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B I 0 GR AP €1 I C AL SKETCH E S. 357 who plumed themselves on more respectable connections, but was politically viewed as a hotbed of disaffection and sedition. Under this impression, the General Assembly bent all its influence against the practice; and, in the “Pastoral Admonition” of 1799 (alluded to in our notice of the Rev. Rowland Hill), the teachers of Sabbath Schools were described as persons “ notoriously disaffected to the civil constitution of the country.” The parochial clergy throughout Scotland were consequently opposed to such schools; and, in several instances, carried their authority so far as to order them to be suppressed. In the case in question, the teachers, with the view of securing his approbation and patronage, had requested Dr. Moodie to visit the class. The Doctor accordingly came ; but, without condescending to examine the pupils, or inquire into the motives of the teachers, instantly commanded the scholars to disperse. The friends of the Professor were afterwards anxious to hush up the matter ; but the artist, who was an uncompromising censor of the times, produced his “Modern Moderation,” and gave full publicity to the circumstance. In apostrophising the genius of Kay on this occasion, as “the lash 0’ Edinbro’ city,” the author of the following unpublished lines declares- ‘‘ Thoo’st gien yon billy sic a whauker, ’Twill dash his pride- For now his faut appears the blaclcer, An’ winna hide. * * * * Thy limner fame is widely spread- Even London ne’er thy match has bred- Wha’s like John Kay ? Thou’lt live for aye, ” The REV.D R. WILLIAMM OODIE, whose figure in the foreground cannot be mistaken, was the son of the clergyman, at one time of Gartly, near Strathbogie, and latterly of Monymeal, in Fifeshire. He was first ordained to the church in Kirkcaldy, and from thence translated to Edinburgh in 1787. As a preacher, he was esteemed for the chaste style of his elocution, and the classic polish of his composition. He was an excellent scholar, and especially conversant with the languages of the East. In 1793, he was appointed Professor of Hebrew in the University of Edinburgh, the duties of which he discharged for nineteen years. Besides Hebrew and Chaldaic, which more properly belonged to the professorship, he directed his attention to the other Eastern languages ; and was the first to introduce Persiac into his class-which has since been continued by his successors. His conduct towards his students was that of a gentleman and friend. He had been long in a delicate state of health, and was confined for a considerable period prior to his death. A posthumous volume of his sermons was given to the public. Dr. Moodie died on the 11th June 1812. ... I 0 GR AP €1 I C AL SKETCH E S. 357 who plumed themselves on more respectable connections, but was ...

Book 8  p. 499
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56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Dr. Duncan resided in Adam Square, and died on the 5th July 1828, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. His funeral was a public one, In February 1771, he married Miss Elizabeth Knox, daughter of Mr. John Knox, surgeon in the service of the East India Company, by whom he had a family of twelve children. His son, Dr. Andrew Duncan junior, was long officially connected with the University of Edinburgh as Principal Librarian and Secretary, and as Professor of Medical Jurisprudence. In 1819 he was conjoined with his father in the chair of the Theory of Physic. In July 1821 he was elected Professor of Materia Medica-an appointment which gave very general satisfaction, as Dr. Duncan contributed in no small degree by his learning and scientific acquirements to maintain the reputation of the University. He died in May 1832. No. CXCII. MAJOR ANDREW FRASER, THE HONOURABLE ANDREW ERSKINE, AND SIR JOHN WHITEFOORD, BART. THE figure to the left, MAJOR FBASER-descended of a respectable family in the north of Scotland-was an officer of some distinction in the Royal Artillery, and well known for his talents as an engineer. Under his superintendence the demolition of the harbour and fortifications of Dunkirk, agreeably to the treaty of 1762, was carried satisfactorily into effect. In 1779 he was placed on the staff in Scotland, as Engineer-in-Chief. Here he superintended, from his own plans, the building of Fort George ; erected several considerable bridges in the north ; and, in Edinburgh, the church and spire of St. Andrews,’ so much admired for its exquisite proportions, stands a monument of his excellence in design. He interested himself greatly in the improvements of the city, and frequently presided at public meetings convened for such objects. He was much esteemed by Sir James Hunter Blair; and through the influence of that spirited chief magistrate, many of his suggestions were cauied into execution. Major Fraser was afterwards appointed Chief Engineer of the West India The foundation-stone of this church wm laid in 1781. The premium of ten guineaa to the successful architect was unanimously adjudged by the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council to Major Fraser ; but he declined accepting the premium, desiring that it might be given to Mr. Robert Kay, drawingmaster in Edinburgh, whose drawings and sections of a plan of a square building were deemed highly meritorious. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Dr. Duncan resided in Adam Square, and died on the 5th July 1828, in the eighty-fourth ...

Book 9  p. 76
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High Street.] ANDRO HART. 229 caunt-a very common kind of ghost story-we are told, was related by the minister (of course) who was in the house on this occasion, to John Duke of Lauderdale (who died in 1682), in pre- .sence of many other nobles. After this the house was again deserted ; yet another attempt was made to inhabit it - probably rent-free -by .a courageous and drink-loving old soldier and his wife; but towards midnight the candle began to burn blue, and the grisly old head was seen to hover in mid-air, on which the terrified couple fled, and Mary Kings Close was finally aban- .doned to desolation and .decay. No record of its ,inmates in the flesh has .ever been handed down, .and thus the name of the place is associated with its goblins alone. Professor Sinclair, who wrote the history of these, was author of several very learned works on astronomy, navigation, mathematics, and so forth; but he also favoured the world with .a strange ?Dis- .course concerning Coal ? -a compound of science .and superstition, containing an account of the witches of Glenluce, Sinclair being, like many .other learned men of his time, a firm believer in the black art. Passing Writers? Court .and the Royal Exchange, both of which have been Meter,? and other works that issued from his press. He flourished in the reign of James VI., and previous to 1600 he was in the habit of importing books from the Continent ; but about 1601 he printed, at his own expense, several works in Holland ; and subsequently commenced business as a printer in those premises in the High Street which, two centuries after his death in 1621, became the residence of the great bibliopole, Pro- STAMP OFFICE CLOSE already described, we come to the once famous alley, Craig?s Close, the lower end of which, like the rest of such thoroughfares in this quarter, has been removed to make way for Cockburn Street. The old tenement which faces the High Street at the head of this close occupies the site of the open booth or shop of Andro Hart, the famous .old Scottish printer ; and therein was, of course, exposed for sale his well-known Bible, which has always been admired for its beautiful typography; h i s Barbour?s ?Bruce,? his ? Psalms in Scottish vost Creech, and of that still greater one, Archibald Constable. A little way down the close on the east side was the printing - house of Andro Hart, apicturesque and substantial stone tenement, with finely moulded windows divided by mullions, and having the Sinclair arms on the bed-corbel of the crow-stepped gable. Over the old doorway was the legend and date, My h i p is in Chrisf, A. S. M K., 1593,? under a label moulding. In 1828 there was presented to the Antiquarian Museum by Mr. Hutchison, printer, . a very fine Scottish spear, which had been preserved from time immemorial in the old printing-house of Andro Hart, and is confidently believed to have been his-perhaps the same weapon with which he sallied forth to take part in the great tumult of 1596, when the king was besieged in the Tolbooth ; for Caldenvood and others- distinctly tell us that the old printer was one of the foremost in the disturbance, and roused so much the indignation of the king, James VI., that he was sent prisoner to the Castle in February, 1597, together with two other booksellers, James and Edward Cathkin. In 1759 a dromedary and camel were exhibited at the head of Craig?s Close, where they seem to have been deemed two wonder9 of the world, and, according to the Edinbwgh NMaZd and ChronicZc for that year, itwas doubted whether there were other ... Street.] ANDRO HART. 229 caunt-a very common kind of ghost story-we are told, was related by the minister ...

Book 2  p. 229
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THE HIGH STREET. 239 and Gillies, with other men eminent for learning and rank. Nr Smellie may be regarded as in some degree the genius loci of this locality ; the distinguished printing-house which he established is still occupied by his descendants,’ and there the most eminent literary men of that period visited, and superintended the printing of works that have made the press of the Scottish capital celebrated throughout Europe. There was the haunt of Drs Blair, Beattie, Black, Robertson, Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith, Lords Monboddo, Hailes, Kames, Henry Mackenzie, Arnot, Hume, and, foremost among the host, the poet Burns ; of whom some interesting traditions are preserved in the office. The old desk is still shown, at which these and other eminent men revised their proofs ; and the well used desk-stool is treasured as a valuable heir-loom, bearing on it an inscription, setting forth, that it is “ the stool on which Burns sat while correcting the proofs of his Poems, from December 1786 to April 1787.” Not even the famed Ballantyne press can compete with this venerable haunt of the Scottish literati, whose very ‘‘ devils ” have consumed more valuable manuscript in kindling the office kes, than would make the fortunes of a dozen modern autograph collectors 1 It need not surprise us to learn that even the original manuscripts of Burns were invariably converted to such homely purposes ; the estimation of the poet being very different in 1787 from what it has since become. Of traditions of remote antiquity, the Anchor Close has ita full share; and the numerous inscriptions, as well as the general character of the old buildings that rear their tall and irregular fronts along its west side, still attest its early importance. Immediately on entering the close from the High Street, the visitor discovers this inscription, tastefully carved over the first entrance within the pend: THE * LORD * IS ONLY - MY - SVPORT -; and high overhead, above one of the windows facing down the close, a carved stone bears a shield with the date 1569, and, on itB third and fourth quarters, a pelican feeding her young with her own blood. Over another doorway a little further down is this pious legend: 0 * LORD * IN THE - IS AL ’ MY - TRAIST Here was the approach to Daunie Douglas’s tavern, celebrated among the older houses of entertainment in Edinburgh as the haunt of the Crochal1a.n corps. It is mentioned under the name of the Anchor Tavern in a deed of renunciation by James Deans of Woodhouselee, Esq., in favour of his daughter, dated 1713, and still earlier references allude to its occnpants as vintners. The portion of this building which faces the High Street, retains associations of a differeut character, adding another to the numerous examples of the simpler notions of our ancestors who felt their dignity in no way endangered . when It is styled in most of the title deeds (‘ Lord Forglen’s Land,” 80 that on one of the stories of the same building that furnished accommodation to the old tavern, resided Sir Alexander Ogilvie, Bart., one of the Commissioners of the Union, and for many years a senator of the College of Justice under the title of Lord Forglen. Fountainhall records some curious notes of an action brought against him by Sir Alexander Forbes of Tolquhoun, for stealing a gilded mazer cup ’ out of his house, but which was at length accidently discovered in the hands of a goldsmith at Aberdeen, to whom Sir Alexander had himself entrusted it some years before to be repaired; and he having forgat,, it lay there unrelieved, in security for the goldsmith’s the toe of the peasant came so near the heal of the courtier.” This printing-office, together with the other objecta of interest here described in connection with Anchor Cloae, waa taken down on the construction of Cwkburn Street in 1859. ’ h f m Cup, a drinking cup of maple. ... HIGH STREET. 239 and Gillies, with other men eminent for learning and rank. Nr Smellie may be regarded as in ...

Book 10  p. 260
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314 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. No. CCLXXV. HUGH MACPHERSON, SOMETIME CLERK TO THE PERTH CARRIERS. HUGHM ~CPHERSOoNr, “ Wee Hughie,” as he was commonly termed, was born in the district of Badenoch about the year 1770. His father, who lived to a great age, was shepherd on an extensive farm in that quarter; and both his parents were persons of ordinary stature. When Hughie fist ventured forth of his native fastnesses, he made his debdt in the Lowlands, att,ired in the Highland garb-bonnet, kilt, and plaid-with a pair of top-boots in lieu of hose ! For some years after his arrival in Perth, he was employed as a clerk in the George Inn; next in the shop of a grocer; and subsequently with Messrs J. and P. Cameron, carriers betwixt Perth and Edinburgh. The tartans had, long ere this, given way to a coat of dark green, light vest, darkish trousers, and highheeled boots ;’ a dress to which he adhered without alteration for a length of time. Every new suit, to make sure of being fashionably fitted, cost him a visit to Edinburgh. At length, that he might take charge of his employers’ establishment there, he had the peculiar satisfaction of being removed permanently to the capital. Hugh was a well-known kharacter, the oddness of his figure, and his excessive self-conceit, making him the subject of much diversion. While in Perth, some one having drawn a caricature of him, he at once sought reparation by challenging the offender to fight a duel ; but this display of spirit only tended to make matters worse, for, in another picture, the little mountaineer was grotesquely exhibited brandishing a pair of pistols not much shorter than himself. Proud and vindictive, he was easily affronted; and nothing vexed him more than to be underrated, or looked upon in the light of pity, by the fair sex. If insulted in their presence, he became perfectly furious. On one occasion, at a wedding party in Edinburgh, Hugh was dancing with great spirit, and in imagination as big as the tallest in the company, when a waggish participator in the reel, seizing a favourable opportunity, tripped up his heels, sending him headforemost into the ash-pit. Those who were present will not easily forget the miniature hero’s countenance on regaining his feet. Seizing a candlestick, in a His hat, too, it may be remarked, was particularly high and capacious ; thereby, we presume, to add to the height and dignity of his appearance. Hughie was, in his own estimation, a perfect dandy. Hughie invariably wore boats, not shoes, aa represented in the Print. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. No. CCLXXV. HUGH MACPHERSON, SOMETIME CLERK TO THE PERTH CARRIERS. HUGHM ...

Book 9  p. 417
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204 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moray Place. ~~ reputation, but he was too much a votary of the regular old rhetorical style of poetry to be capable of appreciating the Lake school, or any others among his own contemporaries; and thus he was apt to make mistakes, draw wrong deductions as to a writer?s future, and indulge in free-and-easy condemcation. He \vas passionately attached to his native city, Edinburgh, and was always miserable when away from it. It was all the same through life - he never could reconcile himself to new places,new people, or strange habits ; and thcs it was that his letters, in age, from Oxford, from London? and America, teem with complaints, and longing for home. His in. dustry was indefatigable, and his general information of the widest range, perfectly accurate, and alway- s at command He died in 1850, in his seventyseventh year, and was borne from Moray Place to his last home in the cemetery at the Dean. In No. 34 lived the Hon. Baron successively Sheriff of Berwickshire and of West Lothian, Professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh, and Baron of Exchequer till the abolition of the Court in 1830. His great work on the Criminal Law of Scotland has been deemed the text-book of that department of jurisprudence, and is constantly referred to as an authority, by bench and bar. It was published in 2 vols. quarto in 1799. He died at Edinburgh on the 30th August, FRANCIS, LORD JEFFRLY. (A/er fhe Pmt7a.i 6y Cnluin Smith, R.S.R.) David Hume, of the Scottish Exchequer in 1779 and 1780, nephew of the historian, and an eminent writer on the criminal jurisprudence of the country, one of the correspondents of the Mirror Club, and who for many years sat with Sir Walter Scott, at the Clerks? table in the first Division of the Court of Session. . No. 47 was long the abode of Sir James Wellwood Moncreiff, Bart., of Tullibole in Kinross-shire, who was called to the Scottish bar in 1799, and was raised to the bench in 1829, under the title of Lord MoncreifT, and died in 1851. His contemporary Baron Hume, tilled various important situations with great ability, having been 1S38, and left in the hands of the secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh a valuable collection of MSS. and letters belonging to, or relating to his celebrated uncle, the historian of England. In Forres Street -a short and steep one opening south from Moray Place-No. 3 was the residence of the great Thomas Chalmers, D.D., the leader of the F r e e C h u r c h movement, a largehearted, patriotic, and devout man, and of whom it has been said, that he was preeminently in the unity of an undivided life, at once a man of man of the world. God, a man of science, and a He was born on the 17th of March, 1780. As a preacher, it is asserted, that there were few whose eloquence was capable of producing an effect so strong and irresistible as his, without his ever having recourse to any of the arts of common pulpit enthusiasm. His language was bold and magnificent; his imagination fertile and distinct, gave richness to his style, while his arguments were supplied with a vast and rapid diversity of illustration, and all who ever heard him, still recall Thomas Chalmers with serious and deep-felt veneration. He is thus described in his earlier years, and ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moray Place. ~~ reputation, but he was too much a votary of the regular old ...

Book 4  p. 204
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46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. PTO. XVIII. FRANCIS GROSE, ESQ., F.A.S. OF LONDON AND PERTH. THIS Print of the celebrated antiquary, Captain Grose, A fine fat fodgel wig& of stature short, but genius bright, represents him in the act of copying an inscription upon an ancient ruin, and was done during his visit to Edinburgh in 1789. He was exceedingly corpulent, and used to rally himself with the greatest good humour on the singular rotundity of his figure. The following epigram, written in a moment of festivity by the celebrated Robert Eurns, the Ayrshire bard, was so much relished by Grose, that he made it serve as an excuse for prolonging the convivial occasion that gave it birth to a very late hour :- The Devil got notice that Grose waa adying, So whip ! at the 8ummona, old Satan came flying ; But when he approach’d where poor FrancLs lay moaning, And saw each bed-post with its burthen a-groaning, Astonished, confounded, cries Satan, ‘ -, I’d want him, ere take such a -lo ad.” It may be noticed that Grose acknowledges his obligations to the poet in the following terms, in his Anfiquitks of Scotland:-“To my ingenious friend, Mr, Robert Burns, I have been variously obligated : he not only was at the pains of making out what was most worthy of notice in Ayrshire, the county honoured by his birth, but he also wrote, expressly for this work, the pretty tale annexed to Alloway Church.” This “pretty tale ” is Burns’s inimitable ‘‘ Tam 0’ Shanter.” Captain Grose was born in the year 1731, and was the son of Mr, Francis Grose of Richmond, jeweller, who fitted up the coronation crown of George the Second, and died in 1769. By his father he was left an independent fortune. In early life he entered the Surrey militia, of which he became Adjutant and Paymaster; but so careless was he that he kept no vouchers either of his receipts or expenditure. He used himself to say he had only two books of accounts, viz. the right and left hand pockets. The results may easily be anticipated, and his fortune suffered severely for his folly. His losses on this occasion roused his latent talents ;-with a good classical education, a fine taste for drawing, encouraged by his friends, and impelled by his situation, he commenced the Antiquities of England and Wah, the first number of which was published in 1773, and the fourth volume completed in 1776. In 1777 he resumed his pencil, and added two lpore volumes to his English Views, in which he included the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, in 237 views, with ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. PTO. XVIII. FRANCIS GROSE, ESQ., F.A.S. OF LONDON AND PERTH. THIS Print of the ...

Book 8  p. 62
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 95 Mr. John Campbell died in 1795. He was succeeded in the precentorship by his son, Mr. Charles Campbell, who held the situation during forty years. He resided in the Canongate, where he long taught a respectable school for writing, arithmetic, and other branches of education. No. CCIV. A MEDLEY OF MUSICIANS. THIS curious Print is one of the artist’s retaliatory pieces. It appears that MR. ALEXANDECRA NPBELLo, ffended at the etching of his brother the precentor, and having some skill in the art of drawing, produced, by way of revenge, a caricature of Kay-in which John Dow was represented as dragging him by the ear to the Town Guard, while Bailie Duff brought up the rear, in the attitude of administering a forcible admonition with his foot. The caricature, although rudely executed, afforded considerable amusement to Mr. Campbell’s friends, among whom it was chiefly circulated. Kay retaliated by producing the “ Medley of Musicians,” in which Mr. Alexander Campbell, then organist in a non-juring chapel, appears with a hand-organ on his back-his brother of the Canongate Church is straining his vocal powers in the centre-Bailie Duff, to the right, is chanting it on the great Highland bagpipe-while behind, MEEK, the blind Irish piper, and the city FISH-HORNB LOWERa,r e lending their “ sweet sounds ” to aid the general harmony. The figure sharping a saw in the background, whose labours may be supposed to afford an excellent counter *or tenor to the deep bass of the two long-eared amateurs, is in allusion to Mr. John Campbell’s former occupation. The scene altogther is not an inapt illustration of the couplet quoted from Hudibras- “ Let puppies bark and asses bray- Each dog and cur will have his day.” The early history of Mr. Alexander Campbell is already partially known from the sketch of his brother. Of a warm and somewhat romantic temper, he was attached to the small body of Jacobites, who still brooded over the fate of the young Chevalier-enthusiastic in his national prepossessions-and passionateIy fond of the music of his country. In addition to vocal music he taught the harpsicord, for which many of the Scottish airs are peculiarly adapted.1 Mr, Campbell was known as a poet and prose writer as well as musician. In Chanders’s Sed. Bwg. Diet. it is stated that “Mr, Campbell was music-master to Sir Walter Scott, with whom, however, he never made any progress, owing, as he used to say, to the total destitution of that great man in the requisite of an ear.” ... SKETCHES. 95 Mr. John Campbell died in 1795. He was succeeded in the precentorship by his son, Mr. ...

Book 9  p. 128
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 201 stood to have been imperative, namely, either to discontinue all political intercourse, or leave the British dominions. The ex-king felt inclined to submit to these hard conditions rather than seek an asylum elsewhere; but the Duchesse d’Angoul.eme, and other members of the family, were indignant at a proceeding which they deemed equally inhospitable and insulting ; whilst the cold and almost repulsive reception given to the Duc de Blacas in London, led them to regard this as the forerunner of some measure of a still harsher kind. In these circumstances, they decided to accept the kind invitation of the Emperor of Austria to take up their abode in one of the imperial palaces near Ratisbon. When it became known that the royal exiles were on the eve of their departure from Edinburgh, a general feeling of regret was manifested by the inhabitants. Charles had intended embarking early in September 1832 ; but, in daily expectation of a Government yacht, which had been promised to carry him to Haniburgh, a delay of several weeks occurred ; and at length, despairing of the fulfilment of a promise which had evidently been reluctantly given, he engaged the United Kingdom steam-ship for the voyage.’ Tuesday, the eighteenth of September, having been fixed for his Majesty’s departure, various methods were adopted by the citizens to show their respect for the fallen Sovereign, whose private virtues had dignified and even ennobled his misfortunes. On the Saturday previous, the tradesmen who had been employed by the ex-royal family entertained the members of the household at dinner in Millar’s tavern, Abbey. In reply to the expressions of regret for their departure, the Frenchmen said “they regretted the separation, the more especially as they had just been long enough here to form friendships, which were now to be torn asunder. If they did not return to France, there was no place on the face of the earth where they would be more anxious to remain than at Edinburgh.” On Monday an address from a considerable portion of the inhabitants was presented to Charles X. by Eailie Small and the Rev. Mr. Badenoch? expressive of the sentiments they entertained of the “ urbanity, beneficence, and virtuous conduct manifested by his Majesty and the distinguished personages attached to his suite during their residence in Edinburgh.” Charles was much affected, and in a few sentences expressed the gratification he felt in receiving such a mark of respect from the citizens of Edinburgh. Early on Tuesday morning a deputation, consisting of the Lord Provost, Colonel George Macdonell, John Rlenzies, Esq., of Pitfodels, 51r. (afterwards Sir Charles) Gordon, William Forbes, Esq., advocate, John Robison, Esq., Secretary There had been strange mismanagement in this matter. Charles sailed, as above stated, early on the Tuesday; and, at five o’clock on the evening of the Thursday following, the Light&q steam-packet arrived at Leith for the purpose of conveying his Majesty and suite. It was too late, and was probably lpeant to be so. The Duchess d’Angouleme had been previously treated in the same manner. After being for some time detained in London, in expectation of a Government steamer, which had also been promised, to convey her to Rotterdam, she was at last obliged to hire a vessel for the pnrpose at her own expense. ’ The Bailie and Mr. Badenoch were deputed with the address, chiefly becanse through their hands the donations of his Majesty to the Poor’s House, the Board of Health, etc., had been conveyed. VOL. It. 21, ... SKETCHES. 201 stood to have been imperative, namely, either to discontinue all ...

Book 9  p. 270
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376 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. nucleus of one of the very latest foundations of a monastic institution in Scotland prior to the Reformation ; but we leave the history of the ancient religious and benevolent foundations of this locality for the next chapter. During the present century, it was destined for a very different purpose. When the Union Canal was first projected, its plans included the continuation of it through the bed of the North Loch, where the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway now runs. From thence it was proposed to conduct it to Greenside, in the area of which an immense harbour was to have been constructed ; and this again being connected by a broad canaI with the sea, it was expected that by such means the New Town would be converted into a seaport, and the unhappy traders of Leith compelled either to abandon their traffic, or remove within the precincts of their jealous rivals; Chimerical as .this project may now appear, designs were furnished by experienced engineers, a map of the whole plan was engraved on a large scale, and no doubt our civic reformers rejoiced in the anticipation of surmounting the disadvantages of an inland position, and seeing the shipping of the chief ports of Europe crowding into the heart of their uew capital I OE the memorials of the New Town, properly so called, very few fall legitimately within the plan of this work; yet even its modern streets possess some interesting associations that we would not willingly forego. We have already referred to the house which forms the junction with St Andrew Square and St David Street, as the last residence of the celebrated philosopher and historian, David Hume ; where that strange death-bed scene occurred which has been the subject of such varied comments both by the eulogists and detractors of the great sceptic. Directly opposite to Hume’s house, on the north side of the square, is the house in which Henry Brougham was born. At that period St Andrew Square contained the residences of several noblemen, and was deemed the most fashionable quarter of the rising’ town. The house on the same side at the corner of St Andrew Street was the mansion of David Steuart, Earl of Buchan, and possesses some claim to our interest as the place where the Society of Scottish Antiquaries was instituted in 1780, and where its earliest meetings were held.’ Within the fist eastern division of George Street, the eye of the modern visitor is attracted by the lofty and magnificent portico of the Commercial Bank, a building that seems destined to attest for ages the skill and taste, if not the inventive genius, of our native architects; yet it occupies the site of the Physicians’ Hall, a chaste Grecian edifice designed by Craig, the foundation-stone of which was laid by the celebrated Dr Cullen, in 1774, doubtless with the belief that remote ages might bring to light the memorials which were then buried in its foundations. Nor must we omit to notice the favourite dwelhg of Sir Walter Scott in North Castle Street- ‘‘ TAe ckar tAirty-nine,” which he left under such mournful circumstances in 1826. The New Town of Edinburgh has already many such associations with names eminent in literature and science, some of which, at least, will command the interest of other generations. Our Me~norials, however, are of the olden time, and ye leave future chroniclers to record those of the modern city. Paton’e Correspondence, pp. 170-172. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. nucleus of one of the very latest foundations of a monastic institution in Scotland ...

Book 10  p. 413
(Score 0.8)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 89 an ingenious artist, but who, from a feeling of modesty, prevailed 04 the limner to alter it. The fourth, or extreme figure on the left, is MR. JOHN MITCHELL, of the firm of Mitchell and White, hardware-merchants, at that time residing in North Bridge Street. He was a respectable trader, and a great admirer of balloons. The fifth, in the background on the right, is a capital likeness of MR. JAMES NEILSON, writer and clerk to the Rev. Sir Henry Moncreiff Wellwood, Bart., and his predecessors, Mr. Stewart and Dr. Webster, as collectors of the Ministers’ Widows’ Fund. He lived in Turk’s Close, a little to the west of the Luckenbooths, and died a bachelor, in March 1797. He was a particular friend to Lunardi. He belonged, at a former period, to the first volunteer regiment raised in Great Britain, viz. the Edinburgh Defensive Band, The sixth is a striking likeness of JOHN SPOTTISWOOD, Esq., one of the magistrates of Edinburgh, a most respectable gentleman. He was at one time a dealer in Carron-wares in the Grassmarket, and afterwards in Adam Square (South Bridge). Kay has in his MS. preserved the following anecdote relative to him :-This Print had hardly appeared when the Bailie came up to the limner, and challenged him for publishing such a scandalous print, saying he ought to be horsewhipped, and adding that he ought rather to have paid a compliment to Lnnardi, than to have classed him with Lord North the caddy. “ I don’t know,” said Kay, “ but Lord North is as good a man as he ; but I should like to see the man who would horsewhip me.”-“It is one of the horriblest things on earth,” replied the Bailie, “to put me on a level with a caddy.”--“ Oh! Bailie, are you there toot’’ exclaimed Kay, by way of interrogation. “Yes, sir,” returned the magistrate, “you know I am there ; I have a daughter only five years old, who points me out at first sight.”-“ She must be a smart girl,” said the limner; “ but if you please, Bailie, I shall do another print of you by yburse1f.”-“I’d see you hanged first,” answered our hero. “Oh! Bailie, Bailie!” said Kay, “I hope you are not angry.”-“ Angry ! I’m shocking angry !” returned the provoked magistrate, stamping the ground with his foot, to the no small amusement of the spectators who happened to be looking at the prints in Kay’s window, in the Parliament Square, at the time. The Seventh, or extreme figiire on the right, is MYLES M‘PHAIL, better known by the name of LORD NORTH, the Caddy. This sobriquet was bestowed in consequence of his personal resemblance to Lord North, afterwards Earl of Guildford. M‘Phail, besides his occupation as a caddy, kept a tavern in the High Street, and was much esteemed for his activity ; he was also officer of the Caledonian Hunt. On the occasion of Lunardi’s ascent from the .Green of Heriot’s Hospital, Lord North collected the money. N ... SKETCHES. 89 an ingenious artist, but who, from a feeling of modesty, prevailed 04 the limner to ...

Book 8  p. 126
(Score 0.8)

38 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. the West Meadow, have been for hundreds of years the favourite resort for golf players. This forms the north-western portion of the old ‘ Borough Wuir,’ on which the Scottish army encamped on the eve of their fatal march to Flodden. To the iouth-east there is a walk between deep hedges, long and familiarly known as the Lover’s Loan. Apart from its old associations and present uses the Meadows have always presented peculiar charms for musing and solitary men,-for students, for clericals, for actors, for strangers, and every soh of accomplished idlers, as well as every variety of professional men. Here we have overheard the player rehearsing his part for the evening theatre; the wild-eyed poetic youth reciting Byron, or reading Shelley or Coleridge himself (as he thought) alone ; ’ the desperate and suicide-revolving man uttering his broken and frenzied soliloquies; the student conning his Tacitus, or repeating his sermon for the Presbytery ; the lover revolving a sonnet to his mistress’s eyebrow or walking at her side; the wretched waif, with madness and hell contending for the mastery over his miserable face, emaciated figure, and tattered attire, as he elbows without scruple or begs without shame from the doctor, the divine, the master of the New Academy or High School, the professor, or the judge who have sought recreation but not found solitude in the Meadows. Here, too, was daily to be viewed a scene, whichin its varied beauty and sublimity, seemed to suit all and soothe many who frequented it with its fresh green pastures, where in full spring or summer tide ‘ You scarce could see the grass for flowers ; ’ its trees from under whose shadow your soul ‘ Floated and mingled far away With the warm winds of the summer day ; ’ its cool walks, where you felt yourself at times entirely alone, and could revel unseen in Hazlitt’S First Acpzlaiirtance with PO&, and in Shelley’s translations from Faust, bound together in the one blue cover of the Liberal; and with constant feeling of thk neighbourhood and occasional flashing out of the presence of Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Crags, and the distant Pentlands leaning like wearied Titans against the south-western sky. (We have in Mr. Paton’s delightful drawing a glimpse of the-avenue that unites the Meadows and Bruntsfield Links.) To the old Borough Muir belonged the ground now laid out so beautifully as the Grange Cemetery. Here slumbers the fiery dust of Chalrners, and ... EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. the West Meadow, have been for hundreds of years the favourite resort for ...

Book 11  p. 60
(Score 0.8)

154 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. The successors of Mr. Macgregor in the Gaelic Chapel have been numerous. They were the Rev. James M‘Lauchlan, afterwards removed to the parish of hloy, Inverness-shire ; the Rev. John Xlacdonald, afterwards of Urquhart, Banffshire j the Rev. John Munro, afterwards of Halkirk, Caithness ; and the unfortunate (he was thought to be insane) Duncan M‘Cuaig, who wa5 tried and banished for theft in July 1831.l The succeeding pastor was the Rev, John M‘Allister. No. LXV. THE REV. JAMES LAWSON OF BELVIDERE, ii THE JOB OF PRESENT TIMES.’’ THIS Print, we are assured, is a striking likeness of MR. LAWSONw,h o is represented in the attitude of receiving the General Assembly’s covered, buttoned, and sealed Bible, which was handed to hirn by a member of the Assembly, when, in answer to a question put to him as to where his creed lay, he pointed to it as the only rule of his faith. The quotations inserted on the plate, at his own request, on each side of the figure, entitled “The World and the Church,” pre in allusion to his protracted process before the Church Courts. The father of Mr. Lawson was proprietor of Eelyidere, a small estate in the neighbourhood of Auchterarder. He had warmly opposed the settlement of Mr. Campbell as Minister of that parish ; but, on finding himself in the minority, he signed the call along with the other heritors. This opposition, trivial as it may appear, is represented in Kay’s MS. as the primary cause of the course of procedure afterwards adopted by the Presbytery of Auchterarder towards his son. Shortly after the father’s death, young Lawson began seriously to think of entering the ministry; and, after attending the usual number of seasons at College, he applied to the Presbytery of Auchterarder to be licensed, at least to undergo his trials for that purpose. According to Kay, the Rev. Mr. Campbell had not forgotten the circumstance of the Laird of Belvidere’s opposition to his settlement, and resolved to manifest that vindictive feeling towards the son, which circumstances did not enable occasionally became the associate of two well-known sporting gentlemen-then in the heyday of youth and frolic-whose portraits we will have occasion to notice in a subsequent part of this work. These manifestations of the spirit render the character of the Gaelic clergyman somewhat equivocal ; yet it is but fair to state that his name ought not to be confounded, as has frequently been the case, with that of the Reverend JaseTh Robertson, sometime minister of the chapel in Macdowall Street, Paul’s Work, who was banished for forging certificates of proclamation. The latest accounts represented hirn as in a state of complete destltution. This person became a teacher in Van Diemen’s Land. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. The successors of Mr. Macgregor in the Gaelic Chapel have been numerous. They were the ...

Book 8  p. 217
(Score 0.79)

B I0 G RAP HIC AL SKETCH E S. 57 Islands ; but this situation he held only for a limited period, in consequence of some misunderstanding. He returned to the Continenti and died there in 1795. He married a French ladyone of the Protestant refugees ‘-whose sister was a well-known novel writer of the ‘‘ Minerva Press.” He had two sons, who were educated at the High School. The eldest, George, was unfortunate. He entered the army; but, having formed some indifferent connections, he retired from the service, and died in Switzerland. Augustus, the youngest, became a distinguished officer of artillery. He commanded the horse-brigade during the whole of the war in Spain, and was repeatedly thanked in public orders by the Duke of Wellington. He was created a Baronet and K.C.B., and died at Woolwich. The Major resided in No. 5 George Street. The Hon. ANDREW ERSKINE was a younger brother of the “ musical Earl of Kellie.” He held a lieutenant’s commission in the 71st Regiment of Foot, which corps being reduced in 1763, he exchanged from half-pay to the 24th, then stationed at Gibraltar. Erskine had little genius or inclination for a military life ; his habits and tastes were decidedly of a literary character. He was one of the contributors to Donaldson’s “ Collection of Original Poems by Scottish Gentlemen.” He is chiefly known, however, for his correspondence with Boswell (the biographer of Johnson), printed at Edinburgh in 1763. These letters, the legitimate offspring of “hours of idleness,” consist of a mixture of prose and verse; and are remarkable for the spirit of extravagance which pervades them. Those of Boswell are characteristic of the writer, and his pen might be traced in every line ; but it would be difficult to discover in the letters of Erskine any marks of the dull, reserved disposition which was natural to him. His manner was unobtrusive and bashful in the extreme. He indeed occasionally alludes to this ; and, in one of his poetical epistles to Boswell, says- “ You kindly took me up an awhard cub, And introduced me to the soaping club.”’ The following notice of the “French Refugees,” we find in the London Nmhg Post of September 18, 1792 :-‘‘The subscriptions for those unfortunate people do honour to the generosity of the nation. It is expected that iu the course of a few days it will be very considerable, as there has been upwards of Five Thousand Pounds already subscribed. It is rather strange that the piety of our English Bishops did not induce them to anticzpate the good iutentions‘of the lady. The mitred brotherhood should have been the first to have felt for the forlorn sitnation of the emigrant priests ; but their doors seem shut against the voice of distress, and their hearts appear callous to the calls of humanity. It is the object of the managers of the subscriptions to supply those refugees with money, who are desirous to emigrate to other countries, where their talents and abilities may be exercised for their own emolument, and the benefit of the state. Their next objects of relief are those who, from affluence, have been reduced to extreme poverty, and whose pride still prevents them from solicitiug alms. To alleviate their misfortunes, every man must administer his mite with cheerfulness ; but those French paupers who have been long before the Revolution in this country, and are common mendicants, it is not the intention of the subscription to embrace.” So called from their motto, which was, “Every man soap his own beard; or every man indulge his own humour.” This club met erery “Tuesday eve,” and their favourite game was the facetious one of snip snap snmm. VOL. 11. I ... I0 G RAP HIC AL SKETCH E S. 57 Islands ; but this situation he held only for a limited period, in consequence ...

Book 9  p. 78
(Score 0.79)

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 353 of people.” This manufacturing speculation, though devised for benevolent purposes, entirely failed, and dissipated the whole revenues of the older foundation. We next h d it converted into an Hospital for the wounded soldiers of General Leslie’s army, during the skirmishing that preceded his total defeat at Dunbar; and thereafter it reached its final degradation as a penal workhouse or bridewell, in which capacity it is referred to in the ‘‘ Heart of Midlothian.” The building was decorated with the city arms, and smw other rudely sculptured devices on the pediments of the dormer windows that appear in our view, and over the doorway was inscribed the pious aspiration :-GOD WARK * with the date 1619. Beyond this lies the district of Calton,* which had for its superiors the Lords Balmerinoch, until the Common Council purchased the superiority of it from the last representative af that noble family, who perished on the block in 1746. The first Lord Balmerinoch was made the scapegoat of his royal master James VI., on the Secretary Cecil producing a letter to the Council, which his Majesty had written to the Pope, Clement VIII., with the view of smoothing his accession to the English throne. Lord Balmerinoch was accused as the author of the letter, and sent prisoner to Edinburgh, “with the people of which place,” says Scott of Scotstarvit, “he was little favoured, because he had acquired many landa about the town, so that John Henderson, the bailie, forced him to light off his horse at the foot of Leith Wynd, albeit he had the rose in his leg, and was very unableto walk, till he came to the prison house.” He was condemned to be beheaded, but was soon after permitted to retire to his own house, the whole being a mere ruse to cover the King’s double dealing. The last Lord presented the Old Calton Burying Ground to his vassals, as a place of sepulture, and it is said offered them the whole hill for $40. This district, however, must have existed long before Ring James bestowed that title on his favourite, as the last remains of an ancient chapel, dedicated to St Ninian were swept away in 1814, in clearing the site for the west pier of the Regent Bridge. Only the crypt, or vaulted ground story, remained at the time of its demolition ; but ‘‘ the baptismal font,” as Arnot styles it, or more probably the holy-water stoup, was removed by Mr Walter Ross in 1778, to the curious Gothic tower built by him at Dean Haugh. It consists of a neatly SCUIPtured bason, forming the base of a Gothic niche, and surmounted by an elegant Gothic canopy, and now forms one of the heterogeneous decorations collected by Sir Walter Scott for his mansion at Abbotsford. Nothing is known either of the founders or the date of erection of St Ninian’s Chapel. The neighbouring Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity was dedicated, in the charter of foundation, “For the praise and honour of the Holy Trinity, of the ever-blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, of St Niniun tAe Confessor, and of all saints and elect of God” The chapel appears, however, to have been a dependency of the Abbey of Holyrood, from different notices of it that occur in licences granted by the Abbots to the Corporations of the Canongate, for founding and maintaining altars in the Abbey Church. In a licence granted in 1554, by Robert Stewart, Abbot of Holyrood, “for augmentatioun of dyuine seruice at me alter to be biggit within our sayd abbay, quhare Sanct Crkpine and Crispiniane per patronis sal1 stand;” it is added, BLIS THIS 1 Calderwood, voL vii’p. 458. ’ Nicoll’e Diary, p 23. “ CaEton, or Caldoun, is admitted to be the hiu covered with bushes.”-Dalrymple’s Annals, VOL i. p. 96. Charter of Foundation, Maitland, p. 207. ’ 2Y ... WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 353 of people.” This manufacturing speculation, though devised for benevolent ...

Book 10  p. 387
(Score 0.79)

150 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and, even in his latter years, when retiring from a hard-fought field in Dunn’s Hotel, or any other convivial place of resort, he would allow no escort. His remains were interred in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard, where a stone records the following tribute to his memory :- Mr. Grant died at his house, in Erown’s Square, in 1784. SACRED, To the Memory of ISAAGCR ANT,E sq., of Hilton, Writer to His Majesty’s Signet, who died the 27th December 1794, aged seventy years ; universally esteemed and much regretted by all who knew him. In him the poor lost a friend, the rich a cheerful, facetious companion, and the world an honest man. This Stone was erected at the reqliest of his eldest aon, ISAAGCR ANT, Feb. 2, Anno Domini 1798. The third, or rather the first figure in the background, represents another old bachelor, ARCHIBALD MACARTHUR STEWART, Esq., of Ascog-a gentleman somewhat eccentric in several particulars. He generally wore white clothes, of the description exhibited in the Print, and had a peculiar manner of throwing his legs over each other in walking, which was owing probably to his great corpulency. Mr. Stewart was the only son of Mr. Macarthur of Milton, and succeeded to the estate of Ascog, under a deed of entail executed by John Murray of Blackbarony, of the lands of Ascog, and others, dated 28th May 1763. His relationship to the entailer is not mentioned in the deed; and he is called to the succession upon the failure of heirs of the entailer, and of his sister Mary and her heirs. Mr. Murray left a large personal estate, which was invested by his successor, Mr. Macarthur, in the purchase of land in Argyleshire. Not less wealthy than Mr. Grant, and, like him, a bachelor not of the most continent habits, he is said to have been exceedingly parsimonious in his domestic arrangements. Kay relates that, when he lived at the Castle Hill, he kept no housekeeper or servant, but generally employed some neighbour’s wife or daughter to perform the ordinary drudgery of the house. He had a great attachment to swine, and kept a litter of pigs in his bedroom. On removing to other premises, some time after the death of his mother, with whom he resided, it is told, as illustrative of his singular notions, that he would not allow the furniture to be disturbed, but locked up the house, under the impression that the old lady might occasionally come back and take up her abode there ! Mr. Stewart was proprietor of part of the lands of Coates, near Edinburgh, and lived for some years in the old turreted house at the west end of Melville Street, He latterly resided in Lord Wemyss’ house, Lauriston, where he died ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and, even in his latter years, when retiring from a hard-fought field in ...

Book 9  p. 200
(Score 0.79)

41 0 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Seeing how her humour went, Fox thought he would have better success j and being very anxious to ascertain the amount of the election dinner bills, he began in a round-about way to quiz her on the subject :- “ Had Jfr. Skinner sometimes particularly good dinners in his house P” “Not sometimes, but always, to those who could pay for them.” “Had you a particular good dinner for the Dunfermline party ?” “ Very good ; an’ they needed it-for the gentlemen had come far to be out 0’ the way 0’ “What might a dinner cost for a party at the inn kept by Mr. Skinner ?” “ Whiles mair and whiles less-just accordiug to circumstances,” was the cautious answer. “Well, well ; but can’t you tell what the entertainment cost on the occasion referred to ? ” “ Indeed, sir, it’s no the custom for gentlmn in our quarter to ask the price 0’ a dinner, “ Come, now, say what was the amount of the bill 1” ‘‘ Indeed, sir, I wonder to hear a gentleman 0’ your sense expect me to ken, or be able to tell sic a piece 0’ my husband‘s business-Ehhfyl”. The examination of Lucky Skinner, which was brought to a termination without eliciting anything of consequence, afforded much merriment to all parties ; and having so shrewdly evaded the queries put to her by the members of the Select Committee, she no doubt claimed a due share of the honour acquired in the triumph of her party. The Committee gave in their report to the House of Commons on the 30th of March 1797, finding that the Hon. Andrew Cochrnne Johnstone was duly elected ;1 but that the petition of Sir John Henderson’ was not “ frivolous or vexatious.” For many years after this memorable contest, the fame of Lucky Skinner’s journey to London, and the admirable manner in which she baffled the learned members of the Committee, brought numerous visitors to her house. She had the knack of setting off her narrative to the greatest advantage ; and since the days of Patie Birnie, the famous fiddler, and Johnnie Stocks, the dwarf, who used to entertain the passengers detained at the ferry-the one with his music, and the other by dancing among the punch-bowls and glasses. on the table, all as related by the author of “ The Gentle Shepherd ”-the royal burgh of Kinghorn has had nothing half so attractive as the stories of the redoubted Lucky Skinner. being pestered.” unless they mean to pay for’t 1” No. CCCVIII. MR. PIERIE AND MR. MAXWELL. THE LADIES ARE IN THE COSTUME OF 1785. VERY little is known of the two portly citizens who figure in this Print. They were both bachelors, however ; hence the humour of the artist in representing them in the company of ladies. Col. Johnstone having been appointed Governor of Dominica, a new election took place in a Sir John left one child, a daughter, married to Sir Philip Durham, Bart., proprietor of the 1797, when the late William Tait, Esq., advocate, was returned without opposition. estate of Fordel. ... 0 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Seeing how her humour went, Fox thought he would have better success j and being very ...

Book 9  p. 546
(Score 0.79)

coate3 Street.] ST, MARY?S CATHEDRAL 211 ward of Princes Street, this estate includes the sites of Coates Crescent, Melville,Walker, Stafford Streets, and other thoroughfares, yielding a rental of aboul &zo,ooo yearly, and representing a capital oi ~400,000, the whole of which, in 1870, was be queathed by the late Misses Walker of Coates and Drumsheugh, for the erection of a cathedral for the Scottish Episcopal Church, dedicated to St. Maq facing the west end of Melville Street. Miss Mary Walker-the last of an old Episcopalian family-died in 1871, her sister Barbara having pre-deceased her. The foundation-stone was laid with impressive ceremony, by the Duke of Buccleuchj assisted by some zoo clergy and laymen 01 the Episcopal communion on the zIst of May, 1874; and when fully completed it will be the largest and most beautiful church that has been erected in Scotland, or perhaps in Great Britain since the Reformation. The total cost, when finished, will be about .&132,567. The architect, Sir Gilbert Scott, founded his design on the early Pointed style of architecture. The axis of this cathedral coincides with the centre of Melville Street, its site being immediately to the south of Coates House, the sole example of an old Scottish mansion surviving in the New Town. The form adopted is that of a cruciform church, the general effect being enhanced by the introduction to the central tower of two minor, though still lofty, towers at the western end. The plan embraces a choir with north and south aisles ; at the intersection of the transepts rises the central or rood tower,?z75 feet inheight; the total length of the edifice externally is 278 feet 2 inches, and the breath 98 feet 6 inches. The choir is 60 feet 9 inches long and 29 broad, with aisles 16 feet wide, divided into two great and four minar bays by beautifully clustered columps. From the floor to the key-stones of the vaulting, which is all of stone, the height is 58 feet. The transepts, which project by one ?bay beyond the nave and choir, are .35 feet 4 inches long, by 30 feet g inches broad, with aisles above 13 feet wide. This unusual proportion of breadth -was given to the transepts to provide ample accommodation for congregational purposes. To the north of the north chancel aisle is the library, an apartment measuring 30 feet by I 9 feet. The main entrance of the church is from Palmerston Place, opposite what are grotesquely named Grosvenor Gardens. This elevation is the most imposing modern Gothic fapde in Scotland, severe in its purity, and rich in elaboration. The most important features here are the portal and great west window. The shafts and flanking arches of the former are of red granite, from Shap in Westmoreland, harmonising well with the fine nunmore and Polmaise freestone of which the edifice i s built. In the vesica of the centre pediment is a seated figure of the Saviour, supporting with the left hand a lamb, and with the outstretched right holding a key. Around is the legend :- SALVABITUR? ?EGO SUM OSTIUM; PER ME SI QUIS INTROIERIT In the spandrils are figures of St. Peter and John the Baptist. Below this grouping are ranged along the door lintel angels bearing a scroll inscribed- ?TU ES CHRISTUS FILIUS DEI.? The side elevations of the nave present the usual features of the early Pointed style, the walls of the aisle being substantially buttressed, dividing the length into five bays, in each of which is a double window. Above the clerestory runs a bold cotnice, and from the wall head there springs a high pitched roof. In the gable of the south transept is anotherportal, the mouldings of which are exquisitely carved. The window consists of three lancets separated by massively clustered buttress shafts. Above it is a rose window 24 feet in diameter, filled in with geometrical tracery. Above it are five pointed niches, containing statues of St. Paul and St. Luke, Titus, Silas, and Timotheus. the gable of the north transept has some features peculiarly its own. The wheel window, 24 feet in diameter, is of a later period than that in the south gable, Over it is a statue of David. As usual in cathedrals, the choir has been treated with greater elaboration of design and detail than the nave, especially in the triforium and clerestory. The gable fronting Melville Street is nearly occupied by a triple lancet window, the apex of the arches being 54 feet from the ground. Above is an arcade, the arches of which are filled by statues of the mother of our Lord and the four Evangelists. In the vesica is a figure of the Saviour surrounded by angels in the act of adoration. The four shafted and clustered pillars of the roodtower, though framed to support a superincumbent mass of no less than 6,000 tons, are finely proportioned and even light in appearance. The tower rises square from the roof in beautiful proportions, the transition to the octagonal form taking place at the height of 120 feet from the foundation. Viewed from any point, the nave, with its longdrawn aisles and interlacing arches, has a peculiarly p n d and impressive effect. Designed in the style of the twelfth century, the font stands in the baptistery under the south-west tower. It is massive, of yellowish alabaster streaked with red Though treated in a somewhat similar manner, , ... Street.] ST, MARY?S CATHEDRAL 211 ward of Princes Street, this estate includes the sites of Coates ...

Book 4  p. 211
(Score 0.79)

3 36 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. tion, which made many of that stamp court his converse. He never married, but lived in a private lodging with his sister Grizel Weir. Many resorted to his house to hear him pray, and join with him; but it was observed that he could not officiate in any holy duty without the black staff or rod in his hand, and leaning upon it, which made those who heard him pray admire his flood in prayer, his ready extemporary expression, his heavenly gesture ; so that he was thought more angel than man, and was termed by some of the holy sisters ordinarily Angelical Thomas.”’ This magical black staff was no less marvellous a character than the Major himself. According to veracious tradition, it was no uncommon thing for the neighbours to see it step in and tap at their counters on some errand of its master, or running before him with a lantern as he went out on nocturnal business, and gravely walked down the Lawnmarket behind his mysterious link-boy. The Major, in fact, had made a compact with the Devil, of which this was part payment ; but the foul fiend as usual overreached his dupe. He had enga.ged, it would seem, to keep him scatheless from all dangers but one burn. The accidental naming of a Mr Burn by the waiters of the Nether Bow Port, as he visited them in the course of his duty, threw him into a fit of terror that lasted for weeks ; and the intervention of a water brook called Libberton Burn in his way was sufficient to make him turn back. “A year before he discovered himself, he took a sore sickness, during which he spake to all who visited him like an angel.” !a He found it, however, impossible longer to withstand the dreadful tortures of conscience ; and summoning some of his neighbours to his bedside, he made voluntary confession of crimes, which needed no supernatural accessories to render them more detestable. His confession seemed ao incredible, that the magistrates at first refused to take him into custody ; but he was at length carried off to prison, and lodged in the Tolbooth along with his sister-the partner, if not the victim, of one of his crimes. As might have been expected, strange and supernatural appearances accompanied his seizure. The staff was secured by his Bister’s advice, and carried to prison along with them. A few dollars were also found, wrapped up in some rags, and on the latter being thrown into the fire, they danced in circles about the flames in an unwonted manner, while ‘‘ another clout, found with some hard thing in it, which they threw into the fire likewise, circled and sparkled like gunpowder, and passing from the tunnel of the chimney, it gave a crack like a little cannon, to the amazement of all that were present.” The money was no less boisterous than its wrappers, and threatened to pull the bailie’s house about his ears, who had taken it home with him. On being carried to prison, the Major sunk into a dogged apathy, from which he never afterwards reviyed, furiously rejecting the ministrations of the clergymen who visited him, and replying only to their urgent exhortations with the despairing exclamation, Torment me not before the time ! ” adding, with somewhat more philosophic foresight, according to another annalist, “ that now, since he was to go to the Devil, he would not anger him.” * He was tried April 9, 1670, and confessed himself guilty both of possible and impossible crimes. - There can be no doubt, indeed, that the wretched hypocrite was driven desperate by the stings of conscience, and felt some relief in giving the Devil a share of his misdeeds. He waa sentenced to be strangled and burnt, ’ Fraser’a Providential Passages. MS. Advocates’ Library. * Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, p. 146. a Ihid, p. 147. Law’s Memorials, p. 23. ... 36 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. tion, which made many of that stamp court his converse. He never married, but lived ...

Book 10  p. 367
(Score 0.79)

366 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. many of his compeers of last century; and the “French Philosophy,” as it was called, found in him a determined opponent. To the great work of Gibbon, the “ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” may be attributed some of his most laborious translations, in the critical notes to which the false insinuations and historical inaccuracies of that author are ably exposed. For some time previous to the year 1790, the constitution of Lord Hailes had been in a very enfeebled state ; yet he continued to prosecute his favourite studies to the last, and performed his duty on the bench till witshin three days of his death, which occurred at New Hailes on the 29th of November l792.l His lordship was twice married-first to Anne Brown, only daughter of Lord Coalstoun, by whom he had two daughters, the eldest of whom inherited the estate.’ His second wife, Helen Fergusson, youngest daughter of Lord Kilkerran, had also one daughter.’ Having no male issue, the baronetcy (which is now extinct) descended to his nephew, eldest son of his brother John Dalrymple, who held the office of Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 17 7 0 and 1 7 7 1. An excellent funeral sermon was preached on his lordship’s death by Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk, in which he drew a glowing character of one of the most worthy of all the learned men of last century, who have done so much honour to Scotland. There is an anecdote of Lord Hailes while at the bar, illustrative of his just feeling and native goodness of heart. He then held the office of Advocatedepute, and had gone to Stirling in his official capacity. On the first day of the Court, he was in no haste to bring on the proceedings; and, being met by a brother of the bar, was asked-Why there was no trial this forenoon1 “ There are,” said Sir David, “some unhappy culprits to be tried for their lives, and therefore it is proper they have time to confer for a little with their men of law.’’ ‘‘ Last year I came to visit Lord Kames when he was here on the circuit, and he appointed me counsel for a man accused of a capital offence. Though I had very little time to prepare, yet I made a very decent speech.” “Pray, sir,’’ said Sir David, “ was your client acquitted or condemned P” “ 0,” replied the other, ‘‘ most unjustly condemned.” ‘‘ That, sir,” said the Advocate-depute, “ is norgood reason for hurrying on trials.” Religion was a topic upon which Lord Hailes was peculiarly sensitive, When the late Mr. Smellie-well known in the republic of letters-was about to ‘‘ That is of very little consequence,” said the other. . 1 In “ M‘Nish’s Anatomy of Sleep I’ there is a strange story relative to the somnolency of the !earned judge, the accuracy of which is at least doubtful. He seldom passed much time at the dinnertable ; and frequently, long before the other members of the family had retired, resumed his literary labours at a small table in the same apartment, without at all feeling disturbed by the conversation going on. He had a large library at New Hailes ; but he always studied and wrote in the family dining-room. a The estates were destined by the older titles to the heir-male ; but this being merely a “simple tail&,” as it is called, Lord Hailes had it in his power to alter the succession. A curious anecdote is related in the Traditions of Zdinbwgh respecting his lordship’s will ; but it is not accurate. The conveyance was found, not by a “female servant” while cleaning out the house in New Street, but by persons properly authorised, on the first or second day after the funeral. It was carefully wrapt up iu one of the drawers of a small chest in his lordship’s dressing-room. * This lady wv88 married to her consin, the grandson of Lord Kilkerran. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. many of his compeers of last century; and the “French Philosophy,” as it was ...

Book 8  p. 512
(Score 0.79)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 367 factured, to “ gust the gabs ” of the young villagers, by whom it was held in high estimation. She continued in office for several years, and was in turn succeeded by a little woman, commonly distinguished by the somewhat appropriate appellative of Eel1 Greasy. She. died a number of years ago-the last of the race of Dalkeith clap and hand-bell ringers. The drum having been deemed by the Magistrates of that rising town as infinitely more dignified, was then adopted, and still continues in nse. The change, however, is much regretted by the inhabitants, as the charge for calling was formerly only a penny, whereas the drum costs at least eighteenpence for performing the same labour. No. CCXCII. TWO CHAIRMEN; “THE 8OCIAL PINCH.” IN this Etching is represented the east corner of the Parliament Square, with a partial view of the Parliament House, as it existed prior to the late extensive alterations. The two Chairmen, both of whom died about the beginning of this century, were well remembered, by the old frequenters of the Square. DONALDK ENxmY-seated on the pole of the sedan, and presenting his “mull ” -was a native of Perthshire. He was married, but had no children-owing to which circumstance, we presume, Donald and his helpmate were not always on the most amicable terms, and their quarrels at length terminated in a separation. His wife, who survived to old age, was lately an inmate of the Charity Workhouse. DONALDE LACKth, e other figure, came from Ross-shire, and was a bachelor. The Chairmen of Edinburgh, chiefly Highlanders, were at one time a numerous and well-employed body, and some of them were known to amass large sums of money.’ The introduction of hackney-coaches, however-together with a considerable change in the habits of fashionable life-have wholly sub- 1 Donald M‘Glashan, chair-master, who died within a few years of the publication of this print, left very considerable property, chiefly in houses, situated in Milne’s Square. He had at one time about twelve men employed in carrying sedan-chairs, parcels and letters, and in attending strangers in their perambulations through the city. Latterly, it is said, he found a source of no inconsiderable gain in lending small sums of money to young men of rank by whom he was employed, and whose remittances happened to run short. No charge for interest was made, but favours of this kind were always liberally repaid. He was interred in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard, where his place of burial is enclosed, and distinguished by a stone bearing the following inscription:- Erected by Donald M‘Glashan (1825), Chair-master in Edinburgh, as a place of interment for the use of his heirs in mession. ... SKETCHES. 367 factured, to “ gust the gabs ” of the young villagers, by whom it was held in high ...

Book 9  p. 488
(Score 0.78)

8 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. bright bubbles which arise when a stone disturbs the dark rivers of Africa, and reveal their profundity. But finer than this is the aspect of the city, especially of the Old Town, sleeping in the pale^ moonbeam, the steady weathercocks and steeples, and churches ‘ steeped in silentness,’ the leagues of light contrasted with the long black massive shadows, the hills with the pillow of their repose softened and rounded by the ‘ holier day ’ which is in its turn sleeping upon them,-the statues of the mighty in the squares looking supernaturally large and awful in the weird light, and the sounds of solitary footsteps in distant streets, breaking the stillness with a far unearthly shock of sound-the scene altogether so wild and fair ‘ You scarce would start to meet a spirit there,’ and can easily imagine that the City gf Palaces has become the City of the Dead, and that you are one of the few last men,’ who are surviving the catastrophe. We had not the pleasure of seeing this great city set on fire, burning with the loyalty of the 10th of March 1863, and as it were transfigured in the gush of its self-kindled glory, nor had we the still greater luxury of witnessing its environs or itself on the memorable day of the Volunteer Review in August 1860, nor the unveiling of the Albert Memorial on the 17th of August 1876. But twice we have seen Edinburgh on an occasion and in an aspect worthy of itself. Once was, as already alluded to, when in September 1835 Daniel OConnell appeared on the Calton Hill. Never can we forget, or cease often to remember, the glorious autumn day, the multitude assembled from every part of the kingdom, the appearance of the orator and Member for all Ireland, then turned sixty years of age, with his tall broad figure, his keen crafty eye, his head concealed by a green cap with a golden binding, the rich deep mellow tones of his voice, the careless grandeur of his diction, the ease and power of the conversational manner he adopted, the blended refinement and coarseness of his speaking-no poetry finer, no sarcasm or invective fouler than that which came alternately from his lips,-the inspired fervour of his pantomime, which, seen by thousands who could not hear a syllable he uttered, yet told like the play of distant lightning, the silence of his auditory, and at the close the deep sigh which broke from 30,000 hearts, when what seemed a strain of matchless melody descending from the lofty platform, or rather from the air above it, came to a close ! Never did that familiar scene appear so beautiful as on that day; it seemed as if it too were welcoming by its sweetest smiles and most gorgeous array the great ... EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. bright bubbles which arise when a stone disturbs the dark rivers of Africa, and ...

Book 11  p. 12
(Score 0.78)

300 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Wynd. broad and spacious thoroughfare, named St. Mary?s Street, presenting on its eastern side a series of handsome fapdes, in the Scottish domestic style, with a picturesque variet)iof outline and detail. edifice a relic of one of the older ones, a lintel inscribed thus, with the city motto :- NISI . DEVS . FRVSTRA. I B 1523 E L C H A P T E R X X X V I I . LEITH WYND. Leith Wynd-Our Lady?s Hompita-Paul?s Work-The Wall of r540-Its Fall in 1854-The ?Happy Land?-Mary of Gueldres-Trinity College Church-Some Particulars of its Charter-Interior View- Decorations-Enlargement of the Establishment-Privileges of its Ancient Officers-The Duchess of Lennox-Lady Jane Hamilton-Curious Remains-Trinity Hospital-Sir Simon Preston?s ? Public Spirit ?-Become5 a Corporation Chariw-Description of BuildinpPmvisions for the Inmates-Lord Cockburn?s Female Pensioner- . basement of which is occupied by spacious shops, and which stands upon the site of the old ?White Horse ? Inn, as an inscription built into the wall records thus :- Edin6urgic, I& Augwt, 1773, on his m.emorabZe four to the Hebrides, occuj.ied the Zargerpavt (If the si& .f f h i Eui(ding.? There is also built into another part of the ? I Boyd?s Inn, at which DY. Samuel phnson oflived in . Demolition of the Hospital-Other Charities. THE connecting link between St. Mary?s Wynd and Leith Wynd was the Nether Bow Port, a barrier, concerning the strength of which that veteran marshal, the Duke of Argyle, spoke thus in the debate of 1736 in reference to the Porteous mob:- . ?? The Nether Bow Gate, my Lords, stands in a narrow street; near it are always a number of coaches and carts. Let us suppose auother insurrection is to happen. In that case, my Lords, should the conspirators have the presence of mind to barricade the street with these carriages, as may ? be done by a dozen of fellows, I affirm, and I appeal for the truth of what I advance to any man of my trade, who knows the situation of the place, if five hundred men may not keep out ten thousand for a longer time than that in which the mob executed their bloody designs against Porteous.? From the end of this gate, and bordered latterly on the west by the city wall, Leith Wynd, which is now nearly all a thing of the past, ran down the steep northern slope towards the base of the Calton Hill. In the year 1479, Thomas Spence, Bishop of many who are honorary, but subscribe to the Association, the objects of which are to promote sobriety, religious deportment, and a brotherly feeling among young men of the Catholic faith. It contains a library and reading room, lecture and billiard room. It has a dramatic association, and by the committee who conduct it no means are left untried to increase the moral culture of the members, Aberdeen, previously of Galloway, and Lord Privy Seal, founded, at the foot of Leith Wynd, and on the east side thereof, a hospital for the reception and entertainment of twelve poor men, under the name of ?? the Hospital of our Blessed Lady, in Leith Wynd :? and subsequently it received great augmentations to its revenues from other benefactors ; but at first the yearly teinds did not amount to twelve pounds sterling, according to Arnot. From the name afterwards given to it, we are led to suppose that among the future benefactions there had been added a chapel or altarage, dedicated to St. Paul. The records of Parliament show that somewhere in Edinburgh there were a hospital and chapel dedicated to that apostle, and that there was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin in 1495, by Sir William Knolles, Preceptor of Torphichen, who fell with King James at Flodden. The founder of the hospital in Leith Wynd died at Edinburgh on the rgth of April, 1480, and was buried in the north aisle of Trinity College church, near his foundation. ? ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Wynd. broad and spacious thoroughfare, named St. Mary?s Street, presenting on ...

Book 2  p. 300
(Score 0.78)

248 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. some abstruse point, which the Doctor has apparently at his “finger-ends.” The small figure with the tai2, in the back-ground, is in allusion to Monboddo’s eccentric notions as to the original state of the human species. No. c. DAVID ROSS, LORD ANKERVILLE. LORD ANKERVILLE, son of David Ross of Inverchasley, was born in 1727. After following the usual routine of studies, he was admitted to the bar in 1751. In 1756 he obtained the office of Steward-Depute of Kirkcudbright ; and, in 1763, was appointed one of the Principal Clerks of Session. This situation he continued to fill with all due credit till 1776, when, on the death of Lord Alemore, he was promoted to the bench by the title of Lord Anlierville. He sat on the bench for twenty-nine years, during which long period we are not aware that he was distinguished for any thing very extraordinary, either in the line of his profession or out of it. There was, to be sure, one characteristic which he possessed in common with the most profound of his legal brethrenwe mean his unswerving devotion to the ‘‘ pleasures of the table,” and claret he preferred above any other species of wine j nay, so anti-national was his taste, that his own mountain Glenlivet, even when presented in the alluring medium of a flowing bowl, and prepared in the most approved manner of the ‘‘ land 0’ cakes,” held only a secondary place in his estimation. Every year Lord Ankerville travelled north to his seat of Tarlogie, near Tain, in Ross-shire. This long journey be performed in a leisurely manner, by short and easy stages ; and, as he dined and slept all night at the end of each, his hosts of the Highland road were careful always to have a select portion of their best claret set apart for their guest. To choose the line of road-to regulate the distance of each day’s progress, so that he might bivouac to best advantage in the evening, had been an object of great consequence to the judge ; and, it may be supposed, of some difficulty at that time in the north. The acute judgment and good generalship, however, of the propounder of law, after a few experimental journeys, soon enabled him to make the most satisfactory arrangements, The annual migration of the judge from north to south, and from south to north, thus became a matter of as nice regularity as the cuckoo’s song in spring ; and as well did the Highland innkeeper, at half-a-mile’s distance, know the rumbling, creaking chaise of the one, as he did the monotonous note of the other. The quantity of claret drank by his lordship on these annual journeys has been variously estimated ; and, although no satisfactory statement has ever been given, all agree in saying that it must have been immense. The old judge’s love af claret did not abate with his increase of years. A ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. some abstruse point, which the Doctor has apparently at his “finger-ends.” The ...

Book 8  p. 346
(Score 0.77)

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