The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-08-12
AN OLD SCOTCH BRIDGE.
Relic of the Stormy Days of caIedo-
nian History.

| nian History.
I 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 inter
esting relics of Scottish history. The
news. therefore, that it is now UNDER
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 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
Queens ferry. For hundreds and hum
dreds of years all sorts and conditions
crossed the bridge on their way to
or from the Scotch capital.
1t was on the bridge that the poet
King James /. on that winters day
Of 1885, was accosted by an old woman
who, in a loud voice. entreated him
to abandon his trip to Perth, where
he proposed to spend Christmas, pre-
dieting My lord kyng, and We passe
this water ye shall never turne ayane
on lyfe." The king turned deaf ear
to her prayer and went to his doom
as she had prophesied. 1t was while
CROSSING lnlS DTtuSe, loo, lldI Ildl
Queen of Scots, was seized by Both
we'll and carried off to Dunbar, Sir
Walter Scott giving graphic descrip-
tion of the episode in those of his
works devoted to the story of this i'll
fated queen.
But the incident most closely asso-
ciated in the popular mind with the
old bridge is the rescue of King James
V. by Jock HoWison. 1t is not pre-
cisely certain whether the monarch on
that occasion was engaged in some ro-
mantle adventure, whether he was act
ing the more creditable part of the
sixteenth century Scotch Haroun El
Raschid seeking to learn the needs OF
his humber subjects, or whether 1t
was a case of the red fox as he
was nicknamed, endeavoring to ascer-
tain the plots of his mobiles.
However, the fact remains that he
was attacked by several assailants on
the bridge and WOULD undoubtedly have
lost his life had it not been for the
timely help of Jock Howison, who
identity. 1t was only subsequently
that the worthy Jock discovered that
the "Guidman of Ballangleich'' was his
sovereign, who rewarded him by the
grant of the valuable lands of 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 mem
ory eof 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 ". cross
ed the bridge in 1922, William Howison,
a lineal descendant of Jock Howison,
offered the monarch water from a sill
yer 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 recip-
lent of similar attention on the part
of Captain William Howison Crauford,
the present master and owner of Brae-
head.