Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV

All Books Kay's Originals Vol. 1 Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Edinburgh Past and Present Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

Go to: « Kay's Originals Vol. 1 « Kay's Originals Vol. 2 « Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time « Edinburgh Past and Present « Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I « Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II « Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Title and Plates Ch 26: The Northern New Town (continued) Ch 27: Northern New Town (concluded) Ch 28: The Western New Town - Haymarket - Dalry - Fountainbridge Ch 29: West Port Ch 30: The Grassmarket Ch 31: The Cowgate Ch 32: Cowgate (concluded) Ch 33: The Society Ch 34: The Lord Provosts of Edinburgh Ch 35: Infirmary Street and the Old High School Ch 36: The Old Royal Infirmary - Surgeon Square Ch 37: Arthur's Seat and its Vicinity Ch 38: Bristo and the Potterrow Ch 39: Nicolson Street and Square Ch 40: George Square and the Vicinity Ch 41: Hope Park End Ch 42: Lauriston Ch 43: George Heriot's Hospital and the Greyfriars Church Contents List of Illustrations » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

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

  Enlarge     Pictures

The Cowgate.] LADY GALLOWAY. Z S 7 Although the name of this wynd is as old as the middle of the seventeeth century, none of the buildings in it latterly were older than the middle of the eighteenth. They had all been removed by those who were anxious for the benefit of such fine air as its surroundings afforded, for in the map of 1647 the Yicus Epuorzrm is shown as having to the westward gardens in plenitude, divided by four long hedgerows, and closed on the south by the became remarkable for piety, mingled with great stateliness and pride; and she is thus referred to in the Ridotto of Holyrood, partly written by her sister-in-law, Lady Bruce of Kinloss :-- ?And there was Bob Murray, though married, alas ! Yet still rivalling Johnstone in beauty and grace. And there was my lady, well known by her airs, Who ne?er goes to revel but after her prayers.? The Bob herein referred to was Sir Robert crenelated wall of the city, and it terminated by a bend eastward at the Potterrow Port. Respectable members of the bar were always glad to have a flat in some of the tall edifices on the east side of the wynd. About the middle of it, on the west side, was a distinct mansion called Galloway House, having a large Fcdiment, and ornamented on the top by stone vases. This residence was built by Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway, one of the Lords of Police, who died in 1773. His countess Catharine, daughter of John Earl of Dundonald, colonel of the Scottish Horse Guards, was mother of Captain George Stewart, who fell at Ticonderoga. She had been a beauty in her youth, and formed the subject of one of Hamilton of Bangour?s poetical tributes, and in her old age 81 Murray of Clermont. Among all the precise granddames of her time in Edinburgh, Lady Galloway was noted for her pre-eminent pomp and formality, and would order out her coach with six horses, if but to pay a visit to a friend at the corner of the wpd, or to Lord hfinto, whose house was a few yards westward of it. ? It was alleged that when the countess made calls, the leaders were sometimes at the door she was going to when she was stepping into the camage at her own door. This may be called a tour de force illustration of the nearness of friends to each other in Old Edinburgh.? New College Wynd, which strikes from the eastern part of Chambers Street, runs first IIO feet northward, then 180 feet westward, and then northward again in the line of the Iower part of the

  Enlarge     Pictures