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Show AN OLD SCOTCH BRfcDGE. Relic of the Stormy Days of Caledonian Caledo-nian History. Every American who has visited Edinburgh .will recall the famous old bridge known as "Grammond Brig," spanning the river Almond, and which is one of the most ancient and interesting inter-esting relics of Scottish history. The news, therefore, that it is now undfer-: undfer-: going a restoration with a view to its ' careful preservation will doubtless be received with satisfaction by many of my readers, says Marguise de Fonte-noy Fonte-noy in the Chicago Tribune. In the old stormy days of Scottish history the bridge formed part of the highway which ran from Edinburgh to the Queen's ferry. For hundreds and hundreds hun-dreds of years all sorts and conditions crossed the bridge on their way to or from the Scotch capital. It was on the bridge that the poet King James I. on that winter's day of 1436, was accosted by an old woman, who, in a loud voice, entreated him to abandon hisi trip to Perth, where he proposed to spend Christmas, predicting pre-dicting "My lord kyng. and ye passe this water ye shall never turne ayane on lyfe." The king turned a deaf ear to her prayer and went to his doom as she had prophesied. It was while crossing this bridge, too, that Mary Queeu of Scots, was seized by Both-, well and carried off to Dunbar,- Sir Walter Scott giving a graphic description descrip-tion of the episode in those of his works devoted to the story of this ill-fated ill-fated queen.. v But the incident most closely associated asso-ciated iu the popular mind with the old bridge is the rescue of King. James V. by Jock Howison. It is no precisely pre-cisely certain whether the monarch on that occasion was engaged in some romantic ro-mantic adventure, whether he was act-inn. act-inn. Ua ninr-a. nmllt'iKlo IIQt-t ftf thp sixteenth century Scotch Haroun El Raschid seeking to learn the needs of his humbler subjects, or whether it was a case of the "red fox," as he was nicknamed, endeavoring to ascertain ascer-tain the plots of his, nobles. However, the fact remains that he was attacked by several assailants on the bridge and wqjjld undoubtedly have lost his life had it not been for the timely help of Jock Howison, who came to hia rescue, ignorant of . his identity. It was only subsequently that the worthy Jock discovered that the "Guidman of Ballangleich" was hs sovereign, who rewarded him by the grant of the valuable lands of Brae-head, Brae-head, in the immediate neighborhood of by one of those quaint old tenures, which one finds almost at every- step and in Great Britain, to remind one of the antiquity of its institutions. Thus the tenure requires that on each occasion when the sovereign crosses old "Cramond Brig," the master of Braehead should be in attendance with a basin of water and a napkin in memory mem-ory -of the basin which the original Jock Howison handed to King' James V. to wash the blood and dirt from his face after rescuing him from his assailants and concealing him in his cottage. When King George IV. crossed cross-ed the bridge in 1822, William Howison, a lineal descendant of Jock Howison, offered the monarch water from a silver sil-ver pitcher in which to wash his hands, and when King Edward was last at Edinburgh, to stay with the duke and duchess of Buccleuch and had occasion to cross the bridge, he was the recipient recip-ient of a similar attention on the part of Captain William Howison Crauford, the present master and owner of Braehead. Brae-head. , |