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Restalrig.] LHL LA31 UP THE LOGANS. I35 -_7n T I?-
,
sible eyrie, Fast Castle, there to await the orders
of Elizabeth or the other conspirators as to the disposal
of his person.
Logan?s connection with this astounding treason
remained unknown till nine years after his death,
when the correspondence between him and the
Earl of Gowrie was discovered in possession of
Sprott, a notary at Eyemouth, who had stolen
them from a man named John Bain, to whom
they had been entrusted. Sprott was executed,
and Logan?s bones were brought into court to
havea sentence passed upon them, when it was
ordained ?that the memorie?and dignitie of the
said umqle Robert Logan be extiiict and abolisheit,?
his arms riven and deleted from all books
of arms and all his goods escheated.
The poor remains of the daring old conspirator,
were then retaken to the church of St. Mary at
Leith and re-interred j and during the alterations
in that edifice, in 1847, a coffin covered with the
richest purple velvet was found in a place where
no interment had taken place for years, and the
bones in it were supposed by antiquaries to be
those of the turbulent Logan, the last laird of
Restalrig.
His lands, in part, with the patronage of South
Leith, were afterwards bestowed upon James
Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino ; but the name still
lingered in Restalrig, as in 1613 we find that
John Logan a portioner there, was fined LI,OOO
for hearing mass at the Netherbow with James of
Jerusalem.
Logan was forfeited in 1609, but his lands had
been lost to him before his death, as Nether Gogar
was purchased from him in I 596, by Andrew Logan
of Coatfield, Restalrig in 1604 by Balmerino, who
was interred, in 1612, in thevaulted mausoleum beside
the church ; ?and the English army,? says
Scotstarvit, ? on their coming to Scotland, in 1650,
expecting to have found treasures in that place,
hearing that lead coffins were there, raised up his
body and threw it on the streets, because they
could get no advantage or money, when they expected
so much.?
In 1633 Charles I. passed through, or near,
Restalrig, on his way to the Lang Gate, prior to
entering the city by the West Port.
William Nisbet of Dirleton was entailed in the
lands of Restalrig in 1725, and after the attainder
and execution of her husband, Arthur Lord Balmerino,
in I 746, his widow-Elizzbeth, daughter
of a Captain Chalmers-constantly resided in the
village, and there she died on the 5th January, 1767.
Other persons of good position dwelt in the
village in those days; among them we may note
?
Sir James Campbell of Aberuehill, many years a
Commissioner of the Customs, who died there 13th
May, 1754, and was buried in the churchyard ; and
in 1764, Lady Katharine Gordon, eldest daughter
of the Earl of Aboyne, whose demise there is
recorded in the first volume of the Edinburgh
Adverhjer.
Lord Alemoor, whose town house was in Niddry?s
Wynd, was resident at Hawkhill, where he died in
1776 ; and five years before that period the village
was the scene of great festal rejoicings, when
Patrick Macdowal of Freugh, fifth Earl of Dumfries,
was married to Miss Peggy Crawford, daughter of
Ronald Crawford, Esq., of Restalng.?
From Peter Williamson?s Directory it appears
that Restalrig was the residence, in 1784, of Alexander
Lockhart, the famous Lord Covington. In
the same year a man named James Tytler, who had
ascended in a balloon from the adjacent Comely
Gardens, had a narrow escape in this quarter. He
was a poor man, who supported himself and his
family by the use of his pen, and he conceived the
idea of going up in a balloon on the Montgolfier
principle ; but finding that he could not carry a firestove
with him, in his desperation and disappointment
he sprang into his car with no other sustaining
power than a common crate used for packing
earthenware; thus his balloon came suddenly
down in the road near Restalrig. For a wonder
Tytler was uninjured; and though he did not
reach a greater altitude than three hundred feet,
nor traverse a greater distance than half a mile, yet
his name must ever be mentioned as that of the
first Briton who ascended with a balloon, and who
was the first man who so ascended in Britain.?
It is impossible to forget that the pretty village,
latterly famous chiefly as a place for tea-gardens
and strawbemy-parties, was, in the middle of the
last century, the scene of some of the privations
of the college life of the fine old Rector Adam of
the High School, author of ?Roman Antiquities,?
and other classical works. In 1758 he lodged
there in the house of a Mr. Watson, and afterwards
with a gardener. The latter, says Adam, in some
of his MS. memoranda (quoted by Dr. Steven),
was a Seceder, a very industrious man, who had
family worship punctually morning and evening,
in which I cordially joined, and alternately said
prayers. After breakfast I went to town to attend
my classes and my private pupils. For dinner I
had three small coarse loaves called baps, which I
got for a penny-farthing. As I was now always
dressed in my best clothes, I was ashamed to buy
these from a baker in the street. I therefore went
down to a baker?s in the middle of a close. I put

... LHL LA31 UP THE LOGANS. I35 -_7n T I?- , sible eyrie, Fast Castle, there to await the orders of ...

Book 5 p. 135
(Score 1.03)

138 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig.
latter married a lady whom Burke calls ?Miss
Alston, of America,? and died without any family,
and now the line of the Nisbets of Dean and
Craigantinnie has passed completely away ; but
long prior to the action recorded the branch at
Restalrig had lost the lands there and the old
house we have described.
In the beginning of the last century the proprietor
of Craigantinnie was Nisbet of Dirleton, of
the male line of that Sir John Nisbet of Dirleton
who was King?s Advocate after the Restoration.
It was subsequently the property of the Scott-
Nisbets, and on the death of John Scott-Nisbet,
Esq., in 1765, an action was raised against his
heirs and trustees, by Young of Newhall, regarding
the sale of the estate, which was ultimately carried
to the House of Peers.
Craigantinnie was next acquired by purchase by
William Miller, a wealthy seedsman, whose house
and garden, at the foot of the south back of the
Canongate, were removed only in 1859, when the
site was added to the Royal Park. When Prince
Charles?s army came to Edinburgh in 1745, he
obtained 500 shovels from William Miller for
trenching purposes. His father, also Wdliam Miller,
who died in 1757, in his eightieth year, had previously
acquired a considerable portion of what is
now called the Craigantinnie estate, or the lands
of Philliside, and others near the sea. He left
.&20,000 in cash, by which Craigantinnie proper
was acquired by his son M7illiam. He was well
known as a citizen of Edinburgh by the name of
?? the auld Quaker,? as he belonged to the Society
of Friends, and was ever foremost in all works of
chanty and benevolence.
About 1780, when in his ninetieth year, he
married an Englishwoman who was then in her
fiftieth year, with whom he went to London and
Pans, where she was delivered of a child, the late
William Miller, M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lyne ;
and thereby hangs a story, which made some stir
at the time of his death, as he was currently averred
to be a changeling-even to be a woman, a suggestion
which his thin figure, weak voice, absence of
all beard, aad some peculiarity of habit, seemed to
corroborate. Be that as it may, none were permitted-
save those interested in him-to touch his
body, which, by his will, lies now buried in a
grave, dug to the great depth of foity feet, on the
north side of the Portobello Road, and on the
lands of Craigantinnie, with a classic tomb of considerable
height and beauty erected over it.
At his death, without heirs, the estate passed into
the hands of strangers.
His gigantic tomb, however, with its beautiful
sculptures, forms one of the most remarkable
features in this locality. Regarding it, a writer in,
Tem~jZe Bar for 1881, says :-?? Not one traveller
in a thousand has ever seen certain sculptures
known as the ? Craigantinnie Marbles.? They arel
out of town, on the road to Portobello, beyond the
Piershill cavalry barracks, and decorate a mausoleum
which is to be found by turning off the high
road, and so past a cottage into a field, green and?
moist with its tall neglected grass. There is something
piquant in coming upon Art among humble?
natural things in the country or a thinly peopled
suburb.? After referring to Giotto?s work outside
Padua, he continues : ? It is obvious there is no
comparison intended between that early work of
Italy, so rich in sincere thought and beautiful expression,
and the agreeable, gracious and even
manly hbour, of the artist who wrought for modern
Scotland, the ?Song of Miriam? in this Craigantinnie
field. Still there is a certain freshness of pleasure
in the situation of the work, nor does examination
of the art displayed lead to prompt disappointment.?
Standing solitary and alone, westward of Restalrig
Church, towers the tall villa of Marionville,
which, though now rather gloomy in aspect, was
prior to 1790 the scene often of the gayest private
theatricals perhaps in Britain, and before its then
possessor won himself the unenviable name of ?? the
Fortunate Duellist,? and became an outcast and
one of the most miserable of men, The house is
enclosed by shrubbery of no great extent, and by
high walls. ?Whether it be,? says Chambers,
? that the place has become dismal in consequence
of the rise of a noxious fen in its neighbourhood,
or that the tale connected with it acts upon the
imagination, I cannot decide ; but unquestionably
there is about the house an air of depession and
melancholy such as could scarcely fail to strike the
most unobservant passenger.?
Elsewhere he mentions that this villa was built,
by the Misses Ramsay, whose shop was on the
east side of the old Lj-on Close, on the north side
of the High Street, opposite the upper end of the
City Guardhouse. There they made a fortune,
spent on building Marionville, which was locally
named hjpeet Ha? in derision of their profession.
Here, for some time before 1790, lived Captain
James Macrae, formerly of the 3rd Regiment of
Horse (when commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
Sir Ralph Abercrombie), and now known as the
6th Dragoon Guards, or Carabineers ; and his story
is a very remarkable one, from the well-known
names that must be introduced in it. He was
Macrae of Holemains, whom Fowler, in his Ren-,

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig. latter married a lady whom Burke calls ?Miss Alston, of America,? and died ...

Book 5 p. 138
(Score 1.03)

High Street.7 BAILIE FULLERTON. 277
says, after they heard the explosion at the Kirk-offield,
?thai past away togidder out at the Frier
Yet, and sinderit when thai came to the Cowgate,
pairt up the Blackfriar Wynd and pairt up the
cloiss which is under the Endmylie?s Well.?
On the east side of the Close, and opposite to
the house of Bassandyne the printer, one with a
hideous in the eyes of the reformers, ?playing a
Robin Hood,? as we have related in our account of
the Tolbooth, and would have hanged him therefor,
had not the armed trades made themselves
fairly masters of the city.
In January, 1571, he sat as Comniissioner for
the City in the General Assembly which met at
TWEEDDALE HOUSE.
highly ornamented double doorway, was themansion
of Adam Fullerton, a man of great note in his time,
and an active coadjutor of the early reformers.
The northern door lintel had the legend-
V in Vwa ca. ONLY. BE. CRYST-ADAM FVLLERTON. Tm.
and the southem-
He was one of the Bailies of Edinburgh in 1561,
who, with the Provost, committed to ward the
craftsman who had been guilty of that enormity so
ARIS. 0. LORD-MAIRIORIE.ROGER. 1573.
Leith, and in the summer of the same year he was
made captain of two hundred armed citizens, who
formed themselves into a band or company, and
joined the forces of the Regent in that seaport, for
which he was denounced as a traitor to his @een ;
and by an act of the Estates, sitting in the Tolbooth,
and presided over on the 18th of August by the
Duke of Chatelherault, many rebels to the Queen,
? forrnost among whom is Adam Fullerton,? were
declared to have forfeited their lives, lands, goods,
1 and coats of arms. . His house in the Fountain

... Street.7 BAILIE FULLERTON. 277 says, after they heard the explosion at the Kirk-offield, ?thai past away ...

Book 2 p. 277
(Score 1.02)

CHAPTER IX.
THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS.
N the centre of the ancient city there I stood, till a few years since, a
strange, crooked, steep, and altogether
singular and picturesque avenue from
the High Street to the low valley on the
south, in which the more ancient extensions
of the once circumscribed Scottish
capital are reared. Scarcely anything
can be conceived more curious and whimsically
grotesque than its array of irregular
stone gables and timber galleries,
that seemed as if jostling one another
for room along the steep and narrow
thoroughfare ; while the busy throng
were toiling up or hurrying down its
precipitous pathways, amid the ceaseless
din of braziers’ and tinsmiths’ hammers,
for which it was famed, and the rumbling
of wheels, accompanied with the vociferous
shouts of a host of noisy assistants,
as some heavy-laden wain creeked
and groaned up the steep. The modern
visitor who now sees the Bowhead, an open
area nearly on a level with the Castle
drawbridge, and then by gradual and
easy descent of long flights of stairs, and the more gentle modern slope of Victoria
Street, at length reaches The Bowfoot Well in the Grassmarket, will hardly be persuaded
that between these two widely different elevations there extended only a few years
since a thoroughfare crowded with antique tenements, quaint inscriptions, and E t i l l
more strange and interesting associations ; unmatched in its historic and traditionary
memories by any other spot of the curious old capital, whose memories we seek to
revive. Here were the Templar Lands, with their antique gables, surmounted by the
croBs that marked them as beyond the reach of civic corporation laws, and with their old-
.
~IC+Nrrr+?tfajor Weir’s HOUS~.

... IX. THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. N the centre of the ancient city there I stood, till a few years since, ...

Book 10 p. 364
(Score 1.02)

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
(Score 1.01)

Lauriston.] JOHN LAW OF LAURISTON. 111
tisement announces, ? that there was this day
lodged in the High Council House, an old silver
snuff-box, which was found upon the highway leading
from Muttonhole to Cramond Bridge in the
month of July last. Whoever can prove the property
will get the box,.upon paying the expense incurred;
and that if this is not done betwixt this
and the roth of November next, the same will be
sold for payment thereof.? .
In the time of King David 11. a charter was
given t9 John Tennand of the lands of Lauriston,
with forty creels of peats in Cramond, in the county
of Edinburgh, paying thirty-three shillings and fourpence
to the Crown, and the same sum sterling to
the Bishop of Dunkeld.
The present Castle of Lauriston-which consisted,
before it was embellished by the late Lord Rutherford,
of a simple square three-storeyed tower, with
two corbelled turrets, a remarkably large chimney,
and some gableted windows-was built by Sir
Archibald Kapier of Merchiston and Edenbellie,
father of the philosopher, who, some years before
his death, obtained a charter of the lands and
meadow, called the King?s Meadow, 1?587-8 and of
half the lands of ?& Lauranstoun,? 16th November,
1593.
On two of the windows there yet remain his
initials, S. A N., and those of his wife, D. E. M.,
Dame Elizabeth Mowbray, daughter of Mowbray
of Banibougle, now called Dalmeny Park.
Tie tower gave the title of Lord Launston to
their son, Sir Alexander Napier, who became a
Lord of Session in 1626.
Towards the close of the same century the tower
and estate became the property of Law, a wealthy
gddsmith of Edinburgh, descended from the Laws
of Lithrie, in Fifeshire ; and in the tower, it is said,
his son John, the great financier, was born in April,
1671. There, too, the sister of the latter, Agnes,
was married in 1685 to John Hamilton, Writer to
the Signet in Edinburgh, where she died in 1750.
On his father?s death Law succeeded to Lauriston,
but as he had been bred to no profession, and
exhibited chiefly a great aptitude for calculation,
he took to gambling. This led him into extravagances.
He became deeply involved, but his
mother paid his debts and obtained possession of
the estate, which she immediately entailed. Tall,
handsome, and addicted to gallantry, he became
familiarly known as Beau Law in London, where
he slew a young man named Wilson in a duel, and
was found guilty of murder, but was pardoned by
the Crown. An appeal being made against this
pardon, he escaped from the King?s Bench, reached
France, and through Holland returned to Scotland
(Robertson?s Index.)
in 1700, and in the following year published at
Glasgow his ? Proposals and Reasons for Constituting
a Council of Trade in Scotland.?
He now went to France, where he obtained an
introduction to the Duke of Orleans, and offered
his banking scheme to the hfinister of Finance,
who deemed it so dangerous that he served him
with a police notice to quit Paris in twenty-four
hours. Visiting Italy, he was in the same summary
manner banished from Venice and Genoa as a daring
adventurer. His success at play was always
great; thus, when he returned to Pans during the
Regency of Orleans, he was in the possession of
&IOO,OOO sterling.
On securing the patronage of the Regent, he received
letters patent which, on the 2nd March, I 7 16,
established his bank, with a capital of 1,200 shares
of 500 livres each, which soon bore a premium.
To this bank was annexed the famous Mississippi
scheme, which was invested with the full sovereignty
of Louisiana for planting co1onie.s and extending
commerce-the grandest and most comprehensive
scheme ever conceived-and rumour went that gold
mines had been discovered of fabulous and mysterious
value.
The sanguine anticipations seemed to be realised,
and for a time prosperity and wealth began to pre
vail in France, where John Law was regarded as its
good genius and deliverer from poverty.
The house of Law in the Rue Quinquempoix, in
Pans, was beset day and night by applicants, who
blocked up the streets-peers, prelates, citizens,
and artisans, even ladies of rank, all flocked to that
temple of Plutus, till he was compelled to transfer
his residence to the Place VendBme. Here again
the prince of stockjobbers found himself overwhelmed
by fresh multitudes clamouring for allotments,
and having to shift his quarters once more,
he purchased from the Prince de Carignan, at an
enormous price, the HBtel de Soissons, in the
spacious gardens of which he held his levees.
It is related of him, that when in the zenith of his
fame and wealth he was visited by John the ?great
Euke of Argyle,? the latter found him busy writing.
The duke never doubted but that the financier
was engaged on some matter of the highest importance,
as crowds of the first people of France were
waiting impatiently an audience in the suites of
ante-rooms, and the duke had to wait too, until &It.
Law had finished his letter, which was merely one
to his gardener at Lauriston regarding the planting
of cabbages at a particular spot !
In 1720 he was made Comptroller-General ot
the Finances, but the crash came at last. The
amount of notes issued by Law?s bank more
?

... JOHN LAW OF LAURISTON. 111 tisement announces, ? that there was this day lodged in the High Council ...

Book 5 p. 111
(Score 0.99)

was restored, but in somewhat doubtful taste, by
Thomas Hamilton, architect, and a new square
tower, terminating in a richly cusped open Gothic
balustrade, was erected at its north-western corner,
while the angles of the building were ornamented
ST. MARK?S (SOUTH LEITH) CHURCH, 1882.
by buttresses finished with crocketed finials,
scarcely in accordance with the severe simplicity
of the old time-worn and war-worn church of St.
Mary, the beautiful eastern window of which was
preserved in form.
FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY feet north-westward of
St. Mary?s church, and on the same side of the
Kirkgate, opens the ancient alley named Coatfield
Lane, which, after a turn to the south in Charlotte
Lane, led originally to the Links. Dr. Robertson
gives a quotation from the I? Parish Records ? of
South Leith, under date 25th May, 1592, as
showing the origin ? of Coatfield Lane : ?the
quhilk day, the Provost, Johnne Amottis, shepherd,
was acted that for every sheep he beit in ye Kirkyeard
suld pay ix merks, and everie nyt yat carried
(kept) thame betwix the Coatfield and ye. Kirk
style he should pay v. merk.?
But the name is older than the date given, as
Patrick Logan of Coatfield was Bailie of Leith
10th September, 1470, and Robert Logan of the
same place was Provost of the city in 1520-I, as
the ?Burgh Records show ; and when ruin began
to overtake the wily and powerful Baron of Restalrig,
his lands of Mount Lothian and Nether Gogar
were purchased from him by Andrew Logan of
Coatfield in 1596, as stated in the old ?? Douglas
Peerage.?
At the corner of Coatfield Lane, in the Kirkgate,
there stands a great mansion, having a handsome
front to ?the east, exhibiting some curious exampIes

... restored, but in somewhat doubtful taste, by Thomas Hamilton, architect, and a new square tower, terminating ...

Book 6 p. 220
(Score 0.94)

300 OLD A,ND NEW EDINBURGH. [Newhaven.
Anne in 1712, lost the office on the accession of
the House of Hanover, and, dying without heirs, in
1728, the title became extinct.
We read of a ropework having been established
here about the period of the Revolution (very
likely on the site of the old one, formed by
Tames IV. for his dockyard), by James Deans,
Bailie of the Canongate, and one of his sons, who,
however, were compelled to discontinue it for want
of encouragement. In November, 1694, another
~
Prestonpans about the right to certain oyster beds,
which the former claimed as tacksmen of the
metropolis, and many conflicts in the Forth ensued
between them.? One of them is recorded in the
Gentleman?s Magazine, under date March 2 znd,
I 788, thus :-
? On Wednesday a sharp contest took place at
the back of the Black Rocks, near Leith Harbour,
between a boat?s crew belonging to Newhaven and
another belonging to Prestonpans, occasioned by
MAIN STREET, NEWHAVEN.
of his sons, Thomas Deans, ? expressed himself as
disposed to venture another stock in the same
work, at the same place or some other equally convenient,
provided he should have it endowed with
the privileges of a manufactory, though not to the
exclusion of others disposed to try the same business.
His wishes were complied with by the Privy
In the year 1710, ? Evan Macgregor, of Newhaven,?
entailed all his lands there, as appears from
Shaw, the date of tailzie being given as August,
1705.
In the latter years of the eighteenth century a
regular feud-and a very bitter one-existed between
the fishermen of Newhaven and those of
. Council.??
the latter?s dragging oysters on the ground laid
claim to by the former. After a severe conflict for
about half an hour with their oars, boat-hooks, etc.,
the Newhaven men brought in the Prestonpans
boat to Newhaven, after many being hurt on both
sides. This is the second boat taken from them this
season.?
In 1790 the quarrel took a judicial form, after
five fishermen of Prestonpans had been imprisoned
for dredging oysters near Newhaven, in
defiance of an interdict issued by the Judge-
Admiral.
?? For more than a year past,? it was stated, ?? a
case has been pending in the Court of Admiralty
between sundry fishermen in Newhaven, as tacks

... OLD A,ND NEW EDINBURGH. [Newhaven. Anne in 1712, lost the office on the accession of the House of Hanover, ...

Book 6 p. 300
(Score 0.94)

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
(Score 0.93)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 97
More recent evils, stranger, I deplore,
The Gael are banished from their native shore !
Shepherds, a sordid few, their lands possess :-
System accursed. What scenes of dire distress
Hath this not caused 0 See you deserted glen,
Of late the blessed abode of happy men ;
‘Tis now a dreary void ! Save where you tree,
By bleak winds blasted, marks the stern decree
Which doomed to ruin all the hamlet round,
And changed to shep-waZks this devoted ground ! ”
These lines, certainly among the best, embody the substance of the Poem,
which is branched out into six books, or chapters. The object of the publication
was to expose the depopulation policy of the Highland proprietors, and
to induce legislative attention to the subject. The proceeds of the sale were to
be given to a proposed fund for cultivating waste lands, that the Gael, in place
of expatriation, might be employed advantageously in their own country.
In the attainment of these patriotic objects, Mr. Campbell’s poetical efforts
fell short ; but there is one circumstance, of a local nature, connected with the
“ Grampians Desolate,” which we cannot pass over in silence, strongly indicative
of the author’s active benevolence, in so far as his influence and means extended.
The story is related by himself in a note to the following couplet :-
“ Wearied and faint, they search, and find at last
A wretched hovel-share a poor repast.”
“It was in the depth of winter (in the year 1784) ; a heavy fall of mow had lain long on the
ground ; the north wind blew keenly, and chilled one almost to death, when Alexander Lawson, a
well-disposed penon (by trade a weaver) came to me and requested my chanty for a poor, destitute
family, who had taken shelter in a wretched hovel, a few doors from his workshop. My curiosity
being excited by the description he gave of their deplorable condition, I followed him to the spot.
We descended a few steps into what had once, perhaps, been a cellar, A small lamp, placed in one
corner of this hole, for it could not be called a habitable place, gave hardly Rufficient light to show
the miserable state of those persons who had taken shelter in it from the inclemency of the storm.
In one row, on a bed of straw made on the cold damp floor, were laid three men ; their only coveiing
plaids, for they were Highlanders, and their dissolution seemed fast approaching. A woman,
apparently past the middle period of life, who supported the head of the eldest on her lap, lifted up
her eyes as we entered, looked wistfully at us, and shook her head, but uttered not a word, nor did
a sigh escape her. ‘Alas ! good.woman,’ said I, ‘have you no one to look after you in this destitute
condition ?’-‘She can converse in no other save her native tongue,’ said my conductor ; and I
addressed her in that language ; when she instantly raised her eyes, in which a faint gleam of joy
seemed for a moment to sparkle. Laying the head of her husband (for such the eldest of the three
men was) gently down on the straw, she suddenly sprang up, came forward, seized me by both hands,
cast a look upwards, and exclaimed, ‘ 0 God ! whom hast Thou sent to comfort us !’ Then looking
me stedfastly in the face, she said, ‘In this wretched condition you thus see me among strangen.
My husband and these my two sons are fast hastening to their graves. Nine days and nights have
their blood boiled in the malignant illness you now see wasting them. It is now almost three days
since I tasted the last morsel of bread.’ She then turned to her dying family, wrung her hands,
and remained silent. On turning from this affecting scene, I observed a decent old woman coming
forward to inquire for the unhappy sufferers; and, by the interest she seemed to take in their
welfare, it led me to hope that, through her kind assistance, I should be enabled to afford them
some relief. Having in the meantime ordered them an immediate supply of things absolutely
necessary, I made haste to call in medical assistance ; but, alas ! it was too late ; for the fever had
already wasted the living energy in them ; and, notwithstanding every1 possible aid art’ could
administer under such unfavourable circumstances as their cases presented, when I called next
morning, I found the father and his eldest son in the agonies of death. AU was silent. In a few
VOL 11. 0

... SKETCHES. 97 More recent evils, stranger, I deplore, The Gael are banished from their native shore ...

Book 9 p. 130
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CHAPTER X.
LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN.
HE history and antiquities of the ancient
burgh of Leith are much too intimately
connected with the Scottish capital to admit of
their being overlooked among its venerable memorials.
The earliest notice of Leith occurs in
the original charter of Holyrood Abbey, where
it is mentioned among the gifts bestowed by
Saint David on his royal foundation, under the
name of Inverleith. Little, however, is known
of its history until the year 1329, when the
citizens of Edinburgh obtained from Eing
Robert I. a grait of the Harbour and Mills of
Leith, for the payment of fifty-two merks ye'arly.
From that period almost to our day it has
remained as a vassal of Edinburgh, not incorporated,
like the Canongate, by amicable relations and the beneficent fruits of a paternal
sway, but watched with a spirit of mean jealousy that seemed ever to dread the step-child
becoming a formidable rival. It bore a share in all the disasters that befell its jealous
neighbour, without partaking of its more prosperous fortunes, until the Burgh Reform
Bill of 1833 at length freed it from this slavish vassalage, that proved in its operations
alike injurious to the Capital and its Port. The position it occupied, and the share it had
in the successive struggles that exercised so marked an influence on the history of Edinburgh,
have already been sufficiently detailed in the introductory sketch. It suffered
nearly as much from the invading armies of Henry VIII. as Edinburgh; while in the
bloody feuds between the Congregation and the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, and the no
less bitter strife of the Douglas wars, it was dragged unwillingly into their quarrels, and
compelled to bear the brunt of its more powerful neighbour's wrath.
In the reign of Alexander 111. it belonged to the Leiths, a family who owned extensive
possessions in Midlothian, including the lands of Restalrig, and took their patrimonial
surname from the town. About the commencement of the fourteenth century
these possessions passed by marriage to the Logans, the remains of whose ancient strong-
VIGNETTs-Arms, vinegar Close, Leith.

... X. LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. HE history and antiquities of the ancient burgh of Leith are much too ...

Book 10 p. 390
(Score 0.92)

56 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Przstonfield.
Cunninghams, baronets of 1677, according to Burke.
Prior to coming into possession of the present
family, the estate belonged of old to the Hamiltons,
one of whom, Thomas, fell at Flodden in
?513.
In 1607 Thomas Hamilton of Prestonfield
became a Lord of Session, and on assuming his
seat, took an oath ?that neither directly nor indirectly
he had procured the place by gold or silver.?
The property seems to have been sometimes
=!led Priestfield. Thus Balfour records that ? Sr*
Alexander Hamilton, brother to Thomas, first Earle
Elacket Place, is Newington House, the residence
of Duncan McLaren, Esq., long one of the city
members, and who, beyond all other Scottish representatives,
has been a champion for Scottish
interests. He ?was born in 1800, and was Lord
Provost of Edinburgh from 1851 to 1854, and is
the father of John McLaren, who was made a
Lord of Session in 1881. It is the largest and
principal mansion in this part of the town.
Opposite the west end of the Mayfield Loan is
Duddingston, had to fly to Paris, where he became
chaplain to Cardinal de Retz ; and in after years it
passed into possession of the present family, when
? James Dick, a merchant of great eminence and
wealth, having purchased the lands of Priestfield,
or Prestonfield,? was created a baronet of Nova
Scotia, 2nd March, 1677.
Four years afterwards, on the morning of the
I Ith January, his house, ?( under the south front of
Arthur?s Seat,? was burnt down. Political circumstances,
according to Chambers, gave importance to
~ this, which would otherwise have been a trivial
land, a man of rare spirit and a very valiant
souldiour, departed this lyffe at Priestfield, neire
Edinburghe, 26th November, 1649.? He had
served with distinction under Gustavus Adolphus,
and was familiarly known among the soldiers as
? dear Sandy,? and as the constructor of certain
field-pieces for the Covenanters, who stigmatised
them as ? stoups.?
It was for an alleged intrigue with Anne Hepburn,
the lady of Sir James Hamilton of Preston-
PRESTONFIELD HOUSE.

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Przstonfield. Cunninghams, baronets of 1677, according to Burke. Prior to coming into ...

Book 5 p. 56
(Score 0.9)

Braid.] THE LANDS OF BRAID. 41
the city on the south, and directly overlook
Morningside. Their greatest altitude is 700 feet
According to one traditional legend, these hills
were the scene of ? Johnnie 0? Braidislee?s ? woeful
hunting, as related in the old ballad.
exposed to more than one
military visitation from
the garrison in Edinburgh
Castle. Knox?s secretary
records that on the 25th
May twelve soldiers came
to Braid, when the laird
was at supper, and
rifled the house of the
miller. Braid appeared,
but was treated with contempt,
and was told that
they would bum the house
about his ears if he did
not surrender to Captain
Melville, who was one of
the eight sons of Sir lames
Melville of Raith, and his
lady Helen Napier of Merchiston.
Though called ? a
quiet man,? the wrath of
the laird was roused, and
he rushed forth at the
head of his domestics,
the north bank of the latter stream, which meanders
close to it, and which takes its rise in the bosom
of the Pentlands, near the Roman camp above
Bonally.
It is a two-storeyed villa, with a pavilion roof
CHRIST. CHURCH, MORNINGSIDE.
armed with an enormous two-handed sword, and
cut down one of the soldiers, who fired their hackbuts
without effect, and were eventually put to flight.
In the early part of the eighteenth century Braid
belonged to a family named Brown, and a great
portion of it in the present century had passed into
the possession of Gordon of Cluny.
between the Braid Hills and Blackford, stands the
beautiful retreat called the Hermitage of Braid, on
In a romantic, sequestered, and woody dell,
102
and little corner turrets, in that grotesque style of
castellated architecture adopted at Gillespie?s
Hospital, and is evidently designed by the same
architect, though built about the year 1780. It
was the property of Charles Gordon of Cluny,
father of the ill-fated Countess of Stair, the once
beautiful ?Jacky Gordon,? whose marriage was
annulled in 1804, after which it frequently formed
her solitary residence. It afterwards became the
property of the widow of the late John Gordon of

... THE LANDS OF BRAID. 41 the city on the south, and directly overlook Morningside. Their greatest altitude ...

Book 5 p. 41
(Score 0.89)

232 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Grassmarket.
and a place on the south side of the market, zoo
feet below, the father slid down it in half a minute.
The son performed the same feat, blowing a trumpet
all the way, to the astonishment of a vast
crowd of spectators.
Three days afterwards there was a repetition of
the performance, ? at the desire of several people
of quality,? when after sliding down, the father made
his way up to the battery again, firing a pistol,
striking.? These houses were not so old, however,
as the order of the Templars, but having been built
upon their land, and being also the heritage of the
Hospitallers, and forming, as such, a portion of the
barony of Drem, had affixed to them the iron
cross in remembrance of certain legal titles and
privileges which are to this day productive of
solid benefits.
With the Temple Close, which was entered by a
THE TEMPLE LANDS. GRASSMARKET. (From a Drawing by Gcorge W. Simson.)
beating a drum, and proclaiming that while up
there he could defy the whole Court of Session.
The whole of the south side of the Grassmarket
had been pulled down and re-built at intervals
before 1879.
Among the oldest edifices that once stood here
were unquestionably the Temple tenements and
the Greyfriars Monastery. In describing the execution
of Porteous, which took place in front of the
former, Scott says :-?? The uncommon height and
antique appearance of these houses, some of which
were formerly the property of the Knights Templar
and the Knights of St. John, and still exhibit
on their fronts and gables the iron cross of their
orders, gave additional effect to a scene in itself so
narrow arch beneath them, they have been entirely
swept away since 1870.
Immediately to the westward of them was one of
the most modem houses in this quarter, through
which entered Hunter?s Close, above the arch of
which was inscribed ANNO DOM. MDCLXXI., and
it was from the dyer?s pole in front of this tenement
that Porteous was hanged in 1736. ?The
long range of buildings that extend beyond this,?
says Wilson, writing in 1847, ?presents as singular
and varied a group of antique tenements as either
artist or antiquary could desire. Finials of curious
and grotesque shapes surmount the crowstepped
gables, and every variety of form and elevation
diversifies the skyline of their roofs and chimneys,

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Grassmarket. and a place on the south side of the market, zoo feet below, the father ...

Book 4 p. 232
(Score 0.89)

-
John Erskine of Carnock, were presented by the
Faculty to the patrons of the vacant chair, who
elected the latter, and he was afterwards well known
as the author of the ? Institutes of the Law of Scotland.?
John Balfour was subsequently appointed
sheriff-substitute of the county of Edinburgh, and
having a turn for philosophy, he became early
adverse to the speculative reasoning of David
Hume, and openly opposed them in two treatises ;
one was entitled ?A Delineation of the Nature
PILRIG HOUSE
In the spring of 1779 he resigned his professorship,
and lived a retired life at Pilrig, where he
died on the 6th of March, 1795, in his ninetysecond
year, and was succeeded by his son, John
Balfour of Pilrig.
The estate is now becoming covered with streets.
There is a body called the ? Pilrig Model Buildings
Association,? formed in 1849, for erecting houses
for the working-classes, and the success of this
scheme has been such that there has scarcely been
and Obligation of Morality,- with Reflections on
Mr. Hume?s Inquiry concerning the Principles of
Morals.? A second edition of this appeared in
1763. The other, ?? Philosophical Dissertations,?
appeared also at Edinburgh in 1782.
Hurne was much pleased with these treatises,
though opposed to his own theories, and on the
appearance of the first, wrote the author a letter,
requesting his friendship, as he was obliged by his
politeness.
In August, 1754, Balfour was appointed to the
chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of
Edinburgh, and ten years afterwards was transferred
to the chair of Public Law. He published his
?Philosophical Essays? a short time after.
an arrear of rent among its tenants since the
year named.
This was the earliest of the many schemes started
in Edinburgh for improving the dwellings of the
labouring classes, and it has been followed up in
many directions, though all it; features have not
been copied.
Inverleith, or Innerleith, as it was often called of
old, was the only baronial estate of any extent
that lay immediately north-east of Stockbridge.
The most influential heritor in the once? vast
parish of St Cuthbert was Touris the Baron or
Laird of Inverleith, whose possessions included,
directly south-west from North Leith, the lands of
Coates,. Dalry, Pocketsleve, the High Riggs, or all

... Erskine of Carnock, were presented by the Faculty to the patrons of the vacant chair, who elected the ...

Book 5 p. 92
(Score 0.88)

150 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Walk.
Roman, and which spans the bum where it flows
through a wooded and sylvan glen near Joppa.
The lower portions and substructure of this house
date probably from the Middle Ages ; but the present
edifice was built in 1639, by John, second
Lord Thirlstane (son of the Lord Chancellor just
referred to), who was father of the future Duke of
Lauderdale, and who died in 1645.
The older mansion in the time of the Reformation
belonged to a family named Crichton, and
the then laird was famous as a conspirator against
Cardinal Beaton. When, in 1545, George Wishart
courageously ventured to preach in Leith, among
his auditors were the Lairds of Brunstane, Longniddry,
and Ormiston, at whose houses he afterwards
took up his residence in turns, accompanied at
times by Knox, his devoted scholar, and the bearer
of his two-handed sword.
When Cardinal Beaton became especially obnoxious
to those Scottish barons who were in the
pay of Henry VIII., a schetne was formed to get
rid of him by assassination, and the Baron of Brunstane
entered into it warmly. In July 1545 he
opened a communication with Sir Ralph Sadler
? touching the killing of the Cardinal ; ? and the
Englishman-showing his opinion of the character
of his correspondent-coolly hinted at ?a reward
of the deed,? and ? the glory to God that would
accrue from it.? (Tytler.) In the same year
Crichton opened communications with several
persons in England with the hope of extracting
protection and reward from Henry for the
murder of the Cardinal j but as pay did not seem
forthcoming, he took no active hand in the final
catastrophe.
He was afterwards forfeited; but the Act was
withdrawn in a Parliament held by the Queen
Regent in 1556.
In 1585, John Crichton of Brunstane and James
Douglas of Drumlanrig became caution in LIO,OOO
for Robert Douglas, Provost of Lincluden, that if
released from the Castle of Edinburgh he would
return to reside there on a six days? warning.
In the ?Retours? for May 17th, 1608, we find
Jacobus Crichtoun hares, Joannis Crichtoun de
Brunstoun patris ; but from thenceforward to the
time of Lord Thirlstane there seems a hiatus in the
history of the old place.
We have examined the existing title-deeds of it,
which show that previous to 1682 the house and
lands were in possession of John, Duke of Lauderdale,
whose second duchess, Elizabeth Murray .
(daughter of William, Earl of Dysart, and widow of
Sir Lyonell Talmash, of Heyling, in the county of
Suffolk), obtained a charter of them, under the
Great Seal of Scotland, in the year mentioned, on
the 10th March.
They next came into possession of Lyonell, Earl
of Dysart, ? as only son and heir of the deceased
Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale,? on the 19th of
March, I 703.
The said Earl sold ?the house of Gilberton,
commonly called Brunstane,? to Archibald, Duke of
Argyle, on the 31st May, 1736; and ten years
afterwards the latter sold Brunstane to James, third
Earl of Abercorn.
Part of the lands of Bruistane were sold by the
Duke on the 28th September, 1747, to Andrew
Fletcher of Saltoun, nephew of that stem patriot of
the same name who, after the Union, quitted Scotland,
saying that ?? she was only fit for the slaves
who sold her.?
Andrew Fletcher resided in the house of Brunstane.
He was Lord Justice Clerk, and succeeded
the famous Lord Fountainhall on the bench in
1724, and presided? as a judge till his death, at
Brunstane, 13th of December, 1766. His daughter,
?? Miss Betty Fletcher,? was married at Brunstane,
in 1758, to Captain Wedderburn of Gosford.
On the 15th of February, 1769, the old house
and the Fletchers? portion of the estate were acquired
by purchase by James, eighth Earl of Abercorn,
whose descendant and representative, the
first Duke of Abercom, sold Brunstane, in 1875, to
the Benhar Coal Company, by whom it is again
advertised for sale.
C H A P T E R XV.
LEITH WALK.
A Pathway in the 15th Century probable-General Leslie?s Trenches-Repulse of Cromwell-The Rood Chapel-Old Leith Stapes-Proposal
for Lighting the Walk-The Gallow Lea-Executions there-The Minister of Sport- Five Witches-Five Covenanters-The Story of their
Skulls-The Murder of Lady Baillie-Thc Etfigies of ?I Johnnie Wilkes.?
PRIOR to the building of the North Bridge the
Easter Road was the principal camage way to Leith
on the east, and the Bonnington Road, as we have
elsewhere stated, was the chief way to the seaport
on the west; but there would seem to have been
of old some kind of path, however narrow, in the

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Walk. Roman, and which spans the bum where it flows through a wooded and sylvan ...

Book 5 p. 150
(Score 0.88)

Portobello.] THE FIGGATE MUIR ?43
to the line of the turnpike road. The whole surface
of the district round them is studded with
buildings, and has only so far subsided from the
urban character as to acquire for these, whether
villa or cottage, the graceful accompaninients of
garden or hedge-row. ?A stroll from the beautified
city to Piershill,? says a writer, ?when the
musical bands of the barracks are striving to drown
the soft and carolling melodies of the little songsters
on the hedges and trees at the subsession ot
Arthur?s Seat, and when? the blue Firth, with its
many-tinted canopy of clouds, and its picturesque
display of islets and steamers, and little smiling
boats on its waters, vies with the luxuriant lands
upon its shore to win the award due to beauty, is
indescribably delightful.?
C H A P T E R X I V .
PORTOBELLO.
Portolxll~The Site before the Houses-The Figgate Muir-Stone Coffins-A Meeting with Cromwell-A Curious Raae--Portobello Hut-
Robbqrs-Willkq Jamieson?s Feuing-Sir W. Scott and ?The Lay ?-Portobello Tower-Review of Yeomanry and H i g h d e w
Hugh Miller-David Laing-Joppa-Magdalene Bridge-Brunstane House.
PORTOBELLO, now a Parliamentary burgh, and
favourite bathing quarter of the citizens, occupies a
locality known for ages as the Figgate Muir, a once
desolate expanse of muir-land, which perhaps was
a portion of the forest of Drumsheugh, but which
latterly was covered With whins and furze, bordered
by a broad sandy beach, and extending from Magdalene
Bridge on the south perhaps to where Seafield
now lies, on the north-west.
Through this waste flowed the Figgate Bum out
of Duddingston Loch, a continuation of the Braid.
Figgate is said to be a corruption of the Saxon
word for a cow?s-ditch, and here ?the monks of
Holyrood were wont to pasture their cattle.
Traces of early inhabitants were found here
in 1821, when three stone cofiins?were discovered
under a tumulus of sand, midway between Portobello
and Craigantinnie. These were rudely put
together, and each contained a human skeleton.
?? The bones were quite entire,?? says the Week&
JournnZ for that year, ?and from their position it
would appear that the bodies had been buried with
their legs across. At the head of each was deposited
a number of flints, from which it is conjectured
the inhumation had taken place before the
use of metal in this country; and, what is very
remarkable, the roots of some shrubs had penetrated
the coffins and skulls of the skeletons, about which
and the ribs they had curiously twisted themselves.
The cavities of the skeletons indeed were quite
filled with vegetable matter.?
It was on the Figgate Muir that, during the
War of Independence, Sir William Wallace in 1296
mustered his zoo patriots to join Robert Lauder
and Crystal Seton at Musselblirgh for the pursuit
of the traitor Earl of Dunbar, whom they fought at
Inverwick, afterwards taking his castle at Dunbar.
In the Register of the Privy Council, January,
1584, in a bond of caution for David Preston of
Craigmillar, Robert Pacok in Brigend, Thomas
Pacok in Cameron, and others, are named as sureties
that John Hutchison, mirchant and burgess
of Edinburgh, shall be left peaceably in possession
of the lands ?? callit Kingis medow, besyde the
said burgh, and of that pairt thairof nixt adjacent
to the bume callit the Figott Burne, on the north
side of the same, being a proper pairt and pertinent
of the saidis landis of Kingis Medow.?
Among the witnesses is George Ramsay, Dean of
Restalrig.
We next hear of this locality in 1650, when it
was supposed to be the scene of a secret meeting,
?? half way between Leith and Musselburgh Rocks,
at low water,? between Oliver Cromwell and the
Scottish leaders, each attended by a hundred
horse, when any question the latter proposed to
ask he agreed to answer, but declined to admit
alike of animadversion or reply. A part of this
alleged conference is said to have been-
? Why did you put the king to death ?
?? Because he was a tyrant, and deserved death.?
? Why did you dissolve the Parliament ? I?
?? Because they .were greater tyrants than the
king, and required dissolution.?
The Mercurius CaZtdoonius of 1661 records a very
different scene here, under the name of the Thicket
Burn, when a foot-race was run from thence to the
summit of Arthur?s Seat by twelve browster-wives,
?all of them in a condition which makes violent
exertion unsuitable to the female form.? The prizes
on this occasiofi were, for the first, a hundredweight
of cheese and ?a budge11 of Dunkeld aquavite,
andarumpkin of Brunswick rum for the second, set
down by the Dutch midwife. The next day six

... THE FIGGATE MUIR ?43 to the line of the turnpike road. The whole surface of the district round them ...

Book 5 p. 143
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Leith.] DEATH OF JAMES 111. 201
1488-he embarked in one of Sir Andrew?s ships
then anchored in the Roads of Leith, and landed
from it in Fifeshire. As the Admiral had been lying
there for some time, intending to sail to Flanders,
the Barons, now in arms against the Crown, spread
a report that James had fled, surprised the castle
of Dunbar, furnished themselves with arms and
ammunition out of the royal arsenal, ? and,? says
Abercrombie, ? overran the three Lothians and
the Merse, rifling and plundering all honest men.?
In April, 1488, the king re-crossed the Forth in
the admiral?s ship, and, marching past Stirling,
pitched his standard near Blackness, where his
army mustered thirty thousand, and some say
forty thousand, strong, but was disbanded after an
indecisive skirmish. Fresh intrigues ensued that
belong to general history; two other armies, in
all amounting to nearly seventy thousand men,
took the field James 111. had no alternative but
to take flight in the ships of Wood, then cruising
in the Forth, or to resort to the sword on the 11th
June, 1488.
His army took up a position near the Bum of
Sauchie, while ?? Sir Andrew Wood, attending to
the fortune of war, sailed up the silver winding of
the beautiful river with the FZmw and YelZow
CaraveZ, and continued during the whole of that
cloudless day to cruise between dusky Alloa and
the rich Carse of Stirling, then clothed im all the
glory of summer.? On the right bank of the river
he kept several boats ready to receive the king if
defeat-as it eventually did-fell upon him, and
he often landed, with his brothers John and Robert
and a body of men, to yield any assistance in his
power.
While attempting to reach the ships James was
barbarously slain, and was lying dead in a mill
that still stands by the wayside, when rumour went
that he had reached the YeZZow Caravd Thus
Wood received a message in the name of the Duke
of Rothesay (afterwards James IV.), as to the truth
of this story; but Sir Andrew declared that the
king was not with him, and refilsed to go on shore,
when invited, without hostages for his own safety.
The Lords Fleming and Seaton came on board
in this capacity, and landing at Leith the admiral
was conducted to the presence of the Prince, who
was then a captive and tool in the hands of the
rebels, and only in his sixteenth year. Wood was
arrayed in handsome armour, and so dignified was
he in aspect, and so much did he resemble the
king his master, that the Prince, who had seen little
of the latter, shed tears, and said, timidly-
?? Sir, are you my father? ?
. Then this true old Scottish mariner, heedless of
123
the titled crowd which regarded him with bitter
hostility, and touched to the heart by the question,
also burst into tears, and said-
? I am not your father, but his faithful servant,
and the enemy of all who have occasioned his
downfall ! ?
? Where is the king, and who are those you took
on board after the battle?? demanded several of
the rebel lords.
?? As for the king, I know nothing of him. Finding
our efforts to fight for or to save him vain, my
brother and I returned to our ships.? He added,
says Buchanan, ?that if the king were alive he
would obey none but him; ,and that if slain, he
would revenge him ! ?
He then went off to the ships, but just in time
to save the hostages, whom his impatient brothers
were about to hang at the yard-arm. The lords
now wanted the mariners of Leith to arm their
ships, and attack Wood; but, to a man, they
declined.
In the early part of 1489 Henry of England, to
make profit out of the still disturbed state of Scotland,
sent five of his largest ships to waste and burn
the sea-coast villages of Fife and the Lothians ; and
the young James IV., in wrath at these proceedings,
requested Sir Andrew Wood to appear before the
Privy Council and take measures to curb the outrages
of the English.
He at once undertook to attack them ; but James,
as they outnumbered him by three, advised him to
equip more vessels.
?? No: he replied,? ?? I shall only take my own
two-the FZower and the Jl?ellow Carard.?
Accordingly, .with the first fair wind on a day in
February, he dropped down the Firth, and found
the plunder-laden English vessels hovering off
Dunbar, and which Tytler surmises to have been
pirates, as they came in time of truce. Wood at
once engaged them, and after an obstinate conflict,
of which no details are preserved, he brought them
all prizes into Leith. He presented their captains
to the young king, who now further rewarded him on
the 11th March, 1490, with the lands of Balbegnoth,
the superiority of Inchkeith, the lands of
Dron and Newbyrn ; and by a charter under the
Great Seal, 18th May, 1491, he granted to Sir
Andrew Wood ? license to build a castfe at Largo
with gates of iron as a reward for the great services
done and losses sustained by the said Andrew, and
for those services which there was no doubt he
would yet render.? This castle, fragments of which
yet remain, he appears to have built, with some
adjacent houses, by the hands of English pirates
whom he had captured at sea; and the coat

... DEATH OF JAMES 111. 201 1488-he embarked in one of Sir Andrew?s ships then anchored in the Roads of ...

Book 6 p. 201
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62 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Water of Leith
name doesnot appear in the Baronage) was Sheriff and
Provost of Edinburgh (?Burgh Records?). After him
come five -barons of his surname, before the famous
Sir Simon Preston, also Provost of the city, into
whose mansion, the Black Turnpike, Mary was
thrust by the confederate lords. A son or nephew
of his appears to have distinguished himself in the
Low Countries. He is mentioned by Cardinal
Bentivoglio, in his History,? as ?? Colonel Preston,
a Scotsman,? who cut his way through the German
lines in 1578.
Sir Richard Preston of Craigmillar, Gentleman of
the Bedchamber to JamesVI., K.B., and Constable
of Dingwall Castle, raised to the peerage of Scotland
as Lord Dingwall, was the last of this old
line. He married Lady Elizabeth Butler, only
daughter of Thomas, Earl of Ormond, and widow
of Viscount Theophilim, and was created Earl of
Desmond, in the peerage of Ireland, 1614. He
was drowned on his passage from Ireland to Scotland
in 1628, and was succeeded in the Scottish
honours of Dingwall by his only daughter, Elizabeth,
who became Duchess of Ormond.
The castle and lands of Craigmillar were acquired
in 1661 by Sir John Gilmour, son of John
Gilmour, W.S. He passed as Advocate on the 12th
December, 1628, and on the 13th February, 1666,
became Lord President of the Court of Session,
which, after a lapse of nearly eleven years, resumed
its sittings on the I Ith June. The bold stand
which he made for the luckless Marquis of Argyle
was long remembered in Scotland, to his honour.
His pension was only A500 per annum. He became
a Baron of Exchequer, and obtained a clause
in the Militia Act that the realm of Scotland
should not maintain any force levied by the king
without the consent of the Estates. He belonged
latterly to the Lauderdale party, and aided in procuring
the downfall of the Earl of Middleton. He
resigned his chair in 1670, and died soon after.
He was succeeded by his son, Sir Alexander of
Craigmillar, who was created a baronet in 1668,
in which year he had a plea before the Lords
against Captain Stratton, for 2,000 marks lost at
cards. The Lords found that only thirty-one guineas
of it fell due under an Act of 1621, and ordered
the captain to pay it to thm for the use of the poorp
? except 6 5 sterling, which he may retain.?
Sir Charles, the third baronet, was M.P. for
Edinburgh in 1737, and died at Montpellier in
?750.
The fourth baronet, Sir Alexander Gilmour of
Craigmillar, was an ensign in the Scots Foot Guards,
and was one of those thirty-nine officers who, with
800 of their men, perished so miserably in the affair
of St. Cas in 1758.
In 1792 SirAlexanderGilrnour,Bart.,whoin 1765
had been Clerk of the Green Cloth, and M.P. for
Midlothian, 1761-1771, diedat Boulogne in 1792,
when the title became extinct, and Craigmillar devolved
upon Charles Little of Liberton (grandson
of Helen, eldest daughter of the second baronet),
who assumed the surname of Gilmour, and whose
son, Lieutenant-General Sir Dugald Little Gilmour
of Craigmillar, was Major of the Rifle Brigade, or
old 95th Regiment, in the Peninsular War,
Nearly midway between Craigmillar and the
house of Prestonfield, in a flat grassy plain, stands
the quaint-looking old mansion named Peffer Mill,
three storeys high, with crowstepped gables, gableted
dormer windows, and a great circular staircase
tower with a conical roof. It has no particular
history ; but Peffer Mill is said to mean in old
Scoto-Saxon the mill on the dark muddy stream.
Braid?s Bum flows past it, at the distance of a few
yards
.
CHAPTER VI.
THE VALLEY OF THE WATER OF LEITH.
Lady Sinclair of Dunbeath-Bell?s Mills-Water of Leith Village-Mill at the Dean-Tolbooth then-Old Houxs--The Dean and Poultry
Lands thereof-The Nisbet Family-A Legend-The Dean Village-Belgrave Crescent-The Parish Church-Stewart?s Hospital-
Orphan Hospital-John Watson?s Hospital-The Dean Cemetery-Notable Interments there.
IN No. 16, Rothesay Place, one of the new and
handsome streets which crown the lofty southern
bank of the valley of the Water of Leith, and
overlooks one of the most picturesque parts of it,
at the Dean, there died in 1879 a venerable lady
-a genuine Scottish matron of ?? the old school,?
a notice of whom it would be impossible to omit in
a work like this.
Dame Margaret Sinclair of Dunbeath belonged
to a class now rapidly vanishing-the clear-headed,
gifted, stout-hearted, yet reverent and gentle old
Scottish ladies whom Lord Cockburn loved to.

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Water of Leith name doesnot appear in the Baronage) was Sheriff and Provost of ...

Book 5 p. 62
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The Grange.! GRANGE HOUSE. 49
?The chapel of St. Roque,? says Wilson, ?? has
not escaped the notice of the Lord Lyon King?s
eulogist, among the varied features of the landscape
that fill up the magnificent picture as Marmion
rides under the escort of Sir David Lindesay
to the top of Blackford Hill, in his approach to
the Scottish camp, and looks down on the martial
array of the kingdom, covering the wooded Links
of the Burghmuir. James IV. is there represented
as occasionally wending his way to attend mass at
the neighbouring chapels of St. Katharine or St.
Roque j nor is it unlikely that the latter may have
been the scene of the monarch?s latest acts of devotion,
ere he led forth that gallant array to perish
around him on the field of Flodden.?
In the ?Burgh Records,? 15th December, 1530,
we find that James Barbour, master and governor
of ?the foul folk on the mure? (i.e., the peststricken),
had made away with the goods and
clothes of many that were lying in the chapel of
St. Roqui; and that all who had any claims to
make should bring them forward on a given day;
but if the clothes proved of small value, they were
to be burned or given to the poor.
In 1532 the provost and bailies, ?moved by
devotion, have, for the honour of God and his
Blissit Mother, Virgen Mane, and the holy confessour
Sanct Rok,? for prayers to be said for the
souls of those that lie in the said kirk and kirkyard,
granted to Sir John Young, the chaplain
thereof, three acres of the Burghmuir, with another
acre to build houses upon; for which he and
his successors were bound to keep the chapel
in repair, and its slates and ? glaswyndois ? watertight.
These acres are described in the ? Records ? as
lying between the land of James Makgill on the
west, and of William Henderson on the east,
Braid?s Burn on the south, and the common
passage of the Muir (ie., the Grange Loan) on the
north.
Early in the present century, by a new proprietor,
? the whole of this interesting and venerable
ruin was swept away as an unsightly encumbrance
to the estate of a retired trades.
man.?
Close by, a tombstone from its burying-ground
long remained at the corner of a thatched cottage
in the Loan. It bore the date 1600. Others
were to be found in the adjacent boundary
walls.
Now villas are springing up fast between the
Loan and Blackford Hill, which in altitude is 698
feet above the level of the sea, and of which Scott
says, in ?? Marmion?.:-
?Blackford ! on whose uncultured breast,
A truant boy, I sought the nest,
Or listed as I lay at rest ;
While rose on breezes thin
The murmur of the city crowd :
And, from his steeple, jingling loud,
Among the broom, and thorn, and whin,
St. Giles?s mingling din.?
The tiends and tithes of the Burghmuir belonged
of old to the abbey of Holyrood, but this
did not prevent the acquisition of its fertile acres
by private proprietors, or their transference to different
ecclesiastical foundations.
The great parish church of the city had at the
earliest period of its existence as chief clergyman
an official styled the Vicar of St. Giles?s, who possessed
an interest in a farmhouse called St. Giles?s
Grange, which has given the name of The Grange
to all the pleasant suburb around where once it
stood.
In 1679, William Dick of Grange succeeded
Janet McMath, his mother, relict of William Dick
of Grange, in the lands of St. Giles?s Grange, and
eighteen arable acres of the Sciennes.
Before the Grange House was enlarged by the
late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, it presented, in the
early part of the present century, as shown by
Storer, the appearance of a plain little castellated
house, with only three chimneys and one circular
turret.
Of old it was the patrimony of the Dicks, from
whom it went to the Lauders; and in the Register
of Entails for 1757, we find Mrs. Isabel Dick of
Grange, and Sir Andrew Lauder of Fountainhall,
her husband, entailing the lands and estate
of Grange. They were cousins. He was the fifth
baronet of the old and honourable line of Lauder,
and she was the only child and heiress of William
Dick of Grange, whose arms, argent a fesse wavy,
azure, between three mullets gules, were thenceforward
quartered with the rampant griffin of the
Lauders. She died in the old Grange House in
1758; and there also died her mother, in 1764,
?Anne Seton, relict of William Dick of Grange:
and eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Seton of
Pitmedden, some time senator of the. College of
Justice.? (Edinburgh Advertiser, Vol. I.) Her
sister Jean died in the same house four years after.
Dr. William Robertson, the historian and preacher,
resided in the old Grange House in the later years
of his life, and there his death occurred, on the I I th
June, I 7 93-
It was after the succession of Sir Thomas Dick
Lauder, a well-known Zittirateur in Edinburgh society,
who, early in life, was an officer of the Cameron
Highlanders, that the Grange House was enlarge<,
103

... Grange.! GRANGE HOUSE. 49 ?The chapel of St. Roque,? says Wilson, ?? has not escaped the notice of the Lord ...

Book 5 p. 49
(Score 0.86)

and made the ornate edifice we find it now, with
?oriel windows and clustering turrets. He was
author of ?The Wolf of Badenoch,? ?The History of
the Morayshire Floods,? a ?Journal of the Queen?s
Visit to Scotland in 1842,? &c He was the lineal
.representative of the Lauders of Lauder Tower and
the Bass, and of the Dicks of Braid and Grange,
and died in 1848.
Near the Grange House is the spacious and
ornamental cemetery of the same name, bordered
on the east by a narrow path, once lined by dense
hedge-rows, which led from the Grange House to the
Meadows, and was long known as the Lovers? Loan.
This celebrated burying-ground contains the ashes of
Drs. Chalmers,Lee,and Guthne; Sir Andrew Agnew
of Lochnaw, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Sir Hope
? Grant of Kilgraston, the well-known Indian general
and cavalry officer ; Hugh Miller, Scotland?s most
eminent geologist ; the second Lord Dunfermline,
and a host of other distinguished Scotsmen.
CHAPTER V.
THE DISTRICT OF NEWINGTON.
The Causewayside-Summerhall-Clerk Street Chapel and other Churches-Literary Institute-Mayfield Loan-Old Houses-Free Church-
The Powbum-Female Blind Asylum-Chapel of St. John the Baptist-Dominican Convent at the Sciennes-Sciennes Hill House-Scott
and Burns meet-New Trades Maiden Hospital-Hospital for Incurables-Prestonfield House-The Hamiltons and Dick-Cunninghams-
Cemetery at Echo Bank-The Lands of Camemn-Craigmillar-Dexription of the Castle-James V., Queen Mary, and Darnley, resident
there-Queen Mary?s Tree-The Prestons and Gilmours-Peffer Mill House.
In the Grange Road is the Chalmers Memorial
Free Church, built in 1866, after designs by
Patrick Wilson at a cost of .&6,000. It is a
cruciform edifice, in the geometric Gothic style.
In Kilgraston goad is the Robertson Memorial
Established Church, built in 187 I, after designs
by Robert Morham, at a cost of more than L6,ooo.
It is also a handsome cruciform edifice in the
Gothic style, with a spire 156 feet high.
In every direction around these spots spread
miles of handsome villas in every style of architecture,
with plate glass oriels, and ornate railings,
surrounded by clustering trees, extensive gardens ,
and lawns, beautiful shrubberies - in summer,
rich with fruit and lovely flowers-the long lines
of road intersected by tramway rails and crowded
by omnibuses.
Such is now the Burghmuir of James 111.-the
Drumsheugh Forest of David I. and of remoter , times.
WHEN the population of Edinburgh,? says Sir
Walter Scott, ?appeared first disposed to burst
from the walls within which it had been so long
confined, it seemed natural to suppose that the
tide would have extended to the south side of
Edinbugh, and that the New Town would have
occupied the extensive plain on the south side
of the College.? The natural advantage pointed
out so early by Sir Walter has been eventually embraced,
and the results are the populous suburban
districts we have been describing, covered with
streets and villas, and Newington, which now extends
from the Sciennes and Preston Street nearly
to the hill crowned by the ancient castle of Craigmillar.
In the Valuation Roll for 1814 the district is
described as the ?Lands of Newington, part of the
Old and New Burrowmuir.?
The year 1800 saw the whole locality open and
arable fields, save where stood the old houses of - Mayfield at the Mayfield Loan, a few cottages at
Echo Bank, and others at the Powbum. In those
days the London mails proceeded from the town
by the East Cross Causeway; but as time went
on, Newington House was erected, then a villa
or two : among the latter, one still extant neqr the
corner of West Preston Street, was the residence
of William Blackwood the publisher, and founder
of the firm and magazine.
In the Causewayside, which leads direct from
the Sciennes to the Powburn, were many old and
massive mansions (the residences of wealthy citizens),
that stood back from the roadway, within ?
double gates and avenues of trees. Some of these
edifices yet remain, but they are of no note, and are
now the abodes of the poor.
Broadstairs House, in the Causewayside, a
massive, picturesque building, demolished to make
room for Mr. T. C. Jack?s printing and publishing
establishment, was built by the doctor of James IV.
or V., and remained in possession of the family till
the end of last century- One half of the edifice
was known as Broadstairs House, and the other
half as Wormwood Hall. Mr. Jack bought the

... made the ornate edifice we find it now, with ?oriel windows and clustering turrets. He was author of ?The ...

Book 5 p. 50
(Score 0.86)

Burghmuir.] THE PEST. 29
sf old horse-shoes were dug up, where a farrier?s
forge is supposed to have stood; and another
relic of that great muster was removed only in
1876, a landmark known as King James?s knowe, a
small knoll, evidently artificial and partly built of
freestone, from which he is said to have reviewed
and addressed his army on the eve of its departure
for Flodden.
Close by, when digging the foundation of the
furth of the samyn, as they had done in tymes
past.?
In I 568, when a pest again appeared, the infected,
with all their furniture, were lodged in huts built
upon the muir, where they were visited by their
friends after 11 am.; ?any one going earlier was
liable to be punished with death.? Then their
clothes were cleansed in a huge caldron in the
open air, under the supervision of two citizens,
? Item : ?or cords to bind the man that wes (be)
heiddit for the slauchter of the sister of the Sennis
man.?
In the same year, under the Regency of Mary of
Guise, that part of the muir ?? besyde the sisters of
the Sciennes,? was appointed for the weapon-shaws
of the armed burghers, with ?? lang wappinnis, sic
as speiris, pikis, and culveringis ; ? and about the
same time, in the ?Retours,? we find that rising
citizen George Towers, heiring his father George
Towers, in the lands of Bnsto, and twenty acres
in ? Dalry and Tolcroce.?
In 1556, by order of the magistrates, a door
was made to the gallows on the Burghmuir, to
be the height of the enclosing wall, ?sua that
doggis sall nocht be abill to carry the carrionis
In April, 1601, John Watt, Deacon of the Trades
in Edinburgh-the same gallant official who raised
them in arms for the protection of James VI. in the
tumult of 15g6-was shot dead on the muir ; but
by whom the outrage was perpetrated was never
known.
One of the earliest notices we find of the name
by which the open part of the muir is now known
occurs in Balfour?s ?Annales,? when in 1644, the
Laird of Lawers? troop of horse is ordered by
Parliament to muster on ?Brountoune Links tomorrow,?
and the commissary to give them a
month?spay.
In this part many deep quarries were dug, from
which, no doubt, the old houses of Warrender
and other adjacent edifices were built, These

... THE PEST. 29 sf old horse-shoes were dug up, where a farrier?s forge is supposed to have stood; and ...

Book 5 p. 29
(Score 0.86)

sacres will, in a short space, run a great length. I desire
you may disperse this news abroad, if it be not in town
before your receipt of this ; for that country, and the North
of England, without speedy relief, is jn great danger of
depopulation. And the Duke of Gordon h$th in his possession
the Castle of Edinburgh, whereby he can at pleasure
level that city with the ground. At twelve of the clock yesternight
our Governor, LieutXollonel Billingsley, dispatched
an Express to the Lords Danby and Lumley for drawing their
forces to this town. I received yours to-day, which being
Sabbath-day, I beg your pardon for brevity.
? I was told they see the fires and burnings of those Rebels
at Edinburgh ; this is the beginning of the discovery of the
Popish intrigue. God defend England from the French, and
his Highness the Prince of Orange from the bloody Popish
attempts I
?London : Published by J- Wells, St. Paul?s Alley, St.
Paul?s Churchyard, ~688.?
Tidings of William?s landing filled the Scottish
Presbyterians with the wildest joy, and the magis-
THUMBIKIN.
( F m the Musewnr ofthe Society of Antiguarirs of Scutland.)
trates of Edinburgh, who but two years before
had been extravagant in their protestations to
James VII., were among the first to welcome the
invader; and the city filled fast with bands of
jubilant revolutionists, rendering it unsafe for all of
cavalier tenets to be within the walls. On the 11th
of April, 1688, William and Mxry were proclaimed
at the cross king and queen of Scotland, after an
illegally constituted Convention of the Estates,
which was attended by only thirty representatives,
declared that King James had forfeited all title to
the crown, thus making a vacancy. A great and
sudden change now came over the realm. ? Men,?
says Dr. Chambers, ?who had been lately in
danger of their lives for consciencl sake, or
starving in foreign lands, were now at the head
of affairs! The Earl of Melville, Secretary of
State ; Crawford, President of Parliament ; Argyle,
restored to title and lands, and a Privy Councillor;
Dalrymple of Stair, Hume of Marchmont,
Stewart of Goodtrees, and many other exiles,
came back from Holland, to resume prominent
positions in the public service at home; while
the instruments of the late unhappy Government
were either captives under suspicion, or living
terror-struck at their country houses. Common
people, who had been skulking in mosses from
Claverhouse?s dragoons, were now marshalled into
Y regiment, and planted as a watch on the Perth
md Forfar gentry. There were new figures in the
Privy Council, and none of them ecclesiastical.
There was a wholly new set of senators on the
bench of the Court of Session. It looked like a
sudden shift of scenes in a pantomime rather than
a series of ordinary occurrences.? For three days
and nights Edinburgh was a wild scene of pillage
and rapine. The palace was assailed, the chapel
royal sacked ; and the Duke of Gordon, on finding
that the rabble, drunk and maddened by wine and
spirits found in the cellars of cavalier families who
had fled, were .wantonly firing on his sentinels,
drew up the drawbridge, to cut off all communication
with the city; but finding that his soldiers
were divided in their religious and political
opinions, and that a revolt was impending, he
called a council of officers to frustrate the attempt ;
and the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel John Winram,
of Liberton and the Inch House, Colonel of
the Scots Foot Guards in 1683, undertook to
watch the men, forty-four of whom it was deemed
necessary to strip of their uniforms and expel from
the fortress. In their place came thirty Highlanders,
onqthe 11th of November, and 300n after
forty-five more, under Gordon of Midstrath.
By the Privy Council the Duke was requested,
as a Roman Catholic, to surrender his command
to the next senior Protestant officer; but he declined,
saying, ?I am bound only to obey King
James VII.?
A few of the Life Guards and Greys, who had
quitted the Scottish army on its revolt, now reached
Edinburgh under the gallant Viscount Dundee,
and their presence served to support the spirits of
the Royalists, but the friends of the Revolution
brought in several companies of infantry, who were
concealed in the suburbs, and 6,000 Cameronians
marched in from the west, under standards inscribed,
?O For Reformation according to the Word
of God,? below an open Bible. These men
nobly rejected all remuneration, saying, with one
voice, ?We have come to serve our country.?
Their presence led to other conspiracies in the
garrisan, and the Duke of Gordon had rather a
harassing time of it.
The friends of William of Orange having formed
a plan for? the assassination of Dundee and Sir
George Mackenzie of Rosehahgh, compelled them

... will, in a short space, run a great length. I desire you may disperse this news abroad, if it be not in ...

Book 1 p. 62
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Cnigmillar.] CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. 61
when descending Craigmillar Hill, a queen?s soldier,
who had a loose match in his hand, exploded
the powder-barrels, and mortally injured Captain
Melville, the kinsman of Sir William Kirkaldy.
The latter interred him with military honours in a
vault of Edinburgh Castle, where, doubtless, his remains
still rest
In 1589 there was granted a charter under the
great seal to John Ross of the lands of Limpitstoun,
which was witnessed in Craigmillar by the Arch-
%ishop of St. Andrews, John Lord Hamilton, the
Commendator of Arbroath, Maitland of Thirlstane,
Walter, Prior of Blantyre, and others.
Calderwood relates, that in January, 1590, when
Jaines VI. was sitting in the Tolbooth, hearing
to the gibbet by forty and fifty at a time. in the
sight of Edinburgh and Leith.
In 1573 the Loyalists, says Crawford of Drumsoy,
sent a strong body of horse and foot, in hope
to capture the Regent Morton at Dalkeith in the
aight; but found him ready to receive them on
Sheriff-hall Muir, from whence he drove them in as
far as the Burghmuir, and only lost the Laird of
Kirkmichael and some fifty men. Few were killed,
recent rains having wetted the gun-matches ; but
its ofice houses and grass,? it was advertised to be
let in the Edinburgh Cowant for 11th March, 1761.
In that year Sir Alexander Gilmour of Craigmillar
was elected M.P. for the county.
We cannot dismiss the subject of Craigmillar
without a brief glance at some of those who occupied
it
Sir Simon Preston, who obtained it from John
de Capella, traced his descent up to Leolph de
Preston, who lived in the reign of William the
Lion; and, according to Douglas, his father was
Sir John Preston, who was taken at the battle of
Durham in 1346, and remained in the Tower of
London until ransomed.
In 1434 Sir Henry Preston of Craigmillar (whose
the case of the Laird of Criigmillar, who was sueing
for a divorce against his wife, the Earl of Bothwell
forcibly carried off one of the most important witnesses
to his Castle of Crichton, threatening him
with the gallows, ?&as if there had been no king
in Israel.?
It was not until after the beginning of the present
century that the castle was permitted to fall into
ruin and decay, which it did rapidly. It was
in perfect preservation, no doubt, when, with ?? all
PEFFER MILL-HOUSE.

... CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. 61 when descending Craigmillar Hill, a queen?s soldier, who had a loose match in ...

Book 5 p. 61
(Score 0.85)

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