Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

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 « Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Plates Ch 20: Leith - Historical Survey (continued) Ch 21: Leith - Historical Survey (continued) Ch 22: Leith - Historical Survey (concluded) Ch 23: Leith - The Kirkgate Ch 24: Leith - The Kirkgate (concluded) Ch 25: Leith - Tolbooth Wynd and Adjoining Streets Ch 26: Leith - Rotten Row, Broad Wynd, Bernard Street, Baltic Street, and Quality Street Ch 27: Leith - Constitution Street, The Shore, Coal Hill, and Sheriff Brae Ch 28: North Leith Ch 29: Leith - The Links Ch 30: Leith - The Sands Ch 31: Leith - The Harbour Ch 32: Memorabilia of the Shipping of Leith and its Maritime Affairs Ch 33: Leith - The Docks Ch 34: Inchkeith Ch 35: Newhaven Ch 36: Wardie, Trinity, and Granton Ch 37: The Environs of Edinburgh Ch 38: The Environs of Edinburgh (continued) Ch 39: The Environs of Edinburgh (continued) Ch 40: The Environs of Edinburgh (continued) Ch 41: The Environs of Edinburgh (continued) Ch 42: The Environs of Edinburgh (continued) Ch 43: The Environs of Edinburgh (concluded) General Index Contents List of Illustrations

Cunie.1 ROMAN AND OTUER ANTIQUITIES. 331 locality; But the ?? Old Statistical Account ? has the following version of it :- ?L From its name-Koria or Coria-it seems to have been one of those districts which still retain their Roman appellation. This conjecture is supportedby the following authors, who give an account of the ancient and modem names of places in Scotland : 1st. Johnston, in his ? Antiquitates Celto-Normannicz,? for the Koria of Ptolemy places Cumc; znd, Dr. Stukeley, in his account of Richard of Cirencester?s map and itinerary, for the Koria of Richard fixes Corstanlaw in the neighbourhood of Currie ; 3rd, Sir Kobert Sibbald, in his ? Roman Antiquities of Scotland,? conceives it to have been the place near the manor of Ingliston, from a pillar dug up there, which place is likewise in the vicinity _ _ of earthenware. South of the great cairn were five large stones, set upright in the earth, to com-? memorate some now-forgotten battle ; and at the bottom of the same field were found many stone coffins, which the late General Scott of Malleny re-interred, and he set up a tombstone, which still marks the place. At Enterkins Yett,according to tradition, a bloody battle was fought with the Danes, whose leader was slain by the Scots and buried in the field giving rise to its name. But, apart from these prehistoric vestiges, Cume has claims to considerable antiquity from an ecclesiastical point of view. Father Hay records that the Knights of the Hospital had an establishment at Currie, then called Kill-leith (i.e., the 1 of Currie. These circumstances tend io prove that it must have been originally a Roman sta-, tion-traces of which have lately been found in the neighbourhood ? The locality is very rich in ancient militar; remains, as the extract from the ? I Old Statistical (Vol. V.). KNIGHT TEMPLAR?S TOMB, CURRIE CHURCHYARD. (Ajtrr a Sketch by th Author.) Account ? would lead us to- expect. Indications of Roman stations are visible on Ravelrig Hill and Warlaw Hill. The former crowns the summit of a high bank, inaccessible on three sides, defended by two ditches faced with stone, with openings for a gate. It is named by the peasantry the Castle Yett. Farther eastward, commanding a view of the beautiful strath towards Edinburgh, is another station, traditionally called the General?s Watch, or Post. These works are much defaced, the hewn stones having been carried off to make field dykes. On Cocklaw Farm, there were, till within a few years ago, the remains of a massive round tower, eighteen feet in diameter. The ruins were filled with fine sand. It had some connection with the station on Ravelrig Hill, as subterranean passages have been traced between them. On the lands of Harelaw-a name which implies the locality of an army-near the present farmhouse, there stood an immense cairn, ofwhich three thousand loads were carted away, some time shortly before 1845. Within it was a stone cist, only two feet square, but full of human bones. In the same field was found a coffin of stone, the bones in which had faded into dust; amid them lay a piece Chapel by the ? Leith), which was a chief commandery. But there lies in the village churchyard a tombstone six feet long by two broad, on which there is carved a sword of the thirteenth century, with the guard depressed, and above it the eight-pointed cross of the Temple, encircled by a rosary of beads. It was for a time built into the wall of the village school-house. In 1670 Scott of Bavelaw was retoured in the Temple lands and Temple houses of Currie. The fragment of the old church bore the impress of great antiquity, and when it was removed to make way for the present plain-looking place of worship, there was found a silver ornament supposed to be the stand of acrucifix, or stem of an altar candlestick, as it had a screw at each end, and was se,ven inches? long by one and one-eighth in diameter. On a scroll, it bore in Saxon characters, the legend- 3esn . fiIi . Pof . flfserorc . mti. It is now preserved in the Museum of Antiquities. In the reign of David II., William of Disscyngtoun, relation and heir of John Burnard, had? a grant of land in the barony of Currie ; and under Robert III., Thomas Eshingtoun (or Dishingtoun), son probably of the same, had a charter of the lands of Longherdmanstoun, Currie,. Redheughs, and Kilbaberton-all in the shire of Edinburgh Under the same monarch, William Brown of Colstoun had a grant of Little Currie, in the barony of Ratho ; and afterwards we find Robert

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Maitland granting a charter to Robert Winton ?of the barony of Hirdmanston, called Curry.? (Robertson?s Index to Missing Charters.?) The present bridge of Currie is said to be above five hundred years old j and the dark pool below gave rise to the Scottish proverb concerning intense cunning-? Deep as Currie Brig.? Currie Church was an outpost of Corstorphine, and, with Fzla, fomied part of the property given by Mary of Gueldres to the Trinity College. NIDDRIE HOUSE. ?? Mr. Adam Letham, minister of Currie, 1568-76, to be paid as follows: his stipend jc li, with the Kirkland of Curry. Andrew Robeson, Reidare (Reader at Curry; his stipend xx lb., but (it., without) Kirkland? After the Reformation there was sometimes only In the seventeenth century, Mathew Leighton, nephew of the famous Archbishop of Glasgow, a prelate of singular piety and benevolence, was , one minister for four or five parishes. It was a benefice of the Archdean of Lothian. Even so late as the reign of Charles I., it does not appear to have been considered a separate parish from Corstorphine, for no mention is made of it in the royal decree for the brief erection of the see of Edinburgh, though all the adjoining parishes are noticed. Till within a few years, ironjougs hung at the north gate of Currie Churchyard, at Hermiston (which is a corruption of Herdmanstown), at Malleny, and at Buteland, near Balerno. Currie was one of the first rural places in Scotland which had a Protestant clergyman, as appears from the Register of Ministers,? published by the Maitland Club :- curate of Currie during the reign of Episcopacy ; and, singular to say, was not expelled from his incumbency at the Revolution in the year 1688, but died at an advanced age, and was interred in the church-yard, where his tomb is still an object of interest. The parsonage of Currie is referred to in an Act of Parliament, under JamesVI., in 1592; and Nether Currie is referred to in another Act, of date 1587, granted in favour of Mark, Lord Newbattle. Cleuchmaidstone is so named from being the pass to the chapel of St. Katherine in the valley below, and having a spring, in which, it is said, pilgrims bathed before entering it. Some parts of the parish are very elevated.

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