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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 321
daughters and one son survived. One of his sons, the late Robert Jameson,
Esq., advocate, was a distinguished member of the Scottish bar ;’ and whose
premature demise alone prevented his being raised to the bench ; another, Mr.
Alexander, bookseller in Edinburgh, was the reputed author of a well-known
little work entitled “A Trip to London in a Berwick Smack.”
The following, we believe, is a pretty accurate list of Dr. Jamieson’s works :-
Sermons on the Heart. 2 vols. 8vo. 1789.
Sorrows of Slavery; a Poem, containing a faithful
statement of facts respecting the Slave Trade.
Loud 1789. 12mo.
Socinianism Unmasked, occasioned by Dr. Macgill’s
Practical Essay on the Death of Christ. 8vo.
An O r d i t i o n Sermon. 8vo.
A Dialogue between the Devil and a Socinian
Divine, on the contlnp.8 of the other world.
8vo.
An alarm to Great Britain ; or an Inquiry into the
Rapid Progress of Infidelity in the present age.
Loud. 1795. l2mo.
Vindication of the Doctrine of Scripture, and of the
Primitive Faith, concerning the Divinity of Christ,
in reply to Dr. Priestly’s History of Early Opinions,
&e. 2 vols. 8vo. 1795.
Conga1 and Fenella, a Tale. 8vo.
Eternity; a Poem, addressed to Freethinkers and
Philosophical Christians, 8vo. Loud. 1798.
Remarks on Rowland Hill’s Journal. 8vo. Loud.
1799.
The Use of Sacred Histot?., especially as illustrating
and confirming the Qreat Doctrines of Revelation.
To which are prefixed Two Dissertations,
the first on the Authenticity of the History contained
in the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua ;
the second, proving that the Books ascribed to
Moses were actually written by him, and that he
wrote them by Divine Inspiration. 2 vols. 8vo.
Loud. 1802.
Important :Trial in the Court of Conscience. 8vo.
Lond. 1806.
An Etymological Dictionary OP the Scottish Language
; illustrating the words in their different
significations by examples Prom ancient and modern
writers; showing their affinity to those of other
languages, and especially the Northern: explaining
many terms which, though now obsolete in
England, were formerly common to both countries
and elucidating National Rites, Customs, and I n
stitutions, in analogy to those of other Nations
To which is pretlxed a Dissertation on the Origin
of the Scottish Language. 2 vols. 4tO. Edm.
1809-10. Two supplemental volumes were added
in 1825.
rhe Same Abridged, and published under the title
of An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish
Language, in which the words are explained in
their differeLt senses, authorised by the names OP
the writers by whom they are used, or the titles of
the works in which they occur, and deduced from
their originals. 8vo. Edin. 1814.
Phe Beneficent Woman, a Sermon. 8vo. 1811.
Bermes Scythicus, or the Radical Affinities oP the
Greek and Latin Languages to the Qothic, illustrated
from the Moeso-Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, French, .
Alemannic, Suio-Qothic, Islandic, etc. To which
is pretixed a Dissertation on the Historical Proofs
of the Scythm Origin of the Greeks. 8vo. Lond.
1814.
On the Origin of Cremation, or the Burning of the
Dead. Tram. Soc. Edin. viii 83. 1817.
The Hopes of an Empire reversed ; or the Night OP
Pleasure turned into Fear : a Sermon on the Death
of the Princess Charlotte. 1818.
The Duty, Excellency, and Pleasantness of Brotherly
Unity, in Three Sermons. 8vo. 1819.
Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees oP Iona,
and of their Settlement in Scotland, England, and
Ireland. 4to. Edin. 1821.
Sletzer’s Theatrum Scotiaz, with Illustratious, etc.
Folio.
Views of the Royal Palacps 01 Scotland, with Historical
and Topopphical Illustrations. Royal 4to
1821.
Remarks on the Progress of the Roman Army in
Scotland during the Sixth Campaign of Agricola,
and an Account of the Roman Camps of Battledykes
and Hwrfauds with the Via Mdlituris extending
between them, in the County of Forfar ; forming
part of Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, No.
36, 4to.
The Water Kelpie, or Spirit of the Waters, with a
Glossary, published in the third volume of Scott‘s
Mimtrelsy of the Border.
Besides the above acknowledged publications, Dr. Jamieson contributed
occasionally to the periodical works of the day. In particular, he was the writer
of an article in the Westminster Review upon the Origin of the Scottish Nation,
which attracted considerable notice. Nor, amid the cares of advancing
Mr. Robert Jameson wiw also a member of the Bannatyne .Club, and presented 85 his contribution,
in 1830, a beautiful reprint, in 4t0, of “Simeon Grahame’s Anatomie of Humours,” originally
printed at Edinburgh in 1609 ; and the “ Passionate Sparke of a Relenting Minde,” also by Grahame,
and published at London in 1604. He spelt
his name differently from his father, uniformly writing Janaeson in place of Jamison.
To which there is prefixed a brief prefatory notice.
VOL 11. 2T ... SKETCHES. 321 daughters and one son survived. One of his sons, the late Robert Jameson, Esq., ...

Book 9  p. 427
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Restalrig.] ST. MARGARET?S WELL. 129
By the south side of what was once an old forest
path when the oaks of Drumsheugh were in all their
glory, there stood St. Margaret?s Well, the entire
edifice of which was removed to the Royal Park,
near Holyrood ; but the pure spring, deemed so
holy as to be the object of pilgrimages in the days
of old, still oozes into the fetid marsh close by.
It was no doubt the source of supply to the
ancient ecclesiastics of the village, and the path
alluded to had become in after times a means of
The structure-for elsewhere it still remains intact
-is octagonal, and entered by a pointed Gothic
doorway, and rises to the height of 4 ft. 6 in. It
is of plain ashlar work, with a stone ledge or seat
running round seven of the sides. From the centre
of the water, which fills the entire floor of the
building, rises a decorated pillar to the same height
as the walls, with grotesque gargoyles, from which
the liquid flows. Above this springs a richly
groined roof, ? presenting, with the ribs that rise
RESTALRIG.
communication between the church there and the
Abbey of Holyrood.
No authentic traces can be found of the history
of this consecrated fountain ; ? but from its name,?
says Billings, ?? it appears to have been dedicated
to the Scottish queen and saint, Margaret, wife of
Malcolm 111.?
In the legend which we have already referred
to in our account of Holyrood, which represents
David I. as being miraculously preserved from the
infuriated white hart, Bellenden records that it
?fled away with gret violence, and evanist in the
same place quhere now springs the Rude Well.?
From its vicinity to the abbey, St. Margaret?s has
been conjectured to be the well referred to.
113
from the corresponding corbels at each of the eight
angles of the building, a singularly rich effect when
illuminated by the reflected light from the water
below.?
When this most picturesque fountain stood in an
unchanged condition by the side of the old winding
path to Restalrig, an ancient elder-tree, With furrowed
and gnarled branches, covered all its grassgrown
top, and a tiny but aged thatched cottage
stood in front of it. Then, too, a mossy bank, rising
out of pleasant meadow land, protected the little
pillared cell; but the inexorable march of modem improvement
came, the old tree and the rustic cottage
were swept away, and the well itselfwas buried under
(See Vol. II., page 311.)
. a hideous station of the North British Railway. ... ST. MARGARET?S WELL. 129 By the south side of what was once an old forest path when the oaks of ...

Book 5  p. 129
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 67
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in the first volume of whose Transactions it
was published ; and by the public in general, as well as by the author himself,
it has always been numbered among the h e s t productions of the poet.
It is much to be regretted that Dr. Carlyle favoured the world with so little
from his own pen, having published scarcely anything except the Report of the
Parish of Inveresk, in Sir John Sinclair’s Statistical Account, and some detached
pamphlets and sermons. To his pen has been justly attributed “An Ironical
Argument, to prove that the tragedy of Douglas ought to be publicly burnt by
the hands of the hangman.”-Edinburgh, 1757, Svo, pp. 24.‘ It is understood
that Dr. Carlyle left behind him, in manuscript, a very curious Memoir of his
time, which, though long delayed, we have now reason to believe will soon in
part be given to the world.’
With the following description of the personal appearance of Dr. Carlyle,
when advanced in years, the proprietor of this work has been favoured by a
gentleman to whom the literature of his country owes much :
“ He was very tall, and held his head erect like a military man-his face had
been very handsome-long venerable gray hair-he was an old man when I met
him on a morning visit at the Duke of Buccleuchs at Dalkeith.”
’
No. XXX.
THE MODERN HERCULES.
THIS is a humorous piece of satire upon Dr. Carlyle and the opposition he
has uniformly met with from the leading men of the popular party. The uppermost
head on the hydra is that of Professor Dalzell of the University of Edinburgh-
the one below it that of the Rev. Dr. John Erskine of Carnock, minister
of Old Greyfriars’ Church, intended for the bar by his father, but his own
inclination was for the pulpit-the undermost head that of the much-esteemed
Rev. Dr. Andrew Hunter of the Tron Kirk-and the figure with the hand up,
cautioning Dr. Carlyle, that of the Hon. Henry Erskine, advocate, who was generally
employed as counsel on the side of the popular party. The other three
were intended by Kay, according to his MS., for the Rev. Colin Campbell of
Renfrew, the Rev. Mr. Burns of Forgan, and the Rev. Dr. Balfour of Glasgow.
Dr. Carlyle is said to have written the prologue to Herminius and Espccsia, a tragedy acted at
Edinburgh, 1754, and printed that aame year in 8vo. * This has now been published by Messrs. William Blackwood & Sons, one volume 8v0, 1860.
A second edition was iasued the same year, entitled “Autobiography of the Rev. Dr. Alexander
Carlyle, Minister of Inveresk, containing Memorials of the Men and Events of his tie.’’ ... SKETCHES. 67 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in the first volume of whose Transactions it was ...

Book 8  p. 96
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OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moultray?s Hill.
- 368 -__
Courts, and large apartments for the stowage of
registers. In 1869 the folio record volumes numbered
42,835, occupying the shelves of twenty-one
chambers.
In one of the largest rooms are preserved the
rolls of ancient Parliaments, the records of the
Privy Council, charters of the sovereigns of
Scotland from William the Lion to the days of
Queen Anne, and on the central table lies the
Scottish duplicate of the Treaty of Union. In these
immediately to the transmission of landed property
in Scotland, and to the condition of Scottish society.
Others illustrate the relations of Scotland
with foreign countries, but more especially with
England.
The Lord Clerk Register and Keeper of the
Signet, who is a Minister of State of Scotland, and
whose office is of great antiquity, has always been
at the head of this establishment, which includes
various offices, such as those of the Lord Lyon,
ANTIQUARIAN ROOM, REGISTER HOUSE.
fireproof chambers is deposited a vast quantity
of valuable and curious legal and historical documents,
such as the famous letter of the Scottish
barons to the Pope in 1320, declaring that ?so
long as one hundred Scotsmen remained alive,
they would never submit to the dominion of
England,? adding, ?it is not for glory, riches, or
honour, that we fight, but for that liberty which no
good man will consent to lose but with life!?
There, too, is preserved the Act of Settlement of
the Scottish crown upon the House of Stuart, a
document through which the present royal family
inherits the throne ; the original deed initiating the
College of Justice by James V.; &c. Of all the
mass of records preserved here some relate more
the Lords Commissioners of Tiends, the Clerk and
Extractors of the Court of Session, the Jury Court,
and Court of Justiciary, the Great or Privy Seal,
and the Register General.
In 1789, at the request of Lord Frederick Camp-.
bell, a military guard was first placed upon this.
ihportant public building, and two sentinels were
posted, one at the east and the other at the west
end. In the same year lamps were first placed
upon it.
In modem times the two chief departments of
the Lord Clerk Register?s duty was the registration
of title deeds and the custody of historical
documents. Originally, like the Master of the
Rolls in England, he occasionally exercised judicia) ... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moultray?s Hill. - 368 -__ Courts, and large apartments for the stowage of registers. In ...

Book 2  p. 367
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342 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Burdiehouse.
intelligence to the enemy, which occasioned the
imprisonment of his person until the mistake was
discovered.?
He returned home in 1767, and after obtaining
a full pardon in 1771, ?he repaired the mansion
of his ancestors, improved his long neglected acres,
acd set forward the improvements of the province
in which he resided.??
In the year 1772 he published, at the request of
the East India Company, a work on the principles
of money, as applied to the coin of Bengal ; and in
1773, on the death of Sir Archibald Stewart Denham,
he succeeded to the baronetcy of Coltness,
and died in 1780. His works, in six volumes,
including his correspondence with the celebrated
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose acquaintance
he made at Venice in 1758, were published by his
son, Sir James Stewart Denham, who, when he
died, was the oldest general in the British army.
He was born in 1744 and in 1776 was lieutenant-
colonel of the 13th Dragoons (now Hussars),
and in his latter years was colonel of the Scots
Greys.
Towards the close of the last century, Goodtrees,
or Moredun, as it is now named, was the property
of David Stewart Moncrieff, advocate, one of the
Barons of Exchequer, who long resided in a selfcontained
house in the Horse Wynd. Sir Thomas
MoncrieiT, Bart., of that ilk, was his nephew and
nearest heir, but having quarrelled with him, according
to the editor of ? Kay?s Portraits,? he bequeathed
his estate of Moredun to Lady Elizabeth Ramsay,
sister of the Earl of Dalhousie.
He was buried on the 17th April, 1790, in the
Chapel Royal at Holyrood, where no stone marks
his grave.
At, the western portion of the Braid Hills (in a
quarter of St. Cuthbert?s parish), and under a
shoulder thereof 609 feet in height, where of old
stood a telegraph-station, lies the famous Buckstane,
which gives its name to an adjacent farm.
The Clerks, baronets of Penicuick, hold their land
by the singular tenure of being bound to sit upon
the large rocky fragment here known as the
Buckstane, and wind three blasts of a horn when
the King of Scotland shall come to hunt on the
Burghmuir. Hence the fzmily have adopted as
their crest a demi-forester proper winding a horn,
with the motto, ? Free for a blast?
About midway between this point and St
Katherine?s is Morton Hall, a handsome residence
surrounded by plantations, and having a famous
sycamore, which was planted in 1700, and is
fourteen feet in circumference. John Trotter of
Morton Hall, founder of this family, was a merchant
in Edinburgh, and was born in 1558, during the
reign of Mary,
A mile westward of Morton Hall are the remains
of a large Roman camp, according to Kincaid?s
? Gazetteer? of the county.
Burdiehouse, in this quarter, lies three miles
and a half south of the city, on the Peebles Road.
? Its genteel name,? according to Parker Lawson?s
?Gazetteer,? ?is Bordeaux, which it is supposed
to have received from its being the residence
of some of Queen Mary?s French domestics;
but it has long lost that designation. Another
statement is that the first cottage built here was
called Bordeaux.?
Most probably, however, it received its name as
being the abode of some of the same exiled French
silk weavers who founded the now defunct village
of Picardie, between the city and Leith. It is
chiefly celebrated for its lime-kilns, which manufacture
about 15,000 bolls annually. There is an
immense deposit of limestone rock here, which has
attracted greatly the attention of geologists, in consequence
of the fossil remains it contains.
In 1833, the bones, teeth, and scales of what
was conjectured to be a nameless, but enormous,
reptile were discovered here-the scales, strange to
say, retaining their lustre, and the bones their porous
and laminated appearance. These formed the
subject of several communications to the Royal
Society of Edinburgh by Dr. Hibbert, who, in his
earlier papers, described them as U the remains of
reptiles.?
In 1834, at the meeting of the British Association
in Edinburgh, these wonderful fossils-which
by that time had excited the greatest interest
among naturalists-were shown to M. Agassiz,
who doubted their reptile character, and thought
they belonged to fish of the ganoid .order, which
he denbminated sauroid, in consequence of their
numerous affinities to the saurian reptiles, which
have as their living type, or representative, the
lepidosteus; but the teeth and scales were not
found in connection.
A few days afterwards, M. Agassiz, in company
with Professor Buckland, visited the Leeds Museum,
where he found some great fossils having the same
kind of scales and teeth as those discovered at
Burdiehouse, conjoined in the same individual. It
is now, therefore, no longer a conjecture that they
belonged to the same animal. And in these selfsame
specimens we have the hyoid and branchiostic
apparatus of bones-a series of bones connected
with the gills, an indubitable character of fishesand
it is, accordingly, almost indisputable that the
Burdiehouse fossils are the remains of fishes, and ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Burdiehouse. intelligence to the enemy, which occasioned the imprisonment of his ...

Book 6  p. 342
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250 OLD AND NEW EDINBVRGH. [Leith.
London, at the request of Lord Balgonie, afterwards
Earl of Leven.
People of Leith are not likely to forget that the
vicinity of the Sheriff Brae is a district inseparably
connected with the name of Gladstone, and readers
of Hugh Miller?s interesting ?? Schools and Schoolmasters
? will scarcely require to be reminded of
the experiences of the stone-mason of Cromarty,
in his visit to this quarter of Leith.
In Peter Williamson?s Directory for Edinburgh
and Leith, 1786-8, we find--? James Gladstones,
schoolmaster, No; 4 Leith,? and ? Thomas Gladstones,
flour and barley merchant, Coal Hill.? His
shop, long since removed, stood where a wood-yard
is now. James was uncle, and Thomas the father,
of Sir John Gladstone of Fasque, who built the
church and almshouses SO near where his thrifty
forefathers earned their bread.
The Gladstones, says a, local writer, were of
Clydesdale origin, and were land-owners there
and on the Border. ?I Claiming descent from this
ancient and not undistinguished stock, Mr. John
Gladstones of Toftcombes, near Biggar, in the
Upper Ward of Clydesdale, had, by his wife, Janet
Aitken, a son, Thomas, a prosperous trader in
Leith, who mamed Helen, daughter of Mr. Walter
Neilson of Springfield, and died in the year 1809 ;
of this marriage, the deceased baronet (Sir John)
was the eldest son.?
He was born in Leith on the I Ith December,
in the year 1764 and commenced business there
at an early age, but soon removed to the more
ample field of Liverpool, where, for more than
half a century, he took rank with the most successful
traders of that opulent seaport, where he
amassed great wealth by his industry, enterprise,
and skill, and he proved in after life munificent
in its disposal.
The names of Thomas and Hugh Gladstones,
merchants in North Leith, appear in the Directory
for 1811, and the marriage of Marion (a daughter
of the former) to the Rev. John Watson, Minister
of the Relief Congregation at Dunse, in 1799, is
recorded in the HeraZd of that year.
While carrying on business in Liverpool, John
Gladstones was a liberal donor to the Church of
England, and after he retired in 1843, and returned
to Scotland, he became a not less liberal benefactor
to the Episcopal Church there. His gifts to Trinity
College, Glenalmond, were very noble, and he
contributed largely to the endowment of the
Bishopric of Brechin, and he? also built and endowed
a church at Fasque, in the Howe of the
Mearns, near the beautiful seat he had acquired
there. In February, 1835, he had obtained the
(Edhburgh Mag., 1788.)
royal license to drop the final ? s? with which his
father and grandfather had written the name, and
t6 restore it to what he deemed the more ancient
form of Gladstone, though it is distinctly spelt
?Gladstanes? in the royal charters of King David IL
(Robertson?s ?? Index.?)
The eminent position occupied by this distinguished
native of Leith, as well as his talents and
experience, gave his opinions much weight in
commercial matters, According to one authority,
?he was frequently consulted on such subjects by
ministers of the day, and took many opportunities
of making his sentiments known by pamphlets and
letters to the newspapers. He was to the last a
strenuous supporter of that Protective policy which
reigned supreme and almost unquestioned during
his youth, and his pen was wielded against the
repeal of the Corn and Navigation Laws. He
was a fluent, but neither a graceful nor a forcible
writer, placing less trust apparently in his style
than in the substantial merits of his ample information
and ingenious argument.? Desire was more
than once expressed to see him in Parliament, and
he contested the representation of various places
on those Conservative principles to which he adhered
through life. Whether taking a prominent
part in the strife of politics had excited in him an
ambition for Parliamentary life, or, whether it was
due, says Mr. George Barnett Smith, in his wellknown
?? Life ? of Sir John Gladstone?s illustrious
son, the great Liberal Prime Minister, ?to the
influence of Mr. Canning-who early perceived
the many sterling qualities of his influential sup
porter-matters little; but he at length came
forward for Lancaster, for which place he was returned
to the Parliament elected in 1819. We
next find him member for Woodstock, 1821-6; and
in the year 1827 he represented Berwick. Altogether
he was a member of the House of Commons
for nine years.? In 1846 he was created a baronet,
an honour which must have been all the more
gratifying that it sprang from the spontaneous suggestion
of the late Sir Robert Peel, and was one
of the very few baronetcies conferred by a minister
who was ?? more than commonly frugal in the grant
of titles.?
Sir John was twice mamed, and had several children
by his second wife, Anne Robertson, daughter
of Andrew Robertson, Provost of Dingwall. His
youngest son, the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone,
M.P., born in 1809, has a name that belongs
to the common history of Europe.
The venerable baronet, who first saw the light
in the rather gloomy Coal Hill of Leith, died at his
seat of Fasque on the 7th of December, 1851, ... OLD AND NEW EDINBVRGH. [Leith. London, at the request of Lord Balgonie, afterwards Earl of Leven. People of ...

Book 6  p. 250
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High Street.] MARY KINGS CLOSE 227
net tells us that he was a man of such unflagging
zeal that he barely allowed himself three hours? sleep
out of the twenty-four. On the renewal of the
Covenant, in 1638, he and the celebrated Alexander
Henderson were appointed to revise and
adapt that national document to the circumstances
of the times; and at the memorable assembly
which met at Glasgow Johnston was unanimously
elected clerk, and was constituted Procurator for
the Church. ? He took a prominent share in resisting
the unjust interference of Charles I: in Scottish
affairs, and in 1638, on the royal edict being proclaimed
from the Cross of Edinburgh, which set at
defiance the popular opposition to Episcopacy, he
boldly appeared on the scaffold erected near it,
and read aloud the famous protest drawn up in
the name of the Tables, while the mob compelled
the six royal heralds to remain while this counterdefiance
in the name of Scotland was being read
In 1641, when Charles visited Edinburgh for the
second time, Johnston was knighted and made a
Lord of Session, and after sitting in the Parliament
of Scotland in 1644, he attended, as one of the
Commissioners, the assembly of divines at Westminster.
In the following year he was Lord Advocate;
and in 1649 he performed one of his last
official duties, proclaiming Charles 11. King of
Scotland, on the 5th of February, 1650.
After the battle of Dunbar he was weak enough
to accept ofice under the Protectorate, as Clerk
Registrar; and after the death of Cromwell he
acted as one of the Committee of Public Safety,
when the feeble and timid Richard Cromwell withdrew
from public life ; and this last portion of his
career, together with the mode in which he had
prosecuted and persecuted the fallen Cavaliers, and
refused to concur in the treaty of Breda, sealed
his doom when the Restoration came. He was
forfeited in exile and condemned to death on the
15th of May, 1651.
An emissary of the Scottish ministry discovered
his retreat at Rouen, and, with the aid of the
French authorities, he was sent to the Tower, and
from thence to Edinburgh, where, with every mark
of indignity, he was publicly executed on the same
spot where, five-and-twenty years before, he had
defied the proclamation of Charles I. This was
on the n2nd of July, 1663, and he died with the
utmost constancy and Christian fortitude. And
now the busy establishment of one of the most
enterprising of Scottish publishing firms occupies
the site of the old mansion, in which he must many
a time have entertained such men as Alexander
Henderson, the Marquises Argyle, Rothes, and Callander,
the gallant Sir Alexander Leslie, the somewhat
double-dealing Monk, perhaps Cromwell too.
CHAPTER XXVI.
HIGH STREET (continued).
Mary King?s Close-Who was Mary ?-Scourged by the Plague of 1645-Its Mystery-Drummond?s Epigram-Prof. Sinclair?s ?I Satan?s Invisible
World Discovered?--Mr. and Mrs. Coltheart?s Ghostly Visitors-The Clox finally abandoned to Goblins-Craig?s Close-Andro Hart,
Bookseller and Printer-Andro?s Spear-A Menagerie in Craig?s CIosc-The Isle of Man Arms--The Cape Club-Its Mysteries and O f f i c a ~
--Installation of a Knight-ProvinciaI Cape Clubs-The Poker Club-How it Originated-Members-Office-bearers-Old Stamp Office
Court-Fortune?s Tavern-The beautiful Countess of EgIinton-Her Patronage of Lettters-Her Family-Interview with Dr. Johnson-
Murderous Riot in the Close-Removal of the Stamp Office.
MARY KING?S Close was long a place of terror to
the superstitious, as one of the last retreats of the
desolating plague of 1645. ?Who Mary King
was is now unknown, but though the alley is roofless
and ruined,? says one, writing of it in 1845,
?with weeds, wall-flowers, grass, and even little
trees, flourishing luxuriantly among the falling
walls, her name may still be seen painted on the
street corner.?
For some generations after the plague-in which
most of itsinhabitants perished-its houses remained
closed, and gradually it became a place of mystery
and horror, the abode of a thousand spectres and
nameless terrors, for superstition peopled it with
inhabitants, whom all feared and none cared to
succeed. ?Those who had been foolhardy enough
to peep through the windows after nightfall saw
the spectres of the long-departed denizens engaged
in their wonted occupations ; headless forms danced
through the moonlit apartments ; on one occasion
a godly minister and two pious elders were scared
out of their senses by the terrible vision of a raw
head and blood-dripping arm, which protruded
from the wall in this terrible street, and flourished
a sword above their heads ; and many other terrors,
which are duly chronicled in ?Satan?s Invisible
World;?? yet it was down this place that the wild
young Master of Gray dragged the fair Mistress
Carnegie, whom, sword in hand, he had abducted
from her father?s house at the head of twelve men-at ... Street.] MARY KINGS CLOSE 227 net tells us that he was a man of such unflagging zeal that he barely allowed ...

Book 2  p. 227
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124 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. : [Convivialia
In 1783, ? a chapter of the order? was adver
tised ?to be held at their chamber in Anetruther
Dinner at half-past two.?
The LAWNMARKET CLUB, with its so-callec
?gazettes,? has been referred to in our first volume
The CAPILLAIRE CLUB was one famous in thq
annals of Edinburgh convivalia and for it
fashionable gatherings. The Wee24 Xagaziz
for I 7 74 records that ?? last Friday night,?the gentle
men of the Capillaire Club gave their annual ball
The company consisted of nearly two hundrec
ladies and gentlemen of the first distinction. Thei
dresses were extremely rich and elegant. He
Grace the Duchess of D- and Mrs. Gen
S- made a most brilliant appearance. Mrs
S.?s jewels alone, it is said, were above ;C;30,00c
in value. ?The ball was opened about seven, anc
ended about twelve o?clock, when a most elegan
entertainment was served up.?
The ladies whose initials are given were evidentlj
the last Duchess of Douglas and Mrs. Scott, wift
of General John Scott of Balcomie and Bellevue
mother of the Duchess of Portland. She survivec
him, and died at Bellevue House, latterly the Ex
cise Office, Drummond Place, on the 23rd August
1797, after which the house was occupied by the
Duke of Argyle.
The next notice we have of the club in the same
year is a donation of twenty guineas by the mem
bers to the Charity Workhouse. ?? The Capillaire
Club,? says a writer in the ?Scottish Journal o
Antiquities,? ?was composed of all who were in.
clined to be witty and joyous.?
There was a JACOBITE CLUB, presided over a1
one time by tine Earl of Buchan, but of which
nothing now survives but the name.
The INDUSTRIOUS COMPANY was a club composed
oddly enough of porter-drinkers, very. numerous,
and formed as a species of joint-stock company,
for the double purpose of retailing their liquor for
profit, and for fun and amusement while drinking it,
They met at their rooms, or cellars rather, every
night, in the Royal Bank Close. There each member
paid at his entry As, and took his monthly
turn of superintending the general business of the
club; but negligence on the part of some of the
managers led to its dissolution.
In the Advertiser for 1783 it is announced as
a standing order of the WIG CLUB, ?that the
members in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh
should attend the meetings of the club, or if they
find that inconvenient, to send in their resignation;
it is requested that the members will be
pleased to attend to this regulation, otherwise their
places will be supplied by others who wish to be of
the club.-Fortune?s Tavern, February 4th, 1783.??
In the preceding January a meeting of the club is
summoned at that date, ? as St. P-?s day.:? Mr.
Hay of Drumelzier in the chair. As? there is no
saint for the 4th February whose initial is P, this
must have been some joke known only to the club.
Charles, Earl of Haddington, presided on the 2nd
December, 1783.
From the former notice we may gather that there
was a decay of this curious club, the president of
which wore a wig of extraordinary materials, which
had belonged to the Moray faniily,for three generations,
and each new entrant?s powers were tested,
by compelling him to drink ? to the fraternity in a
quart of claret, without pulling bit-i.e., pausing.?
The members generally drank twopenny ale, on
which it was possible to get intoxicated for the
value of a groat, and ate a coarse kind of loaf,
called Soutar?s clod, which, with penny pies of high
reputation in those days, were furnished by a shop
near Forrester?s Wynd, and known as the Ba@n
HoZe.
There was an BSCULAPIAN CLUB, a relic of
which survives in the Greyfriars Churchyard, where
a stone records that in 1785 the members repaired
the tomb of ?(John Barnett, student of phisick (sic)
who was born 15th March, 1733, and departed this
life 1st April, 1755.?
The BOAR CLUB was chiefly composed, eventually,
of wild waggish spirits and fashionable young men,
who held their meetings in Daniel Hogg?s tavern,
in Shakespeare Square, close by the Theatre RoyaL
? The joke of this club,? to quote ? Chambers?s
Traditio? s,? ? consisted in the supposition that all
the members were boars, that their room was a dy,
that their talk was grunting, and in the dozcbZeentendre
of the small piece of stoneware which served
as a repository for the fines, being a &. Upon
this they lived twenty years. I have at some expense
of eyesight and with no small exertion of
patience,? continues Chambers, ?? perused the soiled
and blotted records of the club, which, in 1824,
were preserved by an old vintner whose house was
their last place of meeting, and the result has been
the following memorabilia. The Boar Club commenced
its meetings in 1787, and the original
members were J. G. C. Schetky, a German
nusician ; David Shaw, Archibald Crawford,
Patrick Robertson, Robert Aldrige, a famous pantonimist
and dancing-master ; Jarnes Nelson, and
Luke Cross. . , , Their laws were first written
iown in due form in 1790. They were to meet
:very evening at seven o?clock ; each boar on his
:ntry contributed a halfpenny to the pig. A fine
if a halfpenny was imposed upon any person who ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. : [Convivialia In 1783, ? a chapter of the order? was adver tised ?to be held at their ...

Book 5  p. 124
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Merchiston.] THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, Bart.
In 1870 the original use to which the foundation
was put underwent a change, and the hospital
became a great public school for boys and girls.
At the western extremity of what was the Burghmuir,
near where lately was an old village of that
name (at the point where the Colinton road diverges
from that which leads to Biggar), there stands, yet
unchanged amid all its new surroundings, the
ancient castle of Merchiston, the whilom seat of a
race second to none in Scotland for rank and talent
-the Napiers, now Lords Napier and Ettrick. It
is a lofty square tower, surmounted by corbelled
battlements, a ape-house, and tall chimneys. It
was once surrounded by a moat, and had a secret
avenue or means of escape into the fields to the
north. As to when it was built, or by whom, no
record now remains.
In the missing rolls of Robert I., the lands of
Merchiston and Dalry, in the county of Edinburgh,
belonged in his reign to William Bisset, and under
David II., the former belonged to William de
Sancto Claro, on the resignation of Williani Bisset,
according to Robertson?s ?Index,? in which we find
a royal charter, ?datum est apud Dundee,? 14th
August, 1367, to John of Cragyof the lands of
Merchiston, which John of Creigchton had resigned.
So the estate would seem to have had several
proprietors before it came into the hands of
Alexander Napier, who was Provost of Edinburgh
in 1438, and by this acquisition Merchiston became
the chief title of his family.
His son, Sir Alexander, who was Comptroller of
Scotland under James 11. in 1450, and went on a
pilgrimage to St. Thomas of Canterbury in the
following year-for which he had safe-conduct from
the King of England-was Provost of Edinburgh
between 1469 and 1471- He was ambassador to
the Court of the Golden Fleece in 1473, and was
no stranger to Charles the Bold ; the tenor of his
instructions to whom from James II., shows that he
visited Bruges a d the court of Burgundy before
that year, in 1468, when he was present at the
Tournament of the Golden Fleece, and selected a
suit of brilliant armour for his sovereign.
Sir Alexander, fifth of Merchiston, fell at Flodden
with James IV.
John Napier of Merchiston was Provost 17th
of May, 1484, and his son and successor, Sir Archibald,
founded a chaplaincy and altar in honour of St.
Salvator in St. Giles?s Church in November, 1493.
His grandson, Sir Archibald Napier, who married
a daughter of Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, was
slain at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547.
Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston and Edinbellie,
who was latterly Master of the Mint to
James VI., was father of John Napier the
celebrated inventor of the Logarithms, who was
born in Merchiston Castle in 1550, fgur years after
the birth of Tycho Brahe, and fourteen before that
of Galileo, at a time when the Reformation in
Scotland was just commencing, as in the preceding?
year John Knox had been released from the
French galleys, and was then enjoying royal
patronage in England. His mother was Janet,
only daughter of Sir Francis Bothwell, and sister
of Adam, Bishop of Orkney. At the time of his
birth his father was only sixteen years of age. He
was educated at St. Salvator?s College, St. Andrews,
where he matriculated 1562-3, and afterwards spent
several years in France, the Low Countries, and
Italy; he applied himself closely to the study of
mathematics, and it is conjectured that he gained
a taste for that branch of learning during his residence
abroad, especially in Itily, where at that
time were many mathematicians of high repute.
While abroad young Napier escaped some perils
that existed at home. In 150s a dreadful pest
broke out in Edinburgh, and his father and family
were exposed to the contagion, ? by the vicinity,?
says Mark Napier, ?? of his mansion to the Burghmuir,
upon which waste the infected were driven
out to grovel and die, under the very walls of
Merchiston.?
In his earlier years his studies took a deep theological
turn, the fruits of which appeared in his
? Plain Discovery of the Revelation of St John,?
which he published at Edinburgh in 1593, and
dedicated to James VI. But some twenty years
before that time his studies must have been sorely
interrupted, as his old ancestral fortalice lay in the
very centre of the field of strife, when Kirkaldy
held out the castle for Queen Mary, and the savage
Douglas wars surged wildly round its walls.
On the 2nd April, 1572, John Napier, then in his
twenty-second year, was betrothed to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir ; but as he
had incurred the displeasure of the queen?s party
by taking no active share in her interests, on the
18th of July he was arrested by the Laid of Minto,
and sent a prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh,
then governed by Sir TVilliam Kirkaldy, who in the
preceding year had bombarded Merchiston with
his iron guns because certain soldiers of the king?s
party occupied it, and cut off provisions coming
north for the use of his garrison. The solitary
tower formed the key of the southern approach
to the city ; thus, whoever triumphed, it became the
object of the opponent?s enmity. ... THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35 likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James Foulis of Woodhall, ...

Book 5  p. 35
(Score 0.36)

church was accordingly built for them, at the
expense, says h o t , of Az,400 sterling. A portion
of this consisted of zo,ooo merks, left, in 1649, by
Thomas Moodie, a citizen, called by some Sir
Thomas Moodie of Sauchtonhall, to rebuild the
church partially erected on the Castle -Hill, and
demolished by the English during the siege of 1650.
Two ministers were appointed to the Canongate
church. The well-known Dr. Hugh Blair and the
THE CANONGATE CHURCH.
splendid scabbard. This life is full of contrasts ; so
when the magistrates, in ermine and gold, took
their seats behind this sword of state in the front
gallery, on the right of the minister, and in the
gallery, too, were to be seen congregated the
humble paupers from the Canongate poorhouse,
now divested of its inmates and turned into a
hospital. Our dear old Canongate, too, had its
, Baron Bailie and Resident Bailies before the
late Principal Lee have been among the incumbents.
It is of a cruciform plan, and has the summit of
its ogee gable ornamented with the crest of the
burgh-the stag?s head and cross of King David?s
legendary adventure-and the arms of Thomas
Moodie form a prominent ornament in front of i t
? In our young days,? says a recent writer in a local
paper, ?the Incorporated Trades, eight in number,
occupied pews in the body of the church, these
having the names of the occupiers painted on them;
and in mid-summer, when the Town Council visited
it, as is still their wont, the tradesmen placed large
bouquets of flowers on their pews, and as our
sittings were near this display, we used to glance
with admiration from the flowers up to the great
sword standing erect in the front gallery in its
Reform Bill in 1832 ruthlessly swept them away.
Halberdiers, or Lochaber-axe-men, who turned out
on all public occasions to grace the officials, were
the civic body-guard, together with a body in plain
clothes, whose office is on the ground flat under
the debtors? jail.?
But there still exists the convenery of the Canongate,
including weavers, dyers, and cloth-dressers,
&c., as incorporated by royal charter in 1630,
under Charles I.
In the burying-ground adjacent to the church,
and which was surrounded by trees in 1765, lie
the remainsof Dugald Stewart, the great philosopher,
of Adam Smith, who wrote the ?Wealth of Nations
; ? Dr. Adam Fergusson, the historian of the
Roman Republic; Dr. Burney, author of the ... was accordingly built for them, at the expense, says h o t , of Az,400 sterling. A portion of this ...

Book 3  p. 29
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The Great Fire.] THE GREAT FIRE. 189
Assemlily Close, then occupied as a workshop by
Kirkwood, a well-known engraver. The engines
came promptly enough ; but, from some unknown
cause, an hour elapsed before they were in working
order, and by that time the terrible element had
raged with such fierceness and rapidity that, by
eleven o'clock the upper portion of this tenement,
including six storeys, forming the eastern 'division
of a uniform pile of buildings, was one mass of
roaring flames, which, as the breeze was from the
to their elevated position, or the roar of the gathering
conflagration, the shouts of the crowd, and
wailing of women and children, their cries were
unheard for a time, until it was too late. The
whole tenement was lost, together with extensive
ranges of buildings in the old Fish Market and
Assembly Closes, to -which it was the means of
communicating the flames.
While these tall and stately edifices were yielding
to destruction, the night grew calm and still, and
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.
sooth-west, turned them, as they burst from the
gaping windows, in the direction of a house to the
eastward, the strong' gable of which saved it from
the destruction which seemed imminent.
Two tenements to the westward were less fortunate,
and as, from the narrowness of the ancient
close, it was impossible to work the engines, they
soon were involved in one frightful and appalling
blaze. Great fears mere now entertained for the
venerable Courant office; nor was it long before
the fire seized on its upper storey, at the very time
when some brave fellows got upon the roof of a
tenement to the westward, and shouted to the firemen
to give them a pipe, by which they could
piay upon the adjoining roof, But, owing either
I the sparks emitted by the flames shot upwards as if
spouted from a volcano, and descended like the
thickest drift or snow-storm, affecting the respiration
of all. A dusky, lurid red tinged the clouds,
and the glare shone on the Castle wdls, the
rocks of the Calton, the beetling crags, and all the
city spires. Scores of lofty chimneys, set on fire
by the falling sparks, added to the growing horror
of the scene ; and for a considerable time the Tron
Church was completely enveloped in this perilous
shower of embers.
About one in the morning of the 16th the alarm
of fire was given from a house directly oppoife to
the burning masses, and, though groundless, it
added to the deepening Consternation. Mean ... Great Fire.] THE GREAT FIRE. 189 Assemlily Close, then occupied as a workshop by Kirkwood, a well-known ...

Book 1  p. 189
(Score 0.36)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 51
It is said that when Sam was in London, on one occasion he was advised to
show himself for money, and that although he declined exhibiting himself in
his own character, he so far acted on the hint as to dress in female attire,
and advertise as ‘‘ The remarkably tall woman.” By this ingenious expedient,
Sam became so well furnished with cash that his expenditure attracted the
notice of his Colonel, who being curious to ascertain in what way he had
obtained his supplies, interrogated Sam, who candidly disclosed the fact, and in
this way the secret transpired.
Sarn was once persuaded to appear on the stage, whilst in the service of
his late Majesty, at the request of his Royal Master. This took place at the
Opera-House in the Haymarket, then occupied by the Drury Lane Company.
upon occasion of the representation of a dramatic entertainment, called “ Cymon
and Iphigenia,” and in which he acted the appropriate part of Hercules.’
Numberless anecdotes are told of M‘Donald, illustrative of his great
strengkh. On one occasion, having been challenged by two soldiers of his
own regiment on the understanding that he was to fight both at once,
Samuel agreed, but said, as he had no quarrel with them, he should wish to
shake hands with them before they began. One of the combatants instantly
held out his hand. Samuel took hold of it, but instead of giving it the friendly
shake expected, he used it as a Iever to raise its owner from the ground, when
he swung him round as he would a cat by the tail, and threw him to a great
distance. The other combatant, not admiring this preliminary process, took to
his heels. Many feats of strength similar to this are, as already mentioned,
recorded of him.
While in Edinburgh, Sam occasionally patronised Geordie Cranstoun (see
No. 19) to whose singing he took much pleasure in listening. He was nevertheless
much displeased to find himself associated with him in this Print, which
was shown him by Mr. Kay. He remarked to the engraver that he did not choose
to be classed with a beggar, and insisted that the little man’s portrait should be
expunged. Although this demand was not complied with, the next time that
Sarn called on the artist he was in his usual good humour.
Sam was six feet ten inches high, four feet round the chest, extremely strongbuilt
and muscular, but yet proportionable, unless his legs might be thought
even too large for the load they had to bear.
No. XXI.
MAJOR FISHER.
THIS gentleman, represented as giving the word of command, was an officer
in the 55th Regiment of Foot, which was in Edinburgh in 1790. Both officers
and men conducted themselves with great propriety while there.
1 Gentleman’s Magazine, voL Ixxii. p. 478. ... SKETCHES, 51 It is said that when Sam was in London, on one occasion he was advised to show himself ...

Book 8  p. 71
(Score 0.36)

B I 0 GRAPH I C AL SIC E T C H ES. 113
No. LV.
MRS. SIDDONS,
MR. SUTHERLAND,
MRS. WOODS,
OF THE THEATRE ROYAL, EDINBURGH.
EVERYo ne who has turned over the leaves of a dramatic biography is acquainted
with the usual statements relative to the l i e of MRS. SmDoNs,-how she first
appeared at Drury Lane Theatre, in the year 1775, as the representative of
Portia, and towards the end of the season degenerated into a walking Venus in
the pageant of the Jubilee,-how she returned to the Bath Theatre the year
following,-how, a few years afterwards, she reappeared in London with
extraordinary success, and, after a brilliant career, finally retired from the stage
in July 1812. Her biographers, however, have never indulged the world with
any thing like a detailed account of her first appearance on the Edinburgh
stage, which occurred on the 22d May 1784. During her engagement, “the
rage for seeing her was so great, that one day there were 2557 applications for
630 places ; ” and many even came from Newcastle to witness her performances.’
Her engagement was owing to a few spirited individuals, who took all risk
on themselves, the manager of the Edinburgh Theatre being afraid of hazardous
speculations. The Edinburgh Feekly Magazine, in its report of her appearance,
mentions, that “ the manager had taken the precaution, after the first night, to
have an officer’s guard of soldiers at the principal door. But several scuffles
having ensued, through the eagerness of the people to get places, and the
soldiers having been rash in the use of their bayonets, it was thought
advisable to withdraw the guard on the third night, lest any accident had
happened from the pressure of the crowd, who began to assemble round the
doors at eleven in the forenoon.”
The attractioas of BJi-8. Siddons were 80 great, that few could resist the temptation of visiting
the Theatre. Amongst those whom her fascinations had drawn from their burrows in the Old Town,
was 8 respectable gentleman belonging to the profession of the law, of the name of Fraaer, who was
induced to take this, to him, most extraordinary step, in order to gratify his daughter. The play
selected was Venice fieserued; and, after some little di5culty, the father and daughter were seated
in the pit. Old Fraser listened to the first act with the most perfect composure : the second followed,
and in the course of it he asked his daughter, Which waa the woman Siddona 1 ” She, perfectly
amazed, solved the difficulty by pointing out Bdvidem, the only female in the play. Nothing more
occurred tii the catastrophe. Then, but not till then, he turned to his daughter and inquired, (‘18
thia a comedy or a tragedy ? ”-“Bless me, Papa ! a tragedy, to be sure,”-‘6 So I thought, for
I’m beginning to feel a commotioa”
Q ... I 0 GRAPH I C AL SIC E T C H ES. 113 No. LV. MRS. SIDDONS, MR. SUTHERLAND, MRS. WOODS, OF THE THEATRE ROYAL, ...

Book 8  p. 167
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men of rank, another plot to storm it, at a time
when its garrison was the nsth, or old regiment of
Edinburgh, was formed by Lord John Drummond,
son of the Earl of Perth, with eighty men, mostly
Highlanders, and all of resolute courage. All these
-among whom was a Captain McLean, who had
lost a leg at Killiecrankie, and an Ensign Arthur,
late of the Scots Guards-were promised commissions
under King James, and IOO guineas each, if
ROYAL LODGING AND HALF-MOON BATTERY.
when the plot was marred by-a lady !
In the exultation he felt at the approaching
capture, and the hope he had of lighting the beacon
which was to announce to Fife and the far north
that the Castle was won, Ensign Arthur unfolded
the scheme to his brother, a physician in the city,
who volunteered for the enterprise, but most prudently
told his wife of it, and she, alarmed for his
safety, at once gave information to the Lord Justice
the event succeeded ; and at that crisis-when Mar
was about to fight the battle of Sheriffmuir-it
might have put him in possession of all Scotland.
Drummond contrived to suborn four of the garrison
-a sergeant, Ainslie, to whom he promised a
lieutenancy, a corporal, who was to be made an
ensign, and two privates, who got bribes in money.
On the night of the 8th September, when the
troops marched from the city to fight the Earl of
Mar, the attempt was made. The chosen time,
near twelve o'clock, was dark and stormy, and the
ilrodlcs operandi was to be by escalading the western
walls, near the ancient arched postern. A ladder,
equipped with great hooks to fix it to the cope of
the bastion, and calculated to admit four men
Clerk, Sir Adam Cockburn of Ormiston, who instantly
put himself in communication with Colonel
Stuart. Thus, by the time the conspirators were
at the foot of the wall the whole garrison was
under arms, the sentinels were doubled, and the
ramparts patrolled.
The first party of forty men, led by the resolute
Lord Drummond and the wooden-legged McLean,
had reached the foot of the wall unseen ; already
the ladder had been secured by Sergeant Ainslie,
and the escalade was in the act of ascending, with
pistols in their girdles and swords in their teeth,
when a Lieutenant Lindesay passed with his patrol,
and instantly gave an alarm I The ladder and all
on it fell heavily on the rocks below. A sentinel ... of rank, another plot to storm it, at a time when its garrison was the nsth, or old regiment of Edinburgh, ...

Book 1  p. 68
(Score 0.36)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 397
No. CLVII.
MR. JOHN SHIELLS,
SURGEON.
MR. SHIELLSw as a native of Peeblesshire ; and, prior to commencing business
as a surgeon and apothecary, held a situation in connection with the Royal
Infirmary. His first shop was in a land immediately above the Tron Kirkdemolished
when Hunter Square was formed ; and from thence he moved to
Nicolson Street.
In his day few professional men possessed a carriage of any description ; and,
finding himself incapable of making his visits on foot, I&. Shiells bethought
himself that a horse might answer his purpose. To this the only objection was
that he was no equestrian. It consequently became an object of primary
importance to procure an animal sufficiently docile and sure-footed ; which
qualities he at last found in the sagacious-looking grey pony,’ of mature years
so correctly delineated by the artist in the etching.
Mr. Shiells and the pony
are proceeding leisurely on their rounds, apparently on the best understanding,
and seemingly pleased with each other. The surgeon, with his broad half-cocked
hat, and his lightly elevated whip, evidently has not attained the free attitude
of an experienced rider ; yet the complacency of his jolly countenance is expressive
of the great degree of confidence he reposes in the wisdom and fidelity of
the animal.
The figure behind represents the boy, Willie, who actedas groom. He always
accompanied his master, for the purpose of carrying his walking-staff-to take
care of the horse while he was detained in the house of a patient-and to aid
him in again mounting his charger. This was a task which generally occupied
nearly three minutes in accomplishing ; and it was truly amusing to witness the
exertions of the boy to get his master’s leg over the saddle, while the struggle
made by Mr. Shiells himself for that purpose was exceedingly grotesque.
Among his patients at one period was a Mr. Ramage, who kept a shop in
the Lawnmarket. This person was well known as a keen sportsman, and much
famed for his excellence in breaking dogs. Having fallen into bad health, he
was for some time daily visited by Mr. Shiells j but what was rather surprising
for an invalid, the patient, with his head enveloped in a red nightcap, used
regularly to accompany the doctor to the door, and, setting his shoulder to
the seat of honour of the worthy son of Galen, assisted in reinstating him in
hia saddle.
He was short in stature, and latterly became very corpulent.
#
The scene represented in the Print is to the life.
His fint charger waa a h z a pony. ... SKETCHES. 397 No. CLVII. MR. JOHN SHIELLS, SURGEON. MR. SHIELLSw as a native of Peeblesshire ; ...

Book 8  p. 553
(Score 0.36)

I20 QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH.
mere lover of scenery : Portobeilo, thus happily surrounded and pleasantly
situated, is a most attractive town, and has many and decided advantages
over any other seaside watering-place within the circle of our knowledge.
MUS S ELBU RG H,
Which lies a little to the east of Portobello, is a town of considerable antiquity.
It is situated close to the sea-shore, on a low,' flat expanse, with
Inveresk overlooking it on the south, and Fisherrow, separated from it by the
river Esk, on the west. Both Musselburgh and Fisherrow are embraced in
the parish of Inveresk, and may be regarded as forming but one township.
Fisherrow is a somewhat uncomfortable-looking place, consisting of one
long main street, a back street, with a number of close dirty lanes and bylanes,
chiefly inhabited by fishers and the poorer classes of the population.
In the principal thoroughfare, indeed, and especially in the east towards the
bridge spanning the river, there are many very good houses, while in the outskirts,
again, are several villas of a veryhandsome and commodious character.
The town has a harbour, in which, notwithstanding the heavy dues levied by
the municipality, light craft discharging their cargoes are frequently found : it
shares likewise in the government of the burgh, and has the right to elect a
certain number of its"residenters ' to the magistracy. The fishing community,
although perhaps not equal to their confdres of Newhaven in forethought and
industry, are yet in the main very active and frugal: the men sedulously
plying the line and the net in catching the finny inhabitants of the deep, and
their wives and daughters as diligent and laborious in their efforts to sell
them.
Musselburgh, on the other hand, is a clean, tidy, pleasant-looking town,
and has a history that runs back to a time somewhat earlier even than that of
Malcolm Canmore, being known to the Northumbrian Saxons as a seat of
population nearly nine hundred years ago, by the name of Eske Mufhe.
Very likely, however, it was then a place of no importance, a mere hamlet in
the manors of Inveresk with which it was connected, and sharing subsequently
their fortunes as gifts by the King and his royal lady to the abbot and monks
of the aIready opulent and important monastery of Dunfermline.
Inveresk, it would appear, was divided at that early day into Great and
Little Inveresk, and extended nearly three miles from east to west, and about
two from north to south. The situation is perhaps one of the most delightful
to be found in Scotland : the northern portion flattening towards the sea and ... QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH. mere lover of scenery : Portobeilo, thus happily surrounded and ...

Book 11  p. 175
(Score 0.35)

346 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
Newcastle, to witness what all spoke of with
wonder. There were one day applications for 2,557
places, while there were only 630 of that kind in
the house. Porters and servants had to bivouac
for a night in the streets, on mats and palliasses, in
order that they might get an early chance to the
box-office next day. The gallery doors had to
be guarded by detachments of military, and the
bayonets, it is alleged, did not remain unacquainted
with blood. One day a sailor climbed to a window
in front of the house, for a professional and more
expeditious mode of admission ; but he told afterwards
that he no sooner got into the port-hole
than he was knocked on the head, and tumbled
down the hatchway. Great quantities of hats,
wigs, and shoes, pocket-books, and watches, were
lost in the throng, and it was alleged that a deputation
of London thieves, hearing of the business,
came down to ply their trade.? *
So much were the audience moved and thrilled,
that many ladies fainted, particularly when Mrs
Siddons impersonated Isabella in the Fatal Mar-
. riage, and she had to portray the agony of a wife,
on finding, after a second marriage, that her first
and most loved husband, Biron, is alive ; and concerning
this a curious story is told. A young
Aberdeenshire heiress, Miss Gordon of Gicht, was
borne out of her box in hysterics, screaming the
last words she had caught from the great actress,
?Oh, my Biron ! my Biron ! ? There was something
of an omen in this. In the course of a short
time after she was married to a gentleman whom
she had neither seen nor heard of at the epoch of
Mrs. Siddons? performance, the Honourable John
Byron, and to her it proved a ? fatal marriage,? in
many respects, though she became the mother of
the great Lord Byron. A lady who was present
in the theatre on that night died so recently as
In 1786 there died in hkr apartments in Shakespeare
Square an actress who had come to fulfil an
engagement, Mrs. Baddeley, a lady famous in those
days for her theatrical abilities, her beauty, and the
miseries into which she plunged herself by her imprudence.
Her Ophelia and inany other characters
won the admiratipn of Ganick; but her greatest
performances were Fanny in the Clandestine Ma7-
riage, and Mrs. Beverley in the Gamester.
In I 788 a new patent was procured in the names
of the Duke of Hamilton and Henry Dundas,
afterwards Viscount Melville, with the consent of
Mr. Jackson, at the expense of whom it was taken
out.
1855.
. - _. ~-
? Sketch of the Theatre Royal,? privately printed.
Mr. Jackson, the patentee, having become
bankrupt, Mr. Stephen Kemble leased the theatre
for one year, and among those he engaged in 1792
were Mr. and Mrs. Lee Lewes, of whom Kay gives,
us a curious sketch, as ?Widow Brisk? and the
?Tight Lad ? in the Road to Ruin. They had previously
appeared in Edinburgh in 1787, and became
marked favourites. Towards the close of
their second season Kemble played for a few nights,
while Mrs. Lewes took the parts of Lady Macbeth
and Lady Randolph.
Mrs. Esten, an actress greatly admired, now
became lessee and patentee, while Stepheo Kemble,
disappointed in his efforts to obtain entirely the
Theatre Royal, procured leave to erect a? rival
house, which he called a circus, at the head of
Leith walk, the future site of many successive
theatres. Mrs. Esten succeeded in obtaining a.
decree of the Court of Session to restrain Kemble
from producing plays; but the circus was nevertheless
permanently detrimental to the old theatre,
as it furnished entertainments for many years too
closely akin to theatrical amusements.
The ?? Annual Register ? for I 794 records a riot,
of which this theatre was the scene, at the time
when the French Revolution was at its height.
The play being Charles the Fir.rt, it excited keenly
the controversial spirit of the audience, among
whom a batch of Irish medical students in the pit
made some of their sentiments too audible. Some
gentlemen whose ideas were more monarchical, rose
in the boxes, and insisted that the orchestra should
play God Save the King, and that all should hear it
standing and uncovered; but the young Irish
democrats sat still, with their hats on, and much
violence ensued.
Two nights afterwards a great noise was made all
over the house, and it became evident that much
hostility was being engendered. On the subsequent
Saturday the two sets of people having each found
adherents, met in the house for the express purpose
of having a 4?row,?? and came armed with heavy
sticks, for there was a wild feeling abroad then, and
it required an outlet.
When the democrats refused to pay obeisance to
the National Anthem and respond to the cry of
? Off hats,? they were at once attacked with vigourchiefly
by officers of the Argyleshire Fencibles-and
a desperate fray ensued ; heads were broken and
jaws smashed on both sides, and many were borne
out bleeding, and conveyed away in sedans ; and
conspicuous in the conflict on the Tory side
towered the figure of young Walter Scott, then a
newly-fledged advocate. He never after ceased
to feel a glow of pleasure at the recollection of this ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge. Newcastle, to witness what all spoke of with wonder. There were one day ...

Book 2  p. 346
(Score 0.35)

Granton.] CAROLINE PARK. 311
and most gifted men of his time,? and had his town
residence in one of the flats in James?s Court,
where it is supposed that his eccentric daughter,
who became Lady Dick of Prestonfield, was born.
In 1743, John, the celebrated Duke of Argyle,
entailed his ?? lands of Roystoun and Grantoun,
called Caroline Park ? (? Shaw?s Reg.?), doubtless
so called after his eldest daughter Caroline, who, in
the preceding year, had been married to Francis,
Earl of Dalkeith, and whose mother had been a
maid of honour to Queen Caroline. The estates
of Royston and Granton were her$ and through
her, went eventually to the house of Buccleuch.
The Earl of Dalkeith, her husband, died in the
lifetime of his father, in 1750, in his thirtieth year,
leaving two children, afterwards Henry, Duke of
Buccleuch, and Lady Frances, afterwards wife of
Lord Douglas. .
Lady Caroline Campbell, who was created a
Reeress of Great Britain, by the title of Lady
Greenwich, in 1767, had, some years before that,
married, a second time, the Right Hon. Charle:
Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He1
barony of Greenwich being limited to the issut
male of her second marriage, became extinct or
her death at Sudbrooke, in her seventy-seventl
year, one of her two sons, who was a captain ir
the 45th Foot, having died unmarried; and thc
other, who was a captain in the 59th, having corn
mitted suicide ; thus, in 1794, the bulk of her rea
and personal property in Scotland and England
but more particularly the baronies of Granton anc
Royston, devolved upon Henry, third Duke o
Buccleuch, K.G. and KT:, in succession, to thc
Duke of Argyle, who appears as ? Lord Royston,?
in the old valuation roll.
Old Granton House, sometimes called ROYS~OI
Castle, which is founded upon an abutting rock
was entered from the north-west by an archway 11
a crenelated barbican wall, and has three crow
stepped gables, each with a large chimney, and iI
the angle a circular tower with a staircase. Thc
external gate, opening to the shore, was in thii
quarter, and was surmounted by two most ornatc
vases of great size j but these had disappeared b;
1854. The whole edifice is an open and roofles
ruin.
On the east are the remains of a magnificen
camage entrance with two side gates, and twc
massive pillars of thirteen courses of stone work
gigantic beads and panels alternately, each havinj
on its summit four inverted trusses, capped b1
vases and ducal coronets, overhanging what wa
latterly an abandoned quany.
The Hopes had long a patrimonial interest ii
;ranton. Sir Thomas Hope, of Craighall, King?s
Pdvocate to Charles I., left four sons, three of
vhom were Lords of Session at one time, who all
narried and left descendants-namely, Sir John
Hope of Craighall, Sir Thomas Hope of Kerse,
sir Alexander Hope of Granton, ahd Sir James
Hope of Hopetown.
Sir Alexander of Granton had the post at court
)f ?? Royal Carver Extraordinary, and he was much
ibout the person of his Majesty.?
The best known of this family in modem times,
was the Right Hon. Charles Hope of Granton,
Lord Advocate of Scotland in 1801, afterwards
Lord President of the Court of Session, to whom
we have already referred amply, elsewhere.
The more modem Granton House, in this
quarter, was for some time the residence of Sir
John McNeill, G.C.B., third son of the late
McNeill of Colonsay, and brother of the peer of
that title, well known as envoy at the court of
Persia, and in many other public important capacities,
LLD. of Edinburgh, and D.C.L: of Oxford.
George Cleghorn, an eminent physician in Dublin,
and his nephew, William Cleghorn, who was associated
with him as Professor of Anatomy in Trinity
College, Dublin, were both natives of Granton.
George, the first man who established, what might
with any propriety, be called an anatomical school
in Ireland, was born in 1716 of poor but reputable
and industrious parents, on a small farm at Granton,
where his father died in I 7 19, leaving a widow and
five children. He received the elements of his
education in the parish school of? Cramond village,
and in 1728 he was sent to Edinburgh to be
further instructed in Latin, Greek, and French,
and, to a great knowledge of these languages, he
added that of mathematics. Three years after he
commenced the study of physics and surgery under
the illustrious Alexander Monro, with whom he
remained five years, and while yet a student, he
and some others, among whom was the celebrated
Dr. Fothergill, established the Royal Medical
Society of Edinburgh.
In 1736 he was appointed surgeon of Moyle?s
Regiment, afterwards the zznd Foot (in which,
sbme years before, the father of Laurence Sterne
had been a captain) then stationed in Minorca,
where he remained with it thirteen years, and
accompanied it in 1749 to Ireland, and in the
following year published, in London, his work on
? The Diseases of Minorca.?
Settling in Dublin in 175 I, in imitation of Monro
and Hunter he began to give yearly lectures
on anatomy. A few years afterwards he was
admitted into the University as an anatomical ... CAROLINE PARK. 311 and most gifted men of his time,? and had his town residence in one of the flats in ...

Book 6  p. 311
(Score 0.35)

[The Cowgate. 262 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
Chapel, and quhat expensis he makis thaeron
sal be allowit to him in his accomptis.?
In one window, a Saint Bartholomew has
strangely escaped the destructive mobs of 1559 and
1688; but its tints are far inferior to the deep
crimson and gold of the royal arms. It is remarkable
that one other feature has also escaped destruction,
the tomb of Janet Rhynd, with the following
icscription in ancient Gothic characters :-
peir I Q ~ ant bonorabfl booman, 3anet P(pn8, pe
SS~ous of umqttbiI fliccI flakquben, Burgess
of c?DJ. founBer of pis place, am Betessit ge
iiii b q of Becemr., PO Bno Jl!lc.B?bii.
Impaled in one shield, the arms of the husband
and wife are in the centre of the sculptured stone,
which is now level with a platform at the east end
of the chapel for the accommodation of the officials
of the Corporation.
The hospital was founded in 1504--nine years
before Flodden ; but the charter by which its permanent
establishment is secured by Janet Rhynd, who
gave personally ;6z,ooo Scots, is supposed to have
been dated about 1545 in the reign of Mary, and
as one of the last deeds executed for a pious purpose,
is now remarkable in its tenor.
The chapel is decorated at $s east end with the
royal arms, those of the city, and of the twentytwo
corporations forming the ancient and honourable
Incorporation of Hammermen, ? the guardians
of the sacred banner, the Blue Blanket, on the unfurling
of which every liege burgher of the kingdom
is bound to answer the summons.?
On the walls are numerous tablets recording the
names and gifts of benefactors. The oldest of
these is supposed to be a daughter of the founders, ?? Isabel Macquhane, spouse to Gilbert Lauder,
merchant burgess of Edinburgh, who bigged ye
crosshouse, and mortified jE50 out of the Caussland,
anno 1555.? ?John Spens, burgess of
Edinburgh,? tells another tablet, ? bestowed IOO
lods of Wesland lime for building the stipel of this
chapell, anno I 6 2 I.?
Eleven years after the quaint steeple was built
a bell was hung in it, which bears round it, in large
Roman characters,-
SOLI DEO GLORIA MICHAEL BURGERHUVS ME FECIT.
ANNO 1632.
And underneath, in letters about half the size, is
the legend,
God bCis the Hammermen of MagdaZen Chapel.
The bell is still rung, though not for the objects
detailed in the will of Janet Rhynd, and in 1641
it was used to summon the congregation of the
Greyfriars, who paid for its use A40 Scots yearly.
When the distinguished Reformer John Craig
returned to Scotland at the Reformation-escaping
from Rome on the very day before he was to perish
in a great auto-da-fe-after an absence of twentyfour
years, he preached for some time in this chapel
in the Latin language, to a select congregation of
the learned, being unable from long disuse to hold
forth in the Scottish tongue. He was subsequently
appointed colleague to John Knox, and
is distinguished in history for having defied even
Bothwell, by refusing to publish the banns of his
marriage with Mary, and also for having written the
National Covenant of 1589.
The General Assembly of 1578 .met in the
Magdalene Chapel, and on the 30th of June, 1685,
the headless body of the Earl of Argyle-whose
skull was placed on the north gable of the Tolbooth
-was deposited here, prior to its conveyance to
Kilmun-the tomb of the Campbells-in Argyleshire.
Among the sculpture above the door of the chapel
there remains an excellent figure of an Edinburgh
hammerman of 1555 inthe costume of the period,
in doublet and trunk-breeches, with peaked beard
and moustache, with a hammer in his right hand.
The arms of the corporation are azure, a hammer
proper, ensigned with the imperial crown.
St. Eligius, Bishop and Confessor, was the
patron of the Edinburgh hammermen; but, as
the Scots always followed the French mode and
terms, he has always been known as St. Eloi,
whose altar in St. Giles?s Church was the property
of the corporation. It was the most eastern of the
chapels in that ancient fane. The keystone of
this chapel alone is preserved. It is a richlysculptured
boss formed of four dragons with distended
wings, each different in design. The
centre is formed by a large flower, in which is
inserted the iron hook, whereat hung the votive
lamp over the altar of St. Eloi, who is referred to in
all the historical documents of the corporation.*
According to the Bollandists, he had been a goldsmith
early in life, and became master of the Mint
to Clotaire II., on some of whose gold coins his
name appears. He died Bishop of Noyon about
659, and Kincaid in his history (1794) says that
in the Hammermen?s Hall a relic of him is shown,
?? called St. Eloi?s gown.? This was probably some
garment which had clothed a statue.
The chapel proper has latterly become the property
of the Protestant Institute of Scotland, whose
chambers are close by at I 7, George IV. Bridge.
It is impossible to quit this locality without some
An engraving of this keystone will be found on p 147,
Vol. I. ... Cowgate. 262 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Chapel, and quhat expensis he makis thaeron sal be allowit to him in his ...

Book 4  p. 262
(Score 0.35)

124 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. princcs Street
came into her possession, the pocket-knife, fork,
and spoon which Prince Charles used in all his
marches and subsequent wanderings. The case is
a small one, covered with black shagreen ; for
pottability, the knife, fork, and spoon are made to
screw upon handles, so that the three articles form
six pieces for close packing. They are all engraved
with an ornament of thistle-leaves, and the fork
and spoon have the prince?s initials, C. s : all have
the Dutch plate stamp, showing that they were
manufactured in Holland.
It is supposed that this case, with its contents,
came to Lady Mary Clerk through Miss Drelincourt,
daughter of the Dean of Armagh, in Ireland, ,
While her mother was still confined to bed a
Highland party, under a chieftain of the Macdonald
clan, came to her house, but the commander, on
learning the circumstances, not only chivalrously
restrained his men from levying any contribution,
but took from his bonnet his own white rose or
cockade, and pinned it on the infant?s breast,
?that it might protect the household from any
trouble by others. This rosette the lady kept to
her dying day.? In after years she became the
wife of Sir James Clerk of Pennicuick, Bart., and
when he went off to the royal yacht to present him
with the silver cross badge, the gift of ?the ladies
of Scotland.?
From the king, the case, with its contents, passed
to the Marquis of Conyngham, and from him to
his son -4lbert, first Lord Londesborough, and they
are now preserved with great care amidst the
valuable collection of ancient plate and b2jbuien2 at
Grimston Park, Yorkshire.
Sir Walter Scott was a frequent visitor at
No. 100, Princes Street, as he was on intimate
terms with Lady Clerk, who died several years
after the king?s visit, having attained a green old
age. Till past her eightieth year she retained an
( ? I Book of Days.?)
who became wife of Hugh, third Viscount Pnmrose,
in whose house in London the loyal Flora
Macdonald found a shelter after liberation from
the long confinement she underwent for her share
in promoting the escape of the prince, who had
given it to her as a souvenir at the end of his
perilous wanderings.
In the Edinburgh Obsmw of 1822 it is
recorded that when George IV. contemplated his
visit to Scotland, he expressed a wish to have
some relic of the unfortunate prince, on which
PRINCES STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM SCOTT?S MONUMENT. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. princcs Street came into her possession, the pocket-knife, fork, and spoon which ...

Book 3  p. 124
(Score 0.35)

DUNGEONS IN THE CASTLE BELOW QUEEN MARY?S ROOM.
CHL4PTER 111.
CASTLE OF EDINBURGH-(cantinued.~~e~.)
The Legend of the White Hart-Holyrood Abbey founded-The Monks of the Castrum Puellarum-David 1,?s numerous Endowments-His
Death-Fergus, Lord of Gallaway. dies there-William the Lion-Castle Garrisoiied by the English for Twelve Years-The Castle a Royal
Residence-The War of the Scottish Succession-The Castle in the hands of Edward I.-Frank?s Escalade-The Fortress Dismantled
-Again in the hands of the English-Bullocks Stratagem for its Resapture-David?s Tower.
?THE well-known legend of the White Hart,??
says Daniel Wilson, ? most probably had its origin
in some real occurrence, magnified by the superstition
of a rude and illiterate age. More recent observations
at least suffice to show that it existed
at a much earlier date than Lord Hailes referred
it to.?
It is recorded that on Rood-day, the 14th of
September, in the harvest of 1128, the weather
being fine and beautiful, King David and his
courtiers, after mass, left the Castle by that gate
before which he was wont to dispense justice to his
people, and issued forth to the chase in the wild
country that lay around-for then over miles of the
land now covered by the new and much of the
old city, for ages into times unknown, the oak-trees
of the primeval forest of Drumsheugh had shaken
down their leaves and acorns upon the wild and
now extinct animals of the chase. And here it
may be mentioned that boars? tusks of most enormous
size were found in 1846 in the bank to the
south of the half-moon battery, together with an
iron axe, the skull and bones of a man.
On this Rood-day we are told that the king
issued from the Castle contrary to the advice of
his confessor, Alfwin, an Augustinian monk of great
sanctity and learning, who reminded him that it
was the feast of the? Exaltation of the Cross, and
should be passed in devotion, not in hunting; but
of this advice the king took no heed.
Amid the dense forest and in the ardour of the
chase he became separated from his train, in ? the
vail that lyis to the eist fra the said castell,? and
found himself at the foot of the stupendous crags,
where, ?under the shade of a leafy tree,? he was
almost immediately assailed by a white stag of
gigantic size, which had been maddened by the
pursuit, ?noys and dyn of bugillis,? and which, ... IN THE CASTLE BELOW QUEEN MARY?S ROOM. CHL4PTER 111. CASTLE OF EDINBURGH-(cantinued.~~e~.) The Legend ...

Book 1  p. 21
(Score 0.35)

268 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
and retaining traces of the heraldic blazonry
with which it was originally adorned. Two large
and handsome windows, above the archway leading
to Toddrick?s Wynd, give light to this once
magnificent hall, which is said to have formed
the council-room where the officers of the Mint
assembled to assay the metal, and to discuss the
general affairs of the establishment.?
It may surprise readers now to hear that much
of the gold coined in this establishment, and its
predecessors, was native produce.
The first historical notice we have of gold in
Scotland is the grant by David I. to the Abbey of
Dunfermline, in 1153, of all the gold accruing to
the crown from Fife and Fotherif. About a century
later Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness (afterwards canon-
THE OLD SCOTTISH MINT. (Affwa Drawingby James Drurnnaond, RSA )
Wilson wrote this in 1847, thirty years before the
old Scottish Mint was doomed to total destruction.
In the reign of Charles 11. other buildings were
added to the edifice of 1574, forming a stately
quadrangle, and there the national coin was produced
till the Union, when a separate coinage was
abandoned in both countries; but to gratify
prejudice, and the hope that many clung to, of
having the Union repealed, the offices were maintained
even though they were sinecures. This
court, with its buildings, was, like the royal mews
at the end of the Grassmarket-a sanctuary for
persons prosecuted for debt ; and a small den near
the top of the building OX 1574, lighted by a little
window looking westward up the Cowgate, was
used as a gaol for debtors and other delinquents,
condemned by the officers of the Mint.
ised as St. Gilbert), is credited with the discovery
of gold in Sutherlandshire; but it was not until
the 15th century that gold-mining in Scotland
became of sufficient importance to warrant its
regulation by the Legislature. Thus, in 1424, Parliament
granted to the Crown all the gold mines in
the realm, and also all the silver mines, that yielded
three halfpennies of silver to the pound of lead.
The disaster at Flodden prevented immediate
advantage being taken of the gold mines discovered
on Crawford Muir in the reign of James IV. ; but
in 1524 the famous Albany medal was made from
gold obtained there j and it is apparent that much
of the coin of James V. was minted of native
metal. Miners were brought from Germany,
Holland, and Lorraine, and they worked under the
care of John Mossman, goldsmith, who made a ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street. and retaining traces of the heraldic blazonry with which it was ...

Book 2  p. 268
(Score 0.35)

i.e., the Tolbooth; others were held there in 1449
and 1459. In the latter the Scottish word
?Tolbooth,? meaning a tax-house, occurs for the
first time ; ?Hence,? says Wilson, ? a much older,
and probably larger erection must therefore have
existed on the site of the western portion of the
Tolbooth, the ruinous state of which led to the
royal command for its demolition in 1561-not
a century after the date we are disposed to
assign to the oldest portion of the building that
remained till 1817, and which, though decayed and
time-worn, was so far from being ruinous even then,
that it proved a work of great labour to demolish
its solid masonry.? In the ?Diurnal of Occurrents,?
it is recorded that in 1571 ?the tour of the add
TuZbuyth was tane doun.?
The ornamental north gable of the Tolbooth was
never seen without a human head stuck thereon in
?the good old times,? In 1581. ?the prick on the
highest stone? bore the head of the Regent
Morton, in 1650 the head of the gallant Montrose,
till ten years subsequently it was replaced by that
of his enemy Argyle.
In 1561 the Tolbooth figures in one of those
tulzies or rows so common in the Edinburgh of
those days ; but in this particular instance we see a
distinct foreshadowing of the Porteous mob of the
eighteenth century, by the magistrates forbidding a
I? Robin Hood.? This was the darling May game
of Scotland as well as England, and, under the
pretence offrolic, gave an unusual degree of licence;
but the Scottish Calvinistic clergy, with John Knox
? at their head, and backed by the authority of the
magistrates of Edinburgh, who had of late been
chosen exclusively from that party, found it impossible
to control the rage of the populace when
deprived of the privilege of having a Robin Hood,
with the Abbot of Unreason and the Queen of the
May.( Thus it czme to pass, that in May, 1561,
when a man in Edinburgh was chosen as ? Robin
Hood and Lord of Inobedience,? most probably
because he was a frolicsome, witty, and popular
fellow, and passed through the city with a great
number of followers, noisily, and armed, with a
banner displayed, to the Castle Hill, the magistrates
caught one of his companions, ? a cordiner?s servant,?
named Janies Gillon, whom they condemned
to be hanged on the z ~ s t of July.
On that day, as he was to be conveyed to the
gibbet, it was set up with the ladder against it
in the usual fashion, when the craftsmen rushed
into the streets, clad in their armour, with
spears, axes, and hand-guns. They seized the
Provost by main force of arms, together with
two Bailies, David Symmer and Adam Fullarton,
and thrusting them into Alexander Guthrie?s
writing booth, left them there under a. guard.
The rest marched to the cross, broke the gibbet
to pieces, and beating in the doors of the Tolbooth
with sledge-hammers, under the eyes of
the magistrates, who were warded close by,
they brought forth the prisoner, whom they conveyed
ic~ triumph down the street to the Nether
Bow Port. . Finding the latter closed, they passed
up the street again. By this time the magistrates
had taken shelter in the Tolbooth, from whence
one,of them fired a pistol and wounded one of the
mob. ?That being done,? says the Diurnal of
Occurrents, ? there was naething but tak and day!
that is, the one part shooting forth and casting
stones, the other part shooting hagbuts in again, and
sae the craftsmen?s servants held them (conducted
themselves) continually frae three hours afternoon,
while (till) aucht at even, and never ane man of the
toun steirit to defend their provost and bailies.?
The former, who was Thomas Maccakean, of
Clifton Hall, contrived to open a communication
with the constable of the Castle, who came with
an armed party to act as umpire ; and through that
officer it was arranged ?that the provost and
bailies should discharge all manner of actions
whilk they had against the said crafts-childer in
ony time bygone ;? and this being done and proclaimed,
the armed trades peacefully disbanded,
and the magistrates were permitted to leave the
Tolbooth.
In 1539 the sixth Parliament of James VI. met
there. The Estates rode through the streets;
? the crown was borne before his Majesty by
Archibald Earl of Angus, the sceptre by Colin
Earl of Argyle, Chancellor, and the sword of
honour, by Robert Earl of Lennox.? Moyse adds,
when the Parliament was dissolved, twelve days
after, the king again rode thither in state. In
1581 Morton was tried and convicted in the hall
for the murder of Darnley ; the King?s Advocate
on that occasion was Robert Crichton of Elliock,
father of the ?? Admirable Crichton.?
Caldenvood records some curious instances of
the king?s imbecility among his fierce and turbulent
couttiers. On January 7th, 1590, when he was
coming down the High Street from the Tolbooth,
where he had been administering justice, two of
his attendants, Lodovick Duke of Lennox (hereditary
High Admiral and Great Chamberlain), and
Alexander Lord Home, meeting the Laird of
Logie, with whom they had a quarrel, though he
was valet of the royal chamber, attacked him
sword in hand, to the alarm of James, who retired
into an adjacent close ; and six days after, when he ... the Tolbooth; others were held there in 1449 and 1459. In the latter the Scottish word ?Tolbooth,? meaning ...

Book 1  p. 126
(Score 0.35)

armed men; at Bilston Burn is Wallace?s camp, in
the form of a half-moon, defended by a broad deep
ditch-a semicircle of eighty-four yards. It is ten
yards wide at the top and five yards at the bottom,
with a depth now of three yards.
The Cast-a rugged path-at Springfield is a
corruption of Via ad cmtra, and is, no doubt, an
old Roman road, though in some places now six
feet below the present surface (?New Statistical
Account?) ; and at Mavisbank is a tumulus, wherein
ROSLIN CHAPEL:-VIEW FROM THE CHANCEL (Affer a PhfopajA 61 G. W. wihon & CO.)
-
Lord of the Bedchamber to His Imperial Majesty
Joseph II., Emperor of Germany, Knight of the
Order of Maria ?Theresa, Count of the Holy Roman
Empire, and General of the Imperial, Royal, and
Apostolical Armies. Died at Pisa, in Italy, 6th
February, MDCCXC., in the LXIV. year of his age.?
Captain Philip Lockhart, of the Dryden family,
was one of the prisoners taken at Preston, in England,
in 1715, and for having previously borne a
commission in the British army, was tried by courthave
been found stiZi, f l u h , weapons, bridles, and
Roman surgical instruments ; and at a farm close by
is another, wherein urns full of calcined bones have
been excavated.
The Maiden Castle at Lasswade was situated
some three hundred yards south of the Hewan, in
a spot of exceeding loveliness. Nothing now
remains of it save massive foundations, but by
whom it was founded or to whom it belonged not
even a tradition remains.
Near Mount Marl, and by the high road at
Dryden, in a field, stands the great monument of
one of the former proprietors of the estate, bearing
the following inscription :-
?James Lockhart-Wishart of Lee and Carnwath,
martial ; and by a savage stretch of power was, with
Major Nairne, Ensign Erskine, Captain Shaftoe,
and others, shot for alleged desertion.
Nairne and Lockhart denied that they could be
guilty of desertion, as ?they had no commission
from, nor trust under, the present Government, and
the regiment to which they belonged had been
broken several years ago in Spain,? and that they
regarded their half-pay but as a gratuity for their
past services to Queen Anne. Major Nairne was
the first who perished.
? After he was shot, Captain Lockhart would not
suffer the soldiers to touch his friend?s body, but
with his own hands, with help of the other two
gentlemen, laid him in his coffin j after which he ... men; at Bilston Burn is Wallace?s camp, in the form of a half-moon, defended by a broad deep ditch-a ...

Book 6  p. 356
(Score 0.35)

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