Note 38 — REIGN OF MARY: 1565-1567.

Walter Goodall and Miss Agnes Strickland have been misled by the description of the place in Bothwell’s Act of Forfeiture—‘ad pontes, vulgo vocatos foulbriggs‘—into the belief that the queen was seized at the suburb of Edinburgh formerly called Foulbriggs, and now Fountain Bridge. In reality, the expression in the Act, rightly translated, applies to the place indicated in the Diurnal of Occurrents—‘at the Briggs, commonly called Foulbriggs,’ the syllable foul being presumably a vulgar casual addition which the ancient marshy condition of the place rendered appropriate. All the other contemporary writers place the scene of the seizure at the Almond—Buchanan, Birrel, and Herries—while Sir James Melville, who was one of the party seized, says ‘betwixt Linlithgow and Edinburgh’—an expression he could scarcely have used if the fact had happened close to the city. In Ane Chronicle of the Kings of Scotland, printed by the Maitland Club, and apparently contemporary, the brig of Awmont is the locality assigned. But the most powerful evidence on the subject, and what sets the matter at rest, is a Remission under the Privy Seal, of date October 1, 1567, to Andrew Redpath, for his being concerned in ‘besetting the queen’s way ... near the water of Awmond, and for taking and ravishing her,’ &c. It may be remarked that there is no evidence of the suburb alluded to by Miss Strickland having been called Foulbriggs, or having existed at all, at that time, while we have proof of the existence of a place on the Almond Water, under the name of the Briggs, long before this time. In the Register of the Privy Seal is ‘ane lettre maid to Robert Hamilton in Briggis, makand him capitane and kepar of the place and palace of Linlithgow,’ &c. 1543, Aug. 22.