![Bmghton.]
The new Catholic and Apostolic church, a conspicuous
and spacious edifice, stands north of
all those mentioned at the corner of East London
Street. It was founded in November, 1873, and
opened with much ceremony in April, 1876. It is
in a kind of Norman style, after designs by R.
Anderson, and measures zoo feet long, is 45 feet
in height to the wall-head, and 64 to the apex
EAST LONDON STREET.
of the internal roof. It comprises a nave, chancel,
and baptistry. The nave measures IOO feet in
length, by 45 in breadth; is divided into five
bays, marked externally by buttresses, and has
at each corner a massive square turret surmounted
by a pinnacle rising as high as the 1;dge of the
roof. The chancel measures 614 feet, and communicates
with the nave.
PICARDY VILLAGE AND GAYFIELD HOUSE. (Aft# CkrR of Ekiin.)
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE NORTHERN NEW TOWN.
Picardy Place-Lords Eldm and Craig - Si David Milne-John Abetnumbie-Lard Newton-Commissionex Osbome-St. Paul's Church-
St. George's Chapel-Willii Douglas, Artist-Professor Playfair-General Scott of Bellevue-Drummond P k c d . K. Sharpc of Hoddam
--Lord Robertson-Abercrombic Place and Heriot Row-Miss Femer-House in which H. McKenAe died-Rev. A. Aliin-Great King
Street-% R. Christison--Si W illiam Hamilton-Si William Ab-L-ard Colonsay, &c.
THE northern New Town, of which we now propose
to relate the progress and history, i; separated
from the southern by the undulating and extensive
range of Queen Street Gardens, which occupy a
portion of the slope that shelves down towards the
valley of the Water of Leith.
It is also in a parallelogram extending, from the
quarter we have just been describing, westward to ,
72
the Queensferry Road, and northward to the line
of Fettes Row. It has crescental curves in some
of its main lines, with squares, and is constructed
in a much grander style of architecture than the
original New Town of 1767. Generally, it wqs
begun about 1802, and nearly completed by 1822.
In the eastern part of this parallelogram are Picardy
Place, York Place, Forth and Albany Streets,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p197.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 185")
... new Catholic and Apostolic church, a conspicuous
and spacious edifice, stands north of
all those ...
Book 3 p. 185
(Score 0.61)
... BI 0 Gl?, A P HI GAL S ICE T C HE S.
verted the once courtly sedan. Formerly they were in (Treat demand about ...
Book 9 p. 489
(Score 0.61)
... IV., while preparing for his fatal invasion
rn 1513, went daily to the Castle to inspect and
prove his ...
Book 1 p. 36
(Score 0.61)
![The High Street.] THE HIGH STREET.
six storeys each ; in short, down as far as the Cowgate
nothing was to be seen but frightful heaps of
calcined and blackened ruins, with gaping windows
and piles of smoking rubbish.
In the Par!iament Square four double tenements
of from seven to eleven storeys also perished, and
the incessant cmsh of falling walls made the old
vicinity re-echo. Among other places of interest
destroyed here was the shop of Kay, the cancaturist,
always a great attraction to idlers.
During the whole of Thursday the authorities
were occupied in the perplexing task of .examining
the ruined edifices in the Parliament Square. These
being of enormous height and dreadfully shattered,
threatened, by their fall, destruction to everything
in their vicinity. One eleven-storeyed edifice presented
such a very striking, terrible, and dangerous
appearance, that it was proposed to batter it down
with cannon. On the next day the ruins were inspected
by Admiral Sir David Milne, and Captain
(afterwardssir Francis) Head of theRoyal Engineers,
an officer distinguished alike in war and In literature,
who gave in a professional report on the subject,
and to him the task of demolition was assigned.
?
In the meantime offers of assistance from Captain
Hope of H.M.S. BnX, then in Leith Roads,
were accepted, and his seamen, forty in number,
threw a line over the lofty southern gable above
Heron?s Court, but brought down only a small
portion Next day Captain Hope returned to the
attack, with iron cables, chains, and ropes, while
some sappers daringly undermined the eastern wall.
These were sprung, and, as had been predicted by
Captain Head, the enormous mass fell almost
perpendicularly to the grognd.
At the Tron Church, on the last night of every
year, there gathers a vast crowd, who watch with
patience and good-humour the hands of the illuminated
clock till they indicate one minute past
twelve, and then the New Year is welcomed in
with ringing cheers, joy, and hilarity. A general
shaking of hands and congratdlations ensue, and
one and all wish each other ?? A happy New Year,
and mony 0? them.? A busy hum pervades the older
parts of the city; bands of music and bagpipes
strike up in many a street and wynd; and, furnished
with egg-flip, whiskey, &c., thousands hasten off in
all directions to ?first foot? friends and relations,
CHAPTER XXI.
THE HIGH STREET,
A Place for Brawling-First Paved and Lighted-The Meal and Flesh MarketsState of the Streets-Municipal Regulations 16th Century-
Tuleies-The Lairds of Ainh and Wemyss-The Tweedies of Drummelzier-A Mont- Quarrel-The Slaughter of Lord Tarthorwald-
-A Brawl in 1705-Attacking a Sedan Chair-Habits in Lhe Seventeenth Century-Abduction of Women and Girls-Sumptuary Law6
against Women.
BEFORE narrating the wondrous history of the many
quaint and ancient closes and wynds which diverged
of old, and some of which still diverge, from the
stately High Street, we shall treat of that venerable
thoroughfare itself-its gradual progress, changes,
and some of the stirring scenes that have been witnessed
from its windows.
Till so late as the era of building the Royal
Exchange Edinburgh had been without increase
or much alteration since King James VI. rode
forth for England in 1603. ?The extended wall
erected in the memorable year 1513 still formed
the boundary of the city, with the exception of the
enclosure of the Highriggs. The ancient gates remained
kept under the care of jealous warders,
and nightly closed at an early hour ; even as when
the dreaded iiiroads of the Southron summoned
the Burgher Watch to guard their walls. At the
foot of the High Street, the lofty tower and spire
of the Nether Bow Port terminated the vista, surmounting
the old Temple Bar of Edinburgh, interposed
between the city and the ancient burgh of
Canongate.?
On this upward-sloping thoroughfare first rose
the rude huts of the Caledonians, by the side of
the wooded way that led to the Dun upon the rock
-when Pagan rites were celebrated at sunrise on
the bare scalp of Arthur?s Seat-and destined
to become in future years ?the King?s High
Street,? as it was exclusively named in writs and
charters, in so far as it extended from the Nether
Bow to the edifice named Creech?s Land, at the
east end of the Luckenbooths. ?Here,? says a
writer, ? was the battle-ground of Scotland for
centuries, whereon private and party feuds, the
jealousies of nobles and burghers, and not a few of
the contests between the Crown and the people,
were settled at the sword.?
As a place for brawling it was proverbial ; and
thus it was that Colonel Munro, in ?His Expedition
with the Worthy Scots Regiment called
Mackeyes,? levied in 1626, for service in Denmark](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p203.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 191")
... High Street.] THE HIGH STREET.
six storeys each ; in short, down as far as the Cowgate
nothing was to be seen ...
Book 1 p. 191
(Score 0.61)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Great Fire.
while the weather changed rapidly ; the wind,
accompanied by rain, ...
Book 1 p. 190
(Score 0.61)
... SKETCHES. 397
No. CLVII.
MR. JOHN SHIELLS,
SURGEON.
MR. SHIELLSw as a native of Peeblesshire ; ...
Book 8 p. 553
(Score 0.61)
![Leith Walk.] ANDREW MACDONALD. J 59
in whose favour, so long as she exercised her profession,
she continued to hold the first place in
spite of their temporary enthusiasm for the great
London stars, who visited them at stated seasons.
? Our Mrs. Siddons? I frequently heard her called
in Edinburgh, not at all with the idea of comparing
her with the celebrated mother-in-law j but rather
as expressing the kindly personal goodwill with
which she was regarded by her own townsfolk who
were proud and fond of her.?
She was not a great actress, according to this
writer, for she lacked versatility, or power of assumption
in any part that was opposed to her nature
or out of her power, and she was destitute
of physical strength and weight for Shaksperian
heroines generally; yet Rosalind, Viola, Imogen,
and Label, had no sweeter exponents ; and in all
pieces that turned on the tender, soft, and faithful
Mary Stuart,?she gave an unrivalled impersonation.?
On leaving Edinburgh, after 1830, she carried
with her the good wishes of the entire people, ? for
they had recognised in her not merely the accomplished
actress, but the good mother, the refined
lady, and the irreproachable member of society.?
Northward of Windsor Street, in what was once
a narrow, pleasant, and secluded path between
thick hedgerows, called the Lovers? Loan, was
built, in 1876, at a short distance from the railway
station, the Leith Walk public school, at a cost of
L9,ooo; it is in the Decorated Collegiate style,
calculated to accommodate about 840 scholars, and
is a good specimen of the Edinburgh Board schools.
In the Lovers? Loan Greenside House was long
the property and the summer residence of James
Marshal, W.S., whose town residence was in Milne
Square, so limited were the ideas of locomotion
and exaggerated those of distance in the last century.
He was born in 1731, says Kay?s Editor,
and though an acute man of business, was one of
the most profound swearers of his day, so much so
that few could compete with him.? He died in the
then sequestered house of Greenside in 1807.
In the year 1802 the ground here was occupied
by Barker?s ? famous panorama,? from Leicester
Square, London, wherein were exhibited views of
Dover, the Downs, and the coast of France, with
the embarkation of troops, horse and foot, from ten
till dusk, at one shilling a head, opposite the
Botanical Garden.
Lower down, where we now find Albert, Falshaw,
and Buchanan Streets, the ground for more
than twenty years was a garden nursery, long the
feu of Messrs. Eagle and Henderson, some of whose
advertisements as seedsfnen go back to nearly the
middle of the last century.
At the foot of the Walk there was born, in 1755,
Andrew Macdonald, an ingenious but unfortunate
dramatic and miscellaneous writer, whose father,
George Donald, was a market-gardener there. He
received the rudiments of his education in the
Leith High School, and early indicated such literary
talents, that his friends had sanguine hopes
of his future eminence, and with a view to his
becoming a minister of the Scottish Episcopal
communion he studied at the University of Edinburgh,
where he remained till the year 1775, when
he was put into deacon?s orders by Bishop Forbes
of Leith. On this account, at the suggestion of the
latter, he prefixed the syllable Mac to his name.
As there was no living for him vacant, he left his
father?s cottage in Leith Walk to become a tutor
in the family of Oliphant of Gask, after which he
became pastor of an Episcopal congregation in
Glasgow, and in 1772 published ?Velina, a Poetical
Fragment,? which is said to have contained
much genuine poetry, and was in the Spenserian
stanza.
His next essay was ?? The Independent,? which
won him neither profit nor reputation ; but having
written ?Vimonda, a Tragedy,? with a prologue
by Henry Mackenzie, he came to Edinburgh, where
it was put upon the boards, and where he vainly
hoped to make? a living by his pen. It was received
with great applause, but won him no advantage,
as his literary friends now deserted him.
Before leaving Glasgow he had taken a step which
they deemed alike imprudent and degrading.
?This was his marrying the maid-servant of the
house in which he lodged. His reception, therefore,
on his return to Edinburgh from these friends
and those of his acquaintances who participated in
their feelings, had in it much to annoy and distress
him, although no charge could be brought against
the humble partner of his fortunes but the meanness
of her condition.? Thus his literary prospects,
so far as regarded Edinburgh, ended in total disappointment
; so, accompanied by his wife, he betook
him to the greater centre of London.
There the fame of ?Vimonda? had preceded
him, and Colman brought it out with splendour to
crowded houses in the years 1787 and 1788; and
now poor Macdonald?s mind became radiant with
hope of affluence and fame, and he had a pretty
little residence at Brompton, then a sequestered
place.
He next engaged with much ardour upon an
opera, but made his subsistence chiefly by writing
satirical papers and poems for the newspapers,
under the signature of ?Mathew Bramble.? At
last this resource failed him, and he found himself
*](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p170.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 159")
... Walk.] ANDREW MACDONALD. J 59
in whose favour, so long as she exercised her profession,
she continued to ...
Book 5 p. 159
(Score 0.61)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Arthur?s h t . 1
Marquis of Douglas. This lady, who was married
in 1670, was divorced, ...
Book 4 p. 320
(Score 0.61)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Grassmarket.
Watt and Downie, they were brought to trial respectively
in August and ...
Book 4 p. 238
(Score 0.6)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
His widow, as “ the most respectful tribute” she could pay to his ...
Book 8 p. 381
(Score 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
by the enterprising firm, but was conducted by
them in conjunction with other ...
Book 6 p. 274
(Score 0.6)
... for sale, ?together with those new subjects
lying in Water Lane, adjoining Messrs. Elder and
Archibald?s ...
Book 6 p. 236
(Score 0.6)
... SKETCHES. 81
these he gave full play to a natural gaiety of spirit, which rendered his company
quite ...
Book 9 p. 109
(Score 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Mound,
Sculpture had its origin early in the present
century, though in past times ...
Book 3 p. 90
(Score 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
CHAPTER XXIIL
THE HIGH STREET (continuedJ.
The Black Turnpike-Bitter ...
Book 2 p. 204
(Score 0.6)
... SKETCHES. 25
happened in the morning, which they attributed to their ignorance of his quality,
and ...
Book 8 p. 32
(Score 0.6)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
ately rejoined by the rest of his fleet ; and, after cruising for four months, he
left ...
Book 8 p. 506
(Score 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street. --
already been made in the account of that institution,
of which he ...
Book 3 p. 144
(Score 0.6)
... OLD TOWN. 29
and motive with the clear vision and minute anatomy of a Fielding or a
Shakespeare j and thence ...
Book 11 p. 47
(Score 0.6)
... INDEX 37s
Douglas, Sir William the Black
Knight ofliddesdal;, II.53,III.
354. 355
Dou&s, Baron, 11. ...
Book 6 p. 375
(Score 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Meadows
?upwards of eighty years of age, as captain-general,
and the Earl of ...
Book 4 p. 354
(Score 0.6)
... 14 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. . [Castle Terrace.
Place, and now chiefly used as a coal dep8t.
Some of the merchants ...
Book 4 p. 214
(Score 0.6)
... OLD -4KD NEW EDINBURGH. ELauristollr - _
.. . . .
whom were the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl 01
Stair, and ...
Book 4 p. 358
(Score 0.59)
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