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Dab1 THE CHIESLIES. by invading him in his own house at Dalry, where they beat and wounded him and his servants, and took possession of his stables, out of which they turned his horses. ?They had also,? records Fountainhall, ?a recrimination against him, viz., that they being come to fetch his proportion of Straw for their horses, conform to the late Acts of Parliament and Council, he with sundry of his servants and tenants fell on them with (pitch) forks, grapes, &c, and had broken their swords and wounded some of them.? The dispute was referred to the Criminal Court, by sentence of which Davis was banished Scotland, never to return, and Clark was expelled from the Guards. ?The punishment of hamesucken, which turn hoc extrui curavit marks suyerstes PVaZterus ChiesZie de Dahy, mercafor ef civis Edindurgensis. Burnet describes his father as !? a noted fanatic at the time of the civil war.? In 1675-9 there was a manufactory of paper at his mills of Dalry, on the Water of Leith. In April, 1682, John Chieslie complained to the privy Council that Davis, Clark, and some other gentlemen of the Royal Life Gpards (the regiment of Claverhouse) had committed ? hanie-suckeni? I lands of Dalry to Sir Alexander Brand, w-hose memory yet lingers in the names of Brandfield Street and Place on the property. Afterwards the estate belonged to the Kirkpatricks of Allisland, and latterly to the Walkers, one of whom, James, was a Principal Clerk of Session, whose son Francis, on his niamage with the heiress of Hawthomden, assumed the name of Drummond. This once secluded property is now nearly all covered with populous streets. One portion of it, at the south end of the Dalry Road, is now a public cemetery, belonghg to the Edinburgh Cemetery Company, and contains several handsome monument... The same company have established an addi- ~~ .they were certainly guilty of, is death,? says Fountainhall (Vol. I.). We have related in its place how this man, the father of the famous Rachel Chieslie, Lady Grange, assassinated the Lord President, Sir George Lockhart of Carnwath, in 1689, for which his right hand was struck oft; after he had been put to the torture and before his execution, and also how his body was camed away and secretly buried. About 1704 his heir, Major Chieslie, sold the 1 DALRI MANOR HOUSE. ... THE CHIESLIES. by invading him in his own house at Dalry, where they beat and wounded him and his servants, ...

Book 4  p. 217
(Score 0.85)

106 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Ravelston. shady with wood, strikes from the Murrayfield Road northward past the ancient and modem houses of Ravelston. The latter is a large square-built mansion ; the former is quaint, gable-ended and crowstepped, and almost hidden among high old walls and venerable trees. In the ? Burgh Records,? under date I 5 I I, the Quarry at Ravelston appears to have been let to Robert Cuninghame, by ? William Rynde, in the name and behalf of John Rynde, clerk, prebender of Ravelston,? with the consent of the magistrates and council, patrons of the same. On the old house are two lintels, the inscriptions on which are traceable. The first date is doubtless that of its erection ; the second of some alteration or repair. GF-NE QUID NIMIS. 1622. J B. These are the initials of George Foulis of Ravelston and Janet Bannatyne his wife. The other is on a beautiful mantelpiece, now built up in the old garden as a grotto, and runs thus, but in one long line :- The first over the enpance bears, IM. AR. 1624. YE . ALSO . AS . LIVELY . STONES . ARE . BUILT . AS , A SPIRITVAL . HOVSE.-I PETER. The tomb of George Foulis of Ravelston was in the Greyfriars Churchyard, and the inscription thereon is given in Latin and English in Monteith?s ? Theatre of Mortality, 1704.? He is styled that excellent man, George Foulis of Ravelstoun, of the noble family of Colintoun, Master of the king?s mint, bailie of the city of Edinburgh, and sixteen years a Councillor. He died on the 28th of May, 1633, in his sixty-fourth year. The death and?burial are also recorded ol ?I his dearest spouse, Janet Bannatyne, with whom he lived twenty-nine years in the greatest concord.? It was one of these daughters that Andrew Hill, a musician, was tried for abducting, on the 4th of September, 1654. One of the many specific charges against this person, is that with reference to the said Marian Foulis, daughter of Foulis of Ravelston : ?he used sorceries and enchantments -namely, roots and herbs-with which he boasted that he could gain the affection of any woman he pleased,? and which he used to this young lady. ?The jury acquitted him of sorcery, strange to record in those times, ? as a foolish boaster of his skill in herbs and roots for captivating women,? but condemned him for the abduction ; and while the judges delayed for fifteen days to pass sentence he was so eaten and torn by vermin in prison that he died ! In 1661 John Foulis of Ravelston was created a baronet of Nova Scotia The tomb records that he left six daughters. In his notes to ?Waverley,? Sir Walter Scott refers to the quaint old Scottish garden of Ravelston House, with its terraces, its grass walks, and stone statues, as having, in some measure, suggested to him the garden of Tullyveolan. The baronetcy of Ravelston was forfeited by the second who bore it, Sir Archibald, who was beheaded for adherence to Prince Charles, at Carlisle, in I 746, and the lineal representatives of the line are the Foulises, Baronets of Colinton, who represent alike the families of Colinton, Woodhall, and Ravelston. The second baronet of the latter line, who was, says Burke, the son of the first baronet?s eldest son, George Primrose Foulis, by whom the lands of Dunihac, were inherited in right of his mother Margaret, daughter of Sir Archibald Primrose, and mother of the first Earl of Rosebery, bore the designation of Sir Archibald Primrose of Ravelston, whose family motto was 27iure etjure. In time the lands of Ravelston were acquired by the Keith family, and in 1822, Alexander Keith of Ravelston and Dunnottar, Knight-Marischal .of Scotland, was created a baronet by George IV. during his visit to Edinburgh. Dying without issue in 1832, the title became extinct, and the office of Knight-Marischal passed to the Earl of Erroll as Lord High Constable of Scotland. No. 43 Queen Street was the town residence of the Keith family at the time of the royal visit. A writer in BZackwood?s Magazine, on oldfashioned Scottish society, refers to Mrs. Keith of Ravelston, thus :- ?? Exemplary matrons of unimpeachable morals were broad in speech and indelicate in thought, without ever dreaming of actual evil. So the respectable Mrs. Keith of Ravelston commissioned Scott, in her old age, to procure a copy of Mrs. Behn?s novels for her edification. Shk was so shocked on her first attempt at a perusal of them, that she told him to take ? his bonny book away.? Yet, she observed, that when a young woman she had heard them read aloud in a company that saw no shadow of impropriety in them. And whatever were the faults of old Scottish society, with its sins of excess and its shortcomings in refinement, there is no disputing that its ladies were strictly virtuous, and that such slips as that of the heroine of ? Baloo, my Boy,? were so rare as to be deemed worthy of recording in rhymes. So the reformation of manners was as satisfactory as it was easy, since the foundations of the new superstructure were sound.? From Ravelston a rural road leads to Craigcrook Castle, which for thirty-four years was the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Ravelston. shady with wood, strikes from the Murrayfield Road northward past the ...

Book 5  p. 106
(Score 0.84)

308 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton. called in the Herar?d for 1797-9 in its announcements of the purchase of the buildings for the erection of Gillespie?s Hospital. In one of the villas at Boswell Road, Wardie, immediately overlooking the sea, Alexander Smith the well-known poet and essayist, author of the ?? Life Drama,? which was held up to Continental admiration in the Reuue des Deux Mondes, ? City Poems,? ?? Dreamthorpe,? and other works, and whom we have already mentioned in the account in the western part of Royston and the adjacent lands of Wardie, both above and below the tide mark, and that when fuel was scarce, the poor even went to carry the coal away; also that a pit was sunk in Pilton wood in 1788, but was abandoned, owing to the inferiority of the coal. In the links of Royston there are vestiges of ancient pits. Bower mentions that a great ?carrick? of the Lombards was shattered on the rocks at Granton, MAP OF GRANTON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. of Warriston Cemetery, resided for many years, and there he died on the 5th of January, 1867. The Duke of Buccleuch is proprietor of Caroline Park, and has at his own expense raised erections which will attract shipping to the incipient town and seaport of Granton, and lead to the speedy construction of another great sea-port for Edinburgh, to which it will soon be joined by a network of streets ; in many quarters near it these are rising fast already. But before describing its stately eastern and western piers, we shall glance at some of the past history of the locality. In the ?Old Statistical Account,? we find it stated, that there are appearances of coal on the sea-side, in October, 1425, where, curiously enough, some ancient Italian coins were found not long ago. The place at which the English army landed in 1544, and from there they began their march on Leith, was exactly where Granton pier is now. In an account of the late ? Expedition in Scotland, sente to the Ryght Honorable Lord Russell, Lorde Privie Seale, from the kings armye there by a friend of hys,? the landing is described thus (modernised), and is somewhat different from what is generally found in Scottish history. ?That night the whole fleet came to anchor under the island of Inchkeith, three niiles from the houses of Leith. The place where we anchored hath long been called the English R0a.d; the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton. called in the Herar?d for 1797-9 in its announcements of the purchase of the ...

Book 6  p. 308
(Score 0.84)

Echo Bank.] THE DICK-CUNNINGHAMS. 57 Albany and York, and his having adopted energetic measures with some of the students of the college, for their Popery not in 1680, was supposed to have excited a spirit of retaliation in their companions ; hence a suspicion arose that the fire was designed and executed by them. The Privy Council were so far convinced of this being the case, that they closed the university, and banished the students till they could find caution for their good behaviour. Sir James?s house was rebuilt by the Scottish Corstorphine, in 1699, to the second and younger sons of his only daughter, Janet, who was married to Sir William Cunningham, Bart, of Caprington, by whom he was succeeded at his decease, in 1728. His son, Sir Alexander Dick (paternally Cunningham), had attained under the latter name a high repute in medicine, and became President of the Royal College at Edinburgh; and he it was who entertained Dr, Johnson and Boswell for OLD HOUSES, ECHO BANK. Treasury as it now exists. When he was coming from London in 1.682 with the duke, in the Gloucester mankf-war, she was cast away upon a sandbank, twelve leagues from Yarmouth, and then went to pieces. Sir James relates in a letter that the crew were crowding into a boat set apart for the royal duke, on which, the Earl of Winton and Sir George Gordon of Haddo had to drive them back with drawn swords. Sir James, with the Earls of Middleton and Perth, and the Laird of Touch, escaped in another boat; but the Earl of Koxburgh, the Laid of Hopetoun, and 200 men, were drowned. As Sir James Dick died without male issue, he made an entail of his estates of Prestonfield and 104 several days at Prestoniield, where he died, in his: eighty-second year, in 178s. The Mayfield Estate, which belongs to Mr.. Duncan McLaren, was laid out for feuing by the. late Mr. David Cousin; and more? recently the, adjacent lands of Craigmillar, the property of Mr. Little Gilmour, and all are now being rapidly covered with houses. Proceeding along the old Dalkeith Road, near Echo Bank, a gate and handsome lodge lead to Newington Cemetery, with a terrace and line of vaults. This was the second that was opened after that of Warriston, and was ready for interments in 1846. It was laid out by Mr. David Cousin; but as the designs were open to public ... Bank.] THE DICK-CUNNINGHAMS. 57 Albany and York, and his having adopted energetic measures with some of the ...

Book 5  p. 57
(Score 0.84)

OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Newhaven. ST.JAMES?S CHAPEL. 297 a manufactory of ropes and cables as having existed in Newhaven a short time before that period. In 1508, for the accommodation of his shipwrights and others, the king built the chapel. It was founded on the 8th of April; it was ?conveyed ? into the hands of James by the chaplain thereof, Sir James Cowie, ?Sir? being then the substitute for dontinus, when designating a priest. Indeed, James IV. seems to have been the entire originator of Newhaven. In 1510, the city of Edinburgh, fearing that this new seaport might prove prejudicial to theirs at Leith, purchased the whole place from the king, whose charter, dated at Stirling, 9th March of that year, describes it as ?? the new haven lately made alley which lies between the main street and Pier Pla.ce. In 1506 James IV. erected here a building-yard and dock for ships (the depth of water favouring the plan), besides a rope-walk and houses for the accommodation of artisans. Some portions of the Royal Roperie were visible here till the middle of the eighteenth century ; and in a work in MS. preserved in the Advocates? Library (a Latin description of Lothian), written about 1640, mention is made of the inner front of the houses of the South Row, which are built on the south side of the street of the said port. . . . We also will and ordain that they uphold the bulwarks and other defences necessary for receiving and protecting the ships and vessels riding thereto, for thegood and benefit of us, our kingdom and lieges.? (Burgh Charters, No. Ixiv.) From this we learn that in 1510 Newhaven had a pier and at least one street, known then, as now, by the name of South Row. Among the witnesses to this charter are Mathew, Earl of Lennox, Archibald, Earl of Argyle, George, Abbot of Holyrood, and many others. At this now small and rather obscure harbour by the said king, on the sea. coast, with the lands thereunto belonging, lying between the chapel of St. Nicholas (at Leith) and Wierdy Brae.? This charter gave the community of Edinburgh free and common passage from Leith to Newhaven, ?? with liberty and space for building and extending the pier and bulwark of the said port, and unloading their merchandise and goods in ships, and of unloading the same upon the land, and to fix ropes on the shore ; from the sea-shore of the said port to REMAINS OF ST. JAMES?S CHAPEL, NEWHAVEN. ... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Newhaven. ST.JAMES?S CHAPEL. 297 a manufactory of ropes and cables as having existed in ...

Book 6  p. 297
(Score 0.84)

238 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street. other, Willielmina, became the wife of John Lord Glenorchy. The fate of the Earl of Sutherland, and of his countess, whose beauty excited the admiration of all at the coronation of George III., was a very cloudy one. In frolicking with their first-born, a daughter, the earl let the infant drop, and it sustained injuries from which it never recovered, and the event had so serious an effect on his mind, that he resorted to Bath, where he died of a malignant fever. For twenty-one days the countess, then about to have a babe again, attended him unremittingly, till she too caught the distemper, and predeceased him by a few days, in her twenty-sixth year. Her death was sedulously concealed from him, yet the day before he expired, when delirium passed away, he said, I am going to join my dear Wife,? as if his mind had already begun to penetrate the veil that hangs between this world and the next. In one grave in Holyrood, near the north-east corner of the ruined chapel, the remains of this ill-fated couple were laid, on the 9th of August, 1766. Lady Glenorchy, a woman remarkable for the piety of her disposition, was far from happy in her marriage j but we are told that she met with her rich reward, even iii this world, for she enjoyed the applause of the wealthy and the blessings of the poor, with that supreme of all pleasures-the conviction that the eternal welfare of those in whose fate she was chiefly interested was forwarded by her precepts and example.? In after years, the Earl of Hopetoun, when acting as Royal Commissioner to the General Assembly, was wont to hold his state levees in the house that had been Lord Alva?s. To the east of hfylne?s Square stood some old alleys which were demolished to make way for the North Bridge, one of the greatest local undertakings of the eighteenth century. One of these alleys was known as the Cap and Feather Close, immediately above Halkerston?s Wynd. The lands that formed the east side of the latter were remaining in some places almost intact till about 1850. In one of these, but which it was impossible to say, was born on the 5th of September, 1750, that luckless but gifted child of genius, Robert Fergusson, the poet, whose father was then a clerk in the British Linen Company; but even the site of his house, which has peculiar claims on the interest of every lover of Scottish poetry, cannot be indicated. How Halkerston?s Wynd obtained its name we have already told. Here was an outlet from the ancient city byway of a dam or dyke across the loch, to which Lord Fountainhall refers in a case dated zIst February, 1708. About twenty years before that time it would appear that the Town Council ?had opened a new port at the foot of Halkerston?s Wynd for the convenience of those who went on foot to Leith; and that Robert Malloch, having acquired some lands on the other side of the North Loch, and made yards and built houses thereon, and also having invited sundry weavers and other good tradesmen to set up on Moutree?s Hill [site of the Register House], and the deacons of crafts finding this prejudicial to them, and contrary to the 154th Act of Parliament, I 592,?? evading which, these craftsmen paid neither scot, lot, nor stent,? the magistrates closed up the port, and a law plea ensued between them and the enterprising Robert Malloch, who was accused of filling up a portion of the bank of the loch with soil from a quarry. ?The town, on the other hand, did stop the vent and passage over the loch, which made it overtlow and drown Robert?s new acquired ground, of which he complained as an act of oppression.? Eventually the magistrates asserted that the loch was wholly theirs, and ?( that therefore he could drain no part of it, especially to make it regorge and inundate on their side. The Lords were going to take trial by examining the witnesses, but the magistrates prevented it, by opening the said port of their own accord, without abiding an order, and let the sluice run,? by which, of course, the access by the gate was rendered useless. Kinloch?s Close adjoined Halkerston?s Wynd, and therein, till about 1830, stood a handsome old substantial tenement, the origin and early occupants of which were all unknown. A mass of curious and abutting projections, the result of its peculiar site, it had a finely-carved entrance door, with the legend, Peir. God. in . Luzy., 1595, and the initials I. W., and the arms of the surname of Williamson, together with a remarkable device, a saltire, from the centre of which rose a crosssymbol of passion. Passing Allan Ramsay?s old shop, a narrow bend gives us access to Carrubber?s Close, the last stronghold of the faithful Jacobites after 1688. Episcopacy was abolished in 1689, and although from that period episcopal clergymen had no legal provision or settlement, they were permitted, without molestation, to preach in meeting-houses till I 746 ; but as they derived no emolument from Government, and no provision from the State, they did not, says Arnot, perplex their consciences with voluminous and unnecessary oaths, but merely excluded ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street. other, Willielmina, became the wife of John Lord Glenorchy. The fate of ...

Book 2  p. 238
(Score 0.83)

144 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [portobella monly let to one of the Duddingston tenants for zoo merks Scots, or LII 2s. z&d. sterling. Portobello Hut, built in 1742, by an old Scottish seaman who had served under Admiral Vernon, in 1739, was so named by him in honour of our triumph at that West Indian seaport, and hence the cognomen of this watering-place ; but houses must have sprung up around it by the year 1753, as in the Cowanf of that year, ?( George Hamilton in Portobello ? offers a reward of three pounds for the name of a libeller who represented him as harbouring in his house robbers, by whom, and by some smugglers, the locality was then infested. In the January of the following year the S o f s Magazine records that Alexander Henderson, ~~ teen fishwives (are) to trot from Musselburgh to the Canon(gate) Cross, for twelve pairs of lambs? hanigals.? The Figgate Bum was the boundary in this quarter of a custom-house at Prestonpans j the Tyne was the boundary in the other direction. The Figgate lands, on which Portobello and Brickfield are built, says the old statistical account, consist together of about seventy acres, and continued down to 1762 a mere waste, and were com- Lord Milton, the proprietor, to Baron Muir, of the Exchequer, for A1,500, and feuing then began at t f 3 per acre; but the once solitary abode of the old tar was long an object of interest, and stood intact till 1851, at the south-west side of the High Street, nearly opposite to Regent Street, and was long used as a hostelry for humble foot-travellers, on a road that led from the old Roman way, or Fishwives? Causeway, across the Whins towards Musselburgh. Parker Lawson, in his cc Gazetteer,? says it was long known as the Shtpheyds? Ha?. In 1765, Mr. William Jamieson, the feuar under Baron Muir, discovered near the Figgate Bum a valuable bed of clay, and on the banks of the stream he erected first a brick and tile works, a d master of a fishing-boat, on his way from Musselburgh to Leith, was attacked by footpads at the Figgate Whins, who robbed him of ten guineas that were sewn in the waistband of his breeches, 12s. 6d. that he had in his pocket, cut him over the head with a broadsword, stabbed him in the breast, and left him for dead. His groans were heard by two persons coming that way, who carried him to Leith.? About 1763 the Figgate Wins was sold by THE eRAIGANTINNIE MARBLES. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [portobella monly let to one of the Duddingston tenants for zoo merks Scots, or LII ...

Book 5  p. 144
(Score 0.83)

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

Book 5  p. 35
(Score 0.83)

OLD AND NEW EDINBUKGH. [Heriot?s Hospital. 366 with the idea of founding an institution in his native city, somewhat like Christ?s Hospital, and in the arrangements for this he was assisted by his cousin Adam Lautie, a notary in Edinburgh. Having thus set his house in order, he died peacefully in London on the 12th of February, 1Gz3, a year before his royal master James VI., and was buried at St. Martins-in-the-Fields, The whole of his large property, the legacies excepted, was by him bequeathed to the civic authorities and clergy of Edinburgh, for the eiection and maintenance of a hospital ?for the education, nursing, and upbringing of youth, being puir orphans and fatherless children of decayet burgesses and freemen of the said burgh, destitute, and left without means.? Of what wealth Heriot died possessed is uncertain, says Arnot ; but probably it was not under ~50,000. The town council and clergy employed Sir John Hay of Barns, afterwards Lord Clerk Register, to settle accounts with Heriot?s English debtors. Among these we find the famous Robin Carr, Earl of Somerset, the dispute being about a jewelled sword, valued at between g400 and As00 by the Earl, but at A890 by the executors. Heriot had furnished jewels to Charles I. when the latter went to Spain in 1623, and whenhe ascended the throne, his debt for these, due to Heriot, was paid to the trustees in part of the purchasemoney of the Barony of Broughton, the crown lands in the vicinity of the city. The account settled between Sir John Hay and the Governm of the Hospital, 12th of May, 1647, and afterwards approved by a decree of the Court of Session, after deducting legacies, bad debts, and compositions for debts resting by the Crown, amounted to A23,625 10s. 34d. sterling (Amot), and on the 1st July, 1628, the governors began to rear the magnificent hospital on the then open ridge of the High Riggs; but the progress of the work was interrupted by the troubles of subsequent years. Who designed Heriot?s Hospital has been more than once a vexed question, and though the edifice is of a date so recent, this is one of the many architectural mysteries of Europe. Among other fallacies, a popular one is that the architect was Inigo Jones, but for this assertion there is not the faintest shadow of proof, as his name does not appear in any single document or record connected with Heriot?s Hospital, though the names of several ?? Master Masoq? are commemorated in connection with the progess of the work, and the house contains a portrait of William Aytoun, master mason, engraved in Constable?s memoir of Heriot, published in 1822, 8 a cadet of the house of Inchdairnie in Fifes! iire. When the edifice was first founded the master cf works was William Wallace, who had under him an overseer. 0; foreman named Andrew Donaldson, who, says Billings, seems to have been in reality the master mason, while William Wallace was the architect. On his death the Governors recorded their high sense of ?his extraordinay panes and grait a i r he had in that wark baith by his advyce, and in the building of the same.? , l h e contract made in the year 1632, with William Aytoun, his successor, has been preserved ; and it appears to bc just the sort of agreement that would be made with an architect in the present day, whose duty it was to follow up, wholly or in part, the plans of his predecessar. ?lhs, Aytoun became bound (? to devyse, plott, and sett down what he sal1 think meittest for the decornient of the said wark ?and pattern thereof alreddie begun, when any defect is found; and to make with his awin handis the haill mowlds, alsweil of tymber, as of stane, belanging generally to the said wark, and generally the said William Aytoun binds and obliges him to do all and quhatsumevir umquihle William Wallace, last Maister Maissone at the said wark, aither did or intended to be done at the same.? The arrangements for the erection of the building were onginally conducted by a Dr. Balcanquall, a native of the city, one of the executors under Heriot?s last will, and who drew up the statutes. He had been a chaplain to James VI., and Master of the Savoy in the Strand. The edifice progressed till 1639, when there was a stoppage from want uf funds ; the tenants of the lands in which the property of the institution was vested being unable to pay their rents amid the tumult of the civil war. In the records, however, of the payments made about this period, we find the following extraordinary items :- aut Murch.-?I?o ye 6wemen yt drew ye cairt xxviijs wit ye chainyeis to zame vii lib. ijs. iiij lib iiijs. ond yair handis in ye cairt xijs. For 6 shakellis to ye wemeinis hands, Mair for 14 lokis for yair waists For ane qwhip for ye gentlwemen What species of ?gentlwemen? they were who were thus shackled, chained, whipped, and harnessed to a cart, it is difficult to conceive. In 1642 the work was recommenced in March, and there is an instruction that the two front towers be plat-formed, with ane bartisane about ilk ane .of them.? -4nd in July, 1649, ? George ... AND NEW EDINBUKGH. [Heriot?s Hospital. 366 with the idea of founding an institution in his native city, ...

Book 4  p. 366
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OLD -4NU NEW EDINBURGH. ... v11t CHAPTER XXXIV. INCHKEITH. PAGE The Defences of Leith-Inchkeith Forts-%. Serf-The Pest-stricken in 1497-Experiment of James lV.-The Old Fort-Johnson and Boswell-The New Chanuel -Colonel Moggridge's P l a n j T h e 'I hree New Forts-Magazines and Barracks-The Lighthouse . . 290 CHAPTER XXXV. NEWHAVEN. Cobbett on Edinburgh-Jam- IV.'s Dockyard -His Gift of Newhaven to Edinburgh-The GYCQ~ Michapl-Embarkation of Mary of Guise -Woc.ks at Newhaven in the Sixteenth Century-The Links-Viscount Newhaven-The Feud with Prestonpans-The Sea Fencibles --Chain Pier-Dr. Fairhirn-The E ishwives-Superstitions . , . . . , . . . . . . . . . 295 CHAPTER XXXVI. WARDIE, TRINITY, AND GRANTO~. Wardie Muir-Human Remqins Found-Bangholm Bower and Trinity Lodge-Christ Church, Trinity-Free Church, Granton Road-Pilton -Royston-Caroline Park-Granton-The Piers and Harhuun-Morton's Patent Slip , . . . . . . , . . 306 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. Cramond-Origin of the Name-Cramond of that Ilk-Ancient Charters - Inchmickery-Lord Cramond--Bdrnton -Goer and its Proprietors- Saughton Hall--Riccarton . . . . . . , . . . . . . . , . . . , . . 3'4 CH AI'TE R XXXVI 11. THE EXVIRONS OF EDINBURGH (confinzed). Colinton-Ancient Name and Church-Redhall-The Family of Foulis-Dreghom -The Pentlands-View from Tqhin-Comiston-Slateford- Grnysmill-Liberton -The Mill at Nether Liberton-Liberton Tower-The Chiirch-The Balm Well of St. Katherine-Grace Mount-The Wauchopes of Niddrie-Niddrie House-St Katherine's-The Kaime-Mr. Clement Little-Lady Little 01 Lihrton . 322 CHAPTER XXXIX. THE EXVIRONS OF EDINBURGH (continued). Cnrrie-Origin of the Name-Roman Camps-The Old Church and Temple Lands-Lennox Tower-Curriehill Castle and the Skenes- Scott of Malleny-James Andelson, LL.D.--"Camp Meg" and her Story . . . . . . . . . . , . 130 CHAPTER XL. THE ENVIRONS OF EDIXBURGH (coalinued). The Inch House-The WinramcEdmonstone and the Edmon.;tones of ttat Ilk-Witches-Woolmet-The Stenhouse-Moredun-The ' .338 Stewarts of Goodtrees-The Buckstane-Burdiehoux-Its Limekilns and Fossils . . . . , I . . . , . ... -4NU NEW EDINBURGH. ... v11t CHAPTER XXXIV. INCHKEITH. PAGE The Defences of Leith-Inchkeith Forts-%. ...

Book 6  p. 397
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OLD -4NU NEW EDINBURGH. ... v11t CHAPTER XXXIV. INCHKEITH. PAGE The Defences of Leith-Inchkeith Forts-%. Serf-The Pest-stricken in 1497-Experiment of James lV.-The Old Fort-Johnson and Boswell-The New Chanuel -Colonel Moggridge's P l a n j T h e 'I hree New Forts-Magazines and Barracks-The Lighthouse . . 290 CHAPTER XXXV. NEWHAVEN. Cobbett on Edinburgh-Jam- IV.'s Dockyard -His Gift of Newhaven to Edinburgh-The GYCQ~ Michapl-Embarkation of Mary of Guise -Woc.ks at Newhaven in the Sixteenth Century-The Links-Viscount Newhaven-The Feud with Prestonpans-The Sea Fencibles --Chain Pier-Dr. Fairhirn-The E ishwives-Superstitions . , . . . , . . . . . . . . . 295 CHAPTER XXXVI. WARDIE, TRINITY, AND GRANTO~. Wardie Muir-Human Remqins Found-Bangholm Bower and Trinity Lodge-Christ Church, Trinity-Free Church, Granton Road-Pilton -Royston-Caroline Park-Granton-The Piers and Harhuun-Morton's Patent Slip , . . . . . . , . . 306 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. Cramond-Origin of the Name-Cramond of that Ilk-Ancient Charters - Inchmickery-Lord Cramond--Bdrnton -Goer and its Proprietors- Saughton Hall--Riccarton . . . . . . , . . . . . . . , . . . , . . 3'4 CH AI'TE R XXXVI 11. THE EXVIRONS OF EDINBURGH (confinzed). Colinton-Ancient Name and Church-Redhall-The Family of Foulis-Dreghom -The Pentlands-View from Tqhin-Comiston-Slateford- Grnysmill-Liberton -The Mill at Nether Liberton-Liberton Tower-The Chiirch-The Balm Well of St. Katherine-Grace Mount-The Wauchopes of Niddrie-Niddrie House-St Katherine's-The Kaime-Mr. Clement Little-Lady Little 01 Lihrton . 322 CHAPTER XXXIX. THE EXVIRONS OF EDINBURGH (continued). Cnrrie-Origin of the Name-Roman Camps-The Old Church and Temple Lands-Lennox Tower-Curriehill Castle and the Skenes- Scott of Malleny-James Andelson, LL.D.--"Camp Meg" and her Story . . . . . . . . . . , . 130 CHAPTER XL. THE ENVIRONS OF EDIXBURGH (coalinued). The Inch House-The WinramcEdmonstone and the Edmon.;tones of ttat Ilk-Witches-Woolmet-The Stenhouse-Moredun-The ' .338 Stewarts of Goodtrees-The Buckstane-Burdiehoux-Its Limekilns and Fossils . . . . , I . . . , . ... -4NU NEW EDINBURGH. ... v11t CHAPTER XXXIV. INCHKEITH. PAGE The Defences of Leith-Inchkeith Forts-%. ...

Book 6  p. 398
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OLD -4NU NEW EDINBURGH. ... v11t CHAPTER XXXIV. INCHKEITH. PAGE The Defences of Leith-Inchkeith Forts-%. Serf-The Pest-stricken in 1497-Experiment of James lV.-The Old Fort-Johnson and Boswell-The New Chanuel -Colonel Moggridge's P l a n j T h e 'I hree New Forts-Magazines and Barracks-The Lighthouse . . 290 CHAPTER XXXV. NEWHAVEN. Cobbett on Edinburgh-Jam- IV.'s Dockyard -His Gift of Newhaven to Edinburgh-The GYCQ~ Michapl-Embarkation of Mary of Guise -Woc.ks at Newhaven in the Sixteenth Century-The Links-Viscount Newhaven-The Feud with Prestonpans-The Sea Fencibles --Chain Pier-Dr. Fairhirn-The E ishwives-Superstitions . , . . . , . . . . . . . . . 295 CHAPTER XXXVI. WARDIE, TRINITY, AND GRANTO~. Wardie Muir-Human Remqins Found-Bangholm Bower and Trinity Lodge-Christ Church, Trinity-Free Church, Granton Road-Pilton -Royston-Caroline Park-Granton-The Piers and Harhuun-Morton's Patent Slip , . . . . . . , . . 306 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. Cramond-Origin of the Name-Cramond of that Ilk-Ancient Charters - Inchmickery-Lord Cramond--Bdrnton -Goer and its Proprietors- Saughton Hall--Riccarton . . . . . . , . . . . . . . , . . . , . . 3'4 CH AI'TE R XXXVI 11. THE EXVIRONS OF EDINBURGH (confinzed). Colinton-Ancient Name and Church-Redhall-The Family of Foulis-Dreghom -The Pentlands-View from Tqhin-Comiston-Slateford- Grnysmill-Liberton -The Mill at Nether Liberton-Liberton Tower-The Chiirch-The Balm Well of St. Katherine-Grace Mount-The Wauchopes of Niddrie-Niddrie House-St Katherine's-The Kaime-Mr. Clement Little-Lady Little 01 Lihrton . 322 CHAPTER XXXIX. THE EXVIRONS OF EDINBURGH (continued). Cnrrie-Origin of the Name-Roman Camps-The Old Church and Temple Lands-Lennox Tower-Curriehill Castle and the Skenes- Scott of Malleny-James Andelson, LL.D.--"Camp Meg" and her Story . . . . . . . . . . , . 130 CHAPTER XL. THE ENVIRONS OF EDIXBURGH (coalinued). The Inch House-The WinramcEdmonstone and the Edmon.;tones of ttat Ilk-Witches-Woolmet-The Stenhouse-Moredun-The ' .338 Stewarts of Goodtrees-The Buckstane-Burdiehoux-Its Limekilns and Fossils . . . . , I . . . , . ... -4NU NEW EDINBURGH. ... v11t CHAPTER XXXIV. INCHKEITH. PAGE The Defences of Leith-Inchkeith Forts-%. ...

Book 6  p. 399
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Wton Hill.] THE BURGH OF CALTON. 103 r beneath the Caltoun Hill, the .place where those imaginary criminals, witches, and sorcerers in less enlightened times were burned ; and where at festive seasons the gay and gallant held their tilts and tournaments.? On the north-westem shoulder of the hill stands the modern Established Church of Greenside, at the end of the Royal Terrace, a conspicuous and attractive feature among the few architectural decorations of that district. Its tower rises IOO feet above the porch, is twenty feet square, and contains a bell of 10 cwt. The main street of the old barony of the Calton was named, from the ancient chapel which stood there, St. Ninian?s Row, and a place so called still exists; and the date and name ST. NINIAN?S Row, 1752, yet remains on the ancient well. 01 old, the street named the High Calton, was known as the Craig End. In those days?a body existed known as the High Constables of the Calton, but the new Municipality Act having extinguished the ancient boundaries of the city, the constabulary, in 1857, adopted the following resolution, which is written on vellum, to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland :- ? The district of Calton, or Caldton, formed at one time part of the estate.of the Elphinstone family, one of whom-% James, third son of the third Lord Elphinstone-was created Lord &Imerino in 1603-4 In 1631 the then Lord Balmerino granted a charter to the trades of Calton, constituting them a society or corporation ; and in 1669 a royal charter was obtained from Charles II., erecting the district into a burgh of barony. A court was held by a bailie appointed by the lord of the manor, and there was founded in . connectiontherewith, the Societyof Highconstables of Calton, who have been elected by, and have continued to act under, the orders of succeeding Baron Bailies. Although no mention is made 01 our various constabulary bodies in the ? Municipality Extension Act, 1856,? the venerable office of Baron Bailie has thereby become extinct, and the .ancient burghs of Canongate, Calton, Eastern and Western Portsburgh, are now annexed to the city. UnGer these circumstances the constabulary of Calton held an extraordinary meeting on the 17th of March, 1857, at which, infer alia, the following inotion was carried with acclamation, viz. ? That the burgh having ceased to exist, the con stabulary, in order that some of the relics and other insignia belonging to this body should be preserved for the inspection of future generations, unanimously resolve to present as a free gift to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland the. following, viz :-Constabulary baton, I 747, moderator? s official baton, marble bowl, moderator?? state staff, silver-mounted horn with fourteefi medals, members? small baton; report on the origin and standing of the High Constables OF Calton, 1855, and the laws of the society, 1847.?? These relics of the defunct little burgh are consequently now preserved at the museum in the Royal Institution. A kind of round tower, or the basement thereof, is shown above the south-west angle of the CaltoE cliffs in Gordon?s view in 1647 ; but of any such edifice no record remains ; and in the hollow where Nottingham Place lies now, a group of five isolated houses, called ? Mud Island,? appears in the maps. of 1787 and 1798. In 1796, and at many other times, the magistrates ordained that ? All-hallowfair be held on the lands of Calton Hill,? as an open and uncnclosed place, certainly a perilous one, for tipsy drovers and obstinate cattle. An agriculturist named Smith farmed the hill and lands adjacent, now covered by great masses of building, for several years, till about the close of the 18th century; and his son, Dr. John Smith, who was born in 1798, died only in February, 1879, afterbeing fifty years physician tQ the old charity workhouse in Forrest Road, . In 1798, when the Rev. Rowland Hill (thefamous son of Sir Rowland Hill, of Shropshire). visited Edinburgh for the first time, he preached in some of the churches every other day, but the crowds became so immense, that at last he was induced to hold forth from a platform erected on the Calton Hili, where his audience was reckoned. at not less than 10,000, and the interest excited by his eloquence is said to have been beyond all precedent. On his return from the West, he preached on the hill again to several audiences,. and on the last of these occasions, when a collection, was made for the charity workhouse, fully zo,oom were present. Long years after, when speaking to a. friend of the multitude whom he had addressed, there, he said, pleasantly, ? Well do I remember the spot ; but I understand that it has now been converted into a den of thieves,? referring to the gaol now built on the ground where his platform stood. The first great cba,nge in the aspect of the hill was effected by the formation of the Regent Road, which was cut through the old burying-ground, the soil of which avenue was decently carted away, covered with white palls, and full of remnants of humanity, to the new Calton burying-ground on] the southern slope ; and the second was the open ... Hill.] THE BURGH OF CALTON. 103 r beneath the Caltoun Hill, the .place where those imaginary criminals, ...

Book 3  p. 103
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OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Craigmillar. -- 58 competition, the first prize for the chapel, &c., was awarded to James Grant, Hope Park End. Skirting the cemetery on the west, the Powburn here tums south, and running under Cameron Bridge, after a bend, turns acutely north, and flows through the grounds of Prestonfield towards Duddingston Loch. Out of his lands of Cameron, Sir Simon Preston of Craigmillar, in 1474, gave an annual rent of ten marks to a chaplain in the church of Musselburgh. Craigmillar Park and Craigmillar Road take their name from the adjacent ruined castle ; and at Bridge-end, at the base of the slope on which it stands, James V. had a hunting-lodge and chapel, some traces of which still exist in the form of a stable. On the summit of an eminence, visible from the whole surrounding country-the crazg-moiZwd of antiquity (the high bare rock, no doubt, it once was) -stands the venerable Castle of Craigmillar, with a history nearly as long as that of Holyrood, and which is inseparably connected with that of Edinburgh, having its silent records of royalty and rank-its imperishable memories of much that has perished for ever. The hill on which it stands, in view of tile encroaching city-which ? bids fair some day to surround it-is richly planted with young wood ; but in the immediate vicinity of the ruin some of the old ancestral trees remain, where they have braved the storms of centuries. Craigmillar is remarkable as being the only family mansion in Scotland systematically built on the principles of fortification in use during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the centre tower, the square donjon keep is of the earliest age of baronial architecture, built we know not when, or by whom, and surrounded now by an external wall, high and strong, enclosing a considerable area, with round flanking towers about sixty feet apart in front, to protect the curtains between-all raised in. those ages of strife and bloodshed when our Scottish nobles- ?Carved at the meal with gloves of steel, And drank aeir wine through the helmet barredr? Its lofty and stately vaulted hall measures thirty-six feet long by twenty-two feet in breadth, with a noble fireplace eleven feet wide, and on the lower portions of it some remnants of old paintings may be traced, and on the stone slab of one 01 the windows a diagram for playing an old knightly game called ?Troy.? There are below it several gloomy dungeons, in one of which John Pinkerton, Advocate, and Mr. Irvine, W.S., discovered in 1813 a human skeleton, built into the wall upright. What dark secrets the old walls of this castle could tell, had their stones tongues ! for an old, old house it is, full of thrilling historical and warlike memories. Besides the keep and the older towers, there is within the walls a structure of more modern sppearance, built in the seventeenth century. This is towards the west, where a line of six handsome gableted dormer windows on each side of a projecting chimney has almost entirely disappeared ; one bore the date MDC. Here a stair led to the castle gardens, in which can be traced a large pond in the form of a p, the initial letter of the old proprietor?s name. Here, says Balfour, in I 509, ?? there were two scorpions found, one dead, the other alive.? There are the dilapidated remains of a chapel, measuring thirty feet by twenty feet, with a large square and handsomely-mullioned window, and a mutilated font. It was built by Sir +John Gilmour, who had influence enough to obtain a special ?? indulgence ? therefor from King James VII. It is a stable now. ?? On the boundary wall,? says Sir Walter Scott, ?may be seen the arms of Cockburn of Ormiston, Congalton of Congalton, Mowbray of Barnbougle, and Otterbum of Redford, allies of the Prestons of Craigmillar. In one corner of the court, over a portal arch, are the arms of the family: three unicorns? heads coupid, with a cheese-press and barrel, or tun-a wretched rebus, to express their name of Preston.? This sculptured fragment bears the date 1510. The Prestons of Craigmillar carried their shield above the gate, in the fashion called by the Italians smdopmdente, which is deemed more honourable than those carried square, according to Rosehaugh?s ? Science of Heraldry.? On the south the castle is built on a perpendicular rock. Round the exterior walls was a deep moat, and one of the advanced round towers-the Dovecot-has loopholes for arrows or musketry. The earliest possessor of whom we have record is ?Henry de Craigmillar,? or William Fitz- Henry, of whom there is extant a charter of gift of a certain toft of land in Craigmillar, near the church of Liberton, to the monastery of Dunfermline, in I z I 2, during the reign of King Alexander 11. The nearer we conie to the epoch of the long and glorious War of Independence, the more generally do we find the lands in the south of Scotland in the hands of Scoto-Nbrman settlers. John de Capella was Lord of Craigmillar, from whose family the estate passed into the hands of Simon Preston, in 1374, he receiving a charter, under ... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Craigmillar. -- 58 competition, the first prize for the chapel, &c., was awarded to ...

Book 5  p. 58
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350 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. No. CXL. SIR DAVID RAE OF ESKGROVE, BART., LORD JUSTICE-CLERK. SIR DAVID RAE was the son of the Rev. David Rae, a clergyman of the Episcopal persuasion in Edinburgh, by Apes, a daughter of Sir David Forbes of Newhall, Baronet, brother to the celebrated Duncan Forbes of Culloden. He was born in 1729, and acquired his classical education at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied for the bar, and was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1751. When the celebrated Douglas cause was before the Court, he was appointed one of the Commissioners who accompanied Lords Monboddo and Gardenstone (then advocates) to France, in 1764, for the purpose of investigating the proceedings which had been carried on in Paris relative to the case. After thirty years of honourable and successful practice at the bar, Mr. Rae was promoted to the bench on the death of Alexander Boswell of Auchideck in 1782, and succeeded Robert Bruce of Kennet as a Lord of Justiciary in 1785. On his promotion, he assumed the title of Lord Eskgrove, from the name of a small estate near Inveresk, not far from Musselburgh. On the bench he was distinguished by that depth of legal knowledge and general talent for which he was eminent as an advocate. His opinions were generally expressed in a clear, lucid manner ; and he sometimes indulged in humorous illustration. In a cause relating to the game-laws, decided in 1790,' after parties had been heard, and the Lord Justice-clerk (Macqueen), as well as Lord Hailes, had severally delivered their opinions in favour of the pursuer, Lord Monboddo, as he frequently did, held quite a different opinion from the rest of his brethren. He contended that, in order to prevent our noblemen and gentlemen from growing effeminate, and for preserving their strength and bodies in good order, the legislature meant to encourage sportsmen, and allowed them to pursue their game where they could find it; and he desired to see what law took away this right. There were laws, indeed, prohibiting them from hunting on enclosed grounds; but when it prohibited them from those grounds, it certainly implied that they were tolerated on grounds not enclosed. Although he should stand single in his opinion, he could see no reason for altering it. Lord Eskgrove observed in reply, that he was no hunter himself, and he The parties were the Earl of Breadalbane 'DL. ivingstone of Parkhall ; the latter having killed game on the lands of the Earl without permission. The w e was decided against the defender. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. No. CXL. SIR DAVID RAE OF ESKGROVE, BART., LORD JUSTICE-CLERK. SIR DAVID RAE was the ...

Book 8  p. 488
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OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Restalrig. them in my pocket and went up some public staircase to eat them, without beer or water. In this manner I lived at the rate of little more than fourpence a day, including everything." In the following season he lived in Edinburgh, and added to his baps a little broth. In 1760, when only in his nineteenth year, Adam-one of that army of great men who have made Scotland what she is to-day-obtained the head mastership of Watson's Hospital. This place was the patrimony of the Nisbet family, already referred to in our account of the ancient house of Dean, wherein it is related that Sir Patrick Nisbet of Craigantinnie, who was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1669, was subsequently designated '' of Dean," having exchanged his paternal lands for that barony with his second cousin, Alexander Nisbet. The latter, having had a quarrel with Macdougall of Mackerston, went abroad to fight a duel with 1Hti Huudr: OF THE LnGANS OF RESTALRIG, LOCH END. (PUYfh Uftter a Skr4ch by fhe Author J J I ~ C in 1847.) Year after year Restalrig was the favourite summer residence of the Rev. Hugh Blair, author of the well-known " Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-lettres," who died on the 27th of December 1800. , A little way north-east of Restalrig village stands the ancient house of Craigantinnie, once a simple oblong-shaped mansion, about four storeys in height, with crowstepped gables, and circular turrets ; but during the early part of this century made much more ornate, with many handsome additions, and having a striking aspect-like a gay Scoto-French chheau-among the old trees near it, and when viewed from the grassy irrigated meadows that lie between it and the sea. him, in 1682, attended by Sir William Scott of Harden, and Ensign Douglas, of Douglas's Regiment, the Royal Scots, as seconds. .On their return the Privy Council placed the whole four in separate rooms in the Tolbooth, till the matter should be inquired into ; but the principals were, upon petition, set at liberty a few days after, on giving bonds for their reappearance. On the death of Sir Alexander Nisbet at the battle of Toumay, unmarried, the estates and title reverted to his uncle, Sir Alexander, who was succeeded by his eldest son Sir Henry ; upon whose decease the title devolved upon his brother Sir John, who died in 1776. In that year the latter was succeeded by his ... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Restalrig. them in my pocket and went up some public staircase to eat them, without beer ...

Book 5  p. 136
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28 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Burghmuir. great forest of Drumsheugh, wherein the white. bull, the Caledonian boar, the elk and red deer roamed, and where broken and lawless men had their haunt in later times. Yet some clearances of timber must have been made there before 1482, when James Iii. mustered on it, in July, 50,000 men under the royal standad for an invasion of England, which brought about the rebellious raid of Lauder. On the 6th October, 1508, his son James IV., by a charter Among those who then got lands here were Sir Alexander Lauder of Blyth, Provost of the City, and George Towers of the line of Inverleith, whose name was long connected with the annals of the city. It was on this ground-the Campus Martius of the Scottish hosts-that James IV. mustered, in the summer of 1513, an army of IOO,OOO men, the most formidable that ever marched against England; and a fragment of the hare-stane, or bore- THE LIBRARY AAI.I., EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY. under the Great Seal, leased the Burghmuir to the council and community of Edinburgh (City Charters, I 143-1540) empowering them to farm and cIear it of wood, which led to the erection within the city of those quaint timber-fronted houses, many of which still remain in the closes and wynds, and even in the High Street. In 1510 we find, from the Burgh Records, that the persons to whom certain acres were let there, were bound to build thereon ?dwelling-houses, malt-barns, and cow-bills, and to have servants for the making of malt betwixt (30th April) and Michaelmas, I 5 I 2 ; and failing to do so, to pay to the common works of the town; and also to pay 6 5 for every acre of the three acres set to them.? stane, in which the royal standard was planted, on this and many similar occasions, is still preserved, and may be seen built into a wall, at Banner Place, near Morningside Church. As Drummond records, the place was then ? spacious and made delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks.? ?? There were assembled,? says Pitscottie, ? all his earls, lords, barons, and burgesses ; and all manner of men between sixty and sixteen, spiritual and temporal, burgh and land, islesmen and others, to the number of a hundred thousand, not reckoning carriagemen and artillerymen, who had charge of fifty shot-cannons.? When some houses were built in the adjacent School Lane in 1825, hundreds ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Burghmuir. great forest of Drumsheugh, wherein the white. bull, the Caledonian boar, ...

Book 5  p. 28
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of all human shape at the foot of the cliff. James V, was struck with remorse on hearing? bll this terrible story, He released the friar ; but, singular to say, William Lyon was merely banished the kingdom ; while a man named Mackie, by whom the alleged poison was said to be prepared, was shorn of his ears.+ On thd last day of February, 1539, Thomas Forret, Vicar of Dollar, John Keillor and John Beveridge, two black-friars, Duncan Simpson a priest, and a gentleman named Robert Forrester, were all burned together on the Castle Hill on a charge of heresy; and it is melancholy to know that a king so good and so humane as James Vb was a spectator of this inhuman persecution for religion, and that he came all the way from Linlithgow Palace to witness it, whither he returned on the 2nd of March. It is probable that he viewed it from the Castle walls. Again and again has the same place been the scene of those revolting executions for sorcery which disgraced the legal annals of Scotland. There, in 1570, Bessie Dunlop ?? was worried ? at the stake for simply practising as a ?wise woman? in curing diseases and recovering stolen goods. Several others perished in 1590-1 ; among others, Euphemie M?Calzean, for consorting with the devil, abjuring her baptism, making waxen pictures to be enchanted, raismg zi storm to drown Anne of Denmark on her way to Scotland, and so f0rth.f In 1600 Isabel Young was ?woryt at a stake I? for laying sickness on various persons, ?and thereafter burnt to ashes on the Castle Hill.??# Eight years after, James Reid, a noted sorcerer, perished in the same place, charged with practising healing by the black art, ?whilk craft,?? says one authority, ?? he learned frae the devil, his master, in- Binnie Craigs and Corstorphine, where he met with him and consulted with him diveE tymes, whiles in the likeness of a man, whiles in the likeness of a horse.? Moreover, he had tried to destroy the crops of David Liberton by putting a piece of enchanted flesh under his mill door, and to destroy David bodily by making a picturc of him in walc and mel$ng it before a fire, an ancient sdperstition-common to the Westerr Isles and in some parts of Rajpootana to thi: day. So great was the horror these crimes excited, that he was taken direct from the court to the stake. During the ten years of the Commonwealtt executions on this spot occurred with appalling frequency.$ On the 15th October, 1656, seven ~ Tytler, ? Criminal Trials,? &c. &c. $ ? Diurnal of Occumnts.? $ spot.iwod, ? Mmllany.? 0 Pitcairn xlprits were executed at once, two of whom were iurned ; and on the 9th March, 1659, ? there were,? iays Nicoll, ?fyve wemen, witches, brint on the :astell Hill, all of them confessand their covenantng with Satan, sum of thame renunceand. thair iaptisme, and all of them oft tymes dancing with ;he devell.? During the reign of Charles? I., when the Earl of Stirling obtained permission to colonise Nova Scotia, and to sell baronetcies to some zoo supposed colonists, with power of pit and gallows over their lands, the difficulty of enfeoffing them in possessions so distant was overcome by a royal mandate, converting the soil of the Castle Hill for the time being into that of Nova Scotia; and >etween 1625 and 1649 sixty-four of these baronets took seisin before the archway of the Spur. When the latter was fairly removed the hill became the favourite promenade of the citizens ; md in June, 1709, we find it acknowledged by the town council, that the Lord?s Day (? is profaned by people standing in the streets, and vaguing (sic) to ields, gardens, and the Castle Hill.? Denounce ill these as they might, human nature never could Je altogether kept off the Castle Hill ; and in old imes even the most respectable people promenaded :here in multitudes between morning and evening jervice. In the old song entitled ?The Young Laud and Edinburgh Katie,? to which Allan Ramsay added some verses, the former addresses i s mistress :7 ? Wat ye wha I met yestreen, Coming doon the street, my jo ? FG bonny, braw, and sweet, my jo I ? My dear,? quo I, ? thanks to the night, That never wished a lover ill, Since ye?re out 0? your mother?s sight, Let?s tak? a walk up to the HX.? ? M y mistress in her tartan screen, In IS58 there ensued a dispute between the magistrates of Edinburgh and the Crown as to the proprietary of the Castle Hill and Esplanade. The former asserted their right to the whole ground claimed by the board of ordnance, acknowledging no other boundary to the possessions of the former than the ramparts of the Castle. This extensive claim they made in virtue of the rights conferred upon them by the golden charter of James VI. in 1603, wherein they were gifted with all and whole, the loch called the North Loch, lands, pools, and marisches thereof, the north and south banks and braes situated on the west of the burgh, near the Castle of Edinburgh, on both sides of the Castle from the public highway, and that part of ... all human shape at the foot of the cliff. James V, was struck with remorse on hearing? bll this ...

Book 1  p. 86
(Score 0.81)

THE EARLY CHURCH. I39 St. Giles?s Church.] of that hospital used to present a bowl of ale to away. The first stone church was probably of every felon as he passed their gate to Newgate. Among the places enumerated by Simon Dunelmensis, of Durham, as belonging to the see .of Lindkfarn in 854, when Earnulph, who removed it to Chester-le-Street, was bishop, he includes that of Edinburgh. From this it must be distinctly inferred that a church of some kind existed on the long slope that led to Dun Edin, but no authentic record of it occurs till the reign of King Alexander II., when Baldred deacon of Lothian, and John perpetual vicar of the church of St. Giles at Edinburgh, attached their seals to copies of certain Papal bulls and charters of the church of Megginche, a dependency of the church of Holyrood ; and (according to the Liber Cartaruni Sanctae Crucis) on the Sunday before the feast of St. Thomas, in the year 1293, Donoca, daughter of John, son of Herveus, resigned certain Iands to the monastery of Holyrood, in full consis-, Norman architecture. A beautiful Norman dborway, which stood below the third window from the west, was wantonly destroyed towards the end of the eighteenth century. ?? This fragment,? says Wilson, ?sufficiently enables us to picture the little parish church of St. Giles in the reign of David I. Built in the massive style of the early Norman period, it would consist simply of a nave and chancel, united by a rich Norman chancel arch, altogether occupying only a portion of the centre of the present nave. Small circular-headed windows, decorated with zig-zag mouldings, would admit the light to its sombre interior; while its west front was in all probability surmounted by a simple belfry, from whence the bell would summon the natives of the hamlet to matins and vespers, and with slow measured sounds toll their knell, as they were laid in the neighbouring churchyard. This ancient church was never entire4 detory, held in the church of St. Giles. Its solid masonry was probably very is again mentioned, when William the bishop of St. forces of Edward 11. in 1322, when Holyrood was ,%ndrews confirmed numerous gifts bestowed upon spoiled, or by those of his son in 1335, when the abbey and its dependencies. In 1359 King the whole country was wasted with fire and sword. David II., by a charter under his great seal, con- The town was again subjected to the like violence, Catharine in the church of St. Giles all the lands I conflagration of 1385, when the English army .of Upper Merchiston, the gift of Roger Hog, under Richard 11. occupied the town for five days, burgess of Edinburgh. It is more than probable and then laid it and the abbey of Holyrood in 961, and built up again within the year. Of what ? the original fabric by the piety of private donors, must the materials have been? asks Maitland. I or by the zeal of its own clergy to adapt it to Burned again in 1187, it was rebuilt on arches of, the wants of the rising town. In all the changes .stone--? a wonderful work,? say the authors of the that it underwent for above seven centuries, the day. I original north door, with its beautifully recessed A portion of the church of St. Giles was arched ? Norman arches and grotesque decorations, always I with stone in 1380, as would appear from a con- commanded the veneration of the innovators, and I tract noted by Maitland, who has also preserved remained as a precious relic of the past, until the the terms of another contract, made in 1387, be- tasteless improvers of the eighteenth century de-. tween the provost and community of Edinburgh I molished it without a cause, and probably for no on one hand, an? two masons on the other, for the better reason than to evade the cost of its repair !? construction of five separate vaulted chapels along I In the year 1462 great additions and repairs. the south side of the church, the architectural appear to have been in progress, for the Town. features of which prove its existence at a period Council then passed a law that all persons selling I long before any of these dates, and when Edin- corn before it was entered should forfeit one chal- I der to church work. In the year 1466 it was I burgh was merely a cluster of thatched huts. The edifice, as it now stands, is a building erected into a collegiate church by James III.,. including the work of many different and remote the foundation consisting (according to Keitli and I periods. By all men of taste and letters in Edin- others) of a provost, curate, sixteen prebendaries,. burgh it has been a general subject of regret that sacristan, beadle, minister of the choir, and four the restoration in 1829 was conducted in a man- choristers. - Various sums of money, lands, tithes, ner so barbarous and irreverent, that many of its &c., were appropriated for the support of the new In an Act ? molished. passed in 1319, in the reign of Robert I., the church I partially affected by the ravages of the invading firmed to the chaplain officiating at the altar of St. i probably with results little more lasting, by the that the first church on the site was of wood. St. i ashes. The Norman architecture disappeared Paul?s Cathedral, at London, was burned down in I piecemeal, as chapels and aisles were added to ... EARLY CHURCH. I39 St. Giles?s Church.] of that hospital used to present a bowl of ale to away. The first stone ...

Book 1  p. 139
(Score 0.81)

52 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Sciennes. of hermit, or chaplain, resided ; and the charter of foundation mentions that he was to be clothed ?? in a white garment, having on his breast a portraiture of St. John the Baptist.? In the ?? Inventory of Pious Donations,? under date 2nd of March, 1511, there is found a ?charter of confirmation of a mortification by Sir John Crawford, one of the prebends of St. Giles?s Kirk, to a kirk built by him at St. Giellie Grange, mortifying thereunto 18 acres of land, with the.Quany Land Soon after the erection of this chapel the convent of St. Katharine was founded near it, by Janet Lady Seton, whose husband George, third Lord Seton, was slain at the battle of Flodden, where also fell his brother Adam, second Earl of Bothwell, grandfather of James, fourth Earl of Bothwell, and Duke of Orkney. After that fatal day she remained a widow for forty-five years, says the ?History of the House of Seytoun ?-for nearly half a century, according BROADSTAIRS HOUSE, CAUSEWAYSIDE, 1880. (Fronr a Pa?ntinx ay-G. M. AiRman.) given to him in charity by the said Burgh, with an acre and a quarter of a particate of land in his three acres and a half of the said Muir pertaining to him, lying at the east side of the common muir, betwixt the lands of John Cant on the west, and the common muir on the east and south parts, and the Mureburgh now built on the north.? This solitary little chapel was intended to be a charity for the benefit of the souls of the founder, his kindred, 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 foundeis name and family, and after his death the patronage rested with the Town Council. to the ?? Eglinton Peerage ?-and was celebrated for her ? exalted and matronly conduct, which drew around her, at her well-known residence at the Sciennes, all the female branches of the nobility.? In 1516 a notarial instrument on behalf of the sisters and Josina Henrison at their head, refemng to the foundation and mortification of St. John?s Kirk, on the Burgh Muir, is preserved among the ?? Burgh Records.? The convent was founded for Dominicans, and amid the gross corruption that prevailed at the Reformation, so blameless and innocent were the lives of these ladies that they were excepted from the general denunciation by the great satirist of the time, Sir David Lindsay, who, in his satire of the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Sciennes. of hermit, or chaplain, resided ; and the charter of foundation mentions ...

Book 5  p. 52
(Score 0.81)

Cmigmillar.] CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. Si Robert XI., ?of the lands of Craigmillar, in Vic du Edinburgh, whilk William de Capella resigned, sustennand an archer in the king?s army.? (Robertson?s ? Index?) Under the same monarch, some time after, another charter was granted, confirming ?John de Capella, keeper of the king?s chapel, in the lands of Erolly (sic), whilk Simon de Prestoun resigned ; he, John, performing the same service in the king?s chapel that his predecessors used to perform for the third part of Craigmillar.? The date 1474 above the principal gate probably refers to some repairs. Four years afterwards, William, a successor of Sir Simon Preston, was a member of the parliament which met at Edinburgh June I, 1478. He had the title .of Domine de Craigmillar, the residence of his race for nearly three hundred years. In 1479 this castle became connected with a dark and mysterious State tragedy. The Duke of Albany was accused of conspiring treasonably with the English against the life of his brother, James III., but made his escape from Edinburgh Castle, as related in Volume I. Their younger brother John, Earl of Mar, was placed a prisoner in Craigmillar on the same charges. James 111. did not possess, it was alleged, the true characteristics of a king in those days. He loved music, architecture, poetry, and study. ?He was ane man that loved solitude,? says Pitscottie, ?and desired never to hear of warre ?-a desire that the Scottish noblemen never? cared to patronise. Mar, a handsome and gay fellow, ? knew nothing but nobility.? He was a keen hunter, a sportsman, and breeder of horses for warlike purposes. Whether Mar was guilty or not of the treasons which were alleged against him will never be known, but certain it is that he never left his captivity alive. Old annalists say that he chose his own mode 01 death, and had his veins opened in a warm bath but Drummond, in his ? History of the Jameses,? says he was seized by fever and delirium in Craig millar, and was? removed to the Canongate, wherc he died in the hands of the king?s physician, eithei from a too profuse use of phlebotomy, or from his having, in a fit of frenzy, torn off the bandages. In 1517 Balfour records that the young king James V. was removed from Edinburgh to Craig millar, and the queen-mother was not permitted tc see him, in consequence of the pestilence ther raging. But he resided here frequently. In 1544 it is stated in the ? Diurnal of Occurents ? that thc fortress was too hastily surrendered to the Englisl invaders, who sacked and burned it. By far the most interesting associations of Craig nillar, like so many other castles in the south of kotland, are those in which Queen Mary behrs a )art, as she made it a favourite country retreat. Within its walls was drawn up by Sir James Balfour, with unique legal solemnity, the bond of Dardey?s murder, and there signed by so many iobles of the first rank, who pledged themselves o stand by Bothwell with life and limb, in weal or woe, after its perpetration, which bond of blood the wily lawyer afterwards destroyed. Some months after the murder of Rizzio, and while the grasping and avaricious statesmen of the !ay were watching the estrangement of Nary and ier husband, on the 2nd December, 1560, Le 3oc, the French Ambassador, wrote thus to the 4rchbishop of Glasgow :-? The Queen is for the xesent at Craigmillar, about a league distant from .his city. She is in the hands of the physicians, and I do assure you is not at all well, and do Jelieve the principal part of her disease to consist n deep grief and sorrow. Nor does it seem possible to make her forget the same. Still she repeats ihese words--?lcould wish to be dead!?? Craigmillar narrowly escaped being stained with the blood of the dissolute Darnley. It would zppear that when he returned from Glasgow, early in 1567, instead of lodging him in the fatal Kirk-0?- Field, the first idea of the conspirators was to bring , him hither, when it was suggested that his recovery from his odious disease might be aided by the sanitary use of a bath--? an ominous proposal to a prince, who might remember what tradition stated to have happened ninety years earlier within the same walls.? The vicinity abounds with traditions of the hapless Mary. Her bed closet is still pointed out ; and on the east side of the road, at Little France, a hamlet below the castle walls, wherein some of her French retinue was quartered, a gigantic plane-the largest in the Lothians-is to this day called ? Queen Mary?s Tree,?? from the unauthenticated tradition that her own hands planted it, and as such it has been visited by generations. In recent storms it was likely to suffer ; and Mr. Gilmour of Craigmillar, in September, 1881, after consulting the best authorities, had a portion of the upper branches sawn off to preserve the rest In ?? the Douglas wars,? subsequent to the time when Mary was a captive and exile, Craigmillar bore its part, especially as a prison ; and terrible times these were, when towns, villages, and castles were stormed and pillaged, as if the opposite factions were inspired by the demon of destruction -when torture and death were added to military execution, and the hapless prisoners were hurried ... CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. Si Robert XI., ?of the lands of Craigmillar, in Vic du Edinburgh, whilk William ...

Book 5  p. 59
(Score 0.81)

of Strathearn, the Rosabelle of Scott?s beautiful ballad, which tells us- ? There are twenty of Roslin?s barons bold, Lie buried in that proud chapelle, But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle. With candle, with book, and with bell ; The dirge of lovely Rosabelle.? Each one the holy vault doth hold, And each St. Clair is buried there, But the sea caves sung, and the wild waves rung, In 1264, Sir William, sixth of Roslin, was Sheriff of Edinburgh, Linlithgow, and Haddington ( r r Chamberlain Rolls ?7, and it was his son and successor, Sir Henry, who obtained from Robert I., for his good and faithful services, a charter of Pentland Muir, and to whom (and not to a Sir William) the well-known tradition of the famous huntingmatch thereon, which led to the founding of the chapel of St. Katherine in the Hope, must refer. With that muir he obtained other lands, whjch were ?all erected into a free forestry, for payment of a tenth part of one soldier yearly, in His son, Sir William, was one of the chosen companions of the good Sir James Douglas, whom he accompanied in the mission to convey Bruce?s 1317.? heart to Jerusalem, and with whom he perished in battle with the Moors at Teba, in 1331, He left an infant son, who, in 1350, was ambassador at the Court of England, whither he repaired with a train of sixty armed horse. He married Isabella, daughter of Malise, Earl of Strathearn, and was succeeded by his son, Sir Henry Sinclair of Roslin, who was created Earl of Orkney by Haco, King of Norway, in 1379-a title confirmed by Robert 11. According to Douglas, he married Florentina, a daughter of the King of Denmark. Nisbet adds that he was made Lord of Shetland and Duke of Oldenburg (which is considered doubtful), and that he was Knight of the Thistle, Cockle, and Golden Fleece. William, third earl, resigned his earldom of Orkney in favour of King James IIL, and adopted that of Caithness, which he resigned in 1476 to his son TVilliam, who became distinguished by the baronial grandeur of his household, and was the founder of the chapel. It is of him that Father Hay writes as ?a prince,? who maintained at the Castle of Roslin royal state, and was served at his table in vessels of gold and silver. Lord Dirleton was the master of his household, Lord Borthwick ... Strathearn, the Rosabelle of Scott?s beautiful ballad, which tells us- ? There are twenty of Roslin?s barons ...

Book 6  p. 348
(Score 0.81)

18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. mischievous subjects, he seized a ladder which stood beside him-flung it over his shoulder-and, in desperation, actually pursued the flying enemy for some distance ere he discovered that an apprentice of Mr. Donaldson, a painter, was holding on by the top of it, having been carried away while painting some letters on a sign. We shall conclude our reminiscences of Bailie Duff with one more anecdote. He had been intrusted to carry home a leg of mutton for a neighbour in the College ?Vynd ; but hours elapsed, and the Bailie appeared not. His employer waited long and anxiously. Dinner would be too late. Tired out at last, a.nd proceeding to the Bailie’s dwelling, she there found him, sure enough, with the mutton boiling nicely on his mother’s fire. Provoked beyond measure, the lady burst out in a tornado of abuse ; and, threatening to have him punished for breach of trust, was in the act of hurrying down-stairs with the reeking mutton, when the Baillie, grasping the boiling pot, threw it after her, exclaiming-“ If ye tak the m e a e t a k the broo tae.” No. CLXXVI. MAJOR-GENERAL ALEXANDER MACKAY, DEPUTY ADJUTANT-GENERAL TO THE FORCES IN SCOTLAND. TRIS worthy old soldier, a native of Sutherlandshire, was the second son of James Mackay of Skerray, in the district of Strathnaver, who held his lands in wadset from the Reay family. His father had a lieutenancy-in the Earl of Sutherland‘s Highland Regiment, raised in 1759, in which corps the Major-General commenced his military career as an Ensign. After the reduction of the Sutherland Fencibles in 1763, he served as a subaltern during the remainder of the Seven Years’ War. In 1775 he purchased his appointment as Lieutenant and Adjutant to the 69th Foot; and in 1779 was promoted to a company in the same regiment. . In 1780, when the Hon. General Alexander Mackay was invested with the Command of the Forces in Scotland, he chose Captain Mackay for one of his Aides-de-camp ; but the 69th Regiment being soon thereafter ordered abroad, the Captain resigned his staff appointment, and sailed with his regiment for America, where he was severely wounded in the arm. After the peace with America, he returned to Britain, and obtained his former place on the staff. In 1785 he was appointed Major of Brigade to the Forces in North Britain; in 1793 Deputy Adjutant-General in Scotland, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army j and in 1797 he was advanced to be Colonel in the Army. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. mischievous subjects, he seized a ladder which stood beside him-flung it over his ...

Book 9  p. 22
(Score 0.81)

New Town.] ? . WOOD?S FARM. 11.5 Lang Dykes; by the old Queensferry Road that I descended into the deep hollow, where Bell?s Mills lie, and by Broughton Loan at the other end of the northern ridge. Bearford?s Parks on the west, and Wood?s Farm on the east, formed the bulk of this portion of the site; St. George?s Church is now in the centre of the former, and Wemyss Place of the latter. The hamlet and manor house of Moultray?s Hill arc now occupied by the Register House; and where the Royal Bank stands was a cottage called ?Peace and Plenty,? from its signboard near Gabriel?s Road, ? where ambulative citizens regaled themselves with curds and cream,?? and Broughton was deemed so far afield that people went there for the summer months under the belief that they were some distance from ?town, just as people used to go to Powburn and Tipperlinn fifty years later. Henry Mackenzie, author of ?The Man of Feeling,? who died in 1831, remembered shooting snipes, hares, and partridges upon Wood?s Farm. The latter was a tract of ground extending frGm Canon Mills on the north, to Bearford?s Parks on the south, and was long in possession of Mr. Wood, of Warriston, and in the house thereon, his son, the famous ?Lang Sandy Wood,? was born in 1725. It stood on the area between where Queen Street and Heriot Row are now, and ?many still alive,? says Chambers, writing in 1824, ?remember of the fields bearing as fair and rich a crop of wheat as they may now be said to bear houses. Game used to be plentiful upon these groundsin particular partridges and hares . . . . . Woodcocks and snipe were to be had in all the damp and low-lying situations, such as the Well-house Tower, the Hunter?s Bog, and the borders of Canon Mills Loch. Wild ducks were frequently shot in the meadows, where in winter they are sometimes yet to be found. Bruntsfield Links, and the ground towards the Braid Hills abounded in hares.? In the list of Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, Alexander Wood and his brother Thomas are recorded, under date 1756 and 1715 respectively, as the sons of ?Thomas Wood, farmer on the north side of Edinburgh, Stockbridge Road,? now called Church Lane. A tradition exists, that about 1730 the magistrates offered to a residenter in Canon Mills all the ground between Gabriel?s Road and the Gallowlee, in perpetual fee, at the annual rent of a crown bowl of punch; but so worthless was the land then, producing only whim and heather, that the offer was rejected. (L? Old Houses in Edinburgh.?) The land referred to is now worth more than A15,ooo per annum. . Prior to the commencement of the new town, the only other edifices. on the site were the Kirkbraehead House, Drumsheugh House, near the old Ferry Road, and the Manor House of Coates. Drumsheugh House, of which nothing now remains but its ancient rookery in Randolph Crescent, was removed recently. Therein the famous Chevaliei Johnstone, Assistant A.D.C. to Prince Charles; was concealed for a time by Lady Jane Douglas, after the battle of Culloden, till he escaped to England, in the disguise of a pedlar. Alexander Lord Colville of Culross, a distinguished Admiral of the White, resided there s u b sequently. He served at Carthagena in 1741, at Quebec and Louisbourg in the days of Wolfe, and died at Drumsheugh on the zIst of May, 1770. His widow, Lady Elizabeth Erskine, daughter of Alexander Earl of Kellie, resided there for some years after, together with her brother, the Honourable Andrew Erskine, an officer of the old 71st, disbanded in 1763, an eccentric character, who figures among Kay?s Portraits, and who in 1793 was drowned in the Forth, opposite Caroline Park. Lady Colville died at Drumsheugh in the following year, when the house and lands thereof reverted to her brother-in-law, John Lord Colville of Culross. And so lately as 1811 the mansion was occupied by James Erskine, Esq.,. of Cambus. Southward of Drumsheugh lay Bearford?s Parks,. mentioned as ? Terras de Barfurd ? in an Act in. favour of Lord Newbattle in 1587, named from Hepburn of Bearford in Haddingtonshire. In 1767 the Earl of Morton proposed to have a wooden bridge thrown across the North Loch from these parks to the foot of Warriston?s Close, but the magistrates objected, on the plea that the property at the dose foot was worth A20,ooo. The proposed bridge was to be on a line with ?the highest level ground of Robertson?s and Wood?s Farms.? In the Edinburgh Adnediser for 1783 the magistrates announced that Hallow Fair was to be ?held in the Middle Bearford?s Park.? Lord Fountainhall, under dates 1693 and 1695, records a dispute between Robert Hepburn of Bearford and the administrators of Heriot?s hospital, concerning ?the mortified annual rents acclaimed out of his tenement in Edinburgh, called the Black Turnpike,? and again in 1710, of an action he raised against the Duchess of Buccleuch, in which Sir Robert Hepburn of Bearford, in I 633, is referred to, all probably of the same family. The lands and houses of Easter and Wester ... Town.] ? . WOOD?S FARM. 11.5 Lang Dykes; by the old Queensferry Road that I descended into the deep hollow, ...

Book 3  p. 115
(Score 0.81)

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