![Colstorphine.] THE FORRESTERS. 119
of land, in any proper place;? and in 1383 there
followed another charter from the same king concerning
? the twenty merks yearly from the farmes
of Edinburgh.? (Burgh Charters.) In the preceding
year this influential citizen had been made
Sheriff of Edinburgh and of Lothian.
In 1390 he was made Lord Privy Seal, and
negotiated several treaties with England; but in
1402 he followed Douglas in his famous English
raid, which ended in the battle of Homildon Hill,
where he fell into the hands of Hotspur, but was
ransomed. He died in the Castle of Corstorphine
on the 13th of October, leaving, by his wife, Agnes
Dundas of Fingask, two sons, Sir John, his heir,
and Thomas, who got the adjacent lands of Drylaw
by a charter, under Robert Duke of Albany, dated
?? at Corstorfyne,? 1406, and witnessed among others
by Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, then Lord Chancellor,
George of Preston, and others.
Sir John Forrester obtained a grant of the barony
of Ochtertyre, in favour of him and his first wife
in 1407, and from Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney,
he obtained an annuity of twelve merks yearly,
out of the coal-works at Dysart, till repaid thirty
nobles, ?which he lent the said earl in his great
necessity.??
In 1424 he was one of the hostages for the
ransom of James I., with whom he stood so high
in favour that he was made Master of the Household
and Lord High Chamberlain, according to
Douglas, and Lord Chancellor, according to Beatson?s
Lists. His second wife was Jean Sinclair, daughter
of Henry Earl of Orkney. He founded the collegiate
church of which we have given a description,
and in 1425 an altar to St Ninian in the
church of St. Giles?s, requiring the chaplain there
to say perpetual prayers for the souls of James I.
and Queen Jane, and of himself and Margaret his
deceased wife.
He died in 1440, and was succeeded by his son
Sir John, who lived in stormy times, and whose
lands of Corstorphine were subjected to fire and
sword, and ravaged in 1445 by the forces of the
Lord Chancellor, Sir William Crichton, whose lands
of Crichton he had previously spoiled.
By his wife, Marian Stewart of Dalswhton, he
had Archibald his heir, and Matthew, to whom
James III., in 1487, gave a grant of the lands of
Barnton. Then followed in succession, Sir Alexander
Forrester, and two Sir Jameses. On the
death of the last without heirs Corstorphine devolved
on his younger brother Henry, who married
Helen Preston of Craigmillar.
Their son GerJrge was a man of talent and probity.
He stooci high in favour with Charles I.,
who made him a baronet in 1625, and eight years
afterwards a peer, by the title of Lord Forrester
of Corstorphine. By his wife Christian he had
several daughters-Helen, who became Lady Ross
of Hawkhead ; Jean, married to. lames Baillie of
Torwoodhead, son of Lieutenant-General William
Baillie, famous in the annals of the covenanthg
wars ; and Lilias, married to William, another son
of the same officer, And now we approach the
dark tragedy which, for a time, even in those days,
gave Corstorphine Castle a temble notoriety.
George, first Lord Forrester, having no male
heir, made a resignation of his estates and honours
into the hands of the king, and obtained a new
patent from Charles II., to himself in life-rent,
and after his decease, ?to, or in favour of, his
daughter Jean and her husband the said James
Baillie and the heirs procreate betwixt them ;
whom failing, to the nearest lawful heir-male of the
said James whatever, they carrying the name and
arms of Forrester ; the said James being designed
Master of Forrester during George?s life.?
This patent is dated 13th August, 1650, a few
weeks before the battle of Worcester. He died
soon after, and was succeeded by his son-in-law,
whose wife is said to have sunk into an earlygrave,
in consequence of his having an intrigue with one
of her sisters.
James Lord Forrester married, secondly, a
daughter of the famous old Cavalier general, Patrick
Ruthven, Earl of Forth and Brentford, by whom,
says Burke, ?he had three sons and two daughters,
all of whom assumed the name of Ruthven,?
while Sir Robert Douglas states that he died
without any heir, and omits to record the mode of
his death.
He was a zealous Presbyterian, and for those of
that persuasion, in prelatic times, built a special
meeting-house in Corstorphine ; this did not prevent
him from forming a dangerous intrigue with
a handsome woman named Christian Nimmo,
wife of a merchant in Edinburgh, and the scandal
was increased in consequence of the lady being
the niece of his first wife and grand-daughter of
the first Lord Forrester. She was a woman of a
violent and impulsive character, and was said to
carry a weapon concealed about her person. - It
is further stated that she was mutually related to
Mrs. Bedford, a remarkably wicked woman, who
had murdered her husband a few years before, and
to that Lady Warriston who was beheaded for the
same crime in 1600 ; thus she was not a woman to
be treated lightly.
Lord Forrester, when intoxicated, had on one
occasion spoken of her opprobriously, and this](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p130.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 119")
... THE FORRESTERS. 119
of land, in any proper place;? and in 1383 there
followed another charter from ...
Book 5 p. 119
(Score 0.56)
![North Bridge.] THE HORSE POSTS. 355
duction for expenses, among which are A60 for the
Irish packet boat.
In 1708 the whole business of the General Postoffice
was managed by seven persons-viz., George
Main, manager for Scotland, who held his commission
from the Postmaster General of Great
Britain, with a salary of A200 per annum; his
accountant, A50 per annum ; one clerk, d s o ; his
assistant, Lzs ; three letter-runners at 5s. each per
week. The place in which it was conducted was
a common shop.
In 1710 an Act of the newly-constituted British
Parliament united the Scottish Post-office with that
of the English and Irish under one Posttnaster-
General, but ordained that a chief letter office
be kept at Edinburgh, and the packet boats
between Donaghadee and Port Patrick be still
maintained.? The postage of a letter to London
was then raised to 6d. sterling.
In 17 15, James Anderson, W.S., the well-known
editor of D$Zowata Scotie, obtained the office of
Deputy Postmaster-General, succession to
Main, the jeweller. When he took office, on the
12th of July, there was not a single horse post in
Scotland, foot-runners being the conveyers of the
mails, even so far north as Thurso, and so far
westward as Inverary.
(( After his appointment,? to quote Lang?s
privately-printed history of the Post-office in
Scotland, (? Mr. Anderson directed his attention to
the establishment of the horse posts on the Western
road from Edinburgh. The first regular horse
post in Scotland appears to have been from Edinburgh
to Stirling; it started for the first time on
the 29th November, 1715. It left Stirling at z
o?clock afternoon, each Tuesday, Thursday, and
Saturday, reaching Edinburgh in time for the night
mail for England. In March, 1717, the first horse
post between Edinburgh and Glasgow was established,
and we have details of the arrangement in a
. memorial addressed to Lord Cornwallis and James
Craggs, who jointly filled the office of Postmaster-
General of Great Britain. The memorial states,
that ?the horse post will set out for Edinburgh
each Tuesday and Thursday at 8 o?clock at night,
and on Sunday about 8 or g in the morning, and
be in Glasgow-a distance of 36 miles (Scots) by
the post road at that time-by 6 in the morning,
on Wednesday and Friday in summer, and by 8 in
winter, and both winter and summer, will be in on
Sunday night.? ?
At this period it took double the time for a mail
to perform the journey between the two capitals
that it did in the middle of the 17th century.
When established by Charles I., three days was the
time allowed for special couriers between Edinburgh
and London.
In 1715 it required six days for the post to
perform the journey. This can easily be seen, says
Mr. Lang, by examining the post-marks on the
letters of that time.
In that year Edinburgh had direct communication
with sixty post-towns in Scotland, and in
August the total sum received for letters passing to
and from these offices and the capital was only
A44 3s. Id. The postage on London letters in
the same morith amounted to A157 3s. zd.
In 1717 Mr. Anderson was superseded d Edinburgh
by Sir John Inglis as Deputy-Postmaster-
General in. Scotland, from whom all appointments
in that country were held direct. The letter-bags,
apart from foot-pads and robbers, were liable to
strange contingencies. Thus, in November, I 725,
the bag which left Edinburgh was never heard of
after it passed Berwick-boy, horse, and bag, alike
vanished, and were supposed to have been swallowed
up in the sands between Coquet-mouth and
Holy Island. A mail due at Edinburgh one evening,
at the close of January, 1734, was found in
the Tyne at Haddington, in which the post-boy had
perished; and another due on the 11th October of
the follow?ing year was long of reaching its destination.
? It seems the post-boy,? according to the
CaZedonian Mercury, ? who made the stage between
Dunbar and Haddington, being in liquor, fell off.
The horse was afterwards found at Linplum, but
without mail, saddle, or bridle.?
The immediate practical business of the Postoffice
of Edinburgh (according to the ?( Domestic
Annals ?), down to the reign of George I., appears to
have been conducted in a shop in the High Street,
by a succession of persons named Main or Mein,
?(the descendants of the lady who threw her stool
at the bishop?s head in St. Giles?s in 1637.? Thence
it was promoted to a flat on the east side of the
Parliament Close ; then again, in the reign of George
III., behind the north side of the Cowgate. The
little staff we have described as existing in 171 j
remained unchanged in number till 1748, when there
were added an ? apprehender of letter-carriers,? and
a (? clerk to the Irish correspondents.? There is
a faithful tradition in the office, which I see no
reason to doubt,? says Dr. Chambers, ?that one
day, not long after the Rebellion of 1745, the bag
came to Edinburgh with but one letter in it, being
one addressed to the British Linen Company.?
In 1730 the yearly revenue of the Edinburgh
Office was A I , I ~ ~ , according to (?The State ofscotland;?
but Arnot puts the sum at Aj,399.
In 1741 Hamilton of Innerwick was Deputy](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p175.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 355")
... Bridge.] THE HORSE POSTS. 355
duction for expenses, among which are A60 for the
Irish packet boat.
In 1708 ...
Book 2 p. 355
(Score 0.55)
... INDEX.
Nairn, S i Robert, 193
Katharine, 193
Nairn’s Close, 146, 148
Namur, Count of, 7
Napier of ...
Book 10 p. 507
(Score 0.55)
... him an intimation that he was to be made
prisoner, and advised him to lose no time in
assuming the defensive. ...
Book 1 p. 39
(Score 0.55)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Frendracht, Viscount, 191
Froissart, 9, 12
Fullerton, Adam, 152, 272
Gabriel, the ...
Book 10 p. 503
(Score 0.55)
... and howitzers on the bastions of the latter
and the Calton Hill. The sharp encounter there,
and at St. ...
Book 1 p. 55
(Score 0.55)
![THE TOWER 327 Liberton.]
between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih
Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis.
Macbeth of Liberton also granted to St. Cuth
bert?s Church the tithes and oblations of Legbor
nard, a church which cannot now be traced.
The name is supposed to be a corruption o
Lepertoun, as there stood here a hospital fo
lepers, of which all vestiges have disappeared ; bu
the lands thereof in some old writs (according tc
the ?New Statistical Account?) were called ?Spital
town.?
At Nether Liberton, three-quarters of a mile nortl
of the church, was a mill, worked of course by thc
Braid Burn, which David I, bestowed upon tht
monks of Holyrood, as a tithe thereof, ??wit1
thirty cartloads from the bush of Liberton,? gift!
confirmed by William the Lion under the Grea
Seal circa I I 7 1-7.
The Black Friars at Edinburgh received fivc
pounds sterling annually from this mill at Nethei
Liberton, by a charter from King Robert I.
Prior to the date of King David?s charter, thc
church of Liberton belonged to St. Cuthbert?s
The patronage of it, with an acre of land adjoining
it, was bestowed by Sir John Maxwell of that iik
in 1367, on the monastery of Kilwinning,pro sahh
aniiiim SUE et Agnetis sponsiz SUE.
This gift was confirmed by King David 11.
By David 11. the lands of Over Liberton,
?( quhilk Allan Baroune resigned,? were gifted tc
John Wigham ; and by the same monarch the land:
of Nether Liberton were gifted to William Ramsay,
of Dalhousie, knight, and Agnes, his spouse, 24th
October, 1369. At a later period he granted a
charter ?to David Libbertoun, of the office of
sergandrie of the overward of the Constabularie of
Edinburgh, with the lands of Over Libbertoun
pertaining thereto.? (? Robertson?s Index.?)
Adam Forrester (ancestor of the Corstorphine
family) was Laird of Nether Liberton in 1387, for
estates changed proprietors quickly in those troublesome
times, and we have already reterred to him
as one of those who, with the Provost Andrew
Yichtson, made arrangements for certain extensive
additions to the church of St. Giles in that year.
William of Liberton was provost of the city in
1429, and ten years subsequently with William
Douglas of Hawthornden, Meclielson of Herdmanston
(now Harviston), and others, he witnessed
the charter of Patrick, abbot of Holyrood, to Sir
Yatrick Logan, Lord. of Restalrig, of the office of
bailie of St. Leonard?s. (? Burgh Charters,? No.
At Liberton there was standing till about 1840
a tall peel-house or tower, which was believed to
XXVI.)
have been the residence of Macbeth and other
barons of Liberton, and which must not be confounded
with the solitary square tower that stands
to the westward of the road that leads into the
heart of the Braid Hills, and is traditionally said to
have been the abode of a troublesome robber
laud, who waylaid provisions coming to the city
markets.
The former had an old dial-stone, inscribed
?? God?s Providence is our Inheritance.?
Near the present Liberton Tower the remains
of a Celtic cross were found embedded in a wall in
1863, by the late James Drummond, R.S.A. It
was covered with knot-work.
The old church-or chapel it was more probably
-at Kirk-Liberton, is supposed to have been dedicated
to the Virgin Mary-there having been a
holy spring near it, called our Lady?s Well-and
it had attached to it a glebe of two oxgates of
land.
In the vicinity was a place called Kilmartin,
which seemed to indicate the site of some ancient
and now forgotten chapel.
In.1240 the chapelry of Liberton was disjoined by
David Benham, Bishop of St. Andrews and Great
Chamberlain to the King, from the parish of St.
Cuthbert?s, and constituted a rectory belonging to
the Abbey of Holyrood, and from then till the
Reformation it was served by a vicar.
For a brief period subsequent to 1633, it was a
prebend of the short-lived and most inglorious
bishopric of Edinburgh ; and at the final abolition
thereof it reverted to the disposal of the Crown.
The parochial registers date from 1639.
When the old church was demolished prior to
:he erection of the new, in 1815, there was found
very mysteriously embedded in its basement an
ron medal of the thirteenth century, inscribed in
xncient Russian characters ? THE GRAND PRINCE
3 ~ . ALEXANDER YAROSLAVITCH NEVSKOI.?
The old church is said to have been a picuresque
edifice not unlike that now at Corstor-
Ihine ; the new one is a tolerably handsome semi-
Gothic structure, designed by Gillespie Graham,
,eated for 1,430 persons, and having a square
ower with four ornamental pinnacles, forming a
)leasing and prominent object in the landscape
outhward of the city.
Subordinate to the church there were in Catholic
imes three chapels-one built by James V. at
3rigend? already referred to ; a second at Niddrie,
ounded by Robert Wauchope of Niddrie, in 1389,
.nd dedicated to ? Our .Lady,? but which is now
inly commemorated by its burying-ground-which
ontinues to be in use-and a few faint traces of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p146.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 327")
... TOWER 327 Liberton.]
between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih
Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis.
Macbeth of Liberton ...
Book 6 p. 327
(Score 0.55)
... Qeorge, 42,247
Buck Stane, 124
Bullock, William, 8
Bud, John, the Poet, 88, 316
Burgess ...
Book 10 p. 500
(Score 0.54)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
The first volume of the ?? Parochial Records ?
begins in January, 1605, a year ...
Book 6 p. 254
(Score 0.54)
... Bridge. __ 362 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
Magazine (started in Edinburgh), and minister of? son of Sir Michael ...
Book 2 p. 362
(Score 0.54)
... City Cross. J EXECUTIONS AT. THE CITY CROSS. ?5?
It flits, expands, and 2 hifts, till loud
From midmost of ...
Book 1 p. 151
(Score 0.54)
... of glittering jewels, of which Tytler gives
the list. In the ?inventory? of the Jewel House
are mentioned ...
Book 1 p. 35
(Score 0.54)
![Restalrig.] LHL LA31 UP THE LOGANS. I35 -_7n T I?-
,
sible eyrie, Fast Castle, there to await the orders
of Elizabeth or the other conspirators as to the disposal
of his person.
Logan?s connection with this astounding treason
remained unknown till nine years after his death,
when the correspondence between him and the
Earl of Gowrie was discovered in possession of
Sprott, a notary at Eyemouth, who had stolen
them from a man named John Bain, to whom
they had been entrusted. Sprott was executed,
and Logan?s bones were brought into court to
havea sentence passed upon them, when it was
ordained ?that the memorie?and dignitie of the
said umqle Robert Logan be extiiict and abolisheit,?
his arms riven and deleted from all books
of arms and all his goods escheated.
The poor remains of the daring old conspirator,
were then retaken to the church of St. Mary at
Leith and re-interred j and during the alterations
in that edifice, in 1847, a coffin covered with the
richest purple velvet was found in a place where
no interment had taken place for years, and the
bones in it were supposed by antiquaries to be
those of the turbulent Logan, the last laird of
Restalrig.
His lands, in part, with the patronage of South
Leith, were afterwards bestowed upon James
Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino ; but the name still
lingered in Restalrig, as in 1613 we find that
John Logan a portioner there, was fined LI,OOO
for hearing mass at the Netherbow with James of
Jerusalem.
Logan was forfeited in 1609, but his lands had
been lost to him before his death, as Nether Gogar
was purchased from him in I 596, by Andrew Logan
of Coatfield, Restalrig in 1604 by Balmerino, who
was interred, in 1612, in thevaulted mausoleum beside
the church ; ?and the English army,? says
Scotstarvit, ? on their coming to Scotland, in 1650,
expecting to have found treasures in that place,
hearing that lead coffins were there, raised up his
body and threw it on the streets, because they
could get no advantage or money, when they expected
so much.?
In 1633 Charles I. passed through, or near,
Restalrig, on his way to the Lang Gate, prior to
entering the city by the West Port.
William Nisbet of Dirleton was entailed in the
lands of Restalrig in 1725, and after the attainder
and execution of her husband, Arthur Lord Balmerino,
in I 746, his widow-Elizzbeth, daughter
of a Captain Chalmers-constantly resided in the
village, and there she died on the 5th January, 1767.
Other persons of good position dwelt in the
village in those days; among them we may note
?
Sir James Campbell of Aberuehill, many years a
Commissioner of the Customs, who died there 13th
May, 1754, and was buried in the churchyard ; and
in 1764, Lady Katharine Gordon, eldest daughter
of the Earl of Aboyne, whose demise there is
recorded in the first volume of the Edinburgh
Adverhjer.
Lord Alemoor, whose town house was in Niddry?s
Wynd, was resident at Hawkhill, where he died in
1776 ; and five years before that period the village
was the scene of great festal rejoicings, when
Patrick Macdowal of Freugh, fifth Earl of Dumfries,
was married to Miss Peggy Crawford, daughter of
Ronald Crawford, Esq., of Restalng.?
From Peter Williamson?s Directory it appears
that Restalrig was the residence, in 1784, of Alexander
Lockhart, the famous Lord Covington. In
the same year a man named James Tytler, who had
ascended in a balloon from the adjacent Comely
Gardens, had a narrow escape in this quarter. He
was a poor man, who supported himself and his
family by the use of his pen, and he conceived the
idea of going up in a balloon on the Montgolfier
principle ; but finding that he could not carry a firestove
with him, in his desperation and disappointment
he sprang into his car with no other sustaining
power than a common crate used for packing
earthenware; thus his balloon came suddenly
down in the road near Restalrig. For a wonder
Tytler was uninjured; and though he did not
reach a greater altitude than three hundred feet,
nor traverse a greater distance than half a mile, yet
his name must ever be mentioned as that of the
first Briton who ascended with a balloon, and who
was the first man who so ascended in Britain.?
It is impossible to forget that the pretty village,
latterly famous chiefly as a place for tea-gardens
and strawbemy-parties, was, in the middle of the
last century, the scene of some of the privations
of the college life of the fine old Rector Adam of
the High School, author of ?Roman Antiquities,?
and other classical works. In 1758 he lodged
there in the house of a Mr. Watson, and afterwards
with a gardener. The latter, says Adam, in some
of his MS. memoranda (quoted by Dr. Steven),
was a Seceder, a very industrious man, who had
family worship punctually morning and evening,
in which I cordially joined, and alternately said
prayers. After breakfast I went to town to attend
my classes and my private pupils. For dinner I
had three small coarse loaves called baps, which I
got for a penny-farthing. As I was now always
dressed in my best clothes, I was ashamed to buy
these from a baker in the street. I therefore went
down to a baker?s in the middle of a close. I put](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p146.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 135")
... LHL LA31 UP THE LOGANS. I35 -_7n T I?-
,
sible eyrie, Fast Castle, there to await the orders
of ...
Book 5 p. 135
(Score 0.54)
![Leith.] THE FIRST BRIDGE. 167
Kirk aark, and to be-deprived of- the freedom (of
the city) for ane zeare.? 1
.of the harbour, for the erection of quays and wharfs
and for the loading of goods, with the liberty to
have shops and granaries, and to make all necessary
roads thereto ; but this grasping feudal baron
afterwards sorely teased and perplexed the town
council with points of litigation, till eventually he
roused them to adopt a strong measure for satiating
.at once his avarice and their own ambition.
Bought over by them with alarge sum of nionfy
.drawn from the city treasury, Sir Robert Logan on
;the 27th of February, 1413, granted them an extraordinary
charter, which has been characterised as
an exclusive, ruinous, and enslaving bond,? restraining
the luckless inhabitants of Leith from
.carrying on trade cE any sort, from possessing warehouses
or shops, from keeping inns for strangers,
? so that nothing should be built or constructed on
the said land (in Leith) in future, to the prejudice
and impediment of the said community.? The
witnesses to this grant are George Lauder the Pro-
Test, and the Bailies, William Touris of Cramond,
William of Edmondston, James Cant, Dean of
Guild, John Clark of Lanark, Andrew Learmouth,
and William of the Wood.
In 1428 King James I. granted a charter under
.his great seal, with consent of the community of
Edinburgh, ordaining ? that in augmentation of the
fabrik and reparation of the port and harbour of
Leith, there should be uplifted a certain tax or toll
upon all ships and boats entering therein,? This
is dated from the Palace of Dunfermline, 31st
December. (Burgh Records.)
In 1439 Patrick, abbot of Holyrood, granted to
Sir Robert Logan and his heirs the office of bailie
aver the abbey lands of St. Leonards, ?lyande in
the town of Leicht, within the barony of Restalrig,
on the south halfe the water, from the end of the
gret volut of William Logane on the east part to
the common gate that passes to the ford over the
water of Leicht, beside the waste land near the
house of John of Turing,? etc. (Burgh Charters.)
Not content with the power already given them
over their vassals in Leith, the magistrates of Edinburgh,
after letting the petty customs and haven
siller? of Leith for the sum of one hkdred and
ten merks in 1485, passed a remarkable order in
council :-? That no merchant of Edinburgh presume
to take into partnership any indweller of the
town of Leith, under pain of forty pounds to the
he proceeded to Leith tb hold his water courts,
such an escort being deemed necessary for the
In 1497 the civic despots of Edinburgh obtained,
on writ from the Privy Council, that ? all manner
of persons, quhilk are infectit, or has been infectit
and uncurrit of the contageouse plage, callit
the grand gore, devoid red and pass furth of
this towne, and compeir on the sandis of Leith,
at ten hours before noon, and thair shall have
boats reddie in the Haven, ordainit to thame be
the officears, reddie furnished with victualles, to
have them to the inche, there to remain quhi!l
God provide for thair health.? (Town Council
Records.)
As regards Leith, a much more important event
is recorded four years before this, when Robert
Ballantyne, abbot of Holyrood, ? with the consent
of his chapter and the approbation of William,
Archbishop of St. Andrews,? first spanned the
river by a solid stone bridge, thus connecting South
and North Leith, holding the right of levying a toll
therefor. It was a bridge of three arches; of
which Lord Eldin made a sketch in 1779, and part
of one of the piers of which still remains. Abbot
Ballantyne also built a chapel thereby, and in his
charter it is expressly stated, after enumerating the
tithes and tolls of the bridge, ?that the stipend of
each of the two incumbents is to be limited to
fifteen merks, and after the repairs of the said
bridge and chapel, and lighting the same, the surplus
is to be given to the poor.?
This chapel was dedicated to St. Ninian the
apostle of Galloway, and the abbot?s charter was
confirmed by King James IV. on the 1st June,
1493. He also established a range of buildings
on the south side of the river, a portion of which,
says Robertson, writing in 1851, still exists in
the form of a gable and large oven, at the locality
generally designated ? the Old Bridge End.? ?
The part in Leith whereon, it is said, the first
houses were built in the twelfth century, is bounded ,
on the south by the Tolbooth Wynd, on the west
by the shore or quay, on the north by the Broad
Wynd, and on the east by the Rotten Row, now
called Water Lane. One of the broadest alleys in
this ancient quarter is the Burgess Close,? ten feet
in width, and was the first road granted to the
citizens of Edinburgh by Logan of Kestalng.
In the year 1501, all freemen of the city, to the
number of twenty or so, were directed by the
magistrates to accompany the water bailie when](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p178.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 167")
... THE FIRST BRIDGE. 167
Kirk aark, and to be-deprived of- the freedom (of
the city) for ane zeare.? 1
.of ...
Book 5 p. 167
(Score 0.54)
![440 INDEX TO THE NAMES,
J
JACKMAN, Dr., 255
Jackson, Sergeant, 379
Janies VI., 28, 94, 128, 196, 2C
James VII., 385
Jamieson, Miss, 195
Jamieson, Mr. Patrick, 224
Jamieson, William, Esq., 225
lamieson, Mr. Henry, 261
lardine, Sir Henry, 3, 237
Jardine, John, Esq., 131
lardine, Dr, 299
lerdan, Mr., 221
rohnson, Dr., 66, 73, 121, 15:
365
lohnston, Miss, 99
-ohmton, Rev. John, 398
'ohnston, Rev. Dr., 300, 398
.ohnston, Rev. Andrew, 321
ohnston, Miss Ann, 254
ohnstone, Admiral Sir William
ones, William, 145
ones, Dr., 194
ones, Paul, 400
ustice, Captain, 40
ustice, Sir James, 317
197
K
:AMES, Lord, 22, 73, 366
raunitz, Prince de, 328
Eay, Mr. John, 1
Ray, James, 1
gay, Norman, 1
Ray, Mrs., 2
Eeith, Sir R. Murray, 328
Kellie, Lord, 127
Kelly, Earl of, 234, 325
Eemble, Miss, 116
Hope, Lady Alexander, 75
Hope, Hon. John, 80, 92
Hope, Hon. Alexander, 92
Hope, Lady Jane, 103
Hope, Henry, 196
Hope, Sir Thomas, Bart., 196,3
Hope, Lord, 196
Hope, Lady Anne, 197
Hope, General John, G.C.B., I!
Hope, Hon. John, 199
Hope, Hon. James, 199
Hope, Lady Alicia, 199
Hope, Thomas, 199
Hope, Adrian, 199
Hope, Hon. Charles, 239, 240
Hope, Lady Elizabeth, 283
Hope, Sir John, 313
Hope, General, 404
Hopetoun, Earl of, 92, 93,99,10:
196, 199, 283
Hopetoun, Countess Dowage]
199
Horner and Inglis, Messrs., 255
264
Horner, Francis, Esq., 264
Horner, Dlr. Lconard, 264
Horner, Nr. John, 307
Hotham, Sir William, 361
Houston, Lieutenant Andrew, 23
Howe, Lord, 212, 213
Howe, General, 267
Hume, David, the historian, 20
Hume, -, Esq., of Paxton
Hume, Lieutenant David, 237
Hume, Mr. Baron, 303, 393
Hume, Mr. Joseph, 306
Hunter, Dfr., 40
Hunter, Thomas, 44, 45
Hunter, Robert, of Polmood, 44
Hunter, Adam, 45
Hunter, Mr. John, 62
Hunter-Blair, Sir David, Bart., 64
Hunter, James, 210
Hnnter, Mr. David, 237
Hunter, Mr., of BIackness, 246
Hunter, Dr. William, 254
Hunter, Andrew, Esq., 298
Hunter, Rev. John, 302
Hunter, Mr., Governor of Syd-
Hunter, Professor Robert, 321
Huntly, Marquis of, 108
Husband, Paul, Esq., 359
66, 70, 183, 215, 382
105
45
ney, 310
I
INGLIBBa,i lie David, 224
Inglis, Dean of Guild David, 22.
Inglis and Horner, Messrs., 259
Inglis, Captain John, 307
Inglis, Captain, of Redhall, 363
Innes, Rev. William, 194, 195
Innes, Gilbert, Esq., 307
Innes, Mr. George, 427
Ireland, Rev. Dr, 373
264
Husband, Miss Emilia, 359
Hutton, Dr. 20, 63, 75
Hutton, Mr. John, 361
Hutton, Rev, William, 400, 401
ETC.
Eemble, E., 149
Kemble, E. Stephen, 330
Eemp, Rev. David, 282
Kennet, Lord, 217, 350
Keppel, Commodore, 360
Kerr, James, Esq., 104
Kerr, Lord Charles, 104
Kern, Captain Charles, 237
Ken, Alexander, Esq., 413
Eerahaw, Mr., 174
Keys, Dr., 71
Kid, Captain, 401
Kid, Mrs., 401
Kilkerran, Lord, 366
Kilmarnock, Lord, 203
Kinloch, E.4,0
Kinnear, Mr. George, 261, 307
Kinnoull, Earl of, 282
Kirwan, Nr., 56
Knox, -, 127
L
LACKINGTOHKe,n ry, 140
Laing, Mr. James, 111, 236
Laing, Mr,, 427
Lamash, Mrs., 83
Lamond, Mr. John, 284
Lamont, Mr. John, 58, 59
Lamont, Miss Euphemia, 59
Lapslie, Rev. Mr. James, 82
Lashley v. Hog, celebrated case,
Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, 424
Lauderdale,Earl of, 131, 203, 321,
Law, John, of Lauriston, 43
Law, James, Esq., 237, 401
Law,William, Esq., 313
iaw, Miss Isabella, 313
daw, Ess, 404
>awrie, Niss, 398
>awrie and Symington, Messrs.,
.eake, Mr., 148
,cake and Harris, Messrs., 149
>eckie, William, Esq., 403
,eckie, Nr., 403 ~
,edwich, Dr., 47
dee, General, 267
,eigh, Egerton, Esq., 110
,eigh, Miss Mary Anne, 110
#e Maiatre, Miss Maria Cecilia,
39
empriere, Mr., 221
ennox, Colonel, 235
45
392
Mr., W.S., 404
412](images/thumbs/kays_thumb_pages/kays_v1_p_Page_622.gif "Kay's Originals Vol. 1 Page 613")
... INDEX TO THE NAMES,
J
JACKMAN, Dr., 255
Jackson, Sergeant, 379
Janies VI., 28, 94, 128, 196, 2C
James ...
Book 8 p. 613
(Score 0.54)
![Bell?s Mills.] LADY SINCLAIR. 63
portray. She was born Margaret Learmouth, at
~ 6 , St John Street, in the Canongate, in January)
1794, while that street and much of the neighbour.
hood around it were still the centre of the literaq
and fashionable society of the then secluded
capital of Scotland.
Thus she was old enough to have seen and
known many who were ? QUt with the Prince ? b
1745, and reminiscences of these people and 01
their days were ever a favourite theme with hei
when she had a sympathetic listener. ?Old
maiden ladies,? she was wont to say, with a sort 01
sad pitifulness in her tone, ?were the last lea1
Jacobites in Edinburgh ; spinsterhood in its loneli.
ness remained then ever true to Prince Charlit
and the vanished dreams of youth.? Lady Sinclaii
used to relate how in the old Episcopal Chapel in
the Cowgate, now St. Patrick?s Church, the last
solitary representative of these Jacobite ladies nevei
failed to close her prayer-book and stand erect, in
d e n t protest, when the prayer for King George 111.
?( and the reigning family ? was read in the Church
Service. Early in her girlhood her family removed
from St. John Street to Picardy Place, and the
following adventure, which she used to relate,
curiously evinces the difference between the social
customs of the early years of this century and those
of the present day.
? Once, when she was returning from a ball, the
bearers of her sedan-chair had their bonnets carried
off by the wind, while the street oil-lamps were
blown out, and the ? Donalds ? departed in pursuit
of their head-gear. It was customary in those
times for gentlemen to escort the sedan-chairs
that held their fair partners of the evening, and
the two gentlemen who were with her-the Duke
af Argyle and Sir John Clerk of Penicuickseized
hold of the spokes and carried her home.
?Gentlemen were gentlemen in those days,? she was
wont to add, ?and Edinburgh was the proper
residence of the Scottish aristocracy-not an inn
.or a half-way house between London and the
Highland muirs.? ?
In 1821 she was married to Mr. Sinclair, afterwards
Sir John Sinclair, Bart., of Dunbeath, and
for fifty years afterwards her home was at the
House of Barock, in Caithness, where her influence
among the poor was ever felt and gratefully
acknowledged. She was a staunch and
amusingly active Liberal, and, with faculties clear
and unimpaired in the last week of her long life,
noted and commented on Mr. Gladstone?s famous
? hlidlothian speeches,? and rejoiced over his
success. She was always scrupulously dressed,
and in the drawing-room down to the day of
her death. She saw all her children die before
her, in early or middle life; her eldest, Colonel
Sinclair, dying in India in his forty-fifth year. After
Sir John?s death she settled in Edinburgh.
?I am the last leaf on the outmost bough,?
she was wont to say, ?and want to fall where I
was born.? And so she passed away.
When she was interred within the Chapel Royal
at Holyrood, it was supposed that she would be one
of the last to whom that privilege would be accorded.
It was not so ; for the remains of James,
Earl of Caithness, who died in America, were laid
there in April, 1881.
The Dean, or Den, seems to have been the old
general name for the rocky hollow now spanned
by the stately bridge of Telford.
Bell?s Mills, a hamlet deep down in a grassy
glen, with an old bridge, aver which for ages lay
the only road to the Queensferry, and now overshadowed
by fashionable terraces and crescents, is
described by Kincaid in 1787 as a village, ?one and
three-quarter niiles north-west of Edinburgh, on the
north bank of the Water of Leith, and .a quarter
of a mile west of West Leith village.? * It received
its name from an old proprietor of the
flour-mills, which are still grinding there, and have
been long in existence. ?? On Thursday night
last,? says the Zdinburgh Advertseer of 3rd January:
1764, ? the high wall at Bells Brae, near the
Water of Leith Bridge, fell down, by which accident
the footpath and part of the turnpike road are
carried away, which makes it hazardous for carriages.
This notice may be of use to those who have
occasion to pass that road.?
At the head of the road here, near the Dean
Bridge, is a Free Church, built soon after the
Disruption-a little edifice in the Saxon style, with
a square tower ; and a quaint little ancient crowstepped
building, once a toll-house, has built into
it some of the old sculpture from the Dean House.
At the foot of the road, adjoining Bell?s Mills
Bridge, are old Sunbury distillery and house, in a
lelta formed by the Leith, which sweeps under a
steep and well-wooded bank which is the boundary
3f the Dean Cemetery.
The Water of Leith village, which bears marks of
peat antiquity, is fast disappearing amid the enxoachments
of modern streets, and yet all that renains
of it, deep down in the rocky hollow, where
:he stream, flowing under its quaint old bridge,
3etween ancient mills, pours in a foaming sheet
wer a high, broad weir, is wonderfully striking
ind picturesque. Dates, inscriptions, crowstepped
:ables, and other features of the seventeenth
:entury, abound here in profusion.
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p074.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 63")
... Mills.] LADY SINCLAIR. 63
portray. She was born Margaret Learmouth, at
~ 6 , St John Street, in the ...
Book 5 p. 63
(Score 0.54)
![High Street.] DR. CULLEN. 271 -
it jure tan?io hyfotheca till he was paid the price
of it.?
The same house was, in the succeeding century,
occupied by Dr. William Cullen, the eminent
physician; while Lord Hailes lived in the more
ancient lodging in the south portion of the Mint,
prior to his removal to the modern house which
he built for himself in New Street, Canongate.
William Cullen was born in Lanarkshire, in
1710, and after passing in medicine at Glasgow,
made several voyages as surgeon of a merchantman
between London and the Antilles; but tiring of
thesea, he took a country practice at Hamilton,
and his luckily curing the duke of that name of an
illness, secured him a patronage for the future, and
after various changes, in 1756, on the death of Dr.
Plummer, he took the vacant chair of chemistry
in the University of Edinburgh. On the death
of Dr. Piston he succeeded him as lecturer in
materia medica, and three years afterwards resigned
the chair of chemistry to his own pupil,
Dr. Black, on being appointed professor of the
theory of medicine.
As a lecturer Dr. Cullen exercisedagreat influence
over the state of opinion relative to the science
of medicine, and successfully combated the specious
doctrines of Boerhaave depending on the
humoral pathology ; his own system was founded
on the enlarged view of the principles of Frederick
Hoffnian. The mere enumeration of his works on
medicine would fill a page, but most of them were
translated into nearly every European language.
. He continued his practice as a physician as well as
his medical lectures till a few months before his
death, when the infirmities of age induced him to
resign his professorship, and one of many addresses
he received on that occasion was the following :-
? On the 8th of January, 1790, the Lord Provost,
magistrates, and Council of Edinburgh, voted a
piece of plate of fifty guineas of value to Dr. Cullen,
as a testimony of their respect for his distinguished
merits and abilities and his eminent services to the
university during the period of thirty-four years,
in which he has held an academical chair. On the
plate was engraved an inscription expressive of the
high sense the magistrates, as patrons of the university,
had of the merit of the Professor, and of
their esteem and regard.?
Most honourable to him also were the resolutions
passed on the 27th of January by the entire
Senatus Academicus ; but he did not survive those
honours long, as he died at his house in the Mint,
on the 5th of February, 1790, in his eightieth year.
By his wife-a Miss Johnston, who died there in
1786-he had a numerous family. One of his
sons, Robert, entered at the Scottish Bar in 1764,
and distinguishing himself highly as a lawyer, was
raised to the bench in 1796, as Lord Cullen. He
cultivated elegant literature, and contributed several
papers of acknowledged talent to the Mirror and
Lounger; but it was chiefly in the art of conversation
that he shone. When a young man, and
resident with his father in the Mint Close, he was
famous for his power of mimicry. He was very
intimate with Dr. Robertson, the historian, then
Principal of the university.
?TO show that Robertson was not likely to be
imitated it may be mentioned from the report of a
gentleman who has often heard him making public
orations, that when the students observed him pause
for a word, and would themselves mentally supply
it they invariably found that the word which he did
use was different from that which they had hit upon.
Cullen, however, could imitate him to the life, either
in the more formal speeches, or in his ordinary discourse.
He would often, in entering a house which
the Principal was in the habit of visiting, assume
his voice in the lobby and stair, and when arrived
at the drawing-room door, astonish the family by
turning out to be-Bob Cullen.?
On the west side of the Mint were at one time
the residences of Lord Belhaven, the Countess of
Stair, Douglas of Cavers, and other distinguished
tenants, including Andrew Pnngle, raised to the
bench, as Lord Haining, in I 7 29. The main entrance
to these lodgings, like that on the south, was by a
stately flight of steps and a great doorway, furnished
with an enormous knocker, and a beautiful example
of its ancient predecessor, the nsp, or Scottish
tirling-pin.
The Edinhqh Courant of August 12,1708, has
the following strange announcement :-
?I George Williamson, translator (i.e. cobbler) in
Edinburgh, commonly known by the name of Bowed
Geordie, who swims on face, back, or any posture,
forwards or backwards, and performs all the antics
that any swimmer can do, is willing to attend any
gentlemen and to teach them to swim, or perform
his antics for their divertisement : is to be found at
Luckie Reid?s, at the foot of Gray?s Close, on the
south side of the street, Edinburgh.?
Elphinstone?s Court, in the close adjoining the
Mint, was so namedfrom Sir James Elphinstone, who
built it in 1679, and from whom the loftytenement
therein passed to Sir Francis Scott of Thirlstane.
The latter sold it to Patrick Wedderburn, who
assumed the title of Lord Chesterhall on his elevation
to the bench in 1755. His son, Alexander
Wedderburc, afterwards Lord Loughborough, first
Earl of Rosslyn, and Lord High Chancellor of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p091.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 271")
... Street.] DR. CULLEN. 271 -
it jure tan?io hyfotheca till he was paid the price
of it.?
The same house was, ...
Book 2 p. 271
(Score 0.54)
... PGrt.1 THE LAWSONS. 22;
of Cromwell, expelled the General Assembly from
Edinburgh, literally drumming the ...
Book 4 p. 223
(Score 0.54)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. : [Convivialia
In 1783, ? a chapter of the order? was adver
tised ?to be held at their ...
Book 5 p. 124
(Score 0.54)
![Great Stuart Street.] LORD JERVISWOODE. 209
memories. He was the second son of George
Baillie of Jerviswoode; and a descendant of that
memorable Baillie of Jerviswoode, who, according
to Hume, was a man of merit and learning, a
cadet of the Lamington family, and called "The
Scottish Sidney," but was executed as a traitor on
the'scaffold at Edinburgh, in 1683, having identified
himself with the interests of Monmouth and Argyle.
* Lord Jerviswoode was possessed of more than
average intellectual gifts, i and still more with
charms of person and manners that were not confined
to the female side of his house. One sister,
the Marchioness of Breadalbane, and another, Lady
Polwarth, were both celebrated for their beauty,
wit, and accomplishments. On the death of their
cousin, in the year 1859, his eldest brother became
tenth. Earl of Haddington, and then Charles, by
royal warrant, was raised to the rank of an earl's
brother. ' '
Prior to this he had a long and brilliant course
in law, and in spotless honour is said to have been
'' second to none." He was called to the Bar in
1830, and after being Advocate Depute, Sheriff of
Stirling, and Solicitor-General, was Lord Advocate
in 1858, and M.P. for West Lothim in the following
year, and a Lord of Session. In 1862 he
became a Lord of Justiciary. He took a great
interest in the fine arts, and was a trustee of the
Scottish Board of Manufactures; but finding his
health failing, he quitted the bench in July, 1874.
* He died in his seventy-fifth year, on the 23rd of
July, 1879, at his residence, Dryburgh House, in
Roxburghshire, near the ruins of the beautiful
abbey in which Scott and his race lie interred. For
the last five years of his life little had been heard of
him in the busy world, while his delicate health
and shy nature denied him the power of taking part
in public matters.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE WESTERN NEW TOWN-HAYMARKET-DALRY-FOUNTAINBRIDGE.
Maitland Street and Shandwick Place--The Albert Institute-Last Residmn of Sir Wa!ter Scott in Edinburgh-Lieutenult-General Dun&
-Melville Street-Patrick F. Tytler-Manor Plan-%. Mary's Cathedral-The Foundation Lid-Ita Sic and Aspcct-Opened for
Service-The Copestone and Cross placed on the Spire-Haymarket Station-Wmter Garden-Donaldron's H o s p i t a l d t l c Terrpoh
Its Chur&es-C&tle Barns-The U. P. Theological Hdl-Union Canal-First Boat Launched-Ddry-The Chieslics-The Caledonian
Distille~-Fountainbridge-Earl Grey Street-Professor G. J. Bell-The . Slaughter-houses-Bain Whyt of Binfield-North British
India. Rubber WorkScottish Vulcanite Company-Their Manufactures, &,.-Adam Ritchie.
THE Western New Town comprises a grand series
of crescents, streets, and squares, extending from
the line of East and West Maitland Streets and
Athole Crescent northward to the New Queensferry
Road, displaying in its extent-and architecture,
while including the singulax-ly ' picturesque
ravine of the Water of Leith, a' brilliance' and
beauty well entitling it to be deemed, par excellence,
" Z?w West End," and was built respectively about
1822, 1850, and 1866.
. Lynedoch Place, so named from the hero of
Barossa, opposite Randolph Crescent, was erected
in 1823, but prior to that a continuation of the line
of Princes Street had been made westward towards
the lands of Coates. This was finally effected by
the erection of East and West Maitland Streets,
Shandwick Place, and Coates and Athole Crescents.
In the latter are some rows of stately old trees,
which only vigorous and prolonged remonstrance
prevented fiom being wantonly cut down, in accordance
with the bad taste which at one time
prevailed in Edinburgh, where a species of war
was waged against all.groWing timber.
75
The Episcopal chapel of St Thomas is now
compacted with the remaining houses at the east
end of Rutland Street, but presents an ornamental
front in 'the Norman style immediately east of
Maitland Street, and shows there a richly-carved
porch, with some minutely beautiful arcade work.
Maitland Street and Shandwick Place, once a
double line of frontdoor houses for people of good
style, are almost entirely lines of shops or other
new buildings. In the first years of the present
century, Lockhart of Castlehill, Hepburn of Clerkington,
Napier of Dunmore, Tait of Glencross,
and Scott of Cauldhouse, had their residences in
the former; and No. 23, now a shop, was the
abode, about the year 1818, of J. Gibson Lockhaqt,
the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Walter
Scott He died at Abbotsford in 1854 .
In Shandwick Place is now the Albert Institute
of the Fine Arts; erected in 1876, when property
to the value of £25,ooo was acquired for the
purpose. The objects of this institute are the
advancement of the cause of art generally, but
more especially contemporary Scottish art; to](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p029.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 209")
... Stuart Street.] LORD JERVISWOODE. 209
memories. He was the second son of George
Baillie of Jerviswoode; and ...
Book 4 p. 209
(Score 0.54)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street
On becoming provost, he was easily led by his
religious persuasion to ...
Book 2 p. 222
(Score 0.53)
![Queen Street.] SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON. I53
office by Sir James Montgomery of Stanhope.
Early in the next century the house was the
residence of Sir William Cunningham, Bart, and in
more recent years had as an occupant the gallant
Sir Neil Douglas, Commander of the Forces in
Scotland and Governor of Edinburgh Castle, who
commanded the Cameron Highlanders in the war
with France, and was contused by a ball at Quatre
Bras. It is now occupied by tlic Edinburgh Institution
for Education, the head of which is Dr.
Fergusson, F.R.S.E.
Nos. g and 10 were removed in 1844 to make
way for the present hall of the Royal College of
Physicians, on the demolition of the former one in
George Street. The foundation stone was laid on
the 8th of August, 1844, by the then president,
Dr. Renton, in presence of the Fellows of the
college and others. In it were deposited a copy of
the first edition of the ? Edinburgn Pharmacopeia,?
containing a list .of the Fellows of the college; a
work concerning its private affairs, printed several
years before ; an Edinburgh Almanac for the
current year; several British coins, and a silver
plate with a suitable Latin inscription.
It was designed by Thomas Hamilton, and ?is
adorned in front with an Attic Corinthian tetrastyle,
sunqounted by a common Corinthian distyle, and
is handsomely adorned by colossal statues of
iBsculapius, Hippocrates, and Hygeia ; but it was
barely completed when, ample though its accommodation
appeared to be, the rapid additions to
its library and the great increase in the number of
Fellows, consequent on a reduction of the money
entry, and other changes, seemed to .render an
extension necessary.
In No. 11 are the offices of the E&hurgh
Gazette, the representative of the paper started by
Captain Donaldson in 1699, and re-issued by the
same person in March, I 707.
Sir Henry Wellwood Moncriff, Bart., D.D., a
distinguished divine, wha for half a century was
one .of the brightest ornaments of the Scottish
Church, resided in No. 13 during the first years of
the present century. He died in August, 1827,
and his second, son, James, a senator, under the
title of Lord Moncrieff, succeeded to the baronetcy,
which is one of the oldest in Scotland, having
been conferred by Charles I. in 1626.
It was afterwards occupied by the Scottish
Heritable Security Company.
-The next house westward was the residence, at
the same time, of William Honeyman of Graemsay,
who was elevated to the bench as Lord Armadale,
and created a baronet in 1804. He had been pre.
viously Sheriff of the county of Lanarkshire. ?He mar.
88
*ied a daughter of Lord Braxfield, and died in 1825,
eaving ,behind him a reputation for considerable
dent and sound judgment, both as a barrister and
udge. He had two sons in the army-Patrick,
who served in the old -28th Light Dragoons, and
Robert, who died in Jamaica in 1809, Lieutenant-
Clolonel of the 18th Royal Irish.
His house is now occupied by the site of the
Zaledonian United Service Club, erected in 1853.
In 1811 No. 27 was the residence of General
Sraham Stirling, an old and distinguished officer,
whose family still occupy it. In the same year
4lexander Keith of Ravelston, Hereditary Knight
Marshal of Scotland, occupied No. 43. Behind the
louse line stands St. Luke?s Free Church, which has
i fictitious street front in the Tudor style, with two
-ichly crocketed finials.
No. 38 was the house of George Paton, ?Advocate,
md afterwards Lord Justice Clerk, whose suicide
nade much sensation in Edinburgh a few years
1go.
In No. 52 lived and died one of the most illus-
:rious citizens of Edinburgh-Professor Sir James .
Young Sirnpson, Bart., who came to Edinburgh a
poor and nearly friendless student, yet in time
ittained, as Professor of Midwifery in the University
and as the discoverer of extended uses of chlorolorm,
a colossal fame, not only in Europe, but
wherever the English language is spoken. He
obtained the chair of midwifery in r840, and seven
years after made his great discovery. In 1849 he
was elected President of the Edinburgh College
of Physicians; in 1852 President of the Medico-
Chirurgical Society ; and ?in the following year,
under circumstances of the greatest klat, Foreign
Associate of the French Academy of Medicine ?
In 1856 the French Academy of Sciences awarded
him the ? Monthyon Prize ? of 2,000 francs for the
benefits he conferred on humanity by the introduction
of anmthesia by chloroform into the practice
of surgery and midwifery.
A few weeks earlief, for the same noble cause, he
won the royal order of St. Olaf, from Oscar, King
of Sweden, and in 1866 was created a baronet of
Great Britain. His ,professional writings are too
numerous to be recorded here, suffice it to say
that they have been translated into every European
language.
No man ever attracted so many visitors to Edinburgh
as Sir James Simpson, for many Came to see
him who were not invalids. His house in Queeu
Street was the centre of attraction for men -of
letters and science from all parts of the worldphysicians,
naturalists, antiquarians, and literati of
all kinds were daily to be met at his table. His](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p165.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 153")
... Street.] SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON. I53
office by Sir James Montgomery of Stanhope.
Early in the next century ...
Book 3 p. 153
(Score 0.53)
![THE OLD TOWN GUARD. I35 The Tolbooth.]
impartial rule of the Cromwellian period, formed
the scene of many an act of stern discipline, when
drunkards were compelled to ride the wooden
horse, with muskets tied to their feet, and ? a drinking
cup,? as Nicoll names it, on their head. ?? The
chronicles of this place of petty durance, could
they now be recovered, would furnish many an
amusing scrap of antiquated scandal, interspersed
at rare intervals with the graver deeds of such
disciplinarians as the Protector, or the famous sack
of the Porteous mob. There such fair offenders as
the witty 2nd eccentric Miss Mackenzie, daughter
of Lord Royston, found at times a night?s lodging,
when she and her maid sallied out aspreux chma-
Ciers in search of adventures. Occasionally even
grave jidge or learned lawyer, surprised out of
his official decorum by the temptation of a jovial
club, was astonished, oh awaking, tu find himself
within its impartial walls, among such strange bedfellows
as the chances of the night had offered
to its vigilant guardians.?? A slated building of
one storey in height, it consisted of four apartments.
In the western end was the captain?s room;
there was also a ? Burghers? room,? for special prisoners
; in the centre was a common hall ; and at
the east end was an apartment devoted to the
use of the Tron-men, or city sweeps. Under
the captain?s room was the black-hole, in which
coals and refractory prisoners were kept. In I 785
this unsightly edifice was razed to the ground,
an3 the soldiers of the Guard, after occupying the
new Assembly Rooms, had their head-quarters
finally assigned them on the ground floor of the
old Tolbooth.
It is impossible to quit our memorials of the
latter without a special reference to the famous
old City Guard, with which it was inseparably
connected.
In the alarm caused by the defeat at Flodden,
all male inhabitants of the? city were required to
be in arms and readiness, while twenty-four men
were selected as a permanent or standing watch,
and in them originated the City Guard, which,
however, was not completely constituted until
1648, when the Town Council appointed a body
of sixty men to be raised, whereof the captain
was, says Amot, ?to have the monthly pay of
LII 2s. 3d. sterling, two lieutenants of E2 each,
two sergeants of AI 5s., three corporals of AI,
and the private men 15s. each per month.?
No regular fund being provided to defray this
expense, after a time the old method of ?watching
and warding,? every fourth citizen to be on duty in
arms each night, was resumed; but those, he adds,
on whom this service was incumbent, became so re-
,
-
laxed in discipline, that the Privy Council informed
the magistrates that if they did not provide an
efficient guard to preserve order in the city, the
regular troops of the Scottish army would be
quartered in it
Upon this threat forty armed men were raised as.
a guard in 1679, and in consequence of an event
which occurred in 1682, this number was increased
to 108 men. The event referred to was a riot,
caused by an attempt to carry off a number of
lads who had been placed in the Tolbooth for
trivial offences, to serve the Prince of Orange as.
soldiers. As they were being marched to Leith,
under escort, a crowd led by women attacked the
latter. By order of Major Keith, commanding, the
soldiers fired upon the people ; seven men and two
women were shot, and twenty-two fell wounded.
One of the women being with child, it was cut from
her and baptised in the street. The excitement of
this affair caused the augmentation of the guard, for
whose maintenance a regular tax was levied, while
Patrick Grahame, a younger son of Inchbraikiethe
same officer whom Macaulay so persistently
confounds with Claverhouse-was appointed captain,
with the concurrence of the Duke of York
and Albany. Their pay was 6d. daily, the drummers?
IS., and the sergeants? IS. 6d. In 1685
Patnck Grahame, ? captain of His Majesty?s
company of Foot, within the town of Edinburgh
(the City Guard), was empowered to import 300
ells of English cloth of a scarlet colour, with
wrappings and other necessaries, for the clothing
of the corps, this being in regard that the manufactories
are not able to furnish His Majesty?s
(Scottish) forces with cloth and other necessaries.?
After the time of the Revolution the number of
the corps was very fluctuating, and for a period,
after 1750, it consisted usually of only seventy-five
men, a force most unequal to the duty to be done.
?The Lord Provost is commander of this useful
corps,? wrote Amot, in 1779. ? The men are properly
disciplined, and fire remarkably well. Within
these two years some disorderly soldiers in one of
the marching regiments, having conceived an umbrage
at tha Town Guard, attacked them. They
were double in number to the party of the Town
Guard, who, in the scuffle, severely wounded some
of their assailants, and made the whole prisoners.?
By day they were armed with muskets and bayonets ;
at night with Lochaber axes. They were mostly
Highlanders, all old soldiers, many of whom had
served in the Scots brigades in Holland. In the
city they took precedence of all troops of the line.
At a monthly inspection of the corps in 1789 the
Lord Provost found a soldier in the ranks who had](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p147.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 135")
... OLD TOWN GUARD. I35 The Tolbooth.]
impartial rule of the Cromwellian period, formed
the scene of many an act ...
Book 1 p. 135
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