seem to have been depressed in circumstances, as many debts are about that period found affecting their East-Lothian domains.

Tantallon, like other fortresses of Scotland, was garrisoned by the Covenanters against the king in 1639, in despite, it may be presumed, of the inclination of its owner, the Marquis of Douglas.

Finally, it was defended against Oliver Cromwell, and taken after a short siege, the disadvantage of the rising ground in front being found fatal to the defenders.

About the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Marquis, afterwards Duke of Douglas, sold the estate of North Berwick, with the castle of Tantallon, to Sir Hugh Dalrymple, president of the Court of Session, who had been one of his guardians. The castle, which till that period had continued in a habitable condition, was then dismantled entirely, and left to decay; while the lapse of a century, in a situation so much exposed, as well as the depredations of those who carried off stones from the ruins for rural purposes, have reduced the remains to their present condition.

In the vaults of the castle was found a seal, bearing the arms of the Douglas family, rudely carved, which is now in the possession of Sir Hew Hamilton Dalrymple, Bart. of North Berwick, the present proprietor of the castle, and the representative of the president, by whom it was acquired.

H

The Bass is an island, or rather a tremendous rock, about 800 feet in height, starting out of the sea, just opposite to the formidable castle of Tantallon, upon the shore of East Lothian. It is about a mile in circumference, and is conical on the one side, presenting on the other an abrupt and overhanging precipice. It may be well termed

"An island salt and bare,

The haunt of seals and orcs and sea-mews' clang."

Upon the top of the rock gushes out a spring of clear water, and there is verdure enough to support a few sheep. But its chief inhabitants are sea-fowl, in such immense quantities, that they literally darken the air when the discharge of a gun puts them on the wing. They are of all sizes that swim the sea, and scream in all variety of notes. To visit the place at sunrise, when all the feathered tribes are preparing to take wing, gives one of the most extraordinary sights. which Scotland affords.

On this rock, in the midst of a tempestuous ocean, and hardly accessible to boats, save at one precarious and hazardous passage, one

would scarce have expected to find habitation, save for the sea-fowl which we have noticed. But in barbarous times, a sense of safety supersedes all considerations of comfort or convenience, and the island was long the chosen stronghold of the Lauders, originally of that ilk, and afterwards called Lauders of the Bass.

In the time of Mary of Guise's regency, Beague thus describes the castle of the Bass, which, by the way, he terms the Isle of Goose, according to the ancient French custom of new-christening or mutilating the names of the places they have occasion to mention :

"Now, the island in which the castle stands is itself an impregnable rock, of a small extent and oval figure, cut out by the hands of nature; it has only one avenue that leads to it, and that is towards the castle, but so very difficult and uneasy, that by reason of the hidden sands that surround the rock, nothing can approach it but one little boat at a time. The island is so exorbitantly uneven, that till one reach the wall of the castle, he cannot have sure footing in any one place; so that [as I have often observed] those that enter it must climb up by the help of a strong cable thrown down for the purpose: and when they have got with much ado to the foot of the wall, they sit down in a wide basket, and in this posture are mounted up by strength of hands. There is no getting into this wonderful fortress by any other means. Formerly, it had a postern-gate which facilitated the entry, but it is now thrown down, and fortified in such a manner as is incredible."

Beague gives a farther account of the castle being summoned by an English officer, who approached it in a boat, and offered the governor 4000 nobles, and to each private soldier 300, providing they would yield up the castle. The governor returned an answer of defiance. The French author also says, that the garrison consisted of 120 men. If that was the case, it must have been garrisoned by the crown, with consent of the owner. The French officer has also the credulity to believe that so many men were in a considerable degree subsisted on the fish brought to the island by the solan-geese, and that they had no other firing during the whole year than the sticks with which the sea-fowl build their nests.

It is said that the Kings of Scotland, valuing its strength and position, were very desirous to acquire this fortress, and that one of the Stuart dynasty, when Lauder, succeeding as heir to his father, resigned into the royal hands the island of the Bass, in order to receive new infeofment, addressed him thus: "You draw little income from this barren rock : let it remain in my hands, and ask from me the best barony at the crown's disposal in the stead of the Bass." Lauder hesitated, looked hither and thither, but ended with shrugging up his shoulders, and replying, "In troth your Grace maun just give me the auld craig back again." In the wars between Mary and her son, the Regent Murray is represented, or misrepresented, by Lethington, as extremely desirous to strengthen his party by the possession of the Bass.

But the island, so much envied, was not acquired by the crown until 1671, when the Lauder family sold it to Charles II., by whom it was converted into a royal fortress and state-prison.

The castle, situated on the south side of the island, is now ruinous.

From the Views of Slezer, it seems to have consisted of a curtain, with four square towers, or bastions, well mounted with cannon, and having within its enclosures the necessary barracks. A lower battery of three guns, commanded the landing-place, which, indeed, was scarcely entitled to the name, for there was properly no landingplace, as both boat and men were hoisted up within into the higher part of the fortress, by means of a machine resembling a crane. On the very summit of the rock was a small tower for an out-look, on which the flag was displayed.

This dreary, desolate, and probably unhealthy island, was the usual state-prison for those accused of high treason, or who were guilty of opposing the arbitrary measures adopted in Scotland in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. The celebrated John Blackadder, a covenanting divine of great eminence, was long prisoner in the Bass, and died there of a complaint caught from the dampness of the situation. Here, too, the no less celebrated Alexander Peden poured forth at least two of his prophetic effusions. On one occasion, a girl of fourteen years old came to his chamber-door, and mocked him, as she heard him in earnest prayer. "Poor thing," answered the covenanter, "thou dost mock at the worship of God; but ere long a strange and surprising judgment shall stay thy mirth." Shortly after, as the unlucky maiden walked along the verge of the rock, a sudden blast of wind swept her into the sea, where she perished. The other anecdote was of a less severe character. The imprisoned divine heard one of the soldiers swear at him as he passed, and replied mildly, "Poor man, thou knowest not what thou sayest, but thou shalt repent of it." The soldier was struck with remorse, even as he heard the words, and went to the main guard in horrors of conscience. On being ordered to his arms, he refused, saying he had borne them too long against Christ, his cause, and his people. The governor, finding the man deaf to reasoning and threats, considered him probably as insane, and sent him ashore out of the garrison. Having a wife and children, he took a house in East-Lothian, and became a singular Christian. This, which is recorded by Patrick Walker as a miracle, will probably be now regarded as a remarkable instance of the force of imagination, working, no doubt, in this case, to the spiritual welfare of the patient.

The Revolution found the Bass governed by about fifty men, under the command of Captain Maitland, who held it out for King James, but at length was compelled to surrender it to the new government, who placed Fletcher of Salton in command of the place.

*

[CAPTAIN JOHN SLEZER'S "Theatrum Scotia; containing the prospects of their Majes ty's castles and palaces, together with those of the most considerable towns and colleges; the ruins of many ancient abbey's, churches, monasteries, and convents, within the said kingdom; all curiously engraven on copperplates, with a short description of each place." London, 1693, folio; Edin. 1814, folio.]

But there were three officers of King James confined in the fortress, who, contriving to draw over part of the garrison to their opinions, rose on the others, and possessed themselves of the place in name of the exiled monarch. Having received some assistance of arms and provisions from France, they took several vessels with their armed row-boats, and greatly incommoded the navigation of the Firth. Two men of war, carrying fifty and sixty guns, were sent to reduce the place; but after two days' constant firing on both sides, the ships did so little damage and received so much, that the vessels, much shattered, were sent to Leith for repairs, and smaller ships employed to cruize off the island and convert the siege into a blockade.

The garrison soon became much straitened for provisions; and to deter any one from assisting them, a gentleman named Trotter, who was condemned to death for having afforded them some supplies, was ordered for execution on the mainland opposite to the island. But when he was brought to the gallows, which had been erected at the little village of Castletown, a cannon was fired from the Bass among the crowd, which occasioned such a panic that they fled in all directions. The condemned man was removed to a gibbet erected at a safer distance, and there suffered in terms of his sentence.

At length, the garrison having lost their boat, and being reduced to the last straits for want of provisions, were compelled to make proposals for capitulation, and two of the Scottish Privy Council were sent to receive their terms. The governor received these deputies honourably, treated them with French wine and other delicacies, in order to exclude the idea of the real distress for provisions; and when they rowed off, caused all the hats and cloaks he could collect to be disposed on pikes and muskets along the walls, so as to intimate that the place was full of men. Impressed with what they had seen, the deputies reported to the Privy Council that the Bass was well provided, and recommended their granting favourable terms, which were as follows: 1. The garrison were to retain their swords, such as pleased were to be transported to France, and the rest were to have permission to remain at home unmolested. 2. They were permitted to dispose of all that belonged to them in the garrison, together with their boats and private property, to the best advantage. 3. It was stipulated that such of the garrison as were to go abroad, should remain unmolested at Edinburgh, with some allowance for subsistence, until means of transportation should be procured. 4. The benefit of the capitulation was extended to all soldiers of the garrison not at present in the island, and to all accused of aiding and assisting them, who might claim the benefit of the treaty.

Upon these honourable terms, the last strength in Britain which displayed the flag of James II. was surrendered to King William.

The castle was demolished, and the island was soon after bestowed by the crown on Sir James Dalrymple, Lord President of the Court of Session, who was possessed of the Barony of North Berwick and Castic of Tantallon, on the neighbouring mainland. The Bass is now the property of his lordship's descendant, Sir Hew Dalrymple Hamilton, of Bargany and North Berwick. The greatest delicacy which the rock produces is the solan-goose, remarkable for its maintaining exactly the same price in the Edinburgh market which it did one hundred years ago, namely, two shillings and fourpence. It would be highly censurable, in the present day, to omit the mention of any circumstance connected with gastronomie; but being ourselves by no means connoisseurs on such subjects, we will content ourselves with stating the opinion of Daniel de Foe.

"They solan geese] feed on the herrings, and therefore 'tis observed they come just before, or with them, and go away with them also; though 'tis evident they do not follow them, but go all away to the north, whither noue knows but themselves, and he that guides them. As they live on fish, so they eat like fish, which, together with their being so exceeding fat, makes them, in my opinion, a very coarse dish, rank, and ill relished, and soon gorging the stomach. But as they are looked upon there as a dainty, I have no more to say; all countries have their several gusts and particular palates. Onions and garlick were dainties, it seems, in Egypt, and horse-flesh is so to this day in Tartary, and much more may a solan goose be so in other places.

"It is a large fowl, rather bigger than an ordinary goose; 'tis duck-footed, and swims as a goose; but the bill is long, thick, and pointed like a crane or heron, only the neck much thicker, and not above five inches long. Their laying but one egg, which sticks to the rock, and will not fall off, unless pulled off by force, and then, not to be stuck on again, though we thought them fictions, yet, being there at the season, we found true; as also their hatching by holding the egg fast in their foot. What Nature meant by giving these singularities to a creature, that has nothing else in it worth notice, we cannot determine."*

FAST-CASTLE.

THESE remarkable ruins do not fall, properly speaking, within the bounds of the Lothians. But they are objects of considerable interest, and, we believe, have not hitherto been engraved. They are the remains of a gloomy border fortress, situated near to Saint Abb's Head, on the iron-girdled shores of the German Ocean. Imagination can scarce form a scene more striking, yet more appalling, than this rugged and ruinous stronghold, situated on an abrupt and inaccessible precipice, overhanging the raging ocean, and tenanted of yore by men stormy and gloomy as the tempests they looked down upon. Viewed from the sea, Fast-Castle is more like the nest of some gigantic roc or condor, than a dwelling for human creatures, being so completely allied in colour and rugged appearance with the huge cliffs, amongst which it seems to be jammed, that it is difficult to discover what is rock and what is building. To the land side, the only access is by a rocky path of a very few feet wide, bordered on either

* Description of Scotland, p. 21, in Tour through Great Britain, vol. iii.