i66 Craigmillar and its Environs. 



had been fruitlessly expended." In those days there 

 were no houses of correction, and the magistrates 

 apparently tried the effect of public exposure. To 

 prevent the prisoners' escape locks and shackles were 

 used, and men to watch over them. 



There are several disused quarries around Craig- 

 millar, some of which have been filled up with refuse 

 from the city. To the north-west, but in close 

 proximity to the castle, are two large excavations 

 from which stones for the building of the docks at 

 Leith were taken, — a line of railway running into both, 

 and the rails being lifted at the termination of the 

 contract. One of the quarries is still worked ; while 

 in the case of the other, buildings have been erected 

 in it for the manufacture of rockets. That well-known 

 writer, Dr Robert Chambers, in his ' Picture of Scot- 

 land,' says : " There is a popular tradition that the 

 stone used in the earliest construction of Edinburgh 

 Castle was taken from Craigmillar. It is still further 

 affirmed that it was built by the Picts, and that, in 

 the want of wheeled carriages, these indefatigable 

 artificers — who, by the way, get the credit in Scotland 

 of building all old or stupendous public works — trans- 



