Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/341

 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 205 all the characteristics of French decoration at the best period. The original is now preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries at Edinburgh ; and it formed part of the inteiior fit- tings of the interesting building near the New College, pointed out as the mansion occupied by Mary of Guise, mother of Queen Mary. Part of this structure still remains, and we must mention the plate, after a drawing by Mr. Wilson, which serves to illustrate his account of the build- ing, as one of the charming subjects with which his volumes are filled. The arrangement and execution of this panelling precisely resemble the examples of the florid style of tlae renaissance of the period of Francis I. The armorial bearings have not been appropriated ; they would doubtless indicate the builder of the mansion, and the two coats occur, impaled, with the date 1557, and initials A. A. upon a stone lintel, of which a woodcut is given by Mr. Wilson. The decorations of the ceilings and other parts of this house appear to have been highly curious, and included many French arms with devises, mostly taken from Paradin's work, first published in France in the very year above mentioned. A less pleasing, but very curious relic of these times, of which also we are permitted to offer a repre- sentation to our readers, is the in- strument of criminal execution, called the Maiden (see cut next page) ; the prototype of the guillotine, of which the memorable fact is recorded, that having been inti'oduced into Scotland by the Regent Morton, he suffered an ignominious death by that very means, in 1581, having on the decline of his influence been condemned for the savage murder of Darnley. Having briefly adverted to the more interesting periods of Scottish history, closing with the accession of James IV., who resided chiefly at Stirling, until he succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdoms, in 1017, we turn from the agreeable memorials of Historical incidents con- nected with Edinburgh, to the more detailed notices of its local anti(|uities and traditions. In these collections, commencing with the Castle, its ancient Xornian church, a relic of architecture in Scotland which appears to have escaped notice, erected, probably, in the earlier part of the twelfth Carved door from the house of Marv of Guise.