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298 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. They are said to be the work of a foreign artist, and are executed with great spirit. From the style of the landscapes more especially, we feel little hesitation in ascribing the whole to the pencil of Francesco Zuccherelli, who had a high reputation in England during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Interspersed among the ornamental borders there are various grotesque figures, which have the appearance of being copies from an illuminated missal of the fourteenth century. They represent a cardinal, a monk, a priest, and other churchmen, painted with great humour and extreme drollery of attitude and expression. They so entirely differ from the general character of the composition, that their insertion may be conjectured to have originated in a whim of Lord Milton, which the artist has contrived to execute without sacrificing the harmony of his design. An elegant cornice, finished with painting and gilding, and a richly stuccoed ceiling, complete the decorations of this fine apartment. The house was occupied for some time as a Roman Catholic School, under the care of the Sisters of Charity of St Margaret’s Convent. The pupils particularly attracted the attention of her Majesty Queen Victoria on her visit to the capital in 1842, as they strewed flowers in her path on her approach from the palace of her ancestors by the ancient royal thoroughfare of the Canongate. It has since been used as a Deaf and Dumb School, and was afterwards appropriated to the benevolent objects of the Royal Maternity Hospital, but is now the property of a large engineering firm. The fine open grounds which surround Milton House, with the site on which it is built, formed a large and beautiful garden attached to the mansion of the Earls of Roxburghe. Lord Fountainhall reports a dispute, in 1694, between the Trades of Canongate and the Earl of Roxburghe, in which the Lords declared his house in the Canongate free, and himself empowered, by right of certain clauses in a contract between the Earl, the Town of Edinburgh, and Heriot’s Hospital, to employ artificers on his house who were not freemen of the burgh.’ Such contentions, originating in the jealousy of the Corporations of the Canongate, are of frequent occurrence at the period, and show with how despotic a spirit they were prepared to guard their exclusive rights. On the 2d June 1681, a complaint was laid before the P r i v Council by the celebrated Lord Halton, afterwards Earl of Lauderdale,’ stating that he was then building a lodging for himself in the Canongate, and having employed some country masons, the craftsmen of the burgh assaulted them, and carried off their tools. In the evidence, it is shown that even a freeman of the capital dared not encroach on the bounds of the Canongate; and that, “in 1671, the Privy Council fined David Pringle, chirurgeon, for employing one Wood, an unfree barber, to exerce his calling in polling the . children’s heads in Heriot’s In this case Lord Halton seems also to have been left free to employ his own workmen; but the craftsmen were declared warranted in their interference, and therefore free from the charge of rioting. The Earl of Roxburghe’s mansion appears, from Edgar’s map, to have stood on the west side of the garden, and to have been afterwards occupied by his brother John, the fifth I Fountainhall’s Decisions, vol. i. p. 614. Queenaberry House having been built on ground purchased from the Lauderdale family (Traditions, vol. i. p. 280), Fountainhall’s Decisions, 801. i. p, 135-9. it seems probable that that ducal mansion occupies the site of Lord Halton’s house. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. They are said to be the work of a foreign artist, and are executed with great ...

Book 10  p. 325
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YAMES YI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES 11. 89 very willing to make the most of such an occasion as this, and remained for a time inexorable. The magistrates were required to surrender themselves prisoners at Perth, and one of them having failed to appear, the town was denounced, the inhabitants declared rebels, and the city revenues sequestrated to the King’s use. The magistrates at length went in a body to the Palace of Holyrood House, and, kneeling before him, made offer of such concessions as the indignant monarch was pleased to accept. One of the conditions bound them to deliver up, for the King’s sole me, the houses in their kirkyard, occupied by the town ministers, which was accordingly done, and on the site of them the Parliament House, which still stands (though recently entirely remodelled externally), was afterwards built. They also agreed to pay to him the sum of twenty thousand merks, and 80 at length all difficulties were happily adjusted between them, and the city restored to its ancient privileges. After the execution of the famous Earl of Gowry and his brother at Perth, their dead bodies were brought to Edinburgh and exposed at the Market Cross, hung in chains. From that time, James enjoyed some years of tranquillity, living at Holyrood and elsewhere in such homely state as his revenues would permit; and when the extravagance of his Queen,-who was a devoted patron of the royal goldsmith, George Heriot,-or his own narrow means, rendered his housekeeping somewhat stinted, he was accustomed to pay a condescending visit to some of the wealtllier citizens in the High Street of Edinburgh. An interesting old building, called Lockhart’s Court, Niddry’a Wpd, which was demolished in constructing the southern approach to the town, was especially famous as the scene of such civic entertainment of royalty. We learn, from Moyses’s 34emoirs, of James’s residence there in 1591, along with his Queen, shortly after their arrival from Denmark, and their hospitable reception by Nicol Edward, a wealthy citizen, who was then Provost of Edinburgh.’ His visits, also, to George Heriot were of frequent occurrence, and, as tradition reports, he made no objection to occasionally discussing a bottle of wine in the goldsmith’s little booth, at the west end of St Giles’s Church, which was only about seven feet square.* The death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, produced a lively excitement in the minds both of King and people. The anticipation of this event for years had gradually prepared, and in some degree reconciled, the latter to the idea of their King going to occupy the throne of ‘‘ their auld enemies of England,” but its injurious influence on the capital could not be mistaken. On the 31st of March the news was proclaimed at the City Cross by the secretary Elphinstone, and Sir David Lindsay, younger, the Lyon King. King James, before his departure, attended public service in St Giles’s Church, where he had often before claimed the right of challenging the dicta of the preachers from the royal gallery. An immense crowd assembled on the occasion, and listened with deep interest to a discourse expressly addressed to his Majesty upon the important change. The King took it in good part, and, on the preacher concluding, he delivered a farewell address to the people. Many were greatly affecied at the prospect of their King’s departure, which was generally regarded as anything rather than a national benefit. The farewell was couched in the warmest language of friendship. He promised them that he would defend their ’ Mopes’s Memoirs, p. 182. * Chambers’s Traditions, VOL ii. p. 210. M ... YI. TO RESTORATION OF CHARLES 11. 89 very willing to make the most of such an occasion as this, and remained ...

Book 10  p. 97
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170 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew Square. old Scottish school. His habits were active, anc he was fond of all invigorating sports. He wa skilled as an archer, golfer, skater, bowler, ant curler, and to several kindred associations of thosc sports he and ol$ Dr. Duncan acted as secretarie! for nearly half a century. For years old EbeI Wilson, the bell-ringer of the Tron Church, had thc reversion of his left-off cocked hats, which he wore together with enormous shoe-buckles, till his deatl in 1823. For years he and the Doctor had been thc only men who wore the old dress, which the latte retained till he too died, twelve years after. No. 24 was the house of the famous millionaire Gilbert Innes of Stowe. The Scottish Equitable Assurance Society occu pies No. 26. It was established in 1831, and war incorporated by royal charter in 1838 and 1846 It is conducted on the principle of mutual as surance, ranks a~ a first-class office, and has accumu lated funds amounting to upwards of ~ 2 , 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 with branch offices in London, Dublin, Glasgow and elsewhere. No. 29 was in 1802 the house of Sir Patrick Murray, Bart., of Ochtertyre, Baron of the Ex chequer Court, who died in 1837. It is now thc offices of the North British Investment Corn PanYNo. 33, now a shop, was in 1784 the house oi the Hon. Francis Charteris of Amisfield, afterwards fifth Earl of Wemyss. He was well known during his residence in Edinburgh as the particular patron of ?Old Geordie Syme,? the famous town-piper of Dalkeith, and a retainer of the house of Buccleuch, whose skill on the pipe caused him to be much noticed by the great folk of his time. 01 Geordie, in his long yellow coat lined with red, red plush breeches, white stockings, buckled shoes and blue bonnet, there is an excellent portrait in Kay. The earl died in 1808, and was succeeded by his grandson, who also inherited the earldom of March. Nos. 34 and 35 were long occupied as Douglas?s hotel, one of the most fashionable in the city, and one which has been largely patronised by the royal families of many countries, including the Empress EugCnie when she came to Edinburgh, to avail herself, we believe, of the professional skill of Sir James Simpson. On that occasion Colonel Ewart marched the 78th Regiment or Ross-shire Buffs, recently returned from the wars of India, before the hotel windows, with the band playing Padant pour Za Syrie, on which the Empress came to the balcony and repeatedly bowed and waved her handkerchief to the Highlanders. In this hotel Sir Walter Scott resided for a few days after his return from Italy, and just before his death at Abbotsford, in September, 1832. No. 35 is now the new head office of the Scottish Provident Institution, removed hither from No. 6. It was originally the residence of Mr. Andrew Crosbie, the advocate, a well-known character in his time, who built it. He was the original of Counsellor Pleydell in the novel of ? Guy Mannering.? In 1754 Sir Philip Ainslie was the occupant of No. 38. Born in 1728, he was the son of George Ainslie, a Scottish merchant of Bordeaux, who, having made a fortune, returned home in 1727, and purchased the estate of Pilton, near Edinburgh. Sir Philip?s youngest daughter, Louisa, became the wife of John Allan of Errol House, who resided in No. 8. Sir Philip?s mother was a daughter of William Morton of Gray. His house is now, with No. 39, a portion of the office of the British Linen Company?s Bank, the origin and pro?gress of which we have noticed in our description of the Old Town. It stands immediately south of the recess in front of the Royal Bank, and was mainly built in 1851-2, after designs by David Bryce, R.S.A., at a cost of about ~30,000. It has a three-storeyed front, above sixty feet in height,.with an entablature set back to the wall, and surmounted above the six-fluted and projecting Corinthian columns by six statues, each eight feet in height, representing Navigation, Commerce, Manufacture, Art, Science, and Agricu! ture; and it has a splendid cruciform tellingroom, seventy-four feet by sixty-nine, lighted by a most ornate cupola of stained glass, thirty feet in diameter and fifty high. With its magnificent columns of Peterhead granite, its busts of celebrated Scotsmen, and its Roman tile pavement, it is all in perfect keeping with the grandeur of the external facade. This bank has about 1,080 partners. Immediately adjoining, on the south, is the National Bank of Scotland, presenting a flank to West Register Street. It was enlarged backward ;n 1868, but is a plain almost unsightly building mid its present surroundings. It is a bank of :omparatively modem origin, having been estabished on the zIst March, 1825. In terms of a :ontract of co-partnership between and among the iartners, the capit31 and stock of the company were ixed at &,ooo,ooo, the paid-up portion of which s ~I,OOO,OOO. In the royal charter granted to he National Bank on the 5th August, 1831, a ipecific declaration is made, that ? nothing in these resents ? shall be construed to limit the responsiility and liability of the individual partners of the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew Square. old Scottish school. His habits were active, anc he was fond of ...

Book 3  p. 170
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302 MEMORIALS OF EllINBURGH. now stimulated to its defence as i national amusement peculiar to Scotland, from his earnest desire to win the popular favour, in which he was no way more likely to succeed than by flattering their prejudices on any question of nationality, and becoming their champion in it0 defence. The antiquity of the Scottish game is proved by a statute, passed in the reign of James II., 1457, forbidding the practice of both ‘( fute-ball and. golfe,” under the penalty of the Baron’s unlaw, and enacting the use of the Bow in its sted. The evidence on the English side not being so readily forthcoming, the Englishmen offered to rest the legitimacy of their national pretensions on the result of a match to be played by them against his Royal Highness and any Scotsman he chose to select. ‘She Duke immediately accepted the challenge, and, after careful inquiry, selected as his partner John Paterson, a poor shoemaker of the Canongate, whose ancestors had been celebrated for centuries as proficients in the game, and who then enjoyed the honour of being considered the best golfer of his day. The match was played by the Duke and his partner against their English challengers on the Links of Leith.; heavy stakes were risked by the Duke and his noble opponents on the results; and after a hard-fought field, the royal champion of Scotland and his humble squire carried the. day triumphantly. The poor shoemaker was rewarded with a large share of the stakes forfeited by the challenger, and with this he built the substantial tenement which still records his name, and commemorates his victory Over the impugners of the national sports. A large and handsome tablet on the front of the mansion bears the Paterson Armsthree pelicans feeding their young, with three mullets on a chief; and surmounted by a knight’s helmet, and a defaced crest, said to be a hand grasping a golfer’s club. Over the ground floor, a plain slab is inscribed with the following epigram, from the pen of the celebrated Dr Pitcairn, commemorative of the heroic deeds of the. builder, and the national claims which he successfully asserted :- Cum victor ludo, Scotis qui proprius, esset, Ter tres victores pcat redemitos avos, Pateraonus, humo tunc educehat in altum Hano, que victores tot tulet una, domum. !Che letters of this elegant distich were formerly gilded so as to attract the. notice of the passer, but this has entirely disappeared, and the inscription no longer challenges the attention of any but the curious antiquary. Underneath is placed the philanthropic declaration I HATE NO PERSON, which might be supposed the very natural aentiment of one who had achieved such unexpected honour and reward. It proves, however, to be merely the transposition of the letters of his own name into an anagram, according to the quaint fashion of the age. The ancient tenement appears in the accompanying engraving, and the inscriptions upon it leave no reasonable doubt of the traditional fame of the Canongate Golfer. We are sorry in any degree to disturb a tradition backed by such incontrovertible evidence ; but it appears probable, from the evidence of the title-deeds, that the Golfer’s Land was lost, instead of won, by the gaming propensities of its owner. It was acquired in 1609 by Nicol Paterson, maltman in Leith, from whom it passed in 1632 to his son, John Paterson, and Apes Lyel, his spouse. He - died in 1663, as appears by the epitaph ... MEMORIALS OF EllINBURGH. now stimulated to its defence as i national amusement peculiar to Scotland, from ...

Book 10  p. 329
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4 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Canongate. the kingdom to teach the making of cloths of various kinds, a colony of them settled in the Canongate, under John Sutherland, and a Fleming named Jacob Van Headen, where they ?daily exercised in their art of making, dressing, sand litting of stuffs,? giving great ? light and knowledge Among the inhabitants of the Canongate was a George Heriot, who died in the following year, 1610, aged seventy. He was the father of the founder of that famous and magnificent hospital, which is perhaps the greatest ornament of either Old or New Edinburgh. HADDINGTON?S ENTRY. of their calling to the country people.? Notwithstanding that these industrious and inoffensive men hid royal letters investing them with special privileges, they were-as too often happens in those cases where the enterprise of foreigners appears to clash with the interests of natives-much molested and harassed by the magistrates of the Canongate, with a view of forcing them to become burgesses and free men in the regular way; but an appeal to the Privy Council affirmed their exemption. In 1639, we learn from Spalding that George, second Marquis of Huntly, who in his youth had commanded the Scottish Guard of Louis XIII. was residing at his old family mansion in the Canongate, wherein, about the month of November, two of his daughters were married ?with great solemnities ?-the Lady Anne, who was ? ane precise Puritan,? to the Lord Drummond; and Lady Henrietta, who was a Roman Catholic, to Lord Seton, son of the Earl of Winton. These ladies ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Canongate. the kingdom to teach the making of cloths of various kinds, a colony of them ...

Book 3  p. 4
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APPENDIX. 439 trA model of Edinburgh was executed by the late Gavin Hamilton, bookeeIler : it was most accurat& done, with his intended improvements of carrying a street of a gentle ascent from the Grassmarket in a line up to the west end of the Luckenbooths, for which purpose he could shift the repmentation of the home, and lay open his plan to public view. This finished work cost him some yeears’ labour, and was shown in a room of the Royal Infirmary in 1753 and 1754 : but after his .death it was neglected, and destroyed for firewood His proposals, like other commodious, salutary, and beneficial projects for the improvement of the place, were rejected ; as was likewise the scheme of an entry into the High Street of Edinburgh from St Cuthbert’s or West Church, along the hill side by south and west of the Castle, which by a gradual ascent might be completed at no very considerable sum, to facilitate the easier conveyance of carriages from the south and west than by the West Bow, a most inconvenient and steep height for horses with coals and other articles for the citizens’ me ; this might terminate the head of the causeway on the Castle HilL A south entry to the High Street being much wanted for the =me necessary purposes, has been of late proposed, but hitherto rejected also, from an excessof toll all needful carriages would be subjected to, which many of the inhabitants are unable to bear. “Sir John Dalrymple has been at uncommon care and expence in causing to be executed an accnrate survey and plan for an easy access inta the city from the south, by a gentle declivity and ascent from the High Street at the head of Marlin’s Wynd to Nicolson’BPark in a streight line, without any amh.” The following jm d’e8p-d may suffice, like some of the school-rhymed arithmetical and grammatical d e s , days of the month, and the like useful help8 to short memories, to preserve in the reader’s recollection some memento of the strange associations that have already been related in sober prose as pertaining to the old West Bow : the like of which he will in vain seek for in any existing corner either of the Old or New Town. THE WAST BOW. DEDICATETDO THE HON.BO ARDOF COMMISSIONEFROSR C r r ~IM PBOVEMWXTS. Through the auld Wast Bow, and to the Grass-Market, Mony a ane haa gane daun fast an’ erie ; Gentles wi’ htillands fn’ brawly besarkit*- Covenant hauldera 0’ warld’a care fu’ weary,- Doom gaol an’ gallows birds naething has carkit, Fu’ dauntonly fitting it to the Gram-Market. Hurrying doun, stoiterin’ an’ stumhlin’, The gleger ye gang better luck against tumblin’ : Up o’er its crooked an’ dingy suld oausey, Fu’ atately an’ trig in their cleadin’ 0’ braws, Our Jamiea escorted ilk royal Scottish lassie To weddin’ and beddin’ in Holyrood ha’s ; Our pedant, King Jamie, King Charlie the naucy, As’ bauld Noll, rade in state, ilka ane o’er ita caueey, Hurrying doun, 8c. An’ Provost an’ Bailies, fu’ prudely I’se warrant, Ha’e bided for Royalty doun the Wast Bow ; An’ speered at the yet\ whan he cam, fur his errand, An’ keeked round the corner, wi’ face in a IOW ; An’ h o n an’ Guild-Dean, an’ Town-Clerk auld-farand, Pracheging their beat bow id loyale I’M warrant. Hurrying douti, &O . ... 439 trA model of Edinburgh was executed by the late Gavin Hamilton, bookeeIler : it was most ...

Book 10  p. 478
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136 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. tion for the royal stables, but the approach to it from the Castle must have been by a very inconvenient and circuitous route, although it was immediately overlooked by the windows of the royal apartments. It seems more probable that the earliest buildings on this site were erected in the reign of James IV., when the low ground to the westward was the scene of frequent tiltings and of magnificent tournaments, the fame of which spread throughout Europe, and attracted the most daring knights-errant to that chivalrous Monarch’s Court.’ Considerable accommodation would be required for the horses and attendants on these occasions, as well as for the noble combatants, among whom the King, it is we11 known, was no idle spectator ; but the buildings of that- date, which we presume to have been reared for these public combats, were probably only of a temporary nature, as they were left without the extended wall, built at the commencement of the following reign, in 1513, a procedure not likely to have taken place had they been of much value. Maitland, however, mentions a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the remains of which were visible in his time (1750) at the foot of the Chapel Wynd; and Kincaid,’ who wrote towards the close of the century, speaks of them a8 still remaining there ; but since then they have entirely disappeared, and nothing but the name of the Wynd, which formed the approach to the chapel, survives to indicate its site. This may, with every probability, be presumed to have been at the point of junction with that and the Lady’s Wynd, both evidently named from their proximity to the same chapel. On this locality, now occupied by the meanest buildings, James IV. was wont to preside at the jousting5 of the knights and barons of his Court, and to present the meed of honour to the victor from his own hand; or, as in the famous encounter, already related, between Sir Patrick Hamilton and a Dutch knight, to watch the combat from the Castle walls, and from thence to act as umpire of the field. The greater portion of the ancient tilting ground remained unenclosed when Maitland wrote, and is described by him as a pleasant green, about one hundred and fifty yards long and fifty broad, adjoining the chapel of the Virgin Mary, on the west. But this U pleasant green ” is now crowded with slaughter-houses, tan-pits, and dwellings of the humblest description. In the challenge in 1571, between Alexander Stewart, younger, of Garlies, and Sir William Rirkaldy of Grange, the place of combat proposed is, “upon the ground the baresse be-west the West Port of Edinburgh, the place accustomed, and of old appointed, for triell of suche matera.”’ The exact site of this interesting spot is now occupied in part by the western approach, which crosses it immediately beyond the Castle Bridge; it is defined in one of the title-deeda of the ground, acquired by the City Improvements Commission, as ‘(,4 11 and hail1 these houses and yards of Orchardfield, commonly called Livingston’s Yards, comprehending therein that piece of ground called The Barras.” The interest attaching to these scenes of ancient feats of arms has been preserved by successive events almost to our own day. In 1661 the King’s Stables were purchased by the Town Council for f,lOOO Scots, and the admission of James Boisland, the seller, to the freedom of the city.4 The right, however, of the new possessors, to whom they would seem to have been resold, was made a subject of legal investigation at a later date. Foun- Ante, p. 23. 3 Maitland, p. 172. Kincaid, p. 103. ’ Calderwood‘a Hist, Wnd. Soc., vol. iii. p. 108. Coun. Reg., vol. xx. p. 268, apud Kincaid, p. 103. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. tion for the royal stables, but the approach to it from the Castle must have been by ...

Book 10  p. 147
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209 High StrcetJ THE LODGING OF THE EARLS OF CRAWFORD. remaining in prison for a tyme, being in health att night, upon the morn was found dead. It was thought that she had wronged herselfe, either by strangling or by poyson; but we leave that to the judgment of the Great Day.? She had likely died of grief and horror. On the same side or the street, and nearly opposite the head of Blackfriars Wynd, was the lodging or town house of the Earls of Crawford. unattractive modem block of biiildings occupies its site. In ?Lamont?s Diary? we read, that in 1649, Lady Pitarro, a sister of the Laird of Fordel-Henderson, ? was delated by many to be a witch; was apprehended and camed to Edinburghe, where she was keiped fast; and after Lord Spynie and was slain in 1607 by Lindesay of Edzell), was promoted to the command of the Royal Guards, over the head of the Master of Glammis, who resented this bitterly. ?Some bragging,? says Moyse, ?followed thereupon betwixt him and the Earl of Bothwell, who took part with the Earl of Crawford and his brother against the Master of Glarnrnis, and both parties having great companies attending them, some tumult was It is mentioned in ?Moyse?s Memoirs,? when occupied by David ninth Earl of Crawford, in 1588, about the time when Francis Stewart Earl of Bothwell was alternately the pest and terror of James VI. Sir Alexander Lindesay, brother of the Earl of Crawford (a gentleman who was created ALLAN RAMSAY?S SHOP, HIGH STKEET. ... High StrcetJ THE LODGING OF THE EARLS OF CRAWFORD. remaining in prison for a tyme, being in health att night, ...

Book 2  p. 209
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16 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. of the gentler memory of Dandie Dinmont with his iron-grey topcoat and his huge whip, and of Guy Mannering knocking at the door of Paulus WARRISTON CLOSE. WRITERS‘ COURT. Pleydell, Esq., and finding that he is away at High Jinks, it being ‘Saturday at e’en,’ and by the name of Pleydell recalling you a step or two back to his and his creator‘s chosen haunt, the Parliament House, with its ten thousand histories of forensic eloquence, lynx-eyed acuteness; deferred hope, mortified ambition, misapplied genius, worlds of wasted wit, humour, and ingenuity, personal, legal, and political intrigue, justice often omitted in her own sanctuary by ‘ special desire,’ or meted out with severest accuracy,-as much the tempIe of human nature as of law. Then under the wing of the Tron Church, skirting the Bridges, and showing to the eye on one hand the Register House and Post-Office, and on the other the College ; then plunging into the Canongate, once the royal region of the city, and which, long after kings had ceased to haunt it, was fined with old hotels which Gom the street opened up into paved courts and gardens, seeming to retain and conserve the spirit of monarchy and nobility, as the deep cool recesses of the forest retain the morning dew long after it has melted on the wide savannas,-and which bore for its arms the proud escutcheon, Sic ifur ... EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. of the gentler memory of Dandie Dinmont with his iron-grey topcoat and his huge ...

Book 11  p. 24
(Score 0.47)

North Bridge.] MR. AND MRS. WYNDHAM. 351 who was present can ever forget. Scott, it may be remarked, was sensible to various impulses which are utterly blank to other men. There were associations about Mr. Murray and his sister as ? come of Scotland?s gentle bluid? and the grandchildren of a man prominent in the Forty-five which helped not a little to give him that strong and peculiar interest in the Theatre Royal, which he constantly displayed from 1809 downwards.? The association here refeAed to was the circumstance that Mrs. Henry Siddons and her brother were the grandchildren of John Murray of Broughton, who was secretary to Prince Charles Edward, and gained a somewhat unenviable notoriety by turning king?s evidence against Lord Lovat and others, when he was taken prisoner subsequent to the battle of Culloden. Mrs. Henry Siddons? twenty-one years of the patent ended in 1830; but her completion of twenty-one annual payments of L2,ooo to the representatives of Mr. John Jackson made her sole proprietor of the house; and on the 29th of March she took farewell of the Edinburgh stage, in the character of Lady Townley in the Prmuked Husband, and retired, into private life, carrying with her, as we are told, ?the good wishes of all in Edinburgh, for they had recognised in her not merely the accomplished actress, but the good mother, the refined lady, and the irreproachable member of society.? Her brother, Mr, Murray, obtaining a renewal of the patent, leased the house from her for twentyone ye?ars; but, save Rob Roy and Gzry Manner- &, the day of the Waverley dramas was past, yet to him the speculation did not prove an unsuccessful one; and the supernumerary house, the Adelphi in Leith Walk, was alike a rival, and a dead weight on his hands, till, on the expiring of his lease, he retired, in the zenith of his favour with the Edinburgh public, in 1851, and with a moderate competency, withdrew to St. Andrews, where he died not long after. After being let for a brief period to Mr. Lloyd the comedian, Mr. Rollinson, and Mr. Leslie, all of whom failed to make the speculation a paying one, it passed into the management of its last lessees, Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Wyndham, the greatest favourites, as managers, and in public and private life, that the Royal had ever possessed, not even excepting Mrs. Henry Siddons. Mr. Wyndham, a gentleman by education and position, who adopted the stage by taste as a profession, came to Edinburgh, about 1845, as a member of Mr. Murray?s company, to support Miss Helen Faucit, and after being in management at , * the Adelphi, he obtained that of the Royal in succession to Messrs. Rollinson and Leslie, and, as managed by him and Mrs. Wyndham, it speedily attained the rank and character of one of the best-conducted theatres in the three kingdoms. The former, always brilliant in light or genteel comedy, was equally pleasing and powerful in his favourite delineations of Irish character, while Mrs. Wyndham was ever most touching and pathetic in all tender, wifely, and motherly parts, and could take with equal ease and excellence Peg Woffington or Mrs. Haller, Widow Smilie or Lady Macbeth. Under their rkiime, the scenery and properties attained a pitch of artistic excellence of which their predecessors could have had not the slightest conception; and some of the Waverley dramas were set upon the stage with a magnificence and correctness never before attempted. While pleasing the public with a constant variety, these, the last lessees of this famous old theatre, did much for the intellectual enlightenment of Edinburgh by producing upon their boards all the leading members of the profession from London, and also giving the citizens the full benefit of Italian opera almost yearly. Kean and Robson, Helen Faucit, old Paul Bedford in conjunction with Wright, and latterly J. L. Toole, the unfortunate Gustavus V. Brooke, Madame Celeste, Alfred Wigan, Mrs. Stirling, Sothern, Mesdames Ristori and Titiens, Mario and Giuglini, and all the most famous artistes in every branch of the modern drama, actors and singers, were introduced to the Edinburgh public again and again ; and, though last, not least in stature, Sir William Don, of Newton-Don, ? the eccentric Baronet.? In recognition of these services, and their own worth, a magnificent service of plate was presented to them in 1869. It was unquestionably under Mr. Wyndham?s management that the Edinburgh stage was first raised to a perfect level with the stages of London and Dublin, and it was under his auspices that both Toole the comedian and Irving the tragedian first made a name an the boards. The acquisition of the site occupied by the old theatre by the Government for the sum of A5000 for the erection of a new General Post Office thereon, though the latter had long been most necessary, and the former was far from being an ornament to the city, was a source of some excitement, and of much regret to all old playgoers; and when the night came t k t the curtain of fate was to close upon it, after a chequered course of niriety years, ... Bridge.] MR. AND MRS. WYNDHAM. 351 who was present can ever forget. Scott, it may be remarked, was sensible ...

Book 2  p. 351
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184 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Royal Exchange. rest upon the platform, support a pediment, on which the arms of the city of Edinburgh are carved. The drst floor of the main front is laid aut in shops. The upper floors are occupied by the Board of Customs, who have upwards of twenty apartments, for this they pay to the city a rent of A360 a year." Arnot wrote in 1779. The chief access to the edifice is by a very The principal part forms the north side of the square, and extends from east to west, 111 feet over wall, by 51 feet broad. Pillars and arches, supporting a platform, run along the south front, which faces the square, and forms a piazza In the centre, four Corinthian pillars, whose bases costume, and having a curious and mysterious history. It is said-for nothing is known with certainty about it-to have been cast in France, and was shipped from Dunkirk to Leith, where, during the process of unloading, it fell into the harbour, and remained long submerged. It is next heard of as being concealed in a cellar in the city, and in the Scots Magazifie it is referred to thus in 1810 :- '' On Tuesday, the 16th October, a very singular stately stair, of which the well is twenty feet square and sixty deep. Off this open the City Chambers, where the municipal affairs are transacted by the magistrates and council. The Council Chamber contains a fine tronze statue of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, in Roman CLERIHEUGH'S TAVERN. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Royal Exchange. rest upon the platform, support a pediment, on which the arms of ...

Book 1  p. 184
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3?2 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton. lecturer, and was soon made professor. ? It is to him,? says the Edindurgh Magazine for 1790, ?? we are indebted for the use of acescent vegetsbles in low, remittent, and putrid fever, and the early and copious exhibition of bark, which has been of the College of Physicians in Dublin, in 1784. He died in 1789. The principal feature at Granton is in its wellplanned, extensive, massively built, and in every re spect magnificent pier, constructed at the expense ot interdicted from mistaken facts deduced from false theories.? In 1774, on the death of his only brother in Scotland, he brought over this brother?s widow, with her nine children, and settled them all in Ireland. His eldest son, William, who had graduated in physic at Edinburgh in 1779, he took as an assis tant, but he died soon after, in his twenty-eighth year. When the Royal Medical Society was e s tablished at Paris he was named a fellow of it, and OLD ENTRANCE TO ROYSTON (NOW CAROLINA PARK), 1851. (Affwa Drawing& Willam Chunw?ng.) the Duke of Buccleuch, and forming decidedly the noblest harbour in the Firth of Forth. It was commenced in the November of 1835, and partially opened on the Queen?s coronation day, 28th of June,?1838, by the duke?s brother, Lord John Scott, in presence of an immense crowd of spectators, and in commemoration of the day, one portion of it is called the Victoria Jetty. The pier can be approached by vessels of the largest class. A commodious and handsome hotel ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton. lecturer, and was soon made professor. ? It is to him,? says the Edindurgh ...

Book 6  p. 312
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Riccarton.1 SIR THOMAS CFLAIG. 321 Riccarton, with those of Warriston, in the barony of Currie, were given by royal charter to Marion of Wardlaw, and Andrew her son, and have had many proprietors since then. In the Privy Council Register we find that in 1579 the Lairds of Brighouse and Haltoun became referred in the account of his town residence in Wamston?s Close. He was born at Edinburgh about 1538, and in 1552 was entered as a student at St. Leonard?s College in the University of St. Andrews, which he quitted three years subsequently, after receiving his degree of Bachelor of Arts COL\?TO?. bound in caution, that the former shall pay ?to Harie Drummond of Riccartoun, LIOO on Martinmas next, the 11th November, in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, for behoof of William Sandeland and Thomas Hart,? whom he had hurt and mutilated, ?I or else shall re-enter himself as a prisoner in the said Tolbooth, on the said day.? During the middle of the sixteenth century Riccarton became the property of the famous feudal lawyer, Sir Thomas Craig, to whom we have 137 He next studied at the University of Pans, and became deeply versed in Civil and Canon laws. Returning to Scotland about 1561, he was called to the bar three years afterwards, and in 1564 was made Justice-Depute. In 1566, when Prince James was born in Edinburgh Castle, he wrote a Latin hexameter poem in honour of the event, entitled GenethZiacon Jacobi Prinn$is Soforum, which, with another poem on his departure, when king, for England, is inserted in ... SIR THOMAS CFLAIG. 321 Riccarton, with those of Warriston, in the barony of Currie, were given by ...

Book 6  p. 321
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222 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. to that portion extending from the Nether Bow to Creech’s Land, until the demolition of the middle row, when the Luckenbooths, and even a portion of the Lawnmarket, were assumed as part of it, and designated by the same name. Here was the battlefield of ScGtland for centuries, whereon private and party feuds, the jealousies of the nobles and burghers, and not a few of the contests between the Crown and the people, were settled at the point of the sword. In the year 1515 it was the scene of the bloody fray known by the name of “ Uleanse the Causey,” which did not terminate until t,he narrow field of contest waa strewn with the dead bodies of the combatants, and the Earl of Arran and Cardinal Beaton narrowly escaped with their lives.’ Other and scarcely less bloody affrays occurred during the reign of James V. on the same spot, while in that of his hapless daughter it was for years the chief scene of civil strife, where rival factions fought for mastery. In 1571 the King’s Parliament, summoned by the Regent Lennox, assembled at the head of the Canongate, above St John’s Cross, which bounded cc the freedome af Edinburgh,” while the Queen’s Parliament sat in the Tolbooth, countenanced in their assumption of the Royal name by the presence of the ancient Scottish Regalia, the honours of the kingdom; and the battle for Scotland‘s crown and liberties fiercely raged in the narrow space that intervened between these rival assemblies. But the private feuds of the Scottish nobles and chiefs were the most frequent subjects of conflict on the High Street of the capital, and during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many a bold baron and hardy retainer perished there, adding fresh fuel to the deadly animosity of rival clans, but otherwise exciting no more notice at the time than an ordinary street squabble would now do. It was in one of these tulxies, alluded to in the ‘‘ Lay of the Last Minstrel,” that Sir Walter Scott of Buccleugh was slain, in the year 1551,’ When the streets of High Dunedin, Saw lances gleam and falchions redden, And heard the slogan’s deadly yell. Neither the accession of James VI., nor the attainment of his majority, exercised much influence in checking those encounters on the streets of the capital. Many enormities were committed,” says Calderwood, “ as if there had beene no King in Israell.” The following may suffice as a sample :-“ Upon the seventh of Januar 1591, the King comming doun the street of Edinburgh from the Tolbuith, the Duke of Lennox, accompanied with the Lord Hume, following a little space behind, pulled out their swords, and invaded the Laird of Logie. The King fled into a closse-head, and incontinent retired to a Skinner’s booth, where it is said he shook for feare.”’ The sole consequence of this lawless act of violence was the exclusion of the chief actors from court for a short time; and only six days thereafter the Earl of Bothwell deliberately took by force out of the Tolbooth the chief witness in a case then pending before the court, at the very time that the King was Ante, p. 37. “In thia zeir all we8 at guid rest, exceptand the Laird of LCesfurde and Fernyhirst with thair complices dew Schir Walter Scott, laird of Balclewche, in Edinburgh, quha waa ane valzeand guid knycht.”-Diurnal of Occurrent~ J551, p. 51. a Vide Calderwood, vol. v. p. 116, for a more particular account .of royal mishaps in the close-head on thii occaeion. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. to that portion extending from the Nether Bow to Creech’s Land, until the demolition ...

Book 10  p. 242
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CONTENTS. PAGE INTROEUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J CHAPTER I. P R E H I S T O R I C EDINBURGH. The Site before the Houses-Traces of Early Inhabitants-The Caledonian Tribes-Agricola's Invasion-Subjection of the Scottish Lowlands -The Rorrao Way-Edinburgh never occupied permanently-Various Roman Remains : Urns, Coins, Busts ; Swords, Spears, ahd other Weapons-Ancient Coffins-The Camus, or Cath-st,neOrigin of the name " Edinburgh"-Dinas-Eiddyn-The Battle of Catraeth 9 CHAPTER 11. THE CASTLE OF EDINBURGH. Of its Origin and remoter History-The Legends concerning it-Ebranke-St. Monena-Def& of the Sawons by King Bridei-King Edwin-King Grime-The Story of Grime and Bertha of Badlieu-The Starting paint of authentic Edinburgh History-Sr Margaret -Het Piety and amiable Disposition-Her Chapel-Her Death-Restoration of her Oratory-Her Burial-Donald Bane-King David 1.-The Royal Gardens, afterwards the Nonh Loch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4 CHAPTER 111. CASTLE OF EDINBURGH (continued). The Legend of the White Hart-Holyrocd Abbey founded--The Monks of the Castrum Puellarum-David I.% numerous Endowments-His Death-Fergus. Lord of Galloway, dies there-William the Lion-Castle Garrisoned by the English for Twelve Yean-The Castle a Royal Residence-The War of the Scottish Succession-The ( h t l e in the hands of Edward 1.-Frank's Escalade-The Lbrtres Dismantled-Again in the hands of the English-Bullock's Stratagem for its Re-caprurr-David's Tower . . . . . . 21 CHAPTER IV. CASTLE OF EDINBURGH (confinucd). Progress of the City-Ambassidor of Charles VI.-Edinburgh burned-Henry IV, baffled-Albmy's Prophecy-Laws lrgvdiog the Building - of Houses-Sumptuary Laws, 1457-Murder of James I.-Coronationof JarncsI1.-Court Intrigues-Lard Chancellor C r i c h t o n - ~ g ~ c e of the Earl of Douglas-Faction WaR--l'he Castle Resieged--"The Black Dinner"-Edmburgh Walled-Its Strength -Bale-fires . 26 CHAPTER V. EDINBURGH CASTLE (continued). James 111. and his haughty Nobilib-Plots of the Duke of Albany and Earl of Mar-Mysterious Death of Mar-Capture and Escape of the Duke of Altuny-Captivity of James 111.-Richard of Gloucester at Edinburgh-The "Golden Charter" of the City-"The Blue Blanket"-Accession of James 1V.-Tournamen%" The Seven Sisters of Bothwick "-The " Fldden Wall"-The Reign of Jarnes V. -" Cleahse the Causeway !"-Edinburgh under the Factions of Nobles-Hertford Attacks the CastltDeath of Mary of Guise- Queen Mary's Apartments in the CaStle-BLth of James VI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 CHAPTER VI. EDINBURGH CASTLE (continued). The Siege of r573-The City Bombarded from the Castle-Elizabeth's Spy-D~ry's Dispositions for the Siege-Execution of Kirkddy- Repar of the Ruins-Execution of Mortan-Visit of Charles 1.-Procession to Holymod-Comnation of Charles 1.-The Struggle against Epiico-Siege of 1640-The Spectre Drummn-Besieged by Cmmwell-Under the Protector-The Restantion-The Argyles-The Accession of James VI1.-Sentence of the Earl of Argyle-His. clever Escape-Imprisoned lour yms later-The Last Sleep of ArgylcHis Death-Tolture of Covenaoters-Proclamation of W d l i and Maq-The Siege of 16@-Intewiew between Gordon and Dundee-The Cas le invested-Rdiant Defeuce-Capitulation of the Duke of Cordon-The Spectre of Claverhouse . 47 ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J CHAPTER I. P R E H I S T O R ...

Book 2  p. 385
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Leith.] HOME-COMING OF MONS MEG. 209 by the foot o the Calton Hill towards the Palace of Holyrood. As a souvenir of this event, on the first anniversary of it a massive plate was inserted on the Shore, in the exact spot on which the king first placed his foot, and there it remains to this day, with a suitable inscription commemorative of the event. In 1829, Mons Meg, which, among other ord nance deemed unserviceable, had been transmitted by the ignorance of an officer to London, and retained there in the Tower, was, by the patriotic efforts of Sir Walter Scott, sent home to Scotland. This famous old cannon, deemed a kind of Palladium by the Scots, after an absence of seventy-five years, was landed from the Happy Janet, and after lying for a time in the Naval Yard, till arrangements were made, the gun was conveyed to the Castle by a team of ten horses decked with laurels, preceded by two led horses, mounted by boys clad in tartans with broadswords. The escort was formed by a 123 grooms and esquires; Sir Patrick Walker, as Usher of the White Rod; a long alternation of cavalry and infantry, city dignitaries, and Highlanders, followed. At the end of the vista, preceded by ten royal footmen, two and two, sixteen yeomen of the Scottish Guard, escorted by the Royal Archers, came the king, followed by the head-quarter staff, three clans of Highlanders, two squadrons of Lothian yeomanry, three of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, Scots Greys, and the Grenadiers of the 77th regiment; and after some delay in going through the ceremony of receiving the city keys-which no monarch had touched since the days of Charles I.-the magnificent train moved through the living masses Lochend to the latter on the east, tA-e middle of Leith Walk on the south, and Wardie Bum on the west. Adam White was the first Provost of Leith after the passing of the Burgh Reform Bill in 1833; and it is now governed by a chief magistrate, four bailies, ten councillors, a treasurer, town clerk, and two joint assessors. Powers have since then been conferred upon the Provost of Leith as admiral, and the bailies as admirals-depute. There are in the town four principal corporations - the Shipmasters, the Traffickers, the Malt-men, and the Trades. The Traffickers, or Merchant Company, have lost their charter, and are merely a benefit society, without the power of compelling entries ; and the Ship masters, ordinarily called the Trinity House, vi11 be noticed in connection with that institution. The Trades Corporation is multifarious, and independently of it there is a body called ? The Convenery,? consisting of members delegated from troop of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and detachments of the Koyal Artillery and Highlanders. In the evening the Celtic Society, all kilted, IOO strong, dined together in honour of the event, Sir Walter Scott in the chair; and on this occasion the old saying was not forgotten, that Scotland would never be Scotland till Mons Meg cam hame.? The gun was then on the same ancient carriage on which it had been taken away. It was not until 1827 that the precise limits of Leith as a town were defined, and a territory given to it which, if filled, would almost enable it to vie with the metropolis in extent, More extensive boundaries were afterwards assigned, and these are the Firth of Forth on the north, a line from SIGNAL TOWER, LEITH PIER, 1775. (ABw Ckrk ofEUin.) ... HOME-COMING OF MONS MEG. 209 by the foot o the Calton Hill towards the Palace of Holyrood. As a souvenir ...

Book 6  p. 209
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40 EDINBURGH FAST AND PRESENT. mansion standing amidst the deep solitary woods, the high ragged rocks, and the foaming waters of the Findhorn. Toward Morningside, with its, alas ! too well known magnificent Asylum, you pass Merchiston Castle, where Napier, the famous inventor of Logarithms, one of Scotland’s highest scientific men, spent the greater portion of his life. Above Faicon Hall on the roadside at its highest point, is seen the Bore Stone, marked by an inscription, into which James IV. sunk the shaft of his royal IIfiRcHISTON CASTU. standard on setting out for Flodden (ah ! how different from that of a similar designation still to be seen near Bannockburn, where Scotland’s flag at the close of that ‘bloody summer day,’ June 24th, 1314, was stirred by the breeze of victory, and seemed in every fold and flutter to be speaking of freedom !) ; and it was in the first house on the left in Church Hill that Chalmers was found in his bed--dead, yet with an aspect which might have accompanied the triumph of a translation. It is refreshing, after the excitement and exhaustion of passing so many classic spots and speaking silences, to find yourseIf now in the free fresh country, amidst the quiet commonplace of its fields and the breathing balm of its summer winds ! There are still some places of great interest which must not, even in a review so rapid and sketchy, be omitted, such as the Greyfriars Church and Churchyard, the Grassmarket and the Cowgate. ’ Built in 1612, half blown up in 1718, compIetely destroyed by fire in - ... EDINBURGH FAST AND PRESENT. mansion standing amidst the deep solitary woods, the high ragged rocks, and the ...

Book 11  p. 64
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BIOGRAPHIOAL SKETCHES. 467 esteemed and loved than “HOLMER OSE,” the appellation by which he was distinguished in the district from other gentlemen of the same surname. He had twelve children, of whom three died in infancy, and one in early youth. His eldest son, Hugh, entered the East India Company’s Service, in which he held several honourable and responsible situations. He was aide-de-camp to Lord Lake; and, after more than twenty years’ service, returned home with his family in 1814, with the rank of Lieut.-Colonel. From that period he resided on his property, where he died in 1836.1 Two other sons of Mr. Rose, Alexander and Robert, died in India; the first in the military service, and the other captain of a country vessel. The youngest son, General Sir John Rose, K.C.B., succeeded to his brother Colonel Hugh, as Proprietor of Holme, where he resided with his family, the eldest of whom was for some time in the civil service of the East India Company. Lady Rose (Lilias) was a daughter of the late James Fraser, Esq., of Culduthel. hlr. Rose’s four daughters, who reached maturity, were all married ; the eldest, Catherine, to Captain George Easton, of the 35th reb$nent of foot, both of whom died some years after marriage, of yellow fever, in the West Indies. Grace married the late William M‘Intosh, Esq., of Geddes, whom she survived. She predeceased her husband, who died in 1814. They left a numerous family. Mr. Rose’s youngest daughter, Helen, was married to Dr. Cormack, minister of Stow, in 1814.2 Maintaining in every respect the character of a country gentleman of the olden time, the great enjoyment of Mr. Rose was to live in the bosom of his family, and among his tenantry ; yet, at the call of his country, he was ever ready to sacrifice all to what he deemed its paramount claim. Hence, during the American war, he joined the Gordon Fencibles ; and towards the close of last century he raised a company, which he commanded, in the Grant Fencibles; and perhaps nothing can give a better idea of the affectionate regard in which he was held by bis own dependents and neighbourhood, than the simple fact that he raised his whole company within a week. Mr. Rose lost his excellent and pious lady while yet in early life ; but never afterwards formed any matrimonial connection. Four sons and four daughters lived to be settled in life. Jane was the wife of John Troup, Esq., of Firhall, near Nairn. He married Miss Ame Topham, an English lady, who predeceased him a few years. Several of their children died in infancy in India, and one son and two daughters came to this country. The son, a very promising boy, died by a fall from a pony. Charlotte, the youngest daughter, was married to General Sir John Burgoyne ; and Anne, the eldest, to Douglas Cheape, Esq., advocate, and late Professor of Civil Law in the University of Edinburgh. a Their only surviving child, John Rose Cormack, M.D., had the honour of gaining the Barveian Prize, in 1836, by his “ Treatise on the Chemical, Medicinal, aud Physiological hoperties of CREOSOTEil,l ustrated by experiments on the lower animals, with some considerations on the embalmment of the Egyptians.” To his “Inaugural Dissertation on the Presence of Au in the Organs of Circulation,” the Medical Faculty of Edinburgh awarded the prize of their gold medal, on occasion of his receiving his Doctorate in 1837. He was chosen one of the Preidents of the Royal Nedical Society in 1836, and of the Royal Physical Society in 1837. . ... SKETCHES. 467 esteemed and loved than “HOLMER OSE,” the appellation by which he ...

Book 9  p. 623
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THE HIGH STREET. 233 of his mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Craig, has been preserved by Sir James Balfour, and is worth quoting as a sample of party rancour against the Whig statesman :- Deed well ye deathe, And burate the lyke a tune, That took away good Elspet Craige, And left ye knave her sone. History and romance contend for the associations of the Scottish capital, not always with the advantage on the dull side of fact. On a certain noted Saturday night, in the annals of fiction, Dandy Dinmont and Colonel Mannering turned from the High Street “ into a dark alley, then up a dark stair, and into an open door.” The alley was Writers’ Court, and the door that of Clerihugh’s tavern ; a celebrated place of convivial resort during the last century, which still stands at the bottom of the court, though its deserted walls no longer ring with the revelry of High Jinks, and such royal mummings as formed the sport of Pleydell and his associates on that jovial night. The picture is no doubt a true one of scenes familiar to grave citizens of former generations. Clerihugh’s tavern was the favourite resort of our old civic dignitaries, for those douce festivities ” that were then deemed indispensable to the satisfactory settlement of all city affairs. The wags of last century used to tell of a certain city treasurer, who, on being applied to for a new rope to the Tron Kirk bell, summoned the Council to deliberate on the demand ; an adjournment to Clerihugh’s tavern it was hoped might facilitate the settlement of 80 weighty a matter, but one dinner proved insufficient, and it was not till they had finished their third banquet in Writers’ Court, that the application was referred to a committee of councillors, who spliced the old bell rope and settled the bill I We have already alluded to some of the most recently cherished superstitions in regard to Mary King’s Close, associated with Beth’s Wynd as one of the last retreats of the plague ; but it appears probable, from the following epigram ‘‘ on Marye King’a pest,” by Drummond of Hawthornden, that the idea is coeval with the name of the close :- ‘ Turne, citizens, to God ; repent, repent, And praye your bedlam frenziea may relent ; Think not rebellion a trifling thing, Thia plague doth fight for Mark and the Xing.’ Mr George Sinclair has furnished, in his “ Satan’s Invisible World Discovered,” an account of apparitions seen in this close, and (‘attested by witnesses of undoubted veracity,” which leaves all ordinary wonders far behind! This erudite work was written to confound the atheists of the seventeenth century. It used to be hawked about the streets by the gingerbread wives, and found both purchasers and believers enough to have satisfied even its credulous author. Its popularity may account for the general prevalence of superstitioue prejudices regarding this old close, which was, at best, a grim and gousty-looking place, and appears, from the reports of property purchased for the site of the Royal Exchange, to have been nearly all in ruins when that building was erected, most of the houses having been burned down in 1750. The pendicle of Satan’s worldly possessions, however, which 1 Writers’ Court derives its name from the Signet Library having been kept there until ita removal to the magnificent apartments which it now occupies adjoining the Parliament House. a Drummond of Hawthorndeu’s Poems, Maitland Club, p. 395. Originally published in 1685, by Mr George Siclair, Professor of Philosophy in Glasgow College, and afterwards minister of Eastwood in Renfrewahire. 2Q ... HIGH STREET. 233 of his mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Craig, has been preserved by Sir ...

Book 10  p. 254
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110 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. regularity, and determined resolution with which it was effected, as well as the secrecy so successfully maintained, led to the supposition that its leaders must have been of a higher rank than those usually concerned in popular tumults ; but recent disclosures, resting on the authority of an intelligent old man, have revealed the chief agent in this daring act of popular vengeance. Alexander Richmond, according to the narrator, was the son of a respectable nurseryman at Foulbriggs, near the West Port. He was bred a baker, and, about the time of the Porteous mob, was a wild and daring lad, who took a prominent share in all the riotings of the period. On the night of Porteous’s execution, he was sent early to bed, and deprived of his clothes by his father, who dreaded that his son, as usual, would involve himself in the turbulent movements that were threatened. But the lad got hold of his sister’s clothes, and making his escape by a window, joined the mob and took a prominent part in breaking into the Tolbooth, and in all their other proceedings. On the passage of the rioters down the West Bow, he entered a shop, from the counter of which he lifted a coil of rope, and threw down a half guinea he had brought out with him. With this the wretched Porteous was suspended from the dyer’s pole ; and immediately thereafter Richmond returned by the West Port to his father’s house. Proclamations were issued against him at the time as a suspected party, on which he went to eea, and after an absence of many years, he returned to Leith, and became master of a merchant vessel. Richmond disclosed his share in the Porteous mob to a few trustworthy friends, among whom was the narrator of this account. He made money in his new mode of life, and his heirs, in the female line, are still a1ive.l Queen Caroline was highly exasperated on learning of this act of contempt for her exercise of the royal prerogative. The Lord Provost was imprisoned, and not admitted to bail for three weeks. A bill was brought into Parliament, and carried through the House of Lords, for incapacitating him from ever holding any magisterial office in Great Britain, and for confining him in prison a full year. This bill also enacted the demolition of the Nether Bow Port, and the disbanding of the city-guard. The Scottish members, however, exerted themselves effectually in opposing this unjust measure when it was sent down to the House of Commons, and by their means it was shorn of its most objectionable clauses, and the whole commuted to a fiqe of 2,2000, imposed on the city for behalf of the Captain’s widow. Even when thus modified, the bill was only carried by the casting vote of the chairman, and Porteous’s widow, on account of previous favours shown her by the magistrates, accepted of m 0 0 in full. From this period, till the eventful year 1745, nothing remarkable occurs in the history of Edinburgh. On thk report of the landing of Prince Charles, the city-guard was increased, and a portion of the royal forces brought into th_e neighbourhood of the city. The town walls were hastily repaired, and ditches thrown up for additional defence. Upon the approach of the Prince’s forces, which had crossed the Forth above Stirling, the King’s troops, along with the city-guard, were posted at Corstorphine and Coltbridge, and a volunteer force was raised to aid in repelling the rebels. But citizens and soldiers were alike lukewarm in the Hanoverian cause, or terror-stricken at the sight of the Highland host. The whole force fled precipitately on their appearance, and communicated such a panic to the citizens, 1 Illustrations of Qeikie’s Etchinpa, p. 8. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. regularity, and determined resolution with which it was effected, as well as the ...

Book 10  p. 120
(Score 0.46)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . --c- THE OLD CHURCH OF ST . CUTHBERT?S AND THE NORTH LOCH (after CZffSh of Eldin).-Rrontisrp;eCr. Keys of the City of Edinburgh . . . . . Paul?s Work . . . . . . . . Illustrated Heading ; . . . . . . The .. Maiden . . . . . . . . . The ?White Horse? Inn . . . . . Fac-simile of a View of Edpburgh in 1 5 4 . . Common SealofEdinburgh . . . . . Counter Seal of the Above . . . . . John Kay (1786) . . . . . . . Urn found at the Dean . . . . . . The Roman Road. near Portobello-The. ? Fishwives? Causeway . . . . . . . . . Arthur?s Seat. from St . Leonards The Arms of the City of Edinburgh . . . . . Fac-simile of a View of the Old Town. from a housetop at theTronChurch . . . . . Bird?s-eye View of the Castle and City of Edinburgh Dungeons in the Castle. below Queen Mary?s Room . . . . . St . Margaret?s Chapel. Edinburgh Castle . . . Chancel Arch of S t. Margaret?s Chapel ?Wallace?s Cradle. .. Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle. as it was before 1573 . . . . . . . . . Ruins of the Well-house Tower . . . . The Royal Lodging or Palace. from the Grand Parade Prospect of Edinburgh. from the North. 1693 (ajm EdinburghCastle in 1647 . . . . . . The Blue Blanket. or Standard of the Incorporated Tradesof Edinburgh . . . . . . . James Hamilton. Earl of Arran ; John Erskine. Earl of Mar; Archibald, Earl ofAngus; The Regent Moray Plan of Edinburgh. showing the Flodden Wall . . Edinburgh. from the North and South . . . John Duke of Albany. and Queen Margaret . . Edinburgh Castle. from the South-west . . . Stone which formerly stood over the Barrier-gateway of Edinburgh Castle . . . . . . Room in Edinburgh Castle in which James VI . was born Ancient Postern and Turret near the Queen?s Post . EntaSlature above the Gateway. Edinburgh Castle . Reduced Fac-simile of a Plan of the Siege of Edinburgh Castle in 1573 . . . . . . . Sleaer) . . . . . Tufacepagt? Cipher of Lord Darnley and Queen Mary . . . The Regent Morton . . . . . . . PAGl U xi I 4 5 2 E 5 Ia I2 13 I6 16 I7 2a 24 25 28 29 32 33 33 21 36 37 40 41 44 4s 46 46 48 49 51 52 53 PAGE Covenanter?s Flag . . . . . . . 54 South Side of Edinburgh Castle . . . . 56 Edinburgh from the South. in 1650 . . . . 57 Mons Meg. Edinburgh Castle . . . . . 60 Order of Cavalcade at the Openlng of the First Parliamentof JamesVII . . . . . . 61 Thumbikin . . . . . . . . 62 Fa-simile of the Medal of the Edinburgh Revolution 8 Club . . . . . . . . . . 63 Edinburgh from Mons Meg Battery . To fut pagc 65 Inner Gateway of the Castle . . . . . 65 Royal Lodging and Half-Moon Battxy . . . 68 The Crown.room. Edinburgh Castle . . . . 69 TheRegaliaof Scotland . . . . . . 72 Plan of the City and Castle of Edinburgh in I742 . 73 Chest in which the Regalia were found . . . 76 Edinburgh. from the King?s Bastion. 182s . . . 77 Edinburgh Castle. from the King?s Mews, 1825 . . 80 Ground Plan of Edinhurgh Castle in the present day . 81 Memorial Cross to the 78th Highlanders. Esplanade. Prospect of Edinburgh Castle from the East in 1779 . Edinburgh Castle. from Kirkbraehead . . * 64 Runic Cross. Castle Bank . . . . . . 79 EdinburghCastle . . . . . . . 84 The Castle Hill. 1S45 . . . . . . 58 Allan Ramsay?s House . . . . . . Sg 85 Cannon Ball in Wall of House in Castle Hill . . 90 rhomas Guthrie. D.D. . . . . . . gz Duke of Gordon?s House. Blair?s Close. Castle Hill . 93 Assembly Hall . . . . . . . . 96 Edinburgh Old Town. from Salisbury Crags To facepage 97 TheOratoryof Maryof Guise . . . . . 97 3ak Door. from the Guise Palace . . . . 98 Lord Semple?s House. Castle Hill . . . . 100 Mary of Guise . . . . . . . . 101 The Lawnmarket. from St . Giles?s. 1825 . . . 105 Lady Stair?s Close . . . . . . . 107 31d Timber-fronted House. Lawnmarket . . . 108 3ladstone?s Land . . . . . . . 109 Plan of Edinburgh. from the Castle to St . Giles?s . 112 Bailie Macmorran?s House . . . . . . 113 Room in Bailie Macmorran?s House . . . . 114 Lantern and Keys of Deacon Brodie . . . . 115 The Lawnmarket. from the SiteoftheWeigh.house. 1825 104 ... OF ILLUSTRATIONS . --c- THE OLD CHURCH OF ST . CUTHBERT?S AND THE NORTH LOCH (after CZffSh of ...

Book 2  p. 392
(Score 0.46)

THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 263 citizen of wealth and importance, occupying a high office, probably of an ecclesiastical character, in the royal household, and in his titles is styled Wilter Chepman de Everland.‘ A broad archway, which leads through the modern successor of the old typographer’s fore tenement, gives entrance to Blackfriars’ Wynd, the largest, and undoubtedly the most important, of all the ancient closes of Edinburgh. It derives its name from having formed the approach to the monastery of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, founded by Alexander 11. in 1230, which etood on the site of the Old High School. This royal foundation, which formed for a time the residence of its founder, received from him, among other endowments, a gdt of the whole ground now occupied by the wpd to erect houses thereon. For fully five centuries this ancient alley may be said to have formed one of the most aristocratic districts of the Scottish capital; and it continued even after the Reformation to be the chosen place of residence of some of the chief Scottish ecclesiastics. It possessed, till a few years since, much of the fine antique picturesqueness that anciently pertained to it, as will be seen in the accompanying view, drawn in 1837 ; but since then a rapid demolition of its decaying tenements has taken place ; and although it still retains some exceedingly interesting relics of the past, the general aspect of the €‘reading Friar$ Vennel has given place to rude and tasteless modern erections, or to ruinous desolation.!’ We have already noticed, in the introductory sketch, several of the most memorable incidents of which this ancient alley has been the scene. There some of the keenest struggles of the rival factions took place during the famous contest known as ‘‘ Cleanse the Causeway ; ” down its straitened thoroughfare the victorious adherents of the Earl of Angus rushed to assault the palace of the Archbishop of Glasgow at the foot of the wynd, and from thence to wreak their rengeance on his person in the neighbouring church of the .Black Friars, whither he fled for shelter. In the reign of James VI., in 1588, it was the arena of a similar contest between the retainers of the Earl of Bothwell and Sir William Stewart, when the latter was slain there by the sword of his rival. The next remarkable incident that occurred was in 1668, when Sharpe, Archbishop of St Andrews, was seated in his coach at the head of Blackfriars’ Wynd, waiting for the Bishop of Orkney, whose residence would appear from this to have been in the wynd. Just as the Bishop was approaching the vehicle, Mitchell, the fanatic assassin already described,’ and an intimate acquaintance of the no less notorious Major Weir,’ aimed a pistol at the Primate, the contents of which missed him, but dangerously wounded the Bishop of Orkney, who at the moment was stepping into the coach. Since then the old alley has quietly progressed in its declining fortunes to a state of desertion and ruin. On the west side, near the head of the wynd, a decorated lintel bore the inscription and device represented in the accompanying woodcut, with the date 1564. The ground floor of this building consisted of one very large apartment, with a massive stone pillar in the centre, which formed the place of worship to which the adherents of the covenanted kirk retreated on the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs at the Revolution ; and it is described, l It may be remarked here that Chepman’s spouse, Agnea Coburn, is mentioned in the same titles, showing that he waa not bound by ecclesiastical vows of celibacy. While the west side of Blackfriars’ Wynd still stands, the east, with several closes adjacent, a description of which is given in subsequent pages of this chapter, has been taken down, in connection with plana for the improvement of the city. a Ante, p. 101. ‘ RavaiUac Redivivus, Lond. 1678, p. 12. ... HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 263 citizen of wealth and importance, occupying a high office, probably of an ...

Book 10  p. 285
(Score 0.45)

with whom she took up her abode. After having effectually lulled all suspicion, she affected to remember a vow she had made to visit the White Kirk of Brechin (according to the '' Chronicles of Pitscottie "), and bade adieu to the Chancellor overnight, with many tender recommendations of the young king to his care. She set forth betimes next morning with her retinue, and baggage borne on sumpter horses. In one of the arks or chests :trapped on one of these she had the young king concealed, with his own consert. He was thus conveyed to Leith, and from thence by water to Stirling, where she placed him in the hands of the Regent Livingstone, while the haughty Douglas kept aloof, as one who took no interest in the petty intrigues around the throne. Livingstone now unfurled the royal standard, levied troops, and laid siege to the Castle of Edinburgh ; but the wary Chanceflor, finding that he had been outwitted, pretended to compromise matters by delivering the keys of the gates into the hands of the king, after which they all supped together in the great hall of the fortress. Crichton was confirmed in his ofice of Chancellor, and the other as regent and guardian of the royal person, a state of affairs not fated to last long. Livingstone having quarrelled with the queen, she carried off the young king again, and restored him to the custody of the Chancellor in the Castle of Edinburgh. Under the guidance of the Bishops of Moray and Aberdeen, then resident in the city, a conference was held in the church of St. Giles, ' making him and his rival joint guardians, which, from their mutual dread and hatred of the Earl of Douglas, led to an amicable arrangement, and the young king chose the Castle as his future place of residence. The great house..of. Dauglas,had naw reached the zenith of its baronial power and pride. The earl possessed Annabdale, Galloway, and other extensive dominions in. the southern counties, where all men bowed to his authority. He had the dukedom of Touraine and lordship of Longueville in France. He was allied to the royal family of Scotland, and had at his back a powerful force of devoted vassals, trained to arms, led by brave knights, who were ripe at all times for revolt and strife. '' The Regent and the Chancellor are both alike to me," said he, scornfully ; " 'tis no matter which may overcome, and if both perish the country will be the better ; and it is a pleasant sight for honest men to.see such fencers yoked together." But soon after the potent Douglas died at Restalrig-h June, 144o-and was succeeded by his son William, then in his sixteenth year ; and now the subtle and unscrupulous old Chancellor thought that the time had come to destroy with safety a family he alike feared and detested. In the flush of his youth and p...12, fired by the flattery of his dependents, the young earl, in the retinue and splendour that surrounded him far surpassed his sovereign. He never rode abroad with less than two thousand lances under his banner, well horsed, and sheathed in mail, and he actually, according to Buchanan, sent as his ambassadors to the court of France Sir Malcolm Fleming and Sir John Lauder of the Bass, to obtain for him a new patent of the duchy of Touraine, which had been conferred on his grandfather by Charles VII. Arrogance so unwonted and grandeur so great alarmed both Crichton and Livingstone, who could not see where all this was to end. Any resort to violence would lead to civil war. He was therefore, with many flatteries, lured to partake of a banquet in the Castle of Edinburgh, accompanied by his brother the little Lord David and Sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld. With every show of welcome they were placed at the same table with the king, while the portcullis was suddenly lowered, the gates carefully shut, and their numerous and suspicious train excluded. Towards the close of the entertainment a black bull's head-an ancient Scottish symbol that some one was doomed to death-was suddenly placed upon the board. The brave boys sprang up, and drew their swords; but a band of Crichton's vassals, 'in complete armour, rushed in from a chamber called the Tiring-house, and dragged forth the three guests, despite the tears and entreaties of the young king. I They were immediately beheaded-on the 24th of November, I 440-according to Godscroft, '' in the back court of the Castle that lyeth to the west" (where the barracks now stand); in the great hall, according to Balfour. They were buried in the fortress, and when, in 1753, some workmen, in digging a foundation there, found the plate and. handles of a coffin all of which were pure gold, they were supposed tp belong to that in which the Earl of Douglas was placed. Singular to say, Crichton was never brought to trial for this terrible outrage. " Venomous viper ! I' exclaims the old historian of the Douglases, "that could hide so deadly poyson under so faire showes ! unworthy tongue, unelesse to be cut oute for example to all ages ! A lion or tiger for cruelty of heart-a waspe or spider for spight ! " He also refers to a rude ballad on the subject, beginning ... whom she took up her abode. After having effectually lulled all suspicion, she affected to remember a vow ...

Book 1  p. 30
(Score 0.45)

A , k i t h Walk.] JOHNNIE WILKES? himself in her bedroom, ?with the intention of carrying off a sum of money after she fell asleep. But the noise of opening her desk awoke her; he, for fear of detection, seized a knife which by accident lay there, and mangled her throat so dreadfully that she died next day. He then leaped from a window of the second storey, but fractured one of his legs so much in the fall that he was unable to walk, and sustained himself for several days, eating peas and turnips, until his hiding-place was discovered He afterwards graced the gibbet in Leith Walk, where his body hung for many a long year.? In more than one instance on the King?s birth- BRWNSTME HOUSE. day the effigy of Johnnie Wilkes,? that noted demagogue, Lord Mayor of London and English M.P., who made himself so obnoxious to the Scots, figured at the Gallow Lee. The custom, still prevalent in many parts of the country, and so dear to the Scottish schoolboy, of destroying his effigy with every indignity on the royal birthday, is first mentioned, we believe, in ?? Annals of the Reign of George 111.f 1770. But when only fields and green coppice lay between the city and the seaport, the gibbet at the Gallow Lee, with its ghastlyadditions,must have formed a gloomy object amid the smiling urban landscape. IN the beginning of the present century fields and nursery grounds chiefly bordered Leith Walk, CHAPTER XVI. LEITH WALK (concZdd). respectively Trotteis, Jollie?s, Ronaldson?s, and King?s Buildings-had been erected, with long open ... , k i t h Walk.] JOHNNIE WILKES? himself in her bedroom, ?with the intention of carrying off a sum of money ...

Book 5  p. 157
(Score 0.45)

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