ment as they take this to be upon their property, had it
appeared in a short-lived newspaper, especially when published
by a certain authority or rather command; but it afflicts
us much to see the same usurped title of the forementioned
battle find a way into your last September Magazine, which
bids fair to perpetuate it.
"May it please you therefore, good sir, if you have occasion
hereafter to publish anything concerning said battle, to denominate
it from one of your petitioners, or at least to publish this
our remonstrance against the encroachment upon our right,
and your petitioners, " etc. etc.
(Signed) " FLYING SHOTS. "
Whereupon the editor tells his readers, " to change or
not, just as they have a mind. "
CHAPTER XXII.
LORD GRANGE, PRESTON HOUSE, ETC.
Preston House, etc. —Lord Grange-Other Proprietors—Lord Provost
of Edinburgh—Dr Oswald—Erskine of Grange—Lord Grange—Lord
Lovat—M'Leod of M'Leod, and Lord Grange—Lady Grange carried
off—Held in Captivity till Death—Dr Ramsay—Dr Schaw—Schaw's
Bequest—Hospital Founded—Names, Trades, and Professions of
Inmates—Revisit of Old Scholars—Murray's Bequests—Institution—Matron,
Teachers, Inmates, etc.
THIS fine old ivy-clad ruin stands a little to the east of
the old Market Cross, directly south of Murray's Institution,
and at the extreme east end of the village of Preston.
Preston Tower, as already mentioned, was finally destroyed
by fire in 1663, and abandoned by the Hamiltons as a dwelling-place.
Sir James de Preston or Hamilton was proprietor at that period,
but we do not know that he ever returned to the old village
or approached the desolate Tower. In 1685 we find Sir William,
his son, fighting under Argyll, and he died some years afterwards.
His brother Robert did, or ought to have succeeded him, but
his estates (private, apparently, for as yet he had no claim
to Preston) had been confiscated for his denunciation of the
king and his court, and he had been banished for his covenanting
principles. He returned in 1689, before his brother died,
but still refused to acknowledge king or court, and never
served himself heir to the estate or to the baronetcy. He
died at Bo'ness in 1701.
The old Tower and estate at Preston were shortly afterwards
transferred to a nephew of the late Sir Robert Hamilton, Dr
Oswald, a son of Sir James Os\yald, who was Lord Provost of
Edinburgh at that period. But the transference took place
under an arrangement that the estate should be redeemed if
a covenanted sovereign surmounted the throne. For this new
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