1886-87.] and Other Antiqjiities. 35 



elation wanted was completed." He admitted, however, that 

 the interior arrangements for comfort were well planned. Or- 

 miston Hall is at present leased to George Dempster, Esq., 

 LL.D., — who, it should be here mentioned, at once consented to 

 permit the Society to inspect the grounds, and paid our party 

 much kindness on their visit to this most interesting place last 

 summer. The benign influence exerted by this gentleman and 

 his like-minded lady over the surrounding district is worthy 

 of all honour and praise. 



The old fortalice, or rather what remains of it, stands about 

 200 yards west of the present mansion-house, and one cannot 

 look upon the ancient buildings without being stirred in 

 thought. Though now in great part dismantled, enough re- 

 mains to suggest what once had been. Here was the prin- 

 cipal entrance, through this low archway, with pieces of the 

 old iron stanchions still embedded in the masonry at the sides. 

 This gave entrance from the outside to the courtyard round 

 which the buildings were ranged. Part of the principal stair- 

 case, close to this gateway, still remains, and at the top we 

 come on the room whence Wishart is said to have been taken, 

 before his martyrdom, at the end of the year 1545. The whole 

 story is picturesquely told in Book I. of Knox's ' History of 

 the Eeformation,' but is too long for quotation here. There is 

 first the sermon at Haddington ; then the ti'avelling on foot to 

 Ormiston, accompanied by the Laird of Ormiston and several of 

 his friends (Knox adds the graphic touch, " it was a vehement 

 frost") ; then supper, and the singing of the 51st Psalm ; when 

 Wishart passes to his chamber, to be aroused at midnight by 

 the tramp of armed men, and angry voices demanding admit- 

 tance — for the Earl of Bothwell has just left Cardinal Beaton 

 at Elphingstone Tower, a mile distant, and is come to demand 

 that Wishart should be delivered over to him. After many 

 solemn promises on the part of Bothwell that Wishart would 

 be kept in safety, he was at length given up, and the party 

 then marched off in triumph, their tread ringing out sharp in 

 the clear frosty air of that December night, as they returned 

 to Elphingstone. We all know the sequel : though not directly 

 and at once handed over to the tender mercies of the Cardinal, 

 that wily prelate at last succeeded in getting Wishart into his 

 power, and on the 1st of March following he suffered martyrdom 



