![Rase Street.] HUG0 ARNOT. ?59
announced that Bailie Creech, of literary celebrity,
was about to lead Miss Burns of Rose Street ?? to
the hymeneal altar.? In hiswrath, Creech threatened
an action against the editor, whose contradiction
made matters worse :-? In a former number we
noticed the intended marriage between Bailie
Creech of Edinburgh and the beautiful Miss Bums
of the same place. We have now the authority of
that gentleman to say that the proposed marriage
is not to take place, matters having been otherwise
arranged, to the mutual satisfaction of both parties
and their respective friends.? After a few years of
unenviable notoriety, says the editor of *? Kay,?
Miss Burns fell into a decline, and died in 1792 at
Roslin, where a stone in the churchyard records
her name and the date of her demise.
In the same year of this squabble we find a
ball advertised in connection with the now unfashionable
locality of Rose Street, thus :-? Mr.
Sealey (teacher of dancing) begs to acquaint his
friends and the public that his ball is iixed for the
20th of March next, and that in order to accommodate
his scholars in the New Town, he proposes
opening a school in Rose Street, Young?s Land,
opposite to the Physicians? Hall, the 24th of that
month, where he intends to teach on Tuesdays
and Fridays from nine in the morning, and the
remainder of the week at his school in Foulis?s
Close, as formerly.? In 1796 we find among
its residents Sir Samuel Egerton Leigh, Knight, of
South Carolina, whose lady ? was safely delivered
of a son on Wednesday morning (16th March) at
her lodgings in Rose Street.?
Sir Samuel was the second son of Sir Egerton
high, His Majesty?s AttorneyGenerd for South
Carolina, and he died at Edinburgh in the ensuing
January. He had a sister, married to the youngest
brother of Sir Thomas Burnet of Leya
This son, born at Edinburgh in 1796, succeeded
in ISIS to the baronetcy, on the death of his uncle,
Sir Egerton, who married Theodosia (relict of
Captain John Donellan), daughter of Sir Edward,
and sister of Sir Theodosius Edward Boughton,
for the murder of whom by poison the captain was
executed at Warwick in 1781,
It was in Dr. John Brown?s Chapel in Rose
Street, that Robert Pollok, the well-known author
of ?The Course of Time,? who was a licentiate of
the United Secession Church, preached his only
sermon, and soon after ordination he was attacked
by that pulmonary disease of which he died in
1827.
In 1810 No. 82 was ?Mrs. Bruce?s fashionable
boarding-school,? and many persons of the greatest
respectability occupied the common stairs, particularly
to the westward ; and in Thistle Street were
many residents of very good position.
Thus No. z was the house, in 1784, of Sir
John Gordon, Bart. ; and Sir Alexander Don, Bart.,
of Newton Don, lived in No. 4, when Lady Don
Dowager resided in No. 53, George Street (he had
been one of the d h u s in France who were seized
when passing through it during the short peace of
1802), and a Mrs. Colonel Ross occupied No. 17,
Under the name of Hill Street this thoroughfare
is continued westward, between Fredenck Street
and Castle Street, all the houses being ?selfcontained.?
The Right Hon. Charles Hope of
Granton, Lord Justice Clerk, had his chambers in
No. 6 (now writers? offices) in ~808 ; Buchanan of
Auchintorlie lived in No. I I, and Clark of Comrie
in No. 9, now also legal offices. In one of the houses
here resided, and was married in 1822, as mentioned
in Bkrckwoad?s Magazine for that year, Charles
Edward Stuart, styled latterly Count d?Albany
(whose son, the Carlist colonel, married a daughter
of the Earl of Errol), and who, with his brother, John
Sobieski Stuarf attracted much attention in the city
and Scotland generally, between that period and
1847, and of whom various accounts have been
given. They gave themselves out as the grandsons
of Charles Edward Stuart, but were said to be
the sons of a Captain Thomas Allan, R.N., and
grandsons of Admiral John Carter Allan, who died
in 1800.
Seven broad and handsome streets, running south
and north, intersect the great parallelogram of the
New Town. It was at the corner of one of those
streets-but which we are not told-that Robert
Burns first saw, in 1787, Mrs. Graham, so celebrated
for her wonderful beauty, and whose husband
commanded in the Castle of Stirling.
From the summit of the ridge, where each of
these streets cross George Street, are commanded
superb views : on one side the old town, and on
the other the northern New Town, and away to the
hills of Fife and Kinross.
According to ? Peter Williamson?s Directory,?
Hugo Arnot, the historian, had taken up his abode
in the Meuse Lane of South St. Andrew Street
in 1784. His own name was Pollock, but he
changed it to Arnot on succeeding to the estate of
Balcormo, in Fifeshire. In his fifteenth year hC
became afflicted with asthma, and through life was
reduced to the attenuation of a skeleton. Admitted
an advocate in 1772, he ever took a deep interest
in all local matters, and published various essays
thereon, and his exertions in promoting the
improvements then in progress in Edinburgh were
which is now the New Town dispensary. c](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p171.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 159")
... 53, George Street (he had
been one of the d h u s in France who were seized
when passing through it during ...
Book 3 p. 159
(Score 0.49)
... was now
under his rule.
Kirkaldy, whose services in France and elsewhere
had won him the high reputation ...
Book 1 p. 47
(Score 0.49)
![Leith Walk.] ANDREW MACDONALD. J 59
in whose favour, so long as she exercised her profession,
she continued to hold the first place in
spite of their temporary enthusiasm for the great
London stars, who visited them at stated seasons.
? Our Mrs. Siddons? I frequently heard her called
in Edinburgh, not at all with the idea of comparing
her with the celebrated mother-in-law j but rather
as expressing the kindly personal goodwill with
which she was regarded by her own townsfolk who
were proud and fond of her.?
She was not a great actress, according to this
writer, for she lacked versatility, or power of assumption
in any part that was opposed to her nature
or out of her power, and she was destitute
of physical strength and weight for Shaksperian
heroines generally; yet Rosalind, Viola, Imogen,
and Label, had no sweeter exponents ; and in all
pieces that turned on the tender, soft, and faithful
Mary Stuart,?she gave an unrivalled impersonation.?
On leaving Edinburgh, after 1830, she carried
with her the good wishes of the entire people, ? for
they had recognised in her not merely the accomplished
actress, but the good mother, the refined
lady, and the irreproachable member of society.?
Northward of Windsor Street, in what was once
a narrow, pleasant, and secluded path between
thick hedgerows, called the Lovers? Loan, was
built, in 1876, at a short distance from the railway
station, the Leith Walk public school, at a cost of
L9,ooo; it is in the Decorated Collegiate style,
calculated to accommodate about 840 scholars, and
is a good specimen of the Edinburgh Board schools.
In the Lovers? Loan Greenside House was long
the property and the summer residence of James
Marshal, W.S., whose town residence was in Milne
Square, so limited were the ideas of locomotion
and exaggerated those of distance in the last century.
He was born in 1731, says Kay?s Editor,
and though an acute man of business, was one of
the most profound swearers of his day, so much so
that few could compete with him.? He died in the
then sequestered house of Greenside in 1807.
In the year 1802 the ground here was occupied
by Barker?s ? famous panorama,? from Leicester
Square, London, wherein were exhibited views of
Dover, the Downs, and the coast of France, with
the embarkation of troops, horse and foot, from ten
till dusk, at one shilling a head, opposite the
Botanical Garden.
Lower down, where we now find Albert, Falshaw,
and Buchanan Streets, the ground for more
than twenty years was a garden nursery, long the
feu of Messrs. Eagle and Henderson, some of whose
advertisements as seedsfnen go back to nearly the
middle of the last century.
At the foot of the Walk there was born, in 1755,
Andrew Macdonald, an ingenious but unfortunate
dramatic and miscellaneous writer, whose father,
George Donald, was a market-gardener there. He
received the rudiments of his education in the
Leith High School, and early indicated such literary
talents, that his friends had sanguine hopes
of his future eminence, and with a view to his
becoming a minister of the Scottish Episcopal
communion he studied at the University of Edinburgh,
where he remained till the year 1775, when
he was put into deacon?s orders by Bishop Forbes
of Leith. On this account, at the suggestion of the
latter, he prefixed the syllable Mac to his name.
As there was no living for him vacant, he left his
father?s cottage in Leith Walk to become a tutor
in the family of Oliphant of Gask, after which he
became pastor of an Episcopal congregation in
Glasgow, and in 1772 published ?Velina, a Poetical
Fragment,? which is said to have contained
much genuine poetry, and was in the Spenserian
stanza.
His next essay was ?? The Independent,? which
won him neither profit nor reputation ; but having
written ?Vimonda, a Tragedy,? with a prologue
by Henry Mackenzie, he came to Edinburgh, where
it was put upon the boards, and where he vainly
hoped to make? a living by his pen. It was received
with great applause, but won him no advantage,
as his literary friends now deserted him.
Before leaving Glasgow he had taken a step which
they deemed alike imprudent and degrading.
?This was his marrying the maid-servant of the
house in which he lodged. His reception, therefore,
on his return to Edinburgh from these friends
and those of his acquaintances who participated in
their feelings, had in it much to annoy and distress
him, although no charge could be brought against
the humble partner of his fortunes but the meanness
of her condition.? Thus his literary prospects,
so far as regarded Edinburgh, ended in total disappointment
; so, accompanied by his wife, he betook
him to the greater centre of London.
There the fame of ?Vimonda? had preceded
him, and Colman brought it out with splendour to
crowded houses in the years 1787 and 1788; and
now poor Macdonald?s mind became radiant with
hope of affluence and fame, and he had a pretty
little residence at Brompton, then a sequestered
place.
He next engaged with much ardour upon an
opera, but made his subsistence chiefly by writing
satirical papers and poems for the newspapers,
under the signature of ?Mathew Bramble.? At
last this resource failed him, and he found himself
*](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p170.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 159")
... exhibited views of
Dover, the Downs, and the coast of France , with
the embarkation of troops, horse and foot, ...
Book 5 p. 159
(Score 0.49)
... Earl of Douglas, Duke of Tonraine
and Marshal of France , who was slain at the battle
of Verneuil by the ...
Book 1 p. 142
(Score 0.49)
... military
objects.
When Albany returned from visiting France , in
1521, the queen-dowager, Beaton, and so ...
Book 1 p. 42
(Score 0.48)
... Nasmyth, of the family of Posso, surgeon of
the king of France ?s troop of Scottish Guards, who
died in London, ...
Book 4 p. 382
(Score 0.48)
... the queen mother embarked to visit her
daughter Mary in France . On this occasion she
was accompanied by a ...
Book 6 p. 298
(Score 0.48)
![Queen Street.] SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON. I53
office by Sir James Montgomery of Stanhope.
Early in the next century the house was the
residence of Sir William Cunningham, Bart, and in
more recent years had as an occupant the gallant
Sir Neil Douglas, Commander of the Forces in
Scotland and Governor of Edinburgh Castle, who
commanded the Cameron Highlanders in the war
with France, and was contused by a ball at Quatre
Bras. It is now occupied by tlic Edinburgh Institution
for Education, the head of which is Dr.
Fergusson, F.R.S.E.
Nos. g and 10 were removed in 1844 to make
way for the present hall of the Royal College of
Physicians, on the demolition of the former one in
George Street. The foundation stone was laid on
the 8th of August, 1844, by the then president,
Dr. Renton, in presence of the Fellows of the
college and others. In it were deposited a copy of
the first edition of the ? Edinburgn Pharmacopeia,?
containing a list .of the Fellows of the college; a
work concerning its private affairs, printed several
years before ; an Edinburgh Almanac for the
current year; several British coins, and a silver
plate with a suitable Latin inscription.
It was designed by Thomas Hamilton, and ?is
adorned in front with an Attic Corinthian tetrastyle,
sunqounted by a common Corinthian distyle, and
is handsomely adorned by colossal statues of
iBsculapius, Hippocrates, and Hygeia ; but it was
barely completed when, ample though its accommodation
appeared to be, the rapid additions to
its library and the great increase in the number of
Fellows, consequent on a reduction of the money
entry, and other changes, seemed to .render an
extension necessary.
In No. 11 are the offices of the E&hurgh
Gazette, the representative of the paper started by
Captain Donaldson in 1699, and re-issued by the
same person in March, I 707.
Sir Henry Wellwood Moncriff, Bart., D.D., a
distinguished divine, wha for half a century was
one .of the brightest ornaments of the Scottish
Church, resided in No. 13 during the first years of
the present century. He died in August, 1827,
and his second, son, James, a senator, under the
title of Lord Moncrieff, succeeded to the baronetcy,
which is one of the oldest in Scotland, having
been conferred by Charles I. in 1626.
It was afterwards occupied by the Scottish
Heritable Security Company.
-The next house westward was the residence, at
the same time, of William Honeyman of Graemsay,
who was elevated to the bench as Lord Armadale,
and created a baronet in 1804. He had been pre.
viously Sheriff of the county of Lanarkshire. ?He mar.
88
*ied a daughter of Lord Braxfield, and died in 1825,
eaving ,behind him a reputation for considerable
dent and sound judgment, both as a barrister and
udge. He had two sons in the army-Patrick,
who served in the old -28th Light Dragoons, and
Robert, who died in Jamaica in 1809, Lieutenant-
Clolonel of the 18th Royal Irish.
His house is now occupied by the site of the
Zaledonian United Service Club, erected in 1853.
In 1811 No. 27 was the residence of General
Sraham Stirling, an old and distinguished officer,
whose family still occupy it. In the same year
4lexander Keith of Ravelston, Hereditary Knight
Marshal of Scotland, occupied No. 43. Behind the
louse line stands St. Luke?s Free Church, which has
i fictitious street front in the Tudor style, with two
-ichly crocketed finials.
No. 38 was the house of George Paton, ?Advocate,
md afterwards Lord Justice Clerk, whose suicide
nade much sensation in Edinburgh a few years
1go.
In No. 52 lived and died one of the most illus-
:rious citizens of Edinburgh-Professor Sir James .
Young Sirnpson, Bart., who came to Edinburgh a
poor and nearly friendless student, yet in time
ittained, as Professor of Midwifery in the University
and as the discoverer of extended uses of chlorolorm,
a colossal fame, not only in Europe, but
wherever the English language is spoken. He
obtained the chair of midwifery in r840, and seven
years after made his great discovery. In 1849 he
was elected President of the Edinburgh College
of Physicians; in 1852 President of the Medico-
Chirurgical Society ; and ?in the following year,
under circumstances of the greatest klat, Foreign
Associate of the French Academy of Medicine ?
In 1856 the French Academy of Sciences awarded
him the ? Monthyon Prize ? of 2,000 francs for the
benefits he conferred on humanity by the introduction
of anmthesia by chloroform into the practice
of surgery and midwifery.
A few weeks earlief, for the same noble cause, he
won the royal order of St. Olaf, from Oscar, King
of Sweden, and in 1866 was created a baronet of
Great Britain. His ,professional writings are too
numerous to be recorded here, suffice it to say
that they have been translated into every European
language.
No man ever attracted so many visitors to Edinburgh
as Sir James Simpson, for many Came to see
him who were not invalids. His house in Queeu
Street was the centre of attraction for men -of
letters and science from all parts of the worldphysicians,
naturalists, antiquarians, and literati of
all kinds were daily to be met at his table. His](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p165.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 153")
... who
commanded the Cameron Highlanders in the war
with France , and was contused by a ball at Quatre
Bras. It is ...
Book 3 p. 153
(Score 0.48)
... belonging to the port during the
protracted wars with France , Spain, and Holland,
while the notices that occur ...
Book 6 p. 279
(Score 0.48)
... of which are given in his
(? Travels through France and Italy,? in twovolumes.
The novelist has been ...
Book 3 p. 26
(Score 0.48)
![Lord Promsts.] THE DOUGLASES AND HAMILTONS. 279
?James of Creichtoun of Felde,? as a deputy provost
under him ; and the first entry in the Records
under that date is a statute that ? the commoun
pyperis of the towne ? shall be properly feed, for
the honour thereof, and that they get their food,
day about, from all honest persons of substance,
under a penalty of 9d. per day, ?? that is to ilk
pyper iijd at least.?
The fifth provost after this was Sir Thomas Tod,
zznd August, 1491, and again in 1498, with
Richard Lawson of the Highriggs, and Sir John
Murray in the interval during 1492.
From this date to 1513, with a little interval,
Richard Lawson was again provost ; the office was
held by Sir Alexander Lauder of Blythe, who -in
the last named year was also Justice Depute.
He fell in the battle.on the fatal 9th of September,
1513, and the apairs ofthe city, amid the consternation
and grief that ensued, were managed by George
of Tours, who with Robert Bruce, William Lockhart,
William Adamson, and William Clerk, all
bailies, had been, on the 19th of August, chosen
by the provost and community to rule the city
after his departure with the army for England.
The aged Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus
(better known as Archibald Bell-thecat)-whose
two sons, George Master of Angus, and Sir William
Douglas of Glenbervie, with more then zoo
knights and gentlemen of his surname, found their
tomb on Flodden Hill-was elected provost on the
30th of September, twenty-one days after the battle ;
and at the same time his son, Gawain the Poet,
provost of St. Giles?s, was ?( made burgess, gratis, for
the Common benefit of the town.? It was he of
whom Scott makes th?e grim old Earl say, with
reference to the English knight?s act of forgery,
? Thanks to St. Bothan, son of mine,
Save Gawain, ne?er could pen a line.?
He was succeeded on the 24th July, 1514, by
Alexander Lord Home, Great Chamberlain 01
Scotland in 1507, and baron of Dunglasand Greenlaw,
under whom preparations for the defence of
the city, in expectation of a counter-invasion, went
on. An Act was passed for the furnishing ?01
artailyerie for the resisting of our auld innemies of
Ingland;? a tax was laid upon all-even the
widows of the fallen, so far as their substance permitted
them to pay-and all persons having heidyaird
dykes, ?were to build them up within fifteen
days, under pain of six pounds to the Kirk-werk.?
In August of the same year David Melville was
provost, and the pestilence caused the division ol
the city into four quarters, each under a bailie and
quartermaster to attend to the health of the people.
Except the interval, during which Sir Patrick
Hamilton of Kincavil and Archibald Douglas were
Provosts, Melville was in office till 15 17, when James
Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, took it upon
him, and was designated Lord Provost. In consequence
of the influence it conferred, the office was at
this time an object of ambition among the nobility.
His enemies, the Douglases, taking advantage of
his temporary absence from the city, procured the
election of Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, the
uncle of the EarLof Angus, in his place ; and when
Arran returned from the castle of Dalkeith, where
the court was then held, he found the gates of Edinburgh
shut against him. His followers attempted
to force an entrance sword in hand, but were repulsed,
and a number were killed and wounded on.
both sides. Similar scenes of violence and bloodshed
were of almost daily occurrence, and between
the rival factions of Hamilton and Douglas the Lowlands
were in a complete state of demoralisation ;
and on the z 1st of February, 15 I 9, in consequence
of the bitter feud and bloody broils between the
houses of Douglas and Hamilton, he was ordered
by the Regent, then absent, to vacate his office, as
it was ordained that no person of either of those
names was eligible as provost, till the ?Lord
Governor?s home coming, and for a year.?
Thus, in 1510, Robert Logan of Coitfield was.
provost, and in October he was granted by the
Council 100 merks of the common good, beside his
ordinary fee, for the sustentation of four armed
men, to carry halberds before him, ?because the
warld is brukle and troublous.?
The fourth provost after this was Robert Lord
Maxwell, 18th August, 1524, who was made so by
the Queen-mother, when she (? tuik the hail1 government
of the realm and ruele of the king (James
V.) upoun her.? This was evidently an invasion of
the rights of the citizens ; yet on the same day the
Lord Justice Clerk. appeared before the Council,
and declared ? that it was the mind and will ? of the
king, then in his minority, that Mr. Francis Bothwell,
provost, ?? cedit and left his office of provostier
in the town?s hand,? and the said provost protested
that the leaving of his office thus should not be
derogatory to the city, nor injurious to its privileges
Lord Maxwell was afterwards Governor of Lochmaben,
Captain of the Royal Guard, Warden of the
West Marches, and Ambassador to France to
negotiate the king?s marriage with Mary of Lorraine ;
but long ere all that he had been succeeded as
provost by Allan Stuart.
In 15.26 Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, Lord
High Treasurer, was provost again. In this year
it was ordained that through the resort to Edin](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p099.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 279")
... Guard, Warden of the
West Marches, and Ambassador to France to
negotiate the king?s marriage with Mary of ...
Book 4 p. 279
(Score 0.48)
... of Scotland, the heiress of
England, and the dowager of France ! It was
then ten o?clock ; the city was almost ...
Book 2 p. 204
(Score 0.48)
![Cmigmillar.] CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. Si
Robert XI., ?of the lands of Craigmillar, in Vic
du Edinburgh, whilk William de Capella resigned,
sustennand an archer in the king?s army.? (Robertson?s
? Index?)
Under the same monarch, some time after,
another charter was granted, confirming ?John de
Capella, keeper of the king?s chapel, in the lands of
Erolly (sic), whilk Simon de Prestoun resigned ; he,
John, performing the same service in the king?s
chapel that his predecessors used to perform for
the third part of Craigmillar.?
The date 1474 above the principal gate probably
refers to some repairs. Four years afterwards,
William, a successor of Sir Simon Preston,
was a member of the parliament which met at
Edinburgh June I, 1478. He had the title .of
Domine de Craigmillar, the residence of his race
for nearly three hundred years.
In 1479 this castle became connected with a
dark and mysterious State tragedy. The Duke
of Albany was accused of conspiring treasonably
with the English against the life of his brother,
James III., but made his escape from Edinburgh
Castle, as related in Volume I. Their younger
brother John, Earl of Mar, was placed a prisoner
in Craigmillar on the same charges. James 111.
did not possess, it was alleged, the true characteristics
of a king in those days. He loved music,
architecture, poetry, and study. ?He was ane
man that loved solitude,? says Pitscottie, ?and
desired never to hear of warre ?-a desire that the
Scottish noblemen never? cared to patronise.
Mar, a handsome and gay fellow, ? knew nothing
but nobility.? He was a keen hunter, a sportsman,
and breeder of horses for warlike purposes.
Whether Mar was guilty or not of the treasons which
were alleged against him will never be known, but
certain it is that he never left his captivity alive.
Old annalists say that he chose his own mode 01
death, and had his veins opened in a warm bath
but Drummond, in his ? History of the Jameses,?
says he was seized by fever and delirium in Craig
millar, and was? removed to the Canongate, wherc
he died in the hands of the king?s physician, eithei
from a too profuse use of phlebotomy, or from his
having, in a fit of frenzy, torn off the bandages.
In 1517 Balfour records that the young king
James V. was removed from Edinburgh to Craig
millar, and the queen-mother was not permitted tc
see him, in consequence of the pestilence ther
raging. But he resided here frequently. In 1544
it is stated in the ? Diurnal of Occurents ? that thc
fortress was too hastily surrendered to the Englisl
invaders, who sacked and burned it.
By far the most interesting associations of Craig
nillar, like so many other castles in the south of
kotland, are those in which Queen Mary behrs a
)art, as she made it a favourite country retreat.
Within its walls was drawn up by Sir James
Balfour, with unique legal solemnity, the bond of
Dardey?s murder, and there signed by so many
iobles of the first rank, who pledged themselves
o stand by Bothwell with life and limb, in weal or
woe, after its perpetration, which bond of blood the
wily lawyer afterwards destroyed.
Some months after the murder of Rizzio, and
while the grasping and avaricious statesmen of the
!ay were watching the estrangement of Nary and
ier husband, on the 2nd December, 1560, Le
3oc, the French Ambassador, wrote thus to the
4rchbishop of Glasgow :-? The Queen is for the
xesent at Craigmillar, about a league distant from
.his city. She is in the hands of the physicians,
and I do assure you is not at all well, and do
Jelieve the principal part of her disease to consist
n deep grief and sorrow. Nor does it seem possible
to make her forget the same. Still she repeats
ihese words--?lcould wish to be dead!??
Craigmillar narrowly escaped being stained with
the blood of the dissolute Darnley. It would zppear
that when he returned from Glasgow, early in
1567, instead of lodging him in the fatal Kirk-0?-
Field, the first idea of the conspirators was to bring ,
him hither, when it was suggested that his recovery
from his odious disease might be aided by the
sanitary use of a bath--? an ominous proposal to a
prince, who might remember what tradition stated
to have happened ninety years earlier within the
same walls.?
The vicinity abounds with traditions of the
hapless Mary. Her bed closet is still pointed out ;
and on the east side of the road, at Little France,
a hamlet below the castle walls, wherein some of
her French retinue was quartered, a gigantic
plane-the largest in the Lothians-is to this day
called ? Queen Mary?s Tree,?? from the unauthenticated
tradition that her own hands planted it, and
as such it has been visited by generations. In
recent storms it was likely to suffer ; and Mr. Gilmour
of Craigmillar, in September, 1881, after consulting
the best authorities, had a portion of the
upper branches sawn off to preserve the rest
In ?? the Douglas wars,? subsequent to the time
when Mary was a captive and exile, Craigmillar
bore its part, especially as a prison ; and terrible
times these were, when towns, villages, and castles
were stormed and pillaged, as if the opposite
factions were inspired by the demon of destruction
-when torture and death were added to military
execution, and the hapless prisoners were hurried](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p070.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 59")
... out ;
and on the east side of the road, at Little France ,
a hamlet below the castle walls, wherein some ...
Book 5 p. 59
(Score 0.48)
... alike awarded damages and
expenses.
Macrae lived in France till the progress of the
French Revolution ...
Book 5 p. 142
(Score 0.48)
... Isles.
Four years afterwards peace was proclaimed with
France and Spain, by sound of trumpet by the
heralds, ...
Book 6 p. 194
(Score 0.48)
... became
roused at that time by the menacing aspect of
France , none was more active among the
volunteer force ...
Book 4 p. 202
(Score 0.48)
... the Council of the League that offered thc
crown of France to the King of Spain in 1591.
Qpposite St John?s ...
Book 2 p. 310
(Score 0.48)
... De Menainville, who came
as an extra ambassador from France , with instructions
to join La Motte Fenelon. He ...
Book 3 p. 35
(Score 0.47)
![George Street.] THE BLACKWOODS. I39
CHAP,TER XIX.
GEORGE STREET.
Major Andrew Faser-The Father of Miss Femer-Grant of Kilgraston-William Blackwoad and his Magazine-The Mother of Sir Waltn
Scott-Sir John Hay, Banker-Colquhoun of Killermont-Mrs. Murray of Henderland-The Houses of Sir J. W. Gomon, Sir Jam-
Hall. and Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster-St. Andrew's Church-Scene of the Disruption-Physicians' Hall-Glance at the Histcry of thecollege
of Physicians-Sold and Removed-The Commercial Bank-Its Constitution-Assembly Rooms-Rules of 17+Banquet to Black
Watch-" The Author of Waverley"-The Music Hall-The New Union Bank-Its Formation, &c.-The Mlasonic Hall-Watsoa'E
Pictureof Bums-Statues of George IV., Pitt, and Chalmers. .
PREVIOUS to the brilliant streets and squares
erected in the northern and western portions of
new Edinburgh, George Street was said to have no
rival in the world ; and even yet, after having undergone
many changes, for combined length, space,
uniformity, and magnificence of vista, whether
viewed from the east or west, it may well be
pronounced unparalleled. Straight as an arrow
flies, it is like its sister streets, but is 1x5 feet
broad. Here a great fossil tree was found in 1852.
A portion of the street on the south side, near
the west end, long bore the name of the Tontine,
and owing to some legal dispute, which left the
houses there mfinished, they were occupied as
infantry barracks during the war with France.
Nos. 3 and 5 (the latter once the residence of
Major Andrew Fraser and cf William Creech the
eminent bookseller) forni the office of the Standard
Life Assurance Company, in the tympanum of
which, over four fine Corinthian pilasters, is a
sculptured group from the chisel of Sir John Steel,
representing the parable of the Ten Virgins. In
George Street are about thirty different insurance
offices, or their branches, all more or less ornate
in architecture, and several banks.
In No. 19, on the same side, is the Caledonian,
the oldest Scottish insurance company (having
been founded in June, 1805). Previously the
office had been in Bank Street. A royal charter
was granted to the company in May, 1810, and
twenty-three years afterwards the business of life
assurance was added to that of fire insurance.
No. 25 George Street was the residence (from
1784 till his death, in 18zg), of Mr. James Ferrier,
Principal Clerk of Session, and father of Miss
Susan Ferrier, the authoress of " Marriage," &c.
He was a keen whist player, and every night of his
life had a rubber, which occasionally included Lady
Augusta Clavering, daughter of his friend and client
John, fifth Duke of Argyll, and old Dr. Hamilton,
usually designated " Cocked Hat " Hamilton, from
the fact of his being one of the last in Edinburgh
who bore that head-piece. When victorious, he
wcdd snap his fingers and caper about the room,
to tbe manifest indignation of Mr. Ferrier, who
would express it to his partner in the words, "Lady
Augusta, did you ever see such rediculous leevity
in an auld man 7 " Robert Burns used also to be
a guest at No. 25, and was prescnt on one occasion
when some magnificent Gobelins tapestry arrived
there for the Duke of Argyll on its way to Inverary
Castle. Mrs. Piozzi also, when in Edinburgh, dined
there. Next door lived the Misses Edmonstone,
of the Duntreath family, and with them pitched
battles at whist were of frequent nightly occurrence.
These old ladies figure in " Marriage " as
Aunts Jacky, Grizzy, and Nicky; they were grandnieces
of the fourth Duke of Argyll. The eldest
Miss Ferrier was one of the Edinburgh beauties in
her day ; and Bums once happening to meet her,
while turning the corner of George Street, felt suddenly
inspired, and wrote the lines to her enclosed
in an elegy on the death of Sir D. H. Hair. Miss
Ferrier and Miss Penelope, Macdonald of Clanronald,
were rival belles ; the former married
General Graham ot Stirling Castle, the latter Lord
Belhaven.
In No. 32 dwelt Francis Grant of Kilgraston,
father of Sir Francis Grant, President of the Royal
Academy, born in 1803 ; and No. 35, now a shop,
was the town house of the Hairs of Balthayock, in
Perthshire.
No. 45 has long been famous as the establishment
of Messrs. Blackwood, the eminent publishers.
William Blackwood, the founder of the magazine
which stills bears his name, and on the model of
which so many high-class periodicals have been
started in the sister kingdom, was born at Edinburgh
in 1776, and after being apprenticed to the
ancient bookselling firni of Bell and Bradfute, and
engaging in various connections with other bibliopoles,
in 1804 he commenced as a dealer in old
books on the South Bridge, in No. 64, but soon
after became agent for several London publishing
houses. In 1S16 he disposed of his vast stock of
classical and antiquarian books, I 5,000 volumes in
number, and removing to No. 17 Princes Street,
thenceforward devoted his energies to the business
of a-general publisher, and No. 17 is to this day a
bookseller's shop.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p151.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 139")
... there mfinished, they were occupied as
infantry barracks during the war with France .
Nos. 3 and 5 (the ...
Book 3 p. 139
(Score 0.47)
![Grassmarket.] EXECUTIONS IN THE GUSSMARKET. 231
Market, from the corner of Marlin?s Wynd (where
Blair Street is now) to the east end of the Grassmarket,
where it continued to be held until within
the last few years.
It was not until about a century later that this
great market place began to acquire an interest of
a gloomy and peculiar character, as the scene of
the public execution of many victims of religious
intolerance, who died heroically here, and also as
the spot where niany criminals met their doom.
Prior to the adoption of this place for public
executions, the Castle Hill and Market Cross had
been the spots chosen j and a sword, as in France
and elsewhere on the Continent, was used, before
the introduction of the Maiden, for beheading.
, Thus we find that in 1564, the magistrates, because
the old beheading sword had become worn out, reteived
from William Macartnay ? his tua-handit
sword, to be usit for ane heidmg sword,? and
gave him the sum of five pounds therefor.
Among some of the most noted eFecutions in the
Grassmarket were those of the fanatic Mitchel in
1676, for attempting to shoot Archbishop Sharp in
1668; of Sergeant John Nisbett, of Hardhill, in
1685, who had received seventeen wounds at the
battle of Pentland, and fought at Drumclog, according
to the Wodrow Biographies ; of Isabel Alison
and Marion Harvey-the latter only twenty years of
age-two young women, for merely having heard
Donald Cargill preach. The human shambles in
this place of wailing witnessed executions of this
kind almost daily till the 17th of February, 1688,
when James Renwick, the celebrated field preacher,
and the last martyr of the Covenant, was found
guilty, on his own confession, of disowning an uncovenanted
king, and executed in the twenty-sixth
yearof his age. Most of the hundred and odd
pious persons who suffered for the same cause in
Edinburgh breathed their last prayers on this spot.
Hence arose the Duke of Rothes? remark, when a
covenanting prisoner proved obdurate, ? Then let
him glorify God in the Grassmarket?-the death
of that class of victinis always being accompanied
by much psalm-singing on the scaffold. In the time
of Charles II., Alexander Cockburn, the city hangman,
having murdered a King?s Bluegown, died here
the death he had so often meted out to others.
In 1724 the same place was the scene of the
partial execution of a woman, long remembered in
Edinburgh, as ?? Half-hangit Maggie Dickson.? She
was a native of Inveresk, and was tried under
the Act of 1690 for concealment of pregnancy, in
the case of a dead child ; and the defence that she
was a married woman, though living apart from her
husband, who was working in the keels at New-
?
castle, proved of no avail, and a broadside of the
day details her execution with homble minuteness ;
how the hangman did his usual office of dragging
down her legs, and how the ?body, after hanging
the allotted time, was put into a coffin, thecooms
of which were nailed firmly to the gibbet-foot.
After a scuffle with some surgeon-apprentices
who wished to possess themselves of the body, her
friends conveyed it away by the Society Port, but
the jolting of the cart in which the coffin lay had
stirred vitality and set the blood in motion. Thus
she was found to be alive when passing Peffermiln,
and was completely restored at Musselburgh, where
flocks of people came daily to see her. She had
several children after this event, and lived long as
the keeper of an ale-house and as a crier of salt in
the streets of Edinburgh. (? Dom Ann.? III., StaL
Acct., Vol XVI).
In the account of the Porteous Mob eo1 I.,
pp. I 28-13 I), we have referred to the executions of
Wilson and of Porteous, in 1736, in this placethe
street ?crowded with rioters, crimson with
torchlight, spectators filling every window of the
tall houses-the Castle standing high above the
tumult amidst the blue midnight and the stars.?
It Continued to be the scene of such events till
1784; and in a central situation at the east end
of the market there remained until 1823 a qoassive
block of sandstone, having in its c h t r ~ a quadrangular
hole, which served as the socket of the
gallows-tree ; but instead of the stone there is now
only a St. Andrew?s Cross in the causeway to
indicate the exact spot.
The last person who suffered in the Grassmarket
was James Andrews, hanged there on the 4th of
February, 1784, for a robbery committed in Hope
Park ; and the first person executed at the west end
of the old city gaol, was Alexander Stewart, a youth
pf only fifteen, who had committed many depredations,
and at last had been convicted of breaking
into the house of Captain Hugh Dalrymple, of Fordell
in the Potterrow, and NeidpathCastle, the seat of
the Duke of Queensberry, from which he carried off
many articles of value. It was expressly mentioned
by the judge in his sentence, that he was to be
hanged in the Grassmarket, ?or any other place
the magistrates might appoint,? thus indicating that
a change was in contemplation ; and accordingly,
the west end of the old Tolbooth was fitted up for
his execution, which took place on the 20th of
April, 1785.
In 1733 the Grassmarket was the scene of some
remarkable feats, performed by a couple of Italian
mountebanks, a father and his son, A rope being
fixed between the half-moon battery of the Castle,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p051.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 231")
... Cross had
been the spots chosen j and a sword, as in France
and elsewhere on the Continent, was used, ...
Book 4 p. 231
(Score 0.47)
![ROBERT MONTEITH. . 3?5 Duddingston.]
incumbent of Duddingston in 1805. His favourite
subjects were to be found in the grand and sublime
of Nature, and his style is marked chiefly by
vigour, power, and breadth of effect-strong light
and deep shadow. As a man and a Christian
minister, his life was simple, pure, and irreproachable,
his disposition kind, affable, and benevolent.
He died of apoplexy in 1840, in his sixty-second
year.
The city must have had some interest in the loch,
as in the Burgh accounts for 1554 we read:-
?? Item : twa masons twa weeks to big the Park Dyke
at the loch side of Dudding?ston, and foreanent it
again on Priestfield syde, ilk man in the week xv?.
summa iijIi.
(?Item : for ane lang tree to put in the wall that
lyes far in the loch for outganging of ziyld beistis
v?.? ? (? Burgh Records.?)
The town or lands of Duddingston are included
in an act of ratification to James, Lord Lindsay of
the Byers, in 1592.
In the Acts of Sederunt for February, 1650, we
find Alexander Craig, in-dweller in the hamlet,
pilloried at the Tron of Edinburgh,. and placarded
as being a ? lying witness ? in an action-at-law
concerning the pedigree of John Rob in Duddingston;
but among the few reminiscences of this
place may be mentioned the curious hoax which
the episcopal incumbent thereof at the Restoration
played upon Cardinal de Retz.
This gentleman, whose name was Robert Monteith,
had unfortunately become involved in an
amour with a lady in the vicinity, the wife of Sir
James Hamilton of Prestonfield, and was cpmpelled
to fly from the scene of his disgrace. He
was the son of a humble man employed in the
salmon-fishing above Alloa ; but on repairing to
Paris, and after attaching himself to M. de la
Porte, Grand Prior of France, and soliciting employment
from Cardinal de Retz, he stated he was
?one of the Monteith family in Scotland.? The
cardinal replied that he knew the family well, but
asked to which branch he belonged. ?To the
Monteiths of Salmon-net,? replied the unabashed
adventurer.
The cardinal replied that this was a branch he
had never heard of, but added that he believed
it was, no doubt, a very ancient and illustrious
family. Monteith was patronised by the cardinal,
who bestowed on him a canonry in Notre Dame,
and made him his secretary, in which capacity he
distinguished himself by his elegance and purity,
in the French language. This strange man is
author of a well-known work, published in folio,
entitled, ? Hisfoa?re des TroubZes de &andBretap,
depuis Z?an 1633 juspu?a Z?an 1649, pur Robed
Menfet de Salmonet.
It was dedicated to the Coadjutor Archbishop of
Pans, with a portrait of the author; and a trans- .
lation of it, by Captain James Ogilvie, was published
in 1735 by G. Strachan, at the ?Golden Ball,?
in Cornhill.
In the year of the Revolution we find the
beautiful loch of Duddingston, as an adjunct to
the Royal Park, mentioned in a case before the
Privy Council on the 6th March.
The late Duke of Lauderdale having placed
some swans thereon, his clever duchess, who was
carrying on a legal contest With his heirs, deemed
herself entitled to take away some of those birds
when she chose; but Sir James Dick, now proprietor
of the %ch, broke a lock-fast place in
which she had put them, and set them once more
upon the water. The irate dowager raised an
action against him, which was decided in her
favour, but in defiance of this, the baronet turned
all the swans off the loch ; on which the Duke of
Hamilton, as Heritable Keeper of the palace, came
to the rescue, as Fountainhall records, alleging
that the loch bounded the King?s Park, and that
all the wild animals belonged to him ; they were,
therefore, restored to their former haunts.
Of the loch and the landsof Priestfield (orPrestonfield),
Cockburn says, in his ?Memorials? :-?I know
the place thoroughly. The reeds were then regularly .
cut over by means of short scythes with very long
handles, close to the ground, and this (system)
made Duddingston nearly twice its present size?
Otters are found in its waters, and a solitary
badger has at times provoked a stubborn chase.
The loch is in summer covered by flocks of dusky
coots, where they remain till the closing of the ice
excludes them from the water, when they emigrate
to the coast, and return With the first thaw.
Wild duck, teal, and water-hens, also frequent it,
and swans breed there prolifically, and form one
of its most picturesque ornaments. The pike, the
perch, and a profusion of eels, which are killed by
the barbed sexdent, also abound there.
In winter here it is that skating is practised as an
art by the Edinburgh Club. ?The writer recalls
with pleasure,? says the author of the ?Book of
Days,? ?skating exhibitions which he saw there early
in the present century, when Henry Cockburn,
and the philanthropist James Sipson, were conspicuous
amongst the most accomplished of the
club for their handsome figures and great skill in
the art. The scene of that loch ? in full bearing J
on a clear winter day, with its busy and stirring
multitude of sliders, skaters, and curlers, the snowy
Paris, 166 I.?](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p135.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 315")
... attaching himself to M. de la
Porte, Grand Prior of France , and soliciting employment
from Cardinal de Retz, ...
Book 4 p. 315
(Score 0.47)
... 125, 207, 328, 341
Charles II., 163, 222, 328
Charles X. of France , 199, 200,
Charlotte, Princess, ...
Book 9 p. 684
(Score 0.47)
... ; but old Kilspindie turned
sadly away, and died in France of a broken heart.
In the year 1532 the provost ...
Book 4 p. 280
(Score 0.47)
Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf
The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
