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THE LA WNALARKET. 161
note in their day, the moat eminent of whom was the celebrated lawyer, Sir John Lauder,
better known by his judicial title of Lord Fountainhall. This interesting locality is
thus described by the latest biographer of David Hume :-“ Entering one of the doors
opposite the main entrance, the stranger ia sometimes led by a friend, wishing to afford
him an agreeable surprise, down flight after flight of the steps of a stone staircase, and
when he imagines he is descending so far into the bowels of the earth, he emerges on
the edge of a cheerful, crowded thoroughfare, connecting together the Old and New Town ;
the latter of which lies spread before him,-a contrast to the gloom from which he
has emerged. When he looks up to the building containing the upright street through
which he has descended, he sees that vast pile of tall houses standing at t,he head of the
Mound, which creates astonishment in every visitor of Edinburgh. This vast fabric is
built on the declivity of a hill, and thus one entering on the level of the Lawnmarket,
is at the height of several stories from the ground on the side next the New Town. I
have ascertained,” he adds, “ that by ascending the western of the two stairs facing the
entry of James’s Court, to the height of three stories, we arrive at the door of David
Hume’s house, which, of the two doors on that landing-place, is the one towards the left.”
During Hume’s absence in France, this dwelling was occupied by Dr Blair, and on his
leaving it finally for the house he had built for himself in St Andrew Square, at the corner
of St David Street, James Boswell became its tenant. Thither, in August 1773, he
conducted Dr Johnson, from the White Horse Inn, Boyd‘s Close, Canongate, then one of
the chief inns in Edinburgh, where he had found him in a violent passion at the waiter,
for having sweetened his lemonade without the ceremony of a pair of sugar-tongs. The
doctor, in his indignation, threw the lemonade out of the window, and seemed inclined to
send the waiter after it.2
We have often conversed with a gentleman whose mother had been present at a teaparty
in Jamea’s Court, on the occasion of the doctor’s arrival in town, and the impression
produced on her by the society of the illustrious lexicographer was summed up in the very
laconic sentence in which Mrs Boswell had then expressed her opinion of him, that he
was “ a great brute ! ” Margaret, Duchess of Douglas, was one of the party, ‘‘ with all
her diamonds,”-a lady somewhat noted among those of her own rank for her illiteracy,
-but the doctor reserved his attentions during the whole evening almost exclusively for
the Duchess.’ The character thus assigned to him is fully borne out in the lively letters
of Captain Topham, who visited Edinburgh in the following year. He describes the reception
of the doctor, by all classes, as having been of the most flattering kind, and he adds, ‘‘ From all I have been able to learn, he repaid all their attention to him with ill-breeding ;
Burton’s Life of Hume,. vol. ii. p. 136. The western portion of this vast fabric w ad~e stroyed by fire in 1858. On
ita site haa been erected, in the old Scottish style, an equally lofty structure for the Savings Bank and Free Church
offices. ’ Boswell’a Johnson, by Croker, vol. ii. p. 259.
The opinion of Lord Auchmleck about “the Auld Dominie is well known, and the doctor‘s hostess, Xra Boawell,
though assiduous in her attentions to her guest, seems to have coincided in opinion with the wit, who, on hearing him
styled by eome of his admirers a constellation of learning, said, ‘‘ Then he must be the h a Mujor.” Boswell tell4
with his usual naivet4, that his wife exclaimed to him on one occasion, with natural asperity,--“I have seen manya bear
led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear ! ”-Boswell’s Johnson, note, Nov. 27, 1773.
‘‘ An old lady,” BB Dr Johnson describes her, “who tak broaa Scotch with a paralytic voice, and in scarce understood
by her own countrgmen.”-Boswell’s Johnson, by Croker, vol. i p. 209.
X

... the one towards the left.” During Hume’s absence in France , this dwelling was occupied by Dr Blair, and on ...

Book 10 p. 175
(Score 0.6)

232 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of a royal order that every one should give him that title. He was succeeded in the old
mansion by his son, Sir Lewis Craig, and had the satisfaction of pleading as advocate while
he presided on the bench under the title of Lord Wrightslands. The house in Warriston’s
Close was subsequently occupied by Sir George Urquhart, of Cromarty, and still later by
Sir Robert Baird, of Sauchton Hall. But the most celebrated residenter in this ancient
alley is the eminent lawyer and statesman, Sir Archibald Johnston, of Warriston, the
nephew of its older inhabitant, Sir Thomas Craig. He appears from the titles to have
purchased from his cousin, Sir Lewis Craig, the house adjoining his own, and which is
entered by a plain doorway on the west side of the close, immediately below the one last
described. Johnston of Warriston took an early and very prominent share in the resistance
offered to the schemes of Charles I., and in 1638, on the royal edict being proclaimed
from the Cross of Edinburgh, which set at defiance the popular opposition to the hated
Service Book, he boldly appeared on a scaffold erected near it, and read aloud the celebrated
protest drawn up in name of the Tables, while the mob compelled the royal heralds
to abide the reading of this counter-defiance. It is unnecessary to sketch out very minutely
the incidents in a life already familiar to the students of Scottish history. He was
knighted by Charles I., on his secondvisit to Scotland in 1641, and assumed the designation
of Lord Warriston on his promotion to the bench. He was one of the Scottish Commissioners
sent to mediate between Charles I. and the English Parliament ; and after filling
many important offices he sat by the same title as a peer in Cromwell’s abortive House of
Lords ; and, on the death of the Protector, he displayed his keen opposition to the restoration
of the Stuarts by acting as President of the Committee of Safety under Richard Cromwell.
On the restoration of Charles 11. he became an object of special animosity, and having
boldly refused to concur in the treaty of Breda, he escaped to Hamburgh, from whence he
afterwards retired to Rouen in France. There he was delivered up to Charles by the French
King, and after a tedious imprisonment, both in the Tower of London and the old Tolbooth
of Edinburgh, he was executed with peculiar marks of indignity, on the spot where
he had so courageously defied the royal proclamation twenty-five years before. His own
nephew, Bishop Burnet, has furnished a very characteristic picture of the hardy and politic
statesman, in which he informs us he was a man of such energetic zeal that he rarely allowed
himself more than three hours sleep in the twenty-four. When we consider the leading
share he took in all the events of that memorable period, and his intimate’intercourse with
the most eminent men of his time, we cannot but view with lively interest the decayed and
deserted mansion where he has probably entertained such men as Henderson, Argyle,
Rothes, Lesley, Monck, and even Cromwell ; and the steep and straitened alley that still
associates his name with the crowded lands of the Old Town.’
The following quaint and biting epitaph, penned by some zealous cavalier on the death
The importance which waa attached to this close 88 one of the most fahionable localities of Edinburgh during the
last century appears from a propoaitiou addressed by the Earl of Morton to the Lord Provost in 1767, in which,
among other conditions which he demands, under the threat of opposing the extension of the royalty to the
grounda on which the New Town is built, he requires that a timber bridge shall be thrown over the North Loch,
from the foot of Warriston’s Close to Bereford‘s Parks, and the public Register Offices of Scotland, built at the coat of
the town, “on the highest level ground of Robertson’s and Wood‘e farms.” To this the magistrates reply by stating,
among other objections, that the value of the property in the close alone is f,ZO,OOO !-Proposition by the Earl of
Yorton, fol. 5 pp.

... Hamburgh, from whence he afterwards retired to Rouen in France . There he was delivered up to Charles by the ...

Book 10 p. 252
(Score 0.6)

B I 0 G RAP €I I CA L S K ET C H E S. 175
the Crown. This consoling information Was received by Lord Clare in 1769, with a passport
from the British Government for me to meet my family in Denmark, and a farther promiseo f
procuring me a pardon when there should be a peace with France.
6‘ Lord Clare died between the time of the signature of the preliminaries and that of the
definite peace of 1803, and I was left without a Patron. &fr. Thomas Stet&, whose schoo~-fe,ow
and fellow-collegian 1 had been, having heard these declarations, was induced by a mutnal friend
to adopt my cause, and he followed it UP with a zeal I can nerer forget. When tile French
armies were approaching Hamburgh, where I then resided with my family, he procured for me
a promise of a pardon, if I would accept of it on the condition of never setting my foot in
land without the permission of the Irish Government, which was to be expressed in the body of
the pardon, niider a large penalty. I accepted of the terms with thankfulness, and embarked
for England. Mr. Steele procured the instrument, to be immediately drawn up alld laid before
the Chancellor to receive the great soal. The Chancellor refused to put the seal to such an
instrument ; and it was above a year after-during which time it was found that the pardon
must be under the great seal of Ireland, where the treason was committed-that he gave as i(
reason for his refusal, that it would have put it in my power, on the payment of the pardon sum,
to have gone to Ireland whenever I pleased.
“ I then petitioned the Irish Government, stating the circumstances of the case, and I received
an unconditional pardon. But the same condition of not residing or going to Ireland,
without the permission of the Irish Government, was implied. In the summer 1805 I appeared
in the Court of King’s Bench here, and pleaded my pardon.’ I returned immediately after to
England, according to promise. Shortly after, my father died ; and I applied to Lord Castlereagh
to procure me a permission to pass a fern months on my family estate, to regulate my
affairs. He was so good as to make the application ; but before Lord Hardwicke’s answer arnved
a change of ministry took place ; and I then applied for a permission to reside in Ireland, which
was granted; and I have lived here ever since, most sincerely anxious to promote peace,
harmony, and submission to the laws and constitution of Britain.”
From this period fib. Rowan continued to reside in domestic quiet-enjoying
the respect of his fellow-citizens, and the entire confidence of Government.
He sat for many years on the bench as a magistrate ; and he and his family
were frequently to be met, “in dresses singularly splendid,” at the Castle drawingrooms,
“where they were well received by the viceroy, and many of the
nobility and gentry.” Mr. Rowan died at his house in Holles Street, Dublin, on
the 6th November 1834, in the eighty-fourth year of his age-having outlived
his eldest son, Captain Gawin William Hamilton, C.B., so much distinguished as
a naval officer, and who expired ‘‘ at Rathcoffey, County Kildare, the seat of his
aged father,” on the 17th August previous, in the fiftieth year of his age. hfr.
Frederick Hamilton Rowan, a younger son-a midshipman in the navy-was
killed at the battle of Palamos in 18 10.
The following account of hfr. Hamilton Rowan in his old age, by a gentleman
of this city, appeared in the Edinburgh Literary Journal for November
1831 :-
I “In the Court of King% Bench, Dublin, on the 1st of July, the outlam against Mr.
Hamilton Rowan wa8 reversed ; and, $eading his Majesty’s pardon, he was discharged ; previous
to which he made a very handsome speech, in which he expressed his gratitude to his Majesty for
his clemency, by which he was enabled Once more to meet his wife and children, who had not only
been unmolested, but had been protected and cherished when he was in a foreign He
regretted with much sensibility, the of his former life, and the violent meaureS he had
pursued, and promised to atone for them to his country and his family, W his future loyal conduet.”
-Scots Mugw’n8, 1805.

... me a pardon when there should be a peace with France . 6‘ Lord Clare died between the time of the ...

Book 9 p. 234
(Score 0.59)

LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 357
hold still frowns above the crag that rises from the eastern bank of Lochend; and after
the royal grant of the Harbour to the Town of Edinburgh by Robert I., Sir Robert
Logan of Restalrig, Knight, the baronial lord of Leith, appears as a successful competitor
with the magistrates of Edinburgh for the right of road-way and other privileges claimed
by virtue of the royal grant. The estate of Restalrig extended from the outskirts of the
Canongate to the Water of Leith, including the Calton, or Wester Restalrig, as it was
styled ; but Logan was easily induced to sell the rights of his unfortunate vassals to their
jealous rivals. The Logans, however, continued long afterwards to possess nearly the
whole surrounding property, and thereby to maintain their influence and superiority in
the burgh) where they appear to have always had their town mansion. The following
allusion to it, in the reign of Queen Mary, by a contemporary, shows its dignity and
importance, at a period when a greater number of the nobility and higher clergy were
residing in Leith than had ever been at any earlier date. ‘ I Vpoun the xviij of May 1572,
thair come to Leith ane ambassatour fra the King of France, nameit Monsieur Lacrok, a
man of good knawlege, to intreat for peace betuix the pairties; at the quhilk tyme of
his entrie, the hail1 inhabitaris and remanaris within the burgh of Edinbnrgh wer in thair
armour wpone the fieldis in sicht of thair aduersaris, quha dischargit fyve peices of
artailzerie at thame, and did na skaith. Vpoun the xxj day, the foirnameit ambassatour
come to Edinburgh Castell, met be George Lord Seytoun, at quhais entrie certane
mvnitoun wes dischargit; quha past the same nycht to Leith agane, and lugeit in Mr
Johne Loganes lugeing thair.”’ The whole possessions of this ancient family were at
length forfeited in the reign of James VI. by the turbulent baron, Robert Logan of
Restalrig, being involved in the Gowrie conspiracy; though his share in that mysterious
plot was not discovered till he was in his grave. The forfeited estates were transferred to
the Elphinstons of Balmerinoch, new favourites who were rising to wealth and power on
the spoils of the church and the ruin of its adherents.
One of the descendants of the barons of Restalrig appears to have retrieved in some
degree the failing fortunes of the family by a gallant coup-&-main, achieved against a
host of opponents,. A gentleman in Leith has now in his possession the marriage-contract
between Logan and Isaballa Fowler, an heiress whom tradition &rms to have
been the celebrated Tibbie Fowler 0’ the glen, renowned in Scottish song, whose penny
siller proved so tempting a bait that the lady’s choice involved the defeat of forty disappointed
wooers1 With Tibbie’s siller he appears to have built himself a handsome
mansion at the head of the Sheri€F Brae, which was demolished some years since to
make way for the Church and.Alms Houses erected by Sir John Gladstone of Fasque,
Eart. It was decorated with a series of sculptured dormer windows, one of which bore
the initials I. L., with the date 1636.’
Among the antiquities of Leith, as might be anticipated, there are none of so early a
character as those we have described in the ancient capital. Its ecclesiastical establishments
apparently claim no existence prior to the fifteenth century ; while the oldest date
we have found on any private building is 1573. It is nevertheless a quaint, old-fashioned
Diurnal of Occurrenta, p. 263. ’ Campbell’s Hiat. of Leith, p. 315, Gemye, grandson of Robert Logan, who waa forfeited, married Isabel Fowler,
daughter to Ludovick Fowler of Burncastla-Nkbet’s Heraldry, VOL i. p. 202.

... come to Leith ane ambassatour fra the King of France , nameit Monsieur Lacrok, a man of good knawlege, ...

Book 10 p. 392
(Score 0.59)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 381
sense of Dundas, would have been unable much longer to have withstood, when
the recovery of the King happily removed them from their difEculties.
The Chief Justice stood opposed to the administration of Pitt until the
violent nature of the Revolution in France induced him and other individuals
of his party to join the ministerial ranks. He was almost immediately invested
with the high office of Lord Chancellor ; and to the influence which- he thus
acquired in the councils of his Majesty are to be attributed many of those
vigorous and decisive measures which were subsequently adopted by the
Government.
Lord Loughborough held the Chancellorship till 1801, when he was created
Earl of Rosslyn, with a remainder to his two nephews ; and, nearly worn out
with the fatigues of a long and active career, he retired altogether from public
life, carrying with him the highest esteem of his sovereign, by whom he continued
to be honoured with every mark of respect. “ During the brief interval
allowed to him between the theatre of public business and the grave, he paid
a visit to Edinburgh, from which he had been habitually absent for nearly fifty
years. With a feeling quite natural, perhaps, but yet hardIy to be expected in
one who had passed through so many of the more elevated of the artificial
scenes of life, he caused himself to be carried in a chair to an obscure part of
the Old Town, where he had resided during the most of his early years. He
expressed a particular anxiety to know if a set of holes in the paved court
before his father‘s house, which he had used for some youthful sport, continued
in existence ; and, on finding them still there, it was said that the aged statesman
was moved almost to tears.’”
His demise is thus announced
in the journals of the period :-
“At his seat at Baylis, near Salthill, in Berkshire, aged seventy-two, the Right Hon. Alexander
Wedderhurn, Earl of Rosslyn, Baron of Loughborough, in Leicestershire, and Baron Loughborough,
in Surrey. His lordship had been long subject to the gout ; but for some weeks past he was so much
recovered as to visit round the neighbourhood j and on Tuesday night, January 1, accompanied the
Countess to her Majesty’s f6te at Frogmore.
“ Next morning his lordship rode on horseback to visit several of the neighbouring gentlemen ; and,
after his return to Baylis, went in his carriage to Bulstrode to visit the Duke of Portland, and
returned home apparently in perfect health. At six o’clock, as his lordship sat at table, he was
suddenly seized with a fit of the apoplectic kind, and fell speechless in his chair. At twelve o’clock
he expired.
“ His lordship married, 31st December 1767, Betty Anne, only daughter and sole heiress of
John Dawson, Esq. of Morley, in Yorkshire, who died 15th February 1781. He had no issue. His
second lady, whom he married 12th September 1782, vas the youngast daughter of William Viscount
Courtenay, by whom he had a son, horn 2d October 1793, and since dead. Ry a second patent,
October 31, 1795, he was created Baron Loughborongh, in the county of Surrey, with remainders
severally and successively to Sir James St. Clair Erskine, Bart., and to John Erskine, his brother ;
and, by tr patent, April 21, 1801, Earl of Rosslyn, in the county of Mid-Lothian, to him and his
heirs-male, with remainder to the heirs-male of Dame Janet Erskine, deceased, his sister. He
was succeeded in the title by his nephew, Sir Jam= St. Clair Erskine, Bart. The remains of the
Earl were interred in St. Paul’s Cathedral. ”
His lordship died on the 2d January 1805.
In private life Lord Loughborough was esteemed a most agreeable com-
Traditions of Edinburgh.--The house, which consists of four stories, and is dated 1679, was
situated in Elphinstone’s Court, South Gray’s Close, oppotlite the ancient Mint

... of Pitt until the violent nature of the Revolution in France induced him and other individuals of his party to ...

Book 8 p. 531
(Score 0.59)

High Street.] U?ARRISTON?S CLOSE. 223
the floors as a picture gallery or exhibition, a new
leature in the Edinburgh of the seventeenth century,
and long before any such idea had been
conceived in France, England, or any other
country. Some of his best works were in possession
of the late Andrew Bell, engraver, the originator
of the ?? Encyclopzdia Britannica,? who married
his granddaughter. ?For some years after the
Revolution,? says Pinkerton, ? he was the only
painter in Scotland, and had a very great run of
business. This brought him into a hasty and
.incorrect manner.? So
here, in the Advocates? -* ~ Close, in the dull and
anorose Edinburgh of
the seventeenth cendury,
was the fashionable
lounge of the dilettanti,
.the resort of rank and
beauty-a quarter from
which the haut ton of the
,present day would shrink
with aversion.
He died at Prestonpans
in the year 1730,
in his eighty-fifth year,
after having witnessed
as startling a series of
political changes as ever
occurred in a long lifetime.
Taking the ancient
.alleys seriatim, Roxburghe
Close comes
next, numbered as 341,
High Street, and. so
- -_
-- = --_= -- -+-
next we come to in descending the north side of
the street, remains only in name, the houses on
both sides being entirely new, and its old steep
descent broken at intervals by convenient flights
of steps; but until r868 it was nearly unchanged
froin its ancient state, some relics of which still
remain.
It had handsome fronts of carefully-polished
ashlar, with richly-decorated doorways with pious
legends on their lintels, to exclude witches, fairies,
and all manner of evil ; there were ornate dormer
named, it may COnfi- HOUSE OF LORD ADVOCATE STEWART, AT THE FOOT
dently be supposed OF ADVOCATES? CLOSE, w e s ~ SIDE.
(though it cannot be
proved as a fact) from having contained the town
residence of some ancient Earl of Roxburghe.
All its ancient features have disappeared, save a
door built up with a handsome cut legend in
raised Roman letters :-?WHATEVER ME BEFALL
I THANK THE LORD OF ALL. J. M., 1586.? This
is said to have been the dwelling-place of the
Roxburghe family, but by tradition only. If true,
it takes the antiquary back to the year in which
.Sir Walter Kerr of Cessford (ancestor of the Dukes
.of Roxburghe), ? baron of Auld-Roxburghe, the
.castle thereof and the lands of Auldtonbum, &c.,?
died at a great age, the last survivor, perhaps, of
the affray in which Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch
gerished at Edinburgh.
Warriston?s Close (anciently called Bruce?s), the
windows on the roofs
with steep crow-stepped
gables, black with the
smoke and storms of
centuries.
MIHI . SEMPER. DEUS.
1583,? was the legend
which first caught the
eye above a door of a
tenement on the west ?
side, long occupied bj
James Murray, Lord
Philiphaugh, raised to
the bench November Ist,
1689, without having
any predecessor, being
0n.e of the set of judges
nominated after the Re- ,
volution. After being
chosen member of Parliament
for Selkirk in
1681, he had become
an object of special
jealousy to the Scottish
Cavalier Government.
He was imprisoned in
1684, and under terror
? QUI . ERrr . ILLE .
of being tortured in the iron boots, before the
Privy Council in the high Chamber below the
Parliament House, he gave evidence against those
who were concerned in the Rye House Plot.
Lord Philiphaugh had the character of being an
upright judge, but the men of his time never forgot
or forgave the weakness that made him stoop to
save his life, though many of them might no doubt
have acted in the same way, the Scottish Privy
Council of that time being a species of Star
Chamber that did not stand on trifles.
Farther down the close was another edifice, the
lintel of which like some others that were in the
same locality, has been with great good taste
rebuilt, as a lintel, into the extensive printing and
publishing premises of the Messrs. Chambers, a

... long before any such idea had been conceived in France , England, or any other country. Some of his best ...

Book 2 p. 223
(Score 0.59)

234 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
for all the world.”1 It was the fate of this old mansion of the Earls of Angus to be
linked at its close in the misfortunes of a Douglas. It formed during last century the
banking-house of Douglas, Heron, & Company, whose failure spread dismay and suffering
through a widely-scattered circle, involving both high and low in its ruin. The Chapel of
Ease in New Street, erected in 1794, now partly occupies the site. Several other interesting
relics of the olden time were destroyed to make way for this ungainly ecclesiastical
edifice. One of these appears from the titles to have been the residence of Henry Kinloch,
a wealthy burgess of the Canongate, to whose hospitable care the French ambassador was
consigned by Queen Mary in 1565. An old diarist of the period relates, that ‘‘ Vpoun
Monunday the ferd day of Februar, the seir of God foirsaid, thair come ane ambassatour
out of the realm of France, callit Monsieur Rambollat, with xxxvj horse in tryne, gentilmen,
throw Ingland, to Halyrudhous, quhair the King and Queenis Majesties wes for the
tyme, accumpanyit with thair nobillis. And incontinent efter his lychting the said ambassatour
gat presens of thair graces, and thairefter depairtit to Henrie Kynloches lugeing
in the Cannogait besyid Edinburgh.” A few days afterwards, ‘( The Kingis Majestie
[Lord Darnley], accumpanyit with his nobillis in Halyrudhous, ressavit the ordour of
knychtheid of the cokill fra the said Rambollat, with great magniilcence. And the samin
nycht at evin, our soueranis maid ane banket to the ambassatour foirsaid, in the auld
chappell of Halyrudhous, quhilk wes reapparrellit with fyne tapestrie, and hung m a p s -
centlie, the said lordis maid the maskery efter supper in ane honrable manner. And
vpoun the ellevint day of the said moneth, the King and Quene in lyik manner bankettit
the samin ambassatour ; and at evin our soueranis maid the maskrie and mumschance,
in the quhilk the Queenis grace, and all her maries and ladies wer all cledin men’s apperrell;
and everie ane of thame presentit ane quhingar, bravelie and maist artiticiallie made and
embroiderit with gold, to the said ambassatour and his gentlemen.” * On the following
day the King and Queen were entertained, along with the ambassador and his suite, at a
splendid banquet provided for them in the Castle by the Earl of Mar ; and on the second
day thereafter, Monsieur Rambollat bade adieu to the Court of Holyrood. It is to be
regretted that an accurate description cannot now be obtained of the burgher mansion
which was deemed a fitting residence for one whom the Queen delighted to honour,
and for whose entertainment such unwonted masquerades were enacted. It was probably
quite as homelya dwelling as those of the same period that still remain in the neighbourhood.
The sole memorial of it that now remains is the name of the alley running
between the two ancient front lands previously described, through which the ambassador
and his noble visitors must have passed, and which is still called Kinloch’s Close after
their burgher host.
New Street, which is itself a comparatively recent feature of the old burgh, is a curious
sample of a fashionable modern improvement, prior to the bold scheme of the New Town.
It still presents the aristocratic feature of a series of detached and somewhat elegant mansions.
Its last century occupants were Lord Kames-whose house is at the head of the
street on the east side-Lord Hailes, Sir Philip and Lady Betty Anstruther, and Dr
Hume of Godscroft’s History of the Douglases, p. 432. ’ Diurnal of Occurrenta, pp. 86, 87. There appears, indeed (Maitlaud, p. 149), to have been another Kinloch‘s
lod,&g near the palace, but the correapondenoe of name and data Beems to prove the above to be the one referred to.

... foirsaid, thair come ane ambassatour out of the realm of France , callit Monsieur Rambollat, with xxxvj horse ...

Book 10 p. 308
(Score 0.59)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 341
and abusive language took place-bloody encounters ensued-and boats were captured on both
sides. It would require the pen of a Dnunmond (Hawthornden) to describe in a proper manner
the many bloody conflicts of these sons of Neptune, in which’as much enterprise and heroism
were frequently displayed as would have done honour to a more important cause. A scarcitg of
fish at first gave rise to these disputes ; but it would appear that the combatants afterwards fought
not so much for oysters as for victory. And indeed, what with vinegar on the one part, and pepper
on the other, the oysters, upon the whole, were highly seasoned.
‘‘ The Newhaven fishers contend that the community of Edinburgh, whose tacksmen they are,
have the sole right to the Green Scalp on the breast of Iuehkeith, and to the Beacon Grounds lying
off the Black Rocks. To instruct this right they produce a notarial copy of a charter from King
James VI., and likewise a charter from Charles I., 1636, whereinfihings are expressly mentioned.
There was also produced a charter in favour of Lady Greenwich,inwhichfihings are comprehended.
“On the other hand, the Prestonpans fishers contended that the Newhaven men have
encroached on the north shores belonging to the Earl of Morton and burgh of Burntisland, of
which they are tacksmen. They accordingly produced an instrument of seisin, dated Nov. 10,
1786, in virtue of which his lordship wm infeft, inter alia, in the oyster scalps in question.
They also condescended on a charter granted by King James VI., 1585, to the town of Burntisland,
which is on record, and which they say establishes their right. They further contend
that the Magistrates of Edinburgh have produced no proper titles to prove their exclusive right
to the scalps they have set in tack to the Newhaven fishermen. The charter of King James VI.
was resigned by the town in the reign of Charles I. ; and the new charter granted by the latter
in 1636 gives no right to the oyster scalps in dispute. The word Jshings, in general, is not
contained in the dispositive clause, but only occurs in the Tenendas, like hawkings, huntings,
or other words of style, which is of no signification.
“ After various representations to the Judge-Admiral, his lordship pronounced an interlocutor
ordaining both parties to produce their respective rights to these fishings, and prohibiting them
from dredging oysters in any of the scalps in dispute till the issue of the cause.
“A petition was presented to his lordship on the 6th January last [1790], by the Newhaven
fishers, stating that, by the late interdict, they find themselves deprived of the means of support
ing themselves and families, while the Prestonpans fishers are pursuing their usual employment
by dredging on other scalps than those in dispute ; and praying his lordship would recal or
modify said interdict. Which petition being served on the agent for the east-country fishers,
his lordship, by interlocutor of the 5th February last, allowed both parties to dredge oysters upon
the scalps they respectively pretended right to ; and before going to fish, to take with them any
of the six sworn pilots at Leith, to direct each party where they should fish, to prevent them
from encroaching on each other‘s scalps, or taking up the seedlings.’ ”
This cause was finally decided by the Judge-Admiral against the Prestonpans
fishermen ; but no damages were awarded, and each party had to pay their
own expenses.
On the breaking out of hostilities with France, the danger which threatened
the coast had the effect of diverting the attention of the Newhaven men from
their local quarrels ; and they were the first to offer their services as a marine
force to guard against the encroachments of the enemy. This well-timed
manifestation of public spirit was so highly appreciated, that on the 10th of
May 1796, the president of their Society, at a meeting convened fofthe purpose,
was presented with a handsome silver medal and chain, in presence of several
gentlemen, by the Duke of Buccleuch, who delivered an appropriate speech on
the occasion. On one side, the medal contained the following inscription:-
“ In testimony of the brave and patriotic offer of the fishermen of Newhaven
to defend the coasts against the enemy, this honorav mark of approbation was
voted by the county of Mid-Lothian, November 2, 1796.” On the reverse side

... expenses. On the breaking out of hostilities with France , the danger which threatened the coast had the ...

Book 9 p. 453
(Score 0.59)

328 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
is near three inches taller than I am ; he has constantly enjoyed a robust constitution, and has still
strength and vigour much above his size and age ; he has lived a long time with the Castelane
Inowloska, who honours him with her esteem and bounty; and finding in him ability and sense
enough, has entrusted him with the stewardship and nianagement of her affairs.
“ My second brother was of a weak and delicate frame ; he died at twenty-six, being at that
time five feet ten inches high. Those who came into the world after me were alternately tall and
short : among them was a female, who died of the small-pox at the age of twenty-two. She was at
that time only two f?et two inches high, and to a lovely figure united an admirably well-proportioned
shape.
“ It was easy to jndge, from the very instant of my birth, that I should be extremely short, being
at that time only eight inches high ; yet, notwithstanding this diminutive proportion, I was neither
weak nor puny : on the contrary, my mother, who suckled me, has often declared that none of her
children gave her less trouble. I walked and was able to speak at about the age common to other
infants, and my growth was progressively as follows :-At one year, I was 11 inches high, English
measure-at three, 1 foot 2 inches-at six, 1 foot 5 inches-at ten, 1 foot 9 inches-at fifteen, 2 feet
I inch-at twenty, 2 feet 4 inches-at twenty-five, 2 feet 11 inches-at thirty, 3 feet 3 inches. This
is the size’ at which I remained fixed, without having afterwards increased half-a-quarter of an inch ;
by which the assertion of some naturalists proves false, viz., that dwarfs grow during all their lifetime.
If this instance were insufficient, I could cite that of my brother, who, like me, grew till
thirty ; and, like me, at that age, ceased to grow taller.”
The adventures of Boruwlaski, according to his own account, are romantic
and interesting. His family having been ruined, he was taken under the protection
of some persons of rank in his own country; but he lost their favour,
when about twenty years of age, by falling in love with, and marrying a young
lady of beauty and merit, by whom he had several children, and who accompanied
him to Eritain.
For some years after his marriage, the Count was chiefly supported by
presents from his illustrious friends and patrons, together with an annuity given
him by the King of Poland. He also received considerable emolument from
the concerts which were set on foot for his benefit at several courts in Germany
and elsewhere ; but these resources proving rather precarious, he listened to the
joint advice of Sir R. Murray Keith (then British ambassador at Vienna),
the Prince de Kaunitz, and the Baron de Breteuil, to pay a visit to England,
where they assured him he was likely to meet with the most generous reception;
and he was promised letters of recommendation to the greatest personages at
The Count was taller than many of the dwarfs that had preceded him ; for instance, a very
diminutive person thus announces, or causes to be announced, his arrival in Edinburgh in 1735 :-
“We are assured, that last week one David Fearn came to town, and has taken up his residence in
Kennedy’s Close. €le was born in the shire of Ross ; aged twenty-six ; is but thirty inches high,
yet thirty-five inches round ; has all the human members, only his hands resemble the feet of a seal,
and his feet those of a bear ; and can dance a hornpipe to admiration.”-But Fearn and Boruwlaski
are giants compared to “the remarkable dwarf Baby, who lived and died in the Palace of Stanislauu,
at Lunenville.” He “was born in France, in 1741, of poor parents, and weighed when born only a
pound and a quarter ; he was brought on a plate to be christened; and his cradle was his father’s
slipper ; his mouth being too little for the nipple, he was suckled by a she-goat : at eighteen months
old he began to articulate a few words, and at two years old he could walk alone ; at six years old
he was fifteen inches high, and he weighed just thirteen pounds ; he was handsome, however, and
well-proportioned, but his faculties were rather smaller than his frame-he could be taught nothing.
He was not, however, without anger, and even love influenced him. At sixteen Baby was twenty
inches high, and here his growth stopped. Soon after this period old age made terrible havoc on
his person ; his strength, his beauty, and his spirits forsook him, and he became as much an object
of pity for his deformity as for his diminutiveness. At the age of twenty-two he could scarce walk
fifty yards, and soon after died of a fever in extreme old age.

... of Stanislauu, at Lunenville.” He “was born in France , in 1741, of poor parents, and weighed when born ...

Book 8 p. 460
(Score 0.58)

354 BIOGRAPHICAf, SKETCHES.
stated that Downie accompanied Watt to his place at the W-ater-of-Leith, when
the order was given for the pikes. William Brown said he made fifteen
pikes by Watt’s order, to whom he delivered them ; and that, on a line from
Watt, Downie paid him twenty-two shillings and sixpence for the fifteen.
Margaret Whitecross, who had been at one time a servant of Mr. Downie, on
being shown one of the pikes, “declared that she saw a similar one in Mr.
Downie’s house one morning when she was dressing the dining-room : that Mr.
Downie had come home late the previous night : that Mr. Downie’s son, Charles,
came out of an adjoining closet, where he slept, as soon as he heard her in the
room, and took it away ; and at this time he had only part of his clothes on, and
did not seem to have any other business in that room: that she remembers
hearing Mrs. Downie ask her husband what he had done with the large dividingknije
which was found in the dining-room?-to which he answered, that he had
locked it by : that she never heard her master speak of having such weapons to
defend himself; and when she saw it, she thought she never saw such a dividing-
knife before.” A verdict of guilty was returned on both occasions ; and
sentence of death passed upon the prisoners.
Watt suffered the extreme punishment of the law according to the form
usual in treasonable cases.‘ Previous to his execution, he made a confession of
the extent and purport of the measures contemplated by the Committees.
Downie was pardoned, on condition of banishing himself from the British
strength. The play--“ Which is the Man ”-was allowed to go on to the end without interruption.
A few minutes of ominous silence followed, when a voice at last called out for I‘ God save the King,”
and “ off hats.” A general melee ensued, which put an
entire stop to the husiness of the stage, and created the utmost alarm. “ It is difficult to say,”
observe3 the Couraiit of that period, “ which party made the first attack ; it was furious beyond
exaniple ; each party had prepared for the contest by arming themselves with bludgeons ; and while
the affray lasted, the most serious consequences were apprehended, as both parties fought with
determined resolution, Many dreadful blows were given, which brought several individuals to the
ground; and the wounded were in danger of being trampled to death in the general confnsion.
The party, however, who insisted on keeping on their lists, being at length overcome, left the house,
and the wounded were carried out. A considerable
mob was congregated ont of doors anxiously waiting the result.
The execntion of Watt, which took place at the west end of the Luckenbooths, was conducted
with much solemnity. He was conveyed from the Castle on a black-painted hurdle, drawn by a
white horse, amid a procession of the magistracy, guarded by a strong military force, The prisoner,
who wag assisted in his devotions by the Rev. Principal Baird, exhibited a picture of the most
abject dejection. He was wrapped in a great-coat, a red nightcap, (which, on the platform, he
exchanged for a white one), with a round hat, his stockings hanging loose, and hi3 whole appearance
wretched in the extreme. He wax about the age of thirty-six, and was the natural aon of 8
gentleman of fortune and respectability, in the county of ‘Angus, but, as is usiial, took the name of
his mother. At about ten years of age he was sent to Perth, where he received a good education ;
and at sixteen he engaged himself with a lawyer ; but, from Home religious scrnples, took a disgust
at his employment ; and, removing to Edinburgh, was engaged as a clerk to Mr. E. Balfour, bookseller
(whose shop was afterwards occupied hy the Journal Office), with whom he lived for mome
pears, without any other complaint than the smallness of his salary. Being desirous of becoming a
partner of the business, he, by the inflnence of some friends, prevailed on his father to advance
money for that purpose ; and then made proposals to his employer ; but his oEer was rejected.
Having money in posaession, he entered into the wine and spirit trade, and for some time had
tolerable success ; but waa ruined, it was said, on the commencement of the war with France.
This seemed to be the signal for attack.
The pit was the principal scene of action.”

... ruined, it was said, on the commencement of the war with France . This seemed to be the signal for attack. The ...

Book 8 p. 494
(Score 0.58)

206 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
home. He not only took a deep interest in thes
matters, but he studied them with his usual enthu
siasm, and personally superintended every detail.
James IV., one of the most splendid monarch
of his race and time, not only conversed free!
with his mariners at Leith, but he nobly rewardec
the most skilful and assiduous, and visited fami
liarly the houses of his merchants and sea officers
He practised with his artillerymen, often loading
pointing, and discharging the guns, and delightec
in having short voyages with old Andrew Wood o
the Bartons, and others. ?The consequences o
such conduct were highly favourable to him; hc
became as popular with his sailors as he was be
loved by the nobility; his fame was caqied bj
them to foreign countries : thus shipwrights, cannon
founders, and foreign artisans of every description
flocked to his court from France, Italy, and thc
Low Countries.?
In 1512, when James was preparing for hi:
struggle with England to revenge the fall of AndreB
Barton, the retention of his queen?s dowry, and
other insults by Henry-when all Scotland resounded
with. the din of warlike preparation, and,
as the ? Treasurer?s Accounts ? show, ?he castles in
the interiqr were deprived of their guns to arm the
shipping-James, on the 6th of August, held a
naval review of his whole fleet at Leith, an event
which caused no small excitement in England.
Just three months before this De la Mothe, the
French Ambassador (who afterwards fell at Flodden),
coming to Scotland with a squadron, on his
own responsibility, and before war was declared,
attacked a fleet of English merchantmen, sunk
three and captured seven, which he brought into
Leith.
Lord Dacre, who was on a mission at the Scottish
court, promised Henry to get these ships
restored, and to prevent reprisals ; the Bartons, Sir
Alexander Matheson, Sir David Falconer, and other
commanders, were sent to sea to look out for
English ships.
In 1513 La Mothe came again with another
squadron, containing much munition of war for the
Scottish fleet, and arriving off Leith in a furious
storm, he fired a salute of cannon, the object of
which seems to have been mistaken, as it made
every man rush to arms in Edinburgh, where the
common bell was rung for three hours.?
James V. strove to follow in the footsteps of his
father, as the ?Treasurer?s Accounts ? show. In 1539,
? ane silver quhissel,? with a long chain, was given
by his command ?? to the Patroune of the ships.?
It weighed eleven ounces and three-quarters, and
was then the badge of an admiral, as it is now
that of a boatswain. In 1540 payments were made
fur wood cut at Hawthornden for building the
king?s ships, and also for sixteen ells of red and
yellow taffeta (the royal colours) for naval ensigns,
delivered to Captain John Barton of Leith j while
:L sum was paid to Murdoch Stirling for making
ovens for the royal shipping.
In 1511 Florence Carntoune was keeper of
them and their ?gear,? Among them were the
Salamander, the Unicorn, and the LittZe Bark-to
such as these had the armaments of James IV.
dwindled away. John Keir, captain of the first
named, had yearly fifteen pounds. John Brown,
captain of the Great Lyonne, while at Bordeaux on
the king?s service, was paid eighty pounds ; and
the ?fee? of Archibald Penicoke, captain of the
Unicorn, was ten pounds one shilling.
During the wars with Continental countries subsequent
to the union of the crowns, Scotland had
vessels of war, called generally frigates, which are
referred to in the Register of the Privy Council,
Qc., and which seem to have been chiefly named
zfter the royal palaces and castles; and during
these wars Leith furnished many gallant privateers.
But in those far-away times when Scotland was
yet a separate kingdom and the Union undreamt
3f, Leith presented a brisk and busy aspect-an
ispect which, on its commercial side, has been
irigorously maintained up to the present day, and
which is well worthy of its deeply intercsting his.
orical past.

... artisans of every description flocked to his court from France , Italy, and thc Low Countries.? In 1512, when ...

Book 6 p. 206
(Score 0.57)

240 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
When the Company of Merchant Tailors in
London requested James to become a member of
their guild, he declined, on the plea that he ?was
already free of another company,? and referred to the
similar corporation in his native capital, but added
that his son Henry, the Prince of Wales, would
avail himself of the honour, and that he himself
would be present at the ceremony.
From ?? Guthrie?s Memoirs? we learn that in
1643 a solemn and important meeting was held in
the Tailor?s Hall between the conservators of peace
with England and commission of the General
Assembly.
St. Magdalene?s Chapel,
and the modern Mary?s
Chapel in Bell?s Wynd,
form the chief halls of the
remaining corporations of
Edinburgh that have long
survived the purposes for
which they were originally
incorporated.
In August, 1758, there
occurred a dreadful fire in
Carrubber?sClose, onwhich
occasion four tenements
containing fifteen famiiies
were burned down, and
many personswere severely
injured.
Towards the end of the
eighteenth century gentility
was still lingering
here, for in the Edizburgi
Adverfiser for 1783 we
read of the house of Stuart
Barclay of Collairniehaving
a drawing-room
in its ruins thirty-five persons, and shooting out
into the broad street a mighty heap of rubbish. A
few of the inmates almost miraculously escaped
destruction from the peculiar way in which some of
the strong oak beams and fragments of flooring
fell over them; and among those who did so
was a lad, whose sculptured effigy, as a memorial
of the event, now decorates a window of the new
edifice, with a scroll, whereon are carved the
words he was heard uttering piteously to those
who were digging out the killed and wounded:
?? Heave awa, lads, I?m no deid yet !?
ST. PAUL?S CHAPEL, CARRIJBBER?S CLOSE.
- -
measuring Igft. by 14ft.-being for sale; and also
. that belonging to Neil Campbell of Dantroon, at
the foot of the close.
At the head of Bailie Fyfe?s Close, No. 107,
High Street, there stood a stately old stone tenement,
having carved above one of its upper
windows a shield bearing two mullets in chief, with
a crescent in base-the arms of Trotter, with the
initials I. T. I. M., and the date 1612. Elsewhere
there was another shield, having the arms of the
Par?ieys of Yorkshire impaled with those of Hay,
and the legend Be. Pasienf , in. the. Lord, and to
this edifice a peculiar interest is attached.
After standing for close on 250 years, it sank
suddenly-and without any premonitory symptoms
or warning-to the ground with a terrible crash at
midnight on the 10th of November, 1861, burying
In Chalmer?s Close an
old house was connected
in a remote way with
the famous Lord Francis
Jeffrey, whose grandfather
dwelt there when in the
trade as a barber and periwig
maker, and the old
close is said to have been
in his boyhood a favourite
haunt of the future judge
and critic.
In large old English
letters the name JOHN
HOPE appears cut over
the doorway of an adjacent
turnpike stair, with
a coat pf arms, now completely
obliterated, and
on the bed-corbel of the
crowstepped gable is another
shield, sculptured with
a coat armorial and the
initials I. H. Moulded
mullions and transoms
divided the large windows. -
a rather uncommon feature in Scottish domestic
architecture; and from the general remains of
decayed magnificence, the name, initials, and armc,
this is supposed-but cannot be absolutely declared
-to be the mansion of the founder of the noble
family of Hopetoun, John de Hope, who came from
France in the retinue of Magdalene of Valois, the first
queen of James V., and who, with his son Edward,
bad two booths eastward of the old Kirk Style.
But the name of Hope was known in Scotland in
the days of Alexander 111. ; and James III., in
1488, gave to Thomas Hope a grant of some land
near Leith.
No. 71 is Sandiland?s Close, where tradition, but
tradition only, avers there dwelt that learned and
munificent prelate, James Kennedy, Bishop of
Dunkeld, Lord High Chancellor, and the upright

... noble family of Hopetoun, John de Hope, who came from France in the retinue of Magdalene of Valois, the ...

Book 2 p. 240
(Score 0.57)

Edinburgh Cad:.] CORONATION OF CHARLES I. 51
and long it was since Edinburgh had been
the scene of anything so magnificent. Every
window was crowded with eager faces, and every
house was gay with flowers, banners, and tapestry.
*? Mounted on a roan horse, and having a saddle
of rich velvet sweeping the ground, and massive with
pasements of gold, Alexander Clark, the Provost,
appeared at the head of the bailies and council to
meet the king, while the long perspective of the
crowded street ( then terminated by the spire of
the Nether Bow) was lined (as Spalding says) by
a brave company of soldiers, all clad in white
satin doublets, black velvet .breeches, and silk
stockings, with hats, feathers, scarfs, and bands.
Thesegallants haddaintymuskets, pikes, and gilded
partisans. Six trumpeters, in gold lace and scarlet,
preceded the procession, which moved slowly from
But most of the assembled multitude looked
darkly and doubtfully on. In almost every heart
there lurked the secret dread of that tampering
with the Scottish Church which for years had been
conspicuous.
Charles, with great solemnity, was crowned king
of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, by the
Bishop of St. Andrews, who placed the crown upon
his head; and on the 18th July he left Edinburgh
on his return to London. Under the mal-influence
of the zealot Laud ruin and civil war soon came,
when Episcopacy was imposed upon the people,
A committee of Covenanters was speedily formed
at Edinburgh, and when the king?s commissioner
arrived, in 1638, he found the Castle beset by
armed men. His efforts at mediation were futile ;
and famous old ?Jenny Geddes? took the initiative
the- Privy Seal;
Morton the Treasuw?s golden mace,with its globe of
sparkling beryl ; the York and Norroy English kingsat-
arms with their heralds, pursuivants, and trumpeters
in tabards blazing with gold and embroidery;
Sir James Balfour, the Scottish Lion king, preceding
the spurs, sword, sceptre, and crown, borne
by earls. Then came the Lord High Constable,
riding, with ,his blton, supported by the Great
Chamberlain and Earl Marshal, preceding Charles,
who was arrayed in &robe of purple velvet once
worn by James IV., and having a foot-cloth embroidered
with silver and pearls, and his long train
upborne by the young Lords Lorne, Annan, Dalkeith,
and Kinfauns Then came the Gentlemen
Pensioners, marching with partisans uplifted ; then
the Yeomen of the Guard, clad in doublets of
russet velvet, with the royal arms raised in embossed
work of silver and gold on the back and
breast of each coat-each company commanded
by an earL The gentlemen of the Scottish Horse
Guards were all armed d la cuirassier, and carried
swords, petronels, and musketoons.?
of trained Scottish
officers and soldiers, who had been pushing
their fortune by the shores of the Elbe and the
Rhine, in Sweden and Germany, came pouring
home to enrol under the banner of the Covenant ;
a general attack was concerted on every fortress
in Scotland; and the surprise of Edinburgh was
undertaken by the commander of the army, Sir
Alexander Leslie of Balgonie, Marshal of Sweden
under Gustavus Adolphus-a soldier second to
This he achieved successfully on the evening of
the 28th March, when he blew in the barrier gate
with a petard. The Covenanters rushed through
the Spur sword in hand, and the. second gate fell
before their sledge-hammers, and then Haldane of
Gleneagles, the governor, gave up his sword.
That night ieslie gave the Covenanting lords a
banquet in the hall of the Castle, .w&reon they
hoisted their blue standard with. the miotto, ? For
an oppressed kirk and broken? Covenant? Montrose?s
regiment, 1,500 strong, replaced the gamson ;
Lord Bdmerbo was appointed goxernor, and many

... great solemnity, was crowned king of Scotland, England, France , and Ireland, by the Bishop of St. Andrews, who ...

Book 1 p. 51
(Score 0.57)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 249
“ In the beginning of the American war, the Lord Advocate of that time, hearing that there
were many vessels bound to America, full of emigrants, who, he conceived, might be forced into
the American armies at their landing, but who mould, at all events, be lost to their country,
assumed to himself a power of laying those vessels under an absolute embargo ; and for so doing,
he not only received an indemnity, but the thanks of Parliament.
“ My predecessor in office. was certainly never reckoned a harsh or oppressive man ; and yet
he took the responsibility on himself for an act which by law is felony. He received certain
information of a letter being put into the Post Office at Perth for Edinburgh, which he apprehended
to be of important consequence to the State, and he did not hesitate, upon his own
responsibility, to have it taken out of the Post Office. It was this letter which led to the discovery
and conviction of the traitor Watt.
“ I myself, having learned that several vessels were on the point of sailing for America, which
had. not on board above a third of the provisions necessary for the passengem on the voyage,
positively laid them under an embargo, until the captain should satisfy the Custom-House
officers of having taken in a sufficient quantity of provisions for the voyage ; and an act of Parliament
has since been passed to prevent such practices for the future. In that case, too, I
acted perhaps contrary to law, but I did not think it necessary to ask for an indemnity. Again,
at the time of the insurrection in Ireland, last year, I thought it probable that many fugitives
would come to Scotland. On a -former occasion, the Irish Government would not allow any
person to leave that country without passports. There was no law in Scotland which required
the production of such passports ; but I took it upon my own responsibility to order that no
person coming from Ireland without a passport should be suffered to land in Scotland. There
was no positive law which gave me power to do 60 ; and not having applied for an indemnity,
I may be now liable to actions of damages to those people who by my orders were prohibited
from landing. But still, I conceive it is the duty of a Lord Advocate of Scotland, to act
decidedly in all cases where the State is in danger, upon his own responsibility ; and I will tell
the hon. gentleman fairly, that if his motion does not deprive me of my place, I shall always act
in the same manner, under similar circumstances. ”
* * *
“I shall now tell the real story of the transaction. Garrow had, with the knowledge of his
master, entered into a volunteer corps. By attending after his work was finished, he had
qualified himself as a soldier ; and in order to obtain those exemptions that the law gave, it was
necessary that he should be inspected. Before the day of inspection, he asked his master’s leave
to go, but was refused : he was so anxious then to reconcile his duty to his country to his duty
to his master, that he got up in the middle of the night, and performed that task which his
master had assigned him, and then went to inspection. On his return, Mr. Morrison turned
him off, notwithstanding he offered to make any amends by additional labour, or by deduction
from his wages ; but how did he turn him off? Not aa the hon. gentleman (Mr. Whitbread)
would have turned off his servant ; no, he refiued to pay him the wages he had earned before
that day, and would not pay him till he was compelled by a decree of the Sheriff’s Court. The
time when he discharged him was also material. It was on the 13th of October, when a labourer
in Scotland, who is generally engaged by the half-year, could not easily get employment. As
there are no poor rates in Scotland, Garrow and his family might have starved in the winter, if
they could not find employment. This then is the real case ; and now I will appeal to every
man in this House, where ought the charge of injustice and oppression to attach? I almost
doubt [fear] now that my legal opinion was correct, and [believe] that, under all the circumstances
of the case, Mr. Morrison conld be compelled to pay Gmow his wages for the remainder of the
half-year, as there was no neglect of duty on his part. The House will now judge whether it is
Mr. Morrison or Garrow who is the injured man.
“ Although I confess I had no particular information against Morrison, yet I must, in my
defence, mention another circumtance which I was informed of. Early in the French Revolution,
there had existed at the town of Portsoy, within two miks of Morrison’a house, a Society
called ‘the Friends of Universal Liberty,’ who corresponded with the Jacobin Club of France.
I knew that the head and p’mcm mobile of that Society was a man who was likely to have
considerable influence over Mr. Morrison. I know that, after the meetings of that Society had
become so seditious, when the Sheriff was obliged to crave leave ‘to he admitted to the honour
of their sittings,’ they split into smaller partim ; and one of their favourite measures was to
obstruct and discourage the raising of the volunteer force.’’
VOL. 11. 2K

... Liberty,’ who corresponded with the Jacobin Club of France . I knew that the head and p’mcm mobile of that ...

Book 9 p. 331
(Score 0.56)

Leith.] OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209
CHAPTER XXII.
LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded).
Leith and Edinburgh Peopk in the First Years of the Nineteenth Century-Gorge 1V. Pmkied-His Landing at Leith-Temtory Of the
Town defined-Landing of Mons Meg-Leith during the Old War--The Smacks.
UNLESS it be among the seafaring class, no difference
is perceptible now between the inhabitants of
Edinburgh and Leith ; but it was not so once, when
the towns were more apart, and intercourse less frequent
; differences and distinctions were known
even in the early years of the present century.
A clever and observant writer in 1824 says that,
as refinements and dissimilarities existed then between
the Old and New Town, so did they exist
in the appearance, habits, and characteristics of the
Leith and Edinburgh people.
?? Not such,? he continues, as accidentally
take up their residence there for a sea prospect and
a sea-breeze, but those whose air is Leith air from
their cradles, and who are fixtures in the placemerchants,
traders, and seafaring persons : the
latter class has a peculiarity similar in most maritime
towns; but it is the rich merchants and
traders, together with their wives and daughters,
who are now before us.? (? The Hermit in Edin.??
The man of fortune and pleasure in Edinburgh,
he remarks, views his Leith neighbours as a mere
Cit, though in point of fact he is much less so than
the former. ?The inan of fashion residing in
Edinburgh for a time, for economy or convenience,
and the Scottish nobleman dividing his time betwixt
London, Edinburgh, and his estates, sets
down the Leith merchant as a homespun article.
Again, the would-be dandy of the New Town eyes
him with self-preference, and considers him as his
inferior in point of taste, dress, living, and knowledge
of the beau monde-one who, if young, copies
his dress, aspires at his introduction into the higher
circle, and borrows his fashions ; the former, however,
being always ready to borrow his name or
cash; the first looking respectable on a bill, and
the second not being over plenty with the men of
dress and of idle life in Edinburgh. Both sexes
follow the last London modes, and give an idea
that they are used to town life, high company,
luxuries, late hours, and the manner of living in
polished France.?
All this difference is a thing of the past, and
the observer would be a shrewd one indeed who
detected any difference between the denizen of the
capital and of its seaport.
But the Leith people of the date referred to
Vol. 11.)
.
were, like their predecessors, more of the old
school, and, with their second-class new fashions,
and customs were some time in passing into desuetude,
old habits dying hard there as elsewhere. The
paterfamilias of Leith then despised the extremes
of dress, though his son might affect them, and hn
was more plodding and business-like in bearing
than his Edinburgh neighbour; was alleged to
always keep his hands in his pockets, with an expression
of independence in his face ; while, continues
this writer, in those ?of the Edinburgh
merchants may be read cunning and deep discernment.
Moreover, the number of Leith traders is
limited, and each is known by headmark, whilst
thpse employed in commerce and trade in the
northern capital may be mistaken, and mixed up
with the men of pleasure, the professors, lawyers,
students, and strangers j but an observing eye will
easily mark the difference and the strong characteristic
of each-barring always the man of pleasure,
who is changeful, and often insipid within
and without.?
In 1820 the Edinburgh and Leith Seamen?s
Friendly Society was instituted.
In the same year, when some workmen were
employed in levelling the ground at the south end
of the bridge, then recently placed across the river
at Leith Mills (for the purpose of opening up a
communication between the West Docks and the
foot of Leith Walk), five feet from the surface they
came upon many human skeletons, all of rather unusual
stature, which, from the size of the roots of
the trees above them, must have lain there a very
long time, and no doubt were the remains of some
of those soldiers who had perished in the great
siege during the Regency of Mary of Lorraine.
The proclamation of George IV. as king, after
having been performed at Edinburgh with great
ceremony, was repeated at -the pier and Shore
of Leith on February grd, 1820, by the Sheriff
Clerk and magistrates, accompanied by the heralds,
pursuivants and trumpeters, the style and titles 01
His Majesty being given at great length. At one
o?clock the ship of the Admiral and other vessels
in the Roads, the flags of which had been halF
hoisted, mastheaded them at one p.m, and fired
forty-one guns. They were then half-hoisted till
the funeral of George 111. was over.

... late hours, and the manner of living in polished France .? All this difference is a thing of the past, ...

Book 6 p. 207
(Score 0.56)

H o l y d . ] MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 79
bade them farewell in the Gallery of the Kings,
while a vast concourse assembled outside, all
wearing the white cockade. Another: multitude
was collected at Newhaven, where the Fishermen's
Society formed a kind of body-guard to cover the
embarkation.
'' A few gentlemen," says the editor of " Kay's
Portraits," " among whom were Colonel Macdonel,
the Rev. Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Gillis, John Robinson,
Esq., and Dr. Browne, accompanied His
Majesty on board the steamer, which they did not
leave till she was under weigh. The distress of the
king, and particularly of the dauphin, at being
obliged to quit a country to which they were so
warmly attached was in the highest degree affecting.
The Duc de Bordeaux wept bitterly, and the Duc
d'AngouEme, embracing Mr. Gillis d la 3ranfaise,
gave unrestrained scope to his emotion. The act
of parting with one so beloved, whom he had
known and distinguished in the salons of the
Tuileries and St. Cloud, long before his family had
sought an asylum in the tenantless halls of Holyrood,
quite overcame his fortitude, and excited
feelings too powerful to be repressed. When this
ill-fated family bade adieu to our shores they
carried with them the grateful benedictions of the
poor, and the respect of all men of all parties who
honour misfortune when ennobled by virtue."
In Edinburgh it is well known that had H.K.H.
the late Prince Consort-whose love of the picturesque
and historic led him to appreciate its
natural beauties-survived a few years longer, many
improvements would have taken place at Holyrood
; and to him it is said those are owing which
have already been effected.
Southward of the palace, the unsightly old tenements
and enclosed gardens at St. Anne's Yard
were swept away, including a quaint-looking dairy
belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, and by
1857-8-9 the royal garden was extended south
some 500 feet from the wall of the south wing, and
a new approach was made from the Abbey Hill,
a handsome new guard-house was built, and the
carved door of the old garden replaced in the wall
between it and the fragment of the old abbey
porch ; and it was during the residence of H.R.H.
the Prince of Wales at Holyrood that the beautiful
fountain in the Palace Yard was completed, on the
model of the ancient one that stands in ruin nowy
in the quadrangle of Linlithgow, and which is
referred to by Defoe in his "Tour in Great
Britain."
The fountain rises from a basin twenty-four feet in
diameter to the height of twenty-eight feet, divided
into threestages, andby flying buttresses has theeffect
of a triple crown. From the upper of these the water
flows through twenty ornate gurgoils into three
successive basins. The basement is of a massive
character, divided by buttresses into eight spaces,
each containing a lion's head gurgoil. This is surmounted
by eight panels having rich cusping, and
between these rise pedestals and pinnacles. The
former support heraldic figures with shields. These
consist of the unicorn bearing the Scottish shield, a
lion bearing a shield charged with the arm of
James IV. and his queen, Margaret of England;
a deer supports two shields, with the arms of the
queens of James V., Magdalene of France, and
Mary of Guise ; and the griffin holds the shields of
James IV. and his queen, Margaret of Denmark.
The pinnacles are highly floriated, and ,enriched
with flowers and medallions
It is in every way a marvellous piece of stone
carving. The flying buttresses connecting the stages
are deeply cusped. On the second stage are eight
figures typical of the sixteenth century, representing
soldiers, courtiers, musicians,' and a lady-falconer,
each two feet six inches in height. On the upper
stage are four archers of the Scottish Guard, supporting
the imperial crown. It occupies the site whereon
for some years stood a statue of Queen Victoria,
which has now disappeared.
Still, as of old, since the union of the cron-ns:
for a fortnight in each year the Lord High Conimissioner
to the General Assembly of the Church
of Scotland holds semi-royal state in Holyrood,
gives banquets in its halls, and holds his ledes in
the Gallery of the Kings.

... IV. and his queen, Margaret of England; a deer supports two shields, with the arms of the queens of James V., ...

Book 3 p. 79
(Score 0.56)

262 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Rev. Mr. Hall of the Burghers. When Mr. Brodie came to the scaffold, he bowed politely to the
Magistrates and the people. Smith
was dressed in white linen, trimmed with black. Eaving spent some time in prayer with seeming
fervency with the clergymen, Mr. Brodie than prayed a short time by himself.
“ Having put on white nightcaps, Brodie pointed to Smith to ascend the steps that led to the drop ;
and, in an easy manner, clapping him on the shoulder, said, ‘ George Smith, you are first in hand.’
Upon this Smith, whose behaviour was highly penitent and resigned, slowly ascended the steps, and
ww immediately followed by Brodie, who mounted with briskness and agility, and examined the
dreadful apparatus with attention, and particularly the halter designed for himself. The ropes being
too short tied, Brodie stepped down to the platform, and entered into conversation with his friends.
He then sprang up again, but the rope was still too short ; and he once more descended to the platform,
showing some impatience. During this dreadful interval Smith remained on the drop with great
composure and placidness. Bmdie having ascended a third time, and the rope being at last properly
adjusted, he deliberately untied his neckcloth, buttoned up his waistcoat and coat, and helped the
executioner to fix the rope. He than took a friend (who stood close by him) by the hand, bade him
farewell, and requested that he would acquaint the world that he wa.9 still the same, and that he died l i e
a man. He then pulled the nightcap over his face, and placed himself in an attitude expressive of
firmness and resolution. Smith, who, during all this time had been in fervent devotion, let fall a
handkerchief as a signal, and a few minutes before three they were launched into eternity. Brodie
on the scaffold neither confessed nor denied his being guilty. Smith, with great fervency, confessed in
prayer his being guilty, and the justice of his sentence ; and showed in all his conduct the proper expressions
of penitence, humility, and faith. This execution was conducted with more than usual solemnity ;
and the great bell tolled during the ceremony, which had an awful and solemn effect. The crowd
of spectators was immense.”
He had on a full suit of black-his hair dressed and powdered.
In explanation of the wonderful degree of firmness, if not levity, displayed in
the conduct of Brodie, a curious and somewhat ridiculous story became current.
It was stated that he had been visited in prison by a French quack, of the
name of Degravers,’ who undertook to restore him to life after he had hung the
usual time; that, on the day previous to the execution, he had marked the
temples and arms of Brodie with a pencil, in order the more readily to know
where to apply the lancet; and that, with this view, the hangman had been
bargained with for a short fall. “ The excess of caution, however,” observes our
worthy informant, who was himself a witness of the scene, exercised by the
executioner in the first instance, in shortening the rope, proved fatal, by his
inadvertency in making it latterly too long. After he was cut down,” continues
our friend, “ his body was immediately given to two of his own workmen, who,
Dr. Peter Degravers, according to his own account, was at one time F’rofessor of Anatomy and
Physiology in the Royal Academy of Science at Paris, and a member of several medical societies.
Whatever may have been his circumstances in France, Kay says it is certain his finances were at a
very low ebb when he came to Edinburgh, where, in order to get into immediate practice, he advertised
his advice in all cases at the low rate of half-a-crown. After having been some time in Edinburgh,
he succeeded in securing the affections of Miss Baikie, sister to Robert Baikie, Esq. of Tankerness,
M.P., whom he married, and with her was to receive aeven hundred pounds of portion. Some delay,
however, occurred in the settlement ; and, unfortunately for the Doctor, before he had obtained more
than an elegantly furnished house, his lady died in childbed, when the money was retained by her friends
as a provision for the child, which waa a daughter. Not long after this event the Doctor decamped,
no one knew whither, leaving debts to a considerable amount unsettled. In 1788 Degravera published
a “ Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye and Ear,” to which an etching of the author, by Kay,
was prefixed, as well aa two anatomical prints by the same artist. These platss are not to be found
in Kay’s collection, having, we understand, been paid for and carried away by Degravers. Like the
productions of most other quacks, hia treatise was full of invective against the gentlemen of the
faculty.

... societies. Whatever may have been his circumstances in France , Kay says it is certain his finances were at ...

Book 8 p. 366
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Leith.] EXECUTION OF PIRATES. ?67
C H A P T E R XXX.
LEITH-THE SANDS.
The Sands of Leith-Piates Executed there-The Kaif ofLyane--Captain Potts of the Dreaa31uu~M-A Duel in 1?67-Horse-lacing-?The
Bell?-Leith Races in 1661-?Going Down with the Purse?-Races in 1763 and 1771, etc.
THE Sands of Leith, like other districts we have
described, have a notabilia peculiarly their own,
as the grim scene of executions for piracy, and of
the horse-races, which were long celebrated there
amid a jollity unknown now at the other locality to
which they have been transferred-the Links of
Musselburgh.
All pirates, and those who committed crimes or
misdemeanours upon the high seas, were, down to
1822, hanged within the flood-mark; but there does
not seem to have been any permanent erection, or
even a fixed locality, for this purpose, and thus any
part of the then great expanse of open sand must
have been deemed suitable for the last offices of
the law, and even the Pier and Shore were sometimes
used.
On the 6th of May, 1551, John Davidson was
convicted by an assize of piratically attacking a ship
of Bordeaux, and sentenced to be hanged in irons
on the Sands; and this, Pitcairn observes, is the
earliest notice in Scotland of the body of a criminal
being exposed in chains, to be consumed piecemeal
by the elements.
In 1555, Hilbert Stalfurde and the crew of the
Kait of Lynne, an English ship, were tried for piracy
and oppression, ?( in reiving and spoiling furth of a
hulk of the toun of Stateyne (Stettin), then lying in
the harbour of Leith,? a cable of ninety fathoms,
three or four pistolettes,and other property,for which
theywere all hanged as pirates within the flood-mark.
Pitcairn gives this case in full, and it may not be
uninteresting to note what constituted piracy in the
sixteenth century.
In the ?( Talbot Papers,? published by the Maitland
Club, there is a letter, dated 4th July, 1555,
from Lord Conyers to the Earl of Shrewsbury,
After stating that some ships had been captured,
very much to the annoyance of the Queen-Regent
Mary of Lorraine, she sent a Scottish ship of war to
search for the said ship of Lynne; and, as the
former passed herself on the seas as a merchantman,
the crew of the Kait ?schott a piece of ordnance,
and the Scottis shippe schott off but a slinge, as
though she had been a merchant, and vailed her
bonnet,? or dipped her ensign
The crew of the Kait then hailed, and asked
what she was laden with, and the reply was, ? With
victualles; and then they desired them to borde, and
let them have a ton of bacon for their money.?
The Scots answered that they should do so, on
which there swarmed on board the Kaif a hundred
or eighty men, ?well appoyntit in armoure and
stoutlie set,? on the English ship, which they
brought, with all her crew, into the haven of Leith ;
?and by that I can learn,? adds Lord Conyers,
?there is at least iij. or iiij. of the cheefest of the
Englismenne like to suffer death. Other news I have
none to certifie yr Lordschippe, and so I committ
the same unto the tuicion and governmente of
Almichtie God.?-Berwick, 4th July, 1555.
The seamen of those days were not very particular
when on the high seas, for in 1505 we find
the King?s Admiral, Sir Andrew Wood, obtaining a
remission under the Great Seal for (<ye ri>f an
anchor and cabyell? taken from John of Bonkle
on the sea, as he required these probably for the
king?s service ; and some fifty years later an admiral
of England piratically seized the ship coming from
France with the horses of Queen Mary on board.
In 1610 nine pirates were sentenced by the
mouth of James Lockhart of Lee, chancellor, to be
hanged upon ?the sandis of Leyth, within the
floddis-mark;? and in the same year Pitcairn records
the trial of thirty more pirates for the affair
at Long Island, in Ireland, already related.
In 16 I 2 two more were hanged in the same place
for piracy.
Executions here of seamen were of constant occurrence
in the olden times, but after that of Wilson
Potts, captain of the Dreadnoughf privateer of Newcastle,
on the 13th of February, 1782, none took
place till the execution of Heaman and Gautiez, at
the foct of Constitution Street, in 1822.
Potts was convicted before the Admiralty Court
of having plundered the White Swaiz, of Copenhagen,
of four bags of dollars. He was recommended
to mercy by a majority of the jury, because
it was in proof that he had committed the crime
while in a state of intoxication, and had, on coming
to his senses, taken the first opportunity of restoring
the money to its owners; but the recommendation
was made in vain.

... admiral of England piratically seized the ship coming from France with the horses of Queen Mary on board. In ...

Book 6 p. 267
(Score 0.55)

THE LA WNMARKET. I75
High Sheet,-two bands of men of war were placed about the Cross, and two above the
Tolbooth. “The first band waited upon the convoy of the Erle of Morton, from the
loodging to the Tolbuith.” The crime for which he was convicted, was a share in the
murder of Darnley, but eighteen other heads of indictment had been drawn up against
him. About six in the evening, he was conveyed back to his lodging in the Old Bank
Close. He supped cheerfully, and on retiring to rest, slept till three in the morning,
when he rose and wrote for some hours, and again returned to his couch. In the
morning, he sent the letters he had written, by some of the ministers, to the King, but
he refused to look at them or listen to their contents, or indeed do anything, but
ranged up and doun the floore of his chamber, clanking with his finger and his thowme.”
The Regent had shown little mercy as a ruler, and he had none to hope for from King
James. On that same day, he was beheaded at the Cross, by the Maiden, with all the
bloody formalities of a traitor’s death, and his head exposed on the highest point of the
Tolbooth.’
In the folIowing year, the same substantial mansion,-alternately prison and palace:
-was aasigned as a residence for Monsieur de la Motte Fenelon, the French ambassador,
who came professedly to mediate between the Eing and hit nobles, and to seek a renewal
of the. ancient league of amity with France. ‘‘ He was lodged in Gourlay’s house, near
the Tolbooth, and had an audience of His Majesty upon the 9th of the said month ” of
January. He remained till the 10th of February, when ‘( having received a satisfactory
answer, with tt great banquet, in Archibald Stewart’s lodgings, in Edinburgh, he took
journey homeward.”‘ The banquet was given at the King’s request, to the great
indignation of the clergy, who had watched with much jealousy ‘(the traffique of Papists,”
Calderwood, vol. iii. p. 557. ’ Ante, p. 86.-“ He was executed about foure houres after noone, upon Fryday, the secund of June. Phairnihmt
stood in a shott over against the scaffold, with his large ruffes, delyting in this spectacle. The Lord Seton and his two
sonnes stood in a staire, aouth-east from the Croce. His bodie lay upon the scaffold till eight houres at even, and therafter
was carried to the Neather Tolbuith, where it was watched. His head waa sett upon a prick, on the highest atone
of the gavel1 of the Tolbuith, toward the publict street”-C&lderwood, vol. iii. p. 575.
It is said that
the Regent Morton borrowed the idea from some foreign country. Halifax, in Yorkshire, h a been oftenest assigned
88 the place of ita invention ; and the generally received tradition is, that the Regent waa himself the first who suffered
by it, On the 3d of April 1566, the Maiden waa used at the execution of T h m s Scot, an accomplice in the murder
of Riezio, when an entry appears in the Town records of 7a paid for conveying it from Blackfriars to the Crosa The
next execution mentioned, is that of Henry Yair, on the 10th of August, when Andrew Gofferaown, smyth,-who, at
the former date, received 5s. for grinding of y’ Maiden,-obtains a similar fee for gvkding of Widow. We are
inclined to infer that the same instrument is spoken of in both cases, and that the fanciful epithet which the old
Scottish guillotine still retains, waa given to it on the former occasion, in allusion to ita then unfleahed and muidas axe,
vide p. 86. It is at any rate obvious from this, that the Maiden was in use before the Earl of Morton waa appointed
Regent.
Maitland remarks @. 181), ‘‘ The Old Tolbooth, in the Bank Close, in the Landmarket, which was rebuilt in the
year 1582, is still standing, on the western aide of the said cloae, with the windows strongly stanchelled; the small
dimensions thereof occasioned ita being laid aside.” We shall show presently the very different character of the original
building, although there still remains the intermediate poeaessor, Alexander Mauchane, already mentioned, unless, as ia
most probable, he occupied the ancient erection as his dwelling. The alluaions already quoted, where the Tolbooth is
mentioned along with this building, seem sufficient to prove that that name was never applied to it, although it
occasionally shared with the Tolbooth the offices of c prison,- purpose that in reality properly belonged to neither.
Moyses stylea it Gourlay‘r House, near Ac Tolbooth,-a true deffiription of it-aa it was within a hundred yards of the
Old Tolbooth or “ Heart of Midlothian.” ‘ Mopes’ Memoirs, pp. 73-77. Archibald Stewart appears to have been a sub&antial citizen, who was Provost of
the city in the year 1578.
The common story told by Dr Jamieaon and other writers, about the Maiden, in entirely apocryphal.

... to seek a renewal of the. ancient league of amity with France . ‘‘ He was lodged in Gourlay’s house, ...

Book 10 p. 190
(Score 0.54)

the following day, accompanied by twelve armed
? men, disguised as seamen, with hoods over their
helmets, he appeared at the Castle gates, where they
contrived to overturn their casks and hampers, so
as to prevent the barriers being closed by the
guards and warders, who were instantly slain. At
a given signal-the shrill blast of a bugle-horn-
Douglas and his companions, with their war-cry,
rushed from a place of concealment close by. Sir
Richard de Limoisin, the governor, made a bitter
resistance, but was overpowered in the end, and
his garrison became the prisoners of David II.,
who returned from France in the following month,
accompanied by his queen Johanna; and by that
time not an Englishman was left in Scotland. But
miserable was the fate of Bullock. By order of a
Sir David Berkeley he was thrown into the castle
of Lochindorb, in Morayshire, and deliberately
starved to death. On this a Scottish historian
remarks, ? It is an ancient saying, that neither the
powekful, nor the valiant, nor the wise, long
flourish in Scotland, since envy obtaineth the
mastery of them all.?
When, a few years afterwards, the unfortunate
battle of Durham ended in the defeat of the Scots,
and left their king a prisoner of war, we find
in the treaty for his ransom, the merchants of
Edinburgh, together with those of Perth, Aberdeen,
atid Dundee, binding themselves to see it paid.
In 1357 a Parliament was held at Edinburgh for
its final adjustment, when the Regent Robert
(afterwards Robert 11.) presided ; in addition to
the clergy and nobles, there were present delegates
from seventeen burghs, and among these Edinburgh
In 1365 we find a four years? truce with England,
signed at London on the 20th May, and in
the Castle on the 12th of June; and another for
I appeared at the head for thejrst time.
fourteen years, dated at the Castle 28th October,
1371-
So often had the storm of war desolated its
towers, that the Castle of Edinburgh (which
became David?s favourite residence after his return
from England ?in 1357) was found to require
extensive repairs, and to these the king devoted
himself. On the cliff to the northward he built
?David?s Tower,? an edifice of great height and
strength, and therein he died on the zznd February,
1371, and was buried before the high altar
at Holyrood. The last of the direct line of Brucea
name inseparably connected with the military
glory and independence of Scotland-David was a
monarch who, in happier times, would have done
much to elevate his people. The years of his
captivity in England he beguiled with his pencil,
and in a vault of Nottingham Castle ?he left
behind hini,? says Abercrornbie, in his ? Martial
Achievements,? I? the whole story of our Saviour?s
Passion, curiously engraven on the rock with his
own hands. For this, says one, that castle became
as famous as formerly it had been for Mortimer?s
hole.?
It was during bis reign that, by the military
ingenuity of John Earl of Carrick and four other
knights of skill, the Castle was so well fortified, that,
with a proper garrison, the Duke of Rothesay was
able to resist the utmost efforts of Henry IV.,
when he besieged it for several weeks in 1400.
The Castle had been conferred as a free gift upon
Earl John by his father King Robert, and in consequence
of the sufferings endured by the inhabitants
when the city was burned by the English,
under Richard II., he by charter empowered the
citizens to build houses within the fortress, free of
fees to the constable, on the simple understanding
that they were persons of good fame.
?
.
-
CHAPTER IV.
CASTLE OF EDINBURGH-(continucd).
Progress of the Cuy-Ambassador of Charles VI.- Edinburgh burned-Henry IV. batAed-Albany?s Prophecy-Laws regarding the Building
of House-Sumptuary Laws, 1457-Murder of James I.-Coronation of James 11.-Court Intrigues-Lord Chancellor Crichton-Arrogance
of the Earl of Douglas-~-Faction Wars-The Castle Besieged-? The Black DinneF?-Edinburgh walled-Its Strength-Bale-fires.
THE chief characteristic of the infant city now was
that of a frontier town, ever on the watch to take
arms against an invader, and resolute to resist him.
Walsingham speaks of it as a village ; and in 1385
its population is supposed to have barely exceeded
2,oooj yet Froissart called it the Pans of Scotland,
though its central street presented but a
meagre line of thatched or stane-dated houses,
few of which were more than twenty feet in height.
Froissart numbers them at 4,000, which would
give a greater population than has been alleged.
With the accession of Robert 11.-the first of the

... became the prisoners of David II., who returned from France in the following month, accompanied by his queen ...

Book 1 p. 26
(Score 0.53)

370 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moultray?s HilL
of the realm have been open to all genuine scholars.
Another result of his tenure of office has been the
publication of a series of documents and works of
the utmost value to students of Scottish historythe
completion of the Acts of Parliament begun
by Thomas Thomson and finished by Cosmo Innes,
the Treasurer?s accounts of the time of Tames IV,,
the Exchequer Rolls, &c.
No person sleeps in any part of the building
generally, the whole being allotted to public purposes
only. In the sunk storey under the dome,
when the house was built, four furnaces were constructed,
from each of which proceeded a flue in a
spiral direction, under the pavement of the dome,
for the purpose of securing the records from damp.
Among other offices under the same roof are the
Privy Seal, the Lord Keeper of which was, in 1879,
the Marquis of Lothian; the signet officer; the
Register of Deeds and Protests ; and the Sasine
Office, in the large central front room up-stairs,
where a numerous staff of clerks are daily at work,
under the Keeper of the General Register and his
five assistant-keepers.
The Register of Sashes, the corner-stone of the
Scottish system of registration, was instituted in
1617. It had, however, been preceded by another
record, called the Secretary?s Register, which existed
for a short period, being instituted in 1599,
but abolished in 1609, and was under the Scottish
Secretary of State, and is thus referred to by
Robertson in his Index of Missing Charters,?
I798 :-
?The Secretary?s Register, as it is called, was
the first attempt to introduce our most useful
record, that of sasines. But having been committed
to the superintendence of the Secretary of
State instead of the Lord Clerk Register, and most
of the books having remained concealed, and
many of them having been lost in consequence of
their not being made transmissible to public
custody, the institution became useless, and was
abolished by Act of Parliament, The Register of
Sxsines in its present form was instituted in the
month of June, 1617.?
In the register of this office the whole land writs
of Scotland are recorded, and the correctness of it
is essential to the validity of title. To it all men
go to ascertain the burdens that affect land, and
the whole of such registration is now concentrated
in Edinburgh. In 1876 the fees of the sasine office
amounted to ~30,000, and theexpensewas AI 7,000,
leaving a profit to the Treasury of &13,000.
In a part of the general register house is the
ofice of the Lyon King-of-arms. , This offiqe is
one of high rank and great antiquity, his station
n Scotland being precisely similar to that of the
;arter King in England; and at the coronation
)f George ,111. the Lord Lyon walked abreast
with the former, immediately preceding the Lord
;reat Chaniberlain, Though heraldry now is little
mown as a science, and acquaintance with it
s, singular to say, not necessary in the Lyon Office,
n feudal times the post of a Scottish herald was
ield of the utmost importance, and the inauguration
3f the king-at-arms was the mimicry of a royal
me, save that the unction was made with wine
nstead of oil.
In ?? The order of combats for life,? ordained by
lames I. of Scotland in the early part of the fifteenth
:entury, the places assigned for the ? King-of-Arms,
Heraulds, and other officers,? are to be settled by
:he Lord High Constable. In 1513 James IV.
jent the Lyon King with his defiance to Henry
VIII., then in France, and the following year he
went to Pans with letters for the Duke of Albany.
kcompanied by two heralds he went to Paris
igain in 1558, to be present at the coronation of
Francis and Mary as King and Queen of Scotland.
Of old, and before the College of Arms was
.econstructed, and the office of Lord Lyon abolished
iy a recent Act of Parliament, it consisted of the
ollowing members ;-
The Lord Lyon King-oFAms.
The Lyon-Depute.
Rothesay. Kintyre.
Marchmont. Dingwall.
Albany. Unicorn.
Ross. Bute.
Snowdon. Carrick.
Islay. Ormond.
Heralds. Pursuivants.
3ix trumpeters ; a Lyon Clerk and Keeper of Records, with
lis deputy; a Procurator Fiscal, hiacer, and Herald
Painter.
According to the ? Montrose Peerage? case in
t 850 there would appear to have been, about 1488,
mother official known as the ?? Montrose Herald,?
Zonnected in some manner with the dukedom of
3ld Montrose.
By Acts of Parliament passed in the reign of
James VI. the Lyon King was to hold two
zourts in the year at Edinburgh-on the 6th of
May and 6th of November. Also, he, with his
heralds, was empowered to take special supervision
of all arms used by nobles and gentlemen,
to matriculate them in their books, and inhibit
such as had no right to heraldic cognisances,
?under the pain of escheating the thing whereupon
the said arms are found to the king, and of one
hundred pounds to the Lyon and his brethren, or
of imprisonment during the Lyon?s pleasure.? ,

... the Lyon King with his defiance to Henry VIII., then in France , and the following year he went to Pans ...

Book 2 p. 369
(Score 0.52)

198 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Northumberland Street.
A noted antiquary, he was Correspondant du
Comitk Imp2riaZ des Travaux Historipes, et aes
SaWs Savants. de France, &c. He was well
known in Edinburgh for his somewhat coarse wit,
and as a collector of rare books, whose library in
Great King Street was reported to be the most
valuable private one in the city, where he was
called-but more especially among legal men-
?Alphabet Turnbull,? from the number of his
initials. He removed to London about 1853, and
became seriously embroiled with the authorities
concerning certain historical documents in the
State Paper Office, when he had his chambers
in 3 Stone Buildings, Lincoln?s Inn Fields.
He died at London on the 22nd of April, 1863,
in his fifty-second year ; and a story went abroad
that a box of MS. papers was mysteriously buried
with him.
CHAPTER XXVII.
NORTHERN NEW TOWN (cmclttded).
Admiral Fairfax-Bishop Terrot-Brigadier Hope-Sir T. M. Brisbane--Lord Meadowbank-Ewbank the R.S.A-Death of Professor Wilson-
Moray Place and its Distrk-Lord President Hope-The Last Abode of Jeffrey-Baron Hume and Lord Monuieff-Forres Street-
Thomas Chalmers. D.D.-St. Colme Street-CaDtain Basil Hall-Ainslie Place-Dugald Stewart-Dean Ramsay-Great Stoart Street-
Professor Aytoun-Miss Graham of Duntroon-Lord Jervkwoode
IN the narrow and somewhat sombre thoroughfare
named Northumberlanc! Street have dwelt some
people who were of note in their time.
In 1810 Lady Emily Dundas, and Admiral Sir
William George Fairfax, resided in Nos. 46 and
53 respectively. The admiral had distinguished
himself at the battle of Camperdown as flag-captain
of the Vmemble, under Admiral Duncan; and in
consideration of his acknowledged bravery and
merit on that occasion-being sent home with the
admiral?s despatches-he was made knight-banneret,
with an augmentation to his coataf-arms in
chief, a representation of 1I.M.S. Venerable en.
gaging the Dutch admiral?s ship Yryheid; and to
do justice to the memory of ?? departed worth,? at
his death his son was made a baronet of Great
Britain in 1836. He had a daughter named Mary,
who became the wife of Samuel Greig, captain and
commissioner in the imperial Russian navy.
No. 19 in the same street was for some years the
residence of the Right Rev. Charles Hughes
Terrot, D.D., elected in 1857 Primus of the Scottish
Episcopal Church, and whose quaint little
figure, with shovel-hat and knee-breeches, was long
familiar in the streets of Edinburgh. He wss born
at Cuddalore in the East Indies in 1790. For
some reasons, though he had not distinguished
himself in the Cambridge Tripos list of University
honours, his own College (Trinity College) paid
him the highest compliment in their power, by
electing him a Fellow on the first occasion aftex
he had taken his degree of B.A. in mathematical
honours, and subsequently proceeded to M.A.
and D.D. He did not remain long at college,
as he soon married and went to Scotland, where
he continued all his life attached to the Scottish
Episcopal Church, as successively incumbent of
Haddington, of St. Peter?s, and finally St. Paul?s,
York Place, Edinburgh. In 1841 he was made
bishop of Edinburgh, on the death of Bishop
Walker. He was author of several works on
theology, During the latter years of his life,
from extreme age and infirmity, he had been
entirely laid aside from his pastoral and episcopal
labours ; but during the period of his health and
vigour few men were more esteemed in his pastoral
relations as their minister, or by his brethren of
the Episcopal Church for his acuteness and clever
judgment in their discussions in church affairs.
The leading features of Dr. Terrot?s intellectual
character were accuracy and precision rather than
very extensive learning or great research. It
was very striking sometimes after a subject had
been discussed in a desultory and commonplace
manner, to hear him coming down ?upon the ,
question with a clear and cutting remark which
put the whole matter in a new and distinct point
of view.
He was long a Fellow and Vice-President of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, to which he communicated
some very able and acute papers, especially
on logical and mathematical subjects. So also in
his moral and social relations, he was remarkable for
his manly, fair, and honourable bearing. He had
what might essentially be called a pure and honest
mind. He wasdevotedly attached to his own Church,
and few knew better how to argue in favour of its
polity and forms of service, never varying much in
externals ; but few men were more ready to concede
to others the liberality of judgment which he
.

... des Travaux Historipes, et aes SaWs Savants. de France , &c. He was well known in Edinburgh for his ...

Book 4 p. 198
(Score 0.52)

Leith.] SCENES UN THE LINKS. 263
a teacher of fencing and cock-fighting in Edinburgh,
published an ? Essay on the Innocent and Royal
Recreation and Art of Cocking,? from which it
may be learned that he it was who introduced it
intQ the metropolis of Scotland, and entered into
it con amot-e.
?I am not ashamed to declare to the world,?
he wrote, ?that I have a specialveneration and
esteem for those gentlemen, without and about this
city; who have entered in society for propagating
and establishing the royal recreation of cocking, in
order to which they have already erected a cockpit
in the Links of Leith; and I earnestly wish
that their generous and laudable example may be
imitated in that degree that, in cock-war, village
may be engaged against village, city against city,
kingdom against kingdom-nay, father against son
-until all the wars in Europe, where so much
Christian blood is spilt, may be turned into the
innocent pastime of cocking.?
This barbarous amusement was long a fancy of
the Scottish people, and the slain buds and fugies
(or cravens) became a perquisite of the village
schoolmaster.
On the 23rd of December, 1729, the Hon. Alexander,
Elphinstone (before mentioned), who was
leading a life of idleness and pleasure in Leith,
while his brother was in exile, met a Lieutenant
Swift, of Lord Cadogan?s regiment (latterly the 4th
or King?s Own), at the house of Mr. Michael
Watson, in Leitk
Some hot words had arisen between them, and
Elphinstone rose haughtily to depart ; but before he
went he touched Swift on the shoulder with the
point of his sword, and intimated that he expected
to receive satisfaction next morning on the Links.
Accordingly the two met at eleven in the forenoon,
and in this comparatively public place (as it
appears now) fought a duel with their swords.
Swift received a mortal wound in the breast, and
expired.
For this, Alexander Elphinstone was indicted
before the High Court of Justiciary, but the case
never came on for trial, and he died without
molestation at his father?s house in Coatfield Lane,
three years after. Referring to his peaceful sport
with Captain Porteous, the author of the ? Domestic
Annals ? says ? that no one could have imagined,
as that cheerful game was going on, that both the
players were not many years after to have blood
upon their hands, one of them to take on the murderer?
s mark upon this very field.?
Several military executions have taken placethere,
and among them we may note two.
The first recorded is that of a drummer, who was
shot there on the 23rd of February, 1686, by sentence
of a court-martial, for having, it was alleged,
said that he ?? had it in his heart to run his sword
through any Papist,? on the occasion when the Foot
Guards and other troops, under General Dalzell and
the Earl of Linlithgow, were under arms to quell the
famous ?Anti-Popish Riot,? made by the students
of the university.
One of the last instances was in 1754.
On the 4th of November in that year, John
Ramsbottom and James Burgess, deserters from
General the Hon. James Stuart?s regiment (latterly
the 37th Foot), were escorted from Edinburgh
Cast19 to Leith Links to be shot. The former
suffered, but the latter was pardoned.
His reprieve from death was only intimated to
him when he had been ordered to kneel, and the
firing? party were drawn up with their arms m
readiness. The shock so affected him that he
fainted, and lay on the grass for some time
motionless ; but the temble lesson would seem to
have been given to him in vain, as in the Scots
Magazine for the same year and month it is announced
that ?James Burgess, the deserter so
lately pardoned when on his knees to be shot, was
so far from being reformed by such a near view of
death, that immediately after he was guilty of theft,
for which he received a thousand lashes on the
parade in the Castle of Edinburgh, on November
zznd, and was drummed out of the regiment with
a rope round his neck.?
During the great plague of 1645 the ailing were
hutted in hundreds on the Links, and under its
turf their bones lie in numbers, as they were interred
where they died, with their blankets as
shrouds. Balfour, in his ? Annales,? records that
in the same year the people of Leith petitioned
Parliament, in consequence of this fearful pest, to
have 500 bolls of meal for their poor out of the
public magazines, which were accordingly given,
and a subscription was opened for them in certain
shires.
A hundred years afterwards saw the same ground
studded with the tents of a cavalry camp, when,
prior to the total rout of the king?s troops at
Prestonpans, Hamilton?s Dragoons (now the 14th
Hussars) occupied the Links, from whence theymarched,
by the way of Seafield and the Figgate
Muir, to join Sir John Cope.
During the old war with France the Links were
frequently adopted as a kind of Campus Marrius
for the many volunteer corps :hen enrolled in the
vicinity.
On the 4th of June, 1797, they had an unusual
display in honour of the king?s birthday and the

... to join Sir John Cope. During the old war with France the Links were frequently adopted as a kind of ...

Book 6 p. 263
(Score 0.52)

350 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Hope Park.
British House of Lords, would have left the fortress
of honours and of property in ruins.?? The decision
of the Court of Session in 1767 led to serious disturbances
and much acrimony; thus the reversal
of it, two years subsequently, was received in Scotland
with the greatest demonstrations of joy.
Archibald, third marquis, and first Duke of
Douglas, created so in 1703, was the representative
of that long and illustrious line of warriors whose
race and family history are second to none in
Europe.
His father, the second marquis, had been twice
married-first to a daughter of the Earl of Mar, by
whom he had the gallant Earl of Angus, who fell
at Steinkirk in 1692 ; and secondly, to Lady Mary
Kerr, of the house of Lothian, by whom he had
Archibald, afterwards Duke of Douglas, his successor,
and Lady Jean, or Jane, celebrated, like
most of the women of her family, for her remarkable
beauty, but still more so for her singularly evil
fate.
In the first flush of her womanhood she was
betrothed to Francis, Earl of Dalkeith, who succeeded
his grandmother in the ducal title of
Buccleuch ; but the marriage was broken off, and
he chose another bride, also a Jane Douglas, cf the
house of Queensberry, and for many years after this,
the heroine of our story persistently refused all
offers that were made for her hand.
At length, in the eventful year 1746, when residing
at Druinsheugh, when she was in her fortyeighth
year, she was secretly married to Colonel
John Stewart, brother of Sir George Stewart, Bart.,
of Grantully, but a somewhat penniless man. Thus
the sole income of the newly-wedded pair consisted
of only A300 per annum, given rather grudgingly
by the Duke of Douglas to his sister. with whom
he was on very indifferent terms.
For economy the couple repaired to France for
-three years, and on returning, brought with them two
boys, of whom they alleged Lady Jane had been
delivered in Paris. Six months before their return
their mamage was only made known, on which the
duke, already referred to in our account of the
Yotterrow, though childless, at once withdrew the
usual allowance, and thus plunged them in the
direst distress; and to add thereto, Colonel Stewart?s
creditors cast him into prison, while his sons were
declared spurious.
With womanly heroism Lady Jane bore up against
her troubles, and addressed the following letter to
hlr. Pelham, the Secretary of State :-?6 Sir,-If I
meant to importune you, I should ill deserve the
generous compassion which I was .informed, some
months ago, you expressed on being acquainted
with my distress. I take this as the least troublesome
way of thanking you, and desiring you to lay
my application before the king in such ix light as
your own humanity will suggest. I cannot tell my
story without seeming to complain of one of whom
E nmey will complain. I am persuaded my brother
wishes me well, but from a mistaken resentment,
upon a creditor of mine demanding from him a
trifling sum, he has stopped the annuity which he
has always paid me-my father having left me, his
only younger child, in a manner unprovided for.
Till the Duke of Douglas is set right-which I am
confident he will be--I am destifute. Presumptive
heiress to a great estate and family, with two children,
I want bread. Your own nobleness of mind
will make you feel how much it costs me to beg,
though from the king. My birth and the attachment
of my family, I flatter myself, His Majesty is
not unacquainted with. Should he think me an
object of his royal bounty, my heart won?t suffer
any bounds to my gratitude ; and, give me leave to
say, my spirit won?t suffer me to be burdensome to
His Majesty longer than my cruel necessity compels
me. I little thought of ever being reduced to
petition in this way ; your goodness mill therefore
excuse me if I have mistaken the manner or said
anything improper. Though personally unknown
to you, I rely on your intercession. The consciousness
of your own mind in having done so
good and charitable a deed will be a better return
than the thanks of JANE DOUGLAS-STEWART.?
A pension of A300 per annum was the result ot
this application ; but, probably from the accumulation
of past debts, the couple were still in trouble.
The colonel remained in prison, and Lady JBne
had to part with her jewels, and even her clothes,
to supply him with food, lest he might starve in the
King?s Bench. Meanwhile she resided in a humble
lodging at Chelsea, and the letters which passed
between the pair, many of which were touching in
their tenor, and which were afterwards laid before
the Court of Session, proved that their two children
were never absent from their thoughts, and were
the objects of the warmest affection.
Accompanied by them, Lady Jane came to
Edinburgh, and in the winter of 1752 took up her
residence at Hope Park, in the vicinity of her
brother?s house. She sought a reconciliation, but
the duke sternly refused to grant her even an interview,
In a letter dated from there 8th December,
1752, to the minister of Douglas, she complains of
the conduct of the Duke of Hamilton in her affairs,
and of some mischief which the Marquis of Lothian
had done to her cause at Douglas Castle, and adds
in a postscript :-

... indifferent terms. For economy the couple repaired to France for -three years, and on returning, brought with ...

Book 4 p. 350
(Score 0.52)

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