Stands upon a great rock rising abruptly from low-lying ground.
Its history stretches back to the dim time of legends.

Edinburgh Castle has a history that stretches far back till it is lost in the misty realm of legend. The great rock upon which it is built could not fail to have appealed to all the successive rulers of the land as of great strategic importance. It rises abruptly from the low-lying land, and dominates the country for many miles around, from the Forth on the north to the Pentland Hills on the south. Its Celtic name of Maidun, meaning the fort of the plain, became corrupted [pg 73] in later times to Maiden's Castle, the name being responsible for the tradition that the castle was used by the royal Princesses, during times of great danger.

Edinburgh Castle, from the North.

Though Edwin, the King of Northumbria, is the reputed founder of the town whose name is commonly derived from him, the clear light of history only begins to shine upon it in the days of Malcolm Canmore and his sainted Queen. At that time a Celtic Castle stood upon the rock, of which there are no remains except St. Margaret's Chapel, a little Norman building, named after Malcolm Canmore's English wife. Malcolm, the Big Head, a brave but illiterate Prince, was so devoted to his beautiful wife, that through her teaching he learned religion, and used to take part with her in the religious services of which she was so fond. Unable to read himself, he caused her prayer-books and missals to be splendidly bound, and would listen to her while she read to him, submitting at the same time to refinements in dress and table customs which were quite innovations in the rude northern Court. Queen Margaret was in the castle in 1093, when her warlike husband and her eldest son went off with a large army to fight the English. She was lying very ill when the news came to her that both husband and son had been slain, the shock causing her death. As there was [pg 74] considerable disaffection in the country, her body was carried with great secrecy across the Forth to Dunfermline, a miraculous mist kindly enveloping the party, so that no one saw them escape.

Another Queen Margaret, also an English Princess, a century and a half later, came as a girl-wife to the grim castle on the rock. She was the daughter of Henry III. of England, and had been married to Alexander III., a mere boy, with great splendour at York, her father hoping by the marriage to gain more influence over Scotland.

All the troubles of the War of Independence during the fourteenth century arose from King Alexander III. leaving no male heir. His two sons had died before him, and his grand-daughter, the Maid of Norway, was his only heir. Disasters came thick upon Scotland soon after the death of Alexander III., who had fallen over a cliff on the coast of Fife when riding too near the edge on a very dark and stormy night. For the next fifty ............