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Index for “A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings”

C0NTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE CANONGATE.
@AGE
I& Origin-Songs concerning it-Reaords-Market Cross-St. John's and the G i h Crosses-Early History-The Town of Her-
Canongate Paved-The Governing Body-Raising the Devil-Purchase of the Earl of Roxbwgh's "Superiority"-The Foreign
Settlement-George Heriot the Elder-Huntly's HouseSu Walter Scott's Story of a Fire--The Mo- Land-How of Oliphant
of Newland, Lord David Hay, and Earl of Angus-Jack's Land-Shoemaker's Lands-Marquis of Huntly's House-Nisbet of Duleton'd
Mansion-Golfers' Land-John and Nicol Paterson-The Porch and Gatehouse of the Abbey-Lucky Spellcc . . . . . . I
CHAPTER 11.
THE CANONGATE (continwd).
Execution of the Marquis of Montrose-The First Dromedary in Scotland-The streets Cleansed-Raxbugh House--London Stages of r71a
and 175+-Religious Intolerance-Declension of the Burgh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CHAPTEK 111.
THE CANONGATE (con#i+vwd).
Closes and AlleF on the North Side-Fiesh-market and Coull's Cloxs-Canongate High School-&e's Close--Riillach's Lodging-New
Street and its Residents-Hall of the Shoemakers-Sir Thos Ddyell-The Canongate Workhouse-Panmure HousbHannah
Robertson-The White Horse Hostel-% Water Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
CHAPTER IV.
THE CANONGATE (continued).
Closes and Alleys on the South Side-Chessel's Court-The Canongate Theatre-Riots Therein-"Douglas" Performed-Mr. Diggea and Mra.
Bellamy-St. John's Close-St. John's Street and iks Residents-The Haaunennan's Clo~-Horse Wynd, Abbey-House of Lord Napier 22
CHAPTER V.
THE CANONGATE (roniinued).
Separate or Detached Edifices therein-Sir Walter Scott in the Canongate--The Parish C%urch-How it came to be built-Its Official
Position- Its Burying Ground-The Grave of Fergusson-Monument to Soldiers interred the-Ecceotric Henry PrentiaThe
Tolbth-Testimony as to its Age-Its latu uses-Magdakne Asylum-Linen Hall-Many House-Its Hstorical Associari ons-The
WiotooXo-Whiteford Howe-The Dark Story of Queuriberry House . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 7
CHAPTER VI.
THE CANONGATE (coduded).
mthiin H u t - M PalmerstowSt. Thomas's Hospita-The Tennis Court and its Theawe4&wen Mq's --The Houxr of Croftan-
Righandclock-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
CHAPTER ' VII.
HOLYROOD ABBEY.
Foundation of the Ahbey-Text of King David's Charter-Original Extent of the Abbey Char&-The sc-alled Miracdau b - T h e
Pawnages of the Canons-Its Tbirtyanc Abbots-Its Relics and Revenues . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 ... I. THE CANONGATE. @AGE I& Origin-Songs concerning it-Reaords-Market Cross-St. John's ...

Book 4  p. 385
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The TolbOoth.1 PORTEOUS EXECUTED. 131
some proposed to slay hini on the spot, was told
by others to prepare for that death .elsewhere
which justice had awarded him ; but amid all their
fury, the rioters conducted themselves generally with
grim and mature deliberation. Porteous was allowed
to entrust his money and papers with a person who
was in prison for debt, and one of the rioters kindly
and humanely offered him the last consolation religion
can afford. The dreadful procession, seen
by thousands of eyes fiom the crowded windows,
was then begun, and amid the gleam of links and
;torches, that tipped with fire the blades of hundreds
of weapons, the crowd poured down the
West Bow to the Grassmarket. So coolly and
deliberately did they proceed, that when one 01
Porteous? slippers dropped from his foot, as he was
borne sobbing and praying along, they halted, and
replaced it In the Bow the shop of a dealer in
cordage (over whose door there hung a grotesque
figure, still preserved) was broken open, a rope
taken therefrom, and a guinea left in its stead.
On reaching the place of execution, still marked
byan arrangement of the stones, they were at a loss
for a gibbet, till they discovered a dyer?s pole in it:
immediate vicinity. They tied tbe rope round the
neck of their victim, and slinging it over the cross
beam, swung him up, and speedily put an end tc
his sufferings and his life ; then the roar of voicez
that swept over the vast place and re-echoed up the
Castle rocks, announced that all was over ! BUI
ere this was achieved Porteous had been twice le1
down and strung up again, while many struck him
with their Lochaber axes, and tried to cut off hi:
ears.
Among those who witnessed this scene, and nevei
forgot it, was the learned Lord Monboddo, who had
that morning come for the first time to Edinburgh.
When about retiring to rest (according to ? Kafi
Portraits ?) his curiosity was excited by the noise and
tumult in the streets, and in place of going to bed:
he slipped to the door, half-dressed, with a nightcap
on his head. He speedily got entangled in
the crowd of passers-by, and was hurried along with
them to the Grassmarket, where he became an
involuntary witness of the last act of the tragedy.
This scene made so deep an impression on his
lordship, that it not only deprived him of sleep foi
the remainder of the night, but induced him to
think of leaving the city altogether, as a place unfit
for a civilised being to live in. His lordship
frequently related fhis incident in after life, and
on these occasions described with much force the
effect it had upon him.? Lord Monboddo died
in 1799.
As soon as the rioters had satiated their venzeance,
they tossed away their weapons, and quietly
dispersed; and when the morning of the 8th September
stole in nothing remained of the event but
the fire-blackened cinders of the Tolbooth door, the
muskets and Lochaber axes scattered in the streets,
and the dead body of Porteous swinging in the
breeze from the dyer?s pole. According to the
Caledonian Mercury of 9th September, 1736, the
body of Porteous was interred on the second day
in the Greyfriars. The Government was exasperated,
and resolved to inflict summary vengeance
on the city. Alexander Wilson, the Lord Provost,
was arrested, but admitted to bail after three weeks?
incarceration. A Bill was introduced into Parliament
materially affecting the city, but the clauses for
the further imprisonment of the innocent Provost,
abolishing the City Guard, and dismantling the
gates, were left out when amended by the Commons,
and in place of these a small fine of Az,ooo
in favour of Captain Porteous? widow was imposed
upon Edinburgh. Thus terminated this extraordinary
conspiracy, which to this day remains a
mystery. Large rewards were offered in vain for
the ringleaders, many of whom had been disguised
as females. One of them is said to have been
the Earl of Haddington, clad in his cook-maid?s
dress. The Act of Parliament enjoined the proclamation
for the discovery of the rioters should be
read from the parish pulpits on Sunday, but many
clergymen refused to do so, and there was no power
to compel them ; and the people remembered with
much bitterness that a certain Captain Lind, of the
Town Guard, who had given evidence in Edinburgh
tending to incriminate the magistrates, was rewarded
by a commission in Lord Tyrawley?s South British
Fusiliers, now 7th Foot.
The next prisoner in the Tolbooth who created
an intensity of interest in the minds of contemporaries
was Katharine Nairn, the young and
beautiful daughter of Sir Robert Nairn, Bart, a
lady allied by blood and marriage to many families
of the best position. Her crime was a double
one-that of poisoning her husband, Ogilvie of
Eastmilne, and of having an intrigue with his
youngest brother Patrick, a lieutenant of the Old
Gordon Highlanders, disbanded, as we elsewhere
stated, in 1765. The victim, to whom she had
been mamed in her nineteenth year, was a man
of property, but far advanced in life, and her
marriage appears to have been one of those unequal
matches by which the happiness of a girl is sacnficed
to worldly policy. On her arrival at? Leith in
an open boat in 1766, her whole bearing betrayed
so much levity, and was so different from what
was expected by a somewhat pitying crowd, that a ... TolbOoth.1 PORTEOUS EXECUTED. 131 some proposed to slay hini on the spot, was told by others to prepare for ...

Book 1  p. 131
(Score 0.66)

New Town.] ? . WOOD?S FARM. 11.5
Lang Dykes; by the old Queensferry Road that
I descended into the deep hollow, where Bell?s Mills
lie, and by Broughton Loan at the other end of the
northern ridge.
Bearford?s Parks on the west, and Wood?s Farm
on the east, formed the bulk of this portion of the
site; St. George?s Church is now in the centre of
the former, and Wemyss Place of the latter. The
hamlet and manor house of Moultray?s Hill arc now
occupied by the Register House; and where the
Royal Bank stands was a cottage called ?Peace
and Plenty,? from its signboard near Gabriel?s
Road, ? where ambulative citizens regaled themselves
with curds and cream,?? and Broughton was
deemed so far afield that people went there for
the summer months under the belief that they
were some distance from ?town, just as people
used to go to Powburn and Tipperlinn fifty years
later.
Henry Mackenzie, author of ?The Man of
Feeling,? who died in 1831, remembered shooting
snipes, hares, and partridges upon Wood?s Farm.
The latter was a tract of ground extending frGm
Canon Mills on the north, to Bearford?s Parks on
the south, and was long in possession of Mr. Wood,
of Warriston, and in the house thereon, his son,
the famous ?Lang Sandy Wood,? was born in
1725. It stood on the area between where Queen
Street and Heriot Row are now, and ?many still
alive,? says Chambers, writing in 1824, ?remember
of the fields bearing as fair and rich a crop of
wheat as they may now be said to bear houses.
Game used to be plentiful upon these groundsin
particular partridges and hares . . . . . Woodcocks
and snipe were to be had in all the damp
and low-lying situations, such as the Well-house
Tower, the Hunter?s Bog, and the borders of
Canon Mills Loch. Wild ducks were frequently
shot in the meadows, where in winter they are
sometimes yet to be found. Bruntsfield Links,
and the ground towards the Braid Hills abounded
in hares.?
In the list of Fellows of the Royal College of
Surgeons, Alexander Wood and his brother Thomas
are recorded, under date 1756 and 1715 respectively,
as the sons of ?Thomas Wood, farmer on
the north side of Edinburgh, Stockbridge Road,?
now called Church Lane.
A tradition exists, that about 1730 the magistrates
offered to a residenter in Canon Mills all the
ground between Gabriel?s Road and the Gallowlee,
in perpetual fee, at the annual rent of a crown
bowl of punch; but so worthless was the land then,
producing only whim and heather, that the offer
was rejected. (L? Old Houses in Edinburgh.?)
The land referred to is now worth more than
A15,ooo per annum. .
Prior to the commencement of the new town,
the only other edifices. on the site were the Kirkbraehead
House, Drumsheugh House, near the old
Ferry Road, and the Manor House of Coates.
Drumsheugh House, of which nothing now remains
but its ancient rookery in Randolph Crescent,
was removed recently. Therein the famous
Chevaliei Johnstone, Assistant A.D.C. to Prince
Charles; was concealed for a time by Lady Jane
Douglas, after the battle of Culloden, till he escaped
to England, in the disguise of a pedlar.
Alexander Lord Colville of Culross, a distinguished
Admiral of the White, resided there s u b
sequently. He served at Carthagena in 1741, at
Quebec and Louisbourg in the days of Wolfe, and
died at Drumsheugh on the zIst of May, 1770.
His widow, Lady Elizabeth Erskine, daughter of
Alexander Earl of Kellie, resided there for some
years after, together with her brother, the Honourable
Andrew Erskine, an officer of the old 71st,
disbanded in 1763, an eccentric character, who
figures among Kay?s Portraits, and who in
1793 was drowned in the Forth, opposite Caroline
Park. Lady Colville died at Drumsheugh in
the following year, when the house and lands
thereof reverted to her brother-in-law, John Lord
Colville of Culross. And so lately as 1811 the
mansion was occupied by James Erskine, Esq.,.
of Cambus.
Southward of Drumsheugh lay Bearford?s Parks,.
mentioned as ? Terras de Barfurd ? in an Act in.
favour of Lord Newbattle in 1587, named from
Hepburn of Bearford in Haddingtonshire.
In 1767 the Earl of Morton proposed to have a
wooden bridge thrown across the North Loch
from these parks to the foot of Warriston?s Close, but
the magistrates objected, on the plea that the property
at the dose foot was worth A20,ooo. The
proposed bridge was to be on a line with ?the
highest level ground of Robertson?s and Wood?s
Farms.? In the Edinburgh Adnediser for 1783
the magistrates announced that Hallow Fair was
to be ?held in the Middle Bearford?s Park.?
Lord Fountainhall, under dates 1693 and 1695,
records a dispute between Robert Hepburn of
Bearford and the administrators of Heriot?s hospital,
concerning ?the mortified annual rents
acclaimed out of his tenement in Edinburgh, called
the Black Turnpike,? and again in 1710, of an
action he raised against the Duchess of Buccleuch,
in which Sir Robert Hepburn of Bearford,
in I 633, is referred to, all probably of the same family.
The lands and houses of Easter and Wester ... Town.] ? . WOOD?S FARM. 11.5 Lang Dykes; by the old Queensferry Road that I descended into the deep hollow, ...

Book 3  p. 115
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 47
maps of the counties, besides a general one. The work was reprinted in eight
volumes, in 1787.
The success of this work induced Grose to illustrate in a similar manner
“ The Antiquities of Scotland.” This publication, in numbers of four plates
each, commenced in the beginning of 1789, and was finished in 1791, forming
two volumes, with 190 views, and letterpress. Before the plates of the latter
numbers were out of the engraver’s hands, the author “ turned his eyes to Ireland,
who seemed to invite him to her hospitable shore, to save from impending
oblivion her mouldering monuments, and to unite her, as she should ever be,
in closest association with the British Isles. The Captain arrived in Dublin
in May 179 1,’ with the fairest prospect of completing the noblest literaqdesign
attempted in this century.” Such are the words of Dr. Ledwich, to whom
Grose had applied for assistance, and by whom the work was completed, in two
volumes, in 1795. But, while in Dublin, at the house of Mr. Hone, Grose was
suddenly seized with an apoplectic fit, and died, in the fifty-second year of his
age, upon the 12th of May 1791. The following epitaph proposed for him,
was inserted in the St. James’s Chyoniele, May 26 :-
Here lies Francis Grose :
On Thursday, May 12t11, 1791,
Death put an end to
His views and prospects.
Upon occasion of his marriage, Grose took up his residence in Canterbury,
where he remained several years, during which period his wit and vivacity made
him many friends. No one possessed more than himself the faculty of setting
the table “ in a roar,” but it was never at the expense of virtue or good manners.
He left several sons and daughters ; one of the latter married Anketil Singleton,
Esq., Lieut.-Governor of Sandguard Fort. His son, Daniel Grose, F.A.S., Captain
of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, was, after several campaigns in America,
appointed Depute-Governor of the new settlement at Botany Bay, 1790.
Besides the works above noticed, he published-
“ A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons ; illustrated by plates taken
from the original armour in the Tower of London, and other arsenals, museums,
and cabinets.’’ Lond. 1785. 4to. A Supplement was added in 1789.
“A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.” Lond. 1785. ~ V O .
“A Guide to Health, Wealth, Honour, and Riches.” Lond. 1785. Svo.
This is a most amusing collection of advertisements, principally illustrative of
the extreme gullibility of the citizens of London. A very humorous introduction
is prefixed.
“ Military Antiquities, respecting a History of the English Army, from the
Conquest to the Present Time.” 2 vols. Lond. 1786-88. 4to. With numerous
plates. This work was published in numbers.
He was accompanied, for the last three yeara of his travels, by a young man whom he called
his Guinea-pig, and who had caught hie manner of etching. ... SKETCHES. 47 maps of the counties, besides a general one. The work was reprinted in eight volumes, ...

Book 8  p. 64
(Score 0.66)

370 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moultray?s HilL
of the realm have been open to all genuine scholars.
Another result of his tenure of office has been the
publication of a series of documents and works of
the utmost value to students of Scottish historythe
completion of the Acts of Parliament begun
by Thomas Thomson and finished by Cosmo Innes,
the Treasurer?s accounts of the time of Tames IV,,
the Exchequer Rolls, &c.
No person sleeps in any part of the building
generally, the whole being allotted to public purposes
only. In the sunk storey under the dome,
when the house was built, four furnaces were constructed,
from each of which proceeded a flue in a
spiral direction, under the pavement of the dome,
for the purpose of securing the records from damp.
Among other offices under the same roof are the
Privy Seal, the Lord Keeper of which was, in 1879,
the Marquis of Lothian; the signet officer; the
Register of Deeds and Protests ; and the Sasine
Office, in the large central front room up-stairs,
where a numerous staff of clerks are daily at work,
under the Keeper of the General Register and his
five assistant-keepers.
The Register of Sashes, the corner-stone of the
Scottish system of registration, was instituted in
1617. It had, however, been preceded by another
record, called the Secretary?s Register, which existed
for a short period, being instituted in 1599,
but abolished in 1609, and was under the Scottish
Secretary of State, and is thus referred to by
Robertson in his Index of Missing Charters,?
I798 :-
?The Secretary?s Register, as it is called, was
the first attempt to introduce our most useful
record, that of sasines. But having been committed
to the superintendence of the Secretary of
State instead of the Lord Clerk Register, and most
of the books having remained concealed, and
many of them having been lost in consequence of
their not being made transmissible to public
custody, the institution became useless, and was
abolished by Act of Parliament, The Register of
Sxsines in its present form was instituted in the
month of June, 1617.?
In the register of this office the whole land writs
of Scotland are recorded, and the correctness of it
is essential to the validity of title. To it all men
go to ascertain the burdens that affect land, and
the whole of such registration is now concentrated
in Edinburgh. In 1876 the fees of the sasine office
amounted to ~30,000, and theexpensewas AI 7,000,
leaving a profit to the Treasury of &13,000.
In a part of the general register house is the
ofice of the Lyon King-of-arms. , This offiqe is
one of high rank and great antiquity, his station
n Scotland being precisely similar to that of the
;arter King in England; and at the coronation
)f George ,111. the Lord Lyon walked abreast
with the former, immediately preceding the Lord
;reat Chaniberlain, Though heraldry now is little
mown as a science, and acquaintance with it
s, singular to say, not necessary in the Lyon Office,
n feudal times the post of a Scottish herald was
ield of the utmost importance, and the inauguration
3f the king-at-arms was the mimicry of a royal
me, save that the unction was made with wine
nstead of oil.
In ?? The order of combats for life,? ordained by
lames I. of Scotland in the early part of the fifteenth
:entury, the places assigned for the ? King-of-Arms,
Heraulds, and other officers,? are to be settled by
:he Lord High Constable. In 1513 James IV.
jent the Lyon King with his defiance to Henry
VIII., then in France, and the following year he
went to Pans with letters for the Duke of Albany.
kcompanied by two heralds he went to Paris
igain in 1558, to be present at the coronation of
Francis and Mary as King and Queen of Scotland.
Of old, and before the College of Arms was
.econstructed, and the office of Lord Lyon abolished
iy a recent Act of Parliament, it consisted of the
ollowing members ;-
The Lord Lyon King-oFAms.
The Lyon-Depute.
Rothesay. Kintyre.
Marchmont. Dingwall.
Albany. Unicorn.
Ross. Bute.
Snowdon. Carrick.
Islay. Ormond.
Heralds. Pursuivants.
3ix trumpeters ; a Lyon Clerk and Keeper of Records, with
lis deputy; a Procurator Fiscal, hiacer, and Herald
Painter.
According to the ? Montrose Peerage? case in
t 850 there would appear to have been, about 1488,
mother official known as the ?? Montrose Herald,?
Zonnected in some manner with the dukedom of
3ld Montrose.
By Acts of Parliament passed in the reign of
James VI. the Lyon King was to hold two
zourts in the year at Edinburgh-on the 6th of
May and 6th of November. Also, he, with his
heralds, was empowered to take special supervision
of all arms used by nobles and gentlemen,
to matriculate them in their books, and inhibit
such as had no right to heraldic cognisances,
?under the pain of escheating the thing whereupon
the said arms are found to the king, and of one
hundred pounds to the Lyon and his brethren, or
of imprisonment during the Lyon?s pleasure.? , ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moultray?s HilL of the realm have been open to all genuine scholars. Another result ...

Book 2  p. 369
(Score 0.66)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 443
Clerk (Hope) observed-“ I do not know what the intellects of the gentleman
who framed this petition are, or what he conceived ours to be ; and I do not
know what his candour may be, or what he expects ours to be, when he states
that the second condescendence was not appointed in terms of the act of sederunt.”
On another occasion, in 1812, his lordship (then Lord President) farther said
-“Mr. Hagart has here, as is his usual practice, stated facts and circumstances
of which there is no evidence on the record, and which live in the memory and
recollection of that gentleman alone, Mr. Hagart has conducted this case, ccs he
does all others he is concerned in, diferently from all counsel at the bar.”l Mr.
Hagart attempted to address the Court, but was interrupted by the Lord
President, n-ho stated that “he had conversed with his brethren on the subject
in the robing-room, and the opinion he had delivered was that of the whole
Court.” Again, in 1815, in reference to a written pleading by Mr. Hagart,
his lordship observed-‘‘ I have never seen such low wit, vulgar abuse, scurrility,
and buffoonery as in these answers. It is painful to think the bar of Scotland
has furnished a man capable of writing such a paper.”
The Lord President refused to explain or retract his expressions in any
manner whatever. In answer to a letter from Mr. Hagar tin 1809, his lordship
remarked, “that he did not conceive himself bound to give any kind of private
explanation for what he might say on the bench ; not that he wished to arrogate
to himself an exemption from responsibility. On the contrary, he knew that
he was responsible, and trusted that he would always act under that conviction ;
but itswas a legal and public responsibility only to which he would submit.”
The action of damages was founded on the plea that the passages quoted
were “ destructive of the pursuer’s peace of mind-his professional reputation
-and even his moral character in public estimation ; and as he was prepared
to show that they were wholly undeserved, the legal inference was, that the
defender must have been actuated by a malicious motive.” In this proposition
the Lord Ordinary (Pitmilly) did not coincide. On the 5th of March 1816 he
finally affirmed his original interlocutor, finding that an action of damages was
incompetent, and that the allegation of private malice was unfounded.
At this stage of the procedure the pursuer died suddenly; but, in a trustdisposition
found in one of his repositories, his trustees-Hope Stewart, Esq.
of Ballechin, James Miller, Esq., younger of Milton, and George Steel, at Ruffel
-were strictly enjoined to proceed with the action. Accordingly, after going
through the necessary forms of law consequent on the pursuer’s demise, the cause
was brought before the whole Court; and in 1819 judgment was unanimously
given against the trustees, An appeal was now made to the House of Peers ;
and the cause was there finally settled on the 1st April 1824, their lordships
affirming the interlocutors of the Court of Session, and awarding S200 costs.
This probably alludes to Mr. Hagart’s having, as wag alleged, frequently acted in the capacity
of agent and lawyer at the same time. ... SKETCHES. 443 Clerk (Hope) observed-“ I do not know what the intellects of the gentleman who ...

Book 9  p. 592
(Score 0.66)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
countries of Europe. The “Theory of Moral Sentiments” appeared in 1’759,
and the same volume contained a dissertation on the origin of languages, and
on the different genius 6f those which are original and compounded. Towards
the end of 1763, he received an invitation from the Right Hon. Charles Townshend,
to accompany Henry Duke of Buccleuch on his travels, and the
liberal terms of the proposal made, added to the strong desire he had felt of
visiting the Continent of Europe, induced him to resign his Professorship at
Glasgow. Before he left that city, he requested all his pupils to attend him,
and as each name was called over he returned the several sums he had received
as fees, saying, that as he had not completely fulfilled his enga,ment, he was
resolved his class should be instructed that year gratis, and the remainder of
his lectures should be read by one of the senior students.
After leaving Glasgow, be joined the Duke at London early in 1764, and
set out for Paris in the month of March. In this first visit to Paris they only
spent ten or twelve days, and then proceeded to Toulouse, where they k e d
their residence : they next undertook a pretty extensive tour through the south
of France, to Geneva, and about Christmas 1765, revisited Paris, where they
resided till October 1766, when the Duke returned to London.
For the next ten years Dr. Smith lived chiefly with his mother in Kirkcaldy,
and his time was entirely occupied by his studies. In the beginning of 1’1’16,
he gave to the world the result of his labour, by the publication of his “ Inquiry
into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.” About two years
after the appearance of this work, he was appointed one of the Commissioners
of his Majesty’s Customs in Scotland, a preferment bestowed upon him
through the interest of the Duke of Buccleuch. When he obtained this appointment
he‘offered to resign the annuity of $300 per annum, which had beeli
granted him for superintending the Duke’s education and travels, an offer which
was immediately declined. The greater part of the two years preceding his
appointment he lived in London in a society too extensive and varied to afford
him any opportunity of indulging his taste for study, although much of it was
spent with some of the most distinguished literary characters, as may be seen by
the following verses by Dr. k n a r d , addressed to Sir Joshua Reynolds and his
friends :- ‘‘ If I have thoughts and can’t express ’em,
Gibbon shall teach me how to dress ’em,
In words select and terse ;
Jones teach me modesty and Greek,
Smith how to think, Burke how to speak,
And Eendire to converse.”
In 1778, Dr. Smith removed to Edinburgh, with the view of attending to
the duties of his new office, where he passed the last twelve years of his life, enjoying
an affluence more than equal to all his wants. He now and then revisited
London, The last time he was there, he had engaged to dine with Lord Melville,
then Mr. Dundas, at Wimbledon ; Mr. Pitt, Mr. Grenville, Mr. Addington,
afterwards Lord Sidmouth, and some other of his lordship’s friends were there. ... SKETCHES. countries of Europe. The “Theory of Moral Sentiments” appeared in 1’759, and the ...

Book 8  p. 106
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 241
enrolled as privates, no unfrequent occurrence to find barristers pleading in
the Parliament House, attired in warlike guise, with their gowns hastily thrown
over their red coats. A short time afterwards the corps was somewhat unceremoniously
disbanded.
MR. ARCHIBALD GILCHRIST, whose well-proportioned figure has been
so aptly selected by the artist as a specimen of the Edinburgh Volunteers, is
represented in the old or blue uniform, having been an original member of the
corps. His father, who was a native of Lanarkshire, came to Edinburgh about
the middle of last century, and commenced business as a haberdasher in a “land”
at the back of the Old City Guard. His shop, or warehouse, was one stair up,
and on the same flat with that of Mr. John Neil, also a haberdasher. These
establishments were at that time the only two of the kind of any extent in the
city. Mr. Gilchrist having assumed as partners two of his nephews of the name
of Mackinlay, the business was subsequently carried on under the designation
of Archibald Gilchrist and Co.’
Shortly after the death of his father, the firm being dissolved, Mr. Archibald
Gilchrist opened a new establishment on the South Bridge, about 1785, when
he became ‘‘ Haberdasher to the Prince of Wales ;” and in accordance with the
prosperity of the times, carried on a more fashionable and extensive business
than had previously been attempted in Edinburgh. He subsequently removed
to that shop in the High Street, at the corner of Hunter Square-which
property he purchased in 1792. Mr. Gilchrist was in every respect a
worthy citizen-eminent as a trader-and highly esteemed both in public
and private life. He was elected a member of the Town Council in 1796, held
the office of Treasurer in 1797-8, and was chosen one of the Magistrates in
1801.
In person he was remarkably handsome, and always exhibited the nicest
attention to neatness and propriety in his dress. He was social in dispositionfree
without levity ; and, although by no means given to indulgence, possessed
so much of the civic taste attributed to a past era, as to make him a very suitable
participator in the luxuries of a civic banquet. Indeed, prior to the introduction
of the present “ baw-bone ” system, the science of good eating is allowed to have
been admirably understood by the corporation. It is told of Mr. Gilchrist, that
while engaged on one occasion with his brother‘ councillors in discussing the
dishes of a well-replenished table, and observing the last cut of a superior
haunch of venison just in the act of being appropriated by the dexterous hand
of the town-clerk-‘‘ Hold,” cried he, willing to test the oflcid estimate of the
precious morsel, “ I’ll give ye half-a-crown for the plate.” ‘‘ Done,” said Mr.
Gray, at the same time making the transfer-“down with your money.” Mr.
Gilchrist at once tabled the amount, and thus had his joke and his venison.
1 Lord Provost Spittal was for many years in this establiihment. * It i R in allusion to this that the artiit has placed the Prince of Wales’ coronet at the foot of the
eqmving.
2 1 ... SKETCHES. 241 enrolled as privates, no unfrequent occurrence to find barristers pleading in the ...

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 31
June 1791. Mr. William Graham is still alive (July 1836), being eighty-one
years of age. He resides in Leicestershire, where he is deservedly held in high
estimation,
Dr. James Graham, after having finished his studies in Edinburgh, went to
England, and began business in Pontefract, where, in the year 1770, he married
Miss Mary Pickering, daughter of a gentleman of that place, by whom he had
a son and two daughters. His eldest daughter was married to the late Mr.
Stirling, minister of Dunblane, a very accomplished lady, who is still alive (1837).
The other daughter died in the apartments of the Observatory on the Calton
Hill, of consumption, about four years before her father.
After residing some time in England, Dr. Graham went to America, where he
figured as a philanthropic physician, travelling for the benefit of mankind, to
administer relief, in the most desperate diseases, to patients whose cases had
hitherto puzzled the ordinary practitioners. Having the advantage of a good
person, polite address, and agreeable conversation, he got into the first circles,
particularly in New England, where he made a great deal of money. He
then returned to Britain; and, after making an excursion through England,
during which, accordiiig to his own account, he was eminently successful in
curing many individuals whose cases had been considered desperate, he visited
Scotland, and was employed by people of the first quality, who were tempted
to put themselves under his care by the fascination of his manner and the fame
of his wondrous cures. So popular was he, that he might have settled in Edinburgh,
to great advantage, but he preferred returning to England. He fixed
his abode in the metropolis, where he set on foot one of the most original and
extravagant institutions that could well be figured, the object of which was for
“ preventing barrenness, and propagating a much more strong, beautiful, active,
healthy, wise, and virtuous race of human beings, than the present puny, insignificant,
foolish, peevish, vicious, and nonsensical race of Christians, who quarrel,
fight, bite, devour, and cut one another’s throats about they know not what.”l
The “ Temple of Health,” as he was pleased to term it, was an establishment
of a very extraordinary description, and one in which all the exertions of
the painter and statuary-all the enchantments of vocal and instrumental music
-all powers of electricity and magnetism, were called into operation to enliven
and heighten the scene. In a word, all that could delight the eye or ravish the
ear-all that could please the smell, give poignancy to the taste, or gratify the
touch, were combined to give effect to his scheme-at least such was his own
account.
Of his numerous puffs on the subject, one may be selected by way of a
specimen :-
“TEMPLE OF HEALTH AND HYMEN, PALL-MALL, NEAR THE KING’S PALACE.
“ If there be one human being, rich or poor, male, female, or of the doubtful
gender, in or near this great metropolis of the world, who has not had the
Such are the ipsia8im eerba of one of the Doctor’s advertisements. ... SKETCHES. 31 June 1791. Mr. William Graham is still alive (July 1836), being eighty-one years of ...

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. I41
Having abandoned all thoughts of the clerical profession, LESLIEw ent over
to Virginia, as tutor to the Messrs. Randolph, with whom he spent upwards of
a year in America. He next proceeded to London, having introductory letters
fromDr. Smith, where he proposed delivering lectures on Natural Philosophy ;
but in this he was disappointed. His first literary employment was on the
notes to a new edition of the Bible, then in course of publication by his friend
Dr. William Thomson, with whom he had become acquainted at St Andrews.
He next entered into an engagement with Murray the bookseller, to translate
Buffon’s Natural History of Birds, which was published in 1793, in nine
volumes octavo. He subsequently visited Holland; and, in 1796, proceeded on
a tour through Switzerland and Germany with Mr. Thomas Wedgwood. On
returning to Scotland, he stood candidate for a chair, first in the University of
St. Andrews, and afterwards in that of Glasgow ; but was unsuccessful in both
attempts. In 1799 he again went abroad, making the tour of Norway and
Sweden, in company with Mr. Robert Gordon, whose friendship he had acquired
at St. Andrews. I
The first fruits of Mr. Leslie’s genius for physical inquiry appeared prior to
the year 1800, by the production of his celebrated Dijercntial Themader,
which has been described as one of the “ most beautiful and delicate instruments
that inductive genius ever contrived as a help to experimental inquiry.” This
was followed, in 1804, by his well known “Essay on the Natare and Propagation
of Heat,” which was written while residing with his brothers at Largo,
where the experimental discoveries were made for which the treatise is so much
distinguished. The Essay immediately attracted the notice of the Royal
Society, by the council of which the Rumford medals were unanimously awarded
to him.
In 1806, the Mathematical chair in the University of Edinburgh having
become vacant by the translation of Professor Playfair to the chair of Natural
Philosophy, Mr. Leslie came forward as a candidate. He was opposed by Dr.
Thomas M‘Knight, one of the ministers of the city. In addition to the fame of
his recent discoveries, Mr. Leslie was warmly recommended to the Town Council
and Magistrates by testimonials from the most scientific and able men of the day.
Vigorous opposition, however, was made to his election by most of the city
clergy-who accused him of infidelity1-and they insisted on their right to be
consulted in the choice of Professors, according to the original charter of the
College. They protested against the proceedings of the Council ; and subsequently-
on the 22d May-brought the affair before the General Assembly.
The leaders in this opposition were of the moderate party, while the cause of
Mr. Leslie was as warmly espoused by those usually to be found on the opposite
side. The case created great excitement, Satisfactory testimonials were produced,
as well as one of Mr. Leslie’s own letters, confirmatory of his orthodox
principles. The debat-in which the Rev. Sir Henry MoncreifF was one of the
The accusation of infidelity rested on a note in the “ Essay on the Natnre and Propagation of
Heat,’’ in which Mr..Leslie took occasion to refer to Hume’s ‘‘Essay on N e w Connection.” ... SKETCHES. I41 Having abandoned all thoughts of the clerical profession, LESLIEw ent over to ...

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50 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood.
Wllliam, who had property in Broughton, after his
death, none bore even nominally the title of abbot.
A part of the lands fill to the Earl of Roxburghe,
from whom the superiority passed, as narrated
elsewhere.
The ?Chronicon Sancta Crucis? was commenced
by the canons of Holyrood, but the portion that
has been preserved comes down only to 1163,
and breaks off at the time of their third abbot.
?Even the Indices Sanctorum and the ? two
Calendars of Benefactors and Brethren, begun from
the earliest times, and continued by the care of
numerous monks,? may-when allowance is made
for the magniloquent style of the recorder-man
nothing more than the united calendar, martyrology,
and ritual book, which is fortunately still
preserved. It is a large folio volume of 132 leaves
of thick vellum, in oak boards covered with stamped
leather, which resembles the binding of the sixteenth
century.? .
The extent of the ancient possessions of this
great abbey may be gathered from the charters
and gifts in the valuable Munim-nta Ecdesicp San&
Cmcis de Edwinesburg and the series of Sent
Rollr. To enumerate the vestments, ornaments,
jewels, relics, and altar vessels of gold and silver
set with precious stones, would far exceed our
limits, but they are to be found at length in the
second volume of the ? Bannatyne Miscellany.?
When the monastery was dissolved at the Reformation
its revenues were great, and according to the
two first historians of Edinburgh its annual income
then was stated as follows :
By Maitland : In wheat. 27 chaldea, 10 bolls.
I) In bear ... 40 .. g ..
I t Inoa ts... 34 .. 15 .. 3tpecks.
501 capons, 24 hens, 24 salmon, 12 loads of salt, and an
unknown number of swine. In money, &926 8s. 6d.
Scots.
By Arnot : In wheat ............ 442 bolls. .. ............. In bear 640 ss .. In oats .............. 560 .. with the same amount in other kind, and.&o sterling.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOLYROOD ABBEY (concluded).
Charter of Willim 1.-Trial of the Scottish Tcmplars-Prrndergast?s Rercnpe--chanas by ROM IL and 111.-The Lord of the Isles-
Coronation of James 11.-Marriages of James I[. and III.-Church, Bc. Burned by the Englih-Ph&d by them-Its Restoration
by James VU.-The Royal Vault-Desaiption of the Chapel Royal-Plundered at the Revolution-Ruined in x*-The West Front-
The Belhavcn Mouument-The Churchyard-Extent of Present Ruin-The Sanctuary-The Abbey Bells.
.KING WILLIAM THE LION, in a charter under his
:great seal, granted between the years 1171 and
1r77, ddressed to ?all the good men of his whole
kingdom, French, English, Scots, and Galwegians,?
confirmed the monks of Holyrood in all that had
been given them by his grandfather, King David,
together with many other gifts, including the pasture
of a thousand sheep in Rumanach (Romanno?),
-a document witnessed in the castle, ?apud
&densehch. ?
In 1309, when Elias 11. was abbot, there
occurred an interesting event at Holyrood, of
which no notice has yet been taken in any,history
of Scotland-the trial of the Scottish Knights of the
Temple on the usual charges niade against the
erder, aftet the terrible murmurs that rose against it
in Paris, London, and elsewhere, in consequence
-of its alleged secret infidelity, sorcery, and other
vices.
According to the Processus factus contra Tem-
.#arias in Scofict, in Wilkins? Concilia,? a work of
great price and rarity, it was in the month of
December, 1309-when the south of ScotIand was
averrun by the English, Irish, Welsh, and Norman
troops of Edward II., and John of Bretagne, Earl
of Richmond, was arrogantly called lieutenant of
the kingdom, though Robert Bruce, succeeding to
the power and popularity of Wallace, was in arms
in the north-that Master John de Soleure, otherwise
styled of Solerio, ?chaplain to our lord the
Pope,? together with William Lamberton, Bishop of
St. Andrews, met at the Abbey of Holyrood ?for
the trial of the Templars, and two brethren of that
order undernamed, the only persons of the order
present in the kingdom of Scotland, by command
of our most holy lord Clement V.? Some curious
light is thrown upon the inner life of the order by
this trial, which it is impossible to give at full
length.
In the first place appeared Brother Walter of
Clifton, who, being sworn on the Gospels, replied
that he had belonged to the military order of the
Temple for ten years, since the last feast of All
Saints, and had been received into it at Temple
Bruer, at Lincoln, in England, by Brother William
de la More (whom Raynouard, in his work on the
order, calls a Scotsman), and that the Scottish
brother knights received the statutes and observ ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood. Wllliam, who had property in Broughton, after his death, none bore even ...

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 409
believe him guilty of such an absurdity; for, with all his preciseness in
matters of duty, and his sensitive notions of etiquette, he entertained a much
greater dread of rendering himself unbecomingly conspicuous, than of any
ridicule that could possibly arise from an oversight in the punctilio of dress.
He was particularly kind
and attentive to such young persons as appeared bashful ; and, that they might
feel more at ease, lost no opportunity of engaging them in conversation.
Lord Napier married Maria-Margaret, eldest daughter of Lieut.-General Sir
William Clavering, K.B. By this marriage his lordship had nine children.
He died in 1823: and was succeeded by his eldest son, William-John eighth
Lord Napierl-a spirited and benevolent nobleman, long eminent in the south
of Scotland as an improver in store-farming, and as a benefactor of the Forest.
He died in his forty-eighth year, at Macao, in China, October 11, 1834, of a
lingering fever, brought on by anxiety in the performance of a high official duty,
as Chief Superintendent of British Trade in that empire, and which was increased
by the harsh treatment he received from the Chinese government.
In company his lordship was far from reserved,
The figure to the right of Lord Napier is an excellent likeness of
old MAJOR PILMER. He was a native of Fifeshire, and commenced his
military life as an ensign in the 21st Regiment of Foot. He had seen a great
deal of service, and served along with Lord Napier during the war in America,
where he was wounded. He retired from the army on the half-pay of a Captain,
and resided in the neighbourhood of Cupar-Fife, where he had at one period
a small estate; but which, it is believed, was entirely dissipated while he
was abroad, His appointment in the Hopetoun Fencibles, by which his
half-pay was relinquished for the full pay of a Major, was obtained through the
influence of Lord Napier.
There was something rather remarkable in the appearance of Old Pilmer.
His regimentals were none of the newest, and his boots-which the artist has
hit off with great precision-were of a curious and antique description. They
had been so often mended and re-mended, that it is questionable whether, like
Sir John Cutler's stockings, any portion of the original remained, While
stationed at Aberdeen, along with the Rutland Fencible Cavalry, the officers of
that corps used to amuse themselves occasionally at the expense of Major Pilmer
and his boots j and Pilmer at last became a standard and expressive appellation
amongst them. " You have got your PiZmers on to-day ! " was a common remark
to any one whose boots were a little the worse for wear.
The Major, who was L worthy old soldier, relished his bottle and a joke at
table, and did not feel at all out of humour at the allusions to his Pilrners.
The third figure represents MAJOR CLARKSON, another veteran. He
at one time possessed the estate of Blackburn, in Linlithgowshire. He entered
1 Captain Charles Napier, R.N., who lately distinguished himself in the service of the Queen of
3 6
Portugal, and the late Lord Napier were cousins. ... SKETCHES. 409 believe him guilty of such an absurdity; for, with all his preciseness in matters of ...

Book 8  p. 568
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 405
until regularly exchanged, which was effected in 1780. Lord Kapier subsequently
held commissions in several corps, and had attained the majority of the
4th Regiment, when, in 1789, in consequence of the peace, he sold out and retired
from the army.
On the 16th September of the same year, Lord Napier, as Grand Master
Mason of Scotland, had the honour of laying the foundation-stone of the College
of Edinburgh. The following was the order of the procession :-
“ TheLord Provost,l Magistrates and Council, in their robes, with the City Regalia carried before them.
The Principal a and Professors of the University, in their gowns, with the mace carried before them.
The Students, with green laurel in their hats.
A Band of Singers, conducted by Mr. Schetkey.
The different Lodges of Free and Accepted Masons, with their proper insignia, etc.
A Band of Instrumental Music. ”
The procession, in which there were many of the nobility and gentry of Scotland,
proceeded from the Parliament House, down the High Street, and along
the South Bridge. The streets were lined by a party of the 35th Regiment and
the City Guard. The procession began to move at half-past twelve, and reached
the site of the College at one o’clock.
The Grand Master, standing on the east, with the Substitute on his right
hand, and the Grand Wardens on the west, having applied the square and level
to the stone, and, after three knocks with the mallet, invoked the blessing of
the “ Great Architect of the Universe” on the foundation-stone, three cheers
were given by the brethren.
The cornucopia and two silver vessels were then brought from the table and
delivered-the cornucopia to the Substitute, and the two vessels to the Wardens
-and were successively presented to the Grand Master, who, according to an
ancient ceremony, poured the corn, the wine, and the oil which they contained
on the stone, saying-
‘‘ May the all-bounteous Author of Nature bless this city with abundance of corn, wine, and oil,
and with all the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of life‘; and may the same Almighty power
preserve this city from ruin and decay to the latest posterity.”
On this the brethren gave three cheers ; and the Grand Master addressed
himself to the Lord Provost and Magistrates, and to the Principal, as representing
the University, in very eloquent speeches, to which the Lord Provost and
the Reverend Principal made suitable replies.
Two crystal bottles, cast on purpose at the Glass-House of Leith, were
deposited in the foundation-stone. In one of these were put different coins of
the regnal year, previously enveloped in crystal. In the other bottle were
deposited seven rolls of vellum, containing a short account of the original foundation
and present state of the University. The bottles, being carefully sealed
UP, were covered with a plate of copper wrapt in block-tin ; and upon the under
side of the copper were engraven the arms of the city of Edinburgh, of the
1 Thomas Elder, Esq., of Forneth. a Dr. Robertson, the historian. ... SKETCHES. 405 until regularly exchanged, which was effected in 1780. Lord Kapier subsequently held ...

Book 8  p. 564
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18
secure lock was placed upon it for the same purpose.
In 1647 only three open thoroughfares are shown
OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. r.,anongate.
1695, he early exhibited great talent with profound
legal knowledge, and the mere enumeration of his I
but there once stood on its eastern side a stately
ald tenement, bearing the date 1614 with this pious
legend: I. TAKE. THE. LORD. JESUS. AS. MY. ONLV.
ALL. SUFFICIENT. P~RTION. TO. CONTENT. ME. This
was cut in massive Roman letters, and the house
was adorned by handsome dormer windows and
moulded stringcourses; but of the person who dwelt
therein no memory remains. And the same must
be said of the edifices in the closes called Morocco
and Logan?s, and several others.
Between these two lies Rae?s Close, .very dark and
narrow, leading only to a house with a back green,
beyond which can be seen the Calton Hill. In
the sixteenth century this alley was the only open
thoroughfare to the north between Leith Wynd
?
Kinloch?s mansion and that which adjoined itthe
abode of the Earls of Angus-were pulled
down about 1760, when New Street was built, ?a
curious sample of fashionable modem improvement,
prior to the bold scheme of the New Town,?
and first called Young Street, according to Kincaid.
Though sorely faded and decayed, it still presents
a series of semi-aristocratic, detached, and not indigent
mansions of the plain form peculiar to the
time. Among its inhabitants were Lords Kames
and Railes, Sir Philip Ainslie, the Lady Betty
Anstruther, Christian Rarnsay daughter of the poet,
Dr. Young the eminent physician, and others,
Henry Home, Lord Kames, who was raised
to the bench in 1752, occupied a self-contained
to the north-one the Tolbooth Wynd-and all are
closed by arched gates in a wall bounding the
Canongate on the north, and lying parallel with a
long watercourse flowing away towards Craigentinnie,
and still extant.
Kinloch?s Close, described in 1856 as ?short,
dark, and horrible,? took its name from Henry
Kinloch, a wealthy burgess of the? Canongate in
the days of Queen Mary, who committed to his
hospitality, in 1565, when she is said to have
acceded to the League of Bayonne, the French
. ambassadors M. de Rambouillet and Clernau,
who came on a mission from the Court of France.
Their ostensible visit, however, was more probably
to invest Darnley with the order of St. Michael.
They had come through England with a train of
thirty-six mounted gentlemen. After presenting
themselves before the king and queen at Holyrood,
according to the ?? Diurnal of Occurrent$,?
they ?there after depairtit to Heny Kynloches
lugeing in the Cannogait besyid Edinburgh.?
A few days after Darnley was solemnly invested
with the collar of St. Michael in the abbey church;
and on the I rth of February the ambassadors were
banqueted, and a masked ball y.as given, when
? the Queenis Grace and all her Manes and ladies
were cZed in men?s appardy and each of them presented
a sword, ? brawlie and maist artificiallie
made a d embroiderit with gold, to the said ambassatour
and his gentlemen.? Next day they were
banqueted in the castle by the Earl of Mar, and
on the? next ensuing they took their departure for
France vid England.
works on law and history would fill a large page.
He was of a playful disposition, and fond of practical
jokes; but during the latter part oc his life
he entertained a nervous dread that he would outlive
his noble faculties, and was pleased to find
that by the rapid decay of his frame he would
escape that dire calamity; and he died, after a brief
illness, in 1782, in the eighty-seventh year of his
age. The great Dr. Hunter, of ?the Tron church,
afterwards lived and died in this house.
Lord Hailes, to whom we have referred elsewhere,
resided during his latter years in New
Street; but prior to his promotion to the?bench
he generally lived at New Hailes. His house,
No. 23, was latterly possessed by Mr. Ruthven, the
ingenious improver of the Ruthven printing-press.
Christian Ramsay, the daughter of ?honest
Allan,? and so named from her mother, Christian
Ross,?lived for many years in New Street, She
was an amiable and kind-hearted woman, and
possessed something of her fatheis gift of verse.
In her seventy-fourth year she was thrown down
by a hackney-coach and had her leg broken ; yet
she recovered, and lived to be eighty-eight. Leading
a solitary life, she took a great fancy to cats,
and besides supporting many in her house, cosily
disposed of in bandboxes, she laid out food for
others around her house. ?Not a word of obloquy
would she listen to against the species,? says the
author of ? Traditions of Edinburgh,? ?? alleging,
when any wickedness of a cat was spoken 05 that
the animal must have acted under provocation,
for by nature, she asserted, they were hapless ... lock was placed upon it for the same purpose. In 1647 only three open thoroughfares are shown OLD AND ...

Book 3  p. 17
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Gnonpnte.] JVHN PATERSON. I1
The latter is an anagram on the name of ?John
Paterson,? while the quatrain was the production
of Dr. Pitcairn, and is referred to in the first
volume of Gilbert Stuart?s Edinburgh Magazine
andRevim for 1774, and may be rendered thus:
--?In the year when Paterson won the prize in
golfing, a game peculiar to the Scots (in which his
ancestors had nine times won the same honour), he
then raised this mansion, a victory more honourable
than all the rest.?
According to tradition, two English nobles at
Holyrood had a discussion with the royal duke
as to the native country of golf, which he was
frequently in the habit of playing on the Links of
Leith with the Duke of Lauderdale and others,
and which the two strangers insisted to be an
English game as well, No evidence of this being
forthcoming, while many Scottish Parliamentary
edicts, some as old as the days of James II., in
1457, could be quoted concerning the said game,
the Englishmen, who both vaunted their expertness,
offered to test the legitimacy of their pretensions
on the result of a match to be played by them
against His Royal Highness and any other .Scotsman
he chose to select. After careful inquiry he
chose a man named John Paterson, a poor shoemaker
in the Canongate, but the worthy descendant
of a long line of illustrious golfers, and the association
will by no means surprise, even in the present
age, those who practise the game in the true old
Scottish spirit The strangers were ignominiously
beaten, and the heir to the throne had the best of
this practical argument, while Paterson?s merits
were rewarded by the stake played for, and he
built the house now standing in the Canongate.
On its summit he placed the Paterson arms-three
pelicans vuZned; on a chief three mullets ; crest,
a dexter-hand grasping a golf club, with the wellold
and well-known tradition, Chambers says, ?it
must be admitted there is some uncertainty. The
house, the arms, and the inscriptions only indicate
that Paterson built the house after being victor at
golf, and that Pitcairn had a hand in decorating it.??
In this doubt Wilson goes further, and believes
that the Golfers? Land was Zmt, not won, by the
gambling propensities of its owner. It was acquired
by Nicol Paterson in 1609, a maltman in Leith,
and from him it passed, in 1632, to his son John
(and Agnes Lyel, his spouse), who died 23rd April,
1663, as appears by the epitaph upon his tomb in
the churchyard of Holyrood, which was extant in
Maitland?s time, and the strange epitaph on which
is given at length by Monteith. He would appear
to have been many times Bailie of the Canongate.
known mOttO-FAR AND SURE. Concerning this
Both Nicol and John, it may be inferred from the
inscriptions on the ancient edifice, were able and
successful golfers. The style of the bNilding, says
Wilson, confirms the idea that it had been rebuilt
by him ?with the spoils, as we are bound to
presume, which he won on Leith Links, from ?OUT
auld enemies of England.? The title-deeds, however,
render it probable that other stakes had been
played for with less success. In 1691 he grants
a bond over the property for A400 Scots. This is
followed by letters of caption and hornhg, and
other direful symptoms of legal assault, which
pursue the poor golfer to his grave, and remain
behind as his sole legacy to his heirs.?
The whole tradition, however, is too serious to
be entirely overlooked, but may be taken by the
reader ?or what it seems worth.
Bailie Paterson?s successor in the old mansion
was John, second Lord Bellenden of Broughton
and Auchnoule, Heritable Vsher of the Exchequer,
who married Mary, Countess Dowager of Dalhousie,
and daughter of the Earl of Drogheda. Therein
he died in 1704, and was buried in the Abbey
Church ; and as the Union speedily followed, like
other tenements so long occupied by the old
courtiers in this quarter, the Golfers? Land became,
as we find it now, the abode of plebeians.
Immediately adjoining the Abbey Court-house
was an old, dilapidated, and gable-ended mansion
of no great height, but of considerable extent,
which was long indicated by oral tradition as the
abode of David Rizzio. It has now given place
to buildings connected with the Free Church of
Scotland. Opposite these still remain some of
the older tenements of this once patrician burgh,
distinguishable by their lofty windows filled in with
small square panes of glass ; and on the south side
of the street, at its very eastern end, a series of
pointed arches along the walls of the Sanctuary
Court-house, alone remain to indicate the venerable
Gothic porch and gate-house of the once famous,
Abbey of Holyrood, beneath which all that was
great and good, and much that was ignoble and
bad have passed and repassed in the days that are
no more.
. This edifice, of which views from the east and
west are still preserved, is supposed to have been
the work of ?the good-Abbot Ballantyne,? who
rebuilt the north side of the church in 1490, and
to whom we shall have occasion to refer elsewhere.
His own mansion, or lodging, stood here on the
north side of the street, and the remains of it,
together With the porch, were recklessly destroyed
and removed by the Hereditary Keeper of the
Palace in 1753. ... JVHN PATERSON. I1 The latter is an anagram on the name of ?John Paterson,? while the quatrain was the ...

Book 3  p. 11
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 207
strength of mind, as well as one of the best hearts and keenest wits that I have
ever met with,” etc.-Burns’ Vorh, Letter 56.
Mr. Smellie was one of the principal writers in the Edinburgh Magazine and
Review-a work which commenced in 1773, and was conducted for some years
with great spirit and much display of talent. It would assuredly have
succeeded, had its management been committed entirely to the calm, judicious,
and conciliatory control of Mr. Smellie. But owing to the harsh irritability of
temper, and the severe and almost indiscriminate satire, in which Dr. Gilbert
Stuart, the principal editor, indulged, several of the reviews which appeared in
that periodical gave great offence to many leading characters of the day ; the
consequence of which was such a diminution in the sale of the work as to render
it necessary to discontinue it altogether. This took place in August 1776,
after the publication of forty-seven numbers, forming five octavo volumes. Had
the work been only conducted upon the principles developed in the prospectus,
it would have had few rivals and fewer superiors.
Mr. Smellie was likewise editor of the first edition of the EncycZopmdia
Britannica, three volumes, quarto, 1771. The whole plan was arranged, and
all the principal articles were written or compiled by him. He also wrote a great
number of pamphlets on various subjects, among which may be particularised
his Address on thz Nature, Pouiers, and Privileges of Juiies, published in 1784.
It is an admirable treatise, and ought to be carefully studied by every true
friend to the Constitution, especially by such as have occasion to act as
jurymen. It may be remarked that this pamphlet inculcated those doctrines
which have been since recognised as English law in Mr. Fox’s celebrated Bill
on the subject of libels. The late Honourable Thomas Erskine (afterwards
Lord Chancellor), in his defence of the Dean of St. Asaph for a libel, paid Mr.
Smellie a very high compliment for this defence of the rights of juries.
Such was the high character of Mr. Smellie as an author, that when the first
volume of his Philosophy of Natural History was announced as preparing for
the press, the late Mr. C. Elliot made him an offer of one thousand guineas
for the copyright, and fifty guineas for every subsequent edition, besides the
employment of printing it. This was the largest sum ever previously given,
at least in Edinburgh, for the literary property of a single quarto volume of
similar extent, and evinced both the liberality of the bookseller and the
high estimation in which the fame and talents of the author were held.
It was, besides, an odd volume, being the first of the work. It is remarkable
that this bargain was finally concluded before a single page of the book was
written.
In his translation of Buffon (9 volumes 8vo), Mr. Smellie introduced many
original notes, observations, and illustrations of great importanoe, pointing out
particular passages and opinions in which he differed from his author, and
furnishing many new facts and reasonings. The Count de Buffon, as appears
from his own letters to Mr. Smellie on the occasion, was highly pleased with
this translation, of which a considerable number of editions were published. ... SKETCHES. 207 strength of mind, as well as one of the best hearts and keenest wits that I have ever ...

Book 8  p. 292
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 5s
deliver in the public hall the usual academical exercise prescribed prior to ordination
as a clergyman of the Scottish Establishment. At this point he stopped,
and relinquished the profession of divinity altogether ; the sequel will sufficiently
explain his motives for this change. Its immediate consequence was his retreat
from Edinburgh to Dunse. Here he engaged himself as usher to the school
which he had lately quitted ; and in this capacity he officiated a whole year, in
the course of which one of the classes in the High School at Edinburgh
becoming vacant, Brown appeared as a candidate, but proved unsuccessful.
When Brown renounced divinity, he turned his thoughts to the study of
medicine ; and in order to defray the necessary expense attendant upon this
new pursuit, he became what in college parlance is termed a “grinder,” or
preparer of Latin translations of the inaugural dissertations which medical
students are bound to publish before taking their degree as Doctors in Medicine.
His attention was first directed to this employment by accident. Application
being made to one of his friends to procure a person sufhiently qualified to
turn an essay of this kind into tolerable Latin, Brown was recommended, and
performed the task in a manner that exceeded the expectations both of the
friend and the candidate. When it was observed how much he had excelled
the ordinary style of such compositions, he said he had now discovered his
strength, and was ambitious of riding in his own carriage as a physician. This
occurred towards the close of 1759.
Brown next turned his attention to the establishment of a boarding-house
for students, a resource which would enable him to maintain a family. His
reputation for various attainments was, he thought, likely to draw round him a
number sufficient to fill a large house. With this prospect he married in 1765
Miss Euphemia Lamont, daughter of Mr. John Lamont, merchant in Edinburgh,
by whom he had twelve children. His wccess answered his expectations, and
his house was soon filled with respectable boarders ; but he lived too splendidly
for his income ; and it is said that he managed so ill, that in two or three years
he became bankrupt. Towards the end of 1770, he was miserably reduced in
circumstances, but he nevertheless continued to maintain his original independence
of character. He seemed to be happy in his family ; and, as far as could
be observed, acquitted himself affectionately both as a husbhd and a parent.
He still attended the medical classes, which, according to his own account, he
had done for ten or eleven years.
From the celebrated Cullen he early received the most flattering marks of
attention. This speculatist, like Boerhaave, and other men of genius in the same
station, was accustomed to watch the fluctuating body of students with a vigilant
eye, and to seek the acquaintance of the most promising. Brown’s intimate
and classical knowledge of the Latin language served him as a peculiar
recommendation ; and his circumstances might induce Cullen to believe that
he could render this talent permanently useful to himself. Taking, therefore,
its possessor under his immediate patronage, he gave him employment as a
private instructor in his own family, and spared no pains in recommending ... SKETCHES. 5s deliver in the public hall the usual academical exercise prescribed prior to ...

Book 8  p. 84
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214 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
by the enterprising firm, but was conducted by
them in conjunction with other departments of
their trade.
The harbour of Leith is now a noble one, as it
underwent vast improvements, at an enormous
cost, during a long series of years up to 1877, including
various docks, to be described in their
place, with the best appliances of a prime port,
and great ranges of storehouses, together with two
magnificent wooden piers of great length, the west
being 3,123 feet, the east 3,530 feet. Both are
delightful promenades, and a small boat plies between
their extremities, so that a visitor may pass
out seaward by one pier and return by the other.
The formidable Martello Tower, circular in form,
bomb-proof, formed of beautiful white stone, and
most massive in construction, occupies a rock
called, we believe, of old, the Mussel Cape, but
which forms a continuation of the reef known as the
Black Rocks,
It stafids 1,500 feet eastward, and something
less than 500 south of the eastern pier-head, and
3,500 feet distant from the base of the ancient
signal-tower on the shore.
It was built to defend what was then the entrance
of the harbour, during the last long war
with France, at the cost of A17,ooo ; but now,
owing to the great guns and military inventions of
later times, it is to the fortifications on Inchkeith
that the port of Leith must look for protection.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MEMORABILIA OF THE SHIPPING OF LEITH AND ITS MARITIME AFFAIRS.
(Old Shipping laws-Early Whale Fishing--Letters of Marque against Hamburg-Captures of English Ships, 16p-x-First recorded Tonnage
of Leith-Imports-Arrest of Captain Hugh Palliser-Shore Dues, 1763-Wors? Strike, 17g2-Tonnage in 188I-Passenger Traffic, etc.
-Letters of Marque-Exploits of ~me-Glance at Shipbuilding.
THE people of Scotland must, at a very early
period, have turned their attention to the art in
which they now excel-that of shipbuilding and
navigation, for in these and other branches of
industry the monks led the way. So far back as
1249, the Count of St. Paul, as Matthew of Paris
records, had a large ship built for him at Inverness:
and history mentions the fleets of William the
Lion and his successor, Alexander 11.; and it has
been conjectured that these were furnished by the
chiefs of the isles, so many of whom bore lymphads
in their coats-of-arms. During the long war
with the Edwards, Scottish ships rode at anchor
in their ports, cut out and carried off English
craft, till Edward III., as Tytler records from the
? Rotuli Scotiz,? taunted his admirals and captains
with cowardice in being unable to face the
Scots and Flemings, to whom they dared not give
battle.
In 1336 Scottish ships swept the Channel coast,
plundering Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Wight;
and Tyrrel records that the fleet which did so was
under the command of David Bruce, but this seems
doubtfuL
When Edward of England was efigaged in the
prosecution of that wicked war which met its just
reward on the field of Bannockbum, he had two
Scottish traitors who led his ships, named John
of hrn, and his son, Alan of Argyle, whose
names have deservedly gone to oblivion.
We first hear of shipping in any quantity in the
Firth of Forth in the year 1411, when, as Burchett
and Rapin record, a squadron of ten English ships of
war, under Sir Robert Umfraville, Vice-Admiral of
England, ravaged both shores of the estuary for
fourteen days, burned many vessels-among them
one named the Greaf GalZiof of Scotland--and returned
with so many prizes and such a mass of
plunder, that he brought down the prices of everything,
and was named ? Robin Mend-the-Market.?
The Wars of the Roses, fortunately for Scotland,
gave her breathing-time, and in that period she
gathered wealth, strength, and splendour ; she took
a part in European politics, and under the auspices
of James IV. became a naval power, so much so,
that we find by a volume culled from the ?Archives
of Venice,? by Mr. Rawdon Brown, there are many
proofs that the Venetians in those days were
watching the influence of Scotland in counteracting
that of England by land and sea
Between the years 1518 and 1520, the ?Burgh
Records ? have some notices regarding the skippers
and ships of Leith ; and in the former year we find
that ? the maner of fraughting of schips of auld ? is
in form following: and certainly it reads mysteriously.
? Alexander Lichtman hes lattin his schip cdlit
the Mairfene, commonly till fraught to the nychtbouns
of the Toune for thair guidis to be furit to
Flanders, for the fraught of xix s. gr. and xviij s. gr. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith by the enterprising firm, but was conducted by them in conjunction with other ...

Book 6  p. 274
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 49
system. But, while he deprecated patronage in the abstract, he was equally
averse to popular election. The plan which he promulgated, in his address, was
similar in principle to the act in 1732. He proposed that one entire vote
should remain with the patron, a second with the heritors, and a third with the
elders ; the majority of these three bodies to decide the election of the minister.
In order to obtain the concurrence of the patrons to this partial divestment
of their power-“Let it be provided,” he says, “ that all vacant stipends
shall be declared to become their absolute property, instead of being conveyed
in trust for any other purpose ;” and, by way of explaining such an extraordinary
clause, the Rev. gentleman adds-“ The vacant stipends are appropriated
in law to pious uses within the parish, but indeed are very seldom so bestowed,
and parishes would in fact suffer nothing by their total abolition !” This plan,
as might have been foreseen, was not at all calculated to meet the views of the
popular party ; but it had the effect of introducing the author to public notice,
and of paving the way for his subsequent advancement,
In 1784, only two years after the publication of his “Principles of Moderation,”
Dr. Hardie was called, by the Town Council of Edinburgh, to be one of
the Ministers of the High Church. Here he soon attracted notice as a preacher ;
and an exposition which he gave of the Gospel according to St. John, was so
generally esteemed, that an Edinburgh bookseller is said to have offered him a
very considerable sum for the copyright. On the proposal being made to him,
however, it was discovered that the lectures had never been written out, but
delivered from short notes only. In consequence of delicate health, and finding
himself unable for so large a place of worship as the High Church, he was
at his own request removed, in 1786, to Haddo’s Hole, or the New North
Parish, where he continued the colleague of Dr. Gloag until his death.
In 1788 Dr. Hardie was elected to the Professorship of Ecclesiastical History
in the University, vacant by the death of the Rev. Robert Cumming.
For many years previously this important class had been in a languishing condition
; but the appointment of Dr. Hardie infused a new spirit among the students.
His course of lectures was well attended ; and his fame as a Professor
soon equalled, if it did not surpass, his popularity as a preacher. His views of
church history took an extensive range ; and the boldness of his sentiments was
not less vigorous than the manly tone of his eloquence.
Although thus placed in a situation of high honour and importance, and his
time necessarily much engaged, Dr. Hardie still interested himself actively in
matters of public moment. He was one of the original members of the “ Society
for the Benefit of the Sons of the Clergy of the Church of Scotland;” and in
1791, preached the first anniversary sermon before the Society: which was
afterwards published. Other sermons, preached on public occasions, were also
“ The Benevolence of the Christian Spirit ; a sermon preached in the Tron church of Edinburgh,
31st May 1791, before the Society for the Benefit of the Sons of the Clergy of the church of
Scotland. By Thomas Hardie, D.D., one uf the ministers of the city, and Regius Professor of
Divinity and Church History in the University of Edinburgh.” Creech, Is.
VOL. IL H . ... SKETCHES, 49 system. But, while he deprecated patronage in the abstract, he was equally averse to ...

Book 9  p. 66
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I I0 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Claigcrook.
perhaps to raise the printing trade in Edinburgh to
the high position it now holds. ? For a time, too,
beginning with the year 185 17 says the Scotsman,
?it seemed as if he were minded to restore the
publishing honours of the house of Constable and
Co. His foreign miscellany, his educational series,
his ? Life of Chalmers ? and the posthumous works
of that eloquent divine, his edition of ?Calvin?s
Commentaries ? ; his ? Life of Perthes,? the highminded
German publisher, promised for a season
to place his name beside the Murrays and
Longmans, and to bring back to Edinburgh its old
reputation as a centre for the diffusion of highclass
literature.?
Ere long, however, he would?seem to have found
the difficulties of competing fairly with the London
book market ; thus his publishing enterprise began
to slacken, and was finally relinquished, but the
well-known firm of Thomas and Archibald Constable,
printers to Her Majesty for Scotland and to
the Edinburgh University still continues at NO. I I,
Thistle Street.
There yet remained to him a little independent
literary work, the most notable of which was the
life of his father, which was published in 1873, and
of which it was said that, while containing much
interesting information about men of note at that
time, if it erred in anything it was ?in filial piety,
by labouring somewhat too much to vindicate
a memory which after all did not need to be
cleared of any moral charge but only of business
confusion.?
Thomas Constable died in the end of May, 1881.
Jeffrey first occupied Craigcrook in the spring
of 1815, when it was simply an old Keep, in the
midst of a large garden, which he proceeded at
once to enlarge and make beautiful and scenic.
He describes the place thus, in a letter to Charles
Wilkes in that year, as ?an old manor-house,
eighteen feet wide and fifty long, with irregular projections
of all sorts, three staircases, turrets, and a
large round tower at one end, with a multitude of
windows of all sorts and sizes,? situated at the
bottom of ?? a green slope about 400 feet high.?
Among the many reunions at Craigcrook, in
?Peter?s Letters to his Kinsfolk,? published in
1819, we have a description of one, when the
whole party of learned pundits-including Playfair,
who died in the July of that year aged seventyone--
took off their coats and had a leaping match,
a feature in the gathering which Lord Cockbum,
in his Life of Jefiey,? seems rather disposed to
discredit.
In a letter written in April, 1829, to Mr. Pennington,
from Craigcrook, Jeffrey says :-? It is an
infinite relish to get away (here) from courts and
crowds, to sink into a half slumber on one?s own
sofa, without fear of tinkling bells and importunate
sttorneys; to read novels and poems by a crackling
wood fire, and go leisurely to sleep without feverish
anticipations of to-morrow ; to lounge over a long
breakfast, looking out on glittering evergreens?and
chuckling thrushes, and dawdle about the whole
day in the luxury of conscious idleness.?
Lord Cockburn, in this life of his friend, writes
thus :-? During the thirty-four seasons that he
passed there (at Craigcrook), what a scene of happiness
was that spot! To his own household
it was all their hearts desired. Mr. Jeffrey knew
the genealogy and personal history of every shrub
and flower it contained. It was the favourite
resort of his friends, who knew no such enjoyment
as Jeffrey at that place. And, with the exception
of Abbotsford, there were more interesting strangers
there than at any other house in Scotland. Saturday
during the summer session of the courts was
always a day of festivity, but by no means exclusively
for his friends at the Bar, many of whom
were under general invitations. Unlike some barbarous
tribunals, which feel no difference between
the last and any other day of the week, but moil
on With the same stupidity, our legal practitioners,
like most of the other sons of bondage in Scotland,
are liberated earlier on Saturday, and thus
the Craigcrook party began to assemble about
three, each taking to his own enjoyment. The
bowling green was sure to have its matches, in
which the host joined with skill and keenness ; the
garden had its loiterers ; the flowers, not forgetting
the glorious wall of roses, their admirers ; and the
hill its prospect seekers. The banquet which
followed was generous ; the wines never spared,
but rather various ; mirth unrestrained, except by
propriety; the talk always good, but never ambitious,
and mere listeners in no disrepute. What
can efface those days, or indeed any day, at Craigcrook
from the recollection of those who had the
happiness of enjoying them ! ?
Before quitting this quarter, it is impossible to
omit a reference to the interesting little fortalice
called Lauriston Castle, which in the present century
gave a title to the Marquis of Lauriston,
Governor of Venice, Marshal and Grand Veneur of
France, and which stands about a mile northward
from Craigcrook, with a hamlet or village between,
properly called Davidson?s Mains, but locally
known by the grotesque name of ?? Muttonhole,? a
name which, however, goes back to the middle of
the last century.
In the Cuurant of 5th October, 1761, an adver ... I0 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Claigcrook. perhaps to raise the printing trade in Edinburgh to the high position it ...

Book 5  p. 110
(Score 0.64)

sacres will, in a short space, run a great length. I desire
you may disperse this news abroad, if it be not in town
before your receipt of this ; for that country, and the North
of England, without speedy relief, is jn great danger of
depopulation. And the Duke of Gordon h$th in his possession
the Castle of Edinburgh, whereby he can at pleasure
level that city with the ground. At twelve of the clock yesternight
our Governor, LieutXollonel Billingsley, dispatched
an Express to the Lords Danby and Lumley for drawing their
forces to this town. I received yours to-day, which being
Sabbath-day, I beg your pardon for brevity.
? I was told they see the fires and burnings of those Rebels
at Edinburgh ; this is the beginning of the discovery of the
Popish intrigue. God defend England from the French, and
his Highness the Prince of Orange from the bloody Popish
attempts I
?London : Published by J- Wells, St. Paul?s Alley, St.
Paul?s Churchyard, ~688.?
Tidings of William?s landing filled the Scottish
Presbyterians with the wildest joy, and the magis-
THUMBIKIN.
( F m the Musewnr ofthe Society of Antiguarirs of Scutland.)
trates of Edinburgh, who but two years before
had been extravagant in their protestations to
James VII., were among the first to welcome the
invader; and the city filled fast with bands of
jubilant revolutionists, rendering it unsafe for all of
cavalier tenets to be within the walls. On the 11th
of April, 1688, William and Mxry were proclaimed
at the cross king and queen of Scotland, after an
illegally constituted Convention of the Estates,
which was attended by only thirty representatives,
declared that King James had forfeited all title to
the crown, thus making a vacancy. A great and
sudden change now came over the realm. ? Men,?
says Dr. Chambers, ?who had been lately in
danger of their lives for consciencl sake, or
starving in foreign lands, were now at the head
of affairs! The Earl of Melville, Secretary of
State ; Crawford, President of Parliament ; Argyle,
restored to title and lands, and a Privy Councillor;
Dalrymple of Stair, Hume of Marchmont,
Stewart of Goodtrees, and many other exiles,
came back from Holland, to resume prominent
positions in the public service at home; while
the instruments of the late unhappy Government
were either captives under suspicion, or living
terror-struck at their country houses. Common
people, who had been skulking in mosses from
Claverhouse?s dragoons, were now marshalled into
Y regiment, and planted as a watch on the Perth
md Forfar gentry. There were new figures in the
Privy Council, and none of them ecclesiastical.
There was a wholly new set of senators on the
bench of the Court of Session. It looked like a
sudden shift of scenes in a pantomime rather than
a series of ordinary occurrences.? For three days
and nights Edinburgh was a wild scene of pillage
and rapine. The palace was assailed, the chapel
royal sacked ; and the Duke of Gordon, on finding
that the rabble, drunk and maddened by wine and
spirits found in the cellars of cavalier families who
had fled, were .wantonly firing on his sentinels,
drew up the drawbridge, to cut off all communication
with the city; but finding that his soldiers
were divided in their religious and political
opinions, and that a revolt was impending, he
called a council of officers to frustrate the attempt ;
and the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel John Winram,
of Liberton and the Inch House, Colonel of
the Scots Foot Guards in 1683, undertook to
watch the men, forty-four of whom it was deemed
necessary to strip of their uniforms and expel from
the fortress. In their place came thirty Highlanders,
onqthe 11th of November, and 300n after
forty-five more, under Gordon of Midstrath.
By the Privy Council the Duke was requested,
as a Roman Catholic, to surrender his command
to the next senior Protestant officer; but he declined,
saying, ?I am bound only to obey King
James VII.?
A few of the Life Guards and Greys, who had
quitted the Scottish army on its revolt, now reached
Edinburgh under the gallant Viscount Dundee,
and their presence served to support the spirits of
the Royalists, but the friends of the Revolution
brought in several companies of infantry, who were
concealed in the suburbs, and 6,000 Cameronians
marched in from the west, under standards inscribed,
?O For Reformation according to the Word
of God,? below an open Bible. These men
nobly rejected all remuneration, saying, with one
voice, ?We have come to serve our country.?
Their presence led to other conspiracies in the
garrisan, and the Duke of Gordon had rather a
harassing time of it.
The friends of William of Orange having formed
a plan for? the assassination of Dundee and Sir
George Mackenzie of Rosehahgh, compelled them ... will, in a short space, run a great length. I desire you may disperse this news abroad, if it be not in ...

Book 1  p. 62
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High Street.] CONSTABLES SHOP. 211 .
Oxford ; Mr. Alexander Campbell, author of the
(? History of Scottish Poetry ?; Dr. Alexander
Murray, the famous self-taught philologist ; Dr.
John Leyden, who died at Java; Mr. (afterwards
Sir Walter) Scott ; Sir John Graham Dalzell ; and
many others distinguished for a taste in Scottish
literature and historical antiquities, including I)r.
Jarnes Browne, author of the ?History of the
Highland Clans,? and one of the chief contributors
to Constable?s Edinburgh Magazine.
The works of some of these named were among
the first issued from Constable?s premises in the
High Street, where his obliging manners, professional
intelligence, personal activity, and prompt
attention to the wishes of all, soon made him
popular with a great literary circle ; but his actual
reputation as a publisher may be said to have
commenced with the appearance, in October, I 802,
of the first number of the Edihburgh Rtwiew.
His conduct towards the contributors of that
famous quarterly was alike discreet and liberal,
and to his business tact and straightforward
deportment, next to the genius and talent of the
projectors, much of its subsequent success must
be attributed.
In 1804 he admitted as a partner Mr. Hunter
of Blackness, and the firm took the name of
Constable and Co. ; and after various admissions,
changes, and deaths, his sole partner in 1812 was
Mr. Robert Cadell. In 1805 he started 2%
Edinburgh Medical and Surgicd Journal, a work
nrojected in concert with Dr. Andrew Duncan;
and in the same year, in conjunction with Longman
and Co., of London, he published ? The Lay
of the Last Minstrel,? the first of that long series of
romantic publications in poetry and prose which
immortalised the name of Scott, to whom he gave
LI,OOO for ?Marmion? before a line of it was
written. In conjunction with Messrs. Millar
and Murray, and after many important works, including
the ? Encyclopzedia Britannica,? had issued
from his establishment in 1814, he brought out the
first of the ? Waverley Novels.?
Constable?s shop ?? is situated in the High Street,?
says Peter in his ?Letters to his Kinsfolk,? ?in
the midst of the old town, where, indeed, the
greater part of the Edinburgh booksellers are still
to be found lingering (as the majority of their
London brethren also do) in the neighbourhood of
the same old haunts to which long custom has
attached their predilections. On entering, one
sees a place by no means answering, either in point
of dimensions or in point of ornament, to the
notion one might be apt to form of the shop from
which so many mighty works are every day issuing
-a low, dusky chamber, inhabited by a few clerks,
ind lined with an assortment of unbound books and,
stationery-entirely devoid of all those luxurious
attractions of sofas and sofa-tables and books of
prints, &c., which one meets with in the superb
nursery of the Quarter+ Revim in Albemarle
Street. The bookseller himself is seldom to be
seen in this part of his premises ; he prefers to sit
in a chamber immediately above, where he can
proceed with his owo work without being disturbed
by the incessant cackle of the young Whigs who
lounge beiow ; and where few casual visitors are
admitted to enter his presence, except the more
important members of the great Whig Corporation
-reviewers either in esse, or at least supposed to
be so in posse-contributors to the supplement of
the ?Encyclopxdia Britannica.? . . . . The
bookseller is himself a good-looking man, apparently
about forty, very fat in his person, with a
face having good lines, and a fine healthy complexion.
He is one of the most jolly-looking
members of the trade I ever saw, and, moreover,
one of the most pleasing and courtly in his address.
One thing that is?remarkable about him,
and, indeed, very distinguishingly so, is his total
want of that sort of critical jabber of which most
of his brethren are so profuse, and of which custom
has rendered me rather fond than otherwise. Mr.
Constable is too much of a bookseller to think it
at all necessary that he should appear to be
knowing in the merits of books. His business is
to publish books ; he leaves the work of examining
them before they are published, and criticising
them afterwards, to others who have more leisure
on their hands than he has.?
In the same ?Letters? we are taken to the
publishing establishment of Manners and Millar,
on the opposite side of the High Street--(? the true
lounging-place of the blue-stockings and literary
beau monde of the Northern metropolis,? but long
since extinct.
Unlike Constable?s premises, there the anterooms
were spacious and elegant, adorned with
busts and prints, while the back shop was a veritable
btjbu ; ?its walls covered with all the?most
elegant books in fashionable request, arrayed in
the most luxurious clothing of Turkey and Russia
leather, red, blue, and green-and protected by
glass folding doors from the intrusion even of the
little dust which might be supposed to threaten a
place kept so delicately trim. The grate exhibits
a fine blazing fire, or in its place a fresh bush of
hawthorn, stuck all over with roses and lilies, and
gay as a maypole,? while paintings by Turner,
Thomson, and Williams meet the eye on every? ... Street.] CONSTABLES SHOP. 211 . Oxford ; Mr. Alexander Campbell, author of the (? History of Scottish Poetry ...

Book 2  p. 211
(Score 0.64)

266 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Formerly, the purses gifted to the Blue-Gowns were delivered to them at the
Old Tolbooth ; from which circumstance a portion of the building was designated
the “ Poor Folk‘s Purses.” In later times the whole ceremony was confined
to the Canongate, the parish church of which was built about 1688. Here
the Blue-Gowns heard sermon ; then assembling in the aisle, they received
from the King‘s Almoner, or his deputies, the usual allowance of bread and
beer, their new gowns, and purses. These, as already mentioned, were made
of leather, and furnished by the King’s Glover.
At no period did the Hue-Gowns muster in greater strength than during the
patriarchal reign of George the Third; and although no longer required to
“ tell their beads” in procession, as of yore, their assembling in the capital from
all parts of the country, to receive their aumma, was a day of momentous interest
to the poor old veterans. Fergusson, the laureate of “Auld Reekie,” thus
alludes to their feelings on such occasions :-
“ Sing, likewise, Muse ! how blue-gown bodies,
Like scarecraws new ta’en down frae woodies,
Come here to cast their clouted duddies,
Than them what magistrate mair proud is,
An’ get their pay :
On King’s birthday ?”
As George the Third lived to the advanced age of eighty-two, there were an
unusual number of Blue-Gowns on the roll at the conclusion of his reign. At
the present moment it is believed there are about thirty in existence, For the
last few years no new badges have been issued ; and the annual bounty is no
longer to be continued after the demise of the present recipients. One reason
assigned for abolishing this ancient aristocracy of beggars is, that the original
object of the privileges granted to them is superseded by the provision of Chelsea
Hospital. Until the erection of this institution, no badge or gown was
conferred on any one save those who had served in the army, although latterly
the King’s Almoner was instructed to use his own discretion in the selection of
objects of charity,
Mr. C.
Campbell, teacher, and formerly precentor in the Canongate Church, for many
years officiated, not only at the.desk, but in distributing the alms of his Majesty
to the assembled Bedesmen. For these duties he was allowed one guinea
per annum,l which was regularly paid until the year 1837, when it was
discontinued by Her Majesty’s Remembrancer.
The late Rev. John Paton, of Lasswade, was the last Almoner,
His salilry was originally two pounds, eighteen shillings, Scots (i.e. four shillings and tenpence,
sterling). He was indebted for the augmentation to a son of the late Lord Chief Baron,
Dundarr of Arniston, who, then a youth, and happening to be in Edinburgh on the King’s birthday
1814, he was curious to witness the ceremonial connected with the Blue-Gowns. Accompanied by
his tutor, the Rev. Mr. M‘Kenzie of Lasswade, he proceeded to the Canongate Church, and with
much affability lent a hand in dispensing the charity. On questioning Mr. Campbell a8 to the
amount of his salary, he expressed his astonishment at the smallness of the sum, and that year,
through his father, the Lord Chief Baron, procured the addition already stated. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Formerly, the purses gifted to the Blue-Gowns were delivered to them at the Old ...

Book 9  p. 354
(Score 0.63)

282 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
style, with many ornate gables, dormer windows,
%ut was a second time stolen ; and in the strangulation
on the scaffold, and the being fouricl in a
ditch among water, the superstitious saw retributive
justice for the murder of which he was
assumed to be guilty. ? I t will be acknowledged,?
says the author of the ? Domestic Annals,?
?that in the circumstances related there is not a
particle of valid evidence against the young man.
The surgeons? opinion as to the fact of strangulation
is not entitled to much regard ; but, granting
its solidity, it does not prove the guilt of the ac-
.cused. The horror of the young man on seeing
his father?s blood might be referred to painful recol-
Jections of that profligate conduct which he knew
had distressed his parent, and brought his grey
hairs with sorrow to the grave-especially when we
reflect that Stanfield would himself be impressed
with the superstitious feelings of the age, and might
.accept the hzmorrhage as an accusation by heaven
on account of the concern his conduct had in
shortening the life of his father. The whole case
:seems to be a lively illustration of the effect of
superstitious feelings in blinding justice.?
We have thus traced the history of the High
Street and its closes down once more to the
Nether Bow.
In the World?s End Close Lady Lawrence was
a residenter in 1761, and Lady Huntingdon in 1784,
and for some years after the creation of the New
Town, people of position continued to linger in the
Old Town and in the Canongate. And from Peter
Williamson?s curious little ?? Directory ? for 1784,
we can glean a few names, thus :-
I Scottish gentleman, who, though he did not partici-
Lady Mary Carnegie, in Bailie Fyfe?s Close;
Lady Colstoun and the Hon. Alexander Gordon,
on the Castle Hill; General Douglas, in Baron
Maule?s Close; Lady Jean Gordon, in the Hammerman?s
Close; Sir James Wemyss, in Riddle?s
Close; Sir John Whiteford of that ilk, in the
Anchor Close ; Sir Jameg Campbell, in the Old
Bank Close; Erskine of Cardross, in the Horse
Wynd ; Lady Home, in Lady Stair?s Close.
In Monteith?s Close, in 1794, we find in the
? Scottish Hist. Register for 1795 recorded the
death of Mr. John Douglas, Albany herald, uncle
of Sir Andrew Snape Douglas, who was captain of
the Queen CharZoffe, of IIO guns, and who fought
her so valiantly in Lord Bridport?s battle on ? the
glonous 23rd of June, 1795.? The house occupied
?by Lady Rothiemay in Turk?s Close, below
Liberton?s Wynd, was advertised for sale in the
Couranf of 1761 ; and there lived, till his death in
1797, James Nelson, collector of the Ministers?
Widows? Fund.
In Morrison?s Close in 1783, we find one of the
most fashionable modisfes of Edinburgh announcing
in the Adverfiser of that year, that she is from ?one
of the most eminent houses in London,? and that
her work is finished in the newest fashions :-
? Chemize de Lorraine, Grecian Robes, Habit Bell,
Robe de Coure, and Levites, different kinds, all in
the most genteel and approved manner, and on the
most reasonable terms.?
In the same year, the signboard of James and
Francis Jeffrey, father and uncle of Lord Jeffrey,
still hung in the Lawnmarket.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
NEW STREETS WITHIN THE AREA OF THE FLODDEN WALL.
h r d ?Cockburn Street-Lord Cockburn-The Scotsmun NewspapeFCharles Maclaren and Alexander Russel-The Queen?s Edinburgh
Rifle Brigade-St. Giles Street-Sketch of the Rise d Journalism in Edinburgh-The EdinQxrgk Courunt-The Daily Rnrieur-Jelfrey
Street-New Trinity College Church
THE principal thoroughfare, which of late years has
been run through the dense masses of the ancient
alleys we have been describing, is Lord Cockburn
Street, which was formed in 1859, and strikes
northward from the north-west corner of Hunter?s
Square, to connect the centre of the 012 city with
-the railway terminus at Waverley Bridge ; it goes
curving down a comparatively steep series of slopes,
and is mainly edificed in the Scottish baronial
lofty tenements in many of the closes that descend
from the north side of the High Street, and was
very properly named after Lord Cockburn, one
entitled to special remembrance on many accounts,
and for the deep interest he took in all matters
connected with his birthplace. When he died,
in April, 1854, he was one of the best and kindliest
of the old school of ?Parliameht House Whigs,?
and was a thorough, honest, shrewd, and benevolent
and conical turrets, high over all of which towers
. the dark and mighty mass of the Royal Exchange.
This new street expdses aromantic section of the
pate to any extent in the literary labours of his
contemporaries, has left behind him an interesting
volume of ? Memorials.? Many can yet recall his ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street. style, with many ornate gables, dormer windows, %ut was a second time ...

Book 2  p. 282
(Score 0.63)

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