... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
.%dim, or ?? Miscellaneous Papers relating tc
Scottish Affairs ?? (1535-1781)~ ...
Book 6 p. 262
(Score 0.25)
... will, in a short space, run a great length. I desire
you may disperse this news abroad, if it be not in ...
Book 1 p. 62
(Score 0.25)
![The Royal Excharge.] THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 183 -
CHAPTER XX.
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE-THE TRON CHURCH-THE GREAT FIRE OF NOVEMBER, 1824.
The Royal Exchange-Laying the Foundation Stonc-Ddption of the Exchange-The Mysterious Statue-The Council Cbarnber-hventiom
of Royal Burghs : Constitution thereof, and Powers-Writen? Court-The ? Star and Garter? Tavern-Sir Walter Scott?s Account
of the Scene at Cleriheugh?s-Lawyers? High Jinks-The Tron Church-Histor] of the Old Church-Tht Gnat Fire of rSa~-lnciden~s
of the Conflagration-The Ruins Undermined-Blown up by Captain Head of the Engineers,
Ira 1753 we discover the first symptoms of vitality
in Edinburgh after the Union, when the pitiful
sum of A1,500 was subscribed by the convention
of royal burghs, for the purpose of ? beautifying
the city,? and the projected Royal Exchange was
fairly taken in hand.
If wealth had not increased much, the population
had, and by the middle of the eighteenth
century the citizens had begun to find the inconvenience
they laboured under by being confined
within the old Flodden wall, and that the city was
still destitute of such public buildings as were
necessary for the accommodation of those societies
which were formed, or forming, in all other capitals,
to direct the business of the nation, and provide
for the general welfare ; and so men of tas?te, rank,
and opulence, began to bestir themselves in Edinburgh
at last.
Many ancient alleys and closes, whose names
are well-nigh forgotten now, were demolished on
the north side of the Righ Street, to procure a
site for the new Royal Exchange. Some of these
had already become ruinous, and must have been
of vast antiquity. Many beautifully-sculptured
stones belonging to houses there were built into
the curious tower, erected by Mr. Walter Ross at
the Dean, and are now in a similar tower at Portobello,
Others were scattered about the garden
grounds at the foot of the Castle rock, and still
show the important character of some of the
edifices demolished. Among them there was a
lintel, discovered when clearing out the bed 01
the North Loch, with the initials IS. (and the
date 1658), supposed to be those of Jaines tenth
Lord Somerville, who, after serving long in the
Venetian army, died at a great age in 1677.
On the 13th of September, 1753, the first stone
of the new Exchange was laid by George Drummond,
then Grand Master of the Scottish Masons,
whose memory as a patriotic magistrate is still remembered
with respect in Edinburgh. A triumphal
arch, a gallery for the magistrates, and covered
stands for the spectators, enclosed the arena.
?The procession was very grand and regular,?
says the Gentleman?s Magazine for that year.
each lodge of maSons, of which there were
thirteen, walked in procession by themselves, all
uncovered, amounting to 672, most of whom were
operative masons.? The military paid proper
honours to the company on this occasion, and escorted
the procession in a suitable manner. The
Grand Master and the present substitute were
preceded by the Lord Provost, magistrates, and
council, in their robes, with the city sword, mace,
&c., carried before them, accompanied by the
directors of the scheme.
All day the foundation-stone lay open, that the
people might see it, with the Latin inscription on
the plate, which runs thus in English :-
? GEORGE DKUMMOND,
Of the Society of Freemasons in Scotland Grand Master,
Thrice Provost of the City of Edinburgh,
Three hundred Brother Masons attending,
In presence of many persons of distinction,
The Magistrates and Citizens of Edinburgh,
And of every rank of people an innumerable multitude,
And all Applaudipg ;
For convenience of the inhabitants of Edinburgh,
And the public ornament,
Laid this stone,
Wdliam Alexander being Provost,
On the 13th September, 1753. of the Era of Masonry 5753,
And of the reign of George II., King of Great Britain,
the 27th yea.?
In the stone were deposited two medals, one
bearing the profile and name of the Grand Master,
the other having the masonic arms, with the collar
of St. Andrew, and the legend, ? In the Lord is
all our trust.?
Though the stone was thus laid in 1753, the
work was not fairly begun till the following year,
nor was it finished till 1761, at the expense of
A31,5oo, including the price of the area on which
it is built ; but it never answered the purpose for
which it was intended-its paved quadrangle and
handsome Palladian arcades were never used by
the mercantile class, who persisted in meeting, as
of old, at the Cross, or where it stood.
Save that its front and western arcades have
been converted into shops, it remains unchanged
since it was thus described by Arnot, and the back I
view of it, which faces the New Town, catches the
eye at once, by its vast bulk and stupendous height,
IOO feet, all of polished ashlar, now blackened with -
the smoke of years :--.?The Exchange is a large
and elegant building, with a court in the -centre.
,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p195.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 183")
... Royal Excharge.] THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 183 -
CHAPTER XX.
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE-THE TRON CHURCH-THE GREAT FIRE OF ...
Book 1 p. 183
(Score 0.25)
![270 OLD AND *NEW EDINBURGH. [Brown Square.
Till about 1780 the inhabitants of these districts
formed a distinct class of themselves, and had their
own places of amusement, independent of all the
rest of the city. Nor was it until the New Town
was rather far advanced that the sowfh side lost its
attractions; and we are told that, singular as it
may appear, there was one instance, if not more, of
a gentleman living and dying in this southern district
without having once visited, or even seen, the
New Town, although at the time of his death it
had extended westward to Castle Street. (Scott?s ?? Provincial Antiquities.?)
In the notes to ? Redgauntlet,? the same author
tells us, that in its time Brown Square was hailed
?as an extremely elegant improvement ? on Edmburgh
residences, even witli its meagre plot of
grass and shabby iron railings. It is here he
places the house of Saunders Fairford, where Man
is described as first beholding the mysterious Lady
GreenmanfZe, and as being so bewildered with her
appearance, that he stood as if he had been
senseless. ? The door was opened, out she went,
walked along the pavement, turned down the
close (at the north-east end of the square leading
into the Cowgate), and put the sun, I believe,
into her pocket when she disappeared, so suddenly
did dulness and darkness sink down on the
square when she was no longer visible.?
To show how much this new locality was thought
of, we will here quote a letter in the Edinburgh
Adverfiser of 6th March, 1764 (Vol. I.) :-
?Su,-\Vith pleasure I have observed of late
the improvements we are making in this metropolis,
and there is nothing which pleases me yore than
the taste for elegant buildings, than which nothing
can be a greater ornament to a city, or give a
stranger a greater impression of the improvement
of the inhabitants in polite and liberal arts.
? That very elegant square, called Brown Square,
which, in my opinion, is a very great beauty to the
town, is now almost finished, and last day the
green pasture was railed in. Now, I think, to
complete the whole, an elegant statue in the
middle would be well worth the expense; and I
dare say the gentlemen who possess houses there
would not grudge a small sum to have that part
adorned with an equestrian statue of his present
Majesty George the Thud, and which I should think,
would be contributed to by public subscriptions,
set a-foot for that purpose. Whie we are thus
making such improvements, I am surprised nobody
has ever mentioned an improvement on our
College [the old one was then extant] which, as it
now is, gives strangers but an unfavourable idea of
our University, which, however, is at present so
flourishing. . . . , To have a handsome building
for that purpose is surely the desire of every good
citizen. This could be easily accomplished by
various means. Suppose a lottery should be proposed,
every student I dare say would take a
ticket, and I would venture to ensure the success
of it.?
But George 111. was fated not to have a statue
either in Brown Square or Great King Street, according
to a suggestion some sixty years afterwards
; yet as a proof that the square was deemed
alike fashionable and elegant, we may enumerate
some of those who resided there. . Among them
were the Dowager Lady Elphinstone (daughter of
John sixth Earl of Wigton) who had a house here
in 1784; Henry Pundas (afterwards Viscount
Melville), when a member of the Faculty of Advocates;
Sir Islay Campbell, Bart., of Succoth, in the
days when it was the custom of the senators to
walk to court in the morning, with nicely powdered
wigs, and a small cocked hat in the hand-a practice
retained nearly to the last by Lord Glenlee:
he was afterwards Lord President. He bought
Lord Melville?s house in Brown Square, and after
a time removed to York Place.
His successor in the same residence, No. 15,-
was John Anstruther of that ilk, Advocate, with
whom resided the family of Charles Earl of
Traquair, whose mother was a daughter of Sir
Philip Anstruther of Anstrutherfield. Other residents
were Lord Henderland and the future Lord
President Blair of Avontoun, both when at the bar,
and William Craig, afterwards a Lord of Justiciary
in 1792; Sir John Forbes-Drummond, when a
captain of the Royal Navy, and before he became
Baronet of Hawthornden ; Henry Mackenzie, the
ubiquitous ? Man of Feeling ; ? Lord Woodhouselee,
and the Lord President Miller, whose residence
was the large house (No. 17) with the painted front,
on the north side, the interior of which, with its
frescoes and panelings, is now one of the finest
specimens remaining of a fashionable Edinburgh
mansion of the eighteenth century; and therein
lived and died his son Lord Glenlee, who (uZtimus
Scoforum 2) resisted the attraction of three successive
New Towns, to which all his brethren had
long before fled.
He retained, until within a few years of his death,
the practice referred to, of walking daily to Court,
hat in hand, with a powdered wig, through Brown
Square, down Crombie?s Close, across the Cowgate,
xnd up the Back Stairs to the Parliament Houser
ittended by his valet, and always scrupulously
kessed in black. In 1838, when nearly eighty
years of age, this grand lord of the old school,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p090.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 270")
... OLD AND *NEW EDINBURGH. [Brown Square.
Till about 1780 the inhabitants of these districts
formed a distinct ...
Book 4 p. 270
(Score 0.25)
... INDEX.
Nairn, S i Robert, 193
Katharine, 193
Nairn’s Close, 146, 148
Namur, Count of, 7
Napier of ...
Book 10 p. 507
(Score 0.25)
... Mary?s Wynd.1 THE ? WHITE HORSE? INN. 299
long dwelt the celebrated artistic decorator of
many of the best ...
Book 2 p. 299
(Score 0.25)
![The Old High School.] RECTORS AND TEACHERS, 291
, in use to teach in those mornings and forenoons.
And considering that the ordinary Latin rudiments
in use to be taught children at their beginning to
the Latin tongue is difficult and hard for beginners,
and that Wedderburn?s Rudiments are more plain
and easy, the Council ordain the said masters in
time coming, to teach and begin their scholars with
Wedderburn?s Rudiments in place of the Latin
Rudiments in use as taught formerly. Ro. CHIESLIE,
Provost.??
David Wedderburn, whose work is thus referred
to, was born about 1570, and was the accomplished
author of many learned works, and died, it is supposed,
about 1644, soon after the publication of
his ?? Centuria Tertia.?
In 1699 A40 Scots was voted by the magistrates
to procure books as a reward for the best scholars,
and when the century closed the institution was in
a most creditable condition, and they-as patrons
-declared that ?? not a few persons that are now
eminent for piety and learning, both in Church and
State, had been educated there.?
In the year I 7 I 6 there was an outbreak among
the scholars for some reason now unknown ; but
they seem to have conducted themselves in an outrageous
manner, demolishing every pane of glass
in the school, and also of Lady Yester?s church,
levelling to the earth even the solid stone wall
which enclosed the school-yard. About this time
the janitor of the institution was David Malloch, a
man distinguished in after life as author of the
beautiful ballad of ? William and Margaret,? a poet
and miscellaneous writer, and under-secretary to the
Prince of Wales in 1733; to please the English
ear, he changed his name to Mallet, and became
an avowed infidel, and a venal author of the worst
description. Dr. Steven refers to his receipt as
being extant, dated 2nd February, 1718, ?for
sixteen shillings and eight pence sterling, being his
full salary for the preceding half-year. That was
the exact period he held the office.?
In 1736 we again hear of the BZeis-siher, cca
profitable relic of popery, which it seemed difficult
to relinquish.? Heartburnings had arisen because
it had become doubtful in what way the Candlemas
offerings should be apportioned between the rector
and masters; thus, on the 28th January in that
year, the Council resolved that the rector himself,
and no other, shall collect, not only his own quarterly
fees, but also the fee of one shilling from
each scholar in the other classes. The Council
also transferred the right from the master of the
third, to the mzster of the first elementary class,
to demand a shilling quarterly from each pupil in
the rector?s class; and declared that the rector
and four masters should favourably receive from
the scholars themselves whatever benevolence or
Candlemas offerings might be presented.?
Thomas Ruddiman, the eminent grammarian and
scholar, who was born at Boyndie in 1674 and
who in 1724 began to vary his great literary
undertakings by printing the ancient Cdedonian
Mercqv, about I 737 established-together with
the rector, the masters, and thirty-one other persons-
a species of provident association for their
own benefit and that of their widows and children,
and adopting as the title of the society, ?The
Company of the Professors and Teachers of the
liberal arts and sciences, or any branch or part
thereof, in the City of Edinburgh and dependencies
thereof.?
The co-partners were all taxed equally; but
owing to inequalities in the yearly contributions, a
dissolution nearly took place after an existence of
fifty years; but the association rallied, and stcl
exists in a flourishing condition.
One of the most popular masters in the early
part of the eighteenth century was Mr. James
Barclay, who was appointed in June, 1742, and
whose experience as a teacher, attainments, and
character, caused him to be remembered by his
scholars long after his removal to Dalkeith, where
he died in 1765.
When Henry Mackenzie, author of the ?? Man of
Feeling,? was verging on his eightieth year, he
contributed to Dr. Steven?s CL History,? his reminiscences
of the school in his own early years,
between 1752 and 1757, which we are tempted to
quote at length :-
?Rector Lees, a very respectable, grave, and
gentlemanlike man, father or uncle, I am not sure
which, of Lees, the Secretary for Ireland. He
maintained great dignity, treating the other masters
somewhat de had a bar; severe, and rather too
intolerant of dulness, but kind to more promising
talents. It will not be thought vanity, I trust-for
I speak with the sincerity and correctness of a
third person-when I say that I was rather a
favourite with him, and used for several years after
he resigned his office to drink tea with him at his
house in a large land or building at the country
end of the suburb called Pleasance, built by one
Hunter, a tailor, whence it got the name of
? Hunter?s Folly,? or the Castle 0? Clouts.?
cc MAsrERs continued-Ersf, or youngest class,
when I was put to school, Farquhar, a native of
Banffshire, cousin-german of Farquhar, author of
admired-and indeed t h q may be called admirable-
sermons, and of Mr. Farquhar, the Vicar of
Hayes, a sort of Parson Adams,? a favourite ot](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p111.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 291")
... Old High School.] RECTORS AND TEACHERS, 291
, in use to teach in those mornings and forenoons.
And ...
Book 4 p. 291
(Score 0.25)
![2 1 9 Fountainbridge.] INDIA-RUBBER COMPANY.
flesher would venture to kill any beast till all the
different parts were bespoke, butcher meat being
then a very unsaleable article.?
At the southern extremity of Fountainbridge
stood, till within the last few years, an antique villa,
a little way back from the road, named Bainfield,
for years the residence of an old and well-known
citizen, Bain Whyt, a W.S. of I 789, who was senior
lieutenant and afterwards adjutant of the First
Edinburgh Volunteers formed in 1794, and who
is still remembered in Edinburgh as the founder
of the Wagering Club in 1775. Yearly, on the
night of the 30th January, the members of this
club meet and solemnly drink to the memory
of ?? Old Bain Whyt,? in whose honour songs are
occasionally sung, the character of which may be
gathered from the following two verses of one sung
at the ninetieth anniversary :-
?? Come all ye jolly wagerers, and listen unto me,
And I will sing a little song, composed in memorie
Of the fine old Scottish gentleman, who in 1775,
Did plant the tree that still we see, right hearty and
alive.
Chorus-Right hearty and alive,
In this its ninetieth year !
With mirth and hearty cheer !
?Ihen drink to-night, to old Bain Whyt,
6? When haughty Gaul did fiercely crow and threaten swcird
Bain Whyt among the foremost rose to guard our native
A soldier good, full armed he stood, for home and
The pattern of a Ioyal man, a British volunteer !
in hand,
land ;
country dear,
Chorus-A British volunteer,
And an adjutant was he !
To him with three times three ! ?
Then fill the cup, and quaff it up,
The wagers, for small sums, a bottle of wine, a
dinner, perhaps, are made on the probable course
of current public events. They are then noted and
sealed up, to be opened and read from the chair
that night twelvemonth-the club holding no meetings
in the interim ; and the actual results are often
so far wide of all human speculation as to excite
both amusement and interest.
North of Bainfield, in what is still called Gilmore
Park, are two of the largest and finest manufactories
of India-rubber in the world, and the operations
conducted therein illustrate most ably the
nature and capabilities of caoutchouc. They stand
near each other on the western bank of the Union
Canal, and belong respectively to the North British
Rubber Company, and the Scottish Vulcanite
Company.
In 1855 an enterprising American brought to
Edinburgh the necessary capital and machinery
for an India-rubber manufactory, and acquired
possession of a great quadrangular block of fine
buildings, known as the Castle Silk Mills, which
had long been vacant, the projectors having failed
in their expectations. This edifice consists of two
large blocks of five floors each, with a number of
adjacent buildings.
Here the India-rubber arrives in different forms,
according to the fashion of the countries that produce
it, some shaped like quaint bottles, and some
in balls, of five inches diameter, and it is carefully
examined with a view to the detection of foreign
substances before it is subjected to the processes of
manufacture. After being softened in hot water,
the balls are crushed into thin pieces between
cylinders, the rubber being sent through and
through again and again, until it is thoroughly
crushed and assumes the form of a web. If further
reduction is necessary, it is sent through a third
set of rollers, and to rid it completely of foreign
matter, leaves or bark, &c., washing and cleansing
machines are employed. So adhesive is its nature,
that cleansing would prove abortive in a dry state,
and consequently jets of water flow constantly on
the rubber and cylinders when the machines referred
to are in operation. After being thus
cleansed, the webs are hung in the warm atmosphere
of the drying-room for several weeks.
From thence they are taken to ?? the mill,? which
occupies two entire floors of the main building.
The grinding machines; to the operation af which
the rubber is subjected, consist of two cylinders,
one of which is moderately heated by steam, and
the webs formed by the washing-machines are kept
revolving round and round the cylinders, until the
material becomes quite plastic. At this stage, sulphur,
or other chemical substances, are incorporated
with it, to determinate its ultimate character, and it
is then made up into seven or eight pound rolls,
while all further treatment depends upon the purpose
to which it is to be applied.
Great is the variety of goods produced here.
One of the upper floors is occupied by shoemakers
alone. There boots and shoes of all sizes are
made, but more especially the goloshes for wearing
over them; another floor is occupied by the makers
of coats, leggings, cushions, bags, and so forth. The ?
light-coloured coats foi India are the finest articles
made here.
The North British Rubber Company have paid
much attention to that department which includes
the manufacture of mbes, springs, washers, drivingbelts,
tires for wheels, &c They made the latter
for the wheels of the road steamer invented by
Rfr. R W. Thomson, of Edinburgh-huge rings of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p039.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 219")
... 1 9 Fountainbridge.] INDIA-RUBBER COMPANY.
flesher would venture to kill any beast till all the
different parts ...
Book 4 p. 219
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
style, with many ornate gables, dormer windows,
%ut was a second time ...
Book 2 p. 282
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH. [The Mound
and ten elders, of whom five shall retire ?by
rotation from year to year, ...
Book 3 p. 98
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
helmet, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum
-and the entrance gate or ...
Book 6 p. 258
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Hawthornden.
walls seven feet thick, and the remains of a banqueting-
hall with large ...
Book 6 p. 354
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Iauwade
families of note. Philip became sheriff of the
Mearns, and ancestor of the ...
Book 6 p. 362
(Score 0.25)
![High Street.] THOMAS BASSANDYNE, PRINTER. 207
in an investment in favour of John Preston, Commissary,
dated 1581, is described as ?that tenement
of lands lying in the said burgh on the south
side of the High Street, and on the entry of the
wynd of the Preaching Friars, formerly waste,
having been burnt by the English.? Thus it
would appear to have been built between 1544
and 158I-probably near the former date, as the
situation being central it was unlikely to remain
long waste.
In 1572 it suffered greatly during the siege of
the Castle, in common with the Earl of Mar?s
mansion in the Cowgate, and Baxter?s house in
Dalgleish?s Close.
Its proprietor, John Preston, in 1581, though the
son of a baker, was an eminent lawyer in the time
of James VI., who was raised to the Bench in
March, 1594, as Lord Fentonbarns (in succession
to James first Lord Balmerino) and died President
of the Court in 1616. His mode of election
was curious. ?The King,? says Lord Hailes,
?named Mr. Peter Rollock, Bishop of Dunkeld,
Mr. David MacGill of Cranstoun-Riddel, and Mr.
Preston of Fentonbarns, requesting the Lords to
choose the fittest of the three to be an Ordinary
Lord of Session. The Lords were solemnly sworn
to choose according to their knowledge and conscience.
In consequence of this, coigecfi in $ileum
;zominibus [by ballot], the Lords elected Mr. John
Preston.?
Before his death he attained to great wealth and
dignity; he was knighted by King James, and his
daughter Margaret wzs married in this old house to
Robert Nairn of? Mackersie, and became mother
of the first Lord ?Nairn, who was placed in the
Tower of London by Cromwell in 1650, with many
others, and not released till the Restoration, ten
years after.
The senator?s son, Sir Michael Preston, succeeded
him in possession of the mansion in 1610.
Preston, together with Craig and Stirling, is
mentioned in a satirical production of Alexander
Montgomery, author of ?The Cherrie and the
Slae,? and before whom he had become involved
in a tedious suit before the Court of Session, and
was at one time threatened with quarters in the
Tolbooth. He wrote of Fentonbarns as-
? A baxter?s bird, a bluitter beggar born?
The old house narrowly escaped total destruction
by a fire in 1795, thus nearly anticipating that
,of later years. It was the last survivor of the long
and unbroken range of quaint and stately edifices
on the south side of the street, between St. Giles?s
and the Nether Bow. An outside stair gave access
to the first floor, the stone turnpike stair of which
bore the abbreviated legend in Gothic characters-
DEO. HONOR . ET. GLIA.
A little lower down the street, and nearly
opposite the house of John b o x , dwelt Thomas
Bassandyne, in that tall old mansion we have
already referred to in an early chapter as having
had built into its front the fine sculptured heads of
the Emperor Septinius Severus and his Empress
Julia, and having between them a tablet inscribed,
? In sudorc vuh fui vecmir pane tz~o,? which
Wilson shrewdly suspects to have been a fragment
of the adjacent convent of St May, or some other
old monastic establishment in Edinburgh.
Here it was that Thomas Bassandyne, a famous
old Scottish typographer, in conjunction with
Alexander Arbuthnot, undertook in 1574 the then
arduous task of issuing his beautiful folio Bible,
with George Young, a servant (clerk) of the Abbot
of Dunfermline, as a corrector of the press ; the
?? printing irons,? or types were of cast-metal. The
work of printing the Bible proved a heavier task
than they expected, as it had met with many impediments
; and before the Privy Council, which
was giving them monetary aid, they pleaded for
nine months to complete the work, or return the
money contributed towards it by various Scottish
parishes. In this we see the first attempt to
publish by subscription. Here, too, Thomas
Bassandyne printed his rare quarto edition of Sir
David Lindesay?s Poems in 1574. His will is
preserved in the Banizatyne MisceZZany, and from
it it appears, that his mother was life-rented in that
part of the house which formed the printer?s
dwelling, the annual rent of which was eight
pounds ; while the remainder that belonged to
himself, was occupied by his brother Michael. At
all events, he leaves in his will ?his thrid, the
ane half thairof to his wyf, and the vthir half to
his mother, and Michael and his bairnes,? in
which says the memorialist of Edinburgh, we
presume, to have been included the house, which
we find both he and his bairns afterwards possessing,
and for which no rent would appear to
have been exacted during the lifetime of the
generous old printer.
His house is repeatedly referred to in the evidence
of the accomplices of the Earl of Bothwell in the
murder of Darnley, an event which took place
during the life of Bassandyne, beneath whose house
was one occupied by a sword slipper, with whom it
is said lodged the Black John of Ormiston, one of
the conspirators, for whom the rest called on the
night of the murder.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p027.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 207")
... Street.] THOMAS BASSANDYNE, PRINTER. 207
in an investment in favour of John Preston, Commissary,
dated 1581, ...
Book 2 p. 207
(Score 0.25)
![North Bridge.] ADAM BLACK. 339
removal in 1850 to a handsome and more spacious
.one, built in a kind of old Scoto-English style of
.architecture, an the opposite side, and on the site
of a portion of Halkerston?s Wynd, and numbered
as 6 in the street, the establishment of the old and
well-known firm of publishers, Adam and Charles
Black. The former, long a leading citizen, magistrate,
and member of the city, was born in 1784,
.and died on the 24th of January, 1874.
Educated at the High School and University of
his native city Edinburgh, though but the son of a
humble builder, Adam Black raised himself to affluuence,
and is said to have more than once declined
the honour of knighthood. After serving his apprenticeship,
he started in business as a bookseller,
and among other important works brought out the
? Encyclopzedia Britannica,? under the joint conduct
of Professor Macvey Napier and James
Browne, LL.D.; and to this his own pen contributed
many articles. From the beginning of his
career he took an active part in the politics of the
city, and in the early part of the present century was
among the boldest of the slender band of Liberals
who stood up for burgh reform, as the preliminary
to the great measure of a Parliamentary one.
When the other wel!-known firm of constable
and Co. failed, the publication of The Edinburgh
Revim passed into the hands of Adam Black, and
thus drew the Liberal party more closely by his
side. He was Provost of the city from 1843 to
1848, and filled his trust so much to the satisfaction
of the citizens, that they subscribed to have
his portrait painted to ornament the walls of the
Council Room. He was proprietor, by purchase,
of the copyright of ?? The Waverley Novels,? and
many other works by Sir Walter Scott. It was
when he was beyond his seventieth year that he
was returned to the House of Commons as member
. for the city, in succession to Lord Macaulay ; and
being a member of the Independent body, he
was ever an advocate for unsechrian education,
absolute freedom of trade, and the most complete
toleration in religion; but the cradle of his fortunes
was that little shop which till 1821 was, as
we said, deemed ample enough for the postal
establishment and requirements of all Scotland.
The new buildings along the west side of the
North Bridge, from Princes Street to the first open
arch, were erected between 1817 and 1819, with a
Tange of shops then deemed magnificent, but far
outshone by hundreds erected since in their vicinity,
These buildings are twice the height in rear that
they are to the bridge front, and their erection
intercepted a grand view from Waterloo Place
south-westward to the Castle, and thus roused a
spirited, but, as it eventually proved, futile resistance,
on the part of Cockburn and Cranston, Professor
Playfair, Henry Mackenzie, James Stuart of
Dunearn, and others, who spent about &I,OOO in
the work of opposition.
Their erection led to the demolition of a small
edificed thoroughfare named Ann Street, which
once contained the house of a well-known literary
citizen, John Grieve, who gave free quarters to
James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, when the latter
arrived in Edinburgh in 1810, and published a
little volume of poems entitled ?The Forest Mintrel,?
from which he derived no pecuniary benefit.
Poverty was pressing sorely on Hogg, ?but,? says
a biographer, ?he found kind and steady friends in
Messrs. Grieve and Scott, hatters, whose welltimed
benevolence supplied all his wants.?
While he was still in obscurity, John Grieve
obtained him introductions to Professor Wilson
and other local literati, which ultimately led to his
becoming a contributor to BZackwood?s Magazine.
Mr. Grieve is referred to in the quarrel between
the Shepherd and the Blackwoods concerning the
famous Nocft-s Ambrosiana ? He ceased to contribute,
whereupon Wilson wrote thus to Grieve on
the subject :-
?If Mr. Hogg puts his return to ?Maga? on the
ground that ? Maga? suffers from his absence from
her pages, and that Mr. B. must be very desirous
of his re-assistance, that will be at once a stumblingblock
in the way of settlement ; for Mr. B., whether
rightly or wrongly, will not make, the admission.
No doubt Mr. H.?s articles were often excellent,
and no doubt ?Noctes? were very popular, but the
magazine, however much many readers must have
missed Mr. Hogg and the ?Noctes,? has been
gradually increasing in sale, and therefore Mr.
B. will never give in to that view of the Subject.
? Mr. Hogg in his letter to me, and in a long
conversation I had with him in my own house
yesterday after dinner, sticks to his proposaf of LIOO settled on him, on condition of writing,
and becoming again the hero of the ?Noctes? as
before. I see many difficulties in the way of such
an arrangement, and I know that Mr. Blackwood
will never agree to it in any shape, for it might
eventually prove degrading and disgraceful to both
parties, appearing to the public to be a bribe given
and taken dishonourably.?
?My father,? adds Mrs. Gordon, whose life of
the Professor we quote, ?never wrote another
?Noctes ? after the Shepherd?s death, which took
place in 1835.?
In consequence of tie increase of populatibn
and traffic by its vicinity to the railway termini,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p159.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 339")
... Bridge.] ADAM BLACK. 339
removal in 1850 to a handsome and more spacious
.one, built in a kind of old ...
Book 2 p. 339
(Score 0.25)
![Newhaven.] REV. DR. FAIRBAIRN. 303
In 1820 there were landed at the old stone
pier of Newhaven, John Baud and fourteen other
prisoners, ?f Radicals ? who had been taken after
the skirmish at Bonny Bridge, by the 10th Hussars
and the Stirlingshire yeomanry. They had been
brought by water from the castle of Stirling, and
were conveyed to gaol from Newhaven in six carriages,
escorted by a macer of justiciary, and the
detachment of a Veteran Battalion.
In the following year, and while railways were
still in the womb of the future, the Scots Magazine
announces, that a gentleman who had left
Belfast on a Thursday, ?reached Glasgow the
same evening, and embarked on board the Tounit
(steamer) at Newhaven on Friday, and arrived at
Aberdeen that night. Had such an event been
predicted fifty years ago, it would have been as
easy to make people believe that this journey would
have been accomplished by means of a balloon.?
About five hundred yards westward oi the stone
pier, a chain pier was constructed in the year 1821,
by Captain (afterwards Sir Samuel) Brown, of the
Royal Navy, at the cost of A4,ooo. It is five
hundred feet long, four feet wide, has a depth
at low water of from five to six feet, and served
for the use of the steam packets to Stirling,
Queensferry, and other places above and below
Leith; yet, being unable to offer accommodation for
the bulky steam vessels that frequent the harbour
of the latter or that of Granton, it is now chiefly
used by bathers, and is the head-quarters of the
Forth swimming club.
It was opened on the 14th of October, ISzr,
and was afterwards tested by a weight of twentyone
tons placed upon the different points of
suspension. In 1840 it became the property of
the Alloa Steam Packet Company.
In 1838 Newhaven was erected into a quoad
sma parish, by the aathority of the Presbytery .of
Edinburgh, when a handsome church was erected
for the use of the community, from a design by
John Henderson of Edinburgh.
Near it, in Main Street, is the Free Church,
designed in good Gothic style by James A. Hamilton
of Edinburgh, an elegant feature in the locality,
but chiefly remarkable for the ministry of the late
Rev. Dr. Fairbairn, who died in January, 1879-
a man who came of a notable race, as the wellknown
engineers of the same name were his
cousins, as was also Principal Fairbairn of Glasgow.
He was ordained minister at Newhaven in 1838.
The great majority of his congregation were fishermen
and their families, who were always keenly
sensible of the mode in which he prayed for those
who were exposed to the dangers of the deep.
During his long pastorate these prayers were.a
striking feature in his ministrations, and Charles
Reade, while residing in the neighbourhood, frequently
attended Newhaven Free Church, and has,
in his novel of ? Christie Johnstone,? given a lifelike
portrait of his demeanour when administering
consolation, after a case of drowning.
Perhaps the most useful of thii amiable old
pastor?s philanthropic schemes was that of the
reconstruction of the Newhaven fishing fleet. He
perceived early that the boats in use were wholly
unsuited for modem requirements, and some years
before his death he propounded a plan for replacing
them by others having decks, bunks, and
other compartments. As soon as a crew came forward
with a portion of the money required, Dr. Fairbairn
had no difficulty in getting the remainder
advanced. Thirty-three large new boats, each
costing about Lzso, with as much more for fishing
gear, were the result of his kindly labours. They
have all been prosperous, and hundreds of the
inhabitants of Newhaven, when they stood around
his grave, remembered what they owed to the
large-hearted and prudent benevolence of this old
ministei.
In 1864 a local committee was appointed for
the purpose of erecting a breakwater on the west
side of the present pier, so as to form a harbour
for the fishing craft. Plans and specifications
were prepared by Messrs. Stevenson, engineers,
Edinburgh, and the work was estimated at the
probable cost of L;~,OOO ; and while soliciting aid
from the Board of Fisheries, the Board of Trade,
and the ,magistrates of Edinburgh, the fishermen
honourably and promptly volunteered to convey ?
all the stonework necessary in their boats or otherwise
from the quarry at? Qleensferry.
The fishermen of Newhaven rarely intermany
With the women of other fisher communities ; and
a woman of any other class, unacquainted with the
cobbling of nets, baiting and preparation of lines,
the occasional use of a tiller or oar, would be useless
as a fisherman?s wife; hence their continued
intermarriages cause no small confusion in the
nomenclature of this remarkable set of people.
The peculiar melodious and beautiful cry of the
Newhaven oyster-woman-the last of the quaint
old Edinburgh street cries-is well known ; and so
also is their costume ; yet, as in time it may become
a thing of the past, we may give a brief description
of it here. ?A cap of linen or cotton,?J says a
writer in Chambers?s EdinQurgh Journal, ?? surmounted
by a stout napkin tied below the chin,
composes the investiture of the hood ; the showy
structures wherewith other females are adorned
,
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p122.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 303")
... REV. DR. FAIRBAIRN. 303
In 1820 there were landed at the old stone
pier of Newhaven, John Baud and ...
Book 6 p. 303
(Score 0.25)
... , MEMORIALS UP- EDINBURGH.
Balcarras, Lord, 208
Baldredus, Deacon of Lothian, 377
.Balfour, Sir James, ...
Book 10 p. 499
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Ravelston.
shady with wood, strikes from the Murrayfield Road
northward past the ...
Book 5 p. 106
(Score 0.25)
... Luckenbooths
James VI., but no memories of him now remain,
save the alley called Byres? Close, and his ...
Book 1 p. 154
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE HIGH STREET-(continued).
?The Salamander Land ?-The ...
Book 2 p. 242
(Score 0.25)
... Bridge.7 . JAMES SUTHERLAND. 363 #
4 I
say nothing of the cost of new plants, so difficult
to procure in ...
Book 2 p. 363
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Roslin
minute decorations of the latest species of the
Tudor age. It is impossible to ...
Book 6 p. 350
(Score 0.25)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
named themselves the ? Friends of the People,?
were alarming the authorities by ...
Book 6 p. 278
(Score 0.25)
Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf
The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
![THE ROYAL INFIRMARY. 299 h6rmary Street]
students to witness surgical operations. The Infirmary
has separate wards for male and female
patients, and a ward which is used as a Lock
hospital ; but even in ordinary periods the building
had become utterly incompetent for the service
of Edinburgh, and during the prevalence of an epidemic
afforded but a mere fraction of the required
accommodation, and hence the erection of its magnificent
successor, to which we shall refer elsewhere.
The Earl of Hopetoun, in 1742, and for the last
twenty-five years of his life, generously contributed
A400 per annum to the institution when it was
young and struggling. In 1750 Dr. Archibald Kerr
of Jamaica bequeathed to it an estate worth
E218 11s. 5d. yearly; and five years afterwards
the Treasury made it a gift of jG8,ooo j yet it has
never met with the support from Government. that
it ought to have done, and which similar institutions
in London receive.
But the institution owed most of its brilliant
success to Lord Provost Drummond. Among his
associates in this good work he had the honoured
members of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons
in Edinburgh, ever first in all works of goodness and
charity; and the first Dr. Munro, Professor of
Anatomy, was singularly sanguine of the complete
success of the undertaking.
That portion of the house which was founded by
the Earl of Cromarty was opened for the reception
of patients in December, 1741. The theatre described
was made to serve the purposes also of a
chapel, and twelve cells on the ground floor, for cases
of delirium fremens, being found unnecessary, were
converted into kitchens and larders, &c. The
grounds around the house, consisting of two acres,
and long bounded on- the south by the city wall,
were laid out into grass walks for the convalescents,
and ultimately the house was amply supplied with
water from the city reservoir.
In the years 1743-4 the sick soldiers of the
regiments quartered in the Castle were accommodated
in the Infirmary; and in the stormy
period of the '45 it was of necessity converted into
a great military hospital for the sick and wounded
troops of both armies engaged at Prestonpans and
elsewhere ; and in I 748 the surgeon-apothecaries,
who since 1729 had given all manner of medical
aid gratis, were feed for the first time. Wounded
from our armies in Flanders have been sent there
for treatment.
In 1748, after paying for the site, building,
furniture, &c., the stock of the institution amounted
to &5,00o; and sick patients not wishing to be resident
were invited to apply for advice on Mondays
and Fridays, and were in cases of necessity
admitted as supernumeraries at the rate of 6d. per
day. About this time there was handed over an
Invalid Grant made by Government to the city,
on consideration of sixty beds being retained for
the use of all soldiers who paid 4d. per diem for
accommodation, This sum, &3, 2 70, was fully made
over to the managers, who, for some time afteqfound
themselves called upon to entertain so many military
patients, that a guard had to be mounted on
the house to enforce order; and liberty was obtained
to deposit all dead patients in Lady Yester's
churchyard, on the opposite side of the street.
Hitherto the physicians had, with exemplary
fidelity, attended the patients in rotation j but in
January, 1751, the managers on being empowered
by the general court of contributors, selected Dr.
David Clerk and Dr, Colin Drummond, physicians
in ordinary, paying them the small honorarium of
;E30 annually.
The University made offer to continue its
services, together with those of the ordinary physicians,
which offer was gladly accepted; and
though the practice fell into disuse, they were long
continued in monthly rotation. To the option of
the two ordinary physicians was left the visiting
of the patients conjointly, or by each taking his
own department. "It was their duty to sign the
tickets of admission and dismission. In case of any
unforeseen occurrences or dangerous distemper, the
matron or clerks were permitted to use this authe
rity ; the physicians en their amval, however, were
expected to append their signatures to the tickets.
The good and economy of the house from the first,
induced the managers to appoint two of their
number to visit the institution once every month,
who were enjoined to inquire how far the patients
were contented with their treatment, and to note
what they found inconsistent with the ordinary
regulations : their remarks to be entered in a book
of reports, to come under review at the first meeting
of managers." (" Journal of Antiq.," VoL 11.)
In 1754 some abuses prevailed in the mode of
dispensing medicines to the out-door patients,
detrimental to the finances ; an order was given for
a more judicious and sparing distribution. In the
following pear application was made to the Town
Council, as well as to the Presbytery of the Church,
to raise money at their several churches to provide
a ward for sick servants-which had been found
one of the most useful in the house. From its
first institution the ministers of the city had, in
monthly rotation, conducted the religious services ;
but in the middle of 1756 the managers appointed
aregular chaplain, whose duty it was to preach
every Monday in the theatre for surgical operations.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p119.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 299")
