[898] Home, p. 96.
[899] James IV. is said to have planted the lion standard of Scotland on this stone, as a signal for mustering his army, before its fatal march to Flodden.
[900] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 446.
[901] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 489. Kirkconnel MS.
[902] Dr. Carlyle, who almost rubbed shoulders with him twice, describes the prince thus:—“He was a good-looking man of about 5 feet 10 inches; his hair was dark-red and his eyes black. His features were regular, his visage long, much sunburnt and freckled, and his countenance thoughtful and melancholy.”—Autobiography, p. 153.
[903] Dr. Chambers’s Rebellion, p. 87.
[904] Home, p. 100.
[905] Idem.
[906] It has been stated on the questionable authority of a local tradition, that when Charles arrived in front of the palace, a large bullet was fired from the castle, with such direction and force as to make it descend upon the palace,—that it struck a part of the front wall of James the Fifth’s tower, near the window which lights a small turret-chamber connected with Queen Mary’s state apartments; and that it fell into the court-yard, carrying along with it a quantity of rubbish which it had knocked out of the wall. If such a remarkable incident had occurred, it could scarcely have been overlooked by Mr. Home, who was near the spot at the time; and the fact that it is not alluded to in the pages of the Caledonian Mercury, the organ of the Jacobite party, seems conclusive that no such occurrence took place.
[907] Home, p. 101.