English: Two of the oldest, restored dwellings of Edinburgh's Old Town, built close to the site of the Netherbow Port at the foot of the High Street. Both partially survived the devastating raid by the earl of Hertford in 1544 when Henry VIII ordered him to punish the Scots for reneging on an agreement made by Cardinal Beaton to betroth their infant Queen Mary to Henry's son, Prince Edward.

"Put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh town, so raised and defaced when you have sacked and gotten what you can of it, that there may remain forever a perpetual memory of the vengeance of God upon [them] for their falsehood and disloyalty. Do what you can out of hand, and without long tarrying, to beat down and overthrow the castle, sack Holyrood house, and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh, as you may conveniently. Sack Leith and burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man, woman and child to fire and sword without exception where any resistance shall be made against you, and this done, pass over to Fife and extend the same extremities and destructions to all towns and villages which you may reach conveniently, not forgetting among all the rest so to spoil and turn upside down the Cardinal's town of St. Andrews, that the upper stone may be the nether, and not one stick stand beside another, sparing no creature alive within the same, especially if in either friendship or blood they are allied to the Cardinal."

Landing at Wardie Bay on 6th May and crossing the Water of Leith at Bonnington, Hertford's force battered its way into the town through the Netherbow Port.

"Beginning that evening he continued for three days afterwards to burn the city so that not a house was 'left unburnt', not even the Abbey and Palace of Holyroodhouse." -- Royal Commission Report, The City of Edinburgh, 1951

Most of what is now seen in the Old Town dates from after this calamity.