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THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 257
of it:-“This is perhaps the oldest stone building of aprivate nature now existing here;
for it was inhabited, before John Rnox’s time, by George Durie, Abbot of Dunfermline
and Arch-Dean of St Andrews.” He was promoted to Dunfermline by King James
V. in 1539, and was canonised by the C%urch of Rome within two years after his
death. No evidence now appears in the title-deeds of the property to afford a clue to
this or any other of its earlier possessors, but the tradition has been long universally
received which assigns it as the residence of the Reformer. Here, in the year 1559, he took
up his abode, along with his faithfd wife, Marjorie Bowes, his companion during years
of wandering and danger, but who did not long survive his settlement in this more
promising place of rest. To the same house, in 1563, he brought his second wife, Margaret
Stewart, daughter of (( the good Lord Ochiltree,” whose affections his defamers
b e d he had gained by sorcery. Nicol Burne, in that curious work, “A disputation
concerning the controversit headdis of religion,” represents him going for his bride,
“rydand with ane gret court on ane trim gelding, nocht lyk ane prophet or ane add
decrepit priest, as he was, bot lyk as he had bene ane of the blude royal, with his bendes
of taffetie feschnit with golden ringis and precious stanes ; and as is plainlie reportit in
the country, be sorcerie and witchcraft, did sua allure that pub gentlewoman that scho
could not leve without him.”
The house where Knox has received the messengers of Queen Mary, the nobles of the
court, and the leaders of the Congregation, is now rapidly falling to decay; but it still
retains the traces of former magnificence. From its peculiar position, projecting into the
thoroughfare, and presenting its western front up the High Street, it is one of the most
remarkable houses in the Old Town : forming a subject well calculated to tempt the artist’s
pencil, even though it wanted the adventitious aid of historical associations. A long
inscription extends over nearly the whole front, immediately above the ground floor ; but it
is unfortunately concealed, all but the first two words, by the sip-boards of the traders,
who have succeeded to the occupancy of the ancient tenement. It is in large Roman
characters, and is understood to run thus :-LVFE - GOD ABOVE * AL - AND *
YOVR * NICHTBOVR AS * PI A small effigy of the Reformer has long
decorated the angle of the old building, on which the pious care of successive tenants has
been expended, with a zeal not always appreciated by their fellow-citizens. He occupies
a pulpit of Presbyterian simplicity of form, and points with his right hand to a curiously
carved stone, whereon the name of the Deity appears, in Greek, Latin, and English,
surrounded by a glory on the Ride towards the preacher, while clouds gather around it
on the. further side. Over a large bow window a carved stone is pierced with a circular
aperture, now closed up, but which, from its position, suggests the idea of having been
constructed for a public clock. Such of the stone-work as remains exposed is of polished
ashlar, but numerous timber additions have been made to the original fabric in early
times. Among these, a small apartment on the south front is, in all probability, the
study constructed for him at the expense of the town, soon after he took up hie abode
there, in conformity with the following act of Council :-6c The samine day the Provost,
Baillies, and Counsail, ordanis the Dene of Gyld, with all diligence, to make ane warme
stdye of dailles to the minister, John Knox, within his hous, abone the hall of the same,
with lyght and wyndokis thereunto, and all other necessaris.” There, therefore, we may
SELF.
2E ... HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 257 of it:-“This is perhaps the oldest stone building of aprivate nature now ...

Book 10  p. 279
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THE OLD THEATRE ROYAI,. 341 North Bridge.]
happy reminiscences and bright associations in the
minds of thousands; and it was one of the very
few theatres that, escaping the ravages of fire,
attain to a good old age.
Prior to the reign of George 111. there was not
a single theatre in Scotland countenanced by the
law of the land. One which was erected in Glasgow
in 1752, and on which a military guard
mounted nightly, was
demolished about two
years after, by a mob
when returning from
one of Whitefields
sermons ; but when
the New Town' of
Edinburgh was projected,
a clause was introduced
into the Act
empowering t h e
Crown to grant royal
letters patent for the
establishment of a
theatre in Edinburgh.
Mr. David ROSS,
manager of a small
one then existing,
amid many difficulties,
in the Canongate,
and latterly of Covent
Garden Theatre -a
respectable man, who
had managed two
houses in Londonobtained
the patent,
and the foundationstone
of the new
theatre was laid on the
16th of March, 1768.
prologue, which was written by Janies Boswell,
who, in the following lines, referred to the new
theatre as the first one licensed in Scotland :-
" Whilst in all points with other lands she vied,
The stage alone to Scotland was denied :
Mistaken zeal, in times of darkness bred,
O'er the best minds its gloomy vapours spread ;
Taste and religion were opposed in strife.
.---.*---
GEORGE DRUXMOND, LORD PROVOST.
(From f :e E i i , ~ a v . n ~ by Mac&enzie, ofter ih2 Original in the Rwal
In$mra*y.)
. .
In the stone was laid a silver plate, inscribed thus:-
'' The first stone of this new theatre was laid on the 16th
day of March, in the year of our Lord 1768, by David Ross,
patentee and first proprietor of a licensed stage in Scotland.
May this theatre tend to promote every moral and every
virtuous principle, and may the representations be such
*' To make mankind in conscious virtue bold,
Live on each scene and be what they behold."
But Mr. ROSS'S first legitimate performances as
a licensed manager took place in the old theatre,
which opened unusually late in the season, owing
to a dreadful riot' that happened in January, and
the repairs incident to which occupied ten months,
during which there were no representations whatever.
Ross opened then, with the patented company
on the 9th of December, 1767, with the
tragedy of the RnrZ of Essex. He spoke the
And 'twas a sin to view
this glass of life !
When the muse ventured,
the ungracious task,
To play elusion with unlicensed
mask,
Mirth was restrained ty
statutory awe,
And tragic greatness feared
the scourge of law ;
Illustrious heroes errant
vapants seemed,
And gentlest nymphs were
sturdy begsnrs
deemed."
By the proposals
for building this new
theatre, according to
the S o t s Mugazine for
1768, Mr. Ross had
to raise Lz,.joo by
twenty-five shares, at
LIOO per share, for
which the subscribers
were to receive 3 per
cent., and free access
to all performances
and every part of the
house, except behind
the scenes. "The
house is to be IOO feet
in length by 50 broad.
To furnish new scenes, wardrobe,- and necessary
decorations will, it is computed, cost A1,500
more: and the whole building, &c., is to be insured
for A4,000, and mortgaged as security to pay the
interest. As it would be impossible to procure
good performers should the tickets continue at the
low prices now paid, it is proposed to make the
boxes qs., the pit 3s., the first gallery zs., and the
upper IS. For these prices, says Mr. ROSS, this
stage shall vie with those of London and Dublin.
There shall be five capital men-actors, one good
man-singer, one second ditto ; three capital womenactresses,
two capital women-singers, one capital
man-dancer, and one woman ditto; the rest as
good as can be had : the orchestra shall be conducted
with a good first fiddler, as a leader, a harpsichord,
and the rest of the band persons of merit." ... OLD THEATRE ROYAI,. 341 North Bridge.] happy reminiscences and bright associations in the minds of thousands; ...

Book 2  p. 341
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THE HIGH STREET. 24 I.
Not far from this, on the west side of the Old Stamp Office Close, stood a large, oldfashioned
mansion, which formed above a century ago the residence of Alexander, ninth
Earl of Eglinton, and his lovely Countess Susannah Kennedy-reputed the handsomest
woman of her time-to whom the Gentle Shepherd is dedicated, both in Ramsay's most
fluent prose, and in some of Hamilton of Bangour's flattering strains. She was brought
to Edinburgh just about the time of the Union by her father, Sir Archibald Kennedy of
Colzean--a rough old caqalier, who had borne a part in the best and worst achievements
of Claverhouse--and her beauty speedily weaned the keenest devotees of politics from its
engrossing attractions. The Earl of Eglinton was already provided with a Countess, whose
protracted ill health had made him hopeless of an heir; and just when he had been smitten
with the universal admiration of the lovely Susannah, and had exhibited some very unequivocal
symptoms of the pangs of a despairing lover, his own Countess died, and the forlorn
widower '' bore off the belle," to the infinite chagrin of many younger, but less attractive
wooers.' The Countess was somewhat of a blue-stocking, and the most conspicuous patroness
of the Scottish muses in her day. Her name appears on other dedication pages besides the
honourable one of the Gentle Shepherd. Ramsay dedicated to her the music of his first
Book of Songs-a little work now very rare-and at a later period he presented to her the
original manuscript of his great pastoral poem, which she afterwards parted with to James
Boswell. It is now preserved in the library at Auchinleck, along with the presentation
letter of the poet.
Euphemia, or Lady Effie, as she was more generally called, a daughter of the Earl by
his first Countess, was married to the celebrated (' Union Lockhart," and proved an able
auxiliary to him in many of his secret intrigues on behalf of the exiled Stuarts. When
not engaged in attending parliament, he resided chiefly at his country seat of Dryden, while
Lady Effie paid frequent visits to Edinburgh, disguised in male attire. She used to frequent
the coffee-houses and other places of public resort, and joining freely in conversation with
the Whig partizans, she oftep obtained important information for her husband. It chanced
on one occasion, that 311' Forbes, a zealous Whig, but a man of profligate habits, had got
hold of some important private papers, implicating Lockhart, and which he had engaged
to forward to Government. Lady Euphemia Lockhart dressed her two sons-who were
fair and somewhat effeminate looking, though handsome youths,-in negligee, fardingale,
and masks; with patches, jewels, and all the finery of accomplished courtezans. Thus
equipped, they sallied out to the Cross, and, watching for the Whig gallant, they speedily
attracted his notice, and so won on him by their attentions that he was induced to accompany
them to a neighbouring tavern, where the pseudo fair ones fairly drank him below
the table, and then rifled him of the dangerous papers. This anecdote, which we have
obtained from a grand-nephew of Lady Lockhart, furnishes, we think, a more graphic
picture of the manners and notions of the age of Queen Anne than any incident we have
met with.
'
Sir John Clerk, Bart., as we have been told by a descendant of the Earl of Eglinton-after much coquetting and
versifying, had actually made a declaration of his passion, which the father, at least, had 80 far under consideration aa
to consult the Earl thereupon. His reply was-" Bide awee, Sir Archie, my wife's very aickly ! I' a hint sufficient to
settle the hopes of the Baronet of Pennycuik. Sir J. Clerk was the author of the fine Scottish song2-'' Oh merry may
the maid be that marries wi' the miller," with the exception of the first verse, which is ancient The Earl wan little
more than forty when he married this, his third Countess.
2 H . ... HIGH STREET. 24 I. Not far from this, on the west side of the Old Stamp Office Close, stood a large, ...

Book 10  p. 262
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ECCL ESIA S TICA L ANTIQUITIES. 417
of Gillie Grange, by which a part of it is still known, and that of The Grange, mw the property
of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart., preserve memorials of the grange or farm which
belonged of old to the Collegiate Church of St Giles. Here, towards the close of the
prosperous reign of James IV., Sir John Crawford, a canon of St Giles’s Church, founded
and endowed the Church of St John the Baptist, portions of the ruins of which are believed
still to form a part of the garden wall of a house on the west side of Newington, called
Sciennes Hall. The following notice of its foundation occurs in the Inoentar of Pious
Donations, bearing the date 2d March 1512 :-c‘ Charter of Confirmation of a Mortification
be Sir Jo. Crawford, ane of the Prebenders of St Giles Kirk, to a kirk bigged by
him at St Geillie Grange, mortyiefying yrnnto 18 aikers of land, of the said lands, with
the Quarrie Land given to him in Charitie be ye said brongh, with an aiker and a quarter
of a particate of land in his 3 aikers and a half an aiker of the said mure pertaining to
him, lying at the east side of the Common Mure, betwixt the lands of Jo. Cant on the
west, and the Common Mure on the east and south parts, and the Murebrugh, now bigged,
on the north.” This church was designed as a chantry for the benefit of the founder and
his kin, along with the reigning Sovereign, the Magistrates of Edinburgh, and such others
as it was usual to include in the services for the faithful departed in similar foundations,
The chaplain was required to be of the founder’s family or name, and the patronage was
assigned after his death to the Town Council of Edinburgh.
Almost
immediately after its erection, the Convent of St Katherine de Sienna was founded by the
Lady Seytoun, whose husband, George, third Lord Seton, was slain at the Battle of Flodden.
‘( Efter quhais deceisa,” pap the Chronicle of the House of Seytoun, “his ladye
remanit wido continualie xlv yeiris. Sche gydit
hir sonnis leving quhill he was cumit of age; and thairefter sche passit and remainit in
the place of Senis, on the Borrow Mure, besyd Edinburgh, the rest of her lyvetyme.
Quhilk place sche helpit to fund and big as maist principale.” The history of this religious
foundation, one of the last which took place in Scotland in Roman Catholic times,
and the very last, we believe, to receive additions to the original foundation, acquires a
peculiar interest when we consider it in connection with the general progress of opinion
throughout Europe at the period. The Bull of Pope Leo X. by which its foundation is
confirmed, is dated 29th January 1517. Cardinal WoIsey was then supreme in England,
and Henry VIII. was following on the career of a devoted son of the Church which
won him the title of Defender of t h FaitA. Charles V., the future Emperor of Germany,
had just succeeded to the crown of Spain, and Martin Luther was still a brother of the
order of St Aqwstine. This very year Leo X. sent forth John Tetzel, a Dominican monk,
authorised to promote the sale of indulgences in Germany, and soon the whole of Europe
was shaken by the strife of opinions. The peculiar circumstances in which Scotland then
stood, delayed for a time its participation in the movement; and meanwhiIe the revenues
of the convent of St Katherine de Sienna received various augmentations, and the Church
of St John the Baptist was permanently annexed to it as the chapel of the convent. The
nuns, however, were speedily involved in the troubles of the period. In 1544 their convent
shared the same fate as the neighbouring capital, from the barbarous revenge of the
The Church of St John the Baptist did not long remain a solitary chaplainry.
Sche was ane nobill and wyse ladye.
Hi& of House of Seytoun, p, 37.
3 6 ... ESIA S TICA L ANTIQUITIES. 417 of Gillie Grange, by which a part of it is still known, and that of The ...

Book 10  p. 457
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206 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
He particularly manifested his satisfaction during the following year, when the ejected
ministers had been allowed to return to their pulpits. “All this winter the King and Queen
remained in the Abbey, and came up to the toun aindrie tymes; dynned and supped in the
ministers’ houses behind the kirk. For the King keeped their houses in his owne hand, howbeit
they were restored to their general1 ministrie in Edinburgh.” l To resume our chronological
sketch: in the year 1617, on the return of King James to his Scottish capital, the
old churchyard had so entirely lost all traces of its original character that it was selected
as the scene of a magnxcent civic banquet, with which the magistrates welcomed him back
to his native city. The ministers appear to have been restored after a time to their manses
in the kirkyard, but this-was only by sufferance, and during the royal will ; for in 1632
the ancient collegiate buildings were at length entirely demolished, to make way for the
Parliament House, which occupies their site. On the 14th of August 1656 General
Monck was feasted in the great hall, along with Lord Broghall, President of the Council,
and all the councillors of state, and officers of the army. ‘‘ This feast,” says Nicoll, ‘‘ wes gevin by the toun of Edinburgh, with great solempnitie, within the Parliament Hous,
ritchlie hung for that end. The haill pryme men, and such of thair followeris as wer in
respect, wer all resavit burgessis, and thair burges tickettis delyverit to thame.” a The
Duke of York, afterwards James VII., was feasted by the city within the same old hall,
on his arrival in Edinburgh in the year 1680, along with his Duchess, and the Lady Anne,
who afterwards succeeded to the throne. In 1685 the equestrian statue of King Charles
was erected, almost above the grave of John Knox; and without extending too minutely
these more striking data, we may remind the reader, that the same hall in which the Duke
of York was entertained in 1680, was the scene of the magnificent banquet with which the
next royal visitor was welcomed in 182X3 The open area was at length enclosed with
buildings, at first only low booths, but these were soon after succeeded by the loftiest
private buildings ever reared in this, or probably any other town. In 1676, a considerable
portion of the new buildings were destroyed by fire. Another conflagration succeeded
this in 1700, known by the name of the ‘‘ Great Fire,” which swept the whole magnificent
range of buildings to the ground, and these were only re-erected to experience a third
time the same fate in the year 1824. On the last destruction of the eastern and larger
half of the old Parliament Close, the statue of King Charles was carted off to the Calton
Jail, where his Majesty lay incarcerated for several years, until the complete remodelling
of the whole locality, when he was elevated anew on a handsome pedestal, in which two
marble tablets have been inserted, found among some lumber in the rooms below the
Parliament House, and containing an inscription evidently prepared for the former
Calderwood’s Hist., vol. v. p. 673. Nicoll’s Diary, p. 183.
a The following curious remarks appear in B communisation to the Caledonian blereury, December 224 1788 :-‘‘ It
is somewhat remarkable that the last public dinner that was given in the Parliament House here was to King James
VII., then Duke of York, at which WRS present the Lady Anne, afterwards Queen Anne ; and that the next dinner
that should be given in the eame place-vie., this day-ahould be by the Revolution Club, in commemoration of
his expulsion from the throne ! The whole Court of Scotland,
and a numerous train of noblemen, with the Duke, were present. And the outer hall of the Parliament House
was thrown inta one room upon the occasion. Sir James Dick,
the then Lord Provost, presided (aa the present will do this day). The Duke of Ybrk, and all the noblemen who
were with him, were preaepted with the freedom of the city. The drink-money to the Duke’s servants amounted to
S220 sterling.”
The dinner was given by the Magistrates of Edinburgh.
This dinner cost the city above $21400 aterling. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. He particularly manifested his satisfaction during the following year, when the ...

Book 10  p. 225
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262 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Mackenzie, and who sat for nearly half a century on the Bench under the title of Lord
Strichen. From him it derived its present name of Strichen’s Close, and there is little
probability now that any of his plebeian successors will rob it of the title.
The front tenement, which extends between Strichen’s Close and Blackfriars’ Wynd,
presents no features of attraction as it now stands. It is a plain, modern land, re-erected
after the destruction of its predecessor in one of the alarming fires of the memorable year
1824, and constructed with a view to the humbler requisites of its modern tenants ; but
the old building that occupied its site was a handsome stone fabric of loftier proportions
than its plebeian successor, and formed even within the present century the residence of
people of rank. The most interesting among its later occupants was Lady Lovat, the relict
of the celebrated Simon, Lord Lovat, who was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1747 ; in consequence
of which it was generally known as Lady Lovat’s Land. It possesses, however,
more valuable associations than this, its ancient title-deeds naming as the original
proprietor, Walter Chepman, the earliest Scottish printer, who introduced the printingpress
into Scotland in the year 1507, under the munificent auspices of James IT. To
the press of Walter Chepman, the admirers of our early national literature still turn,
not without hope that additions may yet be made, by further discovery of its invaluable
fragments, to the writings of those great men who adorned the Augustan age of Scotland.
The building, however, which perished in the conflagration of 1824, did not appear to
be of an earlier date than the period of the Revolution ; soon after which many of the
substantial stone tenements of the Old Town were erected. The more ancient edifice
seems to have been one of the picturesque timber-fronted erections of the reign of
James IT., and formed the subject of special privileges granted by that monarch to his
valued servitor. In the Registers of the Privy Seal (iv. 173), there is preserved the
following royal licence, dated at Edinburgh, February 5, 1510 :-‘‘ A licence maid to
Walter Chepman,.burges of Edinburgh, to haif staris towart the Hie Strete and calsay,
with bak staris and turngres in the Frer Wynd, or on the forgait, of sic breid and
lenth as he sal1 think expedient for entre and asiamentis to his land and tenement;
and to flit the pend of the said Frer Wynd, for making of neidful asiaments in the
sammyn ; and als to big and haif ane wolt vnder the calsay, befor the for front of the
said tenement, of sic breid as he thinkis expedient; with ane penteis vnder the greissis
of his for star,” &c. The whole grant is a curious sample of the arbitrary manner in
which private interests and the general convenience of the citizens were sacrificed to the
wishes of the royal favourite. The printing house of Chepman & Millar was in the
8outh gait, or Cowgate’ of Edinburgh, as appears from the imprint on the rare edition of
‘‘ The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane,” and others of the earliest issues from
their press in the year 1508 ; and it no doubt was the same tenement with which, in
1528, Chepman endowed an altar in the chapel of the Holy Rood, in the lower churchyard
of St Giles. We would infer, however, from the nature of the royal grant, that the
ancient building at the Nether Bow was the residence of Walter Chepman, who was a
1 The names of streets so common in Scotland, formed with the adjunct gate, rarely if ever refer to a gate or part,
according to the modern acceptation of the word ; but to gait or street, as the King’s hie gait, or, aa here, the south gait,
meaning the south street The Water Gate, which is the only instance of the ancient me of the ward in Edinburgh,
is invariably written yett in early notices of it. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. Mackenzie, and who sat for nearly half a century on the Bench under the title of ...

Book 10  p. 284
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100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
trifle in question has been honoured with public approbation for many years past, and has been
considered by many, nay even professional men, as one of OUT oldest tunes, it becomes the duty of
the composer to state briefly, yet distinctly, the fact, and leave it thus on record. In the year 1783,
while the present writer was studying counterpoint and composition, and turning his attention to
national mcsic, he made essays in that atyle, one of which xas the melody to which he has united
Gaelic and English verses of his own, written for Albyn‘s Anthology. It was originally composed
as a Strathspey ; and in the year 1791 or 1792 it was published and inscribed to the Rev. Patrick
3I‘Donald of Kilmore, the editor of the ‘ Collection of Highland Airs ’ mentioned in the preface of
the present work. In Mr. Nathaniel Gow’s Collection, the Strathspey is called Lord Balgowny’s
Belight, and pointed out as a ‘very ancient air.’ It haa since been published by Mr. J. M‘Fadyen
of Glasgow, under the title of ‘ Gloomy Winter’s 1u)w Awu’,’ a Scottish song, written by R. Tannahill,
with Symphonies and Accompaniments by R. A. Smith.’ Wherefore, it being now reclaimed,
this indispensable egotism will be freely pardoned by every liberal and candid mind, when a writer,
in order to do himself justice, embraces a fair opportnnity, as in the present instance, of doing so.”
From these extracts some idea may be formed of Mr. Campbell’s literary
talents. His ‘‘ acquirements, though such as would have eminently distinguished
an independent gentleman in private life, did not reach that point of
perfection which the public demands of those who expect to derive bread from
their practice of the fine arts. Even in music, it was the opinion of eminent
judges, that Albyn’s Anthology would have been more favourably received, if
the beautiful original airs had been left unencumbered with the basses and
symphonies which the Editor himself thought essential.” ’
On his second union, to the widow of
Banald Macdonell, Esq., of Keppoch, he abandoned his profession as a teacher
of music, and commenced the study of medicine, with the view of obtaining
an appointment through the influence of his friends. In this he was disappointed,
in consequence of some misunderstanding with the relations of his wife,
which not only effectually prevented their interference in promoting his advancement,
but led to still more disagreeable results. Mr. Campbell is represented
to have been somewhat hasty, but of a warm and generous temper. “After
experiencing as many of the vicissitudes of life as fall to the lot of most men, he
died of apoplexy on the 15th of May 1824, in the sixty-first year of his age.”s
Mr. Campbell was twice married.
Respecting MEEK, the blind Irish piper, we believe no record is anywhere
He was one of those wandering minstrels of whom the world
The other harmonistthe FISH HORN BLOWER-is well remembered in his
He was a porter, of the name of DAVIDSONan, d resided at the
to be found.
takes no charge.
avocation.
1 Obituary notice in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, by Sir Walter Scott.
2 After his demise, his MSS., books, and other effectrr were sold under judicial authority; and
amongst other MSS. was a, tragedy, which was purchased by the late Mr. Willism Stewart, bookseller.
During the latter years of his life he was employed by Sir Walter Scott in the transcription
of MSS. ; indeed this formed his chief mode of subsistence ; and often has the writer of this note
heard him express his deep sense of the kindnesa and benevolence of that most amiable man.
Notwithstanding the depressed state of his circumstances, his high spirit rejected pecuniary
assistance ; and even from his patron he would take no more than he thought his services, as a
transcriber, had fairly earned. Over the social glass he was a very pleasant and intelligent companion
-full of fun and anecdote-never, however, laying aside for a moment the bearing of a gentleman.
Ee used to be very amusing on the Ossianic controversy, and did not scruple to castigate M‘Phenon
for his interpolations. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. trifle in question has been honoured with public approbation for many years past, and ...

Book 9  p. 133
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348 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGN.
is on the west side of the square, No. 25, and there the lively and curious boy grew up to
manhood under the kindly surveillance of the good old pair. The little back room still
remains, ‘( That early den,” with the young antiquary’s beginnings of the future Abbotsford
collection, described so piquantly in Lockhart’s life of him, by the pen of a female
friend ; and where Lord Jeffrey found him on his first visit, long years ago, “ surrounded
with dingy books.’’ Though shorn of all the strange relics that young Walter Scott
gathered there, it possesses one valuable memento of the boy. On one of the window
panes his name is still seen, inscribed with.a diamond in a school-boy hand; and other
panes of glass, which contained juvenile verses traced in the same durable manner, have
been removed to augment the treasures of modern collectors. On the east side of George
Square lies Windmill Street, the name of which preserves the record of an earlier period
when a windmill occupied its site, and raised the water from the Borough Loch to supply
the brewers of the Society. The Incorporation of Brewers has long been dissolved, and
the Borough Loch now forms the rich pasturage and the shady walks of the Meadows ;
while along its once marshy margin has since been built Buccleuch Place, where the
exclusive faRhionable5 of the southern district long maintained their own ball-room and
assemblies.
The impossibility of converting this pendicle of the Borough Nuir to any useful purpose
as private property, while it continued in its original state as a Loch, fortunately
prevented its alienation, while nearly every other portion of the valuable tract of land that
once belonged to the borough passed into private hands. At the western extremity of
the Borough Muir, the venerable tower of Merchiston still stands entire, the birth-place
of John Napier, the inventor of the Logarithms, to whom, according to Hume, the title
of a great man is more justly due than to any other whom his country ever produced.
The ancestors of the great Scottish philosopher were intimately connected with Edinburgh.
The three first Napiers of Nerchiston successively filled the office of provost in
the reigns of James 11. and III., and other connections of the family rose to the same
civic dignity. Their illustrious descendant was born at Merchiston Castle in the year
1550, on the eve of memorable changes whereof even the reserved and modest student
had to bear his share. The old fortalice of Merchiston, reared at an easy distance from
the Scottish capital, lay in the very field of strife. Round its walls the Douglas wars raged
for years, and the most striking incidents of the philosopher’s early life intermingle with
the carnage of that merciless feud. On the 2d of April 1572, he was betrothed to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir, and on the 5th of the following month,
“ The cumpany of Edinburgh pad furth and seigit Merchingstoun ; quha wan all the
pairtis thairof except the dungeoun, in the quhilk wes certane suddartis in Leith; the
hail1 houssis wes spoulzeit and brunt, to haue amokit the men of the dungeoun out ; but
the cuntrie seand the fyre, raise with the pover of Leith and put the men of Edinburgh
thairfra without slauchter, bot syndrie hurt.” The keep of Merchiston formed, indeed, the
key of the south approach to the capital, so that whoever triumphed it became the butt of
their opponents’ enmity. It lay near enough to be bombarded from the Castle walls by
Sir William Kirkaldy, though a cousin of its owner, because ~omoef the king’s men held
it for a time, and intercepted the provisions coming to the town. Again and again were the
1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 295. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGN. is on the west side of the square, No. 25, and there the lively and curious boy grew ...

Book 10  p. 381
(Score 0.52)

KING’S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. ‘39
of carved wood work, exhibiting traces of gilding. An explosion of gunpowder, which took
place in the lower part of the house in 1811, attended with loss of life, entirely destroyed
the ancient fireplace, which was of a remarkably beautiful Gothic design.
Notwithstanding the comparatively modern decorations, the house s till retains unequivocal
remains of a much earlier period. The sculptured doorway in Blair’s Close, already
alluded to, forming the original main entrance to the whole building, is specially worthy of
notice, and would of itself justify us in assigning its erection to the earlier part of the
sixteenth century. It very nearly corresponds with one still remaining on the west side of
Blackfriar’s Wynd, the entrance to the turnpike stair of an ancient mansion, which appears,
from the title-deeds of a neighbouring property, to have been the residence of the Earl of
Morton. In the latter example, the heraldic supporters, though equally rudely sculptured,
present somewhat more distinctly the same features as in the other, and both are clearly
intended for unicorns.’
The south front of the building is finished with a parapet, adorned with gurgoils in the
shape of cannons, and on the first floor * (in Blair’s Close) there is still remainins an
ancient fireplace of huge old-fashioned dimensions. The jambs are neatly carved Gothic
pillars, simiiar in design to several that formerly existed in the Guise Palace, Blyth’s
Close ; and the whole is now enclosed, and forms a roomy coal-cellar, after having been
used as a bedcloset by the previous tenant in these degenerate days. As late as 1783, this
part of the old mansion was the residence of John Grieve, Esq., then Lord Provost of
Edinburgh.
This house has apparently been one of special note in early times from its substantial
magnificence. It is described in one of the deeds as ;; that tenement or dwelling-house
called the Solate House of old, of the deceased Patrick Edgar,” a definiiion repeated in
several others, evidently to distinguish it from its humble thatched nei&%ours, ‘; lying on
the south iide of the High Street of Edinburgh, near the Castle wal1,between the lands of
the deceased Mr A. Syme, advocate, on the east, the close of the said Patrick Edgar on
the west,” &c. It is alluded to in the Diurnal of Occurrents, 7th September 1570, where
the escape of Robert Hepburn, younger of Wauchtoun, from the Earl of Morton’s adherents,
is described It is added-‘; He came to the Castell of Edinburgh, quhairin he was ressauit
with great difficultie ; for when he was passand in at the said Castell zett, his adversaries
were at Patrik Edgar his hous end.” This mansion was latterly possessed, as we have
seen, by the Newbyth family, by whom it was held for several generations ; and here it was
that the gallant Sir David Baird was born and brought up.‘ It is said also to hare been
F
1 The adoption of the royal supportera may possibly have been an assumption of the Regent’s, in virtue of his
exercise of the functions of royalty. In which case, the building on the Castle Hill might be presumed alm to be his,
and deserted by him from ita dangerous proximity to the Castle, when held by his rivals. This, however, is mere conjecture.
A note in the Diurnal of Occurrents, 20th Nov. 1572, states-“ In this menetyme, James Earle of Mortouo,
regent, lay deidlie seik j his Grace waa lugeit in Williame Craikia lugeing on the sout\ syid of the trone, in
Edinburgh.”
a To prevent misconception in the description of buildings, we may state that, throughout the Work, the floors of
buildings are to be understood thus :-Sunk, or area floor, ground floor, 6rat floor, second floor, bcc., reckoning from
below. ’ Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 186. ’ On Sir David Baird’s return from the Spanish Campaign, he visited his birth-place, and examined with great interest
the acenes where he had passed his boyhoodi Chambem haa furnished a lively account of this in hm Traditions, vol. i.
p. 155. ... STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. ‘39 of carved wood work, exhibiting traces of gilding. An ...

Book 10  p. 150
(Score 0.52)

THE HIGH STREET. 229
Advocate’s Close, which bounds the ancient tenement we have been describing on the
east, derives its name from Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees,’ who returned from exile on
the landing of the Prince of Orange, and took an active part in the Revolution. He was
an object of extreme dislike to the Jacobite party, who vented their spleen against him in
their bitterest lampoons, some of which are preserved in the Scottish Pasquils; and to them
he was indebted for the sobriquet of Jamie Wylie. Sir James filled the oEce of Lord
Advocate from 1692 until his death in 1713, one year excepted, and had a prominent
share in all the public transactions of that important period. Being go long in the enjoyment
of his official title, the close in which he resided received the name of “ the Advocate’s
Close.” The house in which he lived and died is at the foot of the Close, on the west side,
immediately before descending a flight of steps that somewhat lessen the abruptness of the
steep descent.” In 1769, Sir James Stewart, grandson of the Lord Advocate, sold the
house to David Dalrymple of Westhall, Esq., who, when afterwards raised to the Bench,
assumed the title of Lord Westhall, and continued to reside in this old mansion till his
death.3 This ancient alley retains, nearly unaltered, the same picturesque overhanging
gables and timber projections which have, without doubt, characterised it for centuries, and
may be taken as a very good sample of a fashionable close in the paluy days of Queen
Anne. It continued till a comparatively recent period to be a favourite locality for gentlemen
of the law, and has been pointed out to us, by an old citizen, as the early residence of
Andrew Crosbie, the celebrated original of ‘‘ Councillor Pleydell,” who forms so prominent
a character among the dramatis person@ of The same house already
mentioned as that of Sir James Stewart, would answer in most points to the description of
the novelist, entering as it does, from a dark and steep alley, and commanding a magnificent
prospect towards the north, though now partially obstructed by the buildings of the
New Town. It is no mean praise to the old lawyer that he was almost the only one who
had the courage to stand his ground against Dr Johnson, during his visit to Edinburgh.
Mr Crosbie afterwards removed to the splendid mansion erected by him in St Andrew
Square, ornamented with engaged pillars and a highly decorated attic story, which stands
to the north of the Royal Bank ; ‘ but he was involved, with many others, in the failure of
the Ayr Bank, and died in such poverty, in 1785, that his widow owed her Bole support to
an annuity of 350 granted by the Faculty of Advocates.
The lowest house on the east side, directly opposite to that of the Lord Advocate, was
the residence of an artist of some note in the seventeenth century. It has been pointed
out to as by an old citizen recently dead ’ as the house of his (‘ grandmother’s grandfather,”
the celebrated John Scougal,‘ painter of the portrait of George Heriot which now hangs in
Guy Mannering.”
1 Now called “Moredun” in the parish of Lihberton. The house was built by Sir James SOOU after the
Revolution.
Sir James Stewart, Provost of Edinburgh in 1648-9, when Cromwell paid his first visit to Edinburgh, and again
in 1658-9, at the close of the Protectorate,-purchased the ancient tenement which occupied this site, and after the
Revolution, his son, the Lord Advocate, rebuilt it, and died there in 1713, when, “so great was the crowd,” 88 Wodrow
tells in his Analecta, “that the magistrates were at the grave in the Greyfriam’ Churchyard before the corpse waa taken
out of the house at the foot of the Advocate’a Close.”-Coltnew Collectiona, Maitlaud Club, p. 17.
a The house appears from the titles to have been sold by Lord Westhall, in 1784, within a few weeks of hia death. ‘ Now occupied aa Douglas’s Hotel.
a John Scougal, younger of that name, was a cousin of Patrick Scougal, consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen in 1664. He
added the upper story to the old land in Advccate’e Cloae, and fitted up one of the floors as a picture gallery; iome
Mr Andrew Greig, carpet manufacturer. ... HIGH STREET. 229 Advocate’s Close, which bounds the ancient tenement we have been describing on the east, ...

Book 10  p. 249
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L UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 185
dropped whole and complete into the midst of the pent-up city.
west corner of St Giles’s Church, so close to that ancient building as only to leave a
narrow footpath beyond its projecting buttresses ; while the tall and gloomy-looking pile
extended so far into the main street that a roadway of fourteen feet in breadth was all
that intervened between it and the lofty range of buildings on the opposite side. We
cannot better describe this interesting building than in the lively narrative of Scott,
written about the time of its demolition,-“The prison reared its ancient front in the
very middle of the High Street, forming the termination to a huge pile of buildings called
the Luckenbooths, which, for some inconceivable reason, our ancestors had jammed into
the midst of the principal street of the town, leaving for passage a narrow way on the
north; and on the south-into which the prison opens--a crooked lane, winding betwixt
the high and sombre walls of the Tolbooth and the adjacent houses on the one side, and
the buttresses and projections of the old cathedral upon the other. To give some gaiety to
this sombre passage, well known by the name of the Krames, a number of little booths or
shops, after the fashion of cobblers’ stalls, were plastered, as it were, against the Gothic
projections and abutments, so that it seemed as if the traders had occupied every buttress
and coigne of vantage,’ with nests bearing the same proportion to the building as the
martlet’s did in Macbeth’s Castle.” The most prominent features in the south front of
the Tolbooth,-of which we furnish an engraving,-were two projecting turret staircases.
A neatly carved Gothic doorway, surmounted by -a niche, gave entrance to the building
at the foot of the eastern tower; and this, on its demolition in 1817, was removed by Sir
Walter Scott to Abbotsford, and there converted to,the humble oEce of giving access to
his kitchen court.’
Some account has already been given, in our brief sketch of the period of Queen Mary,’
of the mandate issued by her in 1561, requiring the rebuilding of the Tolbooth, and the
many difficulties that the city had to encounter in satisfying this royal command. The
letter sets forth, that “ The Queiny’s Majestie, understanding that the Tolbuith of the
Burgh of Edinburgh is ruinous and abill haistielie to dekay ind fall doun, quhilk will be
warrap dampnable and skaythfull to the pepill dwelland thairabout . . . without
heistie remeid be providit thairin. Thairfor hir Heines ordinis ane masser to pass alid
charge the Provest, Baillies, and Counsale, to caus put workmen to the taking doun of the
said Tolbuith, with all possible deligence.” ‘‘ In obedience to the Queen’s command,”
says Maitland, It has already been shown, however,
in the earlier allusions to the subject, that this is an error. The new building was erected
entirely apart from it, adjoining the south-west corner of St Giles’s Church, and the
eastern portion of the Old Tolbooth bore incontestible evidence of being the work of a
much earlier period than the date of Queen Mary’s mandate.
It stood at the north-.
the Tolbooth was taken down.”
1 Sir Walter Scott remarks, in a note to the edition of his works issued in 1830,--“Last year, to complete the
change, a torn-tit waa pleased to build her nest within the lock of the Tolbooth,--a strong temptation to have committed
n sonnet.” The nest we must preaurne to have occupied the place of the lock, the key-hole of which, when deprived of
the scuteheon, would readily admit the tom-tit. The original lock and key, which were made immediately after the
Porteous mob, were in the possession of Messrs Cormack & Son, Leith Street, and formed the most substantial produc
tions of the Locksmith’s art we ever eaw. The lock measured two feet long by one broad ; and the key, which waa a‘oout
a foot long, looked more like a huge iron mace.
Ante, p. 71. Maitland, p. 21.
2 A ... UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 185 dropped whole and complete into the midst of the pent-up city. west ...

Book 10  p. 203
(Score 0.51)

440 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
few particular points both of learning and of practice, but on the whole, his superiority is
entirely unrivalled and undisputed. Those who approach the nearest to him are indeed so much
his juniors, that he cannot fail to have an immense ascendancy over them, both from the actual
advantages of his longer study and experience, and, without offence to him or them be it added,
from the effects of their early admiration of him, while he was rn yet far above their sphere. Do
not suppose, however, that I mean to represent any part of the respect with which these gentlemen
treat their senior, as the result of empty prejudice. Never was any man less of a quack than
Mr. Clerk ; the very essence of his character is scorn of ornament, and utter loathing of affectation.
He is the plainest, the shrewdest, and the most sarcastic of men ; his sceptre owes the whole of
its power to its weight-nothing to glitter.
‘ I It is impossible to imagine a physiognomy more expressive of the character of a great lawyer
and barrister. The features are in theinselves good-at least a painter would call them so ; and
the upper part of the profile has as fine lines as could be wished. But then, how the habits of
the mind have stamped their traces on every part of his face ! What sharpness, what razor-like
sharpness, has indented itself about the wrinkles of his eyelids ; the eyes themselves, so quick, so
gray, such bafflers of scrutiny, such exquisite scrutinisers, how they change their expression-it
seems almost how they change their colour-shifting from contracted, concentrated blackness,
through every shade of brown, blue, green, and hazel, back into their open, gleaming gray again.
How they glisten into a smile of disdain !-Aristotle says, that all laughter springs from emotions
of conscious superiority. I never saw the Stagyrite so well illustrated as in the smile of this
gentleman, He seems to be affected with the most dclightful and balmy feelings, by the contemplation
of some soft-headed, prosing driveller racking his poor brain, or bellowing his lungs
out-all about something which he, the smiler, sees through so thoroughly, so distinctly.
Blunder follows blunder ; the mist thickens about the brain of the bewildered hammerer ; and
every plunge of the bogtrotter-every decpcning shade of his confusion-is attested by some
more copious infusion of Sardonic suavity into the horrible, ghastly, grinning smile of the happy
Mr. Clerk. How he chuckles over the solemn spoon whom he hath fairly got into his power.
When he rises at the conclusion of his display, he seems to collect himself like a kite above a
covey of partridges ; he is in no hurry to come down, but holds his victims ‘with his glittering
eye,’ and smiles sweetly, and yet more sweetly, the bitter assurance of their coming fate ; then
out he stretches his arm, as the kite may his wing, and changing the smile by degrees into a
frown, and drawing down his eyebrows from their altitude among the wrinkles of his forehead,
and making them to hang like fringes quite over his diminishing and brightening eyes, and
mingling a tincture of deeper scorn in the wave of his lips, and projecting his chin, and suffusing
his whole face with the very livery of wrath, how he pounces with a scream upon his prey-and
may the Lord have mercy upon their unhappy souls ! ”
Although his legal studies must have engrossed the greater part of his time,
Mr. Clerk still found leisure to indulge a taste for the fine arts. He occasionally
amused himself in drawing and painting. He was a skilful modeller ; and
even while seated on the bench with his colleagues, he was known to gratify
his fondness for the ludicrous, by pencilling any object that might strike his
fancy.’ In the course of his long life he had collected a very extensive selection
of paintings,’ sketches, and rare prints. At the saie of these, by auction, at
his lordship’s house in Picardy Place, a short time after his death, a serious
accident occurred. The floor of the apartment gave way, and the crowd of
purchasers were precipitated from the drawing-room to the dining-room flat, in
a previous part of this Work.
agent happened to call on him next day.
“I know not,” was the reply.
painting of a cat, which he said he would not have given one shilling for.
We believe he furnished Kay with the original sketch of the “Three Legal Devotees,” given in
Mr. Clerk had been paid a fee of one hundred guineas for pleading in a particular case. The
‘ I John,” said Clerk, ‘ I where do you think your fee is ? ”
“There it is,” said he. On looking up the agent perceived a small ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. few particular points both of learning and of practice, but on the whole, his ...

Book 9  p. 589
(Score 0.51)

MUSCHAT?S CAIRN. 311 Arthur?r Seat.]
terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his
brother, and his sister-in-law, together with Burnbank,
? in the Christian city of Edinburgh, during a
course of many months, without any one, to appearance,
ever feeling the slightest compunction towards
the poor weman, though it is admitted she
loved her husband, and no real fault on her side
has ever been insinuated.?
At length it would seem that Nicol, infatuated
and lured by evil fate, at the suggestion of ?? the
devil, that cunning adversary ?-as his confession
has it-borrowed a knife, scarcely knowing for
what purpose, and, inviting his unsuspecting wife to
walk with him as far as
Duddingston one night,
cut her throat near
the line of trees that
marked the Duke?s
Walk. He then rushed
in a demented state to
tell his brother what
he had done, and thereafter
sank into a mood
of mind that made all
seem blank to him.
Next morning the unfortunate
victim was
found ?with her throat
cut to the bone,? and
many other wounds received
in her dying
struggle.
In the favourite old
Edinburgh religious
by a cairn near the east gate and close to the north
wall. ?The original cairn is said to have been
several paces farther west than the present one,
the stones of which were taken dut of the old wall
whenit was pulled down to give place to the new
gate that was constructed previous to the late royal
visit ?-that of George IV.
In 1820 the pathway round Salisbury Craigs was
formed, and named the ? Radical Road ? from ?the
, circumstance of the destitute and discontented
west-country weavers being employed on its construction
under a committee of gentlemen. At
that time it was proposed to ?sow the rocks with
wall-flowers and other
>I? AlAKGAKET?S WELI..
tract, which narrates
the murderous story, in telling where he went
before doing the deed, he says that he passed
?? through the Tidies,? at the end of a lane which
was near the Meadows. The entrance to the Park,
near the Gibbet Fall, was long known as ?the
Tirliea,? implying a sort of stile.
Nicol Muschat was tried, and confessed all. He
was hanged, on the 6th of the ensuing January in
the Grassmarket, while his associate Burnbank was
declared infamous, and banished ; and the people,
to mark their horror of the event, in the old
Scottish fashion raised a cairn on the spot where
the murder was perpetrated, and it has ever since
been a well-remembered locality.
The first cairn was removed during the formation
of a new footpath through the park, suggested by
Lord Adam Gordon, who was resident at Holyrood
House in 1789, when Commander of the
Forces in Scotland; but from a passage in the
WeekOJournal we find that it was restored in 1823
odoriferous and flowering
plants.? It was also
suggested ? to plant
the cliffs above the
walk with the rarest
heaths from the Cape
of Good Hope and
other foreign parts.?
( Weekfiyuumal, XXIV.)
The papers of this
time teem with bitter
complaints against the
Earl of Haddington,
who, as a keeper of
the Royal Park, by an
abuse of his prercgative,
was quarrying away
the craigs, and selling
the stone to pave the
streets of London; and
the immense gaps in
their south-western face still remain as proofs of
his selfish and unpatriotic rapacity.
As a last remnant of the worship of Baal, or
Fire, we may mention the yearly custom that still
exists of a May-day observance, in the young of the
female sex particularly, ascending Arthur?s Seat on
Beltane morning at sunrise. ?? On a fine May morning,?
says the ? Book of Days,? ? the appearance
of so many gay groups perambulating the hill sides
and the intermediate valleys, searching for dew, and
rousing the echoes with their harmless mirth, has
an indescribably cheerful effect.? Many old citizens
adhered to this custom with wonderful tenacity,
and among the last octogenarians who did so we
may mention Dr. Andrew Duncan of Adam Square,
the founder of the Morningside Asylum, who paid
his last annual visit to the hill top on hlayday, 1S26~
in his eighty-second year, two years before his death ;
and James Burnet, the last captain of the old Town
Guard, a man who weighed nindeen stone, ascended ... CAIRN. 311 Arthur?r Seat.] terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his brother, and his ...

Book 4  p. 310
(Score 0.5)

Arthur?r Seat.] MUSCHAT?S CAIRN. 311
terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his
brother, and his sister-in-law, together with Burnbank,
? in the Christian city of Edinburgh, during a
course of many months, without any one, to appearance,
ever feeling the slightest compunction towards
the poor weman, though it is admitted she
loved her husband, and no real fault on her side
has ever been insinuated.?
At length it would seem that Nicol, infatuated
and lured by evil fate, at the suggestion of ?? the
devil, that cunning adversary ?-as his confession
has it-borrowed a knife, scarcely knowing for
what purpose, and, inviting his unsuspecting wife to
walk with him as far as
Duddingston one night,
cut her throat near
the line of trees that
marked the Duke?s
Walk. He then rushed
in a demented state to
tell his brother what
he had done, and thereafter
sank into a mood
of mind that made all
seem blank to him.
Next morning the unfortunate
victim was
found ?with her throat
cut to the bone,? and
many other wounds received
in her dying
struggle.
In the favourite old
Edinburgh religious
by a cairn near the east gate and close to the north
wall. ?The original cairn is said to have been
several paces farther west than the present one,
the stones of which were taken dut of the old wall
whenit was pulled down to give place to the new
gate that was constructed previous to the late royal
visit ?-that of George IV.
In 1820 the pathway round Salisbury Craigs was
formed, and named the ? Radical Road ? from ?the
, circumstance of the destitute and discontented
west-country weavers being employed on its construction
under a committee of gentlemen. At
that time it was proposed to ?sow the rocks with
wall-flowers and other
>I? AlAKGAKET?S WELI..
tract, which narrates
the murderous story, in telling where he went
before doing the deed, he says that he passed
?? through the Tidies,? at the end of a lane which
was near the Meadows. The entrance to the Park,
near the Gibbet Fall, was long known as ?the
Tirliea,? implying a sort of stile.
Nicol Muschat was tried, and confessed all. He
was hanged, on the 6th of the ensuing January in
the Grassmarket, while his associate Burnbank was
declared infamous, and banished ; and the people,
to mark their horror of the event, in the old
Scottish fashion raised a cairn on the spot where
the murder was perpetrated, and it has ever since
been a well-remembered locality.
The first cairn was removed during the formation
of a new footpath through the park, suggested by
Lord Adam Gordon, who was resident at Holyrood
House in 1789, when Commander of the
Forces in Scotland; but from a passage in the
WeekOJournal we find that it was restored in 1823
odoriferous and flowering
plants.? It was also
suggested ? to plant
the cliffs above the
walk with the rarest
heaths from the Cape
of Good Hope and
other foreign parts.?
( Weekfiyuumal, XXIV.)
The papers of this
time teem with bitter
complaints against the
Earl of Haddington,
who, as a keeper of
the Royal Park, by an
abuse of his prercgative,
was quarrying away
the craigs, and selling
the stone to pave the
streets of London; and
the immense gaps in
their south-western face still remain as proofs of
his selfish and unpatriotic rapacity.
As a last remnant of the worship of Baal, or
Fire, we may mention the yearly custom that still
exists of a May-day observance, in the young of the
female sex particularly, ascending Arthur?s Seat on
Beltane morning at sunrise. ?? On a fine May morning,?
says the ? Book of Days,? ? the appearance
of so many gay groups perambulating the hill sides
and the intermediate valleys, searching for dew, and
rousing the echoes with their harmless mirth, has
an indescribably cheerful effect.? Many old citizens
adhered to this custom with wonderful tenacity,
and among the last octogenarians who did so we
may mention Dr. Andrew Duncan of Adam Square,
the founder of the Morningside Asylum, who paid
his last annual visit to the hill top on hlayday, 1S26~
in his eighty-second year, two years before his death ;
and James Burnet, the last captain of the old Town
Guard, a man who weighed nindeen stone, ascended ... Seat.] MUSCHAT?S CAIRN. 311 terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his brother, and his ...

Book 4  p. 311
(Score 0.5)

258 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
believe, was the place whither the Reformer withdrew for private study and devotion, and
where the chief portion of his history was written.
The plaster ceiling of the hall appears to be a work about the time of Charles II., but a
great portion of it has now given way, and discloses the original oak beams and planking
of the flo’or above, which are painted in the style we have already described in the account
of Blpth’s Close. Tradition has industriously laboured to add to the associations of the
old building by such clumsy inventions as betray their spuriousness. A vault underneath
the street, which contains a covered well, is exhibited to the curious by the tenant of the
laigh shop,“ as the scene of secret baptisms of children before the Reformation ; at B
time when it more probably formed a convenient receptacle for the good Abbot’s wines,
and witnessed no other Christian rites than those over which his butler presided. The ‘‘ preaching window ” has also been long pointed out, from whence the Reformer, according
to the same authority, was wont to address the populace assembled below. The
interesting narrative of his last sermon in St Giles’s Church, and the scene that followed,
when. his congregation lingered in the High Street, watching, as for the last time, the
feeble steps of their aged pastor, seems the best confutation of this oft-repeated tradition,
which certainly receives no countenance from history. Among these spurious traditions,
we are also inclined to reckon that which assigns the old Reformer’s house to the celebrated
printer, Thomas Bassandyne. Society Close, in its neighbourhood, was indeed
formerly called Bassandyne’s Close, as appears by the titles; but even if this be in
reference to the printer, which we question, it would rather discredit than confirm the
tradition, as another land intervened between that and the famed old tenement.’ There is
an access to Knox’s house by a stair in the angle behind the Fountain Well, in the wall
of which is a doorway, now built up, said to communicate with a subterranean passage
leading to a considerable distance towards the north.
It is impossible to traverse the ruined apartments of this ancient mansion without feelings
of deep and unwonted interest. To the admirers of the intrepid Reformer, it awakens
thoughts not only of himself but of the work which he so effectually promoted ; to all it
is interesting as intimately associated with memorable events in Scottish history. There
have assembled the Earls of Murray, Morton, and Glencairn; Lords Boyd, Lindsay,
Ruthven, and Ochiltree, and many others, agents of the Court, as well as its most resolute
opponents ; and within the faded and crumbling hall, councils have been matured that
exercised a lasting influence on the national destinies. There, too, was the scene of his
1 We have discovered in the Burgh Charter Room a deed of disposition referring to part of this property, and of an
earlier date than any now in the hands of the propridora, viz DiSpositiOn of How in N e t k Bow, March 1,1624,
Alesounc Bassdyw and other8 to John Binning.” One of the others is Alexander Crawford, her husband, while the
property appeara to have been originally acquired by her as spouse of umq- Alexander Ker, two of whose daughters
by her are named, along with their husbands, an joint contracting parties in the disposition ; and, it may be added,
‘‘ umq” Alexander Richardson, some time spouse to me, the said Aleaoune,” 8II intermediate husband, is mentioned in
the deed. The house ia situated down the close, and is bounded “by the waste land descending north to the wall of
Trinity College on the north . . . and the waste land of umquile James Baeaendyne on the south parts.” Thia deed ia
dated only forty-eeven years after the death of the printer; so that James was, in all probability, a contemporary or pra
deceaeor. Neither he nor Aleaoun is referred to among the printer’s relatives in his will (Bann. Misc. vol. ii. p. 203),
but Alesoun Bassindyne, my dochter,” ia appointed one of the executors in the will of Katharine Norwell, the widow
of the printer, who had married a second time, and died in 1693 (ibid, p. 220), and to whom she leaves her twa best
new blak gowneis, twa pair of new cloikis, and twa new wylie cottis, with ane signet of gold, and ane ring with twa
stanein.” She was probably the old prink's only child, and an infant st the time of hie decease. The house, which
WO believe to have been that of Thomas Basaendyne, is described towarda the close of thii chapter.
* ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. believe, was the place whither the Reformer withdrew for private study and devotion, ...

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318 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
broad flight of steps conducted to the main floor of the building. By this mode of construction,
common in old times, the approach to the quadrangle could be secured against
any ordinary attack, and the indwellers might then hold out, as in their castle, until they
made terms with their assailants, or were relieved by a superior force.
The ancient building was erected by James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, as
appears from various allusions to it by early writers.’ He became Lord High Treasurer
in 1505, and was promoted to the Archiepiscopate of Glasgow in 1509, so that we may
unhesitatingly assign the date of this erection to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
He busied himself, after his translation to this see, in promoting many important
erections, and greatly enlarged and beautified the Episcopal Palace of Glasgow. Upon
all the buildings erected by him his armorial bearings were conspicuously displayed, and
a large stone tablet remained till a few years since over the archway of Blackfriars’
Wynd, leading into the inner court, blazoned with the Beaton Arms, supported by two
angels in Dalmatic habits, and surmounted by a crest, sufficiently defaced to enable
antiquaries to discover in it either a mitre or a cardinal’s hat, according as their theory
of the original ownership inclined towards the Archbishop, or his more celebrated nephew,
the Cardinal.$
The exterior angle of this building towards the Cowgate was finished with a hexagonal
turret, projecting from a stone pillar which sprang from the ground, and formed a
singularly picturesque feature in that ancient thoroughfare. We find, however, from the
early titles of the property, that the Archbishop’s residence. and grounds had included
not only the buildings between Blackfriars’ and Toddrick’s Wynds, but the whole of the
site occupied by the ancient buildings of the Mint; so that there can be little doubt the
Archbishop had extensive gardens attached to his lodgings in the capital. An inspection
of the back wall of the Mint in Toddrick’s Wynd would confirm the idea of its having
succeeded to a more ancient building of considerable architectural pretensions ; as, on
minute examination, various carved stones will be observed built up among the materials
of the rubble work.’
Here the Earl of Arran and the chief adherents of his faction were assembled on the
30th of April 1520, engaged in maturing their hastily-concerted scheme for seizing the
’
1 “Biachope James Beatoun remained still in Edinburgh in his awin ludging, quhilk he biggit in the Frierie Wynd.”
-Pitacottie’E Chronicles, voL ii. p. 313. ’ Nisbet, who is the best of d authorities on such a subject, says :-“ With us angels have been frequently made
use of aa supporters, CardinaI Beaton had his supported by two angels in Dalmatic habits, or, as some say, priestly
ones, which are yet to be seen on hia lodgings in Blrckfriars’ Wynd.”-Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. ii. part iv. The stone,
which is now in the posaession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., is exceedingly soft and much worn. The crest has most probably
been an otter’a head, which was that borne by the family. It is certainly neither a mitre nor a. cardinal’s hat, and
indeed the arms are simply those of the family, and not impaled with those of any see, aw we might expect them to have
been if surmounted with such an official badge.
a The following is the definition of the property as contained in a deed dated 1639, and preaerved in the Burgh
Charter Room :-“Disposition of houae, John Sharpe, elder, of Houston, advocate, to Mr J. Sharpe, younger, hia son. . .
All and hail that great lodging or tenement, back‘and fore, under and above, biggit and waste, with the yards and
pert’ aome time pertaining to the Archbishop of St Andrew’s, thereafter to umq‘ John Beaton of Capeldraw, thereafter
to the heira of umq Archibald Stewart and Helen Aitchison, and thereafter pertaining to urnq’O Thomas Aitchison, his
Highness Maister Cuneier, lying within the Burgh of Edinburgh, on ye south of the King’s High Street thereof, on ye
east side of ye trance thereof, betwixt the close called Gray’s Cloae and ye vennel called Toddrickb Wynd upon ye east,
the transe of ye said Blackfried Wynd on ye west, the High Street of Cowgate on ye soubh, the yard of umqb John
Barclay, thereafter pertaining to umqb Alex. Hunter, &e., on ye north,” Qc. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. broad flight of steps conducted to the main floor of the building. By this mode of ...

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352 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
sions, or swept away to make room for the formal streets and squares of the New Town;
but these are the offspring of another parentage, though claiming a part among the memorials
of the olden time. At the foot of Leith Wynd-and just without the ancient boundaries
of the capital, lies an ancient suburb, which though at no time dignified by the abodes of
the nobility, or even of citizens of note, was selected as the site of several early religious
foundations that still confer some interest on the locality. The foot of the Wynd (the only
portion which now remains) was remarkable as the scene of one of those strange acts of lawless
violence, which were of such frequent occurrence in early times. John Graham, parson of
Killearn, one of the supreme criminal Judges, having married the widow of Sandilands of
Calder, instituted a vexatious law-suit against her son. The partizans of the latter probably
considered it vain to compete with a lawyer at his own weapons, and his uncle, Sir James
Sandilands, accompanied by a body of his friends and followers, lay in wait for the Judge on
the 1st of February 1592, in the wynd, which then formed one of the principal avenues to
the town, and avenged their quarrel by murdering him in open day, without any of the perpetrators
being brought to trial or punishment.’ At the foot of the wynd stood the building
known as Paul’s Work, rebuilt in 1619, on the site of an ancient religibus foundation.
About the year 1479, Thomas Spence, Bishop of Aberdeen, founded an hospital there, for
the reception and entertainment of twelve poor men, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary,
under the name of the Hospital of our Lady in Leith Wynd, and it subsequently received
considerable augmentations to its revenues from other benefactors. It is probable that
among these benefactions there had been a chapel or altar dedicated to St Paul, unless,
indeed, this was included in the original charter of foundation.’ All these documents,
however, are now lost, and we are mainly left to conjecture as to the source of the change
of name which early took place. In 1582 the Common Council adapted this charitable
foundation to the new order of things, and drew up statutes for the guidance. of the
Bedemen, wherein it is required that, “in Religion they be na Papistes, bot of the trew
Religi~n.”~S ubsequently the whole revenues were diverted to purposes never dreamt of
by the pious founders. The buildings having probably fallen intp decay, were reconstructed
as they now appear, and certain Dutch manufacturers were invited over from Delft,
and established there for the instruction of poor girls and boys in the manufacturing of
woollen stuffs. The influence of these strangers in their legitimate vocation failed of eEect,
but Calderwood records in 1621, ‘‘ Manie of the profainner sort of the toun were drawen
out upon the sixt of May, to May games in Gilmertoun and Rosseline; so profanitie
began to accompanie superstition and idolatrie, as it hath done in former times. Upon
the first of May, the weavers in St Paul’s Worke, Englishe and Dutche, set up a
highe May pole, with their garlants and bells hanging at them, wherat was great concurse
Arnot’s Criminal Trials, p. 174.
“Feb. 7, 1696.-Reduction pursued by the Town of Edinburgh against Sir Wm. Binny, and other partnera of the
Linen Manufactory in Paul’s Work, of the tack set to them of the same in 1683. Insisted lmo, that this house was
founded by Thos. Spence, Bishop of Aberdeen, in the reign of King James II., for discipline and training of idle vagabonds,
and dedicated to 9t Paul ; and by an Act of Council in 1626, was destinate aud mortified for educating boys in B
woollen manufactory; and this tack had inverted the origiual design, contrary to the 6th Act of Parliament, 1633,
discharging the sacrilegious inveraion of all pious donations.”-Fountainhall’s Decisions, vol. i. p. 709. “ There WM a
hospital and chapel, dedicated to St Paul, in Edinburgh ; aud there waa in the chapel an altar and chaplainry conaecrated
to the Virgin ; of which Sir William Knolls, the preceptor of Torphichen, claimed the patronage before the Privy Council,
in 1495.”-ParI. Rec. 472. Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 471. * Maitland, pp. 468-9. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. sions, or swept away to make room for the formal streets and squares of the New ...

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Charlotte Square.] THE ALBERT MEMORIAL. I75
His neighbour and brother senator Lord Dundrennan
occupied No. 35 ; and in 1811 William
Robertson, Lord Robertson, a senator of 1805,
occupied No. 42. He was the eldest son of Dr.
Robertson the historian, and in 1779 was chosen
Procurator of the Church of Scotland, after ,a close
contest, in which he was opposed by the Hon.
Henry Erskine. His personal appearance is
described in ? Peter?s Letters to his Kinsfolk.?
He retired from the bench in 1826, in consequence
of deafness, and died in November, 1835.
On the western side of the Square, and terminating
with fine effect the long vista of George
Street from the east, is St. George?s Church, the
foundation of which was laid on the 14th of May,
1811. It was built from a design furnished by
Robert Reid, king?s architect The celebrated
Adam likewise furnished a plan for this church,
which was relinquished in consequence of the
expense it would have involved. The whole building,
with the exception of the dome, which is a
noble one, and seen to advantage from any point,
is heavy in appearance, meagre in detail, and
hideous in conception, and its ultimate expense
greatly exceeded the estimates and the sum for
which the more elegant design of Adam could have
been carried out. It cost A33,ooo, is calculated
to accommodate only 1,600 persons, and was opened
for public worship in 1814. It was intended in
its upper part to be a large miniature or reduced
copy of St. Paul?s in London, and is in a kind of
Grzco-Italian style, with a lofty but meagre Ionic
portico and surmounting an Attic Corinthian colonnade
; it rests on a square ground plan measuring
IIZ feet each way, and culminates in the dome,
surmounted by a lantern, cupola, and cross, the
last at the height of 160 feet from the ground.
The original design included two minarets, which
have not as yet been added.
It is chiefly celebrated as the scene of the ministrations
of Andrew Thomson, D.D., an eminent
divine who was fixed upon as its pastor in 1814.
He died suddenly on the 9th of February, 1831,
greatly beloved and lamented by the citizens in
general and his congregation in particular, and now
he lies in a piece of ground connected with the
churchyard of St. Cuthbert.
In Charlotte Place, behind the church, are the
atelier of Sir John Steel the eminent sculptor, and
a music-room called St. Cecilia?s Hall, with an
orchestra space for 250 performers and seats for
500 hearers.
In the centre of the Square is the memorial to
the Prince Consort, which was inaugurated with
much state by the Queen in person, attended by
the magistrates and archer guard, &c., in August,
1876. It cost A16,500, and is mainly from
the studio of Steel It is a quasi-pyramidal structure,
about thirty-two feet high, with a colossal
equestrian statue of the Prince as its central and
upper figure ; it is erected on an oblong Peterhead
granite pedestal, fully seventeen feet high, and
exhibiting emblematic bas-reliefs in the panels,
with four groups of statues on square blocks, projecting
from the corners of the basement; the
prince is shown in the uniform of a field marshal.
Of all the many statues that have been erected
to his memory, this in Charlotte Square is perhaps
one of the best and most pleasing.
With this chapter we close the history of what
may be regarded as thejt-st New Town, which was
designed in 1767, laid out, as we have seen, in a
parallelogram the sides of which measure 3,900
feet by 1,090.
The year 1755 was the period when Edinburgh
seemed really to wake from the sleep and torpor
that followed the Union, and a few imprdvements
began in the Old Town. After that period, says
Kincaid, writing in 1794, ? it is moderate to say
that not less than ~3,000,000 sterling has been
expended in building and public improvements.?
Thirty-five years ago,? says the Edinburgh
Adverther for 1823, ? there were scarcely a dozen
sliops in the New Town; now, in Princes Street,
with the exception of hotels and the Albyn Club
Room, they reach to Hanover Street.?
In the present day the whole .area we have described
is mainly occupied by shops, with the exception
of Charlotte Square and a small portion of
Queen Street. ... Square.] THE ALBERT MEMORIAL. I75 His neighbour and brother senator Lord Dundrennan occupied No. 35 ; ...

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424 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
TL ANCIENT MAPS AND VIEWS OF EDINBURGH.
1544.-The frequent reference to maps of different dates through the Work, renders some account of them
desirable for the general reader. The oldest, and by far the most valuable, is that of which a facsimile is given
in the iimt volume of the Bannatyne Miscellany, to illustrate a description of Edinburgh, referred to in the
course of this Work, by Alexander Alesse, a native of Edinburgh, born 23d April 1500, who embraced the
Protestant faith about the time when Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish martyr, was brought to the stake in
1527. He left Scotland about the year 1532 to escape a similar fate, and is believed to have died at Leipzig in
1565. The original map is preserved in the British Museum (NS. Cotton. Augustus 1, vol. ii Art. 66), and is
assigned with every appearance of probability to the year 1544, the date of the Earl of Hertford’s expedition
under Henry VIII. The map may be described as @fly consisting of a view from the Calton Hill, and
represents Arthur‘s Seat and the Abbey apparently with minute accuracy. The higher part of the town is spread
out more in the character of a bird’s-eye view ; but there also the churches, the Netherbow Port, and other
prominent features, afford proof of its general correctness. The buildings about the Palace and the whole
of the upper town have their roofs coloured red, a8 if to represent tiles, while those in the Canongate are
coloured grey, probably to show that they were thatched with straw. The only other view that bears any near
resemblance to the last, occurs in the corner of one of the maps in “John Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of
Great Britaine,”published at London in 1611. It is, perhaps, only a reduction of it, with some additions from
other sources. It must have been made, at any rate, many years before ita publication, as both the Blackfriars
Church and the Kirk-of-Field form prominent objects in the town. Trinity College Church is introduced
surmounted by a spire. St Andrew‘s Port, at the foot of Leith Wynd, appears as a gate of aome architectural
pretensions ; and the old Abbey and Palace of Holyrood, with the intricate enclosing walls surrounding them,
are deserving of comparison with the more authentic view.
1573.-The next in point of time is a plan engraved onwood for Holinshed’s Chronicles, 1577, and believed
to be the same that is referred to in “A Survey taken of the Castle and towne of Edinbrogh in Scotland, by vs
Rowland Johnson and John Fleminge, servantes to the Q. Ma”’, by the comandement of s‘ William Drury,
Knighte, Governor of Berwicke, and Mr Henry Killigrave, Her Mah Embassador.” The view in this is from
the eouth, but it is chiefly of value as showing the position of the besiegers’ batteries. The town is mapped
out into little blocks of houses, with singular-looking heroes in trunk hose interspersed among them, tall.
enough k step over their roofs ! A facsimile of this illustrates the “Journal of -the Siege,= in tKe second
voIume of the Bannatpe Miscellany. Of the aame date is a curious plan of the Castle, mentioned in Blomefield’s
Historp of Norfolk :--“ At Ridlesworth Hall, Norfolk, is a picture of Sir William Drury, Lord Chief-
Justice of Ireland, 1579, by which hangs an old plan of Edinburgh Castle, and two armies before it, and round
it-Sir Willkm h y e , Knt., General of the EngliShe, wanm Edinburgh Castle 1573.‘-Gough’s British
Topography, vol. ii. p. 667.
1580.-Another map, which has bcen frequently engraved, was published about 1580 in Braun’s Civitates
&his. ‘‘ Any person,” says the editor of the Bannatyne Miscellany (vol. i. p. 185), ‘‘ who is acquainted with
the localities of the place may easily perceive that this plan has been delineated by a foreign artist from the
information contained in the printed text, and not from any actual survey or sketch ; and consequently is of
little interest or value.” The same, however, might, with equal propriety, be said of the preceding map, which
has fully as many errors as the one now referred to. The latter is certainly much too correct, according to the
style of depiction adopted in these bird‘s-eye maps, to admit of the idea of ita being drawn from description,
though it is not improbable that it may have been made up ‘from others, without personal survey. It affords
some interesting points of comparison with that of 1574. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. TL ANCIENT MAPS AND VIEWS OF EDINBURGH. 1544.-The frequent reference to maps of ...

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L UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 207
pedestal. Its panegyric we suspect had proved too fulsome even for the sycophantish
period in which the statue was erected ; but it now forms the most interesting, and we
may add amusing, feature of this old monument of civic royalty.’
A view is given of the new Parliament House at page 99, as it appeared when first
erected, standing disengaged from all other buildings, with an open area to the east and
south. The same isolated position is s h o h in the bird’s-eye view in Gordon’s map of
1648, where the ground slopes down in open terraces from the Parliament Close to the
Cowgate ; but the value of this central spot through which the nobles, judges, and magistrates,
and all their numerous attendants and solicitors, were daily passing, soon led to
its selection as a convenient Bite for building. So early as 1628 the southern side of the
church walls had been concealed by krames and booths stuck on between every buttress
and angle; and about the year 1663 the open ground was let out by the magistrates for
the purpose of erecting small shops. These were succeeded, in 1685, as appeared from
the date on one of the lands, by the loftiest buildings existing in the Old Town, which
towered in their southern elevation to the height of fifteen stories, and converted the once
solitary churchyard into the busiest and most populous nook of the ancient capital.
We have examined a set of original documents,’ relating to a judicial sale of the property
in the Parliament Close, drawn up in the year 1698, which furnish some curious
and minute information as to the extent and occupation of the old lands, and introduce
the names of citizens of note and influence at the period, as concerned in the various
transactions. “ My Lord Pountainhall, George Warrender, ane of the present bailies,”
ancestor of the Baronets of that name, ‘‘ George Home, merchant, and now Provost,”
knd others, appear as creditors and trustee^.^ A few extracts will furnish a peep into the
domestic arrangements of the fashionable residenters in the Parliament Close towards the
close of the seventeenth century. Sir George Campbell of Cessnock, ancestor of the
Earls of Marchmont, occupied a lodging on the fourth story above the close, (( entering
by the scale stair from the Parliament Close and Kirk-heugh,” at a yearly rent of five
hundred and fifty merks Scots, and (( consisting of seven fire rooms, and a closet with
ane fire ! ” and above him was Sir Williarn Binning of Wallyfordz in the fifth story, with
equal accommodation, at a somewhat lower rental.
In the next scale stair entering from the close, “ The Lord Mersington ” is mentioned
as occupying a house of eight fire rooms and a cellar on the fifth floor, at the rent of two
hundred pounds Scots, Alexander Swinton, who assumed this title on his elevation to
the Bench in 1688, is a character of some note among our older citizens. So zealous
A correspondent of the Cirledonkm Mercury, Nov. loth, 1788, who dates from 8t Eernard’s (Walter Rosa, Esq.,
we presume), supplies aome intemting facts regarding this monument:-“ The statue of Charlea II., placed on the spot
intended for that of Cromwell, and superior to everything of the kind in Britain, is said by Naitland to have been
erected at the expense of the citizens. The
statue was placed by the Xagistrates and Council. In the accounts of George Drurnrnond, the town treasurer, in 1684-6,
he charges E2580 Scots (E215 sterling), the contents of a bill of exchange drawn by ‘ James Smith upon him, for the
price of King Charles II., his atatue.’
If he means that it was by a contribution for the purpose, it is a mistake.
The bill seems to have come from Rotterdam.”
. * In the possession of David Laing, Esq., Signet Library.
a The property is thus described :-“A11 and haill these great lodgings, duellingkouaea, shops, vaulta, sellars, and
pertinent6 of the same, lying within the brugh of Edinburgh, betwixt the King’s High Street therein, called the Cowgate,
on the south, the Veonel commonly called the Kirk-heugh, and the tenement of land belonging to me, the aaid
Thomas Robertson, on the east; the Parliament Closa on the north, and the Parliament House, and little yard belonging
to the same, and the void commonly called the Leather Mercatt on the west parts,” &. ... UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 207 pedestal. Its panegyric we suspect had proved too fulsome even for the ...

Book 10  p. 226
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disappeared; but by a sort of fatuity, often evinced
by persons similarly situated, he gave clues to his
own discovery. He remained in London till the
zgrd of March. He took his passage on board the
Leith smack Endeavorfr for that port, disguised as
an old man in bad health, and under the name of
John Dixon ; but on getting out of the Thames,
according to some previous arrangement, he was
landed at Flushing, and from thence reached
Ostend. On board the smack he was rash enough
to give in charge of a Mr. Geddes letters addressed
to three persons in Edinburgh, one of whom was
his favourite mistress in Cant?s Close. Geddes,
full of suspicion, on reaching Leith gave the documents
to the authorities. Mr. Williamson was once
more on his track, and discovered him in Amsterdam,
through the treachery of an Irishman named
Daly, when he was on the
eve of his departure for
the halter destined for himself j? and well might he
do so with terrible interest, as he was to be the
jrst to know the excellence of an improvement he
had formerly made on that identical gibbet-the
substitution of what is called the drop, for the
ancient practice of the double ladder. The ropes
proving too short, Brodie stepped down to the
platform and entered into easy conversation with
his friends.
This occurred no less than three times, while
the great bell of St. Giles?s was tolling slowly, and
the crowd of spectators was vast. Brodie died
without either confessing or denying his guilt ; but
the conduct and bearing of Smith were very different.
In consequence of the firmness and levity of the
former, a curious story became quickly current, to
the effect that in the Tolbooth he had been visited
by Dr. Pierre Degraver,
LANTERN AND KEYS OF DEACON ERODIE.
IFrom tke Scofti?h Anfiarurrian Museum.)
America; and on the 27th
of August, 1788, he was
arraigned with Smith in
the High Court of Justiciary,
when he had as
counsel the Hon. Henry
Erskine, known then as
?Plead for all, or the
poor man?s lawyer,? and
two other advocates of
eminence, who made an
attempt to prove an dibi
on the part of Brodie,
by means of Jean Watt
and her servant, but
the jury, with one voice, found both guilty, and
they were sentenced to be hanged at the west
endof the Luckenbooths on the 1st October, 1788.
Smith was deeply affected; Brodie cool, determined,
and indifferent His self-possession never forsook
him, and he spoke of his approaching end with
levity, as ??a leap in the dark,? and he only betrayed
emotion when he was visited, for the last time, by
his daughter Cecil, a pretty child of ten years of
age. He came on the scaffold in a full suit of
black, with his hair dressed and powdered. Smith
was attired in white linen, trimmed with black.
?Having put on white night-caps,? says a print
of the time, ?Brodie pointed to Smith to ascend
the steps that led to the drop, and in an easy manner,
clapping him on the shoulder, said, ?George
Smith, you are first in hand.? Upon this Smith,
whose behaviour was highly penitent and resigned,
slowly ascended the steps, followed by Brodie, who
mounted with briskness and agility, and examined
the dreadful apparatus with attention, particularly
a French quack, who
undertook to restore hiin
to life after he had hung
the usual time, and that,
on the day before the execution,
he had marked
the arms and temples of
Brodie, to indicate where
he would apply the lancet.
Moreover, it was said
that having to lengthen
the rope thrice proved
that they had bargained
secretly with the executioner
for a short fall.
When cut down the
body was instantly given to two of his own
workmen, who placed it on a cart, and drove at
a furious rate round the back of the Castle, with
the idea that the rough jolting might produce
resuscitation! It was then taken to one of his
workshops in the Lawnmarket, where Degraver
was in attendance; but all attempts at bleeding
failed j the Deacon was gone, and nothing remained
but to lay him where he now lies, in the north-east
corner of the Chapel-of-ease burying-ground. His
dark lantern and sets of false keys, presented by the
Clerk of Justiciary to the Society of Antiquaries, are
still preserved in the city.
He had at one time been Deacon Convener
or chief of all the trades in the city, an ofice of
the highest respectability. His house in Brodie?s
Close is still to be found in nearly its original state;
the first door up a turnpike shir; and this door,
remarkable for its elaborate workmanship, is said
to have been that of his own ingenious hand. The
apartments are all decorated; and the priicipal one, ... but by a sort of fatuity, often evinced by persons similarly situated, he gave clues to his own ...

Book 1  p. 115
(Score 0.48)

THE CANONGA TE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 305
the street, which tradition points out as the residence of Bishop Paterson, one of the
latest Episcopal dignitaries of the Established Church, and a special subject of scandal
to the Covenanters. He was formerly chaplain to the Duke of Lauderdale, and wam
currently reported to have owed his,proruotion to the favour of the Duchess? A little
to the eastward of the White Horse Close, and immediately adjoining the Water Gate,
a plain modern land occupies the site of St Thomas’s Hospital, founded by George
Crichton, Bishop of Dunkeld, in 1541, and dedicated to God, the Virgin Mary, and all
saints. It consisted of a chapel and almshouse, which were purchased by the Magistrates
of Canongate in the year 1617, from the chaplains and bedesmen, with the consent of
‘ David Creichton of Lugtoun, the patron, who probably retained possession of the endowments.
Its new patrons converted it into an hospital for the poor of the burgh, and
invited the charity of the wealthy burghers of Canongate, by placing the following
inscription over the entrance, surmounted with the figures of two cripples, an old man and
woman, and the Canongate ~ S : - H E L P E HERE THE POORE, AS ZE VALD GOD DID zov.
JUNE 19, 1617. When Maitland wrote, the chapel had been, converted into a coach-house,
and both it and the hospital were in a very ruinous state ; and, in 1778, it was entirely
demolished, and its site occupied by private dwellings.’
The Water Gate formed the chief entrance to the burgh of Canongate, and the main
approach to the capital previous to the erection of the North Bridge. It is a port of considerable
antiquity, being represented as such in the maps of 1544 and 1573 ; and in the
Registers of the Burgh for 1574, the Treasurer is ordered ‘‘ to bye ane lok and key to the
Wattir Yet.” ’ Through it the Earl of Hertford entered with the army of Henry VIII.
in the former year ; and, at the same place, the Marquis of Montrose, the Earl of Argyle,
and others of less note, were received on their capture, with all the ignominy that party
rancour could devise.‘ Perhaps, however, the following unauthorised entrance by the
same public thoroughfare, in the year 1661, may be considered no less singular than any
of which it has been the scene. In the City Records of Edinburgh, after a gift of escheat
granted by the Council to the Baron Bailie of Canongate, of all heritable and movable
goods belonging to the witches thereof, a report follows by the Bailie concerning Barbara
Mylne, whom Janet Allen, burnt for witchcraft, ‘‘ did once see come in at the Water
Gate in likeness of a catt, and’ did change her garment under her awin staire, and went
into her hou~e.”~S uch residenters were not effectually expelled by the gift of escheat,
An anonymous letter, addressed to the Bishop by mme of his Presbyterian revilers in 1681, ia preserved among the
collection of original documents in the City Chambers. It supplies a su5ciently minute narrative of his proceedings
both in Edinburgh and elsewhere; of his escape from an enraged husband by leaping the Water of Errie, thenceforth
called “Paterson’s Loup;” of hia dealinga with “that Jezebel the Dutchess;” the Town Guard of Edinburgh, &c., all
told in somewhat too plain language for modern ears.
The property of this pious foundation appears to have been alienated long
before. We have found, in the Burgh Charter Room, “A disposition of house uear the ground of the Holy Crow.
John Pateraone to Andrew Eussall,” dated 1628, which runs thus:-“All and hail, that fore buith and dwellioghouse,
and back vault of the same, lying contiguous thereto; lying in the ground pertaining to the land sometime
pertaining to the puir Bedemen of the Hospital, founded beside the Abbey of the Holy Cross, by umquhile Oeorge,
Bishop of Dunkeld; and under the nether fore stair of the same, with the pertinenta, and free ish and entry
thereto ; which tenement lies within the eaid Eurgh, on the south side of the King’s High Street thereof, at the head
of the wynd called Bell’s Wynd.” The name of St Thomaa does not occur in the charter of foundation aa given by
Kitland.
Maitland, p. 155. Arnot, p. 249,
Register of the Burgh of the Canongate, 18th Oct. 1574.
Law’a Memorials, Pref. p. lxix.
’ Fountainhall’e Hist. Observes, pp. 185-190.
2 Q ... CANONGA TE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 305 the street, which tradition points out as the residence of Bishop ...

Book 10  p. 333
(Score 0.48)

1 24 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
anticipated, on the loftiest and least accessible part of the rock on which it is built. Here,
on the very edge of the precipitous cliff, overhanging the Old Town several hundred feet
below, the ancient Royal Palace is reared, forming the south and east sides of a large quadrangle,
called the Grand Parade. The chief portion of the southern side of this square
consists of a large ancient edifice, long converted into an hospital for the garrison, but
which had been ori,ginally the great hall of the Palace. Notwithstanding the numerous
changes to which it has been subjected in adapting it to its present use, some remains of
its ancient grandeur have been preserved. At the top of the principal staircase may be
seen a very finely sculptured stone corbel, now somewhat mutilated, representing in front
a female face of very good proportions, and ornamented on each with a volute and thistle.
On this still rests the original oak beam ; and on either side of it there are smaller beamfl
let into the wall, with shields carved on the front of each. The whole are now defaced
with whitewash, but they afford evidence of the existence formerly of a fine open timbered
roof to the great hall, and it is probable that much more of it still remains, though concealed
by modern ceilings and partitions. From the occasional assembling of the Parliament
here, while the Scottish Monarchs continued to reside in the Castle, it still retain8
the name of the Parliament House.’
The view from the windows on this side of the Palace is scarcely surpassed by any other
in the capital. Immediately below are the picturesque old houses of the Grassmarket and
West Port, crowned by the magnificent towers of Heriot’s Hospital. From this abyss,
the hum of the neighbouring city rises up, mellowed by the distance, into one pleasing
voice of life and industry; while, beyond, a gorgeous landscape is spread out, reaching
almoat to the ancient landmarks of the kingdom, guarded on the far east by the old keep
of Craigmillar Castle, and on the west by Merchiston Tower. Between these is still seen
the wide expanse of the Borough Muir, on which the fanciful eye of one familiar with the
national history will summon up the Scottish hosts marshalling for southern war ; as when
the gallant Jameses looked forth from these same towers, and proudly beheld them gathering
around the standard of (( the Ruddy Lion,” pitched in the massive (( Bore Stane,”’
still remaining at the Borough Muir Head.
The windows in this
part of the quadrangle have been very large, though now partly built up, and near the top
of the building, there is a sculptured shield, much defaced, which seems to bear the Scottish
Lion, with a crown over it. A stone tablet over the arch of the old doorway, with
’
Immediately to the east of this, the royal apartments are situated.
In the Treasurer‘s Acoounta, various items occur, relating to the royal apartmenta in the Castle, e.g. AJJ. 1516, “for
trein werk (timber work) for The Great Haw Windois in the Castell; gret gestis, doubill dalis, &c., for the Myd Chamer
;” and, again, r( to Robert Balye for fluring of the Lordis Haw in Davidis Tower of the Castell in Ed‘ ”-Pitcairn’s
Crim. Trials, Appendix. The Hall is also alluded to in the survey of 1572, and ita locality deacribed aa “On the south
syde wher the haule is,” &c.-Bann. Misc., vol. ii. p. 70. In a seriee of “One hundred and fifty select views, by P.
Sandby,” published by Boydell, there is one of Edinburgh Castle from the south, dated 1779, in which two of the great
hall windows remain ; they are lofty, extending through two stories of the building, as now arranged, and apparently
divided by stone mullions.
Bore Stane, so called from the hollow or Lore into which the staff of the royal standard was placed (vide Marmion,
canto iv. v. 28). About a mile south of this, near the entrance to Morton Hall, is the Eare Stane (confounded by
Maitland, p. 506, with the former). Various stones in Gloucestershire and other districta of England bear the same
name, which an antiquarian friend suggests is probably derived from the Saxun I?&, signifying slaughter, and therefore
indicating the site of an ancient battle. About a mile to the south of this, a huge h i d i c a l mass of red sandstone bears
the name of Buck Stane. The two last are popularly believed to mark the rendezvous of the Court for coursing the
hare or hunting the buck in “ The olden time.”
The coping, supported on stone corbels, still remains a8 in the earliest views. ... 24 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. anticipated, on the loftiest and least accessible part of the rock on which it is ...

Book 10  p. 135
(Score 0.48)

to extinct Scottish regiments, and various weapons
from the field of Culloden, particularly the Doune
steel pistols, of beautiful workmanship, worn by
Highland gentlemen.
Near this rises the Hawk Hi?l, where kings and
nobles practised falconry of old; on the left is
the Gothic arch of the citadel; and on the right
* rises the great mass of the hideous and uncomfortable
infantry barracks, erected partly on the
archery butts, in 1796, and likened by Sir Walter
Scott to a vulgar cotton-mill. This edifice is 150
feet long, and four storeys high to the westward,
where it rises on a massive arcade, and from its
windows can be had a magniticent prospect, extend-
'ing almost to the smoke of Glasgow, and the blue
cone of Ben Lomond, fifty miles distant.
On the south-west is Drury's gun-hattery, so
named from the officer of Scottish Engineers who
built it in 1689, and in its rear is the square prisonhouse,
built in 1840. Passing through the citadel
gate, we find on the left the modern water-tank,
the remains of the old shot-yard, the door of which
has now disappeared; but on the gablet above it
was a thistle, with the initials D.G.M.S. Here is
the king's bastion, on the north-west verge of the
citadel, and on the highest cliff of the Castle rock.
Here, too, are St Margaret's Chapel, which we
have already described, Mons Meg, frowning, as
of old, from the now-ruinous mortar battery, and
a piece of bare rock, the site of a plain modern
chapel, the pointed window of which was once
conspicuous from Princes Street, but which was
demolished by Colonel Moodie, R.E., in expectation
fhat one more commodious would be erected.
But macy years have since passed, and this has
never been done, consequently there is now no
chapel for the use of the troops of any religious
denomination; while the office of chaplain has
also been abolished, at
a time when Edinburgh
has been made a dep8t
centre for Scottish regiments,
and in defiance
of the fact that the
Castle is under the
Presbytery, and is a
parish of the city.
The platform of the
half-moon battery is
510 feet above the level
of the Forth. It is
armed with old 18 and
24 pounders, one of
which is, at one P.M.,
fired by electricity as a
time-gun, by a wire from the Calton Hill. It is
furnished with a lofty flagstaff, an iron grate for
beacon fires, and contains a draw-well IIO feet
deep. From its massive portholes Charles 11. saw
the rout of Cromwell's troops at Lochend in 1650;
and from there the Corsican chief Saoli in 1771,
the Grand Duke Nicholas in 1819, George IV. in
1822, Queen Victoria, and many others of note,
have viewed the city that stretched at their feet
below.
Within this battery is the ancient square or
Grand Parade, where some of the most interesting
buildings in the Castle are to be found, as it is
on the loftiest, most precipitous, and inaccessible
portion of the isolated rock. Here, abutting on
the very verge of the giddy cliff, overhanging the
Grassmarket, several hundred feet below, stands
all that many sieges have left of the ancient royal
palace, forming the southern and easterr. sides of
the quadrangle. The chief feature of the former is
a large battlemented edifice, now nearly destroyed
by its conversion into a military hospital. This
was the ancient hall of the Castle, in length 80
feet by 33 in width, and 27 in height, and
lighted by tall mullioned windows from the south,
wherein Parliaments have sat, kings have feasted
and revelled, ambassadors been received, and
treaties signed for peace or war. Some remains
of its ancient grandeur are yet discernible amid
the new floors and partitions that have been run
through it. At the summit of the principal staircase
is a beautifully-sculptured stone corbel representing
a well-cut female face, ornamented on each
side by a volute and thistle. On this rests one of
the original beams of the open oak roof, and on each
side are smaller beams with many sculptured shields,
all defaced by the whitewash of the barrack
pioneers and hospital orderlies. " The view from
CHEST IN WHICH THE REGALIA WERE FOUND.
the many windows on
this side is scarcely surpassed
by any other in
the capital. Immediately
below are the picturesque
old houses of
the Grassmarket and
West Port, crowned by
the magnificent towers
of Heriot's Hospital.
From this deep abyss
the hum of the neighbouring
city rises up,
mellowed by the distance,
into one pleasing
voice of life and industry
; while far beyond a ... extinct Scottish regiments, and various weapons from the field of Culloden, particularly the Doune steel ...

Book 1  p. 76
(Score 0.48)

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