A HISTORICAL ROAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2652, 11 January 1905, Page 70

A HISTORICAL ROAD.

The recent mishap to the Duke of Connaught recalls oilier occasions on which his Royal Highness has figured in anxious situations. The most diverting of theie occurred when he was engaged in acquiring the airt and mystery of the bicycle. The Duke used to go out into an unfrequented road in the vicinity of Ald-ershot, and ifc cl-anced one day^that an eager subaltern, unwittingly chose* the s>ame venue for the self-same purpose. On recognising his superior officer the sub. attempted to salute, and lost his balance, and in trying to save him his Royal Highness waa himself overturned. When he approached the youngster to inquire after his condition, ho received the gallant reply that any soldier who witnessed the fall of royalty would be hurt! The soad on which the present collision occurred is one of the busiest 3f all the thoroughfares leading out of Edinburgh. It sweeps round the^base of the Calton Hill, skirts the deer park of Holyroodi House, qndl bears away toArards Restalrig, Portobello, and the country of the Esk Rivers. Rail-v-ays cross and recross it, and the traffic of the eastern countries converges upon it — ■ narrowed as the way just here is by the huge mass of Arthur's Seat. It was along this road that the luckless Queen of Scots was conveyed by Bothwell and his halberdiers on the way to the Black Earl's stronghold of Dunbar. Here, again, tLo^ poor Queen rode after her d-efeat ati Oxrbcvoy To-wer, Vav>ln^ low upon hep s; 'Vsi j i.ee'e, he^bit-er iecrs railing fast as she neared the grim Tolbooth which was to be her prison-lodging for the night. Here, too, came Cromwell with his Ironsides, clattering along victorious after the battle of Dunbar. And here came another conqueror — a strange contrast to Cromwell and the Puritans — Bonnie Prince Charlie

himself, radiant after the rout of General t Cope at -Prestonpans, with hope in his ( heart and joy on his- face ; and behind him ' •his Highlanders, mad with triumph and the taste of blood. - Queen Victoria came hero when first she visited Scotland after she -landed from her yacht to ba the guest of "the Buccleuch" at Dalkeith. The Archer Guard had gone out betimes to meet her carriage and escort \ the Queen, but by 'some mischance c the royal postilions had no orders to slacken speed, and they pelted on along the broad •Highway, taking no heed at- all of the, bow- - men, iff their green doublets .and eagle ■ plumes— a most bitter and bewildering con--tretemps, for which the Sovereign had 'to make elaborate apology and amends. The ArcLer - Guard — "the Nearest- Guard" — is ■ I Bore about the incident to this day. -Coming towards- Edinburgh by this road ' one" . passes : _ close - to : the roofless Chapel Hoyal, one off the gems of Scottish architecture, and the .scene of many a thrilling" page of Scottish history:. Here Mary mar- ■ ricd Bothwell, dressed, not in bridal white, liut. in her^ widow's weeds-; and here her bridegroom clanked -to the altar-rail clothed' ~}"rom head to- foot in steel. Here CharlesI knelt in.*, the first fear of that tempest of trouble then rising about him — a tempest which" eventually beat down throne and faith and 'flung Mnr upon 'the scaffold. From the windows of the hotel where the Duke of .Conoaaught was "taken one looks upon a very different Edinburgh — different, and yet oddly the same. There^is plenty _ to, remind one of Stuart times beside the Castle and Holyrood On the slope just across the railway" line one-.sees the daisies grow just as they did when Mary of Guise • led her little- daughter in the sunshine here -to take the air, the four childish Maries demurely waiting upon their youthful Queen. The Duke is a good historian, and in the enforced leisure of his -detention in that sick-room he has had plenty of time - to study the view from his window and to link its picturesque present with its past.