![Parliament House.] LORD HERMAND. I73
never fully recovered the shock, and died in July,
1824.
George Fergusson, Lord Hermand, succeeded
Lord Braxfield in 1799, and was on the Bench
during all the political trials connected with the
West Country seditions of 1817. He and Lord
Newton were great cronies and convivialists ; but
the former outlived Newton and all his old lastcentury
contemporaries of the Bar, and was the
last link between the past and present race of
Scottish lawyers. On the Bench he was hasty and
sarcastic. He was an enthusiast in the memories
of bygone days, and scorned as ?priggishness? the
sham decorum of the modem legal character.. He
with the strongest broad Scottish accent, and when
there was fond of indulging in pungent jokes. He
was made a judge in 1798, and officiated as such
till 1822. In the March of that year his friend
and kinsman Sir Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck
was mortally wounded in a duel with James
Stuart of Dunearn, about a mile from Balmuto
House, whither he was borne, only to die ; and the
venerable senator, who was then in his 83rd year,
he lugged in the subject, head and shoulders, in
the midst of a speech about some dry point oflaw
; nay, getting warmer every moment he spoke
of it, he at last fairly plucked the volume from his
pocket, and, in spite of all the remonstrances of?
his brethren, insisted on reading aloud the whole
passage for their edification. He went through the.
task with his wonted vivacity, gave great effect to
every speech, and most appropriate expression to.
every joke. During the whole scene Sir Walter
Scott was present-seated, indeed, in his official
capacity-close under the judge.?? He died at hislittle
estate of Hermand, near Edinburgh, in 1827~
I when in his 80th year.
is thus mentioned in ? Peter?s Letters to his Kinsfolk
:?-? When ? Guy Mannefmg ? came out the
judge was so delighted with the picture of the life
of the old Scottish judges in that most charming.
novel, that he could talk of nothing else but Pley--
dell, Dandie, and the high jinks, for many weeks.
He usually carried one volume of the book about.
with him; and one morning, on the Bench, his
~ love for it so completely got the better of him that
RUINS IN PARLIAMENT SQUARE AFTER THE GREAT FIRE, IN NOVEMBER, I824](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p185.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 173")
... House.] LORD HERMAND. I73
never fully recovered the shock, and died in July,
1824.
George Fergusson, ...
Book 1 p. 173
(Score 0.64)
... OLD THEATRE ROYAL, IN PROCESS PP DEMOLITION.
CHAPTER XLV.
EAST SIDE OF THE NORTH BRIDGE ...
Book 2 p. 353
(Score 0.63)
... SKETCHES. 69
parish. He still took a hearty glass ; as a proof of this, he drank an equal share
of ...
Book 8 p. 100
(Score 0.63)
... 425
1645.-About this date two drawings of Edinburgh appear to have been made, from which engravings ...
Book 10 p. 464
(Score 0.63)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street.
that sum has been called. It is expressly provided
by the charter of ...
Book 3 p. 148
(Score 0.63)
![? CLARINDA.? 327 Bristo Strht.]
pointed out by Sir Walter himself to the late Dr.
Robert Chambers. In 1792 Mr. Luckmore was
appointed one of the four English masters of the
High School on the city?s establishment, and continued
to hold that office till his death, in 181 I. Sir
Walter Scott, on leaving his school in Hamilton?s
Entry, was placed under the domestic tutelage of
Mr. James French, who prepared him to join Mr.
Luke Fraser?s second class at the High School,
in October, 1779.
Another interesting locality in Bristo Street, at its
junction with the Potterrow, was long known as the
General?s Entry, No. 58, thoughhow it exists but
in name. This was a desolate-looking court of
ancient buildings. The south and east sides of the
quadrangle were formed by somewhat ornate edifices.
The crowstepped gable at the south-east
angle bore an antique sun-dial, with the quaint
legendand
beyond this was a row of circular-headed
dormer windows, in the richly decorated style of
James VI, One of these bore a shield, charged
with a monkey and three mullets-in-chief, surrounded
by elaborate scroll-work of the same reign
and bearing the initials J.D.
Unvarying tradition has assigned this mansion to
General Monk as a residence while commanding
in Scotland, but there is not much probability to
support it. The house was furnished with numerous
out-shots and projections, dark, broad, and
bulky stacks of chimneys, reared in unusual places,
all blackened by age and encrusted by the smoke
of centuries. It is said to have been built by Six
James Dalrymple, afterwards first Viscount Stair,
one of the Breda Cammissioners, and who continued
his practice at the bar with great reputation afte1
the battles of Dunbar and Worcester.
That he was a particular favourite with General
Monk, and even with Cromwell, to whom the
former recommended him as the fittest person foi
the bench in 1657, is well known; and under such
circumstances, it may be supposed ?that Monk
would be his frequent visitor when he came from
his quarters at Dalkeith to the capital. Tradition
has assigned the house as the permanent residence
in those days of the Commander of the Forces in
Scotland. But there is sufficient proof that it was
the town abode of the Stair family, till, like the
rest of the Scottish nobility, they abandoned Edinburgh,
after the Treaty of Union. ? I t is not
unlikely,? says Wilson, ?? that the present name oj
the old court is derived from the more recen!
residence there of John, second Earl of Stair, wha
served during the protracted campaigns of the
? WE SHALL DIE ALL ; ?
Duke of Marlborough, and was promoted to the
rank of lieutenant-general after. the bloody victory
of Malplaquet. He shared in the fall of the great
duke, and retired from Court until the accession of
George I., during which interval it is probable that
the family mansion in the Potterrow formed the
frequent abode of the disgraced favourite.?
But Generalk Entry is perhaps now most
intimately associated with one of Burns?s heroines,
Mrs. McLehose, the romantic Clarinda of the notorious
correspondence, in which the poet figured
as Sylvander. He was introduced to her in the
house of a Miss Nimmo, on the first floor of an
old tenement on the north side of Alison Square.
A little parlour, a bed-room, and kitchen, accord.
ding to Chambers, constituted the accommodation
of Mrs. Agnes McLehose, ?now the residence of
two, if not three, families in the extreme of humble
life.?
In December, 1787, Burns met at a tea-party
this lady, then a married woman of great beauty,
about his own age, and who, with her two children,
had been deserted by a worthless husband. She
had wit, could use her pen, had read ? Werther?
and his sorrows, was sociable and fl.irty, and possessed
a voluptuous lovelines% if we may judge by
the silhouette of her in Scott Douglas?s edition of
thepoet?s works. She and Burns took afancy to each
other on the instant. She invited him to tea, but he
offered a visit instead. An accident confined him
for about a month to his room, and this led to the
famous Clarinda and Sylvander correspondence.
At about the fifth or sixth exchange of their letters
she wrote: ? I t is really curious, so much fun
passing hetween two persons who saw each other
only once.?
During the few months of his fascination for this
fair one in General?s Entry, Bums showed more of
his real self, perhaps, than can be traced in other
parts of his published correspondence. In his first
letter to her after his marriage, he says, in reply to
her sentimental reproaches, ?? When you call over
the scenes that have passed between us, you will
survey the conduct of an honest man struggling
successfully with temptations the most powerful
that ever beset humanity, and preserving untainted
honour in situations where the severest virtue
would have forgiven a fall.? But had Clarinda
been less accessible, she might habze discovered
eventually that much of the poet?s warmth *as
fanciful and melodramatic. From their correspondence
it would appear that she was in expectation
of Bums visiting her again in Alison
Square in 1788.
She was the cousin-german of Lord Craig, who,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p147.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 327")
... CLARINDA.? 327 Bristo Strht.]
pointed out by Sir Walter himself to the late Dr.
Robert Chambers. In 1792 Mr. ...
Book 4 p. 327
(Score 0.63)
![Leith.] THE HIGHLAND MUTINEERS ON THE SHORE. 195 - .
the battery guns facing the city-which was filled
with consternation-while a rather helpless force of
cavalry took possession of the Castle HilL The
crisis was, indeed, a perilous one, as the vaults of
the fortress were full of French and Spanish prisoners
of war, while a French squadron was cruising off the
mouth of the Forth, and had already captured some
vessels. Next day the company capitulated, all
save one, who, with his claymore, assailed an officer
of the Ioth, who struck him down and had him
made a prisoner.
The cavalry occupied the fortress until the arrival
of Lord Lennox?s regiment, the 26th or Cameronians,
when?a court-martial was held. One Highlander
was sentenced to be shot, and another to
receive a thousand lashes ; but both were forgiven
on condition of serving beyond the seas in a battalion
of the line.
Another mutiny occurred in the April of the
following year.
Seventy Highlanders enlisted for the 42nd and
71st (then known as the Master of Lovat?s
Regiment) when marched to Leith, refused to
embark, a mischievous report having been spread
that they were to be draughted into a Lowland
corps, and thus deprived of the kilt; and so much
did they resent this, that they resolved to resist to
death. On the evening they reached Leith the
following despatch was delivered at Edinburgh
Castle by a mounted dragoon :-
(? To Governor Wemyss, or the Commanding
Officer of the South Fencible Regiment. 7
? Headquarters, Apri!, I 7 79.
? SrR,-The draughts of the 71st Regiment
having refused to embark, you will order 200 men
of the South Fencibles to march immediately to
Leith to seize these mutineers and march them
prisoners to the castle of Edinburgh, to be detained
there until further orders.-I am, &c.,
? JA. AmLPnus OUGHTON.?
In obedience to this order from the General
Commanding, three captains, six subalterns, and
zoo of the Fencibles under Major Sir James
Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, marched to Leith
on this most unpleasant duty, and found the
seventy Highlanders on the Shore, drawn up in
line with their backs to the houses, their bayoiiets
fixed, and muskets loaded. Sir James drew up his
detachment in such a manner as to render escape
impossible, and then stated the positive orders he
would be compelled to obey.
His words were translated into Gaelic by Sergeant
Ross, who acted as interpreter, and who,
after some expostulation, turned to Sir James,
saying that all was over-his countrymen would
neither surrender nor lay down their arms. On
this Johnston?e gave the order to prepare for firing
-but added, ?Recover ams.?
A Bighlander at that moment attempted to
escape, but was seized by a sergeant, who was
instantly bayoneted, while another, coming to the
rescue with his pike, was shot. The blood of the
Fencibles was roused now, and they poured in
more than one volley upon the Highlanders, of
whom twelve were shot dead, and many mortally
wounded. The fire was returned promptly enough,
but with feeble effect, as the Highlanders had only
a few charges given to them by a Leith porter;
thus only two Fencibles were killed and one
wounded ; but Captain James Mansfield (formerly
of the 7th or Queen?s Dragoons), while attempting
to save the latter, was bayoneted by a furious
Celt, whose charge he vainly sought to parry with
his sword. A corporal shot the mutineer through
the head: the Fencibles-while a vast crowd of
Leith people looked on: appalled by a scene so unusual-
now closed up with charged bayonets, disarmed
the whole, and leaving the Shore strewn
with dead and dying, returned to the Castle with
twenty-five prisoners, and the body of Captain
Mansfield, who left a widow with six children, and
was interred in the Greyfriars churchyard.
The scene of this tragedy was in front of the
old Ship Tavern and the tenement known as the
Britannia Inn.
After a court-martial was held, on the 29th ot
May, the garrison, consisting of the South and West
Fencibles and the cavalry, paraded on the Castle
Hill, in three sides of a hollow square, facing inwards.
With a band playing the dead march, and
the drums muffled and craped, three of these Highland
recruits, who had been sentenced to death,
each stepping slowly behind his open coffin, were
brought by an escort down the winding pathway,
under the great wall of the Half-moon Battery,
and placed in the open face of the square by the
Provost-marshal. They were then desired to kneel,
while their sentence was read to them-Privates
Williamson and MacIvor of the Black Watch, and
Budge of the 7 1st-to be shof fo death f
The summer morning was bright and beautiful ;
but a dark cloud rested on every face while the
poor prisoners remained on their knees, each man
in his coffin, and a Highland officer interpreted the
sentence in Gaelic. They were pale and composed,
save Budge, who was suffering severely from wounds
received at Leith, and looked emaciated and
ghastly. Their eyes were now bound up, and the
firing party were in the act of taking aim at the
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p014.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 195")
... THE HIGHLAND MUTINEERS ON THE SHORE. 195 - .
the battery guns facing the city-which was filled
with ...
Book 6 p. 195
(Score 0.62)
![Convi~ialii] THE SPENDTHRIFT CLUB. 12.5
called one of his brother boars by his proper outof-
club name, the term < Sir ? being only allowed.
The entry-money, fines, and other pecuniary acquisitions,
were hoarded for a grand annual dinner.?
In 1799 some new officials were added, such
as a poet-laureate, champion, archbishop, and chief
grunter, and by that time, as the tone and expenses
of the club had increased, the fines became
very severe, and in the exactions no one met with
any mercy, ?? as it was the interests of all that the
& should bring forth a plenteous farrow.? This
practice led to squabbles, and the grotesque fraternity
was broken up.
The COUNTRY DINNER CLUB was a much more
sensible style of gathering, when some respectable
citizens of good position were wont to meet on the
afternoon of each Saturday about the year 1790 to
dine in an old tavern in Canonmills, then at a
moderate distance from town. They kept their
own particular claret. William Ramsay, a banker,
then residing in Warriston House, was deemed
?( the tongue of the trump to the club,? which entirely
consisted of hearty and honest old citizens,
all of whom have long since gone to their last account.
The EAST INDIA CLUB was formed in 1797, and
held its first meeting in John Bayll?s tavern on
the 13th of January that year, when the Herald
announces that dinner would be on the table at the
then late and fashionable hour of four, but the body
does not seem to have been long in existence ; it
contributed twenty guineas to the sufferers of a fire
in the Cowgate in the spring of 1799, and fifty to
the House of Industry in 1801.
John Bayll managed the ?George Square assemblies,?
which were held in Buccleuch Place.
His tavern was in Shakespeare Square, where his
annual balls and suppers, in 1800, were under the
patronage of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Mrs.
Dundas of Amiston.
Of the CAPE CLUB, which was established on
the 15th of March, 1733, and of which Fergusson
the poet and Runciman the painter were afterwards
members, an account will be found in Vol. I.,
which, however, omitted to give the origin of the
name of that long-existing and merry fraternity,
and which was founded on an old, but rather weak,
Edinburgh joke of the period.
Some well-known burgess of the Calton who WE
in the habit of spending the evening hours with
friends in the city, till after the ten o?clock drum
had been beaten and the Netherbow Port wa:
shut, to obtain egress was under the necessity 01
bribing the porter there, or remaining within the
walls all ni&it. On leaving the gate he had tc
turn acutely to the left to proceed down Leith
Wynd, which this facetious toper termed ?? doubling
the Cape.? Eventually it became a standing joke
in the small circle of Edinburgh then, ?and the
Cape Club owned a regular institution from 1763,?
says Chambers, but its sixty-fifth anniversary is
announced in the HeraZd of 1798, for the 15th of
March as given above.
The SPENDTHRIFT CLUB, was so called in ridicule
of the very moderate indulgence of its members,
whose expenses were limited to fourpence-halfpenny
each night, yet all of them were wealthy or
well-to-do citizens, many of whom usually met after
forenoon church at the. Royal Exchange for a walk
in the country-their plan being to walk in the
direction from whence the wind blew and thus
avoid the smoke of the city. ? In 1824,? says
ChamberS, ?? in the recollection of the senior members,
some of whom were of fifty years? standing,
the house (of meeting) was kept by the widow of a
Lieutenant Hamilton of the army, who recollected
having attended the theatre in the Tennis Court at
Holyrood when the play was the ? Spanish Friar,,
and many of the members of the Union Parliament
were present in the house.?
The meetings of this club were nightly, till reduced
to four weekly, Whist was played for a
halfpenny. Supper originally cost only twopence,
and half a bottle of strong ale, with a dram, cost
twopence-halfpenny more ; a halfpenny to the
servant-maid, was a total of fivepence for a night of
jollity and good fellowship.
The PIOUS CLUB was composed of respectable
and orderly business-men who met every night,
Sundays not excepted, in the Pie-house-hence their
name, a play upon the words. We are told that
?the agreeable uncertainty as to whether their
name arose from their pie& or the circumstance of
their eating piesy kept the club hearty for many
years.?
Fifteen members constituted a full night, a gill of
toddy to each was served out like wine from a d e
canter, and they were supposed to separate at ten
o?clock.
The ANTEMANUM CLUB was composed of men of
respectability, and many who were men of fortune,
who dined together every Saturday. ? Brag? was
their chief game with cards. It was a purely convivial
club, till the era of the Whig party being in
the ascendant led to angry political discussions, and
eventual dissolution.
The SIX FEET CLUB was composed of men who
were of that stature or above it, if possible. It was
an athletic society, and generally met half-yearly at
the Hunter?s Tryst, near Colinton, or similar places,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p136.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 125")
... THE SPENDTHRIFT CLUB. 12.5
called one of his brother boars by his proper outof-
club name, the term ...
Book 5 p. 125
(Score 0.62)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nether Bow.
with cannon stone-shot in 1544, ere advancing
;against the Castle. ? They ...
Book 2 p. 218
(Score 0.62)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE HIGH STREET-(continued).
?The Salamander Land ?-The ...
Book 2 p. 242
(Score 0.62)
... OLD ANI) NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig.
a Negro,? published at Paisley so lately as 1841.
Peter was a livery ...
Book 5 p. 140
(Score 0.62)
... I 0 GR AP €1 I C AL S ICE T C HE S. 235
of the Earl and his lady, than he burst out into an immoderate fit of ...
Book 9 p. 314
(Score 0.62)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,
may not now be striking, was considered very much so at the time. The tartan
in which ...
Book 9 p. 459
(Score 0.62)
![THE TOWER 327 Liberton.]
between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih
Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis.
Macbeth of Liberton also granted to St. Cuth
bert?s Church the tithes and oblations of Legbor
nard, a church which cannot now be traced.
The name is supposed to be a corruption o
Lepertoun, as there stood here a hospital fo
lepers, of which all vestiges have disappeared ; bu
the lands thereof in some old writs (according tc
the ?New Statistical Account?) were called ?Spital
town.?
At Nether Liberton, three-quarters of a mile nortl
of the church, was a mill, worked of course by thc
Braid Burn, which David I, bestowed upon tht
monks of Holyrood, as a tithe thereof, ??wit1
thirty cartloads from the bush of Liberton,? gift!
confirmed by William the Lion under the Grea
Seal circa I I 7 1-7.
The Black Friars at Edinburgh received fivc
pounds sterling annually from this mill at Nethei
Liberton, by a charter from King Robert I.
Prior to the date of King David?s charter, thc
church of Liberton belonged to St. Cuthbert?s
The patronage of it, with an acre of land adjoining
it, was bestowed by Sir John Maxwell of that iik
in 1367, on the monastery of Kilwinning,pro sahh
aniiiim SUE et Agnetis sponsiz SUE.
This gift was confirmed by King David 11.
By David 11. the lands of Over Liberton,
?( quhilk Allan Baroune resigned,? were gifted tc
John Wigham ; and by the same monarch the land:
of Nether Liberton were gifted to William Ramsay,
of Dalhousie, knight, and Agnes, his spouse, 24th
October, 1369. At a later period he granted a
charter ?to David Libbertoun, of the office of
sergandrie of the overward of the Constabularie of
Edinburgh, with the lands of Over Libbertoun
pertaining thereto.? (? Robertson?s Index.?)
Adam Forrester (ancestor of the Corstorphine
family) was Laird of Nether Liberton in 1387, for
estates changed proprietors quickly in those troublesome
times, and we have already reterred to him
as one of those who, with the Provost Andrew
Yichtson, made arrangements for certain extensive
additions to the church of St. Giles in that year.
William of Liberton was provost of the city in
1429, and ten years subsequently with William
Douglas of Hawthornden, Meclielson of Herdmanston
(now Harviston), and others, he witnessed
the charter of Patrick, abbot of Holyrood, to Sir
Yatrick Logan, Lord. of Restalrig, of the office of
bailie of St. Leonard?s. (? Burgh Charters,? No.
At Liberton there was standing till about 1840
a tall peel-house or tower, which was believed to
XXVI.)
have been the residence of Macbeth and other
barons of Liberton, and which must not be confounded
with the solitary square tower that stands
to the westward of the road that leads into the
heart of the Braid Hills, and is traditionally said to
have been the abode of a troublesome robber
laud, who waylaid provisions coming to the city
markets.
The former had an old dial-stone, inscribed
?? God?s Providence is our Inheritance.?
Near the present Liberton Tower the remains
of a Celtic cross were found embedded in a wall in
1863, by the late James Drummond, R.S.A. It
was covered with knot-work.
The old church-or chapel it was more probably
-at Kirk-Liberton, is supposed to have been dedicated
to the Virgin Mary-there having been a
holy spring near it, called our Lady?s Well-and
it had attached to it a glebe of two oxgates of
land.
In the vicinity was a place called Kilmartin,
which seemed to indicate the site of some ancient
and now forgotten chapel.
In.1240 the chapelry of Liberton was disjoined by
David Benham, Bishop of St. Andrews and Great
Chamberlain to the King, from the parish of St.
Cuthbert?s, and constituted a rectory belonging to
the Abbey of Holyrood, and from then till the
Reformation it was served by a vicar.
For a brief period subsequent to 1633, it was a
prebend of the short-lived and most inglorious
bishopric of Edinburgh ; and at the final abolition
thereof it reverted to the disposal of the Crown.
The parochial registers date from 1639.
When the old church was demolished prior to
:he erection of the new, in 1815, there was found
very mysteriously embedded in its basement an
ron medal of the thirteenth century, inscribed in
xncient Russian characters ? THE GRAND PRINCE
3 ~ . ALEXANDER YAROSLAVITCH NEVSKOI.?
The old church is said to have been a picuresque
edifice not unlike that now at Corstor-
Ihine ; the new one is a tolerably handsome semi-
Gothic structure, designed by Gillespie Graham,
,eated for 1,430 persons, and having a square
ower with four ornamental pinnacles, forming a
)leasing and prominent object in the landscape
outhward of the city.
Subordinate to the church there were in Catholic
imes three chapels-one built by James V. at
3rigend? already referred to ; a second at Niddrie,
ounded by Robert Wauchope of Niddrie, in 1389,
.nd dedicated to ? Our .Lady,? but which is now
inly commemorated by its burying-ground-which
ontinues to be in use-and a few faint traces of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p146.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 327")
... TOWER 327 Liberton.]
between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih
Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis.
Macbeth of Liberton ...
Book 6 p. 327
(Score 0.62)
![336 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Stret.
brated chemist, Dr. Joseph Black, who, as we have
elsewhere stated, was found dead in his chair in
November, 1799, and whose high reputation contributed
so largely in his time to the growing fame
of our University.
The institution was first suggested by the celebrated
Dr. Thomas Blacklock, who lost his sight
before he was six months old, and by Mr. David
Miller, also a sufferer from blindness ; but it was
chiefly through the exertions of Dr. David Johnsales
of the above kinds of work have in some years
amounted to ;C;IO,OOO, and in 1880 to &18,724 8s.,
notwithstanding the general depression of trade ;
but this was owing to the Government contract for
brushes.' Hence the directors have been enabled
to make extensive alterations and improvements to
a large amount.
The asylum has received a new and elegant
fapde, surmounted by stone-faced dormer windows,
a handsome cornice, and balustrade, with a large
THE MAHOGANY LAND, POTTERROW, 1821. (Ajtecr a Paintinc ay W. McEwan, in the #osscsaim of Dr. ].A. Sidey.)
stone, the philanthropic minister of North Leith,
aided by a subscription of only A20 from the great
Wilberforce, that the asylum was founded in 1793,
ip one of the dingy old houses of Shakespeare
Square, into which nine blind persons were received;
but the public patronage having greatly increased,
in 1806 the present building, No. 58, was purchased,
acd in 1822 another house, No. 38, was
bought for the use of the female blind.
The latter are employed in sewing the covers
for mattresses and feather beds, knitting stockings,
Src. The males are employed in making mattresses,
mats, ,brushes, baskets of every kind, in weaving
sacking, matting, and " rag-carpets.'' No less than
eighteen looms are employed in this work. The
central doorway, in a niche above which is a bust
of Dr. David Johnstone, the founder, from the
studio of the late Handyside Ritchie.
The inmates seem to spend a very merry life,
for though the use of their eyes has been denied
them, they have no restriction placed upon their
tongues ; thus, whenever two or three of them are
together, they are constantly talking, or singing
their national songs.
A chapel is attached to the works, and therein,
besides regular morning worship, the blind hold
large meetings in connection with the various
benefit societies they have established among
themselves. The younger lads who come from the
Blind School at Craigmillar, and are employed here,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p156.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 336")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Stret.
brated chemist, Dr. Joseph Black, who, as we have
elsewhere stated, ...
Book 4 p. 336
(Score 0.62)
... SKETCHES. 315
fury of passion, he hurled it with all his force at the head of the offender, ...
Book 9 p. 420
(Score 0.62)
... QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH.
and dash against the very boundary-walls of the various proprietors in ...
Book 11 p. 141
(Score 0.62)
... 06 QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH.
Streets, up Leith Walk, through York Place and St. Andrew Square, into
Princes ...
Book 11 p. 159
(Score 0.62)
... 431
TmoBa.--The Corporation of Tailors, a more ancient fraternity, claiming, indeed, as their founder ...
Book 10 p. 470
(Score 0.62)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith.
beneath it ? The Triumph of Bacchus,? beautifully
executed in ...
Book 5 p. 72
(Score 0.62)
![Leith] MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, had been absent unusually
long, and the rumours regarding her fate were
very much akin to the confessions of the crew of
the Worcester.
A report of these circumstances having reached
the Privy Council, the arrest was ordered of Captain
Green and thirteen of his crew on charges of
piracy and murder. The evidence produced against
them would scarcely be held sufficient by a jury of
the present day to warrant a conviction; but the
Scots, in their justly inflamed and insulted spirit,
viewed the matter otherwise, and a sentence of
death was passed. This judgment rendered many
uneasy, as it might be an insuperable bar to the
union, and even lead to open strife, as the relations
in which the two countries stood to each other were
always precarious ; and even Macaulay admits ?that
the two kingdoms could not possibly have continued
another year on the terms on which they had been
during the preceding century.? The Privy Council
were thus reluctant to put the sentence into execution,
and respited the fourteen Englishmen ; but
there arose from the people a cry for vengeance
which it was impossible to resist. On the day appointed
for the execution, the 11th of April, the
populace gathered h vast numbers at the. Cross
and in the Parliament Square ; they menaced the
Lords?of the Council, from which the Lord Chancellor
chanced to pass in his coach. Some one
cried aloud that ? the prisoners had been reprieved.?
On this the fury of the people became boundless ;
they stopped at the Tron church the coach of the
Chancellor-the pitiful Far1 of Seafield-and
dragged him out of it, and had he not been rescued
and conveyed into Mylne Square by some friends,
would have slain him ; so, continues Arnot, it became
absolutely necessary to appease the enraged
multitude by the blood of the criminals. This was
but the fruit of the affairs of Darien and Glencoe.
Now the people for miles around were pouring
into the city, and it was known that beyond doubt
the luckless Englishmen would be tom from the
Tolbooth and put to a sudden death.
Thus the Council was compelled to yield, and
did so only in time, as thousands who had gathered
at Leith to see the execution were now adding to
those who filled the streets of the city, and at
eleven in the forenoon word came forth that three
would be hanged-namely, Captain Green, the first
mate Madder, and Simpson, the gunner.
According to Analecfu Scofica they were brought
forth into the seething masses, amid shouts and
execrations, under an escort of the Town Guard,
and marched on foot through the Canongate to the
Water Port of Leith, where a battalion of the Foot
Guards and a body of the Horse Guards were
drawn up. ? There was the greatest confluence of
people there that I ever saw in my life,? says
Wodrow; ?for they cared not how far they were
off so be it they saw.?
The three were hanged upon a gibbet erected
within high-water mark, and the rest of the crew,
after being detained in prison till autumn, were set
at liberty; and it is said that there were afterwards
good reasons to believe that Captain Drummond,
whom they were accused of slaying on the high seas,
was alive in India after the fate of Green and his
two brother officers had been sealed. (Burton?s
?? Crim. Trials.?)
On the site of the present Custom House was
built the Fury (a line-of-battle ship, according tb
Lawson?s ?Gazetteer?) and the first of that rate
built in Scotland after the Union.
In I 7 I 2 the first census of Edinburgh and Leith
was taken, and both towns contained only about
48,000 souls.
The insurrection of 1715, under the Earl of
Mar, made Leith the arena of some exciting scenes.
The Earl declined to leave the vicinity of Perth
with his army, and could not co-operate with the
petty insurrection under Forster in the north of
England, as a fleet under Sir John Jennings, Admiral
of the White, including the RqaC Anm, Pew4
Phnix, Dover Custk, and other frigates, held the
Firth of Forth, and the King?s troops under Argyle
were gathering in the southern Lowlands. But, as
it was essential that a detachment from Mar?s army
should join General Forster, it was arranged that
2,500 Highlanders, under old Brigadier Mackintosh
of Borlum-one of the most gallant and resolute
spirits of the age-should attempt to elude the fleet
and reach the Lothians.
The brigadier took possession of all the boats
belonging to the numerous fisher villages on the
Fife coast, and as the gathering of such a fleet as
these, with the bustle of mooring and provisioning
them, was sure to reveal the object in view, a
clever trick was adopted to put all scouts on a false
scent.
All the boats not required by the brigadier he
sent to the neighbourhood of Burntisland, as if he
only waited to cross the Firth there, on which the
fleet left its anchorage and rather wantonly began
to cannonade the fort and craft in the harbour.
While the ships were thus fully occupied, Mackintosh,
dividing his troops in two columns, crossed the
water from Elie, Pittenweem, and Crail, twenty miles
eastward, on the nights of the 12th and 13thOctober,
without the loss of a single boat, and lwded](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p202.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 191")
... MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, ...
Book 5 p. 191
(Score 0.62)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
So difficult was it to induce people to build in a
spot so sequestered and far apart ...
Book 3 p. 118
(Score 0.62)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Arthur?s Seat.
to the cone from the base by the way of St. Anthony?s
Well, for a ...
Book 4 p. 312
(Score 0.62)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Mr. Austin' left a son and a daughter, both of whom were distinguished ...
Book 9 p. 504
(Score 0.61)
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