Mercat Cross of Edinburgh

Category

Library Item

Item no

617

Title

Mercat Cross of Edinburgh, phantom heralds proclaiming the fate of Flodden Field.

Description

Three figures stand on the Mercat Cross. A large column finished with the carving of a unicorn rises from the centre of the structure. Above the unicorn is a flag. The structure has columns and arches along its base. Behind the cross is St Giles Cathedral with its large arched stained glass windows and a ornate spire.

Artist / maker

Skene, James

Date

1827

Size

26 x 19 cm.

Type

Watercolour

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Dun-Edin's Cross, a pillar'd stone,
Rose on a trumpet octagon;
But now is razed that monument,
Where royal edict rang,
And voice of Scotland's law was sent
In glorious trumpet clang (1)

The former ancient cross of Edinburgh stood approximately fifty metres east of its current position outside St Giles Cathedral in the High Street. A large octagon marks the site on the cobbles. In medieval times "royal proclamations and solemn denunciations of excommunication and outlawry, involving ruin and death"(2) were made from the cross. Later, the cross became the scene of executions as well as a popular meeting place for merchants. James Skene records how the cross consisted of "an octagon shaft eighteen inches in diameter and about twenty feet in height, having a handsomely sculptured gilt unicorn on the top holding a spear, the whole of the spear being spangled with gold thistles"(3). Beneath the cross, was a small octagonal building "decorated with sculptured portraits of the sovereigns of the Line of the Stewarts and over the door the Arms". Proclamations were made from the roof of the octagon. Legend has it, that when James's IV's Scottish army - and the flower of the Scottish nobility - were crushed by Henry VIII's army under the Earl ofSurrey, a phantom herald or heralds announced the fate of Flodden Field (1513) from the Cross. The story caught Skene's imagination and is reproduced in the watercolour drawing.

The medieval cross was rebuilt in 1617, and demolished amidst much outcry in 1756, following the completion of the Royal Exchange, a new meeting place for merchants, on the opposite side of the High Street. The Royal Exchange was later superseded by the City Chambers. To mark its passing a "set of gentleman met at midnight and establishing themselves on the ruins of the Cross with provision of wine and glasses held a solemn, viatiory meeting and sand the Dirge of the Cross"(4). The sculptured portraits, mentioned by Skene, found a place in the folly of Mr Walter Ross W.S. whose Stockbridge property was later acquired by the Portrait painter Sir Henry Raeburn. Skene describes how he acquired the sculptures for his great friend Sir Walter Scott who placed them in the cloisters of Abbotsford. In 1885, William Gladstone, the Liberal statesman and Member of Parliament for Midlothian, erected a new cross, which incorporated parts of the old cross, in its current position.

(1) Scott, Sir Walter, Marmion, Canto Fifth, XXV
(2) Grant, James, Old and New Edinburgh, 1880, Edinburgh, Vol. 1, 150
(3) Skene, James, Reekiana, 1836, Edinburgh Central Library Archive, 99
(4) Skeene, Reekiana, 100

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Related subjects

Business > Service industry > Mercat Crosses

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Religion > Religious facilities > Cathedrals

Religion > Religious facilities > Protestant churches

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