Edinburgh Bookshelf

Edinburgh Bookshelf

Search

Index for “images/thumbs/memorials/memorials_v1_Page_085”

374 MEiWORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
charier, one of his mills of Dean, with the tenths of his mills of Liberton and Dean ; and
although all that now remains of the villages of Bell’s Mills and the Dean are af a much
more recent date, they still retain unequivocal evidences of considerable antiquity. Dates
and inscriptions, with crow-stepped gables and other features of the 17th century, are to
be found scattered among the more modern tenements, and it was only in the year 1845
that the curious old mansion of the Dean was demolished for the purpose of converting
the Deanhaugh into a public cemetery. This was another of those fine old aristocratic
dwellings that once abounded in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, but which are now
rapidly disappearing, like all its other interesting memorials of former times. It was a
monument of the Nisbeta of the Dean, a proud old race that are now extinct. They
had come to be the head of their house, as Nisbet relates with touching pathos, owing
to the failure of the Nisbets of that Ilk in his own person, and as such .“ laid aside the
Cheveron, a mark of cadency used formerly by the House of Dean, in regard that the
family of Dean is the only family of that name in Scotland that has right, by consent, to
represent the old original family of the name of Nisbet, since the only lineal male representer,
the author of this system, is like to go soon off the world, being an old man,
and without issue male or female.” The earliest notice in the minutes of Presbytery of
St Cuthberts of the purchase of a piece of family burying-ground, is by Sir William
Nisbet of Dean, in March 1645, the year of the plague. ‘‘ They grantit him ane place
at the north church door, eastward, five elnes of lenth, and thrie elnes of bredth.” It
appears to have been the piece of ground in the angle formed by the north transept and
the choir of the ancient Church of St Cuthbert ; and the vault which he erected there still
remains, surmounted with his arms ; a memorial alike of the demolished fane and the extinct
race. When we last saw it, the old oak door was broken in, and the stair that led down
to the chamber of the dead choked up with rank nettles and hemlock ;-the fittest monument
ihat could be devised for the old Barons of the Dean, the last of them now gathered
to his fathers.
The old mansion-house had on a sculptured stone over the east doorway the date 1614,
but other parts of the building bore evident traces of an earlier date. The large gallery had
an arched ceiling, painted in the same style as one already described in Blyth’s Close, some
portions of which had evidently been copied in its execution. The subjects were chiefly
sacred, and though rudely executed in distemper, had a bold and pleasing effect when seen
as a whole. One of the panels, now in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., bears the
date 1627. The dormer windows and principal doorways were richly decorated with sculptured
devices, inscriptions, and armorial bearings, illustrative of the successive alliances of
its owners; many of which have been preserved in the boundary walls of the cemetery
that now occupies its site. The most curious of these are two pieces of sculpture in 6amo
relievo, which surmounted two of the windows on the south front. On one of them a
judge is represented, seated on a throne, with a lamb in his arms ; in his left hand he holds
a drawn sword resting on his shoulder, and in his right hand a pair of scales. Two lions
rampant stand on either side, as if contending litigants for the poor lamb ; the one of them
.
1 Nisbet’a Heraldry, vol. ii part 4, p. 32.
a History of the Weat Kirk, p. 24.
Alexander Nisbet, Gent., published the first volume of hie system of
heraldry in 1722 ; his death took place shortly stteiwarda.-V& Preface to 2d Edition Fol.

Book 10 p. 411
(Score 0.58)

396 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
lover of Gothic architecture that now remains in the capital. Unhappily, however,
the march of improvement threatens its demolition. It has already been marked for
a prey by the engineers of the North British Railway, for the purpose of enlarging
their terminus; and unless the exertions of the lovers of antiquity succeed in averting
its destruction, the doom has already been pronounced of this venerable fane which
covers the remains of Mary of Guelders, the Queen of James 11.’ The vestry affords,
externally, a fine specimen of the old Scottish method of ‘‘ theiking with stone,” with
which the whole church, except the central tower, was roofed till about the year 1814, when
it was replaced with slates. The vestry also exhibits a rare specimen of an ancient
Gothic chimney, an object of some interest to the architect, from the few specimens of
domestic architecture in that style which have escaped the general destruction of the
religious houses in Scotland,
The collegiate buildings, erected according to the plan of the foundress, were built
immediately adjoining the church on the south side, while the hospital for the bedemen
stood on the opposite side of Leith Wynd. In 1567 the church, with the whole
collegiate buildings, were presented by the Regent Murray to Sir Simon Preston,
Provost of Edinburgh, by whom they were bestowed on the town. New statutes were
immediately drawn up for regulating “ the beidmen and hospitdaris now present
and to cum;”2 and the hospital buildings being found in a ruinous condition, part
of the collegiate buildings were fitted up and converted into the new hospital, which
thenceforth bore the name of Trinity Hospital. This veuerable edifice was swept
away in 1845 in clearing the site for the railway station, and its demolition brought
to light many curious evidences of its earlier state. A beautiful large Gothic fireplace,
with clustered columns and a low-pointed arch, was disclosed in the north gable,
while many rich fragments of Gothic ornament were found built into the walls-the
remains, no doubt, of the original hospital buildings used in the enlargement and repair
of the college. In the bird’s-eye view in Gordon’s map, an elegant Gothic lantern
appears on the roof above the great hall, but this had disappeared long before the demolition
of the building. In enlarging the drain from the area of the North Loch, in 1822,
an ancient causeway was discovered fully four feet below the present level of the church
floor, and extending a considerable way up the North Back of the Canongate. Its great
antiquity was proved on the recent demolition of the hospital buildings, by the discovery
that their foundations rested on part of the same ancient causeway thus buried beneath
the slow accumulations of centuries, and which was not improbably a relic of the Roman
invasion. One of the grotesque gurgoils of the Trinity Hospital is now preserved in the
Antiquarian Museum.
In the view of Trinity College Church, drawn by Paul Sandby for Maitland’s History
of Edinbargh, a building is shown attached to the west end of it, which appears to have
been a separate hospital maintained by the town, after the Magistrates had obtained the
exclusive control of the Queen’s charitable foundation, In the will of Katharine Norwell,
for example, the widow of the celebrated printer Thomas Bassendyne, bted 8th August
1 As anticipated, Trinity College Church was taken down on the construction of the North British Railway in 1846.
The stonea having been almost entirely preserved, and a aite obtained on a spot nearly opposite to where it originally
stood, it is now (1872) being rebuilt. ’ Maitland, pp. 211, 490.

Book 10 p. 434
(Score 0.58)

138 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
bounded on the east by Brown’s Close, and forms a detached block of houses of various
dates and styles, all exhibiting considerable remains of former magnificence.
The house that now forms the kouth-west angle towards the Castle Hill bears, on the
pediment of a dormer window facing the Castle, the date 1630, with the initials A. M.,
M. N. ; and there still remains, sticking in the wall, a cannon ball, said to have been shot
from the Castle during the cannonade of 1745, though we are assured that it was placed
there by order of government, to indicate that no building would be permitted on that
side nearer the Castle. Through this land‘ there is an alley called Blair’s Close, leading
by several curious windings into an open court behind. At the first angle in the close,
a handsome gothic doorway, of very elegaut workmanship, meets the view, forming the
entry to a turnpike stair. The doorway is surmounted with an ogee arch, in the tympanum
of which is somewhat rudely sculptured a coronet with supporters,--‘( two deerhounds,”
says Chambers, ‘‘ the well-known supporters of the Duke of Goidon’s arms.” ’
This accords with the local tradition, which states it to have been the town mansion of
that noble family ; but the style of this doorway, and the substantial character of the
whole building, leave no room to doubt that it is an erection of a much earlier date
than the Dukedom, which was only created in 1684. Tradition, however, which is never
to be despised in questions of local antiquity, proves to be nearly correct in this case, as
we find, in one of the earliest titles to the property now in the possession of the City Improvements
Commission, endorsed, I-‘ Disposition of House be Sir Robert Baird to William
Baird, his second son, 1694,” it is thus defined,-“All and hail that my lodging in the
Caste1 Hill of Edinburgh, formerly possessed by the Duchess of Gordon.” This appears,
from the date of the disposition, to have been the first Duchess, Lady Elizabeth Howard,
daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. She retired to a Convent in Flanders during the lifetime
of the Duke, but afterwards returned to Edinburgh, where she principally resided
till her death, which took place at the Abbey Bill in 1732, sixteen years after that of
her huaband.
In 1711, her Grace excited no small stir in Edinburgh, by sending to the Dean and
Faculty of Advocates, -‘aI silver medal, with a head of the Pretender on one side, and on
the other the British Isles, with the word Reddite.” On the Dean presenting the medal,
the propriety of accepting it was keenly discussed, when twelve only, out of seventyfive
members present, testxed their favour for the House of Hanover by voting its
rejection.s
The most recent of the interior fittings of this mansion appear old enough to have
remained from the time of its occupation by the Duchess. It is finished throughout with
wooden panelling, and one large room in particular, overlooking the Castle Esplanade, is
elegantly decorated with rich ‘carvings, and with a painting (one of old Norie’s pictorial
idornments) filling a panel over the chimney-piece, and surrounded by an elaborate piece
.
1 The term ImuZ, in this and similar instances throughout the Work, is used according to its Scottish acceptation,
* Traditionq vol. i p. 153.
* Norie, a house-decorator and painter of the last century, whom works are very common, painted on the panels of
Pinkerton remarks, in his introduction to the ‘‘ Scottish Gallery,” 1799,-“Norie’a
and signifies a building of several stories of separate dwellings, communicating by a common stair.
Douglas’s Peerage, vol. i. p. 654.
the older houaea in Edinburgh.
genius for landacapea entitles him to o place in the list of Scotch paintera”

Book 10 p. 149
(Score 0.58)

208 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
was he in his attachment to Presbyterianism, that he relinquished his profession as an
advocate in 1681 rather than take the !Pest. Nevertheless, he learned soon after to hold
the favour of royalty in greater esteem. By a special dispensation from the King. he
was restored to his rank as an advocate j and on the removal of Lord Edmonston from
the Bench, in consequence of his opposition to the royal inclinations in one of his votes
as a judge, Swinton, the once resolute declaimer against the encroachments of royalty,
was selected as the most pliant successor that could be found. The poor King, James
VII., displayed at all times little judgment in the choice of his friends, and in this case
his selection appears to have been peculiarly unfortunate. The Revolution ensued
immediately after Swinton’s elevation to the Bench, and if Lord Balcarras’s account is
to be believed, the new judge took a leading share in some of the strangest proceedings
that followed. The mob signalised the dethronement of the King by an assault on the
Abbey Chapel, in which several of them were killed and wounded by the guard who were
stationed to defend it. On the following day Lord Mersington headed a rabble, accompanied
by the Provost and Magistrates, and renewed the attack on Captain Wallace
and his men. The guards were speedily put to flight, and my lord and the rest of the
rioters completely gutted the chapel, which had been fitted up in the most gorgeous and
costly style. Balcarras styles Lord Mersington “ the fanatical judge,” and, according
to his description, he figures on the occasion girt with a broad buff-belt, with ‘( a halbert
in his hand, and as drunk as ale and brandy could make him.”l He was the only
judge on the Bench at the Revolution that was reappointed by the new government.
On the third floor in the eastern turnpike of the back land, Sir David Home, Lord
Crossrig, resided,-one of the first judges nominated after the Revolution, and shortly
afterwards knighted by King William. The judicial report of tenants and valuations
exhibits a curious assemblage of occupants, from the renters of garrets, and laigh houses ‘‘ beneath the grund,” at the annual rate of twelve pound Scots, to my Lord Crossrig, who
pays three hundred pounds Scots for his flat, and share of the common stair 1 The Laird
of Merchistoun, Lady Hartfield, Sir James Mackenzie, Sir Patrick Aikenhead, Commissar
Clerk, Lady Harviston, Lady Colston, with Bailies, Merchants, and humble craftsmen, all
figure in the impartial articles of sale ; sharing together at their several elevations, above
and below ground, the numerous lodgings of this populous neighbourhood.
While the sale of%his property was going on, the “ Great Fire ” suddenly took place,
and made a settlement of all valuations and purchases by reducing the whole lofty
range to a heap of ruins. “ The fire broke out in the lodgeing immediately under the
Lord Crossrig’s lodgeing, in the Meal Mercat of Edinburgh, while part of his family
were in bed, and his Lordship going to bed; and the allarum was so sudden, that
he was forced to retire in his night cloaths, with his children half naked; and that when
people were sent into his closet to help out with his cabinet and papers, the smoke was
Brunton 8; Haig’s Senators of the College of Justice, p. 432. In contrast to this account, we may add the
notice of his death, by.Sir James Stewart, Lord Advocate, in a letter to Carataira. ‘‘ On TueBday last the Lord
Mersington dined well with a friend in the Merse, and went well to bed, but was found dead before four io the morning,
his lady in bed with him, who knew nothiog of his dying. He waa a good mau, and is much
regretted”
A warning stroke.

Book 10 p. 227
(Score 0.58)

340 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH,
as an industrious burgher. He was imported from Holland, it is believed, near the beginning
of last century, and first did duty with Rpade in hand at a seedsman’s door in the
Canongate ; from thence he passed to a grocer in the High Street, and soon after he made
his appearance in the Bow, where his antiquated costume consorted well with the oldfashioned
neighbourhood. Since the destruction of this, his last retreat, he has found a fit
refuge in the lobby of the Antiquarian Museum. On the opposite side of the street, the
last tenement on the east side of the first turning, and situated, as its titles express, “without
the place where the old Bow stood,” was popularly known as the Clockmaker’s Land.
It had been occupied in the reign of Charles 11. by Paul Romieu,’ an ingenious knockmaker,
who is believed to have been one of the French refugees, compelled to forsake his
native land on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1675, as appears from the
records of the Corporation of Hammermen, a watch was, for the fist time, added to the
knockmaker’s essay, previous to which date it is probable that watches were entirely imported.
There remained on the front of this ancient tenement, till its demolition, some
portions of a curious piece of mechanism which had formed the sign of its ingenious tenant.
This was a gilt ball representing the moon, originally made to revolve by clockwork, and
which enjoyed to the last a share of the admiration bestowed on the wonders of the Bow.
Other and more curious erections than those we have described had occupied the ground along
this steep descent at a still earlier period, when the secular clergy shared with the Templars
the dwellings in the Bow. In the “ Inventar of Pious Donations,” to which we have
already frequently referred, a charter is recorded, bearing date February 15, 1541, whereby
6‘ Sir Thomas Ewing mortifies to a chaplain in St Giles Kirk, an annual rent of twentysix
shillings out of Henry Spittal’s Land, at the Upper Bow, on the east side of ye transse
y’of, betwixt Bartil Kairn’s Land on the south, St James Altar Land on the north, and
the King’s Street on the west.” Below the Clockmaker’s Land, the tortuous thoroughfare
turned suddenly at an acute angle, and presented along its devious steep a strange assemblage
of fantastic timber and stone gables; several of them being among those strange
relics ’of a forgotten order of things, the Temple Lands, and one of them, with its timber
ceilings curiously adorned with paintings2 in the style already described in the Guise
Palace, bearing the quaint legend over its antique lintel, in ornamental characters of a very
early date :-
HE YT a THOLIS * OVERCVMMIS.
Behind these lay several steep, narrow, and gloomy closes, containing the most singular
groups of huge, irregular, and diversxed tenements that could well be conceived. Here
a crazy stunted little timber dwelling, black with age, and beyond it a pile of masonry rising
story above story from some murky profound beyond, that left its chimneys scarcely rivalling
those of its dwarfish neighbour after climbing thus far from their foundation. in the
depths below. One of these, which we have engraved under the name of ‘‘ The Haunted
CZose,” is the same in which the worthy gentlewoman, the neighbour of Major Weir, beheld
the spectral giantess vanish in a blaze of fire, as she returned down the West Bow at
the witching hour of night. The close, for all its wretched degradation, which had won
Minor Antiquitiea Information derived fifty years ago (1833) from a man who WM then eighty years of age.
a Some curious fragments of this ceiling are now in the collection of C. K. Sharpe, Esq.

Book 10 p. 372
(Score 0.58)

328 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
dington’s mansion as having been the residence of the French embassy in the reign of
Queen Mary, had assigned to this antique fabric the name of ‘‘ The French Ambassador’s
Chapel,” which we have retained in the accompanying engraving, in the absence of any
more distinctive title. An ornamental pediment, which surmounted its western wing, was
decorated with the heads of the Twelve Apostles, rudely sculptured along the outer cornice ;
and on the top a figure was seated astride, with the legs extended on either side of the
cornice. It is supposed to have been designed as a representation of our Saviour, but the
upper part of the figure had long been broken away. This pediment, as well as the sculptured
lintel of the main doorway, and other ornamental portions of the edifice, were removed
to Coat’s House, and are now built into different parts of the north wing of that old mansion.
But the sculpture which surmounted the entrance of this curious building was no less
worthy of notice than its singular pediment; for, while the one was adorned with the
sacred emblems of the Apostles and the figure of our Saviour, the other exhibited no less
mysterious and horrible a guardian than a Warwolf. It was, in truth, with its motto,
SPERAVETI h E N I - n o unmeet representative of Bunyan’s Wicket Gate, with a hideous
monster at the door, enough to frighten poor Mercy into a swoon, and nothing but Christian
charity and Apostolic graces within ; though the latter, it must be confessed, did not
include that of beauty. U I shall end here four-footed beasts,” says Nisbet, ‘‘ only mentioning
one of a monstrous form carried with us. Its body is like a wolf, having four feet
with long toes and a tail; it is headed like a man;-called in our books a warwolfpassant,-
and three stars in chief argent; which are also to be seen cut upon a stone above an old
entry of a house in the Cowgate in Edinburgh, above the foot of Libberton’s Wynd, which
belonged formerly to the name of Dickison, which name seems to be from the Dicksons by
the stars which they carry.”’ Who the owner of these rare armorial bearings was does
not now appear from the titles, but the style of ornament that prevailed on the building
renders it exceedingly probable that it formed the residence of some of the eminent ecclesiastical
dignitaries with which the Cowgate once abounded. The destruction of the venerable
alley, Libberton’s Wynd, that formed the chief thoroughfare to the High Street
from this part of the Cowgate, involved in its ruin an old tenement situated behind the
curious building described above, which possessed peculiar claims to interest as the birthplace
of Henry Mackenzie, “ The Man of Feeling.’’ It was pointed out by himself as
the place of his nativity, at a public meeting which he attended late in life. He resided
at a later period, with his own wife and family, in his father’s house, on one of the floors of
WLeZZan’s Land, a lofty tenement which forms the last in the range of houses on the north
side of the street, where it joins the Grassmarket. This building acquires peculiar interest
from the associations we now connect with another of its tenants. Towards the middle
of last century, the first floor was occupied by a respectable clergyman’s widow, Mrs Syme,
a sister of Principal Robertson, who maintained an establishment there for the accommodation
of a few boarders in this genteel and eZigi6Ze quarter of the town. At that time
Henry Brougham, Esq. of Brougham Hall, arrived in Edinburgh, and took up his quarters
under Mrs Syme’s roof. He had wandered northward to seek, in change of scene,
some alIeviation of grief consequent on the death of his betrothed mistress. It chanced,
Nisbet’s Heraldry, voL i. p. 335. The shield, however, so far differs from Nisbet’s description, that it bears a
creaccnt betwtcn tuw stara in chief.

Book 10 p. 357
(Score 0.58)

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 41 I
the entrance to the churchyard, at the foot of the Candlemaker Row, the following moral
distich was originally inscribed :-
Remember, Man, as thou goes by,
AE thou art now, 80 once was I ;
As I am now, 80 shalt thou be ;
Remember, Man, that thou must die.’
The principal gateway, opposite the east end of the church, is a work of more recent
construction, and appears, from the records of Monteith, to have involved the destruction
of the monument of no less illustrious a citizen than Alexander Miller, master tailor to
King James VI., who died in the year 1616. The Old Greyfriars’ Church, as it was styled,
was suddenly destroyed by a fire which broke out on the morning of Sunday the 19th of
January 1845, and presented to the astonished parishioners a blazing mass of ruins as they
assembled for the services of the day. It bore on the north-east pillar the date 1613, and
on a panel surmounting the east gable that of 1614, underneath the city arms. It was a
clumsy, inconvenient, and ungainly edifice, with few historical associations and no architectural
beauties to excite any regret at its removaL It is very different, however,
with the surrounding churchyard, which it disfigured with. its lumpish deformity. Its
monuments and other memorials of the illustrious dead who repose there form an object
of attraction no less for their interesting associations than their picturesque beauty ; while
it is memorable in Scottish history as the scene of the signing of the Covenant by the
enthusiastic leaguers of 1638, and the place of captivity, under circumstances of peculiar
cruelty, of the insurgent Covenanters taken in arms at Bothwell Brig. Like other great
cemeteries it forms the peaceful resting-place of rival statesmen and politicians, and of many
strangely diverse in life and fortune. Here mingle the ashes of George Heriot, the father
of the royal goldsmith ; George Buchanan, Alexander Henderson, Sir George Mackenzie,
Sir James Stewart, Principal Carstairs, Sir John de Medina, the painter; Allan Ramsay,
Colin Maclaurin, Thomas Ruddiman, and many others distinguished in their age for rank
or genius.
The Carmelites, or Whitefriars, though introduced into Scotland in the thirteenth
century, did not acquire an establishment in Edinburgh till 1518, when the Provost and
Bailies, conveyed, by charter dated the 13th April, “ to Jo. Malcolme, provincial of the
Carmelites, and his mcceseors, y’ lands of Green-side, with the chapel1 or kirk of the Holy
Cross y’of.” From this we learn that a chapel existed there in ancient times, of which no
other record has been preserved, and adjoining it was a cross called the Rood of Greenside.
It was the scene of martyrdom of David Stratoun and Norman Gourlay, a priest and layman,
who were tried at Holyrood House, in the presence of James V. ; and on the 27th of
August 1534, were led ‘‘ to a place besydis the Roode of Grepsyd, and thair thei two war
boyth hanged and brunt, according to the mercy of the Papisticall Kirk.”’ The tradition
has already been referred to that assigns the same locality for the burning of Major Weir.
On the suppression of the order of Carmelites at the Reformation, John Robertson, a
benevolent merchant, founded on the site of their convent an hospital for lepers, “pursuant
Monteith’s Theatrum Mortalium, p. 1. The last word is evidently intended to be pronounced in the old broad
Scottish fashion, &e. ’ Inventar of Pious Donations. Knox’s Hist., Wodrow Soc., uol i. p. 60.

Book 10 p. 450
(Score 0.58)

152 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
. -
Regent’s time, or almost immediately afterwards, a distinct mansion, occupied by Edward
Hope, son of John de Hope,-the ancestor of the celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, and of
the Earls of Hopetom,-who came from France in 1537, in the retinue of Magdalen, Queen
of James V. The earliest title-deeds are wanting, which would fix the date of its acquirement
by Edward Hope, and determine the question as to whether he succeeded the Queen
in its occupancy, or was its first possessor.
Edward Hope was one of the most considerable inhabitants of Edinburgh in the reign
of Queen Nary, and the old mansion, such as we have described it, retained abundant
evidence of the adornments of a wealthy citizen’s dwelling. He appears to have been a
great promoter of the Reformation, and was accordingly chosen, in 1560, as one of the
Commissioners for the Metropolis to the first General Assembly ; and again we find him,
in the following year, incurring Queen Mary’s indignation, as one of the magistrates of
Edinburgh most zealous in enforcing I‘ the statuts of the toun ” against any ‘‘ massemoonger,
or obstinat papist, that corrupted the people, suche as preests, friers, and others
of that sort, that sould be found within the toun.” The Queen caused the provost, Archibald
Douglas of Kilspindie, along with Edward Hope and Adam Fullerton, 1‘ to be charged
to waird in the Castell, and commanded a new electioun to be made of proveist and
baillaes ; ’’ but after a time her wrath was appeased, and civic matters left to take their
wonted course.’ Within this house, in all probability, the Earls of Murray, Morton, and
Glencairn, John Knox, Erskine of Dun, with Lords Boyd, Lindsay, and all the leading men
of the reforming party, have often assembled and matured plans whose final accomplishment
led to results of such vast importance to the nation. The circumstances of that
period may also suggest the probable use of the secret chamber we have described, which
was discovered at the demolition of the building.
The close continues to bear the name of Edward Hope’s through all the title-deeds
down to a very recent period; and in 1622 it appears by these documents to have been
in the possession of Henry Hope, grandson of the above, and younger brother of Sir
Thomas, from whom, also, there is a disposition of a later date, entitled, “ by Sir Thomas
Hope of Craighall, Knight Baronet, his Majesty’s Advocate,” resigning all right or claim
to the property, in favour of his niece, Christian Hope. This appears to have been a
daughter of his brother Henry, who was little less celebrated in his own time than the
eminent lawyer, as the progenitor of the Hopes of Amsterdam, “the merchant-princes” of
their day, surpassing in wealth and commercial enterprise any private mercantile company
ever known. From Henry Hope it passed by marriage and succession through several
hands, until in 1691 it lapsed into the poasession of James, Viscount Stair, in lieu of a
bond for the sum of “three thousand guilders, according to the just value of Dutch
money,” probably some transaction with the great house at Amsterdam. The property
was transferred by him to hia son, Sir David Dalrymple, who in 1702 sold it to
John Wightman of Msuldsie, afterwards Lord Provost of Edinburgh: and the founder
*
1 Calderwood‘s Hiat., Wod. Soc., vol. ii. p. 44.
a It may not be out of place here to correct an error of Maitland. He remarks (Hist. of Edinburgh, p. 227) that
“the title of Lord, annexed to the Provost, being by prescription, and not by grant, every Provost in the kingdom has
an great a right to that epithet ae the Provost of Edinburgh hath.” It appears, however, from Fountainhall’s Decisions
(Folio, YOL i p. 400), that “ The town, in a competition betwixt them and the College of Justice, got a letter from the
King [Charles 11.1 in 1667, by Sir Andrew Ramsay, then their Provost procurement, determining their Provost should
* Ibid, vol. ii. p. 155. Ante, p. 70.

Book 10 p. 164
(Score 0.57)

392 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
The change8 effected .on the north transept, though equally radical with any we have
described on other parts of the church, were accompanied with some beneficial effects, calculated
to atone in a slight degree for the destruction of its ancient features. This transept
remained in ita original state, extending no further than the outer wall of the north aisle
of the choir. Beyond this, and within the line of the centre aisle of the transept, was the
belfry turret, with its curious and picturesque stone roof, which is accurately represented
in the view from the north-west. This turret was entirely removed and built anew, with
a crocketed spire in lieu of the more unique though rude form of the old roof, in a
position to the west of the transept, so as so admit of the latter being extended aa far north
as the outer wall of the old building. This was accomplished by the demolition of an aisle
which had been added to the old transept, apparently about the end of the fifteenth century,
and which, though equally richly finished with groined roof and sculptured bosses
and corbels, wa.s used till very shortly before its demolition as the offices of the town-clerk.
The appropriation, indeed, of the centre of the ancient Collegiate Church, was perhaps an
act of as disgraceful and systematic desecration as ever was perpetrated by an irreverent
age. The space within the great pillars of the centre tower was walled off and converted
into a stronghold for the incarceration of petty offenders, and the whole police establishment
found accommodation within the north transept and the adjoining chapels. The
reverent spirit of earlier times, which led to the adornment of every lintel and fapade with
its appropriate legend or Scripture text, had long disappeared ere this act of sacrilege was
so deliberately accomplished, otherwise a peculiarly suitable motto might have been found
for St Giles’s north doorway in the text : ‘( My house shall 6e called the louse of prayer,
but ye lave made it a den of thieves ! ”
In the subdivision of the ancient church for Protestant worship, the south aisle of
the nave, with three of the five chapels built in 1389, were converted into what was called
the Tolbooth Eirk. Frequent allusions, however, by early writers, in addition to the
positive evidence occasionally furnished by the records of the courts, tend to show that
both before the erection of the new Tolbooth, and after it was found inadequate for the
purposes of a legislative hall and court house, the entire nave of St Giles’s Church was
used for the sittings of both assemblies, and is frequently to be understood as the place
referred to under the name of the Tolbooth. In the trial, for example, of ‘‘ Mr Adame
Colquhoune, convicted of art and part of the treasonable slaughter and murder of umqIe
Robert Rankin,” the sederunt of the court is dated March 16, 1561-2, “ In Insula, vocat.
Halie-blude Iill, loco pretorii de Edr.,” and nearly a century later, Nicoll, the old diarist,
in the midst of some very grave reflections on the instadilitie of man, and the misereis
of kirk and stait in his time, describes the frequent changes made on “the Eirk callit
the Tolbuith Kirk, quhilk we8 so callit becaus it we8 laitlie the pairt and place quhair the
criminal1 court did sitt, and quhair the gallous and the mayden did ly of old ; lykewyse,
this K&k alterit and chayngit, and of this one Kirk thai did mak two.’’4 During the
interval between the downfall of Episcopacy in 1639, and its restoration in 1661, a constant
succession of changes seem to have been made on the internal subdivision of St Giles’s
Church, though without in any way permanently affecting the original features of the
building.
Pitcairn’s Crim. Trials, Supplement, p. 419. ’ Nicoll’s Diary, p. 170.

Book 10 p. 430
(Score 0.57)

408 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
reflections on “ this worthy and memorable motto! ” The visit of Taylor to the Palace
and Chapel was almost immediately after that of James VI. to Scotland, so that he no
doubt saw them in all the splendour which had been prepared for the King’s reception.
The palace was probably abandoned to neglect and decay after the last visit of Charles I.
in 1641, otherwise it is probable that Cromwell would have taken up his abode there during
his residence in Edinburgh. The improvements, however, effected by Charles, both on the
Palace and Abbey Church, appear to have been considerable. One beautiful memorial of
his residence there is the elaborately carved sun-dial which still adorns the north garden of
the Palace, and is usually known as Queen Mary’s Dial, although the cipher of her grandson,
with those of his Queen and the Prince of Wales, are repeated on its most prominent
carvings. The Palace was converted into barracks by Cromwell soon after his arrival in
Edinburgh, and as Nicoll relates, ‘ I ane number of the Englisches futemen being ludgit
within the Abay of Haly Rud HOUSi,t fell out that upone an Weddinsday, being the
threttene day of November 1650, the hail1 royal1 pairt of that palice wes put in flame, and
brint to the ground on all the pairtes thairof.’’I The diarist, however, has afterwards
qualified this sweeping assertion by adding, “ except a lyttel ; ” and there is good reason
for believing that the oldest portion of the Palace, usually known as James the Fifth’s
Tower, entirely escaped the conflagration, as its furniture, if not so old as Queen Mary’R
time, certainly at least dates in the reign of Charles I., some of it being marked with the
cipher of that monarch and his Queen, Henrietta Maria. A fac-simile of a rare print, after
a drawing by Gordon of Rothiemay, in the first volume of the Bannatyne Miscellany,
preserves the only view of the Palace that has come down to us as it existed prior to this
conflagration. The main entrance appears to occupy nearly the same site as at present.
It. is flanked on either side by round embattled towers, or rather semicircular bow windows,
between which is a large panel, surmounting the grand gateway, and bearing the royal
arms of Scotland. A uniform range of building, pierced with large windows, extends on
either side, and is flanked on the north by the great tower which still remains, but finished
above the battlements asrepresented in the vignette on page 34. The empty panels also
which still remain in the front turrets appear to hare been filled with sculptured armorial
bearings. No corresponding tower existed at the south-west corner of the building until
its remodelling by Sir William Bruce.
The Palace was speedily rebuilt by order of the Protector, but his work came under
revision soon after the Restoration. The directions given by Charles 11. for its alteration
and completion enter into the minutest details, among which such commands as the following
were probably dictated with peculiar satisfaction ;-(< Wee doe hereby order you
to cause that parte thereof which was built by the usurpers, and doth darken the court,
to be taken down.”= The zeal with which both Charles 11. and James VIL devoted.
1 Nicoll’s Diary, p. 35.
a Royal warranta. Liber. Cart. p. cxxk The royal orders would appear to have been occasionally departed from,
e.g., the Ear1 of Lauderdale writes, by command of Charles II., in 1671 :-“His Maj“. likes the front very well as it is
Designed, provided the gate where the King’a coach is to come in be large enough, Aa also he likes the taking doune of
that narrow upper parte which was built in Cromwell’a time. Hee likes not the covering of all that betwixt the two
great toures with platfoipl at the second storie, but would have it heightened to a third storie, as all the inner court is,
and sklaited with skaily as the rest of the court is to be ; ” in all which respecta the original design has evidently been
carried out, notwithstanding his Majesty’s directions to the contrary.

Book 10 p. 447
(Score 0.57)

1 90 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Previous to the extension or rebuilding of the west portion of the Tolbooth, it had
furnished accommodation for the wealthiest traders of the city, and there also some of the
most imposing displays took place on Charles I. visiting his northern capital in 1633. ‘‘ Upon the west wall of the Tolbooth,” says an old writer,l r‘ where the Goldsmiths’ shops
do stand, there stood ane vast pageant, arched above, on ane large mab the pourtraits of
a hundred and nine kings of Scotland. In the cavity of the arch, Mercury was represented
bringing up Fergus the first King of Scotland in ane convenient habit, who delivered to
his Majesty a very grave speech, containing many precious advices to his royal successor;
” a representation, not altogether in caricature, of the drama often enacted on
the same spot, at a later period, when Jock Heigh,-the Edinburgh Jack Ketch for above
forty years,-played the part of Mercury, bringing up one in ane convenient habit, to hear
a very grave speech, preparatory to treatment not unlike that which the unfortunate
monarch received, in addition to the precious advices bestowed on him in 1633. The
goldsmiths’ ’ shops were latterly removed into the Parliament Close ; but George Heriot’s
booth existed at the west end of St Giles’s Church till the year 1809, when Beth’s
Wynd and the adjoining buildings were demolished, as already described. A narrow
passage led between the church and an ancient three-storied tenement adjoining the
New Tolbooth, or Laigh Council House, as it was latterly called, and the centre one of
the three booths into which it waa divided, measuring about seven feet square, was
pointed out by tradition as the workshop of the founder of Heriot’s Hospital, where both
King James and his Queen paid frequent visits to the royal goldsmith. On the demolition
of this ancient fabric, the tradition was completely confirmed by the discovery of
George Heriot’s name boldly carved on the stone lintel of the door. The forge and
bellows, as well as a stone crucible and lid, supposed to have belonged to its celebrated
possessor, were discovered in clearing away the ruins of the old building, and are now
carefully preserved in the Hospital Museum.
The associations connected with the ancient building we have described, are almost
entirely those relating to the occupants whom it held in durance in its latter capacity as
a prison. The eastern portion, indeed, had in all probability been the scene of stormy
debates in the earlier Scottish Parliaments, and of deeds even ruder than the words of the
turbulent barons. There also the College of Justice, founded by Jamea V. in 1532,
held its first sederunt ; the earliest statutes of the Court requiring that all the lordis sall
entre in the Tolbuth and counsal-houss at viij howris in the mornyng, dayly, and sall sit
quhill xi howris be strikin.” All these, however, had ceased to be thought of for centuries
previous to the demolition of the tall and gloomy prison ; though even in its degradation
it was connected with historical characters of no mean note, having been the final place of
captivity of the Marquises of Montrose and Argyll,’ and others of the later victims of
factious rivalry, who fell a sacrifke to the triumph of their opponents. The main floor of
the more ancient building, in its latter days, formed the common hall for all prisoners,
except those in irons, or incarcerated in the condemned cells. It had an old oak pulpit of
curious construction for the use of any one who took upon him the duties of prison chaplain,
and which tradition,-as usual with most old Scottish pulpits,-affirmed to have been
.
Pidc Canipbell’a Journey, vol. ii. p. 122. Biooll’s Diary, p. 334.

Book 10 p. 208
(Score 0.57)

236 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the 17th December’ 1596, already described, when the king was besieged in the Tolbooth
by the excited citizens, Andrew Hart is specially mentioned as one of the very foremost in
the rising that produced such terror and indignation in King James’s mind ; in so much
so, that he was soon after warded in the Castle of Edinburgh, at his Majesty’s instance, as
one of the chief authors of (‘ that seditious stirring up and moving of the treasonable
tumult and uproare that was in the burgh.”’ We can fancy the sturdy old printer sallying
out from the close, at the cry of “ Armour! armour ! ” hastily armed with his loug spear
and jack, and joining the excited burghers, that mustered from every booth and alley to
lay siege to the affrighted monarch in the Tolbooth, or to help ‘‘ the worthy Deacon Watt;”
in freeing him from his ignoble durance.
The house which stauds between the fore and back lands of the famed typographer, was
celebrated during the last century as one of the best frequented taverns in the neighbourhood
of the Cross, and a favourite resort of some of the most noted of the clubs, by means
of which the citizens of that period were wont to seek relaxation and amusement. Foremost
among these WLS the Cape Club, celebrated in Ferguson’s poem of Auld Reekie.
The scene of meeting for a considerable period, where Cape Hall was nightly inaugurated,
was in James Mann’s, at the Isle of Man Arms, Craig’s Close. There a perpetual High
Jinks was kept up, by each member receiving on his election a peculiar name and character
which he was ever afterwards expected to maintain. This feature, however, was by
no means confined to the Cape Club, but formed one of the peculiarities of nearly all the
convivial meetings of the capital, so that a slight sketch of ‘(the Knights of the Cape ”
will suffice for a good sample of these old Edinburgh social unions. The Club appears
from its minutes to have been duly constituted, and the mode of procedure finally fixed, in
the year 1764 ; it had however existed long before, and the name and peculiar forms which
it then adopted were derived from the characters previously assumed by its leading
members.2 Its peculiar insignia were-lst, a cape, or crown, which was worn by the
Sovereign of the Cape on state occasions, and which, in the palmy days of the Club, ita
enthusiastic devotees adorned with gold and jewels; and, 2d, two maces in the form of
huge steel pokers, which formed the sword and sceptre of his Majesty in Cape Hall,
These, with other relics of this jovial fraternity, are now appropriately hung in the lobby
of the Societies of Antiquaries.
The first Sovereign of the order after its final constitution was Thomas Lancashire, the
Once celebrated comedian, on whom Ferguson wrote the following epitaph :-
Alae ! poor Tom, how oft, with merry heart,
Have we beheld thee play the sexton’s part I
Each merry heart muat now be grieved to Bee
The sexton’s dreary part performed on thee.
The comedian rejoiced in the title of Sir Cape, and in right of his sovereignty gave name
to the Club, while the title of Sir Poker, which pertained to its oldest member, James
Aitken, suggested the insignia of royalty. Tom Lancashire was succeeded on the throne
by David Herd, the welI-known editor of what Scott calls the first classic edition of Scottish
songs, whose knightly soubriquet was Sir Scrape. His secretary was Jacob More, the
, ’ Calderwood’e Hit. vol. v. pp. 512, 520, 535. * A different account of the Knights of the Cape has been published, but the general accuracy of the text may be
relied upon, being derived from the minute books of the Club.

Book 10 p. 257
(Score 0.57)

I so MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
relics that abounded in the latter fabric, the student of medizval architecture will pronounce,
no less confidently, that here there. once stood a Gothic structure of an ecclesiastical
character, and finished in a highly ornate style, than does the geologist, from the
fossil vertebra or pelvis, construct again the mastodon or plesiosamus of pre-adamite eras.
In the three fragments of carved work we have engraved,’ we have the exterior dripstone
and corbel of a pointed window; a highly decorated portion of a deeply splayed string
course (not improbably from an oriel window), and a corbel, from which we may infer the
ribs of a groined roof to have sprung,-hand specimens, as it were, of both the exterior
and interior of the fabric.
The building was, in all likelihood, the town mansion of the abbot, with a beautiful
chapel attached to it, and may serve to remind us how little idea we can form of the
beauty of the Scottish capital before the Reformation, adorned as it was with so many
churches and conventual buildings, the very sites of which are.now unknown. Over the
doorway of an ancient stone land in Gosford’s Close, which stood immediately to the east
of the Old Bank Close, there existed a curious sculptured lintel, containing a representation
of the Crucifixion, and which may, with every probability, be regarded as another relic of
the abbot’p house that once occupied its site. We furnish a view of this building as it
latterly existed, with numerous additions of various dates and styles that tended to
increase the picturesqueness of the whole. In the underground story of the house there was
a strongly arched cellar, in the centre of the floor of which a concealed trap-door was
discovered, admitting to another still lower down, cut out of the solid rock. Some vague
traditions were reported as to its having been a place of torture ; there is much greater.
probability that it was constructed by smugglers as a convenient receptacle for concealing
their goods, at a period when the North Loch afforded ready facilities for getting wines
and other forbidden articles within the gates, and enabled ‘<an honest man to fetch 8ae
muckle as a bit anker 0’ brandy frae Leith to the Lawnmarket, without being rubbit 0’
the very gudes he ’d bought and paid for by an host of idle English gaugers I ” ’
Directly over the trap-door an iron ring was fastened into the arch of the upper cellar,
apparently for the purpose of letting down weighty articles into the vault below. This
vault, we presume, still remains beneath the centre of the roadway leading to George IV.
Bridge. On the first floor of this mansion, as Chambers informs us, the last Earl of
Loudon, together with his daughter, the present Marchioness of Hastings, used to lodge
during their occasional visits to town. In 1794 the Hall and Museum of the Society of
Antiquaries3 were at the bohtom of this close, where the accommodations were both ample
and elegant, but in an alley so narrow, that it was soon after deserted, owing to the
impossibility of reaching the entrance in a sedan chair,-the usual fashionable conveyance
at that period. This did not, however, prevent their being succeeded by Dr Farquharson,
an eminent physician; indeed, the whole neighbokhood was the favourite resort of the
most fashionable and distinpished among the resident citizens, and a perfect nest of
advocates and lords of session. On the third floor of the front land, Lady Catheriue and
Lady Ann Hay, daughters of the Marquis of Tweeddale, resided; and so late as 1773 it
was possessed, if not occupied, by their brother, George, Marquis of Tweeddale.
.
Vide, pp. 172, 176, 179. 2 Heart of Midlothian, Pltc&mas Eopitur.
Kincaid‘s Traveller’s Companion, 1794.

Book 10 p. 196
(Score 0.57)

240 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
charge of half-a-crown I It finally cost its rash, and, as it appears, vindictive owner, a
penalty of 10,000 merks, the half only of the fine at first awarded against him.
A confused tradition appears to have existed at an early period as to Queen Mary’s
having occupied a part of the ancient building within the close at some time or other.
The Crochallan Eencibles were wont to date their printed circulars from “ Queen Mary’8
council-room,” and the great hall in which they met, and in which also the’ Society of
Antiquaries long held their anniversary meetings, bore the name of the CROWN. In a
history of the close, privately printed by Mr Smellie in 1843, it is stated as a remarkable
fact, that there existed about forty years since a niche in the wall of this room, where
Mary’s crown was said to be deposited when she sat in council! We shrewdly suspect
the whole tradition had its origin in the Crochallan Mint. The building has still the
appearance of having been a mansion of note in earlier times; in addition to the inscriptions
already mentioned, which are beautifully cut in ornamental lettering, it is decorated with
such irregular bold string-courses as form the chief ornaments of the most ancient private
buildings in Edinburgh, and four large and neatly moulded windows are placed so close
together, two on each floor, as to convey the idea of one lofty window divided by a narrow
mullion and transom. In the interior, also, decayed pannelling, and mutilated, yet handsome
oak balustrades still attest the former dignity of the place.
Over a doorway still lower down the close, where the Bill Chamber was during the
greater part of last century, the initials and date W-R C-M - 1616, are cut in large
letters ; and the house immediately below contains the only instance we have met with in
Edinburgh, of a carved inscription over an interior doorway. It occurs above the entrance
to a small inner room in the sunk floor of the house; but the wall rises above the roof,
and is finished with crow-steps, so that the portion now enclosing it appears to be a later
addition. The following is the concise motto, which seems to suggest that its original
purpose was more dignified than its straitened dimensions might seem to imply :-
W. F. ANGVSTA. AD. VSVM. AVGSVTA. B. G.
The initials are those of William Fowler, merchant burgess ; the father, in all probability,
of William Fowler, the poet, who was secretary to Queen Anne of Denmark, and whose
sister was the mother of Drummond of Hawthornden? At a later period this mansion
formed the residence of Sir George Drummond, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in the years
1683 and 1684, and probably a descendant of the original owner, in whose time the lower
ground appears to have been all laid out in gardens, sloping down to the North Loch, and
adorned with a summer-house, afterwards possessed by Lord Forglen. We are disposed to
smile at the aristocratic retreats of titled and civic dignitaries down these old closes, now
altogether abandoned to squalid poverty ; yet many of them, like this, were undoubtedly
provided with beautiful gardens and pleasure grounds, the charms of which would be
enhanced by their nnpromising and straitened access.
There is reason for believing that the elder William Fowler, born in 1531, was also a poet (vide Archaeol. Scat.
vol. iv. p. 71), so that the burgeae referred to in the text is probably the author of “ The Triumph of Death,” and other
poem4 referred to among the original Drummond MSS. in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in a
fragment dated, “ From my house in Erlr. the 9. of Jan. 1590.” The initials B. Q., which are, no doubt, those of his
wife, may yet ierve to identify him as the owper of the old tenement in Anchor Close.

Book 10 p. 261
(Score 0.57)

402 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
for the chaplain, and four poor brethren, to have their yearly food, and perpetual sustentation
within the said hospital ; and for buying of their habits every twa year once, I mortify
these annualrents under-written,” &c.’ After very minute directions for the appointment
of the chaplain and the management of the hospital, it is provided :-‘‘ And farder, the
said chaplane, every gear, once in the year, for the said hlichael and Jonet, sal1 make suffrages,
which is, ‘I am pleased,’ and ‘ direct me, 0 Lord; ’ with ane Mess of rest, ‘being
naked, he clothed me ; ’ with two wax candles burning on the altar. To the whilk suffrages
and mess, he shall cause ring the chapel bell the space of ane quarter of an hour, and that
all the foresaid poor, and others that shall be thereintill, shall be present at the foresaid
mess with their habites, requesting all these that shall come in to hear the said mess to
pray for the said souls. And farder, every day of the blessed Mary Magdallen, patron of
the foresaid hospital, and the day of the indulgence of the said hosjital, and every other
day of the yeas, the said chaplaine shall offer up all the oblations, and for every oblation
. shall have twa wax candles upon the altar, and twa at the foot of the image of the patron
in twa brazen candlesticks, and twa wax torches on the feast of the nativity of our Saviour,
Pasch, and Whitsunday, of the dap of Mary Magdallen, and of the days of the indulgences
granted to the said hospital, and doubleing at other great feasts, with twa wax candles
alenerly.” Such were the provisions for the due observance of all the formulary of the services
of the Church, which the chaplain on his induction was bound ‘‘ to give his great oath,
by touching the sacred Evangile,” that he would neither infringe nor suffer to be altered.
It is probable that the chapel was hardly built ere the whole schefke of its founders was
totally overthrown. Certain evidence at least tends to show, that neither the steeple nor
its fine-toned bell ever fulfilled the will of the’foundress, by summoning the bedemen and
all who chose to muster at the call to pray for the repose of the founders’ souls. The
chapel is adorned at its east end with the royal arms, the city arms, and the armorial bearing
of twenty-two corporations, who unite to form the ancient body known as the United
Incorporation of Hammermen, the guardians of the sacred banner, the Blue Blanket, on
the unfurling of which every liege burgher of the kingdom is bound to answer the summons.
The north and east walls of the chapel are ’almost entirely occupied with a series of tablets
recording the gifts of numerous benefactors. The earliest of these is probably a daughter
of the founder, “ Isobel Macquhane, spouse to Gilbt Lkuder, merchant burgess of Edin’,
who bigged ye crose house, and mortified &50 yearly out of the Cousland, anno 1555.”
Another records that, “John Spens, burgess of Edinburgh, bestowed 100 lods of
Wesland lime for building the stipel of this chapell, anno 1621.” Here, therefore, is the
date of erection of the steeple, which receives corroboration from its general features, with
the old-fashioned gargoils in the form of ornamental cannons, each with a bullet ready
to issue from its mouth. appears
to have been the subject of still further delay, as the bell bears this legend around it, iu
Roman characters:-SOLI D E 0 GLORIA * MICHAEL BURGERHUYB ME
FECIT, ANKO 1632; and in smaller characters, GOD BLIS THE EIAYMEBMEN OF UGDALENE
CHAPEL.” The bell is still rung according to the will of the foundress, however
. different be the objects answered by its warning note ; and it was further applied, soon
after its erection, to summon the inhabitants of the neighbouring district to the parish
.
The furnishing of the steeple with ‘‘ The Chapel Bell
l Hist. of the Blue Blanket, &e., by Alexander Pennecuick, p. 46-48.

Book 10 p. 441
(Score 0.57)

316 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
poem by John Bvrel, written on the occasion of Queen Anne’s arrival, and entitled,
“ The Description of the Qveenis Maiesties maist honourable entry into the tovn of
Edinbagh.” The history of the author is unknown, but we have found among the
title-deeds of part of the old property at the foot of Toddrick’s Wynd, a disposition of a
house by ‘‘ John Burrell, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his Majestie’s cunzie hous,”
dated 1628, and which, when t.aken in connection with the profuse and very circumstantial
minuteness with which the poet dwells on the jewellery that was displayed on
that occasion, seems to afford good presumptive evidence of this being the same person.
After devoting nine stanzas to such professional details, he sums up the inventory by.
declaring :-
All precius stains micht thair be eetie,
Quhilk in the world had ony name,
Save that quhilk Cleopatra Queene
Did swallow ore into hir wame !
The poet proceeds thereafter to describe, with equal zest, the golden chains and other
ornaments made of the precious metals, and concludes with a patriotic supplication to
heaven on behalf of the good town. The goldsmiths connected with the Mint would appear
to have possessed lodgings either within the building or in its immediate neighbourhood ;
and it was no doubt owing to George Heriot’s professional avocations that he obtained the
great tenement forming the north side of the Mint Court, which was afterwards devised
by him as the most suitable place for his benevolent foundation.’ George Heriot’s large
messuage or tenement was found by his executors to be waste and ruinous, and altogether
unsuited for the purposes of his foundation. The buildings that now occupy its site appear
to have been erected exactly a century later than the older portion of the Mint Close. An
ornamental sun-dial, which decorates the eastern wing, bears the date 1674; and over
the main doorway on the first floor, which is approached, in the old fashion, by an outside
stair, the letters C. R. 11. are sculptured, surmounting a crown, with the inscription and
date, GOD SAVE THE KING, 1675. Here was the lodging of the celebrated Earl of Argyle
during his attendance on the ScottiRh Parliament, after Charles 11. had unexpectedly
restored him to his father’s title, as appears from a curious case reported in Fountainhall’s
Decisions.’ The date is November 22, 1681, only a few days after the Earl had been
committed a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle, from whence he effected his escape under the
disguise of a page, holding up the train of Lady Sophia Lindsay, his step-daughter.
Towards the close of last century, the mansion on the north side of the court was the
residence of the eminent physician, Dr Cullen, while Lord Hailes occupied the more ancient
lodging on the south, before he removed to the modern dwelling erected for himself in
New Street. The west side of the court was at one time the abode of Lord Belhaven;
and Lord Haining, the Countess of Stair, Douglas of Cavers, and other distinguished
tenants, occupied this fashionable quarter of the town during the last century.
In Heriota will the property is described a8 “ theis my great tenementa of landis, &c., lyand ou the south side of
the King his Highe Streit thairoff, betwixt the Cloise or Wenall callit Gray’s Clois or Coyne HOUBC loise, at the east,
the Wgnd or Wenell callit Todrig’a Wynd at the west, and the said Coyne How, CE& at the south.”-Dr Steven’s Life
of George Heriot, App. p. 27.
Fountainhall’s Decisions, vol. i. p. 163.

Book 10 p. 344
(Score 0.57)

I 70 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Lawson, the colleague and successor of Knox, the true founders’ of ‘‘ King James’s College;”
that royal pedant having in reality bestowed little more on the University than a
charter and his name ! In 1580, Clement Little, advocate and commissary of Edinburgh,
dedicated all his books, consisting of three hundred volumes, “ for the beginning of ane
library,”-the undoubted foundation of that magnificent collection which the College now
possesses. This generous gift waa bestowed during his lifetime, and the volumes “ were
put up in Mr James Lawson’s galery, an part of the lodgings appoynted for the ministry,
situated where the Parliament House is now found.”
James Lawson is well known for his uncompromising resistance to the schemes of
King James for “ re-establishing the state of bishops, flatt contrare the determination of
the kirk.” On the assembly of the Estates for this purpose in 1584, the King sent word
to the Magistrates to seize and imprison any of the ministers who should venture to speak
against the proceedings of the Parliament. James Lawson, however, with his colleague
Walter Balcanquall, nothing daunted, not only preached against these proceedings from
the pulpit, but the latter appeared, along with Mr Robert Pont, at the Cross, on the
heralds proceeding to proclaim the act, and publicly protested, and took instruments
in the name of the Kirk of Scotland against them, in so far as they prejudiced the
former liberties of the kirk. ‘‘ Arran made manie vowes that if Mr James Lawson’s
head were as great as an hay stacke, he would cause it leap from his hawse I ” (I Both he
and his colleague were accordingly compelled to make a precipitate flight to England,
where James Lawson died the same year ; Walter Balcanquall, however, returned afterwards
to his charge. Two years later, in 1586, we find him preaching before the King,
“ in the Great Kirk of Edinburgh,” when “ the King, after sermoun, rebooked Mr Walter
yubliclie from his seat in the loaft, and said he would prove there sould be bishops I ”
&c. The royal arguments were not altogether thrown away, as it would seem; the
young Walter, son of the good man,-having probably listened to this rebuke from ‘‘ the
minister’s pew,”-afterwards became the well known Dr Balcanquall, Dean of Durham
and Rochester, ‘‘ special favorite to King James VI. and King Charles I. ; ” to whom his
relative, George Heriot, committed the entire regulation and oversight of his magnificent
foundation.‘
On the 28th of April
1572, proclamation was made at the Cross, ‘‘ that Mr Robert Maitland, Dene of Aberdene,
ane of the senatouris of the College of Justice, and Mr Clement Littill and Alexander
Sim, advocattis, commissaris of Edinburgh, wes present in Leith, partakaris with the
King, and rebellis to the Quene and her lieutennentis, thairfoir dischargit thame of thair
offices, in that pairt for euver.” The proclamation would appear, however, to have led
to no consequences of very permanent import.
Clement Little also bore his share in the troubles of the period.
Bower’# Hist. of the University, vol. i. p. 69. Craufurd‘a Hiat., p. 20. a Caldemood, vol. iv. p. 65. ‘ The following items from the will of Mr James Lawson, including a bequest to hie colleague, are curious :-
U Imprimis, Yee sall deliver to the Frenche Kirk at London, three angells, to be diatributed to their poore. Item, To
Yaistresse Vannoll, who keeped me in my sicknesse, an angell. Item, I will that my loving brother, Mr James Carmichaell,
sall bow a rose noble inatantlie, and deliver it to my deere brother and loving friend Mr Walter Balcalquall,
who hath beene so carefull of me at all times, and cheefelie in time of this my present sicknesse ; to remaine with
him aa a perpetuall tokin and remembrance of my special1 love and thankfull heart toward8 him.”-Calderwood’s Hist.,
vol. iv. p. 206. ’ Dr Steven’s Memoir of G. Heriot, Appendix, p. 148. Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 295,

Book 10 p. 185
(Score 0.57)

344 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
over its entrance the common inscription, BLISSET . BE . GOD . FOR . AL. HIS , GIFTIS
with the initials, I. L., G. K. ; and the windows above retain the old oaken mullions
and transoms richly carved in a variety of patterns. Another antique tenement to the
east of this is finished with a bartizan and ornamental parapet, on the centre of which the
badge of its ancient subjection to the Templar Knights appears like a dagger struck into
the roof, and left to serve as a memento of strife in more peaceful times. The assignment
of this locality as the appointed place for a weekly market, dates from the year 1477, when
James 111. appointed “ all ald graith and ger to be usit and sald in the Friday Market
before the Gray-Frers ; alsa all qwyck bestis, ky, oxon, not to be brought in the town, bot
under the wall fer west at oure stable.” ’
The town wall extended on the west from the Castle across the area of the market on
the site uow occupied by the Corn Exchange ; and here stood the ancient gate of the city
from whence the neighbouring suburb derived its name of the West Port. Like the
other gates of the city, it was usually garnished with a few heads and dismembered
limbs of malefactors and political offenders ; and so essential were these appendages
considered that Fountainhall, after recording the execution of three Covenanters in the
Grassmarket in the year 1681, adds :-‘‘ About eight dayes before this they had stollen
away two of the heads which stood on the West Port of Edinburgh ; the criminal lords,.
to supply that want, ordained two of thir criminall’s heads to be struck off, and to be
sexed in ther place.”3 Here also was the scene of some of those quaint ceremonials
wherewith our ancestors were wont to testify their loyal gratulations at the Sovereign’s
approach. James VI. was appropriately received at the gate by Kiug Solomon on his
first entry to the capital in 1579; and here, in 1590, his Queen, Anne of Denmark, was
welcomed in a Latin oration, and received the silver keys of the city in the accustomed
manner, from the hands of an angel who descended in a globe from the battlements of
the Port.* King Jamea was again welcomed in still more costly fashion at the same spot
on his return to his native city in 1617; and the Nymph Edina waited there for his son,
Charles I., in 1633, attended by beautiful damsels, and, with a brief congratulatory oration,
presented the keys, leaving, however, the burden of the welcome to the Lady Caledonia,
who lay in wait for him at the corner of the Bow, and in ‘( a copious speech,” prepared by
Drummond of Hamthornden in his most bombastic vein, congratulated his Majesty on his
safe arrival.
The most interesting features of the burgh of Western Portsburgh have already been
described in a previous chapter.6 Many of the old buildings of its main street have been
replaced of late years by the plain unpretending erections of modern times. It still, however,
has at least one venerable edifice of a picturesque character, erected in the reign of
Queen Mary by John Lowrie,‘ a substantial burgher, and, as it would seem, a zealous
adherent of the ancient faith in those ticklish times. So, at least, we infer from the sculptured
lintel of its ancient doorway, which bears, in large characters, this abbreviation of the
common motto,-SOLI DE0 * H - G * with the date 1565; and in the centre, between
-
1 The mme inscription occura with the date 1637, over a neighbouring tenement at the foot of the Castle Wynd. ’ Charter of James 111. ; Maitland, pp. 8, 9.
‘ AFonuten,t apipn.h a8l5l-’a8 7H. istorical Observes, p. 30. Ante, pp. 135-137. 6 Traditions, vol. i. p. 304.

Book 10 p. 376
(Score 0.57)

342 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Such are a few of the great names associated with the ancient thoroughfare which we have
seen so recklessly destroyed, and which, until its sudden doom was pronounced, seemed
like a hale and vigorous octogenarian, that had defied the tooth of time while all around
was being transmuted by his touch.
On the lowest part of the declivity of the Bow, a handsome, though somewhat heavy
conduit, erected by Robert Mane in 1681, bears the name of the Bow-foot Well.
Directly facing this, at the south-west angle of the Grassmarket, there stood of old the
Monastery of the Franciscans or Greyfriars, founded by James I., for the encouragement
of learning. In obedience to an application from that monarch, the Vicar-General of the
Order at Cologne sent over to Scotland some of the brethren, under the guidance of
Cornelius of Zurich, a scholar of great reputation ; but such was the magnzcence of the
monastic buildings prepared for them that it required the persuasive influence of the
Archbishop of St Andrew’s to induce Cornelius to accept the office of Prior. That the
monastery was a sumptuous foundation, according to the times, is proved by its being
assigned for the temporary abode of the Princess, Mary of Guelders, who immediately after
her arrival at Leith, in June 1449, proceeded on horseback, behind the Count de Vere,
to her lodging in the Convent of the Greyfriars in Edinburgh, and there she was visited by
her royal lover, James II., on the following day.’ A few years later it afforded an asylum
to Henry VI. of England, when he fled to Scotland, accompanied by his heroic Queen,
Margaret, and their son, Prince Edward, after the fatal battle of Towton. That a church
would form a prominent feature of this royal foundation can hardly be doubted, and we
are inclined to infer that the existence both of it, and of a churchyard attached to it, long
before Queen Mary’s grant of the gardens of the monastery for the latter purpose, is
implied in such allusions as the following in the Diurnal of Occurrents, July 7, 1571.
(‘ The hail1 merchandis, craftismen, and personis remanand within Edinburgh, maid thair
moustaris in the Gray Frear Kirk yaird; ” and, again, where Birrel in his Diary, April
26, 1598, refers to the (( work at the Gray Friar Kirke,” although the date of erection
of the more modern church is only 1613. The exact site of these monastic buildings is
proved from the titles of the two large stone tenements which present their picturesque
and antique gables to the street, immediately to the west of the entrance from the Cowgate.
The western tenement is described as (( lying within the burgh of Edinburgh, at
the place called the Grayfreres,” while the other is styled that Temple tenement of land,
lying at the head of the Cowgate, near the Cunzie nook, beside the Minor, or Greyfriars,
on the east, and the common King’s High Street, on the north parts.” Beyond this, in
the Candlemaker Row, a curious little timber-fronted tenement appears, with its gable
surmounted with the antique crow-steps we have described on the Mint buildings and
elsewhere ; an open gallery projects in front, and rude little shot windows admit the light
to the decayed and gloomy chambers within. This, we presume, to be the Cunzie nook
referred to above, a place where the Mint had no doubt been established at 6ome early
period, possibly during some of the strange proceedings in the Regency of Mary of Guize,’
1 Caledonia, voL i p. 599.
“ Vpoun the 21 day of Julij [1559], Jamea, commendatare of Sanctandrois, and Alexander, erle of Glencarne,
with thair assistaria callit the congregatioun, past from Edinburgh to Halyrudhous, and thair tu& and iotromettit with
the irois of the cuneehous, and brocht the same to the said burgh of Edinburgh, to the priour of Sanctandrois lugeing,

Book 10 p. 374
(Score 0.57)

144 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
last recorded noble occupants are mentioned by Chambers as ((two ancient spinsters,
daughters of Lord GraF.” Over the main entrance of the next land, there is a defaced
inscription, with the date 1621. The house immediately below this is worthy of notice,
as a fine specimen of an old wooden fronted land, with the timbers of the gable elegantly
carved. During the early part of the last century, this formed the family mansion of
David, the third Earl of Leven, on whom the title devolved after being borne by two
successive Countesses in their own right. He was appointed Governor of Edinburgh Castle
by William and Mary, on its surrender by the Duke of Gordon in 1689 ; and shortly after
he headed his regiment, and distinguished himself at the battle of Killicrankie by running
away! To the east of this there formerly stood, at the head of Sempill’s Close, another
wooden fronted land, ornamented with a curious projecting porch at the entrance to the
close, and similar in general style to those taken down in 1845, of which we furnish an
engraving. It hung over the street, story above story, each projecting further the higher
it rose, as if in defiance of all laws of gravitation, nntil at length it furnished unquestionable
evidence of its great age by literally tumbling down about the ears of its poor inmates,
happily without any of them suffering very serious injury.
Immediately behind the site of this house stands a fine old mansion, at one time
belonging to the Sempill family, whose name the close still retains. It is a large and
substantial building, with a projecting turnpike stair, over the entrance to which is the
inscription, PRAISED BE THE LORD MY GOD, MY STRENGTH, AND MY
REDEEMER. ANN0 DOM. 1638, and a device like an anchor, entwined with the
letter S. Over another door, which gives entrance to the lower part of the same house,
there is the inscription, SEDES MANET OPTIMA CGLO, with the date and device
repeated. On the left of the first inscription there is a shield, bearing party per fesse, in
chief three crescents, a mullet in base. The earliest titles of the property are wanting, and
we have failed to discover to whom these arms belong. The house was purchased by
Hugh, twelfth Lord Sempill, in 1743, from Thomas Brown and Patrick Manderston, two
merchant burgesses, who severally possessed the upper and under portions of it. By him it
was converted into one large mansion, and apparently an additional story added to it, as
the outline of dormer windows may be traced, built into the west wall.
Lord Sempill, who had seen considerable military service, commanded the left wing of
the royal army at Culloden. He was succeeded by his son John, thirteenth Lord Sempill,
who, in 1755, sold the family mansion to Sir James Clerk of Pennycuik.
The ancient family of the Sempills is associated in various ways with Scottish song.
John, son of Robert, the third Lord, married Mary Livingston, one of ‘I the Queen’s
Maries.” Their son, Sir James, a man of eminent ability and great influence in his day,
was held in high estimation, and employed as ambassador to England in 1599 ; he was the
author of the clever satire, entitled “ The Packman’s Paternoster.” His aon followed in
his footsteps, and produced an “ Elegy on Habbie Simsou, the piper of Kilbarchan,” a
poem’ of great vigour and much local celebrity; while his grandson, Francis Sempill of
Beltrees, is the author both of the fine old song, “ She rose and let me in,” and of a curious
poem preserved in Watson’s collection, en titled ‘‘ Banishment of Poverty,” written about
Watson’8 Collection of Scots Poems, 1706, part i. p. 32.

Book 10 p. 155
(Score 0.57)

2 I4 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
it wad be a treat for her to see the inside like other strangers ! ” The renovators of
the old hall seem to have taken the &ft laird’s hint,-Justice has vanished from the
porch, to reappear in a most gaudy and tasteless fashion in the painted glass of thegreat
window.’ An incident, however, in connection with the fate of these ancient
warders of the Parliament porch, will best illustrate the taste of its beautifiers. Shortly
after the modernisation of the old Trent, the late Bailie Henderson observed a cart
conveying along the South Bridge a load of carved stones, among which the statues of
Justice and Mercy formed the most prominent objects. On inquiring at the carter as to
their destination, he learned that one of the Professors, who kept a Polar bear, had
applied to the Magistrates for stones to erect a bear’sdouse within the College quadrangle,
and he accordingly obtained a gift of these old rubbish for the purpose. The
Bailie gave the carter a fee to turn his horse’s head, and deposit them at his own villa near
Trinity, from whence he sent him back with his cart full of stoneg equally well adapted
for the Professor’s bear’s house. On the death of Bailie Henderson, the statues, along
with other ornamental portions of the old building, were procured by A. G. Ellis, Esq., in
whose posqession they now are.
The great hall measures 122 feet long, by 40 broad, and although its windows have
recently been altered, its curious, open-timbered oak roof remains, springing from a
series of grotesquely sculptured corbels of various designs. Long after it had been forsaken
by the Scottish Estates it retained the high throne at its southern end, where the
Sovereign, or his Commissioner, was wont to preside over their deliberations, and on
either side a range of benches for the nobles and barons, with lower ones in the centre
for the Commissioners of Burghs, the Scottish Estates having formed to the last only
one deliberative assembly. Without thia area a pulpit was erected for sermons to the
Parliament,-the same, we believe, that is now preserved in the Nuseum of the Society
of Antiquaries under the name of ‘(John Knox’s pulpit.” Along the walls there hung
a seriea of portraits of sovereigns and eminent statesmen, including paintings by
Sir Godfrey Kneller ; but some of these were the first of its decorations that disappeared,
having, it is said, been bestowed by Queen Anne on her Secretary, the Earl of Mar.:
Others, however, of these paintings adorned the walls, and are now, we believe,
among the miscellaneous collection at Holyrood House. Portions also of early decorations,
including fragments of ancient tapestry, were only removed in the latter end
of last century,-the same hangings, in all probability, as were put up during the Protectorate.
Nicoll tells us, ‘‘ The Preses and the remanent memberis of the great counsall
did caus alter much of the Parliament Hous, and did calm hing the Over hous with riche
hingeris, in September 1655, and removit these roumes thairintill appoyntit for
passing of the billis, and signeting of letters. So wes also the Lower HOUS, diligatlie
hung.’’ Nor should we omit to mention the Creed and Ten Commandmenta, once 80
In 1868, this window was replaced by a magnificent stained one, representing the inauguration of the College of
Justice, or the Supreme Court of Scotland, by King Jarnes V., in 1532.
The following are mentioned in Brown’s “ Stranger’s Guide,” for 1820 +“ The outer
hall is ornamented by full Iength portraita of King William III., Queen Mary, his consort, and Queen Anne, all done
by Si Godfrey Kneller ; also of George I., John Duke of Argyle, and Archibald Duke of Argyle, by Mr Aikman of
Carney.
’ Minor Antiquities, p. 187,
Nicoll’s Diary, p. 216.

Book 10 p. 233
(Score 0.57)

394 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the Church, were ordered to be converted into great guns for the use of the Town,” a
resolution so far departed from, that they were sold the following year for two hundred
and twenty pounds.’ Two of the remaining bells were recast at Campvere in Zealand, in
1621 ; ’ and the largest of these having cracked, it was again recast at London in 1846.
In 1585, St Giles’s Church obtained some share of its neighbours’ spoils, after having
been stripped of all its sacred furniture by the iconoclasts of the sixteenth century. That
year the Council purchased the clock belonging to the Abbey Church of Lindores in Fife,
and put it up in St Giles’s steeple,s previous to which time the citizens probably regulated
time chiefly by the bells for matins and vespers, and the other daily services of the Roman
Catholic Church.
Such is an attempt to trace, somewhat minutely, the gradual progress of St Giles’s,
from the small Parish Church of a rude hamlet, to the wealthy Collegiate Church, with its
forty altars, and a still greater number of chaplains and officiating priests ; and from
thence to its erection into a cathedral, with the many vicissitudes it has since undergone,
until its entire remodelling in 1829. The general’paucity of records enabling us to fix the
era of the later stages of. Gothic architecture in Scotland confers on such inquiries some
value, as they suffice to show that our northern architects adhered to the early Gothic
models longer than those of England, and executed works of great beauty and mechanical
skill down to the reign of James V., when political and religious dissensions abruptly
closed the history of ecclesiastical architecture in the kingdom. No record preserves to us
the names of those who designed the ancient Parish Church of St Giles, or the elaborate
additions that gradually extended it to its later intricate series of aisles, adorned with
every variety of detail. It will perhaps be as well, on the whole, that the name of
the modern architect who undertook the revision of their work should share the same
oblivion.
Very different, both in its history and architectural features, from the venerable though
greatly modernised Church of St Giles, is the beautiful edifice which stood at the foot of
Leith Wynd, retaining externally much the same appearance as it assumed nearly 400
years ago, at the behest of the widowed Queen of James II., whose ashes repose beneath
its floor. The Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity was founded in 1462, by the Queen
Dowager, Mary of Guelders, for a provost, eight prebends, and two singing boys; in
addition to which there was attached to the foundation an hospital for thirteen poor bedemen,
clad, like the modern pensioners of royalty, in blue gowns, who were bound to pray
for the soul of the royal foundress. In the new statutes, it is ordered that (‘ the saidis
Beidmen sal1 prepair and mak ilk ane of yame on yair awin expensis, ane Blew-gown, COBform
to thefirst Foundation.” The Queen Dowager died on the 16th November 1463,
and was buried ‘‘ in the Queen’s College besyde Edinburgh, quhilk sho herself foundit,
biggit, and dotit.” ‘ No monument remains to mark the place where the foundress is laid;
but her tomb is ienerdly understood to be in the vestry, on the north side of the church.
The death of the Queen so soon after the date of the charter of foundation, probably
prevented the completion of the church according to the original design. As it now stands
it consita of the choir and transepts, with the central tower partially built, and evidently
1 Maitland, p. 273. * Ibid, p. 62. 8 Burgh Register, YOL vii. p. 177. Maitland, p. 273. ‘ haley’s Hkt. p. 36.

Book 10 p. 432
(Score 0.57)

406 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
below, on the oak beam of the great doorway. Between the windows an ornamental tablet
of the same date, and decorated in the style of the period, bears the inscription :-BASILICAN
HANG, CARO~VS REX, OPTINVS INSTAVRAVIT, 1633; with the further addition in
English ;-HE SHALL BUILD A H O UF~OR MY NAME, AND I WILL ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF
HIS KINGDOM FOR EVER ; a motto of strange significance, when we consider the events that
so speedily befell its inscriber, and the ruin that overwhelmed the royal race of the Stuarts,
as with the inevitable stroke of destiny. The chief portions of the west front, however,
are in the most beautiful style of early English, which succeeded that of the Norman.
The details on the west front of the tower, in particular, with its elaborately sculptured
arcade, and boldly cut heads between the arches, and the singularly rich variety of ornament
in the great doorway, altogether unite to form a specimen of early ecclesiastical
architecture unsurpassed by any building of similar dimensions in the kingdom. A
beautiful doorway on the north side, in a much later style, is evidently the work of Abbot
Crawfurd, by whom the buttresses of the north side were rebuilt as they now remain, in
the ornate style of the fifteenth century. He succeeded to the abbacy in 1457, and
according to his namesake, in the “Lives of Officers of State,” he rebuilt the Abbey
Cburch from the ground. Abundant evidence still exists in the ruins that remain to
disprove so sweeping a slateruent, but the repetition of his arms on various parts of the
building prove the extensive alterations that were effected under his directions. He was
succeeded by Abbot Ballantyne, equally celebrated as a builder, who appears to have
completed the work which his predecessor had projected. Father Hay records, that “ he
brocht hame the gret bellis, the gret brasin fownt, twintie fowr
capis of gold and silk; he maid ane chalice of fine gold, ane
eucharist, with sindry chalicis of silver ; he theikkit the kirk with
leid; he biggit ane brig of Leith, ane othir ouir Clide; with
mony othir gude workis, qwilkis ware ouir prolixt to schaw.”
The brazen font here mentioned was carried off by Sir Richard
Lee, captain of the English pioneers in the Earl of Hertford’s
army, and presented to the Abbey Church of St Alban’s, with a
gasconading Latin inscription engraved on it, which may be thus
rendered:--“When Leith, a town of some celebrity in Scotland,
and Edinburgh, the chief city of that nation, were on fire,
Sir Richard Lee, Knight of the Garter, snatched me from the
flames, and brought me to England. In gratitude for such kindness,
I who heretofore served only to baptize the children of Kings, now offer the same
service to the meanest of the English nation. Farewell.
A.D. 1543-4. 36 Hen. VIII.” This font a second time experienced the fate of war,
during the commotions of Charles I.’s reign, when the ungrateful Southron, heedless of
its condescending professions, sold it as a lump of useless metal.’ Seacome, in his History
of the House of Stanley, refers to an old but somewhat confused tradition of an
ancestor of the family of Norris of Speke Hall, Lancashire, who commanded a company, as
would appear from other sources, at the Battle of Pinkie, “in token whereof, he brought
Lee, the conqueror, so wills it.
1 Liber Cartsrum, p. xxxii. ’ Camden’a Britannia, by Cfough, vol. i p. 338, where the original Latin inscription ia given.

Book 10 p. 445
(Score 0.57)

338 ‘MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
stentoriously laughing, and gaping with tahees of laughter. . . . Though sick with fear,
yet she went the next morning with her maid to view the noted places of her former night’s
walk, and at the close inquired who lived there? It is
not to be wondered that Major Weir’s house should have been deserted after his death,
and that many a strange sound and fearful sight should have testified to the secure hold the
powers of darkness had established on this dwelling of their emissaries. The enchanted
staff was believed to have returned to its post, and to wait as porter at the door. The hum
of the necromantic wheel was heard at the dead of night, and the deserted mansion wag
sometimes seen blazing with the lights of aome eldrich festival, when the Major and his
sister were supposed to be entertaining the Prince of Darkness. There were not even
wanting those, during the last century, who were affirmed to have seen the Major issue at
midnight from the narrow close, mounted on a headless charger, and gallop off in a whirlwind
of flame. The Major’s visits became fewer
and less ostentatious, until at length it was only at rare intervals that some midnight
reveller, returning homeward through the deserted Bow, was startled by a dark and silent
shadow that flitted across his path as he approached the haunted corner. The house is now
used as a, broker’s store, but the only tenant, during well-nigh two centuries, who has had
the hardihood to tempt the visions of the night within its walls, was scared by such horrible
sights, that no one is likely to molest the Dlajor’s privacy again. When all thesefacts
are considered, it need not excite our wonder that this house should have escaped even the
rabid assaults of an Improvements’ Commission, that raged 80 fiercely around the haunted
domicile. It may be reasonably questioned, indeed, whether, if workmen were found bold
enough to raze it to the ground, it would not be found on the morrow, in statu quo, grimly
frowning defiance on its baffled assailants I
Such are the associations with one little fragment of the Bow that still exists; our
remaining descriptions must be, alas I of things that were, and that appeared so hideous to
the refhed tastes of our civic reformers, that they have not grudged the cost of 22400,000
to have them removed. Directly facing the low archway leading into Major Weir’s Close
was the Old Assembly Rooms, bearing the date 1602, and described in its ancient titledeeds
as ‘‘ that tenement of land on the west side of the transe of the Over Bow, betwixt
the land of umq” Lord Ruthven on the north, and the King’s auld wall on the south
parts.” Lord Ruthven’s land, which appears in our engraving of the Old Assembly Rooms,
was an ancient timber-fronted tenement, similar to those we have described in the Castle
Hill. It possessed, however, a peculiar and thrilling interest, if it-was-as we conceive
from the date of the deed, and the new title of his sons, it must have been-the mansion
of the grim and merciless baron, who stalked into the chamber of Queen Nary on that
dire night of the 9th of March 1566, like the ghastly vision of death, and struck home his
dagger into the royal favourite, whose murder he afterwards claimed to have chiefly contrived.
A curious and valuable relic, apparently of its early proprietor, was discovered on the demolition
of this ancient tenement. Between the ceiling and floor in one of the apartments, a
large and beautifully-chased sword was found concealed, with the scabbard almoat completely
decayed, and the blade, which was of excellent temper, deeply corroded with
rust about half-way towards the hilt. The point of it was broken off, but it still measured
323 inches long. The maker’s name, WILHELWM IRSBERwGa,s inlaid in brass on the blade.
It was answered, Major Weir.’’
Time, however, wrought its usual cure,
.

Book 10 p. 370
(Score 0.56)

Previous Results More Results

Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf

Creative Commons License

The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.