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226 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
At the foot of this close, however, we again meet with valuable associations connected
with more than one remarkable period in Scottish history. A door-way on the east side of
the close affords access to a handsome, though now ruinous stone stair, guarded by a neatly
carved balustrade and leading to a garden terrace, on which stands a very beautiful old
mansion, that yields in interest to none of the ancient private buildings of the capital. It
presents a semi-hexagonal front to the north, each of the sides of which is surmounted by a
richly carved dormar window, bearing inscriptions boldly cut in large Roman letters, though
now partly defaced. That over the north window is :-
NIHIL - EST * EX OMNI - PARTE a BEATUM a
The windows along the east side appear to have been originally similarly adorned ; two
of their carved tops are built into an outhouse below, on one of which is the inscription,
LAUS. UBIQUE . DEO , and on the other, FELICITER . INFELIX. In the title-deeds of this
ancient building,’ it is described as ‘‘ that tenement of land, of old belonging to Adam,
Bishop of Orkney, Commendator of Holyroodhouse, thereafter to John, Commendator of
Holyroodhouse,” his son, who in 1603, accompanied James to England, receiving on the
journey the keys of the town of Berwick, in his Majesty’s name. Only three years afterwards,
‘‘ the temporalities and spiritualitie ” of Holyrood were erected into a barony in
his behalf, and himself created a Peer by the title of Lord Holyroodhouse. Here, then, is
the mansion of the celebrated Adam Bothwell, who, on the 15th May 1567, officiated at the
ominous marriage-service in the Chapel of Holyrood Palace,a that gave Bothwell legitimate
possession of the unfortunate Queen Mary, whom he had already so completely
secured within his toils. That same night the distich of Ovid was afExed to the Palace
gate :-
Yense mala8 Maio nubere vulgufj dt;
and from the infamy that popularly attached to this fatal union, is traced the vulgar prejudice
that still regards it as unlucky to wed in the month of May. The character of the old
Bishop of Orkney is not one peculiarly meriting admiration. He married the poor Queen
according to the new forms, in despite of the protest of their framers, and he proved equally
pliable where his own interests were concerned. He was one of the first to desert .his royal
mistress’s party; and only two months after celebrating her marriage with the Earl of
Bothwell, he placed the crown on the head of her infant son. The following year he
humbled himself to the Hirk, and engaged ‘‘ to make a sermoun in the kirk of Halierudehous,
and in the end therof to confesse the offence in mazieng the Queine with the Erle of
Bothwell.”
The interior of this ancient building has been so entirely remodelled to adapt it to the
very different uses of later times, that no relic of its early grandeur or of the manners
of its original occupants remain; but one cannot help regarding its chambers with a
Now the property of Messrs Clapperton and Co., by whom it ia occupied as a warehouse. ’ “Within the add chappel, not with the mess, both with preachings.”-Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 111. Keith and
other historians, however, say, ‘(within the great hall, where the council usuallj met”
Ovid’s Fasti, Book v. ‘ Booke of the Univeraall Kirk of Scotland, p. 131.

Book 10 p. 246
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I12 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
The church was crowded with an unusually numerous auditory, among whom he recognised
many Jacobites, as well as a number of the Highland soldiers, attracted by the report
of his intentions, and the knowledge of his intrepid character. He prayed, as usual, for
King George, by name, and then added,--“And as for this young man who has come
among us seeking an earthly crown, we beseech thee that he may obtain what is far better,
a heavenly one ! ” When this was reported to Prince Charles he is said to have laughed,
and expressed himself highly pleased at the courage and charity of the worthy
minister.’
For some days after the Battle of Prestonpans, the communication between the town
and the Castle remained uninterrupted. But the Highlanders, who kept guard at the
Weigh-house, having received orders to prevent all further intercourse with the fortress, the
governor, retaliated by threatening to cannonade the town. Messengers were immediately
despatched by the Lord Provost to the Palace, informing the Prince of the danger the city
was exposed to ; but the governor having waited in vain for a favourable answer, a severe
cannonading at last took place, killing and wounding several of the inhabitants, besides
damaging many of the houses nearest the Castle, and spreading such consternation through
the town, that a great portion of the citizens were prepared for immediate flight. The
consequences that were apprehended from such proceedings were, however, happily averted
by a proclamation of the Prince, declaring the infinite regret he felt at the many murders
committed on the inhabitants by the commander of the garrison, and that he had ordered
the blockade of the Castle to be taken off, and the threatened punishment of his enemies to
be suspended, when he found that thereby innocent lives could be saved. Shortly after
this the Prince left Edinburgh, on his route to England, at the head of an army of about
five thousand men ; from thence he was followed, on his return northward, by the Duke
of Cumberland, who, on his arrival in Edinburgh, occupied the same apartments in the
Palace which had so recently been appropriated to the use of the Prince ; and during his
stay there, the paintings of the Scottish monarchs, in the great gallery, were slashed and
otherwise greatly defaced by the English soldiers.
After the final overthrow of the Highland army at Culloden, a species of triumph was
exhibited in Edinburgh, in full accordance with the magnanimity of the Duke, who claimed
the entire credit of a victory, achieved rather by the policy of Duncan Forbes of Culloden.
Fourteen of the standards that had been taken from the insurgents were burnt at the Market
Cross with every mark of contempt. They were ignominiously carried thither by chimney
sweepers,-the Prince’s own standard being particularly distinguished by being borne by
the common hangman ; and as each wa8 thrown into the fire, the heralds proclaimed the
names of the commanders to whom they had belonged!
. The usual election of magistrates having been prevented by the presence of the Highland
army in Edinburgh, they were chosen in the following year by virtue of a royal mandate,
and the newly-elected Council testified their loyalty to the Hanoverian dynasty by
voting the freedom of the city to the Duke of Cumberland, and presenting to him the charter
of citizenship in a massive gold box, embossed with the city arms outside, and having the
Duke’s own arms, with a suitable inscription, engraved within.
The overthrow of the adherents of Prince Charles was followed up by fines, imprisonl
Hist. of the West Kirk, p. 119.

Book 10 p. 123
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3 78 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of the Church of Megginche, one of the dependencies of the Abbey of Holyrood.L It is again
mentioned in an Act of the reign of Robert the Bruce, dated 1319, wherein the Bishop of
St Andrew’s confirms numerous gifts bestowed at various times on the Abbey and its
dependencies. One of these is a gift of all her possessions made by the Lady Donoca,
with the consent of her husband and son, in presence of a full consistory held at Edinburgh
in St Giles’s Church on the Sunday before the Feast of St Thomas, in the year 1293.’ Still
later we find evidence of additions to the original foundation in 1359, when David II.,
by a charter under his great seal, confirmed to the chaplain officiating at the altar of St
Katherine’s Chapel in the Parish Church of St Giles, all the lands of Upper Merchiston,
the gift of Roger Hog, burgess of Edinburgh, There can be no question, however, of
its existence at a much earlier date, as is proved by some of its original architectural
features, described hereafter, of which we possess authentic evidence. The Collegiate
Church of St Giles, as it‘ now stands, is a building including the work of many different
periods, and though no part of its architecture indicates an earlier date than the fourteenth
century, its walls probably include masonry of a much more remote era. The prevalence
of Norman remains among such of the ancient Parish Churches of Midlothian as still
retain any of their original masonry, proves that a very general impetus had been given
to ecclesiastical architecture about the period of the founding of Holyrood Abbey, in
the 12th century. This entirely accords with what is usually found in the architectural
chronology of any populous district in the neighbourhood of an important ecclesiastical
foundation; and, indeed, the history of the erection of St Giles’s Church is almost
entirely comprised in three periods, each of which was marked by the founding of other
ecclesiastical buildings. The first of these is the early part of the 12th century, when the
example of David I., derived from his experience at the splendid court of Henry I. of England,
led to the founding or enlargement of numerous religious housea. The next is 1380-
soon after which Dalkeith Church was founded-when numerous chapels were added to the
Parish Church ; and again, during a succession of years ending in 1462-the year in which
the charter of foundation of Trinity Collegiate Church is dated-when the choir of St Giles’s
Church seems to have been enlarged and completed in its present form ; in anticipation, no
doubt, of its erection into a collegiate church, which took place a few years thereafter.
It must be a subject of unfailing regret to every true antiquary, that the restoration of
St Giles’s Church in 1829 was conducted in so rash and irreverent a spirit, in consequence
of which so many of its peculiar features have disappeared, along with nearly all those
traces of its adaptation to the ceremonial of Roman Catholic worship, which had escaped the
rude hands of the equally irreverent, but far more pardonable, Reformers of the sixteenth
century. Had its restoration been delayed even for a few years, the increasing study of
Gothic architecture, which is already so widely diffused, would in all probability have
secured the preservation of much that is now beyond recall. All that can now be done is to
endeavour to convey to the reader such idea of the original edifice, and of the successive
alterations and additions that it had received, as seemed to be indicated by the building
previous to its remodelling in 1829.3
Liber Cartarurn Sande Crucis, p. 55. Ibid, p. 81.
? The restoration of the original edifice is now (1872) being proceeded with, under the auspice8 of n number of
public-apirited citizens.

Book 10 p. 415
(Score 0.63)

Book 10 p. 293
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164 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the most eminent venerators of antiquity, during the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Two small volumes of the Paton Correspondence-now rare and valuable-have been
published, which serve to show the very high estimation in which he was held as a literary
antiquary, and the numerous contributions furnished by him towards the most eminent
works of that class, only a small portion of which has been acknowledged by the recipients.
George Paton was a man of extreme modesty and diffidence,-a bachelor of retiring and
taciturn inclinations ;-yet he was neither illiberal eor unsocial in his habits ; his time, his ,
knowledge, and his library, were all at the service of his friends, and though not only temperate
but abstemious in his tastes, his evenings were generally spent with Herd, and
other kindred spirits, in Johnie Dowie’s Tavern, in Libberton’s Wynd, the well-known
rendezvous of the Scottish literati during that period. He was methodical in all his habits ;
the moment eleven sounded from St Giles’s steeple, his spare figure might be seen
emerging from the wynd head, and the sound of his cane on the pavement of Lady Stair’s
Close, gave the signal to his housekeeper for his admittance. This interesting old Edinburgh
character bears in many respects a resemblance to the more celebrated ‘‘ Elia ” of
the East India House. He obtained a clerkship in the Custom House, the whole emoluments
of which, after an augmentation for many years’ service, never exceeded $80 ; and
yet with this narrow income he contrived to amass a collection of books and manuscripts
to an extent rarely equalled by a single individual; On his death in the year 1807, at the
advanced age of eighty-seven, his valuable library was sold by auction, occupying considerably
more than a month in its disposal ; and its treasures were strenuously contended for
by the chief bibliopolists assembled from distant parts of the kingdom.’
The old mansion in Lady Stair’s Close bears over its entrance this pious inscription,
“ FEARE THE LORD, AND DEPART FRON EVILL,” with the date 1622, and the
arms and initials of its original proprietors, Sir William Gray of Pittendrum,-the
ancestor of the present Lord Gray,-and Geida or Egidia his wife, sister of Sir John
Smith of Grothill, Provost of Edinburgh. Sir William was a man of great influence and
note ; although, by virtue of a new patent, granted by Charles I., the ancient title of Lord
Gray reverted to his family, he devoted himself to commerce, and became one of the most
extensive Scottish merchants of his day, improving and enlarging the foreign trade of his
country, and acquiring great wealth to himself. On the breaking out of civil commotions,
he adhered to the royal party, and shared in its misfortunes j he was fined by the Parliament
100,000 merks, for corresponding with Montrose, and imprisoned first in the Castle
The correspondence between Paton and (Xough-full of matter deeply interesting to the antiquary and topographer
-war4 wme yeara since prepared for publication by Mr Turnbull, Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, but owing
to the paucity of subscribera, $,he MS. waa thrown aside, to the great losa of literary students.

Book 10 p. 178
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66 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
their forces with the English, for the purpose of expelling the French garrison.from Leith.
The Council of Edinburgh manifested their sympathy by contributing the sum of sixteen
hundred pounds Scots to maintain four hundred men engaged in their service for one
month, for the reduction of that town.’
The English force landed, and took up their station around Restalrig Church, casting
up trenches and securing themselves from the danger of surprise.’ The forces of the Congregation
had now acquired both experience and discipline, and with the aid of such
auxiliaries, the tables were speedily turned.
The French troops began the attack by a sudden sally on the camp at Restalrig, by
which the English auxiliaries were taken at a disadvantage ; but they speedily rallied, and
chased them to the walls of Leith, killing above three hundred, though with a still greFter
loss to themselves. In order more closely to press the siege, they removed their camp, a
few days after, to Pilrig, a rising ground still known by that name, lying directly between
Edinburgh and Leith.3
Early in May, a general
assault was made, but the scaling ladders were discovered to be too short when applied
to the walls, and the besiegers were driven back with great slaughter.
The ordnance of the French garrison were mounted along the walls, and on every
available point within the town of Leith. A battery that was erected on the tower of the
preceptory of St Anthony proved particularly annoying and destructive to the besiegers ;
and as they were unable, from their distance, to produce any effect on it, they advanced
their cannon to the Links of Leith, where they threw up mounds of earth, and erected a
battery of eight guns. With these they kept up 80 constant and destnctive a firing, that,
in a few days, they not only dismounted the ordnance placed by the French in t$e steeple,
but greatly injured it and the adjoining buildings.‘
On the 14th of April, being Easter Sunday, a constant firing was kept up by the
assailants, particularly at St Mary’s Church, where the people were assembled for divine
service, so that a bullet was shot through the great east window, passing right over the
altar, during the celebration of high mass, and just before the elevation of the host.
Two of the mounds thrown up by the besiegers on this occasion still remain on Leith
Links, and almost directly opposite the east end of the church. One of them is on the
extreme east side of the Links ; the other, which lies considerably nearer the High School,
is locally designated the Giant’s Bra. As there existed, till very recently, no houses
between the church and these open downs on which the batteries were erected, it must
have lain completely exposed to the fire of the besiegers. Some obscurity exists in the
narratives of the different historians of this period, as to which church is spoken of.
Bishop Leslie mentions their having “shot many great schottis of cannonis and gret
ordinances at the parrishe kirk of Leyth and Sanct Anthoneis steple.” St Mary’s Church
was not converted into the parish church, until the destruction, at a later period, of that
of Restalrig, to which Leith was parochially joined ; yet its position, agreeing so well with
the accounts of the siege, leaves no doubt that it is intended by this designation. As all
the historians, however, uuite in speaking of St Anthony’s steeple as that whereon the
French garrison had erected their ordnance, there seems no reason to question that it was
The united forces continued to press the siege at Leith.
Maitland, p. 19. Diurnal of Oocurrenta, p. 57. a Ibid, p. 58. ‘ Bishop Lealie, p. 285.

Book 10 p. 72
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114 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
as well as for a more detailed consideration of some of those that have already been alluded
to in this introductory sketch.
The appearance which Edinburgh presented at this period, as well as the character and
manners of its inhabitants, cannot be readily realised by those of the present generation.
Its general features had undergone little change since the departure of the Court to England
in 1603. The extended wall, erected in the memorable year 1513, still formed the
boundary of the city, with the exception of the enclosure of the High Riggs, as already
described, on the south. The ancient gates remained kept under the care of jealous
warders, and nightly closed at an early hour; even as when the dreaded inroads of the
Southon, with fire and sword, summoned the burgher watch to guard their walls. At the
foot of the High Street, the lofty tower and spire of the Nether Bow Port terminated the
vista, surmounting the old Temple Bar of Edinburgh, interposed between the city and the
ancient burgh of Canongate.
This handsome structure was rebuilt in its latest form in the year 1606, diiectly in
a line with St Mary's and Leith Wynds, and about fifty yards further eastward than the
second erection already mentioned. It was by far the mwt conspicuous and important
of the six gates which gave access to the ancient capital, and was regarded as an object in
the maintenance and protection of which the honour of the city was so deeply involved,
that, as we have seen, its demolition was one of the penalties by which the government
sought to revenge the slight put upon the royal prerogative by the Porteous mob. In
style of architecture, it bore considerable resemblance to the ancient Porte St Honore of
Paris, as represented in old engravings; and it is exceedingly probable that it was
constructed in imitation of Borne of the old gates of that capital, between which and
Edinburgh so constant an intercourse was maintained, at a somewhat earlier period than
the date of its erection.
When the destruction of this, the main port of the city, was averted by the strenuous
patriotic exertions of the Scottish peers and members of Parliament, it was regarded as a
national triumph ; but, unhappily, towards the middle of the last century, a perfect mania
seized the civic rulers throughout the 'kingdom, for sweeping away all the old ruh'sh, as
the ancient fabrics that adorned the principal towns were contemptuously styled. The
Common Council of London set the example by obtaining an Act of Parliament, in 1760,
to remove their city gates ; and, only four years afterwards, the Town Council of Edinburgh
demolished the Nether Bow, one of the chief ornaments of the city, which, had it been
preserved, would have been now regarded as a peculiarly interesting relic of the olden time.
The ancient clock, which was removed from the tower, was afterwards placed in that of the
old Orphan's Hospital, and continued there till the demolition of the latter building in
1845.
It is worthy of remark, however, that the destruction of this stately structure was not
the earliest symptom of improved taste in our civio dignitaries. Their first step towards
'' enlarging and Jeautfying " the city, was the removal of the ancient Cross, an ornamental'
structure, possessed of the most interesting local and national associations. The lower part
of it was an octagonal building of a mixed style of architecture, rebuilt in the year 1617,
in the form aIready represented.' In ita reconstruction, the chief ornaments of the
Ante, p. 33. . 6

Book 10 p. 125
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I 2 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
perienced the same evils formerly resulting from its exposed position. In 1383,’ we find
King Robert IT. holding his court there, and receiving the ambassador of Charles VI. of
France, with whom he renewed the league entered into with his predecessor; and from
this time so constant an intercourse was maintained between the two courts, that both the
manners of the people and the style of building of the Scottish capital were formed on
the French model-traces of which were abundant in the last century, and are not quite
extinct even in the present day.
The
Scots, under the Earls of Douglas and March, having begun the war with great success,
the Duke of Lancaster, at the head of an army almost innumerable,’’ as Walsingham
styles it, passed the border, and marched straight to Edinburgh, which, however, he spared
from the destruction to which it was devoted, in grateful remembrance of his hospitable
entertainment there, while an exile from the English Court-a kindness the Scots showed
little appreciation of, in the reprisala with which they, as usual, followed him immediately
on his retreat to England. In requitance of this, he returned the following year and laid
the town in ashes.
It was in this incursion that the f i s t edifice of St Giles’s was destroyed; at
this time only a parish church, originally in the patronage of the Bishop of Lindisfarn, from
whom it passed into the hands of the Abbot of Dunfermline. Yet, from the remains of
the original church that were preserved almost to our own day, it would seem to have been
a building of great richness and beauty, in the early Norman style. There is a very scarce
engraving, an impression of which is in the Signet Library, exhibiting a view of a very
beautiful Norman doorway, destroyed about the year 1760, in the same reckless manner as
so many other relics of antiquity have been swept away by our local authorities ; and which
was, without doubt, a portion of the original building that had survived the conflagration
in 1385. The ancient church was, doubtless, on a much smaller scale than now, as suited
to the limits of the town ; thus described by Froissart, in his account of the reception of
De Kenne, the admiral of France, who came to the assistance of Robert 11. at this time :
--(‘Edinburgh, though the kynge kepte there his chefe resydence, and that is Parys in
Scotland; yet it is not like Tourney or Vallenciennes, for in all the towne is not foure
thousande houses ; therefore it behoved these lordes and knyghts to be lodged about in the
villages.” The reception they met with was in keeping with their lodging. We are told
the Scots (-( dyde murmure and grudge, and sayde, Who the devyll hath sent for them?
cannot we mayntayne our warre with Englande well ynoughe without their helpe ? They
understand not us, nor we theym; therefore we cannot speke toguyder. They wyll
annone ryffle, and eat up alle that ever we have in this countrey; and doo us more dispytes
and damages than thoughe the Englysshemen shulde fyght with us ; for thoughe the
Englysshe brinne our houses, we care lytell therefore ; we shall make them agayne chepe
ynough ! ”
In the succeeding reign, at the close of 1390, we again find the ambassadors of Charles
VI. at the Scottish Court, where they were honourably entertained, and witnessed, in the
Castle of Edinburgh, the King’s putting his hand and seal to the treaty of mutual aid and
defence against the English, which had been drawn up in the reign of his father. Shortly
Immediately thereafter, in 1384, the town is found in the hands of the English.
r1385.J
Martial Achievemente, vol. ii. p. 185. Lord Ekrners Froiaeart.

Book 10 p. 13
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3 30 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the usual substitute with our simple forefathers for the comfortable glazed sash that now
admits the morning beams to the meanest dwelling. Gawin Douglas, in his prologue
to the seventh book of the 4‘Bneid,’’ which contains a description of winter, warned
that the “ day is dawing ” by the whistling of a sorry gled, and glancing through
A schot wyndo onschet, a litill on char,
Pemavyt the mornyng bla, wan, and har.
Douglas, at the time he undertook his vigorous translation of Virgil, was Provost of the
Collegiate Church of St Giles, and we could hardly wish for more conclusive evidence of
the general prevalence of this rude device throughout the Scottish capital during the
prosperous era of the reign of James IT., than the very natural and graphic manner in
which the keen wintry prospect he espies through his half-open shutter is described, and
the comfortable picture of his own blazing hearth, where he solaces himself by the
resumption of his pleasing task :-
The dew-droppis congelit on stibbill and r p d ,
And scharp hailstanys mortfundeit of kynd,
Hoppand on the thak and on the causay by :
The scbot I closit, and drew inwart in hy,
Chyvirrand for cdd, the ae8~onw as so snell,
Schupe with hayt flambe to fleym the freezyng fell.
And as I bownyt me to the fyre me by,
Baith up and down the hows I dyd aspy :
And seeand Virgill on ane lettron stand,
To write onone I hynt a pen in hand.
Another of these picturesque tenements is Palfrep’s or the King’s Head Inn, a fine
antique stone land built about the reign of Charles I. An inner court is enclosed by the
buildings behind, and it long remained one of the best frequented inns of old Edinburgh,
being situated nearly at the. junction of two of the principal approaches to the town
from the south and west. From the style and apparent age of the building, however,
there can be little question that its original occupants ranked among the old Scottish
aria tocracy.
In making the excavations necessary for the erection of a handsome suit of additional
court-rooms for the accommodation of the Lords Ordinary, built to the south of the old
Parliament Hall towards the close of 1844, some curious discoveries were made, tending
to illustrate the changes that have been effected on the Cowgate during the last four
centuries. In the space cleared by the workmen, on the site of the Old Parliament Stairs,
a considerable fragment of the fist city wall was laid bare ; a solid and substantial mass
of masonry, very different from the hasty superstructure of 1513. On the sloping ground
to the south of this, at about fourteen feet below the surface, a range of strong oaken
m 5 a were found lying close together, and containing human remains, In one skull
the brain remained 80 fresh as to show the vermicular form of surface, although the
ancient Churchyard of St Giles, of which these were doubtless some of the latest occupants,
had ceased to be used as a place of sepulture since the grant of the Greyfriars’
gardens for that purpose in 1566. The form of these coffins was curious, being quite
straight at the sides, but with their lids rising into a ridge in the centre, and altogether
closely resembling in form the stone coffins of a still earlier era. During the same

Book 10 p. 360
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20 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the order of the Blue Blanket was indituted by Pope Urban II., about 1200, and so is
older than any order of knighthood in Europe. According to this author, vast numbers of
Scottish mechanics having followed to the Holy War, took with them a banner bearing
the inscription- “ In bona voluntate tua ed9center muri Jerusalem,” which they styled
the banner of the Holy Ghost, though, from its colour, familiarly called “ The Blue Blanket;
” and this, on their return, they dedicated to St Eloi’s altar in St Giles’s Church.
Whatever foundation there may be for this remoter origin, it is undoubted that James
111. at this time, in requital of the eminent services of the burghers, confirmed them
in many privileges, and bestowed on them this ensign, with their heraldic bearings
embroidered by the Queen’s own hands. It has eYer since been kept in the charge of the
kirk-master or deacon-convener of the crafts for the time being ; every burgher, not only
of the capital, but of Scotland, being held bound to rally at the summons, when it is
unfurled.
Within a brief period after the incidents related, the Duke of Albany being confined a
prisoner in the Castle, succeeded in effecting his escape in a very daring fashion. His rivals
having just obtained their own deliverance, “ counselled the King to justfy the Duke
his brother ; ” which being known at the court of France, a French ship arrived in Leith
Roads the very day before his intended “justification,” the captain of which sent a
messenger to the Duke, offering to supply him with a stock of wines ; and a confidential
servant being thereupon sent for “two bosses full of Malvesy ; ” they were returned by him,
the one containing a letter informing him of the design against his life, and the other filled
with cord to aid him in his escape. Acting on this advice, he invited the captain of the
Castle to supper, and so liberally dispensed the supposed new supply of wine among his
guard, that watching his opportunity, he and his faithful attendant succeeded in overpowering
them, and putting them to the sword; and escapiug to an unguarded wall of
the Castle, they let themselves down by the cord, and so escaped to the French ship ; the
Uuke carrying his attendant on his back, his thigh having been broken in dropping
from the wall. So that his escape was not discovered till the nobles arrived on the following
morning to wait on the King-then himself residing in the Castle-and to witness
the execution.
During this and succeeding reigns, the Parliaments continued to assemble generally at
Edinburgh, although Stirling Castle was the favourite residence of‘ James IIL, where he
retired from the cares of the state ; and there in particular he found opportunity for displaying
that love for “ building and trimming up of chapels, halls, and gardens,” ’ with which
Drummond charges him, as a taste that usually pertains to the lovers of idleness. His love
of display seems to have been shown on every opportunity during his residence at Edinburgh.
We learn from the same authority, he acquired an easily won character for devotion,
by his habit of riding in procession from the Abbey of Holyrood to the churches in
the high town, every Wednesday and Friday.
King James 111. was slain on the 8th of June 1488, by his own rebellious nobles,
on the field of Stirling, nearly on the same arena as had been the scene of Scotland’s
greatest victory under the Bruce. Whatever view the historian may take of this Monarch’s
character and influence on the nation, he contributed more than any other of the
,
Put to death. Hawthornden, p. 81.

Book 10 p. 22
(Score 0.62)

I 8 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Edinburgh, that in requital thereof, he granted to them a charter, empowering the free
citizens to trade to any part of England, subject to no other duties than those payable
by the most highly favoured natives: in acknowledgment, as he states, of the humane and
honourable treatment he had received from the provost, ministers, and burgesses of
Edinburgh. As, however, the house of Lancaster never regained the crown, the charter
survived only as an honourable acknowledgment of their services.
About this time it whs that the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity, and the Hospital
attached to it, were founded by the Queen Dowager, Mary of Guelders : and here the
royal foundress was interred in the year 1463.
In 1471, the Scottish capital again witnessed a royal marriage and coronation ; Margaret,
Princess of Denmark, having landed at Leith in the month of July of that year,
where she was received with every demonstration of welcome and rejoicing. The courtly
historians of the period describe her as winning the favour of both Prince and people, by
a beauty and grace rarely equalled among the ladies of the age. Lindsay of Pitscottie
adds-“The gentlevoman being bot twelff yeires of age at the tyme.”’ The alliance
was further rendered acceptable to the nation, by the royal bridegroom, King James III.,
having ‘‘ gatt with the King of Denmarkis dochter, in tocher guid, the landis of Orkney
and Zetland.” To all this we may add, from Abercromby ’-“ The very sight of such a
Queen could not but endear her to all ranks of people, who, to congratulate her happy
arrival, and to create in her a good opinion of themselves and the country, entertained her
and her princely train for many days, with such variety of shows, and such delicious and
costly feasts, that Ferrerius, a foreigner, who had seen all the gallantry and pomp of the
Courts of France and Savoy, tells us that no pen can describe them so much to the advantage
as they deserve.” It is to be regretted that a more detailed account of this royal
reception has not been given, as it would better than any other have served to convey a
lively picture of the manners of the citizens, and the character of the Scottish capital at
this period.
These joyous proceedings speedily gave place to others of a very different character.
The historians, in accordance with the credulity of the times, have preserved the tradition
of numerous prophecies and omens, wherewith the king was forewarned of the troubles that
awaited him, and his jealousy excited against his brothers. The youngest of them, the
Earl of Mar, was committed a prisoner to Craigmillar Castle, from whence he was afterwards
permittet to remove to the Canongnte, when suffering under a violent fever, of
which he died there, under the care of the King’s physician ; not without suspicion of foul
play, After his death, some reputed witches were tried‘ at Edinburgh, and condemned to
the stake, for plotting, along with him, the death of the King ; and these, according to the
historians of the time, confessed that the Earl had dealt with them to have him taken away
by incantation-‘‘ For the King’s image being framed in wax, and with many spells and
incantations baptized, and set unto a fire, they persuaded themselves the King’s person
should fall away as it consumed.”’
The successful confederacy against Cochrane, the succeeding Earl of Mar, and the other
royal favourites, belong not to our subject. But immediately thereafter, in 1481, we find
the King a captive in the Castle of Edinburgh, which served alternately as a palace and a
Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 178. Nartial Achierements, vol. i i p. 407. a Drum. of Hawthornden, p. 48.

Book 10 p. 19
(Score 0.61)

I 66 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
the plough, to his friend Richmond, a writer’s apprentice, and accepted the offer of a share
of his room and bed, in the house of Mrs Carfrae, Baxter’s Close, Lawnmarket.’
In the first stair to the left, on entering the close, and on the first floor of the house,
is the poet’s lodging. The tradition of his residence there has passed through very few
hands ; the predecessor of the present tenant (a respectable widow, who has occupied the
house for many years) learned it from Mrs Carfrae, and the poet’# room is pointed out,
with its window looking into Lady Stair’s Close. The land is an ancient and very
substantial building, with large and neatly moulded windows, retaining the marks of
having been finished with stone mullions; in one tier in particular the windows are
placed one above another, only separated at each story by a narrow lintel, so as to
present the singular appearance of one long and narrow window from top to bottom
of the lofty land. From this ancient dwelling, Burns issued to dine or sup with the
magnates of the land, and, “when the company arose in the gilded and illuminated
rooms, some of the fair guests-perhaps
Her Grace,
Whose flambeaux flash against the morning skies,
And gild our chamber ceilings as they pass,
took the hesitating arm of the bard, went smiling to her coach, waved a graceful
good-night with her jewelled hand, and, departing to her mansion, left him in the middle
of the street, to grope his way through the dingy alleys .of the gude town,’ to his obscure
lodging, with his share of a deal table, a sanded floor, and a chaff bed, at eighteenpence
a week.” a The poet’s lodging, however, is no such dingy apartment as this description
implies ; it is a large and well-proportioned room, neatly panelled with wood, according
to a fashion by no means very antiquated then ; and if he was as well boarded as lodged,
the hardy ploughman would find. hia independence exposed to no insurmountable temptation,
for all the grandeur of the old Scottish Duchesses, most of whose carriages were
only sedan chairs, unless when they preferred the more economical conveyance of a gude
pair of pattens I ”
Over the doorway of the old house immediately opposite to that of Burns’, in
Baxter’s Close, there is a curious and evidently a very ancient lintel,-a relic of some
more stately mansion of the olden time, It bears a shield, now much defaced, surmounted
by a crown, and above this a cross, with the figure of a man leaning over it, wearing a
mitre. The initials, A. S. and E. I., are placed on either side; and above the whole, in
antique Gothic letters, is the inscription, BLISSIT BE * THE * LORD IN -
HIS * GIFTIS FOR * NOV AND EVIR. We are inclined, from the appearance
of this stone, to assign to it an earlier date than that of any other inscription in
Edinburgh. The house into which it is built is evidently a much later erection, and
no clue is furnished from its titles as to any previous building having occupied the site.
It passed by inheritance, in the year 1746, into the possession of Martha White, only
child of a wealthy burgess, whose gold won for her, some years later, the honours of
Countess of Elgin and Kincardine, Governess to her Royal Highness Princess
Charlotte of Wales, and the parentage of sundry honourable Lady Marthas, Lord
Thomases, and the like.
Allan Cunningham’s Burns, vol. i. p. 115. Ibid, vol. i p. 131.

Book 10 p. 180
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246 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
as that in which she spent the last night in the capital of her kingdom; the last on which
though captive, she was still its Queen. The magnificent and imposing character of this
building, coupled with the historical associations attached to it, have given it an exaggerated
importance in popular estimation, so that tradition assigned it a very remote antiquity,
naming as its builder, King Kenneth III., who was slain A.D. 994; not without the
testimony of heaven’s displeasire thereat, for “ the moon looked bloody for several nights,
to the infinite terror of those that beheld her,” besides other equally terrible prodigies I
Maitland, the painstaking historian of Edinburgh, detecting the improbability of such
remote foundation for this substantial building, obtained access to the title-deeds, and found
a sasine of the date 1461, conveying it to George Robertson of Lochart, the son of the
builder, which would imply its having been erected early in the fifteenth century. From
other evidence, we discovered that it belonged in the following century to George Crighton,
Bishop of Dunlreld, and was in all probability either acquired or rebuilt by him for the
purpose of the religious foundation previously described. This appears from an action
brought by “ the Administrators of Heriot’s Hospital, against Robert Hepburn of Bearford,”
in 1693, e for ‘‘ a ground-annual out of the tenement called Ro6ertson’s Tnn,” and which
at a subsequent date is styled, “ his tenement in Edinburgh called the Black Turnpike.”
The pursuers demanded the production of the original writs from the Bishop of Dunkeld,
and it would appear from the arguments in defence, that the building had been conferred
by the Bishop on two of his own illegitimate daughters, and so diverted from the pious
objects of its first destination, perchance as a sort of compromise between heaven and
earth, by which more effectually to secure the atonement he had in view for t,he errors of a
licentious life. To all this somewhat discrepant evidence we shall add one more fact from
the Caledonian Mercury, May 15th, 1788, the date of its demolition:--“The edifice
commonly called the Black Turnpike, immediately to the west of the Tron Church, at the
head of Peebles Wynd, one of the oldest stone buildings upon record in Edinburgh, is
now begun Qo be pulled down. . . . It may be true what is afimed, that Queen Mary was
lodged in it in the year 1567, but if part of the building is really so old, it is evident
other parts are of a later date, for on the, top of a door, the uppermost of the three entries
to this edifice from Peebles Wynd, we observe the following inscription :-
PAX a INTRANTIBVS a SALVS EXEVNTIBVS * 1674.”
The whole character of the building, however, seems to have contradicted the idea of
so recent an erection, and tlie inscription-a peculiarly inappropriate one for the scene
of the poor Queen’s last lodging in her capital-is probably the only thing to which the
date truly applied.
We have passed over the intermediate alleys from the New Assembly Close to the
Tron Church, in order to preserve the connection between the ancient lands of the
Bishop of Dunkeld, that formed at different periods the lodging of Queen Mary.
Stevenlaw’s Close, the last that now remains of that portion of the High Street, still contains
buildings of an early date. Over a doorway on the west side, near the foot, is this
1 Abercrombie’s Martial Achievements, vol. i p. 194. ’ Fountainhall’s Decisions, vol. i. pp. 683, 688.
J We have stated reasons before fur believing that dates were sometimes put on buildings by later proprietors.

Book 10 p. 267
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202 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Nary, the Scottish Parliaments and the College of Justice assembled there, until their sitting
were transferred to the fine hallwhich still remains in Parliament Square, though so strangely
disguised externally by its modern facing. On the desertion of the New Tolbooth by the
Scottish Estates and Courts of Law, it was exclusivly devoted to the deliberations of
the civic counsellors, until the erection of the Royal Exchange provided enlarged
accommodation for the Council. The Laigh Hall, where Assemblies both of the Kirk
and Estates had often been held, was a large and handsome room. Its ceiling was beautifullywrought
in various panels, with rich pendants from their centres, and finished with
emblazonry and gilding. On its demolition some interesting and valuable relics of early
decorations were brought to light. The walls had been originally panelled with oak, and
when at a later period this came to be regarded as old-fashioned and inelegant, the antique
panelling was concealed, without removal, behind a modern coating of lath and plaster.
There is reason to believe that the compartments of the walls when first completed had
been filled with a series of portraits, but unfortunately, little attention was paid to the old
building at the period of its destruction, and we are only aware of one of the paintings that
has been preserved. There is much probability in favour of this being an original portrait
of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise. It is well painted on an oak panel, and in fine
condition, and was at -first believed to represent Queen Anne, the consort of James VI.,
having been almost completely obscured by smoke and dirt at the time of its discovery. It
was then thought that it must have been accompanied by a portrait of .James ; and it is
e xceedingly probable that others of equal value to the one thus accidentally preserved may
have been thrown aside and destroyed with the discarded panelling. This curious portrait
is now in the possession of Alexander Mackay, Esq. of Blackcastle. It represents the
Queen in a high-bordered lace cap and ruff, such as both she and her daughter are usually
painted with. The details of the lacework are elaborately rendered, and the expression of
countenance is dignified and very pleasing. On the painting being cleaned, an ingenious
monogram was brought to light, burned into the back of the panel, composing the word
MARIA, and leaving, we think, little doubt of the genuineness of the portrait, which was
thus found by accident, and has passed through no picture-dealer’s hands.
To this ancient building belong many of the later historical associations that have been
referred by some of our local historians to its predecessor. It was from one of its windows
that the affrighted monarch James VI. attempted in vain to appease the enraged citizens
in 1596, when, “had they not been restrained by that worthy citizen, John Watt, the
deacon-convener,-who at this dangerous juncture assembled the crafts,-they would
undoubtedly have forced the door, and probably have destroyed the King and all that
were with him.” The whole tumult appears to have resulted in mutual distrust, which
was taken advantage of by some designing meddlers to set the Court and citizens at
variance. The Kirk and King were at the time nearly at open strife, and Mr Robert
Bruce was preaching to a select audience in St Giles’s Church, preparatory to framing
“ certain articles for redresse of the wrongs done to the Kirk,” while the King was Bitting
in the neighbouring Tolbooth, “ in the seate of Justice, among the Lords of the Sessioun,”
seemingly thinking of nothing less than the granting of any such requests. While the
Commissioners went to the Tolbooth to make their wishes known to the King, “Mr
Maitland, p. 48.

Book 10 p. 221
(Score 0.61)

3 60 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
converted into shops of late years, but not so effectually as to conceaI their character,
which is deserving of special notice as a peculiar and very characteristic feature in the
domestic architecture of the town. Returning, however, to the ancient edifices of the
Kirkgate, we must refer the reader to the view already given of one which was only
demolished in 1845, and which, from its appearance, was undoubtedly one of the oldest
private buildings in Leith.’ Popular fame, as was mentioned before, assigned its erection
to May of Guise. The value to be attached to such traditional associations may be
inferred from a remark in the most recent history of Leith Were we to give credit to
all the traditionary information we have received, Mary of Lorraine would appear to have
had in Leith not one place of residence, but at least a score, there being scarcely an old
house in the town without its claims to the honour of having been the habitation of
the Queen Regent. The mortification, therefore, which certainly awaits him who sets
out on an antiquarian excursion through Leith, particularly if the house of that illustrious
personage be the object of his pursuit, will not proceed from any difficulty in
discovering the former residence of her Majesty, but in the much more puzzling circumstance
of finding by far too many ;-in short, that nearly all the existing antiquities
of Leith are fairly divided between Cromwell and Queen Mary, between whom there would
Beem to have been a sort of partnership in building houses. As might naturally be
expected from this association, her Majesty and the Protector would appear to have lived
on the most sociable footing. We have in more than one instance found them residing
under one roof, Queen Mary occupying probably the first floor, and Cromwell living
up-stairs.’” Such popular aptitude in the coining of traditions is by no means confined
to Leith; but the antiquary may escape all further trouble in searching for the
Queen’s mansion by consulting Naitland, who remarks, (‘ that Mary .of Lorraine having
chosen Leith for her residence, erected a house to dwell in at the corner of Quality Street
Wpd in the Rotten Row,” now known as Water Lane, ‘‘ but the same being taken down
and rebuilt, the Scottish Arms which were in the front thereof are erected in the wall
of a house opposite thereto on the southern side ; and the said Mary, for the convenience
of holding councils, erected a handsome and spacious edifice for her Privy Council to
meet in.”’ The curious visitor will look in vain now even for the sculptured arms
that escaped the general destruction of the ancient edifice wherein the Queen Regent,
Mary of Guise, spent the last years of her life, embittered by the strife of factions and
the horrors of civil war ;-an ominous preparative for her unfortunate daughter’s assumption
of the sceptre, which was then wielded in her name. One royal abode, however, still
remains-if tradition is to be trusted-and forms a feature of peculiar interest among
the antiquities of the Kirkgate. Entering by a low and narrow archway immediately
behind the buildings on the east side, and about half way between Charlotte Street
and Coatfield Lane, the visitor finds himself in a singular-looking, irregular little court,
retaining unequivocal marks of former magnificence. A projecting staircase is thrust
obliquely into the narrow space, and adapts itself to the irregular sides of the court by
sundry corbels and recesses, such as form the most characteristic features of our old
Bcottish domestic architecture, and might almost seem to a fanciful imagination to have
been produced as it jostled itself into the straitened site. A richly decorated dormer
1 Ante, p. 54. Abridged from Campbell’a History of Leith, p. 312. Maitland, p. 496.

Book 10 p. 395
(Score 0.61)

68 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Valence and Amiens, and other French commissioners, and a treaty was formally concluded
and signed, by which, through the diplomatic skill of Cecil, the objects aimed at
by Queen Elizabeth, as well as the real interests of the Congregation, were completely
secured, notwithstanding the feeble remonstrances of the French commissioners. A separate
convention, agreed to at the same time, bound the French garrison to remove all the
artillery from the ramparts of Leith, completely to demolish its fortifications, and
immediately thereafter to embark for France.
On the 19th of July,-the third day after the embarkation of the French troops at
Leith, and the departure of the English forces on their march homeward,-a solemn public
thanksgiving was held by the reforming nobles, and the great body of the Congregation,
in St Giles’s Church ; and thereafter the preachers were appointed to some of the chief
boroughs of the kingdom, Knox being confirmed in the chief charge at Edinburgh.
A Parliament assembled in Edinburgh on the 1st of August, the proceedings of which
were opened with great solemnity. The lesser barons, from their interest in the progress of
the reformed doctrines, claimed the privilege, which they had long ceased to use, of sitting
and voting in the Assembly of the Three Estates. This led to the accession of nearly a
hundred votes, nearly all of them adhering to the Protestant party. After the discussion
of 8ome preliminary questions,-particularly as to the authority by which the Parliament
was summoned,-Maitland was appointed their “ harangue maker,” or speaker, and they
proceeded to choose the Lords of the Articles. Great complaint was made as to the choice
falling entirely on those well affected to the new religion, particularly among the Lords
Spiritual, some of whose representatives were mere laymen ;-but altogether without effect.
c( This being done,” says Randolph, in an interesting letter to Cecil, U the Lords departed,
and accompanied the Duke as far as the Bow,-which is the gate going out of the High
Street,-and many down unto the Palace where he lieth; the town all in armour, the
trumpets sounding, and all other kinds of music such as they have. . . . . . The Lords
of the Articles sat from henceforth in Holyrood House, except that at such times as upon
matter of importance the whole Lords assembled themselves again, as they did this day, in
the Parliament House.”
The Parliament immediately proceeded with the work of reformation, a Confession of
Faith was drawn up, and approved of by acclamation, embodying a summary of Christian
doctrine in accordance with the views of the majority, and this was seconded by a series of
acts rendering all who refused to subscribe to its tenets liable to confiscation, banishment,
and even death. Ambassadors were despatched to England with proposals of marriage
between the Earl of Arran, eldest 6011 to the Duke of Chatelherault, and Queen Elizabeth,
while Sir James Sandilands, grand prior of the knights of St John of Jerusalem, was sent
to France to carry an account of their proceedings to the Queen.
The latter met with a very cool reception ; he was, however, entrusted with a reply from
the Scottish Queen, which, though it refused to recognise the assembly by which he was
sent as a Parliament, was yet couched in conciliatory terms, and intimated her intention
to despatch commissioners immediately, to convene a legal Parliament ; but ere Sir James
arrived at Edinburgh, the news reached him of the death of the young King, her royal consort,
anwhich avent caused the utmost rejoicing among the party of the Congregation.
MS. Letter St P. O&, 9th August 1560, Tytler.

Book 10 p. 74
(Score 0.61)

I 04 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
portion of the ground between the old port and the building still known as Queen Mary’s
Bath, the intervening ground being then entirely unoccupied. After being devoted to the
humble purpose of a weaver’s workhouse, it was at length burnt to the ground, in the year
1777.l
Many traditions
still preserved prove his keen relish for this game, in which he is said to have become a
proficient. ‘‘ The Duke of York,” says Tytler, ‘‘ was frequently seen in a party at golf .on
the Links at Leith, with some of the nobility and gentry. I remember, in my youth, to
have often conversed with an old man, named Andrew Dixon, a golf club-maker, who
said that, when a boy, he used to carry the Duke’s golf clubs, and to run before him and
announce where the ball fell.” ’
The general harmony of the Court of Holyrood, during the visit of the Duke of York,
was, however, occasionally interrupted by other annoyances besides those occasioned by the
struggles of the Covenanters.
A custom had long prevailed in Edinburgh, of annually burning the Pope in effigy on
Christmas-day ; but the magistrates, justly conceiving that such a procedure was calculated
to afford little satisfaction to the Duke, determined to prevent its recurrence during his
stay in Edinburgh. The populace, however, were not then impressed with such awe for
civic enactments as the modern system of police has since produced. The students of the
College took up the matter, and bound themselves by a solemn oath to effect the incremation
of his Holiness in defiance of both Duke and magistrates. The military were called
out to put a stop to their proceedings, and some of the most active ringleaders taken
captive; but the populace rose in defence of the students, and finished the day’s work
The students, as the most
zealous movers in thk tumult, were first visited with the wrath of offended authority. The
college gates were ordered to be closed, and the collegians to remove to the distance of
fifteen miles from the city ; but the excitement after a time abated, and they were again
restored to their wonted privileges.
In 1682, the famous old cannon, Mons Meg, was burst in firing a salute in honour of
the Duke of York, shortly before his return to England. The Duke took his departure in
great state in the month of May, leaving the citizens of Edinburgh to resume their quiet
decorum, unseduced by the example of the Court. The older gentry of the last age continued
to cherish a pleasing remembrance of his visit, and to tell, with great delight, of
the gaiety and brilliancy of the court at Holyrood House.
The intelligence of the death of Charles 11. reached Edinburgh on the 6th of February
1685. The Chancellor and other officers of state, with the Privy Council, the lords of session,
the magistrates, and many of the chief nobility, proceeded to the Crosfi, accompanied by the
Lyon King-at-Arms, and his heralds, and proclaimed James Duke of York, King of Great
Britain. In April, on the assembling of Parliament, an act was passed for the confirmation
of the Protestant religion, and fresh tests enacted for its protection ; but the actions of the
King showed little respect for such laws, and much excitement was occasioned by proceedings
that were generally believed to be preparatory to the subversion of the Protestant
Church.
Leith Links was the usual scene of the Duke’s trials of skill at golf.
. by burning the Provost’s house at Priestfield to the ground.
Amot, p. 195. 9 Archaelogia Scotica, vol. i. p. 504.

Book 10 p. 113
(Score 0.61)

450 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
XVIIL ST GILES’S CHURCH.
THE accompanying ground-plan of St Giles’s Church is designed to illustrate the description of the EUCCeBsive
additions to the ancient Parish Church of Edinburgh, given in the concluding chapter (pp. 377-394). It
exhibits it as it existed previous to the alterations of 1829, and with the adjacent buildings which have been
successively removed during the present century. We are indebted for the original drawing to the Rev, John
She, chaplain of Trinity Hospital, whose ingenipue model of the Old Church, with the Tolbooth, Luckenbooths,
&c., haa already been referred to.
REFERENOETOS THE GROUND-PLAN.
The light subdivisions between the pillars mark the party walls with which the ancient church was partitioned
off into several places of worship. The large letters of reference in each mark the earliest sites of the pulpits.
H shows the old position of Dr Webster’s pulpit in the Tolbooth Church, from which it was removed about the
year 1792 to its latter position against the south wall, in front of the old turnpike, now demolished. K indicates
the site of the old pulpit of the High Kirk, from whence it was removed about the years 1775-80, to its present
position in front of the great east window. Previous to this alteration, the king’s seat projected in front of the
pillar directly opposite the pulpit, so that his Majesty, or the successive representatives of royalty who occupied
it, were within a convenient convereational distance of the preacher. This throws considerable light on the
frequent indecorous colloquies that were wont to ensue between James VI. and the preachers in the High Kirk ;
and shows how very pointed and irritating to royalty must the rebukes and personalities have been, in which
the divines of that day were accustomed to indulge, seated as his Majesty thue was &-a-& with his uncourtly
chaplain, like a culprit on the stool of repentance. King James, however, used to bandy words with the
preacher with a tolerably good-natured indifference to the dignity of the crown.
The following references will enalde the reader to find without difficulty the chief objects of interest in St
Giles’s Church, alluded to in the course of the work :- .
a The Preston, or Assembly Aisle, where the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held its
b The Montrose Aisle.
c The Tomb of John, fourth Earl of Atholl.
d The Tomb of the Regent Murray.
e Door which stood always open during the day, approached by a flight of steps from the Parliament
f Ancient Tomb (deecribed on page 386), said to be that of William Sinclair, Earl of Orhey, ckated
Earl of Caithness by James II., in 1455. The whole of this chapel to the west of the buttress and centre
pillar is now’removed.
g The South Porch, built in 1387. The beautiful doorway has been rebuilt between the south pillars
of the tower, as an entrance to the Old Kirk. Above this porch was the Painted Chamber (vide page
385), in which a number of ancient charters were discovered in 1829, which, with the turret staircase
indicated in the plan, and the beautiful little dormer window that lighted the Priest’s Chamber, all diaappeared
under the hands of the restorerr
annual sessions previous to 1829.
Close.
A The five Chapels built in 1387.
i The Pillar of the Albany Chapel (vide p. 388), decorated with the arms of Robert Duke of Albany,
The two west ones are now demolished.
and the Earl of Douglas..

Book 10 p. 489
(Score 0.61)

210 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of recusant members were set apart for the formation of a library, and a few years afterwards
their collection was greatly auapented by a gift of rare and costly books from
William, first Duke of Queensberry.
The Great Fire which we have described scattered and nearly destroyed the accumulation
of twenty years, and had it not been for the strenuous exertions of the keeper, Mr
John Stevenson, advocate, not one of the books would have been saved. The result,
however, was the removal of the library to safer and more permanent quarters below the
Parliament House, where it has ever since continued, though with extensive additions,
corresponding both in dimensions and style to its increasing importance. These lower
. apartments, dark and gloomy as they now look, when contrasted with the magnificent
libraries that have been erected above, are associated with names of no mean note in
. Scottish literature. There Thomas Ruddiman and David Hume successively presided in
the office of keeper, which post was also filled by Dr Irvine, the biographer of Buchanan,
and author of the “ Lives of Scottish Poets ; ” and within the same hall Dr Johnson was
received by some of the most eminent men of the last century, during his visit to Edin-
The creditors, who were baulked of their expected returns in the very midst of their
exertions, appear, from the documents already referred to, to have proceeded immediately
after the fire to dispose of the sites. In the accounts consequent on these latter transactions,
new characters appear, and among the rest Robert Mylne, the royal Master Mason,
who is due, “ for the area of the houses in the Parliament Closs,” a sum thus imposingly
.rendered in Scots money, %00,600, 00s. Od. No time appears to have been lost in rebuilding
the houses unexpectedly demolished. The Royal Exchange, which bore its name
cut in bold relief over the doorway, had on it the date 1700, and the adjacent buildings
towered again to an altitude of twelve stories towards the south, maintaining their preeminence
as the loftiest lands in Edinburgh. On the east side an open piazza, decorated
with pilasters and a Doric entablature, formed a covered walk for pedestriana, and the
whole produced a stately and imposing effect. The aristocratic denizens of the former
buildings returned again to the accommodation provided for them in the Parliament
Close, and with them, too, came the renters of ZaigA stories and garrets, to complete
the motley population of the Zands, as they were then subdivided in the Old Town
of Edinburgh. An amusing illustration of this is furnished in the trial, to which we
have already frequently referred, of William Maclauchlane, for his share in the Porteous
mob. He was footman to the Countess of Wemyss, who resided in a fashionable
flat in the .Parliament Close, and on the forenoon of the eventful 7th of September
1736, he was despatched on an errand to Craigiehall, from whence he did not return
till the evening. The libel of his Majesty’s Advocate sets forth, that having delivered
his message, “ the pannel went from my Lady Wemyss’ house to John Lamb’s alehouse
in the Bame stair,” from whence he issued shortly after in a jovial state, attracting everybody’s
notice by his showy livery during the stirring scenes of that busy night, in which
he mingled, perfectly oblivious of all that was being enacted around him, and running a
very narrow risk of being made the scapegoat of the imbecile magistracy, who only wanted
a decent pretext for sacrificing a score of blackguards to the manes of Porteous, and the
wrath of Queen Caroline.
’ burgh in 1773.

Book 10 p. 229
(Score 0.6)

Tron Church.
sum had been paid but once in ten years, yet, if it
had been properly managed, the accumulated sum
behoved to have exceeded ~16,000 sterling."
The old spire had been partially built'of wood
covered with lead, according to a design frequently
repeated on public buildings then in Scotland. It
was copied from the Dutch ; but the examples of it
are rapidly disappearing. A bell, which cost 1,490
merks Scots, was hung in it in 1673, and continued
weekly to summon the parishioners to prayer and
-
EXPLANATION.
A The principal Entry.
B The mea 01 thrSyuare.
C The Piazza,
I3 The Coffee-room inthe west Coffec-hare.
d Rwnis aod Closets in diLlp.
a The Coffee-mm in the middk Ccffec
e Rmpis and Closets in ditm.
F The Coffee-room in the la t Coffeehoux.
f Raoms io ditto.
G The Great Sair leadiog to the Custon
H The P a q e Ieadioi 10 ditt-.
I 'An open for 1etriI.g in li6ht to the Houses
in the Writer's Court under the level of
the Square.
E The Passage belwecn the Square and
Wriicr's Court.
1. Seven Shops withiu the Square
m Four Shops behi d the raqe tvthe srect.
N Ten Shop an a line with the street.
0 An open of four feet for dcoopirg eaws
P Part ot the M'riter-5 Court.
g Area of ditto.
house. -
H0"W.
of the neighbouring houses
B
pounds yearly. It is an edifice of uninteresting
appearance and nondescript style, being neither
Gothic nor Palladian, but a grotesque mixture of
both. It received its name from its vicinity to the
Tron, or public beam for the weighing of merchandise,
which stood near it.
A very elegant stone spire, which was built in
1828, replaces that which perished in the great
conflaggation of four years before.
The Tron beam appears to have been used as
GENERAL PLAN OF THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. (Frmn an Engraviw in fhe "Scofs Mafizzine" fm 1754.)
sermon till the great fire of 1824, when it was
partly melted by heat, and fell with a mighty crash
through the blazing ruins of the steeple. Portions
of it were made into drinking quaighs and similar
memorials.
In 1678 the tower was completed by placing
therein the old clock which had formerly been in
the Weigh House.
Towards the building of this church the pious
Lady Yester gave 1,000 merks. In 1703 the
magistrates appointed two persons to preach alternately
in the Tron Church, to each of whom they
gave a salary of forty guineas, as the Council Re-,
gister shows ; but about 1788 they contented themselves
with one preacher, to whom they gave fifty
a pillory for the punishment of crime. In Niccol's
'' Diary" for 1649, it is stated that " much falset
and cheitting was daillie deteckit at this time by
the Lords of Sessioune; for the whilk there was
daillie nailing of lugs and binding of people to the
Trone, and boring of tongues; so that it was a
fatal year for false notaries and witnesses, as daillie
experience did witness."
On the night of Monday, the 15th of November,
1824, about ten o'clock, the cry of "Fire ! " was
heard in the High Street, and it spread throughout
the city from mouth to mouth ; vast crowds came
from all ,quarters rushing to the spot, and columns
of smoke and flame were seen issuing from the
second *floor of e house at the head of the old

Book 1 p. 188
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444 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
46 Henry VI. with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal Battle of
Towton. In this note a doubt was formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his
Queen certainly did ; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble
friend Lord Napier has pointed out to me a grant by Henry of an annuity of forty marks to his Lordship’s
ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King bimself at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirtyninth
year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God, 1461. This grant, Douglas, with hies usual
neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this emr being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane’s MSS. pp. 119,
120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and
heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the
distressed monarch and his family called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet.
The English people, he say$-
Ung nouveau roj crhrent,
Par despiteux vouloir,
Le vieil en debouthent,
Et aon legitime hoir,
Qui fugtyf alla prendre
D’ESCOEleS g~a rand.
De tous sieclea le mendre,
Et le plus tollerant.’”-RecoUectim des Awanturea.
No such doubt8 seem to have been entertained by earlier writers on the question ‘of Henry’s entertainment
at Edinburgh. The author of the Martial Achievements remarks,in his Life of James 111. (Abercombie’s
Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 384) :-‘A battle ensued between Caxton and Towton, King Edward gained
the day, and King Henry, hearing of the event (for he waa not allowed to be at the battle, his presence being
thought fatal to either of the parties that had it), hastened with his wife and only 80% first to Berwick, where
be left the Duke of Somerset, and then to Edinburgh, where he was received with uncommon civility, being
honourably lodged and royally entertained by the joint consent of the then Regents.”
The same writer, after detailing various negotiations, and the final agreement entered into, between Henry
and the administrators of Government in Scotland, James 111. being then a minor, adds :-<( Thpe transactions
being completed, the indefatigable Queen of England left the King, her husband, at his lodgings in the Grey-
Frierspf Edinburgh, where hi3 own inclinations to devotion and solitude made him choose to reside, and went
with her son into France.”--(Ibid, p. 386.)
XV. THE WHITEFRIARS’ MONASTERY.
Tsnfollowing curious fact, relating to the Monastery of the Carmelite Friars, founded at Qreenside, under the
Calton Hill, in the year 1526, is appended in the form of a note to the description of this monastic order, in the
third part of I‘ Lectures on the,Xeligioues ‘Antiquitsees of Edinburgh, by a Member of the Holy Guild of St
Joseph” @. 129), and is stated, we have reason to believe, on the authority of a well-known Scottish
antiquary :-
I( The humble brother of our Holy Quild who is now engaged in an endeavour to form a dloaadicon ~ C O &
canurn, informsme, onundoubted anthority, that the succession of the Priors of Greenside is still perpetuated in
bhe Carmelite Convent at Rome, and his informant has Been the friar who bore the title of I! PacZre Prwre
di Greemide.”
. . . . . . .

Book 10 p. 483
(Score 0.6)

140 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
afterwards possessed by the ancient family of the Nisbets of Dirleton, and by Gordon of
Braid ; but, if so, it must have been as tenants, as it was sold by Mr Baird to A. Brown,
Esq., of Greenbank, from whom it passed successively to his sons, Colonel George Brown,
and Captain James Brown, commander of the ship Alfred, in the East India Company’s
service. From these later owners, Brown’s Close, where the modern entrance to the house
is situated, derives its name.
The name of Webster’s Close, on the same side of the street, by which Brown’s Court
was formerly known, served to indicate the site of Dr Webster’s house, the originator of
the Widows’ Scheme, and long one of the ministers of the old Tolbooth Kirk. He was a
person of great influence and popularity in his day, and entertained Dr Johnson often at
his table during his visit to Edinburgh. At a later period it was occupied by the Rev. Dr
Greenfield, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University, after whose time
it passed through various hands, and closed its career as a cholera hospital, previous to its
demolition in 1837, to make way for the Castle Road. Dr Webster built another house
immediately adjoining this, from stones taken out of the North Loch. It was first occupied
by Mr Hogg as a banking house, and afterwards, for twenty years, by the Society of
Scottish Antiquaries, during the whole of which period, Alexander Smellie, Esq., the
Emeritus Secretary, resided in the house.
A very handsome old land of considerable breadth stands to the east of this. It presents
a polished ashler front to the street, ornamented with string courses, and surmounted by
an elegant range of dormer windows, with finials of various design. Over the main entrance,
in Boswell’s Court, there is a shield bearing a fancy device, with the initials T. L.,
and the inscription, 0 * LORD a IN THE IS AL MI * TRAIST. In a compartment
on the left of the shield, there are also the initials, I. L., R. W. ; a similar compartment
on the right is now defaced.’
Immediately to the west of the Assembly Hall, a tall narrow land forms the last remaining
building on the south side of the Castle Hill. In the style of its architecture it differs
entirely from any of the neighbouring houses, presenting a pediment in front, surmounted
with urns, and otherwise adorned according to the fashion that prevaqed during the earlier
part of the last century.
This house, as appears from the title-deeds, was built by Robert
Mowbray, Esq., of Castlewan, in 1740, on the site of an ancient
mansion belonging to the Countess Dowager of Hyndford. The
keystone of the centre window in the second floor is orpamented
with a curiously inwrought cipher of the initials of Robert Mowbray,
its builder; from whose possession it passed into that of
William, the fourth Earl of Dumfries, who succeeded his mother,
Penelope, Countess of Dumfries in her own right, and afterwards, by the death of his
1 The close, we believe, derives ita name from a Dr Boawell, who reaided there about eighty years since. We were
Znformed, hdwever, by the good lady who very politely conducted us over the house, that it was the Earl of Bothwell’s
mansion, ‘‘ An’ nae doubt,” said she, aa she showed ua into the best room, with its fireplace lined with Dutch
tiles, ‘‘ nae doubt mony queer doings hae taen place here between the add Earl and Queen Mary 1 ” Nothing is 80
amusing, in investigating our local antiquities, iw the constant association of Queen Mary’s name with everything that
is old, however homely or even ridiculous.

Book 10 p. 151
(Score 0.6)

266 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
ME1 DEVS ; and below, the initials G. G. The latter has been mistaken for the date
1616 ; but no one who examined the style of the doorway and inscription could feel any
hesitation in assigning to it a date of fully a century earlier.
Only one other old building remained on the west side of the wynd, bearing the pious
inscription over its entrance :-THE FEIR OF THE LORD IS THE BEWNNMG OF AL VISDOME.
Below this, at the corner of the Cowgate, formerly stood the English Episcopal
Chapel, founded by Lord Chief Baron Smith in 1722. It was a plain edifice, possessing
no external features of an ecclesiastical character, as may be seen in our engraving of
The
building existed exactly a century, having been demolished in 1822, after serving during
that period as the place of worship of all loyal and devout Episcopal High Churchmen,
at a time when Episcopacy and Jacobitism were nearly synonymous in Scotland.
The interest that attaches to it as a feature of the olden time, when such a sight was
deemed the most suitable that could be selected for a chapel, probably attended by a
congregation including a greater array of rank and fashion than any that now assembles
in Edinburgh, is further increased from its having been the place of worship of Dr
Johnson when residing with Boswell, in 1773.
Here also, and not improbably on the same site, was the town mansion of William
St Clair, Earl of Orkney, the founder of Roslin Chapel, who maintained his Court at
Roslin Castle with a magnificence far surpassing what had often sufficed for that of the
Scottish Kings. He was royally served at his own table-if we are to believe the
genealogist-in vessels of gold and silver ; Lord Dirleton being his master of the household,
Lord Borthwick his cup-bearer, and Lord Fleming his carver, with men of ancient
rank and lineage for their deputies. His Princess, Margaret Douglas, was waited on,
according to Father Hay, by seventy-five gentlewomen, whereof Hty - three were
daughters of noblemen, “all cloathd in velvets and silks, with their chains of gold,
and other pertinents ; togither with two hundred rideing 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 lodgeing was att the foot
of Blackfryer Wynde; so that, in a word, none matched her in all the countrey, save
the Queen’s Majesty.”
Directly opposite to the site of Baron Smith’s Chapel stood one of the palatial edifices
of the old capital, popularly known as Cardinal Beaton’s house-a sdEciently humble
and unpretending structure, which undoubtedly formed an archiepiscopal residence of no
mean character in the sixteenth century. This ancient mansion, however, falls more
correctly to be treated of as one of the most interesting among the older features of the
Cowgate. The vignette at the beginning of the chapter exhibits the richest group of
mottoes to be found on any building in Edinburgh. They formed the decorations on the
architrave of a decayed old stone land on the same side, near the head of the Vnd.
A shield, charged with armorial bearings, was sculptured on the left side of the doorway,
as represented in the woodcut, with the initials E. K., and the date 1619.
above this, at the head of the east side, was one of much more pretension externally,
having a front to the wgnd of polished ashlar, and a range of unusually large windows,
Cardinal Beaton’s House,” where it appears on the further side of the wynd,
The building .
Genealogie of the Sainte Claires of Rosslgn, p. 26.

Book 10 p. 289
(Score 0.6)

?4 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Queen’ Mary had ever been present at the Assembly of the Estates, and its proceedings
were conducted with unusual pomp. The Queen rode in procession to the Tolbooth, in
robes of state, with the crown, sceptre, and sword borne before her, escorted by a brilliant
cavalcade, and was hailed with loyal greetings as she passed along the High Street,
The hall was crowded with the nobles and other members, in their most costly habiliments,
and glit,tered with the gay trappings of the royal household, and the splendour
and beauty of the Court, that surrounded the throne. The Queen opened the proceedings
with an address which won the favour of her audience, no less than her extreme beauty,
so that the people were heard to exclaim, Did ever orator
speak so sweetly?” On three succeeding days she rode thus to the Tolbooth, greatly to
the dissatisfaction of the preachers, who spoke boldly “ against the superfluities of their
clothes,” and at length presented articles for regulating apparel and reforming other
similar enormities.’
It may be mentioned, as characteristic of the times, that the Town Council, “ for the
satisfaction of many devout citizens, and to prevent the crime of fornication,” enacted,
about the same period, that all guilty of this crime should be ducked in a certain part
of the North Loch, then an impure pond of stagnant water, and a pillar was erected
there for the more efficient execution of such sentences. The punishment, however, was
not always reserved for such carnal offenders, but was also enforced against the moat
zealous adherents of the ancient faith. In the month of August, a serious disturbance
occurred, in consequence of the Queen’s domestics at Holyrood being found, during her
absence at Stirling, attending mass at the chapel there. Patrick Cranston, “ a zealous
brother,” as Knox styles him, entered the chapel, and finding the altar covered, and
R priest ready to celebrate mass, he demanded of them how they dared thus openly to
break the laws of the land? The magistrates were summoned, and peace restored with
difficulty.
A much more serious display of popular intolerance was exhibited in the year 1565.
The period appointed by the ministers of the Congregation for the celebration of the comregarded
as a peculiar aggravation of the crime of “ massing,’’ when it was done at the
same time as they were administering the sacrament, the indignation of the reformers
was greatly excited by the customary services of the Roman Catholics at this period.
A party of them, accordingly, headed by one of the bailies, seized on Sir James Tarbat, a
Catholic priest, as he was riding home, after officiating at the altar. He was imprisoned
in the Tolbooth, along with several of his assistants; but the populace, not content to
abide the course of law, brought him forth, clothed in his sacerdotal garments, and with
the chalice secured in his hand. He was placed on the pillory at the Market Cross, and
exposed for an hour to the pelting of the rude rabble ; the boys serving him, according to
Knox, with his Easter eggs. He was brought to trial with his assistants on the following
day, and convicted of having celebrated mass, contrary to law. He was again exposed for
four hours on the pillory, under the charge of the common hangman, and ao rudely
treated that he was reported to be dead.
The Queen, justly exasperated at this cruel and insulting proceeding, sent to her friends
God save that sweet face I
. muuion chanced to fall at the season of Easter, and as it seems to have been at all times
.
a Rnox’a Hist., p. 295. Keith, voL ii. p. 199.

Book 10 p. 81
(Score 0.6)

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