Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/338

202 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. are, at present, inadequate ; but in the earnestness and enlightened feehng with which the investigation has recently been pursued in North Britain, there is every promise of important future results. In the interesting work which we would now commend to the notice of our readers, Mr. Wilson has naturally commenced his investigations from the early traditions regarding the stronghold — the nucleus of the future capital ; a spot selected, doubtless, on account of its advantageous natural position in those ill-omened times, when foray and retaliation con- tinually blasted the fertile district of the Nortliern borders. It was only in the fourteenth century, with the accession of the Stuarts, that the importance of the cliief burgh of Scotland took its rise. An able sketch is given by Mr. Wilson of the vicissitudes of later times ; of the influence of relations with foreign countries, in consequence of the various royal alliances, the spousals of James II. with Mary of Gueldres, whose remains were of late, as it was by some supposed, disclosed to view in the sad destruction of the Church of the Holy Trinity, founded by that princess.' This inte- resting example of architecture, sacrificed for the purposes of a railway speculation, has supplied the subject of one of the numerous beautiful illus- trations, chiefly from his own pencil, with which Mr. Wilson's volumes are enriched. We read also of the joyous nuptials of James III. with the Princess of Denmark, and call to mind their pro- traits, preserved at Hampton Court, with which many of our readers are doubtless familiar, as works of art, to be classed with the choicest examples of early painting preserved in this country. The limits of our present purpose will not, however, pemnit of more than a passing reference to the brilliant scenes and stirring incidents portrayed in Mr. Wilson's pages, amongst which maybe mentioned the alliance of James IV. with Margaret of England, and the rash enterprise, so characteristic of the feeling and spirit of the age, which led that king to the disastrous field of Flodden. The touching strain of the ballads which recall the dismay and national depression of that calamitous period, present to us the state of the north- ern capital in more lively manner than any historical document, or municipal proclamation at the " City Cross," when all good citizens were enjoined to muster " at jowing of The City Cross during a rroclamation. ' See Mr. Wilson's interesting correspondence regarding this discovery, CJent's Magazine, May, lii4f», vol. xxxi, p. 522.