CONTENTS. 



I.— THE CASTLE: ITS ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES. 



View from the battlements — Impregnable position of the castle — Suc- 

 cessive alterations on original plan — A curious staircase — The 

 Great Hall — "Queen Mary's Room" — The curtain walls of the 

 castle — Skeleton found in dungeon — The towers of the castle — 

 The living rooms — Ruins of the chapel — Arms carved on the 

 walls . . . . . . . . 



II. -THE CASTLE: ITS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 



Derivation of name— Notices in old records — Successive possessors — 

 State tragedy enacted in castle — Its capture by the English — Its 

 intimate connection with Queen Mary — A royal conference — 

 Both well at Craigmillar — ^James VI. here plans his matrimonial 

 tour to Denmark — Battle between the royalist and rebel forces • 

 Sir John Gilmour, proprietor of Craigmillar— Structural altera- 

 tions made by him — His successors — The last tenants 



HI.— FAUNA OF THE DISTRICT. 



Badgers — An otter hunt — A "run" with the Duke of Buccleuch's 

 hounds — Story of a stoat — A bat's nest — A "meet" of the Mid- 

 Lothian harriers — Trait of natural affection in a rat — Depredations 

 of voles — Popular dread of "reptiles" — Hatching of newts and 

 frogs — Fishing with a frog for bait — Fish of the district 



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