The Fortifications and Siege of Leith: a Further Siege Th 156N F Ei O 0P Ma E Studth F Yo Stuart Harris*
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Proc Soc Antiq Scot,(1991)1 12 , 359-368 The fortifications and siege of Leith: a further siege th 156n f ei o 0p ma e studth f yo Stuart Harris* ABSTRACT The paper presents reviewa understanding our of siege fortificationsthe and of Leithof in siege.the lightof 1560 studyof the map of e contemporar Th e siegth f Leitf eo o 1560n hp i ma y,archivee kepth n i t f Petwortso h Hous Sussex,n i e s exhibitewa 1 Edinburgn di 1987,n hi 2 more than twenty years d afteha t i r been introduce Scottise th o dt h publi papern ci Franciy b s Stee GordosW d an r n Donaldson.3 Nevertheless it seems to have been largely neglected as a historical record of the siege, and a hint by Mr Steer that it might repay study in relation to the military operations does not appear to have been followed up.4 Yet the map must be ranked among the most immediate of all records of the siege. Althoug t itselhno f dated t purporti , shoo t s siege wth edeploymene workth d san f heavo t y surrendere artillerth f o y thes y a Julda 7 , ye ywerth 1560 considerinn d eo an , g that (according to Pitscottie) both the French and the English armies were gone by 16 July, there can be no doubt thainformatioe th t t recordni preciselo s sucn i hd ydetaian l must have been gathered by 7 July or within days thereafter. Besides being immediate, this information is clearly expert. The map notes three 'approches', correspondin three th eo gt phasesiegee th whicf n i so , maie hth n thrus f attaco t k moved from the east to the south and the west. The artillery is portrayed with evident care, animpressioe dth f accuracno deepenes yi face gunth 7 t 2 y tha b de s showth t'Englishe th n no ' side5 correspond wit Diurnale hnota th n ei f Occurents o 275p ( ) tha siege th t e train landet da Figgate fro Englise mth h fleet comprised 'twelve great singil doubild an l l cannoni fyftend san e small pieces'. r militar fo e sam e 6Th ey ey detail mark drawine s th greae th f tg o bastioe th f no French 'Citadel' at Leith Mount, in which six 'round holes' are shown sunk in the floor of the ditch noted an ,s 'sounds' a d r listenino 7 g point r monitorinsfo approace g th e Englisth f o h h mine wherd an drawine , th e g also show outworn a s whad kan t 'coverappeara e b o tt s way' alon outee gth rditche edgth f e,o protecte glacis.a y db 8 Obviously such expert observation enhances the value of the map as a primary source: but besides being importan uniqus i t i t e among these sources t showi r fo ,s graphically whae th t others (with varying precision) describ wordsn ei . Although these written records undoubtedly assis interpretatioe th t mape th f ,n o the y themselves also examinee neeb o dt d wit helps hit . Indeed e comparativelth , y late discover f meanp thiyo sma s tha l conclusional t s previously drawn from written or traditional sources must be reviewed in the light of it. Doveco3 *2 t Grove, Edinburgh 360 SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, 1991 But first of all it is necessary to understand the structure of the map, for this is not altogether simple. At first glance, it reads as a wide-angled perspective of the five-mile stretch of country from Restalrig to Muirhouse, rendered with spirit and (but for some misplacement of Kirk Restalrig) with notable accurac a pictoria f o y l sort; t whilbu 9 e e thi th s trui sf o e background, a question arises in the foreground, where the title reads: The plat Lytheof w' th'aproche theof Trenches therevnto alsogreatAnd the Ordyn'nce therein Surrender dayethe The of at thereofplaced was Ivlie of it as day 1560. being7 the e significanth d an t note follows: The Scale thisof Plat eighty>eis paces aneto ynch. Every pace conteyning foots5 geometricall.[H In other words, althoug backgroune hth certainls di y pictorial foregroune th , r ) partit d(o f so has evidentl t yfro beeou m t nmeasurese d surve inche drawd th fee0 scalo ya an ;t 40 t o f nt e o and in view of this it will be merely a technical matter (including due allowance for discrepancies arising from the improvement of surveying practice over the centuries) to relate these parts of the map to the detail shown on any other map. The first step is to check the Petworth map against other maps which show some vestiges of the fortifications. There are at least half a dozen such maps, ranging from a small sketch on a chart of the Forth published by Capt. Greenvile Collins in 1693, to Kirkwood's map of Edinburgh and Leith in 1817. As might be expected, as time went on there was progressively less to show; and the best map for the purpose is that made by John Naish in 1709," the earliest known detailed survey of Leith, which shows remains of the northern and eastern ramparts almost as fully preserved as they appear on Collins, as well as vestiges of those on the south and west, which are quite missing from Collins but tally with traces shown on later maps (see illu. 1) s Wha t onca s i te apparent fro e mapmth thas si fortificatioe th t n Frence beguth y nb n hi f medievaAuguso t no ts l154 wa wall-and-towe8 ra full typt y bu e fledged example th f o e radically different defensive system which had been only recently evolved in Italy in response to the development of artillery.l2 It was indeed the earliest use of this system to fortify a town in Britain, by 10 years; and its masterly style is the mark of its designer, the renowned 3 fortress engineer Pier i Strozzi,alsoy d oma 1 havo 1e4wh been responsibl latee th r r featureefo s (of kinds only invented in the 1550s) which were probably added in the course of the further fortification works recorde latn di e 1559. placn I higf eo h masonr stylyw wallsene employee th , d relativel earthew ylo n ramparts, x deep enoug provido ht rooma e y platfor r heavmfo y guns, with their outer faces (usualln yi stone t sometimesbu , e sak th f spee eo r r fo economy,d o timbern i , ) steep enoug repeo ht l infantry attac t slopekbu d backward orden i s defleco t r t canno e powene th th shot f d o r an ; defenc s enormouslwa e y increase y organisinb d g these rampart a syste n i s f angulamo r bastions, each a salient platform for guns to deliver not only frontal fire but an intense flank fire that supporte neighbourine dth g bastion eithen so r sidswepd estretchean e th t f ditcso n hi between. Leithn 1 I 5t happened i s a , stonewore th , t lasno t verd soute kdi th yd n longhan i r fo , western ramparts it was deliberately slighted as soon as the siege of 1560 was over, while the rest became a quarry for building stone in about 1700: but the huge earthworks of ditch and rampart took ovecenturieo tw r o disappeart s indeed an , d they left open tract f uneveo s n ground that eventually provide e gread th site r t fo sbypas s road f Constitutioso n Streed an t Great Junction Street. Whe e rampartth n s e Petwortshowe plotteth ar n p o no scalt d ma h e along wite th h HARRIS: THE FORTIFICATIONS AND SIEGE OF LEITH 361 CiSttrn pier ILLU 1 SSurve e Towth f f Leityno o Johy hb n Naish, 1709 (after origina Publin i l c Record Office) remains show Naisy nb himmediatels i (illu t i ) s2 y obvious thae 156th t 0 drawing cannoa e b t measured plan of Leith, for even although the overall span of the ramparts from east to west is almost correct, the drawing has been so drastically foreshortened in the north/south direction e reab dn thaca onla picture t s i t ya e t detai mucth Ye .f s manifestl i ho l y authentice th f I . bastion of Ramsay's fort east of the harbour has been almost suppressed by the foreshortening, the detailed formseawars it f so d frontage correspond closely with those show Collinn no d san Naish foreshortenine e effecth Th .f o t drawine less th gi n si Nortf go h Leith sincd an , e p thisma is in fact the only extant portrayal of its defences, it is fortunate indeed that they are shown in such convincing r thosdetailfo f Souts eo A . h Leith e Castellanth , bastio t Anthony'S t na s si shown somewhat out of position, but the most striking thing is that two of the bastions (at John' Bowline s th Lan d ean g Green altogethee ar ) r missing. These bastions certainly existed (witness Nais onle othersd th han y d explanatio)an theif no r omission fro Petworte mth p hma 2 36 SOCIET ANTIQUARIEF YO SCOTLANDF SO , 1991 ILLUS 2 Outline of ramparts as shown on Petworth map, superimposed on Naish's survey of 1709.