ty is the Canongate Tolbooth, with
pepper-box turrets and a clock projecting from the front on iron
brackets, which have taken the place of the original curiously-carved
oaken beams. Executions sometimes took place in front of this building,
which led wags to find a grim joke in its motto: "Sic.Itvr.Ad.Astra." A
more frequent place of execution was the Girth Cross, near the foot of
the Canongate, which marked the limit of the right of sanctuary
belonging to the abbey of Holyrood. At the Girth Cross, Lady Warriston
was executed for the murder of her husband, which has been made the
subject of many ballads:

My mother was an ill woman:
In fifteen years she married me.
I hadna wit to guide a man:
Alas! ill counsel guided me.

O Warriston! O Warriston!
I wish that ye may sink fire in:
I was but bare fifteen years auld
When first I entered your gates within.

I hadna been a month married,
Till my gude lord went to the sea:
I bare a bairn ere he came hame,
And set it on the nourice knee.

But it fell ance upon a day
That my gude lord return'd from sea:
Then I did dress in the best array,
As blythe as ony bird on tree.

I took my young son in my arms,
Likewise my nourice me forebye,
And I went down to yon shore-side,
My gude lord's vessel I might spy.

My lord he stood upon the deck,
I wyte he hail'd me courteouslie:
"Ye are thrice welcome, my lady gay:
Wha'se aught that bairn on your knee?"

She turn'd her right and roundabout,
Says, "Why take ye sic dreads o' me?
Alas! I was too young married
To love another man but thee."

"Now hold your tongue, my lady gay:
Nae mair falsehoods ye'll tell to me;
This bonny bairn is not mine;
You've loved another while I was on sea."

In discontent then hame she went,
And aye the tear did blin' her e'e:
Says, "Of this wretch I'll be revenged
For these harsh words he said to me."

She's counsel'd wi' her father's steward,
What way she cou'd revenged be:
Bad was the counsel then he gave:
It was to gar her gude lord dee.

The nourice took the deed in hand:
I wat she was well paid her fee:
She keist the knot, and the loop she ran
Which soon did gar this young lord dee.

[Illustration: HOLYROOD AND BURNS'S MONUMENT.]

Another version has:

The