... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Walk.
Tience, he was appointed captain of the East New
Town Company, and ...
Book 5 p. 162
(Score 0.65)
![APPENDIX. 441
up and down the church till the end of the sermon. When sermon was done, Chiealy went out before the
President, and gained his closs head, where he saluted him going down, as the President did Chiealy. My
Lord Csstlehill and Daniel Lockhart convoyed [the President] a peace down the closs, and talked a while with
him, after which they both departed. The President called back the last, and whilst Daniel waa returning,
Dalrey approached, to whom Daniel said, ‘ I thought you had been att London,’ without receiving any other
answer than that He was there now.’ Daniel offered to take him by the hand, but the other shufaed by him,
and comeing close to the President‘s back discharged his pistol, before that any suspected his design: The
bullet going in beneath the right shoulder, and out att the left pap, was battered on the wall.
“ The President immediately turned about, looked the murderer grievously in the face ; and then finding himself
beginning to faile, he leant to the wall, and said, ‘Hold me, Daniel ; hold me,’ These were his last worda
He was carried immediately to his own house, and waa almost dead before he could reach it Daniel and the
President’s Chaplain apprehended, in the meantime, Ualrey, who own’d the fact, and never offered to fie. He
was carried to the guard, kept in the Weigh-house, and afkrwarda taken to prison%
“ The President’s Ladie, hearing the shot and a cry in the closs, got in her smock out of her bed, and took
the dead bodie in her arms, at which sight swounding she wa9 carried to her chamber. The corps were laid in
the same room where he used to consult, The first of Aprile a Meeting of the States was call’d, att nine of the
clock, anent the Murtherer. The Provost of Edinburgh and two Bailliffs, with the Earle of EmPs deputys,
were admitted to concurr if they pleased. Two of each bench of the meeting, viz the Earle of Eglinton and
Glencarne, Sir Patrick Ogilvy of Pqne and Blacbarroure, Barons, Sir John Dalrymple and Mr William
Hamilton, Burgesses, were impower’d to sit on the Assii, and to cause torture Dalrey, to know if any other waa
accessarie to the murther. The President’s friends, out of tenderness to the Ladie and childring, did not insiit
upon the crime of assassination of a Judge and Privy Counsellor. Calderwood, designed Writter in Edinburgh,
upon suspicion was imprisoned. He waa waiting at the closs head when the shot was given, and fled thereafter.
He had been likewise seen with Dalrey at the Abbey the Saturday before, following the President aa he came
from Duke Hamilton’s lodgeing.
‘‘ The Court sat down as the States rose. The Murtherer was brought in, who did not deny the fact, and
confesst that none was accessarie. He got the boots and the thumekins Dureing the torture he confessed
nothing. Cardross and Polwart were against the tortureing. Calderwood was brought in also, but confessed
nothing. Sir George was buried in the Gray Friers Church, upon the south side. He was a great favourer of
the King’s, no friend to the Romau Catholic& and an open enimie of Nelford’s, whom he regarded as the
author of all the troubles hrought upon the King and Country.”
The Lady Grange, the romantic story of whose captivity in the Island of St Kilda has since furnished
materials both for the novelist and the historian, was a daughter of the assassin, Chiedey of Dahy, and is said
to have owed her strange fate to the fierce and Findictive spirit she inherited from her father. Lord Grange
entered deeply into the politics of the time, and his wife is believed to have obtained possession of 8ome of the
secrets of hia party, the disclosure of which would have involved the leaders in great danger, if not in ruin.
This accounts for the ready co-operation he found from men otherwise unlikely to have shared in such an abduction.
Lady Grange is said to have accelerated the fate which her husband meditated for her, by reminding
him, in a fit of passion, “ that she was Chieslie’s daughter,” a threat that implied he might experience a fate
simiir to that of the Lord President if he provoked her anger, A curious account of the abduction and confinement
of Lady Grange in the Western Isles, will be found in the Edinburgh Magazine for 1817.
In the Archaeologia Scotica (voL iv. p. 18), Father Hay’s narrative is accompanied with the following
letter from Sir Walter Scott, addressed to E. W. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries,
in reference to the finding of the assassin’s bones at Dalry. The reader will see that it greatly diEera
from the account we have given (page 179.) The latter is derived from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Eaq.,
a better authority, we have no hesitation in saying, on questions of fact and antkpzrian rureurch, than
3K](images/thumbs/memorials/memorials_v1_Page_498.gif "Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Page 480")
... 441
up and down the church till the end of the sermon. When sermon was done, Chiealy went out before ...
Book 10 p. 480
(Score 0.65)
... AND NEW EDINBUKGH. [Heriot?s Hospital. 366
with the idea of founding an institution in his native
city, ...
Book 4 p. 366
(Score 0.65)
... SKETCHES. 385
rank of Captain in the 44th, or Lee’s Regiment of Foot. With this corps he
was ...
Book 8 p. 537
(Score 0.64)
... SKETCHES. 273
The same paragraph thus briefly relates the story of the standard, which had
caused so ...
Book 9 p. 363
(Score 0.64)
... Castle Hill~l LORD SEMPLE 9s -
spire which surmounts the massive Gothic tower at
the main entrance rises to ...
Book 1 p. 91
(Score 0.64)
... SKETCHES. 161
thus speaks of himself-“I am now in my eighty-sixth year. I have never
used ...
Book 9 p. 216
(Score 0.64)
![ST LEONARD’S, ST MAR Y’S WYND, AND CO WGATE. 319
Earl of Angus, and in all probability putting him to death, when Gawin Douglas,
Bishop of Dunkeld, the celebrated author of the Pallis of Honor, waited on the Archbishop,
to entreat his mediation between the rival chiefs. The result of the interview has
been related in the earlier part of this work. The Archbishop-was already in armour,
though under cover of his rochet, and when they met again after the bloody contest of ‘‘ Cleanse the Causeway,” it was in the neighbouring Church of the Blackfriars’, where
the poet’s interference alone prevented the warlike Bishop from being slain in arms at
the altar. After living in obscurity for a time, he was promoted to the Metropolitan See
of St Andrew’s by the interest of the Duke of Albany, and yet, such were the strange
vicissitudes of that age, that he is believed to have escaped the vengeance of the
Douglases during their brief triumph in 1525 by literally exchanging his crozier for a
shepherd’s crook, and tending a flock of-sheep upon Bogrian-knowe, not far from his own
diocesan capital. His venerable lodging in the capital is styled by Maitland, “ The
Archiepiscopal Palace, belonging to the See of St Andrews.” James V. appears to have
taken up his abode there on his arrival in Edinburgh, in 1528, preparatory to summoning
a Parliament; and the Archbishop, who had been one of the most active promoters of his
liberation from the Douglas faction, became his entertainer and host. The tradition
which assigns the same mansion as the residence of Cardinal Beaton, the nephew of its
builder, appears exceedingly probable, from his propinquity to the Archbishop, though no
mention is made of him in the titles, unless where he may be referred to by the Episcopal
designation common to both.’
The Palace of the Bishops of Dunkeld, and of Gawin Douglas in particular, the friendly
opponent of the Archbishop, stood on the opposite side of the same street, immediately
to the west of Robertson’s Close, and scarcely an hundred yards from Blackfriars’ Wynd.2
It appears to have been an extensive mansion, with large gardens attached to it, runniug
back nearly to the Old Town wall. Among the pious and munificent acts recorded by
Mylne’ of Bishop Lauder, the preceptor of James II., who was promoted to the See
of Dunkeld in 1452, are the purchasing of a mansion in Edinburgh for himself and successors,
and the founding of an altarage in St Giles’ Church there to St Martin, to which
his successor, Bishop Livingston, became also a c~ntributor.~T he evidence quoted
.
The ancient mansion of the Beatons posseases an additional interest, aa having been the first scene of operations of
the High School of Edinburgh, while a building w a erecting for ita use, as appears from the following notices in the
‘Burgh Record:-“March 12, 1654.-Caus big the grammer skule, lyand on the eist syd of the Kirk-of-Field Wynd.
Jun. 14, 1555.-House at the fute of the Blackfrier Wynd tane to be the grammer scole quhill Witsonday uixt to cum,
for xvj li. of male.” Tabula Naufragii. Motherwell, privately printed. Gla. 1834. ’ This site of the Biishop of Dunkeld‘a lodging was pointed out by Mr R. Chambers in a communication read before
the Society of Antiquaries, Feb. 7, 1847. The following notice, which occurs in a MS. list of pious donations in the
Advocates’ Library, of a charter of mortification, dated ult. Jan. 1498, confirms the description :-“A charter by Thos.
Cameron, mortifying to a chaplain of St Catharine’s altar in St Oeiles’ Kirk, his tenement in Edinburgh, in the Cowgate,
on the south side thereof, betwixt the Bishop of Dunkeld‘s Land on the east, and William Rappillowes on the west, the
common street on the north, and the gait that leads to the Kirk-of-Field [i.e., Inerrnary Street] on the south.” W e
have referred, however, in a previous chapter to the Clarn-aiLcu Turnpike in the High Street, 88 bearing the eame de.
signation ; and the following applies it to a third tenement seemingly on the north side of the aame street :-“A charter
be Janet Pateraon, relict of umq” Alex. Lowder of Blyth, mortiefieing to a chaplaine in St Gilies Kirk an ann. rent of 4
merks out of Wnr. Carkettel’s land in Edinburgh on the north side of the street, betwixt the Bishop of Dunkell’s land
on the east, and the 10/ St Jo. [Lord St John’s] land on the west,” dated “20 June, Regni 10,” probably 1523.
Dec. an. reg. Jac. V.
a Vitoe Dunkeldensis Eccleaise Episcoporum, p. 24.
“ Charter of mortification by Mr Thomas Lauder, canon in Aberdeen [the future bishop, as we presumel, to x chap](images/thumbs/memorials/memorials_v1_Page_365.gif "Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Page 347")
... LEONARD’S, ST MAR Y’S WYND, AND CO WGATE. 319
Earl of Angus, and in all probability putting him to death, ...
Book 10 p. 347
(Score 0.64)
![ALLAN RAMSAY?S SHOP. ?5 5 The Luckenbcoths.]
years after, a second plan was concerted in England,
by a cozenage trial, which might be adduced as a
precedent. The court thought proper to take the
opinion of the twelve judges in England, who
permitted the matter to drop without giving any j
but a third attempt was made to restrain a certain
Scdtsman from trading as a bookseller ih London,
For twelve years this man was harassed by successive
injunctions in Chancery, for printing books
which were not protected by the 8th of Queen
Anne, cap. 19, and the Court of Queen?s Bench
decided against the Scotsman (Miller v. Taylor),
and then the London trade applied once more to the
Court of Session to have it made law in Scotland.
This prosecution was brought by Hinton, a bookseller,
against the well-known Alexander Donaldson,
then in London, to restrain him from publishing
?Stackhouse?s History of the Bible.? He was subjected
to great annoyance, yet he supported himself
against nearly the entire trade in London, and
obtained a decree which was of the greatest importance
to the booksellers in Scotland.
Ramsay?s shop became the rendezvous of. all
the wits of the day. Gay, the poet, who was quite
installed in the household of the Duchess of
Queensberry-the witty daughter of the Earl of
Clarendon and Rochester-accompanied his fair
patroness to Edinburgh,. and resided for some time
in Queensberry House in the Canongate. He was
a frequent lounger at the shop of Ramsay, and is
said to have derived great amusement from the
anecdotes the latter gave of the leading citizens,
as they assembled at the cross, where from his
windows they could be seen daily with powdered
wigs, ruffles, and rapiers. The late William Tytler,
of Woodhouselee, who had frequently seen Gay
there, described him as ? a pleasant little man in
a tye-wig ;? and, according to the Scofs? Magazine
for 1802, he recollected overhearing him request
Ramsay to explain many Scottish words and
national customs, that he might relate them to
Pope, who was already a great admirer of ? The
Gentle Shepherd.?
How picturesque is the grouping in the following
paragraph, by one who has passed away, of
the crowd then visible from the shop of Allan
Ramsay ;-? Gentlemen and ladies paraded along
in the stately attire of the period; tradesmen
chatted in groups, often bareheaded, at their shop
doors ; caddies whisked about bearing messages or
attending to the affairs of strangers ; children filled
the kennel with their noisy sports. Add to this
the corduroyed men from Gilmerton bawling coals
or yellow sand, and spending as much breath in a
minute as would have served poor asthmatic Hugo
Arnot for a month ; fishwomen crying their caller
haddies from Newhaven ; whimsicals and idiots,
each with his or her crowd of tormentors ; sootymen
with their bags ; Town Guardsmen with their
antique Lochaber axes ; barbers with their hairdressing
materials, and so forth.? Added to these
might be the blue-bonneted shepherd in his grey
plaid; the wandering piper; the kilted drover,
armed to the teeth, as was then the fashion ; and
the passing sedan, with liveried bearers.
Johnson, in his ? Lives,? makes no reference to
the Scottish visit of Gay, who died in 1732, but
merely says that for his monetary hardships he received
a recompense ? in the affectionate attention
of the Duke and Duchess of Queensbeny, into
whose house he was taken, and with whom he
passed the remaining part of his life.?
Ramsay gave up his shop and library in 1752,
transferring them to his successor, who opened an
establishment below with an entrance direct from
the street. This was Mr. James MacEwan, from
whom the business passed into the hands of Mr.
Alexander Kincaid, an eminent publisher in his.
time, who took a great lead in civic affairs, and
died in office as Lord Provost of Edinburgh on
the zIst of January, 1777. Escorted by the
trained bands, and every community in the city,
and preceded by ? the City Guard in funeral order,
the officers? scarfs covered with crape, the drums
with black cloth, beating a dead march,? his
funeral, as it issued into the High Street, was one
of the finest pageants witnessed in Edinburgh
since the Union. During his time the old bookseller?s
shop acquired an additional interest from
being the daily lounge of Smollett, who was residing
with his sister in the Canongate in 1776. Thus it
is that he tells us, in ? Humphry Clinker,? that
the people of business in Edinburgh, and
even the genteel company, may be seen standing
in crowds every day, from one to two in the afternoon,
in the open street, at a place where formerly
stood a market cross, a curious piece of Gothic
architecture, still to be seen in Lord Somerville?s
garden in this neighbourhood.?
The attractions of the old shop increased when
it passed with the business into the hands of the
celebrated William Creech, son of the minister of
Newbattle. Educated at the grammar school of
Dalkeith and the University of Edinburgh, he had
many mental endowments, an inexhaustible fund
of amusing anecdote, and great conversational
powers, which through life caused him to be
courted by the most eminent men of the time;
and his smiling face, his well-powdered head, accurate
black suit, with satin breeches, were long](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p167.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 155")
... RAMSAY?S SHOP. ?5 5 The Luckenbcoths.]
years after, a second plan was concerted in England,
by a cozenage ...
Book 1 p. 155
(Score 0.64)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
any reasonable doubt entertahed, it shows that both King James VI. aud his Queen, Anne ...
Book 10 p. 494
(Score 0.64)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
of Brockhouse, contracted with the corporation to
provide accommodation for ...
Book 6 p. 194
(Score 0.64)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street
other services, Charles Philip Count d?artois,
brother of the ill-fated ...
Book 2 p. 262
(Score 0.64)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Infirmary Street.
In that year a fishing company was dissolved,
and the partners were ...
Book 4 p. 298
(Score 0.63)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
The next figure, in the centre, represents MR. WILLIAM JAMIESON,
mason and architect, ...
Book 8 p. 316
(Score 0.63)
![The Tolhwth] THE SIGNET ANI) ADVOCATES? LIBRARIES. 123
THE genius of Scott has shed a strange halo around
the memory of the grim and massive Tolbooth
prison, so much so that the creations of his imagination,
such as Jeanie and Effie Deans, take the
place of real persons of flesh? and blood, and suchtraders.
They have been described as being ?a
dramdrinking, news-mongering, facetious set of
citizens, who met every morn about seven o?clock,
and after proceeding to the post-office to ascertain
the news (when the mail arrived), generally adjourned
to a public-house and refreshed themselves
with a libation of brandy.? Unfounded articles of
intelligence that were spread abroad in those days
were usually named ? Lawnmarket Gazettes,? in
allusion to their roguish or waggish originators.
At all periods the Lawnmarket was a residence
for nien of note, and the frequent residence of
English and other foreign ambassadors; and so
long as Edinburgh continued to be the seat of the
Parliament, its vicinity to the House made it a
favourite and convenient resort for the members
of the Estates.
On the ground between Robert Gourlay?s house
and Beith?s Wynd we now find some of those portions
of the new city which have been engrafted on
the old. In Melbourne Place, at the north end of
George IV. Bridge, are situated many important
offices, such as, amongst others, those of the Royal
Medical Society, and the Chamber of Commerce
and Manufactures, built in an undefined style of
architecture, new to Edinburgh. Opposite, with
its back to the bridge, where a part of the line of
Liberton?s Wynd exists, is built the County Hall,
presenting fronts to the Lawnmarket and to St.
Giles?s. The last of these possesses no common
beauty, as it has a very lofty portico of finely-flutcd
columns, overshadowing a flight of steps leading to
the main entrance, which is modelled after the
choragic monument of Thrasyllus, while the ground
plan and style of ornament is an imitation of the
Temple of Erechtheius at Athens. It was erected
in 1817, and contains several spacious and lofty
court-rooms, with apartments for the Sheriff and
other functionaries employed in the business of the
county. The hall contains a fine statue of Lord
Chief Baron Dundas, by Chantrey.
is the power of genius, that with the name of the
Heart of Midlothian we couple the fierce fury of
the Porteous mob. ?Antique in form, gloomy and
haggard in aspect, its black stanchioned windows,
opening through its dingy walls like the apertures
~
Adjoining it and stretching eastward is the library
of the Writers to the Signet. It is of Grecian architecture,
and possesses two long pillared halls of
beautiful proportions, the upper having Corinthian
columns, and a dome wherein are painted the
Muses. It is 132 feet long by about 40 broad,
and was used by George IV. as a drawing-room,
on the day of the royal banquet in the Parliament ,
House. Formed by funds drawn solely from contributions
by Writers to H.M. Signet, it is under
a body of curators. The library contains more
than 60,000 volumes, and is remarkably rich in
British and Irish history.
Southward of it and lying psxallel with it, nearer
the Cowgate, is the Advocates? Library, two long
halls, with oriel windows on the north side. This
library, one of the five in the United Kingdom entitled
to a copy of every work printed in it, was
founded by Sir George Mackenzie, Dean of Faculty
in 168z, and contains some zoo,ooo volumes,
forming the most valuable cpllection of the kind
in Scotland. The volumes of Scottish poetry alone
exceed 400. Among some thousand MSS. are those
of Wodrow, Sir James Balfour, Sir Robert Sibbald,
and others. In one of the lower compartments
may be seen Greenshield?s statue of Sir Walter
Scott, and the original volume of Waverley; two
volumes of original letters written by Mary Queen
of Scots and Charles I.; the Confession of Faith
signed by James VI. and the Scottish nobles in
1589-90; a valuable cabinet from the old Scottish
mint in the Cowgate; the pennon borne by
Sir William Keith at Flodden; and many other
objects of the deepest interest. The office of
librarian has been held by many distinguished
men of letters; among them were Thomas Ruddiman,
in 1702; David Hume, his successor, in,
1752 ; Adani Ferguson ; and David Irving, LL.D.
A somewhat minor edifice in the vicinity forms
the library of the Solicitors before the Supreme
Court](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p135.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 123")
... Tolhwth] THE SIGNET ANI) ADVOCATES? LIBRARIES. 123
THE genius of Scott has shed a strange halo around
the ...
Book 1 p. 123
(Score 0.63)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Convivialia
party by appointment, especially in winter, after
evening closed in, and ...
Book 5 p. 126
(Score 0.63)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
was he in his attachment to Presbyterianism, that he relinquished his profession as ...
Book 10 p. 227
(Score 0.63)
![High Street.] THE DEATH OF KNOX. 215
same chamber, was so sodainly amazed that she
took sickness and dyed ;I, an absurd fabrication, as
in the year after his death a pension was granted
to her and her three daughters, and she is known
to have been alive till about the end of the
sixteenth century.
In that old house, the abode of plebeians now,
have sat and debated again and again such men
as the Regent Murray, the cruel and crafty
Morton, the Lords Boyd, Ruthven, Ochiltree, and
the half-savage Lindsay-
? He whose iron eye
Oft saw fair Mary weep in vain; ?
Johnstone of Elphinstone, Fairiie, Campbell of
Kinyeoncleugh, Douglas of Drumlanrig, and all
who were the intimates of Knox ; and its old walls
have witnessed much and heard much that history
may never unravel.
It was while resident here that Knox?s enemies
are said-for there is little proof of the statement
-to have put a price upon his head, and that his
most faithful friends were under the necessity of
keeping watch around it during the night, and of
appointing a guard for the protection of his person
at times when he went abroad. When under
danger of hostility from the queen?s garrison in
the Castle, in the spring of 1571, M?Crie tells us
that ?one evening a musket-ball was fired in at
his window and lodged in the roof of the apartment
in which he was sitting. It happened that
he sat at the time in a different part of the room
from that which he had been accustomed to
occupy, otherwise the ball, from the direction it
took, must have struck him.?
It was probably after this that he retreated for a
time to St. Andrews, but he returned to his manse
in the end of August, 1572, while Kirkaldy was
still vigorously defending the fortress for his exiled
queen.
His bodily infirmities now increased daily, and
on the 11th of November he was attacked with a
cough which confined him to bed.
Two days before that he had conducted the
services at the induction of his colleague, Mr.
James Lawson, in St. Giles?s, and though he was
greatly debilitated, he performed the important
duties that devolved upon him with something of
his wonted fire and energy to those who heard
him for the last time. He then came down from
the pulpit, and leaning on his staff, and supported
by his faithful secretary, Richard Bannatyne (one
account says by his wife), he walked slowly down
the street to his own house, accompanied by the
whole congregation, watching, for the last time, his
feeble steps.
During his last illness, which endured about a
fortnight, he was visited by many of the principal
nobles and reformed preachers, to all of whom he
gave much advice; and on Monday, the 24th of
November, 1572, he expired in his sixty-seventh
year, having been born in 1505, during the reign
of James IV.
From this house his body was conveyed to its
last resting-place, on the south side of St. Gileo?s,
accompanied by a mighty multitude of all ranks,
where the newly-appointed Regent Morton pronounced
over the closing grave his well-known
eulogiuni.
That eastern nook of the old city, known as the
Nether Eow has many associations connected with
it besides the manse of Knox
Therein was the abode of Robert Lekprevik,
one of the earliest of Scottish printers, to whose
business it is supposed Bassandyne succeeded on
his removal to St. Andrews in 1570; and there, in
16 13, the authorities discovered that a residenter
named James Stewart, ? commonly called James of
Jerusalem, a noted Papist, and re-setter of seminary
prints,? was wont to have mass celebrated in his
house by Robert Philip, a priest returned from
Rome. Both men were arrested and tried on this
charge, together with a third, John Logan, portioner,
of Restalrig, who had formed one of the
small and secret congregation in Stewart?s house
in the Nether Bow. ?One cannot, in these days
of tolerance,? says Dr. Chambers, ? read without a
strange sense of uncouthness the solemn expressions
of horror employed in the dittays of the king?s advocates
against the offenders, being precisely the
same expressions that were used against heinous
offences of a more tangible nature.?
Logan was fined LI,OOO, and compelled to express
public penitence; and Philip and Stewart
were condemned to banishment from the realm of
Scotland.
In the Nether Bow was the residence of James
Sharp, who had been consecrated with great pomp
at Westminster, as Archbishop of St. Andrews, on
the 15th of November, 1661-a prelate famous for
his unrelenting persecution of the faithful adherents
of the Covenant which followed his elevation, and
justly increased the general odium of his character,
and who perished under the hands of pitiless assassins
on Magus Muir, in 1679.
Nicoll, the diarist, tells us, that on the 8th of
May, 1662, all the newly consecrated bishops were
convened in their gowns at the house of the Archbishop,
in the Nether Bow, from whence they proceeded
in state to the Parliament House, conducted
by two peers, the Earl of Kellie (who had been](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p035.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 215")
... Street.] THE DEATH OF KNOX. 215
same chamber, was so sodainly amazed that she
took sickness and dyed ;I, an ...
Book 2 p. 215
(Score 0.63)
![405 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
myself to their notice. In forming my list for voting at the general election, I consider myself
bound, in honour and gratitude, to give my support to those lords who have uniformly befriended me,
in preference to new candidates who may now come forward, and from whom I have hitherto
received no countenance. ’ Should the arrangement I may ultimately make for the disposal of my votes
not accord with your lordship’s wishes, I trust you will do me the justice to believe that I am not
actuated by factious motives, nor by any want of respect for your lordship.-I have the honour to
be, my dear Lord, your lordship’s most obedient humble servant, NAPIER.
Whitehall, 27th Octo6er 1806.
“ The Right Hon. EARLS PENCERet,c . etc. etc.”
I‘ MY DEAR LORD-I have had the honour of your letter of the 21st instant, and am much concerned
at the contents of it, as I ani very apprehensive that the new candidates who intend to offer
themselves for the Representation of the Scotch Peerage, and are supporters of Government, will
not be disposed to give their support unless they can expect support in return.-I have the honour
to be, my dear Lord, your lordship’s very obedient humble servant, SPENCER.
“Edinhcryh, 30th October 1806.
“LORD NAPIER.”
“ MY DEAR LORD-I have this moment had the honour of receiving your lordship’s letter of the
27th instant. I certainly cannot expect the votes of candidates from whom I may withhold my
support ; but I trust that such as I may be ready to change votes with will be equally inclined to
do so with me.-I have the honour to be, my dear Lord, your lordship’s most obedient humble servant,
NAPIER.
“ The Right Hon. EARLS PERCERet,d . etc. etc.”
Lord Napier was not undersized, though he appears rather diminutive between
his gigantic companions in the Print; and a certain air of nobility set off a
figure of goodly proportions. He was remarkable for an eagle-eye ; and, we
must add an eagle-noee, which Kay has rendered perhaps rather prominent, by
placing the other features too much in abeyance ; yet the characteristic expression
of the portrait is so marked as not to be mistaken. His lordship is represented
in his uniform as Colonel of the Hopetoun Fencibles. When not in regimentals
he generally dressed plainly, but with the nicest attention to propriety,
although in his day the garb of gentlemen was of the most gaudy descriptionconsisting
very frequently of a crimson or purple coat, green plush vest, black
breeches, and white stockings.
The anecdote related in Lockhart’s Li,fe of 8cott, as illustrative of Lord Napier’s
finical taste, is altogether apocryphal.’ No one who knew his lordship could
“Lord and Lady Napier had arrived at Castlemilk (in Lanarkshire), with the intentionof
staying a week ; but next morning it was announced that a circumstance had occurred which rendered
it indispensable for them to return without delay to their own seat in Selkirkshire. It was impossible
for Lady Stewart to extract any further explanation at the moment, but it turned out afterwards
that Lord Napier’s valet had committed the grievous mistake of packing up a set of neckcloths which
did not correspond, in point of date, with the shirts they accompanied ! ”
[That the above ridiculous story was current as a jest, in some circles, is true, but it had no
foundation in fact. Our informant, whose authority is not to be doubted, is “perfecUy positive
Lord and Lady Napier never were at Castlemilk in their lives, and almost as positive they were nut
acquainted with Lady Stewart.”
The circumstance alluded to, but not fully explained, by Mr. Lockhart, of Lord Napier having been
the person who induced Sir Walter Scott to reside for some period of the year within the bounds of
his sheriffdom of Selkirkshire, was alike honourable to the Lord-Lieutenant, and to the illustrious
Sheriff himself, who, as his biographer frankly admits, feeling that Lord Napier was clearly in the
right, cheerfully adopted the suggestion, and planted his immortal staff where it became the
pmsidium at once, and the duke decus of the Forest ; and Lord Napier may be pardoned for having
been, in those times of threatened invasion, BS enthusiastic in his duties of Lord-Lieutenant as was
the Sheriff in those of a volunteer cavalry officer.]](images/thumbs/kays_thumb_pages/kays_v1_p_Page_576.gif "Kay's Originals Vol. 1 Page 567")
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
myself to their notice. In forming my list for voting at the general election, I ...
Book 8 p. 567
(Score 0.63)
... STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE mu. I53
of the school recently rebuilt in Ramsay Lane, that still ...
Book 10 p. 166
(Score 0.62)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Wynd.
In 1650 it was used as a hospital for the wounded
soldiers of General ...
Book 2 p. 302
(Score 0.62)
... OLD AND NEW? EDINBURGH. [Canongate.
refain its distinct dignity as a burgh of regality.
In its arms it bears ...
Book 3 p. 2
(Score 0.62)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
An aisle appears to have bLen added at a later period to the south of the two ...
Book 10 p. 424
(Score 0.62)
Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf
The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
