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78 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
buildings often before used as a royal residence, and in one of the apartments of which
the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, expired only six years previous,
The greatest joy and triumph prevailed in Edinburgh on the announcement of the
birth of an heir to the throne. A public thanksgiving was offered up on the following day
in St Giles’s Church; aud Sir James Melvil posted with the news to the English Court,
with such speed, that he reached London on the fourth day thereafter, and spoiled her
Majesty’s mirth for one night, at least, with the “happy news.’’’
The birth of a son to Darnley produced little change on his licentious course of life.
By his folly he had already alienated from him the intersets and affections of every party;
and the conspirators, who had joined with him in ‘the murder of Rizzio, had already
resolved on his destruction, when he was seized with the small-pox at Glasgow. From
this he was removed to Edinburgh, and lodged in the mansion of the Provost or chief
prebendary of the Collegiate Church of St Mary-in-the-Fields, as a place of good air.
This house stood nearly on the site of the present north-west corner of Drummond Street,
as is ascertained from Gordon’s map of the city in 1647, where the ruins are indicated as
they existed at that period : it is said to have been selected by Sir James Balfour, brother
of the Provost, and “ the most corrupt man of his age,” a as well fitted, from its lonely
situation, for the intended murder.
She spent the evening of the 9th of
February 1567 with him, and only left at eleven o’clock, along with several nobles who
had accompanied her there, to be present at an entertainment at Holyrood House.
The Earl of Bothwell, whose lawless ambition mainly instigated the assassination, had
‘obtained a situation for one of his mehals in the Queen’s service, and by this means he
was able to obtain the keys of the Provost of St Mary’s house, and cause counterfeit
impressions to be taken.s He had been in company with the Queen on the loth, at a
banquet given to her by the Bishop of Argyle, and learning that she must return to Holyrood
that night, he immediately arranged to complete his murderous scheme.
’ Bothwell left the lodgings of the Laird of Ormiston in company with several of his own
servants, who were his sole accomplices, shortly after nine o’clock at night. They passed
down the Blackfriars’ Wynd together, entering the gardens of the Dominican monastery by
a gate in the enclosing wall opposite the foot of the Wynd; and by a road nearly on the
site of what now forms the High School Wynd, they reached the postern in the town wall
which gave admission to the lodging of Darnley. Bothwell joined the Queen, who was
then visiting her husband, while his accomplices were busy arranging the gunpowder in
the room below ; and, after escorting her home to the Palace, he returned to complete his
purpose. It may be further mentioned, as an evidence of the simple manners of the period,
that when Bothwell’s servants returned to his residence, near the Palace, after depositing
the powder in Darnley’P lodging, they saw the Queen,-as one of them afterwards Ptated
in evidence,-on her way back to Holyrood “gangand before them with licht torches as
they came up the Black Frier Wynd.”‘ So that it would appear she walked quietly
home, with her few attendants, through these closes and down the Canongate, at that late
hour, without exciting among the citizens any notice of the presence of royalty.
Here the Queen frequently visited Darnley.
1 Keith, vol. ii. p. 434. ’
a Rubertson’s Hiat., vol. ii. p. 354.
a Laing, vol. ii. p. 296.
4 Pitcairn’s Criminal Triala, vol. i. part ii, p. 493.

Book 10 p. 85
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298 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
They are said to be the work of a foreign artist, and are executed with great spirit.
From the style of the landscapes more especially, we feel little hesitation in ascribing the
whole to the pencil of Francesco Zuccherelli, who had a high reputation in England
during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Interspersed among the ornamental
borders there are various grotesque figures, which have the appearance of being copies
from an illuminated missal of the fourteenth century. They represent a cardinal, a monk,
a priest, and other churchmen, painted with great humour and extreme drollery of
attitude and expression. They so entirely differ from the general character of the composition,
that their insertion may be conjectured to have originated in a whim of Lord
Milton, which the artist has contrived to execute without sacrificing the harmony of his
design. An elegant cornice, finished with painting and gilding, and a richly stuccoed
ceiling, complete the decorations of this fine apartment.
The house was occupied for some time as a Roman Catholic School, under the care of
the Sisters of Charity of St Margaret’s Convent. The pupils particularly attracted the
attention of her Majesty Queen Victoria on her visit to the capital in 1842, as they
strewed flowers in her path on her approach from the palace of her ancestors by the
ancient royal thoroughfare of the Canongate. It has since been used as a Deaf and
Dumb School, and was afterwards appropriated to the benevolent objects of the Royal
Maternity Hospital, but is now the property of a large engineering firm.
The fine open grounds which surround Milton House, with the site on which it is
built, formed a large and beautiful garden attached to the mansion of the Earls of
Roxburghe. Lord Fountainhall reports a dispute, in 1694, between the Trades of
Canongate and the Earl of Roxburghe, in which the Lords declared his house in the
Canongate free, and himself empowered, by right of certain clauses in a contract between
the Earl, the Town of Edinburgh, and Heriot’s Hospital, to employ artificers on his
house who were not freemen of the burgh.’ Such contentions, originating in the jealousy
of the Corporations of the Canongate, are of frequent occurrence at the period, and show
with how despotic a spirit they were prepared to guard their exclusive rights. On the
2d June 1681, a complaint was laid before the P r i v Council by the celebrated
Lord Halton, afterwards Earl of Lauderdale,’ stating that he was then building a
lodging for himself in the Canongate, and having employed some country masons,
the craftsmen of the burgh assaulted them, and carried off their tools. In the evidence,
it is shown that even a freeman of the capital dared not encroach on the bounds of the
Canongate; and that, “in 1671, the Privy Council fined David Pringle, chirurgeon,
for employing one Wood, an unfree barber, to exerce his calling in polling the
. children’s heads in Heriot’s In this case Lord Halton seems also to
have been left free to employ his own workmen; but the craftsmen were declared
warranted in their interference, and therefore free from the charge of rioting. The
Earl of Roxburghe’s mansion appears, from Edgar’s map, to have stood on the west
side of the garden, and to have been afterwards occupied by his brother John, the fifth
I Fountainhall’s Decisions, vol. i. p. 614.
Queenaberry House having been built on ground purchased from the Lauderdale family (Traditions, vol. i. p. 280),
Fountainhall’s Decisions, 801. i. p, 135-9.
it seems probable that that ducal mansion occupies the site of Lord Halton’s house.

Book 10 p. 325
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192 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
shot the Bishop of Orkney in 1668, at the head of Blackfriars Wynd, in an attempt to
assassinate Archbishop Sharpe, so strangely eluded the strict search made for him; he effected
his escape by taking refuge in the Tolbooth, to which ingress, in latter times at least, was
never very difficult. The city gates were shut at the time, and none allowed to go out
without a passport signed by one of the magistrates, but it will readily be believed that the
Tolbooth might be overlooked in the most vigilant pursuit after one who was to be consigned
to it the instant he was taken. It may be, however, that this interesting tradition
is only a confused version of a later occurrence in the same reign, when Robert Ferguson,
a notorious character, known by the name of ‘‘ the Plotter,” was searched for in Edinburgh
under somewhat similar circumstances, as one of the conspirators implicated in the
Rye-House Plot. It was almost certainly known that he was in the town, and the gates
were accordingly closed, but he also availed himself of the same ingenious hiding-place, and
quietly withdrew after the whole town had been searched for him in vain. Another similar
escape is mentioned in the Minor Antiquities,” where the Highlands were scoured by
the agents of government in search for a gentleman concerned in the rebellion of 1745,
while he was quietly taking his ease in (‘ the King’s Auld Tolbooth.”
Of the numerous female inmates of this “ house of care,” we shall only mention two,
who contrast with one another no less strikinglyin their crimes than in their fate. In the
year 1726 great interest was excited by a trial for forgery, in which Mr George Henderson,
a wealthy merchant in Edinburgh, was accused of forging a bill upon the Duchess
of Gordon for 258, which he had endorsed to Mrs Macleod, the wife of a wig-maker in
Leith. Respectable citizens declared on oath that they had been present when Henderson
signed the bill, and had a&ed their names to it in his presence as witnesses ; others
had seen him on the same evening, a little above the Canongate Cross, in company with
Mrs Macleod, and dressed in ‘( dark coloured clothes, and a black wig.” So conclusive
did the whole evidence appear, that the Lord Advocate, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, presented
himself before the Court on the last day of the summer Session, and demanded the
prisoner’s conviction by a decree of the Judges. By the most strenuous exertions of council
and friends, the cause was delayed till the winter Session, and meanwhile the Lord Advocate,
when going north to Culloden, stopped at Kihavoch to inspect a new house that a
friend was having built. One of the carpenters employed on the house, an intelligent and
exFert workman named David Household, could nowhere be found on the proprietor
inquiring for him to furnish some information ; this casual incident led to inquiries, and
at length to the discovery of a most ingenious and complicated system of fraud practised
by Mrs Macleod with the aid of Household, whom she had dressed up in her own husband’s
black coat and wig, and bribed to personate the merchant who so narrowly escaped conviction
and execution. So deeply was the Lord Advocate impressed with the striking
nature of the case, that he often afterwards declared, had Henderson been executed in
accordance with his official desire, he would have looked upon himself as guilty of
murder.”
On Household being shown to the witnesses, attired in his former disguise, they at once
detected the fraud. Henderson was released, and Mrs Macleod put on trial in his stead.
From the evidence produced, it appeared that this ingenious plot had been concocted for‘
the pious purpose of raising, on the credit of the bill, a small sum to release her husband

Book 10 p. 210
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204 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
small and solitary parish church of the ancient unwalled town, there was the burial-place
for ‘‘ the rude forefathers of the hamlet,” and so it continued to the very end of the sixteenth
century. Down to that period the site of the present courts was occupied in part
by the collegiate building, for the residence of the prebendaries and other clergy that
officiated at the numerous altars founded at different times in St Giles’s Church. The
whole of the remaining portion lay open towards the south, extending in successive
terraces to the Cowgate, and the greater part of it appears to have remained in this condition
till the latter end of the seventeenth century. In the nether kirkyard, between St
Giles’s Church and the Cowgate, stood the ancient chapel of the Holy Rood till the
Reformation, when it appears to have been demolished, and its materials used in building
the New Tolbooth. Doubtless the erection of the latter building, where all the great civic
and national assemblies of the period took place, must have had considerable influence
in leading to the abandonment of the old churchyard of St Giles as a place of burial.
While its area continued enclosed with ecclesiastical buildings, and stood apart from the
great thoroughfares of the town, it must have been a peculiarly solemn and fitting place of
sepulture. But when the readiest access to the New Tolbooth was through the open churchyard,
and instead of the old monk or priest treading among its grassy hillocks, it became
the lounge of grooms and lackeys waiting on their masters during the meetings of Parliament,
or of quarrelsome litigants, and the usual retainers of the law, during the sessions
of the College of Justice, all idea of sacredness must have been lost. Such appears to
have been the case, from the fact that no record exists to show any formal abandonment
of it as a churchyard. Queen Mary granted the gardens of the Greyfriars’ monastery to
the citizens in the year 1566, to be used as a cemetery, and from that period the old
burial-place seems to have been gradually forsaken, until the neglected sepulchres of the
dead were at length paved over, and the citizens forgot that their Exchange was built
over their fathers’ graves.
One of the latest notices we have discovered of the ancient churchyard occurs in Calderwood‘
s narrative of the memorable tumult of 1596, described above, though the name
probably remained long after it had ceased to be used as such. On that occasion “ the
noblemen, barons, and gentlemen that were in the kirk, went forth at the alarum, and
were likewise in their armes. The Earl of Mar, and the Lord Halyrudhous, went out to
the barons and ministrie, conveenned in the kirkyard. Some hote speeches passt betuixt
the Erle of Mar and the Lord Lindsey, so that they could not be pacified for a long
tyme.”’ Skirmishes and tumults of a like nature were doubtless common occurrences
- there; exasperated litigants frequently took matters into their own hands, and made a
speedy end to “ the law’s delay,” while the judges were gravely pondering their case
within. In like manner the craftsmen and apprentices dealt with their civic rulers ;
club law was the speediest arbiter in every difficulty, and the transference of the Tolbooth
to the west end of the old kirkyard, transferred also the arena of such tumults to the
same sacred spot. Yet with all this to account for the desertion of the ancient burialplace,
it cannot but excite the surprise of every thoughtful observer, who reflects that
within this consecrated ground, on the 24th November 1572, the assembled nobles and
citizens committed John Knox,-“ the Apostle of the Scots,” as Beza styles him,-
.
Calderwood’s Hist., vol. v. p. 513.

Book 10 p. 223
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380 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
clergy to adapt it to the wants of the rising town. In all the changes that it underwent
for above seven centuries, the original north door, with its beautifully recessed Norman
arches and grotesque decorations, always commanded the veneration of the innovators, and
remained as a precious relic of the past, until the tasteless improvers of the eighteenth
century demolished it without a cause, and probably for no better reason than to evade the
cost of its repair.
As the population of the town increased, and it advanced in wealth and importance,
altars and chapels were founded and endowed by its own citizens, or by some of the
eminent Scottiah ecclesiastics who latterly resided in Edinburgh; so that St Giles’s had
increased to a wealthy corporation, with numerous altarages and chaplainries, previous to
its erection into a collegiate church by the charter of James 111. in 1466. As usual with
all large churches, St Giles’s presented internally the form of a cross, with the central
tower placed at the junction of the nave and choir with the transepts. Externally, however,
this had almost entirely disappeared, owing to the numerous chapels and aisles added
at various dates, and it has only been restored by sacrificing some of the most interesting
and unique features of the ancient building. Previous to the alterations of 1462, notwithstanding
the general enlargement of the church by the addition of one or more rows of
chapels on either side of the nave, no portion of the central building appears to have been
elevated into a clerestory; and in the nave this addition forms one of the modern alterations
effected in 1829. Before that recent remodelling, the nave was only elevated a
few feet bigher than the aisles, and was finished in the same style in which the north
aisle still remains, with a neat but simple groising springing from the capitals of the
pillars, and decorated with sculptured bosses at the intersections. The south aisle of the
nave is evidently the work of a later date. The rich groining and form of its vaulting afford
an interesting subject of study for the architectural chronologist, when compared with the
simpler design of the north aisle. We may conclude, with little hesitation, from the style
of the former, that it was rebuilt in 1387, along with the five chapels to the south of it
described hereafter ; and, indeed, the construction of the light and beautiful shafts from
which their mutual vaultings spring, almost necessarily involved the demolition of the old
aisle. Over the vaulted roof of the centre aisle, in the space now occupied by the clerestory,
a rude attic was erected, which included several apartments, latterly used as the
residence of the bell-ringer Mitchell with his wife and family, who ascended to their
elevated abode by the antique turnpike thaE formerly rose into an octagonal pointed roof of
curious stonework, near the central tower. The arches of the tower still remain to show
the original height of the nave ; and a careful inspection of the choir proves, beyond all
doubt, that it underwent a similar alteration by the construction of a clerestory, at the
same time that it was lengthened, by the addition of the two eastmost arches, about the
middIe of the fifteenth century.’ In some of the larger Gothic churches, the architects
are fouud to have ingeniously aided the perspective of (‘ the long drawn aisles,” by dirninishing
the breadth of the arches aa they approach the east end of the choir, where the high
altar stood, thereby adding to its apparent extent. In St Giles’s Church, however, the
opposite is found to be the case. The two eastmost arches are wider and loftier than the
The choir was probably lengthened only to the extent of one arch ; but the removal of the e& wall would newsmuily
involve the rebuilding of the second.

Book 10 p. 417
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52 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
marched under a white banner, on which was painted a female kneeling before a crucifix,
her hair dishevelled, and embroidered underneath the motto ‘‘ Afflicts Ecclesis ne
obliviscaris.”
Preparatory to determining their differences by force of arms, the Earl of Huntly made
offer to the English leader to decide the issue by single combat ; but this he rejected, and
after skirmishing for several daya with various success in the neighbourhood of Prestonpans,
where the English army was encamped,-a scene long afterwards made memorable
by the brief triumph of Mary’s hapless descendant, Charles Stuart-the two armies at
length came to a decisive engagement on Saturday the 10th of September 1547, long
after known by the name of ‘‘ Black Saturday.”
The field of Pinkie, the scene of this fatal contest, lies about six miles distant from
Edinburgh, and so near to the sea, that the English ships did great injury to the Scottish
army, as they marched towards the field of battle. The stately mansion of Pinkie House,
formerly the residence of the Abbots of Dunfermline, still remains in perfect preservation,
in the immediate vicinity of the scene where the fatal battle of Pinkie was fought. The
Scots were at first victorious, and succeeded in driving back the enemy, and carrying off
the royal standard of England ; but being almost destitute of cavalry, they were unable to
follow up their advantage, and being at length thrown into disorder by the enemy’s menat-
arms, consisting principally of a body of mounted Spanish carabineers in complete mail,
they were driven from the field, after a dreadful slaughter, with the loss of many of their
nobles and leaders, both slain and taken prisoners.
Immediately after the battle, the English advanced and took the town of Leith, where
they tarried a few days, during which the Earl of Huntly, and many other Scottish
prisoners of every degree, were confined in St Mary’s Church there, while treating for
their ran~om.~T hey also made an unsuccessful attempt on Edinburgh, whose provost
had fallen on the field, and where it is recorded that this fatal battle had alone made
three hundred and sixty widows ; ’ but finding the Scottish nation as resolute as ever in
rejecting all terms of accommodation, they again pillaged and burned the town of Leith,
spoiled the Abbey of Holyrood, from which they tore off the leaden roof, and re-embarked
on board t,heir fleet. They wreaked their vengeance on some defenceless fishing towns
and villages along the coast of the Firth, and then returned to England, where Archbishop
Cranmer prepared a general thanksgiving to be used throughout all the churches
in the kingdom, for the great victory God had vouchsafed them over their enemies 1 So
differently are the same actions estimated, according as our interests are affected ; for the
Duke of Somerset had so exasperated the Scottish nation by his cruelty, and disgusted
even the barons who had inclined to the English party by his impolitic conduct, that they
were more unanimous than ever against the proposed alliance. ‘‘ The cruelty,” says
Qtler, “of the slaughter at Pinkie, and the subsequent severities at Leith, excited
universal indignation ; and the idea that a free country was to be compelled into a pacific
matrimonial alliance, amid the groans of its dying citizens, and the flames of its seaports,
was revolting and absurd.”
The Queen Dowager availed herself of the popular feeling thus so strongly excited with
1 Tytler, vol. vi. p. 31. ‘ Herries’ Memoirs, p. 21.
2 Diumd of Occurrenta, p. 44,
6 Tytler, vol. vi, p. 42.
a Bishop Lesiie’s History, p. 198.

Book 10 p. 57
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384 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
parts of the collegiate church, we feel little hesitation in assigning the erection of the
main portion of the fabric to the close of David’s reign, which extended from 1329 to
1371, or to that of his successor Robert 11. It is finished entirely in that simple and
comparatively plain style of pointed architecture, which Dallaway designates Pure Gothic,
and of which no specimen will be found later than the fourteenth century. It was a period
of almost incessant wars, involving the whole nation in misery’for years ; but it was no
less characterised by religious zeal, encouraged, no doubt, in some degree by the fact
that ecclesiastical property was the only species of possession that had any chance of
escaping the fury of the invaders. Edward IIL, however, carried on his Scottish invasion
with a ferocity that spared not even the edifices consecrated to religion. In 1355, he
desolated the country on to Edinburgh, and laid every town, village, and hamlet in ashes,
though not without suffering keenly from the assaults of the hardy Scots. This bloody
inroad wag peculiarly associated in the minds of the people with the unwonted sacrilege of
the invaders, and as it happened about the time of the Feast of Purification, it was
popularly known as the Burnt Candlemas.’ In this desolating invasion, St Giles’s Church,
no doubt, suffered greatly; but the misery of the people, and the uncertainty involved in
such a state of continual warfare, did not prevent the restoration of their churches, and
we accordingly find in the Burgh Records a contract made, in the year 1388, between
the Provost and some masons to vault over a part of the church. This was, no doubt,
speedily accomplished, as in 1384 the Scottish barons assembled there and resolved on a
war with England, notwithstanding the desire of Robert 11. for peace. The result was
that the whole town was exposed to another general conflagration by the invading army
of Richard II., and the Church of St Giles is expressly mentioned as involved in the
general destruction. There is no reason, however, to conclude from this, that the massive
walls of the old Gothic fabric were razed to the ground by the flames that consumed the
simple dwellings of the unwalled town. The cost of its restoration appears to have been
borne by the Government, and various entries occur in the accounts of the Great
Chamberlain of Scotland, rendered at the Exchequer between the years 1390 and 1413,
of sums granted for completing its re-edification. Nevertheless, the archives of the
city preserve authentic evidence of additions being made out of its own funds to the
original fabric in 1387, only two years after the conflagration, and an examination of such
portions of these as still remain abundantly confirms this idea; the style of decoration
being exactly of that intermediate kind between the simple forms of the old nave and the
highly ornate style of the choir, which is usually found in the transition from the one to
the other.
The contract for the additions made to St Giles’s Church from the revenues of the
town, and the contributions of its wealthier citizens at the time when the main fabric was
left to be restored from the general revenues of the kingdom, while it affords an insight
into the progress of the building at that date, cannot but be regarded as a curious proof
of that singular elasticity which the Scottish nation displayed during their protracted wars
with England; showing as it does, the general and local government vieing with one
another in the luxury of ornate ecclesiastical edifices almost as soon as the invaders had
retreated acrom the Borders. The agreement bears to be made at Edinburgh, November
Ddrymple’e Annals, pp, 237,8.

Book 10 p. 421
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108 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
English supremacy. No sooner, therefore, were the articles made public, in the month of
October 1706, than a universal clamour and uproar ensued. The outer Parliament House
and the adjoining square were crowded with an excited multitude, who testified their
displeasure at the Duke of Queensberry, the Commissioner, and all who favoured the
Union. On the 23d of the month, hhe populace proceeded to more violent acts of
hostility against the promoters of the scheme. They attacked the house of Sir Patrick
Johnston, their representative in Parliament, formerly a great favourite when Provost of
the city, and he narrowly escaped falling a victim to their fury. From this they proceeded
to other acts of violence, till they had the city completely at their mercy, and were only
prevented blocking up the ports by the Duke ordering out the military to take possession
of the Nether Bow Port, and other of the most important points in the city.
Three
regiments of foot were on constant duty; guards were stationed in the Parliament Close and
the Weigh-house, as well as at the Nether Bow ; a strong battalion protected the Abbey ;
a troop of horse-guards regularly attended the Cornmissioner, and none but members were
allowed to enter the Parliament Close towards evening, on such days as the house was
sitting. His Grace, the Commissioner, walked from the Parliament House, between
a double file of musketeers to his coach, which waited at the Cross ; and he was driven
from thence at full gallop to his residence at the Palace, hooted, cursed, and pelted by the
rabble.
The mob were fully as zealous in the demonstration of their good will as of their
displeasure. The Duke of Hamilton, whose apartments were also in the Palace, was an
especial object of favour, and was nightly escorted down the Canongate by several hundreds
of them cheering him,*and commending his fidelity. It was on one of these occasions, after
seeing the Duke home, that the excited rabble proceeded to the house of the city member,
when he so narrowly escaped their fury.’ Fortunately, however, for Scotland the popular
clamour was unavailing for the purpose of preventing the Union of the two kingdoms, though
the corrupt means by which many of the votes in Parliament were secured, was sufficient
to have justified any amount of distrust and apposition. A curious ornamental summerhouse
is pointed out in the pleasure grounds attached to Moray House, in the Canongate,
where the commissioners at length assembled to affix their clignatures to the Treaty of Union.
But the mob, faithful to the last in their resolution to avert what was then regarded as the
surrender of national independence,‘ pursued them to this retired rendezvous, and that
important national act is believed to have been finally signed and sealed in a ‘‘ high shop,”
or cellar, No. 177 High Street, nearly opposite to the Tron Church.2 This interesting
locality, which still remains, had formed one of the chief haunts of the unionists during the
progress of that measure, and continued to be known, almost to our own day, by the name
of the Union Cellar. On the 16th of January 1707, the Scottish Parliament assembled for
the last time in its old hall in the Parliament Close, and having finally adjusted the Articles
of Union, it was dissolved by the Duke of Queensberry, the King’s Commissioner, never
again to meet as a National Assembly+
The general discontent which resulted from this measure, and the irritation produced by
The Commissioner, and all who abetted him, were kept in terror of their lives.
.
Lockhart’s Mem., 1799, p. 229-229.
a Tales of a Grandfather, vol. vi. p. 327.
Smollett’s Hist., p. 469. Arnot, p. 1S9.

Book 10 p. 118
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302 MEMORIALS OF EllINBURGH.
now stimulated to its defence as i national amusement peculiar to Scotland, from his
earnest desire to win the popular favour, in which he was no way more likely to succeed than
by flattering their prejudices on any question of nationality, and becoming their champion
in it0 defence. The antiquity of the Scottish game is proved by a statute, passed in the
reign of James II., 1457, forbidding the practice of both ‘( fute-ball and. golfe,” under
the penalty of the Baron’s unlaw, and enacting the use of the Bow in its sted.
The evidence on the English side not being so readily forthcoming, the Englishmen
offered to rest the legitimacy of their national pretensions on the result of a match
to be played by them against his Royal Highness and any Scotsman he chose to select.
‘She Duke immediately accepted the challenge, and, after careful inquiry, selected as
his partner John Paterson, a poor shoemaker of the Canongate, whose ancestors had
been celebrated for centuries as proficients in the game, and who then enjoyed the
honour of being considered the best golfer of his day. The match was played by the
Duke and his partner against their English challengers on the Links of Leith.; heavy
stakes were risked by the Duke and his noble opponents on the results; and after a
hard-fought field, the royal champion of Scotland and his humble squire carried the. day
triumphantly. The poor shoemaker was rewarded with a large share of the stakes
forfeited by the challenger, and with this he built the substantial tenement which
still records his name, and commemorates his victory Over the impugners of the national
sports.
A large and handsome tablet on the front of the mansion bears the Paterson Armsthree
pelicans feeding their young, with three mullets on a chief; and surmounted by a
knight’s helmet, and a defaced crest, said to be a hand grasping a golfer’s club. Over
the ground floor, a plain slab is inscribed with the following epigram, from the pen of
the celebrated Dr Pitcairn, commemorative of the heroic deeds of the. builder, and the
national claims which he successfully asserted :-
Cum victor ludo, Scotis qui proprius, esset,
Ter tres victores pcat redemitos avos,
Pateraonus, humo tunc educehat in altum
Hano, que victores tot tulet una, domum.
!Che letters of this elegant distich were formerly gilded so as to attract the. notice of
the passer, but this has entirely disappeared, and the inscription no longer challenges
the attention of any but the curious antiquary. Underneath is placed the philanthropic
declaration I HATE NO PERSON, which might be supposed the very natural aentiment of one
who had achieved such unexpected honour and reward. It proves, however, to be merely
the transposition of the letters of his own name into an anagram, according to the quaint
fashion of the age. The ancient tenement appears in the accompanying engraving, and
the inscriptions upon it leave no reasonable doubt of the traditional fame of the Canongate
Golfer. We are sorry in any degree to disturb a tradition backed by such incontrovertible
evidence ; but it appears probable, from the evidence of the title-deeds, that the Golfer’s
Land was lost, instead of won, by the gaming propensities of its owner. It was acquired
in 1609 by Nicol Paterson, maltman in Leith, from whom it passed in 1632 to his son,
John Paterson, and Apes Lyel, his spouse. He - died in 1663, as appears by the epitaph

Book 10 p. 329
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346 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
quarters at Dalkeith Palace. The old mansion continued to be the town residence of the
noble family of Stair, until, like the rest of the Scottish peers, they deserted their native
capital soon after the abolition of our national Parliament by the Act of Union. It is
not unlikely that the present name of the old court is derived from the more recent
residence there of John, second Earl of Stair, who served during the protracted campaigns
of the Duke of Narlborough, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General soon
after the bloody victory of Malplaquet. He shared in the fall of the great Duke, and
retired from Court until the accession of Geoge I., during which interval it is probable
that the family mansion in the Potterrow formed the frequent abode of the disgraced
favourite.
Degradation and decay had long settled down on the old aristocratic haunt, when
Clarinda wrote from the same place in 1788, in anticipation of a visit from the poet
Burns, " I hope you '11 come a-foot, even though you take a chair home. A chair is so
uncommon a thing in our neighbourhood, it is apt to raise speculation-but they are all
asleep by ten."' The first interview between Mrs M'Lehose, the romantic Clarinda,
and her Sylvander, took place at the house of Miss Nimmo, a mutual friend, who resided
in Alison Square, Potterrow; an equally humble locality, and within a few paces of
General's Entry, but which derives a still deeper interest from having been the place
where the youthful poet Thomas Campbell lived during his stay in Edinburgh, while
engaged in the composition of his Pleasures of Hope. To appreciate the later associations
of these scenes of poetic inspiration and intellectual pleasures, the reader should rise
from the perusal of the ardent and romautic correspondence of Clarinda and Sylvander,
and proceed to visit the dusky little parlour on the first floor of the crazy tenement in the
Potterrow, where the poet was welcomed by the enthusiastic Clarinda. It is on the
north side of General's Entry, and approached by a narrow turnpike stair, where the
whole accommodations of Mrs M'Lehose consisted of a kitchen, bedroom, and the
straitened parlour wherein she received the visits of the poet. Here this young and
beautiful woman resided with her infant children, and struggled against the pinching
cares of poverty, and the worse sorrows created by an acutely sensitive mind. The
emigration, however, of the gentry of the Old Town to the more fashionable dwellings
beyond the North Loch had been very partially effected in 1788 ; and the contrast between
the little parlour in General's Entry, and the drawing-rooms of the poet's wealthier hosts,
was by no means so marked and striking as it afterwards became. Such are the strangely
mingled associations of rank, historic fame, and genius, with lowly worth and squalid
poverty, which still linger around so many old nooks of the Scottish capital, and give
so peculiar an interest to its scenes.
Beyond this lies the more modern district that preceded the New Town, and included
in its various districts accommodation designed for very different ranks of society. Nicolson
Street, which now forms a portion of the principal southern avenue to the city, was constructed
towards the close of last century on an extensive unoccupied space of ground
lying between the Pleasance and Potterrow. It belonged to Lady Nicolson, whose house
stood nearly at the junction of South College Street with Nicolson Street, and on the
knee.
Correspondence between Burns and Clarinda, p. 152. The poet was at thi period lame, from an injury in his

Book 10 p. 379
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172 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
representing the Adoration of the Wise Men, was said to be the work of Alexander
Runciman.
We have endeavoured thus far to conduct the reader through this portion of the
ancient capital, pointing out the various associations calculated to excite sympathy or
interest in connection with its time-honoured scenes. But all other objects of attraction
to the local historian, within this district, must yield before those of the Old Bank Close,
the site of which was very nearly that of the present paving of Melbourne Place. The
antique mansion, that formed the chief building in this close, excited very great and
general attention from the time that it was exposed to view in opening up the approach
to George 1V.k Bridge, until its demolition in 1834, to make way for the central
buildings of Melbourne Place, that now occupy its site. It stood immediatel) to the east
of William Little’s Land, already described, in Brodie’s Close, from which it was only
partially separated by a very narrow gutter that ran between the two houses, leaving them
united by a mutual wall at the north end.
This ancient building was curiously connected with a succession of eminent and
influential men, and with important historical events
of various eras, from the date of its erection until a
comparatively recent period. ‘‘ Gourlay’s House, ”
for so it continued to be called nearly to the last,
was erected in 1569, as appeared from the date on it,
by Robert Gourlay, burgess, on the site, and, partly
at least, with the materials of an old religious house.
Little further is known of its builder than the fact
that he had been a wealthy and influential citizen,
who enjoyed the favour of royalty, and made the
most of it too, notwithstanding the pious averment sculptured over his door, 0 LORD
IN THE IS AL MY TRAIST.’ This appears no less from numerous grants of
privileges and protections of rights, among the writs and evidents of the property,
attested by King James’s own signature, than by the very obvius jealousy with which
his favour at Court was regarded by his fellow-citizens.
One of these royal mandates, granted by the Kiig at Dumfries, 21st June 1588, sets
forth, ‘‘ Lyke 8s ye said Robert Gourlay and Helen Cruik, his spouse,’haa raisit ane new
biggin and wark upon ye waste and ground of their lands and houses foresaid, wherein
they are quarelled and troubled for enlarging and outputing of ye east gavill and dyke of
their said new wark, on with ye bounds of ye auld bigging foundit and edified thereupon,
of design, and presumed to have diminished and narrowit ye passage of ye foresaid transe
callit Mauchains Close, &c.,’ We, therefor, . . . . . give and grant special liberty
On the demolition of the building, the words I‘ 0 Lord,” which extended beyond the lintel of the door, were found
to be carved on oak, and so ingeniously let into the wall that this had escaped observation. One could almost fancy that
the subservient courtier had found his abbreviated motto liable to a more personal construction than was quite agreeable. ’ In the earlier part of the same writ, the property is styled ‘I ye landa of umq’ Alexander Mauthane, and now of ye
said Robert Gourlay.” We learn from Maitland, that in the year 1511, “ the Town Council twoarda inlarging the said
Church of St Giles, bought of AEezander MaucAanes, four landa or tenementa, in the Booth-raw,” or Luckenbo0tha.-
Maitland‘a Hist., p. 180. This can acarcely be doubted to be the same individual.
VIoaEnE-carved Stone from Old Bank Close, in the posse&on of C. K. Sharpe, Esq.

Book 10 p. 187
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136 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
tion for the royal stables, but the approach to it from the Castle must have been by a
very inconvenient and circuitous route, although it was immediately overlooked by the
windows of the royal apartments. It seems more probable that the earliest buildings on
this site were erected in the reign of James IV., when the low ground to the westward
was the scene of frequent tiltings and of magnificent tournaments, the fame of which
spread throughout Europe, and attracted the most daring knights-errant to that chivalrous
Monarch’s Court.’ Considerable accommodation would be required for the horses and
attendants on these occasions, as well as for the noble combatants, among whom the King,
it is we11 known, was no idle spectator ; but the buildings of that- date, which we presume
to have been reared for these public combats, were probably only of a temporary nature, as
they were left without the extended wall, built at the commencement of the following
reign, in 1513, a procedure not likely to have taken place had they been of much value.
Maitland, however, mentions a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the remains of which
were visible in his time (1750) at the foot of the Chapel Wynd; and Kincaid,’ who wrote
towards the close of the century, speaks of them a8 still remaining there ; but since then
they have entirely disappeared, and nothing but the name of the Wynd, which formed the
approach to the chapel, survives to indicate its site. This may, with every probability, be
presumed to have been at the point of junction with that and the Lady’s Wynd, both
evidently named from their proximity to the same chapel.
On this locality, now occupied by the meanest buildings, James IV. was wont to preside
at the jousting5 of the knights and barons of his Court, and to present the meed of honour
to the victor from his own hand; or, as in the famous encounter, already related, between
Sir Patrick Hamilton and a Dutch knight, to watch the combat from the Castle walls, and
from thence to act as umpire of the field. The greater portion of the ancient tilting ground
remained unenclosed when Maitland wrote, and is described by him as a pleasant green,
about one hundred and fifty yards long and fifty broad, adjoining the chapel of the Virgin
Mary, on the west. But this U pleasant green ” is now crowded with slaughter-houses,
tan-pits, and dwellings of the humblest description.
In the challenge in 1571, between Alexander Stewart, younger, of Garlies, and Sir
William Rirkaldy of Grange, the place of combat proposed is, “upon the ground
the baresse be-west the West Port of Edinburgh, the place accustomed, and of old
appointed, for triell of suche matera.”’ The exact site of this interesting spot is now
occupied in part by the western approach, which crosses it immediately beyond the Castle
Bridge; it is defined in one of the title-deeda of the ground, acquired by the City
Improvements Commission, as ‘(,4 11 and hail1 these houses and yards of Orchardfield,
commonly called Livingston’s Yards, comprehending therein that piece of ground called
The Barras.”
The interest attaching to these scenes of ancient feats of arms has been preserved by
successive events almost to our own day. In 1661 the King’s Stables were purchased by
the Town Council for f,lOOO Scots, and the admission of James Boisland, the seller, to the
freedom of the city.4 The right, however, of the new possessors, to whom they would
seem to have been resold, was made a subject of legal investigation at a later date. Foun-
Ante, p. 23. 3 Maitland, p. 172. Kincaid, p. 103. ’ Calderwood‘a Hist, Wnd. Soc., vol. iii. p. 108. Coun. Reg., vol. xx. p. 268, apud Kincaid, p. 103.

Book 10 p. 147
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404 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
foundation of St David’s Abbey has already been referred to, with the picturesque
legend from whence it derives its name. The beautiful fragment of the Abbey Church
which still remains, forming the nave of the ancient building, retains numerous traces
of the original work of the twelfth century, though enriched by the additions of a
later age. The earliest drawing of the Abbey and Palace that exists is the bird’s-eye
view of 1544, where it is marked by its English draughtsman as “ the King of Skotts
palis,” although the sole claimant to the throne at that date was the infant daughter
of James V. A comparison of this with the portions still remaining leaves little doubt
of its general accuracy. The Abbey Church appears with a second square tower at
the west front, uniform with the one still standing to the north of the great doorway.
The transepts are about the usual proportions, but the choir is much shorter than it
is proved from other evidence to have originally been, the greater part of it having,
perhaps, been reduced to ruins before the view was taken. During the levelling of the
ground around the Palace, and digging a foundation for the substantial railing with
which it was recently enclosed, the workmen came upon the bases of two pillars, in a
direct line with the nave, on the site of the east railings, proving that the ancient choir
had been of unusual length. A mound of earth which extends still further to the east,
no doubt marks the foundationa of other early buildings, and from their being in the direct
line of the building, it is not improbable that a Lady Chapel, or other addition to the
Abbey Church, may have stood to the east of the choir, as is frequently the case in larger
cathedral and abbey churches. A curious relic of the ancient tenants of the monastery
was found by the workmen already referred to, consisting of a skull, which had no
doubt formed the solitary companion of one of the monks. It had a hole in the top
of the cranium, which served most probably for securing a crucifix; and over the brow
was traced in antique characters the appropriate maxim, Memento Mori. This solitary
relic of the furniture of the Abbey was procured by the late Sir Patrick Walker, and is
still in the possession of his family. The English army that “brent the abbey called
Holyrode house, and the pallice adjonynge to the same,” in 1544, returned to complete
the destruction of the Abbey in 1547, almost immediately after the accession of Edward
VI. to his father’s throne. Their proceedings are thus recorded by the English chronicler :
-(( Thear stode south-westward, about a quarter of a mile from our campe, a monasterie :
they call it Hollyroode Abbey. Sir Water Bonham and Edward Chamberlayne gat
lycense to suppresse it ; whearupon these commissioners, making first theyr visitacion
thear, they found the moonks all gone, but the church and mooch parte of the house well
covered with leade. Soon after, thei pluct of the leade and had down the bels, which
wear but two ; and according to the statute, did somewhat hearby disgrace the hous. As
touching the moonkes, bicaus they wear gone, thei put them to their pencions at large.”‘
It need hardly excite surprise, that the invaders should not find matters quite according
to the statute, with so brief an interval between such cisitacions. The state in which they
did find the Abbey, proves that it had been put in effectual repair immediately after their
former visit.
The repeated burnings of the Abbey by the Englieh army were doubtless the chief
cause of the curtailment -of .the church to its present diminished size; yet abundant
Patten’s Expedition to Scotland. Frag. of Swt. Hiet.

Book 10 p. 443
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36 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
expected manner ; they no doubt regretted that luxury and taste for improvement had led
them so far out into the unprotected country.' But they certainly did afterwards retrieve
their native character of prudence, as scarcely a house arose beyond the second wall for
two hundred and fifty years; and if Edinburgh increased in any respect, it was only by
piling new flats on the Ancient Royalty, and adding to the height rather than to the
extent of the city.'
The utmost energy was immediately displayed in supplying the needful defences ; the
farmers of the Lothians lent their labourers and horses to the national work ; the citizens
rivalled one another in their zeal for the fortification of the capital against the dreaded
foe, '( our auld inymis of Ingland." ' So that, in an incredibly short time, the extended
city was enclosed within defensive walls, with ports, and battlements, and towers, an
effective protection against the military engineering of the age.
Considerable portions of this wall have remained to the present time, exhibiting abundant
tokens of the haste with which it was erected, as well as preserving, in the name of
the Flodden wall, by which it is still known, another proof of the deep impression that
disastrous field had left on the popular mind.
Fortunately for Scotland, Henry VIII. was too deeply engrossed with the French war
to follow up the advantage he had gained; and Queen Margaret, who now assumed the
government in name of her infant son, having appealed to his generosity, towards a sister
and nephew, he willingly secured the neutrality of the Scots by a peace. Shortly after
this truce, a legate arrived at Edinburgh from the Pope, bearing his congratulations to the
young King on his accession to the crown,s and presented him with a consecrated cap
and sword from his Holiness-the latter of which is still preserved among the Regalia
in Edinburgh Castle.
C1515.1 The nation now experienced all the evils of's long minority; the Queen
having speedily accepted Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, in marriage, was thereby
held to have forfeited the Regency; a6d from this time, till the young King
asserted his independence, the people knew Rcarcely any other rule than the anarchy
of rival factions contending for power, in all. which the capitaT had always a principal
share.
The Earl of Arran, upon the marriage of the Queen, marched to Edinburgh, numerously
attended by his kinsmen and friends, and laid claim to the Regency, as the nearest of
blood to the King. The Earl of Ang-us immediately followed him thither, attended by
above 500 armed retainers, ready to assert his claims against every opponent. So soon as
Arran, who, '' with the chief of the nobility of the west, had assembled at the Archbishop
of Glasgow's house, in the foot of Blackfrier Wynd,'" had learned of his arrival, he ordered.
the gates to be secured, little aware of the formidable host he was thus enclosing within the
walls. On the following morning, Angus received early intimation of the rash scheme of
his rival, for making him prisoner, and lost no time in mustering his followers, whom he
drew up, well armed and in battle array, above the Nether Bow, and thereupon a fierce and
sanguinary conflict ensued between them, which was not stayed till Sir Patrick Hamilton,
Montgomery, and above seventy men had fallen in the affray. Though the Regent pub-
Chambers's Traditions, vol. i p. 3.
Balfour's Ann. vol. i. p. 239.
1 Diurnal of Occurrents. ' Crawford's Live#, vol. i. p. 69.

Book 10 p. 38
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72 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
promise of replacing, at some indefinite period, ‘‘ als mony als gud jeistis ” as had been
taken away.l
Materials and money continued equally difficult to be obtained; the master of the
work had again to have recourse for stones to the old building, although the magistrates
were anxious, ifpossible, to preserve it. On the 5th of March 1562, an order appears for
taking the stones of the chapel in the Nether Kirk-yard. This supplies the date of the
utter demolition of Holyrood Chapel, as it was styled, which had most probably been
spoiled and broken down during the tumults of 1559, It stood between the present
Parliament House and the Cowgate; and there, on the 12th of August 1528, Walter
Chepman founded a chaplainry at the altar of Jesus Christ crucified, and endowed it with
his tenement in the Cowgate.’
In the month of April, the Council are threatened with the entire removal of the Courts
to St Andrews, for want of a place of meeting in Edinburgh. This is followed ‘by forced
taxation, borrowing money on the town mills, threats from the builder to give up the
work, (‘ because he had oft and diverse tymes requyrit money, -and could get nane,” and
the like, for some years following, until the magistrates contrived, at length, by some
means or other, to complete the new building to the satisfaction of all parties.
this interval, the Town Council held their own meetings in the Holy-Blood Aisle in St
Giles’s Church, until apartments were provided for them, in the New Tolbooth, which
served alike for the meetings of the Parliament, the Court of Session, and the Magistrates
and Council of the burgh.
The New Tolbooth, thus erected with so much difficulty, was not the famous Heart
of Midlothian, but a more modern building attached to the south-west corner of
St Giles’s Church, part of the site of which is now occupied by the lobby of the Signet
Library.
In February 1561, the Lord James, newly created Earl of Mar, was publicly married
to Lady Agnes Keith, daughter of the Earl Marischal, in St Giles’s Church. They
received an admonition “to behave themselves moderately in all things; ” but this did not
prevent the event being celebrated with such display as gave great offence to the preachers.
A magnificent banquet was given on the occasion, with pageants and masquerades, which
the Queen honoured with her presence. Randolph, the ambassadar of Queen Elizabeth,
was also a guest, and thus writes of it to Cecil :--“At this notable marriage, upon Shrove
Tuesday, at night, sitting among the Lords at supper, in sight of the Queen, she drank
unto the Queen’s Majesty, and sent me the cup of gold, which weigheth eighteen or twenty
ounces.” The preachers denounced, with veh‘emence, the revels and costly banquets on
this occasion, inveighing with peculiar energy against the masking, a practice, as it would
seem, till then unknown in Scotland.’
The reformation of religion continued to be pursued with the utmost zeal. The Queen
still retained the service of the mass in her own private chapel, to the great offence of the
preachers ; but they had succeeded in entirely banishing it from the churches. The arms
and burgh sed of Edinburgh, previous to this period, contained a representation of the
patron saint, St Giles, with his hind; but by an act of the Town Council, dated 24th
During,
1 Council Register, 10th Feb. 1561, &c.
Council Register, Maitland, p. 183.
Maitland, p. 21, 22. Chambers’s Minor Antiquitits, p. 141-0.
Knox’s Hi&, p. 276. Tytler, vol. vi. p. 301.

Book 10 p. 78
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I 86 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
The ancient prison of Edinburgh had its EAST and WEST ENDS, known to the last by
these same distinctive appellations, that mark the patrician and plebeian districts of the
British metropolis. The line of division is apparent in our engraved view, showing the
western and larger portion of the building constructed of coarse rubble work, while
the earlier edifice, at the east end, was built of polished stone. This distinction was
still more apparent on the north side, which, though much more ornamental, could
only be viewed in detail, owing to the narrowness of the street, and has not, as far
as we are aware, been represented in any engraving.’ It had, on the first floor, a large
and deeply splayed square window, decorated on either side with richly carved Gothic
niches, surmounted with ornamental canopies of varied designs. A smaller window
on the floor above was flanked with similar decorations, the whole of which were, in all
probability, originally filled with statues. Maitland mentions, and attempts to refute, a
tradition that this had been the mansion of the Provost of St Giles’s Church, but there
seems little reason to doubt that it had been originally erected as some such appendage
to t,he church. The style of ornament was entirely that of a collegiate building attached
to an ecclesiastical edifice ; and its situation and architectural adornments suggest the
idea of its having been the residence of the Provost or Dean, while the prebends and
other members of the college were accommodated in the buildings on the south side
of the church, removed in the year 1632 to make way for the Parliament House. If this
idea is correct, the edifice was, in all probability, built shortly after the year 1466, when
a charter was granted by King James III., erecting St Giles’s into a collegiate church ;
and it may further have included a chapter-house for the college, whose convenient
dimensions would lead to its adoption as a place of meeting for the Scottish Parliaments.
The date thus assigned to the most ancient portion of the “ Heart; of Midlothian,”
receives considerable confirmation from the style of the building ; but
Parliaments had assembled in Edinburgh long before that period ; three, at least, were
held there during the reign of James I., and when his assassination at Perth, iu 1437, led
to the abandonment of the Fair City as the chief residence of the Court, and thh ’capital of
the kingdom, the first general council of the new reign took place in the Castle of Edinburgh.
We have already described the remains of the Old‘ Parliament Hall still existing
there; and this, it is probable, was the scene of all such assemblies as were held at
Edinburgh in earlier reigns.
The next Parliament of James 11. was summoned to meet at Stirling, the following
year, in the month of March; but another was held that same year in the month of
November, “ in pretorio burgi de Edinburgh.” The same Latin term for the Tolbooth is
repeated in the minutes of another Assembly of the Estates held there in 1449 ; and, in
1451, the old Scottish name appears for the first time in “ the parleament of ane richt hie
and excellent prince, and our soverane lorde, James the Secunde, be the grace of Gode,
King of Scotts, haldyn at Edinburgh the begunyn in the Tolbuth of the samyn.”2 A
much older, and probably larger, erection must therefore have existed on the site of the
We have drawn the view at the head of the Chapter from a slight aketch taken shortly before ita demolition, by
Mr D. Somerville ; with the assistance of a most ingenious model of St Giles’s Church and the aurroonding buildings,
made by the Rev. John She, about the year 1805, to which we were also partly indebted for the south view of the aame
building.
Acts of Scottish Parliaments, folio, vol. ii.

Book 10 p. 204
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254 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of Fordell,” and although this is an obvious mistake for Sir Simon Preston’s residence
in the Black Turnpike, it is probable she had lodged there on some earlier and happier
occasion, when it was no very unwonted circumstance for her Majesty to become the guest
of the wealthier citizens of the capital. This old land, however, has also disappeared, and
is now replaced by a plain and unattractive modern erection.
We furnish a view of a very curious and beautiful Gothic
corbel, carved in the form of a grotesque head, with leaves
in its mouth, which was found on the east side of North
Gray’s Close, about twenty years since, in excavating for a tan
pit. It was discovered six feet below the ground j and in the
course of digging, the workmen came upon a large fragment
of wall, of very substantial masonry, running from east to
west, and completely below the foundations of the neighbouring
houses. We have examined a large collection of
title-deeds of the surrounding property in the hope of discovering
the existence of some religious house here in early
times, of which these are fragments, but the earliest, which
is dated 1572, describes nearly the whole close as then in a waste and ruinous state-a
condition to which it appears to be rapidly returning, after having, from the appearance
of the old buildings, afforded fitting residence for titled courtiers and wealthy burgesses.
These discoveries, however, furnish evidence of the great changes which have taken place
on Edinburgh in common with most other ancient cities. This portion of the town has
evidently been totally destroyed in the conflagration effected by the Earl of Hertford’s
army in 1544 ; and while the houses in the main street were speedily rebuilt, the ground
to the north lay for nearly thirty years an unoccupied waste, so that when the citizens at
length began to build upon it, they founded their new dwellings above the consolidated
ruins of the older capital. The carved stone was preserved in the nursery of Messrs
Eagle & Henderson, Leith Walk.
There was a fine old stone land at the head of Bailie Fife’s Close on the west side,
which bore, on a large lintel over one of the upper windows, the Trotter arms, in bold
relief; two stars in chief, and a crescent in base; with the initials I. T., I. M., and the
date 1612.’ Another ancient tenement remaius in gobd preservation, in Chalmers’s Close,
which possesses claims of special interest to the antiquary, as one of the very few n’ow left
in which the curious sculptured stone niches occur, that have been frequently referred to in
the course of this work. On the
first floor a small niche appears, at the right side of the doorway, immediately on entering,
and in the opposite wall there is another of large size, and a highly ornamental characterthough
now dilapidated, and greatly obscured with whitewash-through which a window
has been broken, looking into Barringer’s Close. Alongside of the latter niche a narrow
The house stands within the close, on the west side.
Diurnal of Occurrents, p,.115. ’ Another large shield occurs on a pannel above the ground floor, with the initials I. P., N. H., and the Pdey Arm8
(Yorkshire)-a cheveron between three mullets,-impaled with those of Hay. Over a neatly moulded doorway below
is the inscription in Roman characters, now greatly defaced :-BE . PASIENT . IN . THE. [LORD.] [This ancient
dwelling-house, which had stood for nearly 250 years, suddenly fell to the ground on midnight of Saturday, November
10,1861, burying in ita ruins thirty-five persons.]

Book 10 p. 275
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90 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
faith unchanged, and revisit the Scottish capital every three years. He committed his
children, whom he left behind, to the care of the Earl of Mar and others of his most
trusty nobles, and took his departure for England on the 5th of April 1603.
The accession of James to the English throne produced, at the time, no other change
on Edinburgh than the removal of the Court and some of the chief nobility to London.
The King continued to manifest a lively interest in his ancient capital ; in 1608 he wrote
to the magistrates, guarding them in an unwonted manner againet countenancing any
interference with the right of the citizens to have one of themselves chosen to fill the ofice
of Provost. In the following year, he granted them duties on every tun of wine, for sustaining
the dignity of the civic rulers; he also empowered the Provost to have a sword
borne before him on all public occasions, and gave orders that the magistrates should be
provided with gowns, similar to those worn by the Aldermen of London.
It is very characteristic of King James, that, not content with issuing his royal mandate
on this important occasion, he forwarded them two ready-made gowns as patterns,
lest the honourable Corporation of the Tailors of Edinburgh should prove unequal to the
At length, after an absence of fourteen years, the King intimated his gracious intention
of honouring the capital of his ancient kingdom with a visit. He accordingly arrived there
on the 16th of May 1617, and was received at the West Port by the magistrates in their
official robes, attended by the chief citizens habited in velvet. The town-clerk delivered
a most magnificent address, wherein he blessed God that their eyes were once more permitted
(( to feed upon the royal countenance of our‘ true phenix, the bright star of our
northern firmament. . . . . Our sun (the powerful adamant of our wealth), by whose
removing from our hemisphere we were darkened; deep sorrow and fear possessed our
hearts, The very hills and groves, accustomed before to be refreshed with the dew of your
Majesty’s presence, not putting on their wonted apparel, but with pale looks, representing
their misery for the departure of their royal King. . . . A King in heart as upright
as David, wise as Solomon, and godlie as Josias 1 ”
In like eloquent strains the orator proceeds through a long address, after which the King
and nobility were entertained at a sumptuous banquet, where the City presented his Majesty
with the sum of ten thousand merks, in double golden angels, tendered to him in a gilt
basin of silver.a
The King had been no less anxious than the citizens (‘to let the nobles of Ingland
knaw that his cuntrie was nothing inferior to them in anie respect.” By his orders the
Palace was completely repaired and put in order, and the Chapel “ decorit with organis,
and uthir temporal1 policie,” while a ship laden with wines, was sent before him ‘‘ to lay in
the cavys of his Palicis of Halyruidhous, and uther partis of his resort.”
A Parliament was held in Edinburgh on this occasion, wherein the King availed himself
of the popular feelings excited by his presence, to secure the first steps of his favourite
project for restoring Episcopal government to the Church.
The King at length bade farewell to his Scottish subjects in September 1617, and
little occurred to disturb the tranquillity of Edinburgh during the remainder of his
reign.
duty.’
Council Register, Sept. 7th, 1609. &itland, p. 60. 8 Hist. of Jamee the Sext., p. 395.

Book 10 p. 98
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3 54 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
(‘ And ds it is our will yat ye cordinaris dwelland within our regalite, . . . besyde our
chapel1 of Sanct Niniane, outwith Sanct Androws Port besyde Edinburcht, be in bretherheid
and fallowschipe with ye said dekin and masteris of ye said Cordinar crauft.” The
main street of the Barony of Calton, derived from this ancient chapel the name of St
Ninian’s Row, and although this had been superseded by common consent of late years,
there still remains carved on the west side of the large old well the name and date, ST
NINIAN’S Row, 1752 ; while on the lintel of the east doorway is cut (‘ CRAIG END,” the
term by which the High Calton Was known of old. Here also is the boundary of South
Leith Parish, in proof of which there might recently be seen carved and gilded in raised
letters on a beam under the north-west gallery of St Mary’s Church, Leith, ‘( FOR THE
C w a END, 1652.” The engraving of St Ninian’s Row will serve to convey some idea
of the picturesque range of edifices dedicated of old to the Confessor, and swept away
by the recent operations of the North British Railway. They were altogether of a humble
character, and appear to have very early received a more appropriate dedication as
“The Beggar Row.’’ One stone tenement, which seemed to lay claim to somewhat
higher pretensions than its frail lath and plaster neighbours, owed its origin to the
temporary prosperity of the vassals of St Crispin in this little barony. An ornamental
panel graced the front of its projecting staircase, decorated with the Shoemakers’
arms, surrounded with a richly sculptured border, and bearing the pious motto :-GOD
BLISS THEY CORDINERS OF EDINBURGH, WHA BUILT THIS HOUSE. It was sacrificed, we
presume, in the general ruin of the Cordiners of Canongate and its dependencies. In
Sempill of Beltrees’ curious poem, (‘ The Banishment of Poverty,” already referred to,
the author and his travelling companion, the Genius of Poverty, make for this locality
as the best suited for such wayfarers :-
We held the Long-gate to Leith Wpe,
Where poorest purses used to be ;
And in the Caltown lodged syne,
Fit quarters for such companie.
Such was its state in 1680, when it formed one of the chief thoroughfares to the city,
and the road which led by the ancient Burgh of Broughton to the neighbouring seaport.
The principal approach to Leith, however, continued for nearly a century after this to be
by the Eastern Road, through the Water Gate; and the present broad and handsome
thoroughfare, which still retains the name of Leith WaA, was then simply an elevated
gravel path. The origin of this valuable modern improvement is strangely traceable to one
of the most disastrous campaigns of the seventeenth century. During the manceuaings
of the Scottish army under their Covenanting leader, General Leslie, in 1650, previous to
the battle of Dunbar, the whole forces were drawn up for a time in the open plain between
Edinburgh and Leith, and a line of defence constructed by means of a redoubt on the
Calton Hill, and another at Leith, with a trench and parapet extending between them.
The position was admirably adapted both for the defence of the towns and the security of
the army, so long ae the latter remained on the defensive; but the superior tactics of
Liber Cartarurn, App. p 291. This, it will be observed, ia an earlier notice of the Cordinera of Canongate than
that referred to on p. 291. The Hall of the Cordinera of Calton was only demolished in 1845, for the site of the North
British Raiiway Station.

Book 10 p. 388
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362 MEMORIAL S OF EDINB URG H.
old oaken chair remained till recently an heirloom, bequeathed by its patrician occupants
to the humble tenants of their degraded dwellings. A recent writer on the antiquities
of Leith, conceives it probable that this may have been the residence of the Regent
Lennox; but we have been baffled in our attempts to arrive at any certain evidence
on the subject by reference to the titles. “ Mary,” says Maitland, “ haviug begun
to build in the town of Leith, was followed therein by divers of the nobility, bishops,
and other persons of distinction of her party; several of whose houses are still remaining,
as m y be seen in sundry places, by their spacious rooms, lofty ceilings, large staircases,
and private oratories or chapels for the celebration of mass.” Beyond the probable
evidence afforded by such remains of decaying splendour and former wealth, nothing
more can now be ascertained. The occupation of Leith by nobles and dignitaries of
the Church was of a temporary nature, and under circumstances little calculated to
induce them to leave many durable memorials of their presence. A general glance, therefore,
at such noticeable features as still remain, will suffice to complete our survey of the
ancient seaport.
The earliest date that we have discovered on any of the old private buildings of the
burgh, occurs on the projecting turnpike of an antique tenement at the foot of Burgess
Close, which bears this inscription on the lintel, in Roman characters :-NISI DNS FRUSTBA,
1573. This ancient alley is the earliest thoroughfare in the burgh of which we have
any account. It was granted to the burgesses of Edinburgh, towards the close of the
fourteenth century, by Logan of Restalrig, the baronial over-lord of Leith, before it
acquired the dignity of a royal burgh, and the owner of nearly all the lands that extended
along the banks of the harbour of Leith. We are led to infer from the straitened proportions
of this narrow alley, that the whole exports and imports of the shipping of Leith were
conveyed on pack-horses or in wheel-barrows, as it would certainly prove impassable for
any larger wheeled convejance. Its inconvenience, however, appears to have been felt at
the time, and the Laird of Restalrig was speedily compelled to grant a more commodious
access to the shore. The inscription which now graces this venerable thoroughfare, though
of a date so much later than its first construction, preserves a memorial of its gifts to the
civic Council of Edinburgh, as we may reasonably ascribe to the veneration of some wealthy
merchant of the capital the inscribing over the doorway of his mansion at Leith the
very appropriate motto of the City Arms. To this, the oldest quarter of the town, indeed,
we must direct those who go “in search of the picturesque.” Watera’ Close, which
adjoins Burgess Close, is scarcely surpassed by any venerable alley of the capital, either in
its attractive or repulsive features. Stone and timber lands are mixed together in admired
disorder ; and one antique tenement in particular, at the corner of Water Lane, with a
broad projecting turnpike, contorted by corbels and string courses, and every variety of
convenient aberration from the perpendicular or horizontal, which the taste or whim of its
constructor could devise, is one of the most singular edifices that the artist could select as a
subject for his pencil.
The custom of affixing sententious aphorisms to the entrances of their dwellings appears
to have pertained fully as much to the citizens of Leith as of Edinburgh. BLISSIT . BE .
GOD . OF . HIS . GIFTIS . 1601., I. W., I. H., is boldly cut on a large square panel on
the front of an old house at the head of Sheriff Brae; and the same favourite motto

Book 10 p. 398
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222 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
to that portion extending from the Nether Bow to Creech’s Land, until the demolition of
the middle row, when the Luckenbooths, and even a portion of the Lawnmarket, were
assumed as part of it, and designated by the same name.
Here was the battlefield of ScGtland for centuries, whereon private and party feuds, the
jealousies of the nobles and burghers, and not a few of the contests between the Crown and
the people, were settled at the point of the sword. In the year 1515 it was the scene of
the bloody fray known by the name of “ Uleanse the Causey,” which did not terminate
until t,he narrow field of contest waa strewn with the dead bodies of the combatants, and
the Earl of Arran and Cardinal Beaton narrowly escaped with their lives.’ Other and
scarcely less bloody affrays occurred during the reign of James V. on the same spot,
while in that of his hapless daughter it was for years the chief scene of civil strife, where
rival factions fought for mastery. In 1571 the King’s Parliament, summoned by the
Regent Lennox, assembled at the head of the Canongate, above St John’s Cross, which
bounded cc the freedome af Edinburgh,” while the Queen’s Parliament sat in the Tolbooth,
countenanced in their assumption of the Royal name by the presence of the ancient
Scottish Regalia, the honours of the kingdom; and the battle for Scotland‘s crown
and liberties fiercely raged in the narrow space that intervened between these rival
assemblies.
But the private feuds of the Scottish nobles and chiefs were the most frequent subjects
of conflict on the High Street of the capital, and during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries many a bold baron and hardy retainer perished there, adding fresh fuel to the
deadly animosity of rival clans, but otherwise exciting no more notice at the time than
an ordinary street squabble would now do. It was in one of these tulxies, alluded to in
the ‘‘ Lay of the Last Minstrel,” that Sir Walter Scott of Buccleugh was slain, in the year
1551,’
When the streets of High Dunedin,
Saw lances gleam and falchions redden,
And heard the slogan’s deadly yell.
Neither the accession of James VI., nor the attainment of his majority, exercised much
influence in checking those encounters on the streets of the capital. Many enormities were
committed,” says Calderwood, “ as if there had beene no King in Israell.” The following
may suffice as a sample :-“ Upon the seventh of Januar 1591, the King comming doun
the street of Edinburgh from the Tolbuith, the Duke of Lennox, accompanied with the
Lord Hume, following a little space behind, pulled out their swords, and invaded the
Laird of Logie. The King fled into a closse-head, and incontinent retired to a Skinner’s
booth, where it is said he shook for feare.”’ The sole consequence of this lawless act of
violence was the exclusion of the chief actors from court for a short time; and only six
days thereafter the Earl of Bothwell deliberately took by force out of the Tolbooth the
chief witness in a case then pending before the court, at the very time that the King was
Ante, p. 37.
“In thia zeir all we8 at guid rest, exceptand the Laird of LCesfurde and Fernyhirst with thair complices
dew Schir Walter Scott, laird of Balclewche, in Edinburgh, quha waa ane valzeand guid knycht.”-Diurnal of Occurrent~
J551, p. 51.
a Vide Calderwood, vol. v. p. 116, for a more particular account .of royal mishaps in the close-head on thii occaeion.

Book 10 p. 242
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 273
The same paragraph thus briefly relates the story of the standard, which had
caused so much speculation :-
“ On the celebrated 21st of March, when the French Invincibles found their retreat entirely
cut off by the Highlanders, two French officers advanced to Major Stirling and delivered their
standard into his hands, who immediately committed it to the charge of Sergeant Sinclair. Sinclair
being afterwards wounded, it was picked up in the field by a private of the Minorca corps, who
carried it to his own regiment. The standard was marked with the names of the different victories
of the Hero of Italy, but considerably worn. The name of the battle of Lodi was scarcely
visible.”
The following short account of the third monthly meeting of the Highland
Society of London, on the 23d of April 1802, is from a newspaper of that
period, and may not be deemed unentertaining :-
“ The meeting was held at the Shakspeare Tavern, Covent Garden, Lord Macdonald, president
for the year, in the chair. The company was very numerous, among whom appeared Lieut.-
Colonel Dickson, and thirteen officers of the 42d Regiment, in their uniforms, wearing the gold
medals presented to them by the Grand Signior. An elegant dinner was served at half-past six
o’clock, during which several national airs on the pipe were performed by the pipers of the
Society ; and a few pibrochs, with wonderful skill and execution, by Biichsnan, Pipe-Major of
the 42d Regiment. After dinner, severalloyal and appropriate toasts were given in the Gaelic
language, and many plaintive and martial songs were sung ; and the greatest harmony and
conviviality prevailed during the evening.‘ On the complimentary toast to the 42d Regiment,
and the two other Highland corps on the Egyptian service, having bcen given, the following
Stanza, the exemptore composition of a member present, was introduced by Digoum in the
characteristic air of ‘ The Garb of Old Gaul :’-
‘ The Pillar of Pompey, and famed Pyramids,
Have witnessed our valour and triumphant deeds ;
Th‘ Invincible standard from Frenchmen we bore,
In the land of the Reys, the laurels we wore ;
For such the fire of Highlanders, when brought into the field,
That Bonaparte’s Invincibles must perish, or must yield ;
We’ll bravely fight, like heroes bold, for honour and applause,
And we defy the Consul and the world to alter oiir laws.’ ”
The “Royal Highlanders ” returned to Scotland h 1802, and experienced
the most gratifying reception in all the towns as they marched from England
towards the capital of their own country, where they were welcomed with excess
of kindness and applause. During their stay in Edinburgh at this period the
regiment was presented with a new set of colours, on which were the figure of
a sphinx, and the word Egypt, as emblematic memorials of their gallant services
in the campaign of 1801. The interesting ceremony took place on the
Castle Hill, where, the regiment having been formed, the Rev. Principal Baird
delivered an appropriate prayer ; after which the Commander-in-Chief, General
Vyse, presented the colours to Colonel Dickson, and addressed his “ brother
soldiers of the 42d Regiment ” in a very energetic harangue. A vast concourse
of spectators were present on the occasion, amongst whom were the Duke of
Buccleuch, General Don, Colonels Cameron, Scott, Eaillie, Graham, and
several other military officers.
Gow’s band of ins€rumental music, Murphy the Irish piper, together with the vocal strains
of Dignum, and other public singers, added much to the general festivity.
VOL. 11. 2 N

Book 9 p. 363
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26 MEMORIALS OF EDlNBURGH.
expenses of the building, preserve a valuable record of its progress and character; no
expense seems to have been spared to render it a fitting residence for the future Queen.
Though some idea of the homely fashion of building still common, may be inferred from
an allusion of Dunbar, in his poem of the “ Warld‘s Instabilitie : ”-
“Qreit Abbais grayth I nil1 to gather,
Bot ane Kirk scant coverit with hclder ! ”
James IV. was not only an eminent encourager of literature, but by fame reputed both a
poet and musician, though nothing survives from his pen but the metrical order to his
treasurer, in reply to “The Petition of the Grey Horse, Auld Dunbar;” but whatever
may have been the value of his own productions, his taste is abundantly proved by the
eminent men he drew around him.
Gawin Douglas undoubtedly owed his fkvour at court, as well as the friendship and
patronage of the Queen, and the partiality of Leo X. at a later period, to his learning and
talents,, when through their good offices, he obtained, against the most violent opposition,
his appointment to the bishopric of Dunkeld in 1516. Kennedy, too, seems to have been
tt constant attendant at court, while Dunbar was on the most intimate footing with
his royal master, and employed by him on the most confidential missions to foreign courts.
In 1501, he visited England with the ambassadors sent to conclude the negotiations for
the King’s marriage, and to witness the ceremony of affiancing the Princess Margaret in
January following ; and atclength, on the 7th of August 1503, the Queen, who had attained
the mature age of fourteen years, made her public eutrance into Edinburgh, amid every
demonstration of national rejoicing. A most minute account of her reception has been
preserved by John Young, Somerset Herald, her attendant, and an eye-witness of the whole;
which exhibits, in an interesting light, the wealth and refinement of the Scottish capital at
this period.’ The King met his fair bride at the castle of Dalkeith, where she was hospitably
entertained by the Earl of Morton, and having greeted her with knightly courtesy,
and passed the day in her company, he returned to hys bed at Edinborg, varey well
countent of so fayr meetyng.” The Queen was attended on her journey by the Archbishop
of York, the Bishop of Durham, the Earl of Surrey, and a numerous and noble retinue ;
and was received, on her near approach to Edinburgh, by the King richly apparelled in
cloth of gold, the Earl of Bothwell bearing the sword of state before him, and attended by
the principal nobility of the c o ~ r t . ~Th e King, coming down from his own horse, (‘k yssed
her in her litre, and mounting on the pallefray of the Qwene, and the said Qwene behind
hym, so rode thorow the towne of Edenburgh.” On their way, they were entertained with
an opposite scene of romantic chivalry-a knight-errant rescuing his dietressed ladye love
from the hands of her ravisher. The royal party were met at the entry to the town by the
Grey Friars-whose monastery, in the Grassmarket, they had to pass-bearing in- procession
their most valued relics, which were presented to the royal pair to kiss ; and thereafter they
were stayed at an embattled barrier, erected for the occasion, at the windows of which
appeared “ angells synging joyously for the comynge of so noble a ladye,” while another
angel presented to her the keys of the city. .I
Dunbar’s Memoira D. Laing. 1834. ’ Leland’s Collectanea, vol. iv. p. 287-300. 8 Ibicl, 287.

Book 10 p. 28
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a2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Deacons mustered the whole burgher force of the city, armed and equipped in warlike array,
and marched at their head to the Links of Leith. From thence the magistrates proceeded
to the town, and ‘( held ane court upon the Tolbuyth stair of Leith, and created bailies,
sergeants, clerks, and demstars,’ and took possession. thereof by virtue of their infeftment
made by the Queen’s grace to them.”’ The superiority thus established, continued to be
maintained, often with despotic rigour, until the independence of Leith was secured by the
Burgh Reform Bill of 1833.
On the 22d of August, the Earl of Murray was invested with the dignity of Regent,
and proclamation of the same made at the Cross of Edinburgh; with great magnificence
and solemnity. In his strong hand, the sceptre was again swayed for a brief period with
such stern rigour, as checked the turbulent factions, and restored, to a great extent, tranquillity
to the people. But his regency was of brief duration; he fell by the hand of
an assassin in the month of January 1570, and the Earl of Lennox succeeded to hie
office. He was buried in St Giles’s Church, and a monument erected to his memory
in the south transept, which remained a point of peculiar attraction in the old fabric,
until it was most barbarously demolished, during the alterations effected on the building
in 1829.
The Castle, at this time, was held by Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, who still adhered
to the Queen’e party ; and he abundantly availed himself of the unsettled state of affairs
to strengaen his position. He had seized all provisions brought into Leith, and raised and
trained soldiers with little interruption. On the 28th of March 1571, he took forcible
possession of St Giles’s Church, and manned the steeple to keep the citizens in awe ; and
again on the 1st of May, the Duke of Chatelherault, having entered the town with 300
men, the men of war in the steeple, ‘( slappit all the pendis of the kirk,’ for keeping
thairof aganis my Lord Regent,” and immediate preparations were made for the defence
of the town. Troops crowded into the city, and others mustered against it, the Regent
being bent on holding a Parliament there. The Estates accordingly assembled in the
Canongate, without the walls, but within the liberties of the city, which extended to
St John’s Cross, and a battery was erected for their protection, upon (‘ the Dow Craig‘
abone the Trinity College, beside Edinburgh, to ding and seige the north-east quarter of
the burgh.’’ ’
The place indicated is obviously that portion of the Calton Hill where the house of the
governor of the jail now stands, a most commanding position for the purpose in view ;
from this an almost constant firing was kept up on the city during the sittings of the Parliament.
The opposite party retaliated by erecting a battery in the Blackfriars (the old
High School Yard), from which they greatly damaged the houses in the Canongate, while
the Nether Bow Port was built up with stone and lime, the more effectually to exclude
them from the usual place of meeting.
Diligent preparations were made for the defence of the town after the Parliament had
withdrawn. On the 6th of June, commandment was given ‘‘ by the lords of the nobility
in Edinburgh, to tir and tak down all the tymmer work of all houses in Leith Wynd and
Le., Judge8 or doomem, latterly hangmen. 9 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 117.
e Diurnal of Oocurrenta, p. 213.
3 Ibid, p. 202.
6 Most probably from the Gaelic A, i c , Black Craig.
i.e., Broke out loap-holes in the arched roof.

Book 10 p. 90
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