Year: 1964
Type: article
Abstract: THE English army came, and English and Scots together laid siege to the town of Leith, where the French had fortified themselves.This was surely a remarkable thing to have happened -the Scots fighting along with the English, who had so long been their enemies, against the French, who had so long been their friends.' 1 On 6th July 1560, a significant date in Scottish history, the Treaty of Leith, or of Edinburgh, was arranged by Scotland, England and France after the surrender of the French.On the following day an unknown cartographer drew a remarkable map which is the subject of this paper.Measuring a8| in.high and 34 in.wide, 2 'The plat of Lythe w 1 thaproche of the Trenches therevnto.And also the great Ordyn'nce there in placed as it was at The daye of the Surrender thereof being the 7 daye of Ivlie/isGo' is an informative and colourful document now among the archives at Petworth House, Sussex.3 'The Scale of this Plat is eightye paces to ane ynche.Every pace conteyning 5 foote geometricall' is the surveyor's method of saying that the map is on a scale of 400 ft. or just over six Gunter's chains to an inch or 13-3 inches to a mile in modern reckoning.The orientation of the map is reversed, i.e.N. is at the bottom and E. on the lefthand side; this arrangement has enabled the cartographer to present Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh Castle and the hills to the W. of it in a very realistic fashion.All the high ground is emphasised by blue shading which merges with the subtle greens and buffs which are his predominant colours.Roofs are red, blue or brown according to whether the material is tile, lead or slate, or thatch; the lead roofs of Holyrood Palace and Abbey are specially noticeable.All buildings are finely drawn in perspective view but, except for St Giles' church (easily recognised by its open crown on the central tower) and the Netherbow Port or Gate, 4 Edinburgh is shown as a conventional cluster of houses.The groups of tents -the 'palzeouns' [pavilions] mentioned in John Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland 5 -are often shaded with a tawny colour; the walls efforts are a lightish grey, trenches dark grey; the roads are greyish and so is the Water of Leith while the Firth of Forth is depicted in bluish greys and buffs and further distinguished by four large vessels.The entire map is
Author: Francis W Steer
Language: English
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4322736291