... OLD TOWN. 27
Hope, Christison, Lizars, Liston, and Robert Knox In lower but still lofty
literary regions ...
Book 11 p. 45
(Score 1.21)
![The Water of Leith.] ST. BERNARD?S WELL. 75
To protect it, a stone covering of some kind was
proposed, and in that year the foundation thereof
was actually laid by ?? Alexander Drummond,
brother of Provost Drummond, lately British Consul
at Aleppo, and Provincial Grand Master of all
the Lodges in Asia and Europe holding of the
Grand Lodge, Scotland.? The brethren in their
insignia were present, the spring was named St.
Bernard?s Well, and the subject inspired the local
muse of Claudero.
A silly legend tells how St. Bernard, being sent
on a mission to the Scottish Court, was met with
so cold a reception that, in chagrin, he came to
this picturesque valley, and occupied a cave in
the vicinity of the well, to which his attention was
attracted by the number of birds that resorted to
it, and ere long he announced its virtues to the
people There is undoubtedly a cave, and of no
inconsiderable dimensions, in the cliffs to the westward,
and it is now entirely hidden by the boundarywall
at the back of Randolph Cliff; but, unfortunately
for the legend, in the Bollandists there are
at least three St Bernards, not one of whom ever
was on British soil.
The present well-a handsome Doric temple,
with a dome, designed by Nasmyth, after the Sybils?
Temple at Tivoli-was really founded by Lord
Gardenstone in May, 1789, after he had derived
great benefit from drinking the waters. ?The
foundation stone was laid,? says the Advertiser for
that year, ?? in presence of several gentlemen of the
neighbourhood.? A metal plate was sunk into it
with the following inscription ;-
?< Erected for the benefit of the Public, at the sole expense
of Francis Garden, Esq., of Troupe, one of the senators of
the College of Justice, A.D. 1789. Alexander Nasmyth,
Architect ; John Wilson, Buiider.?
A fine statue of Hygeia, by Coade of London,
was placed within the pillars of the temple. For
thirty years after its erection it was untouched by
the hand of mischief, but now it is so battered
by stones as to be a perfect wreck. Since the
days of Lord Gardenstone the well has always
been more or less frequented. A careful analysis
of the water by Dr. Stevenson Macadam, showed
that it resembled closely the Harrogate springs.
The morning is the best time for drinking it.
During some recent drainage operations the water
entirely disappeared, and it was thought the public
would lose the benefit of it for ever; but after a
time it returned, with its medicinal virtues stronger
than ever.
A plain little circular building was erected in
1810 over another spring that existed a little to
the westward of St. Bernard?s, by Mr. Macdonald
of Stockbridge, who named it St. George?s Well.
The water is said to be the sameas that of the
former, but if so, no use has been made of it for
many years past. From its vicinity to the well.
Upper Dean Terrace, when first built, was called
Mineral Street. In those days India Place was
called Athole Street; Leggat?s Land was Braid?s
Row; and Veitch?s Square (built by a reputable
old baker of that name) was called Virgin?s Square.
The removal of the greater part of the latter,
which consisted of four rows of cottages, thirty in
number, and all thatched with straw, alters one of
the most quaint localities in old Stockbridge. Each
consisted only of a ?but and a ben?-i.e., two
apartments-and in the centre was a spacious
bleaching green, past which flowed the Leith, in
those days pure and limpid. The cottages were
chiefly. if not wholly, occupied by blanchtsseuses,
and hence its name.
The great playground of the village children was
the open and flat piece of land in the Haugh, near
Inverleith, known as the Whins, covered now by
Hugh Miller Place and nine other streets of artisans?
houses.
In past times flour-mills and tan-pits were the
chief means of affording work for the people of
Stockbridge. About 1814 a china manufactory
was started on a small scale on the Dean Bank
grounds, near where Saxe-Coburg Place stands
now. It proved a failure, but some pieces of the
?Stockbridge china? are still preserved in the
Industrial Museum.
As population increased in this district new
churches were required. Claremont Street Chapel,
now called St. Bernard?s Church, was built for
those who were connected with the Establishment,
at a cost of ~4,000, and opened in November, 1823.
Its first incumbent was the Rev. James Henderson of
Berwick, afterwards of Free St. Enoch?s, Glasgow.
About the year 1826, persons connected with
the Relief Church built Dean Street Church in
the narrow street at the back of the great crescent,
and named it St. Bernards Chapel. It was after- ?
wards sold to the United Secession body. In the
year 1843, at the Disruption, the Rev. Alexander
Brown, of St. Bernard?s, with a great portion of his
congregation, withdrew from the Church of Scotland,
and formed Free St. Bernard?s; and, more recently,
additional accommodation has been provided for
those of that persuasion by the re-erection in its
own mass, at Deanhaugh Street, of St. George?s
Free Church, which was built in the Norman style
of architecture, for the Rev. Dr. Candlish, at St.
Cuthbert?s Lane.
Mrs. Gordon is correct in stating that Stockbridge](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p086.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 75")
... Water of Leith.] ST. BERNARD?S WELL. 75
To protect it, a stone covering of some kind was
proposed, and in ...
Book 5 p. 75
(Score 1.21)
... OLD ANI) NEW EDINBURGH [Candlemaker Row.
and weekly thirty-two carriers put up in the same
quarter.
In that ...
Book 4 p. 268
(Score 1.21)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew squan. I
CHAPTER XXII.
ST. ANDREW SQUARE.
St Andrew Square-List of Early ...
Book 3 p. 166
(Score 1.21)
... SKETCHES. 367
factured, to “ gust the gabs ” of the young villagers, by whom it was held in
high ...
Book 9 p. 488
(Score 1.21)
... EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT.
Engraving on the left shows the entrance to the grinting-office and the
window of ...
Book 11 p. 44
(Score 1.2)
... OLD TOWN. 33
Do& spirit. So that we may almost change the name of this Row slightly, and
call it Poet ...
Book 11 p. 55
(Score 1.2)
![Charlotte Square.] THE ALBERT MEMORIAL. I75
His neighbour and brother senator Lord Dundrennan
occupied No. 35 ; and in 1811 William
Robertson, Lord Robertson, a senator of 1805,
occupied No. 42. He was the eldest son of Dr.
Robertson the historian, and in 1779 was chosen
Procurator of the Church of Scotland, after ,a close
contest, in which he was opposed by the Hon.
Henry Erskine. His personal appearance is
described in ? Peter?s Letters to his Kinsfolk.?
He retired from the bench in 1826, in consequence
of deafness, and died in November, 1835.
On the western side of the Square, and terminating
with fine effect the long vista of George
Street from the east, is St. George?s Church, the
foundation of which was laid on the 14th of May,
1811. It was built from a design furnished by
Robert Reid, king?s architect The celebrated
Adam likewise furnished a plan for this church,
which was relinquished in consequence of the
expense it would have involved. The whole building,
with the exception of the dome, which is a
noble one, and seen to advantage from any point,
is heavy in appearance, meagre in detail, and
hideous in conception, and its ultimate expense
greatly exceeded the estimates and the sum for
which the more elegant design of Adam could have
been carried out. It cost A33,ooo, is calculated
to accommodate only 1,600 persons, and was opened
for public worship in 1814. It was intended in
its upper part to be a large miniature or reduced
copy of St. Paul?s in London, and is in a kind of
Grzco-Italian style, with a lofty but meagre Ionic
portico and surmounting an Attic Corinthian colonnade
; it rests on a square ground plan measuring
IIZ feet each way, and culminates in the dome,
surmounted by a lantern, cupola, and cross, the
last at the height of 160 feet from the ground.
The original design included two minarets, which
have not as yet been added.
It is chiefly celebrated as the scene of the ministrations
of Andrew Thomson, D.D., an eminent
divine who was fixed upon as its pastor in 1814.
He died suddenly on the 9th of February, 1831,
greatly beloved and lamented by the citizens in
general and his congregation in particular, and now
he lies in a piece of ground connected with the
churchyard of St. Cuthbert.
In Charlotte Place, behind the church, are the
atelier of Sir John Steel the eminent sculptor, and
a music-room called St. Cecilia?s Hall, with an
orchestra space for 250 performers and seats for
500 hearers.
In the centre of the Square is the memorial to
the Prince Consort, which was inaugurated with
much state by the Queen in person, attended by
the magistrates and archer guard, &c., in August,
1876. It cost A16,500, and is mainly from
the studio of Steel It is a quasi-pyramidal structure,
about thirty-two feet high, with a colossal
equestrian statue of the Prince as its central and
upper figure ; it is erected on an oblong Peterhead
granite pedestal, fully seventeen feet high, and
exhibiting emblematic bas-reliefs in the panels,
with four groups of statues on square blocks, projecting
from the corners of the basement; the
prince is shown in the uniform of a field marshal.
Of all the many statues that have been erected
to his memory, this in Charlotte Square is perhaps
one of the best and most pleasing.
With this chapter we close the history of what
may be regarded as thejt-st New Town, which was
designed in 1767, laid out, as we have seen, in a
parallelogram the sides of which measure 3,900
feet by 1,090.
The year 1755 was the period when Edinburgh
seemed really to wake from the sleep and torpor
that followed the Union, and a few imprdvements
began in the Old Town. After that period, says
Kincaid, writing in 1794, ? it is moderate to say
that not less than ~3,000,000 sterling has been
expended in building and public improvements.?
Thirty-five years ago,? says the Edinburgh
Adverther for 1823, ? there were scarcely a dozen
sliops in the New Town; now, in Princes Street,
with the exception of hotels and the Albyn Club
Room, they reach to Hanover Street.?
In the present day the whole .area we have described
is mainly occupied by shops, with the exception
of Charlotte Square and a small portion of
Queen Street.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p187.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 175")
... Square.] THE ALBERT MEMORIAL. I75
His neighbour and brother senator Lord Dundrennan
occupied No. 35 ; ...
Book 3 p. 175
(Score 1.2)
![The Cowgate.] THE CUNZIE NOOK. 267
dexter hand palmed, and in its palm an eye. In
the dexter canton, a saltire argent, under the imperial
crown, surmounted by a thistle j and in base
a castle argent, masoned sable, within a border,
charged with instruments used by the society. To
the surgeons. were added the apothecaries.
James IV., one of the greatest patrons of art and
science in his time, dabbled a little in surgery and
chemistry, and had an assistant, John the Leeche,
whom he brought from the Continent. Pitscottie
tells us that James was ?ane singular guid chirurgione,?
and in his daily expense book, singular
entries occur in 1491, of payments made to people
to let him bleed them and pull their teeth :-
?Item, to ane fallow, because the King pullit
furtht his twtht, xviii shillings.
?Item, to Kynnard, ye barbour, for tua teith
drawin furtht of his hed be the King, xvci sh.?
The barbers were frequently refractory, and
brought the surgeons into the Court of Session t e
adjust rights, real or imagined. But after the union
of the latter with the apothecaries, they gave up
the barber craft, and were formed into one corporation
by an Act of Council, on the 25th February,
1657, as already mentioned in the account of
the old Royal College of Surgeons.
The first admitted after the change, was Christopher
Irving, recorded as ?? ane free chmgone,?
without the usual words ?and barber,? after his
name. He was physician to James VII., and from
him the Irvings of Castle Irving, in .Ireland, are
descended.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE SOCIETY.
The Candlemaker Row--The ? Cunzie Nook?-Tbe of Charles 1.-The Candlemakers? Hall--The Afhk of Dr. Symons-The Society, IS+
Brown Square-Proposed Statue to George III., x~-Di&nguished Inhabitants-Si IsIay Campbell-Lard Glenlec-Haigof Beimerside
--Si John Lerlie-Miss Jeannie Elliot-Argyle Square-Origin of it-Dr. Hugh Bkit-The Sutties of that Ilk-Trades Maiden Hospital-
-Mint0 House and the Elliots-New Medical School-Baptist Church-Chambers Strect-Idustrial Museum of Sdence and Art-Its
Great Hall and adjoining Halls-Aim of the Architect-Contents and Models briefly glanced at-New Watt Institution and School of
ArtsPhrenoloEical Museum-New Free Tron Church-New Tiainiing College of the Church of Scotland-The Dental Hospita-The
.
Theatre ofvari.&s.
THE Candlemaker Row is simply the first portion
of the old way that led from the Grassmarket and
Cowgate-head, where Sir John Inglis resided in
1784, to the lands of Bnsto, and thence on to
Powburn ; and it was down this way that a portion
of the routed Flemings, with Guy of Namur at their
head, fled towards the Castle rock, after their
defeat on the Burghmuir in 1335.
In Charles I.?s time a close line of street with a
great open space behind occupied the whole of the
east side, from the Greyfriars Port to the Cowgatehead.
The west side was the boundary wall of the
churchyard, save at the foot, where two or three
houses appear in 1647, one of which, as the Cunzie
Nook, is no doubt that referred to by Wilson as
a curious little timber-fronted tenement, surmounted
with antique crow-steps ; an open gallery
projects in front, and rude little; shot-windows admit
the light to the decayed and gloomy chambers
therein.? This, we presume, to be the Cunzie Nook,
a place where the Mint had no doubt been estab
Cshed at some early period, possibly during some
of the strange proceedings in the Regency of Mary
of Guise, when the Lords of the Congregation
?past to Holyroodhous, and tuik and intromettit
With the ernis of the Cunzehous.?
On the west side, near the present entrance to
the churchyard of the Greyfriars, stands the hall of
the ancient Corporation of the Candlemakers, which
gave its name to the Row, with the arms of the
craft boldly cut over the doorway, on a large oblong
panel, and, beneath, their appropriate motto,
. Omnia man;jesfa Zuce.
Internally, the hall is subdivided into many residences,
smaller accommodation sufficing for the
fraternity in this age of gas, so that it exists little
more than in name. In 1847 the number of its
members amounted to only fhw, who met periodically
for various purposes, connected with the corporation
and its funds.
Edgar?s plan shows, in the eighteenth century, the
close row of houses that existed along the whole of
the west side, from the Bristo Port to the foot, and
nearly till Forrest Road was opened up in a linewith
the central Meadow Walk.
Humble though this locality may seem now, Sir
James Dunbar, Bart., of Dum, rented No. ZI in
1810, latterly a carting office. In those days the
street was a place ?of considerable bustle; the
Hawick dilligence started twice weekly from
Paterson?s Inn, a well-known hostel in its time,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p087.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 267")
... Hall--The Afhk of Dr. Symons-The Society, IS+
Brown Square -Proposed Statue to George III., ...
Book 4 p. 267
(Score 1.17)
![343 - George Square.] LORD DUNCAN.
of the Scots Brigade, I have the honour to present
these colours to you, and I am very happy in
having this opportunity of expressing my wishes
that the brigade may continue by good conduct
to merit the approbation of our gracious sovereign,
and to ?maintain that high reputation which all
Europe knows that ancient and respectable corps
has most deservedly enjoyed.?
His address was received with great applause, - and many of the veterans who had served since
their boyhood in Holland were visibly affected.
We have already referred to the tragic results of
the Dundas riots in this square during 1792, when
the mob broke the windows of the Lord Advocate?s
house, and those of Lady Arniston and Admiral
Duncan, who, with a Colonel Dundas, came forth
and assailed the rabble with their sticks, but
were pelted with stones, and compelled to fly for
she1 t er.
The admiral?s house was KO. 5, on the north
side of the square, and it was there his family
resided while he hoisted his flag on board his ship
the Yenwable, and blockaded the Texel, till the
mutiny at the Nore and elsewhere compelled him
to bear up for the Yarmouth Roads; and in the
October of that year (1797) he won the great battle
of Camperdown, and with it a British peerage. The
great ensign and sword of the Dutch admiral he
brought home with him, and instead of presenting
them to Government, retained them in his own
house in George Square j and there, if we rernember
rightly, they were shown by him to Sir James
Hall of Dunglass, and his son, the future Captain
Basil Hall, then an aspirant for the navy, to
whom the admiral said, with honest pride, as he
led him into the room where the Dutch ensign
hung-
?Come, my lad, and 1?11 show you something
worth looking at.?
The great admiral died at Kelso in 1804, but
for inany years after that period Lady Duncan
resided in No. 5.
It was while the Lord Advocate Dundas was
resident in the square that, at the trial of Muir
and the other ?political martyrs,?? he spoke of
the leaders of the United Irishmen as ?? wretches
who had fled from punishment.? On this, Dr.
Drennan, as president, and Archibald Hamilton
Rowan of Killileagh, demanded, in 1793, a recantation
of this and other injurious epithets. No
reply was accorded, and as Mr. Rowan threatened
a hostile visit to Edinburgh, measures for his apprehension
were taken by the Procurator Fiscal.
Accompanied by the Hon. Simon Butler, Mr.
Rowan .arrived at Dumbreck?s Hotel, St. Andrew
Square, when the former, as second, lost no time
in visiting the Lord Advocate in George Square,
where he was politely received by his lordship,
who said that, ?although not bound to give any
explanation of what he might consider proper tu
state in his official capacity, yet he would answer
Mr. Rowan?s note without delay.? But Mr. Butler
had barely returned to Mr. Rowan when they were
both arrested on a sheriff?s warrant, but were liberated
on Colonel Norman Macleod, M.P., becoming
surety for them, and they left Edinburgh, after
being entertained at a public dinner by a select
number of the Friends of the People in Hunter?s
Tavern, Royal Exchange.
In No. 30 dwelt Lord Balgray for about thirty
years, during the whole time he was on the bench,
me of the last specimens of the old race of Scottish
judges ; and there he died in 1837.
In No. 32 lived for many years Francis Grant of
Kilgraston, whose fourth son, also Francis, became
President of the Royal Academy, and was knighted
[or great skill as an artist, and whose fifth son,
General Sir James Hope Grant, G.C.B., served
with such distinction under Lord Saltoun in China,
and subsequently in India, where he led the 9th
Lancers at Sobraon, and who further fought with
such distinction in the Punjaub war, and throughout
the subsequent mutiny, under Lord Clyde, and
whose grave in the adjacent Grange Cemeteryis
now so near the scenes of his boyhood.
In No. 36 lived Admiral Maitland of Dundrennan,
and in No. 53 Lady Don, who is said to have
been the last to use a private sedan chair.
No. 57 was the residence of the Lord Chief
Baron Dundas, and therein, on the 29th of May,
181 I, died, very unexpectedly, his uncle, the celebrated
Lord Melville, who had come to Edinburgh
to attend the funeral of his old friend the Lord
President Blair, who had died a few days before,
and was at that time lying dead in No. 56, the
house adjoining that in which Melville expired.
No. 58 was the house of Dr, Charles Stuart 01
Duneam in the first years of the present century.
His father, James Stuart of Dunearn, was a greatgrandson
of the Earl of Moray, and was Lord
Provost of the city in 1764 and 1768. The
doctor?s eldest son, James Stuart of Dunearn, W.S.,
a well-known citizen of Edinburgh, died in 1849.
The private sedan, so long a common feature
in the areas or lobbies of George Square, is no
longer to be seen there now. In the Edinburgh of
the eighteenth century there were fir more sedans
than coaches in use. The sedan was better suited
for the narrow wynds and narrower closes of the
city, and better fitted, under all the circmtances,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p163.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 343")
... - George Square.] LORD DUNCAN.
of the Scots Brigade, I have the honour to present
these colours to you, and I ...
Book 4 p. 343
(Score 1.17)
... College Church (restored) . . . . 289
Victoria Street and Terrace, from George Iv. Bridge. ...
Book 2 p. 394
(Score 1.16)
... Sciennu.1 CRAIGMILLAR ASYLUM. SI
former, but he could not take it down without pur
chasing the latter also. ...
Book 5 p. 51
(Score 1.16)
... a man named Clark, in the Fleshmarket Close.
He had the tact and art to keep his secret profligacy
unknown, ...
Book 1 p. 113
(Score 1.15)
![The Guard.] DISBANDMENT. 137 - _ _ .
Square, as if the image of a Stuart were the last
refuge for any memorial of our ancient manners.?
In that year the Guard was finally disbanded,
THE CITY GUARD-HOUSE. (After Key.)
and fifes played slowly and sadly-
? The last time I cam? o?er the muir.?
Scott mentions this, but he little knew that two
weapon called a Lochaber axe. Such a phantom and the modem police took its place. The last
of former days still creeps, I have been informed, duty performed by these old soldiers was to march
THREE CAPTAINS OF THE CITY GUARD. (AflerKay..)
Gcorgc Pitcairn, died 1791 ; Gmrge Robertson, died 1787 ; Robert Pilkns, died 1788.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p149.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 137")
... Guard.] DISBANDMENT. 137 - _ _ .
Square, as if the image of a Stuart were the last
refuge for any memorial of ...
Book 1 p. 137
(Score 1.13)
... P P E N D I X .
AS the greater part of the following Prints, though enumerated in the
Catalogue of Kay’s E t ...
Book 9 p. 635
(Score 1.11)
... OLD TOWN. 31
lust ; it was chiefly, we suspect,' vanity,-a feeling, seldom entertained by him,
and not ...
Book 11 p. 51
(Score 1.11)
... in March, 1566, a gift of all the patronages
and endowments in the city, which had belonged
to the ...
Book 4 p. 288
(Score 1.1)
... 9'
Snow-white, snow-soft, snow-silently,
Our darliig bud up-curled,
And drop i' the grave, ...
Book 11 p. 144
(Score 1.09)
... B I0 GR A PHI C AL SKETCHES.
“ Their massy boughs, compact on high,
Seasons with all their storms ...
Book 8 p. 443
(Score 1.08)
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
were exhumed in digging for the foundation of the north pier of the Dean Bridge. ...
Book 10 p. 407
(Score 1.07)
![Leith Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter?s sister, Maria Whiteford, afterwards Mrs.
Cranston, was the heroine of Bums?s song, ?The
Idass 0? Ballochmyle,? her father being one of the
poet?s earliest and warmest patrons.
The Gayfield quarter seems to have been rather
aristocratic in those days. In 1767, David, sixth
Earl of Leven, who had once been a captain in the
army, occupied Gayfield House, where in that year
his sister, Lady Betty, was married to John, Earl of
Walk is shown edificed from the corner of Picardy
Place to where we now find Gayfield Square,
which, when it was first erected, was called Gayfield
Place. West London Street was then called
Anglia Street, and its western continuation, in
which old Gayfield House is now included, was not
contemplated. North of this house is shown a
large area, ? Mrs. D. Hope?s feu ;? and between it
and the Walk was the old Botanical Garden.
In 1783 Sir John Whiteford, Bart., of that ilk,
Gordon, relict of Sir Alexander Gordon of Lesmoir,
Bart., died there.
Gayfield House is now a veterinary college.
In 1800 Sir John Wardlaw, Bart., of Pitreavie,
resided in Gayfield Square ; and there his wife, the
daughter of Mitchell of Pitteadie (a ruined castle
in Fifeshire), died in that year. He was a colonel
in the army, and died in 1823, a lieutenantcolonel
of the 4th West India Regiment.
No. I, Gayfield Place, was long the residence of
BOARD SCHOOL, LOVER?S LOAN.
a well-known citizen in his time, Patrick Crichton,
whose father was a coachbuilder in the Canongate,
and who, in 1805, was appointed lieutenantcolonel
commandant of the 2nd Regiment of Edinburgh
Local Militia. He had entered the army when
young, and attained the rank of captain in the
57th Regiment, with which he served during the
American war, distinguishing himself so much that
he received the public thanks of the comrnanderin-
chief. Among his friends and brother-oficers.
then was Andrew Watson, whose brother George
founded the Scottish Academy. When the war was
over he retired, and entered into partnership with
his father ; and on the first formation of the Volunteers,
in consequence of his great military e x p](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p172.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 161")
... Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter?s sister, Maria Whiteford, ...
Book 5 p. 161
(Score 1.07)
![Braid.] THE LANDS OF BRAID. 41
the city on the south, and directly overlook
Morningside. Their greatest altitude is 700 feet
According to one traditional legend, these hills
were the scene of ? Johnnie 0? Braidislee?s ? woeful
hunting, as related in the old ballad.
exposed to more than one
military visitation from
the garrison in Edinburgh
Castle. Knox?s secretary
records that on the 25th
May twelve soldiers came
to Braid, when the laird
was at supper, and
rifled the house of the
miller. Braid appeared,
but was treated with contempt,
and was told that
they would bum the house
about his ears if he did
not surrender to Captain
Melville, who was one of
the eight sons of Sir lames
Melville of Raith, and his
lady Helen Napier of Merchiston.
Though called ? a
quiet man,? the wrath of
the laird was roused, and
he rushed forth at the
head of his domestics,
the north bank of the latter stream, which meanders
close to it, and which takes its rise in the bosom
of the Pentlands, near the Roman camp above
Bonally.
It is a two-storeyed villa, with a pavilion roof
CHRIST. CHURCH, MORNINGSIDE.
armed with an enormous two-handed sword, and
cut down one of the soldiers, who fired their hackbuts
without effect, and were eventually put to flight.
In the early part of the eighteenth century Braid
belonged to a family named Brown, and a great
portion of it in the present century had passed into
the possession of Gordon of Cluny.
between the Braid Hills and Blackford, stands the
beautiful retreat called the Hermitage of Braid, on
In a romantic, sequestered, and woody dell,
102
and little corner turrets, in that grotesque style of
castellated architecture adopted at Gillespie?s
Hospital, and is evidently designed by the same
architect, though built about the year 1780. It
was the property of Charles Gordon of Cluny,
father of the ill-fated Countess of Stair, the once
beautiful ?Jacky Gordon,? whose marriage was
annulled in 1804, after which it frequently formed
her solitary residence. It afterwards became the
property of the widow of the late John Gordon of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p052.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 41")
... THE LANDS OF BRAID. 41
the city on the south, and directly overlook
Morningside. Their greatest altitude ...
Book 5 p. 41
(Score 1.07)
... but they failed to excite mutiny ; yet a
plan was formed by which it was expected that the
Castle and ...
Book 4 p. 237
(Score 1.07)
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![Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above places, as, at the Cross there are always
in waiting, running stationels, otherwise CUU?Z~, that will conduct
them to any place wanted. for a small charge.?
In style and accommodation the ?Elack Bull?
was one of those old-fashioned inns which were
the precursors of the modern hotel, and preserved
their style and features unchanged amid the encroachnients
of private speculation and the rage
for public improvement. Now the space on which
it stood is covered with shops and dwelling-houses.
In this street lived Margarot, one of the ? Friends
of the People,? who was arrested by Provost Elder,
Until recent years the old ?Black Bull? was
long established here, and an arch on the west side
gave access to the stables. In a species of advertisement
appended to Kincaid?s ? View of Edinburgh,?
in 1794~ is the following :-
?English Travellers, on business, are to be found commonly,
at Paterson?s, Foot of the Pleasance ; McFarlane?s,
Head of the Cowgate ; Kamsay?s Lodging?s, Milne Square ;
. McKay?s, Grassmarket; Lee?s, Black Bull, Head of Leith
good order and police. A great crowd assembled
at his lodgings in Leith Street about ten o?clock,
and he was conducted, with a wreath, or arch, held
over him, with inscriptions of Reason, Liberty, &c.
About the middle of the North Bridge, however,
the cavalcade was met by the Lord Provost, sheriff,
constable, peace-officers, Src., and immediately dispersed,
the arch was demolished, and its supporters
taken into custody. A press-gang attended to
assist the peace-officers. Mr. Margarot then walked
to the court, escorted by the Lord Provost, &c.:
and no disturbance ensued.?
Subsequently we read, that on the 10th of Feb
and tried for his, life on charges of treason, with
Hunter, Muir, and others. He conducted his own
case, and the court sentenced him to fourteen
years? transportation beyond the seas. ?In consequence
of the proceedings on the 9th instant,?
says the Annual Register for 1794, ?while Mr.
hfargarot went to the Justiciary Court, every precaution
was taken this day by the Lord Provost,
magistrates, and sheriff, to prevent any breach of
THE ALBEBT MEMORIAL, CHARLOTTE SQUARE.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p188.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 176")
