Edinburgh Bookshelf

Edinburgh Bookshelf

Search

Index for “dean bank institution”

272 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. IArgyle square. Many professors succeeded Blair as tenants of the same house; among them, Alexander Chris tison, Professor of Humanity, between 1806 and 1820, father of the great chemist, Professor Sir Robert Christison, Bart. In the north-western extremity of the square was the mansion of Sir George Suttie, Bart. of that ilk, and Balgone in Haddingtonshire, who married Janet, daughter of William Grant, Lord the two squares which was described as prevailing in their amusements-tea-drinking and little fetes. at a time when manners in Edinburgh were starched, stately, and old-fashioned, as the customs and ideas. that were retained, when dying out elsewhere. On the east side of this square was the old Trades Maiden Hospital, a plain substantial edifice, consisting of a central block, having a great arched door, to which a flight of steps ascended, OLD HOUSES, SOCIETY, 1852. (From a Drawing by Gewp U'. Sim~o#.) Prestongrange ; and here also resided his son, Sir James, who, in 1818, succeeded his aunt, Janet Grant, Countess of Hyndford, as heir of the line of Prestongrange, and assumed thereby in consequence the additional name and arms of Grant. Their neighbour was Lady Mary Cochrane, dwghter of Thomas sixth Earl of Dundonald, who died unmarried at an old age. In 1795 among the residents in -4rgyle Square were Sir John Da!rymple, the Ladies Rae, Sutton (dowager), and Reay, Elizabeth Fairlie (dowager of George Lord Keay, who died in 1768). Isolated from the rising New Town on the north by. the great mass of the ancient city, and viewing it with a species of antagonism and rivalry, we may well imagine the exclusiveness of the little coteries in and wings, with a frontage of about 150 feet. It was intended for the daughters of decayed trades men, and was a noble institution, founded in 1704 by the charitable Mrs. Mary Erskine, the liberal contributor to the Merchant Maiden Hospital, and who was indeed the joint foundress of both. In 1794 fifty girls were maintained in the hospital, paying AI 13s. 4d. on entrance, and receiving when they left it a bounty of ;E5 16s. 69d., for then its revenue amounted to only A600 per annum. In the process of making Chambers Street this edifice was demolished, and the institution removed to Rillbank near the Meadows. It stood immediately opposite Minto House, a handsome and spacious edifice on the north side of the square, forty-five feet square, on the slope ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. IArgyle square. Many professors succeeded Blair as tenants of the same house; among ...

Book 4  p. 272
(Score 1.43)

362 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. bank, unable to prove that the money with which he purchased the bills was part of the amount stolen from them in 1811, insisted, as a last resource, that Mackcoull should be subjected to a judiciub examinutim. This not very usual course was opposed ; but at length, finding it impossible to resist the Court, he made a virtue of necessity, and latterly submitted to the proposed examination. On the day appointed-the 4th of March 1819-the Outer House was crowded to excess, the cause having excited great interest. Attended by his counse1,l the pursuer appeared in due time; and throughout the whole of his long examination, which lasted for several days, he conducted himself with the greatest sang fioid-objecting to this and the other question ; and when his replies were occasionally so absurd and improbable as to elicit a laugh, he never failed to join in it. The examination havinz closed on the 11th of the month, without producing anything tending seriously to criminate him, Mackcoull instantly repaired to London, to consult his brother John, who had throughout been a useful adviser, and who was now in more request than ever, to furnish him with one or two fictitious letters, necessary to strengthen his averments in the Court, and which he had been ordered to produce. At the end of every session, Mackcoull repaired regularly to London, and used to be seen almost every night at Elakeman’s, where he sat the whole evening, drinking half and half, smoking his pipe, and entertaining the vulgar company around him with metuphom (as he called his jokes), and caricature descriptions of Scottish judges and lawyers-against all of whom he was violent in his denunciations.’ On his last visit, feeling assured of success, he was in great good-humour, and treated his friends with the utmost liberality. Having arranged matters to his liking, he again returned to Edinburgh : and, perfectly confident of victory, pressed his agent to bring the matter to an issue before the Jury Court. On the other hand, the defenders were as much disconcerted as he was elated. The only way in which they could possibly save themselves, was by recurring to the circnmstances connected with the robbery in 18 11, and producing evidence sufficient to identify Mackcoull as one of the party. This appeared a hopeless task ; yet they were resolved to attempt it. A professional gentleman was desptched to England, to make inquiry on the subject ; but he returned without success. In the meantime, the pursuer, aware of the intentions of his opponents, and knowing the precarious ground on which he stood, became the more importunate in forcing on the trial. This the bank was anxious to delay as long as possible, but at last it was finally fixed for the 20th February 1820. In this dilemma, the bank directors engaged Mr. Denovan (formerly of Leith, One of whom was Sir J. P. Grant, of Rothiemurchus, Knight, who afterwards received this honour on being appointed a Judge in India. In Edinburgh his time was spent much in the same way. He frequented a tavern in East Register Street, where he generally sat from morning till night drinking and smoking. He associated with all who came in his way ; and the subjects of his “metaphors” and denunciations were invariably Scotch bankers, bsilies, or lawyers. In this way he became well known to many ; and by some he wa.. looked upon a3 a person who had been ill used. Defeat appeared almost inevitable. ... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. bank, unable to prove that the money with which he purchased the bills was part of the ...

Book 9  p. 481
(Score 1.43)

THE ROYAL INFIRMARY. 299 h6rmary Street] students to witness surgical operations. The Infirmary has separate wards for male and female patients, and a ward which is used as a Lock hospital ; but even in ordinary periods the building had become utterly incompetent for the service of Edinburgh, and during the prevalence of an epidemic afforded but a mere fraction of the required accommodation, and hence the erection of its magnificent successor, to which we shall refer elsewhere. The Earl of Hopetoun, in 1742, and for the last twenty-five years of his life, generously contributed A400 per annum to the institution when it was young and struggling. In 1750 Dr. Archibald Kerr of Jamaica bequeathed to it an estate worth E218 11s. 5d. yearly; and five years afterwards the Treasury made it a gift of jG8,ooo j yet it has never met with the support from Government. that it ought to have done, and which similar institutions in London receive. But the institution owed most of its brilliant success to Lord Provost Drummond. Among his associates in this good work he had the honoured members of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Edinburgh, ever first in all works of goodness and charity; and the first Dr. Munro, Professor of Anatomy, was singularly sanguine of the complete success of the undertaking. That portion of the house which was founded by the Earl of Cromarty was opened for the reception of patients in December, 1741. The theatre described was made to serve the purposes also of a chapel, and twelve cells on the ground floor, for cases of delirium fremens, being found unnecessary, were converted into kitchens and larders, &c. The grounds around the house, consisting of two acres, and long bounded on- the south by the city wall, were laid out into grass walks for the convalescents, and ultimately the house was amply supplied with water from the city reservoir. In the years 1743-4 the sick soldiers of the regiments quartered in the Castle were accommodated in the Infirmary; and in the stormy period of the '45 it was of necessity converted into a great military hospital for the sick and wounded troops of both armies engaged at Prestonpans and elsewhere ; and in I 748 the surgeon-apothecaries, who since 1729 had given all manner of medical aid gratis, were feed for the first time. Wounded from our armies in Flanders have been sent there for treatment. In 1748, after paying for the site, building, furniture, &c., the stock of the institution amounted to &5,00o; and sick patients not wishing to be resident were invited to apply for advice on Mondays and Fridays, and were in cases of necessity admitted as supernumeraries at the rate of 6d. per day. About this time there was handed over an Invalid Grant made by Government to the city, on consideration of sixty beds being retained for the use of all soldiers who paid 4d. per diem for accommodation, This sum, &3, 2 70, was fully made over to the managers, who, for some time afteqfound themselves called upon to entertain so many military patients, that a guard had to be mounted on the house to enforce order; and liberty was obtained to deposit all dead patients in Lady Yester's churchyard, on the opposite side of the street. Hitherto the physicians had, with exemplary fidelity, attended the patients in rotation j but in January, 1751, the managers on being empowered by the general court of contributors, selected Dr. David Clerk and Dr, Colin Drummond, physicians in ordinary, paying them the small honorarium of ;E30 annually. The University made offer to continue its services, together with those of the ordinary physicians, which offer was gladly accepted; and though the practice fell into disuse, they were long continued in monthly rotation. To the option of the two ordinary physicians was left the visiting of the patients conjointly, or by each taking his own department. "It was their duty to sign the tickets of admission and dismission. In case of any unforeseen occurrences or dangerous distemper, the matron or clerks were permitted to use this authe rity ; the physicians en their amval, however, were expected to append their signatures to the tickets. The good and economy of the house from the first, induced the managers to appoint two of their number to visit the institution once every month, who were enjoined to inquire how far the patients were contented with their treatment, and to note what they found inconsistent with the ordinary regulations : their remarks to be entered in a book of reports, to come under review at the first meeting of managers." (" Journal of Antiq.," VoL 11.) In 1754 some abuses prevailed in the mode of dispensing medicines to the out-door patients, detrimental to the finances ; an order was given for a more judicious and sparing distribution. In the following pear application was made to the Town Council, as well as to the Presbytery of the Church, to raise money at their several churches to provide a ward for sick servants-which had been found one of the most useful in the house. From its first institution the ministers of the city had, in monthly rotation, conducted the religious services ; but in the middle of 1756 the managers appointed aregular chaplain, whose duty it was to preach every Monday in the theatre for surgical operations. ... ROYAL INFIRMARY. 299 h6rmary Street] students to witness surgical operations. The Infirmary has separate ...

Book 4  p. 299
(Score 1.43)

Moming+3c] THE ROYAL EDINBURGH ASYLUM. 39 sions and villas seem to crowd and jostle each other, till it has become an integral part of Edinburgh; but the adjacent hamlet of Tipperlinn, the abode chiefly of weavers, and once also a summer resort, has all disappeared, and nothing of it now remains but an old draw-well The origin of its name is evidently Celtic. Falcon Hall, eastward of the old village, is an elegant modem villa, erected early in the present century byawealthy Indian civilian, named Falconer; but, save old Morningside House, or Lodge, before that time no other niansion of importance stood here. In the latter-which stands a little way back kom the road on the west side-there died, in the year 1758, William Lockhart, Esq., of Carstairs, who had been thrown from his cliaise at the Burghmuir- head, and was so severely injured that he expired two days after. Here also resided, and died in 1810, William Coulter, a wealthy hosier, who was then in office as Lord Provost of the city, which gave him a magnificent civic and military funeral, which was long remembered for its grandeur and solemnity. On this occasion long streamers of crape floated from Nelson?s monument ; the bells were tolled. Mr. Claud Thompson acted as chief mourner-in lieu of the Provost?s only son, Lieutenant Coulter, then serving with the army in Portugal-and the city arms were borne by a man seven feet high before the coffin, whereon lay a sword, robe, and chain of office. Three volleys were fired over it by the Edinburgh Volunteers, of which he was colonel. A portrait of him in uniform appears in one of Kay?s sketches. In 1807 Dr. Andrew Duncan (already noticed in the account of Adam Square) proposed the erection of a lunatic asylum, the want of which had long been felt in the city. Subscriptions came in slowly, but at last sufficient was collected, a royal charter was obtained, and on the 8th of June, 1809, the foundation stone of the now famous and philanthropic edifice at Morningside was laid by the Lord Provost Coulter, within an enclosure, four acres in extent, south of old Morningside House Towards the erection a sum of LI,IOO came from Scotsmen in Madras. The object of this institution is to afford every possible advantage in the treatment of insanity. The unfortunate patients may be put under the care of any medical practitioner in Edinburgh (says the Scots Magmine for that year) whom the relations may choose to employ, while the poor will be attended gratis by physicians and surgeons appointed by the managers. In every respect, it is one of the most efficient institutions of the kind in Scotland, It is called the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, and has as its patron the reigning sovereign, a governor, four deputies, a board of managers, and another of medical men. The original building was afterwards more than doubled in extent by the addition of another, the main entrance to which is from the old road that led to Tipperlinn. This is called the west department, where the average number of inmates is above 500. It is filled with patients of the humbler order, whose friends or parishes pay for them 6 1 5 per annum. The east department, which was built in 1809, is for patients who pay not less than A56 per annum as an ordinary charge, though separate sitting-rooms entail an additional expense. On the other hand, when patients are in straitened circumstances a yearly deduction of ten, or even twenty pounds, is made from the ordinary rate. In the former is kept the museum of plaster casts from the heads of patients, a collection continually being added to ; and no one, even without a knowledge of phrenology, can behold these lifeless images without feeling that the originals had been afflicted by disease of the mind, for even the cold, white, motionless plaster appears expressive of ghastly insanity. In the west department the patients who are capable of doing so ply their trades as tailors, shoemakers, and so forth; and one of the most interesting features of the institution is the printing-office, whence, to quote Chambers?sJournal, ?is issued the Morningside Mirror, a monthly sheet, whose literary contents are supplied wholly by the inmates, and contain playful hits and puns which would not disgrace the habitual writers of facetious articles.?? From the list of occupations that appear in the annual report, it would seem that nearly every useful trade and industry. is followed within the walls, and that the Morningside Asylum supplies most of its own wants, being a little world complete in itself. Occupation and amusement here take the place of irksome bondage, with results that have been very beneficial, and among the most extraordinary of these are the weekly balls, in which the patients figure in reels and in country dances, and sing songs. At the foot of Morningside the Powburn takes the singular name of the Jordan as it flows through a farm named Egypt, and other Scriptural names abound close by, such as Hebron Bank, Canaan ... THE ROYAL EDINBURGH ASYLUM. 39 sions and villas seem to crowd and jostle each other, till it has ...

Book 5  p. 39
(Score 1.43)

High Street.] THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY. 279 resided here was John, fourth Marquis, who was Secretary of State for Scotland from 1742 till 1745, when he resigned the office, on which the Government at once availed themselves of the opportunity for leaving it vacant, as it has remained ever since. He died in 1762, and soon after the carriageentrance and the fine old terraced garden of the house, which lay on the slope westward, were removed to make way for the Episcopal church in the Cowgate-doomed in turn to be forsaken by its founders, and even by their successors. From the Tmeeddale family the mansion passed into the hands of the British Linen Company, and became their banking house, until they deserted it for Moray House in the Canongate, from which they ultiniatelymigrated to a statelier edifice inSt. Andrew Square. This company was originally incorpo- Tated by a charter under the Privy Seal granted by George 11. on the 6th of July, 1746, at a time when the mind of the Scottish people was still agitated by the events of the preceding year and the result of the battle of Culloden; and it was deemed an object of the first importance to tranquillise the country and call forth its resources, so that the attention of the nation should be directed to the advantages of trade and manufacture. With this view the Government, as well as many gentlemen of rank and fortune, exerted themselves to promote the linen manufacture, which had been lately introduced, deeming that it would in time become the staple manufacture of Scotland, and provide ample employment for her people, while .extensive markets for the produce of their labour would be found alike at home and in the colonies, then chiefly supplied by the linens of Germany. By the Dukes of Queensberry and Argyle, who became the first governors of the British Linen Company, representations to this effect were made to Government, and by the Earls of Glencairn, Eglinton, Galloway, Panmure, and many other peers, together with the Lord Justice Clerk Fletcher of Saltoun, afterwards Lord Milton, who was the first deputy governor, and whose mother, when an exile in Holland during the troubles, had secretly obtained a knowledge of the art of weaving and of dressidg the fine linen known as ? Holland,? and introduced its manufacture at the village of Saltoun; by the Lord Justice Clerk Alva ; Provost George Drummond ; John Coutts, founder of the famous banking houses of Forbes and Co., and Coutts and Co. in the Strand; by Henry Home, Lord Kames ; and many othqs, all of whom urged the establishment of the company, under royal sanction, and offered to become subscribers to the undertaking. A charter was obtained in accordance with their views and wishes, establishing the British Linen Company as a corporation, and bestowing upon it ample privileges, not only to manufacture and deal in linen fabrics, but also to do all that might conduce to the promotion thereof; and authority was given to raise a capital of ~roo,ooo, to be enlarged by future warrants under the sign manual of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to such sums as the affairs of the company might .require. After this the company engaged to a considerable extent in the importation of flax and the manufacture of yarns and linens, having warehouses both in Edinburgh and London, and in its affairs none took a more active part than Lord Milton, who was an enthusiast in all that related to the improvement of trade, agriculture, and learning, in his native country; but it soon became apparent that the company ? would be of more utility, and better promote the objects of their institution, by enlarging the issue of their notes to traders, than being traders and manufacturers themselves.? By degrees, therefore, the company withdrew from all manufacturing operations and speculations, and finally closed them in 1763, from which year to the present time their business has been confined to the discount of bills, advances on accounts, and other b.ank transactions, in support of Scottish trade generally, at home and abroad. ?By the extension of their branch agencies to a great number of towns,? to quote their own historical report, ? and the employment in discounts and cash advaqces of their own funds, as well as of that portion of the formerly scanty and inactive money capital of Scotland which has been lodged with the company, they have been the means of contributing very materially to the encouragement of useful industry throughout Scotland, and to her rapid progress in agricultural and mechanical improvements, and in commercial intercourse with foreign countries. As regards the particular object of the institution of the companythe encouragement of the linen manufa.cture-considerably more than half of the flax and hemp imported into the United Kingdom, is now (in 1878) brought to the Scottish ports.? Now the bank has nearly eighty branch or subbranch offices over all Scotland alone. The company?s original capital of AIOO,OOO has been gradually increased under three additional charters, granted at different times, under the Great Seal By Queen Victoria, their fourth charter, dated 19th March, 1849, ratifies and confirms all, their privileges and rights, and power was given to augment their capital to any sum not exceeding A r,5oo,ooo in all, for banking purposes. The amount of new ... Street.] THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY. 279 resided here was John, fourth Marquis, who was Secretary of State ...

Book 2  p. 279
(Score 1.42)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Charlea Anderson, Smiths. James Lowson, Weavers. Henry Thomson, Wrights. 403 James wardlaw, shahs. David Beveridge, Bakus. Robert Young, Mawnzp. Intimidation was usually the pretext for keeping the electors locked up in convivial durance. One notable example of this occurred about the year 1789 or 1790, Under the pretence that the lives of the elect.ors would be in danger if they remained in Kinghorn, Mr. Hutton and Lucky Skinner persuaded a majority of them one evening, when in their cups, to take flight for the mansion- house of Balcarras (the seat of Colonel Lindsay), more than twenty miles distant. Here they were entertained in a splendid manner for several weeks ; and only brought back in the “nick of time” to vote for a delegate in the ministerial interest. The success of this exploit greatly extended the fame of the town-clerk and the hostess ; and the heroes who professed to be intimidated were ever afterwards known by the expressive designation of “ the Balcarras Lambs.” The “row” recorded in the Print occurred at the general election in 1796. It was not properly speaking a Kinghorn affair at all ; for on that occasion Sir James St. Clair Erskine, afterwards Earl of Rosslyn, was elected without opposition. The adjacent district of burghs (Inverkeithing), however, was keenly contested by Sir John Henderson of Fordel, Bart., and the Hon. Andrew Cochrane Johnstone, afterwards Governor of Dominica. The result appearing doubtful, it occurred to the friends of the latter gentleman that the services of Mr. Hutton and Lucky Skinner-the much-famed guardians of ‘‘ the Balcarras Lambs ”-might be advantageously employed in furthering their cause, A party of the Dunfermline councillors were accordingly transported quietly during the night to Kinghorn, and safely lodged in the inn, When the retreat became known, the circumstance created great excitement in Dunfermline. Crowds of people assembled, and the shout “ to Kinghorn ” being raised, a numerous body-including detachments of colliers from Fordel, many of them armed with bludgeons-was speedily on the march to capture the electors. A blockade having been resolved upon, as the more prudent and Mr. Hutton, though resident in Kinghorn, was one of the Town-council of Dunfermline. The following is a list of the members at this period (1796) :- JAMES MOODIE, Pro!mst.’ James Hunt, First Ba.iZie.-Thomas Wardlaw, Seccmd Bailie. Robert Hutton, Dean of Guild. -Thomas Hunt, Treasurer. John Hutton, Old Provost. James Cowper, First Old Bailie.-David Anderson, Second Old Bailie. John Wilson, Old Dean of Guild.-William Anderson, Old Treasurer. New Merchant Couiscillors. Andrew Adie. Jamea Blackwood. New Trades counciWws. John Smith. John Kirk. ... SKETCHES. Charlea Anderson, Smiths. James Lowson, Weavers. Henry Thomson, Wrights. 403 James ...

Book 9  p. 539
(Score 1.42)

166 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew squan. I CHAPTER XXII. ST. ANDREW SQUARE. St Andrew Square-List of Early Residents-Count Bomwlaski-Miss Gordon or Cluny-Scottish Widows? Fund-Dr. A. K. Johnston- Scottish Provident Institution-House in which Lord Brougham was Born-Scottish Equitable Society-Chancrir of Amisfield-Douglas?s Hotel-Sir Philip Ainslic-British Linen Company-National Bank-Royal Bank-The Melvillc and Hopctoun Monuments-Ambrosc?r Tavern. BEFORE its conversion iiito a place for public offices, St. Andrew Square was the residence of many families of the first rank and position. It measures 510 feet by 520. Arnot speaks of it as ?the finest square we ever saw. Its dimensions, indeed, are, small when compared with those in London, but the houses are much of a size. They are of a uniform height, and are all built of freestone? The entire square, though most of the original houses still exist, has undergone such changes that, says Chambers, . ? the time is not far distant when the whole of this district will meet with a fate similar to that which we have to record respecting the Cowgate and Canongate, and when the idea of noblemen inhabiting St. Andrew Square will seem, to modem conceptions, as strange as that of their living in the,Mint Close.? The following is a list of the first denizens of the square, between its completion in 1778 and 1784.:- I. Major-General Stewart. 2. The Earl of Aboyne. He died here in his sixty-eighth year, in 1794. He was the eldest son of John, third Earl of Aboyne, by Grace, daughter of Lockhart of Carnwath, afterwards Countess of Murray. 3. Lord Ankerville (David Ross). 5. John, Viscount Arbuthnott, who died 1791. 6. Dr. Colin Drummond. 7. David Hume, afterwards Lord Dreghorn. 8. John Campbell of Errol. (The Earls of Em1 have ceased since the middle of the seventeenth century to possess any property in the part from whence they took their ancient title.) 11. Mrs Campbell of Balmore. 13. Robert Boswell, W.S. 15. Mrs. Cullen of Parkhead. 16. Mrs. Scott of Horslie Hill. 18. Alexander Menzies, Clerk of Session. 19. Lady Betty Cunningham. 20. Mrs Boswell of Auchinleck Boswell,? R. Chambers, 1824). 22. Jams Farquhar Gordon, Esq. 23. Mrs. Smith of Methven. 24 Sir John Whiteford. (25 in ? Williamson?s Directory.?) 25. William Fergusson pf Raith. 26. Gilbert Meason, Esq., and the Rev. Dr. Hunter. 27. Alexander Boswell, Esq.(aftemards Lord Auchinleck), and Eneis Morrison, Esq. 28. Lord Methven 30. Hon. Mrs. Hope. 32. Patrick, Earl of Dumfries, who died in 1803. (mother of ?Corsica 33. Sir John Colquhoun. 34. George, Earl of Dalhousie, Lord High Commissioner, 35. Hon. Mrs. Cordon. 38. Mrs. Campbell of Saddel, Cilbert Kerr of Stodrig, and Sir William Ramsay, Bart., of Banff House, who died in 1807. By 1784, when Peter Williamson published his tiny ? Directory,? many changes had taken place among the occupants of the square. The Countess of Errol and Lord Auchinleck were residents, and Thomas, Earl of Selkirk, had a house there before he went to America, to form that settlement in the Gulf of St. Lawrence which involved him in so much trouble, expense, and disappointment. No. I was occupied by the Countess of Leven ; the Earl of Northesk, KC.B., who distinguished himself afterwards as third in command at Trafalgar, occupied No. 2, now an hotel; and Lord Arbuthnott had been suceeeded in the occupancy of No. 5 by Patrick, Lord Elibank, who married the widow of Lord North and Grey. By 1788 an hotel had been started in the square by a man named Dun. It was there that the celebrated Polish dwarf, Joseph Borowlaski, occasionally exhibited himself. In his memoirs, written by himself, he tells that he was one of a family of five sons and one daughter, ?,and by one of those freaks of nature which it is impossible to account for, or perhaps to find another instance of in the annals of the human species, three of these children were above the middle stature, whilst the two others, like myself, reached only that of children at the age of four or five years.? Notwithstanding this pigmy stature, the count, by his narrative, would seem to have married, performed many wonderful voyages and travels, and been involved in many romantic adventures. At thirty years of age his stature was three feet three inches. Being recommended by Sir Robert Murray Keith, then Eritish Ambassador at Vienna, to visit the shores of Britain, after being presented, with his family, to- royalty in London, he duly came to Edinburgh, where, according to Kay?s Editor, ?? he was taken notice of by several gentlemen, among others by Mr. Fergusson, who generously endeavoured by their attentions to sweeten the bitter cup of life to the unfortunate gentleman.? 1777-82 ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew squan. I CHAPTER XXII. ST. ANDREW SQUARE. St Andrew Square-List of Early ...

Book 3  p. 166
(Score 1.41)

280 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. . [High Street. ?capital already created under the last charter is L;~OO,OOO stock, making the existing capital I,OOO,OOO, and there still remains unexhausted the privilege to create L500,ooo more stock .whenever it shall appear to be expedient to coinplete the capital to the full amount conceded in the charter-a success that the early projectors of the first scheme, developed in Tweeddale?s Close, could little have anticipated. The British Linen Company for a long series of years has enjoyed the full corporate and other privileges of the old chartered banks of Scotland ; and in this capacity, along with the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland, alone is specially exempted in the Bank Regulation Act for Scotland, from making returns of ?the proprietors? names to the Stamp Office. In the sixth year of the 19th century Tweeddale House became the scene of a dark event ? which ranks among the gossips of the Scottish capital with the Icon Basilike, or the Man with the Iron Mask.? About five in the evening of the 13th of November, I 806, or an hour after sunset, a little girl whose family lived in the close, was .sent by her mother with a kettle to get water for tea from the Fountain Well, and stumbling in the dark archway over something, found it to be, to her dismay, the body of a man just expiring. On an alarm being raised, the victim proved to be William Begbie, the messenger of the British Linen Company Bank, a residenter in the town of Leith, where that bank was the first to establish a branch, in a house close to the cpper drawbridge. On lights being brought, a knife was found in his heart, thrust up to the haft, so he bled to death without the power of uttering a word of explanation. Though a sentinel of the Guard was always on duty close by, yet he saw nothing of the event. It was found that he had been robbed of a package of notes, amounting in value to more than four thousand pounds, which he had been conveying from the Leith branch to the head office. The murder had been- accomplished with the utmost deliberation, and the arrangements connected with it displayed care and calculation. The weapon used had a broad thin blade, carefully pointed, with soft paper wrapped round the hand in such a manner as to prevent any blood from reaching the person of the assassin, and thus leading to his detection. For his discovery five hundred guineas were offered in vain ; in vain, too, was the city searched, while the roads were patrolled; and all the evidence attainable amounted to this :-? That Begbie, in proceeding up Leith Walk, had been accompanied by a ?man,? and that about the supposed time of the murder ?a man? had been seen by some chi\- dren to run out of the close into the street, and down Leith Wynd. . . . . There was also reason to believe that the knife had been bought in a shop about two o?clock on the day of the murder, and that it had been afterwards ground upon a grinding-stone and smoothed upon a hone.? Many persons were arrested on suspicion, and one, a desperate character, was long detained in custody, but months passed on, and the assassination was ceasing to occupy public -attention, when three men, in passing through the grounds of Eellevue (where now Drummond Place stands) in August, 1807, found in the cavity of an old wall, a roll of bank notes that seemed to have borne exposure to the weather. The roll was conveyed to Sheriff Clerk Rattray?s office, and found to ?contain L3,ooo in large notes of the money taken from Begbie. The three men received Lzoo from the British Linen Company as the reward of their honesty, but no further light was thrown upon the murder, the actual perpetrator of which has never, to this hour, been discovered, though strong suspicions fell on a prisoner named Mackoull in 1822, after he was beyond the reach of the law. This man was tried and sentenced to death by the High Court of Justiciary in June, 1820, for robbery at the Paisley Union Bank, Glasgow, and was placed in the Calton gaol, where he was respited in August, and again in September, ?during his majesty?s pleasure ? (according to the Edinburgh Week(yjournal), and where he died about the end of the year. In a work published under the title of ?The Life and Death of James Mackoull,? there was included a document by Mr. Denovan, the Bow Street Runner, whose object was to prove that Mackoull aZiis Moffat, was the assassin of Begbie, and his statements, which are curious, have thus been condensed by a local writer in 1865 :- ? Still, in the absence of legal proof, there is a mystery about this daring crime which lends a sort of romance to its daring perpetrator, Mr. Denovan discovered a man in Leith acting as a teacher, who in 1806 was a sailor-boy belonging to a ship then in the harbour. On the afternoon of the murder he was carrying up some smuggled article to a friend in Edinburgh, when he noticed ? a tall man carrying a yellow coloured parcel under his arm, and a genteel man, dressed in a black coat, dogging him.? He at once concluded that the man with the parcel was a smuggler, and the other a custom-house oficer. Fearful of detection himself, he watched their manmavres with considerable interest. He lost ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. . [High Street. ?capital already created under the last charter is L;~OO,OOO stock, ...

Book 2  p. 280
(Score 1.41)

106 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Glton Hill. money appropriated for the work was totally exhausted, and the luckless observatory was once more left to its fate, and when thus abandoned, was the scene of a singular disturbance in 1788. It was assailed by ten armed persons, who severely wounded a gentleman who endeavoured to oppose them ?in capturing the place, which was next literally stormed by the City Guard, ?without any killed or wounded,? says Kincaid, ?but in the hurry of conducting their prisoners to the guard-house, they omitted to take a list of the stores and ammunition found there.? On the 26th February, 1789, there were arraigned by the Procurator Fiscal these ten persons, among whom were Jacobina, relict of Thomas Short, optician in Edinburgh, John McFadzean, medical student, for forcibly entering, on the 7th November, ?the observatory formerly possessed by Thomas Short, optician, in order to dispossess therefrom James Douglas, grandson of the said Thomas Short, with pistols, naked swords, cutlasses, and other lethal weapons, attacking and wounding Robert Maclean, accountant of Excise,? &c. For this, eight were dismissed from the bar, and two were imprisoned .and fined 500 merks each. (Edin. Advert., 1789.) In 1792 the observatory was completed by the magistrates, but in a style far inferior to what the utility of such an institution deserved ; and being without proper instruments, or a fund for procuring them, it remained in this condition till 1812, when a more fortunate attempt was made to establish an observatory on a proper footing by the formation in Edinburgh of an Astronomical Institution, and the old edifice is how used for a self-registering anemometer, or rain-gauge, in connection with the new edifice. The latter had its origin in a few public-spirited individuals, who, in 1812, formed themselves into the Astronomical Institution, and circulated an address, written by their President, Professor Playfair, urging the necessity for its existence and progress. ? He used to state,? says Lord Cockburn, ? in order to show its necessity, that a foreign vessel had been lately compelled to take refuge in Leith, and that before setting sail again, the master wished to adjust his timepiece, but found that he had come to a large and learned metropolis, where nobody could tell him what o?clock it was.? A little to the east of the old institution, the new observatory was founded on the 25th April, I 8 I 8, by Sir George Mackenzie, Vice-President, from a Grecian design by W. H. Playfair, after the model of the Temple of the Winds, and consists of a central cross of sixty-two feet, with four projecting pedimentssupported bysix columns fronting the four points of the compass. The central dome, thirteen feet in diameter, contains a solid cone or pillar nineteen feet high, for the astronomical circle. To the east are piers for the transit instrument and astronomical clock; in the west end are others for the mural circle and clock. ? The original Lancastrian School,? says Lord Cockburn, ?? was a long wood and brick erection, stretched on the very top of the Calton Hill, where it was then the fashion to stow away anything that was too abominable to be tolerated elsewhere.?? , The great prison buildings of the city occupy the summit of the Doiv Craig, to which we have referred more than once. The first of these, the ? Bridewell,? was founded 30th November, 179r, by the Earl of Morton, Grand Master of Scotland, heading a procession which must have ascended the hill by the tortuous old street at the back of the present Convening Rooms. The usual coins and papers were enclosed in two bottles blown at the glass-house in Leith, and deposited in the stone, with a copper plate containing a long Latin inscription. The architect was Robert Adam. Prior to this the city had an institution of a similar kind, named the House of Correction, f a the reception of strolling poor and loose characters. It had been projected as far back as 1632, and the buildings therefor had been situated near Paul?s Work. Afterwards a building near the Charity Workhouse was used for the purpose, but being found too small, after a proposal to establish a new one at the foot of Forrester?s Wynd, the idea was abandoned, the present new one projected and camed out. It was finished in ~796, at the expense of the city and county, aided by a petty grant from Government. In front of it, shielded by a high wall and ponderous gate, on the street line, is the house for the governor. Semicircular in form, the main edifice has five floors, the highest being for stores and the hospital. All round on each floor, at the middle of the breadth, is a comdor, with cells on each side, lighted respectively from the interior and exterior of the curvature. Those on the inner are chiefly used as workshops, and can all be surveyed from a dark apartment in the house of the governor without the observer being visible. On the low floor is a treadmill, originally constructed for the manufacture of corks, but now mounted and moved only in cure of idleness or the punishnient of delinquency. The area within the circle is a small court, glazed overhead, The house is under good ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Glton Hill. money appropriated for the work was totally exhausted, and the luckless ...

Book 3  p. 106
(Score 1.4)

J48 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street. that sum has been called. It is expressly provided by the charter of the bank, granted 5th August, 1831, ?that nothing contained in these presents shall be construed as intended to limit the responsibility and liability of the individual partners of the said Corporation for the debts and engagements lawfully contracted by the said Corporation, which responsibility and liability is to remain as valid and effectual as if these presents had not been most elegant of any in Britain.? In addition to the ball-room, ? there is to be a tea-room, fifty feet by thirty-six, which will also serve as a ballroom on ordinary occasions ; also a grand saloon, thirty-eight feet by forty-four feet, besides other and smaller rooms. The whole expense will be 6,000 guineas, and the building is to be begun immediately. Another Assembly Room, on a smaller scale, is to be built immediately by the INTERIOR OF ST. ANDREW?S CHURCH, GEORGE STREET. granted, any law or practice to the contrary notwithstanding.? The branch of the Clydesdale Bank, a little farther westward on the other side, is a handsome building ; but the next chief edifice-which, with its arcade of three rustic arches and portico, was long deemed by those obstinately wedded to use and wont both an eyesore and encroachment on the old monotonous amenity of George Street, when first erected-is the Assembly Rooms. The principal dancing-hall here is ninety-two feet long by forty-two feet wide, and forty feet high, adorned with magnificent crystal lustres. ?? The New Assembly Rooms, for which the ground is staked out in the new town,? says the Edinburgh AdvPrtise7 for April, 1783, ?will be among the inhabitants on the south side of the town; in George Square,? Eventually this room was placed in Buccleuch Place. ? Since the peace,? continues the paper, ? a great deal of ground has been feued for houses in the new town, and the buildings there are going on with astonishing rapidity.? To the assemblies of 1783, the letters of Theophrastus inform us that gentlemen were in the habit of reeling ?from the tavern, flustered with wine, to an assembly of as elegant and beautiful women as any in Europe;? also that minuets had gone out of fashion, and country dances were chiefly in vogue, and that in 1787 a master of the ceremonies was appointed. The weekly assemblies here in the Edinburgh seasvn are now among the most brilliant and best con ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street. that sum has been called. It is expressly provided by the charter of ...

Book 3  p. 148
(Score 1.4)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 363 but at that time a Bow Street officer of much repute), who, commencing his investigations at Glasgow, and from thence carefully tracing the route of the robbers in their progress to London, was soon able to connect a chain of circumstantial evidence, well calculated to raise the hopes of his employers. The case having been again postponed, the trial was ultimately fixed for the 11th of May 1820. The Court was crowded to suffocation at an early hour. No civil case had ever created agreater sensation. The Judges were, the Lord Chief Commissioner Adam, Lord Gillies, and Lord Pitmilly. Counsel for the bank, Francis Jeffrey, Henry Cockburn, and James L’Amy, Esquires, and James Smyth, W.S.,’ agent ; for Mackcoull, J. P. Grant and Archibald Alison, Esquires; and Rlr. William Jamieson, W.S., agent. Mr. Cockburn‘was in the act of addressing the Court, and detailing the leading features of the case, when, to the astonishment of all present, Mackcoull appeared pressing through the crowd, not stopping till he got close to Mr. Cockburn. Here he stood with great composure, looking round with an arch grin peculiarly his own j and as the speaker proceeded, he came so close that Mr. Cockburn feeling interrupted by his presence, demanded that he should be removed to another part of the Court. Mr. Jeffrey joined in the same request, when the pursuer took his seat beside his own c~unsel.~ The identity of Mackcoull, as one of the three individuals who lodged in the house of the late Mrs. Stewart, Glasgow, previous to the robbery of the bank, and who posted their way to London immediately after its committal, was fully established by the various witnesses produced, and many facts were brought out tending to expose the whole plan of the robbery. Notwithstanding the turn which the case had thus taken against him, Mackcoull continued to walk about in Court, without betraying much uneasiness, and occasionally entered into conversation with those around him ; but when he heard the name of John Xcoltock, blacksmith in London, announced as the next witness, he rose and attempted to get out of Court. This he found impossible, owing to the hensity of the crowd ; and the instant he saw Scoltock, he changed colour and sank down by the side of the wall in a kind of faint. He was then carried out of Court, and did not again appear for some time. The evidence of the smith at once established the guilt of Mackcoull beyond the possibility -of doubt, and Mrs. Houghton White confirmed his testimony Mr. Smyth, who had been repeatedly insulted on the streets by Mackcoull, at length brought him before Mr. A. Sniellie, then a Police Magistrate. Mr. Smyth began his complaint by stating that Mackcoull bad robbed the Paisley Bank to the amount of %20,000. The latter instantly interrupted him in the host impudent manner, saying, “No, sir, that is not true, for the sum waa E20,406 !” ‘‘ Then,” replied Mr. Smyth, “the less I lie.” Mr. Smellie bound him over to keep the peace towards all his Majesty’s subjects, and in‘particular towards Mr. Smyth. It is believed he kept his promise. * Afterwar& Sheriff of Lanarkshiie, and author of the valuable and popular Histories of the French Revolutiou and Europe. The behaviour of Mackcoull was impertinent in the extreme : he stared at the judges with matchless effrontery. His agent, Mr. Jamieson, observed to him, that no man but himself could have acted as he had done in Court. Mackcoull, it is said, felt miwh pleased at this compliment. ... SKETCHES. 363 but at that time a Bow Street officer of much repute), who, commencing ...

Book 9  p. 482
(Score 1.39)

376 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. nucleus of one of the very latest foundations of a monastic institution in Scotland prior to the Reformation ; but we leave the history of the ancient religious and benevolent foundations of this locality for the next chapter. During the present century, it was destined for a very different purpose. When the Union Canal was first projected, its plans included the continuation of it through the bed of the North Loch, where the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway now runs. From thence it was proposed to conduct it to Greenside, in the area of which an immense harbour was to have been constructed ; and this again being connected by a broad canaI with the sea, it was expected that by such means the New Town would be converted into a seaport, and the unhappy traders of Leith compelled either to abandon their traffic, or remove within the precincts of their jealous rivals; Chimerical as .this project may now appear, designs were furnished by experienced engineers, a map of the whole plan was engraved on a large scale, and no doubt our civic reformers rejoiced in the anticipation of surmounting the disadvantages of an inland position, and seeing the shipping of the chief ports of Europe crowding into the heart of their uew capital I OE the memorials of the New Town, properly so called, very few fall legitimately within the plan of this work; yet even its modern streets possess some interesting associations that we would not willingly forego. We have already referred to the house which forms the junction with St Andrew Square and St David Street, as the last residence of the celebrated philosopher and historian, David Hume ; where that strange death-bed scene occurred which has been the subject of such varied comments both by the eulogists and detractors of the great sceptic. Directly opposite to Hume’s house, on the north side of the square, is the house in which Henry Brougham was born. At that period St Andrew Square contained the residences of several noblemen, and was deemed the most fashionable quarter of the rising’ town. The house on the same side at the corner of St Andrew Street was the mansion of David Steuart, Earl of Buchan, and possesses some claim to our interest as the place where the Society of Scottish Antiquaries was instituted in 1780, and where its earliest meetings were held.’ Within the fist eastern division of George Street, the eye of the modern visitor is attracted by the lofty and magnificent portico of the Commercial Bank, a building that seems destined to attest for ages the skill and taste, if not the inventive genius, of our native architects; yet it occupies the site of the Physicians’ Hall, a chaste Grecian edifice designed by Craig, the foundation-stone of which was laid by the celebrated Dr Cullen, in 1774, doubtless with the belief that remote ages might bring to light the memorials which were then buried in its foundations. Nor must we omit to notice the favourite dwelhg of Sir Walter Scott in North Castle Street- ‘‘ TAe ckar tAirty-nine,” which he left under such mournful circumstances in 1826. The New Town of Edinburgh has already many such associations with names eminent in literature and science, some of which, at least, will command the interest of other generations. Our Me~norials, however, are of the olden time, and ye leave future chroniclers to record those of the modern city. Paton’e Correspondence, pp. 170-172. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. nucleus of one of the very latest foundations of a monastic institution in Scotland ...

Book 10  p. 413
(Score 1.38)

Parliament House.] THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. - a vote among themselves in favour of that protest, declaring it to be founded on the laws of the realm, for which they were prosecuted before Parliament, and sharply reprimanded, a circumstance which gave great offence to the nation.. The affairs ot the Faculty are managed by a Dean, or President, a Treasurer, Clerk, and selected Council ; and, besides the usual branches of a liberal education, those who are admitted .as advocates must have gone through a regular course of civil and Scottish law. Connected with the Court of Session is the Society of Clerks, or Writers to the Royal Signet, whose business it is to subscribe the writs that pass under that signet in Scotland, and practise as attorneys before the Courts of Session, Justiciary, and the Jury Court The office of Keeper of the Signet is a lucrative one, but is performed by a deputy. The qualifications for admission to this body are an apprenticeship for five years with one of the members, after two years? attendance at the University, and on a course of lectures on conveyancing given by a lecturer appointed by the Society, and also on the Scottish law class in the University. Besides these Writers to the Signet, who enjoy the right of conducting exclusively certain branches .of legal procedure, there is another, but? inferior, society of practitioners, who act as attorneys before the various Courts, in which they were of long standing, but were only incorporated in 1797, under the title of Solicitors before the Supreme Courts, The Judges of the Courts of Session and Justiciary, with members of these before-mentioned corporate bodies, and the officers of Court, form the College of Justice instituted by James V., and of which the Judges of the Court of Session enjoy the title of Senators. The halls for the administration of justice immediately adjoin the Parliament House. The Court af Session is divided into what are nanied the Outer and Inner Houses. The former consists of five judges, or Lords Ordinary, occupying separate Courts, where cases are heard for the first time; tbe latter comprises two Courts, technically known .as the First and Second Divisions. Four Judges sit in each of these, and it is before them that litigants, if dissatisfied with the Outer House decision, may bring their cases for final judgment, unless .afterwards they indulge in the expensive luxury of appealing to the House of Lords. The Courts of the Lords Ordinary enter from the corridor at the south end of the great hall, and Those of the Inner House from a long lobby on the east side of it. Although the .College of Justice was instituted by James V., and held its first sederunt in the old Tolbooth on the 27th of May, 1532, it was first projected by his uncle, the Regent- Duke of Albany. The Court originally consisted of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President, fourteen Lords Ordinary, or Senators (one-half clergy and one-half laity), and afterwards an indefinite number of supernumerary judges, designated Extraordinary Lords. The annual expenses of this Court were defrayed from the revenues of the clergy, who bitterly, but vainly, remonstrated against this taxation. It may not be uninteresting to give here the names of the first members of the Supreme Judicature :- Alexander, Abbot of Cambuskenneth, Lord President ; Richard Bothwell, Rector of Askirk (whose father was Provost .of Edinburgh in the time of James 111,); John Dingwall, Provost of the Trinity Church; Henry White, Dean of Brechin ; William Gibson, Dean of Restalrig ; Thomas Hay, Dean of Dunbar; Robert Reid, Abbot of Kinloss ; George Kerr, Provost of Dunglass ; Sir William Scott of Balwearie ; Sir John Campbell of Lundie ; Sir James Colville of Easter Wemyss; Sir Adam Otterburne of Auldhame ; Nicolas Crawford. of Oxengangs ; Sir Francis Bothwell (who was provost of the city in 1535); and James Lawson of the Highriggs. The memoirs which have been preserved of the administration of justice by the Court of Session in the olden time are not much to its honour. The arbitrary nature of it is referred to by Buchanan, and in the time of James VI. we find the Lord Chancellor, Sir Alexander Seaton (Lord Fyvie in 1598), superintending the lawsuits of a friend, and instructing him in the mode and manner in which they should be conducted. But Scott of Scotstarvit gives us a sorry account of this peer, who owed his preferment to Anne of Denmark. The strongest proof of the corrupt nature of the Court is given us by the -4ct passed by the sixth parliament of. James VI., in 1579, by which the Lords were prohibited, ? No uther be thamselves, or be their wives, or servantes, to take in ony times cumming, bud, bribe, gudes, or geir, fra quhat-sum-ever person or persones presently havand, or that hereafter sal1 happen to have ony actions or causes persewed before them,? under pain of confiscation (Glendoick?s Acts, fol.). The necessity for this law plainly evinws that the secret acceptance of bribes must have been common among the judges of the time; while, in other instances, the warlike spirit of the people paralysed the powers of the Court. When a noble, or chief of rank, was summoned tu ... House.] THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. - a vote among themselves in favour of that protest, declaring it to ...

Book 1  p. 167
(Score 1.37)

Parliament Claw. One of the shops next to the jeweller?s was, about the middle of last century, a tavern, kept by the famous Peter Williamson, the returned Palatine (as the boys abducted from Aberdeen were called) who designated himself on his signboard as ?from the other world.? Here the magistrates partook of the Deid-chack-a dinner at the expense of the city-after having attended an execution, a practice abolished by Lord Provost Creech. In 1685 an Exchange was erected in the Parliament Close. It had a range .of piazzas for the accommodation of merchants transact- <ing business ; but by sold use and wont, attached as they were to the more ancient place of meeting, the ,Cross, this convenience was scarcely ever used by them. In 1685 the equestrian statue of Charles TI., a well-executed work in lead, was erected in the Parliament Close, not far from its present site, where one intended for Cromwell was to have been placed ; but the Restoration changed .the political face of Edinburgh. In the accounts of George Drummond, City Treasurer, I 684-5, it of the royal birthday are worthy of remembrance, as being perhaps amongst the most long-cherished customs of the people ere- ?? The times were changed, old manners gone, And a stranger filled the Stuart?s throne.? It was usual on this annual festival to have a public breakfast in the great hall, when tables, at the expense of the city, were covered with wines and confections, and the sovereign?s health was drunk with acclaim, the volleys of the Town Guard made the tall mansions re-echo, and the statue of King Charles wasdecorated with laurel leaves by the Add CaZZants, as the boys of Heriot?s Hospital were named, and who claimed this duty as a prescriptive right. The Bank of Scotland, incorporated by royal charter in 1695, first opened for business in a flat, or $%or, of the Parliament Close, with a moderate staff of clerks, and a paid-up capital of only ten thousand pounds ster- Zing. The smallest share which qny person could hold in this bank was LI,OOO Scots, and the largest SIR WILLIAM FORBES, C ? PITSLLGO. (AfierKuy.) appears thatthe king?s statue was erected by the provost, magistrates, and council, at the cost of A;z,580 Scots, the bill for which seems to have come from Rotterdam. On the Jast destruction of the old Parliament Close, by a fire yet to be recorded, thc statue was conveyed for .safety to the yard of the Calton Gaol, where it lay for some years, till the present pedestal was erected, in which are inserted two marble tablets, which had been preserved among some lumber under the Parliament House, and, from the somewhat fulsome inscriptions thereon, seem to have belonged to the first pedestal. Among the more homely associations of the Parliament Close, the festivities j6z0,ooo of the same money. To lend money on heritable bonds and other securities was the chief business of the infant bank. The giving of bills of exchange-the great business of private bankers-was, after much deliberation, tried by the ? adventurers,? with aview to the extension of business as far as possible. In pursuance of this object, and to circulate their notes through the realm, branch ofices were opened at Glasgow, Dundee, Montrose, and Aberdeen, to receive and pay out money, in the form of inland exchange, by notes and bills. But eventually the directors ?found that the exchange trade was not proper for a banking company,? ... Claw. One of the shops next to the jeweller?s was, about the middle of last century, a tavern, kept ...

Book 1  p. 176
(Score 1.35)

288 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. deemed it prudent to renounce the orders that had been tarnished by a composition 60 unwonted and unclerical. The more recent history of the Edinburgh stage is characterised by no incidents of very special note, until the year 1768, when it followed the tide of fashionable emigration to the New Town, and the Theatre Royal was built in the Orphan’s Park,’ which had previously been the scene of Whitfield’a labours during his itinerant visits to Edinburgh. The eloquent preacher is said to have expressed his indignation in no measured terms when he found the very spot which had been so often consecrated by his ministrations thus being set apart to the very service of the devil. The front land in the Canongate through which the archway leads into the Play-house Close is an exceedingly fine specimen of the style of building prevalent in the reign of Charles I. The dormer windows in the roof exhibit a pleasing variety of ornament, and a row of storm windows above them gives a singular, and, indeed, foreign air to the building, corresponding in style to the steep and picturesque roofs that abound in Strasbourg and Mayence. A Latin inscription on an ornamental tablet, over the doorway within the close, is now so much defaced that only a word or two can be deciphered. The building where Ryan, Digges, Bellamy, Lancashire, and a host of nameless actors figured on the stage, to the admiring gaze of fashionable audiences of lad century, has long since been displaced by private erections. Nearly fronting the entrance to this close, a radiated arrangement of the paving indicates the site of St John’s Cross, the ancient eastern boundary of the capital. It still marks the limit of its ecclesiastical bounds on the south side of the street, and here, till a comparatively recent period, all extraordinary proclamations were announced by the Lion Heralds, with sound of trumpets, and the magistrates and public bodies of the Burgh of Canongate joined such processions as passed through their ancient jurisdiction in their progress to the Abbey. A little further eastward is St John’s Close, an ancient alley, bearing over an old doorway within it, the inscription in bold Roman characters :-THE . LORD . IS . ONLY. MY. ~VPORT. Immediately adjoining this is St John Street, a broad and handsome thoroughfare, forming the boldest scheme of civic improvement effected in Edinburgh before the completion of the North Bridge, and the rival works on the south side of the town. This aristocratic quarter of last century was in progress in 1768, as appears from the date cut over a back doorway of the centre house j and soon afterwards the names of the old Scottish aristocracy that still resided in the capital-Earls, Lords, Baronets, and Lords of Session-are found among its chief occupants. Here, in No. 13, was the residence of Lord Monboddo, and the lovely Miss .Burnet, whose early death is so touchingly commemorated by the Poet Burns, a frequent guest at St John Street during his residence in the capital; and within a few daors of it, at No 10, resided James Ballantyne, the partner and confidant of Sir Walter Scott in the literary adventures of the Great Unknown. Here was the scene of those assemblies of select and favoured guests to whom the hospit- ’ So called from ita vicinity to the Orphan’s Hospital, a benevolent institution which obtained the high commendations of Howard and the aid of Whitfield during the repeated visits made by both to Edinburgh. A very characteristic portrait of the latter is now in the hall of the new Hospital erected at the Dean. The venerable clock of the Nether Bow Port has also been transferred from the steeple of the old building to an elegant site over the pediment of the new portico, where, notwithstanding such external symptoms of renewing ita youth, it still asserts ita claim to the privileges and immunitiea of age by frequent aberrations of a very eccentric character. ... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. deemed it prudent to renounce the orders that had been tarnished by a composition ...

Book 10  p. 312
(Score 1.33)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . --c- THE OLD CHURCH OF ST . CUTHBERT?S AND THE NORTH LOCH (after CZffSh of Eldin).-Rrontisrp;eCr. Keys of the City of Edinburgh . . . . . Paul?s Work . . . . . . . . Illustrated Heading ; . . . . . . The .. Maiden . . . . . . . . . The ?White Horse? Inn . . . . . Fac-simile of a View of Edpburgh in 1 5 4 . . Common SealofEdinburgh . . . . . Counter Seal of the Above . . . . . John Kay (1786) . . . . . . . Urn found at the Dean . . . . . . The Roman Road. near Portobello-The. ? Fishwives? Causeway . . . . . . . . . Arthur?s Seat. from St . Leonards The Arms of the City of Edinburgh . . . . . Fac-simile of a View of the Old Town. from a housetop at theTronChurch . . . . . Bird?s-eye View of the Castle and City of Edinburgh Dungeons in the Castle. below Queen Mary?s Room . . . . . St . Margaret?s Chapel. Edinburgh Castle . . . Chancel Arch of S t. Margaret?s Chapel ?Wallace?s Cradle. .. Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle. as it was before 1573 . . . . . . . . . Ruins of the Well-house Tower . . . . The Royal Lodging or Palace. from the Grand Parade Prospect of Edinburgh. from the North. 1693 (ajm EdinburghCastle in 1647 . . . . . . The Blue Blanket. or Standard of the Incorporated Tradesof Edinburgh . . . . . . . James Hamilton. Earl of Arran ; John Erskine. Earl of Mar; Archibald, Earl ofAngus; The Regent Moray Plan of Edinburgh. showing the Flodden Wall . . Edinburgh. from the North and South . . . John Duke of Albany. and Queen Margaret . . Edinburgh Castle. from the South-west . . . Stone which formerly stood over the Barrier-gateway of Edinburgh Castle . . . . . . Room in Edinburgh Castle in which James VI . was born Ancient Postern and Turret near the Queen?s Post . EntaSlature above the Gateway. Edinburgh Castle . Reduced Fac-simile of a Plan of the Siege of Edinburgh Castle in 1573 . . . . . . . Sleaer) . . . . . Tufacepagt? Cipher of Lord Darnley and Queen Mary . . . The Regent Morton . . . . . . . PAGl U xi I 4 5 2 E 5 Ia I2 13 I6 16 I7 2a 24 25 28 29 32 33 33 21 36 37 40 41 44 4s 46 46 48 49 51 52 53 PAGE Covenanter?s Flag . . . . . . . 54 South Side of Edinburgh Castle . . . . 56 Edinburgh from the South. in 1650 . . . . 57 Mons Meg. Edinburgh Castle . . . . . 60 Order of Cavalcade at the Openlng of the First Parliamentof JamesVII . . . . . . 61 Thumbikin . . . . . . . . 62 Fa-simile of the Medal of the Edinburgh Revolution 8 Club . . . . . . . . . . 63 Edinburgh from Mons Meg Battery . To fut pagc 65 Inner Gateway of the Castle . . . . . 65 Royal Lodging and Half-Moon Battxy . . . 68 The Crown.room. Edinburgh Castle . . . . 69 TheRegaliaof Scotland . . . . . . 72 Plan of the City and Castle of Edinburgh in I742 . 73 Chest in which the Regalia were found . . . 76 Edinburgh. from the King?s Bastion. 182s . . . 77 Edinburgh Castle. from the King?s Mews, 1825 . . 80 Ground Plan of Edinhurgh Castle in the present day . 81 Memorial Cross to the 78th Highlanders. Esplanade. Prospect of Edinburgh Castle from the East in 1779 . Edinburgh Castle. from Kirkbraehead . . * 64 Runic Cross. Castle Bank . . . . . . 79 EdinburghCastle . . . . . . . 84 The Castle Hill. 1S45 . . . . . . 58 Allan Ramsay?s House . . . . . . Sg 85 Cannon Ball in Wall of House in Castle Hill . . 90 rhomas Guthrie. D.D. . . . . . . gz Duke of Gordon?s House. Blair?s Close. Castle Hill . 93 Assembly Hall . . . . . . . . 96 Edinburgh Old Town. from Salisbury Crags To facepage 97 TheOratoryof Maryof Guise . . . . . 97 3ak Door. from the Guise Palace . . . . 98 Lord Semple?s House. Castle Hill . . . . 100 Mary of Guise . . . . . . . . 101 The Lawnmarket. from St . Giles?s. 1825 . . . 105 Lady Stair?s Close . . . . . . . 107 31d Timber-fronted House. Lawnmarket . . . 108 3ladstone?s Land . . . . . . . 109 Plan of Edinburgh. from the Castle to St . Giles?s . 112 Bailie Macmorran?s House . . . . . . 113 Room in Bailie Macmorran?s House . . . . 114 Lantern and Keys of Deacon Brodie . . . . 115 The Lawnmarket. from the SiteoftheWeigh.house. 1825 104 ... OF ILLUSTRATIONS . --c- THE OLD CHURCH OF ST . CUTHBERT?S AND THE NORTH LOCH (after CZffSh of ...

Book 2  p. 392
(Score 1.32)

86 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. me Mound. distinguished trustees of whom it has been composed since its formation ; considering also that the power of appointing persons to be members of the Board offers the means of conferring distinction on eminent individuals belonging to Scotland, I entertain a strong conviction that this Board should be kept up to its present number, and that its vacancies should be supplied as they occur. I am disposed to think also that it would be desirable to give this Board a corporate character by a charter or Act of Incorporation.? Under the fostering care of the Board of Manufactures first sprang up the Scottish School of Design, which had its origin in 1760. On the 27th of June in that year, in pursuance of previous deliberations of the Board, as its records show, ?a scheme or scroll of an advertisement anent the drawing school was read, and it was referred to Lord Kames to take evidence of the capacity and genius for drawing of persons applying for instruction before they were presented to the drawing school, and to report when the salary of Mr. De?lacour, painter, who had been appoihted to teach the school, should commence.? This was the first School of Design established in the three kingdoms at the public expense. ? It is,?? said the late Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell, in an address to the institution. in 1870, $?a matter of no small pride to us as Scotsmen to find a Scottish judge in 1760 and two Scottish painters in 1837 takihg the lead in a movement which in each case became national.? The latter were Mr. William Dyce and Mr. Charles Heath Wilson, who, in a letter to Lord Meadowbank cn ?the best means of ameliorating arts and manufactures in point of taste,? had all the chief principles which they urged brought into active operation by the present Science and Art Department; and when the Royal Scottish Academy was in a position to open its doors to art pupils, the life school was transferred from the Board to the Academy. Of the success of these schools it is only necessary to say that almost every Scotsman who has risen to distinction in art has owed something of that distinction to the training received here. There are annual examinations and competitions for prizes. The latter though small in actual and intrinsic value, possess a very high value to minds of the better order. ? They are,? said Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell, ? tokens of the sympathy with which the State regards the exertions of its students. They are rewards which those who now sit or have sat in high places of a noble profession- the Harveys, the Patons, the Faeds, the Xobertses, and the Wilkies-have been proud to win, and whose success in these early competitions was the beginning of a long series of triumphs.? In the same edifice is the gallery of sculpture, a good collection of casts from the best ancient works, such as the Elgin marbles and celebrated statues of antiquity, of the well-known Ghiberti gates of Florence, and a valuable series of antique Greek and Roman busts known as the Albacini collection, from which family they were purchased for the Gallery. In the western portion of the Royal Institution are the apartments of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which was instituted in 1783, under the presidency of Henry Duke of Buccleuch, K.G. and K.T., with Professor John Robinson, LL.D., as secretary, and twelve councillors whose names are nearly all known to fame, and are as follows :- Mr. Baron Gordon. Dr. Munro. Lord Elliock. Dr. Hope. Major-Gen. Fletcher CampbelL Dr. Black. Adam Smith, Esq. Dr. Hutton. Mr. John McLaurin. Dr. Adam Feryson, Prof. Dugald Stewart. Mr. John Playfair. The central portion of the Royal Institution is occupied by the apartments and museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, which was founded in 1780 .by a body of noblemen and gentlemen, who were anxious to secure a more accurate and extended knowledge of the historic and national antiquities of their native country than single individual zeal or skill could hope to achieve. ?For this purpose, a building and an area formerly occupied as the post ofice, situated in the Cowgate, then one of the chief thoroughfares of Edinburgh, were purchased for LI,OOO. Towards this, the Earl of Buchan, founder of the Society, the Dukes of Montrose and Argyle, the Earls of Fife, Bute, and Kintore, Sir Laurence Dundas, Sir John Dalrymple, Sir Alexander Dick, Macdonnel of Glengarry, Mr. Fergusson of Raith, Mr. Ross of Cromarty, and other noblemen and gentlemen, liberally contributed. Many valuable objects of antiquity and original MSS. and books were in like manner presented to the Society.? After being long in a small room in 24, George Street, latterly the studio of the well-known Samuel Bough, R.S.A., the museum was removed to the Institution, on the erection of the new exhibition rooms for the Scottish Academy in the q t galleries. Among the earliest contributions towards the foundation of this interesting museum were the extensive and valuable collection of bronze weapons referred to in an early chapter as being dredged from Duddingstone Loch, presented by Sir Alexander Dick, Bart., of Preston ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. me Mound. distinguished trustees of whom it has been composed since its formation ; ...

Book 3  p. 86
(Score 1.31)

424 BI 0 GRAPH I C AL S KETC HE S. Mr. Cauvin was for many years treasurer to the Friendly Society of Restalrig, whose funds he carefully managed, and in whose concerns he took a benevolent and most anxious interest. When the ancient chapel was restored, after his death, there was inserted in the wall of the interior an urn of white marble on a black slab to his memory, with a short inscription. The Hospital, for the erection and endowment of which Mr. Cauvin bequeathed the greater part of his fortune, was opened on the 30th of November 1833. Its management is vested in certain individuals nominated by the Founder,’ and in the Lord Provost of the city, the Principal of the University of Edinburgh, the Rector of the High School of Edinburgh, the Ministers of Duddingston, Liberton, and Newton, the Proprietor of the Lands of Niddry, and the Factor of the Marquis of Abercorn. The trustees afterwards assumed Mr. Pillans, the Professor of Humanity in the University, to act along with them. The recipients of the charity are required, upon admission, to be of the age of six, and under that of eight years, and are maintained for six years. It is enjoined that they shall chiefly be the sons of persons of the two classes with which the Founder himself was so long connected, namely, Teachers and Farmers. His words are-“ An Hospital for the relief, maintenance, and education of the sons of respectable but poor teachers j the sons of poor but honest farmers ; whom failing, the sons of respectable master-printers or booksellers ; and the sons of respectable servants in the agricultural line.” Accordingly, seventeen sons of teachers, and three sons of farmers are at present (1838) enjoying the benefits of the foundation. They are instructed in the ordinary branches of education, and also in Latin, Greek, French, Mathematics, etc. It is apparent from the following declaration, made by the Governors in the Regulations which have been framed, by the testator’s directions, for the management of the Institution, that they have availed themselves of the discretionary power with which they are invested, for advancing the cause of education in this country by raising the profession of teachers to greater usefulness: --“And, first of all, We, the said Governors, taking into consideration that the Founder was for the greater part of his life a public teacher, and that he has shown especial good-will to the profession he belonged to, by preferring to the benefits of this charity the children of teachers, do hereby declare generally, That we regard it as a leading object of the Cauvin Institution, to lay the foundation of a professional education for schoolmasters, so that as many of the boys as circumstances shall permit be prepared to become skilful and accomplished teachers.” The training of a few, therefore, for the profession of public teachers may be regarded as a distinguishing feature in this Seminary ; and in this manner, from time to time, many young men may go forth from its walls qualified for entering upon the duties of public tuition with decided advantage.” These were, Archibald Nisbet, Esq., of Carfin ; Jam- Fergusson, Esq., W.S.; John Tweedie, Esq., W.S.; the late Robert Stewart, Esq., Deputy-Presenter of Signatures ib the Exchequer ; Mr. David Scott, Northfield ; the 1ate;Mr. John Johnstone, Southfielrl; Mr. George Knight, teacher in Edinbnrgh ; and Mr. Andrew Scqtt, W.8.’ Mr. Stewart and Nr. Tweedie did not accept. ... BI 0 GRAPH I C AL S KETC HE S. Mr. Cauvin was for many years treasurer to the Friendly Society of ...

Book 9  p. 567
(Score 1.31)

I74 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Charlotte Square. Bank, near Edinburgh; Arnsheen, in Ayrshire ; Redcastle, Inverness-shire ; Denbrae, Fifeshire; and Gogar Bank in Midlothian. He died on the 27th of May, 1836, Lady Fettes having pre-deceased him on the 7th of the same month. By his trust disposition and settlement, dated 5th July 1830, and several codicils thereto, the last being dated the 9th of March, 1836, he disponed his whole estates to and in favour of Lady Fettes, his sister Mrs. Bruce, Mr. Corrie, Manager of the British Linen Company, A. Wood, Esq. (afterwards Lord Wood), and A. Rutherford, Esq. (afterwards Lord Rutherford), as trustees ; the purposes of the trust, which made ample provision for Lady Fettes in case of her survival, being :-(I) The payment of legacies to various poor relations ; ( 2 ) Bequests to charitable institutions ; and (3) The application of the residue to ?? form an endowment for the maintenance, education, and outfit of young people whose parents have either died without leaving syfficient funds for that purpose, or who from innocent misfortune during their own lives are unable to give suitable education to their children.? The trust funds, which at the time of the amiable Sir William?s death amounted to about &166,000, were accumulated for a number of years, and reached such an amount as enabled the trustees to carry out his benevolent intentions in a becoming manner ; and, accordingly, in 1864 contracts were entered into for the erection of the superb college which now very properly bears his name. Lord Cockburn, that type of the true old Scottish gentleman, ?? whose dignified yet homely manner and solemn beautygave his aspect a peculiar grace,? and who is so well known for his pleasant and gossiping volume of ?? Memorials,? and for the deep interest he took in all pertaining to Edinburgh, occupied No. 14 ; and the next house was the residence of Lord Pitmilly. James Wolfe Murray, afterwards Lord Cringletie, held No. 17 in 1811; and the Right Hon. David Boyle, Lord Justice Clerk, and afterwards Lord Justice General, occupied the same house in 1830. Lieutenant-General Alexander Dirom, of Mount Annan, and formerly of the 44th regiment, when Quartermaster-General in Scotland, rented No. I 8 in I 8 I I. He was an officer of great experience, and had seen much service in the old wars of India, and, when major, published an interesting narrative of the campiign against Tippoo Sultan. Latterly his house was occupied by the late James Crawfurd, Lord Ardmillan, who was called to the bar in 1829, and was raised to the bench in Jacuary, 1855. At the same time No. 31 was the abode of the Right Hon. Wlliam Adam, &ord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court, the kinsman of the architect of the Square, and a man of great eminence in his time. He was the son of Adam Blair of Blair Adam, and was born in July, 1751. Educated at Edinburgh, he became a member of the bar, but did not practise then ; and in 1774 and 1794 he sat for several places in Parliament. In the latter year he began to devote himself to his profession, and in 1802 was appointed Counsel for the East India Company, and four years afterwards Chancellor for the Duchy of Cornwall. After being M.P. for Kinross, in 18 I I he resumed his professional duties, and was deemed so sound a lawyer that he was frequently consulted by the Prince of .Wales and the Duke of York. In the course of a parliamentary dispute with Mr. Fox, about the first American war, they fought a duel, which happily ended without bloodshed, after which the latter remarked jocularly that had his antagonist not loaded his pistols with Government powder he would have been shot. In 1814 he submitted to Government a plan for trying civil causes by jury in Scotland, and in the following year was made a Privy Councillor and Baron of the Scottish Exchequer. In I 8 I 6 an Act of Parliament was obtained instituting a separate Jury Court in Scotland, and he was appointed Lord Chief Commissioner, with two of the judges as colleagues, and to this court he applied all his energies, overcoming by his patience, zeal, and urbanity, the many obstacles opposed to the success of such an institution. In 1830, when sufficiently organised, the Jury Court was, by another Act, transferred to the Court of Session, and when taking his seat on the bench of the latter for the first time, complimentary addresses were presented to him from the Faculty of Advocates, the Society of Writers to the Signet, and that of the solicitors before the Supreme Courts, thanking him for the important benefits . which the introduction of trial by jury in civil cases had conferred on Scotland. In 1833 he +red from the bench, and died at his house in Charlotte Square, on the 17thFebruary, 1839, in his 87th year. ? In 1777 he had married Eleanora, daughter of Charles tenth Lord Elphinstone. She died in 1808, but had a family of several sons-viz., John, long at the head of the Council in India, who died some years before his father; Admiral Sir Charles, M.P., one of the Lords of the Admiralty ; William George, an eminent King?s Counsel, afterwards Accountant-General in the Court of Chancery; and Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick, who held a command at the battle of Waterloo, and was afterwards successively Lord High Commissioner to the Ionian Isles and Governor of Madras. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Charlotte Square. Bank, near Edinburgh; Arnsheen, in Ayrshire ; Redcastle, ...

Book 3  p. 174
(Score 1.3)

I LLUS T RAT I 0 N S. DRAWN BY WALLER H. PATON, R.S.A., SAM. BOUGH, dS.A., JAMES DRUMMOND, R.S.A., E. T. CRAWFOKD, K. S.A., JOHN SMART, A.R.S.A., ROBERT SANDERSON, R. SCOTT TEMPLE, AND OTHER ARTISTS. ENGRAVED BY WLLLIAM BALLINGALL. FRONTISP:I CEED INBURGH-A GLIMPSEF ROM THE WATER OF LEITH NEAR BONNINGTON-Facixg Title-Page. TITLE-PAGE-KEYS OF THE CITY, AS PRESENTED TO HER MAJESTY, QUEENV ICTORIA, ON THE I ~ T HO F AUGUST1 876. ARTHUR’SSEATFROMTHECALTONHILL, . . . . . SALISBURCYRA GS, . . . . . . . . . . THEE CHOINRGO CK-CRAIGMILLARC ASTLE IN THE DISTANCE, . HEAD OF THE WEST Bow, . . . . . . . . . CASTLE, AND ALLAN RAMSAY’S HOUSE, . . . . . . ROOMIN WHICH JOHN KNOX DIED, . . . . . . . L)OORWAY AT WHICH RIZZIOW AS MURDERED, ST. ANTHONY’WS ELL, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . QUIJEN MARY’S ROOM, CASTLE, . . . . . . . . LADY STAIR’S CLOSE, SHOWING THE WINDOW OF THE ROOM IN . . . . CLARINDA’S HOUSE-EXTERIOR: DEMOLISHED 1876, . . . ROOMI N CLARINDA’S HOUSE, . . . . . . . . WHICH BURNS FIRST LODGED IN EDINBURGH, THEA VENUE,B RUNTSFIELLDIN KS,. . . . . . . GRASSMARKAENTD THE CASTLE, . . . . . . . EDINBURGFRHO M WARRISTON CEMETERY, . . . . . THE SCOTT MONUMENT, ROYAL INSTITUTION, AND NATIONAL GALLERIES, . . . . . . . . . . . ROYALE XCHANGE., . . . . . . . . . NEWY EAR’S EVEA T THE TRONC HURCH, . . . . . Facing p. I 4 4 I1 14 16 I8 I8 20 24 30 33 38 44 49 52 55 56 ... LLUS T RAT I 0 N S. DRAWN BY WALLER H. PATON, R.S.A., SAM. BOUGH, dS.A., JAMES DRUMMOND, R.S.A., E. T. ...

Book 11  p. xvi
(Score 1.28)

OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. cst. Andrew Sq- ST. ANDREW SQUARE, The Royal Eank of Scotland. The Scottish Provident Institution. The British Linen Company's Rank The Scottish Widows' Fund Office. CHAPTER XXIII. CHAR L 0 T T E S (2 U X R E. Charlotte Square-Its Early Occupants-Sir John Sinclair, Bart.-Lamond of that Ilk-Sir Williarn Fettes-Lord Chief Commissioner Adam- Alexander Dirom-St George's Church-The Rev. Andrew Thornson-Prince Consort's Memorial-The Parallelogram of the first New Town. CHARLOTTE SQUARE, which corresponds with that of St. Andrew, and closes the west end of George Street, as the latter closes the east, measures about 180 yards each way, and was constructed in 1800, after designs by Robert Adam of Maryburgh, the eminent architect ; it is edificed in a peculiarly elegant and symmetrical manner, all the fasades corresponding with each 0the.r. In 1874 it was beautified by ornamental alterations and improvements, and by an enclosure of its garden area, at a cost of about d3,000. Its history is less varied than that of St. Andrew Square. During the Peninsular war No. z was occupied by Colonel Alexander Baillie, and therein was the Scottish Barrack office. One .of the earliest OCCUpants of No. 6 was Sir James Sinclair of Ulbster, ... AND NEW EDINBURGH. cst. Andrew Sq- ST. ANDREW SQUARE, The Royal Eank of Scotland. The Scottish Provident ...

Book 3  p. 172
(Score 1.27)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 437 11.-ROBERT BELL, Procurator for the Kirk, was the second son of the late Benjamin Eell, an eminent surgeon in Edinburgh, of whom a portrait and memoir has already appeared in this Work. He passed advocate in 1804, and is known.as the author of a (( Report of a case of Legitimacy under a Putative Marriage, tried before the Second Division of the Court of Session in February 1811.” Edinburgh, 1825, 8vo. He was a member of the Bannatyne, Maitland, and Abbotsford ’Clubs, to the former of which he contributed “An Account of the Siege of the Castle of Edinburgh in 1689,” printed from the original manuscript in the library of the Faculty of Advocates. He married Miss ROSSd, aughter of Colonel Andrew ROSSo, f the 31st Foot, and by her, who died in 1832, had a son and daughter surviving. The former joined the Facultyof Advocates; and the latter was married, 12th September 1835, to James Moncreiff, Esq., advocate,’ eldest son of the late Lord Moncreiff. Mr. Bell had a great taste for the fine arts. 111.-MATHEW ROSS, of Candie, son of a Deputy-Clerk of Session, was admitted advocate in 1772, and chosen Dean of Faculty in 1808. He died in 1823 unmarried. He was a good lawyer, and had considerable practice, chiefly as a chamber counsel. Mr. Ross was a man of mild and unassuming manners ; and he is believed to have refused a seat on the bench from diffidence in his ability to discharge the duties of that office. Naturally of a thoughtful habit, matters of very small importance frequently provoked the most serious deliberation. Having been requested on one occasion to add his signature, in his official capacity, to a circular letter, after writing his name he laid the sheet down on his desk, and closing his eyes appeared for some time to be engaged in profound meditation, Mr. Gibb, one of the depute-librarians, at length remarked, that all he had to do was to add (( D. F.” after his name. ‘( That is the very thing I was thinking of,” said Mr. ROSS“,w hether to make it D. F. or Dean of Faculty!” Mr. Ross was very diminutive in size, had a florid countenance, blue eyes, and was well made. In his advanced years he presented the appearance of a nice, tidy, little, old “ gentleman.” He left a considerable fortune, 1V.-EDWARD M‘CORMICK, Sheriff-Depute of Ayrshire, was the son of Samuel MCormick, Esq., General Examiner of Excise in Scotland. He was born in 1745, and admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1772. His practice at the bar was respectable, and he was remarkable for the precision and correctness of his statements. He succeeded Lord Craig as Sheriff of Ayr j and, for upwards of twenty years that he held that office, gave such satisfaction as a judge, that, on his death in 1814, the county gave various proofs of the high of Redcastle, Inveimess-shire, and lately connected with the Sun newspaper; the third, Robert Dundas, married a Mr. North, an officer in one of the regiments stationed in New South Walea, with whom Mrs. Burnett and her son sailed for that colony. For an intareating account of the late Lord Moncreiff (who died in l85l), George Ckmstoun, and Clerk of El&, see Cockhrn’a me of JefTey. Now the Right Hon. Lord MoncreiB of Tulliebola, Lord Justice-clerk. ... SKETCHES. 437 11.-ROBERT BELL, Procurator for the Kirk, was the second son of the late Benjamin ...

Book 9  p. 586
(Score 1.27)

which is of great height, contains a large painting over the stone fireplace of the Adoration of the Vise Men. A few steps from this was the old Bank Close (so-called from the Bank of Scotland having been in it), a blind alley, composed wholly of solid, handsome, , and massive houses, some of which were of great antiquity, and of old named Hope?s Close, from the celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, King?s Advocate in the time of Charles I., prior to whom it had borne the name of Mauchine?s Close, about the year 151 I. Here, on the site of the present Melbourne Place, stood a famous old mansion, almost unique even in Edinburgh, named Robert Gourlay?s House, with the legend, above its door, ?0 Lord in fhe is a2 my fraift 1569?; and it is somewhat singular that the owner of this house was neither a man of rank nor of wealth, but simply a messenger- at-arms belonging to the Abbey of Holyrood, an office bestowed upon him by the Commendator, Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney. In I 5 74 Robert Gourlay was an elder of the kirk, and in that year had to do his public penance therein ?(for franqorfing wheat out of the counfrie.? In 1581, when the Regent Morton was about to suffer death, he was placed in Gourlay?s house for two days under a guard; and there it was that those remarkable conferences took place between him and certain clergymen, in which, while protesting his innocence of the murder of Darnley, he admitted his foreknowledge of it. Among many popular errors, is one that he invented the ? maiden? by which he suffered ; but it is now known to have been the common Scottish guillotine, since Thomas Scott was beheaded by it on the 3rd of April, 1566. On the 7th of January, 1582, Mopse tells us in his Memoirs, ?there came a French ambassador through England, named La Motte (Fenelon), he was lodged in Gourlay?s house near Tolbooth, and had an audience of his Majesty; with him there also came another ambassador from England, named Mr. Davidson, who got an audience also that same day in the king?s chamber of presence.? This was probably a kinsman of De la Motte, the French ambassador, who was slain at Flodden. He !eft Edinburgh on the 10th of February. Herein resided Sir William Drury during the siege of the Castle in 1573, and thither, on its surrender, was brought its gallant defender before death, with his brother Sir James Kirkaldy and others ; and it was here that in later years the great Argyle is said to . . DEACON BRODIE. (After Kay.) havhpassed his last hours in peaceful sleep before his execution. So Robert Gourlay?s old house had a terrible history. By this time the house had passed into the possession of Sir Thomas Hope. Hence it has been conjectured that Argyle?s last sleep took place in the high Council Room, whither, Wodrow says, he was brought before rxecutim. John Gourlay, son of Robert, erected a house at the foot of this ancient close. It bore the date I 588, with the motto, Spes aZtera vife. Herein was the Bank of Scotland first established in 1695, and there its business was conducted till 1805, when it was removed to their new office, that stupendous edifice . at the head of the entrance to the Earthen Mound. Latterly it was used as the University printing-office ; and therein, so latelyas 1824, was in use, as a proof press, the identical old wooden press which accompanied the Highland army, in 1745, for the publication of gazettes and manifestoes. Robert Gourlay?s house passed from the possession of Sir Thomas Hope and Lord Aberuchill into that of Sir George Lockhart (the great legal and political rival of Sir George Mackenzie), Lord President of the Session in 1685, and doomed to fall a victim to private revenge. Chiesly of Dalry, an unsuccessful litigant, enraged at the president for assigning a small aliment of A93 out of his estate-a fine one south-westward of the city-to his wife, from whom ... is of great height, contains a large painting over the stone fireplace of the Adoration of the Vise Men. A ...

Book 1  p. 116
(Score 1.26)

alowing each 20 lbs. weight,.and all above to pay 6d. per lb. The coach sets off at six in the morning. Performed by Henry Hamson, Nich. Speighl, Rob. Garbe, Rich. Croft? When we consider the cost of food on a thirteen THE CANONGATE-CONTINUATIOK EASTWARD OF PLAN ON PAGE 5. (From Cordon of Rofhiemy?s Mn.4.) 8, Moray House; 30, Canongate Cross; 32, Canongate Tolbooth. Canongate, every other Tuesday. In the winter to set out from London and Edinburgh every other Monday morning, and to go to Burrowbridge on Saturday night ; and to set out from thence on Monday morning, and to get to London and Edinof Anne and Victoria seems great indeed. In July, 1754, the Ertinburgh Courant advertises the stage-coach, drawn by six horses, with a postillion on one of the leaders, as ?a new, genteel, two-end glass machine, hung on steel springs; exceeding light and easy, to go in ten days in summer and twelve in winter,? setting out from Hosea Eastgate?s, at the Coach and Horses, Dean Street, Soho, and from John Somerville?s, in the parcels, according fo their vahe.? A few years before this move in the way of progress, the Canongate had been the scene of a little religious persecution; thus we find that on a Sunday in the April of 1722 the Duchess Dowager of Gordon, Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, venturing to have mass celebrated at her house in the Canongate for herself and some fifty other Roman Catholics, Bailie Hawthorn, ... each 20 lbs. weight,.and all above to pay 6d. per lb. The coach sets off at six in the morning. Performed ...

Book 3  p. 16
(Score 1.26)

  Previous Page Previous Results   Next Page More Results

  Back Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf

Creative Commons License The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.