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114 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [New Tom.
- ~~~~ ~ ~
Cockburn, the former spoke thus affectionately
.of the High School :-
? In this town it was, as was truly observed by
.our worthy chairman, that I first imbibed the noble
grinciples of a liberal Scottish education; and it is
Ifit that I should tell you, as many of you may not
have heard what I have frequently told to others,
:in other places, and in other meetings, that I have
:seen no other plan of education so efficient as that
which is established in this city. With great
experience and opportunity of observation, I
certainly have never yet seen any one system so
well adapted for training up good citizens, as well
as learned and virtuous men, as the old High School
of Edinburgh and the Scottish Universities. Great
improvements may, and no doubt will be made,
even in these seminaries. But what I have to say
of the High School of Edinburgh, and, as the
ground of the preference I give it over others,
and even over another academy, lately established
in this city, on what is said to be a more improved
principle-what I say is this : that such a school is
altogether invaluable in a free State-in a State
having higher objects in view, by the education of
its youth, than a mere knowledge of the Latin and
Greek languages, and the study of prosody. That
in a State like this, higher objects should be kept
in view, there can be no doubt ; though I confess I
have passed much of my time in these studies myself.
?Yet a school like the old High School of
Edinburgh is invaluable, and for what is it so? It
is because men of the highest and lowest rank
of society send their children to be educated
together. The oldest friend I have in the world,
your worthy vice-president (Lord Douglas Gordon
Halyburton of Pitcur, M.P.) and myself were at
the High School of Edinburgh together, and in the
same class along with others, who still possess our
friendship, and some of them in a rank in life still
higher than us. One of them was a nobleman who
is now in the House of Peers ; and some of them
were the sons of shopkeepers in the lowest part of
the Cowgate-shops of the most inferior descnption-
and one or two of them were the sons of
menial servants in the town. They wen siiliug
side by side, giving and taking places from each other,
without the slightest impression on the part of my
noble friends of any superiority on their parts to
the other boys, or any ideas of the inferiority on
the part of the other boys to them ; and this is my
reason for preferring the old High School of Edinburgh
to other and what may be termed more
patrician schools, however well regulated or conducted.?
CHAPTER XVI.
THE NEW TOWN.
?The Site before the Streets-The Lang Dykes-Wood?s Farm-Drumsheugh House-Bearford?s Parks-The Houses of Easter and Wester
Coates-Gabriel?s Road-Craig?s Plan of the New Town-John Young builds the First House Therein-Extension of the Town Westward.
LOOKING at the site of the New Town now, it
requires an effort to think that there were thatched
cottages there once, and farms, where corn was
sown and reaped, where pigs grunted in styes or
roamed in the yard; where fowls laid eggs and
clucked over them, and ducks drove their broods
into the .North Loch, where the trap caught eels
.and the otter and water-rat lurked amid the sedges,
and where cattle browsed on the upland slopes
that were crested by the line of the Lang Dykes ;
and where the gudeman and his sons left the
ploiigh in the furrow, and betook them to steel
bonnets and plate sleeves, to jack and Scottish
spear, when the bale-fire, flaming out on the Castle
towers, announced that ?our ancient enemies of
England had crossed the Tweed.?
Such, little more than one hundred years ago,
was the site of the Modern Athens.?
?
.
Along the line now occupied by Princes Street
lay a straight country road, the Lang Dykes-called
the Lang Gait in the ?Memorie of the Somervilles,?
in 1640-the way by which Claverhouse and
his troopers rode westward on that eventful day in
1689, and where in 1763, we read in theEdinburgh
Museum for January of two gentlemen on horse-.
back bei,ng stopped by a robber, armed with a
pistol, whom they struck down by the butt end of
a whip,. but failed to secure, ?? as they heard somebody
whistle several times behind the dykes,? and
were apprehensive that he might have confederates.
The district was intersected by other lonelyroads,
such as the Kirk Loan, which led north from St.
Cuthbert?s Church to the wooden, or Stokebridge,
and the ford on the Leith at the back of the
present Malta Terrace, where it joined Gabriel?s
Road, a path that came from the east, end of the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [New Tom. - ~~~~ ~ ~ Cockburn, the former spoke thus affectionately .of the High ...

Book 3  p. 114
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180 OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH, [Leith.
1596-7. In 1578 an Act of Parliament was passed
to prevent ? the taking away of great quantities of
victual and flesh from Leith, under the pretence of
victualling ships.?. In the same year a reconciliation
having been effected between the Earl of
Morton and the nobles opposed to him, the Earls
of Argyle, Montrose, Athole, and Buchan, Lord
Boyd, and many other persons of distinction, dined
with him jovially at an hostelry in Leith, kept by
William Cant.
There was considerable alarm excited in Edinburgh,
Leith, and along the east coast generally, by
a plague which, as Moyes records, was brought
from Dantzig by John Downy?s ship, the WiZZiam of
~ 5 t h . By command of the Privy Council, the ship
was ordered, with her ailing
and dead, to anchor off
Inchcolm, to which place
all afflicted by the plague
were to confine themselves.
The crew consisted of
forty men, of whom the
majority died. Proclamation
had been made at the
market-cross of every east
coast town against permitting
this fated crew to
land. By petitions before
the Council it appeared that
William Downie, skipper
in Leith, left a widow and
eleven children; Scott, a
mariner, seven. The survivors
were afterwards re-
Trades of Leith were declared independent of
those of Edinburgh by a decree of the Court of
Session.
In October, 1589, James VI. embarked at Leith
for Norway, impatient to meet his bride, Anne of
Denmark, to whom he had been married by proxy.
She had embarked in August, but her fleet had
been detained by westerly gales, and there seemed
little prospect of her reaching Scotland before the
following spring. Though in that age a voyage to
the Baltic was a serious matter in the fall of the
year, James, undaunted, put to sea, and met his
queen in Norway, where the marriage ceremony was
performed again by the Rev. David Lindsay, of
Leith, in the cathedral of St. Halvard at Christiania,
and not at Upsala.
THE ARMS
moved to Inchkeith and the Castle of Inchgarvie,
and the ship, which by leaks seemed likely to sink
at her anchors, was emptied of her goods, which
were stored in the VOW~S,? or vaults, of St. Colm.
In 1584 Leith was appointed the principal
market for herrings and other fish in the Firth of
Forth.
Five years subsequent to this we find that the
despotic magistrates of Edinburgh summoned nearly
one half of their Leith vassals to hear themselves
prohibited from the exercise of their various trades
and from choosing their deacons in all time coming.
They had previously thrust two unfortunate shoemakers
into prison, one forprefending that he was
elected deacon of the Leith Incorporation of the
craft, and the other for acting as his officer; and
we are told that, notwithstanding the remon-
*strances of the operatives, no attention was paid to
their statements, and ? they were proceeded against
as a parcel of insolent and contumacious rascals ;?
and it was not until 1734 that the Incorporated
OF LEIlH.
- ,
as some assert. After remaining
for some months
in Denmark, the royal pair
on the 6th of May, landed
at the pier of Leith (where
the King?s Work had been
prepared for their reception),
amid the booming
of cannon, and the discharge
of a mighty Latin
oration from Mr. James
Elphinstone.
It is remarkable that
James, whose squadron
came to anchor in the roads
on the 1st of May, did
not land at once, as he
had been sorely beset by
the incantations of witches during his voyage ;
and it is alleged that the latter had declared ? he
would never have come safely from the sea had not
his faith prevailed over their cantrips.? They were
more successful, however, with a large boat coming
from Burntisland to Leith, containing a number of
gifts for the young queen, and which they contrived
to sink amid a storm, raised by the remarkable
agency of a chrisfened cat, when all on board
perished.
In 1595 James wrote a letter at Holyrood, addressed
to ? the Bailyies of Lethe,? at the instance
of William Henryson, Constable Depute of Scotland,
interdicting them from holding courts to
consider actions of slaughter, mulctation, drawing
blood, or turbulence. (Spald. Club Miscell.) In
the following year, by a letter of gift under the
Privy Seal, .he empowered the Corporation of Edinburgh
to levy a certain tax during a certain period
towards supporting and repairing the bulwark pier
and port of Leith ; and in a charter of Niladamus, ... OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH, [Leith. 1596-7. In 1578 an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent ? the taking away ...

Book 5  p. 180
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ST LEONARD’S, ST MARY’S WYND, AND COWGATE. 3’3
name.’ This district anciently formed a part of the town of St Leonards, as it is
styled in the charter of Charles I. confirming the superiority of it to the magistrates
of Edinburgh; and the name of Pleasance, that early superseded its quaint title of
Dearenough, and by which the main thoroughfare of this ancient village is still known,
preserves a solitary memorial of its long extinct convent. Some singularly primitive
erections, which remain on the east side of the street, undoubtedly belong, at the
latest, to the early part of the sixteenth century. A plain but very substantial substructure
of stone is surmounted by a timber superstructure mainly consisting of a
long sloping roof, pierced with irregular windows and loopholes wherever convenience
has suggested an opening; while the whole plan of domestic archit,ecture is evidently
the result of a state of society when it was no upusual occurrence for the villager to
carry off his straw roof along with him, and leave the enemy to work their will on the
deserted walls.’
St John’s Hill and the village of Pleasance form a portion of the long ridge which
skirts the valley at the base of Salisbury Crags. The whole of this ground appears to
have been ecclesiastical property in early times, and appropriated to various religious
foundations, all of which were subject to the canons of Holyrood.s St Leonard’s Lane
bounded it on the south, separating it on that side from the Borough Muir. At the
junction of these lands there stood, in ancient times, a cross, which is understood to have
been erected in memory of one Umfraville, a person of distinction, who was slain on the
spot in some forgotten ~ontest.~T he shaft of the cross had long disappeared, having
probably been destroyed at the Reformation ; but the base, a large square plinth, with a
hollow socket in which it had stood, was only removed in the early part of the present
century. On an eminence at the end of the lane stood the chapel and hospital of St
Leonard, but not a fragment of either is now left, though the font and holy water stoup
remained in Maitland’s time, and the enclosed ground was then Bet apart as a cemetery
for self-murderers. The hospital was one of those erected for the reception of strangers,
and the maintenance of the poor and infirm, and near to it there was another on the road
betwixt Edinburgh and Dalkeith, founded by Robert Ballantyne, Abbot of Holyrood,
for seven poor people. Of these hospitals, which were governed by a superior who bore
the title of Magister, Spottiswoode enumerates twenty-eight in Scotland at the period of
the Ref~rmation.~S t Leonard’a Chapel was the scene of a traitorous meeting of the
Douglases, held on the 2d of February 1528, to concert the assassination of their
Maitland, p. 176. Piacenza, or Placentia, is now the second town in the Duchy of Parma The Chiirch of S.
Maria di Campagnq belongs to the Franciscan Friars. It was made the subject of special privileges by Pope Urban II.,
owing to his mother being buried there,
A relic of a remoter era, a copper coin of the Roman Emperor Yespasian, was found in a garden in the Pleasance,
and presented to the Society of Antiquaries in 1762.-Account of the Society, p. 72.
8 The following names of property in the neighbourhood of Ediuburgh occur in the Stent Rolls of Holyrood, 1578-
1630 :-‘‘ The Kirkland of Libertoun, the landis callit Pleasance and Deiranewch, the aikeris callit Biedmannis Croft of
Sanct Leonardis gait, the landis of Bonyngtoun, the landis of Pilrig and mmmoun mvir, the landis of Wareistoun, the
landis of Brochtoun, the landis of Coittia, the landis of Sauchtonhd and Sauchton,” &c.-Liber Cartarum, p. cxvii.
4 Maitland, p. 276, Umfraville was the name of an old border family of note, whose Castle of Harbottle, in the
middle marches, passed by marriage into the Talbois family. Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Urnfraville,
knight of Harbottle, is mentioned by Wood as married, about 1430, to Sir John Constable of Halaham, arceator of the
Viscounts Dunbar.
,
Spottiswoode’s Religious Houses, p. 291.
2 B - ... LEONARD’S, ST MARY’S WYND, AND COWGATE. 3’3 name.’ This district anciently formed a part of the town of ...

Book 10  p. 341
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382 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
altar, are the arms of Thomas de Cranston, Seutifer Regis, a man of considerable influence
in the reign of James IL, and a frequent ambassador to foreign courts, who died about
1470; and on the engaged pillar to the south, the arms are those of Isabel, Duchess of
Albany and Countess of Lennox, who, in 1450-about a year before her death-founded
the Collegiate Church of Dumbarton, and largely endowed other religious foundations.’
Maitland remarks-“ In the year 1462, a great work seems to have been in hand at this
church ; for it was by the Town Council ordained that all persons presuming to buy corn
before it was entered should forfeit one chalder to the church work.” This may be supposed
to refer to the same additions to the choir begun in the reign of James 11. and then in
progress, though it will be seen that other works were proceeded with about the same time.
The work had no doubt been aided by the contributions of that monarch, and may have
been further encouraged by the gifts of his widowed queen for masses to his soul. The
repetition of the royal arms on the King’s Pillar is probably intended to refer to James III.,
in whose reign the work was finished. To the south of the choir, a second aisle of three arches,
with a richly-groined ceiling, forms the Preston Aisle, erected agreeably to a charter granted
to William Prestoune, of Gortoune, by the city of Edinburgh in 1454, setting forth (‘ pat
forasmekle as William of Prestoun the fadir, quam God assoillie, made diligent labour and
grete menis, be a he and mighty Prince, the Eing of France, and mony uyr Lordis of
France, for the gettyn of the arme bane of Saint Gele ;-the quhilk bane he freely left to
our moyr kirk of Saint Gele of Edinburgh, withoutyn ony condition makyn;-we considrand
ye grete labouris and costis yat he made for the gettyn yrof, we pmit, as said is
yat within six or seven zere, in all the possible and gudely haste we may, yat we sal big
an ile, furth frae our Lady Ile, quhare ye said William lyes in the said ile, to be begunyin
within a zere ; in the quhilk ile yare sall be made a brase for his crest in bosit work ; and
abone the brase a plate of brase, with a writ, specifiand, the bringing of yat relik be him
in Scotland, with his armis ; and his armis to be put, in hewyn marble, uyr thre parts of the
ile.” ’ The charter further binds the Provost and Council to found an altar there, with a
chaplain, and secures to the lineal descendants of the donor the priyilege of bearing the
precious gift of St Giles’s arm bone in all public processions. The aims of Preston still
remain on the roof of the aisle, as engaged to be executed in this charter ; and the same
may be seen repeated in different parts of their ancient stronghold of Craipillar Castle ;
where also occurs their Rebus, sculptured on a stone panel of the outer wall : a press, and
tun or barrel.’ They continued annually to exercise their chartered right of bearing the
arm bone of the Patron Saint till the memorable year 1558, when the College of St Giles
walked for the last time in procession, on the 1st of September, the festival of St Giles,
bearing in procession a statue hired for the occasion, from the Grey Friars, to personate the
Great Image of the Saint, as large M life, because ‘( the auld Saint Geile” had been
fist drowned in the North Loch as an adulterer, or encourager of idolatry, and thereafter
1 A letter on the subject of these armorial bearings, signed A D. [the late Alexander Deuchar, we presume, a firatrate
authority on all matters of heraldry], appeared in the Scota Nagaaine, June 1818. The writer promises to send the
result of further observations, but he does not appear to have followed out his intentions. ’ Maitland, p. 271.
a Archmlogia Scotica, vol. i. p. 575. ’ The Rebus of Prior Bolton, in Westminster Abbey, is very similar ta this : a tun, or barrel, with a bolt thrust
-
through it. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. altar, are the arms of Thomas de Cranston, Seutifer Regis, a man of considerable ...

Book 10  p. 419
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318 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
broad flight of steps conducted to the main floor of the building. By this mode of construction,
common in old times, the approach to the quadrangle could be secured against
any ordinary attack, and the indwellers might then hold out, as in their castle, until they
made terms with their assailants, or were relieved by a superior force.
The ancient building was erected by James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, as
appears from various allusions to it by early writers.’ He became Lord High Treasurer
in 1505, and was promoted to the Archiepiscopate of Glasgow in 1509, so that we may
unhesitatingly assign the date of this erection to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
He busied himself, after his translation to this see, in promoting many important
erections, and greatly enlarged and beautified the Episcopal Palace of Glasgow. Upon
all the buildings erected by him his armorial bearings were conspicuously displayed, and
a large stone tablet remained till a few years since over the archway of Blackfriars’
Wynd, leading into the inner court, blazoned with the Beaton Arms, supported by two
angels in Dalmatic habits, and surmounted by a crest, sufficiently defaced to enable
antiquaries to discover in it either a mitre or a cardinal’s hat, according as their theory
of the original ownership inclined towards the Archbishop, or his more celebrated nephew,
the Cardinal.$
The exterior angle of this building towards the Cowgate was finished with a hexagonal
turret, projecting from a stone pillar which sprang from the ground, and formed a
singularly picturesque feature in that ancient thoroughfare. We find, however, from the
early titles of the property, that the Archbishop’s residence. and grounds had included
not only the buildings between Blackfriars’ and Toddrick’s Wynds, but the whole of the
site occupied by the ancient buildings of the Mint; so that there can be little doubt the
Archbishop had extensive gardens attached to his lodgings in the capital. An inspection
of the back wall of the Mint in Toddrick’s Wynd would confirm the idea of its having
succeeded to a more ancient building of considerable architectural pretensions ; as, on
minute examination, various carved stones will be observed built up among the materials
of the rubble work.’
Here the Earl of Arran and the chief adherents of his faction were assembled on the
30th of April 1520, engaged in maturing their hastily-concerted scheme for seizing the
’
1 “Biachope James Beatoun remained still in Edinburgh in his awin ludging, quhilk he biggit in the Frierie Wynd.”
-Pitacottie’E Chronicles, voL ii. p. 313. ’ Nisbet, who is the best of d authorities on such a subject, says :-“ With us angels have been frequently made
use of aa supporters, CardinaI Beaton had his supported by two angels in Dalmatic habits, or, as some say, priestly
ones, which are yet to be seen on hia lodgings in Blrckfriars’ Wynd.”-Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. ii. part iv. The stone,
which is now in the posaession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., is exceedingly soft and much worn. The crest has most probably
been an otter’a head, which was that borne by the family. It is certainly neither a mitre nor a. cardinal’s hat, and
indeed the arms are simply those of the family, and not impaled with those of any see, aw we might expect them to have
been if surmounted with such an official badge.
a The following is the definition of the property as contained in a deed dated 1639, and preaerved in the Burgh
Charter Room :-“Disposition of houae, John Sharpe, elder, of Houston, advocate, to Mr J. Sharpe, younger, hia son. . .
All and hail that great lodging or tenement, back‘and fore, under and above, biggit and waste, with the yards and
pert’ aome time pertaining to the Archbishop of St Andrew’s, thereafter to umq‘ John Beaton of Capeldraw, thereafter
to the heira of umq Archibald Stewart and Helen Aitchison, and thereafter pertaining to urnq’O Thomas Aitchison, his
Highness Maister Cuneier, lying within the Burgh of Edinburgh, on ye south of the King’s High Street thereof, on ye
east side of ye trance thereof, betwixt the close called Gray’s Cloae and ye vennel called Toddrickb Wynd upon ye east,
the transe of ye said Blackfried Wynd on ye west, the High Street of Cowgate on ye soubh, the yard of umqb John
Barclay, thereafter pertaining to umqb Alex. Hunter, &e., on ye north,” Qc. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. broad flight of steps conducted to the main floor of the building. By this mode of ...

Book 10  p. 346
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ST LEONARD’S, ST MARY’S WYND, AND COWGATE. 315
is 1574, showing that their erection took place almost immediately after the demolition of
the Castle.
This remnant of one of the most important Government Offices of Scotland at that
early date is a curious sample of the heavy and partially castellated edifices of the period.
The whole building was probably intended, when completed, to form a quadrangle
surrounded on every side by the same substantial walls, well suited for defence against
any ordinary assault; while its halls were lighted from the enclosed court. The small
windows in this part of the building remain in their original state, being divided by an oaken
transom, and the under part closed with a pair of folding shutters. The massive ashlar
walls are relieved by ornamental string courses, and surmounted with crow steps of the
earliest form, and of elegant proportions. The original entrance, which is on the west
Bide of the projecting turret, has long been closed up, and its sill is now sunk considerably
below the level of the paving owing to the gradual rising of the street, so
common in earlier times, and of which we shall hereafter refer to much more surprising
proofs. It bears on its lintel the following legend neatly cut in Roman characters:-
BE - MERCIFVL * TO - ME - 0 * GOD * 1574, above which is an ornamental niche, not
unlikely to have contained a bust of King James. The internal marks of former magnificence
are still more interesting than these external ones, notwithstanding the humble
uses to which the buildings have latterly been applied ; in particular, some portions of a
very fine oak ceiling still remain, wrought in Gothic panneling, and retaining traces of
the heraldic blazonry with which it was originally adorned. Two large and handsome
windows above the archway leading to Toddrick’s Wynd,’ give light to this once magnificent
hall, which is said to have formed the council-room where the officers of the Mint
assembled to assay the metal, and to discuss the general affairs of the establishment.
Here was the scene of the splendid banquet given ( ( a t the requeist of the Kingis
Majestie and for honour of the toun,” to the Danish nobles and ambassadors, who came
over in the train of Anne, Queen of James VI., in 1590. The King writes, while
absent on his matrimonial expedition, to Sir Alexander Lindsay, whom he soon after
created Lord Spynie :-(‘ From the Castell of Croneburgh, quhaire we are drinking and
dryuing OUT in the auld maner,” and the entertainment of his guests on his return
appears to have shown no wish for a change of fashion in this respect. The banquet
was furnished on Sunday evening, in the great hall at the foot of Toddrick’s Wynd,
which was hung with tapestry, and decorated with flowers for the occasion; and the
wine and ale form the chief items in the provision ordered by the council for the noble
strangers.’
In the introductory historical sketch some extracts are given from the very curious
.
1 As before mentioned (ante, p. 263), several interesting houses, referred to here and on subsequent pages, have
been taken down to make way for City improvements. ’ 21at May 1590. “The quhilk day, John Arnott, Provest, Henry Charteris, &c., being convenit in the counsdl at
the requeist of the Kingis Majestie, and for honour of the Toun ; It was thocht and agreit to mak ane honourabd
banket to the Dence Imbaseadours, and the famous peraouns of thair company, quha arryvet furth of Denmark with
the King and Queynis Majesties, and this upoun the Townis chargea and expensis, to be maid in Thomas Aitchisoun’s,
Master of the Cuoyie hous lugeiog at Todrik’s Wynd fute, upon Sonday at evin next to cum ; and for the making of
the preparatioun and furneasing thairto, hes set doun and devyset the ordonr following ; to wit, that the Thasaurer CBUB
bye and lay in four punsheons wyne ; John Borthuik, baxter, to get four bunnis of beir, with four gang of sill, and to
furneis breid ; Henry Charteris and Roger Macnacht to caus hing the hous with tapeshie, set the buirds, furmis,
chandleris and get tlowres, &c.”- ~~p,. 88. ... LEONARD’S, ST MARY’S WYND, AND COWGATE. 315 is 1574, showing that their erection took place almost ...

Book 10  p. 343
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CONTENTS. V
CHAPTER XV.
T H E CALTON H I L L .
e .
?AGS
Origin of the Name-Ghbet and Battery them-The Quarry Holes-The Monastery of Greenside Built-The Leper Hospita-The
Tournament Ground and Playfield-Church of Greenside-Burgh of Calton-Rev. Rowlaod Hill-Regent Bridge Built-Obscmtorp
and Asmnomical Insiituticu-Bridewell Built-Hume's TombThe Political Martyrs' Monument-The Jews' Pka of Burial-
Monument of Nelson-National Monument, and those of Stewart. Playfair, and Bums-Thc High School-Foundarion hid- . Architeke and Extent-The 0pening-lnstruct;on-Rec~n of the New SchooCLintel of the Old School-Lard Brougham's
Opinion of the Institution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I M
CHAPTER XVI.
THE NEW TOWN.
The Site before the Streets-The Lang Dykes-Wood's Farm-Dmmsheugh House-Bearfd's ParkgTbe Honsg of Easter and Wester
Coates--Gabriel's Road4hig.s Plan of the New Town-John Young builds the Fint House Therein-Extensionof the Town Weatward I I4
CHAPTER XVII.
P R I N C E S STREET,
A Glance at Society-Change of Manners, &c-The Irish Giants-Poole's Coffee-house-Shop of Constable & Co.-Weir's Museum, 1%-
The Grand Duke Nicholas-North British Insurance Life Association-Old Tar Office and New Club-Craig of Riccarton-" The
White Rose of Scotland "-St. John's Chapd-Its Tower and Vaults, &,.-The Smtt Monument and its Muscum-The Statues OP
Professor Wilrion, Allan Ramsay, Adam Bkk, Sir Jam- Sipson, and Dr. Livingstone-The General Improvements in Princes Street C 19
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CHURCH OF ST. CUTHBERT,
History and Antiquity-Old Views of it Described-First Protestant Incumbents-The Old Manse-Old Communion Cups-Pillaged by
Cmmwell-Ruined by the Siege of 1689, and again in 17qs-Deaths of Messls McVicar and Pitcairn-Early Bdy-suatcheni-Demolition
of the Old Church-Erection of the New- of Heart-burial4ld Tombs and Vaults-The Nisbets of Dean-The Old Poor
House-Kirkbraehead Road--Lothian Road-Dr. Candish's Church-Military Academy-New Caledonian Railway Station. . . 13r
CHAPTER XIX.
GEORGE, S T R E E T .
Major Andrew Fraser-The Father of Miss F e r r i a 4 r a n t of Kilgraston-William Blackwad a d hh Magazine-The Mcdher ol 6 i
Walter Scott-Sir John Hay, Banker-Colquhoun of Killermont-Mn. Mumy of Henderland-The Houw of Sir J. W. Gardon.
Sir James Hall. and Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster-St. Andrew's Church-Scene of the Disruption-Physicians' HalLGlaoce at the
History of the College of Physicians--Sold and Removed-The Commercial Bank-Its Constitution-Assemhly Rooms-Rules of
17+Banquet to Black Watch-"The Author of ' Waverley"'-The Music Hall-"he New Union Bank-Its Formation, &c.-The
Masonic Hall-Watson's Picture of B-Statues of George IV., Pith and C6almer$ . . . . . . . . . . J39
CHAPTER XX.
QUEEN STREET.
The Philosophical Institution-House of Baron &de-New Physickd Hall-Sir James Y. Simpsoo, M.D.-'l%e ITomse of Profcsor
Wilsn-Si John Leslie--Lord Rockville-Si James Grant of Gm-The Hopetoun Roo~m-Edinburgh Educational Inrticucim
forLadies. . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I51
CHAPTER XXI.
THE STREETS CROSSING GEORGE STREET, AND THOSE PARALLEL WITH IT.
Row Street-Miss Bums and Bailie Creech-Sir Egerton high-Robert Pollok-Thiitle Street-The Dispmsav-Hd Street--Coont
d'Alhy-St Andrew Street-Hugo Amot-David, Earl of Buchan-St. David Street-Dad Hume-Sii Waltcr Scott and Basil
Hall-Hanover Street-Sir J. Gnham Dalyell-Offics of Associatim for the Impmmmt of the Poor--FrsdeticL Street--Gnnt d
Corrimony-Castle Street-A Dinner with Si Walter h a - S h o e of Rubiw-Mwey Napier4h.de Street and Charlotte Street . 158 ... V CHAPTER XV. T H E CALTON H I L L . e . ?AGS Origin of the Name-Ghbet and Battery them-The Quarry ...

Book 4  p. 387
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140 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Giles's Church.
establishment, and Maitland gives us a roll of the
forty chaplaincies and altarages therein.
An Act of Council dated twelve years before
this event commemorates the gratitude ,of the
citizens to one who had brought from France a
relic of St. Giles, and, modernised, it runs thus :-
*' Be it kenned to all men by these present letters,
we, the provost, bailies, counselle and communitie
of the burgh of Edynburgh, to be bound
and obliged to William Prestoune of Gourton, son
and heir to somewhile iVilliam Prestoune of Gourton,
and to the friends and sirname
of them, that for so much
that William Prestoune the
father, whom God assoile, made
diligent labour, by a high and
mighty prince, the King of
France (Charles VII.), and
many other lords of France, for
getting the arm-bone of St. Gile,
the which bone he freely left to
our mother kirk of St. Gile of
Edinburgh, without making any
condition. We, considering the
great labour and costs that he
made for getting thereof, promise
that within six or seven years,
in all the possible and goodly
haste we may, that we shall
build an aisle forth from our
Ladye aisle, where the said William
lies, the said aisle to be
begun within a year, in which
aisle there shall be brass for his
lair in bost (it., for his grave in
embossed) work, and above the
brass a writ, specifying the
bringing of that Rylik by him
into Scotland, with his arms, and
his arms to be put in hewn
church of his name in the Scottish quarter of
Bruges, and on the 1st of September is yearly
borne through the streets, preceded by all thedrums
in the garrison.
To this hour the arms of Preston still remain in
the roof of the aisle, as executed by the engagement
in the charter quoted; and the Prestons
continued annually to exercise their right of bearing
the arm of the patron saint of the city until
the eventful year 1558, when the clergy issued
forth for the last time in solemn procession on
the day of his feast, the 1st
SEAL OF ST. G1LES.t (A ffw Henry Lain&.
work, in three other parts of the aisle, with book
and chalice and all other furniture belonging
thereto. Also, that we shall assign the chaplain
of whilome Sir William of Prestoune, to sing at the
altar from that time forth. . . . . Item, that
as often as the said Rylik is borne in the year,
that the sirname and nearest of blood of the said
William shall bear the said Rylik, before all
others, &c. In witness of which things we have
set to our common seal at Edinburgh the 11th
day of the month of January, in the year of our
Lord 1454"*
The other arm of St. Giles is preserved in the
Frag. : " Scotomomastica."
September, bearing with them
a statue of St. Giles-"a marmouset
idol," Knox calls itborrowed
from the Grey Friars,
because the great image of the
saint, which was as large as life,
had been stolen from its place,
and after being '' drouned " in
the North Loch as an encourager
of idolatry, was burned
as a heretic by some earnest
Reformers. Only two years
before this event the Dean of
Guild had paid 6s. for painting
the image, and Izd. for
polishing the silver arm containing
the relic. To give dignity
to this last procession the
queen regent attended it in
person; but the moment she
left it the spirit of the mob
broke forth. Some pressed close.
to the image, as if to join in
its support, while endeavouring
to shake it down; but this.
proved impossible, so firmly was
it secured to its supporters; and
the struggle, rivalry, and triumph
of the mob were delightful -to Knox, who described
the event with the inevitable glee in which
he indulged on such occasions.
Only four years after all this the saint's silverwork,
ring and jewels, and all the rich vestments,
wherewith his image and his arm-bone were wont
to be decorated on high festivals, were sold by
the authority of the magistrates, and the proceeds
employed in the repair of the church.
f Under a canopy supported by spiral columns a full-length figure of.
St. Giles with the nimbus, holding the crozier in his right hand, and ih
his left a Look and a branch. A kid, the usual attendant on St. Giles,
is playfully leaping up to his hand. On the pedestal is a shield bearing
the castle triple-towered, S. COMMUNE CAPTI BTI EGIDII DEEDINBURGH.
(Apfindrd to a chartrr by the Provost [ Waite, FodesJ d Chuptrr
of St. Gdes of fke man= andgkk in favmrof the magisfrates and'
conzmndy of Edindrryh, A.D. 1496.") ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Giles's Church. establishment, and Maitland gives us a roll of the forty ...

Book 1  p. 140
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128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
distinguished for his good taste and public spirit, No one maintained a more
liberal establishment. His horses were always of superior mettle, and his carriage
the most handsomely mounted in the district ; but, by his succession to
the title and estates of Eglinton, a new and more extended field was opened.
His predecessors, Earls Alexander and Archibald, had greatly improved their
lands especially in the neighbourhood of Kilwinning. ‘‘ They set the example,”
says a writer in 1803, “of introducing a new mode of farming-subdividing
the land-sheltering it by belts of wooding, and planting the little rising
mounts on their vast estates, by which means Ayrshire has become like a
garden, and is one of the richest and most fertile counties in Scotland.” Earl
Hugh was not behind his predecessors. The first thing which presented itself
as an object of improvement was the old Castle ; which had been the family
seat for nearly five hundred years. It was no doubt sufficiently strong, but
always terminated by a dinner of “beef and greens,” and a suitable quantity of punch, at the
expense of the vanquished ; and no penon waa more delighted than the Laird when he happened
to dine at the expense of the Major.
The Major, like his father, was social in his habits ; and, among those who used to frequent
the “big house,” none were more welcome to dinner than the famous John Rankine, the Baron
Bailie of Haughmerk-a small estate in the neighbourhood of Tarholton, then the property of one
M‘Lure, a merchant in Ayr, but which now belongs to the Duke of Portland. Rankine WBS locally
well known for his wit and Bacchanalian propensities ; but he has been rendered niore enduringly
celebrated by the epistle of Burns, in which the poet addresses him-
The wail 0’ cocks for fun and drinking.”
“ 0 rough, rude, ready-witted Rankine,
There are many anecdotes told of the Baron Bailie’s “ cracks and cants.” He had always a shilling
to spend ; and while he kept the table in a roar, nothing gave him greater pleasure than to see his
cronies, one by one, brought under by the stout John Barleycorn. The Bailie always seemed to
drink fair; yet very seldom got top-heavy himself. One device by which he occasionally liept
the bowl in circulation was a small wooden apparatus, on the principle of the modern “wheel of
fortune,” xrliich he called “ whigmaleerie.” Whoever whigmaleerie pointed to was doomed to
drink the next glass ; and by this species of “ thimble-rigging ” it may be guessed the Bailie seldom
left many sober in the company.
As an instance of the good old times, we may mention, by way of gossip, that during Rsnkine’s
bailieship of Haughmerk, when the Martinmas rents were paid, his tenants were convened at the
house of the miller on his estate, called the Mill-burn Mill, where ale and British spirits had been
retailed by each successive miller, from time immemorial, and a good dinner and drink providedthe
Bailie acting as croupier. None went from the Mill empty ; and sonie of the older people, who
never drank but once a year, had frequently to be taken home in the miller’s cart.
The celebrated Laird of Logan was another frequent visitor at Coilsfield j and when there on
one occasion with John Hamilton of Bargany, a staunch supporter of the honour and credit of his
native district of Carrick, Mossman, a native of Maybole, was brought before Mr. Montgomerie as
a Justice of the Peace, on suspicion of having committed an act of theft, Mr. Montgomerie called
in the aid of his friends, who were also in the commission of the peace, to investigate the case, when
it was resolved that the prisoner ahould be sent to Ayr jail for trial. The Laird of Logan assigned
three reasons for concurring in the warrant:-lst, Because the prisoner had been found on the
king’s highway without cause : Zd, Because he had I‘ wan’ered in his discoune ;” and, 3d, Because
he belonged to Carrick I The last was a fling at Bargany, and had the effect intended of provoking
him to a warm defence of his district, Mossman suffered the last penalty of the law, for the trifling
theft with which he waa charged, alongst with other two felons, at Ayr, on the 20th May 1785.
At the execution of these unfortunate men, the main rope by which they were suspended broke
when they were thrown off (it is supposed from having been previoiisly eaturated with vitriol) ; and
they remained in a half-hanged state until a new rope was procured, to carry their sentence into
execution. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. distinguished for his good taste and public spirit, No one maintained a more liberal ...

Book 9  p. 171
(Score 0.28)

not of reptiles. ? Thus was dissipated the illusion,
founded on the Burdiehouse fossils, that saurian
. reptiles existed in the carboniferous era. To this
CHAPTER XLI.
THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH (continwed).
Gilmerton-The Kinlochs-Legend of the Bumtdale-Paterson?s C a v e T h e Drum House-The Somrrville Family-Roslin Castle-The
St. Clairs-Roslin Chauel-The Buried Barons-Tomb of Earl George-The Under Chapel-The Battle of Roslin-Relics of it-
In the chalk formations hereabout fossil remains
of the prickly palm have been frequently found,
and they have also been found in the lime-pits of
Roslin Village-Its old Inn.
GILMERTON, a village and puuad sncra parish
detached from Liberton, occupies the brow o
rising ground about four miles south from the
city, on the Roxburgh road, with a church, buill
in 1837, and the ancient manor-house of the
Kinlochs, known as the Place of Gilmerton, on the
south side of which there were in former times
butts for the practice of archery.
The subordinate part of the village consists 01
some rather unsightly cottages, the abodes of col.
liers and carters, who sell ?yellow sqnd? in the
city.
Robert Bruce granted a charter to Murdoch
Menteith of the lands of Gilmerton, in which it
was stated that they had belonged of old to William
Soulis, in the shire of Edinburgh, and afterwards
he granted another charter .of the same
lands, ? quhilk Soulis foresfecit ? (sic), with ?? the
barony of Prenbowgal (Barnbougle), quhilk was
Roger Mowbray?s.?
This was evidently Sir William de Soulis,
Hereditary Butler of Scotland, whose grandfather,
Nicholas, had been a competitor for the crown as
gtandson of Marjorie, daughter of Alexander II.,
and wife of Allan Durward. William was forfeited
as a traitor in English pay, and a conspirator
against the life of Robert I. He was condemned
to perpetual imprisonment by the Parliament in
1320.
After this, it is traditionally said to have been
the property of a family named Heron, or Herring.
At a much more recent period, the barony of Gilnierton
belonged to John Spence of Condie, Advocate
to Queen Mary in 1561, and who continued
as such till 1571. He had three daughters. ?One
of them,? says Scotstarvit, ?? was married to Herring
of Lethinty, whose son, Sir David, sold all his lands
of Lethinty, Gilmerton, and Glasclune, in his own
time. Another was married to James Ballantyne of
Spout, whose son James took the same course.
The third to Sir John Moncrieq by whom he had
(? Index of Charters.?)
an only son, who went mad, and leaped into the
River Earn, and there perished.?
In the next century Gilmerton belonged to the
Somervilles of Drum, as appears by an Act of
Ratification by Parliament, in 1672, to James
Somerville, of the lands of Drum and Gilmerton;?
and after him they went to the family of Kinloch,
whose name was derived from a territory in Fifeshire,
and to this family belongs the well-known
reel named ? Kinloch of Kinloch.? Its chief, Sir
David, was raised to a baronetage of Nova Scotia,
by James VII., in the year 1685, but the title became
extinct upon the failure of male descendants,
though there has been a recent creation, as baronet
of Great Britain, in 1855, in the person of Kinloch
of that ilk.
At what period the Gilmerton branch struck off
from :he present stock is unknown, but the first
upon record is Francis Kinloch of Gilmerton, who
died in 1685, and was succeeded by his only son,
Alexander Kinloch, who was created a baronet of
Nova Scotia on the 16th September, 1686. He
married Magdalene McMath, and had a numerous
family. He had been Lord Provost of the city in
1677, His wife, who died in 1674, was buried in
the Greyfriars, and the epitaph on her tomb is
recorded by Monteith.
On his death, in 1696, he was succeeded by his
eldest son, Sir Alexander Kinloch of Gilmerton,
who married Mary, daughter of the famous General
David, Lord Newark, who, after the battle of
Naseby, drew off a whole division of Scottish
cavalry, and, by a rapid march, surprised and
defeated the great Montrose at Philiphaugh, and,
in turn, was defeated by Cromwell at Dunbar.
His son, Sir Francis, the third baronet, married
Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir James Rocheid
3f Inverleith, Bart., by whom he had three sons
md ?three daughters. One of the former, Akxmder,
as already related in its place, took the surname
and arms of his maternal grandfather on
. ... of reptiles. ? Thus was dissipated the illusion, founded on the Burdiehouse fossils, that saurian . reptiles ...

Book 6  p. 343
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THE MESSRS, NELSON. 355 The Meadows.]
G. H., cut in wood, remained in Several parts of the
l?ouse. The Rev. Dr. Steven, gpvernor of the
hospital, presented a coloured drawing of the house
to the Messrs. Nelson, as ?the country residence
of the founder of the hospital.? It perished in the
fire of 1878, but another is preserved.
The house was also, about 1800, the abode of an
aged lady, well known to those of Jacobite proclivities
in Edinburgh, Mrs. Hannah Robertson, an
alleged grand-daughter of Charles II., and whose
sister was ancestress of the Mercers of Gorthy.
She died in 1808.
The well-known firm of the Messrs. Nelson and
Sons was originally established by the late Mr.
Thomas Nelson, whose first business premises were
in a small corner shop at the head of the West Bow,
only lately removed, where he published cheap
editions of the ? Scots Worthies,? Baxter?s ?Saints?
Rest,? and similar works; but it was not until
his sons entered the business that the work of the
firm was placed upon a wider basis.
Mr. Nelson was born at a village called Throsk,
near Stirling, in 1780. When twenty years of age
he went to London, and after experiencing his own
share of difficulties, familiar to young men in
pushing their way in the world, he at last entered
the service of a publishing house in Paternoster
Row. This determined the course of his career.
One of his early associates in London was the late
Mr. Kejly, publisher, afterwards raised to the Lord
Mayor?s chair. Mr. Nelson had begun by this time
to show that love for the standard works of the old
theological school which characterised him in afteI
iife. He remained for some years in London, and
then came to Edinburgh, where he soon signalized
himself as a publisher.
Cheap issues are a common feature of the
publishing trade of the country now, but it was
otherwise in the beginning of the century, and he
was among the first to introduce the new order 01
things by the publication of works like those ol
Paley, Leighton, Romaine, Newton, and many
ithers.
For several years in the latter part of his life
le was more or less of an invalid. He died, at the
ige of eighty, on the 23rd of March, 1861. He
.ies buried in Edinburgh in the Grange cemetery,
iext to the grave of Hugh Miller.
The Messrs. Nelsons? range of offices at Hope
Park were on a scale surpassing any similar place
2f business in Edinburgh, as it consisted of three
:onjoined blocks of neat and plain design, forming
as many sides of a square. In the main building
were three floors, and machinery was used
wherever it was available, and by means of that
and an admirably organised system of the division
of labour, the amount of literary work turned out
was enormous. The process of stereotyping, which
was invented by Mr. William Ged, a goldsmith in
Edinburgh, and has been brought to the highest
perfection in the place of its birth, was here greatly
in practice. By 1870 the Messrs. Nelson employed
fully 600 workpeople, the half of whom were young
women, and on theii own premises they manufactured
all the inks used in printing, and the varnishes
for bookbinding.
The whole of their extensive premises were destroyed
by a calamitous fire, after which the Messrs.
Nelson erected new offices and workshops upon
several acres of land, known as Parkside, with a
fine frontage to the old Dalkeith Road, south of
?The Castle of Clouts,? and near what was called
of old the Gibbet TolL
Erected by the Messrs. Nelson in 1881, two
handsome pillars, surmounted respectively by
the Unicorn and Lion, now ornament the entrance
to the Melville Drive at the east end of the
Meadows. These pillars stand near the site of
their former premises, and were erected as a gift to
the city, in commemoration of the kindness and
sympathy shown to tkm by the magistrates at the
time of the great fire.
CHAPTER XLII.
LAURISTON.
The New University B u i l d h ~ l ? h c Estimates and Accommodation-George Watson?s Hospital-Founded-Opened and Sold--The New
Infirmary-Its Capabilities for Accommodation-Simpwn Memorial Hospital-Sick C h i l M s Hospital-Mberdust Maiden Haspitai-
Watson?s SchoobIauriston United Resbyterian Church-St. Catharine?s Convent.
IN the district of Lauriston we find quite a cluster
of charitable institutions ; but before treating of the
more ancient one-Heriot?s Hospital-we shall
describe those edifices which lie between the street
and the northern walk of the Meadows
In the city map of 1787, after Watson?s Hospital, ... MESSRS, NELSON. 355 The Meadows.] G. H., cut in wood, remained in Several parts of the l?ouse. The Rev. Dr. ...

Book 4  p. 355
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330 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie.
East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now
called Grace Mount, and of old the Priest?s Hill,
which probably. had some connection with the
,well and chapel. The Cromwellians, who destroyed
the former, were a portion of 16,000 men, who
were encamped on the adjacent Galachlaw Hill,
in 1650, shortly before their leader fell back on
his retreat to Dunbar.
At the period of the Reformation the chapelry
of Niddrie, with the revenues thereof, was attached
to Liberton Church. Its founders, the Wauchopes
of Niddrie, have had a seat in the parish for more
than 500 years, and are perhaps the oldest family
in Midlothian.
Gilbert Wauchope of Niddrie was a distinguished
member of the Reformation Parliament in
1560. On the 27th of December, 1591, Archibald
Wauchope, of Niddrie, together with the Earl of
Bothwell, Douglas of Spott, and others, made a
raid on Holyrood, attempting the life of James VI.,
and after much firing of pistols and muskets were
repulsed, according to Moyses? Memoirs, for which
offence Patrick Crombie of Carrubber and fifteen
others were forfeited by Parliament.
Sir John Wauchope of Niddrie is mentioned by
Guthry in his ? Memoirs,? as a zealous Covenanter.
Niddrie House, a mile north of Edmonstone
House, is partly an ancient baronial fortalice and
partly a handsome modern mansion. The holly
hedges here are thirty feet high, and there is a
sycamore nineteen feet in circumference.
In 1718 John Wauchope of Niddrie, Marischal,
was slain in Catalonia. He and his brother were
generals of. Spanish infantry, and the latter was
governor of the town and fortress of Cagliari in
Sardinia.
We find the name of his regiment in the following
obituary in I 7 I g :-?Died in Sicily, of fever, in
the camp of Randazzo, Andrew, son of Sir George
Seton of Garleton-suln-lieutenant in Irlandas Regiment,
late Wauchope?s.? (Salmon?s ?Chronology.?)
In 1718 one of the same family was at the seabattle
of Passaro, captain of the San Francisco
Arreres of twenty-two guns and one hundred men.
Lediard?s History calls him simply ?Wacup, a
Scotchman.?
The other chapel referred to gives its name
to the mansion and estate of St. Katherine?s, once
the residence of Sir William Rae, Bart. of Eskgrove,
the friend of Sir Walter Scott, who apostrophises
him as his ?dear loved Rae,? in the introduction
to the fourth canto of Marmion, and who, with
Skene, Mackenzie, and others of the Old Edinburgh
Light Horse, including Scott, formed themselves
into a little semi-military club, the meetings
of which were held at their family supper-tables in
rotation. He was the third baronet of his family,
and was appointed Lord Advocate in 1819, on the
promotion of Lord Meadowbank, and held the
office till the end of 1830. He was again Lord
Advocate during Sir Robert Peel?s administration
in 1835, and was M.P. for Bute.
A little way to the south is a place called the
Kaimes, which indicates the site of an ancient camp.
We have already, in other places, referred to
Mr. Clement Little, of Upper Liberton, a founder
of the College Library, by a bequest of books thereto
in 1580. Two years before that he appeared as
procurator for the Abbot of Kilwinning, in a dispute
between him and the Earl of Egliiiton (Priv.
Coun. Reg).
Lord Fountainhall records, under date May zznd,
1685, that the Lady of Little of Liberton, an active
dame in the cause of the Covenant, was imprisoned
for harbouring certain recusants, but that ? I on
his entering into prison for her she was liberate.??
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE ENVIRONS OF EPINBURGH (rontinued).
Cume-Origin of the Name-Roman Camps-% Old Church andTemple Lands-Lennox Tower-Curriehill Castle and the Skenes-Scott of
Malleny-James Anderson, LL.D.-? Camp Meg ? and her Story.
CURRIE, in many respects, is one of the most interesting
places in the vicinity of Edinburgh. The
parish is in extent about five or six miles in
every direction, though in one quarter it measures
nine miles from east to west.. One-third of the
*hole district is hill and moorland. Freestone
abounds in a quarry, from which many of the
houses in the New Town have been built; and
there is, besides, plenty of ironstone, and a small
vein of copper.
A Though antiquaries have endeavoured to connect
its name with the Romrlns, as CO&, it is most
probably dCrived from the Celtic Corrie, signifying
a hollow or glen, which is very descriptive of the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie. East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now called Grace Mount, and of old ...

Book 6  p. 330
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330 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie.
East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now
called Grace Mount, and of old the Priest?s Hill,
which probably. had some connection with the
,well and chapel. The Cromwellians, who destroyed
the former, were a portion of 16,000 men, who
were encamped on the adjacent Galachlaw Hill,
in 1650, shortly before their leader fell back on
his retreat to Dunbar.
At the period of the Reformation the chapelry
of Niddrie, with the revenues thereof, was attached
to Liberton Church. Its founders, the Wauchopes
of Niddrie, have had a seat in the parish for more
than 500 years, and are perhaps the oldest family
in Midlothian.
Gilbert Wauchope of Niddrie was a distinguished
member of the Reformation Parliament in
1560. On the 27th of December, 1591, Archibald
Wauchope, of Niddrie, together with the Earl of
Bothwell, Douglas of Spott, and others, made a
raid on Holyrood, attempting the life of James VI.,
and after much firing of pistols and muskets were
repulsed, according to Moyses? Memoirs, for which
offence Patrick Crombie of Carrubber and fifteen
others were forfeited by Parliament.
Sir John Wauchope of Niddrie is mentioned by
Guthry in his ? Memoirs,? as a zealous Covenanter.
Niddrie House, a mile north of Edmonstone
House, is partly an ancient baronial fortalice and
partly a handsome modern mansion. The holly
hedges here are thirty feet high, and there is a
sycamore nineteen feet in circumference.
In 1718 John Wauchope of Niddrie, Marischal,
was slain in Catalonia. He and his brother were
generals of. Spanish infantry, and the latter was
governor of the town and fortress of Cagliari in
Sardinia.
We find the name of his regiment in the following
obituary in I 7 I g :-?Died in Sicily, of fever, in
the camp of Randazzo, Andrew, son of Sir George
Seton of Garleton-suln-lieutenant in Irlandas Regiment,
late Wauchope?s.? (Salmon?s ?Chronology.?)
In 1718 one of the same family was at the seabattle
of Passaro, captain of the San Francisco
Arreres of twenty-two guns and one hundred men.
Lediard?s History calls him simply ?Wacup, a
Scotchman.?
The other chapel referred to gives its name
to the mansion and estate of St. Katherine?s, once
the residence of Sir William Rae, Bart. of Eskgrove,
the friend of Sir Walter Scott, who apostrophises
him as his ?dear loved Rae,? in the introduction
to the fourth canto of Marmion, and who, with
Skene, Mackenzie, and others of the Old Edinburgh
Light Horse, including Scott, formed themselves
into a little semi-military club, the meetings
of which were held at their family supper-tables in
rotation. He was the third baronet of his family,
and was appointed Lord Advocate in 1819, on the
promotion of Lord Meadowbank, and held the
office till the end of 1830. He was again Lord
Advocate during Sir Robert Peel?s administration
in 1835, and was M.P. for Bute.
A little way to the south is a place called the
Kaimes, which indicates the site of an ancient camp.
We have already, in other places, referred to
Mr. Clement Little, of Upper Liberton, a founder
of the College Library, by a bequest of books thereto
in 1580. Two years before that he appeared as
procurator for the Abbot of Kilwinning, in a dispute
between him and the Earl of Egliiiton (Priv.
Coun. Reg).
Lord Fountainhall records, under date May zznd,
1685, that the Lady of Little of Liberton, an active
dame in the cause of the Covenant, was imprisoned
for harbouring certain recusants, but that ? I on
his entering into prison for her she was liberate.??
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE ENVIRONS OF EPINBURGH (rontinued).
Cume-Origin of the Name-Roman Camps-% Old Church andTemple Lands-Lennox Tower-Curriehill Castle and the Skenes-Scott of
Malleny-James Anderson, LL.D.-? Camp Meg ? and her Story.
CURRIE, in many respects, is one of the most interesting
places in the vicinity of Edinburgh. The
parish is in extent about five or six miles in
every direction, though in one quarter it measures
nine miles from east to west.. One-third of the
*hole district is hill and moorland. Freestone
abounds in a quarry, from which many of the
houses in the New Town have been built; and
there is, besides, plenty of ironstone, and a small
vein of copper.
A Though antiquaries have endeavoured to connect
its name with the Romrlns, as CO&, it is most
probably dCrived from the Celtic Corrie, signifying
a hollow or glen, which is very descriptive of the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie. East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now called Grace Mount, and of old ...

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40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Mr. James Haldane preached his first sermon in May 1797, in the village of
Gilmerton, near Edinburgh, then a very neglected spot, and, as now, inhabited
by colliers. Mr. Haldane subsequently attracted great attention, and frequently
has been known to address, in the open air on the Calton Hill of Edinburgh, a
congregation of not less than ten thousand persons, attracted by the novelty of
a layman and Captain being the preacher.
In the summer of 1797, Mr. Haldane made a very extended tour, in company
with his friends Mr. Aikman,’ congregational minister, Edinburgh, and Mr.
Rait, minister of Alnwick, through the northern counties of Scotland and the
Orkney Isles. This tour, partly from the novelty of lay-preaching, and partly
Xr. John Aikman, whose death occurred on the 6th February 1834, was born at Bomwstonnne98
in 1770. When quite a youth, he went out to Jamaica, where his uncle-to whose business and
effects he succeeded-had previously been established in a prosperous commercial concern. While
in Jamaica he had resolved upon establishing a circulating library ; and coming home with the view
of making a selection, happened to observe in a catalogue of books the title of “ Cardiphonia, or
Utterance of the Heart,” which he supposed to be a novel ; and, having purchased it, sat down to
its perusaL To this accidental acquaintance with Mr. Newton’s work he ascribed the awakening of
those strong religious feelings which so decidedly inflnenced his future course. He went out again
to Jamaica ; but, no longer relishing society there, and conceiving the mode in which business was
conducted-all days of the week being alike-to be entirely irreconcilable with Christian principles,
he made arrangements with his partner, and returned home, resolving to devote his life to the cause
of the gospel. He entered on his studies at the College of Edinburgh ; and, after attending the
Divinity Hall for a season or two, began to preach in 1797, by delivering, like Mr. Haldane, his
first sermon at the village of Gilmerton. As already mentioned, he was subsequently engaged,
along with Mr. Haldane, in various itinerating tours through Scotland, in the course of which his
visits were more than once extended north to Caithness and Shetland. Although the “Patoral
Admonition ” of the General Assembly had been levelled against itinerant preaching, he has been
often heard to declare that he was in numerous instances treated with great kindness and respect by
clergymen of the Establishment, and has frequently had the doors of the parish church thrown open
to him. At the Circus he continue4 to share with Mr. Haldane in the duties of the pulpit till
1801, when he built, at his own expense, the Congregational Chapel in Argyle Square (now removed).
Here, as a preacher of the gospel, he discharged his duties faithfully to a large and respectable
body, with few interruptions, his itinerating tours having become less frequent, owing in a great
measure to the state of his health, which at no period had ever been robust. While the French
prisoners of war were confined in the Castle of Edinburgh, and at Greenlaw Barracks, near Penicuik,
he preached to them regularly in their own language-in the speaking of which he had acquired
considerable fluency duriug his stay in the West Indies. On their liberation, a deputation of the
prisoners publicly thanked him for his kind and unremitting attention to their spiritual interestu.
He also received complimentary letters, in name of the Government, from the Secretary of State.
In doing good, Mr. Aikman was never weary. His charity was unbounded, and so readily extended,
that the artful and the knavish frequently took advantage of his generosity. Aa an instance, on the
death of an old woman, who had for many years chiefly existed by his beneficence, upwards of 2300
in cash, belonging to her, was found concealed in the bottom of a clock-case ! Mr. Cleghorn, the
co-pastor of the Chapel, was appointed in 1813. Although very much debilitated, Mr. Aikman
preached for the last time within three weeks of his death. His remains were interred in the
Chapel under the deacons’ seat ; on which occasion an address ww delivered by Mr. Haldane. His
funeral sermon was preached by Mr, Ewing from Glasgow, who, in the course of an interesting
panegyric on the deceased, took occasion to state his belief that, dnring the whole course of his
ministry, Mr. Aikman had never pocketed one farthing by his labours. Besides a good many
charitiea, he left the chapel clear of incumbranaes to the members, with these among other stipulations,
that one-fourth of the seats should be free to the poor, and service performed three times each
Sabbath. The
death of Mrs. Aikman occurred in May 1837,
Mr. William Lindsay Alexander, A.M., was appointed his successor in the ChapeL ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Mr. James Haldane preached his first sermon in May 1797, in the village of Gilmerton, ...

Book 9  p. 53
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disappeared; but by a sort of fatuity, often evinced
by persons similarly situated, he gave clues to his
own discovery. He remained in London till the
zgrd of March. He took his passage on board the
Leith smack Endeavorfr for that port, disguised as
an old man in bad health, and under the name of
John Dixon ; but on getting out of the Thames,
according to some previous arrangement, he was
landed at Flushing, and from thence reached
Ostend. On board the smack he was rash enough
to give in charge of a Mr. Geddes letters addressed
to three persons in Edinburgh, one of whom was
his favourite mistress in Cant?s Close. Geddes,
full of suspicion, on reaching Leith gave the documents
to the authorities. Mr. Williamson was once
more on his track, and discovered him in Amsterdam,
through the treachery of an Irishman named
Daly, when he was on the
eve of his departure for
the halter destined for himself j? and well might he
do so with terrible interest, as he was to be the
jrst to know the excellence of an improvement he
had formerly made on that identical gibbet-the
substitution of what is called the drop, for the
ancient practice of the double ladder. The ropes
proving too short, Brodie stepped down to the
platform and entered into easy conversation with
his friends.
This occurred no less than three times, while
the great bell of St. Giles?s was tolling slowly, and
the crowd of spectators was vast. Brodie died
without either confessing or denying his guilt ; but
the conduct and bearing of Smith were very different.
In consequence of the firmness and levity of the
former, a curious story became quickly current, to
the effect that in the Tolbooth he had been visited
by Dr. Pierre Degraver,
LANTERN AND KEYS OF DEACON ERODIE.
IFrom tke Scofti?h Anfiarurrian Museum.)
America; and on the 27th
of August, 1788, he was
arraigned with Smith in
the High Court of Justiciary,
when he had as
counsel the Hon. Henry
Erskine, known then as
?Plead for all, or the
poor man?s lawyer,? and
two other advocates of
eminence, who made an
attempt to prove an dibi
on the part of Brodie,
by means of Jean Watt
and her servant, but
the jury, with one voice, found both guilty, and
they were sentenced to be hanged at the west
endof the Luckenbooths on the 1st October, 1788.
Smith was deeply affected; Brodie cool, determined,
and indifferent His self-possession never forsook
him, and he spoke of his approaching end with
levity, as ??a leap in the dark,? and he only betrayed
emotion when he was visited, for the last time, by
his daughter Cecil, a pretty child of ten years of
age. He came on the scaffold in a full suit of
black, with his hair dressed and powdered. Smith
was attired in white linen, trimmed with black.
?Having put on white night-caps,? says a print
of the time, ?Brodie pointed to Smith to ascend
the steps that led to the drop, and in an easy manner,
clapping him on the shoulder, said, ?George
Smith, you are first in hand.? Upon this Smith,
whose behaviour was highly penitent and resigned,
slowly ascended the steps, followed by Brodie, who
mounted with briskness and agility, and examined
the dreadful apparatus with attention, particularly
a French quack, who
undertook to restore hiin
to life after he had hung
the usual time, and that,
on the day before the execution,
he had marked
the arms and temples of
Brodie, to indicate where
he would apply the lancet.
Moreover, it was said
that having to lengthen
the rope thrice proved
that they had bargained
secretly with the executioner
for a short fall.
When cut down the
body was instantly given to two of his own
workmen, who placed it on a cart, and drove at
a furious rate round the back of the Castle, with
the idea that the rough jolting might produce
resuscitation! It was then taken to one of his
workshops in the Lawnmarket, where Degraver
was in attendance; but all attempts at bleeding
failed j the Deacon was gone, and nothing remained
but to lay him where he now lies, in the north-east
corner of the Chapel-of-ease burying-ground. His
dark lantern and sets of false keys, presented by the
Clerk of Justiciary to the Society of Antiquaries, are
still preserved in the city.
He had at one time been Deacon Convener
or chief of all the trades in the city, an ofice of
the highest respectability. His house in Brodie?s
Close is still to be found in nearly its original state;
the first door up a turnpike shir; and this door,
remarkable for its elaborate workmanship, is said
to have been that of his own ingenious hand. The
apartments are all decorated; and the priicipal one, ... but by a sort of fatuity, often evinced by persons similarly situated, he gave clues to his own ...

Book 1  p. 115
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[Cramond.
---
OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
- -- 314
has been erected by the duke near it, at the foot of
the Granton Road, and on the opposite side of the
way are the Custom-house and other edifices, the
nucleus of an expanding seaport and suburb.
The stone used in the construction of' the pier
was chiefly quamed from the duke's adjacent property,
and the engineers were Messrs. Walker and
Burgess of London. The length of the pier is
'1,700 feet, and its breadth is from 80 to 160 feet.
Four pairs of jetties, each running out go feet, were
designed to go off at intervals of 350 feet, and two
slips, each 325 feet long, to facilitate the shipping
and loading of cattle.
A strong high wall, with a succession of thoroughfares,
runs along the centre of the entire esplanade.
A light-house rises at its extreme point, and displays
a brilliant red light. All these works exhibit such
massive and beautiful masonry, and realise their
object so fully, that every patriotic beholder must
regard them in the light of a great national benefit.
The depth of the water at spring tides is twentynine
feet. By the 7th William IV., c. 15, the Duke
of Buccleuch is entitled to levy certain dues on
passengers, horses, and carriages.
Eastward of this lies a noble breakwater more
than 3,000 feet in length; westward of it lies
another, also more than 3,000 feet in length, forming
two magnificent pools-one 1,000 feet in
breadth, and the other averaging 2,500.
At the west pier, or breakwater, are the steam
cranes, and the patent slip which was constructed
in the year 1852 ; since that time a number of
vessels have been built at Granton, where the first
craft was launched in January, 1853, and a
considerable trade in the repair of ships of all
kinds, but chiefly steamers of great size, has been
carried on.
Through the efforts of the Duke of Buccleuch
and Sir John Gladstone a ferry service was established
between the new piers of Granton and
Burntisland, and they retained it until it was taken
over by the Edinburgh and Northern, afterwards
called the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee Railway
Company, which was eventually merged in the
North British Railway.
Westward of the west pier lie some submerged
masses, known as the General's Rocks, and near
them one named the Chestnut.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH.
Cmmond-Origin oh the Name-Cramond of that Ilk-Ancient Charters-Inchmickery-Lord Cramand-Barnton-Gogar and its Propfieto-
Saughton Hall-Riccarton.
WITHIN a radius of about five miles from the
Castle are portions of the parishes of Cramond,
Liberton, Newton, Lasswade, Colinton, and 'Duddingstone,
and in these portions are many places
of great historical and pictorial interest, at which
our remaining space will permit us only to glance.
Two miles and a half westward of Granton lies
Cramond, embosomed among fine wood, where the
river Almond, which chiefly belongs to Edinburghshire,
though it rises in the Muir of Shotts, falls
into the Firth of Forth, forming a small estuary
navigable by boats fo; nearly a mile.
Its name is said to be derived from cmr, a fort,
and avon, a river, and it is supposed to have been,
from a disinterred inscription, the Alaterva of the
Romans, who had a station here-the Alauna of
Ptolemy. Imperid medals, coins, altars, pavements,
have been found here in remarkable
quadtities; and a bronze strigil, among them, is
now preserved in the Museum of Antiquities. On
the eastern bank of the river there lay a Roman
mole, where doubtless galleys were moored when
the water was deeper. Inscriptions have proved
that Cramond was the quarters of the 11. and
XX. Legions, under Lolliiis LJrbicus, when forming
the Roman rampart and militaryroad in the second
century-relics of the temporary dominion of Rome
in the South Lowlands.
According to Boece and 'Sir John Skene, Constantine
IV., who reigned in 994, was slain here
in battle by Malcolm lI., in 1002, and his army
defeated, chiefly through the wind driving the sand
into the eyes of his troops.
In after years, Cramond-or one-half thereofbelonged
ecclesiastically to the Bishops of Dunkeld,
to whom Robert Avenel transferred it, and here
they occasionally resided. There was a family
named Cramond of that ilk, a son of which became
a monk in the Carmelite monastery founded
at Queensferry early in the fourteenth century by
Dundas of that ilk, and who died Patriarch of
Antioch. ... AND NEW EDINBURGH. - -- 314 has been erected by the duke near it, at the foot of the Granton ...

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Newhaven.] ?OUR LADY?S PORT OF GRACE.? 295
1815 it was changed to a revolving light, as at
present. Its elevation is 235 feet above the waterline.
On the 1st October, 1835, thereflecting light was
discontinued, and a dioptric light was put in its
place, It consists of seven annular lenses, which
circulate round a great lamp having three concentric
wicks and produce brilliant flashes once in
every minute, and of five rows of curved mirrors,
which, being fixed, serve to prolong the duration
of the flashes from the lenses. The appearance of
the new light does not, therefore, differ materially
from that of the old one-save that the flashes
which recur at the same periods, are considerably
more brilliant, and of shorter duration. In clear
weather the light is not totally eclipsed between
the flashes at a distance of four or five miles, and
it is visible at the distance of eighteen nautical
miles. . The expense of this lighthouse in 1839 was
The old light of 1803~ with all its apparatus, was
purchased by the Government of Newfoundland,
and is still in use on Cape Spear, near the Narrows
of St. John.
A467 14s. sd.
C H A P T E R XXV.
NEWHAVEN.
Cobbett on Edinburgh-Jam- IV.5 Dockyard -Hi Gift or Newhaven to Edinburgh-The Gnat Mick&Embarkation of Mary of G b
Works at Newhaven in the Sixteenth Century-The L i V k u n t Newhaven-The Feud with Preston-The Sea Fencibles-
Chain Pier-Dr. Fairbairn-The Fishwives-Superstitions.
IT may not be uninteresting to quote, the ideas
entertained of Edinburgh by an English visitor in
the first years of the nineteenth century, as he was
-in his time-considered a typical John Bull,
I now come back to this delightful and beautiful
city,? wrote William Cobbett in his RegWr.
I thought Bristol, taking in its heights and Clifton
with its rocks and river, was the finest city in the
world; but it is nothing to Edinburgh, with its
castle, its hills, its pretty little seaport detached
from it, its vale of rich land lying all around, its
lofty hills in the background, its views across the
Firth. I think little of its streets and its rows of
fine houses, though all built of stone, and though
everything in London and Bath is begary to these ;
I thing nothing of Holyrood House ; but I think a
great deal of the fine and well-ordered streets of
shops ; of the regularity which you perceive everywhere
in the management of business ; and I think
still more of the absence of that foppishness and
that affectation of carelessness and insolent assumption
of superiority in almost all the young men you
meet in the fashionable parts of the great towns in
England. I was not disappointed, for I expected
to find Edinburgh the finest city in the kingdom. . . . The people, however, still exceed the
place; here all is civility; you do not meet with
rudeness, or with the want of disposition to oblige,
even in the persons of the lowest state of life. A
fiend took me round the environs of the city ; he
had a turnpike ticket, received at the first gate,
which cleared five or six gates. It was sufficient
for him to tell the gate-keepers that he had it.
When I saw that, I said to myself, ?Nota bene:
gate keepers take people?s wordin Scotland,? a thing
I have not seen before since I left Long Island.?
Now its seaport is no longer (? detached,? but has
become an integral part of Edinburgh, and all the
vale of rich land? between it and the Forth to
Granton, Trinity, and Newhaven, is covered by a
network of fine roads and avenues, bordered by
handsome villas.
Newhaven now conjoined to Leith, and long
deemed only a considerable fishing village, lies two
miles north of Princes Street, and yet consists
chiefly of the ancient village \;hich is situated,
quoad civilia, in the parish of North Leith, and
whose inhabitants are still noted as a distinct community,
rarely intermarrying with any other class.
The male inhabitants are almost entirely fishermen,
and the women are employed in selling the produce
of their husbands? industry in the streets of the city
and suburbs. Intermarriage seems to produce
among them a peculiar cast of countenance and
physical constitution. The women, inured to outdoor
daily labour in all weathers, are robust, active,
and remarkable for their florid complexions, healthy
figures, and regular features, as for the singularity of
their costume.
In the fifteenth century this village was designated
? Our Lady?s Port of Grace,? from a chapel dedicated
to the Virgin Mary and St. James, some
portions of which still exist in the ancient or
unused burial-ground of the centre of the village.
The nearly entire west gable, with a square window
in it, can still be seen in the Vennel, a narrow ... ?OUR LADY?S PORT OF GRACE.? 295 1815 it was changed to a revolving light, as at present. Its elevation ...

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THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 343
when the Lords of the Congregation I‘ past to Halyrudhous, and tuik and intromettit with
the irnis of the c~nzehous.~. ~
The general aspect of the Grassmarket appears to have suffered little change for above
two hundred years. One of the most modern erections on its southern side is that immediately
to the west of the Templar Lands we have just described, which bears on a tablet
over the entrance to Hunter’s Close, ANNO. DOM . MDCLXXI . It is not likely to
be soon lost sight of, that from a dyer’s pole in front of this old tenement Captain
. Porteous was hung by his Lynch-law judges A.D. 1736. . The long range of buildings that
extend beyond this, present as singular and varied a group of antique tenements as either
artist or antiquary could desire. Finials of curious and grotesque shapes surmount the
crow-stepped gables, and every variety of form and
elevation diversifies the sky line of their roofs and
chimneys; while behind, the noble pile of Heriot’s
Hospital towers above them a8 a counterpart to the
old Castle that rises majestically over the north side
of the same area’ Many antique features are yet
discernibIe here. Several of the older houses are built
with bartizaned roofs and ornamental copings, designed
to afford their inmates an.uninterrupted view of the magnificent pageants that were
wont of old to defile through the wide area below, or of the gloomy tragedies that were
so frequently enacted there between the Restoration and the Revolution. One of thesej
which stands immediately to the west of Heriot’s Bridge, exhibits a very perfect
specimen of the antique style of window already frequently referred to. The folding
shutters and transom of oak remain entire below, and the glass in the upper part is Bet in
an ornamental pattern of lead. Still finer, though less perfect, specimens of the same
early fashion, remain in a tenement on the north side, bearing the date 1634. It forms
the front building at the entrance to Plainstane’s Close-a distinctive title, implying
its former respectability as a paved alley. A handsome projecting turnpike stair bears
being thairin.”-Diurn. of OCC. p. 269. Humble as this nook appears, it is possible that it may be a fragment of the
Regent Murray’s lodging.
1 The careful and elaborate history of Heriot’s Hospital, by Dr Steven, renders further investigation of its memorials
unnecesaary. Tradition assigns to Inigo Jones the merit of having furnished the beautiful design for the Hospital,
which is well worthy of his genius. If so, however, it has been carried‘out in a modified form, under the direction
of more modern architects. “May 3 t T h e r e is a
necessity that the steeple of the Hospital be finished, and a top put thereupon. Ro. Miln, Master Mason, to think
on e drawing thereof, against the next council meeting.” The master mason doea not appear to have thought to good
purpose, as we find recorded the following year :-“July 10.-Deacon Sandilans to put a roof and top to the Hoepital’s
ateeple, according to the draught condescended upon be Sir William Bruce.” In one of Captain Slezer’s very accurate
general view8 of Edinburgh, published towarda the close of the 17th century, Heriot’s Hospital is introduced 88 it
then appeared, with the plain square tower over the gateway, and near to it the Old Oreyfriars’ Church, with the
tower at the west end, aw it stood previous to 1718, when the latter waa accidentally blown up by gunpowder, which
had been deposited there for aafety. A view of the Hospital, by Glordon of Rothiemay, which was engraved in
Holland before 1650, is believed to aford an accurate representation of the original deeign. The aame is engraved in
the fourth edition of Sleser’s views, under the name of Bogengkht. In thia view, the tower is surmounted by a lofty
and beautiful apire, carrying out the idea of contrast in form and elevation which appears in the reat of the dedign,
much more effectively than the dome which has been substituted for it. The large towers at the angles of the building
appear in this view covered with ogee roofs, in mora questionable tsste. Several entries in the Hospital %cords seem
to imply that two of the four towers had been completed according to this idea, and afterwards altered. The Recorda
afford evidence of frequent deviations from the original design being sanctioned, even rfter auch parta of the building
were 6niahed according to the plan.
The following entry occurs in the Hospital Recorda for 1675. ... WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 343 when the Lords of the Congregation I‘ past to Halyrudhous, and tuik and ...

Book 10  p. 375
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4 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-of-Field.
begun to entertain of his own safety ; for he knew
that he had many bitter enemies, against whom he
trusted that her presence would protect him,
Many persons are said to have suspected Bothwell?s
fell purpose, but none dared apprise him of
his danger, ? as he revealed all,? says Mehil, ? to
some of his own servants, who were not honest.?
Three days before the murder, the Lord Robert
Stuart, Mary?s illegitimate brother, warned Darnley
that if he did not quit the Kirk-of-Field ?? it would
cost him his life.?
Darnley informed Mary of this, on which she
sent for her brother, and inquired his meaning in
her husband?s presence ; but Lord Robert, afraid
of involving himself with Bothwell and the many
noble and powerful adherents of that personage,
denied ever having made any such statement.
?? This information,? adds Melvil, ?? moved the Earl
of Bothwell to haste forward with his enterprise.?
He had secured either the tacit assent or active
co-operation of the Earls of Huntley, Argyle, Caithness,
and the future Regent Morton, of Archibald
Douglas, and many others of the leading lords and
officers of state ; and in addition to these conspirators
of high rank, he had received a number of
other unscrupulous wretches, with whom Scotland
seemed at that time to abound.
Four of these, Wilson, Powrie, Dalgleish, and
French Paris, were only humble retainers; but
other four who were active in the Kirk-of-Field
tragedy were John Hepburn of Bolton, John Hay
of Tallo, the Laird of Ormiston, and Hob Ormiston
his uncle.
Bothwell artfully contrived to get the Frenchman
Paris, who had been long in his service, taken into
that of the queen about this period, and thus
render important service by obtaining the door-key
of the Kirk-of-Field House, from which impressions
were taken and counterfeits made.
If the depositions of this villain are to be
credited, it was not until Wednesday, the 5th of
February (1567), that the plot was revealed to him,
and that on seeing him grow faint-hearted at dread
of his own danger, Bothwell asked him, impatiently,
more than once, what he thought of it. ?Pardon
me, sir,? replied Paris, ? if I tell you my opinion
according to my poor mind.?
?What ! are you going to preach to me ? asked
Bothwzll, scornfully.
Paris ultimately consented to act; and it
would seem that Bothwell for a few days was un.
decided, like his four chief accomplices, whether to
slay Darnley when walking in the garden or sleep
ing in bed, or to blow the house and its inmates up
together. Eventually a quantity of Government
?owder was brought from the Castle of Dunbar to
Bothwell?s house, near Holyrood, and Paris was
nstructed to admit Hay, Hepburn, and Ormiston
.nto the queen?s room, below that of Darnley, from
which he, to blacken her, alleged she removed a
valuable coverlet-a very unlikely act of parsimony
3n her part.
On the night of Sunday, the 9th of February, all
was ready for the dreadful project. When the dusk
fell Bothwell assembled the conspirators at his own
house, znd, according to the depositions of Powrie,
Dalgleish, Tallo, and others, allotted to each the
prim part he was to play. He was well aware that
the queen had dined that day at the palace, and
that in the evening she was to sup with the Bishop
of Argyle in the house of Mr. John Balfour, with
whom the prelate lodged.
At nine she left the supper-table, and, accompanied
by the Earls of ?Argyle, Huntley, and
Cassilis, went to visit Darnley at the Kirk-of-
Field before returning to Holyrood, where she
was to be present at a masque in honour of the
marriage of Margaret Carwood, one of her favourite
attendants.
Meanwhile, Dalgleish, Powrie, and U?ilson, were
conveying the powder in bags from Bothwell?s
house to the convent gate at the foot of the Blackfriars
Wynd, where it was received by Hay of Tallo,
Hepburn of Bolton and Ormiston, who desired them
to return home.
Bothwell, who had been present with her at the
banquet of the bishop, quitted the table at the
same time as Mary, but left her and walked up and
down the Cowgate while the powder was being
received and deposited. By his orders a large
empty barrel was deposited in the Dominican
garden. Into this all the bags of powder were to
have been placed, but as the lower back door of
the Provost?s house was too small to admit it, they
were conveyed in separately, and placed in a heap
on the floor of the room beneath that in which the
victim then lay a-bed.
At length all was in readiness ; the queen had
departed by torchlight to the Holyrood masque,
attended by Bothwell, and Ormiston had withdrawn;
but Hay and Hepburn, with their false
keys, remained in the room with the powder. Paris,
who had in his pocket the key of the queen?s room
in the Kirk-of-Field, followed her train to the palace.
If, again, any credit can be given to the confession
of Pans, he stated that on entering the .
ball-room where the masquers were dancing, a
melancholy seized him, and he remained apart from
all; on which Bothwell accosted him angrily,
saying that if he retained that gloomy visage in ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-of-Field. begun to entertain of his own safety ; for he knew that he had many ...

Book 5  p. 4
(Score 0.26)

Corstorphine.] CORSTORPHINE CHURCH. 115
was no side road into which he could have disappeared.
He returned home perplexed by the
oddness of the circumstance, when the first thing
he learned was, that during his absence this friend
had been killed by his horse falling in the Candlemakers
Row.??
The church of Corstorphine is one of the most
interesting old edifices in the Lothians. It has
been generally supposed, says a writer, that Scotland,
while possessed of great and grand remains
of Gothic architecture, is deficient in those antique
rural village churches, whose square towers and
ivied buttresses so harmonise with the soft landscape
scenery of England, and that their place is
too often occupied by the hideous barn-like structure
of times subsequent to the Reformation. But
among the retiring niinor beauties of Gothic architecture
in Scotland, one of the principal is the
picturesque little church of Corstorphine.
It is a plain edifice of mixed date, says Billings
in his ?? Antiquities,? the period of the Decorated
Gothic predominating. It is in the form of a cross,
with an additional transept on one of the sides;
but some irregularities in the height and character
of the different parts make them seem asif they
were irregularly clustered together without design.
A portion of the roof is still covered with old-&ey
flagstone. A small square belfry-tower at the west
end is surmounted by a short octagonal spire, the
ornate string? mouldings on which suggest an idea
of the papal tiara
As the church of the parish, it is kept in tolerably
decent order, and it is truly amazing how it
escaped the destructive fury of the Reformers.
This edifice was not the original parish church,
which stood near it, but a separate establishment,
founded and richly endowed by the pious enthusiasm
of the ancient family whose tombs it contains,
and whose once great castle adjoined it.
Notices have been found of a chapel attached to
the manor of Corstorphine, but subordinate to the
church of St. Cuthbert, so far back as 1128, and
this chapel became the old parish church referred
to. Thus, in the Holyrood charter of King DavidI.,
1143-7, he grants to the monks there the two
chapels which pertain to the church of St. Cuthbert,
?? to wit, Crostorfin, with two oxgates and six
acres of land, and the chapel of Libertun with two
oxgates of land.?
In the immediate vicinity of that very ancient
chapel there was founded ancther chapel towards
the end of the fourteenth century, by Sir Adam
Forrester of Corstorphine; and that edifice is sup
posed to form a portion of the present existing
church, because after its erection no mention whatever
has been found of the second chapel as a
separate edifice.
.The building with which we have now to do
was founded in 1429, as an inscription on the wall
of the chancel, and other authorities, testify, by Sir
John Forrester of Corstorphine, Lord High Chamberlain
of Scotland in 1425, and dedicated to St.
John the Baptist, for a provost, five prebendaries,
and two singing boys. It was a collegiate church,
to which belonged those of Corstorphine, Dalmahoy,
Hatton, Cramond, Colinton, &c. The tiends
of Ratho, and half of those of Adderton and Upper
Gogar, were appropriated to the revenues of this
college.
?Sir John consigned the annual rents of one hundred
and twenty ducats in gold to the church,? says
the author of the ?New Statistical Account,? ?on
condition that he and his successors should have the
patronage of the appointments, and on the understanding
that if the kirk of Ratho were united to
the provostry, other four or five prebendaries
should be added to the establishment, and maintained
out of the fruits of the benefice of Ratho.
Pope Eugenius IV. sanctioned this foundation by a
bull, in which he directed the Abbot of Holyroodhouse,
a$ his Apostolic Vicar, to ascertain whether
the foundation and consignation had been made in
terms of the original grant, and on being satisfied
on these points, to unite and incorporate the church
of Ratho with its rights, emoluments, and pertinents
to the college for ever.?
The first provost of this establishment was
Nicholas Bannatyne, who died there in 1470, and
was buried in the church, where his epitaph still
remains.
When Dunbar wrote his beautiful ? I Lament for
the Makaris,? he embalmed among the last Scottish
poets of his time, as taken by Death, ? the gentle
Roull of Corstorphine,? one of the first provosts of
the church-
?( He has tane Rod1 of Aberdeen,
A d gentle Rod1 of Corstorphine ;
Twa better fellows did nae man see :
Timor mortis conturbat me.?
There was, says the ? The Book of Bon Accord,?
a Thomas Roull, who was Provost of Aberdeen in
1416, and it is conjectured that the baid was of the
same family ; but whatever the works of the latter
were, nothing is known of him now, save his name,
as recorded by Dunbar.
In the year 1475, Hugh Bar, a burgess of Edinburgh,
founded an additional chaplaincy in this
then much-favoured church. ? The chaplain, in
addition to the performance of daily masses for
the souls of the king andqueen, the lords of the ... CORSTORPHINE CHURCH. 115 was no side road into which he could have disappeared. He returned home ...

Book 5  p. 115
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282 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
C H A P T E R X X X I I I .
LEITH-TIIE DOCKS.
New Docks proposed-Apathy of the Government-First Graving Dock, 1710-Two more Docks constructed-Shellycoat?s Rock-The
Contract-The Dock of &-The King?s Bastion-The Queen?s Dock-New Piers-The Victoria Dock-The Albert Dock-The
Edinburgh Dock-Its &tent-Ceremony of Opening-A Glance at the Trade of Leith,
IN theyear when the first stone pier was built (1710)
steps were taken towards building a regular dock
in Leith, when the Lord Provost, Magistrates,
and Town Council of Edinburgh, petitioned Queen
Anne, praying her to establish at Leith, ? the port
of her ancient and loyal city of Edinburgh, a wet
and dry dock, for the commencing of building,
fitting, and repairing her Majesty?s ships of war
and trading vessels, which would greatly conduce
to the interests of trade in general.?
Every Scottish project in those days, and for
long after, was doomed to be blighted by the loss
of the national legislature ; so this petition had not
the slightest effect,
Time went on, and another was presented, and
ultimately, under instructions issued by the Earl of
Pembroke, then Lord High Admiral, some naval
officers surveyed the Firth of Forth, and were pleased
to report that Leith was the most suitable port, and
two docks were eventually formed on the west side
of the old harbour, the first, a pving dock, being
constructed in 1720, in front of the Sand Port,
where now the Custom House stands.
The west quay, which now takes its name
from that edifice, was built in 1777, but the
accommodation still being inadequate for the requirements
of the growing trade of the port, the
magistrates of Edinburgh obtained, in I 788, an
Act of Parliament empowering them to borrow the
sum of &30,000 for the purpose of constructing a
basin, or wet dock, of seven English acres, above
the dam of the saw-mills at Leith, a lock at the
Sheriff Brae, and a communication between the
latter and the basin.
This plan, however-one by Mr. Robert Whitworth,
engineer-was abandoned, and the magistrates
applied again to Parliament, and in 1799
obtained an Act authorising them to borrow
~160,000 to execute a portion of John Rennie?s
magnificent and more extensive design, which embraced
the idea?bf a vast range of docks, stretching
from the north pier of Leith to Newhaven, with an
entrance at each of these places.
The site chosen for these new docks was parallel
with what was known as the Short Sand, or from the
Sand Port, at the back of the north pier westward,
to nearly the east flank of the old battery; and here,
for the last time, we may refer to one of the many
superstitions for which Leith was famous of old
and perhaps the most quaint of these was connected
with a large rock, which lay on the site of these
new docks, and not far from the citadel, which was
supposed to be the seat, or abode, of a demon
called Shellycodt, a kind of spirit of the waters,
who, in the ?Traditions and Antiquities of Leith:?
has been described as ?ra sort of monster fiend,
gigantic, but undefinable, who possessed powers
almost infinite ; who never undertook anything, no
matter how great, which he failed to accomplish ;
his swiftness was that of a spirit, and he delighted
in deeds of blood and devastation.?
Stiellycoat, so named from his skin or gamient
of shells, was long the bugbear of the urchins of
Leith, and even of their seniors; but in the new
dock operations his half-submerged rock was blown
up or otherwise removed, and Shellycoat, like the
Twelve o?clock Coach, the Green Lady, and the
Fairy Drummer, is now a thing of the past.
In March, 1800, appeared in the Edinburgh
papers the advertisement for contractors for the
works at Leith thus :-
?All persons willing to contract for quarrying
stones, at the quarry now opened near Rosythe
Castle, westward of North Queensferry, and putting
them on board a vessel, and also for the carriage
and delivery at Leith, for the purpose of constructing
a WET DOCK there, are desired, on or before the
first Monday in April next, to send to John Gray,
Town Clerk, proposals sealed, containing-First,
the price per ton for which they are willing to
quarry such stones and put them on board a vessel ;
and secondly, for the carriage and delivery of them
at Leith.
?There will be wanted for the Sea Wall about
two hundred and fifty thousand cubic feet of
ashlar, and in the Quay Walls about one hundred
and seventy thousand cubic feet, besides a quantity
of rubble stones. A specification of the dimensions
and shape of the stones, and the conditions of the
contract, will be shown by Charles Cunningham, at
the Dean of Guild?s office, St Giles?s Church.
? Edinburgh, March I zth, 1800.?
These details are not without interest now; but
it is remarkable that the materials should have been
brought from the coast of Fife, when the quarries at
Granton had been known for ages. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith. C H A P T E R X X X I I I . LEITH-TIIE DOCKS. New Docks proposed-Apathy of ...

Book 6  p. 282
(Score 0.26)

Leith.] SIR ANDREW WOOD. 199
CHAPTER XXI.
LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY (ronfinaed).
A Scottish Navy-Old Fighting Mariners of Leith-Sir Andrew Woodand the YdZm CaravrZ-J.~es 111. skin-James IV. and Su-
Andrew-Double Defeat of the English Ships-John, Kobert, and Andrew Barton-Their Letten of Marque against the Portugu-
Jarnes IV. and his Sailors-A Naval Review.
AND now, before giving the history of more
modern Leith, we must refer to some of her brave
old fighting merchant mariners, who made her
famous in other years.
?As the subject of the Scottish navy,? says
Pinkerton, ? forms a subject but little known, any
anecdotes concerning it become interesting ;1? and,
fortunately for our purpose, most of these have
some reference to the zncient port of Leith.
Though the foymation of a Scottish navy was
among the last thoughts of the great king Robert
Bruce, when, worn with war and years, he lay dying
in the castle of Cardross, it was not until the reigns
of James 111. and IV. that Scotland possessed any
ships for purely warlike purposes. Nevertheless,
she was rich in hardy mariners and enterprising
merchants ; and an Act of Parliament during the
reign of the latter monarch refers to ? the great
and innumerable riches yat is tint in fault of shippis
and busses,? or boats to be employed in the
fisheries.
In 1497 an enactment was made that vessels of
twenty tons and upwards should be built in all the
seaports of the kingdom, while the magistrates were
directed to compel all stout vagrants who frequented
such places to learn the trade of mariners, and
labour for their own living.
Among the merchants and the private traders
James IV. found many men of ability, bravery,
and experience, such as Sir Andrew Wood of Largo,
the two Bartons (John and Robert), Sir Alexander
Mathieson, William Meremonth, all merchants of
Leith; and Sir David Falconer, of Borrowstounness.
Williarn Brownhill, who never saw an English
ship, either in peace or war, without attacking and
taking her if he was able, and various other naval adventurers
of less note were sought out by James 111.
and treated with peculiar favour and distinction.
But it was in the reign of his father that Sir Andrew
Wood, who has been called the ? Scottish Nelson ?
of his day, made his name in history, and to him
we shall first refer.
Under that unfortunate monarch Scotland?s commerce
was beginning to flourish, notwithstanding
the restraint so curiously laid upon maritime enterprise
by the Act that restricted sailing from St Jude?s
Day till Candlemas, under a penalty; and in 1476
R?e read of the ?? great ship ? of James Kennedy,
which Buchanan states ? to have been the largest
that ever sailed the ocean,? but was wrecked upon.
the coast of England and destroyed by the people.
During the reign of James III., the fighting merchant
of Leith, Sir Andrew Wood, bore the terror
of his name through English, Dutch, and Flemish
waters, and in two pitched battles defeated the
superior power of England at sea. As he was the
first of his race whose name obtained eminence,
nothing is known of his family, and even much of
his personal history is buried in obscurity. Dr.
Abercrombie, in his ? Martial Achievements,? supposes
him to have been a cadet of the Bonnington
family in Angus, and he is generally stated to have
been born about the middle of the fifteenth century
at the old Kirktoun of Largo, situated on the
beautiful bay of the same name.
Wood appears to have been during the early
part of the reign of James 111. a wealthy merchant
in Leith, where at first he possessed and commanded
two armed vessels of some 300 tons each, the-
YeZZow CaraveZ and FZlmer, good and strong ships,
superior in equipment to any that had been seen in*
Scotland before, so excellent were his mariners,
their arms, cannon, and armour. According to
a foot-note in Scott of Scotstarvit?s work, ?he had
been first a skipper at the north side of the bridge
of Leith, and being pursued, mortified his house
to Paul?s Work (in Leith Wynd) as the register
beats.?
It would appear that the vessel called the YelZow
CuraveZ was formerly commanded by his friend!
John Barton (of whom more elsewhere), as in the
accounts of the Lord High Treasurer the following
note occurs by the editor :-
?( In March 1473-4 the accounts contain a notice
of a ship which a cancelled entry enables us to
identify with the King?s Yellow Carad, afterwards
rendered famous under the command of Sir Andrews
Wood in naval engagements with the English.?
The editor a!so states that in the ?? Account of the
Chamberlain of Fife? he had found another entry
concerning 3 delivery to John Barton, master of
the King?s CurnveZ, under date 1475. ? This last
entry,? says an annotator, ?? being deleted, however
shows that there must have been some mistake as
to whom the corn was delivered, John Barton being
probably sailing one of his own ships. During ... SIR ANDREW WOOD. 199 CHAPTER XXI. LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY (ronfinaed). A Scottish Navy-Old Fighting ...

Book 6  p. 199
(Score 0.26)

36 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Canongate
4? History of Music j ? Dr. Gregory ; David Xllan ;
Lord Cromarty; and many others who have left
$heir ?? footprints on the sands of time.?
There, too, is the grave of the ill-fated Fergusson
the poet, above which is the tombstone placed
at the order of Robert Burns by Gowans, a marble-
-cutter in the Abbey Hill, ?to remain for ever
sacred to the memory of him whose name it bears,?
with the inscription Bums penned :-
? HERE LIES ROBERT FERGUSSON.
Born Sept. sth, 1751. Died October 16th, 1774.
No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,
This simple stone directs pale Scotia?s way
No stoned urn nor animated bust ;
To pour her sorrows o?er her poet?s dust.?
Here, on the 16th of Tune, , -
? Henry Prentice. Died . . . .
Be not curious to know how I lived ;
But rather how yourself should die.?
He was, however, eventually interred at Restalrig.
At least three tenements of three storeys each
would seem to have occupied the site of the church.
One of the picturesque relics of the past in
Edinburgh is the old Canongate Tolbooth, with its
sombre tower and spire, Scoto-French corbelled
turrets, huge projecting clock, dark-mouthed archway,
its moulded windows, and many sculptured
stones. Above the arch is the inscription-
S. L. B.
PATRIA ET POSTERIS 1591 ;
and in a niche are the usual insignia of
1821, Sir Walter Scott att the burgh, the stag?s head and- cross,,
the funeral of John Ballantyne, with the motto SIC ITUR AD ASTRA, while
.and displayed considerable emo- the appropriate niotto ESTO FIDUS surtion.
?He cast his eyes along mounts the inner doorway to the court-
-the overhanging line of the Calton house. At the south-east comer is the
Hill, with its gleaming walls and old shaft of the cross and pillory, near
towers, and then turning to the the entrance to the police-station.
.grave again, ?I feel,? he whispered it is a fine example of the
fices of the reign of Janies
VI. In the tower are two bells,
in Lockhart?s ear, ?I feel as
if there would be less sun-
-shine for me from this day one inscribed SOLI DEO HONOR ET
forth.? 2y GLORIA, 1608, and a larger one,
In May 1880 there was cast in 1796. Between the stately
erected here a monument windows of the Council
.of rose-coloured granite, Hall is a pediment sur-
Wenty-six feet high, by Mr. mounted by a great thistle
Ford of the Holyroad Glass and the legend :-
-Works, ?? In memory of the J. R 6. JUSTITIA ET PIETAS
burgh Castle, situated in , FERGUSSON?S GRAVE. Herein the magistrates
soldiers who died in Edin- VALIDE SUNT PRINCIPIS ABCES.
.the Parish of Canongate,
interred here from the year 1692 to 1880.? It
k very ornate, has on its base sculptured trophies,
-and was inaugurated in presence of General Hope,
his staff, and the 71st Highlanders. Prior to its
erection the spot where so many soldiers have
.found their last home was only a large square patch
covered by grass.
In the ?? Domestic Annals ? we find recorded the
.death, in 1788, of Henry Prentice, by whom the
field culture of the potato was first introduced into.
the county of Edinburgh, in 1746. He had made
.a. little money as a travelling merchant, was an
.eccentric character, and in 1784 sunk A140 with
the managers of the Canongate poorhouse for a
weekly subsistence. He had his coffin made, with
the date of his birth thereon, 1703, and long bad
his gravestone conspicuously placed in the burgh
churchyard, inscribed thus :-
who came as successors
of the abbots of Holyrood as over-lords of the
burgh, held u-eekly courts for the punishment of
offenders, the adjustment of small debts, and
the affairs of the little municipality. That the
building is older than any of the dates upon it, or
that it had apredecessor, the following extracts from
the ?? Burgh Records ? attest :-
?? Vndecimo decembris, an : 1567.
?The quhilk day it was concludit, be the Baillies and
Counsall, to pursew quhatsomever person that is known and
brutit wt the breking of the Tolbooth of this burcht, the
tyme of the furth letting of Janet Robertsoun, being werdit
within the samyn, &c.?
In 1572 the following item occurs :-
?TO sax pynonis (pioneers?) att the Baillies *command
for taking doun of the lintel-stone of the Ruld Tolbooth
window-iij-s vi-d.?
In 1654 several Scottish prisoners of war, con ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Canongate 4? History of Music j ? Dr. Gregory ; David Xllan ; Lord Cromarty; and many ...

Book 3  p. 30
(Score 0.26)

I02 OLD AYD NEW EDINBURGH. [The Lawnmarket.
Duke of York and Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke made
some noise in London during the time of the
Regency. The house below those occupied by
Hume and by Boswell was the property and residence
of Andrew Macdowal of Logan, author of the
? Institutional Law of Scotland,? afterwards
elevated to the bench, in 1755, as Lord Bankton.
In another court named Paterson?s, opening on
the Lawnmarket, Margaret Countess Dowager of
Glasgow was resident in 1761, and for some years
before it Her husband, the second ead, died in
1740.
One of the handsomest old houses still existing in
the Lawnmarket is the tall and narrow tenement of
polished ashlar adjoining Tames?s Court. It is of
a marked character, and highly adorned. Of old
it belonged to Sir Robert Bannatyne, but in 1631
was acquired by Thomas Gladstone, a merchant
burgess, and on the western gable are the initials
of himself and wife. In 1634, when the city was
divided for the formation of sixteen companies, in
obedience to an injunction of Charles I., the
second division was ordered to terminate at
?? Thomas Gladstone?s Land,? on the north side of
the street.
In 1771 a dangerous fire occurred in the Lawnmarket,
near the head of the old Bank Close. It
was fidt?discovered by the flames bursting through
the roof of a tall tenement known as Buchanan?s.
It baffled the efforts of three fire-engines and
a number of workmen, and some soldiers of the
22nd regiment. It lasted a whole night, and
created the greatest consternation and some loss
of life. ?The new church and weigh-house were
opened during the fire,? says the Scots Magazine
of 1771, ?for the reception of the goods and
furniture belonging to the sufferers and the inhabitants
of the adjacent buildings, which were kept
under guard.? Damage to the extent of several
thousand pounds was done, and among those who
suffered appear the names of General Lockhart of
Carnwath ; Islay Campbell, advocate ; John Bell,
W.S. ; and Hume d .Ninewells; thus giving a
sample.of those who still abode in the Lawnmarket.
CHAPTER XI.
, THE LAWNMARKET (continued).
Lady Stair?s Close-Gay or Pittendrum-e?Aunt Margarct?s Mmor?--The Marshal h l and Countess of Stair-Mm Femer-Sir Richard
Stcele-Martha Countess of Kincardine-Burns?s Room in Baxter?s Close-The Bridges? Shop in Bank Street-Bailie MacMonm?s
PRIOR to the opening of Bank Street, Lady Stair?s
Close, the first below Gladstone?s Land, was the
chief thoroughfare for foot passengers, taking advantage
of the half-formed Earthen Mound to reach
the New Town. It takes its name from Elizabeth
Countess Dowager of Stair, who was long looked
up to as a leader of fashion in Edinburgh, admission
to her select circle being one of the highest
objects of ambition among the lesser gentry of her
day, when the distinctions of rank and family were
guarded with an angry jealousy of which we have
but little conception now. Lady Stair?s Close is
narrow and dark, for the houses are of great height ;
the house she occupied still remains on the west
side thereof, and was the scene of some romantic
events and traditions, of which Scott made able
use. in his ?Aunt Margaret?s Mirror,? ere it became
the abode of the widow of the Marshal Earl of
Stair, who, when a little boy, had the misfortune to
kill his elder brother, the Master, by the accidental
discharge of a pistol; after which, it is said, that
his mother could never abide him, and sent him
.
in his extreme youth to serve in Flanders as a
volunteer in the Cameronian Regiment,.under the
Earl of Angus. The house occupied by Lady Stair
has oyer its door the pious legend-
? Feare the Lord and depart from cuiZZ,?
with the date 1622, and the initials of its founder
and of his wifeSir Wiiam Gray of Pittendrum,
and Egidia Smith, daughter of Sir John Smith, of
Grothall, near Craigleith, Provost of Edinburgh in
1643. Sir William was a man of great influence in
the time of Charles I. ; and though the ancient title
of Lord Gray reverted to his family, he devoted
himself to commerce, and became one of the
wealthiest Scottish merchants of that age. But
troubles came upon him; he was fined IOO,OOO
merks for corresponding with Montrose, and was
imprisoned, first in the Castle and then in the
Tolbooth till the mitigated penalty of 35,000 merks
was paid. Other exorbitant exactions followed, and
these hastened his death, which took place in
1648. Three years before that event, his daughter ... OLD AYD NEW EDINBURGH. [The Lawnmarket. Duke of York and Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke made some noise in London ...

Book 1  p. 102
(Score 0.26)

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