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THE CA S TL E. 125
the initials H. and M. inwrought, for HENRaYid MARY,a nd the date 1566,' commemorates
the birth of James VI., on the 19th June of that year. The small room, which was
the scene of this important event, forms the south-east angle of the building. It is singularly
irregular in form and circumscribed in its dimensions, its greatest length being little
more than eigh't feet. The room was formerly neatly panelled with wainscot, but, after
being abandoned for years aiit a drinking-room to the -canteen, much of this has been
renewed in a very rude and inelegant fashion. The original ceiling, however, is preserved,
wrought in ornamental wooden panels, with the initials I. R. and M. R surmounted
with the royd crown, in alternate compartments ; and, on the wall, the commemorative
inscription, in black letter, mentioned by Maitland, still remains, with the Scottish arms
over it :-
Z o t t ~fn edu &brg& tbat crounit mad mitb 6IOornde,
pree'elzle tbe girth, qubais Dabgie heir i$'b orne,
Xnb $en& @ip aonee Bucrelilione, to meignr $tin,
Xaug in tbig Iliealme, if tbat it be mbg miH
Et$ Grant, 0 Porb, qubat eber of @It profleeb
%e to @Ibp @oner Rnb VraiB, pobieb.
19th IFNII, 1566.
At the back of the fireplace was formerly shown a hole, said to have served as the
communication'fhrough which a wire was conveyed to a house in the Grassmarket, and
there attached to a bell, to advise the Queen's Catholic friends of the birth of her son.
The use of bells, however, except in church steeples, is of a much more modern date; and
'-equally apocryphal is another story of the infant Prince having been secretly let down over
the rock in a basket, into the hands of these same'adherents of the Queen, to be educated
in the Catholic religion.
A considerable part of the east and north fronts of the ancient Royal Palace seem,
from the dates on them, as well as from the general style of the building, to have been
erected in the year 1616. The appearance, however, of many portions of the interior
leave no room to doubt that tlie works of that date were only a partial remodelling of a
more ancient fabric. Some of the stone panels on the east front are wrought in remarkably
beautiful Eliaabethan.ornaments, and on one of them the regalia have been sculptured
in high relief, though some chance shot, in one of the later sieges of the Castle, has
broken away the larger portion of the figures. The turrets at the angles of the building,
as well as the clock tower in the quadrangle, were originally covered with ogee lead roofs,
similar ta that still remaining on the turret staircase at the north end.
Immediately below the grand hall, are two tiers of large and strongly-vaulted bombproof
vaults, extending below the paved court of the quadrangle, communicating with a
wide arched passage, entered from the west side. The small loop-hole that admits light
into each of these huge vaults is strongly secured by three ranges of iron bars, and a
massive iron gate closes the entrance to the steep flight of steps that give admission to
the dreary dungeons. Within these gloomy abodes the French prisoners were confined
during the late war, above forty of them sleeping in a single vault. We furnish a view
Ante. p. 77. From the style of ornament, it appears to have been put up at 8 later period, probably by James VI.
on his visit to Scotlaud in 1617.

... CA S TL E. 125 the initials H. and M. inwrought, for HENRaYid MARY,a nd the date 1566,' commemorates the ...

Book 10 p. 136
(Score 0.31)

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 265
man, the Regent Morton, and an associate with him in the murder of Riazio ; so that, if
the sculpture over the doorway be a device adopted by the Morton family, the corresponding
one, already described in the Castle Hill, may be considered as affording considerable
probability of that house having been the mansion of the Regent. William Douglas,
Lord Whittinghame, resigned his office as a judge in 1590, and was succeeded by his son
Archibald, the granter of the disposition referred to, a special favourite of James VI.,
who accompanied him on his matrimonial voyage to Norway, and was rewarded for his
“ lovable service ” soon after his return by this judicial appointment.
The portion of the wynd below this old mansion included, along with the building
of 1564, recently swept away to make room for an extensive printing-office, another
which was long used as a Roman Catholic Chapel. This was an antique stone fabric,
from which a curiously-projecting timber front was removed only a few years before its
desertion as a place of worship. On the fifth flat of this tenement, approached by a
steep and narrow turnpike stair, a large chamber was consecrated to the worship of the
Roman Catholic Church during the greater part of last century, and probably earlier.
When we last visited this primitive retreat of “ Old Giant Pope, after the many
shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger daya,” there still remained painted, in
.simple fashion, on one of the doors immediately below the chapel, the name of the old
Bishop, Mr Hay. This was the once celebrated opponent of Bishop Wm. Abernethy
Drummond, of the Scottish Episcopal Church, under the initials G. H., and well worthy
of note in the history of the locality as the last of the Bishops of Blackfriars’ Wynd,
where the proudest nobles of Scotland were wont of old to give place to the dignitaries of
the Church.
Nearly opposite to this, a large and ancient tenement stood entire in the midst
of ruins, the upper story of which was also used as a chapel. It was dedicated to St
Andrew, and formed the chief Roman Catholic place of worship in Edinburgh, until it
was abandoned in the year 1813 for the ecclesiastical edifice at Broughton Street,
dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary. The interior of the chapel retained much
of its original state till its demolition. The frame-work of the simple altarpiece
still remained, though the rude painting of the Patron Saint of Scotland, which
originally flled it, had disappeared. Humble as must have been the appearance of this
chapel, even when furnished with every adjunct of Catholic ceremonid for Christmas or
Easter festivals, aided by the imposing habits of the officiating priests that gathered
around its little altar, yet men of ancient lineage were wont to assemble among the
worshippers; and during the abode of the royal exiles at Holyrood Palace, Count
d’Artois, the future occupant of the French throne, with the princes and their attendants,
usually formed part of the congregation. An internal staircase formed a private entrance
for the priests and other officials from the floor below, where the straitened accommodations
it afforded sufficed for the humble residence of these successors of the Cardinals
and Archbishops who once dwelt in the same neighbourhood. The public accesa was by
a projecting stone staircase, which formed the approach to the different floors of the
building. Over this doorway was a sculptured lintel, with a shield of arm6 in the centre,
bearing three stars in chief, with a plain cross, and over it two swords saltier ways.
On either side of this was cut, in large antique characters, the inscription MISERERE
2 L

... HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 265 man, the Regent Morton, and an associate with him in the murder of Riazio ; so ...

Book 10 p. 288
(Score 0.31)

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 267
separated only by very narrow uprights. It is decorated with string courses and rich
mouldings, and forms a fine specimen of an Old-Town mansion of the sixteenth century.
It is stated by Chambers to be entailed with the estate of the Clerks of Pennycuik, and
to have formed the town residence of their ancestors. This we presume to have been the
later residence of Alexander, fifth Lord Home; the same who entertained Queen Mary
and Lord Darnley in his lodging near the Tron in 1565, and who afterwards turned the
fortune of the field at the Battle of Langside, at the head of his border spearmen. He
was one of the noble captives who surrendered to Sir William Durie on the taking of
Edinburgh Castle in 1573. He was detained a prisoner, while his brave companions
perished on the scaffold; a.nd was only released at last after a tedious captivity, to die
a prisoner at large in his own house-the same, we believe, which stood in Blackfriars’
Wynd. A contemporary writer remarks :-“ Wpoun the secund day of Junij [1575],
Alexander Lord Home wes relevit out of the Castell of Edinburgh, and wardit in his
awne lugeing in the heid of the Frier Wynd, quha wes carijt thairto in ane bed, be ressone
of his great infirmitie of seiknes.”’
Scarcely another portion of the Old Town of Edinburgh was calculated to impress the
thoughtful visitor with the same melancholy feelings of a departed glory, replaced by
squalor and decay, which he experienced after exploring the antiquities of the Blackfriars’
Wynd. There stood the deserted and desecrated fane ; the desolate mansions of proud
and powerful nobles and senators ; and the degraded Palace of the Primate and Cardinal,
where even Scottish monarchs have been fitly entertained; and it seemed for long
as if the ground which Alexander 11. bestowed on the Dominican Monks, as a, special
act of regal munificence, was not possessed of value enough to tempt the labours of the
builder.
Emerging again through the archway at the head of the wynd, which the royal masterprinter
jitted at his pleasure above three centuries ago, an ancient., though greatly
modernised, tenement in the High Street to the east of the wynd attracted the notice of
the local historian as the mansion of Lord President Fentonbarn!, a man of humble origin,
the son of a baker in Edinburgh, whose eminent abilities won him the esteem and the
suffrages of its contemporaries. He owed his fortunes to the favour of James VI., by
whom he was nominated to fill the office of a Lord of Session, and afterwards knighted.
We are inclined to think that it is to him Montgomerie alludes in his satirical sonnets
addressed to M. J. Sharpe-in all probability au epithet of similar origin and signilicance
to that conferred by the Jacobite8 on the favourite advocate of William 111. The poet
had failed in a suit before the Court of Session, seemingly with James Beaton, Archbishop
of Glasgow, and he takes his revenge against “ his Adversars Lawyers,” like other
poets, in satiric rhyme. The lack of ‘‘ gentle blude ” is a special handle against the plebeian
judge in the eyes of the high-born poet ; and his second sonnet, which is sufEcientlp
vituperative, begins :-
A Baxter’s bird, a bluiter beggar borne ! ’
This old mansion was the last survivor of all the long and unbroken range of buildings
between St Giles’s Church and the Nether Bow. In its original state it was one of
l Diurnal of Occurrenta, p. 348. Alexander Montgornerie’s Poems ; complete edition, by Dr Irving, p. 74.

... HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 267 separated only by very narrow uprights. It is decorated with string courses ...

Book 10 p. 290
(Score 0.31)

THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF YAMES ur. 19
prison, down to the accession of James VI. to the English throne; and often, as in the
present case, fulfilled the double purpose at once. Not only was he held in a sort of honourable
durance there by his rebellious barons ; having, according to Drummond, ‘‘ all
the honour which appertained to a Prince, save that he could not come abroad, and none
were permitted to speak unto him, except in the audience of his lord-keeper ; his chamber
doors were shut before the setting of the sun, and long after the rising opened ; such who
only heard of him could not but take him to be a free and absolute Prince; yet when
nearly viewed, he was but a King in phantasy, and his throne but a picture ! ” but, at the
same time, there lay within its dungeons the King’s own prisoner, the Earl of Douglas ;
to whom, in this extremity, he at last made unsuccessful overtures of reconciliation.
The King having at length appealed, through the Duke of Albany, to Edward IV. of
England, the Duke of Gloucester marched to Edinburgh at the head of ten thousand men,
and encamped with them on the Borough Muir, at the very time when the rebellious barons
were assembled in council, in the Tolbooth. Here the Duke of Albany, who continued to
assume a very specious show of loyalty, joined them, attended by thepuke of Glouceater,
and about a thowand English and Scottish gentlemen ; and the parties having come to
terms, two heralds-at-arms were commanded to pass with them, to charge the captain of
the Castle to open the gates, and set the King’s grace at liberty; who, if Lindsay is to be
relied upon, somewhat contrary to our modern notions of kingly dignity, forthwith “lap on a
hackney to ride down to the Abbay : but he would not ride forward, till the Duik of Albanie
his brother lap on behind him ; and so they went down the geat to the Abbey of Hallyruid
hous, quhair they remained ane long tyme in great mirrines ; ” and, as Abercromby
adds, he “would needs make him a partner in his bed, and a comrade at his table.” On
the following day, William Bertraham, the Provost of Edinburgh, and with him the
whole fellowship of merchants, burgesses, and community of the said town, loyally and generously
obliged themselves to repay to the King of England, under certain circumstances,
the dowry to his daughter, the Lady Cecil ; or otherwise, (( undertook for the King of Scotland,
their Sovereign Lord, that he should concur in hiR former obligations, provided he
or they, the said provosts and merchants, were informed of the King of England’s pleasure,
by the next Feast of All Saints ; ” which obligations they afterwards fulfilled, repaying the
money, amounting to 6000 merks sterling, upon the demand of Garter King-at-Arms, the
King of England‘s messenger. In acknowledgment of this loyal service, the King granted
to the city a deed, in 1492, by which the provost and bailies were created sheriffs within
all- the bounds of their own territories, and rewarded with other important privileges‘contained
in that patent, which is known by the name of the Golden Charter.’ He also conferred
upon the craftamen the famoua banner, long the rallying po&t of the burgher ward
in every civil commotion, or muster for war, which is still preserved by the incorporated
trades, and known by the popular title of the Blue Blanket. The history of this famoua
banner has been written hy Alexander Pennycuik, an enthusiastic guild brother of the laat
century, who begins the record-“ When the Omnipotent Architect had built the glorious
fabric of this world ! ” and after recording for the consolation of his brother craftsmen, that
‘( Adam’s eldest aon was educate a plowman, and his brother a grazier,” with many other
flattering instmees of ‘‘ god'^ distinguishing honour put upon tradesmen,” he tells that
Pitacottie, voL i p. 200. * ’ Drum. of Hawthorn. p. 52.

... STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF YAMES ur. 19 prison, down to the accession of James VI. to the English throne; and ...

Book 10 p. 21
(Score 0.31)

388 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
striking character. On the centre key-stone of the eastern chapel, the monogram of
the Virgin is inwrought with the leaves of a gracefully sculptured wreath, and the same
is repeated in a simpler form on one of the bosses of the neighbouring aisle. But the
most interesting of these decorations are the heraldic devices which form the prominent
ornaments on the capital of the pillar. These consist, on the south side, of the arm8
of Robert, Duke of Albany, the second son of King Robert 11. ; and, on the north side,
of those of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas. In the year 1401, David, Duke of
Rothsay, the unfortunate son of Robert III., was arrested by his uncle, the Duke of
Albany and Governor of Scotland, with the consent of the king his father, who had
been incensed against him by the daily complaints which his uncle contrived to have
carried to the old king’s ear. The circumstances of his death have been pictured with
thrilling effect in the popular pages of (( The Fair Maid of Perth.” He was committed
a close prisoner to the dungeon of Falkland Castle, and there starved to death, notwithstanding
the intervention of a maiden and nurse, who experienced a far different fate
from that assigned by Scott, though their efforts to rescue the Prince from his horrible
death are described with considerable accuracy. “The Blacke Booke of Scone saith,
that the Earle Douglas was with the Governour when he brought the Duke from Saint
Andrew’s to Falkland,” having probably been exasperated against the latter, who was
his own brother-in-law, by the indignity which hiu licentious courses put upon his sister.
Such are the two Scottish nobles whose armorial bearings still grace the capital of the
pillar in the old chapel. It is the only other case in which they are found acting in
concert besides the dark deed already referred to ; and it seems no unreasonable inference
to draw from such a coincidence, that this chapel had been founded and endowed by them
as an expiatory offering for that deed of blood, and its chaplain .probably appointed to say
masses for their victim’s soul. A view of this interesting and beautiful part of the
interior of St Giles’s Church-with the gallery and pews removed-forms the vignette at
the head of the chapter.
The transepts of the church as they existed before 1829, afforded no less satisfactory
evidence of the progress of the building. Distinct traces remained of the termination of
the south transept a few feet beyond the pillars that separated the south aisle of the choir
from Preston’s, or the Assembly Aisle, as it was latterly termed. Beyond this, the
groining of the roof entirely differed from the older portion, exhibiting unequivocal evidence
of being the work of a later age. This part of the Old Church forms-or rather, we
should perhaps say, formed-by far the most interesting portion of the whole building,
from its many associations with the eminent men of other days. Here it was that Walter
Chepman, a burgess of Edinburgh, famous as the introducer of the printing-press to
Scotland, founded and endowed a chaplainry at the. altar of St John the Evangelist, (( in
honour of God, the Virgin Mary, St John the Apostle and Evangelist, and all Saints.”
The charter is dated 1st August 1513, an era of peculiar interest. Scotland was then
rejoicing in all the prosperity and happiness consequent on the wise and beneficent reign
of James IV. Learning was visited with the highest favour of the court, and literature
wat3 rapidly extending its influence under the zealous co-operation of Dunbar, Douglas,
Hume of Godacroft’s Hist. of the Douglases, p. 118. Hume attempts to free the Earl from the charge, but with
little a u c c ~ .

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. striking character. On the centre key-stone of the eastern chapel, the monogram ...

Book 10 p. 426
(Score 0.31)

JAMES l? TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARK 51
success on his own behalf. The Scottish nation, torn at this time by rival factions, and
destitute of any leader or guide, could only submit in passive indignation to his ruthless
vengeance. Yet, with their usual pertinacity, they shortly after mustered aboltt thirteen
hundred men, who “raid into England and brunt and herijt certane townes on the bordouris
vnto Tilmouth; ” and, on the twelfth of July following, the Earl of Angus was
proclaimed lieutenant, and commanded the realm to follow him in an hour’s warning,
“ with foure dayis victuall, to pass on their ald enemies of Ingland.”
During the following year 1545-6, Edinburgh Castle was for a brief period the scene
of Wishart’s imprisonment, after his seizure by the Earl of Bothwell, and delivery into
the hands of Cardinal Beaton, at Elphinstone Tower ; an ancient keep, situated in East
Lothian, about two miles from the village of Tranent. A wretched dungeon, under the
great hall of Elphinstone, is fitill pointed out as the place of Wishart’s imprisonment, as
well as another room, in which the Cardinal slept at the same period. The burning of
Wishart immediately afterwards at St Andrews, as well as the death of the Cardinal, by
the hands of Wishart’s friends, which 80 speedily followed, are facts familiar to the
student of Scottish history.
The death of Henry VIII. in 1547 tended to accelerate the renewal of his project for
enforcing the union of the neighbouring kingdoms, by the marriage of his son with the
Scottish Queen. Henry, on his deathbed, urged the prosecution of the war with Scotland;
and the councillors of the young King Edward VI. lost no time in completing their
arrangements for the purpose.
The Scottish Court was at this time at Stirling, but the council made the most
vigorouB preparations for the defence of the kingdom. A proclamation was issued on the
19th of March, requiring all the lieges to be ready, on forty days’ warning, to muster at
their summons, with victuals for one month ; and on the 25th of May, this was followed
by another order for preparing beacon fires on all the high hills along the coast, to give
warning of the approach of the enemy’s fleet. The more urgently to summon the people
to arms, the Earl of Arran adopted an expedient seldom resorted to, except in cases of
imminent peril; he caused the Kery Cross to be borne by the heralds throughout the
realm, summoning all men, as well spiritual as temporal, between sixty and sixteen, to
be ready to repair to the city of Edinburgh, weil bodin in feir of weir, at the first notice of
the English ships.*
. In the beginning of September, the Earl of Hertford, now Duke of Somerset, and
Lord Protector of England, during the minority of his nephew Edward VL, again eutered
Scotland at the head of a numerous army; while a fleet of about sixty sail co-operated
with him, by a descent on the Scottish coast. At his advance, he found the Scottish army
assembled in great force to oppose him, whereupon he wrote to the Governor of Scotland,
offering for the sake of peace, that while he still insisted on the hand of the Queen for his
royal master, he would agree to conditions by which she should remain within Scotland
until she were fit for marriage.
The Scottish leaders, however, were resolute in rejecting this alliance with England at.
whatever cost ; and in proof of the strong feeling of opposition that existed, it may be
mentioned, that the Scottish army included a large body of priests and monks, who
Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 33. ’ Keith’e History, vol. i. p. 1% Tytler, vol. vi. p. 23.

... l? TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARK 51 success on his own behalf. The Scottish nation, torn at this time by rival ...

Book 10 p. 56
(Score 0.31)

268 OLD ANI) NEW EDINBURGH [Candlemaker Row.
and weekly thirty-two carriers put up in the same
quarter.
In that year the Candlemaker?s Row was the
scene of a tragedy that excited great attention at
the time-the slaughter of a noted ruffian named
John Boyd, an inhabitant of the street, by Dr. Symons
of the 51st or Edinburgh Regiment of Militia,
on the night of the 2nd August, for which, after
being out on bail under cf;~oo, he was brought
before the High
Court of Justiciary
onacharge of murder.
It would appear
that about midnight
Dr. Symons, after
being at a dinnerparty
in Buccleuch
Place, was on his
way through the Row
to the Castle, accompanied
by Lieutenant
Ronaldson of
the same regiment,
when opposite Paterson?s
Inn they were
attacked by two men,
one of whom, a
notorious disturber of
the peace, struck the
doctor a blow behind
the neck, and subsequently
attempted
to wrest his sword
away, knocking him
down and kicking
him at the same time.
Staggering to his
feet,and burning with
rage, the doctor drew
In the open space referred to, eastward of Candlemaker
Kow, Gordon of Rothiemay shows us (see
p. 261) the ancient buildings known as the Society,
forming an oblong quadrangle, lying east and west,
with open ground to the north and south, the
former sloping down to the Cowgate, and planted
with trees. These buildings, the last of which
-a curiously picturesque group, long forming the
south-east quarter of what was latterly Brown
TABLET ON THE CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE.
(Frum a Photogva$h Zy A2rxaudw A. Ingtis.)
his sword and pursued his assailant down the
Row to Merchant Street, when a fresh struggle
ensued, and Boyd was run through the body
and left bleeding in the gutter, where he was
found dead, while the doctor was totally ignorant
that he had injured him so severely. The generally
infamous character of the deceased being proved,
the Lord Justice Clerk, Charles Hope, summed up
to the effect, ? that the charge of murder was by no
means brought home to the prisoner j that what he
had done was altogether in self-defence, and the
matural impulse of the moment, from being attacked,
beaten, knocked down, and grievously insulted.?
The jury returned a verdict of (? Not Guilty,? and
the doctor was dismissed from the bar, and lived
long years after as a practitioner in the country.
Square - were only
removed when Charnbers
Street was made
in 1871, and were ,
built by a society of
brewers established
in 1598.
It was built upon
a piece of ground
that belonged of old
to the convent of
Sienna (at the
Sciennes), and was a
corporation for the
brewing of ale and
beer, commodities
which have ever been
foremost among the
staple productions of
Edinburgh, and the
name of ?Society?
accorded to that
quarter, remained as
a- tradition of the
ancient company long
after it had passed
away. An Englishman
who visited
Edinburgh in 1598,
wrote :-?? The Scots
drink pure wines, not with sugar as the English j
yet at feasts they put comfits in the wine, after the
French manner, but they had not our vintners?
fraud to mix their wines. I did never see nor
hear that they have any public inns; but the
better sort of citizens brew ale, their usual drink,
which will distemper a stranger?s body.?
The usual allowance of ale at table then, was a
chopin, equal to about an imperial pint, to each
person. Though Edinburgh ale is still famous,
private brewing is no longer practised.
A curious fragment of the old town wall was
built into the southern edifices of the Society, and
portions of them may remain, where an old established
inn once stood, long known as the HoZe in
fht WaU.

... OLD ANI) NEW EDINBURGH [Candlemaker Row. and weekly thirty-two carriers put up in the same quarter. In that ...

Book 4 p. 268
(Score 0.31)

48 BX 0 GRAPH I C AL SKETCHES.
I‘ The History of Dover Castle. ~ By the Rev. William Darrell, Chaplain to
Queen Elizabeth.” In 4t0, the same size as the large and small
editions of the Antiquities of’ England and Wales; with ten views engraved
from drawings by Captain Grose.
“ A Provincial Glossary ; with a Collection of Local Proverbs and Popular
Superstitions.” Lond. 1788. 8vo.
. “Rules for Drawing Caricatures ; the subjectlillustrated with four copperplates;
with an Essay on Comic Painting.” Lond. 1788. 8vo. A second
edition 8ppeared in 179 1, Svo, illustrated with twenty-one copperplates, seventeen
of which were etched by Captain Grose.
After his demise was published “ The Olio ; being a collection of Essays,
Dialogues, Letters, Biographical Sketches, etc. By the late Francis Grose, Esq.,
F.R.S. and A.S. ;” with a portrait of the author.
There are dissertations by him in the Archseologia, the one “On an Ancient
Fortification at Christchurch, Hants,” and the other “ On Ancient Spurs,”
Although the verses written by Burns during Captain Grose’s peregrinations
through Scotland collecting its antiquities are sufficiently well known, we
cannot refrain from concluding this article with them :
1781.
Lond. 1796. 8vo.
Hear, Land 0’ Cakes, and brither Scots,
Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groats,
If there’s a hole in a’ your coats,
A chiel’s amang you takin notes,
If in your bounds ye chance to light
Upon a fine, fat, fodgel wight,
0 stature short, but genius bright,
An wow I he has an unco slight
By some auld, houlet-haunted biggin,
Or kirk deserted by its riggin,
It’s ten to ane ye’ll find him snug in
Wi’ deils, they say, - safe’s ! colleaguin
Ilk ghaist that haunts auld ha’ or chamer,
Ye gipsy-gang that deal in glamor,
And TOU deep-read in hell’s black grammar,
Ye’ll quake at his conjuiin hammer,
It’s tauld he was a sodger bred,
And ane wad rather fah than fled ;
Bnt now he’s quat the spurtle-blade,
An taen the-Antiquariaw, trade,
I reds you tent it ;
And, faith, he’ll prent it.
That’s he, mark weel-
0’ cauk and keel.
Some elllrich part,
At some black art.
Warlocks and witches,
Ye midnight -.
An dogskin wallet,
I think they call it.
He has a fouth 0’ add nick-nackets,
Rusty aim cap#, an jingling jackets,
Wad hand the Loudians three in tackets
A towmond gude,
And parritch pats, an auld sant-backets,
Before the flood.
0’ Eve’s first fire he has ae cinder ;
Auld Tubal-Cain’s fire-shoo1 and fender ;
That which distinyished the gender
0’ Balaam’s ass ;
A broom-stick 0’ the witch 0’ Endor,
Wee1 shod wi’ brass.
Forbye, he’ll &ape you aff fu’ gleg,
The cut 0’ Adam’s philibeg,
The knife that nicket Abel’s craig
It was a fauldin jocteleg,
But wad ye see him in his glee,
For meikle glee and fun has he,
Then set him down, an! twa or three
And port, 0 port I shine thou a wee,
Now, by the powers 0’ verse and prose !
Thou art a dainty chiel, 0 Grose I
Whae’er 0’ thee shall ill suppose,
I’d tak the rascal by the nose
He’ll prove you fully,
Or lang kail-gully.
Gude fellows wi’ him ;
And then ye’ll see him !
They sair misca’ thee,
Wad say, Shame fa’ thee.

... BX 0 GRAPH I C AL SKETCHES. I‘ The History of Dover Castle. ~ By the Rev. William Darrell, Chaplain to Queen ...

Book 8 p. 65
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IS2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the nynt day of Aprile, the zeir of God 1566 zeris, Johne Sinclare, be the mercie of God
bischope of Brechin and Dean of Redalrig, deceissit in James Mosmanis hous in Frosteris
Wpd, ane honest and cunning letterit man, and president of the College of Justice
the tyme of his deceiss, &c.’” Another diarist records, in describing the firing of the
town by the garrison of the Castle, under Sir William Kirkaldy, in 1572, “ the fyre
happit fra hous to hous throw the maisterie of ane grit wynd, and come eist the gait
to Bess Wynd at the kirk end of Sanct Geill,” e in consequence of which ther wee
ane proclamatioun maid, that all thak houssia suld be tirrit,’ and all hedder stakis
to be transportit at thair awine bounds and brunt; and ilk man in Edinburgh to haue
his lumes full of watter in the nycht, wnder the pane of deid ; ” a very graphic picture of
the High Street in the sixteenth century, with the majority of the buildings on either
side covered with thatch, and the main street encumbered by piles of heather and other
fuel accumulated before each door, for the use of the inhabitants ; and, from amid these,
we may add the stately ecclesiastical edifices of the period, and the Eubstantial mansions
of the nobility, towering with all the more imposing effect, in contrast to their homely
neighbourhood.
The venerable alley called Bess or Beth’s Wynd, after suffering greatly from the slow
dilapidation of time, was nearly destroyed by successive fires in the years 1786 and 1788.
On the latter occasion it was proposed to purchase and pull down the whole of its buildings
extending from the Lawnmarket to the Cowgate, in order to open up the Parliament
House.* This was not effected, however, till 1809, when the whole were swept away in
preparing the site for the Advocate’s Library. ‘‘ All the houses in Beth’s Wynd,” says
Chambers, “ were exceedingly old and crazy ; and some mysterious ‘looking cellar doors
were shown in it, which the old wives of the wynd believe to have been kept shut since
the time of t4.e plague.” The same superstitious belief was prevalent in regard to some
grim and ancient uninhabited dwellings in Mary King’s Close, part of which now remain.
An old gentleman has often described to us his visits to the latter close, along with his
companions, when a schoolboy. The most courageous of them would approach these dread
abodes of mystery, and after shouting through the keyhole or broken window-shutter,
they would run off with palpitating hearts,-
‘‘ Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round, walks on
And turns no more his head ;
Because he know a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.”
The popular opinion was, that if these houses were opened, the imprisoned pestilence
would burst out, spreading disease and death through the land,-a belief that was probably
thrown into discredit on the peaceful demolition of the former wynd.
A house at the head of Beth’s Wynd, fronting the Old Tolbooth, was the residence of
Mr Andrew Maclure, writing-master, one of the civic heroes of 1745. He joined the
reluctant corps of volunteers who marched to meet the Highland aruy ou its approach
towards Corstorphine ; but they had scarcely left the town walls a mile behind, when their
Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 98. Ibid, Part 11. p. 326.
. a i.e., All thatched houses should be unroofed. 4 Caledonian MeTcuTy, 17th JanuaT 1788.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. the nynt day of Aprile, the zeir of God 1566 zeris, Johne Sinclare, be the mercie of ...

Book 10 p. 199
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deed. Some have derived it from Coire, a hollow,
stoir, wet steps, and eitherjonn, white, orfein, ?the
Fingalians.? (?Old Stat. Account?) The name
might thus signify, ? the hollow with the white
steps ;a or, the ? Glen of Fingalian steps.? And
by some it has been asserted that the original name
was Curia StorpAinorum, from a cohort of Roman
soldiers called the Storphini having been stationed
here. But George Chalmers, with much more
probability than any, deduces the name from the
? Cross of Torphin. ?
?Torphin?s Cross, from whence its name is
derived,? says Wilson in his 6? Remhiscences,?
?doubtless stood there in some old century to
mark the last resting-place of a rough son of Thor.?
plain, is 474 feet in height above the level of the
sea Its sloping sides are covered with rich arable
land, and wooded to the summit with thick and
beautiful coppice.. After a gentle ascent of about
half a mile, an elevated spot is reached, called
? Rest and be Thankful,? from whence a series of
magnificent views can be had of the city and the
surrounding scenery, extending from the undulating
slopes of the Pentlands on the south, to the Forth
with all its isles, Fife with all its hills, woods, and
sea-coast towns, and eastward away to the cone
of North Berwick and the cliffs of the Bass. But
always most beautiful here are the fine effects of
evening and sunset-
?? When the curtain of twilight o?ershadows the shore,
And deepens the tints on the blue Lammermoor,
The hues on Corstorphine have paled in their fire,
But sunset still lingers in gold on its spire,
When the Rosebery forests are hooded in grey,
And night, like his heir, treads impatient on day.?
Amid the great concern and grief caused by the
murder of ?the bonnie Earl of Moray,? by the
Huntly faction, in 1591, we read that the King,
111
James VI., at the crisis, would not restrain his pra
pensity for field sports, and was hunting on the
north side of Corstorphine Hill on a day in
February, when Lord Spynie, hearing that Captain
John Gordon (brother of the Laird of Gicht) who
had been severely wounded in the brawl at Donnibristle,
had been brought to Leith, together with
Moray?s dead body, having a warrant to place him
in Edinburgh Castle, was anticipated by the Lord
Ochiltree..
The latter, at the head of forty men-at-arms,
went in search of James VI., whom he found at
? Corstorphine Craigs, where his majesty was
taking a drink.? Ochiltree dismounted at the
base of the hill, approached the king respectfully
form, and the captain was beheadit and his man
hanged. The captain condemned the fact, protesting
that he was brought ignorantly upon it?
(Calderwood, &c)
In 1632 and 1650 respectively the Parliament
House and Heriot?s Hospital were built from a
quarry at Corstorphine.
Past the latter, on the 27th of August, 1650, the
Scottish army, under Leslie, marched to baffle
Cromwell a second time in his attempt to tu15 the
Scottish position and enter Edinburgh. An encounter
took place near Gogar, on ground still called
the Flashes, from the explosion of firearms in the
twilight probably, ?I and after a distant cannonade,
the English, finding that they could not dislodge
the Scots, drew off? towards Braid.
Corstorphine must at one time have had a kind
of market cross, as in 1764 it is announced in the
Edinburgh Advertiser of 14th February, that there
are for sale, three tenements ?near the Cross of
Corstorphine ; one, a house of three storeys, with
fourteen fire-rooms, and stables ; ? the other twD
are stated to have ?fixed bedsteads on the floor,?
?

... Some have derived it from Coire, a hollow, stoir, wet steps, and eitherjonn, white, orfein, ...

Book 5 p. 113
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THE LA WNMARKET. 163
gable are the initials T. G. and B. G., while on a corresponding shield to the east a
curious device occurs, not unlike an ornamental key, with the 6it in the form of a crescent.
Many such fancy devices occur on the older buildings in Edinburgh, the only probable
explanation of which appears to be that they are merchants’ marks. This house is alluded
to in the divisions of the city for the sixteen companies formed in 1634, in obedience to
an injunction of Charles I,, where the second division, on the north side of the Castle Hill,
terminates at ‘‘ Thomas Gladstone’s Land.”’
Previous to the opening’of Bank Street, Lady Stair’s Close, the fird below this old
building, waa the chief thoroughfare for foot passengers taking advantage of the halfformed
earthen mound, to reach the New Town. It derives ita name from Elizabeth,
Dowager Countess of Stair, who, as the wife of the Viscount Primrose, forms one of the
most interesting characters associated with the romantic traditions of old Edinburgh.
Scott has made the incidents of Lady Primrose’s singular story the groundwork of Aunt
Margaret’s Mirror,” perhaps the most striking of all his briefer tales ; while the scarcely
less interesting materials preserved by the latest survivors of the past generation form
some of the most attractive pages of ‘‘ Chambers’s Traditions.” This story, with nearly
all the marvellous features of Aunt Margaret’s tale, received universal credit from the
contemporaries of the principal actors in its romantic scenes, as well as from many of the
succeeding generation.
The Countess Dowager of Stair was long looked up to as the leader of fashion, and
an admission to her select circle courted as one of the highest objects of ambition among
the smaller gentry of the period. One cannot help smiling now at the idea of the leader
of ton in the Scottish capital condescendingly receiving the dite of fashionable society
in the second flat of a common stair in a narrow close of the Old Town ; yet such were the
habits of Edinburgh society in the eighteenth century, at a period when the distinctions of
rank and fashion were guarded with a degree of jealousy of which we have little conception
now.
A characteristic sample of the manners of the period is furnished in the evidence of
Sir John Stewart of Castlemilk, in the celebrated Douglas Cause, affording a peep into the
interior of Holyrood Palace about the middle of last century. Sir John Stewart states
that, being on a visit to tlie Duke of Hamilton, at his lodgings in the Abbey, the Countess
of Stair entered the room, seemingly in a very great passion, holding in her hand a letter
from Thomas Cochrane, Esq., afterwards Earl of Dundonald, to the Duke of Douglas, in
which he affirmed that the Countess of Stair had declared, that, to her knowledge, the
children said to be those of Lady Jane Douglas were fictitious ; whereupon the Countess
struck the floor three times with a staff which she had in her hand, and each time that she
struck the floor, she called the Earl a damned villain, which her ladyship said was his
own expression in his letter to the Duke. One can fancy the stately old lady in her highheeled
shoes and hoop, flourishing her cane, and crushing the obnoxious letter in her
hand, as she applied to its author the elegant epithet of his own suggestion. ’
In the same close which bears her ladyship’s name also resided the celebrated bibliographer
and antiquary, Mr George Paton, the friend and correspondent of Lord Hailes,
Gough, Bishop Percy, Ritson, George Chalmers, Pennant, Herd, and, indeed, of nearly all
Maitland, p. 285. ’ Proof for Douglas of Douglas, Esq., defender, &c. Douglas Cause.

... LA WNMARKET. 163 gable are the initials T. G. and B. G., while on a corresponding shield to the east ...

Book 10 p. 177
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THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 341
for it the savoury title it retained to the last, still preserved some remains of ancient
grandeur, as appears in our view, where an ornamental building is introduced, which had
probably formed the summer house of some neighbouring patrician’s pleasure-grounds
ere the locality acquired its unenviable distinction. The inventory of the tenants who
were at length ejected by the inexorable commissioners, forms, we think, as strange a
medley as ever congregated together in one locality. It is thus described ;-‘4 All
and hail these laigh houses lying in the said West Bow, in that close commonly
called the Stinking Close of Edinburgh, some time possessed, the one thereof by John
Edward, cobbler; another by Widow Mitchell; another by John Park, ballad crier;
another by Christian Glass, eggwife ; another by Duncan M‘Lachlan, waterman ; and
another by Alexander Anderson, bluegown; . . . and with shops, cellars, &c.,
are part of that tenement acquired by Sir William Menzies of Gladstanes, 29th April
1696.”
Beyond the singular group of buildings thus huddled together, the Bow turned abruptly
to the south, completing the Z like form of the ancient thoroughfare. Here again, and
scattered among the antique tenements that surround the area of the Grassmarket, we
find the gables and bartizans surmounted with the stone or iron cross that marks the
privileged Templar Lancls. These powerful soldier-priests possessed at one time lands
in every county, and nearly in every parish, of Scotland ; and wherever they permitted
houses to be erected thereon, they were required to bear the badge of their order, and
to submit to the jurisdiction of no local court but that of their spiritual lords. When
their possessions passed into secular hands at the Reformation, they still retained their
peculiar privileges and burdens, and their exemption from the exclusive burghal restrictions
was long a subject of heart-burning and discontent to the chartered corporations
and the magistrates of Edinburgh. The Earl of Haddington is still Lord Superior of
the Temple Lands, and his representative used to hold Baron’s Courts in them occasionally,
until this imperium in imperio was aboliclhed by the Act of 1746, which extinguished the
ancient privileges of pit and gallows, and swept away a host of independent baronies all
over the kingdom. We cannot leave the West Bow, however, once the principal entry
into the town, without glancing at the magnificent pageants which it witnessed through
successive centuries. Up this steep and narrow way have ridden James IV. and V., his
Queen, Mary of Guise, and their fair and ill-fated daughter Queen Mary. Here, too, the
latter rode in no joyous ceremonial, with Bothwell at her side, and his rude border spearmen
closing around her ; though they had thrown away their weapons as they approached
the capital, that the ravished Queen might appear to her subjects as the arbiter of her
own fate. To those who read aright the history of this calumniated and cruelly wronged
Queen, few incidents in her life are more touching than when she rode up the Bow on this
occasion, and turning her horse’s head, was about to proceed towards her own Palace of
Holyrood. It is the very culminating point of her existence ; but the die was already cast..
Bothwell, who had assumed for the occasion the air of an obsequious courtier, now seized
her horse’s bridle, and she entered the Castle a captive, and in his power. By the same
street her son, James VI., and his Queen, Anne of Denmark, made their ceremonious
entries to the capital ; and in like manner, Charles I., Oliver Cromwell, and James VIL,
while Duke of York, accompanied by his Queen and daughter, afterwards Queen Anne.

... WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 341 for it the savoury title it retained to the last, still preserved some remains of ...

Book 10 p. 373
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and here and there were sedgy pools and lonely displayed; stout and true Covenanters borne forth
tarns, where the heron fished and waded, with the i in groups to die at the gallows or in the Greygreat
sheet of the South
Loch, where now the Meadows
lie; and there, too,
was Duddingston, but in
size twice the extent we
find it now.
Of all these hills have
looked on since the Roman
altars of Jove smoked at
lnveresk and Cramond, of
all the grim old fortress on
its rock and St. Giles?s
Gothic and imperial crown
have seen, we shall endeavour
to lay the wondrous
story before our
readers.
The generations of men
are like the waves of the
sea ; we know not whence
they come or whither they
go; but generation after
generation of citizens shall
Banquo?s spectral line of
. Dinas-Eiddyn, with their
glittering torques, armlets,
and floating hair; the
hoodedScoto-Saxons of Lothian
and the Merse, with
ringed bymes and long
battle-axes ; the steel-clad
knights bf the Bruces and
the Jameses ; merchants
and burghers in broadcloth
; monks, abbots, and
nuns; Templars on their
trial at Holyrood for sorcery
and . blasphemy;
Knights - hospitallers and
hermits of St. Anthony;
the old fighting merchant
mariners of Leith, such as
the Woods, the Bartons,
and Sir Alexander Mathieson,
(( the king of the sea ; ?
friars churchyard, where
stands the tomb which
tells us how 18,000 ofthem
perished as ?noble martyrs
for Jesus Christ ;?
cavaliers in all their
bravery and pride, and in
the days of their suffering
and downfall j the brawling
gallants of a century later,
who wore lace ruffles and
rapiers, and ? paraded ??
their opponents on the
stiiallest provocation in the
Duke?s Walk behind Holyrood
; the giave senators
and jovial lawyers of the
last century, who held their
?high jinks? in dingy
taverns near the Parliament
House; and many of the
quaint old citizens who
pass before us like figure in the valuable repertory of Kay :-all shall
kings; the men of pass in review before us, and we shall touch on
them one and all, as we
think of them, tenderly
and kindly, as of those
who are long since dead
and gone-gone to their
solemn account at the foot
of the Great WhiteThrone.
In picturesque beauty the
capital of Scotland is second
to none. ?( What the
tour of Europe was necessary
to see,I find congregated
in this one city,?
said Sir David Wilkie.
?Here alike are the beauties
of Prague and of Salzburg,
the romantic sites of
Orvieto and Tivoli, and
all the magnificence of the
Bays of Naples andGenoa.
COUNTER SEAL OF THE ABOVE.? (Af7e-r Hemy LahzJ Here, indeed, to the painwitches
andwizards perishing
in the flames at the Grassmarket or the Gallow-
-lee ; the craftsmen in arms, with their Blue Banner
The device of the common seal represents a castle triple-towered,
the gats thrown open. In uch of the towen is the head of a soldier.
F o l i e appears at the lower part and side of the seal, and above the
towen may be seen a crescent and a mullet. The lettcrinz is ?SIGIL- - LUY COMYUNI BURGI DE EDINBCBHG.?
ter?s fancy may be 6und
realised the Roman Capitol and the Grecian
Acropolis.??
t A full length figure df St. Giles standing within a Gothic porch in
pontifical vestments but without a mitre; in his right hand he holds
a crozier, and in his left a boak. At each side is a short staff terminating
in a fleur-de-lis. Branches of foliagk ornament the lower part
and sides of the design. The lettering k ?? EcrDrI SINGNO CREDATIS
(COUDE BENNI) GNO:? (Fmm a Dmnunt dated 1392).

... here and there were sedgy pools and lonely displayed; stout and true Covenanters borne forth tarns, where the ...

Book 1 p. 8
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many other lands, included those of ?Lochflatt,
Pleasance, Se Leonards, Hillhousefield, Bonnytoun,
and Pilrig,? &c.
This ancient barony and the surrounding lands
comprehended within its jurisdiction were granted
by James VI., in 1568, to Adam Bothwell, Bishop
of Orkney, in whose time the village tolbooth
would seem to have been erected; it remained
intact till 1829, and stood at the east of the present
Barony ?Street, a quaint edifice, with crowstepped
gables and dormer windows. Over its north door,
to which a flight of thirteen steps gave access, was
the date 1582. It was flanked on one side by a
venerable set of stocks, a symbol of justice rare in
Scotland, where the ironjougs were always used.
The bishop surrendered these lands to the
Crown in 1587, in favour of Sir Lewis Bellenden of
and -his successors had the power of appointing
bailies and holding courts within the limits of the
barony. Sir Lewis, a noted trafficker with yizards,
died on the 3rd of November, 1606, and was succeeded
by his son Sir William Bellenden, as Baron
of Broughton, which in those days was notorious
as the haunt of reputed witches and war!ocks, who
were frequently incarcerated in its old tolbooth.
An execution of some of these wretched creatures is
thus recorded in the minutes of the Privy Council :
?? 1608, December I. The Earl of Mar declared
to the Council that some women were taken in
Broughton as witches, and being put to an assize
and cmvicted, albeit they persevered in their
denial to the end, yet they were burned quick
(alive) after such a cruel manner that some of them
died in despair, renouiicing and blaspheming (God) ;
Broughton was the
scene of some encounters between the Queen?smen
and King?s-men in the time of the Regent
Morton. The latter were in the habit of defying
Kirkaldy?s garrison in the Castle, by riding about
the fields in range of his guns with handkerchiefs
tied to the points of their swords. One of these
parties, commanded by Henry Stewart, second
Lord Methven, in 1571, ?being a little too forward,
were severely reprimanded for their unreasonable
bravery ; for, as they stood at a place called
Broughton, a cannon bullet knocked his lordship
and seven men on the head; he was reputed
a good soldier, and had been more lamented had
he behaved himself more wisely.? (Crawford of
Drumsoy.)
Like other barons, the feudal superior of
Broughton had powers of ?pit and gallows? over
his vassals-so-called from the manner in which
criminals were executed-hanging the men upon a
gibbet, and drowning women in a pit as it was not
deemed decent to hang them. Sir Lewis Bellenden
In October, 1627, as
the Privy Council was sitting in its chamber at
the palace of Holyrood, a strange outrage took
place. John Young, a poulterer, attacked Mr.
Richard Bannatyne, bailiedepute of Broughton, at
the Council-room door, and struck him in the
back with his sword, nearly killing him on the
spot. In great indignation the Council sent off
Young to be tried on the morrow at the tolbooth,
with orders : ? If he be convict, that his Majesty?s
justice and his depute cause doom to be pronounced
against him, ordaining him to be drawn upon ane
cart backward frae the tolbooth to the place of
execution at the market cross, and there hangit to
the deid and quartered, his head to be set upon the
Nether Bow, and his hands to be set upon the
Water Yett.?
Sir William Bellenden, in 1627, disposed of the
whole lands to Robert, Earl of Roxburgh, and by
an agreement betweed hini and Charles I. this
ancient barony passed by purchase to the Governors
of Heriot?s Hospital in 1636, to whom the

... other lands, included those of ?Lochflatt, Pleasance, Se Leonards, Hillhousefield, Bonnytoun, and Pilrig,? ...

Book 3 p. 181
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236 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the 17th December’ 1596, already described, when the king was besieged in the Tolbooth
by the excited citizens, Andrew Hart is specially mentioned as one of the very foremost in
the rising that produced such terror and indignation in King James’s mind ; in so much
so, that he was soon after warded in the Castle of Edinburgh, at his Majesty’s instance, as
one of the chief authors of (‘ that seditious stirring up and moving of the treasonable
tumult and uproare that was in the burgh.”’ We can fancy the sturdy old printer sallying
out from the close, at the cry of “ Armour! armour ! ” hastily armed with his loug spear
and jack, and joining the excited burghers, that mustered from every booth and alley to
lay siege to the affrighted monarch in the Tolbooth, or to help ‘‘ the worthy Deacon Watt;”
in freeing him from his ignoble durance.
The house which stauds between the fore and back lands of the famed typographer, was
celebrated during the last century as one of the best frequented taverns in the neighbourhood
of the Cross, and a favourite resort of some of the most noted of the clubs, by means
of which the citizens of that period were wont to seek relaxation and amusement. Foremost
among these WLS the Cape Club, celebrated in Ferguson’s poem of Auld Reekie.
The scene of meeting for a considerable period, where Cape Hall was nightly inaugurated,
was in James Mann’s, at the Isle of Man Arms, Craig’s Close. There a perpetual High
Jinks was kept up, by each member receiving on his election a peculiar name and character
which he was ever afterwards expected to maintain. This feature, however, was by
no means confined to the Cape Club, but formed one of the peculiarities of nearly all the
convivial meetings of the capital, so that a slight sketch of ‘(the Knights of the Cape ”
will suffice for a good sample of these old Edinburgh social unions. The Club appears
from its minutes to have been duly constituted, and the mode of procedure finally fixed, in
the year 1764 ; it had however existed long before, and the name and peculiar forms which
it then adopted were derived from the characters previously assumed by its leading
members.2 Its peculiar insignia were-lst, a cape, or crown, which was worn by the
Sovereign of the Cape on state occasions, and which, in the palmy days of the Club, ita
enthusiastic devotees adorned with gold and jewels; and, 2d, two maces in the form of
huge steel pokers, which formed the sword and sceptre of his Majesty in Cape Hall,
These, with other relics of this jovial fraternity, are now appropriately hung in the lobby
of the Societies of Antiquaries.
The first Sovereign of the order after its final constitution was Thomas Lancashire, the
Once celebrated comedian, on whom Ferguson wrote the following epitaph :-
Alae ! poor Tom, how oft, with merry heart,
Have we beheld thee play the sexton’s part I
Each merry heart muat now be grieved to Bee
The sexton’s dreary part performed on thee.
The comedian rejoiced in the title of Sir Cape, and in right of his sovereignty gave name
to the Club, while the title of Sir Poker, which pertained to its oldest member, James
Aitken, suggested the insignia of royalty. Tom Lancashire was succeeded on the throne
by David Herd, the welI-known editor of what Scott calls the first classic edition of Scottish
songs, whose knightly soubriquet was Sir Scrape. His secretary was Jacob More, the
, ’ Calderwood’e Hit. vol. v. pp. 512, 520, 535. * A different account of the Knights of the Cape has been published, but the general accuracy of the text may be
relied upon, being derived from the minute books of the Club.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. the 17th December’ 1596, already described, when the king was besieged in the ...

Book 10 p. 257
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which is of great height, contains a large painting
over the stone fireplace of the Adoration of the
Vise Men.
A few steps from this was the old Bank Close
(so-called from the Bank of Scotland having
been in it), a blind alley, composed wholly
of solid, handsome, , and massive houses, some
of which were of great antiquity, and of old
named Hope?s Close, from the celebrated Sir
Thomas Hope, King?s Advocate in the time
of Charles I., prior to whom it had borne the
name of Mauchine?s Close, about the year 151 I.
Here, on the site of
the present Melbourne
Place, stood a famous old
mansion, almost unique
even in Edinburgh,
named Robert Gourlay?s
House, with the legend,
above its door, ?0 Lord
in fhe is a2 my fraift
1569?; and it is somewhat
singular that the owner
of this house was neither
a man of rank nor of
wealth, but simply a messenger-
at-arms belonging
to the Abbey of Holyrood,
an office bestowed upon
him by the Commendator,
Adam Bothwell,
Bishop of Orkney. In
I 5 74 Robert Gourlay
was an elder of the kirk,
and in that year had
to do his public penance
therein ?(for franqorfing
wheat out of the counfrie.?
In 1581, when the Regent
Morton was about to
suffer death, he was placed in Gourlay?s house
for two days under a guard; and there it was
that those remarkable conferences took place
between him and certain clergymen, in which,
while protesting his innocence of the murder of
Darnley, he admitted his foreknowledge of it.
Among many popular errors, is one that he invented
the ? maiden? by which he suffered ; but it
is now known to have been the common Scottish
guillotine, since Thomas Scott was beheaded by it
on the 3rd of April, 1566.
On the 7th of January, 1582, Mopse tells us in
his Memoirs, ?there came a French ambassador
through England, named La Motte (Fenelon), he
was lodged in Gourlay?s house near Tolbooth, and
had an audience of his Majesty; with him there
also came another ambassador from England,
named Mr. Davidson, who got an audience also
that same day in the king?s chamber of presence.?
This was probably a kinsman of De la Motte,
the French ambassador, who was slain at Flodden.
He !eft Edinburgh on the 10th of February.
Herein resided Sir William Drury during the siege
of the Castle in 1573, and thither, on its surrender,
was brought its gallant defender before death, with
his brother Sir James Kirkaldy and others ; and it
was here that in later years the great Argyle is said to
. .
DEACON BRODIE. (After Kay.)
havhpassed his last hours
in peaceful sleep before
his execution. So Robert
Gourlay?s old house had
a terrible history. By
this time the house had
passed into the possession
of Sir Thomas Hope.
Hence it has been conjectured
that Argyle?s last
sleep took place in the
high Council Room,
whither, Wodrow says, he
was brought before rxecutim.
John Gourlay, son of
Robert, erected a house
at the foot of this ancient
close. It bore the
date I 588, with the motto,
Spes aZtera vife. Herein
was the Bank of Scotland
first established in 1695,
and there its business
was conducted till 1805,
when it was removed to
their new office, that stupendous
edifice . at the
head of the entrance to the Earthen Mound. Latterly
it was used as the University printing-office ;
and therein, so latelyas 1824, was in use, as a proof
press, the identical old wooden press which accompanied
the Highland army, in 1745, for the publication
of gazettes and manifestoes.
Robert Gourlay?s house passed from the possession
of Sir Thomas Hope and Lord Aberuchill into that
of Sir George Lockhart (the great legal and political
rival of Sir George Mackenzie), Lord President of
the Session in 1685, and doomed to fall a victim to
private revenge. Chiesly of Dalry, an unsuccessful
litigant, enraged at the president for assigning
a small aliment of A93 out of his estate-a fine one
south-westward of the city-to his wife, from whom

... is of great height, contains a large painting over the stone fireplace of the Adoration of the Vise Men. A ...

Book 1 p. 116
(Score 0.31)

316 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
poem by John Bvrel, written on the occasion of Queen Anne’s arrival, and entitled,
“ The Description of the Qveenis Maiesties maist honourable entry into the tovn of
Edinbagh.” The history of the author is unknown, but we have found among the
title-deeds of part of the old property at the foot of Toddrick’s Wynd, a disposition of a
house by ‘‘ John Burrell, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his Majestie’s cunzie hous,”
dated 1628, and which, when t.aken in connection with the profuse and very circumstantial
minuteness with which the poet dwells on the jewellery that was displayed on
that occasion, seems to afford good presumptive evidence of this being the same person.
After devoting nine stanzas to such professional details, he sums up the inventory by.
declaring :-
All precius stains micht thair be eetie,
Quhilk in the world had ony name,
Save that quhilk Cleopatra Queene
Did swallow ore into hir wame !
The poet proceeds thereafter to describe, with equal zest, the golden chains and other
ornaments made of the precious metals, and concludes with a patriotic supplication to
heaven on behalf of the good town. The goldsmiths connected with the Mint would appear
to have possessed lodgings either within the building or in its immediate neighbourhood ;
and it was no doubt owing to George Heriot’s professional avocations that he obtained the
great tenement forming the north side of the Mint Court, which was afterwards devised
by him as the most suitable place for his benevolent foundation.’ George Heriot’s large
messuage or tenement was found by his executors to be waste and ruinous, and altogether
unsuited for the purposes of his foundation. The buildings that now occupy its site appear
to have been erected exactly a century later than the older portion of the Mint Close. An
ornamental sun-dial, which decorates the eastern wing, bears the date 1674; and over
the main doorway on the first floor, which is approached, in the old fashion, by an outside
stair, the letters C. R. 11. are sculptured, surmounting a crown, with the inscription and
date, GOD SAVE THE KING, 1675. Here was the lodging of the celebrated Earl of Argyle
during his attendance on the ScottiRh Parliament, after Charles 11. had unexpectedly
restored him to his father’s title, as appears from a curious case reported in Fountainhall’s
Decisions.’ The date is November 22, 1681, only a few days after the Earl had been
committed a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle, from whence he effected his escape under the
disguise of a page, holding up the train of Lady Sophia Lindsay, his step-daughter.
Towards the close of last century, the mansion on the north side of the court was the
residence of the eminent physician, Dr Cullen, while Lord Hailes occupied the more ancient
lodging on the south, before he removed to the modern dwelling erected for himself in
New Street. The west side of the court was at one time the abode of Lord Belhaven;
and Lord Haining, the Countess of Stair, Douglas of Cavers, and other distinguished
tenants, occupied this fashionable quarter of the town during the last century.
In Heriota will the property is described a8 “ theis my great tenementa of landis, &c., lyand ou the south side of
the King his Highe Streit thairoff, betwixt the Cloise or Wenall callit Gray’s Clois or Coyne HOUBC loise, at the east,
the Wgnd or Wenell callit Todrig’a Wynd at the west, and the said Coyne How, CE& at the south.”-Dr Steven’s Life
of George Heriot, App. p. 27.
Fountainhall’s Decisions, vol. i. p. 163.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. poem by John Bvrel, written on the occasion of Queen Anne’s arrival, and ...

Book 10 p. 344
(Score 0.31)

144 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
last recorded noble occupants are mentioned by Chambers as ((two ancient spinsters,
daughters of Lord GraF.” Over the main entrance of the next land, there is a defaced
inscription, with the date 1621. The house immediately below this is worthy of notice,
as a fine specimen of an old wooden fronted land, with the timbers of the gable elegantly
carved. During the early part of the last century, this formed the family mansion of
David, the third Earl of Leven, on whom the title devolved after being borne by two
successive Countesses in their own right. He was appointed Governor of Edinburgh Castle
by William and Mary, on its surrender by the Duke of Gordon in 1689 ; and shortly after
he headed his regiment, and distinguished himself at the battle of Killicrankie by running
away! To the east of this there formerly stood, at the head of Sempill’s Close, another
wooden fronted land, ornamented with a curious projecting porch at the entrance to the
close, and similar in general style to those taken down in 1845, of which we furnish an
engraving. It hung over the street, story above story, each projecting further the higher
it rose, as if in defiance of all laws of gravitation, nntil at length it furnished unquestionable
evidence of its great age by literally tumbling down about the ears of its poor inmates,
happily without any of them suffering very serious injury.
Immediately behind the site of this house stands a fine old mansion, at one time
belonging to the Sempill family, whose name the close still retains. It is a large and
substantial building, with a projecting turnpike stair, over the entrance to which is the
inscription, PRAISED BE THE LORD MY GOD, MY STRENGTH, AND MY
REDEEMER. ANN0 DOM. 1638, and a device like an anchor, entwined with the
letter S. Over another door, which gives entrance to the lower part of the same house,
there is the inscription, SEDES MANET OPTIMA CGLO, with the date and device
repeated. On the left of the first inscription there is a shield, bearing party per fesse, in
chief three crescents, a mullet in base. The earliest titles of the property are wanting, and
we have failed to discover to whom these arms belong. The house was purchased by
Hugh, twelfth Lord Sempill, in 1743, from Thomas Brown and Patrick Manderston, two
merchant burgesses, who severally possessed the upper and under portions of it. By him it
was converted into one large mansion, and apparently an additional story added to it, as
the outline of dormer windows may be traced, built into the west wall.
Lord Sempill, who had seen considerable military service, commanded the left wing of
the royal army at Culloden. He was succeeded by his son John, thirteenth Lord Sempill,
who, in 1755, sold the family mansion to Sir James Clerk of Pennycuik.
The ancient family of the Sempills is associated in various ways with Scottish song.
John, son of Robert, the third Lord, married Mary Livingston, one of ‘I the Queen’s
Maries.” Their son, Sir James, a man of eminent ability and great influence in his day,
was held in high estimation, and employed as ambassador to England in 1599 ; he was the
author of the clever satire, entitled “ The Packman’s Paternoster.” His aon followed in
his footsteps, and produced an “ Elegy on Habbie Simsou, the piper of Kilbarchan,” a
poem’ of great vigour and much local celebrity; while his grandson, Francis Sempill of
Beltrees, is the author both of the fine old song, “ She rose and let me in,” and of a curious
poem preserved in Watson’s collection, en titled ‘‘ Banishment of Poverty,” written about
Watson’8 Collection of Scots Poems, 1706, part i. p. 32.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. last recorded noble occupants are mentioned by Chambers as ((two ancient ...

Book 10 p. 155
(Score 0.3)

JAMES ZV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN. 23
Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and uuder the influence of the leaders at the Field of Stirling,
enacted, in his name, many harsh and unjust laws, directed against the adherents of the late
King, involving suspension or deprivation to all officers of state, and handing over (‘ all
churchmen taken in armour, to their ordinaries, to be punished according to law.” The first
occurrence that tended to rescue the King from implicit confidence in his father’s enemies,
was the splendid victory obtained by Sir Andrew Wood, over a fleet sent by Henry VII.
of England, to execute reprisals on the murderers of the late King. They had committed
great ravages on the Scottish shipping, and completely blockaded the mouth of the Forth ;
when Sir Andrew Railed against them, and with an inferior force, completely defeated, and
brought the whole armament, consisting of five large ships, into Leith. Shortly after this,
the King concluded a truce with England, and on the 15th day of February 1490, his second
Parliament met at Edinburgh, and again another in the following year, both of which
enacted many salutary laws ; and, at the same time, Andrew Foreman, Protonotary of Pope
Alexander VL, arrived at the Scottish Court with consolatory letters to the King, whose
grief at the share he had taken in the fatal rebellion against his father still manifested itself
in severe penances and mortifications. He was also the bearer of a bull, addressed to the
abbots of Paisley and Jedburgh,’ empowering them to absolve and readmit into the church
all such as had been accessory to the death of King James 111. of famous memory, on
their expressing sincere repentance for the same.* And now the King, drawing towards
manhood, the ominous clouds that had threatened the commencement of his reign disappeared,
and a long and prosperous calm succeeding his early troubles, left him free to
give the rein to his chivalrous tastes, and extend his royal patronage to the many eminent
men that adorned the Scott,ish Court.
During this reign, Edinburgh became celebrated throughout Europe, as the scene of
knightly feats of arms. tournaments are of great antiquity
; they were held. in Edinburgh in the reign of milliam the Lion, and in those of
many of the succeeding Princes. The valley or low ground lying between the wester road
to Leith, and the rock at Lochend, was bestowed by James 11. on the community of Edinburgh,
for the special purpose of holding tournaments and other martial sports.” Here,
most probably, the weaponshaws which were of such constant recurrence at a later period, ‘
as well as such martial parades as were summoned by civic authority, were held, unless in
cases of actual preparation for war, when the Borough Muir seems to have been invariably
the appointed place of rendezvous. The favourite scene of royal tournaments, however,
was a spot of ground near the King’s Stables, just below the Castle wall. Here James
IT., in particular, often assembled his lords and barons, by proclamation, for jousting;
offering such meeds of honour as a spear headed with gold, and the like favours, presented
to the victor by the King’s own hand; so that ‘‘ the fame of hisjusting and turney spread
throw all Europe, quhilk caused many errand knyghtis cum out of vther pairtes to Scotland
to seik justing, becaus they hard of the kinglie fame of the Prince of Scotland. Bot few
or none of thame passed away vnmached, and oftymes overthromne.” ‘
One notable encounter is specially recorded, which took place between Sir John Cockbewis,
a Dutch knight, and Sir Patrick Hamilton. “ Being assembled togidder on great
In this country,” says Arnot,
Hawthornden, p. 68
Arnot, p. i l .
’ Martial Achievements, voL ii. p. 497. ’ Piboottie, vol. E. p. 246.

... ZV. TO THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN. 23 Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and uuder the influence of the leaders at the Field ...

Book 10 p. 25
(Score 0.3)

THE CANONGA TE AND ABBE Y SANCTUAR Y. 277
protect it in any later extension of the fortifications of the capital. Towards this suburb,
the Burgh of the Canons of Holyrood gradually progressed westward, until, a8 now, one
unbroken line of houses extended from the Castle to the Abbey.
It seems strange that no attempt should have been made, either in the disastrous year
1513, when the Cowgate was enclosed, or at any subsequent period, to include the
Canongate and the royal residence within the extended military defences. It only affords,
however, additional evidence that the marked difference in the origin of each maintained
an influence even after the lapse of centuries.’ The probability is, that greater confidence
was reposed both by clergy and laity in the sanctity of the monks of Holyrood t.han in
the martial prowess of their vassals. Nor did such reliance prove misplaced, until, in the
year 1544, the hosts of Henry VIII. ravaged the distracted and defenceless kingdom,
under the guidance of the Earl of Hertford, to whom the Nonk’s cowl and the Abbot’s
mitre were even less sacred than the jester’s suit of motley. There is little reason to think
that a single fragment of building prior to that invasion exists in the Canongate, apart
from the remains of the Abbey and Palace of Holyrood. The return of Queen Mary,
however, to Scotland in 1561, and the permanent residence of the Court at Holyrood,
gave a new impetus to the capital and its suburban neighbour. The earliest date now
to be found on any private building is that of 1565, which occurs on an ancient tenement
at the head of Dunbar’s Close; and is characterised by features of antiquity no less
strongly marked than those on any of the most venerable fabrics in the burgh.
The rival Parliament which assembled here during the siege of the capital in 1571,
under the Regent Lennox, ‘‘ in William Oikis hous in the Cannongat, within the freidom
of Edinburgh, albeit the samyne wes nocht within the portis thairof,” has already been
referred to.’ But an ingenious stratagem which was tried by the besiegers shortly
afterwards, for the purpose of surprising the town, forms one of the most interesting
incidents connected with this locality. This “ slicht of weir ” is thus narrated by the
contemporary diarist already quoted:-Upon the 22d day of August 1571, my Lord
Regent and the nobles professing the. Eing’s authority, seeing they could not obtain
entry into the burgh of Edinburgh, caused several bands of soldiers to proceed from
Leith during the night and conceal themselves in the closes and adjoining houses
immediately without the Nether Bow Port, while a considerable reserve force was
collected at the Abbey, ready on a concerted signal from their trumpets to hasten to
their aid. On the following morning, about five o’clock, when it was believed the night
watch would be withdrawn, six soldiers, diaguised as millers, approached the Port, leading
a file of horses laden with sacks of meal, which were to be thrown down as they entered,
so as to impede the closing of the gates; and while they assailed the warders with
weapons they wore concealed under their disguise, the men in ambush were ready to rush
out and storm the town. But, says the diarist, “ the eternall God, knawing the cruel1
murther that wald haue bene done and committit vpoun innocent pover personis of the
said burgh, wald not thole this interpryse to tak successe, bot evin quhen the said meill
’ The Canongate appears to have been so far enclosed aa to anawer ordinary municipal purposea It had ita gates,
which were @hut at night, as is shown further on, but the walla do not seem to have partaken in any degree of the
character of military defences, and were never attempted to be held out against au enemy.
Diurnal of Occurrenb, p. 214 ; vide ante, p. 82.

... CANONGA TE AND ABBE Y SANCTUAR Y. 277 protect it in any later extension of the fortifications of the capital. ...

Book 10 p. 301
(Score 0.3)

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 266
Wryts of ane lodging,” &c., on the east side of the close, a charter is mentioned, dated
1456, “ granted be David Rae, vicar generall ; Ffindlay Ker, prior ; . and the rest of the
Convent of Graifriers att Edinburgh, to Andrew Mowbray, burgess,” of a certain piece of
land on which it is built, bounded by the king’s wall on the south. About halfway down
the close, on the east side, stands the ancient mansion of the Earls of Selkirk, having
a large garden to the south, while the principal entrance is from Hyndford‘s Close. The
building has the appearance of great antiquity. The ground floor of the south front
seems to have been an open arcade or cloister, and on the west wall a picturesque turret
staircase projects from the first floor into the close. This ancient tenement has successively
formed the residence of the Earls of Stirling, of the Earl of Hyndford, and, at a still later
period, of Dr Rutherford, the maternal grandfather of Sir Walter Scott. Hyndford’s
Close, which forms the main approach to the house, retains its antique character, having
on the west side a range of singularly picturesque overhanging timber gables. It is
neatly paved, terminating in a small court, open at one side, and altogether presents a
very pleasing specimen of the retired, old-fashioned gentility which once characterised
these urban retreats. The fine old house described above, which forms the chief
building in the close, possesses peculiar interest as a favourite haunt of Scott
during his earlier years. Its vicinity to the High School gave it additional attractions
to him, while pursuing his studies there, and he frequently referred in after
life to the happy associations he had with this alley of the Old Town. A very pleasing
view of the house from the garden is given in the Abbotsford edition of the great
novelist’s works.
To the south of this mansion, in the Mint Close, a lofty tenement, enclosing a small
paved area, still bears the name of Elphinstone’s Court, having been built by Sir James
Elphinstone in 1619. From him it passed to Sir Francia Scptt of Thirlstane, by whom
it was sold to Patrick Wedderburn, Esq., who assumed the title of Lord Chesterhall
on his elevation to the Bench in 1755. His son Alexander, afterwards the celebrated
Lord Loughborough, Lord High Chancellor of England, disposed of it shortly after
his father’s death to Lord Stonefield, who sat as a judge in the Court of Session during
the long period of thirty-nine years, and died in the Mint Close at the beginning of
the present century; so recent is the desertion of this ancient locality by the grandees of
the capital.
Various ancient tenements are to be found in the adjoining closes, of which tradition
has kept no note, and we have failed to obtain any other clue to their history. One
large mansion in South Foulis Close bears the date 1539 over its main doorway, with two
coats of arms impaled on one large shield in the centre, but all now greatly defaced.
Another, nearly opposite to it, exhibits an old oak door, ornamented with h e carving,
still in tolerable preservation, although the whole place has been converted into
storerooms and cellars. But adjoining this is a relic of antiquiQ, beside which the
works of the iifteenth and sixteenth centuries appear but as things of yesterday, and
even the ancient chapel of St Margaret in the Castle becomes .a work of comparatively
recent date.
In the front of a tall and narrow tenement at the Nether Bow, nearly opposite to
John Knox’s house, a piece of ancient sculpture has long formed one of the most noted

... HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 266 Wryts of ane lodging,” &c., on the east side of the close, a charter is ...

Book 10 p. 292
(Score 0.3)

338 ‘MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
stentoriously laughing, and gaping with tahees of laughter. . . . Though sick with fear,
yet she went the next morning with her maid to view the noted places of her former night’s
walk, and at the close inquired who lived there? It is
not to be wondered that Major Weir’s house should have been deserted after his death,
and that many a strange sound and fearful sight should have testified to the secure hold the
powers of darkness had established on this dwelling of their emissaries. The enchanted
staff was believed to have returned to its post, and to wait as porter at the door. The hum
of the necromantic wheel was heard at the dead of night, and the deserted mansion wag
sometimes seen blazing with the lights of aome eldrich festival, when the Major and his
sister were supposed to be entertaining the Prince of Darkness. There were not even
wanting those, during the last century, who were affirmed to have seen the Major issue at
midnight from the narrow close, mounted on a headless charger, and gallop off in a whirlwind
of flame. The Major’s visits became fewer
and less ostentatious, until at length it was only at rare intervals that some midnight
reveller, returning homeward through the deserted Bow, was startled by a dark and silent
shadow that flitted across his path as he approached the haunted corner. The house is now
used as a, broker’s store, but the only tenant, during well-nigh two centuries, who has had
the hardihood to tempt the visions of the night within its walls, was scared by such horrible
sights, that no one is likely to molest the Dlajor’s privacy again. When all thesefacts
are considered, it need not excite our wonder that this house should have escaped even the
rabid assaults of an Improvements’ Commission, that raged 80 fiercely around the haunted
domicile. It may be reasonably questioned, indeed, whether, if workmen were found bold
enough to raze it to the ground, it would not be found on the morrow, in statu quo, grimly
frowning defiance on its baffled assailants I
Such are the associations with one little fragment of the Bow that still exists; our
remaining descriptions must be, alas I of things that were, and that appeared so hideous to
the refhed tastes of our civic reformers, that they have not grudged the cost of 22400,000
to have them removed. Directly facing the low archway leading into Major Weir’s Close
was the Old Assembly Rooms, bearing the date 1602, and described in its ancient titledeeds
as ‘‘ that tenement of land on the west side of the transe of the Over Bow, betwixt
the land of umq” Lord Ruthven on the north, and the King’s auld wall on the south
parts.” Lord Ruthven’s land, which appears in our engraving of the Old Assembly Rooms,
was an ancient timber-fronted tenement, similar to those we have described in the Castle
Hill. It possessed, however, a peculiar and thrilling interest, if it-was-as we conceive
from the date of the deed, and the new title of his sons, it must have been-the mansion
of the grim and merciless baron, who stalked into the chamber of Queen Nary on that
dire night of the 9th of March 1566, like the ghastly vision of death, and struck home his
dagger into the royal favourite, whose murder he afterwards claimed to have chiefly contrived.
A curious and valuable relic, apparently of its early proprietor, was discovered on the demolition
of this ancient tenement. Between the ceiling and floor in one of the apartments, a
large and beautifully-chased sword was found concealed, with the scabbard almoat completely
decayed, and the blade, which was of excellent temper, deeply corroded with
rust about half-way towards the hilt. The point of it was broken off, but it still measured
323 inches long. The maker’s name, WILHELWM IRSBERwGa,s inlaid in brass on the blade.
It was answered, Major Weir.’’
Time, however, wrought its usual cure,
.

... ‘MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. stentoriously laughing, and gaping with tahees of laughter. . . . Though sick with ...

Book 10 p. 370
(Score 0.3)

328 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Blind ; one of the Committee of Management of the Deaf and Dumb Institution ;
one of the Extraordinary Directors of the House of Refuge; and one of
the Ordinary Managers of the Royal Infirmary, and of the Royal Public
Dispensary.
To the Society of Antiquaries, Sir Henry communicated an interesting
account of the opening of the grave of King Robert the Bruce, which took place
at Dunfermline, in presence of the Barons of Exchequer and other gentlemen,
on the 5th of November 1819.’
i
The other figure with the volunteer cap, immediately in the rear of Sir
Henry, is the late SIR ROBERT DUNDAS of Beechwood, Bart., one of the
Principal Clerks of Session, and Deputy to the Lord Privy Seal of Scotland.
He was born in June 1761, and descended of the Arniston family, whose
common ancestor, Sir James .Dundas, was knighted by Charles I., and
appointed a Senator of the College of Justice by Charles 11. His father, the
Rev. Robert Dundas, brother to the late General Sir David Dundas, K.G.C.B.,
and some years Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty’s Forces, was a clergyman
of the Established Church, and some time minister of the parish of Humbie, in
the county of Haddington. Sir Robert-the subject of our notice-was educated
as a Writer to the Signet, After a few years’ practice, he was made
Deputy Keeper of Sashes; and, in 1820, appointed one of the Principal
Clerks of Session. He succeeded to the baronetage and the estate of Beechw9od
(near Edinburgh) on the death of his uncle, General Sir David Dundas.
He acquired by purc)ase, from, Lord Viscount Melville, the beautiful estate of
Dunira, in Perthshire.
Sir Robert was an original member of the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, and
held the commission of Lieutenant in 1794. In 1792, he married Matilda,
daughter of Baron Cockburn, by whom he had eight children. He died on
1 The communication of Sir Henry appeared in the Society’s Tyamactiom, printed in 1823, vol.
ii. part ii., together with a drawing of the coftin, and a facsimile of a plate of copper supposed to
have been attached to it. This relic is stated to have been found by the workmen a few days a f h
the opening of the grave, and is described as “ five and a half inches in length, and four in breadth,
and about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, with holes at each corner for fixing it on the coffin,
bearing this inscription, Robertus Xcotomm Rex; the letters resemble those on the coins of this
King [Bruce]. A cross is placed under the inscription, with a mullet or star in each angle, with the
crown, precisely of the form iu those coins. It was found among the rubbish which had been
removed on the 5th, close to the vault on the east side, and most probably had been adhering to thc
atones of the vault, and had thus escaped our notice at the time.” The plate, so minutely and
gravely described, was forwarded by Provost Wilson of Dunfermline, and duly deposited in the
Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries ; but it afterwards transpired that the “important fragment,”
as it was termed, was nothing more than an ingenious device, the work of a blacksmith, contrived
for the purpose of hoaxing the Antiquariev ! The success of his attempt waa complete ; and but for
his own imprudence, or rather an irresistible desire to enjoy the laugh at the expense of the Society,
the deception might have remained undiscovered.
It may not be unworthy of notice that Sir Henry wiw one of the commissioners appointed, along
with Sir Walter Scott and others, to open the chest which contained the Regalia of Scotland,
deposited in Edinburgh Castle, but which, according to rumour, had been carried to the Tower of
London, and that he had the high gratification of being the first to lay hands upon the Crown, which
he held up to the view of the spectators. It was found on the 4th of February 1818.

... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Blind ; one of the Committee of Management of the Deaf and Dumb Institution ; one of ...

Book 9 p. 437
(Score 0.3)

THE LA WNMARKET. 169
acquired by Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik. By him it was sold to Sir Roderick Mackenzie
of Preston Hall, appointed a senator of the College of Justice in 1702, who resided in the
upper part of the house, at the same time that Sir James Mackenzie, Lord Royston, third
aon of the celebrated Earl of Cromarty, one of the wittiest and most gifted men of his
time,” occupied the lower flat. Here, therefore, in all probability, his witty and eccentric
daughter, Anne, was born and brought up. This lady, who married Sir William Dick of
Prestonfield, carried her humorous pranks to an excess scarcely conceivable in our decorous
days ; sallying out occasionally in search of adventures, like some of the maids of honour
of Charles the Second‘s Court,’ dressed in male attire, with her maid for a squire, and out-
Vying them in the extravagance of her proceedings. She seems indeed to have possessed
more wit than discretion. Some of her poetical lampoons have been privately printed by
C. K. Sharpe, Esq., in a rare, though well-known little volume, entitled, (‘A Ballad
Book,” and furnish curioua specimens of the notions of delicacy at the period,
Half a dozen more Provosts, Baronets, and Lords of Session, might be mentioned as
the old occupants of this aristocratic quarter, but it will probably interest the reader more
to learn that “ The laigh tenement of land ” was ‘( sometime possessed by Jean Straiton,
relict of the deceased Mr David Williamson, Minister of the Gospel at the West Kirk,”-
the well-known ‘‘ Daintie Davie ” of Scottish song, who, if tradition has not wronged him,
had (‘ worn out six wives,” ere Jean Straiton, the seventh, contrived to survive him. He.
was one of the ejected ministers in 1665, and was restored, to the great joy of the parishioners,
in 1689, although the Duke of Gordon, then under siege in the Castle, contrived
to keep him out of his church for some months thereafter, and left the ancient fabric wellnigh
reduced to ruins ere he surrendered the fortress.’ His grave is still pointed out in
the churchyard of St Cuthbert’s, though there is no other inscription over it than his
initials on the enclosing wall, to mark the spot where he is laid.
The accompanying engraving renders a detailed description of the ancient court unnecessary.
One feature, however, is worthy of special notice, viz., the antique carved oak
shutters with which the lower half of one of the windows is closed, forming the finest
specimen of this obsolete fashion now remaining in Edinburgh.
To the east of this ancient quadrangle, there stood, till within these few years, the old
town residence of the Buccleuch family, entering from Fisher’s Close, demolished about
1835, to make way for Victoria Terrace; and hmediately beyond this, in Brodie’s
Close, there still remains, in the Roman Eagle Hall, an exceedingly beautiful specimen
of a large and highly decorated ancient saloon. This, however, falls to be treated of in
another chapter; but the same old close-re the besom of modern “ improvement ”
swept over it with indiscriminate destruction-contained various dwellings, pleasingly
associated with the memories of some of Edinburgh’s worthiest citizens in ‘( The Olden
Time. ”
On the east side of an open court, immediately beyond the Roman Eagle Hall, stood
the ancient mansion of the Littles of Craiagmillar, bearing below a large moulded and
deeply recessed stone panel, WILLIAME 1570 * LITIL, and on six shields, underneath
as many crow-stepped gables, were the initials, V. L., boldly cut in various forms.
William Little and his brother, Clement, may justly be considered, along with James
1 Grammout Memoirs. * Hiat. of West Kirk,-pp. 76-84.
Y

... LA WNMARKET. 169 acquired by Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik. By him it was sold to Sir Roderick Mackenzie of ...

Book 10 p. 184
(Score 0.3)

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