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60 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. under the influence of Henry 11. of France, assembled a considerable force at Kelso, and sought, by all means, to persuade the nobility to unite with her in invading England. But though the Borderers availed themselves, with their usual alacrity, of the first symptoms of hostilities, to make a raid across the marches, the general sense of the nobility was strongly opposed to thus rashly plunging into war, without any just cause ; and so resolute were they against it, that the Queen Regent, after various ineffeciual attempts to precipitate hostilities, was compelled to dismiss the army, and abandon all further attempts at co-operation with France.’ From this occurrence may he dated the true rise of those divisions in this country which alienated from the Queen Regent the Scottish party, on which she had most depended, and ultimately led to the war of the Reformation ; and from this time forward the ecclesiastical is intimately blended with the civil history of the country, mainly influencing every important occurrence, The continuation of war between France and Spain at this period, induced the French Monarch to seek to hasten on the proposed alliance between the Dauphin and the Queen of Scots, to which the Queen ,Regent lent all her influence. A Parliament accordingly assembled at Edinburgh on the 14th of December 1557, before which a letter was laid from the King of France, proposing khat the intended marriage should be carried into effect without delay. Jamea Stewart, prior of St Andrews, afterwards the Regent Murray, and others of the leaders of the Protestant party, were chosen by the Parliament as Commissioners, empowered to give their assent to the marriage, on receiving ample security for the preservation of the ancient laws and liberty of the kingdom. They accordingly proceeded to Paris, and there, on the 24th of April 1558, were witnesses of the marriage, which was solemnised with the utmost pomp and magnificence in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Another Parliament was summoned immediately ob their return, and accordingly assembled at Edinburgh in the beginning of December. It ratified the transactions of the Commissioners, and agreed, at the same time, to confer on the Dauphin the Crown of Scotland during the continuance of the marriage. As the reformed opinions spread among the people, they manifested their zeal by destroying images, and breaking down the carved work of the monasteries and churches. It was the custom at this period for the clergy of Edinburgh to walk annually in grand procession, on the.first of September, the anniversary of St Giles, the patron saint of the town ; but in the year 1558, before the arrival of St Giles’s day, the mob contrived to get into the church, and carrying off the image of the saint, which was usually borne in procession on such occasions, they threw it into the North Loch-the favourite place for ducking all offenders against the seventh commandment-and thereafter committed it to the flames.’ The utmost confusion prevailed on its being discovered to be amissing. The bishops sent orders to the Provost and Magistrates either to get the old St Giles, or to furnish another at their own expense ; but this they declined to do, notwithstanding the threats and denunciations of the clergy, alleging the authority of Scripture for the destruction of I‘ idols and images.’’ Bishop Leslie’s Hint., pp. 260, 261. Calderwood’s Hist., vol. i. p. 344. ......

Book 10  p. 65
(Score 3.08)

MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. ......

Book 10  p. iv
(Score 2.37)

ro MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. mix with water their ;atmeal ; and when the plate is heated, put a little of the paste upon it, and make a thin cake, like a cracknell or biscuit, which they eat to warm their stomachs : it is therefore no wonder that they should perform a longer day’s march than any other Boldiers I ” VIGNETTE-corbel, from Sh Qiles’s Church, ......

Book 10  p. 11
(Score 1.87)

386 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. An aisle appears to have bLen added at a later period to the south of the two last chapels, the beautifully groined roof bf which was fully as rich as any portion of the choir. This appears to be the chapel referred to in a I‘ charter of confitmation of a mortification by Alexander Lauder of Blyth, Knight, Provost of Edinburgh, to ane altarage of St Gilles Kirk,” dated 17th August 1513; by which he founded a “ chaplainry in the New Chapel, near the south-western corner of the church, in honour of God, the Virgin xarj+, and Gabriel the Archangel.” ’ It consisted of two arches extending between the porch and the south transept, and in the south wall, between the two windows, a beautiful altar tomb was constructed under a deep recess, on which a recumbent figure had, no doubt, been originally placed, although it probably disappeared along with the statues, and other ancient ’ decorations, that fell a prey to the reforming zeal of 1559, when ‘( The Black and Gray Freris of Edinburgh were demolissed and castin doun aluterlie, and all the chepellis and collegis about the said burgh, with thair zairds, were in lykwyise distfoyit ; and the images and altaris of Banctgeilis kirk distroyit and brint, be the Erlis bf Ergyle ahd Glencarne, the pryour of Sanctandrois and Lord Ruthvene, callit the cotlgregatioun.” The principal ornaments of this fine tomb suggest its having been erected for some eminent ecclesiastic. Underneath the corbels from which the crocketed arch spriugs, two shields are cut, bearing the emblems of our Saviour’s passion, the one on the right having the nails, spear, and teed with the sponge, and the other the pillar and scourges. The pinnacle with which the arch terminates is adorned with the beautiful emblem of a heart within the crown of thorns, and on eithei- side of it a lion and dragon are sculptured as snpportercl, On the top of this an ornamental corbel €ormerly supported a clustered pillar, from the capital of which the rich groining of the roof spread out its fan-like limbs towards the fine bosses of the centre key-stones. All this, however, which combined to form one of the finest and most unique features of the Old Church, has been sacrificed to secure that undesirable uniformity which ruins the Gothic designs of’ modern architects, and is scarcely ever found in the best ancient examples. One-half of the aisle has been demolished, and a wall built across where the clustered pillar formerly supported the beautiful roof of the chapel, in order to give it the appeatance externally of an aisle to the south transept. The altar tomb has been removed in a mutilated state to this fragment of the ancient chapel, now degraded to the mean oEce of a staircase to the Montrose aisle on the east side of the same transept, which, with a floor half way up its ancient pillars, serves for a vestry to the Old Church. On the north side of the nave a range of chapels appears to have been added at a somewhat later date than those built on the south side in 1387, judging from the style of ornament and particularly the rich groining of the roof. These consisted of two small chapels on each aide of the ancient Norman porch, while above it there was an apartment known as the Priest’s Room. This had, no doubt, served as a vestry for some of the clergy officiating at the numerous altars of the church, though Maitland gives it the name of the Priest’s Prison, as the place of durance in olden times for culprits who had incurred the 1 Inventar of Pious Donationa M.8. Ad. Lib. Alexander Lauder filled the oflice of Provost in the years 1bOj-3, and again in 1508-10. The Earl of Angus waa the Provost in 1513, and marched with the burgher fmcd t6 Flodden Field. 9 Maitland, p. 271. Diurnal of Occurrenta, p. ’269. ......

Book 10  p. 424
(Score 1.85)

- GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 3 There on their brows the moonbeam broke, Through the faint wreaths of silvery smoke, And on the casements played, And other light was none to see, Save torches gliding far.' We need here but allude to his prose touches of description-rapid and decisive-of the view of the Firth of Forth and the northem part of Edinburgh, in Guy Mannerhg, and of the city as seen in the morning froin Salisbury Crags, in the Heart of Mik'Zuthian. Yet, with the exception of the first-mentioned splendid burst in Ma?-mion, it is curious that Sir Walter Scott has painted no scene in or about or near Edinburgh with half such a powerful pencil as he has, in Rob Roy, the Cathedral and its environments in the ancient city of St. Mungo-a passage we have always considered as among the most sublime and suggestive pictures Scott ever drew, and as ranking among the first masterpieces of descriptive composition in the world. Scott, indeed, as a native of Edinburgh, could never have looked at it with the same fresh and new enthusiasm with which it has been beheld by many strangers seeing it for the first time. Haydon's exclamation when he saw it first was, "Tis a giant's dream ! ' And such is the feeling of many who never dared to use the words. It seemed as if it had been built to some unearthly music, or after a model suspended in the clouds, and formed by the hands of Air and Sunshine. Stone and Rock seemed here moulded into the express image of Genius, and Nature and Art were apparently reconciled. Religion, too, had hung up toward the glowing west the dome of St. George's, as if challenging the whole proud city as her own. And the marriage of man's perfect work and of God's ideal of beauty and grandeur had for witnesses the everlasting hills- Arthur's Seat and the rest-seeming guardians, too, over a dream city, and fixing what otherwise, like dreams, seemed ready to vanish away. We believe that in these words and images we have not exaggerated the feelings wherewith young imaginative minds were filled to ecstatic confusion on their first visit to Edinburgh. There was at first all the delight and delirium of a dream; nor did the disenchantment come soon, even after the bewildering whole had been resolved into its component parts. The fragments, like those of a cloud, were as aerial as the cloud itself. From Arthur's Seat Edinburgh rather dwindles and is drowned in the midst of its environments-the blue shores and indented hills of Fife; the ocean stretching eastwards to enfold the Bass Rock and North Berwick Law; the garden-land toward Berwick, dotted with little hills and half encircled by ......

Book 11  p. 3
(Score 1.74)

2 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-of-Field. land of umyle Hew Berrie?s tenement and chamber adjacent yr to, lying in the Cowgaitt, on the south side of the street, betwixt James Earl of Buchan?s land on the east, and Thomas Tod?s on ye west.? This lady was a daughter of John Lord Kennedy, and was the widow of the aged Earl of Angus, who died of a broken heart after the battle of Flodden. In 1450-1 an obligation by the Corporation of Skinners in favour of St. Christopher?s altar in St. Giles?s was signed with much fornialityon the 12th of January, infra ecdesiam Beate &Iarie He Canzpo, in presence of Sir Alexander Hundby, John Moffat, and John Hendirsone, chaplains thereof, Thomas Brown, merchant, and other witnesses. ((? Burgh Rec.?) James Laing, a burgess of Edinburgh, founded an additional chaplaincy in this church during the reign of James V., whose royal confirmation of it is dated 19th June, 1530, and the grant is made ? to a chaplain celebrating divine service at the high altar within the collegiate church of Blessed Marie-in-the-Fields.? When made collegiate it was governed by a provost, who with eight prebendaries and two choristers composed the college ; but certain rights appear to have been reserved then by the canons of Holyrood, for in 1546 we find Robert, Commendator of the abbey, presenting George Kerr to a. prebend in it, ?according to the force and form of the foundation.? There is a charter by James V., arst May, 1531, confirming a previous one of 16th May, I 53 I, by the lady before mentioned, ?Janet Kennedy Domina de Bothvill,? of tenements in Edinburgh, and an annual rent of twenty shillings for a prebendary to perform divine service ?in the college kirk of the Blessed Virgin Mary-in-the-Fields, or without the walls of Edinburgh, pro sat& #sius Domini Regis (JamesV.), and for the souls OP his father (James IV.), and the late Archibald, Earl of Angus? Among the most distinguished provosts of the Kirk-of-Field was its second one, Richard Bothwell, rector of Ashkirk, who in A4ugust and December, 1534, was a commissioner for opening Parliament. He died in the provost?s house in 1547. The prebendal buildings were of considerable extent, exclusive of the provost?s house, or lodging. David Vocat, one of the prebendaries, and master of the Grammar School of Edinburgh, clerk and orator of Holyrood,? was a liberal ? benefactor to the church ; but it and the buildings attached to it seem to have suffered severely at the hands of the English during the invasion of 1544 or 1547. In the ?? Inventory of the Townis purchase from the Marquis of Hamilton in 1613,?? with a view to the founding of a college, says Wilson, we have found an abstract of ?a feu charter granted by Mr. Alexander Forrest, provost of the collegiate church of the Blessed Xlary-in-the-Fields, near Edinr., and by the prebends of the said church,? dated 1544, wherein it is stated:-?Considering that ther houses, especially ther hospital annexed and incorporated with ther college, were burnt down and destroyed by their add enemies of EngZand, so that nothing of their said hospital was left, but they are altogether waste and entirely destroyed, wherethrough the divine worship is not a little decreased in the college, because they were unable to rebuild the said hospital. . . , Therefore they gave and granted, set in feu forme, and confirmed to a magnificent and illustrious prince, James, Duke of Chattelherault, Earl of Arran, Lord Hamilton, &c., all and hail their tenement or hospital, with the yards and pertinints thereof, lying within the burgh of Edinburgh, in the street or wynd called School House Wynd, on the east part thereof.? The duke appears, it is added, from frequent allusions by contemporaries, to have built an abode for his family on the site of this hospital, and that edifice served in future years as the hall of the first college of Edinburgh. In 1556 we find Alexander Forrest, the provost of the kirk, in the name of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, presenting a protest, signed by Mary of Guise, to the magistrates, praying them to suppress ?? certain odious ballettis and rymes baith sett furth ? by certain evil-inclined persons, who had also demolished certain images, but with what end is unknown. (?Burgh Records.?) But two years after Bishop Lesly records that when the Earl of Argyle and his reformers entered Edinburgh, after spoiling the Black and Grey Friars, and having their ? haill growing treis plucked up be the ruittis,? they destroyed and burned all the images in the Kirk-of-Field. In 1562 the magistrates made application to Queen Mary, among other requests, for the Kirk-of- Field and all its adjacent buildings and ground, for the purpose of erecting a school thereon, and for the revenues of the old foundation to endow the same ; but they were not entirely made over to the city for the purpose specified till 1566. The quadrangle of the present university now occupies the exact site of the church of St. Mary-inthe- Fields, including that of the prebendal buildings, and, says Wilson-who in this does not quite accord with Bell-to a certain extent the house of the provost, so fatally known in history; and the main access and approach to the whole establishment was ......

Book 5  p. 2
(Score 1.7)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 337 a powerful organ, and one of the very best performers, the music was long famed for its excellence ; and it was universally admitted that the liturgy was nowhere performed with so much solemnity and effect as in the Surrey Chapel. The powerful eloquence, however, of Mr. Hill, and the occasional eccentricities of his manner, were the chief attractions, His language was always glowing, and his imagery of the richest and most fascinating description. Robert Hall observes-“ No man has ever drawn, since the days of our Saviour, such sublime images of nature ; here Mr. Hill excels every other man.” Fettered by no system, and squared by no rule, he gave way to his feelings with a boldness and freedom unknown to other preachers ; and, carried away by the impulse of the moment, frequently indulged a vein of humour and coarseness of language unsuited to the pulpit. Mr. Hill was himself sensible of his levity in this respect, but felt utterly incapable of resisting it. In going into the Chapel slips of paper were occasionally handed to him, announcing the conversion of individuals, and other good tidings, or requesting the prayers of the congregation. These he was in the habit of reading aloud. “ On one occasion,” says his biographer, “an impudent fellow placed a piece of paper on the desk, just before he was going to read prayers. He took it up and began-‘ The prayers of this congregation are desired for-umph-for-umph-well, I suppose I must finish what I have begun-for the Ileverend Rowland Dill, tldat he wiU not go riding about in his carriage on a Sunday.’ This would have disconcerted almost any other man ; but he looked up with great coolness, and said, ‘If the writer of this piece of folly and impertinence is in the congregation, and will go into the vestry after service, and let me put a saddle on his back, I will ride him home instead of going in my carriage.’ He then went on with the service as if nothing had happened.” Politics and the war frequently engrossed his attention. In preaching to a band of volunteers at his Chapel, in 1803, he introduced a hymn, written by himself, to the tune of God save the King; and, on the same occasion, another hymnalso of his own composition-to the popular air of Rule Britannia, was sung by the congregation with great effect. The first stanza of this parody is as follows :- Neither were his pulpit orations strictly confined to religious topics. “ When Jesus first, at heaven’s command, Descended from his azure throne, Attending angels join’d his praise, Who claim’d the kingdoms for his own. Hail Immanuel !-Immanuel we’ll adore ! And sound his fame from shore to shore.” In this way were the eccentricities of Mr. Hill displayed ; but always original, and accompanied with such genuine talent, that what in others would have appeared ridiculous, was in him not only tolerated, but esteemed; while the many benefits which resulted from his active labours, and the fervency of his zeal, completely overshadowed any outrages upon decorum, which his strong imagination occasionally led him to commit. 2x ......

Book 8  p. 471
(Score 1.58)

420 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. own name to the burgh, where he possessed a stronghold presenting such great natural advantages as were likely to tempt his frequent residence within its walls. Edwin, who was the ablest and most powerful among the sovereigns of Britain in his time, lost his kingdom and his life at the Battle of Hatfield, on the 12th of October 633. From that date, the Castle and town of Edinburgh may be considered as occupying some degree of prominence among the towns of the ancient kingdom, and thenceforward we are able to glean occasional authentic notices of it from our older chroniclers. The reign of Edwin is chiefly memorable for the introduction of Christianity into the kingdom of Northumbria, and probably no long time elapsed thereafter before some humble Christian fme was reared in Edinburgh, to supersede by its worship the heathen rites for which the summit of Arthur’s Seat, or of some other of the neighbouring hills, may have been set apart as the most appropriate temple. Glancing back thus over an interval of twelve centuries, the familiar scenes that surround us acquire a new aspect, and become pregnant with a deeper meaning than the mere beauty of the landscape, or the unrivalled grandeur of the old city that occupies its heights, can convey to the tasteful observer. History becomes a living drama, instead of a mere bundle of dusty parchments ; and the actors, who pass away in succession with its many changing scenes, appear once more before us what they really were, men of like passions with ourselves. With this feeling we have attempted to recover the fading traces of the more ancient antiquities of the Scottish capital, and to preserve an authentic record of those of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which are fast passing away, like their predecessors, beyond recall, notwithstanding the promise of durability which the substantial masonry of that period seems to offer. 6L The walles,” says Taylor the Water Poet, in his Penny- Zesse PiZgrimage, ‘‘ are eight or tenne foot thicke, exceeding strong, not built for a day, a weeke, or a moneth, or a yeere, but from Antiquitie to Posteritie, for many Ages.” Posteritie, however, finds little that suits its changed tastes and habits in these ‘( goodlie houses,” and is busy replacing them with structures more adapted to modern wants ; but the very fact of their having thus become obsolete confers on them a new value, as monuments of a period and state of society altogether different from our own. This it is that gives to the pursuits of the antiquary their true value. These relics of the past, however insignificant they may appear in themselves, assume a very different claim on our interest when thus regarded as the memorials of our national history, or the key to the manners and the habits of our forefathers. As such they acquire it worth which no mere lapse of time could confer ; nor have our forefathers played so mean a part in the history of nations that their memorials should possess an interest only to ourselves. ’ ......

Book 10  p. 460
(Score 1.51)

YAMES VI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES Ir. 87 the Nether Bow to be repaired-bonfires--“a propyne of ane jowell to the Quenis grace,” &c. &c. The King and Queen at length arrived at Leith on the 1st of May 1590, and remained in “the King’s work there” till the 6th of the month, while the Palace of Holyrood was getting ready. On the 17th of May the Queen was crowned in Holyrood Abbey, Mr Robert Bruce pouring upon her breast bonye quantitie of oyll,” and “Mr Andro Meluene, principal1 of the Colledge of the Theolloges, making ane oratione in tua hunder Lateine verse !” The second day they at length entered the capital, the manner of approaching which from the Palace is worthy of notice, as a key to the usual route pursued on similar occasions. <(At her comming to the south side of the yardes of the Canogit, along the parke wall, being in sight of the Castle, they gave her thence a great voley of shot, with their banners and ancient displays upon the walls. where she was received with a Latin oration, EO that the royal procession must have skirted along the whole line of the more modern city wall, where Lauriston now is. At the West Port they were welcomed with even more than the usual costly display. The same variety of allegories and ingenious devices had been prepared. An angel presented the keys to her Majesty ; she rode in a chariot drawn by eight horses, decorated with velvet trappings, richly embroidered with gold and silver, and was attended by sixty youths, as Moors, with chains about their necks, and gorgeously apparelled with jewels and ornaments of gold. The nine muses received them at the Butter Trone, with very excellent singing of psalms. At the Cross she had another ‘( verie good psalme,” and then entered St Giles’s Church, where a sermon was preached before their Majesties. Numerous allegories, goddesses, Christian virtues, and the like, followed. Indeed, from the inventory furnished by a poet of the period, the wide range of classic fancy would seem to have been ransacked for the occasion :- Thence she came to the West Port,” To recreat hir hie renoun, Of curious things thair wes all sort, The stairs and houses of the toun With Tapestries were spred athort, Quhair Histories men micht behauld, With Images and Anticks add. It written wes with stories mae, How VENTS, with a thuodring thud, Inclos’d ACEATEaSn d ENAE, Within a mekill mistie dud : And how fair ANNA, wondrous wraith, Deplors hir sister Dmoa daith. Ixron that the quheill dois tarne In Hell, that ugly hole, 80 mirk ; And EBOSTRAqTuVha~ did b m e The costly fair EPHESIAKNir k : And BLIADESq, uho falls in aouo With drawing buckets up and down. * .. t * * 1 Xarriage of James VI., Bann. Club, p. 39. ......

Book 10  p. 95
(Score 1.49)

46 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. Quhare ever they go, it may be sene, How kirk and calsay they soup clene. Yet shortly after he adds :- I trow, Sanct Baruard, nor Sanct Blais, Gart never man beir up their claes, Peter, nor Paule, nor Sauct Androw, Gart never bear up their tailliq I trow. The whole poem evidently depicts the extravagance of an age, when the clown trod on the noble’s heel. Nuns, and milkmaids, and burghers’ wives, are alike charged with the fashionable excesses that neither satire nor sumptuary laws proved able to suppress. YIQNETTE-NOmXUI Capitd from Holyrood Abbey. ......

Book 10  p. 50
(Score 1.47)

vi AD V ER TI SEMEN T. is one of the late Mr. Archibald Constable), having fallen into the hands of the Publishers, have been added to the Second Volume, together with some notes on the text by Professor Daniel Wilson, author of “Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time.” In the preparation of the present Edition no expense has been spared to obtain the best results as regards the printing of both plates and text. In point, therefore, of completeness and general execution, this Edition will bear favourable comparison with its predecessors. The Publishers have great satisfaction in being enabled to resuscitate this work ; but this, they regret to say, is practicable only to a limited extent, and they have therefore to announce that-the Edition of the engravings now issued must necessarily be the last of Kay’s Original Portraits. EDINBURGNHo,v ember 15, 1877. ......

Book 8  p. vi
(Score 1.42)

YAMES l? TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 63 The reforming party now proceeded to those acts of violence, which led to the destmction of nearly all the finest ecclesiastical buildings throughout Scotland. The Queen Regent, on learning of their proceedings at Perth and elsewhere, wrote to the Provost and Magistrates of Edinburgh, requiring them to defend the town, and not suffer the Earl of Argyle and the Congregation to enter-offering the aid of her French troops for their defence. But this the Magistrates declined, declaring that the entire populace were prepared to favour that party, and could not be restrained by them. Upon receiving this reply, the Regent thereupon withdrew with her French guard from Holyrood Abbey, and retreated towards Dunbar. The Magistrates, though unable to resist this popular movement, exerted themselves to the utmost to restrain its violence. They sent a deputation to the leaders of the reforming party, entreating them to spare both their churches and religious houses,-the former to be continued in use as places of Protestant worship, and the latter as seminaries of learning. They also placed a guard of sixty men for the protection of St Giles’s Church, and, as a further security, removed the carved stalls of the choir-within the safer shelter of the Tolbooth j’ and such was the zeal they displayed, that the Regent afterwards wrote them a letter of thanks for their services. Yet their efforts were only attended with very partial mccess. Upon the first rumour of the approach of the Earl of Argyle, the populace attacked both the monasteries of the Black and Grey Friars, destroying everything they contained, and leaving nothing but the bare walls standing2 When the Earl of Argyle entered the town with his followers, they immediately proceeded to the work of purification, as it was styled. Trinity College Church, and the prebendal buildings attached to it, were assailed, and some parts of them utterly destroyed ; and both St Giles’s Church, and St Mary’s, or the Kirk of Field, were visited, their altars thrown down, and the images destroyed and burnt. They visited Holyrood Abbey, overthrowing the altars, and otherwise defacing the church, and removed also from thence the coining irons of the Nint, compelling the treasurer to deliver up to them a considerable sum of money in his hands.’ The Regent finding herself unable to resist this formidable party by force, entered into negotiations with them, for the purpose of gaining time, while they, on the other hand, corresponded with Queen Elizabeth and besought lier aid ; but the Engll’sh Queen was too politic to commit herself by openly countenancing a fraction so recently sprung up, and contented herself with evasive answers to their request, a d many of their adherents meanwhile falling away, they were compelled to retreat as hastily from the town as they had entered, on the sudden return of the Regent from Dunbar. Commissioners from both parties met, and a mutual accommodation was agreed on between them, and signed by the Earl of Arran and Monsieur d’oysel, on the 25th of July, at Leith Links, and immediately thereafter the Queen Regent returned and took up her residence in Holyrood Palace. One of the chief clauses in this agreement required the dismissal of the French troops j and with a special view to the enforcement of this, an interview took place on the following day between the Earls of Arran and Hantly, and some of the leaders of the Congregation, . Maitland, p. 16. ’ Calderwood, vol. i. p. 475, ’ Bishop Lealie, p. 275. ......

Book 10  p. 68
(Score 1.42)

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORA TZON. =OS In consequence of this, a popular tumult waa excited; a rabble of apprentices and others watched the return of some of the chief oficers of state from public attendance at mass. The ChancelIor’s lady, and other persons of distinction, were insulted, and the utmost indignation excited in the minds of these dignitaries against the populace. A baker, who had been active in the riot, was apprehended and tried before the Privy Council. He was condemned to be publicly whipped through the Canongate; but the populace rescued him from punishment, chastised the executioner, and kept the town in a state of uproar and commotion throughout the night. The military were at length called out, and fired on the rioters, by which three of them lost their lives. Two others were apprehended and afterwards convicted, seemingly on very insufficient evidence, one of whom was hanged and the other shot. In July 1687, the King wrote to the Privy Council “that the Abbey Church was the chapel belonging to his Palace of Holyrood House, and that the Knights of the noble Order of the Thistle, which he had now erected, could not meet in St Andrew’s Church,’ being demolished in the rebellion, as they called our Reformation, and so it was necessary for them to have this church ; and the Provost of Edinburgh was ordained to see the keys of it given to them.” ’ Some opposition was made to this by the Bishop of Edinburgh, but it was agreed to with little difficulty, and the inhabitants of the Canongate, whose parish church it had been, were ordered to seek accommodation in Lady Pester’s Church, till better could be provided. The Canongate Church was shortly afterwards built from funds that had been left by Thomas Moodie, a citizen of Edinburgh, for the purpose of providing an additional place of worship. Holyrood Chapel was now magnificently fitted up with richly carved stalls for the Knights of the Thistle. “ An altar, vestments, images, priests, and their apurtents,” arrived at Leith, by the King’s yacht, from London, for the purpose of completing the restoration of the Abbey to its ancient uses. A college of priests was established in Holyrood, and daily service performed in the Chapel. Fresh riots were the consequence of this last procedure, and two of those who had been most zealous in testifying their abhorrence of such religious innovations, were executed, while others were publicly whipped through the streets. The feeble representative of that long line of Kings was already anticipating an invasion from Holland; in the month of September 1688, orders were issued for ‘raising the militia, and these were speedily followed by others for erecting beacons along the coast. But James, who, by his rashness, had forced on the crisis, was the first to desert his own cause ; and the Scottish Parliament, with more consistency than that of England, availed themselves of this to declare that he had forfeited the throne. The news of the arrival of the Prince of Orange Wed the Presbyterian party in Scotland with the utmost joy. The Earl of Perth, who wan Chancellor, hastily quitted Edinburgh, and the mob made it the signal for an attack on Holyrood Chapel. A body of an hundred men defended it with firearms, which they freely used against their assailants, killing twelve of them, and wounding many more, But this only mcremed the fury of the mob; the armed defenders were at length overpowered, and the Chapel delivered up to The fall of the ancient house of the Stuarts was now rapidly approaching. 1 i.e., The Cathedral of St Andrewe. * Fountainhall, voL i p. 466. 0 ......

Book 10  p. 115
(Score 1.42)

192 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. lThe High S e e a and Sweden, tells us, at the storming of Boitzenburg, there was ? a Scottish gentleman under the enemy, who, coming to scale the walls, said aloud, ?Have with you, gentlemen ! Thinke not now you are on the streel of Edhlburgh bravading.? One of his own countrymen thrusting him through the body with a pike, he ended there.? In the general consternation which succeeded * the defeat of the army at Flodden a plague raged within the city with great violence, and carried off great numbers. Hence the Town Council, to prevent its progress, ordered all shops and booths to be closed for the space of fifteen days, and neither doors nor windows to be opened within that time, but on some unavoidable occasion, and nothing to be dealt in but necessaries for the immediate support of life. All vagrants were forbidden to walk in the streets without hiving each a light; and several houses that had been occupied by infected persons were demolished. * In 1532 the High Street was first paved or causewayed, and many of the old tenements ?These, however,? says Arnot, ?are not to be considered as arguing any comparative insignificancy in the city of Edinburgh. They proceeded from the rudeness of the times. The writers of those days spoke of Edinburgh in terms that show the respectable opinion they entertained of it. ? In this city,? says a writer of the sixteenth century- Braun Agrippinensis--? there are two spacious streets, of which the principal one, leading from the Palace to the Castle, is paved with square stones. The city itself is not built of bricks, ANDREW CROSBY. (Fmm the Portrait in tkePadiament Haii.) [The orkinal ofCuunseZZnr PLydelZ in ? Guy Mamneiing.?] renovated. The former was done under the superintendence of a Frenchman named Marlin, whose name was bestowed on an alley to the south. The Town Council ordered lights to be hung out by night by the citizens to light the streets, and Edinburgh became a principal place of resort from all parts of the kingdom. Till the reign of James V., the meal-market, and also the flesh-market, were kept in booths in the open High Street, which was also encumbered by stacks of peat, heather, and other fuel, before every door; while, till the middle of the end of the seventeenth century, according to Gordon?s map, a fleshmarket was kept in the Canongate, immediately below the Nether Bow. but of square freestones, and so stately is its app ear an c e, that single houses inay be compared to palaces. From the abbey to the castle there is a continued street, which on both sides contains a range of excellent houses. and the better sort are built of hewn stone.? There are,? adds Amot, ?? specimens oT the buildings of the fifteenth century still (1779) remaining, particularly a house on the south side of the High Street, immediately above Peeble?s Wynd, having a handsome front of hewn stone, and niches in the walls for the images of saints, which may justify our author?s description. The house was built about 1430 (temp. James I.) No private building in the city of modern date can compare with it.? The year 1554 saw the streets better lighted, and some attempts made to clean them. The continual wars with England compelled the citizens to crowd their dwellings as near the Castle as possible ; thus, instead of the city increasing in limits, it rose skyward, as we have already mentioned ; storey was piled on storey till the streets resembled closely packed towers or steeples, each house, or ?land,? sheltering from twenty to thirty families within its walls. This was particularly thc ......

Book 1  p. 192
(Score 1.36)

MEMORIALS O F EDINBURGH. - PART I. HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. TO THE FRONTISPIECE OF ABAKUK mssm's BOOKE OF THE OLD YOXUYENTY OF SCOTLAXU. 'Twixt Was, and Ia, how varioua are the Ods ! What one man doth, another doth vndoe : One conaecrates Religious Workes to Gods, Another leoues sad Wrackes and Huines now. Thy Bqoke doth shew that such and such thinga were, But, would to God that it could say, They are. When I pererre the South, North, East, and Weat, And mark, alace, each Monument amia ; Then I conferre Tyrnes present with the past : I reade what was, but cannot Bee what is : ' I prayse thy Booke with wonder, but am sorie, To reade olde Ruines in a recent stork. Poetical Recreatk~ncsof Mr Akxandet Cmig, of Rase-Craig. Scoto Brdan. 1623. ......

Book 10  p. xvii
(Score 1.36)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 39 1 tion of an impartial and unbiassed guardian of public opinion. ‘( He is a Scotsmn,” says a Cockney writer, “without one particle of hypocrisy, of cant, or servility, or selfishness in his composition [I I] He has not been spoiled by fortune-has not been tempted by power-is firm without violence, friendly without weakness-a critic and even-tempered-a casuist and an honest man ; and, amidst the toils of his profession, and the distractions of the world, retains the gaiety, the unpretending carelessness and simplicity of youth.” The strictures of the Review, however, were in many instances too severe, or too honest and candid, to be palatable. Moore was provoked to demand the (‘ satisfaction of a gentleman ;”l and Byron, smarting under the castigation inflicted on his (‘ Hours of Idleness,” produced the well-known tirade entitled “English Bards and Scots Reviewers ;” while, among the many pasquinade5 by offended authors of less degree, the following epigramic description of the Editor has no little merit :- “ Witty as Horatius Flaccus ; As great a democrat as Gracchus ; As short, but not so fat m Bwchus- Here rides Jeffrey on his Jack-nss/”’ Sir Walter Scott was at the outset a contributor to the Review, but he gradually became estranged on account of its politics. In 1809 he was among the first to lend his aid in establishing the London Quurterly, a journal of avowed Conservative principles ; and, though still continuing friendly with Jeftrey, their intimacy was on more than one occasion disturbed by the critical remarks of the latter. The bitterness of offended authorship however, in as far as regards Lord Jeffrey, became a thing of the past, Byron read his recantation-Moore became “On Monday morning, August 11 (1806) two gentlemen met at Chalk Farm, near London, with an intention to fight a duel, when they were immediately seized by three Bow Street officers, . disarmed, and carried before Justice Read, at the Police Office, who admitted them to bail to keep the peace, themselves in 2400 each, and two sureties in $200 each. The parties were, Francis Jeffrey, Esq., advocate, of Edinburgh, and Thomas Moore, Esq., known by the appellation of Anacreon Moore.” The cause of this meeting originated in a critique of the “Epistles, Odes, and other Poems,” by Thomas Moore ; in which the Reviewer commented with much severity on the corrupt tendency of the author’s writings. ’ “ There is nothing, it will be allowed, more indefensible,” says the article, “than a cold-blooded attempt to corrupt the purity of an innocent heart ; and we can scarcely conceive any being more truly despicable than he who, without the apology of unruly passion, or tumultuous deaires, sits down to ransack the impure place of his memory for inflammatory images and expressions, and commits them laboriously to writing, for the purpose of insinuating pollution into the minds of unknown and unsuspecting readers. It seems to be hi (Nr. Moore’s) aim, to impose corruption upon his readers, by conceding it under the mask of refinement. It is doubly necessary to put the law in force against this deZinquent, ainca he has not only indicated a disposition to do mischief, but seems unfortunately to have found an opportunity. * * Such are the demerits of ‘this work, that we wish to see it consigned to universal reprobation.” Mr. Moore, greatly offended, sought the author of the article, and Nr. Jeffrey, then in London, came forward boldly, and avowed himself the writer. The lines are attributed to the Rev. Sydney Smith ; and were suggested, it is said, from the circumstaucea of Mr. Jeffrey having been found on one occasion, greatly to the amusement of his friend’s children, actually mounted on the back of one of that much vilified race of animals-a donkey. . 3 By the jack-ess is meant the Edinburgh Review. ......

Book 9  p. 522
(Score 1.34)

80 NEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. The confederate lords, as soon as they had got Queen Mary safely lodged in Holyrood House, formed themselves into a council, and at once drew up and signed an order for her imprisonment in Loch Leven Castle. It was in fact only giving effect to their previous resolutions. The same night she was hastily conveyed from the Palace, disguised in mean attire, and compelled to ride a distance of thirty miles to the scene of her captivity. On that night-the 16th of June 1567-she bade a final farewell to the Palace of Holprood, and to Scotland's Crown. Her further history does not come within the province of our Memorials, though her memory still dwells amid these ancient scenes, and the stranger can never tread the ruined aisles of the Old Abbey Church, without some passing thought of the gifted and lovely, but most unfortunate daughter of James V.- Mary Queen of Scots. ......

Book 10  p. 87
(Score 1.31)

376 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. nucleus of one of the very latest foundations of a monastic institution in Scotland prior to the Reformation ; but we leave the history of the ancient religious and benevolent foundations of this locality for the next chapter. During the present century, it was destined for a very different purpose. When the Union Canal was first projected, its plans included the continuation of it through the bed of the North Loch, where the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway now runs. From thence it was proposed to conduct it to Greenside, in the area of which an immense harbour was to have been constructed ; and this again being connected by a broad canaI with the sea, it was expected that by such means the New Town would be converted into a seaport, and the unhappy traders of Leith compelled either to abandon their traffic, or remove within the precincts of their jealous rivals; Chimerical as .this project may now appear, designs were furnished by experienced engineers, a map of the whole plan was engraved on a large scale, and no doubt our civic reformers rejoiced in the anticipation of surmounting the disadvantages of an inland position, and seeing the shipping of the chief ports of Europe crowding into the heart of their uew capital I OE the memorials of the New Town, properly so called, very few fall legitimately within the plan of this work; yet even its modern streets possess some interesting associations that we would not willingly forego. We have already referred to the house which forms the junction with St Andrew Square and St David Street, as the last residence of the celebrated philosopher and historian, David Hume ; where that strange death-bed scene occurred which has been the subject of such varied comments both by the eulogists and detractors of the great sceptic. Directly opposite to Hume’s house, on the north side of the square, is the house in which Henry Brougham was born. At that period St Andrew Square contained the residences of several noblemen, and was deemed the most fashionable quarter of the rising’ town. The house on the same side at the corner of St Andrew Street was the mansion of David Steuart, Earl of Buchan, and possesses some claim to our interest as the place where the Society of Scottish Antiquaries was instituted in 1780, and where its earliest meetings were held.’ Within the fist eastern division of George Street, the eye of the modern visitor is attracted by the lofty and magnificent portico of the Commercial Bank, a building that seems destined to attest for ages the skill and taste, if not the inventive genius, of our native architects; yet it occupies the site of the Physicians’ Hall, a chaste Grecian edifice designed by Craig, the foundation-stone of which was laid by the celebrated Dr Cullen, in 1774, doubtless with the belief that remote ages might bring to light the memorials which were then buried in its foundations. Nor must we omit to notice the favourite dwelhg of Sir Walter Scott in North Castle Street- ‘‘ TAe ckar tAirty-nine,” which he left under such mournful circumstances in 1826. The New Town of Edinburgh has already many such associations with names eminent in literature and science, some of which, at least, will command the interest of other generations. Our Me~norials, however, are of the olden time, and ye leave future chroniclers to record those of the modern city. Paton’e Correspondence, pp. 170-172. ......

Book 10  p. 413
(Score 1.29)

MEMORIALS O F EDINBURGH. - PART 11. * LOCAL ANTIQUITIES AND TRADITIONS. Ettittburgb. Install'd on hills, her head neare starrye bowres, Shines Edinburgh, proud of protecting powers : Justice defends her heart ; Religion east With temples ; Mara with towres doth guard the west ; Fresh Nymphes and Cerea serving, waite upon her; And Thetis, tributarie, doth her honour. The sea doth Venice @hake; Borne Tiber beaks ; Whilst She bot scornes her vassall watteres' threata. For scepters no where staudes a towne more fitt, Nor place where towne, world's Queene, may fairer sitt. Bot this Thy praise is, above all most brave, No man di& e'er diffame Thee bot a slave. DTummond of Hawthmdm, Prom the Latin of Dr Arthur lohnrtonc. ......

Book 10  p. 130
(Score 1.28)

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 397 1593, she leaves “ to ewerie ane of the pure folkis in the Hospitall of the Trinitie College, and of the Toun College of the west end of the College Kirk, iij S. iiij d.”’ One other collegiate church was enclosed within the walls of the ancient capital, known as that of St Nary in-the-Fields, or, more commonly, the Hirk-of-Field. We have already referred to it as the scene of one of the most extraordinary deeds of violence that the history of any age or country records-the murder of Darnley, the husband of Queen Mary, perpetrated by Bothwell and his accomplices on the night of the 9th of February 1567, when the Provost’s house, in which he lodged, was blown into the air with pnpowder, involving both Darnley and his servant in the ruins.’ When young Roland Graeme, the hero of the Ahbot, draws near for the first time to the Scottish capital, under the guidance of the bluff falconer, Adam Woodcock, he is represented exclaiming on a sudden-“ Blessed Lady, what goodly house is that which is lying all in ruins so close to the city? Have they been playing at the Abbot of Unreason here, and ended the gambol by burning the church ? ” The ruins that excited young Graeme’s astonishment were none other than those of the Kirk-of-Field, which stood on the sight of the present University buildings. It appears in the view of 1544, as a large cross church, with a lofty central tower ; and the general accuracy of this representation is in some degree confirmed by the correspondence of the tower to another view of it taken immediately after the murder of Da.mley, when the church was in ruins. The latter drawing, which has evidently been made in order to convey an accurate idea of the scene of the murder to the English Court, is preserved in the State Paper Office, and a fac-simile of it is given in Chalmers’ Life of Queeu Mary. The history of the Collegiate Church of St Mary in-the-Fields presents scarcely any other feature of interest than that which attaches to it as the scene of so strange and memorable %tragedy. Its age and its founder are alike unknown. It was governed by a provost, who, with eight prebendaries and two choristers, composed the college, with the addition of an hospital for poor bedemen ; and it is probable that its foundation dated no earlier than the ateenth century, as all the augmentations of it which are mentioned in the “ Inventar of Pious Donations,” belong to the sixteenth century. Bishop Lesley records, in 1558, that the Erle of Argyle and all his cumpanie entered in the toune of Edinburgh without anye resistance, quhair thay war weill receaved; and suddantlie the Black and Gray Freris places war spulyeit and cassin doune, the hail1 growing treis plucked up be the ruittis; the Trinitie College and all the prebindaris houses thairof lykewise cassin doun ; the altaris. and images within Sanct Gelis Kirke and the Kirk-of-Field destroyed and brint.”’ It seems probable, however, that the Collegiate church of St ’ Nary-in-the-Field was already shorn of its costliest spoils before the Reformers of the Congregation visited it in 1558. In the ‘( Inventory of the Townis purchase from the Marquis of Hamilton, in 1613,” with a view to the founding of the college, we have found a.n abstract of a feu charter granted by Mr Alexander Forrest, provost of the Collegiate Church of the blessed Mary in-the-Fields‘near Edin’., and by the prebends of the said church,” bearing date 1554, wherein, among other reasons speciiied, it is stated : ‘‘ considering that ther houses, especialy ther hospital annexed and incorporated with ther college, were burnt doun and destroyed by their auld enemies of England, so that nothing of their said hospital was left, but they are altogether waste and entirely ‘ I Bannatyne Misc., vol. ii p. 221. ante, p. 78. a Lesley, p, 275. ......

Book 10  p. 436
(Score 1.26)

X PREFACE. “Traditions.” The author has there struck out an entirely new path, and with the happiest results. The humour and the pathos of the old-world stories of Edinburgh in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ere New Town and Old Town improvements were more substantial than the dreams of future reformers, are secured-not without occasional heightening touches from the delineator’s own lively fancy. It is only surprising that the ‘‘ Traditions of Edinburgh ” have not diffused an antiquarian taste far more widely than is yet to be found among the modern dekizens of -the Scottish capital, The following Memorials of Old Edinburgh differ perhaps as much from the picturesque traditions of the latter writer, as from the statelr historic quarto of Amot, or from Maitland’s ponderous folio. They are pen and pencil sketches, professing, in general, considerable minuteness of outline, though with it rapid touch that precludes very elaborate finish. Accuracy has been aimed at throughout, not without knowingly incurring the risk of occasionally being somewhat dry. I am well aware, however, of having fallen short of what was-desired in this’ all-important point, notwithstanding an amount of labour and research in the progress of the work, .only 8 very small portioa of which appears in its contents. Some hundreds of old charters, title-deeds, and records of various sorts; ‘in all varieties of unreadable manuscript, have been ransacked ‘in its progress ; and had it been possible to devote more time to such research, I have no doubt that,many curious and, interesting notices, referring to our local antiquities, would have amply repaid the labour. Of the somewhat inore accessible materials furnished in the valuable publicatbns of our. antiquarian . book;clnba, abundant use has been made ; and personal observation . hw. supplied a good deal more that will probably be appreciated by the very few who find any attraction in stich researches. In the Appendix some curious matter has been accumulated which readers-of moderate antiquarian appetites will probably avoid--to their own loss. I amnot altogether withbut hope, however, that should such readers be induced to wade through. the work, they.may find antiquarian researches not quite SO dull as they are affirmed, on common 1 report, to- be ; s h e , in seeking to .embody the Memorials of my native city, I am fortunate in the possession of a subject; commanding. associations with nearly all the most picturesque legends and incidents of our national annals. ‘-L :In selecting the accompanying illustratfona, .the, chief aim .has been -to furnish .and example ofallfhe varieties ofstyle and character that were: to be found in the wynds and qloses of OldEdinburgh., .The majority bf them have some curious or valuable associations? to add to tbeir’.interest, .but some.Fexe:.chosen for ,no..other reison than .to illushat& ......

Book 10  p. xii
(Score 1.25)

230 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. the Council-room of the Hospital; so that here was the fashionable lounge of the dilettanti of the seventeenth century, and the resort of rank and beauty, careful to preserve unbroken the links of the old line of family portraiture ; though a modern fine lady would be seized with a nervous fit at the very prospect of descending the slippery abyss. Following our course eastward we arrive at Roxburgh Close, which is believed to derive its name from having been the residence of the Earls of Roxburgh. It has, however, suffered a very different fate from the adjoining close. Few of its ancient features have escaped alteration, and only one doorway remains-now built up-f the mansion reputed to have been that in which the ancestors of the noble earls lived in state, We have engraved a fac-simile of the quaint and pious legend that adorns the old lintel. If this account be true (for which, however, there is only the authority of tradition), the date carries us back to the year 1586, in which their ancestor, Sir Walter Ker, of Cessford, died, one of the leaders in the affray already alluded to, in ,which Sir Walter Scott of Buccleugh was slain on the High Street of Edinburgh. Warriston’s Close is another of the ancient alleys of the Old Town which still remains nearly in its pristine state,’ exhibiting the substantial relics of former grandeur, like the faded gentility of a reduced dowager. Handsome and lofty polished ashlar fronts are decorated with richly moulded and sculptured doorways, surmounted by architraves adorned with inscriptions and armorial bearings, still ornamental, though broken and defaced. Timber projections of an early date jut out here and there, and give variety to the irregular architecture, while far up, and almost beyond the point of sight that the straitened thoroughfare admits of, dormer windows of an ornate character rise into the roof, and the gables are finished with crow-steps, and, in one case at least, with armorial bearings. . . . . QUE * ERIT ILLE * MIHI - SEMPER DEUS 1583 The front of this building, facing the High Street, is of polished ashlar work, surmounted with handsome though dilapidated dormer windows, and is further adorned with a curious monogram ; but like most other similar ingenious devices, it is undecipherable without the key. We have failed to trace the builders or occupants at this early period; but the third floor of the old land was occupied in the following century by James Murray, . Over the first doorway on the west side is the inscription and date : of his finest works were possessed by the late Andrew Bell, engraver, the originator of the Encyclopaedia Britannicg who married his granddaughter. Pinkerton remarks of him :-“ For some years after the Revolution he WBB the only painter in Scotland, and had a very great run of business. This brought him into a hasty and incorrect manner.” This is very observable in the portrait of Heriot, copied in 1698, from the original by Paul Vansomer,-now lost. The head is well painted, but the drapery and background are 80 slovenly and harshly executed, that they appear more like the work of an inexperienced pupil. Scougal died at Prestonpana about the year 1730, aged 85, having witneased a series of aa remarkable political changes as ever occurred during a single lifetime. He is named George in the Weekly MaguzinC (vol. xv. p. 66) and elsewhere, but this appears to be an error, aa several of his descendants were named after him, John. Since the First Edition of these “Memorials ” appeared, Warriston’s and other closes in this part of the city have been w much altered as now to present little of their characteristics &4 memorials of the past. ......

Book 10  p. 250
(Score 1.22)

130 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig. By interdict the directors were compelled to give access to the well, which they grudgingly did by a species of drain, till the entire edifice was removed to where it now stands. Near the site of the well is the ancient church of Restalrig, which, curiously enough, at first sight has all the air of an entirely modern edifice ; but on a minute inspection old mouldings and carvings of great antiquity make their appearance in conjunction with the modern stonework of its restoration. It is a simple quadrangular building, without aisles or transept. The choir, which is the only part of the building that has escaped the rough hands of the iconoclasts of the sixteenth century, is a comparatively small, though handsome, specimen of Decorated English Gothic ; and it remained an open ruin until a fev years since, when it was restored in a manner as a chapel of ease for the neighbouring district. But a church existed here long before the present one, and it was celebrated all over Scotland for the tomb of St. Triduana, who died at Restalrig, and whose shrine was famous as the resort of pilgrims, particularly those who were affected by diseased eyesight. Thus, to this day, she is frequently painted as carrying her own eyes on a salver or the point of a sword. A noble virgin of Achaia, she is said to have come to Scotland, in the fourth century, with St. Rule. Her name inferred that the well afterwards called St. Margaret?s was the well of St. Triduana. Curiously enough, Lestalric, the ancient name of Restalrig, is that by which it is known in the present day; and still one of the roads leading to it from Leith is named the Lochsterrock Road The existence of a church andparish here, long prior to the death of King Alexander 111. is proved by various charters ; and in 1291, Adam of St. Edmunds, prior of Lestalric, obtained a writ, addressed to the sheriff of Edinburgh, to put him in possession of his lands and rights. The same ecclesiastic, under pressure, like many others at SEAL OF THE COLLEGIATE cnmcn OF RESTALRIG. is unknown in the Roman Breviary; but a recent writer says, ?? S t Triduana, with two companions, devoted themselves to a recluse life at Roscoby, but a Pictish chief, named Nectan, having been attracted by her beauty, she fled into Athole to escape him. As his emissaries followed her there, and she discovered that it was her eyes which had entranced him, she plucked them out, and, fixing them on a thorn, sent them to her admirer. In consequence of this practical method of satisfying a lover, St. Triduana, who came to Restalrig to live, became famous, and her shrine was for many generations the resort of pilgrims whose eyesight was defective, miraculous cures being effected by the waters of the well.? Sir David Lindsay writes of their going to ? St. Trid well to mend their ene;? thus it has been the time, swore fealty to Edward I. of England in 1296. Henry de Leith, rector of Restalrig, appeared as a witness against the Scottish Knights of the Temple, at the trial in Holyrood in 1309. The vicar, John Pettit, is mentioned in the charter of confirmation by James III., under his great seal of donations to the Blackfriars of Edinburgh in 1473.. A collegiate establishment of considerable note, having a dean, with nine prebends and two singing boys, was constituted at Restalrig by James III., and completed by James V. j but it seems not to have interfered with the parsonage, which remained entire till the Reformation. The portion of the choir now remaining does not date, it is supposed, earlier than from the fourteenth century, and is much plainer, says Wilson, than might be expected in a church enriched by the contributions of three pious monarchs in succession, and resorted to by so many devout pilgrims as to excite the special indignation of one of the earliest assemblies of the Kirk, apparently on account of its abounding with statues and images. By the Assembly of 1560 it was ordered to be ? raysit and utterly casten doun,? as a monument of idolatry; and this order was to some extent obeyed, and the ?? aisler stanis ? were taken by Alexander Clark to erect a house with, but were used by the Reformers to build a new Nether Bow Port. The parishioners of Restalrig were ordered in future to adopt as their parish church that of St. Mary?s, in Leith, which continues to the present day to be South Leith church. ......

Book 5  p. 130
(Score 1.21)

358 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. looking burgh, full of crooked alleys, and rambling narrow wynds, scattered about in the most irregular and lawless fashion, and happily innocent as yet of the refinements of an Improvements’ Commission ; though the more gradual operations of time and changing tastes have swept away many curious features of the olden time. There is indeed an air of substantial business-like bustle and activity about its narrow unpretending thoroughfares, and dingy-looking counting-houses, that strangely contrasts with the gaudy finery of New Town trading. The London fopperies of huge plate-glass windows, and sculptured and decorated shop fronts, so much in vogue there, are nearly unknown among the burghers of Leith, The dealers are too busy about more important matters to trouble themselves with these new-fangled extravagancies, while their customers are much too knowing to be attracted by any such showy baits. The contrast indeed between the Scottish Capital and its Port is even more marked than that which distinguishes the courtly west end of London from its plebeian Wapping or White Chapel, and is probably, in all the most substantial sources of digereme, in favour of the busy little burgh : whose merchants conduct a large and important share of the trade of the North of Europe in their unpretending little boothies, while the shopkeeper of the neighbouring city magnifies the petty details transacted over his well-polished mahogany counter, and writes himself down mercdant accordingly.’ The principal street of Leith is the Kirkgate, a broad and somewhat stately thoroughfare, according to the prevalent proportions among the lanes and alleys of this close-packed little burgh. Time and modern taste have slowly, but very effectually, modified its antique features. No timber-fronted gable now thrusts its picturesque fapade with careless grace beyond the line of more staid and formal-looking ashlar fronts. Even the crow-stepped gables of the Rixteenth and fieventeenth centuries are becoming the exception ; and it is only by the irregularity which still pertains to it, aided by the few really antique tenements that remain unaltered, that it now attracts the notice of the curious visitor asthe genuine remains of the ancient High Street of the burgh. Some of these relics of former.times are well worthy the notice of the antiquary, while memorials of still earlier fabrics here and there meet the eye, and carry back the imagination to those stirring scenes in the history of this locality: when the Queen Regent and her courtiers and allies made it their stronghold and chosen place of abode ; or when, amid a more peaceful array, the fair Scottish Queen Mary, or the sumptuous Anne of Denmark, rode gaily through the street on their way to Holyrood. At the south-east angle of the old churchyard, one of these memorials meets the eye in the shape of an elegant Gothic pediment surmounting the boundary wall, and adorned with the Scottish Regalia, sculptured in high relief, with the initials J. R. 6 ; while a large panel below bears the Royal Arms and initials of Charles II., very boldly executed. These insignia of royalty are intended to mark the spot on which King James’s Hospital stood-a benevolent foundation which owed no more to the royal patron whose name it bore, than the confirmation by his charter in 1641 of a portion of those revenues that had been long before bestowed by the piety of private donors on the hospital of St Anthony, and the imposition of a duty on all wine brought into the port for the augmentation of its reduced funds. Here certain poor women were maintained, being presented The description given above, to a 5eat extent, no longer applies, aa the town haa 80 rapidly extended as to be now part of the City, and ia also not behind its great neighbour in the wealth of imposing shop fronts. ......

Book 10  p. 393
(Score 1.16)

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