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Tron Church.
sum had been paid but once in ten years, yet, if it
had been properly managed, the accumulated sum
behoved to have exceeded ~16,000 sterling."
The old spire had been partially built'of wood
covered with lead, according to a design frequently
repeated on public buildings then in Scotland. It
was copied from the Dutch ; but the examples of it
are rapidly disappearing. A bell, which cost 1,490
merks Scots, was hung in it in 1673, and continued
weekly to summon the parishioners to prayer and
-
EXPLANATION.
A The principal Entry.
B The mea 01 thrSyuare.
C The Piazza,
I3 The Coffee-room inthe west Coffec-hare.
d Rwnis aod Closets in diLlp.
a The Coffee-mm in the middk Ccffec
e Rmpis and Closets in ditm.
F The Coffee-room in the la t Coffeehoux.
f Raoms io ditto.
G The Great Sair leadiog to the Custon
H The P a q e Ieadioi 10 ditt-.
I 'An open for 1etriI.g in li6ht to the Houses
in the Writer's Court under the level of
the Square.
E The Passage belwecn the Square and
Wriicr's Court.
1. Seven Shops withiu the Square
m Four Shops behi d the raqe tvthe srect.
N Ten Shop an a line with the street.
0 An open of four feet for dcoopirg eaws
P Part ot the M'riter-5 Court.
g Area of ditto.
house. -
H0"W.
of the neighbouring houses
B
pounds yearly. It is an edifice of uninteresting
appearance and nondescript style, being neither
Gothic nor Palladian, but a grotesque mixture of
both. It received its name from its vicinity to the
Tron, or public beam for the weighing of merchandise,
which stood near it.
A very elegant stone spire, which was built in
1828, replaces that which perished in the great
conflaggation of four years before.
The Tron beam appears to have been used as
GENERAL PLAN OF THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. (Frmn an Engraviw in fhe "Scofs Mafizzine" fm 1754.)
sermon till the great fire of 1824, when it was
partly melted by heat, and fell with a mighty crash
through the blazing ruins of the steeple. Portions
of it were made into drinking quaighs and similar
memorials.
In 1678 the tower was completed by placing
therein the old clock which had formerly been in
the Weigh House.
Towards the building of this church the pious
Lady Yester gave 1,000 merks. In 1703 the
magistrates appointed two persons to preach alternately
in the Tron Church, to each of whom they
gave a salary of forty guineas, as the Council Re-,
gister shows ; but about 1788 they contented themselves
with one preacher, to whom they gave fifty
a pillory for the punishment of crime. In Niccol's
'' Diary" for 1649, it is stated that " much falset
and cheitting was daillie deteckit at this time by
the Lords of Sessioune; for the whilk there was
daillie nailing of lugs and binding of people to the
Trone, and boring of tongues; so that it was a
fatal year for false notaries and witnesses, as daillie
experience did witness."
On the night of Monday, the 15th of November,
1824, about ten o'clock, the cry of "Fire ! " was
heard in the High Street, and it spread throughout
the city from mouth to mouth ; vast crowds came
from all ,quarters rushing to the spot, and columns
of smoke and flame were seen issuing from the
second *floor of e house at the head of the old ... Church. sum had been paid but once in ten years, yet, if it had been properly managed, the accumulated ...

Book 1  p. 188
(Score 0.63)

444 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
46 Henry VI. with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal Battle of
Towton. In this note a doubt was formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his
Queen certainly did ; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble
friend Lord Napier has pointed out to me a grant by Henry of an annuity of forty marks to his Lordship’s
ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King bimself at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirtyninth
year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God, 1461. This grant, Douglas, with hies usual
neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this emr being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane’s MSS. pp. 119,
120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and
heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the
distressed monarch and his family called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet.
The English people, he say$-
Ung nouveau roj crhrent,
Par despiteux vouloir,
Le vieil en debouthent,
Et aon legitime hoir,
Qui fugtyf alla prendre
D’ESCOEleS g~a rand.
De tous sieclea le mendre,
Et le plus tollerant.’”-RecoUectim des Awanturea.
No such doubt8 seem to have been entertained by earlier writers on the question ‘of Henry’s entertainment
at Edinburgh. The author of the Martial Achievements remarks,in his Life of James 111. (Abercombie’s
Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 384) :-‘A battle ensued between Caxton and Towton, King Edward gained
the day, and King Henry, hearing of the event (for he waa not allowed to be at the battle, his presence being
thought fatal to either of the parties that had it), hastened with his wife and only 80% first to Berwick, where
be left the Duke of Somerset, and then to Edinburgh, where he was received with uncommon civility, being
honourably lodged and royally entertained by the joint consent of the then Regents.”
The same writer, after detailing various negotiations, and the final agreement entered into, between Henry
and the administrators of Government in Scotland, James 111. being then a minor, adds :-<( Thpe transactions
being completed, the indefatigable Queen of England left the King, her husband, at his lodgings in the Grey-
Frierspf Edinburgh, where hi3 own inclinations to devotion and solitude made him choose to reside, and went
with her son into France.”--(Ibid, p. 386.)
XV. THE WHITEFRIARS’ MONASTERY.
Tsnfollowing curious fact, relating to the Monastery of the Carmelite Friars, founded at Qreenside, under the
Calton Hill, in the year 1526, is appended in the form of a note to the description of this monastic order, in the
third part of I‘ Lectures on the,Xeligioues ‘Antiquitsees of Edinburgh, by a Member of the Holy Guild of St
Joseph” @. 129), and is stated, we have reason to believe, on the authority of a well-known Scottish
antiquary :-
I( The humble brother of our Holy Quild who is now engaged in an endeavour to form a dloaadicon ~ C O &
canurn, informsme, onundoubted anthority, that the succession of the Priors of Greenside is still perpetuated in
bhe Carmelite Convent at Rome, and his informant has Been the friar who bore the title of I! PacZre Prwre
di Greemide.”
. . . . . . . ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. 46 Henry VI. with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland ...

Book 10  p. 483
(Score 0.63)

192 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. lThe High S e e a
and Sweden, tells us, at the storming of Boitzenburg,
there was ? a Scottish gentleman under the
enemy, who, coming to scale the walls, said aloud,
?Have with you, gentlemen ! Thinke not now
you are on the streel of Edhlburgh bravading.? One
of his own countrymen thrusting him through the
body with a pike, he ended there.?
In the general consternation which succeeded
* the defeat of the army at Flodden a plague raged
within the city with great violence, and carried off
great numbers. Hence the Town Council, to prevent
its progress,
ordered all shops
and booths to be
closed for the space
of fifteen days, and
neither doors nor
windows to be
opened within that
time, but on some
unavoidable occasion,
and nothing
to be dealt in but
necessaries for the
immediate support
of life. All vagrants
were forbidden
to walk in the
streets without hiving
each a light;
and several houses
that had been occupied
by infected
persons were demolished.
*
In 1532 the
High Street was
first paved or causewayed,
and many of
the old tenements
?These, however,? says Arnot, ?are not to be
considered as arguing any comparative insignificancy
in the city of Edinburgh. They proceeded
from the rudeness of the times. The writers of
those days spoke of Edinburgh in terms that show
the respectable opinion they entertained of it. ? In
this city,? says a writer of the sixteenth century-
Braun Agrippinensis--? there are two spacious
streets, of which the principal one, leading from
the Palace to the Castle, is paved with square
stones. The city itself is not built of bricks,
ANDREW CROSBY. (Fmm the Portrait in tkePadiament Haii.)
[The orkinal ofCuunseZZnr PLydelZ in ? Guy Mamneiing.?]
renovated. The former was done under the superintendence
of a Frenchman named Marlin, whose
name was bestowed on an alley to the south. The
Town Council ordered lights to be hung out by
night by the citizens to light the streets, and Edinburgh
became a principal place of resort from all
parts of the kingdom.
Till the reign of James V., the meal-market, and
also the flesh-market, were kept in booths in the
open High Street, which was also encumbered by
stacks of peat, heather, and other fuel, before every
door; while, till the middle of the end of the seventeenth
century, according to Gordon?s map, a fleshmarket
was kept in the Canongate, immediately
below the Nether Bow.
but of square freestones,
and so
stately is its app
ear an c e, that
single houses inay
be compared to
palaces. From the
abbey to the castle
there is a continued
street, which on
both sides contains
a range of excellent
houses. and the
better sort are built
of hewn stone.?
There are,? adds
Amot, ?? specimens
oT the buildings of
the fifteenth century
still (1779) remaining,
particularly
a house on
the south side of
the High Street,
immediately above
Peeble?s Wynd,
having a handsome
front of hewn stone,
and niches in the
walls for the images of saints, which may justify
our author?s description. The house was built
about 1430 (temp. James I.) No private building
in the city of modern date can compare
with it.?
The year 1554 saw the streets better lighted,
and some attempts made to clean them.
The continual wars with England compelled the
citizens to crowd their dwellings as near the Castle
as possible ; thus, instead of the city increasing in
limits, it rose skyward, as we have already mentioned
; storey was piled on storey till the streets
resembled closely packed towers or steeples, each
house, or ?land,? sheltering from twenty to thirty
families within its walls. This was particularly thc ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. lThe High S e e a and Sweden, tells us, at the storming of Boitzenburg, there was ? a ...

Book 1  p. 192
(Score 0.63)

YAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 69
The Three Estates immediately assembled at Edinburgh on the 16th of January, and
despatched the Lord James, the chief leader of the Congregation, as ambassador to the
Scottish Queen, to invite her return to her own dominions. Ere his departure on this
mission, four commissioners arrived from the Queen, with assurances of her intention of
speedily returning home, and meanwhile bearing a commission to certain of the leading
men of Scotland, authorising them to summon a Parliament.
About this time a serious riot occurred in Edinburgh. ( L That the work of reformation
might not be retarded, Sanderson, deacon of the fleshera, or butchers, was, by the Council,
ordered to be carted for adultery.”’ This the trades resented, as a general insult to their
body, and assembling in a tumultuous manner, they broke open the prison and released
him from durance. The magistrates, on this, applied to the Privy Council for aid against
the rioters-a number of the craftsmen were committed prisoners to the Castle, and the
corporations so intimidated, that they made humble supplication to the Council for release
of their brethren, promising all obedience and submission to the magistrates in time
coming. Upon this the craftsmen were released, and the offending deacon, it may be presumed,
duly carted according to order.
The magistrates the same year removed the Corn Market, from the corner of Marlin’s
Wynd, Cowgate (where Blair Street now is), to the east end of the Grassmarket, where
it continued to be held till the present century. At the same time, they forbade the
continuance of a practice that then prevailed of holding public markets on the Sundays,
and keeping open shops and taverns during divine service, under the pain of corporal
punishment.z
The enforcement of some of the more stringent enactments that had been‘introduced
for the reformation of manners, gave rise to another and more serious tumult. Notwithstanding
the acts already referred to, the people still attempted the revival of some
of their ancient games. On the 21st of June, a number of the craftsmen and apprentices
united together for the purpose of playing Robin Hood-“which enormity was of many
years left off, and condemned by statute.:’ The magistrates intedeered, and took from
them some weapons and an ensign. This the populace keenly resented, the city gates
were held by the mob, and numerous acts of violence committed. The magistrates, to
appease them, restored the banner and other spoils; but, watching a favourable
opportunity, they seized on James Gillon, a shoemaker, one of the ringleaders of the mob,
tried him on the charge of stealing ten crowns, and condemned him to be hanged. The
deacons of the crafts used all their influence with the magistmtes to obtain his pardon,
but in vain. A deputation from the same body waited on John Knox, and besought his
influence on behalf of the offender, but he refused to be a patron to their impiety.” A
gallows was erected below the Cross, and all preparations completed for the execution,
when the rioters resumed their weapens, broke down the gallows, and put the magistrates
to flight; pursuing them till they took refuge in a writer’s booth. There they were held
captive, while the mob proceeded to assault the Tolbooth within sight of them. They
broke in the door with sledge hammers, and set Gillon and all the other prisoners at
liberty. On their departure, the magistrates took refuge in the Tolbooth, and thence
fired on them on their return from an attempt to pasa out by the Nether Bow Port;
Council Register, Nov. 22d, 1560. Maitland, p. 20. Ibid.
...- ... V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 69 The Three Estates immediately assembled at Edinburgh on the 16th of ...

Book 10  p. 75
(Score 0.62)

362 MEMORIAL S OF EDINB URG H.
old oaken chair remained till recently an heirloom, bequeathed by its patrician occupants
to the humble tenants of their degraded dwellings. A recent writer on the antiquities
of Leith, conceives it probable that this may have been the residence of the Regent
Lennox; but we have been baffled in our attempts to arrive at any certain evidence
on the subject by reference to the titles. “ Mary,” says Maitland, “ haviug begun
to build in the town of Leith, was followed therein by divers of the nobility, bishops,
and other persons of distinction of her party; several of whose houses are still remaining,
as m y be seen in sundry places, by their spacious rooms, lofty ceilings, large staircases,
and private oratories or chapels for the celebration of mass.” Beyond the probable
evidence afforded by such remains of decaying splendour and former wealth, nothing
more can now be ascertained. The occupation of Leith by nobles and dignitaries of
the Church was of a temporary nature, and under circumstances little calculated to
induce them to leave many durable memorials of their presence. A general glance, therefore,
at such noticeable features as still remain, will suffice to complete our survey of the
ancient seaport.
The earliest date that we have discovered on any of the old private buildings of the
burgh, occurs on the projecting turnpike of an antique tenement at the foot of Burgess
Close, which bears this inscription on the lintel, in Roman characters :-NISI DNS FRUSTBA,
1573. This ancient alley is the earliest thoroughfare in the burgh of which we have
any account. It was granted to the burgesses of Edinburgh, towards the close of the
fourteenth century, by Logan of Restalrig, the baronial over-lord of Leith, before it
acquired the dignity of a royal burgh, and the owner of nearly all the lands that extended
along the banks of the harbour of Leith. We are led to infer from the straitened proportions
of this narrow alley, that the whole exports and imports of the shipping of Leith were
conveyed on pack-horses or in wheel-barrows, as it would certainly prove impassable for
any larger wheeled convejance. Its inconvenience, however, appears to have been felt at
the time, and the Laird of Restalrig was speedily compelled to grant a more commodious
access to the shore. The inscription which now graces this venerable thoroughfare, though
of a date so much later than its first construction, preserves a memorial of its gifts to the
civic Council of Edinburgh, as we may reasonably ascribe to the veneration of some wealthy
merchant of the capital the inscribing over the doorway of his mansion at Leith the
very appropriate motto of the City Arms. To this, the oldest quarter of the town, indeed,
we must direct those who go “in search of the picturesque.” Watera’ Close, which
adjoins Burgess Close, is scarcely surpassed by any venerable alley of the capital, either in
its attractive or repulsive features. Stone and timber lands are mixed together in admired
disorder ; and one antique tenement in particular, at the corner of Water Lane, with a
broad projecting turnpike, contorted by corbels and string courses, and every variety of
convenient aberration from the perpendicular or horizontal, which the taste or whim of its
constructor could devise, is one of the most singular edifices that the artist could select as a
subject for his pencil.
The custom of affixing sententious aphorisms to the entrances of their dwellings appears
to have pertained fully as much to the citizens of Leith as of Edinburgh. BLISSIT . BE .
GOD . OF . HIS . GIFTIS . 1601., I. W., I. H., is boldly cut on a large square panel on
the front of an old house at the head of Sheriff Brae; and the same favourite motto ... MEMORIAL S OF EDINB URG H. old oaken chair remained till recently an heirloom, bequeathed by its patrician ...

Book 10  p. 398
(Score 0.62)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 321
. Such is a brief account of the election; but when the scrutiny had been
entered into, the precaution of the Dean of Faculty was found to have been
highly judicious. On finding himself in a minority, Dr. Carlyle wisely withdrew
his claim before the report of the committee was presented. Professor Dalziel
was thereupon declared the “ successful candidate.”
PROFESSOARN DREWD ALZIELw as the son of respectable, although not
wealthy parents. His father was a wright, or carpenter, at the village of
Kirkliston, in Linlithgowshire. He was born in 1742, and educated at the
school of the village. Dr. Drysdale was at that time minister of Kirkliston ;
and, fortunately for the young scholar, took much interest in his progress, by
assisting and directing him in his studies.
In course of time young Dalziel entered the University of Edinburgh;
where, with a view to the ministry, he studied with much success, and acquired
a classical as well as theological education. In the Divinity Hall he is known
to have delivered the prescribed course of lectures to the satisfaction of Professor
Hamilton ; but it does not appear that he ever was licensed. About this time
he was fortunately appointed tutor to Lord Maitland (Earl of Lauderdale),
with whom he travelled to Paris, and pleased his pupil’s father so much, that,
shortly after his return from France, the Earl resolved to use his influence with
the Town Council of Edinburgh to procure his election to the Greek chair, then
vacant by the death of Professor Robert Hunter. Among other obstacles in
the way of his preferment, some of the Council favoured another candidate, Mr.
Duke Gordon, afterwards well known for many years as under-librarian of the
College.’ The interest of the Earl of Lauderdale, however, prevailed ; and
Dalziel was appointed to the Greek chair in 1773.
The enthusiastic manner in which the young Professor immediately set about
discharging the duties of the chair justified the choice which had been made.
1 Mr. Duke Gordon was the son of a linen manufacturer, and born in the Potterrow, Edinburgh.
His father was a native of Euntly-a Jacobite-and a thorough clansman. Hence, in testimony of
his respect to the head of the clan, his son was called Duke Gordon. Duke (who abhorred the name)
was educated at a school kept in the Cowgate by Mr. Andrew Waddell-a nonjurant-who had “been
out in the forty-five,” and was of course patronised by all his Jacobitical friends. Duke Gordon made
great progress under Mr. Waddell ; and, although compelled to follow hu father’s profession for several
years, had imbibed such a desire for languages, that he contrived to prosecute his studies ; and, on the
death of the old man, abandoned the manufacture of linen altogether, and devoted himself entirely to
literature. He had views to the ministry ; but some peculiar notions which he entertained on theology
shut the chorch doors upon him. In 1763 he was appointed assistant-librarian of the College Library
-a situation for which he was peculiarly well qualified by his extensive learning and general literary
acquirementa. The emoluments of the office being limited, he taught elasaes at his own house, by
which he added considerably to his income. He never was married ; and, such was his frugality,
he died in 1802 worth a great deal of money. To three of his particular friends-Professor Dalziel,
the Rev. Andrew Johnston, minister of Salton, and Mr. William White, writer in Edinburgh-he
conveyed, by his will, all his effecta, burdened with a life annuity to his only sister, the wife of a
respectable shoemaker, together with several other private legacies. His public bequests were-
E500 to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh ; the reversion of a tenement of houses, of nearly the
aanie value, to the poor of the parish of St. Cuthbert’s ; and such of his books to the Library of the
Univenity of Ediibnrgh as the Librarian should think proper to be added to that collection.
2 T ... SKETCHES. 321 . Such is a brief account of the election; but when the scrutiny had been entered ...

Book 8  p. 451
(Score 0.62)

I 96 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH,
this memorable event. The newspapers for some time afterwards abound with notices of
the precautions taken, when too late, to prevent the recurrence of an act, the idea of which
can hardly have appeared otherwise than ridiculous even at the time. The gates of the
Nether Bow Port were fastened back to preserve the free access of the military to the city;
guards were established there ; the trained bands were called out ; grenadier companies
quartered in the town and suburbs ; and most effectual means taken to prevent the hanging
of a second Porteous, if any such had existed.’ On the second day after his execution, the
body of Porteous was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard,’ but the exact spot has long
since ceased to be remembered.’
The Tolbooth of Edinburgh was visited by Howard in the year 1782, and again in
1787, and on the last occasion he strongly expressed his dissatisfaction, declaring that he
had expected to have found a new one in its stead.‘ It was not, however, till the year
1817 that the huge pile of antique masonry was doomed to destruction. Its materiale
were sold in the month of September, and its demolition took place almost immediately
afterwards. The following extract from a periodical of that period, while it shows with
how little grief the demolition of the ancient fabric was witnessed, also points out the
GRAVE OF THE OLD TOLBOOTH. It seems to have been buried with a sort of pauper’s
funeral, on the extreme outskirts of the new city that was rising up beyond those ancient
boundaries of which it had so long formed the heart. Now,” says the writer, (( that the
Luckenbooths have been safely carted to Leith Wynd (would that it had been done some
dozen years ago ! ) and the Tolbooth,-to the unutterable delight of the inhabitants,-is
journeying quickly to Fettes Row, there to be transferred into common sewers and drains,
the irregular and grim visage of the Cathedral has been in a great measure unveiled.”
The unveiling of the Cathedral had formed the grand object of all civic committees of
taste for well-nigh half a century before ; the renovation of the ancient fabric thereby
exposed to vulgar gaze became the next subject of discussion, until this also was at length
accomplished in 1829, at the cost not only of much money, but of nearly all its ancient
and characteristic features. Added to all these radical changes, the assistance rendered
by the Great Fire of 1824, unexpectedly removed a whole range of eyesores to such
reformers, in the destruction of the ancient tenements between St Gilea’s and tb,e Tron
Church.
As the only means of giving width and uniformity to the street, all this comes fairly
within the category of civic improvements ; how far it tended to increase the picturesque
beauty of the old thoroughfare is a very different question. Taylor, the Water Poet,
in the amusing narrative of his Pennylesse Pilgrimage ” from London to Edinburgh,
published in 1618, describes the High Street as “the fairest and goodliest street that
ever mine eyes’ beheld, for I did never see or hear of a street of that length, which
is half an English mile from the Castle to a faire port, which they calle the Neather
1 Caledonian Mwmy, September 23, 1736.
a ‘‘ No less than seventeen criminals escaped from the city jail on this occasion, among whom are the dragoon who
waa indicted for the murder of the butcher’s wife in Dunse, the two Newhaven men lately brought in from Blacknesa
Castle for smuggling, seven sentinele of the city guard, &e.”-Ibid, September 9th. ‘ knot, who never minces matten when disposed to censure, furnishes 8 very graphic picture of the horrors of the
old jail of Edinburgh.-Hit. of Edinburgh, p. 298.
’ Ibid, September 9.
Edin. Mag. Nov. 1817, p. 322. ... 96 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH, this memorable event. The newspapers for some time afterwards abound with notices ...

Book 10  p. 215
(Score 0.61)

252 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEX.
He was diffident to follow one so greatly endowed ; and he said-" It is well
lkown, I believe, to all your lordships, that I did long and earnestly decline
this office. But, as it is a fixed principle of my life, that a public man, when
he has no intirmitiea of age or sickness to excuse him, is bound to serve his
country in any station to which his Sovereign may call him, I did not think
myself ultimately justified in disobeying the gracious conimands of his Royal
Highness the Prince Regent."
The ability with which Lord President Hope filled the high station to which
he was appointed is well known to all who are capable of appreciating his
character. In Peter's Lefters to his Kinsfolk, the eloquence and dignified bearing
of his lordship are portrayed with the author's usual felicity and power ; and
the scene described is interesting, the more so that it is happily one of rare
occurrence. The writer has just been speaking of the Second Division of the
Court of Session, and he continues-
" In the other Division of the Court, I yesterday heard, without exception, the finest piece of
judicial eloquence delivered in the finest possible way by the Lord President Hope. The requisites
for this kind of eloquence are, of course, totally different from those of accomplished
barristership-and I think they are in the present clever age infinitely more uncommon. When
possessed in the degree of perfection in which this Judge possesses them, they are calculated
assuredly to produce a yet nobler species of effect than even the finest display of the eloquence
of the bar ever can command. They produce this effect the more powerfully, because there are
comparatively very few occasions on which they can be called upon to attempt producing it ;
but besides this adventitious circumstance, they are essentially higher in their quality, and the
feelings which they excite are proportionally deeper in their whole character and complexion.
" I confess I was struck with the whole scene, the more because I had not heard anything
which might have prepared me to expect a scene of so much interest, or a display of so much
power. But it is impossible that the presence and air of any judge should grace the judgmentseat
more than those of the Lord President did upon this occasion. When I entered, the Court
was completely crowded in every part of its area and galleries, and even the avenues and steps
of the bench were covered with persons who could not find accommodation for sitting. I looked
to the bar, naturally expecting to see it filled with some of the most favourite advocates ; but
was astonished to perceive, that not one gentleman in a gown was there ; and, indeed, that the
whole of the first row, commonly occupied by the barristers, was entirely deserted. An air of
intense expectation, notwithstanding, was stamped upon all the innumerable faces around me ;
and from the direction in rrhich most of them were turned, I soon gathered that the eloquence
they had come to hear, was to proceed from the bench. The Judges, when I looked towards
them, had none of those huge piles of paper before them, with which their desk is usually
covered in ali its breadth and in all its length. Neither did they appear to be occupied among
themselves with arranging the order or substance of opinions about to be delivered. Each Judge
crat in silence, wrapt up in himself, but calm, and with the air of sharing in the general expectation
of the audience, rather than that of meditating on anything which he himself might be
about to utter. In the countenance of the President alone, I fancied I could perceive the workings
of anxious thought. He leaned back in his chair ; his eyes were cast downwards ; and his
face seemed to be covered with a deadly paleness, which I had never before seen its masculine
and commanding lines exhibit.
" At length he lifted up his eyes, and, at a signal from his hand, a man clad respectably in
black rose from the second row of seats behind the bar. I could not at first see his face ; but
from his air, I perceived at once that he was there in the capacity of an offender, A minute or
more elapsed before a word was said ; and I heard it whispered behind me that he was a wellknown
solicitor or agent of the Court, who had been detected in some piece of mean chicanery,
and I comprehended that the President was about to rebuke him for his transgression. A
painful struggle of feelings seemed to keep the Judge silent, after he had put himself into the
' ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEX. He was diffident to follow one so greatly endowed ; and he said-" It is ...

Book 9  p. 334
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 339
figure is invested with a voluminous quantity of petticoat, of substantial material and gaudy
colour, generally yellow with stripes, so made as to admit of a very free inspection of the ankle,
and worn in such immense numbers, that the bare mention of them would be enough to makea
fine lady faint. One-half of these ample garments is gathered np over the haunches, puffing out
the figure in an unusual and uncouth manner. White worsted stockings and stout shoes completa
the picture. Imagine these investments indued upon a masculine but handsome form, notwithstanding
the slight stoop forward, which is almost uniformly contracted-fancy the firm and elastic
step, the toes slightly inclined inwards-and the ruddy complexion resulting from hard exercise,
perhaps sometimes from dram-drinking-and you have the h w i d e a l of fish-wives.”
That “dram-drinking” does prevail among the sisterhood to a certain extent
is a fact readily admitted, even by the parties themselves ; nor need we wonder
at the circumstance, when the laborious nature of their avocation is taken into
consideration. The nearest fishing stations to Edinburgh are Newhaven and
Fisherrow : the former distant at least two miles-the latter upwards of five,
After carrying a load, varying from one hundred to two hundred-weight, of fish
from their respective stations, and probably perambulating the greater portion
of the city ere they complete their sales, no one can be surprised that they
should indulge in a dram.’ To say, however, that their potations amount to
drunkenness; or that, in its literal sense, they are given to dram-drinking,
would be a very bold assertion-the more especially if we compare their habits
with those of other females in the plebeian grades of society. They are as far
removed from the gin-swilling vixens of Billingsgate, or the dirty, squalid fishhawkers
of Dublin, as intoxication is from sobriety ; and they are not more
their superiors in robustness of figure, than in respectability and morality of
character.
One of the pleasantest walks we can imagine is a leisurely stroll, on a fine
April morning, from Edinburgh to Newhaven. The sun, though radiant and
sparkling, does not as yet oppress with excessive warmth, while around, nature
is smiling in bush and flower. At every turn you are sure to meet a knot of
fish-women, fresh as the mbrning itself, each with her ‘I creel ” and well-filled
maun ” of haddocks, or codlings, or flukes, or whitings, or skate, or lobsters,
dripping from the waters of the Firth, and glistening with a freshness well calculated
to tempt the eye of an epicure. A flush may be observed on the faces
of the women as they bend under the load, but their step is long and elastic ;
and though the journey is uphill, their athletic forms appear fully able for the
task. On reaching the brow of the rising ground above Newhaven, the scene
is truly enchanting. The broad Firth before you is calm and tranquil-to the
right of Inchkeith appear a whole fleet of fishermen, engaged it may be in dredging
In the Statistical Account of Scotland-parish of Inveresk-it is stated that “when the boats
come in late to the harbour [Fisherrow] in the forenoon, so as to leave them [the fish-women] no more
than time to reach Edinburgh before dinner, it is not unusual for them to perform their journey of
five miles by relays, three of them being employed in carrying one basket, and shifting it from one
to another every hundred yards, by which means they have been known to arrive at the Fkihmarket
in leas than three-fourth of an hour.” The writer (Dr. Carlyle) adds--”It is a well-known fact, that
three of them not many years ago [1795] went from Dunbar to Edinburgh, which ia twenty-seven
miles, with each of them a load of herrings on her back of 200 lbs., in five hours. They sometiiea
carry loade of 250 lbs.” ... SKETCHES. 339 figure is invested with a voluminous quantity of petticoat, of substantial material and ...

Book 9  p. 451
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THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 267
separated only by very narrow uprights. It is decorated with string courses and rich
mouldings, and forms a fine specimen of an Old-Town mansion of the sixteenth century.
It is stated by Chambers to be entailed with the estate of the Clerks of Pennycuik, and
to have formed the town residence of their ancestors. This we presume to have been the
later residence of Alexander, fifth Lord Home; the same who entertained Queen Mary
and Lord Darnley in his lodging near the Tron in 1565, and who afterwards turned the
fortune of the field at the Battle of Langside, at the head of his border spearmen. He
was one of the noble captives who surrendered to Sir William Durie on the taking of
Edinburgh Castle in 1573. He was detained a prisoner, while his brave companions
perished on the scaffold; a.nd was only released at last after a tedious captivity, to die
a prisoner at large in his own house-the same, we believe, which stood in Blackfriars’
Wynd. A contemporary writer remarks :-“ Wpoun the secund day of Junij [1575],
Alexander Lord Home wes relevit out of the Castell of Edinburgh, and wardit in his
awne lugeing in the heid of the Frier Wynd, quha wes carijt thairto in ane bed, be ressone
of his great infirmitie of seiknes.”’
Scarcely another portion of the Old Town of Edinburgh was calculated to impress the
thoughtful visitor with the same melancholy feelings of a departed glory, replaced by
squalor and decay, which he experienced after exploring the antiquities of the Blackfriars’
Wynd. There stood the deserted and desecrated fane ; the desolate mansions of proud
and powerful nobles and senators ; and the degraded Palace of the Primate and Cardinal,
where even Scottish monarchs have been fitly entertained; and it seemed for long
as if the ground which Alexander 11. bestowed on the Dominican Monks, as a, special
act of regal munificence, was not possessed of value enough to tempt the labours of the
builder.
Emerging again through the archway at the head of the wynd, which the royal masterprinter
jitted at his pleasure above three centuries ago, an ancient., though greatly
modernised, tenement in the High Street to the east of the wynd attracted the notice of
the local historian as the mansion of Lord President Fentonbarn!, a man of humble origin,
the son of a baker in Edinburgh, whose eminent abilities won him the esteem and the
suffrages of its contemporaries. He owed his fortunes to the favour of James VI., by
whom he was nominated to fill the office of a Lord of Session, and afterwards knighted.
We are inclined to think that it is to him Montgomerie alludes in his satirical sonnets
addressed to M. J. Sharpe-in all probability au epithet of similar origin and signilicance
to that conferred by the Jacobite8 on the favourite advocate of William 111. The poet
had failed in a suit before the Court of Session, seemingly with James Beaton, Archbishop
of Glasgow, and he takes his revenge against “ his Adversars Lawyers,” like other
poets, in satiric rhyme. The lack of ‘‘ gentle blude ” is a special handle against the plebeian
judge in the eyes of the high-born poet ; and his second sonnet, which is sufEcientlp
vituperative, begins :-
A Baxter’s bird, a bluiter beggar borne ! ’
This old mansion was the last survivor of all the long and unbroken range of buildings
between St Giles’s Church and the Nether Bow. In its original state it was one of
l Diurnal of Occurrenta, p. 348. Alexander Montgornerie’s Poems ; complete edition, by Dr Irving, p. 74. ... HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 267 separated only by very narrow uprights. It is decorated with string courses ...

Book 10  p. 290
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422 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
obtained permission to relieve the Clerk of his usual duty. He commenced
with great confidence, quite satisfied of the impression he would make upon
the Peers assembled. His amazement and vexation may be imagined when the
Chancellor (Thurlow), after endeavouring in vain to comprehend what he was
uttering, exclaimed-‘‘ Mr. Col-co-hon, I will thank you to give that paper to
t,he Clerk, as I do not understand Welsh.” The discomfited writer was thunderstruck-
he could hardly believe his own ears; but, alas! there was no
remedy. He reluctantly surrendered the paper to the Clerk ; and his feelings
of mortification were not a little increased as he observed the opposite agent
(who had come from Edinburgh with him) endeavouring with difficulty to
suppress a strong inclination to laugh.’
He had several
children, mostly daughters, whom he left well provided for, and who were all
respectably married. The estates of Kincaird and Petnacree, in Perthshire,
which he had purchased, were left to his son, Lieutenant Charles Grant, who,
after his unfortunate duel in 1759; retired from the army, and became melancholy
and unhappy.
Having sat for his likeness, two excellent miniature Portraits of Mr. Colquhoun
Grant were executed by Kay-one of which is possessed by Mr. Maclean, and
the other by the Publisher of this work.
’&fr. Grant died at Edinburgh on the 2d December 1792.
1 During the discussion on the Scots Reform Bill in Parliament, a very eminent and accomplished
Scots M.P., who, like Mr. Colquhoun Grant, had for a long series of years imagined he spoke the
English language to perfection, addressed the House in a strain, as he conceived, of impassioned
eloquence and convincing argument. What effect it produced upon the auditors we know not, but
next day it was announced in some of the public journals that the “- - had addressed the
House in a long and no doubt very able speech, which we regret we could not follow, as it was given
in broad Scotch.”
Itfr. Francis Foulke, of Dublin, the other party, was
at the time a student in the University of Edinburgh, and one of the Presidents of the Natural
History Society, aud of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. The affair originated in a petty
quarrel about a dog :-
“.On Friday, December 18, Lieutenant Grant, with two companions, after having spent the
evening together, were going home, when, meeting with Mr. Foulke and his party, a scuffle ensued,
and next day Itfr. Foullie sent Lieutenant Grant a challenge by Mr. P--. Owing to certain
reports relative to Mr. Fonlke, Lieutenant Grant did not think himself called upon to accept the
challenge, but took the advice of other officers, who were of opinion that Lieutenant Grant ought not
to give Mr. Foulke a meeting without satisfyiug himself of the truth of these reports. In the meantime
Mr. P- had an interview with Lieuteuant Graut, who still declined to accept, on which Mr.
Foulke posted him in the coffee-houses. Lieutenant Grant having upon inquiry found that Mr, Foulke’s
character was eTery way unexceptionable, and that on a late occasion he had behaved with great
honour, wm willing to give him every satisfaction, and was on his way for that purpose when he met
Captain Lundie, who told him that a placard was posted up in the Exchange Coffee-house, couched
in the following terms :-‘ That Charles Grant, of the 55th Regiment, has behaved unbecoming a man ’
of honour and a gentleman, is thus publicly asserted.-P.S. The person who makes this declaration
has left his name at the bar.’ Along with this was left a slip of paper, on which was written
‘ FRANCFISO ULKE.’M r.. Grant that evening sent a message by Mr. M-, who understood that the
parties were to meet on Tuesday morning at nine o’clock. From some misunderstanding, however,
Mr. Foulke and his friend imagined that it wasMr. M- (who delivered the message), and not Mr.
Grant, that he was to fight ; and when the gentlemen met in the King’s Park, Mr. Foulke expressed
his surprise at seeing Mr. Grant, and said that he expected to meet Mr. M- (who attended as
Lieutenant Grant’s second). Mr. M- expressed his willingness to meet Mr. Foulke, but thir
a The following is an account of the duel. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. obtained permission to relieve the Clerk of his usual duty. He commenced with great ...

Book 8  p. 586
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176 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
“ Happening to be in Dublin in October 1829, I solicited a friend of Mr. Rowan to introduce
me to him. He was the last
remnant of that band of patriots, who had trod every selfish feeling under foot for the sake of
their common country, I had from childhood deemed him an impersonation of all that is noble,
and longed to hear from his own lips, after the sufferings he had endured, whether, in the
eighty-fifth year of his age,’ the ardent principles of his youth still held undiminished sway in
his heart. His appearance affected me much ; instead of the tall, broad, manly form I had
read of, he was sadly shrunken ; the fiery eye was dim with years, and almost blind. But his
identity was not difficult to trace-the aompressed lip, the expanded nostril, and the bold outline-
expressed that lofty moral resolution which had always distinguished his career. When
my friend presented me to him, he remarked-‘ You see an old man, who should, long ere now,
have‘been in his grave ; my strength is fast failing me, and, as my early and dearest friends
are all in the other world, I long to follow them. But I .ought not to regret having lived till
now, since I have seen the stains wiped from my country’s brow by the passing of the Relief
Bill.’a When I adverted to the prominent part he had acted in the troubles of 1793, his dim
eye flashed with young life, and he rejoined ‘ Yes, Ireland had then many a clear head and
brave heart.’ On alluding to his unexpected meeting with his friends in Philadelphia, pulses
which had long slumbered seemed again to beat, and he replied, ‘ That was an hour of excessive
interest, and one of the happiest of my chequered life.’ In the course of my interview, I
took the liberty of asking him ‘whether, after his long exile, and numerous bereavements ;
and, more than all, the dark cloud of obloquy in which his enemies had striven to envelope his
name, he still justified his public conduct to himself?’ He replied, with a solemnity and
energy that startled both his friend and me, ‘ So thoroughly does my conscience approve of all
I have done, that had I my life to commence again, I would be governed by the same principles ;
and, therefore, should my country’s interests be compromised, these principles would call me forth
in her defence, even though the obstacles were more numerous and appalling than in the times
in which I suffered.’ I parted with him for ever,
with the same sentiment of profound veneration that I would have felt had I left the threshold
of a Fabricius, a Cincinnatus, or a Cato.”
I considered him the object of the greatest interest in that city.
I remember little else of our conversation.
In 1833, the year previous to his decease, Mr. Moffat had the honour of a
short letter from Mr. Rowan, in which he breathed a firm and consistent attachment
to his original political principles.
The HONOURABLSIEM ON BUTLER-brother of the late, and uncle of the
Earl of Kilkenny-was the third son of the-tenth Viscount Lord Mountgarret.’
Along with Theobald Wolfe Tone, Mr. Butler was a zealous leader of the United
Irishmen. Young, sanguine, and descended of an ancient and honourable family
which claimed kindred with some of the highest and most influential branches
of the Irish aristocracy, he at once became popular among those who sought a
redress of grievances. He presided at the first meeting of the Dublin “ Society
of United Irishmen,” and took an active interest in propagating the principles
and extending the influence of these associations.
That he contemplated other measures than such as might lead to a reform
of the legislature cannot justly be imputed to him, as no direct communications
with the Republicans of France were entered into until 1795. On the
meeting of the Irish Parliament, early in March 1793, the Honourable Simon
The writer waa probably misinformed as to his aga
The ancestore of Nr. Rowan, aa well as himself, were Pmbyterians.
The title of Earl of Kilkenny waa conferred on this branch of the noble family of Butler, 20th
December 1793. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. “ Happening to be in Dublin in October 1829, I solicited a friend of Mr. Rowan to ...

Book 9  p. 235
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 149
of fashion and etiquette were very widely at variance ; and at no time was her
lord and husband more fretful than when the annual accounts for dress came
to be presented.
It is said that Dr. Gloag, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, was on one
occasion invited to the house of Mr. Rigg to dinner. He wi~le ntertained in a
plain but very substantial manner. On taking leave, he was pressed by the
lady to repeat his visit a few days afterwards. “This,” said she, “is one of
Mr. Hume’s quiet affairs; the next will be mine!” Dr. Gloag kept his
appointment ; and was astonished to find himself one of a large party, for whom
a sumptuous dinner had been prepared, in a style of splendour, and with an
array of waiting-men, for which he was little prepared.’
Mr. R i g had no children to inherit his wealth-a circumstance which
g-ieved him deeply ; and, by a will, supposed to have been made in one of his
fretful moods, a short time before his demise, he left only a small jointure to
his widow. He died at his house, in Gosford‘s Close* (now removed to make
way for George the Fourth Bridge), on the 23d January 1788-a month which
had been fatal to his grandfather, father, and elder brother. Patrick Rim, Esq.,
of Dounfield and Tarvit, succeeded to the whole of his property.
The personage with whom Mr. Hume Rigg is represented as in conversation,
is ISAAC GRANT of Hilton, W.S. He was a stout, corpulent man, and
pretty far advanced in years at the time when the etching was taken. Professionally,
he maintained an honourable character ; had extensive employment,
and was long Clerk to the Commissioners of Teinds.
He was wealthy; and, it is said,
liberal. He participated with freedom in the social spirit of the times ; and,
over a bottle, was one of the most jolly men imaginable.
Mr. Grant lived and died a bachelor.’
He always
“ Could stan’ stieve in his shoon ;”
Mrs. Rigg was altogether a lady of uncomnion vivacity and gaiety of spirit ; and her youthful
fancies were not easily sobered down to the quiet, cool, domestic enjoymentq of mature ago. Skilled
in all the feminine accomplishments, her lively temper embraced others of a more masculine
character. She was one of the most agile and graceful dancers of the age, and an excellent violin
player ; and has been known frequently to accompany her movements on “ the light fantastic toe ”
by the inspiring strains of her own cremona.
a A description of Mr. Rigg’s house, which was situated at the bottom of the close, may furnish
an idea of the taste and fashion of the “ olden time.” The dining and drawingrooms were Rpacious
and lofty ; indeed, more so than those of any private modern house we have ever seen. The bedrooms
were proportionally large and elegant. The lobbies were all variegated marble, and a
splendid mahogany staircase led to the upper storey. There was a large garden behind, with a
statue in the middle, and at the bottom was a summer-house ; but such v’as the confined entry to
this elegant mansion, that it was impossible even to get a sedan chair near to the door.
A sister of Yr. Hume Rigg-Miss Mally-who resided in a house adjacent to her brother, was
killed by the falling in of a chimney during the violent hurricane 20th January 1773. The storm,
which began early in the morning, was described in the journals of the day as the severest that had
occurred since the wiudy January 1739. “ About half an hour after four, a atack of chirnnies on
an old house at the foot of Gosford’s Close, Lawnmarket, possessed by Nr. Hugh Mossman, writer,
was blown down ; and, breaking through the roof in that part of the house where he and his spouse
lay, they both perished in the ruins, but their children wera providentially saved. In the storey
below, Niss Mally Rigg, sister to Mr. Rigg of Morton, also perished.”
He left several children, who inherited his wealth. ... SKETCHES. 149 of fashion and etiquette were very widely at variance ; and at no time was her lord ...

Book 9  p. 199
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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. ... 90 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. Previous to the extension or rebuilding of the west portion of the Tolbooth, it ...

Book 10  p. 208
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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 413
tradition of its dedication to St Anthony; but the silver stream, celebrated in the plaintive
old song, “ 0 waly, waly up yon bank,” still wells clearly forth at the foot of the rock,
ming the little bason of St Anthony’s Well, and rippling pleasantly through the long
grass into the lower valley.’
The Chapel and Hermitage of St Anthony, though deserted and roofless for centuries,
appear to have remained nearly entire, with the exception of the upper portion of the tower,
till about the middle of the last century. Arnot, writing about the year 1779, remarks:-
“ The cell of the Hermitage yet remains. It is sixteen feet long, twelve broad, and eight
high. The rock rises within two feet of the stone arch, which forms its roof; and at the
foot of the rock flows a pure stream, celebrated in an old Scottish ballad.” All that now
remains of the cell is a small recess, with a stone ledge constructed partly in the natural
rock, which appears to have been the cupboard for storing the simple refreshments of the
hermit of St Anthony. The Chapel is described by the same writer as having been 8
beautiful Gothic building, well suited to the rugged sublimity of the rock. “It was fortythree
feet long, eighteen feet broad, and eighteen high. At its west end there was a tower
of nineteen feet square, and it is supposed, before its fall, about forty feet high. The
doors, windows, and roof, were Gothic; but it has been greatly dilapidated within the
author’s remembrance.”’ The tower is represented in the view of 1544 as finished with
a plain gabled roof; and the building otherwise corresponds to this description. The
wanton destruction of this picturesque and intefesting ruin proceeded within our own
recollection ; but its further decay has at length been retarded for a time by some slight
repairs, which were unfortunately delayed till a mere fragment of the ancient hermitage
remained. The plain corbels and a small fragment of the groined roof still stand ; and
an elegant sculptured stoup for holy water, which formerly projected from the north wall,
was preserved among the collection of antiquities of the late firm of Messrs Eagle and
Henderson. It is described by Maitland as occupying a small arched niche, and
opposite to it was another of larger dimensions, which was strongly fortified for keeping
the Pix with the consecrated bread;’ but no vestige of the latter now remains, or of m y
portion of the south wall in which it stood.
Towards the close of the fourteenth century, St Mary’s Church at Leith appears to
have been erected; but notwithstanding its large size-what remains being only a small
portion of the original edifice-no evidence remains to show by whom it was founded.
The earliest notice we have found of it is in 1490, when a contribution of an annual rent
is made ‘‘by Peter Falconer, in Leith, to a chaplain in St Piter’s Alter, situat in the
Virgin Mary Kirk in Leith.”3 Similar grants are conferred on the chaplains of St
Bartholomew’s and St Barbarie’s Altars, the latest of which is dated 8th July 1499-
the same year in which the Record of the Benefactors of the neighbouring preceptory is
brought to a close.’
Maitland and Chalmers,6 as well as all succeeding writers, agree in assigning the
destruction of the choir and transepts of St Mary’s Church to the English invaders under
1 Arnot, p. 256. Inventar of Pioua Donations, YS. Ad. Lib.
4 One charter of a later date is recorded in the Inventar of Pious Donations, by “ Jo. Logane of Kestalrig, mortifyf
Maitland, p. 497. Cdedonia, vol. ii. p. 786.
Maitland, p. 152.
ing in St Anthooy’a Chapel in Leith, hi tenement, lying on the south side of the Bridge,” dated 10th Feb. 1505, ... ANTIQUITIES. 413 tradition of its dedication to St Anthony; but the silver stream, celebrated in ...

Book 10  p. 453
(Score 0.59)

Leith.] REPULSE OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTS. I77
Cornelle, Shelly, Littleton, Southworthe, and nine
other officers, with 2,240 men.
To keep the. field (i.~., the Reserve), Captain
Somerset, and eight other captains, with 2,400
men.
?Item ; it is ordered that the Vyce Admyralle
of the Queen?s Majesty?s schippes shall, when a
token is given, send Vc. (500) men out of the
Navye into the haven of Leythe, to give an assaulte
on the side of the towne, at the same instant when
the assaulte shal be gevene on the breche.?
Captain Vaughan was ordered to assault the
town near Mount Pelham, and the Scots on the
westward and seaward.
The assault was not made until the 7th of May,
when it was delivered at seven in the morning on
dead they could find, and suspended the corpses
along the sloping faces of the ramparts, where they
remained for several days. The failure of the
attempted storm did not very materially affect the
blockade. On the contrary, the besiegers still continued
to harass the town by incessant cannonading
from the mounds already formed and others they
erected One of the former, Mount Falcon, must
have been particularly destructive, as its guns swept
the most crowded part of Leith called the Shore,
along which none could pass but at the greatest
hazard of death. Moreover, the English were
barbarously and uselessly cruel. Before burning
Leith mills they murdered in cold blood every
individual found therein.
The close siege had now lasted about two months,
PROSPECT OF LEITH, 1693. (Reduced Facainrilc aftw Grernvillr Coil us.)
four quarters, but, for some reason not given, the
fleet failed to act, and by some change in the plans
Sir James Crofts was ordered, with what was deemed
a sufficient force, to assail the town on the north
side, at the place latterly called the Sand Port,
where at low water an entrance was deemed easy.
For some reason best known to himself Sir James
thought proper to remain aloof during the whole
uproar of the assault, the ladders provided for
which proved too short by half a pike?s length;
thus he was loudly accused of treachery-a charge
which was deemed sufficiently proved when it was
discovered that a few days before he had been seen
in conversation with the Queen Regent, who addressed
him from the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
The whole affair turned out a complete failure,
English and Scots were alike repulse2 r%Ah slaughter,
?and singular as it may appear,? says a writer,
? the success of the garrison was not a little aided
by the exertionsof certain ladies, whom the French,
with their usual gallantry to the fair sex, entertained
in their quarters.? To these fair ones Knox
applies some pretty rough epithets.
The French now made a sally, stripped all the
110
without any prospect of a termination, though
Elizabeth continued to send more men and more
ships ; but the garrison were reduced to such dire
extremities that for food they were compelled to
shoot and eat all the horses of the. officers and
gens Zurmes. Yet they endured their privations
with true French sung froid, vowing never to surrender
while a horse was left, <?their officers exhibiting
that politeness in the science of gastronomy
which is recorded of the Margchal Strozzi, whose
maifre de cuisine maintained his master?s table with
twelve covers every day, although he had nothing
better to set upon it now and then except the
quarter of a carrion horse, dressed with the grass
and weeds that grew upon the ramparts.?
The discovery, a few years ago, of an ancient
well filled to its brim with cart-loads of horses?
heads, near the head of the Links, was a singular
but expressive monument of the resolution with
which the town was defended
The unfortunate Queen Regent did not live to
see the end of these affairs. She was sinking
fast. She had contemplated retiring to France,
and had a commission executed at Blois by Francis ... REPULSE OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTS. I77 Cornelle, Shelly, Littleton, Southworthe, and nine other officers, ...

Book 5  p. 177
(Score 0.58)

246 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
OF the house of Provost Nicol Edward (or Udward,
to which we have referred) a very elaborate
description is given in the work entitled ? Minor
Alexander Clark?s house, at the same wynd head.?
In after years the lintel of this house was built in to
Ross?s Tower, at the Dean. It bore this legend :-
?THE LORD IS MY PROTECTOR,
ALEXANDRUS CLARK.?
Nicol Edward was Provost of Edinburgh in 1591,
and his house was a large and substantial building
of quadrangular form and elegant proportions.
The Chancellor at this time was Sir John Maitland
of Lethington, Lord Thirlestane.
Moyses next tells us that on the 7th of February,
George Earl of Huntly (the same fiery peer who
fought the battle of Glenlivat), ? with his friends,
to the number of five or six score horse, passed
from his Majesty?s said house in Edinburgh, as intending
to pass to a horse-race in Leith ; but after
they came, they passed forward to the Queensferry,
where they caused to stop the passing of all
boats over the water,? and &ossing to Fife, attacked
the Castle of Donnibristle, and slew ?? the bonnie
Earl of Murray.?
From this passage it would seem that if Huntly?s
six score horse were not lodged in Nicol Edward?s
house, they were probably billeted over all the
adjacent wynd, which six years after was the scene
of a homicide, that affords a remarkable illustration
of the exclusive rule of master over man which
then prevailed.
On the first day of the sitting of Parliament, the
7th December, 1597, Archibald Jardine, niasterstabler
and servitor to the Earl of Angus, was slain,
through some negligence, by Andrew Stalker, a
,goldsmith at Niddry?s Wynd head, for which he was
put in prison.
Then the cry of ??Armour !? went through the
streets, and all the young men of Edinburgh rose in
arms, under James Williamson, their captain, ?? and
desirit grace,? as Birrel records, ?for the young
man who had done ane reckless deed. The
King?s majesty desirit them to go to my Lord
of Angus, the man?s master, and satisfy and
carved his arms, with an anagram upon his name
thus :- ?* VA @UN VOL h CHRIST ?-
pacify his wrath, and he should be contentit to
save his life.?
James Williamson thereupon went to the Earl of
Angus, and offered, in the name of the young men
of the city, ? their manreid,? or bond of man-rent,
to be ready to serve him in war and feud, upon
which he pardoned the said Andrew Stalker, who
was immediately released from prison.
In December, 1665, Nicoll mentions that a
doctor of physic named Joanna Baptista, acting
under a warrant from his Majesty Charles II.,
erected a stage between the head of Niddry?s Wynd
and Blackfriars? Wynd, whereon ?he vended his
drugs, powder, and medicaments, for the whilk he
received a great abundance of money.?
In May, 1692, we read that William Livingstone,
brother of the Viscount Kilsyth, a cavalier, and
husband of the widow of Viscount Dundee, had
been a prisoner in the Tolbooth from June, 1689,
to November, 1690-seventeen months ; thereafter,
that he had lived in a chamber in the city
under a guard for a year, and that he was permitted
to go forth for a walk daily, but still under the eye
of a guard. In consequence of his being thus
treated, and his rents being sequestrated by the
Revolutionary Government, his fortune was entirely
ruined. On his petition, the Privy Council now
permitted him ? to go abroad under a sentinel each
day.from morning to evening furth of the house of
Andrew Smith, periwig-maker, at the head of
Niddry?s Wynd,? he finding caution under A;1,500
sterling to remain a prisoner.
Under an escort of dragoons he was permitted
to leave the periwig-maker?s, and visit Kilsyth, after
which he was confined in two royal castles and the
Tolbooth till 1693, ?so that, as a writer remarks,
?in the course of the first five years of British
liberty, Mr. Livingstone must have acquired a
tolerably extensive acquaintance with the various
forms and modes of imprisonment, so far as these
existed in the northern section of the island.? ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street. OF the house of Provost Nicol Edward (or Udward, to which we have ...

Book 2  p. 246
(Score 0.56)

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

Book 5  p. 130
(Score 0.56)

382 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
altar, are the arms of Thomas de Cranston, Seutifer Regis, a man of considerable influence
in the reign of James IL, and a frequent ambassador to foreign courts, who died about
1470; and on the engaged pillar to the south, the arms are those of Isabel, Duchess of
Albany and Countess of Lennox, who, in 1450-about a year before her death-founded
the Collegiate Church of Dumbarton, and largely endowed other religious foundations.’
Maitland remarks-“ In the year 1462, a great work seems to have been in hand at this
church ; for it was by the Town Council ordained that all persons presuming to buy corn
before it was entered should forfeit one chalder to the church work.” This may be supposed
to refer to the same additions to the choir begun in the reign of James 11. and then in
progress, though it will be seen that other works were proceeded with about the same time.
The work had no doubt been aided by the contributions of that monarch, and may have
been further encouraged by the gifts of his widowed queen for masses to his soul. The
repetition of the royal arms on the King’s Pillar is probably intended to refer to James III.,
in whose reign the work was finished. To the south of the choir, a second aisle of three arches,
with a richly-groined ceiling, forms the Preston Aisle, erected agreeably to a charter granted
to William Prestoune, of Gortoune, by the city of Edinburgh in 1454, setting forth (‘ pat
forasmekle as William of Prestoun the fadir, quam God assoillie, made diligent labour and
grete menis, be a he and mighty Prince, the Eing of France, and mony uyr Lordis of
France, for the gettyn of the arme bane of Saint Gele ;-the quhilk bane he freely left to
our moyr kirk of Saint Gele of Edinburgh, withoutyn ony condition makyn;-we considrand
ye grete labouris and costis yat he made for the gettyn yrof, we pmit, as said is
yat within six or seven zere, in all the possible and gudely haste we may, yat we sal big
an ile, furth frae our Lady Ile, quhare ye said William lyes in the said ile, to be begunyin
within a zere ; in the quhilk ile yare sall be made a brase for his crest in bosit work ; and
abone the brase a plate of brase, with a writ, specifiand, the bringing of yat relik be him
in Scotland, with his armis ; and his armis to be put, in hewyn marble, uyr thre parts of the
ile.” ’ The charter further binds the Provost and Council to found an altar there, with a
chaplain, and secures to the lineal descendants of the donor the priyilege of bearing the
precious gift of St Giles’s arm bone in all public processions. The aims of Preston still
remain on the roof of the aisle, as engaged to be executed in this charter ; and the same
may be seen repeated in different parts of their ancient stronghold of Craipillar Castle ;
where also occurs their Rebus, sculptured on a stone panel of the outer wall : a press, and
tun or barrel.’ They continued annually to exercise their chartered right of bearing the
arm bone of the Patron Saint till the memorable year 1558, when the College of St Giles
walked for the last time in procession, on the 1st of September, the festival of St Giles,
bearing in procession a statue hired for the occasion, from the Grey Friars, to personate the
Great Image of the Saint, as large M life, because ‘( the auld Saint Geile” had been
fist drowned in the North Loch as an adulterer, or encourager of idolatry, and thereafter
1 A letter on the subject of these armorial bearings, signed A D. [the late Alexander Deuchar, we presume, a firatrate
authority on all matters of heraldry], appeared in the Scota Nagaaine, June 1818. The writer promises to send the
result of further observations, but he does not appear to have followed out his intentions. ’ Maitland, p. 271.
a Archmlogia Scotica, vol. i. p. 575. ’ The Rebus of Prior Bolton, in Westminster Abbey, is very similar ta this : a tun, or barrel, with a bolt thrust
-
through it. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. altar, are the arms of Thomas de Cranston, Seutifer Regis, a man of considerable ...

Book 10  p. 419
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128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
distinguished for his good taste and public spirit, No one maintained a more
liberal establishment. His horses were always of superior mettle, and his carriage
the most handsomely mounted in the district ; but, by his succession to
the title and estates of Eglinton, a new and more extended field was opened.
His predecessors, Earls Alexander and Archibald, had greatly improved their
lands especially in the neighbourhood of Kilwinning. ‘‘ They set the example,”
says a writer in 1803, “of introducing a new mode of farming-subdividing
the land-sheltering it by belts of wooding, and planting the little rising
mounts on their vast estates, by which means Ayrshire has become like a
garden, and is one of the richest and most fertile counties in Scotland.” Earl
Hugh was not behind his predecessors. The first thing which presented itself
as an object of improvement was the old Castle ; which had been the family
seat for nearly five hundred years. It was no doubt sufficiently strong, but
always terminated by a dinner of “beef and greens,” and a suitable quantity of punch, at the
expense of the vanquished ; and no penon waa more delighted than the Laird when he happened
to dine at the expense of the Major.
The Major, like his father, was social in his habits ; and, among those who used to frequent
the “big house,” none were more welcome to dinner than the famous John Rankine, the Baron
Bailie of Haughmerk-a small estate in the neighbourhood of Tarholton, then the property of one
M‘Lure, a merchant in Ayr, but which now belongs to the Duke of Portland. Rankine WBS locally
well known for his wit and Bacchanalian propensities ; but he has been rendered niore enduringly
celebrated by the epistle of Burns, in which the poet addresses him-
The wail 0’ cocks for fun and drinking.”
“ 0 rough, rude, ready-witted Rankine,
There are many anecdotes told of the Baron Bailie’s “ cracks and cants.” He had always a shilling
to spend ; and while he kept the table in a roar, nothing gave him greater pleasure than to see his
cronies, one by one, brought under by the stout John Barleycorn. The Bailie always seemed to
drink fair; yet very seldom got top-heavy himself. One device by which he occasionally liept
the bowl in circulation was a small wooden apparatus, on the principle of the modern “wheel of
fortune,” xrliich he called “ whigmaleerie.” Whoever whigmaleerie pointed to was doomed to
drink the next glass ; and by this species of “ thimble-rigging ” it may be guessed the Bailie seldom
left many sober in the company.
As an instance of the good old times, we may mention, by way of gossip, that during Rsnkine’s
bailieship of Haughmerk, when the Martinmas rents were paid, his tenants were convened at the
house of the miller on his estate, called the Mill-burn Mill, where ale and British spirits had been
retailed by each successive miller, from time immemorial, and a good dinner and drink providedthe
Bailie acting as croupier. None went from the Mill empty ; and sonie of the older people, who
never drank but once a year, had frequently to be taken home in the miller’s cart.
The celebrated Laird of Logan was another frequent visitor at Coilsfield j and when there on
one occasion with John Hamilton of Bargany, a staunch supporter of the honour and credit of his
native district of Carrick, Mossman, a native of Maybole, was brought before Mr. Montgomerie as
a Justice of the Peace, on suspicion of having committed an act of theft, Mr. Montgomerie called
in the aid of his friends, who were also in the commission of the peace, to investigate the case, when
it was resolved that the prisoner ahould be sent to Ayr jail for trial. The Laird of Logan assigned
three reasons for concurring in the warrant:-lst, Because the prisoner had been found on the
king’s highway without cause : Zd, Because he had I‘ wan’ered in his discoune ;” and, 3d, Because
he belonged to Carrick I The last was a fling at Bargany, and had the effect intended of provoking
him to a warm defence of his district, Mossman suffered the last penalty of the law, for the trifling
theft with which he waa charged, alongst with other two felons, at Ayr, on the 20th May 1785.
At the execution of these unfortunate men, the main rope by which they were suspended broke
when they were thrown off (it is supposed from having been previoiisly eaturated with vitriol) ; and
they remained in a half-hanged state until a new rope was procured, to carry their sentence into
execution. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. distinguished for his good taste and public spirit, No one maintained a more liberal ...

Book 9  p. 171
(Score 0.53)

334 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Sheet
There was then in Edinburgn a merchant, named
Charles Jackson, to whom Charles 11. had acted
as godfather in the Kirk of Keith, and Jackson
was a name assumed by Charles after his escape
in the Royal Oak. In consideration of all this,
by an advertisement in the Courant, Mr. Jackson,
as being lineally descended from a stock of
royalists, ?invited all such to solemnise that
memorable day (29th May) at an enclosure called
Charles?s Field, lying a mile south from this city
(where he hath erected a very useful bleachingfield),
and there entertained them with a diversity
of liquors, fine music, 8rc.?
He had a huge bonfire lighted, and a tall pole
erected, with a large banner displayed therefrom,
and the royal oak painted on it, together with
the bark in which his sacred majesty made his
escape, and the colonel who accompanied him
?The company around the bonfire drank Her
Majesty Queen Anne?s health, and the memory ot
the happy Restoration, with great mirth and demonstrations
of loyalty. The night concluded with
mirth, and the standard being brought back to Mr.
Jackson?s lodgings, was carried by ZoyaZ gentlemen
bareheaded, and followed by several others with
trumpets, hautboys, and bagpipes playing before
them, where they were kindly entertained.? (Reliquiz
Scofia.)
CHAPTER XXXIX.
NICOLSON STREET AND SQUARE.
Lady Nicolson-Her Pillar-Royal Riding School-M. Angelo-New Surgeons? Hall-The Earl of Leven-Dr. Barthwick Gilchrist-The Blind
Asylum-John Madmen-Sir David WilkicRaxburgh Parish-My Glenorchy?r Chapel.
NICOLSON STREET, which runs southward to the
Cross Causeway, on a line with the South Bridge,was
formed about the middle of the eighteenth century,
on the grounds of Lady Nicolson, whose mansion
stood on an area now covered by the eastern end
of North College Street ; and a writer in a public
print recently stated that the house numhered as
82 in Nicolson Street, presently occupied as a
hotel, was erected for and occupied by her after
the street was formed.
In Shaw?s ? Register of Entails ? under date of
Tailzie, 7th October, 1763, and of Registration, 4th
December, 1764, is the name of Lady Nicolson
(Elizabeth Carnegie), relict of Mr. Tames Nicolson,
with note of the lands and heritable subjects in
the shire of Edinburgh that should belong to her
at her death.
In Edgar?s plan for 1765, her park, lying eastward
of the Potterrow, is intersected by the ?New
Road,? evidently the line of the present street, and
at its northern end is her mansion, some seventy
feet distant from the city wall, with a carriage gate
and lodge, the only other building near it being the
Royal Riding School, with its stables, on the site of
the present Surgeons? Hall.
On the completion of Nicolson Street, Lady
Nicolson erected at its northern end a monument
to her husband. It was, states Amot, a fluted
Corinthian column, twenty-five feet two inches in
height, with a capital and base, and fourteen inches
diameter. Another account says it was from
thirty to forty feet in height, and had on its pedestal
an inscription in Latin and English, stating that
Lady Nicolson having been left the adjacent piece
of ground by her husband, had, out of regard for
his memory, made it to be planned into ?? a street,
to be named from him, Xicolson Street.?
On the extension of the thoroughfare and ultimate
completion of the South Bridge, from which
it was for some years a conspicuous object, it was
removed, and the affectionate memorial, instead
of being placed in the little square, with that barbarous
want of sentiment that has characterised
many improvements in Edinburgh and elsewhere in
Scotland in more important matters, was thrown
aside into the yard of the adjacent Riding School,
and was, no doubt, soon after broken up for
rubble.
One of the first edifices in the newly-formed
thoroughfare was the old Riding School, a block of
buildings and stables, measuring about one hundred
and fifty feet each way.
The first ?master of the Royal Riding Menage?
was Angelo Tremamondo, a native of Italy, .as his
name imports, though it has been supposed that it
was merely a mountebank assumption, as it means
the tremor of the world, a universal earthquake;
but be that as it may, his Christian name in Edmburgh
speedily dwindled clown to Aimhe. He was
in the pay of the Government, was among the earliest
residents in Nicolson Square, and had a salary of
Lzoo per annum. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Sheet There was then in Edinburgn a merchant, named Charles Jackson, to whom ...

Book 4  p. 334
(Score 0.53)

334 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Sheet
There was then in Edinburgn a merchant, named
Charles Jackson, to whom Charles 11. had acted
as godfather in the Kirk of Keith, and Jackson
was a name assumed by Charles after his escape
in the Royal Oak. In consideration of all this,
by an advertisement in the Courant, Mr. Jackson,
as being lineally descended from a stock of
royalists, ?invited all such to solemnise that
memorable day (29th May) at an enclosure called
Charles?s Field, lying a mile south from this city
(where he hath erected a very useful bleachingfield),
and there entertained them with a diversity
of liquors, fine music, 8rc.?
He had a huge bonfire lighted, and a tall pole
erected, with a large banner displayed therefrom,
and the royal oak painted on it, together with
the bark in which his sacred majesty made his
escape, and the colonel who accompanied him
?The company around the bonfire drank Her
Majesty Queen Anne?s health, and the memory ot
the happy Restoration, with great mirth and demonstrations
of loyalty. The night concluded with
mirth, and the standard being brought back to Mr.
Jackson?s lodgings, was carried by ZoyaZ gentlemen
bareheaded, and followed by several others with
trumpets, hautboys, and bagpipes playing before
them, where they were kindly entertained.? (Reliquiz
Scofia.)
CHAPTER XXXIX.
NICOLSON STREET AND SQUARE.
Lady Nicolson-Her Pillar-Royal Riding School-M. Angelo-New Surgeons? Hall-The Earl of Leven-Dr. Barthwick Gilchrist-The Blind
Asylum-John Madmen-Sir David WilkicRaxburgh Parish-My Glenorchy?r Chapel.
NICOLSON STREET, which runs southward to the
Cross Causeway, on a line with the South Bridge,was
formed about the middle of the eighteenth century,
on the grounds of Lady Nicolson, whose mansion
stood on an area now covered by the eastern end
of North College Street ; and a writer in a public
print recently stated that the house numhered as
82 in Nicolson Street, presently occupied as a
hotel, was erected for and occupied by her after
the street was formed.
In Shaw?s ? Register of Entails ? under date of
Tailzie, 7th October, 1763, and of Registration, 4th
December, 1764, is the name of Lady Nicolson
(Elizabeth Carnegie), relict of Mr. Tames Nicolson,
with note of the lands and heritable subjects in
the shire of Edinburgh that should belong to her
at her death.
In Edgar?s plan for 1765, her park, lying eastward
of the Potterrow, is intersected by the ?New
Road,? evidently the line of the present street, and
at its northern end is her mansion, some seventy
feet distant from the city wall, with a carriage gate
and lodge, the only other building near it being the
Royal Riding School, with its stables, on the site of
the present Surgeons? Hall.
On the completion of Nicolson Street, Lady
Nicolson erected at its northern end a monument
to her husband. It was, states Amot, a fluted
Corinthian column, twenty-five feet two inches in
height, with a capital and base, and fourteen inches
diameter. Another account says it was from
thirty to forty feet in height, and had on its pedestal
an inscription in Latin and English, stating that
Lady Nicolson having been left the adjacent piece
of ground by her husband, had, out of regard for
his memory, made it to be planned into ?? a street,
to be named from him, Xicolson Street.?
On the extension of the thoroughfare and ultimate
completion of the South Bridge, from which
it was for some years a conspicuous object, it was
removed, and the affectionate memorial, instead
of being placed in the little square, with that barbarous
want of sentiment that has characterised
many improvements in Edinburgh and elsewhere in
Scotland in more important matters, was thrown
aside into the yard of the adjacent Riding School,
and was, no doubt, soon after broken up for
rubble.
One of the first edifices in the newly-formed
thoroughfare was the old Riding School, a block of
buildings and stables, measuring about one hundred
and fifty feet each way.
The first ?master of the Royal Riding Menage?
was Angelo Tremamondo, a native of Italy, .as his
name imports, though it has been supposed that it
was merely a mountebank assumption, as it means
the tremor of the world, a universal earthquake;
but be that as it may, his Christian name in Edmburgh
speedily dwindled clown to Aimhe. He was
in the pay of the Government, was among the earliest
residents in Nicolson Square, and had a salary of
Lzoo per annum. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Sheet There was then in Edinburgn a merchant, named Charles Jackson, to whom ...

Book 4  p. 335
(Score 0.53)

=go MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of Eglinton, resided during her latter years, and was visited by Lady Jane Douglas,
as appears in the evidence of the Douglas Cause. The other tenants of its numer0usJiTat.s
were doubtless of corresponding importance in the social scale ; but its most eminent
occupant was David Hume, who removed thither from Riddle’s Land, Lawnmarket, in
1753, while engaged in writing his History of England, and continued to reside at Jack’s
Land during the most important period of his literary career. Immediately behind this,
in a court on the east side of Big Jack’s Close, there existed till a few years since some
remains of the town mansion of General Dalyell, commander of the forces in Scotland
during most of the reign of Charles II., and the merciless persecutor of the outlawed
Presbyterians during that period. The General’s dwelling is described in the Minor
Antiquities a as (( one of the meanest-looking buildings ever, perhaps, inhabited by a
gentleman.” In this, however, the author was ‘deceived by the humble appearance of the
small portion that then remained. There is no reason to believe that the stern
Mmcovite-as he was styled from serving under the Russian Czar, during the Protectorate-
tempered his cruelties by an$ such Spartan-like virtues. The General’s
residence, on the contrary, appears to have done full credit to a courtier of the Restoratidn.
We owe the description of it, as it existed about the beginning of the present
century, to a very zealous antiquary’ who was born there in 1787, and resided in the
house for many years. He has often conversed with another of its tenants, who remembered
being taken to Holyrood when a child to see Prince Charles on his arrival at .
the palace of his forefathers. The chief apartment was a hall of unusually large
dimensions, with an arched or waggon-shaped ceiling adorned with a painting of the
sun in the centre, surrounded by gilded rays on an azure ground. The remainder of
the ceiling was painted to represent sky and clouds, and spangled over with a series of
silvered stars in relief. The large windows were closed below with carved oaken shutters,
similar in style to the fine specimen still remaining in Riddle’s Close, and the
same kind of windows existed in other parts of the building. The kitchen also was
worthy of notice for a fire-place, formed of a plain circular arch of such unusual
dimensions that popular credulity might have assigned it for the perpetration of
those rites it had ascribed to him, of spiting and roasting his miserable captives l 4 Our
informant was told by an intelligent old man, who had resided in the house for many
years, that a chapel formerly stood on the site of the open court, but all traces of it
The following advertisement will probably be considered a curious illustration of the Canongate aristocracy at a
still later period:-“A negro runaway.-That on Wednesday the 10th current, an East India ne50 lad eloped from a
family of distinction residing in the Canongate of Edinburgh, and is supposed to have gone towards Newcastle. He is
of the mulatto colour, aged betwixt sixteen and seventeen years, about five feet high, having long black hair, slender
made and long-limbed. He had on, when he went off, a brown cloth short coat, with brass buttons, mounted with
black and yellow button-holes, breeches of the same, and a yellow vest with black and yellow lace, with a brown duffle
surtout coat, with yellow lining, and metal buttons, grey and white marled stockings, a fine English hat with yellow
lining, having a gold loop and tassle, and double gilded button. As this negro lad has carried off sundry articles of
value, whoever shall receive him, EO that he may be restored to the owner, on sending notice thereof to Patrick
M‘Dougal, writer in Edinburgh, shall be handsomely rewarded.”-Edinhwgh Advertiser, March 12th, 1773. An
earlier advertisement in the Courunt, March 7th, 1727, offers a reward for the apprehension of another runaway :-“A
negro woman, named Ann, about eighteen years of age, with a green gown, and a brass collar about her neck, on which
are engraved these words, ‘ Gustavus Brown in Dalkeith, his negro, 1726.’ ” ’ Minor Antiquities of Edinburgh, p. 230.
Mr Wm. Rowan, librarian, New College,
Fountainhall‘s Deciaiona, vol. i. p. 159. Burnet’s Hut. of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 334. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. of Eglinton, resided during her latter years, and was visited by Lady Jane ...

Book 10  p. 315
(Score 0.52)

The Lucke~rbooths.] WILLIAM CREECH. 157
periodicals were issued by Creech; and the first
number of the former, when it appeared on Saturday,
23rd of January, 1779, created quite a sensation
among the ?? blue-stocking ? coteries of the
city.
In ?Peter?s Letters to his Kinsfolk,? ?Mr. Creech,
then prince of the Edinburgh trade,? is rather
dubiously written of. ?This bibliopole was a
very indifferent master of his trade, and wanted
entirely the wit to take due advantage of the goods
the gods provided. He was himself a great literary
character, and he was always a great man in the
magistracy of the city ; and perhaps he would have
thought it beneath him to be a mere ordinary moneymaking
bookseller. Not that he had any aversion
to money-making; on the contrary, he was prodigiously
fond of money, and carried his love of it
in many things to a ridiculous extent. But he had
been trained in all the timid prejudices of the old
Edinburgh school of booksellers ; and not daring
to make money in a bold and magnificent way,
neither did he dare to run the risk of losing any
part of what he had made. Had he possessed
either the shrewdness or the spirit of some of his
successors, there is no question he might have set
on foot a fine race of rivalry among .the literary
men about him-a race of which the ultimate
gains would undoubtedly have been greatest to
himself. . . . , He never had the sense to
perceive that his true game lay in making high
sweepstakes, and the consequence was that nobody - would take the trouble either of training or running
for his courses.?
The successors referred to are evidently Constable
and the Blackwoods, as the writer continues
thus :-
*? it?hat a singular contrast does the present state
of Edinburgh in regard to these. matters afford
when compared to what I have been endeavouring
to describe as existing in the days of the Creeches !
Insteac! of Scottish authors sending their works to
be published by London booksellers, there is
nothing more common now-a-days than to hear of
English authors sending down their books to Edinburgh
to be published in a city than which Memphis
or Palmyra would scarcely have appeared a
more absurd place of publication to any English
author thirty years ago.?
Creech died unmarried on the 14th of January,
1815, in his seventieth year, only two years before
the interesting old Land which bore his name for
nearly half a century was demolished ; but a view
of it is attached to his ?Fugitive Pieces,? which
he published in 1791. These were essays and
sketches of character and manners in Edinburgh,
which he had occasionally contributed to the newspapers.
The Z?+shoj of Creech?s Land was last occupied
by the Messrs. Hutchison, extensive traders,
who, in the bad state of the copper coinage, when
the halfpennies of George 111. would not pass
current .in Scotland, produced a coinage of Edinburgh
halfpennies in .I 7 g I that were long universally
received. On one side were the city arms
and crest, boldly struck, surrounded by thistles.
with the legend, Edinburgh Halfpenny; on the
other, St. Andrew with his cross, and the national
motto, Nemo me imjune Zacessit, which is freely
and spiritedly rendered, ? Ye dzurna meddle wi?
me.? Since then they have gradually disappeared,
and now are only to ue found in numismatic collections.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE.
Site of the Parliament House-The Parliament Hall-Its fine Roof-Proportions-Its External Aspct of Old-Pictures and Statues
-The Great South Window-The Side Windows-Scots Prisonen of War-Gcneral Monk Feasted-A Scene with Gen. Llalyell-
The Fire of IT-Riding of the Parliament-The Union-Its dire Erects and ultimate good RcsuIt+Tnal of Covenanters.
No building in Edinburgh possesses perhaps more
interest historically than the Parliament House,
and yet its antiquity is not great, as it was finished
only in 1639 fot the meetings of the Estates, and
was used for that purpose exclusively till the Union
in 1707.
Previous to its erection in St. Giles?s churchyard,
the national Parliaments, the Courts of Justice,
and the Town Council of Edinburgh, held?their
meetings in the old Tolbooth, and the circumstance
of such assemblies taking place constantly in its
vicinity must have led to the gradual abandonment
of the old churchyard of St. Giles?s as a place of
sepulture, for when the readiest access to the Tolbooth
was up the steep slope from the chapel of
the holy rood in the Cowgate, among the grassy
tumuli and old tombstones, and the burial-place
became the lounge of lackeys, grooms, and
armed servitors, waiting for their masters during
the sittings of the House, all the sacred and ... Lucke~rbooths.] WILLIAM CREECH. 157 periodicals were issued by Creech; and the first number of the former, ...

Book 1  p. 157
(Score 0.52)

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