... 99 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
. Stirling-Maxwell, Sir Wm., 11. 86,
. Stitchill, Laird of I. 169
.Stockbridge, 11. ...
Book 6 p. 390
(Score 0.95)
![Kirk-of-Field.] BOTHWELL DENOUNCED. 7
of the Canongate to Bothwell?s lodging, near the
palace, at the gates of which they were again
challenged by the Archers of the Guard-a corps
which existed from 1562 to 1567-who asked ?if
they knew what noise that was they heard a short
time before.? They replied that they did not.
Rushing to his house, Bothwell called for something
to drink, and throwing off his clothes, went
to bed.
Tidings that the house had been blown up and
the king slain spread fast through the startled
city, and George Hackett, a servant of the palace,
communicated these to Bothwell, whom he found
in ?ane great effray pitch-black,? and excited.
Then with assumed coolness he inquired ?what
was the matter ? ? On being distinctly informed,
he began to shout ?Treason!? and on being
joined by the Earl of Huntley, he repaired at once
to the presence of the queen.
By dawn the whole area of the Kirk-of-Field
was crowded by citizens, who found that the three
servants who slept in the gallery were buried in the
ruins, out of which Nelson was dragged alive.
In Holyrood the queen kept her bed in a darkened
room, while a proclamation was issued, offering
the then tolerable sum of L2,ooo Scots to
any who would give information as to the perpetrators
of the crime. On the same day the body of
Darnley was brought to Holyrood Chapel, and
after being embalmed by Maistre Mastin Picauet,
? I ypothegar,? was interred on Saturday night, without
the presence of any of the nobles or officers
of state, except the Lord Justice Clerk Bellenden
and Sir James Traquair.
Bothwell was denounced as the murderer by a
paper fixed on the Tolbooth Gate. But though the
earl was ultimately brought to trial, no precisely
proper inquiry into the startling atrocity was made
by the officers of the Crown.
A bill fastened on the Tron Beam, declared
that the smith who furnished the false keys to the
king?s apartment would, on due security being
given, point out his employers ; and other placards,
on one of which were written the queen?s initials,
M.R., were posted elsewhere-manifestations of
public feeling that rendered Bothwell so furious
that he rode through the city at the head of a band
of his armed vassals, swearing that he ? would wash
his hands? in the blood of the authors, could he
but discover them ; and from that time forward he
watched all who approached him with a jealous
eye, and a hand on his dagger.
When that part of the city wall which immediately
adjoined the house of the Kirk-of-Field
was demolished in 1854, it was found to be five
feet thick, and contained among its rubble many
fragments of a Gothic church or other edifice, and
three cannon-balls, one of 24 pounds? weight, were
found in it.
In the records of the Privy Council in 1599, we
find an order for denouncing and putting to the
horn Robert Balfour, Provost of the Kirk-of-Field,
for having failed to appear before the Lords, and
answer ? to sic thingis as sauld have been inquirit
of him at his cuming.? The Provost, brother of
the notorious Sir James, had been outlawed or forfeited
in 157 I, as there rested upon both the charge
of having been chief agents in the murder or
Darnley.
He was ultimately remitted and pardoned, and
this was ratified by Parliament in 1584, when he
and his posterity were allowed to enjoy all their
possessions,?? providing alwayis that these presentis
be not extendit to repossess and restoir the said
Robert to bny ryt he has, or he may pretend, to ye
Provostrie of ye Kirk-of-Field, sumtym situat within
the libertie of ye burgh of Edinburgh.?
In this same year, 1584, the Town Council were
greatly excited by a serious affray that ensued at
the Kirk-of-Field Port, and to prevent the recurrence
of a similar disorder, ordained that on the
ringing of the alarm bell the inhabitants were all to
convene in their several quarters under their bailies,
? in armour and good order.? And subsequently,
to prevent broils by night-walkers, they ordered
I? that at 10 o?clock fifty strokes would be given on
the great bell, after which none should be upon the
streets, under a penalty of Azo Scots, and imprisonment
during the town?s pleasure.? (? Council
Records.?)
A fragment of ruin connected with the Kirk-of-
Field is shown as extant in 1647 in Gordon?s map,
near what is now the north-west corner of Drumrnond
Street, and close to the old University. A
group ot trees appear to the eastward, and a garden
to the iiorth.
(Tytler.)](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p018.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 7")
... BOTHWELL DENOUNCED. 7
of the Canongate to Bothwell?s lodging, near the
palace, at the gates of ...
Book 5 p. 7
(Score 0.93)
... OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
CATHEDRAL, 1787 (aper
The Canongate Tolbooth . . . . . . I
The Burgh Seal of the ...
Book 4 p. 392
(Score 0.88)
... Giles?s Church.
was a place frequently assigned in bills for the
payment of money.
The transept, called at ...
Book 1 p. 144
(Score 0.87)
![West Church.] THE LOTHIAN ROAD. =37
towards Bruntsfield Links, had long been projected,
but owing to the objections raised by the
proprietors of many barns, byres, and sheds which
stood in the way, the plan could not be matured,
till after several years of trouble and speculation j
in length by twenty paces in breadth." This
scheme he concerted with address, and executed
with nautical promptitude It happened to be the
winter season, when many men were unemployed.
He had no difficulty in collecting several hundreds
ST. CUTHBERT'S CHURCH.
and when at last the proposal was about to be of these at the Kirkbraehcad upon the appointed
agreed to by the opposing parties, the broad and ' morning before sunrise, when he gave them all a
stately road was-to the surprise of the public and ' plentiful breakfast of porter, whisky, and bread and
mortification of the opposition-made in one day ! cheese, after which, just as the sun rose, he ordered
'' some to tear down' en-
John Clerk, Bart., of Pennicuik (an' officer: of't'hc ! dlosuresi others to unroof and demolish cottages,
in 1784). laid a bet with a friend to the effect I with to fill up the natural hollow (near the church-
" that he. would, between sunrise and sunset, ' yard gate) to the required height. The inhabitants,
execute the line of road, extending nearly a mile 1 dismayed at so vast a force and so summary a
It so happened that a gentleman, said to be! Sir. 1 th,e% ,to* set to, work
royal navy, who succeeded his father, Sir George, I and a considerahle portion to bring' earth where-
66](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p149.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 137")
... Church.] THE LOTHIAN ROAD. =37
towards Bruntsfield Links, had long been projected,
but owing to the ...
Book 3 p. 137
(Score 0.87)
... College Church (restored) . . . . 289
Victoria Street and Terrace, from George Iv. Bridge. ...
Book 2 p. 394
(Score 0.87)
... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Wynd. 304
of the building, among these; on a buttress, at the
west angle of the ...
Book 2 p. 304
(Score 0.86)
... was accordingly built for them, at the
expense, says h o t , of Az,400 sterling. A portion
of this ...
Book 3 p. 29
(Score 0.86)
... 78 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of the Church of Megginche, one of the dependencies of the Abbey of Holyrood.L It is ...
Book 10 p. 415
(Score 0.86)
... Street. NIDDRY?S WYND. 245
to protect the powdered head of loftily-dressed
hair, when walking or driving, ...
Book 2 p. 245
(Score 0.85)
... AND NEW EDINEURGH. [South Bridge.
. . .~ 374
in 1765, and two ancient thoroughfares, the Wynds
of Marlin and ...
Book 2 p. 374
(Score 0.84)
![Leith] MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, had been absent unusually
long, and the rumours regarding her fate were
very much akin to the confessions of the crew of
the Worcester.
A report of these circumstances having reached
the Privy Council, the arrest was ordered of Captain
Green and thirteen of his crew on charges of
piracy and murder. The evidence produced against
them would scarcely be held sufficient by a jury of
the present day to warrant a conviction; but the
Scots, in their justly inflamed and insulted spirit,
viewed the matter otherwise, and a sentence of
death was passed. This judgment rendered many
uneasy, as it might be an insuperable bar to the
union, and even lead to open strife, as the relations
in which the two countries stood to each other were
always precarious ; and even Macaulay admits ?that
the two kingdoms could not possibly have continued
another year on the terms on which they had been
during the preceding century.? The Privy Council
were thus reluctant to put the sentence into execution,
and respited the fourteen Englishmen ; but
there arose from the people a cry for vengeance
which it was impossible to resist. On the day appointed
for the execution, the 11th of April, the
populace gathered h vast numbers at the. Cross
and in the Parliament Square ; they menaced the
Lords?of the Council, from which the Lord Chancellor
chanced to pass in his coach. Some one
cried aloud that ? the prisoners had been reprieved.?
On this the fury of the people became boundless ;
they stopped at the Tron church the coach of the
Chancellor-the pitiful Far1 of Seafield-and
dragged him out of it, and had he not been rescued
and conveyed into Mylne Square by some friends,
would have slain him ; so, continues Arnot, it became
absolutely necessary to appease the enraged
multitude by the blood of the criminals. This was
but the fruit of the affairs of Darien and Glencoe.
Now the people for miles around were pouring
into the city, and it was known that beyond doubt
the luckless Englishmen would be tom from the
Tolbooth and put to a sudden death.
Thus the Council was compelled to yield, and
did so only in time, as thousands who had gathered
at Leith to see the execution were now adding to
those who filled the streets of the city, and at
eleven in the forenoon word came forth that three
would be hanged-namely, Captain Green, the first
mate Madder, and Simpson, the gunner.
According to Analecfu Scofica they were brought
forth into the seething masses, amid shouts and
execrations, under an escort of the Town Guard,
and marched on foot through the Canongate to the
Water Port of Leith, where a battalion of the Foot
Guards and a body of the Horse Guards were
drawn up. ? There was the greatest confluence of
people there that I ever saw in my life,? says
Wodrow; ?for they cared not how far they were
off so be it they saw.?
The three were hanged upon a gibbet erected
within high-water mark, and the rest of the crew,
after being detained in prison till autumn, were set
at liberty; and it is said that there were afterwards
good reasons to believe that Captain Drummond,
whom they were accused of slaying on the high seas,
was alive in India after the fate of Green and his
two brother officers had been sealed. (Burton?s
?? Crim. Trials.?)
On the site of the present Custom House was
built the Fury (a line-of-battle ship, according tb
Lawson?s ?Gazetteer?) and the first of that rate
built in Scotland after the Union.
In I 7 I 2 the first census of Edinburgh and Leith
was taken, and both towns contained only about
48,000 souls.
The insurrection of 1715, under the Earl of
Mar, made Leith the arena of some exciting scenes.
The Earl declined to leave the vicinity of Perth
with his army, and could not co-operate with the
petty insurrection under Forster in the north of
England, as a fleet under Sir John Jennings, Admiral
of the White, including the RqaC Anm, Pew4
Phnix, Dover Custk, and other frigates, held the
Firth of Forth, and the King?s troops under Argyle
were gathering in the southern Lowlands. But, as
it was essential that a detachment from Mar?s army
should join General Forster, it was arranged that
2,500 Highlanders, under old Brigadier Mackintosh
of Borlum-one of the most gallant and resolute
spirits of the age-should attempt to elude the fleet
and reach the Lothians.
The brigadier took possession of all the boats
belonging to the numerous fisher villages on the
Fife coast, and as the gathering of such a fleet as
these, with the bustle of mooring and provisioning
them, was sure to reveal the object in view, a
clever trick was adopted to put all scouts on a false
scent.
All the boats not required by the brigadier he
sent to the neighbourhood of Burntisland, as if he
only waited to cross the Firth there, on which the
fleet left its anchorage and rather wantonly began
to cannonade the fort and craft in the harbour.
While the ships were thus fully occupied, Mackintosh,
dividing his troops in two columns, crossed the
water from Elie, Pittenweem, and Crail, twenty miles
eastward, on the nights of the 12th and 13thOctober,
without the loss of a single boat, and lwded](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p202.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 191")
... MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, ...
Book 5 p. 191
(Score 0.84)
... HIGH STREET. 233
of his mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Craig, has been preserved by Sir ...
Book 10 p. 254
(Score 0.84)
![Queen Street.] SIR JAMES GRANT OF GRANT. I57
own performance that he tumbled off his chair in a
fit of laughter.?
No. 62 Queen Street was inhabited by Lord
Jeffrey from 1802 till 1810. In the following year
it became the residence of Sir John Leslie, K.H.,
Professor of Mathematics in the University of
Edinburgh, who in 1800 invented the differential
thermometer, one of the most beautiful and delicate
instruments that inductive genius? ever contrived
as a help to experimental research ; and the
results of his inquiries concerning the nature and
laws of heat, in which he was so much aided by
this exquisite instrument, were published in 1804,
in his celebrated ?Essay on the Nature and Propagation
of Heat.? Sir John Leslie was one of
those many self-made men who are peculiarly the
glory of Scotland, for he was the son of a poor
joiner in Largo, yet he attained to the highest
honours a university can bestow. In 1832, along
with Herschel, Brewster, Hams, Nichols, and others,
on the recommendation of Lord Brougham, he was
created a Knight of the Guelphic Order, but died
in the November of that year from an attack of
erysipelas.
No. 64 was, and is still, the town residence of
the Earls of Weniyss, but has had many other
tenants. Among others here resided ?? Lang Sandy
Gordon? as he was named in those days of simple
and unassuming familiarity, the son of William,
second Earl of Aberdeen, who was admitted an
advocate in 1759, and became Stewart-depute of
Kirkcudbright in 1764. Twenty years afterwards
he was raised to the bench as Lord Rockville, and
resided long in the close which bore .that name on
the Castle Hill, and afterwards in Queen Street
He was remarkable for his manly beauty and
handsome figure. He was a member of the Crochallan
Club, and a great convivialist. Walking
down the High Street one day, when the pavement
was unsafe by ice, he fell, and broke his arm.
He was conveyed to Provost Elder?s shop, opposite
the Tron church, where surgical aid was procured
and his arm dressed ; but, unfortunately, when his
friends were conveying him to his new home at
No. 64, one of the chairmen fell and overturned
the sedan in the street, which unsettled the splinting
of his lordship?s arm, and ultimately brought on
afever, of which he died on the 13th of March,
?792.
No. 64 was afterwards occupied by Sir James
Grant, Bart., of Grant, usually known as ?the
good Sir James.? His town house, with extensive
stable-offices, had previously been at the ,foot of
the Canongate, where it was advertised for sale
in 1797, as ? presently possessed by Professor
Stewart.? At a period when the extensive Highland
proprietors were driving whole colonies of
people from the abodes of their forefathers, and
compelling them to seek on distant shores that
shelter which was denied them on their own, and
?when absenteeism and the vices of courtly intrigue
and fashionable dissipation had sapped the
morality of too many of our landholders, Sir James
Grant escaped the contagion, and during a long
life was distingifished for the possession of those
virtues which are the surest bulwarks of the peace,
happiness, and strength of a country. Possessed
of extensive estates, and surrounded by a numerous
tenantry, his exertions seemed to be equally devoted
to the progressive improvement of the one
and the present comfort and enjoyment of the
other.? ?
Among his clau he raised two regiments of Highland
Fencibles within a few months of each other.
One was numbered as the 97th, or Strathspey
Regiment, 1,800 strong, and a portion of it joined
the 4nnd for service in the West Indies. Sir
James died at Castle Grant in 181 I.
No. 66, now offices, was occupied by Stewart of
Castle Stewart ; and in No. 68 lived George Joseph
Bell, Advocate, Professor of Law, and author of
? Principles of the Law of Scotland.? No. 7 I, in
181 I, was the residence of Francis, Lord Napier,
who served in the American war under General.
Burgoyne, but left the army in 1789. He took a
leading part in many local affiirs, was Grand
Master Mason of Scotland, Colonel of the Hopetoun
Fencibles in 1793, Commissioner to the
General Assembly in 1802, and a member of the
Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Scottish
Manufactures and Fisheries.
His prominently aquiline face and figure were
long remarkable in Edinburgh ; though, at a time
when gentlemen usually wore gaudy coloursfrequently
a crimson or purple coat, a green plush
vest, black breeches, and white stockings-when
not in uniform, he always dressed plainly, and with
the nicest attention to propriety. An anecdote of
his finical taste is thus given in Lockhart?s ?Life
of Scott ? :-
?Lord and Lady Napier arrived at Castlemilk
(in Lanarkshire), with the intention of staying a
week, but next morning it was announced that a
circumstance had occurred which rendered it indispensable
for them to return without delay to
their own seat in Selkirkshire. It was impossible
for Lady Stewart to extract any further explanation
at the moment, but it afterwards turned out that
Lord Napier?s valet had committed the grievous
mistake of packing up a set of neckcloths which](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p169.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 157")
... Street.] SIR JAMES GRANT OF GRANT. I57
own performance that he tumbled off his chair in a
fit of ...
Book 3 p. 157
(Score 0.83)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
The next figure, in the centre, represents MR. WILLIAM JAMIESON,
mason and architect, ...
Book 8 p. 316
(Score 0.83)
![The High Street.] THE HIGH STREET.
six storeys each ; in short, down as far as the Cowgate
nothing was to be seen but frightful heaps of
calcined and blackened ruins, with gaping windows
and piles of smoking rubbish.
In the Par!iament Square four double tenements
of from seven to eleven storeys also perished, and
the incessant cmsh of falling walls made the old
vicinity re-echo. Among other places of interest
destroyed here was the shop of Kay, the cancaturist,
always a great attraction to idlers.
During the whole of Thursday the authorities
were occupied in the perplexing task of .examining
the ruined edifices in the Parliament Square. These
being of enormous height and dreadfully shattered,
threatened, by their fall, destruction to everything
in their vicinity. One eleven-storeyed edifice presented
such a very striking, terrible, and dangerous
appearance, that it was proposed to batter it down
with cannon. On the next day the ruins were inspected
by Admiral Sir David Milne, and Captain
(afterwardssir Francis) Head of theRoyal Engineers,
an officer distinguished alike in war and In literature,
who gave in a professional report on the subject,
and to him the task of demolition was assigned.
?
In the meantime offers of assistance from Captain
Hope of H.M.S. BnX, then in Leith Roads,
were accepted, and his seamen, forty in number,
threw a line over the lofty southern gable above
Heron?s Court, but brought down only a small
portion Next day Captain Hope returned to the
attack, with iron cables, chains, and ropes, while
some sappers daringly undermined the eastern wall.
These were sprung, and, as had been predicted by
Captain Head, the enormous mass fell almost
perpendicularly to the grognd.
At the Tron Church, on the last night of every
year, there gathers a vast crowd, who watch with
patience and good-humour the hands of the illuminated
clock till they indicate one minute past
twelve, and then the New Year is welcomed in
with ringing cheers, joy, and hilarity. A general
shaking of hands and congratdlations ensue, and
one and all wish each other ?? A happy New Year,
and mony 0? them.? A busy hum pervades the older
parts of the city; bands of music and bagpipes
strike up in many a street and wynd; and, furnished
with egg-flip, whiskey, &c., thousands hasten off in
all directions to ?first foot? friends and relations,
CHAPTER XXI.
THE HIGH STREET,
A Place for Brawling-First Paved and Lighted-The Meal and Flesh MarketsState of the Streets-Municipal Regulations 16th Century-
Tuleies-The Lairds of Ainh and Wemyss-The Tweedies of Drummelzier-A Mont- Quarrel-The Slaughter of Lord Tarthorwald-
-A Brawl in 1705-Attacking a Sedan Chair-Habits in Lhe Seventeenth Century-Abduction of Women and Girls-Sumptuary Law6
against Women.
BEFORE narrating the wondrous history of the many
quaint and ancient closes and wynds which diverged
of old, and some of which still diverge, from the
stately High Street, we shall treat of that venerable
thoroughfare itself-its gradual progress, changes,
and some of the stirring scenes that have been witnessed
from its windows.
Till so late as the era of building the Royal
Exchange Edinburgh had been without increase
or much alteration since King James VI. rode
forth for England in 1603. ?The extended wall
erected in the memorable year 1513 still formed
the boundary of the city, with the exception of the
enclosure of the Highriggs. The ancient gates remained
kept under the care of jealous warders,
and nightly closed at an early hour ; even as when
the dreaded iiiroads of the Southron summoned
the Burgher Watch to guard their walls. At the
foot of the High Street, the lofty tower and spire
of the Nether Bow Port terminated the vista, surmounting
the old Temple Bar of Edinburgh, interposed
between the city and the ancient burgh of
Canongate.?
On this upward-sloping thoroughfare first rose
the rude huts of the Caledonians, by the side of
the wooded way that led to the Dun upon the rock
-when Pagan rites were celebrated at sunrise on
the bare scalp of Arthur?s Seat-and destined
to become in future years ?the King?s High
Street,? as it was exclusively named in writs and
charters, in so far as it extended from the Nether
Bow to the edifice named Creech?s Land, at the
east end of the Luckenbooths. ?Here,? says a
writer, ? was the battle-ground of Scotland for
centuries, whereon private and party feuds, the
jealousies of nobles and burghers, and not a few of
the contests between the Crown and the people,
were settled at the sword.?
As a place for brawling it was proverbial ; and
thus it was that Colonel Munro, in ?His Expedition
with the Worthy Scots Regiment called
Mackeyes,? levied in 1626, for service in Denmark](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p203.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Page 191")
... High Street.] THE HIGH STREET.
six storeys each ; in short, down as far as the Cowgate
nothing was to be seen ...
Book 1 p. 191
(Score 0.83)
Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf
The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
![253 Leith.] ST. NINIAN?S CHURCH.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p072.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 253")
