Edinburgh Bookshelf

Edinburgh Bookshelf

Search

Index for “Royal Edinburgh Volunteers”

222 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street On becoming provost, he was easily led by his religious persuasion to become a sort of voluntary exchequer for the friends of the National Covenant, and in 1641 he advanced to them IOO,OOO merks to save them from the necessity of disbanding their army; and when the Scottish Parliament in the same year levied 10,000 men for the protection of their colony in Ulster, they could not have embarked had they not been provisioned at the expense of Sir William Dick. Scott, in the ? Heart of Midlothian,? alludes to the loans of the Scottish Crcesus thus, when he makes Davie Deans say, ?My father saw them toom the sacks of dollars out 0? Provost Dick?s window intil the carts that carried them to the army at Dunse Law; and if ye winna believe his testimony, there is the window itself still standing in the Luckenbooths, five doors aboon the Advocates? Close-I think it is a claithmerchant?s the day.? And singular to say, a cloth merchant?s ?booth ? it continued long to be. ? In 1642 the Customs were let to Sir William Dick for zoz,ooo merks, and 5,000 merks of gassum, or ? entrense siller;? but, as he had a horror of Cromwell and the Independents, he advanced ~20,000 for the service of King Charlesa step by which he kindled the wrath of the prevailing party; and, after squandering his treasure in a failing cause, he was so heavily.mulcted by extortion of L65,ooo and other merciless penalties, that his vast fortune passed speedily away, and he died in 1655, a prisoner of Cromwell?s, in a gaol at Westminster, under something painfully like a want of the common necessaries of life. He and Sir William Gray were the first men of Edinburgh who really won the position of merchant princes. The changeful fortunes of the former are commemorated in a scarce folio pamphlet, entitled ?The Lamentable State of the Deceased Sir William Dick,? and containing .several engravings. One represents him on horseback, escorted by halberdiers, as Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and superintending the unloading of a great vessel at Leith ; a second represents him in the hands of bailiffs; and a third lying dead in prison. ?The tract is highly esteemed by collectors of prints,? says Sir Walter Scott, in a note to the ?Heart of Midlothian.? ?The only copy I ever saw upon sale was rated at L30.? Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees (a place now called Moredun, in the parish of Liberton) who was Lord Advocate of Scotland from 1692 until his death in 1713, a few months only excepted, gave a name to the next narrow and gloomy alley, Advocates? Close, which bounded on the east the venerable mansion of the Lords Holyroodhouse. His father was provost of the city when Cromwell paid his first peaceful visit thereto in 1648-9, and again in 1658-9, at the close of the Protectorate, The house in which he lived and died was at the foot of the close, on the west side, before descending a flight of steps that served te ; lessen the abruptness of the descent. He had returned from exile on the landing of the Prince of , Orange, and, as an active revolutionist, was detested by the Jacobites, who ridiculed him as /amc Wyhe in many a bitter pasquil. He died in 1713, and Wodrow records that ? so great was the crowd (at his funeral) that the magistrates were at the grave in the Greyfriars? Churchyard before the corpse was taken out of the house at the foot of the Advocates? Close.? In 1769 his grandson sold the house to David Dalrymple, afterwards Lord Westhall, who resided in it till nearly the time of his death in 1784. This close was a very fashionable one in the days of Queen Anne, and was ever a favourite locality with members of the bar. Among many others, there resided Andrew Crosbie, the famous original of Scott?s ?Counsellor Pleydell,? an old lawyer who was one of the few that was able to stand his. ground in any argument or war of words with Dr. Johnson during that visit when he made himself so obnoxious in Edinburgh. From this dark and steep alley, with its picturesque overhanging gables and timber projections, Mr. Crosbie afterwards removed to a handsome house erected by him in St. Andrew?s Square, ornamented with lofty, half-sunk Ionic columns and a most ornate attic storey (on the north side of the present Royal Bank), afterwards a fashionable hotel, long known as Douglas?s and then as Slaney?s, where even royalty has more than once found quarters. By the failure of the Ayr Bank he was compelled to leave his new habitation, and?died in 1784 in such poverty that his widow owed her whole support to a pension of A50 granted to her by the Faculty of Advocates. The house lowest down the close, and immediately opposite that of Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, was the residence of an artist of some note in his time, John Scougal, who painted the well-known portrait of George Heriot, which hangs in the council room of the hospital. He was a cousin of that eminent divine Patrick Scougal, parson of Saltoun in East Lothian and Bishop of Aberdeen in 1664. John Scougall added an upper storey to the old land in the Advocates? Close, and fitted up one of ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street On becoming provost, he was easily led by his religious persuasion to ...

Book 2  p. 222
(Score 0.21)

:a brave prince, demanded instant restitution, and, at the head of an army, laid siege to the Normans in the border stronghold. At this time,the winter snow was covering all the vast expanse of leafless forest, and the hills-then growing only heath and gorse-around the Castle of Edinburgh; and there the queen, with her sons Edmond, Edgar, and David, and her daughters Mary and Matilda (surnamed the Good, afterwards queen of Henry I. of England), were anxiously waiting tidings from the king and his son Edward, who?had pressed the siege of Alnwick with such severity that its garrison was hourly expected to surrender. A sore sickness was now preying on the wasted frame of the queen, who spent her days in prayer for the success of the Scots and the safety of the king. and prince. All old historians vie with each other in praise of the virtuous Margaret. ?? When health and beauty were hers,? says one writer, ?she devoted her strength to serve the poor and uncultivated people whom God had committed to her care; she fed them with her own hand, smoothed their pillow in sickness, and softened the barbarous and iron rule of their feudal lords. No wonder that they regarded her as a guardian angel among them.? She daily fed three hundred,? says another authority, ?waiting upon them on her bended knees, like a housemaid, washing their feet and kissing them, For these and other expenses she not only parted with her own royal dresses, but more than once she drained the treasury.? Malcolm, a Celt, is said to have been unable to read the missals given him by his fair-haired Saxon, but he was wont to kiss them and press them to his heart in token of love and respect. In the castle she built the little oratory on the very summit of the rock. It stands within the .citadel, and is in perfect preservation, measuring about twenty-six feet long by ten, and is spanned by a finely ornamented a p e arch that springs from massive capitals, and is covered with zig-zag mouldings. It was dedicated to her in after years, and liberally endowed. ?There she is said to have prophetically announced the surprise of the fortress in 1312, by causing to be painted on the wall a representation of a man scaling the Castle rock, with the inscription underneath, ? Garak-vow Franfais,? a prediction which was conveniently found to be verified when the Castle was re-taken from the English by William Frank (or Francis) and Earl Randolph ; though why the Saxon saint should prophesy in French we are left to conjecture.? Comzcted with the residence of Edgar Atheling?s sister in Edinburgh Castle there is another legend, which states that while there she commissioned her friend St. Catharine-but which St. Catharine it fails to specify-to bring her some oil from Mount Sinai; and that after long and sore travel from the rocks of Mount Horeb, the saint with the treasured oil came in sight of the Castle of Edinburgh, on that ridge where stood the Church of St Mary, built by Macbeth, baron of Liberton. There she let fall the vessel containing the sacred oil, which was spilt; but there sprang up in its place a fountain of wonderful medicinal efficacy, known now as the Balm Well of St. Catharine, where the oil-which practical folk say is bituminous and comes from the coal seams-may still be seen floating on the limpid water. It figuted long in monkish legends. For ? vges a mound near it was alleged to be the tomb of St Catharine; and close by it James IV. erected a beautiful little chapel dedicated to St. Margaret, but long since demolished. During the king?s absence at Alnwick, the queen, by the severity of her fastings and vigils, increased a heavy illness under which she laboured. Two days before her death, Prince Edgar, whom some writers call her brother, and others her son, arrived from the Scottish camp with tidings that Malcolm had been slain, with her son Edward. ? Then,? according to Lord Hailes, who quotes Turgot?s Life of SL Margaret, ?? lifting up her eyes and hands towards heaven, she said, Praise and blessing be to Thee, Almighty God, that Thou hast been pleased to make me endure so bitter anguish in the hour of my departure, thereby, as I trust, to purify me in some measure from the corruption of my sins; and Thou, Lord Jesus Christ, who through the will of the Father, hast enlivened the world by Thy death, oh, deliver me ! ? While pronouncing ? deliver me? she expired.? This, according to the Bishop of St. Andrews, Turgot, previously Prior of Durham, was after she had heard mass in the present little oratory, and been borne to the tower on the west side of the rock ; and she died holding in her hand a famous relic known as ?the black rood of Scotland,? which according to St. Elred, ?was a cross an ell long, of pure gold and wonderful workmanship, having thereon an ivory figure of our Saviour marvellously adorned with gold.? This was on 16th of November, 1093, when she was in the forty-seventh year of her age. Unless history be false, with the majesty of a queen and the meekness of a saint Margaret possessed a beauty that falls but seldom to the lot of women ; and in her time she did much to soften the ... brave prince, demanded instant restitution, and, at the head of an army, laid siege to the Normans in the ...

Book 1  p. 18
(Score 0.21)

206 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Ainslie Place. To the philosopher we have already referred in our account of Lothian Hut, in the Horse Wynd. In 1792 he published the first volume of the ?Philosophy of the Human Mind,? and in the following year he read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh his account of the life and writings of Adam Smith.; and his other works are too wellknown to need enumeration here. On the death of his wife, in 1787, he married Helen D?Arcy Cranstoun, daughter of the Hon. George Cranstoun, who, it is said, was his equal in intellect, if superior in blood. She was the sister of the Countess Purgstall (the subject of Basil Hall?s ? Schloss Hainfeldt ?) and of Lord Corehouse, the tiiend of Sir Walter Scott. Though the least beautiful of a family iq which beauty is hereditary, she had (according to the Quarter& Review, No. 133) the best essence of beauty, expression, a bright eye beaming with intelligence, a manner the most distinguished, yet soft, feminine, and singularly winning. On her illfavoured Professor she doted with a love-match devotion; to his studies and night lucubrations she sacrificed her health and rest; she was his amanuensis and corrector at a time when he was singularly fortunate in his pupils, who never forgot the charm of her presence, the instruction they won, and the society they enjoyed, in the house of Dugald Stewart Among these were the Lords Dudley, Lansdowne, Palmerston, Kinnaird, and Ashburton. In all his after-life he maintained a good fellowship with them, and, in 1806, obtained the sinecure office of Gazefie writer for Scotland, with A600 per annum. Her talent, wit, and beautymade the wife of the Professor one of the most attractive women in the city. ?( No wonder, therefore,? says the Quarfero, ?that her saloons were the resort of all that was the best of Edinburgh, the house to which strangers most eagerly sought introduction. In her Lord Dudley found indeed a friend, she was to him in the place of a mother. His respect for her was unbounded, and continued to the close; often have we seen him, when she was stricken in years, seated near her for whole evenings, clasping her hand in both of his. Into her faithful ear he poured his hopes and his fears, and unbosomed his inner soul ; and with her he maintained a constant correspondence to the last.? Her marriage with the Professor came about in a singular manner. When Miss Cranstoun, she had written a poem, which was accidentally shown by her cousin, the Earl of Lothian, to Dugald Stewart, then his private tutor, and unknown to fame ; and ?he was so enraptured with it, and so warm in his commendations, that the authoress and her critic fell in love by a species of second-sight, before their first interview, and in due time were made one. Dugald Stewart died at his house in Ainslie Place, on Wednesday, the 11th June, 1828, after a short but painful illness, when in the seventy-fifth year of his age, having been born in the old College of Edinburgh in 1753, when his father was professor of mathematics. His long life had been devoted to literature and science. He had acquired a vast amount of information, profound as it was exact, and possessed the faculty of memory in a singular degree. As a public teacher he was fluent, animated, and impressive, with great dignity and grace in his manner. He was buried in the Canongate churchyard. The funeral procession proceeded as a private one from Ainslie Place at, three in the afternoon ; but on reaching the head of the North Bridge it was joined by the Senatus Academicus in their gowns (preceded by the mace bearer) two and two, the junior members in front, the Rev. Principal Baird in the rear, together with the Lord Provost, magistrates and council, with their officers and regalia. He left a widow and two children, a son and daughter, the former of whom, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Stewart, published an able pamphlet on Indian affairs. His widow, who holds a high place among writers of Scottish song, survived him ten years, dying in July, 1838. The Very Rev. Edward Bannerman Ramsay, LL.D. and F.R.S.E., a genial writer on several subjects, but chiefly known for his ? Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character,? was long the occupant of No. 23. He was the fourth son of Sir Alexander Ramsay, Bart., of Balmaine, in Kincardineshire, and was a graduate of St. John?s College, Cambridge. His degree of LL.D. was given him by the University of Edinburgh, on the installation of Mr. Gladstone as Lord Rector in 1859. He held English orders, and for seven years had been a curate in Somersetshire. His last and most successful contribution to literature was derived from his long knowledge of Scottish character. He was for many years Dean of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and as a Churchman he always advocated moderate opinions, both in ritual and doctrine. He died on the 27th December, 1872, in the seventy-ninth year of hi5 age. In the summer of 1879 amemorial to his memory was erected at the west end of Princes Street, eastward of St. John?s Church, wherein he so long officiated. It is a cross of Shap granite, twenty-six feet in height, having a width of eight feet six inches from end to end of the arms. At the height . ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Ainslie Place. To the philosopher we have already referred in our account of Lothian ...

Book 4  p. 206
(Score 0.21)

the blood of the Trojans. In Albanye (now called Scotland) he edified the Castell of Alclude, which is Dumbreyton j he made the Castell of Maydens, now called Edinburgh; he also made the Castell .of Banburgh, in the twenty-third year of his reign.? All these events occurred, according to Stow, in the year 989 beJore Christ ; and the information is quite as veracious as much else that has been written concerning the remote history of Scotland. From sources that can scarcely be doabted, a ? fortress of some kind upon the rock would seem to have been occupied by the Picts, from whom it was captured in 452 by the Saxons of Northumbria under Octa and Ebusa; and from that time down to the reign of Malcolm 11. its history exhibits but a constant struggle for its possession between them and the Picts, each being victorious in turn; and Edwin, one of these Northumbrian invaders, is said to have rebuilt it in 626. Terri- * tories seemed so easily overrun in those times, that the latter, with the Scots, in the year 638, under the reign of Valentinian I., penetrated as far as London, but were repulsed by Theodosius, father of the Emperor of the same name. This is the Edwin whose pagan high-priest Coifi was converted to Christianity by Paulinus, in 627, and who, according to Bede, destroyed the heathen temples and altars. A curious and very old tradition still exists in Midlothian, that the stones used in the construction of the castle were taken from a quarry near Craigmillar, the Craig-moiZard of antiquity. Camden says, ?The Britons called it CasfeZ Mynedh Agnedh-the maidens? or virgins? castlebecause certain young maidens of the royal blood were kept there in old times.? The source of this Oft-repeated story has probably been the assertion of Conchubhranus, that an Irish saint, or recluse, named Monena, late in the fifth century founded seven churches in Scotland, on the heights of Dun Edin, Dumbarton, and elsewhere. This may have been the St. Monena of Sliabh-Cuillin, who died in 5r8. The site of her edifice is supposed to be that now occupied by the present chapel of St. Margaret-the most ancient piece of masonry in the Scottish capital; and it is a curious circumstance, with special reference to the fable of the Pictish princesses, that close by it (as recorded in the CaZedonian Mercury of 26th September, 1853), when some excavations were made, a number of human bones, apparently aZZ of females, were found, together with the remains of several coffins. ? Castmm PuelZarum,? says Chalmers, ?? was the learned and diplomatic name of the place, as appears from existing charters and documents Edinburgh, its vulgar appellation f while Buchanan asserts that its ancient names of the Dolorous Valley and Maiden Castle were borrowed from . ancient French romances, ? devised within the space of three hundred years ? from his time. The Castle was the nucleus, so to speak, around which the city grew, a fact that explains the triple towers in the arms of the latter-three great towers connected by a curtain wall-being the form it presented prior to the erection of the Half-Moon Battery, in Queen Mary?s time. Edwin, the most powerful of the petty kings of Northumberland, largely extended the Saxon conquests in the Scottish border counties; and his possessions reached ultimately from the waters of Abios to those of Bodoria-i.e., from Humber to Forth ; but Egfrid, one of his successors, lost these territories, together with his liie, in battle with the Pictish King Bridei, or Brude, who totally defeated him at Dun-nechtan, with temble slaughter. This was a fatal blow to the Northumbrian monarchy, which never regained its previous ascendency, and was henceforth confined to the country south of Tweed. Lodonia (a Teutonic name signifying marshes or borders) became finally a part of the Pichsh dominiops, Dunedin being its stronghold, and both the Dalriadic Scots and Strathclyde Britons were thus freed from the inroads of the Saxons. This battle was fought in the year 685, the epoch of the bishopric of Lindisfasne, and as the Church of St. Giles was a chaplainry of that ancient see, we may infer that some kind of townof huts, doubtless-had begun to cluster round the church, which was a wooden edifice of a primitive kind, for as the world was expected to end in the year 1000, sacred edifices of stone were generally deemed unnecessary. From the time of the Saxon expulsion to the days of Malcolm 11.-a period of nearly four hundred years-everything connected with the castle and town of Edinburgh is steeped in obscurity or dim tradition. According to a curious old tradition, preserved in the statistical account of the parish of Tweedmuir, the wife of Grime, the usurper, had her residence in the Castle while he was absent fighting against the invading Danes. He is said to have granted, by charter, his hunting seat of Polmood, in that parish, to one of his attendants named Hunter, whose race were to possess it while wood grew and water ran. But, as Hogg says in his ?Winter Evening Tales,? ?There is one remarkable circumstance connected with the place that has rendered it unfamous of late years, and seems to justify an ancient prediction that the hunters of Polmood were mer foprospr..? ... blood of the Trojans. In Albanye (now called Scotland) he edified the Castell of Alclude, which is Dumbreyton ...

Book 1  p. 15
(Score 0.21)

1.86 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Gilea Street. Russel never failed to meet the requirements of the day ; and for three or four months scarcely a day passed on which he did not write one or more articles - seventy leading articles having been written by him, we believe, day after day.? In testimony of his literary ability and public services a magnificent presentation of silver plate was made to him in 1859, at the Waterloo Rooms. The Sofsman, which has always opposed and exposed Phansaism and inconsistency, yet the while giving ample place to the ecclesiastical element-a feature in Scottish everyday life quite incomprehensible to strangers-was in the full zenith and plenitude of its power when Alexander Russel died, in about the thirtieth year of his editorship and sixty-second of his age, leaving a blank in his own circle that may never be supplied, for he was the worthy successor of Maclaren in the task of making the Sofsman what it is-the sole representative of Scottish opinion in England and abroad; ?and that it represents it so that that opinion does not need to hang its head in the area of cosmopolitan discussion, is largely due to the independence of spirit, the tact, the discernment of character, and the unflagging energy by which Mr. Russel imparted a dignity to the work of editing a newspaper which it can hardly be said to have possessed in his own country before his time.? Among other institutions of New Edinburgh to be found in picturesque Cockburn Street, under the very shadow of the old city, such as the Ear and Eye Dispensary, instituted in 1822, and the rooms of the Choral Society, are the permanent Orderly Rooms of the Edinburgh Volunteer Artillery, and the Queen?s Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Brigade, respectively at No. 27 and No. 35. Both these corps were embodied in the summer of 1859, when the volunteer movement was exciting that high enthusiasm which happily has never died, but has continued till the auxiliary army then, self-summoned into existence, though opposed by Government in all its stages, has now become one of the most important institutions in the kingdom. The City Artillery Volunteer Corps, commanded in 1878 by Sir William Baillie, Bart., of Polkemet, consisting of nine batteries, showed in 1880 a maximum establishment of 519 (57 of whom were non-efficients), 14 officers, and 36 sergeants.* Formed in two battalions (with a third corps 01 cadets), the Queen?s Edinburgh Rifle Brigade, oi In addition to this corps, there are the Midlothian Coast Volunteei Artillery, whose headquarters are at Edinburgh, and who showed in 1877 a maximum establishment of 640,442 of whom werc etlicients, with 11: oficers and 30 sergeants. (Volunteer Blue Book.) which the Lord Provost is honorary colonel, consists now of 25 companies, seven of which were called Highland, with a total strength on the 31st of October, 1880, of 2,252 efficients, 106 nonefficients, with 82 officers, 116 sergeants, extraproficients. Since its embodiment in 1859 there have enrolled in this corps more than I 1,537 men, of whom 9,584 have resigned, leaving the present strength, as stated, at 2,252. As a shooting corps, and for the excellence of its drill, it has always borne a high character, and its artisan battalion is ? second to none ? among the auxiliary forces. At the International Regimental Match shot for in May, 1877, the Queen?s Edinburgh Brigade were twice victorious, and in the preceding year no less than 78 officers and I 2 I sergeants received certificates of proficiency. Under the new system the brigade forms a portion of the 62nd, or Edinburgh Brigade DepGt, which includes the two battalions of the 1st RoyaL Scots Regiment, the Edinburgh or Queen?s Regiment of Light Infantry Militia, and the Administrative Volunteer Rifle Battalions of Berwick, Haddington, Linlithgow, and Midlothian. In St. Giles Street, which opens on the north side of the High Street (opposite to the square in which the County Hall stands) and turning west joins the head of the mound, at the foot of Bank Street, are the offices of the Daio and Weekly Rwim; The GZasgow NwaM and the Eirening limes share a handsome edifice, built like the rest of the street, in the picturesque old Scottish style, with crowstepped gables and pedirnented dormer windows, and having inscribed along its front in large letters : THE COURANT, ESTAB. 1705. To this office, which was specially designed for the purpose by the late David Bryce, R.S.A., the headquarters of the paper were removed from 188, High Street; and in noticing this venerable organ of the Conservative party, it is impossible to omit some reference to the rise of journalism in Edinburgh, where it has survived its old contemporaries, as the CaZedonian Memuy, a continued serial from 1720, is now incorporated with the Scofsman, and the Edinburgh Advt-rfiser, which started in January, 1764, ceased about 1860; hence the oldest existing paper in the city is the Xdinburgh Gazetfe, which appeared in 1699, the successor to a shortlived paper of the same name, started in 1680. The newspaper press of Scotland began during the civil wars of the 17th century. A party of Cromwell?s troops which garrisoned the citadel of Leith in 1652, brought with them a printer named Christopher Higgins, to reprint the London paper ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Gilea Street. Russel never failed to meet the requirements of the day ; and for ...

Book 2  p. 286
(Score 0.21)

I10 OLD -AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Calton Hill. It was finished in 1832, and is a beautiful restoration, with some variations, of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, from a design by W. H. Playf5r. The chaste Greek monument of Professor Flayfair, at the south-east angle of the new observatory serves also to enhance the classic aspect of the hill, and was designed by his nephew. This memorial to the great mathematician and eminent natural philosopher is inscribed thus, in large Roman characters :- JOANNI PLAYFAIR AMICORUM PIETAS CESIDERIIS ICTA FIDELIBUS QUO IPSE LOCO TEMPLUM X?RANAE SUAE OLIM DICAVERIT POSUIT. NAT. VI. IDUS. MART. MDCCXLVIII. OBIIT. XIV. KAL SEXTIL. MDCCCXIX. Passing the eastern gate of the new prison, and Jacob?s Ladder, a footway which, in two mutually diverging lines, each by a series of steep traverses and flights of steps, descends the sloping face of the hill, to the north back of the Canongate, we find Bums?s monument, perched over the line of the tunnel, built in 1830, after a design by Thomas Hamilton, in the style of a Greek peripteral temple, its cupola being a literal copy from the monument of Lysicrates at Athens. The original object of this edifice was to serve as a shrine for Flaxman?s beautiful statue of Bums, now removed to the National Gallery, but replaced by an excellent bust of the poet, by William Brodie, R.S.A., one of the best of Scottish sculptors. This round temple contains many interesting relics of Burns. The entire length of the upper portion of the hill is now enclosed by a stately terrace, more than 1,000 yards in length, with Grecian pillared doorwzrys,- continuous iron balconies, and massive cornices, commanding much of the magnificent panorama seen from the higher elevations ; but, by far the most important, interesting, and beautiful edifice on this remarkable hill is the new High School of Edinburgh, on its southern slope, adjoinimg the Regent Terrace. The new High School is unquestionably one af the most chaste and classical edifices in Edinh g h . It is a reproduction of the purest Greek, and in every way quite worthy of its magnificent site, which commands one of the richest of town and country landscapes in the city and its environs, and is in itself one of the most striking features of the beautiful scenery with which it is grouped. When the necessity for having a new High School in place of the old, within the city wall-the old which had so many striking memories and traditions (and to which we shall refer elsewhere)- came to pass, several situations were suggested as a site for it, such as the ground opposite to Princes Street, and the then Excise Office (now the Royal Bank), in St. Andrew Square; but eventually the magistrates fixed on the green slope of the Calton Hill, to the eastward of the Miller?s Knowe. In digging the foundations copper ore in some quantities was dug out, together with some fragments of native copper. The ceremony of laying the foundation stone took place amid great pomp and display on the 28th of July, 1825. All the public bodies in the city were present, with the then schola from the Old School, the senators, academicians, clergy, rector, and masters, and, at the request of Lord Provost Henderson, the Rev. Dr. Brunton implored the Divine blessing on the undertaking. The stone was laid by Viscount Glenorchy, Grand Master of Scotland, and the building was proceeded with rapidly. It is of pure white stone, designed by Thomas Hamilton, and has a front of 400 feet, including the temples, or wings, which contain the writing and mathematical class-rooms. The central portico is a hexastyle, and, having a double range of twelve columns, projects considerably in front of the general fa@e. The whole edifice is of the purest Grecian Doric, and, even to its most minute details, is a copy of the celebrated Athenian Temple of Theseus. A spacious flight of steps leading up to it from the closing wall in front, and a fine playground behind, is overlooked by the entrances to the various class-rooms. The interior is distributed into a large hall, seventy-three feet by forty-three feet ; a rector?s classroom, thirty-eight feet by thirty-four feet ; four class-rooms for masters, each thirty-eight feet by twenty-eight feet; a library ; and two small rooms attached to each of the classrooms. On the margin of the roadway, on a lower site than the main building, are two handsome lodges, each two storeys in height, oiie occupied by the janitor, and the other containing class-rooms. The area of the school and playground is two acres, and is formed by cutting deep into the face of the hill. The building cost when finished, according to the City Chamberlain?s books, L34,rgg I IS. 6d. There are a rector, and ten teachers of classics and languages, in addition to seven lecturers on science. The school, the most important in Scotland, and intimately connected with the literature and progress of the kingdom, although at first only a classical seminary, now furnishes systematic ... OLD -AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Calton Hill. It was finished in 1832, and is a beautiful restoration, with some ...

Book 3  p. 110
(Score 0.21)

26 OLD AND. NEW. EDINBURGH. [Cauongate. date over a doorway in it, this street had been in progress in 1768. At the head of the street, with its front windows overlooking the Canongate, is the house on the first floor of which was the residence of Mrs. Telfer of Scotstown, the sister of Tobias Smollett, who was her guest in 1766, on his second and last visit to his native country, and where, though in feeble health, he mixed with the best society of the capital,. the men and manners of which he so graphically portrays in his last novel, ? Humphrey Clinker,? a work in which fact and fiction are curiously biended, and in which he mentions that he owed an introduction into the literary circles to Dr. Carlyle, the well-known incumbent of Inveresk. Mrs. Telfer, though then a widow with moderate means, moved in good society. She has been described as a tall, sharp-visaged lady, with a hooked nose and a great partiality for whist. Her brother had then returned from that protracted Continental tour, the experiences of which are given in his (? Travels through France and Italy,? in twovolumes. The novelist has been described as a tall and handsome man, somewhat prone to satirical innuendo, but with a genuine vein of humour, polished manners, and great urbanity. On the latter Dr. Carlyle particularly dwefls, and refers to an occasion when Smollett supped in a tavern with himself, Hepburn of Keith, Home the author of ?? Douglas,? Commissioner Cardonel, and others. The beautiful ? Miss R-n,? with whom Jerry Milford is described as dancing at the hunters? ball, was the grand-daughter of Susannah Countess of Eglinton, whose daughter Lady Susan became the wife of Renton of Lamerton in the Merse. The wife of the novelist, Anne Lascelles, the Narcissa of ? Roderick Random,? was a pretty Creole lady, of a somewhat dark complexion, whom he left at his death nearly destitute in a foreign land, and for whom a benefit was procured at the old Theatre Royal in March, 1784, A sister of Miss Renton?s was parried to Smollett?s eldest nephew, Telfer, who inherited the family estate and assumed the name of Smollett She afterwards. became the Wife of Sharpe of Hoddam, and, ? strange to say, the lady whose bright eyes had flamed upon poor Smollett?s soul in the middle of the last century was living so lately as 1836.? The house in which Smollett resided with his sister in 1766 was also the residence, prior to 1788, of James Earl of Hopetoun, who in early life had served in the Scots Guards and fought at Minden, and of whom it was said that he ? maintained the dignity 2nd noble bearing of a Scottish baron with the humility of a Christian, esteeming the 7 religious character of his family to be its highest distinction. He was an indulgent landlord, a munificent benefactor to the poor, and a friend to all.? No. I St. John Street was the house of Sir- Charles Preston, Bart., of Valleyfield, renowned for his gallant defeqce of Fort St. John against the American general Montgomery, when major of the Cameronians. No. 3 was occupied by Lord Blantyre ; No. 5 by George Earl of Dalhousie, who. was Commissioner to the General Assembly from 1777 to 1782 ; No. 8 was the house of Andrew Carmichael the last Earl of Hyndford. In No. 10 resided James Ballantyne, the friend, partner, and confidant of Sir Walter Scott-when the Great Unknown-and it was the scene of those assemblies of select and favoured guests to whom ? the hospitable printer read snatches of the forthcoming novel, and whetted, while he seemed to gratify, their curiosity by many a shrewd wink and mysterious hint of confidential insight into the literary riddle of the age.? No. 10 must have been the scene of many a secret council connected with the publication of the Waverley Novels. Scott himself, Lockhart who so graphically describesthese scenes, Erskine, Terry, Sir Tlrilliam Allan,. George Hogarth, W.S. (Mrs. Ballantyne?s brother), and others, were frequent guests here. In this. house Mrs. Ballantyne died in 1829, and Ballantyne?sbrother John died there on the 16thof June, 1821. The house is now a Day Home for Destitute Children. In No. 13 dwelt Lord Monboddo and his beautiful daughter, who died prematurely of consumption at Braid on the 17th of June, 1790, and whom Burns-her father?s frequent guest there-describes so glowingly in his ?( Address to Edinburgh : ?- ?? Fair Burnet strikes the adoring eye, Heaven?s beauties on my fancy shine ; And own his work indeed divine ! ? I see the sire of Love on high, The fair girl?s early death he touchingly commemorates in a special ode. She was the ornament of the elegant society in which she moved; she was her old father?s pride and the comfort of his domestic life. Dr. Gregory, whom she is said to. have refused, also lived in St. John Street, as did Lady Suttie, Sinclair of Barrock, Sir David Rae, and Lord Eskgrove, one of the judges who tried the Reformers of 1793, a man of high ability and integrity. He removed thither from the old Assembly Close, and lived in St. John Street till his death in 1804. Among the residents there in 1784 were Sir John Dalrymple and Sir John Stewart of Allanbank, ... OLD AND. NEW. EDINBURGH. [Cauongate. date over a doorway in it, this street had been in progress in 1768. At ...

Book 3  p. 26
(Score 0.21)

Canongate.] THE TENNIS COURT. ? 39 Scotland, and who for some years had been Commissioner to the General Assembly. In this house he died, 28th July, 1767, as recorded in the Scots Magazine, and was succeeded by his son, Major- General the Earl of Ancrum, Colonel of the 11th Light Dragoons (now Hussars). His second son, Lord Robert, had been killed at Culloden. His marchioness, Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Nicholson, Bart., of Kempnay, who survived him twenty years, resided in Lothian Hut till her death. It was afterwards occupied by the dowager of the ? fourth Marquis, Lady Caroline D?Arcy, who was only daughter of Robert Earl of Holderness, and great-grand-daughter of Charles Louis, the Elector Palatine, a lady whose character is remembered traditionally to have been both grand and amiable. Latterly the Hut was the residence of Professor Dugald Stewart, who, about the end of the last century, entertained there many English pupils of high rank. Among them, perhaps the most eminent was Henry Temple, afterwards Lord Palmerston, whose education, commenced at Harrow, was continued at the University of Edinburgh. When he re-visited the latter city in 1865, during his stay he was made aware that an aged woman, named Peggie Forbes, who had been a servant with Dugald Stewart at Lothian Hut, was still alive, and residing at No. I, Rankeillor Street. There the great statesman visited her, and expressed the pleasure he felt at renewing the acquaintance of the old domestic. Lothian Hut, the scene of Dugald Stewart?s most important literary labours, was pulled down ih 1825, to make room for a brewery ; but a house of the same period, at the south-west corner of the Horse Wynd, bears still the name of Lothian Vale. A little to the eastward of the present White Horse hostel, and immediately adjoining the Water Gate, stood the Hospital of St. Thomas, founded in 154r by George Crichton, Bishop of Dunkeld, ?dedicated to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints.? It consisted of an almshouse and chapel, the bedesmen of which were ?to celebrate the founder?s anniversary obit. by solemnly singing in the choir of Holyrood church yearly, on the day of his death, ?the Placebo and Dinie for the repose of his soul ? and the soul of the King of Scotland. ? Special care,? says Amot, ? was taken in allotting money for providing candles to be lighted during the anniversary ma.ss of requiem, and the number and size of the tapers were fixed with a precision which shows the importance in which these circumstances were held by the founder. The number of masses, paternosters, aye-marias, and credos, to be said by the chaplain and bedesmen is distinctly ascertained.? The patronage of the institution was vested by the founder in himself and a certain series of representatives named by him. In 1617, with the consent of David Crichton of Lugton, the patron, who had retained possession of the endowments, the magistrates of the Canongate purchased the chapel and almshouse from the chaplains and bedesmen, and converted the institution into a hospital for the poor of the burgh. Over the entrance they placed the Canongate arms, supported by a pair of ?cripples, an old man and woman, with the inscription- HELP HERE THE POORE, AS ZE WALD GOD DID ZOV. JUNE 19, 1617. The magistrates of the Canongate sold the patronage of the institution in 1634 to the Kirk Session, by whom its revenues ? were entirely embezzled f by 1747 the buildings were turned into coachhouses, and in 1787 were pulled down, and replaced by modem houses of hideous aspect. On the opposite side of the Water Gate was the Royal Tennis Court, the buildings of which are very distinctly shown in Gordon?s map of 1647. Maitland says it was anciently called the Catchpel, from Cache, a game now called Fives, a favourite amusement in Scotland as early as the reign of James IV. The house, a long, narrow building, with a court, after being a weavers? workhouse, was burned down in 1771, and rebuilt in the tasteless fashion of that period ; but the locality is full of interest, as being connected not only with the game of tennis, as played there by the Duke of Albany, Law the great financial schemer, and others, but the early and obscure history of the stage in Scotland. In 1554 there was a ??litill farsche and play maid be William Lauder,? and acted before the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, for which he was rewarded by two silver cups. Where it was acted is not stated. Neither are we told where was perlormed another play, ? made by Robert Simple ? at Edinburgh, before the grim Lord Regent and others of the nobility in 1567, and for which the mthor was paid ;E66 13s. 4d. The next record of .a post-Reformation theatre is in the time of James VI. when several companies came from London for the amusement of the court, including one of which Shakspere was a member, though his appearance cannot be substantiated. In 1599 the company of English comedians was interdicted by the clergy and Kirk Session, though their performances, says Spottiswoode in ... THE TENNIS COURT. ? 39 Scotland, and who for some years had been Commissioner to the General ...

Book 3  p. 39
(Score 0.21)

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

Book 1  p. 86
(Score 0.21)

Lord Promsts.] THE DOUGLASES AND HAMILTONS. 279 ?James of Creichtoun of Felde,? as a deputy provost under him ; and the first entry in the Records under that date is a statute that ? the commoun pyperis of the towne ? shall be properly feed, for the honour thereof, and that they get their food, day about, from all honest persons of substance, under a penalty of 9d. per day, ?? that is to ilk pyper iijd at least.? The fifth provost after this was Sir Thomas Tod, zznd August, 1491, and again in 1498, with Richard Lawson of the Highriggs, and Sir John Murray in the interval during 1492. From this date to 1513, with a little interval, Richard Lawson was again provost ; the office was held by Sir Alexander Lauder of Blythe, who -in the last named year was also Justice Depute. He fell in the battle.on the fatal 9th of September, 1513, and the apairs ofthe city, amid the consternation and grief that ensued, were managed by George of Tours, who with Robert Bruce, William Lockhart, William Adamson, and William Clerk, all bailies, had been, on the 19th of August, chosen by the provost and community to rule the city after his departure with the army for England. The aged Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus (better known as Archibald Bell-thecat)-whose two sons, George Master of Angus, and Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie, with more then zoo knights and gentlemen of his surname, found their tomb on Flodden Hill-was elected provost on the 30th of September, twenty-one days after the battle ; and at the same time his son, Gawain the Poet, provost of St. Giles?s, was ?( made burgess, gratis, for the Common benefit of the town.? It was he of whom Scott makes th?e grim old Earl say, with reference to the English knight?s act of forgery, ? Thanks to St. Bothan, son of mine, Save Gawain, ne?er could pen a line.? He was succeeded on the 24th July, 1514, by Alexander Lord Home, Great Chamberlain 01 Scotland in 1507, and baron of Dunglasand Greenlaw, under whom preparations for the defence of the city, in expectation of a counter-invasion, went on. An Act was passed for the furnishing ?01 artailyerie for the resisting of our auld innemies of Ingland;? a tax was laid upon all-even the widows of the fallen, so far as their substance permitted them to pay-and all persons having heidyaird dykes, ?were to build them up within fifteen days, under pain of six pounds to the Kirk-werk.? In August of the same year David Melville was provost, and the pestilence caused the division ol the city into four quarters, each under a bailie and quartermaster to attend to the health of the people. Except the interval, during which Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavil and Archibald Douglas were Provosts, Melville was in office till 15 17, when James Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, took it upon him, and was designated Lord Provost. In consequence of the influence it conferred, the office was at this time an object of ambition among the nobility. His enemies, the Douglases, taking advantage of his temporary absence from the city, procured the election of Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, the uncle of the EarLof Angus, in his place ; and when Arran returned from the castle of Dalkeith, where the court was then held, he found the gates of Edinburgh shut against him. His followers attempted to force an entrance sword in hand, but were repulsed, and a number were killed and wounded on. both sides. Similar scenes of violence and bloodshed were of almost daily occurrence, and between the rival factions of Hamilton and Douglas the Lowlands were in a complete state of demoralisation ; and on the z 1st of February, 15 I 9, in consequence of the bitter feud and bloody broils between the houses of Douglas and Hamilton, he was ordered by the Regent, then absent, to vacate his office, as it was ordained that no person of either of those names was eligible as provost, till the ?Lord Governor?s home coming, and for a year.? Thus, in 1510, Robert Logan of Coitfield was. provost, and in October he was granted by the Council 100 merks of the common good, beside his ordinary fee, for the sustentation of four armed men, to carry halberds before him, ?because the warld is brukle and troublous.? The fourth provost after this was Robert Lord Maxwell, 18th August, 1524, who was made so by the Queen-mother, when she (? tuik the hail1 government of the realm and ruele of the king (James V.) upoun her.? This was evidently an invasion of the rights of the citizens ; yet on the same day the Lord Justice Clerk. appeared before the Council, and declared ? that it was the mind and will ? of the king, then in his minority, that Mr. Francis Bothwell, provost, ?? cedit and left his office of provostier in the town?s hand,? and the said provost protested that the leaving of his office thus should not be derogatory to the city, nor injurious to its privileges Lord Maxwell was afterwards Governor of Lochmaben, Captain of the Royal Guard, Warden of the West Marches, and Ambassador to France to negotiate the king?s marriage with Mary of Lorraine ; but long ere all that he had been succeeded as provost by Allan Stuart. In 15.26 Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, Lord High Treasurer, was provost again. In this year it was ordained that through the resort to Edin ... Promsts.] THE DOUGLASES AND HAMILTONS. 279 ?James of Creichtoun of Felde,? as a deputy provost under him ; ...

Book 4  p. 279
(Score 0.21)

Here some stone coffins, or cists, were found by the workmen, when preparing the ground for the - - erection of Oxford Terrace, which f&es the north, and has a most commanding site; and in October, 1866, at the foundations of Lennox Street, which runs southward from the terrace at an angle, four solitary ancient graves were discovered a little below the surface. ?They lay north and south,? says a local annalist, ?and were lined with slabs of undressed stone. The length of these graves was abou! four feet, and the breadth little beyond two feet, so that the bodies must have been buried in a sitting posture, or compressed in some .way. This must have been the case in the short cists or coffins made of slabs of stone, while in the great cists, which were about six feet long, the body lay at full length.? On both sides of the Water of Leith lies Stockbridge, some 280 yards east of the Dean Bridge. Once a spacious suburb, it is now included in the growing northern New Town, and displays a curious mixture of grandeur and romance, with something of classic beauty, and, in more than one quarter, houses of rather a mean and humble character. One of its finest features is the double crescent called St. Bernard?s, suggested by Sir David Wilkie, constructed by Sir Henry Raeburn, and adorned with the grandest Grecian Doric pillars that are to be found in any other edifice not a public one. Here the Water of Leith at times flows with considerable force and speed, especially in seasons of rain and flood. Nicoll refers to a visitation in 1659, when ?the town of Edinburgh obtained an additional impost upon the ale sold in its boundsit was now a full penny a pint, so that the liquor rose to the unheard of price of thirty-two pence Scots, for that quantity. Yet this imposition seemed not to thrive,? he continues superstitiously, ? for at the same instant, God frae the heavens declared His anger by sending thunder and unheard-of tempests, storms, and inundations of water, whilk destroyed their common mills, dams, and warks, to the toun?s great charges and expenses. Eleven mills belonging to Edinburgh, and five belonging to Heriot?s Hospital, all upon the Water of Leith, were destroyed on this occasion, with their dams, water-gangs, timber and stone-warks, the haill wheels of their mills, timber-graith, and haill other warks.? In 1794-5 there was a ?spate? in the river, when the water rose so high that access to certain houses in Haugh Street was entirely cut off, and a mamage party-said to be that of the parents of David Roberts, R.A.-was nearly swept away. In 1821 a coachman with his horse was carried down the stream, and drowned near the gate of Inverleith ; and in 1832 the stream flooded all the low-lying land about Stockbridge, and did very considerable damage. This part of the town annot boast of great antiquity, for we do not find it mentioned by Nicoll in the instance of the Divine wrath being excited by the impost on ale, or in the description of Edinburgh preserved in the Advocates? Library, and supposed to have been written between 1642 and 1651, and which refers to many houses and hamlets on the banks of the Water of Leith, The steep old Kirk Loan, that led, between hedgerows, to St. Cuthbert?s, is now designated Church Lane; where it passed the grounds of Drumsheugh it was bordered by a deep ditch. A village had begun to spring up here towards the end of the seventeenth century, and by the year 1742, says a pamphlet by Mr. C. Hill, the total population amounted to 574 persons. Before the city extended over the arable lands now occupied by the New Town, the village would be deemed as somewhat remote from the old city, and the road that led to it, down by where the Royal Circus stands now, was steep, bordered by hawthorn hedges, and known as ?Stockbrig Brae.? It is extremely probable that the name originated in the circumstance of the first bridge having been built of wood, for which the old Saxon word was sfoke; and a view that has been preserved of it, drawn in 1760, represents it as a structure of beams and pales, situated a little way above where the present bridge stands. In former days, the latter-like that at Canonmills- was steep and narrow, but by raising up the banks on both sides the steepness was removed, and it was widened to double its original breadth. The bridge farther up the stream, at Mackenzie Place, was built for the accommodation of the feuars of St. Bernard?s grounds ; and between these two a wooden foot-bridge at one time existed, for the convenience of the residents in Anne Street. The piers of it are still remaining. St. Bernard?s, originally a portion of the old Dean estate, was acquired by Mr. Walter ROSS, W.S., whose house, a large, irregular, three-storeyed edifice, stood on the ground now occupied by the east side of Carlton Street; and this was the house afterwards obtained by Sir Henry Raeburn, and in which he died. Mr. Ross was a man of antiquarian taste, and this led him to collect many of the sculptured stones from old houses then in the process of demolition in the city, and some of these he built into the house. In front of one projection he built a fine Gothic window, and ... some stone coffins, or cists, were found by the workmen, when preparing the ground for the - - erection of ...

Book 5  p. 71
(Score 0.21)

2 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-of-Field. land of umyle Hew Berrie?s tenement and chamber adjacent yr to, lying in the Cowgaitt, on the south side of the street, betwixt James Earl of Buchan?s land on the east, and Thomas Tod?s on ye west.? This lady was a daughter of John Lord Kennedy, and was the widow of the aged Earl of Angus, who died of a broken heart after the battle of Flodden. In 1450-1 an obligation by the Corporation of Skinners in favour of St. Christopher?s altar in St. Giles?s was signed with much fornialityon the 12th of January, infra ecdesiam Beate &Iarie He Canzpo, in presence of Sir Alexander Hundby, John Moffat, and John Hendirsone, chaplains thereof, Thomas Brown, merchant, and other witnesses. ((? Burgh Rec.?) James Laing, a burgess of Edinburgh, founded an additional chaplaincy in this church during the reign of James V., whose royal confirmation of it is dated 19th June, 1530, and the grant is made ? to a chaplain celebrating divine service at the high altar within the collegiate church of Blessed Marie-in-the-Fields.? When made collegiate it was governed by a provost, who with eight prebendaries and two choristers composed the college ; but certain rights appear to have been reserved then by the canons of Holyrood, for in 1546 we find Robert, Commendator of the abbey, presenting George Kerr to a. prebend in it, ?according to the force and form of the foundation.? There is a charter by James V., arst May, 1531, confirming a previous one of 16th May, I 53 I, by the lady before mentioned, ?Janet Kennedy Domina de Bothvill,? of tenements in Edinburgh, and an annual rent of twenty shillings for a prebendary to perform divine service ?in the college kirk of the Blessed Virgin Mary-in-the-Fields, or without the walls of Edinburgh, pro sat& #sius Domini Regis (JamesV.), and for the souls OP his father (James IV.), and the late Archibald, Earl of Angus? Among the most distinguished provosts of the Kirk-of-Field was its second one, Richard Bothwell, rector of Ashkirk, who in A4ugust and December, 1534, was a commissioner for opening Parliament. He died in the provost?s house in 1547. The prebendal buildings were of considerable extent, exclusive of the provost?s house, or lodging. David Vocat, one of the prebendaries, and master of the Grammar School of Edinburgh, clerk and orator of Holyrood,? was a liberal ? benefactor to the church ; but it and the buildings attached to it seem to have suffered severely at the hands of the English during the invasion of 1544 or 1547. In the ?? Inventory of the Townis purchase from the Marquis of Hamilton in 1613,?? with a view to the founding of a college, says Wilson, we have found an abstract of ?a feu charter granted by Mr. Alexander Forrest, provost of the collegiate church of the Blessed Xlary-in-the-Fields, near Edinr., and by the prebends of the said church,? dated 1544, wherein it is stated:-?Considering that ther houses, especially ther hospital annexed and incorporated with ther college, were burnt down and destroyed by their add enemies of EngZand, so that nothing of their said hospital was left, but they are altogether waste and entirely destroyed, wherethrough the divine worship is not a little decreased in the college, because they were unable to rebuild the said hospital. . . , Therefore they gave and granted, set in feu forme, and confirmed to a magnificent and illustrious prince, James, Duke of Chattelherault, Earl of Arran, Lord Hamilton, &c., all and hail their tenement or hospital, with the yards and pertinints thereof, lying within the burgh of Edinburgh, in the street or wynd called School House Wynd, on the east part thereof.? The duke appears, it is added, from frequent allusions by contemporaries, to have built an abode for his family on the site of this hospital, and that edifice served in future years as the hall of the first college of Edinburgh. In 1556 we find Alexander Forrest, the provost of the kirk, in the name of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, presenting a protest, signed by Mary of Guise, to the magistrates, praying them to suppress ?? certain odious ballettis and rymes baith sett furth ? by certain evil-inclined persons, who had also demolished certain images, but with what end is unknown. (?Burgh Records.?) But two years after Bishop Lesly records that when the Earl of Argyle and his reformers entered Edinburgh, after spoiling the Black and Grey Friars, and having their ? haill growing treis plucked up be the ruittis,? they destroyed and burned all the images in the Kirk-of-Field. In 1562 the magistrates made application to Queen Mary, among other requests, for the Kirk-of- Field and all its adjacent buildings and ground, for the purpose of erecting a school thereon, and for the revenues of the old foundation to endow the same ; but they were not entirely made over to the city for the purpose specified till 1566. The quadrangle of the present university now occupies the exact site of the church of St. Mary-inthe- Fields, including that of the prebendal buildings, and, says Wilson-who in this does not quite accord with Bell-to a certain extent the house of the provost, so fatally known in history; and the main access and approach to the whole establishment was ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-of-Field. land of umyle Hew Berrie?s tenement and chamber adjacent yr to, lying in ...

Book 5  p. 2
(Score 0.21)

310 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton. Scots now takefl this to be a prophecy of the thing which has happened. ? The next day, 4th May, the army landed two miles bewest the town of Leith, at a place called Grantaine Cragge, every man being so.prompt, that the whole army was landed in four hours.? As there was no opposition, a circumstance unlooked for, and having guides, ?? We put ourselves in good order of war,?? continues the .narrator, ?marching towards Leith in three battayles (columns), whereof my lord admiral led the vanguard, the Earl of Shrewsbury the rearguard, the Earl of Hertford the centre, with the artillery drawn by men. In a valley on the right of the said town the Scots were assembled to the number of five or six thousand horse, besides foot, to impeach our passage, and had planted their artillery at two straits, through which we had to pass. At first they seemed ready to attack the vanguard.? But perceiving the English ready to pass a ford that lay between them and the Scots, the latter abandoned their cannon, eight pieces in all, and fled towards Edinburgh j the first to quit the field was ? the holy cardynall, lyke a vallyant champion, with him the governor, Therles of Huntly, Murray, and Bothwell? The.fame of Granton for its excellent freestone is not a matter of recent times, as in the City Treasurer?s accounts, 1552-3, we read of half an ell of velvet, given to the Laird of Carube (Carrubber?) for ?licence to wyn stones on his lands of Granton, to the schoir, for the hale space of a year.? In 1579 a ship called the Jinas of Leith perished in a storm upon the rocks at Granton, having been blown from her anchorage. Upon this, certain burgesses of Edinburgh brought an action against her owner, Vergell Kene of Leith, for the value of goods lost in the said ship ; but he urged that her wrecking was the ?providence of God,? and the matter was remitted to the admiral and his deputes (Privy Council Reg.) In 1605 we first find a distinct mention legally, of the old fortalice of Wardie, or Granton, thus in the ?Retours.? ? Wardie-muir cum turre et fortalicio de Wardie,? when George Tours is served heir to his father, Sir John Tours of Inverleith, knight, 14th May. In 1685, by an Act of Parliament passed by James VII., the lands and barony of Royston were ?ratified,? in favour of George Viscount Tarbet, Lord Macleod, and Castlehaven, then Lord Clerk Register, and his spouse, Lady Anna Sinclair. They are described as comprehending the lands of Easter Granton with the manor-house, dovecot, coalheughs, and quarries, bounded by ? . Granton Bum; the lands of Muirhouse, and Pilton on the south, and the lands of Wardie and Wardie Bum, the sea links of Easter Granton, the lands of Golden Riggs or Acres, all of which had belonged to the deceased Patrick Nicoll of Royston. The statesmen referred to was George Mackenzie, Viscount Tarbet and first Earl of Cromarty, eminent for his learning and abilities, descended from a branch of the family of Seaforth, and born in 1630. On the death of his father in 1654, with General Middleton he maintained a guerrilla warfare with the Parliamentary forces, in the interests of Charles 11. ; but had to leave Scotland till the Restoration, after which he became the great confidant of Middleton, when the latter obtained the chief administration of the kingdom. In 1678 he was appointed Justice-General for Scotland, in 1681, a Lord of Session and Clerk Register, and four years afterwards James VII. created him Viscount Tarbet, by which name he is best known in Scotland. Though an active and not over-scrupulous agent under James VII., he had no objection to transfer his allegiance to William of Orange, who, in 1692, restored him to office, after which he repeatedly falsified the records of Parliament, thus adding much to the odium attaching to his name. In 1696 he retired upon a pension, and was created Earl of Cromarty in 1703. He was a zealous supporter of the Union, having sold his vote for A300, for with all his eminence and talent as a statesman, he was notoriously devoid of principle. He was one of the original members of the Royal Society, and was author of a series of valuable articles, political and historical works, too numerous to be noted here. He died at New Tarbet in 1714, aged eighty-four, and left a son, who became second Earl of Cromarty, and another, Sir James Mackenzie, Bart., a senator with the title of Lord Royston. His grandson, George, third Earl of Cromarty, fought at Falkirk, leading 400 of his clan, but was afterwards taken prisoner, sent to the Tower, and sentenced to death. The latter portion was remitted, he retired into exile, and his son and heir entered the Swedish service; but when the American war broke out he raised the regiment known as Macleod?s Highlanders (latterly the 71st Regiment), consisting of two battalions, and served at their head in the East Indies. Lord Royston was raised to the bench on the 7th of June, I 7 10 ; and a suit of his and the Laird of Fraserdale, conjointly against Haliburton of Pitcur, is recorded in ? Bruce?s Decisions ? for 17 15. He is said to have been ?one of the wittiest ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton. Scots now takefl this to be a prophecy of the thing which has happened. ? ...

Book 6  p. 310
(Score 0.21)

Abbeyhill.] BARON NORTON. I27 CHAPTER XIII. THE DISTRICT OF RESTALRIG. Abhey Hill-Baron Norton-Alex. Campbell and ? Albyn?s Anthology ?--Comely Gardens-Easter Road-St. Margaret?s Well-Church and Legend of St. Triduana-Made Collegiate by James 111.-The Mausoleum-Old Bardns of Restalrig-pe Logans, &c.-Conflict of Black Saturday-Residents of Note-First Balloon in Britain-Rector Adams-The Nisbets of Craigantinnie and Dean-The Millers- The Craieantinnie Tomb and Marbles-The Marionville Traeedv-The Hamlet of Jock?o Lodge-Mail-bag Robberies in seventeenth and - _ eighteenth centuries-Piershill House and Barracks. AT the Abbey Hill, an old house-in that antiquated but once fashionable suburb, which grew up in the vicinity of the palace of Holyrood-with groups of venerable trees around it, which are now, like itself, all swept away to make room for the present Abbeyhill station and railway to Leith, there lived long the Hon. Fletcher Norton, appointed one of the Barons of the Scottish Exchequer in 1776, with a salary of &2,865 per annum, deemed a handsome income in those days. He was the second son of Fletcher Norton of Grantley in Yorkshire, who was Attorney-General of England in 1762, and was elevated to the British peerage in 1782, as Lord Grantley. He came to Scotland at a time when prejudices then against England and Englishmen were strong and deep, for the rancour excited by the affair of 1745, about thirty years before, was revived by the periodical publication of the Nhth Briton, but Baron Norton soon won the regard of all who knew him. His conduct as a judge increased the respect which his behaviour in private life obtained, His perspicacity easily discovered the true merits of any cause before him, while his dignified and conciliatory manner, joined to the universal confidence which prevailed in his rigid impartiality, reconciled to him even those who suffered by such verdicts as were given against them in consequence of his charges to the juries. He married in 1793 a Scottish lady, a Miss Balmain, and in the Edinburgh society of his time stood high in the estimation of all, ?as a husband, father, friend, and master,? according to a print of 1820. ? His fund of information-of anecdotes admirably told-his social disposition, and the gentlemanly pleasantness of his manner, made his society to be universally coveted. Resentment had no place in his bosom. He seemed almost insensible to injury so immediately did he pardon it. Amongst his various pensioners were several who had shown marked ingratitude ; but distress, with him, covered every offence against himself.? He was a warm patron of the amiable and enthusiastic, but somewhat luckless Alexander Campbell, author of ? The Grampians Desolate,? which ?fell dead ? from the press, and editor of ? Albyn?s Anthology,? who writes thus in the preface to the first volume of that book in 1816, and which, we may mention, was a ? collection of melodies and local poetry peculiar to Scotland and the isles ? :- ? So far back as the year 1780, while as yet the editor of ?Albyn?s Anthology? was an organist to one of the Episcopal chapels in Edinburgh, he projected the present work. Finding but small encouragement at that period, and his attention being directed to pursuits of quite a different nature, the plan was dropped, till by an accidental turn of conversation at a gentleman?s table, the Hon. Fletcher Norton gave a spur to the speculation now in its career. He with that warmth of benevolence peculiarly his own, offered his influence with the Royal Highland Society of Scotland, of which he is a member of long standing, and in conformity with the zeal he has uniformly manifested for everything connected with the distinction and prosperity of our ancient realm, on the editor giving him a rough outline of the present undertaking, the Hon. Baron put it into the hands of Henry Mackenzie, Esq., of the Exchequer, and Lord Bannatyne, whose influence in the society is deservedly great. And immediately on Mr. Mackenzie laying it before a select committee for music, John H. Forbes, Esq. (afterwards Lord Medwyn), as convener of the committee, convened it, and the result was a recommendation to the society at large, who embraced the project cordially, voted a sum to enable the editor to pursue his plan ; and forthwith he set out on a tour through the Highlands and western islands. Having performed a journey (in pursuit of materials for the present work) of between eleven and twelve hundred miles, in which he collected 191 specimens of melodies and Gaelic vocal poetry, he returned to Edinburgh, and laid the fruits of his gleanings before the society, who were pleased to honour with their approbation his success in attempting to collect and preserve the perishing remains of what is so closely interwoven with the history and literature of Scot!and.? From thenceforth the ?? Anthology? was a success, and a second volume appeared in 1818. Under the influence of Baron Norton, Campbell got many able contributors, among whom appear the names of Scott, Hogg, Mrs. Grant of Laggan, RIaturin, and Jamieson. ... BARON NORTON. I27 CHAPTER XIII. THE DISTRICT OF RESTALRIG. Abhey Hill-Baron Norton-Alex. Campbell ...

Book 5  p. 127
(Score 0.21)

I44 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street. -- already been made in the account of that institution, of which he was the distinguished head. Opposite is a new building occupied as shops and chambers ; and the vast Elizabethan edifice near it is the auction rooms of Dowel1 and Co., built in 1880. The Mercaitile Bank of India, London, and China occupies No. 128, formerly the mansion of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, Bart., a man in his time eminent for his high attainments in geological and chemical science, and author of popular but peculiar works on Gothic architecture. By his wife, Lady Helena Douglas, daughter of Ddnbar, Earl of Selkirk, he had three sons and three daughters-his second son being the well-known Captain Basil Hall, R.N. While retaining his house in George Street, Sir James, between 1808 and 1812, represented the Cornish borough of St. Michael?s in Parliament. He died at Edinburgh, after a long illness, on the z3rd of June, 1832. Collaterally with him, another distiiiguished baronet, Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, was long the occupant of No. 133, to the print of whom Kay appends the simple title of ?The Scottish Patriot,? and never was it more appropriately applied. To attempt even an outline of his long, active, and most useful life, would go far beyond our limits ; suffice it to say, that his ? Code of Agriculture? alone has been translated into nearlyevery European language. He was born at Thurso in 1754, and so active had been his mind, so vast the number of his scientific pursuits and objects, that by 1797 he began to suffer seriously from the effects of his over-exertions, and being thus led to consider the subject of health generally, he published, in 1803, a quarto pamphlet, entitled ? Hints on Longevity? -afterwards, in 1807, extended to four volumes 8vo. In 1810 he was made a Privy Councillor, and in the following year, under the administration of the unfortunate Mr. Perceval, was appointed Cashier of Excise for Scotland. On retiring from Parliament, he was succeeded as member for Caithness by his son. He resided in Edinburgh for the last twenty years of his life, and died at his house in George Street in December, 1835, jn his eighty-first year, and was interred in the Chapel Royal at Holyrood. By his first wife he had two children j by tbe second, Diana, daughter of Lord Macdonald, he had thirteen, one of whom, Julia, became Countess of Glasgow. All these attained a stature like his own, so great-being nearly all above six feet-that he was wont playfully to designate the pavement before No. 133 as ?? The Giants? Causeway.? Sir. John was twice married. St. Andrew?s church stands zoo feet westward if St. Andrew?s Square; it is a plain building of ival form, with a handsome portico, having four ;reat Corinthiafi pillars, and built, says Kincaid, iom a design of Major Fraser, of the Engineers, whose residence was close by it. It was erected .n 178s. It was at first proposed to have a spire of some iesign, now unknown, between the portico and thc body of the church, and for a model of this a young man of the city, named M?Leish, received a premium of sixty guineas from the magistrates, with the freedom of the city j but on consideration, his design ? was too great in proportion to the space left for its base.? So the present spire, which is 168 feet in height, and for its sky-line is one of the most beautiful in the city, was designed by Major Andrew Fraser, who declined to accept any premium, suggesting that it should be awarded to Mr. Robert Kay, whose designs for a square church on the spot were most meritorious. The last stone of the spire was placed thereon on the 23rd of November, 1787. A chime of bells was placed in it, 3rd June, 1789, ?to be rung in the English manner.? The dimensions of this church, as given by Kincaid, are, within the walls from east to west eighty-seven feet, and from north to south sixtyfour feet. ?The front, consisting of a staircase and portico, measures forty-one feet, and projects twenty-six and a half feet.? The entrance is nine feet in height by seven feet in breadth. This parish was separated from St. Cuthbert?s in 1785, and since that date parts of it have been assigned to other parishes of more recent erection as the population increased. The church cost A7,000, and is seated for about 1,053. The charge was collegiate, and is chiefly remarkable for the General Assembly?s meeting in 1843, at which occurred the great Disruption, or exodus of the Free Church-one of the most important events in the modern history of Scotland or of the United Kingdom. It originated in a zealous movement of the Presbyterian Church, mainly promoted by the great Chalmers, to put an end to the connection between Church and State. In 1834 the Church had passed a law of its own, ordaining that thenceforth no presentee to a parish should be admitted if opposed by the majority of the male communicants-a law which struck at the system of patronage restored after the Union-a system involving importint1 civil rights. When the Annual Assembly met in St. Andreds Church, in May, 1843, it was generally understood ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street. -- already been made in the account of that institution, of which he ...

Book 3  p. 144
(Score 0.21)

politically. These documents had been perfidiously sent to Scotland by General Monk. The marquis was condemned to die the death of a traitor. From the Castle he begged in vain a ten days? respite, that he might crave pity of the king. ??I placed the crown upon his head,? said he, mourn- - fully, ? and this is my reward ! ? An escape was planned. He lay in bed for some days feigning iuyess, and the Marchioness came in a sedan to visit him. Being of the same stature, he assumed her dress and coif; but when about to step into the sedan his courage failed him, and he abandoned the attempt. The night before execution he was removed to the most ancient prison in Edinburgh-an edifice in Mauchine?s Close, long since removed, where the Marchioness awaited him. ?The Lord will requite it,? she exclaimed, as she wept bitterly on his breast. ? Forbear, Margaret,? said. he, calmly, ?I pity my enemies, and am as content in this ignominious prison as in yonder Castle of Edinburgh.? With his last breath he expressed abhorrence of the death of Charles I, and on the 27th May his head was struck from his body by the Maiden, at the west end of the Tolbooth. By patent all his ancient earldom and estates were restored to his son, h r d Lorne, then a prisoner in the Castle, where on one occasion he had a narrow escape, when playing ? with hand bullets ? {bowls 3) one of which, as Wodrow records, struck him senseless. On the 30th May, 1667, the batteries of the Castle returned the salute of the English fleet, which came to anchor in the roads under the pennant of Sir Jeremiah Smythe; who came thither in quest of the Dutch fleet, which had been bombarding Burntisland. Janies Duke of Alhany and York succeeded the odious Duke Q? Lauderdale in the administration of Scottish affairs, and won the favour of all classes, while he resided at Holyrood awaiting the issue of the famous Bill of Exclusion, which would deprive him of the throne of England on the demise of his brother, and hence it became his earnest desire to secure at least Scotland, the hereditary kingdom of his race. OR his fixst Visit to &e Cask, on 30th October, 1680, Mons Meg br-rst when the guns were saluting-a ring near the touchhole giving way, which, saith Fountainhall, was deemed by all men a bad omen. His lordship adds that as the gun was charged by an English gunner, required by the obnoxious Test Act as Commis. Goner of the Scottish Treasury; and on the 12th Scottish manners gradually gave way before the affability of such entertainers as the Duchess Mary d? Este of Modena, and the Princess Anne, ?and the novel luxuries of the English court formed an attraction to the Scottish grandees. Tea was introduced for the first time into Scotland on this occasion, and given by the duchess as a great treat to the Scottish ladies. Balls, plays, and masquerades were also attempted; but the last proved too great an innovation on the rigid manners of that period to be tolerated.? The accession of King James VII. is thus recorded by Lord Fountainhall (&? Decisions,? vol. i.) : --?Feb. 6th, 1685. The Privy Council is called extraordinary, on the occasion of an express sent them by his royal highness the Duke of Albany, telling that, on Monday the 2nd February, the king was seized with a violent and apoplectic fit, which stupefied him for four hours ; but, by letting twelve ounces of blood and applying cupping-glasses to his head, he revived. This unexpected surprise put our statesmen in a hurly-burly, and was followed by the news of the death of his Majesty, which happened on the 7th of February, and came home to us on the roth, in the morning ; whereupon a theatre was immediately erected at the cross of Edinburgh, and the militia companies drawn out in arms ; and, at ten o?clock, the Chancellor, Treasurer, and all the other officers of State, with the nobility, lotds of Privy Council and Session, the magistrates and town council of Edinburgh, came to the cross, with the lion king-at-arms, his heralds and trumpeters ; the Chance!;or carried his own purse, and, weeping, proclaimed Jimes Duke af Albany the ~nZy and undoubtcrt king of this realm, by fhe-tiile of Jirnes VfL, the clerk registrar reading the words of the Act to him, and all of them swore faith and allegiance to him. Then the other proclamation was then read, whereby King James VII. continued all oAices till he had more time to send down new commissions. . - . . Then the Castle shot a round of guns, and sermon began, wherein Mr. John Robertson did regret our loss, but desiredour tears might be dried up when we looked upon so brave and excellent a successor. The Privy Council called foa all the seals, and broke them, appointing new ones with the name of James VII. to be made.? In r68c the Earl of Argyie was committed to the Castle for the third time for declining the oath . having no cannon in all England so big as she.? During the duke?s residence at Holyrood a splendid of December ,an assize brought in their verdict, by the Marquis of Montrose, his hereditary foe, finding ... These documents had been perfidiously sent to Scotland by General Monk. The marquis was condemned to ...

Book 1  p. 58
(Score 0.21)

politically. These documents had been perfidiously sent to Scotland by General Monk. The marquis was condemned to die the death of a traitor. From the Castle he begged in vain a ten days? respite, that he might crave pity of the king. ??I placed the crown upon his head,? said he, mourn- - fully, ? and this is my reward ! ? An escape was planned. He lay in bed for some days feigning iuyess, and the Marchioness came in a sedan to visit him. Being of the same stature, he assumed her dress and coif; but when about to step into the sedan his courage failed him, and he abandoned the attempt. The night before execution he was removed to the most ancient prison in Edinburgh-an edifice in Mauchine?s Close, long since removed, where the Marchioness awaited him. ?The Lord will requite it,? she exclaimed, as she wept bitterly on his breast. ? Forbear, Margaret,? said. he, calmly, ?I pity my enemies, and am as content in this ignominious prison as in yonder Castle of Edinburgh.? With his last breath he expressed abhorrence of the death of Charles I, and on the 27th May his head was struck from his body by the Maiden, at the west end of the Tolbooth. By patent all his ancient earldom and estates were restored to his son, h r d Lorne, then a prisoner in the Castle, where on one occasion he had a narrow escape, when playing ? with hand bullets ? {bowls 3) one of which, as Wodrow records, struck him senseless. On the 30th May, 1667, the batteries of the Castle returned the salute of the English fleet, which came to anchor in the roads under the pennant of Sir Jeremiah Smythe; who came thither in quest of the Dutch fleet, which had been bombarding Burntisland. Janies Duke of Alhany and York succeeded the odious Duke Q? Lauderdale in the administration of Scottish affairs, and won the favour of all classes, while he resided at Holyrood awaiting the issue of the famous Bill of Exclusion, which would deprive him of the throne of England on the demise of his brother, and hence it became his earnest desire to secure at least Scotland, the hereditary kingdom of his race. OR his fixst Visit to &e Cask, on 30th October, 1680, Mons Meg br-rst when the guns were saluting-a ring near the touchhole giving way, which, saith Fountainhall, was deemed by all men a bad omen. His lordship adds that as the gun was charged by an English gunner, required by the obnoxious Test Act as Commis. Goner of the Scottish Treasury; and on the 12th Scottish manners gradually gave way before the affability of such entertainers as the Duchess Mary d? Este of Modena, and the Princess Anne, ?and the novel luxuries of the English court formed an attraction to the Scottish grandees. Tea was introduced for the first time into Scotland on this occasion, and given by the duchess as a great treat to the Scottish ladies. Balls, plays, and masquerades were also attempted; but the last proved too great an innovation on the rigid manners of that period to be tolerated.? The accession of King James VII. is thus recorded by Lord Fountainhall (&? Decisions,? vol. i.) : --?Feb. 6th, 1685. The Privy Council is called extraordinary, on the occasion of an express sent them by his royal highness the Duke of Albany, telling that, on Monday the 2nd February, the king was seized with a violent and apoplectic fit, which stupefied him for four hours ; but, by letting twelve ounces of blood and applying cupping-glasses to his head, he revived. This unexpected surprise put our statesmen in a hurly-burly, and was followed by the news of the death of his Majesty, which happened on the 7th of February, and came home to us on the roth, in the morning ; whereupon a theatre was immediately erected at the cross of Edinburgh, and the militia companies drawn out in arms ; and, at ten o?clock, the Chancellor, Treasurer, and all the other officers of State, with the nobility, lotds of Privy Council and Session, the magistrates and town council of Edinburgh, came to the cross, with the lion king-at-arms, his heralds and trumpeters ; the Chance!;or carried his own purse, and, weeping, proclaimed Jimes Duke af Albany the ~nZy and undoubtcrt king of this realm, by fhe-tiile of Jirnes VfL, the clerk registrar reading the words of the Act to him, and all of them swore faith and allegiance to him. Then the other proclamation was then read, whereby King James VII. continued all oAices till he had more time to send down new commissions. . - . . Then the Castle shot a round of guns, and sermon began, wherein Mr. John Robertson did regret our loss, but desiredour tears might be dried up when we looked upon so brave and excellent a successor. The Privy Council called foa all the seals, and broke them, appointing new ones with the name of James VII. to be made.? In r68c the Earl of Argyie was committed to the Castle for the third time for declining the oath . having no cannon in all England so big as she.? During the duke?s residence at Holyrood a splendid of December ,an assize brought in their verdict, by the Marquis of Montrose, his hereditary foe, finding ... These documents had been perfidiously sent to Scotland by General Monk. The marquis was condemned to ...

Book 1  p. 59
(Score 0.21)

The Cowgate.] THE CUNZIE NOOK. 267 dexter hand palmed, and in its palm an eye. In the dexter canton, a saltire argent, under the imperial crown, surmounted by a thistle j and in base a castle argent, masoned sable, within a border, charged with instruments used by the society. To the surgeons. were added the apothecaries. James IV., one of the greatest patrons of art and science in his time, dabbled a little in surgery and chemistry, and had an assistant, John the Leeche, whom he brought from the Continent. Pitscottie tells us that James was ?ane singular guid chirurgione,? and in his daily expense book, singular entries occur in 1491, of payments made to people to let him bleed them and pull their teeth :- ?Item, to ane fallow, because the King pullit furtht his twtht, xviii shillings. ?Item, to Kynnard, ye barbour, for tua teith drawin furtht of his hed be the King, xvci sh.? The barbers were frequently refractory, and brought the surgeons into the Court of Session t e adjust rights, real or imagined. But after the union of the latter with the apothecaries, they gave up the barber craft, and were formed into one corporation by an Act of Council, on the 25th February, 1657, as already mentioned in the account of the old Royal College of Surgeons. The first admitted after the change, was Christopher Irving, recorded as ?? ane free chmgone,? without the usual words ?and barber,? after his name. He was physician to James VII., and from him the Irvings of Castle Irving, in .Ireland, are descended. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE SOCIETY. The Candlemaker Row--The ? Cunzie Nook?-Tbe of Charles 1.-The Candlemakers? Hall--The Afhk of Dr. Symons-The Society, IS+ Brown Square-Proposed Statue to George III., x~-Di&nguished Inhabitants-Si IsIay Campbell-Lard Glenlec-Haigof Beimerside --Si John Lerlie-Miss Jeannie Elliot-Argyle Square-Origin of it-Dr. Hugh Bkit-The Sutties of that Ilk-Trades Maiden Hospital- -Mint0 House and the Elliots-New Medical School-Baptist Church-Chambers Strect-Idustrial Museum of Sdence and Art-Its Great Hall and adjoining Halls-Aim of the Architect-Contents and Models briefly glanced at-New Watt Institution and School of ArtsPhrenoloEical Museum-New Free Tron Church-New Tiainiing College of the Church of Scotland-The Dental Hospita-The . Theatre ofvari.&s. THE Candlemaker Row is simply the first portion of the old way that led from the Grassmarket and Cowgate-head, where Sir John Inglis resided in 1784, to the lands of Bnsto, and thence on to Powburn ; and it was down this way that a portion of the routed Flemings, with Guy of Namur at their head, fled towards the Castle rock, after their defeat on the Burghmuir in 1335. In Charles I.?s time a close line of street with a great open space behind occupied the whole of the east side, from the Greyfriars Port to the Cowgatehead. The west side was the boundary wall of the churchyard, save at the foot, where two or three houses appear in 1647, one of which, as the Cunzie Nook, is no doubt that referred to by Wilson as a curious little timber-fronted tenement, surmounted with antique crow-steps ; an open gallery projects in front, and rude little; shot-windows admit the light to the decayed and gloomy chambers therein.? This, we presume, to be the Cunzie Nook, a place where the Mint had no doubt been estab Cshed at some early period, possibly during some of the strange proceedings in the Regency of Mary of Guise, when the Lords of the Congregation ?past to Holyroodhous, and tuik and intromettit With the ernis of the Cunzehous.? On the west side, near the present entrance to the churchyard of the Greyfriars, stands the hall of the ancient Corporation of the Candlemakers, which gave its name to the Row, with the arms of the craft boldly cut over the doorway, on a large oblong panel, and, beneath, their appropriate motto, . Omnia man;jesfa Zuce. Internally, the hall is subdivided into many residences, smaller accommodation sufficing for the fraternity in this age of gas, so that it exists little more than in name. In 1847 the number of its members amounted to only fhw, who met periodically for various purposes, connected with the corporation and its funds. Edgar?s plan shows, in the eighteenth century, the close row of houses that existed along the whole of the west side, from the Bristo Port to the foot, and nearly till Forrest Road was opened up in a linewith the central Meadow Walk. Humble though this locality may seem now, Sir James Dunbar, Bart., of Dum, rented No. ZI in 1810, latterly a carting office. In those days the street was a place ?of considerable bustle; the Hawick dilligence started twice weekly from Paterson?s Inn, a well-known hostel in its time, ... Cowgate.] THE CUNZIE NOOK. 267 dexter hand palmed, and in its palm an eye. In the dexter canton, a saltire ...

Book 4  p. 267
(Score 0.21)

?54 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Walk. belonged to different vehicles. It is standing opposite the Tron Kirk. The warning bell rings a quarter of an hour before starting ! Shortly a pair of illconditioned and ill-sized hacks make their appearance, and are yoked to it ; the harness, partly of old leathern straps and partly of ropes, bears evidence of many a mend. A passenger comes and takes a seat-probably from the Crames or Luckenbooths-who has shut his shop and affixed a notice to the door, ?Gone to Leith, and will be back at 4 of the clock, p.m.? The quarter being up, and the second bell rung, off starts the coach at a very slow pace. Having taken three-quarters of an b u r to get to the Halfway House, the ? ?bus ? sticks fast in a rut ; the driver whips up his nags, when 10 ! away go the horses, but fast remains the stage. The ropes being re-tied, and assistance procured from the ? Half-way,? the stage is extricated, and proceeds. What a contrast,? adds the writer, ? between the above pictures and the present ? ?bus ? with driver and conductor, starting every five minutes.? But to-day the contrast is yet greater, the tram having superseded the ?bus. The forty oil-lamps referred to would seem not to have been erected, as in the Advertiser for Sep tember, 1802, a subscription was announced for lighting the Walk during the ensuing winter season, the lamps not to be lighted at all until a sufficient sum had been subscribed at the Leith Bank and certain other places to continue them to the end of March, 1803 ; but we have no means of knowing if ever this scheme were camed out. ? If my reader be an inhabitant of Edinburgh of any standing,? writes Robert Chambers, ? he must have many delightful associations of Leith Walk in connection with his childhood. Of all the streets in Edinburgh or Leith, the Walk, in former times, was certainly the street for boys and girls. From top to bottom it was a scene of wonders and enjoyments peculiarly devoted to children. Besides the panoramas and caravan shows, which were comparatively transient spectacles, there were several shows upon Leith Walk which might be considered as regular fixtures, and part of the countv-cousin sghts of Edinburgh. Who can forget the waxworks of ?Mrs. Sands, widow of the late G. Sands,? which occupied a laigh shop opposite to the present Haddington Place, and at the door of which, besides various parrots and sundry Birds of Paradise, sat the wax figure of a little man in the dress of a French courtier of the ancien r&iaime, reading one eternal copy of the Edinburgh Advertiser? The very outsides of these wonderful shops was an immense treat ; all along the Walk it was one delicious scene of squirrels hung out at doors and monkeys dressed like soldiers and sailors, with holes behind them where their tails came through. Even the halfpenny-less boy might have got his appetite for wonders to some extent gratified.? The long spaces of blank garden or nursery walls on both sides of the way were then literally garrisoned with mendicants, organ-grinders, and cripples on iron or wooden legs, in bowls and wheelbarrows, by ballad singers and itinerant fiddlers. Among the mendicants on the east side of the Walk, below Elm Row (where the last of the elms has long since disappeared) there was one noted mendicant, an old seaman, whose figure was familiar there for years, and whose sobriquet was ? Commodore O?Brien,? who sat daily in a little masted boat which had been presented to him by order of George IV. ?The commodore?s ship,? says the Week0 JournaZ for 1831, ? is appropriately called the Royal Ggt. It is scarcely 6 f t long, by 24 breadth of beam, and when rigged for use her mast is little stouter than a mopstick, her cordage scarcely stronger than packthread, and her tonnage is a light burden for two men. In this mannikin cutter the intrepid navigator fearlessly commits himself to the ocean and performs long voyages.? Now the character of the Walk is entirely changed, as it is a double row of houses from end to end. During the railway mania two schemes were projected to supersede the omnibus traffic here. One was an atmospheric railway, and the other a subterranean one, to be laid under the Walk A road for foot-passengers was to be formed alongside the railway, and shops, from which much remuneration was expected, were to be opened along the line ; but both schemes collapsed, though plans for them were laid before Parliament. In April, 1803, there died, in a house in Leith Walk, James Sibbald, an eminent bookseller and antiquary, who was educated at the grarnmarschool of Selkirk, and after being in the shop of Elliott, a publisher in Edinburgh, in I 78 I acquired by purchase the library which had once belonged to Allan Ramsay, and was thereafter long one of the leading booksellers in the Parliament Square. One terrible peculiarity attended Leith Walk, even till long after the middle of the last century this was the presence of a permanent gibbet at the Gallow Lee, a dreary object to the wayfarer by night, when two or three malefactors swung there in chains, with the gleds and crows perching over them. It stood on rising ground, on the west side of the Walk, and its site is enclosed in the precincts of a villa once occupied by the witty and beautiful Duchess of Gordon. As the knoll was composed ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Walk. belonged to different vehicles. It is standing opposite the Tron Kirk. ...

Book 5  p. 154
(Score 0.21)

262 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street other services, Charles Philip Count d?artois, brother of the ill-fated Louis XVI., and his son the Duc d?Angoul&me, while, in the earlier years of their exile, they resided at Holyrood, by permission of the British Government, though the people of Scotland liked to view it as in virtue of the ancient Alliance; and a most humble place of worship it must have seemed to the count, who is described as having been ?the most gay, gaudy, fluttering, accomplished, luxurious, and expensive prince in Europe.? A doorway inscribed in antique characters of the 16th century, Miserwe mei Dew, gave access to this chapel. It bore a shield in the centre with three mullets in chief, a plain cross, and two swords saltire-waysthe coat armorial of some long-forgotten race. Another old building adjoined, above the door of which was the pious legend ranged in two lines, The feeir of the Lordis the Qegynning of al visdome, but as to the generations of men that dwelt there not even a tradition remains. Lower down, at the south-west corner of the Wynd, there formerly stood the English Episcopal Chapel, founded, in 1722, by the Lord Chief Baron Smith of the Exchequer Court, for a clergyman qualified to take the oaths to Government. To endow it he vested a sum in the public funds for the purpose of yielding A40 per annum to the incumbent, and left the management in seven trustees nominated by himself. The Baron?s chapel existed for exactly a century; it was demolished in 1822, after serving as a place of worship for all loyal and devout Episcopal High Churchmen at a time when Episcopacy and Jacobitism were nearly synonymous terms in Scotland. It was the most fashionable church in the city, and there it was that Dr. Johnson sat in 1773, when on his visit to Boswell. When this edifice was founded, according to Arnot, it was intended that its congregation should unite with others of the Episcopal persuasion in the new chapel ; but the incumbent, differing from his hearers about the mode of his settlement there, chose to withdraw himself again to that in which he was already established. .? After the accession of George III., ?certain officious people ? lodged information against some of the Episcopal clergymen ; ?? but,? says Amot, ? the officers of state, imitating the liberality and clemency of their gracious master, discountenanced such idle and invidious endeavours at oppression.? In the Blackfriars Wynd-though in what part thereof is not precisely known now, unless on the site of Baron Smith?s chapel-the semi-royal House of Sinclair had a town. mansion. They were Princes and Earls of Orkney, Lords of Roslin, Dukes of Oldenburg, and had a list oE titles that has been noted for its almost Spanish tediousness. In his magnificence, Earl William-who built Roslin Chapel, was High Chancellor in 1455, and ambassador to England in the same year-far surpassed what had often sufficed for the kings of Scotland. His princess, Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald Duke of Touraine, according to Father Hay, in his ?Genealogie of the Sainte Claires of Rosslyn,? was waited upon by ? seventy-five gentlewomen, whereof fifty-three were daughters of noblemen, all cloathed in velvets and silks, with their chains of gold and other pertinents ; together with two hundred riding gentlemen, who accompanied her in all her journeys. She had carried before her, when she went to Edinburgh, if it were darke, eighty lighted torches. Her lodging was at the foot of Blackfryer Wynde ; so that in a word, none matched her in all the country, save the Queen?s Majesty.?? Father Hay tells us, too, that Earl William ?kept a great court, and was royally served at his own table in vessels of gold and silver : Lord Dirleton being his master of the household, Lord Borthwick his cup bearer, and Lord Fleming his carver, in whose absence they had deputies, viz., Stewart, Laird of Drumlanng ; Tweedie, Laird of Drumrnelzier; and Sandilands, Laird of Calder. He had his halls and other apartments richly adorned with embroidered hangings.? At the south-west end of the Wynd, and abutting on the Cowgate, where its high octagon turret, on six rows of corbels springing from a stone shaft, was for ages a prominent feature, stood the archiepiscopal palace, deemed in its time one of the most palatial edifices of old Edinburgh. It formed two sides of a quadrangle, with aporfe rochlre that gave access to a court behind, and was built by James Bethune, who was Archbishop of Glasgow (1508-1524), Lord Chancellor of Scotland in I 5 I 2, and one of the Lords Regent, under the Duke of Albany, during the stormy minority of James V. Pitscottie distinctlyrefers to it as the xrchbishop?s house, ?? quhilk he biggit in the Freiris Wynd,? and Keith records that over the door of it were the arms of the family of Bethune, to be seen in his time. But they had disappeared long before the demolition of the house, the ancient risp of which was sold among the collection of the late C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in 1851. Another from the same house is in the museum of the Scottish Antiquaries The stone bearing the coat of arms was also in his possession, and it is thus referred to by &bet in ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street other services, Charles Philip Count d?artois, brother of the ill-fated ...

Book 2  p. 262
(Score 0.21)

282 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Lord PmYoss. tion of five new professorships. A few years after his death a bust of him by Nollekens was erected in their public hall by the managers of the Royal Infirmary. In 1754 the Lord Provost, dean of guild, bailies, and city treasurer, appeared in November, for the first time, with gold chains and medals, in lieu of the black velvet coats, which were laid aside by all save the provost, and which had been first ordered to be worn by an Act of the Council in I 7 I 8. In 1753, on the 17th February, died Patrick Lindsay, Esq., late Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and Governor of the Isle of Man. In 1768 the Lord Provost was James Stuart. In the following year, during spring, the great Benjamin Franklin and his son spent six weeks in Scotland, and the University of St. Andrews conferred upon him the honorary title of Doctor, by which he has since been generally known. On his coming to Edinburgh, Provost Stuart and the Corporation bestowed upon him the freedom of the city, when every house was thrown open to him, and the most distinguished men of letters crowded round him. Hume, Robertson, and Lord Kames, became his intimate friends ; but Franklin was not unduly elated, ?? On the whole,? he wrote, U I must say the time I spent there (in Scotland) was six weeks of the dearest happiness I have met with in any part of my life.? Stuart?s successor in ofice was John Dalrymple, whose eldest son succeeded to the baronetcy of Hailes (which is now extinct) on the death of Lord Hailes, the distinguished judge and writer. In the year 1774 there was considerable political strife in the city, originating in the general parliamentary election, when exertions were made to wrest the representation from Sir Lawrence Dundas, who unexpectedly found as opponents Loch of Carnbie, and Captain James Francis Erskine of Forrest. A charge of bribery being preferred against Sir Lawrence, some delay occurred in the election, and the then Lord Provost Stoddart came forward as a candidate. The votes of the Council were-for Sir Lawrence, twenty-three ; for Provost Stoddart, six; and for Captain Erskine, three. One of the Council, Gilbert Laurie (who had been provost in 1766) was absent. Messrs. Stoddart and Loch protested that the election had been brought about by undue influence. The opposition to Sir Lawrence became still greater, and a keen trial of strength took place when the election of deacons and councillors came in 1776, and many bitter letters appeared in the public prints ; but the friends of the Dundas family proved again triumphant, and united in the choice of Alexander Kincaid, as Lord Provost, His Majesty?s Printer for Scotland. He died in office in 1777, in a house situated in the Cowgate, in a small court westward of the Horse Wynd, and known as Kincaid?s Land, and was succeeded by Provost Dalrymple. Two years afterwards the city was assessed in the sum of iC;1,500 to repay damage done by a mob to the Roman Catholic place of worship, fo; the destruction of furniture, ornaments, books, and altar vessels. In this year, I 779, there were 188 hackney sedan chairs in the city, but very few hackney coaches; and the umbrella first appeared in the streets. By 1783 there were 1,268 four-wheeled carriages entered to pay duty, and 338 two-wheeled. At Michaelmas, 1784, Sir James Hunter Blair, Bart., was elected Lord Provost, in succession to David Stuart, who resided in Queen Street, and who was a younger son of Stuart of Dalguise. The second son of Mr. John Hunter of Ayr, Sir James, commenced life as an apprentice with Coutts and Co., the Edinburgh bankers, in 1756, when Sir William Forbes was then a clerk, and both became ultimately the principal partners. He married the eldest daughter of Blair of Dunskey, who left no less than six sons at the time of this event, all of whom died, and on her succession to the estates, Sir James assumed the name and arms .of Blair. As Lord Provost he was indefatigable in the activity of his public spirit, and set afoot the great operations for the improvement of Edinburgh, and one object he had specially in view when founding the South Bridge was the rebuilding of the University. Sir James lived only to see the commencement of the great works he had projected in Edinburgh, as he died of fever at Harrogate in July, 1787, and was honoured with a public funeral in the Greyfriars? churchyard. In private life he was affable and cheerful, attached to his friends and anxious for their success. In business and in his public exertions he was upright, liberal, and, as a Scotsman, patriotic; he possessed in no small degree those talents which are requisite for rendering benevolence effectual, uniting great knowledge of the world with sagacity and sound understanding. Sir James Stirling, Bart., elected Lord Provost, after Elder of Forneth, had a stormy time when in office. He was the son of a fishmonger at the head of Marlin?s Wynd, where his sign was a wooden Black BUZZ, now in the Antiquarian Museum. Stirling, after being secretary to Sir Charles Dalling, Governor of Jamaica, became a partner in the bank of Mansfield, Ramsay, and Co. in Cantore?s Close, Luckenbooths, and manied the ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Lord PmYoss. tion of five new professorships. A few years after his death a bust of ...

Book 4  p. 282
(Score 0.21)

High Street I ST. CECILTA?S HALL. 25 I years, and in June, 1749, died in a cottar?s humble dwelling at Idragal, seventeen years after her abduction on that evening of January from her house in Niddry?s Wynd. On the east side of Niddry?s Wynd, at the foot thereof, and resting on the Cowgate, was St. Cecilia?s Hall, an oval edifice, having a concave ceiling, and built in 1762 by Robert Mylne, the architect of Blackfriars Bridge (lineal descendant of the royal master-masons) ?after the model of the opera at Yarma,? says Kincaid. The orchestra was placed over the north end, and therein was placed a fine organ. It was seatqd for 500 persons. The Musical Society of Edinburgh, whose weekly concerts formed one of the most delightful entertainments in the old city, dated back to the otherwise gloomy era of 1728. Yet from ? Fountainhall?s Decisions ? we learn that so far back as 1694 an enterprising citizen named Beck ?erected a concert of music? somewhere in the city, which involved him in a lawsuit with the Master of the Revels. Even before I 7 28 several gentlemen, who were performers on the harpsichord and violin, had taken courage, and formed a weekly club at the Cross Kys tavern, ?kept,? says knot, ?by one Steil, a great lover of musick, and a good singer of Scots songs.? Steil is mentioned in the Latin lyrics of Dr. Pitcairn, who refers to a subject of which he was fully master-the old Edinburgh taverns of Queen Anne?s time. At Pate Steil?s the common entertainment consisted in playing the concertos and Sonatas of Corelli, then just published, and the overtures of Handel. A governor, deputygovernor, treasurer, and five directors, were annually chosen to direct the affairs of this society, which consisted of seventy members. They met in St. Mary?s Chapel from 1728 till 1762, when this hall was built for them. Fc: some years the celebrated Tenducci, who is mentioned in O?Keefe?s ? Recollections? in 1766 as a famous singer of Scottish songs, was at the head of the band ; and one great concert was given yearly in honour of St. Cecilia, when Scottish songs were among those chiefly sung. When the Prince of Hesse came over, in 1745, with his 6,000 mercenaries, to fight against the Jacobites, he was specially entertained here by the then governor of the Musical Society, Lord Drummore, Hugh Dalrymple. The prince was not only a dilettante, but.a good performer on an enormous violoncello. ?? Few persons now living,? says Dr. Chambers in 1847, ? recollect the elegant concerts that were given many years ago in what is now an obscure part of our ancient city, known by the name- of St. zecilia?s Hall,? and still fewer may remember them On the death of Lord Drummore, in 1755, the iociety performed a grand concert in honour of his nemory, when the numerous company were all lressed in the deepest mourning. In I 7 63 the concerts began at six in the evening ; n 1783 an hour later. To the concertos of Corelli and Handel in the iew hall, were added the overtures of Stamitz, Bach, Abel, and latterly those of Haydn, Pleyel, ind the magnificent symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven. The vocal department of these old :oncerts consisted of the songs of Handel, Arne, ;luck, and Guglielmi, with a great Infusion o f jcottish songs, for as yet the fashionables of Ediniurgh were too national to ignore their own stirring nusic, and among the amateurs who took the lead is choristers were the wealthy Gilbert Innes of stow, Mr. Alexander Wight, advocate, Mt. John Russell, W.S., and the Earl of Kellie, who on one Iccasion acted as leader of the band when perbrming one of six overtures of his own composition; and though last, not least, Mr. George rhomson, the well-known editor of the ? Melodies >f Scotland.? A snpper to the directors and their friends it Fortune?s tavern always followed an oratorio, where the names of the chief beauties who had yaced the hall were toasted in bumpers from ;lasses of vast length, for exuberant loyalty to beauty was a leading feature in the convivial meetings of those days. ?Let me call to mind a few of those whose lovely faces at the concerts gave us the sweetest test for music,? wrote George Thomson, who died in 1851, in his ninety-fourth year :-??Miss Cleghorn of Edinburgh, still living in single blessedness ; Miss Chalmers of Pittencrief, who married Sir CVilliam Miller of Glenlee, Bart. ; Miss? Jessie Chalmers of Edinburgh, who married Mr. Pringle of Haining; Miss Hay of Hayston, who married Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Bart. ; Miss Murray of Lintrose, who was called the Flower of Strathmore, and upon whom Burns wrote the song, Brjhe, hlythe, and merry was she, Blythe was she but and ben; And blythe in Glenturit glen? low. Blythe by the bank? of Earn, She married David Smith, Esq., of Methven, one of the Lords of Session; Miss Jardine of Edinburgh, who married Home Drunimond of Blairdrummond, their daughter, if I mistake not, is now Duchess of Athole; Miss Kinloch of Gilmerton, who married Sir Foster Cunliffe of Acton ... Street I ST. CECILTA?S HALL. 25 I years, and in June, 1749, died in a cottar?s humble dwelling at Idragal, ...

Book 2  p. 251
(Score 0.21)

Holyrocd.] HOWIESON OF BRAEHEAD. 63 space of one year, with great triumph and mem ness.? He diligently continued the works begur by his gallant father, and erected the north-wes towers, which have survived more than one con flagration, and on the most northern of which coulc be traced, till about 1820, his name, IACOBVS RE) SCOTORVM, in large gilt Roman letters. In 1528 blood was again shed in Holyrooc during a great review of Douglases and Hamilton: held there prior to a march against the Englis? ?borders. A groom of the Earl of Lennox perceiv ing among those present Sir James Hamilton o Finnart, who slew that noble at Linlithgow, intent or vengeance, tracked him into the palace ?by a dad staircase which led to a narrow gallery,? and then attacked him, sword in hand. Sir James en deavoured to defend himself by the aid of hi: . velvet mantle, but fell, pierced by six wounds, nonc of which, however, were mortal. The gates wen closed, and while a general mClCe was on the poin of ensuing between the Douglases and Hamil tons, the would-be assassin was discovered With hi: bloody weapon, put to the torture, and then hi: right hand was cut 04 on which ?he observed with a sarcastic smile, that it was punished les: than it deserved for having failed to revenge tht murder of his beloved master.?? James V. was still in the palace in 1530, as we find in the treasurer?s accounts for that year : ?? Item, tc the Egiptianis that dansit before the king in Holy rud House, 40s.? He was a monarch whose pure benevolence of intention often rendered his roman. tic freaks venial, if not respectable, since from his anxiety to learn the wants and wishes of his humbler subjects he was wont, like Il Boadocan4 or Haroun Alrdschid, to traverse the vicinity of his palaces in the plainest of disguises ; and two comic songs, composed by himself, entitled ?We?ll gang nae mair a-roving,? and ?The Gaberlunzie Man,? are said to have been founded on his adventures while masked as a beggar; and one of these, which nearly cost him his life at Cramond, some five miles frum Holyrood, is given in Scott?s ?? Tales of a Grandfather.? While visiting a pretty peasant girl in Cramond village he was beset by four or five persons, against whom he made a stand with his sword upon the high and narrow bridge that spans the Almond, in a wooded hollow. Here, when well-nigh beaten, and covered with blood, he was succoured and rescued by a peasant armed with a flail, who conducted him into a barn, where he bathed his wounds; and in the course of conversation James discovered that the summit of his deliverer?s earthly wishes was to be proprietor of the little farm of Braehead, on which he was then a labourer. Aware that it was Crown property, James said, ?? Come to Holyrood, and inquire for the gudeman of Ballengeich,? referring to a part of Stirling Castle which he was wont to adopt as a cognomen. The peasant came as appointed, and was met by the king in his disguise, who conducted him through the palace, and asked him if he wished to see the king. John Howison-for such was his name-expressed the joy it would give him, provided he gave no offence. But how shall I know him?? he added. ? Easily,? replied James, ?All others will be bareheaded, the king alone will wear his bonnet.? Scared by his surroundings and the uncovered crowd in the great hall, John Howison looked around him, and then said, naively, ?The king must be either you or me, for all but us are bareheaded.? James and his courtiers laughed ; but he bestowed upon Howison the lands of Braehead, ?? on condition that he and his successors should be ready to present an ewer and basin for the king to wash his hands when His Majesty should come to Holyrood or pass the bridge of Cramond. Accordingly, in the year 1822, when George IV. came to Scotland, a descendant of John Howison, whose hmily still possess the estate, appeared at a solemn festival, and offered His Majesty water from a silver ewer, that he might perform the service by which he held his land.? Such pranks as these were ended by the king?s marriage in I 53 7 to the Princess Magdalene, the beautiful daughter of Francis I., with unwonted splendour in the cathedral of Notre Dame, in presence of the Parliament of Paris, of Francis, the Queens of France and Navarre, the Dauphin, Duke of Orleans, md all the leading peers of Scotland and o( France. On the 27th of May the royal pair landed at Leith, amid every display of welcome, md remained a few days at Holyrood, tin the mthusiastic citizens prepared to receive them in state with a procession of magnificence. Magdalene, over whose rare beauty consump- :ion seemed to spread a veil more tender and rlluring, was affectionate and loving in nature. On anding, in the excess of her love for James, ;he knelt down, and, kissing the soil, prayed God :o bless the land of her adoption-scotland, and ts people. The ? Burgh Records ? bear witness how anxious he Provost and citizens were to do honour to the )ride of ?? the good King James. All beggars were varned off the streets : ?lane honest man of ilk :lose or two,? were to see this order enforced ; the vbbish near John Makgill?s house and ?the litster ... HOWIESON OF BRAEHEAD. 63 space of one year, with great triumph and mem ness.? He diligently continued ...

Book 3  p. 63
(Score 0.21)

230 OLD AND NEW EDINBUXGH. [High Street. ?; two such animals in the whole island of Great Britain.? Between the back and front tenements occupied of old by Andro Hart is a house, once a famous tavern, which formed the meeting-place of the Cape Club, one of the most noted of those wherein the leading men of ? Auld Reekie? were wont to seek relaxation-one celebrated in Fergusson?s poem on the city, and where a system of ? high jinks ? was kept up with an ardour that never abated. In this tavern, then, the IsZe of Man Arms, kept by James Mann, in Craig?s Close, the ? Cape Club? was nightly inaugurated, each member receiving on his election some grotesque name and character, which he was expected to retain and maintain for the future. From its minutes, which are preserved in the Antiquarian Museum, the club appears to have been formally constituted in 1764, though it had existed long before. Its insignia were a cape, or crown, worn by the Soverezgn of the Cape on State occasions, when certain other members wore badges, or jewels of office, and two maces in the form of huge steel pokers, engraven with mottoes, and still preserved in Edinburgh, formed the sword and sceptre of the King in Cape Hall, when the jovial fraternity met for high jinks, and Tom Lancashire the comedian, Robert Fergusson the poet, David Herd, Alexander Runciman, Jacob More, Walter Ross the antiquary, Gavin Wilson the poetical shoemaker, the Laird of Cardrona a ban zivani of the last century, Sir Henry Raeburn, and, strange to say, the notorious Deacon Brodie, met round the ?flowing bowl.? Tom Lancashire-on whom Fergusson wrote a witty epitaph-was the first sovereign of the club after 1764, as Sir Cape, while the title of Sir Poker belonged to its oldest member, James Aitken. David Herd, the ingenious collector of Scottish ballad poetry, succeeded Lancashire (who was a celebrated comedian in his day), under the sobriquet of Sir Scrape, having as secretary Jacob More, who attained fame as a landscape painter in Rome ; and doubtless his pencil and that of Runciman, produced many of the illustrations and caricatures with which the old MS. books of the club abound. When a knight of the Cape was inaugurated he was led forward by his sponsors, and kneeling before the sovereign, had to grasp the poker, and take an oath of fidelity, the knights standing by uncovered :- . ? I devoutly swear by this light. With all my might, Both day and night, To be a tme and faithful knight, So help me Poker !? The knights presented his Majesty with a contribution of IOO guineas to assist in raising troops in 1778. The entrance-fee to this amusing club was originally half-a-crown, and eventually it rose to a guinea ; but so economical were the mevbers, that among the last entries in their minutes was one to the effect that the suppers should be at ?the old price ? of 44d. a head. Lancashire the comedian, leaving the stage, seems to have eked out a meagre subsistence by opening in the Canongate a tavern, where he was kindly patronised by the knights of the Cape, and they subsequently paid him visits at ? Comedy Hut, New Edinburgh,? a place of entertainment which he opened somewhere beyond the bank of the North Loch ; and soon after this convivial club-one of the many wherein grave citizens and learned counsellors cast aside their powdered wigs, and betook them to what may now seem madcap revelry in very contrast to the rigid decorum of everyday life-passed completely away j but a foot-note to Wilson?s ? Memorials ? informs us that ? Provincial Cape Clubs, deriving their authority and diplomas from the parent body, were successively formed in Glasgow, Manchester, and London, and in Charleston, South Carolina, each of which was formally established in virtue of a royal commission granted by the Sovereign of the Cape. The American off-shoot of this old Edinburgh fra ternity is said to be still flourishing in the Southern States.? In the ?Life of Lord Kames,? by Lord Woodhouselee, we have an account of the Poker Club, which held its meetings near this spot, at ?? our old landlord of the Diversorium, Tom Nicholson?s, near the cross. The dinner was on the table at two o?clock ; we drank the best claret and sherry ; and the reckoning was punctually called at six o?clock. After the first fifteen, who were chosen by nomination, the members were elected by ballot, and two black balls excluded a candidate.? A political question-on the expediency of establishing a Scottish militia (while Charles Edward and Cardinal York were living in Rome)-divided the Scottish public mind greatly between 1760 and 1762, and gave rise to the club in the latter yean and it subsisted in vigour and celebrity till 1784, and continued its weekly meetings with great replarity, long after the object of its institution had ceased to engage attention; and it can scarcely be doubted that its influence was considerable in fostering talent and promoting elegant literature in Edinburgh, though the few publications of a literary nature that had been published under the auspices of the club were, like most of that nature, ephemeral, and are now utterly forgotten. ... OLD AND NEW EDINBUXGH. [High Street. ?; two such animals in the whole island of Great Britain.? Between the ...

Book 2  p. 230
(Score 0.21)

  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.