Edinburgh Bookshelf

Edinburgh Bookshelf

Search

Index for “images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p193”

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 2.44)

-
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)

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)

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)

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)

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 1.28)

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)

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)

Moming+3c] THE ROYAL EDINBURGH ASYLUM. 39
sions and villas seem to crowd and jostle each other,
till it has become an integral part of Edinburgh;
but the adjacent hamlet of Tipperlinn, the abode
chiefly of weavers, and once also a summer resort,
has all disappeared, and nothing of it now remains
but an old draw-well The origin of its name is
evidently Celtic.
Falcon Hall, eastward of the old village, is an
elegant modem villa, erected early in the present
century byawealthy Indian civilian, named Falconer;
but, save old Morningside House, or Lodge, before
that time no other niansion of importance stood
here.
In the latter-which stands a little way back kom
the road on the west side-there died, in the year
1758, William Lockhart, Esq., of Carstairs, who
had been thrown from his cliaise at the Burghmuir-
head, and was so severely injured that he expired
two days after. Here also resided, and died
in 1810, William Coulter, a wealthy hosier, who was
then in office as Lord Provost of the city, which
gave him a magnificent civic and military funeral,
which was long remembered for its grandeur and
solemnity.
On this occasion long streamers of crape floated
from Nelson?s monument ; the bells were tolled.
Mr. Claud Thompson acted as chief mourner-in
lieu of the Provost?s only son, Lieutenant Coulter,
then serving with the army in Portugal-and the city
arms were borne by a man seven feet high before
the coffin, whereon lay a sword, robe, and chain
of office.
Three volleys were fired over it by the Edinburgh
Volunteers, of which he was colonel. A portrait
of him in uniform appears in one of Kay?s
sketches.
In 1807 Dr. Andrew Duncan (already noticed
in the account of Adam Square) proposed the
erection of a lunatic asylum, the want of which
had long been felt in the city. Subscriptions came
in slowly, but at last sufficient was collected, a
royal charter was obtained, and on the 8th of June,
1809, the foundation stone of the now famous and
philanthropic edifice at Morningside was laid by
the Lord Provost Coulter, within an enclosure, four
acres in extent, south of old Morningside House
Towards the erection a sum of LI,IOO came from
Scotsmen in Madras.
The object of this institution is to afford every
possible advantage in the treatment of insanity.
The unfortunate patients may be put under the
care of any medical practitioner in Edinburgh
(says the Scots Magmine for that year) whom the
relations may choose to employ, while the poor
will be attended gratis by physicians and surgeons
appointed by the managers. In every respect,
it is one of the most efficient institutions of the
kind in Scotland, It is called the Royal Edinburgh
Asylum, and has as its patron the reigning
sovereign, a governor, four deputies, a board of
managers, and another of medical men.
The original building was afterwards more than
doubled in extent by the addition of another, the
main entrance to which is from the old road that
led to Tipperlinn. This is called the west department,
where the average number of inmates is
above 500. It is filled with patients of the humbler
order, whose friends or parishes pay for them 6 1 5
per annum.
The east department, which was built in 1809, is
for patients who pay not less than A56 per annum
as an ordinary charge, though separate sitting-rooms
entail an additional expense. On the other hand,
when patients are in straitened circumstances a
yearly deduction of ten, or even twenty pounds, is
made from the ordinary rate.
In the former is kept the museum of plaster
casts from the heads of patients, a collection continually
being added to ; and no one, even without
a knowledge of phrenology, can behold these lifeless
images without feeling that the originals had
been afflicted by disease of the mind, for even the
cold, white, motionless plaster appears expressive
of ghastly insanity.
In the west department the patients who are
capable of doing so ply their trades as tailors,
shoemakers, and so forth; and one of the most
interesting features of the institution is the
printing-office, whence, to quote Chambers?sJournal,
?is issued the Morningside Mirror, a monthly
sheet, whose literary contents are supplied wholly
by the inmates, and contain playful hits and puns
which would not disgrace the habitual writers of
facetious articles.??
From the list of occupations that appear in the
annual report, it would seem that nearly every
useful trade and industry. is followed within the
walls, and that the Morningside Asylum supplies
most of its own wants, being a little world complete
in itself.
Occupation and amusement here take the place
of irksome bondage, with results that have been
very beneficial, and among the most extraordinary
of these are the weekly balls, in which the patients
figure in reels and in country dances, and sing
songs.
At the foot of Morningside the Powburn takes the
singular name of the Jordan as it flows through a
farm named Egypt, and other Scriptural names
abound close by, such as Hebron Bank, Canaan ......

Book 5  p. 39
(Score 1.05)

Holyrood.] THE ABBEY CHURCH IN RUINS. 59
and cannon were two ship?s masts, fully rigged,
one on the right bearing the Scottish flag, another
on the left bearing the English. ?? Above all these
rose the beautiful eastem window, shedding a flood
of light along the nave, eclipsing the fourteen
windows of the clerestory. The floor was laid
with ornamental tiles, some portions of which are
yet preserved.?
In the royal yacht there came to Leith from
London an altar, vestments, and images, to complete
the restoration of the church to its ancient uses.
As if to hasten on the destruction of his house,
James VII., not content with securing to his
Catholic subjects within the precincts of Holyrood
that degree of religious toleration now enjoyed
by every British subject, had mass celebrated there,
and established a college of priests, whose rules
were published on the zznd of March, 1688, inviting
people to send their children there, to be
educated gratis, as Fountainhall records. He also
appointed a Catholic printer, named Watson (who
availed himself of the protection afforded by the
sanctuary) to be ? King?s printer in Holyrood ;?
and obtained a right from the Privy Council
to print all the ? prognostications at Edinburgh,?
an interesting fact which accounts for the number
of old books bearing Holyrood on their
title-pages. Prior to all this, on St. Andrew?s
Day, 30th November, the whole church was
sprinkled with holy water, re-consecrated, and a
sermon was preached in it by a priest named
Widerington.
Tidings of the landing of William of Orange
roused the Presbyterian mobs to take summary vengeance,
and on being joined by the students of the
University, they assailed the palace and chapel royal.
The guard, IOO strong-? the brats of Belia1?-
under Captain Wallace, opened a fire upon them,
killing twelve and wounding many more, but they
were ultimately compelled to give way, and the
chapel doors were burst open. The whole interior
was instantly gutted and destroyed, and
the magnificent throne, stalls, and orgab, were
ruthlessly tom down, conveyed to the Cross, and
there consigned to the flames, amid the frantic
shrieks and yells of thousands. Not content with
all this, in a spirit of mad sacrilege, the mob, now
grown lawless, burst into the royal vault, tore some
of the leaden coffins asunder, and, according to
Amot, camed off the lids.
By the middle of the eighteenth century the rooG
which had become ruinous, was restored with flagstones
in a manner too ponderous for the ancient
arches, which gave way beneath the superincumbent
weight on the 2nd of December, 1768; and again
the people of Edinburgh became seized by a spirit
of the foullest desecration, and from thenceforward,
until a comparafively recent period, the ruined
church remained open to all, and was appropriated ?
tu the vilest uses. Grose thus describes what he
saw when the rubbish had been partly cleared
away :-? When we lately visited it we saw in the
middle of the chapel the columns which had been
borne down by the weight of the roof. Upon
looking into the vaults which were open, we found
that what had escaped the fury of the mob at the
Revolution became a prey to the mobwho ransacked
it after it fell. In A.D. 1776 we had seen the body
of James V. and others in their leaden coffins;
the coffins are now stolen. The head of Queen
Margaret (Magdalene?), which was then entire, and
even beautiful, and the skull of Damley, were also
stolen, and were last traced to the collection of a
statuary in Edinburgh.?
In 1795 the great east window was blown out
in a violent storm, but in 1816 was restored from
its own remains, which lay scattered about on the
ground. In the latter year the north-west tower,
latterly used as a vestry, was still covered by an
ogee leaden roof.
The west front of what remains, though the W0i-k
perhaps of different periods, is in the most beautiful
style of Early English, and the boldly-cut heads
in its sculptured arcade and rich variety of ornament
in the doorway are universally admired.
The windows above it were additions made so
latelyas the time of Charles I., and the inscriptions
which that upfortunate king had carved on the
Ornamental tablet between them is a striking illustration
of the vanity of human hopes. One runs :-
Ultimately this also fell.
?Basiluam ham, Carolus Rex, @firnus imtaxravit, 1633.?
The other :-
?HE SHALL ESTABLISH ANE HOUSE FOR MY NAME, AND I
WILL ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF HIS KINGDOM FOR
EVER.?
In the north-west tower is amarble monument to
Robert, Viscount Belhaven, who was interred there
in January, 1639. His nephews, Sir Archibald and
Sir Robert Douglas, placed there that splendid
memorial to perpetuate hisvirtues as a man and
steadiness as a patriot. A row of tombs of Scottish
nobility and others lie in the north aisle. The
Roxburgh aisle adjoins the royal vault in the
south aisle, and in front of it lies the tomb of the
Countess of Errol, who died in 1808. Close by.
it is that of the Bishop of Orkney, already referred
to. ? A flattering inscription enumerates the.
bishop?s titles, and represents this worldly hypocrite ......

Book 3  p. 59
(Score 1.01)

  Back Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf

Creative Commons License The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.