... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
Soon after, Mr. Ross advertised that he found
?? the general voice ...
Book 2 p. 342
(Score 0.69)
![Leith] CAPTAIN PALLISER?S CONTUMACY. 277
to-morrow ; the sailors belonging to the said ships
are to repair on board, under penalty of loss of
wages and imprisonment as deserters. Thir presents
to be published by tuck of drumme through
Leith, that none may pretend ignorance. (? WALTER SCOTTE, B.?
In 1752 the vessels of Leith amounted to sixtyeight,
with a tonnage of 6,935; and two years subsequently
we find an attempt upon the part of a
captain in the royal navy there to defy the Scottish
Court of Admiralty in the roads and harbour.
Captain (aflerwards Sir Hugh) Palliser, when
captain of H.M.S. Seahorse, in consequence of a
petition presented to the Judge of the High Court
of Admiralty, 20th March, 1754, by Thomas ROSS,
master, and Murdoch Campbell, owner of the
Scottish ship CumberZand, of Thurso, was served
with a notice to deliver up James Cormick, apprentice
to the former, whom he had taken on board
as a seaman.
Accordingly, by order of the judge, the macers
of court, messengers-at-arms, and other officials,
repaired on board the Seahorse, at the anchorage in
Leith, to bring off James Cormick; ?and the said
Captain Hugh Palliser, and the other officers and
sailors on board the said shipof-war Seahorre,? ran
the warrant, ?are hereby ordered to be assisting?
in putting it into execution, at their highest peril.
(? All others, shipmasters, sailors, and others his
Majesty?s .subjects,? were ordered to assist also, at
their utmost peril.
James Lindsay, Admiralty macer, served this
notice upon Captain Palliser, who foolishly and
haughtily replied that he was subject to the laws
of England only, and would not send Cormick
ashore. (? Upon which,? as the execution given
into court bears, ?( I (James Lindsay) declared he
had contemned the law, was guilty of a deforcement,
and that he should be liable accordingly, having
my blazon on my breast, and broke my wand of
peace.??
On this, a warrant was issued to apprehend the
commander of the Seahorse, and commit him to
the next sure prison (i.e. the Tolbooth of Leith), but
the captain having gone to Edinburgh, on the 26th
of March he was seized and placed in the Heart of
Midlothian, and brought before the High Court of
Admiralt), next day.
? There he denied that its jurisdiction extended
over a king?s ship, or over himself personally, or any
man in the Seahorse, especially an enlisted sailor ;
and maintained that the court, by attempting to do
so, assumed a right competent to the Lords of the
Admiralty alone ; ?( and by your imprisoning me,?
he added, (( for not delivering up one of the king?s
sailors, you have suspended my commission from
the Lord High Admiral, and disabled me from
executing the orders with which I am charged as
commander of one of the king?s ships.?
This only led to the re-commitment of the contumacious
captain, till he (?found caution to obtemper
(sic) the Judge Admiral?s warrant, in case it should
be found by the Lords that he ought to do so.?
He was imprisoned for six weeks, until the apprentice
was put on shore. On this matter, Lord
Hardwicke, who was then Lord Chancellor, remarked
that the Scottiah Admiralty judge was a
bold one, ?but that what he had done was
right.?
Captain Palliser, on his return to England,
threatened to make the frauds on the revenue a
matter for Parliamentary investigation, if not attended
to, And the ministry then enftrced the duties
upon claret, which, before this time, had been
drunk commonly even by Scottish artisans.
This officer afterwards behaved with great bravery
at Newfoundland, in 1764 ; and on attaining the
rank of Admiral of the White, was created a
baronet, and died governor of Greenwich Hospital
in 1796.
In 1763 the shore dues at Leith had increased to
A580. The Scots? Magazine for December, 1769,
states that, ?take one year with another, about
1,700 vessels are cleared out and in yearly at Leith.
Some days ago an acute merchant took a serious
view of the shipping in the harbour of Leith, and
reckoned upon a calculation that there would be
between 30,000 and 35,000 tonnage at one and the
same time mooring there.? This seems barely
probable.
In 17 7 I we meet with an indication of free trade,
when the Court of Session, upon the application
of the merchants of Edinburgh, ordered the port
of Leith, and all other Scottish ports, to be open
for the free importation of grain of all kinds.
Arnot states that in the year ending January
sth, 1778, there were, in Leith, 52 foreign ships,
6,800 tons, and 428 men ; 44 coasting and fishing
ships, 3,346 tons, and 281 men. Five years sub.
sequently, the shore dues were f;4,ooo; but in
that year there was only one vessel trading with
St. Petersburg. She made but one voyage yearly,
and never carried tallow if any other freight could
be obtained Now the sailing vessels make three
voyages to the same port annually.
In 1791 there was a proposal to form a jointstock
company, to cut a canal from Leith to the
middle ward of Lanarkshire.
The tonnage in 1792 had increased to 18,468.
In the same year, when those Radicals who](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p096.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 277")
... CAPTAIN PALLISER?S CONTUMACY. 277
to-morrow ; the sailors belonging to the said ships
are to repair on ...
Book 6 p. 277
(Score 0.69)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Univtrsitv.
He seemed greatly delighted with the result,
and felt much ...
Book 5 p. 10
(Score 0.68)
![Arlhur?s Seat.] DR. JOHN BELL 303
sity of Edinburgh that the Medical Society has
contributed much to the prosperity and reputation
of this school of physic.?
Such are still the objects of the Royal Medical
Society, which has now, however, quitted its old
hall and chambers for newer premises in 7 Melbourne
Place. Its staff consists of four presidents,
two honorary secretaries, curators of the library
and museum, with a treasurer and sub-librarian.
Many old citizens of good position had residences
in and near the High School yards and
Surgeon Square. Among these was Mr. George
Sinclair of Ulbster, who married Janet daughter of
Lord Strathmore, and who had a house of seven
rooms in the yard, which was advertised in the
Courant of 1761. His son was the eminent agriculturist,
and first baronet of the family.
In 1790 a theatre for dissections and an anatomical
museum were erected in Surgeon Square
by Dr. John Bell, the eminent anatomist, who was
born in the city on the 12th May, 1763, and who
most successfully applied the science of anatomy
to practical surgery-a profession to which, curiously
enough, he had from his birth been devoted by
his father. The latter,about a month before the
child?s birth, had-when in his 59th yea-undergone
with successapainful surgicaloperation, and his gratitude
led him tovowhe would rear his son John to the
cause of medicine for the relief of mankind ; and
after leaving the High School the boy was duly
apprenticed to Mr. Alexander Wood, surgeon, and
soon distinguished himself in chemistry, midwifery,
and surgery, and then anatomy, which had been
somewhat overlooked by Munro.
In the third year after his anatomical theatre
had been opened in the now obscure little square,
he published his ? Anatomy of the Human Body,?
consisting of a description of the action and play
of the bones, muscles, and joints. In 1797 appeared
the second volume, treating of the heart
and arteries. During a brilliant career, he devoted
himself with zeal to his profession, till in 1816 he
was thrown from his horse, receiving a shock from
which his constitution never recovered.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
AKTHUR?S SEAT AND ITS VICINITY.
The Sanctuary-Geology of the Hill-Origin of its Name, and that of the Craigs-The Park Walls, 2554-A Banquet alfrrsc6The Pestilence
-A Duel-?The Guttit Haddie?-Mutiny of the Old 78th Regiment-Proposed House on the Summit-bfuschat and his Cairn-
Radical Road Formed-May Day-Skeletons found at the Wells 0? Wearic-Park Improvements-The Hunter?s Bog-Legend of the
Hangman?s big-Duddingston-The Church-Rev. J. Thomson-Robert Monteith-The Loch-Its Sw-ans-Skatcrs--The Duddingston
Thoro-The Argyle and Abercorn FamilisThe Earl of Mob-Lady Flon. HastingsCnuvin?s Hospica-Parson?s Grecn-St.
Anlhonfs Chapel and Well-The Volunteer Renew before the Queen.
TAKING up the history of the districts of the city
in groups as we have done, we now come to Arthur?s
Seat, which is already well-nigh surrounded, especially
on the west and north, by streets and
mansions.
Towering to the height of 822 feet above the
Forth, this hill, with the Craigs of Salisbury, occupies
the greater portion of the ancient Sanctuary of
Holyrood, which included the royal park (first
enclosed and improved from a condition of natural
forest by James V. and Queen Mary), St. Anne?s
Yard and the Duke?s Walk (both now obliterated),
the Hermitage of St. Anthony, the Hunter?s Bog,
and the southern parks as far as Duddingston, a
tract of five miles in circumference, in which persons
were safe from their creditors for twenty-four
hours, after which they must take out a Protectim,
as it was called, issued by the bailie of the abbey ;
the debtors were then at liberty to go where they
pleased on Sundays, without molestation j but later
legal alterations have rendered retirement to the
Sanctuary to a certain extent unnecessary.
The recent formation of the Queen?s Drive
round the hill, and the introduction of the rifle
ranges in the valley to the north of it, have destroyed
the wonderful solitude which for ages
reigned there, even in the vicinity of a busy and
stormy capital. Prior to these changes, and in
some parts even yet, the district bore the character
which Arnot gave it when he wrote :-? Seldom are
human beings to be met in this lonely vale, or any
creature to be seen, but the sheep feeding on the
mountains, or the hawks and ravens winging their
flight among the rocks?: The aspect of the lionshaped
mountain and the outline of the craig
are known to every one. There is something certainly
grand and awful in the front of mighty slope
and broken rock and precipice, which the latter
present to the city. Greenstone, which has been
upheaved through strata surfaced with sandstone](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p123.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 303")
... Seat.] DR. JOHN BELL 303
sity of Edinburgh that the Medical Society has
contributed much to the ...
Book 4 p. 303
(Score 0.68)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Holyrood.
Wllliam, who had property in Broughton, after his
death, none bore even ...
Book 3 p. 50
(Score 0.68)
... SKETCHES. 7
all the officers on the expedition that they did not wear their swords on account
of the ...
Book 9 p. 8
(Score 0.68)
![Burghmuir.] ST. ROQUES CHAPEL. 47
Greenhill, whereon stood an old gable-ended and
gableted manor-house, on the site of which is now
the great square modem mansion which bears its
name. In a street here, called Greenhill Gardens,
there stands a remarkable parterre, or open burialplace,
wherein lie the remains of more than one proprietor
of the estate. A tomb bears the initials
J. L. and E. R., being those of ?John Livingstone
and Elizabeth Rig, his spouse,? who acquired
the lands of Greenhill in 1636 ; and the adjacent
thoroughbre, named Chamberlain Road, is so
called from an official of the city, named Fairholme,
who is also buried there.
A dispute-Temple and Halliday with Adam
Cairns of Greenhill -is reported before the
lords in 1706, concerning a tenement in the
Lawnmarket, which would seem to have been
?spoiled and deteriorated? in the fire of 1701.
(Fountainhall.)
In 1741 Mr. Thomas Fairholme, merchant in
Edinburgh, married Miss Warrender, daughter of
Sir George Warrender of Bruntsfield, and his death
at Greenhill is reported in the Scuts Magazine for
1771. There was a tenement called Fairholme
Land in the High Street, immediately adjoinicg
the Royal Exchange on the east, as appears from
the Scuts Magazine of 1754, probab!y erected by
Bailie Fairholme, a magistrate in the time of
Charles 11.
Kay gives us a portrait of George Fairholme of
Greenhill (and of Green-know, Berwickshire), who,
with his younger brother, William of Chapel, had
long resided in Holland, where they became
wealthy bankers, and where the former cultivated
a natural taste for the fine arts, and in after life
became celebrated as a judicious collector of
pictures, and of etchings by Rembrandt, all of
which became the property of his nephew, Adam
Fairholme of Chapel, Berwickshire. He died in
his seventieth year, in 1800, and was interred in
the family burying-place at Greenhill.
In a disposition of the lands of the latter estate
by George Fairholme, in favour of Thomas Wright,
dated 16th, and recorded 18th February, 1790, in
the sheriffs? books at Edinburgh, the preservation of
the old family tomb, which forms so singular a
feature in a modern street, is thus provided for :-
? Reserving nevertheless to me the liberty and
privilege of burying the dead of my own family,
and such of my relations to whom I, during my
own lifetime, shall communicate such privilege, in
the burial-place built upon the said lands, and
?Teserving likewise access to me and my heirs to
repair the said burial-place from time to time, as we
shall think proper.?
? Greenhill became lztterly the property of the
Stuart-Forbeses of Pitsligo, baronets.
After passing the old mansion named East
Morningside House, the White House Loan joins
at right angles the ancient thoroughfare named the
Grange Loan, which led of old from the Linton
Road to St. Giles?s Grange, and latterly the Causewayside.
On the south side of it a modern villa takes its
name of St. Roque from an ancient chapel which
stood there, and the ruins of which were extant
within the memory of many of the last generation.
The chapels of St. Roque and St. John, on the
Burghmuir, were both dependencies of St. Cuthbert?s
Church. The historian of the latter absurdly
conceives it to have been named from a French
ambassador, Lecroc, who was in Scotland in 1567.
The date of its foundation is involved in obscurity;
but entries occur in the Treasurer?s Accounts for
1507, when on St. Roque?s Day (15th August) James
IV. made an offering of thirteen shillings. ? That
this refers to the chapel on the Burghmuir is
proved,? says Wilson, ? by the evidence of two
charters signed by the king at Edinburgh on the
same day.?
Arnot gives a view of the chapel from the northeast,
showing the remains of a large pointed window,
that had once been filled in with Gothic tracery;
and states that it is owing ?to the superstitious
awe of the people that one stone of this chapel has
been left upon another-a superstition which, had
it been more constant in its operations, might have
checked the tearing zeal of reformation. About
thirty years ago the proprietor of the ground
employed masons to pull down the walls of the
chape! ; the scaffolding gave way ; the tradesmen
were killed. The accident was looked upon as a
judgment against those who were demolishing thk
house of God. No entreaties nor bribes by the
proprietor could prevail upon tradesmen to accomplish
its demolition.?
It was a belief of old that St. Roque?s intercession
could protect all from pestilence, as he was
distinguished for his piety and labours during a
plague in Italy in 1348. Thus Sir David Lindesay
says of-
1?- Superstitious pilgramages
To monie divers imagis ;
Sum to Sanct Roche with diligence,
To saif them from the pestilence.?
Thus it is, in accordance with the attributes ascribed
in Church legends to St. Roque, that we find
his chapel constantly resorted to by the victims of
the plague encamped on the Burghmuir, during the
prevalence of that scourge in the sixteenth century.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p058.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 47")
... ST. ROQUES CHAPEL. 47
Greenhill, whereon stood an old gable-ended and
gableted manor-house, on the ...
Book 5 p. 47
(Score 0.67)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the most eminent venerators of antiquity, during the latter part of the eighteenth ...
Book 10 p. 178
(Score 0.67)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The West Bow.
Jambites pointing t a it with mingled howls and
jeers, as a proof of ...
Book 2 p. 318
(Score 0.67)
... BI 0 GRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
specimens brought home, a sketch of the geology of the different coasts disy
covered ...
Book 9 p. 605
(Score 0.67)
![Princes Street.] EDINBURGH IN 1783. 119
vincial towns were combined in the case of Edinburgh
She was the titular capital of Scotland, and
as such, was looked up to with pride and veneration
by the nation at large. She was then the
residence of many of the old Scottish nobility, and
the exclusion of the British from the Continent,
during a long, protracted war, made her, either for
business, society, or education, the favourite resort
of strangers. She was the headquarters of the
legal profession at a time when both the Scottish
bench and bar were rendered illustrious by a numbet
of men celebrated far their learning, eloquence, and
wit. She was the head-quarters of the Scottish
Church, whose pulpits and General Assembly were
adorned by divines of great eminence and piety.
Lastly, she was the chief seat of scholarship, and
the chosen home of literature and science north of
the Tweed.?
With the Edinburgh of those days ,and of the
present we have now deal
CHAPTER XVII.
PRINCES STREET.
A Glance at Society-Change of BIanners, &-The Irish Giants-Poole?s Coffee-house-Shop of Constable 8 Co.-Weir?s Muscum, 1794-
The Grand Duke Nichoh-North British Insurance Life Association4ld Tax Office and New Club-Craig of Ricarton-??he
White Rose of Scotland??-St. John?s Chapel-Its Tower and Vaults, &.-The Scott Monument and its MUseum-The Statues of Professor
Wilson, Allan Ramsay, Adam Black, Sir James Sirnpson, and Dr. Livingstone-The General Improvements in Princes Street.
IN 1774 a proposal to erect buildings on the south
side of Princes Street-a lamentable error in taste
it would have proved-led to an interdict by the
Court of Session, which ended in a reference to
the House of Lords, on which occasion Imd
Mansfield made a long and able speech, and the
result was, that the amenity of Princes Street was
maintained, and it became in time the magnificent
terrace we now find it.
Of the city in 1783 some glimpses are given us
in the ?? Letters of Theophrastus,? appended to the
second edition of ?Arnot.? In that year the
revenue of the Post Office was only ~ 4 0 , 0 0 0 .
There were four coaches to Leith, running every
half hour, and there were 1,268 four-wheeled carriages
and 338 two-wheeled paying duty. The
oystercellars had become numerous, and were
places of fashionable resort. A maid-servant?s
wages were about f;4 yearly. In 1763 they wore
plain cloaks or plaids; but in 1783 ?silk, caps,
ribbons, ruffles, false. hair, and flounced. petticoats.?
In 1783 a number of bathing-machines had been
adopted at Leith. People of the middle class and
above it dined about four o?clock, after which no
business was done, and gentlemen were at no pains
to conceal their impatience till the ladies retired.
Attendance at church . was, much neglected, and
people did not think it ?genteel? to take their
domestics with them. ?In 1783 the daughters
even of tradesmen consume the moriings at the
toilet (to which rouge is now an appendage) or in
strolling from the perfumer?s to the milliner?s.
They would blush to be seeri at market. The
cares of the family devolve upon a housekeeper,
?
and Miss employs those heavy hours when she
is disengaged from public or private amusements
in improving her mind from the precious stores of
a circulating library.? In that year a regular cockpit
was built for cock-fighting, where all distinctions
of rank and character were levelled. The weekly
concert of music began at seven o?clock, and
mistresses of boarding-schools, &c., would not allow
their pupils to go about unattended ; whereas,
twenty years before ?young ladies might have
walked the streets in perfect security at all hours.?
In I 783 six criminals lay under sentence of death
in Edinburgh in one week, whereas it1 1763 three
was an average for the whole kingdom in a year.
A great number of the servant-maids still continued
? their abhorrence of wearing shoes and stockings
in the morning.? The Register House was unfinished,
?? or occupied by pigeons only,? and the
Records ? were kept in a dur.geon called the high
Parliament House.?
The High Street alone was protected by the
guard. The New Town to the north, and all the
streets and new squares to the south, were totally
unwatched ; and the soldiers of the guard still preserved
?the purity of their native Gaelic, so that
few of the citizens understand, or are understood
by them ;? while the king?s birthday and the last
night of the year were ?? devoted to drunkenness,
outrage, and riot, instead of loyalty, peace, and
harmony,? as of old.
One of the earliest improvements in the extended
royalty was lighting it with oil lamps; but in
the Adnerh?ser for 1789 we are told that ?while all
strangers admire the beauty and regularity of the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p131.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 119")
... Street.] EDINBURGH IN 1783. 119
vincial towns were combined in the case of Edinburgh
She was the titular ...
Book 3 p. 119
(Score 0.67)
![The Royal Excharge.] THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 183 -
CHAPTER XX.
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE-THE TRON CHURCH-THE GREAT FIRE OF NOVEMBER, 1824.
The Royal Exchange-Laying the Foundation Stonc-Ddption of the Exchange-The Mysterious Statue-The Council Cbarnber-hventiom
of Royal Burghs : Constitution thereof, and Powers-Writen? Court-The ? Star and Garter? Tavern-Sir Walter Scott?s Account
of the Scene at Cleriheugh?s-Lawyers? High Jinks-The Tron Church-Histor] of the Old Church-Tht Gnat Fire of rSa~-lnciden~s
of the Conflagration-The Ruins Undermined-Blown up by Captain Head of the Engineers,
Ira 1753 we discover the first symptoms of vitality
in Edinburgh after the Union, when the pitiful
sum of A1,500 was subscribed by the convention
of royal burghs, for the purpose of ? beautifying
the city,? and the projected Royal Exchange was
fairly taken in hand.
If wealth had not increased much, the population
had, and by the middle of the eighteenth
century the citizens had begun to find the inconvenience
they laboured under by being confined
within the old Flodden wall, and that the city was
still destitute of such public buildings as were
necessary for the accommodation of those societies
which were formed, or forming, in all other capitals,
to direct the business of the nation, and provide
for the general welfare ; and so men of tas?te, rank,
and opulence, began to bestir themselves in Edinburgh
at last.
Many ancient alleys and closes, whose names
are well-nigh forgotten now, were demolished on
the north side of the Righ Street, to procure a
site for the new Royal Exchange. Some of these
had already become ruinous, and must have been
of vast antiquity. Many beautifully-sculptured
stones belonging to houses there were built into
the curious tower, erected by Mr. Walter Ross at
the Dean, and are now in a similar tower at Portobello,
Others were scattered about the garden
grounds at the foot of the Castle rock, and still
show the important character of some of the
edifices demolished. Among them there was a
lintel, discovered when clearing out the bed 01
the North Loch, with the initials IS. (and the
date 1658), supposed to be those of Jaines tenth
Lord Somerville, who, after serving long in the
Venetian army, died at a great age in 1677.
On the 13th of September, 1753, the first stone
of the new Exchange was laid by George Drummond,
then Grand Master of the Scottish Masons,
whose memory as a patriotic magistrate is still remembered
with respect in Edinburgh. A triumphal
arch, a gallery for the magistrates, and covered
stands for the spectators, enclosed the arena.
?The procession was very grand and regular,?
says the Gentleman?s Magazine for that year.
each lodge of maSons, of which there were
thirteen, walked in procession by themselves, all
uncovered, amounting to 672, most of whom were
operative masons.? The military paid proper
honours to the company on this occasion, and escorted
the procession in a suitable manner. The
Grand Master and the present substitute were
preceded by the Lord Provost, magistrates, and
council, in their robes, with the city sword, mace,
&c., carried before them, accompanied by the
directors of the scheme.
All day the foundation-stone lay open, that the
people might see it, with the Latin inscription on
the plate, which runs thus in English :-
? GEORGE DKUMMOND,
Of the Society of Freemasons in Scotland Grand Master,
Thrice Provost of the City of Edinburgh,
Three hundred Brother Masons attending,
In presence of many persons of distinction,
The Magistrates and Citizens of Edinburgh,
And of every rank of people an innumerable multitude,
And all Applaudipg ;
For convenience of the inhabitants of Edinburgh,
And the public ornament,
Laid this stone,
Wdliam Alexander being Provost,
On the 13th September, 1753. of the Era of Masonry 5753,
And of the reign of George II., King of Great Britain,
the 27th yea.?
In the stone were deposited two medals, one
bearing the profile and name of the Grand Master,
the other having the masonic arms, with the collar
of St. Andrew, and the legend, ? In the Lord is
all our trust.?
Though the stone was thus laid in 1753, the
work was not fairly begun till the following year,
nor was it finished till 1761, at the expense of
A31,5oo, including the price of the area on which
it is built ; but it never answered the purpose for
which it was intended-its paved quadrangle and
handsome Palladian arcades were never used by
the mercantile class, who persisted in meeting, as
of old, at the Cross, or where it stood.
Save that its front and western arcades have
been converted into shops, it remains unchanged
since it was thus described by Arnot, and the back I
view of it, which faces the New Town, catches the
eye at once, by its vast bulk and stupendous height,
IOO feet, all of polished ashlar, now blackened with -
the smoke of years :--.?The Exchange is a large
and elegant building, with a court in the -centre.
,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p195.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 183")
... Royal Excharge.] THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 183 -
CHAPTER XX.
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE-THE TRON CHURCH-THE GREAT FIRE OF ...
Book 1 p. 183
(Score 0.67)
... 66 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the plough, to his friend Richmond, a writer’s apprentice, and accepted the offer ...
Book 10 p. 180
(Score 0.67)
... this time a strange story went abroad
concerning the spectre of Dundee ; the terrible
yet handsome ...
Book 1 p. 66
(Score 0.66)
... SKETCHES. 205
ter of Martia, in Crisp's tragedy of Virginia ;l and, before the end of the ...
Book 9 p. 275
(Score 0.66)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Potterrow.
~~~ ~
very distinguished and accomplished circle, among
whom David Hume, ...
Book 4 p. 330
(Score 0.66)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [1745!.
CEIAFTER XL.
E D I N B U R G H IN 1745.
Provost Stewart-Advance of the ...
Book 2 p. 322
(Score 0.66)
![432 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
ALEXANDER MACONOCHIE (the figure to the right) was the eldest son
of the late Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank. He passed advocate in
1799. In 1810 he was appointed Sheriff-Depute of the county of Haddington j
Solicitor-General in 1813 ; and succeeded Mr. Colquhoun as Lord Advocate in
1816. He sat in Parliament for Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight, but was
shortly afterwards returned member for the Pittenweem district of burghs,
The duties of Lord Advocate, during the few years Mr. Maconochie held
the office, were of a peculiarly formidable and harassing description. Great
political excitement prevailed throughout the country, amounting in several
instances to open insurrection. In 1817, shortly after the commencement of
the " Radical er%" as it has been termed, he had occasion to defend himself in
the House of Commons against a charge preferred by Lord Archibald Hamilton,
and reiterated by Henry (afterwards Lord) Brougham, of " oppression in the
exercise of his duties." The accusation originated in the course of a warm discussion
on the further suspension of the Habeas Corps Act, and had reference
to the case of a prisoner [Andrew M'Kinlay, of whom a portrait and notice has
already appeared], who, it was alleged, had been "three times put on his
defence : "-
" The Lord Advocate rose to vindicate himself from the attack that had been made on him.
He complained that, though he had been attacked in his absence, no one had said a word that
evening, though he had sat there seven hours ; and he therefore feared that an attack was to be
made again when it would he too late for him to reply. By the law of Scotland, sixty days may
elapse after a party is indicted, and before he is tried. The prisoner, M'Kinlay, WBS charged
with treason and felony ; and therefore, if separate indictments were framed, the prisoner might
have been delayed above a hundred days; but he (the Lord Advocate) had joined the two
offences in one indictment for the ease and advantage of the prisoner. So far from the friends
of the parties being refused admission to the prison, the greatest facilities were afforded, and the
Lord Advocate himself, though pressed with business, attended to their situation minutely.
They were placed in a particular prison, because it was the most healthy in Edinburgh, and the
district prison was extremely unwholesome. It was not the law of Scotland that an individual
could be tried a thousand times for the same crime ; but the public prosecutor can abandon an
indictment before trial. The indictment is laid before the Court before trial, and the judges
first consider the law, and whether the facts bear out the indictment ; at that period the Court
may, if they think fit, refuse to grant the motion for the prisoner's trial. A prisoner, therefore,
could not be brought to trial twice. The administration of justice in Scotland had been falsely
arraigned, and that during a trial. As to oppression, he could not have been guilty of it,
unless the Court had been in a conspiracy with him. So far from two indictments having been
quashed, not one was quashed.
" Mr. P. Jfethuenl here called to order.
Paul Methuen, Esq., for many years member for Wilts, where he has large estates. He has
recently been created Lord Methuen. Before his elevation to the Peerage, he was the subject of
keveral pasquinade5 by his political opponents-one of which, ascribed to Lord Viscount Palinerston,
is extremely clever ; and though somewhat severe, no one acknowledged its merits more readily than
the subject of the jeu-d'esp~it. It is a parody on Tom Moore's celebrated ballad of " Believe me,
. when all those endearing young charms : "-
" Believe me, when all those ridiculous aim,
Which you practise so pretty to-day,
Like my own, be both scanty and grey ;
(Though a fop and a fribble no more) ;
Shall vanish by age, and thy well-twisted hain,
" Thou wilt still be a goose, as a goose thou hast been,](images/thumbs/kays_thumb_pages/kays_v2__Page_586.gif "Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Page 578")
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
ALEXANDER MACONOCHIE (the figure to the right) was the eldest son
of the late Allan ...
Book 9 p. 578
(Score 0.66)
... Bridge.7 . JAMES SUTHERLAND. 363 #
4 I
say nothing of the cost of new plants, so difficult
to procure in ...
Book 2 p. 363
(Score 0.66)
... OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES V. 35
day, with the fist rumours of the disaster, these magistrates issued a ...
Book 10 p. 37
(Score 0.66)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
was the Scottish Thistle, surmounted with the national motto, "Nemo me
impune ...
Book 9 p. 454
(Score 0.66)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Parliament HOUSC
to the High Street scarcely one stone was left
upon another.
?( The ...
Book 1 p. 162
(Score 0.66)
![Leith] MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, had been absent unusually
long, and the rumours regarding her fate were
very much akin to the confessions of the crew of
the Worcester.
A report of these circumstances having reached
the Privy Council, the arrest was ordered of Captain
Green and thirteen of his crew on charges of
piracy and murder. The evidence produced against
them would scarcely be held sufficient by a jury of
the present day to warrant a conviction; but the
Scots, in their justly inflamed and insulted spirit,
viewed the matter otherwise, and a sentence of
death was passed. This judgment rendered many
uneasy, as it might be an insuperable bar to the
union, and even lead to open strife, as the relations
in which the two countries stood to each other were
always precarious ; and even Macaulay admits ?that
the two kingdoms could not possibly have continued
another year on the terms on which they had been
during the preceding century.? The Privy Council
were thus reluctant to put the sentence into execution,
and respited the fourteen Englishmen ; but
there arose from the people a cry for vengeance
which it was impossible to resist. On the day appointed
for the execution, the 11th of April, the
populace gathered h vast numbers at the. Cross
and in the Parliament Square ; they menaced the
Lords?of the Council, from which the Lord Chancellor
chanced to pass in his coach. Some one
cried aloud that ? the prisoners had been reprieved.?
On this the fury of the people became boundless ;
they stopped at the Tron church the coach of the
Chancellor-the pitiful Far1 of Seafield-and
dragged him out of it, and had he not been rescued
and conveyed into Mylne Square by some friends,
would have slain him ; so, continues Arnot, it became
absolutely necessary to appease the enraged
multitude by the blood of the criminals. This was
but the fruit of the affairs of Darien and Glencoe.
Now the people for miles around were pouring
into the city, and it was known that beyond doubt
the luckless Englishmen would be tom from the
Tolbooth and put to a sudden death.
Thus the Council was compelled to yield, and
did so only in time, as thousands who had gathered
at Leith to see the execution were now adding to
those who filled the streets of the city, and at
eleven in the forenoon word came forth that three
would be hanged-namely, Captain Green, the first
mate Madder, and Simpson, the gunner.
According to Analecfu Scofica they were brought
forth into the seething masses, amid shouts and
execrations, under an escort of the Town Guard,
and marched on foot through the Canongate to the
Water Port of Leith, where a battalion of the Foot
Guards and a body of the Horse Guards were
drawn up. ? There was the greatest confluence of
people there that I ever saw in my life,? says
Wodrow; ?for they cared not how far they were
off so be it they saw.?
The three were hanged upon a gibbet erected
within high-water mark, and the rest of the crew,
after being detained in prison till autumn, were set
at liberty; and it is said that there were afterwards
good reasons to believe that Captain Drummond,
whom they were accused of slaying on the high seas,
was alive in India after the fate of Green and his
two brother officers had been sealed. (Burton?s
?? Crim. Trials.?)
On the site of the present Custom House was
built the Fury (a line-of-battle ship, according tb
Lawson?s ?Gazetteer?) and the first of that rate
built in Scotland after the Union.
In I 7 I 2 the first census of Edinburgh and Leith
was taken, and both towns contained only about
48,000 souls.
The insurrection of 1715, under the Earl of
Mar, made Leith the arena of some exciting scenes.
The Earl declined to leave the vicinity of Perth
with his army, and could not co-operate with the
petty insurrection under Forster in the north of
England, as a fleet under Sir John Jennings, Admiral
of the White, including the RqaC Anm, Pew4
Phnix, Dover Custk, and other frigates, held the
Firth of Forth, and the King?s troops under Argyle
were gathering in the southern Lowlands. But, as
it was essential that a detachment from Mar?s army
should join General Forster, it was arranged that
2,500 Highlanders, under old Brigadier Mackintosh
of Borlum-one of the most gallant and resolute
spirits of the age-should attempt to elude the fleet
and reach the Lothians.
The brigadier took possession of all the boats
belonging to the numerous fisher villages on the
Fife coast, and as the gathering of such a fleet as
these, with the bustle of mooring and provisioning
them, was sure to reveal the object in view, a
clever trick was adopted to put all scouts on a false
scent.
All the boats not required by the brigadier he
sent to the neighbourhood of Burntisland, as if he
only waited to cross the Firth there, on which the
fleet left its anchorage and rather wantonly began
to cannonade the fort and craft in the harbour.
While the ships were thus fully occupied, Mackintosh,
dividing his troops in two columns, crossed the
water from Elie, Pittenweem, and Crail, twenty miles
eastward, on the nights of the 12th and 13thOctober,
without the loss of a single boat, and lwded](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p202.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 191")
... MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, ...
Book 5 p. 191
(Score 0.65)
Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf
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![238 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
other, Willielmina, became the wife of John Lord
Glenorchy.
The fate of the Earl of Sutherland, and of his
countess, whose beauty excited the admiration of
all at the coronation of George III., was a very
cloudy one. In frolicking with their first-born, a
daughter, the earl let the infant drop, and it sustained
injuries from which it never recovered, and
the event had so serious an effect on his mind,
that he resorted to Bath, where he died of a
malignant fever. For twenty-one days the countess,
then about to have a babe again, attended him
unremittingly, till she too caught the distemper, and
predeceased him by a few days, in her twenty-sixth
year. Her death was sedulously concealed from
him, yet the day before he expired, when delirium
passed away, he said, I am going to join my dear
Wife,? as if his mind had already begun to penetrate
the veil that hangs between this world and the
next.
In one grave in Holyrood, near the north-east
corner of the ruined chapel, the remains of this
ill-fated couple were laid, on the 9th of August,
1766.
Lady Glenorchy, a woman remarkable for the
piety of her disposition, was far from happy in her
marriage j but we are told that she met with her
rich reward, even iii this world, for she enjoyed
the applause of the wealthy and the blessings of the
poor, with that supreme of all pleasures-the conviction
that the eternal welfare of those in whose
fate she was chiefly interested was forwarded by
her precepts and example.?
In after years, the Earl of Hopetoun, when
acting as Royal Commissioner to the General
Assembly, was wont to hold his state levees in the
house that had been Lord Alva?s.
To the east of hfylne?s Square stood some old
alleys which were demolished to make way for the
North Bridge, one of the greatest local undertakings
of the eighteenth century. One of these alleys was
known as the Cap and Feather Close, immediately
above Halkerston?s Wynd. The lands that formed
the east side of the latter were remaining in some
places almost intact till about 1850.
In one of these, but which it was impossible
to say, was born on the 5th of September, 1750,
that luckless but gifted child of genius, Robert
Fergusson, the poet, whose father was then a clerk
in the British Linen Company; but even the site
of his house, which has peculiar claims on the
interest of every lover of Scottish poetry, cannot
be indicated.
How Halkerston?s Wynd obtained its name we
have already told. Here was an outlet from the
ancient city byway of a dam or dyke across the
loch, to which Lord Fountainhall refers in a case
dated zIst February, 1708. About twenty years
before that time it would appear that the Town
Council ?had opened a new port at the foot
of Halkerston?s Wynd for the convenience of those
who went on foot to Leith; and that Robert
Malloch, having acquired some lands on the other
side of the North Loch, and made yards and built
houses thereon, and also having invited sundry
weavers and other good tradesmen to set up
on Moutree?s Hill [site of the Register House], and
the deacons of crafts finding this prejudicial
to them, and contrary to the 154th Act of Parliament,
I 592,?? evading which, these craftsmen paid
neither scot, lot, nor stent,? the magistrates closed
up the port, and a law plea ensued between them
and the enterprising Robert Malloch, who was
accused of filling up a portion of the bank of the
loch with soil from a quarry. ?The town, on the
other hand, did stop the vent and passage over the
loch, which made it overtlow and drown Robert?s
new acquired ground, of which he complained as
an act of oppression.?
Eventually the magistrates asserted that the loch
was wholly theirs, and ?( that therefore he could
drain no part of it, especially to make it regorge
and inundate on their side. The Lords were
going to take trial by examining the witnesses, but
the magistrates prevented it, by opening the said
port of their own accord, without abiding an order,
and let the sluice run,? by which, of course, the
access by the gate was rendered useless.
Kinloch?s Close adjoined Halkerston?s Wynd, and
therein, till about 1830, stood a handsome old
substantial tenement, the origin and early occupants
of which were all unknown. A mass of curious
and abutting projections, the result of its peculiar
site, it had a finely-carved entrance door, with
the legend, Peir. God. in . Luzy., 1595, and the
initials I. W., and the arms of the surname of
Williamson, together with a remarkable device, a
saltire, from the centre of which rose a crosssymbol
of passion.
Passing Allan Ramsay?s old shop, a narrow bend
gives us access to Carrubber?s Close, the last stronghold
of the faithful Jacobites after 1688. Episcopacy
was abolished in 1689, and although from
that period episcopal clergymen had no legal provision
or settlement, they were permitted, without
molestation, to preach in meeting-houses till I 746 ;
but as they derived no emolument from Government,
and no provision from the State, they did not,
says Arnot, perplex their consciences with voluminous
and unnecessary oaths, but merely excluded](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p058.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 238")
