... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
It was built accordingly, and is for the reception
and maintenance of men and ...
Book 6 p. 266
(Score 0.19)
![Parliament House.] THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. -
a vote among themselves in favour of that protest,
declaring it to be founded on the laws of the realm,
for which they were prosecuted before Parliament,
and sharply reprimanded, a circumstance which
gave great offence to the nation..
The affairs ot the Faculty are managed by a
Dean, or President, a Treasurer, Clerk, and selected
Council ; and, besides the usual branches
of a liberal education, those who are admitted
.as advocates must have gone through a regular
course of civil and Scottish law.
Connected with the Court of Session is the
Society of Clerks, or Writers to the Royal Signet,
whose business it is to subscribe the writs that
pass under that signet in Scotland, and practise as
attorneys before the Courts of Session, Justiciary,
and the Jury Court The office of Keeper of the
Signet is a lucrative one, but is performed by a
deputy. The qualifications for admission to this
body are an apprenticeship for five years with one of
the members, after two years? attendance at the University,
and on a course of lectures on conveyancing
given by a lecturer appointed by the Society, and
also on the Scottish law class in the University.
Besides these Writers to the Signet, who enjoy
the right of conducting exclusively certain branches
.of legal procedure, there is another, but? inferior,
society of practitioners, who act as attorneys before
the various Courts, in which they were of long
standing, but were only incorporated in 1797, under
the title of Solicitors before the Supreme Courts,
The Judges of the Courts of Session and Justiciary,
with members of these before-mentioned
corporate bodies, and the officers of Court, form
the College of Justice instituted by James V., and
of which the Judges of the Court of Session enjoy
the title of Senators.
The halls for the administration of justice immediately
adjoin the Parliament House. The Court
af Session is divided into what are nanied the
Outer and Inner Houses. The former consists of
five judges, or Lords Ordinary, occupying separate
Courts, where cases are heard for the first time;
tbe latter comprises two Courts, technically known
.as the First and Second Divisions. Four Judges
sit in each of these, and it is before them that
litigants, if dissatisfied with the Outer House decision,
may bring their cases for final judgment,
unless .afterwards they indulge in the expensive
luxury of appealing to the House of Lords.
The Courts of the Lords Ordinary enter from
the corridor at the south end of the great hall, and
Those of the Inner House from a long lobby on the
east side of it.
Although the .College of Justice was instituted
by James V., and held its first sederunt in the
old Tolbooth on the 27th of May, 1532, it
was first projected by his uncle, the Regent-
Duke of Albany. The Court originally consisted
of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President,
fourteen Lords Ordinary, or Senators (one-half
clergy and one-half laity), and afterwards an indefinite
number of supernumerary judges, designated
Extraordinary Lords. The annual expenses of
this Court were defrayed from the revenues of
the clergy, who bitterly, but vainly, remonstrated
against this taxation. It may not be uninteresting
to give here the names of the first members of the
Supreme Judicature :-
Alexander, Abbot of Cambuskenneth, Lord
President ; Richard Bothwell, Rector of Askirk
(whose father was Provost .of Edinburgh in the
time of James 111,); John Dingwall, Provost of
the Trinity Church; Henry White, Dean of
Brechin ; William Gibson, Dean of Restalrig ;
Thomas Hay, Dean of Dunbar; Robert Reid,
Abbot of Kinloss ; George Kerr, Provost of
Dunglass ; Sir William Scott of Balwearie ; Sir
John Campbell of Lundie ; Sir James Colville
of Easter Wemyss; Sir Adam Otterburne of
Auldhame ; Nicolas Crawford. of Oxengangs ; Sir
Francis Bothwell (who was provost of the city
in 1535); and James Lawson of the Highriggs.
The memoirs which have been preserved of
the administration of justice by the Court of
Session in the olden time are not much to its
honour. The arbitrary nature of it is referred to
by Buchanan, and in the time of James VI. we
find the Lord Chancellor, Sir Alexander Seaton
(Lord Fyvie in 1598), superintending the lawsuits
of a friend, and instructing him in the mode and
manner in which they should be conducted. But
Scott of Scotstarvit gives us a sorry account of
this peer, who owed his preferment to Anne of
Denmark. The strongest proof of the corrupt
nature of the Court is given us by the -4ct passed
by the sixth parliament of. James VI., in 1579,
by which the Lords were prohibited, ? No uther be
thamselves, or be their wives, or servantes, to take
in ony times cumming, bud, bribe, gudes, or geir,
fra quhat-sum-ever person or persones presently
havand, or that hereafter sal1 happen to have
ony actions or causes persewed before them,?
under pain of confiscation (Glendoick?s Acts, fol.).
The necessity for this law plainly evinws that
the secret acceptance of bribes must have been
common among the judges of the time; while,
in other instances, the warlike spirit of the people
paralysed the powers of the Court.
When a noble, or chief of rank, was summoned tu](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p179.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 167")
... House.] THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. -
a vote among themselves in favour of that protest,
declaring it to ...
Book 1 p. 167
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. (The West Bow.
thundering back again; being neither more nor
less than Satan come in ...
Book 2 p. 314
(Score 0.19)
... in the old house, of the plague. His widow
survived him, and the street was named Lady
Gray?s Close till ...
Book 1 p. 103
(Score 0.19)
... INDEX.
Nairn, S i Robert, 193
Katharine, 193
Nairn’s Close, 146, 148
Namur, Count of, 7
Napier of ...
Book 10 p. 507
(Score 0.19)
... Spcet.1 PROFESSOR WILSONS MOTHER. I < <
He died of disease of the heart at 52, Queen
Street, on the ...
Book 3 p. 155
(Score 0.19)
... whom she took up her abode. After having
effectually lulled all suspicion, she affected to remember
a vow ...
Book 1 p. 30
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
style, with many ornate gables, dormer windows,
%ut was a second time ...
Book 2 p. 282
(Score 0.19)
![North Bridge.] JOHN EARL OF MAR. 335
have foreseen; we say long-suggested, for, though
not carried out till the early years of George 111.?~
reign, it had been projected in the latter end of
the reign of Charles 11.
The idea was first suggested when James VII.,
as Duke of Albany and York, was resident Royal
Commissioner at Holyrood, in the zenith of the
only popularity he ever had in Scotland. Vast
numbers of the Scottish nobility and gentry flocked
.around him, and the old people of the middle of
xhe eighteenth century used to recall with delight
the magnificence and brilliance of the court he
gathered in the long-deserted palace, and the
general air of satisfaction which pervaded the
entire city.
Despite the recent turmoils and sufferings consequent
on the barbarous severity with which the
Covenanters had been treated, Edinburgh was prosperous,
and its magistrates bestowed noble presents
upon their royal guest; but the best proof of the
city?s prosperity was the new and then startling idea
s f having an extended royalty and a North Bridge,
;and this idea the Duke of Albany warmly patronised
and encouraged, and towards it gave the citizens a
grant in the following terms :-
?That, when they should have occasion to
enlarge their city by purchasing ground without
tthe town, or to build bridges or arches for the accomplishing
of the same, not only were the propietors
of such lands obliged to part With the same
an reasonable terms, but when in possession thereof,
they are to be erected into a regality in favour of
the citizens ; and after finishing the Canongate
church, the city is to have the surplus of the
20,ooo merks given by Thomas Moodie, in the
year 1649, with the interest thereof; and as all
public streets belong to the king, the vaults and
cellars under those of Edinburgh being forfeited to
the Crown, by their being built without leave or
consent of his majesty, he granted all the said
vaults or cellars to the town, together with a power
to oblige the proprietors of houses, to lay before
their. respective tenements large flat stones for the
conveniency of walking.?
James VII. had fully at heart the good of Edinburgh,
and but for the events of the Revolution
the improvements of the city would have commenced
seventy-two years sooner than they did, but
the neglect of subsequent monarchs fell heavily alike
on the capital and the kingdom. ?Unfortunately,?
. :says Robert Chambers, ?the advantages which
Edinburgh enjoyed under this system of things
were destined to be of short duration. Her royal
:guest departed, with all his family and retinue, in
May, 1682. In six years more he was lost both
:o Edinburgh and Britain; and ?a stranger filled
:he Stuart?s throne,? under whose dynasty Scotland
?ined long in undeserved reprobation.?
The desertion of the city consequent on the
Union made all prospect of progress seem hopeless,
yet some there were who never forgot the cherished
idea of an extended royalty. Among various
plans, the most remarkable for its foresight was that
3f John eighteenth Lord Erskine and eleventh
Earl of Mar, who was exiled for his share in the
insurrection of I 7 I 5.
His sole amusement during the years of the long
exile in which he died at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1732
was to draw plans and designs for the good of his
beloved native country and its capital; and the
paper to which we refer is one written by him in
1725, and mentioned in vol. 8 of the ?Old Statistical
Account of Scotland,? published in 1793.
?All ways of improving Edinburgh should be
thought on : as in particular, making a Zarge bridge
flfhree arch, over the ground betwixt the North
Loch and Physic Gardens, from the High Street at
Liberton?s Wynd to the Multersey Hill, where
many fine streets might be built, as the inhabitants
increased. The access to them would be easy on
all hands, and the situation would be agreeable and
convenient, having a noble prospect of all the fine
ground towards the sea, the Firth of Forth, and
coast of Fife. One long street in a straight line,
where the Long Gate is now (Princes Street?) ; on
one side of it would be a fine opportunity for
gardens down to the North Loch, and one, on the
other side, towards Broughton. No houses to be
on the bridge, the breadth of the North Loch ; but
selling the places or the ends for houses, and the
vaults and arches below for warehouses and cellars,
the charge of the bridge might be defrayed.
? Another bridge might also be made on the other
side of the towq, and almost as useful and commodious
as that on the north. The place where it
could most easily be made is St. Mary?s Wynd, and
the Pleasance. The hollow there is not so deep, as
where the other bridge is proposed, so that it is
thought that two storeys of arches might raise it near
the level with the street at the head of St. Mary?s
Wynd. Betwixt the south end of the Pleasance and
the Potter-row, and from thence to Bristo Street,
and by the back of the wall at Heriot?s Hospital, are
fine situations for houses and gardens. There would
be fine avenues to the town, and outlets for airing
and walking by these bridges ; and Edinburgh, from
being a bad incommodious situation, would become
a very beneficial and convenient one ; and to make
it still more so, a branch of that river, called the
Water of Leith, misht, it is thought, be brought](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p155.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 335")
... Bridge.] JOHN EARL OF MAR. 335
have foreseen; we say long-suggested, for, though
not carried out till the ...
Book 2 p. 335
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Leith.
or ripple or burnished face of water, the very
aspect of which is luxury in a ...
Book 5 p. 166
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
helmet, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum
-and the entrance gate or ...
Book 6 p. 258
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Iauwade
families of note. Philip became sheriff of the
Mearns, and ancestor of the ...
Book 6 p. 362
(Score 0.19)
![High Street.] THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY. 279
resided here was John, fourth Marquis, who was
Secretary of State for Scotland from 1742 till 1745,
when he resigned the office, on which the Government
at once availed themselves of the opportunity
for leaving it vacant, as it has remained ever since.
He died in 1762, and soon after the carriageentrance
and the fine old terraced garden of the
house, which lay on the slope westward, were
removed to make way for the Episcopal church in
the Cowgate-doomed in turn to be forsaken by
its founders, and even by their successors.
From the Tmeeddale family the mansion passed
into the hands of the British Linen Company, and
became their banking house, until they deserted it
for Moray House in the Canongate, from which they
ultiniatelymigrated to a statelier edifice inSt. Andrew
Square. This company was originally incorpo-
Tated by a charter under the Privy Seal granted by
George 11. on the 6th of July, 1746, at a time
when the mind of the Scottish people was still
agitated by the events of the preceding year and
the result of the battle of Culloden; and it was
deemed an object of the first importance to tranquillise
the country and call forth its resources, so
that the attention of the nation should be directed
to the advantages of trade and manufacture. With
this view the Government, as well as many gentlemen
of rank and fortune, exerted themselves to
promote the linen manufacture, which had been
lately introduced, deeming that it would in time
become the staple manufacture of Scotland, and
provide ample employment for her people, while
.extensive markets for the produce of their labour
would be found alike at home and in the colonies,
then chiefly supplied by the linens of Germany.
By the Dukes of Queensberry and Argyle, who
became the first governors of the British Linen
Company, representations to this effect were made
to Government, and by the Earls of Glencairn, Eglinton,
Galloway, Panmure, and many other peers,
together with the Lord Justice Clerk Fletcher of
Saltoun, afterwards Lord Milton, who was the first
deputy governor, and whose mother, when an exile
in Holland during the troubles, had secretly obtained
a knowledge of the art of weaving and of
dressidg the fine linen known as ? Holland,? and
introduced its manufacture at the village of Saltoun;
by the Lord Justice Clerk Alva ; Provost George
Drummond ; John Coutts, founder of the famous
banking houses of Forbes and Co., and Coutts
and Co. in the Strand; by Henry Home, Lord
Kames ; and many othqs, all of whom urged the
establishment of the company, under royal sanction,
and offered to become subscribers to the undertaking.
A charter was obtained in accordance with their
views and wishes, establishing the British Linen
Company as a corporation, and bestowing upon
it ample privileges, not only to manufacture and
deal in linen fabrics, but also to do all that
might conduce to the promotion thereof; and
authority was given to raise a capital of ~roo,ooo,
to be enlarged by future warrants under the
sign manual of his Majesty, his heirs and successors,
to such sums as the affairs of the company
might .require. After this the company engaged to
a considerable extent in the importation of flax and
the manufacture of yarns and linens, having warehouses
both in Edinburgh and London, and in its
affairs none took a more active part than Lord
Milton, who was an enthusiast in all that related to
the improvement of trade, agriculture, and learning,
in his native country; but it soon became apparent
that the company ? would be of more utility, and
better promote the objects of their institution, by
enlarging the issue of their notes to traders, than
being traders and manufacturers themselves.?
By degrees, therefore, the company withdrew
from all manufacturing operations and speculations,
and finally closed them in 1763, from which year
to the present time their business has been confined
to the discount of bills, advances on accounts,
and other b.ank transactions, in support of Scottish
trade generally, at home and abroad. ?By the
extension of their branch agencies to a great number
of towns,? to quote their own historical report, ? and
the employment in discounts and cash advaqces of
their own funds, as well as of that portion of the
formerly scanty and inactive money capital of Scotland
which has been lodged with the company, they
have been the means of contributing very materially
to the encouragement of useful industry throughout
Scotland, and to her rapid progress in agricultural
and mechanical improvements, and in commercial
intercourse with foreign countries. As regards the
particular object of the institution of the companythe
encouragement of the linen manufa.cture-considerably
more than half of the flax and hemp
imported into the United Kingdom, is now (in
1878) brought to the Scottish ports.?
Now the bank has nearly eighty branch or subbranch
offices over all Scotland alone. The company?s
original capital of AIOO,OOO has been
gradually increased under three additional charters,
granted at different times, under the Great Seal
By Queen Victoria, their fourth charter, dated 19th
March, 1849, ratifies and confirms all, their privileges
and rights, and power was given to augment
their capital to any sum not exceeding A r,5oo,ooo
in all, for banking purposes. The amount of new](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p099.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 279")
... Street.] THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY. 279
resided here was John, fourth Marquis, who was
Secretary of State ...
Book 2 p. 279
(Score 0.19)
... him an intimation that he was to be made
prisoner, and advised him to lose no time in
assuming the defensive. ...
Book 1 p. 39
(Score 0.19)
![Convi~ialii] THE SPENDTHRIFT CLUB. 12.5
called one of his brother boars by his proper outof-
club name, the term < Sir ? being only allowed.
The entry-money, fines, and other pecuniary acquisitions,
were hoarded for a grand annual dinner.?
In 1799 some new officials were added, such
as a poet-laureate, champion, archbishop, and chief
grunter, and by that time, as the tone and expenses
of the club had increased, the fines became
very severe, and in the exactions no one met with
any mercy, ?? as it was the interests of all that the
& should bring forth a plenteous farrow.? This
practice led to squabbles, and the grotesque fraternity
was broken up.
The COUNTRY DINNER CLUB was a much more
sensible style of gathering, when some respectable
citizens of good position were wont to meet on the
afternoon of each Saturday about the year 1790 to
dine in an old tavern in Canonmills, then at a
moderate distance from town. They kept their
own particular claret. William Ramsay, a banker,
then residing in Warriston House, was deemed
?( the tongue of the trump to the club,? which entirely
consisted of hearty and honest old citizens,
all of whom have long since gone to their last account.
The EAST INDIA CLUB was formed in 1797, and
held its first meeting in John Bayll?s tavern on
the 13th of January that year, when the Herald
announces that dinner would be on the table at the
then late and fashionable hour of four, but the body
does not seem to have been long in existence ; it
contributed twenty guineas to the sufferers of a fire
in the Cowgate in the spring of 1799, and fifty to
the House of Industry in 1801.
John Bayll managed the ?George Square assemblies,?
which were held in Buccleuch Place.
His tavern was in Shakespeare Square, where his
annual balls and suppers, in 1800, were under the
patronage of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Mrs.
Dundas of Amiston.
Of the CAPE CLUB, which was established on
the 15th of March, 1733, and of which Fergusson
the poet and Runciman the painter were afterwards
members, an account will be found in Vol. I.,
which, however, omitted to give the origin of the
name of that long-existing and merry fraternity,
and which was founded on an old, but rather weak,
Edinburgh joke of the period.
Some well-known burgess of the Calton who WE
in the habit of spending the evening hours with
friends in the city, till after the ten o?clock drum
had been beaten and the Netherbow Port wa:
shut, to obtain egress was under the necessity 01
bribing the porter there, or remaining within the
walls all ni&it. On leaving the gate he had tc
turn acutely to the left to proceed down Leith
Wynd, which this facetious toper termed ?? doubling
the Cape.? Eventually it became a standing joke
in the small circle of Edinburgh then, ?and the
Cape Club owned a regular institution from 1763,?
says Chambers, but its sixty-fifth anniversary is
announced in the HeraZd of 1798, for the 15th of
March as given above.
The SPENDTHRIFT CLUB, was so called in ridicule
of the very moderate indulgence of its members,
whose expenses were limited to fourpence-halfpenny
each night, yet all of them were wealthy or
well-to-do citizens, many of whom usually met after
forenoon church at the. Royal Exchange for a walk
in the country-their plan being to walk in the
direction from whence the wind blew and thus
avoid the smoke of the city. ? In 1824,? says
ChamberS, ?? in the recollection of the senior members,
some of whom were of fifty years? standing,
the house (of meeting) was kept by the widow of a
Lieutenant Hamilton of the army, who recollected
having attended the theatre in the Tennis Court at
Holyrood when the play was the ? Spanish Friar,,
and many of the members of the Union Parliament
were present in the house.?
The meetings of this club were nightly, till reduced
to four weekly, Whist was played for a
halfpenny. Supper originally cost only twopence,
and half a bottle of strong ale, with a dram, cost
twopence-halfpenny more ; a halfpenny to the
servant-maid, was a total of fivepence for a night of
jollity and good fellowship.
The PIOUS CLUB was composed of respectable
and orderly business-men who met every night,
Sundays not excepted, in the Pie-house-hence their
name, a play upon the words. We are told that
?the agreeable uncertainty as to whether their
name arose from their pie& or the circumstance of
their eating piesy kept the club hearty for many
years.?
Fifteen members constituted a full night, a gill of
toddy to each was served out like wine from a d e
canter, and they were supposed to separate at ten
o?clock.
The ANTEMANUM CLUB was composed of men of
respectability, and many who were men of fortune,
who dined together every Saturday. ? Brag? was
their chief game with cards. It was a purely convivial
club, till the era of the Whig party being in
the ascendant led to angry political discussions, and
eventual dissolution.
The SIX FEET CLUB was composed of men who
were of that stature or above it, if possible. It was
an athletic society, and generally met half-yearly at
the Hunter?s Tryst, near Colinton, or similar places,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p136.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 125")
... THE SPENDTHRIFT CLUB. 12.5
called one of his brother boars by his proper outof-
club name, the term ...
Book 5 p. 125
(Score 0.19)
... . OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Inverleith.
the long hill on the south side of the West Port,
from Cowfeeder Row to ...
Book 5 p. 94
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Roslin
minute decorations of the latest species of the
Tudor age. It is impossible to ...
Book 6 p. 350
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. 1174S- .
to England or theremote districts of Scotland. The
old Chevalier was ...
Book 2 p. 330
(Score 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Pr?nees Street.
New Town, they are surprised at its being so badly
lighted and ...
Book 3 p. 120
(Score 0.19)
![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")
... ROYAL INFIRMARY. 299 h6rmary Street]
students to witness surgical operations. The Infirmary
has separate ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
likely to have arisen. It happened by accident
that the Earl of ...
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... CAPTAIN CAYLEY. 243
Bridge, with a boldly moulded doorway, inscribed,
TECUM HABITA, 1616,
(i.e., ? ...
Book 4 p. 243
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
less than eight feet of this loose earth between his
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![Leith] SH EKIFF BRAE. 247
Leith by the rebels of Mary Queen of Scots, the
Earl of Lennox opened his council in the chambers
of the old tenement referred to, on the Coal Hill,
and it is, says Robertson, decorated with a rosethe
emblem of his connectian with Henry VIII. of
England-and the thistle for Scotland. Then
followed that war to which Morton?s ferocity imparted
a character so savage that ere long quarter
was neither given nor taken. And amidst it, in
connection with some private feud, some of the
followers of Sir William Kirkaldy, although they
had been ordered merely to use their batons, slew
Henry Setoun on the Shore of Leith, while his feet
were tripped up by an anchor. In escaping to
Edinburgh, one of them was taken and lodged in
the Tolbooth there ; but Kirkaldy came down from
the Castle with a party of his garrison, beat in the
doors, and rescued him, after which he seized ?? the
victualls brought into Leith from the merchants,
and (did} provide all necessarie furniture to endure
a long siege, till supplie was sent from forrane
nations.? (Calderwood.)
On the death of Lennox, John, Earl of Mar, was
made Regent, and fixed his head-quarters in the
same old tenement at the Coal Hill, Morton being
again chief lieutenant.
From the presence of these peers here, it is
probable that the adjacent gloomy, and now filthy,
court, so grotesquely called Parliament Square, obtained
its name, which seems to have been formerly
the Peat Neuk. The old Council House has been
doomed to perish by the new improvement scheme.
In December, 1797, it was ordered by the Lord
Provost, Magistrates, and Council of Edinburgh,
through the deputy shore-master at Leith, that every
vessel coming into the port with coals for public
sale, was to have a berth immediately on her arrival
off the Coal Hill, and that all other vessels were to
unmoor for that purpose, while no shore duties
were to be charged for coal vessels. (HeyaZd and
ChyonicZe, No. 1,215.)
The adjacent Peat Neuk, for years during the
last century and the beginning of the present,
afforded a shelter to those reckless and abandoned
characters who abound in every seaport ; while in
that portion of the town between the Coal Hill and
the foot of the Tolbooth Wynd were a number of
ancient and ruinous houses, the abode of wandering
outcasts, from whom no rent was ever derived
or expected. It was further alleged, in the early
part of the nineteenth century, to be the favourite
haunt of disembodied spirits, whose crimes or
sufferings in life compelled them to wander ; so,
every way, the Coal Hill seems to have been an
unpleasant, as it is still an unsavoury, locality.
From thence, another quarter known as the
Sheriff, or Shirra Brae, extends in a south-westerly
direction, still abounding in ancient houses. Here,
facing the Coal Hill, there stood, till 1840, a very
fine old edifice, described as having been the residence
of a Logan of Restalrig. The dormer
windows, which rose high above the eaves, were
elaborately sculptured with many dates and quaint
devices. Some of these have been preserved in
the north wall of the manse of St. Thomas?s Church.
One of them displays a shield charged with a heart,
surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, with the initials 1.L
and the date 1636 ; another has the initials I.L.,
M.C., with the date 24 Dec., 1636; a third has
the initials M.C., with a shield; while a fourth
gablet has the initials D.D., M.C., and the comparatively
recent date I 734
The supposed grandsoq of the luckless Logan
of the Gowrie conspiracy married Isabel Fowler,
daughter of Ludovic Fowler of Burncastle (says
Robertson), the famous ? Tibbie Fowler ? of
Scottish song, and here she is said to have resided ;
but her husband has been otherwise said to have
been a collateral of the ancient house of Restalrig,
as it is recorded, under date 12th June, 1572-
Majestro Joanne Logan de Shireff Braye,? who
poitpones the case of Christian Gudsonne, wife of
Andrew Burne in Leith, ?dilatit of the mutilation
of Willkm Burne, burgess of Edinburgh, of his
foremost finger be byting thereof.?
In the chartulary, says Robertson, we have also
John Logane of the Coatfield (Kirkgate), and George
Logane of Bonnington Mills is repeatedly alluded
to; ?? and we believe,? he adds, that these branches
?existed as early as the charter of King David.?
The old house at Bmnington still shows a curious
doorway, surmounted by a carefully sculptured
tablet bearing a shield, with a chevron and three
fleurs-de-lis; crest, a ship with sails furled. The
motto and date are obliterated.
. Another writer supposes that if the old house on
the Sheriff Brae was really the residence of George
Logan, it may have been acquired by marriage,
? seeing that the forfeiture of the family possessions
occurred so shortly before ; and this in itself affords
some colour to the tradition that he was the successhl
wooer of Tibbie Fowler.?
In support of this, the historian of Leith says :-
?f We think it not improbable that it was Tibbie?s
tocher that enabled Logan, who was ruined by the
attainder of 1609, to build the elegant mansion on
the Sheriff Brae. The marriage contract between
Logan and Isabella Fowler (supposed to be the
Tibbie of the song) is now in possession of a
gentleman in Leith.?](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p066.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 247")
