SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



condition that the owner should ever be ready to 

 present a basin and ewer for the King to wash his 

 hands withal, either at Holyrood house or when 

 crossing the brig o' Cramond. 



" Accordingly," says Sir Walter Scott in the Tales 

 of a Grandfather, " in the year 1822, when George 

 IV. came to Scotland, the descendant of John 

 Howieson of Braehead, who still possesses the estate 

 which was given to his ancestor, appeared at a 

 solemn festival, and offered his Majesty water from 

 a silver ewer, that he might perform the service by 

 which he held his lands." 



Less seemly, but not less characteristic of the 

 social system of the sixteenth century, is another 

 memory connected with this place. The fourth Earl 

 of Huntly, the great champion of the Roman Church 

 in Scotland, had a brother, Alexander Gordon, who 

 was Bishop-designate of Caithness from 1544 to 1548 ; 

 elected Archbishop of Glasgow in 1550, his title was 

 disputed and he resigned the see to the Pope in 

 1551. He was then created Archbishop of Athens, a 

 sinecure, and became Bishop of the Isles in 1553, which 

 see he held till 1562 together with that of Galloway, 

 whereof he acquired the temporalities in 1559. He 

 also held the abbacies of Tongland, Inchaffray and 

 Icolmkill whence it may be inferred that he was a 

 peculiarly affluent prelate. He also showed sagacity 

 in noting the signs of the times, for he turned Pro- 

 testant, being the only consecrated bishop who joined 

 the Lords of the Congregation at the Reformation. 



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