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

... UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 185 dropped whole and complete into the midst of the pent-up city. west ...

Book 10 p. 203
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I 88 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH,
tion of national honour and triumph, and committed, along with the other portions of his
body, to the tomb of his ancestors, in the south transept of St Giles’s Church. The north
gable was not, however, long suffered to remain unoccupied. On the 27th of May 1661,-
little more than four months after the tardy honours paid to the Marquis of Montrose,-
the Marquis of Argyle was beheaded at the Cross, and ‘( his heia agxt upone the heid of the
Tolbuith, quhair the Marques of Montrois wes affixit of befoir.” The ground floor of this
ancient part of the Tolbooth was known by the name of the Purses, by which it is often
alluded to in early writings. In the ancient titles of a house on the north side of the
High Street, it is described as “ that Lodging or Timber Land, lying in the burgh of
Edinburgh, forgainst the place of the Tolbooth, commonly called the poor folks’ Purses.”
In the trial of William Maclauchlane, a servant of the Countess of Wemyss, who was
apprehended almost immediately after the Porteous mob, one of the witnefses states, that
‘(having come up Beth’s Wynd, he tried to pass by the Purses on the north side of the
prison ; but there perceiving the backs of a row of armed men, some with staves, others
with guns and Lochaber axes, standing across the street, who, he was told, were drawn
up as a guard there, he retired again.” The crime sought to be proved against Maclauchlane,
was his having been seen taking a part with this guard, armed with a Lochaber axe.
Another witness describes having seen some of the magistrates going up from the head of
Mary King’s Close, towards the Purses on the north side of the Tolbooth, where they
were stopped by the mob, and compelled to make a precipitate retreat. This important
pass thus carefully guarded on the memorable occasion of the Porteous riot, derived its
name from having been the place where the ancient fraternity of BZue Gowns, the King’s
faithful bedemen, received the royal bounty presented to them on each King’s birthday,
in a leathern purse, after having attended service in St Giles’s Church. For many years
previous to the destruction of the Old Tolbooth, this distribution was transferred to the
Canongate Kirk aisle, where it took place annually on the morning of the Sovereign’s birthday,
at eight o’clock. After a sermon, preached by the royal almoner, or his deputy, each
of the bedemen received a roll of bread, a tankard of ale, and a web of blue cloth sufficient
to make him a new gown, along with a leathern purse, of curious and somewhat complicated
workmanship, which only the initiated could open. This purse contained his annual
alms or pension, consisting of as many pence as the years of the King’s age.
Bedemen appointed
to pray for the souls of the King’s ancestors and successors, were attached to royal
foundations. They are mentioned about the year 1226, in the Chartulary of Moray,’
and many curious entries occurred with reference to them, in the Treasurers’ accounts,
previous to the Reformation. The number of these bedemen is increased by one every
royal birthday, as a penny is added to the pension of each; an arrangement evidently
devised to stimulate their prayers for long life to the reigning sovereign, no less than for
peace to the souls of those departed.’
’
The origin of this fraternity is undoubtedly of great antiquity:
Nicoll’s Diary, p. 335. * Statiat. ACC. xiii. 412. ’ The following items appear in the Account of Sir Robert Melvill, Treasurer-Depute of King James VI. “Junij
1590. Item, to Mr Peter Young, Elimosinar, twentie four gownia of blew clayth, to be gevin to xxiiij auld men, according
to the yeiris of his hienes age. . . . Item, twentie four pur&, and in ilk purss twentie four schiling.” Again
in “Junij 1617, To James Xurray, merchant, for fyftene scoir #ex elnis and ane half elne of blew claith, to be gownis to
fyftie me aigeit men, according to the yeiris of his majesteia age. Item, to the workmen for careing of the gownia fra

... 88 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH, tion of national honour and triumph, and committed, along with the other portions of ...

Book 10 p. 206
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by a man named Clark, in the Fleshmarket Close.
He had the tact and art to keep his secret profligacy
unknown, and was so successful in blinding his
fellow-citizens that he continued a highly reputable
member of the Town Council until within a short
period of the crime for which he was executed,
and, according to ?Kay?s Portraits,? it is a siiigular
fact, that little more than a month previously he
there were committed a series ot startling robberies,
and no clue could be had to the perpetrators.
Houses and shops were entered, and articles of
value vanished as if by magic. In one instance a
lady was unable to go to church from indisposition,
and was at home alone, when a man entered with
crape over his face, and taking her keys, opened
her bureau and took away her money, while she re-
BAILIE MACMOBRAN?S HOUSE.
sat as a juryman in a criminal case in that very
court where he himself soon after received sentence
of death.
For years he had been secretly licentious and
dissipated, but it was not until 1786 that he
began an actual career of infamous crime, with
his fellow-culprit, George Smith, a native of Berkshire,
and two others, named Brown and Ainslie.
He was in easy circumstances, with a flourishing
business, and his conduct in becoming a leader of
miscreants seems unaccountable, yet so it was. In
and around the city during the winter of 1787
15
mained panic-stricken; but as he retired she thought,
?surely that was Deacon Brodie !? But the idea
seemed so utterly inconceivable, that she preserved
silence on the subject till subsequent events
transpired. As these mysterious outrages continued,
all Edinburgh became at last alarmed, and in all of
them Brodie was either actively or passively concerned,
till he conceived the-to him-fatal idea
of robbing the Excise office in Chessel?s CQUI~, an
undertaking wholly planned by himself. He visited
the office openly with a friend, studied the details
of the cashier?s room, and observing the key of the

... a man named Clark, in the Fleshmarket Close. He had the tact and art to keep his secret profligacy unknown, ...

Book 1 p. 113
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9d OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Castle HX
one going plump down a vent they set up a shout
of joy. Sir David laughed, and entreated the
father of the lads ?? not to be too angry ; he and
his brother,? he added with some emotion, ?when
CANNON BALL IN WALL OF nowE IN CASTLE KILL.
living here at the same age, had indulged in precisely
the same amusement, the chimneys then, as
now, being so provokingly open to attacks, that
there was no resisting the temptation.? From
the Bairds of Newbyth the house passed to the
Browns of Greenbank, and from them, Brown?s
Close, where the modern entrance to it is situated,
On the same side of the street Webster?s Close
served to indicate the site of the house of Dr.
Alexander Webster, appointed in 1737 to the
Tolbooth church.. In his day one of the most
popular men in the city, he was celebrated for his
wit and socid qualities, and amusing stories are
still told of his fondness for claret With the a s
sistance of Dr. Wallace he matured his favourite
scheme of a perpetual fund for the relief of
widows and children of the clergy of the Scottish
Church; and when, in 1745, Edinburgh was in
possession of the Jacobite clans, he displayed a
striking proof of his fearless character by employing
all his eloquence and influence to retain the
people in their loyalty to the house of Hanover.
He had some pretension to the character of a poet,
2nd an amatory piece of his has been said to rival
-the effusions of Catullus. It was written in allusion
to his mamage with Mary Erskine. There is
one wonderfully impassioned verse, in which, after
describing a process of the imagination, by which
?he comes to think his innamarata a creature of more
. derives its name.
than mortal purity, he says that at length he clasps
her to his bosom and discovers that she is but a
woman after all !
?? When I see thee, I love thee, but hearing adore,
I wonder and think you a woman no more,
Till mad with admiring, I cannot contain,
And, kissing those lips, find you woman again ! ?
He died in January, 1784.
Eastward of this point stands a very handsome
old tenement of great size and breadth, presenting
a front of polished ashlar to the street, surmounted
by dormer windows. Over the main entrance to
Boswell?s Court (so named from a doctor who resided
there about the close of the last century)
there is a shield, and one of those pious legends
so peculiar to most old houses in Scottish burghs.
0. LORD. IN. THE. IS. AL. MI. TRAIST. Andthis
edifice uncorroborated tradition asserts to have
been the mansion of the. Earls of Bothwell.
A tall narrow tenement immediately to the west
of the Assembly Hall forms the last ancient building
on the south side of the street. It was built in
1740, by hfowbray of Castlewan, on the site of ?
a venerable mansion belonging to the Countess
Dowager of Hyndford (Elizabeth daughter of
John Earl of Lauderdale), and from him it passed,
about 1747, into the possession of William Earl of
Dumfries, who served in the Scots Greys and Scots
Guards, who was an aide de camp at the battle of
Dettingen, and who succeeded his mother, Penelope,
countess in her own right, and afterwards, by the
death of his brother, as Earl of Stair. He was succeeded
in it by his widow, who, within exactly a
year and day of his death, married the Hon.
Alexander Gordon (son of the Earl of Aberdeen),
who, on his appointment to the bench in 1784,
assumed the title of Lord Rockville.
He was the last man of rank who inhabited this
stately uld mansion ; but the narrow alley which
gives?access to the court behind bore the name
of Rockville Close. Within it, and towards the
west there towered a tall substantial edifice once
the residence of the Countess of Hyndford, and
sold by her, in 1740, to Henry Bothwell of Glencome,
last Lord Holyroodhouse, who died at his
mansion in the Canongate in 1755.
The corner of the street is now terminated by
the magnificent hall built in 1842.3, at the cost
of &16,000 for the accommodation of the General
Assembly, which sits here annually in May, presided
over by a Commissioner, who is always a
Scottish nobleman, and resides in Holyrood Palace,
where he holds royal state, and gives levCes in the
gallery of the kings of Scotland. The octagonal

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Castle HX one going plump down a vent they set up a shout of joy. Sir David ...

Book 1 p. 90
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370 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Dalrymple. Edinburgh, 1786 ; gratefully and affectionately
inscribed to Richard (Hurd), Bishop of
Worcester, 4t0, pp. 213. In flve Chapters.
Sketch of the Life of John Barclay, 4t0, 1786.
Sketch of the Life of John Hamilton, a Secular Priest,
Sketch of the Life of Sir Janies Ramsay, a General
Officer in the Armies of Gustavus Adolphus, King
of Sweden, with a head.
Life of George Lesley (an eminent Capuchin Friar in
the early part of the 17th century), 4t0, pp. 24.
Sketch of the Life of Mark Alexander Boyd, 4to.
Specimen of a Life of James Marquis of Montrosa
These lives were written and published an a speeimen
of the manner in which a Biographia Scotica
might be executed. With the exception of the last,
they have been reprinted in the Appendix to the
edition of his Annals printed in 1819.
4tO.
Davidis Humei, Scoti, summl apud suo8 philosophi,
de vita sua acta, liber aingularis ; nunc primum
Latin0 redditua. [Edin.] 1787, 4to.
Adami Smith!, LL.D., ad Gulielmum Strahanum
armigerum, de rebns novissimis Davidis Hurnei,
Epistola, nunc primum Latine redditta. [Edin.]
1768, 4tO.
The Opinions of Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Marlborough,
published from her original MSS. 1788,
12mo, pp. 120 (with a few Foot Notes by Lord
Hailes, in which he corrects the splenetic partiality
of her Grace)-a singularly curious
work.
The Address of Q. Sept. Tertullian to Scapula Tertullus,
proconsul of Africa, translated by Sir
David Dalrymple. Edin. 1790, 12mo. Inscribed
to Dr. John Butler, Bishop of Hereford. Preface,
pp. 4. Translation, pp. 18. Original, pp. 13.
Notes and Illustrations, pp. 135,
No. CXLVIII.
REV. DR. DAVID JOHNSTON,
MINISTER OF NORTH LEITH.
IT may be said of this excellent man, that he inherited the virtues of the clercial
character by descent. His father was minister of Amgask, in the county of
Fife, and his maternal grandfather, the Rev. Mr. David Williamson, of the parish
of St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, was a celebrated clergyman in the days of the
persecution.’
His early years were sedulously
devoted to the study of those acquirements necessary for the important office
MR. DAVIDJ OHNSwTaOs bNor n in 1733.
1 51r. Williamson was the son of a respectable glover in St. Andrews. He was ordained to the
West Kirk in 1661. The re-establishment of Episcopacy took place two years afterwards ; but, in
defiance of an order of Council, issued in 1664, he continued to preach in his church till the year
following, when he WWJ compelled to abandon his charge. Ee then retired to the west country,
preaching to the people in the fields and at conventiclas. In 1687, on the Act of Toleration being
passed, Mr. Williamson returned to Edinburgh ; and waa so well received by his old parishioners,
that they erected a meeting-house for him, where they attended on his ministrations. The prelatists
of the West Kirk soon found themselves almost totally deserted by their congregation ; but their
hands being tied np by the Toleration Act, they secretly stirred up the civil magistrate against him
by false accusations, in consequence of which he was imprisoned, but subsequently liberated ; yet
the ~amep arty continued to harass him in various ways, until, by the Revolution, he was happily
restored to the parish church in 168,!3. It is to Mr. Williamson that the “Author of Waverley ”
alludes in the following couplet of an absurd old ballad, put into the mouth of a syren of the mob
aa old Deans and his daughter Jeanie are pressing through the crowd to the trial of Effie :-
‘‘Mess David Williamson, chosen of twenty,
Ran up the pupit stairs, and sang Eilliecrankic.”
He was seven times married-a circumstance which afforded a fund of merriment to the Jacobites.
See Scottish Paspils, vol. i. Edin. 12mo.

... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Dalrymple. Edinburgh, 1786 ; gratefully and affectionately inscribed to Richard ...

Book 8 p. 516
(Score 0.36)

332 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Aliison Squam
Chloris of some of his finest lyrics, the daughter of
a prosperous farmer at a place called Kemmis
Hall, on the banks of the Nith, and who, after
undergoing many vicissitucies, and having for a
time ?had her portion with weeds and outworn
faces,? was seized with consumption, and retired to
an obscure abode in that narrow and gloomy lane.
? If Fortune smile, be not puffed up,
And if it frown, be not dismayed ;
For Providence govemeth all,
Although the world ?s turned upside down,?
It was in Alison Square that Thomas Campbell,
the poet, resided when writing the ?? Pleasures of
Hope.? He occupied the second floor of a stair
CLARINDA?S HOUSE, GENERAL?S ENTRY.
There she lingered long in loneliness and suffering,
supported by the chanty of strangers, till she found
a final home in Newington burying-ground.
Alison Square, which lay farther south, and
through which a street has now been run, was
built in the middle of the eighteenth century, upon
a venture, by Colin Alison, a joiner, who in after
iife was much reduced in circumstances by the
speculation. In his latter days he erected two
boards on different sides of his buildings, whereon
he had painted a globe in the act of falling, with
this inscription :-
on the north side of the central archway, with
windows looking partly into the Potterrow, and
partly into Nicolson Street. The poem is said to
have been written here in the night, his master?s
temper being so irritable that it was then only he
could find peace for his task.
Alison Square was completely transformed in
1876, when Marshal1 Street was constructed through
it. A Baptist church, in a most severe Lombardic
style, stands on the north side of this new street.
It was built in 1876-7, at the cost of L4,ooo.
Between 1773 and 1783, Francis, eighth Earl of
tavern
pub
public house
ale house
buildings
close

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Aliison Squam Chloris of some of his finest lyrics, the daughter of a prosperous ...

Book 4 p. 332
(Score 0.36)

Well from Restalrig, where it had been all hut
buried under the workshops of the North British
Railway ; but now a limpid perennial rill from the
Craigs flows into its ancient basin, the Gothic archway
to which is closed by an open iron gate.
The old solitude and amenity of the Hunter's
Bog, after 1858, were destroyed by the necessary
erection of four rifle ranges, two of 300 yards, and
two of 600 yards, for the use of the garrison and
DUDDINGSTON CHURCH (INTERIOR).
volunteers, and the construction of two unornamental
powder magazines. The danger signal is
always hoisted in !he gorge known as the Hause ;
the rocky ridge named the Dasses overlooks these
ranges on the east.
Leaving the Echoing Rock, an isolated eminence,
and following the old road round the hill,
under Samson's Ribs, a superb range of pentagonal
greenstone columns sixty feet long by five in
dkmeter, the Fox's Holes, and the rugged stony
slope named the Sclyvers, we come to a lofty
knoll named the Girnel Craig, and another named
the Hangman's Craig or Knowe, from the following
circumstance. About the reign of Charles II.,
the office of public executioner was taken by a
reduced gentleman, the last member of an old
88
reprobate could not altogether forget his former
tastes and habits. He would occasionally resume
the garb of a gentleman, and mingle in the parties
of citizens who played at golf in the evenings on
Bruntsfield Links. Being at length recognised,
he was chased from the ground with shouts of execration
and loathing, which affected him so much
that he retired to the solitude of the King's Park,
and was next day found dead at the bottom of a
precipice, over which he is supposed to have thrown
himself in despair. The rock was afterwards
called the Hangman's Grae."
The deep gorge between it and the Sclyvers is
named the Windy Goule, and through it winds the
ancient path that leads direct to the hamlet of
Duddingston, which, with the loch of that name,'

... from Restalrig, where it had been all hut buried under the workshops of the North British Railway ; but now ...

Book 4 p. 313
(Score 0.36)

TALLY-STICK, BEARING DATE OF 1692.

discovery was made in one of our churches. Some
years ago a chest, without any address, but of
enormous weight, was removed from the Old
Weigh House at Leith, and lodged in the outer
aisle of the old church (a portion of St. Giles?s).
This box had lain for upwards of thirty years at
Leith, and several years in Edinburgh, without a
clainiznt, and, what is still more extraordinary,
without any one ever having had the curiosity to
examine it. On Tuesday, however, some gentlemen
connected with the town caused the mysterious
box to be opened, and, to their surprise
and gratification, they found it contained a
the power which the chamberlain had of regulating
matters in his Court of the Four Burghs respecting
the common welfare was transferred to the general
Convention of Royal Burghs.
This Court was constituted in the reign of
James III., and appointed to be held yearly at
Inverkeithing. By a statute of James VI., the
Convention was appointed to meet four times in
each year, wherever the members chose; and to
avoid confusion, only one was to appear for each
burgh, except the capital, which was to have two.
By a subsequent statute, a majority of the burghs,
came, by whom it was made, or to whom it
belongs, this cannot remain long a secret.
We trust, however, that it will remain as an
ornament in some public place in this city.?
More concerning it was never known, and
ultimately it was placed in its present position,
without its being publicly acknowledged
to be a representation of the unfortunate
prince.
In this Council chamber there meets
yearly that little Scottish Parliament, the
ancient Convention of Royal Burghs.
Their foundation in Scotland is as old,
if not older, than the days of David I.,
who, in his charter to the monks of Holyrood,
describes Edinburgh as a burgh holding
of the king, paying him certain revenues,
beautiful statute of his majesty (?), about
the size of life, cast in bronze. . . . .
Although it is at present unknown from
whence this admirable piece of workmanship
?and having the privilege of free
markets. The judgments of the ( F Y O ~ Scoftish ~ntiq7rurirm -w7?scunr.)
magistrates of burghs were liable
TALLY-STICK, BEARING DATE OF 1692.
to the review of the Lord Great Chamberlain of
Scotland (the first of whom was Herbert, in
IIZS), and his Court of the Four Burghs. He
kept the accounts of the royal revenue and
expenses, and held his circuits or chamberlainayres,
for the better regulation of all towns. But
even his decrees were liable to revision by the
Court of the Four Burghs, composed of certain
burgesses of Edinburgh, Stirling, Roxburgh, and
Berwick, who met ahiiually, at Haddington. to decide,
as a court of last resort, the appeals from
the chamberlain-ayres, and determine upon all
matters affecting the welfare of the royal burghs.
Upon the suppression of the office of chamberlain
(the last of whom was Charles Duke of Lennox, in
1685), the power of controlling magistrates? accounts
was vested in the Exchequer, and the reviewd
of their sentences in the courts of law ; while
. .
or the capital with any other six, were empowered
to call a Convention as often as
they deemed it necessary, and all the other
burghs were obliged to attend it under a.
penalty.
The Convention, consisting of two deputies
from each burgh, now meets ancually at Edinburgh
in the Council Chzmber, and it is
somewhat singular that the Lord Provost,
although only a meniber, is the perpetuai
president, and the city clerks are clerks to
the Convention, during the sittings of which
the magistrates are supposed to keep open
table for the members.
The powers of this Convention chiefly
respect the establishment of regulations concerning
the trade and commerce of Scotland ;
and with this end it has renewed, from time
to time, articles of staple contract with the
town of Campvere, in Holland, of old the
seat of the conservator of Scottish privileges.
As the royal burghs pay a sixth part of the
sum imposed as a land-tax upon
the counties in Scotland, the
Convention is empowered to consider
the state of trade, and the revenues of individual
burghs, and to assess their respective portions
The Convention has also been iii use to examine
the administrative conduct of magistrates in the
matter of burgh revenue (though this comes more
properly under the Court of Exchequer), and to
give sanction upon particular occasions to the
Common Council of burghs to alienate a part of
the burgh estate. The Convention likewise considers
and arranges the political seffs or constitutions
of the different burghs, and regulates matters
concerning elections that may be brought before it.
Before the use of the Council Chamber was
assigned to the Convention it was wont to meet
in an aisle of St. Giles?s church.
Writers? Court-so named from the circumstance
of the Signet Library being once there-adjoins the
Royal Exchange, and a gloomy little cuZ de sac it

... BEARING DATE OF 1692. discovery was made in one of our churches. Some years ago a chest, without ...

Book 1 p. 186
(Score 0.36)

opposite the east wing of the Museum of Science
and Art. It was erected in 1876-7, and presents
a central block with two side pavilions; and has.
also a deeply recessed principal entrance, with
four massive columns on each side, and a bold
surmounting pediment, projected on massive corbels
or trusses.
OLD MINT0 HOUSE, 1873- (From a Drawing in tlrrpossessimr @or. Rob& Paie~sun.) .
The architecture, by Mr. David Rhind, of this new
College, which is opposite the Industrial Museum,
is simple in character, the more conspicuous features
of the elevations being large bay windows and
effective Mansard pavilion roofs.
On the second floor is the lecture hall, which
measures forty-eight feet by forty, and has a ceiling
Church of Scotland, destined to supplement, and
eventually to supersede, the edifice in Johnstone
Terrace, the arrangements and accommodation of
which have proved somewhat defective.
The principal object aimed at in the new premises
is to provide a separate college entirely
devoted to the training of male students, while the
present school will thus be enlarged, and the seventh
and eighth standards instituted in addition to those
recognised in the Code, enabling the committee to
form an upper elementary, or lower secondary
school, for the instruction of advanced English,
elementary Latin, French, and Mathematics.
be considered one of the chief features in the building.
-4 noteworthy circumstance in connection
with the site of this new Training College is that
the staircase is said to stand exactly over the spot
where stood the room in which Sir Walter Scott
was born.
In this street is the new Dental Hospital and
School, inaugurated in October, 1879, and which
bids fair to become the headquarters of dentistry
in Scotland
At the east end of Chambers Street is the Theatre
of Varieties, seated for 1,200 persons, and opened
in 1875.
But this seems doubtful.

... the east wing of the Museum of Science and Art. It was erected in 1876-7, and presents a central block ...

Book 4 p. 276
(Score 0.35)

41 0 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Among the representatives of the rougher sex in this very miscellaneous assemblage is a
very sour-looking divine, dubbed John Knox, and a grave clergyman, probably of the
time of Charles I., whose red calotte or skull cap, we presume, led to his being engraved
both by Pennant and Pinkerton as Cardinal Beaton.’ In the Marquis of Breadalbane’s
apartments there is a full-length portrait of Lady Isabella Thyme, daughter of the Earl of
Holland, who perished on the scaffold during the great civil war. The lady is represented
with a lute in her hand, for her great skill on which she is celebrated in the poems of Waller.
Aubrey relates that her sister, ‘‘ The beautiful Lady Diana Rich, as she was walking in her
father’s garden at Kenington, to take the fresh air before dinner, about eleven o’clock,
being then very well, met with her own apparition, habit, and everything, as in a looking-
glass.” She died about a month thereafter of the smallpox; and her sister, the Lady
Isabella, is affirmed to have received a similar warning before her death.a These and other
portraits adorn the various lodgings of the different noblemen who possess apartments in
the Palace ; but many of them, being the private property of the noble lodgers, can hardly
be considered as part of the decorations of Holyrood. The latest contribution to its walls
is Wilkie’s full-length portrait of George IT., in the Highland costume, as he appeared on
his visit to the northern capital in 1822.
A much slighter survey will suffice for the remaining ecclesiastical foundations of the
Scottish capital, of the majority of which no vestige now remains. Among the latter is
the Monastery of Blackfriars of the order of St Dominic, founded by Alexander 11. in
1230, which stood on the site of the Surgical Hospital. It is styled in the foundation
charters Mansio Regis, that monarch having, we presume, bestowed on the friars one of
the royal residences for their abode. It appears to have been a wealthy foundation, subsequently
enlarged by gifts from Robert I. and James III., as well as by many private
donations confirmed by the latter monarch in‘1473.3 The monastery was accidently destroyed
by fire in 1528; but it is probable that the church was only partially injured by the
conflagration, as it appears in the view of 1544 as a large cross church, with a central tower
and lofty spire. It no doubt experienced its full share in the events of that disastrous
year, and it had hardly recovered from these repeated injuries when’the Reformers of 1558
completed its destruction.
The Monastery of the Greyfriars in the Grassmarket has already been described, and
the venerable cemetery which has been made from its gardens frequently referred to. Over
A portrait of Cardinal Beaton, copied, we believe, by C‘nambera from an original French painting, is now at St Mary’s
College, Blair, and another copy of the .same hangs in the Refectory of St Margaret’s Convent, Edinburgh. It represents
him about the age of 35, when he was ambassador at the French Court. The face ia oval, the features regular, and the
expression somewhat pensive, but very pleasing. He wears mustaches and an imperial, and we may add, bears not the
slightest resemblance to the Holyrood portrait. On the background of the picture the following inscription is painted,
most probably copied from the original portrait :-Le bienherevx David de Bethvne, Archevesque de St And&, Chancelllere
et Regent du royaume d‘Ecosse, Cardinal et Legat a latere, fut massacre pour la foy en 1546. ’ Law’s Memorials, preface, p. lxvi * “ Charter of confirmation of all Mortifications maid to the said Brethren Predicators in Edid, vie. One made be
Alexander II., of an a. rent of 10 marks de $rmG burgalihua de Edin’. One made be Ueorge Seaton and Cristain
Murray his spouse, of 20 marks yearly out of the lands of Hartahead and Clint. One made be Phillipia Moubray,
Lady Barnebugle, of 20s. sterling, yearly, out of little Barnbugle. One made be Joan Barcklay of Kippe of 10s. yearly,
out of the lands of Duddingstone and husband-lands thereof. One be Jo. Sudgine of 30s. 4d. out of his tenement of
Leith, on the south aide o€ the water thereof, between Men Nepar’a land on the East and Rottenrow on the West, 14
May 1473.”--Inventar of Pious Donations, MS,

... 0 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. Among the representatives of the rougher sex in this very miscellaneous assemblage is ...

Book 10 p. 449
(Score 0.35)

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

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. TL ANCIENT MAPS AND VIEWS OF EDINBURGH. 1544.-The frequent reference to maps of ...

Book 10 p. 463
(Score 0.35)

132 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
defences of the tower were principally directed. The walls are here of very great thickness,
and pierced by a square cavity in the solid mass, for the reception of a sliding beam
to secure the door, while around it are the remains of various additional fortifications to
protect the covered way.
During the same operations, indications were discovered of a pathway up the cliff, partly
by means of steps cut in the shelving rock, and probably completed by moveable ladders
and a drawbridge communicating with the higher story of the Well-house Tower. About
seventy feet above, there is a small building on an apparently inaccessible projection of the
cl3, popularly known as ‘ I Wallace’s Cradle ” (an obvious corruption of the name of the
tower below), which would seem to have formed a part of this access from the Castle to
the ancient fountain at its base. In excavating near the tower, and especially in the neighbourhood
of the sally port, various coins were found, chiefly those of Edward 111. and
Cromwell, in very good preservation. There were also some foreign coins, and one of
Edward I., many f r a p e n t s of bombshells, a shattered skull, and other indications of
former warfare. The coins are now in the Antiquarian Museum, and are interesting
from some of them being of a date considerably anterior to the supposed erection of the
tower.a
The ancient fortifications .of the town of Edinburgh, reared under the charter of James
11.) formed, at this part, in reality an advanced wall of the Castle, the charge of which
was probably committed entirely to the garrison. The wall, after extending for a short
way from the Well-house Tower, along the margin of the Loch, was carried up the Castle
bank, and thence over the declivity on the south, until it again took an easterly direction
towards the ancient Overbow Port, at the first turning of the West Bow, so that the whole
of the Esplanade was separated from the town by this defence. There was in the highest
part of the wall, a gate which served as a means of communication with the town by the
Castle Hill, and was styled the Barrier Gate of the Castle. This outer port was temporarily
restored for the reception of George IT., on his visit to the Castle in the year 1822, and it
was again brought into requisition in 1832, in order completely to isolate the garrison,
during the prevalence of Asiatic cholera.
Previous to the enclosure and planting of the Castle bank and the bed of the ancient
North Loch, the Esplanade was the principal promenade of the citizens, and a road led
from the top of the bank, passing in an oblique direction down the north side, by the
Well-house Tower, to St Cuthbert’s Church, some indications of which still remain. This
church road had existed from a very early period, and is mentioned in the charter of
.
1 The following extracts from the Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 332-3, in reference to the siege of the Castle by Sir
William Drury in 1573 (ante, p. 84), embrace various interesting allusions to the local detail :- “ Wpoun the xxij
day of Maij, the south quarter of the toure of the Castell, callit Dauid’s toure, fell through the vehement and continual1
achuting, togidder with some of the foir wall, and of the heid wall beayd Sanct Margaretia set.
“ Wpoun the xxiiij day, the eist quarter of the said tour fell, with the north quarteris of the port cuheis ; the tour
als callit Wallace tour, with some mair of the foir wall, notwithstanding the Castell men kust thair hand with schutting
of small artailzerie. . . . . Wpoun the xxvj day, the hail1 cumpangis of Scotland and Ingland, being quietlie
convenit at vij houris in the mornyng, passed with ledders, ane half to the blookhous, the vther half to Sanct Katherin’a
eet, on the west syd, quhair the syid wea schote doun.” The Caatle vwa at length rendered by Sir William Kirkaldy
on the 29th of the month. In Calderwood’s History, Wodrow Soc., vol. iii. 281, the followiug occurs, of the same
date :-“Captain Nitchell waa layed with his band at Sanct Cuthbert’a Kirk, to atoppe the passage to St Margaret’a
Well.” Also in “The Inventory of Royal Wardrobe,” dcc,, p. 168,-“1tem, am irne yet for Sanct Margareth’a
t.o ur*, ”A &rcch. wlogia Scotica, vol. ii. pp. 469-477.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. defences of the tower were principally directed. The walls are here of very great ...

Book 10 p. 143
(Score 0.35)

78 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT.
genius-where lie bnriecl John Goodsir, ‘ Christopher North,’ Sir William
Allan, Jeffrey, Cockburn, Rutherfurd, Playfair, David Scott, Dr. Warburton
Begbie, and other illustrious men-we ramble on by the village of
the Water of Leith, the Dean Bridge, St. Bernard’s Well, and visit the Royal
Botanic Gardens, in order to enjoy the delightful vistas of the city, and to
turn to the old yew-tree flourishing as in its younger days when it grew in
the Physic Gardens. To the north-west lies Fettes College, a magnificent
modern edifice; nearer is situated Inverleith House, for many years the
residence of the learned Professor Cosmo Innes. Warriston Cemetery is the
last resting-place of Adam Black, the eminent publisher, Professor Simpson,
Sir George HaNey, and Alexander Smith, whose words-as we look at
Mr. Bough’s drawing (see Frontispice), taken from a point close by, occur
to the mind-‘ with castle, tower, church spire, and pyramid rising into
sunlight.’ Returning cityward by Pitt Street and Dundas Street, we turn
to the right, along Queen Street, passing No. 52, where Sir James Simpson
died. The first opening on the left is North Castle Street, with its memories
of Sir Walter Scott. 6 French critic has said that it was appropriate that
the three Graces and the nine Muses should take up their abode there-at
No. 39. How fondly Scott loved this residence is told in his own touching
words:-‘Mardz 15, 1826.This morning I leave No. 39 Castle Street for
the last time. ct The cabin was convenient,” and habit had made it agreeable
to me. . . . So farewell, poor No. 39 ! What a portion of my life has been
spent there ! It has sheltered me from the prime of life to its decline j and
now I must bid good-bye to it.’ (See Engraving, page 51.)
TABLET FORMFRLY AT IIUDRY CASTLE.

... EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. genius-where lie bnriecl John Goodsir, ‘ Christopher North,’ Sir ...

Book 11 p. 123
(Score 0.35)

APPENDIX. 427
1742.-Of this date is Edgar’s map of Edinburgh, engraved for Maitland’s History of Edinburgh. It was
drawn by W illiam Edgar, architect, for the purpose of being published on a much larger scale ; but he died before
this could be accomplished, when it was fortunately engraved by Maithnd, on a scale sdiciently large for reference
to most of its details. It is of p a t value a an accurate and trustworthy ground-plan of the city almost
immediately before the schemes of civic reform began to modify ita ancient features. A very useful companion
to this is a large map, “ including all the latest improvements,” and dedicated to Provost Elder in 1793. It contains
a very complete reference to all the closes and wynda in the Old Town, many of which have since disappeared,
while alterations in the names of those that remain add to the value of this record of their former nomenclature.
1753.-A s mall folio plate of Edinburgh from the north-west, bearing this date, is engraved from a drawing
by Paul Sandby. It appears to have been taken from about the site of Charlotte Square, though- the town ie
represented at a greater distance. Ita chief value arises from the idea it gives of the site of the New Town, consisting,
on the west side of the Castle, where the Lothian Road has since been made, of formal rows of treee, and
beyond them a great extent of ground mostly bare and unenclosed. Old St Cuthbert’s Church is seen at the
foot of the Castle rock, with a square central tower surmounted by a low spira
In 1816 an ingenious old plan of Edinburgh and ita environs wa published by Kirkwood, on a large
scale. He has taken Edgar as his authority for the Old Town; South Leith from a survey by Wood in
1777 ; the intervening ground, including North Leith and the site of the New Town from a survey made in
1759, by John Fergus and Robert Robinson; and the south of Edinburgh, including the whole ground to
the POW Burn, from another made the same year by Jahn Scott. It is further ‘embellished with a reduced
copy of the view of 1580, and a plan of Leith made in 1681. The names of most of the proprietors of ground
are given from the two last surveys, belonging to the town, and the whole forms B tolerably complete and
curious record of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh about the middle of the eighteenth century.
Gough remarks, in his British Topography, with reference to John Clerk, Esq. of Eldin,-whose amateur
performances with the etching needle are coveted by collectors of topographical illustrations, on account of their
rarity, a few impressions only having been printed for private distribution,-“ I am informed he intends to etch
some views of Edinburgh of large size, having made some very accurate drawings for that purpose.’’ Two of
these, at 1 east, have been etched on narrow plates, about fifteen inches long. One of them, aLview from the north,
has Lochend and Logan of Restalrig’s old tower in the foreground ; with the initials J. C., and the date 1774
The other is from the head of the Links, with Wrychtishousis’ mansion in the foreground. They are not, however,
so accurate as Qough-or more probably his Scottish authority, Mr George Paton-had anticipated
To thia list we may add a south view of Edinburgh 1 y Hollar, on two sheets. We have never seen a copy of
it, nor met with any person who has seen more than one of the sheets, now at Cambridge. It is very rare, has
no date, and is perhaps, after all, only a copy of Qordon’s bird’s-eye view. Gough mentions an ancient drawing
of Edinburgh preserved in the Charter Room of Heriot’s Hospital, but no such thing is now known to exist,
although the careful researches of Dr Steven, in the preparation of his History of the Hospital, could hardly have
failed to discover it, had it still remained there.
Of modern views the best is that drawn by W. H. Williams, or a he is more frequently styled, Grecian
Williams, and engraved on a large scale, with great ability and taste, by William Miller. It is taken from the
top of Arthur’s Seat, so that it partakes of the character of a bird’seye view, with all the beauty of correct perspective
and fine pictofical effect.
A rare and interesting print published in 1751, engraved from a drawing by Paul Sandby, preserves a view
of Leith at that period. It ia taken from the old east road, and, owing to the nature of the ground, and the site
of the town being chiefly a declivity towards the river, little more is seen than the nearest rows of houses and
the steeple of St Mary‘s Church. The rural character of the neighbouring downa, however, is curious, a well
as a singular looking old-fashioned carriage, which forms one of the moat prominent objects in the view.

... 427 1742.-Of this date is Edgar’s map of Edinburgh, engraved for Maitland’s History of Edinburgh. It ...

Book 10 p. 466
(Score 0.35)

398 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,
Mr. Shiells was married, and had a daughter, who died young. He was
much respected in his profession, and bore the character of a charitable and
humane man. He died on the. 23d September 1798. The boy was subsequently
for many years a porter in the Candlemaker Row.
The charge made for a visit was only one shilling I-yet Mr. Shiells accumulated
a good deal of money, the greater portion of which he left to his sister’s
family. His niece, Miss Lawrie, kept the shop for many years after her uncle’s
death, and was married to Mr. A. Henderson, jeweller.
No. CLVIII.
MR. ROBERT JOHNSTON,
AND
MISS SIBILLA HUTTON.
Nb other reason has been assigned by the artist for grouping these two
individuals together, than that they were the most corpulent shopkeepers in
Edinburgh at the time, and had their places of business in the Royal Exchange
buildings.
MR. JOHNSTON was the son of the Rev. John Johnston, minister of
Arngask,’ and brother-german to Dr. Johnston of North Leith. He carried
on business for many years as a private banker, in company with Mr. Donald
Smith, under the firm,of Johnston and Smith. This concern, however, proved
unfortunate, having met with a series of losses-among the first of which was a
robbery to a considerable amount, The particulars of this affair are fully given
in the following advertisements from the Cowant of 1768 :-
“On Friday evening last (the 12th August) the lock of the outer door of the compting-house of
Johnston and Smith, bankers in the Exchange, was opened by some wicked persons, as snpposed by
a counterfeit key, and eight hnndred pounds sterling stolen out of their drawers, in the following
Bank notes, viz.-
Of the Royal, and Bank of Scotland . E194 9 0
British Linen Company . 362 2 0
Dumfries Notes . 126 0 0
Glasgow Notes . . 64 10 0
General Bank of Perth . . 3 2 0 0
Dundee Notes (Jobson’s) . 4 0 0 0
Several small Notes and Silver . . 1 1 1 0
$830 2 0
The church at Arngask is called “the visible kirk,” from its great altitude.

... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, Mr. Shiells was married, and had a daughter, who died young. He was much respected in ...

Book 8 p. 554
(Score 0.35)

St. Giles Street] THE DAILY REVIBW: 289
the vehicle for the dissemination of the rich vein
of humour which ran through his character,
His qualities as a writer in a daily journal were
amply displayed during the six years he edited the
Ddy Review, and a melancholy interest attaches
to his connection with that journal, as he literally
?died in harness.? His great reading gave him
genuine mind and culture, was ever and anon made
evident, sometimes with curious solicitude.? When
death came upon Mr. Manson he was only in his
forty-ninth year, and had not been confined by illness
to the house for a single day. After breakfast,
he had seated himself in his study to write a leader
welcoming John Bright to Edinburgh j and the few
*
TRINITY COLLEGE CHURCH (RESTORED).
extensive resources, while his long study of public
matters and knowledge of past political transactions
were remarkable, or equalled only in the parallel
instance of Alexander Russel, of the Scotsman
His tastes were various ; for in classic authors and
in the Scottish vernacuIar he was equally at home.
?He could scourge pretenders, but he loved to
welcome every genline accession to our literary
treasures, and to give a fresh and advantageous
setting to any gFms that might be found in the
volume with which he had to deaL Indeed, amid
the rough strokes of political war, his regard for
any opponent whom he believed to be a man of
31
lines he wrote were penned, as usual, without a
single elision, when Mrs. Manson entering the
room about twelve o?clock, saw him lying back
in his chair, as she supposed asleep-but it was
the sleep of death. This was on the 2nd of November,
1868.
Mr. Manson, who was long regretted by men
of many professions pver the length and breadth
of the kingdom, and by friends who mourned
him as a genial acquaintance, was succeeded by
the late Henry Kingsley, who occupied the editonal
chair for eighteen months, and who was
succeeded in turn by Dr. George Smith, formerly

... Giles Street] THE DAILY REVIBW: 289 the vehicle for the dissemination of the rich vein of humour which ran ...

Book 2 p. 289
(Score 0.34)

330 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie.
East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now
called Grace Mount, and of old the Priest?s Hill,
which probably. had some connection with the
,well and chapel. The Cromwellians, who destroyed
the former, were a portion of 16,000 men, who
were encamped on the adjacent Galachlaw Hill,
in 1650, shortly before their leader fell back on
his retreat to Dunbar.
At the period of the Reformation the chapelry
of Niddrie, with the revenues thereof, was attached
to Liberton Church. Its founders, the Wauchopes
of Niddrie, have had a seat in the parish for more
than 500 years, and are perhaps the oldest family
in Midlothian.
Gilbert Wauchope of Niddrie was a distinguished
member of the Reformation Parliament in
1560. On the 27th of December, 1591, Archibald
Wauchope, of Niddrie, together with the Earl of
Bothwell, Douglas of Spott, and others, made a
raid on Holyrood, attempting the life of James VI.,
and after much firing of pistols and muskets were
repulsed, according to Moyses? Memoirs, for which
offence Patrick Crombie of Carrubber and fifteen
others were forfeited by Parliament.
Sir John Wauchope of Niddrie is mentioned by
Guthry in his ? Memoirs,? as a zealous Covenanter.
Niddrie House, a mile north of Edmonstone
House, is partly an ancient baronial fortalice and
partly a handsome modern mansion. The holly
hedges here are thirty feet high, and there is a
sycamore nineteen feet in circumference.
In 1718 John Wauchope of Niddrie, Marischal,
was slain in Catalonia. He and his brother were
generals of. Spanish infantry, and the latter was
governor of the town and fortress of Cagliari in
Sardinia.
We find the name of his regiment in the following
obituary in I 7 I g :-?Died in Sicily, of fever, in
the camp of Randazzo, Andrew, son of Sir George
Seton of Garleton-suln-lieutenant in Irlandas Regiment,
late Wauchope?s.? (Salmon?s ?Chronology.?)
In 1718 one of the same family was at the seabattle
of Passaro, captain of the San Francisco
Arreres of twenty-two guns and one hundred men.
Lediard?s History calls him simply ?Wacup, a
Scotchman.?
The other chapel referred to gives its name
to the mansion and estate of St. Katherine?s, once
the residence of Sir William Rae, Bart. of Eskgrove,
the friend of Sir Walter Scott, who apostrophises
him as his ?dear loved Rae,? in the introduction
to the fourth canto of Marmion, and who, with
Skene, Mackenzie, and others of the Old Edinburgh
Light Horse, including Scott, formed themselves
into a little semi-military club, the meetings
of which were held at their family supper-tables in
rotation. He was the third baronet of his family,
and was appointed Lord Advocate in 1819, on the
promotion of Lord Meadowbank, and held the
office till the end of 1830. He was again Lord
Advocate during Sir Robert Peel?s administration
in 1835, and was M.P. for Bute.
A little way to the south is a place called the
Kaimes, which indicates the site of an ancient camp.
We have already, in other places, referred to
Mr. Clement Little, of Upper Liberton, a founder
of the College Library, by a bequest of books thereto
in 1580. Two years before that he appeared as
procurator for the Abbot of Kilwinning, in a dispute
between him and the Earl of Egliiiton (Priv.
Coun. Reg).
Lord Fountainhall records, under date May zznd,
1685, that the Lady of Little of Liberton, an active
dame in the cause of the Covenant, was imprisoned
for harbouring certain recusants, but that ? I on
his entering into prison for her she was liberate.??
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE ENVIRONS OF EPINBURGH (rontinued).
Cume-Origin of the Name-Roman Camps-% Old Church andTemple Lands-Lennox Tower-Curriehill Castle and the Skenes-Scott of
Malleny-James Anderson, LL.D.-? Camp Meg ? and her Story.
CURRIE, in many respects, is one of the most interesting
places in the vicinity of Edinburgh. The
parish is in extent about five or six miles in
every direction, though in one quarter it measures
nine miles from east to west.. One-third of the
*hole district is hill and moorland. Freestone
abounds in a quarry, from which many of the
houses in the New Town have been built; and
there is, besides, plenty of ironstone, and a small
vein of copper.
A Though antiquaries have endeavoured to connect
its name with the Romrlns, as CO&, it is most
probably dCrived from the Celtic Corrie, signifying
a hollow or glen, which is very descriptive of the

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie. East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now called Grace Mount, and of old ...

Book 6 p. 329
(Score 0.34)

330 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie.
East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now
called Grace Mount, and of old the Priest?s Hill,
which probably. had some connection with the
,well and chapel. The Cromwellians, who destroyed
the former, were a portion of 16,000 men, who
were encamped on the adjacent Galachlaw Hill,
in 1650, shortly before their leader fell back on
his retreat to Dunbar.
At the period of the Reformation the chapelry
of Niddrie, with the revenues thereof, was attached
to Liberton Church. Its founders, the Wauchopes
of Niddrie, have had a seat in the parish for more
than 500 years, and are perhaps the oldest family
in Midlothian.
Gilbert Wauchope of Niddrie was a distinguished
member of the Reformation Parliament in
1560. On the 27th of December, 1591, Archibald
Wauchope, of Niddrie, together with the Earl of
Bothwell, Douglas of Spott, and others, made a
raid on Holyrood, attempting the life of James VI.,
and after much firing of pistols and muskets were
repulsed, according to Moyses? Memoirs, for which
offence Patrick Crombie of Carrubber and fifteen
others were forfeited by Parliament.
Sir John Wauchope of Niddrie is mentioned by
Guthry in his ? Memoirs,? as a zealous Covenanter.
Niddrie House, a mile north of Edmonstone
House, is partly an ancient baronial fortalice and
partly a handsome modern mansion. The holly
hedges here are thirty feet high, and there is a
sycamore nineteen feet in circumference.
In 1718 John Wauchope of Niddrie, Marischal,
was slain in Catalonia. He and his brother were
generals of. Spanish infantry, and the latter was
governor of the town and fortress of Cagliari in
Sardinia.
We find the name of his regiment in the following
obituary in I 7 I g :-?Died in Sicily, of fever, in
the camp of Randazzo, Andrew, son of Sir George
Seton of Garleton-suln-lieutenant in Irlandas Regiment,
late Wauchope?s.? (Salmon?s ?Chronology.?)
In 1718 one of the same family was at the seabattle
of Passaro, captain of the San Francisco
Arreres of twenty-two guns and one hundred men.
Lediard?s History calls him simply ?Wacup, a
Scotchman.?
The other chapel referred to gives its name
to the mansion and estate of St. Katherine?s, once
the residence of Sir William Rae, Bart. of Eskgrove,
the friend of Sir Walter Scott, who apostrophises
him as his ?dear loved Rae,? in the introduction
to the fourth canto of Marmion, and who, with
Skene, Mackenzie, and others of the Old Edinburgh
Light Horse, including Scott, formed themselves
into a little semi-military club, the meetings
of which were held at their family supper-tables in
rotation. He was the third baronet of his family,
and was appointed Lord Advocate in 1819, on the
promotion of Lord Meadowbank, and held the
office till the end of 1830. He was again Lord
Advocate during Sir Robert Peel?s administration
in 1835, and was M.P. for Bute.
A little way to the south is a place called the
Kaimes, which indicates the site of an ancient camp.
We have already, in other places, referred to
Mr. Clement Little, of Upper Liberton, a founder
of the College Library, by a bequest of books thereto
in 1580. Two years before that he appeared as
procurator for the Abbot of Kilwinning, in a dispute
between him and the Earl of Egliiiton (Priv.
Coun. Reg).
Lord Fountainhall records, under date May zznd,
1685, that the Lady of Little of Liberton, an active
dame in the cause of the Covenant, was imprisoned
for harbouring certain recusants, but that ? I on
his entering into prison for her she was liberate.??
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE ENVIRONS OF EPINBURGH (rontinued).
Cume-Origin of the Name-Roman Camps-% Old Church andTemple Lands-Lennox Tower-Curriehill Castle and the Skenes-Scott of
Malleny-James Anderson, LL.D.-? Camp Meg ? and her Story.
CURRIE, in many respects, is one of the most interesting
places in the vicinity of Edinburgh. The
parish is in extent about five or six miles in
every direction, though in one quarter it measures
nine miles from east to west.. One-third of the
*hole district is hill and moorland. Freestone
abounds in a quarry, from which many of the
houses in the New Town have been built; and
there is, besides, plenty of ironstone, and a small
vein of copper.
A Though antiquaries have endeavoured to connect
its name with the Romrlns, as CO&, it is most
probably dCrived from the Celtic Corrie, signifying
a hollow or glen, which is very descriptive of the

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cunie. East of St. Katherine?s is a rising ground now called Grace Mount, and of old ...

Book 6 p. 330
(Score 0.34)

160 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Rather than allow any person whom he had been employed to prosecute to be
put in jail, he has been frequently known to advance the sum himself, even
when he had not the most distant chance of repayment.
Mr. Macpherson died on the 9th of May 1814. His sister, Sodom, died in
Gillespie’s Hospital.
The centre figure, ROGER HOG, ESQ. of Newliston, whose amplitude
of back is so well delineated, was formerly one of the Directors of the Bank of
Scotland, and a regular attender of their meetings, He has been already pretty
fully described in No. XVII.
No. LXVII.
THE REV. JOHN M‘LURE,
CHAPIAIN TO THE GRAND LODGE.
MR. M‘LURE was originally educated for the church, and obtained the clerical
title by being licensed to preach, after undergoing the usual trials. It was
not his fortune, however, to obtain a kirk. A few embarrassing years of
“ hopes deferred” entirely deadened his ambition for the pulpit ; and at last,
abandoning all intention of “clinging by the horns of the altar,” he settled
down in Edinburgh as a teacher of writing, arithmetic, and book-keeping.
In the memorable year 1745, Mr. hl‘lure, being: then a young man, was a
member of the Trained Band. Marching on one occasion to Musselburgh, in
expectation of meeting with a party of the rebels, it is told of the teacher, that
having made up his mind to be shot, he had fixed a quire of paper-symbolic
of his profession-to his breast, on which the following memorandum was
written :-“This is the body of John MLure, writing-master in Edinburghlet
it be decently interred !” This sepulchral direction happily proved unnecessary.
John was not slain, but lived to become for many years ‘( Grand
Chaplain I’ of the “ Grand Lodge of Scotland ;” and throughout a long life
maintained “ the character of a good man and an excellent mason, being considered
the oracle of the craft in Edinburgh.”
He was married, and left several children, two
of whom, Alexander and Hamilton, were bred to the medical profession. The
former went abroad. The latter was several years a surgeon in Edinburgh,
and died not long after his father.
Mr. M‘Lure died in 1787.

... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Rather than allow any person whom he had been employed to prosecute to be put in jail, ...

Book 8 p. 225
(Score 0.34)

APPENDIX. 441
up and down the church till the end of the sermon. When sermon was done, Chiealy went out before the
President, and gained his closs head, where he saluted him going down, as the President did Chiealy. My
Lord Csstlehill and Daniel Lockhart convoyed [the President] a peace down the closs, and talked a while with
him, after which they both departed. The President called back the last, and whilst Daniel waa returning,
Dalrey approached, to whom Daniel said, ‘ I thought you had been att London,’ without receiving any other
answer than that He was there now.’ Daniel offered to take him by the hand, but the other shufaed by him,
and comeing close to the President‘s back discharged his pistol, before that any suspected his design: The
bullet going in beneath the right shoulder, and out att the left pap, was battered on the wall.
“ The President immediately turned about, looked the murderer grievously in the face ; and then finding himself
beginning to faile, he leant to the wall, and said, ‘Hold me, Daniel ; hold me,’ These were his last worda
He was carried immediately to his own house, and waa almost dead before he could reach it Daniel and the
President’s Chaplain apprehended, in the meantime, Ualrey, who own’d the fact, and never offered to fie. He
was carried to the guard, kept in the Weigh-house, and afkrwarda taken to prison%
“ The President’s Ladie, hearing the shot and a cry in the closs, got in her smock out of her bed, and took
the dead bodie in her arms, at which sight swounding she wa9 carried to her chamber. The corps were laid in
the same room where he used to consult, The first of Aprile a Meeting of the States was call’d, att nine of the
clock, anent the Murtherer. The Provost of Edinburgh and two Bailliffs, with the Earle of EmPs deputys,
were admitted to concurr if they pleased. Two of each bench of the meeting, viz the Earle of Eglinton and
Glencarne, Sir Patrick Ogilvy of Pqne and Blacbarroure, Barons, Sir John Dalrymple and Mr William
Hamilton, Burgesses, were impower’d to sit on the Assii, and to cause torture Dalrey, to know if any other waa
accessarie to the murther. The President’s friends, out of tenderness to the Ladie and childring, did not insiit
upon the crime of assassination of a Judge and Privy Counsellor. Calderwood, designed Writter in Edinburgh,
upon suspicion was imprisoned. He waa waiting at the closs head when the shot was given, and fled thereafter.
He had been likewise seen with Dalrey at the Abbey the Saturday before, following the President aa he came
from Duke Hamilton’s lodgeing.
‘‘ The Court sat down as the States rose. The Murtherer was brought in, who did not deny the fact, and
confesst that none was accessarie. He got the boots and the thumekins Dureing the torture he confessed
nothing. Cardross and Polwart were against the tortureing. Calderwood was brought in also, but confessed
nothing. Sir George was buried in the Gray Friers Church, upon the south side. He was a great favourer of
the King’s, no friend to the Romau Catholic& and an open enimie of Nelford’s, whom he regarded as the
author of all the troubles hrought upon the King and Country.”
The Lady Grange, the romantic story of whose captivity in the Island of St Kilda has since furnished
materials both for the novelist and the historian, was a daughter of the assassin, Chiedey of Dahy, and is said
to have owed her strange fate to the fierce and Findictive spirit she inherited from her father. Lord Grange
entered deeply into the politics of the time, and his wife is believed to have obtained possession of 8ome of the
secrets of hia party, the disclosure of which would have involved the leaders in great danger, if not in ruin.
This accounts for the ready co-operation he found from men otherwise unlikely to have shared in such an abduction.
Lady Grange is said to have accelerated the fate which her husband meditated for her, by reminding
him, in a fit of passion, “ that she was Chieslie’s daughter,” a threat that implied he might experience a fate
simiir to that of the Lord President if he provoked her anger, A curious account of the abduction and confinement
of Lady Grange in the Western Isles, will be found in the Edinburgh Magazine for 1817.
In the Archaeologia Scotica (voL iv. p. 18), Father Hay’s narrative is accompanied with the following
letter from Sir Walter Scott, addressed to E. W. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries,
in reference to the finding of the assassin’s bones at Dalry. The reader will see that it greatly diEera
from the account we have given (page 179.) The latter is derived from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Eaq.,
a better authority, we have no hesitation in saying, on questions of fact and antkpzrian rureurch, than
3K

... 441 up and down the church till the end of the sermon. When sermon was done, Chiealy went out before ...

Book 10 p. 480
(Score 0.34)

CHAPTER V.
THE HIGH STREET.
WING to the peculiar site of the Scottish
capital, no extension of the Old Town
beyond its early limits has in any degree
detracted from the importance of its most
ancient thoroughfare, which extends under
different names from the Palace to the
Castle, and may be regarded as of antiquity
coeval with the earliest fortifications of the
citadel to which it leads. Alongside of this
roadway, on the summit of the sloping ridge,
the rude huts of the early Caledonians were
constructed, and the first parish church of St
Giles reared, so early, it is believed, as the
ninth century.’ Fynes Moryson, an English
traveller, who visited Edinburgh in the year
1598, thus describes it :-“ From the King’s Pallace at the east, the city still riseth higher
and higher towards the west, and consists especially of one broad and very faire street,-
which is the greatest part and sole ornament thereof,-the rest of the side streetes and
allies being of poore building, and inhabited with very poore people.” We may add, however,
to his concluding remark, the more accurate observation of the eccentric traveller,
Taylor, the water-poet, who visited the Scottish capital a few years later, and shows his
greater familiarity with its internal features by describing ‘‘ many by-lanes and closes on
each side of the way, wherein are gentlemen’s houses, much fairer than the buildings h the
High Street, for in the High Street the merchants and tradesmen do well, but the gentlemen’s
mansions, and goodIiest houses, are obscurely founded in the aforesaid lanes.”
The preceding chapter is chiefly devoted to some of the more ancient and peculiar
features of this street. Yet strictJy speaking, while every public thoroughfare is styled in
older writs and charters ‘‘ the King’s High Street,” the name was only exclusively applied
Amot, p. 268. * Itinerary, London, 1617. Bann. Mia. vol. ii. p. 393.
VIcmm~-Common Seal of the City of Edinburgh, from a charter dated AD. 1565. Vidc p. 73, for the
Counter Seal

... V. THE HIGH STREET. WING to the peculiar site of the Scottish capital, no extension of the Old ...

Book 10 p. 241
(Score 0.34)

EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT.
Seton, in which James the Sixth was ' graciously pleased to rest himselfe,' the
day on which he journeyed from Holyrood to London, to take possession of
the English Crown.' With the following allusion to that touching incident
Tytler concludes his Hidory of ScotZand:--' As the monarch passed the
House of Seton, near Musselburgh, he was met by the funeral of the Earl of
Winton, a nobleman of high rank; which, with its. solemn movement and
sable trappings, occupied the road, and contrasted strangely and gloomily
with the brilliant pageantry of the royal cavalcade. The Setons were one
of the oldest and proudest families of Scotland; and (the father of) that
Lord whose mortal remains now passed by, had been a faithful adherent of
the King's mother: whose banner he had never deserted, and in whose
cause he had suffered exile and proscription, The meeting was thought
ominous by the people. It appeared, to their excited imagination, as if the
moment had amved when the aristocracy of Scotland was about to merge in
that of Great Britain j as if the Scottish nobles had finished their career of
national glory, and this last representative of their race had been arrested on
THE ROUNDLE.
his road to the grave, to bid farewell to the last of Scotland's kings. As the
mourners moved slowly onward, the monarch himself, participating in these
melancholy feelings, sat down by the wayside, on a stone still pointed out to
the historical pilgrim ; nor did he resume his progress till the gloomy procession
had completely disappeared.'
While Seton Church and Winton House are both about three miles beyond
the eastern border of Midlothian, Niddry Castle, in Linlithgowshireanother
possession of the Seton famiIy-is within a still shorter distance of its
western boundary. Prettily situated on a tributary of the Almond Water, a
The cut of the Roundle in
the text is from a sketch made in 1824. Both the Roundle and the adjoining road were slightly
altered when the North British Railway was constructed in 1845.
1 Si Richard Maitland's Hisfmy of firc Uosrsc of Sqtoun, p. 60.

... PAST AND PRESENT. Seton, in which James the Sixth was ' graciously pleased to rest himselfe,' ...

Book 11 p. 121
(Score 0.34)

OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
after nnmixous schemes and suggestions, the North
Bridge was widened in 1873, after designs by
Messrs. Stevenson. The average number of footpassengers
traversing this bridge daily is said to
be considerably in excess of go,ooo, and the
number of wheeled vehicles upwards of 2,000.
The ground at the north-east end of the bridge
has been so variously occupied in succession by an
edifice ?named Dingwall?s Castle, by Shakespeare
Square, and the oldTheatre Royal, with its thousand
memories of the drama in Edinburgh, and latterly
Jay the new General Post Office for Scotland, that we must devote a chapter or two to that portion
? of it alone.
CHAPTER XLIII.
EAST SIDE OF THE NORTH BRIDGE.
Diogwall?s Castle-Whitefield?s ? Preachings?-History of the Old Theatre Royal-The Building-David Ross?s Management--Leased to
Mr. Foote-Then to Mr. Digges-Mr. Moss-- Yates-Next Leased to Mr. Jackson-The Siddons Fumre-Reception of the Great
Actress-ME. Baddeley-New Patent-The Playhouse Riot-?The Scottish Roscius ?-A Ghost-Expiry of the Patent.
BUILT no one knows when, but existing during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there stood
on the site now occupied by the new General Post
Office, an edifice named Dingwall?s Castle. In
1647, Cordon of Rothiemay, in his wonderfully
distinct and detailed bird?s-eye view of the city,
represents it as an open ruin, in form a square
tower with a round one at each angle, save on the
north-east, where one was fallen down in part. All
the sloping bank aiid ground between it and the
Trinity College church are shown as open, but
bordered on the west by a line of houses, which he
names Niniani Suburbium seu nzendicorum Fatea
(known latterly as the Beggar?s Row), and on the
west and north by high walls, the latter crenellated,
and by a road which descends close to the edge
of the loch, and then runs along its bank straight
westward.
This stronghold is supposed to have derived its
name from Sir John Dingwall, who was Provost of
the Trinity College church before the Reformation ;
and hence the conclusion is, that it was a dependency
of that institution. He was one of the
first Lords of Session appointed on the 25th May,
1532, at the formation of the College of Justice,
and his name is third on the list.
Of him nothing more is known, save that he
existed and that is all. . Some fragments of the
castle are still supposed to exist among the buildings
on its site, and some were certainly traced
among the cellars of Shakespeare Square on its demolition
in 1860.
During the year 1584 when the Earl of Arran was
Provost of the city, on the 30th September, the
Council commissioned Michael Chisholm and others
to inquire into the order and condition of an ancient
leper hospital which stood beside Dingwall?s Castle;
but of the former no distinct trace is given in
Cordon?s view.
In Edgar?s map of Edinburgh, in 1765, no indication
of these buildings is given, but the ground
occupied by the future theatre and Shakespeare
Square is shown as an open park or irregular
parallelogam closely bordered by trees, measuring
about 350 feet each way, and lying between the
back of the old Orphan Hospital and the village
of Multrie?s Hill, where now the Register House
stands.
It was in this park, known then as that of the
Trinity Hospital, that the celebrated Whitefield
used yearly to harangue a congregation of all creeds
and classes in the open air, when visiting Edinburgh
in the course of his evangelical tours. On his
coming thither for the first time after the Act
had passed for the extension of the royalty,
great was his horror, surprise, and indignation, to
find the green slope which he had deemed to be
rendered almost sacred by his prelections, enclosed
by fences and sheds, amid which a theatre was in
course of erection.
The ground was being ?appropriated to the
service of Satan. The frantic astonishment of the
Nixie who finds her shrine and fountain desolated
in her absence, was nothing to that of Whitefield.
He went raging about the spot, and contemplated
the rising walls of the playhouse with a sort of grim
despair. He is said to have considered the circumstance
as a positive mark of the increasing wickedness
of society, and to have termed it a plucking up
of God?s standard, and a planting of the devil?s in
its place.?
The edifice which he then saw in course of
erection was destined, for ninety years, to be inseparably
connected with the more recent rise of
the drama in Scotland generally, in Edinburgh in
particular, and to be closely identified with all the
artistic and scenic glories of the stage. It was
long a place replete with interest, and yet recalls

... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge. after nnmixous schemes and suggestions, the North Bridge was widened in ...

Book 2 p. 340
(Score 0.34)

1-50 OLD.? AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The City Crosa.
by the Figgate-burn ere he marched to storm
Dunbar.?
There lie citizens who have fought for their
country at Flodden, Pinkie, and a hundred:other
fields; and there lies one whose name is still
mighty in the land, and ?who never feared the
face of man?-John Knox. He expired at his old
manse, near the Nether Bow, on the 24th of No-
~ vember, 1572, in his sixty-seventh year, and his
body was attended to the grave by a great multitude
of people, incIuding the chief of the nobles
and the Regent Morton, whose simple iZqe over
his grave is so well known. It cannot but excite
surprise that no effort was made by the Scottish
people to preserve distinctly the remains of the
great Reformer from desecration, but some of that
spirit of irreverence for the past which he incul-
GRAVE OF JOHN KNOX.
cated thus recoiled upon himself, and posterity
knows not his exact resting-place. If the tradition
mentioned by Chambers, says Wilson, be correct, that
? his burial-place was a few feet from the front of the
old pedestal of King Charles?s statue, the recent
change in the position of the latter must have
placed it directly mer his grave-perhaps as strange
a monument to the great apostle of Presbyterianism
as fancy could devise !? Be all this as it may,
there is close by the statue a small stone let intc
the pavement inscribed simply
? I. K., 1572.?
An ancient oak pulpit, octagonal and panelled
brought from St. Giles?s church, and said to havc
been the same in which he was wont to preach, i!
still preserved in the Royal Institution on tht
Earthen Mound. . .
Close by St. Giles?s church, where radii in thc
causeway mark its site, stood the ancient cros!
of the city, so barbarously swept away by thc
ignorant and tasteless magistracy of 1756. Scott
and other men of taste, never ceased to deplore it!
destruction, and many attempts have been vainl;
nade to collect the fragments and reconstruct it,
[n ? Marmion,? as the poet has it :-
?? Dunedin?s cross, a pillared stone,
Rose on a turret octagon;
But now is razed that monument,
And the voice of Scotland?s law went forth,
Oh, be his tomb as lead to lead
Upon its dull destroyer?s head !-
A minstrel?s malison is said.?
. - -Whence royal edicts rang,
In gloribus trumpet clang.
A battlemented octagon tower, furnished with four
angular turrets, it was sixteen feet in diameter, and
fifteen feet high. From this rose the centre pillar,
xlso octagon, twenty feet in height, surmounted by
a beautiful Gothic capital, terminated by a crowned
unicorn. Caldenvood tells us that prior to King
Tames?s visit to Scotland the old cross was taken
down from the place where it had stood within
the memory of man, and the shaft transported
to the new one, by the aid of certain mariners
from Leith. Rebuilt thus in 1617, nearly on the
site of an older cross, it was of a mixed style of
architecture, and in its reconstruction, with a better
taste than later years have shown, the chief ornaments
of the ancient edifice had been preserved ;
the heads in basso-relievo, which surmounted
seven of the arches, have been referred by our
most eminent antiquaries to the remote period of
the Lower Empire. Four of those heads, which
were long preserved by Mr. Ross at Deanhaugh,
were procured by Sir Walter Scott, and are still
preserved at Abbotsford, together with the great
stone font or basin which flowed with wine on
holidays. The central pillar, long preserved at
Lord Somerville?s house, Drum, near Edinburgh,
now stands near the Napier tomb, within a railing,
on the north side of the choir of St. Giles?s, where
it was >placed_in 1866. A crowned unicorn surmounts
it, bearing a pennon blazoned with a silver
St. Andrew?scross on one side, and on the. other
the city crest-an anchor.
From the side of that venerable shaft royal proclamations,
solemn denunciations of excommunication
and outlawry, involving ruin and death, went
forth for ages, and strange and terrible have been the
scenes, the cqelties, the executions, and absurdities,
it has witnessed. From its battlements, by tradition,
mimic heralds of the unseen world cited the gallant
James and all our Scottish chivalry to appear in
the domains of Pluto immediately before the
march of the army to Flodden, as recorded at
great length in the ?? Chronicles of Pitscottie,?
and rendered more pleasantly, yet literally, into
verse by Scott- ~

... OLD.? AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The City Crosa. by the Figgate-burn ere he marched to storm Dunbar.? There lie ...

Book 1 p. 150
(Score 0.34)

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