Fotheringhay Castle.

Vicar of Fotheringhay , was unable to determine this . The Harieian MS . calls it " an entry next the great hall . " This seems to show it was a chamber on the lower part of the mound , and not that occupied by the keep . " Entry , " rather a curious expression , may mean a wide corridor of the castle leading into the " great hall . " In this MS ., I may observe in passing , Andrew MelvilleSir Robert ' s brothermaster of Queen Mary ' s householdand who

, , , was found by'her in this "Entry" kneeling in tears , is always called "Melvin . " No such name occurs in the history of Scotland , In verses , by courtesy called a poem , published in 1797 , the same mistake is made . While I am about it let me say that Schiller in his fine drama , Maria Stewart , takes extraordinary liberties with names as well as historical facts . He calls one of the two ladies who accompanied Mary to the " great hall" Hannah Kennedy—her real name

, was Elizabeth ; and he devotes one entire scene to an interview between Mary and Elizabeth , which , of course , never took place . But we must not be too hard upon Schiller , when our great dramatist actually creates a sea-coast for Bohemia .

Had Mary obtained her clearest wish , Elizabeth would probably have been won to mercy , and her life y / ould have been spared . But Burghley and Walsingham were too astute to permit her to come under the personal spell of the Queen of Scots . Elizabeth , however , did visit Fotheringhay in one of her progresses , but that was before Mary was brought thither . Another correction I must make , and then have done with this part of the subject . In the " History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire" bBrid I ' find"It

, y ges , , appears too , that in the twenty-second year of his ( Edward IV . ) reign he was here with Alexander , King of Scotland , who then pi'omised to do fealty and homage to the King of England for the realm of Scotland within six months after he should be in possession of the crown . And covenants were then signed and sealed at the castle by both princes . " This extraordinary statement , made on the authority of Rymer , in his Foedera , and eopied into ' " The

Beauties of England and Wales , " and perhaps into other standard works , I have not been able to verif y in the ori ginal ; but , if it be correctly quoted , Rymer was strangel y in error . No Alexander , King of Scotland , was eitheron or off the throne in the time of Edward IV ., and most assuredly no Scottish King visited Fotheringhay during his reign . Alexander I . died in 1124 , Alexander II . in 1249 , and Alexander III . in 1286 ; whereas Edward reigned in the last quarter of the fifteenth century . The fact is it must have been the

Duke of Albany , brother to King James III ., a man of ambitions temper , who , having made an extraordinary escape from Edinburgh Castle , had fled to France . Taking advantage of James ' s unpopularity , and wishing to recover the town of Berwick , Edward invited the Duke of England , baiting his invitation with a promise of the crown of Scotland , on condition of his acknowledging Edward as Lord Paramount of that kingdom . This accounts

for Albany ' s presence at Fotheringhay , and his promising to do fealty and homage to the Crown of England , as Balliol had clone before him . Even Archdeacon Bonney , in his excellent and accurate work , after citing the passage very much as he found it in Bridges , with the exception that he added " calling himself" King of Scotland , hazards the conjecture "that it is probable that the person here mentioned was one of the family of Balliol . " The Archdeacon

felt , with a true instinct , that Rymer could not be ri ght ; but he failed to get at the true historical personage . In Mr . Hill of Cranoe ' s excellent work , " The Chronicle of the Christian Ages , " I find the following entry under date A . D . 1482 : " The Duke of Albany , brother of King James , laid claim to the Crown of Scotland . King Edward concludes " a treaty with Albany at Fotheringhay . " This settles the matter . Never have I felt more the necessit y of remembering the caveat " Don ' t believe anything yon see in print , " than in preparing this paper . Familiar with the place where Mary Stuart was born , I had long wished to see the place where she died , for after all it is her name