Series 5 > Miscellany [of the Scottish History Society] XIII

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MISCELLANY XIII
desire to an old officer of the Dragoons being approved by him. It was
presented to the Lord Provost. It was insisted that a high house which
rakes a part of the wall near the Potteraw should be possessed by a party
and communication made from the wall to the house to relieve or bring
off the men as occasion might require. But this though much insisted on
was not yielded till Sept 16th when Captain Murray1 approved of it and
then though it was begun there was no time to finish it.
Unhappily at this time the Election of the deacons so much employed
the trades that few came to work on the wall and it never appeared that
after repeated complaints proper authority was employed to oblige them
to work in this time of greatest danger.
Sept 11. Some cannon were got from ships and it having been earnestly
recommended to Lord Provost that some hand grenades should be got
and the City Guard and Volunteers taught to use them a message was
sent to the General and by him to the Castle but it was answered that they
had not above 200 and could not spare them. Afterwards however one of
the Volunteers surprised that there should be so few in such a garrison so
well provided with stores made a visit to the castle and was told by the
storekeeper that he had 5 times that number and was desired to tell the
Provost that he had 200 at his service if he had a mind for them. The
message was delivered but the grenades never appeared. We found 23
that had lain in a chest since 1715 in the Town’s Armory, but they were
never examined.
A ditch that had been ordered at Wallace’s Tower had been carried
on right for some time but was afterwards by some mistake or bad advice
cast on the wrong side of the dike. This day this was stopped and a
remedy proposed but not executed for want of time.
Sept 12. The work went on slowly.
Sept 13. The day of the election of the deacons there was very little done
on the wall, the deacons could not be got. Some houses in St. Mary’s
Wynd that had large windows into the town were shown to some
Magistrates and afterwards to the Provost but no orders were given about
them. This day the carriages of the cannon were examined, and any
Captain James Murray, presumably of the Edinburgh Regiment, is also mentioned in
another manuscript among NLS, Jacobite Papers, MS 3142, entitled ‘Mr. Grosett’s
Account of some Particulars which happened upon the Advance of the Rebels towards
Edinburgh in September 1745’, fos. 5,6