... .
CHARLES I. was proclaimed King of Scotland,
England, France , and Ireland, at the Cross of Edinburgh
and ...
Book 5 p. 184
(Score 0.51)
![Leith] THE GLASS WORKS. 2 3 9
fashion that the hamlet near Craigmillar was namec
?Little France? from the French servants o
Mary.
U In a small garden attached to one of the house:
in Little London,? says a writer, whose anecdote
we give for what it is worth, ? there was a flowerplot
which was tended with peculiar care long
after its original possessors had gone the way 01
all flesh, and it was believed that the body of a
young and beautiful female who committed suicide
was interred here. The peculiar circumstances
attending her death, and the locality made choice
of for her interment, combined to throw romantic
interest over her fate and fortunes, and
her story was handed-down from one generation
to another.?
In Bernard Street, a spacious and well-edificed
thoroughfare, was built, in 1806, the office of the
Leith Bank, a neat but small edifice, consisting of
two floors ; a handsome dome rises from the north
front, and a projection ornamented with four Ionic
columns, and having thin pilasters of the same.
decorates the building. It is now the National
Bank of Scotland Branch.
Since then, many other banking offices have been
established in the same street, including that of
the Union Bank, built in 1871 after designs by
James Simpson, having a three-storeyed front in the
Italian style, with a handsome cornice and balustrade,
and a telling-room measuring 34 feet by 32 ;
the National Bank of Scotland ; the Clydesdale
and British Linen Company?s Banks; many insurance
offices; and in No. 37 is the house of the
Leith Merchants? Club.
Bernard Street joins Baltic Street, at the southeast
corner of which is the spacious and stately
Corn Exchange, which is so ample in extent as to
be frequently used as a drill-hall by the entire
battalion of Leith Rifle Volunteers.
North of Baltic Street are the old Glass Works
The Bottle House Company, as it was named,
began to manufacture glass vessels in North Leith
in 1746, but their establishment was burnt down
during the first year of the partnership. Thus, in
1747 the new brick houses were built on the sands
of South Leith, near the present Salamander Street,
and as ~e demand for bottles increased, they
built an additional one in 1764, though, according
to Bremner, glass was manufactured in Leith so
early as 1682.
Seven cones, or furnaces, were built, but in later
years only two have been in operation. In the
year 1777 CO less -than 15,8834 cwts. were made
here in Leith, the Government duty on which
amounted to A2,779 odd ; but as there are now
many other bottle manufactories in Scotland, thetrade
is no longer confined to the old houses that.
adjoin Baltic and Salamander Streets.
A writer in the Bet, an old extinct &dinburgh,
periodical, writing in 1792, says that about thirty
years before there was only one glass company in.
Scotland, the hands working one-half the year in
Glasgow, and the other half at Leith, and adds :-
?NOW there are six glass-houses in Leith alone,.
besides many others in different parts of the
tountry. At the time I mention nothing else
than bottles of coarse green glass were made there,
and to that article the Glass House Company in
Leith confined their efforts, till about a dozen yearsagoI
when they began to make fine glass for phials.
and other articles of that nature. About four yearsago
they introduced the manufacture of crown
glass for windows, which they now make in great
perfection, and in considerable quantities. After
they began to manufacture white glass, they fzll
into the way of cutting it for ornament and engraving
upon it. In this last department they havereached
a higher degree of perfection than it hasperhaps
anywhere else ever attained. A young
man who was bred to that business, having discovered
a taste in designing, and an elegance of
execution that was very uncommon, the proprietors
of the works were at pains to give him every aid in
the art of drawing that this place can afford, and
he has exhibited some specimens of his powers in
that line that are believed to be unrivalled. It is.
but yesterday that this Glass House Company (who
are in a very flourishing state), encouraged by their
success in other respects, introduced the art of
preparing glass in imitation of gems, and of cutting
it in facets, and working it into elegant fomis for
chandeliers and other ornamental kinds of furniture.
In this department their first attempts have
been highly successful, and they have now executed
some pieces of work that they need not be ashamed
to compare with the best that can be procured
elsewhere.?
The works of the Glass House Company at
Leith were advertised as for sale in the Courani
of 1813, which stated that they were valued at
~40,000, with a valuable steam-engine of sixteen
horse power, valued at E2 1,000.
Quality Street, and the fine long thoroughfare
named Constitution Street, open into Bernard
Street. Robertson gives us a drawing of an old and
richly-moulded doorway of a tenement, in the
rorrner street, having on its lintel the initials P. P.,
E. G., and the date 1710. At the corner of Quality
Street stands St. John?s Free Church, which was
built in 1870-1, at a cost of about A7,500, and](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p058.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 239")
... that the hamlet near Craigmillar was namec
?Little France ? from the French servants o
Mary.
U In a small ...
Book 6 p. 239
(Score 0.51)
... on the 20th August, renewing the
ancient league with France . In the following year
a truce ended; the Earls ...
Book 1 p. 27
(Score 0.51)
... entrance
of the harbour, during the last long war
with France , at the cost of A17,ooo ; but now,
owing to the ...
Book 6 p. 274
(Score 0.51)
... of Venice, Marshal and Grand Veneur of
France , and which stands about a mile northward
from ...
Book 5 p. 110
(Score 0.51)
... of Bernard Stuart,
Lord Aubigny, who came from France as Ambassador
to the Court of James IV., and died ...
Book 5 p. 118
(Score 0.51)
... being adopted
at a time when the old alliance with France was
an institution in the land, and the intimate ...
Book 6 p. 231
(Score 0.51)
... Balls-Fmt and Second Viis
of the Royal Family of France -Recent Improvements-St. h e ? s Yard removed-The ...
Book 3 p. 74
(Score 0.5)
![BARBARA NAPIER 3?9 The West Bow.]
tlength, involving that of many others; but a portion
of the charges against her will suffice as a sample
of the whole, from U Pitcairn?s Trials.?
?? Satan had informed the witches that James VI.
sf Scotland was the greatest enemy he had, and
the latter?s visit to Norway, to bring over his queen,
seemed to afford an opportunity for his destrucition.
Accordingly, Dr. Fiar of Tranent, the
.devil?s secretary, summoned a great gathering of
witches on Hallow Eve, when zoo of them embarked,
each in a riddle or sieve, with much mirth
.and jollity; and after cruising about somewhere on
the ocean with Satan, who rolled himself before
them on the waves, dimly seen, but resembling a
huge haystack in size and aspect, he delivered to
-one of the company, named Robert Grierson, a
cat, which had been drawn previously nine times
through a crook, giving the order to ?cast the same
into the sea.? ?
This remarkable charm was intended to raise
such a furious tempest as would infallibly drown
the king and queen, then on their homeward
lroyage from Christiania, which, if any credit may
be given to the declaration of James (who greedily
swallowed the story), was not without some effect,
as the ship which conveyed him encountered a
furious contrary wind, while all the rest of the fleet
.had a fair one and a smooth sea.
On this, Barbara Napier and her infernal companions,
after regaling themselves with wine out of
their sieves, landed, and proceeded in procession
t o North Berwick Kirk, where the devil awaited
them in the pulpit, singing as they went-
?? Cummer go ye before, cummer go ye ;
Cif ye winna gang before, cummer let me.?
Sir James Melville gives us a most distinct account
-of the devil?s appearance on this auspicious ocusion.
His body was like iron; ?his faice was
terrible; his nose like the bek of an egle;? he
had claws like those of a griffin on his hands and
>feet. He then called the roll to see that all were
present, and all did him homage in a manner
.equally humiliating and indecorous, which does
not admit of description here.
All this absurdity being proved against Barbara
Napier, she was sentenced, with many others, on
the 11th of May, 1590, to be burnt ?at a stake sett
on the Castle HiU, with barrells, coales, heather,
and powder;? but when the torch was about to
be applied, pregnancy was alleged, according to
? Calderwood?s Historie,? as a just and sufficient
Cause for staying proceedings; the execution was
delayed, and ultimately the unfortunate creature
was set at liberty by order of James VI, Now
nothing remains of these Napiers but their tomb
and burial-place on the north side of the choir of
St. Giles?s.
In the basement of the house which was once
theirs was the booth from which the rioters, on the
night of the 7th September, 1736, obtained the
rope with which they hanged Porteous. It was
then rented by a woman named Jeffrey, a dealer in
miscellaneous wares, who offered them the rope
gratis when she learned for what purpose it was
required, but one of the conspirators threw a
guinea on the counter as payment. The house of
the Napiers was demolished in 1833.
Opposite the mansion of Provost Stewart, and
also outside the Bow Port, but on the east side of
the bend, was a tenement known as ?the Clockmaker?s
Land,? which was demolished in 1835, to
make way for what is now Victoria Street, but
which ?took its name from an eminent watchmaker,
a native of France, named Paul ,Romieu, who is
said to have occupied it from the time of Charles
11. (about 1675) till the beginning of the eighteenth
century. In front of the house there remained,
until its demolition, one of the wonders of the
Bow-a curious piece of mechanism, which formed
the sign of the ingenious Paul Romieu. It projected
over the street from the third storey-a gilded
ball representing the moon, which was made to
revolve by means of clockwork. A large iron
key of antique form, which was found among the
ruins of this house, is preserved in the hfuseum of
Antiquities.
Among the oldest edifices in ]this part of the
street was one which bore the singular name of
the ?? Mahogany Land,? having an outer stair protected
by a screen of wood. There was no date
to record its erection, but its ceilings were curiously
adorned by paintings precisely similar to those
which were found in the palace of Mary of Guise
in the Castle Hill ; and no record remained of its
generations of inmates, save that, like others about
to be mentioned, it bore the iron cross of the
Temple, and also the legend-which, from being a
simply moral apophthegm, and not Biblical, was
supposed to be anterior to the Reformation-22 .
yt. fhZis . overcommis, (i.e., ?He that bears overcomes.?)
There was also a half-obliterated shield.
For ages the Bow was famous as the chief place
for whitesmiths, and till about the time of its demcr
lition there was scarcely a shop in it occupied by
any other tradesmen, and even on Sunday the
ceaseless clatter of their hammers on all hands
rang from morning till night.
Behind the Mahogany Land ? lay several steep,
narrow, and gloomy closes, containing the most](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p139.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 319")
... ?took its name from an eminent watchmaker,
a native of France , named Paul ,Romieu, who is
said to have ...
Book 2 p. 319
(Score 0.5)
![Leith.] SHIPBUILDING. 281
put on board the privateer and landed at Calais,
from whence we were ten days marching to Valenciennes
; were lodged in the most horrid jails by
the way, and were allowed nothing but bread and
water.?
In the May of the following year, the brig
CaZedonia, of Leith, and the Mary, of Kirkwall,
were both captured, not far from Aberdeen, by a
French privateer ; but when within three miles of
the coast of France, they escaped to Yarmouth, on
the appearance of the Ludy Anne, an armed lugger,
commanded by Lieutenant Wright, R.N.
On the 6th March, 1800, the Pox, Letter of
Marque, of Leith, fought a sharp battle, which
her captain, James Ogilvy, thus details in the
report to his owners there :-
?Last night, at 11 p.m., Dungeness, NNW,
three leagues, I observed a lugger lying on my
lee-bow ; the moment he saw me he made sail and
ran ahead to windward, and hove-to until I came
up. I observed his motions, hoisted a light on my
maintop, and hailed the Juno, of KirkcaIdy, Mr.
James Condy, who came from Leith Roads along
with me, and kept company all the way, to keep
close by me, as he was under my convoy; which
he immediately did-also two colliers. All my
hands lay on deck, and were prepared to receive
him (the enemy), being well loaded with round and
grape shot from my small battery. He, with his
great, or lug maimail, bore down on my quarter
within pistol-shot. I immediately gave him our
broadside, which, from the confusion and mourning
cries, gave me every reason to suppose he must
have had a number killed and wounded, and he
lay-to, with all his sails shaking in the wind, as long
as I could see him. I am truly happy that the
Fox?s small force has been the means of saving herself,
as well as thelunu and the two colliers, from a
desperate set of thieves that so much infest this
channeL We have fortunately arrived here (Ports
mouth) safe today, with thejunu, in time to join
the convoy for Gibraltar. Have got instructions
fiom the Champion frigate, and sail to-morrow
morning ? (Heralic and Chroa, 1800).
Captain Ogilvy was presented by the underwriters
with a handsome present for his valour and
good conduct in saving and defending four ships.
In the autumn of 1801, the whole of the ship
carpenters, rope-makers, joiners, and block.makers,
to the number of 250 men, employed in the little
Government naval yard at Leith, ?? voluntarily
offered to be trained to the use of the great guns
and of pikes, in defence of the town and port 01
Leith,? refusing all pay. The enthusiasm spread at
the same time to the fishermen of the Firth of
132
Forth, who, to the number of 1,243, made through
Captain Clements an offer of their services in any
way his Majesty might require, to defend the
country from foreign invasion.
To return briefly to the arts of peace, we may
state that both at Leith and Newhaven an extensive
trade in shipbuilding has been camed on
at various periods; but for some generations past
no ships have been launched at the latter place,
yet within the recollection of many still alive shipbuilding
was one of the most important branches of
industry carried on at Leith.
In 1840, two steamers, larger than any then
afloat, were contracted for, and successfully launched
from the building-yard of the Messrs. Menzies ;
and much about the same time other ships of such
a size were built, that many persons began fondly
to suppose that the Port of Leith would keep the
lead in this great branch of industry; but, contrary
to expectation, the trade gradually declined, while
the fame and well-known character of the celebrated
Clyde-built ships and Aberdeen clippers
drew it to the west and north of Scotland. Some
amount of fresh impetus was given to it, however,
by the establishment of several yards for the construction
of iron ships, from which have been
launched a number of first-class vessels, and also
magnificent steam yachts for the Duke of Norfolk,
the Earl of Eglinton, and others.
But though the construction of new ships is not
carried on to the extent it was formerly, a considerable
number of shipcarpenters are employed in the
port repairing vessels, some afloat and others in dry
docks. In the winter and spring artisans of this
class are most in demand, re-classing and overhauling
vessels laid up during these seasons, after
arriving from long voyages.
It has more than once been observed that by
fiu the worst circumstance which in modern times
has damaged the port, and at one time seriously
menaced its trade with ruin, was its predicament
with regard to steam vessels. Some of the latter,
built to ply from it, have been so constructed as,
with a sacrifice of their speed and sailing powers,
not to suffer much injury when seeking harbourage ;
but others, such as are most serviceable and
valuable to a great port, can barely enter it.
This consideration will lead us naturally to the
description of the several docks that have been
built from time to time with a view to meet the
growing requirements both as to traffic and increased
size of vessels. One of these docks, the
Prince of Wales?s Graving Dock, is capable of
receiving the largest ship in the merchant service,
except the Great Eastern.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p100.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 281")
... privateer ; but when within three miles of
the coast of France , they escaped to Yarmouth, on
the appearance of ...
Book 6 p. 281
(Score 0.5)
... the east
coast of Scotland.
During the old war with France the patriotism
of the Newhaven fishenhen was ...
Book 6 p. 302
(Score 0.5)
... Tyburn, had he not broken out
of Newgate and escaped to France .
A few days after his departure from Leith, ...
Book 5 p. 192
(Score 0.5)
... in the 29th Regiment of Foot during
the long war with France , and died in his fiftythird
year, in 1842,
In ...
Book 4 p. 195
(Score 0.5)
... of refugees or their descendants who had
come from France , after the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes. A ...
Book 3 p. 186
(Score 0.5)
![The Lawnmarket] DR. JOHNSON. 95
years, his house was rented by Dr. Blair ; but amid
the gaieties of Pans his mind would seem to have
reverted to his Scottish home. ?I am sensible
that I am misplaced, and I wish twice or thrice
aday for my easychair, and my retreat in James?s
Court:? he wrote to his friend Dr. Ferguson;
then he added, as Burton tells us, Never think,
dear Ferguson, that as long as you are master of
your own fireside and your own time, you can be
unhappy, or that any other circumstance can add
to your enjoyment.? ?Never put a fire in the
south room with the red paper,? he wrote to Dr.
Blair ; ? it is so warm of itself, that all last winter,
which was a very severe one, I lay with a single
blanket, and frequently, upon coming in at midnight
starving with cold, I have sat down and read for
an hour as if I had a stove in the room.? One
of his most intimate friends and correspondents
while in France was Mrs. Cockburn of Ormiston,
authoress of one of the beautiful songs called U The
Flowers of the Forest,? who died at Edinburgh,
1794. Some of her letters to Hume are dated in
1764, from Baud?s Close, on .the Castle Hill.
About the year 1766, when still in Paris, he began
to think of settling there, and gave orders to sell
his house in James?s Court, and he was only prevented
from doing so by a mere chance. Leaving
the letter of instruction to be posted by his Parisian
landlord, he set out to pass his Christmas with
the Countess de Boufflers ai L?Isle Adam ; but a
snow storm had blocked up the roads. He returned
to Paris, and finding that his letter had not
yet been posted, he changed his mind, and
thought that he had better retain his flat in James?s
Court, to which he returned in 1766. He soon
after left it as Under-Secretary of State to General
Conway, but in 1769, on the resignation of that
Minister, he returned again to James?s Court, with
what was then deemed opulence-AI,ooo per annuni-
and became the head of that brilliant circle
of literary men who then adorned Edinburgh. ?I
am glad to come within sight of you: he wrote to
Adam Smith, then busy with ?The Wealth of
Nations? in the quietude of his mother?s house,
$? and to have a view of Kirkcaldy from mywindows ;
but I wish also to be on speaking terms with you.?
In another letter he speaks of ??my old house in
James?s Court, which is very cheerful and very
elegant, but too small to display my great talent
for cookery, the science to which I intend to addict
the remaining years of my life.?
Elsewhere we shall find David Hunie in a more
fashionable abode in the new town of Edinburgh,
and on his finally quitting James?s Court, his house
there was leased by Tames Boswell, whose character
is thus summed up by Lord Macaulay :-? Servile
and impertinent, shallow and pedantic, a bigot and
a sot, bloated with family pride, and eternally blustering
about the dignity of a born gentleman, yet
stooping to be a talebearer, an eavesdropper, a
common butt in the taverns of London ; so curious
to know everybody who was talked about that,
Tory and High Churchman though he was, he
rnanceuvred for an introduction to Tom Paine ; so
vain of the most childish distinctions, that when he
had been to Court he drove to the office where
his book was printing, without changing his clothes,
and summoned all the printer?s devils to admire
his new rufRes and sword. Such was this man,
and such he was content to be.?
He was the eldest son of Alexander Boswell, one
of the Judges of the Court of Session, a sound
scholar, a respectable and useful country gentleman,
an able and upright judge, who, on his
elevation to the Bench, in compliance with the
Scottish custom, assumed the distinctive title of
Lord Auchinleck, from his estate in Ayrshire.
His mother, Eupham Erskine, a descendant of the
line of Alloa, from the House of Mar, was a woman
of exemplary piety. To James?s Court, Boswell,
in -4ugust, 1773, cohducted Dr. Johnson, from the
White Horse Hostel, in ,St. Mary?s Wynd, then
one of the principal inns of Edinburgh, where he
found him storming at the waiter for having sweetened
his lemonade without using the sugar-tongs, ,
~Johnson and I,? says Boswell, walked arm-inarm
up the High Street to my house in James?s
Court, and as we went, he acknowledged that the
breadth of the street and the loftiness of the buildings
on each side made a noble appearance.? ?My
wife had tea ready for him,? he adds, ?? ail we sat
chatting till nearly two in the morning.? It would
appear that before the time of the visit-which
lasted over several days-Boswell had removed
into a better and larger mansion, immediately
below and on the level of the court, a somewhat
extraordinary house in its time, as it consisted of
two floors with an internal stair. Mrs. Boswell,
who was Margaret Montgomery, a relation of the
Earl of Eglmton, a gentlewoman of good breeding
and brilliant understanding, was disgusted with the
bearing and manners of Johnson, and expressed
her opinion of him that he was ?a great brute !?
And well might she think so, if Macaulay?s description
of him be correct. ?He could fast,
but when he did not fast he tore his dinner like
a famished wolf, With the veins swelling in his
forehead, and the perspiration running down his
cheeks; he scarcely ever took wine; but when
he drank it, he drank it greedily and in large
.
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p111.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 99")
... his most intimate friends and correspondents
while in France was Mrs. Cockburn of Ormiston,
authoress of one ...
Book 1 p. 99
(Score 0.5)
... escape we have detailed, and he had high
interest in France , where he espoused Anne de la
Tour of VendGme; ...
Book 1 p. 38
(Score 0.5)
... that the
Duke of Lauderdale?s goods were shipping for
France , whither his Grace was shortly to follow,
which ...
Book 2 p. 354
(Score 0.49)
... of, 84, 206, 207, 218
Prince, 110-113, l.59,290
VI. of France , 12
Charteris, Henry, the Printer, 62, 285
John, ...
Book 10 p. 500
(Score 0.49)
![THE CASTLE -4ND GLEN. 34 7 Roslin.]
further repaired, as an ornate entrance seems tc
show, with its lintel, inscribed ? S.W.S., 1622.??
The same initials appear on the half-circular pedi.
ment of a dormer window. Above this door, which
is beautifully moulded and enriched, is a deep and
ornate squqre niche, the use for which it is difficult
to conceive.
From its windows it commands a view of the
richly-wooded glen, between the rocky banks and
dark shadows of which the Esk flows onward with
a ceaseless murmur among scattered boulders,
where grow an infinite variety of ferns. The
eastern bank rises almost perpendicularly from the
river?s bed, and everywhere there is presented a
diversity of outline that always delights an artistic
eye.
The entrance to the castle was originally by a
gate of vast strength, and the whole structure must
have been spacious and massive, and on its northern
face bears something of the aspect of old Moorish
fortresses in Spain. A descent of a great number of
stone stairs conducts through the existing structure
to the bottom, leading into a spacious kitchen,
from which a door opens into the once famous
gardens. The modern house of 1563 is ill-lighted
and confined, and possesses more the gloom of
a dungeon-like prison than the comforts of a residence.
Grose gives us a view of the whole as they
appeared in 1788--? haggard and utterly dilapidated-
the mere wreck of a great pile riding on a
l ~ t l e sea of forest-a rueful apology for the once
grand fabric whose name of ? Roslin Castle ? is so
intimately associated with melody and song.?
It is unknown when or by whom the original
castle was founded. It has been referred to the
year 1100, when William de St. Clair, son of
Waldern, Count of St. Clair, who came to England
with William the Conqueror, obtained from
Malcolm 111. the barony of Roslin, and was
named ?the seemly St. Clair,? in allusion to his
grace of deportment ; but singular to say, notwithstanding
its importance, the castle is not mentioned
distinctly in history till the reign of James II.,
when Sir William Hamilton was confined in it in
1455 for being in rebellion with Douglas, and again
when it was partly burned in 1447.
Father Richard Augustine Hay, Prior of St.
Piermont, in France, who wrote much about the
Roslin family, records thus :--
?About this time, 1447, Edmund Sinclair of
Dryden, coming with four greyhounds and some
rackets to hunt with the prince (meaning William
Sinclair, Earl of Orkney), met a great company of
rats, and among them an old blind lyard, with a
straw in his mouth, led by the rest, whereat he
greatly marvelled, not thinking what was to follow;
but within four days after-viz., the feast of St.
Leonard, the princess, who took great delight in
little dogs, caused one of the gentlewomen to go
under a bed with a lighted candle to bring forth one
of them that had young whelps, which she was
doing, and not being very attentive, set on fire the
bed, whereat the fire rose and burnt the bed, and
then rose to the ceiling of the great chamber in
which the princess was, whereat she and all that
were in the dungeon (keep?) were compelled to fly.
? The prince?s chaplain seeing this, and remembering
his master?s writings, passed to the head of
the dungeon, where they were, and threw out four
great trunks. The news of this fire coming to the
prince?s ears through the lamentable cries of the
ladies and gentlemen, and the sight thereof coming
to his view in the place where he stood-namely,
upon the College (Chapel?) Hill-he was in sorrow
for nothing but the loss of his charters and other
writings; but when the chaplain, who had saved
himself by coming down the bell-rope tied to a
beam, declared how they were saved, he became
cheerful, and went to re-comfort his princess and
the ladies, desiring them to put away all sorrow,
and rewarded his chaplain very richly.? The
i? princess ? was the Elizabeth Countess of Roslin,
referred to in page 3 of Vol. I.
In 1544 the castle was fired by the English
under Hertford, and demolished. The house of
1563, erected amid its ruins nineteen years after,
was pillaged and battered by the troops of Cromwellin
1650.
+4t the revolution in 1688, it was pillaged again
by a lawless mob from the city, and from thenceforward
it passes out of history.
Of the powerful family to whom it belonged we
can only give a sketch.
The descendants of the Norman William de St.
Clair, called ihdifferently by that name and Sinclair,
received from successive kings of Scotland
accessions, which made them lords of Cousland,
Pentland, Cardoine, and other lands, and they lived
in their castle, surrounded by all the splendour of a
rude age, and personal importancegiven by the
acquisition of possessions by methods that would
be little understood in modern times.
There were three successive William Sinclairs
barons of Roslin (one of whom made a great
figure in the reign of William the Lion, and gave
a yearly gift to Newbattle,pro saZufe mime we)
before the accession of Henry, who, by one account,
is said to have mamed a daughter of the
Earl of Mar, and by auother a daughter of the Earl](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p166.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 347")
... Richard Augustine Hay, Prior of St.
Piermont, in France , who wrote much about the
Roslin family, records ...
Book 6 p. 347
(Score 0.49)
![THE PRECEPTORY OF ST. ANTHONY. 215 Leith]
not making any deliberate assault ; but a pistol
shot was heard, and in a few minutes the Sieur de
la Roche lay dead, with a sword thrust in his body,
while Isaac had a finger nearly hewn OK
The guard now came on the scene, and Mowat
was found under an outer stair, with a bent sword
in his hand, bloody from point to hilt, his hand
wounded, and the sleeves of his coat stained with
blood. On seeing the dead body, he viewed it
without emotion, and merely remarked that he
wondered who had slain him.
The Master, Mowat, and James Sinclair the writer,
were all tried for the murder of Elias Poiret before
the Court of Justiciary, but the jury brought in a
verdict of not proven. The whole affair might
have been easily explained, but for heat of temper,
intemperance, and the ready resort to arms so usual
in those days. The three Frenchmen concerned in
it were Protestant refugees who were serving as
privates in the Scottish Life Guards. The Mastet
of Tarbet became Earl of Cromarty in 1714 and
survived the death of Poiret forty years. Two of
his sons, who were officers in the Scots-Dutch
Brigade, perished at sea, and his eldest, the third
and last Earl of Cromarty, was nearly brought to
Tower Hill in 1746 for his loyalty to the House of
Stuart.
No. 141 Kirkgate was long the place of business
of Mr. Alexander Watson, who is chiefly remarkable
as being the nephew and close correspondent
of a very remarkable man, who frequently resided
with him-Robert Watson, who was made Principal
of the Scots College at Paris by the Emperor
Napoleon I., an office which he held for six years.
It was to his nephew at Leith, after his escape to
Rome (having been tried at the Old Bailey as
President of a Corresponding Society), he confided
his discovery of a large mass of correspondence
known as ? The Stuart Papers,? which he
purchased (as stated in the Courunt for 1819.)
In one of his letters, dated London, 6th April,
1818, he states that they consist ofhalf a million of
pieces, and are valued at ~300,000. ?? The Pope,
however, took military possession of them, under
the protest that they were of too much importance
to belong to a private individual. I protested
against the arbitrary proceedings of his Holiness.
The Prince Regent sent two ships of war to Civita
Vecchia to bring them to London, and they are
now in Carlton House.?
To his nephew in the Kirkgate he subsequently
wrote that a Royal Commissiolr under the Great
Seal (including Sir James Mackintosh) was a p
pointed to examine these valuable papers ; and in
1824 he wrote that amongst other things of some
value which have fallen into my possession, are the
carriage and tent-bed of Bonaparte, taken at the
battle of Waterloo. Further events will decide
to what purposes I may apply it (the carriage),
though it is probable I shall keep it for my own
use.?
This singular person committed suicide in 1838,
by strangling himself in a London tavern, in the
ninety-second year of his age--?a case of suicide,?
it was said, ?unparalleled in the annals of sorrow.?
On the east side of the Kirkgate, to take the
edifices in succession there, there was founded by
Robert Logan of Restalrig, in 1435, a preceptory
for the canons of St. Anthony, the only establkhment
of the kind in Scotland.
Arnot, in his history, unthinkingly mentions ?? the
monastery of Knights Templars of St. Anthony?
at Leith. These canons, says Chalmers, ? seem to
have been an order of religious knights, not
Templars. The only document in which they are
called Templars is a charter of James VI. in 1614,
giving away their establishment and revenues; and
this mistake of an ignorant clerk is wildly repeated
by Arnot.?
Their church, burying-ground, and gardens were
in St. Anthony?s Wynd, an alley off the Kirkgate ;
and the first community was brought from St
Anthony of Vienne, the seat of the order in France
They were formed in honour of St. Anthony, the
patriarch of monks, who was born at Coma, a
village of Heraclea on the borders of Arcadia, in
A.D.?z~I, and whose sister was placed in the first
convent that is recorded in history. A hermit by
habit, he dwelt long in the ruins of an old castle
that overlooked the Nile; and after his death (said
to have been in 356) his body was deposited in the
church of La Motte St. Didier, at Vienne, when,
according to old traditions, those labouring under
the pest known as St. ,4nthony?s Fire-a species of
erysipelas-were miraculously cured by praying at
his shrine.
Gaston, a noble of Vienne, and his son Gironde,
filled with awe, we are told, by these wonderful
cures, devoted their lives and estates to found a
hospital for those who laboured under this disease,
and seven others joined them in their attendance
on the sick; and on these Hospitaller Brethren
Boniface VIII. bestowed the Benedictine Priory
of Vienne, giving them the rules of St. Austin, and
declaring the Abbot General of this new orderthe
Canons Regular of St, Anthony. The superiors
of the subordinate preceptones were called commanders,
says Alban Butler, ? and their houses are
called commandenes, as when they were Hospitallers?
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p034.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 215")
... from St
Anthony of Vienne, the seat of the order in France
They were formed in honour of St. Anthony, ...
Book 6 p. 215
(Score 0.49)
... Sir William, also an officer in the navy,
who married, in 1750, France s, daughter of Colonel
Gardiner who was ...
Book 6 p. 319
(Score 0.49)
... of
perils in the Baltic and on the shores of Holland,
France , and Denmark, and of the days when Leith
ships ...
Book 6 p. 246
(Score 0.49)
![The Water of Leith.] MAJOR-GENERAL MITCHELL. 79
1849. Horatio Macculloch, R.S.A., a most distinguished
landscape painter, lived for many years
in No. 7, Danube Street, where the best of his
works were executed. With Sir Daniel Macnee,
P.R.S.A., he first obtained employment from Lizars,
the engraver, as colourists of Selby?s ?? Ornithology.?
In 1829 he first exhibited; and from thence onwards,
to his death in 1867, he contributed to the
yearly exhibitions, and won himself much fame in
Scotland.
In No. 16, Carlton Street, adjoining, lived for
many years his chief friend, Kenneth Macleay,
R.S.A., who was born at Oban in 1802, and after
being educated at the Trustees? School, was one of
the thirteen founders of the Royal Scottish Academy,
and at his death was the last survivor of
them. He was chiefly famous for his beautiful
miniatures on ivory, and latterly was well known
for his occasional sketches and delineations of
Highland life, many of which were painted at the
express desire of Her Majesty. He died at No. 3,
Malta Terrace, in 1878, in his seventy-sixth year.
He was an enthusiastic Celt, and fond of wearing
the Highland dress on Academy receptions, and
on every possible occasion.
Among others connected with art who made
Stockbridge their residence was George Kemp, the
luckless architect of Sir Walter Scott?s monument,
who had a humble flat in No. 28, Bedford Street ;
James Stewart, the well-known engraver of Sir
Wlliam Allan?s finest works, who lived in No. 4
of that gloomy little street called Hermitage Place ;
and Comely Bank, close by, was not without its
famous people too, for there, for some years after
his marriage, dwelt Thomas Carlyle, and, in No. I I,
James Browne, LL.D., author of the ?History 01
the Highland Clans,? and editor of the CaZea?onian
Mermv and of The Edinburgh Week& JournaZ,
and Macvey Napier?s collaborateur in the ?? Encyclopzdia
Britannica.? Some differences having
arisen between him and Mr. Charles Maclaren,
the editor of the Scotsman, regarding a fine-art
criticism, the altercation ran so high that a hostile
meeting took place at seven o?clock in the morning
of the 12th of November, 1829, somewhere neaI
Ravelston, but, fortunately, without any calamitous
sequel. He took a great lead in Liberal politics,
and in No. 11 entertained Daniel O?Connell more
than once. He died at Woodbine Cottage, Trinity,
an the 8th of April, 1841, aged fifty years. John
Ewbank, R.S.A., the marine and landscape painter,
livedat No. 5, Comely Bank; while No. 13 was thc
residence of Mrs. Johnstone, who while there
wrote many of her best novels-among them, ? Clan
Albyn : a National Tale ?-and contributed man]
able articles to johnstone?s Magazine, a now forgotten
monthly.
From a passage in a memoir of himself prefixed
to ? The Mountain Bard,? we find that the Ettrick
Shepherd, about 1813, was living in Deanhaugh
Street while at work on the ?Queen?s Wake,?
which he produced in that year; and that, in his
lodgings there, he was wont to read passages of
his poems to Mr. Gray, of the High School, whose
criticisms would seem to have led to a quarrel
between them.
Sir James Young Simpson, Bart., in his boyhood
and as a student lived with his brother, David
Simpson, a respectable master baker, in the shop,
No. I, Raeburn Place, at the corner of Dean Street.
When he first began to practise as a physician, it
was in a first flat of No. 2, Deanhaugh Street ; and
as his fame began to spread, and he was elected
Professor of Midwifery in the University in 1840,
in succession to Dr. Hamilton, he was living in
No. I, Dean Terrace.
In St. Bernard?s Crescent, for many years while
in the employment of the Messrs. Chambers, lived
Leitch Ritchie, author of ?? Schinderhannes, the
Robber of the Rhine,?? a famous romance in its
day ; also of ?? Travelling Sketches on the Rhine,
in Belgium, and Holland,? and many other works.
He was born in 1801, and died on the 16th of
January, 1865.
His neighbour and friend here was Andrew
Crichton, LL.D., author of a ?? History of Scandinavia
I? and other works, and twenty-one years
editor of the Edinburgh Advertiser.
In the same quarter there spent many years of
his life Major-General John Mitchell, a gallant old
Peninsular officer, who was an able writer on military
matters and biography. In 1803 he began life
as an ensign in the 57th Foot, and served in
all the campaigns in Spain and Portugal, France
and Flanders. Under the nomdepZuume of ?Sabretache,?
he wrote some very smart things, his
earliest productions appearing in Fraser?s Magazine
and the United Serzlice JournaZ. He was the
author of a ? Life of Wallenstein? (London,
1837), which, like his ?Fall of Napoleon,? was
well received by the public ; and Sir Robert Peel
acknowledged the importance of the information
he derived from the latter work, after the appearance
of which, Augustus, King of Hanover, presented
the author with a diamond brooch. He
was the author of many other works, including
?Biographies of Eminent Soldiers.? He was a
handsome man, with great buoyancy of spirit and
conversational powers ; thus ? Old Sabretache,? as
he was often called, was welcome everywhere. A](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p090.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 79")
... and served in
all the campaigns in Spain and Portugal, France
and Flanders. Under the nomdepZuume of ...
Book 5 p. 79
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![Merchiston.] THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, Bart.
In 1870 the original use to which the foundation
was put underwent a change, and the hospital
became a great public school for boys and girls.
At the western extremity of what was the Burghmuir,
near where lately was an old village of that
name (at the point where the Colinton road diverges
from that which leads to Biggar), there stands, yet
unchanged amid all its new surroundings, the
ancient castle of Merchiston, the whilom seat of a
race second to none in Scotland for rank and talent
-the Napiers, now Lords Napier and Ettrick. It
is a lofty square tower, surmounted by corbelled
battlements, a ape-house, and tall chimneys. It
was once surrounded by a moat, and had a secret
avenue or means of escape into the fields to the
north. As to when it was built, or by whom, no
record now remains.
In the missing rolls of Robert I., the lands of
Merchiston and Dalry, in the county of Edinburgh,
belonged in his reign to William Bisset, and under
David II., the former belonged to William de
Sancto Claro, on the resignation of Williani Bisset,
according to Robertson?s ?Index,? in which we find
a royal charter, ?datum est apud Dundee,? 14th
August, 1367, to John of Cragyof the lands of
Merchiston, which John of Creigchton had resigned.
So the estate would seem to have had several
proprietors before it came into the hands of
Alexander Napier, who was Provost of Edinburgh
in 1438, and by this acquisition Merchiston became
the chief title of his family.
His son, Sir Alexander, who was Comptroller of
Scotland under James 11. in 1450, and went on a
pilgrimage to St. Thomas of Canterbury in the
following year-for which he had safe-conduct from
the King of England-was Provost of Edinburgh
between 1469 and 1471- He was ambassador to
the Court of the Golden Fleece in 1473, and was
no stranger to Charles the Bold ; the tenor of his
instructions to whom from James II., shows that he
visited Bruges a d the court of Burgundy before
that year, in 1468, when he was present at the
Tournament of the Golden Fleece, and selected a
suit of brilliant armour for his sovereign.
Sir Alexander, fifth of Merchiston, fell at Flodden
with James IV.
John Napier of Merchiston was Provost 17th
of May, 1484, and his son and successor, Sir Archibald,
founded a chaplaincy and altar in honour of St.
Salvator in St. Giles?s Church in November, 1493.
His grandson, Sir Archibald Napier, who married
a daughter of Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, was
slain at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547.
Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston and Edinbellie,
who was latterly Master of the Mint to
James VI., was father of John Napier the
celebrated inventor of the Logarithms, who was
born in Merchiston Castle in 1550, fgur years after
the birth of Tycho Brahe, and fourteen before that
of Galileo, at a time when the Reformation in
Scotland was just commencing, as in the preceding?
year John Knox had been released from the
French galleys, and was then enjoying royal
patronage in England. His mother was Janet,
only daughter of Sir Francis Bothwell, and sister
of Adam, Bishop of Orkney. At the time of his
birth his father was only sixteen years of age. He
was educated at St. Salvator?s College, St. Andrews,
where he matriculated 1562-3, and afterwards spent
several years in France, the Low Countries, and
Italy; he applied himself closely to the study of
mathematics, and it is conjectured that he gained
a taste for that branch of learning during his residence
abroad, especially in Itily, where at that
time were many mathematicians of high repute.
While abroad young Napier escaped some perils
that existed at home. In 150s a dreadful pest
broke out in Edinburgh, and his father and family
were exposed to the contagion, ? by the vicinity,?
says Mark Napier, ?? of his mansion to the Burghmuir,
upon which waste the infected were driven
out to grovel and die, under the very walls of
Merchiston.?
In his earlier years his studies took a deep theological
turn, the fruits of which appeared in his
? Plain Discovery of the Revelation of St John,?
which he published at Edinburgh in 1593, and
dedicated to James VI. But some twenty years
before that time his studies must have been sorely
interrupted, as his old ancestral fortalice lay in the
very centre of the field of strife, when Kirkaldy
held out the castle for Queen Mary, and the savage
Douglas wars surged wildly round its walls.
On the 2nd April, 1572, John Napier, then in his
twenty-second year, was betrothed to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir ; but as he
had incurred the displeasure of the queen?s party
by taking no active share in her interests, on the
18th of July he was arrested by the Laid of Minto,
and sent a prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh,
then governed by Sir TVilliam Kirkaldy, who in the
preceding year had bombarded Merchiston with
his iron guns because certain soldiers of the king?s
party occupied it, and cut off provisions coming
north for the use of his garrison. The solitary
tower formed the key of the southern approach
to the city ; thus, whoever triumphed, it became the
object of the opponent?s enmity.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p046.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 35")
