[517] The Earl of Hertford, created Duke of Somerset, was Lord Protector of England. Of his Expedition into Scotland, there was published at the time a minute and interesting account. [See note [535].
[518] Preston is near the village of Prestonpans, in the parish of that name, being about eight miles east from Edinburgh.
[519] In this place in the MS., half a page on the reverse of fol. 70, and nearly as much at the top of the next leaf, are left blank, us if for the purpose of afterwards inserting the letter here mentioned.—There is still preserved among the "State Papers, in the reign of Henry the Eighth," a letter addressed by that Monarch to the Governor and Council of Scotland, on the 20th December 1546, (vol. v. p. 576.) It expresses his desire for peace and tranquillity; but stipulates that the siege of St. Andrews shall be relinquished, as he formerly had made promise to the gentlemen in the Castle "to helpe them in their necessities." The English Monarch died on the 28th of January 1546-7; and it is scarcely necessary to add, that the expected aid was not sent.
[520] In all the copies, "Friday the 7th."
[521] Or Inveresk.
[522] In MS. G, "playand;" in Vautr. edit., "playing."
[523] In Vautr. edit. "preachers."
[524] Hume Castle, in Roxburghshire, in the united parishes of Stitchell and Hume, was a celebrated border fortress, often besieged by the English.—Alexander fifth Lord Home, succeeded his father in 1547, a few days after the battle of Pinkie. It was in order to save his life, he being then a prisoner, that his mother, Lady Home, was influenced to surrender the Castle to the English, 20th September 1547; from whom it was recovered by stratagem, in 1548, as minutely detailed by Beaugué, in his History of the Campaigns, &c., pp. 77-82. Lord Home was appointed Warden of the East Marches; and was a supporter of the Reformation. He died in 1575.
[525] Falside hill or bray, is in the parish of Inveresk, near Carberry hill.
[526] The battle of Pinkie took place in a field to the east of Musselburgh, and adjacent to Pinkie house.