San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-11-10
QUEEN MARY'S HOUSE
AN HISTORIC OLD MANSION IN THE
ANCIENT TOWN OF JEDBURG.
In This Old Fashioned Building the
Queen of the Scots Held Court and for
Three Weeks Lay Sick of Fever-Her
Near Approach to Death.

} Queen of the Scots Held Court and TO
Three Weeks Lay Sick of Fever-He
Near Approach to Death.
There is one house in Jedburg t.
which, above all others, strangers whC
visit the ancient town are sure to finC
their way, and that is the old and an
tique mansion known as Queen Mary,
house. Many will therefore be pleased
to learn that steps are about to be taken
for the better preservation of this his
toric edifice, and for the improvement OF
its surroundings. On Oct. 8, 1856, Mary
left Hollywood to hold assizes at Jed.
burg, the magistrates having been pre-
viously instructed to prepare meat.
drink and lodgings for men and horses,
and she arrived next day. The queen
was accompanied by her ministers of
state, her law officers and by many of
her mobiles, among whom were the Earls
of Moray, Huntly, Argyll, Rothes and
Caithness, and the Lords Livingstone,
Seton, Yester, BOrthwick, Arbroath,
\ Hume and Somerville, besides num-
per of barons and bishops. What stir
there must have been in the old border
burg on that occasion, and what
anxiety it would cost the worthy pro-
! Vsast.' and magistrates to keep up the
| good name of their town in the presence
of so many great personages, and even
royalty itself.
The assizes continued for six success
| Sive days, and terminated without a
single execution. Mary presided at a
privy council held on the 10th, and at
another held on the following day. On
| the 10th, after the pressure of business
was over, she rode to Hermitage castle
to see Boutwell,. who had been wounded
| by"Little Jock Elliott" of the park, a
| noted freebooter, and after comforting
with her wounded lieutenant for two
hours in presence of several of her
| mobiles who accompanied her on the
| journey she returned to Jedburg the
| same evening, having ridden more than
forty-eight miles. Next day Mary was
| attacked with an intermittent fever,
which kept her PROSTATE for over
fortnight. On the same day she took
i'll the sum'of six shillings was paid to
"ane boy passing from Jedburg with
ane mass of writings of our sovereign to
the Earl of Boutwell,"
The room in which Queen Mary lay
| during her serious illness is, according
| to tradition, q small two windOwed,
| apartment i'll the turret, but Miss Strick-
land, in her Lives of the Queens of
| Scotland" says in reference to this point
that 1.-The spacious suite of apartments
on the opposite side of the staircase, one
of which still bears the name of the
guardroom, is more likely to have been
occupied by royalty as anteroom, privy
chamber and bedroom" 1t is, however,
the small back apartment that is pointed
out to visitors as Queen Marys bedroom,
| and it was there, if we are to credit ira
dition. where she lay nigh unto death,
attended by her French physician
| Charles Nau.
On the Goth she ''lay for dead" three
| hours-her limbs cold and rigid, her
| eyes closed, her mouth compressed, her
feet and arms stiff, every one suppoSing
that the vital spark had fled. Master
| Nau, who was "a perfect man of his
craft" would not, however, give the
| matter up. but reSOrted to friction and
manipulation. which he continued for
some hours, until the queen recovered
| again her sight and speech and got Il
| great sweating. W. N her illness had
assumed mortal tendency she expressed
her willingness to resign her spirit. to
! God. She wished to impress on her
mobiles the necessity of living in unity,
| and that they should do all in their
power to protect the infant prince-her
only tie to life. To Du Croix, the
French ambassador, she made a request
that he would ask his royal master t.
| protect her dear son, and she also recon-
| mended his protection to Queen Eliza
| beth, as her nearest kiuSwOman.
On the 2Sth Darnley arrived in Jed
burg, but left again the next day, and it
is not certain that he was ever allowed
to see Mary. When she was recovering
the wearisOmc hours were beguiled by
one John Hume playing to her on the
lutte and John Heron playing on the pipe
and 'quhissil," the former receiving
forty shillings for his services, the latter
four pounds for his. AS a thank offer
ing to God for her recovery she caused
twenty pounds to be given to the poor of
the burg, and the same day she wrote
a letter ordering materials for a new
dress, which letter was to be sent to Ed
inburgh "in all possible haste"
What a curious Old World picture!
But the scene again changes. On Nov.
9-exactly a month after her arrival
Queen Mary left Jedburg, accompanied
by her mobiles, among whom was Both
well, and with an escort of a thousand
horsemen. She arrived on the Goth at
Craigmillar Gale, with sorrow, suffer-