east-lothian-1924/05-140

Transcription

[NORTH BERWICK. HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION. [NORTH BERWICK.

a free barony.11 The forfeiture of the sixth
Earl of Angus in 1528 was followed by a siege
of the place by James V. in the year after,
when, according to Pitscottie,12 he employed
against it two great cannons (probably of 8 in.
bore) " thrawn mouth and her marrow "
(companion), 2 great " battartis " or bastard
culverins (4 1/2 in. bore), 2 " moyans " (medium
pieces, 2 double falcons (a falcon=2 1/2 in. bore)
and 4 quarter falcons. Even this battery
failed to do sufficient damage to the place,
which was secured ultimately for the king by
a bargain with its governor. It would seem
that the gunpowder of the besiegers had given
out and that a supply could be got only from
France. Impressed by this experience the king
" caussit maissounis come and reinforce the
samin wallis quhilk was left waist of befoir,
as transses (closes or passages) and throw
(through) passagis and maid all massie work
to that effect that it sould be unwinabill in
tymes comming to ony enemeis that would
come to persew (attack) it." To this work
may be attributed the narrowing of the entrance
pend and the blocking of certain rooms, as
still to be observed, in all of which the material
used consists of the easily recognised green
[marginal note]
tuff
blocks from the shore. After the death
of James V, Angus, having been an exile in
England, was reinstated in his possessions and
acted as an agent of Henry VIII, until he made
good his position in his own country. By the
autumn of 1543 the English schemes in Scot-
land had gone to wreck amid furious local
unpopularity, and Sir Ralph Sadler, the English
ambassador at Edinburgh, retired to a refuge
in Tantallon, though the place was then " un-
furnished and almoste all the lodginges taken
doone to be newe buylded."13 Nor could
furniture or provisions be bought nearer than
Edinburgh. The " lodginges " are obviously
the structures on the north wall, of which the
later ruins are described above, and those
against the main curtain. Sadler made shift
to stay there about two months. Henry
wished to provide the place with victuals and
guns in his own interest, but the Douglases had
no enthusiasm for such a project, and Sir
George, Angus's brother, responded that " he
thought it was furnished well and all the
substaunce that his brodyr and he and all
theyr frendes had was in it, and that they had

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ordinaunce that wolde shote two mylys and
ynough of it."14 Hertford would have turned
aside on his march back from the invasion
of the following year to assault the place but
was deterred by " lack of caryages for gret
pieces of artillerye also for lack of powder."15
The final appearance of Tantallon as a military
factor was as a base of attack on Cromwell's
communications with Scotland in 1650-51.
Thirty horse, " desperado gallants," had estab-
lished themselves there at the close of 1650
and " taken more men and done us more harm
than the whole Scots army or all their other
garrisons." With the Bass, too, its guns
commanded the seaward passage (Cf. p. 71)
The place was being approached by " Colonel "
Monk with 2000-3000 men about the middle of
February 1651, when " the town, where were
many pretty houses, for Scotland, and a
thousand pounds worth of corn " were
" burnt by the Governor." The site of the
town is probably preserved in the present
" Castleton " farm. Then " the outhouses . . .
were gained and the Scots beaten from them,
and from the works they then made." These
works may be represented by the remains of
a ravelin and outer ditches. " After battery
and playing with granadoes " (shells), but
particularly as the result of the " six battering
pieces " (probably 30-40 pounders) brought
from Edinburgh Castle-two days of granadoes
having failed to make sufficient impression-
the garrison first beat a parley, then hung out
a " little clout " finally a great sheet, all of
which tokens were disregarded, and the Gover-
nor himself had to come upon the wall to
request a parley. By this time it is said, the
ditch in front was filled by the debris of the
fore-wall-this fore-wall apparently being that
of the middle ditch (cf. p. 67) ; of this wall
some fragments still remain. The garrison who
marched out numbered by that time " about
fourscore men . . and about a dozen good
horses " ; another account says " 91 officers
and soldiers " ; within were " 15 or 16 great
guns and about 120 spare arms." This success-
ful operation " cleared the Passage between
Edinburgh and Berwick."16 A narrative, from
the Scottish side runs thus : " Fryday, 21
Febrij, 1651. About 4 in the eiuning Tantallon
castle, in Louthean, was randred to Cornwell,
after he had battred at the for wall 12 dayes