpo-e
without exciting suspicion or notice, while in the act, he first
spread on the fi.ior of the room a large feather-bed, that the
iioise of his feet in his movement might not be heard, and then
hung up a large black cloth opposite the window, that none
without might observe his shadow. " His next care," says an
author, who graphically describes this scene, "was to cut a
hole a little below the lattice, sufficient to admit the point of
his harquebuss ; and to add to the security of his flight, he ex-
amined the gate at the back of the h.iuse, and finding it too low
for a man to pass under on horseback, with the assistance of
his servant he removed the lintel, and kept his horse in the
stable ready saddled and bridled. After all these preparations
he calmly and deliberately waited the approach of the Regent,
ivho had slept the preceding night in the town." After the
deed lie was pursued several miles, and was atf)ne time on the
point of being taken ; his horse, breathless and almost ready to
sink, coming to abroad dit<'h, plunged into it, and stuck fast
A few moments' delay would have placed Hamilton in the hands
ot justice; but he drew his dagger, and plunged it into his
steed behiiid. The horse thus stimulated to a desperate exer-
tion, extricated himself, and leaped across the ditch. The as.
sassiu tied lirst to Hamilton, and then sought shelter with his
brother-in-law, Muirhead of Lauchope, who received him, and
protected him for the night. The folloiving day he was accom-
panied a part of his way by this relative, and alter a brief con.
cealment about the town of Hamilton, he ettected his final
escape to France, where he died, some years afterwards, ex-
pressing great contrition for the execrable crime he had com.
mitted. His pursuers, having discovered that he had been
sheltered at Lauchope, plundered and burnt it to the ground.
See article Bothwell.
LINLITHGOWSHIRE.
277
S(!otlaii(l before his accession to the throne ; and is
said to have long felt— and perhaps may be feeling still
— the pressure of the debt incurred by getting up,
on the occasion, a magniticent display. The last
historical event in which it figures was its suffering
from the rebellion of 1745-6, and being then, as we
have seen, denuded of the physical attractions as
formerly of the political importance of its palace.
I inlithgow gave the title of Earl to the family of
Livingstone, also Earls of Callendar, attainted in
1716 in consequence of James, the fifth Earl, tak-
ing part in the first rebellion in favour of the de-
throned Stuarts.
LINLITHGOWSHIRE, or West Lothian, ly-
ing along the south side of the frith of Forth, nearly
midway between the German ocean and the frith of
Clyde, has, in a general point of view, a triangular
outline. Its sides face the north, the south east,
and the west. The northern side is nearly straight
in outline, but suffers intrusions each about Ij mile
deep, upon both its angles; the south-west side is
indented by the parish of Mid-Calder 2 miles by
H ; and the west side has an indentation of a square
l| mile deep along the north side of Blairmuckhill-
burn, — a projection, immediately north of this, 3^
miles long and 2^ broad, — and again an indentation
nearly semicircular, 4| miles along the chord, and
2k miles deep. The county is bounded on the north
by the frith of Forth, which divides it from the de-
tached part of Perthshire and from Fifeshire ; on
the south-east, except at the indentation from Mid-
Calder, by the river Almond and its tributary
Briech- water, which divide it from Edinburghshire;
and on the west by Blairmuckhill-burn, Barbachlaw-
burn, Calder-water, and artificial lines which divide
it from Lanarkshire, and mainly by Avon-water, and
its tributary Polness-burn, which divide it from
Stirlingshire. Measuring in straight lines, it ex-
tends on the north side 15 miles; on the south-east
side 2O5 ; and on the west side I4|. But, in con-
sequence of the peculiar outline of the west side,
the south-west half of the county is nearly a par-
allelogram 10- miles by 7^, while the other half is
very nearly a regular isosceles triangle, the longest
side lying along the Forth. The area, according to
Armstrong's map of the Lothians, is only 112 square
miles, or 71,680 statute acres; but, according to
Arrowsmith's map of Scotland, it is 121 square miles,
or 77,440 statute acres.
The surface, though almost all champaign, is wav-
ing and beautifully diversified, nowhere subsiding
over more than a very small space into flatness. Its
eminences, with a few gentle exceptions, are ris-
ing grounds, knolls, elongated hillocks, and incon-
siderable hills; and all, while they impart variety
and picturesqueness to the landscape, very trivially
subtract from the value of the ground, either bear-
ing aloft arrays of thriving plantation, or affording
verdant and good pasturage, or yielding their sides
and their summits to the dominion of the plough.
The most remarkable of them form a range or
rather line of summits from Bowden, on the march
of Torphichen and Linlithgow parishes, obliquely
south-eastward through the middle of the county.
Cairn-maple, the most prominent summit of the
line, rising up on the march between the parishes
of Torphichen and Bathgate, has an altitude of
1,498 feet above the level of the sea. The Kipps-
hills, the Knock-hills, and the Drumcross-hills, all
form conspicuous parts of this range, but do not
rise to any great elevation. Cocklerue, or Cuckold
le Roi, near its west end, is one of its principal
summits, yet attains a height of only 5U0 feet.
More noticeable eminences, because delightfully pic-
turesque, are variously distributed throughout the
northern parts of the county along the Forth. The
most conspicuous are Mons-hill, Craigie-hill and
Dundas-hiil in Dalmeny, Craigton-hill and Binns-
hill in Abercorn, and Irongarth in the parish of
Linlithgow. All the heights of the county com-
mand uncommonly varied and pleasing views of
the Lothians, — of Stirlingshire, — of the fine ex-
panse of the Forth, with its shores receding in
gentle and undulating slopes, sprinkled with the
seats of the nobility and gentry, and richly orna-
mented with wood, — of the varied and fine southern
exposure of Fifeshire,— and of dimly-seen moun-
tain ranges forming a serrated sky-line in the far
perspective. The middle and westerTi districts of
the county are the most hilly ; the northern are
the most beautiful, and become at intervals nearly
luscious in their sweetness ; the southern are the
most tame, and least valuable, containing much
moorlaiul and morass, and swelling into few con-
siderable or pleasant rising grounds.
The principal streams of the county are the Al-
mond, across its southern division and along its south-
eastern boundary, and the Avon 12 miles along its
western boundary. Logie-water, a tributary of the
Avon in Torphichen parish, drains much of tlie
western division, through its head-waters, Bar-
bauchlaw-burn and Ballencrieff-water. Brox-burn
and several smaller streamlets drain the eastern di-
vision, and run into the Almond. Nether-mill-burn,
Dolphinston-burn, and some tiny brooks, run north-
ward to the Forth. The streams are sufficient for
the purposes of draining and irrigation, and enrich
the county with much water-power for the driving
of machinery ; but they are wholly uninteresting to
the angler, the operations of agriculture and manu-
facture having forced the finny tribes from their
haunts. The only lakes are one on the boundary
between Dalmeny and Kirkliston, Lochcoat in Tor-
phichen, and Lochend, and chief of all Linlithgow-
loch, in the parish of Linlithgow. The Forth, both
as an object of ornament and as a contributor of profit,
is of great importance to the county, cheering the
inhabitants by its changeful phases of beauty, and
supplying fish for food, sites for salt-pans, and har-
bours for traffic. On the beach at the western ex-
tremity, 2,000 acres are left dry at every reflux of
the tide, but except at this point, the coast, for the
most part, suddenly rises into a ridge adorned by
culture and plantations. The Forth, along the whole,
assumes a singular variety of aspects; and, washing
or forming hills and promontories, winding bays and
mimic estuaries, lofty shores, cultivated fields, and
brilliant mansions and demesnes, takes the appear-
ance of a great lake, a noble river, or a broad sea,
according to the points of view in which it is seen.
Medicinal springs exist near the village of Tor-
phichen, on the estate of Kipps in the same parish,
near Carribber-house, in the parish of Linlithgow,
near the church of Ecclesmachan, and in the vicinity
of the saltworks of Borrowstounness.
Linlithgowshire abounds with the most useful
minerals. Coal, in a workable state, exists in al-
most every district, and was well-known, and gen-
erally worked, so early as during the reign of Alex-
ander III. A coal mine at Borrowstoumiess was
worked beneath the sea half-way across the frith,
and had a principal outlet or shaft half-a-mile from
the shore at a moat or quay in 12 feet depth of wa-
ter. The average annual coal-produce of the county,
about 20 years ago, was 44,000 tons ; but it has been
greatly increased since the opening of the Union
canal. — Limestone everywhere abounds, a;)d is man-
ufactured at great profit, and distributed to general
advantage. Freestone seems to stretch beneath the
whole county ; and, for the most part, but especially
27S
LINLITHGOWSHIRE.
toward the coast, it is of excellent quality. Slate-
stone, whinstone, and grey granite, occur in various
localities. A basaltic rocl<, with many of its pillars
in the form of well-defined regular prisms, and the
rest columnar masses separated by chaimels, forms
almost perpendicular breastwork 60 or 70 feet high,
and 750 feet long, on the south side of Dundas-hill in
the parish of Dalmeny. Shell-marl lies athwart a
bog of about 9 acres near the foot of the basaltic
colonnade, and occurs also in Linlithgow-loch, and
in the parishes of Abercorn and Uphall. Ironstone
abounds in Borrowstounness, Torphichen, Bathgate,
Abercorn, and probably other parishes. Veins of
silver were formerly worked in the parishes of Bath-
gate and Linlithgow, but eventually became either
uncompensating, or exhausted. Mundic has been
found in the rivulets of Torphichen. Fullers' earth,
potters' clay, brick clay, and red chalk are found in
the parish of Uphall.
The county, though aggregately rich in its agri-
cultural capabilities, has all the varieties of soil from
bad to the best, which can depress or invigorate hus-
bandry. Of the whole area, according to proximate
calculation, 19,900 acres are clay, either of prime
carse kind, or otherwise of good quality; 22,700 are
clay, on a cold bottom ; 9,500 are loam ; 9,500 are
light gravel and sand ; 14,000 are moorland and high
rocky ground; 1,500 are moss; and the remaining
460 are occupied by lakes and rivers. Owing to the
general lowness of the county, its nearness to the
Forth, and the prevalence of south-west winds, its
(climate is, in general, temperate as to heat, and mo-
derately dry, neither very cold nor very sultry, char-
acterized rather by gentle showers than by violent
rains, and is altogether, if not prime, at least of the
second-rate character enjoyed in the kingdom. Dur-
ing the Scoto- Saxon period, a profusion of natural
wood seems everywhere to have waved over the
surface ; and this, in an age when pasturage formed
the prime object of attention to the exclusion or de-
preciation of tillage, must have been quite congenial
to the interests of husbandry. An expanse of natural
wood, 70 acres in extent, still exists near Kinneil
house on the Forth. During very many years past,
the land-owners have paid great attention to plant-
ing, and, besides richly embellishing the lower
grounds, have spread out expanses of thriving wood
on the moorland heights. About one-third, or pro-
bably more, of the entire area, is disposed either in
woodlands, or in old pastures and artificial grasses.
All the area, too, is, with fractional exceptions, en-
closed by almost all the variety of stone and hedge
fences which ingenuity has contrived. David I. was,
in his day, the greatest farmer in West as well as in
Mid- Lothian ; was probably the introducer, or at
least the improver, of horticulture ; and certainly,
on his grange at Linlithgow, practised husbandry
with a skill and success which his barons could not
excel, and which, however incognizant of the true
principles of agriculture, must have had benign re-
sults at the midnight hour of the dark ages. Yet,
while the cultivators were almost all villeyns who
laboured, not for their own prolit, but for the benefit
of others, agriculture could not be carried on with
much amelioration to its art. Throughout the Scoto -