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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEX. 221
castellated mansion, the demolition of which, by the Trustees of the Institution,
occasioned much regret among the lovers of antiquity. From the Edinburgh
Mugazhe for 1800 we quote the following remarks by a correspondent :-
“ How grateful must it have been to the inhabitants of Edinburgh, to be able to point the
attention of a prejudiced stranger to the towering and venerable fabric of Wrytes Hme, one
existing memorial, among many others, of the ancient power and greatness of Scotland, and of
her early proficiency in the architecture and sculpture formerly in repute. Will persons of taste
in this country believe it ?-will liberal and lettered Englishmen believe it ?-this beautiful
castle, in the environs of the capital, and the ornament of Bruntsfield Links, a public resort, ie
at this moment resounding the blows of the hammers and axes of final demolition ! ”
“The Managers of the late Mr. Gillespie’s mortification having, by reason, it is said, of the
voracity of some greedy proprietor, been disappointed in their original intentions,
‘ They spied this goodly castle,
Which choosing for their Hospital,
They thither marched.’
And who could have doubted that it might easily have been transformed into a most capacious
and elegant hospital-a truly splendid abode for decayed Gillespies !
t I I
“But down it must come, if it should be for the sake only of the timber, the slates, and the
stones. A few weeks will leave scarcely a trace to tell where
once it stood. Ten thousand pounds would not rear such another castle ; and, if it did, still it
would be modern.
Above one window was the inscription,
‘Sicut Oliva fructifera, 1376 ;’ and above another, ‘In Domino emfido, 1400.’ There are
several later dates, marking the periods, probably of additions, embellishments, or repairs, or
the succession of different pr0prietors.l The arms over the principal door were those of Britain
after the union of the crowns. On triangular stones, above the windows, were five emblematical
representations-
Its fate is now irretrievable.
“ WryteS House: was of considerable antiquity.
‘ And in those five, such things their form express’d,
As we can touch, taste, feel, or hear, or see.’
. A variety of the virtues also were strewed upon different parts of the building. In one place
was a rude representation of our first parents, and underneath, the well-known old proverbial
distich-
‘ When Adam delv’d and Eve span,
Quhair war a’ the gentles than.’
In another place was a head of Julius Ccesar, and elsewhere a head of Octavius Secundus, both
in good preservation. Most of these curious pieces of sculpture have been defaced or broken,
no measure having been taken to preserve them from the effects of their fall.’ This is much
to be regretted, as there can be little doubt that some good gentleman, who would not only
have given the contractor an advanced price, but would have so disposed of these relics aa to
ensure their future existence and preservation. Had the late Mr, Walter Ross been alive they
would not have been allowed to &ash against the ground and shiver into fragments ! What,
suppose the Managers themselves were yet to erect a little Gothic-looking mansion, in some
convenient corner, constructed entirely of the sculptured and ornamented stones of the castle.
l In a note by the editor of the Magazine, it is stated as the opinion of another antiquarp, that
these dates were more likely to have been inscribed at the same period, to record some particular e m
in the history of the ancestors of the owner ; and that the neatness, distinctness, and uniformity of
the letters, rendered this opinion highly probable. * ‘* A long stone, on which was curiously sculptured a group resembling Holbein’s Dance of Death,
was some time ago (July 1800) discovered at the head of Forrester’s Wynd,:which in former days was
the western boundary of St. Giles’s High Churchyard. “his relic, too, was much defaced, and broken
in two, by being carelessly tossed down by the workmen. It was a curioua piece. Amid other musicians
who brought up the rear, ww an angel playing on the Highland bagpipe-a national conceit, which
appears also on the entablature of one of the pillars of the supremely elegant Gothic chapel at Roslin.” ... SKETCHEX. 221 castellated mansion, the demolition of which, by the Trustees of the ...

Book 9  p. 294
(Score 0.62)

THE LA WNMARKET. I77
King being ludgit in Robert Gourlay’s ludging, he came to the sermone, and ther, in presence
of the haill peipill, he promest to reuenge God’s cause, to banische all the papists,
and y’ requystet the haill peiple to gang with him against Boduell, quha wes in Leith for
the tyme.” His Majesty’s pathetic exhortation, and promises of pious zeal in the cause
of the kirk, soon mustered a force of civic volunteers, who proceeded to Leith, where
Bothwell lay with a body of five hundred horse. The King gallantly headed his recruits so
long as the Earl retreated before them, first ‘(t o the Halkhill, besyde Lesteric,” * and then
away through Duddingston: but no sooner did Bothwell turn his horsemen to face them,
than his Majesty showed (‘ the better part of valour ” by a precipitate retreat, and never
drew bridle, we may presume, till he found himself once more safely sheltered within the
pend of Gourlay’s Close, Holyrood Abbey being much too near the recent quarters of
the rebellious Earl to be ventured on for the royal abode.
From the various incidents adduced, it appears evident that Robert Gourlay waO not
only a subservient courtier, but also that he waa so far dependent on the King-whatever
may have been the nature of his office-as to place his house at his Majesty’s free disposal,
whenever it suited his convenience? It is well known that King James waa very condescending
in his favours to his loyal citizens of Edinburgh, making no scruple, when the
larder of Holyrood grew lean, and the privy purse was exhausted, to give up housekeeping
for a time, and honour one or other of the substantial burghers of his capital with a visit of
himself and household ; or when the straitened mansions within the closes of old Edinburgh
proved insuf6cient singly to accommodate the hungry train of courtiers, he would
very considerately distribute his favours through the whole length of the close I In
January 1591, for example, as we learn from Moysie: when ‘‘ the King and Queen%
Majesties lodged themselves in Nicol. Edward’s house, in Niddry’s Wynd,” the Chancellor
withdrew to Alexander Clark’s house, at the same wynd head ; and, it is added, “on
the 7th of February, the Earl of Huntly, with his friends, to the number of five or six
score horse, passed from his Majesty’s said house in Edinburgh, intending to pass to a
horse race in Leith.” We are not quite sure if we are to understand that the whole six score
were actually lodgers in the wynd, but it is quite obvious, at least, that his Majesty found
his quarters there much too comfortable to be likely to quit ‘‘ his said house ” in a hurry.
The free use, however, which was made of Gourlay’s mansion, lacked such royal condescension
to sweeten the sacrifice ; it was only when its massive walls gave greater promise of
safety in the time of danger that the King made it his abode; and we may presume its
owner to have enjoyed some more substantial benefits in return for such varied encroachments
on his housekeeping.
In the year 1637, David Gourlay, the grandson of the builder, sold this ancient fabric
to Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, the courageous and intrepid adviser of the recusant clergy
in 1606, when the politic lawyers of older standing declined risking King James’s dhpleasure
by appearing in their behalf. In 1626 he was created King’s Advocate by Charles
Birrell’a Diary, p. 32. Restalrig.
a We are indebted to Mr R. Chambem for the following interesting note on thia subject In the Second Book of
Chartera in the Canongate Council House, I find Adam, Bishop of Orkney, giving to &bed Qourlay, messenger, ‘our
familiar semitor,’ the office of messenger, or officer-at-arms, to the Abbey, with a salary of forty pounds and other perquisite?.”
‘ Moysie’s Yemoirg p. 182. Ante, p. 89.
2 ... LA WNMARKET. I77 King being ludgit in Robert Gourlay’s ludging, he came to the sermone, and ther, in ...

Book 10  p. 193
(Score 0.62)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 399
It is entreated that every honest person will give the Magistrates of Edinburgh, or Johnston and
Smith, notice of any circumstances that may fall under their observation for discovering the offenders ;
and farther, the said Johnston and Smith will give the informer a reward of Five Pounds sterling for
every hundred pounds sterling that shall be recovered in consequence of such information. Aa some
smith may very innocently have made a key from an impression of clay or wax, such smith giving
information, BS above, so as the person who got the key may be discovered, shall be handsomely
rewarded.”
“BY ORDER OF THE HONOWABLE THE XAGIBTRATE¶ OF EDINBURGH.
“Whereas, on Sunday night last, the 14th inst, there was laid down or dropped at the door of
the Council Chamber of this City, the sum of two hundred and twenty-five pounds sterling, in bank
notes, wrapped in a piece of grey paper, which was found by Rubert Burton, a porter, and immerliately
after delivered by him to one of the Magistrates : This is to give notice, that the above sum is
now sealed up, and in the hands of the City Clerks, and will be delivered to any person who shall
prove the property thereof, with deduction of a reasonable allowance to the porter who found it.”
“he notes were proved to be the property of Messrs. Johnston and Smith.
In addition to the reward, a proclamation was issued by the King, promising a
free pardon to any one, except the principal, concerned in the robbery, who should
make a disclosure ; and, as a farther inducement, fifty guineas additional were
offered by Johnston and Smith to the informer. These measures were ineffectual
; and no traces of the delinquent could be found, till the apprehension of
Deacon Brodie, twenty years afterwards, induced strong suspicion that he was
concerned in it.’
Not long after this affair, the firm experienced some severe reverses, arising
from a sudden depression in trade, besides losing a box containing one thousand
guineas, which fell into the sea at Leith, while being handed from a boat to
the ship in which it was to be forwarded to London. Immediately after this
accident the firm stopped payment, and compounded with their creditors at the
rate of fifteen shillings in the pound. Various attempts were made to recover
the box. Among others who dived for the treasure was a tailor in Leith, somewhat
famous for his aquatic dexterity. All his exertions, however, although
repeated with great perseverance for some time, proved unsuccessful.
The copartnery was now broken up ; after which I&. Smith commenced
business on his own account, as a private banker ; and, during the remainder of
a long life, was highly successful and respected, and filled the office of Lord
Provost in the years 1807 and 1808.’ Mr. Johnston also continued, for several
years, to discount bills in a small way, until a Mr. John Alston, hardware and
It was then recollected that, prior to the robbery, the Deacon had been employed in making
various repairs on the premises of Johnston and Smith, and had occasion to be frequently in the
bank. The key of the outer door, from which it WBS ascertained he had taken an impression in putty,
usually hung in the passage, which was rather dark and narrow. The premises were afterwards
occupied by E. Adam Luke, draper, and treasurer to Heriot’s Hospital.
3 Mr. Smith married Miss Palmer, daughter of an eminent cabinet-maker in Chapel Street, by
whom he obtained considerable property. He died at his home in West Nicolson Street, in 1814,
aged seventy-five. His son, the late Alexander Smith, Eqq., who carried on the banking business,
met with a tngical fate, having been killed in the spring of 1833, by the falling in of the floor of a
house in Picardy Place, during the sale of the collection of pictures belonging to the late John Clerk
of Eldin, Esq., one of the Senators of the College of Justice. ... SKETCHES. 399 It is entreated that every honest person will give the Magistrates of Edinburgh, or ...

Book 8  p. 556
(Score 0.61)

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

Book 10  p. 436
(Score 0.61)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
BIRD’BE YEV IEW OF EDINBURGH IN 1647, BY JAKEGSOR DON OF ROTHIEMAY, Front*&.
1. Ancient Carved Stone, Edinburgh Castle,
2. ANOIEZHTOT USEC, ANONHILLS,
3. Carved Stone from the Old Barrier Gate,
4, The Castle, from a Map of 1575,
5. Corbel, from St Giles’s Church,
6. The Old High Street, .
7. Ancient Houses, near the Kirk-of-Field,
8. Nary of Guelders’ Arm& from her Seal,
.
Edinburgh Caatle, . ..
. .
. 9. TRINITYC OLLEGCEE URCHF, ROM THE SOUTH-
10. Bishop Kennedy’s Arms, St Pies’s Church, .
11. The Castle, from the West Port, 1640,
12. The King’s Pillar, St Giles’s Church,
13. Ancient Padlock, dug up in the Greyfriara’
Churchyard, .
14. City Cross, ,
15. Palace of Holyrood previoua to 1554,
16. BLACKFRIARWS’Y ND, .
17. HOLYROOCDH BPELE, NTRANCE TO THE ROYAL
18. Norman Capital, Holyrood Abbey, .
19. Black Turnpike, .
20. THE GREATH ALL,T RINITYH OSPITAL,
21. Ancient Chapel, Kirkgate, Leith, .
22. Corbel from the ancient South Porch, St
Giles’s Church, .
23. ST MARY’S CHURCHS,O UTHLE ITH, .
24. HURT OF MIDLOTHIAN, .
25. Saint Qilea, from the City Seal, 1565,
26. Queen Mary’s Bath, .
27. Carved Stone in the Castle, containing the
Cipher of Queen Mary and Henry Lord
Darnley, .
WEST,
VAULT, .
28. Tower of the City Wall in the Vennel,
29. Holyrood Chapel, .
30. OLD TOLBOOTHLE, ITH,
31. The Maiden, .
32, Jenny Geddes’s Stool,.
33. DUN BAR'^ CLOSE, HIGH STREET, .
34. The Citadel, Leith, .
35. Parliament House. about 1646. .
.
PAQE
1
a
6
8
10
11
14
17
18
21
22
24
27
33
34
39
4b
46
47
48
54
64
64
72
73
76
77
80
81
81
86
92
97
97
. 99
36. THE GOLFER’S LAND, CANONOATE, . . 104
37. The Darien House, . . 107
PAOE
38. WEST Bow, FROM TRE CASTLE ROAD,
1843,. , 111
39. The Capital of the City Cross, 6 115
40. Interior of the Tower of the Ancient Town
Wall, in the Vennel, . . 116
41. Ancient Doorway, Halkerston’s Wynd, . 118
43. French Prisoners’ Vault in the Castle, . 126
. 44. Mouldinga of the Chancel Arch, St Margaret’s
45. Lintel from the Guiae Palace, Blyth‘a Close, . 134
46. Ancient Crow-Steps from the Mint, , . 135
47. Cipher of Ilobert Mowbry of Castlewan, .. 140
48. Gothic Niche, Kennedg’s Close, Castlehill, . 142
49. Lord Sempill’a House, Castlehill, . . 145
50. PISCINAPA, LACOFE M ARYO F GUISE,C ASTLEHILL,
. . 145
51, Oaken Front of Ancient Cupboard, from the
Guise Palace, , 147
62. Ancient Carved Doorway, do., . 148
63. EDWARDH om’a HOUSE, TODD’SC LOSE,
CASTLEHILL., . 152
54. Large Gothic Niche, Blyth’a Close, . . 154
55. Ancient Niches, Blyth’s Close, , . 155
56. ANCIENHTO USESC, ASTLEHILL, . . 156
57. Painted Oak Beam from the Guiae Chapel . 157
58. Gladstone’s Land, Lawnmarket, , . 158
59. Ancient Lintel, Lady Stair’s Close, . . 164
60, RIDDLE’SC LOSE,L AWNMABKEBTa,i lie Macmoran’s
House, . . 168
61. Ancient Corbel, from the Old Bank Close, . 172
62. OLDBANKC LOSE, , . 176
63. Carved Stone, from the Old Bank Close, . 176
64. Carved Stone, from the Old Bank Close, . 179
66. HEADOF WESTB ow, LAWNBCAEKE. T, , 183
68. TEE WEIGH-HOUSE, . . 193
70. REID’S CLOSE, CANONQATE, . . 217
71. A r m s of Edinburgh, from Common Seal of
72. House of Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney. 227
73. Ancient Lintel, from Roxburgh Close, . 230
42, The Castle, about 1750, , . 121
Chapel, in the Castle, _. . 128
65. GOSFORDC’EL OSEL, AWNMARKET, . . 180
67. North Side of the Tolbooth, . . 184
69. The Old Parliament Stairs, . . 212
the City, 1561, . f . 221 ... OF ILLUSTRATIONS. BIRD’BE YEV IEW OF EDINBURGH IN 1647, BY JAKEGSOR DON OF ROTHIEMAY, Front*&. 1. ...

Book 10  p. ix
(Score 0.6)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 375
obliged to retire again into the house ; Not content
with this, they proceeded to the house of the Lord Advocate (Dundas of Amiston), whose windows
they broke. It then became necessary to bring a party of the military from the Castle to prevent
farther mischief. The Sheriff attended and read the riot act; but the mob not dispersing, after
repeated intimation of the consequences, the military at last fired, when several persona were
wounded, and some mortally.
“On Wednesday, in the evening, the mob assembled in the New Town, with an htenfion of
destroying the house of the Chief Magistrate.a A fire was lighted on the Castle, and two guns were
fired, 89 a signal to the marines of the Bind frigate, stationed at Leith, and the dragoons quartered
about a mile east of the town.
and the mob began to break the windows.
This put a period to the outrages for that night.
On their appearance the mob finally separated.”3
During the prevalence of these riots, Provost Stirling prudently sought shelter
in the Castle. In so doing he a‘cted wisely, as, if the mob had laid hands on
him, there is no saying what might have followed. It was at this time that
“Lang Sandy Wood,” whom the crowd mistook for the Provost, narrowly
escaped being thrown over the North Bridge.
The Magistrates, naturally alarmed at what had occurred, thought it best to
lay the whole facts of the case before their fellow-citizens. With this view, a
public meeting of the inhabitants was called, in the New Church aisle, on the
Thursday forenoon following-the Lord Provost in the chair. Of this meeting
the following account is given in the journals :-
“ The Lord Advocate, Mr. Sheriff Pringle, the Lord-President, Lord Adam Gordon, Commanderin-
Chief, &. Solicitor Blair, and several others, declared their sentiments. The meeting unanimously
expressed their full approbation of the measures pimued by the Magistrates and the Sheriff,
for suppressing the riots ; and publivhed resolutions to that effect.
“A proclamation was issued the same evening, recommending to the people not to assemble in
crowds, or remain longer on the streets than their lawful business required, as the most decisive
measures had been resolved upon for quieting the least appearance of any farther disorder ; and offering
a reward of one hundred guineas for discovery of the ringleaders. Fifty guinens were also offered
by the Merchant Company, who, and all the incorporations, voted thanks to the hfagi8trates for the
measures taken to suppress the riots. It is said that certain attempts to procure a vote of thanks
to the Magistrates for introducing the military into the town,predozls to any riotous act, proved
abortive.”
Perhaps the zeal displayed by Provost Stirling, in support of the existing
administration on this occasion, may have recommended him as a suitable object
for ministerial favour; however this may be, on the 17th of July following,
“the King was pleased to grant the dignity of a Baronet of the kingdom of
Great Britain to the Right Hon. James Stirling, Lord Provost of the city of
Edinburgh, and the heirs-male of his body lawfully begotten.”
The gentlemen who made this hazardous attempt, we have been informed, were the late Lord
Viscount Duncan, then Rear-Admiral of the White, and the late Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre,
then attending the law classes at the University. Duncan, although in his sixty-first year, was a
strong athletic man. Armed with a crutch belonging to old Lady Dundas, which he seized on nwhing
out of the house, he laid about him among the crowd with great vigour ; and even after the head
of the crutch had been demolished, he continued to use the staff, until compelled to retreat by the
overwhelming inequality of numbers.
He then resided at the south-west corner of St. Andrew Square.
a No damage was sustained upon the premises of the Lord Provost. The destruction was limited
to two sentry-boxes placed near the door, it being then deemed an indispensable accessory to the
dignily of Provost, that two of the city-guard should keep station before his house. ... SKETCHES, 375 obliged to retire again into the house ; Not content with this, they proceeded to the ...

Book 8  p. 523
(Score 0.6)

292 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of the old Scottish Parliaments were not framed to curb the excesses of cobbler kings.
King Crispin and his train grew more extravagant every year. He latterly rode in this
fantastic annual pageant in ermined robes, attended by prince, premier, champion in
armour, and courtiers of all degrees, mounted on horseback, and decked in the most
gaudy costume they could procure, until at length the whole wealth and property of the
corporation were dissipated in this childish foolery, and King Crispin retired to private
life, and the humbler relaxation of cobbling shoes1 Mra Malcolm, an old dame of a
particularly shrewish disposition, who inhabited an attic in the Shoemakers’ Land
towards the close of last century, was long known by the title of the Princess, her
husband having for many years represented the Black Prince, and she his sable c o n s o r t
two essential characters in King Crispin’s pageant. There can be little doubt that this
frivolous sport was a relic of much earlier times, when the Cordiners of the neighbouring
capital, incorporat,ed in the pear 1449, proceeded annually, on the anniversary of their
patron saint, to the altar of St Crispin and St Crispinian, founded and maintained by
them in the collegiate church of St Gi1es.l Nor is it improbable, that in the Princess a
traditional remembrance was preserved of the Queen of the Canongate, mentioned in the
Treasury accounts of James IV.
The Canongate Tolbooth-a view of which heads this chapter-has long been a
favourite subject for the artist’s pencil, as one of the most picturesque edifices of the
Old Town. It formed the court-house and jail of the burgh, erected in the reign of
James VI., soon after the abolition of religious houses had left this ancient dependency
of the Abbey free to govern itself. Even then, however, Adam Bothwell, the Protestant
commendator of Holyrood, retained some portion of the ancient rights of his
mitred predecessors over the burgh. The present structure is the successor of a much
earlier building, probably on the same site. The date on the tower is 1591 ; and preparations
for its erection appear in the Burgh Register seven years before this, where it is
enacted that no remission of fees shall be granted to any one, “unto the tyme the
tolbuith of this burch be edefeit and kggit.”’ Nevertheless, we find by the Burgh
Registers for 1561, “ Curia capitalis burgi vici canonicorum Monasterii Sancte Crucis
prope Edinburgh, tenta in pretorio ejusdem ; ” and frequent references occur to the tolduith,
both as a court-house and prison, in the Registers and in the Treasurer’s accounts, e.g.,
1574, “ To sax pynouris att the bailleis command for taking doun of the lintall
stane of the auld tolbuith windo, iijs. id.” The very next entry is a fee (‘to ane
new pyper,” an official of the Burgh of whom various notices are found at this early
period.
The Hotel de ViZZe of this ancient burgh is surmounted by a tower and spire, flanked
by two turrets in front, from between which a clock of large dimensions projects into the
street. This formerly rested on curiously-carved oaken beams, which appear in Storer’s
views published in 1818, but they have since been replaced by plain cast-iron supports.
The building is otherwise adorned wit,h a variety of mottoes and sculptured devices in the
Maitland, p. 305. The earliest notice we have found of the Cordiners of Canongate occurs in the Burgh Register,
10th June 1574, where “ William Quhite, being electit and choain diacone of the cordonaris be his brethir for this
present yeir, . . . is reseavit in place of umquhill Andro Purves.” From this they appear to have been then an
incorporated body.-Canongate Burgh Register ; Mait. Misc. vol. ii. p. 329. ’ Canongate Burgh Register, 13th October 1584 ; Ibid, p. 353. . ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. of the old Scottish Parliaments were not framed to curb the excesses of cobbler ...

Book 10  p. 317
(Score 0.6)

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 273
have tint and foirfaltit thair lyvis, lands, and guidis, and ordaynit thair armes to be
rifEin, and thair names and armes to be eleidit out of the buikis thairof for euer.” The
outlawed burgess’s house in the Fountain Close appears to have been immediately seized
by his opponents as a forfeiture to the Queen, in whose name they acted, and to have
been converted into a battery and stronghold for assailing the enemy, for which its lofty
character and vicinity to the city wall peculiarly fitted it. A contemporary historian
relates that ‘‘ the Regent, Johne Erle of Mar, for beseageing of the toun of Edinburgh,
cawsit nyne pece of ordonance, great and small, be broght to the Cannogait, to have
assailzeit the east port of the toun ; bot that place was not thoght commodious, .wharefore
the gunnis war transportit to a fauxburg of the toun, callit Pleasands ; and thairfra they
laid to thair batterie aganis the toun walls, whilk began the tent of September, and shot
at a platfurme whilk was erectit upon a howheid, perteining to Adame Fullartoun.”
Adam Fullarton
speedily returned t o his house at the Nether Bow ; and while the English forces under Sir
William Durie were casting up trenches and planting cannon for the siege of Edinburgh
Castle in the name of the young Eing, he was again chosen a burgess of the Parliament
which assembled in the Tolbooth on the 26th of April 1573.’ This date corresponds with
that carved on the lintel of the old mansion in the Fountain Close. It may be doubted,
however, whether it indicates more than its repair, as it is expressly mentioned by the
contemporary already quoted, that (‘ thaj did litill or na skaith to the said hous and
platforme.”’ We can hardly doubt that this ancient tenement will be viewed with
increasing interest by our local antiquaries, associated as it is with so important a period
of national history. The vincit veritas of the brave old burgher acquires a new force when
we consider the circumstances that dictated its inscription, and the desperate struggle in
which he had borne a leading part, before he returned to carve these pious aphorisms
over the threshold that had so recently been held by his enemies. It only remains to be
mentioned of the Fountain Close, that it formed, at a very recent period, the only direct
access from the High Street to the Cowgate Chapel, while that was the largest and most
fashionable Episcopal Chapel in Edinburgh.
remains at the foot of it, though long since deserted by its noble occupants. It is mentioned
by Defoe among the princely buildings of Edinburgh, ‘( with a plantation of lime
trees behind it, the place not allowing room for a large garden.” This, however, must
have been afterwards remedied, as its pleasure grounds latterly extended down to the
Cowgate. Successive generations of the Tweeddale family have occupied this house, which
continued to be their town residence till the general desertion of the Scottish capital by
the nobility soon after the Union. The old mansion still retains many traces of former
magnificence, notwithstanding the rude changes to which it has been since subjected. Its
builder and f i s t occupant was Lady Pester, the pious founder of the church in Edinburgh
that bears her name.“ By her it was presented to her grandson, John, second Earl of
This desperate and bloody civil war was happily of brief duration.
Immediately below this is the Marquis of Tweeddale’s Close, whose large mansion still ‘
Diurn, of Occurrenta, p. 244. Hist. of Jamee the Sext, Bann. Club, p. 94,
a Diurn. of OCC.p, . 331.
a Dame Margaret Ker, Lady Yester, third daughter of Hark, first Earl of Lothian, WBB born in 1672, the year of
John Knox’s death, so that Tweeddale H o w ia a building of the early part of the seventeenth century. Among the
‘ Hist. of James the Sext, p. 251. Defoe’s Tour, vol. iv. p. 86.
2af ... HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 273 have tint and foirfaltit thair lyvis, lands, and guidis, and ordaynit thair ...

Book 10  p. 297
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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 399
charter of James IV., dated a few months before the Battle of modden, the Abbots of
Holyrood and Newbottle are empowered to erect into a new prebendary the chapelry of
St Triduan’s aisle, founded in the Collegiate Church of Restalrig by James Bishop of Ross.
The existence both of the church and parish at the death of Alexander III. is proved
by various charters. In 1291, Adam of St Edmunds, parson of Lestalric, obtained a
writ to the Sheriff of Edinburgh to put him in possession of his lands and rights ; and the
same ecclesiastic swore fealty to Edward in 1296.l The portion of the choir now remaining
cannot date earlier than the fourteenth century, and is much plainer jhan might be expected
in a church enriched by the contributions of three successive monarchs, and the resort of
so many devout pilgrims, as to excite the special indignation of one of the earliest assemblies
of the Kirk as a monument of idolatry. An ancient crypt or mausoleum of an octangular
form and of large dimensions, stands on the south side of the church. It is constructed
internally with c1 groined roof springing from a single pillar in the centre ; and is still
more beautifully adorned externally with some venerable yews that have taken root in the
soil accumulated on its roof. This ancient mausoleum is believed to have been erected by
Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig, knight, in the earlier part of the sixteenth century: and
has evidently been constructed on the model of St Margaret’s Well, which still stands in
its neighbourhood. It afterwards became the property of the Lords Balmerinoch, and on
their forfeiture in 17’46 it passed to the Earls of Bute, whose property it now remains. In
the year 1560 the Assembly, by a decree dated December 21, ‘‘ finds that the ministrie of
the word and sacraments of God, and assemblie of the peiple of the whole parochin of
Restalrig, be within the Kirk of Leith ; and that the Eirk of Restalrig, as a monument of
idolatrie, be raysit and utterly castin doun and destroyed ; ” and eleven years thereafter
we find ita materials taken to build a new port at the Nether Bow.
Not far from the ancient Collegiate Church of Restalrig, on the old road to Holyrood
Abbey, is the beautiful Gothic Well dedicated to St Margaret, the Patron Saint of Scotland.
An octagonal building rises internally to the height of about four and a half feet,
of plain ashlar work, with a stone ledge or seat running round seven of the sides, while the
eighth is occupied by a pointed arch which forms the entrance to the well. From the
centre of the water which fills the whole area of the building, pure aa in the days of the
pious Queen, a decorated pillar rises to the same height as the walls, with grotesque
gurgoils, from which the water has originally been made to flow. Above this springs a
beautiful groined roof, presenting, with the ribs that rise from corresponding corbels at
each of the eight angles of the building, a singularly rich effect when illuminated by the
reflected light from the water below. A few years since this curious fountain stood by the
side of the ancient and little frequented cross-road leading from the Abbey Hill to the .
village of Restalrig. A fine old elder tree, with its knotted and furrowed branches, spread
a luxuriant covering over its grass-grown top, and a rustic little thatched cottage stood in
front oT it, forming altogether a most attractive object of antiquarian pilgrimage. Unhappily,
however, the inexorable march of modern improvement has visited the spot. A station of
the North British Railway now occupies the site of the old elder tree and the rustic cottage ;
a Caledonia, voL ii p. 785.
* “Obitus domini Roberti Logam, militia, donatoris fundi preceptoris Sancti Anthonii pmpe Leith, anno Domini
14%9.”-Obituarg of the Preceptmy of St Anthony. a The Booke of the U n i v e d Kirk, p. 5. ... ANTIQUITIES. 399 charter of James IV., dated a few months before the Battle of modden, the Abbots ...

Book 10  p. 438
(Score 0.58)

Cockburn Street.] MACLAREN
tiny sheet at first. ?To the daily and bi-weekly
editions, a weekly publication, composed of selections
from the others, was added in 1860, representing
also the venerable CaZedoninn Mercury. A
few years ago the bi-weekly paper was merged into
the daily edition, whicA most of the subscribers
had come to prefer. In all its various forms
the Scofsman has enjoyed a most gratifying run of
prosperity.?
By 1820 the paper having become firmly established,
Mr. Maclaren resumed the editorship,
and very few persons now can have an idea of the
magni6de of- the task he
had to undertake. ?Corruption
and arrogance,? says
the memoir already quoted,
? were the characteristics of
the party in power-in
power in a sense of which
in these days we know
nothing. The people of
Scotland were absolutely
without voice either in vote
or speech. Parliamentary
elections, municipal government,
the management of
public bodies-everything
was in the hands of a few
hundred persons. In Edinburgh,
for instance, the
member of Parliament was
elected and the government
of the city camed on by
thirty - two persons, and
almost all these thirty-two
took their directions from
4ND RUSSEL 285
of the proudest proofs of his mechanical sagacity is
his having clearly foreseen and boldly proclaimed the
certain success of locomotion by railways, while as
yet the whole subject was in embryo or deemed a
wild delusion. A series of his articles on this
matter appeared in the Scofsman for December,
1824 and were translated into nearly every
European language; and Smiles, in his life of
Stephenson, emphatically acknowledges Maclaren?s
keen foresight in the subject. His great conversational
and social qualities lie apart from the
history of his journal, which he continued to edit
till compelled by ill-health
UEXANDER RUSSEL.
(Fmm a Phfograjh by 7. Moffat, Edidurgk.)
the Government of the day, or its proconsul.
Public meetings were almost unknown, and a free
press may be said to have never had an existence.
Lord Cockburn, in his ? Life of Jeffrey,? says :-? I
doubt if there was a public meeting held in Edinburgh
between the year 1795 and the year 1820,?
and adds, in 1852, that ? excepting some vulgar,
stupid, and rash? newspapers which lasted only
a few days, there was ?no respectable opposition
paper, till the appearance of the Scofsman, which
for thirty-five years has done so much for the
popular cause, not merely by talent, spirit, and
consistency, but by independent moderation.??
Its tone from the first had been that of a decided
Whig, and in church matters that of a ?? voluntary.?
Apart from his ceaseless editorial labours, Mr.
Maclaren enriched the literature of his country by
many literary and scientific works, the enumeration
of which is somewhat unnecessary here ; but one
td resign in 1847. He
died in 1866, sfter having
lived in comparative retirement
at his suburban
villa in the Grange Loan, in
his eighty-fourth year, having
been born in 1782, at
Ormiston, in West Lothian.
In the management of
the paper he was ably succeeded
by Alexander Russel,
a native of Edinburgh,
who, after editing one or
two provincial journals,
became connected with the
Scotsmen in 1845, as assistant
editor. . He was a Whig
of the old Fox school, and
contributed many brilliant
articles to the Edinburgh
and Quurferb Reviews, the
?Encyclopzedia Britannica,?
and also B/ackwood?s Magazine.
As editor of the Scotsman he soon attracted
the attention of Mr. Cobden and other
leaders of the Anti-corn-law agitation, and his
pen was actively employed in furtherance of the
objects of the League ; and among the first subjects
to which he turned his attention in the S2ofsman
was the painful question of Highland destitution in
1847. A notable local conflict in which the paper
took a special interest was that of ~ 8 5 6 , on the
final retirement of Macaulay from the representation
of Edinburgh, and the return of Adam Black,
the eminent publisher ; and among many matters
to which this great Scottish journal lent all its
weight and advocacy in subsequent years, was the
great centenary of Robert Bums.
To the change in the Stamp Act we have already
referred-a change which, by the introduction of
daily papers, entailed an enormous increase of
work upon the editors ; but we are told that ? Mr. ... Street.] MACLAREN tiny sheet at first. ?To the daily and bi-weekly editions, a weekly publication, ...

Book 2  p. 285
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130 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig.
By interdict the directors were compelled to give
access to the well, which they grudgingly did by a
species of drain, till the entire edifice was removed
to where it now stands.
Near the site of the well is the ancient church of
Restalrig, which, curiously enough, at first sight has
all the air of an entirely modern edifice ; but on a
minute inspection old mouldings and carvings of
great antiquity make their appearance in conjunction
with the modern stonework of its restoration.
It is a simple quadrangular building, without aisles
or transept.
The choir, which is the only part of the building
that has escaped the rough hands
of the iconoclasts of the sixteenth
century, is a comparatively small,
though handsome, specimen of
Decorated English Gothic ; and
it remained an open ruin until
a fev years since, when it was
restored in a manner as a chapel
of ease for the neighbouring district.
But a church existed here long
before the present one, and it
was celebrated all over Scotland
for the tomb of St. Triduana,
who died at Restalrig, and whose
shrine was famous as the resort
of pilgrims, particularly those
who were affected by diseased
eyesight. Thus, to this day, she
is frequently painted as carrying
her own eyes on a salver or the
point of a sword. A noble virgin
of Achaia, she is said to have
come to Scotland, in the fourth
century, with St. Rule. Her name
inferred that the well afterwards called St. Margaret?s
was the well of St. Triduana.
Curiously enough, Lestalric, the ancient name of
Restalrig, is that by which it is known in the present
day; and still one of the roads leading to it from
Leith is named the Lochsterrock Road
The existence of a church andparish here, long
prior to the death of King Alexander 111. is proved
by various charters ; and in 1291, Adam of St.
Edmunds, prior of Lestalric, obtained a writ, addressed
to the sheriff of Edinburgh, to put him
in possession of his lands and rights. The same
ecclesiastic, under pressure, like many others at
SEAL OF THE COLLEGIATE cnmcn
OF RESTALRIG.
is unknown in the Roman Breviary; but a recent
writer says, ?? S t Triduana, with two companions,
devoted themselves to a recluse life at Roscoby, but
a Pictish chief, named Nectan, having been attracted
by her beauty, she fled into Athole to
escape him. As his emissaries followed her there,
and she discovered that it was her eyes which had
entranced him, she plucked them out, and, fixing
them on a thorn, sent them to her admirer. In
consequence of this practical method of satisfying
a lover, St. Triduana, who came to Restalrig to
live, became famous, and her shrine was for many
generations the resort of pilgrims whose eyesight
was defective, miraculous cures being effected by
the waters of the well.?
Sir David Lindsay writes of their going to ? St.
Trid well to mend their ene;? thus it has been
the time, swore fealty to Edward
I. of England in 1296.
Henry de Leith, rector of Restalrig,
appeared as a witness
against the Scottish Knights of
the Temple, at the trial in Holyrood
in 1309. The vicar, John
Pettit, is mentioned in the charter
of confirmation by James III.,
under his great seal of donations
to the Blackfriars of Edinburgh
in 1473..
A collegiate establishment of
considerable note, having a dean,
with nine prebends and two singing
boys, was constituted at Restalrig
by James III., and completed
by James V. j but it seems
not to have interfered with the
parsonage, which remained entire
till the Reformation.
The portion of the choir now
remaining does not date, it is
supposed, earlier than from the
fourteenth century, and is much
plainer, says Wilson, than might be expected in
a church enriched by the contributions of three
pious monarchs in succession, and resorted to by
so many devout pilgrims as to excite the special
indignation of one of the earliest assemblies of the
Kirk, apparently on account of its abounding with
statues and images.
By the Assembly of 1560 it was ordered to be
? raysit and utterly casten doun,? as a monument
of idolatry; and this order was to some extent
obeyed, and the ?? aisler stanis ? were taken by
Alexander Clark to erect a house with, but were
used by the Reformers to build a new Nether Bow
Port. The parishioners of Restalrig were ordered
in future to adopt as their parish church that of
St. Mary?s, in Leith, which continues to the present
day to be South Leith church. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig. By interdict the directors were compelled to give access to the well, ...

Book 5  p. 130
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vi OLD APU'D NEW EDINBURGH.
CHAPTER XXII.
ST. ANDREW SQUARE.
PAGE
St. Andrew Sq-Lst .of Early R e s i d e n u t Bomwlaski-Miss Gordon of CLuny-SconiSh W d m ' Fund-Dr. A. K. Johnstoo
--Scottish Provident Institution-House in which Lord Bmugham was Bom-Scottish Equitable Society-Charteris of Amisfield-
Douglas's Hotel-Sk Philip Ainslie-British Linen Company-National Bank--Royal Baulc-The Melville and Hopetoun Monuments
-Ambm's Tavern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I66
CHAPTER XXIII.
CHARLOTTE S Q U A R E ,
Charlotle Sq-Its Early OccuPantgSu John Sinclair, B a r t - b o n d of that Ilk-Si Wdliam Fettes-Lard chief Commissioner Adam
-Alexander Dimto-St. George'r Church-The Rev. Andrew Thomson-Prince ConSmt's Memorial-The Parallelogram of the first
New Town. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -172
CHAPTER XXIV.
ELDER STREET-LEITH STREET-BROUGHTON STREET.
Elder Street--Leith Street-The old "Black BuU"-Margarot-The Theatre Royal-Its Predecessors on the same Site-The Circus-
C o d s Rooms-The Pantheon-Caledonian Thoaue--Adelphi Theatre-Queen's Theatre and Open House-Burned and Rebuilt-
~ t . wary's chapel-~ishop Cameron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
CHAPTER XXV.
THE VILLAGE AND BARONY OF BROUGHTON.
Bmghton-The Village and Barmy-The Loan-Bmughton first mentioned-Feudal Superio+Wttches Burned-Leslie's Headquarters
-Gordon of Ellon's Children Murdered-Taken Red Hand-The Tolbooth of the Burgh-The Minute Books-Free Burgews-
Modern Ch& Meted in the Bounds of the Barony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .r80
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE NORTHERN NEW TOWN.
Picardy PI-Lords Eldm and CDig-Su David Milm--Joho AbcrcmmbitLord Newton--cOmmissioner Osborne-St. PauPs Church
-St. George's Chapel-Wib Douglas, Artist-Professor Playfair-Gcned Scott of BellencDrummond Place-C K. Sharpe of
Hoddam-Lard Robertson-Abercmmbie Place and Heriot Row-Miss Femer-House in which H. McKenzie died-Rev. A. Aliin
-Great King Street-Sir R Chrii-Sir WillLm Hamilton-Si William Allan--Lord Colonsay, Lc. . . . . . . . 185
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE NORTHERN NEW TOWN (codu&d).
AdrnLal Fairfax-Bishop Terrot-Brigadier Hope-Sir T. M. Brisbam-Lord Meadowbank-Ewbank the R.S.A-Death of Professor
Wilson-Moray Place and its Distria-Lord President Hope-The Last Abode of Jeffrey-Bamn Hume and Lord Moncrieff-
Fom Street-Thomas Chalmers, D.D.-St. Colme Street-Cap& Basil Hall--Ainslie Place-Dugald Stewart-Dean Ramsay-
Great Stuart Slreet--Pmfessor Aytwn--Mk Graharn of DuntrooPLord Jerviswoodc . . . . . . . . . . I98
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE WESTERN NEW TOWN-HAYMARKET-DALRY-FOUNTAINBRIDGE.
Maithd Street and Shandwick Place-The Albert Institute--Last Residence of Sir Wa'ta Smtt in Edinburgh-Lieutenant-General
DundatMelville Street-PatricL F. Tytler--Manor Piace-St. M q ' s Cathedral-The Foundation Ud-Its Si and Aspxt-
Opened for Srrsice--The Copstone and Cross placed on the Spire-Haymarket Station-Wmta Garden-Donaldson's Hospital-
Castle Te-Its Churches-Castle Barns-The U. P. Theological Hall-Union Canal-Fkt Boat Launched-Dalry-The Chieslies
-The Caledoniau Dstillery-Foun&bridg=-Earl Grey Street-Professor G:J. Bell-The Slaughter-ho-Baii Whyt of Bainfield
-Nd British India Rubber Works-Scottish Vulcanite CompanpAdam Ritchie . . . . . . . . . . . . Z q ... OLD APU'D NEW EDINBURGH. CHAPTER XXII. ST. ANDREW SQUARE. PAGE St. Andrew Sq-Lst .of Early R e s i d e ...

Book 4  p. 388
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126 BI 0 GRAPH I CA L S KET C HE S.
who had sat in the former Parliament.’ He was again returned for the
same county in 1784, but “vacated his seat in 1789, by accephg the office
of Inspector of Military Roads ; the duties of which he performed for some
years with assiduity, travelling on foot over extensive tracts of rugged ground
in the Highlands, for the purpose of ascertaining the proper courses for the
roads, to the great advantage of the public, by rendering the lines shorter, and
avoiding the expense of several bridges deemed necessary under the former
plans.”
On the declaration of war by the French Convention against Great Britain
and Holland, in 1793, seven regiments of Fencibles were ordered to be raised in
Scotland for the internal defence of the country. One of these, the West Lowland
Fencibles, being under the immediate patronage of the Eglinton and Coilsfield
families, Major Montgomerie was appointed Colonel, Glasgow was fixed
as the head-quarters of this regiment. The Colonel lost no time in beating up
for recruits throughout the west country, and especially in Ayrshire, where he
was eminently successful. At the village of Tarbolton alone, in the immediate
neighbourhood of his paternal seat of Coilsfield, a company of volunteers were
soon congregated ; and the circumstance of their departure for head-quarters is
still remembered as a day of note in the annals of the village.8 In the morning
On this occasion an expedient was resorted to by the candidates, in order to prevent their friends
among the freeholders, who might have troublesome creditors, from being laid hold of at the critical
moment of election. The advertisement, which appeared in the newspapers of the day, ia as
follows :-“In order to prevent vexations diligences being used against individuals in the shire of
Ayr, by attacking the electors of either party, at the eve of the Michaelmas Head Court, or upon
the day of election, in hopes of that critical period to recover payment, Sir Adam Fergusson and
Major Montgomerie, the two candidates, hare agreed that, in the event of any of the friends of
either party being attacked, a real voter present, in the interest of the opposite party, shall retire
out of Court ; which renders it vain for any person to think they shall have a better chance of recovering
payment, by using rash means, at this particular time.”
a Douglas’s Peerage, by Wood.
Among others who “followed to the field” was an eccentric personage of the name of Tait.
He was a tailor, and in stature somewhat beneath the military standard ; but he was a poet, and
zealous in the cause of loyalty, He had sung the deeds of the Montgomeries in many a couplet ;
and, having animated the villagers with his loyal strains, resolsed, like a second Tyrtsus, to
encourage his companions at arms to victory by the fire and vigour of his verses. It is said he
could not write, nevertheless he actually published a small volume of poems. These have long ago
sunk into oblivion. He was a bachelor ; and,
like a true son of genius, occupied an attic of very small dimensions. At the “June fair,” when
the village waa crowded, Saunders, by a tolerated infringement of the excise laws, annually converted
hi8 “ poet’s corner” into a temple for the worship of Bacchus, and became publican in a small way.
He was himself the presiding genius, and his apartment was always well frequented, especially by
the younger portion of the country people, who were amused with his oddities. He sang with
peculiar animation ; and failed not to give due recitative effect to the more lengthy productions of
his muse :-it might he in celebration of a honspiel, in which the curlers of Tarbolton had been
victorious over those of the parish of Stair-of a love-match-or such other local matter calculated
to interest his rustic hearers ; by whom his poems were highly applauded 89 being “unco wee1 put
thegither.” One in particular, on In.
Alexander of Ballochmyle, ww much talked of, probably from the circumstance of the lady having
condeacended to patronise the village laureate, by requesting his attendance at Ballochmyle, where
he recited the piece-was rewarded-and afterwards continued to be a privileged frequenter of the
hall. He was, no
Still I ‘ Sawney Tait the tailor ” is well remembered.
Some of his songs obtained a temporary popularity.
Poor Smmders, unluckily, waa more in repute for his songs than his needle. ... BI 0 GRAPH I CA L S KET C HE S. who had sat in the former Parliament.’ He was again returned for the same ...

Book 9  p. 169
(Score 0.57)

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 385
2%h, 1387, between “ Adam Forster, Lord of Nether Leberton, Androw Yichtson, Provest
of the Burgh of Edynburgh, and Communitie of that Ilk, on the ta half, and Johne Johne
of Stone, and Johne Slcayer, masounys, on the toyer half,” and requires that ‘‘ the forsaidys
Johne Johne, and Johne, sall make and voute f p e Chapells on the south syde of the
Paryce Kyrke of Edynburgh, fra the west gavyl, lyand and rynan doun est, on to the grete
pyler of the stepyl, voutyt on the same maner by the masounys, as the vout abovye Sanct
Stevinys auter, standand on the north syde of the parys auter of the Abbay of Haly-rude
Houss. Alsua yat ylk man sal mak in ylk Chapel of the four, a wyndow with thre lychtys
in fourm masoune lyke, the qwhilk patroune yai hef sene; and the fyfte Chapel voutyt
with a durre, in a10 gude maner als the durre, standand in the west gavyl of ye forsaid
kyrk. Alsua ye forsayde five Chapellys sall be thekyt abovyn with stane, and water
thycht; ye buttras, ye lintels f p y t up als hech as ye lave of yat werk askys.”’ The
whole of these five chapels remained, with their beautiful groined roofs, and clustered
columns, until the restoration of the ancient edifice in 1829, when the two west ones were
demolished, apparently for no better reason than because they interfered with the architect’s
design for a uniform west front. The third chapel, which now forms the west
lobby of the Old Church, as this subdivision of the building is styled, retained till the
same date the beautiful vaulted entrance erected in 1387; it was an open porch,
with a richly-groined ceiling, and over it a small chamber, lighted by an elegant oriel
window, the corbel of which was an angel holding the city arms. A fac-simile of this has
been transferred to the west side of the aisleY2th ough without either the beautiful porch
which it surmounted, or the picturesque turret-stair which stood on its west side, and
formed the approach to the Priest’s Chamber as well as to the roof of the church. The
demolition of this portion of the ancient edifice led to the discovery of a large accumulation
of charters and ancient records of the city, which had been placed at some early period
in the chamber over the porch, and had lain there undisturbed probably for more than two
centuries. It had contained also a series of pictorial decorations of an unusual character
a0 the adornments of any part of a church, but which appear to have been painted on the
panelling of the chamber about the period of the Revolution, when it formed an appendage
to the Council Chambers. The only fragments of these that have been preserved are now
in the collection of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., and consist of a trumpeter, a soldier bearing a
banner, and a female figure holding a cornucopia. The costume of the figures, which are
above half-life size, is of the reign of Willitlm 111. The paintings are really works of
some merit, so far as can be judged from these detached fragments, which were literally
rescued from the ruins of the ancient vestry, and are insufficient to show what had been the
subject of the whole desigu. The txo eastern chapels are now included in the Old ChrcA,
and though greatly defaced by modern partitions and galleries, retain some of the original
groining, constructed five centuries ago, in imitation of St Stephen’s Chapel in the Abbey
of Holpood.
1 Maitland, p. 270.
The carved stones of the original window are now in the possession of A. E. Ellis, Eaq., and cannot but excite the
surprise of every one who sees them, as the most of them are nearly as fresh and sharp aa when firat executed.
Among other interesting fragments rescued by Mr Ellii at the same period, there is a very fine stoup for holy water,
formed in shape of a shallow bason, with a large star covering it, and leaving the interatices for the water. It had projected
from the wall on a richly-flowered corbel, which has been rudely broken in its removal.
3 c ... ANTIQUITIES. 385 2%h, 1387, between “ Adam Forster, Lord of Nether Leberton, Androw Yichtson, ...

Book 10  p. 423
(Score 0.57)

CONTENTS. V
CHAPTER XV.
T H E CALTON H I L L .
e .
?AGS
Origin of the Name-Ghbet and Battery them-The Quarry Holes-The Monastery of Greenside Built-The Leper Hospita-The
Tournament Ground and Playfield-Church of Greenside-Burgh of Calton-Rev. Rowlaod Hill-Regent Bridge Built-Obscmtorp
and Asmnomical Insiituticu-Bridewell Built-Hume's TombThe Political Martyrs' Monument-The Jews' Pka of Burial-
Monument of Nelson-National Monument, and those of Stewart. Playfair, and Bums-Thc High School-Foundarion hid- . Architeke and Extent-The 0pening-lnstruct;on-Rec~n of the New SchooCLintel of the Old School-Lard Brougham's
Opinion of the Institution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I M
CHAPTER XVI.
THE NEW TOWN.
The Site before the Streets-The Lang Dykes-Wood's Farm-Dmmsheugh House-Bearfd's ParkgTbe Honsg of Easter and Wester
Coates--Gabriel's Road4hig.s Plan of the New Town-John Young builds the Fint House Therein-Extensionof the Town Weatward I I4
CHAPTER XVII.
P R I N C E S STREET,
A Glance at Society-Change of Manners, &c-The Irish Giants-Poole's Coffee-house-Shop of Constable & Co.-Weir's Museum, 1%-
The Grand Duke Nicholas-North British Insurance Life Association-Old Tar Office and New Club-Craig of Riccarton-" The
White Rose of Scotland "-St. John's Chapd-Its Tower and Vaults, &,.-The Smtt Monument and its Muscum-The Statues OP
Professor Wilrion, Allan Ramsay, Adam Bkk, Sir Jam- Sipson, and Dr. Livingstone-The General Improvements in Princes Street C 19
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CHURCH OF ST. CUTHBERT,
History and Antiquity-Old Views of it Described-First Protestant Incumbents-The Old Manse-Old Communion Cups-Pillaged by
Cmmwell-Ruined by the Siege of 1689, and again in 17qs-Deaths of Messls McVicar and Pitcairn-Early Bdy-suatcheni-Demolition
of the Old Church-Erection of the New- of Heart-burial4ld Tombs and Vaults-The Nisbets of Dean-The Old Poor
House-Kirkbraehead Road--Lothian Road-Dr. Candish's Church-Military Academy-New Caledonian Railway Station. . . 13r
CHAPTER XIX.
GEORGE, S T R E E T .
Major Andrew Fraser-The Father of Miss F e r r i a 4 r a n t of Kilgraston-William Blackwad a d hh Magazine-The Mcdher ol 6 i
Walter Scott-Sir John Hay, Banker-Colquhoun of Killermont-Mn. Mumy of Henderland-The Houw of Sir J. W. Gardon.
Sir James Hall. and Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster-St. Andrew's Church-Scene of the Disruption-Physicians' HalLGlaoce at the
History of the College of Physicians--Sold and Removed-The Commercial Bank-Its Constitution-Assemhly Rooms-Rules of
17+Banquet to Black Watch-"The Author of ' Waverley"'-The Music Hall-"he New Union Bank-Its Formation, &c.-The
Masonic Hall-Watson's Picture of B-Statues of George IV., Pith and C6almer$ . . . . . . . . . . J39
CHAPTER XX.
QUEEN STREET.
The Philosophical Institution-House of Baron &de-New Physickd Hall-Sir James Y. Simpsoo, M.D.-'l%e ITomse of Profcsor
Wilsn-Si John Leslie--Lord Rockville-Si James Grant of Gm-The Hopetoun Roo~m-Edinburgh Educational Inrticucim
forLadies. . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I51
CHAPTER XXI.
THE STREETS CROSSING GEORGE STREET, AND THOSE PARALLEL WITH IT.
Row Street-Miss Bums and Bailie Creech-Sir Egerton high-Robert Pollok-Thiitle Street-The Dispmsav-Hd Street--Coont
d'Alhy-St Andrew Street-Hugo Amot-David, Earl of Buchan-St. David Street-Dad Hume-Sii Waltcr Scott and Basil
Hall-Hanover Street-Sir J. Gnham Dalyell-Offics of Associatim for the Impmmmt of the Poor--FrsdeticL Street--Gnnt d
Corrimony-Castle Street-A Dinner with Si Walter h a - S h o e of Rubiw-Mwey Napier4h.de Street and Charlotte Street . 158 ... V CHAPTER XV. T H E CALTON H I L L . e . ?AGS Origin of the Name-Ghbet and Battery them-The Quarry ...

Book 4  p. 387
(Score 0.56)

242 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
up to the full average of poets, yet his vanity was
of a very inoffensive kind.
Mrs. Sarah Siddons, when visiting the Edinburgh
Theatre, always spent an occasional afternoon with
Mr. and Mrs. Home, at their neat little house in
North Hanover Street, and of one of these visits
Sir Adam Fergusson was wont (we have the authority
of Robert Chambers for it) to relate the following
anecdote :-They were seated at early dinner,
attended by Home?s old man-servant John, when
the host asked Mrs. Siddons what liqueur or wine
she preferred to drink.
A.little porter,? replied the tragedy queen, in
her usually impressive voice; and Johs was despatched
to procure what he thought was required,
But a considerable time elapsed, to the surprise
of those at table, before steps were heard in the
outer lobby, and John re-appeared, panting and
flushed, exclaiming, ?I?ve found ane, mem t he?s
the least I could get !? and with these words he
pushed in a short, thickset Highlander, whose
leaden badge and coil of ropes betokened his
profession, ? but who seemed greatly bewildered
on finding himself in a gentleman?s dining-room,
surveyed by the curious eyes of one of the
grandest women that ever walked the earth. The
truth flashed first upon Mrs. Siddons, who, unwonted
to laugh, was for once overcome by a
sense of the ludicrous, and broke forth into something
like shouts of mirth;? but Mrs. Home,
we are told, had not the least chance of ever
understanding i t
Home accepted a captain?s commission in the
Duke of Buccleuch?s Fencibles, which he held till
that corps was disbanded, His last tragedy was
?Alfred,? represented in 1778, when it proved
an utter failure. In 1776 he accompanied his
friend Ilavid Hume, in his last illness, from Morpeth
to Bath. He never recovered the shock of
a fall from his horse when on parade with the
Buccleuch Fencibles ; and his ? History of the
Rebellion,? perhaps his best work in some respects
(though it disappointed the public), and the task
of his declining years, was published at London
in 1802. He died at Edinburgh, in his eightyfourth
par, and was buried in South Leith churchyard,
where a tablet on the west side of the
church marks the spot. It is inscribed :--?In
niemory of John Home, author of \the tragedy
of ?Douglas,? &c. Born 13th September, 1724.
Died 4th September, 1808.?
Before recurring to general history, we may here
refer to another distinguished native of Leith,
Robert Jamieson, Professor of Natural History,
who was born in 1779 in Leith, where his father
was a merchant, and perhaps the most extensive
manufacturer of soap in Scotland. He was appointed
Regius Professor and Keeper of the
Museum, or *? Repository of Natural Curiosities
in the University of Edinburgh,? on the death of
Dr. Walker, in 1804; but he had previously distinguisbed
himself by the publication of three valuable
works connected with the natural history of
the? Scottish Isles, after studying for two years at
Freyberg, under the famous Werner,
He was author of ten separate works, all contributing
to the advancement of natural history, but
more especially of geology, and his whole life was
devoted to study and investigation. Whether in the
class-room or by his writings, he was always alike
entitled to and received the gratitude and esteem
of the students.
In 1808 he founded the Wernerian Natural
History Society of Edinburgh, and besides the
numerous separate works referred to, the world is
indebted to him for the Edinburgh PhiZosophicaZ
Journal, which he started in 1819, and which
maintained a reputhion deservedly high as a repository
of science. The editorial duties connected
with it he performed for nearly twenty
years (for the first ten volumes in conjunction with
Sir David Brewster), adding many brilliant articles
from his own pen, and, notwithstanding the varied
demands upon his timq was a contributor to the
?? Edinburgh Encyclopzdia,? the ?? Encyclopzdia
Britannia,? the Annals of Philosophy,? the
U Edinburgh Cabinet Library,? and many other
standard works.
He was for half a century a professor, and had
the pleasure of sending forth from his class-room
in the University of Edinburgh many pupils who
have since won honour and renown in the seminaries
and scientific institutions of Europe. He was
a fellow of many learned and Royal Societies,
and was succeeded in the Chair of Natural
History in 1854 by Edward Forbes. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith. up to the full average of poets, yet his vanity was of a very inoffensive ...

Book 6  p. 242
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222 OLD ?AND NEW EDINBURGH. [West Port.
prehending the main street of the West Port (the
link between Fountainbridge and the Grassmarket),
the whole of Lauriston from the Corn-market and
foot of the Vennel to the Main Point, including
Portland Place on the west, and to Bruntsfield
Links on the east, including Home and Leven
Streets.
In IIGO John AbbotofKelso grantedtoLawrence,
the son of Edmund of Edinburgh, a toft situated
between the West Port and the Castle, on the left
of the entrance into the city. In this little burgh
there were of old eight incorporated trades, deriving
their rights from John Touris of Inverleitk
Many of the houses here were roofed with thatch
in the sixteenth century,
and the barriergate
by which the whole
of the district was cut
off from the city was
milt in 1513, as a port
in the ?,F?lodden wall.
Some gate may, however,
have existed previously,
as Balfour in
his ?Annales,? tells that
the head of Robert Graham,
oneof the assassins
of James I., in 1437,
?was sett ouer the West
Port of Edinburgh ;?
and in I 5 I 5 the head of
Peter Moffat, ?ane
greit swerer and thief,?
was spiked in the same
place, after the reins
of government were
that every man in the city ?be reddy boddin for
weir,? in his best armour at ?? the jow of the common
bell? for its defence if necessary. Nearly
similar orders were issued concerning the gates in
1547, and the warders were to be well armed
with jack, steel helmet, and halberd or Jedmood
axe, finding surety to be never absent from their
In 1538 Mary of Guise made her first entry by
the West Port on St. Margaret?s day, ? with greit
trivmphe,? attended by all the nobility (Diurnal of
OCC.). There James VI. was received by ? King
Solomon ? on his first state entry in 1579 ; and by
it Anne of Denmark entcred in 1590, when she was
posts. (Ibid.)
HIGHRIGGS HOUSE, 1854. (Afler P Drawing by Ihr Aidkor.)
assumed by John Duke of Albany. (? Diurnal of
Occurrents.?)
In the same year it was ordained by the magistrates
and council that only three of the city gates
were to be open daily, viz., ?the West Port, Nether
Bow, and the Kirk-of-Field-and na ma. -4nd
ilk port to haif twa porteris daylie quhill my
Lord Govemoure?s hame coming. [Albany was
then on the Borders, putting down Lord Home?s
rebellion.] And thir porteris suffer na maner of
person on hors nor fute, to enter within this toune
without the President or one of the bailies knaw
of their cuming and gif thame licence. And the
said personis to be convayit to thair lugings be one
of the said porteris, swa that gif ony inconvenient
happenis, that thair hoste niycht answer for thame as
efferis.? (Burgh Records.) It was also ordained
that a fourth part of the citizens should form a
watch every night till the return of Albany, and
received by a long Latin
oration, while the garrison
in the Castle
?gave her thence a
great volley of shot,
with their banners and
ancient displays upon
the walls ? (?( Marriage
of James VI.,? Bann.
Club). Here also in
1633, Charles I. at his
grand entrance was
received by the nymph
Edina, and again at the
Overbow by the Lady
Caledonia, both of
whom welcomed him
in copious verse from
the pen, it is said, of
the loyal cavalier and
poet, Drummond of
Hawthornden.
Fifteen years before this period the Common
Council had purchased the elevated ridge of ground
lying south of the West Port and Grassmarket,
denominated the Highriggs, on a part of which
Heriot?s Hospital was afterwards built, and the
most recent extension of the city wall then took
place for the purpose of enclosing it. A portion of
this wall still fomis the boundary of the hospital
grounds, terminating at the head of the Vennel, in
the only tower of the ancient fortifications now
remaining.
In 1648 the superiority of the Portsburgh was
bought by the city from Sir Adam Hepburn for
the sum of 27,500 merks Scots; and in 1661
the king?s stables were likewise purchased for
EI,OOO Scots, and the admission of James Baisland
to the freedom of Edinburgh.
In 1653 the West Port witnessed a curious
, scene, when Lieutenant-Colonel Cotterel, by order ... OLD ?AND NEW EDINBURGH. [West Port. prehending the main street of the West Port (the link between ...

Book 4  p. 222
(Score 0.55)

Salisbury Road.] THE HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLES. 5<
three plain shields under a moulding, with the date
1741-
Though disputed by some, Sciennes Hill House
once the residence of Professor Adam Fergusson
author of the (? History of the Roman Republic,?
is said to have been the place where Sir Waltei
Scott was introduced to Robert Burns in 1786
when that interesting incident occurred which ir
related by Sir Walter himself in the following letter
which occurs in Lockhart?s Life of him :--?As foi
Rums, I may truly say, 1GYgiZimn vidi tantum. I
was a lad of fifteen in 1786-7, when he first cam?
to Edinburgh, but had sense and feeling enough to
he much interested in his poetry, and would have
given the world to know him; but I had very
little acquaintance with any literary people, and
less with the gentry of the West County, the two
sets he most frequented. I saw him one day at the
venerable Professor Fergusson?s, where there were
several gentlemen of literary reputation, among
whom I remember the celebrated Dugald Stewart.
? Ofcourse, we youngsters sat silent, and listened.
The only thing I remember which was remarkable
in Burns?s manner was the effect produced upon
him by a print of Bunbury?s, representing a soldier
lying dead on the snow, his dog sitting in misery
on one side ; on the other his widow, with a child
in her arms. These lines were written underneath
:-
? ? Cold on Canadian hills, or Minden?s plain,
Perhaps that parent wept her soldier slain-
Bent o?er her babe, her eyes dissolved in dew,
The big drops mingling with the drops he drew,
Gave the sad presage of his future years,
The child of misery baptised in tears.?
?? Burns seemed much affected by the print, or
Tather, the ideas which it suggested to his mind.
He actually shed tears. He asked whose the lines
were, and it chanced that nobody but myself remembered
that they occur in a half-forgotten poem
of Langhorne?s, called by the unpromising title of
? The Justice of the Peace.? I whispered my information
to a friend present, who mentioned it to
Burns, who rewarded me with a look and a word,
which, though of mere civility, I then received,
and still recollect, with very great pkasuye.?
Westward of Sciennes Hill is the new Trades
Maiden. Hospital, in the midst of a fine grassy
park, called Rillbank. The history of this
charitable foundation, till its transference here, we
have already given elsewhere fully. Within its
walls is preserved the ancient ?( Blue Blanket,? or
banner of the city, of which there will be found
an engraving on page 36 of Volume I.
In Salisbury Road, which opens eastward off
Minto Street, is the Edinburgh Hospital for Incurables,
founded in 1874; and through the chanty
of the late Mr. J. A. Longmore, in voting a grant
of &IO,OOO for that purpose, provided the institution
?? should supply accommodation for incurable
patients of all classes, and at the same time commemorate
Mr. Longmore?s munificent bequest for
the relief of such sufferers,? the directors were
enabled,in 1877, to secure Nos. g and 10 in this
thoroughfare. The building has a frontage of 160
feet by 180 feet deep. It consists of a central
block and two wings, the former three storeys high,
and the latter two. The wards for female patients
measure about 34 feet by 25 feet, affording accommodation
for about ten beds.
Fronting the entrance door to the corridors are
SEAL OA THE CONVENT OF ST. KATHARINE.
(After H. Laing.)
ieparate staircases, one leading to the female
iepartment, the other to the male. On each floor
.he bath, nurses? rooms, gic., are arranged similarly.
[n the central block are rooms for ?paying patients.??
The wards are heated with Manchester open fire-
)laces, while the corridors are fitted up with hot
Mater-pipes. The wards afford about 1,100 cubic
?eet of space for each patient.
Externally the edifice is treated in the Classic
;tyle. In rear of it a considerable area of ground
ias been acquired, and suitably laid out. The site
:ost A4,000, and the hospital LIO,OOO. Since it
Nas opened there have been on an average one hunlred
patients in it, forty of whom were natives of
Edinburgh, and some twenty or so from England
md Ireland. The funds contributed for its support
ire raised entirely in the city. It was formally
3pened in December, 1880.
A little way south from this edifice, in South ... Road.] THE HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLES. 5< three plain shields under a moulding, with the ...

Book 5  p. 55
(Score 0.54)

Corstorphine.] CORSTORPHINE CHURCH. 115
was no side road into which he could have disappeared.
He returned home perplexed by the
oddness of the circumstance, when the first thing
he learned was, that during his absence this friend
had been killed by his horse falling in the Candlemakers
Row.??
The church of Corstorphine is one of the most
interesting old edifices in the Lothians. It has
been generally supposed, says a writer, that Scotland,
while possessed of great and grand remains
of Gothic architecture, is deficient in those antique
rural village churches, whose square towers and
ivied buttresses so harmonise with the soft landscape
scenery of England, and that their place is
too often occupied by the hideous barn-like structure
of times subsequent to the Reformation. But
among the retiring niinor beauties of Gothic architecture
in Scotland, one of the principal is the
picturesque little church of Corstorphine.
It is a plain edifice of mixed date, says Billings
in his ?? Antiquities,? the period of the Decorated
Gothic predominating. It is in the form of a cross,
with an additional transept on one of the sides;
but some irregularities in the height and character
of the different parts make them seem asif they
were irregularly clustered together without design.
A portion of the roof is still covered with old-&ey
flagstone. A small square belfry-tower at the west
end is surmounted by a short octagonal spire, the
ornate string? mouldings on which suggest an idea
of the papal tiara
As the church of the parish, it is kept in tolerably
decent order, and it is truly amazing how it
escaped the destructive fury of the Reformers.
This edifice was not the original parish church,
which stood near it, but a separate establishment,
founded and richly endowed by the pious enthusiasm
of the ancient family whose tombs it contains,
and whose once great castle adjoined it.
Notices have been found of a chapel attached to
the manor of Corstorphine, but subordinate to the
church of St. Cuthbert, so far back as 1128, and
this chapel became the old parish church referred
to. Thus, in the Holyrood charter of King DavidI.,
1143-7, he grants to the monks there the two
chapels which pertain to the church of St. Cuthbert,
?? to wit, Crostorfin, with two oxgates and six
acres of land, and the chapel of Libertun with two
oxgates of land.?
In the immediate vicinity of that very ancient
chapel there was founded ancther chapel towards
the end of the fourteenth century, by Sir Adam
Forrester of Corstorphine; and that edifice is sup
posed to form a portion of the present existing
church, because after its erection no mention whatever
has been found of the second chapel as a
separate edifice.
.The building with which we have now to do
was founded in 1429, as an inscription on the wall
of the chancel, and other authorities, testify, by Sir
John Forrester of Corstorphine, Lord High Chamberlain
of Scotland in 1425, and dedicated to St.
John the Baptist, for a provost, five prebendaries,
and two singing boys. It was a collegiate church,
to which belonged those of Corstorphine, Dalmahoy,
Hatton, Cramond, Colinton, &c. The tiends
of Ratho, and half of those of Adderton and Upper
Gogar, were appropriated to the revenues of this
college.
?Sir John consigned the annual rents of one hundred
and twenty ducats in gold to the church,? says
the author of the ?New Statistical Account,? ?on
condition that he and his successors should have the
patronage of the appointments, and on the understanding
that if the kirk of Ratho were united to
the provostry, other four or five prebendaries
should be added to the establishment, and maintained
out of the fruits of the benefice of Ratho.
Pope Eugenius IV. sanctioned this foundation by a
bull, in which he directed the Abbot of Holyroodhouse,
a$ his Apostolic Vicar, to ascertain whether
the foundation and consignation had been made in
terms of the original grant, and on being satisfied
on these points, to unite and incorporate the church
of Ratho with its rights, emoluments, and pertinents
to the college for ever.?
The first provost of this establishment was
Nicholas Bannatyne, who died there in 1470, and
was buried in the church, where his epitaph still
remains.
When Dunbar wrote his beautiful ? I Lament for
the Makaris,? he embalmed among the last Scottish
poets of his time, as taken by Death, ? the gentle
Roull of Corstorphine,? one of the first provosts of
the church-
?( He has tane Rod1 of Aberdeen,
A d gentle Rod1 of Corstorphine ;
Twa better fellows did nae man see :
Timor mortis conturbat me.?
There was, says the ? The Book of Bon Accord,?
a Thomas Roull, who was Provost of Aberdeen in
1416, and it is conjectured that the baid was of the
same family ; but whatever the works of the latter
were, nothing is known of him now, save his name,
as recorded by Dunbar.
In the year 1475, Hugh Bar, a burgess of Edinburgh,
founded an additional chaplaincy in this
then much-favoured church. ? The chaplain, in
addition to the performance of daily masses for
the souls of the king andqueen, the lords of the ... CORSTORPHINE CHURCH. 115 was no side road into which he could have disappeared. He returned home ...

Book 5  p. 115
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Ho1yrood.J THE SCOTTISH TEMPLARS. 51
ances of the order from the Master of England,
who received them from the Grand Master at
Jerusalem and the Master at Cyprus. He had
then to detail the mode of his reception into the
order, begging admission with clasped hands and
bended knees, aflirming that he had no debts and
was not affianced to any woman, and that he ?? vowed
to be a perpetual servant to the master and the
brotherhood, and to defend the Eastern land; to
be for ever chaste and obedient, and to live without
his own will and property.? A white mantle bad
then been put upon his shoulder (to be worn over
his chain armour, but looped up to leave the swordami
free); a linen coif and the kiss of fraternity
were then given him. On his knees he then vowed
?never to dwell in a house where a woman was in
labour, nor be present at the marriage or purification
of one; that from thence forward he would
sleep in his shirt and drawers, with a cord girt over
the former.?
The inquisitors, who were perhaps impatient to
hear of the four-legged idol, the cat, and the devil,
concerning all of which such curious confessions
had been made by the Florentine Templars, now
asked him if he had ever heard of scandals against
the order during his residence at Temple in
Lothian, or of knights that had fled from their pre
ceptories; and he answered :-
?Yes ; Brother Thomas Tocci and Brother John
de Husflete, who for two years had been preceptor
before him at Balantradoch (Temple), and also
two other knights who were natives of England.?
Being closely interrogated upon all the foolish
accusations in the papal bull of Clement, he boldly
replied to each item in the negative. Two of the
charges were that their chaplains celebrated mass
without the words of consecration, and that the
knights believkd their preceptors could absolve sins.
He explained that such powers could be delegated,
and that he himself ?? had received it a considerable
time ago.?
Sir William de Middleton, clad in the military
order of the Temple, was next sworn and interrogated
in the same manner. He was admitted into
the order, he said, by Sir Brian le Jay, then Master
of England, who was slain by Wallace at the battle
of Falkirk, and had resided at Temple in Lothian
and other preceptories of the order, and gave the
same denials to the clauses in the bull that had
been given by Clifton, with the addition that he
?was prohibited from receiving any service from
women, not even water to wash his hands.?
After this he was led from the court, and fortyone
witnesses, summoned to Holyrood, were examined.
These were chiefly abbots, priests, and even
serving-men of the order, but nothing of a criminal
nature against it was elicited ; though during similar
examinations at Lincoln, Brother Thomas Tocci de
Thoroldby, a Templar, declared that he had heard
the late Brim le Jay (Master of Scotland and afterwards
of England) say a hundred times over, ? that
Christ was not the true God, but a mere man, and
that the smallest hair out of the beard of a Saracen
was worth any Christian?s whole body ;a and that
once, when he was standing in Sir Brian?s presence,
certain beggars sought alms ?for the love of God
and our ,Blessed Lady,? on which he threw a
halfpenny in the mud, and made them hunt for
it, though in midwinter, saying, ?? Go to your lady
and be hanged !? Another Templar, Stephen de
Stapelbrvgge, declared that Sir Brian ordered him
at his admission to spit upon the cross, but he spat
beside it.
The first witness examined at Holyrood was
Hugh Abbot of Dunfermline, who stated that he
had ever viewed with suspicion the midnight
chapters and ? clandestine admission of brethren.?
E l k Lord Abbot of Holyrood, and Gervase Lord
Abbot of Newbattle, were then examined, together
with Master Robert of Kydlawe, and Patrick
Prior of the Dominicans in tbe fields qear Edinburgh,
and they agreed in all things with the Abbot
of Dunfermline.
The eighth witness, Adam of Wedale (now
called Stow), a Cistercian, accused the Templars of
selfishness and oppression of their neighbours, and
John of Byres, a .monk of Newbattle, John of
Mumphat and Gilbert of Haddington, two monks
of Holyrood, entirely agreed with him ; while the
rector of Ratho maintained that the Scottish
Tqmplars were not free from the crimes imputed to
the order, adding ?? that he had never known when
any Templar was buried or heard of one dying a
natural death, and that the whole order was generally
against the Holy Church.? The former points
had evident reference to the rumour that the order
burned their dead and drank the ashes in wine !
Henry de Leith Rector of Restalrig, Nicholas
Vicar of Lasswade, John Chaplain of St. Leonard?s,
and others, agreed in all things with the Abbot of
Dunfermline, as did nine Scottish barons of rank
who added that the knights were ungracious to the
poor, practising hospitality alone to the great and
wealthy, and then only under the impulse of fear ;
and moreover, that had the Templars been good
Christians they would never have lost the Holy
Land.?
The forty-first and last witness, John Thyng,
who for seventeen years had been a serving brother
of the order in Scotland, coincided with the others, ... THE SCOTTISH TEMPLARS. 51 ances of the order from the Master of England, who received them from the ...

Book 3  p. 51
(Score 0.52)

22 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [University.
that young men are sent here from Ireland, from
Flanders, and even from Russia ; and the English
of the true old stamp prefer having their sons here,
than in Oxford and Cambridge, in order to remove
them from the luxury and enormous expense which
prevail in these places.?
In the olden time, as now, a silver mace was
borne before the principal. The original was one
of six, traditionally said to have been found, in the
year 1683, in the tomb of Bishop Kennedy, at
St. Andrews. Two of these are now preserved
there, in the Divinity College of St. Mary?s ; one, of
gorgeous construction, is now in the College of St.
Salvator, and the other three were respectively presented
to the Universities of Aberdeen, Glasgow,
and Edinburgh. They are supposed to have been
constructed for Bishop Kennedy in 1461, by a
goldsmith of Paris named Mair.
From Kincaid we learn that, unfortunately, the
silver mace given to the Edinburgh University was
stolen, and never recovered, though a handsome
reward was offered; and on the 2nd October,
1788, a very ornamental new one was presented to
the senatus by the Magistrates, as patrons of the
University.
Halls and suites of chambers had been added
to the latter from time to time by private citizens ;
but no regular plan was adopted, and till the time
of their demolition the old College buildings presented
a rude assemblage of gable-ended and
crowstepped edifices, of various dates, and little
pretension to ornament.
So early as 1763 a ?memorial relating to the
University of Edinburgh ? was drawn up by one of
its professors, containing a proposal for the rebuilding
of the College on the site of the old
buildings, and on a regular plan j voluntary contributions
were to be received from patriotic individuals,
and, under proper persons, places were
opened for public subscriptions. The proposal
was not without interest for a time ; but the shadow
of the ? dark age ? lay still upon Edinburgh. The
means proved insufficient to realise the project;
thus it was laid aside till more favourable times
should come; but the interval of the American
war seemed to render it hopeless of achievement.
In 1785, however, the design was again brought
before the public in a spirited letter, addressed to
the Right Hon. Henry Dundas (afterwards Viscount
Melville), ?? On the proposed improvements
of the city of Edinburgh, and on the means of
accomplishing them.? Soon after this, the magistrates
set on foot a subscription for erecting a new
structure, according to a design prepared by the
celebrated architect, Robert Adam. Had his plans
been carried out in their integrity, the present
structure would have been much more imposing
and magnificent than it is ; but it was found, after
the erection began to progress, that funds failed,
and a curtailment of the original design became
necessary.
After a portion of the old buildings had been
pulled down, the foundation stone of the new
college was laid on the 16th of November, 1789,
by Lord Napier, as Grand Master Mason of Scotland,
the lineal descendant of the great inventor of
the logarithms. The ceremony on this occasion
was peculiarly impressive.
The streets were lined by the 35th Regiment
and the old City Guard. There were present the
Lord Provost, Thomas Elder of Forneth, the whole
bench of magistrates in their robes, with the regalia
of the city, the Principal (Robertson, the historian),
and the entire Senatus Academicus, in their gowns,
with the new silver mace borne before them, all
the students wearing laurel in their hats, Mr.
Schetkey?s band of singers, and all the Masonic
lodges, with their proper insignia. Many Scottish
nobles and gentry were in the procession, which
started from the Parliament Square, and passing by
the South Bridge, reached the site at one o?clock,
amid 30,000 spectators.
The foundation stone was laid in the usual form,
and, amid prayer, corn, oil, and wine were poured
upon it. Two crystal bottles, cast on purpose at
the Glass House of Leith, were deposited in the
cavity, containing coins of the reigning sovereign,
cased in crystal. These were placed in one bottle;
in the other were deposited seven rolls of vellum,
containing an account of the original foundation
and the then state of the university. The bottles,
being carefully sealed up, were covered with a plate
of copper wrapped in block tin. On these were
engraved the arms of the city, of the university,
and of Lord Napier. The inscription on the plate
was as follows, but in Latin :-
? By the blessing of Almighty God, in the reign
of the most magnificent Prince George III., the
buildings of the University of Edinburgh, being
originally very mean, and almost a ruin, the Right
Hon. Francis Lord Napier, Grand Master of the
Fraternity of Freemasons in Scotland, amid the
acclamations of a prodigious concourse of all
ranks of people, laid the foundation stone of this
new fabric, in which a union of elegance with convenience,
suitable to the dignity of such a celebrated
seat of learning, has been studied. On the
16th day of November, in the year of our Lord
1789, and of the era of Masonry 5789, Thomas ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [University. that young men are sent here from Ireland, from Flanders, and even from ...

Book 5  p. 22
(Score 0.52)

cyloagate.1 HANNAH ROBERTSON. 21
of stone with a
Panmure of Forth, and was the last who possessed
this house, in which he was resident in the middle
of the last century, and was succeeded in it by the
Countess of Aberdeen.
From 1778 till his death, in 1790, it formed the
residence of Adam Smith, author of ? The Wealth
of Nations,? after he came to Edinburgh as Commissioner
of the Customs, an appointment obtained
by the friendship of the Duke of Buccleuch. A few
days before his death, at Panmure House, he gave
orders to destroy all his mandscripts except some
detached essays, which were afterwards published
by his executors, Drs. Joseph Black and Janies
Hutton, and his library, a valuable one, he left to
his nephew, Lord Reston. From that old mansion
the philosopher was borne to his grave in an obscure
nook of the Canongate churchyard. During
the - last years of his blameless life his bachelor
household had been managed by a female cousin,
Miss Jeanie Douglas, who acquired a great control
? had attained her
From her published memoir-which, after its first
appearance in 1792, reached a tenth edition in
1806, and was printed by James Tod in Forrester?s
Wynd-and from other sources, we learn that she
was the widow of Robert Robertson, a merchant
in Perth, and was the daughter of a burgess named
George Swan, son of Charles 11. and Dorothea
Helena, daughter of John Kirkhoven, Dutch baron
of Ruppa, the beautiful Countess of Derby, who had
an intrigue with the king during the protracted
absence of her husband in Holland, Charles, eighth
earl, who died in 1672 without heirs.
According to her narrative, the child was given
to nurse to the wife of Swan, a gunner at Windsor,
a woman whose brother, Bartholomew Gibson, was
the king?s farrier at Edinburgh; and it would
further appear that the latter obtained on trust for
George Swan, from Charles 11. or his brother the
Duke of York, a grant of lands in New Jersey,
where Gibson?s son died about 1750, as would
over him.
At the end of Panmure Close
was the mansion of John
Hunter, a wealthy burgess, who
was Treasurer of the Canongate
in 1568, and who built it in
1565, when Mary was on the
throne. Wilson refers to it as
the earliest private edifice in
the burgh, and says ?it consists,
like other buildings of
the period, of a lower erection
forestair leading to the first floor, and an ornamental
turnpike within, affording access to the
upper chambers. At the top of a very steep
wooden stair, constructed alongside of the latter,
a very rich specimen of carved oak panelling
remains in good preservation, adorned with the
Scottish lion, displayed within a broad wreath and
surrounded by a variety of ornaments. The doorway
of the inner turnpike bears on the sculptured
lintel the initials I. H., a shield charged with a
chevron, and a hunting horn in base, and the
date 1565.? It bore also a comb with six teeth.
It was demolished in August, 1853.
A little lower down are Big and Little Lochend
Closes, which join each other near the bottom and
TU into the north back of the Canongate. In the
former are some good houses, but of no great antiquity.
One of these was occupied by Mr. Gordon
of Carlton in 1784; and in the other, during the
close of the last and first years of the present century,
there resided a remarkable old lady, named
Mrs Hannah Robertson, who was well known in her
time as a reputed grand-daughter of Charles 11.
appear from a notice in the
Lndon ChronicZe for 1771.
Be all this as it may, the old
lady referred to was a great
favourite with all those of
Jacobite proclivities, and at the
dinners of the Jacobite Club
always sat on the right hand of
the president, till her death,
which occurred in Little Lochend
Close in 1808, when she
eighty-fourth year, and a vast - . . .
concourse attended her funeral, which took place
in the Friends? burial-place at the Pleasance.
Unusually tall in stature, and beautiful even in old
age, her figure, with black velvet capuchin and
cane, was long familiar in the streets of Edinburgh.
From a passage in the ?Edinburgh Historical Register?
for 1791-2, she would appear to have been
a futile applicant for a pension to the Lords of the
Treasury, though she had many powerful friends,
including the Duchess of Gordon and the Countess
of Northesk, to whom she dedicated a book named
?? The Lady?s School of Arts.?
One of the most picturesque and interesting
houses in the Canongate is one situated in what
was called Davidson?s Close, the old ?White Horse
Hostel,? on a dormer window of which is the date
1603. It was known as the ?White Horse? a
century and more before the accession of the
House of Hanover, and is traditionally said to
have taken its name from a favourite white palfrey
when the range of stables that form its basement
had been occupied as the royal mews. The adjacent
Water Gate took its name from a great ... HANNAH ROBERTSON. 21 of stone with a Panmure of Forth, and was the last who possessed this house, in ...

Book 3  p. 21
(Score 0.51)

cyloagate.1 HANNAH ROBERTSON. 21
of stone with a
Panmure of Forth, and was the last who possessed
this house, in which he was resident in the middle
of the last century, and was succeeded in it by the
Countess of Aberdeen.
From 1778 till his death, in 1790, it formed the
residence of Adam Smith, author of ? The Wealth
of Nations,? after he came to Edinburgh as Commissioner
of the Customs, an appointment obtained
by the friendship of the Duke of Buccleuch. A few
days before his death, at Panmure House, he gave
orders to destroy all his mandscripts except some
detached essays, which were afterwards published
by his executors, Drs. Joseph Black and Janies
Hutton, and his library, a valuable one, he left to
his nephew, Lord Reston. From that old mansion
the philosopher was borne to his grave in an obscure
nook of the Canongate churchyard. During
the - last years of his blameless life his bachelor
household had been managed by a female cousin,
Miss Jeanie Douglas, who acquired a great control
? had attained her
From her published memoir-which, after its first
appearance in 1792, reached a tenth edition in
1806, and was printed by James Tod in Forrester?s
Wynd-and from other sources, we learn that she
was the widow of Robert Robertson, a merchant
in Perth, and was the daughter of a burgess named
George Swan, son of Charles 11. and Dorothea
Helena, daughter of John Kirkhoven, Dutch baron
of Ruppa, the beautiful Countess of Derby, who had
an intrigue with the king during the protracted
absence of her husband in Holland, Charles, eighth
earl, who died in 1672 without heirs.
According to her narrative, the child was given
to nurse to the wife of Swan, a gunner at Windsor,
a woman whose brother, Bartholomew Gibson, was
the king?s farrier at Edinburgh; and it would
further appear that the latter obtained on trust for
George Swan, from Charles 11. or his brother the
Duke of York, a grant of lands in New Jersey,
where Gibson?s son died about 1750, as would
over him.
At the end of Panmure Close
was the mansion of John
Hunter, a wealthy burgess, who
was Treasurer of the Canongate
in 1568, and who built it in
1565, when Mary was on the
throne. Wilson refers to it as
the earliest private edifice in
the burgh, and says ?it consists,
like other buildings of
the period, of a lower erection
forestair leading to the first floor, and an ornamental
turnpike within, affording access to the
upper chambers. At the top of a very steep
wooden stair, constructed alongside of the latter,
a very rich specimen of carved oak panelling
remains in good preservation, adorned with the
Scottish lion, displayed within a broad wreath and
surrounded by a variety of ornaments. The doorway
of the inner turnpike bears on the sculptured
lintel the initials I. H., a shield charged with a
chevron, and a hunting horn in base, and the
date 1565.? It bore also a comb with six teeth.
It was demolished in August, 1853.
A little lower down are Big and Little Lochend
Closes, which join each other near the bottom and
TU into the north back of the Canongate. In the
former are some good houses, but of no great antiquity.
One of these was occupied by Mr. Gordon
of Carlton in 1784; and in the other, during the
close of the last and first years of the present century,
there resided a remarkable old lady, named
Mrs Hannah Robertson, who was well known in her
time as a reputed grand-daughter of Charles 11.
appear from a notice in the
Lndon ChronicZe for 1771.
Be all this as it may, the old
lady referred to was a great
favourite with all those of
Jacobite proclivities, and at the
dinners of the Jacobite Club
always sat on the right hand of
the president, till her death,
which occurred in Little Lochend
Close in 1808, when she
eighty-fourth year, and a vast - . . .
concourse attended her funeral, which took place
in the Friends? burial-place at the Pleasance.
Unusually tall in stature, and beautiful even in old
age, her figure, with black velvet capuchin and
cane, was long familiar in the streets of Edinburgh.
From a passage in the ?Edinburgh Historical Register?
for 1791-2, she would appear to have been
a futile applicant for a pension to the Lords of the
Treasury, though she had many powerful friends,
including the Duchess of Gordon and the Countess
of Northesk, to whom she dedicated a book named
?? The Lady?s School of Arts.?
One of the most picturesque and interesting
houses in the Canongate is one situated in what
was called Davidson?s Close, the old ?White Horse
Hostel,? on a dormer window of which is the date
1603. It was known as the ?White Horse? a
century and more before the accession of the
House of Hanover, and is traditionally said to
have taken its name from a favourite white palfrey
when the range of stables that form its basement
had been occupied as the royal mews. The adjacent
Water Gate took its name from a great ... HANNAH ROBERTSON. 21 of stone with a Panmure of Forth, and was the last who possessed this house, in ...

Book 3  p. 22
(Score 0.51)

High Street.] THE POKER CLUB. a31
The only publication of sterling merit which enlivened
the occasion that called it forth was ?? The
History in the Proceedings of Margaret, commonly
called Peg,? written in imitation of Dr. Arbuthnot?s
?History of John Bull.? In the memoirs of Dr.
Carlyle of Inveresk an amusing account is given
of the Poker Club, of which he was a zealous and
constant attender. About the third or fourth meeting
of the club, after 1/62, he mentions that members
were at a loss for a name for it, and wished one
that should be of uncertain meaning, and not so
directly offensive as that of Militia Club, whereupon
Adam Fergusson, the eminent historian and moral
philosopher, suggested the name of Poker, which
the members understood, and which would ?be
an enigma to the public.?
It comprehended all the Ziterati of Edinburgh
and its neighbourhood, most of whom-like Robertson,
Hair, and Hume-had been members of the
select society (those only excepted who were enemies
to the Scottish militia scheme), together with a
great many country gentlemen whose national and
Jacobite proclivities led them to resent the invidious
line drawn between Scotland and England.
Sir William Pulteney Johnston was secretary of
the Poker Club, with two members, whom he was
to consult anent its publications in a laughing hour.
?? Andrew Crosbie, advocate, was appointed assassin
to the club, in case any service of that sort should
be needed ; but David Hume was named for his
assistant, so that between the plus and minus there
was no hazard of much bloodshed.?
After a time the club removed its meetings to
Fortune?s Tavern, at the Cross K$, in the Stamp
Office Close, where the dinners became so showy
and expensive that attendance began to decrease,
and new members came in ?who had no title to be
there, and were not congenial? (the common fate
of all clubs generally) ?and so by death and desertion
the Poker began to dwindle away, though
a bold attempt was made to revive it in 1787 by
some young men of talent and spirit.? When Cap.
tain James Edgar, one of the original Pokers, was
in Paris in 1773, during the flourishing time of the
club, he was asked by D?Alembert to go with him
to their club of literati, to which he replied with
something of bluntness, I? that the company 01
literati was no novelty to him, for he had a club at
Edinburgh composed, he believed, of the ablest
men in Europe. This? (adds Dr. Carlyle, whose
original MS. Lord Kames quoted) ?was no singular
opinion ; for the most enlightened foreigners
had formed the same estimate of the literary society
of Edinburgh at that time. The Princess Dashkoff,
disputing with me one day at Buxton about the
superiority of Edinburgh as a residence to most of
the cities of Europe, when I had alleged various
particulars, in which I thought we excelled, ? No,?
said she, ?but I know one article you have not
mentioned in which I must give you clearly the
precedence, which is, that of all the societies of nieii
of talent I have met with in n;y travels, yours is the
first in point of abilities.? ?
A few steps farther down the street bring us
to the entrance of the Old Stamp Office Close,
wherein was the tavern just referred to, Fortune?s,
one in the greatest vogue between 1760 and 1770.
?The gay men of the city,?? we are told, the
scholarly and the philosophical, with the common
citizens, all flocked hither; and here the Royal
Commissioner for the General Assembly held his
leve?es, and hence proceeded to church with his
co~tt!gz, then- additionally splendid fiom having ladies
walking in it in their court dresses, as well as
gentlemen.?
Thz house occupied by this famous tavern had
been in former times the residence of Alexander
ninth Earl of Eglinton, and his Countess Susanna
Kennedy of the house of Colzean, reputed the most
beautiful woman of her time.
From the magnificent but privately printed
Memorials of the hfontgomeries,? we learn many
interesting particulars of this noble couple, who
dwelt in the Old Stamp Office Close. Whether
their abode there was the same as that stated, of
which we have an inventory, in the time of ?
Hugh third Earl of Eglinton, ?at his house in
Edinburgh, 3rd March, 1563,? given in the ? Memorials,?
we have no means of determining. . Earl
Alexander was one of those patriarchal old Scottish
lords who lived to a great age. He was thrice
married, and left a progeny whose names are interspersed
throughout the pages of the Douglas
peerage. His last Countess, Susanna, was the
daughter of Sir Archibald Kennedy, a sturdy old
cavalier, who made himself conspicuous in the
wars of Dundee. She was one of the co-heiresses
of David Leslie Lord Newark, the Covenanting
general whom Cromwell defeated at Dunbar.
She was six feet in height, extremely handsome,
with a brilliantly fair complexion, and a face of
? the most bewitching loveliness.? She had many
admirers, Sir John Clerk of Penicuick among
others; but her friends had always hoped she
would marry the Earl of Eglinton, though he was
more than old enough to have been her father,
and when a stray hawk, with his iordship?s name
on its bells, alighted on her shoulder as she was
one day walking in her father?s garden at Colzean.
it was deemed an infallible omen of her future. ... Street.] THE POKER CLUB. a31 The only publication of sterling merit which enlivened the occasion that called ...

Book 2  p. 231
(Score 0.51)

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