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208 OLD AND ?NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
there was born in 1741 his son, the celebrated
statesman, Henry Viscount Melville.
There long abode, on the first floor of the
? Bishop?s Land,? a fine old Scottish gentleman,
?? one of the olden time,? Sir Stuart Thriepland, of
Fingask Castle, Bart., whose father had been attainted
after the battle of Sheriffmuir, which,
however, did not prevent Sir Stuart from duly
taking his full share in the ?45. His wanderings
over, and the persecutions past, he took up his
residence here, and had his house well hung, we
are told, with well-painted portraits of royal per-
He died 1 sonages-but not cf the reipinn house.
One of the most famous edifices on the north
side of the High Street was known as ? the Bishop?s
Land,? so called from having been the town
residence of John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St.
Andrews in 1615, and son of John Spottiswood,
Superintendent of Lothian, a reformed divine, who
prayed over James VI., and blessed him when
an infant in his cradle, in the Castle of Edinburgh.
From him the Archbishop inherited the house,
which bore the legend and date,
BLISSIT .BE .YE. LORD. FOR.ALL. HIS. GIFTIS. 1578.
consequently it must have been built when the Superintendent
(whose father
fell at Flodden) was in
his sixty-eighth year, and
was an edifice sufficiently
commodious and magnificent
to serve as a town
residence of the Primate
of Scotland, who in his
zeal to promote the designs
of James VI. for
the establishment of Episcopacy,
performed the
then astounding task of
no less than fifty journeys
to London.
The ground floor of
the mansion, like many
others of the same age
in the same street, was
formed of a deeply-arched
piazza, the arches of
whichsprang from massive
stone piers. From the
first floor there projected
~.
ALLAN RAMSAY.
(From the Portrait in ihe 1761 Edition e/ has ?Poems.?)
a fine brass balcony, that
must many a time and oft have been hung with gay
garlands and tapestry, and crowded with the fair
and noble to witness the state pageants of old,
such as the great procession of Charles I. to Holyrood,
where he was crowned by the archbishop
King of Scotland in 1633. From this house
Spottiswood was obliged to fly, when the nation
en mnsse resisted, with peremptory promptitude, the
introduction of the Liturgy. He took refuge in
London, where he died in 1639, and was interred
in Westminster Abbey.
In 1752 the celebrated Lady Jane Douglas, wife
of Sir George Stuart of Grantully, and the heroine
of the famous ? Douglas cause,? was an occupant
of ?? the Bishop?s Land,? till she ceased to be
able to afford a residence even there. Therein,
tDo, resided the first Lord President Dundas, and
- -
in 1805, and the forfeited
honours were generously
restored by George IV.
in 1826 to his son, Sir
Patrick M. Thriepland
of Fingask, which had
long before been purchased
back by the money
of his mother, Janet Sinclair
of Southdun.
On the third floor,
above him, dwelt the
Hamiltons of Pencaitland,
and the baronial Aytouns
of Inchdairnie. hlrs.
Aytoun was Isabel, daughter
of Kobert, fourth Lord
Rollo, ? and would sometimes
come down the
stair,? says Robert Chambers,
? lighting herself
with a little waxen taper,
to drink tea with Mrs.
Janet Thriepland (Sir
Patrick?s sister)-for so
she called herself, though unmarried. In the
uppermost floor of all lived a reputable tailor
and his family. All the various tenants, including
the tailor, were on friendly terms with ?
each other-a pleasant. thing to tell of this bit of
the old world, which has left nothing of the same
kind behind it in these days, when we all live at il
greater distance, physical and moral, from each
other.?
This fine old tenement, which. was one of the
most aristocratic in the street till a comparatively
recent period, was totally destroyed by fire in
1814.
Eastward of it stood the town-house of the
Hendersons of Fordel (an old patrician Fifeshire
family), with whom Queen Mary was once
a visitor; but it, too, has passed away, and an

... OLD AND ?NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street. there was born in 1741 his son, the celebrated statesman, Henry ...

Book 2 p. 208
(Score 0.5)

82 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Loch.
whose windows perhaps the accident occurred
?that the fox will not set his foot on the ict
after Candlenias, especially in the heat of the sun
as this was, at two o?clock; and at any time tht
fox is so sagacious as to lay his ear on the icf
to see if it be frozen to the bottom, or if he heal
the murmuring and current of the water.?
In I 7 I 5, when the magistrates took measures foi
the defence of the city, the sluice of the loch was
completely dammed up to let the water rise, a pre.
caution omitted by their successors in 1745. Ir
Edgar?s plan, twenty years later, the bed of thc
loch is shown as ?? now devised,? measuring 1,70c
feet in length, from the foot of Xamsay Garden tc
the foot of Halkerston?s Wynd, and 400 feet broad
at the foot of the gardens below the Advocate?s
Close. From the upper point to the West Church
the bed is shown as ?bog or marsh.?
? Yet many in common with myself,? says
Chambers, ?must remember the by no means
distant time when the remains of this sheet oi
water, consisting of a few pools, served as an ex.
cellent sliding and skating ground in winter, while
their neglected, grass-grown precincts too fre
quently formed an arena whereon the high and
mighty quarrels of the Old and New Town cowZie3
were brought to lapidarian arbitration j ? and until
a very recent period woodcocks, snipe, and waterducks
used to frequent the lower part of the West
Princes Street Gardens, attracted by the damp oi
the locality.
?? The site of the North Loch,? says a writer in
the Edinburgh Magazine for 1790, ?is disgusting
below as well as above the bridge, and the balus
trades of the east side ought to be filled up like
those of the west, as they are only meant to show
a beautiful stream, not slaughter-houses.?
The statute for the improvement of the valley
westward of the mound was not passed until 1816 ;
but Lord Cockburn describes it as being then an
impassable fetid marsh, ?open on all sides, the
Teceptacle of many sewers, and seemingly of all the
worried cats, drowned dogs, and blackguardism of
the city, Its abomination made it so solitary that
the volunteers used to practise ball-firing across it.
The men stood on its north side, and the targets
were set up along the lower edge of the castle
hiil, or rock. The only difficulty was in getting
across the swamp to place and examine the targets,
which could only be done in very dry weather and
at one or two places.?
In the maps of 1798 a ?new mound? would
seem to have been projected across it, at an angle,
from South Castle Street to the Ferry Road, by
the western base of the castle rock-a design, fortunately,
never carried out. One of the greatest
mistakes committed as a matter of taste was the
erection of the Earthen Mound across the beautiful
valley of the loch, from the end of Hanover
Street to a point at the west end of Bank Street.
It is simply an elongated hill, like a huge railway
embankment, a clumsy, enormous, and unreniovzble
substitute for a bridge which should have been
there, and its creation has been deplored by every
topographical writer on Edinburgh.
Huge as the mass is, it originated in a very
accidental operation. When the bed of the loch
was in a state of marsh, a shopkeeper, Mr. George
Boyd, clothier, at Gosford?s Close, in the old town,
was frequently led from business or curiosity to
visit the rising buildings of the new, and accommodated
himself with ?? steps ? across this marsh,
and he was followed in the construction of this
path by other persons similarly situated, who contributed
their quota of stone or plank to fill up,
widen, and heighten what, in rude compliment to
the founder, was becoming known as ?Geordie
Boyd?s Mud Brig.? The inconvenience arising
from the want of a direct communication between
the old town and the new began to be seriously
felt about 1781, when the latter had been built as
far west as Hanover Street.
Hence a number of residents, chiefly near the
Lawnmarket, held a meeting in a small publichouse,
kept by a man called Robert nunn, and
called in burlesque, ?Dunn?s Hotel,? after a
lashionable hotel of that name in Princes Street,
and subscriptions were opened to effect a communication
of some kind ; but few were required,
zs Provost Grieve, who resided at the corner of
Hanover Street, in order to fill up a quarry before
his house, obtained leave to have the rubbish from
the foundations of the various new streets laid
down there. From that time the progress of the
Mound proceeded with iapidity, and from 1781
till 1830 augmentations to its breadth and height
were continually made, till it became the mighty
mass it is. By the latter date the Mound had bezome
levelled and macadamised, its sides sown
with grass, and in various ways embellished so as to
issume the appearance of being completed. It is
ipwards of 800 feet in length, on the north upwards
if 60 feet in height, and on the south about IOO feet.
[ts breadth is proportionally much greater than its
ieight, averaging about 300 feet. It is computed
:o contain more than z,ooo,ooo of cartloads of
ravelled edrth, and on the moderate supposition
:hat each load, if paid for, was worth Gd., must
iave cost the large sum of ~ 5 0 , 0 0 0 .
It was first enclosed by rough stone walls, and

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Loch. whose windows perhaps the accident occurred ?that the fox will not set his ...

Book 3 p. 82
(Score 0.5)

156 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH,
which appears prominently in our view of the Castle Hill, with the inscription LAVS
DEO, and the date 1591, curiously wrought in antique iron letters on its front. The most
ancient portions of the interior that remain seem quite as early in character as those we
have been describing ; and indeed the back part of it, extending into the dose, has apparently
been built along with the mansion of the Queen Regent. The earliest titles of this
building now existing are two contracts of alienation, bearing date 1590, by which the upper
and under portions of the land are severally disposed of to Robert M‘Naught and James
Rynd, merchant burgesses. The building, in all probability, at that period was a timberfronted
land, similar to those adjoining it, which were taken down in 1845. Immediately
thereafter, as appears from the date of the building, the handsome polished ashlar front,
which still remains, had been erected at their joint expense. In confirmatiou of this there
is sculptured, under the lowest crow-step at the west side of the building, a shield bearing .
an open hand, in token of amity, as we presume, with the initials of both proprietors.’
In an apartment on the second floor of this house, an arched ceiling was accidentally
discovered some years since, decorated with a series of sacred paintings on wood, of a very
curious and interesting character, A large circular compartment in the centre contsins
the figure of our Saviour, with a radiauce round His head, and His left hand resting on
a royal orb. Within the encircling border are these words, in gilded Roman letters, on
a rich blue ground, Ego sum via, veritas, et vita, 14 Johne. The paintings in the larger
compartments represent Jacob’s Dream, Christ asleep in the storm, the Baptism of
Christ, and the Vision of Death from the Apocalypse, surmounted by the symbols of the
Evangelists. The distant landscape of the Lake of Galilee in the second picture presents
an amusing, though by no means unusual liberty, taken by the artist with his subject.
It consists of a view of Edinburgh from the north, terminating with Salisbury Crags on
the left and the old Castle on the right! This pictorial license affords a clue as to the
probable period of the work, which, as far as it can be trusted, indicates a later period than
the Regency of Mary of Guise. The steeples of the Nether Bow Port and the old Weighhouse
are introduced-the first of which was erected in the year 1606, and the latter
taken down in 1660. The fifth picture, and the most curious of all, exhibits an allegorical
representation, as we conceive, of the Christian life. A ship, of antique form, is seen
in full sail, and bearing on its pennon and stern the common symbol, IHS. A crowned
figure stands on the deck, looking towards a burning city in the distance, and above him
the word VB. On the mainsail is inscribed Curitus, and over the stern, which is in the
fashion of an ancient galley, [Salpiencia. Death appears as a skeleton, riding on a dark
horse, amid the waves immediately in front of the vessel, armed with a bow and arrow,
which he is pointing at the figure in the ship, while a figure, similarly armed, and mounted
on a huge dragon, follows in it.s wake, entitled Persecutio, and above it a winged demon,
over whom is the word Diaboolus. In the midst of these perils there is seen in the sky a
radiance surroundiig the Hebrew word i71iV, and from this symbol of the Deity a hand
issues, taking hold of a line attached to the stern of the vessel. The whole series is executed
with, great spirit, though now much injured by damp and decay. The broad borders between
them are richly decorated with every variety of flowers, fruit, harpies, birds, and fancy
1 This is oue undoubted example of the date on a building being put on at a considerably later period than its erection,
an Occurrence which we have fouud reason to auapect in various other instancea.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH, which appears prominently in our view of the Castle Hill, with the inscription ...

Book 10 p. 169
(Score 0.5)

348 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGN.
is on the west side of the square, No. 25, and there the lively and curious boy grew up to
manhood under the kindly surveillance of the good old pair. The little back room still
remains, ‘( That early den,” with the young antiquary’s beginnings of the future Abbotsford
collection, described so piquantly in Lockhart’s life of him, by the pen of a female
friend ; and where Lord Jeffrey found him on his first visit, long years ago, “ surrounded
with dingy books.’’ Though shorn of all the strange relics that young Walter Scott
gathered there, it possesses one valuable memento of the boy. On one of the window
panes his name is still seen, inscribed with.a diamond in a school-boy hand; and other
panes of glass, which contained juvenile verses traced in the same durable manner, have
been removed to augment the treasures of modern collectors. On the east side of George
Square lies Windmill Street, the name of which preserves the record of an earlier period
when a windmill occupied its site, and raised the water from the Borough Loch to supply
the brewers of the Society. The Incorporation of Brewers has long been dissolved, and
the Borough Loch now forms the rich pasturage and the shady walks of the Meadows ;
while along its once marshy margin has since been built Buccleuch Place, where the
exclusive faRhionable5 of the southern district long maintained their own ball-room and
assemblies.
The impossibility of converting this pendicle of the Borough Nuir to any useful purpose
as private property, while it continued in its original state as a Loch, fortunately
prevented its alienation, while nearly every other portion of the valuable tract of land that
once belonged to the borough passed into private hands. At the western extremity of
the Borough Muir, the venerable tower of Merchiston still stands entire, the birth-place
of John Napier, the inventor of the Logarithms, to whom, according to Hume, the title
of a great man is more justly due than to any other whom his country ever produced.
The ancestors of the great Scottish philosopher were intimately connected with Edinburgh.
The three first Napiers of Nerchiston successively filled the office of provost in
the reigns of James 11. and III., and other connections of the family rose to the same
civic dignity. Their illustrious descendant was born at Merchiston Castle in the year
1550, on the eve of memorable changes whereof even the reserved and modest student
had to bear his share. The old fortalice of Merchiston, reared at an easy distance from
the Scottish capital, lay in the very field of strife. Round its walls the Douglas wars raged
for years, and the most striking incidents of the philosopher’s early life intermingle with
the carnage of that merciless feud. On the 2d of April 1572, he was betrothed to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir, and on the 5th of the following month,
“ The cumpany of Edinburgh pad furth and seigit Merchingstoun ; quha wan all the
pairtis thairof except the dungeoun, in the quhilk wes certane suddartis in Leith; the
hail1 houssis wes spoulzeit and brunt, to haue amokit the men of the dungeoun out ; but
the cuntrie seand the fyre, raise with the pover of Leith and put the men of Edinburgh
thairfra without slauchter, bot syndrie hurt.” The keep of Merchiston formed, indeed, the
key of the south approach to the capital, so that whoever triumphed it became the butt of
their opponents’ enmity. It lay near enough to be bombarded from the Castle walls by
Sir William Kirkaldy, though a cousin of its owner, because ~omoef the king’s men held
it for a time, and intercepted the provisions coming to the town. Again and again were the
1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 295.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGN. is on the west side of the square, No. 25, and there the lively and curious boy grew ...

Book 10 p. 381
(Score 0.49)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 265
- In addition to this account by the “Author of Waverley,” it may be added
that the King’s Bedesmen, as they are called, derived their name from the nature
of the devotions they were enjoined to perform, having annually to “tell their
beuds” as they walked in procession from Holyrood to St. Giles’s. It is not
precisely known, though it is probable the Bedesmen had their origin in the
reign of the first James, whose attempts at national reform, and his endeavours
to suppress the hordes of wandering vagrants who prowled upon the county,
might naturally suggest the granting of such privileges as were conferred
on the Bedesmen.’ The paupers thus distinguished were such only as, by
their military services, had a claim on the royal bounty. In the household
accounts of succeeding reigns, the “ Blew Gownis” are frequently mentioned.
Two extracts from these, furnished by Mr. Macdonald of the Register House,
are given in the “Notes to the Waverley Novels ;” the one of date 1590, the
other 1617, in which the cloth for “blew gownis,” and various other items
for the Bedesmen are minutely set down.
During the civil commotions of the seventeenth century, and under the
Cromwellian sway, no notice of the Bedesmen occurs, their order having doubtless
shared in the common wreck of royalty. On the Restoration, however,
the Blue Gowns were not overlooked; and in the royal birthday pageants,
dictated by the intense loyalty of the times, they formed an interesting group.
The following is an account of one of the annual rejoicings-the fifth after the
Restoration :-
“Edinburgh, May 29, 1665, being his Majesty’s birth and restauration - day, waa most
solemnly kept by people of all ranks in this city. My Lord Commissioner, in his state,
accompanied with $is life guards on horseback, and Sir Andrew Ramsay, Lord Provost of
Edinburgh, Bailies and Council, in their robes, accompanied with all the trained bands in arms,
went to church, and heard the Bishop of Edinburgh upon a text as fit as well applied to the
work of the day. Thereafter, thirty-$ve aged men, in blue gowns, each having got thirty-jve
shillings in a p r s e , cam up from the Abbey to the great Church, praying all along for his Majdy.
Sermon being ended, his Grace entertained all the nobles and gentlemen with a magnificent
feast, and open table. After dinner, the Lord Provost and Council went to the Cross of Edinburgh,
where wm planted a green arbour, loadened with oranges and lemons, wine liberally running
for divers hours at eight several conduits, to the great solace of the indigent commons there.
Having drank all the royal healths, which were seconded by the great guns of the Castle, sound
of trumpets and drums, vollies from the trained bands, and joyful acclamations from the people,
they plentifully entertained the multitude. After which, my Lord Commissioner, Provost, and
Bailies, went up to the Castle, where they were entertained with all sorts of wine and sweetmeaty
and returning, the Lord Provost countenancing all the neighbours of the city that had
put up bonfires, by appearing at their fires, being in great numbers ; which jovialness continued
with ringing of bells and shooting of great guns till twelve o’clock at night.”
1 “With respect to licensed beggars, we may remark that Dr. Jamieson, neither in his
Dictionary, nor in his Supplement, offers any conjecture respecting the origin or cause of the
Bed-, who are privileged to beg, receiving a blue gown, whence they take the name commonly
given to them. P l i y informs us, that blue was the colour in which the Gauls clothed their slaves ;
and blue coats, for many ages, were r;he liveries of servants, apprentices, and even of younger
brothers, as it is now of the Blue Coat Boys, and of other Blue Schools in the country. Hence the
proverb in Ray, ‘ He is in his better blue clothes,’ applied to a person in low degree, when dressed
very fine.”-Edin. Rm’ew. Almhowe, according to Dr. Jamieaou, is frequently styled a bdehme;
and a bedemn he defines 89 one who resides in an almshouse. The origin of the term, however, is
evidently referable to the devotional services enjoined on those who were, in former times, the objects
of any special charity.
VOL. II. 2N

... SKETCHES. 265 - In addition to this account by the “Author of Waverley,” it may be added that ...

Book 9 p. 353
(Score 0.49)

barbarism of the Scottish court. She was magnificent
in her own attire ; she increased the number
of persons in attendance on the king, and caused
him to be served at table in gold and silver plate.
She was canonised by Innocent IV. in 1251. For
several ages the apartment in which she expired
was known as ?ye blessit Margaret?s chalmer? (i.e.,
chamber). A fountain on the west side of the
fortress long bore her name; and a small guardhouse
on the western ramparts is still called the
Queen?s, or St. biargaret?s, Post.
The complete restoration of her oratory (says an
Edinburgh Courant of 1853) ?has been effected
in a very satisfactory manner, under the superintendence
of Mr. Grant. The modern western
entrance has been built up, and an .ancient one
re-opened at the north-west corner of the nave.
Here a new doorway has been built in the same
style with the rest of the building. The three
small round-headed windows have been filled with
stained glass-the light in the south side of the
apse representing St. Margaret, the two in the
side of the nave showing her husband, King
Malcolm Canmore and their son St. David, and
the light in the west gable of the nay having
a cross and the sacred monogram with this inscription
:-Hac ediczda oZim Beafce Margaretce
Regim Scofia, puce obiit M.XCIII., ingrate $atria
izqli&zfia Zapsa, Victorire Rpmz prognatre auspiciis
restitufa, A. D. MUCCCLII..?
St. Margaret had scarcely expired, when Bishop
Turgot, her children, and the whole court, were filled
with terror, on finding the fortress environed by an
army composed of fierce western Highlanders, ?clad
in the dun deer?s hide, striped breacan, and hauberks
(or lurichs) of jingling rings,? and led by
Donald Bane, or the fair-haired, the younger brother
of Malcolm III., who had fled to the Hebrides, as
the latter did to England, on the usurpation by
Macbeth.
Without opposition he had himself proclaimed
king, and ,promised to give the Hebrides and other
isles to Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, for assistance
if it were required.
He had resolved to put the orphan children of
Malcolm to death, but believing that egress from
the fortress on the steep could only be had by the
gates facing the little town, he guarded them alone.
The children thus escaped by a western postern,
and fled to England, where they found protection
with their uncle, Edgar Atheling. The two princesses
were afterwards married : Mary to Eustace,
Count of Boulogne, the great Crusader; and
Matilda to Henry of England-a union extremely
popular with the Saxon people.
By the same postern Turgot and others carefully
and reverentlyconveyed the body of the queen,
and carried it ? to Dunfermline, in the woods; and
that Heaven might have some share in protecting
remains so sacred, the legendaries record that a
miraculous mist arose frow the earth, concealing
the bishop, the royal corpse, and its awe-stricken
bearers, from the half-savage Donald and his redhaired
Islesmen, and did pot pass away until they
had crossed in safety the Passagkm Repine, or
Queen?s Ferry, nine miles distant, where Margaret
had granted land for the maintenance of a passage
boat ?-a grant still in force.
She was buried at Dunfermline, under the great
block of grey marble which still marks her grave ;
and in the sides thereof may yet be seen the
sockets of the silver lamps which, after her canonisation,
burned there until the Reformation, when the
Abbot of Dunfermline fled to the Castle of Edinburgh
with her head in a jewelled coffer, and gave
it to some Jesuits, who took it to Antwerp. From
thence it was borne to the Escurial in Spain, where
it is still preserved by the monks of St. Jerome.
Her son xdgar, a prince of talent and valour,
recovered the throne by his sword, and took up
his residence in the Castle of Edinburgh, where
he had seen his mother expire, and where he, too,
passed away, on the 8th of January, 1107. The
register of the Priory of St. Andrews, in recording
his demise, has these words :-? Moriuus in Dun-
Edin, est sepuZfus in Dunfe~ndikg.?
On his death-bed he bequeathed that part of
Cumberland which the kings of Scotland possessed
to his younger brother David. Alexander I., surnamed
the Fierce,? eldest brother of the latter,
was disposed to dispute the validity of this donation
; but perceiving that David had won over the
English barons to his interest, he acquiesced in this
partial dismemberment of the kingdom.
It is in the reign of this monarch, in the first
years of the twelfth century, that the first notices
of Edinburgh as a royal city and residence are
most distinctly found, while? in that of his successor,
David I., crowned in 1124 after being long
resident at the court of his sister Matilda, where,
according to Malmesbury, ?his manners were polished
fiom the rust of Scottish barbarity,? and
where he married Matilda daughter of Waltheof,
Earl of Northumberland, we discover the origin
of many of the most important local features still
surviving. He founded the abbey of Holyrood,
called by Fordun ?? Monastmirm Sancfre Cmcis de
Crag.? This convent, the precursor of the great
abbey, he is said to have placed at first within the
Castle, and some of the earliest gifts of its saintly

... of the Scottish court. She was magnificent in her own attire ; she increased the number of persons in ...

Book 1 p. 19
(Score 0.49)

323 *la.] ADV.4NCE OF THE * HIGHLANDERS, -__
appointed thereto in 1716), mustered the outpensioners
of Chelsea, and officered them, locally,
from the half-pay list.
Doubtful of the faith of Preston, as a Scotsman,
the Government superseded him in command, and
sent in his place Lieutenant-General Joshua Guest,
an Englishman, who proved a staunch Jacobite,
and on the approach of the Highlanders he was
the first to propose a capitulation, a measure
vigorously opposed by Preston, a resolute Whig 01
the old King William school, who thereupon undertook
the defence, with a gamson which consisted
only of the old Castle company, the two companies
of the 47th, each mustering about seventy bayonets,
under Major Robertson, the Chelsea Pensioners,
and Lieutenant Brydone?s artillery company, which
had landed at Leith on the 4th of September, and
marched in with a great quantity of the munitions
of war.
The other troops in Scotland at this time consisted
only of the 13th and 14th Light Dragoons
at Edinburgh, the company of the Royals captured
at Spean Bridge, the 6th Foot at Aberdeen, two
companies of the 21st Scots Fusiliers at Glasgow,
the 25th Edinburgh regiment in Fifeshire, two
companies of the 4znd at Crieff, five of the 44th
in the West, and another five at Berwick, the 46th
(known as ?? Murray?s Bucks ?) scattered over the
Highlands, Loudon?s Highlanders (disbanded in
1749) stationed in the north ; in all not quite 4,ooc
men ; but, collecting these, Sir John Cope prepared
to bar the Prince?s way into the Lowlands.
Quitting Perth at the head of little more than
2,000 men,* only the half of whom had arms, the
latter, on the 11th September, resumed his adventurous
march southward, and crossing the Forth
by the perilous fords of Frew, to avoid the guns
of Stirling, he held on his way by the Scottish
Marathon, by the Torwood and Linlithgow, traversing
scenes that he, the heir of the ancient regal
line, could not have beheld without emotion, engaged,
as he was, on an enterprise more daring
and more desperate than had ever been undertaken
by any of his ancestors since Bruce fought
the battle of Dalry.
On the 1,gth he was at Corstorphine, less than
A true account of thestrengthof the Highland army, aph August, 1745.
Lochiel ........................... 700
Clanmnald, having men of his Islands ...... 050
The Stewarts of Appin under Ardsheil ...... a50
Keppoch ........................... 260
and the Grants of Glenmorriston ...... 600
, Glengawy?s men, induding Knoydart, Glencoe.
2 . h
(? Culloden Papers. ?3
?The Highlanders were not more than 1,800, and the half of them only
Were armed.? (?Autobiography of Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk?)
lour miles distant from the capital, and to avoid
exposing his troops to the Castle guns in advancing,
he wheeled southward towards Slateford, and fixed
his quarters at Gray?s Mill, two miles from the
city.
Great was now the excitement within the walls.
The militia, called the trained bands, consisted of
sixteen companies, or 1,000 men, entirely undisciplined,
and many of them entirely disloyal to the
Hanoverian cause. In their own armoury the
citizens had 1,259 muskets and zoo bayonets, 300
sets of accoutrements, a considerable quantity of
ammunition, with seventy-five stand of arms and
Lochaber axes belonging to the City Guard. On
Sunday, 16th September, Hislop, keeper of this
arsenal, issued 500 rounds of ball ammunition and
sixty firelocks to each company of the trained
bands, thirty-nine firelocks to the additional
company of the City Guard, and twenty-four to the
company of the Canongate-head, 500 rounds of
ball to the Seceders, whose muster-place was the
Infirmary, and 450 Ibs. of powder for the cannon on
the walls. All the rest he sent to the Castle. The
banner borne by the Seceders is now in the Museum
3f Antiquities, and was once used at Bothwell
Brig. It is blue, with a white St. Andrew?s saltire,
charged with five roses, and the motto, Cmenanfs,
Ueligion, Kin& and Kingdoms.
Towards the end of the preceding month the
nore zealous citizens had proposed to raise a
regiment 1,000 strong for the defence of the town ;
but the royal permission therefor was not accorded
till the 9th of September, and by the time that
the Prince drew near only zoo men had been
enrolled, all of the most dissolute character, and
tempted by the proffered pay alone. In addition
to these was the regiment of Edinburgh Volunteers,
400 strong, divided into six companies, and drilled
regularly twice daily. Cannon from the ships at
Leith were mounted on the walls together with
swivels or pateraroes (i.e., small cannon). The ports
were barricaded ; there was much military bluster,
with much Singing of psalms ; but as the Highlanders
drew nearer all this show of valour died away.
When the Prince?s vanguard was at Kirkliston, it
was proposed by General Guest that the two Light
Dragoon regiments, supported by the City Guard,
the so-called Edinburgh Regiment, and 250 volunteers,
should march out and give battle to the
insurgents !
The signal was given ; on the forenoon of Sunday
the 15th of September the clang of the alarm
bells came during sermon, and the people rushed
rorth from the churches to find the detailed force
&-awn up under arms ia the High Street; but the

... *la.] ADV.4NCE OF THE * HIGHLANDERS, -__ appointed thereto in 1716), mustered the outpensioners of Chelsea, ...

Book 2 p. 323
(Score 0.49)

he barbarously threw the bodies on a great fire
that blazed in the fireplace of the tower; ?and
there in their armour they broiled and sweltered
like tortoises in iron shells.? Locking the doors,
the fugitives hurriedly and stealthily reached the
tower-head unseen. The attendant lowered himself
down first over the abutting crag, which there is
more than zoo feet in height, but the cord proving
too short it slipped from his hands, and he fell to
the bottom senseless.
This must have been a terrible crisis for the
blood-stained Albany ! Hurrying back to his now
horrible apartment in the tower, he dragged the
sheets from his bed, added them to the rope,
looped it round an embrasure, and lowered himself
safely down over rampart and rock to the bottom,
where he found his attendant lying helpless, with a
broken thigh Unwilling to leave him to ptrish,
Albany, with a sentiment that contrasts singularly
with his recent ferocity, raised him on his shoulders,
and being a man of unusual strength and
Stature, he actually conveyed him to Leith, a distance
of two miles; and, when the sun rose, the
ship, with Albany, was out on the German sea.
Daylight revealed the rope and twisted sheets
hanging over the rampart of the tower. An alarm
was given, which the dreadful stench from the
locked chamber must have increased. The door
was opened. Albany was gone, but the half-con-
Qumed corpses were found in the fireplace; and
James 111. refused to believe in a story so incredible
till he had visited the place in person.*
Albany fled to England, the king of which refused
to deliver him up. Thus war was declared,
and James marched from the Burghmuir with
$0,000 men and a train of guns, under the master
of the ordndnce, a stone-mason, whom, with great
impolicy, he had created Earl of Mar. At Lauder
the nobles halted; hanged all the king?s minions
over the bridge in horse-halters, and disbanded
the troops j and then the humbled and luckless
James returned to the Castle, where for many
months, in 1481, he remained a species of prisoner
in the custody of its commanders, the Earls of
Athol and Buchan, who,? it has been supposed,
would have murdered him in secret had not the
Lord Darnley and other loyal barons protected
him, by never leaving his chamber unguarded by
night or day. There he remained in a species of
honourable durance, while near him lay in 3 dungeon
the venerable *Earl of Douglas, who scorned
to be reconciled, though James, in his humility,
made overtures to him. He appealed at last to
Lindesay, Diummond, Scott, Buchan, &c.
England for aid against his turbulent barons, and
Edward IV. (though they had quarrelled about a
matrimonial alliance, and about the restoration of
Berwick) sent Richard, Duke of Gloucester; north,
at .the head of 10,000 auxiliaries, who encamped
on the Burghmuir, where the Duke of Albany, who
affected a show of loyalty, joined them, at the very
time that the rebellious nobles of lames were
sitting in council in the Tolbooth. Thither went
Albany and Gloucester, the ? crookbacked Dick?
of Shakspere and of Bosworth, attended by a
thousand gentlemen of both countries, and the
parties having come to terms, heralds were sent to
the Castle to charge the commander thereof to
open the gates and set the king at liberty; after
which the royal brothers, over whose fraternisation
Pitscottie?s narrative casts some ridicule, rode
together, he adds, to Holyrood, ? quhair they remained
ane long time in great merrines.?
William Bertraham, Provost of Edinburgh, with
the whole community of the city, undertook to
repay to the king of England the dowry of his
daughter the Lady Cecil, and afterwards they
fulfilled their obligations by repaying 6,000 merks
to the Garter King-at-Arms. In acknowledgment
of this loyal service James granted to the city the
patent known as its ?Golden Charter,? by which
the provost and bailies were created sheriffs of
their own boundaries, with other important privileges.
Upon the craftsmen he also conferred a
banner, said to have been made by the queen and
her ladies, still preserved and known popularly as
the ? Blue Blanket,? and it was long the rallying
point of the Burgher-guard in every war or civic
broil. Thus, Jarnes VI., in the ? Basilicon Doron,?
points out to Prince Henry-? The craftsmen think
we should be content with their work how bad
soever it be ; and if in anything they be controuled,
up goes the Blue Blanket ! ?
This banner, according to Kincaid, is of blue
silk, with a white St. Andrew?s cross. It is swallowtailed,
measuring in length from the pole ten feet
two inches, and in breadth six and a half feet. It
bears a thistle crowned, with the mottoes : ?Fear
God and honour the King with a long lyffe and
a prosperous reigne ; ? and ?? And we that is Trades
shall ever pray to be faithful1 for the defence of
his sacred Maiesties royal person till Death.?
Jarnes 111. was noted about this time for the
quantity of treasure, armour, and cannon he had
stored up in the Castle, his favourite residence.
In David?s Tower stood his famous black kist
(probably the same which is now in the Crown
room), filled with rare and costly-gems, gold and
silver specie, massive plate, and a wonderful C6!-

... barbarously threw the bodies on a great fire that blazed in the fireplace of the tower; ?and there in their ...

Book 1 p. 34
(Score 0.49)

CHAPTER VI.
THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW.
N the centre of the High Street, not far from the site of the Tron Church, there stood I in ancient times the Tron or public beam for weighing merchandise; generally .
styled in early deeds and writings the Salt Tron, to distinguish it from the Butter
Tron, or Weigh-house, already described. It is shown in the curious bird’s-eye view of
the siege of Edinburgh Castle, drawn in 1573, in the form of a pillar mounted on steps, and
with a beam and scales attached to it. This central spot was the scene of many singular
exhibitions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more especially in the
exposure and punishment of culprits. While traitors and political offenders of all sorts
expiated their crimes at the Cross, the lesser offences of perjury and knavery were reserved
by a discriminating system ofjustice for the more ignominious, though less deadly, penalties
of the Tron. One of the liveliest of the scenes which-were enacted there during the 17th
century, occurred on the arrival of the news in June 1650, that Charles 11. had landed in
the north. The Estates of Parliament were then assembled at Edinburgh, and the fickle
populace were already heartily tired of trying to govern themselves. Nicoll, the old diarist,
tells us, (‘ All signes of joyes wer manifested in a special1 maner in Edinburgh, by setting
furth of bailfyres, ringing of bellis, sounding of trumpettis, dancing almost all that night
through the streitis. The pure kaill wyfes at the Trone sacrificed thair mandis and creilh
and the verie stoolis thai sat npone to the %e.’’
. It has been hastily concluded from this, by certain sceptical antiquaries, that, as Jenny
Xicoll’a Diary, p. 16.
VIoNElTE-Ancient Doorway, Blackfriars’ Wynd.
21

... VI. THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. N the centre of the High Street, not far from the site of the Tron ...

Book 10 p. 270
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THE NORMAL SCHOOL. 295 George IV. Bridge.]
highly qualified examiners, on every point of which
it takes cognisance. It grants annually ten bursaries
of L z o each, and five of LIO each, to be
competed for by pupils of schools approved .of by
the directors.
The Society?s vested capital now? amounts to
&o,ooo, and its annual revenue reaches more than
&,~oo, besides the receipts for general shows,
The Argyle Fund, for the education of young Highland
gentlemen for the navy, now amounts to
A5,639, and was instituted by John fifth Duke of
Argyle, the original president of the Society.
From its chambers, No. 3, George IV. Bridge, surveying
a width of range and multiplicity of objects
worthy of its wealth and intellect, its opulence of
power and resource, the Soqiety promotes the erection
of towns and bridges, the formation of roads,
the experiments and enterprises of agriculture, the
improvement of farm stock, the sheltering processes
of planting, the extension of fisheries, the introduction
of manufactures, the adaptation of machinery
to all useful arts, the ready co-operation of
? local influence with legislative and public measures,
the diffusion of practical knowledge of all that may
tend to the general good of the Scottish nation,
and the consolidation of the Highlanders and
Lowlanders into one great fraternal community.
? The Society awards large and numerous premiums
to stimulate desiderated enterprises, and in
1828 began the publication of the Quarter0 lown
d of Agridtztre, for prize essays and the dissemination
of the newest practical information ; it
patronises great annual cattle shows successively in
different towns, and by means of them excites and
directs a stirring and creditable spirit of emulation
among graziers, and, in general, it keeps in play
upon the community, a variety of influences which,
as far as regards mere earthly well-being, have
singularly transformed and beautified its character.?
Its arms are a figure of Caledonia on a pedestal,
between two youths-one a Highland reaper, the
other a ploughboy-being crowned. The motto is,
Sem$er armis nunc et industria. The Highland
Society?s hall and chamber form a very symmetrical
and also ornamental edifice, with a beautiful sculpture
of its coat of arms from the chisel of A.. H.
Kitchie. It formerly contained a most interesting
agricultural museum, which has been removed elsewhere.
Simil7.r societies on the same model have
since been established-by England in 1838, and
by Ireland in 1841.
The other edifice referred to, the Sheriff?s Court
Buildings, contiguous to the open arches over the
Cowgate, was erected in 1865-8, from designs
by David Bryce, at a cost of more than A44,ooo. -
It rises from a low basement, with an extensive
and imposing flank to the south, and presents in
its fapde an ornate variety of the Italian style
of architecture ; but within exhibits simply the
usual features of legal courts, with three subordinate
official chambers, unless we except the Society
hall of the solicitors-at-law, a minor legal body in
Edinburgh, which was incorporated by royal charter
in 1780, and only certain members of which are
qualified to act as agents before the Supreme Courts.
Johnstone Terrace, King?s Road, and Castle
Terrace crossing the King?s Bridge, the foundation
stone of which was laid in 1827, unitedly extend
about go0 yards along the southern limb, or southwestern
skirt of the Castle Rock, connecting the
head of the Lawnmarket with the Lothian Road,
at a point about 180 yards south of the west end
of Princes Street. These were formed between
1825 and 1836, to afford improved access to the
Old Town from the westward. They are collectively
called the New Western Approach, and apart
from being a very questionable improvement as
regards artistic taste, have destroyed the amenity
of the Castle Rock, and lessened its strength as a
fortress.
In Johnstone Terrace, to which we shall confine
ourselves for the present, at the eastern end,
resting at the corner of the Old West Bow, is St.
John?s Free Church, a handsome edifice in a mixed
style of early Gothic It was built from designs
furnished by Robert Hamilton in 1847, and is
chiefly famous for its congregation having enjoyed
for some years the ministry of the celebrated Dr.
Guthrie, and of Dr. Williani Hanna, a graduate of
the University of Glasgow, who was ordained to
the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in 1835,
and who is so well known as the author of ?Wycliffe
and the Huguenots,? and as the affectionate
biographer of Chalmers.
Westward of this edifice is St. Columba?s Episcopal
church, also a Gothic structure, but of an earlier
style, with a low, square battlemented tower;
built in 1845.
At the cost of about ;GIO,OOO, the Normal School
of the Church of Scotland was built westward of it,
in 1845, and is a large and handsome edifice.
It is called the Normal School, or Church of
Scotland Training College. It is under the control
and management of the Education Committee of
the Church. It is a double college, and like that
in Glasgow, trains both masters and mistresses.
The course of training extends over two years,
and none are admitted as students but those who
have passed a preliminary examination ; but the
committee exercise their discretion in making their

... NORMAL SCHOOL. 295 George IV. Bridge.] highly qualified examiners, on every point of which it takes ...

Book 2 p. 295
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I 26 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of one of them as it still exists, with the wooden frame-work that sustained the hammocks
of the prisoners.
Immediately below Queen May’s Room, there is another c~iously-vaulted dungeon,
partly excavated out of the solid rock, and retaining the staple of an iron chain, doubtlesS
used for securing the limbs of some wretched captive in ancient times. No date can with
any certainty be assigned to these massive foundations of the Castle, though they undoubtedly
belong to a remote period of its history.
In making some repairs on the west front of the royal apartments in the year 1830, a
remarkably curious and interesting discovery was made. Nearly in a line with the Crown
Room, and about six feet from the pavement of the quadrangle, the wall was observed,
when struck, to sound hollow, as though a cavity existed at that place. It was accordingly
opened from the outside, when a recess was discovered? measuring about two feet
six inches by one foot, and containing the remains of a child, enclosed in an oak coffin,
evidently of great antiquity, and very much decayed. The remains were wrapped in a
cloth, believed to be woollen, very thickly wove, so as to resemble leather, and within this
’ were the decayed fra-pents of a richly-embroidered silk covering, with two initials wrought
upon it, one of them distinctly marked I. This interesting discovery was ieported at the
time to Major General Thackery, then commanding the Royal Engineers, by whose orders
they were again restored to their strange place of sepulture, where they still remain. It
were vain now to attempt a solution of this mysterious discovery, though it may furnish
the novelist with mat.eria1 on which to found a thrilling romance.
Within this portion of the old Palace is the Crown Room, where the ancient Regalia
VIoNmTE--French Prisoners’ Vault in the Caatle.

... 26 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. of one of them as it still exists, with the wooden frame-work that sustained the ...

Book 10 p. 137
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BI 0 GR AP HI C AL SKETCHES. 419
Colquhoun Grant, whose father possessed the farm of Burnside, on the estate
of Castle Grant, in Inverness-shire, was, in his early years, a devoted adherent
of the house of Stuart. He joined the army of the Chevalier on its way towards
the Lowlands; and, on approaching Edinburgh, was one of those detached to
force an entrance into the city.’ The party, which consisted of nine hundred
men, advanced before daylight, and arrived undiscovered at the Nether Bow.
They had with them several barrels of gunpowder, for the purpose of blowing
up the gate, but were saved this alternative by a carriage passing out at the
moment of their arrival, when the Highlanders, rushing in, seized the sentinels,
and at once obtained possession of the town. It is told of Colquhoun Grant,
as an instance of the spirit by which he was animated, that he pursued some of‘
the guard to the very walls of the Castle, where they had just time to close the
outer gate, into which he struck his dirk, leaving it there as a mark of triumph
and defiance.’
Followed
by a small party of about twenty-eight Highlanders, armed with the broadsword
only, he routed a body of dragoons, and took two pieces of ordnance.
For this signal instance of intrepidity, as well as for his former conduct, he was
publicly tbanked by the Prince, at the first levee held at Holyrood House,
who at the same time presented him with a small projle cast of himself: as a
He is generally supposed to have been the “Highland recruit,” by whom, as is told in our
notice of Lord Gardenstone, that gentleman and another volunteer were taken prisoners at Musselburgh
Bridge, where they had gone into a well-known haunt to regde themselves with sherry and oysters.
a The dirk and other relics of Colquhouu Grant are still preserved by his nephew, Captain Gregory
Grant, R.N., who is now is possession of Burnside.
It is now in the hands of Lieutenant-
General Ainslie-author of an elaborate and beautiful work on the French coins of English
sovereigns-to whom it was presented by his friend Donald Maclean, Esq., W.S., formerly of Drimnin,
and son-in-law to the subject of our sketch. The grandfather of Mr. Maclean was also “out in the
forty-five,” and fell, along with two of his sons, at the battle of Culloden, where he headed five
hundred of the clan. In connection with Mr. Maclean’s father, who likewise fought at Culloden, and
was wounded by a ball in the neck, an anecdote is told of William the Fourth. The latter was a
midshipman on board the Thesby, twenty-eight guns, commanded by Captain Hawkins. Being on
the cowt, he landed with a pleasure party near to where Mr. Maclean resided, by whom they were
hospitably received. William, who was young, and of a flippant manner, exclaimed-“You are
all rebels here !” Maclean replied,-“ No, please your Royal Highness ; I did fight for our rightful
prince ; but as Uzut family of Stuarts, who sat upon the throne, is gone, and George the Third, your
Royal father, is now the nearest heir, I can safely declare t,hat the King has not more loyal subjects
than the Jacobites of Scotland.” Captain Hawkins observed, “I am aware that this fact is known
to your Royal father, who is fully senaible that he has not more devoted or loyal subjects than
the OM Jacobites of Scotland, who fought against him 1” The same spirit of gAllant loyalty
which animated the Macleans in the cause of Prince Charles Edward in 1745 was manifasted,
though on a different field, and in another manner, by Mr. Donald Maclean in 1794. We allude to
the democratic riota in the theatre during th@ year, .some notice of which occurs in No. CXLI. It
appears that the success of the loyalists on these occasions was mainly owing to the resolute conduct
of Maclean, who had only been settled in Edinburgh a short time previously. The disturbances were
principally instigated by American and Irish students-a party of whom, on the first night of the
affair, remained covered in the pit during the performance of the King’s anthem. Mr. Maclean,
who was seated in the boxes, leaped down into the pit, and going up into the party, politely requested
them as gentlemen to conform to the usual mark of respect shown to his Majesty. “By J-a, we
won’t 1 ” was the nngacious reply. The blood of Maclean boiled with indignation. “ By J-s, you
At the affair of Prestonpans, Mr. Grant distinguished himself.
We have seen this interesting relic of the young Chevalier.
’

... 0 GR AP HI C AL SKETCHES. 419 Colquhoun Grant, whose father possessed the farm of Burnside, on the estate of ...

Book 8 p. 583
(Score 0.49)

F e Tolbooth. 124
as the- martlet did in Macbeth?s castle. Of
later years .these booths have degenerated into
mere toy-shops, where the little loiterers chiefly
interested in such wares are tempted to linger, enchanted
by the rich display of hobby-horses, babies,
and Dutch toys, arranged in artful and gay confusion,
yet half scared by the cross looks of the
withered pantaloon by whom these wares are
superintended. But in the times we write of the
hosiers, glovers, hatters, mercers, milliners, and all
of a hearse, it was calculated to impress all beholders
wit!i a sense of what was meant in Scottish law
Situated in the very heart of the ancient city, it
stood at the north-west corner of the parish church
of St. Giles, and so close to it as to leave only a
narrow footway between the projecting buttresses,
while its tall and gloomy mass extended so far
into the High Street, as to leave the thoroughfare
at that part only 14 feet in breadth. ?Reuben
Butler,? says Scott, writing ere its demolition had
been decreed, ?stood now before the Gothic en-
, by the spudor carccris.?
?
I a collegiate church, and the chapter-house thereof
being of sufficient dimensions, would naturally
lead to the meeting-place of parliaments, though
many were held in Edinburgh long before the
time of James III., especially in the old hall of the
Castle, now degraded into a military hospital.
The first Parliament of James 11. was held in
the latter in 1437 ; in 1438 the second Parliament
was held at Stirling, but in the November of the
same year another in pretonk burgi de Edinburgh,
tnnce of the ancient prison,
which, as is well known to
all men, rears its front in
the very middle of the High
Street, forming, as it were,
the termination to a huge
pile of buildings called the
Luckenbooths, which, for
some inconceivable reason,
our ancestors had jammed
. into the midst of the principzl
stteet of the town,
leaving for passage a narrow
street on the north and on
the south, into which the
. prison opens, a narrow,
cxooked lane, winding betwixt
the high and sombre
walls of the Tolbooth and
the adjacent houses on one
side, and the buttresses and
projections of the old church
upon the other. To give
some gaiety to this sombre
passage (well known by the
name of the Krames), a
number of little booths or
shops, after fhe fashion of
who dealt in the miscellaneous wares now termed
haberdashers? goods, were to be found in this narrow
alley.?
By the year 156r the Tolbooth, or Preforium
burgi de Edinburgi, as it is named in the early Acts
of the Scottish Parliament, had become ruinous,
and on the 6th of February Queen Mary wrote a
letter to the magistrates, charging the Provost to
take it down at once, and meanwhile to provide
accommodation elsewhere for the Lords of Session.
Since the storm of the Reformation the Scottish
revenues had been greatly impaired ; money
and materials were alike
JOHN DOWIE. (After h-uy.)
cobblers? stalls, are plastered, as it were, against
the Gothic projections and abutments, so that it
seemed as if the traders had occupied with
nests-bearing about the same proportion to the
building-every buttress and coign of vantage,
scarce ; hence the magistrates
were anxious, if possible,
to preserve the old
building ; accordingly a new
onewas erected, entirelyapart
froin it, adjoining the southwest
corner of St. Giles?s
church, and the eastern portion
of t!ie old Tolbooth
bore incontestable evidence
of being the work of an age
long anterior to the date of
Queen Mary?s letter, and the
line of demarcation between
the east and west ends of the
edifice is still apparent in all
views of it. The more
ancient portion, which had
on its first floor a large and
deeply-embayed square window,
having rich Gothic
niches on each side, is supposed
to have been at one
time the house of the Pravost
of St. Giles?s church, or some
such appendage to the latter,
while the prebends and
other members of the colleges were accommodated
in edifices on the south side of the church, removed
in 1632 to make way for the present Parliament
House. Thus it is supposed to have been built
about 1466, when James 111. erected St. Giles?s into

... F e Tolbooth. 124 as the- martlet did in Macbeth?s castle. Of later years .these booths have degenerated ...

Book 1 p. 124
(Score 0.49)

Holyrood.1 THE HOUSEHOLD TROOPS. . 75
? blew gowns, each having got thirty-five shillings in
a purse, came up from the abbey to the great
church, praying all along for His Majesty. Sermon
being ended, His Grace entertained all the nobles
and gentlemen with a magnificent feast and open
table. After dinner the Lord Provost and Council
went to the Cross, where was a green arbour
loaded with oranges and lemons, wine running
liberally for divers hours at eight conduits, to the
great solace of the indigent commons there. Having
drunk all the royal healths, which were seconded
by great guns from the castle, sound of trumpets
and drums, volleys from the Trained Bands, and
joyful acclamations from the people, they plenti-
? fully entertained the multitude. After which, my
Lord Commissioner, Provost, and Bailies went to
the castle, where they were entertained with all
sorts of wine and sweatmeats ; and returning, the
Provost countenancing all neighbours that had put
up bonfires by appearing at their fires, which
jovialness continhed, with ringing of bells and
shooting of great guns, till 12 o?clock at night.? .
In October, 1679, the Duke of Albany and
York, with his family, including the future queens,
Mary and Anne, took up his residence at Hdyrood,
where the gaiety and brilliance of his court
gave great satisfaction. The princesses were easy
and affable, and the duke left little undone to win
the love of the people, but the time was an unpropitious
one, for they were at issue with him on
matters of fxith ; yet it is clearly admitted by
Fountainhall that his birthday was observed more
cordially than that of the king. The duke golfed
frequently at Leith. ? I remember in my youth,?
wrote Mr. William Tytler, ? to have conversed with
an old man named Andrew Dickson, a golf-club
maker, who said that when a boy he used to carry
the duke?s golf-clubs, and run before him to announce
where the balls fell.?
The sixteen companies of the Trained Bands
attended the duke?s amval in the city, and sixty
selected men from each company were ordered ? to
attend their royal highnesses, apparelled in the
best manner,?? and the latter were banqueted in
the Parliament House, at the cost of A5231 13s.
sterling. The brilliance of the little court wa:
long remembered after the royal race were in
hopeless exile. One of the most celebrated
beauties of its circle was the wife of Preston oi
Denbrae, who survived till the middle of the lasl
century. In the Cupar burial register this entr)
occurs concerning her :-? Buried a I st December,
1757, Lady Denbrae, aged 107 years.?
The duke and duchess are said to have beer
early warned of the haughty punctilio of thf
Scottish noblesse by a speech of General Dalzell
of Binns, whom the former had invited to
line at the palace, when Nary d?Este, as a
laughter of the ducal-prince of Modena, declined
to take her place at table with a subject.
r?Madam,?? said the grim veteran, ?I have
lined at a table, where your father must have stood
at my back !? In this instance it is supposed
:hat he alluded to the table of the Emperor of
Zermany, whom the Duke of Modena, if summoned,
must have attended as an officer of the
lousehold.
The same commander having ordered a guardsman
who had been found asleep on his post at the
?alace to be shot, he was forgiven by order of
;he duke.
In August, 1681, one of the grandest funerals
:ver seen in Scotland left Holyrood-that of the
High ChanceIlor, the Duke of Rothes, who died
:here on the 26th July. The account of the pro-
:ession fills six quarto pages of Amot?s ?? History,?
md enumerates among the troops present the
Scots Foot Guards, a train of Artillery, the Scots
Fusiliers, and Horse Guards of the Scottish army.
1$ April, 1705, John, the great Duke of Argyle,
took up his residence at the palace as Commissioner
to the Parliament, on which occasion he was
received by a double salvo from the castle batteries,
by the great guns in the Artillery Park, ? and from
111 the men-of-war, both Dutch and Scottish, then
lying in the road of Leith.?
the Life and Horse Guards, Horse Grenadier
Guards, and the two battalions of the Foot Guards,
ceased to do duty at Holyrood, being all removed
permanently to London, though a detachment of
the last named corps garrisoned the Bass Rock
till the middle of the last century.
A strange gladiatorial exhibition is recorded as
taking place on a stage at the back of the palace on
the 23rd of June, 1726, when one of those public
combats then so popular at the Bear Garden in
London, ensued between a powerful young Inshman
named Andrew Bryan (who had sent a drum
through the city defying all men) and a veteran of
Killiecrankie, named Donald Bane, then in his
sixty-second year.
They fought with various weapons, in presence
of many noblemen, gentlemen, and military officers,
for several hours, and Bryan was totally vanquished,
after receiving some severe wounds from
his unscathed antagonist.
The annual ball of the Honourable Company
of Hunters at Holyrood, begins to be regularly
chronicled in the Edinburgh papers about this
In 1711 the Scottish Household troops, viz., -

... THE HOUSEHOLD TROOPS. . 75 ? blew gowns, each having got thirty-five shillings in a purse, came up ...

Book 3 p. 75
(Score 0.49)

nearly to the muzzle with musket-balls was depressed
to sweep it, and did so with awful effect.
According to the historian of the ? Troubles,?
twenty men were blown to shreds. Weddal had both
thighs broken, and Somerville, with a few who were
untouched, grovelled close under the wall, where
Ruthven, who recognised him as an old Swedish
comrade, besought him to retire, adding, ? I derive
no pleasure in the death of gallant men.? Of the
whole escalade only thirty-three escaped alive, and
of these many were wounded, a result which
cooled the ardour of the besiegers; but after a
three months? blockade, finding his garrison few,
and all suffering from scurvy, and that provisions
and ammunition were alike expended, on the 18th
September, after
a blockade of
five months in
all, during which
1,000 men had
been slain, he
marched outwith
the honours of
war (when so ill
with scurvy that
he could scarcely
walk) at the head
.of seventy men,
with one drum
beating, one
standard flying,
matches lighted,
2nd two pieces
.of cannon, with
balls in their
muzzles and the
port-fires blazing at both ends. They all sailed for
England in a king?s ship. Ruthven fought nobly
for the king there, and died at a good old age in
1651, Earl of Forth and Brentford. Argyle, the
Dictator of Scotland, in the autumn of 1648 invited
Oliver Cromwell to Edinburgh, and entertained
him with unwonted magnificence in the
great hall of the Castle ; afterwards they held many
meetings in Lady Home?s house, in the Canongate,
where the resolution to take away the king?s
fife was discussed and approved of, for which the
said Dictator afterwards lost his head.
The next important event in the history of
5? The steep, the iron-belted rock,
Where trusted lie the monarchy?s last gems,
The sceptre, sword, and crown that graced the brows
Since Fergus, father of a hundred kings,?
I was in the days of Cromwell.
Scotland, after the coronation of Charles II., that I
On tidings reaching
the former was advancing north at the head of an
army, the Parliament ordered the Castle to be put
in a state of defence. There were put therein a
select body of troops under Colonel Walter
Dundas, 1,000 bolls of meal and malt, 1,000 tons
of coal, 67 brass and iron guns, including Mons
Meg and howitzers, 8,000 stand of arms, and a
vast store of warlike munition.
According to the superstition of the time the
earth and air all over Scotland teemed with strange
omens of the impending strife, and in a rare old
tract, of 16j0, we are told of the alarm created in
the fortress by the appearance of a ?horrible
apparition ? beating upon a drum.
On a dark night the sentinel, under the shadow
of the gloomy
half-moon, was
alarmed by the
beating of a
drum upon the
esplanade and
the tread of
marching feet, on
which he fired
his musket. Col.
Dundas hurried
forth, but
could see nothing
on the bleak
expanse, the site
of the now demolished
Spur.
The sentinel was
truncheoned,
and another put
in his Dlace. to
COVENANTERS? FLAG.
(Fmnz tAe Altts~rrm ofthe societu of Antiq~n&~ d.yco*la&.)
A I whom the same thing happened, and he, too, fired
his musket, affirming that he heard the tread
of soldiers marching to the tuck of drum. To
Dundas nothing was visible, nothing audible but
the moan of the autumn wind. He took a
musket and the post of sentinel. Anon he heard
the old Scots march, beaten by an invisible
drummer, who came close up to the gate; then
came other sounds-the tramp of many feet and
clank of accoutrements ; still nothing was visible,
till the whole impalpable array seemed to halt
close by Dundas, who was bewildered with consternation.
Again a drum was heard beating the
English, and then the French march, when the
alarm ended ; but the next drums that were beaten
there were those of Oliver Cromwell.
When the latter approached Edinburgh he
found the whole Scottish army skilfully entrenched
parallel with Leith Walk, its flanks protected by

... to the muzzle with musket-balls was depressed to sweep it, and did so with awful effect. According to the ...

Book 1 p. 54
(Score 0.49)

vi OLD APU'D NEW EDINBURGH.
CHAPTER XXII.
ST. ANDREW SQUARE.
PAGE
St. Andrew Sq-Lst .of Early R e s i d e n u t Bomwlaski-Miss Gordon of CLuny-SconiSh W d m ' Fund-Dr. A. K. Johnstoo
--Scottish Provident Institution-House in which Lord Bmugham was Bom-Scottish Equitable Society-Charteris of Amisfield-
Douglas's Hotel-Sk Philip Ainslie-British Linen Company-National Bank--Royal Baulc-The Melville and Hopetoun Monuments
-Ambm's Tavern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I66
CHAPTER XXIII.
CHARLOTTE S Q U A R E ,
Charlotle Sq-Its Early OccuPantgSu John Sinclair, B a r t - b o n d of that Ilk-Si Wdliam Fettes-Lard chief Commissioner Adam
-Alexander Dimto-St. George'r Church-The Rev. Andrew Thomson-Prince ConSmt's Memorial-The Parallelogram of the first
New Town. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -172
CHAPTER XXIV.
ELDER STREET-LEITH STREET-BROUGHTON STREET.
Elder Street--Leith Street-The old "Black BuU"-Margarot-The Theatre Royal-Its Predecessors on the same Site-The Circus-
C o d s Rooms-The Pantheon-Caledonian Thoaue--Adelphi Theatre-Queen's Theatre and Open House-Burned and Rebuilt-
~ t . wary's chapel-~ishop Cameron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
CHAPTER XXV.
THE VILLAGE AND BARONY OF BROUGHTON.
Bmghton-The Village and Barmy-The Loan-Bmughton first mentioned-Feudal Superio+Wttches Burned-Leslie's Headquarters
-Gordon of Ellon's Children Murdered-Taken Red Hand-The Tolbooth of the Burgh-The Minute Books-Free Burgews-
Modern Ch& Meted in the Bounds of the Barony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .r80
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE NORTHERN NEW TOWN.
Picardy PI-Lords Eldm and CDig-Su David Milm--Joho AbcrcmmbitLord Newton--cOmmissioner Osborne-St. PauPs Church
-St. George's Chapel-Wib Douglas, Artist-Professor Playfair-Gcned Scott of BellencDrummond Place-C K. Sharpe of
Hoddam-Lard Robertson-Abercmmbie Place and Heriot Row-Miss Femer-House in which H. McKenzie died-Rev. A. Aliin
-Great King Street-Sir R Chrii-Sir WillLm Hamilton-Si William Allan--Lord Colonsay, Lc. . . . . . . . 185
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE NORTHERN NEW TOWN (codu&d).
AdrnLal Fairfax-Bishop Terrot-Brigadier Hope-Sir T. M. Brisbam-Lord Meadowbank-Ewbank the R.S.A-Death of Professor
Wilson-Moray Place and its Distria-Lord President Hope-The Last Abode of Jeffrey-Bamn Hume and Lord Moncrieff-
Fom Street-Thomas Chalmers, D.D.-St. Colme Street-Cap& Basil Hall--Ainslie Place-Dugald Stewart-Dean Ramsay-
Great Stuart Slreet--Pmfessor Aytwn--Mk Graharn of DuntrooPLord Jerviswoodc . . . . . . . . . . I98
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE WESTERN NEW TOWN-HAYMARKET-DALRY-FOUNTAINBRIDGE.
Maithd Street and Shandwick Place-The Albert Institute--Last Residence of Sir Wa'ta Smtt in Edinburgh-Lieutenant-General
DundatMelville Street-PatricL F. Tytler--Manor Piace-St. M q ' s Cathedral-The Foundation Ud-Its Si and Aspxt-
Opened for Srrsice--The Copstone and Cross placed on the Spire-Haymarket Station-Wmta Garden-Donaldson's Hospital-
Castle Te-Its Churches-Castle Barns-The U. P. Theological Hall-Union Canal-Fkt Boat Launched-Dalry-The Chieslies
-The Caledoniau Dstillery-Foun&bridg=-Earl Grey Street-Professor G:J. Bell-The Slaughter-ho-Baii Whyt of Bainfield
-Nd British India Rubber Works-Scottish Vulcanite CompanpAdam Ritchie . . . . . . . . . . . . Z q

... OLD APU'D NEW EDINBURGH. CHAPTER XXII. ST. ANDREW SQUARE. PAGE St. Andrew Sq-Lst .of Early R e s i d e ...

Book 4 p. 388
(Score 0.49)

472
White Home Close, 304
Inn, White Horse Close, 304
Boyd’s Close, 161, 162, 312
Whitford, Mrs Qrissald, 335
Whittingham, Lord, 266
Wightman, Provost, 153
Wilkes, Johnny, Burning of, 219
William the Lion, 3, 23
Williamson of Cardrona, 237
Willox, Yr John, 64, 67
Wihon, the Smuggler, 109, 194
HI., 106
Mr David, Minister, 169
Gavin, the Poetical Shoemaker,. 237
James, the Poet. See Clazbdero
Windmill Street, 348
Wintoun’s House, Earl of, 303, 452
Wishart, confined in Edinburgh Castle, 51
Witches, 18, 88,133, 283, 305, 306, 373
Bishop Qeorge, 366
INDEX.
Wood, Sir Andrew, 22, 23
Wood’s Farm, 371
Wooden Mare, 94 247
Woodhouselee, Lord, 332, 351
World‘s End Cloee, 275
Wotton, Sir Nicolae, 68
Wrigbtisland, Lord, 232
Writers’ Court, 201, 233
Wrychtishousis, Mansion of, 130, 432
Napier of, 339, 350
Tomb of, 393, 432
Wyat, James, Architect, 197
Yair, Henry, one of the Murderers of Rizzio, executed, 77
Yeeter, Lady, 273, 429
Yesterk Church, Lady, 96, 105, 425, 429, 430 ’
York, Archbishop of, 26,27
Young, John, Somerset Herald, 26
Zuccherelli, Franceso, 298
THE END.
YalNTBIl BY BALLANTYNR AND COMPANY
RDINBURCH AND MNDON

... Home Close, 304 Inn, White Horse Close, 304 Boyd’s Close, 161, 162, 312 Whitford, Mrs Qrissald, ...

Book 10 p. 511
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256 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cowgate.
Mr. Andrew Anderson, printer to the King?s most
Excellent Majesty, for Mr. Andrew Symson, and
which must unhesitatingly be pronounced to be
superior in elegance to almost any other doors
given to modem houses either in Edinburgh or in
London. On a frieze between the mouldings is a
legend in a style of lettering and orthography which
speaks of the close of the fifteenth century :-
GIF . YE . DEID . AS , YE . SOULD . YE
MYCHT . HAIF . AS ,,YE , VULD,
In modem English, ?If we died as we should, we
might have as we would.? There is unfortunately
no trace of the man who built the house and put
upon it this characteristic apophthegm; ,but it is
known that the upper floors were occupied about
(before?) 1700 by the worthy Andro Syrnson, who
having been ousted from his charge as an episcopal
minister at the Revolution, continued to make a
living here by writing and printing books.?
Symson had been curate of Kirkinner,inGalloway,
a presentation to him by the earl of that title, and
was the author of an elaborate work, and mysterious
poem of great length, issued from his printinghouse
at the foot of the Horse Wynd,- entitled,
?Tripatriarchicor; or the lives of the three patriarchs,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, extracted forth of
are to be sold by him in the Cowgate, near the
foot of the Hose Wynd, Anno Dom. 1699.?
The Horse Wynd which once connected the
Cowgate with the open fields on the south of the
city, and was broad enough for carriages in days
before such vehicles were known, is supposed to
have derived its name from an inn which occupied.
the exact site of the Gaelic church which was
erected there in 1815, after the building in the
Castle Wynd was abandoned, and which ranked
as a quoad suoa parish church after 1834, though
it was not annexed to any separate territory. It
was seated for 1,166, and cost ;t;3,000, but was
swept away as being in the line of the present
Chambers Street. ,
COLLEGE WYND. (From a Drawinf 6y Willinffl Channing.)

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cowgate. Mr. Andrew Anderson, printer to the King?s most Excellent Majesty, for Mr. ...

Book 4 p. 256
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MARSHAL STAIR. 105 Lady Stair?s closol
House of Lords and Court of Session. In support
of what he stated, Dundonald, in a letter to
that he made a vow never again to take any species
of drink, unless it had first passed through her
hands; and this vow he kept religiously till the
day of his death, which took place on the 9th
April, 1747, at Queensberry House in the Canongate,
when he was in his seventy-fifth year. He
was General of the Marines, Governor of Minorca,
Colonel of the Greys, and Knight of the Thistle.
He was buried in the family vault at Kirkliston,
and his funeral is thus detailed in the Scots Magazine
for 1747 :-
when the procession began, as a signal to the
garrison in the Castle, when the flag was half
hoisted, and minute guns fired, till the funeral was
clear of the city.
With much that was irreproachable in her character,
Lady Stair was capable of ebullitions of temper,
and of using terms that modem taste would deem
objectionable. The Earl of Dundonald had stated to
the Duke of Douglas that Lady Stair had expressed
her doubts concerning the birth of his nephewa
much-vexed question, at this time before the
THE LAWNMARKET, FROM ST. GILES?S, 1825.
I. Six bLton men, two and two. 2. A niourning
coach with four gentlemen ushers and the
Earl?s crest. 3. Another mourning coach with
three gentlemen ushers, and a friend carrying the
coronet on a velvet cushion. 4. Six ushers on
foot, with bgtons and gilt streamers. 5. The
corpse, under a dressed canopy, drawn by six
dressed horses, with the Earl?s achievement, within
the Order of the Thistle. 6. Chief mourners
in a coach and six. 7. Nine mourning coaches,
each drawn by six horses. 8. The Earl?s body
coach empty. 9. Carriages of nobility and gentry,
in order of rank?
A sky-rocket was thrown up in the Canongate
14

... STAIR. 105 Lady Stair?s closol House of Lords and Court of Session. In support of what he stated, ...

Book 1 p. 105
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Holyrood.] ROYAT, MARRIAGES. 55
with the Dukes of Savoy and Burgundy. She
landed at Leith amid a vast concourse of all
classes of the people, and, escorted by a bodyguard
of 300 men-at-arms, all cap-d+e, with
the citizens also in their armour, under Patrick
Cockburn of Nevtbigging, Provost of Edinburgh
and Governor of the Castle, was escorted to the
monastery of the Greyfriars, where she was warmly
welcomed by her future husband, then in his
twentietb year, and was visited by the queenmother
on the following day.
The week which intervened between her arrival
and?her marriage was spent in a series of magnificent
entertainments, during which, from her great
beauty and charms of manner, she won the devoted
affection of the loyal nobles and people.
A contemporary chronicler has given a minute
account of one of the many chivalrous tournaments
that took place, in which three Burgundian nobles,
two of them brothers named Lalain, and the thud
HervC Meriadet, challenged any three Scottish
knights to joust with lance, battle-axe, sword, and
dagger, a defiance at once accepted by Sir James
Douglas, James Douglas of Lochleven, and Sir
John Ross of Halkhead, Constable of Renfrew.
Lances were shivered and sword and axe resorted
to with nearly equal fortune, till the king threw
down his truncheon and ended the combat.
The royal marriage, which took place in the
church at Holyrood amid universal joy, concluded
these stirring scenes. At the bridal feast the first
dish was in the form of a boar?s head, painted and
stuck full df tufts of coarse flax, served up on an
enormous platter, with thirty-two banners, bearing
the arms of the king and principal nobles ; and the
flax was set aflame, amid the acclamations of the
numerous assembly that filled the banquet-hall.
Ten years after Holyrood beheld a sorrowful
scene, when, in 1460, James, who had been slain
by the bursting of a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh
on the 3rd August, in his thirtieth year, was
laid in the royal vault, ?with the teares of his
people and his hail1 army,? says Balfour.
In 1467 there came from Rome, dated zznd
February, the bull of Pope Paul II., granting, on
the petition of the provost, bailies, and community
of the city, a con~mission to the Bishop of Galloway,
?et dilectojZio Abbafi Monasterii Sancta Cmcis mini
viuros de Rdynburgh,? to erect the Church of St.
Giles into a collegiate institution.
Two years afterwards Holyrood was again the
scene of nuptial festivities, when the Parliamen!
met, and Margaret of Norway, Denmark, and
Sweden, escorted by the Earl of Arran and a
gallant train of Scottish aad Danish nobles, landed
at Leith in July, 1469. She was in her sixteenth
year, and had as her dowry the isles of Orkney
and Shetland, over which her ancestors had hitherto
claimed feudal superiority. James III., her
husband, had barely completed his eighteenth
year when they were married in the abbey church,
where she was crowned queenconsort. ?? The marriage
and coronation gave occasion to prolonged
festivities in the metropolis and plentiful congratulations
throughout the kingdom. Nor was the
flattering welcome undeserved by the queen ; in the
bloom of youth and beauty, amiable and virtuous,
educated in all the feminine accomplishments of
the age, and so richly endowed, she brought as
valuable an accession of lustre to the court as of
territory to the kingdom.?
In 1477 there arrived ?heir in grate pompe,?
says Balfour, ?Husman, the legate of Pope
Xystus the Fourth,? to enforce the sentence of
deprivation and imprisonment pronounced by Hjs
Holiness upon Patrick Graham, Archbishop of St.
Andrews, an eminent and unfortunate dignitary of
the Church of Scotland. He was the first who
bore that rank, and on making a journey to Rome,
returned as legate, and thus gained the displeasure
of the king and of the clergy, who dreaded his
power. He was shut up in the monastery of Inchcolm,
and finally in the castle of Lochleven. Meanwhile,
in the following year, William Schivez, a
great courtier and favourite of the king, was
solemnly consecrated in Holyrood Church by the
papal legate, from whose hands he received a pall,
the ensign of archiepiscopal dignity, and with great
solemnity was proclaimed ?? Primate and Legate of
the realm of Scotland.? His luckless rival died
of a broken heart, and was buried in St. Serf?s
Isle, where his remains were recently discovered,
buried in a peculiar posture, with the knees drawn
up and the hands down by the side.
In 1531, when Robert Cairncross was abbot,
there occurred an event, known as ? the miracle of
John Scott,? which made some noise in its time.
This man, a citizen of Edinburgh, having taken
shelter from his creditors in the sanctuary of Holyrood,
subsisted there, it is alleged, for forty days
without food of any kind.
Impressed by this circumstance, of which some
exaggerated account had perhaps been given to
him, James V. ordered his apparel to be changed
and strictly searched. He ordered also that he
should be conveyed from Holyrood to a vaulted
room in David?s Tower in the castle, where he was
barred from access by all and closely guarded.
Daily a small allowance of bread and water were
placed before him, but he abstained from both for

... ROYAT, MARRIAGES. 55 with the Dukes of Savoy and Burgundy. She landed at Leith amid a vast concourse ...

Book 3 p. 55
(Score 0.48)

9d OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Castle HX
one going plump down a vent they set up a shout
of joy. Sir David laughed, and entreated the
father of the lads ?? not to be too angry ; he and
his brother,? he added with some emotion, ?when
CANNON BALL IN WALL OF nowE IN CASTLE KILL.
living here at the same age, had indulged in precisely
the same amusement, the chimneys then, as
now, being so provokingly open to attacks, that
there was no resisting the temptation.? From
the Bairds of Newbyth the house passed to the
Browns of Greenbank, and from them, Brown?s
Close, where the modern entrance to it is situated,
On the same side of the street Webster?s Close
served to indicate the site of the house of Dr.
Alexander Webster, appointed in 1737 to the
Tolbooth church.. In his day one of the most
popular men in the city, he was celebrated for his
wit and socid qualities, and amusing stories are
still told of his fondness for claret With the a s
sistance of Dr. Wallace he matured his favourite
scheme of a perpetual fund for the relief of
widows and children of the clergy of the Scottish
Church; and when, in 1745, Edinburgh was in
possession of the Jacobite clans, he displayed a
striking proof of his fearless character by employing
all his eloquence and influence to retain the
people in their loyalty to the house of Hanover.
He had some pretension to the character of a poet,
2nd an amatory piece of his has been said to rival
-the effusions of Catullus. It was written in allusion
to his mamage with Mary Erskine. There is
one wonderfully impassioned verse, in which, after
describing a process of the imagination, by which
?he comes to think his innamarata a creature of more
. derives its name.
than mortal purity, he says that at length he clasps
her to his bosom and discovers that she is but a
woman after all !
?? When I see thee, I love thee, but hearing adore,
I wonder and think you a woman no more,
Till mad with admiring, I cannot contain,
And, kissing those lips, find you woman again ! ?
He died in January, 1784.
Eastward of this point stands a very handsome
old tenement of great size and breadth, presenting
a front of polished ashlar to the street, surmounted
by dormer windows. Over the main entrance to
Boswell?s Court (so named from a doctor who resided
there about the close of the last century)
there is a shield, and one of those pious legends
so peculiar to most old houses in Scottish burghs.
0. LORD. IN. THE. IS. AL. MI. TRAIST. Andthis
edifice uncorroborated tradition asserts to have
been the mansion of the. Earls of Bothwell.
A tall narrow tenement immediately to the west
of the Assembly Hall forms the last ancient building
on the south side of the street. It was built in
1740, by hfowbray of Castlewan, on the site of ?
a venerable mansion belonging to the Countess
Dowager of Hyndford (Elizabeth daughter of
John Earl of Lauderdale), and from him it passed,
about 1747, into the possession of William Earl of
Dumfries, who served in the Scots Greys and Scots
Guards, who was an aide de camp at the battle of
Dettingen, and who succeeded his mother, Penelope,
countess in her own right, and afterwards, by the
death of his brother, as Earl of Stair. He was succeeded
in it by his widow, who, within exactly a
year and day of his death, married the Hon.
Alexander Gordon (son of the Earl of Aberdeen),
who, on his appointment to the bench in 1784,
assumed the title of Lord Rockville.
He was the last man of rank who inhabited this
stately uld mansion ; but the narrow alley which
gives?access to the court behind bore the name
of Rockville Close. Within it, and towards the
west there towered a tall substantial edifice once
the residence of the Countess of Hyndford, and
sold by her, in 1740, to Henry Bothwell of Glencome,
last Lord Holyroodhouse, who died at his
mansion in the Canongate in 1755.
The corner of the street is now terminated by
the magnificent hall built in 1842.3, at the cost
of &16,000 for the accommodation of the General
Assembly, which sits here annually in May, presided
over by a Commissioner, who is always a
Scottish nobleman, and resides in Holyrood Palace,
where he holds royal state, and gives levCes in the
gallery of the kings of Scotland. The octagonal

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Castle HX one going plump down a vent they set up a shout of joy. Sir David ...

Book 1 p. 90
(Score 0.48)

THE CANQNGA TE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 279
Blyth’s Close. Directly opposite to this, but separated from it by modern partitions,
a large Gothic fireplace remained, decorated with rich mouldings and clustered
pillars at the sides. On the occasion referred to, the burgesses and the garrison of
the Castle used their utmost efforts to compel the Regent’s‘advisera to adjourn. Cannon
were planted in the Blackfriars’ Yards, as well as on the walls, to batter this novel
‘ Parliament House ; and the Castle guns were plied with such effect as ‘( did greit skaith
in the heid of the Cannogait to the houssis thairof.‘ ”
The adjoining closes to the eastward abounded, a few years since, with ancient timberfronted
tenements of a singularly picturesque character ; .but the value of property became
for a time so much depreciated in this neighbourhood that the whole were abandoned by
their owners to ruinous decay. When making a drawing of a group of them some years
ago, which presented peculiarly attractive features for the pencil, we were amused to
observe more than one weather-worn intimation of Lodgings to Let, enlivening the fronts
of tenements which probably not even the most needy or fearless mendicant would have
ventured to occupy, though their hospitable doors stood wide to second the liberal invitation.
When we next visited them, the whole maas had tumbled to ruin, leaving only here and
there a sculptuied doorway and a defaced inscription to indicate their importance in other
times, several of which remained till lately both in Coul’s and the Old High School
Closes. To the east of the latter there stood, till within the last few years, a fine old
stone land, with its main front in Mid Common Close, adorned with dormer windows,
string courses, and other architectural decorations of an early period. Over one of the
windows on the first floor, the following devout confession of faith was cut in large Roman
characters:-I. TAKE . THE. LORD. JESTS. AS. MY. ONLY. ALL . SVFFICIENT. PORTION.
TO . CONTENT . ME . 1614. This tenement, however, shared the fate of its less substantial
neighbours, having been pulled down for other buildings.
The Old High School Close derived its name from a large and handsome mansion which
stood in an open court at the foot, and was occupied for many years as the High School
of the Burgh. The building was ornamented with dormer windows, and a neat pediment
in the centre, bearing a sun dial, with the date 1704. The school dated from a much
remoter era, however, than this would imply; it appears to have been founded in connection
with the Abbey, long before a similar institution existed in the capital. It is
referred to in a charter granted by James V. in 1529; and Henryson, once the pupil
of Vocat, clerk and orator of the Convent of Holyrood, is named as having successfully
taught the Grammar School of the Burgh of Canongate. Repeated notices of it occur in
the Burgh Records, e.g. :-“ 5 April 1580.-The quhilk day compeirit Gilbert Tailyeour,
skuilmaister, and renuncit and dimittit his gift grauntit to him be Adame Bischope of
1 Contemporary allusions to this Parliament render it more likely that its place of meeting was on the south side of
the street, as it was battered from the Blackfriara’ Yards. Moreover, it seem8 probable that the whole of the north aide
wai~ an undisputed part of the Eurgh of Canongate, aa it now ia of the pariah ;, while on the south ita parochial bounds
extend no further westward than St John’s Cross. In the Act of Parliament of 1540 (ante, p. 44), the Abbot of
Holyrood is referred to aa the acknowledged superior of the east side of Leith Wynd. The old house iq at any rate, one
which existed at the period, and wan then a mansion of no mean note. The occupanta of it some thirty years ago
used to tell the usual story of Queen Yary having resided there, and professed to point out her chapel, with the confessiondLa
place certainly constructed with mme suitableness for such a purpose-the site of the altar, the prieat’s
robing-room, bic., and all in e cmy attic, which, long before ita final destruction, seemed to have been deserted as past
hope of repair.

... CANQNGA TE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 279 Blyth’s Close. Directly opposite to this, but separated from it by ...

Book 10 p. 303
(Score 0.48)

Edinburgh Cad:.] CORONATION OF CHARLES I. 51
and long it was since Edinburgh had been
the scene of anything so magnificent. Every
window was crowded with eager faces, and every
house was gay with flowers, banners, and tapestry.
*? Mounted on a roan horse, and having a saddle
of rich velvet sweeping the ground, and massive with
pasements of gold, Alexander Clark, the Provost,
appeared at the head of the bailies and council to
meet the king, while the long perspective of the
crowded street ( then terminated by the spire of
the Nether Bow) was lined (as Spalding says) by
a brave company of soldiers, all clad in white
satin doublets, black velvet .breeches, and silk
stockings, with hats, feathers, scarfs, and bands.
Thesegallants haddaintymuskets, pikes, and gilded
partisans. Six trumpeters, in gold lace and scarlet,
preceded the procession, which moved slowly from
But most of the assembled multitude looked
darkly and doubtfully on. In almost every heart
there lurked the secret dread of that tampering
with the Scottish Church which for years had been
conspicuous.
Charles, with great solemnity, was crowned king
of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, by the
Bishop of St. Andrews, who placed the crown upon
his head; and on the 18th July he left Edinburgh
on his return to London. Under the mal-influence
of the zealot Laud ruin and civil war soon came,
when Episcopacy was imposed upon the people,
A committee of Covenanters was speedily formed
at Edinburgh, and when the king?s commissioner
arrived, in 1638, he found the Castle beset by
armed men. His efforts at mediation were futile ;
and famous old ?Jenny Geddes? took the initiative
the- Privy Seal;
Morton the Treasuw?s golden mace,with its globe of
sparkling beryl ; the York and Norroy English kingsat-
arms with their heralds, pursuivants, and trumpeters
in tabards blazing with gold and embroidery;
Sir James Balfour, the Scottish Lion king, preceding
the spurs, sword, sceptre, and crown, borne
by earls. Then came the Lord High Constable,
riding, with ,his blton, supported by the Great
Chamberlain and Earl Marshal, preceding Charles,
who was arrayed in &robe of purple velvet once
worn by James IV., and having a foot-cloth embroidered
with silver and pearls, and his long train
upborne by the young Lords Lorne, Annan, Dalkeith,
and Kinfauns Then came the Gentlemen
Pensioners, marching with partisans uplifted ; then
the Yeomen of the Guard, clad in doublets of
russet velvet, with the royal arms raised in embossed
work of silver and gold on the back and
breast of each coat-each company commanded
by an earL The gentlemen of the Scottish Horse
Guards were all armed d la cuirassier, and carried
swords, petronels, and musketoons.?
of trained Scottish
officers and soldiers, who had been pushing
their fortune by the shores of the Elbe and the
Rhine, in Sweden and Germany, came pouring
home to enrol under the banner of the Covenant ;
a general attack was concerted on every fortress
in Scotland; and the surprise of Edinburgh was
undertaken by the commander of the army, Sir
Alexander Leslie of Balgonie, Marshal of Sweden
under Gustavus Adolphus-a soldier second to
This he achieved successfully on the evening of
the 28th March, when he blew in the barrier gate
with a petard. The Covenanters rushed through
the Spur sword in hand, and the. second gate fell
before their sledge-hammers, and then Haldane of
Gleneagles, the governor, gave up his sword.
That night ieslie gave the Covenanting lords a
banquet in the hall of the Castle, .w&reon they
hoisted their blue standard with. the miotto, ? For
an oppressed kirk and broken? Covenant? Montrose?s
regiment, 1,500 strong, replaced the gamson ;
Lord Bdmerbo was appointed goxernor, and many

... Cad:.] CORONATION OF CHARLES I. 51 and long it was since Edinburgh had been the scene of anything so ...

Book 1 p. 51
(Score 0.48)

Lord Provost?.] THE DUNDAS RIOTS. 281
daughter of the head of the firm. When he took
ofice politics ran high, The much-needed reform
of the royal burghs had been keenly agitated
for some time previous, and a motion on the subject,
negatived in the House of Commons by a
majority of 26, incensed the Scottish public to a
great degree, while Lord Melville, Secretary of
State, by his opposition to the question, rendered
himself so obnoxious, that in many parts of Scotland
he was burned in effigy. In this state of excitement
Provost Stirling and others in authority at
Edinburgh looked forward to the King?s birthdaythe
4th of June, 1792-with considerable uneasiness,
and provoked mischief by inaugurating the festival by
sending strong patrols of cavalry through the streets
at a quick pace with swords drawn. Instead of
having the desired effect, the people became furious
at this display, and hissed and hooted the cavalry
with mocking cries of ?Johnnie Cope.? In the
afternoon, when the provost and magistrates were
assembled in the Parliament House to drink the
usual loyal toasts, a mob mustered in the square, and
amused themselves after a custom long peculiar to
Edinburgh on this day, of throwing dead cats at
each other, and at the City Guard who were under
arms to fire volleys after every toast.
Some cavalry officers incautiously appeared at this
time, and, on being insulted, brought up their men
to clear the streets, and, after considerable stonethrowing,
the mob dispersed. Next evening it
re-assembled before the house of Mr. Dundas in
George Square, with a figure of straw hung from a
pole. When about to burn the effigy they were
attacked by some of Mr. Dundas?s friends-among
others, it is said, by his neighbours, the naval hero
of Camperdown, and Sir Patrick Murray of
Ochtertyre. These gentlemen retired to Dundas?s
house, the windows of which were smashed by the
mob, which next attacked the residence of the
Lord Advocate, Dundas of Amiston. On this it
became necessary to bring down the 53rd Re$-
ment from the Castle ; the Riot Act was read, the
people were fired on, and many fell wounded, some
mortally, who were found dead next day in the
Meadows and elsewhere. This put an end to the
disturbances for that night ; but on Wednesday
evening the mob assembled in the New Town with
the intention of destroying the house of Provost
Stirling at the south-east corner of St. Andrew
Square, where they broke the City Guards? sentry
boxes to pieces. But, as an appointed signal, the
ancient beacon-fire, was set aflame in the Castle,
the Bind frigate sent ashore her marines at Leith,
and the cavalry came galloping ih from the eastward,
an which the mob separated finally.
By this time Provost Stirling had sought shelter
In the Castle from the mob, who were on the point
Jf throwing Dr. Alexander Wood (known as Lang
Sandy) over the North Bridge in mistake for him.
For his zeal, however, he was made a baronet of
Great Britain. The year 1795 was one of great
listress in the city ; Lord Cockbum tells us that
16,000 persons (about an eighth of the population)
were fed by charity, and the exact quantity of food
each family should consume was specified by public
proclamation. In 1793 a penny post was established
in Edinburgh, extending to Leith, Musselburgh,
Dalkeith, and Prestonpans. Sir James
Stirling latterly resided at the west end of Queen
Street, and died in February, 1805.
Sir William Fettes, Lord Provost in 1800 and
1804, we have elsewhere referred to ; but William
Coulter, a wealthy hosier in the High Street, who
succeeded to the civic chair in 1808, was chiefly remarkable
for dying in office, like Alexander Kina
i d thirty years before, and for the magnificence
with which his funeral obsequies were celebrated.
He died at Morningside Lodge, and the cortkge
was preceded by the First R E. Volunteers, and
the officers of the three Regiments of Edinburgh
local militia, and the body was in a canopied
hearse, drawn by six horses, each led by a groom in
deep mourning. On it lay the chain of office, and
his sword and sash as colonel of the volunteers.
A man of great stature, in a peculiar costume,
bore the banner of the City. When the body was
lowered into the grave, the senior herald broke and
threw therein the rod of office, while the volunteers,
drawn up in a line near the Greyfriars? Church,
fired three funeral volleys.
Sir John Marjoribanks, Bart., Lord Provost in
1813, was the son of Marjoribanks of Lees, an
eminent wine merchant in Bordeaux, and his
mother was the daughter of Archibald Stewart, Lord
Provost of the city in the memorable ?45. Sir John
was a partner in the banking-house of Mansfield,
Ranisay, and Co., and while in the civic chair was
the chief promoter of the Regent Bridge and Calton
Gaol, though the former had been projected by Sir
James Hunter Blair in 1784 When the freedom
of thedty was given to Lord Lynedoch, ?the gallant
Graham,? Sir John gave h k a magnificent dinner,
on the 12th of August, I815-two months after
Waterloo. There were present the Earl of Morton,
Lord Audley, Sir David Dundas, the Lord Chief
Baron, the Lord Chief Commissioner, Sir James
Douglas, Sir Howard Elphinstone, and about a
hundred of the most notable men in Edinburgh,
the freedom of which was presented to Lord
Lynedoch in a box of gold ; and at the conclusion

... Provost?.] THE DUNDAS RIOTS. 281 daughter of the head of the firm. When he took ofice politics ran high, The ...

Book 4 p. 283
(Score 0.48)

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