east-lothian-1924/05-034

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN.

encamped with a force at Cockburnspath on the last day of February and thereafter
started for the town of Haddington, possessing himself of Hailes Castle (cf. No. 147)
on the way, of the Cistercian nunnery east of the town the same night and next
day getting into his hands the places of Waughton (No. 146), Salton (No. 164),
Herdmanston (" Harmyston," No. 163), Yester (No. 251) and Nunraw (No. 45).
The first idea was to place garrisons in each of these " strengths," but such a
dispersal of forces seemed dangerous - the Earl of Arran, Governor of Scotland,
had promptly surprised and captured Salton and Ormiston - and the country would
" bende allwayes to the master of the felde " wherefore it was proposed
to provide Dunbar or Haddington with a great force. Dunbar Castle, however,
was still in Scottish hands, and so in March the fortification of Haddington was
being undertaken at the same time as that of Broughty Craig ; the position
at Inchcolm was destroyed and abandoned.
The fortifying of Haddington went on for some three months, till its
investment began on the last day of June. The work was planned and
superintended by Sir Thomas Palmer, an experienced English engineer, and,
being done on the lines of the period, was the most scientific military
work of its class hitherto constructed in Scotland. It was square, with
bastions (" boulevards ") at the corners, was wholly constructed of earth and
turf and had an outer round-bottomed ditch, dry save in wet weather, in the
digging of which old coins were found and sent by Grey to Somerset, with
a request that one should be presented to the King, Edward VI. There was a second
ditch behind the outer rampart. Timbers - faggots, rods, heather - for the earth-
works were cut in the woods adjacent to the town. Within the enclosure remained
" the substance of all the town and fair houses," though there was a clearance of
buildings on the bank of the river. The convent of Franciscan Friars was
included in the works, but the parish church was marked for destruction
as a commanding position well within range, a task, however, which was apparently
prevented by the arrival of the besiegers. (cf. No. 68). To them the building was
useful both for cover and observation, and the Germans of the French army erected
a high gun platform of timber within it, but the town guns made the position
untenable. ¹
" We think the keeping of Haddington to be the winning of Scotland,"
wrote Lord Grey. What emphasised the menace was that another English
fort at Broughty on the Firth of Tay played for Fife and Angus the part
which Haddington did for East Lothian, while fortified positions at Lauder,
Hume and Roxburgh accounted for Berwickshire ; and the English fleet held
the sea. On the other hand Haddington as an advanced base had its defects.
Its nearest port was Aberlady, between two and three miles away, and that was
held against them. So was Dunbar Castle, covering that port ; they could only
burn the town, and they did. For lines of communication they were thus
confined to the one up Lauderdale and that by Cockburnspath from Berwick.
In a memorial of June 1548 relative to the operations about Haddington it
is pointed out " that there is a passage by a place called " Steinston "
(? Stenton), which you may learn by men of the country, and consider what
may be done that way." Nothing was done, and they were restricted to the routes

1 Ham. Papers ii. p. 603

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