![328 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Blind ; one of the Committee of Management of the Deaf and Dumb Institution ;
one of the Extraordinary Directors of the House of Refuge; and one of
the Ordinary Managers of the Royal Infirmary, and of the Royal Public
Dispensary.
To the Society of Antiquaries, Sir Henry communicated an interesting
account of the opening of the grave of King Robert the Bruce, which took place
at Dunfermline, in presence of the Barons of Exchequer and other gentlemen,
on the 5th of November 1819.’
i
The other figure with the volunteer cap, immediately in the rear of Sir
Henry, is the late SIR ROBERT DUNDAS of Beechwood, Bart., one of the
Principal Clerks of Session, and Deputy to the Lord Privy Seal of Scotland.
He was born in June 1761, and descended of the Arniston family, whose
common ancestor, Sir James .Dundas, was knighted by Charles I., and
appointed a Senator of the College of Justice by Charles 11. His father, the
Rev. Robert Dundas, brother to the late General Sir David Dundas, K.G.C.B.,
and some years Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty’s Forces, was a clergyman
of the Established Church, and some time minister of the parish of Humbie, in
the county of Haddington. Sir Robert-the subject of our notice-was educated
as a Writer to the Signet, After a few years’ practice, he was made
Deputy Keeper of Sashes; and, in 1820, appointed one of the Principal
Clerks of Session. He succeeded to the baronetage and the estate of Beechw9od
(near Edinburgh) on the death of his uncle, General Sir David Dundas.
He acquired by purc)ase, from, Lord Viscount Melville, the beautiful estate of
Dunira, in Perthshire.
Sir Robert was an original member of the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, and
held the commission of Lieutenant in 1794. In 1792, he married Matilda,
daughter of Baron Cockburn, by whom he had eight children. He died on
1 The communication of Sir Henry appeared in the Society’s Tyamactiom, printed in 1823, vol.
ii. part ii., together with a drawing of the coftin, and a facsimile of a plate of copper supposed to
have been attached to it. This relic is stated to have been found by the workmen a few days a f h
the opening of the grave, and is described as “ five and a half inches in length, and four in breadth,
and about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, with holes at each corner for fixing it on the coffin,
bearing this inscription, Robertus Xcotomm Rex; the letters resemble those on the coins of this
King [Bruce]. A cross is placed under the inscription, with a mullet or star in each angle, with the
crown, precisely of the form iu those coins. It was found among the rubbish which had been
removed on the 5th, close to the vault on the east side, and most probably had been adhering to thc
atones of the vault, and had thus escaped our notice at the time.” The plate, so minutely and
gravely described, was forwarded by Provost Wilson of Dunfermline, and duly deposited in the
Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries ; but it afterwards transpired that the “important fragment,”
as it was termed, was nothing more than an ingenious device, the work of a blacksmith, contrived
for the purpose of hoaxing the Antiquariev ! The success of his attempt waa complete ; and but for
his own imprudence, or rather an irresistible desire to enjoy the laugh at the expense of the Society,
the deception might have remained undiscovered.
It may not be unworthy of notice that Sir Henry wiw one of the commissioners appointed, along
with Sir Walter Scott and others, to open the chest which contained the Regalia of Scotland,
deposited in Edinburgh Castle, but which, according to rumour, had been carried to the Tower of
London, and that he had the high gratification of being the first to lay hands upon the Crown, which
he held up to the view of the spectators. It was found on the 4th of February 1818.](images/thumbs/kays_thumb_pages/kays_v2__Page_445.gif "Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Page 437")
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Blind ; one of the Committee of Management of the Deaf and Dumb Institution ;
one of ...
Book 9 p. 437
(Score 0.61)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
“he tenement directly opposite to the site of St Mary’s Chapel, and forming the ...
Book 10 p. 340
(Score 0.61)
![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.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p023.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 11")
... JVHN PATERSON. I1
The latter is an anagram on the name of ?John
Paterson,? while the quatrain was the ...
Book 3 p. 11
(Score 0.61)
... I 0 GRAPH I C -4 L S K E T C H E S. 119
as well as his r i s e in civic dignity, being almost totally ...
Book 8 p. 174
(Score 0.61)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
this copartnery he was very prosperous ; and his good fortune was increased
by ...
Book 8 p. 522
(Score 0.61)
... in the old house, of the plague. His widow
survived him, and the street was named Lady
Gray?s Close till ...
Book 1 p. 103
(Score 0.6)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Orknay, of the rycht of the Grammar Schole during his lyftyme, in favouris of ...
Book 10 p. 304
(Score 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Ravelston.
shady with wood, strikes from the Murrayfield Road
northward past the ...
Book 5 p. 106
(Score 0.6)
![North Bridge.] THE PLAYHOUSE GHOST. 347
youthful frolic ; and it was a rich treat to hear him
tell of a Highland solicitor?s apprentice, who, on
hearing some one express a hope there would be
no blows, exclaimed, ? Plows, by Got ! ? and fell
on. At a distance of thirty years, on an opportunity
occurring of speaking a good word in favour
of an application of this person for a situation in the
Exchequer, Scott felt bound to use his influence,
from a friendly feeling about the Rayhouse Row.?
In 1797 there appeared in the Edinburgh
Theatre Henry Erskine Johnston, known in his
time as ? The Scottish Roscius,? from the circumstance
of his having been born in the High Street,
where his father was a barber ; the latter happened
to be shaving Henry Erskine, when intelligence
was brought that his wife had just presented him
with a son, whom he named from the learned
barrister then under his hands. Old Johnston
afterwards kept an oyster tavern in Shakespeare
Square, where he died in 1826.
Quitting a writer?s oflice in which he was a clerk,
his son came forth as an actor, his favourite parts
being those of Hamlet and Norval, and he was
nightly the attraction of Scottish playgoers, whom
he was wont to astonish by playing the Danish
Prince and Harlequin alternately. A young lady
who saw him acting in a piece called The Storming
of Srhgafatam fell deeply in love with him,
? and after a short, albeit impassioned courtship,
she became Mrs. Johnston, although at that period
only about fifteen.? From Edinburgh he went to
Dublin and elsewhere. We shall have to recur to
him as manager of the rival theatre in the city.
Prior to that his story was a painful one. His
young wife became, as an actress, the rage in
London, and, unhappily for him, yielded to the
temptations thrown in her way-she shone for a
few short years in the theatrical atmosphere of the
English metropolis, and then sank into insignificance,
while poor Johnston became a houseless
and heart-broken wanderer.
The old Theatre Royal had an unpleasant
tenant in the shape of a ghost, which made its appearance,
or rather made itself heard first during
the management of Mr. Jackson. His family
occupied a small house over the box-office and
immediately adjoining the theatre, and it was
alleged that long after the latter had closed and
the last candle been snuffed out, strange noises
pervaded the entire building, as if the mimic
scenes of the plays were being acted over again by
phantoms none could see. As the story spread
and grew, it caused some consternation. What
the real cause of this was has never been explained,
but it occurred for nights at a time.
Between 1794 and 1809 the old theatre was in
B very struggling condition. The debts that encumbered
it prevented the management from
bringing to it really good actors, and the want of
these prevented the debts from being paid OK
For the sum of ;EB,ozo Mr. Jackson, the old
manager, became the ostensible purchaser of the
house in 1800, and for several years after that date
it was conducted by Mr. Rock, who, though an
able and excellent actor, could never succeed in
making it an attractive or paying concern, ?? One
of the few points of his reign worthy of notice was
the appearance here of the Yourg Ros&s, a boy
who, for a brief space, passed as a great actor.
The Edinburgh public viewed with intense interest
this lad playing young Norval on the stage, and the
venerable author of the play blubbering in the
boxes, and declaring that until now his conception
of the character had never been realised.?
Many old favourites came in succession, whose
names are forgotten now. Among these was Mrs.
Charters, a sustainer, with success, of old lady
parts. Her husband, who died in 1798, had been
a comic actor on the same boards, in conjunction
with Mr. Henderson, in 1784. He had by nature
an enormous nose, and was deemed the perfection
of a Bardolph, in which character Kay depicts him,
with a three-cocked hat and knee breeches; and
Henderson, as FalstaK, in long slop-trousers, and
armed with a claymore! Mrs. Charters died in
1807, and her obituary is thus recorded in the
Edinburgh papers of the day :-
?Died here on Monday last, with the wellmerited
reputation of an honest and inoffensive
woman, Mrs. Charters, who has been in this
theatre for more than thirty years. She succeeded
the much-admired Mrs. Webb, and for many years
after that actress left the city was an excellent
substitute in Lady Dacre, Juliet?s Nurse, Deborah
Woodcock, Dorcas, Mrs. Bunale, &c., &c.?
In her own line she was worthily succeeded by
Mrs. Nicol, who retired from the Theatre Royal in
1834, after a brilliant career of twenty-seven years,
and died in 1835. In her old lady parts she was .
ably succeeded by her daughter, Miss Nicol, whose
name is still remembered with honour and regard
by all the old playgoers of Edinburgh.
Another Edinburgh favourite for upwards of
thirty years was Mr. Woods, the leading actor,
whom the public strenuously opposed every attempt
on the part of the management to change.
He retired from the boards in April, 1802, intending
to open an elocution class in the city, but died
in the December of that year. For his benefit in
I 784, he appeared as ?(Young Riot ? in a local](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p167.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 347")
... Bridge.] THE PLAYHOUSE GHOST. 347
youthful frolic ; and it was a rich treat to hear him
tell of a Highland ...
Book 2 p. 347
(Score 0.6)
... UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 201
and humour that led Burns to style him ‘‘ a birkie wee1 worth gowd,” ...
Book 10 p. 220
(Score 0.6)
... Old High S:hoo!.l THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 287
college, the pulpits, desks, lofts, and seats, were;
says Nicol, (( ...
Book 4 p. 287
(Score 0.59)
![Parlient Close.] JOHN OSW.4LD. I79
his peculiar hze& or place of resort by day or
night, where merchants, traders, and men of every
station, met for consultation, or good-fellowship,
and to hear the items of news that came by the
mail or stage from distant parts; and Wilson,
writing in 1847, says, ? Currie?s Tavern, in Craig?s
Close, ?once the scene of meeting of various clubs,
and a favourite resort of merchants, still retains
.a reputation among certain antiquarian bibbers for
an old-fashioned luxury, known by the name
of jaj-in, a strange compound of small-beer and
whiskey, curried, as the phrase is, with a little
aatmeal.?
Gossiping Wodrow tells us in his ?I Analecta,?
that, on the 10th of June, 1712, ?The birthday of
the Pretender, I hear there has been great outrages
.at Edinburgh by his friends. His health was drunk
early in the morning in the Parliament Close j and
at night, when the magistrates were going through
the streets to keep th: peace, several were
taken up in disguise, and the King?s health (ie.,
James VIII.) was drunk out of several windows,
and the glasses thrown over the windows when
the magistrates passed by, and many windows
were illuminated. At Leith there was a standard
:set upon the pier, with a thistle and Nemo me
imjune Zaessit, and J ?R. VI11 ; and beneath,
Noe Abjuration. This stood a great part of the
-day.? Had the old historian lived till the close
.of the century or the beginning of the present,
he might have seen, as Chambers tells us, ?Singing
Jamie Balfour ?-a noted convivialist, of whom
a portrait used to hang in the Leith Golf-housewith
other topers in the Parliament Close, all bareheaded,
on their knees, and hand-in-hand, around
.the statute of Charles II., chorusing vigorously,
?T. King s h d enjoy his own again.? Jamie
Balfour was well known to Sir Walter Scott.
About the year 1760 John?s coffee-house was
kept by a man named Oswald, whose son John,
born there, and better known under his assumed
name of Sylvester Otway, was one of the most
extraordinary characters of that century as a poet
.and politician. He served an apprenticeship to a
jeweller in the Close, till a relation left him a
legacy, with which he purchased a commission in
the Black Watch, and in 1780 he was the third
lieutenant in seniority in the 2nd battalion when
serving in India. Already master of Latin and
Greek, he then taught himself Arabic, and, quitting
the army in 1783, became a violent Radical, and
published in London a pamphlet on the British
Constitution, setting forth his views (crude as they
were) and principles. His amatory poems received
she dpprobation of Bums; and, after publishing
various farces, effusions, and fiery political papers,
he joined the French Revolutionists in 1792, when
his pamphlets obtained for him admission into
the Jacobite Club, and his experiences in the
qznd procured him command of a regiment composed
of the masses of Paris, with which he
marched against the royalists in La Vendie, on
which occasion his men mutinied, and shot him,
together with his two sons-whom, in the spirit of
quality, he had made drummers-and an English
Zentleman, who had the misfortune to be serving
in the same battalion.
John third Earl, of Bute, a statesman and a
patron of literature, who procured a pension for
Dr. Johnson, and who became so unpopular as
a minister through the attacks of Wilkes, was
born in the Parliament Close on the 25th of May,
1713.
Near to John?s coffee-house, and on the south
side ,of the Parliament Close, was the banking-house
of Sir William Forbes, Bart., who was born at Edinburgh
in 1739. He was favourably known as the
author of the ?Life of Beattie,? and other works,
and as being one of the most benevolent and highspirited
of citizens. The bank was in reality established
by the father of Thomas Coutts, the eminent
London banker, and young Forbes, in October,
1753, was introduced to the former as an apprentice
for a term of seven years. He became a copartner
in 1761, and on the death of one of the
Messrs. Coutts, and retirement of another on
account of ill-health, while two others were settled
in London, a new company was formed, comprising
Sir William Forbes, Sir James Hunter Blair,
and Sir Robert Hemes, who, at first, carried on
business in the name of the old firm.
In 1773, however, Sir Robert formed a separate
establishment in London, when the name was
changed to Forbes, Hunter, and Co., of which
firm Sir William continued to be the head till his
death, in 1806.
Kin&id tells us that, when their first bankinghouse
was building, great quantities of human
bones-relics of St. Giles?s Churchyard-were dug
up, which were again buried at the south-east
corner, between the wall of the edifice and the
Parliament Stairs that led to the Cowgate; and
that, ? not many years ago, numbers were also dug
up in the Parliament Close, which were carefully
put in casks, and buried in the Greyfriars? Churchyard?
In accordance with a longcherished desire of
restoring his family-which had been attainted for
loyalty to the house of StuartLSir William Forbes
embraced a favourable opportunity for purchasing](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p191.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 179")
... Close.] JOHN OSW.4LD. I79
his peculiar hze& or place of resort by day or
night, where merchants, ...
Book 1 p. 179
(Score 0.59)
... City Cross. J EXECUTIONS AT. THE CITY CROSS. ?5?
It flits, expands, and 2 hifts, till loud
From midmost of ...
Book 1 p. 151
(Score 0.59)
... OLD -4ND NEW EDINBURGH. urffrey Street
of The Friend of India, and author of the ?Life
of Dr. IVilson of ...
Book 2 p. 290
(Score 0.59)
![Restalrig.] CAPTAIN MACRAE.? ?39
frewshire Sketches, styles ? a Goth who committed
a most barbarous deed by demolishing the great
and splendid castle (of Houston) in 1780, and
applied the stones to the building of a new village
for lappet weavers.?
During his occupation of Marionville, his tastes
and family being gay and fashionable, the house
was the scene of constant festivities and private
theatricals, of which, many such notices appear in
the papers of the time, like the following from the
Advertiser of April, I 7 89 :-
?On Tuesday last, the tragedy of Yen12 Presmed was
performed before a genteel and select company at Mr.
Macrae?s Private Theatre at Marionville. The following
were the principal Dram&> Persane :-
Priuli . . . . Mrs. Hunter.
Pierre . . . . Captain Mackewan.
Jaffier . . , . Mr. Macrae.
Renault . . . Mr. Welwood.
Bedamar , . . Mr. Dowling.
Duke of Venice . . Mr. Justice.
Belvidera . . . Mrs. Macrae.
Mrs. Macrae and
Captain Mackewan, in particular, performed in a style ol
superior excellence.?
The play gave very great satisfaction.
Captain Macrae, in addition to being a man of
fortune, was well-connected, and was a cousin of
that good Earl of Glencairn who was the friend
and patron of Buyns, while through his mother he
was nearly related to Viscount Fermoy and the
famous Sir Boyle Roche. He was a man of a
generous and warm disposition, but possessed a
somewhat lofty and imperious sense of what he
deemed due to the position of a gentleman; and
being yet young, he was about to return to the
army when the catastrophe occurred which caused
his ruin. All allowed him to be a delightful companion,
yet liable to be transported beyond the
bounds of reason at times by trivial matters.
? Thus,? says Chambers, ? a messenger of the law
having arrested the Rev. Mr. Cunningham, a brother
of the Earl of Glencairn, far debt, as he was passing
with a party from the drawing-room to the
dining-room of Drumsheugh House, Macrae threw
the man over the stairs. He was prompted to this
act by indignation at the affront which he conceived
his cousin, as a gentleman, had received
from a common man. But soon after, when it was
represented to him that every other means of
inducing Mr. Cunningham to settle his debt had
failed, and when he learned that the messenger had
suffered severe injury, he went to him, made him a
hearty apology, and agreed to pay 300 guineas by
way of compensation.?
His wife was Maria Cecilia le Maitre, daughter of
the Baroness Nolken, wife of the Swedish ambassador.
While resident occasionally with her cousin
in Paris M.adame de la Briche, the private theatricals
they saw at her magnificent house in the
Marais led to the reproduction of them at Marionville.
There the husband and wife both took
character parts, and Sir David Kinloch and the Mr.
Justice already mentioned were among their best
male performers ; and often Mrs. Macrae herselc
The chief lady was Mrs. Carruthers, of Dormont,
in Dumfries-shire, a daughter of Paul Sandby, the
eminent artist, and founder of the English school
of water-colour painting, who died in 1809.
Marionville was quite the centre of fashionable
society ; but, manners apart-alternately stately
and rough-how strange to-day seems what was
fashionable then in Edinburgh ! the ladies with
head-dresses so enormous that at times they had to
sit on the carriage floor ; the gentlemen with bright
coloured coats, with tails that reached to their
heels, breeches so tight that to get them on or off
was a vast toil; waistcoats six inches long; large
frilled shirts and stiff cravats ; a watch in each fob,
with a bunch of seals, and wigs with great side
curls, exactly as Kay shows Macrae when in the
act of levelling a pistol.
In the visiting circle at Marionville were Sir
George Ramsay, Bart., of Banff House, and hiq
lady, whose maiden name was Eleanor Fraser, and
they and the Macraes seem to have been very intimate
and warmly attached friends, till a quarrel
arose between the two husbands about a rather
trivial cause.
On the evening of the 7th April, 1790, Captain
Macrae was handing a lady out of the box-lobby
of the old theatre, and endeavoured to get a sedan
for $er conveyance home. Seeing two chairmen
approach with one, he asked if it was disengaged,
and both replied distinctly in the affirmative.
Macrae wasabout to hand the lady into it, a footman
came forward in a violent manner, and seizing one
of the poles insisted that it was engaged for his
mistress, though the latter had gone home some
time before ; but the man, who was partly intoxicated,
knew not that she had done so.
Macrae, irritated by the valet?s manner, gave him
a rap over the knuckles with his cane, to make hini
quit his hold of the pole ; on this the valet called
him a scoundrel, and struck him on the breast.
On being struck over the head, the man became
more noisy and abusive ; Macrae proceeded to
chastise him, on which several bystanders took
part with the valet ; a general brawl seemed about
to ensue; another chair was got for the terrified
lady, and she was carried away. The details of
this brawl are given in the ? Life of Peter Bumef
?
As -](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p150.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 139")
... CAPTAIN MACRAE.? ?39
frewshire Sketches, styles ? a Goth who committed
a most barbarous deed by ...
Book 5 p. 139
(Score 0.59)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Bmughton.
superiority of Broughton was yielded by the
Crown, partly in payment of ...
Book 3 p. 182
(Score 0.59)
![High Street.] DR. CULLEN. 271 -
it jure tan?io hyfotheca till he was paid the price
of it.?
The same house was, in the succeeding century,
occupied by Dr. William Cullen, the eminent
physician; while Lord Hailes lived in the more
ancient lodging in the south portion of the Mint,
prior to his removal to the modern house which
he built for himself in New Street, Canongate.
William Cullen was born in Lanarkshire, in
1710, and after passing in medicine at Glasgow,
made several voyages as surgeon of a merchantman
between London and the Antilles; but tiring of
thesea, he took a country practice at Hamilton,
and his luckily curing the duke of that name of an
illness, secured him a patronage for the future, and
after various changes, in 1756, on the death of Dr.
Plummer, he took the vacant chair of chemistry
in the University of Edinburgh. On the death
of Dr. Piston he succeeded him as lecturer in
materia medica, and three years afterwards resigned
the chair of chemistry to his own pupil,
Dr. Black, on being appointed professor of the
theory of medicine.
As a lecturer Dr. Cullen exercisedagreat influence
over the state of opinion relative to the science
of medicine, and successfully combated the specious
doctrines of Boerhaave depending on the
humoral pathology ; his own system was founded
on the enlarged view of the principles of Frederick
Hoffnian. The mere enumeration of his works on
medicine would fill a page, but most of them were
translated into nearly every European language.
. He continued his practice as a physician as well as
his medical lectures till a few months before his
death, when the infirmities of age induced him to
resign his professorship, and one of many addresses
he received on that occasion was the following :-
? On the 8th of January, 1790, the Lord Provost,
magistrates, and Council of Edinburgh, voted a
piece of plate of fifty guineas of value to Dr. Cullen,
as a testimony of their respect for his distinguished
merits and abilities and his eminent services to the
university during the period of thirty-four years,
in which he has held an academical chair. On the
plate was engraved an inscription expressive of the
high sense the magistrates, as patrons of the university,
had of the merit of the Professor, and of
their esteem and regard.?
Most honourable to him also were the resolutions
passed on the 27th of January by the entire
Senatus Academicus ; but he did not survive those
honours long, as he died at his house in the Mint,
on the 5th of February, 1790, in his eightieth year.
By his wife-a Miss Johnston, who died there in
1786-he had a numerous family. One of his
sons, Robert, entered at the Scottish Bar in 1764,
and distinguishing himself highly as a lawyer, was
raised to the bench in 1796, as Lord Cullen. He
cultivated elegant literature, and contributed several
papers of acknowledged talent to the Mirror and
Lounger; but it was chiefly in the art of conversation
that he shone. When a young man, and
resident with his father in the Mint Close, he was
famous for his power of mimicry. He was very
intimate with Dr. Robertson, the historian, then
Principal of the university.
?TO show that Robertson was not likely to be
imitated it may be mentioned from the report of a
gentleman who has often heard him making public
orations, that when the students observed him pause
for a word, and would themselves mentally supply
it they invariably found that the word which he did
use was different from that which they had hit upon.
Cullen, however, could imitate him to the life, either
in the more formal speeches, or in his ordinary discourse.
He would often, in entering a house which
the Principal was in the habit of visiting, assume
his voice in the lobby and stair, and when arrived
at the drawing-room door, astonish the family by
turning out to be-Bob Cullen.?
On the west side of the Mint were at one time
the residences of Lord Belhaven, the Countess of
Stair, Douglas of Cavers, and other distinguished
tenants, including Andrew Pnngle, raised to the
bench, as Lord Haining, in I 7 29. The main entrance
to these lodgings, like that on the south, was by a
stately flight of steps and a great doorway, furnished
with an enormous knocker, and a beautiful example
of its ancient predecessor, the nsp, or Scottish
tirling-pin.
The Edinhqh Courant of August 12,1708, has
the following strange announcement :-
?I George Williamson, translator (i.e. cobbler) in
Edinburgh, commonly known by the name of Bowed
Geordie, who swims on face, back, or any posture,
forwards or backwards, and performs all the antics
that any swimmer can do, is willing to attend any
gentlemen and to teach them to swim, or perform
his antics for their divertisement : is to be found at
Luckie Reid?s, at the foot of Gray?s Close, on the
south side of the street, Edinburgh.?
Elphinstone?s Court, in the close adjoining the
Mint, was so namedfrom Sir James Elphinstone, who
built it in 1679, and from whom the loftytenement
therein passed to Sir Francis Scott of Thirlstane.
The latter sold it to Patrick Wedderburn, who
assumed the title of Lord Chesterhall on his elevation
to the bench in 1755. His son, Alexander
Wedderburc, afterwards Lord Loughborough, first
Earl of Rosslyn, and Lord High Chancellor of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p091.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 271")
... Street.] DR. CULLEN. 271 -
it jure tan?io hyfotheca till he was paid the price
of it.?
The same house was, ...
Book 2 p. 271
(Score 0.59)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
is near three inches taller than I am ; he has constantly enjoyed a robust ...
Book 8 p. 460
(Score 0.59)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Burdiehouse.
intelligence to the enemy, which occasioned the
imprisonment of his ...
Book 6 p. 342
(Score 0.59)
![The Cowpate.] TAM 0? THE COWGATE. 259
derived from Dickson by the stars, according to
Nisbet in his ?Heraldry.? A John Dickison of
Winkston, who was provost of Peebles, was assassinated
in the High Street of that town, on the
1st of July, 1572, and James Tweedie, burgess of
Peebles, and four other persons, were tried for the
crime and acquitted. This is supposed to be the
John Dickison who built the house, and had placed
upon it these remarkable devices as a bold proof of
his adherence to the ancient faith ? The hand.
some antique form of this house, the strange
armorial device of the original proprietor, the tradition
of the Catholic chapel, the singular figures
over ?the double dormer window, and Dickison?s
own tragic fate, in the midst of a frightful civil war,
when neither party gave quarter to the other, all
combine to throw a wild and extraordinary interest
over it, and make us greatly regret its removal.?
(? Ancient Arch. of Edin.?)
The peculiar pediment, as well as the sculptured
lintel of the front door, were removed to Coates?
House, and are. now built into different parts of the
northern Wing of that quaint and venerable ch2teau
in the New Town.
In the middle of the last century, and prior to
1829, a court of old buildings existed in the Cowgate,
on the ground now occupied by the southern
piers of George IV. Bridge, which were used as
the Excise Office, but, even in this form, were
somewhat degraded from their original character,
for there resided Thomas Hamilton of Priestfield,
Earl of Melrose in 1619, and first Earl of Haddington
in 1627, Secretary of State in 16~2, King?s
Advocate, and Lord President of the Court of
Session in 15 92.
He rented the house in question from Macgill of
Rankeillor, and from the popularity of his character
and the circumstance of his residence, he
was endowed by his royal master, King James,
whose chief favourite he was, with? the sobriquet of
Tarn d the Cowgate, under which title he is better
remembered than by his talents as a statesman or
his Earldom of Haddington.
He was famous for his penetration as a judge,
his industry as a collector of decisionsAswing
up a set of these from 1592 to i6q-and his
talent for creating a vast fortune. It is related of
him, in one of many anecdotes concerning him,
communicated by Sir Walter Scott to the industrious
author of the ?? Traditions of Edinburgh,?,
that, after a long day?s hard labour in the public
service, he was one evening seated with a friend
over a bottle of wine near a window of his house
in the Cowgate, for his ease attired in a robc de
chrnbre and slippers, when a sudden disturbance
was heard in the street. This turned out to be a
bicker, one of those street disturbances peculiar to
the boys of Edinburgh, till the formation of the
present police, and referred to in the Burgh Records
so far back as 1529, anent ?gret bikkyrringis
betwix bairns;? and again in 1535, when they
wefe to be repressed, under pain-of scourging and
banishment.
On this occasion the strife with sticks and stones
was between the youths of the High School and
those of the College, who, notwithstanding a bitter
resistance, were driving their antagonists before
them.
The old Earl, who in his yduth had been a High
School boy, and from his after education in Paris,
had no sympathy for the young collegians, rushed
into the street, rallied the fugitives, and took such
an active share in the combat that, finally, the High
School boys-gaining fresh courage upon discovering
that their leader was Tam 0? the Cowgate, the
great judge and statesman-turned the scale of
victory upon the enemy, despite superior age and
strength. The Earl, still clad in his robe and slippers,
assumed the command, exciting the lads to the
charge by word and action. Nor did the hubbub
cease till the students, unable by a flank movement
to escape up the Candlemaker Row, were driven
headlong through the Grassmarket, and out at the
West Port, the gate of which he locked, compelling
the vanquished to spend the night in the fields
beyond the walls. He then returned to finish his
flask?of wine. And a rare jest the whole episode
must have been for King James, when he heard of
it at St. James?s or Windsor.
When, in 1617, the latter revisited Scotland,. he
found his old friend very rich, and was informed
that it was a current belief that he had discovered
the Philosopher?s Stone. James was amused with
the idea of so valuable a talisman having fallen
into the hands of a Judge of the Cburt of Session,
and was not long in letting the latter know of the
story. The Earl immediately invited the king,
and all who were present, to dine with him, adding
that he would reveal to them the mystery of the
Philosopher?s Stone.
The next day saw his mansion in the Cowgate
thronged by the king and his Scottish and English
courtiers After dinner, James reminded him of
the Philosopheis Stone, and then the wily Earl
addressed all present in a short speech, concluding
with the information that his whole secret of success
and wealth, lay in two simple and familiar
maxims :-cc Never put off till tomorrow what can
be done today; nor ever trust to the hand of
another that which your own can execute.?
?
__](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p079.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 259")
... Cowpate.] TAM 0? THE COWGATE. 259
derived from Dickson by the stars, according to
Nisbet in his ?Heraldry.? A ...
Book 4 p. 259
(Score 0.59)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ hlorningside.
reported to the Privy Council that he and the
Napiers of Edinbellie, ...
Book 5 p. 38
(Score 0.59)
![THE GREAT WINCOW. ?59 Parliament Hoox.]
obelisks, with the motto Bominus cusfodif infroifurn
msfrunz. The destruction of all this was utterly
unwarrantable.
The tapestries with which the hall was hung
were all removed about the end of the last century,
and now its pictnres, statues, and decorations of
Scotland?s elder and latter days replace them.
Of the statues of the distinguished Scottish
statesmen and lawyers, the most noticeable are a
colossal one of Henry first Viscount Melville in
his robes as a peer, by Chantrey ; on his left is Lord
Cockburn, by Brodie ; Duncan Forbes of Culloden,
in his judicial costume as President of the Court,
by Roubiliac (a fine example) ; the Lord President
Boyle, and Lord Jeffrey, by Steel ; the Lord President
Blair (son of the author of ?The Grave?),
by Chantrey.. .
On the opposite or eastern side of the hall
(which stands north and south) is the statue
of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord Chief Baron
of the Scottish Exchequer, also by Chautrey;
portraits, many of them of considerable antiquity,
some by Jameson, a Scottish painter who studied
under Rubens at Antwerp. But the most remarkable
among the modern portraits are those of
Lord Broiigham, by Sir Daniel Macnee, P.R.S.A. ;
Lord Colonsay, formerly President of the Court,
and the Lord Justice-clerk Hope, both by the
same artist. Thete are also two very tine pQrtraits
of Lord Abercrombie and Professor Bell, by Sir
Henry Raeburn.
Light is given to this interestihg hall by fouI
windows on the side, and the great window on the
south. It is of stained glass, and trulymagnificent.
It was erected in 1868 at a cost of Az,ooo, and
was the work of two German artists, having been
designed by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, and executed
by the Chevalier Ainmiller of Munich. It repre.
sents the inauguration of the College of Justice, 01:
the Supreme Court of Scotland, by King Tames V.,
in 1532. The opening of the court is supposed by
the artist to have been the. occasion of a grand
state ceremonial, and the moment chosen for
representation is that in which the young king,
surrounded by his nobles and great officers
of state, is depicted in the ,act of presenting
the charter of institution and of confirniation by
Pope Clement VII. to Alexander Mylne, Abbot
of Cambuskenneth, the first Lord President, wha
kneels before him to receive it, surrounded by the
other judges in their robes, while the then Lord
Chancellor of Scotland, Gavin Dunbar, ArchbishoF
of Glasgow, and afterwards of St. Andrews, with
upraised hand invokes a.blessing on the act.
In 1870 the four side windows on the west of the
la11 were filled in with stained glass Qf a heraldic
:haracter, under the superintendence of the late
Sir George Harvey, president of the Royal Scottish
kcadeniy. Each window is twenty feet high
~y nine wide, divided by a central mullion, the
:racery between being occupied by the armorial
learings and crests of the various Lord Justice-
Zlerks, the great legal writers of the Faculty of
Advocates, those of the Deans of Faculty, and the
Lords Advocate.
This old hall has been the scene of many a
;reat event and many a strange debate, and most
Df the proceedings that took place here belong
to the history of the country j for with the exception
of the Castle and the ancient portion of Holyrood,
no edifice in the city is so rich in historic
memories.
Beneath the old roof consecrated to these, says
one of its latest chroniclers, ? the first ?great movements
of the Civil War took place, and the successive
steps in that eventful crisis were debated
with a zeal commensurate to the important results
involved in them. Here Montrose united with
Rothes, Lindsay, Loudon, and others of the
covenanting leaders, in maturing the bold measures
that formed the basis of our national liberties ; and
within the same hall, only a few years later, he sat
with the calmness of despair, to receive from the
lips of his old compatriot, Loudon, the barbarous
sentence, which was executed with such savage
rigour.?
After his victory at Dunbar, some of Cromwell?s
troopers in their falling bands, buff coats, and steel
morions, spent their time alternately in preaching to
the people in the Parliament Hall and guarding a
number of Scottish prisoners of war who were confined
in ? the laigh Parliament House ? below it
On the 17th of May, 1654, some of these contrived
to cut a hole in the floor of the great hall, and all
effected their escape save two; but when peace
was established between Croniwell and the Scots,
and the Courts of Law resumed their sittings,
the hall was restored to somewhat of its legitimate
uses, and there, in 1655, the leaders of the Commonwealth,
including General Monk, were feasted
with a lavish hospitality.
In 1660, under the auspices of the same republican
general, came to pass ? the - glorious
Restoration,? when the magistrates had a banquet
Ft the cross, and gave _~;I,OOO sterling to the king;
and his brother, the Duke of Albany and York, who
came as Koyal Commissioner, was feasted in the
same hall with his Princess Mary d?Este and his
daughter, the future Queen Anne, surrounded by all
the high-born and beautiful in Scotland. But dark](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p171.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 159")
... GREAT WINCOW. ?59 Parliament Hoox.]
obelisks, with the motto Bominus cusfodif infroifurn
msfrunz. The ...
Book 1 p. 159
(Score 0.58)
![High Street.] STRICHEN?S CLOSE. 255
pike stairs compelled the use of taverns more than
now. There the high-class advocate received his
clients, and the physician his patients-each practitioner
having his peculiar how$ There, too,
gentlemen met in the evening for supper and conversation
without much expense, a reckoning of a
shilling being deemed a high one, so different then
were the value of money and the price of viands. In
1720 an Edinburgh dealer advertises his liquors at
the following prices :-? Neat claret wine at I Id.,
strong at 15d.; white wine at ~ z d . ; Rhenish at
16d.; old hock at zod., all per bottle; cherrysack
at 28d. per pint; English ale at 4d. per
bottle.?
In those days it was not deemed derogatory for
ladies of rank and position to join oyster parties in
some of those ancient taverns; and while there
was this freedom of manner on one hand, we are
told there was much of gloom and moroseness on
the other; a dread of the Deity with a fear of hell,
and of the power of the devil, were the predominant
feelings of religious people in the age subsequent
to the Revolution; while it was thought, so says
the author of ? I Domestic Annals ? (quoting Miss
Mure?s invaluable Memoirs), a mark of atheistic
tendencies to doubt witchcraft, or the reality of
apparitions and the occasional vaticinative character
of dreams.
A country gentleman, writing in 1729, remarks
on ?? the increase in the expense of housekeeping
which he had seen going on during the past twenty
years. While deeming it indisputable that Edinburgh
was now much less populous.than before the
Union, yet I am informed,? says he, ? that there is
a greater consumption since than before the Union
of all -provisions, especially fleshes and wheat.
bread. The butcher owns that he now kills thret
of every species for one he killed before the Union.
. . . . Tea in the morning and tea in tht
evening had now become established. There
were more livery servants, and better dressed.
and more horses than formerly.?
Lord Strichen did not die in the house in thf
close wherein he had dwelt so long, but at Stricher
in Aberdeenshire, on the 15th January, 1775, ir
his seventy-sixth year, leaving behind him the repu
tation of an upright judge. ? Lord Strichen was i
man not only honest, but highly generous; for
after his succession to the family estates, he paic
a large sum of debts contracted by his prede
cessor, which he was not under any obligation tc
pay.?
One of the last residents of note in Strichen?!
Close was Mr. John Grieve, a merchant in thc
Royal Exchange, who held the office of Lorc
?rovost in 1782-3, and again in 1786-7, and who
ras first a Town Councillor in 1765. When a
nagistrate he was publicly horsewhipped by some
r Edinburgh bucks ? of the day, for placing some
emales of doubtful repute in the City Guard
Xouse, under the care of the terrible Corporal
ihon Dhu--an assault for which they were arrested
.nd severely fined.
The house he 6ccupied had an entrance from
itrichen?s Close ; but was in reality one that beonged
to the Regent hlorton, having an entrance
rom the next street, named the Blackfriars Wynd.
3e afterwards removed to a house in Princes
street, where he became one of the projectors of
he Earthen Mound, which was long-as a mistake
n the picturesque-justly stigmatised as the RIud
Brig,? the east side of which was commenced a
ittle to the eastward of the line of Hanover Street,
ipposite to the door of Provost Grieve?s house,
ong ago turned into a shop.
John Dhu, the personage refTrred to, was a wellmown
soldier of the C;ty Guard, mentioned by Sir
Walter Scott as one of the fiercest-looking men he
lad ever seen. ?That such an image of military
violence should have been necessary at the close of
:he eighteenth century to protect the peace of a
British city,? says the editor of ?( Kay?s Portraits,?
?presents us with a strange contrast of what we
lately were and what we have now become. On
me occasion, about the time of the French Revolution,
when the Town Guard had been signalising
the King?s birthday by firing in the Parliament
Square, being unusually pressed and insulted by
the populace, this undaunted warrior turned upon
one peculiarly outrageous member of the democracy,
and, by one blow of his battle-axe, laid him
lifeless on the causeway.?
The old tenement, which occupied the ground
between Strichen?s Close and the Blackfriars Wynd
(prior to its destruction in the fire of zznd February,
18zj), and was at the head of the latter,
was known as ?Lady Lovat?s Land.? It was
seven storeys in height. There lived Primrose
Campbell of Mamore, widow of Simon Lord
Lovat, who was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1747,
and there, 240 years before her time, dwelt Walter
Chepman of Ewirland, who, with Miller, in 1507,
under the munificent auspices of James IV., introduced
the first printing press into Scotland, and on
the basement of whose edifice a house of the Revolution
period had been engrafted.
Though his abode was here in the High Street,
his printing-house was in the Cowgate, from whence,
in 1508, ?The Knightly Tale of Golagras and
Gawane ? was issued ; and this latter is supposed
He died in 1803.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p075.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 255")
... Street.] STRICHEN?S CLOSE. 255
pike stairs compelled the use of taverns more than
now. There the high-class ...
Book 2 p. 255
(Score 0.58)
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